Around The Santiago In 6 Days

Thanks to my cousin, Garrett, and his sweet family for inviting me to come visit them in Santiago! In 6 days I saw the Colchagua Valley (a wine region!), Santiago, Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and Casablanca Valley (another wine region!).

My Aunt Betsy in Portland also wanted to visit her nephew Garrett in Santiago, so we teamed up for a Chilean adventure. We both had enough frequent flier miles on Alaska Airlines to make the trip, but they only had first class available for our trip down, so we had to figure out those crazy cocoon seats that recline totally flat like a bed. Ah, the experiences of travel.

Day 1 saw us biking through the Colchagua Valley, through the vineyards and little towns.

Pausing on a bridge for a selfie

Betsy, Sam, Ben, Michelle, Garrett and yours truly

After many kilometers of pedaling in the morning, we stopped for lunch. Yay! And my first Pisco Sour, the national drink of Chile. Every restaurant seems to have their own recipe.

The basic ingredients are pisco (a brandy made from grapes) and lime juice. It reminded me a bit of a Side Car--tart, sweet and packing some oomph!

Day 2 finds us at the Colchagua Museum learning about Chilean history. And why Bolivia has a navy, but no coastline. (Because they started a war with Chile to take more land and wound up losing all of their coastline.) I learned a bit, but was saving space in my brain for more important knowledge--about the wines of Chile!  We visited the Las Niñas winery, owned by a French company (they ship 90% of their wines to France). I thought this barrel was rather appealing:

But cousin Garrett liked this one:

I learned about the history of the Carmenère grape. Originally cultivated in France (the word comes from the French word for crimson), it was wiped out in France in the 1860's (damn insects!) and thought extinct. In 1994 a French oenologist discovered that a Chilean Merlot variety was actually the long lost Carmenère! And there was much rejoicing. Today, the Colchagua Valley is the main producer of Carmenère for the world.

Day 4 is Santiago Day.  Tours for Tips has a 3 hour walking tour for a suggested tip of 10,000 pesos (about $17).  The only cool picture I got was this cappuccino.



We learned three words on the tour and I remember two of them. That's 66%, what's that a D+? That about captures my Spanish ability.

The first word was terremoto which means earthquake. It's also the name of a drink. If you have more than one, then when you try to stand up, you feel like you are in an earthquake. It's made from cheap white wine and pineapple ice cream. The tour ended in a bar where the tour guide bought a few pitchers of terremoto so we could all try some. Not really something to write home about, but here I am writing about it.

The second word means "the lesser side", but I don't remember what the word was. There's a river running through Santiago and in the past, the poor folk lived on one side and that was the lesser side.

The third word was animata, which means spirit or ghost. According to folklore, if a child dies, their spirit doesn't leave this world, but stays here to help other people. People go to the child's grave and leave gifts (like stuffed animals) and ask for help. If your wish is granted, then you have to go back to the grave and put a plaque thanking the animata.  We looked at one grave with many children's toys and plaques.

Day 5 is time to visit the Chilean coast, so we're off to Valparaíso, the largest port in Chile. Not quite as busy as it was before the Panama Canal opened, but it's still a major seaport.



Next stop, the city of Viña del Mar (Vineyard by the Sea), which is famous for this clock made of flowers.



Finally, we stopped at the Casablanca Valley for some more wine tasting! This is Indomita Winery.



Before it was a winery it was a horse farm. We learned that indomita means untamed. Once we got up to the winery here's the view looking back down.



I'm not sure what the hiker sign is supposed to mean. Look out for hikers!

We tasted Chardonnay, Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon and their special high end red blend called Zardoz. I enjoyed them all, but I'd already bought 3 bottles from La Niña and didn't have any more room to bring back more wine. Fortunately, one of their distributors is Total Wine, which is all over the Northwest.  I'll be looking for the 2014 Carmenère, my new favorite grape!

And finally, for my friends and family in Portland and Seattle, if you thought throwing something away was challenging in the Northwest, imagine figuring out which bin to to use in Chile when faced with this:



I only scratched the surface on this beautiful country. I hope to go back and experience more!

Day 12 - Paris Walking Tour

My agenda for today is JD's Walking Tour of Paris, which I'm going to make up as a I go along. I started out from my apartment and walked straight to the Seine. I walked along the left bank until I came to Notre Dame.

It was a beautiful sunny day and there were tons of people all around and lined up to get in. I was happy just to look at the outside. I hadn't walked that far, but I was ready for lunch. Let's get off this island and away from Notre Dame to find a place. I crossed a bridge, but I'm not on the right bank. I'm on another island. I'd like to get off this too. A few blocks in from the river I found this place.

Quiche with Broccoli! And salad. What a lovely day to sit outside in the sun. I hadn't heard anyone speaking German in Switzerland and that's one of the official languages. Today I heard two couples speaking German at this cafe. It's an international city and a touristy place.

After lunch I walked back to the river and continued on along it until I came to the Louvre.

That glass pyramid is the entrance the the Louvre. I'm not going in today. Just pyramid shopping.

This next tourist landmark is for my mom. She'll recognize it. For the rest of you it's a quiz. Where am I?

Now, there's one more large landmark to find. It looks like it's somewhat near the river. And looks like it's not that far away. Here's my favorite sign in Paris.

I guess that means wrong way to Eiffel Tower. Not sure why it's bent. Is that to tell you which way to go? Or just so it'll fit on the sign? And this sign is only for cars. If you're on foot, this is precisely the way to go. And voila!

I think I've put in about 5 miles walking. Time to find a Metro station to head back. There's a Tour Eiffel station, but I can't find it. I started walking back to the river and found the Invalides station. The big map on the wall says the C line should take me back to Gare d'Austerlie. Found the platform for the C train, but which C train do I want? The trains have video displays that list all the stops for the next train to arrive. But, Gare d'Austerlie isn't on either track. If I'd been paying more attention I'd have noticed that both trains were heading in the same direction. Not the direction that I wanted to go. There must have been another platform with trains heading the other way. I finally got on one of the wrong trains and rode it one stop the wrong way. I had to exit the station and cross the street and enter again to go back the other way. Now, it's getting late and I have a 7pm dinner reservation at Trumilou. I better just get off at Notre Dame and head straight to dinner.

Debra and Peter, whom I met last night, were right. This is a great restaurant. I had the artichoke salad and then the duck breast with fruit sauce. Excellent. I also ordered a carafe of Bordeaux and a carafe of water. I thought if I had a carafe of water sitting on the table that that would be good for me even if I didn't drink any of it. I drank all the Bordeaux, of course. Pear tart for dessert. I love Paris at dinnertime!

It's been a lovely day and I need to make it an early night. Have to get up at 6:00 to get to the airport for my trip home. Au revoir, Paris. I'll be back.

Day 11 - Hello Paris

Today I had to get up at the crack of 10:00 to catch the train to Lausanne. I had saved 6 francs and change for my ticket, which was only 5.80, so now I have exactly 1 franc in dimes and double dimes. Oh, wait, this one is a 1/2 franc. These are close in size to a dime. Okay 1.40 francs left over. Close enough for government work. 

I have 45 minutes in Lausanne before my train to Geneva. I figured that was better than 15 minutes, but these trains here run like clockwork. Even 5 minutes would have been enough time. I found a cafe. Oh, look! Croissant for 1.30. Wait. Croissant Rustico for 1.40. Perfect. No more francs. And a yummy croissant to boot. 

In Geneva I change to the TGV (Train of Great Velocity) and am now hurtling towards Paris at 110 mph. Arriving at Gare du Lyon, it's a 5 minute walk to the apartment I rented (on AirBnB). I found a place close to the gare (station) so I wouldn't have to walk far. And I made it without a single misstep. 

This apartment is tiny. Maybe 12' by 12'. The bathroom has less than 2' square in front of a sink that is smaller than a turkey platter. Shower looks big enough. But it's clean and neat. And best of all--It's in Paris! 

Time to explore the neighborhood. Oh, it's near La Bastille. 

That's the Bastille at the end of the waterway. No, this is not the Seine, but it connects to it. 

Wandering around some more I found Henry the 4th Street. That sounds fun. And that direction should be the river. I found a nice looking cafe, Café Margot, with a few people sitting outside drinking coffee. I sit and order myself a coffee. I can't believe I am here again. It's been 3 years, 6 months and 8 days, but who's counting? Not me. I made up the days. It's been about 3 and a half years. The couple at the next table ask for a menu, but it's too early. They don't start serving dinner till 7pm. 

I wandered around some more and wound up back at Café Margot for dinner. Wine, filet minion de porc, and Armagnac. I suppose I could check out the dessert menu. Profiterole GÉANTE. Oh, I love those. 

Yes, that's gigantic. I ask the couple at the next table to help me with it after it is delivered to their table by mistake. 

As I was leaving I stopped to say hello to another couple that sounded American. She sounded like she was from New York. Sure enough, she was born in Ridgewood, NJ. He's Australia and has lived all over. They now live in Paris around the corner near the river. I ask for restaurant recommendations for tomorrow. Do I like duck? But, of course! Then I have to go to Trumilou just past the Pont Louis Phillipe. I have a plan for tomorrow.