Part 14 - Back to Reality

Our mega trip to Europe is now complete.  This is not the longest trip we have been on (my previous sabbatical trip was one week longer in duration, and significantly longer in distance driven), but was by far our longest trip outside of the North America.  By the numbers:

• Days away from home: 72
• Number of different places we stayed:  39
• Number of countries visited: 19
• Distance driven:  8,245 miles (13,269 km)
• Number of photos taken: 16,097 (100 GB in size)
• Number of words in the blog:  more than 40,000
• Most northerly point visited: Umeå, Sweden, N 63° 49’, E 20° 15’
• Most southerly point: Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, N 46° 36’, E 7° 54’
• Most easterly point: Vilnius, Lithuania.  N 61° 31’, E 23° 38’
• Most westerly point: Mt. Saint Michel, France.  N 48° 35’, W 01° 38’
• Weight lost - 12 lbs (5.5 kg).  Certainly it was a challenge to eat healthy while traveling, so most of the credit goes to a lot of miles walked, and the added effort to get around on crutches.  For the first time in over 20 years I am under 170 lbs (77 kg).   Unfortunately I don't think if I wrote a "How to lose weight by using crutches" book that it would be a best seller.

Our most favorite experience overall?   I’m not going to even try and get everyone to answer that.  It was hard enough to pick a favorite item for each country, and to compare the wonderful experiences in each country against each other is just not possible.  I will however add my best moment of the trip.  It was in Sweden, when they removed my cast and the orthopedic surgeon said that my foot would heal better without the cast.  While getting around on crutches limited a few things that I wanted to do and made almost everything physically more demanding, I was ultimately able to do more than 95% of what I wanted to do, and minimally limit the impact on what the rest of the family could do.  If I had kept the hard plaster cast it would have significantly limited what I could do, and we would have had to consider coming home much earlier than planned.  I am indebted to Betty and her family for helping me get initial care for my foot, to Birgitta for arranging follow-up care in Sweden, and to the doctors and nurses that helped me.  I am also thankful for my family who carried my suitcase for me, and patiently waited at times for me to catch up.  Thank you! 

Now it unfortunately is time to for sabbatical/summer vacation to end.  I have to return to work, the kids to school, and Karen to the myriad of volunteer activities and household tasks that keep her perpetually busy.  Since I delayed the start of this sabbatical I have less than 5 years until I am eligible for the next one.  Only 1,798 days, not that anyone is counting.  Time to start planning the next big adventure.  Any suggestions?

Update on my foot.  I had a visit with an orthopedic surgeon here in Portland about a week after returning home.  Unfortunately he said that the bone is not healing as well as it should be.  He said he would have recommended that I be in a cast for 6-8 weeks versus having the cast removed after a week which was the guidance I was given in Sweden.  I have to try and be less physically active to allow the foot to heal, and have another Dr. appointment in 5 weeks,  If it has not healed by that time the Dr. will likely recommend surgery to put a screw in the bone.  I hope that can be avoided, but even in hindsight I wouldn't change what I did.  If getting rid of the cast in Sweden and doing a lot of walking on the trip resulted in longer longer healing time and more pain short term that is a trade off I am  happy to have made as it allowed us to continue our trip with with minimal impact to our planned activities and itinerary.

Part 13 - The Home Stretch

 After leaving Switzerland, our plan was to go to Luxembourg, the 19^th and final European country to be visited on the trip.  On the way to Luxembourg we would travel in Germany, close to French border.  After leaving Luxembourg we would head back to Paris.  The final 4 nights before we returned were spent near Baden-Baden Germany, in Luxembourg (2 nights), and a final night near the airport in Paris.

Day 68– Friday, August 23.  Baden-Baden, Germany.  After crossing the Swiss/Germany border near Basel we proceeded north to Baden-Baden Germany.  Our hotel was in a small town about 15 minutes from Baden-Baden.  After checking in we drove to Baden-Baden and spent about 3 hours in town, walking around and eating dinner before returning to our hotel.  Baden-Baden is famous for its hot mineral baths.  The hot springs were known to the Romans 2000 years ago, and they developed the springs into formal baths.  Today you can experience the baths in a 19^th century bath house.  Unfortunately we did not have time to enjoy the baths given our late arrival.  We see some of the ruins of the Roman era baths, but the museum was closed by the time we arrived.  After dinner we walked around town until dusk, and then returned to our hotel.

Dinner in Baden-Baden

Colorful buildings in Baden-Baden

Elizabeth and Matthew across the street from our hotel

Day 69– Saturday, August 24.  Sennungerberg, Luxemburg.  We had about a 3 hour drive to our hotel in Luxembourg, so stopped in Trier, Germany, which was on our route, and spent most of the day there.  Trier is often referred to as the oldest city in Germany, with an uninterrupted history as a city of more than 2000 years.  We started our visit at the   Porta Nigra, a Roman gate to the city dating from the 2nd century.  The gate got its current name (Black Gate) during medieval times when the pollution turned the gray sandstone black.  After a stop at the tourist information office to get a map, we worked our way to the Hauptmarkt (Main Market).  We then headed to Cathedral Square.  There are two churches side-by-side here, Trier Cathedral, and the Church of Our Lady.  The Cathedral is the oldest bishop’s church in Germany, dating from the 4^th century.  The current Cathedral has a section of the original walls rising up to 86 ft (26 m).  Next to the Cathedral is Liebfrauenkirch (Church of Our Lady). This is the oldest Gothic church in Germany, dating from the 13^th century. After leaving Cathedral Square we walked to the Konstantin Basilika.  This impressive building is the largest surviving single-room structure from Roman times, measuring 90 feet (27 m) wide. 108 feet (33 m) high, and 220 feet (67 m) long).  It was Constantine’s throne room.   We then worked our way over to the birthplace of Karl Marx before heading back to Hauptmarkt and Porta Nigra.

Porta Nigra

Trier Cathedral

Decorative man hole cover - many cities had their own unique designs

Karl Marx birthplace

Eating dinner

One unique thing going on in Trier while we were there was the Elephant Parade.  This open air art exhibition was started in 2006 to gain awareness and raise funds for Asian elephant conservation.  Every year they choose about 3 cities worldwide to participate.  In each city there are dozens of colorfully painted elephant sculptures (each unique) on display throughout the city.  These sculptures are approximately the size of a baby elephant, and are auctioned off to raise funds for elephant conservation.  For 2013, Trier and Luxembourg City were both selected, so we got to see the elephants on two consecutive days.  You can buy a map with the location of each of the elephants, but we choose to just follow our planned route and we still found dozens.  It was a fun to spot them, and we did do a bit of extra walking as we would see an elephant down a street that we hadn't planned to go down and that would draw us down for a closer look.

Elizabeth and Matthew with one of the Elephants

Another elephant

We had dinner in Trier before heading to our hotel in Luxembourg which was only about a 30 minute drive from Trier.  At the restaurant the waiter tried to rip us off.  Our bill was for 44 Euros.  I paid with a 100 Euro bill, and the waiter gave me 6 Euro in change (like I had paid him 50 Euros) and said thank you.  I checked the change, and gave the waiter a “hey dude, where is the rest of my change” look and held out my hand at which time he handed me a 50 Euro bill and walked away without saying anything.  I have read that this is a common way to rip off tourists.  If you catch them they will almost always give you the rest of the change you are due and pretend it was a mistake. This is the first time we have had this problem on this trip (at least that we noticed), although we have paid almost exclusively with our VISA card.  In this case since we were nearing the end of the trip I wanted to use up some of the Euros that we had left and thought that this café on the main street would be a good place to use the 100 Euro bill that we had gotten from the ATM machine.  Needless to say the waiter did NOT receive a tip. 

We caught a lucky break with the weather today.  It had rained almost the entire time on the drive from Baden-Baden to Trier, and started pouring down rain shortly after we got to our hotel in Luxembourg.  However, it was dry for the several hours that we spent in Trier with the exception for one brief shower while we were eating dinner.  This continued the pattern on the trip.  We have had quite a few days with rain, but except for the opera in Bregenz we have avoided getting soaked, mostly by luck, although in a few cases we made minor changes to our schedule to avoid being outside in the rain.

Shortly after leaving Trier we entered Luxembourg.  Total distance driven in Germany on this segment, 290 miles (460 km).  Total distance driven to date, 7910 miles (12730 km).  Total distance driven overall in Germany on the trip, 940 miles (1520 km).  Our favorite things in Germany (including our previous time in Germany):  Elizabeth - elephants in Trier, Karen – visiting with her friend Barbara, Mike – the monkeys at Affenberg, Matthew – walking around Trier.

Day 70– Sunday, August 25. Sennungerberg, Luxemburg.  We drove into Luxembourg City (about 15 minute drive from Semmungerberg) and spent the full day there.  Luxembourg City is a fairly compact city of ~ 100,000 people, with all the attractions located within walking distance.  The city is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers.  These rivers are located in ~250 feet (75 m) deep gorges, and the core part of the old city spans multiple levels, with many bridges and viaducts crossing the gorges.   We parked in an underground garage near the Cathedral Notre Dame, and walked to the tourist information office located nearby in one of the main squares, Place Guillaume II, to get a detailed city map.   This portion of the city is on a high plateau above the two rivers.  After looking around the square which includes City Hall, we determined which sights we wanted to see.  We started by working our way over to the Monument of Remembrance, a granite obelisk commemorating those who served in Work War I.  The monument overlooks the Pétrusse River, and there are great views of the park in the river gorge below.  There also is a great view of the Pont Adolphe, the bridge spanning the gorge.  It was interesting that the Monument of Remembrance was located off of Boulevard Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  There were several major roads in the city that we saw that were named after prominent 20^th century Americans, including John Kennedy and George Patton.    We then worked our way over to Plateau du St. Esprit, where there is a square surrounded by a modern complex of judiciary buildings.  There are is also an overlook with great views of the Alzette River and the lower part of the city.  We then worked our way through the narrow streets above the bluff to the Palais Grand-Ducal  (Palace of the Grand Dukes), a 16^th century structure with an Italian Renaissance facade.  

Luxembourg flag

Pont Adoplhe

Elizabeth, Mike, and Matthew

Parade of Elephants by Judiciary buildings 

Lower part of city, with city fortifications in the background

After lunch we continued our way along the bluff to an area where many of the ancient fortifications of the city are still visible.  In addition to above ground fortifications, Luxembourg had an extensive system of casemates, or underground defense tunnels.  Many of these had openings in the side of the cliffs for cannons, similar to Gibraltar.  In fact, Luxembourg City has often been called the Gibraltar of the North.  At its peak, the city had 14 miles (23 km) of defense tunnels.  Most of the fortifications were demolished in the late 19^th century, but some still remain.  After some exploration to find the right path to reach the lower city, we worked our way down the side of the gorge to the banks of the Alzette River.  After walking through the lower part of town we found a tunnel leading into the cliff with an elevator inside.  Since we wanted to go back to the upper plateau we took the elevator even though we were not sure where it would lead us.  When we came out from the top of the elevator we were surprised to be back next to the judiciary buildings where we had stopped at the first overlook above the Alzette River.  We backtracked to Notre Dame Cathedral as there were services in progress when we had first arrived so we had not gone inside.  We then walked back down Boulevard Franklin Delano Roosevelt in search of a store someone had told us about.  We never found the store, but we did find another city square where there was a band performing and a number of restaurants and open air cafes.  After dinner we walked back to our car, and then took the short drive back to our hotel.  Throughout the day we found dozens of the colorful elephant sculptures that were part of the Elephant Parade along with the neighboring city or Trier, Germany.  It was fun to see who could spot the next elephant.

Close up of fortifications and casemates

Band performing in town square

Matthew and Mike tired at the end of the day

Elizabeth still with energy at the end of the day

Total distance driven in Luxembourg, 55 miles (90 km).  Total distance driven to date, 7965 miles (12815 km).  Our favorite things in Luxembourg:  Elizabeth & Mike - ancient fortifications, Karen – elephants, Matthew – cool parks.

Day 71– Monday, August 26. Paris, France.  Today was a travel day (about a 4 hour drive time to Paris) and preparation for our flight back.  It rained most of the drive back to Paris, but otherwise was uneventful.  After checking into the hotel we unloaded all our stuff out of the car – a major task after living out of the car for 9+ weeks.   After dragging everything up to the hotel room, we spent about an hour sorting stuff – throwing away things we no longer wanted, identifying fragile items that needed extra care in packing, etc.  Karen and Elizabeth wanted to go to Vapiano one more time, so they headed in to Paris while I worked on the jigsaw puzzle also known as “find a way to get everything safely packed”, and Matthew chilled out and watched videos on his Nexus.  Karen and Elizabeth had a bit of a challenge finding the ParisVapiano (it was not where the web site said to was), but were ultimately successful.  I had a somewhat easier time packing.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, and was able to get everything packed into our suitcases for the trip home without too many challenges.

Elizabeth "distraught" over her last visit to Vapiano

Day 72– Tuesday, August 27. Home!  Now the worst part of travel – the long flights home.  Heading home always seems worse.  When you are starting a trip, the anticipation of the upcoming adventures makes the long flights, lines in airports, security hassles, etc. seem less burdensome.  Sure, we want to be home to see friends and family that we have not seen for 2.5 months, but commercial air travel is not fun, especially when you are in coach.  Too bad that after we see our last sight we can’t just say, “Beam us home, Scotty!”   Flying through Reykjavik  we had about 11.5 hours total flight time to get home, a ~3.5 hour flight from Paris to Reykjavik , a ~7 hour flight to Seattle, and a less than 1 hour flight to Portland.  My foot still swells up if I can’t elevate it or move my leg, so the doctor in Sweden told me I should try and get a seat on the airplane with more leg room, and wrote a letter for the airline describing my medical condition and the “need”.  I tried midway through the trip to see if Icelandair would make some accommodation, but they said they couldn't move me to a bulkhead row with more legroom, and their only solution was to propose selling me a new business class ticket.  I decided it wasn't worth it, so I dealt with the cramped conditions in my economy coach seat.  Not sure if I would have gotten any better response from another airplane or not.

After breakfast we loaded up the car one last time and headed to the airport to return it.  The car return couldn't have been simpler.  It took less than 5 minutes.  While Karen and the kids took out the luggage and put it in the shuttle van, I went inside, returned the keys, and signed the title back over to the company.  We were then off to the airport.  Everything was so efficient getting to the airport that we actually had a short wait before Icelandair opened up to start checking in passengers.   This was to be a trend on our return to Portland – everything went smoothly, on schedule, no issues.  If only the flights could have been shorter it would have been perfect.

Posing beside our "home away from home" for the past 9+ weeks

Waiting to check in at CDG

We arrived back in Portland about 10 PM local time.  Karen’s parents met us at the airport.  They brought our van as well as their car, so after getting our luggage loaded up we headed home and they headed back to their house.  In our 30 minute drive home we didn't encounter any roundabouts – something that never would have happened in Europe.   I wish we had counted the number of roundabouts that we went through on our trip – some days it was definitely in excess of 100.  We spent a short time going through our mail at home before taking a shower and going to bed.  It was good to sleep in our own beds again, but the night was too short.  Elizabeth was signed up to be a leader for freshman orientation at her high school, so she had to be at school at 8 AM the next morning for training, and Matthew had marching band practice and football practice.  Welcome back to reality!

Note:  I had this section 50% done before we returned home, but finding time to finish it after returning home was very hard with work, kids activities, and lots of things to do around the house after being gone all summer. Several people have asked how I found time to write the blog while traveling,  It actually was quite easy - I wrote a bunch while riding in the car, at night after the rest of the family had gone to sleep, and even wrote a fair amount sitting on benches in some of the cities we visited as I needed to take some breaks from walking given my broken foot.  I also wrote about most places the day we were there, or the next day.  Writing things close to real time was easy.  Writing much of this section after returning home was hard.  Even if you don't do a blog, I highly encourage people to do a journal and make the time to update it every day, even if you only spend 5 minutes.  It is so much easier to write it "real time" and I think it better captures the essence of your experience.  It is amazing how hard it is to remember things when you try and write it even a couple of weeks later,  Not sure if that is a sign of getting old, or just reality for most people.