Thursday, October 20, 2022 – Travel Day to Burgundy.

Today we travel from Paris to Beaune, Burgundy by high speed train.

First thing in the morning we sauntered down to our favorite bolangerie for breakfast.

This hunk of scrumptious bread is filled with olives and feta cheese.

After breakfast we packed and went out to the bus stop on the corner to take a bus down to the train station.

I saw this church next to the bus stop and walked over to see if it was open. There was a security guard who said it was closed and I could not enter. He asked me why I wanted to enter. I told him I wanted to say a prayer. He looked puzzled and starred to someone on his cell phone as I walked back to the bus stop. After a few minutes he motioned me over and apologized and said that the way I was dressed he thought I was a bum looking for a place to sleep. Once he saw that I was with Sara he realized I wasn’t a bum and I just might want to enter the church to pray. What a novel idea. Someone might want to enter a church to say a prayer. The security guard said that he would gladly open the church so I could say a prayer. I could see our bus approaching so I declined his offer with a wave of my hand and a hearty merci. I said a prayer for everyone as I boarded the bus. I figure that a true pilgrim can pray anywhere and that the place where you are praying shouldn’t matter. I hope God agrees with me on that point.

This is the high speed train that runs between Paris and Zurich, Switzerland. We will be taking this train to Dijon where we will transfer to a local train that takes us to Beaune.

This is our two bedroom apartment in Beaune.

This is my spacious and comfortable bedroom.

This is the humongous shower in the bathroom.

We had some time to kill until dinner so we decided to stroll around Beaune.

This is the church of Notre Dame in Beaune. I lit a candle and said a prayer for everyone at this beautiful old church.

After strolling around town for an hour or so we decided to sit at an outdoor cafe and share a cheese plate.

We then walked down to the restaurant for dinner.

The owner of the restaurant picked out this wonderful Chablis for us.

We had snails on toast for an appetizer.

For the main course we had grilled hake with a shrimp ravioli and a mushroom cream sauce.

For dessert we had a hot chocolate cake covered with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

We had a great dinner and the owner of the restaurant and his wife who was in the kitchen were so nice to us.

That’s it for tonight. I hope you had a good day wherever you are. Good night from Beaune in Burgundy, France.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022. Sacre Coeur

We visited Sacre Coeur this morning. What a magnificent church.

First we visited our regular bakery to start our day with a delicious French pastry.

This is our regular neighborhood bakery.

After breakfast we too the Metro to the Sacre Coeur stop and got off the train. Because Sacre Coer is on a hill and the Metro tracks run on a level, we had to walk up 10 flights of stairs to get from the train platform up to the street outside the entrance to this Metro station.

That was just the beginning of the climb up to Sacre Coeur.

We had to climb up 8 flights of stairs to get from the street outside the entrance to the Metro station to Sacre Coeur. By the time I got up to the church I was pooped.

Beautiful stained glass windows in Sacre Coeur.

Gargoyle downspout on the rain gutters. Why didn’t I think of that when I had new gutters installed this summer.

Another photo of the gargoyle downspouts.

This is the bell tower at the back of the church. It has a staircase that you can use to climb to the top for a panoramic view of Paris. No way was I going to drag my sorry carcass up to the top of the bell tower!

As we were walking down the hill from Sacre Couer we spotted this cemetery. Sara had visited this cemetery before and said it was worth a quick look.

Sara was right. It was an interesting and beautiful cemetery.

When we got to the bottom of the hill we walked by the infamous Moulin Rogue. the Moulin Rogue is in a rather seedy neighborhood.

We decided to have a quick lunch. I had a chicken sandwich. I love the French bread in Paris. This great bread makes any sandwich special.

Notice the special edition water bottle. This picture is for my mother Saint Rita.

After lunch we took a bus down to the Eiffel Tower.

Did you know that before the start of World War I the Parisians were going to tear down the Eiffel Tower. A group trying to save the Tower put a radio transmitter on the top and convinced the French military that it would be an invaluable asset during a time of war. The French military agreed and the Tower was saved.

We then went on a one hour cruise on the Seine. You really get a different perspective of the city from the river that runs through it.

After a nap it is time for dinner.

This is Sara. Apparently Mimm the Michelin Man recommends this restaurant.

This is the menu. Instead of pigeon we had rabbit. I told them I had my fill of pigeon on the Camino and I would rather have a rascally rabbit.

An appetizer before we get to the first course on the menu.

Bread and butter. The bread was amazing.

Sixth course. Rabbit covered in a chocolate sauce. It was very, very good.

A little dumpling that came with the rabbit.

What a wonderful meal! That’s it. I hope you had a great day wherever you are. Good night from Paris.

Tuesday, October 18, 2022 – A day at the museum.

All you art fans are familiar with this painting and know where we went to see it and other impressionist paintings. This is a self portrait by Vincent Van Gogh and the museum is the Musee d’ Orsay. We spent the afternoon at the museum admiring the fabulous collection of art from the impressionist period.

We got a late start to the morning because we were out so late last night enjoying that fabulous meal. After we got up and got dressed we walked down the street and had this for breakfast.

This is some sort of pastry stuffed with ham and cheese. After I ate it I was stuffed.

After breakfast we walked down to the Arc de Triomphe. We encountered this colorful outdoor fruit market along the way.

Neighborhood fruit market on the was to the Arc de Triomphe.

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument to all the French soldiers who fought and died in the battles of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Inscribed on this massive monument are the names of the battles and the names of the generals that fought in these battles.

This is the eternal flame and the tomb of the unknown solder at the base of the Arc de Triomphe honoring all the French solders who fought and died during World War I.

After we toured the Arc de Triomphe we strolled down the Champs de Elysees and did some window shopping.

A giant macaroon store on the Champs de Elysees.

After a couple of hours of sightseeing it was time for lunch. We found a nice cafe with outdoor seating and had a nice leisurely two hour lunch.

French fries and a delicious cheese omelette for lunch.

After lunch we spent the afternoon at the Musee d’ Orsay.

The Musee d’ Orsay is housed in an old train station. What a wonderful way to repurpose an old train station.

Whistler’s Mother. This is the first American work of art bought by France and is the most important American work of art residing outside the United States.

This is another Vincent Van Gogh self portrait. He did a lot of self portraits because he couldn’t afford to pay models.

The art collection from the impressionist period in this museum is amazing.

Apparently there is a Camino that starts in Paris. If I started in Paris and walked through France 🇫🇷 I would weigh 300 lbs by the time I got to the end of the Camino.

We took the Metro to a hop and trendy neighborhood and had a great dinner.

Dad started off with a glass of Champagne 🍾.

Appetizer – Shredded lettuce with smoked ell and a poached egg.

Main course – Grilled turbot with mashed potatoes and a lemon, cream and leek sauce.

For dessert – Profiteroles – A biscuit sliced in half with pistachio ice cream in the middle sitting in a bath of warm chocolate sauce.

And a shot of liquor to hep with digestion.

Dinner was great and now it is time to go to sleep. I hope you had a great day wherever you are. Good night from Paris.

Monday, October 17, 2022 Second Day in Paris. Sara buys a purse. Actually two purses.

Sara and her new best friend Anders looking at the purses at the YSL shop.

After a memorable shopping experience Sara and Anders picked out two lovely purses and we celebrated the big event with a champagne 🍾 toast. You all know how averse I am to shopping. But this shopping experience was more than a little enjoyable.

Now back to the more mundane aspects of our second day in Paris.

Breakfast
We found a fantastic bakery in the neighborhood. I had this soft, doughy, chewy chocolate filled pastry and a glass of orange juice.

After breakfast we walked around over to Sainte Chapelle thinking that we could just walk in and tour this magnificent church and its stained glass windows. Not a chance! You must buy tickets in advance to see almost anything in Paris. We went online and purchased two tickets for the 2:00 timed entry.

It started to rain so we found a restaurant that had a covered outdoor eating area and had a cup of tea. We then decided that we should go ahead and have lunch. The food at this restaurant looked pretty good so we stayed put and enjoyed a leisurely lunch.

I had the burgundy beef. It was very good. Sara had a chicken dish that was even better.

As we were sitting at this restaurant there was a steady stream of police and prison vehicles that went roaring past us with sirens wailing. At the Hall of Justice, which is next door to Sainte Chapelle, they are conducting the very high profile trial of an alleged terrorist. The area around Sainte Chapelle was swarming with machine gun toting police officers.

Sainte Chapelle was built by Louis IX as his private chapel. Louis was a big time aficionado of stained glass.

This is the entrance to the lower chapel.

The rose window opposite the altar in the upper chapel.

This is one of the side walls in the upper chapel. Each of the two side walls has four of these huge panels. There are six stained glass panels that wrap around the altar, for a total of 15 panels including the rose window. Each one of these panels is devoted to a different book of the Bible. Each of the panels has about 70 separate squares depicting various chapters and verses from the book of the Bible covered by that panel. There are a total of 1,113 separate squares in these 15 panels. This church was truly amazing.

After our visit to Sainte Chapelle we went macaron shopping.

Sara is a real macaron aficionado and she said that these were the best macarons she has ever tasted.

Sitting in the apartment watching the Eiffel Tower light show before we leave to have dinner at a tasting menu restaurant!

This is the restaurant. We got there at 8:00 and didn’t leave until a little before midnight. Nine courses and a wine pairing with every course.

A view of the Eiffel Tower as the cross the Siene to get to the restaurant.

This is the fixed menu with every course in the order that they were served. I am now going to show you pictures of every course in order.

Second half of the first course. The rocks and straw were for decoration. I don’t think we were supposed to eat them.

That’s it from Paris. I hope you had a great day wherever you are.

Sunday, October 16, 2022 First Day in Paris.

As background, I am traveling with my oldest daughter Sara. We both had uneventful flights from the US to Paris. By 10:00 AM we were enjoying breakfast at a cafe across the street from our lodgings.

We started our with a pain de chocolate.

We are staying at a very nice two bedroom apartment.

After we checked in and dropped off our suitcases we embarked on a whirlwind day of sightseeing.

The Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the upper left hand corner of the picture.

After strolling for a couple of miles along the banks of the Seine we joined a group walking tour. Thomas was our guide. Thomas loves history and he especially loves the history of Paris. We learned so much during our three hour walking tour with Thomas.

The entrance to the Louvre. We did not go inside the Louvre. However. we did walk around the outside and it is huge.

A triumphant arch to commemorate one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s victories.

The building where the French Supreme Court sits.

After the walking tour we found a nice cafe with outdoor seating and had an early dinner. We both had the chicken bowl and I washed it down with a Parisian craft beer.

That’s it from Paris. I hope you are having a good day wherever you are.

Saturday, October 15, 2022 Denver to Washington DC and then on to Paris.

The first leg of my journey to France was a three hour flight from Denver to Washington DC. I packed just a carryon bag for this trip as I did not want to take a chance that United Airlines would lose my bag. The flight from Denver to DC was full and they told me there was no room for carryon bags when I tried to board the plane. The gate agent checked my bag through to Paris at no charge. I hope I don’t wind up in Paris with nothing other than the clothes I am wearing.

We just landed in DC. It was a three hour flight with a super smooth landing.

I am grabbing a beer and a burger in the airport.

We started the boarding process at 4:30 and we are scheduled to depart DC for Paris at 5:25. I was assigned a middle seat next to a mother and a screaming infant. Not good. The husband and father rescued me and gave me his aisle seat on the other side of the plane in exchange for my middle seat so he could sit with his wife and child. He thanked me. Are you kidding. I dropped to my knees and thanked him profusely!

That is it for today. I will try to post a blog tomorrow, our first day in Paris.

Friday, October 14, 2022. Camino Recap.

It was so much fun reconnecting with Marco and walking the Camino Del Norte with him. I don’t mind walking alone but it was very nice to have someone to walk with, talk with and share the adventure.

A special thanks goes out to Marco’s parents, Alfredo and Cosetta, and his best friend Frago. Their generosity and hospitality were very much appreciated by this first time visitor to Italy.

A few random observations.

Clothing for sale in a shop in Santiago.

Rick Steeves advises travelers from the United States to leave their USA branded clothing at home and dress in a more European style. My observation is that the younger generation in Europe are besotted with American branded clothes. Everywhere I went I encountered young people wearing sweatpants, sweatshirts and t-shirts proudly proclaiming that they were from New York or California and that they are attending Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth or some other prestigious American institution of higher learning. So forget Rick Steeves’ advice and pack all your USA branded clothing if you want to blend in during your next trip to the Continent.

Toilet seats. A number of the commodes that I encountered in the bars and cafes during my trip did not have seats. This omission remains a mystery to me. It can’t be a matter of cost as a commode seat costs around twenty dollars. In my opinion a seat should be standard equipment on any commode. I have padded commode seats on the commodes at my house. I have heard of people who have installed padded and heated seats on the commodes at their homes. I am not complaining about the occasional seatless commode that I encountered on my trip, but maybe someone could start a GoFund Me site to help these bars and cafes purchase seats for their commodes.

Father Rudolph in a confessional in the Cathedral at Santiago.

I mentioned in a previous post that this is a Holy Year. When the Feast Day of Saint James falls on a Sunday that is a Holy Year. Last year, 2021 was a Holy Year. The Pope granted a COVID extension of the Holy Year through 2022. For at least 1200 years walking the Camino during a Holy Year has had great significance. According to the teachings of the Catholic Church, if, during a Holy Year, you walk 100 kilometers on a Camino and arrive in Santiago and walk through the Cathedral’s Door of Forgiveness and attend a Pilgrim Mass and visit the tomb of St. James under the main altar in the Cathedral and pray for the Pope’s intentions and go to confession, all your sins will be forgiven and your time in Purgatory for those sins will be remitted. It is called an indulgence and back in the day the Catholic Church would sell these indulgences. The Reformation was ignited in part by the disgust people felt about the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences.

Over the course of my five days in Santiago I fulfilled all of the requirements for a Holy Year indulgence except for the confession. It has been 55 years since my last confession and the thought of remembering and then confessing 55 years worth of sins caused me to approach the idea of confession with dread and foreboding.

After the Pilgrim Mass on Friday I screwed up my courage and approached this confessional.

Father Rudolph manning the English speaking confessional in the Cathedral.

As I walked into the room where Father Rudolph was hearing confessions I realized that he was on his cell phone making dinner plans for that evening. He motioned for me to wait outside the confessional room while he finalized his dinner plans. After a few minutes Father Rudolph finished his cell phone conversation and motioned for me to come in and sit on a chair facing him. He asked me my name and introduced himself. He said he was Father Rudolph and then pulled down his mask and said: “Like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer but without the red nose.” After I chuckled at Father Rudolph’s attempted witticism we got down to business. Following Catholic doctrine my opening shot across the bow was as follows: “Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been 55 years since my last confession.” Father Rudolph then recoiled in amazement and horror and almost fell over backwards. After regaining his balance and composure he exclaimed: “I have heard thousands of confessions from fallen away Catholics but you sir are more like a fallen off the face of the earth Catholic.”

After we got the preliminaries out of the way I started to detail all the sins I have committed over the past 55 years starting at age 12. After a minute or two of this Father Rudolph looked at his watch and realized that hearing my full confession would take hours and cause him to miss his dinner reservation. In order to short circuit the process he blessed me and told me all my sins were forgiven and admonished me not to wait another 55 years until my next confession. Finally, he said I was a prodigal son of sorts and that there will be a party in Heaven tonight to celebrate the completion of my Holy Year journey and my confession and return to the fold. I was overwhelmed by this experience and it took me a little while to compose myself before I could venture outside the Cathedral.

What a wonderful ending to a truly memorable Camino. Thank you so much for being part of this journey.

Total Steps Walked – 502,000. Total Gain in Elevation – The Equivalent of Climbing 457 Flights of Stairs. Total Kilometers Walked – 382 = 237 miles.

Thursday, September 8, 2022 – Travel day back to Denver.

It is time to go home. I feel great and have had a wonderful time in Spain and Italy but it is time to go home. After I get home I will post a recap on the trip on this blog but for now I am going to try to relax and endure the long flight back to Denver.

Just landed in Denver. Good to be home.

Wednesday, September 7, 2022. Day trip to Venice.

We got an early start this morning for our day trip to Venice. First we drove to the train station in Modena.

We had a little time to kill in Modena before the train arrived so we got these delicious croissants at the McDonald’s in the train station.

Once we got to Bologna we transferred to another train for the trip to Venice.

This is the high speed train from Bologna to Venice.

This is the view as you walk out of the train station in Venice.

This is the view of the Grand Canal from the top of the Ponte di Rialto.

A traffic jam in one of the lateral canals.

After sightseeing for an hour or so we decided to take a snack break. When Marco and his father realized that I had been in Italy for four days without trying the pizza 🍕they insisted that we have a slice of pizza. I had the broccoli and sausage pizza and it was delicious.

Venice is full of churches. The interiors of these churches are magnificent.

Venice is a real town with real people living there doing everyday mundane tasks like laundry.

Marco, Alfredo and Mark in St. Mark’s square.

St. Mark’s Cathedral. The wait to get in was over two hours so we decided to skip it and have lunch.

We started lunch with these huge glasses of beer.

Then we got an assortment of tapas. Starting from the lower left hand corner, bread and cheese topped with caramelizad onions and bacon jam. Next we have squid in a marinara sauce. Then we have cod fritters. And in the upper right hand corner we have baby shrimp . Yum.

This altar was flat out awe inspiring. Everyone got a prayer in every church I visited. And I visited a lot of churches.

While we were waiting for the train back to Bologna we had an Aperol Spritz. Did you know that the Aperol Spritz was invented in Venice?

We are now on the train from Venice to Bologna where we catch a train to Modena.

That’s it for tonight. I hope you had a great day wherever you are. Good evening from Carpi, Italy.

Tuesday, September 6, 2022. Trip to Florence

Today was a day trip to the beautiful city of Florence. It took about and hour and fifteen minutes to drive from Carpi to the outskirts of Florence. Then we hit gridlock. The traffic in and around Florence is pretty bad. After about 30 minutes we found a parking garage and parked the car. We then walked toward the town center and the Uffizi Gallery.

This is a statue of Garibaldi. He united the various separate kingdoms and duchies of Italy into one country. To some he is a hero to others the unification was a mistake. The relatively wealthy north of Italy has been supporting the relatively poor south for years. Such is life in Italy.

Florence is known world wide for the magnificent art housed in the Uffizi Gallery. However, we stopped at a few churches as we walked to the city center and the Uffizi Gallery. The art in these churches was amazing.

What an amazing fresco on the ceiling of this church.

This is the burial vault of the famed painter Bottecelli.

This is the second church we visited while we walked to the Florence city center.

This is the group that made the trip to Florence. Marco, his father, Alfredo, me, and his mother Cosetta.

It is my understanding that this is the baptismal building. You weren’t allowed into the Duomo unless and until you had been baptized.

Another shot of the Duomo. There was no charge to get into the Duomo so the line to get in stretched around the block. We had timed tickets to enter the the Uffizi Gallery so we did not have the time to wait in line and tour the Duomo.

As we were walking to the Uffizi I saw this chocolate shop. That is a chocolate waterfall. Amazing.

This is a statue of Neptune outside the Uffizi.

This is a copy of Michelangelo’s David. This statue is probably three times life size and amazingly lifelike. Once we got into the Uffizi there was an hours long line to see the real thing, so no viewing of the original David on this visit.

This is a photo of the Pontevecchio from the top floor of the Uffizi. This bridge is pedestrians only and is lined on either side by high end handmade jewelry shops. The jewelry does not have price tags. If you have to ask about the price of a particular piece of jewelry that means you can’t afford it.

I forget who did this altar piece but I thought it was stunning.

After we concluded our visit to the Uffizi we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner.

No appetizers. We went straight for the 3 pound rare t- bone steak.

Carriage rides are a popular way to get around Old Town Florence.

It took quite a while to get out of Florence but we eventually made it back to Carpi. What a wonderful day in Florence. A great City and great people to share it with.

That’s it for this evening. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are. Good night from Carpi, Italy.