Why does it always take SO long to get home?

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Hello!

I always like to wrap up a blog and let everyone know we arrived home safely.  The problem this time is that we arrived home just before midnight on Sunday the 31^st, and by 3 pm on Monday, I had a good old case of the flu.  And, the combination of flu and jet lag has been a real jolt!

So, back to the trip.  We were up about 6 am on Sunday morning, and down for breakfast at 7 am.  Fortunately, the hotel’s internet was working, so I was able to post our last day/night in Europe.  Then around the corner to the RERB, and out to Charles de Gaulle, arriving by 8:45 am.  It was just starting to rain as we walked to the RER station at Luxembourg, but it really picked up steam as we headed out.  There was no line at all in check-in or customs, and very quickly we found ourselves at our gate in Terminal 1.  They have refitted the United concourse with lots of wonderful things – like actual connectors for electronics at every seat!  Very neat!

The plane came in early, and we actually also left about half an hour early.  The flight was scheduled to take a little over 9 hours, but fortunately came in about an hour early.  Amazingly, the flight was, if anything, only half full, so I was able to find three nice seats across for myself.  The problem was that I wasn’t at all tired, so of course, didn’t get any sleep.

The arrival in Dulles was fine, and we again got through immigration and customs and back into the re-inspection line very quickly.  Once we were out of all that, we actually found REAL hot dogs at Dulles Airport!  (I used to spend a lot of time in Dulles, and always hated their food choices!  But now they do real all-beef hotdogs and very good French fries!)  On to the flight several hours later, and almost every single seat was taken.

The flight was awful.  So many people herded together, and for some reason, there were no windows we could even see out!  The five hour flight was interminable, but it was really a jolt touching down, as I had no idea we were so close to the ground.  Didn’t like that at all.  Off the airplane, and R went for our luggage, I went to pick up the car. 

For some reason, I am physically unable to find the Phoenix Airport from the car rental facility.  This is my second late evening run where this has happened, but I did find it eventually, and R was there with the luggage.

The drive home was very scary, as a weather front was moving in, bringing a combination of rain and sand.  I had been worried that I might have been too tired to drive all the way home, but it’s amazing what Adrenalin can do, and we made it all the way home without stopping.  (I really didn’t want to get out of the car, as my allergies were starting to act up in a major way, as dust has always been one of my worst.)  Arrived a few minutes before midnight, so we can actually say that R did make it home on his birthday! 

 

I headed to bed, not waking up until after 7:30 am, but feeling not at all well.  But sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between jet lag and other things!  At any rate, we returned the rental car at the Tucson Airport, and then came back to the house and I went back to bed.  When I still wasn’t really “up” by 3 pm, and feeling poorly, I decided to take my temperature … which registered at 103.  So…R insisted that we go down the street to Urgent Care.  I had no idea there was now a real test for flu, but there is, and I’ve got it – Flu A, whatever that means (as opposed to Flu B which I don’t have.) 

 

R took me back home, and then went to fill the prescription for Tamiflu, which hopefully will help cut this down.  What is truly driving me crazy is that there is SO much to do coming back from a trip.  I have been doing bits and pieces of things, and I can now report that with R’s help, the laundry is actually done!!  (Although there is a pile full of ironing…)  

So … thank you all SO much for coming with us on our wonderful adventure!  (Or, Robert’s 75^th birthday trip, as I like to call it!)  We have really loved hearing from you and enjoyed your comments!  So, until the next “adventure” – which, by the way R is changing to “expedition!” Take care, and lots and lots of love to all!

m

xxx

Back to Paris!

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Hello!

NOTE:  The wifi in our hotel was out last night, so I wasn't able to post.  I am posting now, first without photos, just to get it done.  If I can't get the photos to load, I will resend when we get home!

m

Well, we made it back to Paris on schedule, but our hotel is having WiFi problems, so no posting possible tonight!  Bummer!

So … from dinner last night at Les Lazaristes. 

My John Dory

One of R's desserts!

R's dinner

Neither of us was really all that hungry after our dessert assortment, but R wanted to go to the restaurant, so we went about 8 pm – and had the place to ourselves. 

R's Happy Birthday Cake!

Our favorite waiter – she had waited on us our first night at the hotel, three weeks ago! – was back, and she really is a cute gal.  She kept bringing us treats from the kitchen – truffle butter (which was great!), cheese in herbs, etc.  Very fun!  We neither of us needed a starter, but for our main courses, R chose the steak with potatoes, carrots and fennel.  I chose a fish entrée called St. Pierre which turned out to be John Dory, and was delicious!  It came with some beets and mashed potatoes.  [How is this for role reversal?  I ordered steak and Margaret ordered fish!!! – R]  For dessert, R ordered a glass of Cognac, and I ordered ice cream – but to continue R’s birthday celebration, we also got a very interesting little Turkish cake with Happy Birthday (or so we were told) written on it.  Great fun.

Then back upstairs, and I was in bed by about 11 pm as we had set the alarm clock for 5 am.  Unfortunately, we wanted to get to the airport as early as possible, so we missed the wonderful hotel breakfast.  Oh well!  Up at 5 and ready to leave by 6 am.  We were meeting the car guy at their office at 7:30 am, and we wanted to make sure that all was well on the way there.

Great vegetable soup!

Back at l'Ecluse

Very tiny tables...

Of course we were very early – we got to their locked gate about 6:45 am but we were able to read our e-books on our smart phones and on the Kindle (the wonders of technology!).  The guy pulled in about 7:25 am, inspected the car and said that all was well, then loaded us on their shuttle bus, and off we went.  We were actually the second people in line for check-in, but really were first because the lady who was there earlier than we had a super huge suitcase that was terribly over weight, and she hadn’t paid anything at all.  She was sent to another location to handle that problem.  

So, checked in and then through security, which was fine, and finally to the gate.  Ryan Air’s priority boarding is really slick – we were the first folks on the bus to the plane, and then the first ones on the plane.  Three hour flight.  It was a bit bumpy, especially going over the mountains, but at one point, it looked like we were flying over ONLY mountains – huge peaks all covered in snow – it looked like a thousand meringues out the window!  [These turned out to be the Austrian Alps.]  The flight was probably about half full, so it was pleasant except for the rocky bits.

A very wet Paris street scene

Chinese New Year Prep?

Finally, about noon, we landed in Beauvais – and they opened the door in a truly torrential downpour, coupled with very strong winds.  I’m not sure when I’ve seen rain this heavy before, but possibly in Norway some years ago.  Problem was, you had to first walk down the stairway from the plane, and then cross the tarmac to the terminal door – no jetways at Beauvais!  By the time I got to the door, my pants were absolutely soaking wet below my coat – which was most of my pants!  And I HATE being in wet clothes!! 

Robert waited for the luggage, while I went to find the Ryan Air ticket seller, but before I did that, there was a booth with a gal and it turned out to be Super Shuttle!  Same blue as in the U.S. and everything!  And, the really good part, they would deliver us to our hotel!  Definitely a good deal -- €60 for the two of us.  (If we had taken the Ryan Air shuttle, it would have been €34 to get us to Porte Maillot, and then we would still have had to pay for a cab across town!  And we’d have been all wet!!)  

There were three other people – a family with son, who joined us on the ride in.  They got dropped off first.  Truly, the driver did a really remarkable job, because the traffic was terrible because of the rain.  It probably took us close to two hours to reach Paris and the Hotel Elysa Luxembourg.  The hotel is in the exact spot we want to be in – right across the street, actually, from Graciela’s flat that we’ve stayed in multiple times before.  Our room, 505, is on the 5^th floor (obviously) and has a lovely patio running the length of the room which looks out over the Luxembourg Gardens AND has a tremendous view of the Eiffel Tower!  Wow!  Even in the rain, it looks wonderful!

What better way to end a Paris trip?

View from our balcony!!

As we hadn’t really had much to eat, we decided that the first priority was to get food.  However, we did open our suitcases – which were soaking wet on the outside (they got wet during the short trip from the plane to the terminal), only to find that water had actually gotten inside (zippers are not waterproof!), and we had some pretty wet clothes!  We’ve never, ever had that happen before.  The rain was actually horizontal at times.  The other bad thing was that I generally put papers we pick up and items like that in the outside pockets … which – you guessed it!  Were wet too!  UGH!  Also, R tried to get into the hotel’s internet, but no luck.  He thinks it is rain related…

As we had already shipped back our Paris bus map, we headed around the corner to the Luxembourg RER station to get another one.  I had hoped to take R to a restaurant I found a year or so ago, but as it was still raining so hard, we decided to stick with the familiar and the easy to get to.  One bus – the 84 – would take us directly from Luxembourg to the Madeleine, so yes, we returned to l’Ecluse yet again.  At least we knew they’d be open and the food would be good!

Back to “our” table, and as it turned out, we had almost completely matching meals!  We started with big bowls of vegetable soup with bread (great for a rainy day!).  Then, we both had their steaks – served rare – with a ramekin of wonderful mashed potatoes and a mache salad with mustard vinaigrette.  YUM!  For dessert, I had an apple pastry (not so great) and R had a glass of Armagnac, all washed down with a lovely bottle of Pommerol.  Very, very nice dinner.  It was interesting, because l’Ecluse has a back all-glassed in atrium, and the pounding of the rain on the glass was just tremendous!  

Finally abated somewhat by the time we were ready to leave.  Walked down the street a short distance and caught the 84 back to Luxembourg and then back to the hotel.  Unfortunately, the WiFi and internet still isn’t working.  Really a bummer, as I wanted to get this posted tonight.  I’ll have to wait until we either get to Washington DC tomorrow, or all the way home to post!  And we had some great shots of the Eiffel Tower, which I will, of course include!

So, for the moment, and looking forward to our l-o-n-g flying day tomorrow, I’ll say, that’s it for now!

Much love,

m

xxx

Seeing the Sights (and Sites) in Thessaloniki!

Friday, January 29, 2016

Hello!

Room service dinner!

Detail of my salad with poached pear and goat cheese

I had a lovely massage last night, and then came back upstairs and soaked in a nice hot bathtub for a bit, while our room service dinner was being delivered.  I had a salad with arugula with pears poached in red wine, goat cheese, and a honey drizzle over the top.  It was delicious.  Robert had their pasta carbonara (bacon in a cream sauce, with cheese) which he very much enjoyed.  I have to admit it was really nice not to get dressed up for dinner!

Up this morning about 6 am, and down to breakfast about 7. 

Statue of Alexander the Great

White Tower

Thessaloniki waterfront

Palace of Galerius

We want to make a trial run to the airport this morning (as we will be heading there “for real” tomorrow morning) and wanted to get some idea of how long it would take.  And, it takes about half an hour.  So, we filled up the car with gas (which we will top off tomorrow morning at the Shell station across from the rental car place) and headed back into town.  It turns out that our hotel provides free parking in the City Hall lot, which is where we actually parked to go to the Archeological Museum several weeks ago – but at that point, we didn’t know it could be free!

Portion of old city walls

More city walls

Icon from Agios Dimitrios

Agios Dimitrios

Then, we headed to the White Tower (called that because it was white washed at some point in its past) which had served as a prison (again, its checkered past …) to catch the Thessaloniki Culture Bus.  What fun!  Turns out that bus 50 costs 1€ if you’re over 65, and 2€ if you’re under, and it goes on a narrated route through the interesting parts of the city.  So, on we went, paying our money, and honestly, for most of the route, we had the bus to ourselves.

The route was divided into various parts, and included a trip to the “top” of the city – again, we had no idea that Thessaloniki went up so high!  At various points in the city’s history (remembering that there have been people here since the Neolithic) huge walls were built surrounding the city, and we were able to go through one or two of the larger gates.  We passed buildings that had started out as Roman Catholic churches, turned into mosques and later re-converted to Orthodox churches. 

Now those are candles!

Agios Dimitrios

Frescos

In the crypt

Thessaloniki had at one point a very large population of both Jews and Turks along with the Greeks.

Detail from a capital in the crypt

Another icon

 

They call this parking?

The Roman Agora

The Turks were “moved” during the “population exchange” in the early 1920’s (a very, very terrible period in the history of modern Turkey and Greece, when the Greeks in Turkey were forced to move to Greece, and the Turks in Greece were moved to Turkey – but not without a lot of bloodshed.)  In fact, the modern “father” of Turkey, Kemel Ataturk was actually born in Thessaloniki, Greece.  His house has been turned into the Turkish Embassy.  And then the Jews, unfortunately, about 48,000 of them, were rounded up and deported to Germany during WWII.

Beautiful vaulting in the agora

Lots of Roman brick!

Detail from Byzantine church - it's mosaic

After doing a complete circuit, we decided to remain on the bus and get off when it got to some of the Roman ruins that we wanted to see more closely.  So, we got off at stop six, and headed first into the church of Agios Dimitrios, which was built in the 5^th century AD, but was reconstructed at a later period after being looted and destroyed.  I have to say that this church was simply breathtaking.  We neither of us know much about the Greek Orthodox religion, with the sole exception of attending a wedding in Glendale, CA once with Anne Vaughan of a gal who worked for me at Art Center.  I do remember the priest there saying that really, the only difference between them and Roman Catholic priests is that the Greek Orthodox priests are allowed to marry.  Oh, and that they have a Patriarch and the Roman Catholics have the Pope.  

Be that as it may, the church was absolutely filled to the rafters with icons.  They were everywhere.  Some were in gold, with painted faces, and some were in silver.  Some were painted, and some were done in mosaic.  We could read some of the names of their saints, and they included relics in incredibly ornate boxes or containers and sitting inside smaller chapels built inside the church.  It was quite overwhelming and impressive.  I would really like to have had more information about the history and the stories of the people, but there was very little in any language other than Greek.

From Agios Dimitrios, we toured the old Roman Agora, which has been excavated.  There were some really lovely stone and Roman brick archways.  

We then made our way into another, much less impressive, Byzantine church, and finally started making our way back toward the car park.  We did stop for lunch – slices of very good pizza – at a place called Foccachino.  Pizza plus two bottles of water came to something a little over 5€!  Certainly can’t beat that price!

One final icon

Really good pizza!

What a nice birthday surprise!

By now, we were a bit leg weary, and we still had a long way to walk.  The traffic in the city is amazing.  Robert pointed out that you really can’t tell if a lane is for driving or for parking, as these folks tend to double, triple and quadruple park.  It’s insane!  Even crossing the street can get pretty dicey!  What I love are the people who literally drive one side of their vehicle up on a center meridian, and then just leave the car there!  Incredible!  (I think he took a few photos to illustrate.)

Finally got to the car, and headed back to the hotel.  We will settle the bill tonight, and be ready to pull out nice and early to get to the airport in the morning.  

We walked into our room, only to find that the wonderful staff here at the hotel delivered a bottle of red wine, a bottle of water, and a lovely tray full of all sorts of mini-desserts, in celebration of Robert’s 75^th birthday on Sunday!  What amazing people – and yum, the desserts are GREAT! 

Tonight is also the massive “repacking” night, as everything liquid and sharp needs to be out of carry-ons and into the checked bags.  While I am the normal family packer, I decided to call in the Big Gun on this repacking.  Robert can pack more things than anyone I have ever seen.  So … I went and did jigsaw puzzles on the computer, and R got us repacked.  Have to say, we’ve got plenty of room, and I honestly don’t know how he does it.  I just figured that if he were watching me, he’d start giving advice, and that would not be a good thing at all.  So, I turned it over to the expert, and he came through once again! 

Dinner tonight here at the hotel, and then we will be on our way back to Paris tomorrow, where we will overnight!!  So, more later!

m

xxx