Postcards from Switzerland: Day 5 Settling in

Another scortcher of a day. They do not have A/C in their homes or apartments. They do not have central heating – hence no vents to pump the A/C through. It is 3:30 in the am here and I woke up as I am so hot. Mike is sleeping upstairs in the oven – don’t know how he does that but it is all I can manage to go up there to change and shower. Today is going to 34 and tomorrow it is dropping to 23 for a day and rain – I will be thrilled to see the rain.

So this is what a few mill buys you in Switzerland. It is a nice house but not nearly up to NA standards. It is hard to describe as it is built into the side of a rock. The third level which isn’t seen here in the picture is below ground but its like our walkouts without the large windows. The garage is on the lower lever, you entered through it and then go upstairs. They us a family room/slash guest room, a utility room with a large water heater, a large laundry room, and then some storage rooms. Everything is nicely finished but it is all cement construction. The only wood is in the top floor ceilings and the are all slanted.

The main level is open concept n the front, in the back of the house there is another bedroom, another bathroom, and more storage, plus the front door – which faces with a few feet the giant rock. Odd but cute.

The pool is above ground as is the hot tub. They cannot have an inground pool here because the house is built into the hill or whatever it is. We have beautiful views of the mountains.

On Sunday we went to pick up a few provisions. I bought dry pasta, 4 tomatoes, 4 nectarines, a piece of butter, a loaf of bread, one onion, a litre of milk, and a baguette, it cost us over 30 SF, is the same as $40.00. We then went to the McCafe for 2 croissants, one tea and one fresh orange juice – $16.00 Canadian. Long story short – we decided to try to Evian in France for groceries. It is about 1.5 hours away. Stocked up on enough to last about 10 days and it cost us less than $140.00. Much better! However, the back of the car is so small I had half of the stuff sitting on my lap. It was so hot that we couldn’t even stop to see Evian – which is a beautiful place so we will have to come aback again. Slept most of the afternoon because of the heat and spent the remainder of the time in the pool – thank god for it. After 8 pm we went for another walk on the promenade around the lake. It was know to 31 by then and a little cooler??????????

Please dear God end this heat wave!

Postcard From Switzerland: Day 3 Always know where you live

For some reason – this showed up after the Day 4 post. It will help the rest of the postcards have context. Otherwise I would just leave it.

 – The Edmonton Tourist

We arrived safely yesterday – made the flight and train connection easily. Arrived at the train station with all our luggage and proceeded down 2 flights of stairs to arrivals with our luggage banging on every step and us trying to hold onto it for fear of the suitcases getting away from us and careening down the stairs . . . . . .only to discover that we could have simply just gone down a ramp. Rule # 1 – always be aware of your surroundings and take the easiest – if not the first – route available.
We were met outside the station by Alexandre – the father of the family we are housesitting for. We were given a very warm, European reception, whereby he informed me that we always kiss 3 times. This wasn’t hard to do as “OMG was he a knockout or what – tall, blonde, blue eyes, well built, friendly – had me wishing we would be looking after him rather than the cat!
Anyway, he loaded our luggage and then took us on a tour of the town we are staying in. Vevey is a beautiful little town outside their village of La Tour de peilz. It is situated on the lake (Geneva) . . . but more about that in the next few days.
We arrived at their home – a beautiful “modern” design of a typical swiss home, complete with views of mountains and a swimming pool. Spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening getting to know each other. Alexandre is a pharmaceutical chemist and Tanya is a pediatrician. They have four very beautiful children. They left early this morning – 5 am for their trip to Britany to visit her family. They left us a convertible and a scooter to get around with. I know . . . . .it is a tough life and we all have to make sacrifices.
This morning we decided to go out for breakfast. Got in the car, put the top down, and programed in our favorite restaurant – McDonalds

Unfortunately I kept my head down most of the time, directing Mike as to where the GPS was guiding us. Found the McCafe, parked without a problem and went inside for a nice breakfast of fresh croissants and freshly squeezed orange. We then proceeded to a small grocery store for a few provisions for dinner tonight. We decided to take home the food as it is very hot here (+32 and no airconditioning!!!!!!!!!). I dutifully programmed in our home address and was informed we were 340km away – obviously something was wrong. Tried reprogramming again a few times but nothing seemed to work. We knew we were in Vevey but we didn’t have a clue where our home was. So we did the only sensible thing . . .we drove around enjoying the sights and eventually – 2 hours later – we recognized an area and vola ! we found the house. As it was already hot we decided to have a light lunch followed by a swim in the pool – and such is the life of trusted housesitters . .

-Evelyn

Postcard from Switzerland: Day 4 Vevey

This is our first full day on our own. The family got up early and left about 5:00. No way we were getting up to say good-bye. They are extremely nice people, but being rich, they can afford to be nice.
They took the Mercedes, and only left us a Puegeot (or however the hell you spell it) convertible. (as per picture)
This is the town where Charlie Chaplin lived, so we took a picture of his statue, mainly for Kate. Now we don’t have to buy her any souveniers. (Or however the hell you spell it.)
We went to town center and took a walk by the lake. Wow, what a beautiful place. Why would these people go somewhere else for a holiday?
It is stifling hot. Got up to 35 yesterday, but only 32 today. We spent a good part of the day in their swimming pool.
Chris: Keep up the postcards, eh?
Tomorrow we are going to France to find a Careafour (or however the hell you spell it) grocery store.
later, eh?

– Mike

Vevey

Vevey

Charlie Chaplin

Puegeot

Postcard from Charles de Gaulle Airport

We arrived safely in Paris. Upon boarding our connecting flight in Toronto for Paris,I took 2 muscle relaxers and 2 gravoal. They worked like a charm. As soon as the tasteless meal compliments of Air Canada was served (they told us it was chicken but I think they lied – I never had chicken like that – and what is up with the sauce. – I think it was the leftover water from rinsing out the spaghetti sauce pot) anyway I digress. After the dishes were cleared away I feel into a deep sleep – this was of course easy because I was sooooooo very comfort with that extra 3 inches we paid dearly for. I awoke not to the usual stale muffin but to a piece of “banana bread” which was more cake than bread with a hint of banana flavor to it. (I cannot believe that they actually have a chef who prepares these menus). When our plane touched down I was still somewhat groggy but I managed to steer Mike in the direction of our luggage. We were staying at the IBIS airport hotel (which generally means it is not at the hotel at all).

We followed the signs to the hotel shuttle buses. After standing in the searing heat of the Paris sunshine, I turned my back for a moment and looked back into the airport terminal. Good thing I did because directly across from where we were standing was the huge orange IBIS sign indicating the hotel.

How I missed it I will never know. Anyway I managed to drag Mike – who hadn’t slept, and our luggage across the terminal into the cool air of the hotel lobby. We checked in only to be told that our room would not be ready for at least an hour. We decided that wasn’t a problem – we would just go to the café and have a nice leisurely breakfast. This was 10:30 in the morning by now. We went into the café and were immediately told that the café was now closed for breakfast. By this time we were famished but did not want to haul our luggage all through the terminal again looking for someplace to eat. We decided to sit it out until we could get into our room. After a few minutes Mike left in search of a restroom. Apparently he found one but was also returning with croissants, pastries, fruit, and juice. Upon inquiring as to where he found the restaurant he said that down the hall on the left, towards the meeting rooms, he came upon tables laded with food and people…

This is where the post ends so I of course think the worst and assume my dad joined a wedding party and ate the night night away. Other people assume my parents were abducted. I know my dad too well. He often hooks up with tour groups, he sees a line and he gets in it. He saw Notre Dame that way. His motto has always been “Hey those people look like they know where they are going, lets follow them!” You know something? It always turns out to be some new adventure because he blindly follows. In this case, they ate like kings….for free. I can hear my dad now”but the food was just laid out there for people to take it!” Another great rule I learned from my dad “Always look like you are supposed to be there, no one will ever question you.” 

Its true. We all gained a pseudo cockiness because of it and also… we have seen and done things that never would have happened otherwise.

 ~ The Edmonton Tourist

Postcard from The Black Forest

Hi everyone,
Sorry it has been so long since we were able to get WIFI. MacDonalds in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are cheap and do not have it. Today we are at a campground in northern Italy. They didn’t have it either but the hotel across the road was gracious enough to let us use theirs.
We are only staying in a campground one night a week so we can do laundry so do not worry if it is a week before you hear from us again. We do not know what the MacDonald’s will be like here in Italy and we will be heading to Croatia in a few days.

I have to say, we are really living a charmed life. We are very comfortable in the RV. We have done some of the touristy places but we have also taken the opportunity and we have headed into areas that as not on the usual “Europe Vacation” route and we have seen some amazing scenery. We went way into the Black Forest this time. A lot of the famers still wear the traditional lederhosen and hats. It was pretty cool seeing them working the fields in the traditional way. One night we got hopelessly lost. It was dark and pouring rain. We pulled into a town that had boondocking facilities. We pulled in and had dinner. After dinner the rain stopped so we went for a walk in the town. We came across a fellow and asked him where we were. He told us and we were able to get our barring’s again and carry on the next morning. We have been able to use the shower every night in the RV as we can get free water and empty our tanks for free nearly everyday. They have all kinds of points for dumping throughout Europe now which is great as camping fees are very high. For instance today it is costing us 40 Euros but the young fellow who runs the campsite is doing our laundry for free for us as they do not have laundry machines and he wanted us to stay. We are up high in the Dolomites in Northern Italy. The campsite is on a lake that has a topless beach. Mike has gone for a walk for about the 10th time this afternoon. The campsite is very nice but the drive here was scary. We crossed over the Brenner Pass which is quite an engineering feat in itself. Everyday we are seeing new things and having a great time. Of course we miss everyone but we cannot believe how lucky we are to be able to do this. For me it is a dream come true. I will try and unload some pictures for you but they take a long time. Please keep sending us emails. We will write whenever we can and if more than a week goes by where we cannot get email we will call home so you will know we are all ok.
Love,
M & E
P.S.
It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Phoebe. As you know she had been in a coma for almost a week, coming out of it occasionally but then lapsing into it again. At 11:05 France time, last Monday, we finally had to pull the plug on her. We placed her in a box for her finally resting place. Her remains will be flown home to Dr. Dave to have an autopsy performed. She served us well and may she now find the rest she deserves. She was replaced by British Kate who is doing an outstanding job. She does not have the same sassy attitude that Phoebe had as she does not rant about having to “Recalculate”. She simply makes the correction quietly and she is teaching us a lot of British phrases.

Postcard from Gouda

Hi Everyone,
We have been unable to get internet access until today. We decided to buy dinner at MacDonalds so that we could take up space for as long as we like.
We have had a great week so far. After our last email to all of you we headed to Gouda – yeah, the cheese place. Guess what we bought there? It is a lovely little town and we really enjoyed it. After that we decided to try Delft – the pottery place. Unbelievable!!! Between almost getting involved in a head on collision with a tram (so what if we were on his tracks – he could have moved!) and discovering that there was absolutely no place to park a van we decided to head out. (They seriously need to rethink the parking situation there). Our next stop was RV parking friendly Brugge. We spent a really nice 2 days there – really exploring the area. We have been there 3 times before and each time we have tried to see the Michael Angelo Madonna with Child. This time we finally got to see it. It was beautiful. We also bought 4 kilos of chocolate from our favorite chocolate shop – one for each day of the trip. After leaving Brugge we went on a WWI memorial site tour – visiting Ypres, Checking out the Brooding Soldier monument (this was the runner up to the Vimy Ridge Memorial). the Passchendaele Museum – Next we went to Vimy Ridge and this time we went to the interruptive centre. Also excellent. Yesterday was mostly a driving day to get us to Juno Beach and Omaha Beach. Our first stop was the Canadian Cemetry and then the new Juno Beach Centre – greatly improved from last time we were here. After that we headed to Omaha Beach but this time we went to the actual spot on the beach where the Americans landed – really nice memorial as well and then to the cementery. Now we are at MacDonalds. Tonight we will discuss what direction we are going next. Everything is working out well. The RV is really great and we are able to boondock most nights – that is camping on the side of the road in rest area without facilities. Just had one rather odd incident. Mike can never remember the word “boondocking”. We stopped at a service area and went in to ask the attendant if it was ok to boondock there – however Mike asked if it was ok to dryhump there. What a weird look we got from that attendant. Unfortunately for us his English was very good.
Mike here: I was most thrilled with the Beaches. Ev was most thrilled when she saw two cows humping. I was driving along, and she shouted,”Look! TWO COWS HUMPING!” Well, I missed it, so I slammed on the brakes (I mean, who wouldn’t want to see that, eh?) and almost got rear ended by another motor home. It was almost two motor homes humping. Well, I missed it, but at least Ev can take it off her bucket list. It will probably stay on my list forever.
It takes too long here to add pictures. The next time we get a camp ground we will send out a whack of them.
1 – Cheese Shop in Gouda where we bought – well you guess what we bought there –
Love to all,
M& E

Cheese Shop in Gouda where we bought – well you guess what we bought there

Postcard from Vienna and Prague

Exciting day yesterday. We had to pull over at a service station to make an emergency stop. It seems our mother form Dubai was experiencing chest pains. Both of the nurses on board conquered that a doctor was required. An ambulance was called and within 5 minutes they arrived. Have no idea where they were hiding as we were in between Budapest and Vienna. After a number of tests they decided that all she was suffering from was a case of indigestion. An hour later and we were able to board the bus again and continue on our journey.
Vienna is a beautiful city and surprisingly, less expensive than Budapest was. We spent the afternoon on a walking tour that was rather dramatic as well. One of the English women got into a shouting match with our tour director. It seems we crossed a street and when she was following the group – while taking pictures at the same time – she almost got run over by the trolley. I thought – serves her right! Pay attention to where your going! She tore a strip out of the director like you wouldn’t believe. What a crab? And then to top it all over, the director did not notice that her mike was on when she discussed what a crab that woman was to one of the other travellers. We all just sort of snickered as we couldn’t help but agree with her.
After dinner, Mike and I went for a nice walk along the Danube. It was a lovely evening.
Today we went back to the centre of town and had the whole morning on our own to explore. Unfortunately we discovered the Swarovski original store. What a beautiful store! I sort of blew my budget there but it was worth it.
Saw the palaces of Maria Theresa. She was a much loved Empress – sort of. She had 16 children and 44 grandchildren. Her husband was known as the Gigolo of Austria because of all his affairs. However, he obviously spent some time with Maria Theresa.

 

Mike here: After lunch we headed to Prague where we are now. We are staying at a great hotel that is attached to a shopping centre. How convenient is that? Prague has changed so much since our last visit. Why more westernized with all the major stores and businesses. Tomorrow we are doing a tour of the Old Town.
1…St. Stephens Cathedral

2…No couples allowed????

3…a really cool fence

4…Hapsburg Palace

5…Your mother/grandmother/Evelyn with a bag over her head because she says I embarrass her too much so she is going to go on the bus like this just because I went next door in the hotel room and told them to quiet down and then I told a guy on the bus to keep the curtains open because I didn’t pay all this money to look at curtains which were blocking my view and besides my granddaughters don’t think I am crotchety…..

Postcard from Budapest

$168.00 Canadian is what it costs the average couple taking a 14 day tour of Europe to pee!!!!!!! How ridiculous is that? The only country not to charge us was Poland – they are so civilized. Mike and I have decided that we are going to open up a chain of bathrooms throughout Europe and we will only charge half.. . . . . and we will make sure we have enough towels to dry ALL the hands that come through! At that our entire family could probably all retire as millionaires after just a few years of being in business! Even McDonalds charged us!!!

 
Saw Budapest again for the first time since 1992. Still has the same old beautiful buildings but it is a lot more commercialized now than the first time – which is both good and bad.
Went to Heros Square this morning and saw the same hotel we stayed in 22 years ago. Looks a little shabbier than when we stayed there. The park is still as beautiful as I remembered it.
Last time we ate here, Amanda, mom and I received our lunch in a nice restaurant – Mike never did get his. Today we sat in the square and ordered some bruschetta as an appetizer, 2 borsch, and crepes with chocolate sauce for dessert. We got the bruschetta, they brought me my soup, and just gave Mike the crepes. I do not know why the Hungarians do not want to see Mike eat a proper lunch – or maybe he just looks like the “dessert only” type of person. I know mom would not have objected to just the crepes.

 
Budapest has beautiful old buildings but that is all it really has. For some reason everything looks kind of shabby compared to Poland. IT is a lot more expensive, the people are not as friendly, and other than in the main square where all the tourist go, it is a very dirty city. The people are not as well groomed either and there are a lot of homeless people in the streets lying about. I do not think we will ever bother coming back to Budapest. Poland on the other hand we will go back to. Tomorrow we are off to Vienna.

 

Mike not eating his Borsch

Government Buildings in Pest as seen from the Grotto in Buda

Fishermen’s Grotto

Hero’s Square

Fishermen’s Grotto

Postcard from Krakow

Mike here; Poland has a very unique tradition. Today is the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw
uprising. Not the Jewish one, the whole city one. At exactly 4:00, the WHOLE country, all 38 million people, turned their backs on Germany, dropped their pants, and mooned them. It was very emotional. I, of course, joined in. So the actual figure was 38 million and one. How could I not?
Auschwitz….no comment.  Very sobering.

Entrance to Auschwitz

Work sets you free

Crematorium

Evelyn here: I think we will retire in Krakow. It is such a beautiful city. English is taught in school starting in the primary grades. The people are friendly . . . . . . .and most important of all – it is CHEAP. We went to the supermarket today to get dinner. Our menu – BBQ chicken (1/4 each), a nice cabbage salad, orange drink for me, beer for Mike, and for dessert – polish donuts. The whole thing cost us the equivalent of $4.00 Canadian dollars. The most expensive thing we bought today was 4 batteries for the mouse. They cost about the same as dinner. In the old town square we had lunch in a nice Italian sidewalk café (already had our fill of polish dumplings). We both had a salad with bruschetta, followed by a pizza that would rival Famousa in Edmonton. Again I had a drink and Mike had coffee and beer. The total – (with a $2.50 tip included) $15.00. Try getting a lunch like that in Edmonton for that price!
And, on top of that – Krakow is truly one of the most beautiful cities in the world. There are only 850,000 residents but they get over one million visitors a year. It received very little damage during World War II as the President (the same as our mayor) surrendered to the Nazi right away in order to avoid any damage to the city. He saved the city but he was sent to a concentration camp and was never seen again. They have everything here: a beautiful river valley with plenty of parks, an ancient castle, an original old town centre with buildings dating from the 1400’s and enough charm to last a lifetime. After touring the main sights this morning we headed to the famous salt mines. Spent 2 hours walking 130 meters below ground. This mine dates back to the 1400’s and the ingenuity of the miners was astounding. Many of the miners carved beautiful statues out of the salt and they are there to see, as well as chapels, and concert areas. It was terribly interesting.
There are great biking paths throughout Poland Leonard and I would highly recommend coming here for a visit.

Mike here:
Krakow is the cultural center of Poland, and no wonder.
There are four main cultural sites.
1….a 700 year old altar in some church or other.
2….a painting by Leonardo da Vinci
3….the salt mines, which are quite spectacular
4….a soccer sized ball of belly button lint, on display in the square
in old town. The guy who did it has been collecting the lint for about
40 years. He actually won the Poland has Talent show. The armpit
guy came in second, and I talked to both of them. They are planning to
partner up and go on the Fringe circuit. The belly button guy actually
juggles the ball of lint. Granted, it is only one ball, but when you see
the ball of lint, you forget all about there only being one ball. I suggested to
them that they should bring their act to North America, and do the Fringe tour, especially in Edmonton. I know I would pay big bucks to see it. Who wouldn’t, eh?

The Black Madonna

Jewish Quarter where Schindler’s List was filmed

Cathedral in Palace grounds

Actual gold dome in Cathedral

Last Supper carved in salt by a miner in the Salt Mines

Postcard from Poland

Edmonton Tourist Note: I received some aside comments from my parents following their arrival in Frankfurt. Good news: their luggage arrived just before they departed to Poland. Sad news: no reason to continue wearing Depends except for pure convince. They arrived in Warsaw and added a few photos of Poznan. Interesting fact : The town was completely destroyed during World War II but the people elected to have it rebuilt as it was prewar,but no real comments.

Buildings and Stuff

Kabaob Lunch

Poznan Town Hall

Poznan Town Square

 

 

Someone needs to teach the Polish people what the concept of air conditioning is. In really hot weather your room should be cooler than the outside – NOT WARMER!!!!!!!!!! Whose brainy idea was it that 26 degrees Centigrade was a comfortable temperature to sleep in. Certainly not any woman pass the age of 40! We finally turned off our air conditioning in the hopes of getting some relief from the heat. How stupid a concept is that?
After a restless night we went to the dining room for our breakfast buffet. Nice assortment of cheese and fresh fruits but I just could not stomach fried garlic sausage and mushrooms so early in the morning. Apparently the Poles love their mushrooms and they are served at every meal.

 
We have a breathtaking view from our window. . . . . .the old railcar museum! To me it looks like a junk yard but then what do I know. Warsaw was almost completely destroyed during World War II and had to be rebuilt. They are lots of tall skyscrapers – apparently the tallest in all of Europe but it does not make for a very attractive city. There is such a mixture of “rundown” and modern with no real planning in place. Of course, it was under communism rule for so long I suppose that does help to explain the lack of planning somewhat. I guess you could describe Warsaw as shabby chic.
Our adventures today are taking us into Old Town.

 
I learned 4 interesting facts today. The first picture below represents the Jewish uprising in the Ghetto. There are no longer any Jews living in that area. (quite understandable). However, the Jewish uprising was not the only one that took place in Warsaw. The Polish people, along with their resistance stood up against the Nazi in 1944. When it was over, there were less than 20% of the original population of Warsaw remaining. That is probably one of the reasons why the Germans came back and blew up or burned over 85% Warsaw. It suffered more devastation than any other city in Europe at the time – even more than Berlin and Frankfurt.
Secondly – the next picture is of the Frederik Chopin statue. I might have know this at one time and forgotten it, but he was born here in Warsaw. Although he toured all over Europe and spent a great deal of time in Paris, he said his heart was always in Poland. After his death his heart was sent back to Warsaw and remains to this day in one of the Catholic Churches. All over the city of Warsaw there are marble benches that when you activate a button on it, it plays one of Chopin’s pieces. It is a beautiful reminder of how great he was. During WW II, if you were Polish and caught listening to Chopin, you were sent to one of the death camps.
The third picture is the birthplace of Madam Currie. Again I never realized she was Polish – I always thought she was French.
The fourth is Mike’s lunch – polish pancakes. Very “light” meal consisting of a bread-like pancake smothered in a goulash with sour cream on it. It is a good job we are only in Poland for four days – what with the dumplings, donuts, and pancakes they would need a crane to lift us out.

 
I have developed a great admiration for the Polish people. Of all the occupied countries, this was the one that fought the hardest against the Nazi and then again against Communism rule. Poland, until World War II had always had a democratic government (well since the 17th century) and they did not give up their freedom easily. They are extremely friendly here and it was interesting to see in the Museums, etc that English was used to described all photos, etc as well as Polish.
Tomorrow we head to Krakow.

 
MIKE HERE:
Apparently the four most famous men in Polish history are: 1–Chopin…2–Marie Currie, who really isn’t a man, but after all that radiation stuff, no one could really tell..3…Pope JP 2….
and 4…some guy named Bo…(with a line through the o and two dots over it….a very famous street corner entertainer who, (I am not making this up) can play the Polish National Anthem with armpit farts. I don’t know where he is performing next, but I have got to find him. Talk about a talent, eh?
Maybe tomorrow in Krakow.