Trip: Part 2

Okay everyone (all half dozen of you folks who read my blog) grab some caffeine or take a nodoze because Red Molly is about to post pictures of her and Mr. Red Molly's adventures in Europe; but first I want to bore you even more with a little commentary on the trip.

We had a FANTASTIC trip. We went to big cities and small medieval towns and saw some of the famous monuments and great masterpieces. To name a few, we saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Night Watch by Rembrandt, Monet's Water Lilies, The Bayeaux Tapestry, a 12th century tapestry which is 72 meters long illustrating the Battle of Hastings, the 6,000 year old alignments of over 2,000 megalithes in Carnac, France; the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, the Sainte Jeanne D'Arc Memorial, Notre Dame de Paris, Mont Saint Michel, the Jumieges Abbey, the Anne Frank House, the Burg Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar, Germany; went to the World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, saw General Patton's gravesite in Luxembourg, saw a couple of chateau's in France. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, saw the Arc de Triomphe, walked along the Champs Elysees. We saw several cities' centre squares and my favorite was Munich's Marienplatz; we walked many streets of Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels, Brugge, Rouen, and Dinan; took a boat ride through the canals of Amsterdam; went on a horse and carriage tour in Brugge; drove along the beautiful Rhine Valley; took the humorous and entertaining Night Watchman tour in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany; visited family in Luxembourg. We had great experiences traveling on trains (really enjoyed the high speed trains), we had a hell of a time trying to return a rental car in Koln, Germany. We had very good luck with most of our accommodations especially the B&B's (thanks to Mr. Red Molly's research); we ate many great meals with a few surprises, drank damn good French wine and excellent beer in Germany. All in all it was like I said a FANTASTIC trip (even with the typical Delta snafu when we where trying to get home Friday night and had to sit on the tarmac in an un-airconditioned plane for nearly 2 hours while mechanical repairs were tended to)! Oh, Delta, why do we fly on your plane?

I feel mentally rested and physically energized, the best I have felt from any other trip; maybe it's from all the walking, or the soothing effect of the French wine, or the ambiance of the many cities and villages we visited or the attitude of the French with their short work weeks, long lunch hours (with wine) and their general recreational agenda such as Sunday afternoon picnics. Whatever is was it worked and I can't wait for another vacation...maybe Provence, definitely Ireland!

Merci pour la visite! Here's the photo's (click on them to enlarge):