The waterfront of the historic city center is very attractive:

The Fesch Museum was mercifully uncrowded and contained a number of high quality works by artists both familiar and unfamiliar to me.

Maison Bonaparte was a bit less exciting in part because the explanations were entirely in French and also the smaller space was a bit more crowded with tourists. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see (though not Angelina Jolie’s handprints in concrete in Cannes interesting).

The other major sight, the town’s Cathedral, was closed. So, we returned to the waterfront and enjoyed some ice cream and drinks at one of the restaurants that were open on the quay:

Today’s Box Score: +1 Country (Corsica)

Having been to this part of the world a few times, we didn’t feel especially rushed to take the first tender ashore (though we had priority tickets) nor did we feel the need to rush out of town to places like Nice or Monaco (been there, done that).

Nope, we decided to spend a leisurely day in Cannes itself, exploring the seaside town and enjoying a nice lunch.

The waterfront is swoon-worthy in terms of its beauty and its yachts.

Like this Azimut:

The location of its famous film festival is a bit less visually attractive:

The road along the beachfront is lined with luxury hotels and shops, as well as chic and expensive bars and restaurants overlooking the bay. I guess if you’re going to spend $35-40 to eat a hamburger this isn’t a bad spot in which to do it.

For our part, however, we found a nice wine bar that was a few blocks inland that was quite enjoyable for eating a a cheese and charcuterie plate washed down by a nice glass of a dry Provençal rose.

In the mid-afternoon, we walked up to the oldest part of town for sweeping views of the city and bay:

Back aboard ship, we enjoyed dinner at the Butcher’s Cut, which is Seaview’s speciality steak restaurant. Libby and I ate for free as one of our Voyager’s Club Black level membership benefits. The dining experience was otherwise $39/pp. for a three course meal with additional charges for various “upgrades” and/or the option to pay even more to order entirely a la carte.

Truthfully, speciality dining aboard ships had become increasingly expensive. While it’s often far superior to the included fare, I find it increasingly to be less good value for money. But, we can afford it and enjoy it… so c’est la vie, I suppose.

It’s like the Rolls-Royce of planes.

And Emirates is no slouch of an airline either — everyone was impressed by the quality of their cabin, inflight entertainment, food/beverage offerings, and level of service.

We departed from our hotel at 7:30am for our 11:30am flight. We arrived in Dubai on time around 8:30pm local time.

Immigration was a little bit of a zoo due to disorganized queues, but we still managed to get through before our baggage arrived. We also successfully picked up our car at Hertz and drove to our hotel, the Marriott Dubai Harbor Hotel and Suites, where we have a 3 bedroom / 3.5 bath suite with balconies overlooking the Palm Jumeirah and the Persian Gulf (all for an insanely cheap rate of <$250 per night):

As seems to be our custom here upon arrival in Dubai, we usually find ourselves eating out rather late at some fairly typical American chain. This trip’s winner: P.F. Chang’s (which I have to admit tasted “so good” to all of us).

What can I say about the Louvre?

The popular stuff seems to be more popular than always:

You always discover something “new” (that you’d overlooked on a prior visit) — like thi Cy Twombly ceiling:

I took a number of “sculpture portraits” — a subject I tend to return to regularly on trips. Here are a few of my favorites:

After grabbing lunch and an espresso in the gardens (I was dragging due to fatigue and/or cold medication), we moved on to the Musee de l’Orangerie, which we’d never visited before and houses an impressive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, most notably Monet’s large format waterlily paintings:

These works influenced a number of American artists, including my all-time favorite, Ellsworth Kelly (this is his response to Monet’s water lilies):

Here are a few other works that I enjoyed especially:

After the museums, we wandered back to our hotel stopping at some churches and shops along the way.

For dinner, we went to another local brasserie in our neighborhood and ordered some tasty flatbreads:

All in all, it was a good final day in Paris. I feel that Emerson got a good sense of the city (having finally visited here), and we really enjoyed ourselves after getting into the Parisian swing of things.

From there we turned left and made our way over to the Eiffel Tower.

The base of the tower was shrouded in temporary security barricades and construction equipment. By this time, it had started raining lightly off and on, but we were not deterred in our walking tour.

We next visited the Rue Cler, which wasn’t wildly vibrant on this drizzly late morning. That said, I simply love this sort of thing rain or shine–much like the Borough Market in London or Chelsea Market in New York (meanwhile I’m still waiting for a high-end grocery to open at home in Wesley Chapel). Here’s a sampling:

Our plan was then to visit the Musee d’Orsay, which was one of the few major museums open on a Tuesday in Paris. However, it seemed that most of the visitors to Paris had the same idea on a rainy day — the museum queue was horrendous. Rather than wait in the rain, we crossed the Seine, grabbed some lunch, and then visited the Opera Garnier.

The interior is as–or more–spectacular than the exterior.

Emerson was especially excited about the Phantom of the Opera aspects, which included not only Box #5 but also a sign indicating that it was reserved for the Phantom himself.

After the Opera, we did a little (mostly) window shopping at Galleries Lafayette, which is a spectacular temple to retail therapy.

Dinner was fun. The weather being much improved, we ate outdoors on the sidewalk tables at a little bistro, which seemed to be popular primarily with locals catching trains from the nearby station. The food was reasonably priced and good–though not “spectacular.” Yet, the experience of it all was certainly fantastic. A leisurely dinner, watching people pass by, and enjoying a nice rose from Provence — very bien.

After we visiting the Cathedral, we returned to our hotel, checked out, and departed for the airport in Paris to return our rental car. I’d contemplated visiting one of the Champagne maisons or touring through some of the vineyards, but we ultimately just decided to move on to Paris. The prior evening we’d enjoyed a half bottle of grower (meaning grown and produced on a single vineyard) Champagne, Paques et Fils, which was delightful in its light and delicate style, as well as relative value compared to the more famous, large-scale houses. Unfortunately, Paques et Fils isn’t generally available in the States–though I am going to seek our smaller producers that are available.

The drive to Paris-CDG airport was uneventful, as was dropping off the car and securing a taxi into the hotel. Our rooms weren’t quite ready at our hotel, the Idol Hotel in the 8th. That was fine by us. We dropped off our bags and wandered off to explore Paris. Emerson experienced her first macaroon:

We then walked the the Centre Pompidou, Paris’ premier modern and contemporary art venue. It was tres bien! See for yourself:

After this we grabbed dinner (well, the ladies did — I refused to partake after my order was botched) at some “authentic French tako” place that was frankly just kind of bizarre. “Authentic French takos” consist of a protein (from chicken nuggets to tuna), French fries, cheese, and a sauce (of all varieties and types aside from what one might think of as a Mexican salsa). This is wrapped in a flour tortilla / pita type bread and then crisped on a griddle. All in all, pretty disgusting and the worst kind of fusion cuisine IMHO.

After dinner, we visited Norte Dame de Paris, which was packed with tourists (unlike our nearly empty visit to Reims Cathedral). But, it is always nice to see.

On the way back, it started to rain so we took a taxi home to our jewel box of a hotel (small rooms, ornately and colorfully decorated). All in all, it was a good first day in Paris–a city I seem to more like than love for whatever reason–despite my having developed a little of a sore throat and just feeling kind of “off.”

Heidelberg to Reims is about a 4 hour drive; so, we scouted some not-so-out-of-the-way options to break up the trip and settled on Trier, Germany en route. It’s the oldest city in Germany and boasts its best Roman ruins. Highlights of which include…

Its gigantic city gate (Porta Nigra):

A huge throne room/ basilica (now a Lutheran church):

Roman baths:

The town also a marvelous Cathedral (which dates back to the founding of St. Peter’s in Rome):

I was especially partial though to the smaller Church of Our Lady next door:

The town itself is also just very pleasant, despite (nor because of) its being the home of Karl Marx.

For lunch, we grabbed some frites and frikadellen (a sort of Germanic hamburger), which were much more akin to the family recipe unlike the version that I had last summer in Denmark.

After lunch, we had a pleasant 2.5 hour drive to Reims, France via Luxembourg and Belgium. Coming in from the north, Reims appeared to be surrounded by farm land, but we saw little to no grape vines (despite Reims being one of the two major Champagne towns — as it happens, the vineyards are largely south of the city). Initially, we were a bit underwhelmed by Reims — the city seemed looked deserted on a Sunday and the area around our hotel appeared clean and safe but rather unspectacular.

As it happens though, the center of town (literally just “on the other side of the tracks” from our hotel) was charming.

Since it was later in the day already, we focused on finding a location for food. After surveying our options (many restaurants were closed due to it being Sunday), we opted for crepes which were surprisingly good for a shop that was “super hero” themed.

We also picked up some local pastries:

NB: In Trier, we stumbled upon one of the single most impressive collections of cats I’d ever seen in one place — seemingly randomly in the bottom of a parking garage. It turned out there was an exotic car rental business in the building, but my word what a fleet of automobiles!

NB #2: Since little, Emerson has taken an interest in lighting candles in remembrance. On this trip, especially being in Lutheran churches, she choose to light candles in memory of Pop, which I found touching.

Given that, we opted for one of the ship’s shore excursions: a day trip to Aix-en-Provence. This involved a somewhat lengthy but scenic bus trip the 70 or so kilometers to Aix. Upon arrival, we took a two hour walking tour of the city’s mostly minor sights. The city is quite charming.

Ultimately, Aix is an environment to immerse oneself in… to taste the produce, smell the flowers, eat the food, drink in the atmosphere. It’s a place to stroll and linger.

In the end, I was happy for a small taste of Provençal life, but I was left unsatisfied by the brevity of the visit. So, we’ll certainly have to return here sans cruise ship.

We had dinner last night in Le Bistro, the ship’s French restaurant. Other than a somewhat lackluster onion soup, the meal and wine were superb, including a delectable chocolate Napoleon as the final course.

I do think cruising with small children is an easier form of travel. The logistics are just more straightforward: your accommodations and consistently toddler-friendly dining travel with you. On balance, this is both good and bad. On the one hand, it saves time and effort spent on ‘everyday life’ activities. On the other hand, caring for a toddler forces you to live more like the locals (in terms of engaging in kid-friendly activities and the chores of daily life). That said, I wouldn’t hesitate to drive again.

The trip had far more highlights than lowlights. Indeed, I think every place we went is now firmly affixed to the “return” list, especially Bavaria and Poland. And, while we were lukewarm on Berlin initially, it has a lot of cultural venues that are worth exploring. Thus, while it’s not the prettiest city, it’s certainly worthy of another in-depth visit. Realistically, it will likely take us another 3 years or so to finish the 157×50 (err 39? 40?) goal. So, if we’re not back in Central Europe before then, I suspect we will most assuredly return soon thereafter.

Finally, this trip reminded me just how much we like experiencing new places. I think that’s been one of the great advantages of the 157×50 project’s goals. By definition, you’re forced to expand your horizons and travel more widely. Fortunately (or unfortunately), once you’re on that path the thrill of exploring becomes addictive and you find yourself thinking: “why not drive from Budapest to Turkey?” or “maybe we should island hop through Indonesia?” Of course, we’re not hostel-dwelling, backpacking vagabonds. We’re far more (and unapologetically) bourgeois by this point in our lives both by choice (why inconvenience yourself when you needn’t have to?) and necessity (traveling with a toddler, while I’m sure it’s technically possible w/ backpacks and in hostels, I think you’d have to be stark raving mad to do it). But, I digress…

Final score: +6 countries and +1 state for us; +13 countries and +1 state for Emerson!

Up next: the Caribbean over Thanksgiving.

We headed out of Luxembourg bound for St. Gallen, Switzerland via Freiburg, Germany. During our morning drive, we crossed the Mosel and Rhine rivers entering Germany, than France (crossing Alsace), before reentering Germany at Strasbourg. All told, the drive to Freiburg took about 3.5 hours.

Freiburg is an attractive “college town” located in/near the Black Forrest. While it lacks “major” sights and most of the town’s shops and venues were closed (it being Sunday), we passed a few pleasant hours strolling the streets and having a seafood lunch at NORDSEE (a kind of European, upscale “fast casual” concept — think: “if Panera Bread were a seafood place” and you’d be close…). Freiburg is also famous for its miniature canals (“bachle”), which were originally installed in the 1400s to minimize the likelihood of fires spreading.

Views of Freiburg -- the size of the Bachle is distorted for 'artistic' effect using a wide angle setting close to the subject. It's really little more than 18-24\

After Freiberg, we headed into the Black Forrest en route to Switzerland driving along the scenic B31 thru Titisee (which, might I add, is an awesome name for a town). Along the way, we stopped at a roadside stand to purchase some fresh cherries and strawberries, which were utterly delectable. Such experiences remind me that it’s sometimes the simple pleasures that most delight us. As with the rest of our drive, the journey through the Black Forrest and across northern Switzerland was rather scenic, often charming and occasionally sublime.

We arrived at the Radisson Blu in St. Gallen a little before 6pm. As usual with Radisson Blu properties, the hotel is fairly swank with a distinctly European feel. After getting settled, we walked a few blocks (through a mostly vacant downtown—still Sunday!) and selected an Italian place for dinner. Like the rest of dining in Switzerland, it was a little pricey (more than London; less than Stockholm), but the quality of our pizzas and pastas was on the mark. I also have to say that the local brew (we literally passed the brewery between our hotel and the restaurant), called Schutzengarten, was darn good: light yet flavorful and highly quaffable.

One final, happy note: Emerson was neither motion (nor otherwise) sick today. We think changing her seating position, along with me trying to consciously reduce body roll on the Chevy (it does not corner like it’s on rails), seems to have fixed the issue. So, we’re fairly certain that we’ll be able to finish the journey via automobile.

All in all, a good day!

Today’s box score: +1 country (Switzerland)… +2 for Emerson!