Two countries, one principality, and a medieval village perched on a mountainside!

What a day! Do I keep saying that? We started with breakfast on the terrace with an incredible view. Still in sight was our "pirate ship" which no was joined by a large yacht. When the yacht first pulled up I thought it was going to attack the pirate ship. I think I had too many pirate dreams last night about Johnny Depp.

After breakfast we drove to Eze. It's a medieval village perched on a hillside. A tourist attraction but totally cool. My photos won't do it justice. While Werner waited in a cafe below we climbed steps that wound through the village, shops were tucked into lots of little nooks and cranies. It also looked like people lived there too. Towards the top they had built an "exotic garden" of cactus and succulents at 1300 ft. above the sea was the remains of an old castle.

I think you can click on this map to see the how the gardens were made to go up the mountain.

There were beautiful sculptures interspersed in the gardens and the views were amazing. Here's one more shot of the ruins at the top.

As you can see, we had perfect weather. After we climbed down we drove on to Monaco. The drive was phenomenal. Monaco was crowded with people and the preparations for the Grand Prix auto race. We didn't go into the Monte Carlo casino but I wanted to take a photo for my step-dad, Bob. Then we toured the grounds and looked at some more yachts. Below are a few photos. If you click on the photo on the right you can see the viewing stands. There were chain link fences lining all the roads to keep the cars from flying into the crowds.

After we left Monaco we decided to drive into Italy. We stopped at a little beach community for a step into the sea and an ice cream cone. The beach rather than having sand was covered with what looked like river rocks. They were awful to walk on barefoot but the sound they made when a wave ebbed was absolutely musical!

We made our way back to our hotel through a little, very untouristy village, La Turbie, recommended by none other than my new best friend, Rick Steves, and had dinner in what he described as the "most welcoming restaurant on the Riviera." It was! I'll conclude with a photo of some Roman ruins in La Turbie and the end of another fabulous day!

On to the South of France

Today we awoke at 6am in order to drive to Brussels to catch a 10:20am high speed train to Nice. It was a 7 hour train trip. Thank God to the people at the hotel in Bruge who packed some breakfast for us because there was a strike of the people who serve food on the train and there was no food or water available for us. The scenery was gorgeous however and it was made even better with my IPod and another book Alissa recommended.

We arrived in Nice hungry and exhausted. We rented a car at the train station and drove to our hotel in a small town west of Nice called St. Jean Cap-Ferrat. "The Lady" a.k.a. the GPS Rick brought along helped us find it. She has done a great job so far even though she totally butchers the names of the streets. I think she does better with French than Dutch though.

Werner stayed in this hotel 25 years ago. I don't think they have re-decorated since then but the view from our balcony makes one not mind. It's been raining here for 3 days so it is very hazy. It is supposed to be sunny tomorrow.

We had dinner in a restaurant we found in the village. They were booked with reservations on the first floor so they put us by ourselves on the second floor. We had a wonderful waiter who read the menu to us in his beautiful French accent. Our view of the harbor was superb. I was too tired to even think about taking pictures. They had great music on though and I ended up singing and dancing around our private dining room since I was sick of sitting after the train ride and 2 hour dinner. It has been a truly memorable day!

Around Bruges May 14

Today was laundry day. We located a Laundromat in a new area of Bruges and took turns watching the clothes and taking walks around the neighborhood.

After that adventure we began exploring the countryside around Bruge. The town Damme is about 10 minutes away by car. It is tiny but beautiful as you can see by the photos. The trees lining the canals makes one feel like you’re in the middle of an impressionist painting. It is very humid today and actually rained on our way back, so the misty air added to the mood.

After lunch at an outdoor café, we made our way through a couple of other towns ending up on the North Sea near ZeeBruge (a harbor built after Bruges harbor silted up several hundred years ago.)

En Bruges - May 13

We started our day at the Market Square. They have Market Day on Wednesday and Saturday morning. Quite a production. Along with the cute little stalls, they also have semi-trailers that are fitted out with all kinds of cooking apparatus. One was like a Costco with chickens on the rotisserie. They had several kinds of roasted chicken and potatoes. One was a patisserie...a bakery built into a semi. One of the sides of the truck was open and the bakery counter was right there. We didn't see them set up but it ended at 12:30 and by 1:00 the square was empty as if the market never existed.

Near the market was a chocolate shop recommended by Rick Steves (my new best friend who write wonderful travel books about Europe). OMG! Belgium chocolate is much better in Belgium than in the US. I doubt any will make it home but know that we are enjoying it for all of you!

After visiting the market we boarded a boat for a 30 minute tour of the canals. If it weren’t for all the tourist boats and people, I could almost feel transported back to the 16th century as we glided under the low bridges and so all the ancient buildings.

After much walking (Werner has been an incredible trooper) we took a bus back to the hotel to rest. The hotel has a lovely conservatory and Susan and I sat in comfortable chairs, listening to classical music, and reading. I’m reading a book Alissa lent me called the Lace Reader. While it takes place in Salem, MA it seems appropriate to be reading it in the home of Belgium lace.

We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant, De Vlaamsche Pot (The Flemish Pot) which was not only very attractive but offered us a taste of Flemish cuisine which I’m happy to report, picky eater that I am, I really enjoyed. What’s not to like about Belgian Fries and beef stew.

Playing Catch Up - May 12

We woke up this morning to the smell of the salt air. The North Sea was a 15 minute walk with a large dike on one side and rows and rows of very fancy camper/mobile homes on the other. Zeeland is a resort area. There was a path through some dunes and then we saw the sea. It must have been low tide because there was a lot of beach before water. I’m including a photo of a beautiful jetty covered in moss that was like bright green threads growing out of the stones. The other is for fun as we just happened upon a beautiful sight of two horses galloping by on the sand.

Following our walk, we packed up, did a little exploring in the car of a couple of resort villages. Again, nothing tacky or cheesy but modest, unpretentious and lovely.

On the way to Bruges we stopped at a village called Veere. We wondered the streets taking in homes with gorgeous little gardens and a huge church that Napoleon took over as a hospital during his campaign. The church hasn’t been used as a place of worship for 200 years but the village uses it as a museum and holds concerts there.

We found our hotel to be quite lovely in Bruges. I’ll take some photos before we leave to show you. I’ve included one which is the view from our room.

Playing Catch Up - May 11

Today was a travel day and did we every make good use of it.

First stop after we rented a car and left Amsterdam was Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse (Alissa, almost a town named after you…at least your nickname. This park is planted with zillions of bulbs by the different bulb growers. Essentially, it shows off what they can do. We made it before the end of the season. It is only in bloom from 3/31-5/21 this year. It was so beautiful. Again elegantly done, like it seems the Dutch do everything. We spent a couple of hours walking the grounds. I’ll only include a couple of photos but I took about 50.

We then drove to The Hague. Werner said it would be a shame to be so close and not go into the Mauritshuis Museum. It had a large collection of Rembrandt painting and it also had the Vermeer Girl with Pearl Earring. Pretty amazing to see them up close and personal.

Parts of The Hague were lovely and parts looked like a modern city anywhere. This is of the parliament building which is located next to the museum. The museum was housed in a large mansion but they were working on the outside of the building hence no photo.

Following that we went to Delft. I promised Alissa I would buy her a piece of Delft pottery. We got to town after the Royal Delft Factory closed but in time to see a bit of the old town and got into a shop or two. This church was in Market Square.

We then drove the hour or so to Zeeland on the North Sea. We arrived in time for a good dinner in the hotel. Haven’t had time to explore the area yet but will do so tomorrow before we head to Bruges. What we saw looks a lot like Cape Cod.

We have very low internet connectivity so this will have to wait until tomorrow night to post. Hopefully we’ll have better internet in Bruges.

I can’t believe how much we stuffed into one day. Werner told us to pick one of the three sights but we couldn’t make up our mines so we just did them all!

An Adventure in the Historic Triangle

We started bright and early today for a day trip to three towns north of Amsterdam. First we took a train to Hoorn. There we boarded an old fashioned steam train for an hour and a quarter. The train took us to Medemblik where we boarded a boat for an hour and a half trip to Enkhuizen. The boat was on a huge lake separated from the north sea by a dike.

Having now seen actual dikes in Holland, I don't understand how that boy stuck his finger in one to save his town from a flood. Needless to say, this kind of dike is not what I imagined as a kid.

The scenery was beautiful. Very flat with lots of sheep, cows, ponies and wind mills. We saw a couple of old fashioned ones but most lots of the new kind, We past fields and fields of tulips. Unfortunately, they had all been harvested so all we saw were the remnant leaves. It must have been gorgeous a couple of weeks ago.

The boat ride was lovely. It was clean, decorated nicely, comfortable and big enough that you didn't feel like you were crowded. We had sandwiches on it for lunch which were surprisingly good.

Enkhuizen is a living history museum. In the 70s they moved about a hundred different buildings to form a reenactment of a Dutch fishing village. It was not a bit cheesy. They had a few people to explain things but you didn't have to feel uncomfortable talking to an adult pretending to be back in history. There were animals, shops, some demonstrations, etc. There were a few cafes and shops that sold souvenirs but it was all tasteful and definitely not a Disney World or Colonial Williamsburg. Everything here seems to done comfortably and unpretensiously. The people are friendly but not overly so,

We took a regular train back to Amsterdam and then a trolley/tram to our hotel. Walked to dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant and are now glad to be relaxing in the hotel.

We leave Amsterdam tomorrow for Zeeland on the North Sea. We'll rent a car to drive there and are considering stops at The Hague, Delft, and a huge tulip park. I'll miss Amsterdam but I feel like we have seen most all of it. I feel so lucky to have this adventure!