Bastille Day!  Although, as we learned, the French prefer to call it Le Quatorze Juillet, and not give quite such a nod to the holiday’s violent genesis.  On July 14, 1789, a determined crowd stormed the Bastille, a prison where many political prisoners were held, and thereby kicked off the French Revolution.  The day is commemorated in Paris with a huge military parade and a grand fireworks display near the Eiffel Tower.  We had hopes of catching BOTH, without being in the center of EITHER crowd.

We had good intentions of getting up early to make the parade, but we are not the best at getting up and out early.  By the time we made our way towards the Champs-Elysees, many of the streets were blocked off and we had no idea where to go.  We caught military jet flyovers as they happened, albeit for brief glances between buildings.  Finally, we found a good spot to catch the troops marching by, and it turned out to be right at the END of the parade route.  The VARIETY of French troops was amazing, all with very different uniforms, weapons, marching songs…..  We even got to see some tanks speeding.  Yes, French tanks HAUL DERRIÈRE.

Later in the day, after dinner and some rest back the apartment, the boys just weren’t UP for marching back through town to find a good viewing point for the fireworks.  So LouAnn, Georgia, and I set out about 9:00 to get close but not too close.  We found our perfect vantage point on the beautiful Pont Neuf.  We talked and laughed as we waited for darkness to fully fall, watching the Seine dinner cruise boats pass underneath us and eavesdropping on the surrounding conversations.  The fireworks were absolutely beautiful, a pure celebration.  Vive la France!

View of a French flyover, ever so brief.

Not sure.  Navy?

Almost ALL of the units had their own marching songs!

French commandos

Best uniform?  Winner!!!

A hot dog?  With fries ON it?!  Get OUT!!

This apparently is some famous Paris landmark.  Can’t remember its name..

I had gone back to the apartment to rest at this point.  I let them out of my sight for ONE HOUR and they all buy BERETS.  Now we blend in for sure.

Although she is pretty cute…..

Lounging at a café, across the street from the bakery they named after me.

When we’re tired, and punchy, THIS is what we do for entertainment.  In case you can’t identify the feet…. Georgia on the left, LouAnn in the middle, Ellis on the right.

Camped out on the Pont Neuf, waiting for the fireworks.

Look at that Frenchy-looking dude behind us.  He even has a BLACK TURTLENECK on.

Our view…..waiting for darkness….

The Louvre!  But how to tackle it all in one day…..with three kids…..  And with a late start at that!  We hopped on the Metro, stopped for crêpes on the way, then entered the museum through the sneaky Porte des Lions entrance, which every website told us would mean no lines, no waiting!  Apparently the secret’s out, because we still waited…..

Oh, the mass of people!  But we hit the highlights we wanted to.  It’s just so vast that you can’t get your head around it.  And for some reason, every time I enter the Louvre (ok, it’s only been 3 or 4 times) I get an irrepressible urge to SIT.  Somehow I kept moving, and we LOVED it.

After the Louvre, we wandered back to our neighborhood and ended up at El Chuncho for MEXICAN FOOD.  Woohoo!  Oh, don’t roll your eyes at ME, blog-followers.  We’ve eaten local cuisine for six weeks!  It was time for nachos and fajitas.  And surprisingly, the guacamole was VERY good.

Actually, the day started with a bathroom concert….  Jack discovered that the “hum” created by the lights in the apartment’s bathroom created a perfect “drone” chord.  He provided the melody.  Yes, these kids are musical.

Crêpes.  AGAIN.

He can sing, play the drums, AND bell-kick.

Headed towards the sneaky Portes des Lions entrance, which, of course, didn’t turn out to be that sneaky.

The Coronation of Napoleon, by David.  Massive scale, very impressive.

Dum-dum.

SO many paintings

Go David!

The THRONG around the Mona Lisa.  Sorry.  I don’t get it.

Ellis and Georgia both made their ways to the front of the pressing mass of photo-snappers, with some help from the museum guards.

This is somebody FAMOUS.  Either Greek or Roman.

I got to see Vermeers!  LOVE Vermeer.  Love the Dutch.

The Napoleon Apartments.  I nearly exhausted myself making the, “funny, we almost did our living room JUST LIKE THIS” joke, but no one laughed.

Ellis tugged us around until we found this one, which he’d seen a thumbnail of on the museum map.  He claimed he wanted to see what the shape in the background was.  Uh-huh.  Lots of giggling at this one….

Exiting through the pyramid

First full day in Paris!  And it was BEAUTIFUL outside.  I went early to the bakery and brought back wonderful pastries and croissants; we each effectively ate a stick of butter for breakfast.  We hit the streets and wandered up to Notre Dame cathedral.  But the line to go INTO the cathedral was ridiculously long; we got kind of a late start.  So we admired the outside, then promised to return another day that week EARLY in the morning to see the inside (SPOILER ALERT:  we NEVER made it back to Notre Dame).  From there we walked a few blocks to the Conciergerie, a former prison that housed hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution, many of whom went from there straight to the guillotine!  The kids were naturally FASCINATED by the guillotine.  The Conciergerie also held Marie Antoinette as she awaited her ultimate fate.  It’s a fascinating place to visit and learn about the process during the Revolution; it was a rather paranoid period in French history!  [BTW, the last execution by guillotine in France was in…..1977!]  C’est horrible!

After the Conciergerie, we crossed the river back into our neighborhood, and wound our way through the quaint but bustling streets….

[ASIDE:  The thing that struck me most profoundly about Paris during this time back was this:  all the stereotypes about Paris, all the movie scenes, all the caricatures…. they’re all TRUE.  Paris is REALLY LIKE THAT.  There really ARE old men on the street corners playing accordions.  There really are countless pairs of lovers embracing on the banks of the Seine.  There really are sidewalk cafés every 10 feet, where people slow down and sit and drink wine or coffees and watch the ladies ride by on their bicycles with baguettes sticking out of the handlebar baskets.  And it’s not a show – even off the beaten tourist paths, these things exist and reflect a way of daily Parisian life that we’ve all imagined.  And there’s a comfort in that, a familiarity…..an unexpected speed with which you, even as a foreigner, find yourself falling into the daily rhythm being played out around you.  So even though I’m sure the Stumbos stuck out like sore American thumbs to the natives around us, WE felt like we blended in, right from Day 1.  I ordered breads and pastries at the local boulangerie with the refinement of my high-school French.  We bought groceries, we lingered at cafés, we reclined on the grass in the park and read.  We stopped HURRYING.  We SAVORED; that Parisian practice that I treasured most of all…..]

We strolled through our neighborhood, stopping first at for crêpes from a sidewalk vendor near our street.  We split along sweet/savory lines – some ordered ham and cheese (jambon et fromage) and some ordered NUTELLA.  Our intention was to meander in the general direction of the Luxembourg Palace and its wonderful gardens.  I, the master navigator, was sure I was headed correctly.  LouAnn begged to differ.  “Nonsense,” I replied, “I know exactly where we are.”  Well, I could waste a lot of words and space here elaborating, but suffice to say LouAnn was RIGHT, and we walked many more miles that day than we needed to, and after we finally righted ourselves at her direction and entered the gates of the Gardens, I was still getting quite an earful from the better half.

The Luxembourg Gardens are wonderful.  In the center, behind the palace, is a huge, shallow fountain filled with small toy sailboats that are rented nearby.  We sat and watched them.  We also walked over to see the ancient grotto.  By this time, we were hungry for dinner,  so we headed north again towards our apartment and wound up at Relais L’Entrecote for some WONDERFUL steak frites, the only thing on the menu.  Our waitress was so cute; she loved the kids and kept bringing them extra fries.  After stuffing ourselves with steak, fries, and towering desserts, we wandered back towards the apartment.  I went back to rest, and LouAnn took the kids to see Pont des Arts, where all the lovers have hung their locks.  A trip which included, of course, highland dancing alongside a dashing young bagpiper.

In front of our apartment.

Look, kids – Notre Dame!

Inside the Conciergerie

Our local crêperie!  She was a master!

And they had DR. PEPPER!!!

Following their fearless leader!  In the wrong direction.

Giorgio and me.

Playground in the Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Palace

Steak Frites!

Our sweet waitress.

OBNOXIOUS desserts!  (this was after I head left to go back to the apartment to rest)

Cappuccino selfie

Pont des Arts

 

Up early at the Zurich Hilton (Hilton?  Hyatt?), and off to the Zurich airport (ZRH, for us airline-industry nerds) for our flight to Paris (CDG).  As I was clearly instructed not to lift anything over 2kg (FOUR pounds!) for 5-6 weeks after surgery, I had to stand aside and WATCH as LouAnn and the kids lugged the suitcases around both airports, onto trains, up subway steps….  They were troopers!  Upon arrival in Paris, we took the RER train straight from the airport all the way to the Metro stop nearest our apartment, St. Michel-Notre Dame.  We did have a bit of a mishap on the train.  Ellis had pulled out a small rubber squish-toy we had bought off a Venice street vendor and began playing with it, squeezing it into all types of shapes.  As he played, it suddenly BURST, showering him, the seat next to him, the suitcase in front of him, with a fine flour-like substance.  Honestly, it looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy had exploded.  Already self-conscious about the huge, very American-like space we were occupying on the train car, I now could only look away in silent horror, pretending I was alone, blissfully unrelated to that kid across the aisle – the one laughing hysterically and looking like a powdered-sugar donut.  Bonjour, France – the Stumbos have arrived!  Are you ready?

It was a short walk from the Metro station to our apartment door at 13 Rue Seguier; just blocks from Notre Dame!  I texted our host, Armelle, and she came down to meet us.  She was very sweet, and after I explained my restricted condition, she recruited a few burly neighbors to help us carry the suitcases up 78 ancient steps to our apartment.  It was LOVELY.  This was our first experience with airbnb.com, and both this and the London apartment turned out WONDERFULLY.  The apartment was very modern and had a very cool layout for the kids, with two loft bedrooms.  You could even poke your head out one of the roof windows and see the Eiffel Tower in the distance!  After a few instructions from Armelle, she and her sister left us to settle into our Parisian home.

The rest of the evening was rather relaxed.  We explored the wonderful little streets around our neighborhood.  We visited the local Carrefour market and came home loaded with groceries.  It felt good to be settled, with a week in Paris ahead of us….

Welcome to Paris!

Hoofing the bags – they add did a great job!

On the train from the airport into Paris, pre-explosion.

POST-EXPLOSION.

He clearly got a lot of moral support from his brother.

Our street – Rue Seguier!

You can see one of the loft bedrooms in the upper part of this photo.

And you can see the OTHER loft bedroom at the top of THIS photo.

The upstairs “hallway”.

View from the rooftop window – la Tour Eiffel!

 

After three weeks in Salzburg, it was at last time to move on.  We had worked out an amended remaining itinerary, and the 10th had us driving the rental car back to Zurich (though it would have been cheaper to BUY the car at this point), spending the night at a Zurich airport hotel, then flying to Paris the morning of Saturday the 11th.  It was tough to say goodbye to my sisters, brother-in-law, and dad (they would fly home from Salzburg on Sunday), but harder still to stuff the now-too-small car with all our JUNK!  But somehow we got it crammed in, and they sweetly saw us off.   Here’s what I wrote on the day they flew home:  “As I sit here in Paris updating our drastically outdated travel blog, I am struck deeply again by the sweet, loving, selfless way my family took care of me during my “Salzburg Incident”. And specifically, as they finally fly home today, Ican’t say enough about the depth-less love of Laurie Beth McPike, Jon McPike, Annette Stumbo Tate, and John Stumbo. At a moment’s notice, they dropped everything and flew to Salzburg to be at my side, before, during, and after the surgery. They were PRESENT for me, played with my kids, loved on my wife, attended to concerns with doctors and nurses…. They did what families DO. And try as I might, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to repay the debt. The debt which, of course, doesn’t really exist.”  Love them all!

The drive back to Zurich involved a lot of sitting, unfortunately, which I wasn’t supposed to do.  But we fought through it, making a quick stop once again at the greatest rest stop in the world.  And those finicky Swiss struck again!  When we attempted to return the car at Avis in the Zurich airport, the attendant announced that the inside of our car was “too dirty”, and we would need to clean it up.  The inside of our RENTAL CAR was TOO DIRTY, and WE needed to clean it up!  What could be more AMERICAN than capitalizing on the privilege of trashing a rental car?  But not in SWITZERLAND, no, no, no.  We pulled into the Zurich Airport Hyatt that night exhausted and needing rest to gear up for PARIS.

One last look out our balcony, with the church bells ringing.

Final Salzburg breakfast!

Georgia managed to fit in a final pedicure at the Aunt Laurie Salon that morning!

With me feeling better each day and our time in Salzburg running out, we decided to finally do our Sound of Music tour on Wednesday the 9th.  The group tours we looked into didn’t sound too appealing – not very flexible, and quite expensive.  So, we instead decided to book our own private tour with an excellent local guide, Klaus.  He was knowledgeable, spoke perfect English, and was FUNNY.  And not bad looking – in an Austrian kind of way.

Klaus took us first to Mirabel Gardens, sight of several SOM scenes, including the DO-RE-MI dance around the fountain, the tree canopy where the boots had their footrace, and the dwarf statue.

Our next sites were across the river in Old Town, so we walked across the Makartsteg, a pedestrian bridge across the Salzach River. Taking a cue from the Pont des Artes in Paris, thousands of lovers have attached locks to the railings of the Makartsteg, as permanent monuments to their enduring loves.  Yours truly had purchased a lock a few days earlier, so we stopped and had a little surprise ceremony on the Makartsteg.  LouAnn and I marked our lock, fastened it to the railing, and tossed the keys into the river.  The kids ensured it was FULLY documented.

From here, our excellent guide Klaus took us into Old Town proper, first by the Salzburger Festspielhaus, sight of the festival in SOM.  Unfortunately it was closed, no fault of Klaus’s, of course.  Then it was on to the cemetery at St. Peter’s where the Von Trapps hid from the Nazi’s, and St. Peter’s Church itself.  We loved strolling through Salzburg one last time, laughing and not minding the rain.

We hoofed our way back to the car (at this point, Mr. Back Surgery was ready to REST), extracted our car from the garage, and drove over to meet the rest of the gang for dinner at Zwettler’s in Old Town.  A perfect, cozy Austrian restaurant; a wonderful place for our last night, for tomorrow we would head back to Zurich to fly to Paris.  As we walked back to the cars late that night after dinner, the moon rose over the Fortress, harkening every Dracula and Frankenstein movie ever made!  A great day.

Mirabel Palace Gardens

Do-Re-Mi fountain!

Dwarf garden

RARE photo of Klaus, here talking with Jack.  (he didn’t like to have his picture taken)

Brilliant re-enactment of the Do-Re-Mi dance around the fountain!

SOM pose!

On the “love” bridge…

We let the kids decorate the back.  Two drew hearts, one drew vertebrae and discs…..

Getting ready to throw the keys in the river!

Ummmm…..Festspielhaus, perhaps?

This is a rare opportunity to see and hear Klaus in action.

Here you can hear the kids laughing at Klaus; I believe he had just relayed the sordid story of his recent, bitter breakup with Heidi, a fellow Salzburg tour guide.  (I love Ellis’s laugh in this one)

The cemetery at St. Peter’s church.

St Peter’s

Yes, that’s a giant pickle.  HUGGING the giant pickle.

Trying to be COOL posing with the giant pickle.

Trying to EAT the giant pickle.

On our way back to the car, late to meet the others for dinner.

Last dinner all together in Salzburg!

Tuesday, July 8th – time to get the stitches out!  Strangely, we were excited to go back to the Christian Doppler Klinik.  LouAnn and I went shopping and LouAnn put together a wonderful gift basket for all the nurses who were so sweet taking care of me.  It was also good to get the chance to hopefully see Tasso and Guenther one last time.

Of course, no one TOLD me that getting your stitches out HURTS, that the stitches GROW INTO YOUR SKIN and when they’re removed, IT’S LIKE RIPPING OUT YOUR SOUL.  Thanks for the heads-up, loved ones.

We spent the rest of the day back at the Pension Frauenschuh, RESTING.  This was a day we needed.  I got lots of horizontal time.  We played games, painted toenails (well, not MINE), watched World Cup soccer, and ordered PIZZA, which was finally delivered about 10:00pm! I loved it – just the NINE of us, crammed into our little apartment, taking it easy and laughing.

Gift basket for the nurses.  (with repurposed basket – thank you, Seelys and Rhodeses!)

Newsies Nurse!

Tasso!  He was doing well.

Dr. Krombholz, my surgeon

Ellis beat me in FIVE MOVES.  No respect for people recovering from BACK SURGERY.

Kids got to swim in the pool with the sliding cover…

Aunt Netter and Georgia being crafty again.

Yep – this pretty much sums up the rest of our day.

One of Georgia’s “VLOG” entries I thought I would share.  She made videos all over Europe, with lots of contributions from her brothers, some appreciated, some not.  Can’t wait to see the final product!

What a full day THIS was!  We had two objectives in mind.  One, Every since Zurich I had been promising the kids and LouAnn access to a mountainside summer toboggan run; no BACK SURGERY was going to give me a free pass on THAT one.  Also, Laurie had heard Hallstatt was beautiful, so we planned the afternoon around visiting.

The nearest toboggan run happened to be one of the LONGEST in Austria, at Hallein.  (Guenther’s hometown!)  We convoyed south of Salzburg to the small, mountain town, but alas, the GPS routed us to an empty parking lot.  Hmmm….  luckily Uncle Jon’s instincts won the day, and we found the chairlift.  LouAnn, Uncle Jon, Aunt Netter, and the kids made two rides down the 3km, single-track run while Aunt Laurie and I relaxed at the top of the mountain.  They loved it!  And it was a perfect day – sunny and 70 degrees.

From Hallein, we made our way to Hallstatt, which was STUNNING.  It is in the heart of the Salzkammergut east of Salzburg.  The mountains come straight down to the lake, Hallstatt See, and it’s incredibly picturesque.  We found a great spot by the river to have our lunch, and a man that lived nearby came out to talk with us.  Just being friendly.  He was in the middle of building a traditional Austrian longboat, carved out of one piece of wood.

We strolled down the boardwalk.  LouAnn, the kids, and I rented a little electric boat and tooled around the lake for an hour.  We snapped endless pictures, and headed back to Salzburg.

Beautiful, mountainside Hallein.

We found the chairlift!

At the top.

My final word of caution to the kids:  “Don’t use the handbrake too much, or you won’t go fast enough…”

She’s a KID!  I love it.

LouAnn’s self-recorded, second run down the mountain.

Picnic lunch in Hallstatt.

The ancient river behind us came down out of the mountain, and was pure enough for drinking.  We stuck with Almdudler.

On the lakefront in Hallstatt.

They say that this is the most-snapped photograph in Austria.  Check.

Papa and Jackrabbit.  Identical noses.

The little electric boat we rented on Hallstatt See.

Note Papa, Aunt Laurie, Uncle Jon, and Aunt Netter left behind on the dock….

Captain Super-Disc

Captain E-Bug.

Captain Goober.

“Kids, please just let us take ONE picture of ourselves without you messing it up!”

“I MEAN IT!  Just ONE!”

“Thank you.”

Went back and traded Mr. Backache for Aunt Netter.

A traditional Austrian longboat.

I just thought the sign was funny.

I LOVED this ancient house in Hallstatt.  I took about twenty photos of it.

This house had the most BEAUTIFUL pear tree growing up the outside of it.  It  looked fake.  But there were big, ripening pears all over it.

Later that night, Georgia got to spend some time at the Aunt Laurie Nail Spa.  She LOVED it.

 

 

Another beautiful day in Salzburg!  After breakfast, we decided to head for Berchtesgaden, only about 30 minutes away.  This small corner of Germany is well known for being the site of Hitler’s Eagle Nest.  The chalet-type hideaway at the top of the Kehlstein peak was presented to Hitler for his 50th birthday in 1939, and was intended as a getaway and a place to receive/entertain visiting dignitaries.  In reality, Hitler didn’t use it all that much.  But it’s an incredible setting, with amazing views of the surrounding peaks (including the Watzmann, the third-highest peak in Germany) and Salzburg.

It’s accessed via a bus ride up the mountain, followed by a walk down an incredible tunnel into the center of the mountain, where you board Hitler’s golden elevator for the ride up to the peak.

LouAnn enjoying her BELOVED muesli….

 

Pension Frauenschuh had go-karts!  Georgia, Ellis, and Aunt Netter.

At the waiting area for the bus ride up the mountain.  (please don’t make me diagram that preposition-rich phrase)

Entrance of the tunnel into the mountain.  The tunnel extends 400 feet, bored straight through the granite into the middle of the mountain.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Laurie.

Over Georgia’s left shoulder is the Königssee, a beautiful lake.  The Watzmann rises just out of the right side of the picture.

Aunt Netter!

The view back towards Salzburg.

Königssee and the Watzmann.

LouAnn’s the only one looking at the right camera!

The three siblings.

Riding down in the Golden Elevator….

Yes, Chinese in Salzburg!  In Grödig, actually.  And it was good!  But ordering was a bit difficult…..

IMG_2986

LouAnn’s Bird’s Nest dish.  It tasted as good as it looked!

Saturday, the first day of new-found freedom, was beautiful. We assembled the troops after a breakfast at Frauenschuh and decided to go into old-town Salzburg for the day. We walked around town in the morning, and wound up at my favorite restaurant, The Humboldt, for lunch. And SUNSHINE. After lunch, the kids and LouAnn agreed to take Annette, Laurie, and Jon to the Salzburg Fortress. Papa and I stayed back.  It was a perfect day to just take it EASY, as I was supposed to do!

The kids loved being with their aunts and uncle, and especially that they got to be their TOUR GUIDES, since we’d already been to the Fortress the week before.

This man just had surgery!

This goober was fishing Euro coins out of the fountain and putting them in his pocket!!!  The kids were properly horrified.

On the deck at Humboldt’s.

A rare photo of the photographer!

From the Fortress…

Ellis with his knight marionette

I don’t know WHAT Georgia and Aunt Netter are doing here….

Georgia as Papagena!