Europe
We left San Antonio, TX at 3:30pm heading for St. Louis,MO. Arrived at 5:30pm and left at 6:45pm for London, England. We had a good flight, and they kept us
busy all night long feeding us or giving us something to drink. Of course we did have a movie or two to watch also to keep us occupied. I tried to sleep some so I wouldn't be Jet Lagged when we got there or have it hit me later in the day.
We arrived in London's Gatwick Airport at 9:15am London time. We were met by the Globus Tour personnel who escorted us out to the bus that would take us downtown to our hotel. It was about an hour ride from the airport to the Hotel.
We got to the hotel right at lunch time and by the time we ate lunch and got our bags to our rooms it was too late to make the afternoon extra tour, so we just took a walk around the area of the hotel. We found we had been put up in the older part of London and no where near the nice downtown part where Harods and some of the other sites to see were located. We concluded it was done this way on purpose so we would have to purchase extra tours or have nothing to do when the tours that were encluded were over. We ended up taking extra tours at each destination and it cost us about $600.00 more, but was worth it.
We will start our tour with London and then on to Amsterdam. With more to follow at a later time.
. Please click on thumbnails to view full size version.
St. James is where Prince Charles lives when he is in London.
They don't usually let tourists go into the private garden, but
the Queen was away for an extended period and they had it open for us to see. The next picture is one of the Queens Apartments where she lives when in the London area and not intertaining some Heads of State, or Kings or Queens from other countries. When she does have VIP's from other countries she sees them at Buckingham Place in London. But she much prefers Windsor Castle.
We took a boat from England across the Channel to Calais, France where we met our Globus bus driver who was waiting for us. The Tour guide and bus driver stayed with us for the remainder of our trip through Europe.
If you line up just right at the first bridge you can look all the way down the canal and see seven different bridges in a row. We were not exactly lined up just right to see all of them, but the place where the picture was taken was refered to as 7 bridges.
We were standing on one of the bridges crossing the canal in
Amsterdam. Notice the bicycles. In Amsterdam there are bicycles everywhere. If someone wants a
bike they just take one and when they are finished with it they just leave it whereever they get off. Most of the bikes are just old ones as no one wants to buy a new one only to have it taken by someone. A lot of the bikes are just thrown into the canals and when they clean the canals twice a year they get all the bikes and clean them up and use parts from all the bikes to build new ones. And the cycle begins all over again.
Cafe DePosthoor is in a building built in 1607 and Napolean lived here for one and half years. We had dinner here. A very quaint and neat place.
This ends our tour of London and Amsterdam. Now let us travel to Cologne, The Black Forest of Germany, and Switzerland.
This is the twin-spired Gothic Cathedral in Cologne. In 1248 Archibishop Conrad Von Hochstaden laid the foundation stone ofthisvast edifice. The building work came to a halt in 1560 with the twoers still unfinished. In 1880 the cathedral was finally completed, and its towers, over 515 ft. high, were at that time the highest in the world.
You have all heard the song "Loreley" well this is the Loreley Mountain and the following few pictures of scenes along the Rhine River as we cruised along. We saw villages and vinyards, castles and an old toll booth where boats going up and down the river had to pay a toll to pass.
Next we see Heidelberg Castle with it's many gnomes carved into the walls. Inside in the cellar there are the largest wine kegs I have ever seen. One is as large as the whole room and reaches almost to the ceiling. It has steps going up and a platform or walkway going across the top and then steps coming down the other side of it.
Now we enter the Black Forest of Germany. One of my favorite spots. We visited a Clock Factory Outlet store and saw so many beautiful Cuckoo clocks and grandfather clocks and Hummel figurines and other German made items. Of course I had to have one of the Cuckoo clocks.(^_^)First we see a village, then a Clock and wood carving store, Willie's Uhrenspiel(Cuckoo clock) and Charles and I standing in front of it and then a Cottage in the Black Forest.
Here we are in Switzerland. This was another part of Europe that I really did like. I guess because I like mountains and boy does Switzerland have mountains. First we saw the Rhine Falls and spent some time walking around and shopping a little. Before we
left we got a picture of us with our Tour Director and the bus driver. Then we were off to ride to the top of Mt. Pilatus on the Cog Rail. When we reached the end of the line we still had a little climb to reach the top, but it was worth it for the view. We rode two different cable cars to get down the mountain. Along the way we saw Sheep or Cow herders cottages and other scenes. The building way over on the cliff that looks like a church, must be a building where feed is stored for the cattle. That is all we could figure it could be.
This ends our tour of Germany and Switzerland. Later I will have pictures of Italy and France so do check back from time to time.
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