<<<< - Mav&Jen_Europade - >>>>

I went to a meeting for Safe Routes to School (btw, it's about bicycling and walking). Jen went for a bicycle ride from LaFramboise Island to Farm Island.

What started out with the bird watching ride on a bicycle in the Pierre area turned into a unique view of an area of Eastern South Dakota that is easily missed if you're in a hurry. I started traveling this road many years ago before it was even paved, but I had never done it in the kind of weather we experienced on May 29, 2008. Oh yeah, I wasn't in a hurry either.

I will call this the 216 Steet road as it begins on that county road that about 50 miles East of Pierre on SDHY 34 and heads nearly straight East and after a few jogs you finish up on 214. Most people would not think of a straight road as scenic and maybe the weather did have something to do with it.

But let me say that no road is scenic regardless of how many twists and turns it may have. On the contrary, it is the topography and ecology through which it passes, although many motored vehicle drivers might disagree, in my opinion they are missing the point. They are not alone most map makers make the same mistake. Perhaps it is simply the pervasive influence of cars that go where roads takes them. Maybe that is the point after all.

It was cloudy and the wind easterly,the fog was occasionally dense enough to bring the visibility to less than 1/4 of a mile. The sloughs and pot holes all had water and ducks, the prairie sounds of meadow larks and red wing blackbirds was ever present. Sun peaked through once in a while and the views changed from mile to mile. It was a great experience resulting mostly from PDL (pure dumb luck).

I would encourage anyone heading to the river or returning on a day of "bad weather" to take their time and enjoy this special glimpse at a scenic part of South Dakota that does not appear on the tourist maps. I am guessing sunrise and sunset would be good times to go in even in sunny weather and those scenes could be captured with a camera.



It would take a more talented photographer than me to capture the feeling of this place at this time. The best I can do is an abstract view of a crumbling barn taken a couple of years ago not far from the WWR .

Why do I call the Wild Wales Road? Even though there are cattle instead of sheep and it is in South Dakota instead of Great Britain, there is a remote wildness about it that made me think of the wilderness area of Wales and a trip we made across that area in 2002. Amazing what can be found in our own backyard.

It would make a great 3 day bicycle camping trip with an opportunity to camp out in the Ree Hills, say by the Spring Lake WPA, and another night along the the Missouri River. There are no services for about 100 miles along the 216 route, the towns are along both US14 to the North and SD34 to the South. Ames and Danforth persist as place names but the services are gone. Carry some food and water and enjoy the Wild Wales Road, the remoteness makes it special.

More detail? Check the Pierre to Huron via Wild Wales Road Interactive Map and plan your own trip. Take your time. Go slow. Ride a bicycle. The planet depends on your actions.

Labels: prairie, Ree Hills, SD

Come along with Mav & Jen as they take a walk in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the 5th arrondissement. on the left bank

We will start at the most famous English Bookstore in Paris. You know you are in the right place because the Notre Dame Cathedral is right across the Pont au Double our first stop.

Labels: Latin Quarter, Luxembourg Gardens, Mouffetard Marche, Paris

Shakespeare's Bookstore in Paris is one of the most famous English language bookstores in the world. We browse, buy, read and attend presentations there every time we are in Paris. And in 2003, we were part of a writing group that presented some of our work there. And most of the time we just hang out and visit with people from all over the world.

I visited with the founder, George Whitman, and he invited us to stay in one of the apartments above the store--we already had digs and were leaving in a couple of days. That experience will be on the long, long "next time" list.

Click on the title to go to the bookstore webpage. There is a link to a 360 view from the front of the store.



My picture of George Whitman when we visited in May 2008

Oh sure I do both when I am in Europe. I am a poet and direct experience is the key to authentic expression, but partaking in the street scenes of the European city is a real part my life. I don't go there to get away from the prairie but to compliment the rich experience of this North American rural setting. European cities are much more to my liking than the sprawling megalopolises that US cities have become.

Use a bike to get around Chicago. Great idea if you are already on Lake Shore Drive but the buses, trams and trains hardly offer the kind of mobility that Berlin does, and Chicago is an exception at that. Davis CA? Hardly a large city. Portland? I love it, but most people still find cars essential for everyday life.

Restuarants that have people sitting outside when it's 52 degrees and slowly sipping a 3oz coffee while watching life in the street and chatting with me in their 3rd language (English) after it is obvious my pidgin is not up to the task. At 21:00 (9:00 pm) in downtown USA, wherever, forget it.

One example of the street life is checking people riding Velib bicycles that are found all over the city of Paris, not just Paris they are in many of the cities. They ride for free or a nominal cost and drop off at some other station near their destination. Let's see it took 20 minutes to go from Shakespeare's Bookstore right across from Notre Dame Cathedral to the Eiffel Tower. What a nice complement to watching migrating shore birds in a flooded soybean field in the Big Sioux River Valley that less than 2 miles on a bicycle from my front door.

It makes me want to push harder for Safe Routes to School so my grandchildren can do it here in he USA without the carbon emissions of international air travel.

Labels: bicycle, Paris, prairie, SLOW_bicycling, travel

Full moon, cool dry air, before sunrise.

Took Nickel out with our bicycles to our favorite Birdwatching area to see what happening. We saw the Brown Thrasher the first day. The guide books say "Brown Thrashers are able to vocalize 3000 distinct songs," but we never really have seen them performing, they are always just flying way ahead of us. but today was different. From a perch high in a cottonwood tree he sang and sang, each trill another new sound. On the way back to town about an hour and half later he flew low across the road in front of us showing his brown back then hopped up the tree and began singing once more.

The sedge wrens were and common yellow throats were all along the route and we saw a yellow legs for the first time this year although I am sure they have been around. Meadow larks and bobolinks were in the fields and on the fence wires, plovers and dowitchers in the wet fields plus teal, mallards and geese everywhere we looked.

We are so glad we didn't miss the spring migration. We are on the lookout for a Kingfisher and maybe we will check out the orioles at the lake this afternoon. The weather is jus too nice to stay inside.

No Kingfisher, but the yellow and yellow-rumped warblers, orchard and Baltimore Orioles, and song sparrows were out and putting on a natural vocal performance while the Kingbirds keep us company on the way home.Of course there are always the Yellow head and Red wing blackbirds that I enjoy hearing as I ride, which proves that I am no birder after all.

Labels: bicycle, birds, prairie

Paris - May 12













But don't count on it. Depending on the location there is always so much to indulge the senses and the soul. As I post this blog, Carol shouted,

This is listing of places and links to the internet booking sites we used for our budget trip to Europe as well as our MyYahoo map for the location.

Please note the summary is incomplete at this time but listing will be added for the RON (remain overnight) location listed in the May 15, 2008 post. Thanks for your patience. Visit us again for a location that interests you.

Alcatraz Backpacker Hostel, Schönhauser Allee 133a, Berlin
Hostelz.com
MyYahoo map of location and area

Hostelz.com
MyYahoo map of location and area
Note: We didn't actually stay here because it was full but we inspected the facility and would recommend it as a budget alternative to the $250 3-star across the street.

Citybreak
MyYahoo map of location and area

Hostelbookers listing
MyYahoo map of location and area

Hostelz.com listing
MyYahoo map of location and area

Miki and Anna Meklin B&B, Palmina 54, 60 Rokova Ulica, Split, Croatia - Tel: 00385(0)21394698 [it takes several tries with the address 60 Rokova to get the Euro map but it does work]
info@citysplit.com City of Split Private Listing email
MyYahoo map of location and area

.
Hotel Boston, via Lepetit, 7 20124 Milano, Italy Tel. 02.66.92.635
I just walked down the street instead of taking the very poor guidance from the booker in the Train Station, instead of 180 Euro it was 80 in a business hotel
MyYahoo map of location and area

Hostelbookers listing
MyYahoo map of location and area

france - bookings.com listing
MyYahoo map of location and area

Venere.com listing
MyYahoo map of location and area
Venere.com has very nice search functions, maps, booking with a 'my Reservations' feature that makes it easy to monitor, cancel, and find information. The best we used although Paris35 (See Hotel Aviatic in this section) is developing a similar interface. They don't have all the hotels but the site is a good place to start.

Labels: B'nB, europe, hostels, hotels

It is important to understand that this itinerary evolved from a desire to visit the Dalmatian Coast, Berlin and Paris. Almost all of the details were not planned and except for where we stayed in Nimes and Paris those that were preplanned changed like the weather. Incidentally, we followed the sunny skies with success for 28 out of the 30 days. One serendipitous experience was taking the bus along the Adriatic Coast, it was one of our favorites:

An 8+ hour bus ride from Split to Rijeka? Yes the road along the Adriatic Coast was hard to beat. My only regret is that I wasn't on a bicycle. Btw, one of the people we met intends to take this very trip next month. It was very inexpensive, public transportation and the pace relaxing. It could easily be broken into parts as there are many inviting places along the coast to spend and hour or an overnight.

Hallo from Fargo

Hello Cassi, Martin, Saela, Martin, Mira, Nickel & Tre

We have not posted for a few days because it took some doing to figure how to make the Internet connection work here at the Hotel Aviatic. Finally got the quirks figured out. The hotel is in the Montparnasse and it as nearly as all French as it gets, which is cool, but it does make it more difficult to work out problems. Merci beaucou only gets you so far.

We did not expect to have this feeling of being back but it will take some time to capture just what we mean although there is a French phrase that I can't recall at this moment that says it all. Riding the buses, those we know and many others, visiting old haunts and discovering new routes and new places has been such a treat for both us. We just look at each other with big loopy grins.

Saturday morning we went to the cathedral atop Montmarte (Sacre Coeur we Santa Croce) which is very impressive. There were lots of visitors there and many friends have told us in the past that it is their favorite tourist feature in Paris. Somehow we had never gotten there before. It is quite the place given the views and the structure of the cathedral. It is large and in a Romanesque architecture as opposed to the more common Gothic style of Notre Dame.

We have all kinds of details to report that we will be working on over the next few days. This post is just a hint on the special relationship we have developed with this city. No, we have not quite slipped over the edge, but we are trying ;-)

My memory of this place has always been very positive. Over the year it has maintained its special place in my heart. Before last year, I was not aware that my father's families, both paternal and maternal ancestry. were from an village very nearby. Is it any wonder that I feel at home here? More detail on Geni (Catherin Bertsch (Lang) if you are a member of the family.


The Heidelberg castle is without equal anywhere. We spent all morning wandering the grounds and recalling special memories from days past, hehe. Something new, there is flock of sheep that graze the steep area of castle grounds and the bird song is better than best. Our hike on the castle grounds was a bird song serenade from beginning to end. Unbeatable.

As it happens, the hostel is run by a bar/restaurant that serves the best German food in the city. Wow. The kids we visited with, a girl from Dallas and a man from here, were great fun. Such good times and Carol reports the Riesling from Baden Baden is much better than we get at home. Surprise.

Interesting fact: the church once had a wall down the middle to split the Catholics from the Lutherans back in early 18th century.

#Bloggers who want to include interactive maps take heed.
Linking the interactive map from the title avoids a nasty little aspect of blogger that makes it difficult, I haven't figured out a way yet, to edit the contents after the post using the bikely code is included. So I' am avoid it by using the title link and a screen view jpeg in the content area.
Please right click to open in a new tab/window.

Labels: Bertsch, castle, heidelberg, interactive maps

May 7 nach Heidelberg

Gramma on the Diamler-Chrysler Observation Deck on Potsdamer Plazer, Berlin

May 5 - Berlin

Neil Cameron was our guide on a tour of the central city by bicycle. Five hours of riding her and talking about the history and significance of each peice. An artist painting his story as we went. He was from Manchester and graduated from Manchester University and moved to Berlin in 2006 but had spent the last several months living with a girl friend n Akron Ohio.

[when traveling I get a profusion of ideas on many topics and writing brings them back]

we visted with a head master of a Denmark public school on Sunday who was on his way to Iceland for meetings. His school is in a rural area west of Odense that has about 600 students K-12, ,many who live in rural areas and ride buses. They are working on a summer program where students would ride a bicycle or walk to school. The rural roads are not considered safe and I discussed with him the concept of Safe Routes To School where there are walking and bicycle buses. An auto of 4 wheeler with the saftey sign and a one sided trailer would be just the ticket I think for the USA and Denmark.

We started the five hour tour about 11:00 and concluded about 16; with a beer. Highlights included Beber Platz (book burning), Stadt Opera House, Humboldt University, Brandenburger Gate, Postsdamer Platz (Daimler Chrysler Building Observatin Deck) lunch, remaing wall museum, parking lot that covers Hitler Bunker, Reichtag that was burned as a pretext for Hitler's rise to power and is now the German parliment building, Tier Garten.

Later we got on bus 100 at the Opera House/Cathedral and rode the double decker to Zoological Garten for a bit of time on the Europa Center Platz then returned to Alexander Platz for ice cream where we catch the U2 back to the Alcatraz. It was a long and magical day desipte all the dark history of this place that displays the ill feelings between the French and Germans over the centuries.

Two retired Canadian secondary teachers were on the tour with us. Wayne and John and the rest of the information is in the data base, but one thing is that Wayne was a math teacher were a large number of NHL stars went to high school. I remember Eric Lindross was one of his favorite students. I think in was Hamilton High School in Toronto.

We got back about 19:30 last night. It looks like great weather here this week.

We will be here until Wed, then to the Heidelberg area for 2nights and 1 day before Paris. We will try to blog if we are not too tired. :)

We need to transfer some new pictures but even though this one is in Salzburg, as you can plainly see, the wurst on the street will be just as sweet here in Berlin although we had doner last night in a Turkish take out that is 50 meters from our hostel.

May 3

Oh if we knew then what we do now, none-the-less what we know now is reward enough as we take all good fortunate in stride although it is most likely undeserved.

On our train from Copenhagen through Malmo to Goteburg (Gothenburg) we had the good fortune to change around seats in the reservation two step just in time to sit across from Caterina who currently lives in Goteburg. She is a traveler who was a nanny in LA and had lived there for a few years, worked for KLM for 8 years and recently traveled in Thailand with her mother for 5 weeks--a lively single adulthood grown out of a 2 year backpacking beginning in her 20s.

We laughed and shared stories and she keep adding to her page of recommendations that began with a hand drawn map of the western district (harbor) of the city where she lived. She was coming home to a Friday "after work" bar hop to the places with the best food and half priced drinks with a few friends, but she insisted that she help us get our tram tickets and accompany us to the youth hostel near where she lived. It was great conversation and the feeling of openness that only comes with train travel.

We got on the tram at the Goteburg Central Train Station and rode to the area of her map, when we got off the tram, the convenience of having someone else do the thinking lulled me for a moment and I left my bag on the tram. Quick thinking by Caterina put me back on the very next tram and within 2 stops (less than 5 min) we had caught the tram with my bag. I jumped off and recovered the bag, hopped back off and gave the driver who helped me out the thumbs up. I took the tram back the other direction and found Carol at the hostel. The hostel didn't open for another hour (16:00). We left our bags even though there was no assurance there would be rooms.

When the hostel opened we found they did have rooms. Maybe not like we would have desired, but Carol in a mixed room with a pregnant couple and "harmless little tomcat" and me assigned to a 8 bed male dormitory room. The place was full of sport teams but there were the more mature adults too. Carol kept custody of our baggage and slept well. I found the day room couch to be much quieter and comfortable from 2:30 - 6:30 than the dorm room upper bunk where I began the night.

It was a good experience that clarifies what we often take for granted. On the whole though this was a well kept facility, about 1/2 -1/3 of a private hotel accommodation in cost, so we had an expensive fresh sea food dinner at a place Catherina recommended in the Haga district.

However the most amazing thing happened in a pub, VINKROG, Lilla Torget 3, 411 18 Goteborg, just across the street from the fancy seafood restaurant. We popped into this below street level place that was advertising an after work special, the Swedish equivalent of a Friday afternoon happy hour. The food spread was quite good, the pub a gem and the beer reasonable priced--a bit surprising given the high cost of things in Sweden. But the truly unsuspected was when we were explaining to the bar tender that we were from South Dakota, a voice from nowhere said, "Did you say South Dakota?"

It turns out the owner of the bar's girl friend had been an exchange student in Yankton. We had a nice conversation, exchanged email information, and celebrated the small world.

This morning as we were waiting for the train to Odense via Copenhagen we decided to check auto rental prices at the Hertz place in the Goteburg train station. We found that we could have done a 72 hour rental for less thuran $200 full coverage. If we had known it we probably would have traveled to Goteburg on Thursday, rented a car and return on Sunday as we are planning tomorrow from Odense. A great idea that will have to wait until next time, besides just think what we would have missed. That does not even include the great conversation with two youn men on the train this morning that were going to visits parents and grandparents for the weekend. One man was the owner/operater of a ski resort security firm and the other a manager of appliances sailes amd both well informed and interesting conversationalist in fluent English that derives from having lived or spent long vacations in the USA.

The hotel in Odense, Dk is a bit on the expensive side tonight but we have faired well so far on this 3 day weekend that fills the hostels with sports teams so it will be nice to spend to the expectations of the middle class European traveler before we return to our cool little hostel in Berlin. We met the most interesting young people today, the last a fine arts student of Greenlandic ethnic heritage who lives in Denmark now. She is excited about showing her art after graduation next year. Maybe Brookings will have its first Greenlandic artist.

April 30, 2008

We arrived in Berlin yesterday at 6:00 p.m. and found our hostel without too much trouble, even though we had to take the S-bahn (regional train) and the U2 red line (metro system). The brief feeling of confusion is a common one at almost every getting-off point. Our place, Alcatraz, is in the Prenzlauen Berg, a section in the former East Berlin. Things a bit seedy looking at first, but the energy level is out of sight, and Bohemian like. So many young people, and actually walked a few blocks before we saw another couple that appeared to be our age. Checked in, dumped the bags and hit the streets.
Good restaurant--potatoe-leek soup for me with brochen and noodles and meat for Alan. Same price as in Brookings, SD. including the beer.
Slept good. Out to Alexander Platz by 10:30 a.m. Took the tram to Hackescher Markt and met up with a dude from New Zealand who will be conducting our biking tour when we return in a few days. We went to Ku-dam to the Europa Center to see if the water clock is still operating--and it is. Saw the huge fountain where Cassi waded around in 1985. Street break dancers, musicians, hawkers still a great show.
We re-visited the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church--the one bombed out on November 22, 1943, within a few days of Lynn's birthday. Found out the glass used in the restoration was produced in the glassworks of Chartres Cathedral south of Paris--our favorite cathedral.
Later we walked to Branderburger Gate, and still marvel that in our lifetime, we can actually casually walk to either of the former "sides." Into Potsdammer Platz, typical of all parts of Berlin--old blackened buildings, fabulous new glass and metal skyscrapers, and construction cranes by the dozens.

May 1. Caught the 7:18 a.m. to Copenhagen. Crowded. Germany has a 3-day weekend.
that has extended all the way to Sweden. Goteburg by namen. btw, this is a clean, beautiful city and far better than Copenhagen which was underwhelming.