In junction!

Look who stopped by for a visit! With his mother. Grandma taught him to dip strawberries in sugar. But he decided to skip the strawberries and go straight for sugar.

Sonntag in Germany

Today was more retina conference for me, a bit of quiet sightseeing for Susan. Almost all stores were closed for Sunday. She saw roman ruins. Apparently, it's almost impossible to dig a construction foundation here without finding leftovers from when Mainz was a roman city on the Rhine.

After the meeting ended, we strolled in town. We stuffed ourselves silly with more great German food, once again the only tourists in the large restaurant.

We're packing our suitcases tonight. Tomorrow it's Lufthansa Frankfurt to Dallas, then American Airlines to Grand Junction. It's been a great trip! We needed a respite from the home routine. I'm up-to-date on providing the best care for my patients. We were Not In Junction for long enough to miss home.

Love to all our friends and family. See you Stateside!

W & S

Mainz, Germany

"Why would they do it?" you might ask. Yup, we traded the sunshine of Catalan and Provence for a couple days under clouds next to the Rhine. Here is where I'm attending The Frankfurt Retina Meeting. It's super!

This morning was live retina surgery (well, I should think they'd keep them alive!). It's an extraordinary thing to watch experts from all over the world do state-of-the-art retina surgery. High def video is sent from 3 operating rooms in Frankfurt to our Mainz conference center a la the Iron Chef TV show. 1200 retina surgeons at the meeting, including me. Attendees are from all over the world, but only about a dozen from the USA.

More on Mainz next time. Here are some pics of us enjoying the Saturday market and our tasty German lunch.

Barcelona 2

A beautiful Catalan Friday in Barcelona.

Last night we thumpa-thumped our way into the Avis car rental office, having punctured a tire a few blocks away. Maaany helpful motorcyclists and pedestrians informed us of the flat, but we were so close to the office Ana also so close to its closing time that we just forged ahead. Actually, the Avis instructions when we rented the car included not stopping if we get a flat, but driving on the flat to a police station or auto repair shop. Apparently folks with flats are prey to criminals.

We ate a terrific 11 PM supper. I quenched my appetite for fried/salted Padron peppers. Then I had a white bean and Andouille sausage stew. Dessert was triple chocolate, because double just would not have been enough. Susan's appetizer was potato and ham omelette, entree was couscous salad, leaving room for the best rice pudding ever! Susan says what made it so good was really good cinnamon.

Today we enjoyed Barcelona sites afoot in sunshine! There were actually other non-Mediterranean tourists in town. Throughout Provence, it seemed we were the only ones.

La Ramblas was fun. The food market was amazing - wonderful variety of fruits, veggies, meats, seafood, candies, etc. Disneyland-level hygiene cleanliness. Somehow, even the insects were kept away! We meandered in the gothic part of old town, saw sparks fly inside the old cathedral (interior construction under way), did a spot of shopping, and enjoyed street performers.

Orange et Avignon

Our quick tour of Provence was capped by a blustery day seeing the towns of Orange and Avignon. The highlight of Orange was the gigantic and well-preserved roman theater. In nearby Avignon, we strolled inside the city walls, took in the Egyptian artifacts of the Musee Calvert, did a spot of shopping, and ate a terrific lunch of cold cuts and cheese. We saw the Pont d'Avignon. We felt puny under the fortress walls of the pope's palace. Then we went to the Pont du Gard, an impressive roman aquaduct. All the sunny day, the springtime mistral wind whipped about, typical for early springtime.

Lost in the luberon

We're safe in our hotel in orange tonight. I think will is tired of hearing me do sharp intakes of air all day. We drove thru skinny one lane/two way roads with steep drop offs. The drop offs always seem to be on our side of the road. Every time a car came at us It was very scary.
We visited le chateau Grimaldi in cache sur mere before we left this morning. I find it interesting that you can wander thru rooms filled with antique furniture almost without any else around- no tourists no guards. We also walked around the old renaissance town.
We drove to Rousillan where ochre was mined before artificial pigment was made. Another charming village perched on a hill. We passed the julien bridge on the way. This was started in 47 bc and was used up until 2005 as a bridge on a major road.
We had dinner in isle sur le sorgue. Nothi g special just pizza but again a pretty setting
Below are pictures from today.

Tuesday pictures

In no particular - dessert, mention, citrus displays, yarn store and house guest.

Sugarloaf street

We found our hotel in Cagne sur mer. It's on chemindepain au sucre. This is a minor miracle. I don't remember such steep mountains so close to the coast. Our hotel is deep in a canyon with narrow winding streets. It's beautiful here. We have a house guest staying with us right now. I'll have to send pictures in my next post from my phone. I'm on my ipad right now.

We left menton this morning and drove along the coast into Monaco. Again. Scary driving. There were clouds over the sea making the day chilly but beautiful.

We stopped in nice for lunch. Dad performed a miracle and found street parking. We thought we would visit a museum or two but its Tuesday. They are all closed. So we had a delicious lunch. I checked out an amazing yarn/embroidery/trim/button store. It was tiny but had so much merchandise. Amazing

We drove to st Paul de Venice to see the Maeght foundation. A family in Cannes started this collection of modern art. We visited the village perche of st Paul. Then found our hotel. Our hotel ia lovely. It seems quite isolated. There is a delicious restaurant. We had our first big meal here. It was delicious. Highlights include pistachio duck pâté and ganauche with nutella snow. Wonderful

Time for bed to dream of beautiful landscape and delicious food

Sue

Menton, France

We arrived in Menton last night in drizzle and fog, but awoke to mostly sunny. Almost 35 years ago, on our backpack/train Grand Tour, we were en route from Rome to Nice. Our train trip was interrupted at dawn. The train was stopped at the italian border town of Ventemiglia. All passengers were moved to another train under watch of the police. We later learned all traffic from Italy was searched for a sick old Nazi war criminal whose wife was sneaking him out of Italy so he could die in his homeland.

We were pulling out of the station on the new train when Susan discovered her high school sweater was missing - probably left on the original train in our sleepy haste. We hopped off at the first stop and awaited the next train back to the border. On the platform a curious local mec asked why in the world we would want to return to Ventemiglia. On hearing of the list sweater, he shook his head and tsk-tsk'd about our chances since it was "les Italiens" we would be dealing with.

We retrieved Susan's sweater. It was in the original train, hanging on a hook. Hurrah!

We checked the train schedule. Our travel plan needed changing, due to the now delayed arrival for the Nice. We checked the map and decided to stop in little Menton. It had a youth hostel with a great view and a beach within walking distance. The beach was rocky but wonderfully refreshing after the summer swelter of Rome!

So now here we are again. Menton is celebrating its Lemon Festival. Here are decorations made of lemons and oranges. Also pics of us with tropical birds of paradise flowers and overlooking the beach.

It's relaxing and beautiful!

Food

A couple of wonderful things we've eaten so far. Notice the size of the macaroon. It fills my hand.

Drive across France.

I'm having troUble posting. Among the problems I can't lower case the u in trouble. We are having a great time. Will did amazing driving thru "vent violent" all day. The wind kept blowing our little car all over the road. The scenery has been amazing. Very desolate along the France Spain border. We arrived in menton in the dark and with rain. We saw some of the decorations for the fete du citron in the park on the way in. It looks like rose parade but all floats are made of citrus. Hopefully well get some good pictures in the sun tomorrow.

Arles was fun. Very quiet. I guess we visited during siesta. Everything was closed. But it was fun to walk the streets.

We've run into very helpful people. A couple in Barcelona sitting next to us in a restaurant shared with us that new Gaudi designed homes just opened. Hopefully we can visit when we're back in Thursday. Today a couple helped us with a parking ticket that wouldn't work. Below are more pictures so far.

. 2pucs from Arles and two from Barcelona.

Arles, France

France! We explored old twisty streets of Van Gogh's old haunts, including the Cafe De Nuit. Lunch was at le boulangerie. Brioche sucre? Macaron au chocolat? Oui, s'il vous plait!

Menton Part 2

We arrived menton tonight at 9pm after a day of white knuckle driving. We rented a car in Barcelona this morning. Thanks to wills amazing driving skills, we got thru the city unscathed. All morning we drove thru "vent violent". The wind kept blowing our little car all over the road. The wind is so bad there are permanent signs in 4 languages giving warning. I can see why the population is sparse along the France Spain border.

In Barcelona

House of bones. Fascinating architecture. I think this house would give me nightmares if I lived here.

We Are Here

First order of business

Crab salad with cephalopod and ham sandwich. Guess which ate which.

Nij not in seattle either

Smooth quiet flight. I eatched the descendants and the big year. Slept for a few hours. Now we're waiting for our Barcelona flight. Well update when the fun begins.

Yea!!!

Not only do we have seat assignments, they are business class! Hopefully we make our connection to Barcelona. Apparently today is the day united and continental are combining. Everything on that end is a big mess. Luckily this is a Lufthansa flight. Their customer service is fantastic. Maybe history will continue to repeat itself and Will can score more dinnerware for saving someone's life like the last time we flew to Frankfurt.

A regular Rodney Dangerfield

Best straight line from ticket agent:
"I don't know why your husband's ticket to Frankfurt printed fine but not yours. Don't worry, your bag's checked through to Germany."

I couldn't resist joking, with a wink and a smile: "Hey, that's no way to refer to my wife!"

She chuckled. Stressful job.

Glamour of air travel

Just finished standing in line for a hour trying to check in. Our crew is sick. Flight to Denver is cancelled

Our luggage is checked thru to Frankfurt but we dont have seat assignments.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Change of plans

Weve delayed travel one day. I have the flu. I'll be a much better traveling companion tomorrow.