December 7, 2008
Our foray into Switzerland to head off any potential problems with not having a Visa was the only unanticipated part of our whole trip. To keep to our original plan of celebrating Christmas in Rome and Midnight Mass at the Vatican, we had only two weeks outside of the Swengen Countries before we needed to start back toward Rome. Since going to Switzerland was a spontaneous side trip we didn’t have definite plans. We talked about going to Zurich from Luzern but our friends, Bob and Joyce Ryan, who had lived in Germany for 4 years suggested we might like to go to Interlaken.
For us, our stay in Interlaken was such a significant departure from the rest of our trip that it totally absorbed us and became a cherished place where figuratively and literally our moments there will forever be frozen in time.
The last part of the drive to Interlaken from Luzern took us through steep mountain gradients and curvy roads. Even though it had recently snowed and there was a significant amount of snow in the higher elevations, the roads were clear and the day was sunny making the drive pleasant. Some of the scenery through those mountains was so beautiful it is unbelievable even today.
Interlaken is a small but fairly affluent resort town. It sits between two large lakes which draws summer vacationers and is just north of a range of the Bavarian Alps with some of the best ski slopes in the world that draws winter enthusiasts. Even though it is a small town, it has top notch hotels, the Linder Grand Hotel Beau Rivage, the Ritz Carlton, Hotel Royal St. Georges (an English “Top Hat” hotel that was magnificent) and the hotel we were fortunate enough to stay in, Hotel Metropole, plus 3 or 4 others.
We arrived around 2:00 pm and stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant on the north side of the lakes at the base of a fairly high mountain range. Looking across a long meadow, we watched hang gliders take off from the mountain tops and glide down to the meadow. It made you really want to give it a try. Instead we opted for a sandwich. In looking over the menu, we both decided a ham and cheese sandwich sounded good. But, when the waitress came to take our order, we learned the menu price was for either ham or cheese, not both. If we had been fully alert, one of us would have ordered a cheese sandwich and the other a ham sandwich and then married the two. But, the guy next to us with his golden retriever eating off of his plate preoccupied our thinking.
Our first impression of Interlaken was that it was a small, sleepy mountain village. In looking over the brochures of attractions, we found you could take a rail trip up to the “Top of Europe.. O.K., we’ll see the sights and take a train trip through the mountains. Wow!! What a surprise.
The train trip took a couple of hours, and if you wanted to spend any time at all at the top, you had to leave early. The train station was only a few blocks from the hotel and right across from a bakery and coffee shop. Any bets on what we had for breakfast? Yep, a couple of delicious Swiss pastries and hot coffee consumed on the 9:00 a.m. train headed for JungFrauJoch (the Top of Europe).
The first train took us through prime ski slopes to Kleine Scheidegg. The area looks like big time ski country and the trains and community are set up to cater to the skiers. In Kleine Scheidegg we changed to a cog wheel train built in 1896 that took us to the top of the world. The grade up to the top was so steep and slippery, riding on a rail with teeth was the only way to get there. The 45 minute trip entirely on the inside of the mountain had 2 stops on a rail siding that allowed descending trains to pass. These sidings were close enough to the outer wall of the mountain that observation windows provided incredible views of the landscape below. See photo of houses that look like fly specks.
At the top, the train station is a multi-story building with restaurants, observatory, research station, observation platform called the Sphinx terrace that you reach via a 111 m (364 foot) elevator, access to the “Ice Palace” (really cool), a snow covered peak a stone’s throw from a glacier and a trail to a mountaineer’s cabin. From our vantage point of 3454 m (11,332 feet), we could see Interlaken and the entire top of Europe! It truly is a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience.
At that elevation, climbing around was strenuous and breathing difficult, not to mention it was -9⁰C (15.8 ⁰F). We had a hard time catching our breath after walking up a single flight of stairs or small inclines. How mountain climbers do what they do is remarkable. Why they do it is even more unbelievable. Speaking of living things managing to survive in those conditions, the birds we saw up there didn’t seem to be having any problems. I don’t know what they do for food. It’s not like there’s a lot of bird seed on a mountain peak covered with snow and ice. The Research Center has a Solar Neutron Event counter (another one is at the Einstein Museum in Bern) which shows the events optically as a red flash, part of their cosmic ray research.
We were at the Top for over 4 hours and had to leave in time to catch our connecting train back to Interlaken. When we got to the place where we changed trains, the moon had just crested over the peak of Mt. Eiger, and I strained to see if Clint Eastwood was on the North face taking part in the Sanction.
When we were getting nearer to the lower elevations of Interlaken, we both started having headaches that were almost unbearable. I know mountain climbers get headaches when oxygen deprivation is prolonged. I don’t know why we got them when we descended. The next day we both were fine with no lasting after effects.
Seeing the beautiful ski slopes whetted my appetite to try skiing. We got in touch with a couple of ski schools and were just about to commit to a lesson when we heard the area was in for a nasty snow storm. Getting into and out of Interlaken isn’t bad if you don’t have to contend with icy and snowy roads. We had to head back to Italy in a couple of days to make our apartment reservation in Rome so we couldn’t afford to get stuck in Interlaken with no way to get back. If we could make it to Bern, we could take a major, non-mountainous road back to Luzern and then to Italy as long as Gotthard Pass was open.
When we headed for Bern, it was overcast and snowing and it looked like the snow clouds were going to be there for awhile. By the time we got to Bern, snow was quickly accumulating and slowing traffic to 40 mph (guardian angel didn’t send us a snow plow this time). After a hectic drive through the middle of Bern we opted for the outskirts. Finding a new Holiday Inn that was part of a new indoor shopping mall next to a train and bus station eliminated any doubt of where we were going to stay.
Ed and Dorothea
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
11242008 BLOG
November 24, 2008
Our cruise to Greece ended on Saturday morning early enough to spend one more day in Venice and Murano. Back at the apartment, on Sunday, we awoke to snow flurries which we learned, for that time of year, were the first ones in 40 years. Like a bunch of kids, the morning was spent playing in the white powder building snow creatures and having snow ball fights.
Our guests would be leaving on Tuesday and since Italians don’t really have a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving, we thought it would be more fun to celebrate it with friends on Monday instead of alone on Thursday. Trying to find what was needed for a traditional turkey dinner in Italy proved challenging. The girls did a great job with limited resources – turkey, dressing, and a green bean casserole. The only lacking ingredients were cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. It was a great dinner and having friends with us made it even more special.
With the departure of our guests, we decided to cut short our stay by a couple of days and get on with our side trip to Switzerland. Lake Como just north of Milano sounded like a good place to stop for a night after the drive from Padova. However, when we got to the Lake Como area, it appeared to be highly commercialized and wasn’t a place we would miss if we didn’t stop. With just enough daylight left to make it to the Swiss border we pressed on with the intent of crossing at Ponte Tresa, Switzerland. We crossed right at sundown after driving 12 kilometers in snow flurries and fog, had our passports stamped, drove a short distance around Lake Di Lugano, saw a “Minotel” and stopped. We were not going to go on a lengthy search for a place to stay this night. In actuality, it turned out to be very nice accommodations. We got a room on the lake and a very warm welcome from the proprietor which was the first of many pleasant experiences with Swiss hospitality. Even though they were having a big bash that evening he found us a table for dinner and stopped by to chat. And, this was the guy in the hotel parking lot when we first arrived who told me where and how to park. This was one time I was glad I held back a hand gesture before knowing who it was I was hand gesturing. And later he gave up his reserved parking spot for us!
It had been a long day, dinner had been enjoyable and Dorothea retired early. I stayed up to download some Christmas music to our I-Phone while we had internet access. Before going to bed, I took one last look at the beautiful scenery across the Lake and saw it was snowing. Knowing, Dorothea would have been disappointed if I waited until morning to tell her, I got her up and she stood, bundled in a blanket listening to Christmas carols and watching dancing snowflakes and the small hail that followed. (What better Christmas music could Ed have found – Elvis Presley Duets and Henry Mancini Christmas! DZ)
Switzerland, like Austria requires a road permit for all vehicles using their roadways. In Austria it was 7.50 Euros for 5 days and in Switzerland, it was 40.00 Swiss Francs for the balance of 2008. We stopped at a nearby ATM and withdrew Swiss Francs. At a local service station, we picked up our road permit (cash only) along with a few liters of diesel. Hard foreign currency doesn’t seem to have the same significance as U.S. Dollars. After awhile, it’s like using funny money. Even if you do the mental arithmetic using exchange rates, the comprehended value of the currency isn’t the same. If a purchase is 20.00 U.S. dollars, you pull out a twenty and you know just how much you’re spending. In other currencies a purchase of 20.00 Euros is 26.00 dollars and 20.00 Swiss Francs is 14.00 dollars. Also, the use of oversized, brightly colored bills and irregular sized coins doesn’t help the matter either.
The hotel owner highly recommended Lucerne as a stop. We were planning to stay two nights in Ponte Tresa but while checking the internet weather, a heavy snow storm was forecasted for the second day. Change of plans! Dorothea hurriedly searched the internet for a place to stay in Lucerne and discovered the “Minotel” chain was offering a 3 nights for the price of 2 package thru American Express. We booked our initial stay in Lucerne at a “Minotel” in old town, gathered our stuff together, loaded up our trusty steed and headed for the mountains.
The only sane way to get from Ponte Tresa to Lucerne over the very rugged Alps is on a major roadway that runs along a mountain valley. Once you run out of valley, it’s around and through the mountain peaks. Once we left the valley floor, the temperature started to drop and the forecasted snow started. The higher we went, the colder and snowier it got. I haven’t driven on snow and ice for over 45 years and didn’t know how the car would perform in -2 C weather. We took it slow and tried to stay out of everyone else’s way. The road in the high, high elevations starts going through mountains instead of around them but the tunnels, which I general don’t like, offered a welcome reprieve from the snowy roads. After coming out of one tunnel our guardian angels sent us a snow plow which we followed all the way to the Gottard tunnel. The St. Gotthard Tunnel at 16.4 kilometers long is the third longest road tunnel in the world. You enter it high in the Alps and exit it in the Lake Lucerne valley. (For me, the scenery was exquisite! The trees covered with snow and the little towns all bundled up were a sight to behold. DZ)
Finding the “Minotel” deal in “Old Town Lucerne” was fortunate since the Sunday evening we arrived was the evening St. Nicolas (or Samichlaus) made his first appearance before the Swiss Christmas celebrated on December 6th. We kept hearing loud bells and popping sounds and followed the noises to where there was a large gathering. The procession started at sundown and was led by groups of men’s clubs ringing cow bells (BIG bells), followed by other groups cracking whips and then guys with blackened faces followed by St. Nicholas and his attendants. It was a treat to candidly watch the traditions of another culture unfold before us.
Lucerne is a beautiful city with story-book characteristics. Half-timbered houses with the lake in the center of town, covered wooden bridges crossing it and surrounded by the Alps looks like something straight out of a Hansel and Gretel story. It was the start of the Swiss Christmas season with Christmas markets, St. Nicolas, parades, short evening performances for Advent at the performing arts center and Christmas magic everywhere. We took in a concert at a dinner theater with a great and apparently very popular German rock band in a uniquely painted building, visited “The Lion” monument erected to the Swiss mercenaries who died fighting against France and spent the day at the “Transportation” museum which has one of the largest collections of restored steam and electric locomotives. The aircraft display and IMAX theatre presentation of a rafting trip down the Colorado River were also cool. We ended up staying longer than 3 nights to take in all of the sites and moved to a Best Western that was also in the center of Old Town.
And now we’re off to Interlaken!
Ed and Dorothea
Our cruise to Greece ended on Saturday morning early enough to spend one more day in Venice and Murano. Back at the apartment, on Sunday, we awoke to snow flurries which we learned, for that time of year, were the first ones in 40 years. Like a bunch of kids, the morning was spent playing in the white powder building snow creatures and having snow ball fights.
Our guests would be leaving on Tuesday and since Italians don’t really have a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving, we thought it would be more fun to celebrate it with friends on Monday instead of alone on Thursday. Trying to find what was needed for a traditional turkey dinner in Italy proved challenging. The girls did a great job with limited resources – turkey, dressing, and a green bean casserole. The only lacking ingredients were cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. It was a great dinner and having friends with us made it even more special.
With the departure of our guests, we decided to cut short our stay by a couple of days and get on with our side trip to Switzerland. Lake Como just north of Milano sounded like a good place to stop for a night after the drive from Padova. However, when we got to the Lake Como area, it appeared to be highly commercialized and wasn’t a place we would miss if we didn’t stop. With just enough daylight left to make it to the Swiss border we pressed on with the intent of crossing at Ponte Tresa, Switzerland. We crossed right at sundown after driving 12 kilometers in snow flurries and fog, had our passports stamped, drove a short distance around Lake Di Lugano, saw a “Minotel” and stopped. We were not going to go on a lengthy search for a place to stay this night. In actuality, it turned out to be very nice accommodations. We got a room on the lake and a very warm welcome from the proprietor which was the first of many pleasant experiences with Swiss hospitality. Even though they were having a big bash that evening he found us a table for dinner and stopped by to chat. And, this was the guy in the hotel parking lot when we first arrived who told me where and how to park. This was one time I was glad I held back a hand gesture before knowing who it was I was hand gesturing. And later he gave up his reserved parking spot for us!
It had been a long day, dinner had been enjoyable and Dorothea retired early. I stayed up to download some Christmas music to our I-Phone while we had internet access. Before going to bed, I took one last look at the beautiful scenery across the Lake and saw it was snowing. Knowing, Dorothea would have been disappointed if I waited until morning to tell her, I got her up and she stood, bundled in a blanket listening to Christmas carols and watching dancing snowflakes and the small hail that followed. (What better Christmas music could Ed have found – Elvis Presley Duets and Henry Mancini Christmas! DZ)
Switzerland, like Austria requires a road permit for all vehicles using their roadways. In Austria it was 7.50 Euros for 5 days and in Switzerland, it was 40.00 Swiss Francs for the balance of 2008. We stopped at a nearby ATM and withdrew Swiss Francs. At a local service station, we picked up our road permit (cash only) along with a few liters of diesel. Hard foreign currency doesn’t seem to have the same significance as U.S. Dollars. After awhile, it’s like using funny money. Even if you do the mental arithmetic using exchange rates, the comprehended value of the currency isn’t the same. If a purchase is 20.00 U.S. dollars, you pull out a twenty and you know just how much you’re spending. In other currencies a purchase of 20.00 Euros is 26.00 dollars and 20.00 Swiss Francs is 14.00 dollars. Also, the use of oversized, brightly colored bills and irregular sized coins doesn’t help the matter either.
The hotel owner highly recommended Lucerne as a stop. We were planning to stay two nights in Ponte Tresa but while checking the internet weather, a heavy snow storm was forecasted for the second day. Change of plans! Dorothea hurriedly searched the internet for a place to stay in Lucerne and discovered the “Minotel” chain was offering a 3 nights for the price of 2 package thru American Express. We booked our initial stay in Lucerne at a “Minotel” in old town, gathered our stuff together, loaded up our trusty steed and headed for the mountains.
The only sane way to get from Ponte Tresa to Lucerne over the very rugged Alps is on a major roadway that runs along a mountain valley. Once you run out of valley, it’s around and through the mountain peaks. Once we left the valley floor, the temperature started to drop and the forecasted snow started. The higher we went, the colder and snowier it got. I haven’t driven on snow and ice for over 45 years and didn’t know how the car would perform in -2 C weather. We took it slow and tried to stay out of everyone else’s way. The road in the high, high elevations starts going through mountains instead of around them but the tunnels, which I general don’t like, offered a welcome reprieve from the snowy roads. After coming out of one tunnel our guardian angels sent us a snow plow which we followed all the way to the Gottard tunnel. The St. Gotthard Tunnel at 16.4 kilometers long is the third longest road tunnel in the world. You enter it high in the Alps and exit it in the Lake Lucerne valley. (For me, the scenery was exquisite! The trees covered with snow and the little towns all bundled up were a sight to behold. DZ)
Finding the “Minotel” deal in “Old Town Lucerne” was fortunate since the Sunday evening we arrived was the evening St. Nicolas (or Samichlaus) made his first appearance before the Swiss Christmas celebrated on December 6th. We kept hearing loud bells and popping sounds and followed the noises to where there was a large gathering. The procession started at sundown and was led by groups of men’s clubs ringing cow bells (BIG bells), followed by other groups cracking whips and then guys with blackened faces followed by St. Nicholas and his attendants. It was a treat to candidly watch the traditions of another culture unfold before us.
Lucerne is a beautiful city with story-book characteristics. Half-timbered houses with the lake in the center of town, covered wooden bridges crossing it and surrounded by the Alps looks like something straight out of a Hansel and Gretel story. It was the start of the Swiss Christmas season with Christmas markets, St. Nicolas, parades, short evening performances for Advent at the performing arts center and Christmas magic everywhere. We took in a concert at a dinner theater with a great and apparently very popular German rock band in a uniquely painted building, visited “The Lion” monument erected to the Swiss mercenaries who died fighting against France and spent the day at the “Transportation” museum which has one of the largest collections of restored steam and electric locomotives. The aircraft display and IMAX theatre presentation of a rafting trip down the Colorado River were also cool. We ended up staying longer than 3 nights to take in all of the sites and moved to a Best Western that was also in the center of Old Town.
And now we’re off to Interlaken!
Ed and Dorothea
Thursday, January 29, 2009
11152008 BLOG
November 15, 2008
Dorothea’s idea for a cruise in the middle of our trip was a stroke of genius. It was great to be on an American ship with American attitudes and American food.
Also, I was assigned to be monitor for two areas on the ship, the main salon on the first floor and the “Viking Crown Lounge” on the top deck. When not on a shore excursion, it was my duty to alternately sit in both of these areas and chat with the wait staff when no one else was around.
Below is an outline of the cruise to help give locations of photos.
1. Cruise from Venice to Greece (Royal Caribbean’s “Splendour of the Seas”)
a. Day 1 – 11/15/2008 Depart Venice 16:30
i. Upgraded room with balcony on Deck 7 (Top Qtrs deck 8) – great start
ii. Life boat drill with 750 Taiwanese AmWay Reps who won the trip for sales
iii. Sailed down Venice Canal – air was cool but pretty sights of Venice; met Steve and Stephanie from Taiwan; nice couple; also meet British singer Will Bailey and wife who joined him on cruise, never made it to see him in Schooner Bar.
iv. Cocktails in the Viking Crown Lounge
v. Dinner – Late seating w/4 women – 2 from England, 2 from N.Y; wanted early seating, but Taiwan won out.
vi. Entertainment – Juggler – Luis Dalton put on good show
b. Day 2 – 11/16/2008 At Sea
i. Great news! The Cruise goes on (not like Carnival); no problems!
ii. Cool but pleasant weather (H58F,L42F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
iii. Napkin folding and Scrapbooking Classes
iv. Origami class
v. First Line Dancing Class
vi. Welcome Aboard Reception with Captain Tommy; proficient staff
vii. Formal night
viii. Dinning time changed to early – table for 2 in sea of AmWay Reps; nice waiter and assistant
c. Day 3 – 11/17/2008 Arrive Athens at Noon
i. Cool, overcast (H67F,L52F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Tour to Acropolis with interesting guide, Marietta (like in Georgia)
iii. Back to ship in time for downpour – bus parked 150’ from gangway and bus driver lets us off and we ran 150 ft. in rain!
iv. Early dinner in sea of Amyway Reps – waiter wants to fatten us up, mention indecision of two entrees and he brings both and then something extra for appetizer and dessert
v. Evening entertainment - Los Pampas Gauchos, drum group from Brazil – good show!
d. Day 4 – 11/18/2008 Arrive in Mykonos at 7:00
i. Cool but pleasant (H60/L55). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Took bus into Mykonos and walked around village to windmills.
iii. Had lunch at local Gyro place
iv. No bargains here for jewelry other anything else
v. Showtime – “Dancing thru the Decades” – very good; cruise staff are performers.
e. Day 5 – 11/19/2008 Arrive in Katakolon at noon
i. Cool but pleasant (H63F/L45F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Walked around small town
iii. No bargains here
iv. Second line dancing class on ship; instructor does salsa in pairs instead of line dancing.
v. Showtime – “Your Three Tenors”; very good; perform separately at various venues and together for other engagements
f. Day 6 – 11/20/2008 Arrive in Corfu at 7:00
i. Cloudy buy pleasant (H62F/L46F)
ii. Took bus to old fort, walked back thru town, long walk
iii. Shacks along waterfront
iv. No bargains here
v. Cocktails in Champagne Bar – Great view; Dorothea is collecting Signature glasses with drinks of course.
vi. Formal night
vii. Head waiter at another station goes postal, stands on grand piano, says he’s going to America in 6 months and quits.
viii. Showtime – “Ballroom Fever”; again very good; cruise staff performers.
g. Day 7 – 11/21/2008 Arrive in Split at 8:00
i. Took tour to Trogir; stop at local “palace” now B &B for wine and snacks of Croatian prosciutto (different from Italian) and music.
ii. Got passports stamped and walked around the town of Split
iii. Cocktails in Champagne Bar
iv. Showtime – Acrobatic group – good
v. Go to Casino and DZ ahead by $100; Ed ahead by $20; yea!
h. Day 8 – 11/22/2008 Arrive in Venice at 7:00
i. Really hated for cruise to be over. It was absolutely fantastic!!!
ii. Spent most of the day in Murono and evening in Venice
iii. Cold, glad to get home
Dorothea and Ed
Dorothea’s idea for a cruise in the middle of our trip was a stroke of genius. It was great to be on an American ship with American attitudes and American food.
Also, I was assigned to be monitor for two areas on the ship, the main salon on the first floor and the “Viking Crown Lounge” on the top deck. When not on a shore excursion, it was my duty to alternately sit in both of these areas and chat with the wait staff when no one else was around.
Below is an outline of the cruise to help give locations of photos.
1. Cruise from Venice to Greece (Royal Caribbean’s “Splendour of the Seas”)
a. Day 1 – 11/15/2008 Depart Venice 16:30
i. Upgraded room with balcony on Deck 7 (Top Qtrs deck 8) – great start
ii. Life boat drill with 750 Taiwanese AmWay Reps who won the trip for sales
iii. Sailed down Venice Canal – air was cool but pretty sights of Venice; met Steve and Stephanie from Taiwan; nice couple; also meet British singer Will Bailey and wife who joined him on cruise, never made it to see him in Schooner Bar.
iv. Cocktails in the Viking Crown Lounge
v. Dinner – Late seating w/4 women – 2 from England, 2 from N.Y; wanted early seating, but Taiwan won out.
vi. Entertainment – Juggler – Luis Dalton put on good show
b. Day 2 – 11/16/2008 At Sea
i. Great news! The Cruise goes on (not like Carnival); no problems!
ii. Cool but pleasant weather (H58F,L42F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
iii. Napkin folding and Scrapbooking Classes
iv. Origami class
v. First Line Dancing Class
vi. Welcome Aboard Reception with Captain Tommy; proficient staff
vii. Formal night
viii. Dinning time changed to early – table for 2 in sea of AmWay Reps; nice waiter and assistant
c. Day 3 – 11/17/2008 Arrive Athens at Noon
i. Cool, overcast (H67F,L52F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Tour to Acropolis with interesting guide, Marietta (like in Georgia)
iii. Back to ship in time for downpour – bus parked 150’ from gangway and bus driver lets us off and we ran 150 ft. in rain!
iv. Early dinner in sea of Amyway Reps – waiter wants to fatten us up, mention indecision of two entrees and he brings both and then something extra for appetizer and dessert
v. Evening entertainment - Los Pampas Gauchos, drum group from Brazil – good show!
d. Day 4 – 11/18/2008 Arrive in Mykonos at 7:00
i. Cool but pleasant (H60/L55). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Took bus into Mykonos and walked around village to windmills.
iii. Had lunch at local Gyro place
iv. No bargains here for jewelry other anything else
v. Showtime – “Dancing thru the Decades” – very good; cruise staff are performers.
e. Day 5 – 11/19/2008 Arrive in Katakolon at noon
i. Cool but pleasant (H63F/L45F). Calm seas, smooth sailing
ii. Walked around small town
iii. No bargains here
iv. Second line dancing class on ship; instructor does salsa in pairs instead of line dancing.
v. Showtime – “Your Three Tenors”; very good; perform separately at various venues and together for other engagements
f. Day 6 – 11/20/2008 Arrive in Corfu at 7:00
i. Cloudy buy pleasant (H62F/L46F)
ii. Took bus to old fort, walked back thru town, long walk
iii. Shacks along waterfront
iv. No bargains here
v. Cocktails in Champagne Bar – Great view; Dorothea is collecting Signature glasses with drinks of course.
vi. Formal night
vii. Head waiter at another station goes postal, stands on grand piano, says he’s going to America in 6 months and quits.
viii. Showtime – “Ballroom Fever”; again very good; cruise staff performers.
g. Day 7 – 11/21/2008 Arrive in Split at 8:00
i. Took tour to Trogir; stop at local “palace” now B &B for wine and snacks of Croatian prosciutto (different from Italian) and music.
ii. Got passports stamped and walked around the town of Split
iii. Cocktails in Champagne Bar
iv. Showtime – Acrobatic group – good
v. Go to Casino and DZ ahead by $100; Ed ahead by $20; yea!
h. Day 8 – 11/22/2008 Arrive in Venice at 7:00
i. Really hated for cruise to be over. It was absolutely fantastic!!!
ii. Spent most of the day in Murono and evening in Venice
iii. Cold, glad to get home
Dorothea and Ed
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
11012008 BLOG
November 1, 2008
The Italian countryside, a short distant outside of Trieste, changes from mountainous to flat coastal plain where the road beds are typically 4’ to 10’ above the land. It is like that all around the general area of Venice, Padova, and Verona. It’s great agricultural land and home to many vineyards and estate farms.
Our stay in Padova at the Villa Salvatico was at one of those estate farms that date back to the late 1700s. Our congenial host Antonio, who inherited Salvatico, was a true Italian country gentleman. Our rented 3 bedroom, 3 bath apartment was larger than we expected and would serve as a very comfortable home base for us and two others who would be joining us before our cruise to Greece. We quickly learned our way around the area and found patisseries, a laundry, and a huge French grocery store, Auchan. Auchan was quite a surprise because of the size and selection – fresh meats, fresh fish and seafood, bakery items, produce… even a rotisserie chicken! Even though we didn’t get to have dinner there, a Roadhouse Grill was right next door. Most shops shut down at 1 or 1:30 and then reopen at 3:00 or 3:30. Restaurants close at 3:00 and reopen at 7:00. If you miss lunch, you have to make do with a snack at a café or wait for the restaurants to open. Planning your day is important if you want to eat! And on Sunday and Holidays everything is closed except the bars!
After taking care of domestics the first couple of days, Dorothea and I took the train for a short trip from the nearby Dolo train station to Venice. When we arrived in Venice and stepped out onto the piazza on the Grand Canal, we were spellbound by the city being as quaint and picturesque as all of the photos show! On our first day we spent a lot of time walking around looking for our travel books’ highlights, shops and restaurants as well as taking short cuts that wound up being long cuts. The guide book Dorothea’s sister had given us was one of the best for its restaurant recommendations. When we returned the next day, we bought a 3-day Venice pass, gave up the long walks in exchange for rides on the convenient water taxis (vaporettos). We had planned to attend one of the many operas being presented but found none of the venues were real theaters. All of them were open halls with rows of folding chairs and unassigned, first come/first served seating. For the price, fighting a crowd for a decent seat wasn’t worth it. Instead, we ventured all over Venice enjoying this unique city and its history. Sad to say, Venice is crumbling. Many, many of the buildings are badly leaning, probably due to unstable ground, and cannot remain out of plumb indefinitely. Our 3rd day was spent on the unique island of Murano. We went to one of the furnaces for a glass-blowing demonstration, and afterward were ushered to private viewing rooms when the host found out we were Americans. He personally escorted us around for almost an hour showing off all of the gorgeous pieces and doing his best to sell, sell, sell. We told him we loved all of them and would return tomorrow with our suitcases full of cash and pick up the pieces we like the best, NOT! Later that evening around 8:00, we headed to the Casino but missed our stop. Continuing on to one of the main transfer stations to catch the vaporetto back to the Casino, we learned the transportation workers were going on strike at 9:00 that night! We rushed to catch a train back but they had already stopped. Panicking, we headed for the last bus to leave from Venice to Dolo. When we got to Dolo at 10:00, we stopped and asked a couple of exiting bar patrons for directions to the train station (to get our car) and were told it was 2 miles from the bus stop. Even though it was densely foggy, cold and a long walk back, we got to see parts of Dolo we would normally have missed with a quick drive-by, like the “Cantina la Botte.”
Since all the local transportation had shut down, the next day we decided to go into Padova to visit the Basilica of St. Anthony, my Baptismal Saint. The Jesuit cloister and Church were amazing and the museum had an excellent presentation of St. Anthony’s life.
Dorothea’s business partner, Tanya and her friend Kathleen who were going to join us on our cruise arrived at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. After picking them up, we stopped at the “Cantina la Botte” that we found the night before in Dolo where various varieties of local wine were available for 7 Euros per gallon. Since there were now four of us, we bought one red and one white!
Before taking off on our cruise, our two visitors wanted to do a wine tour (the reason for buying two gallons of wine should be obvious). We decided to drive to Trent, where there is a wine route, spend the night and come back by way of Verona. Both areas produce excellent wines, and we were fortunate to find two outstanding vineyards.
Off we went to the hills of Trent stopping in Bassano del Grappa, on the river Brenta, for lunch and an introduction for our visitors to Italy’s “hole-in-the-floor-potty.” In Germany and Austria, the public restrooms had normal facilities and almost everywhere were spotless. When we got to Italy, the “hole-in-the-floor” was prevalent. This is not literally a hole cut into the floor, it is a fixture plumbed in placed but without a raised bowl, just a porcelain or stainless “platform.” Go figure! Do they use these things because they like them? There’s no cost savings! If you’re going to spend money on plumbing a finished fixture in place why not make it one where you don’t have to be an acrobat to use it? I prayed to St. Anthony and to a lot others the whole time I was in Italy that I would not have a need to fully utilize one of those contraptions while we were out and about. Lunch itself was a challenge as the server didn’t understand a bit of English or customer service. This was the first time that we felt a little annoyed, especially since a friend of the owner caught us on the street and recommended the place!
The prospects of an unplanned early departure from Europe weighed heavily on our minds and much to the chagrin of our guests was the subject of many a spirited conversation between Dorothea and me. We decided to call and talk with the American Embassy in Milan thinking we could make a trip to Milan, apply for a visa and pick it up when we returned from the cruise. No can do. The gentleman at the Embassy said you can’t apply for a visa while you’re in the foreign country. He did suggest leaving the Schwengen countries for awhile and insinuated the rules were not interpreted with a great deal of uniformity or clarity. A side trip to a non-Schwengen Country (at the time only Switzerland was an option) before our Dec. 9th deadline, then returning after a “reasonable” time could be looked upon as being in compliance. And so it was. We would abandon our trip into southern Italy. In exchange, we would make a trip to Switzerland and then return to Italy in time to get to Rome for Christmas. For the moment, our predicament was put in abeyance and Ed would further be exonerated when the trip to Switzerland turned out to be an extraordinary visit we would not have otherwise experienced.
Another day trip into Venice with our visitors, and then we’re off on our cruise to Greece aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Splendour of the Seas.” Ed is really looking forward to all the American food and intends to eat his way across the Adriatic Sea. (DZ)!
Ed and Dorothea
The Italian countryside, a short distant outside of Trieste, changes from mountainous to flat coastal plain where the road beds are typically 4’ to 10’ above the land. It is like that all around the general area of Venice, Padova, and Verona. It’s great agricultural land and home to many vineyards and estate farms.
Our stay in Padova at the Villa Salvatico was at one of those estate farms that date back to the late 1700s. Our congenial host Antonio, who inherited Salvatico, was a true Italian country gentleman. Our rented 3 bedroom, 3 bath apartment was larger than we expected and would serve as a very comfortable home base for us and two others who would be joining us before our cruise to Greece. We quickly learned our way around the area and found patisseries, a laundry, and a huge French grocery store, Auchan. Auchan was quite a surprise because of the size and selection – fresh meats, fresh fish and seafood, bakery items, produce… even a rotisserie chicken! Even though we didn’t get to have dinner there, a Roadhouse Grill was right next door. Most shops shut down at 1 or 1:30 and then reopen at 3:00 or 3:30. Restaurants close at 3:00 and reopen at 7:00. If you miss lunch, you have to make do with a snack at a café or wait for the restaurants to open. Planning your day is important if you want to eat! And on Sunday and Holidays everything is closed except the bars!
After taking care of domestics the first couple of days, Dorothea and I took the train for a short trip from the nearby Dolo train station to Venice. When we arrived in Venice and stepped out onto the piazza on the Grand Canal, we were spellbound by the city being as quaint and picturesque as all of the photos show! On our first day we spent a lot of time walking around looking for our travel books’ highlights, shops and restaurants as well as taking short cuts that wound up being long cuts. The guide book Dorothea’s sister had given us was one of the best for its restaurant recommendations. When we returned the next day, we bought a 3-day Venice pass, gave up the long walks in exchange for rides on the convenient water taxis (vaporettos). We had planned to attend one of the many operas being presented but found none of the venues were real theaters. All of them were open halls with rows of folding chairs and unassigned, first come/first served seating. For the price, fighting a crowd for a decent seat wasn’t worth it. Instead, we ventured all over Venice enjoying this unique city and its history. Sad to say, Venice is crumbling. Many, many of the buildings are badly leaning, probably due to unstable ground, and cannot remain out of plumb indefinitely. Our 3rd day was spent on the unique island of Murano. We went to one of the furnaces for a glass-blowing demonstration, and afterward were ushered to private viewing rooms when the host found out we were Americans. He personally escorted us around for almost an hour showing off all of the gorgeous pieces and doing his best to sell, sell, sell. We told him we loved all of them and would return tomorrow with our suitcases full of cash and pick up the pieces we like the best, NOT! Later that evening around 8:00, we headed to the Casino but missed our stop. Continuing on to one of the main transfer stations to catch the vaporetto back to the Casino, we learned the transportation workers were going on strike at 9:00 that night! We rushed to catch a train back but they had already stopped. Panicking, we headed for the last bus to leave from Venice to Dolo. When we got to Dolo at 10:00, we stopped and asked a couple of exiting bar patrons for directions to the train station (to get our car) and were told it was 2 miles from the bus stop. Even though it was densely foggy, cold and a long walk back, we got to see parts of Dolo we would normally have missed with a quick drive-by, like the “Cantina la Botte.”
Since all the local transportation had shut down, the next day we decided to go into Padova to visit the Basilica of St. Anthony, my Baptismal Saint. The Jesuit cloister and Church were amazing and the museum had an excellent presentation of St. Anthony’s life.
Dorothea’s business partner, Tanya and her friend Kathleen who were going to join us on our cruise arrived at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. After picking them up, we stopped at the “Cantina la Botte” that we found the night before in Dolo where various varieties of local wine were available for 7 Euros per gallon. Since there were now four of us, we bought one red and one white!
Before taking off on our cruise, our two visitors wanted to do a wine tour (the reason for buying two gallons of wine should be obvious). We decided to drive to Trent, where there is a wine route, spend the night and come back by way of Verona. Both areas produce excellent wines, and we were fortunate to find two outstanding vineyards.
Off we went to the hills of Trent stopping in Bassano del Grappa, on the river Brenta, for lunch and an introduction for our visitors to Italy’s “hole-in-the-floor-potty.” In Germany and Austria, the public restrooms had normal facilities and almost everywhere were spotless. When we got to Italy, the “hole-in-the-floor” was prevalent. This is not literally a hole cut into the floor, it is a fixture plumbed in placed but without a raised bowl, just a porcelain or stainless “platform.” Go figure! Do they use these things because they like them? There’s no cost savings! If you’re going to spend money on plumbing a finished fixture in place why not make it one where you don’t have to be an acrobat to use it? I prayed to St. Anthony and to a lot others the whole time I was in Italy that I would not have a need to fully utilize one of those contraptions while we were out and about. Lunch itself was a challenge as the server didn’t understand a bit of English or customer service. This was the first time that we felt a little annoyed, especially since a friend of the owner caught us on the street and recommended the place!
The prospects of an unplanned early departure from Europe weighed heavily on our minds and much to the chagrin of our guests was the subject of many a spirited conversation between Dorothea and me. We decided to call and talk with the American Embassy in Milan thinking we could make a trip to Milan, apply for a visa and pick it up when we returned from the cruise. No can do. The gentleman at the Embassy said you can’t apply for a visa while you’re in the foreign country. He did suggest leaving the Schwengen countries for awhile and insinuated the rules were not interpreted with a great deal of uniformity or clarity. A side trip to a non-Schwengen Country (at the time only Switzerland was an option) before our Dec. 9th deadline, then returning after a “reasonable” time could be looked upon as being in compliance. And so it was. We would abandon our trip into southern Italy. In exchange, we would make a trip to Switzerland and then return to Italy in time to get to Rome for Christmas. For the moment, our predicament was put in abeyance and Ed would further be exonerated when the trip to Switzerland turned out to be an extraordinary visit we would not have otherwise experienced.
Another day trip into Venice with our visitors, and then we’re off on our cruise to Greece aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Splendour of the Seas.” Ed is really looking forward to all the American food and intends to eat his way across the Adriatic Sea. (DZ)!
Ed and Dorothea
Friday, January 16, 2009
10242008 BLOG
October 24, 2008
Vienna was our eastern most reach into Europe. From there we would begin heading southwest with a planned stop in Graz, Austria, cross over into Italy with a stop in Trieste before going on to our scheduled arrival at Villa Selvatico in Padova, Italy just outside of Venice.
Our tour through the wine country south of Vienna put us a little behind schedule and we didn’t quite make it to Graz. The delay resulted in an unplanned surprise side trip because we found a fantastic resort, Schreiners Berghof, just outside of Hartberg at an elevation of 660 meters (almost 2,000 ft.) nestled in a forest with a fantastic view of the valley below. You have to take the time to see the photos we took while we were there, including some of our climb to the St. Anna pilgrimage church at the summit!
After leaving Hartberg, we visited the famous caves in Lugrotte, Austria’s largest caves. The Lurbach River runs through the caves. In 1894 this cave became world famous when 7 cavers were trapped underground for a week by a flash flood. The stalactites and stalagmites were huge in these underground caverns. One of the features of the tour was an entertaining light and music show in one of the larger rooms. We got to see five small bats and an interesting creature in a dark nook! Before visiting the caves, we had lunch at Gasthof Hofler Bauernwirt. Since it was “wild game” season, the restaurant’s menu was almost exclusively game dishes.
After a night’s stay at a hotel in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home town of Graz, complete with a row boat Arnold used to row Maria around the lake (now memorialized). The next day, a short day trip to the attractive city of Graz provided one of the best lunches we’ve had anywhere. The Coco Café & Creperie. How would one ever expect to find scrumptious and beautifully presented lunch and dessert crepes in Graz?? But alas, our camera batteries were dead and so no pictures. After lunch we headed for the Armory, filled with real battle gear some originating from the 12th century. We learned Graz was a major armory for the Austrian Hapsburgs up until the end of the 1800s.
Leaving Graz for Italy, we found we needed to stop along the way. By chance, we found the delightful Barry Memle Resort outside of Klagenfurt on the shore of Am Worthersee. Mr. Memle personally escorted Dorothea around his new Fitness Area with heated pool, spa, tanning salon, etc. This area is very popular in the summer with many spa resorts. Also, the lake was home to numerous sailing squadrons and marinas.
After crossing into Italy, we drove by the beautiful Fusine Laghi in the Dolomite Mountains area near Travisio with its crystal clear emerald green waters. The lake is at 500 meters and is part of a National Forest.
We had planned to stay in Unide, Italy but found the town to be too uninviting. In driving around on one of the hill tops, we unexpectedly came across Agritourisimo Scaccia Pensieri owned by Marina Danieli in the small town of Buttrio just outside of Unide. The Danieli family apparently has many vineyards in the area, but more significantly the family owns an extremely large steel plant in Buttrio. Danieli is Italy’s biggest maker of equipment for the steel industry. And to think we stayed in “Sister Marina’s Villa”! The food was great!
From there, we headed for Trieste since we had a few days before our scheduled arrival date in Padova. Being concerned about being legal, I wanted to get our passports stamped in Italy to show we were spending time in different countries. Unfortunately, that was a mistake that would alter the rest of our European stay. We stopped at the local Polizia Municipale station in Gorizia, and I should have known there was going to be trouble when the officer asked us to step into his office. After much discussion and many phone calls by the officer and his associates, we were told since we didn’t have a visa we could only spend a total of 3 months in all of the Schwengen Countries. We didn’t have a visa because before we left, the American Consultate’s Office of France, Germany and Italy as well as a Visa expediter said we didn’t need one. Bottom line . . . we would have to leave by De. 9th, which meant we couldn’t spend Christmas in Rome. If we stayed longer, we would be “Clandestine” and risk being evicted if challenged. Talk about frost on the pumpkin, that bit of unwanted news really put a damper on our spirits. This was one time I wished I had not tried to do the right thing.
Our arrival in Trieste was less than exciting. The city is a major port and while it had a bit of history, a big marina and some interesting architecture, it wasn’t California’s “Marina del Ray” as I had expected. Looking for a room for the night we found a hotel high above the Mediterranean with a fantastic view of the Mediterranean and the beach far below. Because the winds were strong and out of the west, the beach was closed. The next day we left the car in the hotel parking lot and took the bus into town to explore “Old Trieste.” We had planned to go to the aquarium but found it was closed and so it offset our disappointment we stopped at one of the many “Gelaterias” (Italian ice cream shop) and had a scoop.
The day we arrived in Trieste, we had a bite to eat at a local “Gelateria” - a Panini (small toasted sandwich) and beer - and found the prices exorbitant. That evening, driving to a marina at the base of our hill, we had a Halloween dinner of a salad and pizza. It was here I began to realize when you go into an Italian restaurant, it doesn’t matter what you wanted when you went in, before you leave you are going to get what they want you to have. Generally, they hard sell you into ordering more to increase the tab’s total. They have: antipasto, primo piatti, secondi piatti with contorno and dolce and caffe, all of which brings the tab to a total equal to a small down payment on the restaurant. The service was excellent but the price for a pizza, salad and caffe here also was exorbitant.
We found this also to be true in Treviso at the Titian Hotel just outside of Padua. It was raining when we arrived, tired and not wanting to go on a search for dinner. Under the circumstances we opted for the hotel restaurant. We ordered one appetizer, 2 entrees of grilled Ahi tuna, medium rare with grilled vegetables and settled back with a delicious white Italian wine aperitif. The first hint of things going awry was the server brought two appetizers. When I told him I only wanted one, he said for two people one was not enough so he brought two. O.k., we’re in Italy, I wouldn’t create a scene. When the entre came, it turned out the tuna was a mackerel (looks like a baby tuna), it was fillet and sautéed with some indescribable tasting things from the garden, all cold. Oh, server, please! This isn’t going to work, we don’t want this! Not the right thing to do. The server really looked put out, stomped to the kitchen and out came the chef and dining room manager wanting to know what was wrong with the food. We tried to explain, they got indignant and we left hoping there would not be a dead horses head in our bed when we got back to the room!
Ed and Dorothea
Vienna was our eastern most reach into Europe. From there we would begin heading southwest with a planned stop in Graz, Austria, cross over into Italy with a stop in Trieste before going on to our scheduled arrival at Villa Selvatico in Padova, Italy just outside of Venice.
Our tour through the wine country south of Vienna put us a little behind schedule and we didn’t quite make it to Graz. The delay resulted in an unplanned surprise side trip because we found a fantastic resort, Schreiners Berghof, just outside of Hartberg at an elevation of 660 meters (almost 2,000 ft.) nestled in a forest with a fantastic view of the valley below. You have to take the time to see the photos we took while we were there, including some of our climb to the St. Anna pilgrimage church at the summit!
After leaving Hartberg, we visited the famous caves in Lugrotte, Austria’s largest caves. The Lurbach River runs through the caves. In 1894 this cave became world famous when 7 cavers were trapped underground for a week by a flash flood. The stalactites and stalagmites were huge in these underground caverns. One of the features of the tour was an entertaining light and music show in one of the larger rooms. We got to see five small bats and an interesting creature in a dark nook! Before visiting the caves, we had lunch at Gasthof Hofler Bauernwirt. Since it was “wild game” season, the restaurant’s menu was almost exclusively game dishes.
After a night’s stay at a hotel in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home town of Graz, complete with a row boat Arnold used to row Maria around the lake (now memorialized). The next day, a short day trip to the attractive city of Graz provided one of the best lunches we’ve had anywhere. The Coco Café & Creperie. How would one ever expect to find scrumptious and beautifully presented lunch and dessert crepes in Graz?? But alas, our camera batteries were dead and so no pictures. After lunch we headed for the Armory, filled with real battle gear some originating from the 12th century. We learned Graz was a major armory for the Austrian Hapsburgs up until the end of the 1800s.
Leaving Graz for Italy, we found we needed to stop along the way. By chance, we found the delightful Barry Memle Resort outside of Klagenfurt on the shore of Am Worthersee. Mr. Memle personally escorted Dorothea around his new Fitness Area with heated pool, spa, tanning salon, etc. This area is very popular in the summer with many spa resorts. Also, the lake was home to numerous sailing squadrons and marinas.
After crossing into Italy, we drove by the beautiful Fusine Laghi in the Dolomite Mountains area near Travisio with its crystal clear emerald green waters. The lake is at 500 meters and is part of a National Forest.
We had planned to stay in Unide, Italy but found the town to be too uninviting. In driving around on one of the hill tops, we unexpectedly came across Agritourisimo Scaccia Pensieri owned by Marina Danieli in the small town of Buttrio just outside of Unide. The Danieli family apparently has many vineyards in the area, but more significantly the family owns an extremely large steel plant in Buttrio. Danieli is Italy’s biggest maker of equipment for the steel industry. And to think we stayed in “Sister Marina’s Villa”! The food was great!
From there, we headed for Trieste since we had a few days before our scheduled arrival date in Padova. Being concerned about being legal, I wanted to get our passports stamped in Italy to show we were spending time in different countries. Unfortunately, that was a mistake that would alter the rest of our European stay. We stopped at the local Polizia Municipale station in Gorizia, and I should have known there was going to be trouble when the officer asked us to step into his office. After much discussion and many phone calls by the officer and his associates, we were told since we didn’t have a visa we could only spend a total of 3 months in all of the Schwengen Countries. We didn’t have a visa because before we left, the American Consultate’s Office of France, Germany and Italy as well as a Visa expediter said we didn’t need one. Bottom line . . . we would have to leave by De. 9th, which meant we couldn’t spend Christmas in Rome. If we stayed longer, we would be “Clandestine” and risk being evicted if challenged. Talk about frost on the pumpkin, that bit of unwanted news really put a damper on our spirits. This was one time I wished I had not tried to do the right thing.
Our arrival in Trieste was less than exciting. The city is a major port and while it had a bit of history, a big marina and some interesting architecture, it wasn’t California’s “Marina del Ray” as I had expected. Looking for a room for the night we found a hotel high above the Mediterranean with a fantastic view of the Mediterranean and the beach far below. Because the winds were strong and out of the west, the beach was closed. The next day we left the car in the hotel parking lot and took the bus into town to explore “Old Trieste.” We had planned to go to the aquarium but found it was closed and so it offset our disappointment we stopped at one of the many “Gelaterias” (Italian ice cream shop) and had a scoop.
The day we arrived in Trieste, we had a bite to eat at a local “Gelateria” - a Panini (small toasted sandwich) and beer - and found the prices exorbitant. That evening, driving to a marina at the base of our hill, we had a Halloween dinner of a salad and pizza. It was here I began to realize when you go into an Italian restaurant, it doesn’t matter what you wanted when you went in, before you leave you are going to get what they want you to have. Generally, they hard sell you into ordering more to increase the tab’s total. They have: antipasto, primo piatti, secondi piatti with contorno and dolce and caffe, all of which brings the tab to a total equal to a small down payment on the restaurant. The service was excellent but the price for a pizza, salad and caffe here also was exorbitant.
We found this also to be true in Treviso at the Titian Hotel just outside of Padua. It was raining when we arrived, tired and not wanting to go on a search for dinner. Under the circumstances we opted for the hotel restaurant. We ordered one appetizer, 2 entrees of grilled Ahi tuna, medium rare with grilled vegetables and settled back with a delicious white Italian wine aperitif. The first hint of things going awry was the server brought two appetizers. When I told him I only wanted one, he said for two people one was not enough so he brought two. O.k., we’re in Italy, I wouldn’t create a scene. When the entre came, it turned out the tuna was a mackerel (looks like a baby tuna), it was fillet and sautéed with some indescribable tasting things from the garden, all cold. Oh, server, please! This isn’t going to work, we don’t want this! Not the right thing to do. The server really looked put out, stomped to the kitchen and out came the chef and dining room manager wanting to know what was wrong with the food. We tried to explain, they got indignant and we left hoping there would not be a dead horses head in our bed when we got back to the room!
Ed and Dorothea
Saturday, January 10, 2009
October 14, 2008 BLOG
October 14, 2008
And then there was Wien. I’ve been waiting to visit Vienna since I was a junior taking college German. It lived up to 95% of what I expected, everything except the graffiti. It is truly a grand city rich in architecture, culture and history.
On our way to Vienna, we stopped in Lentz to see the Danube River. It was a great river and ideal for skipping flat river rocks, but as it is today, I’m not sure it would have been much of an inspiration to Strauss. Our B & B was comfortable and I’m glad we had a server who knew Americans well enough to suggest we might want to select another entrée instead of black (blood) sausage.
Along the way we passed through many small villages. We did a double take when on the side of the road we saw a herd of deer. Thinking they seemed to be too close to the road, we turned around for a look – wild deer, right. Personally, I don’t want to think of their future . . . The countryside is mainly agricultural and since it was close to Halloween, we weren’t surprised to see fields of pumpkins, lots of them! At some roadside stands you could buy gourds, pumpkins, etc. “on your honor” since no-one is there to man the stands. Just put the money in a box provided! That would work in the States, wouldn’t it? An unusual sight was a large shopping mall, “Plus City”, with a McDonalds, one of the few we saw in Austria.
Before heading to Vienna, we did a little pre-planning and decided to stay in the little town of Klosterneuburg just 30 minutes NW of Vienna. We were lucky to find a nice apartment, “Hotel Andrea”, with a congenial hostess and only a few blocks from the train station. As we did in Salzburg, we bought a 72-hour Vienna card that covered all of the train and bus transportation with some discounts for restaurants and attractions. It paid for itself but wasn’t as good a deal as it was in Salzburg.
Our first day in Vienna we had to stop by the performing arts center to pick up our pre-ordered tickets for the season’s last performance of the “Vienna Boys Choir”. While we were at the ticket office, we noticed there was a performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra the next evening. We didn’t want to miss their performance so we bought tickets and in looking over the program notice the featured violinist was Midori! What a surprise and a treat.
I learned a “Path Finding” lesson in Vienna that I should have learned in Munich. “To get to Point B, you have to know exactly where it is relative to Point A.” In going to Vienna to pick up our tickets, we took the train and then without coming above ground took the metro to the area of the performing arts center. When we came up from the metro, it was raining, the sun was obscured – nothing to use for directional orientation, and there were roads everywhere. We were at a major piazza with roads converging from 8 different directions and no street signs. Over here, road and street names are engraved in the side of buildings about 12’ above the ground. You have to be within 25’ of the building to read the name. O.k., based on what I think are similar landmarks, we head to the nearest building about 400’ away. When we get there, we find the street name is the one we want so we head down the block to get the next name and fix our position. In the big cities, the blocks are big and in this case it was about 1,200’ (almost ¼ mile). When we reached the end, we found the street that should have been there was in the opposite direction. Finally, getting to the arts center after an hour of traipsing around in the rain, we found it was a short 10 minute walk from the metro, mostly underground and sheltered from the rain. On the plus side, we did find a “T.G.I. Friday’s” and celebrated with an American hamburger. What a great break from bratwurst and weinerschnitzel! Later we found “Sparky’s” a fun restaurant all decorated for Halloween, one of the few places that seemed to celebrate this day. Very large beers were on tap!
The next day, the “Vienna Boys Choir“performance was scheduled for 3:00 p.m so we had time in the morning to explore the area around the Austrian Palace. Here to our surprise, we found an advertisement for the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If it can be done in Vienna then it certainly is ok for it to be done in Punta Gorda at the “Isles Yacht Club.” (For those non-IYC readers, Ed and I hosted our own showing of Rocky Horror a while back at the IYC. Though we were somewhat apprehensive, to our amazement and that of many members, it was a ball!) Also while we were in the area, we stopped by the Spanish Riding School and picked up tickets to see the Sunday performance of the Lipizzaner Stallions and to tour the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
The Boy’s Choir performance was terrific. A young, 10 or 11 year old, oriental boy was the lead singer and his soprano singing was flawless. Sopranos have amazing voices and all of the little guys were talented and produced sounds that were crystal clear and sharp.
Another amazing oriental performer we had the pleasure of seeing was Midori. No longer a child prodigy, she has matured into an unbelievable violinist. Performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Midori was absolutely terrific and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra was fabulous.
On Sunday morning, it was off to see the Lippizaner’s being put through their paces. The riders were absolute professional horsemen and the stallions were magnificent. Some of the moves they make those animals do have to be seen in persons. There were guards all over the arena stopping people from taking photos during the performance so I all I got was the part of the horse that goes over the fence last and a shot of the unsung hero who takes care of the parts that doesn’t make it over the fence.
That afternoon, we toured the Hofburg Imperial Palace and picked out the new flatware, place settings and center pieces for the Isles Yacht Club – mostly gold. If the common folks who paid all of those taxes saw the collection, they would have revolted. What a treasure trove! The tour through the “Sissi Museum” told the story of a beautiful, young, free-spirited Austrian Queen Elizabeth who married Franz Joseph at 18 and lived a life regretting being a spectacle. She hated the royal court protocol and traveled extensively to get away from being put on exhibition. While visiting Geneva, Switzerland, she was assassinated. It was a moving story, made into a movie, about someone who had it all but yet was as unhappy as anyone could get.
The Hapsburg’s had a long standing monarchy and many palaces. In addition to the Hofburg palace, we toured their summer residence, the Schönbrunn Palace. Here the story of Franz Joseph and Sissi continued.
The stop in Vienna was wonderful and provided many memories. We’re sad to leave, but the wine country south of Vienna eases the sorrow and the call of Italy is strong.
Ed and Dorothea
And then there was Wien. I’ve been waiting to visit Vienna since I was a junior taking college German. It lived up to 95% of what I expected, everything except the graffiti. It is truly a grand city rich in architecture, culture and history.
On our way to Vienna, we stopped in Lentz to see the Danube River. It was a great river and ideal for skipping flat river rocks, but as it is today, I’m not sure it would have been much of an inspiration to Strauss. Our B & B was comfortable and I’m glad we had a server who knew Americans well enough to suggest we might want to select another entrée instead of black (blood) sausage.
Along the way we passed through many small villages. We did a double take when on the side of the road we saw a herd of deer. Thinking they seemed to be too close to the road, we turned around for a look – wild deer, right. Personally, I don’t want to think of their future . . . The countryside is mainly agricultural and since it was close to Halloween, we weren’t surprised to see fields of pumpkins, lots of them! At some roadside stands you could buy gourds, pumpkins, etc. “on your honor” since no-one is there to man the stands. Just put the money in a box provided! That would work in the States, wouldn’t it? An unusual sight was a large shopping mall, “Plus City”, with a McDonalds, one of the few we saw in Austria.
Before heading to Vienna, we did a little pre-planning and decided to stay in the little town of Klosterneuburg just 30 minutes NW of Vienna. We were lucky to find a nice apartment, “Hotel Andrea”, with a congenial hostess and only a few blocks from the train station. As we did in Salzburg, we bought a 72-hour Vienna card that covered all of the train and bus transportation with some discounts for restaurants and attractions. It paid for itself but wasn’t as good a deal as it was in Salzburg.
Our first day in Vienna we had to stop by the performing arts center to pick up our pre-ordered tickets for the season’s last performance of the “Vienna Boys Choir”. While we were at the ticket office, we noticed there was a performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra the next evening. We didn’t want to miss their performance so we bought tickets and in looking over the program notice the featured violinist was Midori! What a surprise and a treat.
I learned a “Path Finding” lesson in Vienna that I should have learned in Munich. “To get to Point B, you have to know exactly where it is relative to Point A.” In going to Vienna to pick up our tickets, we took the train and then without coming above ground took the metro to the area of the performing arts center. When we came up from the metro, it was raining, the sun was obscured – nothing to use for directional orientation, and there were roads everywhere. We were at a major piazza with roads converging from 8 different directions and no street signs. Over here, road and street names are engraved in the side of buildings about 12’ above the ground. You have to be within 25’ of the building to read the name. O.k., based on what I think are similar landmarks, we head to the nearest building about 400’ away. When we get there, we find the street name is the one we want so we head down the block to get the next name and fix our position. In the big cities, the blocks are big and in this case it was about 1,200’ (almost ¼ mile). When we reached the end, we found the street that should have been there was in the opposite direction. Finally, getting to the arts center after an hour of traipsing around in the rain, we found it was a short 10 minute walk from the metro, mostly underground and sheltered from the rain. On the plus side, we did find a “T.G.I. Friday’s” and celebrated with an American hamburger. What a great break from bratwurst and weinerschnitzel! Later we found “Sparky’s” a fun restaurant all decorated for Halloween, one of the few places that seemed to celebrate this day. Very large beers were on tap!
The next day, the “Vienna Boys Choir“performance was scheduled for 3:00 p.m so we had time in the morning to explore the area around the Austrian Palace. Here to our surprise, we found an advertisement for the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If it can be done in Vienna then it certainly is ok for it to be done in Punta Gorda at the “Isles Yacht Club.” (For those non-IYC readers, Ed and I hosted our own showing of Rocky Horror a while back at the IYC. Though we were somewhat apprehensive, to our amazement and that of many members, it was a ball!) Also while we were in the area, we stopped by the Spanish Riding School and picked up tickets to see the Sunday performance of the Lipizzaner Stallions and to tour the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
The Boy’s Choir performance was terrific. A young, 10 or 11 year old, oriental boy was the lead singer and his soprano singing was flawless. Sopranos have amazing voices and all of the little guys were talented and produced sounds that were crystal clear and sharp.
Another amazing oriental performer we had the pleasure of seeing was Midori. No longer a child prodigy, she has matured into an unbelievable violinist. Performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Midori was absolutely terrific and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra was fabulous.
On Sunday morning, it was off to see the Lippizaner’s being put through their paces. The riders were absolute professional horsemen and the stallions were magnificent. Some of the moves they make those animals do have to be seen in persons. There were guards all over the arena stopping people from taking photos during the performance so I all I got was the part of the horse that goes over the fence last and a shot of the unsung hero who takes care of the parts that doesn’t make it over the fence.
That afternoon, we toured the Hofburg Imperial Palace and picked out the new flatware, place settings and center pieces for the Isles Yacht Club – mostly gold. If the common folks who paid all of those taxes saw the collection, they would have revolted. What a treasure trove! The tour through the “Sissi Museum” told the story of a beautiful, young, free-spirited Austrian Queen Elizabeth who married Franz Joseph at 18 and lived a life regretting being a spectacle. She hated the royal court protocol and traveled extensively to get away from being put on exhibition. While visiting Geneva, Switzerland, she was assassinated. It was a moving story, made into a movie, about someone who had it all but yet was as unhappy as anyone could get.
The Hapsburg’s had a long standing monarchy and many palaces. In addition to the Hofburg palace, we toured their summer residence, the Schönbrunn Palace. Here the story of Franz Joseph and Sissi continued.
The stop in Vienna was wonderful and provided many memories. We’re sad to leave, but the wine country south of Vienna eases the sorrow and the call of Italy is strong.
Ed and Dorothea
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
October 10, 2008
With much anticipation, we arrived in Salzburg on the morning of the 10th. For once it seemed like we had a good start on the day and we might locate a place to stay well before dark. We found the Tourist Information (TI) center easily, picked up information on things to do and places to stay and headed for a local park to have a snack and do a little planning. So much for the head start! A wrong turn downtown led us down a one way, single lane street with parked cars on one side. The street kept getting narrower and narrower and at one point I had to drive on the side walk to get around a parked car. As we rounded the last little curve, the road abruptly ended in a 6’ wide pedestrian-only walkway. Oh crud! This is not good! Making one attempt at making a “U-Turn” assured us there was no way to get the car turned around. The only option was to BACK-UP the two blocks the way we had come in, parked cars, sidewalk and all. Once we cleared that street, we exited the city maze and headed straight out of town and did not collect $200, or pass “GO!”
Once we compiled our list of potential B&Bs, all of which were conveniently located on the same street, we drove by them to pick out the best of the lot. Narrowing the list down to 3 and finding a couple of others not advertised, we stopped at each one to check availability and rates. For one reason or another-- house-a-tosis, no shower, bath literally in the bedroom, cramped rooms or proprietor’s personal hygiene (don’t even ask) -- these available choices were not going to serve as accommodations for our stay. Instead of possibly insulting the owner with our objections, we found that asking for Internet access (which no B & B has) allowed us to decline gracefully.
Without large chain hotels with established and consistent standards, finding an acceptable place to stay in European cities, regardless of how we do it (internet or personal inspection), has taken us an enormous amount of time. This has been consistent throughout our trip thus far. We spend between 2 to 6 hours looking for accommodations and another couple of hours looking for places to eat. Whoever comes up with an objective, comprehensive guide to assist travelers with this universal problem will know what it’s like to be financially secure! We’ll be the first to buy the guide!
Just by driving around, we finally found a nice, small hotel, “Hptel Zur Post”, close to downtown with a bus stop across the street allowing us to park the car and leave the driving to some else. And breakfast was included too, even if it was sliced meats, croissants and coffee!
We purchased a 72-hour Salzburg card (a discount card which proved to be a very good deal) that provided for all local transportation and gave free or discounted entries to numerous museums and events.
Catching the bus into town, we spent our first day browsing through the lovely old town with its attractive shops and decorative wrought iron doorway marquees on our way to the Museum of History. With our card, the entry to the museum was free and we spent most of the morning delving into Salzburg’s art treasures and its past.
Along with the Salzburg card, we purchased tickets for dinner and a Mozart concert in the Hohensalzburg Fortress sitting high above Salzburg. Using the Salzburg card, we got a free ride on a tram to the top and arrived early enough to take a leisurely tour through the Fortress and an imaginary trip back to the 1100 and 1200’s. The museum there also was helpful in our trip back through history. Dinner was very good with a friendly server and a fantastic view 800 feet above the surrounding area with the Alps in the background. After dinner, we headed for one of the halls in the Fortress to listen to a string quintet playing chamber music by Mozart. For a Mozart fan, it was unbelievable to be sitting in a 12th Century Fortress listening to excellent musicians playing Mozart’s music. It was a most enjoyable evening!
On the 12th, we headed to the “new” old part of Salzburg to go through the Mozart museum in the building that was the family’s apartment when Mozart was young. Later in the day, we would visit the apartment where he was born in “old”, old town. As everyone knows, Mozart was a musical genius. But, not unlike today’s musicians, fame and fortune was a dangling carrot. His father was a violin instructor for the City and recognizing his son’s talent set out on an attempt to make him rich and famous. He booked “gigs” in royal courts and in front of other important people traveling extensively achieving reasonable success but taking ill. Mozart’s mother tried to continue her husband’s effort but wasn’t quite as successful. She later took ill and died and Mozart was left to try on his own but was even less successful. He was a performer not a promoter. While In new “old” town looking for a place for lunch, we saw two police officers milling around a parked car. Being good rubber-necking Americans we sauntered over to make sure their investigation was proceeding properly. It seemed a single lady who was staying at a pretty nice downtown hotel had the rear window of her car smashed in by either vandals or thieves. It was a sobering sight and exactly why we have been trying to stay on the outskirts of town in fairly decent neighborhoods. Europeans native to the area are generally friendly and civil. However, there is a very high percentage of immigrants from some of the poorer surrounding countries that don’t seem to have the same standards.
Later that day, we kept our appointment for the free ride our card got us on a River Boat cruise on the Salzach River with comedian for a captain. After the cruise, when we got back to the docking area, he locked the wheel and throttle controls, turned up the volume on the stereo playing the “Blue Danube” and walked away from the wheel while the boat on its own did 4 or 5 360 degree turns in the middle of the river. It was fun and reminded us that being boaters anywhere there is water makes for a good time. While we were waiting to board the boat, we noticed a rack full of bikes with a coin controlled locking mechanism. You insert the appropriate amount, unlock the bike and away you go.
On our last day in Salzburg, we visited Bishop Hellbrunn palace and water gardens which he used as a hunting lodge and incorporated the latest advancements in mechanical engineering to amuse himself and his guests. Apparently, the Bishop was a bit of a prankster since all throughout the grounds there were clever, animated, water driven devices designed to entertain and play practical jokes on the unsuspecting.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Wein (Vienna) with a short stop on the way in Linz to see the Danube.
Dorothea & Ed
With much anticipation, we arrived in Salzburg on the morning of the 10th. For once it seemed like we had a good start on the day and we might locate a place to stay well before dark. We found the Tourist Information (TI) center easily, picked up information on things to do and places to stay and headed for a local park to have a snack and do a little planning. So much for the head start! A wrong turn downtown led us down a one way, single lane street with parked cars on one side. The street kept getting narrower and narrower and at one point I had to drive on the side walk to get around a parked car. As we rounded the last little curve, the road abruptly ended in a 6’ wide pedestrian-only walkway. Oh crud! This is not good! Making one attempt at making a “U-Turn” assured us there was no way to get the car turned around. The only option was to BACK-UP the two blocks the way we had come in, parked cars, sidewalk and all. Once we cleared that street, we exited the city maze and headed straight out of town and did not collect $200, or pass “GO!”
Once we compiled our list of potential B&Bs, all of which were conveniently located on the same street, we drove by them to pick out the best of the lot. Narrowing the list down to 3 and finding a couple of others not advertised, we stopped at each one to check availability and rates. For one reason or another-- house-a-tosis, no shower, bath literally in the bedroom, cramped rooms or proprietor’s personal hygiene (don’t even ask) -- these available choices were not going to serve as accommodations for our stay. Instead of possibly insulting the owner with our objections, we found that asking for Internet access (which no B & B has) allowed us to decline gracefully.
Without large chain hotels with established and consistent standards, finding an acceptable place to stay in European cities, regardless of how we do it (internet or personal inspection), has taken us an enormous amount of time. This has been consistent throughout our trip thus far. We spend between 2 to 6 hours looking for accommodations and another couple of hours looking for places to eat. Whoever comes up with an objective, comprehensive guide to assist travelers with this universal problem will know what it’s like to be financially secure! We’ll be the first to buy the guide!
Just by driving around, we finally found a nice, small hotel, “Hptel Zur Post”, close to downtown with a bus stop across the street allowing us to park the car and leave the driving to some else. And breakfast was included too, even if it was sliced meats, croissants and coffee!
We purchased a 72-hour Salzburg card (a discount card which proved to be a very good deal) that provided for all local transportation and gave free or discounted entries to numerous museums and events.
Catching the bus into town, we spent our first day browsing through the lovely old town with its attractive shops and decorative wrought iron doorway marquees on our way to the Museum of History. With our card, the entry to the museum was free and we spent most of the morning delving into Salzburg’s art treasures and its past.
Along with the Salzburg card, we purchased tickets for dinner and a Mozart concert in the Hohensalzburg Fortress sitting high above Salzburg. Using the Salzburg card, we got a free ride on a tram to the top and arrived early enough to take a leisurely tour through the Fortress and an imaginary trip back to the 1100 and 1200’s. The museum there also was helpful in our trip back through history. Dinner was very good with a friendly server and a fantastic view 800 feet above the surrounding area with the Alps in the background. After dinner, we headed for one of the halls in the Fortress to listen to a string quintet playing chamber music by Mozart. For a Mozart fan, it was unbelievable to be sitting in a 12th Century Fortress listening to excellent musicians playing Mozart’s music. It was a most enjoyable evening!
On the 12th, we headed to the “new” old part of Salzburg to go through the Mozart museum in the building that was the family’s apartment when Mozart was young. Later in the day, we would visit the apartment where he was born in “old”, old town. As everyone knows, Mozart was a musical genius. But, not unlike today’s musicians, fame and fortune was a dangling carrot. His father was a violin instructor for the City and recognizing his son’s talent set out on an attempt to make him rich and famous. He booked “gigs” in royal courts and in front of other important people traveling extensively achieving reasonable success but taking ill. Mozart’s mother tried to continue her husband’s effort but wasn’t quite as successful. She later took ill and died and Mozart was left to try on his own but was even less successful. He was a performer not a promoter. While In new “old” town looking for a place for lunch, we saw two police officers milling around a parked car. Being good rubber-necking Americans we sauntered over to make sure their investigation was proceeding properly. It seemed a single lady who was staying at a pretty nice downtown hotel had the rear window of her car smashed in by either vandals or thieves. It was a sobering sight and exactly why we have been trying to stay on the outskirts of town in fairly decent neighborhoods. Europeans native to the area are generally friendly and civil. However, there is a very high percentage of immigrants from some of the poorer surrounding countries that don’t seem to have the same standards.
Later that day, we kept our appointment for the free ride our card got us on a River Boat cruise on the Salzach River with comedian for a captain. After the cruise, when we got back to the docking area, he locked the wheel and throttle controls, turned up the volume on the stereo playing the “Blue Danube” and walked away from the wheel while the boat on its own did 4 or 5 360 degree turns in the middle of the river. It was fun and reminded us that being boaters anywhere there is water makes for a good time. While we were waiting to board the boat, we noticed a rack full of bikes with a coin controlled locking mechanism. You insert the appropriate amount, unlock the bike and away you go.
On our last day in Salzburg, we visited Bishop Hellbrunn palace and water gardens which he used as a hunting lodge and incorporated the latest advancements in mechanical engineering to amuse himself and his guests. Apparently, the Bishop was a bit of a prankster since all throughout the grounds there were clever, animated, water driven devices designed to entertain and play practical jokes on the unsuspecting.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Wein (Vienna) with a short stop on the way in Linz to see the Danube.
Dorothea & Ed
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