Dennis' brain from the inside.
This is the first in my Re-writes series where I take a snippet from a previous post, add more detail and offer a completely different perspective from the original telling. This is from Europe 2024 and our stay in Lyon. There will be 2 perspectives offered. The first being a scientific offering, and the second …
Obituary: Steve 'Tubby' Softub (Schwartzman T-260) It is with heavy heart that I announce the passing of our dear friend Steve. Steve had been a close friend of mine for over twenty years and had calmed me through the rough waters of life and brought me great joy. He was always there waiting for me …
This will be the final installment of our trip and a synopsis of our last 3 days in Paris. First off... it's been fantastic here! The best food, very good inexpensive wine, the incredible visuals everywhere we go, kind and interesting people, and on and on. Our 300 sq.ft. studio has worked out extremely well. …
Continue reading "19th Installment: C’est Parti (Here We Go)"
It's four hours from Marseille to Dijon by train. The lush rolling hills and vineyards of the Burgundy region, home to some of France's best wines, cheeses, and chocolate, led us to its historical capital. Positioned in the eastern quadrant towards Switzerland and near Besançon, home of the world famous Comté cheeses (my personal fave) …
Continue reading "18th Installment: Dijon, Home of Grey Poupon"
The train to Marseille follows the sea, gliding past the sandy beaches located outside of Antibes and Cannes, then moves inland into the southernmost portion of Provence. There you'll find lots of agriculture in the fertile valleys and vineyards on the hillsides, lush and green. After a 2 hour trip to Marseille Saint-Charles station you …
Continue reading "17th Installment: Fear and Loathing in Marseille"
On our last day in Nice we were determined to use our mueum pass to catch a couple more from the list of eligible locations. We also were going to hit the beach probably for the final time on this trip so we were going to keep things close to the water. The first candidate …
Continue reading "16th Installment: Slow Day in the Côte d-Azur"
We're closing in on the final days of our stay in Nice and the western Côte d-Azur. It has been the best part of an already great trip. This studio has been the most entertaining of the 50+ Airbnb's that we've stayed in to date (3 more to come). Our hosts just had us over …
With still 3 days to spend in Nice we sprung for the 4 day (yes, I realize it) museum pass. There are 12 museums included in the package, but only a few were important to us. The headliner was Musée Matisse located in Jardin des Arènes de Cimiez, WAY WAY up in the upper suburbs. …
Continue reading "14th Installment: Henri Matisse, a Reverent and Irreverent Look"
Our host Alain owns a nightclub in Nice, called Le Six. In the early years it featured live jazz, but times and the economy have changed and now they have djs from around the globe performing; from Brazil tonight, Paris tomorrow, et al. He has played trumpet with Whitney Houston in his younger years and …
We decided after hearing from a few people that Eze Village (eh-ze vee-laaj) would be a good place to check out as a day trip from Nice by bus. It's claim to fame is the 13th century fortress and medieval town surrounding it high up in the mountains and was just 30 minutes down the …
Just another day at the office; 4 trains and 6 hours got us to Nice (Niece). It's great to be back in France, and it's great to be in the Côte d'Azur, FrenchRiviera. More steep hills to shlep our bags to get to our latest studio, but it is remarkable! We are staying in a …
Continue reading "11th Installment: We Have Hit the Motherlode"
It's our final full day in Italy and we have reached the midpoint of our time away. There had been predictions a couple of days ago of a deluge of rain for today, but just like in Canada they pick their prognosticators from the defunct T#%mp University of Liars. Of course we had made plans …
Continue reading "10th Installment: Don’t Whack Me, I Have a Family!"
In search of new frien... er, looking for history and culture we will be taking the bus to Lerici (le-reach-ee) on Sunday and Porto Venere (porto-ven-err-eh) on Monday. By choosing 5 days in La Spezia it was always the plan to do short day trips by bus or train. La Spezia is the gateway to …
Continue reading "9th Installment: Road Trip! I Call Shotgun!"
Our new stay has it all including a king-size bed. To fully take advantage you would expect that each person would lay in the middle of their own side, maybe in an X configuration to languish in the luxury, not making contact with the other and feeling like a king, hence the name. No, that …
Another smooth transition, this time to La Spezia. Ignoring the hosts instructions we decided not to take the bus (15 minutes including wait time) and we would get the lay of the land by slinging our backpacks and pulling our wheelie bags over the rough Italian patchwork sidewalks. Mr. Google assured us it was only …
It was another smooth trip from Venice to Sienna, about 4 hours by train. Smooth as in comfortable, the process and logistics are always a bit heart-fluttering because there's so much at stake to arrive at the station on time. Then work in a breakfast on the run, find your platform, and set ourselves up …
It was an uneventful train journey on our next stop to Mestre (mess-tray) which is just over the bridge to Venice. Our Airbnb is a room with private water closet in a 4 bedroom apartment with a 300sq.ft terrace on the 3rd floor of a 10 storey building. The owner, an entrepreneur, and her 2 …
Continue reading "4th Installment : Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink"
First off I would like to offer a shout out to all of the new subscribers that I hounded into joining the site, Welcome Aboard newbies (newbs?)! Disclaimer: You might not recognize this as a traditional travel blog because I do tend to offload random observations from time to time and wander down unplumbed depths …
Continue reading "3rd Installment: New pope, same gelatoria"
Geez, let me check the calendar again... yup I'm a geezer. Day 3 of our first stop in Paris and I am befuddled and confused (jetlagged 'r us). There are so many technical situations that have to be juggled and solved on the spot to keep this train a'rollin'. There's train strikes that require alternate …
Continue reading "2nd Installment: Dennis and Carol’s Big Adventures"
No doubt about it, getting to Europe from western Canada is arduous. It starts with a 4 hour drive to Vernon to park our car at Rachel's (saves us almost $300 in parking at the airport), then a ride to Kelowna where we depart from; first to Calgary with a brief layover and then 9 …
Continue reading "1st Installment: Paris is the bomb (scare)"
It was a cool morning for this time of year. Not a genuine frosty morning, more of a shrink-your-package-while-walking-to-the-tub type of morning. It was time for my playdate with Steve. I was cavorting with him, turning the jets on and off while the heater was running. His lights were blinking rhythmically and he would shudder …
Blue Delivery 