Page 16 of Rob_n_Lorenza Travel Blog Posts


Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Blue Mountains November 19th 2005

17/11/05 - 19/11/05 Green express to CDG My alarm on the mobile phone starting beeping and buzzing at 5.30am, the phone was vibrating all over the table, it took a few moments for me to realise that this meant it was time to get up and get set to depart for the airport and my flight to London then Singapore. Jean and Beatrice drove me to the airport in the green bus. On the autoroute, we passed by the turnoffs to some outer Paris suburbs which had recently become infamous due to rioting and Molotov cocktail parties (this was as close as I got to any problems they had been encountering). Naturally, as I said “au revoir” I was filled with some mixed emotions, naturally I was excited to be going home and seeing Lorenza again ... read more

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris November 16th 2005

Half a day of warfare 15/11/05 - The Invalides Hospital in Paris was originally built at the request of Napoleon to ensure his injured troops were taken care of. On the same site are the Musée l’Armée and the Tomb of Napoleon. The Musée l’Armée consumed most of my day; it has an incredible display of everything to do with warfare, arms, uniforms and armour. You can imagine, it is definitely the kind of museum that I could spend most of my day in, but perhaps not Lorenza (so a few days alone in Paris have a positive side). There was a section dealing with WWII that I found incredibly interesting, mainly because as a resident of the southern hemisphere I know a fair amount about the dealings Australia had with Japan during that war, but ... read more
Musée l'Armée 2
Inside that gold dome
U know who's tomb

Europe » France » Alsace » Strasbourg November 13th 2005

My second last evening in Niedermorschwihr was an enjoyable occasion. Bernard (Jean & Beatrice’s friend), his wife Eliane, daughter Miriam (plus her boyfriend, who’s name escapes me - could be Franz?), joined Jean, Beatrice, Ella-Pauline, Nellie and myself for dinner. It was good to share a meal and drinks with them before I departed Niedermorschwihr as they have all been so friendly to Lorenza and me on our two visits to Alsace. Miriam is the president of the local organization responsible for raising funds to maintain and restore the church tower. She is very passionate about her role and cause. She spoke for sometime about the different fund raising projects they had and were trying. It is good to see that someone young is interested in maintaining the history of her birthplace. Bernard got scolded a ... read more
Dinner 1
Dinner 2
Astromical Clock

Europe » France » Alsace » Mulhouse November 7th 2005

Les Trois Chateaux 7/10/05 - This morning was the coldest it has been so far (except for Chamonix), it was about 5 degrees at 8am. It looked like it could snow, rain or clear up, it was one of those days that cannot decide how it wants to continue. I took a short drive to the village of Eguisheim, which is famous for being the home of Pope Leo, in around the year 1029. There is a church in his honour, plus many statues and as you can tell the village is very proud of it’s ancestor, even if his claim to fame was so long ago. Short distances into the mountains, above Eguisheim, are the ruins of a number of castles, which date back to the days even prior to Pope Leo’s times. The castles ... read more
trail to the 3 castles
castle ruins
view from the ruins

Europe » France » Alsace » Mulhouse November 4th 2005

4/11/05 - Mulhouse, not far from Colmar, is the home of the Musée National de Automobile. It includes exhibits of about 400 vehicles and the world’s largest collection of Bugatti cars, including the amazing Bugatti Royale. Some other features of this museum include …. A Peugeot 205 which you can sit in and experience how it feels to roll a car, multiple times, at high speed (not something I want to repeat in real life thanks). A German car called a “Trabant” which is made of “Duroplast”. Sounds a bit like Elastoplast bandages and it is; the body of the car is made from cotton, sandwiched between two layers of resin. There is a classic quote from the Citroen 2CV handbook “A car which can carry two farmers in clogs, 50kgs of potatoes, or a barrel, ... read more
mmm another Bugatti
what more Bugattis
just for a change an Alfa

Europe » France » Alsace November 3rd 2005

3/11/05 - The Vosges mountain range which runs through Alsace is truly amazing. You can easily explore many interesting places in the Vosges via the Route des Crêtes (Route of crests). I took the trip to the peak of the Grand Ballon (1423m) and then onward to Le Hohneck (1362m). Sure, judge on height above sea level both do not come anything close to Mount Blanc. But, on a clear day you can see Mount Blanc way off in the distance form both these peaks. I stopped on the way through Guebwiller to grab some sandwiches and a drink for lunch. Then I took the drive ever upward, on the winding mountain road to the Grand Ballon. The outside temperature gauge on the dash board of the car started out at 14 degrees on the floor ... read more
Very friendly french horses
Mt Blanc is thataway

Europe » France » Alsace » Neuf-Brisach November 2nd 2005

2/11/05 - I walked around the fortified town of Neuf-Brisach. All up I think it took about 2 to 3 hours. It was well worth the visit. The town was well worth the visit, as was its German neighbor - Breisach. The area on both sides of the Rhine was originally inhabited by Celts about 3 to 4000 years ago. The Romans were here in the 1st Century BC. When Louis the XIV lost the town of Breisach to Austria in 1697 he gave instructions to fortify the area around Neuf-Brisach to protect the French border. The resulting fortifications built by the Architect Vauban are truly amazing (naturally he had lots of help in the way of labour sourced from the Army). An aerial view of the fortifications shows it is built in a star shape, ... read more
Lock on Rhine River
Neuf-Brisach
Neuf-Brisach 2

Europe » Germany » Hesse » Frankfurt October 31st 2005

31/10/05 - Saying farewell to Liesbeth and Michel was a sad event. Farewell to Liesbeth and Michel also meant that we were departing for Frankfurt so that Lorenza and I would also say farewell and for Lorenza to catch her flight home. The drive to Frankfurt was uneventful, except for the speeds that people travel at on the German autobahns. At 172km/h (the highest speed we reached) there were still many cars pulling away from us and disappearing quickly into the distance. The traffic in the “slow lane” is doing 130km/h, in the middle lane about 150km/h. I had to brake at one stage to slow down for a vehicle which was holding the traffic up at 140km/h; it was amazing how slow that seemed after sitting on 150 for so long. When we encountered road ... read more

Europe » Netherlands » North Brabant » Tilburg October 29th 2005

This has been the first chance I have had in the Netherlands to sit and type something. We have no problems accessing the internet to upload anything, we have just been too busy having fun to set aside some time for typing! So, this will be a quick update because in the next half hour or so we will either be out bicycle riding, walking, driving or something - today is too nice to waste in front of a laptop. The following covers the period from 22nd to 29th October, later today we will visit Gert and Henny, then tomorrow we are off to Wageningen to see Bert and Bianca. Then on Monday we drive to Frankfurt airport for Lorenza to get her flight home. But for now, on with the update …. The fashion police ... read more
Market in Tilburg
Piet drinking Heinekin?
Heusden

Europe » Netherlands » North Brabant » Tilburg October 24th 2005

22/10/05 - We said farewell to our hosts at the Hotel de la Paix and pointed the Renault toward the Netherlands. Fuel is expensive in France, but the autoroute toll charges are just as bad. It costs us the same amount in tolls as it did in fuel to get to Tilburg. All up about 50 euro in tolls and 50 euro in fuel. All those toll charges do have one great benefit, fantastic roads, the route to Paris and then onto Antwerp and then Tilburg is very easy driving. It took us about 10 hours to cross half of France and make it to Tilburg. The traffic around Paris was fun and Lorenza did a great job coping with it. We were tempted to drop by the Knoeri family on our way through, but the ... read more
St Nectaire
2CV
Our hosts at Hotel de la Paix




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