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A European Adventure

Juni - Juli 2017
Ein 48-Tage Abenteuer von The Kings travels Weiterlesen
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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    11
    Tag 34

    Netherlands, Amsterdam.

    11. Juli 2017 in den Niederlanden ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Amsterdam. I'm not sure. I had pictured pretty little cobbled streets, flowers, quaint cafes, bikes, canals with boats and little bridges crossing them. It is all of that but with frenetic busyness that I wasn't expecting. It's also pretty grubby with lots piles of garbage and litter everywhere. I don't want to be too harsh, that was first impressions on our first day....we wandered around a bit ourselves this morning and visited the main Dam Square with its palace. We had a 3 hour walking tour this arvo. The tour was quite good, an Amsterdam local lead us around to the main sights and explained some of the history to us. She stopped us for a sandwich at a little out of the way local cafe without tourists (we are everywhere and make up a huge proportion of the crowds in Amsterdam). The food was great and we spent a bit of time talking to her about Australia. Of course you can't visit here without wandering through the red light district. Have seen it now, no big deal, a little cheap and tacky. Last night we went on a boat cruise through the canals, that was really good and we got to see a lot of the city that we probably won't get to it the couple of days that we have. We have bought a selection of museum tickets so plan on doing that today.Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    1
    Tag 35

    Amsterdam

    12. Juli 2017 in den Niederlanden ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    I think I'm warming to it......the heady fragrance of a long forgotten smell is everywhere. Today we went to the Museum quarter, a place a about a 20 minute walk from our hotel where most of the major museums are located. We had pre-booked tickets to the Rijks Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. It is very crowded here, we think the European summer holidays must have started as there're lots of kids everywhere. The queues to get in to these places are miles long so it's a good thing we prepurchased. The Rijks Museum is housed in a very beautiful building built in the 1800's and funded by wealthy Dutch for the specific purpose of a Museum. The museum is pretty much a comprehensive mix of Dutch art and history. It is was quite interesting, my favourite a display and story about Dutch sailors in the 1500's who went via the Arctic circle to find an alternative route to China. The got stuck in the ice for 9 months and surprisingly most of them survived in a "safe house" they built. Imagine, no down jackets, no decent shoes.....needless to say it wasn't a good short cut to China. The Van Gogh museum was 3 floors of the history and art of this prolific painter. It was excellent. A walk back to the hotel for coffee, cake and Roger's daily fix of the Le Tour on the telly.Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    1
    Tag 35

    Netherlands, Amsterdam

    12. Juli 2017 in den Niederlanden ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Our last day in Amsterdam. We're off early tomorrow morning to northern France and our fellow travels fly home. We've had pretty good weather so far but our umbrellas got a work out today. It started raining early and pretty much didn't stop until late afternoon. We spent the day doing indoor things......two museums and brewery. The first museum, "Moco" had a Banksy and Dali exhibitions on. The Banksy, really interesting and comprehensive, all of the favourites and a few of the lesser known. Dali doesn't really appeal to me, never has so I didn't pay too much attention. Roge enjoyed it though. Through the pouring rain to the Stedelijk Museum for two floors of modern Dutch art. Loved it. Of course who can visit Amsterdam without having a Heineken experience? Not us apparently. A brewery tour, which started out well to keep us out of the rain. The first part of the tour which show cased the history of the brewery and the brewing process was quite interesting but then it just descended into a commercially interactive experience complete with ride and an opportunity to participate in Dutch karaoke. Who would have thought. The Heineken experience finished in a roof top bar....Been a long time since I've been in a venue where my shoes stuck to the floor. An afternoon spent wandering, with a little bit of souvenir shopping. Looking forward to France.Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    11
    Tag 37

    France Amiens

    14. Juli 2017 in Frankreich ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We left Amsterdam bright and early so as we could weave our way through the canals and roadworks, still took half an hour to go a couple of kms! On the way to Amiens we stopped off at Villars Bretonnoux and visited the Australian World War One memorial there. Man what an emotional place, we both had tears as we wandered the site. It is a very moving place and was quite damaged during the Second World War with the stonework showing many bullet holes. Beautifully looked after by the French.The connection to Australia is very strong in this village as the Aussie forces rescued it from the Germans and assisted in the rebuilding of the village after the war. We had lunch at the Victoria cafe, there are kangaroo symbols all over the place as well as other signage referencing Australiana. Onto Amiens, a delightful town that has canals and interesting old buildings in the town centre and has an enormous Cathedral at its centre. It is Bastille Day in France today so last night there was a huge fireworks display set to music which we watched with many thousands of French people. Was spectacular. Off today to explore and enjoy Bastille Day. Viva Le France!Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    1
    Tag 38

    France, Amiens

    15. Juli 2017 in Frankreich ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Had a lazy start to the day....slept in, breakfast late. Had planned on just walking the main sights of this lovely city. We had been told by the concierge to take a boat trip to "Des Hortillages" - floating islands that have been formed from peat bogs some 2000 years ago. These islands are now small plots with a small house and large veggie garden - they really are quite amazing. You travel on a flat bottomed barge type boat through little canals that weave their way through the islands. No roads, no cars, and incredibly quiet given they are right in the middle of the city. From there we strolled to the house Jules Verne lived in for 18 years. It's not open to public, there is just a sign telling you that where he lived, from there on the La Cirque, a beautiful old building that had copped a bit of damage in the war and has been rebuilt and is still under going works today. Amiens was apparently a key target of interest to the invading forces in both wars and most of the buildings have received damage. There is a fabulous museum building, not open to the public that had significant damage, was rebuilt, and is now undergoing major renovations. It's a pit we couldn't go in, it looked pretty impressive. We had a pretty lazy day, finishing off with drinks no dinner by the river. Off to our next stop, Dinan, where we are out of hotels (yay!) and have our our cottage for a week. Can't wait.Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    11
    Tag 39

    France, Dinan

    16. Juli 2017 in Frankreich ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We left Amiens in plenty of time to have a nicely paced drive to Dinan to meet the host at our cottage between 2.30 and 3.30. What we got was an absolutely bloody nightmare of a drive, not realising that with Bastille Day on Friday everyone, and I mean everyone, in France had decided to hit the road for a long weekend and they all heading in the same direction as us. Every other autobahn and autostrada we have driven on have a very modern and efficient approach to collecting tolls - you either buy a toll pass and stick it on your windscreen and get zapped as you through under a camera or, as in Germany they're free. Not so in France. Apparently, and i don't know how true this is, the different departments in France couldn't agree on a national system as they were all fearful of loosing money so there are tolls booths at the beginning and end of small stretches of autostrada. You have to pay, or get a ticket for the next stretch at each of these points. An extra two hours was added to our trip. We finally arrived in Dinan and after a bit of confusion (sometimes the GPS is really bloody unreliable) we found the cottage and it is delightful. Right by the edge of the river and close to the Port of Dinan. There is quite a bit of history to this town and we made the decision to sleep in and just explore Dinan on our first full day. Dinan was originally a trade village and an important strategic and defensive post back in the 1500's. It is known for its half timbered houses, well preserved castle wall and castle and keep, abbey and medieval town. It is quite steep (very) leading up from the port through narrow little cobbled streets. It is also very heavily tourist -y here, most from over the water in England. Man they can whinge, but enough of that, I could go for ages on conversations I've overheard and then I'd start to sound whingey. We walked up to the castle, walked the wall, went into the castle, and were lucky enough to be here for the annual Harp Festival. I can see why it never really took off as an instrument. I'm pretty sure there wouldn't have been much heading banging or mosh pits going on back in the day. Had a great lunch at a restaurant serving sea food given we're only about 10k's from the coast just about everyone serves moules (mussels) at the least. Tomorrow we are off to the second most visited attraction in France - the Mont St Michel. We have been advised to get there early to avoid the hordes. Can't wait - this is on my bucket list.Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    1121
    Tag 40

    France, Mont St Michel

    17. Juli 2017 in Frankreich ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Well, we certainly weren't disappointed. The advice had been to get there early as it is apparently the 2nd most visited tourist attraction in France, and so looking at 50k drive we left about 9am. The forecast had been for a fine day of 27 degrees but when we left it was a very foggy 19. It is quite well organised - you arrive at a large car park with visitors centre and can walk the 2.5k's to the Mont or take a bus type thing or horse and cart. We walked. All the better to take some absolutely stunning photos. We arrived at low tide so got the full vista of the Mont surrounded by sand. And it really is everything I expected it to be. Once you get there it is quite small, all narrow winding cobbled streets leading to a very steep straight up hill walk to the abbey which has had pride of place at the top of the rock since about the 12th century. There is some outstanding art work in quirky places throughout the abbey - I particularly liked the big gold dragons foot gripping the top of one of the battlements, and the large eagle trapped in a stone cloister. There is not much village to speak of, what was there is now a conglomerate of very touristy shops and some food places. Roge spied a lovely looking restaurant on our way in and very fortuitously booked us a table for later. Who would have thought it would get so crazy busy?? It was a good thing we were ready to leave when the crowds were at there worst. The fog had cleared and it had got quite hot by the time we had to walk back to the car - we got a whole different set of pic's on the return trip.Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
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    111
    Tag 41

    France, St Malo

    18. Juli 2017 in Frankreich ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    St Malo is a very large fortified town about 30k's down the coast from where we are at Dinan. Dinan is on the river Rance and this used to be a major thoroughfare for transporting fresh goods to St Malo. At our end it is quite small, at the St Malo end, the exact opposite. St Malo is a modern day thriving commercial port, and this sits quite comfortably with the historic part of town. The fortified wall is impressive, dates from the 14thC and is largely still intact, particularly on the seaward side. We had a lazy start to the day, leaving Dinan about 9.30am. It was already quite hot and 31 degrees by the time we arrived in St Malo. This is the hottest day we've had since leaving Lake Como. And, as was the case there, it seems every hot day has to finish in a thunderstorm. It arrived a whole lot earlier though. We were watching it build most of the day and just got tickets for a water taxi to take us across the inlet to another town, Dinard. It was starting to look pretty serious so we made the decision to skip the ride and go onto a Chateau that we had planned to see. Half way there we revised again and went straight home, driving most of the way through it. Luckily for us we managed to see a fair bit of old St Malo - a town now high on my list of great towns. Roge hasn't seemed to mind the early return home - he gets a whole afternoon to watch Le Tour!Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    1
    11
    Tag 42

    France: river, village, chateau

    19. Juli 2017 in Frankreich ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Started the day with a nice little trip to the station to book our tickets from Nantes to Paris for Friday. Seemed like it'd be much easier this way and we'd be guaranteed a seat. We have to drive to Nantes, about 2 hours away to leave the car. Hoping it all goes like clock work....buying the tickets did, Roge is a bloody expert at this kind of thing. Back down to the Port of Dinan for a boat ride up the river Rance. An hour and half later we had been through a lock, had seen a really nice little village called Lehon that we plan on visiting and learned some interesting history about the river and this area. Roger had found an interesting looking village only a short way from us (the one we wanted to visited the day of the storm) and so we decided to go there, and then onto a chateau in a nearby town. The village, Dol de Bretagne, is known for its massive and very old Cathedral. I have to say I've seen a lot, inside and out, and this one has to be one of my favourites. I'm not much interested in the activities that go on inside, but the architecture. This one was something else. Originally from Roman times, burnt down in 1203, and rebuilt 3 centuries ago in gothic style, it has two impressive towers. Well, one is impressive. The other tower was never completed as the story goes that the devil dismantled overnight whatever construction work had been done during the day. Interestingly, this Cathedral was also part of the towns defences and has crenelated canon walls. We walked around the town, the usual very old medieval houses, some half timbered. Just lovely.
    Onto the Chateau. I have to say, I was surprised. Didn't find out until we leaving that the Chateau is the Arthurian legendary castle of Lancelot, it rests in Merlin the Wizard's magical forest of Broceliande and guards the mystical lake of the sorceress and fairy Queen Viviane the lady of the lake. And what a Chateau it was. It was built in the 11th and 12th century and had a connection with the Cathedral we had just been too. The Chateau is also famous for being the childhood home of Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand. It was completely trashed during the revolution and left unattended for one hundred years. It remains under private ownership of descendants of the original family and is only open by escorted tour. I had forgotten how boring those tours are when they're all in French. Nonetheless, a very interesting and remarkable Chateau, with a few interesting stories. Apparently back in the day it was the "thing" to include a black cat in the walls of any new section of construction (a living one) to chase out bad spirits. When undertaking some recent reno's they uncovered the mummified body of one poor kitty. The believed some weird shit back in medieval days. The Chateau is in 62 acres of parkland with a magnificent tree lined driveway- I imagine it was heavily forested back then. Would have looked fantastic.    Weiterlesen

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  • The Kings travelsA European Adventure
    2
    1
    Tag 43

    France, Bretagne, coast

    20. Juli 2017 in Frankreich ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Since it's our last day here we decided to explore some more of the coast since we're so close to it, and it's so beautiful. We both love a French market and hadn't caught one yet. Dinan's was today so we headed up there early. And I mean up there. We are located right down by the river port and Dinan proper is right at the top of a very steep hill. As expected, the market didn't disappoint, but I have some questions...why can't we get garlic like that in Australia, why do roasting chickens smell so damn good at French market? The market is held in the old town square, surrounded by beautiful old buildings, selling lots of yummy fresh food. I just love it that you can go to a market and get your fruit and veg, meat and fish, cheese. There are no shops selling this produce in towns. Everyone waits for, and shops at the weekly market. From the market we headed west to Cap Frehel. There is an old lighthouse on a very rugged piece of coast. It was quite a walk in and very windy. It was/is a key navigational point for St Malo - the coast is very rocky around here. There is an old lighthouse here from the 1700's next to one built in the 1946 as the one previously had been blown up by the Germans. From there around the coast a few k's to Fort Latte which has been a fortified headland since about the 12th century. For the life of me I just don't get this one. The coast is really rocky here with big cliffs and a beach just around the corner. No invaders would attempt to come ashore at this rocky cliff face, until of course you build a fort and then they all want in. There was nothing to protect. Makes no sense to me. The fort itself was quite interesting, draw bridge, dungeons, privately owned (how does that even happen?), beautifully maintained, great views. Couldn't get a latte!

    We missed visiting Dinard when we were at St Malo so decided to head there today - same bit of coast, just on a bit further. Drove around and around and around, couldn't find a park and didn't see anything that would encourage us to stop so decided to press on to Cancale which we had heard great things about. It didn't disappoint. A beautiful side town with a fabulous selection of seafood restaurants along the shoreline. For those of you who have missed the food photos check out today's lunch photo- I think you'll be impressed. We were. We both liked this place soooo much, could easily come back here for an extended visit. After lunch, straight into a bar with a telly so Roge could watch the last of today's Le Tour. Tomorrow....Paris. Yipeee!!'m    Weiterlesen

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