Visit Oslo, too

It really does look like this:

 

By all means, go.

Ed Evans and me

 We go back a long ways. . .  1974 and 2004:

Great Falls, VA

New Orleans Jazz Festival

Rest easy now, brother, you've earned it. We pray for peace of mind for Chris and your family.

Visit Oslo

I can't add anything more. . .

 

Ben's New Home

So next Wednesday our nephew Ben Schaap moves into his new home -- My Brother's House in Holland, Michigan has just finished it's very first from-the-ground-up adult foster care home and it is a wonderful space! Susie and I and her mom drove out to Holland and met up with Ben and his dad Steve for lunch (let Russ fuss) followed by a trip to the new digs for the open house.

Each of the six male residents will have his own room and bath along with a storage space in the lower level; there is also a separate apartment for the family supervisors.

two other homes that also serve as foster care homes

Ben giving a tour of his room

Ben's bath

Deb the resident "mom" and Ben's dad Steve

upstairs dining room

the lower level for movie nights, activities and individual storage spaces

Ben continuing his tour

Graduation in Connecticut

This past weekend found us both in New England. After a lovely Memorial weekend in Traverse City and a grand family get together at Clear Lake for the BIG DAY itself, a few days later we flew out to Boston for a family gathering. The objective was to attend Kiera MacDonald's graduation for high school in Glastonbury, CT. 

Kiera in the middle

family: Melissa, Lucas, Caroline, Liam, Joyce and Avery,

Kiera on the right

Kiera's choral group - she's 3rd from the right

Kiera on the right

It was standing room only -- Susie and Dorothy

proud dad, Kiera and her cousin Caroline

the MacDs as they are known: Glen, Kiera, Christina and Liam

MacDs and the Parkers with grandmother Joyce

Kiera and Zach

a big day followed by the all-nighter

MacD home

cousins: Adeline Bergman, Marlowe Engels and Johanna Bergman

cousins Liam and Elliott

Mother Joyce with children Melissa, Jonathan, Christina and Rachel

cousins

siblings Jonathan, Rachel, Christina and Melissa

 

Champaign High School Class of 1966

With no pattern or frequency I often recall with fondness crossing paths with so many during those innocent early years of the 1960s.

Hanging out at Uncle John’s Pancake House with Larry Skeels and occasionally Tom Majors while others dropped in and out.

Italian beef sandwiches at the Patio and plain beef sandwiches at Po’ Boys; Friday night sock hops, of course, wondering how to talk to girls, and frequent trips to the Tiger’s Den in Urbana, listening to a local band play Louie, Louie.

Mr. Baltis, a man I treated unfairly and one of my few regrets from those years.

Poring over a map with Mike Rigby planning a trip to the tip of South America.

Screwing up my date to the senior prom, skipping school on our last day as seniors, and heading out to Lake-in-the-Woods; hanging out with Steve Shelton, Bill Servis, working at Eisner’s with Denny Nicola and Anita Rohrer (I couldn't see what see saw in Carl Bergman).

Double dating with Ron Lovelette in his new Chevelle SS; Ron and I spending our last night together in Chicago before going into the military (he to the Army and me to the Marine Corps) with Candi Hamilton and her roommate (they both worked as secretaries for Playboy, as I recall).

Watching Mr. Webb point to an uncomfortable Cindy Wright as a prime example of good skeletal structure in Anatomy class; hearing about the shooting of President Kennedy over the intercom in Latin class.

Meeting up with Tim Rasmussen at the hospital in Da Nang. 

So many nights spent at Steak n’ Shake (“in sight it must be right”). 

Eddie Wilson, Chuck Collinson, Bob Poll, Liz Spector, Judi Vandemark, May Lou Clemons, Chris Kelley, so many memories, so many paths crossing briefly, close friends for a moment then in the blink of an eye all is dim, yet warm historical moments to be cherished.

Snippets from my personal yearbook of memories of people long gone and long gone from my present but always with me wherever I go.

I can sum up in simple terms my feelings about those uncluttered years at CHS, with apologies to Bob Hope, “Thanks for the memories. . .”

Using Byway Travel

Below you will find my summary/review of our experience using Byway Travel services for our spring 2024 trip to France and Spain. This is followed by a reply/response to the review as well as Byway's summary of my phone conversation with the CEO, Cat Jones. She addressed our concerns directly, and as you see taking full responsibility for the problems we encountered. 

5 May 2024, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. 

My wife and I recently completed a 12-day journey using the services of Byway Travel. A UK-based company promoting slow travel using a lower carbon footprint Byway specializes in combining rail with accommodation. Typically the chosen lodgings are located within short walking distance to the central rail station. I learned of this company in an article in the Guardian newspaper and thought the business model not only sounded environmentally responsible but innovative as well. 

We began the process by creating an account on their website. This allowed us to explore various trip itineraries and then save them. This was followed with a phone chat with one of their representatives to finalize the booking, subsequently paying a deposit. After the phone call a final booking/itinerary was saved to our account on the website. Payment was due at a set date before the trip after which we were to be given a Journey Guide (digital) with all the pertinent details of our trip, including lodging specifications, how to get to/from the station to the lodgings, various things to see and do in the vicinity, etc. all within a couple of weeks prior to departure. Tickets were to be provided shortly before departure, along with reservation e-tickets where required. 

Our trip in April of 2024 began with one night in Paris, followed by a train to Spain where we spent three nights in Girona, three in Tarragona, and four in Barcelona before ending in Bordeaux, France. (We continued our trip on our own after Barcelona with four nights in Bordeaux followed by four in Paris.) 

There are four parts to my review of Byway's services: accommodations, trains, staff, and value. 1. 

1. Accommodations. By-and-large the hotels used for our journey were fine. All the beds were comfortable although room size varied. Indeed, one must pay very close attention to the various level of rooms available, particularly if you have specific requirements/needs. For example a couple of the rooms were quite small, which would be of little impact for overnight travelers but if you're spending several days (which we were in nearly every case but Paris), size can be an issue along with lack of storage and seating. 

We also would have preferred showers in all but ended up with two hotels that had the older half-shower half-tub configurations using handheld shower heads. Awkward and less safe. 

It would also be helpful to know if there was a safe in the room, something not always clear from the description. 

Breakfasts were generally good with some variation in quality and quantity of items offered. We feel it is very important to start the day off with a good breakfast. 

Directions to the hotels were clear and Byway's use of online maps in their Journey Guide worked very well except in one case: our hotel in Tarragona was all uphill from the station, which involved quite a few steep steps along with gentle ramps but, once at the top, the online directions had us unnecessarily going completely around the hotel to get to the entrance. Sloppy. 

Still, the Journey Guide was well laid out and easy to use. Generally, the local details provided in the Guide for each city were helpful EXCEPT in Barcelona. Byway would usually provide restaurant recommendations close to each hotel but not in Barcelona, so we were on our own there. 

2. Trains. We believe trains are by far the best means of seeing Europe and certainly when traveling from city to city. It is stress-free travel, comfortable and relaxing as you cruise along at 256 kms an hour. And we've ridden a lot of trains in Europe over the past two years. However, this proved to be the most frustrating and for me the most stressful aspect of using Byway. 

Initially we were informed that we would receive our tickets and Journey Guide 14 days before departure. It was generally understood the "tickets" were in fact paper passes but the language was always a bit vague and I should have asked for greater clarity early on. It was only in later conversations with a staff member that the word "passes" was used. 

Having used mobile Eurail passes in 2022, I was familiar with the mobile passes and didn't understand why they weren't used. When I asked about this there was some ambiguity about why they were paper passes. I have subsequently learned that in fact they were supposed to be mobile passes; paper passes were only provided if specifically asked for. 

Anyway, we received the handful of e-ticket reservations (separate from full tickets or passes) along with the digital Journey Guide a few days late but still no passes. We did receive a Royal Mail tracking number from Byway on 27 March for the final tickets/passes (again lack of clarity in language) but the tracking number did not work and I had to deduce the actual FedEx tracking no. from the one I was given. Sloppy. Remember, we were due to depart 11 April and still no passes. 

And that's when the stress kicked in. 

I kept checking the FedEx website day after day, each time seeing that the package with our passes never got to FedEx, that is they never got beyond the creation of the FedEx label. When I inquired of Byway if there was a plan B, I was informed (by yet another different staff member) that if necessary we would be given mobile passes when we arrived in Europe. By now I was thinking this was not the most reliable of service companies, and was a bit skeptical. 

Long story short: FedEx delivered our paper passes THE DAY BEFORE WE LEFT! One more day and we would've left the country without them. 

Oh, and it should be noted that upon returning home to the US a bill from FedEx was waiting for us, apparently part of the cost of having the paper passes delivered to us! 

Once we had them in hand, our experience of using the tickets/passes/reservations worked smoothly. 

3. Staff. While not a staff issue per se it should be noted that my online booked journey in my Byway website account never updated with the changes made early on in our planned itinerary. We could only access the updated booking through a link sent in one email. If I had lost the email we wouldn't have access to the updated itinerary. When I mentioned this early on I was informed in rather vague terms that they were in the process of updating their software. In any event the booked journey never updated properly during our entire journey. 

We were informed that once we booked we would be assigned a journey team but that never seemed to happen. During the issues that arose prior to departure we probably dealt with five or six different individuals. And while Byway was by-and-large responsive to emails, the fact that there was not one specific person to whom we could turn felt a bit unsettling. 

4. Value. Based on our experience in April of 2024 and given that I have some experience in planning our own train journeys I would most likely NOT use Byway's services again. After some rough calculations of costs of purchasing our own Eurail passes (without the anxiety-inducing issues that arose with Byway) plus the time it would take researching our hotels (which often do not require payment upfront as it does with Byway) I would say the value for us is simply not there. 

With Byway payment for the trains and accommodations is made well in advance. However, if one is a member of a worldwide hotel chain group such as Hilton, payment is typically not required until you check in/out and cancellation can often be factored in even with online sites such as Booking.com. While we didn't need to cancel a hotel, cancellation with a third party such as Byway might have proven more complicated. Platforms such as Booking.com also make it very easy to choose the right room for your needs. 

The sloppiness of their web platform, inability of the staff to articulate exactly what was happening at any given time in the process, the confusion and lack of clarity regarding tickets/passes, down to being charged to have the passes delivered to us, combined with my preference to arranging trips on our own makes us wonder if their services are worth whatever their service fee might be. 

Regarding overall value, it really comes down to asking yourself if you want to pay someone to handle arranging your trip. If so, it would be worth using a service such as Byway. Should you use Byway? That's a bit tougher. We most likely will not. I believe the company tried hard to do the best thing for us and as I mentioned they were certainly responsive. However there was so much uncertainty and ambiguity throughout the process that it left us feeling a bit hung out to dry. 

 10 May 2024 - Byway’s response to my summary/review and a reply to my conversation with the CEO and founder Cat Jones. 

Dear Steve, Thank you very much for your time on the phone on Wednesday. I promised to come back to you today with the results of our investigation and a compensation offer, hence this email. Thank you for taking care of the FedEx payment in the meantime, we appreciate it. As I said, I am so sorry your trip wasn't relaxed and hassle-free and that we didn't provide the level of service we should have. 

[There follows an offer of a small refund and a voucher for future Byway travel. I accepted the refund only.] 

Having conducted our investigation, we have taken some actions to ensure your poor experience isn't repeated, and I thought you'd like to see the headlines: 

• We purchased paper passes for your trip instead of mobile passes, as is our usual practice and default. This caused significant stress and uncertainty, including you being sent a bill by Fedex. I'm so sorry. This happened because of a manual action that was accidentally set to purchase paper passes. As I mentioned on the phone, we have now set up an automated process for booking passes to ensure there's no human in the way capable of making mistakes. 
• There were tech issues, like your edited trip not updating in your customer account. This is a known issue tied up with a large software update we are making (we're on month 4 of a 5 month build) which will allow two systems that are currently separate to communicate with each other properly. At the moment user account system can only display trips as they are up to and before booking, and cannot display post-booking changes we make in our post booking system, which is why we have had to email you different links. I understand how inconvenient it is to have everything in different places. This tech work should be completed by June and by July the user accounts will be able to show booked trips with any changes complete in the live link. 
• There were process issues, like receiving your Journey Guide and passes late and with unclear tracking numbers. I'm so sorry for this. I have now got a Journey Guide view in my CEO reporting dashboard that shows the number of Journey Guides due by day and the amount of capacity we have, so that I can better support managers to ensure we are appropriately resourced and customers don't feel the pain of our poor resource planning. I'm sorry this came too late for you and added further uncertainty. 
• There were communication issues, like receiving communications from multiple different people who could not always provide quick answers/resolutions. We have conducted on-the-job training for the customer support team over the last week to ensure they are better equipped to answer customer queries, and we have set up an 'expert escalation' rota so they always have someone to ask for a quick response if they aren't sure. Jess, who runs the Customer Support team, is discussing with the team other ways we might be able to provide more certainty and continuity for our customers next week in order to agree further next steps. 

 Thank you again for your patience and forbearance and for being so generous as to explain the details of your feedback to me on the phone. It has helped us with an action plan I'm confident is going to remove the issues you experienced for other customers in future, and I am extremely grateful to you for that. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions or comments. . . . Thank you Cat (Jones) 

Leaving Paris

 May 3. Going home.

Although our return to the United States made for a very long day, the flights were on time and uneventful with very little turbulence. 

We were up at 6:00 am, showered, dressed and finished tidying up the apartment before we left. Our Uber driver, a very nice man from Mali, was on time and we sailed through the suburbs of Paris. The only stall came as we neared airport grounds. Traffic slowed to a painful crawl due to traveaux (works). As we approached the departure gates we soon realized another reason for the congestion: cars/shuttles/taxis had to pay a small fee of €1 to get to the lanes to drop their passengers! 

That was only the beginning of a series of absurd incidents trying to get to our gate. Upon queueing up for the check-in desks to drop our bags off and get our boarding passes, there was a man asking oddly irrelevant questions of each person waiting in line. How did you get to the airport? Where did you go on your trip? How did you get there? How long did it take? Why were you here? Why are any of us Here? What is quantum physics? Mind you he wasn't writing any of this down or keeping any sort of account of our answers. He was just there to apparently annoy everyone and hold things up.

Then it was a series of more showing the passports to a variety of individuals who may or not have had anything to do with anything but whose task was simply to slow things down, look at papers they may or may not have understood before scowling and allowing us to move to the next absurd station.

We eventually cleared all the hurdles and made our way to one of the new concourses at Charles de Gaulle airport where we settled in to await our Delta flight to Detroit.

The flight took forever to board, as our passports had to be checked one more time, we had to go to another station to actually scan our boarding pass and finally we were on the plane. 

After nearly 8 hours of sitting in a chair at 38,000 feet, with only the occasional screaming infant to mar the otherwise tranquil mood shared by a couple hundred strangers, we were soon back in Michigan.

The absurdities concluded once we reached Detroit airport. Get this, once we cleared passport control, we had to wait for our bags coming off the plane, then schlep them about 100 feet to an area that said "Recheck your bags" -- the bags were already checked through to our final destination -- hand them to a guy who then just placed them on the conveyor without looking at anything and we moved on to our final gate. 

We had about 2 hours to kill and kill it we did with a glass of wine and a cheese board. 

Our flight to Grand Rapids left right on time and after a short 20-30 minutes we were down and heading for baggage claim. Our neighbor Sandy had kindly agreed to pick up us and she was waiting in the cellphone lot for our text that we were curbside.

Once home we unpacked a bit but mostly just enjoyed being able to relax after a long day of flying. Sandy had kindly left us a delicious pasta cucumber salad which was the just the perfect thing to help welcome us home. It was then off to bed early for a much-needed night's sleep.

Friends, Impressionism and our Last Day in Paris

May 2.

Aside from meeting up with friends today, our afternoon was capped off by our early evening visit to the Musée d'Orsay. More of that later.

After yet another wonderfully leisurely morning we left the apartment about half past 12. Making our way to Place Nation, we took the no. 1 to Chatelet, transferred to the no. 4 and got off at Etienne Marcel. From the Metro we made our way through an open air market on rue Montmartre making a beeline for our first objective for our afternoon - Mora, Susie's favorite culinary/pastry/baking supply store. Located a stone's throw from the old Les Halles market complex, Mora is one of the go-to places for many a pastry/culinary chef.

Market on rue Montmartre

From Mora we walked around the corner to Detou, a small but critical shop for purchasing spices, chocolate, vanilla, nuts and plenty of other cooking/baking staples. Leaving Detou we realized the time was slipping away from us for a 2 pm rendezvous. We had to burn some Metro asphalt to get back cross the river for Susie to meet up with Jill Colonna at Mariage Frères tea shop in the old Jewish quarter.

Hi! Susan popping in here for a moment: Jill writes a wonderful blog and has published "Mad About Macarons" and "Teatime in Paris". I first learned of Jill through another blog "Paris Breakfasts", written by American-residing-in-Paris watercolorist Carol Gillott. Jill and I had communicated a bit by email and, as it turned out, we were able to set up a mini-meet up in Paris. Cool!

Steve joined us as well and, over a cup of tea, the three of us had a wonderful chat about about blogging, writing, pastries, food, our stories and what ever else popped up.

After saying adieu to Jill we headed over to the Carnavalet Museum to kill a bit of time before heading back across the river to meet with old friend Val. Susie and Val first met in 2006 when they were taking the basic pastry course together at Le Cordon Bleu. Val was a life saver for Susie in the translation department, particularly in the practical kitchen.

An interesting find on the way to Carnavalet in the Marais

We met Val at a place she'd been wanting to try - Les Antiquaires, just down the street from Musée d'Orsay. It was pouring rain and a bit chilly, but when we went inside to the warmth to snag a table, we were told we'd have to sit outside if we weren't going to eat. So it was - drinks under the awning - at least we were out of the rain.

After we said au revoir to Val we headed off in the rain to the Musée d'Orsay to make our 6:00 pm time slot for the featured exhibition. We had purchased our tickets back in February and were glad we did. 

Not only was it miserable outside, but there were people everywhere including in the line for the timed slots. It wasn't clear where we supposed to be in the queue but, with the help of Asian family who also had 6 pm tickets, we were finally allowed to enter the winding line into the museum. Umbrellas, jostling, security at the entrance. Whoa!

The exhibition celebrates the 150th anniversary of the very first so-called Impressionist exhibition held in April 1874, entitled "Inventing Impressionism".  These artists didn't call themselves impressionists but referred to their group as the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs (Company of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers).  

Finally inside, we were met with hoards of visitors, many hanging out in the big central hall, probably to stay out of the rain.

a madhouse of tourists

We thought the exhibition was underwhelming, it was difficult to see the works due to the crowds, and the historical layout of everything was a bit confusing. On the plus side, we did see many of our favorites from the likes of Berthe Morisot, Manet, Degas, Renoir and more.

From the Musée we took the RER line C to Gare d'Austerlitz to catch the line 5 Metro back across the river. We got off at Bastille and took line 1 to Place Nation. From the Metro exit we walked across the street heading toward our apartment, stopping for supper at l'Eglantine. Susie had the Cobb Salad and I thoroughly enjoy my roast chicken with frites.

After dinner it was a 5-minute walk to our apartment. Once inside we prepped for our early departure to the airport in the morning. The plan: Uber pick up at 7:00 am and in the air shortly after 11:00 am Paris time. 

Next: Leaving Paris.