Our First Week in Brantes

We are finishing out our first week in Brantes. The owners of the place we are staying are delightful people. It has been fun going to market and to the grogercy store. We have eaten two meals eqch day at the apart,ent.

We will have to change places tomorrow. The same owners, but two separate, smaller places.

From Brantes

We are having a great ti,e in Provence. More later.

We are getting ready to go to the bank and also do some shopping for picnic supplies. We plan to leave Dinslaken around 10 am and drive up the Rhine (going south) near Cologne, Bonn, and Koblenz. We will stay in a small hotel tonight, then visit Eltz castle tomorrow morning.

I hope to post some pictures faaaaairly soon.

From Germany

We are in Donslaaken with Johannes and Anneliese. Our flight was long but for the most part ueventful. We arrived in Amsterdam, picked up our vehicle, and drove down to Kaag to the hotel. Then we took a drive along a dike road with fields of tulips and other bulb flowers.

The second day we Went to the flower show in the morning, then drove to the central station in Rotterdam.

Waiting for the Plane

Well It's less than two hours before we load up and go to Bush International. The flight time is listed as 7:15 but I don't know whether that is the real take-off time or not. The flight is scheduled for 9 hour 40 mon in-air tme. The weather in Amsterdam is supposed to be 55 degrees for a high and showers. The low for tomorrow night is to be 45 degrees. So, it won't be a lot cooler than at home.

The plane is a Boeing 747 and we will have dinner served during the flight. It will seem strange to leave at 7:15 p.m. and then have noon 9 hours and 40 minutes later.

A Day in Paris (That's Texas)

Well Lynda and I got to Paris and had a good night's rest. We got up and made it to church this morning. Ray got home for a judging trip to the Houston area. He had gone by to pick up Clayton so Clayton could take the Karrers' van back to Dallas.

We did some last minute packing and went out to eat Mexican food. We will leave here aaroun ten tomorrow morning to drive to the Houston area where we are staying with Ray's nephew unti we leave for Europe.

Tomorrow Texas

We drive to Texas to get work out the remaining details for our journey. We've decide not to get a cell phone after all. It may be possible to get one after we are in Europe, otherwise we will use wired phones an phone cards. We will have a phone when we are in Brantes at La Laure.

I'm trying to be sure that I have directions to all the places we are staying.

Counting the Days!

Well it's just three days until we load the van and go to Paris, TX to join Ray and Carolyn. Then we drive down to Houston where we will leave for Amsterdam on April 12.

I've packed my suitcase and camera gear. I just hope that I'm not leaving any critial pieces behind. I'm using Yahoo for its calendar, briefcase and email. I have found the MapQuest site and the Michelin very helpful in planning the trip. I get the directions at one of these sites, then email it to myself at my Yahoo e-mail account. Other I put travel notes in the my Yahoo briefcase.

I will put other important files in the briefcase, also.

Planning Our Trip - III
We will be in the Perigord region of France from May 7 until May 14, then we will begin heading back to Amsterdam for our flight home. I'm hoping to see Beynac castle and visit some of the prehistoric cave painting in this region. We will have three days on our way back to Amsterdam. The first (Saturday, May 14) will be a driving day with the sightseeing limited to what we view from the highway. On May 15 we will take some time to visit Vaux-le-Vicomte which is billed as "The Forerunner of Versailles". We'll have to decide whether we want to visit the Chateau or just the gardens.

That night we have reservations at what we call "the Cereal Farm". It is the place that we spent one night on our 2002 trip.

The next day will be a mostly driving day to get us back to Holland and Hotel Orion (in Kaag). The next morning we turn in the vehicle and fly back to Houston.

Planning Our Trip - II

On April 23 Lauri will fly from Memphis to Marseille to join us for a few days. She will arrive in Marseille on Sunday, April 24. Pierre and Simone are going to meet Lauri at the airport and bring her to Brantes. Pierre was in graduate school at the University of Texas (Austin) when I was there, and it will be good to renew our friendship and meet his wife.

We don't have set plans as far as when to see what, but we have been reading up on the attractions available. Lauri will fly back to Memphis on May 3. She will change plans at Amsterdam (Schiphol) both when she comes and when she leaves.

We will have a long drive on Saturday, May 7, when we go from Brantes to Montignac which is in the southwestern part of France. I've planned our route to take us over the world's highest bridge at Millau. This bridge just opened this year.


In the Montignac area we plan to visit some prehistoric cave paining sites, a castle and several small, medieval villages. There is also a "living history museum" type attraction that I believe will be interesting. And several gardens and other attractions.

Along the way during the 35 day trip I hope to find a few computers that I will be able to use to post to this site and keep up with e-mail.