{"id":3334,"date":"2012-08-08T14:05:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T20:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/macblaze.ca\/?p=3334"},"modified":"2012-08-08T14:26:50","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T20:26:50","slug":"day-14-let-the-comedy-begin-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/?p=3334","title":{"rendered":"Day 14: let the Comedy Begin Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

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After I posted yesterday’s entry we convinced Leslie to read all the blog entries to date. She’s a great reader and it was nice to look back and take stock. Apparently there are some quibbles about the strict veracity if some of the information, but there will always be those who don’t see as clearly. Speaking of which, we finished last night with a bit of a star gaze. Another spectacular night. <\/p>\n

Morning started abut earlier than usual. But, as usual, it didn’t help. Some coffee, some baguette-butter-jam and I was good to go. I grabbed a shower, zipped up my bag and did the dishes. Then I hauled some garbage and generally putzed while I waited. Eventually I gathered the crew for the traditional post trip booze shot. There were 22 bottles lined up with a dozen beer and a six pack of cider. Considering we missed at least one night of drinking and drank in restaurants several times, it’s not a bad average. <\/p>\n

We hauled the bottles away and offloaded our luggage. I checked out and asked the nice gentleman to call a cab for us. He did. 4 times. 2 were on holidays, 1 was broken down, and one wasn’t anywhere to be found. Eventually he gave up and offered to drive us himself. After he finished up with the outgoing boat. We had plenty of time. Really. No worry. <\/p>\n

Right about the time, we had decided the leaving should take place we left. After he ran back in for something he forgot. Twice. It was a nice trip and our host was chatty about the area. Great vocabulary if a slightly idiomatic structure. Still I imagine I sound a lot worse and have 1\/4 the vocabulary. <\/p>\n

He dropped us off at the gare and while Leslie and I headed to buy tickets, Carmen headed to the pharmacy to pick up a new tensor. If you want to know the definition of groady, I have a great example for you. <\/p>\n

The ticket line was slow and slower. I started getting antsy again. Eventually our turn came and we got some tickets for trains as far as Luxembourg. Apparently while can book it all at once online, the ticket agents couldn’t book the train outside of France. <\/p>\n

Carmen rejoined the pack about thus time We headed up to platform four based on the assumption we were going through Metz. According to the tickets we were booked to Bettembourg Front. Wherever that was. Whenever. No train number, no transfers nothing. Sigh. So, given the fact we had a spare 15 minutes before we had to decide anything we grabbed a conductor and made him submit to the question. He didn’t seem to be that much more confident than us so he called and asked. Yup, we were good. <\/p>\n

Carmen and Leslie headed off to post some postcards and we boarded the TER on time. And we got seats. <\/p>\n

Somewhere in there carmen related the tale of the Four Way Ankle Fondle. Seems that French pharmacies don’t do tensors… Pah! The pharmacist listen carefully to Carmen’s request and looking horrified at the state of her current bandage, whisked (or was that lured) her into the back and called in his minions. At this point the details are sketchy. It involves 4 people, an ankle, a tape measure, lots of groping and not a little bit of arguing. You probably don’t want any more details. Anyway she got this lovely royal blue thing for only 50 euros out of the deal and all parties were minimally satisfied. <\/p>\n

Trains are a cool way to travel, and you sure get places fast. We’ve got good seats again on the Metz Luxembourg leg and the trip was over in a nonce. <\/p>\n

In Luxembourg we booked open tickets to Trier and got a schedule of departures. Then we turned our bags over to the lockup guy and hit the bathroom. It’s one of those pay ones: .60 Euros to stand up, 1.20 to sit down.
\nHa ha, I’m a boy. <\/p>\n

We wandered out of the train station and thought we’d eat first. We found lots of ‘night clubs’ and\/or strip joints. Oh and a head shop with an awesome hydroponic basil over 4 ft high. Oh and a couple of pot plants. So… Sex and drugs in Luxembourg; sort of a mini Amsterdam I guess. Lunch was a pizza shop. Leslie had Napolitano, which is actually just a Napoli spelled differently. I had calzone and Carmen had a Salade Nicoise. They called it a salad but between the potato, peppers, tuna, eggs and assorted other bizarre ingredients, it was 20 minutes before we saw green. She found one anchovy and as Leslie’s pizza was getting low I told her to Fish around in her salad for more. Get it? ‘Fish’ around in the salad… For an anchovy… Which is a fish… {snicker}. <\/p>\n

Afterwards we headed north randomly which fortuitously was toward the old quarter. We passes over a grand old bridge, saw some fortifications and turned back for the station to catch the 4:20. <\/p>\n

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It seems as though the bus system might be private here. There are many, many buses of different shapes and sizes. When I get some wifi I will google Voyages Emile Weber which was one of the bigger companies. Back to the station, grab our bags and head to gate 10 just before our ride rolled in. Then it’s a ride on the CFL to Trier and Germany and German wines. Woohoo. <\/p>\n

The trip into the Mosel is quite beautiful and the architecture of homes and churches different once again. We pulled into Trier bahnhof pretty much right on time, but given the way they say Trier as one syllable and follow it with a lot of other incomprehensible syllables, we asked just be sure.<\/p>\n

Off the train, out into the station and quickly on to a cab. The can rides are getting crazier and we are starting to wonder how there aren’t millions of dead pedestrians each year. I guess the people learn. The young gentle at the desk at Hotel Kessler was a real joy. Really seemed happy with his job and seemed to want us to have a good time. We checked in, cleaned up briefly and headed out to see if we could catch the tourism office before it closed. We didn’t. <\/p>\n

Our hotel is in one corner of the old quarter and the info office was in the other. Thus we had to traverse the whole quarter to get there. There are going to be some amazing things to see in the next couple of days. The info office sits in the shadow of the Porto Nigra, a 2nd century roman gate. It was closed but we grabbed a few pics. <\/p>\n

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Afterwards we had a few beers and some tapas and watched the locals tango in the street. <\/p>\n

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Time to head home so we slowly ambled back towards the hotel. An ice cream place caught our eye so we stopped for some dessert crepes (although Leslie opted for an After Eight Sundae) that were simply delicious. Up again and back to the room to finish the night with a quick shower and some blog updating. <\/p>\n

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After I posted yesterday’s entry we convinced Leslie to read all the blog entries to date. She’s a great reader and it was nice to look back and take stock. Apparently there are some quibbles about the strict veracity if some of the information, but there will always be those who don’t see as clearly. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macblaze.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}