King of Scandinava

This is the ship that took us to England from Amsterdam. It took 15 hours to cross the North Sea.
It was a wonderful trip. We had a chefs delight dinner on the ship. Although we had bunks they were so comfy that we slept great. We landed at Newcastle, England about 10:00AM
Isn't there a kids song about the North Sea, something about transporting all the men far beyond the Northern Sea?

Traffic Signal

This is a very unusual traffic signal. These cyclinder poles go up to stop cars from going and down to allow the cars to go. Jim and I couldn't believe it when we saw a car waiting and then they went down and the car went on.

Jim in Dutch Shoes

More Flowers

Jim and Trish at Kuekenhof Gardens

The park is beautifully landscaped with many different kinds of flowers. Most of the tulips are in the rows in the fields.

Kuekenhof Tulips

We took a bus out to the popular Kuekenhof Gardens where they have 6 million tulips growing in the fields, all colors red, white, yellow, pink. Oh so beautiful to see.

Bicycles and More Bicycles

I don't think in all my life I have ever seen more bikes in one place before. There are thousands of them parked on the lot and all over the sidewalks, all over the town. The bicyclist have the right of way, it seems even over pedestrians. With the streets so narrow, it is the best way to get around.

More Canals

We walked thru the old city to see Anne Frank House. It makes for a sad afternoon, so you have to stop for some tea, and hope that the thoughts of "what ifs" will not haunt you.
You can not stop marveling at the tall thin buildings all connected in a row up and down the streets. They are a site to see.

Hello Amsterdam, Netherlands

We had 21 days on our EuroRail Pass and it was the last day to use it when we got to Amsterdam. Jim has planned this trip so well, I just went along for the fun. Now, I didn't know that Holland IS Netherlands and they don't call it HOLLAND any more. Can you believe that? It is good to travel. Amsterdam is unbelievable. It is called the Venice of the north, with canals all over. The buildings are unique, they appear to be leaning, and I found out, they really are!

Notre Dame

This photo is for Christopher and Rubina. They asked for buildings. It is a magnificent building, for sure. They were having mass when we walked thru, we lite a candle and gave thanks. We are blessed!

Lunch on Champs Elysees

The most expensive cappucino to date for me. 6 Euros 50 for one cup! It was a sunny day, we were in Paris again, What the heck! Life is good!

Back in Paris

A little update. We were in Marbella for a full week. We made a trip to Strait of Gibraltar. Since we had the rental car we drove the hour half there, we didn't have our camera( bought a disposable one there)
I have to tell you that as we were driving along towards it, the first sight of the "ROCK" was overwhelming, I mean it just looms out in front of you, one minute it isn't there and the next minute it is. It looks just like in our fifth grade geography book. It was a fantastic moment for me. We have lots of photos of it, but they are on an old fashioned camera, and we have to get home to have them transferred to a CD. Everything cost so much here, plus the dollar isn't worth as much as theirs.
So we returned the car to Seville and caught the train to Madrid in order to get to Amsterdam we had to go thru Paris. It was going to be an overnight trip so we thought we should stay over in Paris before going on to Amsterdam. The photo of the Eiffel Tower is because we didn't get any of it on our first trip thru.

Having Coffee on Patio

I told Jim not to just take a photo of the condo without us in it, right? So I had to put us in here. Only one morning we were able to sit out there and have breakfast.

Our Timeshare in Marbella

We were very lucky to get a week in a condo. We were able to do all our laundry, buy food and eat in --sometimes! and just sit in the living room watching BBC news TV, the worldwide news. We didn't have any trouble speaking English there because that is the getaway warm spot for Europe, and they really cater to the English. There is an entire department store called EL Corte Ingles, that has everything you would ever want or need.

The Mediterranean

Beautiful day we had. I have many more photos, but Jim didn't think I should bore you all with them. When you come see us soon, we will bore you with them then.

Our Tour Group w Guide

We were about 25 following our guide around the old town. We went through narrow walkways that were shops with vendors selling things, it was the market area for the people to shop. It was raining. The only thing Jim and I bought in Tangier was an umbrella, even though we had one at the apartment that my sister gave us before we left home.

Trish and Camel

But I did! Poor camel! It was scary and fun. I would recommend it. It was the best spent EURO the entire trip. The tour guide told us we would be surrounded with merchants selling things, and they would take ANY kind of money. U.S. dollars, Euros, Pounds, whatever you have. It made it convenient anyway!

Camel and Jim

The tour guide said these were not camels but dromerary?(sp) you know what I am trying to remember. They come from about 800 miles south and brought up to carry loads. Jim would not ride on one.

Leaving Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco

We took a day tour with a group to Morocco. Yeah, it was raining! The ferry was enclosed and comfortable seating,so it was alright. We arrived and had to go thru customs and got a stamp in passport from Tarifa, but didn't get one going into Morocco, Africa,( had to say that, it sounds so cool! haha!) but no stamp. We boarded a bus to take an hour or so trip around the outer city before going into the old city, we were hoping it would stop raining by then.

Corona Beer

OK Jim saw this and had to take the photo. It is called Corona in all the countries we have been in so far, but in Spain? Whats the story.

View of Marbella

We are in a food store, I am shopping and Jim took this picture from the side door of the shop that was propped open. All of Marbella reminds me of Hawaii, but the apartments are not as high rise. They are all this color and white or pale beige, all light colors, I think it looks Moroccan, or the way I have it pictured. We are going to Tangiers, Morocco tomorrow, can't wait, it is pretty exciting. It has rained for several days and even though we walked down to the beach and marina, we didn't take any photos because everything was grey. We will before we leave, hopefully it will clear up a bit.

Marbella, Spain

Hi Everyone
It has been a long time getting back to the blog and we are many cities behind. We rented the car in Seville instead of taking the train like we have been getting from place to place. We really enjoyed taking the train, we could see all the countryside and I could keep up my journal that Kim gave me and suggested I document everything I guess for my old age to reminiest.
The drive from Seville to Marbella was very pleasant. They drive on our side, and the steering wheel is on our side too. Easy. It was great having freedom, as well. The morning after we arrived, it was raining. We walked to a nearby cafe to write a few postcards for the G-kids, and they were suppose to have wee-fee (spanish, you know) funny huh? but our laptop doesn't have a very long life battery and there was no plugin outside the cafe....so we didn't get to send any photos.

Seville, Spain

Jim did one of those " I'll take it myself" shots, that Christopher is so famous for taking. I think it turned out well. We walked around Seville on Easter Sunday, had lunch, watched all the tourist. Since the bus and (non existent subway system) is poor, we were tired after going to the train station to book our departure to south of Spain, Marbella, that we decided to just rent a car and drive to Marbella the next morning. It was a good decision, it has been great.

Old Building in Bilbao

The OLD city of Bilbao has many beautiful Spanish buildings. It has a park center with flowers, water fountain, and sculptures amongst the old buildings.
Pamplona is less than 100 kilometers from Bilbao. That is where they hold the running of the bulls 5 days in July. For the thrill seekers, the whole thing starts early in the morning and is over in a few minutes. Interesting.

Basque Region, Northen Spain

O.K. I know another train station, this time in Bilbao, pronounced Bil ba o. It is in the Basque Region of Northern Spain. It has the Guggenheim Museum, awesome modern architecture, very unusual for the area.

OLA Espana! We arrived in a little town called IRUN, Spain. It is on the border of France and Spain, and most people spoke both languages. We were only there one nite, the bus system is terrible, so from the train station we had to walk to our hotel after finding out where it was.(not easy feat) The hotel clerk said it was probably 4 kilometer walk each way as we had to walk back the next morning to the train station. We did have dinner with a couple on their 50th Anniversary Honeymoon. It was delightful being able to talk to someone in English. They were from SouthHampton England.

Hotel in Limoge

The hotel in Limoge. It was our first IBIS hotel chain. We didn't have a room when we arrived in Limoge, the information office booked it for us. It was reasonable, clean, nice.

Beautiful Limoge Train Station

Jim wanted to go from Avignon, France straight to Barcelona, Spain, but I wanted to go to Limoge, France where the beautiful dishes and trinkets were hand made, so we comprised, we went to Limoge. I bought my first unnecessary trinket, an awesome little porcelain Limoge trunk. Can't wait to show it to you.

Hotel Danieli

The hotel we stayed in INSIDE the Wall of the city.

Avignon Fortress Wall- Shooting Slots

These are arrow shot holes that go all around the fortress walls on top. The stone section protected the shooter from getting shot. I thought they were pretty neat.

We are in Avignon, France. This city is known for the fortress wall built completely around the OLD Avignon. Luckily we stayed in a hotel inside the wall.

This is the stone staircase, that Jim is standing in that goes up to the apartments.

In Interior Courtyard Of Passageway

After opening one passage, Jim remembered seeing this one on the travel channel with that blonde, Samantha Brown, it was one she went to with a guide. It is one of the nicest ones, for sure. The spiral stone staircase goes up to peoples apartments and apparently in the old days, they threw their slop and chamber buckets down there, bet is smelled good. ugh!

LyonDoorPassage

This is one of several doors we opened to go thru a secret passage to the next street. All over the city are these doors and they are not marked, you just have to know or like we did, open them to see! I thought it was really cool.

TrishaRentingABike,NOT

Interesting you can rent bikes and take them where you need and drop them off for a fee. I think that is our apartment complex in the background. There is a university a block up the street.

Lyon Bellecour Square

Pretty much the first thing we saw after arriving at the train station and taking the subway to Bellecour(a distrist within walking distance of OLD LYON) We didnt have a hotel upon arriving and were told to go to the tourist information office in Bellecour. It seemed everything was booked in our price range, but she did have an apartment outside of town that had kitchen facilities for only 57E that is really good so we took it for 2 nights. Jim always wants to see how the locals live. There was a big grocery store down from our apartment complex, it was great that we could have cereal and meals in for a change.
We find that we need two nights/days at any one place because one whole day is spent packing up, taking the train, finding our hotel, then colllasping for the evening. We get a fresh start the next morning to see the sites. Jim always wants to see how the locals live.

Countryside

Jim took several photos of the countryside from Paris to Lyon, this we thought was the best one. Occasional homes, cows, fields, rolling green hills, could be ANYWHERE MIDWEST USA.Except the homes were all stone/mortar and saw some new construction with concrete block. I will say, at times looking out the window, I thought HOW EUROPEAN it all looked.

Au Revoir Parie

Au Revoir Parie The EuroRail to Lyon, France. We have first class tickets, and even though I fussed at Jim for it, BOY is it nice!! Thank you Jim!

GareDuNordTrainStationParis

I really liked this train station, it was so big, loads of people bustling around every which way. I was shocked to see groups of three soldiers walking around in uniform carrying automatic weapons that required two hands to hold. I didn't know how to feel about it, safer or not. Jim wouldn't let me take a photo of them, I wanted to, he said I would get us arrested, or at least questioned maybe.

While standing in line to go UP in the tower to have lunch, we saw this sign, thought of Kim, We didn't take any photos of the Eiffel Tower, as you had to be far away to do it justice, sorry. The elevator going up holds about 50 people at a time and there are 3 legs with elevators. The 4th leg smaller elevator only takes people with reservations (they said from 2 months to a year in advance) UP to the Jules Verne restaurant, would have liked to do that, but dining for a single person was minumin 150E and up. Don't think so, not this trip. We did buy an overpriced Eiffel Tower ornament for our Christmas tree collection. oh well!

AlongTheSeineRiver

This is a fancy building that warranted a photo, don't know its name. We are still walking towards the EiffelTower, What a beautiful day.

OutsideTheLouvre

We took a bus to the Louvre, took a few pictures. We didnt pay to go in because we saw the last time. So we walked along the Seine River towards the Eiffel Tower enjoying the views/people. We sat down at a small playground to watch a group of 3 to 4 year olds with their teachers, interact with each other. Some spoke English, some French, they were so cute. The weather was just right for walking, not too cold or hot.

Paris (In The Spring Time)

Maybe at last we will be able to post some pictures. I hope so.
This is us (of course) standing just inside the Louvre's enterance.
This will the test posting.
Love, Dad

Hotel St. George Lafayette, Paris

This photo is turned sideways and I don't know how to fix it. Our hotel, luckily happens to be only 5 blocks from the train station (and I booked it from home without a clue where anything was, pretty cool.) The building doesn't look very nice, but the ensuite (room with private bath) is great and comes with breakie.

IN PARIS

Sidewalk cafe right across the street from the Gare du Nord (International Train Station in the North) Our first cuppa umm umm good! It is about 2:00 pm the sun is shining, we are in Paris and life is good!

The EuroStar Train

This is the train that took us from England to France under the Channel and thru the tunnel, called the Chunnel. It was fast and smooooooth like butter. It took 3 hours to arrive in Paris. I thought it would be scary going under the water, but it wasn't.

Full English Breakfast Every Morning,

In London at the hotel breakfast room in the basement! It was great having it included in the room rate.

Big Red DoubleDecker Bus

Love those buses, nothing like them. Such a view from the top deck and a thrill. Really skilled drivers. As you can see it rained a little on the first day out, but no worries. It was good.

This is a popular little " quick shop" that Aneesa remembers, so I took it for her. We bought bottled water and couple peaches in there.