Saturday, September 7, 2013
3:30am Day of Departure Dilemma
OK...I'm wide awake and thinking about schlepping 4 small suitcases (albeit they do have wheels) around Europe! What is that famous phrase? Oh yeah, "pack your suitcase, then remove half of what you packed". Realizing that I was adding stuff last night just to fill up the 2nd suitcase, I dragged myself out of bed and began to unpack. It worked! Travel iron? GONE. Raincoat? GONE (replaced with small umbrella). Wow, this really works! Voila (or whatever it is in German). Got rid of a whole suitcase. Now let's see if I can get back to sl...zzzzzz
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Such a good idea. Less is more when you travel! And it makes room in case you find something that you HAVE to have like a inexpensive sundress for a hot travel day.
ReplyDeleteFyi... B and B are having some challenges with blogging and Internet connections. They are having a great time and enjoying great food! All is well.... Cathy
ReplyDeletefrom b & b, via sister Cathy
ReplyDelete09/08/13 10:15am Frankfurt time
left the house at 7:30am, stopped at Starbucks and commented that we would miss our Starbucks...but wait!!! We're going to the Land of Perfect Coffee. What are we thinking? Drive to Seattle went fine, check-in smooth and quick phone call to Dad-Happy Birthday today. Great flight on Lufthansa-complimentary sparkling wine for a toast to Dear ol' Dad. No sleep for me on the plane-too busy watching movies! The Frankfurt airport is blessedly quiet, and we're waiting for the final leg of our arrival.
Staying at Schlosshotel Hofingen-the cutest little castle with a spiral staircase in the turret. We're the only ones here-the keys to the front door and our room were taped to the front door-the proprieters didn't want to wait for us to arrive.
Fantastic afternoon with Aunt Wanda watching the showers move across the valley from her living room and talking. falling asleep-we're back at the hotel by 7:15
Quote of the day: I hope someone cleans the shower while we're gone. : )
Highlight of the day: hearing my last name pronounced correctly.
09/09/13
Slept pretty well last night! had an wonderful breakfast...we ARE the only people staying in this hotel. After rain all night, the skies are sunny and we're off to Ludwigsburg in Aunt Wanda's car. After 2 hours on the road (the trip should have been 20-30 minutes) we finally reached Ludwigsburg. On the way, we found the Mercedes-Benz test track, and much of Stuttgart that we hadn't planned to see. Found the town square and had a great lunch of Wurstsalat (thin strips of wurst, cheese, and dill pickle on a bed of lettuce with a vinagrette dressing...a local dish) und the BEST beer. Then toured the castle of King Ludwig patterned after Versaille...amazing! It had its own theater, two chapels. The only way to get into the castle was to take a tour, and the 1 English-speaking tour of the day had already gone. So,we took a German-speaking tour with an English brochure, and laughed when everyone else laughed even though we understood nothing the tour director said. At the end of the tour we peered into a room where little "princesses" with tiaras were having a tea party and were all dressed up in 1700's costumes. Managed to find our way back to Hofingen in a short amount of time, had dinner with Wanda at her favorite Greek restaurant where I had grilled liver, beef, and souvlaki with tzatziki and we toasted with ouzo. I'm falling asleep at the table so we head back to the hotel. To bed at 10pm.
09/10/13
Awoke to a steady rain at 7am. church bells at 8am rang gloriously across the way in the steepled church (see photo). We were going to hike to Leonberg today, but with the rain we'll change the plan.
Spent the AM watching the rain from Wanda's and I dozed on the day bed. Decided on lunch, but the restaurant was closed...drove on and found another place. feasted on a mac&cheese German-style (spaetzle mit cheese, ham, und carmelized onions. local favorite. and beer, of course. Wanda dropped us off to explore Leonberg and hopefully find an Internet cafe. We'll walk back to Hofingen later on.
finally found an internetcafe in Leonberg!!! I'm sending this off!
love you!!!!!
b&b
Blog post via sister Cathy - sorry I could not attach the photo they sent.
ReplyDelete09/10/13
Awoke to a steady rain at 7am. church bells at 8am rang gloriously across the way in the steepled church (see photo). We were going to hike to Leonberg today, but with the rain we'll change the plan.
Spent the AM watching the rain from Wanda's and I dozed on the day bed. Decided on lunch, but the restaurant was closed...drove on and found another place. feasted on a mac&cheese German-style (spaetzle mit cheese, ham, und carmelized onions. local favorite. and beer, of course. Wanda dropped us off to explore Leonberg and hopefully find an Internet cafe. We'll walk back to Hofingen later on.
finally found an internetcafe in Leonberg!!! I'm sending this off!
Can't get into the blog to post...will send my updates to Becky's sis to post as comments...sorry all!
09/11/13
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BECKY!!
Began the day with the usual breakfast fare-soft pretzel with liverwurst and cheese, yogurt, juice, awesome coffee! Off to explore Hofingen which took about 10 seconds. Cute, but small, and it's cool and breezy. Went to Wanda's and spent the AM watching it rain, dozing on the daybed, and of course talking. Wan was having a bit of back pain, but managed to get us to the Green Tree (Gruene Baum) in Warmbronn near Stuttgart. I had medallions of deer steak with mushrooms in a red wine sauce with fried mashed potato "tots". So incredibly delicious! We toasted Beck and went back to Wan's. Beck went through portfolios full of paintings/pics/sketches in Wan's work room, until late afternoon, then we walked to the grocery for cheese, pickles, wine, bread for a light supper and our goodbyes. Champaigne and candles for one last toast to Becky! A poignant wonderful time.
09/12/13
On our way to Milan! Walked in the rain to the Hofingen station and after 5 train changes we're almost there. Just when we figure out one train system (German), we change to French in Strasbourg, Swiss in Basel, then Italian in Brig. Needless to say we were pretty stressed by the time we reached Stresa. Actually, the constant clouds ended at the alps,and it's now sun, sun, sun and warm. Hallelujah!!! We have passed the lake region and vowed to return. Italian villas, palms, enormous Lake Maggiore and pasta...I've found heaven on earth! There appears to be a fire or something on the railroad tracks ahead that is delaying the train, and sadly it's not in a beautiful spot. Reached Milan 5:15pm. Absolutely one of the most magnificent train stations I've seen! Hotel Berne is 2 blocks and an easy walk. Beautiful room! Changed clothes took the subway to Duomo. Walking up out of the metro facing the Duomo was overwhelming. What a sight. It was dusk, the lights were beginning to come on and the square was full of people! warm, mid-70's temp & clear sky. Walked to a fantastic restaurant-dined on mozarella/proscuitto appetizer, sipped Prosecco, and ate lobster linguine in the shadow of the Duomo. I'm tellin' ya. I'm never coming home! I'll have to buy a second seat ticket to fit me on the plane. back to the hotel in prep for a city tour tomorrow during which we'll see the Duomo interior, the La Scala Opera House and the DaVinci "Last Supper".This is a dream!
09/13/13
ReplyDeleteGreat staff at hotel...very warm, helpful, and fun to talk to! Huge buffet breakfast b4 city tour. So we allow ourselves plenty of time (yeah, right) to get to the corner where our tour is supposed to start. It's an enormous roundabout with about 6 streets coming together and we're looking for a small group of people. There are small groups of people everywhere, not to mention dodging traffic and as we make our way around this area we realize we don't really know what we're looking for. But, we find the tour bus at the last minute and off we go! We're an English and Spanish combo tour, so everything is translated into both. Ana Maria, our guide, was a riot. Colorful, buoyant, mid-60's she brought the city of Milan to life. Highlights: La Scala Opera House (opera was invented in Italy...who knew?!) was incredible, Sforza Castle, the Duomo, and finally, Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper in the Santa Maria della Grazie chapel. It brought a tear to my eye. Seeing that work in person has been a lifelong dream. One of the greatest moments of Christ's life captured by one of the greatest men of all time...powerful!! Afterwards found a Rick Steve's recommend for lunch, and had another amazing meal-locals only in this place and off the beaten track. Spicy pasta, and veal cutlet shared. Worked our way back to the Duomo, off to the hotel for a quick nap and back downtown to watch the sun set off the face of the Duomo. Magical. Wandered down a side street and found a family ristorante in a quiet alley where the pizza was prepared by the cutest little old man...perfect and the spaghetti Bolognese (meat sauce) was awesome. Must have more pizza! Finally home to pack and sleep it all off.
09/14/13
Late checkout...wish we were staying longer! We both loved Milan and would love to come back (sound familiar?). Now it's off to Padova (or Padua as we Yanks call it). Passed through Verona, Vicenza and changed trains in Padova for the 10 minute jaunt to Montegrotto Terme where we're staying for a week at a spa-seriously! This place is hilarious. It's mud baths, massages, and hot soaking pools galore (we're so excited about getting into our bathing suits!). They even have these motion-activated lights in the hallways that, of course, don't work quite properly; so when you walk down a hallway, the light comes on ahead of you, but goes out as you get to it. If you don't keep waving your arms around while you're trying to pull out the room key card, you end up fumbling in the dark to get into your room. Ahhh, the serenity of a spa. Ironic, too, that they allow smoking at the health spa. You gotta love it!
Decided to do our laundry after dinner; got directions from the front desk (incomplete we found out later) got lost, found the laundromat, laughed ourselves sick trying to figure out the "system" 'cause it's about 10pm and no one's around; headed home, got completely lost again, got scared (seriously-it was creepy-several abandoned spa hotels and it's about 11pm and we're dragging a huge bag of laundry around), but finally made it back and we're still married. Whew!
ReplyDelete09/15/13
Off to Venice! Hopped a train and 45 minutes later we're pouring out of the train station into the biggest and best mob scene you've ever experienced! What a feast for the senses! Wandered forever with thousands of tourists, but worked our way to the back canals and the Trattoria da Marisa which sat on a canal at the end of the city. Recommended by our friends, Julee and Steve Taylor, the menu for the day was one thing...fish! Okay, we'll bite (pun intended). Sea bass, polenta, marinated octopus, shredded cod for the first course. White lasagna (with some kind of fish inside) with a cream sauce was next. Finally, fried calamari and shrimp followed that. We're getting full! Finally topped it off with mascarpone creme and espressos. Everything so fresh, delicious and unique-we'll never forget it! After 2.5 hours of lunch, it's time to start walking again. Made our way to St. Mark's Square-jammed with people. It's so different than when we were there 19 years ago. Now the huge cruise ships come right past the square and dock somewhere beyond, spewing out thousands of tourists at a time. It was off-season, and "cool" and far more crowded than our last visit during May. But lots more people. Headed back to catch the train home and it started to rain lightly. But we made the train and what a great day we had! B&B's Big Adventure continues.
via email to Cathy K.
ReplyDelete09/16/13
I think it's Monday, and it's Padova Day. After breakfast (we start our day with 3 sips of Prosecco...why buy wine at dinner when it's complimentary and sparkling at breakfast?!), croissants, yogurt and granola, and all sorts of other yummies, and of course, cappucinos) we head next door to catch the train which is 10 minutes into downtown Padova. Per Rick Steves, we buy a Padua card and ride the tram to the main square. It was packed and the Italian police hopped on about halfway there and started checking tickets/passports and writing fines for expired or no tickets. It was a little crazy and people were trying to get off or validate their tickets which didn't work. It had a bit of a police-state feel about it. But we passed the test and got off at our stop. Explored the market, browsed shops, and ate lunch at a great little restaurant on the piazza. Warm, humid, sunny day and it feels so great to have such good weather for the most part. We have a 3pm viewing of the famous Giotto frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel. They were amazing! Unfortunately, we're only allowed 15 minutes to view them before being ushered out due to the time limit to protect them from deterioration. They depicted scenes of the life of Mary, her parents, and Christ. Hot and tired, we returned to our hotel for a dinner including black olive sauce on shell pasta, and fabulous salmon.
09/17/13
Crazy day today! Vicenza and Verona all in one fell swoop (I don't recommend it)! Vicenza is home to the Teatro Olympic (a Greek-styled theater) designed by Palladio, a fantastic architect (his ideas were used by Thomas Jefferson for Monticello)! A wonderful, small town that took about 2-3 hours to cover. Then off to Verona. Good grief! Talk about a zoo. We couldn't figure out why there were so many students everywhere 'cause Padova, not Verona is the main college town. It turns out that there was a HUGE rock concert in the Roman Colosseum (I'm not kidding- it was a Roman colosseum!) that night and kids from everywhere converged on the town in the main piazza where the colosseum stands. Adding to that it stared to rain so people packed in every covered space. We had an umbrella, fortunately, and waited out the rain for a while eating lunch. I had my first carbonara pizza-marinara sauce, partially cooked bacon and an egg "over easy"on top. I won't be ordering that again. It was fine, but once was enough. Wandered in the rain to view Juliet's balcony (a tourist fabrication in 1979 by an enterprising Veronian). Wandered through the Roman colosseum, churches, and went to the top of the tallest tower in town for a bird's eye view. It rained most of the time and unfortunately we got wet and cold. The little umbrella could only do so much. Made our way back to the train station to discover that we'd missed the last connecting train until 1am back to the hotel. In the meantime Beck is coming down with a cold and we' re both dog tired. So, praise The Lord, there was a bus we could catch from the train station to get us home in about an hour. We missed dinner (which didn't hurt us one bit) and went straight to bed.
09/18/13
This is our "stay-at-the-spa" day that we had planned. One quiet day of not trying to catch trains and find museums and restaurants, and it's a good thing we did! Beck woke up with a full-blown cold/sinus infection. She slept all day and I went to the indoor/outdoor hot springs pool. It was awesome! Beck got up and we went down for another great dinner...risotto with pumpkin and something else I can't remember, but was delicious I'm certain.
09/19/13
ReplyDeleteUp and at 'em and a 2 hour train trip to Ravenna for amazing mosaics. We just couldn't believe our eyes! Beck is a trooper and we followed Rick Steves' footsteps to several chapels, baptistries, and even Dante's tomb (interesting story...look it up sometime!) We wore ourselves out, our train back to the Ferrara transfer got cancelled, so we had to quickly hop another train to Bologna, then get the correct train back to our little stop. This train thing can get pretty complicated at times. But we made it home-Beck was so wiped out she went to bed without dinner-I ate alone and the hotel sent her dinner up to the room for her.
09/20/13
Our final day in Italy! Bittersweet to be heading back to Germany early tomorrow to catch our Sunday am plane. Decided to spend the day in Venice again and we shopped, ate a great pasta lunch (spaghetti with ricotta, tomato, and basil sauce for Beck and spaghetti with meat sauce for me...Beck's was the BEST). Bought a few souvenirs, including a plate of the colorful Murano glass and dragged ourselves back to pack. It's been glorious! Venice will always be a very special place for us, in spite of the crowds and graffiti...there's just a wonderful ambience there and the Italians are so much fun! See you all soon! B&B over and out.