Friday, June 29 – on the train to Zurich

Friday, June 29 – on the train to Zurich

It's been 11 days since I last wrote an update. So much has happened, I hope I can remember it all!

Tuesday, June 19

Leaving Paris and heading south today. Each morning in London and Paris I prepared breakfast for us. We had a kitchen in the apartments where we stayed, so we bought eggs, ham and fruit from local groceries stores and had a good meal before taking off for each day.

This morning we had to get to the train station, which was a little over half a mile from our apartment. We really tried to pack lightly, but with luggage for six people for 24 days, plus cameras, plus souvenirs, etc. – there's a lot. We had to drag this all with us for the half-mile walk down busy Rue Saint-Antoine to get to the Gare St. Lyon train station. We arrived just in time to find our train and get seated.

This train is one of the super-fast trains that speeds from Paris to Marseille (crossing almost the whole country north to south) in just over three hours. The time flew by quickly, and we arrived at the Marseille train station in time for lunch. I had to leave the family here at the restaurant and catch a taxi to the Marseille airport (about 30 minutes away) to pick up our rental car. We had rented a Puegeot Expert – a very spacious 8-passenger mini-van. And so began our adventure driving across France and Italy.

We probably would not have ventured out with a car if it had not been for the modern wonder of the GPS. Before leaving we bought the map of Europe from the Garmin website and uploaded that to our GPS. I got into the van and plugged in the GPS, wondering if it would work OK. Within seconds the map of my location in Marseille popped up. I plugged in the Marseille train station as my destination and was on my way driving down the freeway in France!

The GPS got me to the train station successfully but then I had to find the family. There was construction going on around the station and it wasn't clear where I was allowed to drive. I ended up stuck in a narrow road with a huge truck coming toward me. Several guys were shouting to me in French about backing up and going another direction. Some how I got around that area and to the front of the train station in the dropoff area. I couldn't leave the van here, but fortunately our phones were working, so I called Laura and told her where to find me. By the time they got their and we loaded all of our luggage into the van there was a line of cars behind us honking to get out of the way.

Our destination from here was Chateau de la Barben – an amazing 700-year old castle out in the country in the general area of Aix-en-Provence. The GPS guided us flawlessly through the country roads right up to the castle. Here I had to navigate the VERY narrow “driveway” up through the castle entry to the door where we could unload our luggage. We just barely could squeeze the van through the old stone arch.

If we looked funny dragging all our luggage down a busy Paris street, we must have really been a sight dragging it all up four separate LONG flights of stairs to our bedrooms at the top of the castle. Looking back on it now we wish we would have thought of a way to pack single-night bags where we could leave most of our luggage in the car at these stops – but we weren't prepared for that, so we had to bring our suitcases along each time.

The castle was AMAZING. It has been beautifully restored. The owners live in a part of it with one of their adult daughters and her family. They rent out four rooms in a “bed and breakfast” kind of operation, and also do paid guided tours through the castle each afternoon. We took the last tour of the day, then prepared for dinner.

We had made arrangements to have dinner at the castle. The owners had appetizers with us and conversed a little. The husband spoke very good English, but the wife struggled and was embarrassed of her English skills. We moved to the dining area and the daughter of the owners prepared us a stunning gourmet meal.

Wednesday, June 20

We struck out again in our van headed for the city of Aix-en-Provence. After about 20 minutes of looking for a parking spot big enough for our van, we finally succeeded and then spent several hours walking around the city and having lunch. After this we drove toward the mountains, as Laura wanted to drive by a castle owned by Picasso (and still owned by the family today).

We discovered that the freeways of France (and later Italy) are very pleasant and easy to drive. A little more winding and narrow than American freeways, but also very few exits. They are all toll roads, but they have oasis stops for gas/food/bathrooms.

Picasso's castle was NOT near the freeway. We had to drive up to a tiny village to find it, then make our way back out of the mountains. Getting out was more difficult than getting in. We ended up on a road so narrow that only one vehicle could pass, and at some point I think we were driving through the campground in a national park. Eventually we got back out to the freeway and sped along to our destination in Nice.

We didn't realize what a big city Nice is, and how crowded it is. The GPS guided us to our destination, but it couldn't do anything to get us a parking place. Our apartment was on the main street on the beach, and the apartments are crowded very close together. All we could do was drop the people and luggage, while I drove off in search of parking.

Throughout the trip (and well before) we've been praying for God's guidance, blessing, and protection on the details of our trip. We've seen many examples of little things the Lord has done to take care of us, and this was definitely one of them. As I was driving through the very narrow, very crowded streets of old town Nice in the huge van I was praying to find a parking place. I discovered some sort of parking sign, and followed the various one-way streets to find what turned out to be a large underground parking place. I found a spot for the van, but the sign at the entry (all in French) seemed to indicate that you could only stay for a maximum of 24 hours. We needed 72 hours. I walked around in the parking garage for a few minutes, and suddenly a French angel appeared – in the form of a parking attendant, who spoke perfect English. I told him what I needed and he directed me to a place where I could pay for our whole stay in advance. Parking problem solved.

Our apartment in Nice was amazing. The living room had huge windows looking across the street to the beach (the Mediterranean Sea), and the kitchen had a small balcony also overlooking the beach. The kitchen was large and modern, and the caretaker had actually stocked some things in the refrigerator for us.

Thursday, June 21

We did so much planning of every detail of our days on this trip, but these two days are different. At what is sort of a half-way point in the trip we have two days in Nice that are totally unplanned. No wake up time, no agenda to follow.

The beach is not like we're used to in Florida. First of all, there's no sand – just rocks, like on the north shore of Lake Superior. Second, there's no space. The beaches are fairly small and short, and totally covered with chairs. Fortunately there was a place directly across the street from us where you could rent a chair for the day. They have a restaurant and toilets so you can literally stay all day at the beach – and we did! In the evening we found a nice restaurant on the beach and enjoyed the view some more.

Friday, June 22

More sleeping in, more beach. This evening we walked farther into town to find a quaint little restaurant down a narrow street. Benjamin, Summer and I climbed a large rock that was the site of an old castle (now a city park) to get a view of the whole city.

Saturday, June 23

We took off early for a day of driving the Italian Riviera coast (Liguria). After a brief stop in Monaco for coffee, toilet and a view of Casino Royale we began winding our way down the coastline. We purposely took the small roads that followed the coastline, winding around the mountains and beaches, until we got close to Genoa. At that point it was starting to get later in the day so we had to go out to the freeway until we got to Portofino. There we went in to the coast again to view the stunning beach towns. After having some incredible gelato we headed back out to the freeway, as we needed to make it to Florence for the evening.

This day was the beginning of our experience of driving the Italian mountains. Laura started counting the tunnels we passed through. I decided somewhere along the way I want to call this trip “100 Tunnels” (although she actually counted 103 by the time we finished driving later in Venice).

We arrived in Florence around sunset, and had to set out walking to the restaurant Laura had picked out. The GPS messed us up here. It insisted that we go across a certain bridge, but there was no crossing, so we had to park and walk about a mile. We didn't realize how narrow and crowded almost all the streets of Florence are, so when we had to walk quite a ways through what seemed to us to be a dark narrow alley, we were a bit nervous.

We eventually got to the restaurant – Obike mozerella bar – and had an incredible meal featuring their special mozerella made from buffalo cheese. After walking back to our car and driving to our hotel we collapsed in bed around midnight. (We have had many late nights and early mornings on this trip!)

Sunday, June 24

This morning is for seeing Florence. Laura had planned a route for us to see some of the major sites. Our first stop was to see Michelangelo's “David” statue, and the museum containing it. Next stop was supposed to be the famous Duomo basilica, but because we were there on a Sunday almost everything to see there was closed for services. Even so, the streets around here, and pretty much everywhere in Florence, were stuffed full with tourists.

We made a point of stopping at several gelato shops and coffee bars as we strolled through the streets, including one gelato shop that Laura had looked up online as having a great reputation (Perche No!). Turns out that we found better gelato on our own.

We continued walking down to the famous Pont Vecchio bridge, where stores are built right onto the bridge, and the African immigrants try to sell knock-off purses until the police show up and they all scatter within seconds.

After more time browsing the streets we also stopped in the Ufizi museum. By this time we were getting a little weary of museums, so Jonathan and Starla opted to sit outside. The rest of us walked through, but we discovered that there was a one-way path which forced you to go through every hall and every one of the three floors. After more than a half-hour of walking quickly toward the exit we finally emerged.

After packing up we took off on the freeway toward Rome. Many more beautiful mountains and corresponding tunnels. By this time I was getting bold on the freeway and fitting in with the Italian drivers. Good thing, because driving in downtown Rome required some bold moves!

We arrived in the evening at our hotel and once again had to find an underground parking garage to store the van. Despite the GPS we could not find the garage or restaurant where we had reservations. We finally found the restaurant, so I dropped off the family and set off to try and find parking. About 20 minutes later after turning around the streets of Rome after dark, I found a parking spot on the street and walked back to the restaurant.

The food here was great – our first chance to try real Italian pizza, and it did not disappoint. The place we ate had kind of an outdoor sports bar atmosphere, and it was the perfect evening. Italy was playing England in the quarter-final game of Euro Cup 2012. Americans may not even be aware that this is going on, but imagine the Super Bowl combined with the Olympics. That is the excitement people here have over their national team winning these games. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, and after two overtime periods they did a shoot-out and Italy won. Much cheering all around!

Monday, June 25

The good news: today we tour the ruins of ancient Rome. A dream-come-true for a history freak like me! The bad news: the weather is scorching hot, and after a few hours of walking around in the burning sun, the family is losing patience with my desire to explore more of these incredible sites.

We started out with the Colosseum, and thanks to an audio guide we got a very good view of this. We walked throughout the whole building and got a great look at it. After lunch we walked thru Palantine Hill, where most of the old ruins are found. The area is quite big, so given the burning sun and near heat exhaustion we had to move quickly through. We were able to see most of it, but didn't have time for a guide or really getting into the detail that I would have liked. (Of course, my interest level is QUITE a bit deeper than the rest of the family, so I tried not to push it.)

After this we moved on to walk through the streets of Rome, taking in shops and snacks. We ended near the famous Trevi Fountain, where we got some great pictures, then ate at an amazing spaghetteria. They had more than four pages of small print with all the different types of spaghetti offered. Very delicious.

Tuesday, June 26

This morning we visited the tiny city-state of Vatican City. This was one of a number of places where we had bought tickets online from home, and as a result we were able to skip very long lines and just walk right in. After Laura and Summer sent postcards from the Vatican City post office, we toured the museum, which ends up in the Sistine Chapel. The chapel itself was much smaller than we imagined, after having seen quite a few amazing cathedrals, but Michelangelo's painting was truly stunning. Its hard to enjoy for too long because there is such a pressing crowd all trying to see it at once.

We moved on from there to St. Peter's Basilica – probably the biggest church we visited, and also very crowded.

After a quick lunch we took off in the van to cross over the ApininneXXX Mountains, bound for the beach resort town of Rimini. The mountains on this drive were even more beautiful, and reminded us of Colorado.

We walked through a little of the beach town, and Laura haggled with a shopkeeper to get a bargain on a new piece of luggage which we now need to hold the souvenirs we've bought along the way.