Home again

I'll add pictures to this post in a bit.

Monday 10/29 we started for home. In the morning we got all packed and ready to go. Susan still felt terribly sick, but there wasn't an opportunity to get her to the doctor as we had Ellen and Matt. We hoped to do it when we got to London. Kris loaded us all up in the van and we drove to Geneva -- about two hours from Lyon. After many hugs and kisses we parted from Kris and Yasmine. Our stay in Switzerland was brief and uneventful. We loaded onto an EasyJet flight and flew back to London Gatwick. There we checked into the airport Hilton for a very comfortable last night in the UK. My aunt Anne was supposed to join us but she stayed home -- sick. Whatever we all had, we'd given to her. By the time of this writing I suppose all our French relatives are sick as well. This was a nasty bug. After a shower and a change of clothes, Susan felt well enough to stick it out for one more day, promising she'd see the doctor back in Minnesota.

Tuesday morning we had a lovely breakfast and walked back over to the airport terminal for our departing flight. Ten hours later we were back in Minneapolis. But not before Jacob threw up on the plane again. Darn.

So that brings us to today. Susan went to the doctor and is now taking antibiotics. Matt has finished his and Ellen has a few days left. Jacob is fine. Everyone went back to school & work and we are back to our normal routine. Halloween trick-or-treating was successful and each of the kids have a load of candy to keep them on maximum sugar high until Christmas.

It was a GREAT vacation. But as always it is also very nice to be home.

Perouges

Doug again. Catching up on the last few days of our big trip. On Sunday morning (10/28) it looked like Susan was feeling better. But it was a false alarm. By noon she'd relapsed and was sick again. She and Matt stayed back at the house while the rest of us drove to Perouges -- a small village northeast of Lyon. Perouges has been preserved to be more-or-less exactly as it would have been in the middle ages. But people still live and work there. They just bury the power and telephone lines and refuse to widen the roads and do everything they can to keep the village looking like it did 700 years ago or so. It's a popular place on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. There were hundreds of people there wandering the streets, sitting at the outdoor cafes, buying things in the shops. They sell an interesting flat cake -- Galette de Perouges. It's basically a pizza crust (although the French would call it Brioche I think) with sugar and lemon on it. They sell them to take home and bake, but we bought one and just ate it raw. Bad manners I suppose but we were hungry and it still tasted really good.

By the time we got home, Matt was much much better. His antibiotics had finally kicked in. Hooray! Yannick and Kris cooked another fantastic meal. This time confit de cunard (duck, with beans, sausage, and other goodies). This was Matt's first real dinner in France. He loved it, and was a good fearless eater as we'd expected. After the duck, he even tried all the cheeses -- even the good and stinky ones. We finished with barbarian figs (possibly otherwise known as prickly pears) for dessert. Both Matt and I ended up with tiny-but-annoying stickers in our fingers, but it was worth it since the fruit was soooooo good. Taina ate about seven.

A walk in the woods

Doug again... writing about Saturday. Adjacent to my cousin's house is a small river which is public property. There are footpaths on both sides which can be walked for miles. Or, uh, kilometers I guess. Minus Matthew and Susan, who were both sick in bed, we trundled off to explore. We found -- water to splash in, trees to climb, Roman aqueducts to admire, farm animals to annoy. Another great day. Just like the French countryside should be. In the evening we did some shopping. Buying wine was especially fun. Kris took us to a place nearby where they fill your bottles with a hose from the giant wine vat. We tasted a few wines and decided on a local Cote du Rhone. Kris filled her giant 10 liter jug and off we went. Later -- thanks to Yannick and Kris -- we ate another fabulous meal. Roast game hen with chestnuts and mushrooms. Yummy.

Sunday morning update. Susan is better. Matthew is not. :(

Vieux Lyon

(Blog for Friday) Marna here... Another day when we're up and out of the house at the crack of 12:15pm or so. Anne calls us a Herd of Turtles - or a Terd of Hurtles... Maybe we're just getting prepared for daylight savings time prematurely. That could be a problem when we fly out of Geneva Switzerland on Monday since we currently don't know when Switzerland recognizes daylight savings time. We'll probably be an hour late for our flight... ohwell.

On to Vieux Lyon - which means Old Lyon. Taina and Yasmine had their last day of school before their break next week so Kris and the 7 Turtles started out at the beautiful Basilica in Vieux Lyon. We were all doing our best to stay reasonably quiet until Doug let out a gigantic sneeze which rattled the stained glass. We all giggled quite a bit. The Basilica is one of the most beautiful I've seen. Amazing tile work all over the walls and ceiling depicting various scenes. The stained glass was amazing as well.

From there, we headed down a meandering garden path WAY down the hill into another section of Vieux Lyon. This was more dangerous than it should have been for mom since she was wearing her rock and roll sandals which tip her forward anyway. Not so good on a steep decline. We saw many cute cafes and storefronts. We stopped for hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) and meringue - yum. Filled the turtles up with lots of sugar so we would move a little more quickly.

We next walked to the St. Jean Cathedral which has an amazing Astronomical clock. We were there on the half hour - so we didn't get to hear the major show at the top of the hour - but the half hour was cool nevertheless.

We took the Funicular (tram - again, on a steep incline) up the hill to the Roman Amphitheatre. It's in exceptional shape - although they have done some reconstruction as they currently hold concerts and plays there throughout the summer in Lyon. It would be amazing to watch a performance sitting on the stone steps of the amphitheatre. We climbed all of the steps to the top and looked back down the hill onto the entire city of Lyon - it was a spectacular view.

We had a WONDERFUL dinner of melted cheese on roasted potatoes with various local meats. SO GOOD! We're all going to look on E-Bay to try to buy this very cool cheese melting, potato roasting appliance. Unfortunately, Matthew has become the third victim of whatever it is that is afflicting the Jerebek-Kinney's and has come down with Strep throat - which he promptly gave to Sue. (Did we mention in the last blog that Ellen had tonsillitis? She's feeling much better...) Luckily, Taina and Yasmine's doctor was very accommodating and saw Matthew Friday night and gave him a prescription for some anti-biotics. I think we all should have probably gone along and gotten that same prescription with the way things are going. Hopefully Mom, Doug and I will make it out of Europe without having to see any more doctors.

Vive la France!

Thursday October 25 -- We are in Chaponost France today! But before I can tell you that story, I have to tell you this one. (That was a Captain Underpants reference -- funny for any parents or seven year olds who might read this.) Okay. Here we go.

In the last two days of travels from Portsmouth to Chaponost our modes of travel were...
1. Walk
2. Ferry
3. Bus
4. Train
5. Tour Bus
6. Train
7. Taxi
8. Taxi
9. Train
10. Van

It all went like clockwork too. We only had a couple hours in London in the middle of the day yesterday so we took a bus tour there (#5 above). It was cold and windy - a good London October day. We had two tour bus guides. The first was informative. The second was funny. But we didn't find the bus with the guide who is both informative and funny. Regardless it was a great way to spend a short time in London and we hit all the highlights, albeit very briefly. After that we got back on British Rail and headed out to Ashford in Kent. We ate a fantastic pub dinner at The Blacksmith's Arms.
We stayed in The Warren Cottage -- very nice, even if it was built hundreds of years ago for very tiny people. The rooms and beds were very comfortable.

Which brings us to today. Back to the Ashford Rail station and onto the Eurostar bound for Lille, through the channel tunnel (chunnel). Back in the states a couple weeks ago I rented the movie Mission Impossible because at the end a helicopter flies into the chunnel chained to the back off a moving train. Tom Cruise jumps from the train to the helicopter, blows it up, which sends him flying back to the train again. I told the kids, "that's where we're going." So they were pretty excited. But nothing like that happened on our trip. The tunnel is dark but it wasn't spooky at all and I never once thought of the bazillion gallons of water just overhead. We were out on the French side in about 20 minutes.
After switching trains in Lille the trip to Lyon went pretty quickly. My cousin Kris met us at the Lyon train station and we drove first to visit some 2000-year-old Roman aqueducts,
and then to her family's home in Chaponost. It is so beautiful! We are all excited to spend time here and so thankful to be able to share this wonderful place.

HMS Victory

Tuesday October 23. Quiet day today mostly. Ellen isn't feeling well and rested all day. Marna and my mom did a little shopping close by in Gosport. Sue and I took the boys across the harbor again to see the Royal Navy museum and the HMS Victory -- Lord Admiral Nelson's flagship during the battle of Trafalgar. The Victory has been in drydock in Portsmouth for the last 150 years or so and is open to visitors for a small fee. Well worth the visit! Tomorrow we're headed up to London for the day, then on to Ashford for one night in a cottage that Marna found. Then on Thursday we take an early train to Lyon, France to visit my cousin and her family. Looking forward to that!

The ancient Britons

Monday October 22. The first day of Susan's next decade. Today we were up with the sun. Here is the view from Anne's balcony in Gosport, looking East over the harbor toward Portsmouth.

Anne and her friend Richard drove us all northwest, for a very full day of learning about the ancient folks who lived in England over 5000 years ago. Our first stop was in Salisbury. Not the current town of Salisbury but the original town of Salisbury, now known as Old Sarum. It's a big hill a mile or two out outside of the new town, which the ancients (around 4000 years ago) fortified by hand-digging enormous ditches all round with antlers and pointy rocks and whatever else they could find or make for digging. Very impressive. Later on William the Conqueror built his castle on top of the same hill, after disbanding his army (there was nothing left to conquer). There was also a large cathedral. Today there is nothing left but ruins. Also -- Richard confirmed that this is, in fact, the same Salisbury Hill immortalized by Peter Gabriel. I hummed it to myself all during our visit. It would have been in my head all day had it not been for our next visit to...

Stonehenge

Which got me going on Spinal Tap. No-one knows who they were, or what they were doing. But their legacy remains, hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge. Not really a step up but still not so bad, and the kids enjoyed that song more. So Stonehenge was pretty remarkable. It's roped off now. Probably for the best since there were hundreds of people there, and many more buses arriving as we were leaving. Still you can get pretty close, and it's interesting to know you are standing at one of the oldest known human-inhabited locations on the planet. At least that's what we thought until we visited...

Avebury

Which is just a short ride northeast of Stonehenge. Avebury is a larger stone circle which is likely older and has a very nice village (Avebury) still inside. This area has been continually populated for about 6000 years. It's a powerful experience to walk among the stones. Just mind the sheep droppings. There was also a very nice gift shop and restaurant which Susan found to her liking!

Sunday, October 21

Hello. Grandma Marge here.
Today Susan is 40 (or at least she says so; we really don't believe it). We celebrated with a special breakfast, roses, a fancy dinner out for Susan and Doug, and a trip to the Isle of Wight for all of us. As usual we got started at the crack of 2 p.m. We went over the "Solent" on a HoverCraft...a boat that glides over the water on a big blown up balloon.

The grandkids pronounced it as "cool." Our primary destination was the Osborn House, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's summer home. It's quite a cottage!

Day 3 -- Jacob is still sick

Yes it's true. Saturday morning Jacob was still sick. Not quite hospital sick but too sick to go out sightseeing. Jacob and I (Doug) stayed back at my aunt's flat and sang songs and played with tiny plastic knights and built a tiny plastic mangonel -- sort of a yarn-based catapult. Sue and Marna and Grandma and the kids, well, I'm not sure where they went. Maybe it had something to do with this.

Spinnaker Tower

Still a couple days behind! Hope to catch up tonight. After Arundel Castle we got back to my Aunt Anne's flat in Gosport (across the harbor from Portsmouth) and slept for about 14 hours. I like the UK. At home I have insomnia. Here it seems I can sleep at just about any time and stay asleep for days.

Friday found Jacob throwing up again. So he and Susan stayed home while the rest of us caught the ferry over to Portsmouth (a 3 minute trip) and looked around there. They've recently opened a new attraction in Portsmouth -- the Spinnaker Tower. It's pretty impressive, although it doesn't really fit with the rest of the city. Maybe they intend to build a bunch of similar buildings all around it in the next fifty years or so. There's an observation deck 110 meters up, with all glass walls and a section of glass floor that's mildly terrifying to walk across.

Arundel castle

Thursday morning Anne and her friend Richard picked us up at Gatwick Airport. Jacob was feeling a little better so they took us to Arundel Castle in West Sussex. Here's Ellen with what she remembers most about the castle.

My absolute favorite part about Arundel Castle was probably the huge gallery that probably was the ballroom or the main hall or something when the castle was built.
It has TONS of portraits of famous people that visited the castle a long time ago. IT WAS SOOOO COOL!!!! There were animal skins on the floors, and there were these two huge, beautiful fireplaces that I could easily imagine them heating up the gigantic room. My aunt said," When I thought of castles, I always thought that they were cold and somewhat depressing in the winter, but those fireplaces could really make things cozy in here!"

Pictures from the plane ride

We've arrived!

Doug posting... We left rainy Minneapolis behind on Wednesday night. The flight was lovely. Some ate chicken. Others ate pasta. We all watched movies and slept but poor Jacob got sick on the plane.