Little Green Tracs

Domaine du Sauvage

It was a long wet 3rd day before we finally arrived at Domaine du Sauvage. The temperature continued to drop reaching nearly zero as we climbed higher.

It took every inch of space in our room to dry out all the gear

Being Foolish in Vienna

We had to catch a connecting train to Graz from Vienna before taking the overnight train to Zurich. With some on our hands, we decided to ham it up a bit and experiment with the iPad's photo booth app.

Pilgrim Preparations in Piestany

It has been almost a week since we arrived in Europe. We spent the first week visiting our 84 year old aunt in Piestany Slovakia, a small spa town about an hour east of Bratislava. In between social visits, we managed to take the train to nearby Trencin to visit the 1,000 year old castle, try out some of the local eateries and cafes, and coffee houses. Yesterday to end our stay we indulged in a mirror pool ( a natural sulphuric thermal mineral water with a temperature of 38 C) and mud bath ( another mineral water pool containing 30 cm thick layer of sulphuric mud of 40 C) in the Irma Spa, one of the many spa establishments in town. Obviously returning to Piestany after our walk in France for another spa treatment is something we should do too.

When we arrived last Tuesday the temperature was hitting the high 20s and along with some humidity and sun, it felt more like 30. But on Friday, the weather changed dramatically, and temperature dropped and we forced to sit outside bundled up to have dinner. Today we will be surprised if it gets over 15 degrees C. But it is still sunny which is a nice change from cloudy Victoria BC.

Piestany is where the west and east meet, where you are as likely to meet Germans alongside Russians, where busty well dressed Slovak & Czech women pass by Arabic women dressed in full burkas. Very little English is spoken here especially by the older folk, but many of the tourist sites usually have somebody that understands some English. More so, many of the younger people do speak English well including the young woman we met on the train heading into Piestany last Tuesday, who was enthralled by our travel stories and the fact we plan to walk through France.

Today we leave Piestany for Switzerland, taking a mid day train first to Vienna, and then later an over night train to Zurich, before finally taking one more train to Thun, arriving sometime before noon on Tuesday. We will spend a couple of nights in Thun visiting some more family before heading to Le Puy France on Thursday.

PS I said I would not be caught taking any photos with my iPad, but I relented. Please excuse the quality.