We had an overnight visit from Gayle and Carlo. They're from Melbourne. Actually, Carlo is from Italy but is now living in Melbourne. They've just become engaged. They're not getting married until October 2008. They want us to come to their Italian Wedding. That should be fun. We had the loveliest time together, but oh so short. We even found them great train specials. It's called "Click and Ride" with SBB Switzerland and they release empty seats 3 days prior to travel.
I worked with Gayle for a few months at the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Melbourne.
Wanna know what Roger and I got up to today? (I'll tell you anyway!).We caught the 8.16am train from Schopfheim into Basel SBB where we met our walking group at the top of the escalators! There were 20 of us on the walk today. The walk was for 4 hours from Mumpf to Lauphenburg, but we only did part of the walk as we had 'things to do'. We crossed from Switzerland into Germany via an old covered wooden pedestrian bridge (has to be seen to be believed). This put us at Bad Sackingen and we took time to have a coffee together. Here we met an Irish lady with her 2 year old son (full of beans).We then caught the train to Basel Badischer, tram into the city and then tram to Louis Grenze. I was a girl on a mission and my darling husband was patiently helping me. My mission - to buy Self Raising Flour in France (not available in Germany or Switzerland!). Back to my story. At the end of the tram stop we took a bus into St Louis (France) then walked to the supermarket where we purchased lots of goodies! Then back on the bus, tram and eventually train home. (If you're counting - 6 Zoll (Border crossings) in all! And I might add, it is the most glorious day here in this part of the world.So now you might ask "Why the SR Flour?". I am going to make a Lumberjack Cake for my friend Sabine's 'O' Birthday tomorrow! It's also A.N.Z.A.C. Day on Wednesday, so I'm going to treat some of our friends to Anzac cookies to mark this Australian day of remembering those who gave their lives in WWI.Off now to do some baking!
More photo's to come on this Chateau, but here's some information, then that's it for France for the moment!Unique about this Chateau: a fear-conjuring, huge medieval castle with deep, wide moat (though it was never filled with water), drawbridge and gate still intact; the cones that once sat on top of the large round turrents are gone and the turrents (still huge) have been shortened; can walk the deep ramparts; the ramparts and moat have now been planted in gardens; in the "dungeon" hang around 75 huge tapestries recounting in picture, the entire Revelation of John - truly amazing and beautifully presented. We wished we'd had a summary of Revelation to help us with the pictures.
Now Pat, I haven't even finished working on this post and you've already left 2 comments! I just can't download anymore photo's. I've tried about 10 times and now I'm off to bed. You're just going to have to be kept in suspense until I can get these photo's to 'stick'. By the way, I'm sure you could easily keep up with us all. Well, we'd look after you anyway.Lots more to come. Just be patient with me.
After a wonderful sleep Saturday night and a leisurely breakfast we headed off to the Amboise Sunday markets! Wow, what a treat. We then met back at the Hotel and headed of to Angers. The ladies went in one car, the men in the other. Although it was fairly slow going, we went through some beautiful countryside, and I think very unique to France. Linda was the navigator in our car, with the men behind. We did have some funny experiences with directions. Linda was asked by Deborah to look for "trees" on the map, which would mean a picnic area (we did have to laugh about that). Well, about 5 minutes after this conversation, Deborah pulls off the road! Yes, she had spotted a roadside with a tree on it! The guys behind wondered what on earth was happening! But guess what we found? Yes, this beautiful spot and here we all are enjoying a feast! We think we might even have seen the Lochness Monster (oh, that's right, isn't that in Scotland?!!).We just fancied the bridge picture.
Whilst in the Loire Valley we stayed at the Hotel Belle Vue. A 'boutique' hotel run by a lovely French family. Our rooms opened on to a balcony, which overlooked the Loire River. This is where Roger and I breakfasted each morning (instead of going downstairs for a French breakfast).The hotel was in a lovely situation - between the banks of the Loire River and the steep base of Chateau d'Amboise (which we didn't visit!!) where hundreds of Protestants were thrown over the wall with a rope around their nick and used for bird food; no signs of that now, thank goodness, and so a lovely sight at night from the hotel or from the bridge over the river just out in front of the hotel. Lots of people in this town actually do live in caves.Pictures below are of the town of Amboise and of us having a leisurely meal one evening. As you can see, we are sitting outside. The weather was so mild. We really did savour these very special moment.
Then on to this beautiful chateau. Fancy seeing 2 magnificent chateau's in one afternoon. This is my favourite chateau so far! What is unique about this chateau? It's built like a bridge over the Cher River - truly stunning in so many ways; lots of intrigue about the son of Francis I, who provided this lovely chateau for his mistress (about 20 years older than him, but beautiful, so they say); the king's wife took the chateau away from the mistress after the king died quite young!! There are 2 glorious gardens surrounding the chateau. The mistresses garden (Diana) and the queen's garden (Catherine Medeci from the famous Medeci family in Italy!). Makes me want to read the history books. What about you Pat? The king's wife was a very important player in the Reformation and Wars of Religion in France. The Cher River was a boundary between occupied and liberated French territory during WWII; the bridge-ness of the structure made it strategic.Can't rave on forever. This will have to do. Sorry folks. Got work to do!!!!!
Hope it was worth the wait. Now for the commentary! The 6 pictures below are of Chateau de Chambord (just southeast of Blois on the Loire River). Unique about Chambord: nice "little" hunting lodge for the kings of France, with a few - 365 - chimneys that you can see up close and personal while walking on the rooftop; at the centre of this mammoth chateau is a strangely unique double helix stone stairwell designed by Leonardo de Vinci for his friend, Francis I, the Renaissance King. Roger, Wirt and Keith took one staircase, while Linda, Deborah and Gaynor took the other. Quite amazing.We travelled about 700 km's from Loerrach to the Loire Valley. The countryside in France is something to behold. The last 2 pictures are:The Hotel that we stayed in last Friday night in Auxerre. The loveliest country town and the nicest French people. After a walk around the town we went back to the Hotel, sat outside as it was the most glorious evening and Wirt, Linda, Roger and I played "Cheat"! My goodness we had fun.The second picture is of Linda, Wirt, Keith, Deborah and myself.More pictures to come. I can't give them to you all at once!
Well, our 10 days holiday have come to an end. I just need to get an early night tonight so that I will be raring to go tomorrow! We arrived home from France at 7.15pm tonight. I was organized enough last Thursday night to make dinner for tonight (Chilli Con Carne and Rice). What a relief and very yummy.We've had the most amazing time away these past 3 days (though we did leave Friday afternoon) and when we get organized and download photos, I will have some lovely photo's to share with you (if I can get them on to my blog!).God's creation sure is amazing.
