London Calling

On Dec 23rd Randi and I flew to London on the reliable airline, Easyjet, to spend Christmas in London. We were there for a Charles Dickens Christmas. I had hoped at one point to hang out the window and inquire to some random young boy about a prize turkey that hung in the window of the butcher shop...ya know, the big one...but thought better of it. It didn't seem like the right thing to do from the 6th floor of the Sheraton Park Lane. As soon as we arrived we felt the language burden removed from our shoulders. We could speak with with people again. Not just grunting and pointing anymore. We could have personalities beyond just facial expressions. Wow, how liberating. If I do say, it was jolly good, straight on.

That first night there we went to a concert, Handel's Messiah, at the church St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square. There was a church noted on this site first in 1222 but the current structure is from 1721. Back then it was outside of London and "in the fields"...hard to imagine. The concert was really beautiful to start with but I leaned over to Ran at some point and said "goodnight Josh". That's a little family inside joke from when Josh was younger he would always fall asleep at something like that. I used to say goodnight to him as soon as we would settle in. We ended up leaving a little early but not after having dinner in the crypt. Sounds creepy but it wasn't. The fish I ate had a few bones in it but it wasn't creepy.

The following day we took a 40 minute train to Windsor Castle. We had no idea how huge it was and we were concerned it would become our "Royal Nightmare 2"...like our Versailles experience. Room after room of opulence. My favorite part of the castle was the 'Drawing Room'. It contained some of DaVinci's sketches, old books, old portraits and book of Elizabeth I, showing a poem she wrote. That night we had dinner at the Criterion restaurant. This restaurant claims Sherlock Holmes used to hang there with his chum, Dr. Watson. As well as more recently been a spot where they have filmed scenes in the movies 'Batman: The Dark Knight' and 'A Good Year' (a movie this blog is partly named after...and the reason why we went there for dinner). We met a young couple from the Netherlands there, who sat at the table next to ours. We stayed and talked for a couple hours. It was fun to exchange stories of our travels and just cool to be speaking English!

The following day was Christmas Day. Our only plans since not much was even open was to sleep in and try to make a church service at Westminster Abbey by 3pm.
We walked there from our hotel, through Green Park, past Buckingham Palace and then Big Ben. It was a bright, crisp day and we tried to stay warm by walking. We arrived at Westminster about an hour before the service and there were only a handful of people in line. The guy at the front said someone told him the church would open in 15 minutes, so we decided to wait. But he had some bad information, as the church didn't open for 45 minutes. It's a bit nippy out to stand in one spot for 45 minutes ay? But we did it. And by the time they opened up, the line was creeping around the outside of the church. To our shock and slight dismay, we ended up in the very front row. They had folding chairs lining the main aisle, to accommodate everyone and we were literally about 5 strides away from stepping onto the altar. I imagine that there were TV cameras somewhere and someone whispering into a microphone..."who is that guy slouching in the front row?...get him out of there!". If there was ever a time to sit up straight and try to appear reverent, this was it. I'm happy to say I only had one moment of possibly bursting out in laughter. This was when the assistant priest was swinging a lamp of incense like he was trying to rid the entire place of insects. The other priest with him was barely visible, as he swung that incense lamp, no exaggeration, for possibly 15 minutes. I know I sound irreverent with that comment but besides that distraction, we were both moved by the ceremony and the beautiful singing of the choir, who were very close to us as well. That night we ate at our hotel and talked about the kids, family, friends and how different the entire year has been.

We thought the 26th was our last full day there, as we were flying out on the 27th. We had arranged a bus tour to see some sights south of London. We started with a stop at Leeds Castle. It's suppose to be one of the loveliest and most romantic castles in the world...it's ok :) What makes it appear more beautiful than some of the others is that not only is it built on all island of a river (that looks like a lake) but the fortification walls were removed from it like 300 years ago. It went into private ownership back then and they told the story on the tour about Lady Baillie purchasing it in the 1920s and the changes she made. She created the Leeds Castle Foundation in the 1970s and it's been a public museum since. It was Christmas time and I couldn't stop thinking about George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, walkin throught the hallways, muttering to himself "This drafty old barn! Might as well be living in a refrigerator". It sounded like Lady Ballie had a wonderful life. I don't know that I would go back, unless to maybe golf on the public 9 hole course there...maybe ping one off the castle.
From there we got back in the bus and drove to the English channel to have lunch in Dover, at a restaurant called The Lighthouse, right across the road from the white cliffs of Dover. Our bus tour guide was pretty interesting and he told us about the secret tunnels dug into the Dover cliffs during WWII. We drove on to Canterbury, to see the famous cathedral there. It has a long history but most famous for the assassination of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket in 1170. It is a massive cathedral on the order of Westminster. We finished our day long excursion with a river boat ride on the Thames back into London. We walked by the Cutty Sark before getting on the boat. We couldn't see the Cutty because they are still refitting/gutting it, after a fire destroyed most of it. Everything about our tour boat was plain and ordinary but as soon as we were out on the Thames, I couldn't help but think of Horatio Hornblower commanding the HMS Hotspur and his description of Admiral Nelson's funeral procession down the Thames. Kind of a sick thing to think about really but I had sailing ships on my mind. I loved reading C. S. Forester's Hornblower series of books and hope to do it again someday...but that's not important right now. We stopped by the Tower of London and had an awesome view of London and the Tower Bridge at night. It was really cool to have been on that stretch of the Thames, with all it's history. We got off at Westminster and took the tube over to Covent Garden to look for the historic Nell Gywnn pub, that proved very difficult to find. When we finally found it, it was closed. But that was ok because we were in London, the 'Land of 10,000 Pubs'.

The following day we got up and made our way to the British Museum, before our 6pm flight back to Toulouse. The British Museum has a fabulous collection of 'stuff' from around the world and it's a free entry. We saw the Rosetta stone, Egyptian sculptures, Roman sculptures, Greek artifacts, Greek reliefs, ancient coins, ancient jewelry and Egyptian mummies. We even saw a cat mummy, which my first thought was of our old dog Belle seeing this and thinking..."talk about creepy". You could spend a couple days there but we only had a couple hours. We needed to grab a coffee and a bite to eat before heading to the airport. I like this picture of the menu there, with the title "Great British food". That's funny. That statement would bring an instant reaction of disgust from any Frenchman, as well it should. The British cuisine seems as bad, as the French cuisine is good. While the French work on the subtle combinations of ingrediants and the overall experience, the British are doing some kind of primal carnage of meat and unwashed vegtables. To me, the British food is somewhere between bad and horrible...far from great. I really think they were trying to be funny with that title. Anyway, we got to the airport early and started to get in the ticket line, with the flight showing on the monitors as leaving on time. But the attendant for the entrance to the line looked at our ticket and said "nope, sorry it's canceled, go to the service desk". Just like that. We were stunned, mumbling "but the monitors say...". Then the lady at the service desk, who has one of the worst jobs in the world, tells us that not only can they not get us on another flight that day but not the next day either! So we had to stay in London until the 29th now. Easyjet sort of agreed to pay both nights hotel and dinner. Actually they said we would have to turn in receipts for the second night and for dinners but the Gatwick Crown Plaza, which really was a very nice hotel, did not charge us for anything but a couple drinks when we checked out. Right then...cheerio...tata.

With our extra day in London or near London, we decided to take a train to the coast and visit the town of Brighton and the Royal Pavilion. What a crazy place that is. Built and furnished by what looked like the Elvis Presley of the British Monarchy, King George IV. The audio guide described him as vain, extravagant, egotistical...they wanted to say idiot but probably couldn't. It's kind of hard to describe the place. It has an Indian exterior and a Chinese/regal interior. The Banquet Room and Dance Hall were really incredible. Brighton itself seemed like it would be a fun beach town to visit in the summer. We walked through their old but trendy shopping district called The Lanes on the way to the waterfront. Our good friend of the program, Ross, told me about how the Mods and the Rockers trends started there in Brighton. I really didn't know much about it. I looked it up and it's kinda interesting. It was people in leather on motorcycles against people in suits and parkas on scooters. In Brighton in the early 60s you had to be one or the other. You couldn’t own a leather jacket AND a parka. You couldn't listen to Johnny Cash AND The Who. And you couldn't smoke cigarettes AND chew gum. It was either one or the other. Sounds crazy. Randi kinda looks like a mod and a rocker...I like to think of myself as just a badass rocker.

We got to see more of England than we thought. It was different being there instead of home for Christmas. We missed home. But I think we picked a good alternate location. London has that look of what we think Christmas should look like.

Makin Crepes

On Dec. 19th we planned an outing with Benoit and Nadine. The idea came to us while in Andorra the weekend before. Randi had mentioned that she has never made crepes and Mathilda (Nadine's future daughter-in-law?) said she makes wonderful crepes from an old recipe. This recipe has been handed down for generations, since Roman times, when they called "crepesorious maximus"...noooo, I'm just makin that up.

We have been to Benoit's house before but this time we were invited to go over to their new apartment, which they spent most of the summer remodeling themselves.

First we made the batter that would make enough for the 6 of us to eat. It included the following:
6 eggs
500 grams of flour
1 litre of milk (pour in only 1/3 of it to start with and stir a long time, until
there are no clumps of batter at all)
1 packet of 'vanilla sugar'
add sugar to taste (Benoit said this is done "o-pief")
2 tablespoons rum
2 or 3 tablespoons oil

Then we each had a turn trying to flip our own crepes.

So we not only made the crepes but we ate the crepes. And they were pretty awesome. We had many topping choices...the beloved Nutella which is found everywhere here in France, a strawberry spread, a chestnut creme spread and a couple different kinds of sugar. My favorite application was to squeeze some lemon juice on it first and then sprinkle a crepe-load of sugar on it.

I plan to have a whole new menu this summer at the Kelley Bar and Grill. And will have crepes listed as a dessert item, with the word 'Nouveau !' next to it.

Andorra ?

On Dec. 12th Randi and I drove into the Pyrenees. We went to a tiny country called Andorra. Ever heard of it ? Me neither. It is right in between France and Spain, in the Pyrenees. I had not heard of it until a few days before we left.

We met up with our French friends Benoit and Nadine, who were there with like 8 other cousins/neices of Nadine. They went there to ski early on Saturday. We arrived in the late afternoon. We took our time driving up and stopping along the way at the Grotte du Mas-d'Azil. It's the only cave in Europe that you can drive through part of it...kinda crazy.

I didn't wanna ski because of a number of possible reasons (please choose one)...

1. I didn't have all my custom ski gear with me
2. didn't have enough time to 'hit the slopes'
3. I hurt my shoulder recently
4. it's very expensive
5. There is not enough snow for me
6. I was not feeling very good that morning
7. I suck at skiing

I choose to go with #3 but certainly #7 plays into my decision quite a bit. The last time I went, at Lutsen Mountain, I realized that I don't like falling down all day and told myself not to ever bother going again.

Anyway, we had some fun hanging out at this 'mom&pop' bed and breakfast drinking all night. Dinner was included with the room. We all sat at a long table there and discussed mostly how funny it was to hear us speak French or them to speak English.

In the morning we were hoping to drive a little farther up the into the mountains and visit some old town there to do some Christmas shopping. Everyone else were planning to drive straight home...no more skiing because there wasn't enough snow the day before. However, we got up to near blizzard conditions...and...I had a flat tire! Nice. But I'm glad I had it there. I had like 4 French guys helping me change it (I'm sure there's a joke there). They were really very nice. Although, I'm sure there was some enjoyment in seeing the American with a flat. Anyway, we drove directly away from the mountains and back home. I never saw so many cars pulled over and putting chains on their tires. I had to drive slower all the way home but was just glad to get off the mountain safely.

Maybe not the most exciting weekend but we were glad to get another glimpse of the Pyrenees and cultivate our friendship with Benoit and Nadine further. We are starting to know their kids and extended family now as well. They are all very good people and we really cherish their friendship.

"Da familia ofa Eleanora"

On Nov. 16th G&G took a long ride here...all the way from Phoenix to London to Toulouse. From there we drove down to Barcelona and got on a very large boat, that headed east. We cruised the Mediterranean as far as Naples, Italy. At that point G&G made it half way around the world before we finally said "ok, that's enough". We put em through a lot and they came out no worse for wear...very, very impressive.

We thought the cruise was a good idea. It was a much more comfortable way to travel. There was a lot more space and better food, even though my 4 passenger Peugeot comes standard with a built-in French bread maker and wine dispenser. We also found that cruising, as opposed to driving, over to Italy, was much more affordable. Using the '90 Day Ticker' website, we found a great deal and locked into a price of $649 per person for the week but if you are 55 or older, they give you an addition $100 on-board credit per person. So Randi talked to them on the phone and was able to get that addition $100 credit for each of us by putting Dad and I in one room and Mom and Ran in the other. I was a little concerned with this concept at first but the thought of those additional rum drinks kept it in perspective for me. However, as the sailing date approached, the price on the 90 day ticker kept getting cheaper. Grampi noticed a couple weeks before leaving that it had gone down to $500 per person, so Randi called her guy again...who apparently couldn't say "no" to her about anything...and she was able to get us an additional $50 on board credit! That got us to $499 per person for the week. Pretty damn sweet deal, if considering that against paying for hotels, gas, tolls, meals, rum drinks, along that whole route. If this boat would have waited a few more weeks to sail, Ran would have had that poor guy paying us, to go on that cruise.

This wasn't like the Caribbean cruises, that Randi and I have been lucky enough to be on, in the past. Those cruises are focused on lounging in the sun, whether it be out at sea or on some island beach, listening to Reggae music and reading a good book. On this cruise we were lucky enough to have almost perfect (around 65 and sunny) sight-seeing weather because on every morning, except one, we found ourselves docked near some historic town, filled with things to do and places to see. There was no lollygaggin around, layin on a lounge chair, dozing off in the sun. No sir. You get your ass out there and be a tourist or you're a loser by dinner time. So that's what we did. Everyday we saw more tourist sites than some people see in a year. We'd come back to our typical cruise ship dinner table and talk about historic facts and myths with our new friends. All those dinner partners turned out to be great folks. We all genuinely seemed to enjoy each other company every night. There was Len, Charlotte and Evan from Florida...and Dave, Jane and Pam from the island of Guernsey, Great Britain.

Our first stop was on the French Riviera in Cannes, France. It's kind a of summer, beach town for the wealthy. It proved to be an interesting little tour we took of the town on a small, open trolley ride that has the appearance of a small scale train. The four of us were packed very tightly into one bench seat...I don't think I had more than 1/4 cheek touchin the seat at any one time.

The next stop on the agenda was Genoa. We were disappointed with this, as this stop was initially destined to be Portofino but as it turned out, while Portofino would have been a more beautiful setting,
Genoa may have been a more interesting town, from a historical point of view. We took a taxi from the boat and had him drop us off at the main Cathedral on via San Lorenzo. The exterior and interior of the church uses black and white striped marble, which looked unique and pretty amazing really. From there we walked to Piazza de Ferrari and had a coffee there by the large the large fountain. Grampi was amazed at the small size of his coffee. Then we walked up to the Porta Soprana, before turning around to walk through a little part of the "vicoli", down 'via di Canneto il Lungo'. We found out later that we were so close to Christopher Columbus's house but we didn't know it...he could discover America but we couldn't lookup his address. The extremely narrow and old street of Canneto il Lungo made us question taking it for Mom safety in riding down it in a wheelchair. While standing at the top of the hill and contemplating this an older Italian woman walked by and seemed to know what we were thinking. We didn't understand what she said but we thought she was maybe saying "If you take-a Eleanora down-na that street-ta, you are-a sum kind ofa fargin icehole. I pray-ya for Eleanora...I makea da sign-a ofa da cross-a". Needless to say, this made us all a little nervous. Hundreds of years from now I didn't want to be part of the pilgrimage here for Saint Eleanora..."she wenta overa a one-a hundred-a miles per hour-a downa dat streeta because-a 'Johna the Bast*rda' leta go ofa da wheelchair". It was really cool to see in all the little shops packed into the narrow alleyways and get a feel for the way of life there. We walked back to the Aquarium in Port Antico, before finally catching a ride back to where the boat was docked. We had a full day of walking and were all ready to call it a day.

The next morning we arrived in Livorno, Italy. This is where they stop for folks to get to Florence, Pisa and the Tuscany area. We decided to rent a car and drive the hour and a half into Florence ourselves. We saved quite a bit of money, over taking one of the excursions offered by Celebrity Cruises. We drove into Florence as far as we could, before getting to the inner city area which is 'permit entry only'. It is camera operated and if they take a picture of you driving in their without a permit you get an automatic ticket. We parked the car at the train station and then a taxi over to the
Accademia Gallery, where David lives. The David. Michaelangelo's David. He really was what we came to see in Florence and we weren't disappointed. We signed up for a guided tour there and we enjoyed listening to our guide's passion for Michaelangelo's work. He focused solely on Michaelangelo and also solely on David. If you are like me and your expectations are set low, to see a statue of a naked man holding a sling over his shoulder and a rock in the other hand...you are overwhelmed at the sheer size of this work of art. David is a single piece of marble that is exactly 13 feet high from head to toe. It's massive! Our guide explained that Michaelangelo was commissioned in 1501 to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by another artist. It was to be a colossal statue portraying David as a symbol of Florentine freedom. Our guide told us with a smile on his face that looked like Robert De Niro "after the Pieta sculpture and then David was completed, Michaelangelo was-a number-a one...no doubt about it...a number-a one". They didn't allow pictures in the museum, so I only got about 15 shots of David. From there we walked to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo). This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is made up of 3 buildings...the church, a bell tower and the baptistery. This amazing square also had some World Heritage-type gelato, that came complete with gelato and a side of waffle. Damn!, that was good. We got to see the gilded bronze doors of the Baptistery up close. The doors have twenty-eight panels, mostly depicting biblical scenes from the Old Testament. Michelangelo referred to these doors as fit to be the "Gates of Paradise" and that's what they are referred to as today....because-a he-a was-a number-a one-a

The next day the agenda didn't let up at all. It actually got kicked up a notch with Roma!! Again the dock for a really large boat stopping for Rome was quite a distance away. In the great city of Chicago they'd say "hey, whattaya doin, get dat ding atta ear...you gotta park dat overs in Civitavecchia"...of course in Chicago, if you pay the right people, you could probably park her right next to the Coliseum. Civitavecchia is about an hour away from Rome. We considered renting a car again but opted for the 9 euro round-trip train ride there. This seemed like a great idea until we arrived and got ripped off on a 50 euro cab fare, going across the city, from the train station to the Vatican. We arrived 15 minutes late for our 10:30am guided tour of the Vatican Museum there but were lucky enough to catch the tour before they left the initial starting point. We explained that Mom would be taking the tour from a wheelchair and they were very accommodating. So accommodating that the rest of the tour started to feel neglected. We all had headsets on to listen to the guide there and she referred to us as "da familya ofa Eleanora". At every stop along the tour she would say "where'sa Eleanora...is she-a hiding againa...oh looka everyone-a, there'sa Eleanora...isn't she-a beautifula...marvelousa... bravo, bravo". I started to feel like a celebrity by just assisting Eleanora. I was actually starting to wave to the crowd as we would enter the next room along the way. The museum is huge, with an amazing collection of art. The guided tour is well worth it and our guide was fantastic...bravo, bravo. We finished the museum tour and go right from there, down some steps and into the Sistine Chapel. When Michelangelo painted this, he was most definitely #1 and it was apparently well known, as the story of how the Pope begged him to return, after harassing him to finish, makes that clear. The ceiling took him 4 years to finish, during which time it's said that Michelangelo read and reread the Old Testament while he was painting the ceiling, drawing his inspiration from the words of the scripture, rather than from previous works of sacral art at the time. His painting of The Last Judgment, is believed to be his crowning masterpiece. We walked out of the Chapel and we were escorted into a special entrance of St. Peter's Basilica...someone must have called ahead to let them know 'the familya' was approaching.
What an incredible sight St. Peter's is inside...just breathe-taking. It's fun to stand by the main entrance and watch people's expression as they enter. After St. Peter's we took a quick cab ride over to the Pantheon, to have lunch in the square there and marvel at this very ancient Roman temple, built around 126 AD. It went from originally being built to worship all the pagan gods of ancient Rome, to being converted into a Christian church in 609 AD. While most of the other buildings of ancient times did not survive through the medieval period, they say the Pantheon being a Christian church was the reason it was spared from destruction. It is an amazing structure, right in the heart of Rome. Sitting in the square staring up at it, it really felt like to me "this is Rome". Unfortunately we were running out of time and needed to get back to the boat. By the time we cabbed back to the train station we were all becoming slightly concerned that there was a chance we could miss the boat if things didn't go right. With this paranoia in mind, we practiced what could become an emerging sport called 'Extreme Wheel-chairing'. As far as we could tell, using our broken French language where Italian was being spoken, there was only one train to catch back to Civitavecchia that afternoon. It was leaving in like 3 minutes from 'platform 28'...and we were at 'platforma numbera one-a'. So when Randi said "we better run" I made one of the dumber decisions in my life and started to run like Forrest Gump, while pushing Grandma in the wheelchair. We were way ahead of Ran and poor Grampi, as Grandma's wheels were traveling at possibly 20 miles an hour...I'm very fast when I'm scared. It turned out platform 28 was like a half a mile away...literally! When I looked back we were way ahead of Ran and Grampi. I could hear her yelling at him "come on Dad, can't you run any faster... RUN!" But as it turned out, the train was delayed and we made it there maybe 10 minutes before it left. That night I'd laid awake thinking about my crazy decision to run like that with Grandma. I first thanked God that I didn't hit a curb and launched her skyward. I also was wondering what good would it do for us to get to that train before them. What could we have possibly done to stop the train, while Ran and Grampi caught up ?
I suppose I could have had Grandma get out of the chair and then sent it for a ghost ride into the cow-catcher...that would have caught someone's attention?? It was crazy. We all had a good laugh after we made it back. That night we had our Thanksgiving feast aboard the ship. We actually had the traditional turkey dinner and lobster!

The following day was our last stop of the cruise, before having the final day at sea. This stop was at the birthplace of pizza, Napoli (Naples). And at that point in our continual cruise eating binge, I felt like I could have given birth to a large sausage and pepperoni pizza. Naples is one of the oldest cities of the western world, being originally founded by the Greeks as Neápolis (New City) and it looks like one of the oldest cities. On this day G&G took a bus tour of Naples on their own, while Ran and I went to Pompeii. We weren't sure how we were getting there but I met a nice kid at the taxi stand, outside of the dock, who convinced me I could trust him. His name was Lino Rapillo. He was 24 years old and still lived with his parents in Naples. He was a good lookin kid and Randi said a couple times "my girls would like to meet you". I was in the cab thinking "ok, Mrs. Robinson, that's about enough". He drove us 30 minutes to Pompeii and picked us back up again around 3 hours later.
Pompeii was like visiting a large, deserted Roman suburb. It was really amazing to get a glimpse at what Roman life was like, actually at the height of the Roman Empire (79 AD). It really didn't seem so bad. Life seemed to be simpler back then. If you had a good horse and a nice pair of sandals, you were set. We were able to walk into a few different houses that still had pieces of frescoes on the walls. It must have been a beautiful town with all the sculptures and wall paintings intact. The only problem was that the mountain just behind was ready to blow and nobody knew it. The volcano Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii under 60 feet of ash...that's deep. After Pompeii we cabbed back to Naples, where Lino took us to the oldest pizzeria in Naples, the historic Pizzeria da Michele. He insisted we all have our own pizza, which was ridiculous, considering the food we had awaiting us at the dock. I really didn't think I would find anything special about their pizza. I grew up in Chicago, which also prides itself with their pizza. It sounds silly for me to say this but I have to say, this simple, oven-fired, extremely thin, margarita pizza (said to be the original pizza made for Queen Margarita) with oil on it, was probably the best pizza I've ever had...seriously. From there we drove over to the Church of Gesù Nuovo, with its unusual fascade. It was originally built as a palace during the 1470s and the facade was preserved during the transformation of the building. We continued on and Lino continued to weave his way through their narrow streets. It looked as though it was laundry day for everyone..."hang em high and let em dry" from high up on their balconies. We decided to finish our tour with a shot of expresso at Gran Caffee Gambrinus, where Lino convinced us to eat again. He bought us a pastry that was delicious. He saw his uncle and his cousin on the way out the door...everyone seemed to be 'his people'. I saw cannolis in the window on the way out of Gambrinus. I had to be physically removed from the premise, to avoid having anymore food.

After our final day at sea, we arrived in Barcelona one very fast week later. We made a quick tour of Barcelona, seeing two of the Antoni Gaudi sites, the church of La Sagrada Familia and the famous Parc Guell. We drove through the Ramblas and saw the crowds of people shopping, before making our way back to France. Then on the way home we stopped in Carcasonne, so G&G could see Robin's hood and we could acquire another souvenir spoon.

It was great to spend that time with them. We were very impressed by their fortitude and courage in making the trip. Having them here made our apartment feel more like home and kind of gave more justification to us being here. We feel very fortunate for everything and the way it all turned it.

USA, USA, USA, USA

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For PURPLE mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!






America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!





From Oct 25th to Nov 7th we were back in the USA. I like to chant "USA, USA, USA, USA" faster and faster.

It was wonderful to get back to America. The American people may be pompous, over-weight, ignorant, as*holes but we love every one em! That's a joke...like haha :)

It was a very busy couple of weeks, filled with doctor appointments and heavy drinking ...they actually kinda go together.

But it was really really wonderful to see a lot of the faces and places that we miss so much and love so deeply.

And see the Packers get beat by the Vikings again.

Protectors of the Cheese

On the following day, Sunday Oct. 18th, Randi and I headed out early from our hotel in Millau. We set out to follow in the footsteps of the Knights Templar. We were still near Roquefort, in an area they call the Larzac plateau. In this area there are five fortified villages, which are associated with the real history of the mythical Order of the Knights Templars.

I like to think we were part of a New Order, calling ourselves the 'The Knights of Roquefort'...Protectors of the Cheese. In my mind we were completely cloaked in chainmail. Randi would be wearing a haubergeon...with her sexy boots. I'd wear full armour. And over it, I'd wear a surcoat. It would be embroidered with a crest, that looked like a Peuqeot Lion, biting into a hunk of cheese, while holding a bottle of wine...maybe a corkscrew weapon in it's mouth. We look awesome! (JohnE, I need a little photoshop help to make a pic of that crest) This isn't the first time I've imagined ourselves as knights with a noble cause, like bread, wine and cheese!

The Templars settled on the Larzac plain in 1140 and remained there for about 200 years. They were half soldier, half monks...soldier monks if you will. These fighting monks of the Larzac flourished, as they cultivated wheat and barley, and bred sheep and horses destined for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Their main objective was to contribute to the survival of their brother knights in the East and the upkeep of the great fortresses built to protect the tomb of Christ in the Holy Land. The Larzac, conveniently close to Mediterranean ports for the shipment of money and provisions, served as one of the major bases for the Knights Templar in Europe. The soldier-monks generated huge wealth. I imagined that, even back then, the soldier monk liked to stop on the side of the road from time to time, to drink wine, eat bread and roquefort cheese. A tradition that can still be seen on the side of a deserted road there today!

We drove the Circuit du Larzac Templier et Hospitalier and ended up going to 3 of 5 of the Templar towns, La Cavalerie, Sainte-Eulalie de Cernon and La Couvertoirade.

In La Cavalerie we were very impressed and slightly spooked? by the 18th century church there, where you can find the remains of the first templar church. On my first attempt at entering the church, I opened the door to find that I was about to interrupt what seemed like some sort of very solemn, very private service going on. I thought maybe they were sacrificing somebody or somethin...none of my business. But I accidentally hit the shutter button on my camera and got a really nice shot for the feel of this ancient church, with it's unique interior, in use. We walked around the back and found a large outdoor statue of the crucification and around it there was an archaeological dig in progress which showed the foundation of the first templar church on that site. There was an older guy there, who spoke English (that's what made it spooky) and he explained to us the layout of the ancient 12th century church and the work going on there. I'm glad he didn't say "I know exactly where you're from and you won't be going back there anymore". ....what!...Run honey!

In Sainte-Eulalie de Cernon we visited another church. The limestone masoned church of Sainte-Eulalie. There was a beautiful square there with a fountain shaded by plane trees.

We went from there onto La Couvertoirade. I rode my Peuqeot like the wind, with a bright flag of my crest flying out the back window. It is one of the 500 villages that seem to be in the 'Top Ten Most Beautiful Villages of France' list. It is the most famous of the Templar settlements due to its exceptional state of preservation. Randi and I did an audio tour as we walked through the town. This fortified medieval village has an intact surrounding wall (built in the 14th century) of round and square towers connected by a rampart walk, with no guardrails. I was a very sweaty, slow-moving, cautious knight on the rampart..."hey guys, wait for me!" From atop the rampart wall it was cool to imagine the medieval city in action and how hard life must have been back then.

It was a very nice ride with huge vistas and bright green pastures. We saw large herds of sheep everywhere. I hoped to find them at a lavogne or village sheep pond, like we saw in post cards but decided to get out of the car and take a look at a large herd that were grazing. Apparently a herding method could be to get out of the car and point a camera at them. Hundreds of them came towards us. And they became very loud and boisterous. We became concerned and returned back to our car quickly, before some sort of sheep uprising took place.