Apologies for a few days with no updates. We are now in Paris and enjoying out time here. This has meant some late nights and early mornings. We added a few new blog posts so that you could track where we were, although we are about 4 days behind. So you know our current itinerary, we will be in Paris until Monday morning, then we have a Chunnel ride to London, where we will be until Wednesday. We will keep posting updates on safety and the overall trip as we are able. Love to you all.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Deep Thinking Day in Dachau
We woke up slowly again. Our pace seems to lag the further into the trip we get. The cumulative impact of long hours and miles traveled takes a toll. But at last, we are on German time so at 9am sharp the doorbell to Renate's house rings and Marina is welcomed in, bringing in the freshly made bread and pastries for breakfast. Renate and Marina have spoiled us serving a huge breakfast with a variety of meats (including liverwurst), cheeses and breads (the olive bread being a favorite). And of course pastries and lots of coffee to start us moving. The pastries were great because they would have 4 or 5 cut them up in pieces so we could all try bites of each one. We had fun with "Quark" an ingredient we found in several breads, both sweet and savory. We think it's like ricotta but honestly that's just a guess as Google was unable to provide help.
After breakfast, we packed up with plans to head out for the day to Dachau Concentration Camp. Marina had joined Tim and Michelle on their first visit ten years ago. This time we all went including Renate. Entry to the museum is free and we paid a few euros each for the audio guide, which really added depth to the experience. We expected to stay a few hours, but the audio guide pulled us deeper into the sobering experience. It's still chilling to see the iron sign Arbeit macht frei - "work makes you free". We appreciate that the people of Germany allow this site to be preserved, a symbol and reminder of how the masses can be manipulated and a slippery slope becomes a steep slide.
We completely missed lunchtime during our walk through Dachau.
Leaving the concentration camp, we go into the historical part of the town of Dachau for dinner and desserts. The mood is still heavy and slowly lifts as we get further from the concentration camp. A walk through old town reveals another quaint European town. We come upon a restaurant that serves traditional Bavarian food and settle in on the patio with a round of beer. We enjoyed our meal and ordered one of every dessert on the menu. It was fun trying the cherry and the apple strudels, fried apples, and a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream that came with an awesome berry sauce. The desserts came with an option of vanilla sauce or ice cream, the waiter was kind enough to allow us to order them with ice cream and brought a small dish on the side of the vanilla sauce to taste it.
We enjoyed the short ride into Munich with Renate and Marina. We were seated mostly together, except there was a 40-something German woman seated in the middle of our group. As we chatted she tried to ignore our conversation and not appear to eavesdrop. But somehow the conversation turned to laundry and Renate mentioned the lack of covering of some of our groups "slips," then Renate compared it to Tim's "slips" at which time the German woman couldn't help but start laughing. She apologized profusely but joined in on the remaining part of our conversations until we reached Munich.
We have scheduled special transport for tonight on a Couchette on the night train to Cologne, Germany with the intent for a short stop before we continue onto Brussels. As the train pulls into the Munich Station, we find our car and Tim steps aboard...shortly thereafter he realizes he is alone in the couchette. While Michelle, Susanne and Christyn said their goodbyes to Marina and Renate on the platform and then entered the couchette, Tim had to do so in the cramped corridor of the sleeper car. We appreciated the warm greeting that they offered us and the time they spent showing us Bavaria and a surprise trip to Austria. It makes adventures like these enjoyable to have friends that are so welcoming.
As we pull away from the Munich station, we adjust to our new beds. A four bed couchette is a tight space and the the WC and washrooms are down the "hall." The space between the bunk beds is just wide enough for the ladder that is used to reach the top bunks. We are provided a very small pillow, a sewn up bed sheet that forms a "sleeping bag" of sorts and a light blanket. Too awake to fall asleep we chat for a few minutes before moving to our respective beds. It doesn't take much with the gentle rocking of the train to make us fall into a night of sleep.
After breakfast, we packed up with plans to head out for the day to Dachau Concentration Camp. Marina had joined Tim and Michelle on their first visit ten years ago. This time we all went including Renate. Entry to the museum is free and we paid a few euros each for the audio guide, which really added depth to the experience. We expected to stay a few hours, but the audio guide pulled us deeper into the sobering experience. It's still chilling to see the iron sign Arbeit macht frei - "work makes you free". We appreciate that the people of Germany allow this site to be preserved, a symbol and reminder of how the masses can be manipulated and a slippery slope becomes a steep slide.
We completely missed lunchtime during our walk through Dachau.
Leaving the concentration camp, we go into the historical part of the town of Dachau for dinner and desserts. The mood is still heavy and slowly lifts as we get further from the concentration camp. A walk through old town reveals another quaint European town. We come upon a restaurant that serves traditional Bavarian food and settle in on the patio with a round of beer. We enjoyed our meal and ordered one of every dessert on the menu. It was fun trying the cherry and the apple strudels, fried apples, and a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream that came with an awesome berry sauce. The desserts came with an option of vanilla sauce or ice cream, the waiter was kind enough to allow us to order them with ice cream and brought a small dish on the side of the vanilla sauce to taste it.
The single girls happen to notice that our young waiter is handsome with ice blue eyes. They try to strategically capture him in a photo. When the time comes for the bill Tim follows him into the restaurant to use the credit card machine. After settling the bill, Tim asks the waiter for a favor...could I take a photo? The waiter offers to take one with all the women but Tim thinks it might be too embarrassing. Instead we settle on a good spot with nice lighting. After the picture the waiter wanted to see it and gives his approval. Tim and the waiter share a wide smile and laughs as they are viewing the photos. Shortly after Tim returns to the table, Marina leaves her phone behind as the girls use the restroom. We secretly turn on airdrop and plot a way to get Christyn's phone too. Michelle executes the plan, and as we walk toward the bus station Tim airdrops the photo to Marina and Christyn. Suddenly squeals and laughs erupt as the whole plan comes together...everyone laughs at the silly things Americans do. We hope the waiter could hear us and it brings a smile to his face.
We took the train back to Renate's house and began the process of packing up our bags to move on. Marina, learning from her prior experience with our ability to get ready on time, gave us a deadline that was a half an hour earlier than necessary. She was starting to understand that American and German timeframes needed some adjustment to prevent undue stress. It wasn't until we were hustling to the nearby train station that Marina told us, with a smirk on her face, that we had plenty of time so there was no need to rush.
We took the train back to Renate's house and began the process of packing up our bags to move on. Marina, learning from her prior experience with our ability to get ready on time, gave us a deadline that was a half an hour earlier than necessary. She was starting to understand that American and German timeframes needed some adjustment to prevent undue stress. It wasn't until we were hustling to the nearby train station that Marina told us, with a smirk on her face, that we had plenty of time so there was no need to rush.
We enjoyed the short ride into Munich with Renate and Marina. We were seated mostly together, except there was a 40-something German woman seated in the middle of our group. As we chatted she tried to ignore our conversation and not appear to eavesdrop. But somehow the conversation turned to laundry and Renate mentioned the lack of covering of some of our groups "slips," then Renate compared it to Tim's "slips" at which time the German woman couldn't help but start laughing. She apologized profusely but joined in on the remaining part of our conversations until we reached Munich.
We have scheduled special transport for tonight on a Couchette on the night train to Cologne, Germany with the intent for a short stop before we continue onto Brussels. As the train pulls into the Munich Station, we find our car and Tim steps aboard...shortly thereafter he realizes he is alone in the couchette. While Michelle, Susanne and Christyn said their goodbyes to Marina and Renate on the platform and then entered the couchette, Tim had to do so in the cramped corridor of the sleeper car. We appreciated the warm greeting that they offered us and the time they spent showing us Bavaria and a surprise trip to Austria. It makes adventures like these enjoyable to have friends that are so welcoming.
As we pull away from the Munich station, we adjust to our new beds. A four bed couchette is a tight space and the the WC and washrooms are down the "hall." The space between the bunk beds is just wide enough for the ladder that is used to reach the top bunks. We are provided a very small pillow, a sewn up bed sheet that forms a "sleeping bag" of sorts and a light blanket. Too awake to fall asleep we chat for a few minutes before moving to our respective beds. It doesn't take much with the gentle rocking of the train to make us fall into a night of sleep.
Castles and Countries (a.k.a The Day We Decided to Add Austria to the Itinerary)
On Sunday, Marina drove us along the Auto Bahn to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles in Schwangau. It was a lovely drive past cows, country, and sheep, but the Jack Johnson that Marina played on the radio put us all to sleep.
Once we had arrived and purchased our tickets we enjoyed the pretty views as we hiked to the smaller of the two castles for our first tour. The tour of Hohenschwangau castle was fascinating and fun because we had such a knowledgeable and engaged tour guide that was more than willing to pause and answer questions or expand on his explanation. We learned some brief history of the royal family members (most of which were named Ludwig, declared crazy, or both) who resided there and some background information on the region and the real-life Swan Lake.
We had a four hour break before our next castle tour, so we enjoyed some Belgian chocolate that Marina had brought while resting on a bench with an incredible view of the vividly blue lake water. We also stopped for some traditional German food (and beer, of course) at a beer house before hiking up the mountain to the other castle. A few in our party were missing home a bit and ordered the sausage that came with French fries. :)
The Neuschwanstein castle is the true "Cinderella castle" that inspired Disney (an adorable little girl was actually dressed up as Cinderella for the tour) and it was the more popular destination for tourists. As a result, this tour was much faster paced with only general descriptions and did not allow us to stop in each room. The tour group was large and the guide was definitely not interested in answering questions. It was still a great castle with interesting decor and some neat quirks like the indoor cave that the king wanted to be included.
After leaving the castles, Marina took us on an impromptu trip to Austria just to add another country to our list. It was only a short drive away and a 2 minute visit where we stepped a toe into the country, but we can all officially say "I've been to Austria." When we got back to Renatta's house, we enjoyed a cold dinner that consisted of bread, pretzels, and various dips/spreads (and obviously beer) that was very good. It was a quick time to bed, as the next day was to be spent visiting the memorial site at Dachau.
Once we had arrived and purchased our tickets we enjoyed the pretty views as we hiked to the smaller of the two castles for our first tour. The tour of Hohenschwangau castle was fascinating and fun because we had such a knowledgeable and engaged tour guide that was more than willing to pause and answer questions or expand on his explanation. We learned some brief history of the royal family members (most of which were named Ludwig, declared crazy, or both) who resided there and some background information on the region and the real-life Swan Lake.
We had a four hour break before our next castle tour, so we enjoyed some Belgian chocolate that Marina had brought while resting on a bench with an incredible view of the vividly blue lake water. We also stopped for some traditional German food (and beer, of course) at a beer house before hiking up the mountain to the other castle. A few in our party were missing home a bit and ordered the sausage that came with French fries. :)
The Neuschwanstein castle is the true "Cinderella castle" that inspired Disney (an adorable little girl was actually dressed up as Cinderella for the tour) and it was the more popular destination for tourists. As a result, this tour was much faster paced with only general descriptions and did not allow us to stop in each room. The tour group was large and the guide was definitely not interested in answering questions. It was still a great castle with interesting decor and some neat quirks like the indoor cave that the king wanted to be included.
After leaving the castles, Marina took us on an impromptu trip to Austria just to add another country to our list. It was only a short drive away and a 2 minute visit where we stepped a toe into the country, but we can all officially say "I've been to Austria." When we got back to Renatta's house, we enjoyed a cold dinner that consisted of bread, pretzels, and various dips/spreads (and obviously beer) that was very good. It was a quick time to bed, as the next day was to be spent visiting the memorial site at Dachau.
Munich Tours and Folk Fest Frivolity
We made a plan to get together for breakfast at 8:30 so that we could be on the metro into town by 9:30. The only problem with that plan? Renata's beds are super comfortable and we were very tired! We were all down at breakfast by 9:45 and then we seemed quite content to take our time. Renata brought out a wonderful assortment of meats, breads, cheeses, fruit, coffee and tea. Marina stopped off at the bread store to buy some fresh pretzels and some sweet pastries. It was all so delicious. Renata let us know that this wasn't how typical Germans at breakfast. You could see the wheels in Michelle's head turning trying to see how we could fold this kind of spread into our normal breakfast routine.
Finally "tour guide Marina", as we are lovingly referring to her, kicked into action and got us moving towards the door with a shout, "Hey guys!" We made it to the metro station, not for the 9:45 train (oops!) But for the 10:15. A short ride and a jaunt over to the Marienplatz, Munich's main square, we met the other exchange student Tim and Michelle hosted many years ago, Pia . It was a sweet reunion for Tim and Michelle and also Marina since Pia has been studying and traveling.
As the greetings continued and while we waited for the glockenspiel show, Pia and Marina explained the scenes around us. We were standing in the middle of a protest with a high security presence. She mentioned how organized these events are with one day being those with right leaning political beliefs and the next day those leaning to the left, and back and forth they go. The problem, she said, was that they never really talk to each other. As for the buildings, in one direction was the New Town Hall buildings that have been restored since WWI and the other direction was St. Paul's church that was reconstructed from damage done during WWII. Then the marionette clock show began, demonstrating how they conquered their enemies. An exciting few minutes!
Marina and Pisa led us on a tour through Munich with many historical sites and cultural experiences. We walked through the Viktualien Market and enjoyed shops and booths of fresh vegetables, fruit, olives, decorations and our favorite, The Crazy Ice Cream Maker. We've been told he makes many great flavors of ice cream but always has a few weird ones he offers as well. Marina mentioned a german sausage ice cream she tried once, and Pisa said there was a salmon one once too. When you order your regular flavors you are then offered a taste of one of the weird flavors. This shop was a small one, so no weird flavors here. Instead we enjoyed lime&cherry, mango, white chocolate and a few other German named flavors. Delicious!!
Back to the tour, we walked past the large cubed Jewish Historical museum/monument. We stepped into the narrow Asam Church and awed at the beautiful dark baroque decor in such a small setting. Continuing on, we stopped at another church and learned of the legend that the builder made a pact with the Devil so that he could build the church higher. The deal was that the Devil would allow the tall height, but when he stepped into the church he didn't want to see any windows in the church except for the one at the alter area. The Devil ended up loosing, as the builder built the church so that there were no visible windows from the entrance, but once you stepped inside 5-6 steps you would see there were many tall windows covering the sanctuary. It is said that the Devil was so angry that he stamped his foot on the ground, leaving a permanent footprint in the floor of the church.
On the outside, along the bottom of the church walls were lined with headstones and relics. Around another corner was a car free shopping street which gave our group a moment to spread out and step into the Deutches Museum store of gadgets and innovations for all ages.
All this walking and shopping worked up our appetite for the famous Hofbrauhaus (HB). We sat outside and were entertained by college guys being guys and multiple groups of bachelor and bachelorette parties. As an appetizer we gobbled up the biggest pretzel we had ever seen with our pints of Belgium beer. With all this we still managed to have room for the traditional dishes of sausage, sauerkraut, purple cabbage salad, pork with potato and bread balls in a sauce.
Continuing through the shopping district, Pia showed us her favorite spice shop with three stories of global spices. Then next door we stopped at the tea shop and left with a few packages of tea to take home. Tim was rather patient as these two stores took quite some time for the ladies! (We are still hunting for more Marzipan tea for Michelle.)
The day continued with a walk through the Odeonsplatz (the square that links past and present Munich.) Here we saw the stage, Viscardigasse, where Hitler attempted his first coup and was later arrested. Also in this square was the church where sweet Pia lit a candle for our safe travels. Across from the church we strolled around the Residenz Munchen and through the royal court gardens (Hofgarten) and through the gazebo. We stopped at the Englischer Garten and watched surfers line the canal and alternate jumping in to do their tricks at the one wave. The strong current would sweep the fallen surfers quickly down the canal. We are thankful our active boys don't live near this extreme sporting site.
Nearby we stopped at the once broken down graffitied WC (water closet). Now the refurbished, Freulein's Grunier, offers a selection of beverages for those entering the beautiful park. Here we had iced coffee and our first Mezzo soda-a 50/50 mix of Coke and Fanta. Yum! Guess what European kid-friendly drink we will be making back home?
You might be thinking after all these events of the day and walking for hours that we would be exhausted and head home to sleep. Oh not at all! These traveling Hardley's & Jackson's have Folkfest to attend. This is small town version of Oktoberfest that travels from city to city in Munich throughout the year. Think Oktoberfest mixed with your local fair. One very large tent with all of the traditional Oktoberfest trappings (beer, food, a live band, lots of happy people and tables for them to dance on) and all of the carnival rides and games of your local fair. We were excited and happy that our visit coincided with the event.
It was a train ride out of the city, a pit stop at the house to grab a scarf (Tim's outfit does not change) and we were off. Thankfully Pia's boyfriend, Dominik and his friend Frank were willing to drive so we could all attend. Marina's mom Renata joined us as well. In all, we were a merry band of 9 that night.
Walking into the Folk Fest we were surprised to see so many people dressed I traditional Bavarian garb. Special dresses for the ladies and lederhosen for the men. It seemed like everyone, young and old, was wearing their traditional clothing for the occasion. Pia told us that you could tell if a woman was taken or single by the tie on the apron of her dress. If the tie was on the left she was single, if it was on the right she was taken and if it was on the back it meant she was a widow. She did admit that sometimes when ladies go to these events they will move the ties back and forth depending on if they want to encourage attention, and possibly have a beer purchased for them, or if they want to discourage attention, especially towards the end of a festive evening.
The food and company were great, and the band was a cover band playing a lot of popular German and American songs. We were all pretty excited when an American song came on, both because the Germans sang enthusiastically along with it and because we could join in as well. There was a bit of modern, but also some old classics (anyone remember AC/DC? They do!). We stayed into the wee hours of the evening in this surreal moment, standing on table seats with beer steins raised high singing at the top of our lungs and surrounded by thousands of new German friends. It was a memorable one for sure!
Finally "tour guide Marina", as we are lovingly referring to her, kicked into action and got us moving towards the door with a shout, "Hey guys!" We made it to the metro station, not for the 9:45 train (oops!) But for the 10:15. A short ride and a jaunt over to the Marienplatz, Munich's main square, we met the other exchange student Tim and Michelle hosted many years ago, Pia . It was a sweet reunion for Tim and Michelle and also Marina since Pia has been studying and traveling.
As the greetings continued and while we waited for the glockenspiel show, Pia and Marina explained the scenes around us. We were standing in the middle of a protest with a high security presence. She mentioned how organized these events are with one day being those with right leaning political beliefs and the next day those leaning to the left, and back and forth they go. The problem, she said, was that they never really talk to each other. As for the buildings, in one direction was the New Town Hall buildings that have been restored since WWI and the other direction was St. Paul's church that was reconstructed from damage done during WWII. Then the marionette clock show began, demonstrating how they conquered their enemies. An exciting few minutes!
Marina and Pisa led us on a tour through Munich with many historical sites and cultural experiences. We walked through the Viktualien Market and enjoyed shops and booths of fresh vegetables, fruit, olives, decorations and our favorite, The Crazy Ice Cream Maker. We've been told he makes many great flavors of ice cream but always has a few weird ones he offers as well. Marina mentioned a german sausage ice cream she tried once, and Pisa said there was a salmon one once too. When you order your regular flavors you are then offered a taste of one of the weird flavors. This shop was a small one, so no weird flavors here. Instead we enjoyed lime&cherry, mango, white chocolate and a few other German named flavors. Delicious!!
Back to the tour, we walked past the large cubed Jewish Historical museum/monument. We stepped into the narrow Asam Church and awed at the beautiful dark baroque decor in such a small setting. Continuing on, we stopped at another church and learned of the legend that the builder made a pact with the Devil so that he could build the church higher. The deal was that the Devil would allow the tall height, but when he stepped into the church he didn't want to see any windows in the church except for the one at the alter area. The Devil ended up loosing, as the builder built the church so that there were no visible windows from the entrance, but once you stepped inside 5-6 steps you would see there were many tall windows covering the sanctuary. It is said that the Devil was so angry that he stamped his foot on the ground, leaving a permanent footprint in the floor of the church.
On the outside, along the bottom of the church walls were lined with headstones and relics. Around another corner was a car free shopping street which gave our group a moment to spread out and step into the Deutches Museum store of gadgets and innovations for all ages.
All this walking and shopping worked up our appetite for the famous Hofbrauhaus (HB). We sat outside and were entertained by college guys being guys and multiple groups of bachelor and bachelorette parties. As an appetizer we gobbled up the biggest pretzel we had ever seen with our pints of Belgium beer. With all this we still managed to have room for the traditional dishes of sausage, sauerkraut, purple cabbage salad, pork with potato and bread balls in a sauce.
Continuing through the shopping district, Pia showed us her favorite spice shop with three stories of global spices. Then next door we stopped at the tea shop and left with a few packages of tea to take home. Tim was rather patient as these two stores took quite some time for the ladies! (We are still hunting for more Marzipan tea for Michelle.)
The day continued with a walk through the Odeonsplatz (the square that links past and present Munich.) Here we saw the stage, Viscardigasse, where Hitler attempted his first coup and was later arrested. Also in this square was the church where sweet Pia lit a candle for our safe travels. Across from the church we strolled around the Residenz Munchen and through the royal court gardens (Hofgarten) and through the gazebo. We stopped at the Englischer Garten and watched surfers line the canal and alternate jumping in to do their tricks at the one wave. The strong current would sweep the fallen surfers quickly down the canal. We are thankful our active boys don't live near this extreme sporting site.
Nearby we stopped at the once broken down graffitied WC (water closet). Now the refurbished, Freulein's Grunier, offers a selection of beverages for those entering the beautiful park. Here we had iced coffee and our first Mezzo soda-a 50/50 mix of Coke and Fanta. Yum! Guess what European kid-friendly drink we will be making back home?
You might be thinking after all these events of the day and walking for hours that we would be exhausted and head home to sleep. Oh not at all! These traveling Hardley's & Jackson's have Folkfest to attend. This is small town version of Oktoberfest that travels from city to city in Munich throughout the year. Think Oktoberfest mixed with your local fair. One very large tent with all of the traditional Oktoberfest trappings (beer, food, a live band, lots of happy people and tables for them to dance on) and all of the carnival rides and games of your local fair. We were excited and happy that our visit coincided with the event.
It was a train ride out of the city, a pit stop at the house to grab a scarf (Tim's outfit does not change) and we were off. Thankfully Pia's boyfriend, Dominik and his friend Frank were willing to drive so we could all attend. Marina's mom Renata joined us as well. In all, we were a merry band of 9 that night.
Walking into the Folk Fest we were surprised to see so many people dressed I traditional Bavarian garb. Special dresses for the ladies and lederhosen for the men. It seemed like everyone, young and old, was wearing their traditional clothing for the occasion. Pia told us that you could tell if a woman was taken or single by the tie on the apron of her dress. If the tie was on the left she was single, if it was on the right she was taken and if it was on the back it meant she was a widow. She did admit that sometimes when ladies go to these events they will move the ties back and forth depending on if they want to encourage attention, and possibly have a beer purchased for them, or if they want to discourage attention, especially towards the end of a festive evening.
The food and company were great, and the band was a cover band playing a lot of popular German and American songs. We were all pretty excited when an American song came on, both because the Germans sang enthusiastically along with it and because we could join in as well. There was a bit of modern, but also some old classics (anyone remember AC/DC? They do!). We stayed into the wee hours of the evening in this surreal moment, standing on table seats with beer steins raised high singing at the top of our lungs and surrounded by thousands of new German friends. It was a memorable one for sure!
Kicking Munich Off Right
Stepping off of the train we quickly spotted Marina at the end of the platform. The Hardley's had hosted Marina (and Pia who we would meet with the next day) for one month in 2005. They both attended a language school during the day and lived with the Hardley's at night. On the weekends the Hardley's would take them to various places in California so they could learn about American culture and language.
They Hardley's had not seen her in the last 10 years, and she grew so much. She is now done with college and had a job in the franchise department at McDonalds. McDonalds is huge in Germany with over 1400 locations around the country. Munich is the central corporate location and often will be the test kitchen for new promotions and new products. One time a year everyone in the corporate headquarters has to work in a store for a few days so that they continue to have the experience of the customer and the stores.
She enjoys her job very much, though maybe not the few days in the store. She said that she always forgets what she should do and makes things harder for those who work there. :)
We bought tickets for the S Bahn metro to get out to Marinas moms house. They live just outside of the city center. Marina's mom Renata met us at the metro station to take our bags. She greeted us with a very large hug. As her car would only seat 5 people, Michelle and Marina walked the short distance to the house while the others drove.
At the house Renata had already begun a feast for dinner. Included were pork sausages, steaks, chicken and pork chops. As sides were an assortment of breads, a green salad and a homemade potatoe salad. Tim was an especially big fan of the potato salad, going back for 4-5 helpings of it. The new joke was that we were going to wake up in the middle of the night to find Tim eating a bowl of potato salad in the dark.
In addition to the food a variety of beers were brought out for us to sample. Marina had the variety so that we could find the kind that we liked before we went into any restaurants or beer halls. One of them, the radler, quickly became a favorite of the group. A radler is a mixture of beer and lemon aid. This helps to cut the percentage of alcohol in the overall drink and to sweeten the beer slightly. Michelle and Susanne also liked the darker beers.
It was all so delicious and we had a great time catching up and planning for the next few days of our visit. We finished the day off with strawberries and cream which was a deliciously simple way to end the evening.
Tomorrow we will get together with Pia and walk around the city center of Munich. Then we will see where else the day takes us.
Auf Wiedersehen!
They Hardley's had not seen her in the last 10 years, and she grew so much. She is now done with college and had a job in the franchise department at McDonalds. McDonalds is huge in Germany with over 1400 locations around the country. Munich is the central corporate location and often will be the test kitchen for new promotions and new products. One time a year everyone in the corporate headquarters has to work in a store for a few days so that they continue to have the experience of the customer and the stores.
She enjoys her job very much, though maybe not the few days in the store. She said that she always forgets what she should do and makes things harder for those who work there. :)
We bought tickets for the S Bahn metro to get out to Marinas moms house. They live just outside of the city center. Marina's mom Renata met us at the metro station to take our bags. She greeted us with a very large hug. As her car would only seat 5 people, Michelle and Marina walked the short distance to the house while the others drove.
At the house Renata had already begun a feast for dinner. Included were pork sausages, steaks, chicken and pork chops. As sides were an assortment of breads, a green salad and a homemade potatoe salad. Tim was an especially big fan of the potato salad, going back for 4-5 helpings of it. The new joke was that we were going to wake up in the middle of the night to find Tim eating a bowl of potato salad in the dark.
In addition to the food a variety of beers were brought out for us to sample. Marina had the variety so that we could find the kind that we liked before we went into any restaurants or beer halls. One of them, the radler, quickly became a favorite of the group. A radler is a mixture of beer and lemon aid. This helps to cut the percentage of alcohol in the overall drink and to sweeten the beer slightly. Michelle and Susanne also liked the darker beers.
It was all so delicious and we had a great time catching up and planning for the next few days of our visit. We finished the day off with strawberries and cream which was a deliciously simple way to end the evening.
Tomorrow we will get together with Pia and walk around the city center of Munich. Then we will see where else the day takes us.
Auf Wiedersehen!
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Personal Safety Update #3
Hi all,
A quick note to say we are all doing well. We had a great three day visit with some friends in Germany and a whirlwind day of travel and sight seeing in Brussels Belgium. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we are off to Bruges for two days. We hope to catch up on the more detailed blog posts in the next few days. It is 1 am here so I am off to bed. :)
Michelle
A quick note to say we are all doing well. We had a great three day visit with some friends in Germany and a whirlwind day of travel and sight seeing in Brussels Belgium. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we are off to Bruges for two days. We hope to catch up on the more detailed blog posts in the next few days. It is 1 am here so I am off to bed. :)
Michelle
Friday, June 9, 2017
Personal Safety Update #2
Hi all,
We are catching up on some delayed blog postings so you will find 4 new ones posted today. We are now caught up with our travels so far. We have now arrived in Munich and are in the home of our friend Marina and Renata. We will be in Munich through Monday. Blessings to you all!
Swiss Alpine Hiking and the Melody of Cowbells
We enjoyed another slow start day with breakfast in our hotel. The Hardleys had stayed at the same hotel (Hotel Alpina) back in 2009 on a last minute trip up the mountain. On that trip they had planned to stay in Interlaken the entire time, but quickly realized that there was enough time to go to the small town of Murren. The hotel was full of hospitality then, and almost ten years later we found the same to be true. The breakfast was very complete, with a wide variety of meats, cheeses, breads, yogurt and granola type cereals. You could even boil an egg if you wanted one. Coffee was free flowing and the wait staff seemed to take so much joy and pride in their work. A few times the woman working there said "it is not problem, I want to see your day start off well" when we asked her for things. Just a small reminder that whatever your job, do it with joy, as no job is too small or unnecessary.
Our hearts and bellies full, we set out on a hike to the nearby town of Gimmewald. This was a hike the Hardleys had done on their last trip, and though it is straight downhill one way and straight up hill another way it is an easier one along a country road. They learned about the town from the Westmont Kinesiology department faculty who used to go there on the Kinesiology Europe Mayterm trips.
By this time it is around 10:00. The high for the day should have been around 60 degrees, which would have made for a comfortable hiking day. The walk downhill was an easy one (of course!). Along the way we stopped at the little shops that were operated by the farming families. A number of the farming families would have small boxes or refrigerators with their cured meats and cheeses for sale. It was a self service system where you paid money into an open bin and made your own change. We bought a sausage and a cheese and can't wait to try them.
Walking through town we bumped into the Honor Store, which is a small gift shop for the region. This shop is all on the honor system. If you want to purchase something you wrote what you bought on an envelope and put the money inside. Drop it in a bin and you are done. The store donates all of its profits to various sustainability projects.
We tried to catch a pizza at the Mountain Hostel in town because we had heard that they had decent sized and priced ones but there was no one there. This is the one downside of small towns and being at the beginning of the season. Not every restaurant and shop is open. Sometimes this can be fine, but if you hit Murren too early in the season you can find that a good number of places are still closed from the winter. On the Hardleys last trip they came very early in the season, so only one hotel, one restaurant and the Coop grocery store were open. If you missed the closing hours on the last two the. You went without dinner. :)
We decided in the hike back up that we would try a slight detour to a small water fall. Unfortunately, maps of the area being what they were, we were not quite sure where to turn to go to the waterfall. Some of the maps are more playful for the tourist and less informational for the joker. We had a sense of where we needed to be and took a chance that the sense was accurate. Always a great way to go hiking, yes? :)
It turns out that our sense was correct and we were on the right path. The hike was down a bit more on the hill, but we were able to see the waterfall easily. On the way back up we stopped for a view and a bit of wine. It was helpful, as the 60 degree day did not feel like 60 degrees once you had been hiking for a few hours.
Back on the way up the hill we were trying to be mindful of the time. We knew that the community pool closed at 5:15, having missed it by about 30 minutes the night before. Some time in a cool pool and warm spa sounded good to our aching muscles.
We stopped off at the hotel and changed the contents of our hiking bag for swim gear. We had a small snack in the room of the left over meats, cheeses and bread that were in our hotel refrigerator. Knowing that we would be leaving in the morning, it seemed prudent to work through the food we had since we had also skipped lunch. We were at the pool by 4:00. Once we had figured out where to go (we accidentally changed in the team locker rooms instead of the public locker rooms, oops!) we were in the pool. The pool itself was warm, and we had hoped that the spa would be warmer still. Unfortunately there was not much of a temperature difference, but the jets in the spa felt good nonetheless. So good that both Tim and Christyn fell asleep!
Our hearts and bellies full, we set out on a hike to the nearby town of Gimmewald. This was a hike the Hardleys had done on their last trip, and though it is straight downhill one way and straight up hill another way it is an easier one along a country road. They learned about the town from the Westmont Kinesiology department faculty who used to go there on the Kinesiology Europe Mayterm trips.
By this time it is around 10:00. The high for the day should have been around 60 degrees, which would have made for a comfortable hiking day. The walk downhill was an easy one (of course!). Along the way we stopped at the little shops that were operated by the farming families. A number of the farming families would have small boxes or refrigerators with their cured meats and cheeses for sale. It was a self service system where you paid money into an open bin and made your own change. We bought a sausage and a cheese and can't wait to try them.
Walking through town we bumped into the Honor Store, which is a small gift shop for the region. This shop is all on the honor system. If you want to purchase something you wrote what you bought on an envelope and put the money inside. Drop it in a bin and you are done. The store donates all of its profits to various sustainability projects.
We tried to catch a pizza at the Mountain Hostel in town because we had heard that they had decent sized and priced ones but there was no one there. This is the one downside of small towns and being at the beginning of the season. Not every restaurant and shop is open. Sometimes this can be fine, but if you hit Murren too early in the season you can find that a good number of places are still closed from the winter. On the Hardleys last trip they came very early in the season, so only one hotel, one restaurant and the Coop grocery store were open. If you missed the closing hours on the last two the. You went without dinner. :)
We decided in the hike back up that we would try a slight detour to a small water fall. Unfortunately, maps of the area being what they were, we were not quite sure where to turn to go to the waterfall. Some of the maps are more playful for the tourist and less informational for the joker. We had a sense of where we needed to be and took a chance that the sense was accurate. Always a great way to go hiking, yes? :)
It turns out that our sense was correct and we were on the right path. The hike was down a bit more on the hill, but we were able to see the waterfall easily. On the way back up we stopped for a view and a bit of wine. It was helpful, as the 60 degree day did not feel like 60 degrees once you had been hiking for a few hours.
Back on the way up the hill we were trying to be mindful of the time. We knew that the community pool closed at 5:15, having missed it by about 30 minutes the night before. Some time in a cool pool and warm spa sounded good to our aching muscles.
We stopped off at the hotel and changed the contents of our hiking bag for swim gear. We had a small snack in the room of the left over meats, cheeses and bread that were in our hotel refrigerator. Knowing that we would be leaving in the morning, it seemed prudent to work through the food we had since we had also skipped lunch. We were at the pool by 4:00. Once we had figured out where to go (we accidentally changed in the team locker rooms instead of the public locker rooms, oops!) we were in the pool. The pool itself was warm, and we had hoped that the spa would be warmer still. Unfortunately there was not much of a temperature difference, but the jets in the spa felt good nonetheless. So good that both Tim and Christyn fell asleep!
We stayed almost until closing time. On the way back to the room we debated on dinner plans. Christyn was feeling tired and opted to stay in the room. Tim, Michelle and Susanne headed back to the street to see what the options were. There was always the choice to eat at the hotel restaurant, and though it would be a fine option, we were also looking for something a little different. Kim at the hotel in Interlaken had recommended a few different Swiss dishes (aside from the traditional fondu pots of cheese) and we were hoping to find a place that offered some of them.
The great thing about European restaurants is that they will display their menus outside of their shops so that you can see before you sit down. The problem is, the menu at this restaurant was blocked by a group of 6 locals who were sitting at the table under it. Not wanting to disturb them, we asked the waitress for a menu. She was carrying 8-9 drinks on a tray at the time and said "Yes, you sit, I bring it to you". Not wanting to commit to a table without seeing a menu we waited for her to deliver her drinks. When she came back we asked again for a menu, and now slightly irritated, she repeated her instructions to sit.
We dutifully sat, hoping that the menu would include the suggested meals we were looking for. The sun was going down, and Michelle was soon cold. She went back to the room and grabbed both jackets and some socks for Susanne. While Michelle was gone, the waitress came to get our order. The menu was full of long German words that challenge the American tongue and a rough English translation below the German description. Luckily our waitress could speak English, she was an older thin German lady with graying hair, but she was curt and efficient - picture the stern school teacher you had growing up that had perfected the disapproving glare. When Tim asked her about the items on the menu, she looked at us quizzically with a narrowed eyes (implying...cant you read english?). Another attempt to ask her how she would order Rosti she told Tim that this is his problem not hers. If she tells him how to order then it becomes her problem. Understanding the issue, Tim said "If I order it, then I will eat it." Relief came over the face of the waitress, as we had broken through the cultural issue. She said she would order Rosti with meat, Tim said I want that too but that wasn't an option under the Rosti section of the menu. She had Tim flip the page and shows him the meat section and the side orders that you can choose from which includes Rosti. ***The American comparison...I walk into McDonalds and ask the cashier how he would eat Fries. While I look at the side-order section of the menu, he directs me to the Value Meal area and tells me fries are included in the meal deal. Silly Americans :)
So what did we order: 1) Schweinsbratwurst mit Zwiebelsauce mit Rosti; 2) Rindsgeschnetzeltes and 3) Kaseschnitte mit Vorderschinken und Spiegelei
Which to the enjoyment of our waitress we tried to pronounce. The third one, she practiced with Tim a couple times, she collected the menus leaving Tim holding one. Then said to him, "Practice, when I return you try again" with a big smile on her face.
When she returned with the beer we ordered, she looked at Tim and said, "Soooo." Let the butchering of the German language begin. We had a good laugh and she said to keep trying.
When Michelle returned back to the table she was apprised of the interactions that had unfolded since her departure.
So what did we order: 1) Schweinsbratwurst mit Zwiebelsauce mit Rosti; 2) Rindsgeschnetzeltes and 3) Kaseschnitte mit Vorderschinken und Spiegelei
Which to the enjoyment of our waitress we tried to pronounce. The third one, she practiced with Tim a couple times, she collected the menus leaving Tim holding one. Then said to him, "Practice, when I return you try again" with a big smile on her face.
When she returned with the beer we ordered, she looked at Tim and said, "Soooo." Let the butchering of the German language begin. We had a good laugh and she said to keep trying.
When Michelle returned back to the table she was apprised of the interactions that had unfolded since her departure.
The plates of food arrived and we were delighted with the smells...except for Tim's dish which had the pungent smell of a very strong cheese melted over the entire dish. We got 1) Sausage in onion sauce with hash browns, 2) egg noodle stroganoff and 3) Toast with ham completely drowned in cheese with a sunny side up egg on top. And once we tasted all the dishes, they were wonderful! Even the stinky cheese tasted good.
Full to the brim we paid the bill and asked to take a picture with the waitress. She was more than happy to, but suggested that we all go around the cow statue that was near the front of her shop. We were more than happy to oblige.
Full to the brim we paid the bill and asked to take a picture with the waitress. She was more than happy to, but suggested that we all go around the cow statue that was near the front of her shop. We were more than happy to oblige.
Back in our room we prepped for the next days adventures. It is a solid travel day, with our first transport leaving at 9:28am and arriving in Munich at 5:28. We have many connections to make as well, and a few of them are only 5-10 minutes apart. Since Swiss trains run like clockwork, we should be fine, but none in our group tend to rest until we are in the last leg of a multi-leg trip. We will see what adventures tomorrow brings!
Jumping Off of Mountains and Climbing Back Up in Murren
The next morning Tim greeted Susanne and Christyn with the exciting news that a van would be picking them up to go paragliding at 9:45 that morning. Their paragliding pilots were named Max and Flo and after a short drive up the mountain and brief instructions, they were ready for takeoff. Both Susanne and Christyn agree that paragliding was an amazing experience and the views of Interlaken and the turquoise lakes from flying above are unmatched. After landing in a field across town, they were driven back to the hotel, despite the fact that Tim and Michelle were waiting for them at the park a few streets away. Susanne and Christyn headed to the park, and while Tim and Michelle were taking pictures of the incoming paragliders (hoping one of them was Christyn or Susanne because you can't tell from the ground) the Jacksons walked up behind them and said Hi.
We headed back to the hotel to gather our things and say goodbye to Kim then hopped on a train to Lauterbrunnen. We stored our bags at the train station there and then walked through the valley past waterfalls and cows and over bridges to reach Trummelbach Falls. Trummelbach was definitely worth the fee of 11 Swiss Franks to enter, we walked through caverns and along paths carved into the inside of a mountain to view the waterfall that flowed through it. There are a total of 10 interior falls in this location. The upper ones you access by a tram that takes you inside of the mountain. You then walk down some stairs to access the lower falls.
We took our time checking it out, taking pictures, and eating Pringles (our one American luxury on the trip) before catching the bus back to Lauterbrunnen. We bought some picnic foods at the Coop in Lauterbrunen as we were not sure if the Coop in Murren would be open for the season yet. We then headed to the lift to Murren. The lift up was very exciting for Christyn and Susanne because they had never been on one before and the views of the mountains were gorgeous. Once at the top of the hill there was a little train that took us along the mountain top to the city of Murren.
We checked into our hotel and made a great little picnic on the balcony with views of the alps with bread, cheese, meat and wine. We tried to go to the sports center in town, where hotel guests can use their pool, and discovered that the swimming pool closes at 6 (last entrance at 5:15). As we had eaten a late lunch and no one was hungry, we opted to turn in early to get some rest after a busy day.
We headed back to the hotel to gather our things and say goodbye to Kim then hopped on a train to Lauterbrunnen. We stored our bags at the train station there and then walked through the valley past waterfalls and cows and over bridges to reach Trummelbach Falls. Trummelbach was definitely worth the fee of 11 Swiss Franks to enter, we walked through caverns and along paths carved into the inside of a mountain to view the waterfall that flowed through it. There are a total of 10 interior falls in this location. The upper ones you access by a tram that takes you inside of the mountain. You then walk down some stairs to access the lower falls.
We took our time checking it out, taking pictures, and eating Pringles (our one American luxury on the trip) before catching the bus back to Lauterbrunnen. We bought some picnic foods at the Coop in Lauterbrunen as we were not sure if the Coop in Murren would be open for the season yet. We then headed to the lift to Murren. The lift up was very exciting for Christyn and Susanne because they had never been on one before and the views of the mountains were gorgeous. Once at the top of the hill there was a little train that took us along the mountain top to the city of Murren.
We checked into our hotel and made a great little picnic on the balcony with views of the alps with bread, cheese, meat and wine. We tried to go to the sports center in town, where hotel guests can use their pool, and discovered that the swimming pool closes at 6 (last entrance at 5:15). As we had eaten a late lunch and no one was hungry, we opted to turn in early to get some rest after a busy day.
The High Speed Version of Venice
As plans were coming together we learned that Ariella could drop us off at their local station, Busa Di Vigoza, just 5 minutes from their house. Unable to find easy parking, Susanne and Tim hopped out of the car while Ariella, Christyn and Michelle circled the block. Susanne and Tim ran in for a quick stop at the Tabachi to buy train tickets, and with an attempt at Italian and some gesturing, we were off to the local train station.
We arrived at the Venice station with a few minutes of planning necessary to finish our next day travel plans to Interlaken. As Tim worked on this, the girls stepped outside for Susanne and Christyn's first views of the busy Grand Canal. How fascinating to watch the variety of floating vehicles of various sizes shuffle around each other, loading and unloading passengers and small cargo deliveries. Tim and Michelle worked their magic to figure out which water bus, Vaparetto, to crowd onto to tour the Grand Canal and stop at our first destination, San Marco. While on this ride we listened to our audio guide as Rick Steves pointed out the history of this beautiful floating city.
We hopped off and joined the crowds in the St. Mark's Square/Piazza. According to Rick, Napoleon described this place as one of the most elegant drawing rooms in Europe surrounded by the Doge's Palace, Campanile-the bell tower and the Correr Museum. Our hope had been to see the inside of the Doge's Palace and Bridge of Sighs but given our timing and the crowds, we observed from afar. (This will give Tim and Michelle something to do on another trip.)
I must add that the next event occurred merely by chance and is the beginning of two unfortunate events for Christyn. Spoiler alert: the day was still a good day with extra gelato to top it off.
By this time in our day of scurrying, we decided to grab a 'take away' sandwich. We were eating as we quickly hustled to the next vaporetto to San Giorgio Maggiore's Tower when, unbeknown to us, we had attracted a few seagulls overhead. One gutsy seagull swooped down on Christyn's sandwich as it was right in front of her from her recent bite and flew away with it. What a shocking assault!
We hopped on a vaparatto to cross over to San Giorgio island and a ride up San Giorgio Maggiore's Tower. The Church was beautiful with high ceilings filled with murals of detailed depictions of Christ and priests. One notable difference was the large paneled mirrors in a circle formation displaying a particular modern artist's message of service. This work was intriguing but out of place in the center of the church. Where we would typically expect an area for worshippers they were demonstrating art. We went past the display and to the ticket booth to purchase our ride up to the top of the bell tower. We also passed a WC, and we all took advantage of the free toilet as we waited for the elevator. (A note to those that haven't traveled to Europe, public bathroom are few and restaurant bathrooms are for customers only. So, if you see a free bathroom, use it.) into the top of the tower...The views were breathtaking of Venice! Susanne was in full picture mode. Then Tim called Susanne and Christyn over just as the bell overhead rang 1:00. It's not fair that Tim recorded the moment of surprise on video. What a brother!
Onto another vaparetto from the tower to the island of Murano and into a glass presentation. Perfect timing! This wasn't the typical tourist presentation, we had lucked into a real glass manufacturer. It was a great viewing of how the master and his apprentice make the large leaves on their famous chandeliers. Then we enjoyed a private conversation from a masters grandson on the evolution of their techniques while walking through the factory shop. After, we were off to shopping and to grab some gelato.
We arrived at the Venice station with a few minutes of planning necessary to finish our next day travel plans to Interlaken. As Tim worked on this, the girls stepped outside for Susanne and Christyn's first views of the busy Grand Canal. How fascinating to watch the variety of floating vehicles of various sizes shuffle around each other, loading and unloading passengers and small cargo deliveries. Tim and Michelle worked their magic to figure out which water bus, Vaparetto, to crowd onto to tour the Grand Canal and stop at our first destination, San Marco. While on this ride we listened to our audio guide as Rick Steves pointed out the history of this beautiful floating city.
We hopped off and joined the crowds in the St. Mark's Square/Piazza. According to Rick, Napoleon described this place as one of the most elegant drawing rooms in Europe surrounded by the Doge's Palace, Campanile-the bell tower and the Correr Museum. Our hope had been to see the inside of the Doge's Palace and Bridge of Sighs but given our timing and the crowds, we observed from afar. (This will give Tim and Michelle something to do on another trip.)
I must add that the next event occurred merely by chance and is the beginning of two unfortunate events for Christyn. Spoiler alert: the day was still a good day with extra gelato to top it off.
By this time in our day of scurrying, we decided to grab a 'take away' sandwich. We were eating as we quickly hustled to the next vaporetto to San Giorgio Maggiore's Tower when, unbeknown to us, we had attracted a few seagulls overhead. One gutsy seagull swooped down on Christyn's sandwich as it was right in front of her from her recent bite and flew away with it. What a shocking assault!
We hopped on a vaparatto to cross over to San Giorgio island and a ride up San Giorgio Maggiore's Tower. The Church was beautiful with high ceilings filled with murals of detailed depictions of Christ and priests. One notable difference was the large paneled mirrors in a circle formation displaying a particular modern artist's message of service. This work was intriguing but out of place in the center of the church. Where we would typically expect an area for worshippers they were demonstrating art. We went past the display and to the ticket booth to purchase our ride up to the top of the bell tower. We also passed a WC, and we all took advantage of the free toilet as we waited for the elevator. (A note to those that haven't traveled to Europe, public bathroom are few and restaurant bathrooms are for customers only. So, if you see a free bathroom, use it.) into the top of the tower...The views were breathtaking of Venice! Susanne was in full picture mode. Then Tim called Susanne and Christyn over just as the bell overhead rang 1:00. It's not fair that Tim recorded the moment of surprise on video. What a brother!
Onto another vaparetto from the tower to the island of Murano and into a glass presentation. Perfect timing! This wasn't the typical tourist presentation, we had lucked into a real glass manufacturer. It was a great viewing of how the master and his apprentice make the large leaves on their famous chandeliers. Then we enjoyed a private conversation from a masters grandson on the evolution of their techniques while walking through the factory shop. After, we were off to shopping and to grab some gelato.
This is the second unfortunate incident that occurred to Christyn. We were walking along enjoying our cones and headed towards a water fountain when a bird overhead dropped a mess on Christyn and some others nearby. Thankfully there was a store around the corner where we bought Christyn a new Venetian shirt. Plus more gelato shops to replace her cone. This might be the moment that affects our animal-loving Christyn to only love birds from afar!
We caught the vaparetto back to the main island. We had two hours to wander In the general direction of the train station. We took the back streets to the Rialto Bridge and when we were lost we just asked "dové Rialto"...which we did several times. Of course along the way we stumbled upon more shopping, kabobs, cannoli and generally enjoyed "getting lost" while exploring the fascinating streets and waterways of Venice. Plus, Tim found a wine shop with Fragolina which was perfect on this warm day with a little ice in a plastic cup. As we were leaving the Rialto market we stumbled upon the local traghetto stop.
To finish our day we hoped onto a 2€ traghetto, which is a little larger that a gondola, to cross the canal. What a thrill! Arriving at the train station with a few extra minutes, we sat on the steps watching the Venetian world go by. Then we were off to catch the train back to Padua.
To finish our day we hoped onto a 2€ traghetto, which is a little larger that a gondola, to cross the canal. What a thrill! Arriving at the train station with a few extra minutes, we sat on the steps watching the Venetian world go by. Then we were off to catch the train back to Padua.
Ariella met us at the station with a big Italian hug and we were off to their house again. We attempted to swim but the weather changed and it was rather cool but not to cold for Tim and Carlo Alberto.
After swimming we enjoyed another delicious meal of noodles and sauce with bacon from a region that suffered from an earth quake several years ago. Then Ariella brought out sliced cantaloupe and prosciutto and taught us how to eat them together. An odd combo from an American standpoint, but the flavor combination was delicious. We have enjoyed the history and pride their family has shared with us. We cheered "Ching, Chene!"
After swimming we enjoyed another delicious meal of noodles and sauce with bacon from a region that suffered from an earth quake several years ago. Then Ariella brought out sliced cantaloupe and prosciutto and taught us how to eat them together. An odd combo from an American standpoint, but the flavor combination was delicious. We have enjoyed the history and pride their family has shared with us. We cheered "Ching, Chene!"
Good Food, Good Swims and Padovian Hospitality
We needed to check out of our rooms at 10:00, but our train was not set to leave until 10:45. The timing here gave us something very unusual, almost unheard of on this trip. Free time. That ever elusive thing, free time is a close cousin of sleeping in, which is also rare on our European adventures. But as we did not want to hike again, and the stores were not yet open, there was not much for us to do in the morning.
We planned to sleep in a bit and have a slower start. Meeting around 9 we bought some sweet rolls at a local bakery and cappuccinos near the harbor. We found a bench in the harbor and looked at the ocean while we finished our breakfast. We took a quick trip back through town and bought some food at the local Coop grocery store. With a 6 hour train ride ahead of us we did not want to go without food on the train. After that, with a few moments until our train departed, we took a short walk through the upper end of town.
One of the things Michelle has noticed on this trip is the friendliness of all of the people we encountered. We try to live as locals whenever we travel, and that includes learning basic phrases in the local language and trying local foods. But in this trip, these small things have yielded some wonderfully tender moments. Like the older woman walking into town as we were walking out of town with her wildflowers in hand. As we passed and said good morning in Italian she smiled and said an effusive good morning back to us. Joyous connections like this just warm a travelers soul.
With the train quickly approaching we grabbed our bags and headed towards the train station. We were all hoping that the train rides on our way out of town would be better than the train rides into Vernazza! We did have 4 changes that we needed to make, but with Tim's planning we knew when each would arrive, when each would leave and what platforms we needed to move to in order to catch each leg. If we made all of the trains we would be in Padova by 4:00 and meeting up with Nicola, a friend of Tim and Michelle's.
Thankfully the train rides were largely uneventful and we made each connection easily. There was one leg where we stopped on the tracks due to an "electrical failure". Which induced a moment of slight panic as who knows what the failure was for and how long it would take to fix. Thankfully the delay was only about 10 minutes, and we had a 30 minute buffer at that station.
When we arrived in Padova Nicola was there to meet us and took us on a grand tour of the city center. We commented to Nicola that it was warmer than we were anticipating, to which he informed us that the entire country was under a heat wave during the week we were there. Which made sense, because we were envisioning 70 degree weather based on historical averages, but were experiencing mid to high 80s each day.
The first part of the tour started at the Abbey of Santa Giustina, which is one of the biggest churches in Italy. As we were not planning to enter a church we were wearing our traveling clothes. That meant that Christyn was not wearing appropriate clothing. Thankfully the church provided cover ups. She wrapped one around her waist, looking quite stylish mind you, and rolled along through the church.
We learned that the church is the resting place of the apostle Luke. Here, in this church rested some of the remains of a man who walked with Jesus. Take that one in for a moment. It's a heavy thought.
The church also sits in front of the second biggest square in the world. While we were there a carnival was in town, so the space was full of rides, cotton candy and lots of kids. :) There was an interesting juxtaposition between the interior significance of the church to the exterior activities on the square.
The heat of the day was getting to us already, so a stop was made for a quick gelato. The shop had banana gelato, and we all seemed to end up with the flavor as one of our scoops. Nicola informed us that banana is not a traditional gelato flavor, but it was tasty nonetheless.
The tour continued down the Main Street, which was recently closed to pedestrians. The only people allowed to drive on the roads are those who live on the street, and they had to drive very slowly as the street can be congested by shoppers, especially on the weekend.
We also saw the fruit and vegetable market, the astrological clock in one of the city squares, and the University of Padova. The University of Padova was the first university in Italy. Nicola and his wife Arielle (the friends we would spend the next two days with) met at the University, so the buildings we saw were special places for them.
For our final stop we entered the Saint Antonio church. It was a delight, for the look of the church as well as the people in it. On prior trips when we have attended mass we have lamented on the lack of worshippers there. In this service it was nearly packed, and not with tourists trying to find a place to simply rest their feet. This church also housed a number of holy relics and had a brochure with a self guided tour to help you understand it all.
While on the tour Nicola received a call from Ariella asking where we were. Apparently Nicola had said he was giving us a quick tour, but it was taking longer than planned and she had prepared dinner for us. Two years ago Tim and Michelle were with their friends the Smith's in Venice and had been invited for dinner at Nicola and Ariella's house. It was the most amazing meal with multiple courses. We put some pep in our step and hustled back to the car.
At the house we were introduced to Ambrey and Carlos Alberto, Nicola and Ariella's two children. They were learning English as a second language in their school, but were a bit shy in talking to us. They could, however, understand most of what we were saying. Since Susanne and Christyn know sign language, it was helpful to use signs to explain various concepts and ideas.
Ariella took us on a tour of the house, which had a huge remodel over the last few years. Almost every inch of the house had been renovated. The kitchen was also moved to a different area on the main floor and a pool was added in the back yard. The renovations were all so beautiful. One of our favorites was a metal bookshelf with a latch hidden inside a book, which allowed the bookshelf to pivot on the wall and revealed stairs down to the laundry room, basement and sauna room. It was unexpected and ingenious.
The pool was a feature we used quickly, as we were told there was enough time before dinner to take a quick swim. Nicola had instructed us to bring our swimsuits, and after a hot day and a long walk the cool water felt refreshing. The kids were already in the pool, and before long we were all engaged in a serious game of "keep away". Carlos Alberto was the funniest as he would always pass to his sister and when he was in the middle he would ride on Nicolas shoulders in order to have a higher reach. The sun was going down and it was soon time to clean up and get ready for dinner.
Tim and Michelle were in the downstairs room behind the hidden bookcase entrance. Susanne and Christyn were in an upstairs bedroom. The bathrooms in the house were all remodeled with the coolest showers. The shower head was square and dropped from the ceiling versus a wall. The walls were covered in a stack stone material on two sides and a glass panel on another side. Then in the place you would expect to see a door there was none. It was completely open to the room. The floor was a solid piece of stone with drainage holes cut out in a square shape. The whole floor slanted slightly towards the drain hole so that no water escaped from the open side. It was amazing. Michelle told Tim that he should have moved forward with a bathroom remodel at our house before this trip because now she has lots of new and expensive ideas. :)
Once we all freshened up we were happy to see that Nicola's aunt Christine and uncle Daniello had arrived for dinner. Tim and Michelle were excited as on an earlier trip to Venice Nicola and Ariella hosted Tim, Michelle and their friends the Smiths for dinner. At that dinner Christine and Daniello also came, and it was a delightful meal and conversation, made all the more interesting as neither Christine nor Daniello spoke much English. Tim and Michelle were very much looking forward to reconnecting.
Daniello quickly asked what kind of gelato we wanted for dessert. To which we responded banana! You should have seen Daniello's face. He quickly scrunched it up and said "banana? Bagh!" He and Carlos Alberto left quickly after that to go grab the dessert.
Christine and Ariella are both excellent cooks, so we were all in for a treat. We started with the first course, which consisted of two different kinds of pasta, a bow tie pasta with tomatoes, olives and mozzarella cheese and a trofoili pasta with pesto sauce on it. Both were delicious and could have been full meals in and of themselves. We all went back for seconds.
The second course was a green salad with an olive oil/salt/pepper dressing and sliced roast beef with au jus sauce. Both were delicious. Most of us went back for seconds.
Finally was dessert, the infamous gelato. Ariella also brought out some sliced strawberries and banana. And to everyone's surprise, one of the flavors of gelato that Daniello purchased was banana. :)
Wonderful conversation ensued and we all stayed up way too late. The Hardley's were surprised to see that Daniello and Christine had been practicing their English in the years since our last visit. With the help of our trusty Google Translate app we were able to navigate conversations quite easily. There are some benefits to modern technology.
Tomorrow we are set to travel for one quick day in Venice then dinner again with Nicola and Ariella before we are off to Switzerland the following day. Ciao!
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Personal Safety Update
Just a small update in light of the recent events in London and Paris. We are all safe and secure. We are now in Switzerland (the blog posts are about 2 days behind) and plan to be here until Friday. On Friday we head to Munich to stay with friends through Monday. If there are future events we will update this page with additional information on our well being.
Blessings to you all.
Blessings to you all.
Th Magic of the Cinque Terre Strikes Again
Sleep was just a few hours until Tim and Susanne were up and out again (6:15 AM!) Christyn and Michelle had requested time to sleep in. We took the opportunity to hike a bit of the trail to Monterosa al Mare...since it was early, the ticket booth was still closed allowing us to push past it a bit further than would have been possible had it been later in the day. The hike from the "village" is a steep staircase of rocky, uneven steps. The views quickly unfold before you at each turn...and Susanne had to stop at each turn to attempt to capture them. The pictures will not due the reality justice as this is such a beautiful area. As we climb, the houses grew further apart and the greenery of the terraced gardens surrounded us. We still had sweeping views of the Mediterranean Sea as well. We stopped at a great lookout, going further would have hidden the village as the trail bent around the natural curvature of the hills ahead of us. At this spot we had amazing views of the village, the harbor and the sea...just not a big enough lens to capture it all. We enjoyed a few minutes rest, still glistening in sweat from the hike up, to ponder the beauty before us. Alas, we had to head down to make it past the ticket booth before we were caught on the wrong side without a ticket.
We strolled into Vernazza with an eye towards breakfast. We stopped at a pasticeria to pick up some sweet rolls, apricot croissants and a quick cappuccino (this place only had coffee to go). We strolled down to the benches at the harbor enjoying the coffee and a "danish" with views of the fishing boats bobbing up and down. A hike up to the apartment to check on Michelle and Christyn revealed that they were still sleeping. We left the rolls on the kitchen table and headed out for another hike. This time we headed inland, under the train platform and into the hills along the main -err, only road. The stream flanked us on one side with houses clinging to the steep walls of the valley and sometimes built into the rocky outcropping. The sounds of the occasional waterfalls created a wonderful ambiance broken by the random car traveling along the narrow road. We passed the old rusty water wheel built into the house, and a "Nona" on her way to town carrying a bouquet of flowers. The pace of life is slower and relaxed. We reach a "Y" in the road and stopped to take some pictures and pick a couple of cherries from the nearby tree. We then turned around and headed home.
Upon arrival back at the apartment we found Christyn and Michelle just getting up. The decision was quickly made to stay for an extra day in Vernazza. The only problem was, we were again faced with the issue of not having a room. We went back to the travel agency we contacted yesterday, and she informed us that her last room was booked the day before. We needed to check out by 10:00am, so we took our packs to the little store that found us our apartment for the evening and asked if they knew of any places for four people for one more ni ght. Francesca said the knew of no apartments, but that they had a room for two people and they would call their contacts to see if another room could be secured for two more people. Within 5 minutes there was an older Italian man who spoke no English at the doorstep ready to take two of our group to the new room. The second room would not be available until later in the day, but we could leave the bags for that room in the store until it was available.
Susanne, Christyn and Michelle headed to the available room. The man brought us to a woman named Maria who spoke very little English but very rapid Italian. She explained to us the rules of the room, and there were a fair number of signs translated into English and German to help. She would point to a sign, we would read, then she would explain in rapid fire Italian. Thankfully for us, she also used plenty of hand gestures and sounds so that we could follow along. She explained all about the cats in the neighborhood that could get into the room and how to prevent it, we learned that the gals should not go to bed with wet hair on the pillows, and a bath mat should be put on the floor after a shower. Also, when we left the room we should turn off all of the lights and leave a water bottle in the doorway as a signal so that she knew it was ok to come in and freshen up the room. She was a delightful older woman who didn't seem to mind at all that we only understood a portion of what she said. Her house was also right above the room she was renting and she let us know to shout "Maria, Maria" if we needed anything and she would come running.
Maria's house was on the trail between Vernazza and Monterossa al Mare. We decided to head up to the checkpoint on the side behind Maria's house to see what kinds of views we could get without buying a ticket for the whole trail. We easily decided the night before that even if we stayed in Vernazza one more night we would not do the full hike between either of the two towns. There were too many people on the trails, and the weather was hovering around 85 degrees Having done the full hike in 2009, Tim and Michelle knew that shade was scarce and the hike would be just miserable. We opted to use the day to explore and relax. We did not get too far up the trail before we encountered the ticket booth, so we had only partial views of the harbor and city. Nonetheless, the views were still quite beautiful.
We headed back into town to cross to the other side of the trail, this time headed in the direction of Cornelia. The beginning of this hike takes you high into the houses on the hill of the city. A beautiful trip, and fun to see so many tiny lanes and homes all stacked on top of and next to each other. On the trail there is a restaurant that overlooked the ocean and had signs for appetizers and drinks. Curious, we went inside to look at a menu. The prices seemed reasonable and the view could not be beat, so we opted to end our short hike on the Cornelia trail at the restaurant to take advantage of the views and the shade.
The restaurant had 4 different kinds of bruschetta, so we tried three with a bottle of wine. Christyn found milkshakes on the menu and decided to try a melon flavored one. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, with the blue expanse of the Mediterranean Sea in front of you and the beautiful stack stone of the rocks behind you. So much so that we made a reservation for the same table for dinner at 7:30. Seeing as that the next day would be full of trains, we thought it best to start dinner early.
Tim and Michelle left lunch early to go grab their bags and check into their new room. On the way they opted to stop off at the castle tower in town. The 1.50 euro entrance is well worth the views. The tower is on the highest point in town perched on the edge of the rock cliffs overlooking the ocean. There are sweeping views all around. Looking to the south you can see Cornelia in the distance and to the north the largest village in the Cinque Terre, Monterossa, is visible. It was our first time to the top of the tower, always nice to add a new experience to a familiar spot. On our way down the tower, we passed Susanne and Christyn as they headed up.
We reached Francesca's store and she walked us up to the room, leaving Franco to mind the store. The new room was slightly higher than the last apartment, and she explained as we entered the common entrance that her house was to right, our door to the room was on the left. The room was quaint with bed, small refrigerator and in the bathroom a beautifully blue tiled shower. The window opened up to peek-a-boo views of the sea. A quick change into out swimsuits and we were off to meet the Jacksons at the same spot we swam the day before.
The beach was much busier, as it was earlier in the day. We dropped our towels and shoes and headed in the water. The saltiness of the sea makes swimming and floating very easy, you only need to be aware of the boats coming and going. We decided to swim out past a large rock outcrop beyond the crowd. A small cove protected us from the waves on the other side but everything was rock. There was no easy way to sit and relax. The water being so clear we could look down and see the rock formations and sea life below. We opted to try our luck at the open water, so we climbed over the small rock barrier and carefully slid into the water timing our drop to coincide with the waves. The water was choppy, but not bad once we swam away from the rocks, we gently swayed up and down. If we stopped swimming the natural current was pushing us into the harbor and the buoyancy would nearly keep your head above water. We swam into the harbor, as Michelle and Christyn got our and dried off, Susanne wanted to "touch the sand" so Susanne and Tim swam further in to the small beach area. As Susanne's feet touched sandy floor she was happy, and since we did that thirty feet off shore it made Tim happy that we wouldn't have to fight the beach crowd to touch dry sand. Back at shore we parted ways to our respective rooms to shower and dress for dinner. On the way to dinner Michelle opted to go back to one of the shops they visited earlier in the day and purchase a new pair of pants. The legs are so full that when she is standing it looks like she is wearing a very long skirt. She had seen a few people on the trip wearing them so far and thought they would be a fun memory/souvenir of the trip.
Arriving early with the sun still well above the horizon, we started with a round of cocktails and pesto bruschetta. The sun slowly lowered towards the sea making the surrounding landscape jump out further. Michelle ordered lasagna with meat sauce and Susanne and Christyn ordered the lasagna with pesto. Tim had a pasta dish with a mixture of shrimp and mussels. We complimented dinner with a bottle of the Cinque Terre wine and stayed late into the night. The hike down from the restaurant revealed the romance of the Cinque Terre as the glow of the lights of the town reflect off the aged buildings. The small alleyways and stairs create a picturesque setting to stroll around the quiet town. Another amazing day lost and found in the magic of the Cinque Terre.
Check out time is 10:00 and our train to Padova was leaving at 10:45. We all turned in early anticipating a long training day ahead of us. We could only hope that it did not involve the same kind of excitement we experienced on our way out to the Cinque Terre.
We strolled into Vernazza with an eye towards breakfast. We stopped at a pasticeria to pick up some sweet rolls, apricot croissants and a quick cappuccino (this place only had coffee to go). We strolled down to the benches at the harbor enjoying the coffee and a "danish" with views of the fishing boats bobbing up and down. A hike up to the apartment to check on Michelle and Christyn revealed that they were still sleeping. We left the rolls on the kitchen table and headed out for another hike. This time we headed inland, under the train platform and into the hills along the main -err, only road. The stream flanked us on one side with houses clinging to the steep walls of the valley and sometimes built into the rocky outcropping. The sounds of the occasional waterfalls created a wonderful ambiance broken by the random car traveling along the narrow road. We passed the old rusty water wheel built into the house, and a "Nona" on her way to town carrying a bouquet of flowers. The pace of life is slower and relaxed. We reach a "Y" in the road and stopped to take some pictures and pick a couple of cherries from the nearby tree. We then turned around and headed home.
Upon arrival back at the apartment we found Christyn and Michelle just getting up. The decision was quickly made to stay for an extra day in Vernazza. The only problem was, we were again faced with the issue of not having a room. We went back to the travel agency we contacted yesterday, and she informed us that her last room was booked the day before. We needed to check out by 10:00am, so we took our packs to the little store that found us our apartment for the evening and asked if they knew of any places for four people for one more ni ght. Francesca said the knew of no apartments, but that they had a room for two people and they would call their contacts to see if another room could be secured for two more people. Within 5 minutes there was an older Italian man who spoke no English at the doorstep ready to take two of our group to the new room. The second room would not be available until later in the day, but we could leave the bags for that room in the store until it was available.
Susanne, Christyn and Michelle headed to the available room. The man brought us to a woman named Maria who spoke very little English but very rapid Italian. She explained to us the rules of the room, and there were a fair number of signs translated into English and German to help. She would point to a sign, we would read, then she would explain in rapid fire Italian. Thankfully for us, she also used plenty of hand gestures and sounds so that we could follow along. She explained all about the cats in the neighborhood that could get into the room and how to prevent it, we learned that the gals should not go to bed with wet hair on the pillows, and a bath mat should be put on the floor after a shower. Also, when we left the room we should turn off all of the lights and leave a water bottle in the doorway as a signal so that she knew it was ok to come in and freshen up the room. She was a delightful older woman who didn't seem to mind at all that we only understood a portion of what she said. Her house was also right above the room she was renting and she let us know to shout "Maria, Maria" if we needed anything and she would come running.
Maria's house was on the trail between Vernazza and Monterossa al Mare. We decided to head up to the checkpoint on the side behind Maria's house to see what kinds of views we could get without buying a ticket for the whole trail. We easily decided the night before that even if we stayed in Vernazza one more night we would not do the full hike between either of the two towns. There were too many people on the trails, and the weather was hovering around 85 degrees Having done the full hike in 2009, Tim and Michelle knew that shade was scarce and the hike would be just miserable. We opted to use the day to explore and relax. We did not get too far up the trail before we encountered the ticket booth, so we had only partial views of the harbor and city. Nonetheless, the views were still quite beautiful.
We headed back into town to cross to the other side of the trail, this time headed in the direction of Cornelia. The beginning of this hike takes you high into the houses on the hill of the city. A beautiful trip, and fun to see so many tiny lanes and homes all stacked on top of and next to each other. On the trail there is a restaurant that overlooked the ocean and had signs for appetizers and drinks. Curious, we went inside to look at a menu. The prices seemed reasonable and the view could not be beat, so we opted to end our short hike on the Cornelia trail at the restaurant to take advantage of the views and the shade.
The restaurant had 4 different kinds of bruschetta, so we tried three with a bottle of wine. Christyn found milkshakes on the menu and decided to try a melon flavored one. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, with the blue expanse of the Mediterranean Sea in front of you and the beautiful stack stone of the rocks behind you. So much so that we made a reservation for the same table for dinner at 7:30. Seeing as that the next day would be full of trains, we thought it best to start dinner early.
Tim and Michelle left lunch early to go grab their bags and check into their new room. On the way they opted to stop off at the castle tower in town. The 1.50 euro entrance is well worth the views. The tower is on the highest point in town perched on the edge of the rock cliffs overlooking the ocean. There are sweeping views all around. Looking to the south you can see Cornelia in the distance and to the north the largest village in the Cinque Terre, Monterossa, is visible. It was our first time to the top of the tower, always nice to add a new experience to a familiar spot. On our way down the tower, we passed Susanne and Christyn as they headed up.
We reached Francesca's store and she walked us up to the room, leaving Franco to mind the store. The new room was slightly higher than the last apartment, and she explained as we entered the common entrance that her house was to right, our door to the room was on the left. The room was quaint with bed, small refrigerator and in the bathroom a beautifully blue tiled shower. The window opened up to peek-a-boo views of the sea. A quick change into out swimsuits and we were off to meet the Jacksons at the same spot we swam the day before.
The beach was much busier, as it was earlier in the day. We dropped our towels and shoes and headed in the water. The saltiness of the sea makes swimming and floating very easy, you only need to be aware of the boats coming and going. We decided to swim out past a large rock outcrop beyond the crowd. A small cove protected us from the waves on the other side but everything was rock. There was no easy way to sit and relax. The water being so clear we could look down and see the rock formations and sea life below. We opted to try our luck at the open water, so we climbed over the small rock barrier and carefully slid into the water timing our drop to coincide with the waves. The water was choppy, but not bad once we swam away from the rocks, we gently swayed up and down. If we stopped swimming the natural current was pushing us into the harbor and the buoyancy would nearly keep your head above water. We swam into the harbor, as Michelle and Christyn got our and dried off, Susanne wanted to "touch the sand" so Susanne and Tim swam further in to the small beach area. As Susanne's feet touched sandy floor she was happy, and since we did that thirty feet off shore it made Tim happy that we wouldn't have to fight the beach crowd to touch dry sand. Back at shore we parted ways to our respective rooms to shower and dress for dinner. On the way to dinner Michelle opted to go back to one of the shops they visited earlier in the day and purchase a new pair of pants. The legs are so full that when she is standing it looks like she is wearing a very long skirt. She had seen a few people on the trip wearing them so far and thought they would be a fun memory/souvenir of the trip.
Arriving early with the sun still well above the horizon, we started with a round of cocktails and pesto bruschetta. The sun slowly lowered towards the sea making the surrounding landscape jump out further. Michelle ordered lasagna with meat sauce and Susanne and Christyn ordered the lasagna with pesto. Tim had a pasta dish with a mixture of shrimp and mussels. We complimented dinner with a bottle of the Cinque Terre wine and stayed late into the night. The hike down from the restaurant revealed the romance of the Cinque Terre as the glow of the lights of the town reflect off the aged buildings. The small alleyways and stairs create a picturesque setting to stroll around the quiet town. Another amazing day lost and found in the magic of the Cinque Terre.
Check out time is 10:00 and our train to Padova was leaving at 10:45. We all turned in early anticipating a long training day ahead of us. We could only hope that it did not involve the same kind of excitement we experienced on our way out to the Cinque Terre.
The Hills are Alive with Sounds of Relaxation
This morning saw us up and at em early in the morning to catch a train on our way to the Cinque Terre. We planned to make a stop along the way in Pisa so that Susanne and Christyn could see the leaning tower there. So that they could move faster, and to save Michelle's legs, the plan was to drop her and the bags at a safe place with wifi so that she could work on booking the next hotel room. After the leaning tower we would then go to Vernazza to the rooms, drop our bags and then hike one of the open trails.
We got into Pisa around 9:30am and had Michelle settled by 10. Most major cities now have had free wifi in the public squares, so when we saw the wifi signs we chose a spot that showed a strong signal. Then Tim, Susanne and Christyn hit the road. Unfortunately, Pisa's free wifi is free, but they want you to sign in with information about yourself, including your mobile phone number. They will then send you a text with a code to use to log into the free wifi. The only problem is that in order for Michelle to get the text, she needs to be on a wifi connection. So she was stuck with nothing to do for about an hour, being caught in a frustrating catch-22.
She did attempt to ask a number of people for help. Those most willing to help didn't have mobile phones of their own, and those with mobile phones seemed to be having a bad day. She did have an absolutely lovely conversation with an older Italian couple who spoke no English. Using her 20 year old French skills, a bit of hand gesturing and a Google translate app, Michelle and the woman painstakingly conversed for about 20 minutes. She was delightful, and Michelle learned all about the woman's son, who she was visiting in Pisa, and her three grandsons. The woman seemed flustered that Michelle was left alone and wondered why she needed so many bags just for herself. The woman was very happy to hear that Michelle was traveling with a group of others. :)
Meanwhile, Tim, Susanne and Christyn made their way quickly to the tower. It was quite a hike through town, even without their packs. And with the heat of the day in full effect, it was a hot journey. Once there they spent some time enjoying the sheet engineering of the place. It looks as if the tower will topple at any moment! The obligatory photos were taken, especially the ones where it looks like the person is holding up the tower. On the way back to Michelle there was a quick stop for gelato, and they made sure to bring one back for her. :)
Once reunited Michelle broke the unhappy news that she was not able to make any calls on hotels. So we were going into a small mountain village blind, with no hotel rooms. Sounds like an adventure, yes? We hopped on the first of two trains we needed to get to Vernazza and hoped for the best.
The first train was packed. And by packet we mean packed. There were no seats available, so we had to stand in the covered spaces between the cars. And though the covered spaces are safe, they are not air conditioned. Mind you, we have our full packs on right now, so we are each 20-30lbs heavier than normal, this train ride is about an hour and it is already about 80 degrees outside. This all makes us a prime target for pick pockets. And as we were soon to learn, there were two in the covered space with us working as a team, one at each of the two platform exit doors from the compartment.
Once everyone was in the covered space and the train was moving the train then made its first stop. People got on, people got off, all appeared normal. As the doors closed, an older man walked into the compartment and stood by the exit as if he was getting off at the next stop. Suddenly, a man's wallet appears on the floor. We get the older mans attention, thinking that he dropped his wallet on accident. He turns around and says it isn't his. A man at one of the platform exit doors says it belongs to a man that just got off. This all sounds fishy that it would just appear on the floor, as we had left that train station over a minute ago. So the wallet just hung in the air out of the departing man's pocket for over a minute and dropped to the ground well after he was gone? Instantly we knew that at least one of the three locals in the compartment was a thief. The thief had taken the wallet from the man as he got off of the train, then pocketed whatever cash was there and used the presence of the older man as a distraction to throw the wallet on the floor. So we were fairly certain that at least one of the men by the two exit doors was the one who stole the wallet.
The woman picked up the wallet and seemed concerned, opened it and confirmed it was from a tourist. She put it in her pocket and indicated that she would give it to the local police when we got off of the train. Which also seemed suspicious, but perhaps this is what happens In these situations. We were on high alert though for the other two men to make sure they did not try to steal anything from us. We all breathed a sigh of relief when they exited the train.
We continued on in the hot compartment, not wanting to go into the Air Conditioned space as there was not enough room for the 4 of us to sit together. With this recent experience it seemed better to stay together than to split up and be more of a target. Finally we arrived in La Spezia and changed to another regional train. This one was bigger with more seats and fewer people. It was another moment to relax as we planned for our stay in Vernazza. We decided that Michelle and Susanne would stay with the bags and Tim and Christyn would walk around the town and ask at the local shops whether there were any rooms for rent for the night. In this small town there are few hotels but a number of private rooms and apartments that you can rent if you ask around or call ahead of time. They are run by locals, which also allows you to meet some interesting people. But there is also no guarantee that you will be able to find anything.
Finally free of the heavy packs, Christyn and Tim set off to find a restaurant named Gianni Franzi and a travel agency per the instructions of a young local woman working inside the small store in the train station. The restaurant wasn't too difficult to find in the lovely little town, but inside it was packed with both tourists and locals crowded against the bar trying to order a cappuccino. When we were able to get her attention, she unfortunately shared that she had no available rooms. Beginning to worry, we rushed back to the travel agency we had passed. The kind lady working there did not know of any available rooms and neither did any of her contacts. She did inform us that this was a particularly busy time for all of the Cinque Terre due to a holiday weekend for Italy on top of the beginning of summer trips and the usual tourist season. She recommended traveling to farther cities that did not have agencies we could call ahead to talk to, or possibly traveling outside of the Cinque Terre. Not being comfortable with extra train rides and travel based solely on a "maybe," we decided to go around to various businesses to ask for rooms. We entered the little store directly across the street that sold local food items from the region for tourists. There was a little sign in the window that said rooms available. We talked to the store owner Francesca. Lucky for us they had a 2 room apartment available for one night and we didn't have to explore additional cities in search of a place to stay. She called her husband Franco to show us the room.
After about 30 minutes Christyn arrived back to share the happy news. Since we were not sure if we would stay one night or two, this was perfect. We dropped the bags at the apartment and prepared to head into town. Tim was falling asleep at the table in the apartment, so we opted to let him sleep for a few hours. The gals bought some take away food, brought some of it to Tim in the room in case he was hungry, and set off to see the town.
The town itself isn't very big, and you can walk the main road in about 5 minutes. We headed towards the water to get a better view of the harbor area. It was a hot day, so there were many children playing and swimming. One of them had a water polo ball, which made us think of the Jackson family. We decided that later we would need to go swimming.
We headed back up the main square and went into a few shops. In one of them Susanne and Michelle bought items for some of the kids. We went back to the room to wake up Tim so that we could all go down to the beach to swim. The water was clear, but cold and before long Tim, Michelle and Susanne were all in. Since it was later in the day the swim didn't last long and we were back in the room to get ready for dinner. Christyn ended up falling asleep, and we opted to let her sleep instead of waking her up for dinner.
We were so used to having late dinners that when we stopped in at the harbor at 9:45pm we didn't even think about the time. We soon found that this might be an issue here, as the first restaurant we tried to stop in at said they were closed. The second one said they were open, but when we sat down it seemed like we were rushed though dinner. The waiter explained in 95% Italian that the kitchen was closing and he mentioned a train in the explanation as well. We were not quite sure what he was saying, but we tried to eat as fast as possible. It turns out, in one of the guidebooks they mentioned that a lot of the kitchen staff in the restaurants live in La Spezia, and the last train leaves at 10:00. The next train does not leave until 12:00. So the waiter was trying to explain that the kitchen was closing so that his staff could catch the train to go home. We wish we had known that before, and we were happy that we understood enough to eat as fast as possible!
After dinner Michelle went back to the room and also fell asleep. Susanne and Tim went out again and hiked around the city. The first stop was the castle, but we discovered the gate was closed to the top. We redirected out adventure to walking the labyrinth of pathways in the upper level. This took us to "Lovers Lookout," an opening overlooking the south side of the cliffs and since it was occupied we didn't stay long. We headed back down to the harbor and stood at the end of the point to visit a little longer. What a wonderful way to end the hustle of a travel day in the quietness and glow of Vernazza.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
When In Rome . . .
Today was the first day in our trip where we planned to be in the same city for two nights in a row. Knowing that there was no rush to check out of our room and hop on another train we opted to sleep in a bit. Sleep has been a luxury in short supply so far. I think we are all averaging around 3-5 hours a night depending on the city. The idea of getting something close to a full eight hours sounded like heaven.
Breakfast was served at our little hotel from 7:45-9:30. We decided to meet in the breakfast room at 8:30. A typical European breakfast of meats (salami, prosciutto etc) with bread and cheese were served with some yogurt and coffees. The cappuccinos were also flowing if you wanted one made for you. It was a great way to start off the second day in Rome.
Once we were all assembled for the day we hit the road. On the way we grabbed some take away pizza from the local shop. We tried a 4 cheese pizza and one with cheese and mushrooms. Both were delicious and hit the spot as we walked to the closest metro station. It turns out, the closest one involved a walk down a very large hill. Which is fine, if you are walking down the hill, but we were not so excited about the long walk back up the hill. We made a mental note to shoot for a different metro stop that may have been a little further away on the map, but would be more agreeable when returning from a long day of hiking around the city and sightseeing.
We headed first to the Colosseum. This is where the Roma passes we bought the day before came in handy. For a small extra fee (plus unlimited use of the metro for 48 hours) we were able to jump in front of the line and walk right in. When you get into the center part of the Colosseum you quickly realize how big the building is, and how many layers there are all folded into one space. Thankful for the Rick Steve's audio guide we began the tour into history while orienteering by means of the iron cross erected as a memorial. Being it was a hot day we were thankful for the shade we could rest in and the fountains we could refill our water bottles at. While waiting in line we observed a little boy trying to drink as the water poured down from the spout above his head. This is not an easy task at any age and the crowd chuckled. We needed this moment as the history of the Colosseum is filled with woes of death and unfortunate plundering through the ages.
Once finished with the Colosseum we headed over to the Palentine Hill. Tim and Michelle had tried to visit this before, but in some way turned the wrong way and could never quite find it. This time they were determined to at least find it and see a little bit on the way to the Roman Forum. There was a new security checkpoint added to the front of the entrance that had not been there in prior years. This meant that there were now a number of people that we could ask for directions to the entrance. It turns out that there was a small side door that you could enter if coming from the direction we took that would allow you a path to access Palentine Hill. We thought we would take a few moments to look around and then head out, but quickly realized that the Palentine Hill complex is very large. And descriptive signs were there giving information in Italian and English on the details of the site. We could have spent hours there trying to take it all in.
Wanting to be mindful of the time, we took a few pictures (This is Susanne and I must interject that a few pictures does not describe the true amount that I have taken! Tim and Michelle have been very patient as every where we go is another picture spot that must be treasured...click! Oh, and a must needed selfie that proves I was here...click! This usually means I walk behind and sprint to catch up. I believe this is called interval training to those that workout.) Then we headed to the Roman Forum. The Rick Steve's audio guide that we used was very helpful in understanding not only the buildings we were seeing but why they were important. It's challenging to convey the awe of being surrounded by the once was grandeur of an ancient civilization. The Roman Forum is a must see and definitely requires several visits to take in the amount of ruins there are to walk through.
After the Roman Forum we headed back to the Pantheon to see the inside. The Pantheon is a round shaped building whose purposes have shifted and changed over time. It has been used as the home of many religious at various times. The engineering within the building, to have such a high dome and an open rooftop was impressive given when it was designed and constructed. And the amount of marble, even precious purple colored marble, makes your jaw drop.
Back outside of the Pantheon we decided to stop off for a recommended drink from one of the Rick Steve's guides (are you seeing a theme in the planning for this trip?). Tazza d'Oro is one of the oldest coffee shops in Rome and is located in the Pantheon piazza. We dropped in for their afternoon/hot day special, a refreshing granita di caffe con panna. An espresso slushy and whipped cream that is delicious and gives you a nice caffeine boost. There must be some way we can recreate this at home. I'm sure Tim and Susanne will be working on this. From here we pick up the last part of the Rick Steve's walk that we had not finished the day before.
On the audio walk, we pass by the Trevi Fountain. A daytime visit to the Trevi fountain is much different, the mob of people fill every step and niche overflowing to the surrounding streets. We were thankful to have had a peaceful experience the night before, so this time we could stand back and watch the sea of humanity reach the waters of the fountain. With an eye out for a fun dinner restaurant, we strolled down the streets in the general direction of the Spanish steps. An alleyway had a few restaurants with the inside empty and the outside tables packed. With many miles under our belts, we decided to go in for a quiet dinner. The waitstaff soon became delightful jokers poking fun at each of us. One even shared a glass of wine with us and another posed for a picture with Susanne...and then much to her surprise kissed her cheek just before the camera went off. We had a great laugh. As the evening rolled on, the inside of the restaurant became as lively as the outside. An Australian family was seated next to us. The mother had three young kids - 7, 6 and a baby. Surprisingly (sarcasm), Susanne and Michelle were drawn to the young baby and a fun exchange of travel stories ensued.
Theoretically we were supposed to end the day early and catch up on more sleep. But the city is so magical at night when the Romans come out to play that we found ourselves staying out later than anticipated. These are the times where you really feel like you are a part of the city, not just a tourist passing through. We made it to the Spanish steps and spent some time taking pictures and soaking up the last bit of the city. In the morning we had a busy day planned. We would leave early in the morning in the direction of the Cinque Terre. There would be one small stop off on the way in Pisa, where Tim, Susanne and Christyn would leave Michelle with the bags to make a quick trip into town to see the leaning tower. Michelle would then access wifi and make some phone calls to secure a room for the night in Vernazza. There were no rooms left on the hotel booking website that we usually use, so we were leaving Rome with no lodging plans in the Cinque Terre. Apparently we decided to travel in Rome during the beginning of their holiday season, and on the weekend we would be in the Cinque Terre it is their Republic Holiday, kind of like our 4th of July. This means lots of Italians will be traveling and celebrating. So we were hoping that there would be a room for us somewhere once we arrived.
Off to bed now, more adventures to come!
Breakfast was served at our little hotel from 7:45-9:30. We decided to meet in the breakfast room at 8:30. A typical European breakfast of meats (salami, prosciutto etc) with bread and cheese were served with some yogurt and coffees. The cappuccinos were also flowing if you wanted one made for you. It was a great way to start off the second day in Rome.
Once we were all assembled for the day we hit the road. On the way we grabbed some take away pizza from the local shop. We tried a 4 cheese pizza and one with cheese and mushrooms. Both were delicious and hit the spot as we walked to the closest metro station. It turns out, the closest one involved a walk down a very large hill. Which is fine, if you are walking down the hill, but we were not so excited about the long walk back up the hill. We made a mental note to shoot for a different metro stop that may have been a little further away on the map, but would be more agreeable when returning from a long day of hiking around the city and sightseeing.
We headed first to the Colosseum. This is where the Roma passes we bought the day before came in handy. For a small extra fee (plus unlimited use of the metro for 48 hours) we were able to jump in front of the line and walk right in. When you get into the center part of the Colosseum you quickly realize how big the building is, and how many layers there are all folded into one space. Thankful for the Rick Steve's audio guide we began the tour into history while orienteering by means of the iron cross erected as a memorial. Being it was a hot day we were thankful for the shade we could rest in and the fountains we could refill our water bottles at. While waiting in line we observed a little boy trying to drink as the water poured down from the spout above his head. This is not an easy task at any age and the crowd chuckled. We needed this moment as the history of the Colosseum is filled with woes of death and unfortunate plundering through the ages.
Once finished with the Colosseum we headed over to the Palentine Hill. Tim and Michelle had tried to visit this before, but in some way turned the wrong way and could never quite find it. This time they were determined to at least find it and see a little bit on the way to the Roman Forum. There was a new security checkpoint added to the front of the entrance that had not been there in prior years. This meant that there were now a number of people that we could ask for directions to the entrance. It turns out that there was a small side door that you could enter if coming from the direction we took that would allow you a path to access Palentine Hill. We thought we would take a few moments to look around and then head out, but quickly realized that the Palentine Hill complex is very large. And descriptive signs were there giving information in Italian and English on the details of the site. We could have spent hours there trying to take it all in.
Wanting to be mindful of the time, we took a few pictures (This is Susanne and I must interject that a few pictures does not describe the true amount that I have taken! Tim and Michelle have been very patient as every where we go is another picture spot that must be treasured...click! Oh, and a must needed selfie that proves I was here...click! This usually means I walk behind and sprint to catch up. I believe this is called interval training to those that workout.) Then we headed to the Roman Forum. The Rick Steve's audio guide that we used was very helpful in understanding not only the buildings we were seeing but why they were important. It's challenging to convey the awe of being surrounded by the once was grandeur of an ancient civilization. The Roman Forum is a must see and definitely requires several visits to take in the amount of ruins there are to walk through.
After the Roman Forum we headed back to the Pantheon to see the inside. The Pantheon is a round shaped building whose purposes have shifted and changed over time. It has been used as the home of many religious at various times. The engineering within the building, to have such a high dome and an open rooftop was impressive given when it was designed and constructed. And the amount of marble, even precious purple colored marble, makes your jaw drop.
Back outside of the Pantheon we decided to stop off for a recommended drink from one of the Rick Steve's guides (are you seeing a theme in the planning for this trip?). Tazza d'Oro is one of the oldest coffee shops in Rome and is located in the Pantheon piazza. We dropped in for their afternoon/hot day special, a refreshing granita di caffe con panna. An espresso slushy and whipped cream that is delicious and gives you a nice caffeine boost. There must be some way we can recreate this at home. I'm sure Tim and Susanne will be working on this. From here we pick up the last part of the Rick Steve's walk that we had not finished the day before.
On the audio walk, we pass by the Trevi Fountain. A daytime visit to the Trevi fountain is much different, the mob of people fill every step and niche overflowing to the surrounding streets. We were thankful to have had a peaceful experience the night before, so this time we could stand back and watch the sea of humanity reach the waters of the fountain. With an eye out for a fun dinner restaurant, we strolled down the streets in the general direction of the Spanish steps. An alleyway had a few restaurants with the inside empty and the outside tables packed. With many miles under our belts, we decided to go in for a quiet dinner. The waitstaff soon became delightful jokers poking fun at each of us. One even shared a glass of wine with us and another posed for a picture with Susanne...and then much to her surprise kissed her cheek just before the camera went off. We had a great laugh. As the evening rolled on, the inside of the restaurant became as lively as the outside. An Australian family was seated next to us. The mother had three young kids - 7, 6 and a baby. Surprisingly (sarcasm), Susanne and Michelle were drawn to the young baby and a fun exchange of travel stories ensued.
Theoretically we were supposed to end the day early and catch up on more sleep. But the city is so magical at night when the Romans come out to play that we found ourselves staying out later than anticipated. These are the times where you really feel like you are a part of the city, not just a tourist passing through. We made it to the Spanish steps and spent some time taking pictures and soaking up the last bit of the city. In the morning we had a busy day planned. We would leave early in the morning in the direction of the Cinque Terre. There would be one small stop off on the way in Pisa, where Tim, Susanne and Christyn would leave Michelle with the bags to make a quick trip into town to see the leaning tower. Michelle would then access wifi and make some phone calls to secure a room for the night in Vernazza. There were no rooms left on the hotel booking website that we usually use, so we were leaving Rome with no lodging plans in the Cinque Terre. Apparently we decided to travel in Rome during the beginning of their holiday season, and on the weekend we would be in the Cinque Terre it is their Republic Holiday, kind of like our 4th of July. This means lots of Italians will be traveling and celebrating. So we were hoping that there would be a room for us somewhere once we arrived.
Off to bed now, more adventures to come!
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Catching More Flies with Honey than with Vinegar
After the delays in London, we honestly thought going to Rome just wasn't going to happen. We lost a total of two days Just getting out of England. But with good timing and fast feet, we have been able to blast through moving from Milan to Florence and through out list of "must sees" in Florence. We now find ourselves in a position to try to squeeze in Rome.
They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but we can now say it was "sightseen" in a day and a half. Though certainly not as relaxing as we would like it to be, we saw as much as we wanted to see, and certainly enough to get a flavor of it and earn some blisters on our feet in the mean time.
They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but we can now say it was "sightseen" in a day and a half. Though certainly not as relaxing as we would like it to be, we saw as much as we wanted to see, and certainly enough to get a flavor of it and earn some blisters on our feet in the mean time.
So here we go recapping the day! We had reservations to see the statue of David in the Academica in Florence. The original plan was to hang out in Florence after our tour. Instead, we saw David, got our fill of some of Michelangelo's other works, and then hustled over to the train station. We actually arrived early, so we had some time to watch the local pick-pockets and "very helpful locals" create some havoc. There was a heave police presence that would intercede each time they would get close to a another person. Susanne and Christyn quickly learned how to spot the people up to no good among the travelers.
We departed Florence on a high speed train which quickly wisped us along through the countryside. We arrived in Rome just about noon, at the very busy Rome Termini train station. We made a quick stop in the tourist information office to buy our Roma Pass (which allows free public transportation and one free entrance into a site). The main benefit to us was the ability to skip the lines and use our pass to move quickly about the city. We walked to our hotel, fully loaded with big backpacks in back and day packs in front. It would have been nice to hop on the metro, but the hotel was less than one stop away and we were as wide as we were tall. Loaded down it would be hard to maneuver through the metro turnstiles and escalators...and potentially an easy target for pickpockets.
From the street our hotel "door" was a non descript wooden door with lots of buttons to ring the residences scattered throughout the five story building. We were buzzed in, and the door opened into a beautiful inner courtyard. Up one flight of stairs and the Jacksons encounter their first small lift in Europe. So many of Europes older hotels have been retrofitted with smaller elevators in the center of their internal stairways. The only issue is, these stairways were not designed to have an elevator, so they are often tinny, sometimes just for single individuals. Regardless, they are a welcome site to some weary travelers who don't want to climb 4 flights of stairs to their hotel. Two of us with bags squeeze into the lift at a time and rise up the inner shaft of the building. The hotel is a delightful, cheerily painted place. Our rooms come with balconies that open up to the inner courtyard. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to sit and enjoy, we have places to go!
We hopped off of the metro and moved towards the Vatican. Because of the British Airways issue, our tickets are three days expired, and we are going to try our luck pleading our way into seeing the Vatican Museums and the Sisteen Chapel. We arrive at the ticket booth and the first ticket person directs us to the supervisor at the end of the line. A positive step...until he tells us that if we were here yesterday they could have helped us, but it is too late and the computer will not let us use the tickets. We produce documentation of the airplane delays, the apology letter we got from British Airways, anything and everything we could to try to get him to be flexible. But atlas, the computer says no, our only option is to buy new tickets. Succumbing to the reality that he was not going to help us and was not going to let us talk to another supervisor, we finally said okay. We had come this far, we needed to go in. As he looks at the screen, he tells us that today is full and he cannot sell us tickets. "Fine, can we get tickets for tomorrow at the same time as our original tickets 9AM?" No. In fact all tickets are sold out for tomorrow too. With that answer the dejected looks come out and the pleading starts anew. This time, he is more receptive. He picks up the phone, in a blur of Italian rattled off faster that we can even think, he hangs up the phone, looks at us and says "ok". "Okay? We reply" "Yes, okay you can go in. Here are your tickets, no charge. Hurry, we close in two hours". He then lets us know that he loves Southern California, having traveled there many times himself. Triumphantly Michelle and Tim walk over to Susanne and Christyn with tickets in hand.
Two hours is a tight timeframe to see the entire Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We use the Rick Steve's audio guide to walk us through the museum. And we even sneak in a side trip to see the Egyptian Collection that includes two mummies - a first for Michelle and Tim. We roll into the Sisteen Chapel and admire as the audio guide lays out the history of the work in front of us. It is still stunning every time we see it. We leave the Sisteen Chapel to head to St. Peter's Cathedral, but before we cross the security guard line we find out that we will not be able to re-enter the area once we leave. We quickly spin around and walk to the ticket line to buy a ticket to climb the cupola (the interior dome of St. Peter's). We are told the stairs are closed, but we can take the elevator up (and miss about 200 of the 500+ stairs) and then we can hike the rest of the way. Within 13 minutes of us buying tickets, while we are still waiting in line for the elevator, the big iron gates to this part of the museum close behind us. No one else will be allowed up today, we had just timed our purchase perfectly. Within minutes we are crammed into the elevator with 15 of our closest friends and shot up to the roof of Saint Peters Basilica. From there the hike up the stairs to the top of the dome begins, We have fun with pictures as the walls started curving in on us. The last few steps are up a spiral staircase with a rope hanging in the middle as a handrail, and you are then ejected out of the tight quarters into stunning views of Rome from the highest point around. Tim captured the moment perfectly in pictures when Susanne and Christyn hit the last step and saw the view in front of them. It is a sight to behold, especially given the 300+ steps that you still have to climb to get to the top, even when you use the elevator.
We returned to ground level about 15 minutes before St. Peter's basilica was about to close. Not wanting to miss the moment, we opted to go inside and see what we could see, knowing full well that we might not be able to come back that direction if there were other sights on the list that we wanted to see tomorrow. Time seemed to stand still once we entered the church. . The sheer massiveness of the place is overwhelming, and then you realize how close the Pope is and what he represents to millions of people around the world, and it takes your breath away.
We were one of the last groups of people to leave the church that night. Back out on the street, we started to walk towards the metro stop we needed, and then Tim realized that we also wanted to complete the night walk that we downloaded from Rick Steves. These walks tend to give us a good overview of the city and the major landmarks We all enjoy the brief history as well, but the corneyness does get a bit overwhelming at times. In this one we were able to learn about and see the history of the Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. Because there is a restaurant near the Pantheon that Tim and Michelle love, we opted to stop our tour there and have dinner. The plan was to pick the tour back up at the Pantheon the next day.
Dinner was delicious as always. We tried to eat as the locals do in multiple course and then remembered that we couldn't eat that much food! Between the appetizers, first course an second course we all felt like we rolled out of there. Since there was no metro stop close to the Pantheon we opted to walk the entire way home. And wouldn't ya know it, in between our hotel and the Pantheon was a little thing called the Trevi fountain. :) At this point it is about 1 in the morning, which is actually the perfect time to go and visit the fountain. Most of the tourists are long in bed and the locals are out enjoying their city squares for the hang out places they were designed to be. And on top of that, the vendors and (we hope!) the thieves are also long gone. We spent about 20 minutes taking pictures and enjoying the playfulness of the moment.
Back at the room we decided that the next day in Rome would include something we have never done before on this trip. Sleep in. :) We will catch you up on the second day of Rome's happenings soon! Ciao!
We departed Florence on a high speed train which quickly wisped us along through the countryside. We arrived in Rome just about noon, at the very busy Rome Termini train station. We made a quick stop in the tourist information office to buy our Roma Pass (which allows free public transportation and one free entrance into a site). The main benefit to us was the ability to skip the lines and use our pass to move quickly about the city. We walked to our hotel, fully loaded with big backpacks in back and day packs in front. It would have been nice to hop on the metro, but the hotel was less than one stop away and we were as wide as we were tall. Loaded down it would be hard to maneuver through the metro turnstiles and escalators...and potentially an easy target for pickpockets.
From the street our hotel "door" was a non descript wooden door with lots of buttons to ring the residences scattered throughout the five story building. We were buzzed in, and the door opened into a beautiful inner courtyard. Up one flight of stairs and the Jacksons encounter their first small lift in Europe. So many of Europes older hotels have been retrofitted with smaller elevators in the center of their internal stairways. The only issue is, these stairways were not designed to have an elevator, so they are often tinny, sometimes just for single individuals. Regardless, they are a welcome site to some weary travelers who don't want to climb 4 flights of stairs to their hotel. Two of us with bags squeeze into the lift at a time and rise up the inner shaft of the building. The hotel is a delightful, cheerily painted place. Our rooms come with balconies that open up to the inner courtyard. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of time to sit and enjoy, we have places to go!
We hopped off of the metro and moved towards the Vatican. Because of the British Airways issue, our tickets are three days expired, and we are going to try our luck pleading our way into seeing the Vatican Museums and the Sisteen Chapel. We arrive at the ticket booth and the first ticket person directs us to the supervisor at the end of the line. A positive step...until he tells us that if we were here yesterday they could have helped us, but it is too late and the computer will not let us use the tickets. We produce documentation of the airplane delays, the apology letter we got from British Airways, anything and everything we could to try to get him to be flexible. But atlas, the computer says no, our only option is to buy new tickets. Succumbing to the reality that he was not going to help us and was not going to let us talk to another supervisor, we finally said okay. We had come this far, we needed to go in. As he looks at the screen, he tells us that today is full and he cannot sell us tickets. "Fine, can we get tickets for tomorrow at the same time as our original tickets 9AM?" No. In fact all tickets are sold out for tomorrow too. With that answer the dejected looks come out and the pleading starts anew. This time, he is more receptive. He picks up the phone, in a blur of Italian rattled off faster that we can even think, he hangs up the phone, looks at us and says "ok". "Okay? We reply" "Yes, okay you can go in. Here are your tickets, no charge. Hurry, we close in two hours". He then lets us know that he loves Southern California, having traveled there many times himself. Triumphantly Michelle and Tim walk over to Susanne and Christyn with tickets in hand.
Two hours is a tight timeframe to see the entire Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We use the Rick Steve's audio guide to walk us through the museum. And we even sneak in a side trip to see the Egyptian Collection that includes two mummies - a first for Michelle and Tim. We roll into the Sisteen Chapel and admire as the audio guide lays out the history of the work in front of us. It is still stunning every time we see it. We leave the Sisteen Chapel to head to St. Peter's Cathedral, but before we cross the security guard line we find out that we will not be able to re-enter the area once we leave. We quickly spin around and walk to the ticket line to buy a ticket to climb the cupola (the interior dome of St. Peter's). We are told the stairs are closed, but we can take the elevator up (and miss about 200 of the 500+ stairs) and then we can hike the rest of the way. Within 13 minutes of us buying tickets, while we are still waiting in line for the elevator, the big iron gates to this part of the museum close behind us. No one else will be allowed up today, we had just timed our purchase perfectly. Within minutes we are crammed into the elevator with 15 of our closest friends and shot up to the roof of Saint Peters Basilica. From there the hike up the stairs to the top of the dome begins, We have fun with pictures as the walls started curving in on us. The last few steps are up a spiral staircase with a rope hanging in the middle as a handrail, and you are then ejected out of the tight quarters into stunning views of Rome from the highest point around. Tim captured the moment perfectly in pictures when Susanne and Christyn hit the last step and saw the view in front of them. It is a sight to behold, especially given the 300+ steps that you still have to climb to get to the top, even when you use the elevator.
We returned to ground level about 15 minutes before St. Peter's basilica was about to close. Not wanting to miss the moment, we opted to go inside and see what we could see, knowing full well that we might not be able to come back that direction if there were other sights on the list that we wanted to see tomorrow. Time seemed to stand still once we entered the church. . The sheer massiveness of the place is overwhelming, and then you realize how close the Pope is and what he represents to millions of people around the world, and it takes your breath away.
We were one of the last groups of people to leave the church that night. Back out on the street, we started to walk towards the metro stop we needed, and then Tim realized that we also wanted to complete the night walk that we downloaded from Rick Steves. These walks tend to give us a good overview of the city and the major landmarks We all enjoy the brief history as well, but the corneyness does get a bit overwhelming at times. In this one we were able to learn about and see the history of the Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. Because there is a restaurant near the Pantheon that Tim and Michelle love, we opted to stop our tour there and have dinner. The plan was to pick the tour back up at the Pantheon the next day.
Dinner was delicious as always. We tried to eat as the locals do in multiple course and then remembered that we couldn't eat that much food! Between the appetizers, first course an second course we all felt like we rolled out of there. Since there was no metro stop close to the Pantheon we opted to walk the entire way home. And wouldn't ya know it, in between our hotel and the Pantheon was a little thing called the Trevi fountain. :) At this point it is about 1 in the morning, which is actually the perfect time to go and visit the fountain. Most of the tourists are long in bed and the locals are out enjoying their city squares for the hang out places they were designed to be. And on top of that, the vendors and (we hope!) the thieves are also long gone. We spent about 20 minutes taking pictures and enjoying the playfulness of the moment.
Back at the room we decided that the next day in Rome would include something we have never done before on this trip. Sleep in. :) We will catch you up on the second day of Rome's happenings soon! Ciao!
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Florence and the Opera at Midnight
Since we are a few days behind in our postings we will try to catch you up on the latest from the trip for our day in Florence and our first day in Rome. The pace of the trip and trying to catch up with the original itinerary is leading to a number of late nights and early mornings, which by day 5 are finally catching up with us. Every morning we say "We need to get to bed at a decent hour tonight" and every night we find ourselves strolling the town until midnight and 1:00am. These are the hours were you see less tourists and more residents coming out to enjoy the best that their city has to offer. It is fun being a part of that mix and to share moments with locals outside of the hustle and bustle of the day. But I digress. :)
Day 3 found us taking the high speed train to Florence early in the morning. The trip taking only taking an hour and a half, we arrived in Florence at 8AM. We strapped on our bags and took the short walk to the hotel. We had previously let the hotel know that we would need baggage storage, a quick check-in at the hotel and we dropped the bags to start the days adventures. To orient ourselves to the city and see many of the main sites we opted to do a Rick Steves walk around town. Though slightly cheesy at times, they are great walks for seeing the true parts of the city and getting the brief history as to why the sites are important. His guides for specific museums have also saved quite a bit of money and time as we have not had to spend extra money to purchase audio tours.
We started at the Duomo in the city center and learned a bit about the main church and its significance in the life of the city. It has been fun to watch the first reactions of Susanne and Christyn as we turn the corner from an small alley revealing the architectural masterpieces before us. The Duomo is large, the 4th largest in the world and is tightly surrounded by the city. So you really don't have a warning that you are approaching it, until wow there it is. The church is covered in pink and green marble which gives it a unique look when compared to other European churches. We walked down the main shopping street to another church (Orsanmichele), which we learned was originally a place where people could buy grain for their horses. Over time the real estate in the area made it too valuable to continue as a marketplace, and the arches leading to the streets were covered in to make the building a church. Each of the 14 archways were made into niches and local artists were hired to design statues to fill in the niches. As we admired and listened to the audio guide, an older Italian gentlemen relaxing on the nearby steps causally engaged Michelle in conversation. A quintessential Italian look to him, made for a great photo opt - Christyn got the best photo. We had to drag Michelle away to continue on our journey.
Popping in and out of various landmarks we pass works of art that continue to inspire awe in all of us...and it is all there for us to see. Reaching the Arno River, the views of the Ponte Vecchio with all of its buildings clinging to the bridge makes for a serene picture. As our audio guide tour ends, we pinch each other to remind us it is real and it is happening. The troubles of the airport quickly fading as new memories take hold. This is why we travel, to enjoy the beauty that unfolds around us with each new step. The Ponte Vecchio area is a tourist haven, but you cant help but get caught up in the sights and sounds as the beauty surrounds us. We drop into a few shops and start filling our bags with delightful reminders of where we are. One planned stop is a stationary store where they demonstrate how that make a unique oiled designed paper.
After a gelato stop and a infamous spoon incident, we start a stroll through the massive Boblini Gardens above the Pitti Palace. At the top of the gardens the views allow both great city views in one direction and in the other a hint of the Tuscan countryside. We wandered through the gardens for two hours and then strolled over to the Bardini Gardens, covered under the same ticket.
The early mornings and late evenings taking their toll, we stopped for take away Margarita Pizza and headed back to the hotel...it took longer than needed as Tim struggled to get his bearings. But as we wandered through the streets, Michelle stopped us and pointed down a street and said to Tim "Remember this place?" No he thought, I cant even remember if I had breakfast right now. Sleep deprivation was definitely hitting us hard. She pointed down a side street and reminded Tim of a restaurant that they had enjoyed in a previous trip. Once we verified that it was, dinner plans were set. We then crashed at the hotel for a mid-afternoon nap.
After a 5:30 alarm went off, we were back at it. We opted to let Christyn sleep while Susanne nod Tim went to the train station to secure tickets for the next day. Michelle stayed behind to find a hotel. Within 20 minutes Susanne was back up and trying to wake Christyn up. I turns out, the market that we thought was open until 1pm actually closed at 6:00pm. Shopping at the market was the one thing Christyn really wanted to do, and we would be leaving too early in the morning for her to catch it on our way before the train. Michelle and Christyn then went to the market while Susanne rejoined Tim and headed to the train station.
It is amazing the kinds of deals you can get when you go right at closing time. Either that, or Christyn is a master negotiator. Or perhaps the retail prices are so inflated that everything looks like a steal. Or some combination of the three. Christyn bough scarves that were listed at 15 euros each for 3 for 20 euros and a purse originally listed at 35 euros for 15 euros. Within 20 minutes she had finished a good portion of her shopping list for friends and we were headed back to the room.
Once Tim and Susanne arrived from the train station we set out for dinner. The dinner was at a place called Osteria Zio Gigi where the owner is also the server and will bust out in very loud singing as he waits on the various tables. If he takes a liking to your table expect to be serenaded. If you can't make it to La Scalia in Milan, Zio Gigi is an excellent alternative. His wife is the perfect sarcastic foil to his over the top character. Our favorite line from her, when we asked if he was going to be singing tonight was "If you call that loud noise singing!" That combined with good food makes for a memorable experience. With bellys full we headed back to the room. After a quick shower, the booking of a hotel room and packing up for the next morning we all crashed out in bed. Another full day, and tomorrow we will be in Rome!
Day 3 found us taking the high speed train to Florence early in the morning. The trip taking only taking an hour and a half, we arrived in Florence at 8AM. We strapped on our bags and took the short walk to the hotel. We had previously let the hotel know that we would need baggage storage, a quick check-in at the hotel and we dropped the bags to start the days adventures. To orient ourselves to the city and see many of the main sites we opted to do a Rick Steves walk around town. Though slightly cheesy at times, they are great walks for seeing the true parts of the city and getting the brief history as to why the sites are important. His guides for specific museums have also saved quite a bit of money and time as we have not had to spend extra money to purchase audio tours.
We started at the Duomo in the city center and learned a bit about the main church and its significance in the life of the city. It has been fun to watch the first reactions of Susanne and Christyn as we turn the corner from an small alley revealing the architectural masterpieces before us. The Duomo is large, the 4th largest in the world and is tightly surrounded by the city. So you really don't have a warning that you are approaching it, until wow there it is. The church is covered in pink and green marble which gives it a unique look when compared to other European churches. We walked down the main shopping street to another church (Orsanmichele), which we learned was originally a place where people could buy grain for their horses. Over time the real estate in the area made it too valuable to continue as a marketplace, and the arches leading to the streets were covered in to make the building a church. Each of the 14 archways were made into niches and local artists were hired to design statues to fill in the niches. As we admired and listened to the audio guide, an older Italian gentlemen relaxing on the nearby steps causally engaged Michelle in conversation. A quintessential Italian look to him, made for a great photo opt - Christyn got the best photo. We had to drag Michelle away to continue on our journey.
Popping in and out of various landmarks we pass works of art that continue to inspire awe in all of us...and it is all there for us to see. Reaching the Arno River, the views of the Ponte Vecchio with all of its buildings clinging to the bridge makes for a serene picture. As our audio guide tour ends, we pinch each other to remind us it is real and it is happening. The troubles of the airport quickly fading as new memories take hold. This is why we travel, to enjoy the beauty that unfolds around us with each new step. The Ponte Vecchio area is a tourist haven, but you cant help but get caught up in the sights and sounds as the beauty surrounds us. We drop into a few shops and start filling our bags with delightful reminders of where we are. One planned stop is a stationary store where they demonstrate how that make a unique oiled designed paper.
After a gelato stop and a infamous spoon incident, we start a stroll through the massive Boblini Gardens above the Pitti Palace. At the top of the gardens the views allow both great city views in one direction and in the other a hint of the Tuscan countryside. We wandered through the gardens for two hours and then strolled over to the Bardini Gardens, covered under the same ticket.
The early mornings and late evenings taking their toll, we stopped for take away Margarita Pizza and headed back to the hotel...it took longer than needed as Tim struggled to get his bearings. But as we wandered through the streets, Michelle stopped us and pointed down a street and said to Tim "Remember this place?" No he thought, I cant even remember if I had breakfast right now. Sleep deprivation was definitely hitting us hard. She pointed down a side street and reminded Tim of a restaurant that they had enjoyed in a previous trip. Once we verified that it was, dinner plans were set. We then crashed at the hotel for a mid-afternoon nap.
After a 5:30 alarm went off, we were back at it. We opted to let Christyn sleep while Susanne nod Tim went to the train station to secure tickets for the next day. Michelle stayed behind to find a hotel. Within 20 minutes Susanne was back up and trying to wake Christyn up. I turns out, the market that we thought was open until 1pm actually closed at 6:00pm. Shopping at the market was the one thing Christyn really wanted to do, and we would be leaving too early in the morning for her to catch it on our way before the train. Michelle and Christyn then went to the market while Susanne rejoined Tim and headed to the train station.
It is amazing the kinds of deals you can get when you go right at closing time. Either that, or Christyn is a master negotiator. Or perhaps the retail prices are so inflated that everything looks like a steal. Or some combination of the three. Christyn bough scarves that were listed at 15 euros each for 3 for 20 euros and a purse originally listed at 35 euros for 15 euros. Within 20 minutes she had finished a good portion of her shopping list for friends and we were headed back to the room.
Once Tim and Susanne arrived from the train station we set out for dinner. The dinner was at a place called Osteria Zio Gigi where the owner is also the server and will bust out in very loud singing as he waits on the various tables. If he takes a liking to your table expect to be serenaded. If you can't make it to La Scalia in Milan, Zio Gigi is an excellent alternative. His wife is the perfect sarcastic foil to his over the top character. Our favorite line from her, when we asked if he was going to be singing tonight was "If you call that loud noise singing!" That combined with good food makes for a memorable experience. With bellys full we headed back to the room. After a quick shower, the booking of a hotel room and packing up for the next morning we all crashed out in bed. Another full day, and tomorrow we will be in Rome!
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
British Airways Finally Gets It Right
Hi all! Sorry for the delay in a post, it has been a whirlwind of a few days. We are all well, safe, and exhausted from all of the adventures of the last few days.
The last we left you was on Monday and we were still unsure on whether we would make it out of London on the flight we had rebooked to Milan. Originally we were set to fly into Rome, but British Airways was not sure if they would have the Rome flights moving until Tuesday or Wednesday. Not wanting to delay our trip any more, we looked for any flights flying into any cities that we were semi familiar with. It turns out it is pretty difficult to book 4 people on the same flight after a global outage of an airline. We managed to get a flight for Monday to Milan instead and figured we could train it into Florence or Rome depending on where we could pick up the original itinerary. As it is, we are out the tickets we bought for the Vatican and the Borguese. But the more we can salvage the better!
Prior to our flight we spent the day working through some of the sites we wanted to see on our London city guides. Christyn really wanted to go to the Camden Market, so we took the metro out in that direction. On the metro a cute family of four sat next to us, and of course we go to chatting. They were on their way to see the Platform 9 3/4 a one of the train stations from the Harry Potter movies. Since Christyn is a huge fan, and it was in the general direction we wanted to go, we tagged along. We then made our way up to the Camden Market. This is an open air market with hundreds of permanent vendors selling all sorts of things. And it was hopping. We bought some Hungarian take-away food and walked around the market for a few hours. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and make our way to the airport.
As it was, with the rebooked flight to Milan, we still had the worry that even if the flight took off we had no idea how we would get from the Linate airport to the city center, as the metro does not run out to Linate. And we didn't want to book a hotel for Milan until we were sure the plane would be taking off. So many ifs, and all hanging on one itty bitty little flight off of an island to the main land. :)
As it turns out, the flight did take off, we were on it, and we booked a hotel for Milan abut 5 minutes before we boarded the plane. Whew! We figured we could always get a taxi, but where is the adventure in that? After exiting the airport and collecting our luggage we learned that there was a #73 bus that could take you into the Duomo (the main church area) and then on the same tickets (they are good for 90 minutes of travel) we could metro to the hotel from there. We spent 20 minutes or so in the big piazza in front of the Duomo and walked through the galleria. Mind you we have our full packs still on. We seriously think that we should all earn at least one college PE credit by the time we are done with this entire trip! By the time we reached our hotel it was around 1am. We were hot and tired. We opted to plan for an early departure so that we could catch an early train out to Florence in the morning. By 5:45am we were out the door and back at the train station again. A bit of a brutal turn around, but we made it.
It is now 2:30am our time, so I will update you more on our Tuesday adventures in Florence and our Wednesday plans for Rome. Ciao!
The last we left you was on Monday and we were still unsure on whether we would make it out of London on the flight we had rebooked to Milan. Originally we were set to fly into Rome, but British Airways was not sure if they would have the Rome flights moving until Tuesday or Wednesday. Not wanting to delay our trip any more, we looked for any flights flying into any cities that we were semi familiar with. It turns out it is pretty difficult to book 4 people on the same flight after a global outage of an airline. We managed to get a flight for Monday to Milan instead and figured we could train it into Florence or Rome depending on where we could pick up the original itinerary. As it is, we are out the tickets we bought for the Vatican and the Borguese. But the more we can salvage the better!
Prior to our flight we spent the day working through some of the sites we wanted to see on our London city guides. Christyn really wanted to go to the Camden Market, so we took the metro out in that direction. On the metro a cute family of four sat next to us, and of course we go to chatting. They were on their way to see the Platform 9 3/4 a one of the train stations from the Harry Potter movies. Since Christyn is a huge fan, and it was in the general direction we wanted to go, we tagged along. We then made our way up to the Camden Market. This is an open air market with hundreds of permanent vendors selling all sorts of things. And it was hopping. We bought some Hungarian take-away food and walked around the market for a few hours. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and make our way to the airport.
As it was, with the rebooked flight to Milan, we still had the worry that even if the flight took off we had no idea how we would get from the Linate airport to the city center, as the metro does not run out to Linate. And we didn't want to book a hotel for Milan until we were sure the plane would be taking off. So many ifs, and all hanging on one itty bitty little flight off of an island to the main land. :)
As it turns out, the flight did take off, we were on it, and we booked a hotel for Milan abut 5 minutes before we boarded the plane. Whew! We figured we could always get a taxi, but where is the adventure in that? After exiting the airport and collecting our luggage we learned that there was a #73 bus that could take you into the Duomo (the main church area) and then on the same tickets (they are good for 90 minutes of travel) we could metro to the hotel from there. We spent 20 minutes or so in the big piazza in front of the Duomo and walked through the galleria. Mind you we have our full packs still on. We seriously think that we should all earn at least one college PE credit by the time we are done with this entire trip! By the time we reached our hotel it was around 1am. We were hot and tired. We opted to plan for an early departure so that we could catch an early train out to Florence in the morning. By 5:45am we were out the door and back at the train station again. A bit of a brutal turn around, but we made it.
It is now 2:30am our time, so I will update you more on our Tuesday adventures in Florence and our Wednesday plans for Rome. Ciao!
Monday, May 29, 2017
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make English Tea
So if American news is covering any of the British Airlines mess you likely all know now that our worries about our British Airways flight to Rome were valid. Once we landed we made our way from Termnal 2 to Terminal 5. On the way we were looking for signs of hope that things had returned to normal in the 10 hours that we were in the air. The flight attendants and pilots on the first flight were even calling into Heathrow to check the status of our flight. One thing we have learned through this, if we ever have the chance to fly on Air New Zealand again we will. They were amazing. The seats were comfortable with enough room, the video screens near each seat actually worked, included in the fare were amenities like blankets and pillows, and they even fed us two decent meals in flight. They also had touch screen ordering of drinks at any time so that you didn't have to get up or try to hail a flight attendant. Interestingly enough, their drink selection was quite robust, including the traditional options and quite a number of adult options. It made us wonder if part of the training to be a flight attendant included bar tender school.
On our way to the terminal we saw a number of British Airways flights leaving the tarmac and had renewed hope that we might actually make it out on a flight. Unfortunately, as we were headed to check in a BA crew member verified that our flight was indeed cancelled. We were told to exit the airport through customs and go back into the airport on the arrivals side to rebook our flight with the BA side on arrivals. When we got down to the ground floor and were about to exit the airport we learned that they were not letting anyone up to the arrivals to rebook unless they were on a confirmed flight and had checked in. We also saw that if you left the airport they would not let you back in unless you were on a confirmed flight. We opted to stay in the airport until we could sort everything out. All passengers on cancelled flights were told to rebook with BA.com. Which was ironic, because it was IT issues that prevented flights from going, and now we had to rely on BA.com in order to get a new flight.
Determined to make the most of it, we grabbed a piece of cold floor with about 2,000 of our closest friends to figure out what we would do. Thankfully Heathrow has free wifi and with that we could use to actually make a call. After about 3 hours on the phone with reps from both British Airways and Air New Zealand we were rebooked on a flight to Milan (not Rome) on Monday. We cancelled our original Rome hotel (thank you Booking.com for allowing us to do that for free) and then tried to figure out how and when we could rejoin with our original itinerary. At this point we are going to miss our reservations for the Vatican museaum and the Borguese gallery (which has Michelle's favorite statue), but we should be able to catch up in time for our reservation to the Academia in Florence for the statue of David. Fingers crossed, as BA is focused on getting their long haul flights back up first and their short hall flights up next.
After securing a flight Tim and Susanne went to see if they could get our bags, which were tagged to go to Rome so we did not pick them up after our flight landed in London. At that moment, we were worried that they would end up in the big pile of bags that were left unclaimed. BA was assuring passengers that they would be reunited with their bags as soon as possible. We had two days of clothes and essentials in our packs, so we were not worried in the short term. But the idea of relying on an airline to properly forward baggage around the world when they can't manage getting people around the world seemed a bit of a stretch. Michelle and Christyn worked on local transport information and finding a hotel for the night. With BA reimbursing 200 British pounds for a hotel for 2 each night and 25 British pounds for food per person, there were a number of options available to us. We had fun looking for the best deals in some swanky places. :)
Tim and Susanne had their own adventures in baggage. There were a number of lines they had to be in, each with frustrated passengers and little information. The one they finally landed in allowed 5 people at a time in to search for luggage, and this included the BA workers. So if a crew member went in, that was one person of the five and the rest of the line had to wait. After an extended search of a few hours they finally managed to locate all of our bags and were able to take them out of the baggage handling area. There is no sight sweeter after all that the day held then your husband and sister-in-law walking up with big smiles and 4 bags on their arms.
All told, we were in the airport for 6 hours to rebook flights, find bags and get to our hotel. Thankfully we arrived at 11:00am London time, so we departed at 5:00pm and were at our hotel by 5:45pm. Since we are (hopefully!) only in town for one night, we decided to work on our list of sights to see in London a little earlier than planned. First up, a traditional London pub for dinner. We bought two different local brews and a number of dishes to share. Fish and chips, shepherds pie, traditional English breakfast plate and a fish plate filled out the table. After dinner was a short walk to Buckingham Palace. We walked through St. James park at dusk, which was a very serene experience after a hectic day of airplanes, air ports and rescheduled plans. The slowly setting sun, the various birds and the beautiful scenery all combined to remind us of the bigger picture of what we were doing and why we are here.
Our walk continued with the ultimate goal being to see the River Thames. Along the way we marveled at Trafalgar Square and bumped into a small pastry shop. Since we all had a hankering for something sweet, we purchased four different options and made our way to the Jubilie bridge. It has a beautiful nighttime skyline view of the city and of the Parliment buildings (including Big Ben). We ate the pastry's in a small park overlooking the same city view and marveled over the days challenges and blessings. A quick walk past the London Eye brought us to the tube station and then back to our rooms.
Today was fill of blessings and adventures, and we are grateful for things like free wifi almost everywhere that made the day so much better. We can't image how difficult this would have been had it happened even 10 years ago. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but we are together and we are safe and we are still excited for what God has planned.
Today was fill of blessings and adventures, and we are grateful for things like free wifi almost everywhere that made the day so much better. We can't image how difficult this would have been had it happened even 10 years ago. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but we are together and we are safe and we are still excited for what God has planned.
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