Author: Dan Harris

We drove from Munich to Salzburg, Leizen and then on to Linz. Scenery just as stunning as we saw previously. I told our friends in Leizen that they live in possibly the most beautiful place on Earth!

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We stopped overnight in Salzburg. Wandered around. Had a couple meals. A really beautiful place. The afternoon we arrived, it was rainy and foggy…we could not see much of the surrounding area. So we focused on the old town area (featured prominently in Sound of Music) and a couple of really nice meals. The next morning was bright and sunny… and revealed STUNNING scenery surrounding the town. There are spectacular hills that rise up hundreds of feet IMMEDIATELY adjacent to the town. Like STRAIGHT UP. Like when you look up, the height tricks your eyes and you think the hills might actually be hanging over the town. With evergreens and snow.

Next we drove on to Leizen for lunch with some old friends from business travel – the Schreiners. I first discussed with Gunther whether we should force the GPS to take us through the mountains on smaller roads (vs. the Motorway). He assured me there was no snow, even at the higher elevations, to be concerned with. Boy was this a good decision. Again, STUNNING scenery as we wind through the Alps on the way to Leizen from Salzburg. Elevations as high as 3500m (and that was the pass between peaks).

We had lunch at a local place high above Leizen. Then back to their house for coffee and dessert (homemade apple strudel).   For perspective, I include a couple pictures taken out their home and office windows, and by the restaurant. Imagine trying to get some work done with that in your face!  Of course,  this from a guy who’s office was in a basement for the past 15 years…

View from Helmut’s Office

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Lunch with Schreiners in Styria

View over Styria

The view from the Schreiner’s Home

Then, on to Linz to meet our friend Brigitta and her friend Herman. After finding her place, navigating parking and getting settled (and also navigating some beer and appetizers they had ready) they took us to dinner.   This was at an old place overlooking Linz (overlooking by about 1000 ft).   Then back downtown for a nightcap (or several). Haven’t been out ‘til 1:30 since…well I can’t remember when.

Today we drove to the Salzkammergut area. The drive through again (still, ho hum) spectacular scenery with mountain lakes, snow-covered peaks and post card towns. Salzkammergut includes a Cable car to the top – a ski area that is at about 2,800m. It has one of the longest ski runs IN THE WORLD at 11km. We took said car and walked around at the top…an absolutely clear day…fairly warm. Sat in the sun and had a bowl of beef-pancake soup. Then we went to Bad Ischl, which is a spa area where the Emperor Franz Joseph spent summers.

Cable Car – First section

Cable Car – Top Section

The Cable Car up (Note helicopter delivering concrete to the top)

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Bad Ischl

We are here for 3 more days. Tomorrow we are going to do some stuff in Linz, including a city tour. Saturday I think we are going to take the train to Vienna with Brigitta and Herman for the day.

OK.  I didn’t take this photo.  After all,  I was driving and Liz was gawking. Mountains left and right. On Monday we drove from Verona to Munich. In between the scenery was possibly the most beautiful anywhere.    It was about a 5 hour drive.  Fresh snow. Postcard Italian and Austrian towns. You could hear Maria singing (or, maybe it was Liz?).   So I was certainly THINKING this photo.   ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR almost the entire way.

Once in Munich, we met some family friends for a short tour and then a Bavarian Dinner. With a Bavarian beer, of course. Pretty awesome stuff.  A bit on the “filling” side,  I should probably mention.

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Munich Synagogue

Munich City Hall

Munich Opera House

Today we are in Salzburg.  Just a stopover on the way to meeting friends.  Beautiful town.  More of Liz dreaming of “Climbing Every Mountain…”

Our AIRBNB in Verona is EXCELLENT (with a couple of caveats). We were able to secure a free parking spot right in front. In an old building, the apartment itself is very modern and comfortable. The toilet works and accepts everything a working toilet SHOULD accept. So we no longer need the poodle-sacks we obtained in Monaco. I can even stand in the shower, and there is a washing machine.

The caveats: No coffee maker — not a big deal as we are a 5-minute walk from the center and there are plenty of coffee makers there. The other caveat relates again to hair dryers (readers will think we are obsessed…). This time there WAS a hair dryer, but we could NOT find a place to plug it in anywhere near a mirror and certainly not in the bathroom.

Lots of pedestrian streets in the center. Nice to walk. We stopped for drinks at a random bar on a random square. Bartender spoke English very well, and we discussed Futbol (the European Variety). There was a match on…apparently quite an important one. Verona vs. somebody. I asked him which color shirts I should root for. He said “Yellow.” They lost.  Beer was Belgian, however. And quite good.

I tried to explain Hockey to him. Like futbol only faster.

Dinner was a Veronnaise family place recommended by our host.  We had a 3-course meal with Local Wine Pairings by our new best friend Paulo.  Lots of fun, and really tasty. There were two fixed menus available. The one featuring Horse Stew we decided against. I am sure it is EXCELLENT, but I still have memories of my last regional delicacy: Pig Poo Sausage.

The owner looked JUST like a friend of ours in Chicago. When I told him this, he insisted on giving us a bottle of local wine to take back and drink with his “cousin.” Dinner finished with a bit of Grappa and we staggered home.

Today our itinerary was tempered by Dan feeling a little under the weather. Not saying I was hung over…actually a cold ++. But I AM sticking to beer and NO GRAPPA in the near future. Anyway, we took a shorter walk. We went in search of Juliette’s house. There are signs pointing…but they seemed to lead us in circles. At one point we DID find a building labelled “Romeo et Guiliette” but it was a hotel.

A little discouraged, we stopped and had a pizza at Bill’s place. Thus inspired, we DID find the “official” place where Guiliette lived. Truth be told, we followed a tour guide. Tour was in Italian,   but he was holding up a little blue flag in the crowd and we figured that is where HE was going.

This evening we were still full from Pizza for lunch. (Really good, BTW. That Bill guy had skills!). Dan was also feeling still a little “punk.”  So we went and had a Gelato.

The arena in Verona

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City Gate Verona

Verona Square

Romeo et Guiliette — Hotel

THE Balcony

Tomorrow we hit the road again. To Munich to visit the son of a friend of Mom’s. We are hoping our path across the Alps will be blessed with reasonable weather.

We went out for breakfast before leaving Nice for Verona. And We were TRAPPED, Torrential Rains. Water gushing down the streets of the Old Town. Biblical rains.

But, before you start feeling sorry for us, although we were in fact trapped…we were trapped IN A BAKERY!   With an unlimited supply of fresh hot croissants, baguettes, panini and just about anything else we could want including plenty of coffee. And a nice little table to watch the rain. We just sat, and waited, and ate. The shower passed in about 45 minutes. ;-(

We took the train today to Monaco. It’s about 30 minutes from Nice, but might as well be another planet.

We Spent the morning wandering the marina where the superyachts of the rich and famous are moored. Saw the Casino, the streets where the Grand Prix happens. There were two Rolls Royces dropping people off at the casino, and several Ferraris and Lamborghinis noisily announcing their presence.  There was a yacht store. By appointment only. I am sure to get an appointment they would need to verify the size of your bank account.

Monaco Marina

Monaco/Monte Carlo

Small country, small cars!

Monte Carlo Casino: Rolls Disgorging Patrons

Which one?

Liz can’t make up her mind which we want…

Probably can’t even afford this one!

All I can think is “What a weird place.”

38,000 people live in Monaco. All of them rich and living there for the favorable tax environment. It costs $4k/day to moor your Yacht – and that is offseason. During the Grand Prix, the same spot costs $100K per week. 30,000 people A DAY commute from Nice and the surrounding

area to service the rich and famous in the Casino and in restaurants, cleaning and servicing boats, cooking, etc. We met an Irish woman on the train. She said she HATED Monaco (but obviously made her living there).

It was nice to get back on the train to the real world.

Liz DID solve one of our real-world problems, though, while we were in Monaco. We picked up several doggie-poop sacks from dispensers outside the Casino. I am sure these are meant for the Poodles of the rich and famous. However, we intend to keep them handy in case the ancient and decrepit plumbing in our studio fails us.

This afternoon, we intend to hike back into the old city area near our place. Dan is going to stick his toe in the Mediterranean. Then we are going to have more sushi, dinner in another local seafood place and, of course, gelato.

Tomorrow we move on. Our schedule has congealed.

• We are travelling from Nice to Verona and staying 2 nights,
• Then from Verona to Munich, where we are spending one night only, but having dinner with an old family friend. This was a late add to our itinerary when I realized we COULD hit Munich on the way to Austria (sort of).
• Then we drive to Salzburg for one just night.
• Then to Liezen to meet more old friends for lunch on 9 March.

We are staying in Austria in total for 5 days, so I am SURE we will be back to Salzburg.  This one night stop is just to make it short to Liezen for lunch. I found a Salzburg AIRBNB for $31!!   Could its toilet work any worse that the one here in Nice?

I know, not funny.   But so far,  my favorite of all the places we have been in France.

We drove to Nice via Avignon.  This was seat of the Catholic Church in the 13th century.  9 popes.  We toured the Palace of the Popes.  It is only fair to compare this to the Vatican.  Avignon seemed a working place.  the actual seat of a religion.  The Vatican seemed self-impressed and built to impress.  The former was about the faith.  The latter about appearances.   The former built of unadorned stone.  The latter out of ostentatious marble and gold.    That is just one (Jewish) man’s impression.

So we arrive in Nice and check in. After cruising for parking (NOT POSSIBLE) we finally relented and put the car in a paid garage.   NOTE TO SELF: Our next European trip will be by Train…a car is NOT an advantage.

The apartment building PREDATES the French Revolution (1789). The building next door is a place where Mr. Bonaparte himself actually lived for 6 months. This makes the neighborhood WAY COOL. The suite itself is modern. At least it appears modern because the age of the building comes with some challenges. For example…NO Solid ANYTHING to be flushed down the toilet (Paper in the can, the manual can). And soft showers or the drains overflow. That should be no prob. As we are experienced in RV Showers (sometimes called “Navy Showers”).

Having said that, the suite is totally fine. Good internet. I could not imagine a cooler neighborhood to spend a couple of days. TONS of restaurants and bars. A walking area. Lots of activity. This is a distinct contrast to the really quiet places we have stayed so far.   I should mention the pièce de résistance, there is a GELATO PLACE Downstairs. In the same building. That is EXCELLENT, and pretty dangerous.

Our host (Daniel) is a 50-something guy who speaks perfect English. Great sense of humor. He lives in the suite…what he seems to have done is take a larger apartment and create his unit and 2 studio units for rental. So we have a private space but direct access to the Landlord if necessary. He gave us a bunch of “Local” restaurant recommendations. He told us how to take the train to Monaco (a 6e bargain).

Liz and I have decided to try one of the Local places tonight. We were directed into the old town (which our suite is on the edge of).   AWESOME. Hundreds of restaurants. There was even a square with FOUR Gelato shops. We ended up eating a seafood extravaganza at a restaurant recommended by our host as THE place locals go for seafood (for over 100 years). Not yet full, we went to another spot and had some sushi. Followed with Gelato, of course.

Tomorrow we’ll get up early and take the train to Monaco. Spend some time there; maybe have some lunch, buy a yacht. Drop a mil at the tables.

We have been in Nimes, France for the past day. We are staying in a charming loft WAYYYY up the hill. This is great exercise since ANY meal requires a 200ft vertical descent followed by a similar ascent. No gaining weight here! And, streets are VERY narrow and winding. Some two-way streets are barely wider than our (small) rental car. Amazing to watch garbage trucks navigate them.

And another overall comment: Almost all of our places to date have had somewhat vertically challenged shower/bathroom arrangements. This pic is from Lyon; in Nimes I bang my head every morning on the ceiling heading to the toilet.

What Nimes has to offer is AWESOME ROMAN STUFF. There is an arena, a temple (a couple, actually) and an aquaduct. All from about 100AD and some of the best preserved anywhere. We visited the Aquaduct today (Pont du Gard) and found that there is also an absolutely fantastic museum there. This museum is the best I have seen (and I’ve been to Rome) at describing the architecture and engineering that went into the building of these hydraulic lynchpins of the Roman Empire.

RomanArena

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The Water Channel at the top

Aquaduct Tunnel after the bridge

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Castellum – In from Aquaduct Out to City

The museum talked about the tools used to plan and lay out the entire system, which brings water over 50km from Uzes to Nimes using existing topographic features, tunneling, the “bridges” that are previously “all” I thought of when discussing aquaducts, etc. It described and through videos and simulations, showed the quarrying, the design of the ceramic lining of the water channel, the creation of service access points, diversion points, etc.   It even described how the empire created and used lead pipes to deliver water to buildings (which is the EXACT technology used in Flint Michigan and Chicago — the latter until 1986 a requirement of Chicago building code).   Also preserved in Nimes is the “Castellum” which is the cistern to which the Aquaduct delivered water and from which lead “mains” carried water throughout the town.

Let’s just say that:

— I had NO IDEA the complexity and detail involved

— If I had seen any of this in my “formative” (vs. retired) years, I might have become a civil engineer!!

After trying to understand all of the engineering – feeding our brains — we needed to feed ourselves. SO we stopped in a little town and found a snack bar. There was a sign pointing to the “Jardin” so we thought that sounded nice and peaceful. The “Jardin” turned out to be a fantastic tent with linen table service. Our “Burger” (ok, dammit, we needed something “not French” today), was only 5e – much less than the tourist trap across the street (13e).   Staying in the “not French” theme, we are eating Vietnamese tonight.

Then tomorrow, we are going to make an ambitious trek: First to Avignon to the Palace of the Popes. Then driving onward to Nice, where we will spend a couple days on the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera). We found an AIRBNB for $55/night that is 500m from the beach.  After that, our plans are less clear. When the become clear (or when we get “there” wherever “there” turns out to be) we’ll write about it here.

Today was a day for wandering. All types of wandering.

Breakfast Everyday!

Exchange Rate: Your $$$ gets you part of a Ferris Wheel Ride!

Lyon Panorama

Lyon: View from the Hill

La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

Lyon Staircase

Chocolat Chaud (as often as possible)

Apparently, the Lyonnaise have some trouble with Brits

We first had to repark our car. Apparently (we discovered) the entire City Center is “Payant” parking. Which means “PAY UP” (loosely translated). After lengthy phone and text discussions with our host, we learned that meant regardless of how many euros we wanted to spend, we could only park for 3 hours near our apartment. We needed to drive away from the river and find a spot on a street without “Payant” written on every parking spot. This involved about 30 minutes of cruising, but Dan’s parking Kharma held true and we found a good spot. Good because it was not TOO far, and because there was an EXCELLENT bakery directly on the way back to our apartment.

Of course, that is not hard since there is an excellent bakery on virtually every corner in all of France (at least all we have seen so far).

Next, we wandered across the river (actually two rivers…the Rhône and the Saône). Then up the Funicular to the top of the hill where there is a beautiful church. Then we wandered down the hill through the Rosary Gardens. Wandered around shopping and restaurant areas until we decided Onion Soup would be EXCELLENT on a cold and damp day.

Then we wandered into a particularly excellent-looking bakery, and bought some really yummy looking pizza slices and pastries for an “eat in” dinner. We decided after the “authentic-ness” of last night, we would be a little less adventuresome,  but still more authentic than ordering Dominos. .

We also wandered into a grocery store to buy laundry detergent. Our apartment has a machine, but the detergent bottle was pretty much empty. We wanted to do a couple loads, so we thought we would leave the place stocked for the next inhabitant. We THINK we bought laundry detergent. It could have been toilet bowl cleaner or Shower Gel since there was no internet to translate the bottle. Guess we can always buy clothes if ours dissolve in the machine!

Tomorrow we are leaving Lyon and heading South.  Not sure where the next stop will be.  Several suggestions from friends:  Nimes, Arles, Avignon.  These are all near to each other and all have available AIRBNBs.

Well, it finally happened. We had our first “less than perfect” meal. The food was only average. BUT, the waitstaff spoke English very well AND the restaurant was very relaxed and friendly. And they had an excellent Belgian Beer on tap (Affigen, if anyone is keeping track).   And, as always, there is a story to tell…

We “discovered” the place on TripAdvisor. Only to pick one of about thirty places on the sort of “main” restaurant street in Lyon. We are standing in front of it and it is totally empty (7:30 is a bit early for dinner in France). On TA there is a box to make a reservation and an associated 30% discount. SO we made a reservation, walked in and claimed our 30%!

I don’t even feel guilty about it because:

• The discount encouraged us to select THIS place
• The significant discount focused us on the relaxed and friendly vs. the average food.
• My accountant (Howie) has shown me the way in achieving discounts of all manner without the least feeling of guilt. Hmm, maybe I will ask for a discount on my Tax Return for promoting his services.

And the food was not “bad,” so much as I just ordered something that I regret a little. I was going for “Authentic Lyonnaise” and it was called “Andouillette Sausage.” The internet was not good in the restaurant, or I might not have ordered this. Wikipedia later translated for us… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andouillette. Other internet references translated it as “Pig Poo Sausage.” In part because it is made from the pig’s lower intestine and partly because of how it tastes. Liz, too, was feeling adventuresome, so she ordered Beef Tartare Thai Style.

The finale, the Chocolate Cake with Gelato was AWESOME. And did I mention the beer was good?

We slept in a bit today. Recovery from Troisgros and the ensuing food coma. Several people asked what we ate; the following was the menu, and I thought a pic of our Apres-Dessert might help. Although the waiter thought it was our Birthday (again), the kitchen got it right. 

Chocolate Anniversary Butterfly

Dinner at Trois Gros

Once we got moving, we had breakfast as provided by our host. This was a special bread – like a coffee cake with cranberries and nuts. Then we decided to drive. Medieval villages dot the landscape so we thought we’d visit a couple. The first was Saint-Jean-Saint-Maurice-sur-Loire. The second was Saint-Haon-le-Châtel.

Loire River

Loire Village

Loire Hillside

Picnic Anyone?

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Medieval Door.

Although people live here “modernly,” (i.e. with plumbing, electricity etc.) the houses LOOK like they did 500 years ago+.  Very nice to walk (a lot) in hopes of eventually being able to eat again!!!

Once back in Roanne, it was time to think about dinner. I was not sure we would ever want to eat again after Troisgros, but we managed! This time a small place near the Loire River that was obviously the life’s work of a charming couple. Neither spoke much English, but the wife introduced us to her best friend (her dictionary) and I always travel with Dr. Google. So we managed! Another food coma!. But this time we had to walk back about 2 miles  to our apartment before we could crash.  And,  crash we did!   Tomorrow it is off to Lyon for a couple days.