Winter 2019-2020

Hotel: Jeanne d Arc, Marais - great location and very nice staff. On Sunday we had arranged for the shuttle to pick us up at 1 o'clock as we were leaving to stay at a hotel near the airport.  We had to check out of the hotel at 11:30, we could have stayed in the lounge but decided to just go for a short walk and to keep our distance. We rounded the corner to the Bastille and holy mackerel the market was in full swing! It is difficult to see but there is a cat in that backpack, it is looking to the right - there were large air holes in the bottom of the clear part but really, taking a cat to the market?  It's Paris, what can I say! We arrived at the Marriott about 2. It was empty - as a matter of fact there were only 3 other guests. It was explained to us that the restaurant was closed and they were working on a menu.We could order dinner and breakfast, but it had to be room service. We hadn't had lunch and as I said the restaurant was closed so we were forced...

  Our last meal in Belgium....same as the first! Not as good as the others! We returned the little car to CDG - it literally took two of us to maneuver the airport signs and find the return. To give you an idea of how many people get screwed up they had given us two pages of directions with pictures. We were prepared for an issue with the fact they gave us the car with no gas in it and that we almost got deserted on the A2.  I am thinking it happens quite a bit because as soon as Tiki showed him the picture from her phone it was all good. We made our way to "Depose Minute" where the arranged Shuttle van was to pick us up - he was about ten minutes late but that was OK. We arrived at our hotel, Jeanne D'Arc Marais about 9, dropped our bags and walked to the corner for dinner. I ordered a chicken club - came with eggs on it - interesting! Tiki had a Greek salad with no lettuce and only a few olives! Expensive as is everything here! We did the hop on hop off for 2...

The Corona virus has been following me around since late January when it first appeared in Thailand. Chiang Mai had 10 flights a week direct from Wuhan, China - ground zero, so to speak. The last week I was there everyone was wearing a mask ....not that it does any good but it does prevent you from touching your face. I arrived in Spain via BKK and CDG on February 6th and felt relieved and a little safer. There were no known cases reported in Spain at that time. I merrily drove all over the Costa del Sol. On February 28th Spain reported two people in Madrid and one in Seville that were thought or suspected to have the virus. Tiki joined me in Spain on March 2nd and at that time there were less than five reported cases in the Costa Del Sol area. We left Spain on March 6th and at that time there were six reported cases. They said that the cause could be traced back to people visiting Italy. Today Spain announced that it will go into lock down as of Monday. From March 6th -10th we drove ...

We headed out to the Albert Cuyp Market first thing - we walked by a restaurant that said bacon and eggs and we were in it like a flash! The guy was super nice and we both ordered breakfast. It was interesting because the plate had toast on it the bottom then we think they cooked the bacon and then cooked eggs right on top of the bacon. Sounds odd but it was good - after I pulled the bacon apart from the egg and separated it all!  Tiki says it looked like a bacon and egg pizza! The owner talked us into splitting a piece of apple cake that he had just brought out of the kitchen - it was also very good!!! Freshly baked apple cake! A whole stand of licorice! Pigeon watching me take every bite! Only the Dutch could turn a bike into a table!  Delicious! How small can the cars get! Like the size of a recycling bin! Anne Franks door! Flowers are in bloom! People were lined up down the street for these cookies  - we did not get i...