Er, I mean the honeymoon has just begun! Anyway, we're back in the states and are trying real hard to assimilate back into normal life. Believe me, it's tough not popping a bottle of Vino Nobile de Montepulciano at lunch; to go with your simple-but-exquisite Tuscan bread, proscuitto, pecorino and maybe some olives or roma tomatoes. Man, I'm getting reaaaaaaly hungry now - or should I sto morendo di fame...
In the meantime I will be working diligently getting all of our photos up onto the Flickr site for your viewing pleasure. I have created a honeymoon photo collection, separated by city:
http://flickr.com/photos/74108677@N00/collections/72157601892871557/
Ciao for now!
Monday, October 1, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Last day in Europe!
Well, we are back in Frankfurt for our last day in Europe. It's raining, but tranquil so it's likely that we'll just mull about town a bit and relax. In some ways it's hard to believe our stay is at it's end; but in other ways it seems like we've been here forever.
An amazing stay for sure, we still need time to let it all sink in. No doubt it will take a few weeks of sifting through all of the experiences, photos, souveniers and memories until we can see the big picture!!!
See you back in the states!
An amazing stay for sure, we still need time to let it all sink in. No doubt it will take a few weeks of sifting through all of the experiences, photos, souveniers and memories until we can see the big picture!!!
See you back in the states!
Monday, September 24, 2007
We're Alive!
Sorry for the protracted posting absence, since we left Prague 2 weeks ago internet access has been hard to find (and not all that important either)!
I should have more time to crank out some detailed posts tomorrow (we're at the coast in Livorno), but to boil the past 2 weeks down to a few paragraphs:
I should have more time to crank out some detailed posts tomorrow (we're at the coast in Livorno), but to boil the past 2 weeks down to a few paragraphs:
- We left Prague and took a long driving day - from Prague back into Germany, through Austria, down into Italy and on into the outskirts of Modena.
- Stayed at an agritourismo called Villa Giadello for 3 days, met up with Josie's brother Mike and wife Lina, toured the Ferrari museum in Maranello & toured the most amazing Acetaia in a nearby hill town.
- On to Florence for another 3 days - toured the Uffizi, I wept like a little baby when I saw Botticelli's Mary and child, it was that breathtaking. Oh, and the Birth of Venus was great too! Attended the wedding ceremony of Lina's brother Cesare in the middle of Florence; followed by a reception at a castle/winery that was so beautiful it could have been in a movie.
- On to the heart of our honeymoon in southern Tuscany. We rented a house for a week in Bagno Vignoni. Josie's sister Nancy and Glen came with us for a day in Siena and incredible dinner in Montepulciano before they continued on to Amalfi. Our stay here was great, our place was situated near Montepulciano, Montalcino and Pienza. We spent our days driving around these medieval hill towns, each one is unique. It seems like our purpose here is to drink the wine and eat the local Pecorino and proscuitto. We even spent a day at a swanky spa and got treated like royalty.
- Took a day trip to Arezzo, looking to spend a day shopping in a bigger city. It was a nice city, but pretty at the same time. Josie and I struck the same thought - we were in the Detroit of Italy!
- On to the wind-down, no plans, 5 day meander back to Frankfurt. We drove to Livorno and plan to work our way up the coast. Livorno is nice, but we almost killed a guy on a moped (!), so we are going to spend a quiet night. Driving can be crazy over here, mopeds are constantly buzzing around like mosquitoes, darting past you on the left and right, running red lights, etc.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Prague in a day?!?
Prague is a wonderfully ancient city, each and every corner seems to have its own story to tell. Spending only a day, not even 17 hours, may seem ludicrous to most. But hey, what are you going to do? Drive past it and not stop at all?
So here is what we do in our short time here. We knew on the way in we would only be *barely* scratching the surface...
15:00 - navigated our rental into the bowels of old town, even down a tourist-packed street that even our small rental almost did not fit through! Parked our car in an illegal zone, hustled our bags to the hotel then stashed the car in a garage without getting a ticket.
16:00 - All settled and back out on the streets. Our hotel, "U Kocku" is pretty much at ground zero. In a minute or two we are at the famous astronomical clock - amazing!
16:30 - Jumped on a horse & carriage ride in the square adjacent to the clock. Got a chuckle out of the fact that the carriage route pretty much took us back to our hotel!
17:00 - Karlov Most, or the Charles Bridge. Breathtaking statues every 50 meters or so. Expansive views of the river, Prague Castle and the city.
18:00 - Josie spotted some tourists on top of this tower, so we climbed it. Very old, very spooky, the engineering and construction of this tower is mind boggling. The views are crazy from up here!
18:45 - We were getting hungry and I had started saying "we're stopping at the first place that has a Budweiser Budvar" sign. The one we found also happened to be some type of Ferrari bar - there was a Ferrari parked in front, the staff was wearing Ferrari getups and the owner walked around smoking a cigar.
19:30 - Back across the river for some shopping. Picked up more than a few neat things.
21:00 - Walked the main promenade all the way up to the gigantic statue of St. Wenceslas.
22:00 - Back at the hotel to freshen up and back out to dinner at a jazz club known for its goulash.
23:30 - Back at hotel to settle in for the night.
00:30 - Blogging & photos. Found Gambrinus beer in the minibar, blogging much more enjoyable now! The lighting at sunset amazed me when I saw it and the photos came out great.
02:00 - Hit the sack after draining the minibar.
06:30 - Back up again
07:00 - Typing this blog
08:00 - Checked out and back on the road.
There you have it, "speed Prague."
Ciao.
See you in Italy!
So here is what we do in our short time here. We knew on the way in we would only be *barely* scratching the surface...
15:00 - navigated our rental into the bowels of old town, even down a tourist-packed street that even our small rental almost did not fit through! Parked our car in an illegal zone, hustled our bags to the hotel then stashed the car in a garage without getting a ticket.
16:00 - All settled and back out on the streets. Our hotel, "U Kocku" is pretty much at ground zero. In a minute or two we are at the famous astronomical clock - amazing!16:30 - Jumped on a horse & carriage ride in the square adjacent to the clock. Got a chuckle out of the fact that the carriage route pretty much took us back to our hotel!17:00 - Karlov Most, or the Charles Bridge. Breathtaking statues every 50 meters or so. Expansive views of the river, Prague Castle and the city.18:45 - We were getting hungry and I had started saying "we're stopping at the first place that has a Budweiser Budvar" sign. The one we found also happened to be some type of Ferrari bar - there was a Ferrari parked in front, the staff was wearing Ferrari getups and the owner walked around smoking a cigar.19:30 - Back across the river for some shopping. Picked up more than a few neat things.
21:00 - Walked the main promenade all the way up to the gigantic statue of St. Wenceslas.22:00 - Back at the hotel to freshen up and back out to dinner at a jazz club known for its goulash.23:30 - Back at hotel to settle in for the night.
00:30 - Blogging & photos. Found Gambrinus beer in the minibar, blogging much more enjoyable now! The lighting at sunset amazed me when I saw it and the photos came out great.
02:00 - Hit the sack after draining the minibar.
06:30 - Back up again
07:00 - Typing this blog
08:00 - Checked out and back on the road.
There you have it, "speed Prague."
Ciao.
See you in Italy!
Czech this out
This was day I've been waiting for! We took a short drive to the village where my great-great grandfather grew up - Meisterdorf (now called Mistrovice). Meisterdorf was originally part of Bohemian Germany but is now about 30km inside of Czechoslovakia.
The drive was relatively easy; and getting out into the countryside was a great experience. The land is very green and most of it is either cultivated or maintained as pasture. We drove straight through Meisterdorf on recon path to get our bearings, then turned around and went back to check out a small museum. It turned out that the museum was the local fireman's museum. It was meticulously cared for with lots and lots of restored fire pumps and other equipment. We lucked out that there happened to be a mother and daughter visiting the museum at the same time and the daughter spoke decent english. She was happy to translate with the museum curators for us, so we got a ton of information about the local cemeteries, church, a glass museum in the next town and a festival that was going the same day!
The festival was awesome, we could not determine what it was celebrating, but a lot of people were dressed in costume for the occasion. Communication was tough here, but we managed to eventually get directions to the cemetery just down the road. The cemetery was beautiful - quaint and peaceful, everything was so green and well maintained. We didn't find and headstones with the family name, but there were some unnamed ones...
Once back in Děčín, we found a great Italian bar/restaurant that was in a building shaped and furnished like a boat! After dinner I managed to stroll back down to the Elbe (Labe in Czech) to shoot some night shots.
The drive was relatively easy; and getting out into the countryside was a great experience. The land is very green and most of it is either cultivated or maintained as pasture. We drove straight through Meisterdorf on recon path to get our bearings, then turned around and went back to check out a small museum. It turned out that the museum was the local fireman's museum. It was meticulously cared for with lots and lots of restored fire pumps and other equipment. We lucked out that there happened to be a mother and daughter visiting the museum at the same time and the daughter spoke decent english. She was happy to translate with the museum curators for us, so we got a ton of information about the local cemeteries, church, a glass museum in the next town and a festival that was going the same day!The festival was awesome, we could not determine what it was celebrating, but a lot of people were dressed in costume for the occasion. Communication was tough here, but we managed to eventually get directions to the cemetery just down the road. The cemetery was beautiful - quaint and peaceful, everything was so green and well maintained. We didn't find and headstones with the family name, but there were some unnamed ones...Once back in Děčín, we found a great Italian bar/restaurant that was in a building shaped and furnished like a boat! After dinner I managed to stroll back down to the Elbe (Labe in Czech) to shoot some night shots.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Frankfurt and on to Czech
Travel day. We bebopped around Frankfurt in the morning, checking out some of the old churches and getting last minute souvenirs, then got our rental car and headed out of town.
The Autobahn was relatively unimpressive on the A5/A4, it seemed like it was under continuous construction - but only on our East-bound side. It was 160kmph :^) on the open stretches, then a dismal 50kmph though the numerous construction zones :^( so it took a lot longer than we had anticipated. We had a chuckle at every exit because the German sign for exit is "Ausfarht" so you can imagine the conversation/accusation that ensued...
We pulled of at Jena for some shopping and a snack, then back on the Autobahn to Czechloslovakia. After the border crossing we pulled off to top up the petrol - what a fiasco this turned out to be. There were about six of us jibber-jabbering in our native tounges; and this was getting us nowhere. Eventually, through miming and kindergarten pictures, we managed to work it out and get some gas. By the time we rolled up to our hotel in Česká Kaminice, around 10:00PM, the reception was closed! I jotted down the after hours telephone number and went into the hotel restaurant to try and get some help. I befriended a rather drunk fellow who was more than happy to help this lost American. We walked around (really, I was just following this guy) asking what to do. Someone called the after hours telephone, no answer. Now what? My friend runs across the street to check at the penzione (hostel) - it's closed also. It all boiled down to bad news - there was nowhere to stay tonight in Česká Kaminice; and our best bet would be to turn around and go back to Děčín, there would be hotels available there. So off we drove, back into the night. The only reasonably good thing about this is that I knew where we were going this time!
We pulled into Děčín and got a room in the second hotel we tried - the Česká Koruna. It turned out to be a really nice hotel, so we abandoned our plans for Česká Kaminice and decided to stay here in Děčín.
The Autobahn was relatively unimpressive on the A5/A4, it seemed like it was under continuous construction - but only on our East-bound side. It was 160kmph :^) on the open stretches, then a dismal 50kmph though the numerous construction zones :^( so it took a lot longer than we had anticipated. We had a chuckle at every exit because the German sign for exit is "Ausfarht" so you can imagine the conversation/accusation that ensued...
We pulled of at Jena for some shopping and a snack, then back on the Autobahn to Czechloslovakia. After the border crossing we pulled off to top up the petrol - what a fiasco this turned out to be. There were about six of us jibber-jabbering in our native tounges; and this was getting us nowhere. Eventually, through miming and kindergarten pictures, we managed to work it out and get some gas. By the time we rolled up to our hotel in Česká Kaminice, around 10:00PM, the reception was closed! I jotted down the after hours telephone number and went into the hotel restaurant to try and get some help. I befriended a rather drunk fellow who was more than happy to help this lost American. We walked around (really, I was just following this guy) asking what to do. Someone called the after hours telephone, no answer. Now what? My friend runs across the street to check at the penzione (hostel) - it's closed also. It all boiled down to bad news - there was nowhere to stay tonight in Česká Kaminice; and our best bet would be to turn around and go back to Děčín, there would be hotels available there. So off we drove, back into the night. The only reasonably good thing about this is that I knew where we were going this time!
We pulled into Děčín and got a room in the second hotel we tried - the Česká Koruna. It turned out to be a really nice hotel, so we abandoned our plans for Česká Kaminice and decided to stay here in Děčín.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Gutentag Deutschland!
Josie and I arrived safely in Frankfurt yesterday and all is well. One thing you can rely on in Germany is organization - we krauts tend to lean to anal side of order and control... But this makes for some wonderful contrasts when set amidst 16th century buildings and streetscapes. How refreshing is this?! Much different than the US, which tends to put a glass box over anything that is 200 years old don't touch, walk here, don't look at that...
We spent the rest of our Wednesday fighting off jetlag while exploring Frankfurt proper. We had a wonderful snack and a few beers at this restaurant in the tower. A lovely piece of filet served on a sizzling block of granite! What was so cool about this? You get to carve a bite and set it aside to cook to your exact liking. I suppose this is could be the German take on fondue.
After Josie took a quick nap (I wandered about) it was back out on the town for dinner. We found a great place called Leib & Seele (Body & Spirit) and began gorging delicious food and the local beer (Binding).
Prosit!!
We spent the rest of our Wednesday fighting off jetlag while exploring Frankfurt proper. We had a wonderful snack and a few beers at this restaurant in the tower. A lovely piece of filet served on a sizzling block of granite! What was so cool about this? You get to carve a bite and set it aside to cook to your exact liking. I suppose this is could be the German take on fondue.
After Josie took a quick nap (I wandered about) it was back out on the town for dinner. We found a great place called Leib & Seele (Body & Spirit) and began gorging delicious food and the local beer (Binding).
- Soups - I had the bone marrow and Josie had potato.
- Appetizer - breaded mushrooms, fairly Americanized :^(
- Salad - mixed greens over a helping of quasi sauerkraut/coleslaw
- Entree - "gypsy schnitzel" for me and "farmer schnitzel" for Josie. Gargantuan servings that we both gave up on :^0
- Coffee and espresso to finish the meal; and a most delicious cuban cigar for myself, a Partagas Serie D
Prosit!!
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