Day Trip to Chateaux de Chambord, Chenonceau and Loire Valley

We booked a bus tour to the Loire Valley and to see Two Chateaus and taste wine.  This was a long day and very rushed.  You will spend a minimum 5 hours riding on the bus for a 9 hour tour.  Even though you are on the bus a lot it gives you an opportunity to see the area south west of Paris.



Chateaux Chambord

Double Spiral Staircase

The estate of Chambord is a Unesco world heritage site.  This Chateaux is a fairy tale castle with many spires and domes.  There is a double spiral staircase in the centre of the Chateaux.  This Chateaux was not used very much as it was very cold and difficult to heat.



After a tour and short visit on our own we are off Chateaux Nitray a small family owned vineyard.  We gathered for a wholesome lunch of roast chicken, potatoes, salad, goats cheese and apple tart with lots of wine to clear the pallet during each course.  Our host also took time to explain how to correctly taste his wine.

 



Chateau de Nitray

The last stop is Chateaux de Chenonceau which is famous for being built over a river.  During the second world war the Germans were on one side of the Chateaux and the allies on the other and the only way to cross the river was through the Chateaux.

Chateaux Chenonceau

 Wine produced on this estate.

The ride back to Paris was uneventful.  We made good time, sometimes the traffic is so bad that the trip can take an extra hour.

 



 

Day Trip to Reims

If you have time you can easily take a day trip to Reims in the province of Champagne.  To get to Reims you can take a train from Gare de I'Est or the east train station accessible by subway.  Book your ticket as soon as possible.  Ticket price goes up as you get closer to the day you want to travel.  The ticket you purchase will also identify the train car and seat that you have been assigned.  This is a 45 minute train ride and you get to see the country side between Paris and Reims.



Reims Cathedral

There is a lot of history in Reims.  The Cathedral where the kings were crowned is a UNESCO Heritage sight.  It is easy to find and is within walking distance of the train station or take the Tram.  Buy a Tram ticket from the dispenser at the stop.  There is a small tourist information booth just outside the Reims train station that can provide a map of the town and information regarding the historic sights.



Stain Glass Windows

 

Joan of Arc

You will also find a wonderful sculpture of Joan of Arc in the church as she was a significant person in this community.
During WWII the community protected the stain glass and the artifacts.

At the end of WWII the peace treaty was signed by the Germans on May 7 in Reims.  You can visit the war room that housed General Montgomery and where the treaty was signed.  There is a video that is worth watching with English subtitles so that you understand the significance of the war room.  The Sanctuary Museum is located in a School on the opposite direction of the Cathedral from the railway station.  You can easily find this museum with a short ride on the Tram.  Tram tickets are good for 1 hour and you can use for a return trip if you are within the hour of activation.



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War Room with Names on Chair Backs



Copy of the Peace Treaty WWII

Another highlight in Reims are the numerous Champagne Houses within walking distance of the train station.  Champagne can only be made in the province of Champagne and they must follow very strict guidelines.  The Chalk Caves in the area are ideal for the storage of the wine.  We visited two different Champagne producers.

Martel is a small family run business and provided an excellent English tour.  You get to sample three different champagnes for a reasonable price.



Riddling Racks

Our second visit was to Taittinger Champagne.  This is a much larger establishment with miles of chalk caves created in the past by Monks and were used during the second world war as a bomb shelter.  The site previously had a Basilica on the land and the monks had made Champagne in the caves below the church.  This tour was less personal and but an excellent choice to compare the two different producers


Champagne Wine Storage Area




 



Day Trip Chateau De Versailles



Front Gate

Our first day trip was to Versailles.  It is easy to get to Versailles by using the subway and taking the C train out of the city.  After a short train trip you reach the train station and walk about three blocks to the gates of Versailles.  We made sure that we would arrive before the crowds and arrived by 9:30 am.  We then booked a tour of the Kings apartment and the Opera house.  Tours can be booked online ahead of time but we were not sure about our arrival time.

The guided tour was excellent and I would recommend that you take a tour.  The Opera house is amazing.  It was designed so that the floor of the audience can be raised to one level and balls could be held in the same space.



Opera House

Once the tour ended we went through the rooms open to the public.  The Museum Pass covers the entrance fee to the Chateau De Versailles. 

One of the many fountains.

View of the gardens from Chateaux

From the palace we entered the gardens which are free when the fountains are not working.  If you go when the fountains are working you will need to pay extra to enter the gardens.  It would be fantastic to see the fountains if they are anything like the fountains at Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg Russia.




We made our way to the Grand Trianon Chateaux which is included in the Museum Pass and is a 30 minutes walk from the palace.  This private retreat was built so that the King and Queen could escape from the court.







What a great day trip and an easy 30 minute trip back to Paris.  The Chateaux is only 10 Km from Paris but when it was built it seemed much further travelling by horse and carriage.






Garden side of palace.

Caens - Normandy Beaches

 

This was an interesting tour visiting the Canadian Battlefields and seeing where my father landed on D-day and Bill's grandfather had been during World War I.  Until you see the number of young men who lost their lives during the two World Wars you have no idea the loss that was endured.  This was a very emotional time during our tour.

Watch the attached Video for an synopsis of our Canadian Battlefield tour with Insight Vacations.   This was a special trip with Dr. Jody Perrin from the University of Manitoba.

https://vimeo.com/128127527




An excellent museum maintained by Canada.

 

Beach that the Canadians came up on D-day

German Gun that defended the beach area.

One on the many Canadian Grave yards maintained in northern France.

Netherlands 70th Anniversary

Amsterdam to Arnhem

On May 4, 2015 we traveled to the Canadian War Cemetery in Holten to celebrate the Liberation of Holland.  The ceremony was held in the cemetery. Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke and the Princess of Holland was in attendance.  The town of Holten celebrates every year and the children lay flowers on the graves of the soldiers who died in the second world war.  Each child is also responsible for keeping a soldiers grave cared for thus helping generations to remember what these men did for their country.

Holten Cemetery Ceremony

Poppies are dropped at the end of the ceremony.

After the ceremony we travelled to Arnhem and saw the "Bridge too Far".  During this bridge was too far for troops to get to and gain control of the river crossing during WWI. 

On May 5 the Netherlands celebrates the official end of World War I.  The town of Wageningen holds a celebration and parade.  The town of Wageningen is significant as the peace treaty was signed between the allies and Germany which ended WWI.  There is an eternity flame across from the hotel were the treaty signed.  The liberation parade winds through the city centre and consists of army vehicles, veterans, numerous military regiments and bands.

During the evening we made a trip to Deventer for their Tattoo.  The evening performance was held in a football (soccer) stadium.  There were several bands from Holland and two pipe and drum bands from Canada.  The most unusual band rode bicycles and played their instruments at the same time without running into each other.  This was outstanding!!  The evening was topped with a fireworks display that easily surpassed some of our July 1 fireworks displays.



From Arnhem we leave the Netherlands for Belgium to the town of Burges.

Around Amsterdam

Zaandam, Holland


Inntel Hotel

This time we decided to stay north of Amsterdam in the town of Zaandam.  The trains are so fast, up to 133 km per hour, that it is easy to commute into central Amsterdam and it takes less than 15 minutes to the airport.  Zaandam is known for the Inntel Hotel and main shopping street.

You can easily access the town from the train station and we stayed at the Zaan Inn Hotel west of the train station, an easy walk. 

In 1663 Csar Peteroff also lived in the Zaandam area and his house is open to visitors.



Draw Bridge and Lock on the Zaan River

This city is the main access for ships into Amsterdam from the Atlantic along the Zaan River.  The Zaan River is an industrial area that started when Holland was a major player in the industrial era and exploring the world.  Goods that were brought back to Holland from abroad were processed with the windmills along the river.   At one time there were over 600 windmills located along the river. 


Zaanse Schans Windmills


The town of Zaanse Schans has tried to preserve some of this region's industrial heyday.  You can check out the clock museum, see how  cheese is made, check out how wooden shoes are made by machine from green Canadian Popular along with a variety of other interesting stores.  The working windmills are an experience in themselves.

This area can become very busy during high season as it is close to Amsterdam and a frequent stop on bus tours.

You can also take a boat trip up the Zaan River to see merchant houses and industry that is still in existence along the river.


Van Gogh 125 years


Keukenhof is also not to be missed if you are in the area around March 20 to May 17.  This is the annual Tulip display.  Until you visit the gardens you can not believe the variety of spring flowers on display - tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils.  Thousands of people visit the gardens each year from all over the world.  Go early so that you can enjoy the gardens before the hoards of people arrive.  Access is easy by a special bus from Schiphol Airport.  We spent an enjoyable five hours strolling the gardens and visiting the different pavilions.  In 2015 the theme was Van Gough and they created a special mosaic in flowers to honor the famous artist.


There are thousands of tulips and flowering bulbs on display and you can visit the Orchid Pavilion for a different experience.

Visually Stunning!

Enkhuizen




Tulip Fields

Our last day of touring we decided to go north through Hoorn and stop in the town of Enkhuizen and visit the open air museum of Zuiderzee.  You can choose to take a steam train from Hoorn and the a boat to the open air museum or ride the fast train directly from Zaandam or Amsterdam.  Along the way I was surprized to see fields of tulips growing.  I just never imagined tulips as an agricultural crop.  It is quite beautiful to see the red, yellow, white and purple fields.  The picture below is an example of the fields. It was not possible to take a picture on the train going 125 km per hour.



The town of Enkhuizen is situated on the fresh water lake called Ijsselmeer, that was created in the 1930's when a dike was completed at Den Oever which held back the sea water.  The water gradually turned to fresh water.  The dike allowed several areas to be drained which created farm land.  Enkhuizen is located on the edge of the lake so there are a lot of boats and on the Saturday we visited many people were enjoying the lake on their sail boats.  This area must be very windy as we could see numerous windmills on the lake to generate power.

The old town has cobbled streets, smalls brick houses and some interesting sites.  There are has several canals running through the old town as this was their means of transportation in the past.  Now people moor their pleasure boats along the cannels. 

Cannel Entrance with Draw Bridge

It is a pleasant 15 minute walk from the train station along the sea wall to get to the Zuiderzee Museum.  There are two sections the indoor museum located before the outdoor museum.  The outdoor museum is a very interesting fishing village. You can see what life was like for a variety of different time periods.  The houses have been moved to this area from several areas located around the reclaimed land.  The live interpreters are a wonderful addition to assist in learning about life during the time period represented.  We spent about five hours visiting this area.



Zuiderzee Museum

Holland is a great place to travel.  There are no language issues as everyone seems to speak English.  If you plan to use a credit card it needs to be a chip card as some places no longer accept swiping a credit card.  Grocery stores do not accept credit cards.




Hawaii 2015 Maui and Lana'i



What a great time to leave the frigid climate of Canada for a tropical paradise.  I must admit that Hawaii is great anytime of the year.
This trip we returned to Maui for the third time and are traveling to the small island of Lana'i.  Lana'i can be reached by a 45 minute ferry ride from Lahaina or by a small plane.


Arriving on Lana'i

If you are flying into Maui and planning to take the ferry to Lana'i the same day make sure that you pre-book the ferry and give yourself enough time to get from the airport to the boat dock. We were told that the transportation we had booked would get us to the Lahaina for the 3 pm ferry with time to spare.  Instead the transport left late from the airport and the road was congested so we could not even go the speed limit.  As we arrived to the boat dock the ferry was pulling away.  This was extremely frustrating as the next ferry was a 2 hour wait and would mean that we would arrive in the dark.  It can be very difficult to find your way around a new town in the dark and we had dinner reservation already made for that evening.  We had pre-booked the later ferry so we were guaranteed a place on the boat.  We had only hoped that we could change to the 3 pm ferry if we had arrived on time.  If we had not pre-book the last ferry we would not have made it to Lana'i that day which would have created issues with our accommodation reservation.




Shipwreck Beach

On Lana'i we stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast called Sweet Dreams.  The house is located on a main street but the town is not very busy.  There are 4 rooms available for renting as the owners live in another house located close by.  Each room has there own bathroom which is a wonderful perk.  Breakfast was served fresh with excellent coffee we really enjoyed having eggs cooked for us each day. Because this is a bed and breakfast you do hear other guests in the house.  Everyone was very considerate and kept the noise level very low.  It was the start of deer hunting season so people were getting up between 4 and 5 am so it's important to realize that this is a possibility.



Valley of the Gods

We had a wonderful meal at  the first night and then were able to cook our own dinners at the bed and breakfast which was a bonus if you are tired of eating in restaurants.  We had a wonderful experience of trying grilled Axis deer meat.  This was definitely a highlight of our trip to Hawaii.

Lana'i is an interesting island to visit.  There are a few wonderful surprises to see as well as a wonderful beach area with excellent snorkeling.   If you are only interested in the beach take a day trip to Lana'i the beach is only a 10 minute walk from the ferry terminal.  But if you are interested in see the Garden of the Gods or go to shipwreck beach then you need to stay on Lana'i and either hire a driver or rent a 4 wheel vehicle to get you places.

Back on Maui we noticed how busy the island has become since the 80's.  We stayed at the Westin Oceanside Villa and had a great room with a kitchen.  We spent a lot of time by the pool or on the beach.  Most of the sights we had seen previously so we spent the time relaxing. 


Whale Tail
 

We did a whale watching tour which was great because the  whales were in the bay with their calves.  Not a lot of whales breaching when we were there in February/March for two weeks. 





Spouting Whale

What was disappointing is not number of full days of rain.  This we did not expect because we have never been to Hawaii in the winter.



Beautiful Sunset on Hawaii