April 28, 2013

Friday, Saturday and Sunday…..

Friday was our last full day on the barge.  It was cloudy and would later rain pretty hard in the afternoon.  But we got off the barge in the morning and had a nice walk and waited for the barge to catch up with us.  We ended up in St Leger. 

For lunch we had a traditional French buffet.  Frogs legs, snails, couscous, pate, Parma ham, cheese, salad, fruit, beet root salad and if course more wine.  We did try the frog’s legs and snails.  I regret that I didn’t take a picture of the frog’s legs with the snails.  The hardest part of eating the frog’s legs was the mental picture I had of a frog.  It just grossed me out!  But as they say, it tasted like chicken!

In the afternoon, in the rain, we went to Chateau de Chamirey in Mercurey.  The wine cellar was so beautiful.  Wonderful lighting, pretty caves.

Then we tasted some of their wines.  This was so much fun.  We tasted 10 wines and they were all good, some better than others, including premier and grand cru’s.  This was a fun way to end the cruise. 

Here is a picture of our crew at our gala dinner party. 

Saturday was a travel day.  We drove to Paris which was about 3 ½ hours, then onto a plane for a 40 minute flight to Amsterdam.  Amsterdam is a lovely city.  You know how you go to a city and it’s just so fun, welcoming, interesting?  Seattle is that way for me and now, so is Amsterdam.  We weren't able to spend more than 1 night in Amsterdam, but we will come back for sure. 

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Amrath Amsterdam.  It is so interesting.  It started out in 1913 (100 years ago) as a monumental shipping house on the Prins Hendrikkade.  We were typical tourists taking pictures of all the architecture, iron work and windows. 

This morning we got up and went to the Anne Frank house.  I am currently reading The Diary of Anne Frank (last I read it I was 12).  The tour sure brings the book alive.  It is a well-run, well laid out tour.  And so sad, knowing they lived in the tiny Annex for almost 3 years.  Never going out, breathing fresh air, being able to talk and walk normally.  The group was betrayed in August 1944.  Anne eventually died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945.  In her diaries Anne continued to write of her fears of being found out.  I can only imagine her horror at being sent away and losing her family.  We had a nice walk about town, stopping to have a coffee, hot chocolate and a croissant.  Oh, and we also wandered by one store front with an “interesting array of products”, no pictures allowed.  Again, Amsterdam is a lovely city.  It will be nice to come back some day. 

We are now on our next adventure, cruise on the Rhine River.  We are on a Viking Cruise on the Helvetia.  We have a lovely cabin, and are ready to enjoy this leg of our trip.

We love you and miss you.  Hope all is well with you.  Bc and gc