We are in our hotel room in Chartres, France after a whirlwind couple of days. We think that at one time our hotel was the home to the monks, priests, etc. who served at the Chartres Cathedral that is a 50 yard walk up the street. Our room looks like it may have been a monk's quarters with a bathroom added. Very spartan but very clean. Given the history of the room Lynda is requiring Tim to sleep tonight with his hands crossed on top of his blanket.
We arrived in Amsterdam yesterday morning about 15 minutes early. We had booked a hotel before leaving home that was on the airport property. As a matter of fact, it was across the street from the entrance to the airport, so we were in our hotel having a coffee by
8:30. As we assumed, we were unable to get into our room. We went back to the airport train station and took the train into Amsterdam, a 15 minute trip. First thing we did was locate the meeting point for a tour to Kuekenhof Gardens, a trip also booked at home. From there we went to Dam Square, that is actually the name of the square not a description, where we had a light breakfast. After breakfast we had enough time to walk through the Red Light District of Amsterdam on our way to the meeting point for our tour. The Red Light District is famous and is exactly what the title implies. It is noteworthy because each of the women sits or stands in a window basically as a live advertirement for what waits inside. When a customer enters the door next to the window a curtain is drawn. We know this from the extensive research we do for the blog, not from personal experience. At 10:30 in the morning there were very few women on display. We had each seen the Red Light District for the first time on seperate visits to Amsterdam. Tim does not have fond memories of his first visit as the first four women he saw on display could have played on the defensive line for the Detroit lions. He found the few women this time to be much more acceptable. Unfortunately, his side still hurts from where Lynda elbowed him.
But on to a much more pleasant subject. The Kuekenhof Gardens and Tulip farm send tulip blubs around the world. They also produce bulbs for daffodils and hyacinths. There are endless fields of flowers for the production of the bulbs. There are also extensive gardens where the flowers are displayed. We were probably a week or so too early to see the tulips at their best but the dafs and hyacinths were specacular. Fortunately, one of the pavillions on the grounds had a flower show with at least a hundred, if not more, of different varieties of tulips. We marveled at not only the spectacular colors of the different tulips but also the immense size of some of the blooms. This show also had stunning displays of hyacinths, daffodils and amaryllis.
In the evening we met a former student of Tim's and a good friend of Jilyane's, Dan Trout and his partner for dinner. They took us to a delightful little Italian restaurant because there is evidently no such thing as Dutch cuisine. The restaurant could not have had more then 10 or 15 tables. The food was almost as good as the conversation. We enjoyed catching up with Dan again.
While we both could have done with a good nights sleep we had to be back at the airport for
a 6:45 flight to Paris. The flight was only 45 minutes long and we amazingly did not have to
go through passport control. Our luggage was among the first to be unloaded so we were on the road in our rental car very quickly. We have often talked on previous trips to Paris about visiting Saint Denis, a suburb of Paris. Saint Denis has a cathedral named after Saint Denis. The history of the saint, Saint Denis, is that he was beheaded. But instead of dying on the spot, he picked up his head and carried it to the town that now bears his name. There are statues in and around Paris of the headless saint standing with his head in his hand. Many of you are probably more familiar with the Cathedral of Saint Denis because it played a principal role in the novel, The Da Vinci Code. As it turns out, the town of Saint Denis is a rather drab, blue collar city and the cathedral, while large, is not particular ornate or beautiful. We decided we were glad that we did not waste a day in Paris by taking a train
out to Saint Denis.
Back in the car we had an hour and a half drive to Chartres which is situated south west of Paris. Chartres is the polar opposite of Saint Denis. The town, particularly the old town where we are situated, is picturesque and the cathedral is stunning, The cathedral was built at beginning of the 13th century. It has three rose windows of stained glass as well as many other stained glass windows. It actually has the largest collection of stained glass in all of Europe. We were both so overwhelmed by the beauty of the cathedral that we spent more than an hour inside. Part of what makes this cathedral so imposing is that it sits on top of a hill with the town on the hill side around it. We could see the cathedral while we were still several miles from Chartres. The old town area around the cathedral is predominantly pedestrian only streets so it was fun to wander about, looking at the many shops, visiting the large vegatable and meat market in one of the town squares, and checking out restaurants for the evening meal. We ended up at a typical french brasserie. Think less formal fancy french restaurant. We chuckled over the fact that we were eating this delicious french meal while listening to music that featured Elvis, Sinatra and Johnny Cash.
Tonight is the night that Europe goes from winter time to summer time. We have to set our clocks ahead an hour. This will of course be the second time we have "lost an hour" this spring. We are wondering when we will get that second hour back. Tomorrow we are off to the Loire Valley, the location of many large and beautiful chateaus.
Bon Soir.
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