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.