Day 17

Leaving at dawn we headed out via Eurail to Amsterdam. We arrived around 11AM and were able to drop our bags off at our Hostel and make it back to the Visitors Center to meet a group that was doing free walking tours of the city.
Here is the Anne Frank house, Ashley went here last time she visited Amsterdam, but with a line that stretched down the street and around the corner. So, we decided that the Van Gogh museum was more our style.

Here is an underground Catholic Church that seats 300 people and is home to one of the worlds largest organs. When Catholicism was banned in Amsterdam, more than 300 people would attend this church and shortly after hymns would be blaring into the streets.
The police, not being idiots and good Christians, would not work on the Sabbath. So complaints were filed on many Sundays, but not looked into until Monday came around. Which as we all know, there were no Catholics at mass still so the church remained "hidden."
Another beautiful and surprisingly not smelly canal.
Tulips! We did find some but the fields had not yet bloomed so we did not get to experience the fields of rainbow colors.

Day 15 and 16

The last two days that we spent in Troyes was spent shopping for souvenirs, taking pictures of the town, and having one last amazing meal! Here we are walking down the street with some of the beautiful decorations of the town. Here is Ashley's favorite sign, maybe in the world, a cat with glasses that light up at night. It is for an optometrist's office.

Here is a picture at Gerard our favorite boulangerie in town and all of the amazing pastries that they make fresh everyday (this is where I successfully procured breakfast yesterday)!
On our last night in Troyes we went to this restaurant called Crieux du Vin. It had some amazing food bought locally and they specialize in pairing food with wine.

Here are some of the fountains at night, the first is where the French men were fishing earlier in the week. The second was my favorite and was on our walk to the centre ville, or town center each day.

Day 14

We made it back to Troyes, both in one piece from the first part of our traveling.

Today was a big deal after waking up, Ashley decided that she was going to take a shower then we would go pick up a baguette from the Boulangerie. But I felt confident and wanted to prove myself in french. So, I took off into Troyes, where very few people know English, to provide breakfast.

Voila! I did it, I came back successfully with a Baguette and two Pain au Chocolat.

Later on, after some packing and eating our amazing breakfast we went to meet Ashley's friend Sarah and a couple of her friends for some drinks and walked around Troyes to see the sights.
Here are some of Troyes beautiful fountains (wait till you see them at night they are awesome).
Some French men sitting in the middle of town fishing with "cane" poles.

One of the parks in Troyes that Ashley walked through daily.

Day 13 Easter Sunday

Wanting to go to Easter Mass at Notre Dame de Paris was on our list of things to do for our trip. So we chose to stay with Mary and Brent even though a floor spot was all that was open at their place. We woke up and readied for mass getting to the Cathedral 45 minutes early to stand in line our odds looked good. With 15 minutes left till the start of mass we were close but then for some reason it looked like 4 or 5 other lines had started and were prepared to enter for mass in front of us. So sadly, since we did not embrace the French way of not waiting in lines and just cutting to the front we were denied entry. After much consideration we chose to walk back home and see a few sites on the way.
Hotel De Ville, Paris' city hall and the center of all things political in Paris.
Centre Pompidou, a modern art museum with a very unique exterior. The building was created to be inside-out. Meaning that all the duct work, electricity, and utilities are on the exterior of the building instead of the inside hidden within the walls.

Near where Mary and Brent live in Paris there is a square and Metro station stop called Place de la République, this is where the Statue of Marianne is located.

Marianne is to the French as the Statue of Liberty is to the United States, but theirs is not surrounded by water. "Why is this an important fact to point out?", you ask. because this is where many of the protests begin in Paris and once they have gained mass and strength they typically march to Place de la Nation. Everyone remembers this past year when the french went on multiple strikes, and large protests were occurring.

Day 12

Travel day included an early morning wake-up with a train leaving at 7:05AM.


Once making it from Interlaken our train took us to Bern, where we switched to the TGV, the fast trains in Europe. From Bern we took off to Paris to stay with Ashley's friends Mary Clare and Brent, that are also from the great state of Nebraska.
That evening we went to check out the Eiffel tower. It was lit up for the evening and each hour it sparkles. We stayed the evening and planned on going to Notre Dame in the morning for Easter Mass.

Day 11

Last day in Interlaken, so we decided to rent bikes and see the town and both lakes. We have always wanted to try out a tandem together and they had one last one to rent. So we did it! Here I am checking out the first lake of Interlaken with our Tandem.
As you stroll through the middle of town there is a large open park and green space where most of the tourists flock to watch the extreme sport enthusiasts land. Not sure how many we watched but you could tell that they had a ton of jumps under their belt as I can not imagine a softer landing.

Here we are on one of our breaks, Ashley has been without her bike for too long and at this point our rear ends are starting to feel the time off our bikes.

Have to get a picture of the two of us riding!

And now I think Ashley is pedaling less and less, she has discovered I have pretty good balance of the bike and she does not need to keep her hands on the handlebars. So she needed to document our trip while in action.The picture that gave her lackadaisical pedaling away!

Day 10

Today was our hike day, we headed out to get tickets up to Alpiglen but the train was not running there yet due to the snow still being around that area. They are still skiing at the higher altitudes so that limited what we could do for hikes. We decided to head back to Lauterbrunnen, which was at 800 meters, for our starting point for the day. From there we decided to try and hike up to Suls which has a beautiful mountain lake that would be a perfect endpoint for our hike. We planned on taking the bus to Isenfluh, which is at 1081 meters, but just missing the bus we decided to just hike to Isenfluh.
An hour later we took our first break in Isenfluh where we decided to take some pictures. We saw this Nordic Walker which was one of the hundreds that we saw throughout our time in Switzerland.
Here is a picture of the climb that we had to endure most of the hike. The picture truly does very little justice to the quad ripping incline.

As we neared the top of the hike we found our first alpine meadow where we could see all three of the major peaks Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. This picture was taken about the same time the fastest accent of Eiger occurred in a mere 2 hours and 28 minutes!

As you can see the snow was still in full force when we reached the 1901 meter mark. We were only 20 minutes away from our alpine lake and I made the difficult decision that we should head back down since we did not get an early start due to new plans being made the day of the hike.

So at this altitude we decided it was time for lunch of bread, apples, and Rugen Brau, the locally brewed beer.

As you can see the sun was starting to set on the top of the peaks putting us in the shade for most of our decent. Here Ashley got a great picture of me descending into one of the small meadows near the town of Isenfluh.

Day 9

Berner Oberland is one of the most beautiful regions in all of the world, at least in my eyes. Today Ashley and I took what we like to call a stroll through the Lauterbrunnen Valley seeing many of the Waterfalls that it had to offer. The first we came upon was Staubbach Falls. In a book, I recieved for christmas from my parents, it is one of the 501 must-visit natural wonders
so Ashley and I had to get a picture in front of it. We now have one checked, off only 500 left!

Here is a full picture of Staubbach Falls including the Staubbach Creek.

As you can see the valley is extremely amazing, unlike anything in the States. There are perfect little meadows filled with cattle with bells hanging from their necks. So as you walk down this amazing valley you hear bells ringing from the cows grazing nearby. Then you look to the side and hear the roar of a water falling upwards of 300 meters from the top of the cliff faces that surround this picturesque setting.

Trummelbache Falls, also one of the 501 must-visit natural wonders of the world, was very amazing. It is a waterfall that is made up of 10 smaller falls inside the valley wall. Here is just one of the pictures that I took during our visit. More to come when I can make a few crops and rotations on my desktop computer.

Here is Ashley as we escape the very cold cavern of Trummelbache Falls. I imagine when it is at full force you cannot emerge dry from the caves that expose each of the smaller falls.

As we normally do, we had cheese and bread for lunch on the trail.

Day 8

This was the last day at our Bed and Breakfast so we enjoyed a nice long French breakfast and enjoyed the morning views from the garden at our B&B. Also, I would like to note that as usual we ended up playing ping pong and let it be put on record that I beat Dustin (probably for the first time) in an amazing match of outdoor ping pong. He may try to claim unfair advantage due playing on foreign soil (we were keeping score in french) but, I won fair and square!

We thanked Marc the owner of the B&B for an amazing time and headed off to Avignon to leave for la Suisse (Switzerland). We wanted to post some pictures of our Bed and Breakfast because it was absolutely gorgeous and we had an amazing time here.

We spent the rest of the day traveling to Switzerland, anxiously anticipaiting the Swiss Alps!

Driving Lessons

In Europe cars are typically manual and automatics are reserved for old ladies. Ashley not liking that stereotype, wanted to learn to drive a manual car. To start with, she had to learn where the gears were. So as I drove, she was doing the shifting. Having mastered that pretty well and almost back to the bed and breakfast I finally decided it was time, the stars had aligned, Ashley was as ready as she could be and taking out full insurance on the car, no worries of what might happen to the transmission, we got her behind the wheel.

Me, being the great teacher I am, set the car facing downhill to make it as easy as possible for the first shift. After reviewing many many times how to stop the car, the middle pedal not the far left. I took the emergency break off and allowed Ashley her first chance with the clutch and shifting.
First Gear went as expected but didn't kill the engine. Getting up to speed Ashley readied for second and passed with flying colors. The next true test came as we pulled onto the road of our B&B, a long, windy, and uphill road. Ashley was still doing amazing! She was cruising along in second gear as we slowly come to a little turn and meet another car. A french couple sees us and instantly realizes whats happening. Ashley being put on the spot freezes and slams on the break killing the engine.

Facing up hill near another car and very close to a huge stone wall, Ashley needs to smoothly shift into first gear. With the odds stacked against her the car hops, jumps, and finally dies. As Ashley starts to feel the pressure, heavy on her shoulders, I tell her to relax and give it one more try.

Another attempt with similar results.

Ashley getting frustrated, flustered, and freaking out is ready to call it quits. I look across and see the French lady who is shaking her hands and giving Ashley two thumbs up for encouragement. Ashley gets it on her third try! Happy the French couple wasn't annoyed and way too busy shifting to stop to say "Merci" she slowly cruises the rest of the way to the bed and breakfast.
She finally finishes her first lesson of driving a stick and is ready to be out of the driver's seat.

1 Week!

To the Sea!

We decided to go see the sea...Mediterranean Sea. It was Dustin's first time and we were so close.

We decided to go to the small town of Cassis along the coast.

The drive there was only about two hours and was gorgeous. We drove through the National Park of Luberon which, was hilly and forested. On the way there we happened upon a lovely chateau! (french for castle). I got really excited so of course we had to stop and take pictures.

Once, in Cassis we walked to the trail head and hiked to see the calanques or rocky inlets.

It was very beautiful and the breeze off the water was very refreshing. We picnicked along the rocky calanques of the sea and watched boats come in and out.

We decided to hike and explore further and ended up finding a perfect little nook in the rocks or our own personal calanque. My shoulders got a little burnt as did the top of Dustin's head.

After our hike we did some shopping in the town of Cassis. Since, we were so close to Italy of course we had to have some gelato (Italian ice cream and one of the most amazing foods). We ate our ice cream while watching older french men play the national pastime of France la boule better known as bocci balls.

We headed home on the way we took a picture of the southern vineyards. Also, I got my very first lesson of driving a stick.

That night we had ate dinner at La Coquillade a beautiful winery nearby our B&B that had two restaurants with amazing views of the surrounding country side.