Hotels

We used Booking.Com a lot and finally learned to specifically name the train station which we wanted to be near. It took some time to learn. We stayed in all kinds of places from privately owned apartments and B&Bs to big chain hotels, modern hotels, a particularly luxurious hotel in Venice, quaint little places with narrow steep stairs (we learned to avoid those). I think my favorite place was in Paris because it was so close to Gare St. Lazare (train station). When we walked out of the station, my GPS said that we had arrived. Can’t get any better than that. The room was small, the shower small, but it was in a perfect location and it had a lift and included breakfast with good croissants, and the Metro was right there along with buses to take us wherever we wanted to go in Paris.

 Another favorite was the hotel in Calais because it was on the beach. Could have stayed there for a week. 

Residence Montinelli was the room in Trieste that we were trying to get to when we got the bus fine. Needless to say, we were late getting there, and I hadn’t looked at the complicated check-in process on my email. It was a private rental in a big apartment building kind of off the beaten path. When we finally made it to the place, we couldn’t tell which building we were supposed to be at. There were some kind people who lived in the neighborhood who helped us narrow down which building we were supposed to be at. They lived in the neighborhood and even they had a hard time figuring it out. They were kind enough to contact the owner by phone and figured out how to get in the building. They had the advantage of speaking Italian. Then another tenant in the building helped us figure out the complicated process of getting through a security door, getting the keys from the lock box and finally getting into the room. The room was one of 3 rooms in the area with a shared kitchen area for cooking. As it turned out it wasn’t a bad stay though we walked uphill on cobblestones for a couple of blocks every time we came and went. It wasn’t far from the Adriatic coast and there was a nice area with restaurants and outdoor seating and near the bus stop. We learned to use the buses and how to buy passes so our stay in Trieste was pretty nice. It is a beautiful area on the coast. 

Speaking of kind people. We were blessed with meeting many of them on our trip. They helped us get on the right buses and subways and find our hotels. 

 Here are the places we stayed: 

3/31-4/14 – Norwegian Epic cruise ship

4/15-16 – Palazzetto Trevi, Rome 

4/17 –Citizen M, Geneva Switzerland 

4/18 – Hotel Eden Palace du Lac, Montreux, Switzerland 

4/19-20 – Swiss Inn & Apartments, Interlaken, Switzerland 

4/21-22 – Hotel Surselva, Chur, Switzerland

4/23 – Hotel Bed & Rooms, Tirano, Italy 

4/24 – Meininger Hotel, by Mestre Station, Venice, Italy 

4/25 – Pesaro Palace, Venice, Italy (by accident… we thought it was for 2 nights. 

4/26 – Locanda Ca’ Lucrezia, Venice, Italy 

4/27-29 – Residence Montanelli, Trieste, Italy 

4/30 – Hotel Prinz Eugen Wien, Vienna, Austria 

5/1 – Hampton Inn, Oswiecin, Poland 

5/2 - Hotel St. Florian, Sturovo, Slovakia 

5/3 – 5/9 Viking Gullvieg River Cruise, Budapest Hungary, Vienna Austria, Krems Austria and Passau and Regensberg, Germany 

5/10-11 – Hotel Pension Dorma, Berlin Germany 

5/12 – B&B Hotel Emmerich, Germany 

5/13-14 – Rho Hotel, Amsterdam City Center, Netherlands 

5/15 – Hotel Bienvenue, Rotterdam, Netherlands 

5/16-17 – Ibis Hotel, Brussels, Belgium 

5/18 – Hotel Residence du Golf, Calais France 

5/19-20 – One bedroom apartment on Grosvenor Rd., St. Albans, UK

5/21 – Hotel Le Saint Patrice, Bayeau, France 

5/21 – Premiere Classe, Bayeau France 

5/23-25 – Austins St. Lazare Hotel, Paris France

Our Great European Adventure

Our great European Adventure…. Not sure where to start. Maybe from the beginning. We left Texas in the middle of March to come to Minnesota and put our plans into action. We got all our stuff together and packed our bags and flew to Philadelphia on March 27. There we spend a few days hanging out with Kelly. We got to spend an afternoon with Andalusia and Jett. We went to the playground and then found a place to fly some kites that we purchased in Media. It was a lovely afternoon. We went to Chinatown in Philadelphia where we found a few items for Andalusia’s birthday party.

Then on Monday, March 31, we took the commuter train to the Amtrak station where we got on the train to Penn Station. We walked from Penn Station to the cruise terminal and boarded the Norwegian Epic for our transatlantic cruise. We took some amazing nighttime pictures of Manhattan and went to bed. When we woke up, we were still in the harbor so we took some pictures of Manhattan in the morning. Apparently, we needed more fuel for the long voyage. Finally, towards the end of the day, we left the harbor. We were nine days at sea before we finally passed through the Straits of Gibralter.

Manhattan

On the 10th day, we landed at Palma De Majorca, a Spanish Island in the Mediterranean and our European travels commenced. We went on an excursion of “Spectacular Scenery and Tastes” on Majorca. We stopped at Barcelona, Nice, Livorno (Florence), Naples and finally on April 15 at Civitavecchia (Rome) where we disembarked from the ship. We enjoyed a day of walking around Barcelona and seeing sights there. We both came down with an upper respiratory virus and we did a chilly hop-on, hop-off tour in Nice and Naples. That did not help our condition. Don was pretty sick when we got to Florence so we just stayed on the ship. We treated ourselves and slowed down our pace but kept on going. We wore masks in crowded areas and hopefully didn’t spread the virus to too many people. After we disembarked on April 15, we took our first Eurail ride from Civitavecchia to Rome where we found our hotel which was right by Trevi Fountain. We walked to the hotel which was probably not wise as we were both kind of sick. Then we took it easy, doing a Hop on Hop off bus around Rome the following day.

A big beer in Barcelona

The view from Naples

Trevi Fountain

On April 17, we took a high-speed train north to Milan where we changed trains to Zurich and finally to Geneva. We met a young teacher on the train to Zurich and had a wonderful conversation with her about life in Switzerland and shared information with her about the United States. We spent one night in Geneva. We had reservations already made throughout Switzerland so we left the next day for Montreux and then on to Interlaken for 2 nights, and then to Chur for 2 nights. This part of the trip was about the train travel through the Alps and it was breathtaking. Our stay in Montreux was at Hotel Eden Palace du Lac. Our room had a balcony overlooking Lake Geneva and it was amazing. In Chur we took a day to look around the city and while sitting on a park bench in front of a church we met a young woman named Margenna who is a school psychologist in Chur. We visited with her for about an hour and learned much about the city. She directed us to a book store where a local artist had created a children’s book. We found the store and I purchased the book for Andalusia and Jett. Her native language is Romansh, one of four official languages of Switzerland. Besides Romansh, Italian, French and German are also official. Most people also speak English. Switzerland appears to be an amazingly civilized country. All the people appeared to be young, slim, well-dressed and well-groomed. The environment we saw was clean, trimmed and the landscaping was great. There was no litter anywhere except for a lone cigarette butt we observed on a train platform.

Our teacher friend from Zurich

Lake Geneva from our hotel balcony.

A famous painting in Chur.

A gift from a Polish family we met at the train station - chocolate.

From Chur, we took the Bernina Express to Torino, Italy and completed our Swiss Alps tour. We met a couple from Canada on the train and enjoyed a good long conversation. I lost my journal in which I had written some notes and their names so that information is lost. From Torino, we went to Venice where we moved hotels every day due to poor planning on our part. We did a lot of walking through narrow pedestrian streets to get to our first hotel and then figured out how to use the water buses to get around. Venice was crowded and confusing to get around in. We took a gondola ride.

Switzerland from the train

 

The shared kitchen in Trieste

When we left Venice, I said that I wanted to find a place where we could stay for 3 nights and not have to move so I booked a place in Trieste, Italy. A beautiful city on the Adriatic coast on the far eastern edge of Italy, next to Slovenia. We had some adventures in Trieste finding our room, but when we finally found it, we had a very good location near shops and restaurants. On our last day in Trieste, we took a train trip into Slovenia and back.

Our next stop was a night in Vienna. We met an Australian couple, Christine and her husband whose name I lost along with my journal and they invited us to contact them when we come to Australia (we’ll see). They were on their way to Slovenia where he has family living. His parents were refuges following WWII when the Soviets took over Slovenia. I met a young woman on the next train who teaches theatre and English to middle school children. I told her that we had seen my granddaughter in Shrek II at her middle school. She said that was one of her favorite musicals. We got off the train at Vienna Central Train Station and enjoyed the best salad ever at a nearby restaurant. Our server wrote down the recipe on a post-it note and I will post that in my pictures. We were on our way to Auschwitz in Poland so the next day we caught an early train and headed there. We were not able to actually tour Auschwitz though we stood in line with about 5,000 other people who were also trying to get in. We had to be in Budapest the next day to catch our Viking River Cruise so we headed south.

St. Mark's Square, Venice

Hotels were all booked in Budapest and for many stops before so we found a place in Sturovo, Slovakia. That turned out to be a great place to stop. We met a couple of young women, Natalia and Jasmina on the train who were on their way home from work and enjoyed a conversation with them. Natalia is a psychologist. They taught us a lot about Slovakia as I was quite ignorant about their recent history and their country. Natalia was from Sturovo and made a recommendation for a restaurant. The next day we walked to the Danube where we had a great view of the Basilica of Esztergom which is across the river and in Hungary. There we met and visited with two men Milan and Boyan, Serbians who were on along the Danube.

Our room at the top of the stairs in
Sturovo, Slovakia

The view from Viking Gullveig

On May 3, we found our way to Budapest and figured out the buses with a lot of help from other passengers to get to the Viking Cruise dock on the Danube. We were on the ship by 3:00 PM and settled into our cabin. Our ship was the Viking Gullvieg. We spent a day in Budapest and toured the city. We also stopped at Vienna, Krems, Passau and Regensburg, Germany. In Vienna we did a walking tour one day and the next day we took the subway back to the hotel and restaurant we were at previously. We had a little hope that I may have left my journal there and we could recover it. Not to be. The river cruise was like a vacation from our travels. Over 90% of the passengers were from the US and others were from the UK, Australia and Canada. All English speaking. We were fed really good food and went on shore excursions with English speaking guides. It was a soft easy life for a week. We made some friends on the cruise. Wayne from California and Linda from northern Michigan were two who we really enjoyed time with. We also made friends with Carmen and Jim from Little Rock Arkansas and Cheryl and Mark from Boston.

Wayne and Linda

The ship was docked in Ravensburg for 2 nights. The first day we were there, we had a tour of the city. On April 10, we had to leave the ship behind and get back to finding our own way again. We found the train station and headed to Berlin for a couple of days. We met a young man named Leon on his way home to Berlin and spent several hours learning about Germany and talking about what is happening in our own country. We really enjoyed Berlin. We took a train from near our hotel to the Anhalter Train station which was an important hub in Berlin during WWII. When we came out of the station, we walked down the street looking for coffee. We walked by the bunker in which Hitler was hiding out at the end of the war and where he killed himself. We found an exhibit with details about Hitler’s ascent to power, the holocaust and WWII. Then we walked around till we came to Checkpoint Charlie. We took a Hop On Hop Off bus around Berlin and immersed ourselves in WWII and Cold War history.

Checkpoint Charlie

History of WWII

The next day we went to Emmerich, Germany, which is the home of the Katjes Licorice. The factory does not allow tours but we were able to spend time at their store and stock up on Don’s favorite Licorice. Emmerich on the Rhine is on the border of the Netherlands. So we headed to Amsterdam for a couple of days. We found a hotel not far from the train station on Dam Square. Here we found a laundromat and were able to replace the suitcase that had blown a wheel on the cobblestone streets. We took a hop on hop off bus tour of Amsterdam and saw the city. We stopped at the Rembrandt Museum and toured the house that he lived in with his wife.

Amsterdam

Our next stop was Rotterdam where we stayed in a place with a beautiful view overlooking the canal but with treacherous stairs. We took the tram to the rivers edge and took a waterbus to Kinderdijk to see the windmills and learn about their development. It was interesting in that they originally used wind power to run their water pumps, then used steam engines and now use electricity to maintain the water levels. Nowadays the land is dotted with big wind turbines that make the electricity to run the pumps.

Kinderdijk

From there, we went to Brussels for 2 nights. We did a hop on hop off tour of Brussels and saw their tourist sites. We missed our stop on the way back to the hotel so we ended up using the city bus to return. We met a couple of gay guys on the bus who explained that the routes had been changed because of the Pride events happening in the city. When we got off the bus we were with about a few thousand others, proudly wearing their rainbow flags, who were pouring down to the square by our hotel. So there we were sitting outside our hotel watching people. We sat near some Belgium couples and Frederich explained a little about Belgium culture and their sense of humor.

National Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Brussels

We wanted to cross the English Channel by ferry, so the next day we made our way to Calais, France on the coast across from Dover. We found a lovely hotel on the beach which was affordable because it is the off season. I pondered just staying there until it was time to leave because the beach. But Don wanted to see London so we carried on. The next day we got to the ferry and headed for the UK. On the ferry we met Heinrich and Karen who were taking their RV to England for a tour of Ireland. The have a small motorhome and travel all over Europe.

The White Cliffs - no bluebirds - no clover

I had asked our travel agent for suggestions of places to stay away from the center of the city near a train station. She had suggested St. Albans so we found a place there. We had found a 1-bedroom flat (not apartment) and were able to walk there. It was really nice to have a lot of space. We were able to make easy train ride to London Bridge. On our second day we decided to do a hop on hop off tour of London. That was a mistake. In London traffic was horrible. There were so many city and tour buses that half the time there was a bus between us and any landmarks to see. We tried to get a tour of Westminster Abby, but I was not able to make that happen with my device. We finally got off the bus and walked along the Thames stopping at the London Eye where we took a ride. That was the highlight of our London trip. We made our way back to the train station and St. Albans where we picked up some food in the grocery store at the train station and ate in.

 

London Bridge

Parliament

Then we made our way back to France. We took the Eurostar through the Chunnel to Paris where we found our way to St. Lazare Station and a train to Bayeux in Normandy. I had managed to book our room wrong so when we showed up at our hotel, there was no room at the inn. The very nice hotel clerk who spoke English fairly well helped find us a more expensive place across town so we called our taxi back and made our way there. She had only one night available but our original place had a room the next night so we went back there. We were kind of late getting there as we had spent quite a bit of time in Paris finding the other train station. Anyway, the next day we were able to rent a little Renault Clio with a stick shift and toured the Normandy battle sites and the American Cemetery.

Normandy

Finally, the next day we went back to Paris where we found a hotel across form the St. Lazare train station and we spend our last 3 days in Europe there. Well, we did go out and see the sites of Paris. We ended our trip with a lovely dinner at Brasserie Lazare which is located at the train station. There we met a couple who were from Lille, France who were in Paris for business and a holiday. The waiter offered us apple pie for dessert but when they ordered dessert, they had a dessert menu so we got another dessert – an amazing meringue.

Notre Dame

A common sight

So, on Monday, May 26 we took the bus to CDG airport and came back to Minnesota on Icelandair stopping in Reykjavik for an hour. I will be adding posts about some of our experiences.

2024 We got through that

 2024. We had some great adventures and saw some amazing things... also some not so fun things.

It is 2025 and I have not written a blog post for 2024. There is a good reason for that. It is because at the center of my 2024 story is the scam and I can’t write about it. It happened on February 11, and I have written it down and it won’t get into my blog, but it messes with all of my other memories. In the midst of it I erased all of my Hawaii pictures, and I can’t tell the story without revealing my total failure as a human bean. I will always say to myself the same thing that I said when I first realized what I had done. “How could I have been so stupid?” HOW? And that is as much as I need to write about that because I have written about it elsewhere. 

We had our normal Palmdale experience which included all of the things that go on around here. I jointed the quilters on Monday afternoons where we assemble quilts out of 6-inch squares and then add some batting and knot some embroidery floss in the center of each square to hold the quilt together. We give the quilts to the Crises Center and the Veterans’ Center where they are given out to people who can use them. I am one of the knotters. While we work on quilts, the musicians in the park put on a jam session so we also listen to music and occasionally applaud. We continue to host “porch parties” with our Palmdale friends. Our days are filled with the usual stuff, line dancing, golf, exercise class, yoga, entertainment and gossip. We leave the park to go to the Island where we walk the beach and eat at a restaurant or go over to Boca Chica to look at the rocket. Too bad the person who is responsible for that amazing development is such an (bad word). We’re normally here at Palmdale every year from November to April.

Then we go to Minnesota from May through October. There we have a different set of activities. We visit family, hang out with Greg, Peggy and Edie, go fishing on the lakes. Head up north.

The highlights of our year include the following things.

February trip to Hawaii with dear friends, Max and Kay Klinkenborg.

Lunch by the Volcano

We took a cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines around the Hawaiian Islands. We flew to Honolulu where we met Max and Kay at a hotel the day before the cruise was due to set sail. We went a day early so that we could go see Pearl Harbor. Then we boarded the ship which was supposed to set sail in the evening but didn’t because of high seas. Our itinerary was rearranged to avoid bad weather. We did have some rough seas but for the most part the trip was just fine. We rented cars and drove ourselves around for most of our excursions. In Kona we visited a salt producer where we tasted a variety of salts, and I purchased some for gifts along with some coffee. In Kauai we took a helicopter ride that was thrilling and saw beautiful view of canyons and the ocean. In Hilo we visited the volcano and had lunch overlooking the volcano at the visitor’s center. In Maui we drove around the island and saw the devastation from the fire at Lanai.  Don and I had an extra day in Honolulu as our flight home didn’t leave until 9:30 PM so we rented another car and drove north to the Dole Plantation and then to the beach where the surfers do a lot of surfing. Thanks to Kay I have some pictures of this trip.

Greg and Edie came to visit us in February.

Harlington International Airport

About a week after we came back to Texas, Greg and Edie came to visit us. While they were here, we did some local sightseeing at the Birding Center on the Island and at SpaceX. And we went to the Los Fresnos Rodeo. The weather wasn’t very conducive for a beach visit.

At the Los Fresnos Rodeo

Bob came to visit in February.

We took Bob to see the highlights of the Rio Grande Valley and he got to participate in a porch party as well. He was here when Dick came home from rehab. He had been hospitalized and recovered from broken ribs. So Bob was here for that as well. Here is a picture of Bob at the mouth of the Rio Grande River.

Lunch at Louie's Back Yard South Padre Island

Kelly, Jett and Andalusia came for Spring break to Texas.

At the park in Los Fresnos

Kelly was here for about a week. We hit the high points of a Valley vacation: The Turtle Rescue Center, the Birding Center where they have allegators the kids can hold, the playground in Los Fresnos, The Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville and the beach. They were here for Easter dinner at the Rec Center with 100 of our Palmdale friends.

Easter at the Rec Hall

At the zoo

Edie and I took a Road Scholar trip to Costa Rica in June

On June 18, Edie and I flew out of Minneapolis and after a short layover in DFW,

we landed in San Jose, Costa Rica where we were met by our Road Scholar guides and taken to a very nice hotel. There we met our fellow travelers for the week and got ourselves oriented. After the orientation, we were picked up by my Costa Rica friend, Magali and her 3 children.

Magali and family

                                                        
She treated us to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Don and I met Magali and her family in 2010 when our friend Kay was spending the winter in Costa Rica. Magali has 3 children, Josea who is 17, Manuel 15 and a daughter 10. Edie said that this dinner was the best part of our trip. She and Josea hit it off and found out that they shared a lot of interest in anime. As we walked out of the restaurant in the pouring rain, Edie and Josea were talking excitedly about their shared interest.  We left San Jose the next day and traveled to Monteverde where we visited a Bat Jungle and learned about bats.

At the dairy farm

A highlight for me was a visit to a dairy farm where I learned about “regenerative agriculture” and saw how they are putting it into practice. We then walked on a sky walk through the cloud forest. The next day we took a rafting trip downs the Rio Corobici where we saw white faced and howler monkeys. Iguanas and lots of birds. We saw bats roosting on the bottoms of branches.

Edie planting a tree

After the rafting trip, we loaded back on the bus and headed to Rincon de la Vieja at the Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin. The next day we hiked in the Rincon del la Vieja Volcano National Park. That was a long and hot hike. Probably Edie’s least favorite day of the trip.

We had a chance for a cool off in a pool and then went to some mud baths and hot springs where we were restored and renewed. We had a morning hike to Poza Roja (Red Pond) for a swim before we transferred to our final stop.

Our last stop was finally at the Pacific Ocean which I had been looking forward to from the beginning. I am always up for seeing a new beach. But that day, Edie had different plans. She was so tired that when we checked into the hotel she laid down on the bed and took a good nap, so I had some time to just hang out.

On day six, we took a boat ride in a wildlife refuge and got to see monkeys, bats and lots of iguana. After the boat ride we went to a Santa Barbara where we toured a museum and cultural center. The kids got to grind up corn for tortillas and we were treated to a very good lunch and were entertained by some folk dancers and were invited to join in the dance.

The crown of our trip was the last day when we went zip-lining out by the Pacific Ocean.

Soaring over the land

That was a treat. Then, we finally went to the beach. Edith joined the other kids playing in the water while I hung out with the grandparents and buried our feet in the sand.

A lovely way to end our trip. We had our farewell dinner, exchanged emails with the other participants and were given a gift of a really cool slide show of the trip by one of our leaders.

Our group consisted of a dozen kids aged 12-15 and about 15 grandparents. And by the time our trip ended, this group of kids had formed some friendships. It was a good bunch of kids that included everyone in their play. They had a lot of fun.

Our family went for a week to Camp Deer in August.

We went up to Camp Deer in August with Greg, Peggy, Edith, her friend Oscar, Kelly, Jett and Andalusia. We did a lot of fishing from our little John boat and took boat rides on Frankenstein, the big pontoon boat that is tied up on the dock by the big cabin. Greg brought his paddle board and all of the children, big and little enjoyed riding on it.

The children spent hours playing in the sand and water. We didn’t catch many fish, but Oscar caught some and we cleaned some for him to take home to share with his dad. It was a regular Camp Deer Vacation enjoyed by all. There was plenty of book reading and walking up the hill. Unfortunately, Verizon has cell service up there now, and the older kids were able to be on their devices as much as they wanted.

The Jug Band Boogie and a camping trip to the North Shore.

In September, Don and I went on our regular trip up North. This year we took our camper and added a night with our Palmdale friends, Rick and Karen Campion,

With Rick and Karen

who have a cabin on Little Split Hand Lake by Grand Rapids. We enjoyed a night with them and then headed up to Camp Deer for the Annual Edge of the Wilderness Jugband Boogie and Battle. After that, we went to Duluth for a couple of nights where we had lunch with my sister Jean and her daughter Pam and toured the Glensheen Mansion. Then we went up the North Shore to Grand Marais for a couple of nights.

The Jug Band Boogie

Grandpa

We went to Pennsylvania for 10 days in October to help Kelly get moved into a new house with the girls. We found a trundle bed at an estate sale by Minneapolis, loaded it in a U-Haul trailer and drove to Media, PA. When we arrived Kelly and the girls had just gone to the house she is renting. They had food, dishes, some clothes, blankets, pillows and toys but not a lot else. So, we all went to work putting the house together. By that first night, everyone had a bed to sleep in and we had a table and chairs in the dining room. By the time we left 10 days later, Kelly had a fully furnished house and was ready to begin rebuilding her life.

Then we came here at the end of October.

I just now remembered the other disaster of 2024. The election. But I have nothing else to write about that.

Some of our other highlights.

My brothers and sisters (and a distant cousin) at Pine Tree Cemetery Cleanup

Among the Azaleas at the Arboreteum

Niece Kelsey came to visit with baby Solveigh

My 3 sisters Kay, Elaine and Jean at the train station in Duluth
We enjoyed 3 days together

One of several fishing trips

Christmas Eve Dinner

Dinner after the game

Twins game with Mandy