Friday · Popularity: 16% · my life in france
Thursday, October 24, 1991
David is off to London and I’m off to Bible Study - only one problem - giant rail strike. We leave early and David drives me to my study. A normal 10 minute drive took one hour and 10 minutes as everyone is driving today. The city is paralyzed, and as San Antonio is with an ice storm.
Some people just don’t even bother to go to work. David parks the car at the airport and boards the bus to the airport terminal. Suddenly the bus just stops along with all cars approaching the airport. The road is blocked by strikers and no one is getting thru. He has to walk about 2 miles carrying his heavy luggage but does make the flight in time.
Thursday · Popularity: 16% · my life in france
Wednesday, October 23, 1991
David leaves the hotel for an early meeting at IBM and I enjoy a quick breakfast and proceed to catch the 8AM bus for the IBM facility to meet him. Only, it’s 7:50AM and the bus left at 7:45 AM. So, its taxi time and off I go with 3 other people from Israel who also intended to catch the 8AM bus.
During our 30 minute taxi ride, all three of them knew David, etc., etc. Small world. We drove back and arrived Paris about noon after yet another very enjoyable trip.
Wednesday · Popularity: 14% · my life in france
Monday and Tuesday, October 22, 1991
David’s off to his meetings and I visit the old church Mary Madeleine, attending the French service, and lighting yet another candle for my father in one of the many churches around the world. I also toured Cathedral Saint Michael, the national church of Belgium, and then proceeded to lose [sic] myself at the “Grand Place” and the many shops.
Tuesday · Popularity: 17% · excursion, my life in france
Sunday, October 20, 1991
The rain stopped long enough for us to cook breakfast and put up our wet tent. We found no English speaking Churches in Mons, so we studied the Prophet John in our Bible. We arrived in Brussels, studied numerous corner street maps, and found our hotel - The Royal Windsor Hotel.
In the afternoon we visited the “Grand Place”, beautiful old buildings, truly a grand looking place, stopping as we went at numerous lace and chocolate shops. Oh! the calories. we also visited the famous statue “Mannekin Pis”. Yes, a little boy doing his thing. we took the Metro to “Rick’s Place” - excellent ribs and American cuisine.
Tuesday · Popularity: 26% · my life in france, road trip
Saturday, October 19, 1991
Off we go - driving to Brussels, Belgium. We cross the border and exchange French Francs for Belgian Francs. This time it’s 1,000 Belgian Francs equal to about $30USD. The language is French but almost everyone speaks English also.
In wanting to satisfy our camping desire, we pack the car for a Saturday night stay at a campground at Mons, Belgium. Yes, I said Fall was here -cold, rainy. We drive thru several rain storms on the way. We arrive at Mons. The rain briefly stops and we set up our tent.
The campground is really nice, adjacent to a beautiful park with statues, ponds, ducks, and flowers. We stroll thru the beautiful garden and out of all the walking paths, we are led down one to find 3 beautiful white duck feathers on the ground. Someone is really watching out for us. Now David’s Pirate hat will be complete.
The rain would come and go as we cooked in between the raindrops and are holding our umbrellas while adding on another layer of clothes for warmth. We have found no camp fire facilities at any European campgrounds - this lending to only one positive note - your clothes don’t smell smokey.
Darkness came early and we retired to the warmth of our feather comforter. The rain continued all night. We were awakened by loud music from a building in the park about 1/2 mile away (student party). It actually vibrated the ground we slept on but was somewhat enjoyable.
Monday · Popularity: 20% · my life in france
Thursday, October 17, 1991
David flies to Bristol, U.K. returning on Friday.
Friday, October, 18, 1991
It truly [sic] Fall weather - cold, rain, wet, low about 40F and wind chill even colder. I begin to make David’s pirate hat for a Halloween party this Saturday only to realize we forgot the feathers in the U.S. David says “surely we can buy some here”. Easy for him to say.
It’s not like I have a Michael’s or Moskatel’s store around the corner.
Wednesday · Popularity: 29% · my life in france, road trip
Tuesday, October 15, 1991
We grabbed a couple of croissants and departed at 7am for Northern Italy - a detour on our drive home. The drive from Lausanne thru Southern Switzerland took us around Lake Geneva and into the beautiful snow covered Swiss Alps.
We crossed into Italy via the St. Bernard tunnel, 4 kilometers long, politely being waved thru customs, not even checking our passports. Now we are really into some gorgeous country - Northern Italy and the Italian Alps. The road is small and curvy and the towns are old and quaint, houses with rock roofs, chateaus (castles) every way you turn your head, old churches with murals painted on the front walls.
Oh, so many pictures we’re taking. The trees are beginning to turn as Fall is approaching. We leave Italy and back into France via Mont Blanc tunnel - 11 kilometers long (about 6 1/2 miles).
Again, we’re waived thru customs and my plants are on their way home! The mountains are so awesome. Mt. Blanc is 16,000+ ft. tall, snow covering a large part of it, and a glacier on the French side. We had to stop just to admire the beauty and, of course, more pictures. We continue our drive toward Paris, arriving home about 6:30pm. A stop at the office for, oh so much mail - just like Christmas again!
Editor’s Note:
Sorry I have been shy on the photos lately, I actually just forgot until I read her post saying how many photos she had taken, and yes, she took a lot of pictures of their drive home. Here are a few starting with David in the booth.
I will try to remember to include more photos in the upcoming posts and I might go back to some of the previous days posts when they were at the show and update the photos there too.