Destinations – Page 12 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

September 24, 2024 Lucerne SU

We planned our day around the weather forecast. The forecast has been changing frequently and sometimes dramatically over the last few days. But when we woke up it said that it was going to be good in the morning and raining by 4 pm. So we were off for town pretty early.

The bus dropped us off across from the wooden bridge so it was our first stop of the day.

We started the day at the wooden bridge that is one of Lucernes’ tourist highlights. When we went by on Sunday it was teeming with people so we passed on walking across it. Today was much quieter so we enjoyed crossing it. In addition to the pretty exterior there are paintings from the history of Lucerne in the cross beams of the roof. Many of these paintings were destroyed in the fire in 1994, but some were saved and luckily when the bridge was shortened in the late 1800’s some one had the foresight to put the paintings that were removed in storage so those were used to replace some of the missing ones.

The paintings in the ceiling of the bridge are an interesting touch to this historic bridge.

Ton had done some research on the town and one of the articles she read talked about the Lombard street (the famous winding street in San Francisco) of Lucerne so we headed up there next. It was a nice walk thru a pleasant neighborhood but while the street was steep and there was one sweeping curve it was not Lombard street.

On the walk to “Lombard Street” we came across another wooden bridge. The white building on the hill is a hotel. I checked and we could get a room for €487 tomorrow night. They were sold out tonight.

After our climb up to “Lombard Street” we headed over to another street that was supposed to have good wall paintings. Again the walk over was very pleasant thru nice neighborhoods. We really enjoyed ourselves. When we got to the neighborhood there was a row of very tastefully painted houses and one large mural on one wall. I was a little disappointed, but Ton really enjoyed the street and took several photos. So once again I learned something about perspective.

Ton really enjoyed this street with the nicely painted homes.

Our primary stop for the day is a place we would not have found without unlimited access to the bus system that comes with our tourist tax. Ton read that if you ride bus 10 to the last stop you get out at a beautiful park with stunning views of the city and lake.

So we were off to the train station to pick up bus 10. After a 10 minute ride up hill on narrow streets we arrived at the last stop on a dead end road. When we got off we were impressed. Behind us was a typical city street lined with houses. In front of us was green grass stretching off for a couple of miles. In the distance we could hear cow bells from a herd of cows on the hill a half mile away. It was quite a contrast.

There were a series of hiking trails radiating from the bus stop. Switzerland has an extensive hiking trail system with well marked trails signposted at key intersections in the trail. If we were a bit younger we might take on more of them. We opted for a short walk down one of the trails until we got to a point where we had an overlook of the city, lake and mountains. There was a bench there and we just sat and enjoyed the view.

The riverfront of Lucerne from the wooden bridge.

It looked like rain was coming so we decided to head back to town. We hopped off the bus in the new town and had another discussion about eating a lunch out, but once again decided today was not the day. With the clouds threatening we decided to head back to the campground.

Sunset with Mt. Pilatus out in its glory.

By the time we got back to the campground the sun was out and any thought of rain was over. So after a late lunch and some time on the phone with home we walked back to the lake to enjoy sunset. It was the nicest sunset we have seen here.

September 23, 2024 Lucerne SU

It was supposed to be a rainy day today. When we woke up we looked outside and decided it would be a good day to take care of stuff, so we added a day to our reservation and headed off to stock up on groceries as our first chore.

This is the front of the machine that bored some of the tunnels we drove thru to get here.

On the way to the grocery we passed by the Swiss Transportation museum. It is a very large museum full of interesting looking trains, gondolas, and road building equipment.

When we arrived at the Migro grocery store Ton really struggled to find anything that she could bring herself to buy because of the cost. She walked thru the Migro a couple of times and after two trips we had one package of schnitzel and a box of pizzas, and no fresh vegetables which is why we came . Luckily right next to the Migro was another grocery store that we had not heard of but turned out to be a discount grocery. Ton was much happier and we ended up with enough food to get us to Italy including fresh vegetables.

The rest of the day was spent washing our clothes, and doing some light cleaning. These days are necessary and also give us a rest day. Our primary entertainment was to watch our neighbors come and go which is always good fun in a RV park.

September 22, 2024 Lucerne SU

Earlier in the trip I was complaining about having to pay €48 for an annual vignette for Switzerland. I felt like there should have been a shorter term vignette available. But after spending a few days transiting the excellent highways here I have changed my tune and now feel €48 is a good deal. Our travels in Switzerland have not been the most efficient. If you look at a map you will see what I mean, but a combination of a small country and good roads has made our spur of the moment routing acceptable.

Looking across Lake Lucerne at Mt. Pilatus this is the reason we crossed half of Switzerland to another lake town.

Our destination today was Lucerne which is about 200 kilometers from Lusanne nearly across Switzerland. The drive involved doubling back by Berne and going almost to Zurich before heading south to Lucerne. But the roads are really good in Switzerland and surprisingly flat given the mountains because of all of the tunnels and elevated stretches of roads.

The clock tower on the Rathouse (town-hall), we are back in the German speaking part of Switzerland.

After we settled in at the campground we took the advice of the check in person and walked the lake front trail to the town. It is a nice walk, and as the weather is good a lot of the citizens of Lucerne were out there with us.

As we were passing by a really posh hotel we saw a couple of sculptures that caught our eye. We had a running joke in Lusanne about the ugly sculptures throughout the city, but these were very interesting and really appealed to us.

The 3/4 view is the most traditional look for the statue.

The statues from 50 feet away or so looked like normal stone or metal figures. But as you got closer they changed look.

From the side you can see the multiple metal plates that make up the statue.

As you get close to the system you see that it is not a single block of metal but hundreds of thin pieces of metal arranged to give form to the statue.

From directly in front you get the illusion of transparency, almost like a holograph.

This was one of the most interesting pieces of art we have seen in a while. We looked at the biography of the artist and his name is Juliene Voss-Andreae who is originally from Hamburg Germany but now resides in Portland Oregon. We have never seen any of his art or heard of him in Portland. We are glad we traveled to Lucerne to find a really interesting artist from our hometown!

One of the advantages that Swiss cities have over most of Europe as they missed all of the major wars for the last two hundred years so a lot of buildings have survived in their original form. Lucerne has an old wooden bridge that survived intact. Unfortunately it caught fire in 1993 and about 60% of it burned down, but they were able to rebuild it pretty quickly. We were going to walk across it but it was teeming so we decided to leave it for tomorrow.

This monument is to Swiss guards who died heroically trying to save King Louis XVI of Versailles fame.

Our final stop for the day was the Lions Monument. The Swiss have not been involved in any major wars since the 1600’s, but apparently they had a reputation as fighters in the 1700’s and Swiss mercenaries were in high demand. The Pope still has his Swiss guard in the Vatican. Louis XVI of Versailles fame also had a personal guard of Swiss mercenaries. When the mob came to seize him the Swiss guard fought to the last man to defend him. Unfortunately for Louis they were overpowered and the rest is history. The Lions monument commemorates their bravery and loyalty.

As we were walking to the bus stop to head back to the camp we came across a nice church that was on Tons list. We swung in for some photos, but our plan is to head back into town either tomorrow or the day after depending on whose weather app is right. Ton uses one weather app for forecasts and I use a different one. They usually agree, but for tomorrow they completely disagree, Tons says it is going to be mostly cloudy with some sun, mine says there is a 98% chance of rain all day. We will find out who is right in the morning.

September 21, 2024 Lausanne SU

We decided to return to the Olympic Museum to tour the museum itself. Our friend Tracey spoke highly of it and said that our free transit pass also got us a discount to the museum. So after a lazy start to the day while we waited for the temperature to warm up a bit we were off to the museum.

Jesse Owens jersey and shoes at the top, Pawina Thongsuks weight lifting clothes from her gold medal for Thailand.

When we arrived at the museum we did get a discount for our pass, but the guy selling tickets asked how old we were, and it turned out we got a bigger discount for being old, so we accepted it. The museum was very well done with a nice mix of audiovisual displays and artifacts from all of the Olympic games.

Ton enjoyed the display of all of the mascots from the Olympics that have had mascots, this one is Sam from the 1984 Los Angeles games.

We both enjoyed the displays that talked about the original Greek games, and the story of the founding of the modern Olympics in the 1890’s. The games have certainly come a long way as a spectacle.

Ton wanted to check out three other places in the city center, so after the Olympic Museum we headed to the metro and took a quick ride to the center. After visiting the town yesterday I began to suspect that what we thought was a very unimpressive cathedral was actually a very large church. It turns out I was right and the actual Cathedral was much more impressive. We liked the interior arches in this church, and a couple of the stain glass windows were interesting.

We liked the form of the arches and the ceiling of the Cathedral.

Lausanne is also famous for a covered stair case that runs from the main city to the Cathedral. As an extremely hilly town in a mountainous environment the covered staircase comes in handy when the roads are slick with snow and ice. It was located right next to the cathedral and ran for a couple of hundred meters.

Our third stop was at a coffee shop that served a typical Lausanne hot chocolate. Ton likes to try hot chocolate so I was using google to get us to the coffee shop. Google finally told us were at the coffee shop, but there was no coffee shop in sight. I tried resetting the search but got the same answer. I then noticed that the Escaliers kind of went down in a shaft next to us, so I went down the stairs and sure enough we had been standing on top of the shop. The chocolate was good, and I enjoyed my local wine.

The clock on one of the streets had a display of figures that performed at 3 pm.

As we were heading back to the campground we came across a crowd on one of the main streets looking up at a building. The crowd even included 4 firefighters who had stopped their truck to get a view. Many European cities have clocks that tell the story of some important event using figurines, these go off at certain times of the day. In this case it seemed to be a battle won by the town as it included a line of soldiers followed by some dancers in fancy dress. We laughed and said it was not as famous as the one in Prague (considered one of the most over rated tourist attractions in Europe), but at least as good, maybe better.

The streets were much busier than yesterday.

September 20, 2024 Lausanne SU

It’s no secret that Ton and I love a good wine region. Next to Lausanne is a Swiss wine region that has an extensive series of trails that allow for hiking thru the vineyards. So once we got going in the morning we were off to check out the Lavaux wine region.

The wine doesn’t have to be great when it is produced in scenery like this.

Wine has been grown in the region since the Romans, but the hills that the Lavaux wine area are on now first started producing grapes for wine in the 11th century. The vineyards are now protected from development by law and have been designated a UNESCO site

The primary wine produced is called Chasselas and is a white wine. They also produce some Gamay and Pinot Noir wine.

Grapes used to produce Chasselas wine on the vine.

As part of the UNESCO designation there is an extensive network of trails that run for many miles thru the region. These trails are really well marked and developed. It is possible to go on hikes up to 15 miles thru the vineyards. We weren’t that ambitious and I found a nice 2 mile hike that started at a small train station at the top of the hill and ended at another train station next to Lake Geneva.

The view from near the start of the hike looking down at Lake Geneva 600 feet below.

The hike was really beautiful and quiet. We almost had the trails to ourselves. Ton was immersed in taking pictures and I got to spend my time quietly taking in the immensity of the views across Lake Geneva towards the French Alps. I was also intrigued with some of the equipment they used to tend the vines on these really steep hills.

We finished up our hike/stroll (2 miles probably is pushing the term hike) around 1:30 and since the train was going to the center of Lausanne we decided to get off and give the old town a look.

The McDonald’s 1955 burger, whoever the marketer for McDonald’s is in Europe earned his pay by convincing us we had to have one.

As we have been driving in Switzerland we keep seeing advertisements for a limited time 1955 burger at McDonald’s. At first when we saw the signs we were wondering what the 1955 was referring to, was it the price (don’t laugh we are in Switzerland), the year 1955, but if it is the year 1955 what is the significance of that year to McDonald’s, or was it something else entirely. Each time we saw the advertisement the speculation would be rekindled. Finally Ton couldn’t resist and googled the meaning of the 1955 burger and it turns out it is a special burger only released periodically in Europe and parts of Asia. She also read me the ingredients that made it unique and “special”. So today as we were leaving the train station there was a McDonald’s and Ton proposed we split a 1955 burger, Ton usually won’t even consider eating fast food so I was surprised. So my congratulations to the marketing firm for McDonald’s in Switzerland because you lured in a customer who would not have considered eating in a McDonald’s before being caught up in the web of your advertisement. By the way the burger was pretty good.

A giant Swiss flag over the street in front of the town hall.

We walked around downtown a little aimlessly for about 45 minutes, it is nice but not particularly memorable except for the steepness of the roads. Having taken in enough to satisfy our curiosity we decided to head back to François for the evening.

September 19, 2024 Lausanne SU

Lausanne was always going to be a highlight of our visit to Switzerland for Ton. The late king of Thailand King Rama IX lived here for 18 years when he was a boy. Rama IX was born in Boston while his father was studying medicine and his mother was studying to be a nurse. When he was an infant the family moved to Lausanne. It is a long story as he was not the crown prince but the younger brother of the crown prince. He only came to the throne due to the accidental death of his older brother right after he became king. Rama IX was king for over 70 years and is still beloved today by the Thai people. On the 60th anniversary of his reign the Thai government built a memorial in Lausanne in thanks to the city for the years he spent here when he was young. It was our first stop in Lausanne.

The interior of the memorial with a statue of King Rama IX.

The Thai Pavilion faces lake Geneva, so after we finished our visit we started walking along the Lake Front. The views across Lake Geneva are beautiful, though today they were a little spoiled by a pretty thick haze.

A statue commemorating the Olympics, with a hazy view of the French Alps across Lake Geneva.

Lausanne is also the home of the International Olympic Committee. As we were walking down the waterfront we saw a museum dedicated to the Olympics. We crossed the road to take a look. The grounds had a display primarily centered around the Paris Olympics. I didn’t know that this year was the third time Paris had hosted the Olympics, so the historical facts about the previous two were interesting to me. The main museum has an entrance fee so we passed today as it was getting late, but may return later.

By the time we had visited the grounds of the Olympic Museum it was late enough to head back to François for dinner. Once again we have full access to the local transit system thanks to the Swiss tourist tax, and we plan to take full advantage of it.

Ton took this picture of a young couple having an evening picnic on the shore of Lake Geneva. It is one of my favorites.

After dinner we decided to head back to the Lake for a sunset walk. Right outside the campground is a trail along the lake shore. I was a little surprised how busy it was with people running, there were also several groups out rowing along the lake and in the distance there were 8 or 10 sailboats out for an evening sail.

While all of the haze had not cleared it was much better than this afternoon and Ton was in her element taking photos. This time I was following her as she darted from the trail down to the shoreline, on to piers, and thru the grounds of the yacht club. She really enjoyed her walk as did I.

We both decided that Lausanne seems to be a place we are going to enjoy and are wondering if three days are going to be enough.

September 18, 2024 Bern SU

We headed into Bern in the morning to finish exploring the city. A short walk and we were at a tram stop that took us to the city center in 10 minutes. Having the free use of the city transit system as part of the tourism tax for the campground struck us a great idea that should be emulated other places. It allowed us to explore several parts of the city we would not have gotten to otherwise.

I guess I never new what city was the capitol of Switzerland, but if you would have asked me I would have guessed it was Zurich or Geneva. It turns out it is Bern. So I was a little embarrassed by my ignorance when we visited the parliament grounds for our first stop of the day.

Berns town clock with a glockenspiel that performs at noon.

We were heading up the market street towards the train station when we saw a Thai tour group taking a group photo in front of the town clock. Ton overheard the guide telling them to wait a few minutes as they were too early. We thought it was for their bus, it turns out they were waiting for the noon performance of the town clock where dancing figures come out. We heard a commotion, but by the time we hustled back it was too late and we had missed out.

This restaurant sells a local beer, one of our misadventures for today.

We wanted to visit a local brewery and settled on Felsenau Beer. They had three locations in town, but we wanted to visit the main brewery. I put what I thought was the location in google maps, and we were off looking for Bus 21. The first problem was I couldn’t locate the bus stop. The place I thought was the bus stop was across the street from the actual bus stop and I didn’t realize it until the bus stopped across the street and then did a u-turn right in front of us to head off. So we caught the next bus, and rode it to the stop google told us in the suburbs of Bern. We got of in Felsenau, and google indicated that the brewery should be right in front of us, but I didn’t see it. I was frustrated, but figured I had done something wrong. So we headed right back to where we started where we found the down town Felsenau Brew Pub. It turns out that we were only about 100 yards from the brewery when we got off the bus but I somehow missed it. It made me feel like a rookie traveler. But we did get to taste some Felsenau beer and it was pretty good, but cost a whopping 12 US dollars each. Things are expensive in Switzerland.

We stumbled on this event promoting foods and wine from a region in Switzerland, complete with a mens chorus in traditional clothing.

Our main destination for the day was the rose garden of the city. The views of the city were supposed to be tremendous. The problem was that the town was pretty socked in with clouds and Ton wanted sun for her photos. The weather forecast said the sun was supposed to come out around 1pm. By 2:30 it had not come out and we were thinking about giving up. But at 3 the sun arrived so we decided to head up to the rose garden. It took me a couple of attempts to find the right bus stop again (not a good day for me as transit guide), but fortunately the busses run frequently here.

This gentleman was giving a concert on this Swiss mountain horn. It sounded a bit like a French Horn, but played like a bugle as it doesn’t have any valves to change notes.

The rose garden did have beautiful views of the city, and was definitely worth the wait. The roses are at the end of our run as it is mid-September, but we enjoyed the views and did take in some of the roses. I think even when the roses are at their peak the views may be the real attraction here.

After the rose garden we headed back to the campground to relax as it had been a long day walking around Bern.

September 17, 2024 Bern SU

We had arrived in Switzerland with a list of potential places to visit, but no plan on how to visit them. So while it rained outside yesterday I began to punch different places into google maps, it turns out everything is about 100 kilometers from everywhere else, so after looking at some options we decided there was no particular order that made more sense than another, and we could kind of wing the rest of the time we spend in Switzerland.

Our campground in Bern is next to the Aare River.

We decided to head to Bern today because it had a nice campground in the middle of the city and its old town is a UNESCO site. It rained steadily all night and when we woke up in the morning the valley that St. Ursanne is located in was pretty socked in with fog. It was only 106 kilometers to Bern so we were not in a big hurry to get going, but despite dragging our feet as much as we could we were still on the road by 10:00.

The roads are very good in Switzerland with lots of tunnels to keep you from doing a lot of elevation changes. Today they were all limited access though often only one lane, but traffic was light. So despite the rain we found ourselves arriving at the campground in Bern at 11:30. The only drama was we followed a VW camper from Scotland the last kilometer or so into the campground. When they arrived there the people at the campground asked them to move back. As they were backing up it became clear to me they could not see a sign directly in their rear, when they got a foot or so from hitting it I leaned on my horn, they stopped a couple of inches short of the sign, and an irritated Scottish voice shouted over to me “what are you blowing your horn for”, I asked if they saw the sign 2 inches from their rear end, she looked startled and then pulled forward a bit.

After we settled in, we decided to take a stroll along the river. After walking a quarter mile or so I told Ton we could be in the center of the city in 15 minutes if we took a bus nearby. While the campgrounds in Switzerland are extremely expensive, in urban areas they come with free usage of the local transit system. So since the bus ride was free we decided to check out the center of town despite the weather not being great for photographs.

The founding story of Bern involves Bears, and the coat of arms of the city has a bear on it. So they have a bear pen near the center of the city with 3 bears in it. This was the only one visible.

We spent the next couple of hours strolling down the main street of the town. We accidentally found the bear pen where the mascots of the city are kept near the river. Two of the bears were hiding, but one was nice enough to take his nap in the open for the tourists.

After looking at the sleeping bear for a couple of minutes we noticed a beer hall next door and got a beer. The beer hall was full of British accents and we were a little perplexed until we figured out that an English Premier League soccer team was in town to play the local Swiss team in the European Champions League.

After our beer we took advantage of our free transit pass to head back to François for the night. When we returned we bumped into the Scottish lady who had snapped at us earlier in the day, she thanked us profusely as they had not seen the sign and would have hit it if I hadn’t blown my horn at them.

September 15, 2024 Langres FR

When we woke up in the morning we decided laundry was the priority for today and after consulting google we decided that we were better off here than in Switzerland to get that done. Yesterday we had talked to the campground manager about our options and he mentioned a washing machine at the Avia gas station nearby.

These parking lot laundry setups are common in Europe. This one is in a gas station near the campground.

It was cold in the morning and Ton was comfortable in our warm bed, so she told me to go off and make sure the washers were in walking distance. I tried to remember the directions from the previous night, but promptly took off in the wrong direction. After going the wrong way for half a mile I doubled back, and realized the washer was only 5 minutes from the campground if you go the right direction. After I returned from my morning meander Ton was ready to go so we returned to the gas station.

Our Sunday morning companions in the Avia gas station. He was much funnier than he looks in this photo, his horse had just blown the lead in the last race and finished out of the money.

After we loaded our clothes I went into the gas station to see if there was anywhere to hang out. In one corner was 4 tables with a coffee machine, some on line gambling machines, and a television showing the horse races at Besancon. There were 4 gentlemen in there watching the horse races on TV. They thought I was looking for the toilet so they started shouting directions at me for the toilet, when I asked if I could sit at one of the tables they laughed and said “bien sûr” which means “of course.” So for the next hour and a half Ton and I were honorary members of the Langres Sunday Morning Horse Racing Club at the Avia gas station. We learned that everyone who came in to chat with the members shook hands with everyone present including Ton and me. It was a lot more fun than I envisioned when we walked up to the gas station to use the laundry. There was a bit of drama when one of the customers started shouting angrily at the clerk, the Horse Racing Club rushed to comfort her and decided he was probably a “connard” from Paris.

The Moulin Gate into the town. If you look carefully you will see the British and US flags on the gate next to the French flag.

After our laundry was done we returned to the campground for a lazy afternoon doing a little cleaning, and Ton cooked up a pot of rice for dinner and future meals. The campground had emptied out considerably so we relocated to a spot that had a nicer view.

Our new view from the front window of François. Not bad at all.

After dinner Ton and I took an evening stroll along the walls of the town and back thru the center. We returned to find the campground had again filled to capacity. While today was not a day of journeys or spectacular sites, the Sunday Morning Horse Racing Club made it a memorable one.

September 14, 2024 Langres FR

We are on our way to Switzerland, but todays stop is about 2 hours short in a beautiful region of France between Champagne and Burgundy. We were on the way early and managed to escape Paris with a minimum amount of stress. We then drove for a couple of hours on the nice but very expensive French Autoroute to Langres.

Part of the ramparts of the city walls. The walls still go all the way around the town and according to one of the signs are the longest still remaining in Europe.

Langres was originally settled by the Galls a long time ago. When the Romans conquered the Galls Langres became the center for Roman administration in the region. The town reached its heights in the 12th to 15th century when it was the center of the Catholic Bishopric for the area. During the 14th and 15th centuries the region was very unsettled so the fortifications that the towns tourism is built around today were built.

The cathedral originally from the 12th century when Langres was the major city in the region.

The campground for the town is incorporated into the walls of the town. We are sitting on the edge of one of the walls looking down into a moat that made up part of the fort. These kind of places are part of the fun of camping in Europe.

Looking down from the walls of the ramparts into the town.

After a stop at the local grocery to stock up on French food (the word on the internet is that food is very expensive in Switzerland) and wine (because no where in the world is wine as cheap and good as France), and diesel (because French diesel is cheaper than Swiss diesel) we headed over to the campground to check in.

An interesting painting from the inside of the cathedral.

When we arrived 1:30 the office for the campground was closed but that is typical in France as the two hour lunch is part of doing business. What was unusual was the sign said they would open at 5:30. We took that to mean that we should grab a spot and come back and register at 5:30. It is a good thing we did because by 5:30 the place was full, and more people were arriving until night fall which the operator managed to jam into various nooks and crannies of the place it was fun to watch the hustle and bustle of all of the arriving RV’s from all over Europe.

The interior of the cathedral. Many of the churches we have visited have undergone major renovations. This one probably looks a lot like it did 100 years ago which we appreciated.

Once we were settled in we had a nice stroll around part of the walls of the fort and down the main street of the town. Langres is like a lot of small towns in France full of history in the past, and kind of a side show today. Often the setting is spectacular as it is here with the town built on top of a giant granite outcrop that commands the surrounding area. They look like they are working hard to get on the tourism map, and based on the full campground having some success.

The most famous person from Langres Denis Diderot an 18th century philosopher.

After our walk Ton prepared a nice meal and we settled in for the evening. We are debating whether to stay another day before moving on to Switzerland. I think it is going to depend on if we can find a place to do the laundry nearby.

September 13, 2024 Versailles FR

Today we are visiting the ultimate palace in Europe. As I mentioned yesterday we have visited many palaces that advertised themselves as the Versailles of . . ., so today was my first time to see the model for palaces thru out Europe.

The view of the palace from our bus stop as we arrived.

Ton visited Versailles a long time ago when she was a student in England. She spent the bus ride over wondering if the second visit would wow her like the first visit did. She remembered thinking she had never seen so much gold before.

A gold fountain, one of Tons memories from her first visit was how much gold there was.

These days you are only guaranteed entry if you buy a ticket on line with a scheduled time of entry. In our case we choose noon. We arrived about 10:15, and headed to the gardens to start our visit.

The gardens are immense, the scale and variety of types of gardens is hard to take in. There are several large man made lakes and forest trails that make up parts of the grounds. The gardens made a huge impression on me.

A trail leading to the Trianon Palace on the grounds. Part of the immense trail system of the palace.

We had just begun to explore a small portion of the gardens when it was time to head to the line to get into the palace itself. The only disappointment was that because it was late in the season a lot of the flower beds had been pruned back in preparation for winter.

A statue of Louis XIV near the entrance to the palace.

We joined a line of a couple of hundred people for the noon entrance to the palace. It looks like they allow a few hundred people to enter the palace every half hour. It is a big place, but even a palace the size of Versailles has a capacity that it can handle daily.

Part of the crowd gathering near the entrance to the palace.

The interior of the palace is immense, and the opulence is impressive, and also unsettling. Ton told me that if the palace was built today it would cost the equivalent of 30 billion dollars. The majority of the palace was built during the reign of three kings over about 100 years. The last king Louis XVI was executed during the French Revolution.

I think this is one of the Louis’ responsible for Versailles.

These days it makes an impressive museum and the French are rightly proud of it and how it reflects French culture. The art and statues inside are indeed superb.

A small example of some of the thousands of pieces of art on display in the palace.

The room I really wanted to see was the hall of mirrors. I had read that it was one of the most impressive rooms in the world. Several important treaties have been signed there. As we got closer to the hall the rooms just proceeding it were jammed with people. We have not felt this crowded since the Vatican so that was kind of a bummer.

The room was impressive and very large. The art work was extensive and of very high quality and the chandeliers were beautiful. But I was expecting a little more.

We wrapped up our tour of Versailles Palace in another large hall full of paintings of battles won by the French for 600 years. The last battle included was during Napoleons reign.

A famous portrait of Napoleon by the artist David. Apparently this was one of Napoleons favorite painting of himself.

When Napoleon took over as emperor about 15 years after Louis lost his head, the palace had been ransacked. While he had himself crowned in the palace, the cost of restoring it was going to be very expensive, so he moved into one of the minor buildings on the grounds called the Trianon Palace.

The exterior of the Trianon palace from the gardens.

We had a bit of a walk to the palace because we had entered the gardens earlier in the day we could not reenter the gardens thru the same gate. The young lady told us there was another gate quite close we could use to reenter and gave us directions. It turns out quite close was about half a mile away, and when we got to that gate the nice young lady discouraged us from entering there but told us to go directly to the palace along the street. She said the palace was also quite close, which apparently in France means half a mile because I checked my watch when we got to the palace and we had walked a mile since we left the palace.

The family room in the Trianon which during Napoleons time was used for evening entertainment and meetings with his senior officers. We both liked the yellow.

We enjoyed the palace as the scale seemed more human after Versailles even if it is quite a large home. It was busy with visitors but not teeming like the main palace.

The garden at the Trianon was beautiful.

The gardens here have an annual theme and this year it was Provence. The flowers had not been pruned back so Ton really enjoyed walking thru and taking in the different types and colors.

Another fountain in the main garden of Versailles.

It is an amazing place, but in the end our ambivalence remained about the cost of the place, as a palace it is a scandal, as a museum of French culture it is a treasure. Later in the evening we were talking over palaces we have visited in Europe. We have visited many at this point, and Versailles is the model of many of them, but the one we really thought was the most beautiful and interesting was the Alhambra in Spain. It is also immense, but while Versailles feels like it is built to overwhelm the senses, the Alhambra feels like it embraces the senses, and we think that is harder to pull off.

September 12, 2024 Versailles FR

Last night we purchased tickets to visit Versailles on Friday after consulting the weather forecast and seeing that it was supposed to start raining at about 1 pm today. With nothing special planned we slept in and tried to knock the last of the jet lag out of our system.

With an open day in front of us we decided to go to the local market which is supposed to be one of the best in Paris. By the time we got going it was almost 11am as we walked down to the bus stop to catch a ride to the market. The sky was bright blue and there was not a cloud in the sky. I wondered if Ton’s weather forecast was accurate, but she stood by it.

Another view of the market with nice puffy clouds in the sky.

We took a turn around the surprisingly quiet market. We began speculating with the paralympics just ending last weekend that Paris may be getting a little lull in tourism. We had the market almost to ourselves.

After a turn around the market and Ton enjoying the sight of a lot of good food both cooked and uncooked we decided to take a little break for a coffee. While we were touring around the market the bright blue skies were giving way to clouds. We decided to jump into a cafe for a coffee and to plan the rest of the day. Since we were only a few hundred yards from the palace we decided to walk over and get a look at the palace.

While we were getting coffee a shower passed thru. Ton really liked this ladies umbrella so she took off after her to get a picture.

It was a short walk to the palace, but just as we were getting there the rain really started coming down. Ton asked me what time it was and I told her 5 minutes to one. She looked really proud of herself as her forecast for rain at 1pm was almost perfect.

A statue to a local hero. He was commissioned into the army at 17, became a general at 25, and was killed at 29.

Just as we got to the front of the palace the rain began coming down in buckets. So we cut our day short and made a dash for the next bus back to the campground.

The name of the cafe is “The smoking dog”. If you look carefully you can see the pipe in the mouth of the dog.

We spent the rest of the day listening to the rain and occasional thunder, and coming up with a more detailed plan for the rest of the trip. Initially I thought we were going to Vienna, but Ton thinks it would be nice to visit Tuscany during the harvest. It is a good thing we don’t have to make reservations when we travel!

September 11, 2024 Versailles FR

Yesterday at the Bastogne Military Museum there was an exterior display commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Berlin Wall. There were three Trabant Cars that had been converted into art, and several chunks of the wall itself which had been used as canvas for art.

Pieces of the Berlin wall used as canvas for street art.

The second place on our list of places we wanted to visit that we have kept missing is Versailles. Ton visited about 45 years ago, and she wanted to have another look, and she felt like I should see it. Several of the palaces we have visited on our other trips claimed to be the Versailles of Spain, Latvia, or Bavaria etc. so we decided to put it on the itinerary and see the original.

The other motivation was to visit the Costco nearby to replace some stuff that the mouse got into as well as add some new American essentials to our cupboards. The drive from Bastogne was an easy three hours, until we hit Paris then the big city traffic kicked in. The main reason we had skipped Versailles in the past was my reluctance to take on Paris traffic. While it was busy and occasionally slow it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

The Paris Costco, everything looks the same except the signs. The Hotdogs are €1.50.

We ended up spending an hour and a half at Costco and the biggest issue was deciding on what to buy based on the limited space we have to store things. A lot of stuff was left on the shelf, and the stuff that made the cut is really the essentials or the luxury item that will make us happy. I also filled François with the cheapest diesel in France, though I have to admit the last station we saw in Belgium had diesel slightly cheaper.

We are now parked up at a very expensive and mediocre campground in the city of Versailles. The weather is iffy the next couple of days, so we decided to stay three nights so we have the flexibility to see Versailles at its best.

Tons idea to switch to Gouda cheese to tempt our Dutch mouse worked out. So we believe we are now mouse free, but are going to leave the traps in place in case he has a friend.

September 9, 2024 Amsterdam NE

Today was a maintenance day for François. We needed to have the oil and filter changed, so we asked for some references from the storage yard and were directed to a local garage. The people there were very nice. The work was done quickly. We spent the time talking to the owners wife who is a nurse, and a customer who is a security guard at the US Embassy in the Hague. The time passed quickly.

When I found out they didn’t take credit cards I had to find an ATM nearby. When I told them I was going to walk to the ATM which was about a kilometer away, the security guard insisted on driving us. In addition to getting some cash, we found the location of two more grocery stores close to where we store François. So thanks to everyone who helped us today.

We arrived back at the campground around noon and just as we settled in it started raining pretty hard so we decided that was a sign that we should just relax and try to get over the jet lag for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will be off towards Bastogne in Belgium.

The mouse was quiet last night, but he did not end up in any of the mouse traps so we assume he is still with us.

September 8, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We battled jet lag last night and while we had a couple of nice conversations in the middle of the night we were not up and about very early. We did hear our new nemesis the mouse rattling about a couple of times so one more stop was added to our plans for the day.

About 11 am we joined the Sunday exodus from the campground but instead of heading on we were just heading out. The first stop for the day was a nearby Praxis (the Dutch equivalent of Home Depot) to purchase a couple of mouse traps.

One of the benefits of Amsterdam as a starting point for our trips is there are several Asian Groceries. We visited a couple of them nearby so are well stocked with essentials for Ton.

The disadvantage of Amsterdam is the conventional groceries (Lidl and the local chain Albert Heijn) are difficult to access in a motorhome compared to other cities. We picked a location that had both a Lidl and Albert Heijn, but when we got there about a third of the parking lot was dug up so parking was impossible. Ton remembered there was an Albert Heijn near the campground so we headed over there. The parking lot for the store was full, but we were able to find a parking lot a couple of hundred meters away, so we have adequate food for the next few days.

We arrived back to the a much emptier campground and had our first proper meal of the trip and relaxed for the rest of the day.

September 7, 2024 Amsterdam NE

We went to sleep during a huge thunderstorm and then slept somewhat fitfully until after 11am this morning. I made our coffee and was sitting outside while Ton lingered in bed.

I had tried listening for mouse noises, but had heard none so I was hopeful that the mouse had moved on before we arrived. It turns out I was wrong. He is still in François and it turns out is a bit of a jerk. During the night he gnawed his way into a packet of cookies that had passed inspection yesterday, and to taunt us dropped a piece cookie in the bed during the night to announce his presence. Ton woke up to find the cookie under her in bed.

We debated whether to go shopping today for a mouse trap, but by the time we had eaten breakfast and gotten organized enough to get going it was 2pm, so we decided to go tomorrow. So the mouse gets one more night before we start hunting for it in earnest.

Ton has been fascinated by the pizza machines we have seen near roads and in shopping centers around Europe. Since we last stayed at this campground they have installed one. One of the highlights of Tons day was studying the operation of the machine up close. The machine here delivers either a cheese or pepperoni pizza for about €13. It looks like you deposit your money, and about 5 minutes later a hot pizza appears already boxed for carryout. I asked Ton if she wanted to try one and she laughed and said only if I have not had any food at all for about 3 days. So fascination with the machine does not equal consuming the product for Ton.

September 6, 2024 Amsterdam NE

The trip was off to a good start. Our flight on Delta was on time and uneventful. As normal neither one of us managed to sleep much if at all on the flight. Immigration was a little slow, but that meant our bags were waiting for us when we came out.

We arrived at the storage place for François at 11am and he was waiting for us in front as promised. A quick look around and everything seemed ok. We turned on everything and it worked. So far so good.

The next stop was a local grocery near the storage to pick up enough food to last a couple of days while we recovered from jet lag. Our shopping was a little disjointed as we were pretty jet lagged, but after about 30 minutes we had a slightly weird selection of food, but adequate for a day or two until we got out for a proper shop.

The drive over to the campground was stop and go, the worst traffic we had seen in Amsterdam so what should have been a twenty minute drive took a little over an hour. We checked in and had our spot by 12:30. Everything was going exactly to plan.

The plan for the rest of the day was to unpack our bags, have a light dinner and relax to try to get over the jet lag. When we opened the closet where we store the cleaning gear and things like spare paper towels and toilet paper our plan came to a screeching halt.

It was clear that François had been occupied by a mouse while he was in storage. All of the paper products had been shredded. Opening other cabinets, different food products and plastic packages had been gnawed thru. We had a couple of boxes of milk products that in Europe can be stored as dry goods until opened. The mouse had gnawed thru those containers causing the milk to leak out all over the cabinet.

The next three hours were spent emptying out all of the cupboards, sorting thru all of the dry goods we had left in the cabinets to see which ones had been chewed thru. We ended up throwing out quite a bit of food we accumulated . Interestingly the mouse preferred rice products over noodle products! We finally gave all of the cabinets a good scrubbing and washed all of the dishes and pots and pans.

Finally about 6:30 Ton decided that things were clean enough. By then we were both too tired to eat, and just crawled into bed. The only question left is the mouse still on board, or has he moved on.

June 5, 2024 Schiopol NE

Today we slept in a little as we had only one chore to do before dropping François off for the next 3 months. Ton was worried about the weight of our bags so she went thru and took a couple of things out of the bags and left them in François.

About 10 am we headed off to a truck wash that the owner of our storage facility had recommended. We pulled in to a giant bay designed to take a semi-truck and the trailer. 3 guys swarmed François while we sat in a waiting room and drank a cup of coffee. 20 minutes later François was cleaner than he has been in years including the roof. The cost was about €20 more than if we had gone to a self service carwash and I had fed in coins while doing it myself and getting soaked, so I decided it was worth it.

We dropped François at the storage and moved to our airport hotel. Tomorrow we have an early flight to Portland.

June 4, 2024 Achthoven NE

Today was packing and cleaning day in François. Ton does most of the packing and cleaning and I do a lot of sitting around interspersed with some lifting when required.

I always have mixed emotions on these packing days. I am excited to be going home to see friends, and our boys. I look forward to having the space of the whole house, and to have a routine. It is nice to have water close by, and not wonder whether we will have hot water to wash the dishes in. It is also nice to be fully literate when we go shopping.

On the other hand I miss the adventures Ton and I have. I miss how close we are when we travel and the routine of setting up and living in a very small space. I miss the freedom of the road, and the ability to plan our trips on the fly. I miss the new people we meet and the new experiences we find when we are on the road including holding up a package of food and trying to decide if it is pork, beef, or chicken based on the clues we can discern from the packaging. The good news is we have a few more years of travel in us and we will be able to experience a few more trips around Europe and who knows maybe somewhere else.

June 3, 2024 Achthoven, NE

We were off early towards Amsterdam and with light traffic and minimum construction we arrived in the small village of Achthoven near the University town of Leiden around noon.

We are staying in a campground on an old cattle farm. In front of the farm is a large canal with some industrial sites. We are going to spend the next couple of days preparing François for storage. To put it more accurately, I am going to hover around François while Ton does most of the work to prepare François for storage.

A boat going down the canal in front of the campground.

My only contribution was a long hike to a Lidl to get some snacks to take home, and a couple of beers for tomorrow. We did get out for a short walk in the evening when Ton took the pictures for today.