FRANCE AND GERMANY 1

Up early to catch the ferry, it was a clear day on the Dover side. Upon arrival in Calais, it was cold and overcast. Fortunately we had warm clothes available and quickly used them. Once over the hills and away from the coast, it became warmer and warmer to being hot. Off with the jackets. 

We stopped at a war memorial site and had a bowl of soup, the only thing being available at that time. There was a bus full of people as well as a ladies luncheon going on.

Lunch stop

War Memorial

Laon was our destination for the night, where we had arranged with John and Gail to have dinner at the hotel. We met them at 7 PM and had a wonderful dinner in the hotel.  

WonderfulSalad

Yummy fish

The next morning we walked up to the Laon Cathedral and around the town before heading out to meet the tour in Ste Prevue, France. 

Laon Cathedral

Inside Laon cathedral

With John and Gail in Laon

Electrics mess

It was a lovely driving day. 

We arrived at the hotel before any other of the tour participants, and had time for a nice swim in the lovely pool. Dinner was nice, but short on vegetables, something we soon began to crave on the trip. 

This was the start of trying to learn new names... as the only people we knew previously were John and Gail from MOAV.

Hotel in St Prevue

After departing the wrong direction from the hotel, we eventually found ourselves heading in the right direction. The day was already warm and lovely for a long drive through France.

Late to breakfast, we hurried through in order to leave about the same time as the group, as the day would be long. We had to get through France to get to the main part of our Alps tour. We entered the Alsace region, which is very beautiful, and also very easy to stray from the route. Stopping for lunch along the river in Verdun, we ran into some of the Jaguar’s on the trip. The day was beautiful and warm and perfect for driving.  However, having hoped to have time to visit Camp du Struthof (google it), we finally passed it after it was closed, arriving at the hotel in the lovely little Alsace town of Ottrott, France “just in time” to change for dinner.

Arriving in Ottrott

Duck and "cereal bar" with red carrots

My stomach was a bit unsettled this morning (thanks,MiraLax and rich food) , so we were slow in getting out of the hotel in Ottrott, France.  There had been a wild lightening and thunder shower, as well as a lot of rain during the night, but the day turned out to be not rainy. We crossed the Rhine River on a small ferry boat, entering into Germany.  The river was MUCH smaller than I had imagined, so the ferry only took a few minutes.  Lunch stop was at McDonalds where I finally was able to eat a bit. We had a challenging drive, getting lost and diverted by roadworks, but finally ended up at our hotel, waterfront on Lake Constance in Lindau, Germany.  Along the way, we were also stopped by a chopper airlifting a motorcyclist who had collided with a car. Later we learned that Sarah was first on the scene, and the motorcyclist was alive. While driving through the windy roads, we were concerned because the motorcyclists were tearing up the roads at very fast speeds, passing at poor times. 

Kirsty and Leader Sarah from their window

A stroll around Lindau and a beer at the local bier garden completed our afternoon.

View from our room with new panorama feature

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner of local whitefish, Italian vegetables and tiramisu.

Tiramisu

After a lovely buffet breakfast, we left Lindau for a long drive along the Deustch Alpenstrasse (German Alpen Highway). Unfortunately the rain had starting during the night and continued on through most of the day.  It wasn’t miserable, but our photographs are not the best.

Sarah had reserved tickets for us to visit Hohenschwargau castle, which required quite a hike up the hill for the tour. The rain was intermittent and quite light at the time, which was fortunate, and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We could look over and see Neuschwanstein Castle, but didn’t have a tour there.

Honenschwargau Castle

Along Deutsche Alpenstrasse

Valley in Germany

German Hotel

Can you imagine repainting this?

The drive continued through valleys and more mountains until we arrived at our intimate hotel at Tegernsee Lake in Bad Wiesse, Germany. A lovely dinner of roast pork was enjoyed, but I neglected to take pictures.  Philip has developed a “cold” so we managed to get to bed early.

The next morning was our first two-night stop, so there was no reason to awaken early. So we didn’t, and worried that we would miss breakfast, which turned out not to be a problem, and like, we needed more food!

We fiddled around until noontime, doing hand laundry, straightening up and getting out the door.  Although the forecast was for showers, it was lovely out when we departed on foot for the “see promenade”, the walk along Tegernsee Lake.

 Shortly we saw the ferry boat which goes from the villages surrounding the lake, and hopped on for a round the lake tour. Gail and John from MOA V, as well as Janet and Pat, whom we hadn’t really met yet on this trip joined the tour on our first stop, so we had company round the lake.

John and Gail

Tegernsee

Panorama view on my new camera

Lunch was a Turkish Domor, like a Gyros- very filling and yummy.

We strolled along the see promenade and took a nap on the wooden recliners along the shore. 

While browsing, I saw some Finn Comfort shoes in the window for less than ½ the price at home, so had to stop by the shop and indulge. (Lee, they have Birkies for really cheap as well)

DAY -2 DOVER ENGLAND

I had booked a "free Marriott room" for Dover and last week, and while finalizing our itinerary, I discovered that I had booked in Dover NEW HAMPSHIRE. Imagine my surprise! There is no Marriott in Dover England.

Quickly searching the Premier Inn's in Dover, we booked one just outside of the Ferry Terminal where we were given a harbour view. 

Premier Inn Dover

Seaglls

The day started off with my tomato and spinach fritatta sans spinach. A slice of toast was substituted and the OJ was comped. We left the hotel a little after nine and headed to Costco to look for a "midrange" camera, since I forgot my good DSLR camera, and have a basic cheap one. It couldn't be a Panasonic , because I get into all kinds of trouble with file names when both Philip and I have the same brand of camera, and you can't adjust the starting numbers of the images with enough number fields... they tend to write one image over another. Costco didn't have anything, so we went to PC World. Now I hate buying anything without doing my research, but research just wasn't going to happen, and there weren't many choices.  I ended up with a White Samsung WB200F. We will see how it works, once I figure out how all the options work. It doesn't look terribly complicated but we shall see.

The day was sunny and moderately warm, with an occasional cold blast of air. But it was top down weather, for which we are thankful.

The itinerary was to visit Dover Castle, which we viewed from its' base.

We walked down the Dover Promenade, and had a drink at this cute little restaurant.

THE MORGAN

Philip

Tomorrow's Ferry

Day -3 Summer in the Alps and Provence

We arrived safely in London to clear blue skies. Upon arrival at Richard Thornes, we took quite awhile to take the roof (top) down on the Morgan. It was a lovely day as we took the back routes to our hotel in Cheshunt England.
Although we had been assured that our Morgan had "everything working satisfactorily", after 1 hour our Garmin battery said "low battery" and soon stopped working. A call back to Richard Thornes, and we headed back to have adjustments done to the cigarette lighter, which powers the Garmin. It was "loose", the fuse had blown, and you need to put the Garmin charging cord in "horizontally". £60 later and we were on our way again, and finally made it to the hotel around 4:30 PM, rather than noon time.

We did come over two days early to UK to sort out any Morgan problems......
And I did forget my good camera for the "Photo Tour" to Provence.....

Waiting for departure

Enjoying coffee while waiting for departure

Driving from Richard Thornes in the Morgan

What is wrong with this connection, 1 hour after starting?

HAWAII- Day 5- More Relaxation and Baseball

  From our "upgraded evacuation room", we ate our cartons of cereal in our room, then headed over to the King's Shopping Center to check it out.

Partial Ocean View Evacuation Room

Hibicus at the Shopping Center

We enjoyed Fish and Chips and Tempura while overlooking a lake and enjoyed the Koi.

Lake

Hungry Koi

Hungry Birds

As the World Series was about to start, we walked back across the street, and spent the afternoon in our room watching the game. 

World Series Award

We had cocktails on our balcony and watched the sun go down.

Sunset from our room

Dinner was at the Marriott dining room- Lobster night. It was very good, however, I shared my lobster with Morris the cat, who woke up from his nap close by when I called him. Poor Morris, although allegedly belonging to a neighbor, seems to have had a rough life, with an ear injured and a bad mouth- probably bad teeth. The hotel people seem to accept him hanging around however.

Morris

It was nice to be able to relax for the day, and we are so proud of the Giants.

HAWAII- Day 4- From Visit to Tsunami Museum to Evacuating for Tsunami Warning

The morning started with our plan to drive over the Saddle Road, mid Hawaii island, to make our way over to Hilo- about 80 miles.
We stopped for breakfast at Dave's, a joint recommended on Trip Advisor for cheap breakfasts.

Dave's

The drive started at sea level and went up to almost 7000 ft above sea level, going through various flora depending upon the elevation.

First change from the all volcanic rock

Around 3000 feet

Around 6000 feet- reminded us of Tehatchapi high desert

We arrived in Hilo earlier than expected, so based on AAA "GEM" recommendations, we went to the Tsunami Museum.  There was a wonderful film about the 1946 and 1961 Tsunami damage in Hilo, and expressing that it was "time" for another Tsunami to hit Hilo.
At 1:15 we arrived at the airport for our Helicopter ride over the volcano and waterfalls.  The helicopter vibrations just about "did me in", as well as the lack of air, but I managed to survive the 45 minute flight. I don't remember the vibration from our Alaska glacier helicopter ride.

Survival after the flight.

The views over the volcano were interesting...

Blue Hawaii Helicopters Pilot Adam

Heading out over the ocean before over the volcano

Steam vents

Close up lava- yes we were close

Fiery spots

More active areas

Waterfalls

After the flight, we headed back from Hilo to Waikoloa via the northern route around the island, listening to the Giants ballgame until we lost reception. We arrived back at the hotel just in time for the last inning and the Giant win. Also on the TV was the "potential" tsunami from the earthquake in BC. We checked with the hotel, and they said "not to worry". So ...
as we had not had our weekly sashimi yet, we headed on over to the Queen's Marketplace to the Japanese restaurant. We had ordered our food and just received it when we were told by our server, that we needed to finish up quickly because the restaurant was evacuating.  So we stuffed down our expensive food, and headed back to the hotel.
After checking at reception, we were told that this hotel is in the "safe zone" (although it is pretty much on the shore) and that if we wished, we could be evacuated to an upper floor (from our 3rd floor garden view room). So we said, sure, after having seen everything at the Tsunami museum earlier, and we were moved to the 5th floor- pool view- and some ocean view- room. So 4 trips moved all our stuff by 10:00 PM with a 10:28 expectation of the tsunami to hit.

Watching on TV

Well, 10:28 came and went with no tsunami. Today's reports are no damage, but unfortunately a few people were killed in accidents in the evacuations on Oahu.
About midnight, we fell asleep, having had a very busy day.