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

Today’s objective is to get to Le Puy en Velay where my daughter Amy is teaching English to 12-16 years olds at French schools. It always seems to be grey and raining when I go through Paris and this time was no exception. I passed my three hour layover in the Air France lounge doing some DuoLingo and stretching. I left without checking my next flight to Lyon only to find out it had been delayed. I decided to walk around and browse the duty free shopping. Then i remembered my

My voyage began yesterday as I got an Uber at 10:45 to take me to the Amtrak station in Wilmington, De. I got there early because I thought I would need to check one of my bags. I did not, so I had time to kill. The nice women in the Hudson concessions store tried to help me find the right audio cable for my Beats headphones. One pulled out an empty suitcase and said she was ready to go to France with me! I went up to the platform early even though it was kind of chilly. It

I had no idea it would take more than 40 years, but I’m finally getting back to France and making a side trip to the now unified Berlin. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, February 4, I will be chronicling my return. I hope you come along for the ride!

I’m not sure why I have such a hard time writing the last blog entry for every trip. I guess I don’t want them to end. For my last day on the road, the plan was to hook up and go to the Gettysburg visitor center (assuming it was open during the shutdown) and see the exhibits since I had not done that during my first visit. The ranger had recommended that I drive the battlefield instead. I had felt in retrospect he’d given me a bum steer because the battlefield was so overwhel

This morning, tired of oatmeal for breakfast, I heated up leftover fajita veggies from the Mexican restaurant and served them with two eggs over easy. Yummy! I didn’t unhook again last night, so it was easy to get going. I refueled before I got back on the turnpike and was on my way. I should have known the day would take some weird turns as soon as I turned off the turnpike to get on Rt 30, Lincoln Highway. I was tired of the turnpike and not eager to take the trailer throu

Today was all about driving. I decided to take an extra day and go back to Gettysburg, so I wanted to get a little past Pittsburgh to have a short drive on Saturday. Since I had gotten gas last night before I pulled in and I didn’t unhitch, I was able to get on the road quickly. But I had slept until 9:30 due to the time change. :( This section of road is not remarkable except for the amount of road construction. I felt like most of Indiana and Ohio tollways was being repair

Finally, it was beautiful day after all the rain and mist since I’d left home. I was up early to make sure I made check out at 11 and had time to drive the Danada forest preserve to meet my friend Lori. Buddhas was feeling perky this morning so I took her on a long amble, for her, along trails behind the camp ground. I got hooked up without a hitch. Hah, pun intended. And I arrived athe preserve early enough that I could have a walk around the little lake. Fall colors were gr

I slept well despite being in the flight path for Chicago O’Hare airport and close by train tracks. My slumber was rudely interrupted when the army of zero turn lawnmowers arrived to cut the grass at 8 am this morning. Why does a campground need a perfectly cut grass all around? Why does America have such a great love affair with green lawns? All right , I could go in a whole rant about the lack of any useful habitat that grass provides and the use of Petro chemicals to ma

For me doing something new is exciting, but I am also very good at catastrophizing. I guess that is the project manager in me always thinking about what can go wrong. But as some have said, feel the fear but do it anyway and that is why I was on the road just before 9:30. I was an hour behind schedule, but not due to hooking up because I did that the night before. Just last minute packing and organizing. I pulled into the grocery store about five miles down the road just to d