10/1 – 10/4 France – Cathedrals and Gourmet Food

Monday morning we took off for Beauvais, a charming old city about an hour north of Paris. It was a good 8 hour drive from Fulda on the autobahn, and was dark by the time we got there so we stayed close to our hotel for a bite to eat and retired early to be well rested for a full day in Paris the next day.

We made the mistake of driving into the suburb of St. Denis to park and take the Metro (light rail) in, and spent an hour feeling like locals stuck in rush hour traffic. We found our train with some help from St. Denis locals who didn’t speak English but understood enough to send us in the right direction. It seems you can bridge any language barrier with enough hand signals, place naming, and smiles.

Paris is an amazing conglomeration of palaces, rivers, cathedrals, museums, cafes, and metro stations. On day one we took in Notre Dame, Saint Chappel, and a riverboat tour; then a stroll through the Latin Quarter with coffee at a sidewalk cafe, an early evening ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and dinner and drinks at another sidewalk café before taking the train back to St. Denis. We were exhausted but happy. It rained on and off all day, but not hard enough to buy umbrellas.

Wednesday we spent the day in Beauvais. In the morning, Rosi and Terry explored the old town while Ray enjoyed some down time at the hotel. The local farmers market gave us lunch of yummy rotisserie chicken and potatoes and grapes, which we took back to the hotel and shared with Ray. Then we all went back out to see the cathedral, castle, and well-tended old homes on narrow, curving streets. Towns and cities here are laid out not in the grid pattern we are used to, but in radial patterns circling the town center. Dinner was leftover chicken, cheese, bread, fruit, and wine at the hotel lobby area.

Thursday we took the train from Beauvais into Paris – even with the additional 20euro per person round trip, it was a much better choice than driving part way. We bought 3-day Metro passes (OK, language barriers are not always inexpensive …3 people became 3 days in translation) and started the day at the Peirre-Lachaise graveyard, a huge place with tombs of many famous people including Jim Morrison, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde.

From there we went to Montmartre, where we found the Sacre Cur and Moulin Rouge, and happened upon a nondescript café where we had a wonderful prepared-fresh-from-scratch-gourmet experience. Small plates were all we needed to keep us going, so Calamari salad, Langoustine ravioli, and Angus burger with Camembert sauce were shared all around – and the price was very reasonable. Then we were off to the Arch de Triumph and a stroll down the Champs Ellyse before catching the metro back to the Left Bank to shop the artist's stalls along the river.

We had decided the day before to leave the city early to have a nice dinner at a small bistro in Beauvais, which ended up to be our second gourmet meal in a day and such a nice finish to our visit to France. The next morning we stopped in a small wine shop to buy a few special bottles before heading back to Fulda. We had just a day to rest there before leaving on our next adventure!

9/29 – 9/30 Bavaria – Old Buildings and Good Beer

Saturday the historical tours began. Wurzburg, Bavaria is about 80 minutes south of Bimbach, and was the seat of the first Prince-Bishop in Germany. Rosi packed a picnic lunch and we headed there for the day. Terry was entranced by the architecture of the churches, basilicas, and grand old houses. We took a tour of the grand palace, and finished the day with a visit to the hilltop castle and a drink in their guesthouse overlooking the picturesque town on the river below. There was a wedding party there as well – what a great setting for a special occasion!

Sunday we started the day with a visit to the abandoned ammo station a couple miles out of town where Ray used to work. The girls (Annalisa and Teresa) went with us, and we walked the field around the fenced area while Ray pointed out old bunkers and building foundations. There was a small flock of sheep inside the fence, which appeared as curious about us as we were about them.

We returned to the house, where the clan gathered in two cars and caravanned about an hour through the countryside to the Kreuzberg Monastery at Rhon, Bavaria. We climbed the long staircase to the hilltop and enjoyed the view before exploring the complex. The main stone buildings are hundreds of years old, and the few modern ones seem very compatible in the hillside setting as well. The monks make beer there … really good beer! People come from all over to enjoy the fruits of their labor and often spend the night in one of the comfortable guesthouse rooms. We did the first but not the second, sitting out in the courtyard in the sunshine with about 75 other visitors. When the sun began to go down behind the buildings we all headed back to town.

There is a very poignant aspect of our visit; our hosts lost a son in a car accident earlier this year. Michael was 24 with a promising life in front of him and was well loved by many people. We visited his gravesite with Rosi and she told us about his funeral – there were over 1200 people there and they live in a town of 800. At times it feels like his absence fills the room, as everyone is thinking about the loss and not talking much about it. However, we are all thankful we are together to focus on other things and move through the grief.

9/25 – 9/28 Amsterdam to Germany

Our first full day in Amsterdam was spent exploring. We followed two walking tour routes, one an architectural tour of old buildings in the hotel’s neighborhood, and the other of the nine streets shopping area. The nine streets area has loads of small boutiques of all types of art, antiques, music, clothes, and accessories. We decided to window shop only and come back the next day if there was anything we couldn’t get out of our heads, and stopped for a bite to eat before heading back to the room for the night.

On Wednesday morning, Terry decided that new boots were in order. Our friend Rosi was coming to Amsterdam to take us on the next leg of our journey, and we planned to meet at our hotel at 3:00. We found ourselves still shopping about a mile away at that time, so while Terry finished the purchase Ray took off at a fast pace to the hotel and got all turned around in the winding canalside streets … Terry actually made it back first, but it wasn’t too long until the three of us were together sharing a fine afternoon exploring the town and visiting over a couple beers. We ended the evening with a stroll through the streets in Amsterdam’s famous Red Light District – quite a spectacle! From there, Rosi took a taxi back to her hotel and we walked back to ours.

The next morning Rosi got stuck in traffic coming to pick us up – the heart of Amsterdam is less car friendly than any place we have ever been – so we left the city about 2 hours later than planned. On our way out of town we made a required stop at the Amsterdam Harley-Davidson dealership for a few souvenirs, and then headed through the Nederland countryside to visit with two of Ray’s aunts. Tanta Stein, who lives in Lichtenvoorde, took us to the family gravesite and fed us a wonderful home-cooked meal before we left. Tanta Rienie, who Ray had not seen since he was 3 years old, welcomed us into her home in Enchede where we visited over coffee with Rosi translating. Luckily Rienie speaks fluent German as we speak no Dutch and she speaks very little English!

From Echede it was a long, long drive in the dark and driving rain to Rosi’s home in Bimbach, Germany – and the autobahn was closed in a couple of places so the GPS in her car took us on a wild goose chase to find detours. Not sure where we would have ended up if that little computer was not onboard ... Rosi’s husband Lothar had fallen asleep waiting for us, yet was happy to sit and share a beer and conversation at 2:00 in the morning after we arrived. It was a good thing we could all sleep in the next morning!

Friday was our first full day in Germany, spent mostly sitting in our hosts’ kitchen visiting with friends and family who stopped by. This place is a real deja-vu experience for Ray, as Rosi and her family live in the same house that Ray lived in when he was stationed in Germany 32 years ago. Rosi’s parents Klaus and Lisa live on the main level, and Rosi, Lothar and their son Christopher (21) live on the upper two levels where there used to be three apartments. They have remodeled the middle floor over the years, and are just finishing an expansion of the top level where Christopher will have a bedroom suite and Lothar will have an office. Rosi’s sister Marion lives just 3 blocks up the hill with her husband Elmar and their two daughters, Annalisa (12) and Teresa (8).

Friday night we all went out for schnitzel at Tratzhof, a local guest house that was a barn for 300 years before it was converted 60 years ago. One thing we have noticed is that in Europe they do not tear down old buildings to develop something new, they adapt it or restore it or add onto it. Due to this practice, there is so much character in the homes and many business buildings, especially in the smaller towns and villages. Talk about sustainable building! Anyway – after dinner, Ray and Elmar (who would probably end up getting into trouble together if they lived in the same town) went to a party at the home of the head of the local H.O.G. (Harley Owner’s Group) chapter. He had a great time, and even ran into a few people he knew from back in the 70’s! What a small world we live in …