traveldiary.stracke.us

It is Monday, June 30th and “Reveille” is at 6 AM. We board the blue Marseille Airport Navette for the 40 minute ride to Marseille St.Charles train station. Our US credit cards don’t work in the ticket vending machines, but are accepted at the ticket window. It is another perfect, sunny day in the Provence and we take the Ter (train express regional) “Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur” to Avignon and Beziers on the Canal Du Midi. Maria and Rolf are picking us up at the station and we are off to Port Cassafieres, where we are picking up our house boat. Our “Royal Classique” is 42 feet long with a 13.5 foot beam. The mechanic gives us our instructions (en Francais naturellement) and I am under the impression that I got it.
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We spend our first night in the Provence, relaxing in the garden restaurant of the Novotel in Aix-En-Provence. It is a very warm evening and we enjoy cheese and local wine, sitting on the terrace, first in the sun, later under the starry sky. Sunset is only at 21:25 and there is still daylight until 22:00. By midnight, fatigue and jet lag are catching up with us. On Saturday, we miss breakfast ( blame the jet lag) and then refresh with a swim in the outdoor pool.
In the afternoon, we have enough energy to get out of the pool lounges and drive into the Luberon mountains. We amble along the narrow country roads, with vistas of vineyards and small villages, with the old stone houses precariously hanging on to steep hillsides and rock walls. Besides us, there is not much traffic. It is siesta time and France is resting. Only a few overzealous bicyclists are pedaling up and down the hills. We stop in Cadenet for delicious peaches and cherries (cerises), have ice cream in Bonnieux, with a view of Marquis De Sade’s castle in Lacoste, one hill over, and explore the Ochre cliffs in Roussillon.
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We have to go (fly) the extra mile(s) to get to Marseille, our summer vacation destination.
It is Thursday, June 26, and we are in Newark Airport, trying to check in with Air Canada. I had booked our flight on December 4, 2007, taking advantage of an excellent airfare to fly Air Canada from Newark to Paris, connecting in Montreal. This fare was actually less expensive than the non-stop flight from Montreal.
This is all academic now. We are being informed, that the Newark-Montreal flight has been canceled (for the third day in a row). We are going through the usual tug-of-war negotiations with the gate agent: I decline offers to fly the next day or fly on Air Portugal via Lisbon later that night. We are going through all the Star Alliance partner airlines. United has a flight from Dulles Airport, Lufthansa from Newark via Munich. By the time the agent tries to ticket and confirm our new flights, the seats are gone.

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We arrived back home at the ” Stratford Inn” in Clifton Park at 2 AM this morning.
Our 24-hour day began yesterday morning in Paris at the Hotel Mercure Terminus across from the Gare De L’Est. We took a cab to the CDG Airport and had a sightseeing tour of Paris without the tourists.
I was in shock when we entered the departure hall : a line with about 200 people was snaking its way through the terminal to the Air France check-in counters. I did not see any movement and was thinking : air traffic controllers are striking ! We came to the American Airlines counter and were pleasantly surprised : nobody lining up to check in for Business Class. The French agent was very nice and checked in 4 suitcases and one ski bag without charging us for exceeding our baggage allowance. The AA Admirals Club lounge, on the other hand,was a big disappointment and could not compete with our past experiences with British Airways, Cathay Pacific or Qantas. We could not get any breakfast, but had crackers and cheese with beer instead.
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This time our arrival from Germany into Paris landed us in a new section that we have never discovered before. Many of the trains arriving from outside of France arrive at Gare de l’Est, which is in the 10th arrondissement, a non-touristy section of Paris. After checking in at the hotel, we were on our last exploration of this year long journey. On previous trips to Paris we had already taken in many of the tourist sights, as the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Louvre, Montmartre with Sacre-Coeur and of course a ride on the Seine River. This time we wanted to not be tourists, but rather pretend we were Parisians.
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Yesterday was our last day in Germany. This world journey is coming to an end and we are flying home today. Gabi is very depressed about the fact that her sabbatical year is almost over. We are in our last airline lounge at Charles De Gaulle Airport and they are announcing our flight from Paris to Boston. I will have to continue this post when we are back in Clifton Park !
Our cheque from the restaurant “Canal 96″ last night says : “Merci De Votre Visite”.
Now we have to say : “Au revoir Paris”.

We arrived at Paris Gare de L’Est and the only porter on the whole station platform had positioned himself right in front of our 1st class car, looking for easy prey. He probably knew that no travelers in 2nd class would hire him.
I motioned him to take our luggage (remember 5 suitcases, 2 backpacks and 1 ski bag) and he happily piled all of our worldly belongings on his dolly. I told him ( in French) to take us to the Hotel Mercure Terminus Est, which, according to their website, is located right across the street from the train station, Gare de L’Est. He pointed to a Mercure hotel about 200 yards from us and started to walk toward the hotel. I asked him if there was another Mercure hotel closer to the train station and his answer was no. He took off with our luggage ( all 320 pounds of it ) and we had trouble to keep up with him.
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On July 25th, we were greeted with rain and clouds, the weather matching our mood. I have to admit, that we have been very lucky with the weather on our journey. We probably had fewer than 10 rainy days in the last 6 months !

We checked out off our Ibis Hotel in Augsburg and I loaded our 5 suitcases, 2 backpacks and 1 ski bag onto the hotel’s luggage cart. Our luggage amount increased exponentially after we picked up some of Sonja’s belongings. She is flying home tomorrow on Lufthansa Airlines in economy class, with a stricter baggage allowance . We proceeded through downtown Augsburg, pushing the luggage cart right to the train station. We received some odd looks from the locals who were rushing to work on this Monday morning. We were used to worse in other countries.
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Have you ever been in a place where around every bend lures another picture? This definitely describes the town of Colmar, in
eastern France, close to the border of Germany. Every house, small canal, lined with beautiful flower boxes, and alley seem to beckon to have their photograph taken. I’m just glad I decided on digital photography, where I can later erase the not so perfect shots. But what do I do with all the others that border on perfection? Right, that’s what CD’s were created for. In the last 4.5 months, I have only filled up 3 – 700 mb CD’s. Not too many, right?
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Gabi always wanted to see the French town Colmar and all its culture and art. ( her post to be published )
We spent June 2nd and 3rd in Colmar, France.
We crossed the river Rhein, which forms the border between Germany and France, south of Strassburg. There are no more border check-points since the creation of the European Union, and I did not have to change Deutsche Marks into French Francs, as it used to be when I was living in Germany.
The weather continued to be very warm and sunny, and we spent the first afternoon in Colmar, sitting in a sidewalk wine cafe, reading papers and drinking local wine from the Alsace region, accompanied by French baguette. The waiter started to look down on us a little bit, after he had to bring us our third basket of fresh bread ! I noticed later that he did not charge us for all the bread, and the afternoon in the cafe cost us a grand total of 8 USD.
We continued our culinary excursion and enjoyed dinner outdoors next to the Cathedrale Saint-Martin.
On our menu : French escargots and Salade Nicoise. ( We never realize how late it is at night. It is still daylight at 10 PM and the birds are still singing at that hour.) It was fun to watch the town life and all the French people around us. Lots of kissing, smoking and cell phones.
The next day, we also saw the birthplace of the French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue Of Liberty. There is a replica of the Statue located in the center of a traffic roundabout at the entrance of Colmar. We had our American connection again !