Sunday, December 13, 2015

D.C. Getaway

December 7-11, 2015

Despite all of the exotic places we have traveled to around the world, Washington D.C. remains one of our favorite cities in the whole world.  It is a beautiful city with wonderful museums and a distinct vibe from being, politically, one of the most powerful cities in the world.  It has been 6 years since we have been to D.C. so decided it was time and thought Chirstmas would find the city in all of its glory.  Unfortunately, the Christmas decorations have been a disappointment.  The National Christmas tree along with the National Menorah (?) on the Ellipse were stunning, particularly with the White House in one direction and the Washington Monument in the other as background.  Otherwise, not much. Well...there was a lovely Christmas Tree in the lobby of the Library of Congress.

We are staying on the third floor of a very nice house a block off of Wisconsin Avenue in the
Friendship Heights area of Washington, just south of Chevy Chase and Bethesda. There is actually an elevator in the home which is a welcome sight for both of us after a long day of siteseeing.  The house is conveniently just a 2 or 3 minute walk from a Metro station that gets us to the heart of D.C. in about 20 minutes.

We arrived Monday evening/late afternoon and after meeting our hosts and bringing our luggage in from the car got back in the car and drove into D.C.  Our first stop was at the Ellipse to see the National Christmas Tree.  After dark, with the lights on, and with the way it is decorated, you could not tell there was actually a tree involved.  With careful observation we were finally able to detect a few branches sticking out of the decorations.  The area around the tree was surrounded with 50 normal sizes trees, one for each state, that had been decorated by a particular person or organization from that state.  Many were decorated by students.  We did not know that a huge Menorah is also erected near the Christmas Tree.  In this age of "political correctness" it makes perfect sense.  We thought it very impressive, but then, we are not experts when it comes to Menorahs.

From the Ellipse it was a short drive to the Tidal Basin where we saw the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial for the first time.  We have always maintained that Washington does an amazing job with memorials.  The MLK Memorial is no exception.  Tim, in particular, has always found the memorials to be more beautiful when viewed after dark.  We drove back to our apartment by way of some neighborhoods in the Georgetown area hoping to see some of the magnificent homes in their Christmas finery.  Although we found a few lights on homes we had expected more.

Tuesday morning we took the Metro, D.C.'s subway, into Washington, our destination being the Renwick Art Gallery, one of the many galleries and museums that are part of the Smithsonian. It is located on Pennsylvania Avenue, across the street from the Old Executive
Office building, right next door to Blair House and just a block down from the White House.  Nice neighborhood.  The Renwick has just recently re-opened after renovation celebrating its 150th anniversary. The art on display was all contemporary, but contemporary in an approachable way.  Later in the day we visited several modern art galleries where we just shook our heads looking at the art.  The art in the Renwick was not like this at all.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Around the corner from the Renwick, facing Lafayette Park is Decatur House, home of the White House Historical Association.  When Jilayne was at American University in D.C. in the early 90's she evidently visited Decatur House because she gave Lynda a White House Christmas ornament for our tree that the Association puts out each year. Each years ornament is different and is in honor of one of our Presidents.  Lynda loved the ornament so much she started collecting them.  We must have close to 30 of them now.  They pretty much dominate our tree. We were here because the Association had a ginger bread White House on display that had been constructed by a former White House pastry chef.  A ginger bread replica of the White House is an ongoing tradition each Christmas at the White House. A video that was part of the display showed the construction of lots of these houses.  They seem to become more elaborate each year. Some years white chocolate was used to cover the ginger bread facade.  The white chocolate replicas are particularly life like. In another of the Association's buildings the former pastry chef was signing the book that he had written about his years as the pastry chef.

While looking on line for apartments to rent in Washington, Tim discovered a street near Logan Circle where there is a collection of small art galleries.  For those of you who know D.C. we went to 14th St. between O St. and U St. These 5 or 6 blocks that we toured had a real neighborhood feel to them.   There were lots of shops, restaurants, and bars buzzing with people who were obviously locals.  We loved it.  We spent 2 or 3 hours browsing in the stores and having lunch in a wonderful local restaurant.  After the long day of travel on Monday and all of the walking on Tuesday we went back to our apartment and collapsed for the rest of the day, napping and reading.  We didn't even go out for dinner!

Not only the paucity of Christmas decorations, but the weather is making it feel very un-Christmas like. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were bright, sunny dates with temperatures approaching 60 degrees.  Unfortunately, Wednesday was a grey day with a chilly wind. The temperature stayed in the 40's.  We started the day at the Newseum.  This museum had just opened six years ago when we were in D.C. to start our "Around the World" adventure. At that time we were only able to spend about an hour in the museum. This time we bought two day tickets so that we could be sure to see all it has to offer.  As the name implies, the Newseum is all about news: print, radio, TV, and the internet.  The first display we saw featured the current front page from a newspaper in all 50 states.  Additionally, there were front pages from about 20 countries through out the world. This display changes daily. From there we went to an exhibit that reviewed the brief history of the reporting of the Vietnam War.  Of particular interest was a video showing how the media changed its reporting from straight forward reporting to openly opposing the war.  Most telling was a quote from Lyndon Johnson saying, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, then I've lost the country"  referring to the country's waning support of the war.  The final exhibit we visited on Wednesday was the 9-11 exhibit. On display was the communication tower from one of the towers. There were two interesting videos.  The first was about a photographer who was the only media person to lose his life that day.  He was caught in the collapse of the second tower.  The other video featured different members of the TV media describing how they went about reporting the day's events.  As you can imagine, it was quite moving.

In all of our trips to Washington we have never been to the Library of Congresss.  That was our next stop.  The Library of Congress is actually spread among three buildings.  We started in the newer Madison Building.  Lynda had read that there is a cafeteria in this building, open to the public, quite good, and reasonably priced.  So we began there.  After lunch we started exploring this building. When we got off of the elevator on one of the floors, a couple of people asked if they could help us.  We asked where to go in the building to see things of interest.  It turns out the Madison Building is basically an administration building for the Library of Congress.  They directed us to the original building and told us that was where the interesting exhibits were located.  They were right.  The original building is absolutely gorgeous. The main lobby is two stories tall and featured a beautifully decorated Christmas Tree. (!)  The Congressional Reading Room is not open to the public but we were able to go to a balcony on the third floor overlooking that room.  It was also stunning.  Interestingly, the viewing area on the balcony was totally enclosed in plexiglass so that visitors could not disturb those doing research below.  In other areas of the building the exhibits included: the History of the Civil Rights movement, a display of one of the 5 remaining original Gutenburg Bibles and a new illuminated Bible done in honor of Pope Francis - the first caligraphy illuminated Bible since the printing press was invented, Thomas Jefferson's original personal library, a display featuring Bob Hope but also included other comedian/entertainers, an exhibit with all of Marvin Hamlisch's grammy's, oscars, and pulizer prizes, and, finally, an exhibit honoring George and Ira Gershwin. Needless to say, we, particularly Tim, enjoyed the Library of Congress.

Wednesday evening we made another attempt to find a neighborhood with the Christmas Spirit, this time we drove around a nice neighborhood south of the American University campus.  Again, no luck.  Maybe Congress has outlawed Christmas decorations in D.C. or maybe being that close to the capitol is so depressing that no one has the spirit.  We were near the National Cathedral and decided if anyone should have the Christmas Spirit, they should.  The Cathedral was locked up tighter then a drum.  There was no nativity scene outside. Nothing.  Bah Humbug!!!

Thursday morning Lynda decided to stay in bed so Tim ventured out on his own, returning to the Newseum.  There he saw a fascinating exhibit on the print news coverage of Abraham Lincoln's assasination.  The New York Herald was the leading newspaper of the day.  The paper published 7 editions in the 18 hours after Lincoln was shot. At that time newspapers were not as scrupulous about fact checking resulting in many rumors getting published.  For example, in an edition that came out at 3:00 a.m., about 6 hours after Lincoln was shot, the Herald reported the John Wilkes Booth had been captured in Maryland when, in fact, he was not captured for another 10 days.  Another exhibit of interest was about the 1st amendment.  A video presentation said that 20% of the people in our country know the names of the five members of the Simpsons TV family but only 2 % can identify the five freedoms protected by the 1st amendment.  We'll give you a moment to think.....
Freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion and petition.  Next Tim visited an exhibit about the history of news coverage, showing a time line include all forms of media. There was also a video about the career of Edward R. Murrow. Finally Tim visited a gallery of Pulizer Prize winning photographs.  Some of the more notable photos included a brief description of how the photographer shot the picture.  As in everything in life, the photographers mentioned that at times there was luck involved in getting such wonderful pictures.

During the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas there is a Downtown Holiday Market that takes place on F St. between 7th and 9th Sts.  We arranged to meet there at noon.  The Holiday Market was fun, reminding us a lot of the East Lansing and Ann Arbor Art Fairs in that there were similar type booths.  Fortunately, nothing screamed out to us, "buy me".  From the Market we went to a nearby restaurant that Lynda had found in her reading that was excellent. It was such a beautiful day that we sat outside to enjoy our lunch. The restaurant was mediterranean.  As a lunch special they served "small plates", small portions with the idea that we would order multiple plates and share.  Which we did. It was great fun and the only thing that would have made it better would have been having a view of the Mediterranean as we ate.

Pierre L'Enfant's grand plan for Washington D.C. included three markets situated in different parts of the city.  The Eastern Market, located just a few blocks from the Capitol Building was built in 1805. It remained in use providing the surrounding area with fresh vegatables, fruit and meat until the civil war, when supply lines for the goods sold at the market were disrupted. The market remained in disuse until 1871 when the city took steps to revitalize it.  In 1873 a new building on the same site as the original market was opened.
It was this building that we visited after our lunch on Thursday.  To the best of our knowledge, the Eastern Market is the only remaining market of the three conceived by L'Enfant. It anchors the Capitol Hill neighborhood, a vibrant neighborhood with many shops, restaurants and bars. It is not nearly as ostentatious as some of the neighborhoods we have visited in D.C.  The Eastern Market is not particularly large, but what it lacked in quantity it made up for in quality.  Given the time of year there was not a lot of fresh produce, but the meat and cheese stalls were excellent.  There was also an Italian shop that had a large variety of fresh ravioli and tortellini that had both of us drooling.

We left the market taking the Metro back to our apartment where we immediately got in the car and headed toward the Pentagon.  We have not seen the 9-11 Memorial there and that was our destination. We inadvertently ended up at the Air Force Memorial that sits on a hill overlooking the Pentagon.  This memorial is beautiful in its simplicity.  It consists of three tall curved columns made of stainless steel. After enjoying this memorial we figured out how to get to the Pentagon Memorial.  Unfortunately, we arrived at the Pentagon right at the shift change. It was chaos in the parking lot with personnel directing traffic everywhere we turned.  We found the pickup/dropoff point for the Memoral but never did find a visitors parking lot.  Greatly disappointed, we fought the outbound traffic to Alexandria, Virginia where we strolled King St. enjoying the lovely evening while we window shopped.  After dinner in Alexandria we drove back into D.C. by way of the Lincoln Memorial and one last view of the National Christmas Tree before returning to our apartment.

Friday morning we were on the road for home at 9:00 a.m. While the next two weeks preparing for Christmas will be hectic, boardering on panicky, we both agreed that it was a good trip and we were glad we went.  Tim will continue to remind Lynda of this during the lead up to Christmas.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Switzerland & Liechtenstein

Lynda at the Eagle's Nest overlooking the Alps

The Eagle's Nest

Gasthaus in Davos - those must have been some BIG cows!

Liechtenstein

The Alps addendum

Basel, August 5, 2015

We must be in a bit of a fog this morning. It is 3:00 a.m. in Mason.  We totally left Lichtenstein out of the last posting.  We left Davos and drove to Lichtenstein, the last monarcy in the Alps. Lichtenstein is one of the five smallest countries in the world along with Monacco, Andorra, San Marino, and Vatican City; all of which we have visited.  We stopped in Vaduz and walked around a bit.  We think Vaduz is the capital of Lichtenstein but don't know that for a fact.  What we do know is that Valduz is a beautiful town. There is a lovely pedestrian area with shops but most noteworthy is the art.  All along the street there were wonderful statues and objects d' art.  It was great to see a city so committed to art.  We left Lichtenstein and went on our merry way towards Basel.

The Alps

Basel, Switzerland, August 5, 2015

Monday morning we were up bright and early, bright and early being a relative term.  Actually, we were checked out of our hotel, and on the road back to Eagles Nest by 8:30 a.m.  Eagles Nest in Obersalzburg was where Hitler had all of his meetings and planning sessions when he was not in Berlin.  It sits atop an Alp at 2750 meters which in feet is.....
A lot. Visitors park at a bus station about half way up the mountain.  A bus takes you the rest of the way up the only  road the leads the rest of the way up to Eagles Nest.  At the end of WWII the British air force bombed Eagles Nest destroying all but one building.  That building is now a restaurant.  However, there were still vestiges of the oppulance that Hitler had created.  It was a sunny, spectacular day so we were rewarded with spectacular views of the Alps in all directions.  We could easly see Salzburg 30 miles away.  In addition to Eagles Nest, a series of bunkers were built into the mountain.  These bunkers were where many of the meetings took place and also provided Hitler with a haven in case of bombing.  (Historical note: Hitler was not at Ealges Nest when the British bombed it.)  The bunkers remain but are basically empty, concrete hallways and rooms.  We visited them but saw little of interest.

Upon leaving Obersalzburg, the plan was to spend Monday night in Davos, Switzerland.  Lynda mapped out our route that took us on small, two lane (most of the time) roads through the mountains towards Davos.  We drove through miles of spectacular scenery which Lynda thoroughly enjoyed.  It was very difficult driving for Tim.  But you all know the rule:  Happy Wife, Happy Life. We did arrive in Davos where we stayed in a typical Swiss Gasthaus, think Tyrolean B 'n B.  We picked Davos because it is in the news regularly for all sorts of important international meetings. There is a large, very contemporary Intercontinental Hotel in Davos as well as an impressive conference center.  Otherwise, Davos looks like any other Swiss town.

Tuesday morning we continued to drive through seemingly unending beauty before finally hitting a four lane divided highway.  After Tim's brief prayer of Thanksgiving for finally finding this highway we drove onto Basel, our destination for Tuesday night.  A former student of Tim's lives with his family in Basel and we joined them for an evening of good food and delightful conversation.

This will be our last blog posting on this trip as today, Wednesday, we will visit friends in Luzcern and tomorrow fly home.  As always, it has been a pleasure to report to you on our many adventures.  We have enjoyed and appreciated your comments both on the blog site and on facebook.  Until we see you back home.

Guten Tag

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Sites of Salzburg

Easter eggs in Salzburg

Salzburg Dom Cemetery

Us at Mozart Dinner Concert Salzburg, Austria

Musicians at Mozart Dinner Concert

More Salzburg

Salzburg, Austria  August 1, 2015

There is a lovely pedestrian only street in the old town of Salzburg with lots of wonderful shops. This is where we started our Saturday.  We did some souvenier/gift shopping and lots of browsing as well as people watching.  We found one shop that was filled with nothing but eggs.  Real eggs that had been blown out.  We assume some ingenious Austrian came up with a way to do this with a machine.  Half of the shop contained eggs decorated in all manners for Easter and the other half for Christmas.  There were the old fashion heavy cardboard egg cartons all over the store so you could pick out your eggs, place them in the egg carton and be assured that the eggs would arrive home safely, in one piece. The salespeople were adamant that this really does happen.

Our first sightseeing stop was the Salzburg Dom (Cathedral).  This Cathedral was built in a baroque style as oppossed to the gothic style of the other great Cathedrals we have visited. It was refreshing for us to see a different style.  We made another great find outside of the Cathedral.  Regular readers of our blog are aware of Lynda's fascination with cemeteries.  Even Tim finds it interesting to see how different cemeteries are from one country to the next.  Well, the cemetery outside of the Salzburg Dom moved very quickly to the top of our list of favorite cemeteries. It really is beautiful and it is still a working cemetery.  We saw several grave sites where a dearly departed had been buried this year.  To add to the beauty, there were contempary wooden sculptures interspersed among the gravesites throughout. The sculptures were all done by the same artist and there was a small display of his work in the chapel on the grounds.  This was one of those lovely surprises we encounter while traveling that keeps us coming back for more.

Our next stop was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  This was the first of two lhomes he and his family lived in in Salzburg.  Mozart was a true child protigy.  By the age of  5 he could play both the piano and violin and by 8 was already composing.  This first house had only five rooms with both of Mozarts parents and his sister sharing a bedroom along with young Wolfgang.  We experienced a new wrinkle in the travel industry at this site. Immediately after purchasing tickets, there were instructions for downloading a free app to your phone that was your guide through the house/museum.  The second Mozart house we visited also did this with an audio app.  Mozart's father took  young Amadeus on grand tours of Europe showing off his son to the royality of Europe. By all accounts Mozart was a happy child, albiet, an extremely precocious one.  As Mozart grew older, his father realized that Amadeus and his sister could not continue to sleep in the same room so the family moved across the river to a larger apartment.   We visited both houses and the second home was much grander then the first.  We heard no explanation that would indicate if the home had been significantly upgraded after the Mozarts left it or if, in fact, it was that much nicer then their first. While not wealthy, Mozart's father as well as Amadeus himself were well to do.  We won't bore you with further facts.  If any of you by chance have seen the movie, Amadeus, keep in mind that much of whats in the movie is not true to fact. Shocking, we know.

The Mozart theme for the day continued into the evening as we attended a Dinner/Concert of Mozart music. The dinner/concert took place in a beautiful second floor room of a local restaurant. The concert was presented by 5 string players and a soprano and a bass. They opened the evening with selected arias from Mozart's opera, "Don Giovanni". After our first course of a lemon chicken soup with a cheese curd dumpling, the musicians performed selections from Mozart's, "The Marriage of Figaro". The main course followed consisting of breast of Capon on a wine reductions sauce, potato gratin and carrots. The concert portion of the evening finished with selections from "The Magic Flute".  Dessert followed.  It was a fun evening. The musicians were top rate and entertaining and the food was excellent.

This morning, Sunday, we awoke to rain and fog.  The plan had been to drive south out of Salzburg to the Eagle's Nest, a home on top of a mountain that Hitler occupied during the war. This home is at 6000 feet and has spectacular views which we were sure would be hidden in the clouds. Instead, we visited the Salt Works at Brechtesgaden.  This is the oldest  salt mine in Europe if not the world. The mine was begun in 1220.  Sometime in the distant past this area south of Salzburg was flooded and contained a huge salt lake. Later, as the Alps were formed, the rising mountains covered the lake.  When it was finally discovered it was salt deposits. The tour took us by train deep into the mountain where the whole mining procedure was explained.  From the 1200's through to the 1900's miners used pick axes to extract the salt from the mine.  With the introduction of machinery a system of injecting spring water into the salt deposits is used now to bring the salt to the surface. A brine is formed with the introduction of water.  This brine is eventually pumped to the surface where the water is evaporated leaving the salt.  Visiting the salt mines was a good plan B for a rainy day.  After the tour we went into Brechtesgaden, another delightful Alpine village where we sat with a drink and watched the world go by.

Tomorrow's weather is suppose to be much nicer so we will head back to Eagles Nest first thing in the morning and then start winding our way back towards Switzerland.

Until the next posting, Guten Tag.

Friday, July 31, 2015

The Hills are Alive and Look Beautiful!

The back of the Von Trapp's"house"
The wedding church

THE GAZEBO!
Interior of the wedding church


Salzburg: Special "The Hills are alive" edition

Salzburg, July 31, 2015

After Jocey was safely off the ground, happily headed back to family and friends in Hartland, we went to check into our flight to Zurich, Switzerland by way of Dusseldorf, Germany.  Don't ask.  As we were checking in there was a major power outage throughout the airport. Computer terminals still functioned, but conveyor belts did not, so none of the luggage could be moved.  Everything came to a stand still.  It was hot, and tempers were on edge.  We were flying a German airline which meant that a few of the German passengers were convinced that the whole thing was an Italian conspiracy.  Bottom line is that we ended up in Zurich about 30 minutes later then planned but the good news was our luggage arrived with us.  We collected our rental car and headed for Salzburg.  Before the trip Tim had done a calculation on mapquest and determined it would take about 4 hours to drive from Zurich to Salzburg.  It took closer to 5 and a half. It was probably a breathtaking drive, but as most of it was done after dark we will never know.  The fun started when we arrived in Salzburg as our rental car did not have GPS.  Have you ever looked at a German map? Ever tried pronouncing German street names. It's like talking with your mouth full of Weiner Schnitzel! At 1:00 in the morning we are stopping people on the street for help in finding our hotel.  We are lucky we weren't arrested.  Like much of our travel, we just kept blundering along and finally found the hotel. The hotel and area around it certainly looked better in the daylight then at 1:30 in the morning.

Today's major event, and why we are blogging tonight, was "The Sound of Music" Tour. Tim  picked this one out.  Lynda was happy to go along because, 1. she does like "The Sound of Music" and 2. the brouchure promised a bus ride into the Austrian country side.  She did say she refused to do any of the "sing-a-longs" on the bus.  What a party pooper.  Actually, she did get into the spirit of things, eventually, and joined in enthusiastically on "Do, Re, Me". The tour visited several of the sights where filming for the movie took place. This may shock you, but none of the filming was done in the home where the Von Trapp's lived or the church where the Captain and Maria were married. The Abbey in the movie is actually the Abbey that Maria was in, but, of course, we did not go there.  Two different castles were used to represent the Von Trapp estate, one for front exterior views and one for back exterior views. Robert Wise, the movie's producer, actually wanted to use the original house but at the time of filming the house was owned by a religious sect and they were not happy to have the film crew there, hence, plan B: two houses.  Our first stop was the rear exterior house.  It is a private residence now, owned by Harvard University believe it or not, so we had stand on the other side of the small lake you may remember from the movie to view the house. But still.  Maria and the kids fell out of the boat into the lake there.  Leisl and Friedrick kissed in the gazebo there. An aside: in 1991, the owners of the home donated the gazebo to the city of Salzburg and it was moved to a public park.  Our second stop was the public park to view the gazebo.  We did gather round our guide and sing the first line of "You are 16 going on 17".  At least, most of us did. More inside movie stuff. The gazebo we saw was used only for exterior shots.  It was too small for the choreography of the song. Leisl actually injured her ankle during rehearsal. So an exact replica, one and a half times larger, was built on the sound stage in Hollywood for the gazebo scenes.  Next, we did a drive by of the front exterior house.  It is also a private residence and there was no where for us to park a bus and walk up to get a picture.  It looks a rather bit less imposing in person then on the silver screen.  Our last stop was the church where the Captain and Maria's wedding took place.  It is in this lovely village about 45 minutes outside of Salzburg.  Along the way there was a stop for pictures of some drop dead beautiful scenery.  Once again, it was exciting to immediately recognize the outside of the church as well as the inside once we entered.  It really is a beautiful church. Lynda was so caught up in the moment that she walked down the entire length of the main aisle, holding her book like a bouquet of flowers. We were given extra time in Mondsee, the name of the village, to visit a local souvenier shop for "Sound of Music" cd's and dvd's, plus copies of the books that the real Maria Von Trapp wrote. Ugh!  We did take time to sample a famous Austrian apple strudel. On the way back to Salzburg we watched an interesting video of behind the scenes stuff about the movie with the women who played Leisl as the narrator. This video was unfortunately interupted for a couple of more sing-a-longs. Once back in Salzburg, our guide gave us a quick bonus tour. Next to our drop off point were located the Mirabel Gardens, supposedly world famous gardens, but maybe not so much as Lynda had never heard of  them.  At any rate, these gardens were used for part of the famous "Do, Re, Me" scene in the movie. We saw the fountain where the children walked around on the edge and the steps featured at the very end of the song.

We hope this quick, bonus edition of the blog hasn't bored you. Tim, in particular, found the tour to be exciting and great fun and was anxious to share it with you.  Tomorrow we will get back to more mundane travel news about Salzburg and include a review of our dinner/concert tomorrow evening featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Maybe the "Sound of Music" Tour looks better now.

Guten Tag

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Last Days of Rome

St. Peter's Square - The Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica

The Pantheon

Piazza Navona

Jocey at Trevi Fountain

Jocey in Trastevere, Rome

Arreviderci Jocey and Italy, Guten Tag Austria

Rome, Italy    July 27, 2015

Monday morning we had an uneventful drive from Montepulciano to Rome through the beautiful Italian countryside. Our rental car has GPS which is a godsend because it directed us very efficiently and quickly to our rental car drop off point.  GPS would have saved Tim much stress over the years but he would not have some of the wonderful stories to tell of his driving adventures  in Europe.  We took a taxi to our apartment which is located in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome.  The neighborhood is a warren of small little winding streets.  For a long time it was a working class neighborhood but in recent years has become the location of many restaurants, bars and lower end of the market shops.  Our apartment is tiny, our least favorite of the four we have rented.  After a brief meeting with our landlord we went out exploring.  Tim was still not feeling well so he sat and sipped a Sprite while Lynda and Jocey shared a pizza.

We really did not do justice to Rome.  There are two reasons. 1. The intense heat has finally got the best of all three of us. 2. Tim has had a bug since Sunday.  Tuesday we walked to the Vatican and joined the line to enter St. Peter's.  It was a humungous line but moved suprisingly quickly.  By now, Jocey was suffering from a migrane so we were a pretty miserable lot.  Even so, we were in awe of the beauty that is St. Peters'.  We marveled at Michealangelo's "Pieta".  Pope John Paul II's tomb is located in the main bascillica. We also went down into the crypt where all of the rest of the popes tombs are located. Most impressive was a view of the location of the the remains of St. Peter.  Upon leaving St. Peter's the plan was to visit the Sistine Chapel. We were all whipped so we went back to the apartment where we all took naps.  Later in the day, we walked across the river to the Pantheon, what we think is a very underappreciated landmark in Rome.  The Pantheon is an impressive domed structure that is actually a church. It is also the resting place of the remains of Victor Emmanuel, considered the father of Rome.  Jocey, feeling better after her nap, was very impressed with the Pantheon. It was a short walk from the Pantheon to the Piazza Navona, probably our favorite spot in Rome. On our first trip to Rome, in 1984, we stayed in a hostel run by Dutch Nuns for non-catholic visitors that was located just off of the Piazza Navona.  The Piazza is a huge open plaza surrounded on all sides by wonderful  restaurants and numerous souvenier shops.  At night it comes to life with the central part of the plaza covered with artists either trying to sell there art or offering to do sketches of the tourists.  In 1984 we had sketches of both Jil and Jeff done that still hang next to their senior pictures at home. Five years ago we surprised Jil and Rob with a sketch of Madison and on this evening we had a sketch done of Jocey.  Besides the artists, there are also entertainers on the Piazza.  It really is a wonderful place to visit on a night in Rome.  We completed the evening by having dinner at a trattoria across the alley from the entrance to the hostel that we stayed in all those years ago.

Wednesday morning we started the day at Trevi Fountain.  It is said that if you stand with your back to the fountain and throw three coins over your right shoulder into the fountain you will return to Rome.  Who are we to argue. It worked for us.  Unfortunately, to do this, the fountain has to be open. It is currently closed for repair and refurbishing.  There is plexiglass surrounding the fountain so you can still see what it looks like.  Jocey said it would be impressive when operational.  We were amazed at the number of tourist there to see a closed fountain, but, of course, we were there. After lunch, Jocey and Lynda visited the Cappuccin Cyrpt. This crypt is the repository of the bones of all the Cappuccin Monks since the 1500's. In one room all of the thigh bones are arranged in an artful design, the next room will have all the femurs, etc.  The Cappuccin's must be some fun group of Monks. From there we took a taxi to the Colosseum with the plan to see how long the line was to get in.  Once we pulled up to the Colosseum Jocey announced that she had seen enough so it was back to the apartment where the adults again took long naps.  Wednesday evening was spent strolling about Trastevere and enjoying one final dinner together in Italy.

As we write this blog on Thursday morning we are at the Rome airport, having entrusted Jocey to Delta Airlines to safely return her to her parents.  We will catch a plane to Zurich, Switzerland, collect a rental car, and drive to Salzburg tonight.

Jocelyn has been a wonderful travel companion. She was always willing to explore with us and was even comfortable enough to go out on her own for very short excursions.  We saw very few sites that were new to us, but loved watching Jocey experience them for the first time. We are also looking forward to hearing what she told her parents about her travel experiences with her grandparents.

Our next report will come to you from Salzburg.  In the meantime, we recommend that you watch the movie, "The Sound of Music" so that you are in the proper frame of mind for our next blog.

Ciao/Guten Tag

Monday, July 27, 2015

Views of Montepulchiano

Montepulchiano at Night

View from our Montepulchiano apartment

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Lost Day in Montepulciano

Montepulciano   July 26, 2015

Saturday morning we left Florence driving through the lovely countyside that is Tuscany. Jocey was doing yeomans work at reading and watching the scenery at the same time.  She multi-tasks just like her grandmother. We stopped in one of our favorite Tuscan towns, Greve in Chianti. Unfortunately, it was market day so  we could not enjoy the beauty of the town square.  One of the reasons we love Greve is the butcher shop that has been in business since some time in the 1700's. There are legs of ham hanging from the ceiling everywhere in the building.  Jocey was less then impressed with the cheese cellar.  We bought some of their homemade salami's to give Mienrad Fleurer, our friend in Switzerland. We continued our trek through Tuscany through intermitent showers.  Our next stop was Badia a Coltibuono. We believe that Badia is home to an order of Friars. They produce their own excellent wine and olive oil as well as run an excellent restaurant that we have dined at on several occasions.  Our destination was Montepulciano, a lovely hill town in the eastern part of Tuscany.  Interestingly, we drove out of vineyards and olive orchards into an area of large wheat fields.  Our instructions from our landlord was that there was a car park a mere 100-150 yards from the apartment.  He neglected to tell us it was straight up hill. To add insult to injury the apartment was on the third floor of the building with no elevator. There was urgency to getting the luggage to the apartment as there were very dark clouds moving  in with rumbles of thunder. The apartment is beautiful.  We think Jocey wants to stay here forever. The women folk collapsed with their books whilel Tim found a nearby bar for a very welcome cold beer. When he returned to the apartment Jocey was still reading in her room and Lynda was napping.  After Tim dozed a bit he suggested that he and Jocey go find a gelato. While walking about the city eating our gelato we discovered the Museum of Torture. There was no doubt that Jocey wanted to go in and that grandpa would accompany her. Parts of the museum were really quite disturbing.  We won't go into any detail here but if you are interested, we will talk to you when we get home. But be forewarned. Tim did not sleep well last night.

This morning the first person up was Tim at 10:00.  By noon we had ventured out to find lunch. During lunch there was discussion of what to do the rest of the day. Lynda and Jocey wanted to drive out into the country side, find a quite place to sit and read.  Tim was not feeling well and wanted to go back to the apartment.  Which is what we did.  Tim slept and read. Lynda read and did laundry. Jocey read.  Only Jocey felt like going out this evening so we sent her on several trips to pick up pizza and coke for our evening meal.  She did this quite willingly.  We actually had to stop her from going out again.

While we did not see much of  Montepulciano, after the whirlwind of Venice and Florence, it was probably a good idea to have a quiet day before we head to Rome tomorrow.

Ciao

Friday, July 24, 2015

Florence - or Firenze? - in Pictures

The Duomo 
Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio at night

Enjoying David's behind

Is this Florence or Firenze?

Florence, Italy  July 24, 2015

Leaving Venice, we schlept all of our luggage aboard the vaporetto headed for the train station.  We needed to take the train to the next station, about a 5 minute ride, where we would collect our rental car.  As we left the train and were negotiating all of the stairs to make our way to the exit, a young Italian man grabbed some of our luggage and helped us to the exit.  He even carried part of our luggage to the rental car office. When Lynda offered him what we thought was a generous tip, he made it clear that we were being ungenerous. He left with a sizable tip and we were left feeling chagrined that veteran travelers like us can still get taken in if not careful.

Our rental car is wonderful; it has air conditioning.  Our apartment in Venice had AC but it did little to cool down the apartment.  In a matter of moments, we were all gratefully shivering in the car. The trip to Florence flew by quickly with Jocelyn marveling at the scenery when we could tear her away from her book.  The rental car also has GPS. Lynda entered the address for the car park our land lord had given us.  We would never have found the car park without the GPS. Lynda and Jocey were in fits of laughter as Tim drove down narrow streets, or possibly sidewalks, doing his best to avoid hitting pedestrians. Later, as we walked about Florence, we discovered that Tim was just a block from driving across Ponte Vecchio, the famous hundreds of years old bridge across the Arno River. The young man, Michael, that met us at the apartment could stand to take instructions from Francesca back in Venice.  There were no offers of water, no bottle of "Welcome to Venice" sparkling wind in the fridge. Just a quick profunctory introduction to the "need to knows" of the apartment.

After Michael left, we all did a quick check of our various social networks and left the apartment.  The first stop was a restaurant/bar for a much needed cold beer and a snack. The first order of siteseeing business was the world famous Duomo, the major cathedral of Florence.  It is as famous for its exterior design as its interior.  Maybe more so.  Lynda purchased tickets that included the Duomo as well as the Bapistry next door. There was no line for the Bapistry so we went there first.  We have described the inside of the Bapistry in previous blogs. The domed ceiling is made up of a series of gold leaf frescoes that depict stories of the Bible. It is breathtaking. Lynda could sit for hours gazing at the different frescoes, Tim could sit for minutes.  Jocey evidently has the shopping bug because, while she thought the Dome was beautiful, she was ready to move on to a small leather market we had driven by or possibly through.

Before taking Jocey to the leather market, we took her to the previously mentioned Ponte Vecchio.  We are sure you have seen pictures of it.  We'll try to get back for a picture.  It is the only bridge across the Arno that the Nazi's did not destroy during WWII.  During a major flood back in the 1960's it was also the only bridge not damaged.  Obviously a charmed bridge. This bridge is lined on both sides with small shops that have been the home of gold traders, and now, high end jewelry stores, for hundreds of years. Jocey was mesmerized by all of the jewelrey and she and her Grandmother stopped at literally every window to browse.  At one point Jocey elbowed Tim and told him to listen to what Grandma liked with the idea he would return to purchase the jewelry for Lynda. Tim tried to explain that Grandma wasn't into jewelry.  He also told Jocey that in all of the trips we have made to Florence he has never seen Lynda spend so much time window shopping on the bridge.

We finally made it to the small leather market where Jocey went nuts.  She looked at leather jackets, purses and change purses. Her money must be burning a hole in her pocket because we had to keep reminding her to remember prices because we were going to the Central Market tomorrow.

After a rest and naps we went out to dinner.  The only reason we mention this is because Tim did something he has never done before.  While perusing the menu, Tim noticed a dish made with Tagliatelle, a type of pasta, and another dish that had a gorgonzola sauce.  He asked our waitress if she would ask the chef if he would put the gorgonzola sauce on the tagliatelle. Tim's brother has mentioned that he orders dishes not on the menu on occasion but Tim had never tried it. The waitress seemed a bit unsure but both Tim and Lynda enjoyed tagliatelle with gorgonzola sauce for dinner.

This morning we went to the Galleria Accadamia for the sole purpose of seeing Michaelangelo's "David".  In our minds it is one of the masterpieces of the world of art.  Despite seeing the statue many times we are still overwhelmed in its presence.  We know Jocey also was impressed.  Next, we visited the aforementioned Duomo and we were correct is observing the the exterior is more impressive then the interior. We are sure the Medici's would not want to hear us say this as they paid for a lot of the interior decor. After lunch we headed to the Central Market.  The Central Market is a large building that takes up a whole city block, full of fruit, vegetable, meat, fish and seafood stands. In the surrounding streets, stalls are set up each day selling all manner of leather goods.  Jocelyn was in seventh heaven.  But be warned.  Do not attempt to negotiate with her.  We watched her bartering with a leather merchant over a wallet for her purse. The merchant's starting price was 30 euros.  At one point in the negotiations he showed her the price tag neatly tucked away in the wallet out of view showing a price of 33 euros trying to convince Jocey that he was giving her a great deal at 25 euros. After at least 10 minutes of back and forth, Jocey walked away with the wallet for 16 euros.  As we said, you negotiate with her at your own peril. Tim and Lynda also made minor purchases and did not get nearly as good a price as Jocey.   After the intensity of the leather market we returned to the apartment. Later, while Lynda napped, Jocey suggested to Tim that they go out for a gelato. She did not have to ask twice.  We were surprised to discover that it was raining and while we were out heard rumbles of thunder.  Hopefully, this will break the heat.

Tomorrow we leave Florence, driving to Montepulchiano, a lovely hill town in the middle of Tuscany.  We will probably stop in Siena for lunch on the way.  Check back in a couple of days for a report of our adventures in Tuscany.

Ciao

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Venice Sights

Making Murano glass

Tim and Jocey in Burano

Two gorgeous women on the Accademia Bridge overlooking the Grand Canal

Outside the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The back streets of Venice

Jocey in front of a mask shop

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Shopping in Venice Jocey style

Venice, Italy    July 22, 2015

We got a later start to the day today because (1) we all slept in and (2) because of technical difficuties in posting the blog last night we had to finish posting it this morning.  Besides the vaparettos on the Grand Canal, there are several places where you can take a traghetto straight across the canal.  A traghetto is nothing more then a gondola without all the singing.  It costs just 2 euros per person versus 80 euros or more for a gondola ride with the singing. In addition to the vaporetto stop just down from our apartment, there is also a traghetto stop.  This is convienent because the Peggy Guggenhiem Collection is right across the canal from us. That was our first stop this morning.  The Peggy Guggenhiem Collection is in the house that Peggy Guggenhiem lived in the last 30 years of her life.  All of the art in the house is from people Peggy was acquanited with and had befriended at some point.  The works are all late 19th century and 20th century.  There are the usual suspects, Picasso, Miro, DuBuffet, Dali, etc., as well as works by artists we have never heard of but liked their work. Additionally, there was a retrospective of the work of Charles Pollock, the brother of Jackson Pollock. Lynda knew, but Tim did not, that Charles Pollock was a famous painter in his own right.  We were fascinated to discover that Charles spent several years at MSU on the art faculty.  There was a copy of a letter and envelop that Jackson sent to Charles with the address being Michigan State College, and a picture of Charles working a printing press on the MSU campus in the 1950's obviously after the name change. Much of Charles early work was very different from the work we associate with Jackson Pollock, but as Charles got older his work began to look more like his brother's.  All three of us enjoyed the Collection.  As always, Tim and Lynda found a work or two that required Lynda to create a diversion so that Tim could steal said work or works.

After lunch we headed off in search of another modern art gallery but along the way, Jocey hijacked the afternoon.  During the Carnivale, our Mardi Gras, Venice is awash in masked balls. We passed a number of shops specializing in masks. Jocey fell in love with them. We lost track of how many mask shops we visited before Jocey finally made a purchase. Then her shopping turned to clothes. Tim does not remember seeing Lynda spend so much time clothes shopping.  By the time all of this shopping was done, Jocey and Lynda were exhausted. Not so much Tim.  All he did was continue to master his people watching skills and occasionally offer approval of clothes purchases. Both of us were thrilled to have her take over the afternoon.  While Jocey and Lynda returned to the apartment to rest, Tim went on to see the Bienalle Art Festival we had originally scheduled. The Festival turned out to be located in a large exhibition center that seemed a bit overwhelming, so Tim also returned to the apartment.

At the risk of sounding whiny, the weather,  specifically the heat, has been unbearable. Temperatures remain in the mid to upper 90's with the heat index over 100. We do more walking then we are accustomed to, and, with very little breeze, it saps our energy quickly.  The weekend forecast is for thunderstorms that will hopefully break the heat wave. We have said very little about evening meals other then Jocey's cuddle fish encounter. We have found two wonderful restaurants the last two nights and enjoyed excellent meals.  Jocey continues to be very adventuresome in her food selections. The evenings would have been magical if the temperature had been 20 degrees cooler.

We leave our apartment here in Venice tomorrow morning, collect our rental car and drive to Florence. Friday we have an appointment to see David.  We look forward to it.

Until then, ciao.

Bon Giorno from Venice

Venice, Italy    July 21, 2015

"Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote and I know I shall be happily infected until the end of my life."

We came across this Michael Palin quote on our last cruise and published it at that time on the blog because it pretty much sums up our feeling about travel.  We are now in Venice with our 14 year old grand daughter, Jocelyn Phillips, hoping to infect her with the bug.  It seems to have become a tradition that when one of our grandchildren turn 10 they travel with us, sans parents, for the first time to Chicago.  When they turn 14 or 15, we take them to Europe.  The first two such trips have been to Italy.

Our two flights to Venice were uneventful except for one minor incident that you may find interesting. Our flight out of Detroit was delayed because a family of four lied to Hom eland Security officers about the amount of money they were taking out of the United States. The family was removed from our flight and we had to wait for their nine (!) pieces of luggage to be off loaded from the plane. When we arrived at the airport in Venice, Jocey was intrigued that we had to take a water bus from the airport to a stop near our apartment. The water buses in Venice are called vaporetto's and we have a vaporetto stop a mere 50 yards from our apartment. Francesca greeted us at the vaporetto stop and took us to the apartment where she spent over an hour going over the details of the apartment as well as information about doing the tourist thing in Venice. Our apartment overlooks a small canal off of the Grand Canal that is one of the main routes for the gondolas. As we write this blog entry we can hear a gondolier serenading his passengers. Unfortunately, it is a poor rendition of the old Dean Martin tune, "Volare". On second thought, it is kind of cool. By the time Francesca left, Lynda and Jocey were ready for naps as neither had slept on our two flights. Tim did a bit of exploring, looking for the necessaties of life: bottled water for the apartment, the closest gelato shop, nearby pastry shop and restuarants.

After naps and showers we set off to give Jocey her first taste of Venice.  After a gelato, we headed toward San Marco Piazza.  Along the way we went in a hope that sold Murano glass. Jocey was very interested in the pieces we saw and we told her it was just a small sampling of what she would see tomorrow when we visited Murano.  San Marco Piazza is a huge square (actually it is rectangular in shape) that is the location of the Basillica of San Marco as well as the Doge Palace, the home of the early rulers of Venice.  When we first entered the piazza all Jocey could say was "Wow".  She was suitably impressed.  We wandered about the piazza and sat on a bench and luxuriated in the atmosphere and the people watching.  Hunger finally forced us to move on in search of a restaurant.  In Venice, if you don't follow the signs to major tourist attractions it is very easy to become lost. Our family see us as seasoned travelers who always know where we are and where we are going so Jocey was impressed when we quickly became lost.  She soon joined the fun of being lost and exploring Venice.  We were actually able to find, almost by accident, one of the restuarants that Francesca had recommended.  When we traveled with Madison several years ago she ate only pizza.  Jocey promised us before we left that she would be more adventuresome in her eating.  She lived up to her promise tonight, ordering pasta with cuddle fish.  It turns out that cuddle fish uses black ink as a defense mechanism so the spaghetti she had was black.  She really enjoyed the pieces of cuddle fish in her dish but did not like the pasta.  We are not sure if that is because the spaghetti was a homemade, rustic pasta, or because the spaghetti was black.  What ever the reason, we certainly had an entertaining meal.

After a day and a half of traveling we were all in bed and asleep by 10:00.  Tim was shocked  the next morning when Jocey and Lynda woke him up at 6:00.  By 8:00 we were on our way to San Marco Piazza, the closest location of a ticket booth for the vaporetto's.  Venice is actually made up of a bunch of islands with Murano being the closest to the main island and also one of the largest. This was our first stop of the day.  Murano is famous for being the home of all of the glass works factories, more accurately, furnaces.  Practically all of the shops on the island sell Murano glass with some of them owned by the glass artists themselves.  When we first visited Venice and Murano 14 years ago most of the glass was still being produced in the traditional designs of the past.  We did find one artist, Simone Cendense, whose work was more contemporary that we liked.  We have purchased several small pieces of his that grace our home. Because of Jocey and Lynda's early start to the day, most of the shops were not open when we arrived on Murano.  But after visiting the few shops that were open and resting with bottles of water, Cendense's shop finally opened.  A young women explained several pieces that we were interested in and then took us back to the furnace room where the glass blowers, and the master himself, were working.  She explained to us what the men were doing.  We did not stay long as the heat from the furnaces was very intense but all three of us thoroughly enjoyed watching the pieces being made.  We visited a couple more galleries and left Murano without any purchases.  Our next stop was the island of Burano. Those of you who are loyal readers of our blog and have studied the blog because of the fascinating facts we present and the erudite observations we make of the places we visit, will remember that Burano is famous for the lace making by the residents of the island.  Tim has no interest in lace work and Lynda has only a passing interest.  However, Jocey seemed quite taken with what she saw, pulling Lynda into one shop after another.  Tim remained outside refining his people watching skills.  After several purchases and lunch we were all hot and tired and so we returned to our apartment we drank much water and some of us napped.  We will go out later this evening when hopefully it will cooler to do some more exploring and find a nice place for dinner.

Tomorrow the plan is to visit the Venice Bienalle, a months long celebration of the arts, and the Peggy Guggenhiem Art Museum.  Will report on those and other exciting things we encounter in the next blog posting.

Ciao

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Hong Kong

February 15, 2015

When we woke up Saturday morning and walked out on our balcony we were greeted with the rising sun casting its first rays on the stunning skyline of Hong Kong. Like Singapore, Hong Kong was part of the British Commonwelth so, again like Singapore, it is a very westernized city. Unlike Singapore, Hong Kong is teeming with people. There were crowds wherever we went. While we loved Singapore, it certainly did not have the same energy as Hong Kong.

On Saturday morning we took a cruise-sponsored tour of Hong Kong, the first stop being Aberdeen Fishing Village, the oldest fishing village in Hong Kong. Silly us, we thought there would be a short drive through the country to get to this village. How wrong we were. Aberdeen fishing village is nothing more then a marina amongst all the skycrapers and apartments. Here we took a 30 minute Sanpan ride around the marina, seeing large, exceedingly expensive yachts next to old, rust bucket fishing boats. It sounds strange but was a lot of fun. After the boat ride the bus drove through some very expensive neighborhoods, taking us to the Stanley Market. This market was very similar to the Night Market we visited in Bangkok; a nice blend of interesting, upscale shops along side cheap souvenier stores. We spent about an hour strolling through the Stanley Market and then it was back on the bus to catch the tram to the top of Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is the tallest mountain/hill on Hong Kong Island. For Tim the tram ride to the top was very harrowing; for Lynda, more "eh." But the view over Hong Kong was incredible. Fortunately for Tim, our bus met us at the top of the peak so we did not have to ride the tram back down. We returned to our ship from Victoria Peak and spent the rest of the afternoon packing and preparing in general for our disembarkation Sunday morning.

We sadly left the Celebrity Millennium about 8:30 Sunday morning and took a cab to the hotel we had booked for Sunday night. It was too early to check into our room, but we stored our luggage and ventured out into Hong Kong. Directly across the street from our hotel was a flower market. We would like to claim that we chose our hotel, after careful research, because of its location by this market. That would be lying. Sometimes it's better to be lucky then good. The flower market took up several blocks and it was literally nothing but flower stores with most of the flowers on display on the sidewalk in front of the stores. The street was a riot of color, or, as Tim likes to say, a visual cacaphony. There were cut flowers as well as potted plants. Some of the cut flowers were at least 3 feet tall. There were also even taller bunches of cut pussy willows. Orchids were the predominant potted flower. We also identified gladiola, lillies, azaleas, daffodils, mums and dahlias. Some of the dahlia blossoms were the size of a dinner plate. We suspect that the Market was particularly crowded because of the upcoming Chinese New Year on February 19.

We immediately went from the sublime to the bizarre as we came to Yuen Po bird street. This was a narrow (think wide sidewalk) two block long street lined with short trees where old men bring their caged birds, hanging the cages in the trees so the birds can get some fresh air. We kid you not. It said so in our guide book. There were also small stores along the street selling birds, cages and all the necessary accessories. The men all stood around talking, probably solving all of the world's problems. There were no women, other then Lynda, on the street. We decided it was probably easier for these guys to get out of the house telling their wives they're taking the bird for a walk then to get permission to meet their friends at the bar. We told you at the beginning of the paragraph it was bizarre.

After spending a couple of hours in our hotel room, we took the subway to the harbor. Hong Kong is actually a group of islands. Our hotel is located in Kowloon which is across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. Kowloon is where most of the nightlife of Hong Kong is located; Hong Kong Island is more of the business/financial section. The famous Star Ferry Line runs continuous ferries between the two islands. Lynda claims to have read about the Star ferries in 4 or 5 different novels. According to her, the hero is always making his escape from the bad guys on a Star Ferry. Given the speed of the ferry, Tim wondered how the hero ever escaped, but Lynda assured him that he always did. Of interest on the Hong Kong side of the harbor was a sculpture created by Henry Moore that one of the major financial companies had commissioned and erected in a plaza in front of their building. Everywhere we went on both of the islands we encountered endless stores: Prada, Gucci, Ferregamo, etc., never-ending jewelry stores, and the ubiquitous stores selling fake high end merchandise. Battling the constant crowd of people is exhausting so we went back to the hotel to rest for this evening's sojourn.

Each night at 8:00 the Hong Kong Tourist Council presents a Symphony of Light Show over Victoria Harbor. We went down to the harbor to watch. Words can't describe what we saw. The skycrapers across the harbor were used as canvases for the multi-colored show of lights. The different light designs were done in sequence with music playing over loudspeakers. There were also green and white (!) laser lights at the top of a few of the buildings that occasionally added to the overall effect. It was hard to follow all of the lights on the different buildings because the buildings were so wide spread. It was a pretty spectacular way to spend our last night in Hong Kong. Our last stop was the Temple Street Night Market. This was decidedly low-end goods but the vibe on the street was obvious. At one point on the way back to the hotel Lynda turned to Tim and said, "We certainly wouldn't be doing anything like this in Mason on a Sunday night!" As always, she was right.

This is our last blog posting. Tomorrow morning we fly home. Between the 20 hour flying time and the 13 hour time change tomorrow will be like a day and a half. Thanks again for following along. We will be glad to talk to you in greater depth about the trip. However, a word of warning. Don't ask to look at pictures. You'll be sorry.





Saturday, February 14, 2015

Halong Bay, Vietnam

February 11, 2015

We are going to begin this posting with something we read the other day aboard our ship that really resonated with us. This quote may give you some insight into the wanderlust that overtakes us on a regular basis. This is from Michael Palin of Monty Python fame:
"Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote and I know I shall be happily infected until the end of my life."

Wednesday morning we entered Halong Bay in north Vietnam, a world heritage site made up of over 2000 stark, stone islands jutting out of the sea like stalactites (or is it stalagmites?) in a cave. It was a foggy morning so there was an etheral feeling to the view from our balcony. Ordinarily a local pilot boards the ship about 20 minutes before entering a port to help guide the captain. On this morning the pilot was on board two and half hours ahead of time indicating the perilous nature of entering Halong Bay. We anchored in the bay at 1:00 p.m. and the tendering process began for those wanting to go ashore. There is actually no port, as such, in Halong Bay so our lifeboats are used for the 15 minute transfer to land. The reason for this port of call is Hanoi. Unfortunately, Hanoi is a three hour bus ride from Halong Bay so we chose not to go there. Instead, we spent Thursday lounging around the ship. Actually, Lynda spent Thursday afternoon lounging while Tim took the tender ashore to find a free wifi connection. Wifi aboard ship is slow and expensive so we look for free wifi on shore anytime we can. Directly across the street from where the tender docked Tim found a bar that fit the bill and spent a relaxing hour drinking excellent local beer and catching up on e-mail, blog posting, etc. It's dirty work but someone must do it!





Friday morning we took a tour through the Vietnam countryside to a small village located in the mountains about 30 miles from Halong Bay. The countryside really was quite beautiful. Located in the village was a breathtaking Buddhist Temple. It was the setting for this temple that made it special. Its location in the lush mountain greenery with numerous flowering plants on the grounds almost made one want to convert. After leaving the temple we were taken to a family home in the village. Our guide must have called ahead because our hostess had warm tea ready for us. In Vietnam families live together. In this home was the Grandmother, her daughter and husband, and her grandson. Nothing was said of a Grandfather so we assume he was deceased. Several of our guides have told us of this family custom and that in the homes where there is a Grandfather, he is revered as the patriarch of the family. Tim wishes! We did not get inside the house but saw where ducks, geese and chickens were raised as well as the rice fields the family tended. The poultry was either used by the family or sold for income. In order for the family to be able to afford this house the husband worked during the week in Halong Bay to supplement their income from their small farm. We are sure that the cruise line pays them quite nicely as well for hosting us. When we left the village we were taken back to Halong Bay where we visited the central market. Normally, we enjoy these markets, but this one was quite grungy and foul smelling, especially since local fishermen were cleaning and selling their catches. Not exactly a Chamber of Commerce moment. Quite incongruously, there was an upscale mall located next to the market where we picked up a few snacky items for our cabin.



We occasionally read our past blogs to relive our trips. During a recent reading we noticed that food seemed to play a major role in the blog so we consciously decided not to mention food so much in blogging about this trip. However, we must tell you about our meal Thursday night aboard ship. We went to one of the specialty restaurants called Qsine. It advertises itself as "a uniquely, unordinary culinary experience." It was all that and more. The decor was very contemporary and hip and from the start we knew it was going to be relaxing and fun. Our waiter, who said he was our "culinary guide" for the evening gave us each an ipad that served as our menu. We were to chose as many courses as we wanted that we would share.  We added items to our "favorites list" and then gave the ipads back to our culinary guide.  No need for him to write down our order. Out of twenty possibilities, we agreed on six courses: a salad, a shrimp starter, a crab starter, a meatball trio (beef, veal, and turkey), a filet mignon, and crunchy munchies which consisted of several different types of french fries including sweet potato fries. The portions were small and the presentation was whimsical. For example, the "Disco shrimp" was served in a glass dish with what appeared to be a blue-lit glacier in the bottom with a conical dish above containing avocado cubes with shrimp salad on top. Our servers went out of their way to make the meal a fun experience.  When it was time to order dessert we were given cubes that reminded us of a Rubik's Cubes. We opened the cube in various different ways to find the dessert offerings. Lynda settled on the Qsine suprise that ended up being a macadamian nut concoction with vanilla ice cream. Tim ordered what was called a "cupcake affair." When his dessert was delivered to the table it looked like a big box that actually was three boxes stacked on top of each other. One contained a red velvet and a vanilla cupcake without frosting; the next box contained three small pastry funnels with frosting in them (peanut, strawberry, and nutella frosting); the third box had three cups containing colorful sprinkles, chocolate pearls, and sugary crystals. Tim had great fun preparing each of his cupcakes. We agreed this would be an excellent idea for a children's birthday party. The meal certainly lived up to its advertisement. Later we enjoyed a very good musical/dance review called iBroadway in the theater. A very enjoyable evening.