Continental Excursions

Musée d’Orsay houses one of the world's best collections of impressionist paintings. We arrived for opening, immediately took the elevator up to the 5th floor and enjoyed the collection before the daily crowds arrived

Claude Monet's Water Lilies are kept in the Musée de l'Orangerie. Opening time provided some time to see paintings, unobstructed.

The Mona Lisa at the Louvre attracted attention at opening.

The Eiffel Tower proved to be irresistible. and looks like a large copy of the Blackpool tower.

Montmarte, of course.

The main square in Brussels and Belgian train travel

We spent a couple of days in Belgium between Christmas and New year one year. We visited Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp. Bicycles were available for rent for a nominal fee at main train stations.

Amsterdam in winter

John, another Canadian was working in The Hague at the time.

John & I drove through southern Netherlands (Maastricht) and into northern Luxembourg on one occasion.

Two week work assignment in Gibraltar.

The three week work assignment was largely in Warsaw but I managed to see some of the north and south of the country.

Auschwitz was a sobering experience.

It was onto Bulgaria for a two week work assignment. Sophia is surrounded by hills. We stayed at "Chez Emile" and enjoyed many a bottle of Melnik (red wine) at dinner on the patio.

On the week-end, I took the train to visit the ancient city of Plovdiv.

With a one day of meetings in Lisbon, I flew out on Sunday morning and wandered the city. On that particular assignment, I had a week in each of Rotterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, with short stays in Lisbon and Stockholm.

With just a Sunday afternoon in Stockholm, I got a brief impression of the city including a visit to the Vasa Museum and an intact 17th Century warship that sank in harbour on its inaugural journey. We later visited Sweden in 2008.