DAY ONE - SEATTLE TO LONDON (SATURDAY, 4/12/03)

DAY TWO - LONDON (SUNDAY, 4/13/03)

DAY THREE - LONDON (MONDAY, 4/14/03)

DAY FOUR - LONDON (TUESDAY, 4/15/03)

DAY FIVE - LONDON TO PARIS (WEDNESDAY, 4/16/03)

DAY SIX - PARIS (THURSDAY, 4/17/03)

DAY SEVEN - PARIS (FRIDAY, 4/18/03)

DAY EIGHT - PARIS TO GENEVA (SATURDAY, 4/19/03)

DAY NINE - GENEVA (EASTER SUNDAY, 4/20/03)

DAY TEN - GENEVA TO Interlaken (MONDAY, 04/21/03)

DAY ELEVEN - INTERLAKEN TO STUTTGART (TUESDAY, 04/22/03)

DAY TWELVE - STUTTGART (WEDNESDAY, 04/23/03)

DAY THIRTEEN - TUBINGEN (THURSDAY, 04/24/03)

DAY FOURTEEN - STUTTGART TO VENICE (FRIDAY, 04/25/03)

DAY FIFTEEN - VENICE (SATURDAY, 04/26/03)

DAY SIXTEEN - VENICE (SUNDAY, 04/27/03)

DAY SEVENTEEN - VENICE TO SEATTLE (MONDAY, 04/28/03)

FINAL THOUGHTS

Preparation

Dates and Itinerary:

This trip to Europe actually started at a birthday party dinner for Mom in mid-November, 2002. As usual, Dad and I (the men folk) found ourselves talking alone in the family room while Carol, Jamie and Mom (the women folk) were in the kitchen doing the same thing…talking. Dad mentioned that the air fares to Europe were pretty low and maybe I would like to join him in a trip to see my brother in Germany, who was on sabbatical studying Greek manuscripts. While I was very intrigued with the idea, I also recognized that there were several things that had to happen in order for this trip to become a reality. Nevertheless, the next day I talked to Carol about the idea, and with very little conversation, mostly about the cost, she said "GO". Since Carol doesn't like to travel, and I do, this was the perfect way for both of us to achieve our goals; she could stay home, and I could see Europe. Then I went to work and talked to my manager about being gone for two and a half weeks. She was instantly supportive of the opportunity and assured me that she would do everything in her power to make this happen, at least from a work perspective. About a week later I touched base with Dad to get more information about what he thought that this trip would look like. We had several conversations and all of a sudden, it looked like I was going to Europe! I contacted Dan, who was in Munster, Germany at the time, to see where he would be and when would be the best time to meet him. We quickly narrowed down the options, and decided to meet Dan in the Stuttgart area of Germany in the first half of April.

As for the flight planning, we started by looking at the Seattle Times travel section for good deals. There were, indeed, several good deals; but every time I tried to find out more information about the "advertised" discounted flights, I could not find any airlines that would actually admit to the advertised price and schedule. We were flexible enough to be able to fly on a week day, but I could just never get enough information to make an informed decision. Finally, I realized that about the best price that I could confirm was $700-$800 per person round trip to London. If we bought a round trip ticket to and from London, then we would have to fly from Venice back to London, which would cost an additional $100-$150 per person. I started looking at what was available through my mileage clubs with American Express and Delta Airlines. Upon running numerous calculations and then double checking my perceptions with Delta, I found that if I used my existing 80,000 miles and we bought another 80,000 miles ($1,000 per person), we could fly Business Class the entire trip. BONUS!!!! Clearly that was the way to go, why shoehorn yourself into a small airplane seat for 14-16 hours, when you can fly in a reclining wide leather seat. The final analysis was $800-$950 per person, for coach or $1,000 per person for Business Class. The decision was a "no brainer". This meant that the full enjoyment of the trip could start in Seattle, not when we got to London.

Selecting a hotel was out of the question until we knew what cities we were going to visit. Since that had been established and we knew what dates we were going to be in each city, we could make our hotel reservations. The hotel selection criterion that we were looking for at each of the cities was:

Making the hotel reservations started by looking at city maps and deciding where we wanted to go, I used Expedia.com to help me find a suitable hotel that met the requirements as much as possible. I relied on friends and family that knew the different cities that we were going to visit for help in finding a good hotel in a good neighborhood. Typically all of big cities that we visited had a veritable cornucopia of choices and it was just a matter of picking one. In London we chose a Holiday Inn in the Kensington area. We got a good deal for $100.20 USD. It was about a half block from the entrance to the "Tube" and a very nice hotel. In Paris we chose a Holiday Inn Garden Court in the Montmartre district. This was €98.00 ($110.10 USD) and was about 2-1/2 blocks from the "Metro". This hotel sounded nicer than the Holiday Inn in London. It wasn't, but it did include a pretty decent breakfast, (like a lot of European hotels). In Geneva, it was a little easier to choose a hotel although the prices were higher because Geneva is a relatively small city compared to London and Paris. We ended up choosing the Comfort Hotel Balzac for CH 210.90 ($147.65 USD). It was only two blocks from the lake and everything in Geneva was within walking distance. The hotel had the largest rooms we experienced in all of Europe. It was also the poorest quality hotel stayed in. Originally we were going to get a hotel near Tubingen, about 20 miles South of Stuttgart. However Dan and Pati had gotten their apartment at the university, so we bunked with them during our stay in the Stuttgart area. Venice was just plain expensive, but we "rolled the dice" and chose the Boscolo Hotel Bellini, just about 150 yards from the train station. Choosing a location in Venice wasn't tricky. If you are anywhere on the island(s) you are close to everything. The price was €185.00 ($192.44 USD), but we got the third night free. This made it €122.18 ($128.30 USD) per night average, and it included the best breakfast we had on the trip. All in all, the average price for all of our accommodations was $102.41 USD. Close enough! The hotel reservations were set and all we had to do now is pack our bags and head for Europe.

The day started off by arriving at London's Gatwick International Airport. We sailed through customs with a minimum of questions. The only we question that we had was, "Where do we get a ticket to Victoria Station in downtown London?" We asked the question enough times, until we found the train ticket booth and Dad bought two First Class tickets to London. When we got to the train, we could not distinguish First Class from Second Class. We asked the conductor and he said that the cars were labeled, and if we wanted to walk 2-3 cars forward, we could sit in First Class. It was only a 30 minute train trip and we were 10 minutes into the ride, so we decided to stay put and file this in the category of "lessons learned".

Greenwich

Since we wanted to go Greenwich, the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), we took the Tube to Westminster and caught a site seeing tour boat down the River Thames to Greenwich. By the time we arrived, the only reminisce from the London Marathon was the trash and some of the crowd barriers. Transportation to and from Greenwich was a delightful journey with an "unofficial-official" tour guide pointing out the sites on the river.

It was a sunny picturesque day, with crowds cheering on both sides of the Thames as the runners from the marathon ran by. On the ferry, both coming and going, there was an alleged impromptu tour guide pointing out the different buildings, sites and history along the Thames. I say alleged because the guide claimed NOT to be an official tour guide, but still was glad to collect gratuities as you disimbarked from the boat. Some of the highlights were, being able to see and hear the history of many of the bridges, the Tower of London, and the Pickle Building which was under construction. The Pickle Building looks like a 30 story glass pickle standing up in the middle of London. Now there is an architect with a lot of guts.

Below deck, was a series of illustrations that told you everything you need to know about this ship and others that braved the high seas of the world. We took the stairs to the lower level, where the tea cases would have been stored, to see a marvelous collection of some of the wooden-carved statues which graced the bow of ships in this period.

Most of them were of famous figures of nautical history, such as Gladstone and Florence Nightingale, each of which had stories of their own.

The Cutty Sark was in dry dock with a nice open area around it to sit and eat your lunch or in our case we found a Starbucks and had a Frappuccino. It is hard to imagine sailing half way around the world to get a load of tea and sailing back; a round trip taking the better part of a year. The crew's quarters were very small, but they were on the deck and not in the hold of the ship.

Dinner in London

There is a rumor that London is not known for its outstanding culinary arts. We found nothing to repudiate that rumor. Our hotel concierge recommended a dinning adventure at an Indian restaurant, Modern India. It was a very pleasant 2-3 block walk from the hotel. We both had lamb, in a curry sauce, a little spicy, but not bad. The meal was pretty good, not great. We did experience our first cultural adventure that night. We got a glass of water with ice at a meal. We were able to get some tap or regular water, with a few ice cubes. Getting a glass of water with ice during a meal would remain a cultural challenge throughout the trip.

Since we arrived in London at 8:05 AM, we figured that we had a days worth of activities to do, and no time to deal with jet lag. We got back to the hotel about 5:00 PM from Greenwich and lay down for a few minutes. Both of us kept poking the other, trying to force the other to stay awake. After about an hour we decided to go to dinner. We got back to the hotel about 8:00-8:30 PM, and felt like it was OK to fall asleep. We both fell asleep right away and didn't wake up until 10:30 AM the next morning. Fourteen hours of sleep and we both felt that the jet lag problem was solved. Day Two was over.

Tower of London

Fourteen hours of sleep allows you to get up and be ready to see the sights of London. We were able to find a Starbuck, which is on every third corner in London and stopped for a Latte' and scone to start the day. We then headed to the Tube and bought a two day "off-peak" pass. Dad found a coupon book with ½ prices on many of the attractions that we wanted to see. I am always willing to go First Class and only pay for coach!

One thing that I really wanted to experience, in London was real British "Fish & Chips". I haven't had British style Fish & Chips since I was in Singapore in 1972. For dinner we found a pub about two blocks from the hotel with a very unusual "non-smoking" section in the pub. It was unusual because most restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs in Europe, do not have a "non-smoking" sections. We found a table in the middle of the very crowded pub and both of us ordered Fish & Chips, with mashy peas. Every time we saw Fish & Chips on a menu in London, it included mashy peas. Mashy peas are green peas, kind of "mushed up" and in a strange sauce. Evidently mashy peas are always served with British Fish & Chips. Oh yeah, the one piece of fish was a huge piece of cod and lots of chips (French Fries). It was pretty good, not great, but they did give us plenty of tartar sauce. A short walk back to the hotel, feeling a little bloated because of all of the greasy Fish & Chips and Day Three was over.

We decided to take a tour bus for a half day tour and hear a guide tell some of the stories of London. We took one tour bus to the central location of all of the tour busses, and proceeded to wait for about an hour for the official tour to begin. We finally got onto the bus to the serenade of a little girl (about 2-3 years) that screamed until she got tired and then started to just cry. Fortunately she was a little quieter once we started the tour. We were regaled with the knowledge of a delightful tour guide. She threaded the history of London and England with typical British humor.

Westminster Abbey

Our first stop was at Westminster Abbey. While very crowded, theoverall grandeur was not lost. I continued to be amazed at how the craftsman from several centuries ago built such beautiful and ornate architecture and furnishings. Like most of the churches in England and Europe, they are in the shape of a cross, with the main alter being in the middle of the cross. The biggest attraction of Westminster Abbey is the vast number of famous people that are buried in the Abbey. There are several criteria for being buried in Westminster Abbey, but the overwhelming criteria seemed to be having enough money.

Buckingham Palace

Our next stop was at the Eye of London. The Eye of London was built for the millennium celebration by British Airways. It is the world's highest observation wheel. The Eye of London takes you on a 30 minute ride about 450 feet above the River Thames. It has 32 fully enclosed capsules that allow the passengers to take in the entire London downtown. It is just across the river from Big Ben and the Parliament building.

We got up with plenty of time to get to the train station, so we walked across the street to a Burger King for a quick and what we expected to be a reasonable breakfast. At the hotel, the day before, we paid 13 pounds, per person, for a really lousy breakfast. This morning we spent only 4 pounds each and it still held up the classic British tradition of a lousy breakfast. The breakfast sandwich needed ketchup just to elevate it to the status of bad. Oh well, off to France, and the hope of better dining experiences.

Across the street to the Tube, two different trains and we are back at the Charing Cross train station, ready to catch the train to Paris through the Chunnel. We checked-in, went through French customs, and on to our assigned seat on the train (after waiting about an hour in a nicely appointed train station). Half the seats face forward and about half face backwards on this train. At the point where the forward facing seats and the backward facing seat meet in the middle of each car there is a nice small table.

We got lucky and got the seats with the table and the extra two adjacent seats were left empty, so we had adequate leg room and adequate spread-out room. It is important to remember that you make reservations for the train trip and reservations for your seats. These are two different reservations and have cost implication for both. Weird! If you do not make seat reservations you save about $10-$15, but you don't have an assigned seat; you just have to go find an open seat.

We settled into our seats for the 2-1/2 hour journey when we met a husband, wife and daughter from Huntington Beach, California…what a coincidence. We had several nice conversations through out the trip, especially watching the daughter try to teach "Dad" a little French. She was a high school student that had taken several years of French and was looking forward to using her new found knowledge.

It was 45-60 minutes from London to Dover, where we entered the Chunnel. Traveling through the Chunnel took about 20-30 minutes and was just plain dark. During the time in the Chunnel we did stop for a few minutes, but they announced that it was going to be only a few minutes and not to be concerned. I am guessing that on the British side we traveled at about 100 mph, and on the French side it was about 150 mph. It was very interesting that on the British side all announcements came in English first, then French.

In France the announcements were in French first and then in English. The food car took pounds in England and Euros in France. The train was comfortable and reasonably quiet. Taking the train is definitely the best way to travel if you have a little time. You can see the cities and countryside in relative comfort. It was very beautiful to travel through the French countryside see the highways along side the train and the rolling field of bright yellow rape grass. Small towns dotted the countryside, each with a single church with a tall steeple that seemed to call the people to worship. Two and half hours later and we were at the Paris (Gare de Nord) train station. We waited in line for about 15 minutes to get a taxi (a Mercedes station wagon). During the wait for the taxi, I pulled my backpack off and broke a pin on my watch. I wasn't going to have a watch again until we arrived in Geneva. I guess that not having a watch while on vacation isn't that bad of an idea. It never seemed to bother me. I learned from the high school student from Huntington Beach how to ask if a person spoken English, so I asked the taxi driver. When he said "no" in French, I handed him the address to our hotel and the conversation was pretty much limited from that point. During the 15-20 minute taxi ride, the driver was playing classical music on his car radio; Dad mentioned, to me, that he like the piece that was playing, and the taxi driver asked Dad if he liked classical music. I think that many Europeans say that they don't speak English because they don't think their English is very good. In most cases their English is very acceptable and is pretty easy to understand.

We sauntered back down the 282 steps of the Arc De Triomphe (Dad made sure to count the steps to validate their claim, but before we strolled down the Avenue de Champs Elysees. We stopped briefly at the French tomb of the Unknown Soldier which is at the base of the Arc De Triomphe. It was quite sobering to know that someone's son, brother, father, and/or husband never returned from World War II, but is buried there.

We walked down the Avenue de Champs Elysees from the Arc De Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. We stopped at many of the famous stores along the Avenue de Champs Elysees, just to look. Neither one of us wanted to spend that kind of money for goods at these famous stores. I guess it comes down to, "Would you rather have that product than money?" We headed southeast to the Place de la Concorde and stopped at a bridge to just admire the beautiful architecture of the buildings and statues on the bridge. There were several statues that were covered with gold paint or gold leaf. They were brilliant in the sunshine.

We also took some time to look at what was happening on the River Seine; the different types of boats that travel this river versus the boats on the Thames in London. We headed back to the other side of the Avenue de Champs Elysees, strolling and trying to absorb everything on this famous street.

It was a nice evening walk back to the Metro and from the Metro at Place de Clincy, back to the hotel. All in all, it was a long day, but filled with unbelievable sites and overwhelming beauty and culture. Day Five was over.

Louvre Museum

Another art form that caught my eye was a very large mosaic, approximately 10 feet wide by 20 feet tall. When you stepped back 15-25 feet from the mosaic, it was hard to believe that it was a mosaic and not a painting because the detail was so fine. Although we only spent three to four hours in the Louvre, I got a good feel of its size and the vast diversity of the art work that has been collected at the Louvre. It is truly a world class museum that must be visited if you are in Paris and maybe EVERY time you are in Paris. Upon our departure of the actual museum, we took a few minutes to just absorb the beautiful architecture of the buildings that surrounded the courtyard of the Louvre.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Dinner in Paris

Since our meal in London did not bring much passion to our culinary senses and our first meal in Paris was disappointing, we were really looking for an exceptional dinner. So we asked our concierge at our hotel for a recommendation for a really good restaurant. She recommended Bistro de Boucher which was about 2-3 blocks from the hotel. The Bistro de Bucher is located in the crouch of a fork in the road. Many of the restaurants that are in Paris are very open and the tables and chairs flow out onto the sidewalks. The Bistro de Bucher was no different. It had an area that was closed in, which was the "smoking section". This is rare in Europe, and the "non-smoking section" was very open. We were initially seated in the "smoking section", until Dad noticed that our neighbor in the restaurant had an ash tray that was full, so he requested a "non-smoking" section. We were moved out to a very open (doors/walls were open to the outside), yet somewhat cramped, part of the restaurant. The waitress started us with a glass of sparkling wine to cleanse our palette. Dad had duck, which was very good, while I had an excellent steak. The food, wine, atmosphere and company were all just excellent. This was the meal that we had been looking forward to since we arrived in Paris. The most eye-opening part of the meal was my exposure to goose pate'. Dad had it as his hors-d'oeuvre that night and he gave me a little bite. I found a new favorite food. It was great and I loved it. I loved it so much that I had it for dinner every chance I got for the rest of the trip. It was so good, that I am sure that it was really bad for me, oh well. A short stroll back to the hotel and Day Six was over.

Palace of Versailles

The morning started with a better than average breakfast at the hotel (it was included in our rate). We regrouped, gathered our tourist stuff (cameras and maps) and checked with the front desk for the best train route to the Palace of Versailles. We took the Metro to a different train system (mostly above ground) and one more train change. It took a total time of about one hour plus and we were there. There was about a one mile walk from the train station to the entrance of the Palace of Versailles, and then about another 1/2 mile walk to the first building after you entered the front gates to the palace. As we walked through the front gates, Dad made a very astute comment, "It is hard to imagine that anyone would be arrogant enough to build something this grand just for himself." But as we know, this is done all over the world, even today. The size, the grandeur, the architecture and overwhelming awe of the Palace of Versailles was hard to capture without turning your head 360 degrees several times. This place is huge! It is too big for words and that was just the driveway to the front door. It reminded me of the parking lot at Disneyland, but this was all hand laid cobble stone and there wasn't any tram to take us to the main entrance. We finally found our way to the entrance for the common tourist and got in line to pay money and take the self-guided tour. There was one fee for the self guided tour of the building and an additional fee for being able to walk around the backyard and garden.

The self-guided tour of the Palace of Versailles building included many of the waiting rooms, bed rooms, the spectacular Hall of Mirrors and the different chapels that were built as part of the Palace of Versailles. All of the rooms were elegant from the floors to the ceilings. They all seemed to have huge, ornate fireplaces and art work on the ceilings as a minimum.

Many of the rooms had very ornate and detailed ceilings, 20-30 feet high, gilded, painted and cluttered with ornate moldings and plaster work. There were rooms for giving birth, for waiting to meet with the king and a different waiting room for waiting for the queen, morning prayers and evening prayers (to mention a few of the reasons for the number of rooms). The "Hall of Mirrors", where the "Treaty of Versailles" was signed after World War I, was long, ornate, gorgeous, brilliant and sparkling. It was a spectacular feast for the eyes. As noted by previous comments, the craftsmanship in today's world would be incredible. Knowing that the Palaces of Versailles was built centuries ago, the craftsmanship and the time to build this palace must have been unbelievable.

We exited the Palaces of Versailles and made our way to the entrance to the "backyard". The backyard looked like it was about 500-1000 acres in size. The gardens were pristine, perfectly groomed and maintained. There were fountains, gardens, lakes and lawns that went on forever. It literally went farther than the eye could see. It was massive and overwhelming. The fountains were huge, with beautiful brass sculpture that ranged from frogs to gargoyles, to dogs to deer. Even the gravel paths where groomed to perfection. The thought of having the garden perfectly groomed and the filled with people for an event must have been spectacular to see.

We spent about two to three hours at the Palaces of Versailles building and about one hour in the gardens. That was only enough time to get a taste of this piece of French history. After our tour, we stopped for lunch in a little cafeteria in the basement adjacent to the main entrance. As we exited the cafeteria, I became very disoriented, extremely light sensitive and couldn't stop sweating. It took me several minutes to partially clear my head enough to walk about half way back to the train station, where I had to take another break in the cool shade of a building. I walked back to the train station and took our first of three to get back to the hotel. At one of the train stations, where we had to transfer to a different train, I had to stop and gain enough focus to continue. At the next train stop I had to stop again to rest. I couldn't focus enough to see what train to take to get back to the hotel. I finally found a spot to sit that was between two large stone columns. They seemed to act as heat sinks and after about 15 minutes I cooled down. I gained my focus and I felt a lot better. It was a weird sensation that was very scary for both of us, but after I cooled down sufficiently, all the symptoms went away and thankfully there were no after-effects. It took us three trains and a ½ mile walk to get back to our train stop near our hotel. For the first time on our trip, we stopped long enough to take a short nap.

As in London, we needed to get our tickets for the train from Paris to Geneva, Switzerland. So after we were rested, we took the Metro to the Gare du Nord train station to purchase our tickets to Geneva. We went to the Metro station closest to the Gare du Nord train station. After walking for a few blocks, we found the tickets sales booth. We waited in line for 15-20 minutes and we got our tickets to Geneva. We were becoming traveling pros.

Eiffel Tower

On the way back to the hotel, we walked by our favorite restaurant from the night before. We noted that it was closed at 7:00 PM on a Thursday evening. Disappointed, we went back to the hotel and asked the concierge for another recommendation to a good restaurant. The concierge recommended another street side café about one block closer to the hotel. We headed toward the next best choice at about 7:30 PM, and noticed that the Bistro de Boucher was open, so we had another absolutely great meal. It would have been nice to go to a different restaurant, but it was hard to argue with success. A short stroll back to the hotel and Day Seven was over.

Day Eight - Paris to Geneva (Saturday, 4-19-03)

We were up early, down to the restaurant in the hotel, for our "included" breakfast. We went back up to the room, packed and we were off to Geneva. I was a little excited because I was going to be able to spend about a week with my brother. I don't think that I have spent more that a few hours with him since he got his ThD. in 1995. Anyway, we headed to Geneva to meet up with Dan & Pati. Two different trains on the Metro, a short walk and we arrived at the Gare de Lyon where we caught the train to Geneva. As I said above we purchased our tickets at the Gare de Nord, but left Paris from the Gare de Lyon. The Gare de Lyon is the train station where you catch a train to Geneva (although you can purchase your tickets at virtually any train station). The trip to Geneva was a little slower (this was no "bullet" train), but it was incredibly beautiful. We traveled through beautiful pastures, peaceful valleys, quaint villages and majestic mountains. It was a veritable cornucopia of sights to feast on. The train made several stops at the small little villages on the way. It was very interesting to see the scenery change from the flat lands of Paris to the mountains around Geneva. It was quite a contrast in geography and in architecture.

We safely arrived in Geneva and walked through the Swiss customs in about 5 minutes. As in London and Paris, we took a taxi cab from the train station to our hotel. I am glad we did. It would have been too far to walk. We checked into the largest hotel room of the entire trip. Although the room was very large the hotel in general was disappointing. The decorations for the room and the rest of the hotel looked like early Byzantine and a Swiss Chalet had violently collided. Even though the decor of our hotel was poster child for what NOT to do in Architectural Digest, it was only two blocks from the water. In my picking of hotels on the Internet, I looked for a balance between price and location. The Comfort Hotel Balzac met both of these desired prerequisites. I would choose this hotel again, based on what I knew when I made the reservations. We unpacked as much as we usually did and headed out to tour downtown Geneva.

Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva is very large and the city of Geneva is located on the South-West corner of the lake. Like most old European cities, it is a combination of a town that is hundreds of years old, rich with history, and a modern day city. That afternoon we spent time walking around the waterfront, visited the fabulous Noga Hilton, and looked through some of the shops that where still open on the Saturday afternoon before Easter Sunday. The Noga Hilton is the premier hotel in Geneva. It has a beautiful view of the Lake Geneva fountain and all of the parks that were on the waterfront. The hotel was filled with glamorous shop and boutiques, and they were not bashful about the prices they charged. We ended up having a light lunch in a side walk café that was part of the Noga Hilton complex, very delightful.

Day Nine - Geneva (Easter Sunday, 4-20-03)

Auditoire de Calvin

Easter Sunday morning greeted us with a phone call from Mom wishing us a Happy Easter. The phone call came a little earlier than we wanted to get out of bed, but it was nice to hear from Mom and know that all is well back home. We all assembled at the "included" breakfast a little later and mapped out our day. Several months ago, Dan and I communicated about attending Easter Sunday services at the one of the oldest churches in Geneva, St. Peter's Cathedral. On Saturday, in our walking around, we checked out St. Peter's Cathedral and the times of the services. Around the corner from St. Peter's Cathedral, we found the church that Calvin established in the reformation in the mid-1550s; the Auditoire de Calvin (John Knox Chapel).

There three churches all within the same building, Church of Scotland, Protestant Church of the Netherlands, and a Chinese Evangelist Church. Since the service in the Church of Scotland was in English, we all decided to attend Easter Sunday services at 11:00AM. We experienced a delightful service which was punctuated with the entertaining Scottish brogue of the pastor. Right after the service, we hiked up 3-4 stories in the church to a kind of "coffee social" (like most churches have after their services). Dan spent some time talking to the pastor and looking around at the pictures, documents and books that decorated the main sanctuary. Pati, Dad and I talked to a few people at the "coffee social" and looked at some of the souvenirs that they had for sale to help the remodeling of the church.

Avenches, Switzerland

We started the morning by meeting Dan and Pati for the abbreviated breakfast that was included with our room. In the past, our transportation from one city to the next has been by train, but we met up with Dan & Pati in Geneva and they had a rental car. So we all jumped into their car and headed for Interlaken, Switzerland. The weather was a little overcast with mixed rain and sunshine.

Down the road from Geneva, we saw an old church or castle off the freeway, so we took the next off ramp to investigate the church and to stretch our legs. The old church was located in the city of Avenches, Switzerland. Having an old church in a small town is not unique, but to our surprise across the street from the church was an amphitheater built by the Romans in the 1st century AD. Just to keep you off balance, across the street from the amphitheater was a restaurant that featured a steel sculpture of a singing fish, which looked like Elvis Presley (it was just plan weird).

We spent about an hour looking around and stretching our legs, and we were back on the road headed to Interlaken. Interlaken was the essence of what you would think that a Swiss town in the Alps should look like. We had a reservation at the tallest hotel in the city, the Metropolitan. After unpacking and quickly settling into our rooms, we met in the lobby and took off to central Interlaken looking for an acceptable eating establishment. A few blocks from the hotel, we found a nice looking restaurant and stopped for a nice German lunch.

Dinner was at the "Top of the Met" on the 18th floor of our hotel. It offered still another spectacular view of the park across the street from the hotel. It was a veritable cornucopia of visual delight to accompany us during a very enjoyable dinner. Plus, we had the pleasure of watching the sunset over the mountains during our dinner. After eating, we all headed back to the streets of Interlaken for a last look around and being a "certified" tourist town, most of the shops were still open for business (that is the business of separating the tourist from their money, in a very nice way of course).

Day Eleven - Interlaken to Stuttgart (Tuesday, 04/22/03)

We started the morning with a little Swiss pastry and coffee in an elegant pastry/candy shop across the street from the hotel. It was one of those places that were not bashful about how much they charged and how little they gave you. It was expensive, but it was pretty good. We checked out of the hotel, loaded all of our stuff into the mini-mini van and headed to Tubingen, Germany. While it is always nice to take a nap while driving, the scenery was so spectacular that I did not want to miss a minute of the experience. Plus it was totally entertaining to watch Dan look at the map on his computer and give Pati driving instructions. This entertaining dialogue was present from the day we left Geneva to the day we dropped off the car in Stuttgart and caught the train to Venice.

Vaduz, Lichtenstein

We drove for several hours until we reached the town Vaduz, Lichtenstein. Vaduz is the capital of Lichtenstein. It is a very small country about 2-3 square miles. Tourism is probably its major industry. We stopped and spent about an hour, looking around shopping, stretching our legs and then we were back on the road headed to Tubingen, Germany. Earlier, Pati had announced she was tired of driving and was looking for a volunteer to do some of the driving. I was glad to grab the wheel and experience the autobahn first hand (all be it in a four cylinder diesel mini-van). I got the unique experience of being able to drive from Lichtenstein to Switzerland to Austria to Germany; all in about one hour. It was very cool! I have experienced this rapid boarder transition with states, but never countries.

The drive to Tubingen, Germany was as beautiful as I expected. We drove from Switzerland through Lichtenstein and Austria to Germany. It was a combination of valleys, mountains and rolling plains. Every site was an eye-full of different scenery, new experiences and memories. The bad news was during the drive we experienced the worst weather on our trip. It was very rainy. The good news was we could see it all from the interior of a dry car. We were not in the weather, but got to watch it.

The Autobahn was a real treat to drive. It was not much different than our freeways with two main exceptions. (1) In certain "posted sections" of the autobahn, there was no speed limit. You can go as fast as you feel safe driving. (2) You always drive in the right hand lane, except when you pass, or when there is traffic in a stop and go traffic jam. While it would have been substantially more fun to be driving a Porsche and not a mini-mini-van, it was enjoyable to drive at a speed you were comfortable with and not have to worry about a speed limit or a radar trap.

Tubingen

By the time we got to Tubingen we were all pretty hungry and stopping at the apartment would have added about 30-45 minutes to our wait for dinner. As mentioned above Tubingen is like many European cities. It had a city center that was hundreds of years old and a more modern city that surrounded narrow winding cobblestone streets. We parked at an underground garage on the edge of the old city and walked a few blocks through the old cobblestone streets of Tubingen to the Ratskeelar restaurant and sat down for dinner. The Ratskeelar was in a cave-like setting. It was probably used as a bomb shelter during World War II. It was a little smokey, but acceptable. The meal I had was quite exceptional. Easily the best I had during my stay in Germany. Like I mentioned above, there was no pressure to finish fast. It was the evening event, not just a meal.

A fifteen minute drive from the Ratskeelar and we arrived at the apartment that Dan and Pati had rented at the university. We parked, grabbed our baggage and headed down 2-3 flights of stairs to their apartment.

Dan and Pati's apartment was very German in decorations and architecture. It was a nice clean, what I call, an efficiency apartment. There was no carpet, big solid doors, good hardware throughout, small kitchen with a pass-through to the table in the living/dining room, tile up the walls in the bathroom and one bedroom. I considered it to be a very nice, modern German apartment. I heard that the area flooded recently and the entire lower floor had to be refurbished. This explained its new, clean modern appearance. Dan and Pati had a couple inflatable mattresses for Dad and me to sleep on in the living room. It wasn't the Ritz, but it was quite acceptable and very generous of Dan and Pati to offer us a place to sleep. Day Eleven is over.

Day Twelve - Stuttgart (Wednesday, 04/23/03)

Stuttgart

I rolled out of bed and on to the floor to start the day. I forgot I was on an inflatable mattress on the floor in Dan and Pati's apartment in Tubingen. We all sat down for breakfast together and planned the day's events. A main stable for "all breakfasts" in Europe were fresh croissants Pati made sure that we carried on the tradition. (I like that tradition a lot.) Pati decided to give herself some time away from the three of us and not go to Stuttgart.

Dan, Dad and I had three tasks to accomplish for the day. Find the train station and buy tickets to Venice, go to the Porsche museum and go to the Mercedes Benz museum. Since I was doing the driving, I reviewed the map and directions with Pati before we left the apartment. As I regale the next event, keep in mind two facts. One, the drive to Stuttgart from Tubingen is about 25 kilometers and should only take 20-30 minutes (even in rush hour traffic). Two, a train station in a European city is typically in the center of the city and is a very large building. That being said, we headed out on our adventure to Stuttgart. Dan had a map program (which one of his kids gave him) for his MAC laptop. The problem with trying to do some real time navigation with a laptop is that by the time the program does the database search, for the intersection you just went through, you are about a block past, and you need to do a new search. So, as I told Dan the cross street, he would ask how to spell it, enter it in the computer and wait for the results. By the time I got information on driving instructions, we were past my reference point and had to start all over. Typically Dan could find the street we were on, but we were usually going in the wrong direction. We did a lot of u-turns and a lot of back tracking. After about 1-1/2 to 2 hours of traveling (remember that it should have taken just 30 minutes) all around the train station, I finally pulled into a gas station to fill up and get directions. I asked Dan to get directions from the attendant, because his German is better that my non-existent German language skills, and he came back with a new 188 page city map. It was really no help since we didn't know where we were and we couldn't figure out where to go. I went back to the attendant and pointed in a direction that I thought that the train station was. He corrected my direction by about 30° to the North. Once I had a direction to the train station, we found it about 5-10 minutes later.

At the train station we found out where to drop off Dan's rental car (which we did as we headed off to Venice). We bought our tickets to Venice and grabbed a bite to eat in a local café in the train station. I was concerned about the train tickets because we had to make a transfer in Munich and we only had six minutes between arrival and departure. The ticketing agent assured me that it would be no problem because we would arrive on the other side of the same platform as the departing train.

We left the train station with the knowledge that the Porsche museum was about a 15-20 minutes drive. We found it in about 25 minutes. The Porsche museum was adjacent to one of the Porsche factories and it was free (which is always a good price). It was located in an industrial area of Stuttgart and was somewhat difficult to find. This time the computer map actually helped. The museum itself was filled with cars and signs describing the cars and their individual successes (a bit disappointing because of its small and non-spectacular size). Although even a small Porsche museum is a good museum, after all they are Porsches.

The museum had a spectacular cut-away engine, transmission and a beautiful four wheel drive cut-away car. We spent about 45-60 minutes looking around and eventually ended up at the obligatory gift shop that seems to accompany every museum in the world. Through some research I did, in preparation for this trip, I discovered that you can get a tour of the factory, but you needed to make arrangements in the States before you got to Stuttgart. I would highly recommend making the effort to take the tour. The museum was good, but not great. I was hoping to see a lot more of Porsche and the cars that contributed to the rich Porsche automotive history.

We jumped into our Audi mini-mini van and looked up the Mercedes museum location on Dan's computer map. We had reasonable success finding the Mercedes museum. At the museum, you park in one parking lot and catch a shuttle (in a very nice Mercedes bus of course) to the museum which is inside the factory grounds. The museum is a very large, three-story building. It is also free like the Porsche museum. When you walk in you can borrow (at no charge) an audio tour guide in several different languages to guide you through the museum. Although I did not use the audio tour guide at the Mercedes museum, I found them to be very good and it added to the overall experience.

When we arrived at the museum we realized that we only had an hour or so to see this three story museum full of automotive history. The Mercedes museum could easily consume several hours to do it justice. They had some of the first cars ever made by Mercedes Benz. There were racing cars, concept cars, one of a kind cars and historically significant cars. I was amazed that all of the displays, both car and aircraft, were in immaculate condition and feast for the eyes of any car lover. There were even some aircraft engines and airplane parts that were on display on a wall at the museum. Unfortunately the museum closed much too soon, so our visit was more of a quick walk through rather than a leisurely opportunity to fully appreciate the automotive artwork of Mercedes.

We took the Mercedes bus back to the visitor center. As we were walking back to the van we got to see (up close) a SMART car. A SMART car is a little (very little) two seat car that we had seen several places in Europe. As I understand, the SMART car is made by the SMART car company and is not a subsidiary of a larger automotive corporation.

Well, we accomplished our three goals for the day, so it was back onto the streets and freeways of Stuttgart heading back to Dan and Pati's apartment in Tubingen. I guess I should really identify getting back to Dan and Pati's apartment as a goal. After all, Dan got out the laptop and computer map. We experienced the same inexplicable phenomenon as we did when we drove into Stuttgart. We were usually on the right autobahn, but going the wrong way. It took us a few kilometers to figure out that we didn't want to go to Ludwigsburg and then another few kilometers to get off the autobahn and turn around and get back onto the autobahn heading toward Tubingen. By this time, we were right in the middle of the Stuttgart rush hour, so we had to drive from the North-East corner through downtown heading South-West to Tubingen. This was another experience to add to my memorable European vacation.

Once we returned to Dan and Pati's apartment, Pati, who had been without a car all day, had to run some errands at the local Wal-Mart. I generally don't like going into a Wal-Mart no matter where in the world it is, but I thought I would take the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Pati. After all, it has been years since I have been able to just talk to my sister-in-law alone. The Wal-Mart was just like all the other Wal-Marts that I have been in except they used a different currency and spoke a different language (German) than I am used too.

We spent the rest of the evening (including dinner at Dan and Pati's apartment) "vegging". Day Twelve was over.

Day Thirteen - Tubingen (Thursday, 04/24/03)

Tubingen

Once again, we all sat down for breakfast together at Dan and Pati's apartment to plan the day's events. Dan had to stay at the apartment and wait for the DSL guy to help him set up his DSL line so that he could readily communicate with his family, friends and supporters in the states. The process for obtaining an ISP with DSL in Germany takes about a month. German bureaucracy is precise and methodical, so a quick response is not an option. Pati, Dad and I took off to Tubingen to tour the old part of the city. Like most of the cities we have visited, Tubingen had an "old city" section with narrow cobblestone winding streets lined with 3-4 story buildings that eventually ended up in the old city court. The courtyard had a beautiful fountain in the middle and was adjacent to the city hall. The city hall exterior looked very medieval, but when we went inside, it had been renovated to a very modern décor. Most of the little shops in the old city fell into three different categories: candy shop, bakery or souvenir type stuff shop. We walked around discovering new places and visited the places that Pati new about. Eventually we headed back to Dan and Pati's apartment to see if Dan was successful in his quest for a DSL Internet connection. Nope.

Day Fourteen started a little earlier than we were used to. We had to get up at 6:00 AM to take a shower (all four of us) eat breakfast, pack and drive to the Tubingen train station to catch our 9:12 AM train to Venice, connecting in Munich.

We decided to forgo breakfast at Dan and Pati's and, if we had time, grab a bite at the train station before we caught the train. The drive from Tubingen to the Stuttgart train station only took about 30 minutes as opposed to our 90 minute adventure two days earlier. We dropped off Dad, Pati and the luggage at the entrance of the train station Dan and I found the rental car return, returned the car and walked back to the train station to meet up with Dad and Pati. They had carried all our luggage into the train station and were waiting for us in the main terminal. We made good time from Tubingen so we had plenty of time for a relaxing breakfast of a croissant and coffee. I love that croissant for breakfast tradition.

On the train to Venice, we had the pleasure of sharing the six person compartment with a retired couple from Germany. The husband was a retired attorney who really didn't talk very much. The wife was very sociable and enhanced our trip with lots of historical information about the sights that we saw from the train. There were several castles and buildings that she pointed out that had a significant role in World War II. Their English was very easy to understand, although they thought that is was not very good. This couple liked to vacation in Venice on one of the outlying islands. They made the trip from Munich to Venice very enjoyable.

During the trip from Munich to Venice, Dad and I had lunch in the dining car. On the train from London to Paris there was no dining car, just a walk-up snack bar and tall tables that you could stand at to eat your lunch. In this train's "dinning" car you sat down, at a table, and were served. The meal was a very nice four course lunch and your wine glass was never empty (the best past). We started out with two different appetizers accompanied by a delightful Chianti, a salad, pretty good lasagna and finished with a light dessert. It took more than an hour to celebrate the noon meal, all while enjoying the ever changing view of the Italian Alps. It was nice to get out of the compartment and stretch our legs.

We finally arrived in Venice after about seven hours on this leg of the train trip. The train came to a stop within a minute or two of the scheduled arrival time of 6:35 PM (that is very typical for European trains). The train station in Venice was very crowded.

When we arrived the most important thing was to find a restroom. Fortunately we had quick success, but it did cost about 50 cents for the pleasure (now I can focus again).

Now we have the task of finding our hotel. We looked at Dan's computer map and saw that our hotel was about one kilometer from the train station and over near the parking garage. In London, Paris and Geneva, Dad and I always just grabbed a taxi and took a ride to the hotel.

In Venice, the public transportation is via water taxi or water bus (much less flexible). I looked around the train station and found the "Hotel Information" office. I figured that this would be my best bet for finding the Boscolo Hotel Bellini. I went into the office and asked for directions to the Boscolo Hotel Bellini. The attendants English was very good and he instructed us to go out the front door of the train station, turn left and go down the main street about 100 meters.

The main street was very crowded and the signs giving directions weren't all that great. We had our luggage and bags in tow, turned left and walked down about 100 meters then stopped to get our bearings. As we were trying to find our hotel, there was a door behind me that continued to automatically open and close. It was kind of annoying since I was trying to concentrate on finding the Boscolo Hotel Bellini. The sign for the hotel was above the door and I couldn't see it easily. Finally the automatic door open again and I saw the hotel name "Boscolo Hotel Bellini" on marble floor entrance. We were there! The Boscolo Hotel Bellini was surprisingly elegant and very very nice. The ceilings in the lobby were about 12 feet high and they where beautifully painted with crown molding and adorned with incredible hand-blown glass chandeliers, marble floors and tapestries on the walls. It was an eye full!!!

On our first full day in Venice the weather looked good and it was time to start a new adventure in a new country. We seemed to visit major cities during some sort of event happening. In London it was the London Marathon. In Paris it was Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. In Geneva it was Easter Sunday and in Venice it turned out that we arrived on Gondola day.

We started the morning by meeting for breakfast in a very elegant dinning room just off the main lobby of the hotel. As I mentioned before, in Europe (in most cases) breakfast is part of the room rate. Some are better than others, and this breakfast was the best of the trip. Of course there were excellent croissants and the coffee was very strong and very rich. Being a Starbucks fan, the coffee caught my taste bugs as exceptional. Dad and I arrived in the dining room first and Pati joined us a few minutes later. Dan had circum to his cold and would spend the day in bed. After we finished our breakfast, we were walking through the lobby and the concierge caught me and told be about a water taxi that was leaving for the island of Murano where we could take a tour of the CAM vetri d'arte (vetri d'arte means "artistic glass") factory. The three of us had a quick consultation with one another and decided that this looked pretty good and we should grab this rare opportunity.

I discovered that all Venetians are salesman and probably get a cut "under the table" for every transaction that they participate in. Once we decided to take the water taxi to the island of Murano, the concierge made a quick call and there was a guide in the lobby to rush us down to the boat. The cost for this special treatment, the water taxi and the tour of the CAM vetri d'arte, was €10 each. I say that every Venetian is a salesman because we could have taken the water bus to this island for about €3.50 each, plus the tour was free. We still had to pay €3.50 each to take a water bus back to the hotel. Every Venetian is a salesman!

The water taxis were beautiful mahogany boats that were meticulously cared for and had the famous high-gloss shine on all of the bright work. The boats were works of art. After about a 10 minute boat ride in this beautiful mahogany water taxi, we arrived at the island of Murano and the CAM vetri d'arte factory.

The St. Marco Plaza is one of the major tourist attractions in Venice and the crowds proved that to be very true. Our first stop was at the Dogi Palace.

The Dogi Palace was the home of the ruler of Venice during his reign. One of the interesting elements of the Dogi Palace is every new Dogi was allowed to build on his own new wing of the palace. At some point, the palace grounds ran out of room and it was legislated that the new Dogi could not build any more palace additions without paying a fine. While this discouraged some of the Dogis, there were still some that paid the fine and built what they wanted. The Dogi Palace had a beautiful enclosed courtyard surrounded by the different rooms of the palace. The interesting thing about the courtyard was it had quite an advanced water run-off system. There were drains and cisterns in the courtyard and under the courtyard. This allowed for some interesting art work that looked like planters and/or statues in the courtyard.

They never lost an opportunity to express themselves in art. The walkways around the courtyard, the rooms, the halls, the ceiling, the stairs, everything was beautiful and ornate. The ceilings were magnificent and caused you to spend significant neck bending time absorbing the great art work the artist was trying to convey. Most of the art work throughout Europe was dedicated to the portrayal of religious events, historical events, military events or portraits. Unlike many of the palaces we saw on this trip, the Dogi Place had several very large rooms used for meetings.

It seemed the Venetians, because of their far reaching influence on trade, were very organized and operated several different groups to govern their trade and their military efforts. The meeting halls were huge and very ornate; paintings, sculpture, wood floors and gold embossed moldings covered every inch of the halls. As with the Palace at Versailles, the fireplaces were a piece of art in themselves and were so large they could be used as a small closet in today's living environment.

The St. Marco Plaza was also the location of the St. Marco Cathedral. The St. Marco Cathedral is connected to the Dogi Palace, which made it convenient for the Dogi to worship and run his empire with the church's backing. The St. Marco Cathedral had the gorgeous tall columns, the cross configured layout and the ornate sculptures that made up the walls. The most incredible site was the mosaic ceilings. Although the ceilings were about 40 feet high, it was still very clear they were depicting Biblical scenes and were meant to tell a story. I think one of the reasons there were so many visual depictions of Biblical stories throughout Europe was because of the high rate of illiteracy in past centuries. In order for the church to get the message of the Bible to most of the people, there had to be artwork that told the story.

The mosaics were spectacular and brilliant with their use of colors and specifically gold plated mosaic tiles. The mosaics in St. Marco Cathedral were particularly beautiful. I believe, because of the use of the gold plated tiles and the use of glass mosaic tiles instead of ceramic mosaic tiles. It seemed to give them a more brilliant depth to the mosaics than others I seen. The ceilings of the entire cathedral were covered with mosaics and from about 40 feet away, it looked like a very detailed painting. The columns, mosaics, sculptures, paintings and alcoves used for worship were the most impressive I have seen in all of the cathedrals I visited in Europe I think it was the ceiling mosaics that set this cathedral apart from the rest.

We walked around St. Marco Plaza looking in a few of the shops and caught the next water bus back to the hotel. Dinner that night was focused on finding a good place for lasagna. I have mentioned that all Venetians are salesmen by DNA makeup. As we did the night before, we asked the hotel concierge (a different concierge than last night) if he could recommend a good restaurant for lasagna, and he recommended the same place, Al Vecio Goudena. It was the same restaurant, different concierge and the same routine. He pondered for a minute and volunteered to make our reservations. We chose not to eat there, but take our chances out on the street. We found a restaurant on the Grand Canal that claimed to have the best lasagna in Venice. We chose it so we could eat outside and enjoy the open air along side the canal and the light breeze would help keep the smoke away. It was a little too cold for Dan (who was just getting over a cold).

The lasagna was excellent and with a salad and some tiramisu, the evening dinner was quite a success. While the tiramisu was pretty good, it was not nearly as good as Jamie's. On a trip a few years ago to Italy, Dad had been introduced to an Italian after-dinner drink called Grapa. Dad insisted that Dan and I have a taste of the "Grapa experience", so we did. Grapa is very strong clear after-dinner liquor and the waiter was shocked when we ordered two Grapas. When the Grapa was served, we took a quick look and had a sip. Grapa is like a cross between turpentine and bad vodka. Dan and I both finished the Grapa with a smile on our faces. We couldn't let Dad down or let anyone think that we were not "real" men. After dinner we took a walk to the courtyard I mentioned earlier and enjoyed the night air and the Venetian atmosphere. Day Fifteen was over.

Our last full day in Europe and our last day in Venice started the morning, once again, by meeting for breakfast in the hotel's very elegant dinning room just off the main lobby. This breakfast continued to be the best of all of the breakfasts we had in Europe. The croissants were excellent and the coffee was very strong and rich. Dan joined us this morning because he was feeling a little better. We were also greeted with enough rain to make up prepare for a "rainy" day in Venice. It turns out it was just a morning rain (just enough to wash off the city streets) so we didn't really need to alter our plans; just carry an extra jacket around or umbrella while we toured.

Gallerie d. Accademia

In Italy there are hundreds, if not thousands, of museums. Many of them are called Accademia (which I think means museum, but I am really not sure). There is a famous Gallerie d. Accademia in Venice that is known for its paintings. We finished breakfast, geared up for a rainy day and headed for the water buses. The water bus trip to the Gallerie d. Accademia was only 10-15 minutes and six to eight stops from our hotel water bus dock. The Gallerie d. Accademia was mostly paintings with a few sculptures. Although the building was very old, the décor of the interior of the Gallerie d. Accademia was very open, clean and modern. In many of the museums we visited they had pre-recorded cassettes or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) to use for touring the museum. In the Gallerie d. Accademia they had printed cards with different languages on them. This allowed us to tour the museum in the order and pace that was the most comfortable. Most of the rooms had painting from a specific artist and/or a specific period. While reading the information on each of the paintings was indeed fascinating, Dad and I had just about hit out saturation point for absorbing artwork in Europe. I tried to just look at the painting and "feel" what the artist was trying to portray. The one room that stood out was the room with sculptures in the four corners of the ceiling. It was like having very ornate plaster crown molding that actually told a story. They were very impressive sculptures, but I think I was more fascinated with how the sculptures were an integral part of some building and were removed intact. How did they get them down without destroying the sculptures?

Dan and Pati decided to look around a little more so Dad and I headed back to our home base at the hotel. We walked around a little, did some shopping and met Dan and Pati back at the hotel after an hour or two.

Arranging Transportation to the Marco Polo International Airport

In London, Paris and Stuttgart we would spend the last afternoon making sure we knew how to get to our next destination. In Venice all we had to do is figure out to get to the Marco Polo International Airport from the hotel. In the past I have asked the hotel concierge and was successful. So, I asked our hotel concierge, remembering that all Venetians are salesmen and probably get a kick-back. He recommended we take the water taxi from the hotel to the airport. It would be a nice 30-45 minute and cost about €75.00 for both of us. Well, Dad and I decided to see if there were alternatives that might take more time, but be easier on the wallet. We took a 10-15 minute walk from our hotel over to the parking garage and transportation center to check out our options. The parking garage and transportation center is the only place that vehicles can be on in Venice. You have to drive your car to Venice, park your car and then walk or take some sort of water transportation to your destination. The first thing we to notice was a line of taxis waiting to take you wherever you wanted to go. So we asked one of them "How much and how long to the airport?". It was about 25-30 minutes, but it would only cost €25.00-€30.00 for both of us, about a third the price of a water taxi….cool. Then we noticed that the transportation center was also a bus terminal, so we found the ticket booth and queried about the time and cost to go to the airport. The buses left for the airport about every 30 minutes, starting at 6:00AM. It took between 25-30 minutes and the price was €1.00 each. With a few questions and a little research, we cut the cost of a ride to the airport from €75.00 to €2.00. Unfortunately, our hotel concierge would not get his cut. Like the water buses, paying for a ticket is pretty much done on the honor system. We bought our bus tickets, but they were never collected, asked for or checked. We just got onto the bus the next morning and got dropped off at the airport.

We reconnected with Dan and Pati that afternoon. While Dad and Dan headed back to the hotel, Pati and I decided to do a little more last minute exploring and shopping. We basically stayed close to the hotel and explored the veritable cornucopia of shops and street merchants that were within a 20 minute walking distance.

The shops around the hotel were basically restaurants, shops that sold glass products, shoes and festival masks. Venetian masks have a history that goes back hundreds of years. They would have huge costume parties where everyone wore elaborate masks. In some cases the mask would hide the identity of the partner with whom you spent the night. Nevertheless, Venice is known for its festive masks, its glass, and its shoes. As I mentioned before, Venetian glass is closer to artwork than it is to being a functional kitchen implement. I had been looking for platter that would serve as both art work and a serving dish (it had to be a somewhat reasonable price). I had seen platters that were several hundred Euros, although they were absolutely beautiful, I just didn't want to spend that kind of money for a platter that I was not sure Carol would like (always a risk when you are shopping without your spouse). I finally found a platter that I thought would fit my three criteria; beauty, function and cost. I found a platter, had it carefully wrapped up for the trip home and went back to shopping with Pati. Eventually we finished our shopping and headed back to the hotel.

One of the things that Dad and I had talked about during the planning of this trip was luggage and making sure that we had enough so that we could bring back some goodies. A simple solution was to take luggage that worked for our individual needs and if we needed more space, pick up an extra duffle bag in transit. Well, we did fine; until we got to Venice. Maybe it was because I spent "quality shopping time" with Pati. Maybe it was because this was the last stop on our European saga. Whatever the reason, I seemed to buy more items in Venice than anywhere else. That afternoon, Dad and I took a look at what we had to pack and decided that a duffle bag was in order. Less than 100 yards from our hotel was a little shop that specialized in luggage. We walked down and found the appropriate sized soft sided duffle bag for about €15. We decided to use the duffle bag for some of our dirty cloths. At that point in the trip, virtually all of our clothes were dirty, so the duffle bag would only hold some of them. This allowed us to free up the move valuable "hard sided" luggage for items that needed the protection. The packing plan was in place.

Last night in Venice

Tonight was our last night in Venice. So we started off with a walk through and later stopped for dinner. The evening was a pleasant temperature and we had clear skies. We found a cafeteria style restaurant with the most unusual feature. There was a self-serve machine that resembled a soda fountain, but this soda fountain had three varieties of wine. Oh… there was also a soda fountain for soda pop too. You started the line by ordering your entrée (which was made fresh for you) and then you could pick a side dish that the cook served you. There were other side-dishes, breads, desserts and drinks that you picked up in a free-for-all cafeteria atmosphere just before you went to the cashier to pay your money and start to eat. The cost was reasonable, at least reasonable in terms of our overall European dining experience. The food was pretty good; not great, but pretty good. The wine danced on your palette like the dance recital of a third grade tap dancing class; very young, somewhat entertaining and worth the effort to partake.

We took our last stroll on the streets of Venice and headed back to the hotel with the personal realization that this incredible adventure was over. While I wanted to stay longer and explore more of Venice (especially the back streets in the different sections of Venice), I was also tired of living out of a suitcase and hotel room and taking a chance every time you sat down for a meal. I guess that is how you define a great vacation. You don't want to leave, but you want to get home. Dad and I said our good-byes to Dan and Patti that evening because we were going to leave about 7:30ish to catch a bus to the airport. Dan and Patti where leaving later to catch a train to Florence (I think). It was really great to see Dan and Patti, especially for the extended time (about a week) that we had together. Dan is doing tremendous work in his studies of Greek New Testament manuscripts, while Pati makes sure that the rest of his life is in tact (in spite of himself). It is probably the longest time that Dan and I have spent together since before I graduated from high school in 1969. I believe that all four of us created some life-time memories.

Dad and I spent the rest of the evening packing while Dan provided an extremely valuable service of taking all of his pictures and all of my pictures and copied them to a CD for both of us to organize and view later. Day Sixteen is over.

Day Seventeen - Venice to Seattle (Monday, 04/28/03)

Today we start our trip back home to Seattle. Our journey home started with a 10-15 minute walk through the streets and canals of Venice from our hotel to the bus station. The information about the bus destinations were pretty straight forward and reasonable to understand; as long as you did a little homework (like knowing the name of the Venice airport, Marco Polo International Airport). We climbed on the bus for the airport about 5-10 minutes before it left the terminal, stowed our luggage and sat down for the for the 30 minute trip to the airport. As I mentioned before, no one seems to care if you have a ticket or not. They did not take our ticket or even check to see if we had ticket. It was a nice bus, relatively clean and with three or four stops before we were dropped off at the departure terminal of the Marco Polo International Airport.

Being rather "safe than sorry" we had arrived at the airport about 30-45 minutes before they would allow us to check in. With our luggage in tow, we found the airport café and stopped for a little breakfast and coffee. Dad wanted tea and I thought I would have a latte. While Dad found a table and watched the luggage, I ordered tea for Dad and ordered a latte and a couple breakfast rolls. In Italy "latte" means hot milk. It does not mean a shot of espresso coffee in hot milk (which would be a cafe latte). The waiter looked at me strangely, but nodded his head and started to fill the order. A few minutes later, I was served two rolls, hot tea and a hot glass of milk. Instantly I recognized that it was my mistake, and to save face, I smiled, rubbed my stomach, to indicate that the latte was for an upset stomach, took the order and went over and sat down with Dad. It was a fitting end (me, making a completely tourist mistake) to a great visit to Europe.

The check-in opened up and we checked our luggage with a little concern. Keep in mind that we are going to fly from Venice to Paris to Chicago to Salt Lake City to Seattle. The ticketing agent said that she would check our luggage all the way to Salt Lake City (even though we would have to go through customs in Chicago), which left us very confused. We were both suspicious of the process, but the ticketing agent was very sure of her information and did not yield in her conviction. Stay tuned.

The flight from Venice to Paris was pleasant and uneventful. In Paris, we had about 90 minutes to get from one terminal to the next terminal and check in…all in French. No real problem. We had to walk a lot, but I figured that any walking we could do would be good. We have a total of 16-1/2 hours on planes today.

We found the gate, checked in and then Dad figured that we didn't need anymore Euros, so we cashed in what we had for good old US green backs. After 2-1/2 weeks on the road, it was kind of strange looking. Since we had some time to kill, we found the Business Class lounge. The Business Class lounge was very crowded and it took about 10 minutes to find a place to sit down (all be it, in two different areas of the lounge). By the time we had gotten something to drink and found a place to sit, we only had about 10-15 minutes until we had to head to the gate for boarding. When we got to the gate, we had to stand around for about 15 minutes before we could shuffle down a flight of stairs to a waiting bus. They packed us into the bus like sardines and drove us across the tarmac to a waiting Airbus A330. The bus was not air-conditioned and they kept us in the buses until the plane was ready to receive its passengers (about 3-5 minutes). It seemed like 30! Finally, we took off for Chicago. Next stop the United States.

The flight had good food, good wine, good champagne, and individual video screens that you could watch one of about five different movies during the flight. They just kept playing the movies over and over again on different channels. The seats were as comfortable as aircraft seats could be for a nine hour flight. I hate to say this, but the fit and finish on the Airbus A330 was better that most Boeing aircraft I have flown. We arrived in Chicago and were herded down to a baggage claim area where we were supposed to grab our bags and go though customs. As noted above, our bags were (in theory) checked all the way to Salt Lake City. It came as no surprise that our bags never came down the ramp in the baggage claim area. We checked with a few of the Customs folks, and explained the situation to a Customs official, gave him our import declarations forms from our trip and he passed us through customs with virtually no questions or inspection of our carry-on luggage. We had almost three hours until our next flight, so we did have enough time to find the Business Class lounge and relax for a while.

The flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City was so uneventful that I can't remember anything about it. Things got interesting when we arrived in Salt Lake City. The layover in Salt Lake City was only 60 minutes. In that time, we were theoretically suppose to disembark from the plane, claim our luggage, and check it back in to the flight to Seattle. The limited amount of time to accomplish these tasks was an aggressive schedule, but was "doable". There was only one problem…no luggage. That's right… our luggage didn't arrive in Salt Lake City. We waited and waited in the luggage claim area and finally talked to a "lost luggage" person. We were told that we would have to put in a claim with the "lost luggage" person at our final destination. We stopped for a moment in baggage claim to listen to a choir (they were just getting back from a trip) sing a few songs. They were quite good, as I remember. Then it was back through the security check and to our gate. Once we arrived at our gate we were informed that our flight would be delayed for mechanical problems. I thought that since Carol was scheduled to pick us up, I would give her a call and let her know to keep checking the flight information on the Internet to see when our flight would actually arrive. After several more delays, they finally allowed us to board the plane, and get ready for the final leg of our journey. While in the plane, they announced a few more delays, and finally said that the plane just wasn't going anywhere tonight and they had another plane to take us to Seattle. I decided that it was time for another call to Carol to let here know of our predicament (which directly affected her sleep schedule). Finally, we boarded the replacement plane and headed for Seattle. Instead of arriving in Seattle at 11:29 PM, we actually disembarked from the plane at about 1:15 AM. I instantly gave Carol a call to come get us. We headed for the baggage claim area, hoping against hope, that a miracle happened and our luggage would appear on the baggage carousel. No luck! Our luggage was officially lost. In retrospect, it was the only problem we had in all of our travels for the seventeen days…not bad. We dutifully submitted a lost baggage report and two days later our luggage was delivered to my house in fine shape without any customs hassles and without any of the contents damaged or broken. Carol picked us up about 1:45 AM. I drove Dad home and headed to our home. Carol went back to sleep in the back seat of the car. Day Seventeen is over and the entire "Great Father-Son Adventure" was over.

The most incredible trip to Europe was over. What I have left was some souvenirs, currency from the different countries, maps, ticket stubs from the different events we enjoyed, memories of the trip, and the great time that I had with my Dad. Without a doubt, the most memorable thing was the great one-on-one time I had with Dad, Dan and Pati (but especially with Dad). I was able to have two weeks worth of great conversations with these three about their life, their kids, their memories and our family.

There is no way that I will ever be able to pay back Dad for his generosity on this trip. His willingness to see things he had seen before, just so I could see them, his sharing of his memories of past trips, the history of the different sites and most importantly his time with me. While I will never forget this incredible trip (I will be grateful for the rest of my life), I think I realized that Dad doesn't want to be "paid back" for this experience. I think I can honor him the most by "paying it forward" with my relationship with my own kids. I also learned you never stop being a Father and caring for your kids. It is a life-long job. Dad taught me this job can either be a task, that just must get done, or your passion for living. Although I am sure that I gave Dad plenty of reasons to consider this a task (I was really pain growing up), I now see that having a good relationship with his family is his true passion.

Dad, thank you very much for everything about this trip. I will never forget this:

Great Father-Son Adventure