Germany

Friday we flew to Stuttgart, Germany and the flight there provided great views of the French and Swiss Alps.

We picked up our rental car at the airport and headed to Ulm in a brand new BMW with on-board navigation. This has got to be the best invention ever for tourist!! We just entered our destination address and this kind female voice directed us right to the door of our B&B.
We stayed at a wonderful little B&B in Ulm called Das Schmale Haus located in the old Fishermen's quarter of town.

The View from our room.

We checked in and then went out to explore the area around the B&B and stopped for dinner at an outdoor café/bar. We split a huge (the size of a large pizza) thin pancake topped with chicken, veggies and gravy which was really good and beer (also very good). We then walked to the main shopping area and the incredible Ulmer Muenster. Later we went to another café/bar for another beer before calling it a night.
Saturday morning there was a lovely hot and cold breakfast available. We both had another thin pancake this time filled with ham and cheese (yummy!!).
After breakfast we headed to Ravensburg which was having a “Spielt” which is a family festival.There where lots of people and it was great walking around looking at all the activities.
Then we headed to our next B&B in Meersburg called The Hotel Baren.

What a lovely old hotel! The only complaint I had was the bed - it was so HARD!!
Meersburg is a wonderful old town.

We walked around and went on a tour of the old castle in town.

This is a view of our B&B from the castle.

When I asked the guide if the tours where offered in English he replied “Certainly Not” with a big smile and then provided us with a mini version of the tour in English.
The weather in Germany is nothing like what we had been having and while we where eating dinner (we had the pasta for 2 which included salad and 3 different pastas with 3 different sauces – excellent!!) at a great outdoor café/bar it started to rain (glad there was a canopy over where we were sitting). We got soaked walking back to the B&B so I had a soak in the HUGE tub to warm up.
Sunday morning we headed to Friedrichshafen for “Euro Bike 2008” which is a huge bicycle show. (One of the reasons we came to Germany) Our plan was for us both to go in the morning and then Wayne would take me back to the B&B at lunch and he would go back to the show alone. Well, the show was so busy and traffic was so bad I decided just to stay.
We were there until 2ish and then we decided to drive around Lake Constance to Bregenz, Austria!! We stopped at a MacDonald’s for a bite to eat and then decided we would head to Zurich, Switzerland!! This is one thing I love about Europe – countries are so close together you can visit a few different ones in one day.

In Zurich we walked along the river but since it was Sunday nothing was open. We returned to Meersburg and went out for dinner to another outdoor café/bar and had Wiener Schnitzel and for desert warm Apple Strudel (with a beer of course).
Monday morning we left Meersburg and headed for Tübingen which is a lovely town on the Neckar River.

We walked around and stopped for coffee and cake at a café.
We then headed to Bad Urach which has castle ruins high on a hill outside town.

The town itself was one of my favorites. We stopped at a little bakery and bought cheese buns and a Danish and sat in the town square and ate them, This was a great ending to our short visit to Germany.
It was now time to head to the airport to return the rental car. Our flight to London did not leave for a few hours. We finally arrived in London at Stansted airport and then had to take a long bus ride to Heathrow. We then had to take the hotel shuttle bus to our hotel. We finally arrived at our hotel at 11:30pm (Travelodge Lodge at terminal 5 – great price, basic hotel).
Next morning we took the hotel shuttle back to Terminal 5 and then the express train to terminal 3 for our flight home. The flight to Halifax was a bit bumpy thanks to the remains of tropical storm Hanna but we arrived home safe and sound.
We had an incredible trip and now I have to plan our next one!!!!!

Sorry we have not been updating

Hi all,
Sorry but internet access in Germany is hard to find and my laptop is dead and I don't have a converter for power.
We had a great time in Germany visiting many wonderful towns.
I will post some photos and info when we get home.
We are at the airport now waiting to fly to London where we will staying tonight before flying home tomorrow.
See everyone soon!
Linda and Wayne

The Coffee Chronicles, day after whatever!

Villefranche, a very quaint little coastal town on the french Riviera. We walked around the small town trying to decide how we were going to spend our short day. The town is too small to stay in, but would we have time to go anywhere else? How to decide? Drink coffee! We stopped at a little cafe and found it a little easier to understand and be understood in french. Mostly locals were there, we could tell at first glance, because almost everyone was smoking. I had by far the best looking cappuccino so far. The microfoam was piled in a dome on top of the espresso and then sprinkled with a little cocoa and sugar. Nice touch, tasty too. Linda had a limonade which she found too light tasting. Over coffee we decided to take the train to Monaco.
The train ride was only ten minutes and then we found ourselves in a gigantic train station cut into the mountain. It took us a while to walk out, access tunnels have you popping out into the town only about two blocks above the waterfront. We took a walk down the street and saw a car dealership that sold Ferraris, Maseratis, Hondas and Mazdas! The newest cars you only see in magazines are parked on the sidewalk in Monaco! There was also a VW dealership the size of a butcher shop, they shoehorned two cars into the showroom but I don't know how they would get them out. We walked down to the yachts and gawked at countless multi-million dollar boats, though only one that we found on our short walk had a new Rolls Royce parked by it, along with the guard at the gangway.
At a real estate office we saw that you (not me) could by a 2 bedroom flat overlooking the harbour for 3 million Euros. The price for front row seats to the GP of Monaco.
That's two more countries in one day, then tomorrow back to Spain where we disembark in Barcelona. I can't believe it's over, but now I have a pretty good idea of what parts of the Mediterranean I would like to visit again. Looking forward to Germany by tomorrow supper time. We've crossed a dozen borders but haven't seen a customs officer since getting off the plane in Heathrow. How many people would be out of work if we opened the border between Canada and the US, how many tax dollars would we save? What if we shared a currency with another country? Nevermind the USD, what about the Euro?

Photos from Villefranche/Monaco

The view from our balcony



Monaco

Villefranche, France

Today we visited our last port – Villefranche.
When I opened the curtains this morning I saw the prettiest port we have visited. The ship was anchored with starboard side facing Villefrache and I think for this itinerary starboard side was the side to be on for port views
I went up and brought back coffee and pastries today.
The we went an picked up a tender ticket to get off the ship. We were pretty early so there was no wait and we had a 5 minutes tender ride. We were in Villefranche by 8:30 am. We asked about a taxi to Eze but it was 35 euros so we looked at taking the bus but you have to go to Nice first (total 40 minute bus ride – standing room only) so we passed on that. We walked around a bit and then stopped for a coffee. We then decided to take the train to Monaco. Walked to the station and caught the 10:28 train. It is only 10 minutes to Monaco but then you have to find your way out of the train station – not easy as it is HUGE. First we went up to the top to see the view and then we went down to the waterfront to walk around. There is a yacht show happening soon as they were setting things up along the waterfront.
We walked around looking at all the yachts and the cars. Stopped and bought a few souvenirs, stopped for a slice of pizza – mine was Brie and Wayne had the mushroom (the best pizza is here not in Italy we discovered) and then it was time to catch the train back. We were back on board by 1pm and left by 2pm.
We would like to have spent more time in Monaco and would like to have seen Eze so I guess we will have to come back!!
We are now having a relaxing time on our balcony drinking the last of our beer while I write this and Wayne reads a magazine from the library.
For dinner tonight we went to the Blue Lagoon for munchie food. Then after we ate it we both didn't feel so great so we went back to the cabin for a while. Later we went up to the buffet for something sweet and then went and walked around the ship one last time. We have to pack tonight and our shuttle leaves at 7am!!
We have had a GREAT time on this cruise and will definitely be back to some of the ports again. Our favorite places seemed to be the smaller, quieter ones and not the big cities. The weather has been FABULOUS!!! We had a bit of rain in London and today in the afternoon it was overcast but the rest of the time it was warm and sunny!!!
Tomorrow we fly to Germany!!

Coffee Chronicles Part ...whatever. Remembering the numbers is too much like work.

Livorno. We took a tour of Tuscany stopping at a few villages along the way. Every village seems to be a fortified or walled town. Outside of the wall there is rolling hills covered with grape fields and olive groves. At one of these villages named San Gimignano we sat in the plaza and had our coffee. This was an extremely busy ancient village of high walls, narrow streets and shops offering all sorts of Italian wares. Most of the shops sell leather or ceramics in the local style and there were also many places to buy wine, cheese, pastries and prosciutto. The cappuccino was excellent but the service was slow. But there were bus loads of tourists filling the cafes and squares, the service was slow because they were overrun. Linda had a Latte Macchiato which came in a tall glass mug and was rivalled in looks by how smooth it tasted. Linda was happy, I was happy, no complaints here today.
Throughout the region there were many cyclists riding for recreation or for touring, more than we've seen in any other area so far. The area was hilly but like I said above, the hills were rolling and would have made a good ride. The roads were also a little wider than most we've seen, at least when we weren't in the villages which were basically forts. The traffic was also a little more relaxed and seemed to give cyclists the room necessary to keep them from being driven off the road. I could ride here happily all day.
Later in the day we had a winery tour at a small family estate. Very small winery, they didn't have any stainless steel vats, they didn't even buy their own barrels new, but they did make excellent wine. And Rose, and Grappa, and prosciutto, and grew their own melons, all of which we were able to sample well beyond what could possibly be called “tasting”. We didn't care how much behind schedule we were after that, at least I wasn't anyway. On to Pisa to hold up the leaning tower. We were there for only 5 minutes then had to bolt for the boat. Our trusty driver Angelo got us there with minutes to spare. Thanks Angelo! And thank you Italy. We are in France tomorrow.

Photos from Tuscany