Tour of the countryside

Took a private tour of the countryside with 3 other couples in a 9 passenger van/truck. It was driven by Vivian who was getting paid by the mile, not the hour. If you were in the front seat you could hear what she was saying. If you were in the middle seats you could see her jaw move. If you were in the back seats you were just hanging on and watching stuff fly by out the side windows. Pam & I bet that Sue would have lasted 3 miles before chunks would be flying! We suggested, demanded, she stop at a villiage she drove into and we sampled some wine and settled our stomachs. Then off to the wine tasting room/cellar that was interesting.

Wine bottle window.

We were the only ones there and it was about 4:30. Lead-foot Vivian is on the right. At least she didn't imbibe!

So we head out tomorrow, Thursday. We leave the hotel at 4:45 am. That should be fun.
A final dinner tonight. It has been a good group. Mostly more seasoned folks and only a couple of 'hot shots' (in their opinion). Looking forward to getting back home care of Johnny Roches!

Lyon

So these pictures are out of order, but at least they are posted for ALL of our followers!! Strolled through the Sunday market on . . . . . Sunday! Lots of produce, meat, cheese, fish, and stuff on one side of the river. A big Art sale on the other side. We strolled around for a few hours.

Walking over the river to old town. We ended up climbing up and down the HILL in front up to the Bacillicus.

View from our hotel window. Actually it is a lot better as we can see the Rhone River as well, but the chimneys are more interesting. We kept looking for Dick Van Dyke.

Got to say hi to Jack and Melissa on Ovvo. Good news that we found Mom's camera on the floor of the car!

Took a road trip today through the country. Drove to Aix-les-Bains that was a lot less toursity than Annecy. Here is Pam sitting in the Casino. The odds were so bad we didn't waste a euro. Drove to the lake for lunch and then back to Annecy via Lac Annecy. Another winding road. Will stay in tonight and head for Lyon in the morning.

A street scene in Aix-lse-Bains.

A Morning on the Lac Annecy

We got on the first boat out of Annecy for a 'two hour cruise". Which turned out to be 3 hours because we got off at Talloires to walk around the villiage. Not many people on the 9:30 boat, but the 10:30 boat was nearly full when it picked us up at Talloires.






Some of the rental boats at Talloires. The water was actually pretty warm and it is expected to reach 88 degrees today. A little overcast, but dry so far. Enjoying the a/c in the room.

[I don't have the hang of this blogging with pictures yet. I guess I need to add all pictures first and hope they show up in the right order, then add captions. Well it's better than nuttin'. Maybe put some other pictures from the boat in later.]

Pictures for previous post

Safe and Sound

We had the smoothest flight I can remember getting to Amsterdam and even the next leg to Geneva! Window and Isle seats gave us our own little area. We had video on demand so Pam watched her movie and I watched mine and tracked our flight. Didn't get but an hour of sleep during the 10 hour flight.

In Amsterdam we taxied for 20 minutes! I've got to Google Maps that airport! I bet it is bigger than a Wal-Mart super store parking lot! Then we walked for about 1 1/2 miles to the next gate via immigration and another security check.

Smooth flight to Geneva and the Alps were out in the bright morning sun [Took a couple of pictures on Pam's camera, but that is up six flights of stairs as it is 6:30 a.m. and I am down in the hotel lobby with my diet coke and am ready to go.] Paul and Sharon were waiting for us at the arrival point aqnd led us to their car.

[A break in the narrative for a live posting! I got a warning on my computer that the battery was about to expire, so save what you are doing and go plug it in. Saved it and up the stairs to the room and get the charger. So we all know that it is 220 volts over here and we all know that computer chargers and camera battery charges work on both 110 and 220 so you just need a plug adapter for their round holes. Well I could only find one adapter at home, so why not take a power strip along and plug that in and then all the other US plugs would go into that. Good news for Drew's company, they may be selling me another power strip. I didn't realize that it had a surge protector on it. Quite a spectaculor spark complete with some smoke. It was close to 7 a.m. and Pam was in the bathroom that suddenly became dark. Back down the stairs to report the power was out and luckily the guy they sent up couldn't speak English so I didn't have to explain anything. We are back up and running.]

So back to the airport. Got in the car and headed for the exit. Paul put his ticket in and it was rejected as he forgot to pay at the kiosks. He couldn't back up with all the cars and vans behind so I jumped out got in line and was glad we still had some Euros at home that I brought along. Only problem was we were in Switzerland and the use Swiss Francs. So hit the credit card for 6 Swiss francs and got out of there with some major honking!

Took the backroads to Annecy and tried to find a restaurant. After a couple of villiages with none we stumbled on one and the waitress spoke English. She was interested where we were from as they don't get many tourists and she couldn't practice English with any of the locals. Stopped at a big grocery store and got the necessary wine, chips, beer, Coca Light.

Could not find the hotel in downtown Annecy with its pedestrian only streets, roundabouts, one way streets. After viewing Parliment and Big Ben three times I got out the map, but Paul couldn't stop long enough that I could figure out where we were. After another 10 minutes and another sighting of Big Ben I suggested we use his GPS that was in his camera bag in the back. Found the address for the hotel, acquired a fix on the sattelites and were told it would take us 9 minutes to get to our destination. It took 12.

Hauled our suitcases and groceries up 25 steps to the reception desk, then two more flights to our room. It was TINY and HOT. A double bed with a foot pathway around it, no a/c, no refrigerator. Bathroom the size of our home shower. Not going to work. Paul and Sharon had the same experience the day before and got changed to a larger corner room with 2 windows for a breeze. Ours was 1/2 step above a hostel.

We found a Best Western 3 blocks away with a/c mini bar and elevator! About 10 Euros more so we grabbed it. We hauled all our possessions from the old hotel to the new and I'm sure we looked like a couple homeless folks. Moved in and showered and felt much better. I asked the front desk if they had an ice machine and he went behind the bar in the lobby and produced an insulated 2 gallon bucket of ice. NICE!

Met Paul and Sharon and had a nice meal of pizza and lasagne on the canal. Hit the rack early and slept well. I was up at 5:30 and went to the lobby to blog. Which pretty much brings you up to date counting the power outage.

OKAY, I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO PUT THE PICTURES WHERE THEY BELONG, SO USE YOUR IMAGINATION AND I'LL TRY POSTING THEM LATER!!!!

Went to Mt Blanc on Tujesday and had a good time in great weather. Mom lost her camera, so fewer pictures in the future.

At the Airport

We made it to the airport thanks to Sue. The only issue was on the way to the airport I checked the flight status of Delta 0260 and it said the plane was scheduled to leave at 12:05. Well it was 10:45 and we got a little nervous. Called Delta and they said it was definitely set to go at 1:30 as planned. Looks like a full plane! Next stop Amsterdam!

Here is our attempt a Blogingating. I'm sure there will be a large number of subscribers, well maybe a couple. Will try to post pictures of the trip, but don't expect much!