France , Belgium , Netherlands September 2000

September 1, 2000 thru September 2

Our overnight British air flight left Chicago at 8:10pm . We had a stopover in London before flying to Paris . At the baggage claim in Paris , only my bag arrived. We were told that Neil's bag didn't make the connection, (!?) but mine did. Go figure. It would be delivered to our hotel tomorrow. Unfortunately Neil it was 90 degrees when we left, and Neil didn't put other clothes in his carry on bag, so Neil was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. When we arrived in Paris , the temperature was only around 70 degrees. We ended up going to the Samaritaine department store to look for some other clothes. They were pricey so we went up to the roof to look at the view. Great! We found some jeans and a pullover at C&A. We are staying at the Hotel Leveque, on Rue Cler. Rick's favorite area to stay in Paris . The room is adequate with a clean tiled bathroom with shower. For dinner we ate at the cafe le Bosquet a few blocks from Rue Cler. I had duck which was very good. Dinner for the two of us was 280F. Neil had a beef dish of some sort. I had a salad with blue cheese which was great. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower and saw the "sparkle" at 10pm . It was lit up due to the millennium.

Sunday, September 3rd.

Neil & I took the RER 004 to Versailles . We bought a 3 day museum pass for 160F each. We toured the chateau which was packed with tourists. We had to buy 30F tickets for the gardens. At 11:00 , they turned on the fountains and played classical music over the speakers. We had lunch at La Flotille by the canal. We headed back to Paris and found that Neil's bag had finally arrived at the hotel. Next we went to the Arc De Triumphe, the far end had an elevator se we didn't have to walk up. The view from the top was great. It was neat to see all of the streets fanning out from there. Next we took the Metro to Montemarte. We walked up the Sacre Cour, the outside was much more impressive than the inside. Next we walked up to Montemarte which was really neat with its cafes, artists, and shops. For dinner Neil & I went to the Latin Quarter , we ate at la Petite Bouclerie. Neil had beef which he liked, my lamb was cold so I didn't like it too much. The waiter was very nice though(a contradiction here?). Dinner with wine was ~280F.  By the way $1 is about 7French Francs(F).

Monday, September 4

We got the Louvre around 9:30 and got in without waiting. We went to the Denon wing. We saw the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, and Michangelo's Slaves. We left the Louvre and walked through Tuil Eries gardens to the ancient Egyptian obelisk. Unfortunately, a large ferris wheel blocks the view from the obelisk back to the Arc De Triumphe. We took the Metro to Etoile and walked down the Champs Elysees . We stopped for lunch at LaBrioche Doir. I had a tasty quiche. Next we took the Metro again to the Bastille to walk the Marais neighborhood. We walked into the Hotel Sully and through its courtyards to Place Des Vosges which was really neat, surrounded by beautiful buildings. We walked on to rue de rosier and through the Jewish district. We got a falafel at one of the restaurants  called Mi-Va-Mi at 23 rue des Rosiers. Neil and I both liked it a lot. We walked on to Notre Dame and St Chapelle and Neil got a slik Mini tripod for his camera at Samaritaine Department store. For dinner we ate on Rue Cler at Cafe du Marche. I had good beef bourgogne , Neil a steak. We shared a good salad with some fried cheese in it. We sat next to a nice couple from Florida also staying at the Leveque. We went on a Seine boat cruise later, it left from near the Eiffel Tower . We took the 9:30 cruise, it was 52F each and lasted an hour.

Tuesday September 5th

We went to the Orsay museum this morning. Was Monets, Renoirs, & Van Goghs. Mike's flight was to arrive from London at 10:45 , so we thought we'd try to meet his bus from the airport at the Air France terminal at Invalides. We waited for an hour and no Mike, we went back to the hotel. Turned out that his flight was more than 2 hours late, so he didn't get to the Leveque until 2:30 . In the meantime, Neil and I went to the Invalides and saw Napoleon’s tomb. We went to the Eiffel tower when Mike got in, but could only go as high as the second level due to scheduled repairs-that cost 44 F anyway. Next we went to the Arc De Triumphe, Neil & Mike got pictures from the top with the traffic going round and round the arch. We stopped at Labrioche Doree for a tart and coffee along the Champs Elysee. For dinner, we went to the Leo De Lion a block over from Rue Cler and just off champs De Mars. Mike had escargot for an appetizer and I had scallops. For dinner, I had duck and Neil & Mike had rump steak. The dinners came with scalloped potatoes that incredible. We had white and red wine(a bottle of each). Neil's crème brulee was outstanding. Our waiter was funny and nice, when we asked him about an entree(that was liver pate), he said "good for me, not so good for you". The finale of the evening was going to the Eiffel Tower again, we wanted Mike to see it lip up at night and also the "sparkle".

Wednesday September 6

We picked up our Hertz rental car today at the Invalides bus terminal. It is a diesel Peugeot 406. Not bad, manual transmission. Neil did a good job of getting us out of the city to the auto route. We picked up the auto route A13 and headed to Monet's garden at Giverny. The ticket to the house was 35F. The gardens were really nice, then we took the tunnel under the road to the pond(s) which were the inspiration for his waterlillies. We all really liked the gardens, although sunshine instead of mist would have been better for pictures. His house was neat, we were surprised by all of the Japanese art he had in his house. The dining room was yellow and the kitchen had blue painted tiles. We stopped for lunch along the auto route. They have really nice oasis's with restaurants. We ate at Croque en Route. It was real decent for cafeteria style food. We drove on to Caen to the WWII Memorial Museum . On the way Neil noticed no traffic in the other lane, and then a convoy of trucks going real slow. We didn't know what it was. The museum was pretty good, not as good as we had anticipated. Our hotel in Bayeux if called the Hotel Mogador. Our room is 260F for a nice double with bath. We opted for breakfast for 30F each.  We were able to park our car right out front of the hotel. We walked to the pedestrian area and passed a lot of nice shops. We just missed seeing the tapestry(doors closed), but did get to go into the cathedral. We stopped at a Patisserie and had coffee and bonbons. For dinner we went to Hotel Notre Dame across from the cathedral. Neil ordered is au Veau Medallions, the woman kind of said are you sure? Mike and I figured it was some sort of organ meat. We asked the waitress what they were but she couldn't find any sort of translation. Neil went to the bathroom and she was looking in a translation dictionary! Mike & I were having a hard time holding in the laughter, saying Neil would be driving in circles around in the roundabouts from mad cow disease. Some older Englishman(lit up nicely) that was leaving at the same time told us that they were "the little danglies off the bull"-testicles. They didn't taste bad and had a soft texture. We think they might have been sweetbreads-thyroid gland also.

Thursday September 7

We went to the Bayeux tapestry which dates to 1066. It features the Battle of William the Conqueror and the invasion of Normandy . The audio tour was excellent for 5F. The price to view the tapestry was 35F. We then went to Arromanches on the coast where we saw the artificial harbor from 1944 called Port Winston. Next we went to the American Cemetery at St. Laurent on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach . It was weird to imagine all the soldiers landing and crossing the beaches and countryside in 1944. Think of Saving Private Ryan, this is where it happened. Sad to think of all those who lost their lives so young- but they are heroes and they fought for freedom which was won. Next we went to Point Du Hoc, where US Rangers eventually gained control of the German bunkers and guns atop the cliffs. We stopped for lunch and Neil had an excellent omelet and Mike & I had a huge(I mean huge) bowl of mussels Normandy style. They were steamed or boiled in some sort of marinade. Here is where we finally noticed the fuel blockades. Truckers and farmers were blocking traffic of trucks, especially gas trucks, so many roads where blockaded and stations were out of gas(especially diesel). They were protesting the taxes on them. The French like to protest and have massive strikes.... We were lucky to get gas in the same town as lunch, waited for a 1/2 hour. Fill er up! We were comfortable and glad to have a full tank. We drove out to the Auto route and went about 20km before the road said closed ahead and had a detour, we weren't sure why, as it turns out from a blockade. We drove on the detour to St Lo where we experienced more road blockades. The first two ways out of St Lo were blocked at the edge of town, the third way we went was ok until the next town(3km) away.  Neil didn't want to sit at a blockade so he did a u-turn in the middle of a main highway. Mike saw a small (barely one lane) road and we turned down that meandering thru the fields past farmers having lunch. We finally made it to a good road, what we would probably call a county highway. The Michelin ring bound map of France is a must, THANK GOD we bought it. We followed those types of roads for about 4 hours to get to Mont St. Michel on the coast(very few cars the whole time).  Mont St. Michel is a small city built on a rock island in the tidal flats. We got rooms at the Terasses Poulard on the Mont , each was 350F. The Mont is very touristy but at night it clears out. We looked around a while before it got dark, walked/hiked up to the Cathedral. We ate at Du Mouton Blanc, my appetizer was an omelet, lamb for dinner, and a peach torte for desert with a raspberry sauce. We also had 3 bottles of hard cider-really good. We drove to the causeway where Neil & Mike took some pictures of the Mont at night. They turn the lights off at 10pm , the lights shine up to the clouds and looked like there were rising to the heavens.

Friday September 8

We had a mediocre breakfast ant Tervasses Poulard-not worth the 50F. We drove on the auto route in the morning and didn't see any cars in either direction for about 20 minutes(kinda weird). We finally did experience one road closed due to a blockade, so we resorted to secondary roads again. We did get on the auto route and eventually found gas at a Shell oasis. We had to wait for 45 minutes. All of the other stations were out of diesel.... We ate lunch in Amboise and then went to Clos Luce where Leonardo Da Vinci lived for 3 years until his death in 1519. The building was nice and it was interesting to see the models of Leonardo's inventions. I forgot one funny thing that happened to Neil when he was driving, he pushed the accelerator pedal all the way down when he stretched and it stuck to the floor! Good thing we had a stick shift and he put the car in neutral and then shut it off to avoid red lining the engine. Driving on this trip has been quite trying for him. We then drove the short distance to Chenonceaux where we checked into our hotel, La Roseraie. We have a great room with a huge bath for 550F. We walked to the Chateau Chenonceaux, admission was 50F. The chateau was beautiful and spanned the River Cher. We ate dinner at the hotel's restaurant and met Laurent the proprietor. I had onion soup and pork medallions. Mike had duck and Neil beef. There crème brulee for dessert was excellent. I liked it better than the crème caramel. We had 2 bottles of white wine, Chateau Chenonceaux and a bottle of Vouvray demmi-sec. The vouvray was sweeter and not as good. It sounds like the gas problems won't be getting better soon and now farmers in England are demonstrating as well.  We hope to find diesel on the auto route as we are driving to the Alsace region and staying in Colmar near the Germany/France border.

Saturday September 9

We had a good breakfast at La Rosaraie before leaving Chenonceaux. We drove about 30-45 minutes to Chambord . It was magnificent with all of its spires. We decided to drive as far as possible towards Colmar , hoping that we wouldn't be delayed due to the blockades. We found diesel on the auto route and were able to fill our car up which eased our anxiety about not finding fuel. We drove all the way to Alsace with the help of the high speed limits on the auto route. We spent the night in Riquehir at the Hotel Schmidt. Neil & I had a decent room for 360F. We ate dinner at the St. Nicholas. Neil got backeoffe, which is a regional dish kind of like stew. We had Gewürztraminer & Riesling wines.

Driving:Neil drove 102+ mph on the auto route.

Sunday September 10

We drove a little on the Route De Vin today, but most places seemed to be closed because it was sunday. We sampled wines at 2 places. I liked the Tokay Pinot Gris the best. We bought a bottle of it for 49F. We drove to Colmar and had lunch at a Weinstube across from our hotel. We checked into the Hotel St. Martin (3 stars) which looks very nice. Neil & I have a terrace off of our room which will be good to drink wine on! We saw Petite Venise(canals) which was cute. We found a laundromat and thought it would be a good day to do laundry since most everything was closed. The only problem was they didn't have detergent, so we found a gas station with a convienence mart and got some. For dinner we went to the restaurant at the Hotel Rapp. I had veal which was good with mushrooms. We drank the wine we bought on the terrace off of our room.

Monday September 11

Had a decent breakfast at our hotel. We went to Unter Den Linden Museum to see the Ingersheim alter piece(35F admission). Next we went to the Dominican Church to see the Virgin in the Rosebush from 1473. We walked by the Masion Pfistor which was a merchants house in Renaissance style. We walked thru the tanner quarter to Petite Venise. We drove to Rouffach to Clos St. Landelin winery. We had a great Degustation(or tasting), sampled about 7 wines-all were excellent. We bought a 1997 Tokay Pinot Gris for 130F. The lady who did our tasting was really nice. We communicated in French, Deutsch, and English. We drove to Eguisheim, which was really cute with flowers spilling out of their boxes everywhere. For lunch we bought little quiches from the butcher and ate them in the cute town square. We drove into the Vosges mountains to H. Konigsburg with great views of the region and the Rhein river. We returned the car to Hertz. The gas blockade is over, so we were able to fill up the car before returning it. We walked back from Hertz to the town centre, about 15 minutes. Neil and I stopped at the Mephisto shop but they didn't have the size in the shoes he wanted. We looked at a lot of shops. For dinner we went to the Romantik Hotel Marechal, it was quite formal in the service. I had veal medallions which were excellent and Neil had a lobster and mussels with pasta casserole. Neil got a bib with his lobster and lots of utensils he didn't know how to use, quite funny. Crème brulee for desert was excellent. Mike got one of the tasting menus. We had a 1997 Tokay Pinot Gris (again) with dinner. Back at the hotel, we drank the bottle that we got earlier in the day.

Tuesday September 12

We walked about 15 minutes to the train station to catch our train to Luxembourg . Tickets were 199F each. We checked out the Hotel Carlton, not far from the train station. It looked very nice, but they were full. We walked a ways further(with all our bags), and decided to just take a train to Brussels and stay there. Our hotel is the Hotel La Madeleine which is about 2 blocks from the central train station, and two blocks from La Grand Place . We have a small double for 2795 Belgian Francs(BF)(47BF=$1). The bathroom is nice, the room itself is very tight-two people can't walk side by side. We walked to La Grand Place -wow! It is one of the most beautiful squares I have ever seen. We went to the "Manneken-Pis", the little statue of a boy urinating. They dress him up in all sorts of different costumes. We had a Belgium waffle from a stand. We walked many of the streets and window shopped. We stopped at a cafe on the square our hotel is on and had some beer. I got a Fraimboise and Neil & Mike got a Belgium trappist beer. We walked back to La Grand Place and got some beer there also at an outdoor beer garden. Neil got a huge glass of Hoegaarden, Mike got Duval, and I got Tripel Kroeliat. For dinner we went to t'Kelderke in an atmospheric cellar just off of LaGrand Place . Neil got a beef stew, Mike got Rabbit which was excellent and I had a ham, cheese, casserole with some type of leek. We walked around the square which was beautiful at night and along the shopping streets.(all close except for tourist shops). We stopped at an internet cafe, not far from the Palais Hotel. The weather was beautiful for an evening walked around Brussels .

Wednesday September 13

Had a good breakfast at La Madeleine. We walked to the La Grand Place and to the Manneken Pis to get some photos. We caught the 10:04 train to Brugges(kind of). Rick Steves said to be careful because many trains zip in and out of the central station and its easy to get on the wrong train. Well a train came at 10:04 , so we got on. Its terminus was the next station(so we found out). Fortunately our train to Brugges arrived at that station a few minutes later-it was delayed. The train was packed since truckers and farmers here are also blocking road and therefore fuel delivery also. We caught bus 8 toward our hotel. We met a nice Belgian couple who tried to help us find our hotel, unfortunately they told us to get off at the market and walk from there. Had we stayed on the bus we'd have gotten off much closer to our hotel. The Hotel Adornes is very nice. We have a large room with a canal view. For lunch we walked back to the market square and had lunch at a tourist terrace place. The food was good, but they charged Mike 320BF(or about $9) for 2 glasses of ice water. Prices were a rip off. We walked toward the Church of our Lady to see Michelangelo's Mother & Child. It is the only Michelangelo sculpture that is not in Italy . The church wasn't open until 2:00 , but we found an internet cafe www.coffeelink.com nearby. It had nice flat screen monitors. Neil & I each got a computer for ~27 minutes, Neil a beer, me a coke-all for 292BF. Next we went to the Straffe Hendrik brewery for a tour, 140BF plus a free beer at the end. After that we went to the Beguinage, where single women lived in the middle ages. Then we took a boat tour of the canals for 190BF each, lasted 1/2 hour. For dinner we went to t"zonneke at 5 Genthof, just off of the square/place with the Van Eyck statue. I had excellent lamb chops, a huge salad. Neil got a salmon menu with a shrimp salad and coffee included. Good prices and good food. We went to the oldest pub in Brugges after, it is called Vilssinghe 1515, just around the corner from our hotel on an alley off of Larmersstraat. I had a lambic by Liefman's(kriek) and Neil a triple Karmeliet, all for 300 BF. We sat outside on the terrace in their beer garden. Quite a historic place.

Thursday September 14

Nice breakfast at the hotel Adornes this morning. We used the hotel's bikes to check out the fish market-only 2 stalls open(saw some skinned eels). Then we road on to Damme which was 5 km one way. It was a quaint small town, we rode back along the canal and stopped by the windmills on the edge of town. Neil & Mike wanted to bring back the bikes, so we then walked to the Market square and climbed the 366 steps to the top of the belfry. Nice view. We got some Belgian fries on the square-55BF for a small size plus extra for sauce or ketchup. We went to the Groeninge Museum next-Flemish paintings, could have skipped. Next we shopped and Neil found a pair of Mephistos for 5399BF. We hit the Juliper terrace, kiddie korner from our hotel across the canal for a beer and to relax. Had beer and the cheese plate. We went to the train station to get our train tickets to Amsterdam tomorrow. We took the bus and came across a "blockade" again... Slow going to the train station. The tickets were about 30USB each. We walked back and skipped taking the bus. On the way back we stopped at t'Brugs Beertje at Kemelstraat 5. They have a selection of 300 beers. I had a Liefman Framboise, Neil got an Orval trappist ale(6.2%), Mike got a Tripel Karmaliet(8%). Then Neil & Mike got Kasteel Beer at 11% alcohol. It made Neil happy and Mike "fucked up".

We walked back toward the market. Mike stopped in a candy shop and got "one praline". For dinner, the girl at the desk recommended Tom's Diner at West-Gistellhof 23. She had recommended t'zonneke last night. It was another atmospheric place with exposed beams, candles on the tables. We were the only Americans there. We had scampi for an appetizer, Mike & I had the evening special-pork medallions. Neil had an angus ribeye. The food again was great and the price good. We went back to Vlissinghe 1515 for a beer after dinner. I had a Bell -Vue Kriek Lambic-it was good but no comparison to the Liefman. Quote by Neil "I've never had a beer ass kick me so much"-regarding his Kasteelbeer at t'Brugs Beertje.

Friday September 15

We caught a bus at 8:25 across from our hotel to the train station. The charge was 25BF each. We caught the 9:04 train to Antwerp , and then the 10:27 train to Amsterdam . We got into Amsterdam at 12:38 and caught Tram 1 to our hotel. Neil bought 15 strip tickets for 12NG. We found our hotel-the Owl, it is close to Vondelpark. We walked to the Rijksmuseum, cost 25NG to get in since they had a special exhibit called the Golden Age(ends this sunday). The display kind of screwed up Rick Steves Mona Winks tour thru the museum. We saw Rembrandt's Night watch and many others. We ate at the cafeteria there which was good. We took a tram towards the Anne Frank house, it was at 5:15 when we got there with no line to get in, cost 10NG. ~2.5 NG=$1. It was interesting to see the hide out of the family and moving to see photos, quotes, and movie clips. For dinner we went to ola Oriental which was about 2 blocks from our hotel. We got a rijkstable or "rice table". It had about 20 courses and we paid 50NG each. It was fun to try, and I'd never had Indonesian food before. The guy next to us had a real weasely laugh, was funny. The restaurant had a huge black cat sitting in the front window, he was really friendly.

 Saturday September 16

We went to the Van Gogh museum when it opened at 10am . It holds the largest single collection of Van Gogh's works. We all enjoyed it, it was interesting to see how his paintings changed over his life. The admission was 15.5NG. We went to Rembrandtplein next and had a falafel at Maoz. Wasn't as good as the one in Paris . Next we walked toward the Red Light District. We were going to take a tram, but the one we wanted wasn't running due to a parade. The parade was for the 100 year anniversary of the trams or street cars in Amsterdam . It was neat to see some of the old street cars. We found the Red Light District along the canal. We were there around 2pm , some of the girls were in their windows. They basically sit on a chair in a bra and panties waiting for a customer. It was pretty interesting and it seems like a good way to handle prostitution, rather than have them walk the streets like in the US . We had a beer at a cafe a canal over and then walked around looking at the shops. We went to Stoop & Stoop, kind of a pub/cafe not far from the Leidesplein. The food was really good. I had satay of pork medallion and Neil & Mike got lamb steak. We had a bunch of beers(Heineken) after initially ordering Amstel. The waiter/owner asked why Americans always order Amstel instead of Heineken. Heineken at home we said tastes skunky....  Stoop & Stoop, Eetcafe Lange Leidsedwarstrasse 82. We decided to head back to the Red Light District to see what it was really like after dark. It was definitely livelier, with lots of tourists walking down the street along the canal. It was funny to see all of the Japanese tourists, especially coming out of the shows. One American met up with his friends, and they asked "how come you are back so soon". Was definitely interesting.

Sunday September 17

We left the hotel shortly after 10:00 and caught the tram to the central station. The tram was busy. We got our ticket to Schipol airport at the window since the machines only took coins. 6.5NG, leave every 10 minutes. Mike's train to Paris was to leave at 11:25 . It was leaving at the platform across from ours, so we waved to each other. It took Neil & I about 20 minutes to get out to the airport. At the ticket counter we found out our flight was overbooked and that we may not have seats. So much for duty free shopping, we went right to the gate. The agent took our boarding passes and fortunately after a few minutes she called us back up and we got seats 46ab. Other people got seated apart and they were offering 900NG flight vouchers plus hotel, dinner, and breakfast to get bumped. Neil & I both have to work tomorrow, so glad we got on. I am seated next to a man from Lithuania who is going to visit his daughter in Chicago .