TRIPLE PLAY

 Trip Date: Jun 17-18, 2019

 

Finally.  It's only been 14 months since we got back, so it's about time I got around to documenting one of our best trips ever.  It all started with a casual comment by DIL Meghan about doing a family vacation somewhere.  She tossed out biking through Holland, and Loni immediately ate it up.  Biking?  Us?  Yeah, we have bikes, and they get trotted out maybe once a year if we're lucky.  But we're dead game sports, right?  And, Meghan offered to do the legwork!  Well, all righty.  After many weeks of researching, she came up with a company and a plan.  Cough up the dough (cough, hack!) and we'll be ready to go with a late June start date for the tour.

Of course, I couldn't leave it at that.  After all, we're paying big bucko's  for the flights over and back, so we have to amortize them to the max, right?  After Holland, the kids were going to go visit friends in Stockholm, so we would be on our own.  I dove into some research of my own for options to extend our stay.  After much digging, the stars aligned and we had our plan.  Right after the end of our bike tour, there was an 7-day cruise to the Norwegian fjords on Holland America Line, departing from and returning to Amsterdam.  Then, our old favorite, Collette Tours, was running a 9-day "Imperial Cities" tour starting in Prague, then Vienna, and finishing in Budapest, with a day stop in Bratislava thrown in.  It started two days after the cruise got back, so we added a quick train trip to Berlin to pass the time.  This all sounds so smooth now, but the planning, tickets, reservations, etc. were, um, challenging.  Once done, we started practicing on the bikes, set up an itinerary, and waited for the big day.

Chuck picked us up and ferried us to LAX and to British Air.  This was my big mistake of the trip.  Chasing a reasonable fare for economy+, I made the bonehead decision to use connecting flights instead of direct to Amsterdam.  We'd fly to Heathrow and change for the hop across the Channel.  Of course, this adds mucho hours to an already long, sleepless day and night.  We had a 4.5 hour layover.  Ugh.  I will say that I managed to snag the primo seats in the eco+ category, and we had virtually no complaint with the plane (an ancient but just-refurbished 747 at the end of its life), the seats, the entertainment (I think I watched 4 movies), or even the food.  We were off!

We came in right over London on our approach to Heathrow, and had a fine view of the London "Eye" below, all 443 feet of it.  Heathrow is huge, and we walked for an eternity to get to our departure terminal for the next leg.  This does not bode well for our return, when we will have only 90 minutes to connect from our flight from Budapest to our flight home.  Worse, we have to go through security again on both legs.  We found seats for the layover duration, but no chance of a snooze as they were hard, upright, and in the midst of a ton of other travelers.  I had purchased a SIM card good for most all of Europe that would last us to just the end of the trip, so I spent part of our wait reading the instructions, swapping out my Verizon SIM, and activating the new one.  I wasn't any too sure I understood the directions, but it seemed to work, so we were good to go.  We were going to use What'sApp to communicate with John & Meghan, which turned out to work very well.  

The flight over was only 40 minutes, most of that circling, and we grogged our way through customs and baggage claim and got a taxi ($60!!) to our apartment in Amsterdam where we would connect with the family.  We would be at Marnixstraat 360, a third floor (they call it 2nd) walkup with very narrow stairs.  Arrow points to our balcony.

Our bedroom was in front, with a view of the street, streetlights, and trolley lines below.  Also within hearing distance of the street and trolley lines below.

The apartment was large, with a nice kitchen and bedrooms at the back for the family.  While certainly adequate, the furnishings were somewhat spartan and tired.  I made good use of my sleep mask and earplugs, as Amsterdam doesn't sleep on my schedule.  It was quite nicely located, in the middle of the range of things we wanted to see, so it worked out well.  No fun hauling our bozo suitcase up those stairs, though.

Although running on fumes, we needed some food so we took off walking to find a restaurant for a light dinner.  We found a good one, and the girls even got to self-scoop some ice cream from the proprietor's supply.  Whew!!  this long day was finally at an end.

SAYONARA

 TRIP DATE: Sept 7-8, 2018

All of Collette's tours end with a group dinner.  Some of them have been great, others only so-so.  This one was great!  Falsely billed in our itinerary as a geisha show, our performer actually was a 16 year-old novice (although quite advanced) called a maiko.  Frankly, we wouldn't have known the difference.  Maiko means "dancing child," and they have to live in a geisha house ("okiya") for five years to be eligible to become a geisha.  They are not supposed to have a cell phone, carry money, or have a boyfriend.  Their costumes are generally more colorful than those used by a geisha, they have a red collar at the back, and only the maiko's lower lip is painted red.  Geisha as a profession is not that old, dating from the 1750's.  Ours was a sweetie.

Our dinner setup was quite nice.  The group was seated at four or five tables.
 

This is the startup setup.  Hors d'oeuvres, I guess.  Very pretty.

However, disaster was waiting.  Loni can't eat shellfish, and Alice can't eat chicken.  This was communicated to the restaurant via our guide ahead of time.  Unfortunately, they took this to mean vegetarian as they didn't want to chance causing a reaction.  Thus, all the fine sushi, fish, duck and other goodies were substituted by tofu in every dish for the gals.  Augh!  That was NOT what they wanted.  Indeed, Alice also cannot eat tofu!  Their reactions were priceless.

Sadly, there was no going back.  No re-dos.  Yoshiko to the rescue, at least for Alice, as our sweetheart guide exchanged her meal for Alice's.  I split all of mine with Loni, so we each at least had a taste of everything.  Loni and I also split some of the tofu, but there's only so much of that stuff you can take.  Each person's rice was cooked in individual pots placed over a small flame at each placemat.  When the flame burned the wick down and went out, the rice was done!  Seemed to work for everyone.  I hope they have an industrial size dishwasher in the back.  Here's the sushi and, I think, some sort of dessert.

 

It all was quite good.  Kudos to Collette for not skimping.  As this was our last night, and we weren't sure we would see anyone in the pre-dawn departures tomorrow, we gave Yoshiko her tip envelope at the restaurant.  Of all the guides we have had, and they all have been at least good, she was the best.  She was a great scrambler when the typhoon upset our plans, she worked tirelessly to help people make reservations, and was always cheerful.

The next morning we made one last assault on the excellent breakfast buffet with pastries and made-to-order omelettes, tanking up for the uncertain day ahead until our 2:00 flight.  

 

We finished our packing and I made reservations online for a Morro Bay RV get-together six months hence.  Today was the day that the reso's opened and they fill up fast.  Yea, internet!  At 10:00 we took off for the airport in a shuttle with C&A and another couple.  We got there in plenty of time, and check-in was quick, so there was time for a lunch.  Unlike the chain stuff we suffer in the U.S., they serve real food in Japan.

Sayonara, Japan.  You were everything we had hoped for!

TEMPLES AND SHRINES: KYOTO

 Trip Date: September 6, 2018

My sloth in catching up on these posts is getting worse.  I think nearly two years post-event is a record.  "Yesterday" was a rather sobering outing to Hiroshima; today should be a bit more upbeat.  Kyoto is loaded with shrines and temples, and we will hardly scratch the surface.  

Each morning of a bus tour day, Yoshiko would post her hand-drawn maps in the bus to "orient" us to where we were.  They were always amusing, sometimes helpful.  The big maps at the venue ranged from cryptic to excellent, as was this one for the Golden Temple. 

Kinkaku (the Golden Pavilion) is a shariden, a Buddist hall containing relics of Buddha.  It is part of a Zen Buddhist temple that is formally named Rokuon-ji.  The gardens and buildings are said to represent the Pure Land of Buddha in this world.  He could do a lot worse.  The place is beautiful, and is a World Cultural Heritage site.

These photos are a triumph of rudeness over civility.  The place was jam packed with tourists, mostly Japanese, and it took a bit of shouldering to get any shot without a lot of bodies in it.  The upper two levels are covered with gold foil on lacquer, and a phoenix stands on the peak.  The pond is the center of the gardens, and the rocks were donated by provincial lords of the various periods.  No one is allowed inside other than the monks.

As we were walking around, a teacher with a handful of students in tow asked if we had a minute to answer a few questions for their English homework assignment.  Sure!  Each one asked basic questions in turn (where from, why here, where else have we visited, etc.).  Every one took notes furiously.  Their eyes were like saucers when Loni started rattling off all the countries we have visited.  Cute.

Next up was the Nijo-jo Castle, completed in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan after a long period of civil war.  His Shogunate (1603-1867) was one of peace and prosperity.  He announced his appointment as Shogun by the Emperor to the feudal lords at the Nijo-jo castle.  In 1867, it also was the site of the announcement of the return of power to the Emperor, ushering in the Meiji Period.  No photos were allowed of the interior, so this exterior shot will have to suffice.  Loni getting her shot at the right.

 

Our tour was a shoes-off affair, to protect the tatami mats.  Lots of painted screens, decorated ceilings, wide corridors, gardens all around.  Much more extensive and elaborate than the samurai house we saw.  As we exited there was, natch, a store with various stuff to buy.  Only one caught my eye -- a green matchi beer, considered a local delicacy.  Had to try it.  Meh.

Refreshed by the bog brew, we moved on to Fushimi Inari Taisha in southern Kyoto, the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, 233 meters high. Foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, thus the many fox statues across the shrine grounds. The shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital's move to Kyoto in 794.

 The building in the lower right is the main entrance pavilion, and the upper right shows the beginnings of one of the torii trails.  Here's a shot I snatched from the web:

None of the trails was ever this uncrowded.  They were absolutely choking with tourists, mostly Japanese.  This same scene is in the lower left, below.  Curious as to why this entrance is guarded by unpainted toris.

While it was fairly spectacular to see thousands of these things in seemingly endless tunnels, the heat, humidity, and crush of humanity eventually made it an "I gotta get out of here" moment.  Time for a relax and a fan.  One of the fox statues is on guard.

This trio, out for the day in costume (rented by the day), were happy to be photographed.  the whole point of dressing up was to be seen, right?  Then it was back to our hotel, the Westin Miyako, which was very nice and located amidst a lot of green areas.  Chuck posing by one of the sculptures at the entrance.
 

Loni in the outer lobby area, and the local English rag with updates on the typhoon.  The locat Kansai International airport closure was very bad news for many of our group who had reservations on flights home originating there.  It was under a foot of water, being built on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay, reachable only be a single bridge (or boat).  Unfortunately, the bridge got smacked by the freighter that broke loose, and was sufficiently damaged to require closing.  A couple thousand souls were trapped at the airport.  Our group members started desperately trying to rebook their flights home from aTokyo airport.  Collette was able to help those who had booked through them, but the rest were on their own.  Ack!  To make things worse, they still had to get from Kyoto to Tokyo.  Some braved the bullet train on their own (a transfer somewhere was required), others were transported by Collette via bus, a nine hour journey leaving at 6am. Double Ack!  We are going out of the older, domestic Osaka airport on dry land, to connect with our flight home from Tokyo's Narita.

We ate dinner at the hotel's "gourmet buffet" which, at 4500 Yen (about $40) per wasn't cheap, but it was all you can eat and really quite good.  We had sushi, salad, soup, veggies, meats (beef, duck, mutton, chicken, salmon) and lots of dessert options, of which I made a comprehensive survey.  We rolled back to room 222, fully sated and thankful we didn't have to deal with trying to make reservations home.  One of our party was exhausted and in tears in the restaurant, and words of comfort were all we could offer.  

Our last day was on our own until the farewell group dinner that evening.  We chose to stay within walking distance of the hotel as there was plenty to see close by.  Virtually next door was the Nanzenji Temple, whose grounds are located at the base of Kyoto's forested Higashiyama mountains.  It is one of the most important Zen temples in all of Japan and is the head temple of one of the schools within the Rinzai sect of Japanese Zen Buddhism.  This is the Sanmon entrance gate, which dates from 1628.

 Trio of stiffs on pathway to gate.

 

One of the shrines inside.

After the temples, we made our way over to the Murim An private gardens.  Would that I could recreate this place in my back yard.  Don't think it would survive in drought-ridden SoCal.  This was peaceful bliss epitomized.  

Serenity now, as Mr. Costanza would say.

HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR

September 5, 2018  Busy day today.  Ono-san preached all day yesterday how we couldn't be late for the Shinkansen ("new trunk line") bullet train to Hiroshima.  Japan runs on time!  Well, almost always.  She ordered 6am wakeup calls for everyone.  Fine by us, but I suspect a few groans among the group.  Real omelets at breakfast, so all was good.  We all milled about the lobby at 7:30, glancing at the news.  3,000 people stranded at the now- underwater Osaka airport, and will have to be rescued by boat as the bridge was clobbered by the vessel Houn (!) Maru. Short trip on the bus to the station.

Where we did more milling about trying to decipher the signage.  Fortunately, the images rolled over to English every so often.  That's us, the Nozomi 3 at 8:27 which, as shown, is DELAYED (!) by 5 minutes.  Gasp.  We later were told that the typhoon felled a huge tree across the tracks somewhere.  I think the actual delay was about 15 minutes in the end.  They allowed 90 seconds for the offloading passengers to exit and for us to get on.  Scramble time!  We had assigned seats, so once on it was no sweat.  The trip down was smooth and, of course, fast.  Loni had no complaint about pressure in the tunnels, which was a problem on the French TGV that we took years ago. The station at Hiroshima was quite nice with a lot of reasonable restaurants to choose from.  We'll eat there on the return trip tonight.

Our first stop of the day will be by ferry to Miyajima ("Shrine") Island with its iconic torii gate sitting on the tidal flats and the Itsukushima Shrine which, if the tides are right (they weren't), seems to float on water, which is its main claim to fame.

That's the torii gate with the water just lapping at its base.  The ants are people.  The Shrine lies directy behind it on the left, high and dry.  After disembarking, we walked through the tourist shopping area of the town (natch) to get to the Shrine at the far end.  We checked out possible lunch stops along the way.  A big deal here are the "wild" deer that are allowed to roam freely.  A little too freely, as one tried to snatch something from Chuck.  Back in the day, they were quite sacred and the penalty for injuring one was beheading.  Yikes!  Lots of folks walked out to see the torii gate up close and personal at low tide.

Once we got to the Shrine it was pleasant but not spectacular.  We just got unlucky with the tide, and it was not so magical sitting on a mud flat.  It consists of a series of buildings connected by covered walkways.  It was started in 1168 by Taira no Kiyomori, allegedly the most powerful man in Japan during the end of the Heian period, to be used as a family shrine.  I wonder how much of the original remains?

Some of the interior rooms were quite nice, especially the one with the big drum.

Ready to eat, we returned to the shopping street on our own and sussed out a likely candidate.  Again, thank goodness for pictures of the food or we'd be lost.  From this humble spot Loni had asparagus wrapped with bacon and I got octopus and spring onion (both in wraps).  A couple of Asahi "Dry Zero's" (non-alcoholic) and we were good to go.  I really liked the Asahi's and wish they would export them to the U.S.  I've looked, but no go.

We dallied among the shops but found nothing we liked other than stuff for $500 and up.  Nope.  Back to the ferry and the 8 minute ride across the bay to the mainland.  One last shot of the damp torii.  [Note:  as I type this, I read that the torii was covered in scaffolding and tarps beginning in 2019 for maintenance; glad we got there before that happened.]

It took another hour on the bus to get to the Hiroshima Peace Park.  We started at the museum, which was only half open due to renovations.  That was plenty.  As you can imagine, the images and artifacts and first-hand accounts are truly harrowing.

  If only every world so-called "leader" could be forced to spend a couple of days here contemplating the realities of war, we just maybe could avoid getting into more of them.  We can hope.  The overall tone of the museum was of peace and forgiveness, and there was no avoidance of Japan's own role in that sorry history.  I felt much less self-conscious here than I did when I was in the Navy and visited the Nagasaki peace park.  Of course, that was 1969 and not so many American tourists then.

Outside, here's the main plaza, viewing through the memorial arch at the "atomic dome" in the background, the only building to remain standing near ground zero.

Chuck and Alice took a breather to contemplate the Dome.

Let's hope the kids take away more than memories of a pleasant day outside.

We were scheduled for the 19:17 train back to Kyoto, with three stops.  We had time to eat at the station, which had a huge 3-story food court.  We had enough trouble choosing among the offerings on floor one.  We were fascinated by the open-kitchen floor show at one place that seemed to be making some sort of exotic fritata with a lot of theatricality.

  The thing was called an Okonomoyaki, or something like that.  An egg pancake filled with chopped cabbage and your choice of additionals.  I chose squid, but ended up with shrimp (no complaint), and Loni chose spring onions.  It's topped with some brown sauce and finished with a fried egg.  Trust me, it tasted great.  The hardest part was trying to figure out how to order from the machine posted out front.  We were saved by a local eager to practice her English. Chuck wandered off in search of a McDonald's, but no joy, so he got a hamburger at some stand.  Too bad for him.

The trip back was uneventful save for the gang of school kids who mob-boarded along with us.  They quieted down, though, and we dozed most of the way back, getting to the hotel quite late.  A good day!

WE GET WET

NOTE: I just reviewed my last post and can't figure out how the formatting got so messed up, with pics down the left and text to the right (and not synced properly either).  That's not the way I composed it.  Hopefully, this one won't go the same way.

Tuesday, Sept 4, 2018    Off to Kyoto in the path of Typhoon Jebi, with ominous warnings of the worst storm to hit in a long time.  The trip by bus will take about five hours with a couple of stops.  We tanked up at the buffet breakfast in case we get stranded somewhere.  This was typical of our breakfast fare.  Excellent pastries, some fruit and juice, pretty good sausage, the weirdly undercooked but still tasty bacon, and the runny eggs that just might have been out of a package.  They tasted good, so maybe not.  Strange texture, though, reminding me of an ostrich egg we had scrambled once.



The first part of our trip was along the coast of the Sea of Japan, and the weather was quite sunny and pleasant.  But, we soon started encountering ominous clouds.  We stopped for pit breaks and to get some gedunk fare.  Actually, the stuff they sell at the road stops seems quite high quality, although I wasn't tempted due to the prices.  Most everything they sell is packaged like a fancy gift, even for mundane items like pound cake.  After a while, the rain and wind started in earnest.

In the expected path of Jebi, all schools were closed and trains were not running.  Some roads were shut down, but ours were fairly good.  That said, the wind gusts were moving the bus around too much for my comfort and our excellent driver finally pulled off the main highway to a smaller, slower secondary road and we finished our drive into Kyoto on the same.  Our itinerary had us doing outside touring today, but the resourceful Yoshiko spent a long time on her phone as we drove along, and arranged to change to today our indoor activity that was scheduled for tomorrow.  So, we pulled up outside Marumasu Nishumuraya, a fabric stenciling atelier, to try our hands.  Unfortunately, Jedi was howling overhead, and the rather lengthy dash from the bus to the entrance got us thoroughly soaked.  After shedding all our rain gear, we initially settled into a large, windowed room with workbenches.  Almost immediately, the lights flickered and went out several times and the walls and roof seemed to be creaking from the typhoon overhead.  They were concerned that the windows might blow in, so we all moved to an adjacent room with no windows.  We got to work on our stencils.  Loni and I both did fishes, but Chuck did a very nifty one with two penguins which even impressed the staff.  We were encouraged to wear aprons to protect our clothes, and by the time I got to the box for mine, well . . .

The finished products.  Very serious artist's penguins, my fish and coral, and Loni's koi.

We wrapped our masterpieces and donned our gear for the run back to the bus.  If anything, the rain and wind was even heavier that when we arrived.  Our pants and shoes got sopped.  And, once again, my galoshes are resting quietly in my suitcase.

We got to the Westin Miyako Hotel in one piece and rested up a while before venturing out with the whole group for dinner at what Yoshiko called a tapas restaurant, but billed in our itinerary as a yakitori (skewered chicken) joint.  We again got wet, although not as bad as earlier.  The restaurant was packed and noisy with what seemed to be the iconic salary-men's night out.  Lots of drinking, shouting, and singing.  We had to split up into small groups and into little rooms not bigger than the table.  Ours was on the third floor, so a long way from the kitchen.  Even longer waits for service, so we were getting a bit glum, but the beer helped and the food, when it finally dribbled in, was pretty good.

We had pork/shrimp balls, asparagus wrapped in bacon, salad with tofu, mystery meat on a skewer, shrimp on a skewer, and ice cream.  The rain lessened, so we got back to the hotel only slightly wet.  The hotel seems to be 3 or 4 buildings connected by long hallways that go uphill and downhill.  Took forever to get to our rooms.  Luckily, one of the group discovered a shortcut that was not intuitive, so we saved some steps the next day.

We checked out the damage from Jebi.  The worst of it passed right over Kyoto, which lies just to the right of the indent cove in the map below.  The bottom right pic shows a freighter that broke loose from its moorings and crashed into the only bridge connecting Osaka International (which lies on a very low, man-made island) with the mainland.  The bridge was shut down for over a day, the airport was under two feet of water, thousands of would-be fliers stranded at the airport, and utter chaos with canceled flights.  Many in our group were due to fly out of Osaka in a couple of days (not us) and it was a mess trying to rebook flights.  More on that later.  Tomorrow, Hiroshima Mon Amour.