Luxembourg Souvenir

William wanted to visit as many countries as possible.  I figured one at least had to eat in a country to count it.  So, we went out of our way to eat in Luxembourg.  This patisserie looked good, so we parked in front of it.  

The sign said 2 heures gratuity, or 2 hours free.  We didn't know we had to get a ticket to display in our car window in order to prove when we started the 2 hours.  

So, since we decided to eat elsewhere, we weren't here when the meter man came around.

Round bales for my brother, Arnold.

We almost ate at the sushi train, but it was Chinese running it... so we went on.

Marvelous Park that way.

Beer stuff!

Lovely little town, Bettembourg.

Across from Fishers, the place we ended up eating, was this lovely church, who tolled the noon hour for us.

Strawberry tart!

Proof we ate in Luxembourg!

A fun little car with bat mobile-like rear window.  Then I saw the meter man, and we ran to our car.  Of course, we had a ticket.  We saw the address and went to pay the fine, but the office was closed.  Since we had to make the next stop at a certain time for the tour, we left.  Then, our friends told us it had to be paid into their account from a European account.  We ended up bringing it home.  We tried to pay from a special account, but it wouldn't go through.  I clicked through the website until I could email someone that we were trying to pay it, and she said we could pay online with a credit card.  Wish they'd have put that on the ticket.  We wouldn't have been worried for so long.  So, we have a lovely souvenir of Luxembourg, for only $27!  (24 euros)

Reims - the Cathedral

The Reims Cathedral is called 'Notre Dame.'  Of course, that is Mary.

I loved this gargoyle.  A cow!

Refurbishment is needed for maintaining the historic places.  I had to buy the postcard to get it without scaffolding!

We were here before closing, so it was nice and quiet for us.

Bridgette Simone did these stained glass windows.  Very unusual!

And Marc Chagall did these stained glass windows.  Re-building after war gives new artists a chance to do something completely different!

Joan of Arc. 

Love the arches!

This is the view of the cathedral from our B&B.

This is looking the other way.

And here is William ready to sleep!  He had a hard time waking up the next day.  The croissants were the best I had in Europe.  

Bienvenue a Reims - Champagne Capitol of France

After only 4 hours of sleep on the plane, getting through immigration, getting a car and driving a couple hours to Reims, first on the agenda is to find toilets.  Public toilets are hard to find, and usually require a bit of change payment.

Welcome to European (You're a pee-in' in public) toilets!

Then we needed food! I had a 'hot salad' with fried gizzards that was delicious.  The boys went for hamburgers... and Tim enjoyed a nice cold beer.

All around Reims (look down the street... I was eating, so didn't get up) you'll find Art Deco buildings.  Leveled in WWI, it re-built, and was untouched in WWII.

I love Europe.  This is across the street from the Gauloise, where we ate, and the bells tolled.

While waiting to go on the champagne cave tour, we found this church right across the way.

 As always, the churches have beautiful sculptures and stained glass.  There weren't many folks there, and that was fun because William got to see what a church is like without the hoards of people.

I love the architecture of the Tudor style.

This is a place to buy booze... Timothy's!

Someone's door.  How cool is this?!?

We found this stool cute at the Tourist Information Center.

We finally find the Martel Caves!

There were many caves at different levels, but this seemed the deepest.

 Of course, we were always taking the same exact shots of cool, old equipment!

An old lantern... 

The turn these bottles a little each day to let the sediment go to the top of the bottle.

Looking up one of the ways they'd lift the champagne out of the caves.

Graffiti is nothing new, is it?

Maxim's has different champagne companies provide for them every few years, this is the plaque for the last time they were the supplier for Maxims.

And then, finally we tasted it!  William had grape juice.  We went for the best quality champagne tour, and it was delicious and refreshing!

Brut, sec and demi-sec.  The sec (dry) is actually the sweeter.

Okay, NOT what we want to eat!  :)

On the bus back to downtown.