Pre Cruise Activities

Friday, March 28:
Today we explored a little Bordeaux history.  A short distance from our hotel is the Pey-Berland Tower.  Pey Berland (1375 – 1458), was one of the great archbishops of Bordeaux.  He founded the University of Bordeaux and had the Saint Andrew’s Cathedral embellished.  The bell tower was built a short distance from the cathedral to protect the cathedral building from the vibrations of the bells.  Construction started in 1440.

Arne and I climbed all 231 steps to the top of the tower where we were rewarded with a panoramic view of Bordeaux.  Here are a couple photos from the top:

Saint Andrews Cathedral

 

The spires of Saint Andrews Cathedral

After leaving the tower, we walked a few blocks to the Musee de Aquitaine, but it hadn’t opened yet.  So we headed down the main drag – Cours Victor Hugo toward St. Michael’s Basilica.  Along the way we enjoyed watching some interesting people, as well as this staged tableau...

St. Michael’s was under renovation, so we couldn’t get into it, plus it was in a sketchy area of town, so we headed back to the museum.  The Museum de Aquitaine chronicles the history of the Aquitaine area from before Christ to current day.  Admission was free, it was huge, and it was very interesting, although most everything was in French until the last 2 centuries.

Since it was Friday, the town was starting to come alive...lots of people arriving and live bands playing in the square, a small antique car show and lots of people dining outside (even though it was only about 55 degrees).

We wandered the streets a bit after lunch and found a Wine and Tapas bar and decided to come back and have dinner there.  It was a tiny place and they had very interesting décor.  The walls were leather upholstered ‘bricks’, the ceiling was tufted leather with little lights where the ‘buttons’ would go.  The lights over the tables looked like microphones.  They had a nice selection of tapas and an impressive wine list.  We enjoyed!

Saturday, March 29:
After packing our bags and a late brunch, we checked out of our hotel and walked down to the river (Garonne) to catch our Viking Longboat, the Viking Forseti.  We have a living area with a sofa and chair, and a desk, TV, small refrigerator, a bedroom with closet, bathroom and room under the bed for lots of stuff (like suitcases).  We also have a deck with two chairs and a table.  For the next 7 days we get 3 square meals a day as well as all we can drink (yes, booze and wine too), all for the low price of $$$$$gasp...choke!  If you are really interested, you can check it out for yourself at VikingRiverCruises.com.

We are all checked in and in an hour or so, we will head to the dining room for a cocktail and meet and greet!

We are trying to think of a new name for this blog....if you have any suggestions, let me know!  When I started it, I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to call it, so I know it’s lame.  I do have some ideas but would like other input if you have any ideas.

Really slow internet on this ship...plus our email isn't able to send (still can receive).  Grrrrr.

Jet Lag (Yawn)

Our flights over from Seattle to London to Paris were uneventful (Thank God!), and we arrived at our hotel (The Paris Marriott Opera Ambassador) around 5:30PM on Wednesday, 26 March.

Although we were (and still are) jet lagged, we took a long walk south to the Tuileries Garden and then west toward  Place de Concorde and the Champs Elysees before heading back to the hotel.

A relatively quick dinner at the hotel bar and we were ready for bed by 8PM!  We managed to stay awake until 9, but barely.

After a few hours of deep sleep, we were wide awake at 4AM!  Dang it!  By 6AM we were both showered and ready to face the day...Breakfast at 7AM and at 8AM we were ready for a nap.  Ugh.

Au revoir to Paris - we'll be back in May at the end of our trip.  On to Bordeaux!

The train to Bordeaux left Gare Montparnasse in Paris at 10:45AM and we arrived in Bordeaux about 2:30PM.  We enjoyed watching the countryside roll by on the way south -- it went from flat, to rolling hills and eventually vineyards...lots and lots of vineyards, with very old vines (extremely thick trunks).

Caught a taxi to our hotel (The Grand Hotel de Bordeaux), checked in, and then took a walk around town.  Found our River Cruise boat was docked and walked by to get a first hand look at it.  It looks very comfortable and we are getting excited for that leg of our trip.

In our walk around Bordeaux, we found a specialty shop that sold gluten free items!  I bought some bread and crackers and will take them on the cruise.  We also stopped at a market and bought a couple bottles of wine since the wine here is fairly cheap ... unless you purchase the one that they place in your room, then it's very expensive! The 1/2 bottle in our room is 35 Euros -- I bought a bottle of Chardonnay at the store for about 5 Euros!

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant.  They opened at 7PM and we were the first customers.  :-)  We had to eat early because we were having trouble staying awake!  The food was excellent.  They even had a gluten free bread basket for me!  If you look carefully in this photo...you might see a 'photo bomb'...

Our hotel from across the square.

The view from our room.

Today we will explore one section of Bordeaux.  We will be back here for a day at the end of our cruise so we will get another day of sight seeing in then.

I've been awake since 3AM (GRRRRR!) and it's now 7:30AM and Arne is still asleep!  No fair!

Our adventure begins...TODAY!

While planning this trip, I decided I didn't want to take a hair dryer with me on the trip, so an easy, wash-and-go solution is a permanent wave.  So I went into the salon and told the gal I wanted a permanent WAVE.  An hour later, the rollers are out and I look in the mirror....and see Shirley Temple or Little Orphan Annie... no, not that cute, more like Bozo the Clown!  What the heck?  She can tell I'm shocked, and says, "It will relax in a week or so."  Okay.  It's now been 4 weeks...it's not relaxing.  Arne says he is getting used to it, and it IS very easy...and when I cut it, you can't tell if I screw up.  Okay, I'm trying to put a positive spin on it.  If I could lose the facial wrinkles, I would look like I did back in the 80's!  Ahhhh.  As my mother used to say -- This too shall pass.

Well, the big day has finally arrived.  Refrigerator is cleaned out, garbage is out, house/cat sitting arranged (thank you brother Jeff and Carole and Larry), we are packed with bags at the door, passports in our pockets.

Yep, we are ready to go!  Only have 3.5 more hours before we head to the airport....this is our M.O.  :-)

Es que vous comprend l'inglese?

I forgot to mention our French lessons...We have been going through Pimsleur's beginning French lessons for several months.  Not very diligently, I might add.  But we will attempt to use the little bit we have learned to converse with the French locals wherever we are.  I'm sure that will result in some funny stories.  :-)

Planning, Preparation, Packing

Although the decision to go on an extended trip to France was made over a year ago, at the time it was a vague idea, with no start date or end date, or even any specific destination (other than southern France).  With some advice from several friends who have 'been there - done that', we started firming up our plans in September 2013.

We wanted to incorporate a cruise into the timeframe, so we started looking at various cruises and settled on a Viking River Cruise (Chateaux, Rivers & Wine).  We found one that still had availability during the time we were thinking of!  It's amazing how quickly these cruises fill up -- and believe me, they are NOT cheap!   The cruise will be the first leg of our journey.

Once the cruise was booked we had a start date.  We chose to fly to Paris on British Airways via London because we have points on BA already and they fly directly to London from Seattle (our starting point) and we have had good experiences flying BA in the past.

We wanted to be in France a few days prior to the start of the cruise (March 29), so we are flying out on March 25, arriving in Paris on March 26.  After one night in Paris we'll be taking the train to Bordeaux.  The cruise starts and ends in Bordeaux.  We will have two days to explore Bordeaux prior to boarding the ship.  The first 10 days of our excellent adventure are set!

Here is the itinerary for the cruise:
http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/rivercruises/europe-france-bordeaux-2014/itinerary.aspx

Another city on our wish list was Barcelona, Spain -- we have heard so many wonderful stories about how beautiful it is and how wonderful the food is.  So...I got on VRBO.com (vacation rental by owner), and started looking for apartments in Barcelona.  Not knowing anything about the various neighborhoods is a little daunting, so we relied on  friends who had been there for recommendations on the best locations.  They sent us links to the places they had stayed and we finally booked an apartment right next door to one that our friends had stayed in in the Gothic district!

I won't go on and on about each apartment we rented, but we have now booked approximately 1 week stays at different apartments or homes in Barcelona (SP), Narbonne (FR), Uzes (FR), Aix-en-Provence (FR), and 4 days in Nice (FR), and 8 days in Paris -- all through VRBO.com.  Arne arranged all the transportation -- flights, trains, and a car lease.

Today we begin packing.  We borrowed some lightweight luggage from friends and I am trying on each outfit I am taking (to make sure I really want to take it), and then packing outfits together.  We were advised to pack half of my stuff and half of Arne's stuff in each suitcase in case one of them is lost - at least we will have something to wear.  I think that is a great idea!

First Attempt

Hello out there!  This is my first attempt at blogging.  I have to admit -- I am not a big fan of reading blogs, but decided to give this a try, mainly as a way to journal an upcoming trip to Europe for myself, our family, and any  friends who might be interested.

For anyone reading this who does not fall into one of the categories above, here is a brief introduction...
My name is Kristi and I am married and have two grown sons.  We also have two granddaughters who are bright spots in our lives.

My husband, Arne, and I retired about a year ago and have been planning a 'retirement trip' to Europe for the past several months.  The trip starts in less than 2 weeks and I am planning to document our travels on this site.