Notes from Le Rêve

Last Day

2007-05-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

We are leaving Les Brevieres this morning.

We will spend one night in Lyon then fly out of Geneva tomorrow. Then one night in Dublin, then home!

We had an excellent raclette dinner with our landlords last night... Yum.

No more phone or internet until we get home on Saturday.

See you all soon!

-SK

ute Ro

2007-05-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

Since we did about half of an Haute Route trip when Bob was here, we're calling it the ute Ro. (Get it? Haute Route ha ha)

I like Bob's description of the trip:

Four days and three nights consisting of icy climbs, steep ski paths, a 100’ ladder on a cliff, a rappel into Italy, route finding through ice falls… The last day we skied under the Matterhorn, then ran out of snow a few miles from Zermatt.

I promised I'd post some more pictures here, so here they are!

Ladders

Inside the Dix Hut

Rappeling into Italy

Glacier skiing

Last day: Walking to Zermatt

Don't forget, there are more pictures and the full story on our web site!

-SK

Birthday "cake"

2007-05-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!

For my birthday, I made myself a banana bourbon bread pudding, but with waffles instead of bread. It turned out really yummy, especially considering I had no recipe! I sort of remember what I did though:

Toast about six waffles so they are crunchy, then cut them up into chunks (about 1-2inches).
Mix an egg, about 3/4 cup milk, a couple of tablespoons sugar (more if your waffles are no so sweet) and a couple ounces of bourbon.
Add the waffle chunks and stir it all up.
Slice a banana into the whole mess.
Pour (spoon, coax) it all into a 9x9in pyrex.
Let it sit about 20 minutes.
Cook at about 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

YUM!

Also, for my birthday it snowed! Here I am enjoying it!

Speaking of birthdays, it was my dad's 60th while he was visiting us. And to celebrate, we had all sorts of adventures! I will write a synopsis soon, or, if you are in a hurry to hear about it, check out the description and photos on the web site.

-SK

Ghost Town

2007-05-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the snow in our village is gone, the gondola is not running anymore and most of the businesses are closed. (Including, sadly, the little grocery store, which closed on Sunday.) There is NOBODY here anymore. We can still ski at the higher base areas, but that means driving.

On Friday, we did a ceremonial "last ski" down to the village. The run was closed, but we had scoped it from the gondola and thought it looked passable.

It got a little dirty at this point.

...And then, we had to walk!

Oh well, the lack of snow is making it a little easier to leave. We are now figuring out how to get everything home. Customs is a pain. And so are luggage restrictions on cheap airlines (like Aerlingus).

See you soon,

-S

Hair Compare

2007-04-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

This is in response to Prasti's comment... she said she almost didn't recognize me with long hair!

I almost don't recognize myself anymore! I haven't had a haircut on this entire trip, with the idea that in the wintertime I would wear braids, which are very convenient for skiing (don't get in your face or get too wet). This plan worked out well! But, since I've been almost always wearing my hair in braids now, I don't really have a sense of how long it really is! So when I saw this photo of me and my dad at the top of the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix, I was a bit startled! (Plus, I'm really tan.)

Compare to this photo taken at the beginning of our trip (Feb 1, 2006). It's a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

Craig, on the other hand, just got a haircut.

Here he is at maximum length (about a month ago).

And here he is last week at the top of Pigne d'Arolla. (Notice how much shorter my hair looks in braids!)

I just hope that Jeff is still working at the New London Salon when I come back.

-SK

#1! and Best Cities

2007-04-28T03:17:00.000-07:00

And finally! Steph and Craig's #1 European Tourist Site is ...

Stromboli! When all is said and done, nature prevails over man-made attractions on our list! On the island of Stromboli, you get the whole package... A boat ride from Sicily, a cute waterfront town, a hike up a volcano with excellent views, and the knockout punch: real volcanic explosions with lava! Enough to be actually a bit scary. Even with the plastic hard-hat they give you for the tour.

List o' the day: Best Cities in Europe

This was the hardest list for us to make! There were debates and compromises between the reviewers, and several cities that barely missed the list (Barcelona, Brussels, Porto, Palermo, Sevilla and Stockholm). And, of course, there are some major cities in Europe that we did not visit, so they're not included here... But with that disclaimer, here are our picks...

Paris, France
Paris really does have it all! Knock-out sights, great food and art, beautiful architecture and public spaces, great public transit, and a population that confidently goes about its business. Somehow, Parisians just know they live in fabulous place, and they don't try to make it into anything else.

Rome, Italy
Probably Europe's most romantic city, Rome does not disappoint. Full of magnificent piazzas, fountains, and ancient roman buildings, Rome is a wanderer's delight, even if you're not a history buff! Visiting the Ancient Forum still instills a sense of awe at the magnificence of the empire.

Vienna, Austria
Vienna may be a bit stuck in the past, but with a such a glorious past, who can blame it?! In the city center, where it seems like every building was created to be fit for the Habsburg royalty, coffeehouses can be found next to chic boutiques, and Mozart look-alikes hawk concert tickets.

Berlin, Germany
What we loved about Berlin was that (unlike Rome, in particular!) they city is not afraid to do something new! The Berlin Wall is virtually gone now, and urban redevelopment has gobbled up the former no-man's land. A giant civic project now spans the river. Still, funky neighborhoods can be found with active music, art and cafe scenes and a serious grunge culture. (Makes Seattle look mild.)

Budapest, Hungary
... and while Vienna ignores the Danube river, Budapest rejoices in it, making it a focal point for the city's most impressive buildings. What we liked best about Budapest though, was the slightly chaotic sense of optimism that seemed to drive its inhabitants and businesses.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Amsterdam is, in a way, a town of extremes. Its highly organized system of concentric canals and bike lanes (where all bikes travel the same speed, because they all have just one gear!) gives way to hoards of chaotic partyers after dark. But, by daylight, they're all gone, and one can freely move among the canals and alleys, admiring the row houses and trying not to get lost!

Venice, Italy
Venice grew on us a lot. At first, it seemed like a filthy, crowded tourist town. But that was because we were at a filthy, crowded, tourist destination (St. Mark's square). After the ugly initial impression, we wandered. And as we wandered, we found the real Venice, where people do their shopping and kids play in the squares. And perhaps the most amazing thing about Venice... it is truly and entirely a pedestrian city. Even bicycles are impractical for maneuvering on staircases over canals!

Prague, Czech Republic
Prague is another city that grew on us. On the downside, Prague is too crowded with tourists. Of course, there's a reason it's crowded with tourists, and that's because it is a remarkable place, especially for its architecture, which is dominated by spiky towers. Off of the tourist track, Prague is both gritty and polished, trendy and worn.

Athens, Greece
We went to Athens expecting the worst (smog, crowds, garbage) and were pleasantly surprised. There is a slick new subway system which immensely helps smog and congestion. Garbage can still be found (it's Greece, after all!), and entire neighborhoods are covered in (some quite artistic!) graffiti, but it feels like a city on the up-and-up, and has the best cafe culture we've found in Europe. Entire streets were taken over by tables around dusk.

Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen bucks the "neat, tidy and boring" trend of most Scandinavian cities. Its central square is lit with neon advertisements at night, and people flock downtown for the clubbing scene on the weekends; some even take naps on the street before their big night out. The downsides: smoking is allowed on the subway, and the entire city is dead until about 3:00pm on Saturday!

Want to see the photos? They're here.

The Haute Route (almost)!

2007-04-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Bob, Craig and I arrived in Zermatt yesterday evening after four days on the trail. Ski trail, that is. We altered our plans for the Haute Route, starting in Arolla, Switzerland instead of Chamonix, France after starting out in Chamonix and turning around there due to crummy snow and team sickness. This whole endeavor deserves a blog mini-series with photos, which I promise to get to when we get back to Les Brevieres (day after tomorrow), AND, of course I tell you what the number one tourist site in Europe is!

-SK
a Arolla, Switzerland

#2! And Best Relatively Unknown Cities

2007-04-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

Steph and Craig's #2 European Tourist Site is ...

The Louvre in Paris. Yes, it makes both our "Best Museums" list and our "Best Sights" list. It's that good. What makes it so special? Well, the art collection is amazing. Most of what you studied in Art History 101 is here, and even if you've never never cracked an art book in your life, you'll still probably recognize the Mona Lisa. But, in addition to the art collection, you will be touring one of the French Royal palaces, which is worth the price of admission alone! Add to that an important piece of modern architecture (I.M. Pei's glass pyramid), and we're talking major bang for your buck. It was not overly busy when we went in November.

List o' the day: Best Relatively Unknown Towns in Europe

These are the places we enjoyed a lot that are not yet on the major tourist track.

Le Puy, France
Le Puy feels like the French answer to the Tuscan hilltown, with winding alleys that work their way towards the Romanesque cathedral, which is the starting point of one of the most important pilgrimages in Europe and houses the famous Black Virgin. It is very picturesque, and hard to believe it didn't make it into all of our guidebooks.

Kotor, Montenegro
Kotor is a fortified town spectacularly located on the Fjord of Kotor on the Adriatic. It is full of narrow streets, small plazas, homes and shops. You can climb the ramparts behind the town for a great view of the fjord over the city.

Nimes, France
Nimes is a regional destination, but not yet one of the big names. It is a Roman town, well worth a visit for its amazingly preserved roman stadium (which still is used to stage gladiator demonstrations and bullfights), and its large pedestrian center.

Ohrid, Macedonia
We rolled into Ohrid on a Friday night, when the lakeshore was hopping, and enjoyed strolling the marble-paved pedestrian streets with the locals who were out in force. Ohrid has the energy of a place on the verge of becoming very chic, but is still cheap!

Bamberg, Germany
Bamberg is one of the stops on central Germany's "Romantic Road", but we had never heard of it! It is full of old half-timber buildings, including the town hall, which is built on an island in the river, and is home to a special smoked beer.

Split, Croatia
Yes, this one probably makes the guidebooks on Croatia, but still isn't as big-name as Dubrovnik. We thought Split was more interesting because of its history; it was originally a roman palace that over the years was occupied by the town's residence and transformed into a city.

Bolzano, Italy
A little bit of Austria in the Italian Alps, Bolzano is a lively place with a very outdoorsy culture where German is the first language of most residents, though all speak Italian as well.

Chania, Crete (Greece)
OK, so the tourists have already discovered this one, unfortunately making it nearly impossible to navigate on a Friday night... but how can a city on Crete NOT be touristy? Chania is interesting because it has been inhabited so long that you can see modern buildings on top of Byzantine buildings on top of Hellenistic buildings on top of Minoan buildings!

Pecs, Hungary
It's hard to say exactly what makes Pecs such a nice place to hang out... It has some old Turkish buildings, an impressive cathedral, and lots of those lovely Hungarian tiled roofs, but mostly, its residents just seem to really enjoy living there!

Ljubljana, Slovenia
In a way, it's a travesty that this one makes the list. After all, it is a European capital city, so we all should have heard of it! But most of us haven't, and we highly recommend a visit to watch as Ljubljana transforms itself into a cosmopolitan regional center.

And, you can see photos of these places on our web site here!

Au revoir, McLouis!

2007-04-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we sold our beloved camping-car, the McLouis. It is going to a good home with the Mignes, who live in northwestern France and took the train all the way to Chambery (the closest big town to us) to come pick it up. We're sad to part with what was our "home" for several months, but we are happy that we won't be in a major jam to get rid of it when we leave.

Which, by the way, we now have an official return-home date! We'll be arriving in Seattle on May 12 around 8:30 pm. We are flying from Geneva to Dublin, spending Friday night in Dublin, then flying from Dublin to New York to Seatle on Saturday. We're very excited to see you all!

Bob (my dad) is visiting us right now, and we expect to leave on the Haute Route (an 8-day ski tour from Chamonix to Zermatt) on Sunday. I might get the rest of the top ten lists published before then!

-SK

#3! and Best Villages

2007-04-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

Steph and Craig's #3 European Tourist Site is ...

The Alhambra, in Granada, Spain. A beautiful site on a hill overlooking the town, the Alhambra is a masterpiece of Moorish architecture, and its grounds include beautiful gardens with delightful water features. You could easily spend a whole day! The biggest problem we had with this site was finding the ticket office. Yes, hard to believe, but somehow we entered through the back door..

List o' the day: Best Villages in Europe

You know, those quaint little places that don't seem to exist in the US...

Momenvasia, Greece
This remote village is connected to the southeast corner of the Peloponnese by a causeway. It was a Byzantine stronghold that somehow got left behind in time and has been recently "rediscovered" by rich people who are rebuilding the old town.

Bard, Italy
We found this tiny town in the Aosta valley because we were attracted by the nearby fortress on the river. It's a very sleepy place that it appears the tourists haven't yet invaded. (Visit soon)

Sintra, Portugal
Located on a forested hillside, Sintra is home to windy pedestrian paths and old mansions of Lisbon escapees, and is the jumping-off point for visiting the crazy palace nearby.

Bergheim, France
Bergheim is a walled medieval town in the Alsace region of France, near the German border. This area is dominated by the much more touristy village of Riquewihr so you will have the quaint streets of Bergheim to yourself. Don't forget to stop by the wineries (just outside the town wall) for a tasting!

Mali Ston, Croatia
So this is what they're talking about when they say Croatia is "the Mediterranean the way it used to be"! Mali Ston is a fishing village on the Dalmatian Coast with pedestrian alleys working their way up the hill and a half-ruined, half-rebuilt city wall.

Monteriggioni, Italy
It would be impossible to make this list without including a Tuscan hilltown. Monteriggioni is our favorite. There are no major attractions, just a little town inside an impressive wall. The wall has been recently reinforced so that you can admire the view and circumnavigate the town from the top.

Vyzitsa, Greece
A tiny community on the forested Peleon Peninsula in eastern Greece, Vyzitsa is a collection of old mansions turned into guest-houses, and home to the biggest Sycamore trees we have ever seen!

Venosc, France
This old stone village is set in a deep valley below the Alpe d'Huez ski area. Wandering around town on a winter evening, you'd think that time had stopped several hundred years ago.

Mattrei, Austria
One of the gateways to the Austrian Alps, Mattrei somehow retains a village feel, with beautiful Tyrollean houses and gardens bursting with flowers in the summertime.

Kosmas, Greece
This is probably the most authentic (ie lacking tourists) village that we found. It is very remote, reached by a long drive through the hills of the western Peloponnese. We stopped for a drink under the sycamore trees in the main town square.

... and, since you probably want to see photos of all these cute places, we've posted the list on our web site, visit now!

#4! And Best Things to Avoid

2007-03-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

Steph and Craig's #4 European Tourist Site is ...

Pompeii, Italy. You probably know the story. Volcano erupts, engulfing Roman town in hot mud. Their misfortune is our gain. Pompeii is an immense historical site and the best way to learn about life in ancient Roman cities. Craig and I have visited twice now, for a total of about 8 hours, and I think we could do 8 more without getting bored.

List o' the day: Things to Avoid in Europe

This is the follow-up to our last list... these are the things to go out of your way to AVOID while in Europe.

Belgian Mud is truly car-swallowing, and cost us €70 for a tow after we spent about an hour spinning our wheels, ruining floor mats and sinking deeper, deeper, deeper!

Bulgarian Border Crossings are the worst in Europe (where it's often hard to tell you've changed countries). It took us over two hours to clear Bulgarian exit customs. I had no idea it would be so hard to leave.

Saturday Afternoon 3 Weeks before Christmas at the Galleries Lafayette in Paris has got to be the most crowded and chaotic shopping experience ever! I took refuge near the information desk and tried to stay out of the way of the endless stream (actually more like whitewater rapids) of shoppers with baby strollers and huge packages that pushed their way past.

Driving in Napoli was our most stressful experience in the camping car. First, it is Italy, where everyone seems to be training for the Formula 1 circuit. Add to that a busy arterial with absolutely no lane markings (I think it was supposed to be three lanes, but turned into about 6), darting pedestrians, construction barriers and really bad directional signage, and you get the picture.

Greek Overnight Ferries without a Private Cabin - Craig and I booked too late to get our own cabin, which isn't really that big of a deal (instead you share, dormitory style, with people you don't know), except that this particular Greek ferry had ABSOLUTELY NO DESIGNATED NON-SMOKING AREA. After suffering for a while in the lounge (it was too windy outside), we went our separate ways. Luckily the other people in our cabins did not smoke.

Having to take the Night Bus in Vienna - the night bus itself might be fine, the problem is finding the one that goes where you're going. We wandered around looking at bus stops with dizzying lists of places served (imagine trying to read a list of 30 germanic place-names in 8 point type with low light), and craning our necks around the closed subway barrier to try to make out the route map. After an hour or so we gave up and took a cab.

St. Mark's Square in Venice when Flooded is pretty disgusting. Hoards of tourists are crammed onto little portable walkways and garbage and dead pigeons float around in the tide. Definitely ruins the charm of Venice.

Parking Overnight on the Croatian Autoroute is something we don't recommend. The very boring route across northern Croatia has communist-era rest stops that heavy trucks roll through all night and lack modern conveniences, like toilets.

Trying to find a Campground in Barcelona is pretty much impossible. We drove all over the west end of town, which was quite obviously the red light district, finding one dilapidated and marginally open campground where we didn't feel comfortable leaving the camping-car. The other had been condemned. We chose to spend the night parked under the highway near a suburban train station instead.

The Final Push for the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican Museum in Rome is tourism at its worst. Yes, of course you must visit the Sistine Chapel. Just be prepared to shuffle along with the crowds of annoying groups along the way. In my opinion, they should install moving chairs, sort of like at Disney's Haunted Mansion. The commentary could be piped in.

#5! And Best Experiences

2007-03-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

Steph and Craig's #5 European Tourist Site is ...

Auschwitz and Birkenau, Poland. A visit to the former Nazi concentration camps is a sobering experience, and much more powerful than any museum, book or movie about the Holocaust. Both sites are preserved in park-like states, with interpretive panels throughout. And while many tourists visit, the mood is appropriately respectful and subdued.

List o' the day: Best European Experiences

These are things that you should go out of your way to experience while in Europe!

Albanian Hospitality
Our guidebook mentioned that Albania's culture has firm rules dictating the gracious treatment of travelers. Even warned, we were surprised, as people in the poorest nation in Europe invited us into their homes, helped us navigate strange towns, and bought us drinks. By far our most intense European experience. Read the full story (a previous blog entry).

The Tour de France...
Preferably in a camper parked along the route. But a picnic along the route would do too. Make sure you get there early enough all of the craziness, including the Caravane. Read our Tour de France blog entry.

Befriend an Italian
You never know how it will happen. It might be a chance encounter, like the way we met Gaetano in Milazzo and spent a couple of hours talking even though we don't speak the same language... Or it might be your aunt's family's exchange student from 1970, which is how we met Lucy, Christian and Eric in Genoa. No matter how you meet, spend some time communicating however you can, you'll learn a ton and it will be great fun!

The Baths in Budapest
First, of course, you'll have to decide which of the baths to go to. Craig and I opted for the co-ed bath in the city park so that we could share the experience, which is best described as part spa, part municipal swimming pool, all housed in beautiful buildings. There were steam rooms, saunas, cold pools, hot pools, mineral pools, and fountains, but we thought the best was the whirlpool, where about 20 people were shoved along in a perpetual current. (Play Strauss' Blue Danube to enhance this visual.)

Drink Local Beer in Belgium
Find the smallest town you can, and try to taste the beer in the pub closest to the brewery. It's best if you go around 5:00, when everyone is stopping by on their way home from work (at the brewery, of course). Our favorite place for tasting is the tiny town of Tourpes. Read the full story.

Stroll the Champs d'Elysees on a Pleasant Saturday Evening
Join the crowd of tourists and Parisians who are out to see and be seen! Pop into the crazy car dealerships lining the boulevard and drool over their latest concept cars. And, if you can, grab a seat at a cafe for some wine and crepes, sit back, and watch the flood of exuberance pass by.

Shop in Palermo
Sicily's biggest city has the best Saturday market we've seen anywhere in Europe. Blocks and blocks are crowded with temporary stands selling fish, fruit, vegetables, toys, clothes, and the best olives we've found in Europe. The areas around the street markets are filled with small alleys of shops. We found the "outdoors" alley, where you could buy bikes and camping and fishing supplies at various tiny shops, and the "home improvement" alley, where we bought a custom-made curtain for our camper. Even better, Sicily seems to be immune to the Euro-inflation that plagues the rest of Italy.

Take a Break in a Vienna Coffee-House
Their ambiences are varied; you can go upscale or beatnik, but no matter where you stop, you'll find Vienna's coffee-house tradition alive and well. You can stay as long as you'd like. Read the newspaper, play billiards even. Just don't ask for your coffee to go, and stay away from Starbucks (who, inexplicably, has a huge presence in Vienna).

Flamenco Dancing in Sevilla
We opted out of the tourist shows and went straight for the club with the reputation for "serious" Flamenco. (Well, not exactly straight, Sevilla is full of crooked streets that somehow all converge on its enormous cathedral.) It's Spain, so nothing starts until at least 9:00, but here the act doesn't started until about 11:00. We waited, and were treated to some of the most emotional (not to mention physical) dancing we've ever seen.

Bastille Day Fireworks in Carcasonne
Carcasonne stages the most dramatic fireworks we've ever seen on the walls of its well-preserved medieval fortress town. Unlike the American shows, which seem to be about filling the sky with as much spectacle as possible for as long as possible, this show had pauses without any big fireworks, where it looked like the old town was on fire, or that showers of liquid gold were pouring from its walls. Amazing. (And of course, pretty much impossible to get a good picture.)

Number 11?!
Yes, number 11, because not everyone will want to do this one, but it is, after all, our reason for coming to Europe... Ski the Alps
You can pick. Zermatt, Chamonix, the Dolomites, St. Anton... Check out Craig's review from last season if you need help. But if you are a snow-sports person by all means, do it! You will be blown away by the scale of the Alps, and of the snow-sports development here.

...So those are the things you can plan to do. Some of our favorite experiences though, are completely unplanned, which is what made them fun. These include:

Stumbling on a Medieval Festival in Elche, Spain, where we followed a belly-dancing/story-telling/unicycle-riding/club-juggling troupe leading the crowd with a giant puppet and fireworks. (There's a bit more about Elche at this blog entry.)

Being in the right place at the right time for a performance of Mozart's Requiem in one of Budapest's cathedrals

Being bold enough to check out the William Arne Motorcirkus when we were intrigued by it at the tivoli in Malmo, Sweden. (See previous blog entry for more.)

#6! And Best Churches

2007-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Steph and Craig's #6 European Tourist Site is ...

The Meteora, Greece. The landscape alone is spectacular, with its spires of rock on the edge of a forested plateau. Add picturesque monasteries perched high above the valley, great rock-climbing and hiking, and you've got a must-see attraction!

List o' the day: Best Churches

Christianity, and especially Catholicism, dominates Europe, and makes its mark in some incredible buildings. Here are our favorites:

The Pantheon, Rome, Italy
Perhaps the single most impressive building we've been inside. The giant ancient Roman dome was spared from demolition during the building of St. Peter's only because it had been converted into a church.

St. Mark's, Venice, Italy
Exceptional on the exterior, as well as the interior, St. Mark's is a greek cross plan church gone wild with mosaic walls and ceilings spanning centuries.

The Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
Gaudi's legacy lives on in his massive cathedral, still under construction! Even partially finished, this building is exceptional for its immense scale and ornamentation.

The French High Gothic Cathedrals
OK, we're cheating here because we could not decide which one was best. Visit any of these cathedrals in France: Amiens, Strasbourg, Chartres or Notre Dame de Paris to see incredible gothic architecture, carvings and stained glass.

Duomo at Monreale, Sicily, Italy
The interior of this Romanesque cathedral is decorated entirely in mosaic, much of it gold. Incredible.

St. Nicholas, Prague, Czech Republic
One of the most ornate baroque churches we saw, St. Nicholas is full of exuberantly curvy carved decoration inside and out.

Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence, Italy
Brunelleschi's famous Renaissance dome, and the striking green and white striped marble exterior make this one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe.

San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy
Unique for its octagonal plan, this Byzantine church houses some well-preserved early Christian mosaics in its multiple domes.

St. Mary's, Krakow, Poland
The stand-out feature in this cathedral is the insanely gaudy and enormous gothic altarpiece, carved in wood and covered in gold leaf.

St. Peter's, Rome, Italy
How could we not include the most enormous cathedral in the world? Imagine a football stadium inside a richly decorated building and you get the idea.

PS. Even though they lost to England, France won the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament yesterday by beating Scotland with a big enough point differential to give them the edge over Ireland.

#7! And Best Museums

2007-03-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

Steph and Craig's #7 European Tourist Site is ...

Le Mont St. Michel, France. This monastery and town are built on a rock in a bay between Normandy and Brittany in northern France. For a great experience, arrive at night and tour the monastery the next morning. (This helps avoid the worst tourist crowds.) The town is incredibly preserved, down to minute details (like roof shingles) and the monastery has, in our opinions, the most spectacular cloister in Europe.

List o' the day: Top Ten Museums in Europe

Disclaimer! We didn't spend a lot of time visiting museums, so this list is limited greatly by which museums we decided to visit!

The Louvre, Paris, France
No surprise here. Although I guess were were a little surprised that we could still be impressed by the Louvre after all of the hype. With its important and enormous collection and its elegant buildings (worth the price of admission alone!) the Louvre easily takes our number one pick.

The Vatican Museum, Vatican City (Rome), Italy
Like the Louvre, it really would take multiple days to explore this collection. Most people head straight for the sistine chapel, but the Vatican museum also has impressive collections of medieval religious art and paleo-christian sarcophagi.

The Uffizi, Florence, Italy
The Uffizi is so full of high wow-factor paintings, like Botticelli's Birth of Venus that is can be easy to overlook the rest of its collection. Particularly nice are the galleries illustrating the evolution of Italian painting before the Renaissance.

The National Archeological Museum, Athens, Greece
This museum has the greatest collection in the world of Greek art, the sculpture is beautifully displayed, and is a great place to escape the Athens heat for hours on end.

The Capitolini Museum, Rome, Italy
The museum is housed in a Renaissance palace overlooking the Roman Forum and highlights exquisite sculpture, as well as archeological findings from the Temple of Juno unearthed during its expansion.

The Judisches Museum, Berlin, Germany
This modern museum presents Jewish history in Europe. The design and architecture of the interior, exterior and (many interactive) exhibits work conceptually with the subject matter. The best example of integrated museum design I've ever seen!

The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
Frank Gehry's building is a piece of art in itself that works extraordinarily well on the Bilbao riverfront. Inside, there are several knockout art pieces in the permanent collection.

The Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark
This museum is built around five viking ships found under the mud near Roskilde. The ships are impressive, but the museum's strong point are its live displays of viking maritime techniques and technology, like rope making and boat building.

The Historial de la Grande Guerre, Peronne, France
This World War I museum does an amazing job of presenting nine viewpoints throughout the events of the war -- those of the military generals, the soldiers and the civilians, in Germany, France and Great Britain. (And in German, French and English.) A moving experience.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
The Kunsthistoriches' painting collection is impressive, with Durer, Van Eyck, and a ton of Rubens, and some complete surprises (like the small paintings by Arcimboldo). They've also got a great collection of Bruegel paintings. And all of it is housed in a typical Viennese-style fancy building.

Honorable Mentions
There are a few individual objects that are worth seeing, even if the museums that house them do not make our list. These are:

Michelangelo's David, at the Academia in Florence, Italy

The Bayeux Tapestry, at the museum built to hold it in Bayeux, France

A minutely detailed Model of the City of Prague made out of paper(!) at the City of Prague Museum in Prague, Czech Republic

A fantastic Mechanical Boat with dozens of mechanically animated figures playing music and ending with a blast of the ship's cannon, at the National Museum of the Renaissance in Ecouen, France.

Watching Rugby

2007-03-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we watched France versus England play in the 6 Nations Rugby Championships. The six "nations" that compete are: France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy. It was a big deal, because if France won against England, they would clinch the title, even though there are still games to be played. Unfortunately, France did not win.

I think rugby might be the second-best TV sport (after basketball). There is lots of action and the play never stops.

To make sense of it all, though, we had to look up the rules on the Internet.

Here is an excerpt from the BBC Sports Academy about Feeding the scrum:

"The scrum-half is the player who gets things going in the scrum. It's their job to feed the ball into the scrum for the hooker to strike back to the number eight. The scrum-half must roll the ball in from left-hand side, or the loosehead side as it is called. From there, the scrum-half cannot handle the ball until it has come out of scrum. The six other backs must be at least five metres behind the last forward of their team. If they are not, the referee will penalise the offending team."

It's all perfectly clear now, isn't it?

Craig has recovered from his crash and feeling much better now (although he is still taking advantage of the prescription the doctor wrote him for massage with the kinesotherapist). He never did get a black eye. In the photo, you can see him tearing up the Val d'Isere backcountry.

-SK

#8! And Best Campsites

2007-03-06T23:09:00.000-08:00

Steph and Craig's #8 European Tourist Site is ...

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece. One of the big name attractions, this site does not disappoint, but the wow-factor is somewhat diminished by the hoards of people, the continuous construction/restoration and the fact that you are not allowed to go into any of the temples. (The only Greek temple we've been able to walk through is at Segesta, Sicily.) Still, it is impossible to describe the magic of seeing the Acropolis for the first time, especially if you've studied art history or Greek classical literature.

List o' the day: Top Ten Campsites

These are places where we parked and stayed in the camper overnight (outside of official campgrounds).

Parking Lot, Verbier, Switzerland
Free parking with a free bus to the ski lifts, walking distance to the supermarket, with a heated and clean public toilet on one side, and the recreation center, where you could get a shower for 3 francs on the other. We stayed there for three days!

Beach, Kato Zagros, Crete (Greece)
We think Crete might be one of the few places in Europe where you can still park a camper on the beach. We took advantage of it! We could walk to the little town, a Minoan ruin, an impressive gorge, and, of course the beach was out the front door.

Parking Lot, Venezia, Italy
Lodging is expensive in Venice, and everyone has to park their car at the huge lots near the train station just onto the island, so we took advantage of their camper parking. Yes, you have to pay, but they have electricity and water, and, at about €30s a night, it sure beats hotel prices (and parking is included!).

Roadside near le Col du Galibier, France
... when the Tour de France is riding the col! Actually, any parking spot along the Tour de France route would make our list, this just happened to be the prettiest! And you can imagine the hype and the party...

Parallel Parking on the Lakeside Promenade, Ohrid, Macedonia
Macedonia is still underdeveloped for tourism, especially for camping. So when we rolled into Ohrid for the night, we really didn't know where we were going to stay. It was Friday evening, and the parking lots in town near the lakeshore were pretty much full, but we drove another few blocks and found a perfect spot!

Municipal Parking Lot, Bergheim, France
Bergheim is a charming medieval town in the Alsace region of France with (at least) two fabulous wineries where we tasted amazing wines, and slept in a nice little parking area just outside of the old town wall with clean public toilets.

Beach Parking Lot, Vai Beach, Crete (Greece)
Vai Beach, unique with its date palm groves, is usually crowded by 10am, but if you stay overnight in the parking lot, you can virtually have the place to yourself in the morning. Toilets and showers are available.

Parking Lot, Cervinia, Italy
Cervinia is the ski resort on the Italian side of the Matterhorn. They have a special lot for campers with shuttle service to the lifts, drinking water, and a fantastic view of the Matterhorn's rock pinnacle.

In the Woods, near Notre Dame de Pre, France
This was a beautiful spot and one of our most natural campsites, but its real draw is its proximity to the rock climbing areas of Notre Dame de Pre!

Anywhere on the French Autoroute
The "Aires" along the French Autoroute are great places to stop for the night. They always have clean toilets, restaurants and mini-marts, and the fancier ones have nice landscaping, and sometimes even fountains!

The first casualty...

2007-03-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Today Craig took a big wipe-out on an easy (but icy and badly groomed) run. He lost both skis and fell on his face, then somehow flipped over to land on his back. He got hauled off in the snowmobile by the ski patrol, and then via ambulance to the local medical center at Tignes. He's fine, but has some nasty cuts and abrasions on his face (no stitches though), a fat lip and a really big headache. We're expecting a really nice black eye to show up tomorrow. Luckily, Craig faired better than his sunglasses, which ended up in four pieces.

In other news, we've had a ton of snow, it's been warm, and yesterday the entire slope opposite our town avalanched into the lake. We saw it happen, and it was quite impressive! It's hard to tell what's going on in this photo. The lake is at the bottom of the photo, and those dark spots around the lowest rock band (which comes in from the right of the photo) are decent-sized trees, and the horizon line at the top of the photo is about 1500 feet above us, the entire slope below that slid out.

And, finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOBY! For your birthday your uncle Craig crashed so you could see this funny picture of him!

-SK

#9! And Best Campgrounds

2007-03-02T23:56:00.000-08:00

Steph and Craig's #9 European Tourist Site is ...

Le Grotte de Font-de-Gaume near les Eyzies, France. This is the only place where us regular people can go to see real polychrome cave paintings (Lascaux is closed except for research). We were lucky enough to be the only people on our tour and our guide showed us how the prehistoric artists used the natural curves of the cave walls to create 3-D illusions in their paintings. Amazing. (We did our tour in French, but I think it's available in English. No photography in the caves. Photo here courtesy of hominide.com, and drawing courtesy of Monum.)

List o' the day: Top Ten Campgrounds

These are our favorite "real" campgrounds in Europe (as opposed to our favorite places that we parked the camper overnight).

Camping Jungfrau, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
This huge campground had it all! Beautiful setting with views of multiple waterfalls, fancy restaurant and store, major tourist information at reception, new facilities, activities and the biggest RVs we've seen in Europe.

Autocamp Vira, Hvar, Croatia
A new campsite on Hvar Island, Camping Vira has a spectacular location (prettier than Hvar-town!) and top-notch sites and facilities (with prices to match).

Campix, St. Leu d'Esserent, France
We love Campix because of its fabulous setting - in an old quarry - with all sorts of nooks and crannies for sites. We stayed there for almost a week while we were buying our camper, and watched the construction of an impressive new swimming pool nestled into the quarry rock.

Le Parc Isertan, Pralognan la Vanoise, France
Spectacularly located in a high mountain valley, and with excellent (and warm!) new facilities, this campground offers ski-in, ski-out access in the winter, or rock-climbing and hiking from your "doorstep" in the summer.

Camping Michelangelo, Firenza, Italy
Camping Michelangelo gets our vote for best city camping! It is located on a hill right next to the Piazza Michelangelo in Florence, with a the classic view of the city and its Duomo, and within walking distance of everything.

Camping Vrachos Kastraki, Kastraki, Greece
The big attraction is this campsite's proximity to the spectacular landscape and monasteries of the Meteora. You can see the impressive rock towers from many sites, and can bike or walk to many hikes and climbing routes.

Lisboa Camping, Lisboa, Portugal
Located in a huge city park on a direct bus line (or only a €7 taxi ride) from downtown Lisbon, this campground had the most spacious campsites we've seen in Europe.

Nube d'Argento, Sorrento, Italy
This campsite has a beautiful location overlooking the coastline, and is walking distance to Sorrento. The helpful staff told us where to get the best fresh mozzarella in town!

Camping Toblacher See, Dobbiaco, Italy
A pretty campsite located on a lake in the Dolomites near the Italy/Austria border... The thing that puts this campground on the list is its amazing sanitary facilities. You get key-card access to private bathrooms, each with its own toilet, sink and mirror, and finished in marble and tile.

Camping Eggishorn-z'moosji, Fiesch, Switzerland
Another full-service Swiss campground with great access to hiking, rock-climbing and paragliding that has absolutely everything. It makes our list because it has something we wish we could find more often: a self-serve camper wash station with vacuum!

After the snow

2007-02-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

We're interrupting our Top Ten lists so we can show you what happens after it snows for a few days! We were lucky that it was not too windy during this storm, and the fresh snow stayed really nice.

Here's Craig skiing underneath the Aiguille Perceé (Pierced Needle), and me skiing in the Sache Valley, both in Tignes.

-SK

#10! And Best and Worst

2007-02-24T02:18:00.000-08:00

OK, we've spent some time reflecting on Phase I of le Reve, and have put together a plethora of lists for you!

And with each list, we'll be counting down what we think are the TOP TEN SITES in Europe. Very exciting.

Steph and Craig's #10 European Tourist Site is ...

Le Pont du Gard, the roman aqueduct in France. We've visited it twice, and been impressed both times. The setting is park-like, and it's free to get in (of course you pay for parking).

List o' the day: A Menagerie of Best and Worst

Best Tourist Office: Chamonix, France
It has free wi-fi and little cubbies to sit in with your laptop if you get there early enough. Oh yeah, and good tourist information.

Best General Tourist Publications: Hungary
Hungary offered a national tourist brochure, a country-wide camping map, and - best of all - a full-color glossy mouth-watering "Cuisine of Hungary" brochure.

Best Place for a Camper
France, anywhere! (Our best campgrounds and campsites lists are coming soon.

Best Prices on Diesel Fuel: Luxembourg and Poland
Both well under a euro a liter
(Most expensive fuel: Sicily)

Worst Trash: Greece
There were plastic bags and bottles all over the roads

Best Roads: Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands
And all toll-free!

Worst Roads: Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia

Cheapest Country: Albania
But there's nothing to buy there, so go to Montenegro or Macedonia instead.

No Longer a Good Deal: the Dalmation Coast, Croatia
It completely caters to the tourist trade and prices are the same as Italy now. Go to Montenegro instead. (Yes, we like Montenegro!)

Most Expensive City: Vienna, Austria
We spent €250 in a day, and that was camping!

Cheapest Cities: Palermo, Italy (Sicily) and Porto, Portugal

Best Wine Deals: Bulgarian Bordeaux Blends and Vin de Savoie
The Diamanitza No Man's Land from Bulgaria is excellent at about €7, if you can find it! (We got it at a bottle shop in the town of Sandanski) And our local favorite is the Charles Gonnet Chignin for €4.70 a bottle.

Snowing again

2007-02-24T01:58:00.000-08:00

We had a great time with Andrew and Cori! They brought us a bunch of items from our USA wishlist: Bourbon, vitamins, zinc tablets (it's cold season after all!) and Clif Bars. Thanks guys!

Now, as you can see by the photo, it's snowing again.

That means that we're inside today, updating le Rêve web site, and working on our Top Ten lists.

Starting today (if the Internet connection continues to work, it's being frustratingly slow right now), we'll be start sharing our top ten lists with you. Stay tuned...

-SK

Our World...

2007-02-10T01:18:00.000-08:00

Today we leave to pick up Andrew and Cori in Milan. They will be staying with us for a week, and, believe it or not, it looks like it will snow for the better part of that time, so I'm not sure how much skiing we will get to do...

To keep you all occupied while we're occupied, I've put up the beginnings of a new feature on our web site. The basic theme is: "We think our life is boring... and you probably will too!"

You can view the work in progress by going to le Rêve home page, and clicking on the link called "Our World".

-SK

The Return of the Matrix

2007-01-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

Some of you have asked how exactly we we chose our apartment. We did our apartment searching back in April last year, when many annual and seasonal rentals at the ski areas turn over. We made lots of phone calls, saw lots of apartments, and finally decided on our place in Les Brevieres.

The choosing part was difficult. It's not every day you move to a new country and can pick which town you want to live in! Before we even left for France though, we had it narrowed down to two general areas: 1) Easy driving distance to les Trois Vallees ski area, 2) Easy driving distance to Espace Killy ski area. And as a fall-back plan in case one of those didn't work: 3) Easy driving distance to the Chamonix ski areas.

Then, as we started looking, we narrowed it down even more, and required that we were connected by lift or by bus to one of those three areas. That still left us with literally dozens of towns to look at. We visited lots, and when we liked one, we would thumbtack a note saying we were looking for a place to the neighborhood posting board (usually outside the town hall, or near the communal poubelles (garbage containers)). We would also ask the Tourist Office for a list of proprietaires who might rent apartments for the season, and start calling them.

Ultimately, we looked at thirteen different apartments in six different towns.

And ultimately, to chose, we reinstated what we call "the Matrix."

We developed the Matrix over ten years ago to help us shop for apartments. The Matrix is a weighted scorecard where we award points in categories we have decided are important. Each category has a scale (eg. 1-3 for "Bad", "OK", "Good") and a multiplier. The higher the multiplier, the more important the category. The best part about the Matrix is that it is fairly subjective and allows us to look at apartments separately, if we have to. This actually works! I once gave Craig the go-ahead to sign lease paperwork while I was on a business trip, based on an apartment's Matrix score.

This time though, the Matrix was a bit more complicated, because not only were there different apartments, but different towns as well! So first, we made a Matrix for the towns.

The Town Matrix

The categories for the Town Matrix were:
Access (How easy will it be to get to the slopes? 1-3 points.)
Road (How easy is it to get to where we will do our "stock-up" shopping? 1-5 points.)
Services (What will we be able get to without driving? 1-4 points.)
Feel (A somewhat subjective category related to how much we enjoyed hanging out in the town. 1-6 points.)

Results for the Town Matrix

Town	Access (1-5) x 4	Road (1-5) x 1	Services (1-4) x 3	Feel (1-6) x 1	TOTAL POINTS
Val d'Isere	5x4=20	3x1=3	5x3=15	4x1=4	42
La Daille	5x4=20	3x1=3	5x3=15	2x1=2	40
Les Brevieres	4x4=16	4x1=4	3x3=9	3x1=3	32
St. Martin	4x4=16	2x1=2	3x3=9	4x1=4	31
Les Granges	2x4=8	2x1=2	1x3=3	4x1=4	20
Praranger	2x4=8	2x1=2	1x3=3	4x1=4	20

Then, of course, we had the individual apartments to rate. The categories for the Apartment Matrix were:
Size (How big is it? 1-5 points.)
Light (How bright is it? 1-3 points.)
Storage (How much is there? 1-5 points.)
Character (A somewhat subjective category based on how we felt being in the apartment. 1-6 points.)
Parking (Is it possible on the property? If not, how far away? 1-3 points.)
Local connection (Do we think our landlords will be good community connections for us? 1-5 points.)
Guests (How comfortable will people be when they come visit us? 1-7 points.)
Bonus Points were awarded for: Dishwasher (1 pt), Washer/Dryer (3 points) and Ski-in/Ski-out ability (2 points each)

Results for the Apartment Matrix
This is how our apartment scored:

Category	Raw Score	Multiplier	Weighted score
Size	2	x7	14
Light	2	x7	14
Storage	3	x4	12
Character	2	x2	4
Parking	5	x5	25
Local Connection	4	x3	12
Guests	4	x1	4
Bonus Points: Washer Ski-in Ski-out	3 2 2	x1	7
Sub total			92
Add the town score for Les Brevieres			32
GRAND TOTAL			124

This was not our highest rated apartment, but it turned out that we couldn't rent the highest rated one, because the current tenant renewed for another season. But, this one was about 50% cheaper, so it all worked out well!

The picture is of our micro kitchen. But this kitchen is bigger than some we looked at. In one apartment (which scored 94, incidentally) the kitchen was right inside the entrance and there was a fold-down counter on the back of the front door. I'm glad we're not living there!

-SK

Fresh tracks!

2007-01-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

Now, this is what we're here for!

The fifth day after the snow fell, Craig and I put the skins on the skis and hiked just outside of the Tignes ski area. We found amazing good snow, and the incredible thing: NO PEOPLE! Not even another track was visible. We were starting to fear that this might never happen in the French Alps.

But it did today. And here's the proof.

The top photo shows me (small dot, look for where the second track is being made), and the bottom photo shows Craig. This line was so good we skied it three times!

-SK

PS. I hope this makes some of you think again about coming and meeting us here. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

This is our view today...

2007-01-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

... As you can see, visibility is pretty bad. The good news is that, somewhere on the mountain, it is probably snowing.

So what do we do with ourselves when we're stuck inside due to weather?

Well, boring things like cleaning, doing laundry, etc. AND trying to prepare the responses to the things that you all want to know. We have a good start on several "Best of Europe" lists that we'll be putting online soon!

Also, today, we finally put all of the Europe pictures online. So now, you can finally see pictures of France! Go to le Reve home page and click on "Photos by Region".

-SK

On Language in Europe...

2007-01-21T03:54:00.000-08:00

In these times of quick and cheap automatic translators like Babelfish, we might assume that language differences are becoming less and less of an issue for travelers around the world.

However, we were quite happy we had studied French when the English menu at a restaurant in Fontaine de Vaucluse read "Salad..." (OK, so far, so good) "...with Ham Believed." Ham Believed!! What in the world is that?! We looked at the French menu. "Salade avec Jambon Cru." Jambon cru is a raw, cured ham, like prosciutto. But cru is also the past participle for the verb croire, to believe. So we ordered the Ham Believed and ate, gloating to ourselves that yes, we ARE smarter than Babelfish.

Really though, the places where Babelfish (or equivalent) is necessary in Europe are few and far between. Yes, fortunately for us native speakers, our unfortunate language is spoken widely almost everywhere. The notable exceptions are: rural Sicily (but it's Italy, so it doesn't matter, since more than half of the communication consists of gesticulations and volume), Albania, Bulgaria, and rural Hungary, where the dominant second language is German. We were embarrassed when trying to troubleshoot a clutch problem at the Fiat dealer in Szekszard. "Sprecken sie Deutsch?" they asked. "Nein. English?" we answered. "Just English??" was their response. Well no, French, and a bit of Spanish, but those don't help in Eastern Europe.

Thankfully, the Hungarians don't expect tourists to learn their language, which is completely unrelated to romance languages, germanic languages OR slavic languages. No, it is unique in Europe, with its closest linguistic neighbor Finnish. We found basic phrases nearly impossible. For example, goodbye is viszontlátásra, and thank you is köszönöm. Which may not be as bad as the Albanian thank you: Falemenderit, or the Bulgarian: ҕлагодарЯ (pronounced "blagodaryah"). We think the worst, though, was Greek. Please is Παραχαλω (Parakalo), thank you is Ευχαριστω (Efkareesto). Help! Words for thank you should be two syllables. Max.

The Danes have the right idea. Thank you is Tak. This, I can handle. Danish and Swedish rank among the easiest languages for English speakers. Many words are the same, just spelled funny, like brød and fisk (bread and fish). Dutch, too, is pretty easy to read, but sounds like complete hell when spoken! And, because we've studied French and Spanish, the romance languages: French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, are also pretty easy for us.

However, studying French has its drawbacks. I have become a terrible speller. Is it blue or bleu? Appartement or apartment? Adresse or address?

Along with these franco-spellings, we expect you will witness the following words from our mouths when we return: Peut-être - French for "maybe"; Pour la plupart - "For the most part"; Vraiment - "Truly"; Brico - abbreviated from bricolage, for "home improvement"; Frigo - "Refrigerator"; Bancomat - Italian for "cash machine"; and Smak - Dutch for "flavor". Oh, and you might hear us speaking fake German.

We are blissfully ignorant of German, and adore the way that its words easily become six syllables long with 80% consonants. For example, my Sonnenmilk is feuchtigkeitsspendend. (My sunscreen is hydrating. I think!)

So, in conclusion, das Langenthingen ist guddfohnnen! (This language thing is good fun!)

-SK

Missing Pictures: Porto, Portugal, November 8

2007-01-17T00:19:00.000-08:00

...Yes, we promised we'd write what you wanted to hear... but first, here's a description of a another photo we lost when our computer was stolen. I guess we're not quite over it yet!

This is a picture of Porto, Portugal, taken from across the river in Villa Nova de Gaia. It is late afternoon, and the sun casts orange light on the narrow buildings stacked on the bluff. Most are only a room (two or three windows) wide, but at least six stories tall. The buildings jumble themselves against the bluff like an Italian hilltown with an urban, gritty and slightly dilapidated feel. Many of them are tiled in the Portuguese style - which makes graffiti easier to remove, but it's sometimes hard to find a match when broken tiles need replacing.

In the foreground, you can see the river that separates Porto from Gaia, and that travels just two kilometers to the west (left in this picture) to the Atlantic Ocean. The old-looking wooden boats are the traditional transport for that famous fortified wine -- Port. Most people think that Port comes from Porto, but in actuality, almost all of the port houses are in Gaia. This photo is taken from the terrace of Taylor Fladgate, where we tasted several and ended up buying a bottle of Taylor's 20. Special occasions only!

After taking this photo, we walked across the bridge you can see on the right, and explored Porto as it got dark. This ranks among our scariest experiences in Europe. Porto is a fascinating place - but its narrow alleys, many dead-ends, general feeling of cultural uneasiness, and lots of people that look like they have nothing to do make it a bit nerve-racking! On our way back to Gaia, we walked past a gangish looking group towards a unknown route down the hill that felt, several times, like a trap.

Luckily, we made it, even though this photo did not.

-SK

New Year, New Blog...?

2007-01-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

Well, not really.

You can still find us here. What I'm hoping to do though, is to make our chatter more interested by writing what YOU want to know about our trip. I mean, we traveled for 10 months and only wrote about a small portion of it!

So we want suggestions! What would you like to hear about? Send us an email or post a comment on the blog.

We are also in the process of updating le Reve website. I'm cheating, and using Apple's iWeb project. There are several things that are annoying to me about it, but hopefully you won't notice them!

-SK

PS. The photo shows FIS World Cup action (women's slalom) at Val d'Isere

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T12:07:00.000-08:00

We wish everyone happy holidays!

The photo here is from the Galleries Lafayette in Paris; all decked out.

We celebrated today with some foie gras and a bottle of Hungarian Tokaji. Probably not the classic wine pairing, but pretty darned good!

Best wishes from Steph and Craig

Missing Pictures: Elche, Spain, October 22

2006-12-24T04:49:00.000-08:00

We stopped in Elche on our way from Barcelona to Grenada because it was the only town on the way that the Green Guide labeled as remotely "interesting". We arrived in the late afternoon, just as the entire town was picking the kids up from school, causing massive traffic jams around our destination, the Huerto del Cura gardens.

The gardens are small but beautiful, and are locally famous for the Imperial Palm, a perfectly symmetrical date palm with 8 tops, which you can see in the first photo. You can also see that the effect is ruined a bit by the elaborate contraption of cables and metal braces that have been installed for preservation. Less obvious in the photo, but also distracting to us, were the thirty-odd teenagers who decided to use this space as their after-school hangout (they get in for free - while we have to pay €5!), and the security cameras.

After the gardens, we seared fora place to park for the night. This was complicated by some event in the town which was blocking streets and causing detours. Finally parking in the lot of the local community college, we decided to see what all the hubub was about. It turned out to be a street fair... and, as we observed more closely... a medieval street fair with old-fashioned food (luckily they let us use forks!), crafts and entertainment.

As the night drew on, we were attracted by music in a square. Intrigued, we joined a growing crowd and found a troupe of performers including belly dancers, storytellers, jugglers and, hidden in the dark to the side, a giant puppet with a jester hat. I turned to Craig and Steve and said "I hope they bring that thing out!"

In a few moments, they did, with great fanfare, and lots of handheld pyrotechnics, slowly parading the puppet through the streets towards the old town. We followed with the crowd, pausing with the spectacle to hear stories in Spanish (something about a farmer's daughter?) and watch the unicyclist juggle. The party ended at midnight with song, dance and a shower of small fireworks that you can see in the second photo.

Exhilarated, we worked our way back to the community college parking lot (where several other campers had followed our lead and parked nearby), and fell asleep.

-SK

We have internet!

2006-12-22T01:59:00.000-08:00

We finally have our new computer (still waiting for the insurance check, of course), and have internet set up in our apartment. Very exciting! This means that you are more likely to hear from us via email, and, potentially even phone. We set up an account with a VOIP service called Skype, which lets us call from the computer and is much, much cheaper than any other option.

It will keep us occupied while we wait for the snow. We now have enough that about 75% of the mountain is open, but we still have to watch for rocks. It is beautiful and sunny and COLD (at least for us maritime climate wimps). Quite different than the weather that (most of) you are getting in the Pacific Northwest. We hope nobody has too much damage.

-SK

aux Brevieres

Still waiting...

2006-12-08T07:02:00.000-08:00

We are still waiting for snow... Tignes is open, but it is pretty limited skiing on and around the glacier. They ski there during the summer, so the fact that they have snow there is not big deal. There is limited coverage to the high base area, which makes for a really unpleasant home run. (Imagine a narrow run, covered in rocks and people... Kinda reminds us of Crystal Mountain two years ago.)

Anyway, we bit the bullet and bought our ski passes. So we are definitely sticking it out!

We're also waiting for our new computer to arrive (hopefully next week!!). Then we'll catch up with photos (except the ones from Spain and Portugal, which were stolen), etc. We'll also have our very own internet soon!

However, we are no longer waiting for birth announcements from some of our friends... Congratulations to Beth and Scott on the birth of Davis, and congratulations Megan and Kevin on the arrival of Molly!

-SK

On our way "home"

2006-12-01T05:07:00.000-08:00

Hi All-

We are making our way back "home" to Les Brevieres this week after spending a delightful time with our friends Tara and Steve in and around Paris. It is turining out to be a very mild fall here, which makes visiting Paris great, but the ski season is off to a horrible start.

There are only 12 cm of snow at the base of Tignes, the World Cup events have been cancelled, and looking at the weather reports, it seems like we should have stayed home! We're jealous of all you Seattlites who are already skiing this winter. (But sorry about the traffic and road conditions.)

Many of you have asked for our address in France, so here it is:
Balcons des Brevieres II
Apt. 19
73320 TIGNES
FRANCE

Also, we are in the process of replacing our computer and ipod, etc. that were stolen in Bilbao. You can imagine the headache trying to send the insurance company the invoices when we are on the road. Apple has been very helpful in sending us duplicate invoices electronically, so hopefully we will be over this ordeal soon.

And when we have our new computer, we'll be back to putting up pictures and all that good stuff. Meanwhile, it's little messages like these from random internet cafes.

Steph and Craig
a Grenoble, France

Nightmare in Bilbao

2006-11-13T03:51:00.000-08:00

Bilbao, Spain is a very pleasant city, with lots of nice, new urban redevelopment in its city center (very typical of Spanish cities), a beautiful park promenade along the riverfront, and, of course the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum, with it's beautifully curving silver surfaces.

We parked along the riverfront promenade near the museum, with the bonus of free parking on Saturday afternoon.

We went to the museum and spent hours getting overwhelmed by their collections. The best pieces were the ones designed specifically for the spaces... Especially an installation of curved steel structures by Richard Sera (sp?) that you can walk through. The experience is a bit ruined by the security cameras on the ceiling though.

On coming back to our car, we noticed the glovebox was open. Bad sign. We always close and lock it before going anywhere.

Yes, it had happened. The camper was broken into. We lost our iPod, our computer, and various cables, chargers, etc. What we luckily did not lose, was our backup drive, so we will be able to recover our photos up to about three weeks ago, which is when we did our last backup. Unfortunately, we lost all of our photos of Spain and Portugal.

So now, we are in the rebuilding process, dealing with insurance and other fun things like that.

One good thing... The Spanish police are really nice!

-SK

Venice is weird...

2006-10-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

...Really weird. It's hard to believe it is a real town, and not something constructed by Disney. Our first experience with Venice was riding the vaporetti (boat bus) from the parking lot to Piazza San Marco, which was packed with tourists and pigeons, as well a being partially flooded. It all disgusted us a little. Especially the pigeons.

Apparently, it is romantic or novel to come to Venice and feed the pigeons in Piazza San Marco, because there are plenty of people doing it, and plenty of vendors selling pigeon food for €1 per bag. The result is that those of us who don't want to get crapped on have to dodge between groups of birds and people being enthusiastically photographed by their traveling partners. Ick. It was even grosser when we found several dead pigeons sat the edge of the square.

After this unfortunate first impression, we managed to get away from the tourists and pigeons and start to enjoy ourselves a bit. We went to an architecture exhibit at the Biennial Garden, where the theme was Cities, and there were some excellent displays. If we hadn't done that, though, we probably wouldn't have stayed more than 24 hours. (Remember, these are jaded tourists talking!)

From Venice, we went to Genoa, where we met Lucy, Christian, and Eric and stayed in their home. Christian took us on a tour in his sailboat, which was magnificent. Genoa really looks different from the water. It was so nice to stop feeling like just a tourist and to be able to to see the local perspective! Thank you Lucy, Christian and Eric for sharing your home with us!

-SK

Mozart and Mazes

2006-10-11T14:53:00.000-07:00

aka Whirlwind tour of capital cities in eastern europe (WTOCCEE)

After a few days in Hungary trying (and failing) to master "hello", "goodbye" and "thank you" in Hungarian and looking for some good wines (luckily succeeding), we met our friends Jennifer and Wendy in Budapest. We like Budapest! It is big enough so that it doesn't feel overrun with tourists and has truly beautiful vistas across the river. The perfect theme music (even though it was written in Vienna) is Strauss' Blue Danube. It works for the traffic around the big round-about and the people swimming in the whirlpool at the Turkish baths.

The only problem with our trip to Budapest was its correspondence with the weekend. Like in much of northeastern europe, lots of things close at 1:00 Saturday afternoon and don't reopen until Monday morning. But thanks to Jennifer and Wendy's superior planning (they had prepared a down-to-the minute itinerary, complete with subway stops and opening hours... don't laugh, it actually worked!), we managed to see lots of sights, including the part tacky/part arty/part scary labyrinth near the old castle.

When we got to the cathedral we wanted to see though, it was closed.

But then it happened. Something we've been waiting for this whole trip.

The cathedral was closed, but Craig noticed there was a performance of Mozart's Requiem later in the evening. We asked the guard where to get the tickets and he said "Oh, they're free." So three hours later we were inside the cathedral listening to a fabulous choral concert!

Then we went to Vienna, where we saw a crowd-pleasing sort of "Best of Mozart" show and successfully navigated the maze at the Schonbrunner Schlosspark (don't you love German?!) and quickly left for Prague...

... which we hated at first (Jen and Wendy having an icky hotel experience and all of us feeling crowed by mobs of tourists and general seediness), but warmed up to after escaping the crowds in the mirror maze in the big park near the castle. We did not see a Mozart concert in Prague, but we had a very interesting experience trying to get to a certain restaurant, where we had to walk around a sort of DMZ and past armed guards to the entrance. (Turns out it is in the same building as Radio Free Europe, which the Czechs think could be a terrorist target.)

Photos: Cathedral in Budapest, Maze in Vienna, Crowds (old town square, Prague)

-SK

The "FYRs" (Former Yugoslav Republics)

2006-10-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

Croatia, in particular the Dalmation coast, has become a tourism hotspot, billing itself as "the Mediterranean the way it used to be", so we decided to visit it with Gary and Margaret (Craig's parents). We were a bit disappointed because it is not really that well-developed for tourism (hard to find campgrounds, and not enough hotels) and it is definitely no longer a cheap place to visit.

Dubrovnik is beautiful, but completely overrun with tourists and overpriced attractions (like €7.50 per person to climb the wall). Hvar, supposedly a jet-set yachting destination, has a so-so setting, an exposed harbor, and is also overrun with tourists. Split is interesting, originally a roman city and castle which is now the center of town. We arrived there on Friday night, and the only hotel option was a communist style room (small and spartan) facing an alley for €150. We ended up staying in a private apartment, which quite frankly, is probably the best way to go everywhere in Croatia. They are less expensive than hotels, usually bigger, and usually have kitchens.

For our money though, we'd take Montenegro over Croatia any day! For one, it is cheap! Craig and I spent our anniversary in a hotel (it was dark and we couldn't find a campground) with a sea view and breakfast for €30. That is less per night than the campground in Hvar. The old Montenegran towns of Kotor (on a fjord-like inlet as spectacular as some in British Columbia) and Budvar (sort of a mini-Dubrovnik) are charming and not quite as overrun as the Croatian towns.

We also liked Macedonia (officially "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" because Greece has some issues with the name "Macedonia"). Or at least the very small part of it we saw, which was Ohrid, a beautiful town on a big lake. We parked the camper along the waterfront promenade walking distance from the town center, and spent the night there. We ate a fabulous dinner for under €25 and the drinks at the bar with the best DJ came to about €2.50 for two of us.

The photos here are from Kotor, Montenegro and Ohrid, FYR Macedonia.

-SK

Highlights of Greece

2006-10-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

We spent three weeks in Greece (including Crete), which is really not enough.

It will take another trip to feel like we have the full picture. Hopefully when it is cooler so that we can hike!

We saw:
+ The Pelion Peninsula
+ Delphi
+ Athens
+ Crete
+ Eastern Peloponnese
+ Meteora
+ Northwestern Lakes

We missed:
+ The Islands (except Crete)
+ Mt. Olympus
+ Pretty much all of Western Greece

Our favorite places are the Meteora, the Peloponnese (specifically Epidavros, Monemvasia and Mystros), and northwestern Crete. We were disappointed by Delphi (too crowded, too much imagination required because very little is standing)and pleasantly surprised by Athens (not as smoggy or seedy as we had imagined with some interesting neighborhoods).

Here are some of our overall impressions of Greece:

It is trashy. There is garbage all over the roadsides. And no recycling containers to be (easily) found. The majority of the trash is plastic bottles (everyone seems to drink bottled water) and plastic bags, which are given out freely by retailers. Even if all you buy is a bottle of water.

Greece has some of the best mini-marts in Europe. They ALL have cold drinks, and sometimes even vegetables. And they are anywhere and everywhere that someone might need one. Like on the busy arterial near the campground bus stop in Athens.

You almost always get a glass of water when you order a drink at a bar, and a straw when you buy a drink in a can.

English is spoken widely and well. (Road signs are often in Greek and English, which is very nice if you can actually see the sign.) ...Speaking of which...

Signage is terrible. There is plenty of directional signage, but it is inconsistently placed and often obscured by plants or graffiti. Also, there is not much attempt to remove obsolete signs, so you may find yourself slowing down to 40 km/hr for a tollboth that no longer exists, or following an ancient road to your destination instead of the new highway. It has been our most challenging navigation yet. (Coverage for our fancy computer navigation ended when we left Austria.)

The photos here are from Agios Galeni, Crete, and the Meteora.

-SK

Too hot in Greece

2006-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

After our long wait to clear the Bulgarian border (see our Bulgarian Odyssey entry) we managed to escape from Bulgaria, but not from the heat.

Our first days in Greece were unbearably hot, so instead of climbing Mt. Olympus, we stayed on the coast, exploring the Pelion Peninsula and its beaches.

We decided we could handle some exercise, but only if it involved getting in the water often, so we managed a short hike (only 6 km!) between three different beaches.

Here they are!

-SK

When you see flowers, think of Albania

2006-09-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am skipping writing about Greece right now because I want to write about one of the most intense experiences of our trip so far, which was our night in Albania.

Albania's reputation as the poorest country in Europe was confirmed by our almanac, which lists the Albanian per capita GDP at about a quarter that of Guatemala. But Albania's "HDI", a sort of quality of life index, was significantly higher. So we really didn't know what to expect.

What we did NOT expect, however, was any sort of developed tourism, especially campgrounds. Our guidebook mentioned that in the Albanian culture, travelers and foreigners are traditionally welcomed, and that it is not unusual to be offered food and lodging by individuals. So we decided that we would look for a roadside cafe or restaurant with convenient flat parking, have a meal, and ask if we could sleep in the parking lot.

Finding a restaurant was a bit tricky for a couple of reasons:

Roadside commerce in Albania is generally small and unsigned. We passed what felt like about a hundred car washes on our route. The most basic ones were simply kids with a hose and bucket, and the more sophisticated ones included a power sprayer, shop-vac, and potentially a gravel or cement parking pad. We also passed individual entrepreneurs sitting on the side of the road next to small tables with a few items... motor oil, shampoo, etc.

Of the business that looked like cafes, it was difficult to tell which served food. Most looked like bars, with groups of men sitting around watching TV.

It was getting dark, and the roads were getting crowded with people finishing the day's work, leading cows, goats, sheep and chickens along and across the highway on donkeys or on foot.

Finally, we pulled up behind a larger, newer looking place, hoping that they had a kitchen. As we were preparing to get out of the car, finding the phrasebook, putting our shoes on, etc., an old man appeared at the driver's side window. Craig rolled down the window, and the first thing the man did was reach in and shake his hand. As we were trying to figure out how to ask in Albanian if we could eat there, a crowd of men of all ages appeared at the side of the car. One of them spoke Italian. "Mangare?" we asked crudely. He indicated that we should come inside.

We managed to order a beer and some soda, and one of the younger men, who had studied some English asked us if we'd like something to eat. We said we would, and handed him our phrasebook so he could point to the things that they had. (There are no menus in Albania, I think!) We ordered bread, cheese and "lamb", and ate surrounded by about a dozen young men who were watching soccer games via satellite on a flat-screen TV. No one else was eating. The older ones (probably in their twenties and thirties) made sure we were comfortable by telling the younger ones (teenagers) what to get us. In the back corner, the oldest generation sat around their own table. Besides me, there was one other woman in the place, behind the bar.

After about an hour and a half, one of the young men came over to our table and indicated that he'd like to buy us some more beer. He sat down, and taught us how to toast in Albanian. It sounds like "Zoo-a!" Before long he coerced his friend, the one that could speak some English, to sit with us and loosely translate. So that is how we met Luan and Rigels. Rigels introduced us to the worldly one of the bunch, the one who could speak Italian, had lived in Italy and Greece, and had two cell phones. He was introduced to us simply as "Chef".

We showed them pictures on our camera, and took some photos with our new friends. Then Rigels said we should take a picture with the table of older men, and we were introduced to each of them, all beginning with "Baba" ("Grandfather", I think). The we took our picture with the apparent patriarch of the family alone, and he indicated, through sign language, "where are you going to sleep?" We asked if it was ok to sleep in the camper behind the restaurant. Yes, yes, he shook his head (the older people in Albania have the opposite head motions for yes and no that we do).

Satisfied, we went back to our table with Rigels and Luan, where Craig got coerced into drinking Raki (Albanian grappa) with Luan, and eventually, after Rigels asked us "Would you like to sleep in the house of Chef tonight?"

So we drove across the highway and up a dirt road to Chef's house, where we slept on a comfortable sofa-bed in a parlor-like room on the second floor.

In the morning, we were greeted by the patriarch (who I think lived there too), met Chef's wife and children, and communicated with hand motions and rudimentary Albanian until Rigels showed up and could help out. We showed them Seattle on our mini-world atlas. Chef's two-year old son was fascinated with the atlas, sitting on the floor and turning the pages. That prompted the four-year old to get another book, which turned out to be the manual for the family car. And that's when I realized that they had no books.

So we left them with a picture book of Greece and a bottle of Italian wine in exchange for their hospitality.

Back at the cafe, the women picked me a bouquet of marigolds and Rigels said "When you see flowers, think of Albania."

And we will.

-SK

Our Bulgarian Odyssey

2006-09-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

Part I: Driving

OK, we complained about the Serbian roads, but things took a turn for the worse as soon as we crossed the border into Bulgaria. Our road atlas (unfortunately, the coverage on our navigation system ends at the eastern edge of Austria!) showed a four lane highway from the Serbia/Bulgaria border all the way to Bulgaria's capital city, Sofia. Instead, we found a potholed two-laner, with regular uncontrolled lane closures for construction (or maybe just REALLY bad potholes). Yes, this means weaving your way through traffic on a one-lane highway. As we approached Sofia the road eventually did become four-lane, but the pothole frequency and depth increased, so it was hard to say it if was an improvement or not.

Part II: Finding a place to stay

Bulgaria is not exactly a tourism hot-spot, and so none of our campground listings or guidebooks mention where to camp near Sofia. However our road atlas (yes, the same one that was wrong about the four-lane road) showed a little tent symbol not too far away from Sofia's ring road. So we decided to see if we could track it down. Eventually, we spotted a sign that said "Camping" (luckily, that word is pretty universal!) on a frontage next to a busy arterial into the city. After about 20 minutes of gut feeling navigation through Sofia's apartment blocks, and in the waning light, we found ourselves at the gate, where a handful of stray puppies watched as the campground manager filled out the archaic form (technically supposed to be registered with the police) detailing where we foreigners had spent the night.

Part III: Camping

The campground looked like something built for a communist-era "back to nature" campaign. It was mostly a collection of run-down cottages, with a grassy area where we nestled in between the only other tourist, a young couple from Poland in a tent and a Spanish family in an RV with a dog that seemed to be recovering from surgery. (Maybe veterinary services are cheap in Bulgaria?) Instead of the typical "sanitary block", we were instructed to use the toilet and shower in the bathroom of one of the cottages. The cottage smelled of mold, and the shower looked like it was missing its bathtub and curtain. There was a showerhead coming out of the wall, and a drain on the floor. When we showered, the entire bathroom got wet and steamy. Perfect environment for the slugs living there. (Luckily, out next Bulgarian campground, near the Rila monastery, was much, much nicer!)

Part IV: Stereo Shopping

Strangely, although Sofia feels like a (barely) second-world city in many respects, its ring road is full of brand-new shopping centers. And the most popular type of store is the electronic mega-market. We were intrigued, since we'd been looking for a small speaker system to hook up to the iPod, and couldn't help stopping at the MediaMarket to look around. They had more speaker systems than I'd ever seen, and the store was so new that they weren't sure of the price of the one we were interested in. After going to downtown Sofia and checking prices on cnet at a smokey internet/online gaming place, we realized that Bulgarian electronics cost the same as American electronics. But we were so enthralled with buying stereo equipment in Bulgaria that we continued our quest, this time a the Technopolis, which was even bigger than the MediaMarket, and walked out with a Altec-Lansing speaker system covered by a Bulgarian warranty.

Part V: Wine Touring

Supposedly in the communist days, the Bulgarians supplied the majority of the wine for the USSR. And all the vineyards went out of business when Gorbachev started an anti-alcohol campaign, and then the eastern bloc collapsed. But our wine book mentioned that things were turning around again, and that the Diamanitza winery near Melnic was doing wonderful things. So we decided we would do some wine tasting. We found Melnic on our map near the Greek border, and headed that direction in hopes of finding the winery on the way. Melnic turned out to be a dusty tourist town (or the closest thing to a tourist town in Bulgaria), with inflated prices and alas, no Diamanitza. We were hot and hungry, but we were on a mission to find what our book called "probably the best wine in Bulgaria". After a complete wild goose chase of following signs with no arrows down partially paved roads, we decided to give up and get something to eat. And then it happened. We spotted a tiny sign on a building in the middle of nowhere that looked like an old factory. The security guards didn't speak English, but another employee did. We couldn't taste because the person who does the tasting wasn't there, she said. She thought we could buy the wine though, but after a quick call on the cell phone, she decided that wasn't possible either. But she drew us a map to a bottle shop in the nearby town (which we had driven through three hours earlier!), where we found the wine for less than half of the price of similar bottles in Melnic.

Part VI: Leaving

With our newly purchased wine and speakers in hand, we headed towards Greece. Approaching Bulgarian exit customs we gathered all the paperwork: our passports, the insurance card, the registration for the camper, and our copies of the forms filled out by the campgrounds to let the police know where we had spent our nights. There were about 20 cars in the line in front of us. We pulled up behind them and waited. And waited. And waited. In the 104 degree heat with no air conditioning. Ultimately, it took us two hours to clear Bulgarian exit customs. and we didn't even have the forms we had so carefully saved. It was by far the worst border crossing we've done in Europe!

The photos here show a bus stop in Sofia, and the Rila Monastery.

-SK

Driving through the Balkans

2006-09-15T01:36:00.000-07:00

Our route from Austria to Greece took us through the Former Yugoslav Republics of Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. Quickly.

We drove across the three countries in two days, and managed to avoid getting any Croatian or Serbian money. Actually, we tried several times to get Serbian money, because we were trying to save our Euros, but had trouble because we found only one ATM on the entire section of Autoroute we drove (about 6 hours drive!) and it was out of order. In place of ATMs, there were plenty of money changers - guys hanging out at the Autoroute rest areas with wads of cash and bad exchange rates.

It wasn't that big of a deal, since Croatia and Serbia both accept Euros, but we ended up cash-strapped at the end of our Serbian drive because they don't accept credit cards at the toll booths, and the trip cost over 65 Euros!

Luckily, I keep a separate container full of change (handy for parking and laundry) and we had enough coins to cover our fees for entry into Bulgaria which included:

a 6€ "disinfection" fee

a 4€ weekly vignette to drive on the Bulgarian national roads

The guy at the vignette window was really patient while I stacked up my 10 and 20 euro cent pieces on this counter.

And you might be curious about this "disinfection"...

Apparently, the Bulgarians are afraid of getting some sort of dirt-bourne invader from their neighbors, because part of (and just a small part, see our next entry!) the Bulgarian border control process requires driving through a pool of dirty water (oops, I mean sophisticated disinfectant) and a sprayer that barely reaches then top of the front bumper. Oh, and paying for this.

The only obvious effect of the disinfection was a (luckily temporary) short in our right turn signal.

The photos here show Ljubljana, Slovenia, and road construction in eastern Serbia. Thankfully, this was not the expensive toll road.

-SK

Lots of catching up to do!

2006-09-15T01:34:00.000-07:00

15 Sept. 06

Sorry for the black hole of blog entries. We haven't had wi-fi lately, and there's so much to write about that honestly, we're way behind...

I'll try to post several entries as we get them done.

We're in Croatia now with Gary and Margaret (Craig's parents)!

-SK
Hvar, Croatia

Pushed out of the Alps...

2006-08-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

... by the weather. We have tried two loops through the Alps, visiting Chamonix, the Junfrau region, Saas Fee, Zermatt, Val D'Aosta, Liechtenstein, Innsbruck, Grossglockner, and the Julian Alps. We never had the weather break on the high peaks for more than one day. So goes it in the mountains! We had hoped to climb some mountains or spend the night in some huts but only some rock climbing as a consolation. The sport climbing is very developed in Europe and as a consolation it's not too bad. We hope for some payback on the weather this winter for the ski season. Now we start our Power Drive across the Balkans enroute to Greece where the skies are sunny and the water warm! Right?

CM
à Ljubljana

Sometime we are pleasantly surprised!

2006-08-08T05:06:00.000-07:00

8 August 2006

Today, Craig and I went to the sous-prefecture in Albertville to re-register our camping car, now that we are Official Residents of Savoie (this is sort of like moving between states in the US).

We arrived at the sous-prefecture at 11:20, because, of course, they are closed from noon to 2:00.

I was worried that:

We wouldn't have the correct documentation

We would be required to make a bunch of photocopies

The application would cost about 300 Euros

It would be impossible to complete in one day, and would require coming back in a week

All of these fears are justified, given our past experiences with the French bureaucracy!

However, we were super-surprised, and managed to complete the transaction (with no photocopies!) in under 20 minutes! And it was FREE! We were out of the sous-prefecture by 11:40.

Travel update: it is no longer too hot. But to counteract all of the sunshine we had, we've been having a bit of rain. Here is a photo of the Col du Grand St. Bernard. It was snowing when we crossed it. (Yes, we visited the dogs up there, but sorry, no photos!)

We leave Savoie (hopefully) in the next few days. Destination GREECE! (With lots to see on the way.)

-SK
a Albertville (free wi-fi at McDonald's)

P.S. We've posted some new features on le Reve home page, check them out!

Hooray for Switzerland!

2006-08-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

1 August 2006

Today was Switzerland's national day.

We joined the festivities in Saas-Grund, which included a parade called "Folkloreumzug" (subtitled "Wie die alten Saaser lebten"*). It included 33 participants, including a couple of bands; but the majority were floats pulled by tractors demonstrating various traditions of the Saas valley, like potato planting, wool weaving, twig collecting and wheat whacking. The tractors were all in "turtle mode", so the parade moved very, very slowly. It didn't help that the parade kept getting interrupted by tour busses coming to and from Saas Fee.

With its slow pace, and amazingly complacent spectators, I was starting to think it was one of the most boring parades I'd ever been to until a horse pooped on the route near us and we got the fun of watching the marching bands, etc. avoid it.

Things picked up a bit after the tractors, when groups of people representing the medieval history of the valley (I think) and William Tell (lots of kids dressed like apples!) moved through. Apparently, people can walk faster than tractors in turtle mode.

The highlight of the parade was at the end; a hand-drawn antique water carriage from the fire brigade that squirted water somewhat randomly into the air!

I also really liked the two horn blowers that announced the beginning and end of the parade. They played those long horns like you see in the Ricola commercials.

Unfortunately, the evening's fireworks were cancelled because of the dangerously dry state of the valley. A bit ironic, since it rained on and off all day.

-SK
a Saas-Grund, Switzerland

*We don't read any German, so our best guess at what this means is "Life the old Saas way"

Catching up...

2006-07-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

21 July

Sorry, got behind again.

It's been a long time since I was so elated by the free wi-fi in Belgium.

We are back in les Brevieres, and if all goes right, there should be three other new entries for you to look at. I don't think the blog lets me backdate them, so it will probably look like they're all from today.

Anyway, we toured the lands devastated by trench warfare in WWI, then Normandie and Bretagne (le Mont St. Michel is going on our list of things you should see while in Europe; touristy but really cool, especially at night), watched the French World Cup team beat Brazil and Portugal, then lose to Italy in the finals, spent Bastille day in Carcasonne watching the Tour de France and the fireworks after securing the last site in the campground, and otherwise generally enjoying ourselves.

Oh, and we finally got our French Cartes de Sejour! So we're legal, until May at least.

The photo shows what happens in a small town when the French team wins a World Cup game. We didn't take any pictures when they lost.

-SK

Le Tour de France

2006-07-26T02:57:00.000-07:00

20 July

OK, le Tour de France is even crazier than I imagined. The bike riding is about what you'd expect after seeing the race on TV... Lots of skinny guys riding very fast on very nice bicycles... but the rest of the scene is pretty crazy.

Since my cousin Erica and her friend Maja were hoping to follow the tour when they came to visit us July 10 - 15, Craig and I thought we'd better preview things a bit, so we caught a bit of the individual time trial near Rennes in Bretagne. No big deal, just some road closures and a bunch of people clustered on the corner of a country road in the middle of nowhere.

With Erica and Maja, we decided to see a sprint near Bordeaux. It was still pretty tame, we managed to park within a kilometer of the sprint, and work our way through small crowds to see the sprint finish. If you can call it "seeing". It's more like glimpsing, they ride by so fast (our photo cartoon describes it pretty well). On our way out, Erica picked up the official advertising newspaper of the stage. And that's how we learned about the "Caravane".

In essence, the Caravane is a sponsor parade.

About two hours before the first tour riders arrive, a police siren announces the arrival of the sponsor cars. Many are in wacky shapes, resembling tires, gas cans, water bottles or movie cameras, to name a few. Like parade floats, most have dancing people in costumes tossing trinkets to the crowds on the side of the route. Watch out for the Aquarel trucks though. The first ones hand out bottles of water, but the third one sprays the crowd with water from hoses! It is hard not to get caught up in the hubbub. Especially when you set your sights on getting a polka-dotted hat (sponsored by Champion). The madness goes on for about an hour, with people scrambling for free cell-phone screen cleaners, refrigerator magnets, packets of candy, and lots and lots of cheap hats. At the end of caravane are a few trucks towing the day's casualties. (Some of those novelty cars have trouble with 10% grades!)

Another thing that goes along with the Tour is lots and lots of road closures. This is to be expected, of course, for a reasonable amount of time before and after the tour. Some of the signage was pretty funny. For example, on the autoroute near the Pyrenees, the readerboard said "Attention: Tour de France: Espagne fermee jeudi" ("Spain closed Thursday"). And we were surprised when one pass was closed the night before the race. So, in order to make sure we didn't miss the uphill finish at Pla de Beret in Spain, we decided to drive there a day early and camp out.

Which brings us to the other crazy Tour scene, the camping. A day early, campers were already lining the first climb on the course, parked on anything remotely flat and marginally off the road. Some of them waved as we drove by. Others scurried off the road, where they were painting enthusiasm for their favorite rider or team. We drove on to the finish, and joined a growing group of campers and tents scattered over the flats near the top of the course. Throughout the evening, the crowds kept coming, pitching tents in the dark between the campsites established earlier, where Tour supporters were singing, shooting off fireworks, and generally partying. Craig and I were so impressed by the scene that we decided to do it again, this time arriving two days early at the Col de Galibier so that we could park our camper on the route. We got an excellent spot with a view of four switchbacks, not to mention the peaks of the Ecrins and the valley below.

All in all, it was fun to be part of the scene, but to actually know what's going on, it's much better to be at home in front of the TV! As we were for the finish.

The photos here are representative of the Tour: the Caravane; the riders; and the camping.

SK
aux Brevieres

July 4

2006-07-26T02:54:00.000-07:00

July 4 at Omaha Beach, Normandie, France. An invasion that seems reasonable and just, and that had international support.

I heart Belgium, Part II

2006-07-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

1 July

When Craig's aunt Barbara joined us in March (see previous blog entry "Barbie, Beer and Babies!") for the Belgian Beer Festival, we toured around lots of small brewery towns, trying to find good local beers. This is really not very hard in Belgium. One of our favorite places was a tiny town called Tourpes, home of the Dupont brewery. When we arrived, the brewery was closed, so we went into the nearest pub (across the street and three doors up) to sample the brew.

It was one of those places where everyone turns around when you walk in. Unfazed, we grabbed a table between two groups. I can't remember if it was a look, or if they actually asked "Why are you here?", but when we explained that it was all about the beer, the parties at the tables on either side of us got pretty excited about telling us which was the best Dupont offering.

Problem was, they couldn't agree.

Was it the Moinette? Or the Saison? We tried the Saison, which prompted the supporters of the Moinette to grab another glass from the bar and pour us a bit of their favorite. (Everyone drinks out of 750 ml bottles here, because the beer is better that way.)

A few days later, at the Dupont booth at the Belgian Beer Festival in Sant Niklaus, we met Gust Simons, the primary rep for Dupont. Of course, we relayed our wonderful experience in the local pub in Tourpes, and of course, he had his bar staff pour us samples of the entire Dupont line. Gust also gave us tips for places to eat and drink in Antwerp, near his hometown, and graciously offered to show us all the best breweries in Belgium!

So, more than three months later on our swing back through Belgium, we pulled out the list of Gust's suggestions when we found ourselves in Antwerp. And, on a mission to buy good beer after being in Scandinavia (land of yucky Carlsberg), we ended up, once again, in Tourpes. This time, the bar directly across from the brewery was open, so we went in and ordered a couple of drinks.

The bar is a family operation. We were served by the father, while his daughter showed off her new fuzzy black kitten to the people at the table behind us. The mother appeared from the back, hauling six or eight 750 ml bottles of beer at a time. Sooner or later, the family dog, a small black thing (named "Moinette," after the beer) wandered in to greet the guests.

We also met the town drunk, a small old man named Belo, who ordered his Moinette (which packs a punch at 8.5% alcohol) by the 750 ml bottle, and was shuttled to the patio out back to drink it. The "patio" is really a bit of cow field, made nicer for people by the addition of a few tables and chairs. When Belo came back inside for his second bottle, his shirt was speckled with dribbles from the bottom of his first, and he spent quite a bit of time complimenting the bar mother on her beauty.

When he came back for his third bottle, he started singing and dancing and couldn't really hold onto it, and spilled about a third of it on the floor. Immediately the bar father took away the bottle and shuttled Belo back outside and the bar mother grabbed the mop to clean up the mess. The daughter confided to us from behind the bar, "C'est triste, mais c'est d'habitude." After Belo was safely outside, the daughter got a lecture from the father about serving him the last bottle.

During these scenes, other things were happening. Germany was beating Argentina in a World Cup shootout. A group from the brewery across the street was gathered around a large table celebrating their secretary's birthday. A Belgian man (I recognized him from the other bar we stopped at months ago) was very excited to talk to some Americans. (He started in English, then realized we spoke French and spoke nice, slow French until he had a beer and then spoke fast French... I'm not sure exactly what we were agreeing to sometimes!). And a black goat kept wandering into the bar from the field out the back. The goat seemed very social. He would look around until he was noticed by the bar staff when he would be shooed back out the door. We learned later that his name was also "Belo".

Finally, Craig and I recognized someone else. Among the group celebrating the birthday, we saw Gust Simons, who we had met at the Belgian Beer Festival. He recognized us too (Craig is pretty unforgettable in these lands of short people with straight hair) and, after buying us a couple more drinks, he offered to take us on a beer tour next time we're in Belgium, then motioned me out to his car, and gave us a kilo of the brewery's cheese.

So, to all you beer lovers out there... next March is a great time to visit Belgium! Gust would love to show us around, and you can taste over 500 microbrews at the "24 hours of beer." We're there! Are you with us?

-SK

I heart Belgium

2006-06-30T02:31:00.000-07:00

What's not to like? Great beer and chocolate, and free wi-fi at the campground!! That's a first, and as you can tell, very, very exciting! Too bad we're only here one night...

From Sweden, we drove back through Denmark (expensive bridges) through Germany to the Netherlands, where we watched the Dutch lose to Portugal in the World Cup in a cute town called Groningen.

Then, on to Amsterdam for a few days, a quick boat tour of Rotterdam, and now, we're back in the land of beer and plentiful internet!

The photo is from Antwerp.

-SK

a Bruges, Belgium

The longest day of the year...

2006-06-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

We spent the longest day of the year, as hoped, in Stockholm. As I mentioned before, it was a bit of a let-down, since we barely saw the sun! But no worries, because according to our guidebook* the big midsummer celebration in Sweden happens the Saturday after the solstice. So, in search of better weather, we headed south to Malmo to take in the Big Event. The drive from Stockholm to Malmo is about 6 hours, and really boring. It rivals driving across Iowa. To keep ourselves occupied, and awake, we wrote a song in GarageBand. You can hear it (assuming I did this right). It's not finished, but if you try to imagine the same thing going on for oh, another five hours or so, you'll get the idea!

We arrived at the campground in Malmo around 6:30 on Friday. It was full of folks celebrating the midsummer. The celebration seemed to include a pole similar to a Christian cross but with rings around the two horizontal pieces and decked out in foliage and Swedish colors, and for many people a game we call "Stick and Castle", where teams try to knock over each other's wooden castles by tossing sticks at them.

Wandering away from the campground and towards the beach, we found the "Tivoli" - a basic carnival, but with something very intriguing called the William Arne Motorcirkus, with the "Wall of Death". We were intrigued, but had missed the last show for the evening...

So the next morning, we went in search of the big Midsummer Festival... We rode into downtown Malmo, which was completely dead. Asking around, we found that the celebration was actually on Friday night, and that it consisted mainly of the carnival. Darn, we thought there would be fireworks and free concerts! It makes us realize that Seattle has a pretty darn good summer festival(s), between FolkLife, Seafair and Bumbershoot!

Anyway, Malmo is a pleasant place, with nice parks and some interesting redevelopment in the old port, including a 45 story building (the tallest in Sweden, I'm betting). We found their version of the "soundgarden" - a circular earthworks near the port redevelopment with speakers in its berm. And on our way back to the campground we stopped at the tivoli for the William Arne Motorcirkus!

You may have seen this type of thing on the Discovery Channel as some sort of historic novelty. It's a wooden cylinder held together by cables and rope. The spectators stand around the top (I don't think there are any spectators in the Discovery Channel version), and crazy people (oops, I mean trained professionals) ride motorcycles around the cylinder, held up by centripetal force. As they drive around, the entire arena bends and flexes, which makes it even more fun!

Anyway, I THINK we experienced Midsummer in Sweden... Unfortunately, it was dampened by the Swedes' loss to the Germans in the World Cup game Saturday.

-SK
a Amsterdam

*Lonely Planet's Europe on a Shoestring, aka "the Bible"

Impressions of Scandinavia

2006-06-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

22 June

So far, Scandinavia (or Denmark and Sweden, at least!) has looked a lot (and a little disappointingly) like the United States. There are big cars, wide streets, 7-11s and suburbs. Of course, the cities are older. And surprisingly, smoking is tolerated everywhere (including on the subway cars!) in Denmark.

We made it to Stockholm for the solstice, and have not been disappointed by the length of the days. In fact, it's a little bit annoying to wake up at 3:30 am because it's already light. What we are missing for this solstice party, however, is the sun! It has been mostly overcast with rain off and on. Typical Seattle weather.

The landscape here is a lot like northern Minnesota. It's relatively flat and forested, with granite bedrock outcrops and a lot of lakes and islands. We took a boat out to Finnhamn island, in the Stockholm archipelago, which was a nice break from city sightseeing. We're a bit "citied out" after Berlin, Kopenhagen and Stockholm!

One of the things I'm enjoying about Sweden is the fact that they seem to have no qualms about importing food. The grocery store near the campground (whose primary function is that of a hockey arena in the winter) was well stocked with French cheese, Italian pastas, Indian rice, Vietnamese sauces, and something I've been craving for a while... MEXICAN FOOD! Yes, real tortillas, salsa (ok, in a jar, but still not bad) and refried beans! And at (sort of) reasonable prices, meaning only about double what you'd pay in the US. I guess importing food is kind of a must when local traditions leave a little something to be desired. You can only eat so much Wasa with pickled herring...

-SK
a Stockholm, Sweden

Impressions of Yermany

2006-06-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

19 June

We arrived in Germany at the beginning of the World Cup, and shared campgrounds with groups supporting Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, Italy, Germany (of course!) and Sweden. Lots of Swedes!, which are easy to spot because of their yellow and blue outfits. They also pronounce "Germany" starting with a Y sound, which is why we now call it Yermany.

After visiting the castle at Schwangau built by crazy King Ludwig, we spent two days in Munchen (Munich), which has one of the best transit systems we've encountered yet ("smart" escalators change direction when a train comes in), and huge streets by European standards. We shopped for, and finally found used bikes! (It's been hard to find anything that fits Craig in Italy and France.) And, of course, joined the crowds in the biergarten in the English Garden, where we watched the US lose to the Czech Republic. Badly.

Then, for a bit of a respite from the city, we spent a night in small-town Bamburg, famous for its smoked beer (imagine drinking a good hefeweisen around a campfire... without the campfire), before heading to Berlin.

Berlin is fascinating, with its mix of east and west and old and new, and is not afraid to tear down old neighborhoods for new monumental projects. It has some of the most interesting public art and architecture that we've seen in Europe. And an urban hipster scene that rivals that of Seattle. Only it seems that everyone is trying just a bit too hard to achieve the "look".

We spent longer than anticipated at the Judisches Museum, one of the best examples I've ever seen of integrated museum architecture, with excellent and interactive exhibit design.

Like Munchen, Berlin has an excellent public-transport system, though we only used it to get in and out of town, since we now have our bikes! The ticket-buying system at the main (and brand-new) transit center was extremely confusing... It required going to one machine to choose your route and ticket, and taking the barcoded paper it printed out to another machine to pay, and pick up the 'real' tickets. On our way back to the campground in Potsdam, lightning strikes delayed the regional trains for almost an hour!

If you wake up one day magically transported into a foreign city, you will know you're in Germany if:
a) there is a steel and glass structure next to the cathedral
b) there is a huge park behind the steel and glass structure
c) there is a designated bike lane with its own traffic signals running from the park to the city center and beyond
d) the first person you encounter on the bike lane is drinking a beer (and if they also have visible tattoos, then you're in Berlin)

-SK
a Ljusfors, Sweden

The photos here are from Bamberg and Berlin

Back "home"

2006-06-03T03:32:00.000-07:00

May 31 - June 2

Yay! We have new tenants for our condo back home. Welcome Ben and Johanna!

We are back in France now, headed "home" to Les Brevieres to make sure everything is in order before heading out again.

Our Italian adventures after Rome took us to Tuscany (mainly Florence) with Berdie and Bronwen, and then to Pisa, which is pretty darn cool. The square with the famous tower is HUGE by Italian standards, and also grassy with sections that you are actually allowed to walk and picnic on. Craig did one of his "toss it in the air" photo projects there which ought to have some nice views of the hoards of people touring the site. From there, we went to Portofino (spectacular) and Genoa. We only spent half a day in Genoa, most of it at an Internet Point, and we feel we really need to go back! We are dubbing Genoa the new "scooter mania", since it seems to have tailed off a bit in Florence.

We hope to stay in Les Brevieres as little as possible and then head north, trying to make it to Stockholm for the solstice! Not to mention, when we got here, it was snowing. Not exactly impetus to stay. But we had a great lunch today with our landlords, Henry et Odile Favre, chez eux. It's very good for our French!

(The photos are from Genoa and Les Brevieres. You can probably figure out which is which.)

-SK
a Albertville, et Bourg St. Maurice

PS. There are new photos posted, check them out!

More Italian Adventures

2006-05-22T00:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs to go to Stromboli! Because everyone needs to see a volcano erupting lava at least once in a lifetime. But on Stromboli, on a typical excursion, you will see about twenty eruptions with real live lava. Almost enough to be scary.

So, I guess you could say that our Sicilian travels ended with a bang. We also made a new friend, Gaetano, who gave us a ride (one at a time, of course) on his Vespa to the campground in Milazzo. We learned lots of Italian while talking to him for a couple of hours over a bottle of wine. (He knew just a couple of English words...)

Berdie and Bronwen (my mom and sister) met us in Sorrento and from there we went to Capri for a night, because Craig and I had found out the day before that you really aren't supposed to drive a camper onto the Amalfi Coast. We really tried, driving past several people who made valiant attempts to turn us back, but finally had to take it seriously when we heard it from the Caribinieri.

We are now in Rome, and have been practicing "power tourism" for four days. I still will probably want to come back!

-SK
a Roma
May 21

ah... salt water

2006-05-22T00:37:00.000-07:00

May 10

After the Aosta valley, we drove to Ravenna, where we camped on the Adriatic. It's been a long time since we've seen salt water! After Ravenna, we drove to San Marino, one of those "novelty" countries (their economy seems to be driven by selling coins and toy guns), and to Naples where we caught an overnight ferry to Sicily. The ferry company, SNAV, seemed to be the least organized of the lot (although they had a pretty good website*), and following the signs to their loading dock deep in the Port of Naples proved a bit challenging. It was impressive, though, watching them load a dockful of semi trucks and trailers onto the boat. I think it took the better part of the day. The bonus of taking the ferry meant that we had free parking for the camper in Naples, so we could wander around the town for a bit in the afternoon.

The other bonus of taking the ferry is that we got to Palermo at 8:00 in the morning, which meant we could find parking there too! We might not have even come to Palermo otherwise, which would have been a shame, since it is so far one of our favorite cities. All in all, we are really enjoying Sicily -- everyone should come here! And May seems to be the perfect time to visit... The island is green (it turns brown in the summer), the wildflowers are blooming, and it is not yet too hot or overrun with tourists. Surprisingly, there are very few individual tourists here... the major sights are dominated by guided groups. If you come, bring guidebooks with lots of information about the sites, most are light on interpretation, even if you can read Italian.

-SK
a Sicilia

*Note: Getting onto the internet in Italy is an adventure in itself. It is fairly easy to find, actually easier than in France, but to use the "Internet Point" we had to show a passport, which they photocopied, and get registered into a some sort of (anti-terrorism, I suspect) database. We were technically supposed to furnish an address in Italy as well.

Happy Birthday to me!

2006-05-02T01:55:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, Craig and I skied from Cervinia (Italy) to Zermatt (Switerland) in the shadow of the Matterhorn. This is also the one-year annivesary of my knee accident, so it is pretty monumental. We spent the night in Zermatt and will ski back over into Italy today. The Italian slopes closed yesterday, so we should have them to ourselves, which will be nice. I think this will be the last skiing of the season, which, considering that is May, is not bad.

-SK
a Zermatt

GET WELL SOON MAX AND BONNIE...

... and the winner is...

2006-04-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

Les Brevieres!

Yes, we have finally settled on a place to live and signed lease papers today! We are very excited. The village is called Tignes Les Brevieres. It is lift-connected to the Tignes and Val d'Isere ski areas (aka "Espace Killy") with 90 lifts and 6250 ft of vertical. We think it is the perfect compromise, with gondola access to great skiing, but away from the scene of Val d'Isere, and much, much cheaper. It has the feel of a real town, as opposed to a complete resort, and the influence of the rich Brits is a little less prominent. Our landlords, the Favres, live across the street. Monsieur is a retired ski instructor. The pictures here show the village from both ends of its main street.

The apartment is a 23 square meter (250 square feet) studio "cabine", which means there is a tiny room for sleeping. Everything is extremely small by American standards, as you can imagine, but it is 2.5 times the size of our RV, so it will feel pretty big to us. We don't plan to stay there until next fall, which was confusing to the Favres, since we are renting it for the year, but to satisfy the requirement for the oh-so-fun French paperwork known as the Carte de Sejour, we needed an address now... So right after signing the lease paperwork (well, actually two hours later, since it was lunchtime), we headed up to the Mairie (town hall) at Tignes le Lac and filed our Carte de Sejour applications. I'm pretty sure the woman who helped us had never seen our particular case. She admitted she normally does the paperwork for the work visas for seasonal workers (in fact, she tried to tell us we didn't need a Carte de Sejour!).

Now that it is over, I'm feeling like the process of finding a place wasn't all that difficult. We stumbled through a lot of phone calls (remember GEGOR!?) and burned through quite a bit of gas driving between the two valleys, but were fairly lucky because we saw many things that would work for us. The most difficult part was deciding (for which we re-instituted "The Matrix"*) and waiting. We waited around all day one day to see an apartment (the owners still have not returned our call... and we had a tentative appointment!), and another day to find out if M. Ernault's tenant in Val d'Isere was going to renew next year. He did. Which left us a bit disappointed, but ended up saving us a lot of money. Neither of us are particularly patient with these things. The up-side is that the process got us talking to lots of real French people.

-SK

a Bourg St. Maurice

*"The Matrix" is a weighted scorecard we developed when we were house-hunting which made us a bit notorious with our real-estate agents. Warner Brothers did not pay us for the name when they stole it.

Le fin de la Saison

2006-04-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

The ski season has finally come to a close in the Alps, with most areas closing last Sunday and only the few glacially high mega resorts such as Espace Killy (Val D'Isere and Tigne), Trois Valles, and Zermatt remaining open and even those only through the 8th of May. I only managed 14 days on the slopes due to the logistical difficulties of setting up our life in France. Having our skis arrive February 23rd in Paris didn't help much either. It was a rather successful season with regards to my must ski list, where I was able to check off five of my top eight areas and we may yet ski Zermatt which would make it 6 of 8.

The highlights: knee deep fresh powder tracks off the top of the Grand Montet in Chamonix (even with a wait of 1-hr 15min, the longest in my skiing career), knee deep powder off piste from the top of the Trois Vallees, and touring up the Argentiere Glacier in Chamonix. The best ski area? That depends on what you want. If you want the most on piste terrain, which means you don't need to ski with a beacon, shovel and probe, Trois Valles is without a doubt the best. Great snow, great variety, insanely big. Chamonix can't be beat for the scenery, imagine the Grand Canyon but with an alpine setting, and the Grand Montet at Chamonix has a solid 3000 feet of steep vertical that you ski for every run. If you crave off piste skiing and touring the Espace Killy can't be beat and the lift system is so good that even during the French school holidays in February there are NO LINES! That same lift system lets you rip up serious amounts of vertical if you choose to ski the groomed runs as I did on my last day there, racking up over 25,000 vertical even-though I was off the mountain by 3pm.

Alas the lifts close and the snow melts and it must come to an end. The picture here shows Steph coming down from our tour at Pralagnon la Vanoise, a spectacular town set deep in the Vanoise Mountains of Savoie. We skinned up under the ski lifts which had closed the day before and on into the backcountry up to the the Col de Vanoise set at the foot of the highest peak in Savoie. We were down by 2pm, skiing out the piste that had been groomed the night before for the last time, then basked in the sun of the warm spring afternoon.

You can be here for the next go round. Come join us in the Alps. It starts up again in late November and will finish again in the warm sun of late April. You know how to reach us....

CM

a Savoie, France

Meeting Gegor

2006-04-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

We've looked at a lot of apartments this week, and I think tomorrow we'll be able to make a decision about where to live! When we do, we'll be sure to post pictures so you can see what you're in for when you come to visit us next year...

... And believe it or not, we were able to connect with Gegor (see last post). This is the man we have a LOT of trouble understanding on the phone. Everything went according to (our) plan. We called him from the town hall (in a very small town) and said (in French) "We are standing in front of the Mairie. Can you meet us here and we can go to the apartment together?" Apparently, that worked, because a few minutes later a man came wandering down the hill and kind of looked at us from behind some cars. We approached, and and introduced ourselves, then followed Gegor up to the apartment, which was in a excellent location next to a ski run in St. Martin de Belleville. As soon as he opened the front door to the building though, I sensed a bit of an odor that prepared me for what we were about to see...

The best way to describe Gegor's place is "solid squalor". Solid, because at least the building appeared to be very tough, built out of stone with no cardboard or plastic windows. But otherwise uninhabitable, as far as Craig and I were concerned. Stacks of laundry and trash on the floor... On the kitchen table, a loaf of crusty bread, and the moldiest hunk of cheese I've ever seen (and remember, this is France, so that's saying something!) In the bedroom, where the walls were covered with some sort of carpeting, two bunks covered with dirty landry and an armoire with some piles of dirt (or bugs) in the shadows, on the windowsill, a dirty ashtray and (I presume) Gegor's false teeth. (No wonder we can't understand him!) We were afraid to ask to see the bathroom, but were curious if there even was one... There was, it had half a toilet seat (Gegor mentioned making some repairs).

When we left, Gegor asked us to please give him three days notice to clean the place. We're pretty sure it will take three months.

On the bright side, we've seen several other apartments that work well for us. Nothing bigger than about 30 square meters (approx 320 square feet) though, so be prepared! And in Val d'Isere, most (affordable) places are more like 18 square meters. It's almost like going back to a dorm room.

-SK
a Val d'Isere

Renting an appartment... and looking for tenants

2006-04-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

We are excited because next week we will be looking at several places to live for next winter. It's a hard choice on paper, between Val d'Isere (bigger town, great services, but $$$) and the Trois Vallees area (limited services, less expensive, more authentic). I'm hoping that one of the places we look at will just "click" and the decision will be easy. We have been getting better at our French telephone skills, though it is still a bit scary to call people. (I'm in the habit of writing a script ahead of time, which actually gets me in trouble because the person on the other end then often overestimates my language skills!) And certain people have a tendancy to scream into the phone with absolutely no enunciation. Which would be kind of humerous if we weren't trying to get some information from them! The conversation goes something like this:

Man on phone: C'est Gegor de (unintelligible) Belleville! (Unintelligible) studio a louer (unintelligible) annee (unintelligible) Belleville!

Craig: Bien, nous voudrions le voir, est-ce que lundi marche pour vous?

Man on phone: C'est GEGOR! G-E-G-O-R!

...and so on.

...And on the home front, we are looking for new tenants for our apartment. The photo of our view is above. Here is the "ad":

Queen Anne View condo for rent $1650/month.

Your chance to live with the "Fraiser" view! 1000 square feet, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, gas fireplace, balcony, washer/dryer, dishwasher. Easy access to downtown Seattle, UW, SPU. Walking distance to restaurants, theater/ballet/opera, major sporting events, and all services. One secure parking spot and storage unit. Your rent includes basic cable TV, gas, water/sewer/garbage and hot water. No smoking. Cats OK. 1 year lease.

Let us know if you know anyone interested.

Finally, right now we're back in Chamonix (free Wi-Fi at l'Office du Tourisme), and will see our friend Marge Wheeler, who is here on her way to guiding an Haute Route trip!

-SK
a Chamonix

Mastercard scam!

2006-04-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

Best rate? Bullshit!

Right now we are extremely frustrated with Mastercard. Here's why:

We bought our RV with our Mastercard, assuming, like they always say, that we would get the best current exchange rate. However, this doesn't seem to be the case. They have charged us 3.78% over the exchange rate on the day of the charge. As you can imagine, with a large amount, this is a significant sum of money! Other charges that we made with our Mastercard have been typically 1% over the current exchange rate, which seems like a reasonable fee. But almost 4% -- I think not!

So, beware when using your Mastercard on large purchases overseas!

-SK
a Les Menuiers

Wet, wet, wet

2006-04-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been at Chamonix for nearly a week, and only managed to ski 2 days due to seriously wet weather. (Yes, I admit it, I'm becoming a bit of a fair-weather skier. But come on, we have all year, and I'm still recovering from knee surgery! And as you northwesterners know, skiing in the rain really sucks.)

However, when the weather is good here, it's spectacular! (as you can see in the photo where I'm getting ready to ski down les Grand Montets.) Of course, everyone comes out of the woodwork when there is a break in the rain, creating the worst liftlines we've ever seen. We waited nearly 45 minutes to load the base access chair from Argentiere -- an adventure in itself which involved putting our skis on indoors, then waddling across carpet (in a crowd, of course!) to get on the chairlift. Then we waited an hour and fifteen minutes for the Grand Montets tram when it finally opened...

We're heading back to Savoie now, hopefully it will be drier in les Trois Vallees.

Happy birthday Berdie!

Spring at last?

2006-03-29T04:17:00.000-08:00

After dropping off the rental RV in Amsterdam, we toured the Rhine valley in Germany, Strasbourg and the Alsace wine country. Excellent white wines!

Then we headed for the Swiss alps, where we hit some awesome spring skiing at Verbier. So great, in fact, that we stayed there for three days. This was pretty easy because the free parking lot at Verbier is right by the Centre Sportif (where you can get a shower for 3 Swiss Francs, and a very nice public toilet. ...and it was warm enough that we could get by without running our gas heat all the time. The temperature was somewhere around 15 C, downright hot for the mountains!

We had to drive the long way (around Lake Geneva) from Verbier to Chamonix because there is a low-clearance tunnel on the route over the pass. Of course it took us a while to realize this, so we wasted a couple of hours driving up and down the pass from the Swiss side, nearly catching our brakes on fire in the process.

The good weather was short-lived. We are now waiting out a spring snowstorm in Chamonix. Oh well, it gives us time to do our taxes.

-SK
a Chamonix, FR

The MacLouis...

2006-03-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

So besides drinking lots of beer and having a new nephew, the other thing that has been keeping us busy is the MacLouis. And what, exactly is the MacLouis, you ask? It is our new RV! Yes, we have managed to purchase, register and insure our very own "camping-car" in France! (And when we returned the rental RV to Braitman & Woudenberg in Amsterdam, they were duly impressed by this feat.) It took a full week of phone calls to the bank, meeting with French insurance agencies, getting documents translated, phone calls to our US insurance company, international faxes, etc., but on Wednesday afternoon, we rolled out of Isle de France Caravanes with a new "home"!

We celebrated with a champagne toast at a rest area on the autoroute, where we spent the night en route to Amsterdam with our little convoy (yes, we even used our ski radios to stay in contact with each other).

So thanks to M. Gregory Werner at Ile de France Caravanes, and Mme. Edwige Rhongerud at MAAF Assurances, we are now rolling in (well, at least a little more) style!

The MacLouis Lagan 252 is on a Fiat 2.3 diesel. It is what they call in France a profilé, which means it doesn't have the over-cab part (already getting better gas mileage than the old Rimor). It is 5.6 meters long, 2.7 meters high and about 2 meters wide. All told, larger than some apartments in Les Menuiers! It holds 4 for driving, but really only 2 for sleeping. (There is a third berth, but I think it only fits if you're less than 5'4" tall, and might be a little lumpy since it is partially on the front seat.) It has a kitchen unit with a 2 burner stove and a 3-way fridge, and a bathroom with toilet and shower.

This is the first big accomplishment on the trip, and we are quite proud of ourselves!

However, it all feels like borrowed time, since our insurance can only be renewed for the period that our drivers licenses are valid, which is technically only a year. (After a year, we are supposed to get French licenses. Which doesn't sound very fun.)

While we were waiting for everything to go through, we spent lots of time getting to know le départment de l'Oise. We spent the bulk of our nights at Campix, in St. Leu d'Esserent, which is a campground built out of an old sandstone quarry. Very cool spot! From there, and unfortunately mostly in the rain, we toured Chantilly, Compiènge, Beauvais, Écouen, and of course, Cauffry, where we bought the RV, and Gisors, where we bought the insurance. In addition to having an impressive gothic cathedral, Beauvais has something we've been looking for all over Europe, a laundromat with internet access! The Musée de la Renaissance in the chateau at Écouen has some amazing pieces, including a magnificent tapestry and crazy mechanical boat. You can see some of Oise in our Tour de l'Oise photo album...

In the picture with this post, I am holding the results of our Amsterdam shopping spree. Necessary for outfitting!

-SK

Barbie, Beer and Babies!

2006-03-19T14:04:00.001-08:00

So, I think the last entry was from the Brussels airport waiting for Craig's aunt Barbie to arrive for the Belgian Beer Festival... Her flight from Amsterdam was four hours late (yes, I think you could practically ride a bike from Amsterdam to Brussels in 4 hours, but oh well!), but she finally made it and we started our whirlwind tour of Belgian beers, starting at a tiny, smoky, neighborhood bar in Brussels called Moeder Lambic. There, we tried 5 different beers, then went on to Het Biercircus (luckily walking distance from the Phileas Fogg B&B) where we tried 6 more... you get the picture.

We did a two-day driving tour of the breweries in the Ardennes (the hilly part of Belgium, in the southeast), then swung back to Brussels for a tour of the Cantillon Brasserie, and headed to Sint Niklaas for the culminating event, the Zythos Bierfestival, a trade-show style event with over 50 breweries represented, all sampling their brews for 1 Euro a taste. By the end of the event, we had tried about 100 different Belgian beers, and the scary thing is that their was only about 5 or 6 that we wouldn't buy again -- beer is really that good here! (Steph's #1 pick: Rochefort 8; Craig's #1 pick: Dubuisson Bush 12; Barbie's #1 pick: Du Borq Triple Moine?)

It was after the first day of the Bierfestival (so we were probably up to about 75 tastings), that the phone woke us up at 7:00 in the morning. Twice.

It was Andrew calling to tell us that our nephew was born! Congratulations to Andrew and Cori, and welcome little Toby!

Catching up...

2006-03-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of entries lately. It has been an insane few weeks, and so much has happened that we can't get it all into one blog entry, so please read the next few to get caught up... New pictures have also been posted, so check out our photo albums as well!

-SK

à Amsterdam

Excited... and frustrated

2006-03-01T05:28:00.000-08:00

Well, we put money down on an RV yesterday! It is very exciting to have a "home" of our own soon! Then we drove into Belgium and got stuck in the mud at our campgroud. We had to get a tow truck to pull us out. It was a major letdown to an otherwise very exciting day...

Now, we are waiting at the Brussels airport for Craig's aunt Barbie to arrive... for the Belgian Beer Festival!

-SK

a Bruxelles

Two successful days...

2006-02-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

... Well, it seems pretty amazing, but we have had two successful days in a row. What this means is that things went as planned, or better than planned! I don't really know if this is because of good planning, or because we have learned to plan for the worst case scenario. Really, it doesn't matter...

Yesterday was successful because we managed to stick to our driving itinerary (we were trying to get to Paris today), and the campground that was supposed to be open was open! We got showers (kind of key, after skiing and sleeping in parking lots for two nights)!

Today was successful because we DID get to Paris today, AND we completed our task that we thought might take until Monday... We picked up the crates that we shipped from Seattle. This was worrysome, because the email that told us they had arrived had lots of complicated instruction (in French, of course) for how to deal with the customs, and there was a lot of documentation required. However, the paperwork we used for our visa worked here too, and we now have our own skis!

... Oh, and if you can't tell from my exhuberant tone, we also have a fairly fast wifi connection at the campground we're staying at...

-SK

a Torcy

Finally, a long entry...

2006-02-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

So, you might want to know how things are really going... First of all, if it is not obvious from our lack of blog posts and our non-reponses to your emails (yes, we are reading them! and thank you!), it is more difficult and more expensive than we expected to get internet access. I guess living in Seattle, where free wifi is almost as ubiquitous as Starbucks, has spoiled us. Where we have connected, it is on French-style keyboards, so we are slow at typing. (They are just different enough from ours to be pesky! For example, the m and a are in different places, and you have to shift to get a period.)

The Olympics were a bit of a vacation for us, mainly because they distracted us from all of the tasks which we are still working on in France; mainly, finding a place to live (with a very helpful landlord or property management company who will rent to us even though we have no verifiable income) and buying an RV. Progress is slow, primarily because we are working on everything in a foreign language, and also because we have yet to fully work out our plans around the French schedule (typically 9h-12h and 14h-17h, Monday through Saturday if you're lucky!). We relish the small victories, like getting a French cell phone, setting up the voice mail on the French cell phone, successfully explaining to the rental agency that even though we can't produce the paperwork they want for the agreement, we have money to pay for an apartment, talking someone into letting us stay in a marginally-open campground, soliciting a ride into town to buy tire chains, etc. ...And of course we are learning every day. Mostly about skiing, RVs and apartments. People have been generally helpful and patient.

Daily life includes things like: deciding where to stay, grocery shopping, tiny steps towards the tasks above, driving and navigating. Here are some detailed examples:

Deciding where to stay:
Anyone who has ever rolled into a town after dark tired and hungry and without a place to stay knows that this can be stressful. Now, just for fun, add a foreign language, seasonal closures! Our worst wild goose chase was outside of Chambery, where we spent the twilight hours searching for a campground that turned out to be closed, and then drove for another hour or so up about 100 hairpin turns to what turned out to be a private campground for the Camping Club de France. Luckily the proprietor took pity on us and let us stay when we showed up well after dark.

Tiny steps:
Since the rental agencies all want to see three months rental history, three months salary and various other things that we don't have, our latest thing is to be up front and tell them that we won't be able to get them anything like this. The way we devised to make this understood is to tell them that we're retired! This definitely gets their attention.

Grocery shopping:
I am slightly embarrassed to admit it, but we love Carrefour. Which I'm pretty sure is the Wal-Mart of France. What's not to love though? They have huge parking lots, where we can always find space, even during the "soldes" on Saturday (Craig promises to write about this). They have a really cheap store brand. They have toilets. They have virtually everything we need. Just don't forget to have your produce weighed BEFORE you go to the checkout. And bring your own bag(s). Oh, and don't put off shopping until Sunday afternoon because even the biggest "Hypermarches" are not open then.

Driving and navigating:
Our navigation system works remarkably well. We've been able to navigate relatively easily almost everywhere! What the navigation system doesn't tell us, though, is where you can park a high-clearance vehicle, or if you can get through all of the tunnels. So far, the most fun was Turino. Besides Olympic roadblocks and typical Italian drivers, Turin had the wackiest thoroughfare system I've ever seen. It's four-lane, but the middle two lanes ONLY go straight (even through roundabouts), so if you want to make a LEFT turn, you need to be in the RIGHT lane. Being the right lane got us into trouble though, when it got diverted around the Sunday market. Believe it or not, we found parking in downtown Turin! It was quite stressful though.

-SK

a Les Menuires

The Olympic games

2006-02-16T04:34:00.000-08:00

We have been having fun navigating the Olympics, and the typical chaos that is Italy. The games were actually fairly organized... we saw Ted Ligety win the mens alpine combined gold medal, quite a surprise!

Now back in France, and in a snowstorm... hopefully will ski soon.

SK & CM
a Briancon

Getting our life in France started

2006-02-10T09:02:00.000-08:00

Our apologies, this messqge will be shorter than we would like due to our adjustment to the non-QWERTY keyboards we have had to use in France. We have arrived in Savoie and are searching for a cheap apartment to give us an address in France, allowing us to fulfill the requirements for our residency card. Alas, nothing is a simple as it seems. To get an apartment we need a salary (not going to happen) or at least a French bank account. To get a French bank account we need an address! Around and around we go!

Small victories though, we managed to get a french phone number!! It is 06-84-85-44-86.

On to Italy now...

CM et SK
à Albertville

The eagle has landed...

2006-02-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

... and we arrived in Amsterdam, and picked up our new home, a Rimor. Hopefully we will post pictures soon. We spent today trying to find high-clearance parking in Amsterdam. Very fun. Now, we're searching for a 12-volt adapter for the computer at the Apple store.

-SK

a Amsterdam

The last week...

2006-01-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

... in Puget Sound has been crazy! After a full day of appointments in Seattle on Wednesday, we finished packing at 7:00 pm on Thursday, and left Vashon Island on the 5:30 (am) ferry Friday to make it to our flight to Boston.

We are visiting Bronwen and Eric in their new house before leaving for Amsterdam (via Dublin and Shannon Ireland) on Tuesday.

-SK