Provence in June

For five days in June we went to the Cotes du Rhone area of Provence. We were fortunate to find two out of the way hotels that were tucked into the hillsides. We were off the beaten track which meant good food, good wine, beautiful scenery, no crowds and ...no English. So lots of practice for our French. It was very warm (95), dry, and really reminded us of California. It made us a little home sick.

Our first hotel was up in a canyon with beautiful, craggy mountains behind us. It was quiet and beautiful in that French country way. The owners of the hotel were very kind and helpful...mostly in French. Above is a picture of our outside area of our room. Below is the terrace where we ate all of our meals. In the afternoon it was relatively cool under the trees and in the evening it was absolutely beautiful.

We took a half day wine tour with a local wine maker who happens to be British. We learned so much about the Chateauneuf du Pape area and why the wines are so fabulous.

So rocky soil make for fabulous wine because the wines must develop deep roots. The vineyards were FULL of huge rocks. We went to two very different domaines on the tour. One that allows only the "terroir" to influence the wine. The terroir can be very loosely translated as "a sense of place" which is embodied in certain qualities, and the sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the manufacture of the product-sun, rain, soil quality, wind, etc. So pretty much you get what you get and that makes it interesting. The other domaine does more Californian style wines which means they mess with them artificially. That way they manufacture wines that taste the same year after year. We liked the "terroir" wines much better- more complex and interesting.

Here's a picture during our tour. The winery's dog sat patiently while the tour guide explained the wine to us.

Our next hotel had a swimming pool and since it was 95 degrees or so, we were happy! The hotel backed onto a beautiful hillside village and also had wonderful food and grounds.


French Rose on a hot afternoon...ah! We had the best wine and the best food we've every had in our lives on this trip. The food was simple but complex as was the wine. Fantastic!

We took a couple of long drives through the countryside to see the lavender fields (the main purpose of our trip). Everywhere you went the air smelled sweet. There was no one else on any of the roads we drove on. It was like we had the area to ourselves. Fantastic!

A small village we stopped at.

Lavender drying.

Fields waiting to be picked. Lavender as far as the eye could see.

Little farms along the way sold their goods. Here be bought lavender oils, soaps, and honey. It was a little family run store and farm. How cool?

Another town nearby full of Roman ruins. Those wacky Romans were everywhere! Here's one of their bridges.

No trip to France is complete without going to one of their fantastic flea markets. Here's one we ran into on a drive.

More lavender layered with wineyards.

For those of you who don't know French- "Private Property. Do not enter. Crazy Cat."

Another cute village.

Ginger Speaks

I may be stating the obvious but being a dog, my writing skills are not quite up to par with what you might be acustom to. My verbal skills are mostly oriented towards learning short verbal cues for cute tricks. With that said I'd like to bring you up to date on my time here in Belgium since I know that all you usually hear about is my humans' travel adventures.

Ok, so the first thing is that I have a few best friends here. My best, best friend is Chili. The picture we've included is a bit blurred but then again, they all are because she's one of those dogs that just moves all the time. She won't stand still for anything, including really good treats. Ya gotta love her and I do!

Second of all, when my humans are traveling, I get to go on my own vacation. My other best, best friends are Bart and Sonia. I stay with them and another 20 dogs or so. We play in a big field and then after working up a good sweat, we dunk our bellies in the cool water of the pond. I've met more nice dogs on my vacations!

Then my humans have had me working. I presume it is pay for my food but I don't know anything about paying so it is just a guess. I've been spending time with two really nice kids who before meeting me, didn't like dogs. I'm helping them change their ideas about us dogs.

They throw the ball for me and I bring it back. It seems to be a pretty good arrangement! The picture below looks a little scary but I'm just happy to have someone to play with! Having two middle-aged humans is a little trying for a high-energy dog like me!

And then I've been teaching another girl how to train me. I think I'm doing pretty well from the looks of this picture. She's really nice and actually, I think we've taught each other a lot.

And then we've had some dogs come visit our house over the past two years. I get put in my crate in the upstairs but I expect my human is doing something called "obedience training" with them- whatever that is. I've also been warned that we might temporarily have a puppy come live with us to do something called "Hearing Dog Training". God only knows what that might be.

My hobbies here in Belgium include: Chasing the neighborhood cat named Apollo, chasing the rabbits in the yard, chasing the squirrels in the yard and forest, chasing birds in the forest, chasing deer in the forest, chasing people trying to retrieve their golf balls out of our yard. Get it? Chasing!

Well that pretty much sums it up!
Your friend,
Ginger Girl

Austria in May

We took a five day trip to Austria to see Vienna and the nearby areas. We landed at the Vienna airport, rented a car, and drove into the countryside to a small town called Melk, which is in the Danube Valley. Melk is completely overpowered by a huge abbey that sits on top of a hill overlooking the town. Everywhere you go, there it is. Here's Howard in front of a portion of the top part of the abbey.

The town is situated right on the Danube and the bike paths are separated from the road, paved and absolutely beautiful. The hotel we stayed at had wonderful bikes that you could borrow. One day we took a half day bike ride down one side of the Danube and then back up the other side.

All along the way were castles, wineyards, and cute towns. The bike paths passed through orchards, then right next to the river, and then straight through wonderful small towns.

Here's a fountain that caught everyone's attention including ours!

Austria in May- Mauthausen Concentration Camp

Everyone should visit at least one concentration camp, if they can. It is very disturbing but profound. Mauthausen was a slave-labor and death camp which functioned from 1938-1945. More than half of its 206,000 quarry-working prisoners died here, mostly from starvation or exhaustion. It stands above the Danube River in a peaceful setting. There are various statues overlooking the quarry where the prisoners toiled.


All over the preserved camp and plaques remembering individuals. There are yellowed pictures and sometimes fresh flowers. It is very moving because it puts names and faces on the victims.

The doorway to the execution area.

One of the crematoriums.

The gas chamber.

Austria in May- Bratislava

OK, Bratislava isn't in Austria but it is pretty darn close- 30 km. So this was our quick dash into Slovakia. We took a very fast boat down and then up the Danube river to go there. Here's Howard hanging out on the top deck. It was a beautiful ride.

Bratislava is a small and somewhat interesting town with a GREAT public relations team. Everywhere you go you hear about what a wonderful place it is but when you get there you wonder why you went. But what was interesting was to see how it is recovering from years of communist rule. It is a slow process but it feels like a place that is about to really boom. Construction is everywhere!

And then right next to the town hall is an American "icon" that we have all grown to hate to see in these European cities. But there you are!

Another shot of town.

It was very hot that day (95 degrees) so we ducked into a cathedral since they are always about the same temperture (freezing cold). We went down into a crypt which was like a wine cellar but a little scary...go into the light, go into the light. Yikes!

So part of the PR effort involves hyping up these silly statues that are all over the town. They challenge you to find them all and for some reason we came to really care about finding them all. We couldn't leave until we did. Clever of them. So here are a few.

We were tempted...

And it turns out that this is the original Budweiser...in Slovakia!