Spirit in the Village

Turning Up the Light!!

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

Alright I have a confession to make. I’ve been spending a lot of time writing and blogging lately. There’s good reason for that. Back at the end of January I was downsized from my job. In fact it was January 22nd the day I did my first complete post on the Meditation Project.

Coincidence? I’m not so sure.

I’m always a believer there is reason for everything that happens and this was no exception. I wasn’t the only one. There were others downsized and the reasons given were due to the economy. Millions of people in the past year have either lost jobs, had work cut back, are in fear of losing their job or know of someone who has. These are uncertain times for business and people as our society navigates our way out of this. What’s interesting about this economic slowdown is there are sectors that are performing well while others have suffered. Time will tell how it all unfolds.

Losing my job has been a blessing because it’s given me time to write, blog and learn about social media and networking tools like Twitter and Linkedin. The last 1-1/2 months has allowed me to lose weight (about 15 lbs), re-start my stalled exercise program, and focus on the Meditation Project. This time has also helped me gain clarity on the important question, what is it I want from life? This is exactly what the doctor ordered.

The time is right for me to find a new career, this time a little wiser and more aware of what I want.

Blogging and Finding My Authentic Voice

During my time as a blogger (2-1/2 years) I’ve been trying to find my authentic voice. What is it I really want to say? This blog started as a travel blog telling of my wife Karen and our honeymoon to France, Italy and Switzerland. As much as I love traveling we haven’t done much since and blogging about my recent trip to the grocery store would probably be a little boring.

Other topics I have written about include the environment, current events, and talks and while I find all these topics important too many people take sides and because we’re either left or right, green or oil, conspiracy or non-conspiracy. I’m not interested in discussions of who’s right or wrong. Personally I think these debates are pointless and do nothing constructive for our society.

Obama came along with a new message about unity. He impressed me so much with his message that like millions of others I became a fan and wrote about him.

Whether we make our home on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, our blog or wherever I’ve discovered, all anyone really wants to do is tell their story.

Blogging for me is like a painting, you create a sketch, throw in some colors and before you know it begins to look like something. My blog is my painting and it’s my opportunity to tell my story.

The light of authenticity is now fully turned on and I'm looking forward to sharing a lot more.

Update to the Travel Section

Recently I changed the format of my site to connect to the url SpiritintheVillage.com.  As a result the links to the photos in a number of my earlier posts were lost.  Anyone viewing those pages were not able to see the photos.  To update the links and photos was a labour intensive process that has taken me all morning. 

So rather than let all my work go to waste you can check out the Travel section to see the posts from my honeymoon.  As I've been going through the memories here are some of my favourite photos from the trip. 

When in Paris be sure to see the lights, book a trip to the Louvre, have lunch in a cafe and don't miss Les Champs-Elysees. Oh and I almost forgot, don't forget to go shopping. 

There's nothing like getting a tan on the Mediterranean, visiting old town Nice, seeing the palaces and millionaires row in Monaco or enjoying the beauty of St. Paul's.     

When in Lucerne be sure to take your walking shoes, camera, visit a chocolate shop and don't miss the church above the clouds on Mount Pilatus.  

Day 12 - Paris to Toronto - Last Day...

Day 12 was our last day, the flight from Paris to Toronto.  We had thoroughly enjoyed every part of our trip including Paris, Chablis, Dijon, Valance, Chateauneuf du Pape, Nice, Antibes, Cannes, St. Paul's, Monaco, Molano, Lucerne and all the other places.  Like any trip there is always a wish we could have had more time and we definitely want to go back. 

We brought back 5 bottles of wine, 8 jars of Dijon mustard and about a hundred dollars worth of chocolate along with a number of other gifts.  We ended up having to buy another suitcase and when checking in found that our bags were overweight by 25 kilos.  At 5 Euro per kilo we ended up having to pay 120 Euros in overweight bag charge - Ouch!! 

For any of you who are history buffs here is my last photo from the trip.  A photo close to Calais and the coast of France.

If I had to drive in Europe again I would see if I could rent a car that had a GPS (Global Navigation System).  Navigating streets in the larger cities was difficult and maps were not always helpful.   

Although sad to leave we were happy to get home.  As a wedding present for us my wife's son had replaced all the locks on the doors (he did give us keys) along with the taps in the kitchen and bathrooms.  We had a lot of stories, photos, gifts and eventually fell into bed...very satisfied. 

That's the end of our honeymoon - September 10th to 22nd, 2006

Day 11 - Lucerne to Paris

The last full day was our drive from Lucerne to Paris.  This was our second last photo of Switzerland. I thought the car was neat.  In many ways it was bittersweet since we both knew that our honeymoon would soon be coming to an end.  Tomorrow we would fly back to Toronto.  There were not many photos that day since it was a long way from Lucerne to Paris. 

The drive through the northwestern part of Switzerland had fewer mountains than the south however we were able to get a photo of a tunnel.  We stopped to buy gasoline and stamps and found that when you pay with credit card at an auto-pay gas pump they require your pin number. Personally I think it is a great idea to include a pin number with credit cards (more security), however it did cause me a problem trying to fill up with gas, especially when there was no person to talk to. 

We left Switzerland through the border town of Basel and drove north towards Strasbourg.  Although it sounded romantic to drive through Strasbourg we decided to avoid the big city. 

I thought it would be a good idea to take one last drive through a small village. Unfortunately we got very lost and it took us over an hour to get back on track.  The drive was beautiful but directions and lack of road signs make it very difficult to navigate the small towns.   Here are a few photos of part of that drive and our last photos for that day. 

We stopped at the restaurant called Cafe Restaurant Du Bad in a town which I cannot remember the name.  We had a nice lunch with a glass of wine and then moved on. 

The rest of the afternoon and evening we drove to Paris.  Our destination was the Holiday Inn by Charles De Gaulle airport.  Let's just say that finding the exit was excruciating and we got lost and missed the exit twice.  Either way you are looking at driving about 20km before you can turn around.  We got to the hotel and ordered room service, had some wine and went to bed. 

Our next and last day - day 12 - our flight back to Toronto.

Day 10 - Mount Pilatus off Lucerne Lake

Day 10 was a fantastic day.  We decided to take a tour of Mount Pilatus which is just south of Lucerne.  If you are planning the journey be prepared for at least a half day or even a full day if you plan to do a lot of hiking.   The Mount Pilatus tour starts in Lucerne with a boat trip on Lake Lucerne.  You then take what is called the "world's steepest cogwheel railway" to go up the mountain and then 2 cable cars to decend the mountain and finally a bus to get back to the city. 

Here is a map of the travel route.

The price for the trip was about 81.60 Swiss Francs each and well worth every penny.  We walked from the hotel to pier 2, right outside the train station in Lucerne.  We looked around the souvenier shop and caught the 11am ferry.  There were regular departures so their was not a lot of waiting. 

On the boat we talked to a number of people.  There was a French lady, who spoke excellent English and lived in Denmark.  It was interesting to ask her questions about life in Denmark.  There was another couple from Glasgow in Scotland and we had an enjoyable conversation with them.  My brother works with NCR and I told them he had been to the the NCR location in Dundee.  There were another couple, a father and daughter from Virginia in the USA.  He was a World War II veteran and they had come to Europe to see Normandy and other sites from the war.  He told me about some of his experiences and I got the sense it had been a very emotional trip for him.  I really liked him.  He was telling me some jokes about Winston Churchill.  Americans love Churchill and it was all in good jest. 

The scenery of Switzerland is beautiful as seen in these photos.  We were trying to figure out how the grass works over there.  Do they have lawnmowers?  Is it really grass?  The grass just never seemed to grow long.  How would you get a lawnmower up on one of those steep hills?  Oh well, ignorant Canadians...

The boat ride was about an hour and a half and just a wonderful trip.  This gave us a chance to get close to some of the scenery. 

From the boat we were all put on the cogswheel railway to take the climb up the mountain.  We ended up in a big crowd at the back of the line and found we could not get two seats together inside the cars.  This was a blessing in disquise because the operators put us both together in the operators compartment right at the bottom end of the car.  It was the best view from anywhere on the railway and allowed us to get some good photos. 

When we got to the top the view was stunning.  I've been on some high mountains before in Alberta, British Columbia and Washington State.  Every mountain has seems to have its own unique personality. 

When I stand on top of a mountain I find my mind gets suspended as if there's no thought. The feeling is almost euphoric and I'm able to just experience the moment. There were a lot of tourists but also locals, especially older people with napsacks, hiking boots and ski poles.  There were multiple trails that you could walk and the best was the dragon walk through the caves.  We got some fantastic photos and I especially loved the one of the church on the hill. 

We spend a long time at the top going along multiple trails.  We had lunch and a nice meal of sausages and cheesy, creamy, oniony and very tasty potatoes - along with a beer.  We had a chance to talk with the waitress.  She told us a little bit about life in Switzerland. 

We also had an opportunity to hear the Alpine Horn Players who did a few tunes.  We actually recorded it but I still haven't figured out how to download video.  Once I learn how I'll post it. 

Later in the afternoon we took the cable car down the mountain.  There were two sections to the journey.  The first car had around 20 to 30 people on board and we were both able to get a window seat.  No photos since there was a reflection on the window.  The second car was smaller seating about 4 people.  We were standing in line with this older Swiss man.  He was retired and spoke very good English.  We were asking him about life in Switerland and what the CH meant.  He didn't really know but said it had some original Latin meaning.  Here's the Wikipedia definition.

As we descended the mountain we saw some other great sights.  This was a day for great photos.  At one stage we heard a whole bunch of bells ringing.  I didn't have a clue where the noise was coming from until I looked down and saw a bunch of cows (with bells around their necks) grazing in the field below. 

We ended up taking the bus back into town.  It's always fun taking public transit.  It's interesting to watch people.  You don't always get a chance to speak with them and many times I wonder what their life is like.  We got off the bus in another part of the city that we had not been to.  By this time I had lost sense of direction however we were soon able to get our bearings. 

We walked through town and found a clothes store.  We ended up buying some jeans, dress shirt and this big belt all for me.  I feel like Elvis, or at least a cowboy when I wear it.  But It looks good. 

For dinner the concierge had suggested we go to a traditional Swiss restaurant, however the one he recommended was booked that night.  We ended up going to another restaurant within walking distance.  For some reason I can't remember the name of this one.  They ended up seating us in the wine cellar surrounded by thousands of bottles from around the world.  For my wife this was like a pilgrimage or religious experience and the look on her face told me that she wanted to stay forever.  We had a lovely dinner but I was tired after a long day. 

This was the end of our day at Mount Pilatus.  The realization set in that our trip was coming to an end.  Tomorrow we would drive back to Paris and then the following day would fly home.  We'll have to figure out a way to get back to Switzerland...

Day 9 - An Awesome Day in Lucerne

One of the best parts of our trip was Lucerne Switzerland.  The concierge at the hotel said we need to just park the car and walk the town.  We took his advice and left our car parked for the next two days.  On the first day we walked the city during the day and evening.  We both fell in love with the city, the people and what seemed to be an awesome place to live.  Lucerne is a tourist city with a beautiful fast flowing river, a covered bridge, great shopping and a nice places to walk.

Here's a map.  Our hotel was on the top left side of the river just below the 2nd bridge.  You should see 6 bridges on the map. 

We started the day going through some gift shops close to the hotel.  The one that my wife particularly enjoyed was the Chocolate Shop.  :)  The smell was to die for.  So goes the saying, when in Switzerland buy Chocolate.  Our hotel is also included with the photos below.  At the Chocolate we spent 76 Swiss Francs in gifts.  My wife spent another couple of hundred in some of the other gift shops around the hotel.  The city felt comfortable, safe and beautiful and captured our hearts.  This was Tuesday morning (September 19th) and we started walking around town.  The first place we came to was a small market area by the river.  It was not too busy but we really enjoyed the walk and the view. 

We were especially captivated by the flowers both in the market and on the covered bridge.  Some of these photos will give you and idea of the colour and the beauty of the area where we walked.  Look at the still shots of the seagulls and the swans below. 

Here's a photo of the River Reuss running through the center of Lucerne.  This was a very fast flowing river.  The only other fast flowing river I have seen like this Fraser River running through Hope BC.   

We stopped for lunch at a little pub on the river.  We had a pint of beer each and sausage on a bun.  My wife had sauerkraut and I had some kind of potato thing.  I'm not a big sauerkraut fan.  What intrigued me was how the condiments were served.  We had the option of mild, medium or hot mustard, served in tubes. 

Lucerne is a fantastic city.  After lunch we walked to another part of town by the train station.  We bought some luggage, a bottle of wine and we ended up touring the Angela Rosengart Picasso Museum.  For some reason I didn't take a lot of photos.  The Picasso Museum was nice.  I'm not really a Picasso expert but we both enjoyed the visit. 

Afterward we walked back to the train station.  We found a bathroom but it cost 2 Swiss Francs.  Paying to go to the bathroom is unique for those of us from North America.  My wife went in and I didn't have to go, so I thought I would save the 2 Francs and wait outside.  As I was sitting there I looked in front of me at this sign on the glass window.  My wife had paid 2 Swiss Francs for use of the regular toilet but as I read the sign it said, Pissior - 1 Franc.  I'm assuming that meant it was less money to use the urinal.  For some reason I thought that was funny.  :)

When my wife came out she said she had never been in a bathroom so clean.  There was a person cleaning each bathroom stall after it had been used.  Toronto could learn a thing or two from these bathrooms.  Charge a bit of cash and pay someone to keep them clean.  What a good idea!

We walked back into the shopping area of downtown.  One of the things we noticed was the large number of men's clothing shops.  When you shop in Canada or the US you'll generally see 90 percent women's clothes shops versus 10% men's.  In Lucerne it seemed the ratio was 50-50.  For anyone who has factual information, this was not a scientific study. We could have been way off, but in the areas we traveled it seemed that men's stores matched womens and clothing for men was excellent. My wife likes the show What Not to Wear.  She loves watching it on Friday nights.  I tend to be the poster child for the before image of "what not to wear" so she has taken me on as her little project.  She thought it would be a good idea for me to buy some clothes.  And we did - but that's a story to be told on day 10. 

We went for dinner that night at a restaurant called Carpe Diem.  If anyone can find a link send it to me. It was a cafe type restaurant on one of the side streets.  There was a very pretty young girl serving us and we didn't speak German and she didn't speak much English.  We did our best to communicate, however I think she must have thought my humour was a little wierd, because a couple of times she just looked at me with this puzzled look on her face.  Come to think of it, my wife tends to give me that look. 

After dinner we walked back to the hotel.  There was a bar upstairs and my wife and I went in and ordered a couple of drinks.  She suggested we order this drink called Pernod which I later found out had a murky past.  It uses the magic ingredient called Absinthe which I had never heard of.  As Mike Myers would say, "Talk amongst yourselves."  Anyway without saying anything else it was quite enjoyable and capped the end to the fantastic day. 

We both thought it would be great to move to Lucerne and buy a chocolate shop.  I guess the fact that we don't speak German might be an issue but heck, who cares.  Guten Abend.  What an awesome idea.  As we move closer to the end of our journey, day 10 takes us to Mount Pilatus. 

Day 8 - Travel from Nice through Milano and onto Lucerne

I'm going through a learning process understanding blogging.  Writing about our travels is a lot of fun.  The challenge of course has been time.  At this stage I know the title of my blog might seem confusing for those who don't know me but it is my intent to allow this to evolve and discuss a variety of topics.  There are several ideas brewing and it's just a matter of me making a decision of what direction to take.  Have patience with me. 

Blogging is like a constant work in progress.  There's no beginning or end.  That appeals to me because the thought of writing, editing and publishing a book has always seemed so daunting. 

Six weeks have passed since our honeymoon and the memories start to fade.  That's why I want to record as much now so we can remember what we experienced.  Hopefully my wife and I will get a chance to have many more memorable experiences together. 

Day 8 was mostly a driving day.  Our destination - Lucerne Switzerland.  We decided we wanted to drive through Italy.  Unfortunately most of our experience of Italy was the drive. 

Leaving Nice we drove up the coastal highway through Monaco and Monte Carlo and then across the border into Italy.  Realizing that we were in the European Union (EU) I hadn't given any thought of what we would actually see regarding borders and immigration.  We drove through a border crossing, paid a toll and then there were a few police at the border watching cars - no customs agent, no questions.  Wow!  Free borders.  We drove up the coast for a while and a saw a number of coastal towns which were beautiful.  The landscape changed in Italy.  Instead of just homes we started to see what we thought were greenhouses.  I'm guessing they were used for a variety of crops.  These greenhouses were on every hill, every valley and every mountain top. 

Driving north from the coast we traveled the A7 and we stopped for lunch in Tortona.  Without knowing directions we found a cheap little diner where nobody spoke English but we were able to get by and order lunch.  Fortunately, currency was in Euros so we were still using the same money.  There is an awesome photo of my wife eating a piece of bread and looking like she is trying to communicate to me in Italian.   It was like a scene from the Godfather, "Hey Vinnie.  I'm eating this bread so don't bug me." 

Here are a couple of photos of Tortona.

From Tortona we drove north.  The drive was fairly non-eventful since the land was flat and the roads straight.  There was a toll road that freaked me out since I couldn't read any of the signs in Italian and the toll had no attendant and only took credit cards.  I struggled around and had cars honking behind me until I finally stuck my credit card in the machine and I was able to pay the 1.50 Euro toll.  Aahhhhh!!!  That was stressful.

The other stressful part was driving through Milano (Milan).  Big cities in Europe seemed to be very hard to navigate without a map.   We missed the main turnoff to bypass the city and sure enough got lost.  In Milano city streets did not seem to have defined lanes, and we hit some huge round abouts that took some time to navigate.  Thank God for round abouts because if you don't get it right the first time, you just go around a second time, a third, or fourth, whatever it takes.  Mopeds and motorcycles were also as popular as Nice and Paris and overtaking from all directions.  After about an hour we got through the city.  Eventually we got back on the highway and drove North to Switzerland.  Two countries in one day. 

The drive across the Swiss border was the same as Italy, with a couple of border guards watching cars.  We drove the A9 and crossed around Como and headed north.   By now it was later in the afternoon and we were behind schedule.  We still had over 2 hours of driving and wanted to arrive before dark.  The A9 turned into the A2 in Switzerland.  The drive along the A2 to Luzern was the most beautiful drive of the day.  Unfortunately we didn't stop and did not get a lot of photos that part of the drive. 

 

The tunnels in Switzerland were magnificent feats of engineering.  In Canada & the US if you travel through places like the Rocky Mountains, you tend to drive up or down the steep mountain roads.  The Swiss use tunnels.  "Oh there's a mountain.  Let's build a tunnel."  We probably drove through about 15 to 20 tunnels of various lengths on the A2.  The longest one was 17 km called the St. Gotthard Tunnel.  That was a long tunnel.  It was almost hypnotizing as I drove through and I had to be very careful to remain alert. 

German road and name signs were also interesting.    Every word seemed to be a mouthful to pronounce.  Words would have a place name and then have a strauss or gruben or nauben.  OBERGRUNDSTRASSE was one such example.  The one that seemed to tickle our funny bone the term for exit - "Ausfart".  We liked to say "Ausfart".  "Honey should I take the Ausfart?"  We were getting tired. 

We finally made it to Lucerne (Luzern) and got lost finding our hotel.  We had a map this time but still found it hard to find or read the road signs.  We checked into our hotel, called the Baslertor in Lucerne.  Again this was a lovely hotel and our room was beautiful.  Instead of sheets on the bed each person has a nice big comforter which was nice and warm.  On the night we arrived it was definitely cooler at night. 

Dinner was at a lovely place called "Nix's - in der Laterne" which we were told means "nothing in your head"  When the owner learned it was our honeymoon he gave us a shot of schnapps.  I quickly drank mine but my wife was struggling with hers.  I gladly offered help her out and proceeded to drink her shot.  Very tasty.  We enjoyed our dinner then walked back to the hotel for a well deserved rest and sleep. 

Day 9 - Our tour of Lucerne...

Day 7 – Antibes, Cannes, St. Paul’s and Monaco

From my last post (Day 6) I’m on the second leg of my flight now from Los Angeles to Albuquerque. It’s about 8:35pm California time and the flight is about 2 hours, getting me into Albuquerque at around 11:20pm (Albuquerque time). I'm on a roll for writing right now so this is good.  There will be a delay for me publishing this since I’m inputting the content into a word file and then need to transfer it to Typepad.

On Day 7 we drove to Antibes. A colleague of my wife had suggest we visit Old Antibes. When we got there it was Sunday morning and we had difficulty finding our way around. Eventually we did find parking but most of the shops were closed in the downtown area. We did walk quite a way and made it to the water. The coastline was beautiful but we never did find the old area of town. We couldn’t find anywhere to get a map or see where we were.

Later that morning we got on the road and drove to Cannes. We knew of the famous film festival but I have to admit the traffic was really heavy and I don’t think either of us really wanted to stop. Since we didn’t have a map of the city it was almost impossible to know where to go. In one part of the drive I missed the turn and ended up going up this extremely narrow one lane hill that took us to some hotel. At the top of the hill there were so many cars that it seemed impossible to move. In addition there seemed to be no exit on the other side. I found a way to turn the car around and drove back down this narrow driveway. The only problem was it was a one way road. Fortunately no other cars came up the road and we made it back down to the main road. We never really saw Cannes which was disappointing. Sorry, no photos.

Our disappointment in Antibes and then driving through Cannes was probably a blessing in disguise because we ended up in a little town called St. Paul’s. Earlier in the day we had asked the hotel concierge for some suggestions on where to go and he suggested St. Paul’s as a must see. I’d never heard of it and we had missed the turn off originally but when we circled back we found the signs and headed in that direction.

How do I describe St. Paul’s? It’s a little village on the top of a cliff. From the road we could see this town from miles away and I remember saying to my wife, "Look at that place." It turned out to be St. Paul’s. As we approached the town we found a place to park, but again the roads were narrow and one had to be careful.

Bathrooms were pay toilets, costing 20 cents. Conveniently there was a change machine that allowed us to change a Euro. Later that day we I talked to an American couple from Albany, New York. They had just gotten off their tour bus and didn’t understand the concept of pay toilets. There was no change machine at this toilet so I gave them 20 cents which I think was a great help to them in that moment.

St. Paul’s is a tourist area with restaurants, gift shops, cobblestone streets and fantastic scenery. I hope some of these photos will give you an idea, but better yet you need to go yourself. My wife bought a few purchases including some nice reprint paintings. They were painted by a local artist and are scenes of St. Paul. There were a couple of shops selling the most wonderful hand made table cloths. When I popped out to go to the bathroom my wife had bought one. My wife tends to plan out her purchases and always looks for quality. This purchase was no exception. Me, I tend to be the cheap one.

After touring the village we went for lunch at the "La Petite Chapelle" and I took this picture of the owners dog.  We had an enjoyable lunch, a glass of wine and then as we left the area we saw a group of men playing bocce ball. 

We saw people playing bocce ball in both Antibes and St. Paul's.  The game seemed popular at least in this part of France. 

The afternoon was young and there was still more to see. We decided to drive to Monaco which was about a 30 minute drive along the coast.  The coast of France is a beautiful place with a rugged turrain with magnificant towns and villages.  Many of the homes have been built right into the mountains or rock over looking the Mediterranean. 

I’d heard of Monaco but have to admit I never knew where it was on the map. Monaco was another spectacular place that simply mesmerized me in terms of its beauty. After getting lost a couple of times we did end up parking in this large underground garage and went up stairs to this place right on the water. I’ll have to do some research to tell you what the place was. If anyone recognizes the location below please let me know.  There were gardens surrounding the place and we both loved the flowers and the views looking down on the water and the city.  If anyone knows the places below let me know.

Walking inland we came to this courtyard and in the distance was a palace. There were police guards in white marching up and down for the tourists. Looking over the ledge we saw hundred foot yachts packed in what looked to be a yacht parking lot. There was a lot of money in this town – a city of millionaires. In the distance we could hear noise erupting from what I think was a football (soccer) stadium. What we saw of Monaco was an absolutely exquisite place. As it started to get dark we walked back to the car and drove back to Nice.

My battery is running low now so I’ll have to wait to finish this post a little later.

Now I'm back finishing off this post a few days later.

We had an interesting encounter with a group of Italian women.  Having been in France for the past week I was starting to get used to communicating with the locals, even if it was just a few words in French.  Up until then I hadn't come across anyone speaking Italian or German.  Unfortunately my language abilities compare with George Bush's skills at International diplomacy, meaning they're not very good. 

These women came up to me as my wife and I were walking through the gardens. They started asking me a million questions and I didn't have a clue what they were saying.  Feeling startled I immediately went back to my only memories of Italian which came from mobster movies.  I said something like, "me no speak eh Italian!  No Italian speak eh me."  My wife looked at me dumfoundedly with this look of "what deep end did you just fall off?", and proceeded to laugh her head off.  It didn't help much and the Italian ladies were persistent.  All I recognized was the word "parking" and proceeded to say in broken english, "parking?  parking, down, below... over there."  I pointed in the direction of the parking sign. 

Whether they eventually found the answer to their question is still a mystery for me. 

Dropping off our car at the hotel we then walked back to the district where we were the night before. Although this night we didn’t get lost and we found a beautiful area with street vendors, musicians, and nice restaurants. Browsing for a while we took a few photos.  My wife purchased a couple of neckaces and bought a beautiful clock with a 3-D scene of Old Nice.   We had a wonderful Italian dinner which was perfect send off to finish our time in Nice. After dinner we were tired. It had been a long day of wonderful sites, food and company.  My wife and I were both thrilled to have had a entire day of shopping and touring. 

Day 8 is next with our drive along the coast of Italy, up through Milano and on to Switzerland and Lucerne. 

PS. I'm not sure where to put some of these photos but here are  some neat photos of various statues and artwork we saw in St. Paul's and in Monaco.  The Rodin statue was in St. Paul's and the other two were in Monaco.  The first was called Father & Son and the photo of the broken up violin was one we had seen in Paris a few days before.  If you know the name(s) of the artists let me know.

Day 6 – A Relaxing Day on the Beach – In Nice

The past few weeks since the wedding have been busy. I’ve been on the road traveling to various places with work and have found it difficult to get time or be in the frame of mind to continue the postings. Tonight I’m on a plane from Modesto, CA going to LAX and then on to Albuquerque – one of those little puddle jumper planes with propellers.

Let’s get back to Nice. Day 5 had been a busy day of driving, getting lost, checking into our hotel and then having a late dinner. Day 6 was our first full day in Nice. It was actually my birthday – September 16^th and one week since we were married. 

We had breakfast and I took some photos of the hotel and our room. It was a beautiful location and our room was big and had a nice balcony. Our travel agent had listed us a honeymoon couple so that might be why we got the best room in the place. There was a computer in the lobby so my wife checked the internet and sent out a few emails to friends and family. She did experience problems a couple of times with the keyboards because the French keyboard was laid out differently.

We took the car downtown, found a place to park and then changed into our bathing suits. Off to the beach. This was the first time either of us had seen let alone dip our feet into the Mediterranean. The beachfront and the walking area were gorgeous. My wife wanted to find a place to sit, relax on the beach and take it easy. She led me to this place and said, "Let’s go here." Whereby they asked me for what I thought was 14 Euro. Unfortunately I wasn’t hearing right. It was 40 Euro for two beach towels and the rental of a beach chair each. Was it a little expensive? Yes but we were on our honeymoon and in Nice, a once in a lifetime event. Oh well.  My wife said, "Just give her the money..."

We loved the beach. I tend to not be much of a beach person since I find it hard to sit still for long enough, but I think that day we both needed a rest from all that we had done in the past week or so. So we really did just relax. I loved it. The beach was a little rocky and we wished we had brought our water shoes because it was really hard walking on the rocks. The waves were also intense. In fact the first time my wife went in to paddle a wave hit her and knocked her down. I think she panicked a little bit and was especially afraid of losing her new wedding ring. We eventually made it back to the safety of our deckchair, shared a bottle of wine then ordered lunch – just what the doctor ordered.

After lunch we just took in the sun, watched the people and we called our family at home.  Unfortunately it was about 8am in the morning their time but they were happy to hear from us.  We watched this family with two kids in just their underwear running from the waves.  Very European!!

Around 2pm we decided to call it a day. We went back to the car, got changed and then walked around the shops close by. We talked to the parking attendant who was a 30ish man, born and raised in Nice, talked about his up coming move to San Diego. He was looking for a change in his life and was excited about moving the US.

We did some shopping and found a little candy store where we stocked up on gifts. The drive to the hotel was a little frustrating because the streets were small, crowded and very difficult to navigate. Turning onto one street we hit a construction zone and moved slowly with the traffic. At the end we turned one corner, not sure where we were and as we looked in front of us we noticed our hotel. The traffic Gods were with us.

That night we went to a beautiful traditional French restaurant where I was treated to my birthday dinner. The food was fantastic and we ordered this roast of beef and had some great mashed potatoes and vegetables. The bill was about 180 Euros although my wife paid. Aah!!

After dinner, we walked through the city into a small little area with lots of cafes and the nightlife. My goal was to get us to the beach and walk along the boardwalk at night, but we got lost. My wife was wearing the beautiful red dress that made her look stunning.  By the way she bought this dress in Paris at Joan Couture. 

We eventually found our way back to the hotel. The walk was long but enjoyable. For the most part Nice seemed like a safe place to walk at night. What a lovely day and a beautiful way to spend my birthday. Next you will hear about day 7 and our drive to Antibes, Cannes, St. Paul and Monaco.

As I end this post, the plane is approaching Los Angeles. The plane is fairly empty with only 8 people on board so I have a room and time to be creative. Hopefully my next flight to Albuquerque will be just as relaxing and peaceful.

Dijon to Nice - Day 5 with a stop in Chateau Neuf du Pape

On day 5 we left Dijon and drove south to Nice.  However before we left we had to pick up some Dijon Mustard.  We found a nice little shop and my wife bought 8 little jars of mustard and some other little trinkets. 

The drive on the first part of the journey was fairly uneventful.  We were looking for the turn off to go to Champagne but we missed it.  We struggled once or twice knowing where to turn off, but once we had gone past Champage we did not want to turn back. 

We ended up buying a bottle of Champagne in the local Ed Supermarket in the town of Valence. 

We drove past Lyon partly because it was a big city and we didn't want to get lost and take up too much time.  So we kept driving and eventually made the turn off in Valence.  I'm sure you've taken those trips where you get off at an exit and you have no idea where you are going.  We got off the exit for Valence and we followed this really straight road for probably about 5 miles or more.  We were very hungry and looking for a place to eat.  We found this little bar and grill and went in.  It was admittedly not in the nicest part of town and when we walked in there was a nice group of locals.  We tried some French since the lady at the bar did not speak English.  However she was a really nice woman and of the patrons at the bar did speak English. 

We ordered what we thought would be a glass of wine each but little did we know they gave us a full litre.  Then we ordered this salad, cheese and tuna plate.  It wasn't my thing but my wife loved it.  I'm guessing it was a typical French dish.  The link says Tuna Nicoise. 

Here are some photos of Valence and the restaurant we ate at.  I can't remember the name.

We left Valence and on the way out stopped at the Ed supermarket.  We picked up some snacks, water and champagne and then got back on our way.  It was a long drive - about 5-6 hours of driving time and the tolls came to about 35 Euro.  The tolls tend to be expensive but the roads are well maintained and allow you to travel quickly. 

The main and most exciting stop of the day was Chateauneuf du Pape.  The town is famous for their wine and like Chablis there were a number of different wineries.  The village is a beautiful place with small roads, some old buildings and wineries.   My wife was a little bit freaky on that part of the journey.  She was frantically looking for a particular winery and I had no idea what she was doing.   We found the winery and picked up a couple of bottles.  She was so excited that when she was taking pictures inside the winery she backed up and fell into a trough and banged her head.  She was acting a little strangely during that part of the journey - "giddy" would be another word for it.  Chateauneuf du Pape is a beautiful location and I highly recommend it for anyone.  Of course I couldn't pronounce the name so I referred to it as Chateau Papa Smurf and Chateau Newf do Pop.

Pictures are below.

After that part of the trip we drove on to Nice.  It was a long day and we arrived at about 8:00pm at night.  Unfortunately Nice is bigger city and the directions we had to the hotel were not that good.  We did get lost and we drove for over an hour.  We both got some flustered simply because the road signs were so hard to find, many times you could see them on the sides of buildings but not easy to locate when you are driving through the city.  The streets are also a lot more narrow than North America.  Nice had a very conjested downtown area.  We did eventually call to the hotel and one of the staff guided us in.  We stayed at the Hotel Vendome which was by far the best hotel on the trip so far. 

We had a beautiful hotel room, pictures which I will show tomorrow.   

We were hungry and went for dinner a local bar.  As midnight came around it actually became my birthday, so my wife actually asked the bar staff to give me a cake and the whole bar sang happy birthday to me - In French.  It was pretty cool. 

Next - Day 6 - A day on the beach in Nice...