San Sebastian, Spain: Oct. 24th & 25th

With hind sight being 20/20, we concluded that our time in San Sebastian was a vacation from traveling – just the thing we needed after more than one month on the road.

We arrived to San Sebastian with Colin and Rebecca after a four hour train ride filled with conversation, card games, drinking wine, snacking, and a few of the ‘can you eat four crackers in one minute’ challenges. Ben completed the cracker challenge, no problem…

The four of us shared a room in a great hostel in the heart of town. It is owned and operated by a gentleman from Dublin named David. The hostel has hardwood floors, full kitchen for guest use, clean bathrooms, tons of DVDs to watch, free internet, breakfast all day for free, all the tea and coffee you can drink, and the beach is 80m (250ft) from the front door. David’s place was one of the best hostels we have stayed at during our time in Europe, no doubt about it. Our first evening in town was spent walking through Parte Viejo (Old Town) and taking in the beach view. Old town was a mixture of retail shops and bars serving tapas, sangria, vino and beer. We stopped in for a happy hour and enjoyed a taste of the local culture – and sangria! To our surprise the night life was not very strong in this Basque town, so the rest of our evening was spent making burritos and soup in the kitchen and watching movies.

Wednesday morning was completely dedicated to a good sleep in. A big breakfast of eggs, cereal and toast fueled us for the day. Colin joined us for the hour walk up a nearby hill to see the city and surrounding area. On the way up it we saw tons of wild cats living in the woods. At the hill’s apex was a huge statue of Jesus that guided our way to the top. From the hill top we had a 360 degree view of the area: the massive Atlantic Ocean took up the north while San Sebastian and other towns were to the south. Our descent was quick and was followed by a stop at the market to grab supplies for dinner that evening. The four of us spent the evening relaxing, watching movies, eating, drinking and meeting other hostel-mates from around the world.

The following morning we said our ‘hasta luegos’ to Colin and Rebecca and it was next stop, Bilbao.

Salud!

Bordeaux: Oct. 21st-23rd

We arrived safely early evening in Bordeaux after a five hour train ride from Nantes. We kept things low key Sunday evening – we walked around the area and closed the evening with a good meal at a family run Chinese restaurant. Liya has a big bowl of soup and Ben ordered a ‘menu’ that included soup, a curry entrée, and a bowl of mango and strawberry ice cream.

On Monday, we walked around Bordeaux’s city center and along the river. The majority of the city is beautiful and kept very clean. The architecture and streets reminded us of Vienna, Austria with a twist of French flavor. There were a lot of retail clothing stores lining the streets as well as wine shops. We had the opportunity to walk into St. Andrew which had a vast gothic exterior. Inside, it was absolutely beautiful. There were stone carvings everywhere and the organ above the entrance was the largest of its kind that we have seen in Europe! We decided to make it a supermarket dinner night and inside the massive market, what do you know, we ran into our fellow backpacker friends from Canada, Rebecca and Colin. It was great seeing them once again and we all shared a good laugh of how strange the coincidence was, again! The two of us returned to our hotel and enjoyed a meal of ham, chorizo, brie and gouda cheeses, fresh cherry tomatoes, olives, fresh baguette, a delicious coos coos, gala apples, and a good bottle of the local vino. While it was not your traditional French meal with all of the pizzazz, it was a delicious meal shared with the best of company.

Tuesday was a day like we have never had before. With Colin and Rebecca we traveled east to the St. Emilion region to see the county, vines, and taste the local drink. From the train station we walked 20 minutes up the hill to the medieval town of St. Emilion. Along the way were rows of vines after rows of vines. Beyond those, more vines. A few vineyard estates before the entrance to town were an enjoyable sight of homesteads and businesses with their personal and unique character. The age of the old town of St. Emilion is inescapably shown by its cobblestone roads. Much of our trip has been paved by cobblestone, but this was the real deal cobblestone – deep grooves with uneven rock. If you were not careful, you could lose a foot!

Within the town our uphill climb continued. Three out of four stores were wine shops selling all of the surrounding region’s best, and each one was proud and darn sure to advertise “we ship wines worldwide!” Ben joked at the time that he had some family members that those signs were made for knowing they would definitely not leave without sending a case or two home. Our first stop was in a ‘vino haus’ or wine house to see a large selection of wines from all around the St. Emilion region. People with the shallowest or the deepest pockets could view and purchase wine. We picked up a bottle for lunch and proceeded to enjoy our meal nearby and people watch. With our stomachs full, we climbed a tower that placed us at the highest point in the town where we soaked in the bird’s eye view of the region. The small medieval town was a small island in a sea of green hills covered in grape vines and sprinkled with homes and estates. It was definitely a Kodak moment.

Our next stop was to a winery/estate inside of the town with a main attraction of wine cellar caves. Not knowing what to expect we were blown away by the underground fortress of tunnels and nooks simply stuffed with wines that were perfectly stacked by the thousands. 2005, 1984, 2000, 1994, 1967, 1971, regular sized bottles, barrels, magnum sized bottles, private reserve, non-private reserve (I forgot what they called it, woops) was all there in this place of wine hibernation. At a closer look all of the bottles were without a label and could only be identified by looking at the cork. The older vintages were beyond covered in dust, dirt, moss, etc. Back above ground we enjoyed a tasting of the estates’ 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2005 Bordeaux. Each vintage had an individual taste, smell, color and experience. It was a terrific treat.

We finished our time in St. Emilion with a walk through more of the town and a stop to purchase a few bottles to take back with us. The walk downhill to the train was along the same path, but this time under a sun beginning to set. It was a wonderful sight and a perfect finish to our day in the wine country of Bordeaux.

The following day we left as big fans of Bordeaux and headed down the coast for Spain and the Basque city of San Sebastian.

Mont-Saint-Michel: Oct. 19th-20th

Friday, Oct. 19th:

We got up early and headed to the train station, hoping to catch an early train to Mont St. Michel. Unfortunately, the France train transportation system decided to have yet another day of striking. Most lines weren’t funning with exception of a few late in the afternoon or early evening. So, we waited all day (10:00-5:25) for a train which only took us 15 km where we then had to transfer to a bus to ‘enjoy’ a 2.5-hour ride to the town of Pontorson (right outside Mont St. Michel).

Fortunately for us, we had great company while waiting at the station all day. We befriended a couple of Americans, an Aussie, a Kiwi (New Zealand) and a Canadian. The Kiwi, Ben, ended up traveling with us to Mont St. Michel. We got into town close to 7 p.m. and checked into a 3-bedroom hotel room which we were glad to share for only 14 Euros each! We enjoyed a dinner in the restaurant downstairs: Kiwi Ben and I had pretty much the same meal – we started with French fish soup, had steak and fries for our main dish, and he had meringue and I had pistachio and French vanilla ice cream for dessert; Ben had pate to start, grilled ham with gravy and rice for his main course and apple sorbet with apple brandy for dessert. Our dinners were only 11 Euros each - pretty good deal for a huge dinner!

We walked our full selves upstairs and enjoyed some wine and beer while we watched the 3rd place World Cup Rugby match between France and Argentina – Argentina won!

Saturday, Oct. 20th:

Bonjour!

This morning, the three of us got up early and headed to the market to buy a picnic lunch (baguette, juice, ham, and cheese – same old, same old) for our Mont St. Michel excursion. We met a fellow American (Portland, Maine), Allison, at the train station who joined us on the bus ride and excursion.

So a little about Mont-Saint-Michel…its history dates back to 704 when Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, had a sanctuary built on a Mont in honor of the Archangel (Angel of Battle). In the 10th century, an abbey was built and by the 14th century, the town extended as far as the foot of the rock. The greatest part of it is that at high tide, the sea crawls all the way up to the lower rock, surrounding Mont St. Michel with water. Unfortunately, there is no public transportation going out of Mont Saint Michel at night so we were unable to witness unique event.

While driving up to the Mont, we were immediately impressed with its grandeur. Along the way, we saw herds of sheep eating along the meadows leading up to the Mont. When we arrived, we walked back down the road for a few minutes to take some pictures of the sheep and the Mont. Afterwards; we started trekking up the Mont towards the Abbey where we enjoyed a self-guided tour. The Abbey, interestingly, was pretty bare-bones compared to the other churches we’ve visited around Europe but still impressive.

Although we were frustrated at the French for striking (and they get 6-weeks paid vacation – not bad I say) and for waiting all day to get out here, it was definitely worth it. If any of you plan to make a trip out to France in the near future, be sure to make Mont – Saint –Michel one of your stops!

We got back into town just in time to take the afternoon train to Nantes – a town south of Normandy. We will stay here for the evening and head for Bordeaux tomorrow morning where we plan to spend a couple days in.

Till then- AU REVOIR!!!

American Cemetery, Omaha Beach: Oct. 18th

We enjoyed sleeping in Thursday morning. Ben was sweet enough to run to the grocery market and buy a baguette, brie and Gouda cheese, ham, mustard, chips and juice for our picnic lunch at Omaha Beach. We took the 12:00 bus out to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. It was a beautiful day to visit the Cemetery. We spent a couple of hours browsing around the Visitor’s Center which featured a couple short films on D-Day, large displays of military supplies, uniforms and letters, short biographies of the many heroes that fought on that historic day, and numerous of insightful facts and stories for our benefit.

We exited the center and walked towards the memorial and cemetery grounds which were absolutely beautiful. Behind the memorial was a vast wall honoring those bodies still missing from the Normandy beaches. The Memorial featured a beautiful statue facing the West and at every hour, “God Bless America” would play. In front of the memorial were the rows and rows of beautiful white marble Crosses and Stars of David – all facing the United States in the West. In the middle of the cemetery was a chapel. Omaha Beach and the vast English Channel were just north of the cemetery.
We felt an array of emotions that day at the American Cemetery. It was hard to believe that millions of young brave men of the free world sacrificed their lives to fight for the very freedoms we are fortunate to enjoy today. These men were our age, my brother’s age! We couldn’t imagine the thoughts that were going through their minds when they embarked on the shores of Normandy. We are so thankful for their courage, sacrifice and competence. We are so proud to be Americans – God Bless the U.S.A! We are also very thankful for the other liberators of Normandy – England, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. For 11 hours – they fought for our freedom, for everything the free world stood for.

An elder local French woman was kind enough to give us a ride back into town. She spoke some English and was a delight to talk to. She had kind smile and a warm voice. She was 18-years-old when D-Day happened. She told us that many French families tried to help the Liberators during that horrific time. She said almost all Normandy towns were destroyed and flattened during WWII. We could hear the sadness in her voice as she recalled these painful memories. But at the same time, she was so thankful for the Liberators. Without them, who knows what life would be like for her and fellow French people. We quote her, “Without Liberators, I most likely no live today. They saved us. Americans saved us. We probably would not be having this conversation today. I’m so happy to have met you.” That very moment, we understood how D-Day and the liberation of France have had an incredible impact on her life.

That evening, we headed out to one of the pubs in Bayeux. There, we were greeted by two friendly Maoris, Ivan and James, from New Zealand. They have been traveling around Europe following the All Blacks rugby team. Unfortunately, their team didn’t make it as far as they thought but it didn’t stop them from having a great time in France! We had a great time talking with them. They were big Bob Marley fans so we asked the bartender to play some of his songs which he kindly did; hence, we enjoyed the rest of the evening slamming down a few rounds of beers and jamming to good ol’ Bob. They reminded us of Ben’s Polynesian football teammates – they were loud, funny, ate a lot, loyal, very close and protective of their families and friends, and proud of their roots.

An awesome day :)

Bayeux: Oct. 17th

We checked out of our hotel in Caen late morning and headed to the train station to catch a ride to Bayeux, a small Normandy town. We got in late afternoon and checked into a family-run hotel, Hotel de la Ville, located right next to the beautiful and grand St. Sacrament Cathedral (similar appearance to the Notre Dame). After checking in, we strolled around the city center. We enjoyed window shopping at all the French bakeries. Liya had to stop in the Haribo candy shop to buy a bag full of different gummies, which was almost empty by the time we returned to the hotel. We stopped by the local market and bought water, apples and bananas, wine, beer and chips – that was our dinner  We ended the evening with several phone calls to our loved ones back in the States! Unfortunately, we had to leave a few VM’s for some of our family members; however, we were elated to connect with Liya’s dad, Luther, Ben’s momma, Sweet Sally, and Ben’s Grandpa and Grandma Lundy who are holding the fort down in good ol’ Madras, Oregon.

Versailles: Oct. 16th

We woke up early and set off for Versailles with our friends Colin and Rebecca. It was a quick 30-minute train ride from Paris. We arrived at the station and realized there were no lockers available to store our backpacks. Fortunately, clever Ben found a grocery cart in the station. It was funny spectacle – Ben rolling the cart clumsily down the stairs to the exit, then placing all of our bags in the cart and rolling it down the street towards Chateau de Versailles!

We arrived at the castle and were instantly impressed with the size and appearance of it. There were 3 large wings to the castle – each at least the length of a football field. Behind the castle were the royal gardens which stretched for miles! Down the middle of the gardens were beautiful fountains and a man-made pond which rowers enjoyed. Tucked away in one corner of the estate was Queen Marie Antoinette’s getaway villa and estate. We didn’t have the opportunity to make it out there. Inside the chateau, there were 2-story high rooms with beautiful paintings all around – on most of the walls and all over the ceilings. In addition, there was an abundance of gold in every single room we ventured into and large mirrors in many of the rooms. There was one hall called the Hall of Mirrors. There were mirrors lined up along the walls for the entire hall – pretty interesting. Ben’s favorite room was the Hall of Battles – featuring 2-story high paintings of French battles from 700 to the late 1800s.

After Versailles, the four of us decided to partake in happy hour at the Tex Mex restaurant right next to the train station. That’s right. TEX MEX – in France!!! Each one of us ordered mojitos and we enjoyed nachos and queso fundido.

We took a late train back to Paris and then went our separate ways at one of the stops. Ben and I took a late train to Caen (Normandy) and finally arrived at our hotel at midnight! What a day!

Paris: Oct. 15th

In the morning, we ran into our backpacking buddies, Rebecca and Colin (from Canada). They ended up staying at the same hostel as us – making this the 4th coincidence of us! It was nice to see familiar faces.

We spent the first half of the day at the Louvre Museum. There are three wings (Denon, Sully and Richelieu) to the Louvre and we tackled all 3! Of course we didn’t see everything but we made sure to see the main attractions: The Winged Victory of Samothrace (Goddess of Victory), Mona Lisa, The Wedding Feast at Cana, The Raft of the Medusa, Tomb of Philippe Pot, Aphrodite, the Apollo Gallery, and Napoleon III’s Apartments. The museum is a great work of art in itself. The inverted and upright glass pyramids were unique structures of the Louvre.

After the Louvre, we took a 2-hour Batobus canal ride along the Seine River. Along our ride, we had great views of Notre Dame, Louvre Museum, beautiful Paris bridges, the Eiffel Tower, various museums and palaces, and the famous Hotel de Ville.
We ended the night with a market dinner. We bought some eggs, ham and cheese which Ben managed to put together a decent egg scramble. Of course, no dinner is complete without some French wine (2 Euros!) We enjoyed the rest of the evening hanging out with our fellow backpackers, Colin and Rebecca.

More pictures from our 2nd day in Paris

Paris: Oct. 14th

Today, we celebrated our 3-year anniversary, and what a great city to celebrate in!

We started the day off with a visit to the gothic Notre Dame Cathedral. They knew we were coming because rows of beautiful purple and gold flowers were laid out in front of the cathedral!  GO UW! We admired the exterior of the church which was detailed with a number of items including goblins as well as the interior which had a huge alter, carved and massive pillars, a large organ, beautiful stained windows and statues. Sunday mass was being conducted while we were inside walking around. We felt odd to be there during the large service – there were hundreds of tourists piling in and out of the church taking pictures (without turning off their flash!), talking and having their cell phones go off – but the service continued on as if there were no tourists watching. Liya felt uncomfortable at times taking pictures but it was hard not to in this beautiful church!

After Notre Dame, we walked across the bridge to the island where the famous Berthillon sorbet was founded. We enjoyed two scoops each of this deliciousness! Liya had mango and red peach, Ben had caramel and chocolate cake. YUM!

We hopped on a Batobus, a canal boat, which dropped us off at Pont Alexander Bridge near the Champs Elysees. The bridge was beautiful and featured a number of statues. From the bridge, we had a great view of the Eiffel Tower. We walked towards the grand avenue of Champs Elysees, passing the Grand and Petite Palace where the French Royals used to live (now used as museums). When we arrived at the Champs, we were immediately aware at how long the road stretched and how far the Arc de Triomphe was at the end of it. We took our time walking down the street, doing some window shopping and venturing into Sephora, the flagship store which was absolutely HUGE, Nike Paris and Adidas, and the cool automobile exhibits of Toyota and Citroen. Toyota featured a futuristic silver car, an all-chrome car, and a dry-erase car where many had fun leaving their mark on it. Citroen featured a car on each level of the building – 6 in total – where visitors walk up a large spiral staircase around each car. We had no idea how they managed to get the cars in and on each level – an awesome visual concept indeed.

We finally made it down to the Arc de Triomphe and were greeted by hundreds of Argentineans. England beat France the night before and Argentina was in town to play England on the 15th. They were proud and loud, stopping traffic while crossing over to celebrate at the Arc. We climbed 284 steps to the top of the Arc where we enjoyed panoramic views of the city. It was crazy to watch traffic circling around us down below. We were amazed that no one ended up in a car accident with their lack of lane lines and ‘dangerous’ traffic rules (the car on the right always has the right-of-way when entering traffic – opposite to the States). From the top, we had great views of La Defense, Sacre Coeur, Louvre Museum, and the Eiffel Tower. It was great to watch the sun set from atop the Arc – it was absolutely beautiful. After the Arc, we headed to Chez Clement for dinner.

Chez Clement was a smaller restaurant along one of Paris’ main streets. We wanted to have a traditional French dinner so we started with a plate of French pâté which came with salad, bread and pickles. For our main course, Ben had the Grand Rotisserie plate which featured duck, chicken, beef, pork spare ribs and a generous serving of mashed potatoes. I had a similar plate minus the duck. For dessert, we enjoyed home-made crème brulee. Overall, it was a great dinner and within our budget – perfecto! It was great ending to a great day!

Paris: Oct. 13th

We got up early Saturday morning and Jeff was gracious enough to drop us off at the Brussels-Midi Train Station. We took the high-speed train, TGV, to Paris, which only took us about an hour and a half to arrive in the great city of Paris. Our hostel was located in the 18th District near famous sites such as the Moulin Rouge and the Sacre Coeur Basilica. Since we arrived in the afternoon and with Paris being so large, we decided to spend the rest of the day at Sacre Coeur and down at the Eiffel Tower.

Sacre Coeur is an amazing structure. It stands on top of Paris’ highest hill and lures millions of tourists every year to its steps to take in the grand view of Paris. Since it was the weekend, a number of street vendors were lined up along the streets surrounding Sacre. Vendors were selling everything from French wines to cheeses to cured meats to Haribo candies to fresh seafood. In front of the Sacre, we enjoyed two young men playing music and singing American classics to the large crowd resting on the steps.

After visiting Sacre Coeur, we took the metro and headed down to the Tracedora to have a great view of the Eiffel Tower at night. When we arrived, we noticed hundreds of French and English rugby fans piling out of the metro and heading towards the grounds behind the Eiffel Tower. We arrived in Paris at a great time. That night, France and England were playing against each other in the Rugby World Cup Semifinals. Thousands of rugby fans were in the City of Lights to watch their team play in the World Cup. We spent a couple of hours at the Tracedora where we enjoyed a full-length view of the Eiffel Tower which the top half of it was lit in yellow and the bottom half was lit in green. At every hour, the tower would give the crowd a great light show by sparkling for a good 10 minutes. After enjoying the tower, we followed the large crowd to the gardens located right behind the Eiffel. There, a huge TV screen was playing the match. The gardens were completely packed with excited fans. There were UK flags and French flags, red flares and fog horns to get this crazy crowd pumped.

We ended the evening with a late-night kebab sandwich near our hostel…perfecto!

Brussels, Belgium: Oct. 11th - 12th

Similar to our times in Basel and Hamburg, Brussels taught us a valuable lesson in hospitality. We spent two nights in the town of beer and chocolate with two ex-patriots that we met a few weeks previous in Oktoberfest. Jeff and Joanne, who are originally from Pennsylvania, were exceptional hosts that made our time in Brussels extra special. A special ‘Prost’ to Jeff and Joanne!

Our first night included a great meal at a local Vietnamese restaurant where we feasted on soups, hearty entrees of rice and noodles, rose wine, and great conversation. We retired at a decent hour to recharge our batteries for the full day ahead.

A cup of coffee started our morning on the right foot and Jeff graciously directed us to the must see sights that the city had to offer. A short ride on a tram similar to those found in San Francisco dropped us just north of the main attraction for the day, the Grand Place. The walk down the hill to the infamous square was a great build up. Brilliant architecture, beautiful gardens, and a vivacious street market were all stops along the way. We wish our walk into the Grand Place could have been captured on video from all different angles. Close up to see our expressions, 300 feet above from the Town Hall spire for a bird’s eye view, and across the square from one of the many cafes. We walked the perimeter to window shop the multiple gourmet chocolate stores that line the square. There is nothing like Godiva from the source. With museums, chocolate, cafes and people from all around the world we concluded that the Grand Place is exactly that, grand!

Making our way out of the square, we followed the crowds to see the Manikin Piss. On our way, we stopped by a waffle stand where we had a true Belgium waffle which was absolutely delicious. It was crispy on the outside and gooey in the inside  YUM. We arrived at the Manikin Pis at the end of the block and were surprised to see that he wasn’t as big as we expected him to be. He was dressed in one of his 700+ outfits made by visitors from all around the world.

We walked back down to the square to continue window shopping and stopped by to browse what the street market vendors had to offer. To end our day in the Grand Platz, we each enjoyed a Belgium beer at Le Cirio, a 1880s pub that has kept its environment the same.

We had a great time with Joanne and Jeff at their home for our last night in Brussels. They were so generous to make a delicious dinner for all four of us to enjoy. We started dinner with a yummy salad (greens, garbanzo beans, sliced green olives, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, and slivers of red hot chili peppers in mine – thanks Jeff!). Also, Jeff made awesome sangria to accompany our dinner. The main course was a large portion of mussels served in two different broths/sauces. One was prepared the traditional Belgium style – leeks, white wine, garlic, and a fresh sprig of thyme. The other was prepared Italian style – roma tomatoes, diced onions and garlic, basil and red wine. We were stuffed silly by the end of the night. What a great and fulfilling meal and evening!

A special thank you goes to Jeff and Joanne for a wonderful time in Brussels!