Day 45 Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Our new Airbnb in Mulhouse is lovely. We have nine days here to relax a bit and get ready for the second half of our trip. It is hard to believe but today marks the midway point of our holiday.
This is the view from our third floor balcony.
We are both ready for a restful day. Bob does go for little walk and buys a few grocery necessities. On the way home he walked down this street that has a lot of graffiti art…some better than others!
Day 37 Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Our Airbnb apartment in Stuttgart isn’t big but it has everything we need. We had a hard time finding a parking spot last night as parking is on the street, and there weren’t any available places. Finally after driving around the block a few times we found a place, but it is a couple of blocks away so we make several trips to bring all our stuff inside. Because we cook our meals at home, we have three bags of groceries besides our suitcases. We are soon settled and have our dinner.
Today is a quiet day for both of us. We crammed a lot in yesterday and had over four hours of driving, which made it a long day. I worked a bit on my journal and blog and Bob went for a walk and to pick up some fresh bread and fruit.
Day 30 Monday, September 29, 2025
Today is a travel day to Frankfurt Germany and we have been travelling for month already. Bob says we have to stop and see another Eiffel Tower along the way but it is not quite as impressive as the one in Paris!
We had no idea that this is wine country. There are vineyards on both sides of the road as far as we can see.
The hills around each town we pass are all growing row after row of grapes. We see the odd group harvesting grapes but the main harvest occurred earlier this month.
We stop in Trier and have our picnic lunch on a bench with this view.
The breeze blew water spray and made a rainbow just as I took this photo.
This foot of Emperor Constantine is a replica of one of the largest marble foots to have survived since antiquity. It was part of a 12 metre high seated statue of Constantine.
The Roman Baths are considered to be the largest Roman baths outside of Rome. 
The ruins are impressive!
We are able to walk through the underground tunnels that would have been used as a service level for the maintenance of the bath’s heating system. This is the entrance to the tunnels.
There was a group of schoolchildren ahead of us…probably the loudest group we have encountered on our travels! We took a side tunnel to avoid walking behind them.
There are a maze of tunnels and we are free to explore as we wish. That is Bob peeking around the bend in the tunnel.
We do get a bit lost down here, but it was a lot of fun exploring these interesting tunnels.
Which way should we go!
This photo shows the size of the original baths, although they were never actually completed. The ruins of today are superimposed on the original baths.
The ruins are impressive, but they are only half the height of the original structure!
We pass this lovely garden on the way to visit Trier’s cathedral.
Photos really do not show how beautiful and enormous the trees are. I wish we were able to grow trees this large back home. These trees wouldn’t survive our colder climate.
Trier Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest cathedral in Germany. Construction started in the 4th century and it was built upon the foundations of ancient Roman structures.
And yes, the inside of the cathedral is very impressive.
It has one of the most ornate organs we have seen…
and many huge sculptures with multiple figures. We walk up these stairs for a view of the nave.
This beautiful blue and white Baroque stucco work decorates the choir loft of the Cathedral. It is stunning and unusual. This is the first time we have seen anything like this in a cathedral.
We pass this building on the way to the Nigra Gate. There are many ornately decorated buildings in Trier.
I love watching the bubble makers, and the children trying to catch the bubbles. This fellow made huge bubbles…
and lots of smaller bubbles. I would love to know how to do this.
At the end of the street we can see the Nigra Gate, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Porta Nigra, or Black Gate, is the largest Roman gate in Northern Europe. It was part of the defensive walls and gates that surrounded Trier in 200AD. It is incredibly well preserved, especially when you consider that it was completed around 200AD, and it almost two thousand years old!
We pay 6€ each to climb inside the gate. This ‘window’ has a pile of coins, perhaps people making a wish?
A view inside the gate.
We can see the Trier Cathedral from the second level of the gate.
Grafiti has been around for a long time. Some of the dates on the walls are hundreds of years old. I do really hate this practice of defacing monuments.
There is Bob, I sent him down to the street so he could take a photo of me in one of the gate arches.
Here I am.
These carved decorations are still in remarkably good condition.
Walking back to our car we stop for a photo of the Electoral Palace. We had our lunch in its beautiful gardens which have many white statues and small ponds.
Another gorgeous tree.
The clouds are moving in on our drive home.
Big black ominous clouds.
We arrive at our Airbnb in Frankfurt. It is smaller than our last place but cozy and has everything we need.
Day 26 Thursday, September 25, 2025
Another quiet day, but I do venture out. We drive 15 minutes to a nearby town to do a bigger grocery shop. The store Bob has been going to in Fontoy is limited so we are going to a big E.Leclerc grocery store.
Traffic circles often have interesting displays in their centres. This one has flags from many European countries. There are a lot of traffic circles of all sizes in France and Belgium!
After 1 1/2 hours shopping we spend €104 for two big bags of groceries, which seems fairly reasonable. This store is huge and it takes a while to find all the items on our list. Heading home, the countryside is pretty but it is cloudy and still raining on and off. 
This is just down the street from our apartment, which happens to be right beside train tracks! Luckily the windows are very soundproof and we barely hear the trains at all.
The plan is to drive to Metz tomorrow. There are a couple museums we want to visit.
Day 24 Tuesday, September 23, 2025
We are staying in Fontoy, France which is 35 minutes from Luxembourg because we couldn’t find a place to stay in Luxembourg. Fontoy is a small town with a population of just over 3,000.
Our Airbnb is very nice, even though it is up three flights of stairs…no elevator.
I have had a sore throat for a while and now I have the beginnings of a cough and cold. The weather continues to be cold, wet and windy. I need to stay home and rest for a few days and this is a good place to do that. We both have a quiet day. Bob does go get a few groceries, washes our clothes and I have a two hour afternoon nap!
Day 22 Sunday, September 21, 2025
Our bnb is in a municipality of Brussels called Uccle. Brussels is the capital of Belgium, the headquarters of the European Union, and the headquarters for NATO. Bob went for a walk today and saw several embassies. There are 183 embassies in Brussels and Bob counted 17 embassies within a ten block radius of our bnb.
This is the Hungarian Embassy.
The Ukrainian Embassy…
…looks like an apartment building.
The Russian embassy is on a huge estate that is two blocks long. No building in sight but lots of security cameras and some white swans in the pond.
There is an Equestrian Centre right in Uccle.
The Rose Farm was built at the beginning of the 13th century and given to the town in 1971. It was restored, and is now used for cultural activities
Bob walks through part of Wolvendael Park on the way home. There is a School of the Arts located in the park.
I stayed home, rested and worked a bit on my blog. I discovered something interesting. If I open my blog from the email that is sent out to those who follow my blog many of the photos are distorted and appear stretched out. So if you are having this issue on your cell phone just think of the email as a notification that there is a new post and type trudymason.com in your browser rather than opening the email and trying to look at the post there. This has something to do with the way I am editing my photos but I am not able to figure out how to change it so this doesn’t happen. I still have a lot to learn.
We leave for Luxembourg tomorrow and the weather isn’t looking very great. So far this trip we have only had two sunny warm days…maybe that is just what it is going to be, cooler and wetter than we would like… but we can’t do anything about the weather.
Day 17 Tuesday, September 16, 2025.
Our Airbnb is in the basement of a huge old house on the outskirts of Brussels. You can see the widows to our suite which is actually quite bright.
The suite has a lot of character. We got settled last night and just before bed plugged in all our electronics…and we blew the breaker! All the lights in our suite went out. We messaged our host, who came down in her jammies to fix everything. We were lucky she heard the message beep on her phone as she was already asleep. It was quite the day yesterday!
I really needed a quiet day, so I stayed home and got all caught up on the blog. That feels really good. It is hard when I get behind. It takes quite a while to get each day’s post done but I really love having this souvenir of our trip. I joke that when we aren’t able to travel anymore we can revisit trips on the blog and say “remember when..”
Bob gets restless on these stay at home days so he goes to visit a car museum in Brussels. He writes the rest of this post.
Autoworld is located in a plaza near the Art & History Museum, Royal Museum of Military History and a Napoleon Museum. It is the building to the left of the arches.
A 1896 Bollee Voiturette called a Mother-in-Law Murderer, because the passenger sat up front. It could go 30 kph.
A 1913 Peugeot. The spare tire is bolted onto the front tire, rather than being mounted on the fender.
A classic 1937 Cord with front-wheel drive and retractable headlights.
A 1936 Citroen fitted with a gas generator (behind the front fender) used during the Second World War. As gasoline was in short supply, the car used the captured gas (from burning wood or coal) to fuel the vehicle. 
I thought the first vehicle ever built was the 1770 steam powered Cugnot. But 100 years earlier in 1672 a Belgian priest in the Imperial Court of Peking designed this steam powered vehicle called an Eolipyle. It was 2 feet long and built as a toy for the Emperor. High-pressure steam comes out the front and forces the cups on the shaft to rotate, similar to how a waterwheel works. Instead of water turning the wheel, the high-pressure steam turns the wheel.
A Fabrique Nationale 1930 car built for a Shah but never paid for or delivered.
A one-of-a-kind 1991 Lotec TT1000 based on a Ferrari Testarossa, with twin turbos and 1000 HP. It was fast, 370 kph and cost $3.6 million. 
And for something more budget-minded, a 1959 Heinkel Kabine. This model came standard with hydraulic brakes and a reverse gear. The original cost was around 300 euros. 
A 1991 Audi Quatro prototype made out of wood.
A 1939 Horch Cabrio. August Horch started his car factory in 1900 but left in 1908 after a dispute and started a new company Audi (based on the Latin translation of his name). In 1932 both companies merged with 2 others to form the new Audi, hence the four rings in the logo.
Day 10 Tuesday. September 9, 2025
Bob went for a walk this morning and I had a much needed sleep in. After lunch we go for a little walk to checkout the two big squares near our bnb. As we walk along the side of the Grand’Place we read that during WWI the buildings on the right side were destroyed by bombs. After the war this area was identically reconstructed. We see some of the original columns with shrapnel marks and the smooth newer columns .
The Grand’Place was laid out to accommodate huge markets and was the site of one of the largest grain markets in France. The wheat sheaves sculpted on the buildings facades are an indication of this.
The UNESCO listed Belfry soars high above the town hall at one end of the Place des Heros. The square is bordered on three sides with Flemish-Baroque buildings. Unfortunately the elevator to visit the Belfry is broken so we aren’t able to climb to the top for what must be a fantastic view.
Many of the streets and sidewalks are cobblestones…they are picturesque but can make walking a bit difficult.
This beautiful door must be at least four meters tall! French doors are amazing.
We walk along the streets and get a bit lost but all roads seem to lead back to the Town Hall with its majestic Belfry. It isn’t often that we see an old building actually being torn down. Seems to us that they are usually eventually renovated instead. This one is definitely coming down. I love the ivy growing up the side of the neighbouring building. It is already starting to turn red….I suppose autumn is not far away.
The back of the town hall is pretty impressive as well.
We saw this gentleman walking around with his cat on his shoulders earlier. We sit beside him on the bench and I ask if I can take his photo. He tells us that he loves cats and he loves Canadians…in that order!
There are lots of interesting people, and I love people watching. We see this young man and his dog, both dressed in Hawaiian shirts.
People here seem to like Teddy bears. We have seen several of them either sitting on chairs or hanging out of windows.
We go back to our bnb for a bit of a rest and then head back to the Place de Heros to try some of Arras’s signature fries for dinner at 9:00. Many of the restaurants and bars don’t open in the evening until 8:00. Does Bob look happy?
The Belfry looks spectacular all lit up…
and there are lots of people enjoying the evening.
The Trois Lappars is the oldest house on the Grand Place, it was reconstructed in 1467 and its facade has what is known as a stepped gable. Our bnb is only a couple of blocks from these two squares and all the shops and restaurants.
Day 9. Monday, September 8, 2025
Arras is only185 km from Paris but we like to stop and see sights along the way. I am navigating and I see this beside our road on Google maps. I have no idea what it is!
When I zoom in, I realize that this is a gigantic car park! A bit of Googling and we discover it is a carpark covering more than 28 hectares and containing more than 22,000 new vehicles! 
We arrive at Beauvais to visit its Cathedral but the first order of business is finding a bathroom…not always an easy task. Then we walk through a huge square towards a carousel. European carousels always remind me of a trip we made 46 years ago when our oldest daughter was only four years old. We stopped for rides at every carousel we saw! Travelling with Sue is similar, she squeaked and squawked until we let her have a ride!
The Beauvais Cathedral was completed in 1272. 
The cathedral was damaged during the Second World War but remained standing and was restored after the war. 
The inside soars high above our heads and the light streams through the stained glass windows.
Many of the pillars are still decorated with intricate painting.
The centre of the church is under renovation so we are only allowed to walk around the aisles and ambulatory behind the altar. Bob is dwarfed by the tall pillars.
I take a photo of the altar by putting my phone through the grating in the above photo.
Bob took this photo with this light shining through the stained glass windows into this side chapel.
This “clock was built between 1865 and 1868 by Auguste-Lucien Vérité. It is 12 metres high, and 6 metres wide. The 52 dials display the times of the rising and setting sun and moon, the position of the planets, the current time in 18 cities around the world, and the tidal times.” ~Wikipedia We wait for it to turn 3:00 but not a lot happened other than three chimes and a few areas of the clock lighting up.
“In the 1990s, the choir started to become very unstable. In some places, the pillars had moved more than 30cm. The north transept had four large wood-and-steel lateral trusses at different heights, installed to keep it from collapsing.
Since 2000, scaffolding has been continually put up around the cathedral to overcome these problems. 
Also, the main floor of the transept is punctuated by a much larger brace that juts out of the floor at a 45-degree angle. It was placed as an emergency measure to give additional support to the pillars in an effort to stave off any further movement. Presently, Columbia University is performing a study on a three-dimensional model using laser scans of the building in an attempt to pinpoint where the weaknesses are greatest to see what further can be done to shore up the building.” ~Frenchmoments.ca
We take the smaller highways from Beauvais to Arras instead of the toll highway and see this Sommes cemetery. This is the information plaque. It is hard to comprehend that over a million soldiers were killed here. I think that ghosts must walk these fields.
The headstones seem to stretch forever and so many of these young men were never able to be identified. They are only “Known Unto God”.
I think it is important to visit these cemeteries and honour those who have died but they are difficult and emotional visits.
We continue our drive and arrive in Arras at 6:00 to meet our host for our Airbnb. 
Day 3, Tuesday, September 2, 2025
We slept in until after 11:00 this morning! Our Airbnb is nice and quiet as it is in the back yard of a house and we have a very comfortable king size bed.
Today was a pretty lazy day, just getting over our jet lag. We went for a bigger grocery shop at a huge Carrefour store that was a twenty minute walk away. Now we are well stocked. We stopped for our first baguette at a local boulangerie on the walk home. It was only €1 euro and still warm so we each broke off a piece to eat on the way home. So good!
I spent part of the day organizing and while I was filling one of my nutritional canisters look what I found inside! I burst out laughing. On our fiftieth anniversary our grandchildren hid 50 of these little mice all over our house. Our granddaughter was at our house the day before we left for Paris…I believe she is the culprit responsible for this little creature! I think we will have to name him…any suggestions?
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