Looking for George

Tourette sur Loup

From the quaint old towns perched on hillsides in  Provence to the self-sanitising, rotating toilet seat in Germany, this trip has been one of contrasts.
Our trip to Europe began with a very fuzzy early morning start after a previous late night saying goodbye to Dolores and Paul, who were returning home to the US.

A street in Vence

We flew into Marseilles, picked up our rental car, adjusted to left hand drive and were off ( a little tentatively on my part) on our road trip from France to Germany via Vence, Aix en Provence, Como (to search for George), Appenzell,  Erlangen, Ingolstadt and finally Munich.

A Tourette street

The weather was warm and we were basked in beautiful sunshine as we made our way along the Nice motorway before taking the road to Vence. The roads narrowed the closer up the hills towards Vence we got. The hillside towns would appear as you turned a corner, perched as if they could tumble to the valley floor below. The terracotta walls and roofs were contrasted by brightly coloured shutters that seemed to open on to a sheer drop. Our hotel was opposite the market square and a short stroll to the old town. We spent the afternoon exploring the old town, wandering between streets, which were a mix of little restaurants, shops and residential. The local children were playing hide and seek, racing around the streets and hiding behind old rustic fountains. We visited the colourful Chapel of the Rosary designed by Henri Matisse and the cathedral in the square with a Chagall mosaic.

Chagall mosaic

This area of Provence is known for its many small villages home to  local artists and for its perfume. So on day 2 we went in the direction of Tourette sur Loup. This small hillside village was beautiful with unique art shops all displaying and selling the work of locals artisans and a market with varied ceramic wear. We could have spent so much time here, we will have to save the perfume tour for next time,  but we knew we had to get on the road to drive along the Cote D'Azure before getting to Aix en Provence where David was to give a lecture at the university. We drove through Antibes and Cannes and stopped off at Cassis to dip our feet in the Mediterranean (it was a painful walk across the pebbly beach). Cassis is where the French go for a day at the seaside and is not generally a tourist haunt. The best beaches can only be accessed by boat so the marina was filled with boats of all sizes, usually bigger boats than smaller and tall cliffs shelter the seafront. A castle was perched looking over the village and although it was late in the day the place was alive with people.

Cezanne statue, Aix

Soothing feet after Cassis beach walk

Whist David was busy working on the Monday, I spent the day wandering the town of Aix en Provence. Whist it is known as a city of fountains and the home of Cezanne, it lacked the charm of previous villages we had visited. However Aix (or X as it's pronounced) is not a village but a city known for its "baroque splendour". George, David's colleague there, took us out for a delightful meal where we were treated to specialties of the Provence region, with the meal carefully prepared and beautifully served. The French certainly place great importance on their food!

Monaco

Tuesday was to be our longest drive. We once again headed off in beautiful sunshine, stopping off in Monaco on the way. The many boats at the waterfront were magnificent, including one with a helipad. The place was dripping in wealth. David did his best James Bond impression as we drove our little Chevrolet Spark passed the Maserati's and Ferrari's at the door of the Monte Carlo Casino. We saw the palace and the resting place of Grace Kelly before our drive to Como.

View of Como from Brunate

Despite my best efforts, George Clooney eluded me in Como. It could have been the terrible weather that kept him away as it bucketed down, spoiling the view from the top of the funicular railway at Brunate. There was however, the most magnificent church, which had high ceilings all beautifully painted in the Baroque style. I think probably the most beautiful church we have seen. So after coffee and pastries back in Como whilst we waited for a break in the weather, we set off towards Switzerland, across the market square, where cars are not meant to go!

Hotel Kaubad, Appenzell

We drove around Lake Como to Mennagio, through winding streets where it was necessary to pull over for a car to pass, through Lugarno and up into the alps via the San Bernadino Pass. The scenery was spectacular as we climbed  and climbed and climbed. Our overnight stay was in  Kaubad, Appenzell, which we had chosen because it was in the  pristine Swiss countryside nestled amongst rolling green hills. We ate a traditional Swiss meal and awoke the next day to crisp alpine air. We passed cows with cowbells ringing as we made our way to St Gallen and it's old town. We ate lunch in Lindau where we had views of Austria and in fact realised breakfast had been in Switzerland, lunch was with views of Austria and dinner was to be in Germany. Lindau was a pretty spot overlooking a small harbour.

Lindau view over Lake Constance

We eventually got to Erlangan and met Dirk and Corrina for dinner. David was to attend meetings the following morning, so Corrina offered to show me around the town. Erlangen is mainly a university town, where you need to sidestep students on bicycles as you walk around. It was a beautiful sunny day so after Corrina left I spent a lot of time people watching and even had an odd conversation with a women who didn't speak English and I of course don't speak German.
Our final leg of our trip was to meet my cousin Belinda in Munich. In order to return the hire car by the required time on Saturday we had an overnight stop in Ingolstadt to be closer to Munich. We then caught the S-Bahn train to Pasing, a suburb of Munich, where we were met by Belinda and her daughter Lucy (her son Felix was doing his best Federer impersonation at his tennis tournament).

Rathaus, Munich

After catching up on all the family news Lucy took us into the city and played tour guide, taking us to the Rathaus (townhall) in Marienplatz, where we watched the glockenspiel (animated clock), went into Peterskirche, the oldest church in Munich, and up the tower for a view over the city, through the Viktualien Markt, the market square in the city centre, and to a cafe for Schmalznudel and Striezerl, traditional Bavarian pastries. We then met Belinda and Felix for dinner at the Hofbrauhouse, the most famous beer hall in Munich, where we had a great evening of Bavarian beer, food, music, singing, crowds and noise!
So now we are back in Dublin for our last 2 weeks. We have a list of things we still want to do including walking off French pastries and German cakes!!!!  Cheers, George!

                            

Hei (hello in Finnish)

Knit n Tag, Helsinki

The winding cobble-stoned streets, the endless steps climbing up medieval towers, the hospitality of the people, great weather for most of the time  and one of my favourite foods-salmon, it's been a wonderful, exciting week with many unexpected surprises!
Finland and Estonia - I'm so lucky to have experienced them both. We had a very early start to this trip and were amazed at the number of people drinking Guiness at 6 am at Dublin airport. The early start meant that we had more time in Helsinki before a flight to Turku the following day. Upon our arrival, and after we'd had a late lunch, we came across a park not far from our hotel where there were numerous groups sitting knitting. Apparently it was a "Knit n'Tag" event.  All the trees were covered with knitting from pom-poms to traditional designs to characters. I'm not sure the reason for this but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. 
 
From here we walked towards the ferry terminal and market area. The market stalls were beginning to pack up, however we saw stalls selling reindeer sausage which did not look at all appertising. The hotel had sold us a 2 day travel pass so we took advantage of this and set off on the ferry, which leaves from near the markets to Suomenlinna Fortress. This was an intriguing place as whilst it was a fortress in the middle of the harbour, it had more a village-type atmosphere with dirt paths covering a series of islands, which were linked by bridges. It mainly seems to have museums and restaurants on it now.

Turku Cathedral and Aura River

Day 2 saw us head off to Turku, a 30 minute flight from Helsinki, where David was to spend the next two days at Åbo University. Turku has nothing much of note except a lovely river front, although it used to be the capital of Finland. We found that arriving on a Sunday meant it was a challenge to find places to eat for dinner.  Surprisingly, we had dinner at a lovely rustic cafe beside the river with loads of atmosphere.  Monday is also a day where most things were closed,  so it was another walk along the river and a browse through the shops to keep myself occupied.

Naantalli waterfront

Once David's work commitments were completed, we took a bus to Naantalli. Normally it's a busy seaside town that thrives during the summer months but on a bleak day it was almost deserted.  
Back in Helsinki on day 4 after another early morning start, we took in the sights of Senate Square, Helsinki cathedral, Uspenski Cathedral, the market square, the old market building and the church in the rock. The architecture was varied and the cathedrals stood out on the Helsinki skyline when viewed from the harbour. We were blessed with beautiful weather and our day ended with a wonderful evening dinner cruise around the many islands in the archipelago out from Helsinki. The golds and oranges of the sunset were amazing. The boat took us past holiday homes scattered around the many waterfronts. Each of these had what looked like small boat sheds on the edge of the water but these were in fact saunas. Finland has over 3 million saunas throughout the country such that everyone in Finland can have a sauna at the same time!

Harbour view Helsinki Cathedral

Archipelago island sauna

Helsinki dinner cruise

Toompea Hill, Old City, Tallinn

Back to the waterfront on Day 5 for a 1 and 1/2 hour fast ferry across the Baltic Sea to Estonia and the capital Tallinn, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  This place was definitely a highlight of the week. We spent 2 days exploring the old medieval walled town, stumbling along the cobblestones streets, walking up numerous wall and tower stairs and eating salmon morning, noon and night! Well at least I did!

Climbing a Tallinn tower

We toured through the Bastion tunnels, underground passageways dating back to the 1600's upon which high walls were constructed. These were used to move soldiers and ammunition throughout the town but during WWII it was used as a bomb shelter and even more recently, homeless people would live in them. We climbed the tower of St Olav's church for a remarkable view of the town, walked along the top of the walls, wandered up the hill to the Alexander Nevski Cathedral and saw Fat Margaret, Tall Hermon and Catherine's passage ( the names given to towers and lane ways).

Dinner at Restaurant Kaevukohvik, Tallinn

We ate beautiful meals in restaurants with serene atmospheres  and, in fact, after searching for places to eat and being told we needed to book, we found a perfect restaurant where I ate "fried salmon" and David ate "moose stew". We had a room to ourselves there, with a view over the ancient town well. Perfect food, music and company!
We were truly disappointed when it was time to leave this interesting and beautiful town.

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