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Flashback Post: Dijon, France

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Note from Mike: I was cleaning up old blog posts and realized this had not been published yet. 

Let’s go back to January 22-29, 2017.  The end of our time in Europe before we head halfway around the world.

Sunday.  Our last morning in Lyon consisted of Mike and me packing and cleaning, L and G  packing their stuff and then watching “The Duke” on Netflix (a story about a dog who inherited a kingdom!?), and all of us eating croissants, and giving a quick hello to Cecile’s mom, who was coming in as we were going out, before catching the train to Dijon! What could have been better than a train station with a FREE Foosball table?

Upon arriving in Dijon, the first building we saw on the platform had a sign painted on the side:  Moutarde: “Grey-Poupon”! C’etait parfait!

Mike got a message from the woman who owns the AirBnB apartment that her brother would be late meeting us, so we had about an hour and a half before we could get into the apartment.  We found a “Leo” restaurant and decided that it would be a good spot to stop. We shared a couple of sandwiches and 2 gaufres (waffles) — one with nutella and one with chantilly (crème fouettée). Yummy!  One of the sandwiches was with ham and parsley (a specialty in this region of France).  

After eating, it was time to walk to the apartment to meet Mandy’s brother and his girlfriend.  (We could tell even in the dark that it felt like a cool city…more our size.) They were super nice and reminded us of Tristan (and his girlfriend) in Annecy. They showed us everything we needed to know about the apartment and tried to use English as much as they could and were apologetic about not speaking English very well.  Oh my! Pas de probleme!!! I wish we (me) could have spoken French better, but G and L were our translators once again. 🙂

Monday. On our first full day in Dijon, we walked up to the Tourist Office and bought a booklet and kids’ brochure for a self-guided tour around Dijon.  It was really well done, and we had a fun time following la chouette (the owl) around and seeing some of the sights around the old city.  The map had numbered destinations that corresponded to the owls found on brass plaques in the sidewalks and streets and provided various routes to take, making the tour as long or short as we wanted. The original owl is carved on the side of l’Eglise Notre Dame and the tradition says if you rub the owl with your left hand and make a wish, your wish will come true!  Unfortunately, it was one of the coldest days we’d had so far, so we didn’t finish the whole tour, but planned to do more of it later in the week. 

On the way back to our apartment, we stopped at the market for some groceries for lunch and dinner.  While eating, we discovered (being in the bourgogne region of France) that “bourgogne” and “burgundy” are the same thing!  The French and English equivalents of each other!! 🙂 No wonder they always seemed interchangeable!

Tuesday.  We made our way to the market, which is only open specific days of the week (luckily this includes Tuesdays).  It’s housed in a large building designed by Gustave Eiffel and basically offers meat, fish, and produce from many different vendors.  As we headed out, we were curious about a stack of dough-like things at one of the counters, so L asked the guy about them. He offered us all a sample and told us they were beignets!  They were the flat kind — not the New Orleans-style — so we didn’t recognize them. We bought a bag to share. Yummy! 

We continued down the street and stopped in a couple of cute toy stores.  One was a bit young for the kids (kind of like Peapods), but we found some cute cards. The woman also showed us some games the kids might enjoy, as we were trying to find some small things to entertain us for the plane ride to Australia.

As we were walking around, we spotted some more of la chouette, so we followed the path a while and found another toy store, which reminded us a bit of Au Pays des Miniz in Annecy. The woman was super sweet. She talked us through all the different games and possibilities. She also told us about an Australian family that lives in France and how their 3 kids participated in one of their classes.  We ended up buying a small math game to use on the plane.

We continued our walk following the owl trail and then were stopped suddenly by an older woman on a bike. She started talking loudly/yelling to us…we weren’t sure why and as she went on we realized that she thought it was too cold for the kids and was telling us about museums in Dijon that we have to go to.  All of this was in fast, loud French, so we were doing our best to understand what she was trying to tell us. 🙂  She also said make sure to push open the big wooden doors to see the mansions and courtyards. She was so excited about telling us stuff. It was very cute!  

Wednesday. We took the train to Paris and back. It was a fast trip to collect the luggage we’d left at our friend’s house in November before we left for Finland/UK/France!  It was basically a day in the life of a commuter! 🙂

On the way there…and on the way back. A long day. 

Thursday.  We worked on getting our stuff organized for Australia — what to pack, what to send home, and what to donate.  Afterwards, we walk to the old city to see the inside of the cathedral (l’Eglise Notre Dame) and a museum about burgundy life.  When we got back to the apartment, we watched a very sweet movie set in Australia (how appropriate) called “Paper Planes”. 

In the museum of burgandy life, I loved the displays, where they incorporated the descriptions as part of the display.

Friday.  We spent some time at the Edmond Fallot Mustard shop sampling mustard at the mustard bar, of course! 

As we walked to the Musee des Beaux-Arts, we passed under Porte Guillaume (which looked like a mini Arc de Triomphe) and spent a few minutes in Jardin Darcy, where we found a sculpture of frogs singing to children and also a polar bear sculpture!  The original polar bear sculpture was created by the Burgundian sculptor Francois Pompon and resides at Musee D’Orsay in Paris.  The city of Dijon commissioned a copy of it in homage to Pompon.

The Musee des Beaux-Arts was magnificent!  It’s located in the palace that used to house the dukes of Burgandy.  There was a beautiful collection of art ranging from antiquity to contemporary and also included an impressive collection of paintings, drawings, and sculptures…and also huge doors and cool places to sit and read or think.

Above: The words above L’s head says: The last ceremony of the court of Burgandy was held in 1474.  

Below: Tombs and a giant fireplace in the Hall of the Tombs of the Dukes of Burgandy. [I think the two lying next to one another are John the Fearless (also known as John of Valois and John I of Burgundy) and his wife (Margaret of Bavaria)].

Saturday.  We spent the morning packing and repacking boxes and then traipsing to the post office to send them home, as we didn’t feel the need to schelp our winter gear to Australia.  That afternoon we did a tour of the Phillip Le Bon Tower, enjoying the ornate carvings in the stairwell which was part of the ducal palace as we climbed the 316 steps for beautiful views of the city.  

Flashback Post: Everybody Can Use a Little Help

January 29, 2017 – by Jody

  

I noticed a mother sitting close by with a sweet little baby boy (I’m guessing 7 or 8 months old) on her lap nestled in a baby carrier of some sort.  While she didn’t have anyone with her, she seemed to be managing without a problem.  A few moments later, when the baby woke, he was hungry.  I could see that she was searching her bag for something.  The more she searched, the more fussy the baby got.  I remember that feeling as a new mom…trying to juggle a fussy baby while trying to do 10 other things.  As she didn’t seem to be finding what she was looking for, and it seemed like she was having a harder time looking while still holding the baby, I thought maybe I could help. She spoke French, and I spoke English.

I decided to keep it simple, and just said, “J’aide vous?” (“I help you?”)  She understood, smiled, and handed me the baby.  He was all cuddly in his little blue fuzzy outfit and immediately found a comfy spot on my shoulder while I gently patted his back and back rocking slowing from one foot to the other.  It was so sweet.

The mom continued to search her bag but wasn’t having any luck finding what she needed, so she walked over to the vending machines at the other end of the gate area.  I could see her and then after a couple of minutes she walked out of view. (I guessed that the vending machine didn’t have what she needed for the formula, so she left to look for it elsewhere.)

I continued (as happy as could be) to stand and pat the baby’s back and rocked to and fro.  After several minutes, Grace came over to see what was going on and started playing peek-a-boo with him.  He grinned and made those sweet first laughing sounds babies make, not yet real laughs but such sweet happy noises.  He was content as could be, too.

After about 20 minutes, we all began to wonder a little bit where the mom had gone, but we also felt sure that she was coming back, we knew the baby was happy, and we still had time before we needed to board the plane.  When the mom returned, she sat down to mix the baby’s formula and then when she was settled, she took the baby back, and he happily ate his food and fell asleep on her lap.

We’ll never know who she was or where she was from or where she was going, but it was a moment in time I’ll always remember.

Big Island: 8. Back to Kona

May 20 – May 24, 2017

I’m finally writing this post — a year later!  I think maybe I didn’t ever write this last post about Hawaii because I couldn’t bring myself to finish the last post of our adventure as it meant it had really come to an end.  Thankfully, we’ll be able to relive it over and over through all the stories and pictures we continue to share and all the amazing memories we have. I love how a smell or sound or feeling or a picture can bring you right back to a particular place in time. 

So, here we go, our last few days in Kona on the Big Island. We stayed at a great Airbnb condo that was a block off Ali`i Drive, but had a private, quiet pool area tucked away for us to enjoy.   

After a bit of swimming, we spent part of the afternoon watching the waves (which you really never tire of doing — they are so magnificent!)…  

…walking along Ali’i Drive for Kokua Kailua Sunday – a festive, pedestrian-only outdoor marketplace (including food, artisans, crafts, and music)…

…and then happened upon a concert which was taking place at the palace as part of Kokua Kailua Sunday. The group performing was called The Merry Monarchs, a group of 15 or so men who love music and love to sing Hawaiian songs. In addition to the Merry Monarchs, there was a pahu drummer who played for several groups of Hawaiian dancers.

The waves by this time were breaking over the wall that separated the palace yard from the ocean, which was cool to see.

Despite how big they were, there were still a few surfers out there surfing right toward large, sharp, black lava rocks!

The next day, we packed up our stuff one more time, had a yummy lunch at Kona Brewing Company (where Grace had the pepperoni rolls again. 🙂 ), and then checked into the Marriott Courtyard, our favorite hotel in Kona, for our last night! 

While we were swimming and hot tubbing, we met a woman (Aleada) who’s originally from Minneapolis and while living in many other places since leaving MN, she’d most recently lived in both New Zealand and Australia!  We had fun chatting with her about our common travel locations as well as our adventure around the world.

That evening, we ate at Chillin on the Bay and watched a beautiful sunset!

On our last day, we had plenty of time before our evening flight back to Minnesota.  We started out with a swim and chatted with Aleada again.  Grace gave her a bunch of book and movie recommendations for her 6 year old. 😉  She gave the kids each an Australian pin (a koala and a kangaroo) as she carries them around with her to hand out to people when she’s traveling. 🙂  

After swimming, we headed up to pack and then chatted with Nastia (our French friend at the front desk, who we met on our first stay in Kona) and then went to lunch at The Frenchman’s Cafe. It was a darling cafe owned by a husband (Gil) and wife (Flo) from France.  We had the most delicious and most beautifully plated lunch!!  Flo and the kids had fun speaking a little French. She told the kids it was fun speaking French with someone other than her husband! 🙂

We still had a bit of time before we needed to head to the airport, so we decided to tour a coffee farm. Greenwell Coffee was recommended to us by friends who had been there fairly recently and it wasn’t too far from where we were or where we had to go. The tour included a personal walking tour of coffee fields (including a chameleon sighting) and the processing facilities, followed by samples of their coffee.

On our way to the airport, we made one last stop at Mrs. Barry’s Kona Cookies. Definitely a must stop place on your way to the airport!  We each chose a few cookies and headed off to drop off the car and shuttle to the airport.  

When we arrived, there was no one at the check-in gate and (we found out) wouldn’t be for an hour or so.  The kids entertained themselves by tossing coins in the air and catching them in their hats, which moved to dancing in front of their hats, hoping that others would toss coins in their hats!  Generously, an older couple who Mike was talking to threw a quarter into each of their hats.  🙂  

Once we got checked in, we sat in the outdoor airport area, checked out the gift shop, got some food to nibble on, and saw a gorgeous rainbow!  It seemed like a beautiful ending of our adventure and a beautiful beginning to returning home.  

Our flight left on time at 8:30pm, but ended up being quite a turbulent flight (moderate turbulence according to the cockpit).  While the kids slept for about 3 hours, I didn’t sleep at all. :/  We arrived in Seattle at 5:30am (Seattle time).

We had a bit of breakfast in the airport and then left for Minneapolis at 6:30am (Seattle time) — another “moderately” turbulent flight from Seattle to Mpls. 🙁  We arrived in Minneapolis at 12pm (Mpls time).  Not much sleep for Mike or me and the kids didn’t sleep at all on that flight.  

The Hastings Sideswipe – One Year Later

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About a year ago we experienced one of the few hiccups during our global entire trip: a car accident.  I hesitated to post while we were traveling, but now that all the bills are paid and we’re back to the routine of home, I thought you might all want to hear this tale. So, as the Brits would say, sit back, grab a spot of tea and some biscuits, and I’ll describe the event and its humor. It seems long, but is worth it.

In mid-November of 2016 we arrived in Gatwick (London) airport late in the evening after a great visit to Finland. We successfully retrieved our rental car from Europcar and I paid with my Chase card, declining the expensive extra insurance, as usual, and began the drive to Hastings, England. Jody was not at all excited about riding on the left side of the car, on the narrow roads, in a foreign country. The dark and gentle English rain just made the trip even more exciting for her…the stress level from the passenger seat was high, but Google maps got us to our rental house, no problem. The next day I went and got some groceries and then we explored Hastings by car and by foot, just as Storm Angus began to ravage the English coast.

So,now you have the setting. On Friday, our second full day in Hastings, we spent a day by the sea, watching and running from the ever-growing waves, hanging out in the driving rain at Hastings Pier, enjoying some treats, playing on a playground, etc. We headed back to the house around 4 to make some dinner. I was driving up the hill from the town and beach area on Elphinstone Road, which is a main road but is narrow. steep, and a bit winding, like most roads in coastal U.K. towns. As we began the three mile drive, a small truck (aka small lorry) was bearing down the hill toward us (on my right) but was well across the center line.  Now, even in bright sunshine with no traffic there is barely enough room for 2 compact cars to pass on the road, between the parked cars.  These roads were made for horses, not lorries.
I slowed down to give the other driver time to move over on to his/her side of the center line. He/she didn’t.  I hit the breaks a bit more.

Then time slowed down for me.

I saw the headlight from the oncoming truck coming at my right front fender and several cars parked on our left.
That split second seemed like 30 and I assessed the situation and that I decided it was better to veer farther left than to take the head-on collision.  Essentially I decided to control our destiny with swerve instead of just hoping the other driver would move.
As I veered, the truck narrowly missed hitting the fender in front of me. WHEW!
However, on my left there was a scraping noise and a big crashing BANG as our left side mirror shattered when it smacked the parked car’s driver-side mirror!

The oncoming truck, I can only assume, just continued on its merry way on my side of the center line with nary a care in the world.

Meanwhile, in my world, there was much well-deserved consternation from both the front and back seat passengers. They were a bit shaken.  I, on the other hand, had some combination of relief and sweet, sweet adrenaline rushing through me.  In the big picture, all was well.

I found a rare parking spot about 100 yards from the point of impact and stopped to regroup. After making sure everybody was OK and taking a quick look at our car to make sure it was still safe to drive, I walked back to check out the other car. I retrieved its shorn-off mirror from the middle of street and walked up to the small business nearby, assuming the car belonged to somebody there. I asked the people in the front lobby if they knew whose car it was. One very friendly lady said, “Oh, that’s Bonnie’s car. Thank you so much for stopping, most people just drive off.” WHAT?!?!?!

Note: The car owner’s name is not really Bonnie, I changed it to protect her from further ridicule and embarrassment at her workplace…keep reading.

The nice lady in the lobby said the car’s owner, here known as Bonnie, was on a phone call. So I set what was left of the dented mirror on the counter and went out to our car tell Jody and the kids what was happening.

The kids and Jody were still a bit shaken, but clearly fine.  Leo decided to come back to the business with me while Jody and Grace stayed in the car.  Bonnie came outside with us and was very friendly about the accident, also THANKING ME FOR STOPPING!!!  There was no sense of “woe is me” or even “you stupid bloody American”, just very friendly and seemingly happy.  We checked our her car damage – lots of minor scrapes, and some ugly dents, and missing one mirror of course.  We figured we’d better call my rental agency, Europcar, right away so I could report the damage and figure out what to do next.  Leo, Bonnie, and I walked up to our car to get the rental information and Grace and Jody. We chatted about our trip and found out Bonnie had just returned from a trip to the US. She couldn’t have been any  nicer, especially in lieu of the situation.

Since we didn’t yet have cell phone SIMs for the UK, Bonnie offered to have us come back to the office and use their phone and have Jody and the kids sit in the building instead of the car. Then, as we crossed the street, Bonnie’s heel got caught on the curb and she fell straight down without even getting her hands in front of her.  She smacked her face on the pavement really hard.  When she sat up her face was bloodied as she’d cut the bridge of her nose!!!

OH MY GOSH!  So, now I’ve sideswiped this woman’s car AND she’s got a bloody cut-up face too!  However, as we walked in, she was LAUGHING at herself and the situation.  Bonnie jokingly blamed her own jet lag on the spill.

So, now the five of us walked together back into her office (some sort of children’s social services office), and her co-workers couldn’t figure out what had happened!! To them I’m sure it seemed like some American hit her car and then brought her back all bloody!  Bonnie quickly explained what happened and then, while still bleeding, asked if one of her co-workers would get the kids and Jody a cup of tea while we tried to get the rental company on the line.

Jody, Grace, and Leo all reported having delicious cups of tea with milk and one lump each, served by another very sweet lady.  Bonnie got cleaned up and she and I called Europcar and I told them I should have full coverage through my Chase credit card.  I did!  After about 30 minutes Bonnie and I had given all the info (multiple times) to the nice Europcar rep and got a case number, etc.  Since the car was still drive-able, I was told to just keep the car and return it in a couple weeks as planned.  Here are a few photos…nothing some packing tape couldn’t solve.

As for Bonnie, she got a rental car from Europcar to drive while hers was being fixed.  In addition, her co-workers got a great laugh out of the whole situation.

So, we said goodbye and thanked Bonnie and her co-workers for the tea and biscuits (cookies), and we were on our way. As soon as we got into the car, I told Jody it reminded me of this scene:

Funny,no?

Just in case you think the movie snippet above is ridiculous and a bit over-the-top, here are some emails we got from Bonnie during the rest of our travels.  This is from 11/22/16, right after the accident:

“Hi Mike and family, hope you are all well. Just a quick note to say thank you so much for last week. I really appreciate that you took the time to find out whose car it was and waited to get it all reported. Only for me to then hurl myself on the road (I am still blaming jet lag!). My face is healing well; not so sure about my pride!
Just to let you know that I am taking the car in on Thursday to start the process for repairs so it’s all working out. I hope your kids were not too upset by what happened and that they are reassured that it has all been sorted.

Happy travels.
Thanks”

So yes, we bashed her car, cost her time and effort to get it fixed, bloodied her nose, and she THANKED US!!
Here’s another after we sent her the URL for our blog (12/12/16):

“Hi Mike and family, thank you for the link – I was wondering how your trip was going only this morning. Face has healed fine – I still dine out on the story though obviously!
My car is now in for repairs and in its place, I have a brand new VW Golf. It is an absolute dream and I’m so happy!! I am trying to think of different places to drive just to get full use! I will let you know (and send pictures) when my car is back.
What a great trip – I have never been to Scotland but it’s on my list. I’m going to enjoy reading the blog.
Have a fabulous Christmas and I hope Santa is kind to you all.”

See, I wasn’t joking.  She’s one happy lady!
Finally, we see that all is well (12/21/16):

“I hope this photo comes out – car is all fixed as if nothing ever happened. They wrestled the courtesy car keys from my hand so I have been reunited with my car. They even washed and vacuumed it for me – win, win I say.

Wishing you and your family a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.”

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Storm Angus hit England hard so we had to make a few changes in plans due to some coastal flooding, but it was still grand.  Jody never did really get comfortable in the left passenger seat for the rest of our UK adventure…or for the several weeks in Australia…or while we were in New Zealand…or probably ever.  But we managed.

So, while I certainly wish I didn’t have to choose between hitting a moving truck head-on or sideswiping Bonnie’s car, nobody got hurt and it really turned into a very cool afternoon.  In the end Europcar and Chase paid for everything, we got to meet Bonnie, she got a repaired and CLEAN car, and the kids got to see how a potentially trip-ruining event was really just one of many great experiences we had, and will continue to have.