What's coming up after Ireland?

Jan 2017 - Costa Rica
Feb 2017 - Orlando
March 2017 - Fly to Paris - Beauchamp, France (3M), Paris, Dubai, Kuwait, Munich, Burghausen (3M Gendorf), Wroclaw, Poland (3M), Paris, Home                        
April 2017 -  Star Wars Celebration - Orlando
June 2017 - Sea Isle City, NJ
Sept 2017 -  Danube River Back Roads trip including stays in Prague and Budapest

What, I have to stay home in August?


Not necessarily in this order - the bucket list

Coming up someday
1. Second trip to Ireland
2. New Zealand/Australia
3 Scottish Highlands
4. Walk the Kerry Way
4. Drive the Wild Atlantic way (bike?)
4.5 Hike to hidden village of Galboly, Co Antrim, Ireland
5. Malta
6. Tirol area of Austria
7. Train across Canada
8. Storm watching - BC
9. Orient Express train
10. Siberian Express train
11. Croatia



Oh, look at this -  photography workshops - https://www.elevation.ie


Ok, getting long, will be refined later...

Comic Con 2016 Han Leia

Han and Leia cosplay from Force Awakens

With Leias from episode 4

Touring Tours

We asked at our hotel by the train station for a restaurant recommendation and the girl told us to take a bus into the city of Tours and go to the old historic area. 

So glad we did, it's a wonderful spot.

The rest of Paris

Back in Paris, we ate at La Petite Cluny 

But it seems the emphasis was on the beer since this is my only picture...

Not willing to be done seeing the city, we went for a walk down the Seine. 

Sad to leave Paris, but we checked out, stored our luggage and went for a walk.

Our hotel lobby

We went to the very famous Cafe de Flore on Blvd St Germaine for breakfast, one of the oldest and the most prestigious coffeehouses in Paris, celebrated for its famous clientele since the 1880's.

As for the big attraction at Cafe de Flore of seeing and being seen, they seated us way in back...guess we weren't an attraction.

We hauled suitcases up and down multiple flights of stairs taking the metro and getting to Gare Montparnesse. 

This is where the building called "the box the Eiffel Tower came in" is located. 

It looks totally out of place surrounded by buildings no more than 4-5 stories tall.

We had a wait for the train so did some shopping and sat and people-watched outside the station. 

Then we took our train to St Pierre des Corps - a fast TGV train that got up to almost 200 MPH. Speedy and smooth ride, it took just 59 minutes. 

We actually know the speed because some of the techno geeks were using their GPS to measure how fast we were going.

So now in St Pierre des Corps, basically a suburb of Tours. Tomorrow we will meet our Backroads tour here and start our bike adventure but first a bus ride to the old town in Tours - next episode.

Versailles palace

Lunch with our finds from the market. The pears and Brie cheese were my favorites - just incredibly good but everything was very tasty!

I was actually a little disappointed in the interior of Versailles. I was hoping it would all be furnished as it was at various periods of its history. Most of the furnishings were removed during the revolution and sold but they have found and brought back most of them now however they weren't in the rooms they would've been found in. Most of the rooms are essentially an art gallery.

But here are some I liked.

The hall of mirrors

The outside of course is gorgeous as are the gardens

Louis XIV liked mirrors and there are some interesting mirror art on the outside. This is us standing in front of the mirror with the palace behind us.

Where the Sun King lived part two

We took a train to Versailles with Bikeabout Tours and then got our bikes and rode to the palace. Since we expected rain we rode around the grounds first. First stop was the Petite Trianon where Marie Antionette had her own little residence.

The early indoor toilet

Marie Antoinette's village where she spent time pretending to be a milkmaid. There was a full "staff" running the farm but they didn't actually live there. Kind of her own personal Disneyland. Or maybe an early type of cosplay complete with people for props. 

The gardeners did work all night because she wanted new and different flowers to see each morning.

Obligatory group photo

There was some destruction during the revolution and also a tornado that destroyed trees but this one has been here a long time!

 

The palace will be next.

Where the Sun King lived, and a few others

Started out the day with breakfast at the hotel, actually a very nice, full typical European breakfast. Lots of cheeses, charcuterie, wonderful baguettes, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, etc. oh, and even cereal for Bill...

Tim having breakfast

Here's a little view of it.

Waiting near Notre Dame to meet up with our BikeAbout Tours Guide, we saw police walking by, fully armed. They were present many of the places we went. Looks like the one guy was giving me the evil eye for photographing him.

On the train to Versailles, with April, our wonderful guide.

And we're off. This was just a little prelude to the big bike ride next week. 

First stop was the local market. I wish there was a market like this near me. I can't even begin to describe how perfect the produce and cheeses were! We just do not see this quality and variety of fresh foods at home.

These pears were perfectly ripe

The cheese guy

The wine guy, Dave

A stop for a little treat too

This page is going to be just food. The Versailles tour will be on the next post.