Four Fifths of Ottawa Ryans Cross Pond

I hope those of you who followed along with our travel blog were able to share some of the fun of our journey.

Anybody tuning in now might want to scroll to the other end and to start from the beginning. Easiest to do if you click on Table of Contents then you can sort by date by clicking to the right of Entrydate. There are many more pictures that I didn't post - I think there are enough here to give a flavour of our past 19 day odyssey.

All four of us feel that it was a special time. We had great weather. Our main stops were 3 very big cities Paris, Rome, and Prague. They were all wonderful and unique. Prague in particular was just stunning. Even the Italian amongst us now agrees to anoint Prague as the most beautiful city. Venice was a lovely short stop. Switzerland was also a short stop but was fantastic as we got to spend some time with some good friends.

Now we are back home and happy. Time to put the boat into the water.

Our last travel day. By the time we got our butts out of bed Marie-Anne and Anton had already left for work. Marie, Marie-Anne's receptionist, was there and had laid out a nice breakfast for us. At 12:30 we were packed and we headed to the airport. The Paris traffic was pretty thick which made it not such a pleasant drive. The airport was worse. It was crowded and each checkpoint that we had to line up at for security and what not was just agonizing and slow.

We did get onto our flight around an hour late. We landed at Dorval and had to wait some more for the bags while Paul Gagné was doing laps with our car outside the airport.

The cherry tree in the garden was ripe and delicious so Francesca climbed up with a basket before breakfast while Claude preferred the low hanging fruit. Our breakfast chef was on the ball and after we said good-bye to the wonderful Wild family and drove out of Suisse headed back to Paris.

We went through the lovely Juras mountains in France. We stopped in a picturesque town called Poligny for lunch but were informed to Francesca's dismay that there was no bread despite the boulangerie being two doors away. Francesca did survive lunch without the bread .

We spent our last evening in Europe at the welcoming home chez Anton and Marie-Anne at Marly-le-Roi just outside of Paris. We had a lovely back yard meal with them.

Today we drive to the Fribourg region and then walk to a river. It's an annual reconnecting of certain friends of the Wilds - they all worked together on a humanitarian mission in Namibia many years ago. Many of them ended up marrying each other etc.. Claude and Annick for example. Frederica and Eleanore strode along in fine style while Oliver, Romain and Francesca waited up. Those three were the first to get ready for swimming in what was a very cold river. The food came out quickly and the sun really got hot so some folks headed for the shade while the rest kept refreshingly cool in the frigid waters . Claude had to eat another sausage each time he exited the water as he explained the cold water triggers a voracious appetite. The girls found the tanning conditions to be excellent .

The walk back gave us a bit of quality time with Swiss cows . The drive back included a pit stop for the kids at McDonalds where Wimbledon took over as Federer was in the final. The Swiss are into tennis. Claude was feverishly playing with the car radio dial through a thunderstorm to try and catch the live action. He finally found an Italian station that kept him up to date. It took about a million extra games - but Federer finally won and Switzerland is happy!

The gymnasts practiced a bit more upon our return home and then the adults went out to eat. Claude and Annick brought us to a lovely restaurant on lac Lemans right near where the boat to France docks and the four of us had a terrific evening. .

We got off the train at Basel, Switzerland then rented a car at the nearby airport which is actually in France (Mulhouse). We (Deena - as Ted has no driver's license now) drove a couple of hours to Mex, near Lausanne, to visit our friends the Wilds. The are actually posted in Brussels at the moment, but are home for summer vacation. It's been almost 2 years since we saw them and everybody is excited.

They built a pizza oven a year ago - and it will be put to the test as they are having a party today. Good timing on our part eh! We actually knew beforehand. After some napping the assembly line kicked in with Annick supplying the input while Claude basked in the glory of the delicious output . Their friends also brought some yummy food. Despite one very tough pizza dough critic the pizza was a huge hit with the true connoisseurs even with the sporadic help from the hopeless .

After the pizza les garçons jouent au Foot . Eventually the girls joined in too . Then Claude pulled out the meat from the other outdoor oven that is connected to the Pizza oven . Now for some serious eating. The kids had their own table away from the adult table . It was SOOO delicious .

After dinner Eleanore, Frederica, and Francesca put on a cool gymnastics show which the boys missed as they were off lost in space somewhere. Then Annick started to rock out and dancing and Claude stole Deena and before you knew it we were dealing with a hoedown only to be topped off with some good ole fashion limbo .