Lunch in Sienna

Today we planned to be a light day. We did not get up too early and our only goal was to drive to another hill town called Siena. Jane and I had watched a video about the town so we were excited to see the square in person. The square in Siena is the sight of an annual horse race where they clear out all the restaurant tables and fill the outer ring of the square with dirt for the race.

We arrived in time for a late lunch in the square. Rather than picking a more expensive restaurant somewhere in town we opted for sitting along the square and watching the people. It was fun, although the lunch was not all that exciting. Jane and I had Lasagne al Forno and Josh and Kaia each had a Salami and Fontina Panini.

After lunch it started to rain, so we lost our desire to wander around the hill towns of Tuscany. We wandered by a few shops on our way out of town but our hearts just were not in the shopping or sight seeing today.

We headed for our apartment hoping that maybe the weather there had been better. Unfortunately the puddles and gutters of rain told us differently. So we stayed around the apartment and read, Josh tried a Sudoku, then got Kaia to play Cribbage with him.

While we were waiting around, the gardener showed up with some Italian guy that we can only guess was the plumber, come to fix the hot water heater. neither of them spoke any english so there was really nothing to do but show them to the bathroom and see what happened. They left abut 10 minutes later, and miraculously the water heater seems to work 100% better.

For dinner tonight we wanted to try Casa Masi again. We arrived at a little before 7:30 but it was full so we made a reservation for friday night. We decided to give Il Lago a try. Il Lago means the lake and Il Lago was a restaurant built around a small lake. We quickly realized that this was not so much a restaurant as it was a place to hold a wedding and wedding reception if you come to Tuscany for that sort of thing. We were seated in a large glassed in room with many tables and only one overworked italian grandmother to wait on us.

Dinner was mostly forgettable. Kaia only ordered tagliatelli basilica which was pretty good. Josh ordered a steak, Jane ordered Gnudi, which was good, and misto of rabbit, chicken, lamb and vegetables. It all came deep fried which made it hard to figure out what was what. I ordered crostini to start followed by tagliatelli with mushroom pan sauce followed by steak. By the time I got my steak everyone else had finished all their courses. Maybe the best thing we had was an order of pommes frittes which we saw another table order. Thinking they would be good with steak I asked for some but they came before I even got my pasta so they were long gone by the time my steak showed up. We arrived home at 10:00 tired and ready for a day of hiking tomorrow.

Climbing Around Firenze

Since cars are not allowed in or around the central part of Firenzi the best way for us to go was to drive to a commuter town and take the train. So we got up and drove to the town of Empoli. It is definitely a commuter town as we had a heck of a time finding a parking spot since we got there about 9am. We got our ticket and took a slow roller into Firenze Santa Maria Novella station. This is the station where all the books warn you about pick pockets. Luckily we made it in and out unscathed.

When we got off the train we made straight for The science museum. Since it was Tuesday the museum was only open until 13:00. It was great, this will definitely be one of the highlights of the trip for me. Anyone who is interested in Physics would love this museum. There are exhibits of real early scientific instruments including astrolabes, Sextants, early batteries, Galileo’s first and second telescopes, early microscopes, the list goes on. Every one of them is a great example of early science and many of them are really illustrative of important discoveries in Physics.

We finished our tour of the science museum just in time for lunch. So we took another Rick Steve’s recommendation and went for a late lunch at the Golden Wall -- Open Bar. It was great. They gave us a table right on a corner window where we could look out at the Arno river and the Ponte Veccio. We watched several groups of rowers out for their daily exercise and enjoyed a good lunch. Kaia had a pear and cheese salad followed by Ravioli stuffed with Ricotta and Basil, I had Bruschetta con quattro formagio e Truffles for my first course followed by Gnocchi with Sausage and mushrooms. Josh had a Mezzaluna (part pizza part Calzone), and Jane had fresh Mozzarela with Basil and Tomatoes followed by a foccacia of Mozzarella and Tomatoes. It was a bit much of the same for Jane between the first and second courses. Overall a good meal.

After we were fortified with a good lunch we decided to find the Duomo. We lucked out and caught a relatively short line for climbing to the top. The line was much shorter than the climb to the top. 463 Stairs! The first part of the climb was pretty standard fair, some spiral staircases... We had a nice break in the middle where we could view the dome from the inside and look down into the sanctuary. As we got closer to the top the stairs got steeper and steeper and we lost the spiral approach and started spiraling around the dome itself. The rise was almost one foot by the time we got to the very where we were climbing along the very top of the dome itself.

Much of the climb followed the stairs between the two layers of the dome. The inner layer is very thick, and the outer layer is only 82 cm thick. You could see the herringbone pattern that the bricklayers used in laying the bricks for the dome itself. By the time we got to the top we were all hot and sweaty. Unfortunately Jane got stuck behind a very hot and sweaty German guy who forgot to use his deodorant!! Nobody was happier to get to the top and out into the fresh air than Jane.

The view from the top was amazing. We could see every direction, and looking down on the top of this ancient city was really beautiful.

After three days without internet contact, which seemed like much longer to all of us, we found a small Internet Cafe so we could check our email before we headed back to the train station and our journey back to our apartment.

Unfortunately we were sidetracked along the way by more shopping. Jane found a winter scarf, Kaia found T shirts for her friends back home, and Josh found a pair of Italian Nikes. Unfortunately for Josh they did not have the shoes in his size. In the meantime I found a soccer warmup set that seemed like it would make nice lounge wear.

The rain at Il Lebbio continued while we were gone and when we returned everything just felt damp. Jane made the comment that this was like camping. All of our clothes just had a damp feeling to them. It would be nice to have forced air heat or even air conditioning just to dry things out in our apartment.

The Leaning Tower of Pizza

This morning we got up early to head in to Pisa. We had tickets to climb the leaning tower at 9:00, so we had to get under way in good time. That meant getting up at 6:30 to be on the road in time to get to Pisa.

Parking in Pisa is difficult. Even at our early hour we had to drive around for a while to find a parking spot.

The leaning tower really does lean. Quite a bit.

Climbing the tower was very interesting. At times it felt like we were going up a really steep hill but at other times it felt like we were almost going down hill while climbing the stairs. It was a very strange feeling. The spiral stairways started out wide and got continually more narrow as we ascended. By the time we got to the top the staircase was barely wide enough for my shoulders.

Sine we finished our sight seeing pretty early we decided to find a place to pick up some of the additional supplies we needed for our apartment, such as beach towels and toilet paper. So I took a guess with the GPS and we found a mall with a great big coop. This seems to be the equivalent of a Target store matched with a Lunds. Lots of good fresh food in the deli and meat areas and lots of fresh cheeses. In addition to the usual stuff you find in Target. I was also able to find a new pair of reading glasses for just 18 euros. I think its a much better pair than I have found at home so maybe its not wasted effort.

Since we are in Tuscany here is a bit about our ‘Villa.’ We have a living room, a small eating area and a small kitchen. The kitchen has a range and a toaster oven along with an assortment of small pots and pans. If this is the size pan that most everyone uses over here it is no wonder that the small french tops work just fine. The floors are all red tile and the ceilings and columns are all brick. It feels very Tuscan and it is quite charming.

We have two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kids have a bedroom with three single beds. Their bathroom is down the hall. Jane and I have a king size bed along with our own bathroom. The water heater is located in our bathroom and is an ‘on demand’ kind of heater. That is whenever you turn on hot water the water heater springs into action. The only problem with this is it takes quite a while to get warm water, and our water heater is a little finicky. Sometimes it heats and sometimes it does not.

The manager is not here all the time so getting someone to fix the water heater could be a bit tricky. Since I am complaining a bit I will say that the weather has been rainy and damp, and our apartment is just as damp as the outside. All our clothes feel damp, and we have been trying to wash clothes for a couple of days and it is impossible to get them to line dry in this weather. Finally I decided to light a fire in our fireplace to help the clothes dry!

Tonight I cooked dinner in the apartment. After our interesting shopping trip at the coop in Pisa I had the ingredients to make a nice Risotto. Of course since we could not find chicken broth (brodo e pollo) I had to make some stock from scratch. With no decent size frying pan I decided to just throw the chicken into the sofrito and let it cook along with the rice. That worked out fine, and of course everything came together perfectly at the end when I added some of the nice Parmigianno Reggiano. Along with some nice tuscan wine it was a very good meal. Josh seemed to really like it as he had about four helpings. Maybe it was just nice for him to get something he liked besides pizza!

The Hill Towns of Tuscany

For our first full day in Tuscany we decided to check out some of the hill towns. We went to Volterra and San Giamanginino, two of the ancient Etruscan hill towns in Tuscany. The etruscans predated the Greeks and were equally as advanced in art and science. It is really interesting to look out at the horizon and you can see many little towns, each perched on the top of one hill or another. The valleys are all full and planted with vines and other crops.

The fact that the towns are all on tops of hills makes driving challenging. You don’t follow a nice straight road through the valleys, but rather you go up one hill then down then up again, winding in and around farms, villas, and the occasional castle.

Volterra is a beautiful city. It is much like what you would find in other large european cities but has a much smaller feel. Although on sunday afternoon it was still pretty crowded with tourists. We checked out the Etruscan museum which had some interesting artifacts from etruscan life along with hundreds of urns to hold the cremated ashes of ancient etruscans.

We had a late lunch at one of Rick Steve’s recommended restaurants. When we walked in there was hardly anyone there but it was full when we left.

After Volterra we drove to San Gimiangno which is another etruscan hill town. It was also interesting but it was even more full of tourists than Volterra. It was in SG that I realized that shopping appears to be a very large part of the european vacation experience.

After our trip to the hill towns we decided to try dinner at one of the restaurants recommended by the manager of Il Lebbio. We drove into town and Tried Casa Masi, but it was full, so we continued on to Carpe Diem. This was a restaurant that was attached to one of the hotels in Montaione. They have a large outdoor seating area and and inside area with a great view. We did not have a reservation so we ended up sitting back from the view. The menu was nice and had several good looking wines as well. We were all a bit tired of Pasta tonight so we tried a little different menu. Crepes, Beef Chunks, Dory and Pork chunks.

The service was extremely slow even by Italian restaurant standards. But at the conclusion of our meal the manager apologized and gave us a free bottle of wine.

On to Tuscany

Our goal was to leave Venice about 1:00pm. So, we got up, had our breakfast and headed over to visit the Doge’s Palace.

After the palace we wandered back to our hotel and tried out one of the recommended restaurants. The pizzeria around the corner in the Piazza. Since they didn’t start serving pizza until noon we found ourselves with an extra 20 minutes for sipping pop and water. We made the mistake of each ordering a pizza. I had the proscuitto, Josh had Margheritta, and Jane and Kaia each had a cheese and basil combo. Josh and I only at about half of ours, but Kaia ate her whole pizza!

It was a pretty drive to Tuscany. Many tunnels and in and out of rain.

For dinner tonight we took one of our managers recommendations and dined at Il Cammieneto. While we were there we had a short conversation with a group of Germans. When we told them we were from Iowa they smiled brightly and said Ahhh, “Big Potatoes!”

A Random Walk through Venice

In Venice you can get lost very easily, but not for long. There are signs everywhere point you toward to major landmarks, the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square.

After a small breakfast in our hotel we set out to take the tour of the Grand Canal. From the St. Romana Vaporetto stop we listened to the National Geographic tour of the canal as we headed around the S curve toward St. Marks. It is hard to follow as all the buildings along the canal are similar in many ways.

After we finished to tour we walked around St. Marks for a while. Josh wanted to spend one euro to buy some corn to get the pigeons to perch on his arms. I would not let him as they are so dirty and gross. We were supposed to meet up with Ulring’s outside their hotel we waited for a while before leaving a note that we were headed to lunch. We just missed them by a couple minutes.

We had a delicious lunch at one of the places recommended by our hotel manager. Jane had ravioli, I had gnocchi, Josh had tortellini soup and Kaia had spaghetti and meatballs. Jane and I also had a small pitcher of prosecco, which turned out to be a sparkling wine. It was all very good, but the cost was a surprising 63 euros. Each of our lunches on the menu listed for about 7 euros but they charged more since we were having them as our only course.

About halfway through lunch the Ulrings caught up with us and sat down to eat as well. So we added dessert, which was very good. We split an order of Tirimisu and an icream truffle. The truffle tasted like a layer of angel food cake wrapped around a core of mocha ice cream.

After lunch we just started walking around parts of venice we had not explored yet. We didn’t know where we were going or what we were headed toward but it was fun and we saw a lot of interesting shops and lots of interesting people.

We made two stops for snacks during the afternoon. One for gelato and one for pizza and a sit down. The pizza place was good and it was fairly close to our hotel. It looked like rain so we stopped to pick up umbrellas and rain gear. We asked if we could sit in the lobby of our hotel and play cards but we were told that the tables were for breakfast only and playing cards there was not possible. So we decided to walk toward the Londra Palace. About halfway there it started to rain pretty hard. But with our Umbrellas in hand we kept going.

When we arrived at Londra Palace we were all wet, but just minutes after we sat down in the lobby the skies opened up and it POURED. So we ordered a couple bottles of wine and played some five hundred. Jim and I soundly beat the women three games to one, even though I had really crappy cards again.

Over cards we looked at the really expensive menu for the hotel and decided to go elsewhere unless it was really raining. Since it was clearing up we headed out to find something. We ended up at what turned out to be a really bad restaurant. Everything was very forgettable and my crab must have come from a can. As we say, every vacation must have a worst restaurant. We thought it was L’Arche (the french version of an Oasis on the tollway) but I think this was worse.

Road Trip to Venice

This was a long day of driving. First we went back down the mountain, and then we moved a ways to the east and went back up and over the mountain. The drive through the mountains was pretty. Lots of great long bridges and many many tunnels. The nicest tunnels were not really tunnels but rather covered roadways. This protects the cars from landslides as well as snowfall.

Once we got into Italy we drove around the outside of Milano. The traffic was “intenso” and the going was rather slow. About 1:00 we were hungry enough that we decided to check out the next town for some food. We saw a mall off to the side of the road so we checked it out. We decided to have some pizza at a restaurant called “Pizza Pause.” This was fine except that the young man waiting on us did not speak a word of english. We nearly ended up with twice as much pizza as we wanted. In the end it worked out fine and the pizza was pretty good.

It was pretty confusing getting into the parking lot in Venice called Tronchetto. And once we got there we had to figure out where we were going to get to the Vaporetto and where we were going to get our tickets etc. It all worked out just fine and we ended up on the right Vaporetto to our stop and San Ste. From there it was a tricky but short walk to our hotel, the Hotel San Angelo.

The room is not too big, but it has two nice beds and a couch to sit on. The bathroom has a toilet and Duvet along with the tub/shower. All the lights in the room go out if you take the key out of the slot next to the door. The Internet service does not work like it should. there is some problem getting it to accept the security password for the wireless.

After getting settled we decided to take a walk before we headed down to meet Ulring’s at their hotel. Venice has thousands and thousands of little shops to look at and walk through. Of course now that we were in Italy Josh was on full alert for a Totti soccer shirt. We saw a couple of stalls selling soccer shirts and we managed to get by the first couple. But, once we got to the Rialto bridge they had a store that was selling genuine Soccer shirts and that was pretty much the end of it. 69 euros later Josh had a genuine italian soccer shirt. They print the name and number on the shirt once it is chosen, so we had 20 minutes to kill.

We found a restaurant at the base of the Rialto bridge that had a nice view of the water, so we sat down there for a beer, wine and soda. After watching the people for 20 minutes Josh and I walked back to pick up his shirt. As promised the shirt was ready and waiting for us and Josh was one happy boy.

Just as we were crossing the top of the Rialto, we saw the Ulrings! Who would have thought that we would just randomly find them here in the city. They joined us for a little refreshment while we planned our move for supper.

In addition to the recommendations from our hotel manager Jim and Nancy had found an Indian restaurant and a Thai restaurant not too far from our hotel. After some walking around we decided on the Indian restaurant called - - We had an excellent meal. The kids all had Lashkis (sweet yoghurt drinks) along with Naan (bread) and several different curries. I had the chicken Vinaloo, Jane had Chicken Curry, Jim had a shrimp dish and Nancy had Chicken Khorma. The chicken Khorma proved to be very popular with the kids as well. Josh even said he liked the sauce on his rice. We also had a variety of tandoori food as part of an appetizer plate. It was all good, and the total for all nine of us was 190 euros.

After dinner we walked some more until we all decided to split up and head for our hotels for the night. The plan is to meet the next day at noon at the statue in front of Ulring’s hotel, the Londra Palace.

Klein Matterhorn

This morning we were greeted by a perfectly blue sky, without a single cloud. We had two main choices for our main activity today: Take a gondola up to the highest point where we could see the mountains of Switzerland, France, and Italy, or take a train ride up the valley. We decided on the first option.

The trip was actually composed of three gondola rides to get to the top. And we were really truly at the top. We walked through a tunnel in the paradise glacier and then took an elevator up a little bit to a platform that was at 13,300 feet. From there we had a panoramic view of three countries! There are not enough adjectives to describe the view from this place. Not only could we see that Matterhorn but we had a crystal clear view of Mont Blanc in France.

The Paradise glacier also features a set of tunnels that have been constructed to display various kinds of ice sculpture. From the lift area we had to hike down through the snow a bit to get to the entrance. After the entrance we continued down on a path until we reached an area where the tunnels leveled out. There were a few interesting sculptures and some history on the glacier itself. Josh was a bit nervous about going inside a glacier so he did not enjoy it as much as others.

This day’s sights are really more about pictures than words. We all agreed that it was cool to visit the Matterhorn and see the great sights.

Back down in the village we dropped off our gear and extra layers back at the hotel and then went to walk around the city of Zermatt. Josh had been in search of sunglasses since the beginning of the trip so we hoped to find something cheap for him. In the end we couldn’t find any sunglasses for less than 39 swiss francs so Josh got Jane’s and Jane got a new pair

We had a mid-afternoon snack of bratwurst (6sf) and ice cream (3 sf for a single scoop). Along the way we ran across a couple of interesting looking restaurants including an asian fusion restaurant and one that Jane had read about called GramPi’s. So we made a reservation for 8:00pm. After a bit more walking and looking we decided to head back to the hotel to enjoy a rest in the pool.

We thought the pool had a jacuzzi but when we got there we found a permanently attached sign that indicated that the jacuzzi was out of order. So we just had to swim around and play frisbee for a while. The water was not hot tub temperature but it was warm enough for swimming and playing in comfortably.

We had a delicious dinner at GramPi’s. Josh had a Hawaiian pizza, I had Lasagne, Kaia had tortellini stuffed with cheese and basil in a basil cream sauce. Jane had a pepperoni pizza. Cost was about 75 swiss francs. We think Kaia had the best meal. Jane described the tortellini as heavenly.

After dinner we went back to the hotel. The cheese fondue smell in the lobby was really good. We decided to give Josh and Jane another chance to beat Kaia and I at 500 but it was not to be. The score for vacation so far is B,K 3 J,J 0!

We all went to bed about 10:00 hoping that we would get a good night sleep, with a plan to have breakfast at 8 and leave for the banhoff at 9:00.

Driving to Zermat

Breakfast this morning was continental style in the chateaux. Cereal, cheese, bread, tea, yogurt. It was good. We could have ordered some Saucisson or Jambon but we didn’t. It was 14 euros each for breakfast. After breakfast I called Dwight on Skype to let him know we were on our way to Geneve. The plan is to meet him at the departures bridge at the airport.

This morning it is still quite cool (7 C) but the sun is shining and the clouds look like they might be breaking up. We are on the road at 8:30 headed for Geneve to have lunch with Dwight.

We met Dwight at the airport as planned and let him take over the driving. Laurance was not able to join us as she was not feeling well. Dwight said she had been having some bad morning sickness. He took us to downtown Geneve and we walked around the old walled city and past the giant fountain out in the lake. The fountain shoots a hundred feet into the air and the wind makes it look like the sail on a boat as it comes back down.

We had a wonderful lunch at a small restaurant in the old part of town called Brasserie du Bourg-de-Four. Jane and I had Roesti with Jambon, Ouefs (eggs), and fromage. It was delicious!! Kaia had some bowtie pasta with parmesan cheese basil and ham. Josh had a ham and cheese omlette. We were stuffed. Cost for lunch for 5 of us was 123.70 Swiss Francs. Dwight reminded me that I did not need to leave a tip, that throughout europe gratuities were built into the price. For exceptional service you might round up and leave a couple extra euros. This means that a couple of people have really gotten good tips from me along the way! While we were eating lunch Laurance called to see if we wanted to stop by their house for some dessert.

We had a very short visit and some desert with Dwight and Laurance and then took off toward Zermatt. The drive was very scenic, especially the last 30km. There were lots of waterfalls along the way and we began to suspect that they had had snow here recently. We drove the car to Tasch and parked it in the lot. Then we took a 20 minute train ride into the town of Zermat. There are only electric carts in the town. A porter from the hotel met us at the train station and drove us to the hotel.

The Park Hotel Beausite is spectacular, really, really spectacular! We have the center suite with a little cupola that sticks above the rest of the hotel with a 360 degree view of the mountains surrounding us. For all the clouds and bad weather we have had the last two days we are in luck today. All the clouds have dissipated and left us with a spectacular view of the Matterhorn! We are all really excited about the room and the wonderful views. I wish we could stay here several days just to relax.

At dinner we learned that while we were visiting castles in the Loire Valley, Zermatt was getting 15cm of fresh snow! In fact we learned that many of the roads leading to Tasch were closed the day before, so we were lucky we didn’t try to come a day earlier! Today there is still snow on many of the rooftops and in their gardens. Everything has greened up and so the snow looks very clean and white against the spring green.

Dinner at the hotel was a five course feast! It was barbecue night so the menu went as follows:

1. Cream of vegetable soup
2. Fish course, they had a wide assortment of fresh fish to choose and then they grill it for you. (Josh: John Dorry, Jane: Red Mullet, Brad: Blue Marlin)
3. Salad course
4. meat course, again they had a huge assortment of meats beef, veal, ostrich, wild boar, rabbit, pork, turkey, chicken, etc. to choose.
5. Cheese course
6. Desert course including Creme Caramel, A Citrus ice cream with vodka, a fuit plate, or a banana split.

Dinner took from 8:45 until almost 11:00. So we went back to the room, and looked at the mountains some more. We played a round of 500 and then took some long exposure pictures of the matterhorn. I think they turned out pretty nice.

Castles

This morning we left Paris for the Loire Valley. Our agenda includes two castles to visit (Chambord and Chenenceaux) and an overnight stay at the Chateau Malmont. Unlike Versailles, these castles are all considered to be pleasure palaces, not palaces of governance. They were designed as hunting lodges and entertainment centers for the royalty. Chambord was absolutely huge. Construction was started by Francios I and continued by Louis XIV (the Sun King) and was finished by the people of France for Henri, the grandson of Charles X who never actually assumed the throne or lived in the restored castle.

After touring the castle we bought some supplies that were locally made and grown. This included some farmers cheese, Saucisson, and two loaves of bread. I would have bought the Chevre but I was not sure what to do with the moldy crust! I made sandwiches for everyone with my trusty swiss army knife.

Chenenceaux was much smaller, it was built for the mistress of Henri but taken back by his wife Catherine Medici when Henri died. It is built out over the river Cher and has wonderful views. The best thing about Chenenceaux was the kitchens!

After visiting the two castles we had another 3 hours to drive to Chateaux Malmont where we stayed the night. We were really glad to have the GPS this afternoon. From the freeway the Chateaux is really in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t believe the little roads we were on were even part of the map database! We were actually a little paniced when the GPS ran out of batteries just after we got off the freeway. Luckily josh had a partially used pair from his gameboy that had enough juice to get us to the castle.

Malmont was also a hunting lodge and was much smaller than either castle we visited earlier. It was realy nice inside and they had an indoor and outdoor pool. Since the weather was quite cold (8 C) Josh took full advantage of the indoor pool which was in a barrel vaulted room that used to be the guard room. While Josh was in the pool, Kaia went for a 4 mile run and Jane rented a bike to follow behind her. The bike wasn’t very good so Jane got a tougher workout than Kaia!

Our suite was two bed rooms with big high ceilings, a WC and a bathroom. Jane and I had a double bed and the kids had single beds.

The chateaux had a restaurant and a tavern. The restaurant was closed on monday nights so we ate in the tavern, which was still quite formal. The menu was three fixed price options based on how many and which courses you had (17.50 - 24 euros). In fact the wine was cheaper than the meals. That does not happen very often back home! The best quote of the day came at dinner when we were sitting at the table and Josh just blurted out: “We’re in a castle!”

Jane, Kaia and I had the entree of Guinea Fowl in puff pastry, for the main course Jane had Duck, and Josh, Kaia and I had the steak. Next up was the cheese course with a variety of different cheeses and finally desert which included a small layered cake that tasted like it had a rhubarb middle. Along with the cake we each had a scoop of ice cream. We were all trying to figure out what kind of ice cream it was so we tried to ask the server, who spoke no english that we could tell. Kaia deciphered that it was green apple ice cream.

The best part of the trip is... * Dad: Chenenceaux * Mom: Chenenceaux and Chambord * Kaia: * Josh: