https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/eye-roller-clock-augenroller
Watch the eyes! Every hour his tongue sticks out.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/schangelbrunnen-fountain
Category: Westward Ho
Catch Up
Still floating on the Rhine and taking some wonderful excursions. Yesterday was Heidelberg and Mainz
The Gutenberg Press
Today, Wednesday, we go through the Rhine Gorge with castles along the shore of the river.
So many castles along this stretch of the Rhine. Weather is much cooler – high of about 62. We sat on the upper deck for a couple of hours just enjoying the beauty. This is really the only beautiful part of the river as the rest is quite industrialized (but it is still great to see). This stretch is protected as a Unesco World Heritage site. So thankful it is!
Tonight we stop in Koblenz
All Aboard
We boarded the Avalon Vista in Basel Switzerland and on it we will be for the next 7 days. Beautiful boat and great services (except for the slow wifi).
The Vista is the dark ship next to shore. In many ports the ships tie up next to each other to allow passengers get to shore.
Sunday morning we woke up in Breisach, Germany, on the opposite shore is France. We chose to take a tour to Colmar in France- also known as the Venice of France. Lots of interesting history of this L’Alsace region of France.
We toured Old Town Colmar, great architecture and beautiful flowers. This is also the birthplace of Auguste Bartholdi- the man behind the Statue of Liberty. There are markings in the cobblestone roads commemorating him.
Another lovely day. Sunny skies and in the 80’s!
Carl and Lin headed off to a local castle this afternoon. The steep hills are a bit too much for me. I am very happy to hang back and enjoy the views and watch people!
Colmar…
We had to wait to cross the street because of a marathon/road race through town.
On a Mountain Top
Once upon a time 3 ‘mericans woke up in Zurich Switzerland, refound the train station and boarded a train to Lucerne. These same ‘mericans then found the boat station (actually right across the street from the train station) and boarded a boat to take them to Vitznau where we would then take a cograil train to Mt. Rigi, “Queen of the Mountains”
This foray was not without incident…..on the ship to Vitznau, we felt lucky to find three seats on the stern of he upper deck . After enjoying the weather and views for over half the trip our tickets were checked only to be politely ejected from the 1st class seating down to our ticket 2nd class ticketed area aka steerage! Oops.
The train ride to Lucerne took about an hour and then another hour on the boat followed by about 30-45 minutes on the cog rail road to finally reach the top. It was well worth the travel as the views were spectacular and the skies clear and bright. Temperatures were probably in the 70’s….an all round beautiful day.
On the cog rail train
Mt. Rigi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigi
On the way down from Mt. Rigi we got off the cog rail at the cable car station and took the cable car down to Weggis where we caught another boat to take us back to Lucerne. I would like to note the cattle car…I mean cable car, packed people on it like sardines…I had it in my head that it would make for great photo ops however we were crammed in so tightly there was no room to raise a camera.
We had about a 10 minute walk downhill to the port of Weggis to board the boat back to Lucerne.
We ended out day in Zurich at the local Coop- a grocery store chain where we grabbed items for dinner in the room. Huge pretzels, cheese and popcorn were the order of the day.
We did find a cheese very similar to one Carl enjoyed as a kid however this was was not as blue. It is a hard cheese that his family would grate over butter bread. It is a very pungent cheese and not one that I particularly enjoy.
Oh, I almost forgot this pic….Lin outside her Paradise.
Tomorrow we head for Basel
FYI…. cardboard tube to the rescue!
Come Fly with Me
….and so it began
First flight from Grand Rapids to Atlanta was a tight squeeze. No leg room, thankfully it was only a couple hour flight.
We boarded our flight to Zürich and found just a couple of inches more room. Not the most comfortable ride. We left Atlanta at 5:30 pm and arrived in Zürich at 8:30 am.
I was surprised by the services provided on Delta, a constant supply of drinks, water, soda, juices and “free” alcoholic drinks , beer and wine. Choice of 3 entrees for dinner and a box breakfast just before landing. Sadly none of us slept, but we made it to Europe!
We found the train station and figured out how to buy tickets and then a little more challenging…..find the correct train to get us to the main train station in Zurich.
We found our hotel and dropped off our baggage….(all ready know I packed too much even though we are doing carryon only. Lesson learned! ) and then set out to explore old town while waiting for our room.
Lots of cobblestone roads- beautiful but hard to roll luggage over.
Everywhere we look is wonderful architecture and we are hearing church bells often.
I wanted to try some true Swiss cuisine for lunch so we found the Raclette Factory (rated #1 on Yelp)
Check out Raclette
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette
We each chose a different menu item so the 3 of us could get a taste of the different cheese dishes.
Very rich but delicious.
At this point in the day we were all exhausted so we found our hotel, checked in and naps were taken. We had originally booked a triple room…we were pleasantly surprised when we were given a double and a single instead……until the phone rings and we had to change rooms….now in the triple. A bonus in the hotel is cold bottled water and ice cream in the lobby, breakfast in the morning, and free in room bar with a limited amount of water, coke and beer. Also, if we refuse housekeeping tomorrow we get a free bottle of wine!
Lin and Carl took off to head back to the train station to buy tickets to Lucerne for tomorrow’s adventure while I stayed back to rest my legs.
FYI……My pool noodle invention is now in the garbage…..back to the drawing board. But so far I have managed without too much trouble.
Let’s Celebrate
It’s a cake, it’s a pie, it’s a PIECAKEN!
Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday and I wanted to make something special. His favorite pie is blueberry so I needed to find a cake flavor that would pair with it. I chose lemon.
Step one was to make and bake a pie.
Next, I mixed up a lemon cake mix and spread about 1/2 inch of the batter on the bottom of the spring form pan. The instructions called to flip the pie upside down and place it on top the cake batter…a little frightening….but it worked.
add the remaining cake batter and bake for 1 1/2 hours
The finished product! A Bluebery Lemon Piecaken with lemon buttercream frosting
Happy Birthday
“The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.” ― Marjorie Pay Hinckley
Making the most of what the day brings.
Low Tide
First hard frost in the morning, Seymour was covered in frosty ice. We stayed comfy inside. The day warmed quickly.
We went back to Hopewell to see what is was like a low tide and walked around on the sea floor.
Kelp at low tide.
We ended the day in the shadows of Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park Maine. Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, and is located near a stretch known as the Hundred-Mile Wilderness. After dropping off Seymour, we drove to Baxter State Park but found we could not enter because we had Copper with us. No pets allowed! This park is 200,000 acres of wilderness. Inside the park boundary there is no electricity, running water, or paved roads. The leaves are really starting to change, the trees must have communicated with each other that the time has come. We have seen some vivid reds and yellows!
6300
What a trip! 6,300 miles of America and Canada.
We are back home now and thinking about the next adventure.
From Boom to BUST! (Sorry North Dakota)
Yesterday, July 1st, we drove from Shelby, Montana to Watford, North Dakota about 450 miles on US2. It was a long day! We did pass through Moscow, Zurich, Malta and RUDYARD! The road was great, little traffic but also very little interesting scenery. Lots of barren fields and scrub land. When we hit the North Dakota border we started seeing many, many oil rigs, and oil field equipment emptytravel trailers and temporary housing. This northwestern part of North Dakota was the hub of the oil boom . Now most of the housing sits empty.
We had a very difficult time finding an RV park. Everything we saw had been converted to more long term stays instead of the overnighter. We did find one in Watford. I think we were the only short term unit there. I found it uncomfortable, but we made do.
Today, the winds were quite strong and after driving about 80 miles we decided to turn west again and check out Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We found an RV park and decided to relax for the day instead of fighting the wind.
We did drive the scenic loop in the park. The landscape is just like we saw in the Badlands. This has made me curious about what makes up badlands…..check this out
Tomorrow we will start heading east….not sure how far we will get, but St. Paul is in the not too distant future.
Typical badlands view
Wild horses, prairie dogs and…….
the iconic bison!
…our navigator and relief driver………..
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