Cute Little Villages

Just to set the stage, I’m sitting on a backless chair in my boxer briefs in my hotel room in Ribeauville.  If that does not make you stop reading right now, you get what you deserve. However, I would like to point out that a backless chair is not incredibly comfortable for me, so I do suffer for my art at times.

I was trying to remember some of the other highlights from Strasbourg.  We did get our boat ride, which came with recorded tour notes on the history of the city. There were some Spanish high school students and local grade schoolers in front of us. We heard multiple languages as usual. We had an excellent dinner on our last evening. JB said my last blog was great and just needed a description of our dinners. Not knowing if that was snark or not, I won’t go into detail, except to say we were crammed in pretty tight. My wife made a remark that it was a fire hazard. She and Katie would have had to climb over the table or out the window if we needed to bail fast.

Friday morning we went to the car rental place to get our Citroen. It has proved to be very comfortable. They provided us two hours to take photos to document any pre-existing damages. We spent the first hour putting some pretty good dents in the thing and then we took our pictures. We stopped in Obernai and Selestat before checking into Hotel de la Tour in Ribeauville. My wife and Katie are on a mission to see as many cute little Alsatian villages as possible. Those two along with TCG are currently walking the wine trail to Riquewihr. We have had some interesting discussions about how to pronounce the town names.  I was calling Ribeauville ree bo vil but our bartender in Strasbourg corrected us.  It is pronounced ree bo vil lay. I’d add the accent on the second e if I felt like looking up how to do it on my Chromebook. The most fun in that regard are our chats about the pronunciation of Reims, our next destination. We came to the conclusion that it is a cross between a cat with a fur ball and that sound that Frankenstein makes.

Yesterday, our first full day here, we went to Colmar, the second biggest city in Alsace after Strasbourg. We had quite an enjoyable day and I was able to get around well with the cane. My wife is taking good care of me and had brought the hiking poles, but we kept them in her backpack. We visited the chocolate museum, which I thought might be a snooze, but it turned out to be fun and interesting. The creator of the Statue of Liberty, Frederic Bartholdi, was born in Colmar so there is a replica in town.  It is situated in a roundabout, so TCG went around five or six times so Katie could get a pic.  Then we decided to go to the nearby parking lot to get a better shot. The highlight of the day was wine tasting at Emile Beyer.  Our hostess spoke excellent English and was engaging.  Except for a couple Pinot Noirs, we had a wide variety of whites, their specialty. We finished our day in Colmar with another boat tour, this one in a much smaller and creakier watercraft.

Back in Ribeauville, we had a some difficulty figuring out where to dine. As we wandered the streets, there were some slight differences of opinion, but no harsh words were spoken.  Just as in Italy, this foursome has gotten along swimmingly.

We’re from France

I’ve been in the land of the croissant since Monday morning and I have yet to see a conehead.

I thought I had escaped censure for another painfully long period without a post, but one of the first emails I got after touching down was from JB telling me it had been nine days. Even #1 had taken a chill pill, as he knew I had been wallowing in loneliness all month.

I had to pack myself, which caused me all kinds of agita, because I have the emotional intelligence of a 10 year old.  I checked my travel list about five times before I made sure all the doors were locked and the stove was off. Fortunately I was traveling with Katie and TCG, so they picked me up for the airport ride and held my hand until we were safely on the plane. Katie had called a few days before to tell me the pick up time and to make sure I packed a belt.  After a pause, I realized she was joking about the episode from my 9/22/23 post. I might not have taken kindly to being teased but I realized I needed my substitute mommy to be on my side 100%.  After we were on the plane for about a half hour I went up to her seat to confide in her that “I’m feeling lonely”.  She said, “I understand. Now go back to your seat”.

I reunited with my wife at an airport hotel Monday. We have gotten along amazingly since.  Let’s see how long that lasts. We took the high speed train to Strasbourg Tuesday morning. We think we got on the wrong car because we could not find our assigned seats. Fortunately we did not get kicked out of the seats we had plopped down in.  The train made only two stops before Strasbourg, but I was looking out of the window to see which couple might potentially eject us.

TCG and Katie arrived here this morning. They stored their baggage in our room as it was too early to check in. My attempt to get remuneration for that failed. We took a walk to the cathedral and then ended up at a cafe by the water for lunch.  We sat next to a local that looked like Rod Stewart and was approximately his age.  He seemed like he was half in the bag, but I’m not one to judge. He regaled us with the stories of the Americans he has met, like Reagan, Barack Obama, and Obama’s sister.  We thought that was a mean feat since Obama does not have a sister, but we figured out he was referring to Michelle. After lunch we planned to take the canal boat tour but had to push that to tomorrow as they were booked for a while. Tonight will bring us to the Drunky Stork Social Club for cocktails and L’Oignon for dinner.

Au Revoir

Birthday Bashes

Today is my wife’s 67th.  Yesterday was my 68th.  Did we hug it out for two days straight? No, we did not.  Why? Because she and Mashie hopped on a flight to Paris Wednesday night. It was tough spending one of my favorite Hallmark holidays all alone. I played this on a loop most of the day. I only stopped it to have a 42 minute conversation with my superannuated brother and to bask in the love I received via email, text and FB. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN9CjAfo5n0

Fortunately, I have people that realize how much birthdays mean to me.  #1 and Barbie invited me over for dinner along with #2.  Steaks, truffle mac & cheese and grilled asparagus were on the menu. All very nice, but what the hell kind of bday party features the birthday boy supplying the cake? SB1 and LGMG sent me a scrumptious chocolate confection, so I decided to share.

As usual, I’m trying to stay away from news regarding our current Presidential administration, with its “do unto others and then split” ethos, but sadly some sludge is oozing through. I thought National Security Adviser and Signalgate moron Mike Walz was gone, but they are just playing a game of whack-a-mole, with him popping up as UN Ambassador nominee. And one White House insider described Russia envoy Steve Witkoff as a “nice guy, but a bumbling f---ing idiot. He should not be doing this alone”. He purportedly used a Kremlin translator at times. On the plus side, it looks like Musk is fading away "to get back home to his cars."