Paris to Normandy

A week ago I returned from another wonderful trip with Grand Circle Travel. This was a riverboat trip from Paris to Normandy. That is the way to travel! We were taken from the plane to the boat and stayed on the boat until the last night we spent in a hotel by the airport. Of course, cruises are all they are cracked up to be! River boats have the added advantage of beautiful scenery. These pictures are only a fraction of what we saw. Above is the Arc de Triumphe from Champs Elysees.

One evening we had dinner cruising through Paris so were able to see the Eiffel Tower light up. What a spectacular sight! I travel with my college friend, Maureen so here we are at the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame. (One view of 5 I took.)

The Mona Lisa at the Louvre. That is as close as I wanted to get with all the people. Flowers and trees were in bloom everywhere we went.

The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

The Gardens at Versailles

Above is a picture of a Van Gogh painting and below is the church he painted. We had a tour of the town of Auvers-sur-Oise learning about Van Gogh, his life and paintings as he lived there the last months of his life.

These are a few pictures of Giverny, Monet's home and gardens.

Our boat, the Bizet, docked at Les Andelys.

Vernon

Les Andelys

"Monet's" Cathedral in Rouen

Honflour

The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.This was a very moving place. When we arrived, we had a program-facing the statue,"The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves", the Star Spangled Banner was played. We then turned toward the cemetery and they played "Taps" followed by a minute of silence. Lots of tears and sniffles could be heard. Each of us was then given a rose to place on a grave. This was very meaningful as it is a part of history I can vaguely remember.

November to Remember Mystery Trip

A week or so ago, my Travel Friend and I went on a 4 day Mystery Tour with R and J Tours. What a fun trip we had although the first and last day were on the bus getting there and coming home. We stayed in St Joseph, Missouri all 3 nights and spent 2 days-all day-visiting very interesting sites. Above is the C. W. Parker Carousel Museum in Leavenworth, Kansas where we learned the history and makers of carousels and even rode on this one.
The second day we spent time in Leavenworth.

Our first day was spent in St. Joseph, Missouri. Such a historical, interesting and unknown city. The above monument is of the Pony Express Riders which started in St. Jo on the route to Sacramento, CA. Visited the Pony Express Museum and also the Patee House

Museum.

Had an excellent lunch in this National Register Historic site from 1869, recently restored Gothic Revival House.


Visited the Jesse James home where he was killed.

Toured the Tobiason Studio and saw stained glass windows made and we each made a stained glass angel decoration. Here she is making lamp glass beads, but had none for sale-I would have bought at least one.

Buffalo Soldier monument in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the oldest continuously active Fort west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Frontier Army Museum was very interesting. Luckily we were on a tight schedule so all the visits in the museums were short, enough to see the highlights and psych us up to come again. (I can only take so much of a museum.)

Fred Harvey, who started the Harvey Restaurants along the Santa Fe Railroad and hired Harvey Girl waitresses had a home in Leavenworth. We toured the home which is in the beginning stages of reconstruction which was interesting. Will be fun to see how it looks when it is finished. These Harvey Girls served our lunch.


This VA chapel is in the Guinness World Record Book because it is actually 2 churches. The top level is a Protestant Church and the Catholic Church is in the lower level. They are not connected from the inside. Both levels have beautiful stained glass windows.

These are only highlights of a fun, full 2 days.

Another Trip

My friend and I spent two weeks in Eastern Europe on a riverboat going into Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary. The trip was very interesting because such an important part of their history took place in my lifetime. It was interesting to hear about life under communism and how each country and the people adapted when the Iron Curtain came down. Much of the farm work is done by hand especially in Romania and donkey or horse carts were very common.

We saw river flooding from Bucharest to Budapest. In fact, the river was so high boats were not allowed to go into Budapest, so we were bused from the Hungarian border to Budapest and spent three night in a hotel instead of the boat. The transition went smoothly for us, but people at Grand Circle Travel must have really scurried to find hotel and meals for 160 people. This is part of the pedestrian walk in Budapest.

As on all cruised, food was elegant! Here is a sampling of an afternoon tea. There were two tables full of trays decorated with food sculpture and awfully good treats. It was a good thing we got off the boat nearly every day and walked enough to prevent a big weight gain.This is us in Transylvania. Beautiful countryside.

This woman was part of a folk art demonstration. I tried to figure out how she was carrying her yarn around her neck. She knit so fast it was hard to figure it out.

She was knitting in a market. Surprisingly she is knitting as in her booth she was selling girls' crocheted dresses. I did get into one yarn shop in Budapest, but there was not a lot there and nothing I couldn't get at home. Prices were not noted on the yarn and the workers didn't (or pretended not to) speak English. I did buy my husband a needlepoint canvas and there was also quilting fabric in this shop.

Here we are in the Black Sea.

Poppies and wild flowers were in bloom all through the countryside.

Bran Castle, home of Vlad the Impaler , the Romanian king who inspired the Dracula legend.

It's Been AWhile

Life has been busy! And I've been tired! My friend Maureen and I took a 5 day bus tour to Branson-the first time for both of us. We saw some great shows-my favorite was Andy Williams followed by Daniel O'Donnell. We also saw the Presleys, Steamboat Branson Belle, The Twelve Irish Tenors which were also good and Moe Bandy who wasn't.

After many of the performances, a performer will come on the tour buses to say hello to us. He is from the Presleys.

Maureen and I sit in every big chair we can find. This is the third one!

My daughter's ex's grandmother has written a children's book and my daughter has illustrated it. Here is one of her illustrations. The story is a true experience about a pet duck. Yes, it has a diaper on. The book should arrive this week, so it will be fun to see the finished product. (I am responsible for the mistake in the book.) My daughter put the story and illustrations together but her computer kept crashing, so she ended up doing it on our computer. Since she lives 40 miles from us, we did the final editing and downloading to the printer.

And I have been knitting! This is the sweater for my son although I actually frogged this piece and started over in a smaller size. I now have 4 of the large medallions done. The sleeve is OK, don't have to frog that. I tested my gauge on the sleeve before starting the sweater. At this point I wish he wasn't 6 feet tall. At least he is thin. There is supposed to be duplicate stitch patterning around the center medallion and in the red border-we'll see if that gets done!

I so want to knit some socks. It seems I've seen such nice patterns lately, maybe that's all I'll knit when Christmas knitting is done. The one break I did take from my Christmas knitting was to make the Pretty Thing Cowl I posted previously. NOW I CAN'T FIND IT!!! I've searched and searched and am hoping it will show up in some strange place. Is that a symptom of Alzheimer's? I also have a skein of cashmere yarn I can not find. But if you saw my yarn closet, that would be understandable.

Mount Horub, Wisconsin

The near by town of Mount Horub was also a fun town. It had some shops, but the main attraction is their main street, also known as "The Trollway" because of the carved wooden troll statues. According to Norwegian folklore, the trolls bring good luck. It also has a new yarn shop which had opened three days before we were there.

The Tourist

The Gardener

The Accordion Player

Sweet Swill and her pet pig.


Lunch stop at a little diner in Mauston, Wisconsin brought us our dinner rolls! Note the size compared to the crackers. My husband and I each had some for breakfast this morning and only ate about half of one.