What a whirlwind! I am certainly proud to say that we traveled over 3000 km (actually I don't even remember what the number was now and that number seems low seeing as how I drive 4000 km every year going to New Orleans) and got to drive through five countries! What North American gets to do that?! And it was very affordable. Getting to see friends who I hadn't seen in a long time, was wonderful. Perhaps too short. The girls I have lived with and met over the years through YWAM are people who will always be close to my heart and even though it had been so long, we were able to pick right back up and it was sad to leave so soon.
The way that our accommodations worked out and the fact that we got to leave those types of things until the last minute and they still worked out without stress, was so fun! Exactly how I liked it to be. Being able to make decisions about where to go and where to drive through next was our perfect way to explore Europe. For this time.
It certainly was a trip with its share of exhaustion and that was why spending those final days relaxing in rainy Liverpool was the perfect finish.
I probably wish that I had more time to take in more of certain places, such as the Louvre and other artsy things. Maybe a little less time shopping; but we had fun and it was a great bonding time for the four of us.
Italy was my favourite country out of the list although Italian bread was the worst! Overall food (if you couldn't tell) was a highlight. The cost of Europe definitely is alarming for a Canadian although the way we did transportation worked out well and none of us were particularly wanting to do the backpack thing this time around. As always happens in my travels, I am inspired to return to places and explore further. We'll see.
(Yay! This post-trip reflection is officially finished.)
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Post-Europe Trip Reflection #11: Flying and Fish & Chips.
18 July
One final drive in our VW van from Versailles to Charles de Gaulle airport. Catching a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower one final time through the morning mist was nice and video taping the motorcyclists who would drive on either side of us BETWEEN the lanes was a wonderful way to end our time in France.
Got ourselves to the airport and then decided to drive back to a gas station since the rental company would penalize us if the tank wasn't full.
Many hours later, the four us were reunited in Brighton, England. Coming from different terminals in Paris, different airports in London and different trains and buses, we still somehow managed to arrive to Sharon's granny's in two different cabs driving behind one another! Bizarre!
Spent an evening together, enjoying fish and chips at the Brighton Pier. Here are the others in their Italian leather jackets at the pier. We were very thankful at this point for warm and weather resistant clothing.
Being in England again was really nice. I hadn't been there since the week I spent in Derby and Liverpool en route to Canada from India in December 2000. After living in England for nine months in 1998 and 1999, I am certainly critical of many things in England (ahem. the weather), but having any chance to visit people who mean a lot to me is largely embraced! And the opportunity to feel at home in another country and to look fondly on things that are uniquely English is a great privilege.
19 July
After one night in Brighton, we said goodbye to the ladies who were heading off to do the tourist thing in London (been there, done that) and headed for the airport again! Flying again. This time to Manchester. Being met by Sharon's parents was nice and for the four days, we were finally able to rest from our holiday! :) Being taken care of by mum was awesome and enjoying family meals and seeing old friends...that was a holiday!
One final drive in our VW van from Versailles to Charles de Gaulle airport. Catching a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower one final time through the morning mist was nice and video taping the motorcyclists who would drive on either side of us BETWEEN the lanes was a wonderful way to end our time in France.
Got ourselves to the airport and then decided to drive back to a gas station since the rental company would penalize us if the tank wasn't full.
Many hours later, the four us were reunited in Brighton, England. Coming from different terminals in Paris, different airports in London and different trains and buses, we still somehow managed to arrive to Sharon's granny's in two different cabs driving behind one another! Bizarre!
Spent an evening together, enjoying fish and chips at the Brighton Pier. Here are the others in their Italian leather jackets at the pier. We were very thankful at this point for warm and weather resistant clothing.
Being in England again was really nice. I hadn't been there since the week I spent in Derby and Liverpool en route to Canada from India in December 2000. After living in England for nine months in 1998 and 1999, I am certainly critical of many things in England (ahem. the weather), but having any chance to visit people who mean a lot to me is largely embraced! And the opportunity to feel at home in another country and to look fondly on things that are uniquely English is a great privilege.
19 July
After one night in Brighton, we said goodbye to the ladies who were heading off to do the tourist thing in London (been there, done that) and headed for the airport again! Flying again. This time to Manchester. Being met by Sharon's parents was nice and for the four days, we were finally able to rest from our holiday! :) Being taken care of by mum was awesome and enjoying family meals and seeing old friends...that was a holiday!
Post-Europe Trip Reflection #10: Last Night in Continental Europe.
17 July
After our wine tasting and spitting, we were back in the van headed for Versailles. In my books, no one can visit France without a stop at Louis XIV lavish estate. As was becoming our tried and true method, we had no place arranged to stay yet, but figured we'd figure it out when we got there!
What a place! The town was completely overrun with tourists and parking was nearly impossible. We had read that to go later would give us a cheaper entry fee to the main buildings and we knew that July was quite a peak time for tourists, BUT we didn't know that many buildings were under renovations. And even at 5 p.m. the entry line was hours long. Disappointing surely, but not worth it as far as we could see. So we just wandered the grounds.
Entertained ourselves. 
Peered in windows. Speculated about those who once lived in the extravagance.
Someone had put a flyer under our wipers for a hotel that seemed like an amazing deal and we went as far as to drive out to it. It was outside of Versailles and well, not exactly what we had hoped for. So we pulled out Rick Steves' book again and made some calls from a payphone. Fortunately there was another quad room available for us in what was apparently the livery and stables of the king once upon a time. Now it is Le Cheval Rouge Hotel. Driving back into Versailles took some doing with one-way streets and traffic, but we made it and settled into our new little room.
Consulting our new favourite and dependable book, we selected a couple of dinner options. In the end, we chose a wonderful crepe place, Brittany-themed which meant it served ciders in very cool mugs. The tables were actually right on the walkway/street. A most excellent final meal in France.
After our wine tasting and spitting, we were back in the van headed for Versailles. In my books, no one can visit France without a stop at Louis XIV lavish estate. As was becoming our tried and true method, we had no place arranged to stay yet, but figured we'd figure it out when we got there!
What a place! The town was completely overrun with tourists and parking was nearly impossible. We had read that to go later would give us a cheaper entry fee to the main buildings and we knew that July was quite a peak time for tourists, BUT we didn't know that many buildings were under renovations. And even at 5 p.m. the entry line was hours long. Disappointing surely, but not worth it as far as we could see. So we just wandered the grounds.
Entertained ourselves. 
Peered in windows. Speculated about those who once lived in the extravagance.Someone had put a flyer under our wipers for a hotel that seemed like an amazing deal and we went as far as to drive out to it. It was outside of Versailles and well, not exactly what we had hoped for. So we pulled out Rick Steves' book again and made some calls from a payphone. Fortunately there was another quad room available for us in what was apparently the livery and stables of the king once upon a time. Now it is Le Cheval Rouge Hotel. Driving back into Versailles took some doing with one-way streets and traffic, but we made it and settled into our new little room.
Consulting our new favourite and dependable book, we selected a couple of dinner options. In the end, we chose a wonderful crepe place, Brittany-themed which meant it served ciders in very cool mugs. The tables were actually right on the walkway/street. A most excellent final meal in France.
Post-Europe Trip Reflection #9: Beaune, Bourgogne--Pronounce That!
16 July
There really wasn't a lot of time to take in the sights of Villefranche-sur-Mer, so I had to get up early to at least try and dip my toes in the Mediterranean. It was nice to be back in France and to take pleasure in visiting the Boulangeries to buy le petit déjeuner. Last week I visited Richtree in Square One Mall (formerly known as Marché's Mövenpick) with the same three ladies and we all admitted that we were too timid to try their chocolate croissants for fear of disappointment after our French experiences.
I walked back to the hotel room with my purchases of bread, camembert and fruit to share with the others and then took back off to figure out just how to get down to the shore.
This proved to be more difficult then I first realized, but I enjoyed my walk and attempt at artistic photography.
And I did dip my toes into the cold sea, which also proved somewhat difficult because it ended up being a harbour with no real shore. 
I did my best to take it all in but really had to rush back to the hotel to make sure I got my money's worth of time in the swimming pool! Brrr. Too cold for my liking.
And that was the end of our French Riviera holiday. We were off!
Next stop was the small town of Beaune in the Burgundy region of France. Encircled by an interesting ring road, the old buildings, wine cellars and one way cobblestone streets made Beaune a lovely and quaint stay for us. We were once again fortunate to find a little hotel with a quad room at the last minute. This one had two levels!
We didn't get the impression that our host liked us much when one of us accidentally knocked over a flower vase, when we declined the breakfast and when we couldn't get our MAC laptop to connect to her WiFi.
Strolling around Beaune of our own accord found us a pharmacy where we were able to replenish our Avene skin care products supply for considerably cheaper than in Canada and found us our favourite French dinner of the trip. With menus only in French, we did well to come away with wonderfully satisfying diverse meals. Here is the beauty that was my dessert.
17 July
As odd as it was, we had to make the decision to taste wine in the morning, since we had arrived too late the day previous. We visited the famed Marché aux Vins, many wine cellars connected to and under a church where Franciscan monks made much wine. We chose this wine cellar because it was the largest and we got to taste 15 wines! Being the driver, I definitely made use of the spittoons! Actually, we found that none of us really liked many of the wines and we all were using the spittoons. It wasn't until the end when we spoke with a sommelier, that we learned that Burgundy wines are known to be dry; and none of us are particular fans of dry wines! Ahh well, it was fun and I bought a bottle anyway. It's still in my cupboard.
There really wasn't a lot of time to take in the sights of Villefranche-sur-Mer, so I had to get up early to at least try and dip my toes in the Mediterranean. It was nice to be back in France and to take pleasure in visiting the Boulangeries to buy le petit déjeuner. Last week I visited Richtree in Square One Mall (formerly known as Marché's Mövenpick) with the same three ladies and we all admitted that we were too timid to try their chocolate croissants for fear of disappointment after our French experiences.
I walked back to the hotel room with my purchases of bread, camembert and fruit to share with the others and then took back off to figure out just how to get down to the shore.
This proved to be more difficult then I first realized, but I enjoyed my walk and attempt at artistic photography.
And I did dip my toes into the cold sea, which also proved somewhat difficult because it ended up being a harbour with no real shore. 
I did my best to take it all in but really had to rush back to the hotel to make sure I got my money's worth of time in the swimming pool! Brrr. Too cold for my liking.
And that was the end of our French Riviera holiday. We were off!
Next stop was the small town of Beaune in the Burgundy region of France. Encircled by an interesting ring road, the old buildings, wine cellars and one way cobblestone streets made Beaune a lovely and quaint stay for us. We were once again fortunate to find a little hotel with a quad room at the last minute. This one had two levels!
We didn't get the impression that our host liked us much when one of us accidentally knocked over a flower vase, when we declined the breakfast and when we couldn't get our MAC laptop to connect to her WiFi.Strolling around Beaune of our own accord found us a pharmacy where we were able to replenish our Avene skin care products supply for considerably cheaper than in Canada and found us our favourite French dinner of the trip. With menus only in French, we did well to come away with wonderfully satisfying diverse meals. Here is the beauty that was my dessert.
17 July
As odd as it was, we had to make the decision to taste wine in the morning, since we had arrived too late the day previous. We visited the famed Marché aux Vins, many wine cellars connected to and under a church where Franciscan monks made much wine. We chose this wine cellar because it was the largest and we got to taste 15 wines! Being the driver, I definitely made use of the spittoons! Actually, we found that none of us really liked many of the wines and we all were using the spittoons. It wasn't until the end when we spoke with a sommelier, that we learned that Burgundy wines are known to be dry; and none of us are particular fans of dry wines! Ahh well, it was fun and I bought a bottle anyway. It's still in my cupboard.
"Striving for Excellence"...?
...an idea often preached to those involved with church. As a worship leader at mine, it is something that I hear from time to time after other worship leaders come back from visiting some other big church or from one of those many annual worship conferences. I was recently pleased to receive a link to this article on the topic from our pastor.
Monday, 14 January 2008
Post-Europe Trip Reflection #8: Three Countries, One Day.
15 July
On the road again. Deduced our way out of Florence--loving those roundabouts of countless lanes that are not treated as lanes. We headed for Pisa, really only to see the tower of course.
Driving around Pisa, we couldn't seem to find the tower nor signs for it, so we pulled over and asked two obvious backpackers whose reply caused us to blush: "Um...it's right there." We followed their pointing and yes, there it was.
Found a place to park, walked to the tower. Took pictures.
Bought some souvenirs. Tried to get some food without cash and therefore, without success. Drove away from Pisa. Stopped at a restaurant. Decided not to eat there, but bought some more grappa.
Driving along from Pisa back towards France was gorgeous. Very high and somewhat scary highways with amazing views. But I hit a point where I couldn't drive anymore and finally took a turn to nap in the backseat.
Stopped for some service station food and then I was back at the wheel headed for the border. As we neared the end of Italy we sensed our need to arrange some place to stay that night. Turning back to Judy's Rick Steves' so far reliable accommodation recommendations, we selected a couple places along the Côte d'Azur to call. All gathered around a payphone, we were able to make arrangements at a hotel in this Riviera region of France.
But before we would get to France, we had the privilege of going through Monaco too!
There was time, so we decided to go on down into Monte Carlo for dinner. Here we are trying to look cool overlooking the boats. High society.
Had some ok crepes, laughed with our waiter as multi-lingualism seemed a necessity in this place.
Then back onward and upward to Villefranche-sur-Mer and to our quad room at Hôtel La Flore that proved to be perfect, although lugging our bags up stairs was really getting old by now. Here's the view from our ceiling window:
Finally we reached our beach holiday. Although we'd have to wait until morning to enjoy the pool and the seaside. We had to take advantage of our very French looking hotel desk guy's computer and printer while we figured out where we wanted to drive over the next couple days. We consulted Rick Steves' again and chose a small town in Burgundy with wine cellars for our next stop and were able to book a room there. After our first France driving experience, we learned that national mapquest-style directions were the best method and so we printed off a French online direction giver with the hotel guy's help. While we were at it, we figured we should get directions printed off for the final leg of the trip too. As prepared as we could be and having driven through as many countries as we possibly could have that day, we went to bed.
On the road again. Deduced our way out of Florence--loving those roundabouts of countless lanes that are not treated as lanes. We headed for Pisa, really only to see the tower of course.
Driving around Pisa, we couldn't seem to find the tower nor signs for it, so we pulled over and asked two obvious backpackers whose reply caused us to blush: "Um...it's right there." We followed their pointing and yes, there it was.
Found a place to park, walked to the tower. Took pictures.
Bought some souvenirs. Tried to get some food without cash and therefore, without success. Drove away from Pisa. Stopped at a restaurant. Decided not to eat there, but bought some more grappa.
Driving along from Pisa back towards France was gorgeous. Very high and somewhat scary highways with amazing views. But I hit a point where I couldn't drive anymore and finally took a turn to nap in the backseat.
Stopped for some service station food and then I was back at the wheel headed for the border. As we neared the end of Italy we sensed our need to arrange some place to stay that night. Turning back to Judy's Rick Steves' so far reliable accommodation recommendations, we selected a couple places along the Côte d'Azur to call. All gathered around a payphone, we were able to make arrangements at a hotel in this Riviera region of France.
But before we would get to France, we had the privilege of going through Monaco too!
There was time, so we decided to go on down into Monte Carlo for dinner. Here we are trying to look cool overlooking the boats. High society.
Had some ok crepes, laughed with our waiter as multi-lingualism seemed a necessity in this place.
Then back onward and upward to Villefranche-sur-Mer and to our quad room at Hôtel La Flore that proved to be perfect, although lugging our bags up stairs was really getting old by now. Here's the view from our ceiling window:
Finally we reached our beach holiday. Although we'd have to wait until morning to enjoy the pool and the seaside. We had to take advantage of our very French looking hotel desk guy's computer and printer while we figured out where we wanted to drive over the next couple days. We consulted Rick Steves' again and chose a small town in Burgundy with wine cellars for our next stop and were able to book a room there. After our first France driving experience, we learned that national mapquest-style directions were the best method and so we printed off a French online direction giver with the hotel guy's help. While we were at it, we figured we should get directions printed off for the final leg of the trip too. As prepared as we could be and having driven through as many countries as we possibly could have that day, we went to bed.
Post-Europe Trip Reflection #7: La Renaissance.
13 July
A good night's sleep was had after our exhausting Venice tour and we were back in our favourite VW Touran. Driving in Italy seemed so much simpler than in France with clear signs and excellent expressways. In-city was another story, although I hadn't really driven in any French cities at this point.
Once again, we had another B & B booked (a couple days prior only) and directions printed out from their website. And once again, as we entered the city, the printed directions seemed to make less sense. By this point, we had learned to just go with a bit of gut instinct. One tricky thing about driving into Florence, is that certain historical areas require a permit to drive in otherwise one faces a steep fine! Well, we got off track with our directions and found ourselves heading past the train station where the roads turned to cobblestone. Were we in one of these sacred areas?! If not, we were certainly close, as best as we could figure. Almost turned around on a one way street (oops), but finally did get back on track and found Via Bolognese--after learning that driving around round abouts in Florence was a kind of free-for-all. Still we could not find Villa La Sosta and it was somewhat of a busy and narrow road.
Maybe you can sense something terrible about to happen since I am giving such detail to the driving. I think I was beginning to feel frazzled and when we finally found the right place, I had to turn around what was feeling like a large vehicle in the middle of this road and then maneuver my way through the iron gate entrance. I was just getting it all in order (while still feeling frazzled about cars coming behind at high speeds) when I realized the driveway had a big dip and I was just about to severely scrape the bottom of the van if I didn't take it slower! Phew. Close call. Or so I thought. In my attention to the speed and the dip and then incline of the driveway, I undershot my right turn and here's what happened when a Touran met an iron gate:
Sigh. There had to be something, right? That evening and for months later (up until about November) I found myself on the phone with the rental car company, my credit card insurance company and the travel agency with which we booked the vehicle. Fortunately, it wasn't anything more serious. It was really just a pain. Not to mention the embarrassment I felt as our new charismatic Italian host looked on, shaking his head. Apparently it had happened before and he predicted it happening again. I was spent!
This guy actually turned out to be very cool. He had an amazing place to stay and had lots of connections in the city. We ended up taking his advice twice on dinner. The first night was a quaint little place within walking distance with a young, caring chef at its helm. There I enjoyed my first ratatouille and more fish. That evening we also partook in grocery shopping, paying special attention to buying Chianti wines and Italian grappas after our host shared one vintage sip of his own.
14 July
This was the day to explore Florence, the city famous for its part in Renaissance thought and art. Very cool for me, who would start a Western History course in September. We had lined up for ourselves a day of shopping and exploration, with a viewing of the Statue of David in the midst. We had already shared a number of laughs about a phenomenon noticed of tourists who swoon and faint over such pieces of art and wondered how we would handle it. Ha ha. Our taxi driver ended up taking us to the most expensive shopping area of the city for some reason (did we really look that part?), so we walked from there. It all turned into another day of two pairs wandering around, going in different shops and checking out a cathedral! Here we are at Duomo, which was very beautifully painted.
We all reconvened to take our reservation for seeing David, but in the meantime, Sharon and I had met a convincing man in a leather shop who said that it wasn't worth the Euros and with the amount we'd be spending so far, we took his advice and just waited outside for the others.
This same leather shop man became a convincing one for all of us, but more specifically in his line of business. Sharon was displaying to the others the jacket she had just purchased when they noticed a snag in the leather, so after David, we all four went with her back to the shop. Bad move. Or not? While Sharon's jacket was being repaired, Judy and Patti started looking around, intrigued by his wares. The whole forty-five minutes that Sharon had previously deliberated over buying her jacket, I kept myself away from trying any on myself. But for some reason on this return, I picked one up and put it on and....sigh. I was hot!
We must have spent another forty-five minutes in there deciding if the three of us should join Sharon in her fantastic purchase. After all, they were cutting us such fantastic deals! Patti made a pretty quick decision on a funky coloured suede jacket, so now it was over to Judy and I to decide. Hum haw. Hum haw. Yes, we did all four walk away with leather jackets that day. And to this day, no regrets. Never before had I ever thought of owning a leather jacket, but it has become such a great staple. It certainly came in handy back in England at the end of this trip.
After this, we were headed for a far off restaurant that our host had arranged for us. All we knew about it was that it is amazing and that we could pay 30 Euros and have a traditional Italian-style meal with many courses made especially for us. Our walk to the restaurant became an obstacle to overcome, although with its own share of comedy; particularly Judy carrying Patti's bag of purchases like Santa's sack over her shoulder. We could have taken a cab, but had resolved to hang in there, even though by the end we were parched! (I'm certain the waiter found us odd to chug down the water so quickly, yet to hesitate at him bringing us more because we were scared of the cost!)
This trek turned out to be highly worth it as this trattoria tucked away on a hidden side street ended up serving our favourite meal of the whole trip! We were completely unprepared for the amount of food and in our hunger, scarfed down lots of the antipasta and bread. Then there was the pasta and finally, the meats for which we had little room! The best wine we had (which was their house wine) as well and a taste of panna cotta to finish off sweetly. All this included (as was the water)!
Definitely took a taxi back to the Villa.
A good night's sleep was had after our exhausting Venice tour and we were back in our favourite VW Touran. Driving in Italy seemed so much simpler than in France with clear signs and excellent expressways. In-city was another story, although I hadn't really driven in any French cities at this point.
Once again, we had another B & B booked (a couple days prior only) and directions printed out from their website. And once again, as we entered the city, the printed directions seemed to make less sense. By this point, we had learned to just go with a bit of gut instinct. One tricky thing about driving into Florence, is that certain historical areas require a permit to drive in otherwise one faces a steep fine! Well, we got off track with our directions and found ourselves heading past the train station where the roads turned to cobblestone. Were we in one of these sacred areas?! If not, we were certainly close, as best as we could figure. Almost turned around on a one way street (oops), but finally did get back on track and found Via Bolognese--after learning that driving around round abouts in Florence was a kind of free-for-all. Still we could not find Villa La Sosta and it was somewhat of a busy and narrow road.
Maybe you can sense something terrible about to happen since I am giving such detail to the driving. I think I was beginning to feel frazzled and when we finally found the right place, I had to turn around what was feeling like a large vehicle in the middle of this road and then maneuver my way through the iron gate entrance. I was just getting it all in order (while still feeling frazzled about cars coming behind at high speeds) when I realized the driveway had a big dip and I was just about to severely scrape the bottom of the van if I didn't take it slower! Phew. Close call. Or so I thought. In my attention to the speed and the dip and then incline of the driveway, I undershot my right turn and here's what happened when a Touran met an iron gate:
Sigh. There had to be something, right? That evening and for months later (up until about November) I found myself on the phone with the rental car company, my credit card insurance company and the travel agency with which we booked the vehicle. Fortunately, it wasn't anything more serious. It was really just a pain. Not to mention the embarrassment I felt as our new charismatic Italian host looked on, shaking his head. Apparently it had happened before and he predicted it happening again. I was spent!
This guy actually turned out to be very cool. He had an amazing place to stay and had lots of connections in the city. We ended up taking his advice twice on dinner. The first night was a quaint little place within walking distance with a young, caring chef at its helm. There I enjoyed my first ratatouille and more fish. That evening we also partook in grocery shopping, paying special attention to buying Chianti wines and Italian grappas after our host shared one vintage sip of his own.
14 July
This was the day to explore Florence, the city famous for its part in Renaissance thought and art. Very cool for me, who would start a Western History course in September. We had lined up for ourselves a day of shopping and exploration, with a viewing of the Statue of David in the midst. We had already shared a number of laughs about a phenomenon noticed of tourists who swoon and faint over such pieces of art and wondered how we would handle it. Ha ha. Our taxi driver ended up taking us to the most expensive shopping area of the city for some reason (did we really look that part?), so we walked from there. It all turned into another day of two pairs wandering around, going in different shops and checking out a cathedral! Here we are at Duomo, which was very beautifully painted.
We all reconvened to take our reservation for seeing David, but in the meantime, Sharon and I had met a convincing man in a leather shop who said that it wasn't worth the Euros and with the amount we'd be spending so far, we took his advice and just waited outside for the others.
This same leather shop man became a convincing one for all of us, but more specifically in his line of business. Sharon was displaying to the others the jacket she had just purchased when they noticed a snag in the leather, so after David, we all four went with her back to the shop. Bad move. Or not? While Sharon's jacket was being repaired, Judy and Patti started looking around, intrigued by his wares. The whole forty-five minutes that Sharon had previously deliberated over buying her jacket, I kept myself away from trying any on myself. But for some reason on this return, I picked one up and put it on and....sigh. I was hot!
We must have spent another forty-five minutes in there deciding if the three of us should join Sharon in her fantastic purchase. After all, they were cutting us such fantastic deals! Patti made a pretty quick decision on a funky coloured suede jacket, so now it was over to Judy and I to decide. Hum haw. Hum haw. Yes, we did all four walk away with leather jackets that day. And to this day, no regrets. Never before had I ever thought of owning a leather jacket, but it has become such a great staple. It certainly came in handy back in England at the end of this trip.
After this, we were headed for a far off restaurant that our host had arranged for us. All we knew about it was that it is amazing and that we could pay 30 Euros and have a traditional Italian-style meal with many courses made especially for us. Our walk to the restaurant became an obstacle to overcome, although with its own share of comedy; particularly Judy carrying Patti's bag of purchases like Santa's sack over her shoulder. We could have taken a cab, but had resolved to hang in there, even though by the end we were parched! (I'm certain the waiter found us odd to chug down the water so quickly, yet to hesitate at him bringing us more because we were scared of the cost!)
This trek turned out to be highly worth it as this trattoria tucked away on a hidden side street ended up serving our favourite meal of the whole trip! We were completely unprepared for the amount of food and in our hunger, scarfed down lots of the antipasta and bread. Then there was the pasta and finally, the meats for which we had little room! The best wine we had (which was their house wine) as well and a taste of panna cotta to finish off sweetly. All this included (as was the water)!
Definitely took a taxi back to the Villa.
Post-Europe Trip Reflection #6: Venice--What a Let-Down!
12 July
So, bearing in mind that I am now reflecting on this trip six months later, here I am back at the blog!
Our host at the agriturismo place outside of Verona was great in letting us use her computer, her laundry machines, her phone (all for a cost of course) to help us figure out where to go next! That's right: after Verona, we had no place lined up to sleep! So after one more lovely breakfast outside overlooking the olive groves, we were packed up, back on the road and headed for Venice.
We found a Bed and Breakfast in the nearby town of Mira which was nice enough. Here I am out our balcony/roof thing.
The owner was a lovely gentleman, whose French was better than his English, so it was time to start practicing again. While we were settling in, a Canadian couple (from Montreal) pulled up and we starting swapping Europe driving stories with them. They were shocked that we had survived without any GPS! They had paid the extra to get a GPS with their rental car and we shared a laugh over their naming her Linda and the option they were given to choose "Canadian French" as a language! Then we were off to catch the bus to Venice!
Even though Judy's guidebook highly recommended tourists to intentionally lose themselves down the side streets of Venice, we felt time-pressured and stuck to following the signs we would see periodically on the sides of buildings for "Piazza San Marco", which we knew was the place to get to. What we didn't realize until later was that these signs were not necessarily directing tourists to the famous square the quickest way. Instead, it seemed that the signs were leading us past all of the tacky tourist shops. Well, they weren't actually tacky, since they were selling lovely wares of glass and jewelry, but we did have a couple of bad experiences in shoe shops (some shoe man was uncalled-for-edly rude to us, presuming that we weren't serious buyers, while Sharon and I had it on our agenda to buy shoes in Italy (who wouldn't, right?). Then there were odd candy shops like this:
As we were finding to be necessary with our different shopping expectations, the four of us split up yet again. This proved to be a little tricky and we lost each other in the twisting streets a couple of times!
Not a great feeling, since we didn't have any cell phones or concrete back up plans! Fortunately we found each other in a massively crowded area that we first thought to be the sought-after Piazza! But as we walked on, freshly reunited, we realized that we still weren't at Saint Mark's! Grrrr. Everyone was starting to feel pretty delirious by now. Definitely exhausted and claustrophobic. Too much wandering around aimlessly and shopping, always shopping. Sigh.
And then finally we felt it. The rush of air. The open skies. We heard it. The flapping pigeon wings. The buzz of thousands of people. And then, we saw it for ourselves and I felt FREE! (Here I am feeling free:)
The ladies were getting a kick out of buying knock-off designer items from street vendors (who all seemed to be from West Africa!?) and I was just taking in the interesting sights.
We investigated taking a gondola, or at least a public transit boat, but saw that even those were too pricey and we weren't actually as far from where we started as we thought. So we decided to find somewhere to eat nearby and then walk back again! It wasn't the most exciting or memorable meal, but true to Beth-form, I tried to take the most exotic item on the "menu turistico/prezzo fisso/prix fixed" and I think it was some kind of fish, which seemed the way to go while in Venice. It took awhile to get a seat and then our waiter didn't seemed too thrilled to be working.
Our walk back to the bus was probably the most interesting time since it was the road somewhat less travelled in Venice and we saw people chilling at relaxing restaurants and cafes. We were wishing that we had of held out for a such a place to revel in what is supposed to be a romantic city, fully aware of the serene lights reflecting on the waterways and couples sipping wines on patios. I imagine that my companions were missing their husbands in that moment. Yet we all were feeling pretty disappointed and exhausted with Venice at this point, and anxiety to catch the bus before it got any later and any darker took us over.
So, bearing in mind that I am now reflecting on this trip six months later, here I am back at the blog!
Our host at the agriturismo place outside of Verona was great in letting us use her computer, her laundry machines, her phone (all for a cost of course) to help us figure out where to go next! That's right: after Verona, we had no place lined up to sleep! So after one more lovely breakfast outside overlooking the olive groves, we were packed up, back on the road and headed for Venice.
We found a Bed and Breakfast in the nearby town of Mira which was nice enough. Here I am out our balcony/roof thing.
The owner was a lovely gentleman, whose French was better than his English, so it was time to start practicing again. While we were settling in, a Canadian couple (from Montreal) pulled up and we starting swapping Europe driving stories with them. They were shocked that we had survived without any GPS! They had paid the extra to get a GPS with their rental car and we shared a laugh over their naming her Linda and the option they were given to choose "Canadian French" as a language! Then we were off to catch the bus to Venice!
Even though Judy's guidebook highly recommended tourists to intentionally lose themselves down the side streets of Venice, we felt time-pressured and stuck to following the signs we would see periodically on the sides of buildings for "Piazza San Marco", which we knew was the place to get to. What we didn't realize until later was that these signs were not necessarily directing tourists to the famous square the quickest way. Instead, it seemed that the signs were leading us past all of the tacky tourist shops. Well, they weren't actually tacky, since they were selling lovely wares of glass and jewelry, but we did have a couple of bad experiences in shoe shops (some shoe man was uncalled-for-edly rude to us, presuming that we weren't serious buyers, while Sharon and I had it on our agenda to buy shoes in Italy (who wouldn't, right?). Then there were odd candy shops like this:
As we were finding to be necessary with our different shopping expectations, the four of us split up yet again. This proved to be a little tricky and we lost each other in the twisting streets a couple of times!
Not a great feeling, since we didn't have any cell phones or concrete back up plans! Fortunately we found each other in a massively crowded area that we first thought to be the sought-after Piazza! But as we walked on, freshly reunited, we realized that we still weren't at Saint Mark's! Grrrr. Everyone was starting to feel pretty delirious by now. Definitely exhausted and claustrophobic. Too much wandering around aimlessly and shopping, always shopping. Sigh.And then finally we felt it. The rush of air. The open skies. We heard it. The flapping pigeon wings. The buzz of thousands of people. And then, we saw it for ourselves and I felt FREE! (Here I am feeling free:)
The ladies were getting a kick out of buying knock-off designer items from street vendors (who all seemed to be from West Africa!?) and I was just taking in the interesting sights.
We investigated taking a gondola, or at least a public transit boat, but saw that even those were too pricey and we weren't actually as far from where we started as we thought. So we decided to find somewhere to eat nearby and then walk back again! It wasn't the most exciting or memorable meal, but true to Beth-form, I tried to take the most exotic item on the "menu turistico/prezzo fisso/prix fixed" and I think it was some kind of fish, which seemed the way to go while in Venice. It took awhile to get a seat and then our waiter didn't seemed too thrilled to be working.
Our walk back to the bus was probably the most interesting time since it was the road somewhat less travelled in Venice and we saw people chilling at relaxing restaurants and cafes. We were wishing that we had of held out for a such a place to revel in what is supposed to be a romantic city, fully aware of the serene lights reflecting on the waterways and couples sipping wines on patios. I imagine that my companions were missing their husbands in that moment. Yet we all were feeling pretty disappointed and exhausted with Venice at this point, and anxiety to catch the bus before it got any later and any darker took us over.
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