Greetings to my fellow skiers and
snowboarders. I thought you might be
interested in just what your club
president has been up to during this HOT
off season. Dee and I took two of our
High School senior graduating grand
daughters and one of their mothers (our
daughter Debbie) on a 15 day European
tour. The tour was produced by Brendan
Worldwide Vacations, out of Chatsworth
CA, in conjunction with Group Voyagers
Inc., dba Globus.
We departed San Diego at 11:30 a.m.
Sunday, June 25th, arriving in Paris at
11:55 a.m., Monday, June 26th (for a
total of about 13 hours of flight time,
plus 2 hours lay-over in Houston). We
flew through 9 time zones. Anyway, the
whole point is that it was a very
loooong first day. The tour included all
our (very good) breakfasts and most of
our dinners. The next day included a
local guide to the Arc de Triomphe,
Opera, Madeleine, Louvre, Notre Dame
Cathedral, Champs-Elysees. The panoramic
view from the 2nd floor of the Eiffel
Tower was great.
The 4th day was travel via a brand new,
five month old Mercedes bus (Europe says
they're coaches), to Lucerne,
Switzerland. The seats were very
comfortable and its air conditioning was
very good.
However, no matter how comfortable their
seats and great the air, after five to
seven hours in them, it really starts to
hurt. The 5th day we saw the
Thorwaldsen's Lion Monument, viewed
ornate patrician houses lining cobbled
streets of the walled Old Town, crossed
on a famed covered Chapel Bridge to a
Jesuit Church, visited all sorts of
shop, had a folklore party of first-hand
impression of Alpine merrymaking with
lunch, yodeling, music 'and alphorn
blowing, cruse a fjord-like lake, road a
six person gondola up to the 7000'
Pilatus Mountain (one of my favorite
tours) and back down on the worlds
steepest cogwheel railway (this was
another looong day). The 6th day was
travel to Como, Italy, via the 7000' St.
Gotthard Pass with lunch in Laguano. The
7th day, travel again to Florence, via
Pisa, where we of course, visited the
"Leaning Tower of Pizza" (oops, I mean
Pisa). The 8th day, travel again to
Rome, with visits to the magnificent
Cathedral, the Giotto's Bell Tower, the
Baptistry's heavy bronze "Gate of
Paradise" , the Sculpture-studded
Signoria Square, Michelangelo's statue
of David (of course, my name's sake, you
know, the body looks just like mine).
The 9th day in Rome was to the Vatican
Museums, Sistine Chapel (Michelango's
ceiling paintings), St Peter's Square
and Basilica, the Colosseum and Roman
Forum.
The 10th day was travel again to Venice,
via a visit to the Basilica of St.
Francis. The 11th day, travel again to
Innsbruck, Austria, via walking tour of
St.Mark's Square, Clock Tower, the
Byzantine Basilica, lavish Doges'
Palace, the Bridge of Signs, watched
Glass Blowers fashion delicate objects,
then leaving Italy over the spectacular
Brenner Pass. The 12th day, travel again
to Munich, Germany-Rhineland.
This included the Olympic Stadium,
Nymphenburg Palace, Marienplatz and
travel from the verdant valleys of
Bavaria, through Swabian Jura, the
watershed between the Rhine and the
Danube, into the Rhineland.
The 13th day, travel again to Amsterdam,
Holland, via a cruise on the Rhine, past
castle-crested hills, terraced
vineyards, to Lorelei Rock, then a break
in Cologne with visit to the twin-spired
Gothic Cathedral and a real authentic
Dutch wind mill. It was completely
walled with a two foot thick thatch of
straw. It was all constructed with wood,
including a 18" X 18" vertical shaft and
huge wood gears. They used the windmill
to generate electricity and to pump
water from the lowlands, into the ocean
(53% of Holland is below sea level).
This was one of my other most favorite
excursions. Day 14, with a local guide
visited the 700-year old Amsterdam
capital, did a canal cruise past
patrician mansions, gabled facades and
humpback bridges and visited a major
diamond center. Finally, the 15th day,
travel to Amsterdam airport, flight to
Newark, NJ, departing at about 1 :30
p.m. Amsterdam, to Newark (about one
hour late) at about 5:00 p.m. of Sunday,
July 16th, too late to make our 5:20
p.m. departure flight to San Diego.
Then with an additional 2 hour layover
to catch the next flight out to San
Diego, finally arriving home and to bed
at about 11 :30 p.m.
It was an exhausting whirlwind, two week
tour that took me about a week to
recover from. But for our first time
visit of so many places in Europe, it
was good to see places that we've always
wondered about and a preview of where we
might want to go and spend time in the
future. I would not recommend the tour
to anyone with a weak heart!
Dave Moody President
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