Trying to Make Each Other Happy

This past week, we took two trips. The first half of the week, Dennis had meetings down along the French Riviera. We left on Saturday so that we could have a couple of days to see the sights in and around Monaco and Nice. We flew from Eindhoven to Marsaille where we rented a car and then drove out to Monaco. With Lisa's help we had booked a room at the Marriot that is just over the border from Monaco so we drove in and were going to try to find the hotel and drop our things off before going out for the evening to see the sights. We couldn't find the hotel and ended up on the big touristy area of Monaco so we spent the evening walking around town and seeing the sights.

The famous Monte Carlo Casino with the sky ball.

Some of the luxury cars outside of the Casino - not a VW, Peugot or Mercedes among them.

The sunrise view from our Marriot hotel room just outside of Monaco.

On Sunday morning, we got up at drove into Nice for church. The church there was really beautiful and in a perfect location. It was fun to attend a large ward and see the diversity that they had.

LDS Church in Nice, France

We spent the afternoon walking along the beach boardwalk and taking the little tourist train around to see all the sights. That evening we drove down the coast to a small city just over the boarder into Italy. We saw some amazing scenery - between the blue of the Mediterranean and the houses and large villas built on the sides of steep mountains and the many long tunnels, it made for an interesting drive.

One of the statues in Nice situated in a beautiful park across from the boardwalk.

The boardwalk, beach and city of Nice.


One of the Bays along the coast line. It was really beautiful. Two big cruise ships are anchored in the bay

A quiet street and church in the town of Ventimiglia, Italy.

Monday, we checked out of our hotel and drove to Toulon were we spent the next several days. Dennis left me at the hotel while he went up to his meetings. Although his meetings were up in the hills a half-an-hour drive from Toulon, he thought I would enjoy being down near the beach and a town more. It was so sweet of him. I took a nap and then went out and explored the beaches and the town - probably walked 4-5 miles.

The beach and park in Toulon.

I ate lunch at a harbor cafe and had this beautiful view to look at.

The next day, I took the little tourist train around to the main sites in town and did some shopping. I bought a really cute little coat which was an experience in and of itself. The shop girls didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any French but we finally managed to find the perfect coat that was the right size.

The coat

When Dennis got back from work, we walked back into the town and explored some more and had dinner at a harbor restaurant.

The Tower Royale at sunset in Toulon

Wednesday morning we headed back to the airport and arrived just as they were making the final boarding call for our flight. We arrived back in Eindhoven, drove the hour home, spent a couple of hours unpacking and reloading our suitcase and then headed back to the airport.

We flew into Rome and got to our hotel at 11 PM. The next morning, Dennis had a business call to make and after that, we headed into town. We took a tour of town on the double-decker bus to get the lay of the land. Then we walked and walked and walked. It wasn't ever very boring - there are more ruins and old buildings around the center part of town than the Romans know what to do with. We had heard a lot about the pick pocketers but didn't have any problems.

The Colosseum

On Friday, we spent the day in Vatican City with a very knowledgeable and interesting tour guide. I learned more about the Catholic church than I had ever known before and more than I wanted to know about the early popes bad behavior. It made me extremely grateful to our founding fathers who realized the importance of separating church and state. I was intrigued by the mosaic floor of the Vatican but I won't put up most of the pictures that I took. They reminded me of some really great quilt block patterns.

A Ceiling

One of the paintings on the walls

Several of the floors - Marble mosaics

Vespers in St. Peters Basillica

Saturday we went to the Borghese Museum which has some of the finest Rubens paintings and Banini statues. We went to the astronomy exhibit in the Vatican museum where I learned more about Galileo and other great Italian astronomers and their instruments and discoveries. We spent the rest of the day just seeing all the rest of the sights that we wanted to see.

Trevi Fountain - such a beautiful place and very popular.

The Pantheon

Sunday morning, we went back to the airport and flew home. It was so nice to be home. That evening Dennis and I were talking and we came to find out that we took this trip to Rome because we thought the other person wanted to. I had said I wanted to go to Italy but I had never really ever wanted to go the Rome but I thought that Dennis really wanted to go to Rome so I went along to make him happy. He thought that when I said I wanted to go to Italy that naturally meant Rome so he planned the whole trip for me even though he had a lot of things going on at work and it wasn't really a convenient time for him. So - we got a trip to Rome that neither of us particularly wanted but thought we were making the other person happy. After the initial frustration of the discovery we were finally able to chuckle about it. Ahh, the joys of love and marriage. All in all, it wasn't that much of a hardship or sacrifice at least on my part.
We may not look really happy in this picture but this was about the 7th try to take a picture of ourselves in this beautiful location. We actually had a lot of laughs trying to get a decent picture.