Sunday, September 29, 2013

Beers of our European adventure, Day 15,

This is the final post for this blog.  We are at the airport and will be headed home There are many tours.  Harry & I wanted to share our beer tour with you.


















shortly.

Alsace Wine Region Day 14

Today we traveled into the foothills of the desVoges Mountains and visited 6 medieval villages along the wine route.  Towns we visited were Kintzheim, Kayersberg, Riquewihr, Ribeauville, Truckheim, and Eguisheim.  If you ever come over here, we recommend this location as a destination.

Harry continued to drive us around Europe.  His driving skills are equal to the Europeans.  Having said that, we did have a slight, shall I say faux paux incident.  We pulled up to a red light and while we were discussing if we were supposed to stop or go, someone behind us blew their horn.  We assumed we were supposed to go, so we went.  Harry ran the red light.  All the other cars were still stopped.  Thankfully, we did not have another encounter with the Polizi. We just hope there was not a camera at that intersection.

While walking through Kayersberg, I saw a man with an LSU shirt  sitting with a group of people.  I stopped and asked if they were from Louisiana.  Everyone started talking in French.  I don't know if they even knew where the U.S. was.

It was a great final day of sightseeing on this trip.  Tomorrow we head for Frankfurt and home.
A French Sherman Tank, made in Detroit (Guess who gave it to the French?)

I don't know who this lady is.  She was nice enough to sell me a memory stick for Linda's camera after I left hers in the computer.

Jerry & Harry on a bridge built in 1500's



Linda and Amanda, somewhere in old France

Street scene, Riquewihr

This entrance way was built in the 12th century

There were vineyards everywhere

Babbling brook

More vineyards

Stork nest

Homemade Crème Brulee


Entrance to old town

Friday, September 27, 2013

European Odyssey Day13

Our European Odyssey continues, but it is fast heading for its conclusion.  Two more days and we are headed home...  a great adventure.

Today finds us in Colmar, France, another medieval town, largely preserved, the majority of its buildings still intact after these hundreds of years.  It is also the home of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the designer of the Statue of Liberty. It took about 3 hours to get over here from Lindau.  We traveled through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France to get here.  I met a nice couple from the U.S. He was from West Virginia, she was from Pittsburgh.  The are ex-pats, living in Basel, Switzerland.  They heard me talking and just knew I was from the South.  They said it made them homesick.
Mostly spared from the destruction's of the French Revolution and the wars of 1870–1871, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945, the cityscape of old-town Colmar is homogeneous and renowned among tourists. An area that is crossed by canals of the river Lauch (which formerly served as the butcher's, tanner's and fishmonger's quarter) is now called "little Venice" (la Petite Venise). Colmar's cityscape (and neighbouring Riquewihr's) served for the design of the Japanese animated film Howl's Moving Castle.
Launch River, runs through town

Street Scene, Colmar

Lady Liberty

Colmar

Colmar, on the river

Launch River Bridge

Flowers on the Launch River Bridge

More flowere

Linda & Amanda fed the Swans at our dinner table

Monument to French wine

Liberty at night
The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in the middle of New York Harbor, in Manhattan, New York City. The statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Alptitude Adjustment Day 12

Our Alptitude improved today.   We have met so many nice people as we have been driving through Europe.  They blow their horns at us and wave at us.  We wave back, but we don't understand what they mean, because we don't speak the language.  Harry has developed into a very accomplished European driver.  When he wears his beret, he looks like a Frenchman.
We left Bellagio this am, crossed Lake Como, and took the scenic route through the Alps.  We drove through 5 countries today.  Italy, Switzerland, Lichenstein, Austria and Germany.  I won't bore you with what the views are like, just look at the pictures.  We arrived back in Germany and are in Lindau.  We will leave tomorrow for Colmar, France for a couple of days.
Amanda & Harry, Lake Como

Jerry & Linda, Lake Como

We wasted 5 euros apiece riding this train

Lack Como view at breakfast

Crossing Lake Como

Varenna, Italy


Harry & Amanda @ 6500'

We are 6500' also

High in the Alps

Alpine Lake

Middle of the Alps

Other side of the road

Where Harry drives....