Chateau du Petit Thouars
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Italy Day – Maranello, Balsamic and Ferraris
Read More: Italy Day – Maranello, Balsamic and FerrarisYet another good buffet breakfast. Then it was back in the car from Florence off to Maranello. Home of Enzo Ferrari and his cars. Ryan and Dave went to the Museo de Ferrari while Kris and Eric hung out in the square. The plan was for Dave and Ryan to take a long time and…
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Italy Day 6 – Day trip to Monteriggioni
Read More: Italy Day 6 – Day trip to MonteriggioniAfter a great night's rest in this amazing hotel we had buffet breaky. Eric was happy the scrambled eggs were nice and hot. None of us is leaving hungry, that's for sure. A quick walk down the block to pick up the car at the parkade and we are off to Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni is a…
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Italy Day 5 – La Spezia through Pisa to Florence
Read More: Italy Day 5 – La Spezia through Pisa to FlorenceThis morning we went back to the local cafe for breakfast just before a major rush of French folks came in. Our timing was impeccable, the poor staff got overrun and we still got food and tea just before everything ran out. I learned I can survive on 2 espresso instead of my usual 3.…
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Italy Day 4 – Cinque Terre
Read More: Italy Day 4 – Cinque TerreAfter an ok night's sleep we headed over to a local cafe for our breakfast. The hotel has a deal where we get coupons for buffet style. Not much selection but nobody left hungry. Then it was off to the ferry to ride up around Portovenere and view each of the 5 towns. Ergo the…
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Italy Day 3 Rome to La Spezia
Read More: Italy Day 3 Rome to La SpeziaToday was a drive day. We headed over to Termini station to pick up the rental car. We rented a wagon, Audi S4 wagon to be precise. It's a small fortune but enables us to head to various places that we wanted to go. Trains would work for most of the stuff, but Maranello and…
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Italy Day 1 and 2 – On our way and Rome
Read More: Italy Day 1 and 2 – On our way and RomeNote, I've updated this as always my first attempts are a little rough. Usually I'm jet lagged and not in a rhythm of writing yet. So the first blog of a trip tends to be a little rough around the edges. So here is the amended version. Normally I'd do this once we got home…
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San Francisco Part and Monterey
Read More: San Francisco Part and MontereyAfter a nice drive from Salinas we checked into the Otter Inn. As you might expect from the name, otters are reasonably common around here. The Otter Inn is older property but still nice. It’s a short walk down to Cannery Row where all the restaurants and the Aquarium are. The next morning was a…
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San Francisco Trip – Salinas
Read More: San Francisco Trip – SalinasWe decided to take an extended long weekend vacation to San Francisco and area. We had a decent flight departure time of 940 but fog delays in SFO meant we didn’t leave until 1120 or so. That meant our arrival into Salinas at the Vision Quest B&B was tight. We needed to be there for…
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Alaskan Cruise 2015
Read More: Alaskan Cruise 2015I’ve been meaning to finish this blog for a while. Better late then never right? For those of you that know us well, you might wonder why we’d be on a cruise ship. Especially so soon after India. Interesting story that. We’ve cruised twice before with Princess and enjoyed it. And last Labour Day…
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India Final Thoughts
Read More: India Final ThoughtsWe really enjoyed our trip this year. The best way I’ve been describing to people when asked is “culturally intense”. What that means is there is so much to see and experience that we packed our trip with no rests. The people and atmosphere are so different then at home it is always in your…
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Loire Valley Wineries
The last several days have been a blur of winery visits, cafe lunches and picnics in beautiful locations! We stopped by Chateau du Petit Thouars for a tour, tasting and lunch. The family has owned the chateau and its winery since 1634. We met Sebastian, the multi-grandson, and the chateau cat, Biscuit (although he wasn’t…
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Chinon
Today we visited the town of Chinon on the River Vienne. Chinon was the favourite dwelling place of Henri II Plantagenet and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Joan of Arc arrived in Chinon in 1429 claiming to hear heavenly voices telling her that Charles VII, the French dauphin, would give her an army to neutralize…
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Tours to Loire Valley
We bid a last adieu to Eric (again!) this morning. We left him at his orientation picnic in Tours and headed deeper into the Loire Valley to continue our oenotourism! We stopped for lunch and a wine tasting at Chateau de Miniere, a women-run winery in the country where we had a lesson on the…
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