27 February ’05, Sunday.
We’ve just about made our first circle complete. On the 15th or March last year we flew into Amsterdam and the next day we took the train to Utrecht and saw “Bumble Bee” for the first time. This afternoon, we pulled into Delft, in the Netherlands, after visiting 19 countries. It has been one heck of a journey so far, and we are looking forward to our return in April to finish with those countries that we haven’t visited yet.
After leaving Paris, we continued heading north. Our next campground was in Tournai, which is about 50km outside of Brussels. We had pretty good traveling weather, as it was mostly cloudy with a snow misting once in awhile to keep us informed that it was still winter. The campground in Tournai, was one of the best winter camping’s so far, and it wasn’t because of the 12.50 Euro cost per night either. The owner lives on the site and it shows, it’s well maintained...almost luxurious! Tournai was a pretty little town with a lot of history behind it. It just happens to be the 2nd oldest town in Belgium. The town with it’s narrow streets, all being hugged by the 2 story buildings, and in the middle, a huge town square, that was surrounded by at least 5 large church buildings and a beautiful cathedral with 5 spires. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a lot of time to visit all that there was to see, but hopefully, when we come back, we will take it all in. This morning, we had a large breakfast and got on the road so that we would have plenty of time to set up camp here in Delft. The sun was out bright this morning, but it was COLD !!! About the time we arrived in Brussels, we started to encounter snow flurries and heavy side winds. I fought the winds for hours, and let me tell you, I’m damn tired of them !!! Hopefully, with a couple of days camping here, the winds will have diminished and we can continue into Utrecht with out them. We have a few things to do before we leave for the airport, and it would be “real nice” if we could do it all in nice Spring weather…(wishful thinking). This campground also ranks up there with the one in Tournai. It is spotless, very close to everything (walking), and is well within the budget for our stay. As we drove into Holland, it was really amazing how the architecture changed, and also it was good to see the canals. On our walk into town, we must have crossed over 5 or 6 canals, and that was within a 3km walk. But our walk back, well, it was HELL !!! That COLD WIND I had mentioned before, was right in our face, and it wasn’t pleasant.

25 February ’05, Friday Grande Arche la Defense Paris, France
Day 2 in Paris…A short walk to the bus, and on to the metro station…today, we are going to try the metro, and take it to the Musée du Louvre. This museum is probably the world’s most complete and impressive art museum. We would have enjoyed it all, but it is just too large and has so much to take in for a days visit. I guess the real star in the museum, if there is a “star”, is the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Some of the other works of art we saw included, Rubens, Raphael, Titian, and Rembrandt to name a few. Well, we did see it, and it was impressive, but the negative, is the crowd that it draws around it…you have to give back what you are given, in getting to the front…push, punch, kick, in that order… just kidding, but it was a tussle. I guess I should step back a little and tell you about the museum itself. In overall area covered (ground), it’s not as big as “Hotel National des Invalides”, but it makes up for that by having more square footage of rooms to fill with all the “art” and artifacts. The building architecture is a mix of “very” old and new. The metro delivers you directly into the lower floors and, as you exit, you find yourself walking a shopping mall. Most of the items for sale are related to what you will find in the floors above (the museum). As you walk the long corridor to the end, you find a large glass inverted triangle. Just around the corner from that, you enter the museum itself. Once you have your ticket you are ready to walk the beautifully ornate rooms that hold all the museum pieces. The structure, since 1682, was once the palaces of the kings of France, and is one of the largest palaces in the world. In 1793 it was officially opened to the public as a museum.
It was a full day in the Louvre, but we had one more stop. We boarded the metro again and headed out to see “La Défense” of Paris. This is a largest modern architectural development of tall buildings in Europe. All stand on a large, circular, raised concrete pedestrian slab, with roads, parking and subway below. This “community” of ultra-modern towers was established to take the development pressures off of Paris and it’s historic preservation. The one structure that I wanted to see for myself, was the “Grande Arche”. This is an office tower in the shape of an open cube. It is enormous !!! It just happens to be the same width as the Arc de Triomphe and completes the long series of monuments extending from the Louvre through the Arc de Triomphe and on through to the Grande Arche La Defense….all, in one long line following Champs Elysées Boulevard.

24 February ’05, Thursday.

 I’ve got to tell you, we enjoyed both, the Blanc and the Rouge…. We didn’t make it to the Louvre as per previous plans, but we did see a ton of Paris. This is a great place to visit !!! Yesterday (Thursday) we decided to “hoof it” around Paris and take in as many of the sites as we “physically could”, and we took in a lot of the great city. We did catch a bus to Porte Malliot, which is just up the road from the campground about a 2 miles. From there we walked up the avenue des Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. This trip to Paris, brings back some wonderful memories that we had with you girls (Mikleane, Leslee, and Joelle), seven years ago. That time, as well as this one, we walked our legs off. From the Arc we continued onto the Eiffel Tower.

The crowds were much smaller for the lift to the top this time…it must have been because of the cold and snow. I tried many different pictures, with as many different angles, and it still came back to the traditional long shot that looks the best.

We walked to the Trocadero, the Grand Palace,

walked the banks of the Seine, and had lunch at a typical non-descript restaurant that served a good meal at a fair price. We visited the “Hotel National des Invalides”, which included Napoleon’s Tomb,

the Museum of the Order of the Liberation of France, and displays of history from WWI and WWII. The Army Museum included items of history (1650-1945) from Louis XIV, Napoleon, and De Gaulle. There was also a graphic exhibit on the massacre of the Jews by the Nazi’s. The overall size of the Hotel National des Invalides, is amazing…I have never seen anything like it, the buildings and the exhibits were all maintained and done well. About 5pm we started walking back towards the Arc de Triomphe and our bus connection, but before we got there, we were pulled into a movie theatre by the smell of popcorn… We saw “Aviator” and really enjoyed it. This brings to mind one more thing…we have heard so many stories of how “rude” the people of France may be, and how “no one” will acknowledge speaking or understanding English…well, I would like everyone to know that we haven’t found that to be the case, as a mater of fact, it has been just the opposite. We have been treated with respect and courtesy, and just about everyone at least tries or succeeds in speaking to us in English. On the bus and the trains, we have encountered a few who have found it necessary to take more than one seat and give no inclination that they will give one up to you, but that has been the only negative thing. Well, after the show, as we were heading for the bus, we continued looking for an internet café that we had been unsuccessful finding in the morning, so on the way back we continued. Just prior to getting to the bus stop, we stopped and asked someone in a store once again, and he was able to direct us to one, so we changed directions a little and took care of a little business. Having accomplished that, we headed for home, a snack, and a quick to bed (by 9:45). Another big day for tomorrow.

23 February ’05, Wednesday.

Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere, Lyons France

Yesterday we enjoyed a full day just wondering the streets of Lyons.

The Basilica Notra Dame de Fourviere, in all it’s striking majesty, sits high on a hill overlooking the old city…as you look up to it, it will knock you over because of it’s size and it’s beauty. Now, that’s before you find all the stairs that you have to climb to get there.

It is a huge complex of church and chapel of the Virgin. We opted for the steep streets going up, and the stairs coming down, and my muscles still cramp thinking of all that torture. This Basilica has some of the most beautiful mosaic tile art work in the world. I wanted to take a picture of it, but because of the brilliance of some of the tiles, it made it impossible. Now, a surprise to me, Lyons is the culinary capital of the world. We didn’t hit the “High-roller” spots for lunch, but the restaurant we did go to, served a wonderful lunch and at a reasonable price as well. Next on our list, was the Cathedral of St. Jean.

A beautiful gothic church that houses a fourteenth century astronomical clock. A real treasure. Today, our drive from Lyons to Paris was about 450 km and we took the toll road to make the best time we could. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any campgrounds prior to Paris that we could stay at, seeing as this is the winter time and most are still closed. We were on the road by 9am and we pulled into the campground about 3pm, or 6 hours to cover 290 miles. We didn’t get a chance to really enjoy the scenery, as we had snow falling off and on the whole way. The clouds were right down on top of us. We did see a few fantastic chateaus and some rustic villages. When we found our turn off from the toll way, the snow was coming down pretty good. As we came to the first corner, it turned out to be a giant round-about, and it led off to at least 5 different directions….”what one do we take ????” “I can’t find our sign”…”Go right”…”What is that???, O God, it’s the Arc de Triomphe,

and we’re going the wrong way…” “OK, hold on, I’ll make a U-Turn and we’ll go back..” “Right in front of the Arc de Triomphe ???”..”Oh God”…”OK, now, go around the round-about a couple of times so I can read the signs…” Well, we found our sign and were able to make our way to the campground without any additional hitch. We are camped on the bank of the Seine River and on the opposite side of the road is a huge park called Bois de Boulogne. Our bus stop is just up the street a little bit. We will grab the bus and the metro tomorrow and go to the Louvre and hope to see the painting of the Mona Lisa, along with many other fine works of art. Now for that glass of vin de France!!! Rouge or Blanc ???

21 February ’05, Monday. Roman Viaduct Pond du Gard
9am the sun is shining, a little toward the COLD side and we push off towards Lyons.
Our first stop will be about 40km (25 miles) up the road to Pont du Gard. Pont du Gard is a beautifully preserved Roman aqua-duct. It sits in a remote and very peaceful country setting, with the Gard River running under it. This structure is more than just a viaduct for carrying water. The water “trough” is at the highest point of the structure, and then they built a bridge beside it that is about 1/3 the height of the whole. This was the highest bridge ever constructed by the Romans and was used to carry water from Uzes to Nimes, which is over 50 km away (30 miles). The water channel isn’t in use now, but we could walk across the bridge portion. Again, it turned out to be just the right time to visit, as the sun was out and starting to warm things up a (very) little, and there was very few visitors there. We enjoyed about an hour there and then got back into “Bumble Bee” and continued on to Lyons. Again, our plan was to take the secondary roads and enjoy the scenery and get up and personal with the little villages along the route. We had a much straighter route today, which was nice, but the “round-a bout’s” will drive you crazy after awhile. About noon we found ourselves getting into some weird weather for this time of year. Snow…coming at us sideways, the wind blowing so hard that it pushed us all over the road, and then everything would stop, begin again with the largest flakes just floating, and then the wind and snow again…hell, it was quite a show. By the time we arrived in Lyons and found our new campground, there was enough snow in the ground that all I had to do, was dip my bucket down once to fill it with enough snow to cover our champagne bottle that complimented tonight’s dinner. Our plans are to spend 2 days here and then continue heading north with our next stop in Paris.

20 February ’05, Sunday. A French Village on The French Riviera
This morning we found ourselves up, showered, breakfast finished, finished our packing and we were heading out for the gate by 9:15am…I believe it is in record time for us.
Yesterday late afternoon I went up to see Rebecca Kaufmann at the front desk of “La Vieille Ferme Campground, to pay our bill so we could possibly get this early start, and what do you know, it worked. Speaking about working…Rebecca was really one of the best host or hostess that we have had in camping this last year, and I just wanted to say “Thank You” one more time for making our stay just that much better…
Last night as I was walking back to “Bumble Bee”, I was called over to the “Morgan” caravan. We had met Jackie and Don Morgan earlier, and had enjoyed their invitation for a glass of wine then. Well, Don thought it might make a good excuse to have another one seeing as how we were leaving in the morning, so we joined them again and had a great time…”Thanks Morgans”, we hope to see you again in England later this year…
Today we hit the coast road heading West as far as la Ciotat (just before Marseille), and then turned north-west, with our destination being the campground at Nimes. Taking the coast road was just as we had expected…winding and twisting. Traveling on a Sunday, we had a lot of bicyclist and sport car enthusiastic (we must have had every Porsche in France go by us) on the roadway…it has to be the twisting road with the outstanding views…WOW !!! It wasn’t long after we got past Cannes that we started to see some real changes in the soil and rock formations. Deep rust colors were the first, and they went right on down to and entered the blue-green waters of the Med…Really spectacular, and then, we started hitting the beaches with the dark gold sand. This continued with changes just about every 20 minutes or so…quite a day. Our plan for the day was to stay off the “Pay” roads, but as it was we still had a couple that we just had to pay out on…France is the worst for this…pay, and then pay again… The truth is, even if you stay off the pay roads, you pay for the extra gas and time. If we were to have taken the pay road all the way to Nimes, we would have most likely made it about 3 hours earlier and with less than half the gas that we had to use on the slower windy roads…pay them now or pay later.
Tomorrow we pull up camp and head to Lyon. We will pay the “troll” of the road…

18 February ’05, Friday. Antibes Old Town
Yes Drew, WE DO HAVE A MAP IN OUR POCKET !!!, and that still didn’t keep us from entering a “restricted height” tunnel. Yes Drew, we do have a map in our pocket, but that still didn’t help us when we came to a split in the road, with a very small sign, indicating that if we stayed straight ahead in our destination, WE WERE GOING THE WRONG WAY !!!, or if we were to get over to the far left, which was a very narrow single lane (which didn’t have any instructions, directions, or destination), we would have continued onto our destination (home). You know Drew, I am wondering about your quotation…Let me ask you, “have you ever left your home with “a map in your pocket so you wouldn’t get lost” ???? One more thing Drew, you never told me how much all these maps were going to cost !!! They could break the (our) bank !!! Drew, I hope you know, we are just having fun with you and I want you to know that your grandma and I really do follow your instructions (although sometimes the instructions on the maps leave a little bit of confusion in our minds..) and will continue to “Keep a Map In ‘Our’ Pocket”, and in that way, we will find our way back to you and the rest of the family after our journey is over.
It’s starting to really kick in, the fact that we will be heading up to Amsterdam to board our plane for the trip back to the Seattle area. Almost exactly a year ago we were boarding the plane for our trip to Amsterdam…boy, has this year gone by fast. It will be good to see the family and our friends, but we are already getting excited for our return and our start to the second year. As I sit here tonight and start thinking of how many of these “journals” I have written and how many pictures I have taken just blows me away. I, for one, never really thought that I would seriously take the time to complete the task I had set before myself. And, the funny thing about all of this, I have really enjoyed doing it…surprise, surprise, surprise.

16 February ’05, Wednesday. Cité Médiévale de Eze Monday was a lazy day, with us forcing our way out of the door for a long walk later in the afternoon, and then celebrating “Valentines Day” with a dinner. It was a tough decision to decide what we both wanted for this special days dinner. As it turned out, we popped the cork on a bottle of the bubbly, put a romantic movie in the computer, and popped pop-corn…. What a fantastic Valentines Day (night)… Tuesday, we were going to go back into Nice for the night parade. It was going to be the “Flower Parade” under lights. It all sounded good, until the weather made up it’s mind and turned COLD !!! Fact is, too cold for us to go out for a night parade. After waiting up to the last minute, we made the hard decision to stay home. The days have been sunny and warm, and the nights…well, they have turned cold. Today we decided to un-hitch “Bumble Bee” again and this time head down the coast road toward Nice, Eze,

Monte Carlo, Menton, and then into Italy and visit San Remo. We drove to San Remo with a couple of stops for “photo ops” and when we got there we had a wonderful “Italian” pasta lunch. One of the reasons for going back to Italy, was to try in find one of the grocery stores that we have found some great values in…”Lidl”. Unfortunately, we didn’t find Lidl, but we did find a good substitute, so we loaded our shelves and refrigerator up with all kinds of goodies. The ride along the coast road, which followed the shoreline of the Mediterranean, was breath taking. Not only because of the winding and twisting of the road above the water, but also because of the unbelievable villages that sit on the slopes of the hills, the beaches, outstanding homes, castles, fortresses, and everything else that the French Riviera offers. It was very difficult not to stop beside the road every 50 yards or so because of the “Oh, Did You See That??? Besides the stops we made for pictures, we stopped in San Remo and Eze. San Remo was nice, and the lunch was great, but Eze…even better.

It has a long history dating back to the 13th century. It is more than another fortified village, although that is exactly what it is. I guess that what I saw in it was the completeness of the past. This village, sitting high above the Mediterranean, surrounded with it’s defensive walls, passageways winding up and around the interior and reaching out with little entryways into the living quarters , lots of restaurants, little shoppes, and a magnificent church.

The highest point of the village is the “look-out point”, and boy does it ever have a wonderful out-look from there. Each and every stone that has been used to restore (and I’m sure that there has been some restoring), was done with such talent, that it is hard to believe that the village had been “sacked” a number of times in it’s long history. A little note, the son of King Gustav, Prince William of Sweden, had a villa here and spent their family holidays from 1923 to 1953. You would say that they knew how to enjoy their “holidays”…it is beautiful. Another note, they didn’t have running water in the village until 1952. This village is living up to it’s motto: “Moriendo Renascor” (In Death, I am Reborn).

13 February ’05, Sunday. Carnival day !!! , Nice France Just after breakfast, we donned our warmer clothes and walked to the train station…our time table told us the train was to leave our station for Nice at 11:15am and we had to hurry it up in order to catch it. It was kind of funny though, as we arrived, there was only a mother and her daughter there on the platform, and they were on the other side. I looked up to the board and there it was…the next train was not going to leave until 12:05pm. Well, that wasn’t too bad…we could just go across the street and wait on the beach. A little bit of soaking up the rays and throwing some rocks into the water and the time would go by very quickly. Well, as it turned out, the young lady and her daughter (who just happen to be camped kitty-corner from us, and we don’t speak French), were going into Nice for the parade as well. There we were, all four of us sitting on the beach tossing rocks and not really recognizing and knowing each other. Getting back to the station, I went to the ticket kiosk to buy our tickets. Now after the last experience, I wanted it to be perfect. First off, the kiosk on “our side” wasn’t working and the girl wasn’t in again selling tickets. So, I had to run around to the other side and try the kiosk over there. The kids had gotten to the screen on that one and scratched it up so bad you really couldn’t see anything through it. Well, I did determine that I could get tickets, so then it was just a matter of getting the right tickets. I twisted and pushed the buttons, put in the amount that it asked for and out they came…2 adult 1st class…FIRST CLASS??? For a 20 minute commuter train??? “Let’s just get on the train and enjoy the day”… Arriving in Nice, we went looking for a place to pickup a sandwich and something to drink. We thought we would have a nice “curb-side” lunch while waiting for the parade to start. Finding a sandwich was easy, but then we decided to find a small bottle of wine for “our picnic”. All accomplished, and now the parade. The crowd was growing and we hadn’t found our “choice” of curb yet. Then, looking across the park, we saw what we thought was just the right spot. Believe it or not, our “neighbors” had found the same spot, and we all waited for the parade to start.

One thing that was kind of fun, was the use of confetti and “silly-string”. It was shot and tossed by the people on the floats and just about everyone on the streets watching the parade. It turned out to be a game of “who shot who” and “I’ve got to get them back” !!! In the beginning, I tried to be discreet and shoot from behind cover, or at someone’s back-side. Then, I was found out and all “Hell” broke out…I think very kid on the block was after me then, including our little “neighbor”..

We had a good time, and I hope that it all comes off the clothes OK. The parade ???, it was really good. The theme was “Carnival” and it was a Carnival. Floats, bands, very large balloons, lot’s of people in costumes, and all having a great time.

Unfortunately, the wind started to blow really hard about half way through, and it became a challenge for some of the people in the larger costumes to make it with out being blown over.

12 February ’05, Friday. The French Riviera at Cannes We went to a party today, fact is, it was a block, no, a CITY PARTY….CANNES. Without a doubt, just as soon as you come into Cannes, you feel like you have been welcomed into a special party. We have been into a ton of villages, towns, and cities and not one of them has given us the total feeling of a party going on all around you as it was today. We liked it !!! This morning we walked to the train depot and purchased our tickets through the kiosk beside the tracks. It took a little time trying to figure out just how to make it work, but with a little patience, we got our tickets. The last time we were there, a lady behind the glass helped us with our tickets to Nice, but today we were on our own. Those tickets cost us just under 12 Euros, and today, our trip to Cannes cost us just over 5 . I liked the kiosk better… Moving forward, at the end of the day and on our way home, Louise took a look at her ticket and found that I had bought “le enfant” tickets for us…no wonder they were so reasonable… Heck, we even had to go through a person checking tickets on the way home, and he didn’t catch the two “senior citizens” traveling with le enfant tickets… Then, another problem came up. The train going to Nice, with “locale” stops, came up to the loading platform just 2 minutes prior to what the board said our train was to leave, so we jumped aboard. When we went flying through the first two stops, WITHOUT STOPPING, I told Louise we might have a problem… The first stop that the train made was Antibes, so we jumped up and got off the train. Looking for the conductor and finding him, we found that “our train” is the train following in 5 minutes, so we stepped off and waited for the right train…nothing lost, thank you, especially us… Ok, back to Cannes… Again, it seemed like this town was in high gear and ready to make things happen for those that came through the front door. We immediately found the “tourist information” shoppe and got our map and a list of things to see and do while there. So far, France has really been good about having the information offices just as you walk off the trains, and they have been ready to give you all the information you might need. Today, there was a farmers market, a flea market, the Musée de la Castre (The Castle at Cannes), the promenade de la Crosisette, and the oldest street of Cannes, St Antoine.

Then of course, we walked the famous boardwalk and beaches of Cannes. This is the place with the perfect sand beaches and crystal clear blue-green waters with the “Beautiful People” of Cannes… We joined those who were walking the boardwalk with their perfectly trimmed doggies and wearing their fur coats and watching those who dared go into the water for a swim. Now, when they came out of the water, they took their shower and then found the most inventive ways of getting out of their suits and into their “other” suits.

Then of course, there were the others on the beach with their coats and hats to those who were shirt-less. A good variety of people to observe, on a slightly overcast day, with the temperature hovering about 60 degrees. Oh yes, a little useless information… Coco Chanel was in Cannes and got a suntan. Returning to Paris bronzed, she startled the “milk-white society ladies. Being as to who she was, they quickly began copying her. Today, the bronzed bodies – clad in nearly nonexistent swimsuits, line the beaches and continue the late fashion designer’s example….Thank you Lord…