Austria September 2017

Summary Notes for Trip

It's Wednesday, October 12 and we've been home for 1 day.  Here are some summary notes of our visit to Barcelona and France. 

Barcelona

We really enjoyed our visits to the Gaudi architectural treasures and the Modernisme architecture in Barcelona that is so uniquely Catalunya.   

The tapas bars were a great adventure.  Food was good everywhere except for one bad dining experience we had.  The restaurant was rated in the bottom 10% of 1,800 restaurants in Barcelona.  Of course, we didn’t know this until we looked it up on www.tripadvisor.com after a terrible meal.  But, that was the only bad dining experience on the entire trip.   

We got used to eating at 9:00pm or later and not getting to bed until after midnight.  What a sudden switch when we got to France.    

Not much else in Barcelona besides Gaudi, the architecture and shopping.  The beaches are supposedly great but we didn’t see them.  The metro and bus system works fine and gets you most everywhere.  We used it every day. 

France

Our visit to France, including our 2,000 kilometer drive from Provence to Dijon through the many country roads (and toll roads), small villages and towns was packed with pastoral countrysides, agriculture, vineyards and a lot of scenery.  However, the French are the French.  So here are the notes. 

French menus are mostly in French.  Only occasionally will you see English included. 

Water is not served with any meal.  All restaurants do sell bottled liters of Evian, Vittel or other brands of water for €5.50-€6.0 per bottle ($7.33-$8.00).  Big rip-off but you have little choice other than to drink the local water.  You can buy a 1.5 liter of Evian in a large plastic bottle at any petrol station on the highway for €1.6 ($2.13) but you can’t bring your own water into the restaurant.  At least we didn’t see people doing it.    

Restaurants and cafes serve bread but you always have to ask for butter.  It is not normally served automatically with the bread or rolls.  They all brought us butter 

It seems to be quite OK to bring your dog into the restaurant with you.  We had dogs next to us twice in three days during our recent journey in France (once in Chamonix and once in Beaune).  And, these were very nice restaurants. 

For bedding, you get a bottom sheet and a duvet.  That’s it.  No top sheet in between.  It’s certainly warm enough but it really makes you wonder if they really change the duvet covers between guests.  In the nicer hotels, I’m OK, but in the really cheap ones, I say again, it makes me wonder. 

For room rates, €110 or so gets you a basic room.  Small, clean and comfortable and shower only.  In Avignon, our room rate was €85.  This hotel is #1 on www.tripadvisor.com and with Rick Steves but again, very basic.  In Chamonix, we paid €110 and we had a wonderful small basic room with a deck.  In both Avignon and Chamonix, we had wonderful owners who were most helpful.  In Beaune, again €110 and very, very basic.  This was a room in the Ibis hotel chain.  Double bed (two twin mattresses together), chair, small table for computer, small closet with no door, a shower (no tub) and two skimpy bath towels.   Very clean but not too much investment in this room. 

Only one of the hotels in which we stayed included breakfast with their room rate.  So much for the “bed and breakfast” notion.  Yes, most did have breakfast but you paid extra for it.  Costs for breakfast ranged from €6.50-€14 ($8.66-$18.66).  These are continental breakfasts that include coffee, rolls and some pastry.  No bacon, ham or eggs.  In Barcelona, we had breakfast in a very nice bar for about €20-€25 for both of us.  The breakfast in our hotel was more expensive.  (Note that “Bar” in Barcelona is almost a synonym for café.  Many serve breakfast in the morning and tapas in the afternoon/evening/late night). 

The whole blasted country closes from 11:00am to 2:00pm.  Stores close.  The cafes only seem to serve coffee, wine, egg dishes, crepe dishes and pastries.  The McDonalds that you come across are packed.  Wonder why. 

You don’t get eggs for breakfast.  Even McDonald’s doesn’t have any breakfast items on their menu except coffee, rolls and pastry. 

Although we only ate at McDonald’s one time, they do have the Le M burger.  Really neat name.  Also, they use French cheese and Dijon mustard on their hamburgers.  What an improvement. 

Food is expensive in France.  We averaged at about $100/day until we reached our Hilton hotel in Paris where we could eat in the Executive Club for free.  You can only eat those lunch meat sandwiches so long.  They’re very good in some places but you’re in France.    

By all means, buy the Paris museum pass if you intend to visit Versailles and other museums.  You can buy it in advance and have it sent to you before you depart for Europe.  A 2-day pass is 35Euro.  A 4-day pass is 50Euro.  There is no 3-day pass.  It’s really worth it in terms of cost and the shorter lines.  Pass holders can enter through a separate line which walks right past the long ticket lines.  At some locations, the security line and not the ticket line will hold you up.   

Throughout France, we noticed that there were literally no American-made cars.  We did see a very few European-model Fords and Chevrolets.  Even worse, we saw absolutely no hybrids.  Not one Toyota Prius did we see.  What a shock for a Californian.  The primary cars that we saw everywhere in France were made in France – Peugeot, Citroen and Renault.  The most popular foreign car appeared to be VW.  And, not the VW beetle either.  Very few of those.  Our rental car was a VW Passat. 

About a third of our 2,000 kilometers in the car were on toll roads.  They are reportedly some of the most expensive in Europe.  I haven’t finished the calculations yet but it seemed to run about €0.07 per kilometer.  On one long drive of about 200 kilometers, we paid €14.90 ($19.96). 


A GPS with European maps is really essential.  Our Garmin Nuvi worked just great and only had us turning right off of a bridge into a river twice.  Just use common sense. 


Highway and road signage in France is exceptional.  It's really good and informative. 

Finally, in Paris, the metro works great.  We used it often.  Our issue was with the stairs.  Stairs everywhere.  A typical metro run that included 1 train change could involve 150-200 stairs up and down.  2 train changes could increase that total to almost 300 stairs up and down.  I counted them.  Some RER stations have some escalators but usually not to all levels.  The best metro station we found was the Madeleine stop.  Escalators and elevators that worked.  Great shopping at the Madeleine stop as well. 

Day Fourteen France - Paris (10/9/2011)

Today is Sunday, October 9, 2011.  This is our last full day in France, Paris and our entire vacation.  We've accomplished most of our agenda for Paris and it should be an easy day.  It's raining lightly in Paris this morning.  In all of our years of traveling, Mary and I have not dealt with much rain.  In Venice, we had a 15 minute downpour.  Same on this trip in Paris.  After the heavy cloudbursts, it always clears up.  We have never had to use umbrellas.  Today looks different although it's supposed to let up slightly this afternoon.  So, we stayed in the room until noon before venturing out. 

We wanted to see two things today.  1) the Eiffel Tower and, 2) Nortre Dame.  We've been close to them during our last 3 days but not close enough for a good visit.  Off we go to the Eiffel Tower.  Mary and I have both been to the top before but it was a good time to do it again. 

Once there, we decided to pay the 13.40 Euro and go to the top.  I believe the Eiffel Tower is covered by the Paris Museum Pass (at least the top is but not the two lower levels) but our pass expired yesterday.   We encounted long lines at 4 different places.  1) the main ticket line, 2) the 2nd level as you transfer elevators to go to the top, 3) at the top to come down and, 4) again at the 2nd level to change elevators and come down.  About 90 minutes worth of lines.   The weather was overcast but it wasn't raining.  Here are several pictures of our Eiffel Tower journey today.

After coming down, it was 4:30pm.  It was getting late and we decided to forego the metro to Notre Dame.  Instead we returned to the Hotel.  At 6:15pm, we had our last free meal in the Hilton Executive Club for this trip. 

It's now 8:00pm and we are now beginning to back for our 6:30am departure tomorrow morning to the airport (CDG).  Our flight isn't until 11:00 am but we want to take a taxi to avoid the multiple metro and RER changes. 

There will be a summary to these trip reports.  I want to wait first to see the credit card and Schwab bills to finalize the costs.  Also, I will be updating a separate spreadsheet that I keep that lists all of our expenses.  That's it for the trip reports. 

Day Thirteen France - Paris (10/8/2011)

Today is Saturday, October 8, 2011.  This is our thirteenth day in France and our 3rd full day in Paris.  Today, we have four things on our agenda.  1) Tour the Musee d'Orsay, 2) Tour Saint-Chappelle, 3) Go to Laurent DuBois to buy cheese for me and, 4) A chocolate shop for Mary.  

Off we go about 10:30 to the Musee d'Orsay.  You won't see any pictures because picture taking of any type in this museum is forbidden.  Outside of a special small area in the Lourve, this is the first museum we have encountered where you couldn't take pictures. 

The Musee d'Orsay was OK.  The top two of the four floors are under renovaiton and we suspect that most of the treasures up there are still there and have not been moved.  However, we did see some great Van Gogh and Gauguin paintings.  We saw only a few Monet paintings.  Also, we saw a lot of the dot painting by the renaissance painters.  We were in the museum for about 2.5 hours. 

Now we're off to Saint-Chappelle.  We encounter our first escalator down to the RER train station.  Imagine that.  No 70 stairs down.  Saint-Chappelle was built by the Louis IX who is the only french king to become a saint.  We even have a city named after him - St. Louis.  This church was built to house the crown of thorns.  It is a classic gothic church.  Reportedly, the king paid more for the supposed crown of thorns than he did to build the church.  Our museum pass worked great.  They came through single long ticket line looking for pass holders and we went directly inside.  Here are a few pictures. 

 

We then decided to walk to the cheese and chocolate places.  They were in the Latin Quarter and only about 6 blocks away.  We went first to the chocoate shop.  Mary was not pleased on two fronts.  First, the sales people, were inattentive.  They don't even acknowledge that you are in there.  They're stocking shelves and talking to each other.  We have found this in several business establishments in France.  Second, Mary didn't see anything special about the chocolates.  We left to look for another shop.  However, there was one thing in this shop that just blew us away.  Here's a picture. 

Chocolate Gorilla

We left this chocolate shop and headed for Fromagerie DuBois.  Laurent DuBois has won the title of best cheesemaker in France.  (They don't call them cheesemakers in France but I can't find the word.  I want to say they are called "refiners" but I'm not sure).  This was a treat.  We were after some cheeses for daughter-in-law Lora who loves cheese and has French cheeses in her European grocery store in Lawrence, Kansas (called Au Marche).  Here are pictures of the cheese shop. 

Yes, Lora, we did buy some cheese.  They vacuum pack the cheeses and we are supposed to put them in checked luggage and not our carry-on which should be a clue.  We'll have to be cautious coming back into the U.S.  But, we'll see.  We've got the cheese in the small refrigerator in our room.  It will be the last thing packed just before we leave the room. 

Now for the big treat.  The lady in the cheese shop recommended that the best place for chocolate in Paris was La Maison du Chocolat on Boulevard de Madeleine.  We went to the Madeleine metro stop and OMG escalators and elevators - a second rare treat in the same day.  We did find the chocolate shop and here is a picture of Mary outside the shop.  Great chocolate. 

Back onto the metro and back to the hotel. 

Day Nine & Ten France - Dijon (10/4 & 10/5)

To be completed

Day Twelve France - Paris (10/7/11)

Today is Friday, October 7, 2011.  This is our twelve day in France and our second full day in Paris.  We're off to Versailles for the morning and the Lourve this afternoon.  It's a lot of walking and touring and time on the RER and metro but we purchased a 2-day museum pass and we need to squeeze things in a bit. 

We found out that the metro is just the metro but the RER is a train that runs under the city.  There are several RER runs.  Like London, there are transit zones.  Your typical ticket seems to cover zones 1 and 2.  If you go out further, you pay extra.  The zone 1 and 2 ticket also works on the bus and RER trains within the two zones.  Versailles is in zone 4 so you will pay extra.  The round trip ticket cost from zone 1 or 2 to Versailles was 6.60Euro on this date. 


So off we go to Versailles.  From our hotel to the Versaillle Rive-Gauche station took most of an hour.  Also, you have to make sure that you are on the right train.  First, you want to be on the RER C line.  But, the big surprise is that the RER C line splits on the way out to Versailles and you could be on the wrong train.  There are monitors in the stations that announce the trains and show the stops when the train comes into the station.  Also, the train runs have names that also appear on the monitor.  Any train name that begings with V will go to Versailles.  Our train run name was VICK.  Here's what you will see on the monitor.

Once at the Versailles train station, it took about 10 minutes to walk to the palace.  Very nice walk.  Below is our first look at Versailles.  The whole complex is absolutely massive.  Those big rusty tall things out front are some type of art work that I don't think Louis IV would approve of.  But somebody did. 

First Look at Versailles

Of course we have Mary and Larry at Versailles

Once you go inside the palace, you are in a 1-way walking tour.  We were in there for two hours and only saw the palace.  We didnt see some of the outlying large buildngs that were included with out pass.  We really saw enough.  For early October, the crowd was large.  Not quite bumping into each other but hundreds and hundreds of people.  I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer months. 

Upon exiting, we took Rick Steve's advice and had lunch in the Cafe d'Orleans which is inside the gate but outside the main palace.  Quiche and a Coke light.  Not bad.  27Euro.  Food is expensive everywhere.  This was not out of line for cost. 

Now, we're reversing our travel and we're off to the Lourve.  Again, about an hour to get there.  Both of us have been to the Lourve before and this time, it wasn't as special as before.  First, we toured the Denon wing along the river.  Almost all Italian painters from 1450 through 1650.  It's the same type of paintings that you see at the Ufizzi in Florence - mostly all Madonna con il Bambino.  Everything is renaissance religious.  Of course, we did see the Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo again.  Can't miss those.  Big crowds around those displays.  We didn't take many pictures (which you can do with no flash) as there are thousands of paintings.  However, here are a couple. 

Mary and Mona

Mona Lisa

My Venus and Somebody Else's Venus

Arch de Triomphe du Carrousel with Lighted Eiffel Tower in Background

It was getting dark so we took a taxi back to the hotel.  The taxi at 8Euro sure beats 300 up and down stairs involved with taking the metro back to our hotel.  That's it for today.  

Day Eleven France - Paris (10/6/11)

Today is Thursday October 6, 2011.  How nice to be in our nice Hilton hotel.  And, BANDWIDTH.  I finally have bandwidth to upload pictures. 

Mary and I went up for our free breakfast at about 9:30am.  EGGS.  Can you believe it?  The French don't seem to have eggs for breakfast.  I had bacon as well.  OMG bacon.  As a side note on bacon, the French only half-cook it or conversely, it's half raw.  I had to pick through to find the few over cooked pieces that nobody else wanted.  But, it was still good. 

Our plan today is to take the metro to the Arc de Triomphe, walk down the Champs Elysees, visit the Musée de l'Orangerie, walk down rue de Rivoli past the Louve and onto E. Dehillerin, a world-famous cookware store. 

Off we go to the metro.  At the small metro stop, we encountered great difficulty in purchasing a ticket.  We just didn't know how to work the machines.  Of course, there was a ticket window but there was nobody there.  Finally, we saw others use the machines and an nice lady explained to us in English how they work.  We were able to buy two single metro tickets for one ride each.  We went to the Charles de Gaulle-Etoile station (Arc de Triomphe).  At this much larger metro station, we did find a friendly person at the ticket window and purchased two carnets (10 tickets).  I thought that the tickets would be in a booklet or something but no, a carnet is 10 loose tickets.   

Out we come from the metro station and the Arc de Triumphe is right in front of us.  Here is our first picture. 

To get to the Arc de Triomphe, you cannot cross the street to get to it.  Way too much traffic.  What you do is go down some stairs to a tunnel that goes under the street and then you go up some stairs to the Arc plaza.  Not too bad.  We took lots of pictures including one of the permanent flame.  Here are a few pictures including a self-taken picture of Mary and me. 

Tunnel Under Champs Elysees to Get to the Arc de Triomphe

So now we want to go up to the top to take pictures.  €9.50 per person.  Then, after you buy the ticket, they tell you there is no lift.  It's all stairs up and down.  Here's the report on the stairs.  First, here's a picture of the stairwell. 

Arc de Triomphe Stariwell Looking Down From The 1st Mezzanine

To get to the point where the above picture was taken, you climb 195 steps (I counted them).  Then, you walk up another 33 stairs to the next level.  Nothing really to see on either of these two levels.  Then, to get to the rooftop, you climb another 46 stairs.  Total stairs up = 274. 

Now were on the roof of the Arc de Triomphe.  It's really a great 360-degree view.  Below are some pictures.   

After the picture taking, it was time to walk down 274 stairs.  At the top, we did find an elevator.  However, as seems to be usual in France, it was Out of Order.  For how long?  Who knows. 

Actually, there were 272 going down.  Add it the 52 stairs twice in the tunnel under the street and we walked up and down 648 stairs to see the top of the Arc de Triomphe. 

With slightly sore feet and ankles, off we go down the Champs Elysees.  Nothing but shops, sidwalk cafes and a couple of hotels all the way down to the Musée de l'Orangerie.  Really interesting stuff, however.  The major French car companies (Citroen, Renault and Peugeot) all have beautiful image showrooms along the boulevard.  Here is a picture of Mary with her new Peugeot.  It was really sporty. 

 

While in the Peugeot store, there was a sudden cloudburst of rain.  Everybody on the street rushed into the stores for cover.  It was really a hard rain and really windy.  Umbrellas were blown apart.  About 15 minutes later, the rain subsided enough for us to continue. 

While walking down the boulevard, we found shops suggested by daughter-in-law Lora.  Here are pictures of two. 

It took us awhile to get to the l'Orangerie museum.  It was really a long walk.  But, what a treat.  Monet, Cezzane, Renoir and others.  What a spectacular showing of Monet's murals of his lillie pond on the entire walls of two rooms.  Here are a few pictures. 

Then of course, we saw the numerous portraits of the nude women frolicking or in repose.  These were dark-haired women.  I have a question.  Did women shave there legs in the late 1800s or were the painters just really kind in not painting in the hair on their legs.  They don't have hairy legs in the paintings.  Just curious.


Now, we're walking down the rue de Rivoli to the cookware store.  As it turned out, it was a good 40 minute walk.  As we walk by the shops, you occasionlly walk by a chocloate or pastry shop.  There are lots of them everywhere we have gone in France.  Here are a couple of pictures on one the nicest ones we have seen (at least presentation wise).   No free samples. 

We finally get to E. Dehillerin, the French cookware store.  It's been in business since 1820.  And, it looks it.  They seem to have everything but nothing seems to be organized.  Everything is stuffed from floor to ceiling in shelving that must have been installed sometime in the 1800s.  Amazing.  My immediate thought was that I had stepped into a shop in Diagon Alley out of Harry Potter.  Still, it was stuffed with people all bumping into each other.  Here are a couple of pictures. 

Mary did find something she wanted from there and made the purchase.  Now it's time to return to the hotel.  With all of the stairs and walking, we hailed a taxci and rode back to the hotel.

Now we're off the our free food in the Executive Club.