Under the Tuscan Sun 2011

Saturday, June 11

We started our day with zeebeer bread, (sea bear?), a local specialty of one of the very old backeries in town. It is like Dutch sugar bread but with nuts added in. Very good. Today is the last day of Altjes Days in Harderwijk, an eel festival to mark the first eels caught and sold for the season. In the morning we walked to the market and bought cheese, buns, etc. for Sunday. Ron Leenstra would be jealous of the huge flower bouquets being sold for only 3 or 4 euros each. ($4.20 - 5.60) We also wandered through the Altjes Festival area, with many booths of local ware, art, etc. Joanie and my sister G enjoyed kippelings (deep-fried fish) for lunch. We had to rush home before a threatening thunder storm hit. We made it just in time but it was soon over and the sun came out. For dinner we ate white asparagus, which are in season and are a favourite among the Dutch. They are milder than our own asparagus, and quite good. However, I find the Dutch have a tendancy to gush about vegetables which are really quite ordinary. They always talk about delicious green beans as though some how they are special. They are no different that ordinary green beans you find everywhere. The same is true, to some extent about asparagus, although I do admit the mild flavour is nicer than the harsher flavour of our green variety.

At night we ventured back into town to take in the activities of the Altjes Days. There were several bands playing and lots of young people. We of course were the youngest in our group, so the others walked past because the music was not to their taste and was for younger people. I wouldn't have minded staying and listening to some of the Dutch rock music but I guess that is because I am so young at heart. :) My uncle raved about a liquor he has that can only be purchased in Germany at a certain store. It is called Mumelman's and while he was loath to share his stash, because my aunt rations him, (she hid the bottles but he found them at the back of a cupboard recently while cleaning), we did all get a glass. It was quite good, and is on our list of things to look for if we make a trip into Germany. We may need to sneak my uncle a bottle without his wife's knowledge.

Today I also downloaded a program to allow my laptop to access video streams from Canadian TV stations that block access to computers outside of Canada, such as CBC. This way, I hope to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup on Monday night (actually Tuesday morning at 2AM).

My uncle's house is about a 7 or 8 minute bike ride from where we are staying, and about a 10 minute drive. It is kind of neat to visit by bike and go home at night (after midnight) on the bike. There are lots of other people biking around. Feels like being a local, which is what we were after.

Friday, June 10

A quiet day. Joanie is healing nicely. We went for a walk in Hardewijk and then came home and went for a bike ride to Ermalo, where we had a drink. The sun was out most of the afternoon. We invited G&G over for salad and croquettes from the store across the street. No new injuries to report.

Thursday, June 9

We had a nice, easy day in Harderwijk. After a brief shower, the sun came out. In the afternoon, our uncle and aunt, and G&G joined us and we went for a bike ride. Joanie stayed home to nurse her injuries. The leg is swelling a little, but she feels like she has whiplash a little. We biked about 15 km. to some sand dunes. Some who were on our last bike trip might remember stopping for refreshments in Heerde, before entering Harderwijk. We biked past this place today. I used an old, no gear bike and had no problems. Tomorrow looks like a rainy day, so we have no plans. Being on a longer trip, it seems very relaxed to not be concerned about not having plans, unlike when you go on a 2 or 3 week trip, and you feel you need to make the most of every day. This weekend is an eel festival so we may check it out in town. Hopefully we will wake up to the news that the Canucks won game 5!

Wednesday, June 8

Oh, oh, travel day today. These have not been kind to us but today will be different! The plan was to see the statute of Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, which is in the local Sint Jan Catherdral, take a boat tour of the Brugge canals, revisit a few shops the women scoped out, and see whatever else we want to, plus have one last suiker waffle before we retrace out steps back to Harderwijk. Saw statue, check. Found boat tour, check. Joanie falls down stairs in a desperate attempt to make the blog and outdo Mr. G's fall yesterday, check. Take nice boat tour of the city, check. Find shops and buy souvenirs, check.

Joanie was walking down the stairs to where the tour boats were and next thing I knew, she was tumbling backwards down these stone stairs, and her head snapped back into the bushes. Waldo wanted a picture with her lying there but I thought the better of it. Her foot was sore but her ankle seemed OK. Her shoulders and neck also began to get sore later. She hobbled around the rest of the day.

Over coffee in the square, which was wall to wall people, cars, bikes and buses because it was market day, we learned about the Canucks game 3 debacle, losing 8-1.

At 1PM we decided we were done with Brugge and walked to the bus station. We just missed our bus so had a 50 min. wait. On the bus, which was full, I looked around and noticed that there were 4 different hair colours on board. There was some grey hair, the majority with blond hair, Joanie's brunette hair, and one combo of blond and blue. If you are into blonds, this is the place to come.

Our travel went smoothly, too smoothly. When we reached the ferry, it waited for us to get on (Joanie's hobble wasn't that fast), and on the other side, our train waited for us to hobble on before leaving right away. We had planned to take the train to Rotterdam and then change trains to Utrecht and Amersfoort. However, the train to Utrecht also carried on to Amersfoort so we thought, great, one less change over. At Utrecht, it was announced that there was a broken down train on our tracks, an d we would not be leaving. Everyone got off and had to scamble to find another train to get to Amersfoort. We did find one but it was standing room only. In Amersfoort it was announced that the train we wanted to take to Harderwijk would not be leaving. We had to wait 45 min. for another one. That meant trying out the local gehartballen (spiced meatballs), and bami ballen (deep fried bami, an Indonesian dish). Our smooth trip ended up taking almost 8 hours!

Tuesday, June 7

Today we took the train from Brugge to Gent, a short ride. The travel went well. OK, reasonably well. We bought return tickets and ours disappeared. I obviously did not loose them but I think Waldo took them. Gent was very beautiful, with its many old, large churches. The buildings seemed older than in Brugge but there was construction everywhere.

The weather was quite nice and we spent the day exploring, including touring an old castle dating back to the 1000's. Some people prefer Gent to Brugge but it is a toss up. For lunch we enjoyed wonderful Belgian waffles with local strawberries and cream. It was also nice to have a friendly waiter. Our experience with Belgians has been that they treated us rudeley and unfriendly. For coffee I went into a restaurant and asked about ordering the coffee and waffle special. The waitress told me waffles were only served after 2PM, and then walked away, not asking if we still wanted something else. We left. This was not the only time we were treated this way. Mrs. G was also frustrated that the Belgians were no better than the Italians or Dutch. They have the nerve to park their cars or drive down roads she wants to photograph. They even walk in front of her and look at sights she might want to take a picture of. Just once they should all clear the town and take their cars and bikes with them, so she can take pictures alone.

I am not going to mention about a certain person who tripped and fell in the middle of the road in Gent, nor who bounced further, him or his camera (down for the 4th time but still working!). Joanie did not even laugh, even though he did get some bumps and bruises. Those rotten Belgians had put a small raised barrier down the middle of the road to trip up jay-walking tourists who are looking up at the sights instead of where they are going.

We returned to Brugge by 5PM but it began to pour. After a few attempts, we found a restaurant willing to let us sit inside for a drink, rather than in the rain on the patio. We enjoyed a few drinks and a round of croquettes before deciding we would stay there for dinner. Joanie had mussels, a local specialty, and the rest of us had Flemish stew with Belgian french fries. (Nothing special about their fries, although they seem to serve it everywhere.) Very good. We ended up leaving after 10PM.

Today we took about 28,000 steps, or about 20 km. We have averaged about 20,000 steps on our outings. The women were worn our, and Joanie put a hole in both of her new socks. One even had blood to show for her efforts.

Monday, June 6 - If this is Monday, This must be Belgium

At 7:15 AM we (Joanie and I with G&G) left the house to begin our trip to Belgium. We took 4 trains, via Amersfoort, Utrecht, and Rotterdam to Vlissingen. From there we took the short ferry ride to Breskins, where we took a bus to Brugge, Belgium. Total travel time, 7.5 hrs. Our connections went extremely well except the 50 min. wait for the bus. We walked around Brugge and had to stop and sample Belgium waffles which were excellent. The day was going way too well. It began to rain a little. When we checked in at our accomodation, part of "Friende op de fiet" (Friends on Bikes), we found that they had double-booked our second night stay. With some work, the owner was able to find alternative arrangements for the other 4 people, so we could stay.

We explored the centre of old Brugge, which was wonderful, but by evening it became very cool. Combined with the intermittent rain, it made for a less than ideal night. We did enjoy an group of people playing Irish ditties on the main square after dinner. For dinner Joanie enjoyed Flemish stew.

Sunday, June 5 Enought with the "Good for the Grass"

Sunday morning began with a drizzle that quickly developed into a thunder storm that lasted for hours. We went to a local church down the street because uncle Ko said their church had a special service for young people so there would be a lot of noise (drums I suppose). While we would have preferred that, we did go along with it. The church we went to had mostly old people. When the children left for sunday school, there were only 6 kids, representing maybe 3 families. Supposedly part of the reason was that it was a long weekend because of Ascension Day, but judging by how conservative things were, I'm not so sure. The minister's opening words were about how wonderful it was to have this rain, and it was too bad we could not move the service outside to enjoy it. Are you kidding! This is what we tried to get away from, and we already experienced thunder showers in Tuscany.

After the service we drove to visit uncle Ko and aunt Gerda where her 2 sons showed up. They had a weather app on their smart phones which said that the weather would clear by 3PM. We made fun of this a little, because it was pouring so hard it seemed impossible. We went home with plans to get together with the family to go for a walk if it was not too wet. Sure enough, when we went to their house again at 3:30, the skies had cleared and there was plenty of blue skies. Therefore we went for our first bike ride around Harderwijk, a distance of perhaps 17 km.

Our house brought to mind my own variation of an old children's ditty:

There was a man who lived in a little house, with his little kitchen with its little fridge and little oven and his little closet with the shower nossle, and the little toilet closet, and the little yard, and the little tin can with lawn mower engine that was used as a car.

Hey, that guy is me. Dutch for the most part are fairly large people, so I wonder how they fit in these little places.

Saturday, June 4 Boo Hoo

Time to leave Italy. We will miss the place. Other than a giant cappicino in Cortona that was recommended to us by a British woman without taste buds, we never had a bad cup of coffee.

We left at 7:30AM, driving 2:15 hr. to Pisa. Happily it was an uneventful drive. We flew to Eindhoven, where we had a bite to eat and say goodbye to my cousin T. who was returning to her home in Rotterdam. We took the bus to the train station. We then took the train from Eindhoven to Utrecht Central, where we got off and caught the train to Amersfoort, There we caught the train to Putin. Because it was Saturday, this train did not carry on to our destination, Harderwijk, so we had to get off and take a train bus to Harderwijk. All this on a day when it was sunny and 28 degrees. We were really tired of lugging those suitcases around again, and were so happy to see the bus driver open to luggage compartment to store our bags, because we were wondering how we could possible get on board with all our luggage. In Harderwijk we were met by my uncle and aunt how had arranged for their son to drive us to our house. A travel day of 12.5 hrs. (It is quicker to fly to Vancouver.) We settled in, bought a few groceries, and then stopped for a dinner of croquettes on a bun, our first of many croquettes.

Throughtout the last two days we have been struggling to find Wi-Fi connections so we could find the score of the Canucks second game. No success. It was only late tonight that I managed to get connected and found that the second game had not even been played yet, which helped explain why the hockey websites were not updated since game 1.

The house we are staying in is small, and space is at a premium, including storing food in the little fridge, but it is better than I had imagined, so all is well. Despite the long travel day today, there were no problems so we are happy.

Friday, June 3

Despite a gloomy forecast, the morning was sunny. T&T decided to stay around the house today, and G&G and Joanie & I went on a drive through the Tuscan countryside to visit a few towns. We went to Montepulciano, where it was very busy and we had some problems parking. The main street, starting from the city wall, wound up the hill to the piazza at the top. We stopped at a few places for wine tasting, trying the local specialty, and having sheep cheese, a specialty of Pienza. The city is very old the condition of the walls and buildings are not as well preserved as some of the major cities, but interesting nevertheless. There were great lookouts that offered a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside, with its wine estates, olive groves, and lines of narrow trees, typical Tuscany scenery as we would have imagined. We then drove to Pienza, another small, walled city. By now we were actually ducking into old churches, taking a quick look around, and leaving without even one picture. I think we are old churched-out and it is hard to top the cathedrals of Siena, Florence, and Assisi.

One of brothers who own La Mucchia (pronounced Mukea we learned), recommended we also do a drive to a place called Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, which has 28 old frescoes. The street markings in Italy are very, very poor, and finding our way out of Pienza on the right road proved to be difficult. Our GPS did not recognize this little town, so was of no help. We traveled for some time before giving up and heading back home. We did see some beautiful hilltop towns with their churches and fortresses, as well as fields of blooming poppies.

Tonight we went to the local pizzeria for one last Italian pizza. I can not believe how many pizzas I have eaten in one week. We missed out on getting a gelato on the road, but did have some in our freezer so that was good. Not looking forward to a travel day tomorrow as we go back to Piza, and then to Holland. Travel days have not been kind to us so far. We will miss our beautiful casa in Tuscany!

Reflecting on Italy some of the things that I though of were:

Swallows - The square in Siena had a canopy of swallows swooping around all the time, as did several other places. I have never seen so many swallows.

Driving in Italy - driving a standard went quite well and driving the narrow roads was not as bad as expected, even though Italians will pass you whenever it suits then, regardless of blind corners, solid lines on the road, etc. What was a little freaky was how they pass. They come next to you and begin moving into your lane before they are completely past. You feel you are being squeezed off the road because they are across the centre line as they finish their pass.

Wine - We could buy decent wine at the grocery store for 1.79 euros. Today we splurged and spent 2.59 euros. I also found they had 1 litre boxed wine for 69 cents. Much cheaper to buy wine than water.

Gas stations - we went to several gas stations, which were unattended. The sign says you can use VISA, but when you try. the cash machine says it only takes two special credit cards or cash. I am still not sure how you fill a tank and what happens if you insert more money that the amount of fuel you car will take. I guess we find out tomorrow when we return the rental cars.

Well, we leave at 7:30AM tomorrow, and it is 12:45 AM, so I better get some sleep. Ciao.

Thursday, June 2 - Assisi

We woke to a sunny day but the forecast was for rain. We had an easy morning then set out at 10:30 for Assisi, about an hour drive. Assisi is set on a hill and of course, required a lot of walking, almost always up hill. The setting was beautiful as you approach the city. Once inside, we all found it was similar to some of the other old cities like Cortona and Siena, but with a cleaner look. The brickwork seemed brighter and seemed like it was sand-blasted. We toured the city, and visited the piazzale superiore di S. Fancesco. This was an old church which was set up in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi, known in Italian as San Francesco, the local church leader that set up an order to support women and widows, and the designated patron saint of animals and the environment. Francesco lived from the 1160's to 1239, so this city is very old, and the church houses the remains of Francesco as well as some of his companions. Assisi is considered a holy city and we noticed there were many nuns and priests visiting the church. We could not take photographs inside. The tomb of Saint Francis was two stories down. The church and the artwork were quite beautiful to see, and quite different from the churches in Siena and Florence. Being that it was older, it seemed the art was not quite as intricate and fine, but stunning nevertheless. The setting of the city, overlooking the Umbrian province olive groves, and farming valley was stunning. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

No day of driving so far has gone without some hitch and today was no exception. As we drove back to our house, we hit a torrential rainstorm. At times we seemed to be driving on a river, and the windshield wipers had trouble keeping up. It was difficult to see, and at several pullouts, cars were parked, waiting out the storm. We plugged on because I would rather get through this than sit somewhere for who knows how long. We slowed down from the posted speed of 110Km/hr to perhaps 50 km/hr and were relieved to get through to the other side of the storm near Cortona. We were planning to revisit our local pizzeria, but it was closed (it seems going out for dinner during the week is not common, and finding an open restaurant is a problem) so we bought some groceries and ate at home. We had a relaxing evening.

Wednesday, June 1 - Siena

This morning Joanie called me to the bedroom to help kill a bug on the wall. Two nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night with some bug landing on my forehead. I swept it off, then felt it in my bed. I picked it up and tossed it to the floor. It felt long and seemed to have several legs in the middle of its body. When I found the bug Joanie swept off the wall, I discovered it was a scorpion, and looked exactly like what I felt the other night. I had wondered if it was a scorpion and now I know.

The day began with sunny skies but warned of showers in Siena. Only Joanie and I packed jackets in our backpack before setting off for a 1 hr drive to Siena. The drive was easy until we got to the city. Joanie and I were alone and the other 4 were in the other car, driven by G. It was market day so it was very busy. I followed G. along until he went into an intersection, and suddenly decided to make a left turn. I thought he was going straight and was committed, because I had a car right behind me. I went straight and we parted company. We drove blindly because it was almost impossible to follow the signs and get our bearings. It was very difficult to find our way to a parking lot that wasn't full, and after getting some directions from a local, we accidentally ended up parking at the bus and train station. Luckily we had a contingency plan that if we got separated, we would try to meet up at the market. We hopped on the bus and asked around about where to get off. One guy spoke English and told us he was going there too, and he would let us know. In a little while he informed us that we had missed our stop. Another girl who lived in Siena but spoke perfect English told us we needed to stay on board and she would lead us. We went all through Siena, back to the station, and then around the circuit again, until she lead us off and showed us where to go. On arriving at the market, we immediately saw my sister T, who was the looking post, and we got together. They had managed to find parking right by the market and with luck, someone left right leaving a parking spot for them right there. However, they were still there only 10 min. before us.

We wandered around Siena. Siena is beautiful, and has a very awesome square where they have an annual horse race around the square each August. Each of the districts in Siena is represented. We took a tour of the main cathedral. Yesterday, I was awestruck by the artistic beauty of the Cathedral and dome in Florence, but the church in Siena left me speechless. The intricate art was everywhere, from every inch of the exterior walls, to the paintings, sculptures, pulpit, alter, columns, roof and tile work on the floor. There was art by Michelangelo and Donatello as well as other famous artists everywhere. We spent quite some time exploring, photographing almost every inch, and just sitting down and trying to take it all in.

We stayed on course and had our daily gelato (I am even taking flavours that do not involve chocolate). We then viewed the Dominico church of St Catherine of Siena. Catherine was beheaded in 1380 and her head and a finger were preserved and on display in the church. The church dates back to the 1200's and so the stain glass and paintings are much more rustic.

For dinner, we followed Rick Steve's travel advise, to stay in Siena for twilight and eat dinner at a pizzeria on the Il Campo square. The pizza was very good and the house wine was delicious. As we waited for our coffee after dinner, the sky became quite grey. Awning and umbrellas were going up all over the open restaurant. Then it began to pour in buckets. Soon, rain was running down the awnings onto some of the tables and umbrellas. Everything was getting soaked and, because we were sitting on the outside edge, we ended up having to go inside and sit along the wall waiting to dry up and outlast the storm. Eventually we made our was to the bus stop where we waited 30 minutes before we found a but to take us back to the station. Thankfully, the drive home was uneventful.

Many say that while Florence has great museums, Siena is the most beautiful city in Tuscany. It would be hard to disagree, despite another day of travel woes.

Tuesday, May 31 - Florence

I see that this blog's order has become somewhat screwed up and it would take too long to fix, because I have so many more interesting things to do.

We took a 90 min. train ride to Florence and spent the day there. The city is amazing. The incredible artwork on the many cathedrals, the old statutes carved by master artists long ago which stand everywhere, the old paintings, etc. are almost overwhelming. The main catherdral and duomo had so much fine detail, with scuptured scenes, statutes, art deco, etc. on it that it was hard to take it all in. We went to see Michelangelo's David and were so impressed by the intricate detail. You can see every muscle in his knees, calves, back, shoulders and arms. The statute is huge. Other renaissance paintings were also good, but I do find the subjects for the most part somber and dark, such as the beheading of John the Baptist, babies being killed in Bethlehem, saints being swept up to heaven, etc. Today, however, I fell in love again. No, it was not the art, but the incredible lasagna I had at lunch. The pasta noodles were so soft and tasty unlike any I have tasted before.

After visiting David, we decided to go to the Duomo, and climb the stairs to the top of the cathedral. 431 stairs! The view of the city was worth it though. Then we visited the Ponte Vecchio, passing by the Uffizi Gallery with its repica statute of David and many other statutes outside depicting myths as well as prominent people of Florence's past. The bridge is lined with gold stores. Years ago, merchants sold meat and other food on the bridge, and would throw the bad food into the river, causing a great stench. The city decided to end this and allow only gold and silver merchants to set up shop here. There is one gold store after another all along both sides. Prices don't seem to be so great though.

We decided we were run off our feet by dinner time, so we would go back to Cortona and eat at the local pizzeria, because the food in Florence was expensive. We took the commuter train and when we got back, looked high and low for an open restaurant. Almost everything was closed and it was only 8PM. We finally found on pizzeria where we all ordered our own pizza. Joanie's pizza had french fries on it, and G & G both ordered a pizza which was covered in some Italian salad green. One of the plates, when done, still had 99% of the green leaves on it.

We were struck by how unfriendly most of the Italians who worked in Florence were. Ticket vendors, ushers, etc. often looked cranky and did not say a word.

Thursday May 26 If I see one more stair!

Today we woke up to another gorgeous sunny day. After a wonderful breakfast, we started off on the first leg of the Cinque Terre walking trip, from Monterosso to Vernazza. This is the longest, and toughest part. The second longest stretch was closed for the year due to a mud slide. We bought a 9 Euro pass which allowed us to use the walking trail, as well as hop on and off the train that runs between the 5 towns. Soon we were climbing stairs formed from the rocks up the terraced mountainside. Around each bend the stairs climbed higher, much like Jacob's ladder, except these continued past heaven. Along the train were terraced vineyards and lemon orchards. When the trail finally leveled off a little, it became very narrow, clinging to the side of the mountain with a sharp drop-off, with only some stretches having handrails to keep you form tumbling to your death should you stumble on a loose rock. The morning became hotter and hotter, and dehydration began to set in, despite a bottle of water. The hike lasted 2.5 hrs. before we descended into Vernazza. The setting was absolutely gorgeous, with the coloured rows of building tucked against the mountainside and the quaint little harbour. The boats seemed to float on the crystal clear water. There were stairs everywhere leading between the buildings down the narrow streets and walkways to the water. We stopped for cold water and beer and progressed into lunch before carrying on. By now our energy was zapped and we waded in the cool water of the little beach to revitalize. We then walked up more stairs through the town to the train station and up the stairs of the train station. There are no escalators in Cinque Terre. We believe seniors and invalids are simply confined to their little rooms until they die.

We took the train to Riomaggiore, the farthest town. This town too started at the water and went straight up the sides where two mountains met. There was not a level street in the whole town, and the main street up was lined with stairs.

From here we walked to Manarola, a short walk of 25 minutes along a broad, level cement path along the mountainside. It was then time for gelato. Again, not a level street in this little town. By now, we were done. We took the train back to Monterosso, planning to visit the other towns by boat.

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant near our original B&B. There are no other restaurants here. No Chinese, Greek, or any other ethnic food is found anywhere. I revisited the internet shop I was at previously, and this time things worked. We learned about the Canuck's successful run to the Stanley Cup.

Friday, May 27, Calming the Storm

We woke up to overcast skies. We booked a boat tour of the Cinque Terre coastline, which allowed us to hop on and off at the towns and to go beyond Riomaggiore to Portovenere. We got some great shots of the towns from the water as we passed by. We intended to go to Portovenere, and then work our way back. Portovenere was overwhelming, with its medieval fortress and church. We got off and explored the sites before getting a milkshake. The plan was to eat lunch in Riomaggiore, but when we returned to the dock, we discovered that the departure time, which I thought was 1:20. was actually 2:15, so we had an extra hour to wait. That meant lunch and a beer.

As we got on the boat, the winds had picked up and it was beginning to rain. Soon the sea was churning and I had to concentrate very hard not to get sea sick, by nogt focusing on the horizon, which kept disappearing behind high waves. We were rocking and rolling! Someone later asked why I did not offer to cast myself into the Mediterranean like Johah did. I figured if Apostle Paul could survive a few shipwrecks on this sea, so could I. I don't know if it was the weather, or the intent was only to allow town hopping in one direction, but we never stopped at any of the other towns. We high-tailed it back to Monterosso, and we were all glad to be standing on solid ground again. After visiting a local convent and cemetary, we had some wine and called it a day.

Profound saying of the day: Cousin T "It is so cool, I am getting goose flesh".

Saturday, May 28

Today we hauled our suitcases one last time through the streets of Monterosso and up the stairs of the train station, and headed for Pisa. This time we were able to take one train right to Pisa Central station, for on 10.50 euros. At the train station we checked in our luggage and walked 30 minutes to the Field of Miracles, where the Tower is. It was a sunny, hot day. Of course, Joanie insisted that we pose for the standard tower pictures, pretending to hold up the leaning structure. The street was lined with tourists all doing similar poses. Not so original! The tower was reinforced and cleaned in 2010, so was gleaming. Seeing the beautiful cathedral, doumo, and tower was truly awesome. We got tickets to go up the tower. Unfortunately, the first time we could go was 1:20, and we wanted to pick up our rental vehicles at the Pisa airport at 2:30, so things were going to be tight. Our reservation in Cortona said we had to check in between 3PM and 5PM.

Walking up the narrow staircase of the tower and overlooking the city of Pisa was really nice. It was hard to imagine how many people before and after Galileo had climbed these same stairs. The marble stairs were concave and slippery from wear.

Like our arrival, our departure was eventful. We picked up our luggage at the train station and G and I went to buy tickets from a vending machine for the 5 minute train trip to the airport. G's machine would not take coins, and so he got lots of change from his bills for the first two ticket purchase. Then the machine ran out of change, so on the third purchase, he got a credit note. While he stood in a long line at the counter to get his money back, I found a machine that accepted coins, and I bought the remaining tickets. By now we were too late for the train which was leaving. I hauled my suitcase down several staircases to find the airport platform, which was separate from the others, requiring two more sets of stairs. G did arrive in time to catch the next train and we arrived just in time to pick up our vehicles before we would be fined for not showing up within 60 minutes of the arranged time.

As we left the airport, I programmed into our GPS La Muchia, Cortona, the name of our accomodation. It would take 2 hours, so we would be 1 hour late. Soon, we were leading G&G's car out of Pisa and towards Florence. We had to take another highway and exitted, only to find two roundabouts. The instructions were not clear, and I circled twice before figuring out where to go. On the second go round, we lost G&G, and hoped they could find the house on their own. The GPS said we would be there by 6PM, and we hoped someone would be there to let us in, as it appeared the owner did not live on the property. We faithfully followed our GPS until we arrived at our destination, a closed gas station in the middle of nowhere. We found an address on our website I had printed out, that we decided to enter despite the fact it did not seem to have a real street number. The GPS accepted it and said we would be there in another hour. It lead us north, along narrow country roads with no shoulders, and through small towns. Then it lead us to a highway and we went south, almost right past where we had just come from. It did lead us right to our house, but by now it was 7PM. We hoped G&G had less problems and would be there already. Nope, we were first. Fortunately the owner was there, just ready to leave a note on the gate for us. G&G arrived very soon thereafter, having done some unintended touring of Florence.

We went to a local pizzaria recommended to us, and had a delicious meal, with the largest calzones I have ever seen.

Sunday, May 29 Day of Rest!

Today we decided to just stay put and relax by the pool. The facilities are amazing. La Mucchia casa vacanze is an agritourism accommodation which has about 8 suites situated on a large property in an agricultual area 5 km from Cortona. Right now, we are the only ones here, so have the run of the yard. The 7,000 square meters of land include olive trees, a play area, full swimming pool, several sitting areas and lawn area. The house itself, 10,764 sq. ft., was built in 1760, and renovated over a three year period in 2005, using original material. It is far more than we could ever imagine. The owner also runs an art gallery from his attached office, and the walls are covered with art from the Tuscany region. We have all the modern conveniences including internet and satellite TV, in an old, Tuscan decor. Across the way we can see Cortona nestled against the mountain. Awesome!!!

Monday May 30 Cortona

Today is another sunny day. I am starting to feel pretty good with driving a standard car again, whipping along the narrow streets in our Fiat 500. We parked the car near the bottom of the city wall of Cortona and followed the walking tour laid out by the owner of La Mucchia. Cortona is an ancient city state more than 3,000 years old. It was visited by Hannibal, and legend has it that the local lake turned red with the blood of the soldiers when he fought the etrucan rulers of Cortona. The city goes right up the mountain, so we walked up and up and up to the top of the city, where there is a fortress to protect the city. We passed the house which was the setting for the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun". We toured a few of the old churches and walked the narrow stone streets along building hundreds and hundreds of years old. The churches had paintings dating back to the 1550's and early 1600's. What a beautiful tour of history.

We spent the afternoon at our pool, while I caught up with this blog. Tomorrow is Florence and the statute of David.

Wednesday May 25

It's amazing that after 27 hrs without sleep, and dragging suitcases half way around the world, you could sleep for only 5 hrs and be wide awake. We were awake by 6:30AM local time and were greeted by a beautiful sunny day. We took a taxi back to our original B&B where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with fresh capacinos, americanos, sweets, etc. and got a very nice room with air conditioning, a small balcony and even toilet paper! Unfortunately, there was no internet, so this blog had to be drafted and re-written some time later.

We spent the day exploring Monterosso and getting tickets for the Cinque Terre walk the next day. The town is old and beautiful, with flowers everywhere, neat little alley-like streets and quaint flats with laundry hanging outside the windows over the streets. There was also a beautiful beach and inviting clear aqau coloured water. Unfortunately, the beach was quite pebbled and hard to walk on and the water was too cold for my liking, and people did swim, although some of the beach attire was questionable. There were a number of topless women, which can be OK in itself, but in a few cases, the amount of exposed skin should be illegal. There were also a lot of men in skimpy speedos prancing around. I swear some were stuffed with bananas. Gross! Monterosso is at the northern end of the Cinque Terre coast, and from here you can see most of the other towns.

By mid afternoon, we ran out of steam. After a nice gelato, we retired to our rooms, turned on the air conditioning, and promptly fell asleep for an hour and a half. We went for dinner and had to adjust to the Italian way of dining. Their menus are set up so you have listings for a number of courses, from which you choose an item. One course offers only meat, one offers only vegetables, another lists pastas. The pastas, pizzas, etc. tend to be quite different. Joanie went with tuna and got tuna strips with only a few strips of veggies as decoration. I went with a pizza which had tuna, mozerella, and eggplant. G.'s spagetti with meat sauce was quite ordinary and small and he needed dessert. He wanted tirimizu with ice cream. The waiter made fun of this (he did get it though) and said that was like ordering pizza with pine apple on it.

It is now three days without internet so I went to an internet place to send an email home. The internet crashed ,and I gave up. With the Canucks leading 3-1 in the Stanley Cup finals, we had no idea whether they had won the series or not.

Profound saying of the day: Joanie: "We never eat much when we are here." This is true, although her previous trips to Italy were in her mind.

Monday/Tuesday May 23/24 Stairway to ...

The day started normally enough with a visit to mom at Elim. We left there just before 12PM to start our journey. Checking in our luggage went faster than ever. With boarding passes in hand we went thru express check-in in record time and were finished in about 5 minutes. Ex-premier Gordon Campbell was also on our flight, no doubt excaping the questions that would be asked of him when Christie makes changes to his HST. We boarded the KLM and left the gate exactly on time, 4:05PM. We had great seats, with no row behind us and a large standing area in front of the washroom behind us. Being the last row of our section of the plane, we got served first and had plenty of leg room. The flight was ahead of schedule and arrived 15 minutes early.

In Schriphol, there was one other couple ahead of us through initial customs and our suitcases were part of the first ten items to come. We walked straight out of the secure area without being stopped. The first people we saw were Joanie's cousin and friend, C and J, who came to surprise us. They joined us for coffee and the trip to Eindhoven. We also ran into G and G right away. (They left 3 hrs. earlier and were to meet us. We found our train quickly, as well as the bus in Einhoven which took us to the airport. Things were going so smoothly and time flew. One minute it was Monday afternoon, and the next, it was Tuesday morning. We only saw 2 hrs of darkness, from 8PM to 10PM Vancouver time.

In Eindhoven, things began to unravel. The Ryanair flight was delayed by 40 minutes, despite their advertising about being on time 90% of the time. On board the flight attendents spent most of their time trynig to sell things, from duty-free items to lottery tickets. In Pisa, we needed 3 trains to get to our destination, Monterosso on the Cinque Terre. The Pisa station looked like a third world location, with old delapitated trains, some covered with grafitti and offensive writing, garbage on the tracks and a rundown station. We had to haul our suitcases up and down staircases to get to platforms, on and off trains, etc. On the trains there was little or no room to store them. Very tiring and cumbersome. Joanie began to curse Leah's dufflebag which was very ackward to lift and store anywhere because of its size. Our train from Pisa Central station to Monterosso was delayed as well.

It was about 8:55PM local time that we checked our booking in Monterosso. It said check-in was strictly limited to 9PM. We tried calling but to no avail. We had no idea if we would have a roof over our heads when we arrived. We got on the last train, having tickets for different cars. A kind Italian lady helped my cousin phone the B&B and explain in Italian what was going on, and that we would not arrive before 10PM. They agreed to wait for us until 10:30, but that they had already given one of our three rooms away. They would try to find accom. for that room.

We arrived in Monterosso at 10PM and hauled our suitcases down the long staircase of the train station. Escalators are unheard of here. We walked down the road for several blocks, then up more stairs to where our B&B was. It was dark, and on one was around. Cousin T called again, and while the conversation was very confusing because of extreem language issues, the owner did eventually show up. Joanie and I offered to go to the room that was moved to another B&B across town. We took a taxi there and hauled our suitcases up some long narrow stairs to the lobby. Then it was up two flights of stairs to our room, which was sparse, had no toilet paper, but a bidet. Later we reflected on the fact that despite the long, stressful day, God did provide a nice person to help us, and we all ended up sleeping somewhere. Our journey ended at 10:45PM Tuesday, 25.5 hours after we started. We did wander the town a little and get a glass of wino before crashing.