About five years ago I invited each of my grandchildren, when they turned 14, to join me for a two-week trip to anywhere.
The year before the pandemic, Cameron, my step-grandson in Ohio and I drove from Mansfield near Columbus to Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Niagara, Toronto, and back to Mansfield, visiting historic places and staying with many friends and family — laughing all the way.
Last year, my grandson Lucas and I visited England, seeing the London area, Bath and the Cotswolds, my godson in Manchester, and by chance, the perfectly proper British regatta at Hanley on Thames.
In June this year (2024) my grandson Quince from Sebastopol, California and I spent two weeks in Europe. Here’s a quick review.
Niece in Nantes
We landed at Paris, CDG, took a taxi to Gare Montparnasse (first pic), an express train to Nantes, staying two nights with my niece Melissa and her beautiful family in a small town 20 minutes north. I hadn’t visited them in years, Quince never. We talked, walked and played, had lunch in their garden, drove to downtown Nantes, and was hosed by the giant wood mechanical elephant. A truly great visit.
Unfortunately, almost all my pictures in Nantes were videos and I don’t know how to clip individual frames.
On to the Swiss Alps
Back to Paris, an Express train to Geneva, changed trains to Interlaken, then train, bus, and gondola to traffic-free Gimmelwald in the Bernese Oberland Swiss Alps. What’s big at 4,500 feet are views and views, hiking, acclimatizing, cows and cowbells, paragliding, biking, and more views. The Alps are unreal, the paragliding unforgettable.
After five nights in Gimmelwald we took the gondola, bus, and train to Bern, the Swiss capital, a beautiful, partly medieval, and very tidy town. Einstein lived there in his youth, which is well described in the local museum.
The train from Bern to Geneva stops briefly at the University town of Lausanne. Quince thought this may be a great place to attend university. He speaks French. It’s a French-speaking part of Switzerland. More particularly, it’s near the Alps for world-class hiking, biking, and skiing, a step up from and more intriguing than, the University of Colorado.
Sardinia, Bronze Age cultures, snorkeling, and cork
A brief flight from Geneva landed us in Sardinia’s capital, Cagliari. After a short tour of the National Archaeology/Anthropology museum, we drove our rent-car to a nearby rocky “beach” where Quince went swimming.
The Sardinia coastline is mostly ancient volcanic, very weathered, lava flows. The water is crystal clear, its’ temperature is perfect. We drove that night to Barumini, the site of the most well-preserved Nuragic village.
We dined that evening at a very fine restaurant near the ruins — on grilled horsemeat steak. It looks and tastes like beef. We couldn’t tell the difference. I remember during my childhood in Sydney, that our local butcher sold horsemeat for our dogs. It’s all they ate. This was before manufactured dog chow came to market.
The next morning we were the first visitors at the Neolithic site. Our required guide painted a compelling picture of the small village of perhaps 400 people and their central secure fort. Unlike the large Mycenaen civilization remnants in Greece and Turkey, the Nuragic remains are a very human scale, very understandable. I was transported in time, moved to tears.
Snorkeling in Bosa
We drove on to the West Coast town of Bosa, where search-master Quince directed us on a rocky path to a locally popular spot for rock jumping into the Mediterranean. I snorkeled.
I’ve dived in the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Australia. After tens of thousands of years of occupation and fishing, the Mediterranean is no world-class snorkel site, but it is beautiful, and many of the fish are familiar. Again, the shoreline was ancient lava flows, no sand. We had dinner at a fancy beach restaurant. After pricey Switzerland, Sardinia was a bargain.
Aggius
We had a room for two nights at Aggius, a quiet traditional mountain village set below a magnificent granite outcrop in north central Sardinia. I’d hoped Quince would enjoy trail running, but he had cut his toe badly on the rocks in Bosa. It was hot and the sky was heavily overcast from a North African dust storm.
However it’s cork country, so we drove to the nearby Calangianus Museum of Cork, “demonstrating everything that you would ever want to know about the growing and harvesting of cork”. We have similar cork trees in California, but no cork industry. In north Sardinia, the cork trees dot the hills and seem to be randomly harvested every six or so years. It’s an ancient, traditional, fascinating craft.
Aggius is 45 minutes from the coastal town Palau, where we had reservations for a full-day boat cruise among the Maddalena Archipelago, separating Sardinia from Corsica. Our boat was a no-show, but we found another for a memorable day of cruising, swimming, snorkeling, eating, and sightseeing.
We had become acutely conscious of how orderly and predictable everything is in Switzerland compared with Italy. If the mantra for global climate change is, “Be prepared for the unexpected”, then Italians (and the French) are already well positioned.
Olbia, CDG, and SFO
Our easyJet flight from Olbia to Orly airport outside Paris was predictably late. We took an Uber to CDG, checked into our hotel, and tried to take a bus to a local sushi restaurant in Roissy-en-France. At the bus stop, a waiting airline pilot said his last two scheduled buses didn’t show. Quince and I agreed that once again, this is not Switzerland. Our bus was late, the sushi great. To be safe, we took an Uber back to the hotel.
Unlike at US airports, the internal loop train at CDG comes outside, easily accessing the nearby high-rise hotel strip. It’s a short walk from the hotels to the train, a real public service, a reminder of how more socialist countries organize to serve citizens.
Back in San Francisco, Quince and I drove home with his mom (my daughter) and the family. Felt strange to be back.
I can’t imagine a better way to enjoy my grandchildren. I have one more venture to go, probably next summer. Half the fun is planning. It’s already underway!
Thank you for reading.
Barry
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