European Winter Escapade 2019 - Part One - Getting There and Day One

I think it is a testament to just how much travel Wife and I have done the last five years that the idea of taking two weeks to go to Europe for Christmas break hardly even took notice as being a 'trip'. From a packing standpoint, especially for me, having done so many two week trips to Ghana, packing for a couple of weeks is almost an afterthought by now. Though going to the cold weather caused much research (mostly by Wife), which I can tell you know after the first day already has paid dividends.

On Being a Connoisseur of Business Class Seating.

So let's see this year I have flown Business Class internationally on these airlines:

• United 
• Brussels
• South African
• Turkish
• American
• British
• Delta

All business class, lay flat seats are not created equal. By far the American 777300 ER new Zodiac Cirrus seating was the best while the Delta old 767ER that we just flew was the worst. And when I say worst, I mean way worse. This was the first seat that was so hard and narrow all the way through the configuration that it was virtually impossible to get any good rest.

On Having a Great Driver

When we made our reservations, it proved very difficult to find a train or plane that would effectively get us from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to Strasbourg. So we ended up hiring a car and driver. With all the demonstrations in Paris now, this turned out to be an inspired choice. Our driver arrived at the designated time in his nice new Mercedes. Even with us stopping to get a bite to eat, he drove so fast but smoothly and safely, along with using the Waze GPS app to avoid a mess of traffic in Strasbourg that we got there at the time originally predicted. Then, because we could not drive into the center city where our hotel was because of the Christmas Market, he helped us by bringing our big bags the last quarter mile to the hotel unasked. You can bet I gave him a good tip!

No Rest for the Weary

I should say for the travel addicted. Even though we had been traveling for 24 hours straight and had been fighting to stay awake during the five-hour drive, once we got to the hotel and saw the beautiful lights we decided to go out. Plus Wife was hungry so out we went. We decided to take our cameras and we were instantly in picture-taking mode. We had been directed to a local place right by our hotel but it was booked up.  But wandering around a bit we found another where we could get two of the local dishes that were on our list to try. As we found out as we walked today, it was hard NOT to find these dishes in town. I had a small carafe of local wine with dinner. That put me at least over the edge. It was back to the hotel and down for some very necessary sleep.

Ode to a Great Hotel Breakfast

Hotel breakfasts, like business class seats, are hardly the same. But at the Honnong Hotel and Wine Bar, a very nice place with rooms with TWO SINKS!, it was a really lovely affair. The spread was very typical of Europe but the quality of all the offerings made the difference with great bread and charcuterie. They had something I had never seen before, a custom egg boiler. You put your eggs in a wire basket and plunged it in a hot water bath. There were timers available to keep track of just how long you wanted them cooked.

In Full Photo Mode

We were out and fully photo exploring. The city is a delight for photography with all kinds of interesting architecture, designs, and vistas. Unfortunately, it is very typically Euro Winter grey and will be this way throughout our three days here and our Olympus cameras really do not do a good job when there is a grey sky backdrop. Another thing Wife and I decided is that our prior mode of 'rushing at the end of the day to get all our pictures processed and posted' had become counterproductive to our enjoyment of our travel. Plus, at least in my case, I think it has led to posting too many pictures. So I've decided to do my journalistic writing posting separate from my photo posting. I reserve the right when I have time to include pictures in text postings when there is a good story to be told.

After five hours out, we had another nice meal of local food, walked a bit more and hit the hotel for a nap. We will probably go back out again tonight to try some more evening photo-taking.