Today was an easy day. We started out by walking down to the old lighthouse in Pensacola.
The beach was incredibly white and we had it to ourselves. After a quick stop at the Naval Exchange (Department Store for our non-military friends) we headed east. We stopped at Naval Oaks National Seashore. It is a small park. We learned that it was one of the first nationally controlled forests as it was a source for the wood for the early naval ships of the United States including the famous frigate USS Constitution. This wood is nearly 30% denser than other wood which made our early men of war very strong.
On the beach at Naval Oaks National Seashore.
After arriving in Destin we decided to treat ourselves to a nice seafood dinner. Ton had a great grouper, and Ron had lobster and etoufee, we really enjoyed the meal.
Since this is supposed to be a travel blog today we will talk about our time around here. Columbia is the capitol of South Carolina. We spent some time Wednesday, Thursday and Friday exploring the town.
On Wednesday we had dinner with Mark Guild, Fred and Denise Cook, and Chief Warrant Officer Robert Nixon at an Indian Restaurant in Columbia. The food was good and the company fun. Fred and Denise were picking up their Malayan so we enjoyed discussing future plans for our Tigers.
The highlight was a visit to to Conquest Brewery. It reminded us very much of the small breweries we see in Portland. We punched the address into our trusty Garmin and we ended up in a dark street next to the University of South Carolina football stadium. Just as we were going to turn around we saw a little industrial park with a small hand painted sign and we had found it! We tried a sampler and the beer was very good. If you are in Columbia I highly recommend it. The highlight beer for us was a coffee infused IPA. We usually are not big fans of infused beers, but this one won us over, nice aroma and just a hint of coffee in the beer did not overpower the hops.
The sign for the brewery is well concealed.
We had some interesting conversations as this is not only a brewery, but a Christian brewery. Later in the night they had a discussion of art and Christianity in the brewery. Talked to one of the brewers and he really he knew his beer. He strongly recommended we visit Asheville NC as they now have more breweries per capita than Portland. Sounds like we will have to make a visit. We enjoyed the place so much we returned again on Friday.
While not having the Tiger ready on time has been a pain, it did result in one good thing. Ton’s cousin Pee Porn lives near Charlotte. If anyone is responsible for Ton and I being married it is Pee Porn. When we met on Okinawa 33 years ago Ton was visiting Pee Porn. We had not seen her in over 30 years. Saturday we drove up and spent the day with her and her husband Richard. We had a lot of catching up to do and it was a great evening. Pee Porn cooked some great Thai food that we ate for lunch. Later Ton mentioned Ron’s love of Carolina BBQ, and before we knew it we were off to a great BBQ joint called Garry’s in China Grove NC. We had a dinner of Carolina BBQ with hush puppies, onion rings, coleslaw, and baked beans. Ron was in heaven, and the price was unbelievably low. It was really nice to see Pee Porn and her family again and we promise that it will not be 30 years before we do it again.
Ton and her cousin Pee Porn in front of a great BBQ joint.
Sunday we headed to Charleston, made the obligatory visit to Costco, then headed to downtown Charleston. We stopped at a coffee bar and taproom and sampled some of the local brews. Nothing knocked our socks off, we then headed towards the market. We were lucky as one Sunday a month they close down one of the main streets downtown. There were all kinds of street musicians, and food vendors on the street. It was a great walk with lots of interesting people to see. We had visited Charleston the year before and enjoyed it then, it is a beautiful old colonial city definitely worth a visit.
Today was about getting off of the freeway and exploring Boise a bit. The primary target was the Basque Town in Boise. Boise has one of the largest populations of Basques in the US. We visited a museum dedicated to Basque Culture in the US and also learned a little bit about Basque Culture in Spain and France. But the real fun was across the street at the Basque Market where they were cooking up Paella on the sidewalk. Ton says it is the best she ever had. After a quick walk around town, it was 102 degrees, we decided to head west.
We had to try some of the Paella.
The next debate was whether to head home from Boise or make one more stop for the night. Ton pointed out that we had never visited Prodigal Son Brewery in Pendleton, so one more night it is.
Around Baker City we saw a large wild fire off to the north. It turns out that the next day they had to close I-84 due to smoke from the fire.
In Pendleton we enjoyed a taster at Prodigal Son, and then walked around town for a while. We visited Hamley’s western wear, Ton was very impressed with the quality of the saddles and clothes. Pendleton seems to be enjoying pretty good times these days. Tonight we decided we needed access to electricity as it was still in the 100’s and airconditioning seemed like a good idea. We ended up in an Indian Casino RV park, nothing special except 30amp electricity.
Pendleton Oregon is famous for its rodeo. This western store is one of the largest in the Northwest.
The weather forecast was threatening so we had a debate about whether to head into Perugia. But after consulting with the weather channel app and the clerk at the desk for the campground it looked like the rain was going to hold off until late afternoon so we decided to head into Perugia.
The Passignano train station.
The next issue was we had about 30 minutes to get to the train station which was about a mile away on foot. So we took off like someone chasing their water buffalo (to quote the Thai saying), and made it with a few minutes to spare. When we arrived in Perugia we saw signs announcing the European Chocolate Festival, so the day was definitely looking up. After taking the mini-Metro (maybe the cutest mass transit system we have seen) from the train station to the top of the hill that Perugia’s city center is located on we were greeted with row after row of tents with chocolates from primarily Italy, with a few of the biggies in Europe thrown into the mix.
Looking forward to entering Choco Street.
In between visiting chocolate tents we also enjoyed Perugia. It is a beautiful town set on a hilltop with expansive views in all directions. We were also surprised by the beauty of the Palazzo dei Priori (Palace of the first People) which dates from the late 1200’s and was the seat of government during that time up to modern times. We wandered in by accident and then spent about 30 minutes wandering around looking at the wood carvings and paintings.
One of the paintings from Palazzo dei Priori.
Across the square is the Cathedral of Perugia and despite a little cathedral weariness we really enjoyed this one. It is quite different than the cathedrals we have seen in France, Germany, and Spain which seem to have a lot in common in design and decoration. Like St. Peters this one seems less in a pattern and more unique. The highlights were the different marble pillars, and the ceilings. But the surprise was a room off of the main cathedral. The sacristy (which is the room where the priests keep their formal clothing and other artifacts needed for mass) was covered in frescoes by an artist named Pandolfi and were really beautiful. It was like a small version of the Sistine Chapel, with the difference being that we had the room to ourselves to enjoy the art.
The ceiling of the sacristy of the Cathedral of Perugia.Interior of the cathedral.
Keeping the rain in mind we cut our visit short, and headed back to François. We beat the rain. Ton really outdid herself with a pasta dish that would make any Italian proud. The rain has arrived and we are being treated to a pounding rain on the roof of François.
Italy has a hold on us. Our plans were to head over to Nice in France today but when we woke up this morning the weather was pretty brutal, and it was supposed to stay that way all day with a couple of short breaks. After some discussion we came to the conclusion if we were going to be trapped in François most of the day why not do it in Italy.
We spent the morning trying to get a veterans discount for our Amazon Prime service. Amazon was struggling with us applying for a US veterans discount from Italy but after three calls we finally got it sorted.
Finally about noon we saw a little break in the rain so we made a dash to downtown Sanremo. Ton wanted to get a picture of the Russian Orthodox Church we saw on the bus the other day, and we decided to do one more shop for Italian food in a large Coop (pronounced coupe) here in Italy.
The waterfront promenade in Sanremo on our way to the Coop for groceries.
We got off the bus near the casino in Sanremo (about the same size as the famous one in Monaco but not as famous.) After getting some shots of the only Orthodox Church we have seen in Italy, we took one final walk down the main shopping street, confirming that Sanremo was much more alive for us than Monaco before heading to Coop.
The dome of the Orthodox Church in Sanremo.
One of the pleasures we have had in Italy is the quality of the food in the groceries. We have each found and enjoyed a bunch of food that we have not seen anywhere else. Our main motivation was to get one more chance to stock François up with some our favorite new staples such as Blood Orange Juice, fresh pasta (not dried like we are used to in the US), pocket coffee (a chocolate coffee confection that can be eaten as candy, or added to a shot of espresso to make a drink), and the varied pasta sauces. We also broke our €2.99 limit on a bottle of Primitivo wine as we both wanted to try this particular wine and had not been able to find one within our budget. So we picked out the cheapest bottle and are now indulging in our expensive €3.69 bottle which is superb!
Italy rewarded us for our loyalty for the two and a half hours we were out the rain held off. Five minutes after we returned to François the skies opened up again.
We had another great day on the Cinque Terre. We are staying at a basic Sosta run by one of the local ambulance services, so in addition to a bunch of motorhomes we are sharing our space with a couple of ambulances. When the drivers are not out on runs they man the front gate and take payment. When I went to buy bus tickets into town I tried to do the ordering in Italian (due persona biglietta a autobus retorno) for anyone who speaks Italian you will know that is terrible, but the guy understood and thanked me for trying and then switched to perfect English for the rest of the transaction.
Yesterday we covered the most popular of the three cities on the Cinque Terre, today we planned on covering the last two towns. After our twenty minute bus ride to the train station in La Spezia we headed out to Corniglia. It is the least visited town because it does not connect to the ocean, and you have to climb 365 steps to get to the town. The town is really perched on a promontory overlooking the ocean with great views up and down the coast. It is also has good views up to the mountains above the coast. In addition to climbing the steps to town we climbed up above the town into the vineyards that were the primary source of income before tourism took over.
Corniglia with vineyards terraced on the hills above town.
Our next stop was the town of Manarola. It is considered by the people who write about the Cinque Terre as the most romantic of the towns. It consists of one main street running down to a small harbor. But what makes it romantic are the trails around the town which after a pretty good climb take you thru the vineyards that cascade down the mountainside into the town. The trail is quite spectacular and you are rewarded for your effort by some great views.
Looking down on Manarola from the vineyards above town.
Having climbed about 770 feet in total between the two towns (if my fitbit is to be believed) we decided to reward ourselves with a nice lunch. We walked up the road in Manarola scouting for lunch. Ton would walk up to each restaurant and look at the menu and inspect the food on the tables that the customers were eating. After a while she pointed at a restaurant and said that is the one. I noticed that there was a table for two on the second floor balcony and asked one of the waitresses in terrible Italian if we could sit there. She said of course; and informed the manager/husband that we were going to get those seats, clearly to his frustration. It turned into a wonderful meal as we both had great fresh seafood on a balcony overlooking the town. We shared the balcony with a nice German couple, and inside there was a French tour group who had quite a bit of wine with their lunch, and in the end their Italian tour guide broke into song and the group joined in. All in all a very memorable lunch.
The rail station at Corniglia looking down from the top of the 365 steps. The rail line connecting the 5 towns is more or less continuous tunnel, with the tracks only emerging at each town. Manarola is the town you can see in the upper right of the picture.
Our final plan for the day was to walk from Manarola to Riomagiore but unfortunately the trail was closed. So instead we headed back to La Spezia. Ton says I owe her a massage for making her climb 770 feet today, but I think most of the climbing was her idea.
We woke early to catch the bus as there were only two options, one at 8:15 and the next at 11:10 which we thought was too late. As I was getting things organized outside we ran into the owner of the Agritourismo, Andrea and he asked what I was doing up so early. When I told him he said that he could have his father drive us in at a more civilized hour and we happily took him up on the offer.
The sign for the campground we are staying at in Lucca.
Ton did some research on the comic book festival in Lucca and it goes back to 1966. It is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world with 90,000 tickets sold each day and the festival apparently sells out the 450,000 tickets in hours each year. It is a much larger event than we expected. We figured the people watching would be interesting even though we do not have tickets.
The people watching was fun.
Arriving at one of the city gates all of the tents we had seen around the city yesterday had long lines leading into them with fans of different cartoons and comics looking to score the latest merchandise. We wandered the streets pretty aimlessly and Lucca is a great site for this kind of event as the long narrow streets with frequent piazza’s allow it to absorb the people effectively and allows the participants interesting places to stage photos.
This guy loved having his picture taken and insisted on handing me his weapon.
A lot of the participants were dressed up in costume, though Ton and I are not the right age to identify most of the characters people were dressed up as. We did have fun trying to guess. Eventually we climbed up on the wall that encircles the old city and it turns out it is an unofficial promenade for the people in costume to walk and see what other people were wearing. We ended up walking completely around the city. We found one exhibit that was open to people without tickets, it was based on the video game Resident Evil so we got to go in and interact with a bunch of zombies in Raccoon City.
One of the zombies and a guard at the Resident Evil display.
In between all of the characters we also continued to admire Lucca. After a while we needed a little break so we went to a restaurant Ton had her eye on that has been in business since 1865. Our waitress was a young lady who spoke English well. She asked if we were here for the cartoon festival, we told her no, it was a happy accident. She apologized and said that Lucca is a beautiful city and while the festival was really good for the local economy she is happy when it is over because it was just a little too weird, and to illustrate her point she had to run up to the cash register to ring up the bill of a zombie with his intestines hanging out and a knife in his back.
The view of the Hoben Oak trees on top of the tower.
We returned to François just before the rain that had been threatening all day hit. I am writing this a little early today because we are heading up to the farmhouse for a 4 course Italian dinner, I will write about that tomorrow.
After our quick view of Florence yesterday we headed back in today with a plan for a walking tour of Florence. It is another beautiful Indian Summer day, low 70’s and sunny.
Florence is beautiful and an easy city to walk around in. We hit all of the tourist highlights. Because of the weather the city was teeming with people, but everyone seemed in a good mood. We had thought of visiting the inside of the Cathedral but when we arrived the line was far too long so we moved on.
Exterior of the cathedral, we never made it inside.
Our next stop was the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). We had gone by yesterday to get some photos but Ton was not happy with the results so she wanted a reshoot. (She is turning into a real professional.) After getting some good shots we headed up hill on the far side of the river. It was much quieter and we really enjoyed walking thru some interesting but less busy neighborhoods. We headed up to the Piazzo Michelangelo where we had a great view of the city. On the way up we made a short detour into a very beautiful rose garden that we both enjoyed.
View of Florence from the Michelangelo Plaza.A copy of Michaelangelo’s David.
Our next stop was the Florence Market which is always a highlight for Ton in every city. The Florence Market did not disappoint, we wandered from stand to stand for a good hour, and ended up with spices, pasta, and a kilo of parmesan cheese which we have optimistically vacuum packed, but I suspect will not make it home. The upstairs of the market is a food court unlike any we have ever seen. There are 50 or more food stands with an eclectic mix of Italian and non-Italian foods. We were tempted but had two restaurants we wanted to check out for lunch.
A colorful stall at the Florence Market.
The first restaurant was right outside of the market but when we got there it was clear we were not the only one who had selected this restaurant. The other restaurant on the list was a 20 minute walk away but when we got there it had already closed for lunch. Now we were really hungry, we discussed going back to the food court at the market but neither one of us wanted to double back.
As we were walking down the street Ton saw a place offering a two course meal with wine for €10. It seemed too good to be true, and I was skeptical but Ton talked me into it and it turned into one of our best meals in Europe. There were 6 choices for the pasta plate, and 6 choices for the meat plate. We each picked different ones and shared and they were all good. It also came with a carafe of wine that was a solid Tuscan. In the end for €10 we had a memorable meal.
When we finished our meal we both had gone into a food coma, so we decided to head back to the Hilton for the day.
It really pored all night last night. The heaviest sustained rain we have seen on this trip. The last week has been wet and cool and it is starting to wear on us. Turin is our last major Italian city of the trip. We picked it so that we could get a brief taste of the Piedmont area.
The drive over was pretty easy except for hitting a few very heavy bouts of rain. As we closed in on Turin the weather started to turn and morale picked up in François. There was even a brief view of the Alps as we got close to the city.
The Sosta we are parked in is run by the tram company in Turin, while it is very convenient it probably has the most convoluted pay system we have seen. You take a ticket when you check in and that takes care of the parking. To use the water you are supposed to stick the parking ticket into a machine and it records that you used water. This also goes for the dump, bathroom, and showers. To get electricity you have to go get a separate card give a €10 deposit and then take that card to a vending machine to put some credit on it, and after the credit has been loaded you take it out to the electric boxes and insert the card to get your electricity. The parking lot is located off of “The Soviet Union Boulevard” (Turin is a very left wing city.), so I think whoever designed the payment system must have learned it when they were studying in the USSR.
The Duke of Savoy’s Palace in Turin
After sorting out the electric we headed downtown on the Tram. Turin is a very prosperous town, and while there is nothing particularly spectacular in town, the overall feeling of the town is quite organized and well ordered. In fact it almost felt German except for the driving which is Italian to its core. Ton had one primary target which was Al Bicerin Cafe which has been in business since 1763. This place developed this drink consisting of espresso, dark chocolate, and cream in layers. The drink and the cafe have been celebrated in novels and travelogues for over 200 years. After walking thru the former Dukes Palace and the main square of town we headed over to the Cafe. Ton ordered the Bicerin while I opted for a normal hot chocolate. It is a humble looking place that does not look like it has been impressing great artists and politicians for centuries. It was everything Ton hoped for (my hot chocolate was good also, but now I feel like a charlatan).
The Al Bicerin Cafe which has been serving the rich, famous, and humble since 1763.
When we finished up with the Bicerin and some light food we headed over to the central market. We can never go wrong at one of these traditional markets. We really enjoyed our walk thru the market and the food stalls in a separate building. Turin looks like a great town to live in, an interesting mixture of big business (it is the home of Fiat) and food. It reminded me a little bit of Portland without the beer.
One of the stalls in the Central Market in Turin.
We finished the day with a promenade up the main shopping street of town, before grabbing the tram. On the way back to François we made one final stop at a big grocery store to stock up on some of our favorite Italian groceries before we head back into France.
We woke early to head into Milan as the weather forecast was threatening. It looked like the best window was going to be in the morning, so we were off for downtown before 8:30.
I expected Milan to be a more elegant city than it turned out to be, based on it being the fashion capital of the world with names like Gucci, Versace, Louis Vuitton and Prada located here. I envisioned it to be a Miami or Los Angeles. Instead it felt more like Pittsburg or Detroit, more industrial than elegant.
Our camp site is in a working class neighborhood at the end of a tram line which is convenient for getting downtown. We take public transport in most of the cities so we get to see the less glamorous parts of town. It gives a view of life away from the tourist centers, and a chance to watch people interacting in a normal environment, which we enjoy. Milan is a more diverse city than any we have seen in Italy. It definitely has the largest Asian population we have seen which seems to be mostly Philippinos. We had been commenting on the lack of Kebab shops in Italy compared to the other countries we have visited, but Milan had plenty of Kebab shops.
One of the windows of the Louis Vuitton store in Milan.
Downtown Milan did have some of the elegance we were looking for with all of the big name fashion designers having stores in the Galleria off of the main square. Right after we arrived downtown it started raining and the Galleria is covered so we headed there to get out of the rain. We walked around looking at all of the fancy stores and enjoying the Galleria. I believe it is the inspiration for all of the malls that dot the US, but on a scale that no developer is going to pay for.
The Galleria in Milan, the inspiration for hundreds of “Malls” in the US.
Between showers we would dash out of the Galleria and head towards the Cathedral which is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. It was built over 600 years so it passed thru a lot of design styles. It is know for the hundreds of statues on the exterior and the interior.
Ton really liked these two statues, though we are not sure what the story is.
We decided to pay the small entrance fee to visit the interior as there was no line. We were both impressed with one particular statue of St. Bartholomew. The statue is in great detail and you can see his bones, muscles, and veins. We did not realize this was because he was flayed alive. What we thought was a robe wrapped around him is actually his skin!
St. Bartholomew with his skin wrapped around him like a robe.
We had been remarking on Italy being the first country we had visited in Europe that did not have several Starbucks in every major city. Ton looked it up and there is only one Starbucks in Italy and it is also the largest Starbucks in the world (until next week when a larger one will open in Chicago). We decided to visit it as it roasts its own coffee that Starbucks calls a “Reserve Roast”. They also feature many different ways of brewing coffee. We expected to have a quick coffee and head out, but ended up in there for well over an hour and enjoying two coffee’s each.
Taormina was on Ton’s must see list today. I made a scouting run down to the terminal to discover the best way to Taormina. Option 1 was a hop on hop off bus that gave us use of the tourist bus and the regular bus for €14 each or take a regular bus for €3. We were torn about what to do, and still had not made up our mind when we got to the terminal. We finally chose the regular bus, but after we bought the ticket the cashier who must have heard our debate, asked the Hop on Hop off bus driver to let us ride to Taormina, so we ended up with the best of both worlds. This good samaritan was the same guy who had rebuffed my earlier attempt to ask him about the bus to Taormina in halting Italian, with a gruff “What do you want?” in English.
Taormina is the town between the two high points of land.
Taormina has been a town since the ancient Greeks, and it is really a spectacular site on a large bluff overlooking the harbor at Giardini-Naxos. We were dropped off at a nondescript bus terminal, but as soon as we began hiking up the road to the town the views were spectacular. As we got closer to the town center we both became more charmed. Despite the fact that Taormina is definitely on the tourist trail, complete with all of the brand name stores lining its main street, it still had a spirit that we both really enjoyed.
The main road in Taormina lined with big brand shops, but still beautiful.
The town meanders up and down hill. The main road is wide and flat, but all of the roads off of it are either up or down and quite narrow, which adds to the atmosphere. Off of the main road the shops were run by locals who were very friendly without being pushy. Ton had picked out two potential restaurants for lunch, but one had gone out of business, and the other was not open. Just down the street was a cheese store that advertised lunch and we were both drawn to it. We went inside to take a look and saw a restaurant in the back. We asked the lady at the counter if they served lunch and she said yes in an hour, would we like a reservation. Something I have learned is that in romance languages my short name “Ron” is perplexing, so when she acted confused about my name I switched it to Ronaldo, she immediately connected the dots and had a good laugh with one of the customers.
Typical side “road” in Taormina.
Having an hour to kill we decided to head up to the Greek Theater which is the big attraction in town. When we got there it was €10 to get in, and since we have seen a lot of antiquity sites on this trip decided to pass. We still had time to kill so we went to the municipal park and sat down on a park bench to enjoy the views.
The view from our park bench in Taormina.
The lunch at the cheese shop was superb. We opted for a Sicilian food and wine tasting. It consisted of three wines, and a plate of cheeses, meats, and grilled vegetables. We have had a lot of good meals on our trips in Europe, but we both agreed that so far this is the best. The food and wine while simple was fresh and delicious. The service of the husband and wife was great and they enjoyed explaining the food and wine to us. They were clearly proud of their Sicilian heritage and happy to share it with us. At the end neither of us could bring ourselves to leave so we stalled with a coffee, and an aperitif. Ton was tempted to return for dinner, but they were full, though we could tell if we pushed and had some flexibility they would have found a way to accommodate us. We rarely mention places by name but if you are ever in town do not miss La Bottega Del Formaggio.
I really enjoyed this meal much more than my expression shows!
Our first full day in Italy was a treat. We were still a little unsettled about our plans for Sicily when we woke up. Marsala is famous for a type of fortified wine and while I was sleeping Ton found a place where we could have a tour. So while I was making coffee she proposed we spend the day here and take the tour. The winery was too far away to walk to, and it required reservations so we had to find out if we could get in and arrange for a taxi to take us there. I went up to the office and asked if they could arrange a taxi, and call the winery for us as we do not have a sim card for Italy in our phone. The owner of the campground said he would take us and the winery could accommodate us at 10am. Since it was already 9:15, I ran back to tell Ton to get ready as we needed to leave in 20 minutes. Giacomo the owner of the campground ran off to change into better clothes and also to quickly give the van from the campground a wash. We arrived at Florio winery with 10 minutes to spare.
Our breakfast today, not healthy but delicious.
Florio Winery was founded in the early 1800’s to produce Marsala. It was the first Marsala Wine producer to be owned by Italians as prior to that the fortified wine industry in Marsala was dominated by English. The Florio family went on to become quite a conglomerate including wine, shipping, agriculture, and light industry. At one time they were by far the richest family on Sicily. They also made their mark by providing some of the original assistance to Garibaldi as he began his campaign to unite Italy into one country. Like many family dynasties the first generation makes all of the money, the second generation maintains the fortune, and the third generation squanders it all. The third generation of the Florio’s ended up selling off the winery to raise cash to pay for their extravagant lifestyle.
A 700 liter wine cask built for an exhibition in San Francisco in 1915. It is still in use today for production of cooking wine.
After we completed the wine tasting we followed the harbor to the old town. Things are scruffier in Sicily, but very charming. We enjoyed walking around town looking at the sites when we realized that our breakfast had been fortified wine. We found a nice restaurant near Garibaldi square. The food was outstanding, and the service was really outstanding. The waiter was a young guy who may have been the son of the owner, and if not acted like he was. At the end we asked for coffee and when we commented on how much we liked it he lit up and told us it was a local coffee and talked us thru the beans and roasting process with great passion.
The Garibaldi Gate near the point where Garibaldi landed with his initial 100 supporters in his successful campaign to unify Italy.
We arranged for Giacomo to pick us up at a local grocery store. After delivering us to François I saw him sitting in a chair near the office having a beer and struck up a conversation. It turns out between driving us to town and picking us up he had spent the day harvesting the olives from the trees around the campground. Talking to him it turns out he had retired from the Italian Army after 20 years and returned home to Marsala to open the campground on part of his fathers farm. He took us around the campground showing us the different plants and herbs he had planted around the campground. It was a treat to spend some time with him.
Some of the olives harvested by Giacomo the owner of the campground we are staying in.
Today we planned a second trip into Barcelona. The primary purpose was to visit the interior of the Sagarda Familia, much like the Alhambra visitors are limited per day, and you have to register in advance to get a time to visit. When we returned to the campground on Sunday we signed up for the next available spot and it turned out to be at 4:45 PM today.
Today was by far the nicest day of our visit to Barcelona with clear blue skies, though it was still on the chilly side. We took the first bus into town as we wanted to spend some time in the markets at Barcelona. They have two markets and we (particularly Ton) really enjoy poking around in the markets to look at the different food products. We also used the time to look around the old town. We pretty much just wandered around looking at churches, stores, and people. Barcelona is now the third or fourth most visited city in Europe, depending on who is counting, so there is quite a lot to see. The shopping is diverse and interesting.
The entrance to the Market.A fruit and vegetable display complete with jack o lanterns, here in Spain they attach tape to the exterior of the pumpkin to make the face.
We have become addicted to Pinxos which is Basque Tapas, and had them again at lunch. In the past we had been eating mostly seafood, so today we went more towards meets and sausages. They were also delicious, Ton also had her new favorite drink at lunch, a good Spanish Vermouth.
Finally we headed over to the Sagarda for our tour. They are really serious about the time on your ticket, we got in line at 4:30, and when we got to the door they turned us around and told us to come back in 15 minutes.
While we were waiting to get in Ton took this shot depicting Judas kissing Jesus before betraying him. The numbers on the left add up to 33 in all directions, Jesus age at his death.
We have seen a lot of cathedrals in our last two trips. Ron thought the exterior of the Sagarda was a little overwrought for his tastes, and preferred the more traditional gothic cathedrals. Ton thinks you cannot compare the Sagarda with a traditional cathedral. However, Ron was wowed with the interior of the Sagarda. While the exterior is extremely busy, the interior is magically elegant, and the use of light is masterful. His vision of the columns of the cathedral as a forest of trees is stunning. The soaring ceilings are really something, and seem much grander than the large gothic cathedrals. Ton was impressed with the stained glass windows, and the way the colors effected the mood of the interior. The Sagarda is an extremely moving place, and we think Gaudi’s genius came thru on the interior, and his madness comes thru on the exterior.
The columns divide at the top to look like canopies of trees and also to support the roof.One of the few statues inside the cathedral this one is of Mary.
Our campsite is located outside of Valencia about 40 minutes by train. Ton has been looking forward to Valencia for a couple of days particularly the market which is the largest in Europe. The downtown has a new and old feel simultaneously that we liked. Once again the old town is great for walking with very few cars in it.
A gargoyle on one of the old churches.
We started at the market which is immense. It is an old iron building which seems to have been popular for markets in Spain and France during the late 1800’s. We spent quite a bit of time just walking from stall to stall enjoying the sights and smells of the different foods. We ended up buying some spices at one of the stalls.
A whole piglet for sale in one of the meat shops.Some of the spices Ton bought.
After shopping was done we decided to have a Spanish specialty that we had been seeing, Churro’s and Chocolate. We found a street food stall that was highly recommended by the spice lady in the market. It was an interesting variation of the churro’s we have in the US and Mexico. The churros are designed to be dipped in the chocolate, and the chocolate is quite a bit thicker than we serve it at home. They were delicious.
We then walked around the old town and took some pictures of the usual suspects. Valencia has a nice large cathedral, but they were charging an admission fee so we passed. We also looked at a couple of nice churches and some remnants of the old fortifications.
The symbol of Valencia is a bat. This is from the city hall.
Having walked around a bit we decided it was time to have some Paella. Valencia has its own version of Paella that includes chicken, rabbit and chick peas. We wandered past 15 or 20 restaurants before settling on a place. We did good in picking the restaurant, there was some confusion as we understood that we would get to pick a first course each from a list of 3 first courses, and one of the main courses. We had decided to go with a seafood paella and a Valencia paella for the main course, but when Ron went to pick the 1st courses the guy explained in his best English that we did not get to pick. We were a little confused until he brought out all three 1st courses, we did not get to pick because we got them all. By the time we were done we were completely stuffed.
On the way to Valencia we had met an English couple Patrick and Jessie. They had given us some good tips. We happened to meet them walking back to the campground, and ended up joining them for drinks at the campground bar. One thing led to another and we ended up in their RV where they filled our brains with information about Spain, and Ron tried to convince them to come to the US for a vacation. It was a great way to end a good day.
The weather today was supposed to be very poor all day. There was a large storm that passed thru overnight complete with lightning and high winds. As a result our plans to visit Malaga were put on hold.
We did shift up the coast about 150km to the town of Torre del Bengalbon which is a “suburb” of Malaga. We are staying in a private aire which while small is more like a campground than an aire, but is priced like an aire. We met the owners who are planning a trip to the US and promised to spend some time discussing camping at home. You can tell from the layout that they are RV’ers themselves as everything is laid out exactly how you would like it to be.
Since we did no proper sight seeing today we thought we would talk about Ton’s second favorite thing to do in Europe which is wander thru supermarkets. In general any town of over 2 or 3 thousand has a supermarket of one of the major brands. Several of the brands cover both France and Spain. In general they are similar to the US in layout, but there are always local touches. In France you are guaranteed to find a huge Cheese section or Fromaggerie full of interesting cheeses. In Spain you will find huge hams made of the legs of the pig. You can buy a 20 kilo (45 pound) ham leg for around 60 Euros. If you do not have space for a 20 kilo ham leg you can have the butcher in the restaurant carve you chunks of ham from a selection of 4 or 5 different kind of ham legs. Even the Costco in Seville had a section for ham legs. In both countries you will also find a huge wine section with a wide selection of wine. We are still sticking to our €2.99 or less rule and after about 30 bottles between the two trips have only had 3 bad wines.
A selection of legs of ham. Every grocery in Spain has these on display.If you do not have room for a whole ham, you can get some sliced for you.A small shop in a village which is not large enough to have a grocery. Note the fresh perppers hanging on the shelves.Most groceries have a large seafood section. Unfortunately we do not have the ability to do fresh fish.
After breakfast we decided to head into town a little early for a coffee, and to use some indoor plumbing. As we were walking into town in the morning it was a little quiet but starting to stir. The sun was shining and there was an air of freshness to things, Ton looked up and said “I like this town”. Seville has been everything we hoped it would be and more. We have really enjoyed ourselves.
Ton’s hometown in Thailand is famous for it’s horse carriages. Ton said the sound of the horses hooves reminded her of home.
The highlight of the day was a guided tour of the Alcazar. It is the royal palace of Seville and dates to the 12th century as a palace. It is claimed to be the oldest royal palace still in use, though the British on our tour thought that Windsor Castle was older. After some discussion between the British and the Spanish guide, they decided it could be both depending on how you counted.
The palace consists of three buildings, two of which were built by Christians after the reconquest and one by the Islamic Caliphate that fortunately was left largely intact . They each have there own unique style, but for us the most impressive building was the one built in the Mudejar style. The palace also has extensive gardens that are also quite beautiful. Ton just about ran the battery out on her camera taking pictures. We ended up spending over three hours on the tour and then retracing our steps to look at places that we really liked.
Blue has a special meaning in Islam associated with being transported to heaven.The plaster work was incredibly intricate, and covered a huge area in the palace.In addition to the plaster work, there was intricate tile work on both the walls and floors.Arabic calligraphy with original blue paint.It is hard to capture the scale and detail of the rooms in the palace.
By the time we were done with the Alcazar we were ready for a nice lunch. We went to a place that has been in business for 75 years Bodega Gongora, and we understand why. The street seating and the good seating was all taken, and we were about to leave when we found a small room in back by the bathrooms that we had to ourselves for the meal. We had a grilled seafood plate that consisted of Octopus, Tuna, Anchovies, Sardines, and a white fish we could not identify. The fish was delicious, though we decided that in the future we are going to have our Sardines and Anchovies fried as you can just crunch the bones with the fish.
Our seafood platter.
We spent some time walking around town and people watching. The city is incredibly pedestrian friendly, and the people of Seville seem to really enjoy just going out for a stroll and to eat. It really is a city to love.
While François did not move today, we did. Today we did the trip to San Sebastian-Donostia that we had planned for yesterday. After a late start to the day we walked down to the train station in Orio and took the 30 minute ride into downtown San Sebastian. San Sebastian is the Spanish name and Donostia is the Basque name for the town. In the city Donostia is used much more prevalently than San Sebastian.
Donostia is not an old city, everything but a couple of churches dates from no earlier than the mid-1850’s. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first is the British pretty much burned the city to the ground in 1813 after they captured it from the French. The second reason is that the Spanish seem so far, to be a little less enamored with old buildings, and have less of a problem knocking down old buildings and replacing them with new buildings. Our sample size is small on this, but that is our observation so far.
A statue of Jesus overlooking the town from the top of the old fort.
The city has a very prosperous air to it with lots of upscale shops, and very nice pedestrian promenades thru town. It is an easy town to move around on foot. Eventually we made it to the old town, which was the original footprint of the town dating back to the 1200’s and corresponds to the area within the old fort. We climbed the hill above the old town to the remnants of the fort, where we had a very nice view over the town. The climb was probably a couple of hundred feet in elevation gain, but was worth it when we got to the top. From the top of the old fort you have a great panorama of the two harbors that make up San Sebastian-Donostia.
The Urumea River entering the Bay of Biscayne, the beach past the river is the surfing beach.Part of the old fort.
At one time San Sebastian was a major port and ship building site. Today its main industry is tourism, and it excels at that. We climbed back down to the old town to look for a tapas lunch. We wandered into a tavern where lunch is laid out on the bar, and consists of different miniature sandwiches and tapas. You grab a plate and move up and down the bar picking the food you want, when you have your plate full you grab a beer from the bartender, and head to a table. At the end you tell the bartender how many pieces you took (they pay attention), and how many beer you had, we had 8 pieces, and 3 beers. Ron was a little dehydrated from the climb.
The food is laid out across the bar, and you wander up there and help yourself.Close up of a couple of the options at the bar.
After lunch we strolled around town for a while people watching, and having another stop at a local coffee shop. On the way back we stopped at the Cathedral, though we are getting a little jaded with Cathedrals. It was another fun day.
The surf beach up close. It is the same beach as the one above.When we got back to Orio these guys were practicing, Orio is famous for it’s boat racing.
We learned yesterday afternoon that Monday is a holiday in Germany which explains the big crowds both in Bremen and at the stellplatz. When we got back to the stellplatz last night there was a sign in the entrance saying that there was no room in the parking lot. Because we liked Bremen and were worried about finding a similar sign in our next destination we decided to spend another day.
The market square in Bremen on a beautiful sunny day. We had no regrets spending another day.
The World Heritage Site the old town hall that we saw yesterday had a tour today at noon and we decided to make that our highlight for the day. We slept in and then spent the morning cleaning François and watching the morning exodus of motorhomes from the stellplatz before walking down to the city for our tour.
Part of the interior of the town hall with incredibly intricate wood carvings.
The tour of the interior was helped by an extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide who did a good job of explaining how Bremen developed as an independent merchant city under the Holy Roman Empire. When Charlemagne first tried to incorporate Bremen into his empire he did so in the normal way by sending a bishop to the city. The citizens of Bremen resisted this because they wanted the city government to be separate from the church. Charlemagne’s son Roland agreed to this and Bremen claims to be the first government where the separation of church and state was formally proclaimed.
The town hall next to the cathedral, the council of the city sat with their backs to the cathedral in the town hall to prove they were not beholden to the Bishop.
Unlike in other cities in Europe the town hall was as prominent as the Cathedral, and do to luck the building survived all of the wars that occurred over the 600 years it has been in existence. In addition to the normal fantastic wood carvings and paintings the town hall also has a giant wine cellar that holds over 650 different examples of German wine.
The interior of the wine cellar under the town hall, with over 650 different varieties of German wine. We had beer!
Part of the wine cellar is now a restaurant so we decided to treat ourselves to lunch down in the cellar. When we arrived we were offered a private room for about 6 people built into the side of the cellar. It was a cool place even though we were planning on a light lunch.
Roland the person who agreed to allowing Bremen to separate the government from religion.
After lunch we strolled thru town for a while taking in the sites, and people watching. Bremen has a cute town symbol the four musicians of Bremen. It is based on a fairy tale by the brothers Grimm about 4 animals who are abandoned by their owners when they are too old to be useful. The 4 of them decide to move to Bremen to be musicians and even though in the fairy tale they do not make it to Bremen the town has adopted them as the symbol. There is a statue of the four musicians next to the town hall and the legend is that if you make a wish and touch both forelegs your wish will come true. It is important to touch both legs because as they say in Bremen if you only touch one it is just two asses shaking hands with each other.
Ton making a wish with the four musicians of Bremen.Another depiction of the four musicians on the corner of a building.
We have found a city in Germany that we really have a good feeling about. As we have traveled around Europe we find cities or towns that we kind of instantly like. Examples are San Sebastian, Seville, and Malaga in Spain, Dijon, Gardes, and Flavigny in France. It is hard to describe why, but it just happens. So far on this trip we have not had that experience with any German cities. We have discussed this several times over the trip, we have not had a bad experience here, but overall we are lacking the connection we have felt in Spain and France.
Before we headed out of Schwerin we headed to the town to take a look around. It has one of the nicest castles we have seen, and it avoided major damage during the war and was part of East Germany so it’s old town has not been modernized like most cities in Germany. Our tour of the city was quick but we enjoyed it.
Schwerin Castle survived the war intact. My personal favorite castle in Germany.Another view of Schwerin. It was a really pretty city.
Today we found a city that we have connected with in Lubeck. It is a relatively small port city on the Baltic Sea with a long and interesting history as a trading city. But almost as soon as we arrived we liked the feel of the town. Our parking spot is right across the canal from the old town, they do not gouge you for the spot. After several weeks of hearty German food we opted for seafood and found an old slightly upscale restaurant with a great atmosphere. The waiter not only served us efficiently but took time to have a nice conversation about travel, and the way different cultures take care of the elderly. It was an unexpected personal connection.
The interior of our restaurant, it used to be the sailors guild hall.
Lubeck is also famous for Marzipan which is a confection of almonds and sugar. We decided we needed to sample some Marzipan so we went to the most famous bakery in town. The pastry was quite good, and not as overly sweet to Ton as American pastries.
A Marzipan pastry. Niederbergers has been producing Marzipan since the 1800’s.
We ended the day at one of the best breweries we have been to in Germany called Brauberger. Their specialty is a Zwickel beer which is a cellared Lager. It was quite good, and we split a pitcher and had a good time people watching.
A view across the canal into the old town from near our parking spot.The sign on the city gate says Harmony within, Peace without.
I know this sounds like many of our days, but this one was our best so far in Germany. As we were walking back we discussed staying another day here even though we are feeling some time pressure, and are quite a long way from Belgium.
This happy devil captured some of the spirit of Lubeck that we liked. The story is that he was conned into helping build the church by the workers who told him it was going to be a wine bar.
Yesterday when we went into the Army facility near us the guards told us we should have our identification cards registered with US Forces Europe as it would make it easier to get on other bases. So we started the day by walking over to the Military Police Office, the process was quick and efficient. The lady was very nice and told us we could use the facilities. This base is a recreation and conference center so they actually sponsor a lot of tours. After looking at their options we opted to sign up for a couple of tours, so we will be spending several days in the area.
The first tour we signed up for was of the Greisbrau Brewery. It was located about 40 minutes away, and the brewery is from the 1970’s, though the building is a few hundred years old, but was previously a cattle barn. Wolfgang our host walked us thru the brewing process.
Wolfgang enlightening us on the fine art of making beer.
We learned about the German Beer Purity laws which limit Beer to only three ingredients, Water, Hops, and Malt. The talk was interesting and we were all paying extra attention as we had to take a test at the end to earn our Beer Drinkers Certificate. Ton and I passed and we are now an official Bavarian Beer Connoisseur.
Wolfgang giving out samples of the beer to our group of future Bavarian Beer Brewers.My certificate as an official Beer Connoisseur.
We ended the tour with a nice Bavarian meal. It was a late night out so todays post is a little short.
