Tag: <span>travel</span>

Eurotrip 2011 – Siena

Rome > Siena > Florence > Venice > Munich > Brussels > Amsterdam

I realized that I was WAY behind on these, so here’s the next installment from our trip in March.  (Is it really almost July already?  It can’t be!)  As always, click any photo to see the larger version on flickr.

March 18. We missed the train to Siena from Rome by about three minutes – the train was at the far, far end of the station and as we were quick-walking to get there, it pulls away.  Ugh.  Next one was in two hours, so we spent a little time people watching outside the police station which proved to be good entertainment.  We ended up on the 10:58am train which arrived at Siena (via Chiusi) at 3:20pm.  Somehow, I had neglected to write down the address to the hotel on my master-sheet, but thankfully a very nice cab driver knew exactly where to go, the B&B San Francesco.  It’s tucked in a tiny alleyway near the Basilica of San Francesco (St. Francis).  The room we booked came with a toilet and shower (somewhat of a luxury for European hotels on a budget), check in was easy, and the folks at the desk spoke enough English, and I had apparently remembered enough Italian that we figured things out just fine.  We got to the room, dumped our bags, and ran out after taking a quick peek at the view (to the right) – Incredible. DSC_7114

We booked it on over to the Tuscan Wine School, making it there just in time.  Doug and I had decided to do the small wine school class in the city rather than a full wine tour of the region mostly due to time constraints.  If we had spent the full two weeks just in Italy, it would have made sense to do a full day wine tour, but I really wanted to go back to Siena (the city where I spent four months for a semester abroad) and spend time in the city proper instead of just being there for the hotel.  Anyway, the class we took was the Tuscan Wine class, and I can tell you, having already spent four months (granted, years ago) studying Tuscan Wines in great detail, that this class was SPECTACULAR.  I learned a few new things (my studies were more casual, perhaps), and the range of wines presented was absolutely perfect.  The teacher, Maria Luisa, was very knowledgeable and spoke English perfectly though we did share a few words in Italian after she found out that I studied there nearly 10 years ago.  The tasting ended with Cantuccini and Vin Santo, two of my all-time favorite things. DSC_7105

We wandered off to the Piazza del Campo for dinner – pricey, but it’s quite the experience to sit in that piazza under the moon and take in a meal (photo at right).  After that it was off to the Dublin Post for a beer seeing as we had missed getting beer on St. Patrick’s day, and Doug felt it was his duty to have at least one beer.  They had a great selection (as always), and overheard a number of English conversations (lots of exchange/study-abroad students in Siena).  Then it was back to the hotel to collapse. DSC_7123

March 19.  Breakfast at the B&B San Francesco was included, so we helped ourselves to an AMAZING spread in the common kitchen/dining area.  They allowed us to leave our bags at the hotel in the hallway while we were out sight seeing for the morning.  Since it was in a hallway, we decided to lock up the backpacks with our PacSafesjust in case – it’s not that we didn’t trust the staff of the hotel, it’s just a travel precaution (and really, if anyone wanted to help themselves to some dirty socks, they were more than welcome).  Anyway, we went to the Duomo Museum and climbed the facciatone (big facade) (131 stairs).  The facciatone is the remnant of a very ambitious plan to expand the Duomo (cathedral) in 1339 which would have made it larger that St. Peter’s in Rome.  Unfortunately, the plague swept through shortly thereafter leaving them with no workforce and no money to finish the project.  The view from the top of the facade is rather spectacular and well worth the climb (photo to the right, top).The same ticket that permits entrace to the Duomo museum (if you do the city-attractions ticket), also allows entrance to the Bapistry, Crypt, and Cathedral.  Doug jokingly called the cathedral (Duomo) the zebra church (photo to the right, ) – the entire inside is made of black and white marble arranged in stripes.  It’s really quite a sight to behold.  The floor is marble as well, and while mostly covered up, a few open spots show the incredible detail of the marble murals.  I’ll let you go poke at the flickr set (linked below) for those photos, otherwise I’ll be posting every photo from Siena here in the blog.  I just love it that much.We did lunch at a little place called La Vecchia Taverna di Bacco.  INCREDIBLE.  I think I had this gorgonzola cream sauce gnocchi which was just to die for.  Siena in general is pretty expensive, so you just can’t look at the bills and be shocked, but I didn’t think this place (on a side street) was too bad for lunch with wine.Post lunch, we decided to burn off some of those calories.  The big tower in the center of the photo at the right/top is the Torre del Mangia – 400 stairs to the very top.  That brings our stair counter to 531 for Siena.  The view of the piazza below, and the countryside is always incredible (photo to the right, bottom), and well worth whatever they’re charging for it (and the time spent in line as well). DSC_7147
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We finished off the tower at the bottom with Frittelle di Riso (fried rice balls, photo to the right).  In honor of San Giuseppe (St. Joseph), a little shack is set up in the Piazza del Campo and sells fried rice balls covered in powdered sugar.  It was something I remembered from my study-abroad days, and LOVED back then.  Doug really liked them too, so we enjoyed one last paper cone full before going back to the hotel to grab our bags.Back at the hotel, we collect our bags and head out to the bus station.  At the end of the little vicolo, there’s a small square with a fountain.  A table was set up, and one of the youths at the table calls out to us (something I didn’t catch at first), so we curiously walk down to see what’s going on.  He pegs us for Americans and hands us more Frittelle and cups of prosecco, “For San Giuseppe!  From the Contrada del Bruco!”  (Bruco = Caterpillar)  Siena has these contrada, or neighborhoods, that each have some pretty fierce pride.  There’s an annual horse race in the piazza, and each contrada raises money, cares for a horse, chooses a rider, flag bearers, etc.  It’s a pretty elaborate thing, and I suppose it would be like Eagles fans vs Cowboy fans, but with 17 neighborhoods each in competition with the others.  They have little festivals and special feast days and whatnot throughout the year, and it’s sort of like an extended family in a way for people who live in the contrada’s boundaries.  Anyway, short cultural history lesson aside, it was pretty neat to be flagged down like that, and we thanked them and wandered off to the bus station.  We grabbed our tickets to Florence, deciding not to get on the VERY PACKED first bus and grabbed the second one instead.  It’s just an hour’s bus ride to Florence, and is MUCH easier by bus than train. DSC_7197

Official Stair Counter: 1082


Slideshow of photos from Siena

EuroTrip 2011 – Rome

Rome > Siena > Florence > Venice > Munich > Brussels > Amsterdam

The husband and I packed our enormous backpacks and headed off, thanks to a batch of frequent flyer miles, on a two week vacation to the cities listed above.  I’ll put up a post per city over the next couple of weeks – in part for myself, to remember the places we went, as well as for others to enjoy.  The trip was March 15-29, 2011 and here it is, April 8th, and I’m still having a hard time getting back into the groove of things at home.  I was told that means we had a terrific time, and I’m inclined to agree    🙂

Roma!  We landed in Rome early on March 16th after leaving the USA on the 15th.  We were able to take the train from the Fiumicino  airport to the main train station in Rome (Termini), find our nearby hotel (Hotel Papa Germano), and be all checked in and settled with the room by 10am.  It was drizzly but about 60 degrees F, so not incredibly terrible.  We grabbed our things and took the metro out to the Vatican City.  After going through metal detectors and security (something new since my last visit in 2002), we were permitted to go inside St. Peter’s Basilica.  First we saw the inside of the Basilica, marveled at the size of the place, the art (The Pieta!), and just took some good time taking it all in.Photo to the right is of the inside of St. Peter’s Basilica, looking up at one of the many, many domes inside. DSC_7015

We then decided to go and climb the cupola, “a piedi,” and save one Euro per person.  If you took the elevator, it cuts out 231 stairs from the total of 551 stairs.  We arrive at the top of the 231 stairs where the elevator lets out, and it’s the gallery inside the basilica.  Nice view of the whole basilica from a safe, fenced in walkway that goes around the entire cupola (see photo to the right).  Great, we think, that wasn’t too bad, we’re there, and that’s it, and we go back down, right?  No.  There are another 320 stairs that wind in the narrow space between the inner and outer skins of the cupola, taking you ALL the way to the top of the highest point in the Vatican.  At one point, near the top, the walls curve in on a diagonal so that you are basically walking up those stairs leaning sideways.  Doug demonstrates the beginning of the walls moving in on his 6’4″ frame in a photo here. DSC_7025

We make it to the top, and the view is spectacular.  Spectacularly pouring rain too.  Good thing we brought the rain jackets instead of heavy winter coats.  Anyway, I shuffle out, get a photo of the view (photo to the right), and then wait in line to head back down all 551 of those stairs again.  At the bottom, we went back inside to the Crypt which holds the tombs of 91 popes including the most recent burial, Pope John Paul II.  I had the pleasure of sitting through Easter Mass in 1998 with him, in the Vatican on a high school trip to Italy.  I’m not the world’s most religious person, but the dude was pretty well liked and a master of I don’t even know how many languages, so even if the religious importance of the mass flew over my head, the cultural importance of JP and the pope’s position certainly did not.  When we got to the point where his tomb was, a large group of mourners (he died in 2005 by the way), clutching tissues and sobbing, had been given a sizeable area to stand and mourn as long as they wished.  Doug was a little shocked, and I was too, given the amount of time that had passed.  Found out after we got home, that he’s set to be beatified on May 1, 2011, so that might have been part of it too. DSC_7036

After spending most of the day at the Vatican, we walked a short distance to the Castel Sant’Angelo.  We were pretty beat by that point, and the Castle offered us some more stairs that we begrudgingly took to the top of the castle (photo to the right is from the top).  A stage and sound equipment was being set up outside but we couldn’t figure out what it was for.. something was going on, in all that rain?After that, we took the metro back to the hotel and took a short nap before dinner.  Dinner in Italy doesn’t start until 7 or 8pm and forget about even finding a restaurant open before 7.  It’s a later event than it is in the USA, and is always at least an hour or two long.  You relax, enjoy yourself, chat, and have a full, FULL, 3-course-minimum meal.  We took advice from the hotel reception staff and went across the street, still a little travel weary, to La Famiglia.  They had a tourist menu for 16€ plus 4€ tip.  The wait staff spoke English – I speak Italian, or at least used to be pretty good after studying it in college plus the semester abroad for four years – and the food was delicious, ESPECIALLY the orange custard Tira Misu. DSC_7048

March 17.  We wake up and finally figure out that the stage setup from last night was for the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification.  We were up early, and a little worried that everything would be shut down for the day because of the big holiday.  Instead, we find out that everything is free because of the big holiday – we didn’t pay a single admission fee anywhere all day long!  Not bad.  So we wished Italy a Happy Birthday and set out to the Baths of Diocletian which wasn’t quite open yet.  So, we go on a walk around the block and stumble into Santa Maria degli Angeli e Martiri (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs).  Camera crews are set up inside and outside the church for something (probably as part of the celebration of the unification), but the cathedral is still open, so we go in to waste some time before the baths open.  Turns out, the cathedral was built using the existing walls of the ancient Roman bath.  There’s also a really neat sundial built into the floor, also referred to as the Meridian line.  A small hole in the wall allows a spot of sunlight that shines at solar noon to mark the date.  It was pretty neat to see something like this inside a cathedral, and we took some time looking it over (photo to the right). DSC_7050

The Baths of Diocletian finally open, and we go inside (for free!).  The courtyard outside is lined with row after row of grave stones gathered from various sites around Rome.  The museum inside contained so many incredible artifacts including a large collection of items from burials in the surrounding area.  It was totally visual overload, and I REALLY enjoyed spending time inside (and out of the rain).  We then hop the metro out to the Coliseum – a must-see landmark in Rome.  Noticing a long line at the Coliseum, we walk down the street and stop in for some pizza.  The rain had stopped for a short while, but started up again just as we were finishing lunch.  The wait staff moved us under the umbrellas on the outdoor dining area, and let us hang out with our wine until the downpour stopped.  At the coliseum (photo to the right), entrance is free again, and we dodge in and out of passing downpours, wandering around the complex. DSC_7081

It looked like the rain finally gave up for the day, so we decided to hit up the Roman Forum and Palatine hill.  I still get chills walking on the ancient Roman roads (Via Est Via Romana!), thinking that I’m walking on the same stones where Julius Caesar, Cicero, and other notable Romans once walked.  Those four years of high school Latin really bring ancient Rome to life in a way that can’t possibly be described in words.  We spent the remainder of the day exploring the forum including the Stadium of Domitian (photo to the right).  Headed back to the hotel, and again upon recommendation by hotel staff, went off to a nearby restaurant, Da Vincenzo.  Another fantastic meal, served by an English-speaking waiter with quite the sense of humor (he had us laughing all night).  Another classic Italian dinner, complete with wine and dessert.  We went back to the hotel and got ready for our morning departure to Siena. DSC_7097

Official Stair Counter: 551


Slideshow of photos from Rome

Scotland!

From June 13th to the 20th, I was in Scotland with the husband.   Husband had a class in Aberdeen for work, so I had a great excuse to go and play tourist.   The flights getting there were a little weird – I left from Philadelphia on Saturday and ended up at the hotel in Aberdeen on Sunday with the husband coming from Angola (Africa) straight from work, arriving a few hours after me.

Once settled, we went into town for dinner and wound up at Old Blackfriars for food and their incredible selection of cask ales.   Went back to the hotel and had a hard time falling asleep since the sun set and rise times are drastically different from those near Philadelphia.   The sun set at about 11pm and rose around 4am – we get about 9pm for the set and 5:30 for the rise.   The hotel’s black-out curtains did the trick though and we finally got some shut-eye.

Monday I took my time to explore the city.   Picked up a walking tour map from the tourism office and walked all over town, stopping off at the Duthie Park winter gardens.   By that point, I had made a HUGE circle around the city and was pretty hungry.   Thankfully, the husband called up and came into town for dinner.   We ended up at the Illicit Still for some neat atmosphere and great food.

Tuesday was spent on a castle tour in the local area.   Picked up the van outside the tourist office and went immediately to Crathes Castle and gardens.   Sadly, no photos were allowed inside the castle, but it was really neat to wander around and check out the rooms.   Outside was a beautiful garden that was in perfect bloom – talk about the right time to visit!   Then we went on to Stonehaven to wander around and check out the little fishing village.   I was able to take a walk out to the beach and dip my toes in the north sea.   It felt like ice water, but the view of the surrounding area from there was really gorgeous and it was nice to be alone on the windy beach and just take it all in.   Then we were on to Dunnottar Castle – a big ruin on a cliff with the waves crashing around you.   Very dramatic.   Also dramatic was the ridiculous staircase that led you down to the bottom of the cliff and then back up into the castle (lather, rinse, repeat to get back to the van).   100% worth it though and I got some incredible photos.   Got back into Aberdeen and met up with the husband at the hotel for dinner along with two of his classmates for a relaxed evening.

Wednesday was the rainy day, so I took a quick trip out to Wool for Ewe to check out the local yarn store.   From there I went to the Maritime Museum and the Art Museum to try and stay out of the cold and wet weather.   Also did a little bit of tourist shopping and finally went back to the hotel again for dinner with the husband and his classmates.

Thursday I took the train out to Inverness and went on a tour with Jacobite Cruises  after doing some shopping around the Victorian Market.   I picked up the bus in the center of town and took it down to the boat dock while a guide gave us a history of Loch Ness and some of the mystery behind the monster said to inhabit the huge freshwater lake.   Sadly, we didn’t see Nessie during our half hour cruise, but we ended up at Urquhart Castle so I guess that was okay.   The castle was another huge ruin and I had just enough time to run around with the camera and get some great photos.   After a short video on the history of the castle, I was back on the bus and taken into Inverness again just in time to catch my train to Aberdeen.   Got back to Aberdeen around 7pm and found the husband at the Irish pub, Malones  (yep, Irish pub, in Scotland).   We went over to Slains Castle Pub which was inside an old cathedral.   Really neat ambiance – the sort of place you’d expect Dracula to show up for dinner.   Then I went over to the Belmont Cinema Cafe to meet up with the Aberdeen Stitch ‘n’ Bitch  group.   Got in about a half hour of knitting (I showed up late) and then went back to Slains to meet up with the husband and go back to the hotel.

Friday, the husband was done with class for the week and we had scheduled a whisky tour, but it ended up being cancelled due to lack of interest (meaning, we were the only people who wanted to go on a whisky tasting tour on Friday, geez people).   We got on the train and ended up in Keith at the Strathisla distillery, the oldest constantly running legal distillery in Scotland.   Most of their whisky goes into the Chivas Regal blends, but we got to sample some of the distillery’s whisky that they sold outside of the Chivas brand.   A lot of the beer brewing knowledge we have helped us appreciate the tour more and understand the whole thing better.   We brought home a bottle of cask strength whisky that was aged in a sherry barrel.   Did a quick lunch in town and then went back to the hotel where the husband went straight to bed while I went down and grabbed dinner at the hotel’s bar.

Saturday was up early and on the plane back to home.

A few other things of note about the trip:

Seagulls.   Aberdeen has lots of them, and they’re the BIGGEST seagulls I have ever seen in my life.   I’m fairly sure they could eat most small dogs for dinner and not blink twice.   They’ve been known to go on shoplifting sprees  and attack people for whatever food they’re holding.   There’s even a facebook group dedicated to their demise.

Temperatures were about 60F for the high and only about 50F for the low.   The north sea pumps out some cold air that keeps the temperatures steadily cool.   There was only one day that it rained all day, Wednesday, but most days would give you a few brief periods of rain mixed with sun.   They say that if you don’t like the weather in Scotland, just wait 15 minutes – it’ll change.

To make things easier, the husband and I picked up a pre-paid SIM card for our phones at T-Mobile in Aberdeen for 5GBP.   I got a week’s free internet access which helped me out A LOT with the G1 phone I’ve got – I was able to pull up google maps wherever we were and know exactly where I was and where to go.   When the husband finished his classes, he’d call, we’d meet up, and it made life SO much easier.   Definitely worth the money.

The exchange rate sucked.   1.62 GBP to the US dollar.   And most of the prices, say a pair of jeans was 24.99 GBP.. about what you’d expect to pay for the same jeans in USD, just take out the pound sign and put in the dollar sign.   But NO!   No.   The exhange rate made them 1.62 times more expensive.

Just a few photos here, the rest are in this set on flickr.

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