Les Vans with our host Family

We had a fantastic time with Uta, Alain, Theo and Christophe outside of Les Vans in the Languedoc region. To get there, we took two trains and a bus. We really felt like adventurers hopping around.

Our host family had a lovely house and were just wonderful hosts. Uta made us a lovely home cooked french meal and we reciprocated with a nice American meals (hamburgers) the following night.

Here is the back of their house:



Here is a pic of a neighborhood in Les Vans



The family cat helped continue our streak of Joe and a cat in every country:

Avignon: a whole lot of blah

I have a couple items of interest to post on my blog.

I dont feel right completely not addressing Avignon. We did not have a problem with the city. It was nice, but it rained, rained, rained.

We did a few things: we put our hand in the Rhone River, laughed at dumb signs and tried to force two snails to be friends on the side of the road.

Getting to Avignon was really neat. We rode a TGV train at 200 KM an hour. I felt like I was flying.

This post is so boring, that I think a dumb sign picture is in order.



One thing I liked about france is that the french family does not wait until the weekend to have outings together. After work (between 4pm and 5pm), the local families will take their children for a stroll in a park or along the river.

In closing, here is a pic of Avignon from across the Rhone.

Beautiful Les Vans

All is well and we have had a few uneventful but relaxing day in the South of France. After two very rainy days in Avignon, we have taken a train to Nimes and then to Ales followed by a bus to a tiny town called Les Vans. While we were in Ireland, we contacted a family from our travelling group we joined called Servas.

I will write more details in a later post when i have access to a better keyboard.

So we are staying with Uta, Alaine, 3 year old Theo (pronounced Teo) and 6 mo old Kristoff in their lovely home.

Once again, the rain is spoiling our fun in this area full of swimming, canoeing and hiking opportunities.

More later::::::

Thoughts on France

Well, we've been in France for about 10 days now and here are some of my thoughts on France. France is probably my favorite foreign country. It is a beautiful country with fantastic food and wine. The French people get a pretty bad rap in America, but they have been very friendly toward us, even in Paris. If you've never been to a country that speaks a language other than English, France is a good country to start in. Not all, but the majority of French people know at least a little English. Enough to where they can get their point across. This is not how it works in all European countries, as we found out in Spain back in December. "Parlez vous Anglias?" is a very useful phrase to know, but, often, we didn't even need to say that. Just say a couple phrases in French and after they pick up your accent, they just start talking English.

Normandy was incredible. Mauri and I did a 2 day tour of the D-Day beaches and it was worth every penny. Every American should see Normandy in their lifetime. Battlebus was the name of the tour we did and I would recommend them to anyone. In Normandy, we have found that the French people have definitely not forgotten the sacrifice the American military (as well as the British and Canadian militaries) have made for them. There were monuments everywhere, mostly paid for by the locals. To see the pictures of our D-Day tour, follow this link (there are about 140 pictures over the 2 days): http://picasaweb.google.com/joseph.rummel/

Paris is a beautiful city and it is huge! I would recommend taking a walk along the Seine River as the city is lighting up at night. Of course, you have to see all of the big sites (Eiffel Tower, Louvre, etc), but visit some of the outdoor markets they have there, too. After all, you didn't come to all the way to Paris to be with a bunch of other tourists, you came to see French culture. Also, beware that, as with any tourist area, there will be plenty of parasites hanging around attempting to separate you from your money. You need to be a little cautious. Don't put your money in your pocket, use a money belt. I have not had anything stolen from me yet, but I have noticed people looking at my pockets. If someone randomly tries to give you something or do something for you, don't accept it. They will want money. If they have a friend with them, they will try to distract you while the friend gets into your pockets. This is with any tourist area in Europe, not just France (we saw this in Grenada and Madrid in Spain as well).

If you like biking, visit Tours, France. They are very bike friendly and have plenty of trails in the beautiful Loire Valley. Mauri and I saw a beautiful French Chateux while on a ride. We are now in Avignon in Provence, near the Italian border. We took a bullet train to get here. We went from Paris to Avignon (about the same distance as Pittsburgh to Philadelphia) in 2.5 hours. Their public transportation is pretty good here. They also have 5 weeks of vacation every year, 35 hour maximum work week, full pensions at 40, and universal health care. Their president wants to change the pensions to 41 and they had nationwide strikes and protests last Thursday as a result. We saw one of the protests in Tours. It was massive.

Loire Valley home to wine and a bicycle

The thing to do in the Loire Valley is to bike.

I am sure you can guess what we did:



During our 40 km ride, look what we found:





This is not a castle, it is a Chateau.

Joe vs the baguette

Food - Best of

Anybody who knows me, knows that I love food. After a week of france I have compiled the best of (so far) eats in France:

Vegetables (mainly stewed peppers) with Goat Cheese lying in a cold tomato soup:



Smoked Salmon with Goat Cheese with a mixed salad and vinegarette dressing:



Filet a beef, pan fried over a hash brown like patato ensemble with two types of sauce (green on the outisde which is a light and a red wine sauce)




Creme Brulee: nothing special here, but I have only seen this on the menu once:



I have saved my last entry for the most interesting and to also to kill everyone's appetites after this mouth watering post:

TAR TAR. It is 100% Raw ground beef. Its the meatloaf BEFORE you put it into the oven. Its served everywhere and it is fantastic. AND YES, I ate it and I dont regret it.




Arent we the cutest.

Irish Music Video

While I was in Ireland, I had a little fun with my camera.

The picture is dark, and the sound is so so, but I hope it interests some. Irish music is not the junk you hear in the movies. I thought it was very similar to light modern rock.

I only got 30 seconds of the performance.

Experiencing Paris

The Local Food:



The markets:
(Bird Market)



The Seine River
(Joe washing dog poo off his shoe)



The breakfast



Lunch



The evening:



Paris has been great and now we are off to Tours

Joe and the great dog poo incident

Paris is known for its land mines on the streets and side walks.

Marching through Paris

God Bless the Engineers

Remembering the Dead

American Cemetery (about 8000 buried here)




German Cemetery (21,500 buried with 2000 in the center mound)

Bloody Omaha

This is of the many sites where the Germans hunkered down with massive fire power and pelted the beach below.

Can you imagine landing on that beach?

D-Day

Joe and I splurged on a 8 van mini bus tour of the D-Day sites. It was worth every cent I payed and 200 more. The guide was a pure historian that talked strategy on how the battle unfolded and of individual stories collected about soldiers who fought.

If you saw the film "The Longest Day", you would appreciate this:




This does not look like a very important site, but you need a guide to tell you that the Germans had stopped a damn and flodded the fields like this with 4 - 8 feet of water. The grass had grown up and you could not see the water. When the paratroopers landed, alot of them liked the look of the field and landed. A vet who spoke with our guide landed on an embakement where we are currently standing. He discussed that he was haunted for 20 years by the screams of hundreds of soldiers as they landed with a hundred pounds of supplies strapped to them slowly drowning.



Joe is putting together a photo album of all the sites with info we learned. He can discuss more later.

The Appreciation

Before I left for my trip, I received many negative comments from US citizens about the French.
They included: The French don't like you. The French are snotty. and The French have no respect of the sacrifice that was made to liberate them during the Nazi occupation.

You be the judge:

70% of the land and memorials to commemorate the battle of Normandy are provided by the individual locals and their houses are not mansions.



This was a small church we visited during our D-Day tour.



This shot was taken from the hallway in our manoir.

I hope the posts I will put up over the next week will change someone's preconceived notions of the French and will allow them to pack their bags for a fantastic experience over here.

Bayeux: A Manoir

Check out our B and B in Bayeux. Its a manoir and very castle like. Too cool for words:




As we were trying to find it, a crazy lady came running across the street to us yelling... ruuuummelll, ruuuummeelll, ruuuuuummmelll.

The crazy lady turned out to be our inn keeper and all of us used everything short of the swahili clicking language to make sure that our stay was great.

In the morning we received fresh bread, cheeses, and hams every morning at 7:45 sharp. The plate of cheese also had a slab of butter. Imagine my surprise when I bit into it hoping for sharpness. whoops.

Flashback: Ireland

I think we have a perfect score with Joe posing with a cat in every european country we have visited.



I guess, I have to work on France now.

Were in France, now run like hell

Our ferry was almost an hour late at 15 past 18:00 and the last train out of Cherbourg for the day was 18:44.

There were about 8 backpackers that walked on the ferry by foot and the mess of getting into france was fantastic. First there was the platform to get us off the damn ship. No one seemed in a hurry. Then the freight elevator and followed by a bus to the terminal building. Once again no one seemed in a hurry, but all the backpackers were about to pee their pants. Next: customs. The lady took my passport and proceeded to read it cover and cover. I was about to climb back there to make her cup of hot cocoa and give her a throw blanket for the whole process. We ran to the street and stuffed ourselves into taxis. I sat in the front, and the backpackers kept throwing euro coins at me so that we could get out of the taxi fast enough.

Run, run, run, run and into the train at 18:42.

If anyone would like to get over their fear of a new foreign country, I strongly recommend a frazzled entrance. There is no better way to get over it.

On the boat to france

After Galway, we completed our trip in Dublin and took a train ride down to Rosslare. For my next trip to Ireland, I will need to spend some time in Wicklow. As we travelled down the coast, I felt like I was coming strait out of the book, Little Women with babbling brooks and beautiful forest.

We picked up the Oscar Wilde ferry boat to Cherbourg France. The ferry ride was 18 hours long, but there was plenty of stuff to do on the ship. For one, we sprung for the lowest grade cabin you could get. I was surprised that it wasn't a mess, but quite clean and hospitable. Secondly, they had lots of placards to read about how nuts Oscar Wilde was.

They also had satellite TV. To our surprise, they had an NFL show on in the bar.



I wish I took more pics of the ferry. The whole experience was extremely interesting.

PARIS and once again online!!!

We learned that internet cafes in Bayeux are few and far between. We have a hotel in Paris with unlimited wireless access.

Expect some great stories and more pics soon as we sort through some other items and email.

Thank you for all the comments!!!

All,

I am really enjoying reading all the comments. Thanks for posting. You motivate me to post more.

We are leaving Galway today and returning to Dublin. We pick up the train to Rosslare and we will set sail to Cherbourg, France. Therefore, you wont be hearing from me till tomorrow night or even the next day.

mmm.....Guinness

In honor of Jim:

Dingle: 3 days in the country

We stayed at a wonderful B&B for 3 days and by the time we left, we felt like we lived there.

Dingle is all the way on the west side on a Peninsula.

Of course I made a big to do about the local livestock. The locals must have had a good laugh watching me try to pet the cows.

Sheep:



Horse:



And of course, my favorite:



It is said that at one time, Ireland had 300 inhabitants per square km. Now there is as few as 13 in areas. As a result, you see many abandoned houses and other buildings.



We drove around the coast to find some nice views of the local islands:



Reminds me of coastal california:

For our wonderful realtor

Hi Jen,

Maybe you can transfer offices:



I have a tough sell for you.



Are you up to the challenge?

Rock of Cashel

Can you believe that two families fought over this???



(The fixer upper of the year)

The Rummel's do Eastern Ireland

A Rummel and the Liffy



The Rummels having a Pint



Dont look now, a Rummel is getting behind the wheel. God help us now.



Yes, we drank all that:



You cant end this post without a good ol castle. How is this?

Joe

You just cant have a blog with out a picture of Joe doing something silly at the Pittsburgh airport.

To my subscribers

For those of you who subscribe, you most likely get an email for every post. When i have a good strong connection, I like to post quick thoughts and pictures in single posts.

The mailing list will send you a copy of the text only post by email. If I make 5 posts, you will get 5 emails. If you would like to set up google groups to send you only 1 email a day of all posts, you can adjust your settings by visiting:

http://groups.google.com/group/hopelessplanner

Log in using your email address and password you setup and select "Edit my Membership".

I hope this helps.

Thoughts on Ireland

Well, everyone's probably tired of hearing from Mauri, so I thought I would leave a post. The first stop on our trip has been the Emerald Isle, Ireland. Ireland is a very beautiful country, very green, and quite expensive. If you are a novice to traveling, Ireland is a good place to start because it is very similar to the United States in a lot of ways, such as language (they speak English), food (you can find Italian, Chinese, and hamburger joints everywhere), and media (I watched "Friends" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" on TV and listen to the Rolling Stones, John Mayer, and Red Chili Peppers on the radio). Here are some of my thoughts:

Driving: They drive on the left! That sounds like it would be hard to get used to, but it really isn't. You just have to remind yourself to stay left. My biggest problem is getting used to the controls being on opposite sides. For example, when I want to make a turn, I turn on the windshield wipers, when it rains, I turn on the turn signal. But, I am getting used to it. Another thing is that the roads are very narrow and they have ALOT of trucks and buses on them (kind of like Western Pennsylvania)! That can be a little hairy at times. Also, you have to remember on the superhighways in Dublin, traffic is supposed to stay to the left and pass on the right, which is the opposite of the U.S., however, this was not hard to get used because this is the way they drive on the Central Coast in California!

Pubs: The pubs are the center of all social activity. You want Irish food, you go to the pub. (There are not many restaurants that server Irish food). You want to hear traditional Irish music, you go to the pub. You want good beer, you go to the pub. In Ireland, Guiness is a very good beer. I don't like it much in the States, but is very good here. This is because "Guiness does not travel well" as the Irish say. It takes 3 minutes for them to pour it because they pour let it settle, and then finish pouring. The traditional Irish music is very good. It is kind of a mix of folk and country. It definitely will get your feet tapping to the beat. The Irish are proud of their music and are not shy to remind you that U2, Van Morrison, Sinead O'Connor, and Enya are all from Ireland.

History: Mauri and I did a Historical walking tour of Dublin and that was really need. We saw Trinity College, which was set up by the English to educate Protestants in Ireland; the old Irish Parliament building, which is where the Legislature of Ireland would meet in the old days, no Catholics allowed and no law could be passed without permission from London; Dublin Castle, Temple Bar, and plenty of info on Micheal Collins, Daniel O'Connell, the IRA and "The Troubles". "The Troubles" were really ignited by an event called Bloody Sunday, back in the 1970s when British troops gunned down about 30 unarmed Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2 is about that event. Last, they absolutely LOVE John F. Kennedy out here. He visited Ireland as President and the whole country shut down because everyone wanted to see him. He was supposed to stay for 3 days and he ended up staying five.

Well, that's all for now. I will leave another post later, maybe talk about France and D-Day. We'll be there in a few days. Thank God for the internet. It still get to see the Penguin scores. LETS GO PENS! BEAT THOSE FLYER JAGOFFS!

Cashel, Dingle

We stayed in a lovely hostel in Cashel that was right across from a ruined Abbey. Of course, Joe and I had to go check it out since it was free. We then saw the famous Rock of Cashel before we drove to Dingle.

Dingle is a fantastic town and we are staying at a very nice B&B with a little scotty dog and a black cat.

Unfortunately, internet access is very far and few between, so there is no internet access yet and therefore no pictures. :(

Stay Left

After saying goodbye to Dublin, we rented a car to explore western Ireland. When we found our car, I left Joe sitting in the drivers seat to contemplate the new driver's side while I walked backed into the airport to find a decent road map.

Once we got moving, staying left wasnt that hard. However, every turn we made, the window wipers turned on and Joe cursed about it.

Into dublin

I always forget how nervous buses make me. I have this undying fear of missing my stop. Once I found an old man who knew about my stop, Joe and I harassed the poor guy until we got there.

Are we there yet? no. Are we there yet? no. Are there yet? no. Here we are. Stop the bus!!!! During my fit of panic, I slammed a poor french lady. I guess I am not representing the US to the best of my abilities.

After a Guiness and a bowl of soup, Joe and I were in bed and sound asleep by 9pm. We sure are party animals. Traveling from 5:30AM on Monday to 7:00 PM on Tuesday will do that to you.

Tonight we are playing tourist and going on a celtic music experience tour. Hopefully, I will have time this evening to post a few pictures.

Finally... arrived

London Heathrow is the most amazing airport. I dont say this in a sense of pure beauty or sheer technological power. I say this because of how mind boggling the airport was from the moment I stepped off the plane.

I think they thwart off terrorism by just confusing the hell out of every traveler (good or bad) that enters the airport.

As soon as i walked off the plane, I felt like a rat in the maze looking for the end. They sent us down this hall way, up the stairs, down the escalator, around the rotunda. Without letting any of us escape the walk, they crammed us into a bus to repeat the ups, downs, lefts and rights. I couldn't even tell you where the hell I was. If you told me I was 50 ft underground, I would sure as hell believe it. I finally entered customs where they took my picture, gave me a paper and sent me through security. The underwire of my bra set the security detector ringing and I had a heck of an interesting pat down.

Finally, after getting our tickets for the next flight, they dropped us in the middle of a mall complete with a store called FCUK. We sat there for four hours in a daze due to jet lag. Finally it was time to board. Once again: up, down, left, right. They literally sent us walking through a giant pipe. (not kidding). They took my peice of paper away and I was dropped off in an area with about 10 gates. Once again, if you told me I was now in Guam, I would believe it.

Time to board, but no plane??? They sent us down a narrow spiral stairway that was connected to the skyway and placed us into a bus. The bus went left, right, left, left, under the terminals. Once again, if you told me I was on the moon, I would believe it. Magically, we got let off at a big plane and set off for dublin.

To say the least. It was an interesting adventure.

Pittsburgh = good times

I thought it was only right to update my blog on the day that I head overseas. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot to report unless the Pittsburgh International airport gives you goose bumps just thinking about it.

We have been testing our sanity by visiting a variety airports: LAX, PIT, PHL, RDU, PHL and back to Pit. We spent a wonderful weekend in Myrtle Beach (Eat, Sleep, Beach, Pool, Wedding activities, repeat). We should be arriving in Chicago in about an hour or two before we board our trans atlantic flight to London and then on to Dublin.

Once again, not that exciting.

On the plus side, they have a brookstone in the airport. Rock on.. massage chair.