Despite major amounts of rain lately, you might say that Switzerland has been a highlight for us. Continual breathtaking alpine panoramas with lush green slopes looking more like groomed parks than typical farm fields. Quaint villages sprinkled about between immaculate lakeside cities like Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich, Bern, Montreux (with its amazing medieval castle “Chateau de Chillon) and Lausanne (the IOC Olympic Capital) all add up to one impressive and very beautiful country.  The Swiss people are friendly and helpful and we have been treated wonderfully. The only downside so far has been the inflated cost of just about everything and the somewhat limited camping availability compared to neighbouring countries. We were told the minimum hourly wage in Switzerland is very high and that’s why a simple cup of coffee at Starbucks can cost about $8 with a pizza and beer for two costing about $100 Canadian. We tend to eat at the motorhome as much as we can and shop the supermarkets for our culinary inspiration. Margot has done a fantastic job of learning to cook a variety of interesting and tasty dishes in the limited motorhome space. Campground choice has been limited and sometimes nonexistent, like in Basal and Davos. The famous ski resort village of Davos has special meaning to me as this is the town I worked in for a part of the winter of 1972 at the Davoserhof Hotel. So I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t spend more time showing Margot around because of the limited camping issue. Sneaky street camping was not even a remote possible considering the preparations that were under way for the yodelling contest. Now you may be thinking “Big Deal!”… and you’d be right. This small alpine town, in two days time, was about to host 10,000 yodellers from around the world and 100,000+ supporting spectators. You can imagine the temporary infrastructure going up to handle all this and the resulting organized chaos in the streets as we drove into the village. Parking was tough but camping was impossible so we headed over the mountain to Klosters where Bert had worked (and learned to ski like a pro) hoping, but unfortunately not finding, a place to camp.  We had to quickly move on before darkness so it looks like a return visit to Davos/Klosters is now on our bucket list.

Road Ramble:

Since my first ramble stated off on the topic of “Safety”, I can’t think of a better topic than “Health” for my second one. We were in a Zurich and it was late, about 1:00am and a large group of us campers were sitting in a  designated viewing area beside the lake watching the World Cup Soccer “shoot-out” between Holland and Argentina on three big televisions placed on posts in the water. To expedite my late trip to bed, I grabbed my floss, and while watching the soccer action, I began the mindless task. Bad safety judgement on my part; as the intensity of action on the screen grew, so did my flossing, Just as the Dutch scored the winning goal, I felt that awful sensation of a rough tooth from under a now missing dental cap. Margot grabbed a flashlight and we scoured the grass for my dental work to no avail. I went to bed excited for Holland and ticked about my tooth. It must have been a good balance because I slept well and when I awoke, I give the ground search one more try in the brilliant sunlight. After a few minutes of working a strategic “search grid”, I amazingly found my tiny white “cap” nestled in the grass about ten feet away from where I was sitting (Wow!). We were told that dental work in Switzerland was very expensive so we decided to drive back into Germany where we found a very kind dentist.  He actually specialized in tooth implants but after hearing my sad story he took pity and invited me into his chair. He was a pro… Zip-Zap! he had everything back to normal and we were on our way with a dental bill of only 46 Euros. Considering our free Stellplatz for the night and a cheap diesel “filled-up”, we actually broke even on the ordeal. Yes, It’s a happy ending to this frightening story, but I end with this dental safety warning to all of you… do not floss your teeth while watching horror movies or gripping sporting events.

I didn’t plan on preparing a blog post this morning but for some strange reason the wifi connection here at our stelpllatz is working exceptionally well so before racing off to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Palace (Located Southwest of Munich), I decided to quickly piece together this photo-blog update. questionable and unreliable wifi connections continue to be a challenge for us so we try and take advantage to the good connections when we can. Doing everything on an iPad also adds a little extra complexity to the blogging experience  

Here’s a quick overview of our last few days. We left Paris and made a stop at Fontainebleau Palace to visit Napoleons favourite home. It was quite impressive and well worth the days visit. We then drove onward to Nancy, France which turned out to be one of the nicest little cities that we’ve visited so far. Nightly they put on a spectacular light show inside what’s considered to be one of the most impressive central square in Europe, and from our limited experience, we could agree. The animated laser-light and sound show is projected onto five grand buildings that frame the square and from under the night sky it was a really great experience. We had a nice look around the wonderful city of  Strasbourg but unfortunately our time here was marred by an all-night “Rap-driven-Rave” just outside our campground that almost drove us crazy.  Anxious to move on, we turned our attention South towards the Alps and in doing so we realized our opportunity to explore the beautiful Black Forest region and popular Lake Constance area.  From this Neuschwanstein stellplatz we’ll continue our drive East along the German (Bavarian) Austrian border, and then we’ll turn 180 degrees and drive West again through Austria to Innsbruck and then on into Switzerland. As we do move along, I’m hoping for more of this reliable wifi to help keep our travel progress posted. Wishing everyone a warm and wonderful Canada day.

Our impression of Paris is apparently linked to the clock because the longer we spend here the more infatuated with the city we become. We had a similar kind of experience with our visit to New York but in a head-to-head competition, we both agree, Paris wins. Paris is incredibly beautiful with all its wonderfully grand architecture woven into such an amazing history dating back to the Roman occupation and before. The Seine river winds its way through the old city providing a platform for beautiful bridges that connect ornate architecture on both banks while providing a social and commercial highway for all kinds of transport. Lucky for us our great campsite in “Boulogne Park” was overlooking the Seine river and it was an easy commute to central Paris. As you explore iconic buildings and structures like the overwhelmingly impressive Louvre, unbelievable Versailles, amazing Cathedrals like Notre-Dame and monuments like the Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triumph, you can’t help but think of how much of this was built for the sheer pleasure and entertainment of a small and privileged group. At first it seems so unjust and unreasonable but, in a poetic twist of fate, it’s now the average citizen that has access to all this splendour and the treasures within. I doubt it was part of the original Royal intent to create such a lucrative tourist industry that would continually employ so many Parisians. I’m sure a good argument could be made for what a wonderful job they did in support of the French culture and it’s economy. Too bad Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette couldn’t have used this line of defence to save themselves from the guillotine in 1793 after the French Revolution.
Personally, I think some of the best “free” entertainment in Paris is in the streets. My first traffic impression was that these drivers are the worst and most dangerous I’ve ever seen, but after a few days of careful observation, I’ve come to a complete opposite conclusion. This is truly a case of Darwinian Law… “poor drivers will parish” only the best will survive on these streets. Especially impressive to me are the kamikaze scooter and motorcycle drivers that split and swerve through traffic at alarming speeds with only inches between themselves and buses, cars, buildings and pedestrians. I’m sure some of the impressive young women weaving there Vespas between moving targets as they ride to work all dressed up with high heels and brief cases could teach me a few tricks about riding in this crazy and chaotic traffic.
We’ve really enjoyed our time in Paris with it’s abundance of fantastic parks, sidewalk bistros, beautiful boulevards, impressive shops, buildings, and monuments. Parisians themselves have been very friendly and helpful and we’re now feeling a little sad about leaving all this behind just as we’ve entered that “comfort zone”. This truly is an amazing city that everyone should have the opportunity to experience at least once. But, I must say, after two weeks in Paris and countless kilometres of walking the highway is now calling and we’re setting our sights high… onward and upward towards the Swiss Alps.

After visiting a few truly magnificent chateaus along the “Loire River Valley” we developed an understanding of what it was that ignited the French Revolution in 1789. The splendour of Chateau’s like Chenonceau and Chambord is stunningly outrageous compared to the average lifestyle of the time. Some of these outstanding Palaces were utilized as mere recreational properties for important things like hunting, and providing a home for the mistress. Many Chateaus of all sizes dot the countryside and some are still privately owned. The upside of this extravagance is now everyone has an opportunity to wander through these splendid places and imagine what life as a Royal was like in the 14th – 18th centuries. It is however difficult to understand the “who’s-who” in the family trees and how they’re all interconnected over time and distance. Do you know how many Royal Henry, Louie’s, Anne’s and Elisabeth’s there are? Contrasting the spectacular palaces are a vast number of old caves built into the sides of the cliffs and used for farm and residential purposes. Some of these caves are very valuable now and have been converted into very unique  and modern homes (and businesses). Driving the back roads in France can occasionally be a challenging experience considering the narrow lanes with no shoulders and lots of large trucks.  Small roads can quickly turn into smaller roads and then into one-at-a-time lanes with an assortment of traffic obstacles like an old house protruding into the roadway. And circles!… how many circles can you fit into one kilometre? Lucky for us, the drivers in Northern Europe are generally very skilled and predictable with the exception of a few overly aggressive lunatics. But, having spent some time driving a motorcycle in Calgary traffic, a motorhome on French back roads is relaxing. And now onto Paris! One last thing… today we’re thinking of Kristin and Danny who are in Bali getting married. Kristen and Erik are at their side and our thoughts are with you all. Congratulations! and best wishes to the bride and groom.

What a grand entrance we had to Brittany.  “Le Mont St. Michel” made for one spectacular and dramatic first act. As you approach this tiny fortified medieval island treasure it looks like the backdrop for some kind of stage production but as you get closer to the rock it becomes clear you’re in for something much more special. St Michel is an island at high tide, at low tide it has many kilometres of sandy beach in front of it. We witnessed much of the fascinating “flood” tide from the “high-altitude” courtyard of the magnificent pre 11th century gothic Abby. To reach the Abby you must walk and climb “the Pilgrims Walk” through the narrow winding streets of the medieval village below it. This place is truly fascinating but an element of commercialism has crept in and taken away from the romantic atmosphere somewhat. Not surprising considering this medieval attraction draws millions every year. Its massive parking lot was only about 20% full during our visit and the place seemed quite busy so we can’t even imagine what it would look like during peak season with a full parking lot. Construction on a new connecting bridge to the island is almost complete and when finished it will replace the old land causeway restoring the eco system and provide better access to the Island.  Not far away is the important ancient port city of St Malo. This was the home of Jacques Cartier and it was from here that he sailed West to not only discover Canada (first to map the St. Lawrence River) but to give us our name as well. There is a nice park and statue marking the significance of all this but strangely it’s lacking any Canadian flags and we couldn’t quite understand that, but we did find Jacques resting tomb in the local Cathedral.
On the west coast of France we visited a “Rockin” little town called Carnac. This place is world famous for it’s 3,000 (planted?) rock boulders. It’s said that these large (some very large) rocks were placed in long straight rows around 4,000+ BC and they are still confusing the experts much like Stone Hedge in England (I wonder how one determines how long a rock has sat in one place for?). As you can see from the picture, Margot thinks it’s all a hoax (Wink!). On we drove to the beautiful port city of Nantes. Located inland on the Loire river this place was once the capital of Brittany until Anne, the daughter of Francois II was obligated to marry two French Kings (at different times!) and in so doing, united forever Brittany to France. We spent the better part of a day going through Anne’s castle museum. This port city has a rich history including ship building, military, fishing and import/export that included the slave trade. Today much of the industrial ship building business has shut down but a few years ago a very interesting new business popped up in it’s place. It’s sort of like a “If you build it… they will come” story. In some of the old ship building sheds, groups of skilled visionaries, craftsmen and engineers started to build “Machines”. What are machines you ask… BIG moving creatures that are paraded about on the old ship assembly grounds. They draw thousands of fans from all over the world to see this stuff and even ride on these incredible mechanical marvels. By the way,  this has all evolved in the old neighbourhood of the famous si-fi author Jules Verne… wonder if there’s a connection?  Erik, you’d be very impressed with the quality of engineering. This weekend is a “Machine” festival and new machines will be officially added to the collection with a big city parade . It really is a cool thing to see (especially for an old Tech Ed teacher) but when you see some of the grand future plans they have in mind you realize this gallery will soon be a mega tourist attraction. Tomorrow we head “up-stream” to explore the chateau loaded Loire River estates on our way towards Paris.

45 km’s from the Normandy Coast we toured the most amazing relic of WWII, a massive top secret German V2 rocket bunker facility. This “movie-like” complex was intended to be a main rocket assembly and launching base that would ultimately be capable of launching 36 devastating missiles a day to virtually any part of England. The German V2 rockets were so advanced that years later it was this captured technology that lead to the successful American space program. Thankfully Hitler never got the chance to get this place completely operational. From arial photographs in 1944 Allies knew that something big was under way here so they decided to bomb it and set the program back long enough for the Operation Overlord to render it ineffective. Exploring this massive structure with it’s 13 foot thick steel reinforced ceiling and huge rocket assembly chambers was a surreal experience. We had to keep reminding ourselves that all this was painfully real and not some movie set from Hollywood. The entire coastline is dominated by items related to the biggest military operation ever undertaken and we saw so many Canadian, US and British flags flying as a message of appreciation. I’m sure that much of the flag waving had something to do with the 70th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 and the expected visit of many dignitaries. The shear size and scope of the D-Day operation has truly left us in awe and no pictures, movies or stories can ever come close to providing an accurate perspective of this landing. We’ve spent the last four days moving from the beaches of Sword, Juno (Canadian), Gold, Omaha and Utah and with the help of excellent interpretation centres we have gained a much better appreciation of the logistics and human sacrifice required of the Allied forces to challenge the Nazi defences and get a foothold in Europe. In contrast to all the imposing military structures we were struck by how beautiful Normandy is with its lush green countryside and dramatic coastline. Moving along, we now have the Loire Valley in our sights.

We wanted to visit Ypers, Belgium and pay our respects to the fallen Canadian troops of WWI, visit the location where John McCrae wrote his poem “In Flanders Fields”, and see the town of Passchendaele where Canada suffered 16,000 casualties in 1917. We thought it would be a fairly quick visit and then we’d move on to the Vimy Ridge memorial not far away in France, Days later and we’re leaving this fascinating area with still more to see and do. We were under the false impression that “Flanders Fields” was one large military memorial site but learned that “Flanders” is a large region of Belgium and France and the “Fields” of Flanders are the locations of a thousand plus “Field Hospitals” where only the military graveyards now survive. One could spend weeks here trying to absorb it all but in fact, it doesn’t take that much effort to get an impression of just how incredibly massive and brutal this war was. We’ve also learned about a lesser known component of the war that took place underneath the front line trenches that incorporated about 3000 km’s of tunnels dug by thousands of underground workers. The tunnel mines (on both sides) were very effective and successful in causing extreme damage and high numbers of casualties. This is really a fascinating story that we were fortunate to learn about from a local expert. We stopped in at a pub next to “Polygon Wood” (A major battleground that claimed some 50,000+ men and saw one of the biggest air battles of the war) and met Johan Vandewalle who grew up across the road from this well preserved site. Johan has a background in mining and developed an interest in WW1 tunnel warfare and over time, has become an “amateur expert” on the subject. He has contributed to a number of books (We purchased “Beneath Flanders Fields” – The Tunnellers’ War 1914-18) and has been involved with the production of a number of respectable TV documentaries as well. He regularly explores these dark and very dangerous tunnels and has been responsible for locating missing soldiers, finding many unexploded artifacts, and verifying significant historical information. In 2007 his important efforts helped discover 5 Australian soldiers that were subsequently reunited with family members from Australia and now have proper burial plots in the Polygon Wood Cemetery. Johan is a real character doing very important work and he’s filled with impressive stories that we enjoyed even more than the great Belgium beer. Good thing we had a perfect camping spot out back of his “Cafe De Dreve”. If you’re interested you should Google Johan Vandewalle. We discovered there’s still a significant amount of recognition and admiration in this area for the Canadian contribution to the war effort and we did feel proud wearing our Maple Leaf.  Ypers was beautifully reconstructed and you would never guess now that in 1917 it looked like a moonscape. Since 1928 every evening at 8:00pm “The Last Post” is played under the impressive Menin Gate Memorial commemorating those that have no known grave and daily it draws huge crowds. The town of Passchendaele was much smaller but the area has great significance considering over half a million soldiers died in this area in just 100 days to gain eight kilometres of mud. In fact innocent people are still dying, like the two farmers that were killed a few months ago after ploughing up a live bomb. The “Belgian Bomb Disposal Service” still destroys an average of 150 tonnes of ordnance, including gas shells, per year. No wonder many areas are set aside for grazing sheep only. Walking through the beautiful tranquil forest of Polygon Wood, it all seems so pointless and unimaginable, yet it really did happen, and 100 years later it’s still dominating in every way. Onward to the Normandy Coast and a look at the famous beaches on the 70th anniversary of D-Day

Seeing Verdun in 1972 provided forty years worth of focus for every November 11, seeing it a second time will provide forty more. The powerful and somber impact of this sacred ground has came at the expense of over 200,000 dead soldiers and 400,000 wounded in less then ten months. Walking around this crater-filled park-like setting of battlefields you could easily be fooled into thinking it was part of a landscapers design. Broken and twisted remains of military defences are scattered everywhere and tombstones mark where towns once stood. 100 years later and you can still feel the pain. On our way to Verdun we spent a day in Metz, France which turned out to be a lot more interesting than I remembered it from 1972 when Bert and I spent a week in the back lot of a VW dealership having a new Van engine installed.  Luxembourg City is a short drive from Verdun and it was a great place to spend a day just walking about. We found a really good campground and managed to get some domestic things accomplished. We crossed into Belgium and stopped at the” Waterloo Battlefield Monument”. Strangely our camping books did not list any campgrounds in Belgium so we inquired at the restaurant. The fellow pointed to a park like setting out back and suggested we stay there.  We did, and what a great spot under the tall chestnut trees. Just a short hop away were the 226 steps that ascend to the top of the monument made from battlefield soil. The Lion on top looks out over Napoleon’s final battlefield and guards a new Europe. Over 300,000 soldiers fought here and changed Europe forever. Lit up at night, It’s a very impressive sight from the RV window. Off to Brussels for some famous French-fries and waffles then onward to visit “Venus-of-the-north”… Brugge.