[Most recent day is on top. Scroll down for previous days.]
[If you only see text, don't worry, images are coming!]
Trip Summary, 17
October – 35 days hence from our departure…
I sit here on AA 199,
MXP to JFK at a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet, and I reflect on the best
5-week block-of-life that Kim and I have shared in our 25 years together;
fitting as this adventure is a celebration of that milestone. Now I am not saying that we have not had
other “best” blocks-of life, 25 years is a hell of a “block in and of itself,
but what I am saying is that we have never spent a solid 5-weeks together
adventuring, cooperating, planning, conversing, sharing and bonding quite like
this. However, this creates further
reflection, as we scream west at 575mph, as to how blessed we are to sincerely be excited to return to our life reality; family, friends, colleagues,
work, responsibilities and our future 25-years together.
Life truly is not an isolated event; it is the sum of everything just
listed and understanding the importance and relevance of them all, how they
work together and how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to balance them
all; not always easy or fun; but for us, the foundation of our goodness.
In my life, I have
learned to try and find education in the experiences I have had the honor to
have and the above is what I return to; life is pretty cool no matter what you
are dealing with at one particular moment; some great, good, complex and or
challenging! Another lesson learned on
this adventure is that you can go on vacation too long; at least under the
definition of “vacation” Kim and I have. In discussion, we have deemed this an
“Adventure Vacation” versus rejuvenation.
I want to thank
Ashlee, Rose and Jenny, the true core of my business for always supporting my
endeavors and ensuring that our clients are attended to while I play
hooky.
I also want to
thank my children for always supporting their father’s idiosyncrasies and their
mothers love, my mom for inspiring in me that life is a journey and to my
brother for challenging me to always be more creative with my ideas.
Finally, thank you,
Franny and Jerry. For without the 11 (or 12, hell I forget at this moment) days
in Kefalonia, which allowed us to have a respite from our intense itinerary
separating Paris from Rome, Milan, Val Gardena and Lake Como. We cogitated the trip as a whole and
independently we both acquiesced that without our time on the island of
Kefalonia and Ithaki our grandiose pace would have possibly driven us into a
deference 1) hindering our enjoyment and 2) of ever considering something like
this again; for us another learning experience. PS…throughout Italy, we have yet
to find wine better than yours!
With that… and the
approximately 20,000 words and 150+ photos below… I end this story with a sense
of pride and accomplishment in not only doing what we did over the past 35 days
but in sharing it with you. I hope in some
way that we have motivated you to seek adventure, provided some entertainment
and that you enjoyed our sharing of this tale.
Remember though that
we have about 200,000 more words and some 3000 photos should you have the
courage to inquire further; we would welcome that!
The End!
Love,
Martin and Kim!!!
Our "Final" picture from Varenna, Italy!
Giorno 33 (October 15)
Our Day in Lake Como –
Varenna, Billagio, Menagio
We woke to a minimally
smoggy day in Lake Como; Kim’s angels!
And we hit the road (or water) at about 10am; seems days are getting
later due to the fatigue! In that we
wandered Varenna yesterday afternoon and will do so again during the evening,
we grabbed the ferry over to Menagio –
Menagio, a small
village on the western shore of the lake was very typical of every other small
Italian village that we have encountered; quaint, timeworn and calming to experience. I think however we would have had a different
experience during the tourist season that ended in early September. Lake Como as best as I can describe it, is
like Lake Tahoe in the summer; crammed with tourists, impatience and
hustle. For us, we missed this by 30
days and many businesses were closed and the majority of the villas were closed
up and gates locked.
After walking the
streets, visiting the craft fair and watching the local kids swim in the
56-58f/13-14c water, we headed back to the ferry to explore Bellagio. To do this, we first had to head back to
Varenna and wait about 50-minutes for the Bellagio ferry; idea! Gellato as our
lunch appetizer!
1:30pm we disembarked
in Bellagio and the port portion of the village was incredibly crowded.
Inspiration, take a 10-minute walk over the point (Lake Como is basically an
upside down “Y” with Bellagio on the point separating the two arms of the lake
extending southward making the upside down “Y” configuration) for lunch at the
one restaurant that remained open; La Pergola.
Following lunch, we
walked to the point and then roamed up and down the streets and alleys but
frankly, we had seen enough and the place was packed by the ferry waterfront so
at 5 we headed back to Varenna, took a break back at the hotel (make sure you
scroll down to see the images of this place…very cool!) and would make one last
visit down to the village for a light dinner for tomorrow [Giorno 34 (October 16) – uneventful as the
Hilton was the “American” stopping place and reminded us of the reality facing
us the following day, Giorno 33 (October 17), our flights home – no posts] we would have to navigate the insane roadways
back to Malpensa Airport, return the rental car (crap…I forgot to take a photo
of us and our Yaris Hybrid) and navigate to the Hilton for our last night of
our adventure; a new sense of excitement presented itself, returning home…it is
time!
Giorno 32 (October 14)
Travel Day to Lake
Como - Village of Varenna
After trying to figure
out some sort of driving plan with Google Maps, which I failed miserably, we
hit the road down Italy’s SS242 on our way to SS12 that was supposed to lead us
into our target road, SS42, about 45km/32m down the road in Bolzano; SS42 should
take us to Lake Como via the windy country roads along the southern slope of
the Alps. In this part of the world, even travel days have some real content! Let the adventure begin.
Once in Bolzano,
none of my directional notes and written
diagrams were worth a shit; guess I was trying to be smarter than Google. We ended up completely twisted, on the wrong side of the valley and in an industrial area! So we pulled off
to the side of the road and entered the name of a village along SS42 and in no
time we were through Bolzano, on the right road and traveling up this very steep, full of hairpin turns, road toward
the Mendola Pass; all good, Mendola is
on the way we want to head.
When we left this
morning from St. Cristina in Val Gardena, I took one last shot of the view we
had from our apartment (the peak is Sassolungo at 3,181m/10,434’) –
After our brief
navigation impairment in Bolzano and about 30 minutes of driving up a very
cool, and narrow mind you, road we stopped and looked back east and saw this –
Our first complete
view of the Dolomites. This photo does
not do the beauty of this place justice but it does give some sort of scale to
our experience; as the crow flies, I would guess that Sassolungo in this image is about 40m/65km away.
With my nerves calm
and upon reaching the Mendola Pass, we decided to stop for a late breakfast as
it was about noon; our life clock is going to take a month to reset once we get
home. All they really had was “Affel
Strudel” so we said, “what the hell”. I
had a cap and Kim a hot chocolate (which was basically melted chocolate – too
sweet for both of us to finish!).
Continuing, we were
treated to the drive we hoped to have had on our way to Val Gardena; completely
spectacular and “eye-candy” every direction –
As we continued
towards and through Passo del Tonnale and the villages beyond, we wondered why
so many hotels, trattorias, buildings and houses. We soon found out as this is a huge, huge ski
destination and we passed by the resorts Ponte di Legno, Edolo (a main
intersection on our navigation plan) and Aprica.
Then it all changed
once we got to Sondrio about 60k/36mi east of our destination of Varenna on
Lake Como; our total trip was about 350k/210mi.
We ran into modern commercialization, large buildings, traffic and the thick
smog from Milan. The drive was still
very cool as we entered the SS36 tunnels running along the eastern shores of
Lake Como, about 20k/12mi north of Varenna; the mountains are very steep along
the lake so they went through them and kept the mountainsides pristine. Again, the driving here is crazy and the signage
is quick so we missed our first exit to Varenna which of course was right in
the center of one of the tunnels. We
ended up going a bit further south to Lecco and exited now heading north back
up to Varenna.
We got to our hotel
about 6pm after a couple “Google Maps” screw-ups (it is not right all the time)
and checked in and took a breather. Our
hotel, the Eremo Gaudio, was pretty cool, two funicular lifts to get to the
hotel from the office and then an elevator to get us to the 5th
floor –
From our room!!! Another Kim pick - she is batting 1000!!!
Hungry, and we should
not be as we have been eating like ravenous animals this entire journey, we
walked into the Village of Varenna, did some recon for tomorrow, had a nice
meal (appetizers and Guinness [finally dark beer!!!] at one restaurant and then
our main course at another), wandered a bit longer and then headed back to the hotel
about 9 and readied for tomorrows full day around Lake Como.
Walking total: A meager 3.3 miles but remember
we were in the car 5 hours!
Giorno 31 (October 13)
Val Gardena, Italy and
the Dolomites
Wow, WOW, WOW!
We got up a bit late
but we are on vacation so who cares?
Right! We headed to the market to
get supplies for our day and then went to find a place for breakfast; not easy. We did find a small café that was open and
they served sandwiches and beverages so we ordered a couple paninis, a
cappuchino (better than anything I ever tasted in the states) for me, a hot
chocolate for Kim (the best she had ever tasted) and chatted with Eva the
proprietor and she provided us directions and information on the first sight of
the day. The largest hand carved wooden Nativity
scene in the world:
After we visited the
Nativity scene and saw the location of the local Strip Tease club, we headed
down the road to Ortisei where the only operating gondola lift was operation
and we hopped on; the Mount Seuc’s gondola.
Kim is not a fan of these things and this was high off the deck, about
200-300’/60-90m. She did fine and we got
off at the top, 2005m/6576’, onto Europe’s largest mountain plateau, Alpe Di
Siusi; speechless!
There are miles of
trails up here so we took a minute to make a decision on which direction we
would head and then took off. We were
headed for a hotel at the top of the Panorama lift, about 5 miles across the
plateau. The trails were exceptional and
we enjoyed many vistas along the way. Here
are a couple:
It was about 1:30p
when we arrived at the Panorama lodge, closed, but found a nice place to enjoy
lunch:
After lunch, we took a
few more panoramic shots of the Dolomites…:
…and then headed back
to the gondola for the last ride down was at 1700 hours and we got there at
1615; all good.
We wanted to spend a
bit of time walking around the St. Christina village before dinner and we ended
up at this castle:
You cannot do Val
Gardena in one day. We will definitely
come back. Tomorrow morning we will get
a few last views of this incredible place, enjoy a Cap and Coco with Ava and
get a couple more photos before navigating the back roads (story to come I am
sure) to Lake Como.
Walking Total: 15
miles
Giorno 30 (October 12)
On the way to Val
Gardena
Breakfast in Milan,
lunch in Avio (below a castle on the hillside above us) and dinner in Val
Gardena; a 344km/215 rental car adventure in our Toyota Yaris!
Digressing a bit, I
have to say that the drive was not what we envisioned. I thought once we got out of the Milan area,
that we would be able to stop at towns, visit café’s, enjoy vistas from scenic
stops and simply meander our way here; not the case. The roads were crazy. Kim drove and drove well. I navigated and only got us twisted two or
three times; okay…four! But the roads
were express ways and toll roads and signage, well beside the fact that it was
in Italian were minimal and usually right at the turn – no advance warning;
talk about an adventure and paying tolls, in Italian! We caused a few backups at the toll booths but
no horns. We managed really well I would
say!
Once we got off the
main highway to Venice and were heading north toward Val Gardena, we got off
the “Autostrada” (sounds expensive, it wasn’t really - €15 total getting here)
in the little town of Avio; getting off the Autostrada was not as easy as it
sounds. We then took a side highway and
enjoyed driving through the small villages along the way; this is where we
stopped at the gas station café to enjoy lunch.
To describe, “along
the way”, imagine you are at the bottom of a deep canyon that is about 5 miles
wide and mountains, green lush mountains, rising on both sides of you
3000’/1000m and dotted with vineyards, castles, chateaus and houses; simply
wonderful.
Here are some of the
sights we saw along the way:
The castle above where
we had lunch –
A Basicila on the
hillside –
Another castle on a
hilltop, this one was huge! –
The hillside “along
the way” -
The one negative,
smog. The smog in northern Italy is
reported to be one of the worst areas in the world and that smog followed us
all the way up to Bolzano then began to thin out as we gained elevation toward
Val Gardena and was mostly, I say mostly, gone here in the Dolomites.
We drove into Val
Gardena about 6pm and we think our hosts were just about to give up on us (we
caught them in the parking lot and I think they were headed to dinner) but we
checked in and with it still being light we were just in awe at what we were
seeing. It did not take Kim 5 minutes to
say, “we are coming back here”!
Here is what we
saw -
The view from our room at the Olympic Apartments
By the time we got settled it was 7 and we were hungry as lunch in
Avio was very small! We hit the pavement
and walked down to the only place open (as it is the month before ski season
starts so many places were closed), the Maciaconi Hotel and had a great meal
but I was fading and Kim did all the driving; I understand my limitations and
my position within this family for sure!
So the day ended for me around 9 and woke at 6 on the 13th
ready for the Dolomites
Giorno 29 (October 11)
Milan in a Day!
The one think that
Milan is not, is clean. Again, clutter,
litter (especially cigarette butts), graffiti and SMOG; first noticed during
the train ride in. We were glad that we only spent one day here as both Kim and
I were wheezing, coughing and congested upon our departure to Val Gardena.
The Hotel Sanpi was a
huge upgrade over our hotel in Rome.
Again, I picked the one in Rome without doing the research that Kim had
done on the rest of our rooms; I have had my “hotel picking” privileges
permanently removed! However, we were
introduced to some “Italy” things once we departed Rome. First, to use the toilets in the train stations,
€1. Two, for a table at the restaurants
in Milan, you pay a “cover charge”, anywhere from 2 to 3 Euros; covered the
cost of napkins, silver, glassware, etc.
Cracked us up! Three, you have to
pay the City for the opportunity to rent a room; 10 to 15 Euros a night and
finally, you have to pay for the use of the roads and at a rate much higher
that I have ever experienced in the USA.
A great experience and fun to have participated in the Italian tax
structure!
Now for “Milan in a
Day”. Yes, that is what our tour company
called our tour. We were to meet at a
location by the Cadorna Train Station (which we scoped out the evening before)
at 9:15am. A young man showed up with a
clipboard and neatly printed by hand in blue ink, in about 2-inch letters,
“Milan in a Day”. We knew we were in the
right place. We got our audio receivers
and we were off.
Now, presently I am
typing this sitting on the deck of our “apartment” in Saint Cristina, Val
Gardena, Italy overlooking Sassolungo (3181m / 10,434’) and just finished about
13 miles hiking in the Dolomites so not because I am tired but because the
Dolomites and this area of Italy is far more beautiful than Milan, and because
we only have about one more hour of sunlight left and want to go cruise around
St. Cristina, if you see nothing below this, it is because I will blog Milan
later; stay tuned.
Okay, here are a couple of photos but this is no way the completion of the Milan blog, again...stay tuned.
IMAGES
The main reason that Kim and I went to Milan was to see the Divinci painting of the "Last Supper" -
A "fresco" and is 4.6m X 8.8m /15' X 29'
Painted in 1405-1498
The other incredible site, a church, was the Duomo Cathedral or Milan Cathedral -
Construction began in 1386 and finished May 20, 1805
Dedicated to St. Mary of the Nativity
The overall height is 520'/159m
Walking Total: 7.4
miles (seemed like more…lots of standing)
Giorno 28 (October 10)
Kim and I are getting
pretty proficient at managing the “train” mode of transportation here in
Italy. Today, we traveled from Rome to
Milan on one of the high speed trains; 300km per hour / 186 mph. A real smooth ride and we were in Milan and
navigating to our hotel by 12:30pm.
After we checked-in we
started sorting our plan for tomorrow, a 6-hour city tour so first things first
– figure out the Metro. We did and
hopped of at the station where tomorrows tour begins. Jumped up to the train station, (different
than the Metro; Metro…underground, trains…yes…above ground) to figure out how
to get to the airport to pick-up our rental car on Tuesday for our travels into
the Dolomites and Lake Como.
With that complete, we
realized that we were starved so we hopped back on the Metro and ended up at
Piazza del Duomo and enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner overlooking a very cool
cathedral which I am sure we will learn all about tomorrow.
We fell prey to
another scam in that a young lady of middle-east descent was working the ticket
machines of the Metro. Kim and I would
have figured it out but she jumped in and started putting coins in to cover the
€17,0 fee for the tickets. So, naturally,
Kim pulled out a 20 note and gave it to the gal…where is our change? She says, “I keep the change”. We laughed and thought it pretty funny so we
were happy to help out.
After dinner, we
walked the Piazza and decided that we just needed to go back to the room and
crash. That is my report for 10
October. We got up, took a train, took a
subway, had a meal, took a subway and went to bed!
Tomorrow, Milan in a
Day!
The "train station" Milan
They do nothing small here
There were platforms for 24 trains
Lunch at a sidewalk cafe
Our early meal following our recon of Milan in prep for tomorrow
Giorno 27 (October 9)
Vatican City and
Sights along the way
The day started with a
Metro trip to Lepanto Station where we hit the street and about a thousand promoters,
sales people, approached us to buy tickets to the Vatican, private tours,
scarves, electronic selfie-sticks etc!
It is crazy; such a large amount of poor trying any way possible to make
a living and capitalize on the tourist trade.
Sad in a way but we suspect that most do just fine as the “tourist”
element is the perfect pickings for this highly invasive sales force.
It was not hard to
find the entrance to Vatican City which is through the Museum; just had to
follow the massive stream of tourists.
They say that over 10-million people visit the Vatican each year, that
is 30-thousand visitors a day; seemed like there was 100K it was insane. The line, that luckily we got to skip because
of Kim’s mad ticket purchasing skills, was a kilometer (3300’) long – at least
- and 4-5 abreast. My God…pardon the
pun!
These tours are pretty
cool as you have an audio receiver and your guide speaks and you can listen,
wander, look and learn without difficulty of hearing. Again, we scored, yes…Kim’s mad ticket
purchasing skills, as we were in a small group (extra cost) and had an
incredible guide; Stephanie. It took
almost 45 minutes simply to get through security, ticketing and group sorting
but I would say around 10:30am (our tour was scheduled for 10) we were in and
on the tour.
I won’t spend too much
time elaborating (photos to come) but I will say this: The exploitation of the
masses of lesser educated and poor to construct these ostentatious monuments to
“god” not only continue to be overwhelmingly obscene (yes I will now use Kim’s
word after experiencing the Vatican, Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel and St.
Peters Basilica) but clearly demonstrate how the religious sect set themselves
apart as elite by preying upon the fears of the citizens of Rome whose toil was
the reason buildings like the Vatican could be constructed.
So here it is. St. Peters Basilica is the ultimate church
and absolutely excessive in its ornateness, opulence and grandeur; a statement
to how fear can be exploited for the benefit of the few! Now, balance this with my preceding words,
“it is, as well as most of the religious structures we have seen, the most
beautiful structure I have ever experienced; yes, experience - visual,
emotional and mental.
I must digress here
and apologize to those of my friends that are highly spiritual and
religious. I mean no disrespect but
consider this, if the church is supposed to benefit man and promote his
salvation think about how much salvation “multiple billions of dollars” might
provide in today’s world helping the poor, finding cures for cancer, promoting
underprivileged education and simply making the world a better place to exist
for all; not just the religious elite at the time. [Note:
I say multiple billions of dollars because a trillion sounded a bit
excessive but I have experience in building, design and construction and to
build the structures in the Vatican City today….my true guess is over a
trillion dollars; just saying. PS…Kim
feels the same!
So…here is the Vatican City, St. Peters Basilisca and the Sistine Chapel –
The most
famous Cupola in the world
The Resurrection
of Christ
The ceiling
in The Gallery of Maps
The
incredible marble sculptures the ended and began each hall
The “Fire in
the Borgo” room
The Sistine
Chapel
A close up
of the Sistine Chappel’s ceiling
St. Peters
Basilica
The Papal
Alter Canopy
In front of St. Peters
Those statues are 6-8m/20-25' in height
We spent 4-hours and
received an incredible education of the Vatican City and truly enjoyed the adventure. Following our exit of this “independent
state” within Italy, we found a nice little (expensive for sure) Trattoria and
just decompressed, discussed and processed what we just saw. We then set out to
catch a few more major sights…
Castel Saint Angelo -
Palazzo di Giustizia -
Piazza Navona -
… then headed back to the hotel for a couple
hour riposo before venturing out for our final evening in Rome.
After a break back at
the hotel between 5 and 7, we headed out to the Fontana di Trevi for our last
dinner here in Rome. We wanted to
capture a night photo of the Fountain; most major structures are lit at night
and very impressive to experience. Also,
and quite consistent with the “tourist” aspect of Rome, very crowded, very late.
We found a beautiful
Tratorria right by the Piazza di Trevi, got the night shot (after I got
whistled at by the Italian police), enjoyed a Gelatto and trekked back to the
hotel to pack and ready for our train trip tomorrow to Milan. To be continued….
Walking Total: 8.4
miles – Rome Total: 44.1 miles that is 70.5 km (sounds more impressive). 30 sites visited and all of the top 25; an
average of 7.5 sights per day. We had an
absolute blast!
Giorno 26 (October 8)
Rome via the Metro
I have to tell you
that it is getting harder and harder to keep up with these posts. I was 4 hours minimum on the post for the 6th,
3 1/2 for the Colosseum and Forum post
and today’s? 4 1/2; 16 hours and not a complaint but wanted you to understand
the magnitude of Rome and the scale and depth of its magnificent history.
We decided that today,
after 25 plus miles of walking that we would attempt to explore a few more
incredible sights here in Rome; sights that were a bit further out of the
way. To save on our weary feet, we planned to use the Metro system
and bought a 48-hour pass; I calculated it to be a much better value and
provide us much more freedom during our last couple of days; that's me, one of my many idiosyncrasies! We figured this would keep our day to around
5-7 miles as walking on these hard rock surfaces have made our feet a bit sore.
As we started off, we
discussed how astonished (as a new adjective) we were as to the scale of “it
all” here in Rome. I have used the word
“overwhelmed” but that really is falling short; mind-blowing, speechless and
inconceivable also come to mind. Every
time you spin around, explore an alley, turn a corner, there is something of implausible
design and history; both of us defining the dominance of these sights as religious structures
and certainly ostentatious and disproportionate (Kim prefers “obscene” and I am not in
disagreement).
Here are the sights we
saw today:
Piazza Della
Repubblica – This is one of the largest piazza’s (squares) in Rome, was once
the site of the central transportation center and at 700,000 square feet (about
15 acres) is home to 8 of the most notable structures in Rome.
San Giovanni Laterano –
This Basilica ranks above Saint Peters Basilica in the Vatican. The Basilica of St John Lateran (Basilica di
San Giovanni in Laterano) is the cathedral church of Rome and the official seat
of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) and contains the Papal throne.
The Fortress Wall of
San Giovanni – Was an Aurelian Walls and are a line of
city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD.
The walls enclosed all the seven hills of Rome including San Giovanni;
once the home of the Pope. They once
enclosed an area of 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres).
Piazza Spagna – This is
another famous piazza and lies at the base of the Spanish Steps which links the
Trinità dei Monti church to the square.
Today it is a crazy, high priced shopping area with tenants like Jimmy
Choo, Chanel, Cartier, Prada and Gucci just to name a few of the hundreds.
Piazza Dei Popolo – You
guessed it…another famous piazza in Rome.
Here the important structure is, you guessed it…another Basilica: Santa
Maria del Popolo. A Titular (religiously
powerless) church and a minor basilica in Rome run by the Augustinian order.
Borghese Park – A large
green space in the center of high population density. Nothing special, just one of the “top 25
sights”; so we went.
Borghese Galleria
(Chateau) – A family that moved to Rome in 1541, so not truly Roman, quickly
rose to power within the Roman culture and the son of the family’s patriarch,
Marcantonio, became Pope Paul V (1605).
Now a museum of art.
Spanish Steps – 135 of
the most ornate and intriguing steps of Rome surrounded by several fascinating
structures. Designed by architects
Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi.
Construction began in the early 1700’s but was not complete until
sometime after 1661.
Pramide Cestia - An ancient pyramid near the Porta San Paolo
and the Protestant Cemetery. It was built as a tomb for Gaio Cestio Epulone. It stands at a fork between two ancient
roads. One of the best-preserved ancient
buildings in Rome. I looked but there
has got to be a link between this and the obelisks.
Caracalla Baths - A public bath house with three pools of three
differing temperatures that could hold up to 1600 persons at a time. It is a huge structure at the south end of
Palantino Hill (Roman Forum), just south of the Colosseum. This is where we think the citizens of Rome
came to bathe; must have been girl days and boy days?
After all this, our 5
to 7 mile estimate was exceeded as we clocked another 10. Being simply worn-out, we planned an easy
evening. At 7:30p we hit the first
restaurant we came to on the street that our hotel occupied, went back to the
Colosseum and San Giovanni Laterano for some night photos, stopped at a great
little desert café by the latter for a treat then crashed about 11pm. Tomorrow is Vatican City (our second guided
tour event), a few more sights and our last night in Rome.
BONUS IMAGES (I have good hotel wi-fi tonight here in Milan!!!!):
San Giovanni Laterano
No small doors here - Entrance to San Giovanni Laterano
The Ciborium (Papal Canopy) - San Giovanni - the "high altar" of the Basilica
Opulently ostentatious decoration and detail and...
it dominates every single inch of the interior space!
Walking Total: 10.2
miles
Giorno 25 (October 7)
The Colosseum and the
Roman Forum
Today began with our
first of two guided tours (Monday October 9 we will do our second at the
Vatican City). We met our guide, Emmie,
a Rome resident and archaeologist, at 8:30am and began our tour of the
Colosseum; with 22 other English-speaking guests. Unknown to us, or we simply did not read the
tour description well enough during our trip planning, is that we also got a
guided tour of the Roman Forum.
The Colosseum is the
most visited attraction in Rome and I am glad we had an early start;
originally, we were at 11am but during our visit to Kefalonia, we got an email
saying that they had to change the time.
There were 4 different groups just with our company and about 100 others
all at the same time; there was simply an ocean of bodies moving toward this
ancient arena. By 11am, it was
packed!
Our tour (3.5 hours
total) provided us access to the basement area where they prepped the animals
and gladiators for the events, the stadium level (which has been partially
reconstructed) and to the top levels (just recently opened and our guide had
never been before today) where the peasants and women viewed the battles
designed to entertain the Emperor.
We spent two hours in
the Colosseum alone and our feeling upon receiving all the fabulous and
educational information in the previous 120 minutes was sad. Sad that such an important structure was
abandoned; that it was pilfered of its limestone blocks and marble for church
construction; that it was vandalized for the metals that held it together.
It was truly a feat of
construction, engineering and entertainment as the latter was the primary
reason for its existence. A place where
the players could be moved around below the stage (the basement area, dark and
dreary) and then when called upon, elevated to the arena floor for battles of
animal vs. animal, man vs. animal and man vs. man; all to the death.
Hundreds of books have
been written about the Colosseum so aside from our photos, I will leave you
with this, 1) we were truly amazed for two solid hours, 2) would do the tour
again and 3) more of my words would be an insult to this 2000 year old
structure.
IMAGES COLOSSEUM
The exterior facade looking southeast
Hard to tell the damage done from this view
Construction began in AD 72 under the Emperor Vespasian
Completed AD 80 by the Emperor Titus
The interior view facing west
Middle of image is the arena level
Lower half of image is the basement or below arena level
Upper half is the seating areas - the higher up, the lower the class of citizen.
The tunnel where the human "gladiators" would enter the Colosseum
The "gladiators" were criminals and scourge not buddies of the elite
If the fought well and survived their battles, they were freed to live a new life
A view from the highest viewing level - women and prostitutes
Original name was not Colosseum rather Amphitheatrum Flavium
Could hold up to 80,000 spectators with an average attendance of 65,000
From the highest level, newly opened
Construction materials were limestone, granite, marble and...
Roman invented concrete
Next, we walked by the
Arco di Constantino, cool, nothing like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (in fact
about half the size) and into the Roman Forum; amazingly unbelievable. The Forum was the Rome city center that was
the hub for the sprawl of Rome as it began to grow some 2000 years ago. It is hard to provide you an exact dimension
of this area but I would guess it is at least one-half of a square mile; it is
huge. For centuries the Forum was the
center of day-to-life in Rome; a marketplace, a place for government, a place
for worship and a place for celebration.
This is where Rome originated.
I cannot tell you how
many structures exist here so I will let the photos do the talking but I can
tell you that after our 90-minute tour of this area, an area we had no idea
existed, we exited, had a great lunch at a little sidewalk café and upon paying
another fee to enter, spent 4 more hours walking its grounds.
IMAGES
A full panorama from the Temple of
Saturn (far left)
to...
The Colosseum (far
right) not part of the Forum
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
This image shows the white marble (center) that adorned all the brick facades making these temples shine - where did the marble go?
It was taken by the Church (stole)!
Walking Total: 13.1
miles
Giorno 24 (October 6)
Rome Italy!
I thought Paris was an
architectural hub and the structures as you well know were incredible and
fascinating for both Kim and myself but Rome?
The architecture and history of Rome makes Paris look like Fernley (a
small farming town in Nevada for those of you reading this not familiar with
Fernley) when compared to New York City; I cannot think of a proper word to
describe what we experienced during our first sortie here.
The Hotel Torino is
not a 3-Star (a story for us to share personally when we return) but they
included breakfast (which we were not aware of or did not remember) and we
found ourselves enjoying it on the 7th floor, outside, overlooking
Rome on a beautiful sunny morning; cool!
It gave us energy to begin our day and we hit the pavement about
8:30a. First to the train station to get
our tickets for Milan and then off to recon the area then to see the sights; as
mentioned earlier, spectacular in every aspect.
Here are some to the
major sights we visited today...
Morning Sights:
Santa Maria Maggiore -
The largest Catholic Marian church in Rome - A Basilica.
The Roman Basilica was originally designed as a Court of Law.
Its design was adopted by many religions as its primary church design.
San Carlo Quattro Fontane -
A church - of course!
An iconic work of the Baroque period.
Built for the Spanish Trinitarians - known for freeing slaves.
The arched area (guy in yellow) is typical of each corner of this street.
A detailed, ornate and elaborate sculpture.
Piazza San Bernardo - This was just a cool little Piazza (Plaza) that we came to with these three structures and the Piazza was basically a parking lot surrounded by some incredible architecture! -
The Quirinale -
The Quirinale was the official home of the President of the Italian Republic
The building was modern and typical.
This statue in front with Gladiators and an Egyptian Obelisk-Not Typical!
The Fontana di Trevi -
The largest Baroque fountain in Rome
Originally commissioned in 1629 with construction starting in 1732
It took 30 years to build
Monumento a Viterino de Emanuel II -
A "monument" to Victor Emmanuel, the first King of a unified Italy
This building is HUGE!
Chelsea del Gesii -
I forgot to take a photo! Sorry...Google It!
Pantheon - This structure is un-imageable by a tourist camera. Construction began in 27 BC during the reign of Augustus but finished by the Emperor Hadrian in 126 AD. It has the worlds largest un-reinforced concrete dome -
The "dome" is 142'/43m high and diameter; the opening (oculus) of 30'/9m
Largo di Torre Argentina – 4 Roman
Republican Temples and the Theater of Pompey -
Julius Caesar was believed to be assassinated in this square.
It was about 2p and we
wanted to stop for lunch and rest the feet a bit. We have decided to continue the Greek custom
of the largest meal at mid-day and we found a great little place tucked back in
a small alley and enjoyed a 90-minute meal.
Sights after lunch:
Plazza Montecitorio -
A palace used for the Italian Chamber of Deputies
A very plain building but our first sighting of an Egyptian Obelisk!
Trajan’s Column
Commemorating Roman Emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars.
We got back to the
room about 4:30p and decided to rest until dark and then venture into the Metro
system for a ride down to the Colosseum to figure out where to meet tomorrow
for our Colosseum tour and to see it and Rome at night; in a word, stunning.
Sights tonight:
Colosseum -
History's first "Arena" in the "Amphitheater" architecture style
Monumento a Viterino de Emanuel II -
Seems Victor - Vitorious Emanuele - was pretty important!!!
The Roman Forum - No night image but above is the post about our visit to the Colosseum and to the Roman Forum on 7 October. Tons of daylight photos taken and will be happy to share them in person when we return.
Of note here in Rome,
population of about 6 million in the city and urban areas, is that half of the
population is going somewhere all the time!
I am glad we are not trying to drive; the subways are full late at night
(Kim got a real taste of what toothpaste feels like when exiting the tube when
she exited these subway trains – I laughed) and the traffic is constant. One good thing about our hotel is we are on
an inside room so it is quiet and no ROOSTERS!!!
Note on the obelisks we are seeing in Rome (6 so far)
Rome is known as the "City of Obelisks". There are 12 total standing in Rome. First brought in by the Emperor Agustus (two) directly from Egypt; then other Emperors followed. The interesting thing is that Rome changed the meaning of the Obelisk from that of a symbol recognizing Atum-Ra into a symbol of the greatness of the Roman Empire.
Tomorrow the
Colosseum! Rome’s most popular
attraction.
Walking Total: 12.4
miles
ἠµἐῤα 22, 24 & 23
(October 3 & 4) and Oct 5 travel to Rome
It has been an absolute relaxing blast
to have had the opportunity to spend 12 incredible days on the island of
Kefalonia, Greece; the largest of the Ionian islands. The people do not value personal space. The like community, family and friends; all
together all the time. We met families
that at the end of the day, school, work, play, end up at the “family”
restaurant; and all during our time there, they included us whom they met not
12 days earlier. Kim and I would come
back to Kefalonia annually if it were not for the huge distance; to the
European world, the Greek Islands, Aegean and Ionian, are like Hawaii to us on
the west coast and the Caribbean to those on the east.
This post will be short as the last days
for us on Kefalonia were really days of reflection and decompression from all
that we did during our first 9 days and as you have read, and I have reported,
we did a lot!
On the 3rd , the families and
friends of our hosts had an afternoon lunch that began at 2p and ended at
5p. It was at Kosta’s restaurant which
is on the seaside road and was out on his seaside “agora”. They roasted a pig on a spit, had fresh
breads, salads, feta and my new favorite, melitzanosalata (a pureed eggplant
concoction of ingredients passed down from generation to generation, made by
Kosta’s wife, Helani); an out of this world spread/dip. You can put it on bread, eat plain, mix with
hardboiled eggs to make the greatest egg salad sandwiches ever…sorry, I have
become distracted; but you get it…I loved it.
There was red wine made by Jerry and Franny (as I have stated
previously, wine that I thoroughly enjoyed and I do not like wine; white or
red. And…to top it all off, a desert
made by Stamatia (Demetri’s wife – the owners of the bike store) called
galaktonpoureko (say it anyway you wish) an entirely homemade from scratch,
custard pie surrounded by flaky pastry breads (phyllo bread is the closest I
can come to in comparing it) that I managed to enjoy seconds of! What a great afternoon.
Kim and I did some more visits to the
village of Poros, and spent our final night enjoying cappuccino, hot Spanish
chocolate lattes and freshly baked cookies and muffins on the seaside café’s
soaking in the sea air, cool breeze all the while being entertained by the
activity the evening brings to the people of Greece.
In Greeklish (Greek words spelled, by
me, in a phonetic manner) “f-hari-stow” (thank you) Franny;
Jerry; all the wonderful people we met during our stay (listed in previous
posts) and to the Greek people for having such an incredible community and
family focused culture.
We are off to Italy
for our final 12 days; Rome and Milan.
Stay tuned!
Walking Total: 4.8
miles (we are prepping for Italy!)
IMAGES
Our lunch by the sea
Wonderful families, friends and awesome "homemade" cuisine!
Kim and I can not thank you all enough for your love and compassion!!
ἠµἐῤα 20 & 21 (October 1
& 2) and a PS to Sept. 30
I should not have posted my previous blog until after the day was
completely over. In the evening on
September 30th, we decided to go down to the village and Bar-Hop;
something you all know Kim and I never do.
But what the heck, how much trouble could we get into. We would like to help the locals by spreading
the wealth so to speak so we went.
We started out at the main bar, the Mythos, (Mythos is a headline beer
here in Greece). We sat down and then
were joined by Captain Georgos Diamanatos, a 60+ year-old Greek that was a
large tanker captain who retired about 5 years ago. He sat, the Greek conversation ensued
(although Captain G spoke very good English) and the Tsipouro was delivered;
pronounced “Cheapero”, it is the discarded grape leftovers from the smashing of
the grape to get the juice for wine and then distilled; you know, the grapes
after everyone stomps on them with their bare feet! Harmless I am sure.
After a round for all, we then headed down to Kosta’s restaurant and and
jug of J&F Tsipouro came out and that is the last bar we made it to! It was a blast as Kosta upon arrival at 9pm,
proceeded to feed us a full meal and desert (we were not that hungry so we ate
small portions not to be rude). The town
Shepherd Council was meeting (yes true shepherds that tend the goats, sheep and
livestock in the hills surrounding Poros) and Jerry got involved with that for
about 15 minutes. Captain Diamanatos’s,
who traveled with us from the Mythos bar, wife, Heleni sat down and joined us,
then Nikos, Jerry and Franny’s handy-man, joined in. Now I, nor Kim, partook in the Tsipouro as we
simply did not like the taste but more than that, I was driving. Kim and I just sat back and watched and
conversed when we could via Jerry and Franny’s interpretation and reveled in seeing
the “local” friends, chat, laugh, tell stories and all along, include us and
our stories in the evening festivities.
It was relaxed, stress-free and of a pace we do not often enjoy
stateside; a great way to end the evening; we turned the lights out at
midnight. End of Day 19 what a great day!
Day 20, October 1
Today was another local day as our hosts had a Birthday party for their Granddaughter
at noon and our plan was to tour the southern part of the island after their
return, have lunch and swim at one of their favorite beaches, Mouda.
This provided us the opportunity to relax and do things around the
house. I took a bike ride up to the
mountain pass separating Poros from Sami, about a 7-mile ride climbing about
1500’/450m passing through the village of Agia Nicklous and ending in Pyrgi
(Peh-Gee). I stopped at a little café in
Pyrgi and there were several locals sitting outside and they spoke English,
they bought me a water and we chatted for a bit; got to try my Greek speaking
skills. Then I rode the 7-miles back and
ran into Demetri (the bike shop owner) as he was on his way up the hill to the pass
and we talked for a minute as he was on a 110km/70mile ride. Kim did her workout, some laundry (Thank You
my Love…always taking care of me!) and did some emails and texting back home.
About 1p, we headed for the south part of the island past the village of
Skala (I wrote about this in my previous posts) and ended up in the little
village of Kateleios where we had lunch on the beach and then headed to Mounda
Beach to do some swimming. I was the
only one that swam as the water was colder here; it was a beautiful day and
very few clouds in the sky. You could
see south into the Mediterranean Sea, the water was flat, sun shining (not a
cloud in the sky) and the breeze was comforting.
We got back about 6 and around 7 Kim and I headed down to Poros for
coffee along the sea; no more bar-hopping!
We are visiting different businesses each time we go into Poros and
tonight we frequented “Hashtag” a more eclectic coffee/spirits bar. It was busy in the village especially now since
the tourist season is over and it was fun to watch the activity. We gathered some groceries, headed back up
the hill and for the us, the day was over.
Tomorrow was going to be a big adventure day up north.
IMAGES
Mouda Beach and the little bay (upper right) where we had lunch - Kateleios
The Archaic Temple of Skala
To the right is a small church we think in respect of these ruins.
On one of the beaches in Skala
Day 21, October 2,
We were on the road early, 8:45a and began the 65Km/40m journey north to
Fiskardo. We traveled through Sami and
Agia Efimia and then up Mt. Kalo (Kalo Oros) traveling high above the Ionian on
the eastern side of this northern finger of Kefalonia. The views were spectacular and the villages quaint,
tiny and very well kept; this is just an estimate but I would say we traveled
through well over 15 villages. An
absolutely gorgeous drive.
We arrived in Fiskardo about 10:30 and had a light breakfast of coffee
and toast (I had pancakes and they were awesome). Fiskardo is a ferry port connecting north Kefalonia
to the island of Leykada, also to the north.
It was busy and still full of tourists many on “rent-a-sailboat”
charters; unlike Poros, Fiskardo has effectively capitalized on the tourist
industry; mostly from the UK and Germany.
After breakfast, we spent about an hour walking along the shoreline
roads and saw many beautiful apartments, houses, resorts and a Roman cemetery
dating back to the 4th Century BC; incredible!
After Fiskardo, we again hit the seaside road high above the water but
now we were traveling down the western side of this northern peninsula. We were headed to the village of Assos for
lunch and to see the Assos Castle; a Venetian Fort and very much military in its
architecture and design.
Again, a home run location. Just
beautiful. Another port along the crazy
jagged shoreline of not only these Ionian Greek Islands but of this entire
geographic location; something I first noticed as we drove from Kalambaka to
Patra on Day 11 (Sept. 22). The Castle
was grand and on the hillside above the Village (we did not tour it due to
time). Jerry and Franny again knew the
family that ran Platano’s Taverna where we would have lunch and interestingly
enough, Jerry went into the local church to pay his respects, asking the man
inside about the family of Platano’s and the man inside caring for the church
was the son! It truly is a small world
and smaller yet on Kefalonia. We had a
great lunch, wandered the village and then headed to Argistoli for a quick tour
of the largest city on the island and then back to Poros; it was 6, a nine-hour
adventure and truly a marvelous day!
IMAGES
The Roman Cemetery complete with Sarcophagi - 2400-2500 years old!
Port of Fiskardo
The Old (R) and New (L) Lighthouses of Fiskardo
Emblisi Beach
Port of Assos
Assos Castle
The Port of Assos bay, the Castle and the western peninsula of Kefalona (top)
The old buildings are a blast to see and look into.
This one withstood the earthquakes of '29 and '53 but collapsed on the inside.
I end with this image...
Kefalonia (foreground), Ithaca (R), Leykada (L) Greek Mainland (way back)
Walking Total: 4.8 miles - Driving 153Km/
Tomorrow another local day and a big feast with the village family of our
hosts.
ἠµἐῤα 17, 18 & 19 (September 28, 29 &
30)
Okay, you got me! Trying to catch-up
with the stories and events of this incredible adventure, I am taking the
highlights of three days and relying upon my photos and captions to best tell
the story; this blogging is not as easy as the teenagers make it look!
First, it is a societal eye-opener when everything save “tourista”
businesses like gift shops and restaurants, close at 2pm and then re-open
around 7pm. Where does everyone go! Nothing like anything we encounter in the
states and especially in Reno, Nevada a 24-hour town. So…while everyone is, where everyone is, I am
taking the opportunity to share the adventure of the last three days here in
the Poros area on the island of Kefalonia.
I assure you that Kim and I are maximizing our time. Walks, bike rides, wandering the villages,
tours of the “prime” sites, visiting with the local “families”, enjoying spectacular
mid-day meals with J & F and even learning the Greek language; a challenge
that we have succumbed to simply utilizing phonetic spellings with a written
cheat sheet. However, the locals get a
laugh and really appreciate our efforts.
We got back from Ithaca in the evening of the 27th and
organized our plan for the next several days.
The 28th, we would make our focus a visit to the local Atrou
Monastery, built in the 8th century.
This Monastery has fallen 17 times due to fire or earthquake and rebuilt
every time but we got the opportunity to visit and see the new and the
old. After a 75-minute hike up about 3
miles (elevation change of about 1800 feet/500m) Jerry met us and gave us a
personal tour with the local Abbot, Archomandrite Daniel Zographos, a young man of 39 (but not in the physical
shape of Abbot's during the earlier centuries of this revered place). Here is what we saw:
The Abbot's residence - Newly constructed
Presently there is an Abbot and an apprentice living here.
A "pano" from the Abbot's home to Poros in the lower right corner
The Church (Greek Orthodox)
Note the incredible tile work and paintings
What's not clear is the 12 Fresco's above the alter in bad need of repair
The 10th Century Library, Priest's Study and Wine making structure
This has been re-furbished and structurally enhanced by a grant from the EU.
You can see some of the structural enhancements at the top of the structure.
An 1100 year old Fresco of the Monastery's Icon holding the Christ Child.
This is untouched - amazing!
The Monk's Kitchen dating back to at least the 11th century
The "Well" from the 8th Century - they located this mountain spring
This water allowed the monks to build this Monastery
It is much nicer today but it is revered as a special spot on the grounds.
Understanding the importance and the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church was only possible by Jerry's personal touch. He interpreted the words of Nektarios, a Monk/Priest, as he guided us around the grounds. We saw and understood the Church, the Library, the Priest's Study, where they made wine, where visiting dignitaries stayed, the kitchen way back in the day around the 8th century. It was truly fascinating. Jerry was very educated and he has even spent time working on the structures on the Monasteries grounds. Our visit ended as we sat with the head Abbot in the greeting room of his home and had conversation, drink and a fig jam of sorts; we did not eat much of the latter.
After the village opened back up, Kim and I walked the waterfront and
visited a local establishment for dessert and a coffee for me – funny, they
actually had decaf cappuccinos but I know…why do I drink them? Well, I am a coffee connoisseur, truly enjoy
the taste of a good blend and have no need for the euphoria of caffeine; you
all know I am plenty euphoric all by myself!
On the 29th, hum? What day is it? Friday, we went back to Sami to visit
Melissani Lake (basically the Greek version of a Mexican Cenote); a lake at the
bottom of a 100’/30m opening in the earth of crystal clear water at about
14-15c/58-60f. You walked down a
man-made earthen tunnel to a boat ramp and had a Gondolier to propel us around
this 300’/100m long sub-surface lake. I
was intrigued as it fed another lake we visited on an earlier visit to Sami so
that must mean a connection; wonder if there is a cave dive here? I did see advertisements from a local dive
shop for dives posted on the trees around the parking lot. Here are a few images from Lake
Melissani:
Inside the lake's inner cavern looking out into the open area of the lake
On the boat! Jerry really is having the time of his life! ;-)
The Gondolier forgot to count to 3 and say Cheese!
Then we went to the Drogarati Caves.
About a 6K/3.5mile drive but only about a quarter mile apart. This was a cave that you walked down
into. Here are a few images from our
visit:
The cave was about 150'/45m in diameter and about 70'/20m in height
After this, we went back to Kosta’s (mentioned and introduced previously)
for lunch and then back to the house for afternoon contemplation. However, Kosta’s wife made this crazy good
orange cake and Kim and I partook so our afternoon contemplation was a 5 mile
walk up the road to Agia Nicolaus. Then
we came back to the house, and being it “village OPEN!”, we walked down into
the village to Demitri and Stamatia’s Bike Shop – "your bike" (www.your-bike.gr)
– and got bikes for our planned ride to Skala (south of Poros about 12k/7miles)
tomorrow morning.
It is now, 30 October and the last day of the summer season here on
Kefalonia; we think everyone shuts up the buildings, turns off the power and
heads back to the mainland where the work to support themselves until next
May/June.
As I bang away at the keyboard it is about 4pm, everything is shut down,
the village is quite and to this point, we have had a very fun day. We started at 8:30a and went for a 2-mile
bike ride with Jerry and Franny. Then we
started south along the Ionian Sea toward Skala. Taking our time, we enjoyed the various
shades of blue the water here provides (I tried to image but nothing close to
reality), the views of the small islands off the eastern shore of Kefalonia,
the mainland of Greece (also to the east) and the hillside scenery, roaming
animals (goats, sheep, cows) and the interesting human development scattered
along the way.
Once we got about 2k/1m outside of Skala, the development started to get
more elaborate and decadent (I have used this word before to describe the
structures that we have seen). Becoming obvious
as an aspect to investigate, we made mental notes and continued on. We got to Skala and pulled off onto a very
nice sandy beach and just took in the view, the ocean sounds, salty air and
cool southwest breeze.
Being it was about 10:30a, we found a little place to have “savory” baked
goods (ham, cheese and marinara pie and a croissant); I voted for sweet but got
overruled and justly so. Then up to
investigate some of the “corporate” hotels, spas and resorts, unfinished
structures and ended with a swim before meeting our hosts back at Fotis Family
Restaurant for lunch at 2p. All in all,
we rode 16miles/10k and took a relaxed pace in seeing more of this incredible
island that may someday be a second home to us like it is to Jerry and
Franny. Here are a few images we took
along the way:
The sandy beach behind us from a rocky point just before Skala
The view from our morning snack in Skala
Name of this establishment - Sugaro...PERFECT!
The turquoise and blue shades of the Ionian Sea
Walking Total: 6.8 miles - Cycling 15 miles
ἠµἐῤα 15 &16 (September 26 & 27)
The Ithaca Adventure
On the morning of the 26th we hit the road to Sami early to
catch the 8:15am ferry to Ithaca. With
the Toyota RAV4 all packed, we drove onto the ferry and were on the island of
Ithaca around 9:15 and into the main village of Vathi by 9:30. Vathi is where we would be staying the night
at the Lykithes, an apartment rental we booked online. Being that we arrived about an hour early for
check-in, we went to a little café operated by a proprietor known to Jerry and
Franny from their previous visits – Andreas - and sat at a beautiful seaside table!
After a light breakfast, we headed up to our apartment but the directions
were pretty bad and we ended up at the gates to Madonna’s private estate but
could go no further as they were locked; her loss on getting to spend time with
us! Hahahaha! After calling the landlord, we backtracked
and checked in with no problems and were off to explore the town of Vathi.
After about an hour of wandering the streets we headed for our first
destination of the day and that was a small vacation port on the northeast end
of Ithaca of Kloni. The road was curvy,
passing through many villages and full of many narrow streets where I swear you
could reach out and touch the buildings!
Not a long distance from Vathi (about 18km/9miles) but it took about an
hour. Again, incredible! A Mediterranean style village with maybe 50
structures and the intrigue of this area is that some of the buildings have
withstood the earthquakes of past and the old architecture and building methods
were clearly visible and inspiring.
As we walked along the village, we got to the end of the waterfront walk
and I decided to take a swim and get a few underwater images of this crystal
clear turquoise water! I was not long
and cooled off, we continued (in backtracking fashion) to the small villages we
passed along the way, stopping to look and admire the quaint, quiet and
peaceful environments these magical places possess. I swear, if you wanted to, you could come
here and simply disappear from existence!
We ended up in a small town, about 6km/3mi away from Kloni, Frikes; also
a small port village. One thing very
consistent with all the ports so far, Vathi, Kloni and Frikes (and all the
ports we would visit during the next two days), they were full of sail boats
from all over the Med; Bulgaria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, etc.; it looked
like a floating R/V campground!
Unfortunately for the Greek economy, these travelers are not very
inclined to visit restaurants or stores.
They stop for the inexpensive, about €5 per night fee and are on their
way the next day; shopping only at the market for supplies.
We parked in Frikes, a village about 330ft/100m in length and of course
our hosts walked right into an older gentleman (80’s) who was the owner of the
Odysseus Taverna (restaurant) where we were going to have lunch; it was now about 2pm.
After lunch was when the adventure intensified as we were headed to a
Monastery up on a mountain. Yes it was
definitely on a mountain!... and the road?
More twisted and the narrowest yet but with sheer drops of sharp
magnitude on the driver’s side going up and the passenger side going down! This was a blast to drive but at about
20km/10miles per hour. The Panagias Monastery was just above the town of Exogi
(X-O-HE) and was on the third highest peak of the island. The drive
was surpassed only by the views, architecture and history of this sacred
place. On the way up, in Exogi, we visited another beautiful church which certainly must be classified as a Basilca because it was the largest and most decorated building on the hillside! But what piqued our interest again was the economic focus and devotion to
building and maintenance that we have seen so far in historical buildings of
worship!
Getting back to Vathi about 5, Kim and I took a walk from our apartment,
130 steps, down into the city and wandered around the back streets, said
Cale-Mera (Hello - Good day) to Andreas, back to the room to gather J&F and then off
to dinner along the sea; we clocked out about 10 as tomorrow would be another
adventure day in Ithaca.
Note here…the reason we stayed the night was because the last ferry
departed at 4p each day and we would never have enjoyed this day had we tried
to cram all this into a ferry schedule.
Thanks Jerry and Franny for the great plan and treating us to a
wonderful adventure overlooking the Bay of Vathi.
Ithaca Day Two
Now we have until 4pm to catch the ferry and three goals. One, the Katharon Monastery (up another cool
road), a Museum in the village of Stavros and then to a nice beach or two for a
swim in the sea.
The weather has been absolutely wonderful. As we woke today looking south over the Bay
of Vathi, it was partly cloudy but we were treated to an incredible sunrise
over the village. We again went to
Andreas’ for breakfast and he was very busy so our breakfast lasted for longer
than normal but we were in no rush and had plenty of time. Hitting the road after some crepes, eggs and
great coffee, we were on our way up the hill to Katharon.
Arriving at Katharon, the atmosphere was completely different as there
were tour buses; unlike Exogi where we were alone…completely alone! After wandering through “foreigners” dropping
cigarette butts and empty packs of cigarettes, of which we picked up, we hung
back and let the crowd clear. Again, an
incredible structure with obviously funding to keep up its condition and
improve and afforded us time for some great scenic shots from hillside just below the islands highest peak, Mt. Nirito.
We then headed for Stavros where we found the museum closed so we
descended to the beach area (another small port) for a glass of water and some
wandering. This port was dominated by
local fishing boats and rental boats from Fiskardo (on Kefalonia) where the
crossing was about 2.5 miles/4km; based upon the number of rental boats coming in, we gathered that this was the trendy thing to
do when staying in Fiskardo. The waters
were clear but swimming seemed a bit treacherous due to “rental” boaters so we
just sat at a table and enjoyed a drink and conversation.
As it was approaching ferry departure time, we descended back over the
mountain into the Bay of Aelos where the sun was shining and the beach
beckoned! We swam and I took some more
photos (without a mask just dropping down on breath-hold and clicked
away).
I will not elaborate too much more sans to say the photos below will tell
some of the story but to really get it? You gotta see this stuff in
person. I will do my best to elaborate
and I hope that so far I am doing so.
We ended the day with a great meal in Sami, on a beach platia, watching
old sailors walking about reminiscing the day they were Captains sailing the
Ionian. We then headed back to
Poros with the plan for tomorrow to be an easy local day and to visit the local
Monastery.
Walking total: 8.3 miles
IMAGES
On the Bay of Vathi as we begin our two days on Ithaca
The view from our room at the Lykithes apartment
The Basicila in Exogi (X-O-He) on the way up to the Monastery
Panagias Monastery high atop the mountain above Exogi
The Panagias Monastery Bell Tower
The view from Panagias above Exogi
Katharon on the hillside just below Mt. Nirito
The view from Katharon - looking east over the Ionian Sea
A view from underwater during our swim before heading back to Poros
The Ferry port on Ithaca
Can you guess what vehicle is ours?
ἠµἐῤα 13 &14 (September 24 & 25)
We have definitely slowed our pace to that of the island lifestyle here
in Kefalonia. Yesterday, 24 September,
was our first full day here in Poros. It
is truly everything you imagined when you picture life in the Greek Isles; certainly a Mediterranean atmosphere. An easy, relaxed
lifestyle; but do not forget that they are providing this atmosphere to the
visitor (tourist) under the condition of extreme economic hardship and massive
government taxation; the stories we are hearing would turn a passivist into a
psychotic killer; simply unbelievable.
Definitely not like the Caribbean or even Hawaii – not as hectic and
chaotic and certainly not as commercial; really a different pace, atmosphere
and attitude that is refreshing to Kim and I.
Our home away from home here with
Jerry and Franny could be classified as out in the country and our first night
sleep was going stellar until 3am when the neighbor’s roosters (he has 3)
started to squawk! I thought these
stupid birds did not cluck until sun-up or when a hot chick was nearby; crazy
and disruptive for sure. Anyway, we made
the best of it and are starting to get more accustomed to this time zone so we
shut the windows and went back to sleep.
We began our day with a full tour of Poros but thanks to the community
knowledge that our hosts possess after 30+ years of living here, the tour was
full of history, resident information, why buildings are vacant, who owned them
and why the businesses have failed, handshakes along the way with introductions to local friends –
introductions in Greek and conversations that had to be interpreted by Jerry
and Franny as we moved through the town (really... a seaside village). We stopped along the way for coffee and
conversation and even got in a swim in the Ionian Sea!
After a morning of “visiting” the town and the many friends of our hosts,
we gathered up some day stuff and headed north to Sami and Agia Efimia, two
cities on the eastern side of the island; north of Poros. The drive was the main event as we passed
through stunning valleys full of color, lush green forest and dotted with
villages and country homes. In Sami, we
needed to seek ferry information to Ithaka, a Greek island just a few miles off
the eastern shore of Kefalonia and then on to Agia Efimia for lunch at a
seaside restaurant of which the proprietors were friends of Jerry and
Franny.
Now meals here are insane in size and delicious beyond belief; we have
had some incredible “chefs” so to say…hand-picked from years of friendship with
our hosts. However, you really have to
pick which meal of the day will be the main meal because no human, not even me
and especially not Kim, could eat like this three meals a day; we have selected the mid-day meal to
be ours. Today, our lunch consisted of
about 5-6 appetizers (all of which I cannot remember the names) and then a main
course, in this case a 1-kilo grouper; yep, the fish came on a plate, eyes,
head and all! The server, a young local
gal, carefully de-boned the fish and presented it for consumption; it was
scrumptious!
After lunch, we visited some small local sites and the real treat was
that they let me drive home; 5-speed manual along curvy roads. A blast and we made it back in no time! The rest of the evening was relaxing, full of
conversation, blogging (hahaha) and making a plan for the next couple of
days.
September 25
Today we began with a walk before breakfast to the ruins of a village
upon the hillside where Jerry and Franny’s home is. About a 2-mile walk. There were some devastating earthquakes here
in ’29 and ’53 and the villagers did not rebuild nor did their younger family
members (drawn away to better economic opportunities?). We visited a church that however is still in
operation and the site of about 24 multiple graves; contained more than one family member. Truly a walk back in time.
After our walk we had a light breakfast (thank god!) and then down into
Poros for some bike riding along the Ionian Sea. After about 8 miles of riding (which we will
do again) we went to Kosta’s (landlord of Jerry and Franny’s home) restaurant
down by the ocean for lunch; a short lunch today of only about 2 hours. There were errands to run and tasks to
accomplish by our hosts and then back up to the house about 4.
A very relaxing and easy day as our road so far has been full of great
adventure it only appropriate that tomorrow we visit the island of Ithaka; so
far for Kim and I, a marvelous journey for sure.
Walking total: 7.4 miles - cycling: 8.5
IMAGES
Jerry and Franny's valley - their home is center of image
Swimming in the Ionian Sea - about 72 f / 22 c
Not as salty this close to shore due to heavy fresh water flow
Pano from the center of the port of Sami
You can see the Isle of Ithaka in the center
ἠµἐῤα 11 &12 (September 22 & 23)
We woke to an absolutely beautiful day
in the Meteora Area; Kalambaka Greece.
For the first time since we departed Reno on the 12th, we had
no immediate schedule! We could
leisurely wake, have breakfast and simply enjoy a relaxing morning into
afternoon; our bus for Patras did not depart until 2p; we executed this morning
perfectly.
About 1pm we headed to the bus station;
not really a station but an intersection of 5 streets where people stood on all
5 waiting for a bus; we were told to wait in a certain area and after 3 busses
came, loaded people and luggage (mostly large plastic bags full of stuff) and left,
our bus finally came – 9 minutes after 2, heading to Trikala where we change
busses to Patras! No worries, our Patras
bus does not leave until 3 and we have 51 minutes to get basically 8 miles;
3:06 the bus arrived in Trikala, with us a bit worried as this is the only bus
to Patras for the next 2 days, and to our benefit, it was waiting for the
passengers on our bus so again, no worries, but we did not know. We got on the bus and away we went: 5 hours
to Patras.
The road to Patras went over a couple of
mountain passes. Not high mountains say
3000-4000 feet in elevation but the roads were really curvy and the bus driver
drove the bus like a sports car; he was aggressive but very in control. A small story here, and in typical fashion, I
got yelled at by the driver for standing while moving. I did not know I was getting yelled at until
he abruptly stopped the bus, got out of his seat and approached me with hand
gestures and a tone that clearly let me know I screwed up. I apologized in English, sat down and was
good the rest of the way! Kim just
smiled and accepted that she is stuck with me; we both laughed.
We got to Patras about 9pm and walked to
our hotel, the Patras Palace – a Three Star – but 100m/300 feet from the bus
station. We dropped our stuff, Googled
restaurants nearby and were off to Colazone – an Italian eatery and it was
awesome. Best risotto that Kim said she has ever had and I had spaghetti with
cheddar sauce – delicious! Back to room
and out.
September 23
We woke to another beautiful day. We were now on on the Bay of Patras – the
Ionian Sea. My god this sea shoreline is
gorgeous! The hotel had a breakfast on
the 6th floor so we checked it out.
Awesome, a deck overlooking the sea, we ate breakfast and then headed in
search of tickets to Kyllini and then on to the island of Kefalonia where our
friends Jerry and Franny lived. Not a
huge problem. We found out that there
are two bus stations, we went to the wrong one first which was the bus station
that we arrived at last night and they showed us where to go. Getting to the “community” bus station, we
bought our tickets for the bus to Kyllini and for the ferry to Poros, Kefalonia
and were on our way; packed bus but we were able to find seats; a few young men
stood for the 90-minute ride. Getting to
Kyllini, we exited the bus (which drove onto the ferry as it would continue to
Argistoli (Kefalonia) later) grabbed our bags and headed to the top outside
deck for the 90-minute journey to the island.
Arriving in Poros about 1:30p, Jerry and
Franny were there waiting and excited to see us. In minutes we were at their home in the hills
above Poros, sorting out our stuff and getting ready for our 10 day stay here.
Once settled, Franny had prepared an
incredible spinach salad lunch with everything fresh grown from her garden or
her friends and we sat and chatted and ate a traditionally Greek 3-hour lunch
with plenty of homemade Robola (white wine) served continuously! The Robola was made by Jerry and Franny and
absolutely delicious; and I am not a wine drinker.
Its 5pm, time for a nap because dinner
is at 9pm. We almost felt guilty because
we really have not exerted any energy today but we gladly participated and
slept for about an hour. We rose to
Franny watering her gardens and then took tours of the entire property.
Jerry and Franny have been coming to the
Island and city of Poros for over 40 years so they are a very huge part of the
community. I suspect that over the next
10 days, we will get to meet most of, if not all, their Greek family; exactly
what Kim and I hope. Tonight, we would
meet a gentleman they consider a son and his family; Maike (Mikey) Kambitsi,
his wife Maria and their precocious 9-year old daughter, Franchesca. They own a very nice restaurant overlooking
the bay and that is where we would dine; Agrapidos – prickly-pear.
As per plan we sat at 9pm, enjoyed some
incredible dishes of Saganaki (fried cheese), Melinzanes (an eggplant salad),
mussels in a wonderful feta and tomato sauce, greek salad, conda-soufle pork
(cooked on the spit) and more Robola! We
chatted with Jerry and Franny’s family and got to meet their granddaughter who
was very versed in English. In typical
Greek tradition, we ate, chatted and then topped off the meal with some whiskey –
Johnny Walker Red – I don’t recommend it -
it was about 10:30pm. Lots of
laughs and stories then back to the house.
Tomorrow is another day and we do not know what J&F have in
store!
Two days total: 4 miles...boo!
IMAGES
Our walk to the bus station in Kalambaka - about 500m/.33 mile
Cab? Nonesense Martin...we will walk - I love my wife!
The ferry port in Poros, Kefalonia, Greece
Jerry and Franny's home, 1 mile up the road from Poros.
Absolutely picturesque Mediterranean style and setting!
Great hosts, incredible meal - It is truly great to be here!
Little Franchesca
ἠµἐῤα 10 (September 21)
My appetite has returned. Whatever
bug got me, it seems to be gone and we hit the 8am breakfast by the pool…this
is tough! A new day of schedules! The bus for Meteora departed at 9. We missed it but the stop by the “fountain of
water” we could make; a quick hoof up the hill, and success…up the road we
went. Basically, the road taking off
from the upper north end of town led us back behind the huge rock monoliths
that dominated the view from our room.
We bought the all-day bus pass, €5,50, but that was a waste as after the
bus dropped us at the Great Meteoron, we never saw it again traveling in the
direction we were headed. After touring
the Great Meteoron, we walked down to Varlaam and then to the oldest, a nunnery
(the first two were monasteries), Rousanou with its 270 steps to the
entry. Exiting Rousanou, there were
steps up, so we, not having a clue as to where they went, followed them; total
tourist! Well this was a good thing, it
put us on the road to the final two structures, St. Stephens and then the Holy
Trinity.
These structures are truly a stretch of “doable” by any modern-day
definitions of construction. Like much
of the ancient and historical architecture we have encountered on this trip,
truly spectacular and mind-blowingly thought provoking as to how these
structures were built. The artwork, the
wood carvings, the mere size of each monastery were incredible then, throw in
the fact that they are built on shear rock monoliths that stand up in cases
over 1000 feet / 300 meters!
Following our visit to the Holy Trinity, where you walk down about 200
ft/60m, we then decided to take the hike out back down to Kalambaka; a very
well sculpted, but steep, trail that leads right back onto the city
streets. We stopped for lunch at a
tavern that had a name, but Greek to us, and then back to the room for a couple
of hours. It was 3pm.
We definitely recommend this as a Greek destination. If you are in good shape and can walk at
least 10 miles in a day, then one full day here is plenty; our schedule worked
perfectly. Don’t buy the day bus pass
and definitely start with the Great Meteoron and work south.
We ended the day walking the back streets and viewing the homes and
churches (man they love to spend bank on the churches (places of worship) over
here…man! Then to Syrtakis, a “tavern”
for some Saganaki Shrimp and Calamari but the surprise treat was the 500ml
bottle of local white wine (€5 - a bargain) that really hit the spot and had to
be of alcohol content above the norm.
Stopping at the bakery for a treat to share on our deck overlooking the
monoliths of Meteora, we ended the day with a sweet sensation in our
bellies. Tomorrow we have till 2pm here
in Kalambaka and then the 5-hour bus journey to Patra. Not sure if we will stay in Patra or end up
in Kilini (where we need to catch the ferry to Kefalonia – a western Greek Isle
– where we will spend the next 11 days.
Days walk: 10.6 miles
IMAGES - There are many more so come on by when we return to see more!
The Great Meteoron - the first monastery we visited - 1900' elevation
Another View (west) of the Great Meteoron
The Varlaam Monastery - our second stop.
Kim at the base of the Varlaam Monastery -
It is so hard to show scale but that spire above her is 150'/45m above!
This is a wall mural depicting the various Monks overseeing the Great Meteron
Monks that may have presided many hundreds of years ago.
Here is where they ended up...on a shelf in the basement!
This is for whatever reason, very disturbing to me.
I will end for now with a graphic of the area and some editing of my own showing you our day hiking the Monasteries of Meteora:
ἠµἐῤα 9 (September 20)
Today is the Birthday of our oldest, Elizabeth and our travel day to
Kalambaka; the city at the base of Meteora.
Up at 6:15, breakfast at 7, cab at 7:30, train station at 7:45 and on
the train and headed north at 8:20. That
is the pace we have been keeping and enjoying every second. The train trip took
about 5 ½ hours as we arrived in Kalambaka at about 2:00pm. The curiosity here is that in Athens, we
dropped off our luggage at the train station and got a receipt but we never did
see the attendant tag the bag. In
Kalambaka, we departed and asked where the luggage was and they said, “second
car you can go get it”. I walked up expecting some line and our two
bags were the only two bags in the car; €5 well spent!
Now standing at the train station we plotted, well….Kim plotted, our path
to the Monistiri Guest House; I did not help.
After about 5 very thought intensive minutes of map consultation, I
chimed in, helped Kim get her bearings and then we started the walk to our BnB
but…not before Kim got her first introduction to European toilets; the kind
that are basically a hole in the floor.
I laughed very deeply (I was introduced to them during my Everest trek
in 2005) as we began our trek. We walked
for about 5 minutes and 300-400 meters, we arrived at a very Mediterranean
influenced structure. Again, Kim knocked
it out of the park. Dita was our Hostess
and we were checked in to a wonderful suite; the largest room we have occupied
yet. After sorting out our stuff, we
took the ?map? that our Proprietors created and went exploring the town.
Very small town but nowhere near it size in terms of location. We found it much less hectic than Athens or
even Paris for that matter so it was a welcome calm. With my stomach starting to start feeling
better but still no appetite, we went to Plantanos for dinner (a restaurant
recommended by our hosts on Kefalonia, Jerry and Franny), marveled at the herd
of feral cats, enjoyed a nice meal with desert on the house and then headed
back to rest for tomorrows assault on Meteora.
Days total steps: 10,283 (about 5 miles)
IMAGES
A countryside view from the train to Kalambaka
The Monastiri Guesthouse, Kalambaka, Greece
The view of Meteora from our deck - this photo does not do it justice...
Massively, stunningly, mind-blowing!
ἠµἐῤα 8 (September 19)
As we rose, I knew something was very wrong with me. Since our last night in Paris, my stomach had
been in agony and all day yesterday, I ate very little. Hitting breakfast this morning I had no
energy or appetite but forced myself to eat and hydrate. Feeling like crap and knowing I had to keep
up with Kim, I needed to “man-up” and suck-it-up. We hit the street and headed for the Acropolis
at 10am.
You would think that the way would be very obvious but it was not marked
in any way. We made a few wrong turns
and headed back to the hotel to use the restroom, they were not very available
in the square and I would ask the bellman for directions.
With a clear direction in hand, we headed to the ticket counter, plopped
down our €30 each and entered the Acropolis.
This place…unbelievable. It is about a 10-minute walk to the Propylaea
and through this 2500-year-old grand entrance we went. Massive, inconceivable, grand do not do it
justice. We walked up to the Parthenon
(the largest and most famous structure) and just stood there in utter awe. The Erechtheion, The Old Temple of Athena,
the Temple of Athena Nike (I think that is the New Temple of Athena), are the
major structures standing up on the Acropolis (by the way, Acropolis is not a
structure, it is the Greek term for “high point” in the city, albeit it is not
the highest of points within the city, it is the biggest and made for a great
statement of military strength.
After about an hour atop we descended to walk around the entire Acropolis
from the south wall to the north wall.
We visited the Odeon of Herod Atticus, the Theater of Dionysus, saw the Temple
of the Olympian Zeus, Hadrian’s Arch, The Greek Folk Art Museum (a ruin) and
many others. It was spectacular and
colossal. What we realized however was
to really get a complete experience is that you need to do some enormous study
prior to your visit because the small informational plaques were nowhere near
complete and you also need more than one day.
We enjoyed the day immensely but with fatigue, my stomach, we accepted
our viewing limitations and enjoyed our simple assumptive conversation on how
all this was done and what it must have looked like 2500 years ago.
On our way back, we found a bakery that made cheese pie (pizza) and
moussaka (an eggplant, lamb, potato and dough type of lasagna) took it back to
the hotel, went to the rooftop bar and ate dinner and watched the sun set over
Athens and the Acropolis. Tomorrow, up
at 6am for the train to Kalambaka and the Monasteries of Meteora.
Days Walking total: 7.2 miles
IMAGES
Athens and the density of development right up to the base of the Acropolis
The Erechtheion and the incredible decoration and detail in its construction...
2500 years ago!
The Northeast corner of the Parthenon -
it was hard to find an angle that did not have some sort of modern day construction equipment in the frame as they are trying very hard to prevent this structure from crumbling and falling completely down.
The Odeon of Herod of Atticus
A speaking, small play, music theater
It was grand, they liked their entertainment and they had no Netflix!
The Acropolis at night as viewed from our hotels rooftop
A view of the Acropolis's east end -
This was a mighty fortress for the Spartans of Greece!
From atop the Acropolis looking south -
Upper right corner is the Agean Sea
ἠµἐῤα 7 (September 18)
I have to say, and I think I am speaking for the both of us, that
exhaustion is certainly being felt. We
set two alarms so that we would rise in preparation for our travel to Athens
and were out the door of Hotel Pavilion Monceau by 7 and into our very
expensive UBER. Funny, it cost us €45 on
the way in but today? €90! Oh well, we
could have simply taken the train and it probably would have cost about €10
(for both of us) but we just did not plan for that and we did not realize UBER
would be this radical on price.
We were told that we needed to be to CDG three hours early so with a very
aggressive UBERIE (cabbie Uber style) we got to the ticket counter at 9:15a for
a 12:15 flight; funny, no one to be seen until about 10a but all went smooth
and the Agean Airline flight was great, on time and even served a hot meal of
very small chicken breast.
So, now we are in Athens, got on the train at the airport and exited the
train at the Monistriki Station and after two or three huge escalators, hit
street level on Athinas. street and took
a left as instructed and bam, 100m we were at the Attalos Hotel; welcomed by
very courteous young men and we checked in by 6pm; shit…where did that day go!
The hotel was just to the north of and directly below the Acropolis and
with full knowledge of the rooftop bar, that is where we headed. Sharing a drink, we could view without
distortion the entire Acropolis.
Relaxing there for only the time it took to finish a cosmo and a double
scotch/rocks, we headed down into the square.
Just like we would imagine in ancient Greek times, the square was
rocking and full of people. There were
ruins all around; modern man had basically taken over what was not grounds that
held ruins. We stopped at several as we
adventured this area of Athens and noticed that the merchants were simply
trying to eek out a meager living on the back of the tourist dollar. Lots of simply crappy trinkets, shirts,
“original” artwork, etc. The other thing
that was absolutely sad, and this began when we hit street level following our
train ride in, was graffiti; it was everywhere and is telling a very sad story
of this ancient city.
We called it a day after finding a dinner place and that was not hard as
every dinner place you went by they had two people stopping you to promote
their establishment; some with handsome men and some with beautiful ladies; Kim
opted for the one with the handsome guys!
They were quite the salespeople but I would say in this area there were
2500 tables and being that it is low season, heavy competition to fill
theirs.
We finished dinner, did a bit more exploring and headed back to get some
sleep for tomorrow it is supposed to by 100 degrees (f) and very little shade.
Days walking total: 5.2 miles
IMAGES
The Train from ATH to Monistriki - really...it took us right to our hotel!
45 minutes, air-conditioned, smooth ride
After a cab ride to a train station, I am glad I did not have to drive this route!
The view from the rooftop bar - those are our knees! - This is a POV image.
!
A beautiful building, covered in graffiti.
There was not a single wall along the entire area that was not covered!
Lacking pride? We do not know but simply sad.
Journee 6 (September 17)
Our last full day in this incredible city. Today we took it easy and visited some of
the sights we had left on our list, Sacre-Coure, The Moulin Rouge (only because it
was in the area of Sacre-Coure), the Statue de la Liberte, the Eiffel Tower
light show that we missed last night by ten minutes and any other things we saw
along the way. Also, I need to find crepes.
You would think that easy but we have yet to find a “crepe” specific
restaurant. Finally, again food centric (a Martin thing that Kim tolerates and
my children laugh at), we need to indulge in some French pastries (patisserie).
All of which, I am sure we will accomplish.
Knowing that you may be tiring of my prose, I am going to do a photo essay for this blog entry. Once we hit Greece on the evening of September 18, ημέρα 7, I will again resume the act of putting fingers to keyboard!
A Photo Essay:
In walking some 30 plus miles around Paris, we finally found a gas station -
This was our view of the Sacre-Coure from the Craperie where we had breakfast -
The Sacre-Couer: an incredible Catholic Basilica -
Our breakfast Craperie (direct center of image at the end of the grass area just before the road) from atop the dome of the Sacre-Coure -
A view of the Eiffel Tower from atop the Dome of of the Sacre-Coure (to get to the top of the dome was 300 marches in a very narrow granite spiral staircase! Spectatular!) -
The famous Moulin Rouge...
On a real seedy street in Pigalle on the border of the 9th and 18th Arrondissements at 82 Boulevard de Clichy.-
I did not get a picture of the strawberry crape I had for breakfast but we did finally share some fine French pastries and wow...what a sugar high! We could only eat half -
Lemon Tart on the left and Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Eclair
Kim and I at the Statue de Liberte here in Paris. There is a great "subway story" with this image so when we return, we will share it with you! -
Days walking total: 6.8 miles and this was an easy day!
Final thoughts from: La Ville Lumière"
What a great time we had here in Paris. It is said that the Parisians are rude and
short with tourists. We did not find
that the case. We feel that it is just
that in a city of such population and density, they have to get things done
quickly and do not have time for indecision and improper planning. We found the locals to be quite nice and
helpful.
If we can provide information for future visitors, it would
be this: Get to know the subway system
right off and realize the customer service is great and kind. Pay attention to the crossing lights, go on
green! Look both ways and realize, the
traffic lights are on the side immediate to the stopped traffic, not across the
street like in the US. Charge your phone
daily and make sure you are versed with some sort of map app - this was
invaluable. Use UBER or the Train from
the airport (CDG) as taxi's are twice the cost of UBER. Realize that the Cafe's have great outdoor
seating but that is where they allow smoking and Europeans love to smoke. Have a good supply of Euros. Watch for the scams at the Eiffel Tower -
Rickshaw, Sacre-Coure - wrist strings and make sure you see a menu with prices
at the Cafes. Rain gear is quite
valuable and a small umbrella could come in handy, check the weather reports
before departing. Utilize a light weight
back pack with good zippers to carry everything and hinder pick-pockets. Try to find a local grocery store for meals
in the evening when you do not feel like going out. Last but not least, carry zip-loc bags as the
cafe's do not provide to-go boxes and at times these would have been handy.
Journee 5 (September 16)
Today is the Chateau Versailles and the plan was to leave the room about
8, get the train (which we carefully planned out from the Pererie-Levallois
arret [station]) at 9am. Darn, we missed!
Our sleep schedules are still a bit screwed up and last night Kim got
her first real decent full night’s sleep (as I, and was a voluntary contributor
to this “schedule slide”) so we did not rise until 9:30am.
After a 20-minute train ride, we made it to Chateau Versailles (area), I
was expecting this short train ride, in the country to then arrive at this
chateau out in the country. That was not
to be. The train terminated, we exited
and the first thing I saw was an f-in KFC, then McDonalds and a Starbucks. Shit, there goes the quaint countryside
chateau image for me. Once off the
train, we had to walk along this “city’s” streets, past all the stores, vendors
and peddlers to arrive at the Chateau Versailles; a monstrous structure adorned
by huge gold painted steel fencing. It
was quite the sight.
As we got through security, we saw a huge line about 2-3 city blocks long
but Kim informed me that not to worry as we have no wait tickets; love that
girl. We walked up to the entrance and
found out that that line? was the no wait line!
Oh well, so we walked back to the end of it and waited our turn for
entry. It only took about 30 minutes so
it was not that bad but my god, the number of people was in and of itself amazing;
and frustrating for me at the same time.
We entered the Chateau at about noon and began our adventure. A cool aspect was that we were able to
download an audio tour app right to our iPhones so the plan was to tour the
inside and then spend the majority of the afternoon in the “jardin”
(garden).
There were three main sections to tour inside the Chateau, The King’s
Daughters (Mesdames’) Apartments, The State Apartments and the Gallery of
Battles (commissioned by Napoleon and clearly a statement to his ego). We set off and were immediately rejected
because I was eating an apple…no food allowed (Kim just rolled her eyes! She is so patient with me…Strike 1). So we exited, I finished the apple and we
continued with the inside tour; along with about 50,000 others. Side note here: there are quite a few
cultures that have no clue about personal space but we smiled and joked aloud
in English. We laughed a lot!
It took about 2-hours to do the full audio tour of the inside and I have
to say that the words “elaborate”, “exuberant”, “ornate”, “decadent” and
utterly “excessive”, do not even do justice as descriptors to this palace. I am not even going to try to describe sans
to say that the marble, granite, sculpture, ceiling paintings, hand carved wood
adornments, paintings and furniture were mind blowing from the standpoint of
what was done but to me…how did they afford this utterly luxurious
self-indulgence! It was impressive at
the same time mentally conflicting; what made a person need such elaboration to
justify themselves? Both Kim and I drew
this same conclusion.
Being that it was about 3, we thought it would be a good break before
going outside to get lunch so I suggested one of the restaurants and upon being
seated, and seeing that a large S. Pellegrino water was 9.2 Euros (about $12 vs
$1.50 at a grocery store in the US) I immediately turned to the plats (dishes)
page and when I saw that a sandwich was 22 Euros, I looked at Kim, not quite
hangry but getting close and said, “this could be a $150 lunch and I would
rather spend that in the City at a nice restaurant sporting authentic French
cuisine” and she agreed but the act of exiting did embarrass her a bit
so…Strike 2. We went to the “fast food”
sandwich line, got to the front of the line and they ran out of sandwiches but
only for about 10 minutes. When the resupplied,
we got a couple Poulet (chicken) sandwiches and drinks and headed outside to
the Jardin’s to enjoy lunch.
We toured the Jardin’s for about 3 hours and they were just as elaborate
and impressive as the Palace. A maze of
trails leading in and out of massive groves of trees and hedges; trails that
intersected as some point of interest that was usually a fountain of lavish
design. At this point, we were only
about 4 miles into our daily walk but I have to tell you, I was fading; legs
ached a bit but feet were pounding however, I had to gut-up as Kim was going
strong and I was not going to be the wimp that cut this adventure short!
It was about 5pm and we were now at the far western end of the Estate and
with the fountains scheduled to shut-off at 5:30p, Kim says we have to see the
Dragon Fountain. “Dragon Fountain?! you
did not tell me this earlier Why?. Your
‘killing me Smalls!’” [Side note here is that anyone that knows Kim, knows what
dragons mean to her] So, we hauled-ass up to the Dragon fountain and…yes…it was
OFF! Shit, oh well, we got some great
photos and walked across to the Neptune Fountain to watch a water show. Guess what, they turned on the Dragon fountain
for this show and since what we were watching was nothing say compared to the
water show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, we looked at each other and without
words, hauled-ass back to the Dragon fountain and got some great photos; my
legs were getting a thorough trashing but we truly were having a great time!
Hanging around the Jardin’s for about another hour, we found ourselves
back at the train station about 6:30pm heading back to the city and by 7, we
were back at the Eiffel Tower Metro station where Kim said, “stop! let’s look
for a “French Cuisine” restaurant down here, eat dinner and then go view the
Eiffel Tower all lit up”. A great idea
so that is exactly what we did.
Finding the Le 7’eme Vin, we entered, sat down - like sardines in a can - and enjoyed a fabulous authentic French meal (about half the price of what was presented at the Chateau) and a much better atmosphere. Kim had Poulet in a Normandy Sauce and
I…DUCK…never had duck…gonna try something completely different. Duck in a raspberry sauce would be my entrée. However, you know I had to have escargot and
their version was “snails in casserole” so for my appetizer, I ordered one and
Kim had vegetable soup and all along the evening we enjoyed a nice chardonnay. It was really perfect and then had to
interrupt three tables of people dining to exit. Hilarious.
Days Walking total: 8.1 miles
IMAGES
This is the "bed" chamber of one of the daughters of King Louis XIV.
It is one of 5 rooms that comprised an "apartment for each daughter.
One of the many ceiling paintings adorning each of the 5+ rooms that comprised the King's quarters (apartment).
I estimate this painting to be 35'-40' (10m-12m) top to bottom.
The main fountain at the base of the grand staircase leading to the Jardins.
Latona's Fountain:Daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe and sister of Asteria.
The back of Chateau Versailles
A chateau that had over 700 rooms
Housing 20,000+ Noblemen throughout its history up to the French Revolution
The view following our wonderful French dîner.
Journee 4 (September 15)
We are now 3-0 on the Paris subway and we are so confident that tomorrow
we will be 5-0, we already bought our round-trip tickets to the Palace of
Versailles; taking us outside of the Paris city limits. Today our subway adventure took us first to
the Pantheon and we returned from the Louvre after a visit in between to Notre
Dame.
We arrived at the Metro’s Jussieu station in the southeast-central 5th
Arrondissement’s Quartier Latin district about 10am and were not as successful
at land navigation as we were on the subways!
But after a couple of direction changes, we headed up this incredible
one-lane street and it wound around to a city center area and after a few pedestrian
crossings we were at the back side of the Pantheon. A huge structure, about 2-US city blocks
square, that we easily walked around and ending up looking almost due east,
viewing its front Portico as a backdrop, we decided to first hit a café and
have some breakfast.
The breakfasts here are high in carbs!
Croissants that definitely due not need butter (so we loaded them up
with strawberry jam), fresh baked biscotti, and not the small ones the US
coffee houses provide; these were huge.
Accompanied by a hot drink, Kim has tea and I… Café Americano with
Crème, orange juice and scrambled eggs; they term as an omelet; all for about
$15 US. Today was not a rush, so I had a
second Café Americano and about 11:30am we were entering the Pantheon.
After spending about 2 hours inside this massive domed structure looking
at the architecture, art, sculpture, and the coffins, inside the burial vaults
within its lower level crypt, we exited in awe!
I studied this building in my early college years (not many of you know
that my dream exiting high school was to become an architect) as an
architectural student and I have got to tell you, “books and pictures do not
even come one percent close to providing this construction work of immensity’s
true reality”! This place was awesome
and yes, inside those coffins were real bodies: Voltaire, Alexander Dumas,
Madame Curie, Braille and its Architect, Soufflot to name just a few of the 75
interred there; three of which are women.
Now back on foot and navigating better, we headed up to Notre Dame but
not before I caved and had to have a Parisian pastry; Kim is so good, she had
fruit but I did manage to get her to take a bite, albeit small, very small, of
my pastry.
Notre Dame is a free tourist attraction and it was packed but that’s
okay, we got to go inside, get some great photos, again discuss how
architectural texts miss the grandeur of a structure like this, stare in awe at
the hundreds of stained glass windows (they look crappy from the
outside-hahaha) and realize this building took over 200 years to build and with
maintenance and restoration efforts along the way, over 700 years of work has
gone into this magnificent structure. We
walked around the outside and are thinking about going back to go up into the towers
but ran short of time today. Notre Dame
rests right along the Seine river just east of our next destination, the Louvre
Museum so we just followed the Seine west and bam…there we were, the Louvre.
The museum was incredible and you could spend 2-3 days there if art, art
history and physical art and history interaction was your thing; not really
mine but I did enjoy the time we spent there and I know Kim loved it. We saw really incredible Egyptian artifacts
(but really cannot understand how they came to be in a French museum), the Mona
Lisa, Venus de Milo, several paintings by Rembrandt, Raphael (he is also buried
in the Paris Pantheon), DiVinci and a tons of incredible sculptures; literally!
With feet aching, we hit the subway (our 3-0 success) and got back to our
hotel about 7:30pm. Opting for a light
dinner, we ate cheese, crackers, salami and fruit in our room with a nice glass
of Chardonnay! To end the day, we
planned tomorrows adventure to Versailles and called it a night at about 11pm;
we will sleep later but for now…we seem to be running on enthusiasm, excitement
and a fair bit of adrenaline!
Day Total: 9.2 miles (and we took subways! 3.2 miles walking inside the Louvre alone!)
IMAGES
Underneath the Pantheon's Dome, 83m/272' above - This place was incredible!
The Pantheon's Portico - So many tourists, my twin photo bombed us...Sorry!
Notre Dame
One of "hundreds" of stained glass windows: from inside Notre Dame
Stunning is not an equitable term - Magnificent!!!
Yep...we saw it with about 20,000 others! Not sure what all the fuss is about?
Journee 3 (September 14)
Our first Parisian nights sleep was quite hilarious as it was simply…noisy outside…all night! Sirens, cars, people yelling – just like NYC! Exacerbating the situation was the room being small and not well ventilated we wanted our floor to ceiling window/door open for comfort and well, that certainly helped the sounds of Paris in altering our sleep; we did our best.
With that lead-in you can probably figure that we woke late; at 8 (instead of 7), so we hustled to get out the door by 9 as we had tour reservations at the Eiffel Tower at 11 and a 2.4 mile walk, the Arc de Triomphe to photo and breakfast in between our departure and the tour. Well, we made it with 7 minutes to spare but really, about 30 minutes to spare as the tour operator did not begin touring until 11:30am.
We headed over to the Eiffel Tower and began the process which really went fast as Kim purchased tickets in advance with the caveat of a “no waiting in lines” feature but we did have to go through security and that took a bit of time. I would say there were a lot of tourists there but nothing had we come during the summer. Hitting the top of the tower (1063’/324m) around 12:42pm, we took photos, walked around all 4 sides of the observation towers and then headed down to the second level observation level, about (500’/150m), did the same "view looking" and then to the first observation level and out about 3pm.
Here is where I let us fall into our first scam. We hired a bicycle “rickshaw” driver and asked how much to take us to the Catacombs of Paris. He said 25 euros. We said great. He got about 5 minutes down the road and said here you are. I said, not even close and he began to argue and get heated so I smiled and said F-it and paid the guy and we proceeded to simply walk which we were going to do in the first place. We though if we could help the local economy, we would; one of my best memories in Katmandu was a ride in a rickshaw! In anycase, it was definitely additive to our adventure so we share it with you all. We hit the road. 2.4 miles.
Getting to the Catacomb’s around 4, we grabbed a quick lunch and again, thanks to Kim, used our “no-wait” tickets and were quickly 200’ below the surface of Paris’ southern 14th Arrondissement and spent the next hour underground with hundreds of thousands of dead bodies! It was an interesting natural museum and an eye opener to how the Parisian’s dealt with all the dead bodies in the late 1700’s. Exiting nowhere near where we entered, we got out the phones, hit the map app and figured out where we were and plotted our path home; let’s try the Metro. What could possibly go wrong.
We entered the Metro at the Denfert-Rochereau station, asked for help from the agent at the ticket counter, looked confused, reconned at the station metro map, got a plan, went to the ticket counter again to ask for help and info, he was very helpful, not that the info made much sense, bot tickets (1.90 euros each – great bargain as we were about 5 miles from the hotel- a $25 UBER ride), entered through the turn style, dropped down into the subway and a nice young man saw us and knew we were twisted completely upside down! He took a minute, showed us how to navigate the subway system (a system that always amazes me – what came first? The city or the subway. If the city was the answer, how in the hell did they do that!!!) and in 30 minutes, we popped up about 950 feet from the hotel. We became instant subway pros! (I am sure a future story will crush that image we have of ourselves) But we did make big strides and we have 3 more days here in Paris so knowing how to use this method of transportation is going to allow us to see much, much more of this incredible city.
As I complete this for the day, it is 8pm and time for a quick snack and some sleep for tomorrow comes the Pantheon, Notre Dame (not the college in America) and the Louvre; a big museum Kim tells me!
Days Total: 8.4 miles
[If you only see text, don't worry, images are coming!]
Trip Summary, 17
October – 35 days hence from our departure…
I sit here on AA 199,
MXP to JFK at a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet, and I reflect on the best
5-week block-of-life that Kim and I have shared in our 25 years together;
fitting as this adventure is a celebration of that milestone. Now I am not saying that we have not had
other “best” blocks-of life, 25 years is a hell of a “block in and of itself,
but what I am saying is that we have never spent a solid 5-weeks together
adventuring, cooperating, planning, conversing, sharing and bonding quite like
this. However, this creates further
reflection, as we scream west at 575mph, as to how blessed we are to sincerely be excited to return to our life reality; family, friends, colleagues,
work, responsibilities and our future 25-years together.
Life truly is not an isolated event; it is the sum of everything just
listed and understanding the importance and relevance of them all, how they
work together and how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to balance them
all; not always easy or fun; but for us, the foundation of our goodness.
In my life, I have
learned to try and find education in the experiences I have had the honor to
have and the above is what I return to; life is pretty cool no matter what you
are dealing with at one particular moment; some great, good, complex and or
challenging! Another lesson learned on
this adventure is that you can go on vacation too long; at least under the
definition of “vacation” Kim and I have. In discussion, we have deemed this an
“Adventure Vacation” versus rejuvenation.
I want to thank
Ashlee, Rose and Jenny, the true core of my business for always supporting my
endeavors and ensuring that our clients are attended to while I play
hooky.
I also want to
thank my children for always supporting their father’s idiosyncrasies and their
mothers love, my mom for inspiring in me that life is a journey and to my
brother for challenging me to always be more creative with my ideas.
Finally, thank you,
Franny and Jerry. For without the 11 (or 12, hell I forget at this moment) days
in Kefalonia, which allowed us to have a respite from our intense itinerary
separating Paris from Rome, Milan, Val Gardena and Lake Como. We cogitated the trip as a whole and
independently we both acquiesced that without our time on the island of
Kefalonia and Ithaki our grandiose pace would have possibly driven us into a
deference 1) hindering our enjoyment and 2) of ever considering something like
this again; for us another learning experience. PS…throughout Italy, we have yet
to find wine better than yours!
With that… and the
approximately 20,000 words and 150+ photos below… I end this story with a sense
of pride and accomplishment in not only doing what we did over the past 35 days
but in sharing it with you. I hope in some
way that we have motivated you to seek adventure, provided some entertainment
and that you enjoyed our sharing of this tale.
Remember though that
we have about 200,000 more words and some 3000 photos should you have the
courage to inquire further; we would welcome that!
The End!
Love,
Martin and Kim!!!
 |
| Our "Final" picture from Varenna, Italy! |
Giorno 33 (October 15)
Our Day in Lake Como –
Varenna, Billagio, Menagio
We woke to a minimally
smoggy day in Lake Como; Kim’s angels!
And we hit the road (or water) at about 10am; seems days are getting
later due to the fatigue! In that we
wandered Varenna yesterday afternoon and will do so again during the evening,
we grabbed the ferry over to Menagio –
Menagio, a small
village on the western shore of the lake was very typical of every other small
Italian village that we have encountered; quaint, timeworn and calming to experience. I think however we would have had a different
experience during the tourist season that ended in early September. Lake Como as best as I can describe it, is
like Lake Tahoe in the summer; crammed with tourists, impatience and
hustle. For us, we missed this by 30
days and many businesses were closed and the majority of the villas were closed
up and gates locked.
After walking the
streets, visiting the craft fair and watching the local kids swim in the
56-58f/13-14c water, we headed back to the ferry to explore Bellagio. To do this, we first had to head back to
Varenna and wait about 50-minutes for the Bellagio ferry; idea! Gellato as our
lunch appetizer!
1:30pm we disembarked
in Bellagio and the port portion of the village was incredibly crowded.
Inspiration, take a 10-minute walk over the point (Lake Como is basically an
upside down “Y” with Bellagio on the point separating the two arms of the lake
extending southward making the upside down “Y” configuration) for lunch at the
one restaurant that remained open; La Pergola.
Following lunch, we
walked to the point and then roamed up and down the streets and alleys but
frankly, we had seen enough and the place was packed by the ferry waterfront so
at 5 we headed back to Varenna, took a break back at the hotel (make sure you
scroll down to see the images of this place…very cool!) and would make one last
visit down to the village for a light dinner for tomorrow [Giorno 34 (October 16) – uneventful as the
Hilton was the “American” stopping place and reminded us of the reality facing
us the following day, Giorno 33 (October 17), our flights home – no posts] we would have to navigate the insane roadways
back to Malpensa Airport, return the rental car (crap…I forgot to take a photo
of us and our Yaris Hybrid) and navigate to the Hilton for our last night of
our adventure; a new sense of excitement presented itself, returning home…it is
time!
Giorno 32 (October 14)
Travel Day to Lake
Como - Village of Varenna
After trying to figure
out some sort of driving plan with Google Maps, which I failed miserably, we
hit the road down Italy’s SS242 on our way to SS12 that was supposed to lead us
into our target road, SS42, about 45km/32m down the road in Bolzano; SS42 should
take us to Lake Como via the windy country roads along the southern slope of
the Alps. In this part of the world, even travel days have some real content! Let the adventure begin.
Once in Bolzano,
none of my directional notes and written
diagrams were worth a shit; guess I was trying to be smarter than Google. We ended up completely twisted, on the wrong side of the valley and in an industrial area! So we pulled off
to the side of the road and entered the name of a village along SS42 and in no
time we were through Bolzano, on the right road and traveling up this very steep, full of hairpin turns, road toward
the Mendola Pass; all good, Mendola is
on the way we want to head.
When we left this
morning from St. Cristina in Val Gardena, I took one last shot of the view we
had from our apartment (the peak is Sassolungo at 3,181m/10,434’) –
After our brief
navigation impairment in Bolzano and about 30 minutes of driving up a very
cool, and narrow mind you, road we stopped and looked back east and saw this –
Our first complete
view of the Dolomites. This photo does
not do the beauty of this place justice but it does give some sort of scale to
our experience; as the crow flies, I would guess that Sassolungo in this image is about 40m/65km away.
With my nerves calm
and upon reaching the Mendola Pass, we decided to stop for a late breakfast as
it was about noon; our life clock is going to take a month to reset once we get
home. All they really had was “Affel
Strudel” so we said, “what the hell”. I
had a cap and Kim a hot chocolate (which was basically melted chocolate – too
sweet for both of us to finish!).
Continuing, we were
treated to the drive we hoped to have had on our way to Val Gardena; completely
spectacular and “eye-candy” every direction –
As we continued
towards and through Passo del Tonnale and the villages beyond, we wondered why
so many hotels, trattorias, buildings and houses. We soon found out as this is a huge, huge ski
destination and we passed by the resorts Ponte di Legno, Edolo (a main
intersection on our navigation plan) and Aprica.
Then it all changed
once we got to Sondrio about 60k/36mi east of our destination of Varenna on
Lake Como; our total trip was about 350k/210mi.
We ran into modern commercialization, large buildings, traffic and the thick
smog from Milan. The drive was still
very cool as we entered the SS36 tunnels running along the eastern shores of
Lake Como, about 20k/12mi north of Varenna; the mountains are very steep along
the lake so they went through them and kept the mountainsides pristine. Again, the driving here is crazy and the signage
is quick so we missed our first exit to Varenna which of course was right in
the center of one of the tunnels. We
ended up going a bit further south to Lecco and exited now heading north back
up to Varenna.
We got to our hotel
about 6pm after a couple “Google Maps” screw-ups (it is not right all the time)
and checked in and took a breather. Our
hotel, the Eremo Gaudio, was pretty cool, two funicular lifts to get to the
hotel from the office and then an elevator to get us to the 5th
floor –
 |
| From our room!!! Another Kim pick - she is batting 1000!!! |
Hungry, and we should
not be as we have been eating like ravenous animals this entire journey, we
walked into the Village of Varenna, did some recon for tomorrow, had a nice
meal (appetizers and Guinness [finally dark beer!!!] at one restaurant and then
our main course at another), wandered a bit longer and then headed back to the hotel
about 9 and readied for tomorrows full day around Lake Como.
Giorno 31 (October 13)
Val Gardena, Italy and
the Dolomites
Wow, WOW, WOW!
We got up a bit late
but we are on vacation so who cares?
Right! We headed to the market to
get supplies for our day and then went to find a place for breakfast; not easy. We did find a small café that was open and
they served sandwiches and beverages so we ordered a couple paninis, a
cappuchino (better than anything I ever tasted in the states) for me, a hot
chocolate for Kim (the best she had ever tasted) and chatted with Eva the
proprietor and she provided us directions and information on the first sight of
the day. The largest hand carved wooden Nativity
scene in the world:
After we visited the
Nativity scene and saw the location of the local Strip Tease club, we headed
down the road to Ortisei where the only operating gondola lift was operation
and we hopped on; the Mount Seuc’s gondola.
Kim is not a fan of these things and this was high off the deck, about
200-300’/60-90m. She did fine and we got
off at the top, 2005m/6576’, onto Europe’s largest mountain plateau, Alpe Di
Siusi; speechless!
There are miles of
trails up here so we took a minute to make a decision on which direction we
would head and then took off. We were
headed for a hotel at the top of the Panorama lift, about 5 miles across the
plateau. The trails were exceptional and
we enjoyed many vistas along the way. Here
are a couple:
It was about 1:30p
when we arrived at the Panorama lodge, closed, but found a nice place to enjoy
lunch:
After lunch, we took a few more panoramic shots of the Dolomites…:
…and then headed back
to the gondola for the last ride down was at 1700 hours and we got there at
1615; all good.
We wanted to spend a
bit of time walking around the St. Christina village before dinner and we ended
up at this castle:
You cannot do Val
Gardena in one day. We will definitely
come back. Tomorrow morning we will get
a few last views of this incredible place, enjoy a Cap and Coco with Ava and
get a couple more photos before navigating the back roads (story to come I am
sure) to Lake Como.
Walking Total: 15
miles
Giorno 30 (October 12)
On the way to Val
Gardena
Breakfast in Milan,
lunch in Avio (below a castle on the hillside above us) and dinner in Val
Gardena; a 344km/215 rental car adventure in our Toyota Yaris!
Digressing a bit, I
have to say that the drive was not what we envisioned. I thought once we got out of the Milan area,
that we would be able to stop at towns, visit café’s, enjoy vistas from scenic
stops and simply meander our way here; not the case. The roads were crazy. Kim drove and drove well. I navigated and only got us twisted two or
three times; okay…four! But the roads
were express ways and toll roads and signage, well beside the fact that it was
in Italian were minimal and usually right at the turn – no advance warning;
talk about an adventure and paying tolls, in Italian! We caused a few backups at the toll booths but
no horns. We managed really well I would
say!
Once we got off the
main highway to Venice and were heading north toward Val Gardena, we got off
the “Autostrada” (sounds expensive, it wasn’t really - €15 total getting here)
in the little town of Avio; getting off the Autostrada was not as easy as it
sounds. We then took a side highway and
enjoyed driving through the small villages along the way; this is where we
stopped at the gas station café to enjoy lunch.
To describe, “along
the way”, imagine you are at the bottom of a deep canyon that is about 5 miles
wide and mountains, green lush mountains, rising on both sides of you
3000’/1000m and dotted with vineyards, castles, chateaus and houses; simply
wonderful.
Here are some of the
sights we saw along the way:
The castle above where
we had lunch –
A Basicila on the
hillside –
Another castle on a
hilltop, this one was huge! –
The hillside “along
the way” -
The one negative,
smog. The smog in northern Italy is
reported to be one of the worst areas in the world and that smog followed us
all the way up to Bolzano then began to thin out as we gained elevation toward
Val Gardena and was mostly, I say mostly, gone here in the Dolomites.
We drove into Val
Gardena about 6pm and we think our hosts were just about to give up on us (we
caught them in the parking lot and I think they were headed to dinner) but we
checked in and with it still being light we were just in awe at what we were
seeing. It did not take Kim 5 minutes to
say, “we are coming back here”!
Here is what we
saw -
 |
| The view from our room at the Olympic Apartments |
By the time we got settled it was 7 and we were hungry as lunch in
Avio was very small! We hit the pavement
and walked down to the only place open (as it is the month before ski season
starts so many places were closed), the Maciaconi Hotel and had a great meal
but I was fading and Kim did all the driving; I understand my limitations and
my position within this family for sure!
So the day ended for me around 9 and woke at 6 on the 13th
ready for the Dolomites
Giorno 29 (October 11)
Milan in a Day!
The one think that
Milan is not, is clean. Again, clutter,
litter (especially cigarette butts), graffiti and SMOG; first noticed during
the train ride in. We were glad that we only spent one day here as both Kim and
I were wheezing, coughing and congested upon our departure to Val Gardena.
The Hotel Sanpi was a
huge upgrade over our hotel in Rome.
Again, I picked the one in Rome without doing the research that Kim had
done on the rest of our rooms; I have had my “hotel picking” privileges
permanently removed! However, we were
introduced to some “Italy” things once we departed Rome. First, to use the toilets in the train stations,
€1. Two, for a table at the restaurants
in Milan, you pay a “cover charge”, anywhere from 2 to 3 Euros; covered the
cost of napkins, silver, glassware, etc.
Cracked us up! Three, you have to
pay the City for the opportunity to rent a room; 10 to 15 Euros a night and
finally, you have to pay for the use of the roads and at a rate much higher
that I have ever experienced in the USA.
A great experience and fun to have participated in the Italian tax
structure!
Now for “Milan in a
Day”. Yes, that is what our tour company
called our tour. We were to meet at a
location by the Cadorna Train Station (which we scoped out the evening before)
at 9:15am. A young man showed up with a
clipboard and neatly printed by hand in blue ink, in about 2-inch letters,
“Milan in a Day”. We knew we were in the
right place. We got our audio receivers
and we were off.
Now, presently I am
typing this sitting on the deck of our “apartment” in Saint Cristina, Val
Gardena, Italy overlooking Sassolungo (3181m / 10,434’) and just finished about
13 miles hiking in the Dolomites so not because I am tired but because the
Dolomites and this area of Italy is far more beautiful than Milan, and because
we only have about one more hour of sunlight left and want to go cruise around
St. Cristina, if you see nothing below this, it is because I will blog Milan
later; stay tuned.
Okay, here are a couple of photos but this is no way the completion of the Milan blog, again...stay tuned.
IMAGES
The main reason that Kim and I went to Milan was to see the Divinci painting of the "Last Supper" -
Okay, here are a couple of photos but this is no way the completion of the Milan blog, again...stay tuned.
IMAGES
The main reason that Kim and I went to Milan was to see the Divinci painting of the "Last Supper" -
 |
| A "fresco" and is 4.6m X 8.8m /15' X 29' Painted in 1405-1498 |
The other incredible site, a church, was the Duomo Cathedral or Milan Cathedral -
 |
| Construction began in 1386 and finished May 20, 1805 Dedicated to St. Mary of the Nativity The overall height is 520'/159m |
Walking Total: 7.4
miles (seemed like more…lots of standing)
Giorno 28 (October 10)
Kim and I are getting
pretty proficient at managing the “train” mode of transportation here in
Italy. Today, we traveled from Rome to
Milan on one of the high speed trains; 300km per hour / 186 mph. A real smooth ride and we were in Milan and
navigating to our hotel by 12:30pm.
After we checked-in we
started sorting our plan for tomorrow, a 6-hour city tour so first things first
– figure out the Metro. We did and
hopped of at the station where tomorrows tour begins. Jumped up to the train station, (different
than the Metro; Metro…underground, trains…yes…above ground) to figure out how
to get to the airport to pick-up our rental car on Tuesday for our travels into
the Dolomites and Lake Como.
With that complete, we
realized that we were starved so we hopped back on the Metro and ended up at
Piazza del Duomo and enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner overlooking a very cool
cathedral which I am sure we will learn all about tomorrow.
We fell prey to
another scam in that a young lady of middle-east descent was working the ticket
machines of the Metro. Kim and I would
have figured it out but she jumped in and started putting coins in to cover the
€17,0 fee for the tickets. So, naturally,
Kim pulled out a 20 note and gave it to the gal…where is our change? She says, “I keep the change”. We laughed and thought it pretty funny so we
were happy to help out.
After dinner, we
walked the Piazza and decided that we just needed to go back to the room and
crash. That is my report for 10
October. We got up, took a train, took a
subway, had a meal, took a subway and went to bed!
Tomorrow, Milan in a
Day!
 |
| The "train station" Milan They do nothing small here There were platforms for 24 trains |
|
| Lunch at a sidewalk cafe Our early meal following our recon of Milan in prep for tomorrow |
Giorno 27 (October 9)
Vatican City and
Sights along the way
The day started with a
Metro trip to Lepanto Station where we hit the street and about a thousand promoters,
sales people, approached us to buy tickets to the Vatican, private tours,
scarves, electronic selfie-sticks etc!
It is crazy; such a large amount of poor trying any way possible to make
a living and capitalize on the tourist trade.
Sad in a way but we suspect that most do just fine as the “tourist”
element is the perfect pickings for this highly invasive sales force.
It was not hard to
find the entrance to Vatican City which is through the Museum; just had to
follow the massive stream of tourists.
They say that over 10-million people visit the Vatican each year, that
is 30-thousand visitors a day; seemed like there was 100K it was insane. The line, that luckily we got to skip because
of Kim’s mad ticket purchasing skills, was a kilometer (3300’) long – at least
- and 4-5 abreast. My God…pardon the
pun!
These tours are pretty
cool as you have an audio receiver and your guide speaks and you can listen,
wander, look and learn without difficulty of hearing. Again, we scored, yes…Kim’s mad ticket
purchasing skills, as we were in a small group (extra cost) and had an
incredible guide; Stephanie. It took
almost 45 minutes simply to get through security, ticketing and group sorting
but I would say around 10:30am (our tour was scheduled for 10) we were in and
on the tour.
I won’t spend too much
time elaborating (photos to come) but I will say this: The exploitation of the
masses of lesser educated and poor to construct these ostentatious monuments to
“god” not only continue to be overwhelmingly obscene (yes I will now use Kim’s
word after experiencing the Vatican, Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel and St.
Peters Basilica) but clearly demonstrate how the religious sect set themselves
apart as elite by preying upon the fears of the citizens of Rome whose toil was
the reason buildings like the Vatican could be constructed.
So here it is. St. Peters Basilica is the ultimate church
and absolutely excessive in its ornateness, opulence and grandeur; a statement
to how fear can be exploited for the benefit of the few! Now, balance this with my preceding words,
“it is, as well as most of the religious structures we have seen, the most
beautiful structure I have ever experienced; yes, experience - visual,
emotional and mental.
I must digress here
and apologize to those of my friends that are highly spiritual and
religious. I mean no disrespect but
consider this, if the church is supposed to benefit man and promote his
salvation think about how much salvation “multiple billions of dollars” might
provide in today’s world helping the poor, finding cures for cancer, promoting
underprivileged education and simply making the world a better place to exist
for all; not just the religious elite at the time. [Note:
I say multiple billions of dollars because a trillion sounded a bit
excessive but I have experience in building, design and construction and to
build the structures in the Vatican City today….my true guess is over a
trillion dollars; just saying. PS…Kim
feels the same!
So…here is the Vatican City, St. Peters Basilisca and the Sistine Chapel –
 |
The most
famous Cupola in the world
Designed by
Michelangelo
Built in
1547 it took 43 years to finish
|
 |
The Resurrection
of Christ
This is just
a section of this tapestry in the 75m/ 246’ long “Hall of Tapestries”
Woven in
Rome by the Barberini workshop - 16th
Century
|
 |
The ceiling
in The Gallery of Maps
A 200m/600’
long hall containing 40 frescoed maps of Italy
|
 |
The
incredible marble sculptures the ended and began each hall
Note the
gold “dragon” in the center of the image
Kim’s love
of dragons was highly supported
|
 |
The “Fire in
the Borgo” room
A fresco of
the same name done by Raphael
Renaissance
Period
|
 |
The Sistine
Chapel
The
“Ceiling” painted by Michaelangelo in his 30’s
The alter wall,
“The Last Judgement” also painted by MA in his 60’s
Michaelangelo
lived to be 89!
PS…it is
forbidden to take photos in the chapel – not sure how these got on my phone!
|
 |
A close up
of the Sistine Chappel’s ceiling
Michaelangelo
did not want this commission. The church
forced him to do it.
It took 4
years
|
 |
St. Peters
Basilica
|
 |
The Papal
Alter Canopy
Bronze!!!
|
 |
| In front of St. Peters Those statues are 6-8m/20-25' in height |
We spent 4-hours and
received an incredible education of the Vatican City and truly enjoyed the adventure. Following our exit of this “independent
state” within Italy, we found a nice little (expensive for sure) Trattoria and
just decompressed, discussed and processed what we just saw. We then set out to
catch a few more major sights…
Castel Saint Angelo -
Palazzo di Giustizia -
Piazza Navona -
… then headed back to the hotel for a couple
hour riposo before venturing out for our final evening in Rome.
After a break back at
the hotel between 5 and 7, we headed out to the Fontana di Trevi for our last
dinner here in Rome. We wanted to
capture a night photo of the Fountain; most major structures are lit at night
and very impressive to experience. Also,
and quite consistent with the “tourist” aspect of Rome, very crowded, very late.
We found a beautiful
Tratorria right by the Piazza di Trevi, got the night shot (after I got
whistled at by the Italian police), enjoyed a Gelatto and trekked back to the
hotel to pack and ready for our train trip tomorrow to Milan. To be continued….
Walking Total: 8.4
miles – Rome Total: 44.1 miles that is 70.5 km (sounds more impressive). 30 sites visited and all of the top 25; an
average of 7.5 sights per day. We had an
absolute blast!
Giorno 26 (October 8)
Rome via the Metro
I have to tell you
that it is getting harder and harder to keep up with these posts. I was 4 hours minimum on the post for the 6th,
3 1/2 for the Colosseum and Forum post
and today’s? 4 1/2; 16 hours and not a complaint but wanted you to understand
the magnitude of Rome and the scale and depth of its magnificent history.
We decided that today,
after 25 plus miles of walking that we would attempt to explore a few more
incredible sights here in Rome; sights that were a bit further out of the
way. To save on our weary feet, we planned to use the Metro system
and bought a 48-hour pass; I calculated it to be a much better value and
provide us much more freedom during our last couple of days; that's me, one of my many idiosyncrasies! We figured this would keep our day to around
5-7 miles as walking on these hard rock surfaces have made our feet a bit sore.
As we started off, we
discussed how astonished (as a new adjective) we were as to the scale of “it
all” here in Rome. I have used the word
“overwhelmed” but that really is falling short; mind-blowing, speechless and
inconceivable also come to mind. Every
time you spin around, explore an alley, turn a corner, there is something of implausible
design and history; both of us defining the dominance of these sights as religious structures
and certainly ostentatious and disproportionate (Kim prefers “obscene” and I am not in
disagreement).
Here are the sights we
saw today:
Piazza Della
Repubblica – This is one of the largest piazza’s (squares) in Rome, was once
the site of the central transportation center and at 700,000 square feet (about
15 acres) is home to 8 of the most notable structures in Rome.
San Giovanni Laterano –
This Basilica ranks above Saint Peters Basilica in the Vatican. The Basilica of St John Lateran (Basilica di
San Giovanni in Laterano) is the cathedral church of Rome and the official seat
of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) and contains the Papal throne.
The Fortress Wall of
San Giovanni – Was an Aurelian Walls and are a line of
city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD.
The walls enclosed all the seven hills of Rome including San Giovanni;
once the home of the Pope. They once
enclosed an area of 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres).
Piazza Spagna – This is
another famous piazza and lies at the base of the Spanish Steps which links the
Trinità dei Monti church to the square.
Today it is a crazy, high priced shopping area with tenants like Jimmy
Choo, Chanel, Cartier, Prada and Gucci just to name a few of the hundreds.
Piazza Dei Popolo – You
guessed it…another famous piazza in Rome.
Here the important structure is, you guessed it…another Basilica: Santa
Maria del Popolo. A Titular (religiously
powerless) church and a minor basilica in Rome run by the Augustinian order.
Borghese Park – A large
green space in the center of high population density. Nothing special, just one of the “top 25
sights”; so we went.
Borghese Galleria (Chateau) – A family that moved to Rome in 1541, so not truly Roman, quickly rose to power within the Roman culture and the son of the family’s patriarch, Marcantonio, became Pope Paul V (1605). Now a museum of art.
Borghese Galleria (Chateau) – A family that moved to Rome in 1541, so not truly Roman, quickly rose to power within the Roman culture and the son of the family’s patriarch, Marcantonio, became Pope Paul V (1605). Now a museum of art.
Spanish Steps – 135 of
the most ornate and intriguing steps of Rome surrounded by several fascinating
structures. Designed by architects
Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi.
Construction began in the early 1700’s but was not complete until
sometime after 1661.
Pramide Cestia - An ancient pyramid near the Porta San Paolo
and the Protestant Cemetery. It was built as a tomb for Gaio Cestio Epulone. It stands at a fork between two ancient
roads. One of the best-preserved ancient
buildings in Rome. I looked but there
has got to be a link between this and the obelisks.
Caracalla Baths - A public bath house with three pools of three
differing temperatures that could hold up to 1600 persons at a time. It is a huge structure at the south end of
Palantino Hill (Roman Forum), just south of the Colosseum. This is where we think the citizens of Rome
came to bathe; must have been girl days and boy days?
After all this, our 5
to 7 mile estimate was exceeded as we clocked another 10. Being simply worn-out, we planned an easy
evening. At 7:30p we hit the first
restaurant we came to on the street that our hotel occupied, went back to the
Colosseum and San Giovanni Laterano for some night photos, stopped at a great
little desert café by the latter for a treat then crashed about 11pm. Tomorrow is Vatican City (our second guided
tour event), a few more sights and our last night in Rome.
BONUS IMAGES (I have good hotel wi-fi tonight here in Milan!!!!):
Walking Total: 10.2
miles
BONUS IMAGES (I have good hotel wi-fi tonight here in Milan!!!!):
 |
| San Giovanni Laterano |
 |
| No small doors here - Entrance to San Giovanni Laterano |
 |
| The Ciborium (Papal Canopy) - San Giovanni - the "high altar" of the Basilica Opulently ostentatious decoration and detail and... it dominates every single inch of the interior space! |
Giorno 25 (October 7)
The Colosseum and the
Roman Forum
Today began with our
first of two guided tours (Monday October 9 we will do our second at the
Vatican City). We met our guide, Emmie,
a Rome resident and archaeologist, at 8:30am and began our tour of the
Colosseum; with 22 other English-speaking guests. Unknown to us, or we simply did not read the
tour description well enough during our trip planning, is that we also got a
guided tour of the Roman Forum.
The Colosseum is the
most visited attraction in Rome and I am glad we had an early start;
originally, we were at 11am but during our visit to Kefalonia, we got an email
saying that they had to change the time.
There were 4 different groups just with our company and about 100 others
all at the same time; there was simply an ocean of bodies moving toward this
ancient arena. By 11am, it was
packed!
Our tour (3.5 hours
total) provided us access to the basement area where they prepped the animals
and gladiators for the events, the stadium level (which has been partially
reconstructed) and to the top levels (just recently opened and our guide had
never been before today) where the peasants and women viewed the battles
designed to entertain the Emperor.
We spent two hours in
the Colosseum alone and our feeling upon receiving all the fabulous and
educational information in the previous 120 minutes was sad. Sad that such an important structure was
abandoned; that it was pilfered of its limestone blocks and marble for church
construction; that it was vandalized for the metals that held it together.
It was truly a feat of
construction, engineering and entertainment as the latter was the primary
reason for its existence. A place where
the players could be moved around below the stage (the basement area, dark and
dreary) and then when called upon, elevated to the arena floor for battles of
animal vs. animal, man vs. animal and man vs. man; all to the death.
Hundreds of books have
been written about the Colosseum so aside from our photos, I will leave you
with this, 1) we were truly amazed for two solid hours, 2) would do the tour
again and 3) more of my words would be an insult to this 2000 year old
structure.
IMAGES COLOSSEUM
 |
| The exterior facade looking southeast Hard to tell the damage done from this view Construction began in AD 72 under the Emperor Vespasian Completed AD 80 by the Emperor Titus |
 |
| The interior view facing west Middle of image is the arena level Lower half of image is the basement or below arena level Upper half is the seating areas - the higher up, the lower the class of citizen. |
 |
| The tunnel where the human "gladiators" would enter the Colosseum The "gladiators" were criminals and scourge not buddies of the elite If the fought well and survived their battles, they were freed to live a new life |
 |
| A view from the highest viewing level - women and prostitutes Original name was not Colosseum rather Amphitheatrum Flavium Could hold up to 80,000 spectators with an average attendance of 65,000 |
 |
| From the highest level, newly opened Construction materials were limestone, granite, marble and... Roman invented concrete |
Next, we walked by the
Arco di Constantino, cool, nothing like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (in fact
about half the size) and into the Roman Forum; amazingly unbelievable. The Forum was the Rome city center that was
the hub for the sprawl of Rome as it began to grow some 2000 years ago. It is hard to provide you an exact dimension
of this area but I would guess it is at least one-half of a square mile; it is
huge. For centuries the Forum was the
center of day-to-life in Rome; a marketplace, a place for government, a place
for worship and a place for celebration.
This is where Rome originated.
I cannot tell you how
many structures exist here so I will let the photos do the talking but I can
tell you that after our 90-minute tour of this area, an area we had no idea
existed, we exited, had a great lunch at a little sidewalk café and upon paying
another fee to enter, spent 4 more hours walking its grounds.
IMAGES
 |
A full panorama from the Temple of
Saturn (far left)
to... The Colosseum (far right) not part of the Forum |
 |
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Began in 141 AD by Emperor Antoninus
Dedicated to his deified wife, Faustina the Elder
|
 |
| This image shows the white marble (center) that adorned all the brick facades making these temples shine - where did the marble go? It was taken by the Church (stole)! |
Walking Total: 13.1
miles
Giorno 24 (October 6)
Rome Italy!
I thought Paris was an
architectural hub and the structures as you well know were incredible and
fascinating for both Kim and myself but Rome?
The architecture and history of Rome makes Paris look like Fernley (a
small farming town in Nevada for those of you reading this not familiar with
Fernley) when compared to New York City; I cannot think of a proper word to
describe what we experienced during our first sortie here.
The Hotel Torino is
not a 3-Star (a story for us to share personally when we return) but they
included breakfast (which we were not aware of or did not remember) and we
found ourselves enjoying it on the 7th floor, outside, overlooking
Rome on a beautiful sunny morning; cool!
It gave us energy to begin our day and we hit the pavement about
8:30a. First to the train station to get
our tickets for Milan and then off to recon the area then to see the sights; as
mentioned earlier, spectacular in every aspect.
Here are some to the
major sights we visited today...
Morning Sights:
Santa Maria Maggiore -
Santa Maria Maggiore -
 |
| The largest Catholic Marian church in Rome - A Basilica. The Roman Basilica was originally designed as a Court of Law. Its design was adopted by many religions as its primary church design. |
San Carlo Quattro Fontane -
 |
| A church - of course! An iconic work of the Baroque period. Built for the Spanish Trinitarians - known for freeing slaves. The arched area (guy in yellow) is typical of each corner of this street. A detailed, ornate and elaborate sculpture. |
Piazza San Bernardo - This was just a cool little Piazza (Plaza) that we came to with these three structures and the Piazza was basically a parking lot surrounded by some incredible architecture! -
The Quirinale -
 |
| The Quirinale was the official home of the President of the Italian Republic The building was modern and typical. This statue in front with Gladiators and an Egyptian Obelisk-Not Typical! |
 |
| The largest Baroque fountain in Rome Originally commissioned in 1629 with construction starting in 1732 It took 30 years to build |
Monumento a Viterino de Emanuel II -
 |
| A "monument" to Victor Emmanuel, the first King of a unified Italy This building is HUGE! |
Chelsea del Gesii -
I forgot to take a photo! Sorry...Google It!
Pantheon - This structure is un-imageable by a tourist camera. Construction began in 27 BC during the reign of Augustus but finished by the Emperor Hadrian in 126 AD. It has the worlds largest un-reinforced concrete dome -
 |
| The "dome" is 142'/43m high and diameter; the opening (oculus) of 30'/9m |
Largo di Torre Argentina – 4 Roman Republican Temples and the Theater of Pompey -
 |
| Julius Caesar was believed to be assassinated in this square. |
It was about 2p and we wanted to stop for lunch and rest the feet a bit. We have decided to continue the Greek custom of the largest meal at mid-day and we found a great little place tucked back in a small alley and enjoyed a 90-minute meal.
Sights after lunch:
Plazza Montecitorio -
Plazza Montecitorio -
 |
| A palace used for the Italian Chamber of Deputies A very plain building but our first sighting of an Egyptian Obelisk! |
Trajan’s Column
 |
| Commemorating Roman Emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. |
We got back to the
room about 4:30p and decided to rest until dark and then venture into the Metro
system for a ride down to the Colosseum to figure out where to meet tomorrow
for our Colosseum tour and to see it and Rome at night; in a word, stunning.
Sights tonight:
Colosseum -
Sights tonight:
Colosseum -
 |
| History's first "Arena" in the "Amphitheater" architecture style |
Monumento a Viterino de Emanuel II -
 |
| Seems Victor - Vitorious Emanuele - was pretty important!!! |
The Roman Forum - No night image but above is the post about our visit to the Colosseum and to the Roman Forum on 7 October. Tons of daylight photos taken and will be happy to share them in person when we return.
Of note here in Rome, population of about 6 million in the city and urban areas, is that half of the population is going somewhere all the time! I am glad we are not trying to drive; the subways are full late at night (Kim got a real taste of what toothpaste feels like when exiting the tube when she exited these subway trains – I laughed) and the traffic is constant. One good thing about our hotel is we are on an inside room so it is quiet and no ROOSTERS!!!
Note on the obelisks we are seeing in Rome (6 so far)
Rome is known as the "City of Obelisks". There are 12 total standing in Rome. First brought in by the Emperor Agustus (two) directly from Egypt; then other Emperors followed. The interesting thing is that Rome changed the meaning of the Obelisk from that of a symbol recognizing Atum-Ra into a symbol of the greatness of the Roman Empire.
Tomorrow the
Colosseum! Rome’s most popular
attraction.
Walking Total: 12.4
miles
ἠµἐῤα 22, 24 & 23 (October 3 & 4) and Oct 5 travel to Rome
It has been an absolute relaxing blast
to have had the opportunity to spend 12 incredible days on the island of
Kefalonia, Greece; the largest of the Ionian islands. The people do not value personal space. The like community, family and friends; all
together all the time. We met families
that at the end of the day, school, work, play, end up at the “family”
restaurant; and all during our time there, they included us whom they met not
12 days earlier. Kim and I would come
back to Kefalonia annually if it were not for the huge distance; to the
European world, the Greek Islands, Aegean and Ionian, are like Hawaii to us on
the west coast and the Caribbean to those on the east.
This post will be short as the last days
for us on Kefalonia were really days of reflection and decompression from all
that we did during our first 9 days and as you have read, and I have reported,
we did a lot!
On the 3rd , the families and
friends of our hosts had an afternoon lunch that began at 2p and ended at
5p. It was at Kosta’s restaurant which
is on the seaside road and was out on his seaside “agora”. They roasted a pig on a spit, had fresh
breads, salads, feta and my new favorite, melitzanosalata (a pureed eggplant
concoction of ingredients passed down from generation to generation, made by
Kosta’s wife, Helani); an out of this world spread/dip. You can put it on bread, eat plain, mix with
hardboiled eggs to make the greatest egg salad sandwiches ever…sorry, I have
become distracted; but you get it…I loved it.
There was red wine made by Jerry and Franny (as I have stated
previously, wine that I thoroughly enjoyed and I do not like wine; white or
red. And…to top it all off, a desert
made by Stamatia (Demetri’s wife – the owners of the bike store) called
galaktonpoureko (say it anyway you wish) an entirely homemade from scratch,
custard pie surrounded by flaky pastry breads (phyllo bread is the closest I
can come to in comparing it) that I managed to enjoy seconds of! What a great afternoon.
Kim and I did some more visits to the
village of Poros, and spent our final night enjoying cappuccino, hot Spanish
chocolate lattes and freshly baked cookies and muffins on the seaside café’s
soaking in the sea air, cool breeze all the while being entertained by the
activity the evening brings to the people of Greece.
In Greeklish (Greek words spelled, by
me, in a phonetic manner) “f-hari-stow” (thank you) Franny;
Jerry; all the wonderful people we met during our stay (listed in previous
posts) and to the Greek people for having such an incredible community and
family focused culture.
We are off to Italy
for our final 12 days; Rome and Milan.
Stay tuned!
Walking Total: 4.8
miles (we are prepping for Italy!)
IMAGES
 |
| Our lunch by the sea Wonderful families, friends and awesome "homemade" cuisine! Kim and I can not thank you all enough for your love and compassion!! |
ἠµἐῤα 20 & 21 (October 1 & 2) and a PS to Sept. 30
I should not have posted my previous blog until after the day was
completely over. In the evening on
September 30th, we decided to go down to the village and Bar-Hop;
something you all know Kim and I never do.
But what the heck, how much trouble could we get into. We would like to help the locals by spreading
the wealth so to speak so we went.
We started out at the main bar, the Mythos, (Mythos is a headline beer
here in Greece). We sat down and then
were joined by Captain Georgos Diamanatos, a 60+ year-old Greek that was a
large tanker captain who retired about 5 years ago. He sat, the Greek conversation ensued
(although Captain G spoke very good English) and the Tsipouro was delivered;
pronounced “Cheapero”, it is the discarded grape leftovers from the smashing of
the grape to get the juice for wine and then distilled; you know, the grapes
after everyone stomps on them with their bare feet! Harmless I am sure.
After a round for all, we then headed down to Kosta’s restaurant and and
jug of J&F Tsipouro came out and that is the last bar we made it to! It was a blast as Kosta upon arrival at 9pm,
proceeded to feed us a full meal and desert (we were not that hungry so we ate
small portions not to be rude). The town
Shepherd Council was meeting (yes true shepherds that tend the goats, sheep and
livestock in the hills surrounding Poros) and Jerry got involved with that for
about 15 minutes. Captain Diamanatos’s,
who traveled with us from the Mythos bar, wife, Heleni sat down and joined us,
then Nikos, Jerry and Franny’s handy-man, joined in. Now I, nor Kim, partook in the Tsipouro as we
simply did not like the taste but more than that, I was driving. Kim and I just sat back and watched and
conversed when we could via Jerry and Franny’s interpretation and reveled in seeing
the “local” friends, chat, laugh, tell stories and all along, include us and
our stories in the evening festivities.
It was relaxed, stress-free and of a pace we do not often enjoy
stateside; a great way to end the evening; we turned the lights out at
midnight. End of Day 19 what a great day!
Day 20, October 1
Today was another local day as our hosts had a Birthday party for their Granddaughter
at noon and our plan was to tour the southern part of the island after their
return, have lunch and swim at one of their favorite beaches, Mouda.
This provided us the opportunity to relax and do things around the
house. I took a bike ride up to the
mountain pass separating Poros from Sami, about a 7-mile ride climbing about
1500’/450m passing through the village of Agia Nicklous and ending in Pyrgi
(Peh-Gee). I stopped at a little café in
Pyrgi and there were several locals sitting outside and they spoke English,
they bought me a water and we chatted for a bit; got to try my Greek speaking
skills. Then I rode the 7-miles back and
ran into Demetri (the bike shop owner) as he was on his way up the hill to the pass
and we talked for a minute as he was on a 110km/70mile ride. Kim did her workout, some laundry (Thank You
my Love…always taking care of me!) and did some emails and texting back home.
About 1p, we headed for the south part of the island past the village of
Skala (I wrote about this in my previous posts) and ended up in the little
village of Kateleios where we had lunch on the beach and then headed to Mounda
Beach to do some swimming. I was the
only one that swam as the water was colder here; it was a beautiful day and
very few clouds in the sky. You could
see south into the Mediterranean Sea, the water was flat, sun shining (not a
cloud in the sky) and the breeze was comforting.
We got back about 6 and around 7 Kim and I headed down to Poros for
coffee along the sea; no more bar-hopping!
We are visiting different businesses each time we go into Poros and
tonight we frequented “Hashtag” a more eclectic coffee/spirits bar. It was busy in the village especially now since
the tourist season is over and it was fun to watch the activity. We gathered some groceries, headed back up
the hill and for the us, the day was over.
Tomorrow was going to be a big adventure day up north.
IMAGES
 |
| Mouda Beach and the little bay (upper right) where we had lunch - Kateleios |
 |
| The Archaic Temple of Skala To the right is a small church we think in respect of these ruins. |
 |
| On one of the beaches in Skala |
Day 21, October 2,
We were on the road early, 8:45a and began the 65Km/40m journey north to
Fiskardo. We traveled through Sami and
Agia Efimia and then up Mt. Kalo (Kalo Oros) traveling high above the Ionian on
the eastern side of this northern finger of Kefalonia. The views were spectacular and the villages quaint,
tiny and very well kept; this is just an estimate but I would say we traveled
through well over 15 villages. An
absolutely gorgeous drive.
We arrived in Fiskardo about 10:30 and had a light breakfast of coffee
and toast (I had pancakes and they were awesome). Fiskardo is a ferry port connecting north Kefalonia
to the island of Leykada, also to the north.
It was busy and still full of tourists many on “rent-a-sailboat”
charters; unlike Poros, Fiskardo has effectively capitalized on the tourist
industry; mostly from the UK and Germany.
After breakfast, we spent about an hour walking along the shoreline
roads and saw many beautiful apartments, houses, resorts and a Roman cemetery
dating back to the 4th Century BC; incredible!
The day was beautiful and sunny and after our walk around Fiskardo, it
was time for a swim, Franny and Jerry took us to the most beautiful beach yet;
Emblisi. We swam, I took some underwater
images and just relaxed for a bit taking in the fresh sea air and enjoyed the
view of sailboats, yachts and cruise ships as they passed by. I cannot do justice with my words as to the
beauty of Kefalonia. Even more difficult
is that we cannot express our thanks enough to our hosts for the thoughtful
planning they have prepared in showing us their Greek homeland!
After Fiskardo, we again hit the seaside road high above the water but
now we were traveling down the western side of this northern peninsula. We were headed to the village of Assos for
lunch and to see the Assos Castle; a Venetian Fort and very much military in its
architecture and design.
Again, a home run location. Just
beautiful. Another port along the crazy
jagged shoreline of not only these Ionian Greek Islands but of this entire
geographic location; something I first noticed as we drove from Kalambaka to
Patra on Day 11 (Sept. 22). The Castle
was grand and on the hillside above the Village (we did not tour it due to
time). Jerry and Franny again knew the
family that ran Platano’s Taverna where we would have lunch and interestingly
enough, Jerry went into the local church to pay his respects, asking the man
inside about the family of Platano’s and the man inside caring for the church
was the son! It truly is a small world
and smaller yet on Kefalonia. We had a
great lunch, wandered the village and then headed to Argistoli for a quick tour
of the largest city on the island and then back to Poros; it was 6, a nine-hour
adventure and truly a marvelous day!
IMAGES
 |
| The Roman Cemetery complete with Sarcophagi - 2400-2500 years old! |
 |
| Port of Fiskardo |
 |
| The Old (R) and New (L) Lighthouses of Fiskardo |
 |
| Emblisi Beach |
 |
| Port of Assos |
 |
| Assos Castle |
 |
| The Port of Assos bay, the Castle and the western peninsula of Kefalona (top) |
 |
| The old buildings are a blast to see and look into. This one withstood the earthquakes of '29 and '53 but collapsed on the inside. |
 |
| I end with this image... Kefalonia (foreground), Ithaca (R), Leykada (L) Greek Mainland (way back) |
Walking Total: 4.8 miles - Driving 153Km/
Tomorrow another local day and a big feast with the village family of our
hosts.
ἠµἐῤα 17, 18 & 19 (September 28, 29 & 30)
Okay, you got me! Trying to catch-up
with the stories and events of this incredible adventure, I am taking the
highlights of three days and relying upon my photos and captions to best tell
the story; this blogging is not as easy as the teenagers make it look!
First, it is a societal eye-opener when everything save “tourista”
businesses like gift shops and restaurants, close at 2pm and then re-open
around 7pm. Where does everyone go! Nothing like anything we encounter in the
states and especially in Reno, Nevada a 24-hour town. So…while everyone is, where everyone is, I am
taking the opportunity to share the adventure of the last three days here in
the Poros area on the island of Kefalonia.
I assure you that Kim and I are maximizing our time. Walks, bike rides, wandering the villages,
tours of the “prime” sites, visiting with the local “families”, enjoying spectacular
mid-day meals with J & F and even learning the Greek language; a challenge
that we have succumbed to simply utilizing phonetic spellings with a written
cheat sheet. However, the locals get a
laugh and really appreciate our efforts.
We got back from Ithaca in the evening of the 27th and
organized our plan for the next several days.
The 28th, we would make our focus a visit to the local Atrou
Monastery, built in the 8th century.
This Monastery has fallen 17 times due to fire or earthquake and rebuilt
every time but we got the opportunity to visit and see the new and the
old. After a 75-minute hike up about 3
miles (elevation change of about 1800 feet/500m) Jerry met us and gave us a
personal tour with the local Abbot, Archomandrite Daniel Zographos, a young man of 39 (but not in the physical
shape of Abbot's during the earlier centuries of this revered place). Here is what we saw:
 |
| The Abbot's residence - Newly constructed Presently there is an Abbot and an apprentice living here. |
 |
| A "pano" from the Abbot's home to Poros in the lower right corner |
 |
| The Church (Greek Orthodox) Note the incredible tile work and paintings What's not clear is the 12 Fresco's above the alter in bad need of repair |
 |
| The 10th Century Library, Priest's Study and Wine making structure This has been re-furbished and structurally enhanced by a grant from the EU. You can see some of the structural enhancements at the top of the structure. |
 |
| An 1100 year old Fresco of the Monastery's Icon holding the Christ Child. This is untouched - amazing! |
 |
| The Monk's Kitchen dating back to at least the 11th century |
 |
| The "Well" from the 8th Century - they located this mountain spring This water allowed the monks to build this Monastery It is much nicer today but it is revered as a special spot on the grounds. |
Understanding the importance and the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church was only possible by Jerry's personal touch. He interpreted the words of Nektarios, a Monk/Priest, as he guided us around the grounds. We saw and understood the Church, the Library, the Priest's Study, where they made wine, where visiting dignitaries stayed, the kitchen way back in the day around the 8th century. It was truly fascinating. Jerry was very educated and he has even spent time working on the structures on the Monasteries grounds. Our visit ended as we sat with the head Abbot in the greeting room of his home and had conversation, drink and a fig jam of sorts; we did not eat much of the latter.
After the village opened back up, Kim and I walked the waterfront and visited a local establishment for dessert and a coffee for me – funny, they actually had decaf cappuccinos but I know…why do I drink them? Well, I am a coffee connoisseur, truly enjoy the taste of a good blend and have no need for the euphoria of caffeine; you all know I am plenty euphoric all by myself!
After the village opened back up, Kim and I walked the waterfront and visited a local establishment for dessert and a coffee for me – funny, they actually had decaf cappuccinos but I know…why do I drink them? Well, I am a coffee connoisseur, truly enjoy the taste of a good blend and have no need for the euphoria of caffeine; you all know I am plenty euphoric all by myself!
On the 29th, hum? What day is it? Friday, we went back to Sami to visit
Melissani Lake (basically the Greek version of a Mexican Cenote); a lake at the
bottom of a 100’/30m opening in the earth of crystal clear water at about
14-15c/58-60f. You walked down a
man-made earthen tunnel to a boat ramp and had a Gondolier to propel us around
this 300’/100m long sub-surface lake. I
was intrigued as it fed another lake we visited on an earlier visit to Sami so
that must mean a connection; wonder if there is a cave dive here? I did see advertisements from a local dive
shop for dives posted on the trees around the parking lot. Here are a few images from Lake
Melissani:
 |
| Inside the lake's inner cavern looking out into the open area of the lake |
 |
| On the boat! Jerry really is having the time of his life! ;-) The Gondolier forgot to count to 3 and say Cheese! |
Then we went to the Drogarati Caves.
About a 6K/3.5mile drive but only about a quarter mile apart. This was a cave that you walked down
into. Here are a few images from our
visit:
 |
| The cave was about 150'/45m in diameter and about 70'/20m in height |
After this, we went back to Kosta’s (mentioned and introduced previously)
for lunch and then back to the house for afternoon contemplation. However, Kosta’s wife made this crazy good
orange cake and Kim and I partook so our afternoon contemplation was a 5 mile
walk up the road to Agia Nicolaus. Then
we came back to the house, and being it “village OPEN!”, we walked down into
the village to Demitri and Stamatia’s Bike Shop – "your bike" (www.your-bike.gr)
– and got bikes for our planned ride to Skala (south of Poros about 12k/7miles)
tomorrow morning.
It is now, 30 October and the last day of the summer season here on
Kefalonia; we think everyone shuts up the buildings, turns off the power and
heads back to the mainland where the work to support themselves until next
May/June.
As I bang away at the keyboard it is about 4pm, everything is shut down,
the village is quite and to this point, we have had a very fun day. We started at 8:30a and went for a 2-mile
bike ride with Jerry and Franny. Then we
started south along the Ionian Sea toward Skala. Taking our time, we enjoyed the various
shades of blue the water here provides (I tried to image but nothing close to
reality), the views of the small islands off the eastern shore of Kefalonia,
the mainland of Greece (also to the east) and the hillside scenery, roaming
animals (goats, sheep, cows) and the interesting human development scattered
along the way.
Once we got about 2k/1m outside of Skala, the development started to get
more elaborate and decadent (I have used this word before to describe the
structures that we have seen). Becoming obvious
as an aspect to investigate, we made mental notes and continued on. We got to Skala and pulled off onto a very
nice sandy beach and just took in the view, the ocean sounds, salty air and
cool southwest breeze.
Being it was about 10:30a, we found a little place to have “savory” baked
goods (ham, cheese and marinara pie and a croissant); I voted for sweet but got
overruled and justly so. Then up to
investigate some of the “corporate” hotels, spas and resorts, unfinished
structures and ended with a swim before meeting our hosts back at Fotis Family
Restaurant for lunch at 2p. All in all,
we rode 16miles/10k and took a relaxed pace in seeing more of this incredible
island that may someday be a second home to us like it is to Jerry and
Franny. Here are a few images we took
along the way:
 |
| The sandy beach behind us from a rocky point just before Skala |
 |
| The view from our morning snack in Skala Name of this establishment - Sugaro...PERFECT! |
 |
| The turquoise and blue shades of the Ionian Sea |
Walking Total: 6.8 miles - Cycling 15 miles
ἠµἐῤα 15 &16 (September 26 & 27)
The Ithaca Adventure
On the morning of the 26th we hit the road to Sami early to
catch the 8:15am ferry to Ithaca. With
the Toyota RAV4 all packed, we drove onto the ferry and were on the island of
Ithaca around 9:15 and into the main village of Vathi by 9:30. Vathi is where we would be staying the night
at the Lykithes, an apartment rental we booked online. Being that we arrived about an hour early for
check-in, we went to a little café operated by a proprietor known to Jerry and
Franny from their previous visits – Andreas - and sat at a beautiful seaside table!
After a light breakfast, we headed up to our apartment but the directions
were pretty bad and we ended up at the gates to Madonna’s private estate but
could go no further as they were locked; her loss on getting to spend time with
us! Hahahaha! After calling the landlord, we backtracked
and checked in with no problems and were off to explore the town of Vathi.
After about an hour of wandering the streets we headed for our first
destination of the day and that was a small vacation port on the northeast end
of Ithaca of Kloni. The road was curvy,
passing through many villages and full of many narrow streets where I swear you
could reach out and touch the buildings!
Not a long distance from Vathi (about 18km/9miles) but it took about an
hour. Again, incredible! A Mediterranean style village with maybe 50
structures and the intrigue of this area is that some of the buildings have
withstood the earthquakes of past and the old architecture and building methods
were clearly visible and inspiring.
As we walked along the village, we got to the end of the waterfront walk
and I decided to take a swim and get a few underwater images of this crystal
clear turquoise water! I was not long
and cooled off, we continued (in backtracking fashion) to the small villages we
passed along the way, stopping to look and admire the quaint, quiet and
peaceful environments these magical places possess. I swear, if you wanted to, you could come
here and simply disappear from existence!
We ended up in a small town, about 6km/3mi away from Kloni, Frikes; also
a small port village. One thing very
consistent with all the ports so far, Vathi, Kloni and Frikes (and all the
ports we would visit during the next two days), they were full of sail boats
from all over the Med; Bulgaria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, etc.; it looked
like a floating R/V campground!
Unfortunately for the Greek economy, these travelers are not very
inclined to visit restaurants or stores.
They stop for the inexpensive, about €5 per night fee and are on their
way the next day; shopping only at the market for supplies.
We parked in Frikes, a village about 330ft/100m in length and of course
our hosts walked right into an older gentleman (80’s) who was the owner of the
Odysseus Taverna (restaurant) where we were going to have lunch; it was now about 2pm.
After lunch was when the adventure intensified as we were headed to a
Monastery up on a mountain. Yes it was
definitely on a mountain!... and the road?
More twisted and the narrowest yet but with sheer drops of sharp
magnitude on the driver’s side going up and the passenger side going down! This was a blast to drive but at about
20km/10miles per hour. The Panagias Monastery was just above the town of Exogi
(X-O-HE) and was on the third highest peak of the island. The drive
was surpassed only by the views, architecture and history of this sacred
place. On the way up, in Exogi, we visited another beautiful church which certainly must be classified as a Basilca because it was the largest and most decorated building on the hillside! But what piqued our interest again was the economic focus and devotion to
building and maintenance that we have seen so far in historical buildings of
worship!
Getting back to Vathi about 5, Kim and I took a walk from our apartment,
130 steps, down into the city and wandered around the back streets, said
Cale-Mera (Hello - Good day) to Andreas, back to the room to gather J&F and then off
to dinner along the sea; we clocked out about 10 as tomorrow would be another
adventure day in Ithaca.
Note here…the reason we stayed the night was because the last ferry
departed at 4p each day and we would never have enjoyed this day had we tried
to cram all this into a ferry schedule.
Thanks Jerry and Franny for the great plan and treating us to a
wonderful adventure overlooking the Bay of Vathi.
Ithaca Day Two
Now we have until 4pm to catch the ferry and three goals. One, the Katharon Monastery (up another cool
road), a Museum in the village of Stavros and then to a nice beach or two for a
swim in the sea.
The weather has been absolutely wonderful. As we woke today looking south over the Bay
of Vathi, it was partly cloudy but we were treated to an incredible sunrise
over the village. We again went to
Andreas’ for breakfast and he was very busy so our breakfast lasted for longer
than normal but we were in no rush and had plenty of time. Hitting the road after some crepes, eggs and
great coffee, we were on our way up the hill to Katharon.
Arriving at Katharon, the atmosphere was completely different as there
were tour buses; unlike Exogi where we were alone…completely alone! After wandering through “foreigners” dropping
cigarette butts and empty packs of cigarettes, of which we picked up, we hung
back and let the crowd clear. Again, an
incredible structure with obviously funding to keep up its condition and
improve and afforded us time for some great scenic shots from hillside just below the islands highest peak, Mt. Nirito.
We then headed for Stavros where we found the museum closed so we
descended to the beach area (another small port) for a glass of water and some
wandering. This port was dominated by
local fishing boats and rental boats from Fiskardo (on Kefalonia) where the
crossing was about 2.5 miles/4km; based upon the number of rental boats coming in, we gathered that this was the trendy thing to
do when staying in Fiskardo. The waters
were clear but swimming seemed a bit treacherous due to “rental” boaters so we
just sat at a table and enjoyed a drink and conversation.
As it was approaching ferry departure time, we descended back over the
mountain into the Bay of Aelos where the sun was shining and the beach
beckoned! We swam and I took some more
photos (without a mask just dropping down on breath-hold and clicked
away).
I will not elaborate too much more sans to say the photos below will tell
some of the story but to really get it? You gotta see this stuff in
person. I will do my best to elaborate
and I hope that so far I am doing so.
We ended the day with a great meal in Sami, on a beach platia, watching
old sailors walking about reminiscing the day they were Captains sailing the
Ionian. We then headed back to
Poros with the plan for tomorrow to be an easy local day and to visit the local
Monastery.
Walking total: 8.3 miles
IMAGES
 |
| On the Bay of Vathi as we begin our two days on Ithaca |
 |
| The view from our room at the Lykithes apartment |
 |
| The Basicila in Exogi (X-O-He) on the way up to the Monastery |
 |
| Panagias Monastery high atop the mountain above Exogi |
 |
| The Panagias Monastery Bell Tower |
 |
| The view from Panagias above Exogi |
 |
| Katharon on the hillside just below Mt. Nirito |
 |
| The view from Katharon - looking east over the Ionian Sea |
 |
| A view from underwater during our swim before heading back to Poros |
 |
| The Ferry port on Ithaca Can you guess what vehicle is ours? |
ἠµἐῤα 13 &14 (September 24 & 25)
We have definitely slowed our pace to that of the island lifestyle here
in Kefalonia. Yesterday, 24 September,
was our first full day here in Poros. It
is truly everything you imagined when you picture life in the Greek Isles; certainly a Mediterranean atmosphere. An easy, relaxed
lifestyle; but do not forget that they are providing this atmosphere to the
visitor (tourist) under the condition of extreme economic hardship and massive
government taxation; the stories we are hearing would turn a passivist into a
psychotic killer; simply unbelievable.
Definitely not like the Caribbean or even Hawaii – not as hectic and
chaotic and certainly not as commercial; really a different pace, atmosphere
and attitude that is refreshing to Kim and I.
Our home away from home here with
Jerry and Franny could be classified as out in the country and our first night
sleep was going stellar until 3am when the neighbor’s roosters (he has 3)
started to squawk! I thought these
stupid birds did not cluck until sun-up or when a hot chick was nearby; crazy
and disruptive for sure. Anyway, we made
the best of it and are starting to get more accustomed to this time zone so we
shut the windows and went back to sleep.
We began our day with a full tour of Poros but thanks to the community
knowledge that our hosts possess after 30+ years of living here, the tour was
full of history, resident information, why buildings are vacant, who owned them
and why the businesses have failed, handshakes along the way with introductions to local friends –
introductions in Greek and conversations that had to be interpreted by Jerry
and Franny as we moved through the town (really... a seaside village). We stopped along the way for coffee and
conversation and even got in a swim in the Ionian Sea!
After a morning of “visiting” the town and the many friends of our hosts,
we gathered up some day stuff and headed north to Sami and Agia Efimia, two
cities on the eastern side of the island; north of Poros. The drive was the main event as we passed
through stunning valleys full of color, lush green forest and dotted with
villages and country homes. In Sami, we
needed to seek ferry information to Ithaka, a Greek island just a few miles off
the eastern shore of Kefalonia and then on to Agia Efimia for lunch at a
seaside restaurant of which the proprietors were friends of Jerry and
Franny.
Now meals here are insane in size and delicious beyond belief; we have
had some incredible “chefs” so to say…hand-picked from years of friendship with
our hosts. However, you really have to
pick which meal of the day will be the main meal because no human, not even me
and especially not Kim, could eat like this three meals a day; we have selected the mid-day meal to
be ours. Today, our lunch consisted of
about 5-6 appetizers (all of which I cannot remember the names) and then a main
course, in this case a 1-kilo grouper; yep, the fish came on a plate, eyes,
head and all! The server, a young local
gal, carefully de-boned the fish and presented it for consumption; it was
scrumptious!
After lunch, we visited some small local sites and the real treat was
that they let me drive home; 5-speed manual along curvy roads. A blast and we made it back in no time! The rest of the evening was relaxing, full of
conversation, blogging (hahaha) and making a plan for the next couple of
days.
September 25
Today we began with a walk before breakfast to the ruins of a village
upon the hillside where Jerry and Franny’s home is. About a 2-mile walk. There were some devastating earthquakes here
in ’29 and ’53 and the villagers did not rebuild nor did their younger family
members (drawn away to better economic opportunities?). We visited a church that however is still in
operation and the site of about 24 multiple graves; contained more than one family member. Truly a walk back in time.
After our walk we had a light breakfast (thank god!) and then down into
Poros for some bike riding along the Ionian Sea. After about 8 miles of riding (which we will
do again) we went to Kosta’s (landlord of Jerry and Franny’s home) restaurant
down by the ocean for lunch; a short lunch today of only about 2 hours. There were errands to run and tasks to
accomplish by our hosts and then back up to the house about 4.
A very relaxing and easy day as our road so far has been full of great
adventure it only appropriate that tomorrow we visit the island of Ithaka; so
far for Kim and I, a marvelous journey for sure.
Walking total: 7.4 miles - cycling: 8.5
IMAGES
 |
| Jerry and Franny's valley - their home is center of image |
 |
| Swimming in the Ionian Sea - about 72 f / 22 c Not as salty this close to shore due to heavy fresh water flow |
 |
| Pano from the center of the port of Sami You can see the Isle of Ithaka in the center |
ἠµἐῤα 11 &12 (September 22 & 23)
We woke to an absolutely beautiful day
in the Meteora Area; Kalambaka Greece.
For the first time since we departed Reno on the 12th, we had
no immediate schedule! We could
leisurely wake, have breakfast and simply enjoy a relaxing morning into
afternoon; our bus for Patras did not depart until 2p; we executed this morning
perfectly.
About 1pm we headed to the bus station;
not really a station but an intersection of 5 streets where people stood on all
5 waiting for a bus; we were told to wait in a certain area and after 3 busses
came, loaded people and luggage (mostly large plastic bags full of stuff) and left,
our bus finally came – 9 minutes after 2, heading to Trikala where we change
busses to Patras! No worries, our Patras
bus does not leave until 3 and we have 51 minutes to get basically 8 miles;
3:06 the bus arrived in Trikala, with us a bit worried as this is the only bus
to Patras for the next 2 days, and to our benefit, it was waiting for the
passengers on our bus so again, no worries, but we did not know. We got on the bus and away we went: 5 hours
to Patras.
The road to Patras went over a couple of
mountain passes. Not high mountains say
3000-4000 feet in elevation but the roads were really curvy and the bus driver
drove the bus like a sports car; he was aggressive but very in control. A small story here, and in typical fashion, I
got yelled at by the driver for standing while moving. I did not know I was getting yelled at until
he abruptly stopped the bus, got out of his seat and approached me with hand
gestures and a tone that clearly let me know I screwed up. I apologized in English, sat down and was
good the rest of the way! Kim just
smiled and accepted that she is stuck with me; we both laughed.
We got to Patras about 9pm and walked to
our hotel, the Patras Palace – a Three Star – but 100m/300 feet from the bus
station. We dropped our stuff, Googled
restaurants nearby and were off to Colazone – an Italian eatery and it was
awesome. Best risotto that Kim said she has ever had and I had spaghetti with
cheddar sauce – delicious! Back to room
and out.
September 23
We woke to another beautiful day. We were now on on the Bay of Patras – the
Ionian Sea. My god this sea shoreline is
gorgeous! The hotel had a breakfast on
the 6th floor so we checked it out.
Awesome, a deck overlooking the sea, we ate breakfast and then headed in
search of tickets to Kyllini and then on to the island of Kefalonia where our
friends Jerry and Franny lived. Not a
huge problem. We found out that there
are two bus stations, we went to the wrong one first which was the bus station
that we arrived at last night and they showed us where to go. Getting to the “community” bus station, we
bought our tickets for the bus to Kyllini and for the ferry to Poros, Kefalonia
and were on our way; packed bus but we were able to find seats; a few young men
stood for the 90-minute ride. Getting to
Kyllini, we exited the bus (which drove onto the ferry as it would continue to
Argistoli (Kefalonia) later) grabbed our bags and headed to the top outside
deck for the 90-minute journey to the island.
Arriving in Poros about 1:30p, Jerry and
Franny were there waiting and excited to see us. In minutes we were at their home in the hills
above Poros, sorting out our stuff and getting ready for our 10 day stay here.
Once settled, Franny had prepared an
incredible spinach salad lunch with everything fresh grown from her garden or
her friends and we sat and chatted and ate a traditionally Greek 3-hour lunch
with plenty of homemade Robola (white wine) served continuously! The Robola was made by Jerry and Franny and
absolutely delicious; and I am not a wine drinker.
Its 5pm, time for a nap because dinner
is at 9pm. We almost felt guilty because
we really have not exerted any energy today but we gladly participated and
slept for about an hour. We rose to
Franny watering her gardens and then took tours of the entire property.
Jerry and Franny have been coming to the
Island and city of Poros for over 40 years so they are a very huge part of the
community. I suspect that over the next
10 days, we will get to meet most of, if not all, their Greek family; exactly
what Kim and I hope. Tonight, we would
meet a gentleman they consider a son and his family; Maike (Mikey) Kambitsi,
his wife Maria and their precocious 9-year old daughter, Franchesca. They own a very nice restaurant overlooking
the bay and that is where we would dine; Agrapidos – prickly-pear.
As per plan we sat at 9pm, enjoyed some
incredible dishes of Saganaki (fried cheese), Melinzanes (an eggplant salad),
mussels in a wonderful feta and tomato sauce, greek salad, conda-soufle pork
(cooked on the spit) and more Robola! We
chatted with Jerry and Franny’s family and got to meet their granddaughter who
was very versed in English. In typical
Greek tradition, we ate, chatted and then topped off the meal with some whiskey –
Johnny Walker Red – I don’t recommend it -
it was about 10:30pm. Lots of
laughs and stories then back to the house.
Tomorrow is another day and we do not know what J&F have in
store!
Two days total: 4 miles...boo!
IMAGES
 |
| Our walk to the bus station in Kalambaka - about 500m/.33 mile Cab? Nonesense Martin...we will walk - I love my wife! |
 |
| The ferry port in Poros, Kefalonia, Greece |
 |
| Jerry and Franny's home, 1 mile up the road from Poros. Absolutely picturesque Mediterranean style and setting! |
 |
| Great hosts, incredible meal - It is truly great to be here! |
 |
| Little Franchesca |
ἠµἐῤα 10 (September 21)
My appetite has returned. Whatever
bug got me, it seems to be gone and we hit the 8am breakfast by the pool…this
is tough! A new day of schedules! The bus for Meteora departed at 9. We missed it but the stop by the “fountain of
water” we could make; a quick hoof up the hill, and success…up the road we
went. Basically, the road taking off
from the upper north end of town led us back behind the huge rock monoliths
that dominated the view from our room.
We bought the all-day bus pass, €5,50, but that was a waste as after the
bus dropped us at the Great Meteoron, we never saw it again traveling in the
direction we were headed. After touring
the Great Meteoron, we walked down to Varlaam and then to the oldest, a nunnery
(the first two were monasteries), Rousanou with its 270 steps to the
entry. Exiting Rousanou, there were
steps up, so we, not having a clue as to where they went, followed them; total
tourist! Well this was a good thing, it
put us on the road to the final two structures, St. Stephens and then the Holy
Trinity.
These structures are truly a stretch of “doable” by any modern-day
definitions of construction. Like much
of the ancient and historical architecture we have encountered on this trip,
truly spectacular and mind-blowingly thought provoking as to how these
structures were built. The artwork, the
wood carvings, the mere size of each monastery were incredible then, throw in
the fact that they are built on shear rock monoliths that stand up in cases
over 1000 feet / 300 meters!
Following our visit to the Holy Trinity, where you walk down about 200
ft/60m, we then decided to take the hike out back down to Kalambaka; a very
well sculpted, but steep, trail that leads right back onto the city
streets. We stopped for lunch at a
tavern that had a name, but Greek to us, and then back to the room for a couple
of hours. It was 3pm.
We definitely recommend this as a Greek destination. If you are in good shape and can walk at
least 10 miles in a day, then one full day here is plenty; our schedule worked
perfectly. Don’t buy the day bus pass
and definitely start with the Great Meteoron and work south.
We ended the day walking the back streets and viewing the homes and
churches (man they love to spend bank on the churches (places of worship) over
here…man! Then to Syrtakis, a “tavern”
for some Saganaki Shrimp and Calamari but the surprise treat was the 500ml
bottle of local white wine (€5 - a bargain) that really hit the spot and had to
be of alcohol content above the norm.
Stopping at the bakery for a treat to share on our deck overlooking the
monoliths of Meteora, we ended the day with a sweet sensation in our
bellies. Tomorrow we have till 2pm here
in Kalambaka and then the 5-hour bus journey to Patra. Not sure if we will stay in Patra or end up
in Kilini (where we need to catch the ferry to Kefalonia – a western Greek Isle
– where we will spend the next 11 days.
Days walk: 10.6 miles
IMAGES - There are many more so come on by when we return to see more!
 |
| The Great Meteoron - the first monastery we visited - 1900' elevation |
 |
| Another View (west) of the Great Meteoron |
 |
| The Varlaam Monastery - our second stop. |
 |
| Kim at the base of the Varlaam Monastery - It is so hard to show scale but that spire above her is 150'/45m above! |
 |
| This is a wall mural depicting the various Monks overseeing the Great Meteron Monks that may have presided many hundreds of years ago. |
 |
| Here is where they ended up...on a shelf in the basement! This is for whatever reason, very disturbing to me. |
I will end for now with a graphic of the area and some editing of my own showing you our day hiking the Monasteries of Meteora:
ἠµἐῤα 9 (September 20)
Today is the Birthday of our oldest, Elizabeth and our travel day to
Kalambaka; the city at the base of Meteora.
Up at 6:15, breakfast at 7, cab at 7:30, train station at 7:45 and on
the train and headed north at 8:20. That
is the pace we have been keeping and enjoying every second. The train trip took
about 5 ½ hours as we arrived in Kalambaka at about 2:00pm. The curiosity here is that in Athens, we
dropped off our luggage at the train station and got a receipt but we never did
see the attendant tag the bag. In
Kalambaka, we departed and asked where the luggage was and they said, “second
car you can go get it”. I walked up expecting some line and our two
bags were the only two bags in the car; €5 well spent!
Now standing at the train station we plotted, well….Kim plotted, our path
to the Monistiri Guest House; I did not help.
After about 5 very thought intensive minutes of map consultation, I
chimed in, helped Kim get her bearings and then we started the walk to our BnB
but…not before Kim got her first introduction to European toilets; the kind
that are basically a hole in the floor.
I laughed very deeply (I was introduced to them during my Everest trek
in 2005) as we began our trek. We walked
for about 5 minutes and 300-400 meters, we arrived at a very Mediterranean
influenced structure. Again, Kim knocked
it out of the park. Dita was our Hostess
and we were checked in to a wonderful suite; the largest room we have occupied
yet. After sorting out our stuff, we
took the ?map? that our Proprietors created and went exploring the town.
Very small town but nowhere near it size in terms of location. We found it much less hectic than Athens or
even Paris for that matter so it was a welcome calm. With my stomach starting to start feeling
better but still no appetite, we went to Plantanos for dinner (a restaurant
recommended by our hosts on Kefalonia, Jerry and Franny), marveled at the herd
of feral cats, enjoyed a nice meal with desert on the house and then headed
back to rest for tomorrows assault on Meteora.
Days total steps: 10,283 (about 5 miles)
IMAGES
Days total steps: 10,283 (about 5 miles)
IMAGES
 |
| A countryside view from the train to Kalambaka |
 |
| The Monastiri Guesthouse, Kalambaka, Greece |
 |
| The view of Meteora from our deck - this photo does not do it justice... Massively, stunningly, mind-blowing! |
ἠµἐῤα 8 (September 19)
As we rose, I knew something was very wrong with me. Since our last night in Paris, my stomach had
been in agony and all day yesterday, I ate very little. Hitting breakfast this morning I had no
energy or appetite but forced myself to eat and hydrate. Feeling like crap and knowing I had to keep
up with Kim, I needed to “man-up” and suck-it-up. We hit the street and headed for the Acropolis
at 10am.
You would think that the way would be very obvious but it was not marked
in any way. We made a few wrong turns
and headed back to the hotel to use the restroom, they were not very available
in the square and I would ask the bellman for directions.
With a clear direction in hand, we headed to the ticket counter, plopped
down our €30 each and entered the Acropolis.
This place…unbelievable. It is about a 10-minute walk to the Propylaea
and through this 2500-year-old grand entrance we went. Massive, inconceivable, grand do not do it
justice. We walked up to the Parthenon
(the largest and most famous structure) and just stood there in utter awe. The Erechtheion, The Old Temple of Athena,
the Temple of Athena Nike (I think that is the New Temple of Athena), are the
major structures standing up on the Acropolis (by the way, Acropolis is not a
structure, it is the Greek term for “high point” in the city, albeit it is not
the highest of points within the city, it is the biggest and made for a great
statement of military strength.
After about an hour atop we descended to walk around the entire Acropolis
from the south wall to the north wall.
We visited the Odeon of Herod Atticus, the Theater of Dionysus, saw the Temple
of the Olympian Zeus, Hadrian’s Arch, The Greek Folk Art Museum (a ruin) and
many others. It was spectacular and
colossal. What we realized however was
to really get a complete experience is that you need to do some enormous study
prior to your visit because the small informational plaques were nowhere near
complete and you also need more than one day.
We enjoyed the day immensely but with fatigue, my stomach, we accepted
our viewing limitations and enjoyed our simple assumptive conversation on how
all this was done and what it must have looked like 2500 years ago.
On our way back, we found a bakery that made cheese pie (pizza) and
moussaka (an eggplant, lamb, potato and dough type of lasagna) took it back to
the hotel, went to the rooftop bar and ate dinner and watched the sun set over
Athens and the Acropolis. Tomorrow, up
at 6am for the train to Kalambaka and the Monasteries of Meteora.
Days Walking total: 7.2 miles
IMAGES
 |
| Athens and the density of development right up to the base of the Acropolis |
 |
| The Erechtheion and the incredible decoration and detail in its construction... 2500 years ago! |
 |
| The Northeast corner of the Parthenon - it was hard to find an angle that did not have some sort of modern day construction equipment in the frame as they are trying very hard to prevent this structure from crumbling and falling completely down. |
 |
| The Odeon of Herod of Atticus A speaking, small play, music theater It was grand, they liked their entertainment and they had no Netflix! |
 |
| The Acropolis at night as viewed from our hotels rooftop |
 |
| A view of the Acropolis's east end - This was a mighty fortress for the Spartans of Greece! |
 |
| From atop the Acropolis looking south - Upper right corner is the Agean Sea |
ἠµἐῤα 7 (September 18)
I have to say, and I think I am speaking for the both of us, that
exhaustion is certainly being felt. We
set two alarms so that we would rise in preparation for our travel to Athens
and were out the door of Hotel Pavilion Monceau by 7 and into our very
expensive UBER. Funny, it cost us €45 on
the way in but today? €90! Oh well, we
could have simply taken the train and it probably would have cost about €10
(for both of us) but we just did not plan for that and we did not realize UBER
would be this radical on price.
We were told that we needed to be to CDG three hours early so with a very
aggressive UBERIE (cabbie Uber style) we got to the ticket counter at 9:15a for
a 12:15 flight; funny, no one to be seen until about 10a but all went smooth
and the Agean Airline flight was great, on time and even served a hot meal of
very small chicken breast.
So, now we are in Athens, got on the train at the airport and exited the
train at the Monistriki Station and after two or three huge escalators, hit
street level on Athinas. street and took
a left as instructed and bam, 100m we were at the Attalos Hotel; welcomed by
very courteous young men and we checked in by 6pm; shit…where did that day go!
The hotel was just to the north of and directly below the Acropolis and
with full knowledge of the rooftop bar, that is where we headed. Sharing a drink, we could view without
distortion the entire Acropolis.
Relaxing there for only the time it took to finish a cosmo and a double
scotch/rocks, we headed down into the square.
Just like we would imagine in ancient Greek times, the square was
rocking and full of people. There were
ruins all around; modern man had basically taken over what was not grounds that
held ruins. We stopped at several as we
adventured this area of Athens and noticed that the merchants were simply
trying to eek out a meager living on the back of the tourist dollar. Lots of simply crappy trinkets, shirts,
“original” artwork, etc. The other thing
that was absolutely sad, and this began when we hit street level following our
train ride in, was graffiti; it was everywhere and is telling a very sad story
of this ancient city.
We called it a day after finding a dinner place and that was not hard as
every dinner place you went by they had two people stopping you to promote
their establishment; some with handsome men and some with beautiful ladies; Kim
opted for the one with the handsome guys!
They were quite the salespeople but I would say in this area there were
2500 tables and being that it is low season, heavy competition to fill
theirs.
We finished dinner, did a bit more exploring and headed back to get some
sleep for tomorrow it is supposed to by 100 degrees (f) and very little shade.
Days walking total: 5.2 miles
IMAGES
 |
| The Train from ATH to Monistriki - really...it took us right to our hotel! 45 minutes, air-conditioned, smooth ride After a cab ride to a train station, I am glad I did not have to drive this route! |
 |
| The view from the rooftop bar - those are our knees! - This is a POV image. ! |
 |
| A beautiful building, covered in graffiti. There was not a single wall along the entire area that was not covered! Lacking pride? We do not know but simply sad. |
Journee 6 (September 17)
Our last full day in this incredible city. Today we took it easy and visited some of
the sights we had left on our list, Sacre-Coure, The Moulin Rouge (only because it
was in the area of Sacre-Coure), the Statue de la Liberte, the Eiffel Tower
light show that we missed last night by ten minutes and any other things we saw
along the way. Also, I need to find crepes.
You would think that easy but we have yet to find a “crepe” specific
restaurant. Finally, again food centric (a Martin thing that Kim tolerates and
my children laugh at), we need to indulge in some French pastries (patisserie).
All of which, I am sure we will accomplish.
Knowing that you may be tiring of my prose, I am going to do a photo essay for this blog entry. Once we hit Greece on the evening of September 18, ημέρα 7, I will again resume the act of putting fingers to keyboard!
A Photo Essay:
In walking some 30 plus miles around Paris, we finally found a gas station -
This was our view of the Sacre-Coure from the Craperie where we had breakfast -
The Sacre-Couer: an incredible Catholic Basilica -
Our breakfast Craperie (direct center of image at the end of the grass area just before the road) from atop the dome of the Sacre-Coure -
A view of the Eiffel Tower from atop the Dome of of the Sacre-Coure (to get to the top of the dome was 300 marches in a very narrow granite spiral staircase! Spectatular!) -
The famous Moulin Rouge...
On a real seedy street in Pigalle on the border of the 9th and 18th Arrondissements at 82 Boulevard de Clichy.-
I did not get a picture of the strawberry crape I had for breakfast but we did finally share some fine French pastries and wow...what a sugar high! We could only eat half -
 |
| Lemon Tart on the left and Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Eclair |
Kim and I at the Statue de Liberte here in Paris. There is a great "subway story" with this image so when we return, we will share it with you! -
Days walking total: 6.8 miles and this was an easy day!
Final thoughts from: La Ville Lumière"
What a great time we had here in Paris. It is said that the Parisians are rude and
short with tourists. We did not find
that the case. We feel that it is just
that in a city of such population and density, they have to get things done
quickly and do not have time for indecision and improper planning. We found the locals to be quite nice and
helpful.
Journee 5 (September 16)
Today is the Chateau Versailles and the plan was to leave the room about
8, get the train (which we carefully planned out from the Pererie-Levallois
arret [station]) at 9am. Darn, we missed!
Our sleep schedules are still a bit screwed up and last night Kim got
her first real decent full night’s sleep (as I, and was a voluntary contributor
to this “schedule slide”) so we did not rise until 9:30am.
After a 20-minute train ride, we made it to Chateau Versailles (area), I
was expecting this short train ride, in the country to then arrive at this
chateau out in the country. That was not
to be. The train terminated, we exited
and the first thing I saw was an f-in KFC, then McDonalds and a Starbucks. Shit, there goes the quaint countryside
chateau image for me. Once off the
train, we had to walk along this “city’s” streets, past all the stores, vendors
and peddlers to arrive at the Chateau Versailles; a monstrous structure adorned
by huge gold painted steel fencing. It
was quite the sight.
As we got through security, we saw a huge line about 2-3 city blocks long
but Kim informed me that not to worry as we have no wait tickets; love that
girl. We walked up to the entrance and
found out that that line? was the no wait line!
Oh well, so we walked back to the end of it and waited our turn for
entry. It only took about 30 minutes so
it was not that bad but my god, the number of people was in and of itself amazing;
and frustrating for me at the same time.
We entered the Chateau at about noon and began our adventure. A cool aspect was that we were able to
download an audio tour app right to our iPhones so the plan was to tour the
inside and then spend the majority of the afternoon in the “jardin”
(garden).
There were three main sections to tour inside the Chateau, The King’s
Daughters (Mesdames’) Apartments, The State Apartments and the Gallery of
Battles (commissioned by Napoleon and clearly a statement to his ego). We set off and were immediately rejected
because I was eating an apple…no food allowed (Kim just rolled her eyes! She is so patient with me…Strike 1). So we exited, I finished the apple and we
continued with the inside tour; along with about 50,000 others. Side note here: there are quite a few
cultures that have no clue about personal space but we smiled and joked aloud
in English. We laughed a lot!
It took about 2-hours to do the full audio tour of the inside and I have
to say that the words “elaborate”, “exuberant”, “ornate”, “decadent” and
utterly “excessive”, do not even do justice as descriptors to this palace. I am not even going to try to describe sans
to say that the marble, granite, sculpture, ceiling paintings, hand carved wood
adornments, paintings and furniture were mind blowing from the standpoint of
what was done but to me…how did they afford this utterly luxurious
self-indulgence! It was impressive at
the same time mentally conflicting; what made a person need such elaboration to
justify themselves? Both Kim and I drew
this same conclusion.
Being that it was about 3, we thought it would be a good break before
going outside to get lunch so I suggested one of the restaurants and upon being
seated, and seeing that a large S. Pellegrino water was 9.2 Euros (about $12 vs
$1.50 at a grocery store in the US) I immediately turned to the plats (dishes)
page and when I saw that a sandwich was 22 Euros, I looked at Kim, not quite
hangry but getting close and said, “this could be a $150 lunch and I would
rather spend that in the City at a nice restaurant sporting authentic French
cuisine” and she agreed but the act of exiting did embarrass her a bit
so…Strike 2. We went to the “fast food”
sandwich line, got to the front of the line and they ran out of sandwiches but
only for about 10 minutes. When the resupplied,
we got a couple Poulet (chicken) sandwiches and drinks and headed outside to
the Jardin’s to enjoy lunch.
We toured the Jardin’s for about 3 hours and they were just as elaborate
and impressive as the Palace. A maze of
trails leading in and out of massive groves of trees and hedges; trails that
intersected as some point of interest that was usually a fountain of lavish
design. At this point, we were only
about 4 miles into our daily walk but I have to tell you, I was fading; legs
ached a bit but feet were pounding however, I had to gut-up as Kim was going
strong and I was not going to be the wimp that cut this adventure short!
It was about 5pm and we were now at the far western end of the Estate and
with the fountains scheduled to shut-off at 5:30p, Kim says we have to see the
Dragon Fountain. “Dragon Fountain?! you
did not tell me this earlier Why?. Your
‘killing me Smalls!’” [Side note here is that anyone that knows Kim, knows what
dragons mean to her] So, we hauled-ass up to the Dragon fountain and…yes…it was
OFF! Shit, oh well, we got some great
photos and walked across to the Neptune Fountain to watch a water show. Guess what, they turned on the Dragon fountain
for this show and since what we were watching was nothing say compared to the
water show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, we looked at each other and without
words, hauled-ass back to the Dragon fountain and got some great photos; my
legs were getting a thorough trashing but we truly were having a great time!
Hanging around the Jardin’s for about another hour, we found ourselves
back at the train station about 6:30pm heading back to the city and by 7, we
were back at the Eiffel Tower Metro station where Kim said, “stop! let’s look
for a “French Cuisine” restaurant down here, eat dinner and then go view the
Eiffel Tower all lit up”. A great idea
so that is exactly what we did.
Finding the Le 7’eme Vin, we entered, sat down - like sardines in a can - and enjoyed a fabulous authentic French meal (about half the price of what was presented at the Chateau) and a much better atmosphere. Kim had Poulet in a Normandy Sauce and
I…DUCK…never had duck…gonna try something completely different. Duck in a raspberry sauce would be my entrée. However, you know I had to have escargot and
their version was “snails in casserole” so for my appetizer, I ordered one and
Kim had vegetable soup and all along the evening we enjoyed a nice chardonnay. It was really perfect and then had to
interrupt three tables of people dining to exit. Hilarious.
By now, we were both wiped out. Kim not as much as I but we were both
ready to get off our feet and ready for our final full day in Paris. What a great day and I have to tell you that
time absolutely flies when you are together, just all-out having the time of
your lives. (Oh…I managed not to get that third strike so I get another
“at-bat”…tomorrow is a new day!)
Days Walking total: 8.1 miles
IMAGES
 |
| This is the "bed" chamber of one of the daughters of King Louis XIV. It is one of 5 rooms that comprised an "apartment for each daughter. |
 |
| One of the many ceiling paintings adorning each of the 5+ rooms that comprised the King's quarters (apartment). I estimate this painting to be 35'-40' (10m-12m) top to bottom. |
 |
| The main fountain at the base of the grand staircase leading to the Jardins. Latona's Fountain:Daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe and sister of Asteria. |
 |
| The back of Chateau Versailles A chateau that had over 700 rooms Housing 20,000+ Noblemen throughout its history up to the French Revolution |
 |
| The view following our wonderful French dîner. |
Journee 4 (September 15)
We are now 3-0 on the Paris subway and we are so confident that tomorrow
we will be 5-0, we already bought our round-trip tickets to the Palace of
Versailles; taking us outside of the Paris city limits. Today our subway adventure took us first to
the Pantheon and we returned from the Louvre after a visit in between to Notre
Dame.
We arrived at the Metro’s Jussieu station in the southeast-central 5th
Arrondissement’s Quartier Latin district about 10am and were not as successful
at land navigation as we were on the subways!
But after a couple of direction changes, we headed up this incredible
one-lane street and it wound around to a city center area and after a few pedestrian
crossings we were at the back side of the Pantheon. A huge structure, about 2-US city blocks
square, that we easily walked around and ending up looking almost due east,
viewing its front Portico as a backdrop, we decided to first hit a café and
have some breakfast.
The breakfasts here are high in carbs!
Croissants that definitely due not need butter (so we loaded them up
with strawberry jam), fresh baked biscotti, and not the small ones the US
coffee houses provide; these were huge.
Accompanied by a hot drink, Kim has tea and I… Café Americano with
Crème, orange juice and scrambled eggs; they term as an omelet; all for about
$15 US. Today was not a rush, so I had a
second Café Americano and about 11:30am we were entering the Pantheon.
After spending about 2 hours inside this massive domed structure looking
at the architecture, art, sculpture, and the coffins, inside the burial vaults
within its lower level crypt, we exited in awe!
I studied this building in my early college years (not many of you know
that my dream exiting high school was to become an architect) as an
architectural student and I have got to tell you, “books and pictures do not
even come one percent close to providing this construction work of immensity’s
true reality”! This place was awesome
and yes, inside those coffins were real bodies: Voltaire, Alexander Dumas,
Madame Curie, Braille and its Architect, Soufflot to name just a few of the 75
interred there; three of which are women.
Now back on foot and navigating better, we headed up to Notre Dame but
not before I caved and had to have a Parisian pastry; Kim is so good, she had
fruit but I did manage to get her to take a bite, albeit small, very small, of
my pastry.
Notre Dame is a free tourist attraction and it was packed but that’s
okay, we got to go inside, get some great photos, again discuss how
architectural texts miss the grandeur of a structure like this, stare in awe at
the hundreds of stained glass windows (they look crappy from the
outside-hahaha) and realize this building took over 200 years to build and with
maintenance and restoration efforts along the way, over 700 years of work has
gone into this magnificent structure. We
walked around the outside and are thinking about going back to go up into the towers
but ran short of time today. Notre Dame
rests right along the Seine river just east of our next destination, the Louvre
Museum so we just followed the Seine west and bam…there we were, the Louvre.
The Louvre Museum was where we planned to spend the bulk of our day. Getting here about 2 we got right in as there
were no lines. Kim had a definitive plan
and when implemented, we visited the Egyptian Antiquities section, followed by
the Greek Sculptures, Italian Painters, Northern European Painters and then
ended with French Sculptures. All in
all, it took 5 hours. We scratched the
surface but you have to know that everything is titled in French – obvious – so
for us Americans that only speak one language, you really need the audio
tour. We opted for no audio as that
would have increase our time to about 10 hours and we only had 5-6. The other thing we want to share is stay away
from the food! It was absolutely
terrible and nowhere near the quality of the museum itself (in fact, it was not
even day-old bakery quality) and finally, when you exit, you are shuffled out
through a sub-terrainian shopping mall; cheesy, but we get it.
The museum was incredible and you could spend 2-3 days there if art, art
history and physical art and history interaction was your thing; not really
mine but I did enjoy the time we spent there and I know Kim loved it. We saw really incredible Egyptian artifacts
(but really cannot understand how they came to be in a French museum), the Mona
Lisa, Venus de Milo, several paintings by Rembrandt, Raphael (he is also buried
in the Paris Pantheon), DiVinci and a tons of incredible sculptures; literally!
With feet aching, we hit the subway (our 3-0 success) and got back to our
hotel about 7:30pm. Opting for a light
dinner, we ate cheese, crackers, salami and fruit in our room with a nice glass
of Chardonnay! To end the day, we
planned tomorrows adventure to Versailles and called it a night at about 11pm;
we will sleep later but for now…we seem to be running on enthusiasm, excitement
and a fair bit of adrenaline!
Day Total: 9.2 miles (and we took subways! 3.2 miles walking inside the Louvre alone!)
 |
| Underneath the Pantheon's Dome, 83m/272' above - This place was incredible! |
 |
| The Pantheon's Portico - So many tourists, my twin photo bombed us...Sorry! |
 |
| Notre Dame |
 |
| One of "hundreds" of stained glass windows: from inside Notre Dame Stunning is not an equitable term - Magnificent!!! |
 |
| Yep...we saw it with about 20,000 others! Not sure what all the fuss is about? |
Journee 3 (September 14)
Days Total: 8.4 miles
IMAGES
 |
| Arc de Triomphe - Our first stop |
 |
| Our first view of the Eiffel Tower |
 |
| From the Second Level of the Eiffel Tower (looking East/SE) |
 |
| A "pano" from the top of the Eiffel Tower (looking South) |
 |
| Yes! Those are a small fraction of the total amount of human remains within the Catacombs de Paris - Femurs, Skulls - neatly stacked - with various bones on top!!! |
Journee 1
and 2 (September 12 and 13)
It is
complicated to keep the days separated as we departed Reno at 8am and were
basically on a plane all day the 12th and into the 13th
when we landed in Paris at 10am. To us
mentally it was still the 12th but in reality, it was in fact the 13th;
1:00am Reno time to our bodies.
Nevertheless, we hit the ground running.
France Immigration and Customs was rapid and after talking to a scheming
cab driver outside Customs, quoting us a rate to our hotel double the Uber
rate, we clicked the “order” button on our Uber app and Osmond was there in 2
minutes and had us to our hotel, Pavillion Monceau – in the Monceau district of
Paris’s 17th Arrondissement; it was noon!
We got to
our room and chuckled at its small size.
About 10 feet by 10 feet but clean, quaint and right in the midst of the
84,000 people Paris holds per square mile; compare that to Reno which holds on
average 2,200 people per square mile. It
was busy, noisy and attracted us immediately to adventure. We sorted out our stuff in the tiny closet
with 8 hangers and 3 shelves, figured out how to turn the lights on (not before
a trip to the front desk to find you have to put your room key in a special box
inside the room to make the power in the room work), packed a back-pack of
basic stuff and by 2pm, hit the streets, planning to simply stay in this
northwestern section of Paris. There was
a park nearby so we walked south to it and then just kept exploring as we saw
all sorts of very cool architecture. The
craziest thing we noticed as there is no rhyme or reason to the street
layout. They turn, twist, stop, begin,
end in the strangest of places; not like the square/rectangle grids in the US. Another realization is that with the
population density so massive, you can imagine that the building are fairly
tall, probably 6-8 stories high and you cannot see above them or through them
to navigate by landmark so we got turned around several times; no…not lost, I
knew we were in Paris the whole time!
It was raining
consistently from the beginning, a light sprinkle most of the time that strengthened
toward the end of this first outing but we had our rain gear, thanks to Kim’s
pre-trip research and an umbrella. We
walked for about 3 hours, stopping at one of the many sidewalk Café’s, learned
a little French along the way with the assistance of our Serveur (FR-Sp) and our
translate app and discovered an incredible church – St. Augustin’s (photos
below) and toured it. At this point, it
was time to get back and we successfully navigated our way back to the hotel. Our phone apps were of critical help and around
5:30p we ended up back on southwest corner of Rue Jouffroy de Abbans and Rue Daubigny; Hotel Pavillion Monceau (Rue=Street).
At this
point, we were fairly exhausted (remember it was now to us 8:30am on Thursday
and we had been up basically - you do not sleep on a plane regardless of
whether your seat lays flat, which ours did, or not – for 26 hours. So…we took a nap and woke about 7, still
raining, and took another adventure closer to the hotel. Calling it a day or two?, we got some food at
the grocery store, headed back to the Hotel for the night and readied for tomorrows
first full day in Paris.
Day Total:
7.5 miles
IMAGES
 |
| St. Augustin - church (undergoing exterior renovations) |
 |
| Inside St. Augustin's Church |
 |
| A typical street level view from our hotel area |
