New posts and a photo rant/apology

Hey all...

Some rare sunshine up here in Copenhagen so we took advantage of it to take a refreshing 1.5 hour walk in the brisk 40 degree weather. Mogens and Grethe live along a chain of ponds on the other side of the dunes from the sea so we walked from harbor to harbor and enjoyed watching the swans, ducks and seagulls doing their thing. (And it beat the storm we had on Thursday with howling winds carrying snow/sleet around)

Posted some more Italian entries (Florence, Siena, and San Gimignano) and loaded some more photos. Herein lies the rant/apology. I actually spend a lot of time when loading the photos putting them in an order that tells a story and writing descriptions and comments on them to give them a context and a reason for being (though the S.G. photos are not a good example of that). Most of this is for our own benefit. Otherwise when we looked back at them after the trip we would have no idea what/where they were or why we took them. (Heck...that's already happening when I look at older pics!). But it's also so that if any of you are brave/foolhardy enough to look at more of our pics than just those linked to the entries you'll be looking at something with some semblance of order that tells you a story about our trip.

However, I'm discovering that Flickr's technology seems to do everything possible to subvert that goal. I was already grumpy about the fact that the photo stream loads things first in, last out (I must be missing accounting class) so that if you look at the photo stream from the latest everything is backwards. Occasionally when I'm feeling really inspired I reverse the order I load them in to try to fix that (like with the Milan pictures) but usually I trust that viewers can figure that out.

But I realize that clicking one by one through the photostream is not the most user friendly way to do it and most of you (if you have gotten that far) probably look at pics in a slide show (often after searching on tags). And here's where things really kinda suck, experience-wise. Not only does the slide show not include the titles or descriptions with the photos (like Ofoto or places like that do), but I've recently noticed while showing some pictures to friends here that searching by tags seems to just put them in some random order, so they will be even more confusing/annoying/boring to look at. So 1) I apologize to all of you who have been slogging through the photos anyway as you are not getting the benefit of the slide shows as I had organized them; 2) I'm ranting and grumpy because I do actually put a lot of time into it and want people to be able to get the full benefit of that work; and 3) therefore would appreciate it if anyone knows flickr better than we do (which wouldn't be hard) and therefore might know a way to fix this problem. Thanks.

Now that I have more or less finished updating the photos I may actually have a little time to write the blog entries I am responsible for so hopefully you'll be seeing more from me soon than just administrative notes.

becca

Drive me to Firenze...

After the tranquil serenity of Cinque Terre, we headed off to the largest city of our trip with the parents, Florence (aka Firenze). The transition was a bit difficult to start as instead of the sounds of the waves we were treating to the gnat-like buzzing of Vespas galore. However we were able to settle in quite nicely with our hotel, complete with in-room view of the Duomo. Everyone earned their view and nightly gelato though with the four flights of cement stairs up the the place. Nice but a serious hike that made us all make sure we had everything we needed before heading off for the day.

The two big highlights of our visit were the Uffizi and seeing David @ the Accademia. The Uffizi was a great museum, covering an amazing collection of Italian artists, including all the big names (Caravaggio, Michaelango, Raphael and all the other Ninja Turtles). Despite all the great art, it was difficult after a while to look at the same religious scenes painted for the 50th time. Instead I found myself being amazed at all the grumpy, frumpily dressed middle aged women travelling in packs throughout the museum. Everyone of them complete with a guidebook and a stern stare. Guess they weren't having fun (and if you're not, why visit? you're in Italy! go grab some gelato and head off to the beach or something if museums aren't your thing). Not enough rounds of "Name that Saint" if you ask me.

Not one to usually fall for the normal museum trinkets, I'm now the proud owner of a bookmark depicting my favorite of the Uffizi ( Medusa shield by Caravaggio) which has already shocked and disturbed a number of train passengers.

The absolute highlight of Florence for us though was seeing David in the Accademia. Except for a few unfinished "prisoners" by Michaelango the rest of the museum is pretty forgettable but David steals the show. So many of the "big ticket" places in cities fail to live up to the hype associated with it. For me this trip has so far been much more about the places off the tourists map and just oddities of the road. However, both of us were just overwhelmed by this amazing sculpture. The detail in the anatomy is impressive on its own. And the combination of its size and intensity really makes it so you can't look away. We just sat and looked at it for almost 30 mintues. Then when you realize it was one of the first major efforts and what took sculpting to a new level makes it all the more awe-inspiring. Heck, I'd pay the 10 euro just to see it again by itself. (check this random person's page for some good pictures of David in context (since they were very strict about "no photos" when we were there.))

The rest of the time we enjoyed wandering around town seeing the sites and statues, noticing both the chaos and fuel/space efficiency that Italy has to offer, window shopping for expensive, fun, and bizarre things, and appreciating the culinary offerings

One other story from Florence. My parents were nice enough to bring us a few reading materials from the States, including the Economist. While reading it I was just further imprinted with the belief that the economy as a whole just becomes more and more mobile and global by the day. And while in Florence I saw a crude albeit great example of just that. There were a number of foreign "merchants" whose specialities were knock-off brand items such as purses, watches, etc., mainly being sold to tourists. However, since they were hawking illegal products they were constantly on the move, complete with either a cardboard table that quickly folded up or all of their items on a tablecloth that made for a quick getaway. Not sure if this is what the world leaders have in mind for the global economy, but it's a much more telling example for me than hearing about x company buying y or moving all their production overseas. Just my two cents on what we saw while trolling the neighborhoods.

All in all, Florence was a nice stop and a must see simply because of David. On to Siena!

Brian

Random Becca story about David. I was in Florence 14 years ago on my own and remember taking a picture of David out in front of the Medici palace by some other sculptures. As I didn't have a guidebook (or guide) with me at the time I didn't realize that it was just a copy placed in the original location when the real one was moved to the Accademia. So I was all satisfied with having gotten a pic of the famous David and thought it was a pretty nice statue. That was all blown away when I saw the real one this time (and the copy again). Between the difference in scale, the glow of the white marble on the genuine version, and just a certain intangible frission about it, there is no way that I could ever mistake the two again.

Hills and Nuns...

...what else could you ask for in a quaint Italian city? Our visited started with checking in at the Alma Domus. It's not a convent, it's not a hotel but somewhere in between (I think it's that way to avoid taxes but that's just the cynical side of me for you). Quite entertaining though after a number of normal places to be checked in by nuns in full habit and have a room complete with yet another a beautiful view. Of Siena's Duomo this time. (and at night)

Another Duomo you say... This one though easily takes the cake. For me it surpasses Notre Dame in its overall beauty and gives the intrigue of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona a run for its money. The outside is basic but unique with its white and green striping. The inside though is a stunning collection of art work, architectural masterpieces and an atmosphere that is both very busy yet strangely appropriate. Beautiful mosaics and inlays litter the floor, detailed carvings of all the popes look over your sightseeing and lots of picturesque stained glass. All in all a very impressive place for us to visit and to just sit and relax. (And we were able to get this money holiday card shot)

In addition to the Duomo, we checked out the Bapistry, (non)-Crypt, and the Duomo museum. The combo pass for all of them ended up being a pretty good deal. You get a lot of value for your sightseeing dollar; we recommend it. The other primary sightseeing destination in Siena though (outside of Il Campo which I think is fairly underwhelming off-season) is just the town itself. We spent most of our time wandering through the streets and the 17 contrade (neighborhoods) and dealing with all the hills. Nowhere to go in town without hiking up or down. At this point my parents probably think we're trying to kill them. It made the gelato and tasty pizzas all the sweeter though.

One of the places we ate pizza led to all sorts of excitement. We chose the place because of its proximity to our room; evidently the AC Siena players choose it because it's so close to the stadium and make it a daily haunt. As a result, Becca and my mom got to drool over all the Serie A (Italy's top league) players strolling back and forth, all dressed to the nines (Armani-like suits w/ team insignias) and looking properly Italian (see here for the #1 whiplash cause for Becca & Elaine). Except for the little blond, balding guy who Becca first guessed was an assistant coach (which gave her the courage to go up and talk to him) but later turned out to be one of their better players.

Yes, we continued the football world tour in Siena, mainly in an attempt to see the team they were playing, Chievo Verona (CV plays an attacking style, rare in Serie A). Both teams are middle to lower table teams whose survival in the top flight is always in doubt at the start of the season. Thankfully both are off to decent starts so we were looking forward to seeing a great match in a quaint little 13,000 seat stadium tucked into the trees on one end of town. We still got to see a good match but one that was slowed considerably by the torrential downpours that had gone on all night and then the mini-flood that hit the town an hour before the game. Made for a lot of sloppy play (including one corner of the field where both teams just refused to go for fear of sinking) but overall an entertaining match (though my parents were surprised to see actual real linesmen, no brawls, etc. given their other experience). Plus Becca got plenty of great use out of my dad's binoculars following her "guys" from Siena.

And with that, it was time to head off to San Gimignano. I think one of these days though we'll have to come back to Siena to see Il Palio.

Brian

Not a bad view...

Not to start out a post in full taunting mode, but here is the view from our place (click on the camera icon in the lower left) in San Gimignano (and at sunset). Yes, Becca and I spent every spare moment we had up there. Easily the best of our accommodations in Italy, complete not only with two bedrooms and the terrace, but with an actual refrigerator and kitchen where Becca and I could actually cook. May not sound like much but when you haven't cooked in over six weeks, it sounds good even to a ramen and chicken hack like me.

San Gimignano was recommended to us by the native Italian contingent at my dad's work and they were spot on (not surprisingly I suppose). It gave us the best gelato on the trip (and we highly recommend that anybody who goes there tries the Gelateria di Piazza in Piazza della Cisterna), a quiet town since it was quickly approaching off season and most importantly easy access to the Tuscan countryside. I had suddenly started panicking about this around Florence as I realized we didn't really have anyway to go out and drive amongst the Tuscan hills and all the vineyards. Thankfully SG's locale allowed us to take one of the days to hike amongst the hills, enjoying the views and checking out all the mom and pop wineries along the way (though most of the wineries were closed for the season). Amazing to see the hills alive in color, even if it was the greens and browns of autumn.

The other highlight of SG was the interactions had with our landlord, Carla Rossi. Her and her son Francesco (another cute Italian man for Becca and Mom to drool at, sensing a trend?) rent a variety of apartments/houses in the area. Both were full of personality and like most Italians in Tuscany had a side wine/olive oil business on the side. Not surprisingly my parents ended up buying a decent amount of wine despite Becca and Carla holding a conversation where each of them understood about 20% of what the other was saying. My highlight though was watching my dad stun Carla by eating some of the crabgrass that was growing in the yard. You'd think we shot her dog or something as evidently its a weed for them. Guess she wanted us to eat the Kaki instead.

In all two plus very relaxing days in a locale that Becca and I might not have found for ourselves. Many thanks go out to Mom and Dad for helping out along the way, being serious troopers when they weren't sure whether the hikes were going to be all uphill and for being great role models. And to 35 plus years of marriage...

Brian

Also, we highly recommend a little local trattoria, Trattoria Chiribiri (up a side street 100 yards from the main gate) for anybody looking for delicious food, appreciated equally by locals and tourists. Warning: it's very small, so you will want reservations or be willing to wait

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a short note from us to our friends and family around the world: Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving in your country or not, we just wanted to tell you how thankful we are to have you in our lives and know that you are out there.

 

When travelling like this you don't ever stay in one place long enough to make deep friendships (though we appreciate the folks we have met along the way: the Gimmelwald gang, Karla & Darren, Matthieu & Jeanne), and so the emails and comments on the blog from all of you out there make a HUGE difference in making us feel like we're still part of a normal life and that there are people out there who care what happens in our lives.

 

We also are thankful for the opportunity to have this experience. It wasn't easy to extricate two ultra-responsible, type-A, "must-do-what-is-expected of us" people from career paths, but it was one of the best decisions either of us has ever made. I hope that following along on our adventure has made it easier for some of you to envision doing things that you might otherwise not have considered.

 

We'll be thinking of you all digging into your turkey-with-all-the-goodies today. I think we will be having Molly's famous mac and cheese (and maybe a little chicken to pretend it's a turkey) while babysitting the grand kids up here in Copenhagen.

 

More posts coming soon. We've had our heads buried in Lonely Planets and atlases trying to figure out a path through Asia so that we can get our plane tickets and start thinking about visas. As soon as that gets under control we'll finish updating the blog both about Italy and about the process of trying to plan this next phase of the trip.

 

Until then we'll be loving living "at home" again briefly and enjoying the time with Mogens and Grethe, Lotte and the family, and Michael and Jannie.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Becca and Brian

Eurorail Pass, RIP

Just a quick note in tribute to our hard-working Eurorail pass, which officially gave up the ghost and expired yesterday. Over the past 3 months this faithful friend had diligently carried us through Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France (on 5 different occasions), Ireland, Spain, and Italy. We pause now for a moment in its memory.

.........

That taken care of, we have added the pics from Siena and a few of the San Gimignano pics to Flickr.

Enjoy.

Becca

Get your hot new blog updates!

Updates from our secret internet hideaway.

Brian has put a couple of short sports posts up.

In the interests of getting you more to read on a regular basis instead of long droughts punctuated by a huge pile of long entries, we have decided to post things as we get them written, instead of worrying about them going up in chronological order as we have experienced them. We figured you would forgive us the randomness.

So today, we have posted the entries for the hilarious Level D football championship we attended on the Cinque Terre and for our weekend with good friends on the French Riviera.

We also have all the pictures from Cinque Terre and Florence up on Flickr, even if they aren't yet linked to a blog post. Just go to our locations photo page (link on the right) and search for those tags. (or, since they are the most recent, you can always go to the chronological page as well)

Finally, we have loaded the pics from the earlier entry about the Dottore university celebrations we witnessed in Padua. (See entry from here). You can get to them all here; let's just say they caused our eyes to widen a bit....

Hope you all are well. Enjoy.

More coming soon.

Becca