European Trip 1998

Having dinner with Philippe, Sarah, and his parents.

Philippe told us that when we arrived in Nantes, we can leave our luggage at the luggage lockers then we can take a tour of the city. But when we arrive at Nantes, we had 3 hours to kill before Philippe would pick us up. Unfortunately, we could not leave our luggage in a locker, because all lockers in France were closed due to World Cup terrorism fears. Reminiscent of 18 months ago when we were in France, we watched soldiers with big guns patrolling the train (and subway) stations. Back then, there were some bombs that exploded in subway stations. I guess that the next time we visit France, it will be a surprise if we don't see the soldiers. I pulled out my book and started reading. A few minutes before 7 p.m., a man walked by and Lyn and the man did a double-take; then, they recognized each other. Philippe looked quite different in a business suit than when we had seem him for the one and only time on a train 18 months ago. We had kept in touch via e-mail since then.

The McDonald's in Nantes

We dined at a crepe restaurant with Philippe and his parents, who seemed to enjoy trying to teach French to Lyn. I was not a very good student at this point, because I was kind of on foreign language overflow. The next day we took in the local sites and Sarah, Philippe's girlfriend, became an additional dinner companion for Spaghetti, salad (yes, after the main course), wine, cheese, then more wine. During dinner we found out the Philippe had a hard time pronouncing "north" and "south"; they came out "norf" and "souf". We finished the evening off with a walk along the river Erde.

The next day we were running again to catch the train to LaBaule, a beautiful sea side resort city. When we purchased the train ticket, we thought the "voit 16" on the reservation meant track 16. And so we were running back and forth thru the station looking for this non-existent track. A nice fellow straightened us out just in time. In good weather La Baule would have been another beautiful place to skate with a 5 mile path along the beach and peaceful, friendly city streets. We lunched at a Bolivian restaurant, paid by credit card, and walked out. A few minutes later we heard something in the distance and turned around to find our waitress running towards us. Why? Our signature was not on the receipt. Meanwhile, back in Nantes, on the tram we saw a very embarrassed individual having to pay a fine for not having her ticket. The day before we had boarded the tram, purchasing our ticket from the driver; I realized later the ticket was only good for one of us. I'm glad we didn't have to try to explain that one.

On a normal day this time of the year, the beach at LaBaule would be packed with people, however, we picked a particularly cold day to show up.

We stayed with them for 3 days and on a Friday, we are on our way to Switzerland. On that Friday morning, Philippe dropped us off at the train, supplying us with what the French value more than anything else, a good bottle of wine. We also left with memories of more wonderful people. We took TGV from Nantes to Paris and from there we have to change to another TGV to reach Lousanne, Switzerland and a regular train to reach our friends Glenda and Jurg in Bern, Switzerland. In Paris, Lyn used some of the French she had learned, when she acted as translator for two American tourists who were trying to get subway tickets from a clerk. The TGV to Lusanne was very smooth. Earlier, we had unsuccessfully tried to call Jurg and Glenda, our next stop on the trip. Outside of Germany, we had nothing but problems with the phone system. In Lousanne, we again failed with our Sprint phone card. The coin phones which only took Swiss franks were conveniently placed next to a money change machine that only dispensed French franks. In the crowded station, my temperature was again rising, when I noticed a money change office. As I entered the door I saw a phone card sticker. I looked in my wallet at the various currencies and decided I had too many German marks. I did a quick mental calculation and handed over enough marks for the phone card, uncharacteristically caring little about what change I received. We raced to the phone, notified Jurg and Glenda when we would be arriving, and made our train with little time to spare.

At Jungfraujoch, the "Top of Europe"

During our visit to Nantes, France, we had stormy, cool weather, but not too much rain. On the morning we left it was warm and sunny. We caught up with the rain in Bern, Switzerland. However, the next day was nice for our ascent to the Jungfraujoch mountain. We started around 2000 feet at the valley floor and ended up over 11000 feet. An incredible view awaited us at the "Top of Europe". Also, there were ice caves carved out of the glacier. Inside the caves were carved various life-sized ice sculptures. We had a tasty lunch at one of the restaurants. Lyn had problems breathing on top and during some of the descent. Next on the agenda was a waterfall. It was closed by the time we got there, but this was no impediment for Jurg. He showed us the way as we walked along the fence until there was a low spot. We carefully made our way in the failing light, but it was well worth the walk. We had dinner at the Giessbach, while looking at onto some waterfalls, but we barely noticed the hour and 45 minutes it took to get our food.

Glenda tries to break up Jorg's and my chess game.

The next day we went to Lake Geneva. We strolled through Chateau de Chillon and, in one of my favorite memories of the trip, skated along the lake at Montreaux. We gave Glenda, who is just learning to skate, a few pointers and enjoyed the view as well. There was even a short slalom course, but the cones were too close together for unwieldy roller blades. The two skaters who were there used conventional skates which, with a slight twist of the foot, can turn much faster. We had crepes for a snack, eating on benches beside the lake. The evening was spent with a stroll through Bern.

We took our final train ride to Amsterdam, passing through Baden Baden, the home of one of my mother's ancestors. I didn't see much of it from the train, but maybe I'll add it to our list of destinations for our next trip. In Amsterdam, many of the hotels were filled up and the first night we ended up staying at the Damrak Hotel. We took the room without seeing it first. Once Lyn did see it, she vowed we would never go back to the Damrak Hotel. Oh, well. We took a boat cruise and skated around, but we missed the bus tour, including the diamond cutting and we missed the scenic city tour tram.

When the weather is nice, Amsterdam is a wonderful place to skate.

Wednesday morning, our plane was more than an hour late in taking off, because they had lost communications with Scotland and, therefore, had to reroute the plane. The shuttle bus, which we had made reservations with before leaving, didn't show up. Luckily, another shuttle bus was willing to make the trip. We arrived at home and I was very relieved to see the house was okay, though a little bit dusty. Thus ends our trip and this long summary. I wrote it so that I would never lose those precious moments with our good friends. Again, I thank them all for making it happen.

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