Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Viewing Photos Information
The photos on the Google Picasa sight are about half of the photos I took. There is still a lot. It might be best to look at them over a few visits unless you can sit through a couple of hour slide show. The site does have a slide show feature. It seems that the default time between images id 3 seconds. Enough to see the photo but when there is a caption it is pretty quick. If you care to read the captions, some are informative and some are just dumb but, if you do want to read them, hit the space bar to stop the slide show. Hit the space bar again and it will resume.
I still have many, many redundant photos. I could / should edit them some more but...I am not. Digital photography is great. You can take as many images as you want. I take a lot of each if it is questionable about a problem with low light or camera shake. Many of my dusk and night shots are blurry but I kept them in just because. You do not have to use the slide show feature, just click on the first photo in the album and then use the toggle arrows to proceed.
One more thing I saved my photos at the end of each day they were taken. There is an "album: for each day starting on Friday Aug 26. To view the trip in the sequence the photos were taken, just follow the dates on the album. There are a couple of albums that Google automatically put there like the photos I posted on this blog. I did not want to delete because I am not sure if they are linked together or not. Those albums have the "blog" symbol at the bottom and only contain a few photos so ignore them.
Well, have a nice trip and I thank you for your interest!
Mercie & Bon Joir
Bill
I still have many, many redundant photos. I could / should edit them some more but...I am not. Digital photography is great. You can take as many images as you want. I take a lot of each if it is questionable about a problem with low light or camera shake. Many of my dusk and night shots are blurry but I kept them in just because. You do not have to use the slide show feature, just click on the first photo in the album and then use the toggle arrows to proceed.
One more thing I saved my photos at the end of each day they were taken. There is an "album: for each day starting on Friday Aug 26. To view the trip in the sequence the photos were taken, just follow the dates on the album. There are a couple of albums that Google automatically put there like the photos I posted on this blog. I did not want to delete because I am not sure if they are linked together or not. Those albums have the "blog" symbol at the bottom and only contain a few photos so ignore them.
Well, have a nice trip and I thank you for your interest!
Mercie & Bon Joir
Bill
Wonderful Trip!!!
I have been home now for almost two weeks. It feel longer than that but I can think that "two weeks ago today, I was in Paris". That part is amazing. I have a more recollections of the trip. I wish I had more time (and energy) to have kept up my blog each day. But when you get back to your room at 9 or 10 after a day walking, looking, absorbing, walking, deciding, reading, walking, wondering, trying to figure out where you are an the best way to get back to the hotel and, did I mention walking? You are pretty darn tired. My problem was when I sat at the laptop, I would read the news. Check out a few more Paris sites. Get caught up on the social pages. Check the bank balance and before you know it, 2 hours has flown by. That is when I would realize I had to get up at 5:30 AM (11:30 PM at home, ever try to get up at 11:30PM)? to catch a day trip.
I took a bus tour from Paris to the Normandy coast. The brochure said it was a 3 hour ride each way. Not a problem for me. I had the MP3 player loaded up and a book (a true story murder mystery that happened in NYC in 1890 which turned into a newspaper circus. This is when the Pulitzers and Hurst's of the news world owned the largest papers in the city. The Times was a minor player at the time. There were a dozen "daily" papers, each of which had multiple editions every day. The tiny New York Police Dept. could just sit back and wait for the papers to solve any crime, accurately or not. Each paper was always trying to "scope" the other one. The reporters, with the papers permission, would become "good friends" with the accused, victims and friends and family, a lot of money was floating around. When a "fact" was reported in one of the papers, the police would move in and begin there questioning, anyway, that is a different blog).
The bus pulls out of the tour center, which happened to be a short walk across the plaza in front of the Louvre, which is very quiet and peaceful at 6:00 AM. One of the two tour guides (one for French and English, the other for Spanish and Japanese) mentions on the intercom that the FIVE hour trip included a stop at a rest area on the way. FIVE HOURS on a bus - that's almost as long as I was on a PLANE to get to Paris! There was an audible "gasp" from the crowd. But what could we do now, just sit back and enjoy the ride. Well, it was not bad, not bad at all. It took almost an hour just to get out of Paris and on the highway. The highways are very similar to our but like everything else in France, they were smaller. I think just a little narrower, not a big median in the middle, just a guardrail or cement wall. There were some peculiar warning signs, which I wish I could have gotten pictures of. One was the silhouette of the back of a car, with a stick figure driver in it and a huge amount of flames over the car. The only think I could think of that it indicated was "Please stay in your burning car until the firemen arrive, within the hour, maybe). They also had interesting "speed limit" signs. They were round with a red LED circle and the speed limit was light up in LED in the center in white. The speed limit number could and would change depending on the traffic density. When it was raining, it was "40" kpm. When it was dry and uncongestide it said - I swear - 80 kph. ( I think that's like 100 mph or is it 60, I never did the conversion on speed).
I had two thoughts on going to the Normandy region. Normandy is an area of France, like New England is to us, at the northern end of the country. Its coast is made up of the English Channel waters. During WWII, any term using "Normandy" refereed to the general region of the country. The specific invasion of the country, to fight the Nazi occupation was at Normandy but more specifically at Omaha Beach. The area I toured in Normandy was at the coast but it was a medieval village and Monastery built on a rock outcrop off the coast back in the year 1,000. It is known as Mt. St. Michel. There are a lot of photos of it showing a huge church surrounded by water. had seen photos of it as a kid and always wanted to see it. The other tour was to the actual Omaha beach and the American military cemetery located there. I opted for the Mt St Michel tour. There is a town in the Normandy area, a few miles inland, called St. Lo. It is about 30 miles from where my Dad was injured a few days after the invasion during WWII. He was a "half track" driver for an infantry platoon. A bomb exploded and he lost part of, most of his fingers on one hand. The town is very small and off the beaten track, so to speak, so I did not get there. We did stop at a similar small town or "village" which is famous for its apples and hard ciders. As it turned out, this stop for almost an hour was part of the FIVE hours mentioned at the beginning of the tour. The village was very quaint and pretty. Very French. I went in a cafe to get a water, it was the front room of the owners house. The woman did not speak any English and luckily one of the tour guides was in the cafe to interpret for me. The village was bathed in a light fog which enhanced it "European Frenchy" look. Back on the bus and onward to Mt. St. Michel or so I thought. We had one more stop before the actual destination...and it included FOOD. We stopped at a "famous" Creperie which is within sight of the tours destination. The name escapes me, it was something like Madame Pluiere... We were lead into a large dinning room, more like a banquet hall,with 50 or 60 tables that each sat 10. Soon we were served a fruit cup, followed by a Crepe with a light fluffy filling with home made bread. Dessert was a some kind of custard with a chocolate sauce and cafe. There was also a couple of carafes of sparkling apple hard cider. After this lunch treat we were back on the bus for a quick ride across the causeway to the island and Mt. St. Michel.
My photos of the Monastery are pretty self explanatory, I have a brief caption under some of them. It was a beautiful, ancient place.
The trip back to Paris included a severe thunderstorm while on the highway. We stopped at a highway gas and convenience store plaza. Some of the gas stations in France are "ESSO" stations. A brand that disappeared from the US forty years ago. It was a major service station chain in the US.
I picked up some juice, water and a packages sandwich. The rest rooms were standing room only, in competition with the other ten buses that had stopped. Back on the bus, it was such a torentsal down poor that when we got underway, the roof started leaking in the last row of the bus. I was close to the back and saw what was happening, a young Japanese couple were getting drenched. I went to the front of the bus to inform the guides and some guy who was along for the ride, I think from the bus company because him and the driver were pretty chummy. So I asked if they had any paper towels or anything to stuff into the leak. They all looked at the guy and he said he would see. After rummaging around in the front of the bus he came back with a handful of paper towels which were very much appreciated by the Jap's. A few minutes later he was back with more. The leak stopped when the rain stopped so I think they only had wet butts for the rest of the ride. The bus was totally full so they could not move anywhere.
Oh, when it was raining like hell, the inside of the windshield, which was an expanse of glass like 10' x 8", started to fog up. The three windshield wipers where keeping the water off the outside but inside it was like looking through frosted glass. The guy who was along for the ride got out a squeegee and ran it over the windshield. Ah, that's what hes there for, probably to change a tire if we get a flat. Those French Unions don't miss a trick.
All in all it was a great day!
I took a bus tour from Paris to the Normandy coast. The brochure said it was a 3 hour ride each way. Not a problem for me. I had the MP3 player loaded up and a book (a true story murder mystery that happened in NYC in 1890 which turned into a newspaper circus. This is when the Pulitzers and Hurst's of the news world owned the largest papers in the city. The Times was a minor player at the time. There were a dozen "daily" papers, each of which had multiple editions every day. The tiny New York Police Dept. could just sit back and wait for the papers to solve any crime, accurately or not. Each paper was always trying to "scope" the other one. The reporters, with the papers permission, would become "good friends" with the accused, victims and friends and family, a lot of money was floating around. When a "fact" was reported in one of the papers, the police would move in and begin there questioning, anyway, that is a different blog).
The bus pulls out of the tour center, which happened to be a short walk across the plaza in front of the Louvre, which is very quiet and peaceful at 6:00 AM. One of the two tour guides (one for French and English, the other for Spanish and Japanese) mentions on the intercom that the FIVE hour trip included a stop at a rest area on the way. FIVE HOURS on a bus - that's almost as long as I was on a PLANE to get to Paris! There was an audible "gasp" from the crowd. But what could we do now, just sit back and enjoy the ride. Well, it was not bad, not bad at all. It took almost an hour just to get out of Paris and on the highway. The highways are very similar to our but like everything else in France, they were smaller. I think just a little narrower, not a big median in the middle, just a guardrail or cement wall. There were some peculiar warning signs, which I wish I could have gotten pictures of. One was the silhouette of the back of a car, with a stick figure driver in it and a huge amount of flames over the car. The only think I could think of that it indicated was "Please stay in your burning car until the firemen arrive, within the hour, maybe). They also had interesting "speed limit" signs. They were round with a red LED circle and the speed limit was light up in LED in the center in white. The speed limit number could and would change depending on the traffic density. When it was raining, it was "40" kpm. When it was dry and uncongestide it said - I swear - 80 kph. ( I think that's like 100 mph or is it 60, I never did the conversion on speed).
I had two thoughts on going to the Normandy region. Normandy is an area of France, like New England is to us, at the northern end of the country. Its coast is made up of the English Channel waters. During WWII, any term using "Normandy" refereed to the general region of the country. The specific invasion of the country, to fight the Nazi occupation was at Normandy but more specifically at Omaha Beach. The area I toured in Normandy was at the coast but it was a medieval village and Monastery built on a rock outcrop off the coast back in the year 1,000. It is known as Mt. St. Michel. There are a lot of photos of it showing a huge church surrounded by water. had seen photos of it as a kid and always wanted to see it. The other tour was to the actual Omaha beach and the American military cemetery located there. I opted for the Mt St Michel tour. There is a town in the Normandy area, a few miles inland, called St. Lo. It is about 30 miles from where my Dad was injured a few days after the invasion during WWII. He was a "half track" driver for an infantry platoon. A bomb exploded and he lost part of, most of his fingers on one hand. The town is very small and off the beaten track, so to speak, so I did not get there. We did stop at a similar small town or "village" which is famous for its apples and hard ciders. As it turned out, this stop for almost an hour was part of the FIVE hours mentioned at the beginning of the tour. The village was very quaint and pretty. Very French. I went in a cafe to get a water, it was the front room of the owners house. The woman did not speak any English and luckily one of the tour guides was in the cafe to interpret for me. The village was bathed in a light fog which enhanced it "European Frenchy" look. Back on the bus and onward to Mt. St. Michel or so I thought. We had one more stop before the actual destination...and it included FOOD. We stopped at a "famous" Creperie which is within sight of the tours destination. The name escapes me, it was something like Madame Pluiere... We were lead into a large dinning room, more like a banquet hall,with 50 or 60 tables that each sat 10. Soon we were served a fruit cup, followed by a Crepe with a light fluffy filling with home made bread. Dessert was a some kind of custard with a chocolate sauce and cafe. There was also a couple of carafes of sparkling apple hard cider. After this lunch treat we were back on the bus for a quick ride across the causeway to the island and Mt. St. Michel.
My photos of the Monastery are pretty self explanatory, I have a brief caption under some of them. It was a beautiful, ancient place.
The trip back to Paris included a severe thunderstorm while on the highway. We stopped at a highway gas and convenience store plaza. Some of the gas stations in France are "ESSO" stations. A brand that disappeared from the US forty years ago. It was a major service station chain in the US.
I picked up some juice, water and a packages sandwich. The rest rooms were standing room only, in competition with the other ten buses that had stopped. Back on the bus, it was such a torentsal down poor that when we got underway, the roof started leaking in the last row of the bus. I was close to the back and saw what was happening, a young Japanese couple were getting drenched. I went to the front of the bus to inform the guides and some guy who was along for the ride, I think from the bus company because him and the driver were pretty chummy. So I asked if they had any paper towels or anything to stuff into the leak. They all looked at the guy and he said he would see. After rummaging around in the front of the bus he came back with a handful of paper towels which were very much appreciated by the Jap's. A few minutes later he was back with more. The leak stopped when the rain stopped so I think they only had wet butts for the rest of the ride. The bus was totally full so they could not move anywhere.
Oh, when it was raining like hell, the inside of the windshield, which was an expanse of glass like 10' x 8", started to fog up. The three windshield wipers where keeping the water off the outside but inside it was like looking through frosted glass. The guy who was along for the ride got out a squeegee and ran it over the windshield. Ah, that's what hes there for, probably to change a tire if we get a flat. Those French Unions don't miss a trick.
All in all it was a great day!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Rambling's and Misc.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Paris. I plan a bicycle journey through the Latin Quarter and back over to lle de Citi and Notre Dame. I also wanted to visit the Shakespere Book Store. I heard of a American style Diner in the area called "Breakfast in America". I want to try to find that. The weather report is iffy for rain. Slight chance but if so, I can do the "Hop on Hop off" bus I received a free ticket for with my trip to Normandy. I did the Hop on Hop off bus thing in London yesterday. I know I have not kept a daily log - this is actually my journal for the trip so I will add to it later. When time permits. Its tough to fit in when your an international traveler and you spend most of your time decyphering menu's. They have the "Inigma Code Machine" from WWII that the ally's used to break the Nazi's messages on display at the Musee de Nationale Armee's. Napolian's Tomb is there also, which I can't figure out. It like the Russians having Lenin's Tomb in Red Square. They tear down his statues and turn there backs to his ideals but the Tomb is still there, open to visitors as is Napolian's. Napolian last wish was to have his ashes sprinkled in the Seine. Not. The French Government said to put him in a tomb for all to revere. That was after they got his body back from being in exile on a British Island off Normandy for 15 years. Naybe we (us Americans) should have a Tomb built somewhere nice, like the National Mall (the one in DC - not Minnesota - that's Mall of America). We could put Richard Nixon in it. Hmmm, maybe the mall in Minnesota would be a better spot. Anyway, last full day tomorrow. On the way to London, I met a lovey girl from Brazil. She was somewhat confused the Gare de Nord, the train station where you get the international train to Britain. She thought I might be better informed. Luckily all my guesses (BS) worked perfectly. We decided to do the Hop on Hop off red rout together and then get on the Thames River Cruise. She suggested lunch after the cruise and then doing the "London Eye" which is a huge stupid looking Ferris wheel. I said it sounded great! I only had one must do thing on my list and that was to get to Westminster Abby and pay my respects to Charles Dickens who is interred there in an area called "Poets Corner". Yes, all the great British poets, playwrites, actors, musicians are burried there, if the Queen says its OK. This is along with some 1500 year old Bishops and Knights. Lawrence Olivia you ask? Yes, he is there but a stones throw from Shakespear. While your standing at Sharespears statue, the audio guide informs that they did not move his body from wherever it is so it is just a memorial to hin in the Abby. I think there is a school of thought that they don't really know who he was so that has to still be worked out. So back at the Thames river cruise, Gabriella, that was her name, really, and I were watching the wharves go by when the narator on the boat mentions we are passing the British HMS Belfast, a historic ship in the British WWII history. It is open to the public. Tied up along side it happens to be a Brazilian cruiser paying a friendly visit as a guest of the British Navy. The narrator mentions this and says, Anyone on board from Brazil. Gabriella waves and says "yes, I am" and so does there three older (older than me - I think - yes, definatly) couples who are also from Brazil, jump up and start screaming and yelling so the guys on the Brazilian ship could hear them. They started some Soccer chant or something and the guys on the ship waved back. So, one thing leads to another and we all end up downstairs (it was like a ferry boat) sitting together and they are so happy to meet Gabriella. They look at me and smile and say, ahhh Americano, and then get back to having a hell of a time as a group. So, I went to buy some Pringle's and a Coke and try to figure out just what the British concession guy is saying. He sounded a lot like Eliza Doolittle, I can understand the French easier. All od a sudden there is huge amounts of joking and laughing amongst the Brazilian's. None of which speak any English, except of course, Gabriella, who took English at college in Vancouver BC, Canada for 4 years. She speaks some French, Italian (she works for the Italian phone company - in Brazil? Sounds like a cover to me but I am always suspisious) and she speaks German, which was / is her favorite country because everything is "very orderly". So the party is reaching a new level of jovality and the British guy comes over and says, from what I could make out, "you have to keep it down, Captn' says keep it down". The Captain is up in the wheelhouse on the deck above. I suppose he was concerned if we hit the Tower of London Bridge no one could hear the command to ABANDON SHIP. (Yuck, into the Thames)? So the Brazilians hehaive and all go SHHH, SHHHH and quiet down, a little. Gabriella come over to me and says, "You go to Westminster, they need an interpiter, we see each other later". By now, if you know me, I was thinking Abby, what Abby? But no, I did not want to be a fifth or ninth wheel to this crowd. I thought for sure they were going to be pinched before the day was out. So I went my way and Gabriella went hers. As the French say, Se La Vie. London is crazy compared to Paris. In Paris the traffic flows, thing are relativley organized, even during evacuations. But London was like being at a poor relatives who shoot guns from their porches and eat squirle. The are putting the finishing touches on Europe's tallest building, called, typically British, "The Shard" because it looks like a shard of glass. Not kidding either. The tallest building in Europe is now in Germany, Munich I think. I went up the tallest building in Paris and France, besides the Eiffel tower (it is taller). It has an observation floor open to the public and you can get great views of the Eiffel Tower from it. I was up there at dusk and dark so my photos are, well, blurry, but they will do. The Tour Montparnasse was built in the 70's at the edge of the Latin Quarter and St. Germain de Pres area's. After it was built, they realized what a mistake the location was so they banned skyscrapers form Paris except in the are called Il Defense. It is at the extreem edge of Paris, to the west. But, there is talk of building a complex at an elbow of the Seine neat the Eiffel Tower to perhaps take the tallest in Europe title from the UK. By the way, Our World Trade Tower One - the old Freedom Tower as it was originally named, is about 600 feet taller than the Brits. Of course the Chinese and the jabberin' Arabs have the tallest's (like 8 or 10 now) and theres no catching them. See what they do with our money? One thing about the French, easily 90 percent of the cars are either Citron (I thought was out od business) and Pugeot. The cars are beautiful, The next most popular seems to be either VW or Toyota, A very few Nissns. I saw 2 Italian sportscars, Ferrari, 3 Fords - nothing like I have seen in the states and you wouldn't want to. Today I saw a Mercury Cougar parked at the Midieval village I visited. There are quite a few Coopers and Smart Cars too. Tons of scooters, all shapes, sizes and some are as loud as Harley's but much higher pitched. I have seen 3 Harley's and today on the highway a group went by the bus. They sounded like Harley's, definatly not BMW's although those are real nice bikes. I did see a Harley dealership outside Paris and it looked just like the ones in the US.
I have gotten way off the track but it is just a collection of things that happen, not particularly in order.
Please forgive the spelling errors. I cannot use the spell check here - how it knows I am in a different country - I have no idea. Some words I just typed wromg an did not go bakc to fix.
I have gotten way off the track but it is just a collection of things that happen, not particularly in order.
Please forgive the spelling errors. I cannot use the spell check here - how it knows I am in a different country - I have no idea. Some words I just typed wromg an did not go bakc to fix.
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