Rouen and The Normandy Coast

The Seine in Rouen and the Cathedral

June 4-6 - Brussels to Rouen, France

Meredith was at our hotel promptly at 10:45 a.m. And after a little hassle with the Europcar reservation, we were on our way from Brussels to Rouen.

We got to our hotel in Rouen after an easy four hour drive. Finding the hotel proved to be the most challenging since we didn’t have a local map of Rouen. A friendly taxi driver helped us out.

Rouen is one of the oldest cities in Normandy, dating back to 50B.C.! Built along the Seine, it has dramatic soaring spires and a number of ancient half-timber buildings that often lean or bulge in the middle. The Romans and the Vikings were here as were the Brits. When walking through the narrow cobblestone streets, one can well imagine a time when Joan of Arc wandered through them. At the end of one of the streets is where the English burned the 19 year old alive at the stake.

One of the more dramatic sights in Rouen is the Notre Dame Cathedral. Of Gothic design, the cathedral’s spire reach an amazing 151 meters into the air and can be seen from all around town. The cathedral took over three hundred years to build, having been started in 1201 and suffered much destruction a several times. Luckily for us, it was always rebuilt.

Half timber buildings

We had a grand time walking through all the narrow, medieval streets. By the end of the day, we all felt like we knew the geography of the city quite well. And that only meant one thing - it was time to move onward!

June 7 - Honfleur, Aromanches and D-Day Beaches

Honfleur Harbor

The next day we were off to the Normandy Coast beaches. It took us a couple of tries to get out of Rouen, but we eventually made it out of the city in the right direction.


Our first stop was Honfleur, a very picturesque harbor town at the mouth of the Seine River that dates back a thousand years. For several centuries, up until the 1400’s it was even ruled by the English. Even though in years past it may have been the home of explorers, pirates, merchants and fishermen, today it seems mostly a tourist town, still very quaint, but one mostly centered on restaurants and gift shops. We moved on after a lunch stop at one of the many restaurants along the quay.

Honfleur 

From Honfleur we drove past a number of coastal villages and then D-Day landing areas such as Gold Beach and Juno Beach. After a couple of hours of driving we arrived at our hotel (Hotel Le Chanteclair), in Aromanches, one of the villages in an area known as Omaha Beach, where the U.S. forces landed in WWII. Right down the street from us you can see the remnants of the Mulberies - concrete docks used by the Allied forces that they had floated over from England. They sank the docks right off shore, which then enabled them to bring in the supplies needed for the Normandy invasion back in June 1944.

Omaha Beach

Although there is much more to see here, the one day we were here, we managed to see the Normandy American Military Cemetery and Memorial (and a great museum); Pointe du Hoc, the place where U.S. Army Rangers scaled up cliffs to overtake German defensive positions and is now a memorial; several of the German bunkers and gunnery emplacements that line the shores; the Batterie de Longues, which are the massive (152mm) German artillery guns that were capable of  shooting a distance of up to 14 miles; on a lark, we decided to stop and see the German soldier’s cemetery, something we had not expected to see here. Germany actually maintains a number of cemeteries for their fallen soldiers.

A piece of the Mulberry docks 

U.S. Cemetery

A view out of the German bunker

One of the 152mm guns

After visiting the WWII sights, we made a brief stop to the town of Bayeux, one of the few places to be spared from the bombing in the war, thus still having many of the old buildings and a beautiful cathedral.

Europe 2011

Hotel de Ville 

The Manneken Pis

June 2-4 - Shell Beach to Brussels (via Amsterdam’s Shiphol)

We had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to commence our latest journey to Europe. Woody, our visiting cat, knew something was up. He sat at a different spot on the couch and peered at us from around the armrest. Apparently, he deemed our movements, suspicious. After locking up the house and packing the car, we drove to Santa Barbara and caught the 7 o’clock airport shuttle to LAX. The trip had begun.

The KLM flight to Schiphol and then the connecting flight to Brussels were uneventful. From the airport we took the train to downtown Brussels and arrived at the Downtown BXL B&B on Rue du Marche au Charbon at 3 p.m. local time. We put our suitcases in the room and the first thing we did was to go out to have a Belgian beer at a local pub. 

Our hotel room - long and narrow

In the evening, we walked to the Grand Place to scout out a restaurant we had read about. ’T Kelderke restaurant was right in the square with a great view of all what was happening around in the square. Diane had a spinach lasagna and I had a tasty beef stew. A dry white wine went well with the dinner. 

The following day, after a splendid breakfast at our B&B, we headed off to the Marche aux Puces. Known as one of the better flea markets in Europe, we were very curious. On the way over, we found a street (Rue Blae) full of great antique stores. 

The flea market was exceptional - an entire city block chock full of vintage clothes, china, silverware, rugs, paintings, African art, door locks, keys, wedding dresses, hats and lots more. After spending quite a while checking out the many fascinating items, we sat down at one of the bars at the edges of the market. We ordered one of the Belgian beers on tap while listened to a jazz trio playing such songs as “Route 66”, “Sentimental Journey” and an assortment of other easy-listening songs. 

One of the antique stores

Grande Place

Dinner at ’T Kelderke restaurant

Why not tango at the plaza?

The rest of the day was spent sightseeing several cathedrals, parks, the Royal Palace and strolling along past the dozens of cozy sidewalk restaurants and drinking establishments around the city. 

Among the things Belgium is best known for - chocolates, waffles, it houses the European headquarters for the EU, the Atomium, the Grand Place, big beers and the Manneken Pis, we managed to do only the latter three. It turned out that the Manneken Pis sculpture was just a short walk from our hotel. It’s a very small bronze sculpture (perhaps a foot in height) of a little boy peeing in to a fountain basin. It was made in the early 1600’s and is accompanied by numerous legends. It even has a counter part to it on the other side of town - Jeanneke Pis, a statue of a little girl urinating. 

The Flea Market

Our impressions of Brussels was a favorable one - we found it to be a very walkable city with interesting things to explore for the weekend. 

The Cathedral

Stained glass inside the cathedral

Belgium waffles

Hawaii 2011 - Poipu, Waikiki and the Big Island

Waimea Canyon

We lamented leaving our comfortable Princeville condo - but not for long. We drove south and stopped for lunch at the quaint and historical town of Koloa. Popua Beach was only a few more miles down the road. We soon were settled into our room at the Sheraton, watching surfers and listening to the roar of the waves.

Erika makes friends with a stranger

View from our room

That evening we went to a luau at the Kilohana Plantation. It wasn’t cheap but it was a fabulous show. It wasn't just a bunch of young ladies in coconut shells over their breast doing a hula dance (not that there's anything wrong with that). Instead, the play told a story of families leaving Tahiti to cross the Pacific and sail to Hawaii. The finale was a dramatic fire-dance show. The luau included an open bar and a tasty buffet dinner - but no scotch. You have to wonder.

It's luau time!

Somewhere in there, there's a cooked pig

The next day we drove to Waimea Canyon, which in Hawaiian means “red water”. Our drive took us above 3500 feet of elevation and yielded dramatic views of the canyon at every turn. We didn’t see any red water, but we did see lots of red hard-packed dirt. At the top of the canyon we stopped for a cup of coffee and got a chuckle from watching chickens and roosters competing for bread scraps given by a group of picnickers. The competition was hilarious.  

The red clay in Waimea Canyon

The following day, we were back in Oahu. Rich and I spent a few hours on the golf course while the ladies went to a Pacific Island Cultural Center. After golf, there was still time in the day to go for a short sail on the outrigger. That was a lot of fun. With four of us on the boat, she still made good headway.

Getting ready to go sailing

The crew on Kaneohe Bay

The next day, Diane, Erika and I took a walk along Waikiki and hiked up the side of Diamond Head from inside the crater. The view of Oahu from the top of Diamond Head was spectacular. But we all agreed - a few hours in Waikiki is all we needed.

Waikiki

At the top of Diamond Head

On our last day (26 April), Jill dropped us off at the airport. For Diane and Erika the Hawaii adventure was over - they were heading back to LA. For me it was continuing. I was headed for the Big Island for a couple of days to visit with friends Bob and Julie Bojorquez.

The Big Island

Bob was prompt in picking me up at Kona Airport. As we drove to his home in Kohala Ranch, we drove through fields of lava - some of it was very jagged in appearance while other fields were looked more like large squished black boulders. On the sides of the road, people had used small white rocks to write the names of people. Bob told me that friends of Iron Man race participants had created all those slogans to pump up the runner’s spirits.

Bob’s house lies in what used to be a huge ranch stretching from near the ocean to the top of the mountain. The house is situated near the mid-point and lies at about 2100 feet elevation. It offers expansive ocean views as well as views of three volcanoes (Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and Hualalai). Pretty impressive sights.

Bob (aka Bojo) and I at a state beach near Havi

The expansive view from Bob's lanai

Activities were pretty much limited to the one full day I was there. Bob and I played tennis and afterwards visited the quaint towns of Havi and Kapaa and then went to a picturesque state beach park. In the evening the three of us went to the Hilton Resort at Waikoloa Village. That’s quite the resort - Disneyland on the ocean. It has trams and classic Chris Crafts motorboats to get around the property. There are displays of art works from Polynesia and other Pacific Islands spread throughout the resort. Of course there also are a variety of restaurants, bars and shops. Afterwards we had dinner at one of the nearby restaurants.

Statue of King Kamehameha in Kapaa 

The next day I made plans to visit with Nancy Pisicchio, an old cruising friend who lives south of Kona Airport. It had been well over twenty years when Diane and I last saw Don and Nancy, when they moved from the boat to a macadamia nut farm on the Big Island.

Nancy holding up a macadamia nut

Kona Coffee

The farm

A macadamia nut with the husk

Bob dropped me off at the airport and Nancy came by and picked me up shortly afterwards. The farm she lives on consists of eleven lush acres of macadamia nut and coffee trees, and a sundry of fruit trees.

We had a lively chat about the old cruising days and then how she and Don settled in the Big Island. She spoke of her involvement in politics after she was told by a company that they had plans to put a road right through the middle of her farm to develop a 1200 acre parcel into a golf course and high-end homes. Nancy fought the already approved plan and got it negated. Afterwards she ran successfully for a seat on the county council. We also talked about the sad passing of her husband, Don.

After our brief meeting, Nancy dropped me off at the airport. The Hawaiian vacation was over.