Top of Europe

We have spent the last two days in Interlaken, Switzerland. The first day we just explored down and found the casino. My first try at blackjack proved the be a success and I walked away with 35 CHF/Swiss Franks.  Yesterday we took a cog train to the top of Europe, the Jungfrau Mountain 13638ft. The fast altitude increase gave me a bit of a headache so it was a good excuse to eat some chocolate which is supposed to help with altitude sickness.  At the top they have created an ice palace that you can walk through with lots of ice sculptures and fun little tunnels to go through. Went and played in the snow. It was such a difference than the sand we were playing in just days before.  They have year round skiing/snowboarding at the top but after looking at it, it was a pretty lame bunny slope. 

On our way back down we had to stop and switch trains at a little town and there were a bunch of goats just chilling in the middle of town. Everybody got out and took pictures. There was this one funny little goat who was way behind the rest of the pak and as it was crossing the train tracks it just stopped to take a leak. Made for a great photo op. 

Off to Bern today and then up to Amsterdam. 

A Venetian Dream

Venice truly is something out of a dream. We stayed near the beaches of Lido at Camping Miramare and caught the ferry in to Venice for the last two days. Being in Rome and walking through the forum gave the impression of being teleported to another place in time, whereas traveling to Venice really does take you back several centuries. Our arrival near piazza San Marco was like being thrust into a crowded Parisian subway car, or dropped in the middle of Disneyland on a Saturday. The number of people in a place that was designed with so little solid ground for walking made it hard to get a handle on the beauty of the city, at least at first. We walked through St Mark's square and Philly and I were pretty grossed out by all the people spreading food on themselves and having the pigeons fly up on them to eat it off. We were going to stop and have a drink in the main area but there was a large cover charge for the live music so we kept wandering. Philly was shooting a video and I was looking at the map to try to decide which way to wander when she started freaking out and waving her hands up and down. I tried to figure out what had happened, and she finally spit out..."that bird shat on me". Sure enough the offending pigeon managed to hit her hair and her shirt. It was hilarious and fortunately she was filming so we can throw it on utube and share it with the world. That was our cue to ditch the main drag and head for some back alleys. We took a ton of pictures and spent time imagining life in the 1300's. I finally found a place to get my haircut and even though he cut it a lot shorter then I told him to, he proudly spun me around in the chair and pronounced that I now had "very popular Italian hair cut" and slapped in more mousse than I thought possible. On our second day we decided to see the city as it was meant to be seen, by water of course. We just hopped the different Vaporetti, water buses, until we had seen most of the city and were ready to head home. We had some great artichoke, ham, and mushroom pizza as well as bellini's as we waited for our ferry. After we got back to the mainland we saw some really cool lightning set against an orange sky. Just before bed we heard some explosions that sounded more regulated than the earlier thunder and we noticed a lot of fireworks coming from down the beach. Maybe another holiday we didn't know about or something, but there were at least ten different locations shooting off synchronized shows, so we stayed up and watched from the top bunk of the camper. Tomorrow we set off for the Interlaken area in Switzerland.

Hrvatska

We made our splash in the Adriatic in dramatic fashion. We left the camping Tiber area just outside of Roma around our checkout time of noon and headed west. We had been unable to make ferry reservations and we weren't even sure what city we would be leaving out of. We had a list of port cities that might be candidates and hit the road for the nearest one. Our first stop was Pescara. It had lot's of beautiful and tempting beaches, but we decided to confirm the ferry schedules before indulging. We wandered down the coast to the deep water port only to find it disconcertingly empty...we drove up to the office to find that all of the companies were closed on Sunday's. However we noticed a schedule on the corner of the ticket office window that listed ferry times for the next city on our list of port's, Ancona. It's a good thing we didn't stop at the beach because the only Croatia bound ferries out of Ancona left @ about 9pm leaving only 3 hours to make the trip in a slow RV. We arrived in dramatic amazing race fashion and purchased tickets and loaded up as the ship was trying to leave. We had people telling us the whole way that we needed to hurry up so as we parked on the lower deck we noticed that people were bringing along camping gear, and we knew that we a 10+ hour ferry ride ahead of us but we didn't connect the dots before being rushed to the passenger deck. I count myself among those who have never been on a cruise but this came close. We were greeted by plush seating areas, a couple of bars, a night club, and a mini casino. I decided not to push my luck at a casino on a ship but we did enjoy the bars and bought our own booze to make drinks from the on board Duty Free shop. Philly made a valiant effort to bring back Havana Club rum after enjoying it while she was in cuba, but when I opened it I caught an unappetizing whiff and checked the bottle to confirm that it was Havana Club Anejo. I hate tequila. We found ourselves seats and were having a great time but after a 3 or 4 hours they dimmed the lights and softened the music and everyone started rolling out sleeping pads and bags in the middle of the floor. We did catch a few Z'z in our chairs but were happy to arrive in croatia even though we were definitely low on sleep. Our first test of the water has proven to be a little cooler than the riviera and cinque terre but the beaches are great. So far in our day and half we have made a few distinctions from our other European destinations; all the music here is american, almost everyone speaks english, and although prices for goods are somewhat cheaper than in the states it takes several 100 Kuna (their dollar) to buy most things so you always feel super rich at the ATM. The pace of life has been nice and slow after our ferry ride, and the beer is cold. Back to the beach....

Roman Holiday

Took the first day in Rome to get our bearings. Sat on the Spanish Steps and then wandered to the Pantheon. Em and John, after much debate and analysis on whether you said right or left out of the pantheon and to what faccaceria you were referring to I final got pulled in by a shop owner- literally. Peter is taking pictures 360 of all places you could have mean't and I get pulled in to this little store by this awesome lady who wants a picture with her and I. Got focaccia sandwiches and ate them on the pillers of the pantheon where it seemed everyone else around us was eating McDonalds. SAD! Wandered through back streets and stumbled upon things hopefully on the path less beaten. Found a bibliotechque that had awesome statues. I love how after every corner there was a fountain that has drinkable water.(Carla please confirm this is true) So hot here!
Day two in Roma started with what we thought was going to be a quick lunch. Not so much. After waiting through two bottles of wine (neither of us is traveling with a watch, which makes everything so much more interesting and we tell time by other means) I finally have to run down the street to get chips from a market so Peter will put down the knife and stop threatening the waiter under his breath. It seemed that all of the food was coming from a resturant across and down the street, it was so bizzare. Food actually ended up being amazing, the only problem was because it took so long (from a clock we found on the street it was roughly 2.5 hours, way to kill a day) we drank two bottles of wine and were less than sober going to St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican was closed so we went back to hang out on the Spanish Steps to dicide the rest of our night. Peter really wanted to do a pub crawl so he could get a shirt that said 'I came, I saw, I crawled' that was meeting at the steps. When we got there some type of performance was being set up. I ended up taking a little nap, went to go and get food and saw that there were fireworks set up on the top of the steps. Had no idea what was going on but figured we would say and find out since the steps were starting to fill up. Ended up sitting on the steps for roughly 5 hours but saw probably what I would say is the best performance of my life. The performance ended up being in celebration of the Mid-August holiday. I had no idea at the time what this was, but later found out that it is when there are the most shooting stars in the sky over Italy. The performance had the fountain on the bottom of the steps as the backdrop and consisted of dancers, piano and violin solos and four Opera singers singing pieces from different Operas. Carmen, Figaro, La Boheim and of course the drinking song from La Travita in which the mayor of Roma came out to do a toast preceeding the firework show. It was such an amazing thing to stumble upon.
Our third day in Rome we went to the Patheon and Forum. So much history, I feel I could spend a whole year here and still have not discover everthing there is to discover. Walked over to the island and trastevere to have dinner. Thunder showers ran us into a quaint little resturant were we had a delicious three course meal and watched a beautiful sunset. Hope the second coin I tossed in the Trevi Fountian works and I will come back.

Cinque Terre

This place rocks. It's got the natural beauty you would expect from any national park except that's on a cliff side dominated by vineyards. Fresh grapes, amazing wine, and swimming in the perfect water every 30 minutes during our hiking has made this a destination worth returning to. We have been staying in Levanto for the past two nights, and we will head for Roma manana. Our first day in Levanto was only a half day after our drive down from Monaco. (I am still riding high after the thrill of playing 25 euro a hand Black Jack and winning 135). We got settled and hopped the train to Pisa which ended up being a little further away than we had expected. It took an hour and 45 minutes each way and we only got about 2 and half hours in town before we had to catch the last train. The good news is that we definitly only needed two hours for Pisa. Ya it's a miracle that the tower is still standing, but the rest of the city was pretty sedate. Our first day in Cinque Terre we started in Riomaggiore and ended at Corniglia. We swam at several points along the way, on sand, on unmarked boulder strewn streches, and off small cliffs. The one thing they all had in common was that the water was really salty and warm as bath water. Manarola was by far my favorite because August 10th happened to be the day they honor their patron saint. I still havn't figured out which saint this is but I want to get to know him because they honor him by having a city wide water war. At each edge of town there were tiny signs in Italian warning that there was a water war in progress and that everyone should put away cell phones, cameras, etc. and we would have strolled in oblivious if another couple had not warned us. No one made it through dry. The town consists of a small lane big enough for one car and the buildings rise 4 or 5 stories on each side. The towns people showed no mercy. Clothed or in swim wear, camera out or not they threw buckets of water and water ballons at anyone and everyone trying to get from one side to the other. I must say water wars are a lot more fun when you have ammunition. We were sitting ducks. Philly found a balcony to hide under a shot a hilarious video until someone above noticed her and let fly a bucket that soaked her and just missed the camera. We ran head long for the end of town and the harbor and jumped in the water. I love this place.

La Vida Dolce

Sorry it has been so long. Been distracted by too many amazing places.
We are now in Vernazza one of the towns of Cinque Terre and living the Vida Dolce.
After Paris we drove down to Lyon the second largest city in France. Did a quick city tour and ate lunch at Cafe Leffe. Not too much to see and was eager to get to the Med. When we got to the Cote de Azul we decided to stay in San Angulf inbetween St. Tropèz and Nice. The campground we were staying at was a little off of the coast but they had a river shuttle that took us right to the beach. When they dropped us off we followed the path, got to the beach and quickly realized everyone was nude. Well, I guess when you are in the South of France act like the French right. We were definatly a sad sight showing areas that have never seen the light of day, only to realize 200ft down the beach was a regular beach.
Went to Nice for a few hours, water was much more salty and the beaches were pebbly unlike the sandy beaches of San Angulf. Tried out my floaty that Peter had gotten me. Didn't feel like we would miss much in the town so we were off to Monaco.
Monaco was much more touristy than I had imagined. When we got there we went to the the Casino and in 5 minutes I had won 50 bucks on slots. It costs 10 euros to go into the main casino gambling room so we dicided to go and get something to eat first. Went into the Cafe de Paris gambling hall, I was slowly losing all of my winnings by playing more slots but Peter won 150 euro by playing black jack. When you do the conversion rate it is actually something like 250. Just don't think about the conversion before you play. Watched the opening cermonies of the Olympics in the casino bar while sharing a bottle of wine and chocolat mousse. Went into the main casino just to see it. So quite compared to Vegas. Even though there were a lot of fancy cars outside it still seems like is super touristy rather than how I expected it to still be like it was back in its glory days.
Got to Italy and love the train systems here. Everything is travelable by train. In France it was not as aparent. Found a campground in Levanto on the northern side of Cinque Terre and took a train to Pisa. Saw the leaning tower, ate an amazing meal of ricatto raviolis and got back on the train.
Cinque Terre is amazing and rivals Brazil of where I want to retire. Fine wine. Amazing food. Glorious sun and surf. I think Peter is writing more about here. I havnt been able to connect my computer to any of the wifi spots but we will put pictures on a thumb drive and post soon. Off to Roma tomorrow. Thanks for the email Carla!

An American in Paris

In Lyons, France on our way to St Tropez from Paris. I dont think you can beat turning a quarter century in Paris watching the Eiffel tower sparkle. I forgot how tiring traveling can be and cant wait for some lounging on the Riveria. French keyboards are different and am having trouble with this whole typing business. So far lots of walking, exploring and best of all eating and drinking. More to come...
Day 5 picture count: 1053