Travel Thoughts – Forestfire4's Blog

March 13, 2023

Going Back – to Lake Como

Here I am, looking back to my vacation in Europe. I did a terrible job keeping up with it all while traveling this last time, but I want to write down my thoughts before they completely disappear! In fact there are no notes between September 16th (our stop in Mannheim and Heidelberg Germany) until September 29th when I was in Nice, France. And nothing between there and arriving home. Plus my notes were very sketchy. Why??? I note that I wasn’t feeling great and I was exhausted by the time I arrived at my stop in Italy, then I must have just given up? So here we go….

My daughter and I finished our European river trip on AmaMora with a 3-day stop in Lake Como after a drive through Switzerland. The last stop on the cruise was in Basel. After leaving the boat we took a drive through Switzerland and stopped in Bellinzona, Italy for a tour and lunch. I have to say, the rest stop in Switzerland (below) was a real treat, what a beautiful stop! Bellinzona was a nice stop for getting out to stretch our legs.

After our quick stop, on to Lake Como and our weird hotel. Don’t get me wrong, it was a Hilton and overall a nice enough hotel, but the rooms were dark and stark and the food in the restaurant was just okay. It was a short walk across the (very busy) street to get to the trail along the lake shore which was convenient. Just not my choice for a comfortable place to stay, but the room was definitely very large.

My room at the hotel. Unfortunately, the travel pillow I bought the cover for in Amsterdam was “lost” by the staff at the hotel. I am so sad I left it behind! I missed having it on my travels.

Como, Italy is a very busy city with super narrow “sidewalks” and beautiful buildings.

Como-Brunate Funicular Railway (or Funicolare Como-Brunate) – One of our tours was up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city, which is where the village of Brunate is located. My first experience in a funicular cable railway system! In a funicular, cars are attached at opposite ends by the same cable, known as a haul rope, to safely take you up some very steep slopes. I loved it!

We did also tour about town a bit.

Our visitors at the café on the lake. We stopped here twice, happy hour and lunch.

Tanya set up a short wine tour for us in Como. I have to say, it was a bit crazy walking the super narrow sidewalks as we followed Google map to our location. One misstep and you would be smooshed by a car! These are the wines I enjoyed most during our visit. Sadly, their advertisement said they ship their wines, but unfortunately not to the U.S.! Someday I will have to see if I can track these down.

Last Stop: Lake Cruise

When in Como, you need to do a lake cruise to see George Clooney’s house! Of course! And, we also saw lots of other “stuff”. 🙂 We stopped in Bellagio to do a little shopping too. I bought a silk scarf for my sister-in-law Jill and a wool scarf for my sister Laura. Looking back, I should have bought more scarves, they were so beautiful, but now that I am retired I don’t wear dressy scarves as often.

Our guide from AmaMora stuck with us in Como

Last Stop: the Cathedral

There is always a cathedral to look at in European cities and villages! And they are works of art and always a peaceful place to stop and gather your thoughts. When on my own I would usually spend more time just sitting and enjoying the atmosphere.

Well, that is about all I remember from Como. Next I think I will go further back and add in some more thoughts and photos of the river cruise.

November 12, 2022

River Cruise Review

My dream trip of a lifetime, did it meet my expectations? Yes and no.

So, what was it? Where did we go?

The trip started out as a river cruise in Europe with my daughter. We chose the Rhine Castles & Swiss Alps cruise on Ama Waterways. Tanya chose September as working the best with her work schedule. We started in Amsterdam and ended in Basel, Switzerland with a 3-day add-on in Como, Italy.

Ama Waterways

Don’t get me wrong, I love cruising! But river cruises are definitely different. Not a lot of on-board activities and what they do have doesn’t always have a lot of room available if the weather isn’t great and you can’t use the top deck. But, you are here for the food and tours more than activities, so not a big deal! Food was good and they always had some good options if you didn’t want the main entrees. Tours were generally great, except for Sundays and holidays when you head into town and most everything is closed! I did the “slow motion” groups once to see how that worked for tours and it was more personal as the groups were smaller and you saw most everything the main group saw. Also, being a small boat if someone brings on a cold (and laughed over how it wasn’t Covid so no big deal) it leaves over half the boat sick by the time of disembarkation.

October 16, 2022October 16, 2022

Rijksmuseum

So, my favorite stop in Amsterdam was the Rijksmuseum. I love visiting museums, but don’t always take the time to go (I am not exactly sure I know why). But I spent almost 7 hours wandering around looking at all the exhibits. I had a wonderful experience and I definitely got my steps in!

I recommend eating at the museum café, I had a very tasty chicken sandwich. The only weird thing was the way they served meals. You order like normal, sandwich and a drink. But the sandwich is made over on one half of the kitchen and drinks in the other half. My sandwich came out a good 15 minutes before my drink! I was able to flag down a waitress and ask what happened and she got me a glass of water to tide me over until my tea came. Ended up being a longer lunch than I expected because of this, but it was a good rest for my sore feet. I also met a very nice woman from Germany over lunch too.

I would say my favorite exhibit hall was actually the special collections section. This is the revolving area, they have so much in their archives they need an area where they can bring items in and out to showcase. And they were all so interesting, all their stories and history. Seeing the Blue Delft, the crystal work, and so on.

Next the floors on floors, through time. Each section a separate century. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to come back to visit I had to see them all, thus almost 7 hours later! 😊

One highlight of course, is the Night Watch by Rembrandt. This was a very popular spot!

I also loved the doll houses, wish mine when I was younger had been so intricate!

Here are a few pictures. I am not touching the mantel, just trying to look like I am, but I just look weird as my shoulder was too sore to raise it further. LOL

Stained glass all over the museum, just gorgeous.

And the library, you really wish you could peruse what is there. But I am sure very little is in English.

The only thought I had was regarding the tour groups. Twice they blocked off some pictures and it was difficult to get around them to see what they were looking at! Once I even walked around the hall for a good 20 minutes and they didn’t move! They were packed in too tight into a corner it would have been terribly rude to walk around them, so I moved on. If they want to spend so much time talking about a picture, please move away! You can look and then step back to talk about it. Does that sound picky? I just was so curious as to what took so long to talk about it. I never did get a good look at the one. Oh well.

October 16, 2022October 16, 2022

Heading Home

So, my post for when I was on my way home and trying hard to not cry. DO NOT CRY!! I am coming home one month earlier than I hoped, but later than I thought I might at the start. I was so nervous when I left home, what was I thinking? To head out and jaunt around Europe on my own? No clear idea of where I was going once I hit France or how to get there? What about my tendency for crippling anxiety (not very easy to manage, I have a habit of stepping back, distancing myself from the world around me all to calm my mind)? Or the fact that I don’t speak French much and only recognize about 1 word out of every couple dozen words? And I am hard of hearing? All reasons to not go, but I made it out of the house, and I WENT PLACES I never dreamt I would actually get to.

Maybe someday I will go back and take another look, I did love Amsterdam. The French fries were awesome. And a burger joint on every other block, definitely not all bad! September was a good time to visit. Not as many tourists and the weather was still nice. Although the Mediterranean Sea was so beautiful and warm!

And I did cry a little bit on the plane, I am sure my seatmate was wondering what was going on. I watched the Minions on the monitor to try and cheer me up.

September 13, 2022September 13, 2022

Saying Goodbye to Amsterdam

Yesterday afternoon my daughter and I boarded the Ama Mora in preparation for our river cruise south into Germany. Ama Mora is a beautiful ship, the dinner was very good, and the crew is so friendly. My cabin is gorgeous and a comfortable spot. Since they had a few open cabins, we were able to get a separate one for Tanya, so I have one all to myself! Which is good since lately I have started to snore a bit, unfortunately one that is a new development and I keep thinking if I lose some of this extra weight it will help? Thankfully I am single. LOL

Central Amsterdam was a warren of narrow sidewalks, narrow one-way streets ringed with little shops, cafes, businesses, lawyers, and residential homes all mixed together on street after street. I walked more steps in the past 9 days than I can ever remember doing. Unfortunately, the food was so good my weight didn’t budge at all. I blame it on the burger bars all over, a great stop for quick takeout. I hit two of them!

For the end of week I walked, a lot. I love the canals and looking at all the houseboats. The tippy looking buildings and the bridges. If I had more time….

I did choose one day tour, out to Giethoorn Village. I chose this one as they picked you up at your hotel, rather than having to figure out how to get up to the north end for the windmill tour pickup. I am glad I did; it was a relaxing day, and the tour guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. He was originally from Tibet but has been living in Amsterdam for over 20 years now. The tour company is his own business so was eager to make sure we relaxed and had an enjoyable day. I have my raincoat on, but it only drizzled a little bit in the late afternoon. I found the tour on Viator.

To get to your home, you have to go over a bridge

On Thursday night I did an evening canal tour. I was not impressed; I didn’t read the description close enough. No tour guide (just prerecorded radio messages!) to help out. And it would just randomly switch to Dutch now and then. Also sketchy in that it was hard to hear, ear bud only (I have hearing aids). Often, I missed the place I was supposed to look at as there were no directions, just “out there” in the dark somewhere. The captain never said a word, perhaps he did not speak any English? Also, no way to purchase snacks or drinks on a two-hour cruise! Definitely didn’t understand what I was getting.

My last day was meeting up with my daughter, Tanya, as she arrived in Amsterdam to prepare for our cruise down the Rhine River. We walked, a lot, and had some good food during her short visit. She did get me into may small shops that I typically would just walk on by. We also went to the Albert Cuyp Street Market. A tourist trap in some ways, but we found a couple nice deals. I found a cute ring as a souvenir too. Plus, the stroopwaffel was awesome! Although I still think Tanya should have gotten the chocolate sauce on half.

I will save my favorite stop, the Rijksmuseum, for later. Then onto the river cruise! I am finishing this post up as I sit here on my balcony enjoying the evening on the river!

September 6, 2022

AMSTERDAM – Days 1 and 2

Here I am, relaxing in Amsterdam. This is definitely a curious city with all the canals and narrow streets. And the traffic! Pedestrians have to fend for themselves, they definitely don’t have the right of way here. So you are constantly on the watch whenever you walk. In fact, if there is a traffic blockage they even skip up onto the sidewalk and don’t like it when you don’t move out of the way. This free for all is the first thing my taxi driver warned me about when he picked me up at the airport even. The previous week he saw a bicyclist hit a pedestrian, pick himself up and ride off! So the driver stopped and gave her a ride to the hospital, where she found out she had a broken ankle. Unfortunately, it meant she had to miss her river cruise, so sad! I don’t want to do the same, so I trying to be careful.

Day one saw some serious exhaustion as I slept very little on the airplane, big surprise. I liken it to being in a hospital as the stewards roam the aisles to see if you would like a drink, or maybe a snack, periodically. Plus, the calls for assistance from fellow passengers, or those trying to find the bathroom. Fun times!

Above are some pictures of my hotel room, really more of a small apartment. Once I unpacked I did some walking around to stay awake. The sun was shining, and I put in quite a few steps around the inner canal rings. I had a nice pasta with chicken for dinner before heading back to my hotel room to try and sleep.

On Monday I slowed down, my legs developed quite a “rash” after all the walking the State Fair last week and the airplane ride and walking yesterday. The “rash” is really a bunch of burst small capillaries according to my dermatologist. I get it almost every year for the last 10 years or so during the fair unfortunately. It can be sore but is usually just tingly and hot feeling. Not comfortable at all, so I slept in and didn’t go out except for lunch and then dinner.

Lunch was at Cafe George, I had the Croque Monsieur. It was very good and I had a nice view of a canal. Dinner was at Red, which is just a few doors down, a great steak with the wonderful Dutch french fries (frites) out along the canal. It was great, until a bee decided to try and fly up my skirt which made me jump and spill half a glass of a wonderful rose on myself. Of course!

Here are a few shots from my walk and eating out.

I will post more soon!

August 24, 2022August 24, 2022

Confused and dismayed

I am deep into planning a trip to Europe for an extended amount of time (posts will be forthcoming as I get there). My housesitter is lined up, my neighbors all know what is happening and almost everything is paid for and scheduled. Whew. But….. Unfortunately I made a last minute change in schedule, opting for Toulon instead of central Marseille as a base of operations. I panicked to be honest. I had one person too many tell me how unsafe Marseille is for a woman on her own who doesn’t really speak French hardly at all. So, cancelled there and reserved a spot in Toulon in an apartment building that has a staffed lobby, yet is still within walking distance of a train station and the port. I feel so bad for the place I cancelled as I am sure she will have a tough time renting the unit so last minute, but they had free cancellation until September 1st. So here I am feeling guilty, but at the same time relieved at the decision. Does that make sense?

toulon-facts Download

July 5, 2022July 5, 2022

Log Cabins and bears = oh my!

I am sitting here, trying to recollect when I started coming to the Log Cabin Resort here in Trego, Wisconsin. My daughter, Tanya, found this place first, starting in one of the smaller cabins (the Pine Cabin, an efficiency really) with no working television but at least electricity and water. The draw was always the Namekogan River, the resort staff and the surroundings. And my daughter and son-in-law love to go tubing on the river.

Namekagon River – Wisconsin’s Moving National Park

I would camp in Shell Lake at the Red Barn Campground while they would come and stay here at the resort. Always the weekend of July 4th. Then in 2014 they weren’t able to make it and to maintain our reservation I stayed here, and that was that. Tanya had put our name on the waiting list for a 2-bedroom cabin which we got in 2015. So this is my 7th year in the Bear Cabin here at the resort. The current owners purchased the resort 5 years ago (awesome!). This is just something my daughter and I love to do together each year. Relax and cook and sample surrounding restaurants. Mostly for pizza and cheese curds! The staff are friendly and watchful; the tubing and canoeing operations are well-oiled machines; and the beach is great for swimming (just need to be careful of the current). I plan on coming as long as I am able to drive and lug up all my supplies!

Camping | Trego | Log Cabin Resort and Campground (logcabin-resort.com)

Trego is a small SMALL town. Mom and Dad used to own a home on the Namekogan River flowage, just upriver of the dam. My siblings and the grandchildren loved to come and visit in the summer. Being so close to the dam, the current was much tamer and we loved to swim there. The water was cold, but nowhere near as cold as Shell Lake! We were very sad when they sold the house and moved to Florida full time.

What is there to do in Trego? It has a great breakfast spot (The Prime), the river and national park land. Not much else. But it is between Hayward and Spooner as well as on the road from Eau Claire to Superior, Wisconsin. During the fourth of July weekend you see a lot of license plates from Minnesota! It is a great place to stay and you can find a lot of wonderful spots to eat, hike and visit. I definitely recommend a stop at the Lakeview in Shell Lake and a trip out to What the Heck in Spooner for sure, I always stop at these two and go from there. The Shell Lake Arts Center (Home – Shell Lake Arts Center), Perlick Distillery (Perlick Distillery), Pine Brook Farm and the beach in Shell Lake are also great places to stop. To burn off your food, try one of the local hiking trails, such as the the Trego hiking trail; visiting the Wilderness Walk in Hayward; shopping in Spooner; fishing or sailing in Shell Lake; swimming; or floating down the river. Just relax and breath.

July 3, 2022July 2, 2022

What the Podcast? Part 2

I am now up in northern Wisconsin at a cabin in the woods, continuing to recover from my trip down south and back. My hands are starting to feel normal, my left knee is no longer numb from all the weird positions I had it in to drive so much and I am not so worn out. My mind is still locked in on some of the drama and unfortunate circumstances encountered during my trip, but family can be family! I love them so but we do drive each other nutty once in a while.

All I have to say regarding my recent trip, getting old can really take a toll when you just want to wander! I love driving and taking the scenic route. You see so much more than you do on the highway. The other side of driving so much, it is so easy to drift off mentally. Podcasts are a great way (for me) to help keep my mind in the here and now. Nothing that is too riveting, you are after all driving, but interesting.

New Favorites:
– The Join Us in France Travel Podcast – This is by Annie Sargent and gives you perspectives on on all things France! Her voice is wonderful to listen to which definitely helps. I am planning a trip to France in the future, and I definitely need to learn more.
– Donna & Steve – I know, I know, why recommend a local radio show podcast? But really, they are so fun to listen too. Funny, light-hearted and yet a bit competitive on their contests. Most of what they talk about is not so local that someone in another state couldn’t listen and understand what is going on. For example, the latest episode they talked about Tim Allen and Lightyear; hot dog toppings, Slow Jam and Beck. Not exactly local! They are on Talk Radio 107.1 here in town. All of the shows are great, but this is the one that I have tuned in to via podcast lately.

But now I am back home and planning my next trip! Reading all about train travel in Europe!

June 6, 2022June 21, 2022

Stiff and Sore

This is another list, this one of what I do to help keep me moving and somewhat flexible while traveling. My body is a mess. I have scoliosis in my spine, fibromyalgia, severe tinnitus (with some hearing loss) and “extra deep” hip sockets (the surgeon said good news, no arthritis, bad news, nothing he could do to help). And why I get so paranoid about bonking my head (twice in the last couple weeks)? I had a subdural hematoma three years ago on my left side. Bonking the left side leads to a lot of anxiety and tight muscles in my neck. I try not to talk about it or complain, but I hurt all over all the time and it is a battle to move properly and easily at times. Move too much, wham, move too little, wham. So, spending a lot of time driving, or sitting, can be a challenge. Here are a few things that have helped me during this trip. And don’t get me started with physical therapists who say don’t do it if it hurts, I just want to laugh maniacally and then ask what????

YouTube – Bob and Brad (www.youtube.com/c/BobBrad)
Bob & Brad are two physical therapists who were recommended to me by a physical therapist I was seeing many years ago, when we were trying to figure out what was going on with my hips and legs. They are funny and offer a lot of quick videos on how to stretch, move, sleep and even crack your back when there isn’t a chiropractor near by. I love them!
YouTube – Lynn Schuck (www.youtube.com/channel/UCZHry9AZGqHjQa22cK10fDw)
Lynn teaches a form of yoga called Eischens Yoga. She calls it yoga “… for the tired, the desk-bound, the stiff, the injured …”. I took some classes from here a few years ago and loved it. Her focus is on balancing the pose with what your body can do, that modifications are natural and you shouldn’t force yourself into what you think is the correct way to do a pose. She also has a variety of short sessions on YouTube to help with specific body parts. And I still hear her in my mind whenever I try to do certain yoga poses.
YouTube – Laura Erdman-Luntz (www.youtube.com/c/LauraErdmanLuntz/videos)
Laura is an excellent yoga coach and she loves mixing essential oils with your practice. I haven’t kept up on using essential oils, I do use them occasionally to relax or help with my allergies, but not like I did while I was actively taking yoga classes with her and others. But long story short, she also has some nice short takes on moving with yoga and I recommend trying it out.

My goals is to find things I can do in a small area, in a hotel room, with no equipment. If you have any suggestions for others to try out please let me know! I could use them on my next road trip!

Now I am off to do some gentle movements and physical therapy exercises after sitting and resting all day! Allons-y mon ami!

UPDATE – I finally went in to the Emergency Room to get my head checked out. Good news, no sign of a new subdural hematoma or a stroke. Bad news, well it is still cranky old me. 🙂

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