June 28, 2008 Santander, Spain A few hours on the road through S.W. France and into northern Spain and we arrived at Santander, Spain on the North coast of Spain on the Atlantic Ocean. Another nice drive on good roads and a great variety of scenery from farmland to mountain passes. Santander is a very nice resort area with a huge, very nice, beach and at this time of year it is getting busy as expected. We took a short walk to the beach and stopped at the local Casino to donate a few euros to the local economy. This is a great place for kids with lots of the usual beach things to do and see. The last part of the drive follows the coast with some very nice seascapes. We didn’t see the coast ... read more

June 26, 27, 2008 Bordeaux, France We arrived in Bordeaux in time on Thursday to take the local tram to the center of town to have a look around. Turns out our timing was perfect for me. The annual “Bordeaux Fete Le Vin” ( Wine Festival ) was just getting started and the promenade along the Garonne River was set up for wine tasting from all the areas producing “ Bordeaux “wine. This is a very well organized affair. With the purchase of a wine glass ( with carry case ) and a coupon book you get to try about 10 of any of the hundreds of Bordeaux wines being promoted. We enjoyed a few hours roaming around and will do some more exploring in the city tomorrow. Weather has been great here and in fact ... read more

June 23, 24, 2008 Geneva, Switzerland Our travels took us from Bern along the lakes to Geneva which is surrounded by rolling hills and farmland. Grain, grapes and fruit trees. Geneva sits on the southern most lake shore of Lake Le Leman, the biggest fresh water lake in Europe. Geneva is a few kilometers from France ( in fact our room was in France ) and less than a 100 Km via the Mont Blanc tunnel to Italy. This is a very political center with the United Nations, Red Cross and every NGO you can imagine all centered here. There are currently over 16,000 civil servants from various countries living in Geneva. This is a very nice city. Expensive, but nice. We took an afternoon city tour that included a small cruise on the lake to ... read more

June 20, 21, 2008 Black Forest Region, Germany The drive from Dijon, France to Baden-Baden, Germany is a few hours of more varied scenery as you travel from farmland into a more rolling hills and forested area. We were pleasantly surprised with Baden-Baden. This is a very nice, very clean, small city with a very tourist friendly city center with limited vehicle traffic and lots of good restaurants. Nice place to take a break after Paris. Baden-Baden is at the top end of the Black Forest Region of western Germany and a favorite stop for tourists exploring the region. We had a short stay here enjoyed a good time in a very nice city. Saturday morning we “hit the road” for Bern, Switzerland. We took a small detour through Stuttgart, Germany and down through the Black ... read more

June 14 - 17, 2008 Paris, France Nice drive from Brussels and arrived at our hotel on the outskirts of Paris. Spent Saturday afternoon in the center of the city with a very good connection, on the very good, local Metro system. Anyone traveling to Paris would be wise to consider a room out of the very expensive center of town ( with hotels with very small rooms ) and looking at a suburbs hotel as long as it is close to the many metro stops. We have been in Paris before and it is as nice as we remembered. A little pricy but very interesting!! There is so much to see and do here you need a few days minimum just to see the highlights. ( Louvre Museum, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Place Concorde, ... read more