Wednesday, the 26th of April, was a day we were eager to get started. I finished my book, "The Rule of Four", which was really good, we showered, I blogged, Vee made our itinerary, and entered our expenses in the spreadsheet.
(Vee reporting) 4/26/06 - Our beds not only looked comfy but really were. I slept so well!
First decision we made this morning is that we were going to extend our stay in Prague for at least another day. With our itinerary completed for the day we talked with the reception who arranged to have our exisiting mini-apartment available for another day. The day was beautiful, sunshine, no clouds and feeling warm like summertime. Our goal for today was to see "Stare Mesto" (old town) and "Nove Mesto" (new town) on our side of the river. We headed inmediately towards the most important landmark in the old part of town; "Old town square" where the 14th century Tyn Church, St Nicolas Church and the "Orloj" (clock tower) are located. Our first stop is the "Obecni dum" (the municipal house) an impressive theather that reminded us of the main church in Piazza San Marco (Venece, Italy). Not only was the beauty what made us stop by also some signs advertising the show of the day: "Bohemian String Orchestra" playing Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak and Tchaikovski, with a full orchestra and two solists on the cello and violin known as the best of Prague. It sounded too good and affordable!!. One of the obvious reason why we are loving our time here, is because the exchange rate to the EURO and dollar is extremely favorable for us, therefore everything is pretty much cut in half price-wise. Totally excited with our tickets for tonights concert we headed towards the square, not without stopping first for 2 tasty capuccinos and pastries. We also had to stop at this very cool shop that featured beautiful Prague-beer mugs. Prague is apparently known in Europe as one of the countries with the best breweries in the continent, good enough reason to buy an authentic Prague-mug to take home! We finally arrived to the main square and once again we let the beauty and energy of the place invade our senses. After briefly visiting St Nicolas church (a georgeous church in one of the corners), we walked by a strip of street vendor booths where we inmediatelly fell in love with some Prague-themed artwork painted in watercolors by several russian artists who have been living in the country for many years. It was hard not to buy more (since these were original art-pieces, beautiful but very afforable in dollars!), but we ended up choosing 2 small-medium paintings. We were so thrilled! With brand new beer-mugs and 2 new paintings in hand we continued our walk through town. It is hard to put into words the feeling that this city gives us everywhere we go. By now, we have been in several of the most important cities in Europe, and the energy that Prague radiates is completely contagious. Prague is one of the few lucky cities that didn't suffer too much devastation during WWII, and it shows in the incredible beauty of its recently restored buildings. The arts (jazz concerts, classical music, theater, gallery exhibitions) are also overwhelming in quality and quantity. One doesn't need to work hard finding a place any night of the week to watch a good show. As soon as the sun goes down the music starts to flow through the streets coming from all the different clubs, bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Despite its underlying roughness (which is only visible through some of the homeless poeple, the dust and sometimes pieces of trash on the ground), there is definitely a sense of elegance in the streets. The "Jozefov" area (jewish neighborhood) for instance, is filled with gorgeous high quality cafes, restaurants, bars and shops (Valentino, Hermes, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuton, etc, etc) are one after the other; and even the side streets are charming with condo buildings full of character.
By now it is 4:30pm or so, and we have seen most of old town, and some of the main bridges that separate this area from "Mala Strana" (Area of castles and palaces). We were heading south, passing by the "National Theather" (another impressive building), when all of the sudden the clowds covered the sky and a few drops of rain started to come down. It seemed that it would be raining hard pretty soon, so we decided to continue our path south tomorrow. Instead we would go back to our home, drop our stuff off, find a cool place to have dinner and finish up the day with the concert we had bought tickets for. It felt good to be home for a few minutes to take our shoes off, but soon we were on the streets again in search of a place to eat. After failing to find a brewery-restaurant that the information center recommended to us, we settled for a cute restaurant located in New Town. As pretty much every restaurant, it had its own character and personality with a cave-like feeling. Food was awesome, and we finish right on time to get to the municipal building for our concert.
Once seated in the concert hall, we realized that it was going to be crowded. Cliff and I were squeezed by the people sitting next to each of us. It was all worth it. Once Vivaldi's "Four seasons" began, I felt my arm hairs stand up right away. The power of the music was overwhelming. The second solist of the night "Krystof Lecian", known as one of the best cello players in the country was FANTASTIC, he played his instrument with closed eyes, rocking his head like a rock star and making every note heard clearly and beautifully, the rest of the orchestra became a background, and we almost felt like in a heavy-metal concert but with Bach and Tchaikowskys hits rather than Metallicas.
By the end of the concert the crowed was on its feet and with reason. Four additional themes were played to please us, but the concert came to an end anyway 30 minutes later.
Cliff and I were still too excited to be able to sleep. The realization of being in the Czech Republic, in one of the oldest Theaters of Europe, listening to one of the best classical orchestras was too much to grasp tonight.
To end the night on an even higher note, we stopped at this ultra-cool bar-restaurant on our way to the hotel that we spotted yeterday, that happened to have a live jazz-band performing as well. Three beers and two desserts later, we were still hanging at the bar listening to the band of a saxofonist, stand-up basist and pianist. Too good of a day, but it had to end. Yup, Prague rocks!
Friday, April 28, 2006
Vienna to Praha, Czech Republic...and unexpected destinations!
(Vee reporting) 4/25/06 - Today is my little sisters birthday. My first thought when waking up in our vienese room was my little Sandra, but strangely I had her 5-year old self in my memory. She is not a little girl anymore, and I felt sad for all the birthdays that I have missed.
We were checked out and ready to go by 10:30am. Our Eurail-pass schedule said that our train was leaving at 11:08am, so we hurried to find a taxi only a few blocks away from our hotel.
We were at the train station in no time, and found our platform very quickly. Something didn't look right though...uh oh...Cliff and I have come to develop this sort of "sixth sense" when something isn't right. I double checked at the ticketing office, and was happy that I did. We were on the wrong platform, our train schedule had been changed AND we learned that eurailpass doesn't cover the Czech Republic!
With tickets and schedule in hand, we quickly grabbed some coffee, bread and headed towards our real gate.
What the ticketing officer didn't explain to us, is that this new train had also a different route. After an hour in the train we arrived to the station where we were told to switch trains. Hmm...we thought, this must be a small Czech village, and since we had a full hour before our train to Praha arrived, we wondered around a little bit outside the station.
It was only a few moments before stepping into our train (which was delayed by 15 minutes) that Cliff noticed the map in which this little village was located. The country map had Budapest as the capital! What?!...we were in Slovakia! Ha! Bratislava, Slovakia...CHECK! I wanted to take some pictures, but it was too late. Inflation in this country was obvious, and they probably have also a poor exchange rate. Cliff purchased a small coffee for SF32!..which was the quivalent of 50 cent EURO. Yup...we were in east europe, and we were happy to be there.
Once on our way to Praha, we were asked to show our passport to the train officer. This part of the ride has been smooth so far almost everywhere (by exception of our arrival to Germany), I showed them our passports and as always Cliff's got looked and checked in no time, and then the dragging 10-minute inspection of my passport begins. Being a bolivian in 2006 is not a very popular thing to be, so as expected my passport was checked, re-checked, a magnifying device was used to make sure that it is not fake....oh gosh I thought. I had my marriage certificate and birth certificate copies ready by now, and it was just then that they decided I was ok to go.
--*!##!*--
(Cliff reporting)
As we made the final approach into Prague, the train slowed, and we passed over a river. I happened to glance at Vee and saw her face change from one of content, to one of curious surprise, and I asked her what was going on. She explained that as we passed over the river, she was looking down at the river banks and saw a man, completely naked, lying there, and a fully clothed woman spooning with him, right there, beneath the train. Now it was clear: Prague was going to be a very interesting city. We got off the train and noticed right away that things here were different. This would be no Bern, Switzerland. This was rough, gritty, Prague. But, as we would quickly learn, there is a vibrant luster burning through the surface. Our first mission was to find a map. A little shop in the station had just what we needed, but after waiting in line to pay, we learned that they did not accept Euros, only Czech Crowns. We walked back into the terminal and exchanged 40 EUR for 1,010 Crowns and went back to pay for the map, no prob. Next mission, after analyzing the map, and determining our current location and that of our pension, was to decide how and with what means we wanted to get there: walk, tram, metro, bus, or taxi. It was hard to know how far of a walk it would be as the maps for each city seem to differ greatly in scale, so with the fatigue of travelling all day settling in, we opted for a quick taxi ride, hoping it wouldn't be too far and/or expensive. We waited at the taxi area for a while, and with each wasted minute, we gathered more willingness for trying public transport. Our map indicated a metro stop right there in the train station, as well as another that popped out within a block of the street where the pension was located. Fumbling with the Metro ticket machines, the first of which wouldn't accept any of my Crowns, we finally broke down and bought a Coke from one of the vendor stands nearby so that we could acquire the necessary coins for buying the tickets. The ticket-purchase instructions were in an alphabet completely foreign to me, and I found the shredded English translations beneath them to be less than helpful. Finally with tickets in hand, we poked the flimsy scraps into the yellow validation box and descended down into the subway tunnel. The subway cars looked as if they had arrived through the ground from the factory rather than the subway stop before us. Absolutely immaculate. How about that!?! We climbed aboard and two stops later, got off at the Florenc station, and once above ground, started walking with determined confidence in the direction we hoped our pension would be. To our grateful surprise, 'Alice Pension' was only about 2 blocks away, in fact it was so close to the station, that we thought it was a mistake, and that there must be more than one hotel named 'Alice' in the viscinity, but after double-checking the address, sure enough, this was it. The folks at the front desk were very friendly, quiet and gracious. The man who greeted us then came around the desk, and lead us up the spiral stairs, carrying Vee's bag at his insistance, and took us to our room. We passed a nice little terrace on the way, and were then astounded by what would be our accomodations for the next few days. Already, we knew we were both thinking about extending our stay, without having exchanged so much as a word. This place is awesome. Our own fully-equipped kitchenette, a beautiful brand new full bathroom, and not just one double bed, but two, plus a double pull-out futon. And, all sorts of storage and closet space, and cute decorations, a table and chairs, plants, locker, and a chandalier. This place in no way reflects the price we are paying for it. Once the giddiness wore off enough for us to want to get outside, we cleaned up, and chose a few destinations to which we'd wander. As we began walking, it took no time for us to realize that Prague is a very special place. There is lots of construction going on, and it looks like alot has already been built brand-new, or recently restored. There are lots of young people bouncing around, music pumping from many of the bars, cafes and restaurants we passed, and then once in the center, the spectacular architecture from centuries past. Everything is just so rich with character, and life. We were buzzing, and we hadn't had a drink, yet. We found the jazz club that I wanted to check out, and discovered that the show would be starting in a little over an hour, which was a perfect amount of time for us to find a nearby place to eat. I had an unexpressed craving for pizza, and coincidentally, Vee picked out an Italian place that suited perfectly. The meal was delicious; we shared a vegetarian pizza, minestrone soup, and bruschetta. I had a delicious Czech stoudt called "Kelt", and Vee had some Coke Light. We paid, and asked our waiter how we could say thank you in their language, and he said something like "hey-kwee"(phonetic spelling, obviously), so we exchanged mulitple "hey-kwees" and made our way back to Reduta Jazz Club, where President Bill Clinton made appearances in 1994 and 2005, on the sax. The cover charge totalled 400 Crowns (approximately 15 EUR) and there was a self-serve bar inside with draught Pilsner Uruquell for 80 Crowns. The 4-piece band played 3 sets, for about 2 1/2 hours, and they rocked the house. Each individually was amazing, and together wonderful to watch and hear. Numerous times, my hair stood up on end with the electricity of their performance. At midnight, the show was over, and we bounced outside and ambled blissfully back to the hotel, where we quickly fell asleep in our bed on cloud 9.
We were checked out and ready to go by 10:30am. Our Eurail-pass schedule said that our train was leaving at 11:08am, so we hurried to find a taxi only a few blocks away from our hotel.
We were at the train station in no time, and found our platform very quickly. Something didn't look right though...uh oh...Cliff and I have come to develop this sort of "sixth sense" when something isn't right. I double checked at the ticketing office, and was happy that I did. We were on the wrong platform, our train schedule had been changed AND we learned that eurailpass doesn't cover the Czech Republic!
With tickets and schedule in hand, we quickly grabbed some coffee, bread and headed towards our real gate.
What the ticketing officer didn't explain to us, is that this new train had also a different route. After an hour in the train we arrived to the station where we were told to switch trains. Hmm...we thought, this must be a small Czech village, and since we had a full hour before our train to Praha arrived, we wondered around a little bit outside the station.
It was only a few moments before stepping into our train (which was delayed by 15 minutes) that Cliff noticed the map in which this little village was located. The country map had Budapest as the capital! What?!...we were in Slovakia! Ha! Bratislava, Slovakia...CHECK! I wanted to take some pictures, but it was too late. Inflation in this country was obvious, and they probably have also a poor exchange rate. Cliff purchased a small coffee for SF32!..which was the quivalent of 50 cent EURO. Yup...we were in east europe, and we were happy to be there.
Once on our way to Praha, we were asked to show our passport to the train officer. This part of the ride has been smooth so far almost everywhere (by exception of our arrival to Germany), I showed them our passports and as always Cliff's got looked and checked in no time, and then the dragging 10-minute inspection of my passport begins. Being a bolivian in 2006 is not a very popular thing to be, so as expected my passport was checked, re-checked, a magnifying device was used to make sure that it is not fake....oh gosh I thought. I had my marriage certificate and birth certificate copies ready by now, and it was just then that they decided I was ok to go.
--*!##!*--
(Cliff reporting)
As we made the final approach into Prague, the train slowed, and we passed over a river. I happened to glance at Vee and saw her face change from one of content, to one of curious surprise, and I asked her what was going on. She explained that as we passed over the river, she was looking down at the river banks and saw a man, completely naked, lying there, and a fully clothed woman spooning with him, right there, beneath the train. Now it was clear: Prague was going to be a very interesting city. We got off the train and noticed right away that things here were different. This would be no Bern, Switzerland. This was rough, gritty, Prague. But, as we would quickly learn, there is a vibrant luster burning through the surface. Our first mission was to find a map. A little shop in the station had just what we needed, but after waiting in line to pay, we learned that they did not accept Euros, only Czech Crowns. We walked back into the terminal and exchanged 40 EUR for 1,010 Crowns and went back to pay for the map, no prob. Next mission, after analyzing the map, and determining our current location and that of our pension, was to decide how and with what means we wanted to get there: walk, tram, metro, bus, or taxi. It was hard to know how far of a walk it would be as the maps for each city seem to differ greatly in scale, so with the fatigue of travelling all day settling in, we opted for a quick taxi ride, hoping it wouldn't be too far and/or expensive. We waited at the taxi area for a while, and with each wasted minute, we gathered more willingness for trying public transport. Our map indicated a metro stop right there in the train station, as well as another that popped out within a block of the street where the pension was located. Fumbling with the Metro ticket machines, the first of which wouldn't accept any of my Crowns, we finally broke down and bought a Coke from one of the vendor stands nearby so that we could acquire the necessary coins for buying the tickets. The ticket-purchase instructions were in an alphabet completely foreign to me, and I found the shredded English translations beneath them to be less than helpful. Finally with tickets in hand, we poked the flimsy scraps into the yellow validation box and descended down into the subway tunnel. The subway cars looked as if they had arrived through the ground from the factory rather than the subway stop before us. Absolutely immaculate. How about that!?! We climbed aboard and two stops later, got off at the Florenc station, and once above ground, started walking with determined confidence in the direction we hoped our pension would be. To our grateful surprise, 'Alice Pension' was only about 2 blocks away, in fact it was so close to the station, that we thought it was a mistake, and that there must be more than one hotel named 'Alice' in the viscinity, but after double-checking the address, sure enough, this was it. The folks at the front desk were very friendly, quiet and gracious. The man who greeted us then came around the desk, and lead us up the spiral stairs, carrying Vee's bag at his insistance, and took us to our room. We passed a nice little terrace on the way, and were then astounded by what would be our accomodations for the next few days. Already, we knew we were both thinking about extending our stay, without having exchanged so much as a word. This place is awesome. Our own fully-equipped kitchenette, a beautiful brand new full bathroom, and not just one double bed, but two, plus a double pull-out futon. And, all sorts of storage and closet space, and cute decorations, a table and chairs, plants, locker, and a chandalier. This place in no way reflects the price we are paying for it. Once the giddiness wore off enough for us to want to get outside, we cleaned up, and chose a few destinations to which we'd wander. As we began walking, it took no time for us to realize that Prague is a very special place. There is lots of construction going on, and it looks like alot has already been built brand-new, or recently restored. There are lots of young people bouncing around, music pumping from many of the bars, cafes and restaurants we passed, and then once in the center, the spectacular architecture from centuries past. Everything is just so rich with character, and life. We were buzzing, and we hadn't had a drink, yet. We found the jazz club that I wanted to check out, and discovered that the show would be starting in a little over an hour, which was a perfect amount of time for us to find a nearby place to eat. I had an unexpressed craving for pizza, and coincidentally, Vee picked out an Italian place that suited perfectly. The meal was delicious; we shared a vegetarian pizza, minestrone soup, and bruschetta. I had a delicious Czech stoudt called "Kelt", and Vee had some Coke Light. We paid, and asked our waiter how we could say thank you in their language, and he said something like "hey-kwee"(phonetic spelling, obviously), so we exchanged mulitple "hey-kwees" and made our way back to Reduta Jazz Club, where President Bill Clinton made appearances in 1994 and 2005, on the sax. The cover charge totalled 400 Crowns (approximately 15 EUR) and there was a self-serve bar inside with draught Pilsner Uruquell for 80 Crowns. The 4-piece band played 3 sets, for about 2 1/2 hours, and they rocked the house. Each individually was amazing, and together wonderful to watch and hear. Numerous times, my hair stood up on end with the electricity of their performance. At midnight, the show was over, and we bounced outside and ambled blissfully back to the hotel, where we quickly fell asleep in our bed on cloud 9.
Vienna - Wandering the Streets of Harmonious Melody
(Vee reporting) 4/24/06 - Knowing that we had only 2 nights and one full day in Vienna, we made sure to plan our day very well. Our hotel happened to be in a very nice location, only 3 blocks from city-hall (Rathaus), 4 blocks from the Parliament (parlament), and only a bit further away was the impressive Imperial Palace. The weather was georgeous (again!). Vienna gave us from the very first minute a "grandiose" impression. It strongly shows an imperialist history through its large beautiful buildings all over the city. I remember this was my first impression as well, a few years ago when I was here.
Walking through the gardens of the "Hofburg" (Imperial Palace) we arrived to the very center of downtown marked by Stephansplatz and Stephansdom (St. Stephan plaza and cathedral). Vienna's streets were designed as rings around this cathedral. The most inmediate rings are very broad and pedestrian only, filled with shops, restaurants, coffee shops, shops and more shops. The cathedral itself has a strong gothic style and is very impressive. At this point we needed our usual snack break, which we took a few blocks north towards the 2nd level ring in an area called the "Bermuda triangle", a place known for its coffee shops, bars and restaurants. Cliff had a salmon sandwhich and I had the biggest ice-cream I ever had in a cone, very delicious but a bit too rich! By now we had seen pretty much the key highlights of the city. Being Monday, most of the museums are closed, however we learned that morning about the "Haus Der Musik" a fantastic contemporary musuem that feauters over 5 full floors anything related to vienese musicians (Mozart, Bethoven -born in Bonn- , Strauss, Schubert, etc); music, sound, technologies of music and sound, the science of travelling sound, etc, etc.
This was one of the most impressive museums we have been to so far. Besides the typical audio-guide, it also feautred all kinds of interactive toys that allowed the visitor have fun while learning about music and sound.
It took us a good 3 hours to complete the tour and did we have fun! (I'll try to have at least one little video about this experience).
With the daylight still strong, we headed towards Karlkirche (chruch of Saint Charles). We paid an entrance to take a lift (elevetor) to the top of the cupula, but once we are up there really didn't feel like the scaffolding platform was very solid. The church is currently being restored and the temporary steps, elevators and platforms seem to shake with every step one made.
By now it was close to 7 pm. and we remembered that we wanted to call Nikolaus to see if he would be available for dinner that night. Reaching him was no problem, but unfortunately he was in Frankfurt for the day, not to return to Vienna until the following morning. Since we were schedueld to leave Vienna for Prague in the morning, we wouldn't be able to get together. We made sure to let him know how thankful we were for his help and thoughtfulness, and said good bye. We both agree, Nikolaus seems so nice, fun and a thoughtful guy, it was really too bad we couldn't make it work. Time for another break! We headed back to the Bermuda triangle section and got ourselves some very needed capuccinos. This gave us enough energy to head back to the hotel, and have a quick break before deciding what and where to have dinner.
Now this is very unusual for us. We very rarely go to the same place, unless we really have to. The "Siebenstern" beers however and the free wireless Internet were still stuck in our brains from the night before. Almost ashamed for not being more adventurous we both confessed that we really wanted to go to the same place. We did so, and I'm happy we did. Once again dinner was awesome, the only unexpected problem was that first we had dinner and beers, and by the time we finished and wanted to start working with our laptop, I got the "beer effect"...I got terribly sleepy, and could barely hold my eyes open. Cliff uploaded as fast as he could some of the Switzerland pictures, and then attempted to respond some overdue e-mails, and despite my efforts to stay awake....I just couldn't. Cut short with our internet work (we also wanted to make some calls home, since it is my sisters birthday), we just had to go. Oh well, it was still a beautiful day.
Walking through the gardens of the "Hofburg" (Imperial Palace) we arrived to the very center of downtown marked by Stephansplatz and Stephansdom (St. Stephan plaza and cathedral). Vienna's streets were designed as rings around this cathedral. The most inmediate rings are very broad and pedestrian only, filled with shops, restaurants, coffee shops, shops and more shops. The cathedral itself has a strong gothic style and is very impressive. At this point we needed our usual snack break, which we took a few blocks north towards the 2nd level ring in an area called the "Bermuda triangle", a place known for its coffee shops, bars and restaurants. Cliff had a salmon sandwhich and I had the biggest ice-cream I ever had in a cone, very delicious but a bit too rich! By now we had seen pretty much the key highlights of the city. Being Monday, most of the museums are closed, however we learned that morning about the "Haus Der Musik" a fantastic contemporary musuem that feauters over 5 full floors anything related to vienese musicians (Mozart, Bethoven -born in Bonn- , Strauss, Schubert, etc); music, sound, technologies of music and sound, the science of travelling sound, etc, etc.
This was one of the most impressive museums we have been to so far. Besides the typical audio-guide, it also feautred all kinds of interactive toys that allowed the visitor have fun while learning about music and sound.
It took us a good 3 hours to complete the tour and did we have fun! (I'll try to have at least one little video about this experience).
With the daylight still strong, we headed towards Karlkirche (chruch of Saint Charles). We paid an entrance to take a lift (elevetor) to the top of the cupula, but once we are up there really didn't feel like the scaffolding platform was very solid. The church is currently being restored and the temporary steps, elevators and platforms seem to shake with every step one made.
By now it was close to 7 pm. and we remembered that we wanted to call Nikolaus to see if he would be available for dinner that night. Reaching him was no problem, but unfortunately he was in Frankfurt for the day, not to return to Vienna until the following morning. Since we were schedueld to leave Vienna for Prague in the morning, we wouldn't be able to get together. We made sure to let him know how thankful we were for his help and thoughtfulness, and said good bye. We both agree, Nikolaus seems so nice, fun and a thoughtful guy, it was really too bad we couldn't make it work. Time for another break! We headed back to the Bermuda triangle section and got ourselves some very needed capuccinos. This gave us enough energy to head back to the hotel, and have a quick break before deciding what and where to have dinner.
Now this is very unusual for us. We very rarely go to the same place, unless we really have to. The "Siebenstern" beers however and the free wireless Internet were still stuck in our brains from the night before. Almost ashamed for not being more adventurous we both confessed that we really wanted to go to the same place. We did so, and I'm happy we did. Once again dinner was awesome, the only unexpected problem was that first we had dinner and beers, and by the time we finished and wanted to start working with our laptop, I got the "beer effect"...I got terribly sleepy, and could barely hold my eyes open. Cliff uploaded as fast as he could some of the Switzerland pictures, and then attempted to respond some overdue e-mails, and despite my efforts to stay awake....I just couldn't. Cut short with our internet work (we also wanted to make some calls home, since it is my sisters birthday), we just had to go. Oh well, it was still a beautiful day.
Munich to Vienna: "...we understand them."
(Vee reporting) 4/23/06: Bear with me, and the title I chose for this blog will make sense in just a minute.
After packing, paying and arriving to the station we were very happy (once again) to learn that we would travel totally for free to beautiful Vienna, Austria. We were already 1 hour on the train, when a young austrian fellow joined our first-class (private) cabinet in the train. To break the awkward silence he asked us where we were heading to. From there, a fantastic 4 hour-long conversation began with Nikolaus. An austrian electrical-engineer who just returned to his home-country after living for a while in Luxembourg.
We talked about everything! From the different cities we had already visited, to the cultural differences between europeans and americans, about history, social issues, our personal lives a bit, sports (football vs. fussball, the world cup), Vienna (where to go what to do), food, and...and the US goverment foreign-policy of course. It's enough to say that we were not too suprised about his personal thoughts on this, and the impressions he and possibly many austrains have about the US and the people. As of now there is definitely a feeling of "I don't want to go there" among people his age. It seems to them that America is quickly isolating itself and creating an unfriendly image as a country. A few years ago, Nikolaus had a chance to go to the US and decided not to, he didn't feel like being treated like a "danger".
Anyway, when I finally asked him what he thought was the main difference between germans and austrians, since they share an almost common history, language, culture, etc he simply said that he knows of a joke that explains this: "German people dont't understand Austrians, but like them. Austrians understand Germans." (brief silence, then riotous laughter from the 3 of us)
There's no way to accurately re-create the moment, and the way in which he said it; but it was sooo funny that we laughed and giggled for a good minute or two.
Afterwards he called one of his friends to find out for us if there was a "fussball" (soccer) match we could go and watch that night, and later he invited us to go out to dinner with him to this really good brewery-restaurant outside of Vienna that has an interesting story.
His train-stop was one before ours, and we said our good-byes not before he explained us the best way to reach our Hotel using the metro.
When it was our turn to get off the train, we followed his intructions, and sure enough 20 minutes later were finally at the "Pension Andreas"; a georgeous old building with very high ceilings and a lot of charm.
We were exhausted and took a quick nap. After we awoke we found under our door a message left by Nikolaus who faxed the Hotel to let us know that unfortunatelly this restaurant was closed, but made sure to specify his cell-phone number to call him anyway if we felt like it.
Starving and quite tired we decided to call him the following day and made our way to "Siebenstern Brau" a Brewery-restaurant that was recommended in our book. We scored big time! Food was awesome, place was awesome, the BEER was INCREDIBLE!! Even I loved it and had 2 of my own! Cliff of course tried every single one, while enjoying our delicious dinner of salads, soups, cheesed-dark bread and dessert, we were also happy to see that the prices were very nice and that they had free wireless Internet! Too bad we didn't have our laptop with us, but we made sure to keep this place in mind to maybe come back the next day.
After packing, paying and arriving to the station we were very happy (once again) to learn that we would travel totally for free to beautiful Vienna, Austria. We were already 1 hour on the train, when a young austrian fellow joined our first-class (private) cabinet in the train. To break the awkward silence he asked us where we were heading to. From there, a fantastic 4 hour-long conversation began with Nikolaus. An austrian electrical-engineer who just returned to his home-country after living for a while in Luxembourg.
We talked about everything! From the different cities we had already visited, to the cultural differences between europeans and americans, about history, social issues, our personal lives a bit, sports (football vs. fussball, the world cup), Vienna (where to go what to do), food, and...and the US goverment foreign-policy of course. It's enough to say that we were not too suprised about his personal thoughts on this, and the impressions he and possibly many austrains have about the US and the people. As of now there is definitely a feeling of "I don't want to go there" among people his age. It seems to them that America is quickly isolating itself and creating an unfriendly image as a country. A few years ago, Nikolaus had a chance to go to the US and decided not to, he didn't feel like being treated like a "danger".
Anyway, when I finally asked him what he thought was the main difference between germans and austrians, since they share an almost common history, language, culture, etc he simply said that he knows of a joke that explains this: "German people dont't understand Austrians, but like them. Austrians understand Germans." (brief silence, then riotous laughter from the 3 of us)
There's no way to accurately re-create the moment, and the way in which he said it; but it was sooo funny that we laughed and giggled for a good minute or two.
Afterwards he called one of his friends to find out for us if there was a "fussball" (soccer) match we could go and watch that night, and later he invited us to go out to dinner with him to this really good brewery-restaurant outside of Vienna that has an interesting story.
His train-stop was one before ours, and we said our good-byes not before he explained us the best way to reach our Hotel using the metro.
When it was our turn to get off the train, we followed his intructions, and sure enough 20 minutes later were finally at the "Pension Andreas"; a georgeous old building with very high ceilings and a lot of charm.
We were exhausted and took a quick nap. After we awoke we found under our door a message left by Nikolaus who faxed the Hotel to let us know that unfortunatelly this restaurant was closed, but made sure to specify his cell-phone number to call him anyway if we felt like it.
Starving and quite tired we decided to call him the following day and made our way to "Siebenstern Brau" a Brewery-restaurant that was recommended in our book. We scored big time! Food was awesome, place was awesome, the BEER was INCREDIBLE!! Even I loved it and had 2 of my own! Cliff of course tried every single one, while enjoying our delicious dinner of salads, soups, cheesed-dark bread and dessert, we were also happy to see that the prices were very nice and that they had free wireless Internet! Too bad we didn't have our laptop with us, but we made sure to keep this place in mind to maybe come back the next day.
Munich - A Full Day
(Vee reporting) 4/22/06 - Muenchen und PROST!
The day started with lots of excitement for the day that was beginning. First impressions of Munich were extremely positive by the end of last night, so we were looking forward to experiencing more of the southern-german culture. The weather was once again fantastic (65+ degrees). But first we had to take care of some well overdue business: E-mails, reservations for our next destinations and hopefully paying some bills; so this is how our hunt for an Internet-cafe began.
Our travel-book had listed three somewhat close places where we would hopefully enjoy a tasty breakfast while connecting to the Internet. No such luck, the 2 first places apparently ran out of business. Two hours had gone by with an unsuccesfull search, elevating my (Vee's) stress-level a bit, since we had only this one day to get as much as we could out of Munich. Soon enough we finally found a place, and did as much as we could over the 1 hour we were given. Next, we headed towards the train-station hoping that we could catch a train to Dachau (a key WWII location), but learned that it would take all of our afternoon, and there was much more we wanted to see. We headed back to downtown. It was Saturday and the streets were packed with people of all ages eating, drinking, window shopping, laughing. It was a lot of fun to people-watch. I'm sure Cliff will agree with me in that southern-german people are in general very nice-looking folks, very tall (I was barely average, and Cliff even though above average wouldn't be considered "tall" by any means). There is definitly a health-conscience in the culture, people of all ages seem fit and very aware of their looks. Munchen I'm sure holds a large number of middle-upper class and/or high society people. Most of them wore only brand-named clothes and 90% of the cars were either new BMW, Mercedes, Audis, Mini-coopers, Porshe and a few Volkswagen. It was around 1pm when we decided to go to the "Munchen StadtMuesum" (museum of the city of Munich). Cliff had heard that it included an exhibition of the brewery-culture in this part of the country. Once in, we learned that there was no such section, but instead found very intersting exhibitions about the city and the planning that went into making it what it is today since the 18th century. We were very impressed with the long-term planning that went into everything! Always thinking about the future and how they want their civilization to grow. Pedestrian-only streets, bike-parking, top quality constructions, environmentaly conscius lighting and waste processing are part of their local goverment policy. It shows now in the culture. We also saw an international music-instruments exhibition and a toys and puppets one.
After we were done, it was early enough to go to the "Englisch Garten" (english garden). This is the biggest city-park in Europe and is known not only for its size, greenery and rivers, but for the "river-surfers" that manage to surf the waves of one of the rivers going through the park. We catch a glimpse of this and it was fascinating! We obviously took some pictures (already available) and video. We continued walking into the park and encountered the best part of our stay in Munich: The "ChineseTurm Biergarten" of Munich. The most important and largest biergarten of the country, where people gather daily to drink huge mugs of beer, eat wurst, huge pretzels, and anything else one could want, and sing/laugh gathered on very long tables attached to each other, while a municher-band plays some happy music. This alone made our trip a fantastic experience worth to remember for years to come. Cliff was in heaven of course. We got our beers, wursts, pretzels, salads and joined to crowed. It was so much fun!
By 8pm we were full, exhausted and very happy, but also ready to go back to our temporary home. What a day!
The day started with lots of excitement for the day that was beginning. First impressions of Munich were extremely positive by the end of last night, so we were looking forward to experiencing more of the southern-german culture. The weather was once again fantastic (65+ degrees). But first we had to take care of some well overdue business: E-mails, reservations for our next destinations and hopefully paying some bills; so this is how our hunt for an Internet-cafe began.
Our travel-book had listed three somewhat close places where we would hopefully enjoy a tasty breakfast while connecting to the Internet. No such luck, the 2 first places apparently ran out of business. Two hours had gone by with an unsuccesfull search, elevating my (Vee's) stress-level a bit, since we had only this one day to get as much as we could out of Munich. Soon enough we finally found a place, and did as much as we could over the 1 hour we were given. Next, we headed towards the train-station hoping that we could catch a train to Dachau (a key WWII location), but learned that it would take all of our afternoon, and there was much more we wanted to see. We headed back to downtown. It was Saturday and the streets were packed with people of all ages eating, drinking, window shopping, laughing. It was a lot of fun to people-watch. I'm sure Cliff will agree with me in that southern-german people are in general very nice-looking folks, very tall (I was barely average, and Cliff even though above average wouldn't be considered "tall" by any means). There is definitly a health-conscience in the culture, people of all ages seem fit and very aware of their looks. Munchen I'm sure holds a large number of middle-upper class and/or high society people. Most of them wore only brand-named clothes and 90% of the cars were either new BMW, Mercedes, Audis, Mini-coopers, Porshe and a few Volkswagen. It was around 1pm when we decided to go to the "Munchen StadtMuesum" (museum of the city of Munich). Cliff had heard that it included an exhibition of the brewery-culture in this part of the country. Once in, we learned that there was no such section, but instead found very intersting exhibitions about the city and the planning that went into making it what it is today since the 18th century. We were very impressed with the long-term planning that went into everything! Always thinking about the future and how they want their civilization to grow. Pedestrian-only streets, bike-parking, top quality constructions, environmentaly conscius lighting and waste processing are part of their local goverment policy. It shows now in the culture. We also saw an international music-instruments exhibition and a toys and puppets one.
After we were done, it was early enough to go to the "Englisch Garten" (english garden). This is the biggest city-park in Europe and is known not only for its size, greenery and rivers, but for the "river-surfers" that manage to surf the waves of one of the rivers going through the park. We catch a glimpse of this and it was fascinating! We obviously took some pictures (already available) and video. We continued walking into the park and encountered the best part of our stay in Munich: The "ChineseTurm Biergarten" of Munich. The most important and largest biergarten of the country, where people gather daily to drink huge mugs of beer, eat wurst, huge pretzels, and anything else one could want, and sing/laugh gathered on very long tables attached to each other, while a municher-band plays some happy music. This alone made our trip a fantastic experience worth to remember for years to come. Cliff was in heaven of course. We got our beers, wursts, pretzels, salads and joined to crowed. It was so much fun!
By 8pm we were full, exhausted and very happy, but also ready to go back to our temporary home. What a day!
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Luzern through Zurich and into Munich
It's Friday the 21st of April, and as of today, we have completed 8 full weeks of euro-travel. It is a strange reality because in some respects, when we think of all the places we've been, and everything we've experienced, it seems like we've been here for much longer. At the same time, when we think about how we feel, and how much we still look forward to the next destination and how deeply we enjoy and appreciate each moment as it comes, it seems like we just started the trip. I am having some "missing" attacks though, usually in the quiet waking minutes of the morning. I miss the family, our friends, time with family and friends at the Bay, and playing squash. But overall, we are both sooooo into this trip. Really, REALLY loving our time here. And truthfully, despite all the places we've been and those that are still on our itinerary, it feels like we've only barely scratched the surface of what we'd really like to see and do here in Europe. The vast majority of the places we've been are ones that we would have liked to have stayed even longer. And we've learned about so many other places that we'd like to experience, or specific things that we'd like to do that we just won't have the time to do this go'round. I think that this trip has only awakened a mutual desire for continued extensive travel here, and elsewhere, in our future together. We just have to figure out how to design our lives to allow such a thing. And, as always, we have ideas.......
Waking up in our fluffy down comforters, and huge down pillows was a pleasure. We slept in a little bit later today, not getting out of bed until around 8:30am or so because the last few days have been long and action-packed, our bed was so comfy, and we decided against the breakfast they wanted to sell us for an additional 30 SFR. We were only in this hotel for one night, and so we barely even unpacked. Re-packing was quick and easy, and we checked out in plenty of time. In the mini-bar, we stored some leftover bread and cheese from our munchies the night before, and for breakfast, we picked at the bread while we walked, and then Vee got some delicious apples at the Coop. We decided to hold off on the coffees so that we had something specific to look forward to once we would arrive in Zurich a bit later. Not feeling much of a desire to linger any longer in Luzern, despite how much we liked it there, we walked briskly to the train station and got on the next train to Zurich. There are two departures for Zurich each hour, so the wait was minimal. We didn't want to spend a whole lot of time in Zurich because we've heard that although it is a nice city, there aren't a whole lot of tourist attractions. We arrived at about 11:45, and decided to take the 1:15 train out of Zurich to Munich, since there weren't that many to choose from, and with it being a 4 hour trip, we didn't want to arrive too late. In Zurich, we just walked around the busy shopping areas within a 3-4 block radius of the train station and found it to be quite pleasant. Zurich definitely has the big city cosmopolitan feel, but not in a crazy overwhelming way. It felt self-assured, stylish, clean, and affluent. We found a trendy little cafe, and paid way too much for the two tiny espressos, but we weren't in much of a position to bargain hunt given the nature of our surroundings and the few minutes we had to spend there. Two to three sips and we were back on the street, trying not to cause too much trouble on the busy sidewalks with our main packs being pulled behind us rather than strapped to our backs. We zig-zagged through the streets, and headed back to the train station by 1pm or so. The train arrived only a few minutes before it's scheduled departure, and although we got kicked out of our first seats, we settled into two others in the same private cabin and enjoyed the ride. I helped the elderly couple (the ones that kicked us out of the initial seats we chose) with their bags by stowing them away high up on the overhead racks, and that seemed to warm them up and ease the awkwardness a tad. Once across the border of Germany, the new train agents gave Vee a bit of a hard time with her non-U.S. passport, but eventually eased up, and dropped the issue. It was not a big deal, just a bit hairy for a few moments. The fact that he had a pistol on his hip did not make us feel any more comfortable with the situation. No biggee, and before long we were in Munich. The first thing I noticed were the smells. Something smelled sooooooo good!!!! My salivary glands were kicked into full production immediately. And it was one delicious aroma after another: pretzels, bread, pastries, grilled wursts, pizzas, and on and on. It took nano-seconds for me to like Munich. We managed to locate a newstand and bought a map, then ventured out into the city to find our hotel. We covered a few blocks, and then a very friendly young lady on her bike rode over to us and asked if she could help us find something. We showed her where on the map we wanted to go and she said that it was too far to walk and suggested a taxi, or the two metro lines that she knew would get us there. We thanked her perfusely and discussed our next move. Instead of fussing with the metro at rush hour on a Friday with our bags, we got a taxi to the hotel, and it turned out to not really be that far at all. But, it was nice to just BE there. We checked in, and were very pleasantly surprised with the accomodations. This might be the cheapest yet of all our hotels, and is actually quite nice. We dropped off our bags, and couldn't wait any longer to get out there and see the city. A few moments later, and we were out in the thick of all the activity. Vee successfully navigated us to the city center, where no cars are allowed, and the streets were packed with people everywhere enjoying the weather, their beers, and the people whose time they were sharing. It was vibrant, alive, and invigorating. And having not eaten or drank anything all day besides bread, an espresso and an apple, I couldn't wait for a big german dinner and a beer! We wandered around for quite a while though, looking for an authentic beirgarten, not one that the tourists would find, and that had prices below those charged on the more heavily trafficked strasse. We found the perfect place, with long tables and wooden chairs, and lots of meat on the menu. Vee had a gigantic garden salad topped with grilled chicken, and I had a delicious goulash soup, and a huge plate of roasted pork with two perfect spheres of potato and stuffing, gravy and cold saurkraut salad. The only thing left on our plates were a few small scraps of fat that I peeled of my meat, otherwise, both of our plates were stripped clean. Vee had a tall wheat bier and I started with a helles, and finished with a pils, all were delicious, refreshing and so wonderfully balanced and clean-tasting. To top it off, Vee ordered an apple strudell that was out of this world. They even garnished it with a huge sparkler-looking decoration! Thoroughly stuffed, we wobbled back outside and in the warmth of the early evening, strolled back through the activity where street musicians were still playing, and futbol fans in full team garb were merrilly chanting or singing fight songs as they stumbled along, some arm in arm, having apparently just left a nearby match. We found some sort of candle-lit religious ceremony going on outside one of the cathedrals and poked around a bit to see what the buzz was about. Vee suggested that maybe it had something to do with the one year anniversary of the induction of the new Pope, who is from Germany. We continued on our way, and found the hotel in the darkeness no problem. With the "VGPS" ("Vee"-GPS) system, it's easy. Tonight, a bit of blogging and reading, and in the morning, laundry. Tomorrow, a full day of Munich.
Waking up in our fluffy down comforters, and huge down pillows was a pleasure. We slept in a little bit later today, not getting out of bed until around 8:30am or so because the last few days have been long and action-packed, our bed was so comfy, and we decided against the breakfast they wanted to sell us for an additional 30 SFR. We were only in this hotel for one night, and so we barely even unpacked. Re-packing was quick and easy, and we checked out in plenty of time. In the mini-bar, we stored some leftover bread and cheese from our munchies the night before, and for breakfast, we picked at the bread while we walked, and then Vee got some delicious apples at the Coop. We decided to hold off on the coffees so that we had something specific to look forward to once we would arrive in Zurich a bit later. Not feeling much of a desire to linger any longer in Luzern, despite how much we liked it there, we walked briskly to the train station and got on the next train to Zurich. There are two departures for Zurich each hour, so the wait was minimal. We didn't want to spend a whole lot of time in Zurich because we've heard that although it is a nice city, there aren't a whole lot of tourist attractions. We arrived at about 11:45, and decided to take the 1:15 train out of Zurich to Munich, since there weren't that many to choose from, and with it being a 4 hour trip, we didn't want to arrive too late. In Zurich, we just walked around the busy shopping areas within a 3-4 block radius of the train station and found it to be quite pleasant. Zurich definitely has the big city cosmopolitan feel, but not in a crazy overwhelming way. It felt self-assured, stylish, clean, and affluent. We found a trendy little cafe, and paid way too much for the two tiny espressos, but we weren't in much of a position to bargain hunt given the nature of our surroundings and the few minutes we had to spend there. Two to three sips and we were back on the street, trying not to cause too much trouble on the busy sidewalks with our main packs being pulled behind us rather than strapped to our backs. We zig-zagged through the streets, and headed back to the train station by 1pm or so. The train arrived only a few minutes before it's scheduled departure, and although we got kicked out of our first seats, we settled into two others in the same private cabin and enjoyed the ride. I helped the elderly couple (the ones that kicked us out of the initial seats we chose) with their bags by stowing them away high up on the overhead racks, and that seemed to warm them up and ease the awkwardness a tad. Once across the border of Germany, the new train agents gave Vee a bit of a hard time with her non-U.S. passport, but eventually eased up, and dropped the issue. It was not a big deal, just a bit hairy for a few moments. The fact that he had a pistol on his hip did not make us feel any more comfortable with the situation. No biggee, and before long we were in Munich. The first thing I noticed were the smells. Something smelled sooooooo good!!!! My salivary glands were kicked into full production immediately. And it was one delicious aroma after another: pretzels, bread, pastries, grilled wursts, pizzas, and on and on. It took nano-seconds for me to like Munich. We managed to locate a newstand and bought a map, then ventured out into the city to find our hotel. We covered a few blocks, and then a very friendly young lady on her bike rode over to us and asked if she could help us find something. We showed her where on the map we wanted to go and she said that it was too far to walk and suggested a taxi, or the two metro lines that she knew would get us there. We thanked her perfusely and discussed our next move. Instead of fussing with the metro at rush hour on a Friday with our bags, we got a taxi to the hotel, and it turned out to not really be that far at all. But, it was nice to just BE there. We checked in, and were very pleasantly surprised with the accomodations. This might be the cheapest yet of all our hotels, and is actually quite nice. We dropped off our bags, and couldn't wait any longer to get out there and see the city. A few moments later, and we were out in the thick of all the activity. Vee successfully navigated us to the city center, where no cars are allowed, and the streets were packed with people everywhere enjoying the weather, their beers, and the people whose time they were sharing. It was vibrant, alive, and invigorating. And having not eaten or drank anything all day besides bread, an espresso and an apple, I couldn't wait for a big german dinner and a beer! We wandered around for quite a while though, looking for an authentic beirgarten, not one that the tourists would find, and that had prices below those charged on the more heavily trafficked strasse. We found the perfect place, with long tables and wooden chairs, and lots of meat on the menu. Vee had a gigantic garden salad topped with grilled chicken, and I had a delicious goulash soup, and a huge plate of roasted pork with two perfect spheres of potato and stuffing, gravy and cold saurkraut salad. The only thing left on our plates were a few small scraps of fat that I peeled of my meat, otherwise, both of our plates were stripped clean. Vee had a tall wheat bier and I started with a helles, and finished with a pils, all were delicious, refreshing and so wonderfully balanced and clean-tasting. To top it off, Vee ordered an apple strudell that was out of this world. They even garnished it with a huge sparkler-looking decoration! Thoroughly stuffed, we wobbled back outside and in the warmth of the early evening, strolled back through the activity where street musicians were still playing, and futbol fans in full team garb were merrilly chanting or singing fight songs as they stumbled along, some arm in arm, having apparently just left a nearby match. We found some sort of candle-lit religious ceremony going on outside one of the cathedrals and poked around a bit to see what the buzz was about. Vee suggested that maybe it had something to do with the one year anniversary of the induction of the new Pope, who is from Germany. We continued on our way, and found the hotel in the darkeness no problem. With the "VGPS" ("Vee"-GPS) system, it's easy. Tonight, a bit of blogging and reading, and in the morning, laundry. Tomorrow, a full day of Munich.
From Interlaken to Luzern
Thursday the 20th of April was our final day in Interlaken. We really were not ready to leave. There was a definite feeling of sadness in the air as we readied our bags after breakfast and checked out with Ursula behind the desk. We told her how much we enjoyed our stay and she responded the same. I attempted to add a bit of gratuity to the bill, but she refused it and told us we ought to keep the money for our travels. She is a special person, and she and Chris run an excellent B&B, one that WHEN we come back, we'll be sure to patronize again. We reluctantly headed for the train station and boarded the next train to Interlaken Ost, and then from there, the next one to Luzern. As most every train ride has been thus far in Switzerland, the views were spectacular as we passed lakes and hills and farms and chalets, etc. We eventually dropped down into Luzern and found it to be a beautiful city. After de-training, we bought a map, found our pension (hotel), checked in, dropped off our bags, and headed back out to explore the town as it was just past noon and we had a full day ahead of us. There was a kaffe across the street from the pension advertising "take-away" kaffes for 3 SFR, so we got two and a small wheat bread and very slowly wandered around town. There are two old wooden bridges that Lonely Planet mentioned as being significant so we found those, and then walked out by the river and sat down to watch the swans. After a while, we decided to try a boat ride, and with our Eurail passes in hand, we immediately boarded one of the large vessels and began a wonderful zig-zagged expedition atop Lake Luzern to Vitznau, and back. The trip took just a bit longer than 2 hours and it was fantastic. The water was glass-like with a slight haze that made for a mystical horizon. The sun was so bright that the views of the surrounding moutains seemed bleached out, yet still awesome in their gradiosity. A deep sense of calm enveloped us. Once back on land, we walked by the Luzern arts center and found out that there was going to be a symphony orchestra concert at 7:30, but that it was by invitation only. The lady inside was very friendly and told us that we could come back around 6:30 to see if they'd be selling any additional unused tickets. Having not eaten anything substantial since breakfast, we went to the coop and bought some goodies for a picnic dinner. Outside, we found some benches by the river and enjoyed our spread of bread, ham, cheese, olives, potato salad, Coke and beer. It was fun people-watching and we finished up in time to head back over to the arts center and try to score some tickets. Unfortunatly, the cheapest tickets available were alot more than what we were willing to spend. Instead, with the weather still perfect, and the sun going down, and everyone all dressed up for the symphony, we went outside by the water and watched all the people congregate and linger amongst themselves before the show. After a while, we walked back over to the coop for a chocolate bar, and sat out by the river to watch the ducks play in the water. With the sun finally gone down, we called it a day, and went back to the hotel for the night. If that Mexican dinner would not have been so expensive last night, we would have gone to Mr.Pickwicks Pub instead, where a jazz/blues show was scheduled. But, still feeling guilty about that expense, we decided to make it a quiet night. Anyway, we'll be in Munich, and then Vienna over the next week, and we're bound to find all kinds of great live shows there. Tomorrow, Zurich in the morning, and then to Munich in the late afternoon where we'll be for two nights before heading to Vienna.
Interlaken - Final Full Day; Off Road Trek
Wednesday, the 19th of April, during breakfast, Ursula told us about the various ways we could explore the lakesides by bike, different towns we could stop in, and how to best utilize the train and boats. After we finished eating, we went about town with the laptop looking for a wifi connection to the Internet, and after unsuccessfully trying the square in front of a webcafe, we walked to a place we discovered on our first night in Interlaken that advertised being the cheapest in town, as well as having the cheapest bike rentals. It looked closed, but as we peered in the front door, a guy came running across the street to let us in. He explained in bits of English that he had to leave in 45 minutes, but would back back 2 hours later, but then would have to leave 2 1/2 hours after that. The place was a wreck inside, but the Internet connection worked, and we had just enough time to download emails, and book a room for our stay in Munich. We paid up and explained that we might be back later to rent bikes, but had no intention of doing so. We walked about half a block down the street and found Daniel's a place that rented all sorts of stuff, as well as offering the town's cheapest Internet access (hmmmm...) and a Thai food restaurant to boot. We found two Trek mountain bikes that looked just right, filled out the required paperwork, and were soon on our way. A left at the yellow building, a right, and then a left and straight ahead and sure enough we were riding alongside the beautiful menthol-blue colored Lake Brientz surrounded by mountains and lush green grass hillsides. For the next 5 hours, we rode up and down through a nature preserve, farmland, a resort, and eventually the town of Brientz until we were so exhausted halfway around the lake that we took the train back to Interlaken. We were pretty proud of ourselves though because in total we must have rode about 25 kilometers or so, and alot of it was pretty steep incline. It was a fantastic ride, with smells and views that we could not have experienced any other way. And the waterfalls at the end of the ride were worth it all. The air was so clean and crisp and the sun kept us comfortably warm. Once back in Interlaken, we went back to Daniel's to turn the bikes in, but he wasn't there so we hooked up to the Internet connection and spent the next hour uploading pictures to the website and sipping some delicious coffees. Instead of having Thai food there, which was my original plan, after settling up, we went to a Mexican restaurant just a few blocks away and had a delicious meal. The poor guy waiting on us was the only waiter in the restaurant and was totally swamped by the time we were finished and ready to pay. We eventually tracked him down, paid for the meal, and headed back to the hotel where we soon were ready for bed.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Interlaken - Can It Get Any Better?
Easter Sunday the 16th of April, our final hours in Bern, Switzerland, we had the included breakfast, cleaned up, packed up, checked out but left our bags at the hotel, and hauled a big bag of laundry through the rain, over the bridge, to the opposite side of town in search of the Jet Wash laundry facility. We found it and to our thankful surprise it was open. However, all of the machines accepted only 1 CHF coins, there was no change machine, no stores open anywhere close to the facility, and I had only a few such coins, nowhere near enough to do our laundry. We trudged back across the bridge to the train station where I withdrew some more money, and we went to a little convenience store where we bought a magazine, Time Herald, postcards and water and then asked for our change to be broken down into 1 CHF coins. We figured out that the #20 bus would take us back over to where the laundry place was so we bought our tickets and rode, instead of walked, back. We got the laundry started and after sitting 10 minutes or so reading our new purchases, a french speaking Swiss couple entered the small facility and in between lip-smacking smooches and hollering managed to load up all the remaining washers with their 2 giant Ikea bags full of dirties. Then, as there were only 4 chairs, the guy sat next to me, and proceeded to light up a cigarette, and puff away, totally ignoring the 3 huge signs proclaiming that smoking was not allowed. I took one glance at the cigarette and walked outside where I continued to read the paper. I think he got the hint because soon after, he actually came outside, and finished what was left of the cigarette, and smoked the rest of his cigarettes outside as well. Eventually, we finished with the laundry and went back to the hotel to pick up our bags, repack them, and then head down the block to the corner burger-shop where I got some chicken sandwiches...wow, were they expensive! Then to the train station where we learned we did not need to reserve seats on the trains and just got aboard the next one leaving for Interlocken. Once again, the views were magnificant on the way and I got some good video shots. The ride was just a quickie, at about 50 minutes, and once off the train, had no trouble finding our hotel. We attempted to check in, but no one was there, and so we locked our bags to the handrail posts of the steps that lead upstairs, and went for a walk around town. Of course it was much quieter than normal due to the Easter holiday, but regardless, this town is just so beautiful, and so peaceful. It created wonderful sensations inside of both of us. We made our way back, and were greeted by the extremely friendly Ursula and her dog Monty. Ursula took great care of us, giving us all sorts of information, recommendations, maps, etc., and even demanded to carry Vee's bag to our room where she got us all settled in. She recommended a walk that we could squeeze in before the sun went down, and so after dropping off our bags, we immediately headed back out into town and were rewarded with just some amazing scenery: mountains, rivers, canals, the town center, typical neighborhoods, shops, pubs, sunset, etc. Everytime we thought we saw the most beautiful view of the night, we'd find another one. This went on and on all night. We found a little coop market and loaded up on a few goodies to eat before heading back to the hotel where we snacked on a delicious still-warm freshly baked loaf of bread, a selection of cheeses, olives, macaroni salad and beer. Tomorrow, I think we are doing a combo train ride and hike up to the summit of one of the mountains nearby where the views are to be the best. Hopefully the weather will give us a break.
Monday, the 17th, we enjoyed a simple but delicious included breakfast(excellent granola/mueslix cereal, and even some hand-painted Easter eggs), and had a very nice conversation with Chris and Ursula, the owners of the B&B. They are extremely friendly people, and extremely good at what they do. In fact, later on in the day, we decided to extend our stay for another night due in large part to how welcome and helpful Chris and Ursula are. After breakfast, we embarked on our day trip to Schilthorn, which perches itself 11,237 feet high in the Alps and is to have 360 degree views of the entire area. The trek would include a quick train ride from Interlaken West, to Interlaken Ost; another train ride from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen; a funicular ride up to Grutschalp; a cog ride up to Murren; a walk through the village, a gondola ride to Birg, and a final ascent to the top via another gondola where we ended up inside of a wonderful circular facility that is Schilthorn. The weather was beautiful, but just above Birg, the cloud cover began, and so from Schilthorn, the views were limited. We had a wonderful lunch inside the spinning restaurant, and got to see the "touristarama" which was a multimedia presentation that explained the story behind the construction of Schilthorn, including a series of movie clips from the James Bond ('007') movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", which was filmed there in 1968, the year after construction was completed. We spent alot of time out on the terrace where the sunlight coming from above, and simultaneously bouncing off the snow under our feet, created a very warm convection effect and was actually quite toasty. Luckily we had sunglasses, and strong SPF, or it would have been difficult to withstand. After a few hours, taking lots of photos and video, and watching skiers and snowboarders do their thing, and the other tourists do theirs, we headed back down, eventually into Interlaken Ost. Rather than taking the train to the other side of town, we walked, found a little outside cafe offering a special on coffee and tarts and sat down to enjoy. The weather was still beautiful, and we thoroughly enjoyed our non-direct walk back to the hotel, parts of it by the river, and parts through streets in town that we had not yet explored. After another nice conversation with Ursula and Chris at the front desk, we went to our room, did our chores, and went to bed.
Tuesday, April 18th, after breakfast and such, we discussed our plans for the coming day, and days. The weather looked to be iffy today, so we rearranged things so that we would road-trip to Lausanne today, do a full day in Interlaken tomorrow, and Luzerne the following day, possibly skipping Zurich altogether and on to Munich Germany the day after. We'll see. Last night, I discovered a library of used books downstairs and snagged one called "The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. I told Vee about it, and this morning, she chose one called the "The Deep End of the Ocean". We finally got out of our room, and ran as fast as we could across town to the the Interlaken Ost station, only to see our train pull out of the station. The next directly to Lausanne would not be for another hour. We analyzed the posted departure schedules and found an alternative train leaving in 25 minutes that would take us to Montreux, and then we could take another train from there to Lausanne, and so that is what we did. The ride into Montreux was wonderful. One thing I noted though was that the architecture in the countryside of Switzerland is practically identical. It was not until we got back into the relative urban area of Montreux that the architecture became quite varied, and quite French in fact. Montreux lies on Lake Geneva, right across the water from the French Alps. The Swiss speak French pretty much exclusively here, as we were reminded of this when we tried to order something at a little convenience store, and the late serving us couldn't speak German, or much English, but only French. With France just across the water, it makes perfect sense. We really had no expectations for Montreux, and honestly, we decided at the last minute to explore it rather than getting directly onto the next train leaving in a few minutes to Lausanne. And man-o-man, what a place!!! Vee said that it reminded her alot of Monte Carlo in the Riviera, and sure enough, when I re-read the bit in our Lonely Planet book about the city of Montreux, it was described as very much like the Riviera. It was just absolutely gorgeous, with diverse architecture and grand hotels and palaces, with the glass-topped Lake Geneva, the snow-topped French Alps bursting up from the horizon across the water, the swans and ducks bathing themselves just feet away from the boat docks, the lakefront clay tennis court clubs, blooming flower lined walkway, moored sailboats, sculptures made out of atypical materials, the castle, the terraced vineyards up the hillsides and deep blue sky with big white puffy clouds. We walked along the water down to the castle, and then jumped on board a train that eventually got us to Lausanne. Though Lausanne was written up pretty positively in our book, we found it to be not quite so impressive. Not bad, by any means, just not that nice either. I am very certain though, our impression was heavily tainted by the fact that we had just come from such an extraordinarily beautiful place in Montreux. In Lausanne, we bought a little map, and headed up the steep hill in the center of town to the cathedral. We circled it once from the outside and also went inside. It was fairly plain, but like in Bern, had beautiful stained glass windows. Then we walked over to the "Flon" part of the city, which was to be converted warehouses housing pubs, cafes and galleries. There really wasn't much there, and the places that we found, were mostly clubs that would most likely not open until late at night. It was getting late enough, and we felt we had seen enough, so we walked back down to the train station and rode back to Interlaken, both reading our new books along the way since it was dark, and there was nothing for us to see out our window. After our arrival, we hit up the coop for some munchies, and walked back to the hotel to call it a day.
Monday, the 17th, we enjoyed a simple but delicious included breakfast(excellent granola/mueslix cereal, and even some hand-painted Easter eggs), and had a very nice conversation with Chris and Ursula, the owners of the B&B. They are extremely friendly people, and extremely good at what they do. In fact, later on in the day, we decided to extend our stay for another night due in large part to how welcome and helpful Chris and Ursula are. After breakfast, we embarked on our day trip to Schilthorn, which perches itself 11,237 feet high in the Alps and is to have 360 degree views of the entire area. The trek would include a quick train ride from Interlaken West, to Interlaken Ost; another train ride from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen; a funicular ride up to Grutschalp; a cog ride up to Murren; a walk through the village, a gondola ride to Birg, and a final ascent to the top via another gondola where we ended up inside of a wonderful circular facility that is Schilthorn. The weather was beautiful, but just above Birg, the cloud cover began, and so from Schilthorn, the views were limited. We had a wonderful lunch inside the spinning restaurant, and got to see the "touristarama" which was a multimedia presentation that explained the story behind the construction of Schilthorn, including a series of movie clips from the James Bond ('007') movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", which was filmed there in 1968, the year after construction was completed. We spent alot of time out on the terrace where the sunlight coming from above, and simultaneously bouncing off the snow under our feet, created a very warm convection effect and was actually quite toasty. Luckily we had sunglasses, and strong SPF, or it would have been difficult to withstand. After a few hours, taking lots of photos and video, and watching skiers and snowboarders do their thing, and the other tourists do theirs, we headed back down, eventually into Interlaken Ost. Rather than taking the train to the other side of town, we walked, found a little outside cafe offering a special on coffee and tarts and sat down to enjoy. The weather was still beautiful, and we thoroughly enjoyed our non-direct walk back to the hotel, parts of it by the river, and parts through streets in town that we had not yet explored. After another nice conversation with Ursula and Chris at the front desk, we went to our room, did our chores, and went to bed.
Tuesday, April 18th, after breakfast and such, we discussed our plans for the coming day, and days. The weather looked to be iffy today, so we rearranged things so that we would road-trip to Lausanne today, do a full day in Interlaken tomorrow, and Luzerne the following day, possibly skipping Zurich altogether and on to Munich Germany the day after. We'll see. Last night, I discovered a library of used books downstairs and snagged one called "The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. I told Vee about it, and this morning, she chose one called the "The Deep End of the Ocean". We finally got out of our room, and ran as fast as we could across town to the the Interlaken Ost station, only to see our train pull out of the station. The next directly to Lausanne would not be for another hour. We analyzed the posted departure schedules and found an alternative train leaving in 25 minutes that would take us to Montreux, and then we could take another train from there to Lausanne, and so that is what we did. The ride into Montreux was wonderful. One thing I noted though was that the architecture in the countryside of Switzerland is practically identical. It was not until we got back into the relative urban area of Montreux that the architecture became quite varied, and quite French in fact. Montreux lies on Lake Geneva, right across the water from the French Alps. The Swiss speak French pretty much exclusively here, as we were reminded of this when we tried to order something at a little convenience store, and the late serving us couldn't speak German, or much English, but only French. With France just across the water, it makes perfect sense. We really had no expectations for Montreux, and honestly, we decided at the last minute to explore it rather than getting directly onto the next train leaving in a few minutes to Lausanne. And man-o-man, what a place!!! Vee said that it reminded her alot of Monte Carlo in the Riviera, and sure enough, when I re-read the bit in our Lonely Planet book about the city of Montreux, it was described as very much like the Riviera. It was just absolutely gorgeous, with diverse architecture and grand hotels and palaces, with the glass-topped Lake Geneva, the snow-topped French Alps bursting up from the horizon across the water, the swans and ducks bathing themselves just feet away from the boat docks, the lakefront clay tennis court clubs, blooming flower lined walkway, moored sailboats, sculptures made out of atypical materials, the castle, the terraced vineyards up the hillsides and deep blue sky with big white puffy clouds. We walked along the water down to the castle, and then jumped on board a train that eventually got us to Lausanne. Though Lausanne was written up pretty positively in our book, we found it to be not quite so impressive. Not bad, by any means, just not that nice either. I am very certain though, our impression was heavily tainted by the fact that we had just come from such an extraordinarily beautiful place in Montreux. In Lausanne, we bought a little map, and headed up the steep hill in the center of town to the cathedral. We circled it once from the outside and also went inside. It was fairly plain, but like in Bern, had beautiful stained glass windows. Then we walked over to the "Flon" part of the city, which was to be converted warehouses housing pubs, cafes and galleries. There really wasn't much there, and the places that we found, were mostly clubs that would most likely not open until late at night. It was getting late enough, and we felt we had seen enough, so we walked back down to the train station and rode back to Interlaken, both reading our new books along the way since it was dark, and there was nothing for us to see out our window. After our arrival, we hit up the coop for some munchies, and walked back to the hotel to call it a day.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Bern - Exit from Milan, Italy Provides Another Tale of Travel
Friday, the 14th of April, would be our final day in the "South" of Europe. Our last hours in Italy. And just like our travel experience trying to get into the country, from Barcelona, our travel experience trying to get out of the country was even more comical.
In the morning, we put the finishing touches on some Philly issues that required our attention, and then finished uploading all the new photos and videos to the website. By 11:00 am, we checked out, strapped on the packs, and hoofed it down to the metro. Along the way, we came across a little bakery, and I stopped to get a delicious little "pizzette", a "crustona" bread and a water, while Vee munched on the apple she successfully smuggled out of the breakfast room (...she's good!).
We took the yellow line metro to the Centrale train station with about 2 hours to kill before our preferred afternoon train scheduled for Bern, Switzerland was to depart. We got in line to reserve our seats, and after about a 30 minute wait, when it was our turn, we were told that we were to be in a different waiting line exclusively for international departures on the other side of the train station. We accepted the news without so much as a whimper, and dragged ourselves over to the other line, where only one agent was servicing the que. We waited for at least another 30 minutes, and were able to get reserved seats on our preferred train. Yay! We still had about 30 minutes to kill so we wandered the station in search of reading material, which I found in a Tribune I puchased, and an ice cream for Vee that surprisingly turned out to be of the nutty-buddy variety. By this time, my sweat-soaken t-shirt was finally dry and we boarded the train, very happily discovering that our seats were in a private cabin, and that by the time the train pulled away, it looked like no one else was going to be occupying the 4 other empty seats inside our cozy little cave.
After about 30 minutes, a train agent invaded to check our tickets. With a quick glance at our ticket, but without looking up, she declared rather stoicly that this train was not going to Bern. Vee and I looked at each other like "what?". She re-stated this fact and as the train was coming to a stop, she explained that we had to get off the train immediately, get the next train back to Milan, and then get on board a different train that was actually headed to Bern. She scribbled down the time schedules for the trains she recommended, and tried to explain as best she could in a mix of mostly Italian and a few words of English what we needed to do. With the train now completely stopped, we only had seconds to grab our bags, and everything that we had already taken out of our bags, and jump off the train. Once on the platform, we needed to re-group, exchanged a few choice words about the situation, repack our bags, and figure out what to do next. I spotted an oncoming train apparently bound for Milano, so we ran underground, and back up to the adjacent platform where the train had stopped. We lept aboard while reconfirming with another lady getting on the train, "Milano?", "Si, si.", whew! As the stations passed, and close to 30 minutes passed, we were beginning to wonder why the landscape was not looking like the one we saw on the way out of Milan, and the already frayed nerves began to unravel (some of us more than others...eh-hhemmm...;-)) This was not helped by the fact that the woman who confirmed "Milano?" for me had just gotten off the train a few stops earlier mumbling something to herself (in Italian...Vee caught bits of it) about not seeing correctly. And, the stations kept passing by. With no train agents in sight, Vee bravely approached the only slighly lucid-looking, thoroughly disheveled-looking comrade sitting ominously in the rear corner of the train car, and asked if he knew if this train was going to Milan. He confirmed this. Then Vee dropped "Stazione Centrale?", which was met with a firm "No" and an explanation in Italian about another train station in Milan, and that we would have to get off there and take a Metro to Centrale (from which the next train to Bern was leaving). Now things were getting reeeeally interesting. Vee pulled out the map, and as we passed stations, we tried to plot them on the map, and to our relief, we could...and then we couldn't...and then we could...and then we couldn't...aaahhhhhhhh!! Finally, we said that no matter what, we were getting off at the next stop, and with GREAT relief, that next stop was for Milano, just not Stazione Centrale. We de-trained, and headed for the metro station. On the way, I totally bowled over some young ladys' luggage with my main pack that I was pulling behind me, and didn't even realize it! Vee watched the whole event unfold and realizing my complete ignorance of what just happened, apoligized profusely for me. Luckily, the young lady took it very well, and only smiled and said it was okay, no problem. Of course, as I looked behind me to see what was holding Vee up, I had no idea what Vee was being so animatedly apoligetic about, nor why this chaotic exchange was unfolding in my wake. It wasn't until we were already on our way again that Vee was able to fully explain to me what the heck I had just done. Of course I felt like a total world-class schmuck, and wanted to apoligize profusely, but by that time it was too late, and I couldn't even apoligize anyway because I didn't know how to say it in Italian. With that episode behind us, we found the right metro, and two stops later were right back where we started 4 hours ago. The immediate dilemma was to decide whether or not we should try to re-confirm new seats on this later train, or just get on board and hope for the best. We really wanted to ensure a trouble-free ride this time, and thus opted to get into the line for international travel again, and wait our turn for an attempt to secure reservations on the next train to Bern. This is when the fireworks began. Some guy butted right into the front of the line and verbally attacked the agent behind the ticket window. With shoulders all puffed up, arms outstretched, muscles popping out, and fierce eyes drilling through the hopefully bullet-proof glass, he unleashed a battery of Italian I wanted sooooo badly to be able to understand. Time continued ticking away, the line was getting longer, and the train we wanted to take was leaving in about 20 minutes. A different ticketing agent from the opposite side of their office lept out of his chair to the aid of the other one, and absolutely ripped into the guy who initiated the raucous. But that wasn't good enough, and the despite having gone back to his chair, the heated, highly-animated exchanged continued. Finally, a more officially dressed, yet gruff-looking, sea lion of a man slowly emerged from the darker depths of the ticketing office to attempt a resolution where the other agents had so obviously miserably failed to do so. With his head cocked back in a mix of disgust and stern objectivity, he peered down through the thick-black-plastic-encased near-sighted shards that dangled on the tip of his nose, and reviewed the details on the computer screen of the first ticketing agent who was attacked. Minutes passed and finally the line started moving again with the disgruntled guy being handled at another window, away from the others. With only 8 minutes before the train was to depart, and finally positioned at the front of the line, we had to make a decision: run for the train and hope for the best, OR hope that we get called up within the next few seconds to confirm new seats. Tick tock, tick tock. We bolted for it. No more time to waste. As we ran for the train, an agent stopped us to verify our tickets, and he assured us that even though our tickets were for an earlier train, this one was empty enough where it didn't make a difference and that we could choose a seat anywhere on board. And yes, this train really was headed for Bern. Not a moment too soon, as within a minute after boarding, the train pulled away. We chose some seats in a car that was mostly empty and settled in for the ride. With time, we were laughing, and then found ourselves awestruck by the Italian Alps that were unfolding before us. The ride to Bern was absolutely stunning! Once officially in Switzerland, and off the train, in Bern, we struggled to find our hotel, but eventually did. The very friendly lady behind the front desk spoke with us in excellent English, and even upgraded us to a room with its own facilities on the top floor since there was going to be a very loud disco going on downstairs. We unloaded our things and went out to explore the area. We had a delicous dinner at a typical fondue house (Vee - chicken breast and salad, Cliff - fettucino alfredo) and with bloated bellies, we rumbled back to the hotel and quickly tucked ourselves into our down comforters and let sleep put an end to a very interesting day.
Saturday, the day before Easter, we enjoyed a nice included breakfast, got cleaned up and headed out before the rain could start. We wandered through the open market, and the shop-lined streets, had a few refreshments in one of the many smokey cafes, and climbed the spires of the cathedral for some great views of the city, river, surrounding snow covered mountains and rolling green hills. The stained glass windows inside the cathedral were wonderful! The rain started, and we headed over the bridge to shoot a photo of the city's bear statue in the middle of the river falls. With the rain getting heavier, we found shelter in another cafe, where we had espressos, a panini, and read the Financial Times. With the day growing long, and the rain not letting up, we returned to the hotel where we perused tourist publications to see what there was to do in Bern, in the rain, or if the weather would actually cooperate a bit. The rain continued, and we prepared a plan for the evening. In one of our tourist publications, we found a jazz club, Marian's, that was to be one of the best in the world. We got online, eventually, to check out their website and found that their show schedule was 2 months out of date, which wasn't promising. We also found a micro-brewery listed in one of our guides, and looked that up online, found it to have really good reviews, so we decided on that. Around 10pm, we ventured out into the pouring rain, figured out the tram/bus system, bought our tickets, and took a 7-8 minute ride to the other side of town, where the "Altes TramDepot" was located next to the famous "Bear Pits". The place was full, and the only two seats were at a table for 4, where a young couple were seated alone. The host pointed to those two empty seats, and with some apprehension, yet willingness to embrace any social norms we might not yet be accustomed to, we walked to the table and gestured to the young couple if it would be okay for us to sit with them, and they communicated that it would be no problem at all. We sat down, with that awkward obligated ridiculously overly self-conscious behavior of "look only directly into my eyes, I'll only look directly into your eyes, don't look to far away in case you catch the eye of the stranger seated next to you". We eventually eased up, and started talking with the other couple a bit, and they were really sweet and friendly. Turns out they were waiting for their bill anyway, and left not too long after we sat down. The waitress couldn't figure us out. Vee with her perfect German, but not looking exactly Swiss, and me, looking more Swiss than most of the Swiss people in the restaurant, but unable to speak a lick of any one of her country's 3 official languages (German, French, Italian). We placed our orders and were delighted with heaping plates of hearty Swiss deliciousness. My food was a pile of buttery home fried potatoes, with sauteed onions, tomato slices, Italian spices, and gobs of melted mozzarella. Vee's was an equally gargantuan plate of melted mozzarella enveloped bread slices with ham and tomato slices. We were both sooooo happy with our circumstances. Loads of food. Freshly brewed beer. A safe, secure, clean and organized, yet energetic and vibrant atmosphere. It was a fantastic night. Of course,we sampled all the beers, a helles, a weizen, a marzen and a dupel. After a few hours, we'd had all we could handle for one sitting, and braved the pouring rain again for a quick bus ride back to the hotel, and went to sleep. Tomorrow, we're off to Interlaken!
In the morning, we put the finishing touches on some Philly issues that required our attention, and then finished uploading all the new photos and videos to the website. By 11:00 am, we checked out, strapped on the packs, and hoofed it down to the metro. Along the way, we came across a little bakery, and I stopped to get a delicious little "pizzette", a "crustona" bread and a water, while Vee munched on the apple she successfully smuggled out of the breakfast room (...she's good!).
We took the yellow line metro to the Centrale train station with about 2 hours to kill before our preferred afternoon train scheduled for Bern, Switzerland was to depart. We got in line to reserve our seats, and after about a 30 minute wait, when it was our turn, we were told that we were to be in a different waiting line exclusively for international departures on the other side of the train station. We accepted the news without so much as a whimper, and dragged ourselves over to the other line, where only one agent was servicing the que. We waited for at least another 30 minutes, and were able to get reserved seats on our preferred train. Yay! We still had about 30 minutes to kill so we wandered the station in search of reading material, which I found in a Tribune I puchased, and an ice cream for Vee that surprisingly turned out to be of the nutty-buddy variety. By this time, my sweat-soaken t-shirt was finally dry and we boarded the train, very happily discovering that our seats were in a private cabin, and that by the time the train pulled away, it looked like no one else was going to be occupying the 4 other empty seats inside our cozy little cave.
After about 30 minutes, a train agent invaded to check our tickets. With a quick glance at our ticket, but without looking up, she declared rather stoicly that this train was not going to Bern. Vee and I looked at each other like "what?". She re-stated this fact and as the train was coming to a stop, she explained that we had to get off the train immediately, get the next train back to Milan, and then get on board a different train that was actually headed to Bern. She scribbled down the time schedules for the trains she recommended, and tried to explain as best she could in a mix of mostly Italian and a few words of English what we needed to do. With the train now completely stopped, we only had seconds to grab our bags, and everything that we had already taken out of our bags, and jump off the train. Once on the platform, we needed to re-group, exchanged a few choice words about the situation, repack our bags, and figure out what to do next. I spotted an oncoming train apparently bound for Milano, so we ran underground, and back up to the adjacent platform where the train had stopped. We lept aboard while reconfirming with another lady getting on the train, "Milano?", "Si, si.", whew! As the stations passed, and close to 30 minutes passed, we were beginning to wonder why the landscape was not looking like the one we saw on the way out of Milan, and the already frayed nerves began to unravel (some of us more than others...eh-hhemmm...;-)) This was not helped by the fact that the woman who confirmed "Milano?" for me had just gotten off the train a few stops earlier mumbling something to herself (in Italian...Vee caught bits of it) about not seeing correctly. And, the stations kept passing by. With no train agents in sight, Vee bravely approached the only slighly lucid-looking, thoroughly disheveled-looking comrade sitting ominously in the rear corner of the train car, and asked if he knew if this train was going to Milan. He confirmed this. Then Vee dropped "Stazione Centrale?", which was met with a firm "No" and an explanation in Italian about another train station in Milan, and that we would have to get off there and take a Metro to Centrale (from which the next train to Bern was leaving). Now things were getting reeeeally interesting. Vee pulled out the map, and as we passed stations, we tried to plot them on the map, and to our relief, we could...and then we couldn't...and then we could...and then we couldn't...aaahhhhhhhh!! Finally, we said that no matter what, we were getting off at the next stop, and with GREAT relief, that next stop was for Milano, just not Stazione Centrale. We de-trained, and headed for the metro station. On the way, I totally bowled over some young ladys' luggage with my main pack that I was pulling behind me, and didn't even realize it! Vee watched the whole event unfold and realizing my complete ignorance of what just happened, apoligized profusely for me. Luckily, the young lady took it very well, and only smiled and said it was okay, no problem. Of course, as I looked behind me to see what was holding Vee up, I had no idea what Vee was being so animatedly apoligetic about, nor why this chaotic exchange was unfolding in my wake. It wasn't until we were already on our way again that Vee was able to fully explain to me what the heck I had just done. Of course I felt like a total world-class schmuck, and wanted to apoligize profusely, but by that time it was too late, and I couldn't even apoligize anyway because I didn't know how to say it in Italian. With that episode behind us, we found the right metro, and two stops later were right back where we started 4 hours ago. The immediate dilemma was to decide whether or not we should try to re-confirm new seats on this later train, or just get on board and hope for the best. We really wanted to ensure a trouble-free ride this time, and thus opted to get into the line for international travel again, and wait our turn for an attempt to secure reservations on the next train to Bern. This is when the fireworks began. Some guy butted right into the front of the line and verbally attacked the agent behind the ticket window. With shoulders all puffed up, arms outstretched, muscles popping out, and fierce eyes drilling through the hopefully bullet-proof glass, he unleashed a battery of Italian I wanted sooooo badly to be able to understand. Time continued ticking away, the line was getting longer, and the train we wanted to take was leaving in about 20 minutes. A different ticketing agent from the opposite side of their office lept out of his chair to the aid of the other one, and absolutely ripped into the guy who initiated the raucous. But that wasn't good enough, and the despite having gone back to his chair, the heated, highly-animated exchanged continued. Finally, a more officially dressed, yet gruff-looking, sea lion of a man slowly emerged from the darker depths of the ticketing office to attempt a resolution where the other agents had so obviously miserably failed to do so. With his head cocked back in a mix of disgust and stern objectivity, he peered down through the thick-black-plastic-encased near-sighted shards that dangled on the tip of his nose, and reviewed the details on the computer screen of the first ticketing agent who was attacked. Minutes passed and finally the line started moving again with the disgruntled guy being handled at another window, away from the others. With only 8 minutes before the train was to depart, and finally positioned at the front of the line, we had to make a decision: run for the train and hope for the best, OR hope that we get called up within the next few seconds to confirm new seats. Tick tock, tick tock. We bolted for it. No more time to waste. As we ran for the train, an agent stopped us to verify our tickets, and he assured us that even though our tickets were for an earlier train, this one was empty enough where it didn't make a difference and that we could choose a seat anywhere on board. And yes, this train really was headed for Bern. Not a moment too soon, as within a minute after boarding, the train pulled away. We chose some seats in a car that was mostly empty and settled in for the ride. With time, we were laughing, and then found ourselves awestruck by the Italian Alps that were unfolding before us. The ride to Bern was absolutely stunning! Once officially in Switzerland, and off the train, in Bern, we struggled to find our hotel, but eventually did. The very friendly lady behind the front desk spoke with us in excellent English, and even upgraded us to a room with its own facilities on the top floor since there was going to be a very loud disco going on downstairs. We unloaded our things and went out to explore the area. We had a delicous dinner at a typical fondue house (Vee - chicken breast and salad, Cliff - fettucino alfredo) and with bloated bellies, we rumbled back to the hotel and quickly tucked ourselves into our down comforters and let sleep put an end to a very interesting day.
Saturday, the day before Easter, we enjoyed a nice included breakfast, got cleaned up and headed out before the rain could start. We wandered through the open market, and the shop-lined streets, had a few refreshments in one of the many smokey cafes, and climbed the spires of the cathedral for some great views of the city, river, surrounding snow covered mountains and rolling green hills. The stained glass windows inside the cathedral were wonderful! The rain started, and we headed over the bridge to shoot a photo of the city's bear statue in the middle of the river falls. With the rain getting heavier, we found shelter in another cafe, where we had espressos, a panini, and read the Financial Times. With the day growing long, and the rain not letting up, we returned to the hotel where we perused tourist publications to see what there was to do in Bern, in the rain, or if the weather would actually cooperate a bit. The rain continued, and we prepared a plan for the evening. In one of our tourist publications, we found a jazz club, Marian's, that was to be one of the best in the world. We got online, eventually, to check out their website and found that their show schedule was 2 months out of date, which wasn't promising. We also found a micro-brewery listed in one of our guides, and looked that up online, found it to have really good reviews, so we decided on that. Around 10pm, we ventured out into the pouring rain, figured out the tram/bus system, bought our tickets, and took a 7-8 minute ride to the other side of town, where the "Altes TramDepot" was located next to the famous "Bear Pits". The place was full, and the only two seats were at a table for 4, where a young couple were seated alone. The host pointed to those two empty seats, and with some apprehension, yet willingness to embrace any social norms we might not yet be accustomed to, we walked to the table and gestured to the young couple if it would be okay for us to sit with them, and they communicated that it would be no problem at all. We sat down, with that awkward obligated ridiculously overly self-conscious behavior of "look only directly into my eyes, I'll only look directly into your eyes, don't look to far away in case you catch the eye of the stranger seated next to you". We eventually eased up, and started talking with the other couple a bit, and they were really sweet and friendly. Turns out they were waiting for their bill anyway, and left not too long after we sat down. The waitress couldn't figure us out. Vee with her perfect German, but not looking exactly Swiss, and me, looking more Swiss than most of the Swiss people in the restaurant, but unable to speak a lick of any one of her country's 3 official languages (German, French, Italian). We placed our orders and were delighted with heaping plates of hearty Swiss deliciousness. My food was a pile of buttery home fried potatoes, with sauteed onions, tomato slices, Italian spices, and gobs of melted mozzarella. Vee's was an equally gargantuan plate of melted mozzarella enveloped bread slices with ham and tomato slices. We were both sooooo happy with our circumstances. Loads of food. Freshly brewed beer. A safe, secure, clean and organized, yet energetic and vibrant atmosphere. It was a fantastic night. Of course,we sampled all the beers, a helles, a weizen, a marzen and a dupel. After a few hours, we'd had all we could handle for one sitting, and braved the pouring rain again for a quick bus ride back to the hotel, and went to sleep. Tomorrow, we're off to Interlaken!
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Milan - From Venice, and through Bologna
Monday, the 10th of April, we got up around 8:15 and had the included breakfast, then back up to the room where I folded the laundry I did yesterday and got cleaned up for the day, and charged the batteries for our cameras. Now, all caught up with our blogs, for the moment, I'll enter the previous day's expenses into our spreadsheet, and get Vee back up for another full day of Venice.
It turned out to be a fantastic last full day in Venice. Once we got going, despite the nasty wet weather, we were able to do even more than we had initially planned. First up was to get into the Basilica di San Marco. My understanding, through the little bit that I've read is that it is arguably the most spectacular of all Italy's cathedrals. And it did not disappoint. It was very unique in that it really looked every year of it's age and was loaded with beautiful artwork, sculptures, jewelry, etc. The floors were an amazing, neverending mosaic of intricate little pieces of marble, and the vaulted ceilings were endless golden mosaics. The marble used throughout was the most extravegant colors that I've seen. The floors were uneven and much of the marble in the surrounding benches, arches and doorways was crumbling. It was absolutely spectacular, inside and out. From there we walked towards the Santa Maria della Salute, another beautiful church on the other side of the Canal Grande. Along the way, we crossed the wooden Ponte Academia bridge, and saw the Peggy Guggenheim museum building but it was closing and we decided not to go in for the last 45 minutes that it would have been open. Instead, we wandered the area's many art galleries, restaurants and cafes, and popped into a few more churches. Each church we entered was a spectacular sight. Venice definitely has the most numerous, most beautiful churches in all of the Italy that we've seen. One of our finest finds was a small art gallery where the artist, who happened to be there, working on a new painting in the rear studio, painted Venice in a way that Vee and I both immediately fell in love with. We bought 3 signed prints, and left only after taking a picture of Vee and the artist together, and then Vee outside the artist's studio/store. It is rare that both of us find an artists work equally captivating, and this was one of those occasions. It was so much fun. With our cardboard tube-full of art packed away, we continued onwards through this part of Venice that was new to us, and discovered a little corner cafe with capuccinos for only 1.10 Eur, so we got two, and warmed up inside, away from the cold rain. Eventually, we made it to the Santa Maria della Salute, but of course it was closed by the time we arrived, and so we took a bunch of pictures outside. It was a beautiful place right on the canal, and with a view to San Marco square right across the water. We walked back towards San Marco, since our water-bus tickets were expired, and had a slice of pizza at the place I had some pizza the day before. We struck out with the "jazz pizzeria" we were trying to find (it was closed) and couldn't find a restaurant that we were both lured to. Although it was not the kind of meal we wanted, we made due, and headed back to the bus station and with a ride back to the hotel, called it a night.
Tuesday, April 11th, we had the provided breakfast, checked out, mailed postcards and our new artwork back home, took the bus to the train station, found out we did not need reservations for the train to Bologna, and had some capuccinos while we waited for our train. By the time we arrived in Bologna, it was raining heavily. They were charging 5-6 Eur for a map of the city at the train station, so we walked out to the streets, and we found one for 4 Eur instead. Yippee. With Vee in charge of navigation (she is an absolute expert here in Europe!!!) we made our way to the main piazza, and found the famed Torre Degli Asinelli. Bologna is a very special place for me, since it plays such an important part in the history of my fraternity, Kappa Sigma. For me to be here was particularly moving. And, to find and climb the Torre Asinelli was extremely important to me. We took lots of pics and video of our ascent, and the view from the top. Once back down on the ground, we kept walking the city, seeing a number of basilicas, and other important parts of the ancient city. The University of Bologna is the oldest in Europe, started in the year 1088. And Bologna is very much a college town, with all the energy and vibe you'd expect from such a place. We were glad to have done a day trip here, rather than making an overnight of it. We had a bit to eat and sip on, and caught a train to Milan. Once we arrived, it was already dark, and although we tried to use the metro and bus system as per the hotels instructions on their website, because of the darkness, strange characters around the station, and newness of the metro and bus system, we took a cab to the hotel. It was definitely the right decision, and we were checked in not more than 20-30 minutes later. With our bags unloaded in our room, we headed back downstairs to the wine bar, had some house red, and checked email before heading to bed.
Wednesday, the 12th, we had a wonderful breakfast that even included eggs!!! With a more hearty breakfast, we are definitely experiencing the evidence of a more North-European influence. Yay!!!!!!!! After we got cleaned up, we headed back down to the wine-bar with wi-fi access and worked on the computer for a few hours. Then, we walked a while to the Metro, and went to downtown Milano. Oh, we extended our stay here another night too, since we actually have access to the Internet, and it'll be nice to get caught up before heading to Switzerland. Once downtown, we visited the Duomo, and it was amazing. Very imposing, huge, beautiful, powerful. Many large paintings. Very hight vaulted ceilings. A few saints laying in state. Very dark, very gothic. Unfortunately, the facade is being serviced, so it was all covered. Outside, the pigeons were the bravest I've encountered, even moreso than on San Marco square in Venice. These birds flew full speed waist high seemingly without even a slight concern for smacking right into you. This is no joke, I really had to dodge 2-3 of these birds as they came within inches of me, dive-bombing the corn that people were throwing in the square for them to eat. Then we walked through the arched "mall" (it has a real name, but I can't remember at the moment, and I am too comfortable to get up out of bed, and find out what it's really called), and continued onward to a bunch of other sights that Vee researched and had on our itinerary. One was Da Vinci's Last Supper, but it you can't get in to see it without a reservations, and although I called, it was taking too long for anyone to pick up the phone, and we gave up. Anyway, it turned out to be a beautiful day, weather-wise, and we had a wonderful afternoon. We even decided to splurge on lunch, our first full meal in a while. Milan is nice, but we weren't swept off our feet. It has a metropolitan feel, wider streets, more organized, some very French influences, some very German influences, but all in all, still Italian. We caught the metro back to the hotel, Vee worked on video, I went for a walk to find another new book with no luck, and then I did some drawing, and we ate our snacks from the grocery store we stopped at on the way back from the center of town.
Thursday, the 13th, I got busted trying to take an apple out of the breakfast room. Vee was able to escape before being detected with her smuggled apple, so not all was lost. Breakfast is good here, and is included in the price of the room, but I guess there are strict rules regarding your having to eat it at the table in the breakfast room only. No take-aways! Afterwards, Vee worked more on the video stuff, and then we had to try again to nail down accomodations for the next two nights after tonight, hopefully in Bern, Switzerland. The rest of the day was shot; dealt with Philly-related issues.
It turned out to be a fantastic last full day in Venice. Once we got going, despite the nasty wet weather, we were able to do even more than we had initially planned. First up was to get into the Basilica di San Marco. My understanding, through the little bit that I've read is that it is arguably the most spectacular of all Italy's cathedrals. And it did not disappoint. It was very unique in that it really looked every year of it's age and was loaded with beautiful artwork, sculptures, jewelry, etc. The floors were an amazing, neverending mosaic of intricate little pieces of marble, and the vaulted ceilings were endless golden mosaics. The marble used throughout was the most extravegant colors that I've seen. The floors were uneven and much of the marble in the surrounding benches, arches and doorways was crumbling. It was absolutely spectacular, inside and out. From there we walked towards the Santa Maria della Salute, another beautiful church on the other side of the Canal Grande. Along the way, we crossed the wooden Ponte Academia bridge, and saw the Peggy Guggenheim museum building but it was closing and we decided not to go in for the last 45 minutes that it would have been open. Instead, we wandered the area's many art galleries, restaurants and cafes, and popped into a few more churches. Each church we entered was a spectacular sight. Venice definitely has the most numerous, most beautiful churches in all of the Italy that we've seen. One of our finest finds was a small art gallery where the artist, who happened to be there, working on a new painting in the rear studio, painted Venice in a way that Vee and I both immediately fell in love with. We bought 3 signed prints, and left only after taking a picture of Vee and the artist together, and then Vee outside the artist's studio/store. It is rare that both of us find an artists work equally captivating, and this was one of those occasions. It was so much fun. With our cardboard tube-full of art packed away, we continued onwards through this part of Venice that was new to us, and discovered a little corner cafe with capuccinos for only 1.10 Eur, so we got two, and warmed up inside, away from the cold rain. Eventually, we made it to the Santa Maria della Salute, but of course it was closed by the time we arrived, and so we took a bunch of pictures outside. It was a beautiful place right on the canal, and with a view to San Marco square right across the water. We walked back towards San Marco, since our water-bus tickets were expired, and had a slice of pizza at the place I had some pizza the day before. We struck out with the "jazz pizzeria" we were trying to find (it was closed) and couldn't find a restaurant that we were both lured to. Although it was not the kind of meal we wanted, we made due, and headed back to the bus station and with a ride back to the hotel, called it a night.
Tuesday, April 11th, we had the provided breakfast, checked out, mailed postcards and our new artwork back home, took the bus to the train station, found out we did not need reservations for the train to Bologna, and had some capuccinos while we waited for our train. By the time we arrived in Bologna, it was raining heavily. They were charging 5-6 Eur for a map of the city at the train station, so we walked out to the streets, and we found one for 4 Eur instead. Yippee. With Vee in charge of navigation (she is an absolute expert here in Europe!!!) we made our way to the main piazza, and found the famed Torre Degli Asinelli. Bologna is a very special place for me, since it plays such an important part in the history of my fraternity, Kappa Sigma. For me to be here was particularly moving. And, to find and climb the Torre Asinelli was extremely important to me. We took lots of pics and video of our ascent, and the view from the top. Once back down on the ground, we kept walking the city, seeing a number of basilicas, and other important parts of the ancient city. The University of Bologna is the oldest in Europe, started in the year 1088. And Bologna is very much a college town, with all the energy and vibe you'd expect from such a place. We were glad to have done a day trip here, rather than making an overnight of it. We had a bit to eat and sip on, and caught a train to Milan. Once we arrived, it was already dark, and although we tried to use the metro and bus system as per the hotels instructions on their website, because of the darkness, strange characters around the station, and newness of the metro and bus system, we took a cab to the hotel. It was definitely the right decision, and we were checked in not more than 20-30 minutes later. With our bags unloaded in our room, we headed back downstairs to the wine bar, had some house red, and checked email before heading to bed.
Wednesday, the 12th, we had a wonderful breakfast that even included eggs!!! With a more hearty breakfast, we are definitely experiencing the evidence of a more North-European influence. Yay!!!!!!!! After we got cleaned up, we headed back down to the wine-bar with wi-fi access and worked on the computer for a few hours. Then, we walked a while to the Metro, and went to downtown Milano. Oh, we extended our stay here another night too, since we actually have access to the Internet, and it'll be nice to get caught up before heading to Switzerland. Once downtown, we visited the Duomo, and it was amazing. Very imposing, huge, beautiful, powerful. Many large paintings. Very hight vaulted ceilings. A few saints laying in state. Very dark, very gothic. Unfortunately, the facade is being serviced, so it was all covered. Outside, the pigeons were the bravest I've encountered, even moreso than on San Marco square in Venice. These birds flew full speed waist high seemingly without even a slight concern for smacking right into you. This is no joke, I really had to dodge 2-3 of these birds as they came within inches of me, dive-bombing the corn that people were throwing in the square for them to eat. Then we walked through the arched "mall" (it has a real name, but I can't remember at the moment, and I am too comfortable to get up out of bed, and find out what it's really called), and continued onward to a bunch of other sights that Vee researched and had on our itinerary. One was Da Vinci's Last Supper, but it you can't get in to see it without a reservations, and although I called, it was taking too long for anyone to pick up the phone, and we gave up. Anyway, it turned out to be a beautiful day, weather-wise, and we had a wonderful afternoon. We even decided to splurge on lunch, our first full meal in a while. Milan is nice, but we weren't swept off our feet. It has a metropolitan feel, wider streets, more organized, some very French influences, some very German influences, but all in all, still Italian. We caught the metro back to the hotel, Vee worked on video, I went for a walk to find another new book with no luck, and then I did some drawing, and we ate our snacks from the grocery store we stopped at on the way back from the center of town.
Thursday, the 13th, I got busted trying to take an apple out of the breakfast room. Vee was able to escape before being detected with her smuggled apple, so not all was lost. Breakfast is good here, and is included in the price of the room, but I guess there are strict rules regarding your having to eat it at the table in the breakfast room only. No take-aways! Afterwards, Vee worked more on the video stuff, and then we had to try again to nail down accomodations for the next two nights after tonight, hopefully in Bern, Switzerland. The rest of the day was shot; dealt with Philly-related issues.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Venice - Digging It!
| Once we arrived in Venice late Friday night the 7th of April, we were very relieved to find our hotel just across the little foot bridge. Being completely dark out, the location of the hotel was not immediately evident, and there was a bit of stress involved as we walked around trying to get our bearings in another new city, in the middle of the night, with no map. We walked into another hotel to get some navigational help and the guy at the front desk was extremely helpful and walked us back outside, and told us exactly where to go, pointing the way. We checked into the Hotel Canal, which as its name suggests is right on the water, and were in bed almost immediately. In the morning, we had to wait a bit for the included breakfast as it seemed everyone in the hotel chose to eat at precisely the same time that we did. It only really took a few minutes and before long, we were seated, happily munching away on our rolls, fruit, cereal, juice and coffees. We got cleaned up, and checked out, leaving our bags at the hotel, and went out to discover the enchantment of Venice. One thing that we still had to take care of was accomodations. The plan was to leave Venice later in the day, and go to Verona, or Milan, or Bologna, depending on where the least expensive accomodations were. We found an Internet cafe, and after about 90 minutes of searching the web, and making phone calls, we finally decided that we'd have to stay in Venice longer, and thus made reservations for a different hotel (since Hotel Canal was already fully booked) outside the city in "Mestre" for 3 nights, and a place in Milan for 2 nights thereafter. With that taken care of, we were ready for some exploring. It was another perfect day weather-wise, and because of that, we did not feel too motivated to go inside of the museums, churches, etc., and instead chose to wander the twisting labrynth of streets, snapping lots of photos and shooting video, and all along the waterfront, and the Piazzo San Marco. Vee suggested a nice lunch outside, and we had a delicous meal. We each had a glass of wine (Vee white, Cliff red), Vee had a pizza with anchovies and olives, and I had the "tourist menu" that included a spaghetti with meat sauce, green salad, fried fish (octopus, squid, little white minnow-sized fishies, baby prawns, and bigger prawns) and an ice cream. We cleaned our plates. It was the first nice sitdown complete meal in a while, and quite a pleasure, and not even very expensive given the spread of food. After lunch we walked around some more and talked about what we wanted to do the next day, Sunday, while ooh-ing and aaah-ing at the beauty of Venice that engulfed us. Rather than make it too late of a night, and since we had no idea how to get to our newly booked hotel, nor where it was, we headed out of the city of Venice in search of our new "home". We figured out that the hotel ought to be pretty close to the train station in Mestre, which we could get to from the train station in Venice via pretty much any train line. We hopped one train, and after a while of sitting there in the near dark, and with no one else on board, not even train conductors, we thought maybe it'd be best to try a different one, even though this was supposed to be the right train. Vee found another one leaving in about two minutes that was on the adjacent track, and so we got on that one and it was fine. Two stops later, we arrived in Mestre, hailed a taxi, and got dropped off at our hotel no problem. Still exhausted from our late night, and prior nights of limited sleep, we crashed. It was about 7:30pm, and we slept until around 10 or so, woke up, couldn't get back to sleep for a while, so I did some laundry and got a bottle of mineral water from the front desk since we were both parched. Finally we fell back asleep, and that was it for our first full day in Venice. As for our initial impressions of Venice, we were both in jaw-dropping awe. The Piazza San Marco is fantastic, and just sooooo grand. You can really feel the history here, and the pride, and the busy-ness, and significance. The water surrounding Venice, and the canals that seep into it, are gorgeous. Of course, it is loaded with tourists, about as bad as Florence, but it just seems to be less of an issue here. We loved looking out across the water, and seeing all of the beautifully designed, extravagent buildings and hearing the sounds of the rippling waters slapping up againsted the terraced rock waterfront. Although Venice has a reputation of being a smelly city, that has not been our experience. I can imagine that in the Summer though, it could get pretty stanky! We were not sure if we were going to come to Venice, but now that we are here, we are so glad that we decided to include it in our travels. We never thought we'd be here for 4 nights, but I am positive that it'll be just fine. There seems to be alot to do and see, certainly much more than what you can do in 3-4 days. --*!##!*-- Sunday, the 9th of April, we had the provided breakfast and listed to all the different languages being spoken in the breakfast room while we woofed down rolls, cake, fruit, yogurt, juice, cereal and tea. Back up in the room, I did a bunch of laundry, Vee worked on our photos and wrote emails, and then I wrote postcards and emails. By late morning we were finished with our "chores" and found out from the guy at the front desk that there was a bus line two blocks away that would get us into Venice for just 1 Eur each, and that it runs every 10 minutes and takes only 15 minutes to get into the city. We were ecstatic!! And sure enough, it really was that easy. Once in Venice, we searched out the same Internet cafe, and sent our emails. Internet cafes charge an arm and a leg here! Heading back towards San Marco square, we shared a slice of pizza and a tasty sweet pastry right out of the oven. Our objective was to find tickets to a live show, and then to find a way to get onto the water for an affordable ride. We found the location we spotted the night before where they were selling tickets to a classical music show later than night, and we bought two tickets. Then, we walked to the Visitors Center, and learned about how to use the "water-bus" system, and bought two 24-hour tickets for that. We found the water-bus stop, and made our way onto the number 82 which took us up the Grand Canal and back around the island of Venice to our original stop. It was alot of fun, and we got to see so much of the city. We had quite a bit of time before the show started, so we tried to get into the Duomo, but we just missed it; they just closed the doors. We wanted to do something, but everything was about to close, so instead, since it was getting a bit chilly with the cloud cover being pretty thick today, we went in search of a cafe, and found a great little place where we had some very nicely done capuccinos and a bunch of pastries. After a while, we warmed up, and headed back out to where the show was going to be. We got there alot faster than we expected, so we continued walking the twisty alleys, hoping to get just enough lost to enjoy the thrill of discovery, but not so lost so as to be late for the show. We got back just in time to be at the front of the line to get in, and got our pick of seats in the 3rd row. Surprisingly, there were very few people there. Maybe because it was Sunday night and alot of the weekend tourists had already left. Anyway, the performance was wonderful. There is nothing like live music, and to be just a few feet from the performers is another thing entirely. It was a quintet, with two violinists, a viola player, a celloist and a stand-up bass player. They played 6 selections, 2 by Mozart, 1 by Rossini, 1 by Mendelssohn, Pachelbel's infamous canon, and a bonus waltz. The performance was inside the Palazzo delle Prigioni, which was apparently an opera house -slash- overflow prison for the palace across the bridge. The sound was beautiful, and we had the best time. I even managed to record Pachelbels Canon on my little MP3 player using the built-in mic and voice recorder. Bootleg anyone? After the show, we were electrified, and wanted to go burn off the energy with a few pints in one of the many pubs we saw earlier in our wanderings. But, we couldn't find a darn one of'm. So rather than drag our search late into the night, we walked the Plaza a bit, marvelling at the look of the lights, and the water, and then took the water-bus to the land-bus station, rode the #12 back to the hotel, got to Peroni's and a bottled water from the front desk, and chilled in our room until about 1am, and then finally fell asleep. | |
Sunday, April 9, 2006
From Siena, through Pisa, and into Venice
Siena: The Breakfast Dilemma; What would you do?
This was just silly, and may not come through very well here in a blog. But I'll try. But first I have to wrap up our last few hours in Florence, and our trip into Siena to set the stage...
Yesterday, our final morning in Florence, we used our time to do a huge load of laundry. We couldn't quite figure out the laundry token dispensing machine, but had no problem with the detergent dispenser once we had the correct change. A woman who obviously does laundry there quite often took the liberty of changing our 5 EUR note into two tokens, even though what we really wanted to do was to get one token, and 2.50 EUR in change to use in the detergent dispensing machine. In a bit of a huff, and still needing change, we packed up our dirty laundry bag and went to a cafe/bar next door to get a little something to eat and drink, and some change. (Tangent - another thing about Florence we aren't real crazy about is the fact that the cafes are mostly stand-up only, and if they have seating, they charge you more to eat there for the same item, than if you were to eat it standing...just not conducive for getting cozy and relaxed) The woman who changed our money for tokens came into the same cafe, obviously a regular, and gave Vee a disgusted glance, and totally ignored me. Hehehehe. It was just kinda funny, not a big deal, but worth noting for it's comedic element. Anyway, with change in hand, we went back to the laundromat, loaded up the washer, and had a nice talk while we watched our clothes spin around. Another couple came into the laundromat, not Italian-speakers, but with good enough English to ask us how to use the token and detergent dispensing machines, and how to operate the washer and dryer. We got to talking, and they turned out to be a real sweet couple from Chile, so once the most common language was revealed, Spanish, we got into a really nice talk with them, their names being Julio and Veronica. Julio actually reminded us both of Vee's dad, in so many ways, his build, his facial expressions, his manner of speaking, his hand gestures, his intelligence and his obvious goodness. We learned that they had 6 children, two of which live in the States, and 2 grandchildren. Julio, retired now, wants to start a business in Chile that finances small businesses for indiginous people so as to build up their communities in a grass roots kind of way. Oh, how we wish he and Vee's father could meet since he had done exactly that as an experimental government project for Bolivia in the past!!! We talked about our mutual travels, and our favorite mutual places, like Cascais Portugal, and they told us about some nice places we should visit in Chile when we are down in S.A. later this year. We took some pictures for them standing in front of the washing machines since they thought no one back home would ever believe that Julio would actually be doing his own laundry in a public laundromat of all places! They were fantastic, and we said our goodbyes and gave them our email address and website domain name in case they wanted to check on our travels and try to stay in touch.
With our clothes all clean and neatly folded, we stuffed them into a bag, and hauled them back over to the hotel where we transferred them into our packs, exchanged smiling goodbyes with the hotelier, and made our way to the train station. After standing in the reservations line for only a few moments, the ticketing agent told us we didn't even need reservations and that a train bound for Siena was leaving in 10 minutes. We ran to the platform, and jumped onto the first car, stuffed our bags overhead, and sat down in amazement that we could be so lucky to have caught it. As usual, it was a nice ride, and before long, we were in Siena. We had a brief debate about whether or not we needed to buy a map, and finally decided to do so, then set out with our detached daypack each strapped to our front, and the main pack on our back. We already felt we were going to like Siena, just based on the first few glances, and the beginnings of our hike, and once we got inside the city wall, our intuitions were fulfilled. Such a cool little town! Much lighter crowd saturation, and everything had such charm and character. We'll have lots of photos and video so I won't continue on here about it. Like a bloodhound on the scent, Vee sniffed out our B&B in no time flat. However, as we knew, it was a very small place, only having 4 rooms or so, occupying only the 3rd floor of the building, and we could have easily missed it. We rang the doorbell 3-4 times, and got no response. Fortunately, a couple of friendly folks just happened to be going to their room in our B&B just as we were about to leave, and they let us in, explaining what we ought to do next to get ahold of the owner. As instructed, by our new friends Peter and Janice, I called the owner, Antonella, and with my 6 words of Italian, mixed with some Spanish and English, I let her know that we had arrived, found out which room was ours, where our key was, and when breakfast would be served. I thought she said that breakfast would be served at 8am, and 9am. We got settled, and quickly got outside to explore the city. As usual, we walked all over the place, and found the major points of interest more or less immediately. We stopped for huge pieces of pizza, and a giant can of Coke, and continued on to find the Duomo, some art museums, the cathedral, the main piazza, etc. We did not actually go inside anything because by this time of the day, most everything was closed or closing. We came back to the hotel for a little nap, and then went out again later on for a few pints at two different Irish pubs. Then, to bed for some reading, and asleep by 11 or so.
At 4:15am in the morning, I was awoken by the sound of a small group of kids chatting it up quite loudly on the street below. Since our room's window faces the street, we hear it all. I was perturbed to find out that this clattering of voices and laughter found its way into the suite of our B&B, yep, just outside our door, and eventually into the room next door. For the next two hours, these punks had converstations as if it was the middle of the day, laughing it up, knocking furniture around, smoking cigarettes with their fumes finding there way into our room. Needless to say, by this time, I was PISSED. I loudly unlocked the door and pounded on our common wall 4 times, hoping they'd get the hint. Nope. On they went. I put my headphones on, and attempted to block out the noise. I may have caught a few more winks, but a good full nights sleep was a lost cause at this point.
This is where the breakfast dilemma comes in, and where it might be fun to hear from anyone who has read far enough into this blog to comment on how they might have handled the situation...
So like I said, I understood that breakfast was going to be served at 8am, and at 9am. Obviously, I was awake, and by that point, so was Vee. At a few minutes before 8, we threw on some clothes, and were out in the dining area at 8am. But no one was around. We poked around a few minutes, but then agreed to go back into our room until 8:30, thinking maybe I misunderstood, and that breakfast would be at 8:30 and 9:30. At a few minutes past 8:30, there had been enough movement out in the dining area so that we figured all's ready for breakfast. We walked out, and for the first time, met the owner Antonella, we introduced ourselves, but she was just beginning to put the food out, and was just placing the 3rd and 4th settings on the the small table just big enough for 4 people. Antonella did not invite us to sit down for breakfast, and rather than circle around the room like a pair of bloodshot-eyed turkey buzzards, we slinked back into our room to wait a bit more. Within minutes, we heard our other next door neighbors come out into the dining area, exchanged hearty "ciao ciaos", sit down and dig in. At this point, with our door closed, we were sitting solitary on our bed, a mere 5 to 6 steps from the table and close enough to hear about everything (sound carries in this place like there are no walls anyway) going on out there. We found a sheet of paper in our room explaining basic rules and assumptions in the B&B, and apparently breakfast is INCLUDED "per request" (?). We wondered, hmmmmmmm, did we need to tell Antonella ahead of time that we wanted breakfast?...were there really 4 people out there eating breakfast so that all of the places were taken?...was breakfast an extra charge?...was breakfast from 8 until 9 rather than at 8 and 9?...if we wanted to have breakfast, and everyone who was expected to be eating already was eating, would Antonella have enough food for us?...WHAT DO WE DO? Should I walk out, and attempt to ask Antonella if we could have some breakfast, even though I can't speak Italian, and she can't seem to speak more than a handful of English? Should we just walk out of our room, and leave the building completely, and have breakfast at the McDonald's? Could I convince Vee to go out and handle the situation? Should we sit in our room for the next few hours waiting for the cleaned-up, post-meal silence that might allow us an undetected escape? uuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhh
Being the slickster that I am (NOT), I threw a bath towel over my shoulder, looked in the mirror to make sure my hair was appropriately matted and messy with the required just-got-outta-bed look, adjusted my clothes so that they appeared thoroughly disheveled as if I had just thrown on enough of yesterday's outfit to be adequately decent for a puffy-eyed shuffle to the common bathroom for a shower, and opened our door to greet everyone and scope out the situation. BINGO!!! JACKPOT!!! The friendly couple who let us into the building the prior day were seated, alone, at the table, with two places set, unused, opposite them. I mumbled something to sound surprised at breakfast being already laid out, and quietly asked the friendly lady seated at the table if there was anything special we needed to do in order to have breakfast, and she explained nope, nothing, just sit down and eat, as breakfast is served for everyone here each morning from 8 until 10. I called into Vee to make sure she heard the good news, and followed-through with my showering performance in time to sit down and have a bite to eat. We ended up having a fantastic time talking with the friendly couple, Janice & Peter from Alberta Canada, having emigrated there from Scotland back a few decades, and learned alot about various things to do while we were here. As a matter of fact, based solely on our conversation with them, we decided to extend our stay for 2 more days, at least, and may drop the Venice leg of our trip.
And after today, we wish we could just rent an apartment here in Tuscany for a month. We took a bus in the late morning to San Gimignano, a small medieval town about an hour away, and had an amazing day. It reminded us a bit of Toledo Spain, but smaller, and with roads a tad bit wider, and no sword shops. We climbed the main tower off the main piazza for spectacular views of Tuscany and explored the ruins of an old castle among other things. What more can I say?...look at our pics and video. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL part of the universe. Once back to Siena, as per Peter and Janice's recommendation, we took a walking tour of the city of Siena and found all kinds of wonderful little nooks and crannies with astounding views. We made our way back to the main piazza, and people watched a bit, then got a few goodies to eat and drink, and headed back to the room for the night.
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Wednesday, April 5th, following our 2nd night in Siena, I got a much better sleep, but poor Vee was awoken by the monsters next door and couldn't get back to sleep for a while. We got to meet them this morning for breakfast, and they seemed like perfectly innocent young college guys. And we got to talk more with Peter and Janice and say goodbye to them as today they were headed off to Rome. After a very light breakfast, we wandered around the main plaza some, had a coffee, went to the tourist office, went to a real estate agents office, and back to the tourist's office. We were trying to inquire about renting a flat for a month this summer, but I think we'll have to do that via the Internet since we couldn't dig any useful info out of anyone we talked to. We also tried to book a wine-tasting tour in Tuscany for this afternoon, but it was already full. So, we went to the Duomo and bought combination tickets for 10 Eur each to see some of the most important places right here in Siena. The weather was considerably cooler today, and the sun was playing hide and seek with us, so it was a good day to be indoors. The duomo was gorgeous, and is said to be the most beautiful in all of Italy, except for maybe Venice. I wouldn't argue with that statement as it was really fantastic. From there, it was a short walk to the Museo Dell'Opera and it's panoramic view from the bridge atop it. WOW!!! Hopefully our pics and video do it justice. We spent a few hours in these two places, were getting hungry, and went back to our room to eat the goodies from last night (smoked salmon, prosciutto, cheese, bread, fruit, beer) rather than eating anything out. We both read a little after eating, and then headed back out into the pesky rain to finish off the day's sights: Oratorio di San Bernardino (yawn), the Cripta (ok), and the Battistero (well worth it). The Battistero was very pretty, and had sculptures by Donatello, Bernini, and other important sculptors. After a full day of sight-seeing, we wrapped it up with an ice cream, and a trip to the supermercato for some beer, snacks and fruit, and then back to our room for the night. Siena is very quiet when it comes to the night-life, so we don't feel as if we're missing a thing by staying in.
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Thursday, April 6, started with an early attempt to get into the showers before anyone else so that we could hustle to the bus station, skipping breakfast, and get the first bus to the "mysterious" tuscan town of Volterra. Unfortunately, both showers were in use, and our plan was thwarted. Instead, we kicked around ideas for a Plan B, and then had an enjoyable breakfast and conversation with the two nice Norwegian guys staying here a few days for an architecture class. We talked about politics, music, culture, etc. One thing that has been consistent, everywhere we've travelled thus far, is the message we are hearing from everyone we talk to when we bring up the question about their perceptions of the United States: 1) George Bush is an idiot, 2) the perception of the U.S. has taken a definitive turn for the worst in the last 5 years or so. We are careful not to bring the issue up too immediately after meeting someone for the first time, but are eager to ask as soon as we feel comfortable doing so. So far, we can count at least 10+ people that we've involved in this kind of discussion, including students, young professionals, middle-aged professionals, and retirees. Not one person has had a favorable thing to say about our president, or the general direction the United States is taking in the world. We are also very careful to ask in such a way so as to sound as neutral and unbiased as possible. Today though, we were a bit taken aback by a statement that one of the Norwegian guys made when he remarked how when he was a young boy visiting family in the U.S., he always thought of the U.S. as a wonderful country, full of opportunity, but that now, his image of the U.S. is no longer one of opportunity, but instead, one of problems. It hit us pretty hard, because all this time, no matter what we thought about the problems facing the U.S., we thought that at the very least, foreign people would always see the U.S. as the land of opportunity. Vee was especially shocked because even though she expected alot of people would be disappointed with U.S. foreign policy, she didn't expect that our country's "essance" as a land of hope and promise would be negatively affected. That was an eye opener, a paradigm-shifter for both of us. Not good.
After breakfast, we decided on a morning trip to a small local village called Monteriggioni, and went to the bus station to buy our tickets. The bus was leaving in just a few minutes, and the trip would be a short one. Once off the bus, we weren't sure how exactly to get up to the village walls, as there was not any definitive signage to point us in any one direction. We just started walking towards it, and eventually found a dirt road that took us right up to, and inside it's fortified walls. Walking brisking, one could probably walk the entire length of the village in under 2 minutes. It was cute, nestled at the crest of a hill, surrounded by walls and towers still in very good condition. We stopped in a little cafe for some refreshments, walked around some more, checked out a few gardens and shops, then sat down on a bench to kill some time before the next scheduled bus, read the Herald Tribune, and take in our beautiful surroundings. Vee climbed up the steps to the top of the wall and got some good pics. After a relaxing bit of people-watching, we walked back down to the bus stop, and had a lively conversation along the way about the one major problem I've had with Italy since day one: Italian Men. I don't want to get started on this here........
Back in Siena, we made a quick stop at our room, then back out for some pizza and people-watching at the Piazzo di Campo, and then to an Internet cafe to book our next accomodations in Venice, and Milan. We also looked more into renting a villa in Tuscany for a bit of time this summer and found a fantastic-sounding place in Sovicille just outisde Siena for 400 Eur/week...hmmmmmmmmm... Afterwards, we went to a laundromat to see about having our laundry done, but it was too late in the day. Then off to a book store for some new reading material as we both finished our books last night. Vee loved "The Birth of Venus", and I hated "Saturday". We picked up two new ones, Vee with "A Venetian Affair" and me with "The Broker". Then we ambled aimlessly for a bit until we found a cafe where Vee re-adjusted our itinerary timeline and destinations, and I finished the Tribune. We went to the grocery store for tonights snacks, and then back to our room for the night.
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Friday, April 7, 2006 would be our final few hours in Siena. We paid up with Antonella, ate the small breakfast, conversed some with the remaining student from Norway, and a young couple that just came in from Seattle. Vee led the way to the train station, and it ended up being maybe a 20 minute walk, fully loaded with our packs. We got the 11:00 train to Pisa, changing in Empoli, but we could not get the train we had wanted for the leg of the trip to Venice, and had to opt for a later one, leaving Pisa a bit before 7pm, changing in Florence, ultimately arriving in Venice around 11:30pm. It would be fairly long day of travel, but with our Eurail pass, we were actually looking forward to the 1st class EuroStar journey from Florence to Venice, which is the longest part of the trip.
We actually had fairly low expectations of Pisa because of all the feedback we had received from the various people we had talked to. And our expectations were met. The leaning tower is exactly as you would expect, and the cathedral and batistero were pretty to look at. We did not feel like paying the entrance fees to get inside of any of them, and instead lounged around on the bright green grass that enveloped everything there. It was actually a very nice way to spend our time especially since the weather was so perfect. We walked around very slowly for a while, still with time to kill, and eventually made our way back to the train station for the ride to Venice through Florence. In the train station in Florence, we needed to get something to eat, and since pickings were slim, and we're both pretty tired of pizza, we got McDonalds, and then due to some confusion at the cash register, two unwanted paninis.
This was just silly, and may not come through very well here in a blog. But I'll try. But first I have to wrap up our last few hours in Florence, and our trip into Siena to set the stage...
Yesterday, our final morning in Florence, we used our time to do a huge load of laundry. We couldn't quite figure out the laundry token dispensing machine, but had no problem with the detergent dispenser once we had the correct change. A woman who obviously does laundry there quite often took the liberty of changing our 5 EUR note into two tokens, even though what we really wanted to do was to get one token, and 2.50 EUR in change to use in the detergent dispensing machine. In a bit of a huff, and still needing change, we packed up our dirty laundry bag and went to a cafe/bar next door to get a little something to eat and drink, and some change. (Tangent - another thing about Florence we aren't real crazy about is the fact that the cafes are mostly stand-up only, and if they have seating, they charge you more to eat there for the same item, than if you were to eat it standing...just not conducive for getting cozy and relaxed) The woman who changed our money for tokens came into the same cafe, obviously a regular, and gave Vee a disgusted glance, and totally ignored me. Hehehehe. It was just kinda funny, not a big deal, but worth noting for it's comedic element. Anyway, with change in hand, we went back to the laundromat, loaded up the washer, and had a nice talk while we watched our clothes spin around. Another couple came into the laundromat, not Italian-speakers, but with good enough English to ask us how to use the token and detergent dispensing machines, and how to operate the washer and dryer. We got to talking, and they turned out to be a real sweet couple from Chile, so once the most common language was revealed, Spanish, we got into a really nice talk with them, their names being Julio and Veronica. Julio actually reminded us both of Vee's dad, in so many ways, his build, his facial expressions, his manner of speaking, his hand gestures, his intelligence and his obvious goodness. We learned that they had 6 children, two of which live in the States, and 2 grandchildren. Julio, retired now, wants to start a business in Chile that finances small businesses for indiginous people so as to build up their communities in a grass roots kind of way. Oh, how we wish he and Vee's father could meet since he had done exactly that as an experimental government project for Bolivia in the past!!! We talked about our mutual travels, and our favorite mutual places, like Cascais Portugal, and they told us about some nice places we should visit in Chile when we are down in S.A. later this year. We took some pictures for them standing in front of the washing machines since they thought no one back home would ever believe that Julio would actually be doing his own laundry in a public laundromat of all places! They were fantastic, and we said our goodbyes and gave them our email address and website domain name in case they wanted to check on our travels and try to stay in touch.
With our clothes all clean and neatly folded, we stuffed them into a bag, and hauled them back over to the hotel where we transferred them into our packs, exchanged smiling goodbyes with the hotelier, and made our way to the train station. After standing in the reservations line for only a few moments, the ticketing agent told us we didn't even need reservations and that a train bound for Siena was leaving in 10 minutes. We ran to the platform, and jumped onto the first car, stuffed our bags overhead, and sat down in amazement that we could be so lucky to have caught it. As usual, it was a nice ride, and before long, we were in Siena. We had a brief debate about whether or not we needed to buy a map, and finally decided to do so, then set out with our detached daypack each strapped to our front, and the main pack on our back. We already felt we were going to like Siena, just based on the first few glances, and the beginnings of our hike, and once we got inside the city wall, our intuitions were fulfilled. Such a cool little town! Much lighter crowd saturation, and everything had such charm and character. We'll have lots of photos and video so I won't continue on here about it. Like a bloodhound on the scent, Vee sniffed out our B&B in no time flat. However, as we knew, it was a very small place, only having 4 rooms or so, occupying only the 3rd floor of the building, and we could have easily missed it. We rang the doorbell 3-4 times, and got no response. Fortunately, a couple of friendly folks just happened to be going to their room in our B&B just as we were about to leave, and they let us in, explaining what we ought to do next to get ahold of the owner. As instructed, by our new friends Peter and Janice, I called the owner, Antonella, and with my 6 words of Italian, mixed with some Spanish and English, I let her know that we had arrived, found out which room was ours, where our key was, and when breakfast would be served. I thought she said that breakfast would be served at 8am, and 9am. We got settled, and quickly got outside to explore the city. As usual, we walked all over the place, and found the major points of interest more or less immediately. We stopped for huge pieces of pizza, and a giant can of Coke, and continued on to find the Duomo, some art museums, the cathedral, the main piazza, etc. We did not actually go inside anything because by this time of the day, most everything was closed or closing. We came back to the hotel for a little nap, and then went out again later on for a few pints at two different Irish pubs. Then, to bed for some reading, and asleep by 11 or so.
At 4:15am in the morning, I was awoken by the sound of a small group of kids chatting it up quite loudly on the street below. Since our room's window faces the street, we hear it all. I was perturbed to find out that this clattering of voices and laughter found its way into the suite of our B&B, yep, just outside our door, and eventually into the room next door. For the next two hours, these punks had converstations as if it was the middle of the day, laughing it up, knocking furniture around, smoking cigarettes with their fumes finding there way into our room. Needless to say, by this time, I was PISSED. I loudly unlocked the door and pounded on our common wall 4 times, hoping they'd get the hint. Nope. On they went. I put my headphones on, and attempted to block out the noise. I may have caught a few more winks, but a good full nights sleep was a lost cause at this point.
This is where the breakfast dilemma comes in, and where it might be fun to hear from anyone who has read far enough into this blog to comment on how they might have handled the situation...
So like I said, I understood that breakfast was going to be served at 8am, and at 9am. Obviously, I was awake, and by that point, so was Vee. At a few minutes before 8, we threw on some clothes, and were out in the dining area at 8am. But no one was around. We poked around a few minutes, but then agreed to go back into our room until 8:30, thinking maybe I misunderstood, and that breakfast would be at 8:30 and 9:30. At a few minutes past 8:30, there had been enough movement out in the dining area so that we figured all's ready for breakfast. We walked out, and for the first time, met the owner Antonella, we introduced ourselves, but she was just beginning to put the food out, and was just placing the 3rd and 4th settings on the the small table just big enough for 4 people. Antonella did not invite us to sit down for breakfast, and rather than circle around the room like a pair of bloodshot-eyed turkey buzzards, we slinked back into our room to wait a bit more. Within minutes, we heard our other next door neighbors come out into the dining area, exchanged hearty "ciao ciaos", sit down and dig in. At this point, with our door closed, we were sitting solitary on our bed, a mere 5 to 6 steps from the table and close enough to hear about everything (sound carries in this place like there are no walls anyway) going on out there. We found a sheet of paper in our room explaining basic rules and assumptions in the B&B, and apparently breakfast is INCLUDED "per request" (?). We wondered, hmmmmmmm, did we need to tell Antonella ahead of time that we wanted breakfast?...were there really 4 people out there eating breakfast so that all of the places were taken?...was breakfast an extra charge?...was breakfast from 8 until 9 rather than at 8 and 9?...if we wanted to have breakfast, and everyone who was expected to be eating already was eating, would Antonella have enough food for us?...WHAT DO WE DO? Should I walk out, and attempt to ask Antonella if we could have some breakfast, even though I can't speak Italian, and she can't seem to speak more than a handful of English? Should we just walk out of our room, and leave the building completely, and have breakfast at the McDonald's? Could I convince Vee to go out and handle the situation? Should we sit in our room for the next few hours waiting for the cleaned-up, post-meal silence that might allow us an undetected escape? uuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhh
Being the slickster that I am (NOT), I threw a bath towel over my shoulder, looked in the mirror to make sure my hair was appropriately matted and messy with the required just-got-outta-bed look, adjusted my clothes so that they appeared thoroughly disheveled as if I had just thrown on enough of yesterday's outfit to be adequately decent for a puffy-eyed shuffle to the common bathroom for a shower, and opened our door to greet everyone and scope out the situation. BINGO!!! JACKPOT!!! The friendly couple who let us into the building the prior day were seated, alone, at the table, with two places set, unused, opposite them. I mumbled something to sound surprised at breakfast being already laid out, and quietly asked the friendly lady seated at the table if there was anything special we needed to do in order to have breakfast, and she explained nope, nothing, just sit down and eat, as breakfast is served for everyone here each morning from 8 until 10. I called into Vee to make sure she heard the good news, and followed-through with my showering performance in time to sit down and have a bite to eat. We ended up having a fantastic time talking with the friendly couple, Janice & Peter from Alberta Canada, having emigrated there from Scotland back a few decades, and learned alot about various things to do while we were here. As a matter of fact, based solely on our conversation with them, we decided to extend our stay for 2 more days, at least, and may drop the Venice leg of our trip.
And after today, we wish we could just rent an apartment here in Tuscany for a month. We took a bus in the late morning to San Gimignano, a small medieval town about an hour away, and had an amazing day. It reminded us a bit of Toledo Spain, but smaller, and with roads a tad bit wider, and no sword shops. We climbed the main tower off the main piazza for spectacular views of Tuscany and explored the ruins of an old castle among other things. What more can I say?...look at our pics and video. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL part of the universe. Once back to Siena, as per Peter and Janice's recommendation, we took a walking tour of the city of Siena and found all kinds of wonderful little nooks and crannies with astounding views. We made our way back to the main piazza, and people watched a bit, then got a few goodies to eat and drink, and headed back to the room for the night.
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Wednesday, April 5th, following our 2nd night in Siena, I got a much better sleep, but poor Vee was awoken by the monsters next door and couldn't get back to sleep for a while. We got to meet them this morning for breakfast, and they seemed like perfectly innocent young college guys. And we got to talk more with Peter and Janice and say goodbye to them as today they were headed off to Rome. After a very light breakfast, we wandered around the main plaza some, had a coffee, went to the tourist office, went to a real estate agents office, and back to the tourist's office. We were trying to inquire about renting a flat for a month this summer, but I think we'll have to do that via the Internet since we couldn't dig any useful info out of anyone we talked to. We also tried to book a wine-tasting tour in Tuscany for this afternoon, but it was already full. So, we went to the Duomo and bought combination tickets for 10 Eur each to see some of the most important places right here in Siena. The weather was considerably cooler today, and the sun was playing hide and seek with us, so it was a good day to be indoors. The duomo was gorgeous, and is said to be the most beautiful in all of Italy, except for maybe Venice. I wouldn't argue with that statement as it was really fantastic. From there, it was a short walk to the Museo Dell'Opera and it's panoramic view from the bridge atop it. WOW!!! Hopefully our pics and video do it justice. We spent a few hours in these two places, were getting hungry, and went back to our room to eat the goodies from last night (smoked salmon, prosciutto, cheese, bread, fruit, beer) rather than eating anything out. We both read a little after eating, and then headed back out into the pesky rain to finish off the day's sights: Oratorio di San Bernardino (yawn), the Cripta (ok), and the Battistero (well worth it). The Battistero was very pretty, and had sculptures by Donatello, Bernini, and other important sculptors. After a full day of sight-seeing, we wrapped it up with an ice cream, and a trip to the supermercato for some beer, snacks and fruit, and then back to our room for the night. Siena is very quiet when it comes to the night-life, so we don't feel as if we're missing a thing by staying in.
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Thursday, April 6, started with an early attempt to get into the showers before anyone else so that we could hustle to the bus station, skipping breakfast, and get the first bus to the "mysterious" tuscan town of Volterra. Unfortunately, both showers were in use, and our plan was thwarted. Instead, we kicked around ideas for a Plan B, and then had an enjoyable breakfast and conversation with the two nice Norwegian guys staying here a few days for an architecture class. We talked about politics, music, culture, etc. One thing that has been consistent, everywhere we've travelled thus far, is the message we are hearing from everyone we talk to when we bring up the question about their perceptions of the United States: 1) George Bush is an idiot, 2) the perception of the U.S. has taken a definitive turn for the worst in the last 5 years or so. We are careful not to bring the issue up too immediately after meeting someone for the first time, but are eager to ask as soon as we feel comfortable doing so. So far, we can count at least 10+ people that we've involved in this kind of discussion, including students, young professionals, middle-aged professionals, and retirees. Not one person has had a favorable thing to say about our president, or the general direction the United States is taking in the world. We are also very careful to ask in such a way so as to sound as neutral and unbiased as possible. Today though, we were a bit taken aback by a statement that one of the Norwegian guys made when he remarked how when he was a young boy visiting family in the U.S., he always thought of the U.S. as a wonderful country, full of opportunity, but that now, his image of the U.S. is no longer one of opportunity, but instead, one of problems. It hit us pretty hard, because all this time, no matter what we thought about the problems facing the U.S., we thought that at the very least, foreign people would always see the U.S. as the land of opportunity. Vee was especially shocked because even though she expected alot of people would be disappointed with U.S. foreign policy, she didn't expect that our country's "essance" as a land of hope and promise would be negatively affected. That was an eye opener, a paradigm-shifter for both of us. Not good.
After breakfast, we decided on a morning trip to a small local village called Monteriggioni, and went to the bus station to buy our tickets. The bus was leaving in just a few minutes, and the trip would be a short one. Once off the bus, we weren't sure how exactly to get up to the village walls, as there was not any definitive signage to point us in any one direction. We just started walking towards it, and eventually found a dirt road that took us right up to, and inside it's fortified walls. Walking brisking, one could probably walk the entire length of the village in under 2 minutes. It was cute, nestled at the crest of a hill, surrounded by walls and towers still in very good condition. We stopped in a little cafe for some refreshments, walked around some more, checked out a few gardens and shops, then sat down on a bench to kill some time before the next scheduled bus, read the Herald Tribune, and take in our beautiful surroundings. Vee climbed up the steps to the top of the wall and got some good pics. After a relaxing bit of people-watching, we walked back down to the bus stop, and had a lively conversation along the way about the one major problem I've had with Italy since day one: Italian Men. I don't want to get started on this here........
Back in Siena, we made a quick stop at our room, then back out for some pizza and people-watching at the Piazzo di Campo, and then to an Internet cafe to book our next accomodations in Venice, and Milan. We also looked more into renting a villa in Tuscany for a bit of time this summer and found a fantastic-sounding place in Sovicille just outisde Siena for 400 Eur/week...hmmmmmmmmm... Afterwards, we went to a laundromat to see about having our laundry done, but it was too late in the day. Then off to a book store for some new reading material as we both finished our books last night. Vee loved "The Birth of Venus", and I hated "Saturday". We picked up two new ones, Vee with "A Venetian Affair" and me with "The Broker". Then we ambled aimlessly for a bit until we found a cafe where Vee re-adjusted our itinerary timeline and destinations, and I finished the Tribune. We went to the grocery store for tonights snacks, and then back to our room for the night.
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Friday, April 7, 2006 would be our final few hours in Siena. We paid up with Antonella, ate the small breakfast, conversed some with the remaining student from Norway, and a young couple that just came in from Seattle. Vee led the way to the train station, and it ended up being maybe a 20 minute walk, fully loaded with our packs. We got the 11:00 train to Pisa, changing in Empoli, but we could not get the train we had wanted for the leg of the trip to Venice, and had to opt for a later one, leaving Pisa a bit before 7pm, changing in Florence, ultimately arriving in Venice around 11:30pm. It would be fairly long day of travel, but with our Eurail pass, we were actually looking forward to the 1st class EuroStar journey from Florence to Venice, which is the longest part of the trip.
We actually had fairly low expectations of Pisa because of all the feedback we had received from the various people we had talked to. And our expectations were met. The leaning tower is exactly as you would expect, and the cathedral and batistero were pretty to look at. We did not feel like paying the entrance fees to get inside of any of them, and instead lounged around on the bright green grass that enveloped everything there. It was actually a very nice way to spend our time especially since the weather was so perfect. We walked around very slowly for a while, still with time to kill, and eventually made our way back to the train station for the ride to Venice through Florence. In the train station in Florence, we needed to get something to eat, and since pickings were slim, and we're both pretty tired of pizza, we got McDonalds, and then due to some confusion at the cash register, two unwanted paninis.
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