Sept. 2005 Europe

 Freising Germany

Passed through this charming town with a castle on a hill.  Streets winding through multicolored buildings, churches with bells and at 6am the morning prayer bells ring out to all.  I love to hear them ring & ring and call to gather at the church for prayer.  Just imagine!  Imagine a town where people, no matter what faith, gather each morning to offer a prayer to God - to offer thanks and ask for his attendance in their lives that day. I would want to live in such a town.

France 

Drove to St Remy de Provence.  Very beautiful charming town! People are kinder here than in Paris. Stayed 3 nights at Chateau de Roussdan built in 1558! It was first owned by Captain Bertrand de Nostredame, brother of the famed Nostradamus, who was born in St Remy. 

A funny thing happened on Friday.  We got locked out of our room because of a faulty lock that locks fine from inside but only opens (with a skeleton key) from the outside!!??  As there is no phone in the room, we were glad to have cell phones to finally after about 30 minutes, get ahold of someone to let us out.   Our room overlooks the breakfast patio and gardens with the regal pompous grass.  Birds call out & echo through the gardens, cats stroll and the adorable white pooch chews on a big rag doll and like a young child, it follows "mama" (the manager) up to the 3rd floor to free us from our room that sought to keep us prisoner.  

The lady that runs this place has 6 dogs, 5 cats, 4 fish & an amazing parrot that barks like a dog, meows like a cat, sings & speaks - in French, of course!   Speaking of cat, one night we went out in the gardens & relaxed under the stars in a hammock. A big white cat with no ears came over & stood guard by us like a gargoyle, it’s white fur gleaming in the full moon’s light.

St Remy is where Van Gough painted 150 paintings including Starry Night. 

Bridge of Avignon - Arles, home of Van Gough 

Wind has howled and slapped us on the cheeks, thrown sand in our eyes and tousled our hair.  We slept with the windows open to hear the pleasant water fountain but had to close it when the wind awakened us. In the morning, how I love waking up to sheep and birds!  Oh what peace that sound brings to your soul.

Glanum - Roman ruins recently excavated. 

Isle sur la Sorgue - 

Baux Provence

Red ochre town of Roussillon.  A storybook looking town like Rotenberg in Germany. 

Antibes / Canns where Chris has his conference

Business dinner - sat with a couple from Boston and a man from Seattle (Boeing).  He did several Mormon bashes - not knowing we were Mormon. It's always hard to decide whether to say "Hey!" and let them know you're Mormon and embarrass them, which they deserve, and then live with their phony niceness thereafter or remain silent and just move the conversation elsewhere in that it is not a time to share the gospel with a drinking basher. We chose the latter. 

This area I pictured to be more glamourous but it is crazy traffic mess, impatient honking, party, drinking types. It's very crowded and confusing to navigate.  Takes an hour to go 10 miles.  The women, however, are glamourous!  They all look like they are in a fashion show and wear seductive expressions as though they are posing for a magazine and well pleased with themselves.  Oh and the fancy shoes, handbags, scarfs, belts, bracelets etc! I don't think you'll hear them singing "Take Me Home Country Roads". 

Drove to Monte Carlo Monoco for just a short "pop-in" - a famous little country plopped in the midst of France on the Riviera.  It's very glitzy with an impressive grand glowing palace which is a gambling casino.  The wealth and beauty of this city shows how much money a lot of people have lost! Perfect gardens and fountains and terraced stairways etc. Seemed too Celestial to be so worldly with the drinking, smoking, gambling crowd. 

I always pictured the Riviera be more glamorous but it is CRAZY! Very crowded, confusing, traffic jammy, impatient, honking, drinking, partying kind of people. Fashion seems more important there too.  I saw People strut around like a movie star with fancy heels & bracelets, rings & belts, scarves & handbags.  They seemed contentedly pleased with themselves.

Austria

Linz - Hotel Wolfinger - very cold...no heat!  Built in 1800's and used to be a nun's abode. It is a charming old wooden creaky floor building. While Chris was in meetings I again read in one of the books I brought and walked a little bit around town to get lunch.  I really have no sense of direction and rarely go far but I did enjoy myself.

St Wolfgang. Old steam train ride up a tall Mt - spectacular view.  I'm in awe!  Splurged and stayed the night at Hotel Weissen Rossl.  Enjoyed a lady playing Straus music on the piano as we ate dinner.

Saltzkammergut area of Austria has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. 

We stayed the night in the scenic Heiligenblut with it's storybook like church & Austria's tallest Grossglockner peak as a backdrop  We even saw Edelweiss growing. 

St Gilgen 

Drove to Innsbrook and were mesmerized as this is the time of year the farmers bring the cows down from the high country.  We drove through herd after herd! Their old tradition is to dress up the cattle with head dresses & bells & flowers & wreaths etc. as a way of giving thanks for a good season. So many different small herds of decorated cows made their way down the main roads with their owners walking beside them. It was so cool! They were guided by men or young women or kids. A girl walked with her arm on the cow.  They were like pets and you could tell they had a relationship with the animals...not just a rancher but more like a shepherd. 

 Along the way we stopped at Krimml Falls and the town was having a festival filled with happy music, native food, a fashion show of girls who made their own beautiful dirndls, dancing, crafts of handmade rugs, basket weaving, wood carving, spinning yarn on spindle, cutting straw, sawing slices of logs and kids painting pictures on it, parade with beer wagon, native dressed band and horses with riders cracking the whips in front and then to the back.  

We went to church in the small Innsbruck branch & enjoyed it very much. 

Other towns we drove through were also having festivals! Happy German music, dancing and cowbell music being played like hand bells. 

Found a hotel in Innsbrook and the only room left was in the attic 8 flights of stairs up (72 stairs!).  Nice enough ha ha.  We enjoy staying in unusual places. We got to see a show here that was kind of like a German Lawrence Welk with such wonderful music and dancing and instruments and yodeling.  Bought a dvd to enjoy it again. 

Enjoyed church in the small branch.  They watched a video commenorating the 50th birthday of the Swiss Temple.  There was a couple there visiting from Brazil and knew where Petrolina was.  We got a German B of M to send to Aaron in Brazil for his German speaking friend Ivan.  The Book of Mormon is truly full of the power of God.  The prophet Moroni told us that they speak to us as though we were present and yet we are not. Now we hear them as though they are present and yet they are not.  It's like a power that connects time and people so that we connect with each other as though we're all present, because maybe in reality - we are!

Tegernsee - Tatzkuurm Falls Stayed at Bad Wiessee. So peaceful with people just out strolling, clean, no loud radios and skateboards, every dressed up nice.

Germany - Badwiessee. ...Mooseburg, bought a dirndl in a 2nd hand store. 

Munich - Octoberfest 1000's and 1000's of people dressed in traditional attire. Foods, cookies, sugared nuts, colorful carnival rides, flee circus, beer halls full to the brim with drinking, smoking, music and letting loose! Everyone seems to know the music and they sing along.  Loud, noisy cheerful chatter.  Extra security everywhere. You sure feel the reality of being In the world but not Of it. I felt like an invisible visitor looking in on another world's curious amusements.    

The Munich airport dropoff area is called "Kiss & Fly" ha ha!