2016 Adventure Revisited

April 2016 – The Adventure Begins

This adventure started in March of 2014 when Peter said that when we retire, he would like to live part of the year overseas. A world traveler by nature, Lynn was very excited about that idea. It took several months to figure out how to make that happen, but soon we had a plan.

Peter also talked about going on a repositioning cruise. These occur when the cruise lines move part of their fleet at the end of a season. They include all the fun stuff of a regular cruise at a fraction of the cost. In addition, Lynn said she wanted to start a tradition of spending their wedding anniversary (Sep 4) someplace special. So, we decided to combine these two ideas for our very first overseas adventure.

After a lot of research, Lynn found a great cruise on Celebrity which leaves from the Port of Rome (Civitavecchia) and stops in Nice, Marseilles, Barcelona and Tenerife before heading across the south Atlantic to arrive in Miami. This fit perfectly with Peter’s desire to visit Italy. So was born our Italy Adventure. The trip has grown to include not just Italy, but the Balkans as well. Lynn is super excited that she’ll get to add at least 4 new countries to the ever-growing list of places she’s visited. As of now she’s been to 50 on 5 continents, but that number should grow quickly during retirement.

Our adventure begins on August 29, 2016, when we fly to Rome and ends on November 5th when we dock in Miami. We’re so excited to have you with us on our journey.

August 30 – Let’s Try Again

If our first post from the plane had actually published, you would have seen us sitting on in our bulkhead seats already to take off. It was an hour late due to mechanical difficulties but better to wait than have the plane break over the Atlantic. Once in the air it was an eventful trip (the only kind we want to have), landing in Rome about 8:30am. Immigrations and Customs was a breeze and Florido, the driver arranged by our Airbnb host was there to bring us into Rome. We got to our tiny, but very nice, apartment and tried to rest but we were both too keyed up. So after about an hour we finally gave up and went to explore the city.

We first walked to the Coliseum and the Roman Forum, but we’ll see those in more detail tomorrow as part of our hop on/hop off bus tour. We’ve got a 48-hour pass and no wait in line tickets so will have plenty of time for more exploring.

A stop for lunch got Lynn her first real Italian pizza in over 5 years….it was yummy. She actually ate it too fast to get a picture so maybe next time. We got all twisted around trying to get back to the flat, so we were pretty tired when we finally found it. After resting for an hour or so, we went back out for dinner. This time we checked out the main railroad station in preparation for Saturday’s trip to Venice then grabbed a cab to the Piazza di Spagna, but unfortunately the famous steps were undergoing renovations and were inaccessible. We did enjoy tossing our coins into the Fountain di Trevi. I’m sure our wishes will come true. Pssst….Don’t tell Peter, but Lynn’s wish came true on September 4, 2015.

After a quick bite to eat, we’re back in the flat and are absolutely exhausted. According to Lynn’s Fitbit, we walked over 20,000 steps. Oh….that hurts just to say it. We’ll be turning out the light soon but just want to say love to all. Stay safe and we’ll post again soon. We need to figure out what we’re doing wrong posting from the phone.

Buona notte cara amici a famiglia!

Love P&L

August 31 – Ancient Rome

It’s the end of another long, busy day. Of course, the first thing we checked this morning was the weather. According to weather.com it was going to be 80 with zero chance of rain. Well…someone forgot to tell the weather gods. It was sunny when we left to catch our hop on/hop off bus, but within the hour the sky had seriously darkened and it started to pour. Where were our umbrellas you ask? At the flat, of course, because there was zero chance of rain. We hung on the bus for a while then hopped off to have some lunch. By the time we finished the rain had slowed down but we decided to take a cab back to the flat, pick up the umbrellas then go back to tour the Coliseum. Forty minutes and 20 euro later, we hit the Coliseum where it started to rain just a little. As soon as Peter opened his umbrella, it broke into 3 pieces. How does that even happen??? Luckily the sun came out a short time later but now we need a new umbrella.

Anyway, Ancient Rome was wonderful. We spent about 4 hours in the Coliseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. The vastness is truly amazing. After a lot of walking we treated ourselves to our first gelato…also truly amazing.

Tomorrow we’re planning a trip to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s. Hopefully we’ll get there early enough to beat the crowds. Talk with you later. Ciao, Peter and Lynn

September 1 – Day 3 is a Wrap

Yesterday it was ancient Rome, today was Christian Rome. We started the day back on the hop on/hop off bus and headed to the Vatican Museum. We spent the next hour figuring out how to redeem our “no line” voucher, standing in line to actually redeem the voucher, then standing in more lines for security screening. It’s a sad sign of the times that every site we’ve visiting has required security screening before entry. I get why, but it’s kind of sad that it’s necessary. Anyway, once we finally got into the Museum we strolled (with about 1 million other people) the dozens of rooms. The amount of stuff to see was overwhelming so we just looked at the things that caught our eye. Even Peter couldn’t read all the info plaques. The highlight, of course, was the fabulous Sistine Chapel. Lynn has seen it several times but it never ceases to amaze.

After a bite to eat we planned to visit St. Peter only to find out that it was closed until 3:30pm for a special Papal audience. We planned the visit around the usual Wednesday audience but had no way of knowing about this one. So we killed time walking around the Piazza and sitting by the fountain to cool off. When the security lines opened, we joined the hordes. When we got in we were disappointed to see that the Piata was curtained off and there were quite a few barricades around. We saw a line, so we got into it (Lynn’s 20 years in the military has conditioned her to get into lines). Turns out the line was for seating for what we thought was a Mass. Since Peter has never attended a Mass at St. Peter’s we decided to wait the 75 minutes for it to start. Turns out, it wasn’t a Mass but some kind of special service. For what, we’re not sure, but since it was conducted by the Pope, we really didn’t care too much. In retrospect, the white chair at the altar should have been a clue. Since we were there fairly early we were only a few rows from the front and about mid-way through the row. We got a couple of good pictures and while we never figured out what the service was for, it was still pretty special.

Tomorrow we think we’ll get a one-day pass for public transportation (hop on/hop off was only 2 days) and hit a few places we missed. We may go back to St. Peter’s so Peter can see what we couldn’t see today. We want to make it an early day, though, as we have to repack for Saturday’s trip to Venice.

Till tomorrow….Ciao.

September 2 – Arrivederci Roma

Today was the hottest day we’ve had since we’ve been here….literally. It was about 95 degrees. But we didn’t let that stop us from enjoying our last day in the Eternal City. We successfully navigated public transportation and visited the

Pantheon and Piazza Navona before heading back to St. Peter’s to see what we missed yesterday. After that we had our daily pizza for lunch. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we get tired of it, but that time hasn’t yet come. After lunch we headed back to the other side of the Tiber River to visit Piazza Popolo and the Borghese Gardens, where we had some fun with the Roman Guards. These were new sites for Lynn as well so it was fun to discover them together.

Then it was back home to repack as we have an 8:30am train to Venice. Since we’re not sure how easy it’s going to be to get a cab that early in the morning we plan to head out before 7:00.

As much as we enjoyed Rome, we’re ready to move on and see something new. So, it’s off to Venezia.

Till tomorrow….Ciao.

September 3 – Final Thoughts About Rome

All of our other posts were done at the end of a long day so they were pretty brief. But now we’re on a bullet train to Venice so we thought we’d share a few final thoughts about the amazing city of Rome.

What struck us more than anything was the combination of old and new; ancient and modern. Not just the Coliseum and Forum, which are massive in size, but all the small pieces of antiquity scattered throughout the city. Everywhere you turn, there’s another excavated area. We found it most interesting that there might be a modern building built practically into a piece of an ancient building.

And then there’s the age of the city. Knowing that we walked in the footsteps of Caesar is pretty amazing. We were in one church built in the 17th century that was considered the “new church” because it replaced one built 400 years earlier that had been destroyed in an earthquake. The whole idea boggles the mind.

All in all, Rome is a breathtaking city and we’re so glad it was the first stop in our adventure. We’ve included a few other pictures for your viewing pleasure. We’ll see you in Venice. Ciao….

 

September 3 – Day 1 Venice

After a very quick 4-hour bullet train (with speeds up to 130 mph) ride, we made it to Venice around noon. Of course, it took almost another hour to stand in line to buy tickets for the vaporetto (water bus), stand in line to get on the vaporetto and ride 4 stops to the Ca’d Ora stop where our hosts son, Milo, was waiting for us. According to google maps we could have walked in less time but dragging two 50-pound suitcases around the twisting/turning streets of Venice didn’t sound like a very good idea. Besides we’d probably still be trying to find the place. Milo was right at the bus stop and helped us carry the luggage up and down the stairs of the bridges.

The flat is small but with a ton of character. It’s on the ground floor (a must unless there is an elevator) of a 14th century building. It has an original beamed ceiling as well as a stone pillar in the middle of the room. It is really quite charming. It also has a washer which is a big help as we’ve already accumulated 5 days of dirty clothes. Of course, with its tiny size it will take us the 3 days we’re here to do it all (hanging everything in the small back courtyard as there’s no dryer) but it’s better than dragging everything to a laundry mat, especially since we have no idea where to find a laundry mat. We spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to turn it out but once Lynn noticed that it wasn’t plugged in that problem was solved….go figure.  We managed to set it for a cold cycle and left them to wash while we went to dinner. The clothes were done when we got home but then in trying to open the door, Peter accidently hit the start button. Since we had no idea how to stop it once it started, we ended up running it through the entire cycle again….taking another 90 minutes. But now we think we’ve got it so the next 2 loads should go a little easier; at least we hope so.

Just like Rome, Venice is hot (mid 90s) but humid where Rome is fairly dry. And like Rome, it’s pretty crowded. It took us quite a while to work our way over to St. Mark’s Square, asking directions several times as the map was virtually useless. If you’ve ever been to Venice you know what we mean. While you may be able to find yourself on the map, trying to get from point A to point B is very difficult. But since Peter has no problem asking for directions (which Lynn thinks takes all the challenge out of traveling in exotic places) we didn’t have to backtrack too many times.

We waited in line (of course) to visit the Basillica but decided not to venture to the top of the Campanile, the bell tower. Lynn had already been up there and Peter didn’t care that much so we just strolled the Piazza and walked down the Grand Canal. We’re thinking about taking a Gondola ride tomorrow for our anniversary but we’ll see.

After asking for directions only twice, we made it to the Rialto bridge. It was jammed but Peter managed to work his way to the rail for this terrific picture. Then fellow travelers took one of the two of us. It’s great to finally have a picture of us that has more than a close up of our heads, but since we refuse to buy a selfie stick, that’s usually what we end up with if we want both of us in the picture.

We were able to make it back to the flat without asking any directions, (which is when the laundry saga began) so we think we’ve figured out the streets of Venice. Well see tomorrow when we head back to the Rialto Bridge for the Historical Regatta. More on that later. Ciao and buona notte from Venezia.

September 4 – Historical Regatta and Our First Anniversary

Our first anniversary started quietly. We slept late (well…7:30 but that’s late for us, especially Lynn). Peter made breakfast which we ate out on the enclosed patio. The mimosas made it a very nice anniversary breakfast. We’re having a hard time believing that it’s been a year since the wedding; it seems like yesterday. After breakfast we watched our wedding video which was a nice way to relive that special day.

Then we went for a walk. We were looking for a restaurant that our host, Lucia, recommended. We didn’t find the restaurant but we found the station for the vaporetto we need to take to Murano tomorrow. But, there was no place to buy tickets. So, we continued to walk and found a hotel with a concierge. We asked him where we could get a one-day pass (20 euro each instead of 7.5 each per trip; we’re taking at least 4 trips so it’s much more cost effective). He said the only place to get the day pass is at one of the main stations but the pass is only good for 24 hours after you buy it which means we would have to one of those stations before heading to Murano. None of them are anywhere near our flat so it would be a big pain in the butt. Then he told us that the glass factory is sending a vaporetto to pick up guests and we were welcome to join them. We have to tour the factory but we planned on doing that anyway. So, at 9:30 tomorrow we’ll be heading for Murano. We can get the day pass at the station there so we’ll be set for the day as we visit a few other islands.

After lunch it was back to the Rialto Bridge. On our way Peter suggested a gondola ride. Lynn thought it was too expensive (80 euro) for a 30-minute ride but Peter said that he was in Venice with his sweetheart on our anniversary, so a gondola ride was in order regardless of the cost. It was very romantic and relaxing. We saw Marco Polo’s house which can only be seen from the canal, so that was pretty cool. After the ride it was off to the Historical Regatta.

Now for a history lesson. The Historical Regatta is the annual ‘Voga alla Veneta’ rowing event. It is a unique sport and has been going on for more than a thousand years in the Venetian lagoon. In modern times it has become more spectacular due to the famous water pageant held before the races: dozens of multicolored 16th century-style boats, all with oarsmen in period costume, carry the Doge, the Doge’s wife and all the highest ranking Venetian officials, as a true and faithful reconstruction of the glorious past of one of the Mediterranean’s most powerful and influential Maritime Republics. The ancient tradition of the Historical Regatta can be traced back to the mid 13th century when the Serenisssima Republic needed to keep well trained the crews of its huge navy in the art of rowing.

The Grand Canal was packed with people trying to find a good spot from which to watch the festivities. We found an empty piece of concrete to sit on near the Rialto Bridge and planted ourselves there until the pageant began. It was supposed to start at 4pm, but in true Italian fashion, didn’t actually start until 4:35. Lynn had seen the Regatta in 94 when she lived in Sicily and it was just as nice this time. After the pageant ended, the racers came down the Canal, heading to the starting “line”. But by this time, the officials had let the gondolas that were for hire back onto the Canal. Unfortunately, they kept getting tangled up with the racers. In the middle of all this chaos, there was a guy in a motor boat with a bull horn  screaming something we didn’t

understand. It was a Keystone Cop moment and rather entertaining to watch. We only stayed for a couple of the races before enjoying some gelato. The day ended with a lovely seafood dinner and a little bit of Cubs baseball on mlbtv.com. All in all, a great first anniversary. Ciao.

September 5 – Murano and Burano

We had a wonderful time at the Murano Glass Factory. We saw a few of the master glassmakers at work but most of those areas are closed to the public. The showroom, on the other hand, welcomed us with open arms. After strolling two floors of spectacular pieces, we decided to buy the first piece that caught our eye. Our home is filled with beautiful things, some bought by Lynn and others by Peter. But we don’t have anything that we selected and purchased together (if you don’t count the kitchen cabinets and countertops). We decided that sometime during this trip we were going to get our first “our purchase” and this was it. Technically it’s a vase. The yellow part is hollow so you could put something in it but the glass is clear and absolutely beautiful so we wouldn’t want to obscure it with anything. The most special thing about this piece is that it is one of a kind as they don’t mass produce anything. There was similar piece by the same master but it had a different shape and the colors weren’t as beautiful. They’re going to engrave our name on the bottom and ship it out so it arrives by mid-November. The piece is mostly clear but has beautiful colors throughout. It’s actually very peaceful to look at. The picture makes it look like there are houses on it but that’s a view of the next island through the glass. It’s a beautiful work of art and we’re very excited about it.

After the business of the purchase was done one of their boats took us to the main vaporetta station for a short trip to Burano. This island is mostly known for its colorful houses and handmade lace. We had a lovely lunch, bought a few gifts and headed home.

We’re having a relaxing last afternoon in Venice (Peter is watching the movie Gettysburg in Italian and Lynn is doing mundane things like paying bills and balancing the checkbook) before making dinner here. We decided that eating out for every meal was not only hurting our wallets but also our waistlines. So, we’ve been eating breakfast in and yesterday we came back for lunch. We’ll clean out the fridge for dinner before leaving tomorrow when we go to the airport for our rental car. The plan is to steer towards Trieste but who knows what will happen after that. The next 3 weeks with the car will be very flexible so we don’t know where we’ll end up. But we’ll keep you posted. Ciao.

September 7 – Two New Countries

Yesterday Lynn added two new countries to her list of places she’s visited….Slovenia and Croatia. The day started with a boat ride to the bus station followed by a 30-minute bus ride to Marco Polo Airport. Then it was wait in line (certainly a pattern in Italy) for about 40 minutes to get our rental car. The good news is that they didn’t have a VW Golf (or similar) so they upgraded us to an Alfa Romero. Peter was grinning from ear to ear when they gave him the keys. It really is a very nice car and fits both of our big suitcases in the trunk. Of course, it’s a manual but Peter’s doing just great with it. He’s only killed it a couple of times, mostly when he’s in reverse.

We headed out of Italy into Slovenia to visit the Predjama Castle. This is the coolest castle ever…built into the rock and caves of a mountain. It was originally built in the 13th Century but took its present form in the 16th century. The final resident used it as a hunting lodge until just after WWII.

Then we headed down to Opatija Croatia, where we’ve made our home for the last 2 nights. We’re in a very nice 2 BR flat just a few minutes walk from the town center. It’s a couple of minutes downhill (or uphill on the way home) but it’s very nice.

Today we did a day trip around the peninsula, stopping in Pula and Kopar. We went to Rovinj (one of Rick Steeves’ recommendations in Croatia) but after driving around for about 20 minutes we couldn’t find a place to park so we left. It looked nice, though. Too bad we didn’t get to see any of it.

We packed sandwiches with the idea of having a nice picnic someplace along the way but ended up eating them in the car alongside the road. Who would have thought that there was not one single picnic bench (or park for that matter) in the entire peninsula. Actually we finally did see one picnic bench but by that time it was about 5:30 and we had already eaten lunch. Oh well, the idea was a good one. We’ll try again tomorrow as we have just enough bread, ham and cheese for 2 more sandwiches. We’re heading to Split, Croatia, where we plan to spend the next couple of nights.

Sorry there are no pictures with this post but the internet connection at the flat is pretty slow and it’s timing out before the pics are uploaded. Hopefully our next home will have a better connection and we’ll upload them then.

It’s after 10pm and we’ve got about 4 hours to drive tomorrow so we’re heading to bed. Love to all and we’ll chat again soon.

September 8 – Day 10 of Our Adventure

We can’t believe it’s already been 10 days since we’ve been in Europe; time really is flying. First, here are some pictures from the last couple of days. The internet in this flat is much faster so we’re uploading photos without a problem.

 

Here are a couple of pics from yesterday’s trip around the peninsula.

 

So, that was the last couple of days. Today we spent a good portion of the day in the car, driving from Opatija to Split. It was about 5 hours but we stopped in the beautiful walled town of Trogir for lunch. Today we actually found a bench in a park to eat our sandwiches. It was great! We absolutely loved the town but

unfortunately we didn’t have too much time to spend because our host was waiting for us in Split. As it was, we were several hours late arriving so we felt guilty about making Natasia wait even longer.

 

 

 

 

Actually we liked Trogir better than Split, which is big and noisy. Not at all what we expected. It has a very nice Old Town which we’ll visit tomorrow. It will only take a couple of hours, but then we’re going to spend some time doing laundry, assuming of course we can find a self-service laundry mat. We did two small loads in Venice but it took so long to dry that we didn’t have time for the third. Our host in Split said there was a laundry mat near Old Town, so we’ll see if we can hunt it down then go back in the afternoon. We could use a more relaxing day after 3 days of nonstop moving. Especially Peter we did a lot of driving since we picked up the car.

On Saturday we’re heading to the island of Korcula on the auto ferry. We found a beautiful stone house on Airbnb that we’re renting. The biggest difference between Italy and Croatia is the cost of things. We spent about $50 on groceries over the last 3 days and have had b/l/d every day out of that food. Last week in Italy we’d spend $50 just on dinner. This was one of the reasons we wanted to stay at Airbnb flats instead of hotels. Not only is the room itself less expensive but they have kitchens so we can prepare some of our own meals. We do plan to go out for a nice lunch or dinner tomorrow to try Croatian food. So until then….night from Split Croatia.

September 9 – When Cultures Collide

Today was a bit more quiet than many of the other days we’ve had. It started with Peter going to get groceries at the store about 4 blocks away. Two hours later he came home, having gotten lost on the way back. It’s easy to do, though, with all the windy streets.

 Then we went back to the Old Town where we spent about an hour enjoying the ancient ruins. Diocletian was a Roman Emperor at the turn of the 4th Century AD. The palace now contains the city center and is the main tourist area of Split. It has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Actually we’ve seen quite a few of those on our adventure, including yesterday in Trogir. We should see a few more before the trip is over. 

Lunch is where we had a slight cultural challenge, at least Lynn did. We wanted to have authentic Croatian food for lunch. Peter got a mixed cheese, veggie and prosciutto plate. Lynn decided that the shrimp dish sounded delicious. Even after the waiter said it could be a bit messy, she wasn’t concerned. She knew she was in trouble, though, when he brought out what looked like needle-nosed pliers, a large napkin and a handi-wipe. When her shimp with tomato sauce lunch arrived, it was 3 large whole shrimp in sauce…..literally….whole! They had the claws, the head (with beady little eyes), every body part a shrimp has. Never one for eating whole shellfish, she had no idea how to eat these things, nor did she really want to with they way they were staring at her as if begging her not to eat them. With Peter’s help she finally figured out where the meat was, which was actually quite delicious especially when dipped in the sauce. But it was extremely messy. And, in spite

of the size of the shrimp, there really wasn’t that much meat on them. Luckily there was a lot of bread on the table so she dipped that into the sauce. It was certainly an adventure but one she’s not likely to repeat any time soon. One of these days she’s going to remember that getting seafood in Europe is a totally different thing than at home.

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to find a laundromat, which with the help of GPS, we finally hunted down. Except by this time it was 3pm and we would have had to leave the laundry and pick it up later. Since we weren’t sure if we’d get it back in time to leave tomorrow, we decided to wait on laundry until tomorrow. So we’re dragging dirty laundry with us one more day.

It’s going to be a quiet evening at home before a fairly early morning tomorrow. Our host is coming at 7:45am for our checkout as we need to be at the ferry before 8:30 for our 10:15 departure to the Island of Korcula. We’ll talk with you when we get there. Love to all.

September 10 – Island of Korcula

Today has been a long and busy day. It started early because our host was coming at 7:45 to check us out so we wanted to get up early enough to make breakfast and straighten up the flat.

Then we headed for the port where we waited a couple of hours for the ferry to arrive, load and leave. It was a very smooth 3-hour ride. The Croatian coastline was beautiful but it was a bit hazy so the pictures don’t really do it justice.

We arrived in the town of Vela Luka and headed about 40 km to the other end of the island to the village of Lumbarda. It’s about 5 km from the town of Korcula and is where our stone house is located. The view is amazing and the house is very nice. It was recently renovated so although it’s several hundred years old, it has very modern amenities. Our host, Dino, isn’t here but his mother and sister live next door. His mom, Jasmine, is doing our laundry as there is no laundromat in the village. It will be so nice to have all clean clothes again.

After we arrived, we walked down to the beach. It was supposed to be a 5-7 minute walk and we suppose if you have really young legs that’s about what it would take. But our legs are anything but young so it took us about 15 minutes twice as long. It took even longer coming back because it was all uphill. We’ll go down again tomorrow but take the car. We also want to check out the village of Lumbarda.

After the beach we headed down to the town of Korcula. Like most of the other places we’ve visited, there were plenty of buildings from the middle ages. St. Mark’s took over 500 years to build (1301-1806) and is a very pretty church. Of course, it doesn’t compare to St. Peter’s in Rome, but not much does. The old town is pedestrian only which is great because the streets are very narrow and steep. And there are stairs everywhere. But it is very beautiful. Even though Wikipedia says the exact date and birthplace of Marco Polo is unknown, Korcula claims to be his birthplace. There’s a museum and a ton of “Marko Polo” gift shops. We think we’ll head back out to the old city tomorrow to see if we’ve missed anything. 

All in all it was another great day, but a long and tiring one so we’ll probably turn in early tonight. Besides, Peter has been struggling with a bit of a cold the last couple of days. Nothing big just a bit of sneezing and sniffles. Luckily he feels fine. We’ll probably take it easy in the morning and have a leisurely breakfast on our stone patio.

Talk with you tomorrow.

September 11 – So Sad to Leave

It’s almost 7am and Peter is making breakfast. We’re all packed and our host, Jasmine, will be coming in about an hour to pick up the key for our amazing stone house. We’re so sad to leave Korcula as it has been our favorite stop on our adventure. The city of Korcula is a beautiful old town and Lumbarda, the town where our house is located, is peaceful and gorgeous.  

 We spent a very quiet day yesterday while Peter is getting over his sniffles. We went back to the old town to see what we missed the first day. We had ice cream by the sea then hiked up to see Marko Polo’s house. We only stayed for a couple of hours then headed back home for sandwiches after which we headed down to the beach. This time we drove which was an adventure all by itself. We took a wrong turn and went uphill into Lumbarda instead of downhill to the sea. While that may not sound like a big thing, the streets are so narrow and lined with cars that there was no place to turn around. Watching Peter trying to back down this hill without hitting anything (or anyone) was yet another adventure. He finally found a spot where he could back in and turn around, but not without Lynn getting out as a guide to be sure he didn’t hit either of the stone walls.

We finally made it to the beach without further difficulty and enjoyed swimming in the rather cold water of the Adriatic. Once we got used to it, it wasn’t too terrible but it never really felt warm. It was wonderful, though.

We walked down to the local winery just up the road from the house and tasted two of the local wines. They were both delicious, even the red which Lynn doesn’t usually like. So, of course we had to get a couple of bottles, one of which (the white wine Grk) we enjoyed on our terrace. It was lovely sitting out there; in fact we both dozed a bit.

Dinner was back in Lumbarda after a nice walk by the sea. As we said, this has been our favorite spot so far, but tomorrow we’re heading for Dubrovnik so who knows what beautiful places lie ahead. Talk with you then….

 September 12 – Back to the Big City

Today we moved on to Dubrovnik. After a short 15-minute ferry ride, we drove through the mountains of the Pelješac peninsula on the Dalmatian coast. The last town on the peninsula was Ston, which is surrounded by the longest walls in Europe. We spent about 20 minutes wandering around the tiny town, stopping for our daily gelato. People were walking the walls but when we saw how many steps we’d have to climb to get up there, we decided that a few pictures were good enough.        

Then it was a relatively short (about 30km) drive into Dubrovnik. Our host, Lora, allowed us to check into the flat early so we had time for a walk along the coast, ending up in a very nice beach club. The beaches here are all very rocky and we didn’t bring our reef booties so we think we’ll pass on swimming while we’re here. There are several cruise ships in the bay, including Cunard’s Queen Victoria. How cool it would be to sail on her!

After dinner at the apartment, we took the city bus to the old city of Dubrovnik. It is very beautiful but very crowded. After the quiet in our stone house, it seemed even more noisy. We had a nice evening, though, roaming around the streets of this very interesting

walled city. Tomorrow we’re going to head south to Montenegro. We’re not sure if we’re going to get all the way to Kotor; we’ll just start driving and see where we end up. Talk with you tomorrow.

 

 

September 14 – Visit to Montenegro

On Tuesday morning we set out for Montenegro, mainly, because Lynn has never been there and the border is only about an hour away. Once we got through the border crossing, which wasn’t as easy as you would think, we got to the first town of Herceg Novi, which is where Lynn had originally thought to just have a snack and head back to Dubrovnik. After all, the main reason for going was so she could add country #53 to her list of places visited. But it was only 10:00 so Peter suggested we go to Kotor instead. Since it had been 12 whole hours since we’ve seen a walled city, we though why not make the trip. The drive was a beautiful around a bay but once we got within a few hundred meters of Kotor, traffic started to crawl; it took another 20 minutes to go about 5 blocks. We finally parked the car and walked to the old city.

Unfortunately there were 3 cruise ships in port, including the Queen Victoria which had moved on from Dubrovnik, and the Royal Princess. Between the two ships there had to have been 5000 people in this very small area. But it was still very nice and we spent an enjoyable 2 hours roaming around the very narrow streets crisscrossed with shops and restaurants.

The returning border crossing was a little more reasonable, only 10 minutes instead of 20, but it still took over 2 hours to get back to Dubrovnik. We found a spot to take pictures of the entire old city but, unfortunately, we were shooting straight into the sun so the picture isn’t as clear as the view looked to our eyes.

It was after 4:30 before we got home but we decided to head back to the beach to see if we could find someplace to swim. We found an area that had a ladder off a concrete pad. That meant we didn’t need to walk on the very rocky beach to get into the water. But it also meant that getting into the cold water was going to be much more abrupt than if we’d walked in off the beach. Maybe we’re just getting used to the cold Adriatic but it didn’t seem so bad this time. We couldn’t touch the bottom so we swam to a spot closer to the rocky beach where, while we still couldn’t touch bottom, we found some large rocks that we could stand on to rest from treading water. We only spent about 20 minutes in the water but it was a nice break from the hot weather. It was in the low 80s but it seemed much hotter than that in the sun.

We’ve been on our adventure for exactly 2 weeks and Peter is loving his first trip to Europe. One of the things that has really struck him about the places we’ve visited is how they’ve maintained the ancient buildings on the outside but have made them very modern on the inside, especially the flats we’ve stayed in so far. He is also surprised by the narrow, windy streets he’s had to drive. The main roads are normal size but once we get into towns, the streets get very narrow. Unlike the locals who will manage to squeeze their cars into the tiniest spots, Peter is not quite so adventuresome. Lynn had warned him before we left about the streets, but seeing is believing. It’s one of the reasons we only have the car for 3 weeks instead of the entire 8-week portion of our land trip. We wouldn’t have gotten a car at all but we knew that traveling through the Balkan Peninsula on public transportation would be very difficult so we decided the car would be our best bet. But once we get back to Italy in 2 weeks, we’ll go back to train travel. It’s not quite as convenient as having a car, but much easier on Peter’s nerves.

As we were sitting on the concrete pad drying off in the sun after our swim, he mentioned that this has been a million dollar trip. We’ve both been having a bit of angst about missing the final two months of what has been an amazing Cubs baseball season (okay…we saw some of you roll your eyes but we’ve waited our whole lives to see a championship team and, if it happens, we’ll miss it!!) but we can watch the games live on mlbtv.com. Besides there’s absolutely nothing that can compare to the adventure we’ve been having. Just the opportunity to spend so much time together has been great. Until this trip we’d never spent more than 10 days together without Peter heading off to work for the day or Lynn going to Omaha or St. Charles. So that part of the trip has been amazing.

Tomorrow we have a kayak trip planned to a few islands around Dubrovnik. We’ll have time to snorkel, and since this might be our last opportunity to swim before heading back north, we’ll brave the cold water for one more dip in the Adriatic. Talk with you later…..GO CUBS!!

September 14 – A Day of Exercise

Watchers she probably would have gotten a zillion activity points for the day. It started with Peter climbing about 250 steps to get about half way up Fort Lovrijenac. He would have climbed the last 250 steps to get all the way to the top to walk around the building but he needed 30 Kunas (about $5) to get in and Lynn had his wallet. She chose to sit this one out as she was afraid that many steps might strain her knees. Since they’ve been doing pretty well she didn’t want to push her luck.

Then it was time for the big kayaking trip. We started just under the Fort, paddled past the Old Town to Lokrum Island. The Island is first mentioned in 1023 when a Benedictine monastery and abbey were established there. The last of the monks were driven off the island in 1808 by local rich people who wanted the island for their summer homes. Local legend says that on their last night, the monks put a curse on the island. The legend says that anyone who spends the night on the island will have terrible things happen to them. Austrian archduke (and short-lived Emperor of Mexico) Maximilian once had a holiday home on the island. He was killed shortly after becoming Emperor of Mexico, his son was bankrupted the following year and Max’s wife died a short time after. Many years later, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria also had a summer

home on the island and….well, we all know what happened to him in 1914.

 

 Now the island is owned by the government and while it is a very popular day trip destination (with its very own nude beach; well not really a beach but a bunch of rocks; we thought it would be best not to take pics of that) no one is allowed to spend the night on the island. Fans of Game of Thrones will be interested to know that it is one of the favorite places to film. Our guide mentioned a few big episodes that were filmed on the island but we’ve never seen the show so it didn’t mean anything to us.

We stopped in a small cove for a bit of swimming but there were several other tour groups there so it was super crowded. Then we headed back to our starting point.

All together we paddled 5 1/2 miles. We were glad we didn’t know how far we’d be going or we might not have made the trip. We’re so happy we did, though, because it was a ton of fun. We’ll see how we feel tomorrow. If you don’t see a post it will be because Lynn couldn’t lift her arms to type.

Actually we’re very pleased how well our poor old bodies have held up. Between the 2 of us we only have one good ankle (Lynn’s left isn’t too bad) and all 4 knees are shot. But given all the walking and climbing we’re doing, everything is still working just fine. Of course, we collapse in bed by 10pm (such party animals) but by the next morning we’re ready for another day of adventure.

Tomorrow we’re headed back up north to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It will be about a 5-hour drive but then we’ll walk around the Park a bit to get our exercise. Hopefully we’ll talk again tomorrow night.

September 15 – Peter Gets His European Driving Merit Badge

Today was a bit of a frustrating travel day. It started well enough at 7am when our host came to check us out of the apartment. We had about a 5-hour drive to Plitvice Lakes National Park so we thought we’d arrive around noon and tour around for the rest of the day. Then we’d head to Slovenia tomorrow. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. First, in spite of having Gracie (our GPS) lead the way, we still took a couple of wrong turns ending up on some very narrow windy streets. We got stopped by a couple of garbage trucks on our side of the street which meant we had to head up a few more narrow, windy streets lined with parked cars. A couple of times we had no more than a half inch of clearance on either side of the car. Peter was sweating bullets but we finally made our way back down to the main road and out of Dubrovnik. What should have taken about 10 minutes, took 30 instead. So, we got off to a slow start, but Peter is now an official European driver.

Then we had to go back to Ston where we’d been earlier in the week because we’d gotten a parking ticket. We didn’t even see it on our windshield until about 90 minutes after we left. When we got to Dubrovnik we parked across the street from the apartment to unload the suitcases. That’s when Peter saw the ticket. Thinking we’d just gotten it we showed it to our host but she said that the area in which we parked was free and to ignore it. Finally, Wednesday afternoon we realized that it was a real parking ticket but got several bad pieces of info as to how to pay it. It wasn’t until this morning when we found out we’d actually gotten it in Ston and since we we’re going to be within 3 km of there on today’s journey, we decided just to go back there to pay it. Once we got there it took about 30 minutes to figure out how to do that, after which we took another wrong turn on our way out of town. Luckily, we figured it out fairly quickly but by the time we got back to the main road we’d been on the road over 2 1/2 hours and we were only an hour away from our starting point.

Dubrovnik is totally cut off from the rest of Croatia by a 30km section of Bosnia so we had another border crossing to deal with. The one getting out of Croatia into Bosnia was very fast so just a few minutes later we were driving through a beautiful resort town of Neum.  Bosnia may only have 30 km of shoreline, but they made the most of it with many hotels and resorts. We stopped for gas so we could put feet on the ground to make it an official country visit (Lynn is up to 54).

Getting back into Croatia wasn’t quite as simple as getting out. We didn’t wait in line too long, maybe 10 minutes, but, I guess we must look like smugglers because the custom agent didn’t believe us when we said we had nothing to declare. She had us pull over while she searched our trunk and the bags we had in the back seat. When we finally got moving again, we’d been on the road over 3 hours and were nowhere near our destination.

We finally hit the highway so thought we were home free. We had a potty stop where Lynn took over driving and about 10 minutes later, we got a tire pressure warning light. So, we stopped at the next rest area and had the gas station guy fill up the tires. The warning light is still on so that’s still something we need to deal with but for now the car is driving fine.

Along the way we lost our internet connection. To digress just a bit. Before we left Chicago we talked with Verizon about how we could keep our phones working while we were gone. We knew we’d need the internet for GPS and we wanted to be able to reach each other in case we were separated, especially in an emergency. They told us that we could upgrade our plan to include international, we could buy a mobile hot spot, or we could get a SIM card once we got to Europe. It seemed like the latter idea was the most cost effective so that’s what we decided to do, Unfortunately, what we didn’t know was that we would need different SIM cards for every country. Our Italian card stopped working immediately after driving into Slovenia. So when we were trying to find our first flat in Opatija, we had no way to contact our host, no GPS for directions and had no idea where to find the flat. We pulled into the first parking garage we saw, went up to a restaurant for a snack and hooked into their WIFI. But, for some reason Lynn still couldn’t pull up googlemaps on her phone. Peter asked the waitress if she knew where the address was and by sheer luck, the building we needed was literally right behind the restaurant. In fact we could see it from our table. We still don’t know how that happened. We got a Croatian SIM card last Wednesday but it was only good for a week. So yesterday we spent about an hour hunting down a T Mobile store to recharge the card for another day so we’d have it to find today’s flat. It worked fine when we left Dubrovnik but we lost internet about halfway to Plitvice. Lynn received a text saying that we didn’t have enough money on our account so the service was discontinued. We have no idea what the deal is with that because we just added money yesterday. Of course the closest T Mobile store is in Zagreb, which is nowhere near our destination. So once again after arriving in Plitvice we had to hunt for the apartment, stopping to ask directions about 4 times. By the time we got into the flat, it was about 4:00. It had taken us almost 8 1/2 hours to go 250 miles. Obviously we didn’t see anything of the National Park so we’ll do that tomorrow.

We’re hoping that tomorrow’s drive is a little less challenging although we’re going to have to deal with the whole SIM card issue again as we move into Slovenia. Next time we come to Europe….Verizon’s international plan for the duration of the trip, especially if we’re driving.

Because of all the driving we don’t have much in the way of pictures today so we’ll close for now.  BTW, surprisingly neither one of us had any residual affects from all the exercise we got yesterday; I guess we’re in better shape than we thought. Next time we talk we’ll be in Slovenia.

September 17 – Two Great Days

Yesterday was a post-less day. We started early to beat the crowds at Plitvice Lakes National Park (which we did with only some success) and then we had a 3-hour drive to Ljubljana (which took closer to 4 due to stopping for a Slovenia SIM card, eating lunch, etc.). By the time we got to our flat we had just enough time to get banking done before cleaning up to go dancing. For the first time on our trip we found a place to Tango. The best news was that it started at 7pm which is very unusual for a Tango Milonga. Usually they run from 10pm to 2am which is another reason why we haven’t done any dancing. So, we got on our wrinkled dress clothes and took a cab into the old city for dancing. By the time we got home it was 10pm and we were exhausted. So this post will get you caught up on the last 2 days of our adventure.

Plitvice Lakes National Park definitely lived up to expectations; it was absolutely beautiful. There are about 7 different hikes, each of varying lengths and difficulty. We choose the easy hike of only 4.5km. It involved taking 2 ferries and 1 tram which cut out a lot of walking. It still took about 3 1/2 hours to complete. We had our 10,000 steps (fitbit goal) before we finished. It was hard to decide which pictures to include because everything was so beautiful. Everyplace you looked there was another waterfall; there are hundreds of them of varying size. We didn’t even get to see the biggest as it was on one of the longer hikes. What we did see, though, was gorgeous. The crowd wasn’t too bad. There were a couple of spots where there was wall-to-wall tourists and yet other spots were practically empty. I can’t imagine going in the summer; the crowds must be horrible. All in all, it was a wonderful end to our 10 days in Croatia.

 If you haven’t yet been to Croatia, think about adding it to your bucket list. The Dalmatian coast is phenomenal. If at all possible, come within the next 3 years. Croatia has been in the EU for 2 years. Once they hit 5 years, they plan to switch currency to the Euro, which is when it will get much more expensive. We were very surprised at how affordable everything was. For the most part we spent less than $50/day, not including housing. But even that was very reasonable. The beautiful stone house we stayed at in Lumbarda was only $45/night on Airbnb. Can’t beat the price!

After Plitvice, we moved north into Slovenia. We only plan to be here for 3 days, today in Ljubljana and the next 2 in Bled. Today was one of the few rainy days we’ve had on our adventure. But for the most part the rain hit while we were inside so it wasn’t too bad. The town is one of the first we’ve been to that isn’t a walled city. There is an old Roman wall but, technically it’s not considered walled. It is very beautiful, though. We spent most of our time in the Ljubljana Castle high above the city. We took a funicular and spent 2 hours touring through the castle. It was started in the 13th century and took 200 years to complete. There was a wonderful museum inside which told the history of Slovenia it was quite interesting.

After the castle we had an authentic Slovenian lunch. We both had a goulash-like dish with several different types of meat, potatoes and onions in a delicious gravy. Probably not very low fat but certainly wonderful. Then we capped off lunch with Prekmurska gibanica, a 7-layer cake. It was served warm and was surprisingly very light.

As we were walking home, we stopped at the Slovenia National Museum. There were some fascinating exhibits but Lynn’s favorite (after the 5th century BC gold necklaces) was a wooden flute. It is the oldest instrument in the world, dating back to the Neanderthals. It’s estimated to be from the 14th or 13th century BC. Very weird to see something that old.

Altogether we walked about 7.5 miles today so it will be a quiet night at home. Lynn is making chicken for dinner then we’ll watch a movie on Netflix before heading to bed. Tomorrow we’re off to Lake Bled…we can’t wait.

September 19 – Semper Gumby

When traveling, it’s important to remember the military phrase….semper gumby….always flexible. Our original plan had been to spend 2 days in Lake Bled before moving on the Salzburg. Well….our streak of almost 3 weeks of beautiful weather ended in Slovenia. It wasn’t too bad in Ljubljana but the forecast for Bled was 5 straight days of rain. It didn’t make much sense to stay there in the rain as all the entertainment options are outdoors. So, we decided to make a stopover in Bled on our way to Salzburg, then spend several days there.

Lake Bled is beautiful and contains the only island in Slovenia. It’s a tiny island but is in just about any Slovenian travel website or brochure. We decided not to spend $32 to take a boat out to the island so we walked around the lake instead. That gave us the opportunity to take pictures of the island from virtually every angle. It ended up being a very nice morning. The sun even peaked out a couple of times. Before we left we had a cream cake that is a local creation. It was quite delicious.

After that we headed north to the Alps to one of Lynn’s favorite cities in the world – Salzburg. This is her 4th trip there but the charming city is very easy to visit more than once. We ran into some travel issues once we got into Austria. We never quite figured out what the problem was but it took an hour to go about 10km. On 3 occasions we came to a dead stop, for no apparent reason, and sat for as long as 15 minutes before moving on. It was pretty frustrating, but once we got through that it was smooth sailing into Salzburg.

We’re back to not having a local SIM card (did we mention what a big pain in the butt that has been!!) but we found out that if we put an address into the GPS and tell it to route us, it will still work even if we don’t have an internet connection. That’s what happened on the way to Salzburg and we didn’t know why. We got confirmation at dinner that it’s something that GPS does, so that’s pretty cool. All we need to do now is be sure we put our destination into Gracie before we leave our apartment. We can’t change our mind unless we hook up to wireless again, but this will make life much easier.

 Because of the travel challenges we didn’t get to Salzburg in time to do any sightseeing as we had plans for dinner. We splurged on a Mozart dinner concert at the Stifskeller St. Peter, which is a very old monastery. The Stifskeller is actually the oldest restaurant in Europe. Lynn and her friend, Sue, ate there 5 years ago and it was a very cool place. The concert was held in the Baroque Hall and was interspersed with the courses of the meal. First a bit of

entertainment then a delicious lemon soup. More entertainment after which we had our main course. Then a final performance of Mozart’s most famous works followed by a wonderful dessert. We weren’t sure what it was but it was very good.

                                                                                 

While we were there we had a “it’s a small world” encounter. During conversation with our table mates, we discovered that we have a common friend. One of the Lynn’s business associates has known Bonnee and Peter for years. It’s always amazing when that happens. Not only were we at the same dinner, but at the same table. It’s especially weird because we only decided that morning to go straight to Salzburg and booked the dinner only hours prior to its start. We had a wonderful time with them and hope we can keep in touch.

Today (Monday) has been our first really bad weather day. It was in the mid-50s but seemed colder because it rained all day. It was pretty miserable but we spent the day indoors as much as possible. We visited Mozart’s birthplace and residence, both of which have very nice museums. Then we visited the Salzburg Cathedral. While it doesn’t even come close to the grandeur of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, it is quite nice. After that we spent the next several hours touring the cathedral museum and Cardinal’s Palace. It was wonderful. By the time we were done, it was already 4:30 and we’d walked over 10,000 steps so we headed home in the damp, dreary weather. Now we’re settled in for the night and may watch a movie on Netflix after dinner.

Tomorrow we’re going to head back to Salzburg to see some of the outdoor things we skipped today. The weather is supposed to break by 9am so hopefully it will be a better day. Hopefully we can get some good pictures. We weren’t allowed to take any in the museums and the weather was not conducive to good pics. Fingers are crossed for tomorrow.

 

 September 20 – Another Dreary Day in Salzburg

Today was another rainy day but we didn’t let it stop us from getting out and about. We started with a trip to the central train station to get tickets for tomorrow’s day trip to Oktoberfest in Munich. Then we headed to Schloss Hellbrunn, the summer home of the Archbishops of Salzburg. Lynn had never toured that before so it was fun to do something new.

The grounds were filled with trick fountains that would go on randomly (well, it was actually when the tour guide turned them on but we didn’t know when he would do it) getting everyone wet….like the rain wasn’t doing a good enough job of that. After the tour of the fountain area we walked around the palace and then wandered the grounds. Between the palace we saw yesterday and this summer home, it’s obvious that the Archbishop of Salzburg had a pretty good lifestyle.

One of the things we found was the gazebo used for “I Am Sixteen” in The Sound of Music. The first time Lynn saw it the structure was in pretty bad shape with broken windows and peeling paint but it looks great now. It’s sad, though, to think that the actress who made this famous, Charmian Carr, passed away this week. It’s the last movie she ever did but she sure retired with a good one. We may have to watch it when we get home to see how many places we recognize. Well, Peter probably won’t watch but Lynn will enjoy it.

Then we walked over to the Salzburg Zoo which is adjacent to the grounds of Hellbrunn. It was pretty small and it seemed like half the animals weren’t home but since it had finally stopped raining it was good to get in a few steps. Besides it was free as we purchased a Salzburg Card which is a great deal. We paid 32 euro each for a 2-day pass and virtually all the major tourist attractions and public transportation are free. It paid for itself yesterday at the first 3 things we visited. So everything today was free, saving almost $100 over the 2 days…pretty good. Finally we went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. We took the funicular and walked around for a couple of hours. The building started in the early 11th century and was added to over the next 500 years until it finally made it to its present form. The view from there is spectacular even with all the clouds. On a clear day the view is absolutely unbelievable.

We have an early day tomorrow as we’re taking an 8am train to Munich. But before we go, here’s a little video of the trick fountains at Hellbrunn. Night everyone.

September 21 – Fun at Oktoberfest

Today was all about beer and food and more beer. We started early catching an 8am train to Munich. When we arrived, we headed towards Marienplatz where we saw the famous Glockenspiel. Then, since it had been two whole days since we’ve been in a church, we stopped at three of them. That should hold us for a couple of days.

All of those stops were really just to kill time until it was late enough to head over to Oktoberfest, which is really why we went to Munich. We didn’t know what to expect but it’s really a carnival with rides, games as well as souvenir vendors and food vendors. The most interesting one of the latter was the guy selling fish on a stick.

Not surprisingly, we decided to give that one a pass. Then, of course, there were the beer tents. They’re actually not tents but huge buildings, some of which can hold as many as 10,000 people. We went into every one of them and they all followed the same pattern, picnic table-like seating, a band in the middle and lots of food & beer. Of course there were people selling pretzels, hats, and other souvenirs as well.

We ate at the first one we stopped at, the Spatenbrau Tent. It’s known for its roasted ox, so naturally that’s what we had and it was delicious! In just the first two days, they went through nine oxen. Not sure where they get them; not sure we want to know.

Since we weren’t sure where else we might want to eat, we shared a beer and a meal. It was plenty, especially the beer. A liter is a lot of beer! We chatted with some of our table mates who were from Munich and they gave us the scoop on some of the other tents. Even though it was the middle of a work day, most of the tents were pretty crowded so we’re glad we visited when we did. The evenings and weekends must be chaos.

Then just after noon, something amazing happened….the sun came out!! We hadn’t seen it in four days so it was a nice change. It had been so cold when we arrived in Munich that Lynn seriously thought about buying a pair of gloves. But, by the time we’d walked through the entire fairgrounds, it was quite pleasant. After roaming around for several hours and tasting other local goodies, we headed back to the station for our 90-minute trip back to Salzburg. It was a long 1 1-hour day, but a ton of fun.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Berchtesgaden, then to Bolzano Italy to visit Utzi the Frozen Man. We don’t know where we’ll spend the night or where we’ll go after that, but that’s all part of the adventure.

September 22 – Sun is Finally Out

After 4 days, we finally had a nice sunny day. The mountains were clear and the temp was back up in the low 70s. Unfortunately, this was mostly a travel day so we didn’t get to enjoy it much but at least Peter got to finally see the Alps in all their splendor.

On our way to Bolzano, we stopped in Berchtesgaden for a visit to the Document Center which is a small museum adjacent to remnants of one of Hitler’s bunkers. The museum was very interesting but all in German so we got an audio guide. We decided not to go to Eagle’s Nest as Lynn’s been there a couple of times and Peter wasn’t all that interested in seeing it. So, we moved right on to Bolzano.

That part of the trip was more challenging than we expected as we took the more direct route which was also back roads. What we’ve discovered is that driving in Austria is every bit as bad as driving in Chicago in the summer….construction everywhere we turn. We got stopped for about 15 minutes while oncoming traffic was allowed to pass on a one-way section of road under repair. Then we had one piece of the road totally closed so we needed to find a way around that. Then when we finally made it to Bolzano, there was an accident that stopped us yet again.

Since we didn’t get here until after 5pm, we’re going to visit Otzi the frozen man tomorrow morning. We also need to find a WIND telephone store to get our Italian SIM cards working again. We think there’s one not too far from Otzi’s museum so we should be able to take care of that on our way back to our car.

For the first time on this trip we’re staying in a real hotel versus an apartment. We weren’t sure where we were going to end up tonight so we didn’t want to book anything in advance. But that meant when we got here we had no idea where we were going to stay. We stopped at tourist info to hook up to their WiFi and booked the first reasonably priced place we could find. It’s a couple of km out of town so we’ll take a bus into the city center tomorrow. It’s a very nice place, though; just without a kitchen. But it does have a restaurant so we had a very nice dinner here. After being in the car a good portion of the day we didn’t feel like heading back into city center.

Since we’ve been moving almost nonstop for over 3 weeks, we decided that we need a little relaxation time. So, we’re heading to Lake Como tomorrow for the next 4 nights. We found an Airbnb apartment right on the Lake so it should be very beautiful. It probably won’t be warm enough to swim, but hopefully it will be sunny enough to sit by the lake with a glass (or bottle) of wine. We really need to stop moving for awhile. Then on Tuesday morning we’ll drop the car off in Milano. From there….who knows. We’ll keep you posted.

September 24 – Beautiful Lake Como

It’s been a wonderful 2 days, starting with a visit to the Archeological Museum in Bolzano to see Otzi, the Iceman. The story is fascinating. He was found in 1991 by two hikers who wandered off the hiking trail and noticed what looked like a body sticking out of the snow. There was a bit of discussion between Austria and Italy as to who had rights to him but after looking at the border, he was in Italy by less than 100 yards. The autopsy and most of the research was done in Innsbruck Austria but his permanent home is Bolzano Italy. Here’s a link to everyone’s favorite resource, Wikipedia, if you want to read more about him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi

After spending some time in the museum, we headed out for a 4-hour drive to the town of Lezzeno on the beautiful shores of Lake Como. Unlike many of our other long drives, this one was pretty uneventful at least until we started back into the mountains. Turns out, as much as Peter loves being in the mountain, he HATES driving in the mountains. Not only are the roads narrow and windy, but he also has to content with pedestrians and bikers on the same narrow road. To say that it was a long 60 minutes until we made it to our house is an understatement. Now that we’re here, we don’t plan to move too much until we have to drive back out of the mountains to take the car to the airport on Tuesday. Lynn volunteered to drive as she’s very used to the mountain roads but Peter thinks that would be even worse. That’s not a testament to Lynn’s ability to drive mountain roads, but he thinks it’s easier if he’s in control of the car. But, this is the last of it. As convenient as it has been having the car, we’re both looking forward to letting the train conductor do the driving for the last 3 1/2 weeks of our land trip. 

Our house in Lezzeno is very nice and the location is simply amazing!! We are literally on the water’s edge of Lake Como. As this is being written we are sitting on our balcony watching about six swans swim by our house.

Today we took a day trip Bellagio and Verenna. While we could have driven, it was more fun (not to mention easier on Peter’s nerves) to take the ferry. The ferry stop in Lezzeno is just a few minutes from the house so that was a pretty easy drive. We spent a couple of hours in Bellagio, which is very touristy, then a few more hours in Verenna, a much quieter town. It was a beautiful day, low 70s with just a few clouds.                                                                                                                                 

Tonight will be a quiet evening at home. We’ve got a chicken roasting for dinner and Lynn is doing a small load of laundry. Of course, there’s no dryer so we’ll see how long it takes to dry them. Hopefully it’s faster than in Venice where it took three days. The Cubs are playing in the afternoon today so we can watch the game live on MLBTV.com. How cool is that!!        

Our plan is to spend two more days here enjoying the beautiful view and resting. We’ve been traveling pretty much nonstop for almost four weeks so we both need the rest. Tomorrow we’ll check out the nearby beach and maybe do a little kayaking. The house we’re renting has several kayaks and since we’re now expert kayakers, we might try it again. Talk with you soon. Go Cubs!!

September 26 – Wonderful Day at the Lake

Well…we’ve had four great days in Lake Como. Yesterday (Sunday) we went out searching for a beach but never found one. What we did find was a motorcycle convention of some sort. There were hundreds of motorcycles on the road doing their usual thing….driving way over the speed limit, passing on curves and where ever else they wanted, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. After we’d given up on our search for a beach and headed back home, we actually had to pull over for over 100 motorcycles that had police escort. It took almost 10 minutes for them to pass. After that the road was fairly clear.

We had lunch at home then hung out in our backyard reading and napping. It was a wonderful, lazy Sunday. Peter took a dip in the lake and said that while it was cold, it was warmer than the Adriatic.

Today (Monday) we took a trip to Lugano Switzerland. We only had to drive about 15 minutes to the ferry in Bellagio, take a 10-minute ride across the lake, then it was about a 40-minute drive into Lugano on the shores of Lake Lugano. The lake is shared by Switzerland and Italy and, like Lake Como, is right in the middle of the Alps. It was a beautiful, sunny day so it couldn’t have been more perfect. We got there so early nothing much was open but we finally found a place to have a cup of hot chocolate.

Even though Lugano is in Switzerland, it’s so close to Italy that Italian is their primary language. We found the same thing last week in Bolzano where instead of Italian, they spoke German. In both cases, though, just about everyone speaks English so we could always fall back on that if we couldn’t make ourselves understood in Italian.

We took a funicular to the top of Mount San Salvatore which had a gorgeous 360 view. There was also a very pretty little church up there as well. After taking the funicular back down, we walked around a little more then had a delicious lunch at a restaurant named Tango (how appropriate), then walked off some of that by taking the long way back to the car. After a relatively short trip back, we were home. All in all, it was a very nice day trip.

 After a week of not being able to download pictures from her camera, Lynn was finally able to get it working. Not sure what the problem was but as long as it doesn’t happen again we’re not going to worry about it. So, over the next few days we’ll be including some videos from previous locations.

September 28 – Two Days in Milan

Didn’t get a chance to post yesterday. We arrived back at our flat exhausted so all we did was watch the Cubs whip Pirate butt on mlbtv.com (game from Monday??? we won 12-2; fun to watch even if we did know the outcome) and go to bed.

Tuesday morning Peter had one more trip down the mountain before dropping off the car at the Milan airport. We dragged all the luggage to the arrivals area to catch a taxi for the 15-minute ride to our beautiful flat. We are in love with this flat. If we were going to move to Milano, this is where we’d want to live. But don’t worry family, we’re not moving to Milano. The place is about 700 square feet, which doesn’t sound like much but most places we’ve stayed have been pretty small. It’s not just the size, though. It’s got 12′ ceilings with beautiful molding, wood floors, marble floor entryway and a very modern kitchen. It’s only about a 15-minute bus ride from the center of town but is very quiet and peaceful.

 After settling in, we headed out for some sightseeing, heading first to the Duomo of Milano. It is the 3rd largest Catholic Church in the world after St. Peter’s in the Vatican and the Basilica of Sevilla Spain. It took about 500 years to complete, finally being finished during Napoleon’s rule in the late 1700s. It has over 140 spires and thousands of statues, if you count the ones on the outside of the church as well as the inside. The line to get in was gigantic (and there was a $35 charge for the 2 of us to get in) so we decided not to view the inside. We

looked up some pics on the internet and it looks beautiful but Peter has crossed over the “please not another church” line. It happens to everyone who spends any time at all in Europe. We might pop into a little one if it’s easily accessible. But to spend $35 and stand in line for 30 minutes in the heat to get into a church that’s probably packed with people isn’t on our list of things to do while we’re here. We’re still here for one more day, though, so we may change our mind and visit tomorrow. 

After lunch we walked over to the Sforzesco Castle. The original part was built in the late 1300s but was added on by the Spanish in the 1500s. We couldn’t go inside but it was pretty impressive from the outside. Leonardo di Vinci lived there the first 2 years he worked on the Last Supper.

We did a little shopping as we were both looking for new dancing shoes. Peter found a pair but even after 2 different stores, Lynn came away empty handed. We thought about getting shoes made but we’re not going to be here long enough to make that happen.

Today (Wednesday) we saw the Last Supper. It’s located on an end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Even though the colors aren’t as vibrant as other frescoes we’ve seen, it’s still pretty impressive. Most frescoes are painted on wet plaster which is what sets the painting. That’s why they last for hundreds of years still looking as good as when they were painted. But Leonardo painted the Last Supper on dry plaster. Not only did he want to take his time, but he was working on other projects as well so it took him 4 years to complete the painting. In addition, the room behind it was a kitchen causing the walls to be wet from the steam. So within 5 years of completion it was already peeling. No one knows for sure how many restorations it has undergone but the last one was finished in the late 90s.

By some miracle, it survived the bombing of Milan that took place on August 15, 1943. The entire building around it was destroyed, but the wall with the painting, which was only protected by sandbags, remained intact. In the picture, it’s the wall covered by the cloth. As you can see, it’s virtually the only thing left standing. It truly is amazing that this masterpiece survived.

After a little more shopping and walking around the city, we headed home for dinner and some relaxation. We’ve been walking about 7-9 miles every day so by the time we get home we’re pretty exhausted. We’re not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow before heading to Torino on Friday.

We have a superfast internet connection in our flat so we uploaded a video from the Mozart concert from Salzburg. Hope you enjoy it.

September 29 – Adventure in Color

Hello….Lynn here (yeah, like you really thought Peter was writing the blog). Anyway, since this one is mostly about me I thought I’d switch to first person account.

Today was the day I’ve been dreading since we left home over 4 weeks ago….cut and color day!! For those of you who have your hair professionally colored, you know what I’m talking about. Getting color from a new stylist is scary anywhere but in a place where they may not speak English and my Italian is pretty limited, it was down right terrifying. Especially after talking with an Aussie woman in Plitvice a couple of weeks ago who said she had her hair colored while on her last trip to Europe and it turned out orange. She strongly suggested I use the root spray and wait until I got home to my usual stylist. But since my hair needed a cut anyway, I decided to put my big girl pants on and give color a whirl. I had my formula but that didn’t help as there is no way to translate it into a formula that works with their products. So, we went with trying to match with color swatches. The colorist picked something close then it took about 10 minutes to communicate with a combination of my tourist Italian, google translator and another customer who speaks a little English that I only wanted the roots done, not all over. My thinking was that I could always hide bad roots under a hat but trying to cover the entire head if I had a color disaster (think Lucy or Bozo the Clown) is more difficult.

After sitting to let my color do its thing, I got called to the bowl for the rinse out. This was the truly scary part as I had about 4 people come over and start pulling at the roots of my hair, while whispering to each other. I have no idea what they were saying but my biggest fear was that it was something like, “maybe she won’t notice that she has a stripe down the middle of her hair like a skunk.”

When I finally got back to a mirror and she dried it a little, I could see that the color was absolutely PERFECT!! Seriously, Pam (my stylist) couldn’t have done any better. Once the color was done, the cut was a piece of cake. My hair is all one length so it’s a pretty cut to replicate. We did have a little communication challenge when she tried to tell me that she was going to dry my hair before cutting the fringe. I got stuck on “fringe” until I realized she was talking about my bangs.

Three hours after I walked in, I left looking gorgeous. There were two big lessons from this rather scary adventure. First, just because they don’t speak English doesn’t mean they aren’t professionals. Turns out the conference at the bowl was replicated during the cut. The stylists will show a senior stylist the work she/he has done and it gets approved before moving on to the next step. The senior stylist made several adjustments to my cut, but seriously, it couldn’t have been more than a mm or two. Certainly nothing I would have noticed.

The second big lesson was, we will NEVER travel longer than 6 weeks again!! I could feel the grey hairs popping out on my head as I was getting colored. It looks great, but it was much too stressful. Or if we are gone longer than 6 weeks, one of our stops will be Milan so I can go back to the Adore Salon. Peter’s morning was spent also getting a haircut but there’s really no story there. His other task was to check on mailing home

a box of no longer needed items (old dance shoes, guide books/maps from places we’ve visited, extra clothes, etc.). There’s a DHL not far from the flat so he went there to check it out. Turns out, it would cost 189 euro (almost $200) to send a 12# box. Obviously that was a non-starter but then I remembered that Camp Darby (Army post) was just outside of Pisa. Since we were planning to spend a few days in Lucca and take a day trip to Pisa, we’ll carry the stuff with us for another week or so and mail it from Camp Darby via U.S. mail. Tomorrow we leave our beautiful flat in Milano for Torino. We’ll talk with you then.

September 30 – Friday Afternoon in Torino

We had a short, but nice, visit in Torino today. Our bullet train (up to 180 mph) arrived at about 1030 and we got to another nice flat shortly after. It’s smaller and less modern than the Milano flat, but still more than enough for us. And once again, it’s very convenient to public transportation.

After the noise of Milano, Torino seemed very quiet. It’s a much smaller city but still has a good public transportation system and some very nice things to see. For example, the Madama Palazzo sits on the site of one of the original Roman walls from 100 BC. Through the centuries it was expanded into a full castle. Now it’s the home of the Torino Museum of Ancient Art.

Adjacent is the Palazzo Reale or the Royal Palace of Torino. This one was b

egun in the mid-1600s. It was the home of the kings of Sardinia until 1859 and of Vittorio Emanuele II, king of Italy, until 1865.  There’s a huge courtyard and beautiful gardens. Most of the garden was closed for an unknown reason but we enjoyed sitting in the shade for awhile after lunch. The Palace is now a museum but that’s another line we’ve crossed. Not interested in most museums as the stuff is all starting to look alike. We’re saving ourselves for the Uffici Museum in Florence.

After a walk by the River Po, we headed home on the tram and now we’re settled in for a quiet evening at home. We have an 8:20 train to Genova tomorrow so we’ll be up and out fairly early. Until then….buona notte.

 

October 1 – Rainy Afternoon in Genova

The day started early as we caught a 7:30 train from Torino. When we arrived we walked about 1/2 mile to our beautiful flat (we’ve really picked some winners on this trip). It started out as a sunny day but by the time we settled in and went out to explore, clouds had rolled in and it started to drizzle a bit. We went back to the house to pick up umbrellas and went back out. We decided to use the Hop On Hop Off Bus for this visit. The city is pretty small but they were having a special deal for 48 hours instead of the usual 24 hours so we thought that was a pretty good deal.

We wandered around a little before getting on the bus and really had a good time finding interesting buildings. They don’t look like much from the outside, but when you peak in the gates, you see beautiful courtyards. Here is one we found.

After going around the entire circle, we went back to the Aquarium, which is one of the biggest in Europe. Of course the place was loaded with kids but we still had a nice time. And, we got to see Nemo and Dorrie!

By the time we finished at the aquarium it had stopped raining so we got back on the bus with the intention of finding Christopher Columbus’ birth house. But we got distracted with an antique and food markets. We didn’t buy any antiques (although Peter did find a painting he liked but balked at the 280 euro price tag) but we did pick up some food for dinner. We’re eternally grateful that we had Gracie (our GPS) up and running because we would have never found our way home on the narrow, winding streets. The old city is made up of an incredible number of tiny streets and alleys called Caruggi. Walking through them you can feel as if you’re right back in ancient times when Genoa was the most important harbor of the Mediterranean. It was even more confusing than Venice and we didn’t think that was possible. Our arms were loaded down as we’d bought groceries and the rain started again which meant the umbrellas were up. So we didn’t really get many pictures but we’ll post some tomorrow.

We were back pretty early, 4:30, and plan yet another quiet evening at home. It’s Peter’s turn to pick a movie so our night will probably be filled with things blowing up and car chases. Love to all….

October 3 – Reflections at the Halfway Point

We didn’t post last night as we had internet connection problems. By the time it was fixed it was time for the Cubs last regular season game so we had to watch.

We are exactly halfway through our first travel adventure. We’re currently on a train from Genoa to La Spezia where we’ll stay for two days. This will be our access point for the Cinque Terra. Here’s a great Rick Steves episode about the area. It looks beautiful and we can’t wait to see it.

In the first 5 weeks of our adventure, we’ve had great weather; only a couple of rainy days. We’ve been to 8 countries (Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Bosnia), had overnight stays in 13 different cities (Rome, Venice, Opatija, Split, Dubrovnik, Plitvice, Ljubljana, Saltzburg, Bolzano, Lezzeno, Milan, Torino and Genoa), and day trips to several others (Kotor, Munich, Bellagio, Verrana, Lugano). We were talking about which place was our favorite and we really can’t say. Each place has something special to remember….Korcula for it peaceful surroundings, Rome for it’s amazing antiquities, Lake Como for its beauty, Venice for the gondola ride on our 1st wedding anniversary (Lynn’s personal favorite memory), Genoa for its old world charm, and of course, the beer in Munich. We certainly have many wonderful memories, not to mention over 1000 pictures, of the first part of our adventure and we’re looking forward to making more memories during the second half.

It usually takes us a few days to get oriented to each city and by that time we’re moving on to someplace new. That’s about to change, though, as we’ve finalized the last few weeks of our ground trip. Once we leave La Spezza on Wednesday, we head to Florence where we’ll spend a week. We plan to use it as a jumping off spot for day trips to Pisa, Lucca, Siena, San Gimingnano, and maybe Cortona. There’s also a cooking class we’d like to take. It’s an all-day event beginning with shopping for food and making (and eating) a 4-course meal. Then, of course, there are the things to do in Florence….Uffici Museum, Galleria della Academia to see the amazing David, the Duomo, etc. We haven’t arranged anything yet so we’ll wait to see how the spirit moves us. Because we’re there for a full week, we should also have some relaxation time which, after 5 weeks of constant travel, is much needed.

After Florence, it’s on to Naples for another week. We thought about going to Livorno where we’d ferry first to Corsica then Sardinia. But, we ran into trouble with the timing of the Corsica ferry and it became too complicated and rushed. Peter has talked about seeing Pompeii for the last 18 months, so instead of dragging ourselves, and our luggage, around the islands we decided to take the train to southern Italy. Luckily we were able to get a bullet train so the trip from Florence takes less than 3 hours. We’ll use Naples as our base for visiting Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, and Capri. There’s so much in that area that we should have no problem finding things to do.

Then on the 19th we’ll head back to Rome. We spend the night of the 20th in Civitavecchia, which is where we pick up the ship the next day. But since our bullet train gets to Rome early in the morning, we have the rest of that day and most of the 20th free, so we’re thinking about an overnight trip to Assisi. Or we may decide to just hang in Rome for one last night. There’s a bit of symmetry to that idea – beginning and ending our land journey in Rome. We’ll decide when it gets a little closer.

Yesterday in Genoa the sun was out so we hopped back on the bus and visited a few more sites. Here are a few pictures of our day.

 

    

  

 

All in all, the last 5 weeks has been an amazing adventure. Not only are we enjoying the places we’ve visited but we’re having a great time being together. Until this trip we had never spent more than 10 days together without one of us being gone for at least a day for work. So 5 weeks of being virtually joined at the hip has been great. The best news is that we’ve found that we really do love being together so we’re looking forward to many more adventures, beginning with today!

Love to all..

October 4 – The Cinque Terra

It’s been a very nice couple of days. The weather continues to be absolutely amazing and the scenery unbelievably beautiful. We checked into our newest flat yesterday morning. This place even tops the flat in Milano. It’s huge! At 1150 sq ft, it’s bigger than our house. It has 2 bedrooms, a living room and a den/dining room. There are 2 balconies and beautiful hardwood floors. It’s very modern and only about a 10-minute walk to the harbor. We could easily live in this place full time.

After getting settled in we walked to the harbor where we got on a ferry for the village of Porto Venere. We wouldn’t have even know about it if it wasn’t for our host mentioning how beautiful it was. And he was right. It only took about 20 minutes to get there after which we walked down the shore until we found a place to swim. It wasn’t a beach as much as a large concrete slab but since it had a ladder into the water we decided to give it a go. The water was even colder than the Adriatic at Korcula so we only stayed in for about 15 minutes. The sun was hot so we warmed up very quickly. Then we had a nice lunch by the water and headed back to the ferry.                                                                                      

Today it was an all-day trip to the Cinque Terre, or Five Lands. The ferry was packed, as were each of the villages. We wouldn’t want to be anywhere near here during the summer as it must be absolutely jammed with tourists. We read on CNN that staring in 2017, the local government is going to limit the number of tourists to 8,000 per day. These places are so small that it’s hard to imagine even that many people.

We only visited three of the villages. We started in Riomaggiore on the south end of the coast. It was Lynn’s favorite village; very picturesque. We walked around a little, stopping for coffee and a little snack. We planned to walk from  Riamaggiore to the next town, Manarola. There is a walkway along the cliff called the Via dell’Amore (Way of Love) that connects the two villages. It’s only a 25-minute walk and it’s fairly flat so we thought we’d give it a go. Unfortunately, when we got there we found a sign saying it was closed for maintenance. By this time, though, we had missed the next ferry and we had to hang around for another hour. So, we ended up skipping Manarola and Corniglia.

Vernazza is where we stopped for lunch. We hiked up to Castle Doria (now really just a tower) and about 2/3 of the way up found a restaurant. Since we had to climb a lot of stairs there were fewer tourists so it was relatively quiet place for a break. The lunch was superb. Lynn had spaghetti with pesto (a regional speciality) but since Peter thinks spaghetti has to have tomatoes he went with a marinara sauce. And, once again the view unbelievable.

 From Vernazza, we got back on the ferry for a visit to the northern most village, Monterossa. This is the largest of the hamlets with a ton of restaurants and shops. We walked around a little but by this time we were pretty tired. Instead of taking the ferry back to La Spezia, which would have taken almost 2 hours, we took a 20-minute train ride.

It really was a beautiful day and we’re glad we went but Peter made a very interesting comment on our way home. He said that he would have been more impressed if it had been one of the first places we had visited. But after 5 weeks of such incredible places, we’ve almost become desensitized to new things. To be honest, all of the villages really did look alike.

Tomorrow we’re off to Florence but we’ll stop for a few hours in Pisa. This will save us going back on a separate day trip. Other than the tower and duomo, there’s really not that much to see so we plan to put our bags into luggage storage and walk around a little before getting back on a train for Florence. We’re really looking forward to staying put for a whole week. We’ll talk with you then. 

October 5 – Pisa and Florence

We left our beautiful flat in La Spezia this morning for Florence. But we stopped in Pisa for several hours to check out Piazza Duomo. Since there’s not much else to see in Pisa, a lot of other people had the same idea. It seemed like most of the people getting off the train headed straight for the left luggage room to check their bags for a quick trip to the Piazza.

It took about 30 minutes to get there but it was another beautiful day so it was a nice walk. We chose not to climb the 251 steps to the top of the Tower but did visit the Duomo and Baptistery. After about an hour, we headed back to the station to pick up our train for the 60-minute trip to Florence.

Our newest flat is nice but much smaller and more simple than the one we just left. When we look for apartments on Airbnb we always search for flats with an elevator. We still have to climb the short flight of stairs to get to the elevator but then we’re usually home free. This time, though, we’re actually in an attic apartment and there are 3 flig

hts of stairs after we get off the elevator. Now that the luggage is up here it’s not that big of a deal, at least until it’s time to leave.  The best part of this flat is the view. We have a beautiful view of the Duomo and Campanile (Bell Tower). So, I guess it’s worth the climb up here.

After getting settled in, we went out to explore and do a little grocery shopping. We walked to the Arno River and down to the Ponte Vecchio  (Old Bridge). The latter is lined with one jewelry store after another so, of course, Lynn was in heaven. The sun was starting to set so the vista was quite beautiful.     

Tomorrow we plan to explore the beautiful city of Florence in more depth. We’ll also get our tickets for the Uffizi Museum and the Della Accademia to see Michaelangelo’s amazing David. It’s going to be a great day!

October 6 – Uffizi Gallery

Today was all about touring the amazing Uffizi Gallery. We got there pretty early (9am) so we only had to wait about 25 minutes to get in. By the time we left the line was quite long. We could have gotten a “Skip the Line” group tour but then you have to follow the person with the umbrella like a bunch of lemmings and see only the paintings the guide wants you to see. Not only that but the cost was 36 euro versus 12.50, so waiting 25 minutes was no big deal.

 How do you describe the beauty of the art in this museum? It really is incredible. Of course, there were the paintings by the most famous artists, but there were also incredible works by people we had never heard of before. They’re probably common names in the art world but not being in the art world we had no idea who they were. But man, they sure could paint. Here are a few of our favorites, not to mention most famous.

 

We don’t know the artist for this one but it really is beautiful. It’s one of the 200 paintings in the museum called “Adoration of the Magi”. That’s was a very popular topic back in those days. We spent about 3 hours roaming through the various salons.

After a light lunch we headed to the Santa Croce piazza and its church. One of the things that’s very different now than when Lynn was in Italy before, is that many of the bigger churches charge admission. The Duomo in Milan was 15 euro each. The Duomo in Pisa was free but only with a timed ticket. The time we could get yesterday was too late as we had to get back to the station to catch our train so we paid 5 euro to get into the Baptistery which also then got us into the Duomo for free. The Santa Croce charges 8 euro entry. The Duomo here in Florence is free but it was closed by the time we got there. We’ll decide later about going into Santa Croce. We can look online for pictures and if it looks worth the 16 euro we can go back. Actually we have to go back anyway because we forgot to take a picture of the outside.

Then we went back to the flat to rest a bit. That’s something we’re already enjoying about Florence. Because we have so much time here we don’t feel the need to rush from one thing to another. After a short respite, we headed back out to check out the Galleria della Accademia and the David. The line for tickets was crazy long; even the line for people with reserved tickets was long. We found the ticket office for reservations and got tickets for tomorrow at 1pm. We’ll head out there early as we’re not sure how long it will take to get through the reserved line. It will certainly be worth the wait, though, as it’s one of the most amazing pieces of art we’ll ever see. Lynn has seen it twice and is looking forward to another visit.

We didn’t have time to upload videos last night so here’s one Peter took yesterday at Pisa. Talk with you tomorrow.

October 7 – Michaelangelo’s David

Michaelangelo said that a piece of marble already had an image in it and it was the sculptor’s job to set that image free. Well, he sure knew how to do that. The highlight of our day was the Galleria dell’accademia. Even with our reserved time ticket, we waited in line for about 45 minutes but, of course, it was worth the wait. If you’ve never seen the David in person it is certainly something to put high on your bucket list. Pictures don’t do it justice; it really is the most amazing sculpture you’ll ever see. The proportions are perfect, especially when you consider that he completed it in the very early 16th century (1501-1504) when other painters/sculptors didn’t have a clue as to human anatomy. What’s even more amazing is that Michaelangelo was only in his mid-20s when he did it. As you stand there staring at it, you almost expect him to move…that’s how lifelike it is. Simply unbelievable.

While David is certainly the star of the museum, there are many other pieces to see. There are some of Michaelanglo’s unfinished sculptures as well as many paintings. Peter especially liked an alter piece tapestry. The colors were still very vivid in spite of being hundreds of years old. This picture is just a small piece of it; it’s actually about 15 feet long.

 

 

In addition to the museum, we also visited the Duomo. Just like in Pisa we decided against climbing 463 stairs to get into the Cupula (Dome) or the 414 to get to the top of the Bell Tower. We were more than satisfied to stay on the ground in the Cathedral. The outside is one of the most famous images of Florence while the inside is beautiful in its simplicity. You expect it to be much more ornate but it’s actually almost plain, but still gorgeous.

 

 Later in the day we took a bus to the Piazalle Michaelangelo where the overlook view of this amazing city is found. Once again the day was beautiful so the vista is truly stunning. Florence is Lynn’s favorite Italian city. If we were going to stay in Italy for any length of time, we’d probably live someplace near here. Probably not in Florence city center…just too many tourists, but not too far away.

Tomorrow we get to be lemmings following a tour guide with an umbrella (or a flag) when we take a day trip to Siena, San Gimignano and Greve. Along the way we’ll have a chance for a Chianti wine tasting. Should be fun.

October 8 – Day Trip to San Gimingnano and Siena

It was almost 7:30 by the time we got home yesterday and we were too tired to post so here’s what happened. Saturday started off in the best way possible….CUBS WIN!! Lynn woke up early enough (5:30) to watch the last 2 innings of the game on mlbtv. She barely had her eyes open when Javy crushed a home run to break up a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the 8th. Then it was 20 minutes of holding her breath until Chapman could get the save. NLDS Series Cubs up 1-0 over the Giants. (UPDATE: Cubs win game 2 last night; up 2-0 and it’s on to San Francisco).

We were at the train station by 8am to pick up our tour bus. The first leg of the journey was a one hour drive to the UNESCO World Heritage town of San Gimingnano, also known as the Town of Fine Towers. It is a fully intact medieval town that used to boast 70 towers. It only has 12 left but it’s still very impressive. It was a rainy morning but the sun kept peaking through the clouds. We had almost 90 minutes of free time which we spent strolling the streets and climbing up to the old fortress. We poked our heads into a few shops where Lynn bought an apron. Yes, you read that right…an apron. But it’s really cute and it has her name stitched on it!

Once back on the bus, it was a 45-minute drive to Siena, also a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the most visited cities in Italy. After lunch on our own, we had a 90-minute tour lead by a local tour guide. This is the part Lynn hates. Up until this time we’d only been with the group in the bus but now it was time for the lemming walk following a flag. It wouldn’t have been too bad if the tour guide had been any good. She knew lots of stuff but had a habit of starting her talk before the entire group of over 30 people had caught up with her. A lot of the tours use an audio guide type system where the tour guide speaks into a mike and the group listens on their personal audio guide. It’s what we did for our short walking tour of Milan and was actually quite nice. For some reason this group didn’t use them so we all had to cluster around her to hear. The worst part came near the end of the tour when we got to a WC and she said if anyone needed to use them, now was the time. We did but when we got out, she and the rest of the group were gone! So, we were left standing there with no idea where everyone went or where to go. We hiked up the hill to see if we could find traces of a large group, but no luck. We decided that our best course of action was to go back to where we last saw them and wait. We figured that the tour leader, Mateo (the leader from the bus) would eventually come looking for us. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait that long because the Spanish group with a different tour guide got to the same spot just a few minutes later. It was fortunate that this group was a little behind ours so we tagged along with them. When we caught up with the main group and told Mateo what happened, his response was, “that’s not good.” You think???

In spite of the less than great tour guide, we still enjoyed Siena. It’s a beautiful town and is famous for the Palio di Siena, a traditional medieval horse race run around the Piazza del Campo held twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August. The city is divided into 17 Contrade, or city neighborhoods. These were originally formed as battalions for city defense but are now similar to Chicago’s wards. The Contrade vie for the annual trophy, a painted banner (or Palio) bearing an image of the of the Virgin Mary (races are run in Her honor) and the 10 participating Contrade. Since the Piazza isn’t big enough for all 17 Contrade to participate, the 3 that didn’t participate the year before are joined by 10 additional Contrade which are chosen by lots. There is a lot of pageantry (similar to the Regatta in Venice) that runs over 3 days. On the day of the final race, 35,000 people are crammed into the Piazza and the horses race along the outside of the square. It must really be quite the spectacle. Here’s a link if you want to read more about it. https://www.discovertuscany.com/siena/palio-siena.html

Siena is also the birthplace of St. Catherine who, when only in her 20s, convinced the Pope to move from Avignon France back to Rome. She became a trusted papal counselor and died at age 33. Her head and right thumb are on display in the church. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, though, so you’ll just have to go to Siena and see it for yourself.

Then it was another hour bus ride to the town of Greve di Chianti where we had a wine tasting. Neither or us like chianti wine but the view from the winery was beautiful. After wandering around town for a little while, it was back on the bus for the 45-minute drive to Florence. All in all, a very nice day.

Today (Sunday) we’re relaxing at home a bit before heading out for a while. We’ve decided that we’re pretty much done with museums but there’s a fortress that Peter wants to see. The weather is a little cool, upper 50s/lower 60s but the sun is shining and there’s no rain in the forecast. Another beautiful day in our adventure.

October 10 – Day Trip to Lucca

Sunday was a pretty quiet day. After a lazy morning, we went to find the fortress Peter wanted to see. We found it with no problem, but it turns out that it’s not anything we can tour as it’s used primarily for special events. So, we headed for the central market where Lynn got a new faux leather briefcase for work and a cashmere/wool poncho. The latter was Peter’s idea and it will probably come in very handy for the cruise. We’ll be in the south Atlantic late October/early November so who knows how cold it will be. We walked around for about several hours than headed home. Peter watched Italian TV while Lynn took a nap. It was a very relaxing day.

Today was our day trip to Lucca. Lynn had been her with her parents in 1994 and is just as nice as she remembered. It’s a small town but big enough to have interesting things to see. There are two sets of walls, the inner Roman walls (of which there are just a few remains) and the outer Medieval walls. Those walls are fully intact so it’s pretty cool. We stopped in several churches and a small museum over a Roman excavation site.

The town is not only surrounded by the wall but also by a walking/bike path. It’s a very walkable/bikeable (is that even a word) town. We thought about renting bikes but decided against it. Lynn had a pretty bad episode of vertigo this morning so we decided not to push our luck.

We had lunch in a large square that used to be the Roman Amphitheater. The only way to access it is either through one of the shops/restaurants or through one of the stone archways. It was very cool. By the time we finished lunch, the sky was starting to look very threatening. Since Lynn woke up with a bit of a sore throat (she’s a mess today!!) we decided that getting wet when it was only in the upper 50s probably wasn’t a good idea. So we headed back for the train. It’s only about 90 minutes from Florence so it was a relatively short day.

We’ll probably just stay home tonight and do a load of laundry…how fun does that sound. But then tomorrow is our Tuscan cooking class so we’re really looking forward to that. Maybe Lynn should take her new apron!

October 11 – Tuscan Cooking Class

Today was a cold, cloudy, rather dreary day but we had an absolute blast at our Tuscan Cooking Class. The day started with a short walking tour of the city while we shopped for the necessary groceries. Then it was a 15-minute bus ride to the house in the countryside. It’s a great setup for this event as the kitchen is huge with several large marble work tables. The stove is almost as big as our entire kitchen and has running water beneath the burners to make clean up easy…pretty cool.

The first thing we made was bruschetta. It’s very simple and absolutely delicious. We will definitely be adding this to our dinner party menus.

Next up was making a meat sauce for our pasta. There are 3 items that are in virtually every Italian pasta sauce…..onions, celery and carrots. But they’re all in such small amounts that you can barely see them let alone taste them. There is, though, one ingredient that is NEVER added to any pasta sauce…garlic. Who knew?? We didn’t use garlic at all today which was a bit of a surprise. What we used a lot of was olive oil. Carmela, the chef, added a ton of it to the sauce but didn’t drain the meat after it was cooked. She said most of the oil is absorbed by the meat which sounds like it would make it greasy but it absolutely did not.

 

 

 

 

While the sauce was simmering (at least 2 hours but preferably 3) we learned how to make pasta from scratch. We each got an egg and a small amount of flour to make fettucine. It’s really not very hard if you have the right equipment. We don’t and Lynn’s afraid that a monster has been created. Peter is already talking about getting a pasta machine. Of course, fresh pasta is amazing and now that he’s retired it would be one way to keep him busy. We’ll see what happens after we get home. 

 

As the pasta was curing (at least 30 minutes) we started prepping the roast pork and herbed roasted potatoes for our secondi patti (second plate). It was a simple rosemary and sage mixture with a little salt. Of course, olive oil was added and rubbed all over the meat and potatoes. This went into the oven for several hours.

Next up we learned how to make pizza. Professional pizza makers explained the different types of pizza dough. One kind is Romano which is quick rising with more yeast but much heavier. The other is Neapolitan which uses much less yeast is and therefore lighter. But, it takes 2 days to rise properly. After the pros demonstrated the correct way to shape the pizza, Peter gave it a try. He even attempted the pizza dough toss but it stuck to his hands so he didn’t get much lift. After adding the toppings (FYI always tear basil rather than cut or chop; metal knives cause oxidation which leaves black mark on basil), our pizza cooked in the wood fired over for about 2 minutes. We were very proud of our pizza and admired it for all of 30 seconds before we devoured it. It was delicious.

After eating our pizza (so quickly we forgot to take a picture until it was half gone) it was time to make the desserts. We made Tiramisu and a gelato-like dish. Lynn doesn’t like the flavor of coffee so she skipped soaking her ladyfingers in the expresso. The gelato was amaretto flavored.

Finally it was time to eat the main part of the meal. A typical Italian meal

has 4-5 courses: Antipasti, insalata, prima patti (pasta), secondi patti (meat or fish) and finally dessert. We had bruschetta for our antipasti, skipped the salad but had pizza. Our prima patti was the fettucine we’d made with our own hands covered with Carmela’s meat sauce.

Then we had the pork and potatoes. Finally, the two desserts. Everything was absolutely delicious and we can’t wait to get the recipes for everything. Hopefully we’ll get that email before we get home.

So, we ate a lot of food and had a ton of fun. We were surprised how easy most of it was to make and can’t wait to have you over for dinner.

Tomorrow we say a sad goodbye to Tuscany and head south to Naples for our last full week. Maybe it will be a bit warmer down there.

October 12 – Say Goodbye to Florence

We’re on the train for the 3-hour ride to Naples, the last big leg of our land adventure. It is with mixed feelings that we leave Florence. On the one hand it’s always exciting to move on and see what other adventures await us. On the other, we really love Tuscany and are a bit sad to leave. The other places we’ve visited in Italy are wonderful and have must see sights, but we can’t imagine staying in any of them for any length of time. We can very easily see ourselves coming back to Tuscany for a more extended stay. It’s hard to say no to the beautiful rolling hills and the amazing cities. Florence is big and a bit hectic, but not like Rome, Milan or Venice, so it still has a bit of a small town feel. Yesterday on our walkabout to get groceries, we found places that we wish we had explored in our week here. Just the central market is someplace to spend an hour. We went on Sunday when the main market is closed so we really didn’t get to explore it very well. And, we only went to 2 of the museums. Of course, they were the most important ones (Uffizi and Galleria della’academia) but there’s still so much so see. After six weeks of looking at churches and artwork, though, we were a little burnt out. But coming back again with more time would allow us to check out the other museums.

Lucca is certainly someplace we could spend more time. It’s much quieter than Florence but it still has plenty to do to keep us busy. Renting bikes and riding around the old city walls every day would be a blast. It really is a beautiful town.

Then there are places in Tuscany we didn’t even get to…Arezzo, Livorno, Viareggio, Cortona (town from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun), Pistoia and many others. We could easily spend another week here and not see it all. We would need something to do, though, as neither one of us is big on hanging around the house. We’ve talked about taking language classes while we’re here. Peter is getting pretty good with his Italian but it would be great to be a little more conversational. We’re sure we can find something to do to keep us out of trouble. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years when Lynn is fully retired we can come back for an entire summer. Wouldn’t that be a great adventure!

October 13 – Exploring Naples

We got to Naples around noon yesterday (Wednesday) but it was after 1pm before we got settled into our new flat which is about 20 minutes from the city center. It’s a little further out than we normally like but there wasn’t too much to pick from this time. Public trans is pretty plentiful, though, so we should do okay. Since Lynn is still dealing with a cold and she was pretty tired, we didn’t do much except head over to tourist information to get the scoop on our day trips and other stuff to do while we’re here. 

Today (Thursday) started as a rainy day so we decided to postpone day trips to the Isle of Ischia or Sorrento and started exploring Naples on the Hop On Hop Off bus. Our first stop was the Archeological Museum which has over 4000 artifacts from Pompeii and Herculeum. It’s amazing that so many things have been uncovered in such good shape. Here are just a couple of the 200 pictures Peter took in the museum.

We got back on the bus and headed up to the Catacombs, stopping for lunch along the way. The Catacombs are from the 2nd and 3rd century AD but have only recently been excavated. Napoleon exhumed all the bodies so all that’s left are the tombs themselves. Some of the frescos are still quite intact. So far they’ve uncovered 2 layers but our guide said there was a 3rd layer even further down. But since they support themselves on donations and the money they

take in from admission fees, they haven’t yet excavated the lowest level. The tour was fascinating so we’re glad we took the time to visit.

Later in the afternoon we hopped on the 2nd line of the bus and headed down the coast. By this time the sun was out so it was a very nice drive. If you don’t look too closely, Naples is a beautiful city. Unfortunately, close up many of the buildings are in bad state of repair, the streets are cluttered with trash, there are a million cars and motorcycles and it’s incredibly noisy. It’s as different from Florence as night is different from day. Lynn is having flashbacks from her time in Sicily; not much has changed in the last 20 years. But, it’s a great place to park ourselves because there are some really nice day trips. Depending on weather, tomorrow we’ll head out to either Ischia or Sorrento. In Sorrento we can get another Hop On Hop Off bus that will take us down the Almalfi Coast. We’ll see what we feel like doing when we wake up. If weather is bad, we’ll continue exploring Naples as there is still more to see in the city center.

October 15 – Isle of Ischia

First off, gonna toss this out there…..weathermen are big liars! For two days straight Lynn looked at the weather before we left home and both days read that, while cloudy, there was zero chance of rain. So, we left umbrellas at home and when we got to where we were going (Thursday Naples; Friday Isle of Ischia) it immediately started raining. Luckily it only rained for a short time but still….weathermen are big liars!

Now that we have that settled, here’s what been happening. Before moving on to Friday, let’s finish up Thursday. Our flat is across the street from Trip Advisor’s #62 most popular restaurant in Naples and it supposedly has the best pizza in Italy. It’s called da Michele and Julia Roberts filled a movie scene there for a 2010 film Eat, Pray, Love. The pizza was absolutely huge, the biggest we’ve had and it was delicious. Was it the best pizza in Italy? Hard to tell. After 6 1/2 weeks of amazing food, our taste buds are pretty numb to new tastes. Peter actually ate all of his but Lynn only got through about 3/4 of hers and that’s without eating any of the thicker crust. At the end of the meal the waiter brought us complementary limoncello (a lemon liquor) which was delicious. We’ve been wanting to try it so we’re glad we had the chance.

Yesterday (Friday) we decided to take a day trip to Ischia, which is an island about 90 minutes by ferry from the Port of Naples. We thought about going to Capri but Lynn was there in 94 with her folks and remembers it as beautiful but not much but streets filled with shops and restaurants.

Since we prefer to look at sites rather than shop, we decided to give Ischia a try. After a bumpy ferry ride, we landed at the dock and wandered for about 15 minutes before we found a tourist information center. We could have hired a cab to take us around to see the sights of the island but that wouldn’t have given us a chance to really explore any of them. So we decided to walk to the Aragon Castle which was only about 2.5 km away and explore that in more detail. Of course it was raining (hate the weatherman) so we ducked into a bar for coffee and hot chocolate until it slowed down. Once we got up to the castle we were very glad we went. Construction started in 474BC and was in use by a convent until the early 19th Century. Here’s a ink for some additional information. http://www.ischia.it/en/the-aragon-castle

The castle is huge so it took several hours for us to explore all the nooks and crannies. It wasn’t very crowded, though, so we didn’t have to fight hoards of people to get nice pictures. In spite of the cloudy, windy weather the view from the castle was beautiful and the waves crashing against the rocks was quite amazing.

Peter was planning to take a dip in the Tyrannhean sea but the big waves had churned up dirt and the water really wasn’t very inviting. Lynn was also worried about a possible undertow, so he ended up taking a pass on the swim. Here’s what it looked like. Lynn got her feet soaked by the wave just before this big one.

We had lunch at a seaside restaurant and while Peter opted for an Italian dish, Lynn had a craving for something American so she had burger and fries. Europeans don’t really know how to make a good American burger so it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t too bad and the fries were delicious. Then it was a walk back to the ferry to wait for our boat back to Naples. It turned out to be a fun day, in spite of the weather. Saturday’s forecast has an 80% chance of thunderstorms all afternoon but as we know, weatherman are liars so it will probably be sunny all day. We’ll let you know.

October 15 – Napoli Sotterranea

Today was a relatively short, but interesting, day of sightseeing. We relaxed at the flat until about 11, then headed out for the city center. The main goal of the day was to visit one of the 16 Sotterranea sites scattered around Naples. Literally, that means under the ground. There are excavated ruins of two different layers of Naples from as far back as the 5th century BC. There’s another layer dating back to the 8th century BC but that has not been excavated.

We had a bit of a walk from the Metro to the site we visited so along the way we enjoyed one of the many street performers. As you can see from the short clip, very good.

We walked down the famous Via San Gregorio Armeno where the shops sell the most amazing nativity scenes. The Neopolitan nativity scene (called a Crib) has more significance in Naples than does the Christmas tree, which wasn’t put up in homes until the 1950s.

In addition to what you find in a traditional nativity scene, these also have people in their everyday lives cooking spaghetti, baking bread or pizza, etc. Some of them even had movement and lights. They were incredible!

 After spending some time wandering through these shops, we finally made it to Complesso Monumentale San Lorenzo Maggiori where we toured the remains of the underground city. The 2nd layer was built by the Greeks in the 5th century BC. It was buried in a mud slide in the late 1st century AD so the Romans (who by that time had conquered the city) covered it over with another layer. Most of what we saw was from the Roman era but there were small pieces of the Greek layer excavated. It was a very interesting tour.

On our way back to the Metro, we stopped in at couple of churches. The first one was the San Paolo Maggiore. Not only was this a beautiful church but there was a piano concert. Since it was after 4pm we didn’t stay too long to listen to music but we we enjoyed what we heard.

 Finally, we visited the Duomo of Naples. This one was incredible. The altarpiece was stunning. The pictures really don’t do it justice.

Then it was back home for dinner of chicken soup that Peter made in the morning. Now we’re relaxing and watching something on TV. Maybe we’ll pull up a movie on Netflix.

By the way, the forecast today was 80% chance of thunderstorms all afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon! Hopefully the weatherman will be just as wrong tomorrow as we’re going to Pompeii for a half-day trip. Fingers are crossed.

October 16 – Beautiful Day in Pompeii

In spite of the dire forecast of rain, it was a gorgeous, sunny day…a perfect day for our half-day trip to tour the ruins of Pompeii. Until yesterday we planned to tour the site on our own. It’s only a short train ride from the central station. But we’re glad we decided on the guided tour. The place is very large and without the guide, we’re not sure we would have known what we were looking at. Maria also had some very interesting stories that we would have missed. So even though it cost significantly more than going on our own, it was money well spent.

In case you’re not up to speed on your ancient history, Pompeii was founded in seventh or sixth century BC and was conquered by the Romans in the fourth century BC. In 62AD it was devastated by an earthquake and was still in the process of rebuilding when the Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. At that time there were approximately 20,000 inhabitants. The city (as well as several others, most notably Herculaneum) was buried under 13-20 feet of volcanic ash and pumice. This kept air and

moisture out, which meant the buried objects were well preserved. The Bath House ceiling was the only one that survived the eruption. All the other ceilings collapsed with the weight.

Of course the only human remains found were skeletal, but sometimes they also found clothes. This allowed archeologists to determine the rank and position of each victim. When the remains were removed, it left a crater which was then filled with plaster to make a cast. This allows us to see the exact position the victim was in when he/she was killed. Kind of creepy but still fascinating.

This picture is a water fountain. If you look closely you can see the original lead pipe coming out of the mouth. You can also see how the rock to the right of the head is worn down by people leaning over the ledge to fill their pots with water. Very cool!

Archeologists could also tell by the ruins the rank of the person who lived in the house. This was the house of a wealthy person. The original mosaic floor is one indication but they can also tell by the size of the layout. The hole in the middle was a pool in which they collected rain water. There was a hole in the roof and a drain in the pool that led to a cistern in the lower level. The columns in the back were in a garden. This is one of the most intact houses we saw.

The ruins were originally discovered in 1599 but not excavated until the mid-18th century. Today, it is a UNESCO Heritage site and one of the most visited spots in Italy. We spent about 2 hours touring the site then headed back to the city in the tour van. We were home relatively early which allowed us to get a load of laundry out on the balcony while the sun was still out. Of course, they didn’t fully dry but we moved the rack inside for the night. They’ll be good to go in the morning. Tomorrow we’re off to Sorrento and the Almafi Coast. Hopefully the beautiful weather will continue.

October 17 – The Most Beautiful Drive in the World

Today was the day Lynn has been looking forward to since we got to Naples. She got to experience the Amalfi Coast as a passenger rather than a driver. The day got off to what could have been a bad start when the train was over 20 minutes late. By the time it came, there were hundreds of people waiting on the platform. The train only has about 4 cars with limited seating. We had visions of standing for a good part of the 70-minute ride. Luckily, Peter picked a good spot to stand on the platform as a door opened right in front of him. In typical Italian fashion there was plenty of pushing to get on but we both managed to get a place to sit. Not together but as least we weren’t standing. A lot of people left when we got to the Pompeii station about 30 minutes out of the central station so the rest of the ride was pretty comfortable. We even had some entertainment for part of the ride.

When we got to Sorrento, we immediately found the tour bus. Even though it wasn’t leaving for another 30 minutes, we wanted to be sure we sat on the right side of the bus as that’s the side with the best view. The town of Amalfi is only about 25km from Sorrento but it took about 1 hour 25 minutes to get there. As you probably know, the road is full of twists and turns, many times doubling back on itself. It made one stop in Positano about halfway up the coast before finishing the trip to Amalfi. We decided to take a pass on Positano and decided to head straight to Amalfi.

It’s hard to describe how incredibly beautiful it is. Peter took over 250 pictures and videos. Of course, many of them were taken through the window of a moving bus, so about 1/3 of them got deleted immediately upon downloading. But he did get some beautiful shots.

The first thing we did when we got off the bus in Amalfi was to get some lunch. There were a couple of restaurants right on the beach so we had a wonderful view while eating. After lunch we walked around town but it’s pretty small so there wasn’t too much to see. It is a pretty little town, though, so it was an enjoyable way to walk off lunch.

Then it was back to the bus for the return trip to Sorrento. This town has changed a lot since Lynn was there last. It’s much bigger and the shops that sell the inlaid wood products are mostly gone. We finally found one large store in the town square. Peter found a game table that he loved and it was very cool. It was about 4 feet square and had quite a few games built in including roulette, backgammon, chess, checkers, poker, and several other Vegas style games. Even if we wanted to spend 6,000 euro on a game table (we didn’t), we have no place to put it

except the middle of our living room. We did end up buying an accent table. It’s absolutely gorgeous with a matte finish versus the high gloss. We already have several pieces that Lynn picked up when she lived in Italy but this was just too beautiful to pass up. We’re not sure where we’re going to put it but we’ll do some rearranging and find a nice place for it.

Then it was back to the train for the return trip to Naples. This time the train was pretty empty until we got closer to the city. In spite of the fact that we spent a lot of time sitting, it was still a 12-hour day so by the time we got home we were pretty tired. Tomorrow is our last day in Naples so as long as the weather holds, we’re going to Capri.

October 18 – Rainy Day in Capri

This will be a short post as it was a pretty low-key day. We slept late, had a leisurely breakfast then headed to the port for a 45-minute ride to Capri. It was a cloudy day but it only drizzled a little while we were there. We took a funicular to the town of Capri and wandered the streets filled with very expensive shops. Lynn found some beautiful Italian leather dress gloves but decided that $190 for a pair of gloves was an extravagance she didn’t need. Besides she would have been afraid to wear them; gloves are so easy to lose.

We had lunch in one of the sidewalk cafes then went back to the port for the hydrofoil home. We were there maybe two hours but unless you’re a big shopper there’s not much to do. But it gave us something to do on our last day in Naples when we had seen everything else on our list.

 We had to make an emergency run to Foot Locker to buy Lynn a new pair of sneakers as she has literally walked a hole in her shoes. They were brand new when we left and were super comfortable. But walking miles every day for the last 7 weeks has taken its toll; they would have never made it for the last 3 weeks.

By the time we got home it was raining pretty hard. We left the flat a night early as we have a 0700 train in the morning and public transportation doesn’t start until 5:45. It’s a 30-40 minute ride so that would have been cutting it a little too close. Our host said he could arrange a cab to pick us up but Peter was more comfortable being closer to the station. Since we had gotten a weekly discount we actually weren’t paying anything for the flat tonight anyway so we moved into a hotel adjacent to the station. We’re staying at the Star Terminus Hotel and it’s beautiful. We have a 1 bedroom suite with a dressing room, living room and a giant bathroom. There are even robes and slippers. All of our flats have been very nice but certainly nothing this luxurious. And this is a standard room and not terribly expensive. Just imagine what the upgraded rooms look like. Since it’s still raining we’ll eat dinner at the hotel instead of venturing out in the bad weather. After dinner, we’ll snuggle into our robes and slippers and watch a little TV before bed. Then it’s an early wake up for our 1-hour ride to Rome after which we pick up another train for Orvieto.  Talk with you then.

October 19 – Quick Trip to Orvieto

We originally planned to go to Assisi today but once we realized it was a 3-hour trip (had to change trains) we decided that it was too much traveling to turn around and go back to Rome the next day. So, we googled “day trips from Rome” and found Orvieto. It was only about 75 minutes from Rome so it was a perfect overnight trip.

Orvieto was founded in the days of the Etruscans and its site is one of most dramatic in Europe, rising above the almost vertical faces of cliffs that are completed by defensive walls. The old town is filled with narrow, stone streets and wonderful stone arches. It’s exactly what most people think of when they think about Italy.

After the chaos and noise of Naples, and to a lesser degree Florence, the quite was a welcome change. We walked around the perimeter of the cliffs and we were the only people there. All we could here were birds chirping and our feet crunching the stone walkway.

We walked down to the ruins of the Etruscan Necropolis (Crocifisso del Tufo) which date back to the 6th century BC. While they were discovered in the 18th century, it was only in the last 30 years of the 20th century that they were excavated. Here’s a link if you want to learn more about the site.

http://www.inorvieto.it/en/visit/must_to_see/crocifisso_del_tufo_necropolis.html

After lunch, we headed to the Duomo. Orvieto is a small town with an area of 108 sq miles (including both new town and old city) and only about 21,000 people, but the Duomo is amazing. The cornerstone was laid in 1290 and the two side chapels were added in the early 14th century. We’ve gotten pretty numb to churches, but this one was absolutely gorgeous. How did people of that time build something this amazing? It’s really mind boggling.

 

We stopped in at the Archeological Museum where we saw items removed from the Necropolis. Then we headed back to the flat for the night. We have a washer and dryer so we’re doing a load of clothes. We just did laundry in Naples but we want to have as much as possible clean before we get on the ship. We think we’ve finally figured out how to properly dry the clothes. Of course, just in time to leave.

Orvieto was a last minute decision but it was a winner. It’s a beautiful city and certainly worth the trip.

October 20 – Farewell to Italy

Today was just a travel day so not much to report. We had about 4 hours between our trains so we took the metro to the Piazza di Spagna. When we were here in August the Spanish Steps were closed but today they were open so we had fun sitting on the steps for a few minutes. We had lunch just off the piazza where Lynn had her final Italian pizza for this trip. Then it was back to the station to pick up our train.

So now we’re in Civitavecchia for the last night of the land portion of our adventure. It has been an amazing 7 1/2 weeks, most of which was spent in Italy. Since we landed in Rome on August 30th, we’ve visited 8 countries and stayed in 17 cities. We’ve traveled about 4,746 km (2848 miles) but that’s just from one overnight stop to the next. We’ve gone about another 1,000 km (600 miles) in side trips. We’ve walked an average of 7 miles per day for approximately 360 miles. To put that in perspective, we walked from Chicago to at least Lexington KY, both of us wearing out a pair of shoes. We were as far north as Munich, as far south as Naples, west to Turino and east to Plitvice

National Park. We had temps in the 90s in Rome and Venice, seen snow in the Austrian Alps, and swam in the Adriatic. We’ve taken 6 different ferry trips, been on 5 funiculars and have seen countless churches, ruins, castles and fortresses. We’ve eaten tons of pizzas, pasta, gelato and drank gallons of beer and wine. But the good news is our pants still fit. Maybe all the walking helped.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember all the things we did; everything is a little blurred. But, we both have our favorite standout memories of our adventure. Lynn’s was the cooking class in Florence. It was different from anything else we did and it was something that we can take back with us. Lynn does most of the cooking at home but Peter can work his way around the kitchen as well. We discovered a long time ago, though, that we don’t work well in the kitchen together because we have different ways of doing things. In the class we learned the same

way so maybe it will help us cook together at home, at least when we make Italian food. Peter’s favorite memory is our Gondola ride on our first anniversary (that was very high on Lynn’s list as well). That entire day was special starting with the mimosas for breakfast on our patio, the Historical Regatta and, of course, the gondola ride. We couldn’t have had a better anniversary.

          

Since it’s hard to hide the quirks when you’re with someone 24/7, we learned some things about each other that we didn’t know. While Lynn is good with flying by the seat of her pants, she learned that Peter needs to have more definite plans. He doesn’t have to plan too far in advance, he just has to know where we’re going to stay when we get to a new town. That was a bit of a surprise as he’s usually so low key and calm. It was also surprising how much Peter likes archeological stuff. He was always looking for the next ruin or archeological museum. We spent hours in the museum in Naples where he took 400 over pictures.

Peter learned that when Lynn gets laser focused on something, it’s best just to let her finish what she’s doing so she can check mark it as done and relax. He’s also learned that she is a terrible sick person. She had a cold for 10 days and found out that she just wants to be left alone when she’s not feeling well. Tough to do, though, when we were joined at the hip. We also learned that as much as we love being together, sometimes we just need a space to be alone, even if it’s just for an hour. That’s one of the reasons the flats worked out so well. Most of the time we had a separate bedroom so Lynn could hide there and read while Peter was in the living room with the TV.

But the one thing we knew before, and this adventure has reinforced, is how much fun we have together; how much we enjoy being together. Not that either one of us had any doubts, but this trip has made it crystal clear that we belong together.

We also learned that we would do a couple of things different next time. We didn’t dance as much as we thought we would. In fact, we only went once. Tango is big in Europe and there were plenty of opportunities in the bigger cities but a Milonga starts late in the evening, usually around 10-10:30pm and goes until 2-3am. Most of our days were very busy (remember 7 miles/day of walking) so by 10pm we were already heading to bed. The one time we danced was in Ljubljana when the Milonga began at 7pm. In addition to the fatigue factor, we also had transportation problems. It would have been easy to take a cab to the dance, but much more difficult to get back to the flat a

t such late hour. We’ll get use out of the dance shoes and dressier clothes on the cruise, but for our next adventure we’ll probably leave them home and not drag them around for the few times we’ll dance.  

While we had an amazing time on this adventure, the next one will be shorter. The timeline was determined by a couple of things. Lynn wanted to be in Venice for the Historical Regatta for our anniversary and Peter wanted to take a repositioning cruise home. With those two events as our bookends, we filled in the middle with everything else. We thought that we might get tired of traveling for such a long time, but we really didn’t. With the house, though, it’s difficult to be gone for such a long time. Our housekeeper graciously helped out by checking on the house every week but we can’t impose on her every time we want to go on another adventure. So, next time we’ll plan a couple of shorter trips. Next summer we’re thinking about driving to eastern Canada (we might even try renting an RV) and then heading to Sweden to visit with Lynn’s family. But who knows what we’ll actually end up doing; there’s lots of time to think about it.

But, this adventure isn’t over yet. We still have 15 days on the Celebrity Reflection and 2 days in Miami before we fly home on November 7th. So, there’s still time to eat great food, have more fun, walk more miles, and make more memories.

October 22 – The French Riviera

It’s the end of day 2 of our cruise. The ship is a monster and is absolutely beautiful. Our internet connect is a bit slow so we’re not able to upload any videos to YouTube but when we get to Miami, we’ll get some up on a separate post.

 

Check in went very smoothly yesterday and we set sail at exactly 5pm. After a great dinner we went to the evening show, which was really just a preview of some of the shows we’ll see over the next 2 weeks. From what we saw last night, the entertainment looks to be quite good. Then there was ballroom dancing in one of the upper deck lounges. We danced quite a while and even had a few tangos. Then we moved downstairs where a band was playing. There we danced swing. We danced more last night than we did during the entire land portion of our trip.

After a terrific breakfast we headed out for our day trip. We decided on a shore excursion instead of doing something on our own. Peter wanted to go to Monaco, which we could have done by train, but after weeks of dealing with trains, it was easier to have someone take us there. We started in Nice where we had about an hour on our own. We walked through the flower market, stuck our fingers in the Mediterranean and strolled the promenade. It was a little cool but very pleasant in the sun. 

After Nice we went to the Medieval town of Eze. It’s a very cool town filled with stone houses and very narrow streets. There was a nice church where the singer Bono got married. After strolling the village for a while on our own, we had a marvelous lunch of crepes. Then it was back to the parking lot to meet up with the rest of our group for the bus ride to Monaco. 

 

The principality of Monaco is only about 2 sq km, which makes it the 2nd smallest country in the world. The smallest is Vatican City so we got to both of them on this trip. We did a short walking tour of the old city, visiting the Cathedral where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier got married and were later buried. The church was built in the Baroque style so it’s relatively simply in design but still very beautiful. Then we had more time on our own before climbing back on the bus one more time for the short ride to Monte Carlo.

Lynn has been to Monaco several times but this was her first trip to Monte Carlo. We decided to go to the casino. Neither one of us gambles, but we thought it would be fun to visit this famous venue. We decided that since we were there, we needed to play a little slots. It took less than 10 minutes to lose our 50 euro. Gambling is really STUPID! It sucked us in with 3 straight wins, then it was all downhill after that. Seriously, what is the attraction?!? We saw one guy who was playing two machines at the same time. Another guy walked in with about 500 euro in his hands and started playing the slots like someone was going to steal the machine if he didn’t get his money into it. After just a few minutes not only did we lose our money, but we were bored. But now we can say that we gambled at the famous Monte Carlo Casino.

The casino was actually much smaller than we expected. They don’t allow pictures but here’s one of Peter in the lobby. There were beautiful frescoes on the walls in the casino as well. It really was a beautiful place. The coolest thing, though, was outside….the cars parked in front of the building. We saw several Bentleys, Porshes and a couple of Rolls Royces. Then there were a few lowly Mercedes and Range Rovers. It was something else to see them all lined up. While we were walking around the Old Town, we stopped to look at the resale listings in the window of a real estate office. For the low, low price of only 17,500,000 euros we could have bought a 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1700 square foot apartment. We thought about it but decided we didn’t want to move that far away from home just now. Maybe next year.

The whole country is like something out of a movie about the beautiful people. The harbor was filled with yachts, the cars were unbelievable and the homes were gorgeous, at least from the outside. Unfortunately, the fantasy about what it might be like to live there had to end when we climbed back into our bus for the ride back to Nice.

We got back onboard just a few minutes before we set sail for Marseilles. After another delicious dinner and more dancing, it was back to our cabin for a relatively early night as we have another early call tomorrow for our trip to Avignon. We’ll fill you in on that tomorrow. Night everyone.

October 23 – Walking In The Footsteps of Popes

Hello everyone. Lynn here. May I say before I go any further…..Cubs are the National League Champions!!! Is that not the most amazing thing ever! I woke up at 4am and checked the score then scrambled to get the computer booted up and mlbtv.com running. As soon as I clicked on the game I got a message saying that due to MLB restrictions, the game is blacked out in the U.S., Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. May I remind you that I am not in any of those places, but I still wasn’t able to get the TV feed. I was, though, able to listen to the radio feed. Not as good, but at least I could follow it live. What amazed me the most about the win is that there was no late inning drama. No, top of the 9th, bases loaded with no one out stuff that we’ve had to deal with in the past. The boys did what they’ve been doing all year….win. Or course I wore my Cubs shirt today to show my Cubbie pride. Only 4 more wins and we’ve reached the promise land.

OK….that’s out of my system so let me tell you about our day. We docked in Marseilles at 7am and were off the ship and on a bus to Avignon by 7:25. It was a rainy morning so the trip took almost 90 minutes. By the time we got there, though, the rain had let up so even though it was chilly it wasn’t too bad.                  

Our first stop was the old bridge, Pont Saint-Bénézet also known as the Pont d’Avignon. When it was completed in 1185 it was the only bridge over the Rhone River in the southern region of France. It now only partially spans the river but we were still able to walk on it and visit the Chapel.  

Then we headed to Palais des Papes or the Palace of the Popes. The Popes resided in Avignon from 1308 to 1408 and held six conclaves there before moving back to Rome. One of the cool things about the adventure we’ve had is that we’ve been able to see the continuity of European events in the places we’ve visited. When we were in Sienna, we heard the story about St. Catherine (we saw her right thumb in her chapel in one of the churches) convincing the last Pope to move the Papacy back to Rome. Now today we got to see where that happened in Avignon. Very cool.

The Palace is still standing but the inside has been undergoing massive renovations for the last 100 years. It was badly damaged in the French Revolution (the heads of all the statues were removed) and then again in Napoleon’s time when he converted it to a barracks. His troops peeled the frescoes off the walls to sell for extra money. There are only 3 rooms that have extensive frescoes remaining but we weren’t able to take pictures of those spaces.

After the tour of the Palace, we had several hours free to explore on our own. Unfortunately, though, pretty much everything is closed on Sunday. So, we had a nice lunch followed by a leisurely stroll through the town. Then it was back on the bus for the ride home. The return trip only took about an hour so we were back by 3pm. Peter is off somewhere on the ship and I’m sitting on our veranda looking out over the Mediterranean. The horn just sounded so we should be pulling out in a few minutes. As soon as this is posted I’ll hit the shower and get ready for dinner. Tonight is our first casual chic night so I’m actually going to put on a skirt and one of my sparkly tops. There’s a great evening of entertainment planned so it should be a terrific end to a wonderful day.

October 25 – Hola from Barcelona

Yesterday (Monday) we docked in Barcelona around 9am so it was a more leisurely morning than we had the first 2 days on the ship. We decided not to do a shore excursion but went out on our own instead. We took one of the hop on/hop off buses around the city, but unlike other places we’ve been, each of the two circuits were very long…2-2 1/2 hours. In Rome and Genoa we did a full circuit to check everything out then went around again getting off wherever we wanted to explore in more detail. Yesterday, though, the circuits took way to long so we actually didn’t get to explore as much as we’d planned. We got off the 2nd circuit at the beach and had a wonderful lunch of paella and sangria.        

Lynn has been to Spain several times but was always by herself. Since paella is made for two people, she’s never had a chance to try it. It was delicious! The day was cloudy, chilly and windy but the sun popped out right at lunch so we were able to enjoy our meal right on the beach.

After lunch we decided to walk down the promenade along the beach. The sun was still out so it was a beautiful walk. Peter didn’t have his trunks so he didn’t get a chance to swim but we’re hoping weather will be good enough today (Tuesday) for a dip.

As we walked the clouds rolled back in along with a fog that totally obscured the view. We hopped back on the bus with the intention of going to Sagrada Familia. Relative to other churches we’ve visited, this one is very new with construction stating in 1884. Antoni Gaudí was the main architect but died in 1926 after getting run over by a tram. As a result, the church was never completed. Because the bus route is so long, it was 4pm before we got there and there were no tickets left. So, we only got to see it from the outside. We might try to get back there today but maybe not. We’ve seen so many churches that we’re not sure we want to spend the time or the 24 euro each to go inside. We’ll see how the day goes.

We didn’t really see much else as it was already almost 6pm before we got back to our starting point and we were tired. So, we took the bus back to the ship which is quite a way from town. After a quick shower, we had dinner in the cafeteria rather than the dining room. We’d had a heavier lunch with the paella so decided on something lighter for dinner. We took a dip in the hot tub before enjoying a performance of flamingo dancing. We had thought about going off the ship to one of the many flamingo shows but found out that the ship was bringing in some local performers. While not as elaborate as a show we would have seen in town, it was definitely less expensive (free as opposed to 40 euro each) and more convenient. They had the show by the pool and since we were there early, we got a front row seat. We had more sangria while we watched these beautiful dancers.

After the show we dragged our weary bodies back up to the cabin for bed. Today we’re planning to go back into the city to explore the Gothic Quarter. Depending on weather, we’ll rent bikes and ride up the promenade so Peter can take a dip. It will be a shorter day as the ship leaves port at 4pm. Then it’s 2 sea days before our last port of call in Tenerife. We’re looking forward to a little rest. Talk with you soon.

October 25 – Rainy Day in Barcelona

We’re posting this earlier than usual because we only spent a few hours in town. It’s a rainy, dreary day so we decided to come back early and hang around the ship until we sail at 4pm.

The only sight we saw today was the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia also known simply as the Barcelona Cathedral. Peter has pretty much become immune to churches but even he commented on how beautiful it is. The gothic Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona. Construction began in the 13th century and continue until the 15th century. The main alter is relatively simple but the side chapels are unbelievable. They run along three sides of the building, one more beautiful than the other. Each one is dedicated to either a person or a profession. For example, we saw chapels for masons, painters and bricklayers. The cathedral has a secluded Gothic cloister where 13 white geese are kept. We saw the geese but their pool was being cleaned so they were penned up and not available for pictures. 

The reason there are 13 of them is that the patron saint of Barcelona, Eulalia, was 13 years old when she was martyred. Her body is in a crypt but we didn’t see it.

We also walked through the central market. It was quite large and had stall selling all kinds of food. We could have bought just about any fish you can imagine as well as a skinned rabbit, lamb, and a very large ham. The place was packed, not just with tourists, but with the locals doing their shopping. It was pretty cool.

Before returning to the ship, we did a little shopping. Lynn bought a couple of fans to use at Tango and Peter bought a dress shirt. It was made in Barcelona and looks great on him. So now he has exactly one shirt that’s not wrinkled. Irons aren’t allowed on the ship so we have no way to iron the wrinkles out of his dress shirts.

The Barcelona port has a duty free and we were allowed to buy 2 bottles each. So, we loaded up on the wine and now have 5 or 6 bottles for our drinking pleasure. We have to drink it in our cabin but we usually have a glass or two before dinner while sitting on our veranda. Drinks are so expensive on the ship that this is a nice way to enjoy a glass of wine without have to take out a second mortgage on the house.

We had lunch by the indoor pool. Lynn had a delicious cheeseburger and fries from the pool grill. We’ll probably swim a little and maybe dip into the hot tub. It’s entirely possible that we hang around the pool all afternoon, maybe even taking a nap. Cubs come on at 1:30am and while we won’t set an alarm, Lynn will probably wake up early enough to see some of the game. Since the next 2 days are sea days, there’s plenty of time to catch a nap in the afternoons. GO CUBS!!

October 28 – Beautiful Day in Tenerife

We had a wonderful day in Tenerife. We docked around 9:30 and were off the ship shortly after. We had already decided that we wanted no part of touring so we took a city bus to the beach. For the first time since we’ve been in Europe, we walked on a sandy beach. Croatia and Italy had rocky beaches but this one was beautiful sand that was brought in from the Sahara in the 70s. Because we walked on Sahara sand Peter is wondering if he can say he’s been to Africa. Not sure that counts.

The water was about as cold as the Adriatic had been but wasn’t too bad once we got used to it. after playing in the water for a little while we strolled along the beach. The sun was shining for the first time in several days so the beach was the perfect place to hang out for a couple of hours.

Lynn wanted to do some shopping, so after the beach we took the bus back to the main area where we found a walking street lined with shops. Luckily, she found a great pair of sandals and a pair of white jeans that will be perfect for the last week of the cruise. The clothes we brought were great for the land portion of the trip but we don’t have much for the evening activities onboard ship. But now with just these two additions, she’s good to go.

Our last stop before boarding was Duty Free where we picked up a little more wine at the duty free before getting back on board. We practically ran to the cabin where changed back into our suits and headed up to the pool. We’re sitting there now sipping fruity tropical drinks and enjoying the view. The ship leaves in about an hour and the next time we touch land we’ll be in Miami. We can’t believe that our adventure is almost over. But, we still have a week on board and we plan to enjoy every minute. We may not post every day but we’ll check in every once and a while to let you know what we’re doing. Love to all….us.

October 29 – Go Cubs

Ok….so it’s 2am on the high seas and I’m in the small theater watching the game. Peter is asleep. I wonder if he’ll notice I’m not there when he gets up to go to the bathroom. I left him a note. I can sleep tomorrow (well actually later today) by the pool. Go Cubs!

 

October 30 – Relaxation on the High Seas

Hello everyone from the Celebrity Reflection. Things have settled into a nice routine on our Atlantic crossing. We have a leisurely morning with breakfast, sometimes on the veranda and sometimes in the café. Then we go to the 15th deck to walk, or maybe Peter swims before it gets too crowded. Or, we might go to the gym before breakfast; it depends on what kind of mood we’re in and how late we get up. After a bit of exercise we rest (cuz our morning has been sooooo strenuous) by the pool and read or maybe dip into the hot tub. Then it’s time for lunch after which we go for the 1pm dance lesson followed by more sitting by the pool. We’re usually driven out by late afternoon as either the house band or the DJ starts playing. We don’t mind the music but it’s so loud it’s intrusive. So, we escape to our veranda where we have a glass of wine and read some more. By 5pm we’re cleaning up for dinner. We usually eat in the main dining area as the food in the café isn’t all that great for dinner and we like to eat earlier rather than later. After dinner, we wander the ship looking for something interesting. We usually go to the evening show in the main theater. There’s a show at 7pm and another at 9pm. Which one we attend depends on what else is going on. They have ballroom dancing every night that starts between 7-7:45pm until 9pm. Tonight it’s 7:45 so we’ll probably go to the early show unless we’re delayed at dinner. Sometimes we’re dancing by ourselves but last night there were actually about 10 couples so we think our secret is out. After dancing we wander a little more, maybe stopping in the martini bar for a late night drink. We’ve discovered a banana split martini that’s incredible. The black forest martini (complete with whipped cream) was also delicious. Hard partiers that we are, we’re usually back in our cabin by 10pm and in bed by 10:30. Then in the morning it starts all over again.

From the sounds of that you might think this is pretty boring, but actually the days go very quickly. Of course, it’s only been 2 of 7 crossing days so by next Friday we may be climbing the walls. But for now, after 7 1/2 weeks of constant moving, we’re enjoying the rest and relaxation.

Unless something exciting happens, we’ll probably go silent for a couple of days but we’ll stay in touch. Love to all….

November 1 – Traveling Through Europe with Airbnb

Well our land trip is over and we’re sailing the high seas. We’re on day 4 of our 7-day crossing. Yesterday was cloudy but the sun is out again today. Not much to report from the ship so we thought we’d tell you a bit about our experience with airbnb. We were “on the ground” in Europe for about 7 1/2 weeks, spending 52 nights in hotels, which constituted our largest expense. The way we kept that cost down was to use Airbnb. Other than one night in Bolzano and the last night in Naples when we used hotels, all of our nights were in flats found on Airbnb. They’re in the news a lot at home and not in a good way. A landlord in LA evicted his long-standing tenants so he could convert the flats into Airbnb rentals for a ton more money; he’s being sued by a bunch of people. The hotel industry is pitching a fit because of lost business. And building associations are adding provisions into their bylaws preventing people from renting their condos on Airbnb. But in Europe, there are literally thousands of flats available.

We started using the service last year for our honeymoon. The condo we rented in Maui was listed on Airbnb and then we used it again in Florida. In Key West we spent the night on a 52 ft yacht…very cool. So, we thought, why not give it a try in Europe. We opted only for the “entire home” option. We could also rent a room in a house (Rick Steves does that all the time) or rent a shared room. We wanted the privacy that goes along with the having the entire space to ourselves, so “entire house” was the only option we considered.

Our average per night cost was $85! That’s amazing considering that the average hotel room just about everywhere we went was at least $150/night. The most expensive place was Venice at $145/night. Saltzburg and Rome were also a little more expensive at $115/night. Those were the only times we spent more than $100/night.        

 We had a kitchen in every flat which allowed us to eat many of our meals at home. Not only did that help the pocketbook, but probably our waistlines as well. The challenge with cooking came from the limited supplies available. The first 3-4 flats we stayed in didn’t have paper towels or napkins so we bought a package of napkins. Of course, after that most of the flats had something so we dragged napkins with us for several weeks. Hardly ever did we have a spatula so that was another purchase. We didn’t mess with spices but grabbed salt/pepper packets from restaurants whenever we had the chance. The one thing every flat had was a corkscrew, so that came in handy. The flat in Civitavecchia made out pretty well because that’s where we left everything we’d bought that we didn’t want to drag home with us.

In addition to the cost savings and convenience of having a kitchen it was fun staying in the neighborhoods; living like a native. Of course, that meant dealing with the “strangeness” of the European lifestyle. We always had a bidet and, while we didn’t use it for its intended purpose, it was great to hold toiletries in the bathrooms that didn’t have much storage. We took several cold showers before we realized that in some of the flats the hot water heater was controlled by a light switch. Turn off the switch and no hot water. We had the same problem in Naples with the refrigerator. It was working fine when we went to bed but was off when we woke up. It took several minutes to figure out that there was a light switch that turned the fridge on and off.  We also got to meet a few neighbors. A nice elderly woman in Torino poked her head out every time she heard the large metal grate open as we came and went from the flat. She was pretty impressed with Peter’s Italian and we had a couple of nice, albeit short, conversations.

Of course, some flats were better than others, but all of them were nice enough to give a 5-star rating when we left. Lots of times we had a balcony or a back yard. In these places it was great to have the option of sitting outside on a nice evening with a glass of wine. 

If you’re going to try it, here are a few hints. First, use the filter function to indicate your must haves. When we had the car, our biggest must have was free parking on premise. Of course, we learned the hard way to ask questions about that before we booked as the listings are not always 100% accurate. Then we also filtered for wireless internet and kitchen. Internet speed varied greatly but for the most part we didn’t have too much trouble getting online.  If you don’t want to climb a zillion stairs, be sure to filter for an elevator but even then be careful. Our flat in Florence had an elevator but the posting didn’t mention that the flat in which we were staying was up an additional 2 flights of stairs. Also remember that 1st floor in Europe is actually what we’d call the 2nd floor. The entry is on the ground floor and there is almost always at least one flight of stairs from the entry to the elevator. A word of warning about filters, the more you use, the fewer options you’ll have so just filter for the deal-breakers. 

Sometimes the host gives discounts for longer stays. Our original plan had been to find strategically located places and stay for a week. That actually only happened twice, in Florence and Naples, but we got nice discounts for those two places. The cost of the flat in Naples dropped from $65 to $53/night because we stayed 7 days. Not every host offers that, though, so read the pricing carefully. It helped that we traveled in the off-season. You might have a harder time finding those discounts if you’re traveling peak season.  

                                                                   

Most of the places we stayed had a clothes washer, and a few had a washer/dryer combo. The dryer in Dubrovnik worked quite nicely but never could figure out how to use it in Florence or Naples. Every flat, though, had a drying rack so even if we couldn’t get the dryer to work we could dry the clothes on the rack. If we were lucky enough to have a sunny day, they dried quickly. If not, like in Venice, they took days to dry. But, we simply factored that into our clothes washing timetable.

Be careful about the cancellation policy. It ranges from flexible (full refund minus the Airbnb charge) to strict (no refunds at all). Most of the time we didn’t book until a couple of days before we knew we’d be there so that wasn’t much of an issue for us.

The most important thing about using Airbnb is to read the reviews carefully. The host can say pretty much anything he/she wants in the listing so the reviews are the only way to really vet a flat before you rent. There are so many to pick from, we didn’t even consider anything that wasn’t 5 stars with at least 10 reviews. That doesn’t mean they were perfect, but we felt confident that it would be a nice place.

All in all, a great way to keep travel costs to a minimum on our adventure. Give it a try sometime; we think you’ll like it.

Done with breakfast and workout so it’s time to head back up to the pool until lunch. We could really get used to this lifestyle. Talk with you later.

November 3 – Sun is Shining

It’s another beautiful day on the Celebrity Reflection. But as nice as it’s been, the sun is shining just a little brighter and the birds are chirping just a little louder. Well….okay, we’re in the middle of the Atlantic and there are no birds but…..CUBS ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!

Of course, being the Cubs, they didn’t do it the easy way. Peter and I went to the small theater to watch with about 75 other people, all but about 3 were rooting for our boys in blue. Just as we started feeling comfortable, things got scary. I couldn’t even watch the bottom of the 9th. I paced outside of the theater where I could hear the Indian fan (by this time there was only one) cheer if disaster struck. It didn’t, but then came the rain delay. Since we didn’t know how long it would last and it was already after 1am, Peter and I went back to our cabin. Luckily, though, the cruise line had sprung for the streaming rights for game 7 and we were able to watch it on our cabin TV. I wasn’t able to cheer as loudly as I would have in the theater but it was magic just the same when our boys scored 2 in the top of the 10th. I think Peter has several bruises and crushed fingers from my nervous energy.

Of course, I have my Cubs shirt on today to show my Cubbie pride and we celebrated with mimosas over breakfast. It’s a little bittersweet, though, that mom, dad and Aunt Germaine didn’t get to see our beloved Cubs finally win it all. But, I know they’re up in heaven celebrating with Harry, Ronnie and Ernie. Maybe that’s why the sun is shining so beautifully today.

I think I’m going to take a celebratory dip in the pool before I watch the 10th inning again, and again, and again. Love to all.

November 5 – Sun Sets on the High Seas

Well, we’re less than 200 miles from Miami and expect to dock around 4am. Our time to depart the ship is 8:50 and hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get through customs.

It’s been an incredible 2 weeks aboard the Celebrity Reflection. We’re especially glad we cruised home as it gave us time to relax after a hectic 2 months in Europe. By the time we get home we’ll have been through 7 time zones and one additional time change Sunday morning in only one week. But since we did it so slowly, we’ll have absolutely no jet lag.

Today was about the same as the last 6 sea days. We had breakfast on our veranda and finished off the sparkling wine in our mimosas. Then it was back to the pool to laze around until it was time to watch the Cubs celebration rally in Chicago; luckily we got to watch it live on mlbtv.com. It was great!

After lunch we hung out on the veranda some more and then packed. Since the suitcases need to be in the hallway by 10pm it was easier to do it before dinner. After dinner we watched a beautiful sunset from the top deck then went to the final evening show. And, we couldn’t leave the ship without one more delicious banana split martini…they are so good. The bartender gave us the recipe so we’re looking forward to experimenting with it when we get home.

This cruise has been everything we were hoping for, a little sightseeing and a lot of relaxation. In fact we loved it so much we switched the cruise we booked last week to another repositioning cruise. This one is from South America to Fort Lauderdale. We still get to cruise through the Panama Canal but it starts in Valparaiso Chile and goes to Arica Chile, General San Martin Peru, Callao (Lima) Peru, Manta Equador, Cruising the Panama Canal, Georgetown (Grand Cayman), and finally Fort Lauderdale. We don’t get to Costa Rica but we plan to visit there some winter so that’s okay. Even though we lost the 2 perks that came with the first cruise (they were only available if booked the first 5 days and not transferable) the cruise was so much less expensive that we’re still coming out ahead. We didn’t get a veranda this time but will have an ocean view. The plan right now is to spend a couple of weeks in Buenos Aires then fly to Chile. We’ll get the travel agent working on flight arrangements next summer. It gives us another adventure to look forward to…can’t wait.

Once we’ve cleared customs tomorrow, we’ll take a cab to pick up a rental car for the weekend. We plan to visit Everglades National Park and maybe go to the driving range on Sunday. Since we haven’t picked up a golf club in 2 1/2 months we’re not sure playing a round is a good idea, but we’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, it’s getting late so we’ll talk more again tomorrow. Love to all…

November 5 – Back in the Good Old US of A

When we woke up this morning, we were already docked in Miami. After breakfast we headed to the dining room which was our staging area for disembarkation. Then it was a matter of hurry up and wait. We had to be out of our cabins by 8:00 and our scheduled time to leave was 8:50 but it was closer to 9:30 before our luggage tag number group was called. Getting the luggage was a total cluster. The Miami port had 3 very large baggage areas and each luggage tag group (ours was 31) was assigned one of the areas. We watched our assigned luggage carousel for 30 minutes without seeing our bags. We finally saw mine along the wall but it took another half hour before we found Peter’s. The luggage tag had been torn off so it was on a different carousel.

Then we got to stand in line for another 30 minutes to get through immigrations/customs only to wait for another 20 minutes in the cab line. By the time we got in the cab it was about 11am and got stuck in terrible traffic on the I95. We were totally stopped for about 15 minutes and had absolutely no idea why or how long we’d be there. The rental place closed at noon so we ended up changing our reservation to a different Thrifty that was open until 2pm. It turns out that Hillary was campaigning in Miami and we were stopped for her motorcade. Once we got moving again we were at the rental place in Miami Beach in a few more minutes. 

Once we got our car we decided to hang in South Beach so we parked and walked down the main beach drag. We stopped for lunch at a Cuban restaurant and had the largest drinks we’ve every seen. We saw people drinking these gigantic drinks but since we asked for a small, we thought we’d have a normal size glass. Turns out that those were the small drinks. Peter was able to finish his drink and still walk but Lynn only got through about 3/4 of hers. It was delicious but way too much alcohol.

After lunch, we walked down the beach before heading to the hotel. Once we got through the hassle of disembarkation, it was a very nice day. Tonight we’re just hanging around the hotel and will probably turn in early. Tomorrow we’re off to the Everglades.

While we thoroughly enjoyed our European adventure, after 10 weeks it’s nice to be back in the USA. Peter is enjoying clicking through 56 different stations, even if he can’t find anything to watch.

Talk with you tomorrow.

November 7 – End of the Adventure

It’s Sunday evening and at 9:10am tomorrow we fly out of Ft. Lauderdale to Midway. After 10 weeks, we’ll be back in our house. We’re not sad to go home but we are a little sad that our adventure has come to an end. 

We had a great last day, though. We went to the Everglades National Park and had a terrific time on a boat tour of the back country. We didn’t see any alligators but did see lots of wildlife including egrets, white pelicans, lots of different kinds of fish, manatees, and American crocodiles. We saw a full grown croc and about 5 babies, one of which was only about 4-5 months old.

Did you know that the Florida Everglades is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators cohabitate in the same water? Well, it is. Since alligators like fresh water and crocs like salt water, they’re usually in different bodies of water. But for some reason I can’t remember, they’re both in the Everglades. We also saw the manchineel tree, which is the deadliest tree in the world; virtually every part of it is poisonous. 

After the boat ride we drove back through the park, stopping at a few places to walk. The park was beautiful in a scary way. So many dangers within that beauty.

 

 

 We also stopped at Biscayne National Park which wasn’t too far from the Everglades. We only stayed there a short time, but long enough to get the stamp for our National Park Passport. We got the Passport in Maui on our honeymoon so we don’t have too many stamps yet but we’re looking forward to filling up the book over the next few years.

Then it was a stop at a Cuban restaurant for a delicious dinner and back to the hotel. We bought a small tote bag to get some of the weight out of the big bags. We didn’t buy much on our trip but it was enough to put our bags over weight. So, we picked up a nice tote that holds quite a bit. Luckily SWA allows 2 bags free per person so it won’t cost anything to check.

Well….after 10 weeks, 12 countries, 20 airbnb flats/hotel rooms, and 15 days on a cruise ship it’s all coming to an end. It seems like forever since we first arrived in Rome and sometimes the experiences blur together. But one thing that is very clear….we had an amazing adventure.

So, what’s our next adventure? We’re only home for 2 1/2 weeks before leaving for NYC on Thanksgiving for 5 days. Lynn is singing with the LincolnWay Area Chorale (and about 20 other choruses) in this year’s performance of Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall. In addition to rehearsals, we plan to take in some sights and maybe a show before the performance on Sunday afternoon. Following the performance there’s a gala dinner. It should be tons of fun.

Then in January we’re heading to Florida. We’re not sure yet how long we’re going to stay as that depends on Lynn’s work. We know we’ll be in Orlando for about a week and then head to Clearwater to see Peter’s cousins. We’d like to stay for the winter we’re not sure if we can pull that off. Peter may end up staying with his cousin Bruce while Lynn commutes to Chicago or Omaha for work. Hopefully we’ll have more definite plans soon.

We’d like to travel to the SF area sometime in the spring and to Scandinavia in June/July. We checked the Cubs home schedule and not much is going on the last couple of weeks in June or the first 2 weeks in July. We’re thinking a couple of weeks in Sweden visiting Lynn’s family and then a week or so in Norway. But at this point, nothing is set in stone.

We can’t thank you enough for traveling with us over the last 10 weeks. It’s been fun sharing our adventure with you. The blog will be up until at least March so you can catch up on anything you might have missed. We not sure yet if we going to renew the site for another year. Hearing about our golf game in Florida or a day trip to Napa is not quite as interesting as the last 2 1/2 months. We’ll let you know, though, if we decide to take it down.

We’ll touch base one last time tomorrow to let you know we made it home. So, until then, night to everyone.

November 7 – Next Stop….Chicago

Flight is on time. We should land around 11am local. Talk with you later.

 

 

November 8 – Sweet Home Chicago

Our flight left on time and after what seemed like an incredibly long flight, we arrived at Midway around 11:15am. It took another eternity to get the luggage but finally we were in a cab on the way home. It has been pretty much nonstop ever since.

The post office was supposed to hold the mail but we found a pile of it on the kitchen table. Apparently even though they told me they would hold it for the entire time we were gone, they started delivering again after a month. Luckily Agata came every week so she brought it in for us.

 While Peter went through the mail, Lynn unpacked the suitcases. It really wasn’t hard as every piece of clothing was dirty so it was just a matter of putting the “stuff” away. Didn’t quite succeed so there’s a pile on the guest room bed to deal with later this week.

The first errand was to go to the bank to get Lynn’s rings out of the safe deposit box. Then we went to vote which took almost 90 minutes. By that time we were starving so we stopped at Subway for lunch. The last big errand was grocery shopping. It was actually pretty easy to do as we needed just about everything.

Then it was home to unload 7 bags of groceries and start the laundry. Only doing one load tonight; there’s plenty of time tomorrow to do the rest.

The rest of the week will be more of the same. Tomorrow Lynn has a doctor’s appointment and then we’re going to make the pilgrimage to Wrigley Field for pictures and to buy our World Series Cubs gear. Then Lynn needs to lock herself in the office to play catch up which will take most of Wednesday.

Okay, so wasn’t this an exciting post….voting, laundry, and groceries. I guess the adventure really is over. But just for now…there are many more to come. Thanks again for coming along with us on this one. So, until next time, stay safe and be happy.

Love to you all,

Lynn & Peter

November 24 – On Our Way Again

We’re heading to NY C for the holiday weekend. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

November 25 – Thanksgiving in New York

Hi again everyone. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We started our day off with an uneventful flight to LaGuardia. By the time we got into a cab the parade was over but the barricades blocking the streets were still up so we had to walk the last 4 blocks to our hotel. Of course, it started raining as soon as we got out of the cab but it was just a light drizzle so we didn’t get too wet. Luckily the hotel had a room ready so we were able to settle in.

We had Thanksgiving lunch at the Brooklyn Diner just a block from the hotel. It was probably the most expensive lunch we’ve ever had ($65 for two sandwiches and a milkshake) but that’s New York. After lunch we headed to Central Park which is only 2 blocks from the hotel. Even though we walked for 2 hours we only made it about a third of the way across the length. The Park is huge; about three and a half miles long and over one mile wide. There were tons of people out and even though it was cool and cloudy, the rain had stopped so it was a pleasant walk. 

Then we took the subway to Times Square which was jam packed with people. You couldn’t even tell it was a major holiday because just about every store was open and crowded with shoppers. Peter bought a 2-day ticket for the hop on/hop off bus. He’ll use that Friday and Saturday while Lynn is at rehearsals for the concert. Then we found the half-price ticket booth and got tickets for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. They weren’t even close to half off but we saved a little bit.

Since the show started in just 30 minutes, we quickly walked the four blocks to the famed theater. The show was truly spectacular. The costumes were beautiful and the Rockettes were incredible. They we’re in about 6 or 7 different numbers, each one of course included the famous kick line. Santa was there as were with real camels and other livestock for the Nativity number. We thoroughly enjoyed the show; it really put us in the holiday spirit.

After grabbing a quick hot dog from one of the dozens of street vendors, we walked to Rockefeller Plaza and watched the ice skaters. Unfortunately, the tree won’t be lit until next week but there were still plenty of beautiful lights and decorations. We slowly headed back to the hotel enjoying the store lights along the way. Sax Fifth Avenue had an amazing light and music show.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost 8:30 and we were hungry again so we went back to the Diner for chicken soup. Because the restaurant is so close to the hotels were most of the chorale members are staying, we ran into several friends along the way. It was nice to see familiar faces in such a crowded city.

After a very long, but wonderful day, we finally made it back to our room. It was a different way to spend Thanksgiving but definitely a lot of fun. We didn’t really miss having a traditional turkey dinner because we cooked a bird with all the trimmings last weekend.

Lynn starts rehearsals on Friday afternoon so we hope to head to the Ground Zero Museum in the morning. Then Lynn will head back to the hotel while Peter enjoys his hop on/hop off bus. We’ll keep you posted on our New York adventure. Bye for now.

November 26 – Fun in New York

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. We’re having a lot of fun in New York. Yesterday (Friday) we went to the 9/11 Memorial Museum in the morning. It was very well done, sobering but not maudlin. They built the museum around pieces of the towers that were still standing. There was a room dedicated to the victims that had all of their pictures and memorabilia from some of them. We only spent a few hours as Lynn had to go to rehearsal but we’re glad we went. Here are a few pictures.

 

After the museum, Lynn got back on the subway to head uptown for rehearsal while Peter started touring on the hop on/hop off bus. He visited the NY Historical museum and toured Harlem, Grant’s Tomb, Chinatown and Little Italy. Then we met back at the hotel and headed out for the evening.

We had a fun dinner at Forlini’s, an Italian restaurant in Chinatown. We asked the owner, Joe, what he was doing in Chinatown and he told us that when the restaurant first opened in the 40s the area was Little Italy but over the years the area changed and the Italian section became smaller as Chinatown got bigger. But since he owns the entire building he decided to stay. He kept stopping by all during dinner plying Peter with wine and forcing us to try not one, but two of his desserts. The cheesecake was homemade and absolutely delicious. It was a ton of fun. We can see why Trip Advisor has it as one of the top restaurants in NYC. The best part was it wasn’t crazy expensive. Pasta was $15-$18 depending on the dish. Way less expensive the the $21 Reuben sandwich from the Diner on Friday.

Today (Saturday) Lynn had rehearsal all morning while Peter finished touring the city on the bus touring the rest of the city. He also stopped at another museum, this one on Native American history and an old cemetery.

Once Lynn was done with rehearsal around 1:30, we walked to the Empire State Building but the line to get to the top was crazy long so we decided to just take some pictures in the lobby. Then we headed to Little Italy for dinner. We ate at a pizza restaurant that Joe from Forlini’s recommended. While not exactly like the pizza we ate while we were in Italy, it was still quite good. Peter bought a bottle of wine but we realized we didn’t have a cork screw. Finding one was a lot harder than we thought; we had to stop at 3 stores before finally finding something. Turns out, though, that the wine he bought had a screw cap so now we have yet another cork screw to add to collection we have at home.

Tomorrow is the big day and the main point of this trip….the performance at Carnegie Hall. It will be a long day for Lynn as she has an 8:45am call time at the Hall for the final rehearsal. That goes until 11:45 after which she has about a 90- minute break before going back for the performance. The concert is sold out so there will be over 2700 people in Sterns Auditorium.

The performance will be streamed live on Facebook so if you have some time in the afternoon, feel free to tune in. The performance begins at 2pm eastern time. Lynn is singing from the stage in the 1st half of the performance. She’s in the 2nd from the last row, just left of center as you look at the stage. In the 2nd half she’ll be in the second tier but not sure where. If you miss it live, it will be rebroadcast at another time but we don’t know when. It’s going to be a very exciting day! We’ll let you know how it goes.

https://www.facebook.com/DistinguishedConcertsInternationalNewYork/

November 27 – Carnegie Hall Debut

Well the day stared like any other. Got up, showered, and did hair. Since we were told that the Hall didn’t allow any bags, even in the small rooms, I only took a couple of things with me to the morning rehearsal. Peter was just climbing out of bed as I was leaving for breakfast. I ate at a cafe down the street, had a nice breakfast and when I got the check I realized that I didn’t have my wallet….oops. Luckily I had my phone so I called Peter and he came down to pay the bill so I didn’t have to do dishes before I went to rehearsal.

Rehearsal went great. Walking on to the Perelman Stage was incredible. Even though it was just rehearsal it was still pretty overwhelming.

After going back to the hotel to change we walked back to the theater and very quickly were back on stage. That’s where I had my next oops moment. I had my readers in my hand but dropped them just as we were starting. I couldn’t find them after a quick look so I ended up singing without them. Luckily, I know the music pretty well and the stage was well lit so it wasn’t too difficult.

Before we left for Europe we thought about not coming on this trip. First. I wouldn’t be home to practice with the chorale during the fall, and second it was going to be expensive. Not only did we have the cost of transportation and hotel, but everything in NY is crazy expensive (remember the $21 Ruben sandwich). But in the end we decided to come and I’m so glad we did. Yes, it was expensive, but that hour I sang on the stage of one of the most famous concert halls in the world was priceless. There were times when it was actually difficult to sing because of the emotion of the moment; even in the second half when we were sitting in the tiers. The highlight there, of course, was the Hallelujah Chorus. With both choruses there were almost 450 singers and when we finished to thunderous applause, I was literally crying. It was the most amazing feeling. We also sang the last movement with the chorus on the stage. The sold-out house was on its feet while the last “Amen” was still hanging in the air. It was a once in a lifetime experience that was worth every penny.

Thanks to those of you who were able to watch the live stream. From what I understand, it will be available on the dciny.org Facebook page. You can go to their website and follow the links to the Facebook page. I’m looking forward to watching when we get home.

Our next trip is Saturday. Peter is working an event in St. Louis and then we’ll visit his sister in Mt. View. I don’t expect anything exciting to happen so I’m not sure when we’ll post again. Have a great holiday season. Love to all. Peter and Lynn