. . . with Joe & Elaine as they travel the USA and the World.
Weather beautiful in the morning, but cloudy and very cool in the afternoon. No rain. Our new Oaks/Derby parking spot was excellent.
A great time was had in the box (which was Derby Central). Coors Light was flowing liberally.
Gambling-wise? Another disaster.
Last year: 0 for 12 on Oaks Day.
This year: 0 for 12 Oaks Day.
BLAH!
We had dinner at Carrabba’s and hit the sack early.
Thursday was a nice day. Mostly sunny but very cool and windy. Looks kike Oaks Day will be rain free but chilly. Derby Day looks perfect.
One winner Thursday in seven bets, but it paid $18.00, so a winning day.
Dinner was at DelFriscos, a Louisville institution that now seems well past its prime. steak was good. Service was atrocious. Good to spend time with Lee and John Lutes.
Had a good night’s sleep and now ready for Oaks Day!
The flight from Phoenix to Indianapolis was uneventful and on-time. We picked up our rental car and headed for Louisville in the RAIN! Does it always rain here? But it was mostly drizzle and had stopped by nightfall. Actually the forecast for the next four days is amazingly good with just a 10% chance of rain. That’ll work!
We got to Louisville and headed straight for Shenanigan’s Irish Grille for some food. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast at Zinc Bistro at the airport in Phoenix. What a nice addition that is to the airport culinary scene! At Shenanigan’s we met up with good friend Eddie, the owner. He sat and ate with us as we enjoyed delicious burgers. Then, well fed and very tired, we proceeded to the Springhill Suites for a good night’s rest.
Wednesday morning we had to head to Eddie’s house so I could pick up my cell phone that I had left on the table at dinner. (Yes, brain dead!) We spent a few minutes with Eddie and Dee and then headed for Churchill Downs. We sat outside, mostly in the sun, and enjoyed the weather and three winners to make the first day at the track a winning one.
Back to the hotel for a shower and clean up, and then we walked to the nearby Limestone Restaurant where we were meeting Eddie and Dee as well as Brooke and Judy for dinner. Brooke is a former WHAS-TV reporter, now a drug rep for Glaxo, while Judy is someone I worked with at New England Life was back in the mid seventies. She has been in Louisville for a long time. Dinner was magnificent. The drinks and wine flowed, and a good time was had by all.
Two weeks from Tuesday on April 29th we will leave for our annual Kentucky Derby adventure. We will fly from Phoenix to Indianapolis on Southwest Airlines. “Why Indianapolis?”, you ask. Well, 1) Louisville Airport is a madhouse during Derby week; 2) Southwest’s non-stops to Louisville are at inconvenient times (e.g., leaving Louisville at 7 AM Sunday morning is tough after a long Derby Saturday); 3) It costs way less to fly to either Nashville or Indianapolis. We have used Nashville in the past, but the non-stops to Indianapolis are at very convenient times and Indianapolis is even closer (an hour and forty-five minute drive) to Louisville than Nashville (three hour drive).
We will once again be staying at the Marriott Springhill Suites on Hurstbourne Parkway. It’s very nice. We’ll drive in Tuesday late afternoon after landing at Indianapolis. Tuesday night is free (Carrabba’s?). Wednesday night we are having dinner with our friends Eddie and Dee (who own Shenanigan’s Irish Grille), Brooke (originally from Winthrop, MA, now a drug rep for Glaxo Smith Klein, and formerly a reporter at WHAS-TV who interviewed me four or five years running on live TV at the Derby), and Judy (an old friend who I worked with at New England Life in Boston in the early 1970’s before she moved to Louisville). By tradition dinner will be at Limestone, conveniently located just a few steps from the hotel – no drinking and driving!
Thursday night we will have dinner with John and Lee, dear friends met many many years ago at Churchill Downs. Last year we had dinner with them at Ruth Chris at a table between Wayne Lukas and his party on one side and Todd Pletcher and his party on the other. (Racing fans will know who they are.) This year we will be meeting them at Del Frisco’s Steak House, a Louisville institution to which I have never been. (It’s NOT part of the well known Del Frisco’s Grille and Double Eagle Steak House chain.) I doubt that Wayne and Todd will be bracketing us this year.
Friday is Kentucky Oaks day, in Louisville as big an event (almost) as the Derby. Schools are closed in the county on Oaks Day. And Saturday is Derby Day. Both days we will be at the track at 9 AM – first post at 10 AM. We will not get out of the track until after 6 PM, well worn out. Dinner will be just the two of us somewhere quiet.
Handicapping the Derby is the most daunting task in horse racing. Picking the winner from twenty horses running a mile and a quarter for the first time in their young lives is incredibly difficult. Overall I’ve done very well at it. Last year, not so much. I didn’t have the Derby winner. In fact I didn’t have a single winner in three days of racing at Churchill Downs. 0 for 34. This year can’t help but be better. Over the years I have done remarkably well on the Derby although it seems I was better before the new millennium started in 2000.. My winners include:
So who will win in 2014? I’m strongly leaning toward a repeat of 1981 when Wood Memorial winner Pleasant Colony won for me. This year Wicked Strong won the Wood. He’s a good story for Boston fans. Read about it here. He’s a solid closer in a field that will be loaded with speed. And he should be a decent price. He’s my early pick.
After the big day we may meet Judy again for brunch on Sunday before driving back to Indianapolis for a late afternoon flight back to PHX.
In two posts below we describe two 2014 vacations. This is a trip planned for 2015.
It’s not often we plan more than a year ahead. But there was an incentive to do so right now. In Trip Planning (Two) we describe our transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami. We are always loathe to use the airline tickets that the cruise line provide. (As a little aside, Oceania advertises “free airfare” as part of the cruise fare. That is a little disingenuous since you can get a serious reduction in the cruise fare if you opt out of their air arrangements.) Anyway, cruise line air connections are often inconvenient and may involve long stopovers. For European connections Oceania normally uses charter flights to or from a US gateway city to Europe with connections to the gateway on schedules flights. Charter flights can be just awful with even less room than on normal scheduled flights. (Yes, it is possible to be even more crowded!) Oceania offers business class upgrades at an exorbitant price. (Sometimes they will offer reasonable business class upgrades on some cruises when they are trying to boost sales for those particular cruises). OK, so we don’t like cruise line air arrangements.
So why not just book our own flights? Well, you need a one-way ticket to Europe since you will be cruising in the other direction. It’s easy to book one-way flights within the US nowadays at half the round trip fare. Not so to Europe. International regulations still make one-way fares prohibitively expensive.
So, we decided on a unique solution. We are beginning our November 2014 cruise vacation by flying to London. So we are buying round-trip tickets on Virgin Atlantic from Las Vegas to London. The first leg will be used in November to get to Europe. The return flight will be used in June 2015 to return from London to Las Vegas after the next cruise we have booked. And that’s why we have booked a cruise for May 2015!
The vacation begins when we fly from Phoenix to Montreal where we will spend two nights at our favorite Montreal hotel, the Marriott Springhill Suites in Old Montreal, just a short walk from the port. The we will board the Marina, the sister ship of the Riviera on which we sailed from Barcelona to Miami in November 2014. Again we will have a Penthouse Suite, this time located on the starboard side so as to be south facing (to get full advantage of the sun).
Here’s the cruise map:
Days 1 & 2: In Montreal at the Marriott Springhill Suites
Day 3: Depart Montreal on Marina at midnight
Day 4: Arrive in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec at 8 am; depart at midnight
Day 5: Arrive in Quebec City at 8 am; depart at 7 pm
Day 6: Arrive in Saguenay, Quebec at 8 am; depart at 7 pm
Day 7: Cruising the St. Lawrence River
Day 8: Arrive Corner Brook, Newfoundland at 9 am; depart 5 pm
Day 9: Arrive Sydney, Nova Scotia at 8 am; depart 6 pm
Day 10: Arrive Saint-Pierre at 8 am; depart 5 pm
Day 11: Arrive St. John’s, Newfoundland at 8 am; depart 2 pm
Days 12, 13 & 14: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day 15: Arrive Belfast, Northern Ireland at 1 pm; depart 11 pm
Day 16: Arrive Dublin, Ireland at 8 am; depart 9 pm
Day 17: Arrive Holyhead, Wales at 8 am; depart 4 pm
Day 18: Arrive St Peter Port, Guernsey at noon; depart 8 pm
Day 19: Arrive Southampton, UK at 8 am; disembark by 10 am
Days 19, 20, 21 & 22: London at the Nadler Kensington Hotel
Day 23: Overnight at Gatwick Airport Courtyard Marriott
Day 24: Fly to Las Vegas; Overnight in Henderson, NV
Day 25: Drive home from Las Vegas
The first trip planned is featured below in Travel Planning (One)
Trip number two centers around a trans-Atlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami. But first getting to Europe and then to Barcelona:
We’ll overnight in Las Vegas before flying Virgin Atlantic to London Gatwick Airport.
Then the Gatwick Express Train into central London. Overnights marked by letters.
A. Overnight in London at Great Northern Hotel
B. Eurostar Train to Paris for Two Nights at the Mercure Gare de Lyon
C. TGV Train to Barcelona; overnight in Barcelona at the Marriott AC Sants
Then it’s time to board our ship, Oceania’s Riviera, for the cruise back to the USA.
We’ll be in a beautiful Penthouse Suite.
Here’s the cruise map:
Day One: Depart from Barcelona’s Port at 5 pm
Day Two: Arrive in Cartagena at 9 am for an all day port stop, departing at 6 pm
Day Three: Arrive in Malaga at 8 am for the day; depart at 6 pm
Day Four: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day Five: Arrive at Santa Cruz de Tenerife at 9 am; depart at 6 pm
Days Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day Eleven: Arrive at King’s Wharf, Bermuda at 9 am for overnight stop
Day Twelve: Day at King’s Wharf, departing at 4 pm
Day Thirteen: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Day Fourteen: Arrive in Nassau, Bahamas at 9 am; set sail at 6 pm
Day Fifteen: Arrive at Port of Miami at 6 am; disembark by 9 am
Days Sixteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen:
Pick up rental car
Overnights at Beachside Village Resort
Day Nineteen: Fly home from Fort Lauderdale to Phoenix
Remember: see below post for the trip planned before this one.
It’s been awhile since a post because there has been no traveling. But I’ve been busy over the past month planning 2014 (and even 2015 trips). There will be three big trips between August 2014 and June 2105. This post describes the the first one.
We’ll be doing our usual drive to Las Vegas for an overnight before flying Virgin Atlantic from there to London Gatwick. At the airport we will again pick up a purchase/lease brand new Renault Megane Berline which will be our wheels for the trip. On the return to Las Vegas, we’ll overnight again before driving home the next morning. The letters mark the overnights (less Las Vegas):
A/L: Gatwick Airport, England (Arrival and departure)
B: Windsor, England (2 nights) – Visit the Queen? See the baby? London for a day?
C: Liverpool, England (2 nights) – The Beatles. Ferry Cross the Mersey?
D: Caernarfon, Wales (2 nights) – Mt Snowdon Railway. Caernarfon Castle
E: Omagh, N. Ireland (1 night) – Dublin Swift Ferry Ride and The Abingdon Collection
F: Portstewart, N. Ireland (7 nights) – Kinvara Cottage – base for N. Ireland touring
G: Dingle, Rep. of Ireland (4 nights) – Our Irish “Home”, the Dingle Peninsula
H: Kinsale, Rep. of Ireland (2 nights) – Gourmet Ireland
I: Rosslare, Rep. of Ireland (1 night) – Ferry Port back to UK
J: Pembroke, Wales (7 nights) – Exploring South Wales
K: Newbury, England (1 night) – Sandham Memorial Chapel
L: Back to Gatwick for Overnight (1 night) – Rest Up for Flight Home
The blog is now officially closed until our next trip or other significant reason to post.
The last night in London at the airport was boring except for the fact that we got to watch the debut first episode of the new Downton Abbey season! It debuts in the UK long before it does in the US.
Arriving early at Gatwick Airport for the flight, we had a breakfast at the airport McDonalds! Sausage McMuffin with Egg and Hash Browns tasted exactly like they do at home. Duty free shopping was uninspiring, but Elaine picked up a few “Stay Calm and Carry On” dish towels.
The flight was uneventful although seemingly endless. Once again Virgin Atlantic had the bags of premium economy passengers on the carousal first, a nice perk. Customs clearance was a little slow as a plane from Panama was clearing at the same time we were. Can’t trust those Panamanians, I guess.
Dinner was at Carrabba’s and the night at SpringHill Suites in Henderson. We were up at dawn to get on the road and were home before noon.
Our last dinner at “home” in Plouezoc’h was simple and yet very French and very delicious, served on a sunny patio.
Saturday
The Drive to Abbeville
Six hours on the road and we were in Abbeville after stopping for an eminently forgettable lunch of bad sandwiches and Lay’s potato chips at a French Autoroute rest stop.
Twenty odd years ago we stayed in Abbeville a few times en route from Paris to Calais to get the ferry/train back to London. Abbeville was a drab town, chosen merely because it was about an hour from Calais and, therefore, a good stopping point. The Hotel de France was an aging French hotel, a little dumpy inside and out, but it was the best in town and it had a good restaurant.
Well, both Abbeville and the Hotel de France have been transformed. The main street in Abbeville is totally renovated and fully alive with shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars. It was colorful and lively. Mercure, a French chain, now runs the Hotel de France. It is stunningly modern from top to bottom with rooms that any brand new Marriott would be proud of. (Oh, the wi-fi didn’t work, but it’s France – C’est normale)
Dinner in the restaurant was very good. We both started with a trio of macarons, each sliced and filled with smoked salmon in one, artichoke and celeriac mouse in another, and foie gras in the last. The sweetness of the macarons perfectly complemented the fillings. For my main I had a double order (to Elaine’s chagrin) of steak tartare with frites; she had country chicken casserole seared in beer and served with potatoes and vegetables. I had mi cuit chocolat for desert and Elaine enjoyed a final tarte tatin.
Sunday
The Ferry
We drove the hour from Abbeville to Calais in some dense fog, but it was clear by the time we reached the ferry terminal. We had priority boarding on the P&O ferry and actually got on an earlier departure than our reservation. The ride was smooth as we watched the white cliffs of Dover come closer and closer from the P&O club lounge.
Actually it was good that we caught the earlier ferry because the drive from Dover to Heathrow to turn in our car took longer than expected. We dropped the car, and they then dropped at the Heathrow terminal. Oh, oh, no camera! A quick call, and the nice man was back with the camera in hand. At the terminal, we caught the National Express coach for the hour plus ride to Gatwick where our flight leaves from tomorrow. We checked into a very nice Marriott Courtyard (using points). We’ll have dinner there tonight. The flight tomorrow is at 11;25 am. We’ll overnight in Henderson, NV after we land and be home by noon on Tuesday. I’ll check in with a post then.
I’m almost embarrassed to post Elaine’s trip postscript, but it’s a tradition, so here it is:
As usual, Joe’s meticulous planning kept us busy for almost 5 full weeks. We saw more of Brittany than most French people. From big cathedrals to small gardens tucked away in some small town, there was little we missed. Cornwall, Devon and the Isle of Jersey received the same attention to detail. I sometimes say Joe is too anal about some things but when it comes to travel planning, he has no peer. I also say that we do too much in a day but he says “we can always rest when we get home and we may never be here again” so we march on.
Joe’s French was ever so good. He dealt with the Renault service department with aplomb; he got directions for our hotel in Dinan when we were hopelessly lost; he explained to the pharmacist that I needed an antibiotic for an eye infection and he handled so many other things all the while ingratiating himself to the locals.
There is no one I would rather have as a travel partner and no one I would rather share the road with. Merci beaucoup, mon cher!
Answers to Some Comments and Questions:
No Oysters Tonight? Actually, probably yes. On evenings when we eat out, I normally get oysters for my appetizer (usually nine of them). I did, in fact, have them when we were in Concarneau as that area is the production center for world famous Belon Oysters. You can get Belon oysters in Maine, too. They were exported to Maine from here and flourished there as well.
What’s the temperature average? It was cool in the UK the whole time (upper 50’s and 60’s on most days). In Brittany it has been surprisingly mild. When the sun is out, which it has been for at least part of most and all of some days, the temperature easily gets into the 70’s. It was close to 80 for several days, warm enough to go swimming (although we didn’t). It cools off considerably during the night.
When does it get light in the morning and dark at night? France is an hour ahead of the UK although Brittany is due south of England. It barely gets light by 8:00 am in France, a disadvantage to early risers like us, so we have staying in bed until after 7:00 am most mornings. The sun goes down at around 7:30 pm although light lingers on for some time after that.
Closings? In Brittany in July and August many attractions are open all day every day. Once September hits, the hours are reduced significantly with most things closing for two hours (minimum) at mid-day for lunch. Some things only open in the morning or afternoon. Some things only open certain days. And when October hits, many things close down completely or stay open only one day a week.
Do they speak English? In Brittany, basically, no. They do at B&B’s and at restaurants located in very touristy areas, but otherwise very few people speak any English at all. A lot do speak Breton which might help a little if I spoke Gaelic (I don’t) as the two Celtic languages are related. All road signs here are in both French and Breton. Anyway, my French has been pretty good this trip and has been tested in some trying circumstances (like when buying a new phone, when making phone reservations, in pharmacies, and at Renault dealers when recovering from using the wrong fuel). I give full credit to my Harrap’s French in the Real World, a book I bought many years ago, to my brand new Larousse Dictionnaire (français-anglais; anglais-français), and to Miss Miche, my high school French teacher for three years. Et une petite merci á Mianne pour l’assistance occasionalle pendant les années.
This will be the last serious post. Tomorrow (Saturday) morning we leave for the six hour drive to Abbeville where we will stay at the Hotel de France. We stayed there two or three times many years ago, one time with Bobby Messina. It was an old hotel then, but now it has been taken over by Mercure Hotels and has been presumably updated considerably. I’ll do a brief update from there about the drive from Plouezoc’h to Abbeville. Sunday morning we drive an hour to Calais for our 10:45 ferry to Dover in the UK. We gain an hour and arrive at 11:15. Then we drive to Heathrow, turn in the car, and take the National Express coach to Gatwick. At Gatwick we will stay overnight at the Marriott Courtyard (for free, using my Marriott points). I’ll do another brief update then. Monday morning we will be on the Virgin Atlantic plane for Phoenix. Overnight Monday in Henderson, again using Marriott points at SpringHill Suites. We’ll hit the road early on Tuesday and be home around.
Wednesday Night Dinner
Our repeat dinner at Café du Port in Dourdoff, a tinier section of tiny Plouezoc’h was as good as the first time. We had the same fish special as our first visit. And the oysters, hatched locally, were delicious as well. Elaine had fish soup as her appetizer. The waiter/maitre d’ explained to me in French something about the oysters that I didn’t understand – With some English and some French, he communicated that the oysters were good but pregnant right now and therefore a little greasy. Did I still want them? D’accord, apportez les á moi!
Thursday
A Morning in Morlaix and Lunch by the Sea
As we got up and showered, it was raining steadily, and it looked like this time it might be an all day affair. The big (although not terribly so) city nearest to Plouezoc’h is Morlaix, about a 12 minute drive away. We hadn’t really spent any time in Morlaix, so with the rain we decided to visit their museum. Our guidebook reported it was open from 10:00 to 12:00 and again from 2:00 to 5:00 during October.
First stop was at the little pharmacy here in town to seek out some eye ointment for Elaine. The very nice lady behind the counter spoke no English. “Bonjour, madame, mon français est trés limité. Peut-etre avez-vous un médicament ou une pommade pour l’œil?” She had a look at Elaine’s eye and came up with an ointment (pommade) for her.
It was still raining lightly as we found a parking place near the museum, but the sky was lightening up considerably. Good thing! Le Musée est fermé jusqu’à 26 Octobre. Sorry, we’ll be gone by then. So magically (again!), the rain stopped and the sun came out. We spent a very pleasant 90 minutes or so walking around Morlaix which is really quite a pretty place. It is dominated by the old aqueduct built in the 1880’s for the Paris to Brest rail line. I’ll let the pictures tell the story of our walk which included many a staircase as we wended our way from the bottom of the town to the top. Highlights included the aqueduct, the narrow streets and old buildings, Ste-Melanie’s Church, and the fountain at the Carmelite church. The Carmelites were invited here in the 17th century to help with an outbreak of the plague. It must have helped as we didn’t encounter any plague problems.
As lunch time was approaching, we decided to return to the first place we had lunch in the area, a seaside café in Tenerez just outside Plouezoc’h. I had inquired when we were first there, and the proprietor assured us he was open for lunch “tous les jours a midi sauf mardi”. We got there at 12:30. Fermé. Humph. In driving around we had spotted another restaurant called L’Abbesse, part of a small hotel named Au Temps des Voiles, that looked appealing and we headed for it. It was open and we had a delightful lunch: moules frites for Elaine and an exquisite bar (sea bass) for me. We accompanied it with a demi litre du vin rouge de la maison. And they also served us an amuse-bouche that was wonderful.
Then it was home far a nap before another return visit to a restaurant for tonight’s dinner – Les Chaises in Plougasnou. We were greeted like old friends at the restaurant. Elaine had crevettes (shrimp) as a starter while I noshed on delicious foie gras. (Non, desolé, pas des huitres (oysters) ce soir.) Elaine had a chicken main and I opted for duck breast. Delectable. For desert Elaine had deux boules de sorbet (citron et passion) while repeated my desert from the prior visit – mi cuit de chocolat maison.
FRIDAY
Last Full Day in Brittany
The stars were magnificent last night, and today looks like a good day, but anything can happen with the weather here, so we’ll see how the day progresses. We decided to stay close to home today and explore a few spots that we have missed. First we went to a historic village depicting life in a French town in the 1800’s. Michelin assured me it was open every day in October from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. Wrong, Closed.
So we went on the Guerlesquin, a quaint old town with a historic prison and a famous chapel. We knew they would be closed, but we saw them from the outside. We also visited the town church. It’s a very pretty town.
Then we drove to Plougonven to see it’s parish close. Lo and behold, it was actually open. It’s actually more impressive from the outside. Here the good weather disappeared and the clouds rolled in again.
Lunchtime now, so we decided to go home, pick up sandwiches from our glorious little boulangerie, and eat at home. Time to nap and start packing up. Tonight we will eat at home as well, a simple meal of fresh bread, cheese, paté, and a fine bottle of wine.
Be back tomorrow night for a short post on the ride to Abbeville.