Braunschweig – Apelnstedt

Saturday started with a lovely relaxing breakfast and off for a tour of Braunschweig.  This was the community where Knud and Kathy met while at university.   Even though it was heavily damaged during WWII, it was a fascinating place to visit. Saw the rebuilt castle façade. The city was filled with pockets of interesting city halls, historical market squares and beautiful churches.  At the city hall where Kathy & Knud were married, we happened upon a wedding!

Then we travelled Apelnstedt.  Kathy and Knud took us to visit with Patty, Uli, Marcus, son Tim, and the Dombrowski’s mother, Olga. Had a lovely tea, coffee and cake party. Very impressed by Patty’s working dog Aiko and puppy Monty. So nice to visit with Olga after all these years apart. Bernie had a wonderful visit with Marcus. The three hours of chatting and reminiscing flew by. Got some great pictures. Too soon, it was time to leave.

                                                                                

Returned to Bienenbuttel – even the trip there & back was interesting as we saw a windmill museum going and storks, on the trip back.  Got to share a lovely meal with all the Dombrowskis as Vincent had returned from a holiday in Vienna.  Our first taste of schnitzel was terrific. A busy and memorable day.

More to follow …

Paris – Hannover – Uelzen – Bienenbuttel

Friday we began our day early, off on the Metro to get to the train out of Gare de Nord. Lots of time to spare, off to Germany on a Thalys train. Very fast - 300 kmph. Flew through Belgium, into Koln.  Chris knew we were in Germany as we were able to enjoy a bratwurst. Our next train was an ICE (bit slower – 200 kmph) onto Hannover which was a very busy station. The last leg of our journey was via an IC train onto Uelzen. A fairly long trip - around eight & half hours of travel.

We were warmly welcomed by Kathy, Knud & Ken Dombrowski. Received a brief tour of the Uelzen train station designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Not your typical German train station / architecture. No straight lines, odd shapes and bold colours and interesting out of place objects. Very impressed and glad we saw it close at hand.

 

We immediately felt comfortable and at home.  Settled, had a lovely German bbq and made plans for the next couple of days.

More to follow …

Louvre – Paris by Tour Bus – Arc de Triomphe

The day began with a Metro ride to the Louvre. Lots of misconceptions very quickly laid to rest:  the Mona Lisa is actually a reasonably sized painting; the Louvre is huge – we spend 6 hours in the museum and saw maybe a third of it; the French possess a lot of pieces of antiquity.

So many beautiful paintings, sculptures and artifacts. It makes your head spin. Bernie’s favorites were the paintings and sculptures, Chris thoroughly enjoyed the Egyptian artifacts.



Got onto the Paris Hop-on Hop-off tour – there is a lot of gold in Paris. The tour took us to the Arc de Triomphe – we climbed to the top, 284 steps – not so bad a climb – what amazing views.

 

Had supper at a lovely sidewalk pizzeria restaurant – Bernie had pepperoni  pizza and Chris had a veal with cream & mushroom sauce dinner. The French can do amazing things with cream.  It’s been a memorable two days in Paris.

Off to Germany tomorrow, more to follow …

Birthday in Paris

Wow - what a way to spend Chris' birthday. We got ourselves to the Hard Rock Cafe to collect our Paris Passes. Then away we went on our Paris adventure. Our first stop was at Notre Dame. Difficult to put into words or capture in photos the grandeur of this Cathedral, unless you have seen it.  Work began in 1163 and took over 80 years to complete.





Off to the Eiffel Tower. Bernie has gathered gobs of statics that you are all going to have to read ... 320 m (1050 ft) high; 7,300 of steel and 10,000 tons en masse; 7.1 million visitors / year; works out to about 20,000 per day; 2010 & had its 250 millionth visitor in 2010; looked like most of Moose Jaw was around / on it today; the first stage is ringed by 72 names of great scientists, engineers & industrialists (not one of them a woman!!).

Had a lovely lunch at a sidewalk cafe - salads and quiche lorraine and a decadent dessert.

This was followed by an one hour Seine River cruise - had a taste of Paris history and glances of sites as we travelled along the river.

Found our way to the Musee du Rodin. You know the artist for the Thinker? What an amazing collection of his works. Got to know about Honere Balzac, a French novelist and playwrite.

In our travels we happened across the Hotel Des Invalides. What a spectalar facade and dome.

Our last stop was Les Champs des Elysees where we also saw le Grande et Petite Palais and the Alexander Bridge.

Out for supper at the Le Cadran du Voltaire - Bernie had rumsteak and Chris had swordfish began with escargot as an appetizer.

What a day ... we'd have to say that London presented as a rather grim, care worn, historic place - Paris was sparkle and gold with lots of history, too.



More to follow ...