Peru & Ecuador - Part 2

November 24th we had a 4:00 a.m. wake up call. We were able to pick up a to-go breakfast box at 4:30 and then our buses took us to the Ollantaytambo train station, which was about three hours away. Our train left the station at 8:48, headed to Aguas Calientes which was an hour and fifteen minutes away. Once you depart the train you take a 30 minute public shuttle to Machu Picchu, which sits at an elevation of 7,970 feet.

Our tour began at 10:00. While the area was socked in with low clouds, they made an interesting shroud of the mountains. Unfortunately it began to rain (pretty much the only steady rain we had on the trip), but luckily we had rain coats with us. It did quit after a bit, so we were able to enjoy the experience a little more. We only had a little over two hours to explore, so much of our day was spent in transportation. We took the shuttle back to town where we had lunch with a little time left over to check out the buildings in the area.

Then it was a reverse of the trip, and we did not get back to the hotel until nearly 8:00. We had a late dinner at the hotel before heading off to bed.

Machu Picchu

The next morning we had an early breakfast at the hotel because our buses were taking us to the Cusco airport at 7:20. We had to fly from Cusco to Lima, where we met with different representatives from the tour company who would get us onto our connecting flight to Quito, Ecuador.

Quito Airport

We arrived at the JW Marriott in the late afternoon. Dinner was included at the hotel, so we ate there and turned in somewhat early as the next day included an all day tour of historic Quito and the Middle of the World. In the city center we visited churches, saw the Presidential Palace, and toured a chocolate factory (very small and family-operated.) After that we headed out of town for lunch up in the mountains in a gorgeous setting.

Quito tour

Following lunch we drove outside of Quito to the Middle of the World, which marks the Equator. This is the point that divides the Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The site includes a monument, museum, shops and interesting artwork. 

Middle of the World

Once back at the hotel we had dinner and then it was off to bed. The next day included a 4:30 wakeup call in preparation for an early flight to our next destination.

Grandma Time

 Following our week in Massanutten, I spent a little over a week with the kids to help out with my granddaughter while my daughter-in-law went away for the long holiday weekend. They had her in daycare for the first few days so I took advantage of the beautiful weather and enjoyed a local park and long walks with Monty, their small dog.

Green Springs Gardens

I also visited our nation's capital. I rode the train in with my daughter-in-law, so I arrived pretty early in the morning. A good friend from college lives in Arlington, so she took the metro in and met me on the mall. We had an incredible day together, picking right up as if we had just seen each other last month instead of years ago. We saw many of the iconic structures of DC in addition to stopping at some of the Smithsonian exhibits. I logged over 22,000 steps, and had the time of my life. It never gets old to visit the seat of our democracy.

Washington, DC

On Friday we took A to the National Zoo. It was another beautiful day, and we were blessed to see the new pandas that have arrived from China. There's nothing like a trip to a zoo to bring out the kid in all of us.

National Zoo

The days passed quickly, and soon it was time for me to fly home. It was such a treat to get to spend so much time with my sweet little gal (and her parents, too, of course!) She is still very much a grandma's girl, so I'm going to eat that up while I can. I know it won't last forever.

Photographing This and That

Webster Groves Sculpture Garden

One of the projects designed by SWT Design is the Sculpture Garden in Webster Groves. Located at the intersection of W. Kirkham and Gore Avenues, the once derelict area was transformed several years ago into a green oasis complete with multiple sculptures. A volunteer committee worked very hard with the City to develop a plan to light the garden, which culminated in a lighting ceremony Wednesday. Residents gathered to listened to a wonderful jazz group, chat and enjoy the treats offered by The Sweet Divine, winner of the Food Network's Cupcake Wars in 2012. Around 8:40 Mayor Gerry Welch threw the switch, and the area lit up to the applause of a delighted audience. It is such a lovely space!

lighting ceremony

Kirkwood Train Station

Saturday was the opening reception for the Women in Focus show entitled "Transportation". We were selected by the Kirkwood Arts Commission to have our exhibit hanging at the Kirkwood Train Station for the month of June. Built in 1893, the City of Kirkwood purchased the station from Amtrak in 2003 when the company decided it was no longer profitable to have a stop in that location. In a unique move, the City offered to staff the station with volunteers if Amtrak would continue to drop off and pick up passengers in Kirkwood. It has successfully operated as an Amtrak stop ever since. Because wall space is limited in the station, I only submitted one photo for the exhibit. Despite torrential downpours and some hail, we had a pretty nice turnout for the opening.

Rollin' on the River

Forest Park

Saturday evening we picked up some friends and went to Forest Park for the 40th annual Shakespeare in the Park Festival. This year's presentation was "Romeo & Juliet". The event is free, and you bring your own blankets and/or chairs and food and drinks. Or you can choose one of their reserved seats for a charge, and can also purchase food and drinks from their vendors. Due to the rain earlier in the day, the temperature had cooled down to the mid-70s and it was a pleasant evening to sit outside.

While Shakespeare is not my thing, "Romeo & Juliet" is one of his plays that I do enjoy. But of course they had to change it up. The costumes looked like clothing for the 60s - as in 1960, not 1660. And the dialogue just didn't have the same cadence as expected. All of the Shakespeare productions I have seen over the past several years have had the same dramatical editing done to them. I understand artistic license, but I will just say that I am not a fan. While the show was quite good, I found myself wondering, "Shakespeare's Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?"

Cairns May 5-6

We got back to the apartment too late for me to write a post last night, so I'll combine yesterday with today's activities. First off, yesterday morning our AirBNB host offered us an upgrade to a one bedroom apartment. We had been staying in a studio, and it was a little cramped for two people. Even though it was a hassle to move, we jumped on the opportunity to have a unit with a kitchen and in-unit laundry facilities. I'm doing laundry as I type this since we are leaving in the morning. We are in a corner apartment on the 10th floor, and this place is nice!

After our move, we went for lunch while we waited to hear from a man that Jim Sinatra (Jim's professor when he was at Iowa State) had put us in contact with. Also a landscape architecture graduate, Lachy was going to spend Friday afternoon with us. When he said he was taking us to a local watering hole, we thought he meant a bar. But then he told us to bring our swimmers, so we realized he literally meant a watering hole.

Lachy arrived around 2:00, and first took us to see the Cairns Botanic Garden. It also has no admission fee to get in. I am amazed by how much is free here. It was quite lovely, though we did move rather quickly through it. Next we stopped at a local indoor market, and it was fun to see the different fruits and vegetables that are sold here. From there we went to his house, where we met his wife (who is French) and his two boys. Oh, and their beautiful dog, Maggie. Below is a picture of the view across the road from them. The crop that looks like brown mounds towards the front is peanuts, and beyond those are sugar cane.

 

After a refreshing drink of homemade lemonade (with lemons picked fresh from the orchard next door), we piled in two cars to go to the watering hole, which ended up to be a creek. We drove up a tractor path and got out of the cars, and all I could think of were the different spiders and snakes that could kill me. Due to the recent rain, the creek was high, and we had to walk through two streams to get to the actual creek. Luckily I had brought my water shoes along, as had Jim. The water was cold, so Lachy was the only one brave enough to go for a swim. The rest of us had light refreshments on a blanket. As it grew dark, we made our way cautiously across the two rocky streams to the cars. We ended the evening with dinner at a restaurant in Cairns. They are a wonderful family, and we are so grateful we had the chance to get to know them.

At 7:30 this morning the Skyrail bus picked us up outside our apartment to take us to the Freshwater Railway Station to catch the Kuranda Scenic Railway Train. Construction of the railway began in 1886, but passenger service didn't begin until 1891. Fifteen hand-dug tunnels and 37 bridges were built to climb from sea level to 328 meters up the Macalister Range. After a 1.5 hour ride, the Railway ends at the village of Kuranda, a touristy small village. We had an hour to kill before boarding our next form of transportation, the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.

We opted for the gondola with the glass bottom, which ended up to be a bit scary for me. It didn't help that the winds had picked up, so the car was swaying more than normal. We had the car to ourselves, although it holds 5.  The cableway travels over the Macalister Range, the rain forest and Barron Gorge. It also takes about 1.5 hours to get back down to sea level. It can carry 600 passengers per hour in each direction, though it was not very busy today.  While we had been warned that today's activities were a tad touristy, we thought the excursions were well worth the time we spent there. And a nice way to wrap up our time in the Cairns area. Tomorrow we are off to Melbourne, where Jim and Curtis Sinatra will meet us at the airport.

Last Train to Clarksville?

Senate Theatre

On Friday I attended a funeral in Elsberry, Missouri. Following the Mass, I had lunch with my sister and brother-in-law before exploring this small community of around 2,500 residents. Elsberry was platted in 1871, and has a tidy little main street. As I was photographing the movie theater, the owner came out and asked if I would like to see the inside of the building. Though it was built in 1911, the Senate Theatre was heavily damaged by a fire in January of 2011. The original floor is still in place, but most everything else had to be replaced. The town rallied to help the owners rebuild and reopen. Robert Sinnett and his wife have owned the theater since 1974. The day I was visiting they were waiting for a school group to arrive. How wonderful that they are keeping this old piece of history alive.

Senate Theatre interior

Clarksville, MO

Continuing north on Highway 79, I arrived at the town of Clarksville. My husband has been there several times while out riding his motorcycle, and told me it was a pretty little river town. Since I was so close, I decided to check it out. This tiny town of fewer than 500 people has had its share of floods. But the residents are determined to make the best of the situation. While I was there, Mayor Jo Anne Smiley came up and introduced herself to me. (You just have to love small town Missouri!) She talked about the different festivals and events that the town puts on, and I was amazed. I would love to go and visit there for Eagle Days.

Clarksville train

As a train came down the track, I couldn't help but begin to hum the old Monkees tune. "Take the last train to Clarksville, and I'll meet you at the station..."

Somehow, I don't think this is the station they were referring to. "Oh no no no, oh no no no..."

Travel to Busserach

I have been delayed in posting because I hit the ground running in Switzerland. My train trip from Boppard to Basel was uneventful except for a suicide attempt. While still in southern Germany the train came to a screeching halt, and I nervously looked around my train car. No one else seemed concerned so I thought it was a brake check or something. But then we just sat. Finally an announcement came on that there were "people on the tracks" and we had to wait for them to be moved. I wondered if a car had gotten stuck on the tracks. A little later another announcement was made that someone was trying to commit suicide by laying on the tracks, and they had to wait for the police to come. I guess the person went willingly because we were soon on our way again. All this delayed my arrival time in Basel where Rolf, as promised, was waiting at the top of the escalator with a Swiss flag. I waved my own American flag at him, and we quickly bought my ticket to Laufen. Back down the escalator we went only to see our train pulling out. Back up the escalator we headed with me dragging all my luggage once again. We went into a coffee shop for some coffee and tea. Rolf brought me up to date in the plans for the rest of that day, which was Thursday.

Gasthaus where Joseph Kubler sold his land

We caught the next train 30 minutes later and then got into his car which was parked at the Laufen train station. From there we drove directly to my hotel in Breitenbach, which I believe I have mentioned is the same hotel where my ancestor Joseph Kubler sold his house and land in February of 1854 to finance passage to America for his family. We barely made it in the door to drop my bag with the hotel owner and grab a key before Rolf whisked me off to Busserach, a short distance away. There we went to to the Catholic Church office to look at the old birth, death and marriage records. The office is only open on Thursdays so we needed to take advantage of that.

With the parish record books in Busserach

A Kubler entry

The secretary had laid out three books for us to look through. We photographed every Kubler entry that we found. We did not have too much time to dissect what we came across as there were many Kubler entries. We got short on time, so Rolf suggested we go through two additional books at a later time. From the office we went to Rolf's house where I had a chance to meet his two sons, but not his wife as she was away on holiday. Then Josef Kubler (call Sep in Switzerland for short, but never Joe) came to pick us up to take us to his sister Susanne's house for dinner. The two of them speak no English and I don't speak German so Rolf was kept busy translating the conversation. Susanne prepared raclette, a traditional Swiss dish. It was so good! I may have to see if I can find the machine in the U.S.

Joseph on the left with Rolf

Raclette

I got back to the hotel about 10:30 that evening to prepare for a big day at the Solothurn archives on Friday.

Train Travel to Trier

Train to Trier

We rode the train to Trier today. The last hour of the trip was on a double decker train, and the sites from the second level were pretty amazing. Trier may be the oldest city in Germany (around 16 BC), and the entry gate is a UNESCO world heritage site. There used to be four entry gates, but the rest were destroyed. The only reason this one survived is because it was used as a church.

Porta Nigra

Speaking of churches, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Peter is the oldest cathedral in Germany. It has held services for over 1,700 years and is also a UNESCO site. In places it is 86 feet tall!

Cathedral of St. Peter

 

Side altar

Main altar

 

View from front to back of the church

 

Entry doors

Our Roman tour guide

Elephant Parade

 

Another of the 40 elephants

Metal worker

 

Some of his wares

Street performer?

Unfortunately the day was cool, windy and rainy so we did not spend as much time exploring this historic city as we probably would have normally. Instead we found a place to grab a hot drink to warm up before getting back on the train to Boppard. On the first leg of the journey I met a couple of nice young men from Iowa, who are here on vacation. Not only do they live in Ames, but they also graduated from Iowa State. Small world, and that hour passed quite quickly while I chatted with them. Wednesday is a free day as half of our group will travel to their home towns for a visit. Depending on the weather, the rest of us will decide if we want to go to a different town. It will be nice to have a little down time.

I Hear the Train a Comin'

Amtrak at Kirkwood Train Station

Saturday morning at 7:45 a.m. we boarded the Amtrak train at the Kirkwood Station headed for Kansas City. My sister-in-law JoEllen was throwing herself a 50th birthday party at the Hotel Savoy, so we decided to take the train instead of drive. First of all, we just had the big drive up to Minneapolis last weekend and I am driving to Cincinnati for my aunt's 90th birthday party this weekend so I was not eager to do more driving. Second, it was only $116 round trip for the two of us to ride the train. It would cost me more than that to gas up my car. Third, it takes five hours to make the train trip, not much more than driving a car. So it seemed like a no-brainer, especially considering that we didn't need a car in Kansas City.

The trip over was great. There were nice people in our car, which was good since you don't get to pick which car to sit in. We left Kirkwood right on time and actually arrived at Union Station about 10 minutes early. The only snafu was that we did not see any cabs outside the terminal, which is beautiful by the way. We ended up walking on an enclosed skywalk over to the Westin Hotel to catch a cab. When we came out the front door of the hotel I asked the door man to hail us a cab. As it approached, he asked me where we were going. I told him the Hotel Savoy. Boy did I get a dirty look! I guess I never thought how it would look to ask one hotel employee to get me a ride to one of their competitors. I told him that we didn't have a choice of hotels - that is where the party was taking place. He said, "I like parties!" I told him to come on over when he was done as we were taking over the whole hotel.

Hotel Savoy Kansas City, MO

When we got to the Hotel Savoy the lady at the front desk greeted us by saying, "You don't want to check into your room, do you?" I don't know - we just came in the front door with our luggage in tow, what do you think??? I explained that we had just gotten in on the train and came directly to the hotel. I guess it was about 1:45 by this time. She checked her records, stated that we must be living under a lucky star, and handed us a key to a room on the 5th floor.

I should point out that this hotel was built in 1888 and is believed to be the longest continuously operated hotel west of the Mississippi. The current owner is only the third owner of the property. It has had its ups and downs, but he has been renovating rooms and turned it into a bed and breakfast of sorts. Only 21 rooms are currently available for use, we were told. The main floor has beautiful tile floors, more stained glass than I could count and beautiful wood surfaces. Our group was taking over the main floor banquet areas for the night.

We took the elevator (which was hot) to the 5th floor, but we were later excited to see that the central staircase in the hotel had not been enclosed or destroyed. We took the stairs after that. As we rounded the corner to our room I thought the whole area looked like a scene from a movie. I turned to Jim and croaked out, "Redrum" in a reference to the line from the movie The Shining. Redrum is murder spelled backwards. I would later learn that I wasn't too far off. But I am getting ahead of myself...All of the hallways were really hot as well, so I was concerned about the room. I needn't have worried as the air conditioner was working fine. When we got to the room I unlocked the door with the brass key we had been given. Before I stepped in the room Jim asked if I wanted to take pictures. God love him, he knows that I like to take my photos before we clutter up the room with luggage so that I can place them on Tripadvisor.com when I do my reviews. So I dug my camera out of my suitcase and snapped some pictures. We then drug our stuff in the room. Our room was obviously not one of the recently remodeled ones, but it was quite charming anyway. Our bed had an interesting look to it, reminding me somewhat of a church complete with stained glass. The old claw foot tub added ambiance to the bathroom, but is pretty impractical for someone vertically challenged like myself.

We heard some children running up and down the hallway, which I thought was weird because we understood that all the rooms were taken by attendees of the party and none of them were bringing children. When it was time to leave for the pre-party on the 4th floor, we could not find the room key. Neither one of us remembers removing it from the lock. We took everything out of our suitcases, my purse, checked pants pockets - nothing. Had it fallen in the hallway and the kids picked it up? Or was something else going on? I called down to the front desk and they had a second key for the room so he said we could just shut the door and it would lock behind us.

First we went to the 3rd floor to get my sister-in-law Jenean. She had a beautiful suite with a small kitchen area and a fireplace. Her bed was so high off the floor, she did not know how she would get into it that night. We said we would come and give her a boost if needed. Then we went to the 4th floor. One of JoEllen's hearing aid patients is a photographer, and he volunteered to come and take pictures at the party. So he was busy snapping away as we all got acquainted in Bruce's suite, which was also very nice and spacious. (Bruce is JoEllen's fiance.) As the hotel allows dogs, JoEllen brought her two King Charles spaniels along. More on them later.

table arrangements

At 6:00 we went downstairs for the party. All of the tables and chairs in the lobby were covered with linens and a pretty floral bouquet was at each table. Jim and I had been asked to sit at a table to hand our name tags, get folks to sign a guest book and ask them to fill out a sheet for the "Roast" portion of the evening. We could not find any of the things we needed for our job, so we just walked around introducing ourselves to people. We did not know anyone who was coming except the immediate family. A small buffet was available, offering fruit, cheese, vegetables with dip, scallops and stuffed mushrooms. Later some beef tips in gravy and some salmon were brought out. For dessert there was a gluten free cake, which was surprisingly good, cookies made by a friend, and lemon bars and brownies made by my mother-in-law, who was unable to attend. Beer, wine, iced tea and lemonade were available as well. Someone showed up with name tags and a marker and took them to each person, so I found the guest book and sent it around to the different tables. Jenean passed out the "roast" sheets. While we were eating an older gentleman gave a presentation on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, complete with animal hides.

Bruce and a couple of friends played some music in the adjoining room, but to be honest it was so loud that I could not sit in there very long. The music was good, but my poor ears just couldn't take the volume. Around 10:00 the toast/roast began. One of Bruce's friends m.c.ed this portion of the evening. He pulled each completed sheet out of a box where he read the name of the person completing the form, how long they had known JoEllen and whether they were going to toast or roast her. Jim's name was called first, and mine was called second. Unreal. It was fun to hear what everyone had to say. JoEllen is universally loved and respected by the people who attended the party. I went up to the room around 11 and Jim followed around 12:30. I understand the post-party carried on until 2:30. I am amazed that we didn't hear anyone in the halls.

Savoy Grill

The next morning we went down to breakfast at 9:00. They provide you with a sheet listing all the menu choices and you are allowed to choose 4 or 5 items from the menu and indicate what time you want your meal to be ready. The offerings were interesting in that you could get eggs, pancakes and assorted breakfast meats like normal. Or you could get pork, fish, veal or beef cooked a variety of ways. Juice, coffee, tea and cinnamon rolls were also provided. Jenean joined us and the staff showed us to a table in a small dining room. A large table of people from the party was already seated. JoEllen came in later and told us that we were supposed to be in the Savoy Grill, which they had opened just for JoEllen's party guests. She also told us that she was awakened at 6:00 a.m. to the sights and sounds of her two dogs vomiting and having diarrhea all over the room and on the bed. She woke Bruce up in his room and had him take the dogs back to their house. The hotel may ban dogs after this experience.

JoEllen's college friend Laurie asked if we had heard that the hotel was supposedly haunted. I said no, we hadn't heard that. She proceeded to tell us what she had read online about a woman dying in a bathtub (room 505 - we were in room 542) who liked to walk the hallways. It seems she also likes to turn the water on and off and open and shut the shower curtain in room 505. Others had seen a man on the 4th floor who had been a resident at the hotel when they rented out apartments. When we talked to the wait staff, they concurred that ghosts are in the hotel.

Jim and I went back to our room after breakfast to pack up and grab the camera so we could take some pictures of the hotel. As we opened our door to come out we heard a boy coming down the hallway. It sounded as if he was speaking in tongues as you couldn't understand a word he was muttering. When he saw us he gave us a furtive glance and stopped speaking. He proceeded down the hall in a robotic fashion, resumed his strange mutterings and turned the corner into the part of the floor being rehabbed. We hurried down the hall after him to see him disappear around another corner. He was banging on a door and we could here a little girl yelling, "No one is here!" and "You have the wrong room!" A man appeared out of a door at the end of that hallway wearing nothing more than boxers. At that point we scurried back to the staircase. Redrum...In retrospect, we think that members of the staff live in the hotel and that is why we heard the children because we saw others before we finally left that day.

Following checkout we hauled all of JoEllen's gifts and flowers to various cars and went over to the house where she and Bruce live. We got to see her open her gifts, and she had prepared a late lunch for anyone who was still around. I think there were 11 of us there. Bruce then took us to the Lee's Summit train station, which cut about an hour off our trip because it eliminated two stops for us. It was closer to their house than Union Station, so that worked out well. Our train ride home was not as pleasant as the way over. First of all, the little girl sitting in front of us (around 8 years old?) did not shut her mouth even to take a breath. Yak, yak, yak! I put on my head phones and listened to music on my iPad. Jim didn't bring anything along and he finally got so desperate that he borrowed my iPod. I'm sure he truly enjoyed listening to Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand! After a few more stops the train thinned out a bit so we made a mad dash to the back of the car. Then a guy got on and sat across from us yakking on his cell phone. And then he began to make all kinds of disgusting noises with his nose and throat. It was making me sick to my stomach. So we moved a few more rows back. Is there a website called PeopleofAmtrak.com like the one PeopleofWalmart.com? There should be. Nevertheless we arrived back in Kirkwood right on time at 10:00 and headed for home. What a fast-paced two days!

Oh...and by the way? The first key never turned up. So was it the boy in the hall? Or the lady from room 505? Redrum!