Thursday 24 September 2009
Brienzersee
Two pics, nearly the same, taken from the train near Brienz, of the Brienzersee. Love the difference in colour!
Luzern 22 Sept 2009
A few pics from Luzern (Lucerne), Switzerland. Too far behind to do a travelogue!
Our feetses were very sore after this walk...
and we climbed lots of stairs too...
Not more stairs!
Our feetses were very sore after this walk...
and we climbed lots of stairs too...
Not more stairs!
Friday 18 September 2009
Austria - Salzburg
Last post for the nonce! Lots of photos to go but I've had enough for the moment.
I hopped on a train for a couple of hours yesterday and emerged in Salzburg. It was very interesting. I didn't go to Neuschwanstein as it was raining and what is the point of going to a fairy tale castle if you can't see the flaming thing? (actually if it was flaming, it would probably be visible even in the rain.)
(Excuse the wonkiness - I had walked about 25km in the three days before, this including 12km on Wednesday, and I've had enough of walking.)
I didn't do much running around singing about Maria or the hills being alive or even a little night music. I didn't even see the statue of Mozart. But I did see a fair whack of old Salzburg before it started raining.
Since it was being unpleasant and drizzling on and off, I took off back on the train to Munich. I managed to get lost by using the gopher holes that they use to go under streets and get into the underground railway lines. I popped up one road too late and ended up walking back to where I had tea by mistake!
I hopped on a train for a couple of hours yesterday and emerged in Salzburg. It was very interesting. I didn't go to Neuschwanstein as it was raining and what is the point of going to a fairy tale castle if you can't see the flaming thing? (actually if it was flaming, it would probably be visible even in the rain.)
(Excuse the wonkiness - I had walked about 25km in the three days before, this including 12km on Wednesday, and I've had enough of walking.)
I didn't do much running around singing about Maria or the hills being alive or even a little night music. I didn't even see the statue of Mozart. But I did see a fair whack of old Salzburg before it started raining.
Since it was being unpleasant and drizzling on and off, I took off back on the train to Munich. I managed to get lost by using the gopher holes that they use to go under streets and get into the underground railway lines. I popped up one road too late and ended up walking back to where I had tea by mistake!
Germany - Munich
Now that I have found a friendly net cafe that runs linux/Ubuntu boxes, I'm uploading some stuff and writing more blog posts up. I feel much safer using a linux box than a windoze box. I know the net can still have sniffers and things just waiting to steal my password but at least the box itself is unlikely to be infected with anything nasty. And I now have it working with an English keyboard, not a German one. And there's a couple of people with NO accent sitting next to me. We do get around.
So, Munich. Gosh I didn't have a good day the first day we were here. Want to hear the litany of disasters?
I couldn't connect to the internet in our 300 euro a night hotel. They charge a euro per 15 minutes after the first free 15 minutes in their business centre. 300 euros a night and no free wifi! Can't believe it. 60 euro a night places have free wifi. Crikey! This meant no looking up German words for please, thank-you, excuse me, etc etc.
No tea and coffee making facilities in the room either - you have to call room service for that. Now Nathan's work is paying for the room but y'know a 10 euro cup of coffee seems a bit overpriced. I went and bought an electric kettle for 30 euros instead.
A bird pooped on my pants, the lovely new pants that I had put on for the first time that morning.
I only had five hours sleep.
DH forgot to give me any cash. 5 euros does not get you very far when you have to buy some lunch with it.
I had been told that most people speak English, but most of the people I found didn't! Lots of pointing and hand flapping followed.
Oh there were other things but that will do!
I did find yarn in department stores. Nice sock yarn and some souvenirs for people in SJ. I also saw a lot of interesting buildings, which you can see scattered through this post.
I went for a lovely walk in the Englische garden. It was soooo green.
And I found out why some boys were carrying surfboards in the middle of Munich.
(That's surfing on a standing wave at the start of one of the garden's rivers.)
So, Munich. Gosh I didn't have a good day the first day we were here. Want to hear the litany of disasters?
I couldn't connect to the internet in our 300 euro a night hotel. They charge a euro per 15 minutes after the first free 15 minutes in their business centre. 300 euros a night and no free wifi! Can't believe it. 60 euro a night places have free wifi. Crikey! This meant no looking up German words for please, thank-you, excuse me, etc etc.
No tea and coffee making facilities in the room either - you have to call room service for that. Now Nathan's work is paying for the room but y'know a 10 euro cup of coffee seems a bit overpriced. I went and bought an electric kettle for 30 euros instead.
A bird pooped on my pants, the lovely new pants that I had put on for the first time that morning.
I only had five hours sleep.
DH forgot to give me any cash. 5 euros does not get you very far when you have to buy some lunch with it.
I had been told that most people speak English, but most of the people I found didn't! Lots of pointing and hand flapping followed.
Oh there were other things but that will do!
I did find yarn in department stores. Nice sock yarn and some souvenirs for people in SJ. I also saw a lot of interesting buildings, which you can see scattered through this post.
I went for a lovely walk in the Englische garden. It was soooo green.
And I found out why some boys were carrying surfboards in the middle of Munich.
(That's surfing on a standing wave at the start of one of the garden's rivers.)
France - Dijon
Dijon was a very different place to Toulouse. OK it is smaller but its centre ville is quite different in feel. I am sure that Toulouse's buildings are not as old as they appear but Dijon has a lot of classical French stuff. It was also about 10C cooler.
There was still columbage (I am probably spelling that wrong), which is what I'd call Tudor
The main street had the flags of local duchies, etc, flying. Sorta odd given that I thought France got rid of all that a couple of hundred years ago. But the effect was great.
We had 24 hours in Dijon. It was very pleasant, though cooler than we had expected (but Toulouse was warmer than expected too). I think I preferred Toulouse, though I didn't have to deal with anything like getting us from A to B in the living sense, getting food, etc, etc. We just walked or rode or took PT to town. In Dijon we were on our own. It was still verra nice!
There was still columbage (I am probably spelling that wrong), which is what I'd call Tudor
The main street had the flags of local duchies, etc, flying. Sorta odd given that I thought France got rid of all that a couple of hundred years ago. But the effect was great.
We had 24 hours in Dijon. It was very pleasant, though cooler than we had expected (but Toulouse was warmer than expected too). I think I preferred Toulouse, though I didn't have to deal with anything like getting us from A to B in the living sense, getting food, etc, etc. We just walked or rode or took PT to town. In Dijon we were on our own. It was still verra nice!
France - leaving Toulouse
(This post has pics this time around!)
After a very busy but happy few days in Toulouse, we headed off to Dijon. We had to get up before dawn (as did our host) and the train was well on its way by the time the sun got out of bed.
The train was very pleasant and we had the carriage almost to ourselves for the first hour or two of the journey. This is first class.
The train also went super fast between Montpellier and Lyon. Gosh that was fab! 300km/h. Just a bit faster than I've ever been except in a plane of course.
Finally, six hours later, we arrived in Dijon. Cheers!
After a very busy but happy few days in Toulouse, we headed off to Dijon. We had to get up before dawn (as did our host) and the train was well on its way by the time the sun got out of bed.
The train was very pleasant and we had the carriage almost to ourselves for the first hour or two of the journey. This is first class.
The train also went super fast between Montpellier and Lyon. Gosh that was fab! 300km/h. Just a bit faster than I've ever been except in a plane of course.
Finally, six hours later, we arrived in Dijon. Cheers!
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Munching in München
Well we made it safe and sound to München and gosh I cannot type on a German keyboard.
Our 300 euro a night hotel won't let us connect to the net. We don't even get coffee cups or anything. No pics cos this is not my machine.
Now I am off to find yarn shops. Tomorrow I am off to either that castle, Neuschwanstein?, or to Salzburg. Depends on when I wake up - the tour leaves at 9 whilst I can catch a train to Salzburg anytime.
It has taken me nearly 10 minutes to write this much.
Have fun!
Our 300 euro a night hotel won't let us connect to the net. We don't even get coffee cups or anything. No pics cos this is not my machine.
Now I am off to find yarn shops. Tomorrow I am off to either that castle, Neuschwanstein?, or to Salzburg. Depends on when I wake up - the tour leaves at 9 whilst I can catch a train to Salzburg anytime.
It has taken me nearly 10 minutes to write this much.
Have fun!
Sunday 13 September 2009
France - cheers from Dijon
This morning we packed our bags and left Toulouse and our new good friends behind. I was sad to leave Toulouse but excited about seeing a new place!
We chose Dijon on advice of our Toulouse friends. Also we could get a train directly here but it did mean getting up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning after getting to bed after midnight.
My goodness, what a great choice!
I leave you with a few pics. On second thoughts, I won't cos we have low speed free wifi and it is baulking at the large pics. I can't upload them.
Cheers from Dijon!
We chose Dijon on advice of our Toulouse friends. Also we could get a train directly here but it did mean getting up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning after getting to bed after midnight.
My goodness, what a great choice!
I leave you with a few pics. On second thoughts, I won't cos we have low speed free wifi and it is baulking at the large pics. I can't upload them.
Cheers from Dijon!
Friday 11 September 2009
Oooh la la! Toulouse!
On the 10th of September, we walked into town. Our plan was to hire Vélos but there were none left in the stands. So we walked.
Walking was good. Just as well. It is only a bit over 2km into the centre of town but we managed to walk more than 10km just wandering around looking at stuff (and today my feet are sore and Nathan's calves are complaining). We planned on getting velos back to here but umm, well it turns out that they don't like overseas credit cards (I can remember this being an issue in Paris not long after velibs were introduced there). But we survived, and at least it was not far to walk home!
We are fascinated by the narrow streets - they are not very wide at all. Cars park on one or the other or both or neither side (depending on the width), the narrow footpaths have green wrought iron barriers on them (presumably more to stop cars parking on the kerb and forcing peds to walk in the middle of the street even more than they do now), motorbikes, cars, bicycles and pedestrians are just all over the place. And the buildings are fascinating.
(I think that is the Canal du Brienne but I am not sure of the spelling or the French grammar but I know where to find it again.)
C'est fab! LOL
Today I hope to go back into town to find two yarn shops - we were only one road off them but one road is plenty far enough away! DH is not very willing to walk, and we need to do things like get stamps for postcards and fix up our I-94s, which the silly people in DFW airport did not take from us - they were running late getting us on the plane (that was fine, we were late too!) but did not do any passport stuff, unlike say LAX which wants your passport and takes the immigration card. We have to send off proof that we have left the US along with the card before we can get back into the States. Sigh. Oh and we need to book the next part of our train trip, which means deciding where we are going. 8-D
Walking was good. Just as well. It is only a bit over 2km into the centre of town but we managed to walk more than 10km just wandering around looking at stuff (and today my feet are sore and Nathan's calves are complaining). We planned on getting velos back to here but umm, well it turns out that they don't like overseas credit cards (I can remember this being an issue in Paris not long after velibs were introduced there). But we survived, and at least it was not far to walk home!
We are fascinated by the narrow streets - they are not very wide at all. Cars park on one or the other or both or neither side (depending on the width), the narrow footpaths have green wrought iron barriers on them (presumably more to stop cars parking on the kerb and forcing peds to walk in the middle of the street even more than they do now), motorbikes, cars, bicycles and pedestrians are just all over the place. And the buildings are fascinating.
(I think that is the Canal du Brienne but I am not sure of the spelling or the French grammar but I know where to find it again.)
C'est fab! LOL
Today I hope to go back into town to find two yarn shops - we were only one road off them but one road is plenty far enough away! DH is not very willing to walk, and we need to do things like get stamps for postcards and fix up our I-94s, which the silly people in DFW airport did not take from us - they were running late getting us on the plane (that was fine, we were late too!) but did not do any passport stuff, unlike say LAX which wants your passport and takes the immigration card. We have to send off proof that we have left the US along with the card before we can get back into the States. Sigh. Oh and we need to book the next part of our train trip, which means deciding where we are going. 8-D
Ooh la la! Carcassonne!
Our host kindly drove us down to Carcassonne to look around the ancient walled town/fortress there. It was tres bon. (I seem to have lost the compose key I set up so I could do accents, etc. Ah, I've wrangled it back again.) C'est trés bon! Like really really bon. Trés fantastique!
(You really should click on all the photos in this post to see the bigger ones)
It was really interesting. I've never seen a walled town before - I've been to England but "only" saw ancient stone circles there, that sort of thing (which I loved seeing so don't get me wrong!). There are Roman parts, medieval parts and then the reconstructed parts. The Romans used small squared stones, the medieval parts are made of large, shaped stones and the reconstructed parts used very nicely squared off stones - they haven't had time to start dissolving in the rain.
I am not sure that I appreciated it as much as I could have. After all, I have absolutely nothing to compare it with. But it was totally fascinating.
We had a lovely afternoon walking around it, seeing it close up, being amazed by the tourist tat inside its walls - I guess that whilst the things sold may have changed, the shops inside have not changed all that much in the last hundred years or so that they have catered to tourist trade rather more than local rather. Cos oh yes, locals live there not just in the new town (ville basse) spread around the flanks of the hill.
(You really should click on all the photos in this post to see the bigger ones)
It was really interesting. I've never seen a walled town before - I've been to England but "only" saw ancient stone circles there, that sort of thing (which I loved seeing so don't get me wrong!). There are Roman parts, medieval parts and then the reconstructed parts. The Romans used small squared stones, the medieval parts are made of large, shaped stones and the reconstructed parts used very nicely squared off stones - they haven't had time to start dissolving in the rain.
I am not sure that I appreciated it as much as I could have. After all, I have absolutely nothing to compare it with. But it was totally fascinating.
We had a lovely afternoon walking around it, seeing it close up, being amazed by the tourist tat inside its walls - I guess that whilst the things sold may have changed, the shops inside have not changed all that much in the last hundred years or so that they have catered to tourist trade rather more than local rather. Cos oh yes, locals live there not just in the new town (ville basse) spread around the flanks of the hill.
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