Last day's Trafalgar schedule was bags out by 6am, breakfast at 6:30am, bus departed at 7am, arrival at Zurich airport by 8am. Our Iceland Air flight was at 2pm. We had the better part of a day to kill but we spent it in the terminal. All our flights were more or less on time. That tight connection in Iceland is a nightmare. We made it but only by running past immigration/border control leaving Schengen. I can't say I'd recommend Iceland Air. There is no easy way to get to and from the USA to Europe except maybe by cruise ship and that only works if you have an extra couple of weeks to spare instead of a day. It was a better and easier experience than flying over with the weather delay to begin. I think we were all glad we'd decided to spend the night at the Quality Inn Mall of America again on the return flight. The motel rooms are in serious need of a renovation. Our outbound room had a grim bathroom, but otherwise was OK. The return room was grim overall. It smelled bad, the bathroom was in even worse shape, all the wallpaper was peeling and the ceiling had a crack all the way across the room. On the plus side, there was an ice machine on every floor! There was a working fridge in the room and Air Conditioning! But it is the USA so those would be basics if we hadn't just left Europe. It is all a matter of perspective. We skipped dinner and fell asleep about 8:30pm.
We were all up before 5am on Saturday. Breakfast at the Quality Inn starts at 6am. We had reserved the 7:55am complimentary shuttle to the airport. Mom had the earliest flight and we dropped her at Terminal 2 for Southwest Air first. We got to Terminal 1 after a longer than expected drive. We saw a wild turkey in a field on the way! All our flights were on time and we all got home Satuday night unable to stay awake again. Jet lag! Clay & I had a perfect bookend flight experience to end the trip. Our first Iceland Air flight was delayed out of MSP by a popup thunderstorm than caused the airport to close the ramp right before the plane we awaited landed. Our AA flight into RDU was stalled by a late departure clearing our gate. 5 minutes later the plane pushed back and it started pouring rain. RDU closed the ramps for a thunderstorm and we spent 15 minutes waiting for the 3 guys with the lighted sticks to return so we could get to the gate! We spent another 10 waiting for the gate to touch the door of the plane so we could exit. We spent another 20 or so waiting for the luggage people to catch up after the brief shut down. Perfect timing for a bookend ending to our untimely beginning.
Happy to be home! Happy to have shared our Big O Birthday Trip with Mom and Carol.
Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Last day in Switzerland - Lucerne
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Tomorrow we have an early start, but today we could sleep in. We met for breakfast about 8am. Clay & I went down earlier to online check in and print boarding passes for us all on Iceland Air. Breakfast had begun at 6:30am and it ended at 9am. They were slowly closing down as we arrived. We missed the crowd. We headed out about 10am to catch city bus 6 oro 8 to Schwanen Platz to walk to Schweizerhof Hotel to catch the 11am City Train. It was sunny and very hot again today. Though honestly, we felt it all night without AC in the hotel. A Swiss woman who explained the bus to us all also explained this extended heat wave is causing serious problems as far north as Sweden. We all enjoyed the city train 40-minute ride. We covered more ground than we'd have on foot and it got us out of the sun. The commentary was helpful too. Stephane added a 13:35pm 30-minute walking tour. 3 of us met him and he walked us to the restaurant where about 8 of us joined him. It went a lot longer than a half hour and we dropped out before he finished. It covered a lot of the same ground and information but we got to enter the Jesuit Church. We saw a tunic in a chapel from the 1470's that were worn by the only Swiss saint, Klaus. Stephane said the reformation never took in Lucerne and that all the Swiss Guards in the Vatican come from Lucerne.We will see the Lion Monument and hear more before dinner.
I am going to assume there will be nothing noteworthy this evening and post this now.
We start flying home in the morning. Fingers crossed it goes more smoothly than getting over here!
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Tomorrow we have an early start, but today we could sleep in. We met for breakfast about 8am. Clay & I went down earlier to online check in and print boarding passes for us all on Iceland Air. Breakfast had begun at 6:30am and it ended at 9am. They were slowly closing down as we arrived. We missed the crowd. We headed out about 10am to catch city bus 6 oro 8 to Schwanen Platz to walk to Schweizerhof Hotel to catch the 11am City Train. It was sunny and very hot again today. Though honestly, we felt it all night without AC in the hotel. A Swiss woman who explained the bus to us all also explained this extended heat wave is causing serious problems as far north as Sweden. We all enjoyed the city train 40-minute ride. We covered more ground than we'd have on foot and it got us out of the sun. The commentary was helpful too. Stephane added a 13:35pm 30-minute walking tour. 3 of us met him and he walked us to the restaurant where about 8 of us joined him. It went a lot longer than a half hour and we dropped out before he finished. It covered a lot of the same ground and information but we got to enter the Jesuit Church. We saw a tunic in a chapel from the 1470's that were worn by the only Swiss saint, Klaus. Stephane said the reformation never took in Lucerne and that all the Swiss Guards in the Vatican come from Lucerne.We will see the Lion Monument and hear more before dinner.
I am going to assume there will be nothing noteworthy this evening and post this now.
We start flying home in the morning. Fingers crossed it goes more smoothly than getting over here!
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Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Montreux-Bern-Interlaken-Lucerne
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Bags out by 7:15am, breakfast began at 7am and departure at 8am. It wasn't that far to drive today, but we had some long stops. We had an hour long pee break in Bern. The bus let us all off in upper town and Stephane led us to the clock tower where he pointed out our path to where we'd meet the bus across the river by the bears' pit in 45 minutes. It was a quick pass through but it was a charming and attractive town. We also walked by Einstein's house. For lunch, we drove on to Interlaken. We were back in view of the big Alps. I think we left the French part of Switzerland. We had 2 hours here. The bus dropped us at one of the train stations and Stephane led us about half way to all the areas of interest where he pointed out what was where and when to be back at the drop off point. It is still unseasonably hot here and I think a number of folks found today to be too much walking. Stephane never really explained how far people would have to walk or if they had other options though. We chose to go straight ahead and watch parasailers land in the prairie and eat at Schuh while doing it. It was a pleasant choice. We shopped some on the way back to the bus with Laderach winning the Swiss chocolates prize among us. Stephane walked in to find only the 4 of us and 2 employees in the shop. He asked how we figured out to come here since he intentionally didn't tell us about it because it is his favorite. In good news, he bought several different chocolates to share on the bus. Around 2:30 or3:30 pm we stopped in Giswill where Stephane and about 30 of the bus passengers left for an optional excursion. Here Stephane pointed out three big Alps peaks, the Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger. We drove on crossing the dramatic Brunig Pass on the way to the Grande Hotel Europe in Lucerne for our last 2 nights of the tour. Stepane warned us before he left the bus that we weren't going to like this hotel. He was right. It isn't as bad as the Romantik, but it is probably hotter. In good news, we learned that the hotel would provide us each with a public transit pass so we don't have to walk very far. That is more useful to us than pool or spa passes that have gone unclaimed and unused at a couple of hotels. Carol's bag was pilfered between this morning and luggage delivery this afternooon. The outside pocket on her suitcase was completely unzipped and it was emptied. She doesn't think she lost anything of real value. Since Stephane was not on the bus when we arrived in Lucerne, we missed our included city highlights orientation tour. We suspect it would have consisted of narration as we drove by on the bus, so we probably didn't miss much. The Lion Monument was described as a visit. Clay says that is why Stephane changed the farewell dinner meet time by 15 minutes so he could take us on the bus tomorrow night. The bus unloaded us and all the luggage about 4:30pm and then drove back over the Brunig Pass to pick up the excursionists and again to bring them to Lucerne. Since Carol got back around 6:30pm and had afternoon snacks while out, she skipped dinner. Mom & Clay & I took the 6 & 8 buses over and back 4 stops to eat at the Rathaus Brauerei. It was really good. Clay got a beer and brats with potato salad and Mom & I both opted for big soft pretzel sandwiches. We all really liked what we had. Mom finally got an apple spritzer which was weird, but bonus had ice cubes. I finally had a Swiss wine and it wasn't great. It was still a really good and reasonably priced meal in a beautiful setting. We saw the sun setting and a nearly full moon rising over Lake Lucerne. We all gave Stephane our flights today on the bus so now the end really is in sight.
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Bags out by 7:15am, breakfast began at 7am and departure at 8am. It wasn't that far to drive today, but we had some long stops. We had an hour long pee break in Bern. The bus let us all off in upper town and Stephane led us to the clock tower where he pointed out our path to where we'd meet the bus across the river by the bears' pit in 45 minutes. It was a quick pass through but it was a charming and attractive town. We also walked by Einstein's house. For lunch, we drove on to Interlaken. We were back in view of the big Alps. I think we left the French part of Switzerland. We had 2 hours here. The bus dropped us at one of the train stations and Stephane led us about half way to all the areas of interest where he pointed out what was where and when to be back at the drop off point. It is still unseasonably hot here and I think a number of folks found today to be too much walking. Stephane never really explained how far people would have to walk or if they had other options though. We chose to go straight ahead and watch parasailers land in the prairie and eat at Schuh while doing it. It was a pleasant choice. We shopped some on the way back to the bus with Laderach winning the Swiss chocolates prize among us. Stephane walked in to find only the 4 of us and 2 employees in the shop. He asked how we figured out to come here since he intentionally didn't tell us about it because it is his favorite. In good news, he bought several different chocolates to share on the bus. Around 2:30 or3:30 pm we stopped in Giswill where Stephane and about 30 of the bus passengers left for an optional excursion. Here Stephane pointed out three big Alps peaks, the Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger. We drove on crossing the dramatic Brunig Pass on the way to the Grande Hotel Europe in Lucerne for our last 2 nights of the tour. Stepane warned us before he left the bus that we weren't going to like this hotel. He was right. It isn't as bad as the Romantik, but it is probably hotter. In good news, we learned that the hotel would provide us each with a public transit pass so we don't have to walk very far. That is more useful to us than pool or spa passes that have gone unclaimed and unused at a couple of hotels. Carol's bag was pilfered between this morning and luggage delivery this afternooon. The outside pocket on her suitcase was completely unzipped and it was emptied. She doesn't think she lost anything of real value. Since Stephane was not on the bus when we arrived in Lucerne, we missed our included city highlights orientation tour. We suspect it would have consisted of narration as we drove by on the bus, so we probably didn't miss much. The Lion Monument was described as a visit. Clay says that is why Stephane changed the farewell dinner meet time by 15 minutes so he could take us on the bus tomorrow night. The bus unloaded us and all the luggage about 4:30pm and then drove back over the Brunig Pass to pick up the excursionists and again to bring them to Lucerne. Since Carol got back around 6:30pm and had afternoon snacks while out, she skipped dinner. Mom & Clay & I took the 6 & 8 buses over and back 4 stops to eat at the Rathaus Brauerei. It was really good. Clay got a beer and brats with potato salad and Mom & I both opted for big soft pretzel sandwiches. We all really liked what we had. Mom finally got an apple spritzer which was weird, but bonus had ice cubes. I finally had a Swiss wine and it wasn't great. It was still a really good and reasonably priced meal in a beautiful setting. We saw the sun setting and a nearly full moon rising over Lake Lucerne. We all gave Stephane our flights today on the bus so now the end really is in sight.
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Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Zermatt to Montreux
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Bags out by 7:15am, breakfast starts at 7, departure at 8:30am. For 3 of us the morning started much earlier and more spectacularly though. Mom and Clay and I went back to the Kirch Bruche to see the sun rise on the Matterhorn. We left the Monte Rosa at 5:30am. We could see the Matterhorn and the sky were completely free of clouds for the first time. Today's sunrise was different than yesterday's with some clouds but both were just incredible for about 15 minutes. The mountain seems to glow from within when that low angle light hits it! Clay said there were fewer than half as many people today as yesterday. It still seemed like a good crowd to me. We went back to our rooms arouond 6:30am and showered and carried on the itinerary. We had a mid-morning pee break in Martigny/St. Bernard at a road side place. We had a quick photo stop about 11:30am at Chillon Castle. We arrived at the Eurotel Riviera by noon. There was about a half hour or so to stow hand luggage and use the restrooms before Carol and about 30 of the group left for their optional Lake Geneva cruise with lunch. Mom & Clay & I had found this online and left to find it since you could order tickets online, but they didn't show a schedule so we didn't. We walked down the promenade and found the departure point but no red tram or signs. The tourist information office was there though so we went in. Clay showed her the website linked above on his phone. She had a brochure for them with a 2-hour timetable from 10 to 4 everyday. She and her colleague both swore it only ran on Sundays and if "prebooked" other days. They said it basically didn't ever run on a weekday. They referred us to the Petit Train. It was a fraction of the time and price. It was leaving within 10 minutes of our spotting it. We were directed to board and we did and then we paid 5 CHF each for a 20-25 minute ride between the covered market and Port de Territet roundtrip. There was no narration or commentary but that was fine. It covered more of the promenade than we'd have been willing to walk in the heat of the blazing sun. The flower beds were stunning. Most amazing were dinner plate-sized hibiscus. After our return outside tourist info, we went to McDonald's! We had French fries with herb mayo, Clay had a Royal burger and Mom had an iced vanilla latte. We sat on their shady terrace with our lunch. After we entered the attached 3-story mall with grocery store. Clay bought a Coke Zero. We strolled the street front back to the hotel studying menus for dinner and it looks grim. It is excessively expensive here and nothing we read sounded too appealing. Mom is walking OK today from her pulled muscle, but Carol is balking from much walking. So the Italian place we picked may be too far away for her. We really didn't find anything else. Clay says he has an Italian place in the other direction with a 3 minute walk so even though we didn't check it that is probably where we'll go. We're back. We ate at Clay's Il Brigantino. We shared an appetizer and 2 different sausage pizzas and it was more than we could finish. They gave us a small plate of bruschetta to start and when we asked, a pitcher of ice water. Our room tonight has a 180 degree view over Lake Geneva. Stunning!
The end is in sight. We have 2 more days before we fly home.
Our time in Zermatt has been the highlight for us, I think. We were in a fantastic hotel for 2 nights and had all free time except our 1st night's dinner.So far, we are not enjoying the French part of Switzerland nearly as much.
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Bags out by 7:15am, breakfast starts at 7, departure at 8:30am. For 3 of us the morning started much earlier and more spectacularly though. Mom and Clay and I went back to the Kirch Bruche to see the sun rise on the Matterhorn. We left the Monte Rosa at 5:30am. We could see the Matterhorn and the sky were completely free of clouds for the first time. Today's sunrise was different than yesterday's with some clouds but both were just incredible for about 15 minutes. The mountain seems to glow from within when that low angle light hits it! Clay said there were fewer than half as many people today as yesterday. It still seemed like a good crowd to me. We went back to our rooms arouond 6:30am and showered and carried on the itinerary. We had a mid-morning pee break in Martigny/St. Bernard at a road side place. We had a quick photo stop about 11:30am at Chillon Castle. We arrived at the Eurotel Riviera by noon. There was about a half hour or so to stow hand luggage and use the restrooms before Carol and about 30 of the group left for their optional Lake Geneva cruise with lunch. Mom & Clay & I had found this online and left to find it since you could order tickets online, but they didn't show a schedule so we didn't. We walked down the promenade and found the departure point but no red tram or signs. The tourist information office was there though so we went in. Clay showed her the website linked above on his phone. She had a brochure for them with a 2-hour timetable from 10 to 4 everyday. She and her colleague both swore it only ran on Sundays and if "prebooked" other days. They said it basically didn't ever run on a weekday. They referred us to the Petit Train. It was a fraction of the time and price. It was leaving within 10 minutes of our spotting it. We were directed to board and we did and then we paid 5 CHF each for a 20-25 minute ride between the covered market and Port de Territet roundtrip. There was no narration or commentary but that was fine. It covered more of the promenade than we'd have been willing to walk in the heat of the blazing sun. The flower beds were stunning. Most amazing were dinner plate-sized hibiscus. After our return outside tourist info, we went to McDonald's! We had French fries with herb mayo, Clay had a Royal burger and Mom had an iced vanilla latte. We sat on their shady terrace with our lunch. After we entered the attached 3-story mall with grocery store. Clay bought a Coke Zero. We strolled the street front back to the hotel studying menus for dinner and it looks grim. It is excessively expensive here and nothing we read sounded too appealing. Mom is walking OK today from her pulled muscle, but Carol is balking from much walking. So the Italian place we picked may be too far away for her. We really didn't find anything else. Clay says he has an Italian place in the other direction with a 3 minute walk so even though we didn't check it that is probably where we'll go. We're back. We ate at Clay's Il Brigantino. We shared an appetizer and 2 different sausage pizzas and it was more than we could finish. They gave us a small plate of bruschetta to start and when we asked, a pitcher of ice water. Our room tonight has a 180 degree view over Lake Geneva. Stunning!
The end is in sight. We have 2 more days before we fly home.
Our time in Zermatt has been the highlight for us, I think. We were in a fantastic hotel for 2 nights and had all free time except our 1st night's dinner.So far, we are not enjoying the French part of Switzerland nearly as much.
pictures
Monday, July 23, 2018
Zermatt
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We had plans for today if it looked like clear skies and no back up plan! We rejected Trafalgar's optional excursion to Kleine Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at about 119 CHF and wanted to take the Gornergrat Bahn to Rotenboden Station to walk to Riffelsee to see the Matterhorn reflected in water. The cost was 114 CHF. We had decided not to prepurchase online as there was no cost advantage and if it was bad weather, we didn't want to do it anyway. Last night looked all clear for today, so Clay went online before group photo to buy them. Monday tickets were not offered online! We had a few hours of panic and despair during dinner. We walked down to the station after dinner for some reason believing it open. It was not. We tried the Information Center, already closed. It was Sunday night. I was still optimistic because we usually get great advice from hotel receptionists. She would know if there was any possibility of our not being able to do this tomorrow. We came in with our questions about Gornergrat and where to get ice and when breakfast opens to find Stephane standing there chatting with the desk clerk. We waited while they ignored us. Clay finally went up to her and she asked if she could help. Clay opened with Gornergrat and before she answered Stephane started obstructing our queries and her answers while telling us we couldn't do this. Huh? You have to walk down he said. I said, they sell return tickets. He said no you can't walk to the station. We just walked there and back after dinner. Finally, he let her speak and she gave me a brochure and assured us that people walk up and buy day of all the time. They would be running and have tickets available. Whew! Breakfast began at 7am. Ice from the bar after 3pm. It turned out you could ask for and get ice at breakfast too. Wonderful. But what is Stephane's issue? He is the first tour director we have ever had who operated like he was selling time shares and not offering service to tourists. He had yesterday reiterated that those of us who had decided to go cheap and not buy his excursion here were going to regret it. That on top of his statement on day 2 that if you didn't book his complete optional package all Trafalgar owed you was a bus ride with hotel, breakfast and not even all luggage porterage meant that we had never asked him for any help or advice on our individual plans. We wouldn't ask him for assistance and we didn't and he still overheard and tried to obstruct our efforts. It is beyond all comprehension!
We got up early. Clay went to the Kirchbrucke by the Hotel La Couronne for sunrise. He was so impressed that I hope to go tomorrow. We'll see what the departure schedule looks like later. We had breakfast at 7am and headed to the station at 8am. Clay got in line and bought our return tickets and we boarded a 2nd 8:24am train. We rode to Rotenboden Station and had a quick clear look at the Matterhorn. We studied the tiny flower gardens growing in the rock cracks and then set off for the Riffelsee. Carol stayed on a bench by the station and enjoyed the people and fantastic changing views. We 3 sat on rocks for an hour and never got a clear cloudfree view! As we hiked back up to the station, we saw a man sitting on a boulder painting. Mom fell multiple times trying to walk over to him, but she didn't even skin her hands or hurt herself. We each bought a glicee print of one of his original oil paintings. Near the top of the trail, Mom misstepped again and this time injured herself. I think she thinks she pulled a muscle in her calf. We reboarded the train to the top at Gornergrat. We had a picnic lunch up there of food we'd collected this morning and during the trip as the view of the Matterhorn cleared. We cleaned up our table and after a few photos we cleared out for the train back down to Rotenboden. The clouds that had framed the peak of the Matterhorn cleared as we all tried to get our photos. Clay alone raced back down and back up to capture the Riffelsee reflection. We caught the next train back down to Zermatt. We bought Mom some liniment and did some additional souvenir shopping. Mom said she couldn't walk anymore and went straight to her room. I gave her Aleve and Carol and I fashioned an ice pack for her. By dinner time, she thought she couldn't walk but didn't want anyone to go out and try to find a cane for her. She wasn't going out to dinner though. Also, she'd looked at menu on her way to the hotel and didn't want to spend that much. We photographed the menu at the crepe takeout window for her. It wasn't Swiss but at least it was something different and European and not so expensive. When she called to ask us down to their room with the dining table for 4, I told her we'd be down in 30 minutes. I was glad I delayed because shortly we heard what sounded like a cow bell parade in the street. It was a goat parade! Clay and I looked out from our balcony and then raced downstairs. The goats were gone, but there were 3 Alpenhorns being carried along behind them. The 2 men & a woman in costume set up in front of the church and played a few songs. I never thought they could play music on those horns! As they played, I noticed a shop across from the church had a long sleeved t-shirt that Carol had been seeking. After dinner, I told her about it and we went and got her one. On the way, we heard Alpenhorns again and followed them and caught a group of men practising a last couple of songs before packing their horns. I didn't know they could take those horns apart either! Mom & I want Clay to take us to sunrise on the Matterhorn tomorrow before departure. We'll see. More tomorrow!
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We had plans for today if it looked like clear skies and no back up plan! We rejected Trafalgar's optional excursion to Kleine Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at about 119 CHF and wanted to take the Gornergrat Bahn to Rotenboden Station to walk to Riffelsee to see the Matterhorn reflected in water. The cost was 114 CHF. We had decided not to prepurchase online as there was no cost advantage and if it was bad weather, we didn't want to do it anyway. Last night looked all clear for today, so Clay went online before group photo to buy them. Monday tickets were not offered online! We had a few hours of panic and despair during dinner. We walked down to the station after dinner for some reason believing it open. It was not. We tried the Information Center, already closed. It was Sunday night. I was still optimistic because we usually get great advice from hotel receptionists. She would know if there was any possibility of our not being able to do this tomorrow. We came in with our questions about Gornergrat and where to get ice and when breakfast opens to find Stephane standing there chatting with the desk clerk. We waited while they ignored us. Clay finally went up to her and she asked if she could help. Clay opened with Gornergrat and before she answered Stephane started obstructing our queries and her answers while telling us we couldn't do this. Huh? You have to walk down he said. I said, they sell return tickets. He said no you can't walk to the station. We just walked there and back after dinner. Finally, he let her speak and she gave me a brochure and assured us that people walk up and buy day of all the time. They would be running and have tickets available. Whew! Breakfast began at 7am. Ice from the bar after 3pm. It turned out you could ask for and get ice at breakfast too. Wonderful. But what is Stephane's issue? He is the first tour director we have ever had who operated like he was selling time shares and not offering service to tourists. He had yesterday reiterated that those of us who had decided to go cheap and not buy his excursion here were going to regret it. That on top of his statement on day 2 that if you didn't book his complete optional package all Trafalgar owed you was a bus ride with hotel, breakfast and not even all luggage porterage meant that we had never asked him for any help or advice on our individual plans. We wouldn't ask him for assistance and we didn't and he still overheard and tried to obstruct our efforts. It is beyond all comprehension!
We got up early. Clay went to the Kirchbrucke by the Hotel La Couronne for sunrise. He was so impressed that I hope to go tomorrow. We'll see what the departure schedule looks like later. We had breakfast at 7am and headed to the station at 8am. Clay got in line and bought our return tickets and we boarded a 2nd 8:24am train. We rode to Rotenboden Station and had a quick clear look at the Matterhorn. We studied the tiny flower gardens growing in the rock cracks and then set off for the Riffelsee. Carol stayed on a bench by the station and enjoyed the people and fantastic changing views. We 3 sat on rocks for an hour and never got a clear cloudfree view! As we hiked back up to the station, we saw a man sitting on a boulder painting. Mom fell multiple times trying to walk over to him, but she didn't even skin her hands or hurt herself. We each bought a glicee print of one of his original oil paintings. Near the top of the trail, Mom misstepped again and this time injured herself. I think she thinks she pulled a muscle in her calf. We reboarded the train to the top at Gornergrat. We had a picnic lunch up there of food we'd collected this morning and during the trip as the view of the Matterhorn cleared. We cleaned up our table and after a few photos we cleared out for the train back down to Rotenboden. The clouds that had framed the peak of the Matterhorn cleared as we all tried to get our photos. Clay alone raced back down and back up to capture the Riffelsee reflection. We caught the next train back down to Zermatt. We bought Mom some liniment and did some additional souvenir shopping. Mom said she couldn't walk anymore and went straight to her room. I gave her Aleve and Carol and I fashioned an ice pack for her. By dinner time, she thought she couldn't walk but didn't want anyone to go out and try to find a cane for her. She wasn't going out to dinner though. Also, she'd looked at menu on her way to the hotel and didn't want to spend that much. We photographed the menu at the crepe takeout window for her. It wasn't Swiss but at least it was something different and European and not so expensive. When she called to ask us down to their room with the dining table for 4, I told her we'd be down in 30 minutes. I was glad I delayed because shortly we heard what sounded like a cow bell parade in the street. It was a goat parade! Clay and I looked out from our balcony and then raced downstairs. The goats were gone, but there were 3 Alpenhorns being carried along behind them. The 2 men & a woman in costume set up in front of the church and played a few songs. I never thought they could play music on those horns! As they played, I noticed a shop across from the church had a long sleeved t-shirt that Carol had been seeking. After dinner, I told her about it and we went and got her one. On the way, we heard Alpenhorns again and followed them and caught a group of men practising a last couple of songs before packing their horns. I didn't know they could take those horns apart either! Mom & I want Clay to take us to sunrise on the Matterhorn tomorrow before departure. We'll see. More tomorrow!
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St. Moritz to Stresa to Zermatt
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Bags out by 6:45am, breakfast at 6:30am, bus departed at 7:30am. Very quickly after leaving St. Moritz, we started winding down the Maloja Pass. The only reason I know that is it is written on our itinerary and Stephane stopped his reading from Heidi because he was getting motion sick and the driver told him to give us the name. I have hotlinked it and you can learn more about what we saw the same way I did.
We crossed the border into Italy with a pee break at a weird gas station/cookie outlet off the highway at Mandello del Lario. It sat beside Lake Como which was the 2nd lake we'd driven beside. It was mostly tunnel driving along Lake Como though. Our 3rd Italian Lake was Maggiore and our target was Stresa. It was a hot and sunny day so that was good news/bad news. We arrived around noon. Stephane led us from the lakeside bus drop to a town square and showed us the best gelato spot, L'Angolo del gelato.
Stephane lead an optional tour by boat to Isola Bella for a couple of hours. Mom & Carol went and the Clay & I had a couple free hours after lunch to wander and tablesit. We did some shopping here. Good thing since the prices in Switzerland have doubled! We departed at 3:30pm. Stephane started showing the movie Life is Beautiful. It is in Italian with English subtitles, so you really have to pay attention. Outside the scenery was otherworldly. We had finally reached the big Alps. We crossed the Simplon Pass. Stephane announced it when he had to pause the movie for our pee break at Monte Leone. Some of the most spectacular scenery in a drive on Earth and most everyone was closely watching a movie! About an hour later, we arrived in Tasch where we had to leave the bus for a day. We got all our hand luggage and our bus drivers and others moved all our checked bags to 9 passenger vans. We drove less than 15 minutes I would say to a parking garage in Zermatt. Happily, the top of the Matterhorn was visible! What a relief since seeing it was our reason for picking this particular tour. If all else fails, we've seen it. In the parking garage, we unloaded and our luggage was unloaded where I watched our van driver drag the end of my rolling duffel across the drive and rip the zipper apart. Mom's suitcase had the top handle ripped off about 4 days ago. Good news neither will be a huge financial loss, we just both hope our bags last intact to hold our stuff until we get home.
We had a short period to get into our rooms and claim our luggage before we had to meet outside for our Trafalgar tour group photo. Immediately from there we walked a couple blocks to sister property Mont Cervin Palace for an included dinner.. It was served course by course which was an improvement over the previous night's open public buffet. Dinner was at 7:30pm and it was after 9:30pm before we got back to the room. That explains why I am a day late posting this!
Our room at the Monte Rosa Hotel is fantastic! Glad to be here for 2 nights. Our one complaint would be the noise. As it has no AC, you have to open the windows and the bars and restaurants outside were noisy until after 1am.
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Bags out by 6:45am, breakfast at 6:30am, bus departed at 7:30am. Very quickly after leaving St. Moritz, we started winding down the Maloja Pass. The only reason I know that is it is written on our itinerary and Stephane stopped his reading from Heidi because he was getting motion sick and the driver told him to give us the name. I have hotlinked it and you can learn more about what we saw the same way I did.
We crossed the border into Italy with a pee break at a weird gas station/cookie outlet off the highway at Mandello del Lario. It sat beside Lake Como which was the 2nd lake we'd driven beside. It was mostly tunnel driving along Lake Como though. Our 3rd Italian Lake was Maggiore and our target was Stresa. It was a hot and sunny day so that was good news/bad news. We arrived around noon. Stephane led us from the lakeside bus drop to a town square and showed us the best gelato spot, L'Angolo del gelato.
Stephane lead an optional tour by boat to Isola Bella for a couple of hours. Mom & Carol went and the Clay & I had a couple free hours after lunch to wander and tablesit. We did some shopping here. Good thing since the prices in Switzerland have doubled! We departed at 3:30pm. Stephane started showing the movie Life is Beautiful. It is in Italian with English subtitles, so you really have to pay attention. Outside the scenery was otherworldly. We had finally reached the big Alps. We crossed the Simplon Pass. Stephane announced it when he had to pause the movie for our pee break at Monte Leone. Some of the most spectacular scenery in a drive on Earth and most everyone was closely watching a movie! About an hour later, we arrived in Tasch where we had to leave the bus for a day. We got all our hand luggage and our bus drivers and others moved all our checked bags to 9 passenger vans. We drove less than 15 minutes I would say to a parking garage in Zermatt. Happily, the top of the Matterhorn was visible! What a relief since seeing it was our reason for picking this particular tour. If all else fails, we've seen it. In the parking garage, we unloaded and our luggage was unloaded where I watched our van driver drag the end of my rolling duffel across the drive and rip the zipper apart. Mom's suitcase had the top handle ripped off about 4 days ago. Good news neither will be a huge financial loss, we just both hope our bags last intact to hold our stuff until we get home.
We had a short period to get into our rooms and claim our luggage before we had to meet outside for our Trafalgar tour group photo. Immediately from there we walked a couple blocks to sister property Mont Cervin Palace for an included dinner.. It was served course by course which was an improvement over the previous night's open public buffet. Dinner was at 7:30pm and it was after 9:30pm before we got back to the room. That explains why I am a day late posting this!
Our room at the Monte Rosa Hotel is fantastic! Glad to be here for 2 nights. Our one complaint would be the noise. As it has no AC, you have to open the windows and the bars and restaurants outside were noisy until after 1am.
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Saturday, July 21, 2018
Innsbruck to St. Moritz
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Bags out at 7am, breakfast at 7am, departure at 7:40am. Word on the bus was that people didn't sleep well because of Friday night noise. We did not have that problem. We were unhappy about only being able to get ice from the bar and the bar didn't open until 8am today. Even worse now, the hotel tonight only has ice from the bar and it doesn't open until 3pm! We'll have to try to get some after dinner and hope it will keep overnight inside the minibar.
So the sun was shining in Innsbruck, but that didn't last long. We drove straight for Switzerland through the Engadine Valley and stopped at the Austrian customs post on the border. Then a few miles later crossed into Switzerland and had a pee break at Martina in Switzerland. We arrived at the Reine Victoria Hotel in St. Moritz at noon. Our rooms would not be ready for at least an hour at the earliest. Mom had notes about a funicular ride up and a Heidi Flower Trail down that she wanted to do, but looking at the map it wasn't feasible. She also wanted to look for cross-stitch patterns. We thought we'd all have lunch first but Carol was hurting and didn't want to walk at all. She stayed at the lobby bar til she could get her room key. The 3 of us got a map and directions for a hike past the Heidi hut and flower trail and set out hoping to find a sandwich to go. We didn't find one until we reached the Signal Station up the mountain. We bought 1 stop cablecar tickets at the bottom and paid 12.60 CHF each for about a 5 minute ride. (In hindsight, especially given the heavy rain, we could have taken the cablecar round trip from St. Moritz Bad to Signal and just walked back and forth from Signal Station to Salastrains Hotel near the Heidi Hut.) At the top, we ordered a ham sandwich split 3 ways and a bag of chips for our light lunch and headed off downhill per instructions. It had been drizzling until we were inside waiting for the ham to be sliced. We watched a cloud roll downhill and engulf the mountainside as we paused before heading down! After about 5 minutes we all had to use an umbrella for the rest of the day as it rained hard. The cloud lifted though and we did enjoy some views. Per the hotel clerk's detailed directions, we found the Heidi hut and flower trail. That was good because most of the signs she suggested we follow were meaningless to us and the map was incomplete and possibly not to scale. Clay helped out with his phone GPS when we weren't sure, but his online maps were incomplete as well. Studying the map now I see that one word that had us flummoxed that was on almost all trail forks was blomenweg and it means flower trail. It doesn't clear up why every direction was it, but we definitely hiked down the blomenweg! We walked between 3 and 4 hours. We stopped for hot chocolate, ice cream and ovomaltine and to use the toilets. Ovomaltine is a Swiss product and clearly an acquired taste. We stopped at the COOP as instructed and found the needlework section on the 3rd floor but no patterns. When we stopped at the Reine Victoria front desk and asked for our keys, he said he had not given any out in the past 2 hours. But Carol had theirs and had been sitting in the lobby bar with a coffee. Stephane and I guess maybe everyone else were either out or on his optional train trip. If they were in the same rain we were in, they didn't get a very scenic trip. We still can't imagine that the big Alps won't be reached until tomorrow. We have an included dinner across the street from the hotel tonight. We meet at 6:30pm about 1.5 hours from now.
Dinner was across the street about a 1/2 block away in a hotel sister property. There were a couple other larger groups here at our hotel. Stephane promises breakfast tomorrow will be an ordeal! Dinner tonight was in a buffet setting with the public. No drinks other than tap water included. They had a salad bar, a cold dish buffet, a soup, sauerbraten carving station, a hot buffet, a cheese and fruit buffet and a dessert buffet. They had a rabbit stew on the buffet, it had a foreign name but I don't remember what it was because all I could think of was Hasenpfeffer! It was a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Anyway. Another early start and long day tomorrow...
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Bags out at 7am, breakfast at 7am, departure at 7:40am. Word on the bus was that people didn't sleep well because of Friday night noise. We did not have that problem. We were unhappy about only being able to get ice from the bar and the bar didn't open until 8am today. Even worse now, the hotel tonight only has ice from the bar and it doesn't open until 3pm! We'll have to try to get some after dinner and hope it will keep overnight inside the minibar.
So the sun was shining in Innsbruck, but that didn't last long. We drove straight for Switzerland through the Engadine Valley and stopped at the Austrian customs post on the border. Then a few miles later crossed into Switzerland and had a pee break at Martina in Switzerland. We arrived at the Reine Victoria Hotel in St. Moritz at noon. Our rooms would not be ready for at least an hour at the earliest. Mom had notes about a funicular ride up and a Heidi Flower Trail down that she wanted to do, but looking at the map it wasn't feasible. She also wanted to look for cross-stitch patterns. We thought we'd all have lunch first but Carol was hurting and didn't want to walk at all. She stayed at the lobby bar til she could get her room key. The 3 of us got a map and directions for a hike past the Heidi hut and flower trail and set out hoping to find a sandwich to go. We didn't find one until we reached the Signal Station up the mountain. We bought 1 stop cablecar tickets at the bottom and paid 12.60 CHF each for about a 5 minute ride. (In hindsight, especially given the heavy rain, we could have taken the cablecar round trip from St. Moritz Bad to Signal and just walked back and forth from Signal Station to Salastrains Hotel near the Heidi Hut.) At the top, we ordered a ham sandwich split 3 ways and a bag of chips for our light lunch and headed off downhill per instructions. It had been drizzling until we were inside waiting for the ham to be sliced. We watched a cloud roll downhill and engulf the mountainside as we paused before heading down! After about 5 minutes we all had to use an umbrella for the rest of the day as it rained hard. The cloud lifted though and we did enjoy some views. Per the hotel clerk's detailed directions, we found the Heidi hut and flower trail. That was good because most of the signs she suggested we follow were meaningless to us and the map was incomplete and possibly not to scale. Clay helped out with his phone GPS when we weren't sure, but his online maps were incomplete as well. Studying the map now I see that one word that had us flummoxed that was on almost all trail forks was blomenweg and it means flower trail. It doesn't clear up why every direction was it, but we definitely hiked down the blomenweg! We walked between 3 and 4 hours. We stopped for hot chocolate, ice cream and ovomaltine and to use the toilets. Ovomaltine is a Swiss product and clearly an acquired taste. We stopped at the COOP as instructed and found the needlework section on the 3rd floor but no patterns. When we stopped at the Reine Victoria front desk and asked for our keys, he said he had not given any out in the past 2 hours. But Carol had theirs and had been sitting in the lobby bar with a coffee. Stephane and I guess maybe everyone else were either out or on his optional train trip. If they were in the same rain we were in, they didn't get a very scenic trip. We still can't imagine that the big Alps won't be reached until tomorrow. We have an included dinner across the street from the hotel tonight. We meet at 6:30pm about 1.5 hours from now.
Dinner was across the street about a 1/2 block away in a hotel sister property. There were a couple other larger groups here at our hotel. Stephane promises breakfast tomorrow will be an ordeal! Dinner tonight was in a buffet setting with the public. No drinks other than tap water included. They had a salad bar, a cold dish buffet, a soup, sauerbraten carving station, a hot buffet, a cheese and fruit buffet and a dessert buffet. They had a rabbit stew on the buffet, it had a foreign name but I don't remember what it was because all I could think of was Hasenpfeffer! It was a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Anyway. Another early start and long day tomorrow...
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Friday, July 20, 2018
Villach to Innsbruck
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We had another long day in the bus today. A lot of it was on small winding mountain roads too. It is hard to imagine that we haven't seen the big Alps yet. Today was spent in Tirol and the Dolomites. They seemed big and majestic to me. Bags were out by 7:15am, breakfast at 7am, departure at 8am. We had a long potty stop in Lienz. We had a quick photo stop at Lake Misurina, sadly it was during a thunderstorm. We had a lunch break for pizza during a thunderstorm in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Both those last 2 stops were in Italy. We had an afternoon pee break at a truck stop called Lanz. We got to the Hotel Grauer Bar in Innsbrook at about 5pm. We got checked in and those who wanted met downstairs at 5:45pm with Stephane for a quick guided overview of the Old Town highlights. It was still raining and getting dark early. We had seen Innsbruck's Olympic ski jump during the drive in. Our hotel is conveniently located a block from Innsbruck's Hofburg. The entire city block of it was covered with scaffolding! We did walk around St. Jakob's Cathedral and go inside. It was spectacular inside. We ended at Maximilian's Gold Roof and instructions how to walk only 2 blocks directly back to the hotel. Clay has been waiting to eat Schweinhaxen again since 2003 in Vienna. This was his chance. He was feeling the pressure. It lived up to his expectations. We found it very close by at Elferhaus . I think we all enjoyed our meals there. Mom & Carol did some souvenir shopping. We stopped in a supermarket. Clay & I got an ice cream. We got back to the hotel around 8:30pm. The ladies all hit the hotel bar for ice to take to our rooms. This hotel is centrally located and nice, but the mini fridges don't work and there are no self-service ice machines or ice buckets. Keeping a cold drink of water on hand is a full time job!
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We had another long day in the bus today. A lot of it was on small winding mountain roads too. It is hard to imagine that we haven't seen the big Alps yet. Today was spent in Tirol and the Dolomites. They seemed big and majestic to me. Bags were out by 7:15am, breakfast at 7am, departure at 8am. We had a long potty stop in Lienz. We had a quick photo stop at Lake Misurina, sadly it was during a thunderstorm. We had a lunch break for pizza during a thunderstorm in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Both those last 2 stops were in Italy. We had an afternoon pee break at a truck stop called Lanz. We got to the Hotel Grauer Bar in Innsbrook at about 5pm. We got checked in and those who wanted met downstairs at 5:45pm with Stephane for a quick guided overview of the Old Town highlights. It was still raining and getting dark early. We had seen Innsbruck's Olympic ski jump during the drive in. Our hotel is conveniently located a block from Innsbruck's Hofburg. The entire city block of it was covered with scaffolding! We did walk around St. Jakob's Cathedral and go inside. It was spectacular inside. We ended at Maximilian's Gold Roof and instructions how to walk only 2 blocks directly back to the hotel. Clay has been waiting to eat Schweinhaxen again since 2003 in Vienna. This was his chance. He was feeling the pressure. It lived up to his expectations. We found it very close by at Elferhaus . I think we all enjoyed our meals there. Mom & Carol did some souvenir shopping. We stopped in a supermarket. Clay & I got an ice cream. We got back to the hotel around 8:30pm. The ladies all hit the hotel bar for ice to take to our rooms. This hotel is centrally located and nice, but the mini fridges don't work and there are no self-service ice machines or ice buckets. Keeping a cold drink of water on hand is a full time job!
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Thursday, July 19, 2018
Vienna to Villach
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It was a long day on the bus today! We all had our turn on the front row today. It was a bright sunny cloudless day all day. As Mom said, what kind of geographical anomaly caused her to be staring into the sun all day! We drove south all morning and west all afternoon. We had buffet breakfast at the hotel at 7am, bags out first, bus departure at 8am. We had a pee break at a truck stop about 9:30am. We arrived in Graz in late morning for a quick visit and free time to have lunch. We had a quick orientation around the city hall or rat haus and central square. All quite charming and attractive. Then we searched local drugstores and ate pretzels or sausages in the square. Per Stephane's advice we walked to see the Graz Landhaus. It was historic and a landmark but he never did tell us later about it as promised. We had a welcome surprise stop in Barnbach at St. Barbara Church. It was a Hunnertwasser building! Around 12:45pm, we arrived at the Piber Lippazaner Stud Farm. We had about an hour long guided tour there. The Spanish Riding School in Vienna is closed now, but we'd been before. We felt bad Mom & Carol were missing it, so this was a good makeup. It was cool to get near and be able to touch all the mares, colts, fillys and stallions. You couldn't have seen them all or touched them in Vienna. We drove on to arrive at Kloster Wernberg around 5pm. This was our Trafalgar Tours' "Be My Guest" experience or dinner. We had a short guided tour by Sister Monika who had spent 37 years, or her adult life there. It was a stunning setting and quite beautiful. They run a farm and a B&B there. The guests put on a concert after our dinner and we left about 8pm. We arrived to the Romantik in Villach about 8:30pm. Villach was a beautiful town in its own right and we drove our huge bus right through the pedestrian streets like a parade to get here. It is meant to be quaint and charming, which means it is old and without air conditioning on what has been a glaring, unrelentingly hot day. We are away at 8am again tomorrow.
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It was a long day on the bus today! We all had our turn on the front row today. It was a bright sunny cloudless day all day. As Mom said, what kind of geographical anomaly caused her to be staring into the sun all day! We drove south all morning and west all afternoon. We had buffet breakfast at the hotel at 7am, bags out first, bus departure at 8am. We had a pee break at a truck stop about 9:30am. We arrived in Graz in late morning for a quick visit and free time to have lunch. We had a quick orientation around the city hall or rat haus and central square. All quite charming and attractive. Then we searched local drugstores and ate pretzels or sausages in the square. Per Stephane's advice we walked to see the Graz Landhaus. It was historic and a landmark but he never did tell us later about it as promised. We had a welcome surprise stop in Barnbach at St. Barbara Church. It was a Hunnertwasser building! Around 12:45pm, we arrived at the Piber Lippazaner Stud Farm. We had about an hour long guided tour there. The Spanish Riding School in Vienna is closed now, but we'd been before. We felt bad Mom & Carol were missing it, so this was a good makeup. It was cool to get near and be able to touch all the mares, colts, fillys and stallions. You couldn't have seen them all or touched them in Vienna. We drove on to arrive at Kloster Wernberg around 5pm. This was our Trafalgar Tours' "Be My Guest" experience or dinner. We had a short guided tour by Sister Monika who had spent 37 years, or her adult life there. It was a stunning setting and quite beautiful. They run a farm and a B&B there. The guests put on a concert after our dinner and we left about 8pm. We arrived to the Romantik in Villach about 8:30pm. Villach was a beautiful town in its own right and we drove our huge bus right through the pedestrian streets like a parade to get here. It is meant to be quaint and charming, which means it is old and without air conditioning on what has been a glaring, unrelentingly hot day. We are away at 8am again tomorrow.
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Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Last day/night in Vienna
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Since none of us booked optional tours we got a quiet and slow start today. We had breakfast at 7:30am instead of 6:30am. Our departure was at 9:45am. Stephane had a late breakfast too and we all rode the bus to Schonnbrun Palace to pick up the local guide and the rest of the group. At about 10am then we started our Vienna walking/bus overview tour. We unloaded by the Albertina and walked behind the Opera House, down the pedestrian area that becomes Stephansplatz to see the outside of Stephansdom. Then we walked along the cross pedestrian area to the Plaque Column and up to the Hofburg. We crossed the Roman ruins and walked across the Hofburg complex to meet the bus again on the Ringstrasse. We spent about 20 minutes driving around the Ring and ended again at the Albertina for free time near noon. The bus would be back there at 3:15pm for a complimentary return to the hotel. We planned to make our own way back. We had plans for a free organ concert at Peterskirche.
We started our free time by going upstairs to the Albertina entrance area to get a bird's eye view and orientation. We walked to a souvenir store off the pedestrian area and hopefully cheaper. We walked down to the Stephansplatz U and used the 60 cent toilets and came back up right in front of Stephansdom and entered. There was a charge to enter the center chapel, so we just went down the side and looked at the triptych. Peter, our local guide today, had pointed out that you could pay to take an elevator up the North tower. We'd never down that and there was no line, so Clay got tickets at 6 Euros each and up we went. It was cool to look down on the ornate tiled roof and to see almost the whole city. It was really windy today and especially up there! We came back down and had our Kaffee culture experience almost next
door at Aida. The ladies had cold or iced coffees and Clay had a Coke Zero. We all had grilled ham & cheese sandwiches and Clay had a giant apple strudel to share. We got to Peterskirche about 2:30pm and it looked busy so we went on in. If we'd have arrived 15 minutes later we wouldn't have been able to find a seat! Instead of the usual just organ concert today we lucked into a rehearsal of the St. Cecilla Church Choir and St. Laurence Church Choir of Houston TX rehearsing. At 3pm, there was one organ song none of us recognized followed by 3-4 songs by the choir followed by the organ playing Hallelujah Chorus. We wished the choir had sung that! Talk about a missed opportunity. We spent an hour in there. We thought about eating dinner in the Ring, but after a failed attempt to find Mom a cross stitch or needlepoint kit, we called it quits. We walked twice as far as expected to get to a U station and took 2 trains back to the Renaissance for a break before dinner. Cost was 2.40 Euros per person. Mom and I walked back down the street before the hotel to check the needlework store there again. Still closed. We walked 2 blocks further to a Spar grocery and bought candy for a fraction of inside the Ring prices. We decided to try a different local restaurant tonight and ate at Strasser Brau. There were some different choices here and same dishes cooked differently. We all enjoyed what we had.
Even though we got rained on a few times today, I think we all had a good day in Vienna. We are foot sore but happy. We have a long 12-hour day on the bus on the way to Villach tomorrow night. Good news is that Clay & I should have the front passenger side of the bus and Mom & Carol should have to drivers side front row in the seat rotation. A good day for it!
Early start tomorrow so good night.
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Since none of us booked optional tours we got a quiet and slow start today. We had breakfast at 7:30am instead of 6:30am. Our departure was at 9:45am. Stephane had a late breakfast too and we all rode the bus to Schonnbrun Palace to pick up the local guide and the rest of the group. At about 10am then we started our Vienna walking/bus overview tour. We unloaded by the Albertina and walked behind the Opera House, down the pedestrian area that becomes Stephansplatz to see the outside of Stephansdom. Then we walked along the cross pedestrian area to the Plaque Column and up to the Hofburg. We crossed the Roman ruins and walked across the Hofburg complex to meet the bus again on the Ringstrasse. We spent about 20 minutes driving around the Ring and ended again at the Albertina for free time near noon. The bus would be back there at 3:15pm for a complimentary return to the hotel. We planned to make our own way back. We had plans for a free organ concert at Peterskirche.
We started our free time by going upstairs to the Albertina entrance area to get a bird's eye view and orientation. We walked to a souvenir store off the pedestrian area and hopefully cheaper. We walked down to the Stephansplatz U and used the 60 cent toilets and came back up right in front of Stephansdom and entered. There was a charge to enter the center chapel, so we just went down the side and looked at the triptych. Peter, our local guide today, had pointed out that you could pay to take an elevator up the North tower. We'd never down that and there was no line, so Clay got tickets at 6 Euros each and up we went. It was cool to look down on the ornate tiled roof and to see almost the whole city. It was really windy today and especially up there! We came back down and had our Kaffee culture experience almost next
door at Aida. The ladies had cold or iced coffees and Clay had a Coke Zero. We all had grilled ham & cheese sandwiches and Clay had a giant apple strudel to share. We got to Peterskirche about 2:30pm and it looked busy so we went on in. If we'd have arrived 15 minutes later we wouldn't have been able to find a seat! Instead of the usual just organ concert today we lucked into a rehearsal of the St. Cecilla Church Choir and St. Laurence Church Choir of Houston TX rehearsing. At 3pm, there was one organ song none of us recognized followed by 3-4 songs by the choir followed by the organ playing Hallelujah Chorus. We wished the choir had sung that! Talk about a missed opportunity. We spent an hour in there. We thought about eating dinner in the Ring, but after a failed attempt to find Mom a cross stitch or needlepoint kit, we called it quits. We walked twice as far as expected to get to a U station and took 2 trains back to the Renaissance for a break before dinner. Cost was 2.40 Euros per person. Mom and I walked back down the street before the hotel to check the needlework store there again. Still closed. We walked 2 blocks further to a Spar grocery and bought candy for a fraction of inside the Ring prices. We decided to try a different local restaurant tonight and ate at Strasser Brau. There were some different choices here and same dishes cooked differently. We all enjoyed what we had.
Even though we got rained on a few times today, I think we all had a good day in Vienna. We are foot sore but happy. We have a long 12-hour day on the bus on the way to Villach tomorrow night. Good news is that Clay & I should have the front passenger side of the bus and Mom & Carol should have to drivers side front row in the seat rotation. A good day for it!
Early start tomorrow so good night.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2018
In Vienna
Since all of us but Carol skipped the morning's Eagles Nest optional excursion, we got to sleep in and have a late breakfast. (Carol really enjoyed her excursion and was glad she went.) Breakfast for us was an easy and quiet affair on the 15th floor. All the views from the Austria Trend Europa were beautiful. It was easy for us to ignore the nearby cranes from our room. After breakfast, we walked past the Bahnhof (train station) to an adjoining mall and found what I was looking for at the Apotheke. Then we walked through the grocery store where we found last night's dumplings in the meat case. Huh? We got ice for our water bottles and put our feet up and relaxed until 11am. We were closer to 10 people waiting outside with our luggage when the bus arrived after 11:15. The people on the bus mostly left as we loaded for their pee stop. We stopped for lunch after 12:30pm at a truck stop cafeteria place again. Today it was Landzeit. There were complimentary restrooms here and that was better than yesterday's voucher system. Downside was that tap water was unavailable today. Oh well. I think we all ate lighter today than at Rosenbergers. The biggest upside today was that Stephane seemed to have undergone some kind of attitude adjustment today over the 1st 2 days and acted properly and tried harder to give topical and timely information. He was great until we approached Vienna and he said nothing for an hour, then in heavy traffic within sight and sitting outside the hotel, he tried to disjointedly communicate what he had of tomorrow's itinerary. Why? Why not give that information in a quiet calm manner while everyone is seated and can get out pens and paperwork and make notes? I don't understand. Anyway, as he told us, you can either check tonight or early tomorrow morning the sign I post in the lobby. Right, shift the responsibility to us. He actually said this morning over the microphone on the bus that he guessed those of us not on the morning excursion realized that we had bought only the bones with no meat of a tour from Trafalgar (those with the options he keeps iterating are getting the Trafalgar Top tour) and are only entitled to a bus ride and hotels. I am pretty sure that I didn't see anything like that in Trafalgar's marketing material. Since Stephane is now the tour operator for all intents and purposes, and that is his view of the situation, Trafalgar's marketing material is moot and it is what it is. I cannot recommend Trafalgar Tours. We drove out of Salzburg past Lake Mondsee. We drove through mountain valleys along rivers, through agricultural and dozens of villages with steeples. Our afternoon pee break was actually at Melk Abbey! We weren't touring or entering, but we parked in the tour bus lot with the others and used the complimentary toilets. You could enter up to the 2nd courtyard without a ticket, so you could admire the exterior. That was a shame as we wound up being there almost 30 minutes and I'm sure at least once in the past we had toured it in about an hour. We are pretty far out of Central Vienna at the Renaissance Wien. I would call it within walking distance of Schonbrunn Palace. We are close to 7km from Stephansplatz in the city center. We got rooms on the 1st floor. They are smallish but contemporary in black and white and quiet. They have minifridges and a sel-service ice machine one floor up. I think we are all satisfied for 2 nights. It is unfortunate that our bare bones top tour couldn't put us inside the Ring. But we did know this when we booked. We had a good dinner directly across the street at Valenta's Stam-Biesl. Other than Mom, we all ordered dishes that had been ordered last night. It was less expensive than in Salzburg's Old Town, but we aren't in a tourism center here. We were not charged for tap water and we got almost a double pour of Gruner Veltliner for the 3 ladies. The bad news was that the choice of green salad, french fries or parsley potatoes Mom & I were given as choices were not included in our meal but we were charged 2.40 each for them! After dinner, it was still nice out and cooler than it had been inside the restaurant so we walked a couple of blocks to a Gelateria. Mom & Clay each got a cup. We like Gruner Apfel. That is green apple.
Monday, July 16, 2018
In Salzburg Austria
Pictures
We were in 4 countries today by my count. Europe is small and compact, but we still covered a lot of ground. We started in Switzerland, had a pee break in Liechtenstein, lunch in Austria, the afternoon driving across part of Bavaria in Germany and now back in Austria in Salzburg. Two things. Our guide who seems not cut out for this job, failed to notice or mention this fact. 2nd thing, 84! Liechtenstein is my 84th country visited. By day's end, I told Clay I was done, mission accomplished, I got my 4 new countries visited on the trip, I can quit now. Not really. But we didn't get off to a good start and I'm not talking about our flights. I won't ever recommend Trafalgar. I don't know if I have said that about any other tour provider we've used in the past. We knew they were less expensive because they included less, but that worked for our group. What I didn't know was that the tour director that his job was to earn commissions from forcing the entire group into participating in the optional add ons. We had wondered prior to today, what is the tour group doing while the optional excursions are going and now we know the answer is nothing. The guide, the bus and driver will leave you wherever it is convenient for them. It is not at all clear that it will be convenient for us. I had decided before arrival that I was not interested in the majority of the options, but after the ridiculous morning of forced sales spiel, I balked at booking any of them. Carol has never been to Europe before and so I think she booked 3, Mom booked 1 and Clay & I zero. After he started the morning on the bus by announcing that everyone will visit Eagle's Nest in the morning because it will be too inconvenient and time-consuming for us to bring the bus back to the hotel before going on to Vienna tomorrow. That just rubbed me wrong because we didn't pay over $3K a head to be at his convenience, we paid for him to be at ours. Evidently at least 4 other people felt that way because he muttered a lot about it to the local guide but they decided he had to let us sleep in, eat a late breakfast or whatever we wanted to do and he had to come back for us. I believe he felt he was retaliating by announcing to the bus that those people will have to haul their own luggage out to the bus tomorrow and forfeit porterage. I promise you that the Trafalgar sales information does not frame their tours and options in this context. I have a bad feeling this is going to get worse and not better as the tour progresses because there are days with up to 3 optional tours going! If he carried on like this over 1 optional tour, I cringe to think about those busier optional days. Oh well, live and learn. We will never to another Trafalgar Tour and would certainly never recommend them.
Back to today. As I said earlier, we crossed several borders and our guide never made a single announcement about it. We figured out Germany because they had something resembling border security and we were using Clay's smartphone GPS to track our location since we weren't getting any "guidance" from our tour director. He does a poor job when he does explain something and he always waits to start until it is time to unload the bus when he should just be telling us what time and where to be back. Lunch today was at a truck stop cafeteria called Rosenburger.They serve traditional Austrian food. Stephane told us about some dishes to look for after dinner tonight. Not too timely. He told us before lunch toilets would be free at places where we ate. He told us after lunch that wasn't true here but you could use your toilet receipt to apply the cost to your purchase. That was true, but not timely information since it was too late to be useful. Our schedule was delayed all day because we left Zurich about 30 minutes late because about 1/3 of the bags were not collected until after our scheduled departure time. He blamed the hotel and staff for all of today's difficulties but he bore a greater part of responsibility than he gave himself and he still should have recovered and moved on and quit blaming everything that went badly today on the Radisson Blu!
Today bags out at 6:45am, breakfast was to start at 6:45am but most of us were there earlier without a problem for the hotel. The bus was to leave at 7:30am but didn't til about 8am. We drove through a varied and spectacular landscape today. Leaving Zurich we hadn't driven long before entering a 15km tunnel! They were still growing a lot of corn leaving Zurich for Liechtenstein. We got to Liechtenstein after 9am and had about 30 minutes there to use the restrooms,, pay to get a tourism stamp in our passports and wander. It was what I was expecting from the capital city of a small principality, unlike Luxembourg. There was no HOHO bus here but a little fake train like in Monaco. I saw it twice while off the bus! During the afternoon we entered Germany, We drove for a while beside Lake Chiemsee which started a long lecture on King Ludwig and his palaces, none of which we'll visit on this tour.Too weird.
We arrived in Salzburg around 4pm. We were late and had a local guide scheduled. Stephane is not licensed to guide in Austria or Italy, I believe he said to explain the local guides in the itinerary. We did not have time now to check in and stow our belongings, but were past due a pee break. So he had us rush in to use the hotel facilities which we overwhelmed the 2 toilets! They unloaded the checked bags and Stephane picked up our keys, so people could drop out of the tour at will. We all got maps of Salzburg with the hotel marked by Christina our local guide and our keys and the bus took us to Mirabell Garden. It was stunning. The city is Baroque and beautiful. It is famous as the birthplace of Mozart and for the filming of scenes from the movie Sound of Music. We walked by I believe Mozart's 1st leased house, over a key-laden pedestrian bridge into Old Town. We walked through tunnels in buildings and down pedestrian areas and saw Mozart's birth house, University Place, through a fruit market, to the Dom and Residenzplatz, around to the Mozart Statue. It was a hot but short 1 hour tour. I don't know if was always only supposed to be 1 hour but it seemed like the guide kept talking about what she was skipping due to our time constraints. Who knows? They left us there with instructions to be back less than 2 hours later at 7:20pm because our driver was doing us a huge favor by volunteering to pick us up on the main street by the last bridge in town to drive us back to the hotel before risking a ticket by driving past 7:30pm. We all either had to get back to the bus or else carry all our self-stowed carry-ons all afternoon! All this didn't get decided until the bus stopped in front of the hotel for our pee break! This was our first time in Salzburg and I'm glad we got to see it. I'll also be really glad to sleep in tomorrow, have a late breakfast and drag my suitcase downstairs myself after 11am. The Austria Trend Europa Hotel is not as nice as the Radisson Blu (which I now expect to be the anomaly hotel!) but we won't be on the bus or on our feet! We spent our free time hunting down dinner in Old Town. We had planned an inexpensive place near the hotel but that wouldn't work now. Christina told us about Mozart Nockerl, a meringue dessert and I really wanted that, but she could find that any close restaurants served it. She sent us to a place further afield that she knew served it, but when we arrived around 6pm, they told us they couldn't take us without a reservation. Too bad. We tried a couple more places but it was very busy at that time in Old Town, all the casual places were closing for the day and everything was about half again as expensive as the place we'd picked before arriving. Finally, a drinks and snacks place that seated us and then told us they had stopped serving food referred us to Saran in the distance. It was good food and good service if more than we'd thought to spend. It is Europe, but it just chaps to be charged for water! The quest for ice is still nearly a full time job!
Good night! Tomorrow we arrive in Vienna for 2 nights.
Pictures
We were in 4 countries today by my count. Europe is small and compact, but we still covered a lot of ground. We started in Switzerland, had a pee break in Liechtenstein, lunch in Austria, the afternoon driving across part of Bavaria in Germany and now back in Austria in Salzburg. Two things. Our guide who seems not cut out for this job, failed to notice or mention this fact. 2nd thing, 84! Liechtenstein is my 84th country visited. By day's end, I told Clay I was done, mission accomplished, I got my 4 new countries visited on the trip, I can quit now. Not really. But we didn't get off to a good start and I'm not talking about our flights. I won't ever recommend Trafalgar. I don't know if I have said that about any other tour provider we've used in the past. We knew they were less expensive because they included less, but that worked for our group. What I didn't know was that the tour director that his job was to earn commissions from forcing the entire group into participating in the optional add ons. We had wondered prior to today, what is the tour group doing while the optional excursions are going and now we know the answer is nothing. The guide, the bus and driver will leave you wherever it is convenient for them. It is not at all clear that it will be convenient for us. I had decided before arrival that I was not interested in the majority of the options, but after the ridiculous morning of forced sales spiel, I balked at booking any of them. Carol has never been to Europe before and so I think she booked 3, Mom booked 1 and Clay & I zero. After he started the morning on the bus by announcing that everyone will visit Eagle's Nest in the morning because it will be too inconvenient and time-consuming for us to bring the bus back to the hotel before going on to Vienna tomorrow. That just rubbed me wrong because we didn't pay over $3K a head to be at his convenience, we paid for him to be at ours. Evidently at least 4 other people felt that way because he muttered a lot about it to the local guide but they decided he had to let us sleep in, eat a late breakfast or whatever we wanted to do and he had to come back for us. I believe he felt he was retaliating by announcing to the bus that those people will have to haul their own luggage out to the bus tomorrow and forfeit porterage. I promise you that the Trafalgar sales information does not frame their tours and options in this context. I have a bad feeling this is going to get worse and not better as the tour progresses because there are days with up to 3 optional tours going! If he carried on like this over 1 optional tour, I cringe to think about those busier optional days. Oh well, live and learn. We will never to another Trafalgar Tour and would certainly never recommend them.
Back to today. As I said earlier, we crossed several borders and our guide never made a single announcement about it. We figured out Germany because they had something resembling border security and we were using Clay's smartphone GPS to track our location since we weren't getting any "guidance" from our tour director. He does a poor job when he does explain something and he always waits to start until it is time to unload the bus when he should just be telling us what time and where to be back. Lunch today was at a truck stop cafeteria called Rosenburger.They serve traditional Austrian food. Stephane told us about some dishes to look for after dinner tonight. Not too timely. He told us before lunch toilets would be free at places where we ate. He told us after lunch that wasn't true here but you could use your toilet receipt to apply the cost to your purchase. That was true, but not timely information since it was too late to be useful. Our schedule was delayed all day because we left Zurich about 30 minutes late because about 1/3 of the bags were not collected until after our scheduled departure time. He blamed the hotel and staff for all of today's difficulties but he bore a greater part of responsibility than he gave himself and he still should have recovered and moved on and quit blaming everything that went badly today on the Radisson Blu!
Today bags out at 6:45am, breakfast was to start at 6:45am but most of us were there earlier without a problem for the hotel. The bus was to leave at 7:30am but didn't til about 8am. We drove through a varied and spectacular landscape today. Leaving Zurich we hadn't driven long before entering a 15km tunnel! They were still growing a lot of corn leaving Zurich for Liechtenstein. We got to Liechtenstein after 9am and had about 30 minutes there to use the restrooms,, pay to get a tourism stamp in our passports and wander. It was what I was expecting from the capital city of a small principality, unlike Luxembourg. There was no HOHO bus here but a little fake train like in Monaco. I saw it twice while off the bus! During the afternoon we entered Germany, We drove for a while beside Lake Chiemsee which started a long lecture on King Ludwig and his palaces, none of which we'll visit on this tour.Too weird.
We arrived in Salzburg around 4pm. We were late and had a local guide scheduled. Stephane is not licensed to guide in Austria or Italy, I believe he said to explain the local guides in the itinerary. We did not have time now to check in and stow our belongings, but were past due a pee break. So he had us rush in to use the hotel facilities which we overwhelmed the 2 toilets! They unloaded the checked bags and Stephane picked up our keys, so people could drop out of the tour at will. We all got maps of Salzburg with the hotel marked by Christina our local guide and our keys and the bus took us to Mirabell Garden. It was stunning. The city is Baroque and beautiful. It is famous as the birthplace of Mozart and for the filming of scenes from the movie Sound of Music. We walked by I believe Mozart's 1st leased house, over a key-laden pedestrian bridge into Old Town. We walked through tunnels in buildings and down pedestrian areas and saw Mozart's birth house, University Place, through a fruit market, to the Dom and Residenzplatz, around to the Mozart Statue. It was a hot but short 1 hour tour. I don't know if was always only supposed to be 1 hour but it seemed like the guide kept talking about what she was skipping due to our time constraints. Who knows? They left us there with instructions to be back less than 2 hours later at 7:20pm because our driver was doing us a huge favor by volunteering to pick us up on the main street by the last bridge in town to drive us back to the hotel before risking a ticket by driving past 7:30pm. We all either had to get back to the bus or else carry all our self-stowed carry-ons all afternoon! All this didn't get decided until the bus stopped in front of the hotel for our pee break! This was our first time in Salzburg and I'm glad we got to see it. I'll also be really glad to sleep in tomorrow, have a late breakfast and drag my suitcase downstairs myself after 11am. The Austria Trend Europa Hotel is not as nice as the Radisson Blu (which I now expect to be the anomaly hotel!) but we won't be on the bus or on our feet! We spent our free time hunting down dinner in Old Town. We had planned an inexpensive place near the hotel but that wouldn't work now. Christina told us about Mozart Nockerl, a meringue dessert and I really wanted that, but she could find that any close restaurants served it. She sent us to a place further afield that she knew served it, but when we arrived around 6pm, they told us they couldn't take us without a reservation. Too bad. We tried a couple more places but it was very busy at that time in Old Town, all the casual places were closing for the day and everything was about half again as expensive as the place we'd picked before arriving. Finally, a drinks and snacks place that seated us and then told us they had stopped serving food referred us to Saran in the distance. It was good food and good service if more than we'd thought to spend. It is Europe, but it just chaps to be charged for water! The quest for ice is still nearly a full time job!
Good night! Tomorrow we arrive in Vienna for 2 nights.
Pictures
Sunday, July 15, 2018
And back to Zurich
Pictures
We were all up around 5an today for an early departure from Luxembourg. We had our Ibis Sytles included breakfast and checked out. Clay & I went to retrieve the car/SUV from the Fort Weddell car park garage and discovered it cost us $47!
We drove around the block to return to Ibis for the luggage and the ladies and in minutes were out of Luxembourg city. We took the same route back to Zurich as we had made Friday night/Saturday morning but today in bright sunshine it was scenic. We must have passed through France's corn belt! We also saw cauliflower (maybe?), hops, grapes, hay, sunflowers and tobacco. We saw some small French deer in a field. We saw at least 3 storks. We saw Germany. We stopped at a gas station/rest area in Longeville, so Mom & Carol both got a new country. We saw Germany across a river but as we'd been delayed over 15 minutes at the Swiss border there was no time to zip over for a new country for them both. Too bad. They saw it!
We returned the car full of gas about 15 minutes before our 1pm deadline. We checked into the Radisson Blu, our 1st Trafalgar hotel about 1:30pm. They had our rooms ready on the 4th floor. At 2:30pm, we meet Stephane our guide in the lobby and ride the bus into Zurich proper. We will get a tour, free time and a light meal and back to the hotel at 8:30pm and good night.
Tomorrow we visit Lichtenstein on our way to Salzburg Austria for an overnight there.
We had about 15 minutes drive each way to and from central Zurich. It is a beautiful old city with a river and a lake. After a severe but brief storm passed through after a particularly hot afternoon, the skies cleared and you could see snow-capped Alps beyond the lake. We had about an hour's guided walking tour with our guide this trip, a Frenchman named Stephane. It was a grueling walk up and down stairs, ramps, and narrow alleys. We ended between an equestrian statue and a church, Fraumunster. Fraumunster has a set of Chagall stained glass windows. We had about 1.5 hours of free time and headed in there at 5 $, Euros or Swiss Francs per person. Clay paid for us all in order to break a 100 Swiss Franc note. The windows were breathtaking. Sorry, no photos allowed! We left for Storchen Hotel's outdoor riverside bar for Clay to have ice cream. Carol stayed at the first riverside bench instead. The storm hit right after the 3 of us sat down on that riverside bench with our ice creams. We ran under the Storchen canopy. Clay and I decided to pay to sit there with drinks and Mom went back to join Carol. At the end of the storm, the wind really blew hard and sent the umbrellas from the next door cafe tumbleweeding down the way into the hotel's canopy area. It was terrifying and dramatic as people who had been cowering under those umbrellas and the canopy scrambled out of the way as they tangled and piled up right beside our table 2 in. Fortunately, it blew through right as the time approached to rejoin the group for dinner. We reloaded the bus and drove about 10 minutes to Linde-Oberstrass restaurant where we had a fixed dinner in a private upstairs group. Not everyone in our group has arrived yet but it is a big group of over 40 people. We had 2 drinks each of beer or wine, water, salad, lamb or vegetarian ravioli and lemon sorbet with tea or coffee. It was fine, not great. The group size is bigger than we'd hoped but it is probably less than the published max of 51.
We have an early start tomorrow, so good night.
Pictures
We were all up around 5an today for an early departure from Luxembourg. We had our Ibis Sytles included breakfast and checked out. Clay & I went to retrieve the car/SUV from the Fort Weddell car park garage and discovered it cost us $47!
We drove around the block to return to Ibis for the luggage and the ladies and in minutes were out of Luxembourg city. We took the same route back to Zurich as we had made Friday night/Saturday morning but today in bright sunshine it was scenic. We must have passed through France's corn belt! We also saw cauliflower (maybe?), hops, grapes, hay, sunflowers and tobacco. We saw some small French deer in a field. We saw at least 3 storks. We saw Germany. We stopped at a gas station/rest area in Longeville, so Mom & Carol both got a new country. We saw Germany across a river but as we'd been delayed over 15 minutes at the Swiss border there was no time to zip over for a new country for them both. Too bad. They saw it!
We returned the car full of gas about 15 minutes before our 1pm deadline. We checked into the Radisson Blu, our 1st Trafalgar hotel about 1:30pm. They had our rooms ready on the 4th floor. At 2:30pm, we meet Stephane our guide in the lobby and ride the bus into Zurich proper. We will get a tour, free time and a light meal and back to the hotel at 8:30pm and good night.
Tomorrow we visit Lichtenstein on our way to Salzburg Austria for an overnight there.
We had about 15 minutes drive each way to and from central Zurich. It is a beautiful old city with a river and a lake. After a severe but brief storm passed through after a particularly hot afternoon, the skies cleared and you could see snow-capped Alps beyond the lake. We had about an hour's guided walking tour with our guide this trip, a Frenchman named Stephane. It was a grueling walk up and down stairs, ramps, and narrow alleys. We ended between an equestrian statue and a church, Fraumunster. Fraumunster has a set of Chagall stained glass windows. We had about 1.5 hours of free time and headed in there at 5 $, Euros or Swiss Francs per person. Clay paid for us all in order to break a 100 Swiss Franc note. The windows were breathtaking. Sorry, no photos allowed! We left for Storchen Hotel's outdoor riverside bar for Clay to have ice cream. Carol stayed at the first riverside bench instead. The storm hit right after the 3 of us sat down on that riverside bench with our ice creams. We ran under the Storchen canopy. Clay and I decided to pay to sit there with drinks and Mom went back to join Carol. At the end of the storm, the wind really blew hard and sent the umbrellas from the next door cafe tumbleweeding down the way into the hotel's canopy area. It was terrifying and dramatic as people who had been cowering under those umbrellas and the canopy scrambled out of the way as they tangled and piled up right beside our table 2 in. Fortunately, it blew through right as the time approached to rejoin the group for dinner. We reloaded the bus and drove about 10 minutes to Linde-Oberstrass restaurant where we had a fixed dinner in a private upstairs group. Not everyone in our group has arrived yet but it is a big group of over 40 people. We had 2 drinks each of beer or wine, water, salad, lamb or vegetarian ravioli and lemon sorbet with tea or coffee. It was fine, not great. The group size is bigger than we'd hoped but it is probably less than the published max of 51.
We have an early start tomorrow, so good night.
Pictures
Saturday, July 14, 2018
In Luxembourg
Mall of America Pictures
Luxembourg Pictures
My 83rd country! But I also got countries 82 (Switzerland) and 81 (Iceland) in the past couple of days. We're here, but it hasn't been easy getting here. But let me start where I left off in Minneapolis. We enjoyed our day at the Mall of America, but it was a long day on our feet and turned out to be a hard start. MOA is crazy! There is not currently a drug store in there, but there is an aquarium and an amusement park. Go figure? We found the watch batteries we were seeking, had lunch at the Shack Shack (pretty good) and Mom bought a pair of kid's Merrells sandals. It was pay your age day at Build-a-Bear and the number of kids queued up was astonishing.
We all arrived early at Terminal 2 at MSP where we met Mom's friend Carol. Things were looking good with the plane coming in from Reykjavik on time for us. About 20 minutes before it landed at Gate H5 where we waited, MSP airport shut down due to the leading edge of a cold front coming through with high wind, hail, rain and lightening. It looked like it would last severely for 15 minutes and be over, but no it was extended to 45 minutes and that caused the inbound flight to divert to Duluth to refuel. It made our departure delayed by 3 hours. That meant that we were not going to make our connection to Zurich in Iceland. As promised, Iceland Air rerouted us while we were in the air and sent an email. Unless you were in Saga Class with free wifi, or opted to pay for wifi in air though, you wouldn't know it. Keflavik Airport seemed disorganized and understaffed. If we hadn't been in Saga Class with access to the Lounge, it is not clear we'd have made the new connection either. Mom had asked me in MSP to ask at the gate counter to link our reservations so we could stay together and that made all the difference. We continued to fall further behind schedule though. Mom wound up getting an upgrade and Carol got left behind. I don't know why since the counter agent had turned my 80 year old Mother and her equally aged friend are traveling with us and we need to stay together despite the different fare classes into my aged parents. Um, is friend a code word meaing something else in Minnesota? I just went with it and it helped us out. After we passed the Schengen border entry, we lucked out with a helpful woman in the Saga Lounge who got our new SAS boarding passes printed for us and then gave us timely and accurate step by step advice on our next steps. We had a quick break in the lounge and then down to baggage claim where we now had to pick up our luggage, go through customs, re-enter security and go to the ticketing area to recheck our bags. It was all only self-service for SAS and it wasn't clear we were doing everything correctly. I had a hell of a time finding ice in Iceland! We finally lined up at a gate which was just a long corral to the jetway door and Clay watched what he swore was one of our rolling duffels being removed and driven away from our plane. I saw the bag but not the context. It created a panic over when or if we'd any of us see our luggage again. This flight was to, wait for it, Oslo. I know, not quite on the way to Zurich again! We made it and had a 2 hour layover for a final flight to Zurich. Take off from Oslo was when we had been scheduled to arrive by car in Luxembourg! We landed in Zurich and our bags were there! Relief! Now we finally had to make a decision about what to do before joining our Trafalgar Tour on Sunday afternoon. Clay & I had prepaid the rental car and 2 nights at the Ibis Styles Gare Hotel in Luxembourg which made more sense with a 5 hour daytime sightseeing drive. Now our drive would be between 10 pm and 2:30am. The argument for continuing with the plan was that it was already paid for (about $82 per night per room double occupany with included breakfast) and a replacement plan closer to Zurich would be much more expensive plus the loss of the prepaid plan. Clay had been sleeping a lot on planes and offered to go ahead and drive. We all soldiered on. We picked up and loaded up a Renault Grand Scenic and set off. Bonus was that we drove through France and saw hours of Bastille Day fireworks as Friday the 13th turned into Saturday July 14th.
We were all exhausted when we arrived at the Ibis Styles. Clay & I have enjoyed Ibis Hotels throughout Europe. They are usually centrally located, inexpensive, clean and serve a basic functionality. I just saw Ibis when we booked this and didn't bother investigating that Ibis Styles is a more petite cousin brand! The 2 rooms are comically small. Still clean and basic and centrally located and very affordable. I probably wouldn't have picked it if I'd realized though. We all slept like stones and making the last hour from 10 to 11am of our included breakfast buffet was a challenge.
We seem to have been in a heat wave everywhere and today was no exception. Bright sun, hot and humid. It is summer and it seems everywhere experiences extremes anymore. We had a loose plan to ride the HOHO bus today. We did finally make a couple of laps, but it wasn't easy. I thought there was a pickup right in front of the train station and there was right across from the end of Rue Joseph Junck, but we didn't find it. Clay thought it was elsewhere and we looked there unsuccessfully. The hotel clerk told him yet somewhere else and she was wrong but while standing there we saw a lime green doubledecker bus across the bus lot right where we'd started. We ran across and got tickets and boarded. The upstairs didn't have enough available seats. We stayed down, but it was unbearably hot and we couldn't sit toghether and find working audio jacks for commentary. It turned out it didn't matter because after about 4 stops our bus had to unload and transfer to one behind it. We wound up at the back of a huge scrum and had the same problems downstairs. We finally got organized with working audio all around when we realized we couldn't really see anything from inside downstairs. It took 3 tries to snag upstairs seats with working audio for 3 (Mom & Carol shared a headset) and so we committed to a 2nd circuit and hoped we didn't get forced off again. Luxembourg is small, diverse with a lot of construction. It is seedier than I expected but we arrived and walked the streets near the hotel/station at 3am on Saturday to learn that there is an active sex business in Luxembourg. That was a surprise.
We are all in our rooms resting now. We plan to eat Italian close by at Vapiano at 6pm. (It was way too complicated and we didn't enjoy it much besides the very pleasant hostess.) We plan to buy a small bag of ice on the way back to Ibis and early to bed for a 7am departure back to Zurich tomorrow. The store where we found the 2-lb. bag of ice cubes for about 2 Euros, Clay thought closed at 8pm, but it closed at 7pm. We walked a few blocks in hope and found a larger grocery that was on the verge of closing. It had the same ice or crushed ice for a few cents less. Success! Everyone was very excited. We had not had any ice all day except the few cubes I got this morning. There is a story! The Ibis has ice individually packaged in plastic blisters. They are a nightmare! You can't get them out and all the handling melts them. I got one sheet last night and one this morning and I hated to have to beg another since we all hated that ice almost as much as no ice at all!
So we're back on track! Hopefully by tomorrow morning we'll have all acclimated to the time changes we've been through. If an 8 hour diversion through Oslo is the worst thing that happens on this trip, we'll be pleased.
Mall of America Pictures
Luxembourg Pictures
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
On our way to Zurich
I am writing this from the Quality Inn & Suites Mall of America. Probably not what you think of immediately as on the way to Zurich. But here we are for tonight with Mom. Clay and I flew into MSP on AA via Philadelphia. We flew 1st class. The jet from RDU was an Airbus 319 and the very small 1st class was really nice and roomy. The jet from Philly was an Embraer. It was smaller with a larger 1st class section the was not nice and roomy. It was closer in seat size and pitch to most Premium Economy sections. They did serve us a nice lunch though. The real downside was the man directly behind Clay who coughed a terrible persistent cough the whole flight. Unless he had emphysema or something, he was probably sick which means in 7 days we'll be sick and then before we get home Mom & Carol will be sick! Fingers crossed he had some other health issue and not an infection! Mom flew Southwest through St. Louis. We were all on time and Mom had to take a light rail to get from terminal 2 to terminal 1 to meet us after 3pm. This Quality Inn runs a complimentary shuttle to and from the airport and to and from the Mall of America.
We had dinner at the Denny's that adjoined the Quality Inn so that was convenient. Mom and I had country fried steak, a rare treat. They had a 55+ Senior menu so we saved quite a bit of money for our huge meals. Clay had the tilapia. It was a lot of food and no one could face dessert.
We plan to watch a HBO movie and go to bed early. Breakfast is complimentary tomorrow from 7 to 9am. We are booked on the 925:am shuttle to the Mall of America. They will hold our luggage here behind the hotel desk. We are booked on the 2:35pm shuttle back to get our bags. We are booked on the 3:55pm shuttle back to MSP Terminal 2 to meet Carol for our Iceland Air flights tomorrow night. On our way to Zurich.
We had dinner at the Denny's that adjoined the Quality Inn so that was convenient. Mom and I had country fried steak, a rare treat. They had a 55+ Senior menu so we saved quite a bit of money for our huge meals. Clay had the tilapia. It was a lot of food and no one could face dessert.
We plan to watch a HBO movie and go to bed early. Breakfast is complimentary tomorrow from 7 to 9am. We are booked on the 925:am shuttle to the Mall of America. They will hold our luggage here behind the hotel desk. We are booked on the 2:35pm shuttle back to get our bags. We are booked on the 3:55pm shuttle back to MSP Terminal 2 to meet Carol for our Iceland Air flights tomorrow night. On our way to Zurich.
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