Now that Caitie is successfully launched, we planned an errand day. We would take the 1.5 hour train trip from Florence to Rome and pick up the back of Caitie's winter clothes we stored at the Rome airport then return to Florence where we could turn the bag over to Caitie. First, though, we had time left on yesterday's hop on/hop off bus that would enable us to take the ride out to the nearby resort area of Fiesole. So, there we were this morning at 9:10, sitting in the front row on the top level of the first hop on/hop off bus of the day. We rode it for two hours, getting another fire hose dose of Florence. As soon as it dropped us back off at the train station we went inside in search of reservations for the express train to Rome.
What happened next seemed amazingly fast to me, but slow motion to Mike. I was in front, saw the smashed-up ripe banana on the floor and stepped over it. Mike was looking up to read the time schedule, missed seeing the banana, stepped on it and did a deep split on the floor. He let our a scream of pain that got the attention of many of us in the area. People rushed to help him, most helpfully a football (soccer) player. The pain was bad, and he lay on the floor of the train station in absolute pain- his leg hurt very bad. Among the crowd watching it was recognized that we spoke no Italian, so a volunteer called the ambulance for us. Thankfully this was not an emergency, as the ambulance took twenty minutes to get there. During the twenty minutes crowds gathered to watch, then disbursed. One man signalled me with the universal "tip the bottle" hand sign to ask whether he was laying on the ground due to a bit too much partying. I came to his defense, of course, pointing to the slime on the bottom of his hiking boots. By then, the janitor had finally cleaned the mushy banana off the floor. At one point, when the pain had subsided enough, we broke out laughing at the absurdity of laying on the floor of this huge train station due to slipping on a banana. Such a cliche.
Eventually the ambulance showed up and they scraped Mike off the floor and into the back of an ambulance. I was permitted to ride along, and with assurances that the sirens were just to help us with the traffic, we set off for the orthopedic hospital. By this time, Mike was certain that his leg wasn't broken and he was just holding on for dear life as the ambulance jogged through the rocky stone streets of Florence.
In the hospital Mike was taken to the exam room of the emergency entrance and I remained in the waiting room. It took about an hour total for the exam, x-rays and pressure bandaging. He sprained his leg and has to use crutches for the next week. With help from the taxi driver we made it back to our hotel where he leaned on me to get upstairs and onto the bed. The reception clerk offered to call around to find crutches for us to rent, although our return coincided with lunch making him unable to do anything for several hours. Hopefully Mike will have crutches later today so that he can get around on his own.
The desk clerk agreed to waive the rule about food to allow me to get Mike some lunch to eat in our room. So, we just finished a sandwich and a peach and we are in for the day. Caitie planned to visit us after school orientation this afternoon, as she was hoping for another shopping foray. So, I may go back out onto the streets later in search of an electric teapot, tea bags and a couple of coffee cups.
Wondering how much this cost? So are we. They collected Mike's passport when we arrived in the emergency room but they discharged him without asking anything about insurance or payment. He walked out with his passport, his x-rays, a prescription for ibuprofen and a slimy hiking boot. We aren't sure whether we will get a bill in the future or if an accident is covered by the National Health Insurance program as it is in New Zealand. When Matt was hurt in an accident there we had no charge, nor when Mike developed an infection as a result of a horse riding accident. Apparently we would have to pay for an illness there, but not an accident. Hope that's true in Italy.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Wednesday- We want to be college students in Florence!
We are back from parent orientation at NYU Florence and we both wholeheartedly agree that we want to be college students. Words do not do justice to the beauty of the campus, the dean's description of the humanist education and the energy of 125 college freshman all getting ready to start school in a few days. Mike and I loved every minute of the time we spent at La Pietra, the name of the villa that houses the campus. I am currently downloading the photos and you'll see how wonderful it is, even without photos of the interior, which are not allowed for reasons of preservation of the art. Caitie's class is very international. Only 40% of the students graduated from US high schools. The remainder of the students are from all over the globe - together they speak 27 languages. We met parents from Singapore, Mexico, Korea, Hong Kong, England, and Ohio. There are approximately 100 female students and 25 male.
The campus was donated to NYU after the last member of the Acton family died in 1992. Prior to his death he tried to arrange for the estate to pass to his alma mater, Oxford, but they thought the gift was too difficult to accept because the villa required extensive investments. NYU was willing to restore the vila and the gardens and presented a plan that matched the desires of the Actons- primarily honoring its heritage as a place for finding common ground amongst people about beauty. NYU has extensively renovated the gardens and the interior of the villa and made it possible for about 400 students to attend classes on the 57 acre estate. From downtown Florence, the campus is almost straight north. By taxi it took us about ten minutes to get to campus from the train station. You approach it by driving up a hill on the road to Bologna. The campus is in a residential area, where it sits quietly behind a six or seven foot gold stucco wall that completely surrounds it but blends in unobtrusively with the neighborhood. There are a couple of single car wide entrances, although only one is guarded and the others locked. The entrance is on the side of the dormitories, two side-by-side villas. These buildings look to be a few hundred years old, but they include elevators, and ATM and a cafeteria where the students take their breakfast and dinner. All of the buildings within the villa have some level of historical designation, and therefore have some governmental oversight about their refurbishment. The outside of the buildings are maintained in a look and feel of the period in which they were built, although the inside has been changed to accommmodate the current use. Caitie's room is equipped with two bunk beds built into the walls, and four 2 1/2 foot wide desks with a cabinet/closet above for their clothes. Mike and I had a good laugh at the fact that Caitie, who spent most of her life living in a tiny built in bed on the first houseboat, another built-in loft bed in our Mercer Island house, then a tiny closet bedroom at our second houseboat, has once again landed in a tiny built-in loft bed with a tiny set of storage space for her belongings. She has set to work decorating her personal space with some of her artwork that she brought from home- so already her space has a sense of style to it.
The photos from La Peitra are mostly of the dorm room and the gardens, as no photos could be taken inside the estate where the Acton art collection resides. It was an amazing collection, made even more amazing when you consider that NYU has protected the look and feel of the estate as it was lived in. There is art everywhere in this home, all of it reflecting the tastes of the Actons, and it is incredible.
The gardens make tremendous use of their outstanding position on a hilltop overlooking Florence. The hedges are tall enough to block views of neighboring homes, yet cut strategically to allow views of the Duomo and the city skyline. The space between the dorms, which are on a hill and the classroom villa, on a differnet hill is a set of slopes planted with olive trees. It is enchanting. To harvest the olive crop, the students volunteer for a weekend of picking in October. The goverment does not allow the university to sell the extra virgin olive oil that they produce, so the volunteers are all given a bottle. I have already put in my order with our olive picker. Wherever Mike and I go over the holidays (our house is rented until May), we will be carrying our little bit of La Pietra with us.
After the parent oreintation Caitie went to dinner with us and we wandered around the city together. The main street between the Duomo and the train station is crowded with people and a walk at 9:30 sees lots of action. Immigrants from Northern Africa stand on the piazza with all kinds of toys for sale- glow in the dark twirlies and crawl-on-the-belly-wind-up soldiers. Teenagers sit together in clumps of the stairs of the cathedral. Police stand in pairs talking and keeping an eye on things. Tourists wander around taking photos and pointing out things to each other. It is a happening.
We all love bookstores and we frequently end up in one, just as we did tonight. Caitie picked out a couple of classics to read before classes start on Monday, and Mike and I got a book on Florence, an Italian Resnaissance Reader, and an Italian/English dictionary. We tried to go on-line to recharge the pre-paid mobile phone today and could not fill in the blanks on the Italian order form, so the dictionary has an immediate purpose. We ended the evening with Caitie visiting for awhile in our room, then leaving us with a beautiful note of appreciation before she took her taxi back to school. All in all, it was THE perfect day.
The campus was donated to NYU after the last member of the Acton family died in 1992. Prior to his death he tried to arrange for the estate to pass to his alma mater, Oxford, but they thought the gift was too difficult to accept because the villa required extensive investments. NYU was willing to restore the vila and the gardens and presented a plan that matched the desires of the Actons- primarily honoring its heritage as a place for finding common ground amongst people about beauty. NYU has extensively renovated the gardens and the interior of the villa and made it possible for about 400 students to attend classes on the 57 acre estate. From downtown Florence, the campus is almost straight north. By taxi it took us about ten minutes to get to campus from the train station. You approach it by driving up a hill on the road to Bologna. The campus is in a residential area, where it sits quietly behind a six or seven foot gold stucco wall that completely surrounds it but blends in unobtrusively with the neighborhood. There are a couple of single car wide entrances, although only one is guarded and the others locked. The entrance is on the side of the dormitories, two side-by-side villas. These buildings look to be a few hundred years old, but they include elevators, and ATM and a cafeteria where the students take their breakfast and dinner. All of the buildings within the villa have some level of historical designation, and therefore have some governmental oversight about their refurbishment. The outside of the buildings are maintained in a look and feel of the period in which they were built, although the inside has been changed to accommmodate the current use. Caitie's room is equipped with two bunk beds built into the walls, and four 2 1/2 foot wide desks with a cabinet/closet above for their clothes. Mike and I had a good laugh at the fact that Caitie, who spent most of her life living in a tiny built in bed on the first houseboat, another built-in loft bed in our Mercer Island house, then a tiny closet bedroom at our second houseboat, has once again landed in a tiny built-in loft bed with a tiny set of storage space for her belongings. She has set to work decorating her personal space with some of her artwork that she brought from home- so already her space has a sense of style to it.
The photos from La Peitra are mostly of the dorm room and the gardens, as no photos could be taken inside the estate where the Acton art collection resides. It was an amazing collection, made even more amazing when you consider that NYU has protected the look and feel of the estate as it was lived in. There is art everywhere in this home, all of it reflecting the tastes of the Actons, and it is incredible.
The gardens make tremendous use of their outstanding position on a hilltop overlooking Florence. The hedges are tall enough to block views of neighboring homes, yet cut strategically to allow views of the Duomo and the city skyline. The space between the dorms, which are on a hill and the classroom villa, on a differnet hill is a set of slopes planted with olive trees. It is enchanting. To harvest the olive crop, the students volunteer for a weekend of picking in October. The goverment does not allow the university to sell the extra virgin olive oil that they produce, so the volunteers are all given a bottle. I have already put in my order with our olive picker. Wherever Mike and I go over the holidays (our house is rented until May), we will be carrying our little bit of La Pietra with us.
After the parent oreintation Caitie went to dinner with us and we wandered around the city together. The main street between the Duomo and the train station is crowded with people and a walk at 9:30 sees lots of action. Immigrants from Northern Africa stand on the piazza with all kinds of toys for sale- glow in the dark twirlies and crawl-on-the-belly-wind-up soldiers. Teenagers sit together in clumps of the stairs of the cathedral. Police stand in pairs talking and keeping an eye on things. Tourists wander around taking photos and pointing out things to each other. It is a happening.
We all love bookstores and we frequently end up in one, just as we did tonight. Caitie picked out a couple of classics to read before classes start on Monday, and Mike and I got a book on Florence, an Italian Resnaissance Reader, and an Italian/English dictionary. We tried to go on-line to recharge the pre-paid mobile phone today and could not fill in the blanks on the Italian order form, so the dictionary has an immediate purpose. We ended the evening with Caitie visiting for awhile in our room, then leaving us with a beautiful note of appreciation before she took her taxi back to school. All in all, it was THE perfect day.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tuesday evening- Listening to the echoes of the empty nest
Well, the youngest of five children caught a taxi from our hotel in downtown Florence and rode up to campus this afternoon. She is officially a college student. We picked her up yesterday in Milan (cheaper to fly there and take the train than to fly directly into Florence by a wide margin) and traveled with her to Florence. We wandered around the city today in search of a few last minute things she needed for the dorm (can you really call living in a villa a dorm?) like towels and shampoo. We had lunch together (we are all serious aficionados of Italian food after only a few meals). We had gelato also, on the advice of sister-in-law Maryann who advises that a complete diet requires calcium to go with the antioxidants in the dark chocolate. All in all, we had a great twenty-four hours with Caitie before she kissed us goodbye and went off to college.
Florence is such a cool city. We spent our first night here with Caitie in a dump. We have been staying in budget hotels and some are fine and some are borderline. This one was fine once you were in the room, but it really was a set of studio apartments on the third floor of an office building and the common areas smelled badly of mold. It’s saving grace was free internet which gave me the ability to surf around until I found something better for our subsequent nights. So, this morning the three of us traipsed two blocks to a better budget hotel which is considerably better , doesn’t smell and also has free internet. They have a prohibition against food or drink in your room and don’t allow doing your laundry in your room, so we will have to be a bit sneakier than we have been in the past.
We haven't really done any of the sightseeing stuff yet, unless you call walking by the duomo, an icon of Italy, the 11th century church that is probably one of the top ten churches in the world, in search of a department store that has towels, seeing the sights. Then, walking by it again in search of a computer store that might have a computer recharger to replace the one Caitie left in Spain. Or, maybe the third pass by when we were walking off our meal and making room for the gelato they sell in that beautiful marble palace of an ice cream store across from the site of a Roman forum, the Piazza Della Republicca. Or maybe you could call it sightseeing when we were walking up and down the rows of the open air market looking for new flip flops (Caitie and me), a new skirt (Caitie) and a new patch (guess who that was for?)
The open air market was lots of fun. Walking with Caitie made it all the more so. She was frequently the star of the show, as the good looking Italian men called out, "Ciao, Bella" when she walked by. She played it very cool, though, just smiling and maintaining her pace. Doesn't mean I'm not worrying though. Caitie warned Mike not to wander off in search of anything though... even Mom got a marriage proposal from a waiter at an outdoor cafe who asked me where I was from, and upon hearing Seattle, told me he was Kenny G and we ought to get married. A bald, black Kenny G would be a surprise take away from Florence.
So, after spending our entire married life with kids, we suddenly find ourselves far from home with no kids needing us for day-to-day management. It will take a little getting used to. We'll have five more weeks in Italy, with lots of Italian wine, great food and gelato to try and work through it, though. We'll let you know how we do.
Tomorrow we hit the trail for real sight-seeing so we will give you a report of what we see. At 4:00 PM we meet at Caitie's campus for a parent tour of campus and a welcome reception. We spent full days each at the same event for the boys and had memorable lessons such as, "don't expect them to graduate in four years (helpful in setting expectations for what has inevitably happened)", "keep your paycheck handy" and "they will change majors half a dozen times before they graduate (true enough if you average across the boys). NYU Florence, which costs way more than the state universities the boys are attending may have an entirely different twist on things. We will let you know tomorrow.
It is 6:45 and we hear the dinner bells chiming. We are off to dinner. Ciao!
Deanne
Florence is such a cool city. We spent our first night here with Caitie in a dump. We have been staying in budget hotels and some are fine and some are borderline. This one was fine once you were in the room, but it really was a set of studio apartments on the third floor of an office building and the common areas smelled badly of mold. It’s saving grace was free internet which gave me the ability to surf around until I found something better for our subsequent nights. So, this morning the three of us traipsed two blocks to a better budget hotel which is considerably better , doesn’t smell and also has free internet. They have a prohibition against food or drink in your room and don’t allow doing your laundry in your room, so we will have to be a bit sneakier than we have been in the past.
We haven't really done any of the sightseeing stuff yet, unless you call walking by the duomo, an icon of Italy, the 11th century church that is probably one of the top ten churches in the world, in search of a department store that has towels, seeing the sights. Then, walking by it again in search of a computer store that might have a computer recharger to replace the one Caitie left in Spain. Or, maybe the third pass by when we were walking off our meal and making room for the gelato they sell in that beautiful marble palace of an ice cream store across from the site of a Roman forum, the Piazza Della Republicca. Or maybe you could call it sightseeing when we were walking up and down the rows of the open air market looking for new flip flops (Caitie and me), a new skirt (Caitie) and a new patch (guess who that was for?)
The open air market was lots of fun. Walking with Caitie made it all the more so. She was frequently the star of the show, as the good looking Italian men called out, "Ciao, Bella" when she walked by. She played it very cool, though, just smiling and maintaining her pace. Doesn't mean I'm not worrying though. Caitie warned Mike not to wander off in search of anything though... even Mom got a marriage proposal from a waiter at an outdoor cafe who asked me where I was from, and upon hearing Seattle, told me he was Kenny G and we ought to get married. A bald, black Kenny G would be a surprise take away from Florence.
So, after spending our entire married life with kids, we suddenly find ourselves far from home with no kids needing us for day-to-day management. It will take a little getting used to. We'll have five more weeks in Italy, with lots of Italian wine, great food and gelato to try and work through it, though. We'll let you know how we do.
Tomorrow we hit the trail for real sight-seeing so we will give you a report of what we see. At 4:00 PM we meet at Caitie's campus for a parent tour of campus and a welcome reception. We spent full days each at the same event for the boys and had memorable lessons such as, "don't expect them to graduate in four years (helpful in setting expectations for what has inevitably happened)", "keep your paycheck handy" and "they will change majors half a dozen times before they graduate (true enough if you average across the boys). NYU Florence, which costs way more than the state universities the boys are attending may have an entirely different twist on things. We will let you know tomorrow.
It is 6:45 and we hear the dinner bells chiming. We are off to dinner. Ciao!
Deanne
"Things" we have loved, lost and left behind
We have written about our observations of life on the road and the people we meet but we have not written much about "things" so this column is dedicated to those possessions and material goods that sustain us, nurture us and frustrate the heck out of us. Here goes:
Things we love (in no particular order):
1. Our Osprey bags. We've said it before and we will say it again, these bags rock. Literally. Those big wheels roll right over the biggest, baddest rocky roads we travel. These zippers are indestructible. We have crammed them full and they stay closed.
2. Patches of flags from the countries we have visited. They are little, inexpensive and remind Mike of the places he has loved.
3. Showers with water pressure and room to move. We have been crammed into little boxes with no elbow room and washed with cold water and water that barely dribbles. When we get a great shower, we celebrate.
4. Mike's travel shoes. After years of wearing tennis shoes daily and for all purposes, Mike bought some low hiking shoes for this trip and he loves them. He is not going back to daily tennis shoes.
5. Our travel wardrobe. We brought too much, but what we brought was great.
Things we lost:
1. Deanne's black capris. I washed them then left them hanging in the closet to dry. At the next stop when I realized that one half of my pants wardrobe was gone, I e-mailed the hotel and THEY PROMISED TO MAIL THEM TO CAITIE FOR FREE. And they did. So, as of today, I have them back.
Things we have left behind:
1. Mike left behind some clothes that he no longer wanted/needed.
2. Paperbacks in English for the next person traveling through that hotel in desperate need of reading material.
3. Soaps and shampoos that we have collected along the way to use as laundry soap until we realized the rate of acquisition was exceeded the usage rate.
4. We intend to leave some extra clothes and shoes with Caitie so we have a lighter load while we travel through Italy. We will pick them up on the way back through.
Mike and Deanne
Things we love (in no particular order):
1. Our Osprey bags. We've said it before and we will say it again, these bags rock. Literally. Those big wheels roll right over the biggest, baddest rocky roads we travel. These zippers are indestructible. We have crammed them full and they stay closed.
2. Patches of flags from the countries we have visited. They are little, inexpensive and remind Mike of the places he has loved.
3. Showers with water pressure and room to move. We have been crammed into little boxes with no elbow room and washed with cold water and water that barely dribbles. When we get a great shower, we celebrate.
4. Mike's travel shoes. After years of wearing tennis shoes daily and for all purposes, Mike bought some low hiking shoes for this trip and he loves them. He is not going back to daily tennis shoes.
5. Our travel wardrobe. We brought too much, but what we brought was great.
Things we lost:
1. Deanne's black capris. I washed them then left them hanging in the closet to dry. At the next stop when I realized that one half of my pants wardrobe was gone, I e-mailed the hotel and THEY PROMISED TO MAIL THEM TO CAITIE FOR FREE. And they did. So, as of today, I have them back.
Things we have left behind:
1. Mike left behind some clothes that he no longer wanted/needed.
2. Paperbacks in English for the next person traveling through that hotel in desperate need of reading material.
3. Soaps and shampoos that we have collected along the way to use as laundry soap until we realized the rate of acquisition was exceeded the usage rate.
4. We intend to leave some extra clothes and shoes with Caitie so we have a lighter load while we travel through Italy. We will pick them up on the way back through.
Mike and Deanne
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday afternoon- a family united on the train to Florence
Mike and I were so excited to see Caitie today. Our Milan hotel, the wonderful, highly recommended Hotel Berna, was only minutes from the Centrale Stazione, so we arranged with the kind desk staff to hold our luggage when we left this morning at 11:00 to take the bus to the Milan airport. Caitie’s plane arrived at 2:00, which gave us plenty of time to figure out the bus transportation between the Central train station where our hotel is and where we would be leaving for Florence after we picked her up. We got to the airport, cased the place for where she would be arriving and where we would meet her. We had arranged logistics with her by phone a few days ago with confirmation last night, so we knew that she would collect her luggage then start looking for us wherever the public waiting for incoming passengers. Imagine our surprise to see her walk off the plane with a handsome Italian young man. She and her seating companion had struck up a conversation and left the plane together. Caitie is going to have fun in Italy!
So far we love Italy. We arrived yesterday on the train from the beautiful Swiss city of Lugano. The Milan train station was a bit of a shock after spending most of our time in small towns. This was a big city with lots of noise, people and action. After a few minutes of trying to figure out where we were, we stopped to buy a few soft drinks and asked directions to our hotel. By careful selection of our hotels we have not had to use a taxi in over a week. We can manage our luggage and walk to our hotels and it has worked well. So, we struck off across the busy plaza in search of Via Napoli and found it a short distance away, just as the vendor had promised. This hotel appears to be a sister of the Hotel Dante in Lugano, our best hotel to date. Although we paid more for that hotel than any others, it was luxurious compared to many of the hotels we have tried. The Berna had the same towels, signage and amenities, making it feel as if they had common management. In any event, the Berna was also delightful.
We spent Sunday afternoon walking around Milan. The hotel staff supplied us with a map and sent us in the general direction of the Centro area. Walking those city streets on a hot Sunday afternoon was surreal – Mike described it as a scene from the movie, The Day After, in which the survivors are walking around the big city the day after a nuclear bomb. The streets were deserted and all of the shops were boarded up. It wasn’t until we arrived at the famous cathedral, the Duomo, that we saw people. This magnificent gothic cathedral is undergoing refurbishment so it is covered in cloths and scaffolding, but the spires peaking out at the top were intricate in their design. We hurried through the inside, because Mike has reached his point of saturation with cathedrals. They all look alike to him at this point.
Across from the Duomo there is a gorgeous enclosed shopping area where we found a pizza restaurant and had our first Italian pizza. It is not our first pizza, in fact it was our third pizza in three days, but it was the first one on Italian soil. Mike and I have different opinions of what defines good Italian food. To him, it is the New York pizza he remembers from his college days and the spaghetti and meatballs his friends’ families would serve when he went to visit. To me, it is grilled vegetables, caprese salad of tomatoes, basil and buffalo mozzarella and seafood. We have agreed to try and reach some compromise, but we have started our adventure in Italy with pizza. He is a happy man.
Caitie looks so tired. Apparently she and her roommate spent their last night in Spain visiting friends, packing and cleaning the apartment. Sleep was not any part of the plan. She has a philosophy book to read before Wednesday that was assigned to all of the NYU students, so it lies open beside her while she naps. She put in her request for a good dinner tonight and a shopping trip tomorrow to pick up things she couldn’t fit in her suitcase before she closed her eyes. So I know what is on our agenda for the next few days. She is due at school before 6:00 PM tomorrow, so we will shop first then help her make her way to school. Mike and I were invited to a parents open house the following day, so we will be able to see her again before she starts classes. When we flew in to Rome six weeks ago Mike and I carried a huge bag of Caitie’s full of the winter clothes she needed for school but not for the summer. We left the bag at the bag check at the Rome airport, so we may spend Wednesday running down to Rome on the trains to pick up the bag and bring it back. She isn’t in a hurry to get it, but it would be nice to get it out of storage where it is racking up fees of 3.5 Euros a day. That is another round of espressos each day….
We talked to Matt yesterday. Called him at 9:30 in the morning on his day off and woke the poor boy up on his day off. It was great to talk to him. He has had a busy summer with summer classes and full time work at the casino, so we felt bad waking him up on a day off. But, after six weeks with little word from the boys it was nice to hear from him. He had spent the night with Jonny only the day previously, so we have proof positive that they are both in great shape.
Several of you commented favorably about the Brunhilda story. I don’t know if that is because you like seeing me intimidated by some laundry witch or whether she reminds each of you of some PE teacher or bureaucrat somewhere that wields their power over you mercilessly. But in answer to the photo question, no I did not get her photo. It is difficult to know whether asking her for permission to snap her mug would have warmed her up or put her off entirely. In my National Geographic photo class they told me to ask strangers for their photos then get right up in their face for the picture. I have not done much of that on this trip. Partially it is my own reluctance to do so, and partially it is Mike’s desire to not get me killed. So , no, we don’t have a picture of the Lucerne Laundry Witch.
So far we love Italy. We arrived yesterday on the train from the beautiful Swiss city of Lugano. The Milan train station was a bit of a shock after spending most of our time in small towns. This was a big city with lots of noise, people and action. After a few minutes of trying to figure out where we were, we stopped to buy a few soft drinks and asked directions to our hotel. By careful selection of our hotels we have not had to use a taxi in over a week. We can manage our luggage and walk to our hotels and it has worked well. So, we struck off across the busy plaza in search of Via Napoli and found it a short distance away, just as the vendor had promised. This hotel appears to be a sister of the Hotel Dante in Lugano, our best hotel to date. Although we paid more for that hotel than any others, it was luxurious compared to many of the hotels we have tried. The Berna had the same towels, signage and amenities, making it feel as if they had common management. In any event, the Berna was also delightful.
We spent Sunday afternoon walking around Milan. The hotel staff supplied us with a map and sent us in the general direction of the Centro area. Walking those city streets on a hot Sunday afternoon was surreal – Mike described it as a scene from the movie, The Day After, in which the survivors are walking around the big city the day after a nuclear bomb. The streets were deserted and all of the shops were boarded up. It wasn’t until we arrived at the famous cathedral, the Duomo, that we saw people. This magnificent gothic cathedral is undergoing refurbishment so it is covered in cloths and scaffolding, but the spires peaking out at the top were intricate in their design. We hurried through the inside, because Mike has reached his point of saturation with cathedrals. They all look alike to him at this point.
Across from the Duomo there is a gorgeous enclosed shopping area where we found a pizza restaurant and had our first Italian pizza. It is not our first pizza, in fact it was our third pizza in three days, but it was the first one on Italian soil. Mike and I have different opinions of what defines good Italian food. To him, it is the New York pizza he remembers from his college days and the spaghetti and meatballs his friends’ families would serve when he went to visit. To me, it is grilled vegetables, caprese salad of tomatoes, basil and buffalo mozzarella and seafood. We have agreed to try and reach some compromise, but we have started our adventure in Italy with pizza. He is a happy man.
Caitie looks so tired. Apparently she and her roommate spent their last night in Spain visiting friends, packing and cleaning the apartment. Sleep was not any part of the plan. She has a philosophy book to read before Wednesday that was assigned to all of the NYU students, so it lies open beside her while she naps. She put in her request for a good dinner tonight and a shopping trip tomorrow to pick up things she couldn’t fit in her suitcase before she closed her eyes. So I know what is on our agenda for the next few days. She is due at school before 6:00 PM tomorrow, so we will shop first then help her make her way to school. Mike and I were invited to a parents open house the following day, so we will be able to see her again before she starts classes. When we flew in to Rome six weeks ago Mike and I carried a huge bag of Caitie’s full of the winter clothes she needed for school but not for the summer. We left the bag at the bag check at the Rome airport, so we may spend Wednesday running down to Rome on the trains to pick up the bag and bring it back. She isn’t in a hurry to get it, but it would be nice to get it out of storage where it is racking up fees of 3.5 Euros a day. That is another round of espressos each day….
We talked to Matt yesterday. Called him at 9:30 in the morning on his day off and woke the poor boy up on his day off. It was great to talk to him. He has had a busy summer with summer classes and full time work at the casino, so we felt bad waking him up on a day off. But, after six weeks with little word from the boys it was nice to hear from him. He had spent the night with Jonny only the day previously, so we have proof positive that they are both in great shape.
Several of you commented favorably about the Brunhilda story. I don’t know if that is because you like seeing me intimidated by some laundry witch or whether she reminds each of you of some PE teacher or bureaucrat somewhere that wields their power over you mercilessly. But in answer to the photo question, no I did not get her photo. It is difficult to know whether asking her for permission to snap her mug would have warmed her up or put her off entirely. In my National Geographic photo class they told me to ask strangers for their photos then get right up in their face for the picture. I have not done much of that on this trip. Partially it is my own reluctance to do so, and partially it is Mike’s desire to not get me killed. So , no, we don’t have a picture of the Lucerne Laundry Witch.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Switzerland after five fast days
We just left the laundry after being chewed out by Brunhilda, the Swiss witch that runs the place. We dared to make the error of thinking it was self service and walking over to an open washer in which to place our laundry. She informed us in unfriendly and utterly precise German accented words that this was not self service and we needed to wait until she could help us. After waiting the length of time it takes to prove who is in charge of the laundry, she then told us to put the dirty clothes into the washers that we were going to put them into anyway. She told us it takes two hours to wash the clothes. It is 9:10 AM on Saturday morning, with an 11:00 check out time looming, so we informed her that we would be back at 11:00 to check on things because we had to pack our clothes and leave. She was not happy about this, and let us know this adventure in the laundry was going to set us back 34 Swiss francs, or $28 for two loads. That will teach us to not wash our own clothes! These are two tiny loads, too.
Although the laundry story is not so pleasant, almost every other thing about Switzerland has been great. We have been city hopping- a method of getting from Spain to Italy in a week that we would not recommend to anyone. We take a two-four hour train ride every morning, spend the afternoon walking around the city and having dinner, then sleeping until time for the next train. Although we will get to Milan on schedule for meeting Caitie on Monday, this is certainly not the way to see Switzerland. We just barely get on the ground in a city and it is time to move on. Nevertheless, we love it here. At Maryann's suggestion, we are trying the chocolate of every town to ensure that we are getting our antioxidants. It is dark chocolate, of course. We have nibbled the truffles of Interlaken, the chocolate covered nuts of Montreux and the dark chocolate almond bark of Lucerne. Almost every town has streets loaded with Konditerei, these wonderful shops loaded with baked goods and chocolates. Some of them have sandwiches on baguettes also, so we stop in the morning and pack sustenance for the train trips. What a way to go.
Our Swiss hotels have been expensive, in the range of 180-220 Swiss francs per night, or almost $175 some nights. This hotel we are sitting in right now while waiting for our laundry across the street is wonderful. We have a corner room on the fifth floor of the Three Kings hotel. Because of the corner we have five double windows with a couch in front, providing wonderful views and lots of light. Unfortunately, like most of our rooms, it alos provides lots of street noise. Mike was awake for several hours last night listening to the kids party down on the street.
We have briefly visited Geneva, Montreaux, Interlaken, Lucerne and later today we will arrive in Lugarno. The first three cities were in the French speaking part of Switzerland, while Lucerne is German and Lugarno will be Italian. The Swiss all speak English, though, so it has been easy to get around here. It has been humbling to be in German speaking Lucerne, though, and realize how little of my five years of high school German vocabulary have disappeared. Mike's French is equally gone, so we need some refresher work on our language skills before we spend time in France and Germany where we aren't as able to rely on our English. Just as in Spain, we have enjoyed the smaller towns more than the larger cities, although it we did enjoy walking around peaking in the impressive shop windows in Geneva. I took a picture of one chocolate shop window which is indicative of how impressive all of the windows are.
One of the most memorable facets of our Swiss experience are the train trips. For all of the frustration of Portuguese trains, the Swiss is the exact opposite. Trains go everywhere, so cars are not necessary at all. The trains are clean, efficient and luxurious. The train schedules are posted in the stations and are clear and easy to read. Our train pass is all that is required to board a train, so there is no advance reservation required, and therefore no additional expenses incurred. And the scenery is spectacular. The mountainous passes with the homes perched on the side of the slopes are unique to this area. Tiny little villages, each one an inviting place to visit are short stops of the "Panorama Trains" we have chosen to take. While these trains take slightly longer to get to the destination, they go over the mountains and stop in the little towns rather than go around the mountains like the faster trains. We have been mesmerized by the scenery.
Several of you have written about the food, and you are right. Swiss food is very good. We have enjoyed cheese fondue, rosti- the hash brown like potatoes, steaks that seem tastier than those we tried in Spain, wonderful thin crust pizza, and of course, chocolate. The morning coffee, while good, is much more like home than the Spanish coffee. We enjoy it, but miss the stronger coffees we left behind in Spain. Starbucks are in all of the major cities of Switzerland, and we stopped in one in Geneva, and although we are stockholders of this fine company, we don't miss the Starbucks coffee compared to what we can enjoy in the small coffee shops. Mike loves the croissants here, and doesn't leave the breakfast table without making sure that each place doesn't have a better croissant than the last place we visited.
We have not seen any street people or beggars in Switzerland. They have not a hassle anywhere, but they have been around the edges of our visits, particularly noticeable in Avila, Spain. In Portugal the beggars were primarily elderly women, some of whom were quite aggressive about following you around. In Spain the beggars were usually young. We aren't sure what they do here to eliminate the beggars, but we have not seen them around. At night we hear inebriated revelers, but there are no drunken bums around in the morning.
Well, I am going to pack up the computer and go risk my life with Brunhilda. This is only our second time with machines for laundry, and given the expense and risk to our dignity, we are going back to hanging socks in the shower.
Later- Deanne
Although the laundry story is not so pleasant, almost every other thing about Switzerland has been great. We have been city hopping- a method of getting from Spain to Italy in a week that we would not recommend to anyone. We take a two-four hour train ride every morning, spend the afternoon walking around the city and having dinner, then sleeping until time for the next train. Although we will get to Milan on schedule for meeting Caitie on Monday, this is certainly not the way to see Switzerland. We just barely get on the ground in a city and it is time to move on. Nevertheless, we love it here. At Maryann's suggestion, we are trying the chocolate of every town to ensure that we are getting our antioxidants. It is dark chocolate, of course. We have nibbled the truffles of Interlaken, the chocolate covered nuts of Montreux and the dark chocolate almond bark of Lucerne. Almost every town has streets loaded with Konditerei, these wonderful shops loaded with baked goods and chocolates. Some of them have sandwiches on baguettes also, so we stop in the morning and pack sustenance for the train trips. What a way to go.
Our Swiss hotels have been expensive, in the range of 180-220 Swiss francs per night, or almost $175 some nights. This hotel we are sitting in right now while waiting for our laundry across the street is wonderful. We have a corner room on the fifth floor of the Three Kings hotel. Because of the corner we have five double windows with a couch in front, providing wonderful views and lots of light. Unfortunately, like most of our rooms, it alos provides lots of street noise. Mike was awake for several hours last night listening to the kids party down on the street.
We have briefly visited Geneva, Montreaux, Interlaken, Lucerne and later today we will arrive in Lugarno. The first three cities were in the French speaking part of Switzerland, while Lucerne is German and Lugarno will be Italian. The Swiss all speak English, though, so it has been easy to get around here. It has been humbling to be in German speaking Lucerne, though, and realize how little of my five years of high school German vocabulary have disappeared. Mike's French is equally gone, so we need some refresher work on our language skills before we spend time in France and Germany where we aren't as able to rely on our English. Just as in Spain, we have enjoyed the smaller towns more than the larger cities, although it we did enjoy walking around peaking in the impressive shop windows in Geneva. I took a picture of one chocolate shop window which is indicative of how impressive all of the windows are.
One of the most memorable facets of our Swiss experience are the train trips. For all of the frustration of Portuguese trains, the Swiss is the exact opposite. Trains go everywhere, so cars are not necessary at all. The trains are clean, efficient and luxurious. The train schedules are posted in the stations and are clear and easy to read. Our train pass is all that is required to board a train, so there is no advance reservation required, and therefore no additional expenses incurred. And the scenery is spectacular. The mountainous passes with the homes perched on the side of the slopes are unique to this area. Tiny little villages, each one an inviting place to visit are short stops of the "Panorama Trains" we have chosen to take. While these trains take slightly longer to get to the destination, they go over the mountains and stop in the little towns rather than go around the mountains like the faster trains. We have been mesmerized by the scenery.
Several of you have written about the food, and you are right. Swiss food is very good. We have enjoyed cheese fondue, rosti- the hash brown like potatoes, steaks that seem tastier than those we tried in Spain, wonderful thin crust pizza, and of course, chocolate. The morning coffee, while good, is much more like home than the Spanish coffee. We enjoy it, but miss the stronger coffees we left behind in Spain. Starbucks are in all of the major cities of Switzerland, and we stopped in one in Geneva, and although we are stockholders of this fine company, we don't miss the Starbucks coffee compared to what we can enjoy in the small coffee shops. Mike loves the croissants here, and doesn't leave the breakfast table without making sure that each place doesn't have a better croissant than the last place we visited.
We have not seen any street people or beggars in Switzerland. They have not a hassle anywhere, but they have been around the edges of our visits, particularly noticeable in Avila, Spain. In Portugal the beggars were primarily elderly women, some of whom were quite aggressive about following you around. In Spain the beggars were usually young. We aren't sure what they do here to eliminate the beggars, but we have not seen them around. At night we hear inebriated revelers, but there are no drunken bums around in the morning.
Well, I am going to pack up the computer and go risk my life with Brunhilda. This is only our second time with machines for laundry, and given the expense and risk to our dignity, we are going back to hanging socks in the shower.
Later- Deanne
Monday, August 20, 2007
Today marks the five week point and we are still excited to be here
We survived the RAID smelling room. I woke up this morning and saw a bug walking across Mike’s pillow. Apparently whatever they sprayed in the room allows bugs to live through it so the prognosis that we will survive is probably good. It smelled bad all day and night, but today it is better. The wide open window is helping, along with the deadening of the olfactory nerves.
We got up early after finding the first bug, and sure enough, there were others. Little brown bugs that look like thin lady bugs. I know what you are thinking… no, they weren’t roaches. At least they had no antennae that we could see, but we were hopping out of bed so fast that maybe we missed them. We showered (but even then we could fell the bugs all day… you know the feeling) and walked up the hill to walled city. We were there earlier than the busloads of people so we had the city streets to ourselves. It started raining so we contended with the slippery granite roads as we rambled through the old streets. We found breakfast along the way, appreciating the luxury of fresh French croissants that melt in your mouth along side our café au lait. Heavenly.
In my business travels to France I have experienced some unfriendly French, but most of those trips were to Paris where no one would help us purchase a Metro ticket, desk clerks would snarl and fellow Metro passengers would signal their disgust at us for not understanding their requests. So far, we have had nothing like that here. Our hotel desk clerks were pleasant on check in and helped us without a lot of dialog on either side. The restaurant staff and grocery clerks in several places have helped us with our coffees, sandwiches, etc. They have turned the cash register read-out in our direction so that we could make the appropriate change and laughed, together with us, at our mistakes. The woman at the train station was very kind in helping us with our onward train reservations. All in all, the French have been quite pleasant.
We looked at our schedule and decided to spend our last week before meeting up with Caitie in Italy by traveling through Switzerland rather than France. We know that one week is not enough to do either place justice but to try and see both is impossible. So, tomorrow we are off to Geneva where we will utilize the reservations we made before our trip to see some of this wonderful country. France will have to wait for next time.
Love, Deanne
We got up early after finding the first bug, and sure enough, there were others. Little brown bugs that look like thin lady bugs. I know what you are thinking… no, they weren’t roaches. At least they had no antennae that we could see, but we were hopping out of bed so fast that maybe we missed them. We showered (but even then we could fell the bugs all day… you know the feeling) and walked up the hill to walled city. We were there earlier than the busloads of people so we had the city streets to ourselves. It started raining so we contended with the slippery granite roads as we rambled through the old streets. We found breakfast along the way, appreciating the luxury of fresh French croissants that melt in your mouth along side our café au lait. Heavenly.
In my business travels to France I have experienced some unfriendly French, but most of those trips were to Paris where no one would help us purchase a Metro ticket, desk clerks would snarl and fellow Metro passengers would signal their disgust at us for not understanding their requests. So far, we have had nothing like that here. Our hotel desk clerks were pleasant on check in and helped us without a lot of dialog on either side. The restaurant staff and grocery clerks in several places have helped us with our coffees, sandwiches, etc. They have turned the cash register read-out in our direction so that we could make the appropriate change and laughed, together with us, at our mistakes. The woman at the train station was very kind in helping us with our onward train reservations. All in all, the French have been quite pleasant.
We looked at our schedule and decided to spend our last week before meeting up with Caitie in Italy by traveling through Switzerland rather than France. We know that one week is not enough to do either place justice but to try and see both is impossible. So, tomorrow we are off to Geneva where we will utilize the reservations we made before our trip to see some of this wonderful country. France will have to wait for next time.
Love, Deanne
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Ten things We Loved About Spain
Things we Loved about Spain (our joint list in no specific order)
1. The way that the Spanish socialize in restaurants and plazas late in the evenings rather than stay home for dinner and television.
2. Cleanliness- other than graffiti, everything was clean. The streets, the bathrooms, the buildings were for the most part, clean everywhere we went.
3. Openness to us- The Spanish were generally friendly and receptive to our attempts to use their language and understand their country.
4. The weather was outstanding except for one or two days of rain and a few days that were way too hot and humid. In between it was sunny and beautiful every day.
5. It was relatively inexpensive- not as easy on the pocket as Portugal and our 50 cent cups of coffee, but not as expensive as home or as we expect in France and Switzerland. We found the 50 Euro per night rooms perfectly acceptable and found absolutely no relationship between price paid and effectiveness of air conditioning.
6. Coffee. We loved coffee con leche in the morning and espressos several times a day afterwards. We loved the same coffee with the lower price tag in Portugal more, but this is a habit that will be hard to give up and expensive to keep.
7. Walled cities are our favorite place to visit. We like the smaller size of these towns (usually less than 50,000 people) and the charm of the historical buildings restored for usage in the present.
8. Spanish trains were by and large better than we expected. We were surprised to find the requirement to purchase reservations for almost every trip on top of the pass we bought before the trip, but nevertheless, the trains were comfortable and got us where we were going.
9. We loved the Camino de Santiago and all that this pilgrimage means to the people that make it. It is a spiritual journey that fascinated us and sparked an interest in doing the walk sometime in the future.
10. We are not Spanish food fans, but we found a few things we like. Ensalada Mixta with its tuna on top, grilled vegetable plates (we found these twice and loved them) and Mike’s BAPs were good. None of it stands out as something we have to find a restaurant at home to supply, though.
1. The way that the Spanish socialize in restaurants and plazas late in the evenings rather than stay home for dinner and television.
2. Cleanliness- other than graffiti, everything was clean. The streets, the bathrooms, the buildings were for the most part, clean everywhere we went.
3. Openness to us- The Spanish were generally friendly and receptive to our attempts to use their language and understand their country.
4. The weather was outstanding except for one or two days of rain and a few days that were way too hot and humid. In between it was sunny and beautiful every day.
5. It was relatively inexpensive- not as easy on the pocket as Portugal and our 50 cent cups of coffee, but not as expensive as home or as we expect in France and Switzerland. We found the 50 Euro per night rooms perfectly acceptable and found absolutely no relationship between price paid and effectiveness of air conditioning.
6. Coffee. We loved coffee con leche in the morning and espressos several times a day afterwards. We loved the same coffee with the lower price tag in Portugal more, but this is a habit that will be hard to give up and expensive to keep.
7. Walled cities are our favorite place to visit. We like the smaller size of these towns (usually less than 50,000 people) and the charm of the historical buildings restored for usage in the present.
8. Spanish trains were by and large better than we expected. We were surprised to find the requirement to purchase reservations for almost every trip on top of the pass we bought before the trip, but nevertheless, the trains were comfortable and got us where we were going.
9. We loved the Camino de Santiago and all that this pilgrimage means to the people that make it. It is a spiritual journey that fascinated us and sparked an interest in doing the walk sometime in the future.
10. We are not Spanish food fans, but we found a few things we like. Ensalada Mixta with its tuna on top, grilled vegetable plates (we found these twice and loved them) and Mike’s BAPs were good. None of it stands out as something we have to find a restaurant at home to supply, though.
Sunday Evening in the South of France
We made it to Carcassonne, a charming walled city in the South of France. I am writing from an Ibis hotel, a twin hotel to Motel 6 owned by the same parent, Accor. Our second floor room smells overwhelmingly of bug spray so we’ve had our window wide open for the past few hours since checking in, hoping to clear it out before bedtime when closing the window somewhat may mask the noise of a room right above a busy intersection.
Let me finish up with the story on Granada by cutting and pasting Mike’s words from a message he sent to our sister-in-law, Maryann, who has been sending us wonderful e-mail messages of support and advice. “Alhambra was spectacular! Our guide was worth the price as he gave us a history lesson on the Moors, Christians and Jews and the struggles in Spain as their history evolved. It was most illuminating to say the least. The detail on the mosaics was astounding and when you picture all of that in colorful red's greens, blues and gold it must have been overpowering at its pinnacle. I would have like to see the gypsy's caves however we just did not have time. Apparently some of the caves ( which are free for the gypsies have facades built in front of the cave with Jacuzzis, bathrooms bedrooms etc in the cave itself. They are rented out at a very high price. Caitie was a bit ill with a sore throat and terrible cough so she wasn't her talkative spry self but Deanne got to mother her with hot tea and staying up most of the night. She was much better when we went through Alhambra as walked a good 5 miles throughout. We had dinner at a fabulous Moroccan restaurant with the most outgoing guy we have met. He took a liking to us as we kidded him more than most others would. When we were leaving he took our picture and gave us his personal email. It was the most fun dinner and one of the best in a funky little Moroccan area of Granada.
After we dropped Caitie we brought back the rental car and saw that there was a train to Barcelona in 20 minutes so without hesitation we jumped on the train and headed north with no reservations. We had a bit of struggle getting a room but after an hour or of calling around (our computers would pick up no wireless networks in the train station unlike the hours of free internet we had in Madrid’s train station). We found a wonderful room here at Amistar Hotel in the city. Unfortunately it is raining today, the rain we have seen since we have been in Europe. We are going to explore the city on the hop on, hop off bus and then it off to France tomorrow. We only have 10 days before we meet Caitie in Florence so we are getting pretty excited for her. She doesn't appear nervous at all. With the website Facebook all the kids have met one another virtually as there are only 60 freshmen at NYU Florence so she has already been communicating with a boy from San Antonio and is looking forward to meeting him in person. I think she is tiring of living in one place in Alicante and is ready to move on. The girls live on a shoestring budget so they were more than happy to pick our pockets at the nicer restaurants!! :) They forgot we were on a budget also :) however we decided beforehand that these few days we would make up for with fruit dinners :) It was wonderful to see her again; she is looking so tan and so European! She could be mistaken for a Spaniard or Italian. Which of course she loves”.
So, how was Barcelona? It was raining. Not Seattle rain- that nice polite drizzle that makes us laugh at out-of-towners that bundle up in rain gear and umbrellas. No, this is lightening and thunder, black skies, drenched in a minute no matter the rain gear, rain. The first whole day we had there I took a long walk and spent a few hours on the hop on/hop off bus while Mike caught up on CNN and e-mail correspondence. The city was vibrant with crowds of people walking the popular spots like La Rambla and the port. I have heard from some of our younger friends, like Biko and Jonny’s girlfriend, Megan that they loved Barcelona and it is easy to see why it appeals to young people. During the days the streets are full of shops, outdoor restaurants (deserted in the rain), outdoor performers, etc. At night the clubs go all night, with most not opening until after the dinner hour ends at about midnight. For me, the crowds were not as attractive, although I enjoyed seeing the outdoor animal/pet markets where they sell birds, rabbits and turtles on the main pedestrian avenue. Check out the pictures and see if my shock at seeing these animals on sale in this crowded public place shows.
My favorite part of Barcelona, other than the luxurious hotel which Mike described… (huge bathroom, mini-fridge, CNN and free internet all wrapped up in a hotel I would not have thought twice about when I traveled to Europe for work) was the Gaudi designed Sagrada Familia cathedral. This church, begun about 100 years ago and still under construction is breathtaking. So different than all of the churches we have seen so far. Gaudi was a genius. His buildings are humorous and light rather than solid and stable. They catch the light in creative ways and mimic nature in their shapes and designs. The columns inside the cathedral, rather than the solid square stone of historical design, his turn stone into slanted tree trunk looking pillars sitting on the back of moving turtles. How do slated tree trunks hold up the ceiling of a cathedral? The statues that tell the life of Christ are squared off rather than rounded, making them look like they are carved of wood rather than stone. All in all, I loved its creativeness. They are quite proud of their Olympic park, so I toured the football stadium and water sports areas, but it wasn’t significantly different than other sports facilities and not nearly as fantastic as the Gaudi buildings.
This morning, after rising at 6:30 to catch our 8:45 train from the distant train station that caters to the French trains, we went outside to see an even more dramatic rain. The words of Liza Dolittle in My Fair Lady were obviously only meant to teach articulation and not geography, as this Spanish rain was not falling on the plain, which two days early we saw was dry and parched. After we checked out, we asked the sweet woman at the front desk to call a taxi for us, which she very agreeably did. After hanging up without speaking she shrugged her shoulders and told us she got a recording which meant that their were too many requests for taxis so they turned off their phones and we needed to stand in the street to flag a tax down. Our street, a main drag heading into the Sants train station has lots of taxis on it, so we traipsed out to find a taxi to get us to the station in the hour we had before departure. Mike waited with the bags (OUT of the rain) while I stood on the center divider of the boulevard to find a taxi, which after ten minutes we did. This guy was having all kinds of trouble getting the defroster working. The windows fogged up so badly that we had to pull over several times to hand wipe the inside of the windshield – each pull over adding to the incessant ticking of the meter. He missed several green lights due to his swearing at the defroster, most of which was lost on his audience. We understood the drama of his problem, and shared his desire for a great, roaring release of stress with an explosion of language equivalent to kicking the defroster around the room. Shortly before our last turn into the train station the defroster kicked in and we made the last quarter mile with clear windows. We figure the defroster problem cost us a few Euros, but overall, flagging that cab down was cheaper than missing the train.
I have no idea who runs the train between Spain and France. We left from a particular station dedicated to French destinations, with a Spanish crew. At the border, the crew changed and when our tickets were finally stamped we were in France in the hands of French crew. The countryside on the trip north from Barcelona is beautiful. We frequently saw glimpses of the beaches and beach towns along the northern Spanish Mediterranean coast. The rolling hills at the coast hide the fact that most of the crossing between these countries is the mountainous Pyrenees. Our three hour trip was largely spent reading and admiring the coast and farmlands that we passed. After departing in Narbonne we scurried to buy an onward reservation to Carcassonne and were pleasantly surprised to see how luxurious the French trains are compared to the Spanish and Portuguese trains. We had only a short distance to travel, but the first class train was a great way to pass the time.
We arrived in Carcassonne to find no information desk and no taxis. Mike suggested we ask directions across the street at a hotel, a successful strategy if you are ever stuck in a country in which you don’t speak a word and you don’t know how to find your hotel. They gave us a map with a highlighted walking path and ten minutes later we were at our hotel. We are in the new town very close to the bridge that crosses the river into the old town. The gated old town sits majestically up on a hill. We walked over there this afternoon, but turned back at the onset of rain. We had time to visit a bakery for dinner sandwiches and a small market for our sparkling water, wine and CocaColaLight. Susan, so far, after one glass of the local wine, I vote French over Spanish hands down. I bought a wine labeled this town and it is better than anything I tried in Spain. I have to admit that the French sandwich is better, too. The bread is the same (after all it is a white baguette) but the fromage sandwhich uses brie cheese which is way better than the sliced swiss of the Spanish queso sandwich. In case you wonder about cheese sandwiches.
Mike is watching game shows that look like “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” in German and a French million dollar pyramid, alternating with sports like soccer and golf. Let’s hope the rain stops soon, as these games of guessing what is happening as they speak are tiring.
So long, Deanne
Let me finish up with the story on Granada by cutting and pasting Mike’s words from a message he sent to our sister-in-law, Maryann, who has been sending us wonderful e-mail messages of support and advice. “Alhambra was spectacular! Our guide was worth the price as he gave us a history lesson on the Moors, Christians and Jews and the struggles in Spain as their history evolved. It was most illuminating to say the least. The detail on the mosaics was astounding and when you picture all of that in colorful red's greens, blues and gold it must have been overpowering at its pinnacle. I would have like to see the gypsy's caves however we just did not have time. Apparently some of the caves ( which are free for the gypsies have facades built in front of the cave with Jacuzzis, bathrooms bedrooms etc in the cave itself. They are rented out at a very high price. Caitie was a bit ill with a sore throat and terrible cough so she wasn't her talkative spry self but Deanne got to mother her with hot tea and staying up most of the night. She was much better when we went through Alhambra as walked a good 5 miles throughout. We had dinner at a fabulous Moroccan restaurant with the most outgoing guy we have met. He took a liking to us as we kidded him more than most others would. When we were leaving he took our picture and gave us his personal email. It was the most fun dinner and one of the best in a funky little Moroccan area of Granada.
After we dropped Caitie we brought back the rental car and saw that there was a train to Barcelona in 20 minutes so without hesitation we jumped on the train and headed north with no reservations. We had a bit of struggle getting a room but after an hour or of calling around (our computers would pick up no wireless networks in the train station unlike the hours of free internet we had in Madrid’s train station). We found a wonderful room here at Amistar Hotel in the city. Unfortunately it is raining today, the rain we have seen since we have been in Europe. We are going to explore the city on the hop on, hop off bus and then it off to France tomorrow. We only have 10 days before we meet Caitie in Florence so we are getting pretty excited for her. She doesn't appear nervous at all. With the website Facebook all the kids have met one another virtually as there are only 60 freshmen at NYU Florence so she has already been communicating with a boy from San Antonio and is looking forward to meeting him in person. I think she is tiring of living in one place in Alicante and is ready to move on. The girls live on a shoestring budget so they were more than happy to pick our pockets at the nicer restaurants!! :) They forgot we were on a budget also :) however we decided beforehand that these few days we would make up for with fruit dinners :) It was wonderful to see her again; she is looking so tan and so European! She could be mistaken for a Spaniard or Italian. Which of course she loves”.
So, how was Barcelona? It was raining. Not Seattle rain- that nice polite drizzle that makes us laugh at out-of-towners that bundle up in rain gear and umbrellas. No, this is lightening and thunder, black skies, drenched in a minute no matter the rain gear, rain. The first whole day we had there I took a long walk and spent a few hours on the hop on/hop off bus while Mike caught up on CNN and e-mail correspondence. The city was vibrant with crowds of people walking the popular spots like La Rambla and the port. I have heard from some of our younger friends, like Biko and Jonny’s girlfriend, Megan that they loved Barcelona and it is easy to see why it appeals to young people. During the days the streets are full of shops, outdoor restaurants (deserted in the rain), outdoor performers, etc. At night the clubs go all night, with most not opening until after the dinner hour ends at about midnight. For me, the crowds were not as attractive, although I enjoyed seeing the outdoor animal/pet markets where they sell birds, rabbits and turtles on the main pedestrian avenue. Check out the pictures and see if my shock at seeing these animals on sale in this crowded public place shows.
My favorite part of Barcelona, other than the luxurious hotel which Mike described… (huge bathroom, mini-fridge, CNN and free internet all wrapped up in a hotel I would not have thought twice about when I traveled to Europe for work) was the Gaudi designed Sagrada Familia cathedral. This church, begun about 100 years ago and still under construction is breathtaking. So different than all of the churches we have seen so far. Gaudi was a genius. His buildings are humorous and light rather than solid and stable. They catch the light in creative ways and mimic nature in their shapes and designs. The columns inside the cathedral, rather than the solid square stone of historical design, his turn stone into slanted tree trunk looking pillars sitting on the back of moving turtles. How do slated tree trunks hold up the ceiling of a cathedral? The statues that tell the life of Christ are squared off rather than rounded, making them look like they are carved of wood rather than stone. All in all, I loved its creativeness. They are quite proud of their Olympic park, so I toured the football stadium and water sports areas, but it wasn’t significantly different than other sports facilities and not nearly as fantastic as the Gaudi buildings.
This morning, after rising at 6:30 to catch our 8:45 train from the distant train station that caters to the French trains, we went outside to see an even more dramatic rain. The words of Liza Dolittle in My Fair Lady were obviously only meant to teach articulation and not geography, as this Spanish rain was not falling on the plain, which two days early we saw was dry and parched. After we checked out, we asked the sweet woman at the front desk to call a taxi for us, which she very agreeably did. After hanging up without speaking she shrugged her shoulders and told us she got a recording which meant that their were too many requests for taxis so they turned off their phones and we needed to stand in the street to flag a tax down. Our street, a main drag heading into the Sants train station has lots of taxis on it, so we traipsed out to find a taxi to get us to the station in the hour we had before departure. Mike waited with the bags (OUT of the rain) while I stood on the center divider of the boulevard to find a taxi, which after ten minutes we did. This guy was having all kinds of trouble getting the defroster working. The windows fogged up so badly that we had to pull over several times to hand wipe the inside of the windshield – each pull over adding to the incessant ticking of the meter. He missed several green lights due to his swearing at the defroster, most of which was lost on his audience. We understood the drama of his problem, and shared his desire for a great, roaring release of stress with an explosion of language equivalent to kicking the defroster around the room. Shortly before our last turn into the train station the defroster kicked in and we made the last quarter mile with clear windows. We figure the defroster problem cost us a few Euros, but overall, flagging that cab down was cheaper than missing the train.
I have no idea who runs the train between Spain and France. We left from a particular station dedicated to French destinations, with a Spanish crew. At the border, the crew changed and when our tickets were finally stamped we were in France in the hands of French crew. The countryside on the trip north from Barcelona is beautiful. We frequently saw glimpses of the beaches and beach towns along the northern Spanish Mediterranean coast. The rolling hills at the coast hide the fact that most of the crossing between these countries is the mountainous Pyrenees. Our three hour trip was largely spent reading and admiring the coast and farmlands that we passed. After departing in Narbonne we scurried to buy an onward reservation to Carcassonne and were pleasantly surprised to see how luxurious the French trains are compared to the Spanish and Portuguese trains. We had only a short distance to travel, but the first class train was a great way to pass the time.
We arrived in Carcassonne to find no information desk and no taxis. Mike suggested we ask directions across the street at a hotel, a successful strategy if you are ever stuck in a country in which you don’t speak a word and you don’t know how to find your hotel. They gave us a map with a highlighted walking path and ten minutes later we were at our hotel. We are in the new town very close to the bridge that crosses the river into the old town. The gated old town sits majestically up on a hill. We walked over there this afternoon, but turned back at the onset of rain. We had time to visit a bakery for dinner sandwiches and a small market for our sparkling water, wine and CocaColaLight. Susan, so far, after one glass of the local wine, I vote French over Spanish hands down. I bought a wine labeled this town and it is better than anything I tried in Spain. I have to admit that the French sandwich is better, too. The bread is the same (after all it is a white baguette) but the fromage sandwhich uses brie cheese which is way better than the sliced swiss of the Spanish queso sandwich. In case you wonder about cheese sandwiches.
Mike is watching game shows that look like “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” in German and a French million dollar pyramid, alternating with sports like soccer and golf. Let’s hope the rain stops soon, as these games of guessing what is happening as they speak are tiring.
So long, Deanne
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Oh my goodness- It is already Saturday night!
This week passed so quickly it will be hard to recap everything! Since I wrote on Tuesday we visited Alicante briefly, took off by car with Caitie to see Granada, then took the train to Barcelona and toured it quickly in order to leave tomorrow. It was fast. Let me recap.
Monday we arrived in Alicante by train after traveling most of the day. We had dinner with the girls and went to bed for an uncomfortably hot night in Alicante. During our entire stay we had hot, sunny humid days. This warm weather is attractive to many, including our warm and tanned daughter. Mike and I, on the other hand, moved to Seattle because we don't enjoy hot weather, particularly humid weather. So, with our air conditioning difficulties we suffered in the heat. On
Tuesday morning Caitie and Catherine joined us for breakfast. Caitie wanted to take advantage of visiting parents to fulfill her cravings, so we went in search of eggs. Egg breakfasts are very difficult to find in Spain. We enjoyed two mornings with bacon (sort of like ours) and eggs when we were in Avila, but that is the only exception to our normal ham on hard white rolls. So, with Caitie leading the way we walked the promenade searching for eggs; futilely it turns out. We settled for toast and coffee and came back to our hotel for eggs.
After breakfast we traipsed out, by public city bus, to the mall where we shopped for school clothes for Caitie. Spanish malls are enclosed multistory modern malls like you can find in any suburban location in the US. Anchor department stores like H&M flank the ends of the mall with smaller trendy stores in the center. A top floor food court served up a reasonable Ensalada Mixta, another of our staples. These Spanish salads are usually a standard mix of lettuce, tomato, canned tuna and sometimes some extras like canned corn, olives and hard boiled egg. Olive oil and wine vinegar on the side for dressing. Caitie came away with only a few new things, while Deanne played assistant shopper and Mike paced the halls of the mall for exercise. After another bus ride we ended up at Caitie's apartment where Mom and Dad got to see the wonderful home Caitie and Catherine have made for themselves so far from "home". Caitie had a few errands to do, like hanging the laundry out to dry. Their apartment, like most of Spain, has a washer but no clothes drier. In her case, the clothes line hangs out over an internal courtyard. After she packed for our trip we walked the mile or so from her apartment to the beach where our hotel sits. After resting up a bit and letting some time go by (you can't arrive at a restaurant before 9:30 if you expect to eat) we wandered through the port across the street from the hotel in search of a restaurant. Using our age-old test of only selecting a place that looks full of locals, and avoiding the touristy places like the neon lit "Coyote Ugly", we sat down at an outdoor cafe in which the waiters yelled our orders into a window about the size of a MacDonald's window in which the orders and food both moved. We all enjoyed our dinner; Mike finding small, tapa sized sandwiches called BAPs made up of (what else) ham and cheese. Caitie and I shared a wonderful grilled vegetable platter with thin slices of eggplant, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, onions and endive all grilled and dressed with olive oil. I now know how to order a glass of wine, so imagine my surprise when I did so and was served chilled red wine. I have no idea why it was chilled, but this was the first of two times in which it happened, so I think if you order by the glass you sometimes get the benefit of the overnight storage in the fridge.
By the time we returned to our room after dinner it was midnight and the air conditioner and the cooler (but not cool) night air had not done anything to make our room more pleasant. Two calls to the front desk had failed to bring a bed for
Caitie, but a quick call by her in Spanish to the housekeeper remedied that problem in five minutes. Nothing remedied the stuffiness of the room. The three of us spent a restless, warm night. Caitie coughed all night and nursed a burned finger she got while trying to make tea in our room with a new water heating coil.
By 9:00 on Wednesday morning Mike and I were back at the train station to pick up a rental car at Avis. In our VW Golf we drove back to the hotel, picked up Caitie and hit the road. We had decided to visit Granada and the Alhambra because: 1) none of us had ever been there, 2) it is about four hours away by car which is easy to do in the time we had allocated and 3) everywhere else we could go in the equivalent time didn't appeal. The drive to Granada was beautiful - like driving in California without all of the people or houses. The Southern Mediterranean are of Spain has a climate very similar to California and the hilly area reminded both Mike and me of the Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley minus all of the development. The area was humid and had a haze that could easily be mistaken for smog but was probably not, since there is not much smog producing industry or cars.
Spain has beautiful roads, and unlike Portugal they were all toll-free. Two lanes in each direction was adequate to keep traffic moving quickly in all but a few areas where we experienced some congestion from slow trucks, cars and construction all coming together at the same time.
I had a mapquest generated set of directions to our 1 star hotel in the old town section of Granada which specified directions in minute detail, providing exactly what we needed to wind our way through the little one way streets. We arrived at the hotel, unloaded our bags and traipsed in only to find the first failure to our successful use of the internet for booking hotels. Apparently booking.com had not e-mailed them of the reservation I made the previous night, so there was no room available for us. The desk clerk called around and secured us a room nearby at the same rate of only 53 Euros per night for three of us, so we reversed the unpacking and moved a half mile away. For 53 euros we got a GREAT air conditoner that worked perfectly, a double bed and single bed with a tiny strip of floor between them and a servicable bathroom. We even got free internet, although we didn't figure that out until the second night. The bonus, though, is that we also got ants. Lots and lots of little black ants.
We wandered around Granada, especially enjoying the Albaicín area where we had dinner our first night. This UNESCO recognized historical city maintains its Moorish roots through small, narrow streets with open shops selling turkish good and teas. We had a delicious Morroccan meal served by a man that speaks multiple languages and welcomes every guest in their native language. It was fun.
I am off to bed. We are supposed to have internet tomorrow so I will continue then.
Monday we arrived in Alicante by train after traveling most of the day. We had dinner with the girls and went to bed for an uncomfortably hot night in Alicante. During our entire stay we had hot, sunny humid days. This warm weather is attractive to many, including our warm and tanned daughter. Mike and I, on the other hand, moved to Seattle because we don't enjoy hot weather, particularly humid weather. So, with our air conditioning difficulties we suffered in the heat. On
Tuesday morning Caitie and Catherine joined us for breakfast. Caitie wanted to take advantage of visiting parents to fulfill her cravings, so we went in search of eggs. Egg breakfasts are very difficult to find in Spain. We enjoyed two mornings with bacon (sort of like ours) and eggs when we were in Avila, but that is the only exception to our normal ham on hard white rolls. So, with Caitie leading the way we walked the promenade searching for eggs; futilely it turns out. We settled for toast and coffee and came back to our hotel for eggs.
After breakfast we traipsed out, by public city bus, to the mall where we shopped for school clothes for Caitie. Spanish malls are enclosed multistory modern malls like you can find in any suburban location in the US. Anchor department stores like H&M flank the ends of the mall with smaller trendy stores in the center. A top floor food court served up a reasonable Ensalada Mixta, another of our staples. These Spanish salads are usually a standard mix of lettuce, tomato, canned tuna and sometimes some extras like canned corn, olives and hard boiled egg. Olive oil and wine vinegar on the side for dressing. Caitie came away with only a few new things, while Deanne played assistant shopper and Mike paced the halls of the mall for exercise. After another bus ride we ended up at Caitie's apartment where Mom and Dad got to see the wonderful home Caitie and Catherine have made for themselves so far from "home". Caitie had a few errands to do, like hanging the laundry out to dry. Their apartment, like most of Spain, has a washer but no clothes drier. In her case, the clothes line hangs out over an internal courtyard. After she packed for our trip we walked the mile or so from her apartment to the beach where our hotel sits. After resting up a bit and letting some time go by (you can't arrive at a restaurant before 9:30 if you expect to eat) we wandered through the port across the street from the hotel in search of a restaurant. Using our age-old test of only selecting a place that looks full of locals, and avoiding the touristy places like the neon lit "Coyote Ugly", we sat down at an outdoor cafe in which the waiters yelled our orders into a window about the size of a MacDonald's window in which the orders and food both moved. We all enjoyed our dinner; Mike finding small, tapa sized sandwiches called BAPs made up of (what else) ham and cheese. Caitie and I shared a wonderful grilled vegetable platter with thin slices of eggplant, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, onions and endive all grilled and dressed with olive oil. I now know how to order a glass of wine, so imagine my surprise when I did so and was served chilled red wine. I have no idea why it was chilled, but this was the first of two times in which it happened, so I think if you order by the glass you sometimes get the benefit of the overnight storage in the fridge.
By the time we returned to our room after dinner it was midnight and the air conditioner and the cooler (but not cool) night air had not done anything to make our room more pleasant. Two calls to the front desk had failed to bring a bed for
Caitie, but a quick call by her in Spanish to the housekeeper remedied that problem in five minutes. Nothing remedied the stuffiness of the room. The three of us spent a restless, warm night. Caitie coughed all night and nursed a burned finger she got while trying to make tea in our room with a new water heating coil.
By 9:00 on Wednesday morning Mike and I were back at the train station to pick up a rental car at Avis. In our VW Golf we drove back to the hotel, picked up Caitie and hit the road. We had decided to visit Granada and the Alhambra because: 1) none of us had ever been there, 2) it is about four hours away by car which is easy to do in the time we had allocated and 3) everywhere else we could go in the equivalent time didn't appeal. The drive to Granada was beautiful - like driving in California without all of the people or houses. The Southern Mediterranean are of Spain has a climate very similar to California and the hilly area reminded both Mike and me of the Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley minus all of the development. The area was humid and had a haze that could easily be mistaken for smog but was probably not, since there is not much smog producing industry or cars.
Spain has beautiful roads, and unlike Portugal they were all toll-free. Two lanes in each direction was adequate to keep traffic moving quickly in all but a few areas where we experienced some congestion from slow trucks, cars and construction all coming together at the same time.
I had a mapquest generated set of directions to our 1 star hotel in the old town section of Granada which specified directions in minute detail, providing exactly what we needed to wind our way through the little one way streets. We arrived at the hotel, unloaded our bags and traipsed in only to find the first failure to our successful use of the internet for booking hotels. Apparently booking.com had not e-mailed them of the reservation I made the previous night, so there was no room available for us. The desk clerk called around and secured us a room nearby at the same rate of only 53 Euros per night for three of us, so we reversed the unpacking and moved a half mile away. For 53 euros we got a GREAT air conditoner that worked perfectly, a double bed and single bed with a tiny strip of floor between them and a servicable bathroom. We even got free internet, although we didn't figure that out until the second night. The bonus, though, is that we also got ants. Lots and lots of little black ants.
We wandered around Granada, especially enjoying the Albaicín area where we had dinner our first night. This UNESCO recognized historical city maintains its Moorish roots through small, narrow streets with open shops selling turkish good and teas. We had a delicious Morroccan meal served by a man that speaks multiple languages and welcomes every guest in their native language. It was fun.
I am off to bed. We are supposed to have internet tomorrow so I will continue then.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Tuesday afternoon- Remember that Jinx?
We are in Alicante, in a very jet set international hotel. The Melia, at 100 Euros per night is one of our most lavish hotels, sitting in a prominent location on the beach and near all of the vibrant nightlife. Caitie and her roommate, Catherine met us at the train station last night when we arrived at 10:00 PM. It is hard to describe how happy we were to see that beautiful daughter waiting for us. She is tanned and grown up after her summer on her own. The girls expedited our search for a taxi and generally made getting to our hotel fast and efficient. After helping us get the luggage up to our room we made our way to the promenade across the street from the hotel. The girls, living on their earnings from their senior year of high school have not had many dinners out, so they were unfamiliar with the restaurant scene but helped us to an Italian place called Miami where a German waitress served us the best spaghetti Bolognase Mike has had yet. After we finished dinner at midnight we split up and the girls went dancing while Mike and I walked back to the hotel for a night of luxury in our modern hotel. But, wow, was our room ever hot. It stayed hot all night too. At 5:00 I woke up so hot I thought I was dying, so I crawled out to the balcony and sat outside for awhile. No fiddling with the air conditioner helped. In fact, when you turned the temperature down below 25 or so, it cut off.
This morning, the girls showed up at 9:00 AM, a pleasant surprise. We had planned to meet Caitie in the early afternoon, but unable to sleep she came early. We all went in search of an American style breakfast which Caitie was hungry for. After walking around for awhile and getting a piece of toast and coffee each to sustain us, we decided our best shot at American breakfast was back at the hotel. We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed our eggs and coffee.
Because of the very hot night, Mike called the front desk and asked that someone come and look at the air conditioner. The engineer showed up just as we were leaving for our first breakfast exploration and assured us in Caitie-translated Spanish that he would handle it while we were gone. When we came back to the room we found that he had re-set the dial. We appear to have had the heater on all night rather than the air conditioner which is why it cut off every time we tried to set it to a cooler setting. Some jinx! I wonder how much of our hot nights could have been cooler if we had only understood the dials of the thermostats better. Our room is not yet cool, but we have higher hopes for cool now than we did after that painful night.
Catherine and two friends from Seattle are off to Madrid this afternoon and we are making plans to travel to Granada with Caitie tomorrow for a few days. After seeing the girls off at the train station this afternoon Caitie will show us their apartment then we'll head off for an afternoon of shopping. Caitie hopes to find some school clothes while Mom, Dad and their credit cards are in town. We've decided these few days are not going to fit in our budget but we aren't going to worry about it.
Alicante is the first modern city we have been to if you don't count Madrid where we have sat in the train station twice. Although their is a historical center to the city and a castle up on the hill overlooking the city, most of the city is modern. The promenade across the street from our hotel is a long boulevard with outdoor cafes and shops lined up parallel to the waterfront for at least a mile. Palm trees line the center divider of the boulevard and a yacht marina lines up on the water side making the city initially like Marina del Rey or some other modern Southern California city. Ice cream stands, busy traffic and crowds of people support that illusion. There are differences though, such as the men walking to the beach in their Speedo type bathing suits rather than the more discrete trunks favored by Americans and the mosaic sidewalks, the motorbikes weaving in and out of traffic and the omnipresent Nestle ice cream menus. Although we don't see "homeless" folks here, we do see people, usually elderly, with cups out begging for money. Overall, it feels quite safe here.
I'll expand on Alicante after our shopping trip. Thankfully I have free internet to write this on, because I will probably feel reluctant to spend anything later. Bye,
Deanne
This morning, the girls showed up at 9:00 AM, a pleasant surprise. We had planned to meet Caitie in the early afternoon, but unable to sleep she came early. We all went in search of an American style breakfast which Caitie was hungry for. After walking around for awhile and getting a piece of toast and coffee each to sustain us, we decided our best shot at American breakfast was back at the hotel. We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed our eggs and coffee.
Because of the very hot night, Mike called the front desk and asked that someone come and look at the air conditioner. The engineer showed up just as we were leaving for our first breakfast exploration and assured us in Caitie-translated Spanish that he would handle it while we were gone. When we came back to the room we found that he had re-set the dial. We appear to have had the heater on all night rather than the air conditioner which is why it cut off every time we tried to set it to a cooler setting. Some jinx! I wonder how much of our hot nights could have been cooler if we had only understood the dials of the thermostats better. Our room is not yet cool, but we have higher hopes for cool now than we did after that painful night.
Catherine and two friends from Seattle are off to Madrid this afternoon and we are making plans to travel to Granada with Caitie tomorrow for a few days. After seeing the girls off at the train station this afternoon Caitie will show us their apartment then we'll head off for an afternoon of shopping. Caitie hopes to find some school clothes while Mom, Dad and their credit cards are in town. We've decided these few days are not going to fit in our budget but we aren't going to worry about it.
Alicante is the first modern city we have been to if you don't count Madrid where we have sat in the train station twice. Although their is a historical center to the city and a castle up on the hill overlooking the city, most of the city is modern. The promenade across the street from our hotel is a long boulevard with outdoor cafes and shops lined up parallel to the waterfront for at least a mile. Palm trees line the center divider of the boulevard and a yacht marina lines up on the water side making the city initially like Marina del Rey or some other modern Southern California city. Ice cream stands, busy traffic and crowds of people support that illusion. There are differences though, such as the men walking to the beach in their Speedo type bathing suits rather than the more discrete trunks favored by Americans and the mosaic sidewalks, the motorbikes weaving in and out of traffic and the omnipresent Nestle ice cream menus. Although we don't see "homeless" folks here, we do see people, usually elderly, with cups out begging for money. Overall, it feels quite safe here.
I'll expand on Alicante after our shopping trip. Thankfully I have free internet to write this on, because I will probably feel reluctant to spend anything later. Bye,
Deanne
Monday, August 13, 2007
Monday afternoon- Deja vu
Here we sit in the Madrid Chemartin train station - exactly where we sat at the beginning of our journey as we waited for our night train to Lisbon. Caitie had warned us that the trains to/from Alicante sell out, but we have not yet experienced a problem getting on a train when we wanted. Until now. We arrived at the Avila train station at 11:00 for a 12:17 train direct to Alicante to find that it was "Completo" which Mike was savvy enough to figure out meant, "Sold out- should have planned ahead". The ticket officer told in Spanish to get on the train destined for Madrid pulling in immediately and worry about getting to Alicante from Madrid. Running down the stairs and up again at the next set of tracks in order to get a train from which people were already streaming out was a challenge but we made it. Even this train was almost full, so we spent much of the train wedge into backward sitting seats across from a young couple that provided what little entertainment available on this pokey little local to Madrid. We got to see her apply her make-up while he sheepishly held her mirror for her as part of an overall morning grooming session. A soft spoken Spanish man, he sat wearing a shirt prominently displaying a Camp Pendleton logo, although he probably had no idea where this spot, nearby to my childhood hometown, resided.
After arriving in the main Madrid train station we stood in line (once again, divided lines for future or "Anticipata" tickets, vs the long line we needed to stand in for tickets for "hoy/immediata". Here they also have lines for international trains. Above the hoy line was the not very promising sign listing "completos" and all trains to Alicante until 7:00PM. Which is why we find ourselves sitting in the train station today in the same waiting room as we sat in a month ago, eating the same sandwiches, working on the blog. Deja vu.
Although we have gained a lot by not following the pre-planned itinerary (things like the ability to travel to cooler locations, to spend more time in a location you love, like Portugal or Northern Spain) we have also spent time in train stations waiting around for unpopular train times because we did not reserve ahead, or paid a slightly higher hotel rate because the lower rate hotels were "completo". Nevertheless, I think we are quite happy with the trade-offs we have made.
We talked to Caitie last night and she is expecting us today. We are so excited to see her and have her show us around the city she loves so much.
I'll write after we get to Alicante and let you know how it is. The weather report predicts two 90 degree days today and tomorrow, so let's hope the air conditioner we paid extra to get in Alicante is working and the jinx has passed.
Deanne
After arriving in the main Madrid train station we stood in line (once again, divided lines for future or "Anticipata" tickets, vs the long line we needed to stand in for tickets for "hoy/immediata". Here they also have lines for international trains. Above the hoy line was the not very promising sign listing "completos" and all trains to Alicante until 7:00PM. Which is why we find ourselves sitting in the train station today in the same waiting room as we sat in a month ago, eating the same sandwiches, working on the blog. Deja vu.
Although we have gained a lot by not following the pre-planned itinerary (things like the ability to travel to cooler locations, to spend more time in a location you love, like Portugal or Northern Spain) we have also spent time in train stations waiting around for unpopular train times because we did not reserve ahead, or paid a slightly higher hotel rate because the lower rate hotels were "completo". Nevertheless, I think we are quite happy with the trade-offs we have made.
We talked to Caitie last night and she is expecting us today. We are so excited to see her and have her show us around the city she loves so much.
I'll write after we get to Alicante and let you know how it is. The weather report predicts two 90 degree days today and tomorrow, so let's hope the air conditioner we paid extra to get in Alicante is working and the jinx has passed.
Deanne
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Sunday afternoon in Avila
We have an air conditioned jinx. The entire hotel we are visiting for our third night appears cool everywhere but our room. The maid has turned the dial on our air conditioner all the way to 30 degrees, its hottest setting, reassuring us that this is the proper way to cool the room. After two days of baking with it set the other way we are willing to try out her suggestion. The room is stifling. We spent as much time as possible outdoors for the past few days, as the outside temperature compares quite favorably to our room.
Avila has the most interesting walls of any of the walled cities we have visited. With 8 gates, it accommodates car traffic in and out of the city without the congestion and danger of the one way light system that we saw other places, most notably in Valenca. Here, a complex system of one way streets (they are so narrow only one car can drive on a street at a time) lead into and out of the old town, each of the gates having a designation of in or out or pedestrian only. We only saw one gate that handled two way traffic, and that was with an orderly waiting system rather than lights to accommodate cars going in opposite directions. The 2.5.km long wall system, with 88 towers is strikingly well preserved - it looks like Disney built it rather than some medieval serfs. Although it was built during medieval times during various Roman and Muslim conquests and raised to its towering 12 m during the 11th and 12th centuries it is clean, orderly and looks sturdy rather than crumbled as some of the walls in other cities we have visited. It is easy to see why this is declared a UNESCO world heritage city.
Our hotel, the warm Palacio Valderrabanos was built during the 14th century by a prominent bishop of the period for which it is named. With fresh Pergo floors, marble bathroom, television and refrigerator, only the thick stone walls and adjacent 12th century cathedral indicate its age. This is one of the hotels booked from home on Booking.com that we did not cancel. At 59 Euro for Sunday night, and 89 Euro the other two nights, it is priced similarly to other rooms we have stayed in yet it has some modern touches that the other places have not. Air conditioning, for example. After climbing up multiple sets of stairs in the lesser starred hotels, we have come to realize that the number of stars also indicates the likelihood of an elevator, be it ever so small, for carrying our bags upstairs. I wonder how many generations will go by before Americans no longer can fit in European elevators. As it is now, the two of us and our wonderful Osprey suitcases just about max out every elevator we have tried. Yet, we have not had to split up yet. Nor have we had a replay of the elevator scenes I have had when traveling with work friends when the elevators were so full of Americans with baggage that our backpacks were inadvertently pressing miscellaneous floor buttons and alarms behind out back without our knowledge.
We are getting quite proficient at people watching. Here are some of our observations to date:
- The Spanish make walking around, sitting drinking coffee and people watching a real, sanctioned past time. It is not like they are goofing around on their way to do something else, they walk somewhere to sit and watch people or sit for hours with a coffee. Unlike the Portuguese women we used to see walking around with shopping bags, these people aren't always shopping when they are walking around.
- The Spanish have a weight problem too, although probably not as bad as the US. There are lots of heavy Spanish folks walking around
- The elder generation (those born before the war, let's say) all dress up for walking around, particularly the women. Rarely do they wear pants, preferring nice, sharply pressed dresses or suits.
- The younger set (late teens to early 30s) all seem to dress up while they are out also. No where have we seen gang clothing or menacing looking teenagers like you might encounter in a US city. In fact, it is quite noticeable that the teens are affectionate with their families; teenage boys holding hands with their mothers or with younger siblings.
- Young children in strollers are everywhere at all hours of the day and night. It wouldn't pay to start a babysitting business here, as it appears that everyone takes their children with them when they go to dinner. We never make it past midnight, but when we have turned in for the night we have seen children still out enjoying the evening with their parents.
- During the day, in non-touristy areas it appears that Grandmothers do some of the day care for the children. We see older women with strollers during the day, and younger parents with the strollers at night except in touristy areas.
- The Spanish young people wear clothing with English phrases on them, "Kiss me", "Born to be Free", "I heart NY", "I'm so happy I could....". There are lots of American university shirts and Yankee baseball caps, yet universally most of these people look at you blankly when you try to speak English to them.
- Hello Kitty is HUGE here and in Portugal. As grandparents of a five year old girl we understood the phenomenon a bit, but not the depth of love for this blank-faced little cat that appears everywhere here.
- People appear very outgoing and social here. They greet each other warmly with hugs and pecks on the cheek and appear to enjoy being out in public more than inside watching TV.
- The Spanish are less protective of their children in public than we are. Kids run around the plazas while the parents sit and visit, without the hawkish guarding and nagging that we do with our children in public.
- Although we see most tables with a beer before dinner and wine with the meals, we have seen only the rare, exceptional drunk on the street. Drinking to excess just doesn't seem to happen.
- Spanish parenting seems very affectionate and effective. I saw one mother smack her daughter and it was shocking to all of us that were watching. Someone even spoke to her about it to calm her down.
- The 96% Catholic population statistic is true. The church bells ring for fifteen minutes solid at mass time on Sunday. The streets are full of people walking to services. Nuns, sometimes in habits and sometimes in plain blue clothing are everywhere.
- There are supermarkets which are much smaller than ours, yet there are also many more unique shops for purchasing meats, pastries, produce, breads, etc. The modern parts of town are moving towards bigger, chain stores, yet many neighborhoods retain the myriad of small, individual stores. In a city of 80,000 or so you can see international chain stores like the Body Shop and McDonald's, but mostly you see individual bookstores, coffee shops and pastry shops.
Last night we were sitting at a table with a glass of wine and a coffee at 9:00 PM marveling at our improved ability to order when a man sitting at a nearby bench asked us in English how we were enjoying our vacation. Of Chinese heritage, born in Peru and working for an American company, he speaks four languages and has lived in Miami in the past for twelve years. David, his wife Rosario and daughter, Amanda sat and talked to us until 10:30. They were very interesting people and we enjoyed the time with them. David is in sales, and he must be a superstar, as his outgoing personality kept the conversation going. Having heart problems similar to Mike's of days gone by, we left each other's company with David's phone number and the name and phone number of a Madrid cardiologist in case we have any difficulties while in Spain.
Tomorrow we leave for Alicante, where the temperature is even warmer. We are very excited about seeing Caitie.
Bye for now, Deanne
Avila has the most interesting walls of any of the walled cities we have visited. With 8 gates, it accommodates car traffic in and out of the city without the congestion and danger of the one way light system that we saw other places, most notably in Valenca. Here, a complex system of one way streets (they are so narrow only one car can drive on a street at a time) lead into and out of the old town, each of the gates having a designation of in or out or pedestrian only. We only saw one gate that handled two way traffic, and that was with an orderly waiting system rather than lights to accommodate cars going in opposite directions. The 2.5.km long wall system, with 88 towers is strikingly well preserved - it looks like Disney built it rather than some medieval serfs. Although it was built during medieval times during various Roman and Muslim conquests and raised to its towering 12 m during the 11th and 12th centuries it is clean, orderly and looks sturdy rather than crumbled as some of the walls in other cities we have visited. It is easy to see why this is declared a UNESCO world heritage city.
Our hotel, the warm Palacio Valderrabanos was built during the 14th century by a prominent bishop of the period for which it is named. With fresh Pergo floors, marble bathroom, television and refrigerator, only the thick stone walls and adjacent 12th century cathedral indicate its age. This is one of the hotels booked from home on Booking.com that we did not cancel. At 59 Euro for Sunday night, and 89 Euro the other two nights, it is priced similarly to other rooms we have stayed in yet it has some modern touches that the other places have not. Air conditioning, for example. After climbing up multiple sets of stairs in the lesser starred hotels, we have come to realize that the number of stars also indicates the likelihood of an elevator, be it ever so small, for carrying our bags upstairs. I wonder how many generations will go by before Americans no longer can fit in European elevators. As it is now, the two of us and our wonderful Osprey suitcases just about max out every elevator we have tried. Yet, we have not had to split up yet. Nor have we had a replay of the elevator scenes I have had when traveling with work friends when the elevators were so full of Americans with baggage that our backpacks were inadvertently pressing miscellaneous floor buttons and alarms behind out back without our knowledge.
We are getting quite proficient at people watching. Here are some of our observations to date:
- The Spanish make walking around, sitting drinking coffee and people watching a real, sanctioned past time. It is not like they are goofing around on their way to do something else, they walk somewhere to sit and watch people or sit for hours with a coffee. Unlike the Portuguese women we used to see walking around with shopping bags, these people aren't always shopping when they are walking around.
- The Spanish have a weight problem too, although probably not as bad as the US. There are lots of heavy Spanish folks walking around
- The elder generation (those born before the war, let's say) all dress up for walking around, particularly the women. Rarely do they wear pants, preferring nice, sharply pressed dresses or suits.
- The younger set (late teens to early 30s) all seem to dress up while they are out also. No where have we seen gang clothing or menacing looking teenagers like you might encounter in a US city. In fact, it is quite noticeable that the teens are affectionate with their families; teenage boys holding hands with their mothers or with younger siblings.
- Young children in strollers are everywhere at all hours of the day and night. It wouldn't pay to start a babysitting business here, as it appears that everyone takes their children with them when they go to dinner. We never make it past midnight, but when we have turned in for the night we have seen children still out enjoying the evening with their parents.
- During the day, in non-touristy areas it appears that Grandmothers do some of the day care for the children. We see older women with strollers during the day, and younger parents with the strollers at night except in touristy areas.
- The Spanish young people wear clothing with English phrases on them, "Kiss me", "Born to be Free", "I heart NY", "I'm so happy I could....". There are lots of American university shirts and Yankee baseball caps, yet universally most of these people look at you blankly when you try to speak English to them.
- Hello Kitty is HUGE here and in Portugal. As grandparents of a five year old girl we understood the phenomenon a bit, but not the depth of love for this blank-faced little cat that appears everywhere here.
- People appear very outgoing and social here. They greet each other warmly with hugs and pecks on the cheek and appear to enjoy being out in public more than inside watching TV.
- The Spanish are less protective of their children in public than we are. Kids run around the plazas while the parents sit and visit, without the hawkish guarding and nagging that we do with our children in public.
- Although we see most tables with a beer before dinner and wine with the meals, we have seen only the rare, exceptional drunk on the street. Drinking to excess just doesn't seem to happen.
- Spanish parenting seems very affectionate and effective. I saw one mother smack her daughter and it was shocking to all of us that were watching. Someone even spoke to her about it to calm her down.
- The 96% Catholic population statistic is true. The church bells ring for fifteen minutes solid at mass time on Sunday. The streets are full of people walking to services. Nuns, sometimes in habits and sometimes in plain blue clothing are everywhere.
- There are supermarkets which are much smaller than ours, yet there are also many more unique shops for purchasing meats, pastries, produce, breads, etc. The modern parts of town are moving towards bigger, chain stores, yet many neighborhoods retain the myriad of small, individual stores. In a city of 80,000 or so you can see international chain stores like the Body Shop and McDonald's, but mostly you see individual bookstores, coffee shops and pastry shops.
Last night we were sitting at a table with a glass of wine and a coffee at 9:00 PM marveling at our improved ability to order when a man sitting at a nearby bench asked us in English how we were enjoying our vacation. Of Chinese heritage, born in Peru and working for an American company, he speaks four languages and has lived in Miami in the past for twelve years. David, his wife Rosario and daughter, Amanda sat and talked to us until 10:30. They were very interesting people and we enjoyed the time with them. David is in sales, and he must be a superstar, as his outgoing personality kept the conversation going. Having heart problems similar to Mike's of days gone by, we left each other's company with David's phone number and the name and phone number of a Madrid cardiologist in case we have any difficulties while in Spain.
Tomorrow we leave for Alicante, where the temperature is even warmer. We are very excited about seeing Caitie.
Bye for now, Deanne
Friday, August 10, 2007
If this is Friday it must be Avila
We took the train from Leon to Avila this morning and logged in to our hotel- the Palacio Valderrabanos Gran Hotel, a 13th century archbishop's palace adjacent to the first century cathedral inside a walled city on the Castillian plains. Our hotel has outrageously expensive internet access though, so no need to go to the internet cafe. Finally we can catch up on our travels.
We spent the past three days in Leon, a wonderful city with a mix of old and new. It sits on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, so there is an influx of pilgrims making the trek to Santiago de Compostela and tourists. Nevertheless, it is a bigger city than Santiago with more residents and fewer tourists, or so it seems. Our hotel in Leon, La Posada Regia was highly recommended in our guidebook, saying "you want find many places better than this anywhere in northern Spain". For 96 Euro per night, more than most of our nights, we slept in a 14th century building that was beautifully restored with exposed brick, wooden beams and antique furniture. Our room, on the top floor had tiny windows up in the gables of the sloped ceiling. By peaking into rooms being cleaned (only 7 rooms per floor for each of the three floors) I could see that each room was painted differently and furnished with a different set of antiques. The room was not air conditioned, but fortunately the night was cool and the open ceiling window combined with a fan kept us cool enough.
In Leon our room was along the main street transitioning from new town and the bus and train station into the old town. This pedestrian street provided us with great places to people watch right outside our door. We ate several meals at the sidewalk cafes along the "avenue". We had our morning and afternoon cafe solo, or espressos, and sometimes we would stop for a Coke light and agua con gas. Several times we had the Spanish salad Caitie raved about, the Ensalada Mixta, which is an iceberg lettuce, tomato, tuna and olive salad served with olive oil and wine vinegar for self service dressing. One night we ate in our hotel restaurant which the guidebook calls a local haunt for good meals. We were not the first ones in the place when we showed up for our reservation at 9:10, but we were second. Our meal lasted until 10:30 and we were still watching people arrive. We both had the waiter's recommendation of solomillo, or steak, which like everywhere else we have tried beef here, was lightly cooked on the outside and purple raw on the inside. When we waved the waiter over to get it cooked a little longer, it came back sliced down the center so that it was two thin steaks, each cooked lightly on the outside and purple raw in the center. We ate it, as watching it cut into four quarter inch steaks did not make any sense at all. Each outside of the steak had been salted, so the more times in was sliced into a new surface area, the more salt we acquired. Prior to the steaks, we had ordered two dishes in the menu column marked, "Ensaladas". We ordered one that was mixed vegetables and one that was artichokes and ham. To say they were horrible would be a disservice to the word. They were worse than horrible. Starved for vegetables we ate two plates of overcooked, mushy vegetables that were incredibly salty. We got laughing about how long they had been sitting in the slow cooker and it was hard to stop. Even after that expensive and not exactly wonderful dinner we were adventurous in trying some non-ham and cheese meals while out. For lunch one day we shared a salad then ordered a Spanish omelet (tortilla). I had eaten scrambled eggs with prawns and asparagus for lunch the day before and thought this would be similar, so I was surprised to find out it is a slice of a potato fritatta served at room temperature rather than a freshly cooked egg dish. On our last night in Leon as we were sitting having drinks on the avenue the waitress brought us a small sampler of appetizers- three of four of which were another version of ham and cheese on bread. The fourth was Spanish omelet on bread.
As in the other Spanish towns and cities we have visited, the streets of Leon were spotless and we frequently saw street cleaners, both mechanical and manual as we walked around the city. Significant restoration projects were going on at the famous cathedral and convent, so both bore signs of construction and scaffolding, but we were able to tour the sights. The cathedral in Leon is amazing, majestic and stunning with beautiful stained glass windows. We enjoyed walking around the old town, along the river and through the shopping streets of the new town. We even restocked at the book store!
If you asked what we loved most about Leon, though, it would be sitting or strolling down the avenue watching all of the people. Every fifty feet or so there was a mime, and over three days we saw the same mimes doing the same things for hours a day. There was a princess who curtsied then blew kisses or kissed your hand when you dropped money in her box. A clown that honked his red nose and bowed and a not-very successful wanta-be princess that seemed ill suited to the job and merely moved her hands a bit when you dropped the coins in her box. We saw her cuff some pre-teen in the face after he tugged on her hand a few times while she was standing there without moving. Apparently mimes don't do as well with poking and prodding as palace guards. We listened to street musicians, and given that we went to bed before the action was nearly over, we even heard them down on the street after we were in bed.
One of the strangest things we saw while out walking around was some sort of competition in the square to hold a flag draped pole (maybe 40 feet tall) upright for a period of time. This team sport involved contestants in teams of matching shirts wearing thick leather belts like the ones deep sea fisherman wear to hold the poles when reeling in the "big one". The team members would take turns holding the pole, while the team members would hold ropes draped from the top of the pole to help steady the pole upright. Each team seemed to make it ten or fifteen minutes before the next team took over with a different pole and flag. There was clapping and running around but we never figured out the point of the game, nor do we think there is a winner. This contest drew a huge crowd, though, people standing all around the plaza in danger of being beaned with the pole. We left never knowing the point of the contest.
Our train ride from Leon to Avila was simple, either because the trains in Spain are SO much better than Portugal (true) or we are much more experienced about how to do this type travel (also true). I have found a website with the Spanish train schedules that is easier to use than the Eurrail site so we can now walk right into the station and make our seat reservations with the train information in our hand. It is simpler than trying to stumble our way through the request process, but even that is getting better. We can order coffee and drinks really well, food sort of well, and we are decent enough at asking about the location of bathrooms. We are terrible at making small talk with tax drivers, so most of our cab rides from train stations to hotels and back again are spent in silence. We can feign understanding with strangers, but after awhile of our fumbling to answer most of them give up trying to talk to us. Case in point, the old lady in front of us in the ticket line at the train station this morning. She was wrestling with her suitcase and assorted plastic bags and Mike reached out to give her a hand. After helping her attach a small suitcase to her larger suitcase without any speaking to each other she started to make conversation with us. We nodded and agreed, but it was apparent to her that we were not getting any of what she was telling us. Nevertheless, she appreciated Mike's chivalry and went to the efforts of miming her frustration with the length of time we had to wait in line by rolling her eyes and doing the universal, "blah, blah, blah" that we are all acquainted with to indicated the staff that was working at the universal bureaucratic speed. For whatever reason, the three windows of the train station ticket office were marked (in Spanish), 1. Information, 2. Immediate Tickets, 3) Future Tickets. There was absolutely no one in the information line and the grizzly, smoker faced man working the window looked bored as he sat there resting his head on his hand, while the other two windows had long lines manned by hard(er) working women.
We have learned to bring picnic fare onto the train proportionate to the time spent traveling. Like the locals, we spread out our food and eat and drink our own victuals. We shared a train sandwich on one trip and although it compared favorably to airplane food, it is nice to be able to sit in your seat and eat food of your own choosing that doesn't have any ham or cheese in it.
I will write later to share our observations of Avila.
Jeff and Hank- our thoughts are with you. Congratulations.
Deanne
We spent the past three days in Leon, a wonderful city with a mix of old and new. It sits on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, so there is an influx of pilgrims making the trek to Santiago de Compostela and tourists. Nevertheless, it is a bigger city than Santiago with more residents and fewer tourists, or so it seems. Our hotel in Leon, La Posada Regia was highly recommended in our guidebook, saying "you want find many places better than this anywhere in northern Spain". For 96 Euro per night, more than most of our nights, we slept in a 14th century building that was beautifully restored with exposed brick, wooden beams and antique furniture. Our room, on the top floor had tiny windows up in the gables of the sloped ceiling. By peaking into rooms being cleaned (only 7 rooms per floor for each of the three floors) I could see that each room was painted differently and furnished with a different set of antiques. The room was not air conditioned, but fortunately the night was cool and the open ceiling window combined with a fan kept us cool enough.
In Leon our room was along the main street transitioning from new town and the bus and train station into the old town. This pedestrian street provided us with great places to people watch right outside our door. We ate several meals at the sidewalk cafes along the "avenue". We had our morning and afternoon cafe solo, or espressos, and sometimes we would stop for a Coke light and agua con gas. Several times we had the Spanish salad Caitie raved about, the Ensalada Mixta, which is an iceberg lettuce, tomato, tuna and olive salad served with olive oil and wine vinegar for self service dressing. One night we ate in our hotel restaurant which the guidebook calls a local haunt for good meals. We were not the first ones in the place when we showed up for our reservation at 9:10, but we were second. Our meal lasted until 10:30 and we were still watching people arrive. We both had the waiter's recommendation of solomillo, or steak, which like everywhere else we have tried beef here, was lightly cooked on the outside and purple raw on the inside. When we waved the waiter over to get it cooked a little longer, it came back sliced down the center so that it was two thin steaks, each cooked lightly on the outside and purple raw in the center. We ate it, as watching it cut into four quarter inch steaks did not make any sense at all. Each outside of the steak had been salted, so the more times in was sliced into a new surface area, the more salt we acquired. Prior to the steaks, we had ordered two dishes in the menu column marked, "Ensaladas". We ordered one that was mixed vegetables and one that was artichokes and ham. To say they were horrible would be a disservice to the word. They were worse than horrible. Starved for vegetables we ate two plates of overcooked, mushy vegetables that were incredibly salty. We got laughing about how long they had been sitting in the slow cooker and it was hard to stop. Even after that expensive and not exactly wonderful dinner we were adventurous in trying some non-ham and cheese meals while out. For lunch one day we shared a salad then ordered a Spanish omelet (tortilla). I had eaten scrambled eggs with prawns and asparagus for lunch the day before and thought this would be similar, so I was surprised to find out it is a slice of a potato fritatta served at room temperature rather than a freshly cooked egg dish. On our last night in Leon as we were sitting having drinks on the avenue the waitress brought us a small sampler of appetizers- three of four of which were another version of ham and cheese on bread. The fourth was Spanish omelet on bread.
As in the other Spanish towns and cities we have visited, the streets of Leon were spotless and we frequently saw street cleaners, both mechanical and manual as we walked around the city. Significant restoration projects were going on at the famous cathedral and convent, so both bore signs of construction and scaffolding, but we were able to tour the sights. The cathedral in Leon is amazing, majestic and stunning with beautiful stained glass windows. We enjoyed walking around the old town, along the river and through the shopping streets of the new town. We even restocked at the book store!
If you asked what we loved most about Leon, though, it would be sitting or strolling down the avenue watching all of the people. Every fifty feet or so there was a mime, and over three days we saw the same mimes doing the same things for hours a day. There was a princess who curtsied then blew kisses or kissed your hand when you dropped money in her box. A clown that honked his red nose and bowed and a not-very successful wanta-be princess that seemed ill suited to the job and merely moved her hands a bit when you dropped the coins in her box. We saw her cuff some pre-teen in the face after he tugged on her hand a few times while she was standing there without moving. Apparently mimes don't do as well with poking and prodding as palace guards. We listened to street musicians, and given that we went to bed before the action was nearly over, we even heard them down on the street after we were in bed.
One of the strangest things we saw while out walking around was some sort of competition in the square to hold a flag draped pole (maybe 40 feet tall) upright for a period of time. This team sport involved contestants in teams of matching shirts wearing thick leather belts like the ones deep sea fisherman wear to hold the poles when reeling in the "big one". The team members would take turns holding the pole, while the team members would hold ropes draped from the top of the pole to help steady the pole upright. Each team seemed to make it ten or fifteen minutes before the next team took over with a different pole and flag. There was clapping and running around but we never figured out the point of the game, nor do we think there is a winner. This contest drew a huge crowd, though, people standing all around the plaza in danger of being beaned with the pole. We left never knowing the point of the contest.
Our train ride from Leon to Avila was simple, either because the trains in Spain are SO much better than Portugal (true) or we are much more experienced about how to do this type travel (also true). I have found a website with the Spanish train schedules that is easier to use than the Eurrail site so we can now walk right into the station and make our seat reservations with the train information in our hand. It is simpler than trying to stumble our way through the request process, but even that is getting better. We can order coffee and drinks really well, food sort of well, and we are decent enough at asking about the location of bathrooms. We are terrible at making small talk with tax drivers, so most of our cab rides from train stations to hotels and back again are spent in silence. We can feign understanding with strangers, but after awhile of our fumbling to answer most of them give up trying to talk to us. Case in point, the old lady in front of us in the ticket line at the train station this morning. She was wrestling with her suitcase and assorted plastic bags and Mike reached out to give her a hand. After helping her attach a small suitcase to her larger suitcase without any speaking to each other she started to make conversation with us. We nodded and agreed, but it was apparent to her that we were not getting any of what she was telling us. Nevertheless, she appreciated Mike's chivalry and went to the efforts of miming her frustration with the length of time we had to wait in line by rolling her eyes and doing the universal, "blah, blah, blah" that we are all acquainted with to indicated the staff that was working at the universal bureaucratic speed. For whatever reason, the three windows of the train station ticket office were marked (in Spanish), 1. Information, 2. Immediate Tickets, 3) Future Tickets. There was absolutely no one in the information line and the grizzly, smoker faced man working the window looked bored as he sat there resting his head on his hand, while the other two windows had long lines manned by hard(er) working women.
We have learned to bring picnic fare onto the train proportionate to the time spent traveling. Like the locals, we spread out our food and eat and drink our own victuals. We shared a train sandwich on one trip and although it compared favorably to airplane food, it is nice to be able to sit in your seat and eat food of your own choosing that doesn't have any ham or cheese in it.
I will write later to share our observations of Avila.
Jeff and Hank- our thoughts are with you. Congratulations.
Deanne
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Tuesday- found a home in Santiago de Compostela
As we sat eating our bread and fruit dinner last night (Monday) in front of Spanish TV, which we watch while playing a new game of guess what the news is about today, we realized how much we enjoy this particular Spanish city. The national news channel (the only news channel) was showing a picture of this city with people being interviewed. All of the interviewees were wearing sweaters or shawls and we guessed that maybe the news was about the chilly weather that Santiago is having right now. It is in the low 70´s, probably a global warming anomaly for usually HOT Spain, but it is so enjoyable to us that we may never leave. We interrupted our delicious picnic dinner to write a note to our hotel manager/landlord who we have never seen except for our arrival. Mike worked on the note for awhile, carefully requesting an extra two nights at this hotel using our guidebook Spanish. The book has a sample sentence asking for only one night, but considering the weather too good to move one, we greedily asked for two. After the note was done we talked to Caitie by phone and it looks as if we may meet up with her tomorrow instead, so the note went into the can and we used the sample note verbatim. We left it on his desk and hope that our belongings aren´t all sitting on the street when we go back to our room later today. We´ll let you know.
This hotel room has been one of our best although I would not recommend it to anyone afraid of noise or addicted to fresh air. The only window, one that opens up to the balcony above the plaza, has glass doors that effectively block out all the noise, but unfortunately also block out all of the air too. They have total black out shades attached to them, which makes the room soundproof and dark when closed, but also airtight. So, we have developed a system in which we go to sleep at 11:00 or so with the room as quiet and dark as a mausoleum, then when we wake up perspiring and out of air we open it up for awhile and listen to a) the people reveling down in the plaza, b) the street cleaner and garbage trucks that come through every night, c) the speeding cars that come through occasionally, but not constantly, d) the pick up at night of the tables and chairs of the restaurants in the square e) the noise of our fellow lodgers coming in later at night than us, and leaving earlier in the morning.... you get the point. Thankfully the weather has been so pleasant, making the necessity for fresh air must less important.
We have determined that our favorite towns are ones big enough to have places to go out and see, but small enough to see in one or two days making the remainder of our stay feeling familiar and at home as we eat at a favorite restaurant or shop at the grocery for the second or third time. This city has about 88,000 people, most of whom live outside the old town. We have located a grocery, a health food store (source of the all-important non-chemical shampoos that don´t aggravate my allergy to sodium laurel sulfate) and the almonds and raisins we snack on, multiple cafes and places to hang out. We are in the habit of stopping for an espresso once each morning and afternoon and like the locals, using the price of that cup of coffee as rent on a chair that enables you to spend an hour people watching. The chairs at tables are never arranged facing in straight to the table, instead they are arranged around empty tables in an angled fashion as if they expected us to plunk right down and face the crowd rather than each other while we drank our coffee. We see people sitting at their small table like landlords for the hour or two it takes to consume whatever beverage sits in front of them. On hot days we trade our afternoon coffee for Coke Light(Mike) and aqua with gas (carbonated water for Deanne). We appreciate the price we paid in Portugal (50 cents) now that we are paying at least double that in Spain.
The internet cafes are much more lavish in Spain than the shady little run-down places of Portugal that felt a bit like you were participating in an elicit activity. Here they are large, multi-room facilities with special lighting to accommodate game players and rows upon rows of computers. We remain the oldest patrons in these facilities every time we visit, but the kids that work the counters seem predisposed to like old codgers that are computer literate. When I blew up the computer in the other store yesterday, the counter person was surprised but pleasant and turned the machine off giving me a free half hour to make up for the fact that I had to start over in writing my blog entry.
We will push off tomorrow going Eastward to either Leon or Avila. We have both on our to-do list, as they seem to fit our target profile of small, historical cities with beautiful scenery. We suggested that Caitie decide which of the cities she would prefer, as the current plan is to meet her there.
We´ll write again when we land. Until then So long,
Deanne
This hotel room has been one of our best although I would not recommend it to anyone afraid of noise or addicted to fresh air. The only window, one that opens up to the balcony above the plaza, has glass doors that effectively block out all the noise, but unfortunately also block out all of the air too. They have total black out shades attached to them, which makes the room soundproof and dark when closed, but also airtight. So, we have developed a system in which we go to sleep at 11:00 or so with the room as quiet and dark as a mausoleum, then when we wake up perspiring and out of air we open it up for awhile and listen to a) the people reveling down in the plaza, b) the street cleaner and garbage trucks that come through every night, c) the speeding cars that come through occasionally, but not constantly, d) the pick up at night of the tables and chairs of the restaurants in the square e) the noise of our fellow lodgers coming in later at night than us, and leaving earlier in the morning.... you get the point. Thankfully the weather has been so pleasant, making the necessity for fresh air must less important.
We have determined that our favorite towns are ones big enough to have places to go out and see, but small enough to see in one or two days making the remainder of our stay feeling familiar and at home as we eat at a favorite restaurant or shop at the grocery for the second or third time. This city has about 88,000 people, most of whom live outside the old town. We have located a grocery, a health food store (source of the all-important non-chemical shampoos that don´t aggravate my allergy to sodium laurel sulfate) and the almonds and raisins we snack on, multiple cafes and places to hang out. We are in the habit of stopping for an espresso once each morning and afternoon and like the locals, using the price of that cup of coffee as rent on a chair that enables you to spend an hour people watching. The chairs at tables are never arranged facing in straight to the table, instead they are arranged around empty tables in an angled fashion as if they expected us to plunk right down and face the crowd rather than each other while we drank our coffee. We see people sitting at their small table like landlords for the hour or two it takes to consume whatever beverage sits in front of them. On hot days we trade our afternoon coffee for Coke Light(Mike) and aqua with gas (carbonated water for Deanne). We appreciate the price we paid in Portugal (50 cents) now that we are paying at least double that in Spain.
The internet cafes are much more lavish in Spain than the shady little run-down places of Portugal that felt a bit like you were participating in an elicit activity. Here they are large, multi-room facilities with special lighting to accommodate game players and rows upon rows of computers. We remain the oldest patrons in these facilities every time we visit, but the kids that work the counters seem predisposed to like old codgers that are computer literate. When I blew up the computer in the other store yesterday, the counter person was surprised but pleasant and turned the machine off giving me a free half hour to make up for the fact that I had to start over in writing my blog entry.
We will push off tomorrow going Eastward to either Leon or Avila. We have both on our to-do list, as they seem to fit our target profile of small, historical cities with beautiful scenery. We suggested that Caitie decide which of the cities she would prefer, as the current plan is to meet her there.
We´ll write again when we land. Until then So long,
Deanne
Monday, August 6, 2007
Still a great Monday
I am writing this for the second time. I was about two paragraphs into this when all of a sudden the computer in the internet cafe bit the dust. I was writing about the mass we attended this afternoon.... I don´t think I said anything powerful enough to blow up a computer. We left here a few minutes before noon to attend the pilgram´s mass at the cathedral. History says that St. James´remains were brought here in the first century BC on a stone boat and buried at the site of the cathedral. A man was led there by a guiding light (which the city is named after)and the church decided to begin a cathedral which pilgrams having been coming to see for 1,000 years. Today´s pilgrams walk a minimum of 100 kms, or bike double that with designated low cost accomodations and meals along the way, then they are given a special mass every day at noon and a certificate of completion. The 1000 year old cathderal is majestic (photos to follow) and huge and it was full to the gills with pilgrams and tourists. Today is the anniversary of Mike´s father´s passing so it was nice to have a special church to attend. We loved the mass although we had to stand (the seats were taken when we go there) and we didn´t understand a word of the service.
We are trying to get a new SIM card for Mike´s phone this afternoon. The Portuguese phone doesn´t work in Spain, so we are starting over. I won´t post the number on the blog, but send an ´-mail if you want to call us and we will send our phone number once we get it. Hopefully this number will work throughout Europe and we won´t find ourselves starting over in each country.
We love this little town and our noisy little space above the square so we are going to do our best to get another night or two. The proprieter of our hotel speaks no English, but he found help to translate for us the day we got here, so hopefully we will make our wishes to stay known somehow. The Spanish don´t seem to understand any English, unlike most of the Portuguese we met that worked in customer service. I wonder if it is the difference in TV... since they don´t hear any English on TV like the Portuguese they don´t seem familiar with our requests. They treat us well enough and we make ourselves known using the few phrases we know, pointing to the menu and looking things up in the phrase book we brought along.
You´ll all be happy to know that the weather has cooled down. It is expected to be in the 70s here all week. We may never leave!
The hours things are open take some getting used to. The stores all close between 2-4:30, but most places stay open until 8 or so. We are going sightseeing this evening to see the sights that are all open until about 8.00. We know from the noise on the plaza below last night that we won´t be sleeping until around midnight, so we may as well adjust to the later day- sleeping til 9:00 then staying up later. Our children are all laughing to read this part, because we go to bed ¨so early¨usually.
We have been living on ham and cheese. As a welcome change, Mike wanted to try a pizza last night. We thought we ordered a cheese pizza only to find pieces of ham and pineapple on it- another ham and cheese meal in way too long a succession. This hotel does not serve breakfast, which seems more common in Spain, so we are saved the obligation of eating ham and cheese every breakfast because we have already paid for it. This morning we went to a msall cafe and successfully ordered our coffees and Mike´s croissant. Deanne´s toast was not expected to be fried bread, but that will be the last time I order toast in a restaraunt. We have committed to a good dinner tonight at my request, so Mike says he will go along with an octopus looking menu on my behlf tonight. We´ll see what we end up with- but it won´t be until after 9:00 when the dinner hour beings. More on that tomorrow.
Well, we are off to the phone store and the sights. Later...
Love,
deanne
We are trying to get a new SIM card for Mike´s phone this afternoon. The Portuguese phone doesn´t work in Spain, so we are starting over. I won´t post the number on the blog, but send an ´-mail if you want to call us and we will send our phone number once we get it. Hopefully this number will work throughout Europe and we won´t find ourselves starting over in each country.
We love this little town and our noisy little space above the square so we are going to do our best to get another night or two. The proprieter of our hotel speaks no English, but he found help to translate for us the day we got here, so hopefully we will make our wishes to stay known somehow. The Spanish don´t seem to understand any English, unlike most of the Portuguese we met that worked in customer service. I wonder if it is the difference in TV... since they don´t hear any English on TV like the Portuguese they don´t seem familiar with our requests. They treat us well enough and we make ourselves known using the few phrases we know, pointing to the menu and looking things up in the phrase book we brought along.
You´ll all be happy to know that the weather has cooled down. It is expected to be in the 70s here all week. We may never leave!
The hours things are open take some getting used to. The stores all close between 2-4:30, but most places stay open until 8 or so. We are going sightseeing this evening to see the sights that are all open until about 8.00. We know from the noise on the plaza below last night that we won´t be sleeping until around midnight, so we may as well adjust to the later day- sleeping til 9:00 then staying up later. Our children are all laughing to read this part, because we go to bed ¨so early¨usually.
We have been living on ham and cheese. As a welcome change, Mike wanted to try a pizza last night. We thought we ordered a cheese pizza only to find pieces of ham and pineapple on it- another ham and cheese meal in way too long a succession. This hotel does not serve breakfast, which seems more common in Spain, so we are saved the obligation of eating ham and cheese every breakfast because we have already paid for it. This morning we went to a msall cafe and successfully ordered our coffees and Mike´s croissant. Deanne´s toast was not expected to be fried bread, but that will be the last time I order toast in a restaraunt. We have committed to a good dinner tonight at my request, so Mike says he will go along with an octopus looking menu on my behlf tonight. We´ll see what we end up with- but it won´t be until after 9:00 when the dinner hour beings. More on that tomorrow.
Well, we are off to the phone store and the sights. Later...
Love,
deanne
A Beautiful Monday morning in Santiago de Compostela, Spain
We took the train north from Valenca to the first significant train stop in Spain, Vigo. Our plan was to decide at the train station whether to stay or keep going northward. We were told that our 10:15 train which left the Valenca train station at the Portuguese almost on-time time of 10:50 was intended to get to Vigo at 12:15 so given our delayed start time, we expected to get to Vigo about 12:50. Our train car was almost empty, and at one stop the last few people got off as we waited to resume our journey to Vigo. After sitting there for a few minutes a security guard came and chased us out of our seats telling us ¨vigo- finish¨over and over. It seems we were already in Vigo but had forgotten that there was an hour time difference between the countires.
The countryside on the way to Vigo was beautiful rural, hilly land. The Portuguese and the Spanish both use rolling shutters on their windows to block out the sun, and the houses all look like people with their eyes closed against the sun. At first I thought they were closed down vacation homes until it was apparent that not every home in the district could be a vacation home- they are just resting against the strength of the sun. The farms are all small, with mostly corn growing and the grape vines interspersed periodically. Aside from the occaionally vegetable garden we have not seen any other crops growing except corn and grapes.
The Spanish towns along the tracks look more modern than the Portuguese, as if this area was not inhabited until the last fifty years or the old ruins have been replaced with modern homes. There is a feeling of more money here, and many more people. The train stations are modern and relatively luxurious compared to the Portuguese.
As we appraoched Vigo (of course not knowing that it was Vigo and having no announcements on this Portuguese train that corsses the border to Vigo) we were both thinking that Vigo, beautifully located on the coast was a much more commercial looking city than either of us wanted to visit. At over 200,000 people, it is a large port city with a small historical center. Not much to hold our attention. So, when we got to the attractive and modern station we caught the next train north- a much more modern and clean train than we were used to.
We arrived in Santiago de Compostela at 3:00 and jumped on the phone to call around and find a room. After several calls we found a room in a one star hotel above a square in the old town. It is a beautiful room, with exposed rock walls, in an ancient building within the formerly walled old town. We entered the cafe marked with our hotel name and they gave us the key and carried our luggage upstairs to our room on the third floor. For 54 Euros a night it really isn´t all that different from the rooms were we have lived for much more. Two hard twin beds, a bathroom with a flexible handle bath/shower and a tv that in Spain, gets no English speaking television. The Portuguese use subtitles when they frequently show US movies or tv shows, but the Spanish broadcast the Mighty Ducks with Spanish speaking voices.
Running out to time. Will post more later. Love, Deanne
The countryside on the way to Vigo was beautiful rural, hilly land. The Portuguese and the Spanish both use rolling shutters on their windows to block out the sun, and the houses all look like people with their eyes closed against the sun. At first I thought they were closed down vacation homes until it was apparent that not every home in the district could be a vacation home- they are just resting against the strength of the sun. The farms are all small, with mostly corn growing and the grape vines interspersed periodically. Aside from the occaionally vegetable garden we have not seen any other crops growing except corn and grapes.
The Spanish towns along the tracks look more modern than the Portuguese, as if this area was not inhabited until the last fifty years or the old ruins have been replaced with modern homes. There is a feeling of more money here, and many more people. The train stations are modern and relatively luxurious compared to the Portuguese.
As we appraoched Vigo (of course not knowing that it was Vigo and having no announcements on this Portuguese train that corsses the border to Vigo) we were both thinking that Vigo, beautifully located on the coast was a much more commercial looking city than either of us wanted to visit. At over 200,000 people, it is a large port city with a small historical center. Not much to hold our attention. So, when we got to the attractive and modern station we caught the next train north- a much more modern and clean train than we were used to.
We arrived in Santiago de Compostela at 3:00 and jumped on the phone to call around and find a room. After several calls we found a room in a one star hotel above a square in the old town. It is a beautiful room, with exposed rock walls, in an ancient building within the formerly walled old town. We entered the cafe marked with our hotel name and they gave us the key and carried our luggage upstairs to our room on the third floor. For 54 Euros a night it really isn´t all that different from the rooms were we have lived for much more. Two hard twin beds, a bathroom with a flexible handle bath/shower and a tv that in Spain, gets no English speaking television. The Portuguese use subtitles when they frequently show US movies or tv shows, but the Spanish broadcast the Mighty Ducks with Spanish speaking voices.
Running out to time. Will post more later. Love, Deanne
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Getting help from all of you
Thanks for all of the great suggestions from all of you. We have gotten advice on other ways to dry laundry (wrap in a towel and stomp on it to get rid of the excess water), post photos (I really appreciate all of the pointers from Dana and Curtis, and feedback from the rest of you), get the internet to work on our computers(the fact that we got advice that didn't fix the problem alerts us to the fact that none of my consulting friends or Microsoft buddies are reading this) and travel more efficiently than all day train rides (thank you Aunt Donna). As you can all tell, we needed and appreciate all of the help. Keep it coming.
For those of you who want to see the slides more slowly or without the captions, I am working on it. In the meantime, you can see the photos at any speed you want to and download any you want to keep by going to: http://picasaweb.google.com/WanderingGypsies
You may have to open an account on google to go there, but it is not too onerous.
Deanne
For those of you who want to see the slides more slowly or without the captions, I am working on it. In the meantime, you can see the photos at any speed you want to and download any you want to keep by going to: http://picasaweb.google.com/WanderingGypsies
You may have to open an account on google to go there, but it is not too onerous.
Deanne
Saturday, August 4, 2007 No internet access today
Another quiet and hot day. We had our routine breakfast, although bread, ham and cheese is starting to get monotonous and headed out for a walk of the old town. Feeling like veterans we braved the car entrance with the double walls and the stop and go system for cars. We definitely have the hang of it now. We had our morning espresso and water sitting in a plaza from the years 1000- 1500 when each of the cathedrals around it were built. It is getting a refurbishment and the streets are torn up so it was rather dusty. No magic choir music as we had last night. In fact, we heard music as we walked around but this time it was much more modern. The city must have a speaker system around the walls that give it that magic feeling at night. The churches were beautiful and it was quite a peaceful morning. We walked to the “new town” (built in the past 200 years) and the grocery story which was packed. In fact, this entire town was packed. This morning as we were hanging our clothes out to drive on our deck we say huge busloads of people coming into town and standing outside the shops. Apparently the Spanish travel to this border town to buy cheap bed linens and home furnishings. The buses arrive about 8:00 AM stacked full of people. The luggage underbelly of the buses, each one identical, was full of ice chests. Apparently they take a break from their day of shopping by having a picnic. Virtually all of the people on the buses shopped, although a few of the men and children walked up the hill to the old town. We wandered around the grocery store and picked up our lunch ingredients, more staples- a loaf of white bread and fruit with water and diet coke. Although our walk back from the grocery store to our hotel could politely be called “taking the long way”, we have come to consider being lost as a chance to see new territory. In a town this small it is really hard to be lost for long.
We tried to get to the internet café to check in with all of you, but apparently 7:00 PM is quitting time on Saturday night, so it will be until at least tomorrow before you get to read this. We will spend the rest of the evening reading (I just finishes Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections which I had never had enough patience to read, although this time I enjoyed it, and Mike is almost done with Steve Berry’s The Third Secret which takes place here in Portugal, making it quite interesting).
Our train tomorrow leaves at 10:15 for a two hour ride into Spain and the town of Vigo. We may travel beyond that, but as yet we are not committed as to tomorrow’s stopping point. We have reservations at Santiago de Campostela for Thursday and Friday nights which we may keep, synching back up for at least a few days with the agenda posted in the blog.
Wait-late breaking news. Yesterday I worked on my computer for a few hours trying to learn how to set the TCP/IP address. It turned out to be a quick fix if only I knew where to look. I got a hint that was the problem from those German kids we met at the port wine tour, and after fooling around for awhile I tought I got it fixed ans showed Mike what I had done so that we could both be fixed or messed up, whichever was the case. The problem was that we had no network in this hotel to enable us to test it. Then, low and behold, while I was writing today's blog entry in expectation of posting it tomorrow, all of a sudden I noticed that my e-mail file was growing. Someone has a network up now without security and we are using it! The fix worked! I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to use the computer again.
Happy in Valenca, Deanne
We tried to get to the internet café to check in with all of you, but apparently 7:00 PM is quitting time on Saturday night, so it will be until at least tomorrow before you get to read this. We will spend the rest of the evening reading (I just finishes Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections which I had never had enough patience to read, although this time I enjoyed it, and Mike is almost done with Steve Berry’s The Third Secret which takes place here in Portugal, making it quite interesting).
Our train tomorrow leaves at 10:15 for a two hour ride into Spain and the town of Vigo. We may travel beyond that, but as yet we are not committed as to tomorrow’s stopping point. We have reservations at Santiago de Campostela for Thursday and Friday nights which we may keep, synching back up for at least a few days with the agenda posted in the blog.
Wait-late breaking news. Yesterday I worked on my computer for a few hours trying to learn how to set the TCP/IP address. It turned out to be a quick fix if only I knew where to look. I got a hint that was the problem from those German kids we met at the port wine tour, and after fooling around for awhile I tought I got it fixed ans showed Mike what I had done so that we could both be fixed or messed up, whichever was the case. The problem was that we had no network in this hotel to enable us to test it. Then, low and behold, while I was writing today's blog entry in expectation of posting it tomorrow, all of a sudden I noticed that my e-mail file was growing. Someone has a network up now without security and we are using it! The fix worked! I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to use the computer again.
Happy in Valenca, Deanne
Friday, August 3 Approaching Spain, only 1 km to go
August 3, 2007
It is 7:00 PM now and we are sitting in our hotel room in Valenca. As we pulled into the hotel we saw a sign saying we were 1 km from Spain. It is warm here, so we went in search of lunch, where a surly waiter refused us help or an English menu so we ate the old stand-by, the only thing we can order in Portuguese- a melted ham and cheese sandwich. We hiked around for a bit in search of a grocery store in which to buy some water and soft drinks for our mini-fridge but the Portuguese hide their grocery stores as if they were precious gems. In the big cities the grocery stores are sometimes underground and sometimes in the center of a multi-floor building, in both cases with a slightly marked doorway/stairway leading to the goods. It is very interesting. If you don’t know the actual name to the store you are unlikely to find it from the small little sign that is indistinguishable from all other signs. I located the grocery in other cities by walking the opposite direction of people carrying grocery bags, figuring they wherever they were coming from was closer than where I was. It worked each time. Unfortunately in the heat of the afternoon I could not find anyone carrying a grocery bag. In any event, we did not find any store so we came back to our room unsupplied.
The train ride to Valenca was through beautiful countryside. The train itself was old and uncomfortable, and although the conductor guarded the exclusivity of first class by removing several interlopers, it was difficult to tell what exactly our first class train passes bought us that was not available in the exactly the same looking car called second class. But, the countryside was beautiful and the train was air conditioned. We saw miles of beaches, some small forests and lots of hilly farm land. We spied goats munching the grass on the hillside and grapes and corn growing everywhere. The corn fields are neat rows of vibrant green, while the grapes seem to be the lacy, green and red border around the corn, like a ruffle around the end of a pillow. We saw grapes in long curving strips, in circles around corn fields, in decorative shading around homes, but rarely in rows like a crop. Occasionally we would see a vegetable garden although those vegetables don’t seem to make it to the restaurants.
Our hotel is outside the walled city, and given the heat of the day we did not explore the walled city yet, but tomorrow we should have a report. We may make it over there tonight, but we definitely will in the morning. We have heard from Caitie by e-mail and hope to reach her by phone in the next few days. We are so excited about meeting up with her soon.
Adios, Deanne
Back from dinner. The walled town is charming, although the entrance is a narrow little one lane hole through the wall with a red and green light system around the blind corners to direct the traffic through the hole without head-on collisions. It was a little harrowing to figure out how pedestrians enter into the mix of one way traffic, but we survived to tell the story. It seems that the town closes up around dinner time when the day tourists have left but we found a charming restaurant and had a great dinner of pork filets (Mike) and shellfish rice (me). We also had a wonderful salad; vegetables that we both enjoyed. As we were walking back through the quiet little walled city we heard the most heavenly women’s choir. We never tracked down the source of the music, but it was wonderful and combined with the medieval setting, was a great ending to the day.
It is 7:00 PM now and we are sitting in our hotel room in Valenca. As we pulled into the hotel we saw a sign saying we were 1 km from Spain. It is warm here, so we went in search of lunch, where a surly waiter refused us help or an English menu so we ate the old stand-by, the only thing we can order in Portuguese- a melted ham and cheese sandwich. We hiked around for a bit in search of a grocery store in which to buy some water and soft drinks for our mini-fridge but the Portuguese hide their grocery stores as if they were precious gems. In the big cities the grocery stores are sometimes underground and sometimes in the center of a multi-floor building, in both cases with a slightly marked doorway/stairway leading to the goods. It is very interesting. If you don’t know the actual name to the store you are unlikely to find it from the small little sign that is indistinguishable from all other signs. I located the grocery in other cities by walking the opposite direction of people carrying grocery bags, figuring they wherever they were coming from was closer than where I was. It worked each time. Unfortunately in the heat of the afternoon I could not find anyone carrying a grocery bag. In any event, we did not find any store so we came back to our room unsupplied.
The train ride to Valenca was through beautiful countryside. The train itself was old and uncomfortable, and although the conductor guarded the exclusivity of first class by removing several interlopers, it was difficult to tell what exactly our first class train passes bought us that was not available in the exactly the same looking car called second class. But, the countryside was beautiful and the train was air conditioned. We saw miles of beaches, some small forests and lots of hilly farm land. We spied goats munching the grass on the hillside and grapes and corn growing everywhere. The corn fields are neat rows of vibrant green, while the grapes seem to be the lacy, green and red border around the corn, like a ruffle around the end of a pillow. We saw grapes in long curving strips, in circles around corn fields, in decorative shading around homes, but rarely in rows like a crop. Occasionally we would see a vegetable garden although those vegetables don’t seem to make it to the restaurants.
Our hotel is outside the walled city, and given the heat of the day we did not explore the walled city yet, but tomorrow we should have a report. We may make it over there tonight, but we definitely will in the morning. We have heard from Caitie by e-mail and hope to reach her by phone in the next few days. We are so excited about meeting up with her soon.
Adios, Deanne
Back from dinner. The walled town is charming, although the entrance is a narrow little one lane hole through the wall with a red and green light system around the blind corners to direct the traffic through the hole without head-on collisions. It was a little harrowing to figure out how pedestrians enter into the mix of one way traffic, but we survived to tell the story. It seems that the town closes up around dinner time when the day tourists have left but we found a charming restaurant and had a great dinner of pork filets (Mike) and shellfish rice (me). We also had a wonderful salad; vegetables that we both enjoyed. As we were walking back through the quiet little walled city we heard the most heavenly women’s choir. We never tracked down the source of the music, but it was wonderful and combined with the medieval setting, was a great ending to the day.
Leaving Portugal
It is hard to believe we have been here for almost three weeks. Some days it seems like we have been traveling for a year, others it seems like we just got off the plane. to give an over view of Portugal in such a short period of time would not do the country justice, however I found the people hospitable although shy and introverted in many ways. People do not speak English as well as in other European countries however with a little patience we figure out what we need to do at any point in time. The transportation systems are great, buses, trains and metro and taxi's inclusive. On another visit I would definitely get a car for all of Portugal. The trains were fine however limiting. The hotels we stayed in were infamous for hard mattresses and in some cases no air conditioning however by and large they were extremely clean and well managed with good breakfasts in most. Ham and bread is a staple here and is served ll the time. If your not a fish eater you will have difficulty having a meal other than pork or steak. The steaks I had were mediocre at best.The veal was great in Evora but i burned out on meat pretty quickly. As I am sure Deanne has written you get to see far to many carcuses and you are reminded of the John Robbins book and have an understanding why people become vegetarians:) Things I wish I had brought, 1) less clothes believe it or not, 2) my computer...internet cafes are cheap and reliable. We have had so many problems with our computers it is not worth the aggravation, 3) I would leave my sneaks at home next time, they take up a lot of room and rarely wear them. Things I am glad I brought, 1) swiss army knife which has come in handy every day for one thing or another, 2) reading light, which also acts a flashlight, 3) books ( they are really expensive here when you can find an English translation, 4)
UV clothing, light and easy to clean, 5) rope. Things I would bring next time 1) compass, 2) a few bungy cords 3) PEETS COFFEE. The espressos are great here however a coffee press in the room would be great. REI has a cup we should have purchased...next time!
The Osprey backpacks are great! We have decided to leave the rolling porti0n with Caitie in Florence while we roam around Rome ( ouch) and other parts of Italy. Caitie will probably join us in a few days and we will decide were we will go after that. We decided that being locked into a schedule is great if you have worries about getting a room...which has not been the case. We feel like we have more freedom to move easily now. We have had a great Chinese dinner, a McDonalds quarter pounder, and a great dinner last night in Valenca which is a great place!! We are really enjoying the old walled cities and the funky feel of the castle and winding streets dotted with restaurant after restaurant all serving pretty much the same stuff :)
On a shorter trip and on a bigger budget i am sure we would have found the restaurants more inviting. The one thing we learned was you just need to order one meal at dinner...they are huge! The food is relative cheap and if you like pork and fish your way ahead of the game. If you love pasta, forget it!...you will have to wait until Italy.
We now look forward to Spain and seeing Caitie and all the funny and charming experiences and not so funny and not so charming, which have been few and far between. I loved Portugal and would return in a heartbeat, favorite place...toss up between Obidos and Evora, close second all others except Setubal which we would bypass next time. Each had one very favorable thing...may have been the room, the people, the food, the location but Obidos and Evora had it all.
In these towns each little street you walk around you expect to see, Oliver Twist and Fagin coming out a tiny doorway or early in the morning when we are out walking the shopkeepers getting prepared for the day and washing the front of stores and sidewalks and placing their wares on the street...it is all like diving back into history and seeing the same streets 500 years ago with similar spectacles. Amazing really... adios amigas and amigos!!!
Mike
UV clothing, light and easy to clean, 5) rope. Things I would bring next time 1) compass, 2) a few bungy cords 3) PEETS COFFEE. The espressos are great here however a coffee press in the room would be great. REI has a cup we should have purchased...next time!
The Osprey backpacks are great! We have decided to leave the rolling porti0n with Caitie in Florence while we roam around Rome ( ouch) and other parts of Italy. Caitie will probably join us in a few days and we will decide were we will go after that. We decided that being locked into a schedule is great if you have worries about getting a room...which has not been the case. We feel like we have more freedom to move easily now. We have had a great Chinese dinner, a McDonalds quarter pounder, and a great dinner last night in Valenca which is a great place!! We are really enjoying the old walled cities and the funky feel of the castle and winding streets dotted with restaurant after restaurant all serving pretty much the same stuff :)
On a shorter trip and on a bigger budget i am sure we would have found the restaurants more inviting. The one thing we learned was you just need to order one meal at dinner...they are huge! The food is relative cheap and if you like pork and fish your way ahead of the game. If you love pasta, forget it!...you will have to wait until Italy.
We now look forward to Spain and seeing Caitie and all the funny and charming experiences and not so funny and not so charming, which have been few and far between. I loved Portugal and would return in a heartbeat, favorite place...toss up between Obidos and Evora, close second all others except Setubal which we would bypass next time. Each had one very favorable thing...may have been the room, the people, the food, the location but Obidos and Evora had it all.
In these towns each little street you walk around you expect to see, Oliver Twist and Fagin coming out a tiny doorway or early in the morning when we are out walking the shopkeepers getting prepared for the day and washing the front of stores and sidewalks and placing their wares on the street...it is all like diving back into history and seeing the same streets 500 years ago with similar spectacles. Amazing really... adios amigas and amigos!!!
Mike
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