Helsinki/Stockholm

Greetings- July 26, 2010

This will be our final blog posting. We leave the ship tomorrow morning (Monday) and fly home Tuesday. St. Petersburg had been a pretty intense and exciting three days so, unfortunately, Helsinki was a bit of a let down. Maybe it would be more accurate to say they we were not mentally prepared to enjoy all that Helsinki had to offer. Our ship was able to dock not more than a five minute walk from the part of Helsinki that we wanted to visit. The view from the top deck of our ship of Helsinki was another one of the many postcard views we have experienced on this trip. There was an open air market near our dock that catered to both tourists and locals. There were lots of booths with craft and souvenir items. Those of you still in our will may have something to look forward to. Fur seemed to predominate: mink, fox and reindeer. We did not buy any fur for two reasons: 1) it was very expensive and 2) Jilayne would have had a major hissy fit! Tim also passed up the opportunity to have a reindeer steak in one the restaurants for pretty much the same reasons plus not wanting to explain to his grandchildren that he had eaten Rudolph. There were also booths selling fresh fruit and vegetables as well as freshly caught fish. The fruit and veggies were gorgeous.

There was a lovely Lutheran Church that we wanted to visit but it was closed for a couple of weddings so we could not see the interior. Some of our fellow ship mates who were able to get inside said that it was very simple and beautiful inside, a very serene change from the ornateness of the Russian Orthodox churches we visited in St. Petersburg.

We also did some more geocaching and actually joined up with a couple from the Netherlands at one of the geocaching sites. Not only have we geocached in foreign countries but we have now geocached with foreigners. Lynda thinks that is pretty cool.

We had a very rough crossing from Helsinki to Stockholm. The roughest of the cruise. Tim handled the rough seas like the old salt that he has become. Unfortunately, we were awakened very early by a phone call from Jil informing us that Lynda’s father had fallen in his apartment and had broken his arm. She has reported to us that there is some evidence that he may have also had a heart attack but no confirmation of that. Tim talked to Jeff by cell phone and Jeff reports that Lynda’s dad is resting comfortably in the hospital and is complaining that he has created too much fuss for everyone. We all take this as a good sign. Lynda has basically crashed in our stateroom today (Sunday) while Tim went into Stockholm to e-mail Jil and Jeff and talk to Jeff on the phone. He also booked a hotel room for Monday night. He did report to Lynda that Stockholm is a beautiful city and will be fun to explore tomorrow.

Once we left the ship this morning we wandered around both the new and old parts of Stockholm. Stockholm is a very cosmopolitan city with lots of excellent shopping. We visited two large, local department stores and found many fascinating items in both. We have also noticed that Stockholm is a very expensive city. Either that or we are not doing the currency exchange properly!

While we were in old town we happened by the parliament building just as an English tour was about to start so we joined the tour. It was very interesting to hear our guide talk about how Sweden’s government operates and compare that with how the state and federal government in the states operate or don’t depending on your point of view. We also enjoyed our guides rather tongue in cheek comments about Swedish politics. We were also struck by the contemporary design of the parliament hall.

Lunch was a big deal because Tim actually had Swedish meatballs. He reports that they were excellent.

We are resting in our hotel room at this moment. The plan for the rest of the day is to do some geocaching and then find a place for dinner. Our plane leaves Stockholm tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. and we arrive in Detroit, after a layover in New York, at 6:45. It will be a long day but we are both anxious to get home after a month away.

As always we thank you for reading our blog. We hope it has been both informative as well as entertaining. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Tim and Lynda

P.S. The reports from Jil and Jeff are that Lynda’s father is doing well. The doctors seem to have ruled out the possibility of a heart attack but he still faces a long process of rehab for his broken arm.

From Russia....with Love

Welcome back vicarious travelers-

We are just leaving the port of Tallinn, Estonia headed for St. Petersburg, Russia. We are afraid that as much as we looked forward to St. Petersburg, it is going to be somewhat of a disappointment. Russian visa requirements are such that we can only leave the ship on official cruise line sponsored tours. We have signed up for only two. The problem is that some of the tours we were interested in only do drive by’s of some of the sights, particularly cathedrals. So it looks like we may spend a lot of time on board looking over the railing at St. Petersburg. We will, of course, report more later.

As for Tallinn; like Riga, Latvia, Tallinn was a treasure that we thoroughly enjoyed. Tallinn is a considerably smaller city than Riga so it did not have quite the same touristy feel of Riga which means it was almost non existent. Like Riga, Tallinn also had an old and a new town with us spending most of our time in the old town. Because of its topography, Tallinn was a bit more picturesque than Riga. It was more hilly and the architecture was different. Again, like Riga, Tallinn was filled with many inviting restaurants and cafes. What we saw more of in Tallinn was art galleries featuring works by local artists. We really enjoyed visiting these galleries. We also visited a Russian Orthodox Church that was breathtaking in its beauty. It was not as large as some of the other notable cathedrals we have visited but it certainly rivaled them in beauty. We also had a successful day of geocaching. Even if we end up being disappointed with St. Petersburg we will be able to look back on Latvia and Estonia as being wonderful travel finds.

St. Petersburg has NOT been a disappointment. The first day was spent on the ship which was ok. Because we are so far north the sun does not set officially until 11:00 p.m. and rises at 5:00 a.m. One of our guides told us that this time of year is know as white night because it never really gets dark. Our body clocks are severely out of whack. After resting all day we spent the evening at the Palace of Catherine the Great. We were greeted by an 8 piece military band. After a tour of the palace that included the magnificent Amber Room (!) (see picture) we ended up in the Grand Hall where waiters waited with flutes of champagne for us. We were entertained by a string quartet that was considerably better than the one on board our ship. Next, Catherine and her husband, Peter the Second, welcomed us with a champagne toast. This was followed by dancing; entertainers not the guests. We were than escorted outside where we were met again by the military band which actually did some simple marching maneuvers. They did not hold a candle to the Spartan Marching Band. A horse drawn carriage came flying in carrying two people who ended up doing some more dancing. Finally, we went to dinner. It actually was great fun. We had hors deurves of caviar along with shots of vodka. After a nice salad that included excellent cold roast beef, and an interesting cold mushroom soup, we enjoyed a main coarse of salmon with a shredded carrot and turnip or parsnip accompaniment. We had unlimited amounts of red wine, which was very good, and vodka. During dinner we were entertained by traditional Russian folk singers. We returned to the ship at 11:00 with the sun still shining brightly. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

On our second day we did two excursions. In the morning we went to the Hermitage which is also the winter palace of the Tsars. The Hermitage contains one of the most important collections of art in Europe. There was a fine collection of Rembrandts as well as other Dutch and Flemish artists. The impressionist and post impressionist collection, which is our favorite, was not nearly as impressive. However, just seeing the many rooms of the palace was a treat in itself. The opulence of some of the rooms is beyond description. In the afternoon we visited three Russian Orthodox Churches: St. Isaacs, Our Lady of Kazan, and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. St. Isaacs and the Spilled Blood are no longer churches as such but are museums. Both were breathtakingly beautiful. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (see pictures, outside and inside) was built at the end of the 19th century on the spot where Tsar Nicholas II was assassinated. Hence the name. We need to check with Tim’s sister-in-law to see if she is related at all to Our Lady of Kazan as Kazan is her maiden name. This is a working church. Other than the Icon Stand, Our Lady was not particularly attractive inside. The Icon Stand is probably what we would consider an alter. At Our Lady of Kazan it was extremely beautiful. The stand includes an icon of Lady Kazan. She is considered to have great powers for solving problems of people who pray to her. There was a long line of people waiting to pray before and kiss the icon of Lady Kazan.

St. Petersburg is an interesting city. The two most notable things about St. Petersburg is that 1) it is quiet and 2)much of it is very drab. As you would expect with a city of 4 million plus people, there is much traffic. However, you hardly ever hear car horns honking. It sounds more like downtown Mason than midtown Manhattan. As we were riding the bus out to Catherine’s Palace last night we had a hard time figuring out where the major shopping street was located. When our guide finally explained that we were on it we were surprised because there is no glitz or buzz to the street. Even today when we drove down a street that actually had a Gucci store, it was a very plain and ordinary looking street. Interestingly and probably what you would expect, our Russian guides seemed to be very proud of how cosmopolitan St. Petersburg is, particularly in comparison to Moscow they said. The “drab” parts of St. Petersburg are off-set by the pastel paint colors of many of the buildings and the enameled onion dome cathedrals and gilt painting on some buildings. The Stalin-era apartment buildings are awful but there are still some spectacular Georgian and Baroque buildings that almost make “drab” the wrong impression.

On Friday, our third day in St. Petersburg, we took a bus out in the country to Peterhof, the summer palace of Peter the Great. (see picture of us in front of the Palace) This palace was occupied by the Nazi’s during WW II and they pretty much destroyed it as they were retreating from St. Petersburg, Leningrad during the war. What we saw was a complete rebuilding of the palace. Unfortunately, we were unable to take any pictures inside the palace and neither of us is a talented enough writer to adequately describe what we saw. It was stunningly beautiful but that doesn’t really do it justice. We also really enjoyed walking through the gardens around the palace. These were the first large scale gardens we have seen on our trip and they were lovely. There were many fountains mixed in with the ornate gardens, more Italian than English.

Because we could only leave the ship on officially sponsored tours we are pretty tired because we don’t do tours well. No stops for a drink which is more the pity. However, we both agree that St. Petersburg would be a very difficult city for us to visit as independent travelers. Language would not be problem but most of the signage is in Russian only, meaning we would have no clue as to what the sign said. We have thoroughly enjoyed St. Petersburg and, despite our fatigue, are glad we went on the tours that we finally chose. Tomorrow we are in Helsinki and hope to find a wifi café so that we can post this blog entry. We will also include pictures.

Tim and Lynda

Greetings from The Baltic region of Europe-

As we have mentioned, internet café’s have been difficult to find and we refuse to pay the exorbitant rates for internet on board our ship so we are going to do daily entries and then when we finally find an internet café, we will post our blog.

Copenhagen was different. From on board our ship the view of Copenhagen was quite beautiful. But when we took a local bus to the city center Copenhagen seemed less so. Our first stop was the City Hall. There was some very impressive art work and murals on the walls inside the City Hall. We also discovered a small entrance away from the main entrance that announced that it was an entrance for weddings only. There were several small wedding parties hanging around outside the entrance waiting to go in. Don’t know what they were waiting for. Maybe just working up the courage to go in! Next we went to the Dansk Design Center. The Design Center had a small museum that showed the history of Danish Design from the 1950’s to the present. There were also two floors with displays of products that Danish designers are working on now. We have always liked the simple, clean, contemporary lines of Danish design so we really enjoyed this stop. From the Dansk Design Center we walked along a pedestrian only street of shops. It is advertised as the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe. We would be hard pressed to argue. We found a very eclectic mix of shops from high end luxury shops to trashy tourist shops to punk/Goth shops for young people. As you can imagine, the people watching was incredible. We stopped for lunch at a little hole in the wall creperie. We each had a ham and cheese crepe. Not sure if this is a traditional Danish lunch but it was delicious. The only real disappointment in Copenhagen was the absence of “the little mermaid”. The Little Mermaid is a statue on the harbor erected in honor of the Hans Christian Andersen story of the little mermaid. We had both been looking forward to seeing it. Unfortunately, the little mermaid is in China for some special expo. Could have been worse. The statue could have been covered by scaffolding!

We’ve not talked much about the cruise ship. We have been surprised at the number of people on board that have told us they have been on multiple Oceania cruises. We are beginning to understand why. The food has been better overall than any of our other cruises. We have also been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the entertainment. The other night we heard a soprano who did a combination of Broadway show tunes and opera. Her opera was better than her broadway but it was still quite good until she missed the last note of “Tonight” from “West Side Story” In Tim’s mind this was unforgivable. Lynda was one of the stars of the next night’s entertainment. It was magician/mentalist who several people told us was very good. We got to the show early so we could get “front row seats” (said ala Bob Uecker). Mio, the magician came to our table before the show and asked Lynda to answer the four questions on the sheet he gave her, not show it to anyone, including Tim, and than fold the sheet and put it in her pocket. The questions were: your favorite food, your favorite place to visit, your favorite sporting activity, and your favorite form of entertainment. During the show Mio called Lynda on stage and explained to the audience what he had done and than proceeded to guess correctly all four answers. Tim was only able to come up with three! He guessed lobster, England and bridge as her favorite sporting activity and reading as her favorite form of entertainment. He was correct on Lobster, England and bridge, although Lynda had that listed as entertainment. Lynda claimed, and the mentalist guessed, that her favorite sporting activity was tailgating at football games. Amazing! (The mentalist, not Lynda liking tailgating.) The third night of entertainment we have gone to was a Frank Sinatra style vocalist who was excellent. He was accompanied by a live band!! There has also been a string quartet performing at various times throughout the day. The only problem we have had on board is with housekeeping. In Bruges we bought vodka and gin to have in our stateroom. It has taken us a while to convince housekeeping to have a fresh bucket of ice for us at 4:00 for our “cocktail hour”. We think we finally have the problem solved.

On Sunday we were in Visby, Sweden, the largest city on the island of Gotland. It was another of the wonderful little “postcard” cities that you see in travel books,etc. We did some geocaching while we wander about the streets of Visby. Of particular note was a lovely little botanical garden. We also went in the local cathedral. The most interesting thing about this church was the large number of large, color photographs of unborn fetus’ displayed throughout the church. This led us to believe the church was catholic and they were in the middle of an anti-abortion campaign.

Visby is the only port of call on our cruise where we did not dock at a pier but took tenders, actually the life boats for the ship, to the port. We had an interesting encounter with one of our ship mates on the way back to the ship. While talking with him he asked us where we were from. When we answered Michigan he immediately said “Go Blue!” Tim, without skipping a beat or physical violence, responded “Go Green” All that was needed at that point was for Madison to be present to chime in with “Go White!” It turns out that the passenger, Bill Cohen, was the announcer for the Michigan Marching Band in 1964. Tim and Bill had quite a discussion about the legendary Director of Bands at Michigan, Dr. William D. Revelli, (Bill Cohen called him Bill, Tim called him Dr. Revelli!) and the superior quality of the bands under Dr. Revelli’s direction. Tim then asked Bill if he was the immediate predecessor of Carl Grapentine, the legendary and present announcer for the Michigan Marching Band. This, of course, led to a thorough discussion of Carl Grapentine. The discussion closed with Bill Cohen announcing that he was a much better voice of the Michigan Marching Band than Carl Grapentine who has been doing it for over 40 years. When we returned to our stateroom, Tim observed that Bill Cohen is a classic example of a Michigan arrogant ass!

Riga, Latvia was a wonderful surprise. We both agree it has probably been our favorite port so far. The city is a blend of old world charm and innovative contemporary architecture. There were many quaint little shops and interesting restaurants. We went into one particular store that featured traditional Latvian clothing and artifacts. As in all European cities, the people watching is excellent. Tim would like to point out to the male chauvinist pigs reading the blog that the women of Riga are quite impressive. The highlight of the day was over an hour spent in the Museum of Latvian Occupation. This museum recounted the occupation by first, the Soviet Union, and than Germany during WW II followed again by the Soviet Union after the war. It is a history that is similar to the Jewish Holocaust in that the Soviets exiled a significant portion of the Latvian population to Russia and the Germans exterminated a large portion of the Latvian Jewish community. Needless to say, it was very quiet in the museum. Riga, Latvia is definitely a place we would come back to. We only had about 6 hours in Riga and there was much we wanted to see that we did not have time for.

We’ve just come from high tea - a nice shipboard tradition. Thinking of having a night in tonight - room service for dinner and a DVD movie. This is our 8th night aboard and we have another 6 to go before a night in Stockholm before flying home. A good time for a quiet evening “at home”.

Cheers

Lynda and Tim

Belgium/Netherlands/Germany

Guten Tag, Thursday, July 15, 2010

As I write this blog posting we are cruising through the Kiel Canal. The Kiel Canal cuts through northern Germany, connecting the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. It is 61 miles long, and is the busiest artificial canal in the world. The alternative route would be to sail around the Jutland Peninsula (Denmark) but by taking the canal a ship saves 1 and a half days of sail time. We had never heard of it before this cruise. At any rate it is not very wide and we see people walking along the canal waving to us. The countryside is beautiful with picturesque villages and farms along the way. We pass many boats going in the opposite direction.

We boarded our ship, the Regatta, Monday about 1:30 and are having a wonderful time. All of Monday was spent in port at Dover. We only had a 60 mile trip the first night to Zeebrugge so the ship did not leave port until 10:00. We spent Monday eating, unpacking, eating, exploring the ship, eating, reading and eating. Much like Madison was required by law to drool all over the displays of chocolate in Harrods, we too are required by law to be gluttens on this cruise. The food has been excellent. A few highlights: Lynda had a whole lobster as well as a filet mignon one evening. Tim tried sushi for the first time in his life with the aid of a couple from Los Angeles that we dined with who were experienced in eating sushi. Who knows what culinary treats await us!

Tuesday we took a taxi into Brugges, Belgium. It is a charming little town with lovely gingerbread type buildings and many canals. In fact, it seems so much like a fairy tale scene that it doesn’t really feel like a real town. We visited a beautiful church that has a Michelangelo Madonna and Child that is strikingly different from the Pieta in St. Peter’s in Rome. It is said to be the only one of Michelangelo’s sculpture’s moved from Italy during his lifetime.

During the evening on Monday as we cruised from Zeebrugge toward Amsterdam, we were surprised to see several windmill farms in the middle of the North Sea. Each farm was a group of 40 to 50 windmills. Most fascinating was the fact that none of the vanes on these windmills were actually turning.

We have both been to Amsterdam before so we didn’t do any sightseeing to speak of. You can only visit the red light district so many times! We did spend the afternoon with Dan Trout. Dan is a very good friend of Jilayne’s from high school and college. He was also a former student of Tim’s. We visited the flower market and had lunch with Dan and than went back to his apartment where he was gracious enough to let us use his computer. We have discovered that internet time on our ship is very expensive so we are going to be depending on finding Internet Cafes at each of our ports of call in order to post our blogs and check e-mail. Needless to say, the area around Dan’s apartment was much nicer than the tourist areas in the very center of Amsterdam.

Today the entire day is being spent cruising. We are really enjoying having nothing to do. We took in a cooking demonstration this morning by the ship’s chef. (Anyone want to join us for terrine of foie gras and porcini mushrooms followed by lamb chops and polenta?) Lynda is playing bridge this afternoon and Tim hopes the opening round of the British Open will be on the TV in our stateroom. An aside to Madison - our state room is bigger than our hotel room in London! We presume there will be a sumptuous meal this evening. Tomorrow we will be docked at Warnemunde, Germany. Our original plan had been to take a cruise sponsored tour into Berlin. However, the three hour bus ride each way to Berlin has changed our mind. We will undoubtedly explore Warnemunde and hopefully find an internet café so that we can post this blog.

Auf Weidersehen!

Tim and Lynda


Wandermunde and Rostock addendum - July 16, 2010

Just got back from Rostock and we were unable to find a wifi to post our blog. So we will update you about today’s doings and hope to find someplace tomorrow in Copenhagen where we can post.

Our ship docked in Wandermunde, a popular seaside resort on the Baltic Sea in the North of Germany. We took a train into Rostock, about 20 minutes away by train. Rostock was a major center both economically and politically 600 years ago. Rostockers claim that the University of Rostock is the oldest university in Germany. From the train station we took a tram/trolley to the Neuer Market. It was a pretty plaza with a fresh fruit and meat market taking place in the middle. We walked down a lovely little pedestrian street towards the University. We did a little shopping along the way and enjoyed the city. It was nice to see shops that were basically locally owned or at least local German chains. We saw only a few of the ubiquitous stores that we see all across Europe. Found a nice restaurant for lunch where Tim enjoyed Weiner schnitzel. The highlight of Rostock was the Lutheran Basilica. Overall the church was not as ornate as the catholic cathedrals in Paris and Rome, but maybe a bit more than English churches. It was built in 1230 and miraculously survived the allied bombing during WW II. There was an amazing clock that was built in 1463 that not only showed the time but the day, month and year. And, it had a feature that showed the date that Easter would occur all the way through 2017. Now you may be thinking “big whoop, 2017” but think about it. The people back in 1463 probably were pretty astounded that the clock showed the date for Easter for the next 600 years. After leaving the church we got on a tram/trolley and rode around for a while just looking at the different neighborhoods of Rostock. Sound familiar Madison? We are now safely back aboard the Regatta relaxing.

It will be exciting to see what tomorrow brings in Copenhagen.

Tim and Lynda

London & the Cotwolds

Hello from the Cotswold’s

July 10, 2010

To catch up, on Thursday the three of us, Madi, Lynda and Tim visited Covent Garden where we did some shopping and watched a street entertainer impersonating Harry Houdini. Busking (street entertainers and musicians) are considerably better in London than in Italy. We heard a string quartet playing Mozart in Covent Garden. Beats the heck out of the crumby clarinetist playing the theme to “Titanic” with electronic accompaniment that we heard in Rome. Believe it or not, we found a reasonably good Mexican restaurant in London for lunch. After lunch we journey to Abbey Road. We stood in line with all the other tourists to take the de rigueur pictures of us crossing Abbey Road ala the Beatles from the Abbey Road album cover. Next we ventured to Harrods where Madison went nuts over the chocolate room in the Food Halls. She was with Tim (while Lynda shopped for duvetcovers (!)) and at one point told Tim that he needed to buy her chocolate before she drooled all over the window of the display case. Tim explained that drooling was allowed, even expected, knowing full well a Harrods employee was next to them. As a perfect example of Harrods customer service, the Harrods representative said that there were towels available for such occurrences. Hurray for Harrods! We had a lovely evening with Tim and Lynda’s friends from East Lansing.

Friday morning we got Madison to Heathrow and her plane left on time. She had another unaccompanied minor sitting next to her on her flight so she was not bored to death as she feared. She is now safely home, merrily fighting with her sister and telling all of her friends how weird and embarrassing her grandparents were.

We rented a car at Heathrow and drove to the Cotswold’s. We had spent two months here in 2003, living in a cottage in Stow-on-the-Wold. We are staying in a B & B just outside Stow. We spent yesterday and today exploring old haunts and enjoying them thoroughly. All of the pubs have been wonderful. We visited Hidcote Gardens yesterday. If you are a gardener you understand that British gardens are the gold standard for gardening. Hidcote is one of the best. There was a profusion of beautiful flowers. Today we visited a lavender farm near Snowshill. This farm commercially produces lavender oil. Field after field of lavender in different colors was very striking.

Tomorrow we have our Sunday joint ( a joint in England is the roasted meat that is served for Sunday dinner. It can be either beef, pork, or lamb. Shame on those of you who thought of something different!) at a pub that we visited repeatedly seven years ago. From there we drive to Eastbourne to visit our friends, Clive and Angie. Monday morning we return our rental car and travel to Dover to board our ship for our cruise. Our next blog posting will be from the high seas. If you suffer from motion sickness, take a Dramamine before reading the blog!

Hopefully we will have pictures posted with this posting. There should be one of some of us on the Millennium Bridge in London. Also pictures from Hidcote Garden and the Snowshill lavender fields.

Cheers!

Tim and Lynda

London

Thursday, July 8, 2010 London, England

Good Morning from London-

We had a very uneventful flight from Rome to London if you call 20 some hyper Italian upper elementary students on an airplane uneventful. We heard some poor older English women complaining to one of the flight attendants as we left the plane. They were actually acting quite normally but you can imagine on a plane everything was magnified. Tim enjoyed it because you could not hear the annoying safety instructions over the noise of the kids. Madison thought they were all evil.

At any rate it is great to be in London. As beautiful as Italy is and as incredible as the food and wine tastes in Italy, England somehow feels more like home. We are staying in a very non descript hotel about a 10 minute walk from Victoria Station. Madison laughed when we first went in our room because she said everything in the room was “squished”. There is barely enough room to turn around and we are sure the ship we will be cruising on will have a larger bathroom. But it is cheap and clean and very well located.

Yesterday we took a bus from Victoria Station to the British Museum. We were all fascinated by the Rosetta Stone and the Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi. Some of the things we remember from a previous visit, such as illuminated bibles and Mendelssohn original scores, have been moved to one of the buildings of the British Library system. After lunch we went by bus, again, because Lynda says you can see more from the bus than the tube, to St. Paul’s. A bit of a disappointment, St. Paul’s. They are now charging 12 pounds per visitor to enter the cathedral. We looked around as best we could from in front of the ticket kiosk and left. We did do something new and different when we left St. Paul’s. In 2000 London built a pedestrian bridge across the Thames that they very cleverly called the Millennium Bridge. On the north bank of the Thames the bridge is just below St. Paul’s and on the south bank it comes out at the Tate Modern art gallery. Right next to the Tate Modern is the brand new Globe Theatre built to look like the old Globe theatre. And amazingly enough right next to the Globe Theatre is a pub. We will let you guess which we visited first! We actually don’t particularly like the Tate Modern. Prince Charles, unfortunately is correct when he says that the Tate Modern is “a carbuncle on the face of London.” But we thought Madi might enjoy and possibly explain what we were missing in the art work. We think she enjoyed the gallery but was not able to give us much more insight into the art work. During the day Madison was able to do some more souvenir shopping and we enjoyed an excellent dinner of fish and chips with mushy peas at a pub that is about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Believe it or not, Tim was the only person to actually eat his mushy peas. Bad Lynda and Madison!

Today, in no particular order, we are going to visit Harrods, Covent Garden, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and Abbey Road of Beatle fame. A Beatles Moment: Yesterday was Ringo Starr’s 70th birthday. Heather - he was the drummer in the Beatles. The London Times yesterday had an editorial that called for the Queen to finally give Ringo his much deserved knighthood. If the Times is editorializing about this, you can imagine the clamor around the rest of the country. Tonight we are planning on meeting friends from East Lansing for dinner. Louise is a professor in MSU’s college of nursing and has been teaching in MSU’s summer program in London for over twenty years. Louise’s husband, Bill is a college friend from Hope.

Tomorrow Madison flies home. We know she has enjoyed this trip thoroughly, but also sense she is ready to get back home to her family and friends. As much as she professes to miss her sister, we have a pool to guess how long after she gets home before she and Jocey are at each others throats. After seeing Madi off we will rent a car and spend the weekend in the Cotswold’s and then drive to Eastbourne to see our friends Clive and Angie. Monday we board our ship for our two week cruise. It will certainly be different for us to be cruising with people our age instead of spending all of our time with a teenager. Our guess is that it won’t be very long on the cruise before we wish we were with that lovely teenager again.

Cheers for now.

More Roma

Rome, Monday, July 5, 2010

OK. I was wrong in a previous blog. The best gelato in Rome is found at Tre Scalina in the Piazza Navonna. The intensity of the flavor and the creaminess of the chocolate gelato that Madi and I had is beyond description.

After our previously described siestas we walked to the Pantheon. We think Madison was suitably impressed but one never knows for sure with teenagers. We found another geocache to satisfy Lynda’s geocaching jones very near the Pantheon. She insists on geocaching in very public places in the middle of huge crowds of people. I’m still waiting for the moment that we have to try to describe geocaching to an Italian police officer who understands little English. Our next blog may come from a Roma jail.

After a lovely meal near the Pantheon we walked on to Piazza Navonna. What an incredible place to be on Saturday night. It was a beautiful evening and the crowds of people were in a festive mood. Several of the bar/restaurants in the Piazza were televising the World Cup soccer match. We could hear cheering all around us whenever something exciting happened during the game. As always, the Piazza was full of street artists selling their wares or doing on the spot portraits or caricatures as well as street musicians and performers. We reminisced with Madison about having Jil and Jeff’s portraits done many years ago on our first visit to Rome.

Sunday morning we visited the Coliseum. It does not hold as many people as Spartan Stadium but is considerably more impressive. We probably spent 45 minutes walking about the different levels of the stadium taking in the history of the place that one could literally feel. On our way to the forum we found another geocache. Only a sleeping homeless man observed us this time. Lynda is fascinated by the forum. Madi and Tim were less in awe. To them it is was just a bunch of old rocks.

An interesting aside. We have stopped at several churches during the weekend because we love to look at the beauty of the old Roman churches, and happened on several weddings. It appears to be a big deal to have wedding pictures of the bride and groom in front of Rome’s many historic sites.

We mentioned earlier discovering a wonderful local ristorante. We visited it again after leaving the forum and went back to the hotel for naps. Even Tim took a nap this time. The heat is really quite bad; temps in the upper 80’s to near 90.

Sunday evening we took a bus to the Trastavere section of Rome. This is or was the working class area of Rome. Unfortunately, it has been discovered by the tourists and the working class is being slowly forced out. It is an area of mostly pedestrian streets with many little shops and wonderful bars and restaurants. It was again a beautiful evening to be out strolling and soaking up the atmosphere all around us.

This morning we took a combination of subway trains and buses out to the Catacombs that are south of Rome. Tim’s brother and sister-in-law put us onto this site. After a long, hot walk along a section of the original Appian Way, which was a treat in itself that we don’t think Madi appreciated, we finally found the Catacomb we were looking for. We visited the San Callisto Catacomb where St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music was buried. This was all under ground so it was refreshingly cool. Unfortunately, we were never able to find the restaurant that Steve and Debra had recommend that we try. Guess we will have to come back to Rome again. Darn!!

Tomorrow morning Lynda wants to visit the crypt of some Capuchin priest who is evidently the patron saint of cappuccino! Then we fly to London. We are almost hoping to find it cool and raining in London. Not sure if we are ready for fish and chips and mushy peas accompanied by a pint of warm beer.

Madison continues to be a wonderful traveling companion. She is eating pizza at every meal but we really can’t say anything because Tim is having pasta at every meal. There have been few if any complaints from her and for the most part she is finding humor in her grandparents traveling idiosyncrasies. This is certainly a memorable trip for us with her. Hope she feels the same.

Ciao.

Roma

Roma July 3, 2010

Twenty six years ago we were in Rome at this same time - went to a papal audience on July 4th - and it was extremely hot. Why didn’t we remember that when making our plans for this trip? Oh well, we’re walking on the shady side of the street when that is possible and enjoying afternoon siestas to avoid the worst of the heat. Actually working well for us. (Tim was at the Laundromat while Lynda and Madi had siestas!)

Yesterday we settled into our hotel - it is a 5 minute walk from the Trevi Fountain. We went there several times but the crowds were so big that Madison wanted to go back when it wasn’t so busy. She and Tim got there about 7:30 this morning and the fountain was “closed” for cleaning! Not a happy Madi! When we returned after breakfast about 9:00 we were able to get pictures with the water back on and the crowds at a reasonable level. All three of us threw coins in to assure our return to Rome.

Last night we found our first geocache in Italy - we tried to find one in Sorrento and couldn’t locate it. The one we found in Rome was right by the Trevi Fountain and we took the cache into a nearby church to open it and log our findings so others wouldn’t see what we were doing. We have 4 more to find in Rome and then several in London when we get there.

Friday was also a good day because we went to the ristorante in Naples that invented pizza. They still serve only 2 varieties - a tomato, cheese and basil (margherita) and a tomato, oregano, garlic(marinara) pizza. The place is constantly busy and the pizza was great! Once in Rome we went to the Gelateria with the best gelato in Rome - per our hotel and Tim! Last night we found a lovely old trattoria with both outside dining and rooms in a cellar with air conditioning - we took the cellar! We’ll go back as the pastas are great.

This morning we took the Metro to the Vatican and waited in a long but fast moving line to see St. Peter’s Basilica - impressive as always. We then went into the crypt to see the tombs of the Popes. Pope John Paul II’s tomb was the most popular with many people still praying to/for him. Ciao for now!

Capri Blue Grotto

Pompeii & Capri Pictures

Blue Grotto - Isle of Capri

Buona Serra-

It is another fantastically beautiful evening in Italy. We are sitting on the balcony of our hotel ristorante, outside, with a breathtaking view of the Gulf (Golf) of Naples. We spent the day on the Isle of Capri. The major attraction on Capri is the Blue Grotto (Grotto Azzuro). A cynic would say that this is one of the world’s great tourist traps. But we’re not cynics. We spent several hours in travel time getting to the Grotto for about 5 minutes of time actually spent in it. The Blue Grotto is a cave in the rock right on the ocean. There is a three foot hole that the boat (a row boat) goes through and then there is this big room inside. There were a number of boats inside the grotto at the same time. One of the boatsman was singing Italian Love Songs (?) while in the Grotto. Would have been very romantic other than the 10 other boats and Madison. The water is 60 feet deep with the bottom being white sand. The sand reflects the light from the sun creating this unbelievable blue color, hence the name Blue Grotto. Duh!! See pictures.

Madison had her first true Italian pizza today. She agreed it was pretty special. She has been good about eating. (Jilayne- she is doing just fine food wise!) We got back to our hotel about 5:00. We spent the rest of the afternoon in our room. We napped while Madi was on the computer.

That pretty much covers the day. Onto Rome tomorrow.

Lynda and Tim (and Madison)

Detroit-Sorrento - 6/28-6/30/10

Buena Serra-

We have completed our first full day in Italy and already our daughter is harrassing us about not blogging. Our journey here was long but uneventful. We flew out of Detroit at 7:30 p.m. and arrived at our hotel in Sorrento at 5:00 p.m. the next day. Our hotel is very nice with an incredible view of the Gulf of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. We ended up just staying at our hotel last night and had a wonderful first meal in Italy; pasta for everyone and wonderful wine for Tim and Lynda. We were surprised with a welcoming flute of champagne for each of us. Madi had a small sip as we toasted our arrival and Lynda and Tim finished it for her. The sunset over the ocean was spectacular.

Today we visited Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius and Herculaneum. It was all fascinating and Madison, in particular, enjoyed exploring every nook and cranny of Pompeii. It was a long, but enjoyable day. Madison has been a delight to travel with just as her sister, Jocelyn was this spring on our trip to Boston.
We went into Sorrento tonight for dinner. We also spent a lot of time shopping in a wonderful area of Sorrento filled with little shops of all sorts. Madison seemed to spend more time taking pictures of dogs than anything else.

Tomorrow we head to the Isle of Capri and hope to include a visit to the Blue Grotto. Friday we head for Rome.

We’ll try to include some pictures.

More later.

Tim and Lynda

September, 2009 in Switzerland and France

Despite our best efforts we were unable to post to our blog while traveling during the fall. A v-e-r-y brief summary of our doings follows:

We flew to Zurich and took the train to Lucern. Meinrad met us at the bahnhoff and we walked over the bridge for a drink upstairs overlooking the Lucern Bridge. We went "home" to see Heidrun and the newest cats. Meinrad fixed a lovely dinner - per usual. Even had a huge penquin-shaped flan for dessert. The back garden has a new shed (bright yellow they call it the postoffice)and the wall has been rebuilt overlooking the gorge. Meinrad picked fresh celariac for our dinner veg.

Our room is much the same - the doors to the balcony open to beautiful roses growing up over the balustrade. However, the view has been compromised since we were last at the Fluelers. The house to the front left of their property has been expanded and modernized so it cuts off a bit more of the view of the lake and mountains than it did before. The biggest change is that there is a modern apartment building up the hill from our house - nicely done but still it cuts off the privacy that we've enjoyed in the past.

Meinrad took us for a drive the next day - showed us one of his rental properties that he has recently renovated. We shopped a bit for duvet covers and just to walk the streets of Lucerne again. In the evening we met Pavlo and Marina at the oldest restaurant in Lucerne - the last time we were there Meinrad had a calf's head -- and this time Pavlo had sweetbreads. It was fantastic to spend the evening talking and catching up. Heidi and I had delicious wierner schnitzel - truly a lovely evening.

The next day Tim & I caught an early train to Basel and spent the day with Arne Mehrkens and his family. Arne met us at the train station (bahnhoff) and took us for a walking tour of the city - even took a type of ferry boat (more of a row boat with a long guide wire that helps keep the boat in place while the current takes the boat across) on the Rhine. We met Arne's wife Camilla (we hadn't met her in person before)and her mother at a lovely old hotel for lunch. We celebrated Camilla's finalizing her general practitioner's licensing that day. Arne, an orthopedic surgeon also filled us in on his recent studies and conference presentations. Afterwards Camilla and her mother went to pick up the twins while we did a bit more walking about and then met them at the Mehrken's apartment.

Josiah and Emma are 3 yr old twins. They are slow in language development because Arne purposefully speaks German to them and Camilla uses her native Norwegian. The kids understand both languages but are not very verbal themselves yet, which their parents expected. We had a lovely couple of hours getting to know the kids and talking with everyone. Arne took us back to the tram and we made it back to the bahnhoff on our own.

Meinrad and Heidrun met us back in Lucern after the 2 hour train ride and we went to Pavlo & Marina's flat. They have moved again _ this is the 3rd home of theirs that we've visited. They are back in the city but in a very residential area - not right in the main part of the city as they were in the first place we visited them. We had apertifs and then starters of lox for me and muscles for the rest. Cornish hen followed with lots of veg and delicious bread. Neither Damien nor Bobian were home that evening - hard to believe they are 19 and 17 now. We've known Pavlo & Marina for 24 years now (since our year in England)and Meinrad and Heidrun for 20 years.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to Heidi and Meinrad drove us to the MeggenSchloss where we went geocaching. We walked a long way and had to have been in the right area but had to give up in order to catch our train for Zurich. We tried, but failed, to find a cache in Switzerland.

I'll post more about our 2 weeks in Paris in a day or two.