Paris Continued

I really like the orange juice machine at our hotel for breakfast. Fresh oranges are very sweet.

We left the hotel a little after 9:00 but had to return so that Ann could change into her walking shoes. While she did this, I walked over to a tobacco shop and bought a carnet of Metro tickets - 10 tickets. We caight the train at La Tour Maubourg, transferred at Place de la Concorde and got off at the Louvre. Did you know that street musicians entertain you on the Metro? We had a Man man playing a baritone horn accompanied by French tunes on his boom box. I thought that it was pretty good but Ann felt it was intrusive. It confused us enough that we got off the train too soon and had to catch the next train.

We spent about four hours there. The crowds were massive in the popular exhibits - Mona Lisa, etc. We battled the art lovers all morning until we got hungry. We left the museum, walked underground to the Carrousel du Louvre and bought lunch at the fast-food eateries. Ann had Italian while I had Spanish. Next time I will eat at one of the restaurants in the Louvre. It was nice to get away, though. The noise and the rude photographers were too much for us.

We returned to the museum and found the Holland and Flemish paintings. These rooms were much less crowded and much more quiet. The lines for the toilets were very short and the facilities were a lot cleaner than the ones on the main level. The quantity and quality of the paintings were wonderful. We recognized many paintings from before and many from school texts, magazines and other books that we have read.

We were worn out at around 2:20, so we picked up our checked coats and headed for the nearest sortie.

The Metro ride back to our station was much easier. When we got to the hotel, our room was being cleaned so we sat in the lobby and watched as a Rick Steves tour group gathered for a Paris to Rome trip.

When our room was ready, Ann took a rest while I went to a grocery store on Rue Cler and bought some dates and almonds for our snack time.

We went for dinner at Le Perit Cler, a small bistro that was a short walk form our hotel. Ann had grilled chicken with potatoes and a small salad. I had Beef Bourguignon with noodles. We had a Cote du Rhone to drink and baba au rum for dessert. We really enjoyed the lively energy of this bistro that had mixture of locals and tourists. We will go back. 

After dinner we strolled over to the Eiffel Tower.

Paris

I intended to write about the rest of our bike and barge trip in The Netherlands while we were on the train from Amsterdam to Paris. It did not happen. Although the train ride was smooth and fast, the seats were too cramped for my legs and elbows to maneuver and type on my iPad. So those of you who are interested in that part of our trip will have to wait until I create my journal on our website. It will have a lot more information plus a bunch of photos. There will be lots of pictures of windmills and tulips.

We arrived at Gare du Nord mid-day on Saturday the 26th. We decided to forego Metro and take a taxi to our hotel. It was a lot easier on my back without lugging our luggage on the underground.

Hotel Muguet is near the Eiffel Tower. We saw the top of it this afternoon but we have not walked over to it yet. Our room is large compared to other Paris hotel rooms we have stayed in. Twin beds are on one end while a writing desk and table are in a sitting area. The bathroom is roomy and has a combination bath/shower. We are in the interior on the second floor facing a very quiet courtyard.

After checking in, we put our feet up for a while until we started to get hungry. Taking Rick Steves' advice, we walked over to the Rue Cler and had dinner at Cafe du Marche. It is a relatively inexpensive cafe (this translates to "not quite as expensive"). Ann had a quiche and salad while I had a typical Parisienne steak and sautéd potatoes. We split a small carafe of pouilly fuisse and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. We ate in a covered area outside and were thankful for the enclosure when there was a cloudburst during the middle of our meal.

After dinner we strolled up and down Rue Cler and walked back to our hotel.

Today was Ann's birthday. We started celebrating by eating at our hotel's breakfast. I say celebrating because nothing is cheap in Paria. We had fresh orange juice which we squeezed ourselves in a juicing machine. The French coffee was good and strong and did not taste like wet socks. Croissants were flaky and the cereal and eggs were fresh.

After breakfast we walked over to the Musee d'Orsay and spent most of the day there. This included lunch in the cafeteria - pasta for me and salmon for Ann. It is always an extraordinary experience to visit this museum. The paintings are fantastic. We split up in the museum with Ann using a guide book while I listened to Rick Steves audio tour on my iPhone.

As we walked back to our hotel, we visited two other museums using our newly acquires 6-day museum pass. We were dodging rain storms on the way.

Ann's birthday dinner was at Chez Pierrot, a small bistro that was a 5-minute walk from our hotel. I made reservations for 7:00 through an online French reservation system. When we arrived, the waitress did not seem to know about it. No problem though, there were very few customers. It was a small bistro with a couple of fixed price menus. Ann had rump steak with a creamy pepper sauce along with potatoes and a salad. I had a appetizer of deep-fried squid and sardines, a main course of sole and salmon with ratatouille. We both had a peach tart for dessert. We split a bottle of Pouilly Fume.

We retraced our route and found our way back to the hotel without a map.

First Day Of Riding In The Netherlands

Sunday - After our bike fit we said good bye to our boat and pedaled away form the pier. It was a slow start with 22 people trying to get accustomed to their bicycles. Ann had an hard time with her electric assisted bike because it was so heavy. Starting and stopping were delicate balancing acts.

We quickly fell into a pattern. Sietse was our guide. Without him it would be impossible to follow all of the bicycle paths. Whenever we reached a turn, he would holler "corner" and the person behind him would stop and make sure the the rest of the group would make the turn. Steven Kiel, one of our group, volunteered to be our sweep. When he reached the corner person, we knew everyone was accounted for.

Sietse was a teacher in his past life and he was very good at explaining where we were and what we were looking at. What we were mostly looking at were canals, dairy farms, wild flowers, water birds, wind mills, country houses, small villages, etc. Because he was telling us about the local flora, fauna and culture, we made lots of stops. This was frustrating to me until I realized that this was why we were here. There was no need to see how fast I could cover the daily mileage.

Our first major stop was at a dairy farm where we had a tour. We saw very young calves, milking apparatus, cheese making equipment (this farm's major business) and lots of cheese in storage. We were served lunch which was bread and generous samplings of about a dozen types of cheese, all produced by this farm.

We had no route sheets or maps, but Sietse knew where we were going. We were soon back on our supposed route being good ducklings following our father duck. There were lots of other cyclists on the trail being Sunday and Easter Sunday. Most of them were typical Netherlands cyclist dressed in regular clothes, not helmets and riding bikes with upright handlebars and few gears. Lots of families were riding together and some had dogs in their baskets. We saw people of all ages - ranging from very young to those older than us. Some bicycles were equipped with seats or trailers for toddlers.

The weather was very nice - lots of sunlight and temperatures in the 60's. The dreaded Netherlands winds were mild.

After making lots of stops for mechanicals and sight seeing, we eventually got back to our boat in late afternoon just in time to clean up before dinner.

Jantien, who is co-owner of the boat with Henk, is the boat's manager and cook. She fixed our dinner along with Iveta, a young crew member form Slovakia. Our other crew member is Denisa, also from Slovakia. Denisa is our bar tender and server. Dinner was three courses - soup, entree and dessert. We had fish tonight.

After dinner Sietse reviewed today's ride and tomorrow's route. To do so, he drew
Them on a flip chart - we are low-tech. Then it was off to our room and bed time.

Our cabin is equipped with two beds, a small closet, a reading desk and a bathroom. It is very compact but very functional.

Busy In The Netherlands

Our day starts at 8:00 for a buffet breakfast. We are on our bikes shortly after 9:00. Our rides last until late afternoon. Then we have a little time to clean up until dinner. Atfter dinner we take a walk through the port's town. By 9:00 or so, we are back on the boat. I am either too tired or the internet is not working so writing this blog is not happening. I will catch up when we get to Paris. In the meantime, we are well and enjoying ourselves a lot.

Bicycles And More Bicycles - Onward In The Netherlands

I have not written about bicycle culture in The Netherlands. In Amsterdam, bicycles outnumber cars at least 10 to 1 and maybe higher especially in the old part of the city. This could be a result of gasoline prices that are around twice those in the US. It could be that parking is severely limited and expensive. It could be that it is difficult to drive around all of the canals and over the hundreds of bridges. It could be that there are bicycle lanes on most of the streets as well as special traffic lights. It could be that there are huge parking garages and reserved spaces for bicycles. In any case, the city is overwhelmed by peddle power. The bicycles are mostly equipped with upright handlebars and limited gears. Riders rarely wear helmets and dress like normal people.

We started our cruise this morning during breakfast. We left Amsterdam and cruises for an hour or so.  When we stopped, we got off of our barge and were fitted to our bicycles. Ann has an e-bike, an electric assisted bike. It is very heavy but practical. It is a bit clumsy to start and stop, but the assist feature makes pedaling a lot easier. My bicycle is not as heavy as hers, but it has a triple in front and an 8-speed cluster in back. I will probably never get out of the middle chain ring during our tour.

There are 22 of us following a ride leader who is part of the bike and barge tour company. There are no maps or route sheets which makes following the leader mandatory. Because the riding abilities of the people in the group range from expert to beginner, the pace is dictated by the slowest rider. One of us volunteers to be a sweep.

Because of intermittent internet problems, I will try to continue this blog later.

Last Day In Amsterdam

After a leisurely breakfast, we packed and checked out of our hotel. As we were doing so, I noticed a photo behind the counter that showed the hotel owners on each side of Bill Clinton. He stayed at the hotel many years ago as a long-hair bearded student, according to the owner. He stopped there a while back to revisit, not to stay.

We struggled to get our bags down the narrow stairs and out the door. We wheeled them a half-mile to the waterfront and left them on our boat. We could not get into our cabin yet so we went on another walk. It was Saturday so we decided to go to a local outdoor market. The weather was sunny and even warm in spots.

The market was huge with clothes, meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, breads, snacks, etc. we bought some really good apple pastries. After the market, we went back to the boat to see what bicycle equipment they supplied. Helmets and water bottles were included, so we did not have to buy them.

Lunch was at a small cafe where Ann had a ham and tomato toast which I had a hamburger with fries. Not too bad and not the best.

We wandered around the canals and killed time until it was time to officially board our boat. Our stateroom is fairly large with two single beds, a very small closet and a cramped but functional bathroom. There is porthole where we can look out but can't open. The staterooms are at water level while the main deck is above.

We had an orientation meeting where the crew was introduced - three women, a male captain and a male bicycle guide. There are 22 BAC members from various parts of the US. We followed the BAC custom of introducing ourselves.

For dinner, we had mustard soup as a starter. Pork chops, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes gratin. Dessert was cherry cake. To settle our meal, we took a guided tour of parts of Amsterdam that we had not seen.

Bed time was around 11:00.

Amsterdam

I finally have some time to post my blog. It has been a very busy time here in Amsterdam with lots of sight-seeing (or is it site-seeing? I never know which to use). When we have down time, we can't stay awake. Now that we are caught up with the major sights and sleep, it is time to report on what we have done and what meals we have eaten. Note that there are no photos. It is too cumbersome to add them with my iPad. Photos will appear later on my website.

We had a very easy day on Tuesday, the 15th. The Bensons picked us up and drove us to SFO for our 9:00 flight. We used our United miles to buy business class tickets, so we flew in semi-luxury. We waited for our flight in the business class lounge where we supplemented our meager breakfast at home. Our plane to O'Hare was very new and did not have amenities added yet. There were no entertainment pods and no fold-down seats. The seats looked nice and smelled like real leather, but they had no lumbar support and the the seat pads were uncomfortable. The food was good - eggs, cinnamon rolls, etc.

We arrived in Chicago on time and hung out in United's business class lounge.

Our next leg took us to Amsterdam. This time we had entertainment pods, fold-down seats and very good service. Dinner and a breakfast snack were included. We watched a movie and managed to get a little sleep.

We landed in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, went through passport control, picked up our bags and rode the train into Centraal train station. I had memorized the directions to our hotel and managed to get us there without too much trouble.

We are staying at Hotel Brouwer alongside a quiet canal. Our room is on the second and third floors. We get to it by climbing two very narrow and windy staircases. Our big feet do not fit on the stairs so we have to be very careful. The bathroom is on the first level, the bedroom is a half level up and the sitting room is on the next level. We have antique furniture along with a modern TV which we have yet to turn on. Tiles on the sitting room floor are cracked and loose. The parquet floor in the bedroom is loose and squeaks. There is a pocket bed in the sitting room which is much too small for either of us to use. WIFI is free and fast. If you look at the hotel's website, you can see the views from our room. Our breakfast consists of orange juice, pressed coffee, three kinds of rolls and a hard boiled egg.

When we reached the hotel on Wednesday morning, it was too early to check in. We decided to go on one of Rick Steves walking tours around our neighborhood. The Jordaan Walk took us from Dam Square out to St Andrew's Courtyard. Along the way we passed several canals with a variety of boats - some hauling tourists, some transporting goods, some tied up as houseboats and some abandoned and rotting. The tall, narrow buildings and houses that we saw have settled in various degrees and are leaning in different directions. They are all built atop a foundation of pilings and have sunk into the soft ground. The major sights that we saw were the Torensluis Bridge (where we had lunch at
Villa Zeezicht - tomato soup for Ann and a smoked fish sandwich for me), lots of shops, marihuana cafés, the Homomonument, Westerkerk, herring kiosks, French fires kiosks, the outside of Anne Frank's house, more shops, more cafés, more crooked buildings and finally St Andrew's Courtyard which is a behind-the-door courtyard surrounded by subsidized housing. We stopped here and sat on a bench in the garden to rest our legs.

The weather was sunny and a little cool for the entire walk.

We strolled back to our hotel and checked into our room. Because of jet lag, whenever we sat down we would fall asleep. Because of this we decided to have an early dinner. After a short stroll to see where we are meeting our boat on Saturday we went for dinner at Tales And Spirits which is around the corner from our hotel. This was an excellent choice. Although it is advertised as a cocktail bar, its dinner menu is very inventive and tasty. We split four items - Green Asparagus Tempura
planted in a parsley hummus with rye-sesame crumble, baby red chard and papadums; Red Beet Gazpacho with crayfish tails, herring roe, cucumber and garlic croutons; Artichoke Barigoule
with a poached egg, smoked potato cream, and crispy chicken crackling; and Truffle Risotto
with sautéed wild mushrooms & rocket lettuce, topped with shaved Parmesan. Yum.

Bed time was early.

Thursday breakfast started at 8:30, a reasonable time. We decided to go on Rick Steves city walk. It starts at the central train station and ends at the Rijksmuseum. Before starting the walk we detoured to shop for some items that we left at home. We walked past the Stock Exchange, the Royal Palace, the New Church, the National Monument and into the De Papegaal Hidden Church. At the Amsterdam Museum, we walked through the courtyard and the Civic Guard Gallery. Next it was into Begijnhof, a quiet courtyard lined with houses that have sheltered women since 1346. In the courtyard are an English Reformed Church, a Catholic Church and the oldest house in Amsterdam (1477). Our next stop was at Spui Square where we had lunch at Esprit in its outdoor cafe.

Mint Tower was next and then a huge flower market (Bloemenmatkt). At Koningsplein we watched people buying raw herring from a popular outdoor food stand. Then we peered through the windows of a smartshop where it sells drugs, many of them illegal at home and not all of them harmless. Then it was on to the Rijksmuseum where we spent a couple of hours looking at paintings of the Dutch masters along with several hundred other art lovers. The paintings were spectacular but there were a lot of rude photographers who stood in front of the paintings blocking others.

When we left the museum, we hopped onto a tram that took us to the train station. We walked back to our hotel from there.

Dinner was at a tapas restaurant where we ordered too much good food. Then it was bed time.

We had the same breakfast this morning. We met some of the other guests who were going on another bike and barge trip. Their trip is a week longer than ours.

Our major visit today was at Anne Frank's house. When we go there, the line was about two hours long. After inching along for about an hour, a nicely dressed man approached us and started asking Ann questions about how long we were in line and how we were holding up. He asked us to follow him and he would get us in at the special entrance. Ann asked him incredulously if he could so that and he said yes, he was the boss. It turns out that he was Ronald Leopold, the Executive Director of the Anne Frank House and a very nice person. Sometimes getting older has its advantage.

The tour of the house was both fascinating and emotional. How two families could live and survive in close quarters for as long as they did was remarkable. And what happened to them was tragic.

Walking back to our room, we stopped at Cafe 't Smalle for salads and drinks. A light rain had started so we ate inside at the bar. This was the best place to sit because we could watch all of the action going on behind the bar including a cute little 4-year-old girl washing and drying glasses. She could barley see over the bar.

We walked back to our room for a rest.

Dinner was at Winkel where we had three appetizers and the best apple pie/cake in Amsterdam. It had real whipped cream, too.

The weather today turned cold and windy. We also had a few rain showers. We expect variable weather on our cruise which starts tomorrow afternoon.