Shoulder Season Travel

Part of our goal for this trip is to be in the shoulder season at the heavily touristed spots. We got a little behind in northern Europe and found most of the campsites closed, some of the museums remodeling and a little more rain than I wanted. Another downside is there aren’t many kids around. I’m sure the campsites are full of them during the summer. That’s all been a little frustrating but the trade off has been no waiting in lines and being alone or close to it at many sites and stores.
The picture of the Fontenvraud Abbey shows Jules and Ben at one end with no one around. We were even able to test the acoustics in a 250 foot long 30 foot high chapel (they were pretty good!)

Another plus is some of the prices are much lower. Our van is renting for about 1/3 of the summer price. It’s about the same as renting a small car. Since the campsites now cost between $20-30 per night we’re able to shift our budget from lodging and transportation to wine, cheese and meat. We won’t camp the whole time but so far so good.

We’ve now had two months with two different GPS systems. They allow us to do incredible things. We are driving through big and little cities, down one lane cobblestone roads and winding between farm fields all while heading exactly somewhere. Usually, we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out where the somewhere should be. But that’s a lot more fun than figuring out road to road navigation. It hasn’t eliminated the stress of driving, but we wouldn’t see as much if we didn’t have it.

Loire Valley

Traveling east through the Loire Valley to Geneve, Switzerland, we visited some great chateaus, abbeys and gardens. We’ve never seen anything like these in the states. They must truly be the settings for fairy tales we’ve heard. I mean, come on, a chateau (Chenonceau) built over a river where the Queen of France ran the country in the 16th century and people snuck between occupied and free France during the second World War! Real labyrinth gardens, moats with drawbridges and crypts. We learned that “relics” in a church often means bones. We saw where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life (very comfortable) and what some of his inventions would have looked like.
We spent a few days in Beaune, Bourgogne (Burgundy) which had the best wine so far. Nice modern/medieval city but lots of tourists (it was a weekend). We couldn’t find good WiFi so we didn’t stay long. It’s certainly a hotspot for food and wine but maybe a little too much so.
We went on to Geneve, Switzerland to stop the clock on our EU visas. We now have stamps showing us leaving the EU. We only spent a day in Geneve but it looked like a great place to go back to.

Saumur, France

Now we’re goofing around in the Loire Valley. The attitude at the campground is great (they even deliver fresh bread in the morning), we have two bikes with racks, we have a great view of the a lit-up chateau at night and a lovely ride into town during the day. We’ve gotten a little structure with some home-schooling in the mornings and sightseeing or errands in the afternoon.We often have breakfast in the van, lunch in town and a dinner of fresh prepared foods warmed up or cooked in the van. I’ve been looking for the gastonomique part of France and we’ve definitely found it.

I hope to do a video on the campground bathrooms. There are enough funny quirks to keep it interesting. It all works very well, it’s just different from home (and we like that).
The pictures show us in front of the town’s main chateau, biking to the mushroom and sparkling wine caves, Jules in a mushroom cave and Ben in a sparkling wine cave.

Normandy, France

Our first stop in France and more learning. We picked a four star campground but quickly learned what that means to us. We are at the end of the shoulder season and much of the tourist stuff is closing or closed. The campground is slightly outside of town with no public transit. It’s like a destination resort with its own bar, restaurant, pool and playground. Now it’s all closed and we felt like we were holding them up from taking their holidays.
At least we were close to the beach. A short walk brought us to a beach infested with some sort of jumping crab-fly. Probably our shortest stay at a beach. A long walk to some mediocre food convinced us to make it a short stay. The free Wifi was the only redeeming quality.
We bought a second-hand accordion in Amsterdam and are able to put our piano lessons to good use. Ben is polishing a mournful dirge while I work on Fur Elise. That’s kinda fun....

Belgium

Brugge Belgium offered lots of shopping in a clean, touristy city with beautiful old buildings. Really beautiful and really touristy. But clean and with good bus service. One of the highlights was discovering high-speed wirelss access in the campground. We only needed to open the computer and we were online.
This quickly brought us back into touch with home via Skype calls (with lots of echo), movie and tv downloads, podcasts and streaming radio shows. We watched John Stewart’s Daily Show, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Strong Bad, and Pirate’s of the Caribbean. We listened to some of our favorite Public Radio shows.
Before leaving Amsterdam we bought a second phone. Now we could come and go as we pleased and still find each other. No more waiting outside of a store instead of wandering towards something interesting. And the bike now meant we could go to the store or into town easily. Life is getting good.
Except for Jubie. We received news that she has a serious liver and pancreas illness. Laura, Frank and Mary Ellen are doing all they can and we’re all hopeful but very concerned. We lost Scully, Jules’s turtle to a coyote a few weeks ago so this is especially painful.
The pictures show Ben and Jules’s new sweater complete with 3 foot long cap and tassel. Ben is playing in a tornado of leaves (Not trying to get home I hope) and in front of a nice planting of marigolds.

Amsterdam

Aahh Amsterdam. It’s nice to be in a tolerant city with lots to see and do. We picked up the campervan (with GPS) and parked it at the end of a metro line. For six days we visited the city and enjoyed its treats. Great beer, art museums, canal walks, markets, tulips and more. Ben bought an old guy’s hat for only 2.5 Euros, one of the better scores of our stay.
Camping in the van has a huge learning curve. More humorous than frustrating. Most things are different enough to make you stop to figure them out. But we didn’t make any huge mistakes and we’re personalizing the van as we go along so we think we’re going to like it.
The other learning curve was walking. There are streets, bike paths and walking paths. All are used to the max. It didn’t take us long to realize that a change in color and a border on the sidewalk means it’s a bike path. You get a two bell warning before being run over. Everyone has defined right-of-ways and is expected to go or stop accordingly.
There are masses of bikes parked all around the city. Most are simple beater bikes with only three gears. The only “hills” are the canal bridges so it doesn’t take much to get around. And everyone except the oldest get around on bike. The bikes have fenders and side guards to protect clothing and even allow bikers to wear dresses.
It would be a great city for Halloween, but we moved on.....