Fall '17 Itinerary ver. 1.05

So, in the fall of 17 an old friend and former co-worker is retiring.  She's organized a group rate for anyone wanting to join her on a Scenic Cruises voyage up the Danube from Budapest to Nuremburg. She and a bunch of others are off to Praha (Prague) after.

Our portion of the cruise/tour is nine days long. And Scenic gets raves from every we know who has taken a cruise with them (not many, most of them travel agents with some experience of other lines, including Viking).

We've been to Praha a couple of times and while we would love to find ourselves back there the temptation to go where we've not been before was too much for us.

So...

We originally planned a couple of days doing the Nazi Rallies/Trials history tourist stuff in Nuremburg and then training it to Marseilles from Munich so as to grab the train onwards to Aix-en-Provonce where we'd camp out in an apartment we know and love for a couple of weeks.

Geri expressed a need to see the museum on the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp and hence the '.5'.

And now?

• Budapest to Nuremburg on the cruise.  Nine days.
• Day and night in Nuremburg.
• Rent car and drive to Weimar. Wander the city.  Overnight.
• Buchenwald tour and overnight/recovery.
• Drive to Munich airport or hauptbahnhof, drop car, fly/train to Marseilles, train to Aix.
• 16 days and nights in Aix, side trips here and there. 

A bit unusual for us that we'd rent a car.   But we can get the latest model Smart forfour for 4 days (we both drive smart fortwos) for E166 and because the train from Nuremburg to Weimar is a milk run, the car saves us a tonne of time.  More even in getting to Munich for either the train or a plane.

If thoughts or suggestions, especially regarding accommodations, please leave a comment below.

St. John's and Postscript

Sorry for the delay in getting this out (all three of you readers).  As always, if I don't get the last e-postcard of a vacation trip done while still out there unpacking etc and then the return to work ocerwhelms the desire to get it done.

The drive into St. John's included a couple of small diversions.  The most fun was the short trip off the TCan into Dildo to take some photos of signs in the village.  I set up a separate album for them on the Flckr photoblog of our trip HERE.

Our B&B in St. John's, The Narrows, (see also photos I took) was fine and we would both recommend it.  But it suffered a bit from having been the place we stayed at after our time in Port Union.

The weather in St. John's was not great.  I wasn't able to get any decent photos of the harbour because about halfway up to any high point I was in cloud.

That somehow seemed appropriate when we visited Cape Spear (eastern-most point of North America).  So it worked well.

The boat tour we took from Bay Bulls has some fab photos HERE so take a peek.  Though the birds only really got exciting when an eagle showed up and we were treated to hundreds of thousadns of puffins making a break for it.  Otherwise the offshore oil rig that came at us out of the fog near shore and the iceberg chunk that had to be gotten around to escape the harbour were the best bits for me.

Fun going all that way and then connecting with my sister Shirley-Anne and her David and then with Sue and Gaby (and surprise guest Katie, in town for the Unifor Atlantic Council meet).

Lots of good food in there, The Rocket and The Duke being the spots that were most memorable.  Some fine beers too.

If this post is shorter and less effusive than the earlier ones don't take that as a bad thing.  It's just that so much time has passed...

Enjoy the photos.

Fine trip home.  We upgraded at the check-in kiosk and enjoyed the biz class lounge and seats on the way home at a less than normally outrageous price.

Next up is a family visit to Saskatoon to be followed by some time in Vancouver and Whistler.  Look for postcards here in mid-August.

Trinity

Not nearly as museum-miniature-ish as Peggy's Cove but still pleasantly twee.  Photos HERE.

We popped in just for something to do and spent several hours just driving and walking around.  Eventually we found The Artisan's Inn and stayed for a couple of drinks.  They provided blankets for sitting on their dock.  Which when the sun was out wasn't needed.

Very large mussels farm at the bottom of the bay.

The place seems to be half B&Bs.  Lots of iceberg and other tours.  A number of hiking trails seem to intersect there.

The chef at The Inn graduated first in her class last year from the reknowned cooking programme at The College of the North Atlantic.  So we couldn't resist and booked in for dinner there tomorrow night.  Beer-braised lamb shanks.

Two giant lobsters await us for dinner.  We picked up some wood oven-baked bread and a salad from the Bonavista Social Club on our way home from Trinity.

Also on our way home we we driving over the crest of a hill on the highway and a huge, I mean HUGE iceberg loomed in front of us.  And huge only describes the 10% that is above the waterline.

MASSIVE!

Anyway, Geri's iceberg needs have been met and perhaps even exceeded I think.

I just had a nice cigar on our balcony whilst reading and occasionally glancing at the two icebergs in the bay in front of our B&B.  I should have kept a steady watch on them as one of them either calved (split into pieces) or rolled over, as they prone to do.  I just caght the last second or two.  Very impressive.

I think tomorrow the plan is for eri to rest her back for Monday's drive back to St. John's while I indulge

Port Union Geek-out

Been doing too much to post regular updates, but here’s something at least.

All our NL trip photos will wind-up appearing HERE.

I knew nothing about the town or its history until I started doing a bit of research for an article I wrote for Our Times a while ago (read it HERE).  Pretty amazing and it might just be me but not well-known outside of NL, perhaps even just this bit of NL.  Tonnes of photos of the site HERE.

Just quickly: Coaker, the FPU’s founder, led a strike by St. John’s dockers (mostly boys) at age 13.  The city’s merchants had a lock on everything moving and ran the fishing industry as one big company town.  Coaker and Co couldn’t see a way to break the monopoly on fish and log exports and the import trade in everything else as a traditional trade union.  

The FPU was formed and found land and a harbor in what became Port Union and ran everything as either a co-op or with ethical pricing.  At its peak the union had 20,000 members and ran and elected about 10 (I think) MHA members, a daily newspaper and shops and banks and you name it.  It also owned the town and all the buildings in it and rented them at not-for-profit rates.  Into the 60’s it was a bustling town in a sea of economic downturn.  

The merchants and the Catholic Church got together and attacked the Union.  Priests threatened members with excommunication etc.  Changes in the seafood markets, the rise of frozen rather than salted fish preservation and the appearance of seafood multinationals and global pricing undermined its market share.  By the 1940’s it was in decline and Port Union was mostly abandoned by the 1970’s.

Our B&B hosts know the story of Coaker and the Fisherman’s Protective Union (To Each His Own) backwards and forwards and so were really helpful.  We even got an hour or so with the Executive Director of the foundation that’s slowly restoring the buildings that are left.  They also run a gift shop and tours in an effort to supplement the grants they get from various heritage agencies.

I’ve offered to try and connect them with unions that might either make a contribution or which would use the facilities for conferences etc. and pay for their rental, also generating some cash.

A couple of the row houses have been restored (the originals are on wooden foundations and so it’s no mean task) and are rented out.  Would make Geri and a great retirement home I think.  J  And Iceberg Vodka runs an iceberg capture and melt operation in what used to be the union’s fish salting factory.

Best B&B?

Shelly and Garry Blackmore’s Captain Blackmore’s Heritage Inn.

1.       Fab house that has been in one of the owners’ family for a long time.  Photo album of the restoration/rebuild after 26 years unoccupied.

2.       See the photos of it HERE.

3.       Geri’s back had her in bed a couple of afternoons and Shelly and Garry were offering to bring her tea and check on her if I went out.

4.       Laundry available.

5.       Lobster dinner at a stupidly reasonable price cooked and on the table on request.

6.       Chock full of advice on everything from organic food restaurants to where the iceberg hunting is best.

7.       Shelly on the board of the Port Union Historic Site so lots of background to the area.  That alone made staying here worthwhile.

8.       Great breakfast with lots of options, cooked to order and to your preferred timing.

9.       I give it a rave and when next we come back to see how the restoration work is coming along we’ll stay here.

The Area:

1.       Eat the Newfoundland specialties at The Mifflin Tea Room.

2.       The Bonavista Social Club is well worth either lunch or dinner.  Fun menu.  I recommend the mooseburgers.  :-)

3.       Iceberg hunting can be a lot of fun, even in the weather we’ve been having.

4.       Throw in the odd nap and some reading while it rains and there’s way more to do here than you would think.

Don’t forget when you visit to buy lots of stuff at the Historic Site gift shop and to make a donation.

St. Pierre Last Day, Departure and Final Thoughts

Last full day:

1.       Just a reminder to we keep adding albums to our photo collection for the trip and that they can all be found HERE.

2.       The cemetery was interesting, though they all are so no surprise there.  A fishing theme to many of the graves.

3.       The graves are all above-ground as in New Orleans, though for a different reason.  There’s nothing to dig in.  Blast in perhaps, but not dig.  All granite, all the time, everywhere.  

4.       A lot of the graves, mebbe 20%, have what look like portholes on them.  Not sure if it’s part of the nautical theme to so many of them or whether they provide access.  I looked into a few and couldn’t see anything.  Didn’t seem appropriate to open one and stick my arm in.  Reminded me a bit of the union ossuaries in Havana.  Once the bodies decay sufficiently the bones are boxed-up and moved into the chambers beneath the monument proper (it was just a matter of opening a door to get access to the stairs and wander down, check out the bones collection).  Perhaps there’s a similar thing going on here?

5.       In addition to the nautical themes of many graves one was clearly a Habs fan and another an Elvis enthusiast.  Look for the photos.

6.       A few graves or at least the monuments, were up on pallets and lined-up off to the side.

7.       Lots of graves above ground but few trees.  Some shrubs here and there.

8.       The burbs have newer houses and bigger lots with a bit of rock for a garden and sometimes some grass or a raised box garden, but the homes have the same boxy design.  Nice colours.

9.       A really very fab lunch at L’Atelier Gourmand right next to our hotel.  The house salad.  Lovely cured duck slices etc.  With a bottle of a white burgundy of course.  I think Geri almost weaned off the oakiness of Australian chardonnays.  L’Atleier all good but for the somewhat arrogant waiter.  Though it is France of course.  Only 25km off the coast of NL, but still France.  The cab ride to the airport this morning was further confirmation.

10.   Beware re. the menus (or, rather, enjoy in advance) as many items are available only when in season.

11.   Lunch, as with Monday, followed immediately by a nap of course.

12.   Really, we need to leave as there is little to do after a few days in a place this small except eat.  And lots of good food.  Or better than good.  We’ve had nothing but great food other than one evening of OK food at the restaurant upstrairs from Bar Rustique.

13.   Last night Geri had the boeuf bourguignon at La Creperie in our hotel and I had a gallette.  Bother really really quite good.  And the boulangeries…

14.   I finally found postcards in a wine shop right in Place Gen. de Gaulle.  Of course only after I had gotten the advert cards at the tourism office and scribbled around the edges of the ‘visit St. P et M.’ messaging and mailed them.

15.   In the end I only bought a couple of nice but not great bottles for drinking in NL along with some pates and terrines.

16.   Never did find the shot glass requested by a co-worker.

17.   The wine shops fun.  Not Parisien caves des vins but fun.

18.   More and more varieties of rye to be seen here than at home I think.  Export A a popular cigarette and Blue Light is unaccountably stocked by all the bars and shops we have popped into.

19.   Red phone booth in town.  :-)

20.   Odd: couldn’t find a fish market.  Think people must buy right off the boats at the commercial quay.

21.   Interesting local music: French take on Donal where’s Your Trousers and covers of Great Big Sea, Stan Rogers.

22.   Some older buildings built using construction methods right out of the middle ages with post-and-beam-and-fill plastered-over.

23.   Despite the evidence of hockey fans everywhere, nice boules club.

24.   Look for the photo of a stop sign.  Not our flat things.  Seriour (well, somewhat so) sheetmetal work.  I think quite possible folded and soldered due to the wind they have to withstand.

25.   Coffee fans: the milk for your beverage is heated before serving.  :-)

26.   The one supermarket/Home Hardware (???) on the island keeps traditional hours despite looking like something you would see in Cobourg and so is open 8-1200, 14-1900.  Another indication of how little effect tourism has had and is having here.

Departure and last thoughts:

1.       Stormy and the flight delayed but fun to watch the waves hitting thr rocks.  Quite amazing how low the ceiling and short the visibility but yet we still got into St. John’s.  Good thing too as I need to get back to a place where I don’t feel the need to over-eat just so I can taste everything possible.

2.       Chat with the desk clerk at the hotel.  Most people on the island get to Canada or perhaps the Caribbean regularly but less than half, he thinks, have been to France.  They fly to Halifax or Montreal for serious medical etc. problems, depending on their language skills.

3.       No direct subsidies for living there but services are.  And professionals subsidized for moving in and staying.

4.       Restful to be BlackBerry-less for 4 days.

Do we recommend?  A qualified yes from me,a qualified no from Geri.  If you’re in the neighbourhood I would say don’t miss it just for the food and the complete lack of tourism (at least at this time of year).  Geri thinks the cost of getting there isn’t worth it and that there’s not much to occupy you for more than two full days (and even at that you have to move slowly).  
 
Her thought: if you want France go to Aix en Provence for a month and get the same and more food, better weather and day trips.  If you want isolation in the North Atlantic and all that, stop in Iceland for a few days on your way to Aix.

My last thought?  Gotta love a trip to a place with fab seafood that makes finding a postcard so difficult.  :-)

Bit of a warning for those on a tight schedule: less than an hour after we arrived in St. John's they started diverting flights to Gander as a cyclone up from the Caribbean worked its magic on the weather.