TravelStream™ news feed for member sjourdai on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sjourdai en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:23:10 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1220780107/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1220780107/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1220780107/tpod.html Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:23:10 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, Germany

I think think this is part 6....I apologize for getting behind. I have been using time on the bus to keep you informed. So today is Sunday, on the bus to Italy, but I will be sharing day 5...Thursday.
On the bus to Rothenburg. I thought that Bacharach was a quite German town, but Rothenburg is like my Christmas village. Totally Dickens like, cobblestone streets, signs above the doors indicating what the shop or restaurant is. Again lots of flowers hanging out of window boxes and cafes with outside seating to people watch at the town square. After a short orientation walk we stop at a sausage shop for a sandwich and head to the wall that surrounds the city. You are suppose to be able to walk around the whole town, but we had to walk down a tower and. couldn't find the entrance back. We wandered around a little bit and founf a quaint garden with a beautiful view of the wall and the town. The leaves are starting to change here a little.
On to the Crime and Punishment museum. It was quite intersting that much of the punishment was towards embarassing the offender in the public square. There were many torure devices also and the laws of the time were very well spelled ou to include the punishment.
St. Jakob's churh was next. There are 3 amazing altars in the church. One is considered the best display of woodworking in all of Germany. As compared to sitting at staring at paintings, we enjoyed staring at the amazing woodwork.
Time for shopping....Steve sat down at a cafe and I headed to a giant Xmas shop. There was so much to see it was a little overwelming! I could not resist getting at least one ornament and a cute litlle Bavarian girl smoker. A smoker is for burning incense.
We had dinner as a group and the met in the town square for The Nightwatchman's tour. In medieval times the Nightwatchman guarded the town. The Nightwatchman had a dry sense of humor, just up my alley! It was vey entertaining. The town was saved from being bombed in WWII because the General on the American forces remembered is Mother talking about visiting Rothenburg and how lovely it was. He made a deal with the town to occupy it and they agreed. Tourism is their main economy.
We passed up the chance to go To Hell (name of a pub here) and headed back to the hotel.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1222100103/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1222100103/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1222100103/tpod.html Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:15:03 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The last day of or tour is here. A little bitter sweet that our adventure is coming to an end but it is time. This morning we are going to The Luovre and free time and then a final dinner with the group.
We get to the .Metro and it is packed! Barely fit in and are squished in worse than sardines. When we get off one of the tour members said he was pickpocketed by someone who was talking to him. But the pickpocket went away empty handed as we have all been wearing our money belts, especially on the subways. On to the Louvre we go, our last museum.
We see the famous glass pyramid in the center of the courtyard. We will be hitting the highlights of this museum, it is so large. It was a 16th century place and houses the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Michaelangelo statues and tons of paintings. We had a local guide take us around which was good. There were so many people there....I swear 3/4 were Japanese/Chinese. They all want to have their picture taken in front of everything and they like to move as a group! No separating them! So it was a little trying at our final museum of the trip. The rest of the afternoon is ours. We do a little shopping/looking at all the souveniour shops outside the Louvre and head back to the hotel. Steve takes a nap (big surprise) and Tamara and I go to the Eiffel Tower so she can take some pictures. They will be leaving on Saturday. We also go to the site where Napolean is buried and walk around the gardens. Time for our own nap before dinner.
The last group dinner.......we had a choice of starter, main course, and desert...my choices French Onion Soup, Salmon and Creme Brule. The French Onion soup was so good it could be a meal on its own. The rest of the meal was good also. As a group we walk to the Eiffel Tower. In the evening the tower is light up blue and then starting at 9pm till midnight on the hour it sparkles with white lights for about 10 minutes. Very pretty....hope my pictures will do it justice. Jennifer says some final words about what a great group we have been, we have a toast, and the goodbyes start. When we were in Germany we had a group picture taken with the Neuschwanstein Castle in the background and she made a copy for everyone and gave us a Eiffel Tower key chain. The hugs begin :( I try to escape the majority but got caught in 5 and these from people I probably won't talk to again! We will say goodbye to Doug and Tamara tomorrow.....will probably keepin contact with them.
That's the end of our tour....it was well worth it to have a guide and your schedule set for us for this first trip to Europe. Three weeks is a ling time but for what all we wanted to see it was perfect. We are already planning our next tour.....so many to choose from!!!
.

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

We leave Beaunne by 8:15 and should be in Paris by noon. As we drive thru the out skirts of Paris we finally get a glimpse of the Eiffel tower. The bus takes us down the Avenue des Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe. The road around the Arc has 12 roads leading in to it with no lane designations once you enter the round about. The round about's by the powers theater are nothing to fear once you see this. Our bus driver, Rony successfully navigates us thru and we continue down the avenue towards our hotel. On the way we also pass the place where Napolean is buried. You can see the Eiffel tower from the sidewalk in front of the hotel....our room is in the back so no view for us. The area of Paris we are staying in is the Rue Cler, more residential but still with it's share of cafes and bakeries. We are on our own for lunch and grab a table at a cafe to people watch and enjoy a club sandwich. The French language is a little harder to decipher than German or even Italian.
This afternoon we will be going to Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle church. As we suspected at the end of this tour we will have had our fill of museums and churches!
Each large city we have been to begins with a lesson on the subway system and today is no different. They have all been pretty easy to understand once you get the basics, though Paris has more lines and the train to throw in the mix. We take the Metro to a close stop to Sainte Chapelle with a little Paris history thrown in. This particular church was built in 6 years for Louis IX in 1242. King Louis IX had bought the supposed Crown of Thorns and needed some place to house it. There are 2 chapels one the common folk worshipped in and one on the 2nd floor for royalty. The stained glass in the first floor was beautiful but my mouth dropped open upon entering the 2nd floor. There are 15 panels around the room with more than 1100 different scenes from the Bible. It was just stunning! The Crown of Thorns is kept in the Notre Dame treasury and shown during Lent. Both Sainte Chappelle and Notre Dame are on a island in the Seine River.
Notre Dame is pretty impressive. It has just been cleaned in the last couple years. This cathedral is 700 years old and took 200 years to build. The outside has sculptures depicting Mary cradling Jesus with a rose stained glass window behind her. Below are 28 statues of the Kings of Judah. The center portal again shows the judgement day. Medieval art always told stories because so many people could not read. When we went in they were having a mass so it seemed kind of uncomfortable to walk around looking at the santuary. In each of the transepts there is a rose stained glass window. It is hard to describe the enormity of the space...just amazing that it was even built at all.
After Notre Dame we walked thru the Latin Quarter which is a college section of Paris. Then we are left on our own for dinner and to figure out how to get back to the hotel on the Metro. We have dinner with Mom and Dad and their buddies Eric and Isheya...two college students that are doing a school semester abroad in London after the tour. We successfully navigate the train and the Metro to get back to the hotel.
Our last full day with the tour is tomorrow! Sad in a way but a releif in another...you can only take so much of the group in these last few days!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221923702/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221923702/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221923702/tpod.html Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:15:02 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

We enter our final country...France! Hard to believe we are on the last 3 days of the tour or as Steve has called this a field trip. Out of the mountains of Switzerland we roll through the hills of France. Our overnight stop will be in Beaunne in the heart of wine country. Neither Steve or I have turned into wine drinkers on this trip, so good tasting beer could be hard to find. Beaunne is a medival like town for France. Cobblestone streets, wall surrounding the town and a town square like we saw in Germany. Instead of flower boxes in the windows the windows have very intricate iron work. As usual we check into our hotel and probably the tiniest room we have had. Glad it will only be one night! In to the town we troop and we have free time to wander around before a wine tasting. Lots of cafes to sit outside and people watch on a beautiful afternoon.
Our wine tasting is at one of the largest wine cellars in the Burgandy region. The cellars use to be a church and she leads us downstairs and we walk past bottles and bottles of wine. We will be tasting 4 different wines. She gives us a brief history of the region and how the wine is named based on the village and region and vineyard. We tasted 3 reds and a white....none of which are coming home with us. One of the reds had everyone making a face! We are bringing home a bottle of a brandy that had everyone licking their glass. It is suppose to be very good over vanilla ice cream or you also mix it with white wine for a drink called a Kir...tasty! Maybe the next girl's night out will have to be at my house so you can sample what we are bringing back!
Dinner with the group for a traditional French meal. We start out with this strange ham mixture that has gelatin in it...hard to descibed. Then we each have escargo (snails), which I have had before, really just tastes like the garlic and butter they are sauteed in and a little rubbery. +ur main course is beef bourgianne (fancy name for beef stew in wine sauce) that is pretty tasty. We have had 3 courses so far and have 2 to go. After your main course it is typical to have a plate of at least 3 cheeses with bread. The waitress does not understand our confusion at the course. Jennifer explains to her(in French) that in the US cheese is not a meal in itself. She still gives us funny looks and moves on. The final course is desert...a poached pear in a wine sauce and a scoop of berry sorbet. You don't have coffee with your desert, you have it after and it is a shot of expresso, not a cup. We sat down at 7 and were finished by 9. It's a lot of work to have dinner in Europe. Europeans like to linger over each course and the dinner time just gets longer and longer. When do they watch their TV shows?:) They must all have a DVR...
We head to the City of Lights Thursday morning and the last 2 days of the tour (field trip) before we wander on our own in Paris.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221891602/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221891602/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221891602/tpod.html Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:20:02 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

SJ BB Post
Today we leave Rome (yay) and hopefully the heat. We head for an area on the west coast od Italy 'the Cinqua Tierre' - "the five lands" (I think). These are 5 towns nestled in the cliffs just off of the sea. The one we are staying in is named Montrosso. The bus ride is about 7 hours - thus the 2 day post. I could expound on the vagueries of bus travel, but I think not.
The tour literature points to the destination a "a much needed vacation fron your vacation". I agree it is needed. Especially after the temps we've just endured. The book also mentions that most of day ws will be 'free time' and we had some choices between hiking and/or taking trains or buses - or various combinations of these - between the 5 towns, or spending a recovery day relaxing on the beach. Heidi and I don't even need to have the 'what would you like to do' conversation.
I've decided that this tour really isn't as much a vacation as it is a really long field trip. I'm learning and experiencing many, many new things and having a generally great time, but it feels a little bit like work- or maybe school. You have a pretty strict schedule that must be kept as there are 27 other folks that are depending on your punctuality and atour guide who is.paid to educate and direct you. Sorry if this is all too obvious. I've just never been on a tour like this before. I suppose it's much of what is intended for a sabbatical. Enough time off to get away and maybe adjust perspective a little. I'll definitely come away from this trip with a different perspective and maybe a little (perhaps grudging) respect for how other cultures embrace different concepts, or maybe the same concepts differently, than Americans.
Ahh, but I wax philosophic. A tone not often heard in this blog. I must be hungry.
The last part of the drive in to the area is a real gut churner. Miles of steep, narrow, switchback laden roads. We don't actually ride all the way in to town. Our bus is too big. We stop at another town to take a short train ride. Just before our bus arrives, our tour guide finds out that there is a train strike. She seems to be handling it well and tells us we have some options. She says that she is going to talk to the men in the train station to get the straight poop and will be right back. About 10 minutes later she comes hauling ass back to the bus and says 'we gotta hurry, our train is coming right now and there may not be another one for a while because there is, in fact, a strike'. By now, we are all pretty good at unloading the bus although we do have our share of people that like to stand in the middle of the luggage pile and wait for their bags so others have to navigate around them (argh). Anyway, we make it the train without any real trouble other than a little huffing.
It a beautiful, sunny, late afternoon. A brief walk along the walkway along the coast and we arrive at our hotel. A pretty nice room with a somewhat impaired view of the water (but a sea view nonetheless). We head to a local reataurant for dinner. Another odd meal. I had a small salad and ordered a meal the was a selectiion of 'grilled fish'. I thought I was being all smart- ordering fish in a coastal town. I got a selection of fish all right; a couple a shrimp (complete with heads) some octopus (chewy but not too nasty), and a couple od varieties of white fish. All just grilled. No seasoning or sauce. Wierd.
The next day we sleep in a little, have another stupid croissant and tiny coffee and hit the beach. Ther isn't much actual sand and most of it is cordoned off and occupied with 'pay to sit' chaise and umbrellas. Fine by me. Can't really squawk too much about $16 EU for a couple of beach seats when I've been plunking down $5 even $6 EU per beer everywhere in Italy. Another perfect day, low 70s, slight breeze. Just delightful. Inevitabley (and of course) our once isolated spot was later occupied by little sqealing humans and their children. : )
Europeans are much less concerned about bathing suits on little ones, which a fine until there is the need to evacuate the sand from varoius crevises that have become uncomfortable. Icky.
Ah well, we had some peace. Back to the room for a siesta. We had a happy hour with the group where many discovered the joy that is lemoncello, a local liqueur made from lemons. Yummy and about 70 proof. We did a little souvenir shopping and back to the room for sleep. Switzerland tomorrow.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221837302/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221837302/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221837302/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:15:02 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Wake up in Switzerland and the clouds have socked us in a little but we do see fresh snow on the high peaks behind the hotel. We still had not decided what to do...any we opt to head down the road on our own to the Tremmelbach Falls to start out. This is a waterfall that has carved out a circular tunnel down inside the mountain. We leave the hotel at 9am and reach the Falls around 10. The walk was very peaceful and chilly..Steve changed is coat combinations about 3 times on the walk. (I'm typing this entry sitting outside our hotel in Paris..beautiful fall day and several people have walked by walking their dogs....hope Molly won't be to mad at us!) Anyway....wonder around the falls. When the snow melts in the spring about 20000 liters of water runds down the falls. As it is the water level is pretty forceful and water is sprayed everywhere, so much for the hair today! After the falls we continue on to Lauterbrunnen to wander around. On the way we catch some base jumpers jumping off the side of the mountain. You can't see them jump off but half way down you can hear and then see their parachutes open! Craziness! We also walk by several dairy farms and check out the cows with their huge bells. At Laterbrunnen we decide to head up the mountainside to Murren. We take a gondola part of the way and a tram the rest of the way. As we get to the top the clouds have cleared and we can see 3 main peaks of the area...Eiger, Monk and the Jungfrau....wait till you see the pictures! By the time we leave Switzerland I will have taken 750ish pictures!!!!!! Walk around the town which is almost like a ghost town as most businesses are closed in anticipation of ski season. We find a place to have lunch with a view of the 3 peaks and have a dish called Rosti. The best hashbrowns you have ever had...ours come with cheese, ham, and a scrambled egg....just delightful. Back down the mountain and catch the bus back to our hotel for a nap. We invite our friends Doug and Tamara to the room for a drink before dinner and play a game of Skip Bo. Steve bought a bottle for Cherry schnaaps.....sounds kind of good. It was like taking a sip of kerosene kind of flavored with cherry :(. I'm pretty sure that is not coming home with us! Dinner with the group again and on to France tomorrrow!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221835502/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221835502/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221835502/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:45:02 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

We are sad to leave this waterside town, but Switzerland awaits. Instead of having breakfast at the hotel we wander down the street with our suitcases in hand in search of a cappicino and a crossiant by the water. We get lucky and enjoy a peaceful breakfast on the waterfront before getting on the train and back on the bus.
As we head to Switzerland we drive along the coast and still glimpse little towns along the sea. Again we are fortunate that it rains on our bus days and is clear once we get to our destination. We cross the border to Switzerland and stop in Interlaken for about an hour. This town reminds Steve and I of Vail. We wander around with a take away coffee....which has been extremely rare. If you are going to have a coffee you drink it at the store usually standing up at a bar like table. We continue on tio the Lauterbrunnrn Valley. The mountain sides go straight up in a cliff, very unlike home. In this Lauterbrunn valley there are 72 waterfalls coming off the mountainsides. The clouds/fog have kind if socked in the higher peaks but we will keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow. Our hotel is in Schtelberg at the very end of town and the base of the mountains and looks like a Swiss chalet. This is the ony place where we willbe sharing a bathroom...luckily with people we are related to....Mom and Dad...but we have a huge room with two walls with windows and a balcony to take in the majestic views. Since the town is so small, dinner is at the hotel...pork roast and the best mashed potatoes ever! I'm sure the real butter off the farm and whole milk had something to do with that!
We go to bed undecided as to the plan for Tuesday....lots of options and a free day to do what we want.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221727202/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221727202/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221727202/tpod.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:40:02 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

SJ BB Post
Another day in Rome. Today we see the Vatican and St Peter's Cathedral. We have some free time in the morning so I convince my trusty navigatress Heidi to take us to the nearest McDonalds. Yes, I'm going to McDonalds in Italy and proud of it. Home of the much beloved Sausage McMuffin with Egg. If I have to eat another croissant for breakfast with a tiny cappucino, I'm going to have a meltdown. Man needs foods from all 3 major food groups to survive: eggs, cheese and grease. Heidi remembers seeing a Mickey D's sign by the Metro station, just a few blocks away (how I love her dearly at moments like this). My mouth begins watering profusely. We exit the hotel to the promise of another hot and muggy day, but who cares, a visit to breakfast nirvana awaits. We get near the Metro and see signs for not one, but 2 McDonalds!! I am breifly paralyzed with indecision until my desperation-honed breakfast-finding sense determines that the one on the left is 6 meters closer. We arrive at our destination.
It's open!
Serving croissants daily until 11:30 am.
...sigh...
Short Metro ride to the Vatican.
I'm sitting here pondering how I can come up with as many interesting things to say about the Vatican as I did about my ill-fated breakfast adventure. I believe I've set that bar too high.
I suppose you all already know that the Vatican is its own tiny country. Based on what I've seen in the rest of Italy, I think this may have been a wise decision. Perhaps somewhere in their vast collections are all those missing toilet seats.
I think I heard our tour guide say that something like 30 percent of the worlds art is here. I have no idea how you'd come up with an assessment like that, so maybe I got that wrong. Bottom-line, lots and lots of art has been donated to, collected and commissioned by the Pope and friends. As soon as you enter the first exhibit room you are greeted by a huge hall with hundreds of sculptures stacked floor to ceiling. These are mostly busts of, I assume, one-time famous people. Nothing is labeled or identifed which I think is a good thing. It makes much more sense to scan the collection, find one that catches your eye, exclaim quietly, "that's neat" and move on. The whole place was kinda like that for me. Definitely sensory overload. I'm certain that there is some sense to how the rooms are laid out, that Jennifer lead us through. For me it kinda turned in to one long walk through an art kaleidescope interrupted periodically by brief respites standing in front of all-too-infrequent A/C units. We arrived at the Sistene Chapel. Everyting else we had seen had been so massive, I thought this would be too. It was big, just not gia-normous which was good, because you're supposed to see the paintings on the ceiling. : )
I struggled a little with that. Note to self, "bring your glasses to the Sistene Chapel (you boob)". After about a half hour of squinting at some pretty neat artwork I decide I better buy a couple of postcards on the way out.
Next is St. Peter's basillica. Another big "wow" place with amazingly ornate architecture. Very cool (and huge) paintings and sculptures. I think I would have enjoyed it much more, but by then it was about 5:00pm and I had entered "need-a-beer, exit-mode".
I mentioned this as I was writing this post and one of my new (although bordering on 'ex') friends, Tamara, said "you spend a lot of time there, don't you?".
We exit the basillica to a huge square where our tour guide informs us that the Romans did most of their Christian killing. Sorry, no residual blood.
Back to the hotel for a shower and off the Henry Cow's for pizza and beer. Bedtime.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221645002/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221645002/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221645002/tpod.html Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:50:02 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

We wind our way down to a town called Levanto where we are going to catch a train to Monterosso. Jennifer is telling us about the 5 towns that make up the Cinque Terre and all is good. She gets on her cell phone to contact the hotel about our rooms (she assigns the rooms before we get there so all we have to do is pick up the key) and finds out the train workers are on strike!! We get to Levanto and she sprints to the train station to get the story. Rony, our bus driver, does not want to drive into Monterosso as the roads are really, really narrow. Jennifer comes running back to the bus and we have about 20 minutes to unload and catch the train. The trains are runnung sporadically so we really need tp catch this train. We grab our bags and sprint to the train station with a few minutes to spare! Once in Monterosso we exit the station and are greeted with the beautiful blue watetr of the Liguern Sea...kind of part of the Mediterranean Sea. We follow the waterfront all the way to our hotel. Our room is on the 2nd floor with a glimpse of the ocean out the. window. We drop our bags and head back out towards the water in search of a drink called Lemonchello. This is primarily a after dinner drink and made in this area. Easy to find a bottle and I hope I like it and it gets home in the luggage without breaking! Anyway we continue down the waterfront and stop at another shop and get foccia bread with pesto spread on top with 2 Coronas. We find a bench by the water and have our own happy hour. Enough happy hour and time to get the laundry together...we can get it washed/dried and delivered back to the hotel in 2 hours. Well worth the 12€ so we don't have to waste valuable beach time tomorrow. Monteserro is divided into old town and new town. We are having dinner as a group in old town by the water. We have a nice dinner with Doug and Tamara (our buddies) and have a good laugh when their shrimp pasta comes with the whole shrimp - head, tail, and eyes!!!! We have a Lemonchello - it does pack a punch on the first drink but you sip this licquer cold and it is delicious. We walk back to the hotel, stopping for gelato of course!
Sunday is a free day for us. We sleep in a little, check out the breakfast at the hotel and try to form a plan for the day. Being football Sunday we need to find an internet cafe for our fantasy football roster changes so off we go to old town. We leisurely stroll along and wander around the old part as shops are just beginning to open up. The internet cafe is easy to find and with the roster changes finished it is time to head back to the hotel and the beach. The weather is perfect, for the beach just a slight breeze every once and awhile to keep you cool. The water is a little chilly but easy to get use to. As we turn the pages of our books we keep an eye out for speedos :) not as many as you would think. In a 3 hour span only 7....but mainly on older men :(!. The dark clouds start rolling in so time for a nap and shortly the rain starts. Even though there are no scheduled activities with the group there is talk of a happy hour at the hotel. After a little rest we head back out to find some kind of munchie to contribute. We go back to the shop were we had a snack yesterday and pick up a couple ham and cheese sandwiches on focicia bread. We visit with everyone and find out how their day was. My parents had a lot of energy as they either took the train or walked between the 5 towns of the Cinque Terre. We can't resist taking another walk along the water and are rewarded with a beautiful full moon shining on the sea. Another gelato stop before the gelato gravy train ends and tomorow we are leaving Italy and crossing the border to Switzerland.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221639003/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221639003/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sjourdai/1/1221639003/tpod.html Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:10:03 -0400 Bigdog's Travel Blog

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Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Wake up.
Breakfast.
Bus ride to Rome.
Lunch at a rest stop.
Check in to hotel.
We group up in front of the hotel for our first tour in Rome.
Being the smart guy that I am, I took a damp hand towel with me to help beat the heat.
Quick metro ride to the Colloseum.
Wow!
Immediately as you emerge from the metro, the columns and arches of the colloseum rise to great you. They are staggering in their size and scope. It's incredible to think that this was built around the time of Christ. It wasn't until civilization emerged from the middle ages around 1400 AD before mankind could match the architectural and engineering feats accomplished by the Romans.
My envious tour mates see the damp towel that I'm now wearing draped over my head and marvel at my ingeniousness. One of them dubs me, 'an intellectual giant'. I strut around quite pleased with myself, looking like some pauper Shiek asking questions like, "How much for your woman?".
We are graced with another delightful local guide, Francesca. I can't stress enough what a great job this tour does in getting great tour guides. The contrext that they give to all of these sites makes them so much more interesting. You can tell they all have a deep affection for their homes and take real joy in sharing their knowledge with us.
Francesca leads us through the colloseum describing its construction and the variuos spectacles that took place there. She describes the time and effort it must have taken to bring exotic animals to Rome and how they don't believe that there were any matches that involved men and animals - bringing in to question the historical accuracy of Russel Crowe's exploits in Gladiator : ).
By the end of the Roman age, Lions were virtually extinct in Northern Africa. Without necessarily minimizing the horror of the acts committed in the Colloseum, Francesca described the use of these events as a means of communication. There was no TV or movies to show the locals the glorious victories of the expanding empire, so they would recreate the battles. There was no local police and order was kept in large part by dealing with criminals in the Colloseum with 50,000 citizens in attendance. I think that would get my attention.
We left the colloseum and walked through the ruins of the Forum and surrounding area. Francesca made it more real by showing pictures of the ruins as they were, followed by representations of how the area would have looked at the time. Standing in the middle of everything I got a real sense of how intimidating the power and wealth of the Roman empire must have seemed to any visiting dignitaries. So many massive buildings, so close together must have been very daunting to anyone with ill will toward Rome.
We move on, short walk (the wet towel works great) to the Pantheon. Another enormous structure. 152 feet tall and the same in circumference. It's close to dusk when we arrive so it's pretty dim inside. Another example of "you have to be there" in order to appreciate the scale of the building - gigantic. I think it was built in the 300s AD. I believe Francesca said we're still not quite sure how they constructed the dome given our understanding of the technology available at the time. Those Romans were an impressive bunch.
We broke for an hour to find some chow. Pizza for me again.
By now, it's full dark and not much cooler. Very still and I'm guessing around 90 degrees. With no breeze, no sun and high humidity, the evaporative cooling of my damp towel is gone. We meet back in the square where the Pantheon is to begin a walking tour guided by Jennifer (our tour guide). We stop at a few spots that my heat addeled brain doesn't
register. Our primary goal is the Trevi fountain made famous, in part, by the
song "three coins in the fountain".
Each coin represents a wish:
One for luck.
One for love..
One for a return to Rome.
I replace the third one with a wish for some decent A/C.
The fountain is nice. I'm sure that the billion people gathered around it are too.
Cranky Steve begins sniffing around for likely targets to share his misery. Rational Steve realizes that he hasn't completely alienated the entire tour group (yet) and knows that this is in jeopardy.
I think this is much like the struggle between Smeegol and Gollum in LOTR. I begin muttering nonsensically.
Then...
Someone asks if we can stop for gelato. Jennifer agrees.
Oh My God!
I think I lost consciousness for a minute. When I regain my senses, I find to my great releif that there are no corpses lying at my feet. I weep gently.
The rest of the walk is brief. As soon as I hear, "it's about 15 minutes more straight down this road", I make a bee line for the hotel like a horse going to the barn at the end of a hard day - (dragging poor Heidi along so I don't miss the turn to the hotel). I think we beat the rest of the crowd by 10 minutes.
Quick shower and pass out.

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