Author: brombergblog

Portland, Maine was the predominant reason we decided to come to Maine. John’s mom, Mildred (aka Billie) Rosenberg Bromberg was born and raised in Portland. Her dad died when she was about 8 years old. So we decided to come to Portland to learn about her and her ancestry.

After we finished our shopping in Kennebunkport we drove north to Portland. We had to wait a couple of hours until our apartment was ready, but it was worth the wait. We had been upgraded to a 2 bedroom apartment and we used the second bedroom to store stuff…..but it was a nice, large apartment belonging to the Docent’s Collection.

We were tired so we ordered Chinese food delivered. It was nice to sit and watch TV and eat.

In the morning we went to Deering High School from which John’s mom graduated in 1939 as salutatorian of her class. He got her transcript and screen shots of her 1938 and 1939 yearbooks. In her senior year in interscholastic debate she was voted the outstanding speaker in the State of Maine. She graduated Wellesley College as a Wellesley Scholar in 1943, married John’s dad, and spent the balance of her life in Dallas.

Now it was time for a food stop…..or two! More lobster, more clams and some awesome gelato.

John next stopped at the Portland Room in the Portland Public Library while I stayed in the car. He copied info about the Rosenberg family from a bunch of books.

Next we drove by the offices of the Rosenberg Brothers real estate business. (Samuel and Jacob Rosenberg, John’s grandfather and great uncle), 85 Exchange Street.

Okay, that is enough family history for a moment. Since it was another sunny and beautiful day, we had booked passage on a sailing trip on the schooner Windjammer. It was great!

Smaller but similar.

We decided afterward to go check out the home of Samuel and Ida Rosenberg at 50 West Promenade. At first no one answered and John took some pictures. Then I waved down a car getting ready to turn in and it was one of the owners. David Fenton (nee Finkelstein) and partner Kathryn have lived there for 10 years and were thrilled to visit with us; they learned a lot and so did we! Plus they were fun and interesting to talk to.

David was 86, a high school dropout, Brown University magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, a race car driver, owner of Ferrari dealerships. He has a residence in New Zealand, 2 former wives and, by his account, numerous girlfriends. He was an interesting and entertaining guy.

Wonderful sunset as we left!

We went to dinner at High Roller Lobster Company……where we ran into a bride who was having her reception on the back patio!

That finished off a full and fun day! John decided in the morning that he had to go to Standard Bakery……where there was a long line. He waited.

Now it is Saturday, and we then went to the Victoria Mansion. It was built in 1858 to 1860 at a cost of $100,000 for the Robert Morse family, farmers from rural Maine who made a fortune managing hotels in New Orleans and retired in Portland. It is a fabulous and well maintained home.

I couldn’t go upstairs but I took lots of pictures from the iPad furnished to me.

We stopped for lunch at Bite Into Maine located in Allagash Brewery. Yet another lobster roll and a lobster BLT.

We went to see the Portland Museum of Art. It is a lovely, small museum. The first image was on the back door of the restroom; I had seen various versions of this several times in Maine and think it’s interesting that the state is so focused on this — interesting and good!

And the outdoor sculpture garden:

We stopped for one more ice cream. And then picked up salami and cheese to eat in the room.

We did one more bit of research. We had discovered the day before that Samuel had had four homes built together. One for his eldest son Jesse, one for his brother Jacob and one for Jacob’s son Julius. They are in a row with one across the street. The builder was John Burroughs who was a prominent builder of the time.

We had one more day in Portland before heading north. We drove by the old synagogue downtown(which was no longer in use) and then new synagogue in the suburbs hoping maybe we could learn more about John’s maternal grandfather who was instrumental in founding the old synagogue in 1904 — but it was closed. So we took pictures, including one of a hostel next to the old synagogue that amused me.

Our last landmark to visit in Portland was the Portland Head Light. It was bustling with visitors. And it was a beautiful sight on a beautiful afternoon.

One more wonderful and ridiculous clam dinner. And then a photo of the art in the lobby of our building.

On Monday morning we set off for points north.

See you there,

Beth

Howdy!

Welcome to Maine!  Lobster roll and fried clams to share for lunch and 1 ½ pound lobster and lobster roll for us for dinner!  Life is soooo good, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Yesterday, John and I flew to Boston; we got my bike (scooter) immediately up to the jetway, the luggage was already there when we got to Baggage Claim and the rental car came quickly.  We then made the easy drive to Gloucester, MA – all was going GREAT.  However, the phone rang….and we had left our carry-on (with our laptops, medicine, etc.) at the Boston Logan car rental center.  When the call came, we were one mile from our hotel and it was 11:15 pm.  We turned around and drove the 45 minutes back to Boston Logan and then made our way 45 minutes back to Gloucester.  In addition, when we called the hotel to tell them how late we were going to be, they said we didn’t have a reservation.  WHAT????

It turned out that I had made the reservation for 9/20 instead of 9/19.  The front desk guy told us over the phone that they had ONE room left and we could have it….and they kindly cancelled the one for the next night.  We finally got to bed at 2:15 a.m. and had tickets for the next morning at 10:00 a.m.  I did make time for two pics, one looking through our screen.

Things picked up in the morning.  We went to the Cape Ann Museum to see an exhibition of Edward Hopper paintings.  These were all paintings that he made in the Gloucester area.  It was a lovely small museum that was dedicated to the artists from that area.  The Hoppers were different from others I have seen but still interesting to see.  We stopped to look at a great sculpture on the coast dedicated to all those who had died at sea from 1623 to 1923 – a great sculpture!

The above by Hopper.

Our next stop was in Portsmouth, NH.  There is an area of old houses called Strawberry Banke; we didn’t get out and walk around but enjoyed looking at the historic homes.

Our next stop was for lunch in Kittery at Robert’s Maine Grill; we shared a lobster roll and fried whole belly clams – all yummy!  Kittery is home to LOTS of outlet stores, so we looked in a couple but didn’t find anything we had to have.

Onward north to York and the 1876 Cape Neddick Nubble Lighthouse on a rock outcrop in the Atlantic.

Afterward we continued to Ogunquit to the Ogunquit Museum of American Art; it was a very interesting museum.  We especially enjoyed the sculptures on the grounds.  

Afterward we stopped into one of the most photographed and visited places in Maine – Perkins Cove.  Let me tell you; it is NOT undiscovered.  The place was teeming with people.  By the way, the day was full sunshine, low 70’s and beautiful!  People were walking around or sitting and watching the surf.

We kept going and ended up in Kennebunkport at the Breakwater Inn and Spa in a truly lovely room on the ground floor (no elevator – so they guaranteed ground floor).  We had a wonderful back porch with Adirondack chairs looking at the junction of the Kennebunk River and Atlantic Ocean.  We sat on the porch and enjoyed the late afternoon sun on the water and the sunset – we had earned a rest!!!

 

We ended the day with dinner at Nunan’s Lobster Hut which has been around since 1953.  It was absolutely fabulous.  I had a 1 ½ pound lobster caught nearby earlier that day (which I shared) and John ordered another lobster roll.  We topped it off with homemade blueberry pie a la mode.  WOW!  What a decadent day….….with plans for lots more lobster to come!

We were lazy finally the next morning, awakening whenever it happened. Our first move was to go look at the Walker’s Point Estate, otherwise known as the Bush Compound, the summer home of George H. W. Bush.

We decided to do some shopping in Kennebunkport. We had a bunch of luck and landed a parking place right in the middle of all the shopping area. Then we walked around for a couple of hours…..ending with lunch at Ben & Jerry’s — more decadence!

And my favorite spotting amid all the Bush/Reagan/Cheney goodies in the shops!

And I thought the sign below was reserved for B & J, Beth and John — no, Ben & Jerry!

We then drove through Kennebunk and our favorite sight there was the Wedding Cake House.

And then we were off to our next stop…..on the next blog!

Later,

Beth

On August 19th we arrived in Kotor, Montenegro. Actually Kotor is on a deep bay and has been inhabited since antiquity. We docked at Kotor but walked around both there and in Perast. There are LOTS of churches there.

Susan and Jeff walked around town on their own and then decided to hike up to the top of the mountain — no small feat!!!

And back on the ship John shows the wall of the elevator with our floor selected

On our next to last day of sailing we stopped at another town in which I have spent time in 2005 — Split. Our guide absolutely made it come alive, It is the home of the palace of Diocletian. It was built at the beginning of the 4th century.

The Unesco Symbol

You can tell that I really enjoyed the palace. Outside of Diocletian’s Palace, is a statue of Gregory of Nin. He was a medieval bishop, famous for defying the Catholic church in Rome and insisting they introduce the national Croatian language into Catholic services throughout Croatia. (Wikipedia)

Now we had to get back up a few stairs!

We saw a funny carving on the side of an old building. The man is shaking his fist at the woman who is flipping her middle finger back at him!!! That long ago

The next stop was to the museum that housed the art of Ivan Meštrovi, (15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) He was a sculptor, architect, painter, and writer. He was adopted at age nine by a patron that recognized his genius from early wood carvings. He studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris and became a prominent modern sculptor. He later in life taught at Notre Dame.

Mastrovi designed his own home with 2 wings-one for his wife and one for the mother of his children. He divorced his first wife because she couldn’t give him an heir and married his second wife. After his death, his home became a museum.

Some of his works are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here is a sampling.

We were then taken on a boat cruise through mountainous and wooded areas to a restaurant featuring all local food. Let’s just say the food was interesting….

It was hot, hot, hot…..and very humid — can you tell by looking at me?

That night we gathered for drinks in their interesting bar, the Salt Lab. There was an entire menu of interesting alcoholic creations….and a few non-alcoholic ones that they created for John.

Our last stop was in the town of Rovinj, Croatia. We were tired of guided tours and so opted just to take the shuttle from the ship to the town and to walk around and shop some. Amazingly, I only bought some walking shoes and a purse — NO trinkets. Susan and Jeff opted to take a swim in the Adriatic off of the rocks at the point of the town.

I have to give Susan credit for most of the pictures above. We were too lazy and hot to take a lot of pictures. Wouldn’t you know we escape the Texas heat only to get to Croatia in a heat wave with higher humidity as well.

Anyway, back on board we cleaned up and headed back to our favorite bar before dinner. The bartender there was so much fun to watch; he really put on a show all the time while making drinks!

And that was the end of our cruise. In the morning we were in the van and headed to Italy.

That’s all folks!

Beth

Another trip — this time with Susan and Jeff — cruising from Venice down to Dubrovnik and back….then three days in Italy.

We flew from Austin to London to Venice and didn’t even go into the city — straight to the ship, Silversea’s brand new ship, SilverNova. It is the premier cruise for this ship, so it’s shiny and new. We splurged for a larger room to accommodate the occasional visits from the Crumpleys…..at least that was my excuse 🙂

Our first stop was at Piran, Slovenia. Then we had a bus ride to the capital of the country — Ljubljana. That’s pronounced l00-blee-ana — we had no idea. It is famous for its triple bridge; however, absent an elevated vantage point, I was unable to get a great picture. Ljubljana is Slovenia’s largest city. It is home to a large university. The city center is pedestrian only.

Time for a cocktail! And dinner…..

The next day we arrived at Zadar, Croatia. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It, like all of this area, has been under the rule of many countries:

We walked around the center of the old town and saw the church, baptistry and tower.

The we learned that the area was well known for its salt flats. John posed scraping the salt.

And we finished up with a lovely wine tasting and some food.

And we were back to the dock.

Susan and Jeff finished the night with some c0cktails. Susan ordered one that was a surprise!

The next morning brought us to Dubrovnik — an exciting stop, but one I had been to before. Only this time there would no longer be a wall climb for me…just for the others! I did ride around in the city.

The Spanish Steps of Dubrovnik…..not of Rome! Also, a familiar site for Game of Thrones devotees.

Meanwhile, pictures from on top of the wall around the city.

John was walking by himself (since I had left) on the walls at the top of the city and ran into Susan and Jeff headed the other way….so he turned around and joined them.

We dressed up a little more for dinner that night.

This seems like a good time to end this blog and move onto the next.

See you soon,

Beth

As I said, this was an exciting day — at least for the other three.

On our way to Maranello, Italy (home of the Ferrari factory), we drove by a Calatrava designed train station and bridge.

The others began the day test driving a Ferrari 488 spider convertible, each for ten minutes with a “co-pilot” assisting them. THEY LOVED IT!!!

Next we visited the Ferrari Museum a short walk away, some still supercharged with adrenaline. Lots more cars and information about Ferrari — great!

The Ferrari cafe had a great lunch. And it was quick and easy, so we stopped into it before proceeding to the Galleria nazionale di Parma. First stop was in the Library.

Next we went into the Farnese Theatre.

And into the art gallery area…..

And back to the hotel for me. The rest ventured onward.

John, Susan and Jeff went to a rural salumeria (a facility where various cuts of meat from pigs are cut and cured) and containing a Michelin-starred restaurant. Following a tour of the facility and living quarters we had a tasting of cured ham and salami with wine on the patio of the restaurant.

Meanwhile, I sat in the room and worked on pictures and this blog. Then we went to the neighborhood restaurant for yet some more pasta. This part of Italy is known for its food!

Next morning we slept in and were ready to take off at 10:00 a.m. — a nice late start for a change! We went back to Parma to see its spectacular cathedral. So beautiful!!!

And the Baptistry into which we did not go. There is a legend that if you enter the Baptistry before graduating from the University, you will not graduate. Our driver, Paolo, told us that his sister never entered it while in school 🙂

The next stop was the Palace Te in the town of Mantua (also known as Mantova). It was the palace of the Gonzaga family and it is yet another quite beautiful building. Each room around the perimeter of the main structure was decorated by a different artist during the period 1527 to 1532-one more spectacular than the next.

And the most spectacular room — every inch covered in murals, The Kingdom of the Giants.

Back in the car we drove to Al Re del Tortellino, The King of Tortellini. It was all excellent. Paolo knew the restaurant from his sister’s husband. Many consider it the best tortellini in all of Italy. We certainly thought so-lovely place, great service and food in a charming small village outside Mantova.

And off to another small and beautiful little town, Borghetto, for some world-class gelato.

And then off to the Venice Marriott Courtyard adjacent to the Venice Marco Polo Airport for a short night followed by an early short shuttle before our early flight home via London Heathrow.

An exciting last 3 days following our seven day cruise to four of the six former countries comprising Yugoslavia since 1991-Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia.

Thanks all,

Beth

Well, since I lost everything I had added to my blog while on the ship, I decided to do it backwards…..meaning this is the last three days of our adventure. Once we disembarked from the ship we met Paolo, our driver, with his Mercedes van for a two plus hour trip from Venice to this area of Italy.

Our first stop was to find our about the creation of Parmesan Reggiano cheese.

Our guide explained the process to us. There are four different types of cows used in making Parmesan; this factory has Holstein cows. The label on the wheel has lots of meanings: date created, where, etc. The vats after that go two feet below the surface and are used to mix the ingredients — milk and salt. And then the cheese is placed in containers in the third picture that are containing a ring that has all the printing on it. The cheese is covered in cloth that is changed every twenty minutes as it becomes wet with the fluid. This is where the milk comes out and the cheese if formed. You can see it bulging out of the top of the circle, then it will become more dense and shrink down.

There is another process where it is submerged in vats, then it is placed in a warming room and finally stacked in a room to age. The second picture with the circular stripes shows the second best cheese and the pale one below that is the unacceptable cheese.

There was a hurricane in 2011 that took out the entire factory and their whole “cheese production.” However, they were able to sell the cheese as “Hurricane Parmesan” so recovered much of their loss.

Lastly, the tasting of the different ages of cheese: 12, 18, 24 and 60 months. All were great!

Then we were off to the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena (there is another one in Maranello). There we saw a bunch of the older Ferraris as well as one from 2022. There was lots of information and a beautiful video on the wall of the museum. Great stop!

Our next stop was in the old part of Modena, the duomo and piazza.

Our last stop of a very full day was on top of some mountains at a 300 years’ old building that had been owned by the same family for six generations. They made balsamic vinegar. I was only able to go to the bottom floor but I was able to taste all of the different types of goodness! To be designated “Traditional” the balsamic vinegar must be aged either 12 years or 25 years in multiple different types and sizes of wood casks. Without that designation it can be aged for only a short period and sells for a fraction of the cost of “Traditional.” In the

We were pretty tired now so we headed to Parma. Our hotel named The Cube was in a suburb from Parma. We ordered pizzas which we ate in our rooms and fell into our beds.

The next morning was the exciting day for the other three-but I’m getting ahead of myself and you’ll have to wait.

This blog will not be of as much interest to anyone but family because we didn’t go see anything that was sightseeing. Also, we have been home for a week but I was too tired to finish up my blogging for this trip until now.

Originally, John had wanted to drive from Bordeaux to Paris without stopping, but that was over a six hour drive and we had carefully planned this trip (originally) to not ever have more than three hours of driving……and, since I do 99% of the driving — well, you know, I got to choose!

So I found this really nice property near Poitiers, France — and it was a spa!! Perfect “almost ending” to our trip — Chateau le Clos de la Ribeaudiere. We were to arrive there in the evening, spend the night and then have two spa procedures the next day, then spend that night and off to Paris the next morning.

We had our morning massages. John was able to access the spa for an hour beforehand, but that included a pool, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. I couldn’t do the wet part and wasn’t so interested in the dry…..so I skipped it. You can see from my hair below that I had gotten an oily massage. Then we stopped for lunch and then John got to do our second treatment — the royal hammam! He told me it was fabulous and I only hated him a little since, again, too wet for my leg. The lunches were beautiful and tasted great!

John was pretty proud of his packing; we don’t travel light and getting it all in was like a jigsaw puzzle!

Then we arrived in Paris to visit again with Campbell, Autari, Calder and Aalto. This was a highlight of our trip, especially spending time with our grandsons! Spoiler alert: family photos coming.

Puss (in the foreground) and Rospo

You who know me know that I cannot go to Paris without going to Le Relais du Venise L’Entrecote. So we went for lunch and Campbell was available to join us. Calder was in school and Autari at work and Aalto with the nanny. It is so yummy; nobody’s steak and frites can compare! We arrived about 11:40 a.m. for a noon opening; the crowd was really large by opening time. Luckily, I found a seat while John and Campbell held out place.

On our last night there we went out for really good Thai and met Kate there. Kate is one-half of Campbell’s best friends.

Autari decided he needed a haircut on our last morning and Calder wanted to help!

We had a pretty grueling trip home. We left Campbell’s home around 10:30 a.m. for a 3:00 p.m. departure, dropped the rental car at the airport, flew through Minneapolis, had a 3 hour layover there, and arrived in Austin at 11:59 p.m. We got to our house by 2:00 a.m. — 9:00 a. m. the next day Paris time. It was a long day and we were vegetables on the couch for two days following. Not going anywhere for awhile!!! Ready for home….

Fondly,

Beth

On May 17th we arrived in St. Emilion after cruising down the highway for awhile. What a charming town!

And, yes, we did make our way down there — found a street that wasn’t too sloped.

And a nice ruin on the way out of town…

Back on the road to Bordeaux. We stayed at a Best Western — the Grand Hotel Francois. It is located in an older area of downtown which is pedestrian only with limited exceptions–we needed a passcode to enter the area. John off-loaded me and the bags, then had to drive out of the area to park the car — where we left it until we left town.

I ended up switching us to a handicapped room there because I discovered that all of their rooms had only a queen sized bed, except for the handicapped room which had a king! Good thing to watch for!!

We skipped dinner after our late lunch and John did a really great thing — he set up a driver and van for the next morning at 10:30 a.m. We had a nice tour, first stopping at the main cathedral, St. Andre.

We drove around for awhile. I really liked seeing the Ukrainian flag flying over an entrance to a public building. We entered another smaller church whose windows have been replaced; I prefer the older ones.

After driving a little more we came to the Cite du Vin. National Geographic rated this the 7th best museum in the world. It had lots of information about how wine is made, its history, best areas for growth and way more. We watched several movies and saw lots of exhibits before ending up on the 8th floor with views and a glass on wine (included with entry).

John stomped on the grapes!

And back down and across the street to the food stalls for lunch. Embarrassingly, John had a healthy salad while I had three of the six churros, hot from the fire…..and delicious. John threw the rest out later without asking me — I almost shot him!

That evening after a little more driving around we walked to the Brasserie Bordelaise, written up as having the best steak frites in Bordeaux. We shared a salad, shared the steak frites, then each ordered the profiteroles. The latter caused a raised eyebrow from our waiter — you’ll see why in a minute!

Amazingly, we did it justice!!!!

On our last morning in Bordeaux we jus wandered around — first to go see the magnificent fountain we had driven by the day before. Hope you like it; we took LOTS of pictures of it.

We walked on the the “Mirror of Water”, the largest reflecting pool in the world. It was meant to be walked in or played in by children and is intentionally only a couple of inches deep. So I played. There were beautiful gardens around it.

It was pretty cool out so the children weren’t playing in the water…..but I was!

The view across from the Wall of Water.

We wandered into a random, but very beautiful church on our way back to the hotel. I loved all the tiles on the wall the said “Merci” to the saint. Also the memorial to those who died in the war. It is the Eglise St. Pierre.

We concluded our morning walking to Uniqlo, John’s and Kathryn’s favorite inexpensive shopping stop, but had to have a little ice cream on the way.

Now it was time to start heading back to Paris…..but we found a treat along the way; a nice hotel and spa, but that’s next.

Beth

Directly south of the Loire Valley sits perhaps the most beautiful landscape in France — the Dordogne (once called Perigord). It is beautiful, rolling and high hills, rock bluffs, rivers and caves . We stayed at an over-the-top resort that we took advantage of, especially the terrace. We skipped going out to dinner and ate on the terrace outside our room — great for tired bodies!

The next morning we had tickets to see the Caves of Lascaux. These are caves that hold prehistoric art of the Neanderthals that was done about 17,000 years ago. The caves were discovered in 1940 accidentally by four boys whose dog sniffed at the opening. There are detailed and complex paintings of animals and humans. Wrap your head around that for a minute — older than you can even imagine!

We were not allowed to take pictures while in the caves, but could once we were in the museum. This was a mind-boggling experience and one I will never forget. John saw the caves on a trip with his cousin and aunt and uncle when he was 16–if you’re scoring at home that was 61 years ago. The original cave still allowed visitors at that time, but closed to the public two years later. What we entered was a 2016 museum with an underground reproduction of the 1940 original discovery, but so well done that you would swear you were in the real thing! This was a highlight of the trip!!! After emerging from the cave we entered a ground level museum with reproductions and displays which we allowed to photograph.

Not only is the museum an incredibly beautiful building but the information given is very well done and extremely interesting. By the way, when you are walking through the cave, it is very narrow and, at places, not very tall; it is still more comfortable to pass through than the original. Do go there if you get the chance.

After lunch at the museum, we drove into the town of Sarhat-la-Caneda and walked around awhile.

On the way back to the hotel John stopped to buy some cheese and breads. I told him that it reminded me of when my mother would let my father go into the bakery on Sunday mornings after church; we always ended up with a lot more goodies!

I think we must have had another picnic that evening. By the way, I have watched a lot of BBC and CNN. Also, this is a good time to mention the driving in France — it is truly wonderful! Everyone drives in the right lane ALL THE TIME, except to pass. They must pop out WITH A BLINKER to the next lane, pass and pop right back in, after putting on the right blinker. I LOVE IT.

On May 16th we visited the Chateau des Milandes. It was the home of the entertainer Josephine Baker and her fourth husband. She worked for the French resistance during World War II. She adopted 12 children of all races from all over the world. Even though she entertained constantly to large crowds she made it a point to never be away from her adopted children for more than a week at a time. She also saw that they went to the best schools. We were given iPads with information about each room, so — even though I could not go everywhere — I could hear the stories! It was lovely.

The first of our misfortunes happened immediately after we had seen the chateau. My bike just locked up. The front tire would not move. However, the lunch there had come highly recommended so we went to eat. I had a croque monsieur and John had a beautiful tomato salad.

There was a bird show which I always love. So I hobbled down the hill to the show!!!

Afterward, a man helped John carry the bike to the car and we put into our car’s gps — bike shop near me. And, voila! The best repairman ever!!! He put a new brake wire connection on the bike, oiled everything to remove lots of rust and basically made it like new.

So onward we went to visit the Chateau de Beynac; I couldn’t even get past the gate even though I had already bought the ticket. Just as well — very rough road. And, boy, we were high up.

Afterward we headed back to the hotel where I took a couple shots:

We joined our normal yoga zoom meeting taught by my sister Anne — at 10:00 a.m. in Texas and at 5:00 p.m. in France.

And, of course, another terrace picnic in the evening!

On the next day, we were lazy and got out slowly. We walked around Sarlat-la-Caneda some more and ended up at La Cremerie — the number one restaurant in town with in excess of 500 5-star reviews. We had a great lunch sitting outside!

I ordered camembert — wasn’t expecting it melted. It was delicious!

Then disaster struck; as I was getting up, there was a large umbrella stand with no umbrella between our table and the next — very close to each other. I was trying to get around it and stumbled, falling onto the sidewalk and bringing down the table, glasses and plates with it. I had on navy stretch pants, so I made my way (with help) to the toilette. When I pulled down the blood soaked pants I could see a 4 inch by 1 inch cut on my right kneecap. In the meantime, I could hear the ambulance arrive (which the restaurant called). Yes, I needed stitches, so they whisked me away to the hospital and sent John with my scooter to the car and then to the hospital. The paramedic used his translator app to talk to me and I downloaded the same app…..knowing I would need it to speak to the hospital. I didn’t know ANY of those words 🙂

So I took a few pics from in the hospital. I was there for five hours; they insisted on x-rays, then more waiting, then 7 stitches. Poor John was in the hall, unable to come back with me. It must have been even more boring for him. On the advice of my daughter Melissa (and my own common sense) I have not included the pic of the gash — trust me, it is graphic! Oh, the hospital took off my pants, so the nurses kindly wrapped me in a fabric to get back into the hotel. The doctor prescribed antibiotics, multiple gauze and other bandages, sterile water and extra strength acetaminophen. We then reached the pharmacy in town just before it closed at 7:30pm and headed back to the hotel–a long lunch. I augmented the prescriptions with a drink as soon as we hit the hotel.

That blouse and those bloody pants were immediately relegated to a plastic bag to be next seen in Austin. In the morning I took a couple of pictures of the area near the hotel which I liked. Then, we were off to Bordeaux by way of St. Emilion. I AM ONE TOUGH COOKIE!

Love,

Beth

It’s the third blog from the Loire — we saw so much! And, here’s an answer to a question “where do you find the time to blog?” Well, the answer is in the room in the late afternoon while drinking a gin and tonic. It is also my way of remembering the wonderful things we have done on a trip!!

So we moved onto the close-by chateau of Azay-le-Rideau; it is another that we saw all those years ago. Azay was built early in the 16th century in the Renaissance style and future owners continued their work. It is an iconic symbol of that era.

I walked all the way around the chateau as John explored inside. I did get to go in on the ground floor.

I went into the Secret Garden — beautiful!

We ordered a bottle of a Grand Cru St. Emilion for dinner that night.

That was a full day. On our last day, we visited the Chateau d’Amboise, our local chateau. While not as famous as others, it did provide interest. Plus, we were provided with our own special entrance for handicapped vehicles — what a bonus — no mountain to climb!

View from the chateau to our hotel.

I was able to go our on the bottom level above, but not the top one.

We went back to the hotel for a minute; there was an interesting piece of furniture in the lobby. The hotelier said he thought it had been for holding different spices.

Then we walked back to our favorite little patisserie, Bigot, for lunch — catching a couple of fun sights while sitting there.

Next we were off to Blere, a small town recommended by the hotel. John went into a cheese shop and a small church

On our last morning we walked down the Loire to the Sunday market, a huge group of merchants with food and many other things.

Afterward, we headed to the Dordogne…..but that’s another story

Soon

Beth