As I suspected, after sleeping for three hours, I started waking up every hour. The alarm was set for 4:45, but when I looked at the time, and it was 4:40–just get up Britta. I was showered and dressed and ready to go by 5:15, but I waited until 5:20 to go down stairs. I asked reception where to get the shuttle, and it was parked in the circle out front. I went out to stand in the fresh air until the driver came, knowing I would be cooped up for many hours to come. I think I

Amy and I had most of the day today. She has no school on Wednesdays and I didn’t need to leave for Lyon until 3-3:30. I thought we had a plan to get breakfast and then checkout. Amy thought the opposite. Instead of being a smart person and leaving the car in the free garage, I got the car out so we could load our bags and then we had to find another place to park. We ended up back at Adelaide for breakfast. Their omelettes and ginger shots are sooo good. I tried a beet latt

An historic nor’easter was running up the east coast burying it in feet of snow. Delta offered me the option to rebook on a later flight for free. A chance to stay longer? Yes, I’ll take that over getting stranded somewhere potentially. Flights were already full for Wednesday, so that moved me to Thursday. The Hotel Regina was able to accommodate us even though they were fully booked Tuesday night. So I did not hurry out of bed, but Amy did have to get to class. After I got

Another ancient city that the Romans dominated for some time, Orange only became officially part of France in 1717! The name does not come from the fruit but rather from an evolution from a pre-Celtic name to the Latin Aurasio which is thought to be how it morphed to Orange. Aurasio was the name of the restaurant where we had dinner the night before, so history lives on. The main sites here are the Roman theater and a mini Arc de Triumph. Since it was Sunday all sites were c

I woke up hungry after my measly dinner and fortunately, Amy did too having recovered from the mussels episode. Our host Emmanuel, told us we could leave whenever we want because he did not have anyone coming in behind us. So, Amy did some research and found a place called Coffee Yox Yukon—not a name you would expect in a city that dates back to forever. The food was Americanized French; we both had egg burgers. I changed it up this morning and had a cortado instead of my us

Of course today dawned somewhat warmer and sunnier than yesterday when we were horseback riding!!! We were quite loathe to leave Brigitte’s. I kept th fire going on all night and smoke has a sweet smell. Brigitte gave me directions for a walk. When I turned left on the dyke, it said “intersite,” which I knew mean no access but she told me to go that way!! I decided if I was challenged inwould just say no français! I didnot see the black bulls, but I picked up some birds on

La Camargue is known for its wild horses, salt flats, and historic cities of Aigues-Mortes and Saintes Maries de le mer. Our AirBNb was smack dab in the middle of the Camargue, but as I mentioned last time, not near any kind of civilization—except horseback riding outfits. The day dawned partly cloud and slightly windy, but Brigitte assured. me it was not going to rain. We just had to go and few kilometers down the road to the stable. We had a brief stop for the shepherd to

Reluctantly, we packed our bags to leave Menerbes. This beautiful, quiet, tranquil place is so restful. But alas, we are off to Aix en Provence to see the market and try to find the house where I lived with a family for three weeks in 1993. We weren’t sure if Francois and Maria would have breakfast today because we were leaving or if it would be 9 am again because that is what we requested yesterday. So we had our bags by the gate unsure of whether to leave or go on the ope

I’ve been trying very hard to not have a lot of goals for every day, but if you know me, I have a hard time with that. However, the only thing I wanted to do today was to see the ochre cliffs near Roussillon. But the day started a bit off kilter. I got out of bed thinking I’d rekindle the fire and do yoga, take a walk and drop a blog before breakfast. Amy asked me what time It was and it was then I realized it was 8:50 and we were scheduled for breakfast with Maria and Franco

For years I have been wanting to return to a magical place in France called Fontain de Vaucluse. The water literally gushes up out of a mountain and to this day even after lots of studying, diving, etc., there are no for sure answers about this phenomenon. So this morning opération Vaucluse commenced. I was going to get pastries from Chez Wendy just down the street in homage to my cousin Wendy, but true to her high rating, Chez Wendy was wiped out by the time I got there. So

Since we knew just about everything was gonna be closed on Sunday, we did not get going quickly today. I made some coffee in the shared area and did some journaling and catching up on the Olympics. But then I wanted something to eat and some real coffee. The Jura was not putting out a strong café allongé. I did find one boulangerie that was open and I got some pain au raisin, Pain au chocolat and a pastry with apples. I saw one kind of hole in the wall restaurant open, and I

It’s time to head south to Provence but first, we must make a slight detour to the Chavaniac-Lafayette. When we lived in Delaware, Amy and I regularly attended historical lectures at the Hales-Byrnes House, which is where Lafayette celebrated his 21 birthday with George Washington as they planned for the Battle of the Brandywine. I’ve alway been curious about him Being so focused at such a young age and willing to spend his inheritance to help the ragtag colonies defeat the B

Today was all about an early start catching the 6:42 train at Alexanderplatz to Berlin airport. Bags checked and through security after they perused my bag of liquids, we went our separate ways in search of breakfast. I tired to get an acacia bowl but ended up with overnight oats and a cafe americano. Only to get to the gate and have a delay. During the delay, I researched further about the airport. Good lord what a mess. They started work in 2006 with a planned 2012 open dat

It was to be the biggest, grandest airport ever. And it could have been if it was ever completed. Even in its unfinished condition it shows the glimmers of what could have been. Despite never being completed it has been used for several different purposes. This would be Templehof airport on the outskirts of Berlin. The property has been used by the military going back to the Prussians and for very early aviation. Orville Wright did a demonstration here in 1909. In 1933, havi

Today was all about Sauchsenhausen, a former concentration facility. I don’t like to call them camps because that seems like part of the euphemism implying it was fun like summer camp. This place was exceedingly well done— tasteful and respectfully concerning a very difficult topic and period in time. The audio tour alone has four hours of content. Then there is all of the content in the buildings and exhibits. This was way more comprehensive than my trip to Dachau on 1993.

Today revolving around our noon appointment at the Reichstag for which we needed to arrive 30 minutes in advance. We tried a different coffee shop where the coffee was better than yesterday, but the food was not. Due to lollygagging around, we left their immediately for the train station and found the long line and waited. Once inside, there was more waiting before our guide arrived. At two minutes after noon, he started even though more people were scheduled for the tour. I

We started the day late with coffee and salmon bagels. The cafe had a life size cutout of David Hasslehoff. In 1989, after the wall had come down but before reunification, he sang a song “Looking for. Freedom, at a performance near the Brandenburg Gate that became the theme song for east Germany. Of course, we had a photo opportunity with him! Then we started ambling in the direction of the Bradenburg Gate where we were to meet our guide for a walking tour focused on WWII

On this Sunday we are getting an early start to take three trains and two flights to arrive at our finally destination, Berlin, where we will spend six days reliving my last trip there in 1983 and explore what I missed and experience the city in its now unified state. All went well getting to Lyon airport but our first flight to Frankfurt was delayed almost an hour. That gave us time to have a sit down lunch and watch then planes got by. In Frankfurt, we had to go through sec

Amy and I did not get a really early start today. Our dinner with her teachers went to almost 11 and we had no reason to rush. Our first stop was the Saturday open air market where you can get anything from chestnuts to olives to cheese to electronics. As a gardener, I always love seeing the produce. I got some of the locally famous green lentils and some raspberry honey to bring home. We got some apples to take on our journey to Berlin tomorrow and I got a chocolat orange

I had set no alarms and twice I sent away housekeeping trying to explain that I was not feeling well. Finally after 11, I resurrected myself and walked down the street to Amy’s favorite breakfast cafe, L’Adélaïde. My French is pretty rusty but I managed to get a otable for one and to rder and omelette without ham, a cafe americano, and an orange juice. Many people here speak English well because it is the official starting point of the Camino although many people start close