From the Mediterranean to the North Sea, from the Alps to the Loire Valley and from a Papal Palace to the windmills, we have seen and done some amazing things over the past few weeks. We were traveling for 15 days, but it felt like forever! We are awfully happy to be home in Angers and we are getting excited for our next round of travel, but mostly we are getting excited to get back to life in the US. So, let me tell you about our travels:
Day 1
We saw something we hadn't seen in a very long time... Morning. And not only morning but a sunrise! We left Angers around 6 am for the real castle quest. The little "castle quest" we did in Angers was just a warm up we decided.
heres our first picture of the trip. On the train, still half asleep. We had to kinda jog to the train station to make sure we didnt miss our train (somewhat of a habit for us on trips...)
The sunrise over the Loire Valley. It took me a minute to figure out what that bit red spot was. We decided in Utah since the sun has to come over the mountains, its usually too bright by the time we see it to look like this.
So. First stop was the city of Saumur, about 25 minutes south of us by train. We had one hour here, just about the right amount of time to see the castle, wander a bit and get on our next train.
Almost every city has a river running through it. I thought it was odd at first, but when I started thinking about the origins of the cities, from the middle ages or so, it made sense that the major cities would develop around rivers, and other large water sources.
Our next stop was Tours. It was pretty scary looking on the way in. It looked really trashy and big. However, since we had an hour between trains we decided to find its castle and add it to our number of castles seen in one day. :)
We first found the cathedral. Tours cathedral is one of my favorite that I have seen. It was very impressive.. almost rugged looking.
The castle however isnt much to look at. We decided that the Castle in Angers could totally beat this one up. No Problem! haha.
Next we trained to Chenonceau. This is one of the most famous castles in France, built out onto the water. It was horribly touristy and expensive and it looked like it was getting very abused, but I can see why it is so famous. It was worth the trip.
This is the part that is over the water, just a big hall on the ground floor. I liked the checkered floor! The picture next to Kennan is on the wall there. It says "Here 2254 wounded were cared for during the war. 1914-1918." A number of castles we have visited were turned into hospitals during the wars. There is certainly plenty of room to set up a lot of hospital beds, and I have to wonder if it was a tactic they used to avoid getting the castles bombed and destroyed.
This is the front of the castle. Like every other monument in europe, they are doing restoration work on it. (Always I'm sure) They were nice enough to print a banner of what the part they were working on looked like. haha
The grounds were very well kept. They had a few huge ornate gardens and even a hedge maze!
This was part of their "Medieval Garden" I thought the tulips were nice, however I doubt this is how the gardens were during that time period.
This is a super old cathedral in the town of Chenonceau. I want to say it was 12th century or something crazy like that.
Next we got to Blois. We got there around 3:30 and ran to the tourist center to try and catch a bus to see the Chambord and Cheverny castles. I had talked to the tourist center and they'd said they didnt think the buses were running that late to the castles and that we'd be able to take a taxi, like it was no big deal. The guy at the tourist office wasnt very helpful. He told us it was impossible to make it out there. So, we decided in a last ditch effort we would try and rent a car for the evening to be able to get out to see them. We practically ran across town because it was getting later and later. After talking to a couple rental places we found one that would rent to people who didnt have an international drivers license. However, the lady said it was too late to drive out there and get the car back to them by the time they closed. I was pretty bummed. I had seen the castles before but was hoping Kennan would get to see them as well. We finally gave up and started our search for food. We ended up buying a few pre packaged ice cream cones and eating them on a little wall on the banks of the river. It was very pleasant. (Everything is better with ice cream) After our silly little dinner we went to see the Blois castle.
Its famous for this staricase.
Across the square they have some random show.. Golden dragon things stick their heads out and blow smoke and move around and make noise... It was random.
The front of the castle, and one of the rain gutters. The detail on all the castles and cathedrals over here is incredible.
This little porcipine is pretty popular in all the gift shops. And this is the side of the castle (click to enlarge)
And finally, these are the steps we climbed to get to our hotel, which was less than a 5 minute walk from the castle. Blois is a very picturesque little town!
Thats it for day one. Ill follow up with the next days..
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