Home safely

All went smoothly on my flights home, with the exception of the chaos in Sydney airport. The queues were very long, people were grumpy, the bag handlers must have been having a slow morning. I had to push my way through the waiting throngs to get to the correct carousel.  A gentleman stood to give me his seat on the already crowded bus to go to the domestic terminal. The last thing i wanted to do was sit down, but i graciously sat.

Now to put away stuff.

Houston to LAX lounge

Thurday : Rothko Chapel - really interesting. Rothko designed this inter-faith -and- no-faith chapel to house a series of  his very dark paintings which appear to be very very dark grey at first, but after a while you can see colours. 

We drove and drove to a town in northern Arkansas, Batesville, for the night. Then on Friday drove to Fort Leonard Wood.

Wendy and I continued on to St Louis, another 2 1/2 hours in the teeming rain, but the car was quiet with no little people. We had dinner at an interesting Peruvian restaurant.

On Saturday morning we went to a museum of contemporary religious art , which was interesting and then wandered around a trendy area with quirky shops and big houses. Wendy dropped me at the airport and drove back to her home in FLW and I flew to Los Angeles for the night.  I had deliberately booked a hotel at the airport with a shuttle bus. Parts of the pavement outside all the terminals at LAX are being renovated. It was chaotic. There were 3 lanes of buses - hotel shuttles, parking area shuttles and long distance buses - competing for limited curbside space, nobody seemed to know where to stand and sometimes buses went past because it was impossible for them to stop, alternatively they stopped in the traffic and held up the rest of the buses.  Much horn honking.

I was looking forward to a leisurely breakfast but my peaceful reading was disturbed by a woman at a neighbouring table in a very grating high pitched voice berating her husband over many of his misdeeds. He never responded. She went on and on. I left.

It was vaguely less chaotic getting back to the lounge this afternoon.

Wednesday Sacramento to Houston

The network of roads on the outskirts of Dallas was nothing compared to those outside Houston. At one point I counted 10 lanes going in the same direction as us and at 1 point there were 4 layers of roads above us.

The NASA space space centre was very interesting. Lots of interesting displays .We went on a tour and were taken into a large building, walked along an enclosed walkway above where people were working. Saw the Orion being worked on, robots being developed. Lots of activities for kids of all ages.
Went to a place specializing in gulf seafood. Delicious

Tuesday Austin to Sacramento.

Drove to Sacramento.
Went to historical displays at Alamo.
Lunch with parents of friends of Wendy's from their Suva days.q
Raining so went to Texan museum of different cultures who have settled in Texas.
Mexican restaurant in colourful market area.
Went to a great performance of Wicked . Back story of Wizard of Oz.

Monday in Austin

Met friends of wendy's family at gardens. Walk. Then walk along river.
Lunch at Sushi place. As well as plates coming around ( all 1 price) you could order many different things from a menu on a screen above the table. The food was delivered very quickly to your table on a delivery rail above the lower sushi train. All used plates got automatically counted when you dropped them into a bin under the ordering screen.
Bakery for desert.
Hotel for rest
Went to an old interesting hotel for a drink with Wendy. Nice thai for dinner.

Austin on Sunday

We are staying in the downtown Austin area. Austin, the state capital, has a motto "keep Austin weird" . It has a reputation for its quirkiness, alternativeness, different design. Apparently taken over from San Fransisco. We walked to a huge bookshop called Book People. There was a large kids area where the kids were all amused. We saw lots of wall murals, street art, interesting buildings, not many people - it was Sunday. We later found out that there is a big music festival on at which Paul McCartney was appearing.

We walked back and then drove to a different part of Austin where there is a very popular Mexican cafe with a Sunday gospel band. The food was good. The band was far too loud for me , but the relaxed atmosphere was great to experience. Next was the State Capital building and a visitor's centre with an interesting display of the history of Texas. Next was an icecream shop. Delicious. Lachlan had left a bit earlier to go to an inland artificial surfing place and we drove to collect him.

Dinner was at a barbeque place. Delicious meat and interestig salads.

FLW to Austin, Texas

On Friday, we drove SW  through Missouri into Oklahoma and south to  Durant  for the night near the border withTexas. 

Yeterday, saturday, we drove  south almost through the centre of Dallas. 6 lanes of fast moving traffic in each direction with lanes merging, exiting, flying over and under.  We stopped at the home of ex neighbours of Wendy's for a long lunch and arrived here in Austin in the early evening.

We had a delicious meal of southern fish dishes.

Stasbourg to Fort Leonard Wood.

Years ago , on a trip from Canbrra to Venice ,  I recorded how much of th door-to-door time was spent in 3 different categories. Firstly in unavoidable queues, secondly waiting in situations where you could read a book ( eg once seated on a plane and waiting for take-off)  ( and I struggle to read a book waiting in a queue, so those two categories are separate) and how much time was actually in the air.  I was suprised at how small the proportion of time in the air was.  I was thinking over the last few days that it would be interesting to do that again. I wonder how overnight stops would fit in.

From Strasbourg we caught a  bus to Frankfurt airport, parted ways, I went to Chicago, overnight in hotel, plane to St Louis.  Luckily this plane was a bit early arriving and I was able to catch an earlier (tiny)  plane to FLW than the one I was booked on.  Most of the flight was in thick fog. There was the pilot, co-pilot and 6 passengers, all pretending to be sardines. Both pilots were over 6ft and they did not look comfortable.  We, the passengers (all  except me were seasoned flyers into FLW) , were aware when we started to descend, but completely unaware, because of the fog, of how close the runway was until we saw a red light flashing, a loud warning sound , then felt the wheels thump onto the tarmac. I gather landing in those conditions is outside the rule book.  I also gather from overheard conversations that the chance of me getting into FLW any later that day were very slim. I had been able to get in touch with Wendy from St Louis. I was very peased to see her waiting for me.

It was delightful seeing my 4  biggest grand daughters again.

Noel is safely home.

Last day in Strasbourg and a few extras

Today was another easy day. Admin stuff for onward (me ) and homeward ( Noel) travel took a birt of time.

We went to visit the Protestant church of St Pierre-le-Jeune.  There have been 3 churches on this site and evidence of all 3 is visble. We walked in to be greeted by a very welcoming ( voluble) volunteer and immediately felt  how old and comfortable the church was.  There was lots of painted timber, frescoes (old, restored, newish) gothic vaults. There was a very ornate rood screen ( separting the choir from the nave ) with an organ on top, There was  very peaceful cloister.

We enjoyed just sitting for a while thinking of all the past people who had worshipped there. It was an excellent church to end our time in Strasbourg with.

Some other things I have not mentioned over the past month :

In Normandy, Burgandy and Alsace we have been suprised at how muh corn is cultivated. By far the largest crop.  Used for food for 2 and 4 legged beings and corn oil.

We have been very fortunate with the weather - only 1 rainy day in the whole month Mostly sunny and comfortable temperature.

People hae all been very helpful with my halting French and I have learnt a lot

On our way to Colmar, 4 police or army (we cannot now remember) but whatever they were,  2 had big pointy guns, asked us for our passports or identity cards. As per the Australian goveernment website, we told them our passports were securely locked up in our accomodation and I had my Aust drivers licence as photo id. . Not good enough now, according one. Errr, we thought. Needless to say, we are not in goal, but I need to find out more before I go to paris next year where I imagine security will be a bigger issue.

After a very enjoyable, interesting and rewardable time ( not to mention waistline increasing) , tomorrow Noel flies home and I go to Chicago, overnight, then St Louis, then Fort Leonard Wood for 1 night then a road trip to Texas with Wendy and co. Who knows when the next post will be.

Obernai

Yesterday we went by train south to Obernai, 30 minutes by  a stop-at-all-station train.  More pleasant countryside. Obernai is another pretty town , smaller hence few people than Colmar, with well kept half timbered houses, lots and lots of geraniums, had a more German than French feel to it.   Another walled city, but with 2 walls, one inside the other . 12C.

There was a fine tour of a now defunct chapel with a 13th C belry. The last storey is 16C with a 60m gothic spire flanked by 4 openwork bartizans - new word for us - box-like structures that stick out from each corner. There is an old well, quite large with 6 buckets  and 3 wheels, but it was so covered in flowers that getting a photo showing the 6 buckets was impossible.

In the evening we turned the TV on, the first time in 4 weeks. It took us a long time to find something we could vaguely understand. Many talk shows, a few reality ' team' shows with scantily clad young people prancing around and a show about life in a zoo, which we watched. We learnt of an animal we had not heard of - a jaguarundi mother had recently given birth to cubs and it was their first excursion out of the covered bunker into the exposed enclosure. Mum was having some troubles.

Weekend at Strasbourg

On Friday night we decided we would do no sightseeing on Saturday. We were quite tired of seeing interesting new things, walking up and down steps, trying very hard to understand and speak the language ( me) , deciding where to eat ( usually me because I have more of a command of French food words than Noel)   etc etc.

We had a late breakfast at a bakery that had been recommended to us, Very nice.  I bought a new lock for my suitcase and tried to do some shopping for a few small souvenirs but that was too hard.  Saturday was a day for as few decisions as possible.

We went to the first restaurant we came to and discovered, once we were inside, that it specialised in food from Lyon, where we were last year. It was Ok, but we would normally have chosen one with local food.

In the afternoon I went out again, but aborted my attempt to have coffee in a cafe and read my book on my own. The streets and cafes were crowded with locals out for an afternoon stroll and tourists out and about. I bought 2 macaroons  to share with Noel and read my book in our apartment.

Today we had another slow start after a disturbed night. Half of Strasbourg's youth was  partying most of the night underneath our window.

We have been caught before with shops all shut on Sunday afternoon so made sure this morning that we had our usual bread and cheese available  for dinner. 

We went to the Museum of the history of Strasburg and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had audio guides that came on if you stood on the marked spot. Once we got the hang of the layout and how and when to stand and listen to the commentry, it went smoothly. There were lots of extra thought provoking bits that you could read or listen to. I came away with a better understanding of the mixed German/ French background of this city and the difficulties that the locals have had to face because of these changes.

We made a good decision for lunch. The museum was on a big Place with lots of fullish cafes, so we walked a block and then started looking down alleys and we found a nice half-full place ( and most of these were locals) where the waiter waited patiently for my slow French, The food was good too.

We had been told by our Wednesday tour guides of a church built by Prussians after the Franco-Prussian war ended in 1871 for their soldiers. A unique feature is the presence of 16 doors for the diferent ranks to enter.  We walked there in the sunny afternoon through some streets with no tourists and few locals but with very large imposing houses. The church itself is almost square with a short , wide nave and wide transept and galleries for worshippers. We checked, there are indeed 16 doors to the outside. For a break, we sat and listened to choir practice. We nice, but in German or Alsatian , we cannot tell the difference.

It was nice to wander back through yet more diferent streets.

Colmar

Colmar is a pretty town on the tourist trail half an hour by train south of Strasbourg.  It's 2 main claims to fame are its area of pretty old houses on a small canal and a very fine altar piece in one of its museums. We arrived half and hour after the museum opened to find hoards of people waiting around in their tour groups. We went in and found hoards more already crammed into the space where the altarpiece is on display.   The altar piece was designed for a church in Issenheim but has been sort of deconstructed for display. In its original state there was a backing sort of sculpture, then you could close one set of doors with interesting paintings on them, then you could close another set of doors with more paintings.  There were some seats in front of the different sections.  However, there was no organisation and some of the tour group leaders just pushed their way in, with their entourages, blocking peoples view. Groups of closely packed people make me anxious at the best of times, and on this occassion the rudeness of some people made me quite annoyed. We left that room and were standing in the covered arcade part of the cloister looking at a headstone when a group came along. We stood our ground, as I felt we had a right to, and most of them walked  between us and the stone headstone, following their guide who could easily have changed her route a little and walked around us. Then anotheer group came along. We deliberately stood there to see what would happen. They wee a better behaved group. Some actually said 'excuse me' as they walked between us and the headstone. Others deliberately waked around us.   I accept that tours have a place in this world, but bad manners and herd behaviour do not.

We gave up on that game and wandered around the rest of the museum for quite a while. The displays were interesting, but it was very hard to understand the map and find which rooms were where. We wandered past the room with the altarpiece in it at about 12 nd there were only a few people, definitely no groups.  So we stayed a while in peace and quiet.

We thought 'lunch time' went outside and found where all the groups were - sitting in the restaurants. I have learnt a thing or 2 over the past month and walked for a bit looking down the alleys until we came, fairly quickly, to a nice place with few other people down an alley.

We then walked to the pretty area, Little Venice, which was quaint. Then came back here. Both Noel and I were very tired.

Strasburg Wednesday and thursday

Yesterday 2 Australian friends who live part of the time each year in Strasbourg took us on a very interesting walking tour of Strasbourg showing us some of the places they enjoy that are not on the main tourist route. We had a lovely time, walking, chatting, looking, chatting, coffee,  chatting, questions asked and answered, lunch.  Strasburg looks like a very interesing city to explore with a real mix of French and German culture reflecting its very mixed history.

In the afternoon Noel and I went to the tourist office, the amazing cathedral  and the supermarket.

Today we went first on a boat tour of the island that forms the main central part of Strasbourg. Very interesting and relaxing. We wandered around a very pretty area of well restored and maintained old houses called Petit France.  We had some  typical Alsacian food for lunch.  We went to visit St Thomas, which is considerd the main Protestant church in Strasburg.

Writing this blog is getting to be a chore. I will ( maybe, or not) write more about this interesting church later.

Then we went to the Musee Alsacien which showed country life in Alsace over the past 200 years or so.  They had quite a few of the typical large, ceramic tile- covered stoves that would sit in the corner of the main room in a rural house. There were a few steps on the outside for people to sit on and keep walm. I have never seen anything quite like these.

Strasbourg

We arrived yesterday afternoon in Strasbourg after a relatively easy day.

Our landlord came early to return our significant damage deposit and then took us to the train station. Our train to Paris was fast and comfortable except for when the dog of the people across the aisle from us decided to let our noses know of his presence.  Instead of negotiating the Paris Metro with bags we took a taxi from one main line station to another. At times the taxi was sharing the bus lane with a lady in a long flowing dress on a small motorised scooter. We passed about 200m from where I will be staying in February. On the train from Paris to Strasbourg was another dog, but we only saw not smelt him.

Yet another do-very-little day in Vannes

Yesterday I spent ages  working out how to get from here to a place near Carnac where there are many many large standing stones and other prehistoric stuff.  I ended up with a solution that meant we would leave here at 7.55 to get to the place at 11.15, the requested 45 mintes before the 12: noon tour I had booked ( and paid for) . I had done the same rough workings before we booked but with tighter connections that we decided last night were too tight.  We both went through the timetables again last night and for some reason agreed that I would set the alarm for 6am.

This morning , at 6am when the alarm went, I realised that it was an hour earlier than we needed. We both decided that , in the interests of us both enjoying Strasbourg and then me enjoying a busy 10 days in the US, we would do nothing much today and hopefully not be an hour out in our next timetabling exercise.

Next thing I knew it was 8.30 am.  We wandered out for breakfast and spent what was left of the morning sitting in the sun on our verandah overlooking the rooves of Vannes. After lunch we went for a walk along the 1.5km canal , called the Pleasure Port that links Vannes with the Gulf of Morbihan. There were lots of boats that would have fitted well into the marina of Batemans Bay, very downmarket compared to the beautiful, sleek racing machines we saw on Thursday.

Now to pack up, ready for our move tomorrow to Strasbourg.

Another pottering day in Vannes

Another slow start then walk to  the corner bar for our coffee and croissant. About lunch time we decided it was time to venture forth into the  gloom and drizzle. We found a comfortable place for what was a delicious lunch in a side alley, with not too many , but just enough, people walking past. We were outside , but sheltered.

We wandered around looking at some of the Roman parts of the remaining walls, a huge chateau on the site of where the dukes of Brittany used to live with a lovely garden nearby, some old wash houses in good repair and the old prison gate into the city.  The church was fairly ordinary and  dark and I was a bit over churches.

Quimper Saturday

Dreary and wet.
Quimper is the main city in this sub region of Brittany. We caught a train . The main attraction for us was the church, reputedly the second largest in Brittany.

We wandered around for quite a while looking at the many stained glass windows, different styles, modern altar, and one of its main drawcards, it's bent nave. All the while our ears were assaulted by someone playing the organ in bits and pieces, i.e for 30 secs, then a break for a few minutes, then another 45sec etc, but with no pattern. I am not sure if 'playing' is the right word. The notes were very discordant and very loud. Maybe the organist was practising some pieces out of a bigger work.

The outside was quite impressive. Lots of twiddly bits that I quite liked and double flying buttresses.

Then we went to a museum, again with some interesting prehistoric stuff, but the main attractions for me were the traditional costumes, so intricate .

We were running late for the train we wanted to catch and the queue for the person in the ticket dispensing room was too long so I tried with no success to fathom out how to use the ticket dispensing machine. A delightful about 16yr old came along and showed me how. We caught our train.

Relaxing Friday

We pottered in the morning catching up on emails, photos, transport plans for next few days etc and walked down to the port for some seafood for lunch.  Noel recognised his grilled sardines, but there were several  things on my plate that I did not recognise.  At one point my attempt to crack the shell of a crab claw led to me spraying myself, Noel and my neighbour with white liquid.  She was very good about it and helped me by wiping a bit off my face, while I wiped a bit of her hair. Noel's jacket, already a bit grubby from constant use over the past 2 weeks, needed attention. Luckily  Ms Google  told me there was a drycleaner about 200m away. I explained in my best French what had happened, he replied in good English and a twinkle in his eye "Would you like it tomorrow or yesterday ? "  He then offered 6pm that afternoon, to which we readily agreed.

In the afternoon I went to buy a few things, leaving Noel to potter in  our spacious apartment, then we went to collect his jacket and have a light dinner.

Lorient and lots of buses

Yesterday's focus was on visiting the remains of the largest German submarine base in France. This was of great interest to an ex maritime navigator, trained to detect and attack submarines.

We got a local bus to the railway station then train to Lorient, then , because the bus to where we wanted to go was not due for half an hour, got on another one going to within a km of where we wanted to go.  The very helpful driver, who knew where we wanted to go, told us, at her second last stop, that if we wanted to walk, we should get out there because it was closer than her terminus . At least that was what I gathered, but I confirmed it with the aid of Ms Google Map.  I said we would stay to the end. When we got to her terminus, after a while I understood what she was saying to us again, very helpfully. The  other bus we wanted was waiting for us, so get on. We did, the bus left straight away and took us to the door of where we wanted to go - a big complex now consisting of a huge marina, a museum, a submarine and 3 huge concrete structures , K1,K2 and K3, which used to house up to 30  German U boats. K1 and K2 now seem used by commercial boat building businesses and K3 is for visitors.

We went through the  museum which gave an overview of the Battle of the Atlantic  and Lorient's role in it., then through the submarine.  We had an audio guide in English which was good.  We had lunch and had a few hours to fill in, so amused ourselves by looking up the origins of the Pen Duick 3 , a boat moored nearby, then Eric Tabarly, a French yachtsman after whom the sailing part of the place is named, then the bird called a coal tit ( the Breton for coal tit is Pen Duick).  We wandered a bit around the marina. There seemed no obvious security, we walked past huge ocean going racing yachts, millions of dollars,  beautiful, sleek streamlined creatures,  a few trimarans.

Next the 1 1/2 hour tour of the K3 bunker, unfortunately in French, however we knew that. The guide spoke too quickly for me, needless to say. Noel knew enough about it to be able to explain to me some of the interesting engineering aspects.  We looked at the pens, climbed lots of steps to look at the sytem of turning a wet dock into a dry dock, then more steps to look at the concrete roof which was in lots of sections with a space underneath so that a bomb dropped from above would dissipate its energy and not do damage to  the structure below.  The 27ft thick roof withstood intensive allied bombing virtually intact.

A bus came along just as we were leaving, but it was going in the wrong direction. The driver told me the next one in the right direction would be in 30 minutes, so we set off walking towards the station and about half way there got a different bus to the station.  We just caught a train back and in rushing,  we forgot to valiate the tickets and got caught. The ticket inspector was quite entitled to fine us, but , after listening to my honest excuse, rattled off  lots of words , too fast for me, and scribbled on our ticket and moved on, without demanding money, so we were lucky.

Another bus from the gare and a nice dinner on our way back to the apartment.

Arrived Vannes

Yesterday, after breakfast,  we :  walked to bus stop, waited, caught bus to Rennes, waited, caught train to Vannes, caught taxi to apartment, met owner and left bags, walked to tourist office and through old town, waited, checked into lovely apartment,  showered and did a load of washing in machine (yeh) , had nice dinner.

Today we have been to an ex-German  submarine base in Lorient.

River Rance

After a slow start we walked down, down and further down through some very old steep cobbled streets to what is refered to as the Port of Dinan. 'Port' is rather a grand name for a collection of cafes on the edge of the river in some old houses, quite a few pleasure boats , one dilapidated official building and 2 small unmanned booths offering cruises and hire of small boats.  Many years ago  it was an important trading point for Dinan.

We wandered along the river one way, then returned, wandered a little in the opposite direction, then decided it was lunch so returned to the Port. We lingered over 2 galettes, 1 glass of cider for me and a glass of viognier for Noel and a coffee each , chatted to an Englishman and an ex-Aussie, then English, now living in France couple. We slowly wound our way back to the top of the hill by a different route.

This afternoon we paid our bill, went to the bank and bought some tuna and tomato flan for dinner.  Rivetting stuff.  Off to Vannes tomorrow

St Malo

Today we caught a bus to St Malo.  The 1 km walk from the bus stop  to the main gate of the walled part of the city was through a lot of very fancy boat building yards.

St Malo was very heavily bombed during last WW but has been completely rebuilt as it was. We were lacking in enthusiasm to wander yet more old streets, so headed for the cathedral which again was interesting because of the 2 distinctly different architectural styles.  The nave looked Norman to us but was described in the book as Anglo Norman, a term we had heard frequently in Normandy. The choir  was Gothic. There was what I thought was a very interesting modern altar.

I had a map copied from a guidebook and a map from Google but neither seemed to match each other or the streets around us so we just wandered in one direction  knowing we would eventually come to walls, which we did. We walked along the top the walls for a bit then went back to the bus stop.

I have decided that sampling as much of the local fare as possible is more important than avoiding gluten and sugar as I usually do. This afternoon we had some ' far breton',  a sort of tart with a pastry base, then prunes then set custard like stuff ( Noel says junket texture)   Very nice.  Apparently there are savoury versions but I have not seen any. A few days ago we had some 'kouign amann' - layers of pastry ( though the book says bread)  soaked in something sweet. 

We had some andouille a few days ago as part of a meat platter and I rememebered I had read of it as a speciality, but not what I read.  We quite liked it. I have just reread my long translation of the French guidebook - incuding ' pork wrapped in beef  intestines'  and am pleased I had forgotten what it was.

Dinard

Yesterday, sunday, we caught a bus from here to Dinard, about 35 minutes away. Dinard used to be a quiet fishing village on the other side of the Rance river mouth to St Malo. In the late 19thC the English aristocracy arrived en masse.  There are consequently lavish Belle Epoch villas (some a bit tatty)  through to a few modern apartment blocks and a casino. It still has an old feel. We sat on the beach for a while watching the passing parade of well- dressed holidaying French people and, at the other end of the scale, British holidy makers.  There were seagulls as we know them and larger white ones, about the size of herring gulls  in Cornwall but with speckly faces and ones almost as big as the large ones but speckly medium brown. They didnot intermix.

The holidaying British were catered for with several shops labelled 'fish and chips' and a few british pubs

We bought some lunch from some markets we passed between the bus stop and the beach. The lady who we bought some grapes from asked us if we were eating them straight away and would we like her to wash them, which we did, Very kind.  As we left she said in French 'Good day for Sunday' . I have heard this in Italian villages - particularly the older people who you pass in the street instead of 'buongiorno'  will say 'Buon domenica' on Sunday. It is the first time I have heard it in France.

Back at the bus stop we had an unexpected  hour's wait in a nearby bar, due to the tour director's misreading of the timetable. The coffee was Ok  and it was interesting watching most of the other patrons betting on the horse races. There was a tablet sized thing on the wall where they would place their bets.

We had bought some dinner the day before and we enjoyed sitting in our 'window/doorway/ foot wide verandah' for a while with a glass of local rouge watching the people walk past below .

Castles and churches in Dinan

Today we started with  the castle.  It is referrred to in the literature as a castle but it is really  a donjon or keep - a large heavily-fortified tower in which people lived, entertained and  slept.  It had many floors and a narrow winding stone staircase linking them. We wound our way to the top, looking at the displays on each floor. The views from the top were very good over the rest of Dinan - the medieval part that we are staying in ( along with many , many others) and the ordinary part outside the walls. Attached to the keep by impressive walls was another tower which we looked at and in.

Before I go away I spend a bit of time gathering information about the places I am going to. This time some of it was in French which, sometimes with the help of my French teacher, I translated. Trouble is, I often didnot know the English word. This made for slow progress as I consulted Ms Wiki.  I have learnt a lot of architecture terms and medieval defence terms. One was machicolation ( machicoulis in French) . These are openings between the supporting corbels of a projecting parapet through which stones or burning objects could be dropped on attackers. Iwas very pleased when we found some on the tower.

After the castle we decided it was lunch. One of the nice things about Brittany food  are the galettes, savoury buckwheat pancakes. We had one for lunch. This weekend is a heritage weekend with free entry to some places, but also more entrants.  We didnot join the queue to get ino the clock tower.

We next looked at St Catherine's chapel, attached to an old Benedictine convent. It was small and quite peaceful with an interesting painting behind the altar, quite dark, shades of grey, but suprisingly friendly feeling. We wandered through the nearby English gardens and looked over the walls to see the river Rance way down below ( the old part of Dinan is high up on a hill)  and houses and fields on the other side of the river.

The Basilica Saint-Sauveur was next. A most odd church. The construction started in the 11th C.  Then was added a left side aisle, then a bigger transept, then a bigger apse  ( but I am not sure of the order). So now it is very lopsided. On one side a plain wall on the other side a largish Gothic aisle. Most peculiar from the outside too. We needed some restorative cider after the unsettling experience.

There is a narrow old street, Rue Jezebel,  winding its way down the hill full of small houses/ shops built in the 15th and 16thC . We walked down part of the way , then back up another street to another odd church, The English church of St Malo.  It was commenced in 1490, finished in the 19C in the Flamboyant Gothic style. During the Revolution all the fancy bits of the insides were pillaged . Now it appears quite stark compared to other Gothic churches I have seen, but more to my protestant taste. There were some interesting modern stained glass windows telling of the history of Dinan. The main entrance was into the south transept and on the plain wooden door to the nave there was several lines of what looked to me  like Hebrew etched into the wood.

We had another interesting dinner. We had a plate of local seafood, were given a set of instruments  and then had to enlist the aid of the waitress to show us what to use to get the little creature out of what we later ( with the aid of a neighbouring local guest and my dictionary) found out were periwinkles.

Arrived in Dinan

Today we had another leisurely breakfast, packed up, went for a stroll along the Aure River that runs through Bayeux. Very pretty. After lunch we caught a taxi to the station, a bit fraught while we waited anxiously while Frank, our host who had ordered the taxi for us, argued with the driver about his lateness. Much hand waving and very many fast words.  The rest of the journey went well. We spent an hour and a half waiting in a station bar in Dol, a transit station. We had taken a photo  of a memorial plaque on our battlefield tour. It was in memory of several different groups of airmen. One was a group of cigognes. We spent much of our time trawling the internet. Cigognes are storks in English. I found a book for sale on ebay entitled the Esquadrille de Cigognes. There was a very indistinct photo of an aircraft which Noel was able to identify as a French fighter. Someone several years ago had written a book about the Squadron of storks.

We arrived here and made our way from the station on foot, about 1 km mostly of pebbly pavement. I have not yet mastered the art of calling a cab to the station. Not one was waiting for me, alas for Noel.  He has asked me to say that he stood up bravely to the ordeal.  Apartment is nice, overlooking a picturesque pedestrian street.

bayeux cathedral and museum

Yesterday, Thursday, we enjoyed another delicious breakfst, this time more leisurely than for the last few days. Delicious pastries, coffee, juice, omlette.

We spent time in the Cathedral, described as Norman Gothic. It was very much what I call a  'working' church, as opposed to a 'museum' church.  Intricate stonework, lovely stained glass windows, tall and narrow building.

I have on my job list of pre-travel stuff a reminder to get my watch battery checked. I have always over the past 15 years done this and it has never needed changing. This time I thought  'my watch never stops when I am away,  I can't be bothered'.  My watch stopped several days ago and yesterday we found a watch selling shop who put a new battery in for me.

We went to the excellent museum . It was a small but very interesting collection arranged in the restored old Bishop's palace opposite the cathedral.  There was a definite route to take, starting in paleolithic times and moving through the ages, sometimes using rooms in the museum as part of the exhibit.

Dinner was another excellent meal in a local restaurant. I was pleased that the lady who served us always addressed me in French, despite knowing that my French is very poor and I spoke English. She addressed all the other English speaking tables in English.

Normandy battlefields

We went on 2 tours yestrday of different parts of th Normandy WW2 battlefields.

In th morning we went first to the German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer.  This consisted of 4 huge big guns in their own little concrete box ( Noel says 'casement ' is the correct word for 'box')  about 50m apart. Apparently, along the 6000km of coast line the Germans were defending, there was one of these evey 15km. These guns were made in the factory that now makes Skoda cars.

Then we went to Arromanches to see an artificial harbour created be the Allies to enable the D day landings. It was codenamed Mulberry. The guide explained in detail how it was all made, quite a few bits are still there.  An amazing  engineering and logistical feat.

From the harbour we looked to the right and saw part of Gold beach where the British 50th infantry division ( Noel's military memory is better than my holiday notetaking) landed. The guide talked about the different types of tanks that landed first to clear the beach of German laid obstacles. Quite ingenious.  Just at Gold , 1 of 5 'beaches' , 24,000 men landed in 24 hours with 400 casualaties.

Then we went to a small cemetery , Ryes, where most of  the graves were for British soldiers. There was 1 Australian and , in the back left hand corner ( as in all of the Comonewealth War Graves Commision graveyards) were a group of Germans.

In the afternoon, with a differnt guide, we went first Pegasus Bridge , a bridge in the eastern part of the battle area that was vital  for the Allies to take back from the Germans so that the various forces being landed on the beaches could get to where they were going to.  About 180 paratroupers from the 6th airborne Oxford and Buckinghamshire regiment were loaded into 6 gliders ( apparently nicknamed 'flying coffins' ). 3 were to land near the bridge and 3 a little distance away.   We were standing near the bridge and I could throw a stone ( almost) to the area where 3 of them landed, at night.  Needless to say they got control of the bridge..

We went to an outdoor museum where there were various displays of other heroic feats, but we were both a bit brain dead.  We went to another cemetery at Ranville. We saw a recent grave, dug about 2 years ago of an airman who was found in a plane wreck that was recently discovered. We were then taken to look at Sword another beach, where the 3rd division of British troups landed.

Mont Saint Michel

Before we came away I spent a lot of time trying to work out how we could get to MSM by public transport . About 3 hours each way with many changes from either Bayeux or Dinan. So we paid to walk 400m down the road and get into a bus. 1 and 1/2 hours in comfort.

The view of the Mount as we approached was just like in the pictures.  Luckily because on the way there had been quite a lot of fog. We walked up hill through the tourist shops and cafes to the start of the church, then climbed and climbed and climbed up stairs.

We followed the designated route back down through the layers of abbey ontop of church. It was not too crowded. Still crowded enough to have extras in most of my photos. It was absolutely amazing. Chamber after chamber, huge and small, fancy vaulted ceilings, intricate but simple stained glass patterns in the windows, huge pillars, narrow winding stairs, great wide staircases, huge fireplaces, lots of intimate chapels, wonderful interesting cloisters.

We wound our way down the hill via the ramparts which bypassed the commercialism, stopping to eat our sandwiches overlooking the bay.

Some stuff we were told about France:

Most reliant country in the world on nuclear power 75%. Processes spent fuel for many countries. 40% of people now are against nuclear power.  Offshore wind farms are being tried. A huge windfarm 4 miles off the coast is being constructed.

Avranche sheep from MSM area. Creamy colour  with black faces.

St Michael ( as in MSM)  has 3  jobs. He weighs the souls at death to decide where they go, he takes the correct weight ones to paradise and he protects heaven nd earth from the devil. Busy chap.

Bayeux Tapestry and Battle of Normandy

Bayeux is a delightful town. We have enjoyed wandering around - except yesterday when we got home late from our tour to Honfleur, could not find a restaurant that was open and not full or not so understaffed that we walked out after waiting over10 minutes for a menu. We ate rice cakes and cashews for dinner. Yummy!

This morning we went to the museum which displays the amazing Bayeux Tapestry. It is almost 70 metres long. You get an audio guide that you cannot pause, so every one moves at the same speed around the horseshoelike display wall.  There were few people when we were there, before the hordes, as evidenced by the waiting sheep run like queueing system in the admission area. It was wonderful to see how much expression the figures had, the detail in the embroidery and to be reminded  and learn more of the history of William the Conqueror and others.  Depending on whether you are French or English the moral of the story is that Harold was punished by God for going back on his word or Harold  perjured himself so that he ( a Saxon) could become King and repell the Norman attack on England.

The attached museum had more details about the history of the period, the embroidery, the boats used, etc.  There was also a film we watched and enjoyed the explanation of the history.

We wandered through some more streets, bought some bread, cheese ( Camembert of course) , ham and tomatoes and came back to the restful courtyard of our B and B. Our host stuck his head out the door to offer us a glass of vin. I have thoughts of a cider based aperativ  before dinner so we declined.

I spent the afternoon pottering, catching up with emails while Noel went to the Battle of Normandy Museum. It was quite interesting and typical of many military museums - maps, models, diplays and equipment.

Apples and Honfleur and surrounds

On Sunday We had a very interesting day's tour with the very pleasant and knowledgable Karine, a gentle Amercan couple and an Australian lady.

We drove from here north, stopped in a delightful town , Beuvron-sur-Ange, then went to a cider tasting place in Cambremer, then Honfleur, drove through Trouville, walked along a bit of the beach in Deauville, then return back to Bayeux.

Along the way we learnt, or rather we were told :

Te carpet bombing of Caen in WW2  was  very bad. They are still defusing unexploded bombs. Just last week a bomb underneath a house was diffused. Defusing is done on a Sunday,  quiet day. People are told to leave their hoses leaving all windows open ( in case diffusing doesnot work)  . Lots of police are engaged to protect the properties from looters.

Rouen at the end of the 9thC was a Viking town under the command of Rollo. Richest city after Paris. In 911 the area became Normandy.

Area we went through very marshy. Hedgerows and ditches to help absorb water as well as wind protection.  Called baucage.   Problem for allied tanks.   Also areas of oak forests.

Normandy cows ( a breed) both milk and meat. Brown and white, various shades of brown but always a brown patch around eyes.  Many less dairies than in the past. Now a big dairy is 100 cows grazing outside. In Netherlands 5000 Holstein cows, all inside , 1 farm.  Normandy cows milk creamier. Cows graze in apple orchards except when apples are ripening. Fallen apples, slightly fermenting, eaten by cow, drunk cow, no milk.

Lots of horse studs in area. Mainly racing thoroughbreds. Some people have started to use donkeys again. Put a donkey in with highly strung horses = calmer race horses.

Beuvron-sur-Ange a pretty town. Lots of traditional half-timbered houses. Flowers everywhere. Lace curtains. On Sunday morning not too many tourists. Apparently it is half way from Paris to Mont Sant Michele therefore buses stop.  We tried some traditional rice pudding - teugoule - cooked in slow oven overnight, rice, milk and cinnamon.

Some builders still doing thatched roofs. From reeds. Clay along roof line. Irises often grown in clay. Their extensive root network keeps clay in place.

Area known for apple cider( all alcoholic)  About 10 different varieties of apples used in the one batch of cider. Often different types of trees growing next to each other. Not eating apples. Thus no problems with  birds.  At Cambremer we stopped at a cider making cellar door. Tried some apple cider with a baguette and 3 cheeses - a Camambert, Pont Eveque, and Livarot. The Camambert was the star. We also tried some Pommeau - a mixture of cider and Calvados and we tried some Calvados.

We drove onto Honfleur, a pretty town on the southern bank of the mouth of the Seine, opposite Le Havre.  Lots of artists used to come here. We went to a wooden church, St Catherine's, the largest wooden church in France, wandered around then went to a chapel on a hill which was built for seamen to give thanks for safe passages.  The statue of Mary is holding a model boat as well as Jesus. There was a good view of Honfleur and Le Havre from a nearby hill.

The bishops in the area used to be very rich. They owned a lot of bridges, given to them by sinning land owners in return for foregiveness. Owners of bridges could exact a toll. We have just seen in the Bayeux tapestry Bishop Odo, Will the conqueror's offsider wielding a huge club as he rode into battle. Bishops were not allowed to shed blood but they could knock a man lifeless.

Trouville and Deauville are Victorian seaside towns very popular with Parisians. Lots of huge old fancy houses, lots of sand. Apparently Coco Chanel sold clothes for the first time in Deauville. She had sold shoes previously in Paris.

It is illegal in France to ask on a form anyone's race or religion.

Viking place names :
...vec river
...fleur ( e.g.Honfleur) mouth of river

Poole to Bayeux

The ferry trip yesterday was very pleasant. The boarding procedure was smooth. There was a fine view of Poole from the top deck as we left the harbour.  After a few hours we had a fine view of Cherbourg as we entered that harbour. The ferry company's bus took us part way to the middle of the town and we walked the rest of the way to the railway station.

Last year we had a bad experience of a regional train from Lyon to Avignon. We had to squeeze ourselves and bags on and only got a seat after half an hour, This time we had our choice of about 20 seats in the carriage we got into.

Our accomodation is delightful. A lovely large room looking out over a small courtyard with the cathedral spires not far away. The old paved floor is not even, the bed is comfy and the new small kitchen and bathroom have been added in an interesting manner with several skylights.

This morning, Sunday, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and then went on a tour to Honfleur and other places.

Friday train to Poole

This morning we had a leisurely breakfast then walked to the nearby railway station and caught the train to Poole.  Once again we went through town after town of brown , light, medium and dark , houses and other buildings, occasionally with some white.  Boring conformity.

It took us a little while to work out how to get out of the railway station at Poole onto the right road. The map and the ground were a bit hard to reconcile with roads and freeways over other roads but we got here ok.

We are staying at a quaint old pub which has 3 small rooms up narrow windy stairs. We were unimpressed by the menu of burgers and chips for lunch so walked 50m down the road to another pub and had a lovely lunch.  We then walked to the ferry terminal from where we will catch the ferry to France tomorrow. On the way back we decided a taxi was the way to go. We found a Sainsburys and bought breakfast : grapes, rice crackers, goats cheese and cashews.

Dinner was at the Angel, our lunch venue. Again we had good food in very pleasant, friendly surroundings. We chatted to the cook, ( who was quite happy to halve 1 meal for us both) about his time working at the Royal Life Boat Institute school down the road. This brought back childhood memories. Every year we received a Christmas card from my fathers sister and her family put out by the RLBI.  The one problem with Poole is crossing the roads. The locals drive  very quickly, specially around corners, the pedestrian crossing lights take ages to change and on these the only green, go, sign is on the post near the preess button. Easy to miss.

Thursday Kew Gardens and the Tate Modern

On Thursday Noel met his daughter and her partner at Kew Gardens. They had a lovely day. For Noel the highlight was the temperate house. The main structure of this large Victorian glass house had a smaller annex at each end. It is the largest Victorian glasshouse still standing. Fascinating architecture. They had many Australian plants. The parklike grounds were beautifully maintained and the principal features were widely separated. Noel enjoyed less the high 30 C degree, high humidity of the palm house also constructed of glass.

I took th opportunity to potter a bit on my own. I wandered from where we were staying to Covent Garden area trying to keep to the laneways rather than the busy more direct roads. It was a lovely sunny day with many people sitting in pavement cafes. Somewhere along the route I saw some different pedestrian crossing lights. Instead of a green man indicating crossing was allowed there was an interlocking male and female symbol.

I crossed the river again and went to the Tate Modern. As background, in 2012 in Washington I was really interested in a room in The Phillips Collection that was purpose-built for 4 Rothko paintings, all similarly coloured but all slightly different. The smallish room just had 1 bench in the middle .There was a sort of progression from 1 painting to the next that invited contemplation ( well, for me it did). But why? They are just blocks of colour on canvas. In the Tate Modern there was a room, once again purpose built for a series of 9 paintings that Rothko made for the Tate. I sat a while thinking.

I came out of the Tate by a different exit to the way I went in accidentally and was momentarily geographically challenged. Where was the river, which direction was the hotel? Over the past years Noel has learnt when to say 'Right, Sue, time for some food for you'. But he was at Kew. So I ate a bit later than I should have.

In the evening we met Noel's daughter and her partner for a very enjoyable dinner.

London

The focus for our 2 days in London has been to spend time with Noel's daughter and her partner and to go to  a few places we had not been to.  On wedesday we met them at the Victoria and Albert Museum and pottered around a few galleries chatting. The little we saw, in the Medieval Galleries and some of the Asian galleries was very interesting.  After a long chat over tea in the ornate 1860's cafe we came back to our basic hotel room in Waterloo. We met them again at the imperial war Museum in the afternoon.  Again, we picked only a few galleries to wander through . We looked at the displays of Britain's involvement in troublespots since 1945 and at the harrowing Holocaust display. 

Arrived in London.

We arrived in Heathrow this morning . We had a good sleep between Singapore and Munich. Because of my onward plans to come home via Missouri and to keep my extra costs to a minimum, we have to fly with Lufthanser, hence an extra stop in Europe, Munich.

We came straight to our hotel near Waterloo station and were very pleased to have immediate acess to our room and a shower and clean clothes. We wandered down to the river and found lots of people out and about. A pleasant atmosphere. We enjoyed a good coffee at a Le Pain Quotidien - a chain I frequented in NYC in January. Their house-made gluten free bread was delicious, based entirely on seeds. I digress. On the way back to our hotel I discovered , when i tried to use them, that the 2 GBP coins I had been given in my change by the cafe we had lunch at were no longer legal tender. We went back. She feigned suprise that she had given them to me, but I distinctly remember her looking at them as she gave them to me. The 2 coinsare unmistakenly different. Ah well.

Dinner at the bar/restaurant attached to the hotel was OK. Because I had paid our hotel bill, I was not able to charge the dinner to our room. Bit odd.

Very tired. Early to bed.

31 hours door to door

I was pleased with how I was a bit better than previously at standing in queues and switching off and not getting agitated. I was very pleased to walk into my apartment at midday today.

Last few days in New York

I have been reminding myself that this is a holiday as well as a trip. Yesterday I went to Midtown and caught the ferry which zig zags it's way down the East River, starting at 34th street , going over to about 5 stops , the first in Long Island City, the southern end of Queens, then several stops along the Brooklyn shore then crosses back to the Wall Street pier. I went to the North Williamsburg stop. The ferry seemed quite new, the LIC and Brooklyn wharves were all very new, but each time the ferry driver took several goes to position the ferry properly at the wharf. Maybe the water was chopper than normal, but I think not. Maybe he was on his L's.

I walked through one of the very new parts of Williamsburg- lots of construction, very old run down buildings, brand new trendy looking apartments, small interesting shops. I walked around, was going to walk to the stop at South Williamsburg but decided to return to the one I got off and came back to my apartment.

 In the evening I went to see The Book of Mormon. It was very funny, with lots of good singing and dancing.  The single guy sitting next to me lives in a town 63 km  ( I have just asked Mr google) away from Wendy in the middle of nowhere in MO. What are the odds of that?  We chatted quite amicably about everything and nothing before the show and at interval.

Today I had breakfast in my normal cafe,  was greeted by the locals and was assured , when the topic of weather came up, that today's steadily falling snow and the conditions are quite different from the snow 2 weeks ago that stopped Carol getting out of NY.  According to the locals, I should have no difficulty getting out tomorrow.

I pottered in my apartment till lunch time , when I walked a long way around to a nearby cafe for lunch but did not enjoy the slippery conditions. I learnt what slippery frozen snow looked like 2 weeks ago here  and I learnt in Quebec City what slippery half frozen snow on top of half frozen snow looks like, but today's light snow on footpaths looked like slush to me but was, in fact, quite slippery. I will know for next time. If? When?

I have just returned from dinner at the place I went to last week with the $1 oysters , which becomes more like 1. 60 AUS by the time you add their tax, then the 20 % 'tip' then convert to our dollar. Still I had a delicious final dinner.  As well as oysters I tried a few clams. One, the cherry stone clam was huge and delicious.  THe same waiter as last time looked after me. He had told me he comes from the Midwest. After last nights coincidence , tomight I asked him where in the Midwest.   I told him my daughter lives in Missouri.  He comes from Iowa about an hours drive from the border of Missouri.  Quite diplomatically , he asked how she found it. After a sentance or 2 of me trying to be diplomatic, he read between the lines  and was quick to say  that many parts of Iowa are quite progressive and forward thinking.  I have enjoyed my exposure to this country of contrasts over  the last year

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Trinity church, Central park

Yesterday morning the omelette won over heated up veggies and meat that I did not enjoy first time around.  I dawdled reading the paper as long as I could.  I went to the southern end of Manhatten,  the first settled part and now the financial district. I went to a choral service at Trinity church, the oldest Episcopalian church and the one that I had been to on Christmas Day with Wendy and her family. I knew it was going to be a special service. Today is Martin Luther King Day, a public holiday for most.  Trinity had a special preacher, Ruby Sales, who,I suspect ,many of the congregation had come to hear. She is described in the pew bulletin as a social activist, public theologian,scholar etc etc. In her words she is ' pushing 3 score and 10' but she is still a powerful and engaging speaker. To fit the day we sang 'swing low, sweet chariot', ' mine eyes have seen the glory..' and others. Her message was partly about what she called the troubling in the land. Her less than favourable remarks about Trump drew loud applause.

After lunch I wandered around  Battery Park, right on the southern tip of Manhattan. Since I was here last,  they have built a different  sort of carousel in a building. Instead of a horse you sit in a fish which rotates and goes up and down in a sort of ocean with changing  coloured lights. I thought of having  a ride but decided not to. I had been disturbed by a flickering fluorescent light at breakfast , didnot much like the changing lights and didnot see how I could get off mid ride if I got queasy trying to take a selfie to prove I had been inside a fish.

Today after breakfast in my apartment I wandered around Central Park for ages.
The sun was shining,  I had all my layers on and was warm enough.  After lunch in a nice place I pottered in the knitting wool shop that I like for ages looking at things, getting ideas, talking to other people.

Still sheets of ice on the lake. Upper West Side mansions, bare trees.

Saturday

Today I had breakfast again at the same place. The same 2 separate woman arrived at much the same time as I did, and had the same breakfast as they had before.  I vary mine. Then I went to Union Square which has a market on Saturdays and other days but Saturday is the biggest.  Lots of interesting local produce. There was a lady with a large stall of dried flowers.  They were beautiful,  lovely vibrant colours.  Lots of different arrangements, very reasonably priced.  I would have liked to buy something.

Then I walked to Chelsea markets and wandered around,  but there were far too many people and mostly tourists, so I came back to my apartment by yet another different way which included a coffee stop. Several people sell hot , spiced apple cider, but so far I have not found one that does not have added sugar.

I had a pleasant afternoon pottering in my apartment catching up on some emails, reading, etc. but now I am grumpy. I have made the same mistake as I made last time I was here.   There are lots of 'diners' around. Not always diners with booths but I thinK it  it has come to mean fast, cheap, fairly ordinary food.  As it happens I went to a nearby diner. I got a plate of roast lamb that, if blindfolded, I would probably have guessed lamb by elimination . When I ordered he rattled off a list of vegetables. I should have said  ' a little of everything' but instead said broccoli and potato. Let's just say I donot like paying money for things I can cook better myself. The annoying thing is, I had the same complaint 4 1/2 years ago.   I donot know yet whether I will eat the left overs for breakfast or go out for a nice omelette.

Friday lunch and Jewish Museum

Yesterday I had breakfast for the second time in a cafe over the road and saw  2 women that I saw the first time, both locals or at least very regulars.  They were greeted , separately , no orders were taken ,their food just appeared.

I dawdled a bit , then went into Midtown and met Joan , a cousin of a friend who I have met several times now in NY, for lunch. We talked for ages, then she went back to work and I went to the Jewish Museum.  Ihad been told that their permanent collection was being rearranged and  unviewable but that there was a good exhibition of Modigliani's early work. It was interesting.  Lots of his early African-ish heads and talk of his early painting life in Paris in the early 1900 when Jews were out of favour,  but he was Italian and didnot fit in anywhere and how this affected his work.

There was also an exhibition of clothing worn by Jewish women and some menswear collected from various continents over the years. Many different designs and textiles. It concentrated on how the different groups of Jewish people had adapted their dress to be more like the local country, or adapted the local costume to suit their rules and customs. There were quite a few garments from Bukhara, Uzbekistan with the characteristic patterns and colours that I recognised from 41 years ago.

A funny incident I donot want to forget .  I am normally careful , when I come out of a subway station,   to orient  myself  correctly before I move off.  The stairs out the subways always go round corners and I find it hard to remember which direction is which . Anyway , I forgot, walked off and realised when I got to the first crossroad that I had gone the wrong way, laughed at myself ( an improvement, I was not cross with myself) , turned around and there was a human sized Mickey Mouse waving at me.  I smiled at the universe that arranged for him to be there.

Another visit to the Met Museum and pottering in Soho

Yesterday I  walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the morning.  It was a lovely fine sunny day, about 3 or 4 degrees, so quite mild after the last few weeks. I have been taking lots of photos of bare trees. I find them strangely attractive but have no idea why.

At the Museum there is currently an exhibition entitled "Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer" that I walked around. There were lots of people looking and lots of drawings and sketches that all looked much the same to me after a while. There were some drawings of buildings he designed.

The Met also has a large exhibition of David Hockney's work.  It seemed like they had a good representation of the various stages of his paintings in the various places he has lived . I liked some of the more abstract ones of his time in California, not so much the ones with people in them.  There were 2 paintings of the grand canyon which I was interested to see after being there 6 months ago.  More recently  he went back to live in Yorkshire for a while and there were some I liked that he painted there. All his paintings are bright and full of life. He is in his 80s now and  uses an iPad each morning to sketch what he sees out his window.

After a coffee and a mental switch off, I really enjoyed wandering around the section called  'Art of the Arab lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia.'  There was so much interesting, beautiful stuff, that I didnot know how to spend my time, so I just picked one thing in each room to closely look at, enjoy, and read about.

I pottered in a different part of Midtown in the afternoon and in the evening went to see The marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera. It was great fun.  Wonderful singing and excellent acting. The evening was slightly spoiled because my knee which does not do ' bent stationary' at all well decided to not respond to panadol, well only for 30 minutes.  Luckily the guy next to me was a shuffler and didnot seem to mind that I was trying to move my leg a lot.

This morning I slept in then went to a nearby cafe, one of the Le Pain Quotidien chain.  I had an interesting  conversation with a young woman who grew up in France, worked in Britain, elsewhere, then San Francisco Bay area and now NYC.

Then I went to the box office of the theatre where I have tickets for the book of Mormon next week. ( very poor englisH,  sorry)  After last night I had to change my seat, which I did to an aisle so I  could stick my leg straight) but it had to be a higher category. What a pity!

Then I caught a train further south and wandered around Soho. There is a knitting wool shop that was the excuse, but I enjoyed the edgier feel of the place. Lots of small shops with different stuff, but no prices. I donot think I have seen any prices at all in shop windows, not even the ordinary shops . There was a bigger variety of buildings and some old brick roads.

On my way back from the nearest subway stop on one of the 2 subway lines that I have the choice between, there are about 6 fancy hotels. Last time I was in new york I used to amuse myself by deciding where I would stay (if I was filthy rich)  based on the uniform of the doormen who always stand outside waiting to greet their clients. Some are too ornate, some too plain. Until now this trip  they have all been inside. Sometimes you can see them peering  out , waiting. The temperature must have risen enough - to about 5 degrees I think- for them all to be standing outside today.  Except they had rather boring rain coats on, not nice woolen overcoats that I have seen once before.

I have just come home from a delicious seafood meal. As background, before I came I was looking forward to having some oysters from the Oyster Bar under Grand Central as I have on previous visits. When I went a few days ago I passed on the oysters because the cheapest was over $2 each and quite a few were over $4 each.
Several days ago , a lady I talked to in a coffee shop recommended Crave, a few blocks away.  I had looked in the window at the menu, thouht the mains were a bit pricey, saw that they had lots of specials in happy hour 5.30 to 6.30 and thought it would be worth a try,  so I went to day. I was delighted to find that in happy hour oysters are $1 each.  It would have been sensible to try the ones that were the more expensive ones, but I could not work out how to phrase that politely, so I  just asked the waiter to choose 3 different ones X 2. Then I had some crab stuff on a corn tortilla and then possible the best calamari I have ever  had with Japanese flavours.  The glass of wine that came on special in happy hour was an ugni blanc / colombard  blend from France. Ugni sounded an odd french word that i had never heard before but I looked it up ( thank you Mr Google) to find it is the French name for the Italian trebbiano. I will return to Crave before I return to Australia.

Tuesday

I spent a while this morning chatting to the owners of this brownstone. Then  I went into Midtown, walked a fair bit, had lunch in the Oyster Bar of Grand Central ,walked  past Bryant Park, walked a fair bit more to a wool shop , but it was not as nice as the one 3 blocks from me. Then a walked a bit to another of the Think Coffee chain , enjoyed reading my book for half an hour over a nice coffee and then came back here. A relaxing, warm day.

The fountain in Bryant Park on 26 December, partially frozen.

The same fountain on 9 Jan after a big  snowfall and  very cold weather. More frozen

Whitney and High line

Today I enjoyed a delicious omelette and decent coffee at a local cafe before going to the Whitney Museum Of American Art. 2 years ago this moved into a brand new building at the southern end of the High Line.  There were exhibits on 7 floors. I spent most of the time  looking at paintings from their collection in an exhibition Where we Are 1900-1960.  This was organised around 5 themes: family and  community,  work, home, the spiritual  and the nation.  Their selection of paintings was interesting  and thought-provoking. I spent some time watching and listening to a teacher talking to a group of immaculately uniformed all black kids of about 12 about a painting by Joseph  Stella called The Brooklyn Bridge. It had the arches of the bridge but they were also like windows in a church with stained glass pictures. She asked all sorts of questions, age appropriate,  to get them thinking . Later on I bumped into her and she apologised saying she hoped she or the kids had not disturbed me.  On the contrary, I said, I learnt a lot about the painting and thanked her.

There was an exhibition by Laura Owen.  All sorts of quirky , whimsical , abstract stuff. I liked a painting that had a boy and an animal hanging onto a rope that said " when you get to the end of your rope, make a knot and hang on."

After some soup in their cafe looking out over some construction stuff and then the Hudson river I had a quick look at the rest of the floors and then left and walked along the High Line. The weather was significantly better than our previous attempt last week, positively mild at -2 degrees.  I did have a thought that the day after I bought myself 2 pairs of gloves to wear together, it warmed up and I only needed one pair. I really enjoy the elevated view of different Manhatten (and !ew Jersey) buildings. I enjoy the contrasts -old next to brand new, very rectangular next to curves.  The High Line itself was quite bland - white , grey and bare, not the colourful place it is in summer time. Some photos follow of different views of and from the High Line.

After another good coffee from the Think Coffee chain, I went back to my apartment.

Some photos

The birthday girl and her daughter

Building a snowman .

A few days later.

Sunday

Today Carol, Katie and I had a nice farewell breakfast in a traditional American place serving traditional American food. Carol and Katie left late morning for their flghts to St Louis to stay with Wendy and Co.  She was very pleased to be going. She had originally planned to leave last Friday but the foul weather intervened and her flight was canceled . I was sad to see them go and it took me a little while to decide what I felt like doing.  I decided I wanted some seafood soup for lunch and so caught a subway train to the Flat iron district and went to Eataly. As good a way of deciding what to do as any other.

Eataly is like a big fancy delicatessen with little cafes dotted through it.  Near the huge counter selling fresh fish there is a small area with tables where you can sit down and have a seafood lunch. Near the meat section is another area where you can eat meat etc etc. You can have wine with your fish but you cannot , as I discovered, have a coffee. You have to go to the coffee bar for that. The first time I went to an Eataly was in Bologna in 2010 and a few weeks later I went to the huge one in Turin which is where the whole chain started. It was massive and less refined than the one here. I remeber being impressed with a whole section downstairs which has wine vats on their sides, maybe 3 reds and 3 whites. You brought your own bottles in and filled them up. Apparently quite respectable drinking wine.  There was also a section where you could fill your own bottles with milk from  a big vat.

Next stop was a large sport wear shop where I was hoping to get some gloves. It was easy to get someone to help and so i quickly found out they had run out of warm gloves in women's sizes, but not in mens. When you are trussed up like an Eskimo who cares what your gloves look like. I settled on some thin gloves with ends on some fingers so I can use my phone/ camera  and over the top  a pair of mittens  with an extension that unfold to revel topless fingers, but in my case will reveal the under gloves.

I had on my list a nearby coffee shop , part of a chain, Think Coffee that I had read about that sources ethically , environmentally sound  etc etc coffee and gives back to some communities. The people were friendly, the coffee was excellent. Enough for the day.

More biting wind. Fri and Saturday

I will never again complain about the cold on my early morning walks in Canberra.  The tall buildings and long streets here act like wind tunnels. You can be walking along a street in -16 degrees wearing all your clothes in relative comfort and you turn a corner and are hit by a wind that slices through everything and hurts .  The one mistake I have made with clothing and will rectify tomorrow is gloves. Carol and Isla have gloves you can touch a screen with. I donot. I have to take mine off to take a photo. Hence not many photos.

Having said all that, yesterday morning I walked about 2.4 km through Central Park. It is really beautiful with the sun shining on the snow and the bare trees. Very few people. Photos soon.   I went to the Museum of the City of New York and really enjoyed it. I watched a short film which did not gloss over the bad times and walked through the well arranged galleries.

Carol and Katie had been to the 9 /11 memorial site. The weather is hard for little people  and quite energy-sapping. Still, Katie loves playing in the snow and in the afternoon I found them near a closed playground. I looked after Katie and enjoyed some frozen 'cake', amongst other delicacies, that she prepared. On our way back to the apartment the 'icy pole' that she insisted on carrying drew some odd smiles. Another dinner from Zabars.

Today we went to the Metropolitan Museum and wandered through some of the numerous galleries, all full of amazing stuff.  We went to a Burger place that Carol wanted to try. Their heating was off , but it was still better than outside and Carol and I scored a complimentary t bag in hot water and Katie an apple juice.

I went to the Met Brewer Gallery, an offshoot of the main Met, that was not there last time I was in new York. There was a big exhibition of Edward Munch's paintings which do nothing much for me, maybe I should try and learn. There was, however, an exhibition entitled " Delirious:Art at the limits of Reason 1950 to 1980 which I enjoyed. Well, about half of the exhibits I enjoyed because they were patterns of things.  I can hear the smirks.

 I walked back through Central Park a different way, thought I was remebering  my way well from my previous visits but got stumped because at one point ahead of me there was a field of snow where I thought there was a pond, but as I got closer I realised it was an ice covered pond with some people walking on it.  I saw several Ice Rescue Ladder Stations with a bright red  ladder.

I tried another coffee shop and did the 3 block walk to Zabars for dinner.

Trudging through the snow. Sun 31st to Thur 4th

Last Sunday, 31st, was my elder daughters 40th birthday. It was a good celebratory day. Wendy and I went to the nearest Anglican church for a 9 am service. It was quite different to the packed Christmas service we went to the previous week at Trinity church. There were about 20 other people in the congregation,  antiquated liturgy - thees and thous, but a friendly conversation afterwards with a few parishioners. It was a huge church and very warm.  Must be money somewhere.

Carol and Lach had organised the kids in our absence and everyone had made a card for Wendy. We then went to a,performance of the Radio City Rockettes.  I had never heard of them but apparently they have been putting on a lavish performance  of dancing and singing  since 1930 something.  I enjoyed being with the kids and the professionalism of the dancers was obvious.

After lunch we caught the subway to Brooklyn and all went for a ride on Jane's Carousel in DUMBO ( Down Under Brooklyn Manhatten Overpass). It is a lovely restored old carousel on the waterfront just near the Brooklyn Bridge. It was about 5pm but dark and there were lots of sparkly lights everywhere. I had been for a ride 4 1/2 years ago and wanted to take my family. There was a wedding party there, so obviously a local celebratory thing to do.

We had a delicious dinner at a nice restaurant that Wendy had booked  . Lach had arranged a special treat for Wendy. A good day. I cannot remember,  but I think it was that day that Stelli fell asleep on  the subway on the way home.

The following day we went to the High Line, a disused elevated freight rail line that has been converted to an urban park.  I have been several times and thought everyone would enjoy it but the weather was impossible for the small people and the bigger people were not enjoying it , so we gave up. I donot know what the temperature was, but am sure it was colder than the coldest day in Quebec that I experienced that I know was  -18 but -26 considering the wind chill. We walked through Chelsea Markets but many other people were also escaping the biting winds there. Lach and Carol took the kids home  while Wendy and I went to the library bar in the Nomad hotel.  It was lovely. Books, timber, chairs and tables not too close to each other. We had a couple of drinks, some nibbles and chatted like adults with no kids around.

On Tuesday Wendy, Lach and the 4 girls left to drive to their home in Missouri.  Carol, Katie and I came here to the UWS where I have stayed before.  We left our bags and went on the Staten Isand ferry  for Carol and Katie to see the Statue of Liberty. On the way back we were escorted by a small coast guard boat. I wonder if this always happens.  Both this time and Christmas day there was a lot of security at both ends of the ferry ride- heavily armed soldiers and at least 2 bomb detecting dogs.  Carol discovered the nearby NY institution Zabars for dinner.

On Wednesday Carol and I and Katie went to the NY City Fire Museum. Quite interesting old machines.  There are several new coffee shops in this area. New = since I was last here in April 2013. Obviously it is my duty to check them all out.
So I started yesterday. On Wednesday afternoon Carol discovered her flight on Friday to St Louis  was cancelled.

On Wednesday afternoon there were lots of warnings about a large snow storm overnight and into Thursday. Everyone was encouraged to stay home if possible, schools were closed etc. I woke to find about 20 m of snow over everything  and the snow was heavy through the morning into early afternoon. We walked , or rather trudged, to the nearby Children's Museum, where we were warm and Katie was interested for 2 hours.  It was quite eerie walking around. Only taxis,  a very few cars and some delivery vehicles on the road, all going very slowly, very poor visibility.  Another coffee shop in the afternoon. The snow eased off enough for us to take Katie to central park,  1 1/2 blocks away, to play in the snow. All the way back she insisted  on trudging through the snow drifts on the edges of the footpaths, not walking on the sort of track in the middle. Each step was into snow above her knees. No wonder she slept well.