Bonjourno from the heart of Rome.

I have been here a few days now and walked the entire city  - my feet are super sore and I just want to be carried from now on in.

The tour of the Vatican was great - the only landlocked country in the world and a population of not quite 900 with the lowest birthrate.  So many interesting things emerged from my four hour tour.  For example: only the Swiss guard the pope.  This dates back to when the German Emperor arrived with his army to conquer Rome and every one else fled except the Swiss, of which 140 died during the battle.  If you are Swiss and want to work in what amounts to the Pope's army (or the Vatican army) you have to have come from a family that has been Catholic for at least 7 generations and be between 18 and 30 years old.  They wear the original uniforms rumored to be designed by Michaelangelo.

Also, they did not warn us ahead of time, but when I went to enter the Sistine Chapel you are supposed to have your shoulders and knees covered.  I was wearing a tank top, but luckily I had a scarf with me.  When the guard stopped me going into the Chapel I said that I could one or the other but not both.  They were divided, one said knees and the other two voted for shoulders.

St. Peter's Bascillica was truly grand.  Nuns everywhere taking pictures. 

Crazy little town the Vatican is.

Today, and fatigued of tours, I opted for a last minute spot in an Italian cooking school.  I expected to be lost and bored but quite the opposite.  We made four and a half dishes over the course of a few hours and then sat down to eat.  It was so good I am sick.  It feels like turkey dinner hang over I ate so much.

Our appetizer was prochuitto, mozzarella and eggplant stuffed pumpkin blossoms deep fried in beer batter.  The half dish was a dip that could also be used as a pasta sauce.

Then we made bowtie pasta and a sausage/mushroom sauce.

The second course, as it is called, was meatballs in a tomato sauce with a side dish of eggplant and tomato.

Rounded out by a chocolate soufflé.

They are the original 0 mile diet here - they only cook what is in season and what they buy at the market, all organic.  Fresh ingredients and our chef doesn't believe in food processors, the only spice he used was sea salt.  So good.

Here for one more whole day, then off to London on Thursday.

Thanks for reading.
c

And we bid farewell to The Hague.

Tomorrow I will take a train to Brussels and catch my flight to Rome (how fun is that?).

Today, we will pick up our certificates, do some laundry and start packing.

Tonight - our new friends, Lena the Russian, and Liz from Squamish, are coming over to help us drink the rest of our wine that we are refusing to pack given the strict weight regulations and then we will trod on down to the beach to watch the world fireworks competition.  It is Belgium v Germany.

The Hague has been so great I hope to return in the next few years.

I had a crappy head cold for a few days, but still don't feel like I missed out on seeing much - nothing I won't catch upon my return.

I probably already mentioned this, but the Dutch are the original cool.

I will be sad to give up my giant cruiser bike, but I might trade it in for a Vespa in Rome - one never knows.

Thanks to my super room mates, Lisa & Steve!  They took such great care of me when I was sick and hiding under the covers.

Home in about a week now.

c

Surf school graduate - not really.

Surfing in The Hague was great fun. 

First it was not quite 20 degrees C, but nothing four or five layers won't fix.
Then I had a great quinoa salad with fresh acai berry juice.
About an hour later a bit of sun appeared and I was successfully able to negotiate my wet, wet-suit just in time for yoga in the sand.
Finally - the surfing began.

Even though I ripped nearly every nail I have, including a tragic incident with my big toe, those waves are much larger than they look and sometimes it caused me to do underwater sommersaults and smash my face into the ocean sand - it was awesome.

I was lucky to be hit by another surf board only once because I am pretty sure mine hit more than a few people while I was underwater sommersaulting.

Anyway, I was spent and despite my instructor's best urging - I was not able to hop up and athletically smile for the camera.

But I am just fine with that.

Thanks to Lisa and Steve for cheering me on from the beach.

Apologies for the delay in postng.

I keep forgetting that people are reading this.

Not too much to report, life is good in The Hague - the hollowed grounds for peace and justice.
School is now over half way over.  We have three classes a day with three different professors.  This week two profs are French (we wear headphones to listen as it is live-translated by an English fellow) and one prof is a very animated Englishman - he is quite a cartoon.

Earlier this week we visited the Cyprus embassy which was very interesting - especially since I know nothing about Cyprus.  Then we were received by the French ambassador at his house which was great.  In true French style we were greeting with formal waiters bearing wine.  Then tiny little appetizers, followed by a speech by the tiny ambassador himself.  At the end of the speech, out comes the champagne and macaroons!  My favorite embassy visit yet.

Today, I am taking the formal tour of the Peace Palace - it is its 100th birthday this year.  Friday I will be at the Irish embassy.

As for this weekend, I'm not sure if my room mates are departing for Paris - but I am quite happy here in The Hague.  This weekend is the dutch version of Woodstock and I have signed up for surfing school.  Sunday I might take this big bike out for a ride in the country and look at all the flowers that are in bloom.

Speaking of flowers, we have a huge lavender shrub in the tiny yard at our apartment.  So I tied it up and as I was doing so I had several fat little bees land on my back.  They didn't sting or bite or whatever bees do - they just seemed more curious.

Looking forward to more good food (I may be too fat to surf if I keep eating) and some great coffee.

Hope all is well.
c

Legs of steel.

That will be Lisa and I by the time we bid The Hague farewell.
And just to make things as challenging as possible, we decided to try to ride our bikes to the Mayor's reception in dresses and heels.

Steve looked concerned as he took our picture on our way out.

Earlier that day I did have the first bike accident when I inadvertently cut someone off sending him up and over the median.  I have no doubt that more accidents are forthcoming.

We are ending our first week in class today, which means that it is already 1/3 over.

Tonight we are having a few people over for dinner and then heading to the beach.

The weather has turned very hot now - it is fantastic.

I have also worked out all of my travel plans to Rome so hopefully that is fun.

Today, I am touring the Humanity House and then the Vietnam embassy.

I should much more exciting stories once we return from Amsterdam and the canal flotilla pride parade!

c

The North Sea

I was so wrapped up in France that I did not do much research about the Netherlands. Hence, I am a little chilly.  I have only one jacket and was not aware that I would be so near the North Sea. 

So, I had barely begin to feel confident riding my giant bike and then it rained.  It is difficult to see when the rain is smashing into one's face, causing one's mascara to run into said eyeballs - and so we had a near head on collision with an oncoming bike-rider yesterday.  Instead of horns, we have little bells, hardly sufficient for such panic.

Alas, it is lovely.  We peddle to our school, The Peace Palace, right past the world peace flame, navigate through all the tourists who are not allowed into the compound, run through security - who we now know very well and scan ourselves into our class.  On our route, we pass several embassies and the ambassadors houses in a windy little treed bike path.

Beautiful, very lucky to be here.

Yesterday, the Israeli Ambassador talked to a small group of us - he was twice the Ambassador to Canada.

This evening we are being received by the mayor of The Hague at a reception where the dress code translates to be 'ready for the night'.

I am scheduled to go to The Humanity House this Friday and the Irish Embassy next week.

This weekend however, we are planning on taking the train up to Amsterdam for the Pride Parade which instead of floats on the street have a parade of boats on the canal.  We are going with our new friend from Russia and another guy from Lebanon who lived in Montreal for a year, tried to be a Canadian lawyer - but said it was too hard.  It promises to be exciting.

Thanks for tuning in again.
c

The Hague, so happy.

I arrived late in The Hague Saturday night.  Lisa and I started school today - Monday.
There are 280 people in our class, law students, lawyers, other jurists, but 64 countries in total are represented.  We made friends with a lovely law professor from Russia - her name is Lena.

We are two of four Canadians, and we have not found the other ones yet.

We ride to school on these giant cruiser bikes which is similar to riding a horse with pedals.  Neither Lisa or I can touch the ground, so we have to bail off every time we have to stop.  This is especially funny as we are navigating this huge beasts in skirt suits.

At least we had the good sense to wear our flip flops for riding wear and put our heels in the big pink basket on the front of my bike.

Our schedule is 9:20 - 12:30 every day.

I love The Hague.  Everyone is very nice, they all speak English.  I might just stay here.

Thanks for reading!
c

I love the French!

So as our trip is quickly coming to an end - at least the France part, we are still in Reims, France (Champagne capital).  Tomorrow we return to Paris and the next afternoon Grannymeister will be jetting back to Vancouver.

Today however - and back to why I think the French are so great...I arranged for a tour of the 'caves' as they call them.  The caves are part of a crazy big underground system that exists under the city of Reims to store champagne.

There was about 15 of us on the tour (Granny politely declined my invitation to attend) and one couple had a child who was jabbering on, not crying, just talking.  Our very formal tour guide stopped talking, turned to the child and said that he was not to speak while he was speaking and if he failed to control himself he would expect one of his parents to deal with him appropriately.

I thought this was great!  We all paid to go on this tour and we couldn't hear because of this couple's precious little pain in the ass was echoing through the caves.  Anyway, I suspect that the couple drugged their child since the next time I looked over the kid was asleep.

I'm sure I have offended all of you with children, but it's not like we were at Disney land - we were on a historical tour of the champagne process (not suitable for children, as was articulated by our tour guide).  Ha!

Reims also has a larger version of Notre Dame - much less touristy.  I liked this one better, Granny preferred the one in Paris.

Cheers!
c

Diana Krall - international super star!

The whole thing was really my fault.  I was not aware that 21:00 actually intended 9pm and  not 7pm.
So we arrived in fact 3 hours early for the concert - which I thought was great because it meant that we ended up with 9th row, center seats (and most important, not sitting on rocks rather with chairs complete with backs!).

However, my good luck did not carry over the Grannymeister who was not so delighted in our extended wait, extended even further by the fact that Diana Krall was late and did not actually take the stage until after 10pm.

I have been waiting to see her for 10 years so there was not a chance that I was leaving - plus  I had the additional good fortune of two glasses of champagne.

Anyway, she did not disappoint.  Amazing, maybe best concert I have ever been to - enjoyed every drop.  Extra fun was how rude the French were - when she finally did emerge they booed her (albeit a sold out concert), she didn't apologize.  Then they changed their mind and loved her so much so that when she exited the stage they threw their seat cushions at her and her band.

I was quite entertained, Granny was tired and wanted to go home.

Anyhoo - we are now in Reims after our near final day of travel.  We will be here 3 nights, but changing hotels tomorrow. 

Just a funny little note - Gramma has not consumed hardly anything except ice crème.  But the restaurant is closed at our hotel and it is slightly out of town, and there is a huge thunderstorm preventing us from walking too far.  Today, this very minute - Granny thinks she might like a grilled cheese sandwich and tried to convince them to open the kitchen.

She is currently surviving on protein bars.  I suggested the bar, but alas we couldn't find any food there... what to do?

Thanks for reading about our adventure.
c

Lyon only - an anagram...

Bonjour again.

We arrived in Lyon by train yesterday afternoon and our hotel is lovely - right in the old town core.
Old town in Lyon is the oldest populated area in France, older than France itself as it was originally a Roman fort.

The Diana Krall concert tonight is in an ancient Roman amphitheatre which took me about an hour of walking in the hot, hot sun to find yesterday.  We have to take a cable car up to the entrance since it is entirely too steep to force Granny to navigate.

I got lost twice yesterday on my quest to find the theatre then to find our hotel - both times to end up exactly where I started from.  Old town Lyon is built like a fort and you can't get through the perimeter wall.  I found some steps upwards, about 300 just to find steps back down, about 300 as well - just to find myself back where I started.  I wanted to throw my bag on the ground and scream - but I restrained and a very nice lady noticed my distress and walked me back to the hotel.

Never leaving again without my map.

So after that, I have been hesitant to explore because I really don't think that Grannymeister would appreciate a 600 step detour of any kind since her poor feet have just healed.

Anyway, very excited about the concert, we are leaving in about an hour and half for that.

Lyon is known for its culinary delights, but so far I have had a Subway sandwich and Gramma continues to eat only ice crème.

Tomorrow we start the final leg of our trip to Reims - the gateway of the Champagne region and home of the coronations.  We will be there for three nights, then back to Paris the night before Gramma jets back to Canada.

We phoned Karen today for Pake's birthday and Granny is hoping the royal heir will be born today.

Until next time,
c

Italy - just like that

Today we rode the train into Italy to have a little peak at the Italian Riviera.  It looks pretty much the same as the French Riviera except the people are louder and more curious, and the dogs are bigger.

I have been skimming by on my high school French, but I am completely out when it comes to Italian and one might think that they would pick up some French - but you have to now imagine my bad caveman French being interpreted by an Italian.  It is a wonder we got anything accomplished.

Granny bought a groovy pair of shoes and a shirt that had the Eiffel tower on it - I know, weird - even the Italians are selling the tower.  We had lunch and presto bam-o, all the stores closed to take their own lunch for about four hours and it started to rain.  We took that as a sign to return to the Cote-a-zur (French Riviera), Nice and hopped on the train like we knew what we doing.

The Dean will be here in a few weeks so I have left him a message to pick up at our hotel - we shall see if he does.

Tomorrow we bid farewell to the Mediterranean, really and truly lovely, and head up to Lyon - France's culinary capital!  Although all Granny seems to survive on is ice crème, good thing they have an abundant supply.

Grannymeister says she likes Nice better than Paris, and while the water is deliciously beautiful - I still prefer the nation's capital.

More pictures on Facebook coming your way.

That's all for the Saturday edition of the Tour de France.
c

Nice is nyce.

We arrived in Nice last night on the French Riviera and our hotel overlooks the Bay of Angels in the Mediterranean Sea. 

Beautiful!

After a brief tour of Nice, we took a city bus for 1.5E to Monaco and Granny even ventured into a casino.  While she was in the bathroom I won 22E at the blackjack machine.  I was surprised that anyone could walk in and also surprised that it wasn't crowded.

We did try to go into the lounge but did not meet either the dress code or the bank account minimum I am sure and so we were declined entry.  Every tricky Granny wanted to argue that we were dressed appropriately earlier...

Monaco Monte Carlo hosts a Grand Prix which makes sense because I lost count of Ferraris that passed us by (while we were on the bus - funny).

There are lots of pigeons and I had no idea how much of a panic a pigeon would cause when it hopped too close.  It was funny the first time Granny almost landed on my lap, now its hysterical to me!

Tomorrow we are going into Italy for the day - how fun is that?

If we were here longer I would have liked to do something on the water - seems to be lots of stand up paddling, wind surfing, sailing... I did swim today, so that's something.

Thank for tuning in.
c

Castles and Icecreme

Pardon moi for being remiss in my updating duties.

Yesterday we toured more castles, and Gramma ate more ice crème.  We saw one castle that is known as the "Ladies Castle" because it was generally only women that lived in it and were received in it.  It was somewhat smaller but the gardens were beautiful.  Apparently it is still owned by a group of women who continue to oversee its care.

A huge vegetable garden, flower garden and decorative gardens - including a maze or labyrinth remain on the estate.  Oh, and a donkey pen.

The castle before that one had 169 stairs to the top (I counted), and Grannymeister made it to the top again!

There is also these very cool trees over here that are named the Cedars of Lebannon, they seem to show up at the monarchs estates and we were lucky to have one in the gardens of our hotel.

Currently we are sitting at a train station in Paris waiting for our ride to Nice in the French Riviera - and there is no ice crème.  Granny is coping, but she does not look happy.

The trains have been a bit messy because of that accident, so we have had to negotiate through the confusion.  But they are very gracious, as I cannot say enough about how kind the French are, and they gave me a voucher for 2 free drinks at the beverage car for our inconvenience.

Funny that we have first class train tickets, but I ended up standing during the last leg of the trip by the bathroom because there was no room (not their fault, I negotiated us to be on an earlier train so that we could  be sure to make our connection in Paris to Nice).

Anyway, the castles of the Loire Valley were indeed spectacular and as soon as I can remember how to upload photos I shall do that.

Finally - my phone will be working probably tomorrow and I have adjusted the settings to allow anyone to comment on these posts.

So ya'll can stop worrying, I am taking good care of the matriarch. 
c

Grannymeister is a trooper

I should have put a pedometer on her before we left - the poor lady has walked so much she has blisters and shin splits.  I set her up with some heavy band aids, biofreeze and my running shoes and she is back to new.

She climbed the final 59 steps to the top of the castle much to my surprise.  She is going to outlast us all!

We are in Amboise as of yesterday after a crazy train ride.  I didn't know that the outside of the train indicated which class we were in, so we got on one end of the train and then basically had to push our luggage through 10 or so rail cars to get to our seats.  Gramma was following me and kept getting caught in the automatic door, but we made it eventually.

Amboise really is lovely, and our hotel is at the base of the castle overlooking the river.  I opened the shutters during my shower this morning to have a great view of the river - how fun is that.

We also toured Leonardo DaVincis house today - amazing how much stuff he invented. 

Another plug for how lovely the French are: we arrived in Amboise much later than we thought last night, it was getting dark and there was no taxis to be found.  This great guy offered to drive us to our hotel in his mini with his little girl.  He very matter of fact said it was no problem and wedged out luggage in his car, passed his daughter to Gramma in the back seat.  She and Gramma counted to 10 in English while the guy and I tried to read the addresses on the street. 

He refused to take any money.

I love the French.
c

No train crash for us.

Apologies, I should have posted right away that we are fine and were no where near the train station when the crash occurred.

Today is Bastille Day and all of downtown Paris is gridlocked for the military parade.  We walked, and got detoured, and walked, and got detoured... etc, but ended up finding a shaded bench where the mounted military brigade was waiting. 

Best find since the other million people were in the sun, and 10-15 people deep so you couldn't see anyway - we could stand on our bench.

The fighter jets flew over and their plume was the French flag colors.

Overall, men in uniform - not a bad day.

Tomorrow we got to the Louvre in the morning and then will travel by train to Amboise in the Loire Valley.

Thanks for all the worried emails.
c

Every inch!

Bonjour.

The Europeans, ever resourceful, use every inch of everything - except their churches which are vast.
We toured Notre Damn yesterday, which is not too far from our hotel.
Then we jumped on a tour bus that lets us jump on and off all day.
Ended up at the Eiffel Tower where Gramma spotted the missionaries which made her day - I took her picture.

The Eiffel Tower is really amazing, as are the lines, so Gramma got an icecreme cone and we got back on our bus and made our way to the stop point at the Louvre.

The driveways at the Louvre are all cobblestone and this guy on a bike appeared to be jiggling out of control just as Gramma steps in front of him.  He yelled, she thought he swore - which who could blame him, but that was our only near accident yesterday so a good day all around.

The French take their ballet very seriously and they should.  Most amazing thing I have ever seen but like with all things... I was not aware that the ballet was only dancing.  I thought there was singing. 

Today we depart for an all day tour of the Palace of Versaille (sp?) and the Monet gardens.

Steph - I haven't figured out pictures just yet, just barely got power to my computer. Pictures will be tomorrow. 

Gramma has taken to Parisian life very well, she is currently sipping hot chocolate and finishing her second croissant.

Until tomorrow...
c

Nous avons arrives!

We love Paris!  Our hotel is lovely - very good recommendation, Ingrid, to stay in this area.  St. Germaine has a great market area and lots to see although our jet lag was confusing both of us yesterday.  We managed to stay awake until 6pm, then woke back up at 10pm and thought it was the next day. 

Some things have to be experienced and this city seems to be one of them!  We had been told the French were rude, very fashionable and the city was very dirty. Well, our taxi driver was fantastic - he entertained himself by singing very loudly to the radio, many songs of which were American, but yet he smiled politely when he said he doesn't understand English.  Gramma seemed a bit perturbed by this, but somehow not by his driving which I thought was a bit dangerous: she was not wearing her seatbelt!  I didn't notice until we were getting out of the car.

She didn't think that wearing a seatbelt in the backseat was necessary - I think they should provide helmets.  Gramma also seems to believe that the cars, busses and motorcycles will stop for her at anytime when she wants to cross the street.  This is the not the case and we had a few close calls yesterday, but we have had a talk and she promises not to stress me out anymore.

The fashion so far has been hysterical with one gentleman having split the ass out of his pants and another woman wearing frilly ankle warmers.

And I think this city is beautiful and perfectly clean.  I had heard dog poop, cigarette butts... but our area is perfectly clean and friendly.

Today we will go to Notre Dame, then tour the Paris Opera house and get ready to go to the ballet tonight.

I will try to update this blog in the morning during my lovely coffee.

Au revoir for now.
c

10 days still to go, but we are all packed (at least the Grannymeister is...)

Bonjour folks!

I wanted to get this blog up and running before we bon voyaged so that anyone who wants to follow us had time to get organized and familiar with blogs.

A little history... when I was accepted to study at The Academy for International Law at The Hague in Holland I asked grandmother if she would like to visit me.  Grandmother, "Let me think about it."
I encouraged that while she was thinking about it, maybe we would have the chance to see a bit of France on our way. 

As it came to be, watching me study law (not a popular spectator sport, slightly less exciting than drying paint) was not nearly as enticing as the motherland hence, the Grannymeister and Chrystie Tour de France was born.

A big thank you to her many grandchildren and daughters who contributed to her shopping fund.
Notably, Steph & Mike, Hailes-b-Hailes & Cody, Cody & Darrell, Brent & Leah, Debi, Ronda, Shelley and Karen (apologies if I have missed anyone).

Here is our itinerary if you care to follow along:

July 11 - 15 Paris (We have tickets for the ballet at the Paris Opera House, will be touring the Palace of Versailles and the Monet gardens, a semi-private tour of the Louvre and very excited to be in Paris for Bastille Day - the 4th of July for the French).

July 15 - 18  Amboise in the Loire Valley.

July 18 - 21 Nice in the French Riviera.

July 21 - 23 Lyon where we have tickets for Diana Krall who will be performing at an ancient Roman amphitheatre.

July 23 - 25 Reims in the Champagne district and home to the monarch's castles.

July 25 We will spend one night at the Chateau de Fere, a 12th century castle on a 50 acre estate outside of Reims.

July 26 - 27 A valiant and victorious return to Paris, where Gramma flies direct to Vancouver and I train on up to The Hague.

I promised her a long time ago that her and I would go to Paris together, and while it has taken this long to do so, better late than never.

Thank you to all those who have shared in our excitement - hopefully we can keep you updated as we go.

Merci boucoup!
c