May 2020 – Page 3 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

October 15, 2019 Tropea IT

I was worried about the day for some reason. I was 90% sure that I had told Greta Garmin the right ferry terminal, but there are three in Messina, and I did not want to be playing Ferry Terminal roulette in an old Italian city. It turns out I had nothing to worry about as I had put in the right terminal. I think the other reason I was uncomfortable is I have a feeling we did not give Sicily all of the time it deserves. We have not had a bad day on Sicily.

They have an interesting system for selling tickets for the ferry, there is an island in the road with two ticket booths in the middle, but no designated parking, everyone just drives up to the vicinity of the ticket booths, stops their car, and heads over to the ticket booth on foot, once they have their ticket they wind their way thru all of the other randomly “parked” cars, and head on down to the ferry.

It was a short ferry ride over to the boot of Italy. We pulled off the ferry and on to a really nice freeway for the next 60km’s on our way to the resort town of Tropea. We picked it as it seemed like a pretty easy drive if anything went wrong with the ferry. We were also intrigued with some of the pictures of the town in one of our tour books.

The drive was going along pretty uneventfully until we dropped down into Tropea. The road down from the mountains above town was pretty twisty, but we are getting used to that by now. The real problem was once we entered town we were immediately in typical small city roads which are challenging in a RV, then the real problem started. In Italy they have areas called limited traffic zones (ZTL) where cars are forbidden to enter without special passes. The fine for violating these zones is around €100, and they are enforced by cameras. The problem is if you accidentally blunder into one you may pass several cameras before you work your way out of the area, and you get fined each time.

The road we turned down to reach the campground, the sign on top means no campers or trucks. I missed that sign as I was trying to work out how to get out of the center of town.

While I was trying to follow Greta and thread my way down the narrow streets I saw a Limited Traffic Zone sign in front of me. I made a left turn to avoid entering the zone, and hoped it would trigger Greta to find another route that avoided the dreaded zone. She led us out of town on even narrower roads to punish me for not following her original route. We finally emerged on a nice wide highway and I thought problem solved, but suddenly she wanted me to make a right turn onto a road that was on her map. The problem was the road was in a gorge about 50 feet below us, so now we were heading back into town, and sure enough there was another limited traffic zone sign, but I had a place to pull over and sort thru things. As I was looking at the map, I happened to notice that the limited traffic sign had a green sign under it that was flashing a message in Italian, and then a miracle, in English the same sign said Free Access. I took this to mean it was ok to enter the limited traffic zone and did. We were not out of the woods as Greta then told us to turn down the narrowest road yet, a motorcycle behind me honked a warning and I knew that I might be heading into trouble. The road was narrow and the switchbacks were hairpin. Luckily François is short, and most importantly we did not meet anyone coming up. So after quite an adventure we made it to our seaside campground. So I guess my unease was right I just did not realize it would be on the end of the trip.

After I had a beer and did some research on how to avoid a ZTL we walked into Tropea and it is beautiful.

Our campground is just to the left of this 6th century monastery.

October 14, 2019 Taormina IT

Taormina was on Ton’s must see list today. I made a scouting run down to the terminal to discover the best way to Taormina. Option 1 was a hop on hop off bus that gave us use of the tourist bus and the regular bus for €14 each or take a regular bus for €3. We were torn about what to do, and still had not made up our mind when we got to the terminal. We finally chose the regular bus, but after we bought the ticket the cashier who must have heard our debate, asked the Hop on Hop off bus driver to let us ride to Taormina, so we ended up with the best of both worlds. This good samaritan was the same guy who had rebuffed my earlier attempt to ask him about the bus to Taormina in Italian, with a gruff “What do you want?” in English.

Taormina is the town between the two high points of land.

Taormina has been a town since the ancient Greeks, and it is really a spectacular site on a large bluff overlooking the harbor at Giardini-Naxos. We were dropped off at a nondescript bus terminal, but as soon as we began hiking up the road to the town the views were spectacular. As we got closer to the town center we both became more charmed. Despite the fact that Taormina is definitely on the tourist trail, complete with all of the brand name stores lining its main street, it still had a spirit that we both really enjoyed.

The main road in Taormina lined with big brand shops, but still beautiful.

The town meanders up and down hill. The main road is wide and flat, but all of the roads off of it are either up or down and quite narrow, which adds to the atmosphere. Off of the main road the shops were run by locals who were very friendly without being pushy. Ton had picked out two potential restaurants for lunch, but one had gone out of business, and the other was not open. Just down the street was a cheese store that advertised lunch and we were both drawn to it. We went inside to take a look and saw a restaurant in the back. We asked the lady at the counter if they served lunch and she said yes in an hour, would we like a reservation. Something I have learned is that in romance languages my short name “Ron” (in Spanish it means Rum) is perplexing, so when she acted confused about my name I switched it to Ronaldo, she immediately connected the dots and had a good laugh with one of the customers.

Having an hour to kill we decided to head up to the Greek Theater which is the big attraction in town. When we got there it was €10 to get in, and since we have seen a lot of antiquity sites on this trip decided to pass. We still had time to kill so we went to the municipal park and sat down on a park bench to enjoy the views.

The view from our park bench in Taormina.

The lunch at the cheese shop was superb. We opted for a Sicilian food and wine tasting. It consisted of three wines, and a plate of cheeses, meats, and grilled vegetables. We have had a lot of good meals on our trips in Europe, but we both agreed that so far this is the best. The food and wine while simple was fresh and delicious. The service of the husband and wife was great and they enjoyed explaining the food and wine to us. They were clearly proud of their Sicilian heritage and happy to share it with us. At the end neither of us could bring ourselves to leave so we stalled with a coffee, and an aperitif. Ton was tempted to return for dinner, but they were full, though we could tell if we pushed and had some flexibility they would have found a way to accommodate us. We rarely mention places by name but if you are ever in town do not miss La Bottega Del Formaggio.

I really enjoyed this meal much more than my expression shows!

October 13, 2019 Giardini-Naxos IT

Today was a maintenance day mostly. We woke early as we wanted to drive to the US Navy base at Sigonella to take care of laundry and shopping. We covered about 150km’s to the base, and the traffic was Sunday light. Large sections of the freeway we traveled on were under construction or heavy maintenance, and we got a little turned around for awhile, but recovered without too much trouble.

Arriving at the Navy Base we were not sure what the procedure would be to gain access. In Spain it was pretty complicated, in Germany it was as easy as the US, and here it was easy also. In Germany and Spain there were limits on what facilities we could use, but here in Italy we could use everything. All of the chores were taken care of mid-afternoon. Our original plan was to stay somewhere close to the Navy base, but the pickings were slim.

As we were driving down the coast we realized Mount Etna, was having a minor eruption. It turns out it has been putting out ash clouds now for a few days, and it was strong enough on Wednesday that they had to close the main airport for Sicily.

Mt. Etna is having a small eruption, it is venting in two places.

Our plan for tomorrow is to visit a town called Taormina, so as it was early I decided we would head there. It was a short hop up the coast on the freeway, which for the last 20km’s turned into a tollway. I was a little distracted as we came to our exit and blew right by it, so we had to go up one extra exit. At the exit as we pulled into the toll booth I noticed everyone was paying with cash. We panicked as our smallest bill was a €20. The machine coughed up €18 in change with no problems.

Greta Garmin sent us up a national road, but it turned into a driving test as the road was a beautiful seaside road but quite twisty, and with cars parked fairly randomly in one or sometimes both lanes it was a tight squeeze at a couple of points. The good news though was we realized that the Sosta (Italian for Aire) we are using tonight is located quite close to the ocean. If we had taken the right exit we would never have known that.

This is the road you end up on when you miss your exit on the freeway.

After an early dinner Ton proposed we walk on into the town. Giardini-Naxos is a postcard beautiful Mediterranean fishing port town, with incredible views. There was a cruise ship in port, and as the sun set the harvest full moon was rising over the ocean. The walk around the port was pretty romantic. It was a fantastic end to a day that we had low expectations for, and all because I missed an exit on the freeway.

The harbor of Giardini-Naxos with Mt. Etna in the background.

This view is the reward for missing the exit and squeezing thru town.

Ton loves fishing ports, because the views are pretty, and the food is great.

October 12, 2019 Agrigento IT

We finally have a plan for Sicily and it was time to move on from Marsala. It was a short drive to Agrigento for our first stop.

We spent the last two days trying to figure out what these little tubs were for. We finally asked and they are for washing your feet, of course!

We had heard a lot about the poor quality of Italian roads and particularly those on Sicily. The road today was on the whole good, the only problem was I spent the whole trip more or less not knowing what the speed limit was. The road was controlled access most of the way and while it was only two lanes there was very little cross traffic. But the speed limit was a total mystery, sometimes really good stretches were posted at 50kmh, some other stretches were posted at 70, and once in a while we would see a short stretch of 90. Near the end just to add some variety there was an 8 or 10 km stretch posted at 60. The problem was there was no rhyme or reason to the speeds, and the Italians around here are pretty stingy with signs. The Garmin was no help as it seemed to have a different opinion than me and was also frequently different than the signs. You cannot judge by the local drivers as they bomb along at any speed they feel comfortable with, but they know where the speed cameras are. I think it will be a miracle if I do not end up with a ticket somewhere along the line, if I did not get one today, even though I was one of the slowest cars on the road.

The view of the Sicilian countryside from our trip today.

The purpose of todays trip was to visit the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento. The area around here has been an urban site since the Greeks and there is a large area with different versions of mostly Greek temples, with an area of Roman development thrown into the mix. Ton and I counted 8 different temple sites, but we may have missed a couple. The entire Valley is about one and a half miles, and is one of the most extensive archeological sites I have seen.

Part of the remains of the Temple to Hercules.

The highlight of the valley is the Parthenon like Temple of Concorde which dominates the valley. Originally built by the Greeks 2500 years ago it has been repurposed over time as Carthaginian, Roman, and Christian Temples/Churches which is why it has survived in such good shape. Many people say it is in better shape than the Parthenon in Athens.

Another view of the Temple of Concordia, with a broken statue of Icarus in front.

The Valley of Temples is one of the most impressive World Heritage Sites we have visited. For me it was pretty awe inspiring.

October 11, 2019 Marsala IT

Our first full day in Italy was a treat. We were still a little unsettled about our plans for Sicily when we woke up. Marsala is famous for a type of fortified wine and while I was sleeping Ton found a place where we could have a tour. So while I was making coffee she proposed we spend the day here and take the tour. The winery was too far away to walk to, and it required reservations so we had to find out if we could get in and arrange for a taxi to take us there. I went up to the office and asked if they could arrange a taxi, and call the winery for us as we do not have a sim card for Italy in our phone. The owner of the campground said he would take us and the winery could accommodate us at 10am. Since it was already 9:15, I ran back to tell Ton to get ready as we needed to leave in 20 minutes. Giacomo the owner of the campground ran off to change into better clothes and also to quickly give the van from the campground a wash. We arrived at Florio winery with 10 minutes to spare.

Our breakfast today, not healthy but delicious.

Florio Winery was founded in the early 1800’s to produce Marsala. It was the first Marsala Wine producer to be owned by Italians as prior to that the fortified wine industry in Marsala was dominated by English. The Florio family went on to become quite a conglomerate including wine, shipping, agriculture, and light industry. At one time they were by far the richest family on Sicily. They also made their mark by providing some of the original assistance to Garibaldi as he began his campaign to unite Italy into one country. Like many family dynasties the first generation makes all of the money, the second generation maintains the fortune, and the third generation squanders it all. The third generation of the Florio’s ended up selling off the winery to raise cash to pay for their extravagant lifestyle.

A 700 liter wine cask built for an exhibition in San Francisco in 1915. It is still in use today for production of cooking wine.

After we completed the wine tasting we followed the harbor to the old town. Things are scruffier in Sicily, but very charming. We enjoyed walking around town looking at the sites when we realized that our breakfast had been fortified wine. We found a nice restaurant near Garibaldi square. The food was outstanding, and the service was really outstanding. The waiter was a young guy who may have been the son of the owner, and if not acted like he was. At the end we asked for coffee and when we commented on how much we liked it he lit up and told us it was a local coffee and talked us thru the beans and roasting process with great passion.

The Garibaldi Gate near the point where Garibaldi landed with his initial 100 supporters in his successful campaign to unify Italy.

We arranged for Giacomo to pick us up at a local grocery store. After delivering us to François I saw him sitting in a chair near the office having a beer and struck up a conversation. It turns out between driving us to town and picking us up he had spent the day harvesting the olives from the trees around the campground. Talking to him it turns out he had retired from the Italian Army after 20 years and returned home to Marsala to open the campground on part of his fathers farm. He took us around the campground showing us the different plants and herbs he had planted around the campground. It was a treat to spend some time with him.

Some of the olives harvested by Giacomo the owner of the campground we are staying in.

October 10, 2019 Marsala IT

Our ferry ride was relatively uneventful though it was 23 hours instead of the advertised 19 hours. We never found out what caused the extra 4 hours of time but we suspect that it was due to the cruise ship we passed leaving port as we pulled in. As a result we put our trip to the grocery aside and headed straight to our campground.

The port of Trapani Italy as we pulled in on the ferry.

Once we off loaded we had a 30 kilometer introduction to Italian driving. Up until now we had been driving in countries that on the whole behaved like American drivers when faced with decisions. No passing zones mean you do not pass, stop signs are meant to be stopped at, and no parking means no parking. My initial feeling is that driving here is a lot like driving in Mexico. People are relatively predictable but you have to know the unwritten rules as well as the written rules, and expect a little more aggressive driving. Hopefully we will adapt pretty quick. As we were driving up to the campground Ton said that Sicily reminded her of Thailand, which is mostly good. Tomorrow will be our introduction to Italy as visitors.

This area is famous for salt production. We passed several of these salt works on the way to the campground.

October 9, 2019 Toulon FR

There really is not much to talk about today. We needed to be in Toulon at 3:30 pm to catch our ferry to Sicily, so there was no time for exploring. We spent the morning poking around the campground taking care of cleaning, dumping tanks, and filling tanks. At 11:30 we took off for Toulon looking to fill François up, and maybe do a quick shop for some of our favorite French things before we depart for Italy.

Everything was going to plan until it was time to get fuel. Periodically our American credit cards are refused at French fuel dispensers. There is no rhyme or reason about when it will happen, but it happened today. In the past we were able to overcome this by using a debit card we travel with for emergencies, but today they even refused that. So we were stuck on a tour of fuel stations of Toulon until we found one with a human being who could process our credit cards. Five stations later we finally found a station with an attendant and filled up François.

François and Ron waiting to board the ferry to Sicily.

When we parked in the line for the ferry I noticed the camper van in front of us had Thai writing on it. I went up to ask the French couple about why, but it turns out they had bought the van used and did not even know the strange writing was Thai, they just liked the way it looks!

It is the largest ferry we have been on and is almost like a mini-cruise ship, complete with bars and multiple restaurants. So after settling in we went up top to watch our departure from Toulon on the way to Trapani Italy.

October 8, 2019 St. Tropez FR

Today François stayed in place while we visited the neighboring city of St. Tropez. It was a short bus ride to St. Tropez, but it was a change from middle class to uber rich. Port Grimaud is a pretty city on the same bay as St. Tropez, but while prosperous it features 40 foot boats and nice condos. 5km’s away St.Tropez features 100 foot plus yachts, and helicopters scurrying over carrying their owners to their estates.

We can see why St. Tropez is such a hit with the jet setters as the climate and the setting is spectacular. The water in the bay is crystal clear and generally calm. It became one of the “it” places in the world largely because of Brigitte Bardot in the 1960’s. Several of her famous movies were filmed in this area and put St. Tropez on the map. It is a pretty little town with lots of restaurants and high end shops lining the waterfront. There are a lot of people walking up and down the harbor gawking at the yachts. The actual uber rich were out of site or blending in with the crowds.

The harbor in St. Tropez with some of the smaller yachts.

Ton had two things she wanted to accomplish; she wanted to visit the road named after one of her favorite authors Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, and to take a picture of a statue of Brigitte that is in town. After we walked thru the town we headed out to find the road dedicated to Antoine. He was Ton’s favorite author when she was studying French. The Little Prince is his most famous work. Antoine was a true renaissance man as in addition to being a great writer he was also an early aviator and explorer. It is located next to the old fort on the hill above town and had a great view of the town and the bay. We both find that we find small connections to our youth by exploring these towns and it adds some fun to the trip.

The signpost for Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, with a holder for his fans to leave flowers.

After our walk around town and up to the fort we were hungry. Ton had two restaurants on her list, but one had gone out of business, and the other was closed, and as we were running out of time for lunch we popped into a Thai restaurant. This was our first Thai restaurant in Europe and we left a little disappointed.

The final stop for the day was to be a statue to Brigitte Bardot, but after walking the streets looking for it (including seeing several French restaurants that only added to our disappointment with lunch), we came to the statue of Brigitte and had a good laugh. When we first got off the bus we walked thru a little square with a cute statue of a women nude, and Ton took several pictures of it as she really liked it. It turns out this was the famous Brigitte statue that we were looking for. Brigitte while long retired still lives in St. Tropez.

The statue of Brigitte Bardot who helped put St. Tropez on the map.

Since we were next to the bus station we headed back to the campground for a light dinner and a walk along the beach at sunset.

St. Tropez is full of art galleries. Some of the artists looked quite talented.

October 7, 2019 Port Grimaud FR

Another day of big driving, and me being clueless. We wanted to get down somewhere near Toulon as our ferry to Sicily leaves from there on October 9. Ton thought hanging around near the rich at Saint Tropez would be fun. Port Grimaud is only about 10 km’s from Saint Tropez and would let people of our economic stature hang around; so that was the target.

Before the trip I thought we needed an oil change as my research indicated that the oil was due to be changed at 45,000 km’s. I had planned to have the oil changed when we got the new tires for François but I had a conversation with someone who managed a fleet of vehicles like François who said that oil change was 50.000 km’s so I decided to hold off until we returned from Italy. It turns out my research was right and about halfway to Port Grimaud we got a flashing red oil can on the dash of François. In my experience anything on the dash that is red and related to oil needs immediate attention. We pulled into the first rest area on the autoroute and I checked the oil. It was low, but not out so I added a liter and expected the light to go out. It did not so as I drove south Ton began looking for a Fiat dealer or mechanic and she came up with one. Well after about a 40 minute detour we came to the location of the Fiat mechanic according to Google, and it was a brand new KFC. Since all of the dealers who could deal with François were on lunch break anyway I took the time to do some more research and it turns out that the flashing red oil can indicates the need to change the oil and not a problem with the oil, so we decided to carry on with our trip and find a place to change the oil when we get to Italy.

Sunset at the beach for our campground. Saint Tropez is across the bay.

So after a little drama, we are now in a very large campground next to the Mediterranean Sea, and looking forward to heading into Saint Tropez tomorrow to see how the 1% live.

October 6, 2019 Lyon FR

The jet lag is starting to wear off so we woke a little earlier to head into Lyon. We purchased an all day pass for public transport in Lyon which is a good deal for €6 as we wanted to cover a lot of ground today.

On the way to Lyon we asked a young gentlemen to confirm we were at the correct bus stop, and ended up chatting with him most of the way to downtown. He is trying to start a company to refill wine bottles directly rather than sending them to recycling first and then remolding them. He told us there is a similar program going on with beer bottles in Oregon that we were not familiar with. We enjoyed a wide ranging conversation from tax methods to population density of Oregon vs France. These small contacts are always fun and encouraging.

When we finally arrived in downtown Lyon after a detour due to a market along the route and getting caught in a major traffic jam, we ran into the finish line for the Lyon marathon. We spent a little time watching the runners finish, and enjoying the good mood of the spectators and runners as they crossed the line.

The finish line of the Lyon Marathon, Ton was trying some tricks with her camera so we caught some ghosts running the marathon.

Our next stop was the Roman theater which was pretty close to the finish line, the problem was it was about 600 feet higher on a pretty steep hill. There were two funiculars up the hill which were covered by our transit pass, but I could not find them so we ended up climbing the hill. The Roman theater is quite large and well preserved. It is still used to stage plays during the year, and holds about 6000 people in its current configuration. During the Roman era there was a second wooden deck that accommodated another 5000 people.

The Roman Theater in Lyon is one of the largest in France.

In the distance we saw a cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary and headed over there. It was a fairly modern cathedral built around 1872. The story about the cathedral is it is on a hill overlooking the original cathedral in Lyon Saint-Jean. In the 1500’s when the plague was going thru Europe the town prayed to Mary that if she spared Lyon from the plague they would do an annual procession to the top of the hill, and the plague skipped Lyon. In the 1600’s there was a cholera epidemic in the area, and the citizens again prayed to Mary and promised a church on top of the hill if Lyon was spared, and it was. Finally during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 the citizens asked Mary to spare them from destruction by the Prussians this time promising a cathedral, which was duly built when the Prussians by passed Lyon.

You rub the Lions nose for good luck as you enter the cathedral in Lyon.

We also found the funicular so our trip down to the main city was much quicker and easier on the knee’s. I have become quite reliant on Google for navigation, and it was at this point that I realized that despite Lyon being the third largest city in France, its transit system was not loaded into Google maps. So now to get to our next destination I had to go back to the old way of trying to compare a city map with a transit map to figure the best way to get to a food hall with several famous restaurants. It was not pretty but eventually we arrived just in time to watch all of the restaurants close up for the day.

The food hall that was just closing up as we arrived.

So instead we headed back to François where Ton prepared me a delicious meal.

October 5, 2019 Lyon FR

We are both battling a little bug coupled with jet lag and a pretty good storm resulted in a poor nights sleep for both of us. As a result we decided to just jump on the road and get some miles towards our ultimate destination.

We have been wanting to visit Lyon and it was about half way to Toulon so we decided to head there for the day. Ton suggested we go ahead and pay to use the Autoroute so it was a very easy day of driving for me, but a little expensive. By the time we arrived in Lyon we decided to just explore the area around the campground. The area around us appears to have been part of the fortress system for Lyon in the past, so there were a lot of tall walls. The town center was nice and we gawked at some beautiful French pastries, the French really do pastries right.

A father and son Petanque game in the village square near our campground.

After stretching our legs we decided to turn in early and get ready to try to take Lyon by storm tomorrow.

October 4, 2019 Gron FR

Today we moved about 5km’s to our favorite aire at Gron. Jet lag won the day and neither one of us were moving around until about 11:30 so we decided to take care of a couple of more things around our base in Sens before hitting the road tomorrow.

The biggest thing was to fill up the LP and top off the fuel in François. It looks like we will have some cool nights so the heater is going to be running. They have been having a drought around here so of course we show up and bring them three days of rain and cool weather.

One small adventure happened today. E. Leclerc is one of our favorite grocery chains in France and the one in Sens has propane and relatively cheap fuel so we decided to head over there. It is not pay at the pump so we had to circle thru the pay station twice to take care of our two different fuel needs.

When we finished the fuel merry go round we headed over to the parking lot for the store, and they had installed height barriers restricting the parking lot to 2.3 meters (François is 2.9 meters). We have shopped here on every trip so I thought they must have at least one part of their large parking lot open to Campers, and as we drove around the lot the last entrance had the height barriers open so we pulled in and parked. After we finished our shopping we came out and while we were in the store they had closed the height barrier trapping us inside.

An example of the height barrier used to keep RV’s like François out.

As I was trying to sort out how we were going to escape another Camper pulled up. We had a short conversation in sign language and Franglish where he told me (and I am paraphrasing greatly) that his camper was 2.8m and he fit under the sign. Meanwhile a couple of cars had pulled up behind us and were watching us figure this out, then a third car came up and began blowing his horn where upon we both gave him a big Gallic shrug, like what do you want. The guy in the shorter camper went under the bar without hitting, and then got out to guide me thru. Taking it slow we escaped under the barrier, and with a shake and a bon journey we were on our way to the aire to finish our day.

October 3, 2019 Sens FR

Started the day by going over to retrieve François from storage at Eurocamping Cars. The next stop was Garage Alary to get some new tires installed on François. The designated English speaker Abdelsem did a good job of making us feel welcome. Two hours later we have new tires and were on our way to Sens for some grocery shopping.

I misread the gauge on the control panel and thought the battery was down on François so instead of going to the free aire in Gron we usually stay in we went to the pay aire in Sens as it provides electricity. As it turns out we had electricity, not water. So instead of staying in Gron for free with free water, the pay aire in Sens charges an extra 2 euro for 10 minutes of water. My first mistake of the trip on the first day. I tried to convince Ton it is better here because their is a Lidl across the street to shop in, but she knows better.

We finished the day up with a short trip to Lidl and an early supper. Tonight will be an early one as we are both quite jet lagged.

October 2, 2019 Sens FR

We made it back to France. This time the trip was on Delta Airlines and unlike our previous flight on Icelandic they provided plenty of food for free. Another bonus is that they are flying 767’s on the route from Seattle to Paris which comes with 2-3-2 seating so Ton and I had our two seats to ourselves which is another bonus.

We were impressed the first time we arrived at Charles DeGaulle airport as there was no wait at all for immigration. This time was absolutely the opposite, there were easily a couple of thousand people in the arrival hall and the crowd had spilled outside the roped off area into a hallway where people fed in from three different directions so getting a line of any type formed out there was going to take some effort on someone’s part, unfortunately the people working there chose not to be the ones to make the effort, so the passengers did their best to organize things. it took nearly two hours to clear immigration.

The rest of the trip worked as planned with our normal train ride from the airport to downtown, a short trip on the metro to Gare DeBercy and a train to Sens. Overall from leaving our house to arriving at the hotel in Sens was a 28 hour trip.

June 25, 2019 Portland OR

Except for a terrible check in process Iceland Airlines got us home on time, and relatively comfortably. This was our longest trip so far at 8 weeks.

City scene from Flanders, this style of building is popular in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

We visited 6 countries if you count our unplanned drive thru Austria on our way to Garmisch. We spent time in France, Germany, The Netherlands (one day), Belgium and Luxembourg. Germany is a very easy country to travel in. The roads are good and we fell into the habit of using the Autobahn which cut our drive time down quite a bit at the expense of seeing the countryside. There is a lot to see and we found the cities very comfortable to visit. I enjoyed seeing the former East Germany and found it very interesting, though the differences between the East and West to an outsider are fading fast. We really enjoyed Belgium, it is a charming country with some really pretty cities. Bruges is popular for a reason and was probably the prettiest city we visited.

Once again we ran out of time and ended up skipping some planned stops in Germany including Nuremburg and Berlin. So far we have had a hard time making capital cities on our trips. In Belgium we missed Wallonia completely, and I would like to give the Ardennes region there a look. Based on our day in Maastricht and talking with the many Netherlanders we met we have added the Netherlands to our countries to visit.

We covered about 5000km on this trip, (not an exact number because I forgot to note the starting mileage.) Besides the mystery leak when we are in monsoon like conditions François performed well. We are really enjoying Europe so far.

A view from the road in France, you really cannot beat the back country in France.

The final question; who has the better beer? I think it is Belgium by a mile, and Ton also votes for Belgium.

June 24, 2019 Gron FR

We dropped François off and took our normal route to Paris. Everything worked as it should, except there was a long line to buy tickets for the train to the airport so we missed the last shuttle of the afternoon for our hotel. With the help of a couple of French ladies we were able to convince another hotel (with the help of €10) to drop us off at our hotel. The air conditioner in our room did not work and it was around 90 degrees, fortunately the window opened so we were able to cool the room down to sleep. We think its time to look for a new hotel.

Our neighbor at the aire in Gron last night. We are not sure what kind of cow this is.

Dinner was at our normal kebab place near the hotel. They did not have AC either so we did not linger. The highlight of the day was watching the US beat Spain in the Women’s World Cup.

June 23, 2019 Sens FR

Today was our last day with François so our priority was to get to Sens in time to make a quick run thru Auchan to pick up some last minute snack food, as we came to the realization a couple of days ago that Icelandic Airlines will not provide us food on our 11 hours in the air coming home. We picked them primarily because they had a flight into Portland from Reykjavik and we were thinking about using them in the future as the connections are clean. It never occurred to us that an airline would put you on an 11.5 hour flight and expect you to buy food. Plus the fare was not particularly a bargain, live and learn.

Now that we are back in France and trying to avoid tolls Greta picked a route that while inexpensive turned out to involve quite a few country roads that had our speed down, so the trip took about 40 minutes longer than we planned, but all ended well as we arrived at Auchan with an hour to spare before their 1230 Sunday closing time.

The country side in France is really magnificent. Several times per day you come across a view like this.

We had also planned to give François a good bath today, but a few minutes into the wash, the car wash broke down. We quickly took advantage of the water that we had to give him a quick wipe down, and he ended up presentable.

Ton spent the afternoon packing and cleaning the interior while I tried to stay out of the way, but remain available when heavy things needed lifting.

June 22, 2019 Epernay FR

We picked Epernay as a destination as it was about 60% of the way to Sens, had a decent place to stay, and looked like an interesting place to spend the afternoon. When we arrived we were worried about whether there would be room in the campground as there was a youth Rugby tournament taking place at the athletic fields surrounding the campground. Actually we have begun to notice that things are getting more crowded as we go, the aires and campgrounds have been filling up nearly everyday by 5 pm. We got lucky and did get a spot, but by 5 pm they were also full.

There were about 30 youth rugby teams in the tournament taking place at the campground.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and when we were bored venturing out to watch the youth Rugby. Ton and I took a walk around 1pm, but in France even youth Rugby tournaments take a two hour break for a proper lunch. We enjoyed watching the families lay out a large lunch spread including wine for the adults. The French surely have their priorities aligned when it comes to food.

Lunch being prepared at the Rugby Tournament.

Epernay is one of the largest producers of champagne, and Moet which is an upscale brand is based there. Our original plan was to walk into town and poke around, but it was quite hot. When we checked in they told us there was a wine tour at 5:15 pm for a reasonable price, so we signed up to avoid the walk. On the tour we were joined by a German couple with a cute Labradoodle named Murphy, and a couple of Dutch guys who were on a weekend trip to stock up with champagne for the year. The winery was kind of a bust as the owner did not speak much English, and none of us spoke French. But we made the best of it and ended up enjoying the company of the other people on the tour.

A demonstration of the capping process at our champagne cellar tour.

When we returned Ton made a huge dinner as we are trying hard to eat all of the food in the refrigerator. Feeling stuffed we decided to take an after dinner stroll when we ran into the Dutch guys again. As we were exchanging stories Ton told them about the Dutch couple we were parked next to in Bruges, he had told us that he was one of the original surfers in the Netherlands. When she was explaining the part about the surfer dude from Holland the two guys started speaking excitedly in Dutch, and asked her to describe him in more detail. They had a little more conversation in Dutch and then told us we had met Jan van de Berg who apparently is more than just a surfer dude in the Netherlands, but a big deal. He was an Olympic hero in the 80’s for winning the Netherlands first medal in surfing, also he was apparently a hotty as all of the girls in the Netherlands had posters of him in their bedrooms. Our street cred with the Dutch guys went up enormously. Later Ton did some research and we think we met the parents of Jan, and not Jan himself.

June 21, 2019 Luxembourg City LX

Luxembourg City is a beautiful city, but for now it is also a giant construction project. At nearly every point we turned there is a building going up, or a road being widened or paved. We even ran into a small side loader when climbing a trail from the lower city to the upper city. On top of the construction they were setting up for the national day celebration so where construction was not going on there were crowd control fences and stages being built for the party. While we do not think this is normal, it was probably the hardest city to walk in we have seen in Europe.

Some of the old fortifications and bridges above the Aizette River.

Most of the city is on the bluffs of the Aizette River. The river passes thru the city in a gorge a couple of hundred feet below the city. There is a section of the city at the bottom of the bluff called Grun. We spent most of the day down there wandering around the old streets and messing around in the ramparts of the old fort. We could see it is a beautiful city when it is not being dug up in mass.

The Grun district in the valley below the city center. Ton had to work hard to get a picture with only one construction crane in it.

We had lunch in a restaurant in the Grun where we tried the national dish of Luxembourg called Judd Mat Gaardebounen when it arrived at the table it came in a cauldron. It is pork neck soaked in brine with white beans, definitely peasant food. It was filling. Having eaten peasant food for our main course we decided to go to the official patisserie of the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg for desert. We had a nice cheese cake, and chocolate nougat for desert. So we had a peasant dinner and an aristocratic desert.

Ham and beans our traditional Luxembourg peasant lunch.

When we returned for the night there was an outdoor concert taking place. So we wandered over with some of our Duchesse de Bourgogne beer and listened to the Moselle Valley Brass Band until it was time to turn in for the night.

June 20, 2019 Alzingen LX

We have both wanted to visit Luxembourg on this trip. We almost swung thru on our way out, but it did not work out. So last night we decided to head over today. We left with some light rain and for the last 50 km’s or so we had absolutely torrential rain. We also ran into our first EU customs check, as Luxembourg was checking all trucks entering the country so the right lane of the freeway was closed so that the police could use it to check the trucks. This caused a 2 or 3 mile backup as all of the non-commercial traffic squeezed in the left lane.

The Luxembourg flag from the church next to the campground.

When we got to the nice campground on the outskirts of Luxembourg City and checked in, we noticed the throw carpet we put on the floor of François was wet. This is the third time we have had this problem, and each time it has been after driving thru very heavy rain. While Ton cleaned up, I tried to find a possible source of the water. We are finding the water right in the center of the cabin, and there are no obvious places for it to come from. So far no luck, the good news is that it only happens when it rains heavily, and it is not an enormous amount of water. We will keep you posted.

A picture from a memorial to three American soldiers who were killed when their tank fell thru the bridge in the village while they were liberating it.

Since we started on a clean up, because of the mystery leak we decided to also take care of washing the sheets towels and everything we leave behind. We were planning on doing it on Saturday, but since the campground had good German Washing Machines and Dryers and Ton was on a roll we decided to do it today.

The ruins of an old castle behind a church near the campground.

Since not much happened today I will share one weird story from the trip. When we entered Germany way back on May 9 the campground we were staying at had one of those take one leave one libraries. All but one of the books were in German, but the one book in English looked interesting to me so I took it. It was Michael Palin’s diary from 1970-1979 of his years with Monty Python. It was a pretty thick book and it became my night time reading. I was reading the last twenty pages of it in early June when I noticed the campground we were staying in in Lubeck also had a take one leave one library. It was the first one I had noticed since I had gotten the Palin diary, and I was shocked to see the next volume of Michael Palin’s diary from 1980 to 1989 amongst all the German books there. It seems I have been following a fellow Michael Palin fan around Germany and we read at about the same pace.