FB2: Rock throwing and the Verdon Gorge

Today...was a rough stomach day, to put it mildly.  It is almost 11:30PM, and we have had a long day.  But first, let's back up to last night.

While trying to buy gelato, I realized that my credit card was gone.  Thinking back, the only place that I had used a credit card, was at lunch.  I called up the French restaurant, and while we were only able to communicate by the phone equivalent of hand gestures, they indicated to me that they have a credit card.  I couldn't figure out if it was mine, but it was worth checking out.  Miles went with Jeremy to the beach while I went across town to the restaurant.  As luck would have it, it was indeed my credit card.

We had not been on the beach til this point, and had not gone close enough to inspect it.  Miles had asked if he could play in the sand, before heading off with Jeremy, and I had said yet.  When I reached them on the beach, I discovered that it was not a sand beach, but a rock beach, with beautiful, clear water and very gentle, barely waves.

Apparently, Miles had befriended a nearby couple that did not know English well.  They were trying to help him skip rocks in the ocean.  I sat next to Jeremy while he played with a tripod and his camera.  This included hanging the camera upside down on it and keeping the lens open for long periods of time to capture more light.  Meanwhile, Miles hung out with the couple and continued to throw rocks.  It was fun to watch him interact with them.  He has quite an ability to befriend strangers, and apparently this included non English speaking ones.

The next day, we decided to head out to Avis rental cars earlier than we had planned.  We went next door to the rental agency and were greeted by a sign that explained that they were closed and to go to the train station instead.  This was a 25 minute walk.  We were told by the receptionist that we were supposed to have been contacted, and she left a message for other workers, but that no one had done so.  We would be called by the manager to discuss possible compensation.  This never happened.

Jeremy decided that the two and a half hour route was too boring, and so decided to take us on the scenic route, travelling through the park to the town with our hotel rather than taking the highways.  I was the driver and he was the navigator.

We stopped about halfway, at a lone restaurant, that also served as a hotel and bar.  Miles had pork, which seems to be his "go to" dish on European vacations, while I had simple chicken.  Miles and I tried a dessert that we saw a nearby table try, called a profiterole.  It was a scoop of vanilla ice cream, surrounded on both sides by a pastry that was drizzled with chocolate, with whipped cream on the side.  I should have taken a picture, but somehow I didn't.

Luckily, my stomach settled down for the next part of our driving journey, which had many stopover areas for pictures of the view.  Before we hit the majority of views, however, we came across a bridge going over a stream.  The stream was a hotspot for people who wanted to lay by the rocks near it or go for a walk in the water.  Miles bravely crossed right through the stream, which had very cold water.  He also skipped rocks across it, a newly resurfaced curiosity of his.
 

Here are some of my favorite views:



A little while later we arrived at our destination, Moustiers Sainte-Marie.  We are staying at an 8 room hotel, with an owner that barely understands a handful of English.  Miles has his own bed around the corner from my bed.  It is down the hill from town.  Before departing, I asked the owner for suggestions for a small walk.  He did not understand, so I indicated "short" with my  hands and a walk by using my fingers to make a walking motion.  He took a map and highlighted a route up to a chapel on the mountainside.

We soon found out that this map was grossly out of scale.  Roads that looked long were traversed in two seconds.  The small windy trail up towards the chapel, through a nearby grotto took thirty minutes of scaling the side of the mountain!  What kind of ridiculous map did he give us!?




After we made it to the chapel, we took the shorter route back down and into the center of town.



We found a small, quirky Italian restaurant, had a late dinner, and then walked back to our hotel.  Miles is asleep and I hope soon to be.  Tomorrow will be our primary day of hiking.

Jeremy's photos France 1

When Jeremy hands me over some of his favorite pictures of the day, I will be posting them here.  He enjoys photography and spends a ridiculous amount of money on cameras and lenses.  The pictures chosen are done so by him.

France and Belgium 1: A very Nice beach town

I was able to sleep a bit on the plane last night, and we both slept well on our second flight, which brought us into Nice right around noon.  Jeremy was there to greet us at the exit from the terminal.  He set up the Uber app before coming and decided that this would be a good time to use it for the first time.  It actually worked really well!  It was a young guy, dressed very sharply, and knew a bit of English.

The hotel is perfectly located, a few feet from the Avis car rental that we will be using tomorrow, just a few blocks from the beach, and right on the border of the Old Town, which I always like to be near.

On the way to find a restaurant for lunch, I saw a camel.



We ate at one of the few places that had some English on their menu, while also having pizza, which Miles could eat.  I saw a special item on the menu, and ordered it for Miles.  His first treat of the trip.



They called it a Nutella pizza.  He couldn't eat it all, so I had to help.

Afterwards, we climbed up nearby Parc de la Colline du Chateau.  It offered up some nice views of town and the harbor on the other side of the hill, as well as a refreshing waterfall.  It was pretty hot outside, although the temperature only measured in the mid 70s.  


Tonight, we might relax on or near the beach and get some ice cream, as suggested by Jeremy.  He declined to play a card game with us.  I told him that he would get used to losing, so there was really no reason to refuse to play.  He is claiming that since he did not sleep on the plane at all, that he is just too tired.  I told him that I was perfectly ok with playing him in this condition, but it looks like gaming will have to wait until another night.

I forgot to mention that a little mistake was made on our room.  Jeremy booked it and thought that two double beds would be enough.  He did not realize that while that would work in the US, in Europe, you need to order a triple.  The "double beds" are really what we would call a single.  There is no chance that Miles and I would be able to share a bed, which we had intended for the night.  Miles will instead have to sleep on the floor.  On all other nights, Miles and I will have our own room.  It was only this night that we would be sharing.

There is not much else to do here, so we plan to pick up the rental car earlier than expected, around noon tomorrow if they will allow us.  We can then take our time heading to our next destination, the Verdon Gorge.

Back on the Train

After a few months, we are back on the Train to Miami airport.  This is the last set of flights using Miami airport.  Everything else should be from Fort Lauderdale which is 1/3 of the distance and much less of a hassle. 

This trip will be through south France, from Nice to Carcassonne, up to Paris, and then to Ghent and Bruges, Belgium.  We are meeting my old friend from college, UADarkwingDuck, or Jeremy, as he is more commonly known.  He will be along with us until partway through Paris, and then it will be just Miles and I afterwards.

We have a 4:15pm flight, arrive in Lisbon around 5 am local time.  This is followed by a three hour stopover, and then a two and a half hour flight into Nice, arriving at 11:50am local time.  This will be my longest travel time yet. 

UADarthMaul Country Comparison and our change of plans for the summer

So far, I have only been to three foreign countries.  Italy, Portugal, and then Spain.  I figured that I would make some observations and comparisons of my experiences in these countries.

Food:  

Italy had tons of vegetable options and great pasta and pizza.  Their gelato was the best of the three, which isn't surprising, with the best of them being in Florence.  Italy also had some interesting local specialties, such as ribollita soup, in Florence.  It was originally a peasant leftover vegetable/bean and stale bread soup.  It was amazing.  Cinque Terre was known for its trofie pasta with pesto.  This was pesto's birthplace.    

Portugal was the weakest of the three, for my tastes.  The options were mostly pork or seafood.  I don't eat seafood and while I eat pork, it is not my first choice.  Finding vegetable or bean dishes proved problematic as well.  We tried their dessert, pastel de nata, which was ok, but I am not a fan of creamy fillings in general.  

Spain had good food.  I fell in love with the paella.  Both the chicken and vegetable versions were great.  They had some interesting and huge donutlike desserts.  I wasn't too interested in trying flan or arroz con leche, which Spain is known for, as neither appealed to me.  Instead, I tried their piononos a few times.  A little too mushy, but interesting enough.  The couscous and falafel were good, but I don't know how native it is to the area.

Bones:  Both in Portugal and Spain, meat is served with the bones, even inside baked dishes.  In Seville, I even boat a chicken and tomato sub, and while biting into the middle, I bit into a bone.  I do not know if this was intentional for the sandwich, which seems a bit dangerous to me.  Nonetheless, I stripped the meat into the dishes and extracted the bones each time, which was tiring.  I just don't like bones!

Traveling organized:  I used for the first time this trip, a hanging bathroom organizer, which made moving from spot to spot much, much easier than any time previously!

Hotels:  I loved the beds in hotels in Europe, across the board.  They are much firmer and supportive than their American counterparts.  If you could get a good deal, staying on campus in a castle or equivalent is great.  It is not worth a price premium, however.  I am keen to try more bed and breakfasts, as they seem quite affordable and can be right in the heart of town, where some hotels can't be built.  In two hotels, one in Spain and one in Portugal, there was a bathtub in the middle of the room.  This isn't so great for families.  

Waiters:  Waiters in Italy were a bit slow, but generally courteous and friendly.  The waiters in Portugal and Spain seemed disinterested, even slower than Italy, and generally unpleasant.  While considering solutions, I devised a device that would shock the waiter upon use, to encourage better service.  

Bikes:  In Seville, there were extensive bike lanes throughout the city.  Metal circles in the ground marked their paths and they often gave more room to bikes than people on sidewalks.  If you stood in the way, the bikers would use their bell to alert you.  Quite frequently you would find a bike rental rack.  If you paid a weekly fee, the first 30 minutes of rent are free, following by fifty cents or so each additional 30 minutes.  I loved this!  I wish this system was everywhere.  I'd so much prefer to bike everywhere than use a car.  It also just made me feel like I was in a vibrant and health conscious society, with environmental friendliness on the side.

Fast train-  The high speed train to Madrid was incredible.  Very high backed, comfortable seats.  Speeds at 300 kilometers per hour, nice and large sized bathrooms, and a nice dining cart.  For five euros, you could get a drink, a sandwich, and chips.  The sandwich was hot and very good.  The price for the train tickets were also incredibly reasonable.  Meanwhile, we are giving Amtrak an even smaller budget...

Coins-  One and two euros are distributed in the form of coins.  This quick and easy method is much better than having single dollars for everything.  It really is a breeze to use coins.  It helped, of course, that many things seemed to be rounded to the nearest dollar.  Some things weren't though.  Cash is just clumsy.

The summer:  Originally, I had planned to go to Germany.  Round trip to Frankfurt, going south to the Black Forest, then southeast to see castles, coming north from there to see small villages, and then north and west back to Frankfurt.  We still plan to do that in the future.  After France, I'll have been to five European countries altogether.  I've become interested in seeing things that are a little different.  That has lead me to southeast Asia.

Why is southeast Asia appealing?  They have temples rather than churches, so not too much different there, but it is indeed a different style and different religion than the West.  It would potentially allow me peaks into a different culture with a different way of life.  It just seems to be a bit different, and that is what I want to see.  I am curious as to whether it will be as different or exciting as I expect.

After going over the options that interest me(Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Burma), I decided to go to Vietnam first.  It has quite a bit of natural beauty and historical sites, and it has the simplest and most efficient route, flying in the central east town of Danang, and then flying out of Hanoi.  

Of concern is the sanitation/bathrooms as well as the potential for food poisoning or having my stomach disagree with things.  Non modern bathrooms are problematic for someone with stomach problems.  I have read to avoid fruits that aren't pealed, to avoid salads, and ask cooks to sear the food extra.  You are also supposed to keep your mouth closed when showering, which I generally already do.  Do other people shower with their mouths open?  

Stephanie cannot take more time off of work, so she will be flying back home from Vietnam.  Since there is only 6 days between the end of our Vietnam trip and my Japan trip, it just didn't make sense to fly home on a 24 hour set of flights, adjust to a 12 hour time difference, and then 6 days later, fly out again on a 17 hour set of flights and then adjust to the 12 hour difference again.  So, I decided to go to Taiwan in between.  It is located just in between Vietnam and Japan.  It is just a few hours of a direct flight to Taiwan, and then on to Japan.

Taiwan is a place that I have been looking at lately.  In addition to some really interesting sites to see, it is the home of a childhood friend of mine, who has been living there for the past seven years.  My friend Andrew grew up in Taiwan, and later Beijing.  Every summer he would come to New Jersey to visit family, and we would end up in camp together.  Back then there was no email, and his phone number each time he came to New Jersey was different, so I always felt lucky that we ended up in the same camp.  Even after I switched to an all tennis camp, he ended up switching to the same camp at the same time!  We lost contact towards college, but reconnected briefly via facebook later on.  Last I had heard, he had gone to Brown University in the States and then became a wandering musician in Taiwan.  

Since I have now decided to go to Taiwan, I reactivated my dormant Facebook account and attempted to reconnect with him.  He is living in Taipei, which is where Taiwan's major airport is located.  We are planning to meet up and he has graciously invited me to stay with him.

My Taiwan trip will be planned a little differently than my other trips.  This one is intended primarily to relax, rather than shuffle from place to place.  I will be in only two places during the whole trip.  I will visit some local small towns and do some hikes nearby.  The two places are connect by a thirty minute train ride.  I am very excited.

Our trip in late May is quickly approaching.  I have been preparing for it with Miles by playing the board game Carcassonne the Castle, which will be one of the places we will be visiting.

UADarthMaul #14- Home

The Madrid airport was very spacious.  First, we had to go through what I dubbed "rainbow hallway." Near our terminal was a small kids' play area with a slide.

The flight was nine and a half hours, but with an hour delay and the time change, we were completely wiped when we got home.  The first thing Miles said to me the next morning was that he wished we were still away on vacation.  I was thrilled to hear that, as I was worried that he might not enjoy himself.

The last few days I have been resting, as my shoulders and neck have been a bit screwed up from the travelling and transferring of luggage.  Tonight we unpacked all of the little knock knacks that we picked up while away.  We bought way too much!  We have a pretty small place, so I am not sure how we will display it all...



Within the next few days I will be making a post about my thoughts on how Spain, Portugal, and Italy compare.

UADarthMaul #13- Alhambra at night and now, across from the airport

Last night we grabbed a quick dinner at a local take out place.  Miles and I tried falafel for the first time.  At 8, we went into the Alhambra palaces again.  Unfortunately, it was a much shorter route than the daytime, but it was still beautiful, and fairly empty.

Then, we stumbled upon the Palace of Charles V, which we somehow missed during the day.  It was nearly empty and felt magical having it all to ourselves.  We went back to its the next morning as well to see it in the daylight.


Before we went to bed, however, we all played five games of Linko, which Miles and I had enjoyed in Obidos.

We went through as many local shops we could find.  While waiting for a really neat looking local Arabic themed restaurant to open, we walked to the Granada church, which unfortunately had a crane interfere with one of my camera shots. On the walk, it struck me how you could be walking down a narrow cobblestone street that looks like you are in the old world, and then you could come out of an alley and be right back into the modern world, with tons of cars and traffic lights.  Cross the street and you can be right back in the old world.  It is very bizarre, but I am sure the local residents think nothing of it and are completely used to it.

Back at the restaurant, I ordered chicken and couscous, the latter of which I had never ordered in a restaurant before.  Like every dish with meat in it that I have ordered in both Portugal and Spain, it came on the bone, inside the dish.  I do not like this!  I stripped off the meat and extricated the bones.  Much better!  Before I left, I used the bathroom and found the most awesome sink I have ever seen.



We took a taxi to the train station.  Took the bus back to the station where we had to switch over to the bus initially, on the way here.  Then, we loaded onto the high speed train to Madrid.  We went at speeds nearing and slightly over 300 kilometers.  The dining cart had great food and the seats were very comfortable.  I played a few games of Snorkels with Miles, but forgot to take pictures!  I was, however, able to get one picture of the speed with some glare on it instead.



We took a taxi from the train station to our airport hotel, located across the street from the airport.  Feels like we are headed home.  Lame.