Southern France and Andorra, May 19 through May 23

We woke feeling rested and began our exploration of the walled  Citadel of city of Carcassone. This medieval Citadel sits on a high plane above the city and includes a cathedral and is now a great tourist site.  We stayed at the Cite hotels Hotel Fonjon, a very nice middle range property. We visited the various shops, stopped in the Cathedral, and Glenda and Jeff hiked the citadel walls overlooking the town.

Later in the afternoon, it started to rain, and we took refuge in a pub and enjoyed a glass of wine. We dined in a small restaurant and sampled some local dishes. Carcassone is reputed to be the birthplace of Cassloulet, so Glenda and Jeff both tried it. Thicker and hotter than expected, but tasty. Glenda is motivated to try her own recipe again when she returns home.

The next day, it continued to rain but we gamely explored and finished repacking our bags. We borrowed an umbrellas from the concierge at the hotel and found a small restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Deb tried the onion soup- not so great. Mark sampled the cassoulet and a cheese plate for dessert. We stumbled home in the rain and prepared for the departure the next day. The hotel provided a transport with our luggage back to the parking lot, and we headed out, southward and west ward through the Pyrenees mountains to the small country of Andorra.

Again, Glenda handled the driving duties and we felt linke we were in the Rockies. As we crossed into Andorra, we passed a number of ski resorts and chalets that reminded us all of Vail. Andorra is a landlocked country, not a member of the EU, but still utilizing the currency. The language is Catalan, a variation and dialect of Spanish. The country is a duty free tax haven and so does  a trade through out France and Spain. The capital of Velhora is the main center and the shopping streets were loaded with high end items such as jewelry stores and watch stores. We found a small restaurant for an early dinner, which included a cold plate of Iberian sausage and ham slices, a Tartifillette de Reblochon ( a baked cheese dish with mushroom slices buried in it,) and a roast chicken with french fries. A large house salad was also enjoyed.

Mark went back to the room to rest while the others struck out for some shopping. Although we originally planned on two nights in Andorra, this had pretty well exhausted our tour, so we cancelled the second night and packed our bags.

The next morning, we retrieved our vehicle from the parking garage, and headed back along the coast after getting out of the Pyrenees mountains. We drove to Beziers, a port city along the Mediterranean coast. Beziers is one of the oldest cities in France, founded in 575 BCE. It has been continuously occupied ever since. The city was a stronghold of Catharism, which the Catholic Church condemned as heretical in 1209, The Crusaders marched on the city. Within days, they attacked and massacred all 20,000 inhabitants. Despite the massacre, the city was repopulated. the restoration of the city continued into the 15th century.

The next day we left for Marseilles for our final night. We traveled to the airport to turn in our rental car and stumbled into the middle of a taxi drivers strike. Glenda somehow managed to steer around the barricades, not knowing what was happening. We dropped the return, much to the surprise of the rental car staff, and then found there was no way to take a taxi back to our hotel for the evening. Deb managed to find an Uber driver who was willing to pick us up, but only after we had walked along the highway, dragging our luggage to get out past the taxi barricades back to the roundabout out side the airport. Quite an adventure.

We walked around Marseilles, looking at the buildings and the trompe d’oile paintings along some of the structures. We walked from our hotel by the bay to our restaurant to enjoy our last french meal. We dined on hake, scallops, a croque monsieur sandwich with wine and some spritzer cocktails.

The next morning we sat by the thoroughfare awaiting our transfer to the airport, not sure whether we would be allowed to reach the airport. The strike, though technically still in place, seemed to have died down and there was no blockade. Since taxis mostly were for arrivals, there was no problems at the departure building. We checked our luggage in, hoping it would make it to Omaha, and boarded our flight  for Madrid. We landed with no problems, and transferred to the terminal for our American Airlines flight home. We found a place to eat, enjoyed a bottle of wine, some sandwiches and a plate of sausages and salami. Mark, still suffering from his back problems since he was unable to take his pain medications due to the antibiotics he was taking, ordered a wheelchair for transport in O’Hare.

Landing in Chicago, we negotiated customs, rechecked our bags, and headed to our next gate. The wheelchair girl was young and energetic. She told us she logged about 24,000 steps per day in the airport. Deb, struggling to keep up, went her own way, as the wheelchair driver took the longer route with elevators instead of escalators. We made it through TSA security again and found our gate for the final flight home. Originally scheduled for an 8:55 PM departure, it turned out there were no pilots and so we waited until nearly 10:00 PM for a pilot to appear. We finally arrived in Omaha a little after 11:00 PM. 

Abigail was  waiting for us, loaded all our luggage into the  RAV 4, and home we went. Glenda and Jeff transferred into their car, parked at our house, and they headed to Lincoln as Deb and Mark went into to see Poppy the cat and fall into bed. Along travel day that finally ended around 1:00 AM.

France, Saturday, May 17 & Sunday, May 18,

Saturday, May 17 found us docked in Avignon, our final port. Today, there is an all day tour into Avignon, the lovely city in Provence; Avignon is a very old city, founded by Greeks from Marseilles around 539 BCE. In 1309, the city, still part of the kingdom of Arles was chosen by Pope Clement V as his residence at the time of the Council of Vienne, and until 1377, Avignon rather than Rome, was the seat of the papacy.

Pope John XXII made the it the capital of Christianity and turned the palace into the primary palace of the Popes. Benedict XII built the Old Palace and Clement VI the New Palace. The palace, the most remarkable building in the International gothic style was the result. the papal library in Avignon, with 2,000 volumes, was the largest in Europe.

The Romans also left their mark on Avignon. The Pont du Gard, a magnificent aqueduct over the River Gard, carried drinking water from the mountains to the city of Nimes, some 50 kilometers. A marvel of engineering, it still stands as a monument to the Roman civilization. 

While most of the group was taking in the sites of Avignon, Deb went on a walk-about on her own, stopping in a small cafe’ for a cup of coffee, some quiet time and a biscuit.

Returning to the ship, we had our final meal on board, some offerings from Provence, and for us, a bottle of our favorite wine, a Charpoutier from nearby Crozes. We first became acquainted with this wine on our previous trip to the region. it is the only wine in the world that includes braille on its label, the story being that the vintner’s daughter was blind and could only distinguish the wines they were producing by reading the braille labels. Incidentally, we have found this wine in Omaha; it is exported around the world.

After dinner, we finished packing and had our suitcases set outside our cabins by 7:30 AM the next morning for our departure. We bid adieu to the Viking Heimdal, our home away from home.

We boarded our transportation shuttle to Marseilles airport and said our goodbyes to the Hosfords and the Needelmans at the airport as they were leaving for Madrid and the flight home via Chicago. Glenda, Jeff, Deb and Mark were dropped at the enterprise car rental office to pick up their vehicle for their road trip through southern France.

We piled our luggage into the back of our Renault and Glenda assumed the “pilot’s” seat and Deb took the navigators place, while Jeff and Mark assumed their proper positions in the second seats. We headed south and west to the Camargue region, a marshy area on the Mediterranean coast. Here we drove around the national park area, looking at the flocks of flamingos in their native habitat. so many beautiful birds walking on their long legs through the marshes dabbing their long bills into the water for their food.

Following this we turned west along the coast highway, making our way eventually to the walled City of Carcassonne. Our hotel, just outside the walls of the old city, looked promising. We parked our vehicle, unloaded our suitcases and climbed the steps to the room. One look at the room and Mark said to Deb, “ Text Glenda and tell her not to unpack their suitcases!”  The rooms were horrible. the bathrooms were moldy, and the accommodations felt like a dorm room. Deb quickly logged onto the various websites and secured some rooms in a hotel inside the walled city, we notified management of our immediate departure and cancellation of the rooms and headed out to the old part of the city.

We found the parking lot, the attendant collected our luggage, pointed us to the steps in to the walled city and told us he would take our luggage to the hotel, saving us the trouble of packing it all up the steps. We shouldered our backpacks and started climbing. Once inside the walls, we quickly found our hotel and checked in. Our luggage was already in our rooms and what a difference from our first spot.

Carcassone was a delight. We dined the first night in a small nearby restaurant in a courtyard under a tree. Excellent food for a tired quartet of travelers. Glenda handled all the driving chores and did a yeoman’s job. No speeding tickets, no dents, no scratches, although there was some scary practice runs reversing back down a hill from a wrong turn. the local inhabitants hustled out to move their bikes from possible run-ins, but no other problems.

We snuggled into our new rooms, tired from our adventures but anxious to meet the new day.

 

The Great Adventure - September 3, 2022

Wednesday was another long traveling day. We packed up and said goodbye to Burnside Cottage leaving the village of Gunnerside in the glorious Yorkshire Dales and headed out in our trusty red Kia towards London Town. We reached the A1 (M1) and pointed the steering wheel South. The distance to London Heathrow Airport is about 235 miles and the traffic was rush hour all the way. The number of lorries (semi-trailer trucks) puts I-80 at home to shame. Three or four lanes most of the way.

We reached the National Car Rental return spot Near Heathrow airport, turned in the car in a surprisingly quick and easy manner and then loaded our 6 pieces of luggage into the van for a trip to the airport to grab a cab for the next portion of our journey. Our plan was to taxi into London, hop on the Eurostar train through the Chunnel to Paris and then drop three of our suitcases at a “Left Luggage” store before boarding the high speed TGV train to Bordeaux, our eventual destination for the day in southwest France.

Best laid plans always go awry. Brexit has caused a massive delay at the Chunnel station; all luggage has to be scanned, all passengers have to go through not only TSA style walk through devices but then through passport exit control from the UK, step into the next line for passport control into the EU, and then onto the train. Wrestling our 6 pieces of luggage onto the train was a feat, however due to our first class seats, there was plenty of room in our coach for all the luggage. The ride was smooth, the meal and wine included were very tasty. So far, so good.

Arrival in Paris at the Gare du Nord station was on time. We wrangled the luggage out the door and into the taxi line which had at least 200 people with all their luggage. Finally, at 2:30 we crawled into a taxi for the run to Montparnasse station to catch our TGV. Traffic was horrendous and it took nearly 45 minutes to reach the station. Our train left at 3:06 - we missed it, nor did we have a chance to drop our luggage. We stood in another line for nearly 30 minutes to get our tickets reassigned. We were able to catch a 4:06 train, but our 1st class tickets were altered to 2nd class. No meal and little luggage space for our plethora of crap! We managed to tuck it all in, and polished off the bag of chips and bottle of water we were carrying in our backpack. Arrival in Bordeaux at 6:25 and we pushed our luggage over the cobblestone streets the four blocks to our home for the next two nights - Hotel Particular., exhausted, sweaty and glad to be at the end of a very long day.

We and our bags climbed the 25 steps to our 1st floor room in this lovely remodeled apartment home. The room is really a small apartment and the bottle of wine we had packed in our carry-on suitcase was most welcome and we settled in for some crackers, wine, and a bit of reading before tumbling into bed. 

Friday morning we arose refreshed and showered to head out and explore this city which neither of us had ever visited. It is a large and very old city, famous for its weather and its wine. The city is a much smaller version of Paris, filled in the old town area of walking streets with shops, sidewalk cafes and lots of people, although fewer dogs and children than in England. The weather was spotty, one moment clear and sparkling, the next a torrential downpour - the latter gave us ample excuse to pop under umbrella covered cafes for a coffee, an omelette and croissant, or a sandwich and glass of wine. Plenty of people watching available.

We paid to take the tram in to the Place de La Bourse which is the entrance to the old city.  Since we had not had breakfast, we traveled a block or two and settled in for one of the many things the French do better than we do - the Omelette.  Perfectly done with cheese and ham (no champignons however) and moist.  Mark felt they were skippy with the ham but Deb, as usual, disagreed.  The first deluge started while we were at this restaurant and it was a doozy.  Within 10 minutes, here came blue skies and sunshine for our 2 mile walk along the Unesco historic tour and saw many old sights in the city.  Unfortunately, Deb has pictures but most will have to be unamed because we left the map in the car!

 We did see the the 15th century Tour Pey-Bergland, a free-standing belfry for the Cathedrale Saint-Andre,  with it’s golden 19th century madonna on top and the Gros Cloche, a huge clock in one of the many gates the old town.  Our favorite was the Water Mirror which reflected the entire Bourse.  Suffice it to say, it was an absolutely beautiful town with great weather until….

We sat down for lunch at what seemed like a nice place and it wasn’t terrible. Every time we try to speak French, they either shake their head in denial or start speaking English right away.  Luckily, this was the latter so Mark was able to order his Croquet Monsieur and Deb had a big pile of Frites.  Wine was also consumed and when the 2nd downpour started, we ordered another glass.  Then within minutes, the sun was out again and we were back on the road.  By 4pm, we had about had it and hopped on the Tram to get back to our hotel.  We didn’t have tickets but we noticed that no one was showing theirs anyway, so we just hitch-hiked to the train station, bought a couple of fromage en baguette sandwiches and went back to our lovely mini apartment to eat, read, shower and relax. 

Saturday is another travel day. Deb replied to about 50 emails from clients in the morning and then we headed to the train station, Gare St. Jean, for the Hertz office. Easier said than done. We logged at least a mile around the train station before we found it. then another 45 minutes to negotiate the paperwork, although the staff was very nice. We drove back to our Hotel Particular to load our bags as we had, presciently, not drug them over the cobbles again. Since we missed our left luggage appointment thursday, we negotiated with our landlord, Julien, to leave our three bags for pick-up next week on our way back, much to our relief.

We departed Hotel Particular at 11:50 but then spent nearly 45 minutes getting lost in the construction zones and byways of Bordeaux. We finally made it to the A2, another divided, limited access highway and directed the DS (we have no idea of the brand of vehicle) to our destination of Carcassonne. We arrived around 4:00 PM to our “Guest House” and our rooms on the second floor (what we would call the third floor) and we’re thankful for leaving our three larger bags behind. The Guest House is a charming building built in the 1850’s and houses four apartments. We have a rooftop view of the castle and a very, very modern bathroom. We opened a bottle of wine and planned our strategy for the evening, glad to be over with another strenuous travel day.

Following our rest-up we went down the steps and out to explore the city of Carcassonne. The city, occupied since Neolithic times, is located in the plain of Aude, along the historic trade routes between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It was occupied by the Romans until the fifth century. The medieval Citadel overlooking the city is magnificently preserved and spectacular looking at night. We wandered the old town walking area, looking in shops and trying to find a place to eat. As is was a Saturday night and none of the restaurants opened until 7:30 we were discouraged. We finally walked by one interesting looking place, Le Bistro  D’Alice (Alice’s Restaurant) and so logged onto their website to make a reservation. We found another cafe to have a glass of wine and kill some time until our reservation time and then walked back to D’Alice for our seating.

Dinner was marvelous; as Carcassone is reputedly the birthplace of Cassoulet, this is what Mark ordered. Deb went for the Lapin, roasted with frites. We accompanied this with a bottle of Minervois red wine and wandered home a little tipsy and very satisfied with our discovered meal. We climbed up one more flight of steps beyond our room for a nighttime view of the skyline and then down to cozy into our little room for the night.