The trip truly begins this day. Yesterday is erased, no reason to think of it again. Marc picked us up at the Lyon airport on a beautiful, sunny morning and brought us to his home.
Our friends’ house in Saint André-de-Corcy
We greeted Joëlle, Marc’s wife, and Aurélie, their daughter and met Aurélie’s partner, Simon. On TV, they were watching the military parade for the French Independence Day, known as Bastille Day in the US. Since both Simon and Aurélie are in the military, they were looking for friends who were marching along the Champs-Élysées in front of the Arc de Triomphe. A nice, personal connection to the parade. Everyone lost interest when the people were finished and the military paraphernalia came on.
Joëlle and Marc after lunch, with the required cheese courseSimon and Aurélie relaxing and maintaining some distance as they had tested positive for COVIDMichael, Josy, Audrey, Chantal, and Christian in the poolChapelle du Mont Brouilly
After a delicious lunch we went to wine caves to taste wine in the nearby Beaujolais region. Because of the holiday, some of the wineries were closed, but we wandered around anyway.
One of the wineries was near Église de Régnié-Durette with beautiful stained glass windows. Chapelle du Mont Brouilly, on top of a very steep hill showed a statue of a guy celebrating making it up the steep road on his bike! Sign at geopark; there were also examples of the varied rock types in the region.Wooden sign at the quarry across from the geoparkView of vineyards from the geoparkAt the top of Mont Brouilly is is an International Geopark, so of course we walked around and read all the signs. The grapes taste different depending on the type of rock the vines grow on, so Marc indicated that the geology students use the plants to help them map the rock groups. The roses at the ends of the grape vines help the cultivators know if a particular fungus is attacking. Heathy roses, like those above, mean the vines are OK.
We took a tour at Marc’s favorite winery, and purchased some Morgon wine from the Douby vineyard for dinners. We were expecting more family to visit that evening.
This wine cave was closed.A sculpture inside the cave at Morgon wineryMany bottles of different vintages and vineyards at Morgon
Trévoux is a town near Marc’s home, so the family went for a walk around the river.
Walking along the Saone River in TrévouxTrévoux on the Saone RiverThe church in TrévouxFinding a geocache along the river walkStairs painted to depict a lawn bowling game
On approach to Frankfurt, Germany, we were surprised to see so much forest.The Airbus A340-300 that we arrived on, possibly one of the most uncomfortable flights ever. Very little leg room, and the person in front of Brian kept her seat almost in his lap.
And then …
Just like so many friends and the news reports warned, the airports in Europe are understaffed. We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany with (what seemed like) plenty of time to catch our next plane to Lyon, France. What we did not know is that for some reason, our plane was docked at the opposite end of the (very long) terminal from all the other Lufthansa planes. But, we were up for a long walk. Following rare signs, we went down one escalator only to be told we had to go around the corner to wait in a line for immigration. Seemed strange, and the line was extremely slow.
Fortunately, our friend Marc texted us that our next flight was also delayed, so we had a chance to take it. When we were through that line, we raced to the gate where our next flight was to take off. About 3/4 of the way there, Marc texted again that we had missed it. We went to the gate anyway, assuming that we could get onto the next flight, but it was deserted.
Actually, that whole end of the terminal was deserted. We passed two Lufthansa “Service Center”s with no staff. So we went back to the middle of the knot of concourses, following signs to another Service Center. This line was much longer than the last one. We asked a few staff members if this was the right line, and they all said yes.
When we were still many minutes away from the front of the line, Lufthansa employees informed us that the Service Center was closing and advised us to go down to the main check-in counters outside of security and find the rebooking desk. Before leaving we asked an employee to check if we had been re-booked automatically and he confirmed that we were not rebooked. So we eventually found the rebooking counter and the longest line yet. We were there for more than two hours, finally getting booked on the first flight the next day with vouchers for hotel, taxi, and dinner.
Comfort Inn about 5 miles from Frankfurt airportBrewery in the hotelDunkles and helles, brewery sign and moon from hotel room
Our vouchers for dinner did not include the delicious smelling food at the craft brewery associated with the hotel. The “stranded passengers” had to go to a cafeteria for mediocre pasta, chicken and overcooked vegetables. Fortunately, we were allowed to bring drinks from the brewery to our isolation area to go with dinner.
It was good to get a shower at the hotel, however. We got up early the next morning to catch a flight to Lyon.
Beginning next week, Brian and Clare will be traveling in Europe. We will begin our journey in Lyon, where are friends will host us for many days traveling with them to Beaujolais, Annecy, Beaune, and Blois. We will then stay with them near Paris to visit Versailles and Giverny. After bidding our friends farewell, we travel to Brussels and then on to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam, we will cruise up the Rhine, ending a week later in Basel. We will finish our trip with a week in Freiberg, attending the Geoanalysis conference.
Whenever I visit a National Park, one of my favorite things to do is to look at the license plates of the cars in the visitor center parking lots. Now, we have visited Haleakala National Park twice on this trip, and ALL the plates are from the same state. What?
We started the day with our cousins again, sharing the morning meal and going for a walk. We shared stories again, and even saw turtles near the shore. But Brian and Clare had a plane to catch as well as a mission – to go to Haleakala National Park again.
Another curvy road, like the one to Hana except steeper and with fewer one way bridges. This picture only shows the curves within the park – the part getting up to the park is even steeper!We were greeted in the parking lot by a pair of chukar partridges, common on the volcano. So cute and SO fat! Is that all feathers to keep the birds warm? The name here is based on the sounds they make as they peck, peck, peck eating almost constantly (according to the ranger). This was the best view of the ”crater” at the top of the volcano from our time there (lots of clouds and fog while we visited). It’s not a true volcanic crater because this one is formed from erosion rather than an explosive eruption. The first lavas arrived about 800,000 years ago with the bulk of the eruptions continuing until about 400,000 years ago; the most recent occurred in the 1700’s. The cinder cones in the background are beautiful. Notice how pale the rocks are. This finally answered the question about the pale colored beach sands – they are natural sands derived from weathering and erosion of the volcano. Not certain why the sand was so fine grained on the beach we visited, but the colors of the grains match. Nice to have figured that one out!
Nice pictures of the primary characters in this blog, with another showing how high we got! While the temperatures down at the beaches were in the 80s, up here at the summit it was in the 40s with wind and occasional drizzle. Clare was glad she brought her hiking poles, because they were handy on the trails at the top. We were both glad for our jackets.
These silver sword plants are unique to Haleakala. They have been living here for hundreds of thousands of years, evolving to fit into the environment. The pictures don’t quite show the brilliant the metallic color of the leaves. These plants only bloom once in their lifetimes, and none of them were blooming when we were there. These plants were one of the main reasons for our visit to the summit of the volcano!
Bunch of Geeks go Traveling 