Not everything is what it seems

Took the bus to Grasse, perfume capital of the earth, and strolled around a bit.  Neat town, with an interesting old town.  Most of the people here seem to be Algerian, but we opted for crepes instead of kebabs.  For once on this trip, mine was better than Donnas!  Back home in the late afternoon, and out to Chez Palmyre for dinner.  We made a reservation in October as this is the number one restaraunt on TripAdvisor.  It's a "family style" restaurant that does one menu for the week.  You're elbow to elbow with the table next to you, which is something akward.  The food is pretty straight forward country style french.  The appetizers were great, Donna had pumpkin soup, and I had a duck confit potato salad which was excellent.  Dinner for me was lentils with slow cooked pork, Donna had a beef stew (for lack of a better description) that was amazing.  This must have been slow cooked with some salt pork and a lot of red wine!  Served with perfectly cooked potatos........fabulous.

Planned on going to the Russian Orthodox chuch today, but it's only open on Saturday nights....the guidebook was wrong on this.  It was beautiful from the outside, said to be the most beautiful outsdie of Moscow.  While in that neighborhood we went to Brasserie L'occotatine for lunch.  Donna's wanted a Salad Nicoise since we got here and that's what she had.  Here's where it goes to hell.  In the states, when you order Andouille sausage, you get a pork sausage with a bit of kick to it.  So I ordered Andouillete sausage with hopes of getting something similar.

Here's Wikipedia's description:
"Andoulitte is a coarse grained tripe sausage made with pork, chitterlings, pepper, wine and onions.  Their texture is somewhat rougher than sausages as the content is coarsely cut.  their smell may offend people unaccustomed to the dish."  A french politician "Politics is like an Andoulittte---it should smell like shit, but not too much of it."

Moving on, yessterday we went to the market at Beaulieu sur Mer, which wasn't anything.  so we regrouped and headed to St. Paul de Vence.  Neat little hilltop town with a town of art shops and beatiful views from the ramparts.  Strolled around and got the bus back.  Walked a bit more in town had a quick dinner----Donna had fabulous seafood soup, which is a specialty of the area and back home.  Today we're just bumming around the town, doing some last minute shopping and looking forward to our last dinner out tonight.  The car comes at 5:10 tomorrow morning for the trip home.  Ended up going to the beach as the weather was in the high seventies.   Our final dinner was at the same restaurant as last night, only we had the menu.  Donna had bignets, and I had the octopus salad.  Followed by Donna, mixed pan fried fish and I had rabbit in a reduction of tomaotes and cepes  (Mushrooms).  Everything was perfect for the fianl meal in France.

It's been a wonderful trip, some new, some old, some different, and who knows when we'll get back....................but we probably will!

Bonsoir and au revior!

Thanks for following us!

Money Carlo

A couple of observations.......on the motorways there are these humongous rest areas with over the freeway three story rest stops, complete with restaurants, showers, bars, and convienence stores.  These places use the IKEA model, where you walk in, and follow the arrows.  To get out, you've got to go through the gamut of products they have and then pass the cashier, who looks at you like your the cheapest person in the world cause all you wanted to do is use the bathroom.  When you exit the motorways, they have this maze of offramps that look more like a Nascar track than a motorway exit.  there are the high fences that are tapered in at the top to make sure that you can't possibly crash and go over to impede the traffic below...............

Went to Antibes yesterday for a day trip.  Great city, with a fabulous market.  We took the bus for one euro---took about 50 minutes, came back on the train---took about 15 minutes.  Had a great lunch----see Donna's facebook for pics of the meal.  My crab lollipop was amazing.......Went to the Picasso museum after lunch, which wasn't great.  lot's of photos, quite a bit of pottery, but there are many better exhibits that we've seen in other places.  Home for dinner of mortadella and cheese sandwiches,

today we went to Monaco.  So, you have your brand new Porsche Boxster and feel like a million bucks as you drive into Monte Carlo.  then you realize that nobody is even looking, cause there are a few brand new Porsche turbos, A few Rolls Royces, quite a number of Bentleys and Ferraris, and somebody has just driven in front of the casino in a Porsche 917.  Looking down in the harbor, you feel like you have nothing.  The boats are all bigger than your house, and mostly empty.  They're from everywhere in the world, London, Kingston, Saudi Arabia, and many other places.  The Lady Moura is 344 feet long and empty as a cornfield in december.  The crew is probably there but you can't see them.  The security cameas are seeing you though.  That's the biggest in the harbor, but there are many others that aren't far behind.  Two hundred feet, one hundred fifty feet, hundred footers look small by comparison. 

Went to the aquarium, which was the best either of us has seen.  If you come to this area it is well worth the time and money to go there.  Could have spent an entire day there but time constraints prevented that.  Walked some of ther route of the Monaco Grand Prix, the course is tighter and hillier than you can imagine.  Two hundred mph on these narrow tiny streets doesn't seem possible.  The street between the Casino and the Hotel Paris isn't more that fifteen feet wide.  Donna played the slots for a while and managed to break even, exactly.

Had dinner at le bienveune again tonight----prix fix for 16 euros.  Donna had fish on a basil risotta, I had chicken topped with mozzerella and basil pesto------------with appetizers and desert.  Fabulous.  Tonight I'm watching the Seahawks game thanks to my buddy Niall in Seattle.  it doesn't start till ten at night here, and ends around one, but i do enjoy it.  Tomorrow a lazy day in Nice, I hope, but Donna has some plans in store, so we'll see!  Dinner tomorrow at a place just up the street that we made reservations for while we were here in October.  Hard to get a reservation, hope it's as good as we've heard!

Back to Nice

Left Emlio Romagna at 9:30, with the thought of blasting over the border and back to Flayosc in France in about the four hours that are estimated by the GPS.  Left in sunshine and blue skies, and in about forty minutes of heading west we ran into a fog bank.  Apparently this is normal around Milan and the valley surrounding it.  In some spots the visibility was maybe two car lengths, but we did move in and out of it.  Decided too stop at the Auchan Hipermart in Piacenza.  The sign was there, but the instructions were to "lo".  Now if you don't have any idea where Lo is or what it is, it's really hard to find.  Which it was.  By the time we got back to Piacenza, (cause we turned back onto the motorway and had to go back----fog related) it took us another half hour to find out that Lo is short for some other town in another direction and we headed that way.  We exited the Highway and went to the Centro Commercial area, where the fog was so thick we couldn't see the store------and these stores are huge---think Costco on steroids---until we were within a hundred yards.  Did our shopping and needless to say, we were late arriving to Flayosc.

Flayosc had a restaurant that we were at about ten years ago, which we had really good memories about.  Got there and it was closed for vacation................not to worry, as there is another just across the street that has a good reputation.  We make a res and lookk for a hotel.  the only hotel in town is closed for the season, and the next closest is in a town called Draginoun.   We take a room at this place with a really good panoramic view of the city and ask if the restaurant is open.  Yes.  Not what we had in mind menu wise but an acceptable substitue, or so we think..............

Donna orders fresh fish and I order rump steak.  Donna gets enough food to feed the entire restaurant and I get the best looking hunk of gristle you've ever seen.  Seriously, this piece of meat was rejected by the the grinder for ground beef cause it though it would jam the machine.  The "chef" comes out asks how everything is.  Donna says theres a lot of food on the plate----he says, don't eat the vegetables---just the fish. She hides a piece of fish on my plate, under my fries, and a piece on her plate under the rice.  I filet my gristle so it shows beautifully and say we are finshed.  For desert Donna has some chocolate thing that's pretty good, and I order "fromage blanc", which I think is going to be a plated of assorted white cheeses.  Some roquefort, some camarbert, and some other wonderful french cheeses.  I'm brought the largest bowl of what can only be described as white, thick, and sour.
We got out of there in a hurry and laughed the rest of the night......

Drove into Nice easily after driving into St. Tropez for the morning.  New exactly where we were going as we had scoped it out when we arrived in early October.  Met the greeter and got the keys.  The place is one and a half stories up and is about three hundred fifty square feet.  Perfect for the two of us.  One bedroom, split bath, and comfortable furniture in the living room.  Great artwork too.  When we walk down the stairs in the morning, there are boulangeries to the right, left and straight ahead, none further than a hundred feet.  The best butcher shop in Nice is just out the door to the left, and directly in front of us is the daily fish market.  We don't have an oven in the unit, so everything has to be prepared on the stove top, which really isn't a problem.  Dropped the car back a couple days early, we'd driven 8,208 kilometers, (5100 miles) since we got it.  The night we got here we went to the restaurant  in the square called, Le bienvenue www.restaurant-le-bienvenue.com and had some of the best food of the trip.  We shared a terrine of fois gras, Donna had a chevre' salad, and I had steak tartare.  Mine must have been a pound and it was excellent, but no way could I eat that much so we brought it home. Greeted by Cedric, who speaks excellent english and the food prepared by Fred, it was a fabulous dinner.  Would reccomend this to anyone.

Next day we spent exploring Nice and just taking it easy.  dinner was spaghetti with bolognase made from leftover steak tartare and excellent!

Dinner

So, we went back to the restaurant for dinner tonight, and were blown away again.  the owner works the room and the place is full from the time we arrive (8:15) till the time we leave, 9:30.  the food is better than lunch.  I have cinghalie (wild boar) with pasta.  when we ask where he gets it, he says, "I have some crazy friends who live in the hills.  When they get one they calll me and tell me they have "something" for me."  He tells us also that he only buys local.  One kilometer he says.  His hams are from pigs only raised in the area "not from belgium or germany---those are skinny and have no flavor."  Donna has a prok shoulder that has been cooked till it melts, we share a salad, and an appetizer of gnochi, a bottle of wine, coffees and desert, and the total is 63 euros.  Amazing.  The best we've had since we've been here and a reccomendation to any one coming near here.

Emilio Romano and the Harvest Moon

Got to our apartment from Como about twelve thirty.  Only one and a half flights of stairs to this place, a two bedroom place with a huge bathroom and large living room.  It's located in a local neighborhood about a ten minute walk from the center of town, which we've done numerous times since we arrived.  We walked in when we got there to grab a few groceries.  While in the store, which was about to close for the afternoon break, we asked the woman checker if there was a good restaurant, tratorrio, or osteria nearby.  "Just up the block is a place with "typico" food from the region".  When we went into Trattoria "La Morina" in town, we were taken back by the place.  Lots of black and white pictures on the walls.  Here's a link to their websight, www.trattorialamorina.com .  This area is the food capital of Italy.  We're surrounded by Modena, Parma, and Bologna.  So we walk into this place and have the best food of the entire trip for lunch.  All the pasta is made in house with the same recipes from the owners grandmother.  He says he's fifty seven, but doesn't look it.  Donna orders tortallini, which is a larger version of what we call ravioli.  Two different types come in the bowl.  The first is spinach, combined with chard, parsley, parmesean, and riccotta.  The second is pumpkin, combined with crushed amaretto cookies and cheeses.  Almost like a dessert and will probably show up as that at our house.

I have an escargot ragu' that i'm keeping the recipe for secret.  Takes a day to make and is one of the best ragu's I've ever tasted.  The depth of the flavors is amazing to me.

Next morning we drive to Modena in search of a market with all kinds of vinegar.  It doesn't exist any longer so we regroup and drive to Bologna.  This city has to be the food capital of all of Europe.  We wander a bit and go into the TI.  We're looking for the food market section of town that Donna remembers from last time here.  (All I remember from lst time here is going down a pedestrian road and running into a car blocking device that comes out of the ground and having to back out and almost knocking over a motorcycle and almost  hitting some people sitting in a sidewalk cafe and being humiliated and thinking how much I want my mother........)  But Donna's right and we're a block from a place called Tamburini, which is famous.  Walking in we see why.  They have a lunch buffet that has a line out the door, and around the corner.  We go into the take away part and grab dinner for the night.  Pastas, the BEST eggplant parmigano we've ever had, and some chicken salad unlike anything.  I also stock up with a gorgeous hunk of mortadella for the rest of the trip, and a piece of something that looked really good for desert.  And it was.

Today we headed into the hills above Bologna in seach of the Festival de Tartuffe. (Truffle Festival.)
Emily took us on some of the narrowest steepest roads i've ever been on, and when we finally got to where we were heading...............no festival.  So we changed course and finally ended up in Viana at their truffle festival.  Ordinarily, on sundays, there are no markets, unless there is a festival.  We got lucky today and picked up some wonderful olive oil to bring home.   The truffles they were selling sold from $20.00 a pound to $300.00 a pound.  The pungent fragrance that surrounds the stands is amazing.  There are pictures of the dogs that are used to sniff them out, and you can tell that these are members of the family.  (Good thing they weren't there or we'd probably still be there.)  Picked up some wonderful candied nuts and some incredible nougat, and headed to Parma.  Parma ws pretty closed up on this day so we did a half hour walk and came back to the apartment.  Tonight we're going back to "La Morina" for our last meal in Italy.  We've had nothing but great weather since we got here.  Sunny skies and clear nights.  The sun is huge as it sets and the moon is bigger than any we've seen.
It'll be sad to leave this country as we really enjoy our time here, but tomorrow we head back to France.  We're going to spend a night in Flayosc, where we went with Eric and Char and Siena years ago, to try and replicate another memorable meal.  Ciao.

Lago Como

So, we put up with a few days of rain earlier this week.  But it turns out to be well worth it. Wednesday we woke up to blue skies and sunshine.  Went to the gardens at Villa Carlotta, up the road from us about fifteen minutes. The autumn colors of the trees was breathtaking.  They have every type of tree you can imagine, and many are 200 years old.  The bamboo garden is also impressive. There are 150 varieties of rhododendrons and azaleas, which we only saw pictures of in bloom.  It's hard to imagne what this place will look like in the spring with all of them in bloom.

Went to Mennagio afterwards to walk around.  Most everything is buttoned up but there are still a number of shops open.  Sat down at an outside table and ordered a couple of paninis.  Donnas was toasted with buffalo mozzerella and tomatoes.  Mine was not, and had one thin slice of proscuitto, with nothing else.  (We brought mine home and modified it for dinner.)

The television in the house gets only english channels, and with the exception of CNN, they're all british.  About a third are kids channels, and the rest are a mix of BBC and other locals channels from the Midlands.  One of our guilty pleasures has been watching a show on BBC4 called Four in a Bed.  You take four B&B owners, have them go to each others B&B's and critique them on cleanliness, breakfast, mattress comforts, etc.  The winner wins a thousand pounds and it gets funnier the more they go on. 

It's easy to see why this is sucha a popular place.  you've got this beautiful gorge of a lake surrounded by towering hills, surrounded by the Alps to the north.  Took the ferry to Varenna from Menagio.  Not much happening there, couldn't find a place to eat!  So, came back to Menagio and sat in the sunshine for a couple of hours.  Must have been seventy degrees in the sun.  Watched the old men fishing from the boardwalk, a young guy feeding the swans, had a gelato and headed home.  Today we're heading for Emiglio Romana for a three night stay.  Hitting Parma, Modena, and Bologna for some good food.

Thought they're called highways here, the roads around the lake are TIGHT. Often times you need to back up to let another through.  Thankfully, there's no light industry or fast food places anywhere.  It's all local and on a small scale.  Driving through the towns you can see the chunks out of the corners of the buildings where drivers have miscalculated.  The house are all stone or stucco, many perched on hillsides that make you wonder how they were built. We've yet to see a rambler..............

Vacation Vacation

Friday we went into Venice by train.  the train was fairly crowded and there seemed to be a lot of kids on it.  Grabbed a vaporetto and headed towards Acadamia.  Got past the Rialto where this particular trip ended, so we walked the rest of the way there.  Venice is a great walking town.  Tourists everywhere, all the time.  All coutries of the world represented.  Were planning on going to the Guggenheim Museum, but opted out.  Had lunch, went to San Marco, where in the middle of the square was a huge crowd----with umbrellas listening to a man speaking.  Turns out the this was a college graduation ceremony, hence the crowded train.

Tarzo was a relaxing stay.  Really in the middle of nowhere, on a backroad, and the only sounds were the bells ringing in all of the surrounding villages.  These must serve as some sort of official alarm clock as they all start ringing at seven in the morning, even if you don't want them to.  Donna thinks the chickens that start at five thirty in the mornig are to wake up the guys that ring the bells.....Donna fell in love with the puppy, Ginger, and the owner said we couldn't take with us.  Went back to the Cremeria where we stocked up on breadsticks, and some more cheese to bring home.  Offered a sample of the cheescake, which we then proceeded to buy a decent quantity of.  It had a "sweet pasta crust" and was made with Riccotta and chocolate.  amazing......

Left Tarzo on Saturday morning heading to Lake Como.  One good thing about driving here is that they have speed limits for dry and another limit for when it rains.  Drove through some heavy showers and some hard rain, but no sunshine. On the outskirts of Milan, the traffic started getting pretty heavy.  That happens at almost any decent size town where you have two motorway exits----usually one east and one west.  The A-4 that crosses Italy east west is the major truck road from Eastern Europe, so, lots of trucks.  Donna counted one convoy that was over twenty trucks, nose to tail.  Fortunately, the traffic is much lighter on Saturday, and trucks don't run at all on Sunday.  (Figure they're thanking God for surviving the previous week)

 So, on the outskirts of Milan, the traffic is building, it's pouring, and there are always a couple of drivers that don't believe the sign about slowing down in the rain.  Just passing on the outskits of Milan we see three different accidents, one big enough to close down a four lane divided highway.  Now, at the end of that four lane divided highway is a traffic circle, that everybody uses on Saturday morning.  Fortunately, they were all going the direction we were coming from..............they were backed up for miles as we went by!

The GPS tells us to take Exit 51 to Lake Como Nord.  Great advice if they's put numbers on the signs.  Just past exit 51 the backup begins.  I assume that we're in the backup of another accident as we're stopped.  We creep forward till we round a curve to the Swiss border.  Waved through the italian side and immediately stop sticked by the Swiss.   Pull over there.  "You must purchase a sticker for 40 euros to drive in Switzerland".   Donna leans accross me and says "WE DON'T WANT TO DRIVE IN SWITZERLAND!"  "Where are you trying to go?"  "LAKE COMO!"  "You must go back that way----I will stop the traffic so you can go back."  "OK!!!"  Driving back across the Italian border I'm thinking of what I'm going to spend the 40 euros on.......

The house in Argegno is up about 400 feet above Lake Como with a panoramic view.  The living room has a twelve foot sliding window that opens halfway with a wrap around balcony.  though not sunny as we'd like, it's a great place to take a "vacation from our vacation."  Went for a sunday drive to Bellagio, which is pretty much closed up for the season, had dinner last night with George Clooney, who lives next door and is surprising approachable. 

Today we went to lunch down in Argegno at a restaurant called La Piazzetta.  When Donna says it's the best pizza, that's saying somethng!  She had a margheritta pizza with Bufalo mozzerella that they have delivered once a week from Naples, the sweetest cherry tomatoes ever, and huge fresh basil leaves that could be smelled accross the room.  It actually beats my favorite place in Rome, not by a lot mind you, but it does win.  Today we're being lazy.  Donna's laying on the couch with her kindle, we've got dinner in the fridge, veal chops with a mushroom cream sauce, and some wonderful spaghetti.  A bottle of Proseco and a movie for dessert.

Halfway notes

Don't order fish in a land locked country

Don't generalize with a GPS, it will always take you in the wrong direction.

Eastern european drivers are more dangerous than the Spanish.  They haven't figured out that there is no such thing as half dead.

Croation's only cook whole pigs on spits during tourist season.

Sausages are a safe bet anywhere.

On November 1st, All Saints day, everything is closed before you have a chance to get what you need.

Tractors have the right of way on all roads except motorways.

Buy olive oil, nuts, and produce from roadside vendors.

Wine is cheaper in the grocery store.

Ipermarts have everything you need, if you can't find a roadside stand.

Buy from local producers.

Don't buy cheese from places called Bingo Market.

If you're nice to someones dog, they will be nice to you.

Smiling at people is a fifty fifty proposition you'll get a response.

Eggs are better in Europe in general.

Croissants should be eaten in France, though other countries try.

Ikea kitchens are cool.

Small communist farms are still used and some have small bungalows.

Cellphone towers are everywhere---except here in the mountain town we're in.

One should always arrive by train to Venice.




.

Back to the West......

Rovinj was a fabulous stay.  We ended up in four star hotel as a result of my driving and navigation errors.  As mentioned earlier, the place was loaded with Italian families, grandparents kissing grandkids, parents kissing grandparents, kids kissing parents, etc.  Kids run wild when there is family around.  Wanted to take all of them out to the pool for a swim........Instead, went up to the room to watch the Seahawks game on Slingbox.  Turns out you have to have a higher speed connection than available anywhere in Italy except for possibly a government office.  So I listened to it on the radio, and wish I hadn't spent the money on the hotel for the connection, and more so, the money on the buffet that they served that night.  Lots of mediocre food in large quantities........

Next morning we met Kate Dooley at Apartman 31 Driover in Rovinj.  Kate and her husband Jack are both from Seattle, which is bizarre enough, but as it turns out, Kate was the General manager for the Alexis Hotel in downtown, and Jack ran the Inn at the Market, just up first avenue.  What a strange experience.  Their apartment looks directly at the Adriatic Sea from the bedroom window.  It's very much like a botique hotel, with a kitchen and dining room.  Maybe a hundred yards from the center of town, we relaxed and enjoyed this place tremendously.  Almost stayed a third night.....the day we got there was Halloween and probably near 70 degrees.  We went for an hour boat ride through some of the islands.  the Dalmation coast is really a series of hundreds of offshore islands, and when the sun's shining it's spectacular. Though not on the Euro, we found it pretty affordable.  Went to a retaurant called Scuba in town, for my birthday.  We shared a seafood platter with shrimp (yeah the heads were on) mussels, the best grilled calimari ever, two different sauteed fish, and the coolest side dish ever.  Potatoes and kale cooked together, with a hint of REALLY GOOD olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.  (After all of the different cabbage preperations in Poland, Hungary and the Chezch Republic, we were ready for something like this!)

Spent the next day lazing around the town and planned on heading to Italy the next morning.........STORY INTERRUPTION:  The place we're staying tonite has a four month old longhair daschund puppy, which has turned my wife into some kind of puppy starved nut-----"she can stay here with us"..........

We decided that after Budapest, without GPS, that we'd not go to anymore big cities, as they're a pain in the butt to navigate.  (Donnas idea)  After we leave Croatia, there's about a six mile drive through Slovenia, where you have to purchase a medallion, for 15 Euros, that allows you to go through their little section of the world without getting stop sticked.  Having been stop sticked in Austria, we're going to play by the rules, so I stop about two miles from the italian border and go into a gas station and ask the attendant for one.  He says, "Where are you going?"  I say "Italy".  He says "it's fifteen Euros---thats the cheapest".  I look despaired.  He says "go the back way out of the station, go through the next two roundabouts, heading for Trieste, and you'll get back on the motorway on the other side of the border".  I say thanks and head off.  Six minutes later we're in Italy.  Great advice.

So we've decided not to go to anymore big cities, that is until we reach Trieste.  If you can imagine Palermo and Naples combined, you get the picture.  GPS or no GPS, it doesn't make any difference.  A bunch of hilly, winding one way roads, combined with the usual construction and it's hell.  Takes an hour to get out.  That's it.  My head is exploding.  Back to the motorway and we decide to stay in Vincenza, as it looks centrally located for day trip to Venice, Bologna, Parma, and a bunch of other cities in the region.  The TI isn't the best in the world and we end up looking for an apartment where we're supposed to meet the man in front of Pizzeria Mamma Mia.  Spent the next forty five minutes looking for the place only to find we've driven past it three times.  Smallest sign in the world.  The guy meets us, we go in,  and we use the excuse that it doesn't have a wireless connection to get out.  It's on the fourth floor and furnished with what we can assume are pieces of furniture that previous renters didn't want to take.  (Mamma Mia---this guys mother, will not win any awards for congenialty...

Drive to Verona, half an hour away, and are headed into town when we decide to check two hotels on the outskirts of town.  The first one says their full, and "the whole town is full for the festival this week".  What festival----the horse festival.  The hotel next to it does have a room and we grab it.  It's fine and the manager reccomends a pizzeria "above the pool, 300 meters away".   So we hit Tripadviser and see what they say.  Turns out some other people who stayed in this hotel have given the place great reviews.  You walk up a flight of stairs, and the wall of glass overlooking the pools surprises at first.  The pools are full---all three of them.  Olympic hopefuls in one.  Water aerobics in the next, and it must have been heart patients in the last.  The pizza was great!

Now we're in an apartment in Nogarolo di Tarzo, in the foothills of the Dolomites.  It's about a forty minute train ride to Venice which we'll visit tomorrow.  Got here around one and spent the afternoon in the DOC of Prosecco.  Bought a couple of bottles, went to the most amazing cheese shop, local producers only, bought some amazing cheeses and what can be described only as the best breadsticks in the world.  Then to a wood fired oven bakery for the kind of bread you've heard of and never found and won't.  Soup, bread and cheese for dinner and good books for desert.  no TV in this place, high in the hills, lots of fresh air, and of course, a puppy.

Budapest to Beautiful in 5 hours

Final day in Budapest we went to Szcentendre, (St. Andrews), which is just past St. Envelope according to Donna.  At least that was her translation........Neat little town, and had the best junk food ever!  Called langos, they're deep fried yeast bread things----piping hot with tons of different things you can add.  We chose to have ours plain, and it was incredible.  (had we not just had lunch----and now I know what chicken paprika should be) I'd have had five or six more.

Back to Budapest---20 minute train ride--- and we decided to go to a restaurant close by called Grappa.  We were there the day before for a glass of wine and someother people ordered a plate for two that looked incredible.  We figured that we'd make it our last good dinner in Budapest.  Donna ordered a salad and i ordered fish and chips.  Donnas iceburg lettuce with a slice of tomato and two olives, and my fish sticks and french fries (previously frozen)  sucked.  We had a good bottle of wine and that was it.

No more big cities for us.  From this point on, we're going to do small cities till we get back to Nice.  Big cities have a lot to offer, sights, history, museums, etc, but without a GPS, it's virtually impossible to find anything.  It takes us as long to find where we are trying to go as it does to get there.  While in Budapest, there was street construction beneath us, starting at seven in the morning, and a constant barrage of sirens and car alarms.  Not to mention the horns........

Got to the motorway about ten and were heading for Lake Bled and the Juhlian Alps.  Couple hours into we changed our minds and headed for Plitzvica lakes.  We were there about five or six years ago, and knew the hotel where we stayed then.  Found it, and took a room.  After about five minutes we changed our mind and "checked out".  Going back is often times not the same as the first time.  The first time we were there, after driving up from Dubrovnik, we would have stayed in a tent if they had a restaurant and a bar.  This time we went back and it wasn't the same..............it hadn't changed since the last time.   Dated.  (Turns out that this was the "park" hotel----run by the government for a long time, and one of the only places to stay)  We ended up about a mile away in a brand new hotel (five months) for the same price.  Marble floors, new beds, great shower, well worth the expense.

Did Plitzvica this morning.  This IS the most beautiful natural area in the world, that we've ever seen.  Donna's posting picture tomorrow and every one is from a different place.  Though they may look alike, not one of them is the same area.  You walk on boardwalks, directly over streams and waterfalls that are as clear as glass.  You can see the bottom form anywhere.  The fish can be seen everywhere.  Trees that have fallen in are preserved like petrified wood.  All the water is filtered through travertine, which it builds, through moss, and flows from the upper lakes through a series of falls that lowers about five hundred meters from the upper lakes to the lower.  It's very hard to describe this place.  I can't do it justice.  Renee sent me a card today that showed autumn------the pictures Donna took today are autumn.  We originally went on the two hour walking trail, which I didn't quite read right and we ended up on the six hour trail, which we managed to do in four hours.

Leaving there we messed up and took five hours to go about four hours worth of diving.  We are in Rovinj, on the Adriatic.  It's a three day weekend in Italy and this is where the Italians come for cheap vacations.  the hotel is large, and fully booked.  There must have been a thousand italians going through the buffet tonight, which makes for good people watching, but the wild children offset the fun.

The tussle

Got out of Vienna fairly easy.  Forgot to mention that  when we went the the schnitzel restaurant we were very lucky.  We got there around six and waited about ten minutes before getting a table by the door.  We were there an hour or so and during that time, about 20 groups were turned away.  "Reservations?"  "No."  Sorry, complete."   The reviews said that the waiters were rude and the wait was too long.  We were lucky!

Leaving Vienna was a piece of cake.  Emily helped us, but this time we really didn't need her to get us out of town.  We were on;y about a mile from the motorway.  Got on the motorway and Budapest was two hours and fifteen minutes away.  Cruised all the way to the Austrian border making good time.  Got to the border and were met with stop sticks.  Figured they were going to do another breathalyzer...........
Wrong................."License and registration."  Hand them over.  "Do you have an official Drive in Austria permit?"  "What?"  "An official drive in Austria permit you idiot."  "Nope"  "You have to have an official Drive in Austria permit."  Never heard of it or anything about it."  "There are signs at every border crossing."  "We came from Czech Republic."  "They have them also."  "Didn't see anything about that and we've been in Austria twice on this trip."  "Tough crap you ignorant tourist----it's gonna cost you 120 euros either on a credit card or in cash."  "W T F "  "Or you can go to jail."  Donna, agitated,  "Pay it on the Visa and we'll dispute the charge."  "I already gave him 120 euros."  "then hurry up and give him the card and get the cash back"  I did.  We'll dispute the card with a picture of our ten year old atlas that makes no reference to the Official drive in Austria permit, and I'm confident that Visa will see our side of the story..............

As soon as we got over the border, Emily took ill again.  Seems that Eastern Europe and her don't get along.  I doubt that she'll be able to join us again till we get to Italy, or some place that she knows.....
Our mapquest took us directly to the parking garage in Budapest, where I spent about fifteen minutes looking for our apartment........  As we had no Hungarian money, Donna had to sit in the car to make sure it wasn't towed.  A nice gentleman, (or a street bum) saw my troubles trying to put euros into the pay meter for a parking ticket.  He gave me about 200 Hrus ($1.00) to pay for parking in exhange for 4 euros ($5.00).  I was on cloud nine going back to the car to show Donna my kill............He could have charged me $10.00 and I would have given it to him.  Went to the internet cafe and got online, while Donna walked to the cash machine.  This duplicated my problems.  One.  Not knowing where the Apartment was.  And two.  Not knowing if Donna would find her way back.  Got part one taken care of and then stood on the street, for far too much time, looking in the direction Donna went.  A while later............................I see Donna crossing the street for a different direction that she set off in....................and I'm relieved.  Budapest is a big city and I can picture Donna saying "Do you know the internet cafe?"  So she comes back and has 5 twenty thousand Hru notes, each worth about a hundred bucks.  So I offer one to the girl at the internet cafe and she smiles and says, "I don't have change for that---------------next time."  We promise to return to pay her after we get some smaller cash.

Get to the apartment.  Wonderful.  Half a block form the Danube, with a view of the river and a bridge that crosses.  The cruise barges are parked on the river, about a hundred yards from our window.  The apartment is a studio, with a big kitchen, small eating area, large living room with a comfrtable murphy bed and a bathroom with a washing machine.  It's a block from the main pedestrian street, five minutes from the indoor market place and ten minutes from the original Eastern Bloc McDonalds and the center of town. Cost is $55.00 a day.  We don't understand why people would spend four times that to stay at a hotel, with out any amenities???????????  We have four times the space, washer, kitchen, and the only thing they have that we don't is room service.

Parked the car in the garage.............First stop was a pay lot in the back of the indoor market.  They wanted 400 hrus an hour to park there.  That worked out to $100 for two days...............ended up two blocks away in a garage that will cost $24 for the same time....Stopped back at the internet cafe and paid the girl, who seemed surprised, but happy.

Stopped for lunch at the For Sale Pub.  We both ordered soup.  Donna had the small serving of Goulash soup.  I had the full serving of Hungarian Bean soup.  Mine came in a tureen........had lunch and brought the rest home for dinner tonite.  We just finished and we had that with a couple of different breads, some cheese and smoked sausage.  Lunch and dinner today cost $18.00.

Went to the Jewish synagogue today, which is the second largest in the world.  Donna will post the pics on Facebook.  Spectacular is the description.  The ark has twenty three Torahs.  The synagouge holds three thousand, with the main floor for men holding 30 more seats than the upstairs.  The Holocaust Tree is something special.  NINETY percent of Hungarian Jews were exterminated or died of unreasonable conditions during the Nazi reign.... 

After that we went to the Heroes Square, where the monuments to the Magyars, who ruled the area way back when, are.  These are Giant monuments ot them, and the square is quite impressive, surrounded by the History museum and an art museum,.  Just past are the hot springs where you can go for a thermal dip.

We got on the train to return to town.  We're both standing and Donna's holding on to one of the high grab handles you hang onto when the train is moving.  Next stop, nurse cratchett gets on.  Donna moves aside, with out letting go of the handle and she passes under her arm, her hair touching Donnas arm...................She lets go with a rant and Donnas eyes go wide!  I take a look at Donna, then the woman, and start laughing.  (This strikes me as funny)  The woman is staring a hole through Donna and I'm cracking up.  First off.  The woman seems to be partially bald.  I know this.  Secondly, she seems to be a bit loony.  I know this too.  After one more stop we sit down on two empty seats, and I say to Donna, who's still a bit intrigued,  "Why did you tussle her hair like that?"
Donna says, "We're getting off at the stop after she does....................

Reading

If anybody is reading this, I'd sure like to know...............

Vienna

Emily came out of her coma as we crossed the border to Austria.  Got us to the door of the B&B in the time promised.  Donna is ecstatic to have her back.  Saves her taking out contacts repeatedly to look at the map, which is in small enough form that I need reading glasses.........The b&b is called "the beds" and is really nice.  Good room with brazil wood floors and a large bath.  Went into town this morning at 9:30--10 minutes by train.  Took the tram in the wrong direction to a beautiful park, where we reboarded and headed back to where we needed to go.  (Donna had wanted to ride the ring tram so I accomodated her by leading us in the wrong drection-----she loved it! :)  (Saved us $60 for the city bus tour.) Got to the Hapsburg palace about 10:30 and decided that we'd go it alone without the tour.  Well worth it.  Tons of silver and plates, gold and crystal in the first part.  The second part is Sisi's digs.  She apparently was the Dianna of her day, and it appears that her husband was a great leader.  Met with anybody of the Hapsburg empire at the castle.  It averaged about 100 meetings a day, and the people could talk with him about anything.  Though the locals were required to be dressed well, people from the othere regions he ruled were allowed to wear their ordinary clothes, as long as "they were clean".  Saw the royal apartments afterwards, then went to the Sacher hotel for some Sacher torte.  What an ambiance............  Strolled around for a few hours and went to the Opera house for a tour.  Both my brother and Charlene reccomended it and we're grateful.  It's an absolutely beautiful building ,with a great history and a huge modern day following.  They stage operas and ballets for ten months of the year, working five years in advance to schedule.  We could have spent 185 euros to sit in the good seats for tonites performance, or 4 euros for standing room only.

Vienna surprised me.  I was ready to skip it altogether, but am happily surprised by the city.  It's buildngs rival Berlins, but are much more approachable.  there are a few pedestrian walking streets, that go for a mile or so in a couple of directions, and the locals use them constantly.  To and from work, meeting for lunch, or just shopping.   The transportation system, subways, trams and busses seem to go everywhere, and are heavily used.  The lack of cars in the core is cool.

Went to dinner at Figlmuller.  This place is known for "Schnitzel that covers the plate".  Even though the plates are only about 10 inches, the schnitzels are at least 12 in diameter.  thin as you can imagine, they have there own mill that grinds their grain for the coating.  Donnas struggled to have half of hers, and needless to say, I didn't.  Squeezed fresh lemon on it and though it actually took me an effort, I managed to get it done.  Our side of potato salad made me ask for the recipe, which our waiter gladly gave me.  With some practice, I'll be able to replicate it.  Donna said it was the best ever, and I concur.  Back to the subway for the ten minutes home and it was a perfect day. 

Watching a game on Eurosport that is pretty much soccer, played on a basketball court, that involves throwing a ball into a net, protected by a goalie.  Think the movie "Dodgeball" with rules........... they call it handball.    Snooker is on next, followed by this week in soccer and probably another obscure sport that Donna won't like.  Tomorrow we leave for Budapest.  The weather today was cool and breezy, and tomorrow when we hit Budapest is supposed to be cool, but getting nicer as the week goes on.

The DUI

Some notes that came as we drove to Vienna.  Rainy, cold and foggy, but made decent time.

Got stopped the other day for no reason----somebody coming the other direction on a detour flashed their lights and I was going plenty slow.  The STOP STICK came out and I was waved over.  Lovely woman officers says, "Documents please."  Hand her my liscense and the car registration.  "Passport please."  Hand her my passport.  "Have you been drinking?"  It's nine thirty in the morning!  Would you take a test?  She's got this huge smile on her face, and I say, of course.  I blow into the machine, and score a 0.0.  She says "good----here's a souvenier for your vacation, you may go...............

One of the things I find really interesting is the number of school age children visiting the musuems, castles, and historical sights.  Field trips seem to be a forgotten art in our country, unless they're going to see a sheep get sheared or the zoo.  We're missing the boat.......

There have been a ton of asian tourists here.  Mostly Japanese in packs.  Obviously enjoying the sights and fun to watch.

Prices in Austria make the Chezk Republic seem like Wal-mart.

Transportation in Vienna is incredible.

Motorways rule.

Donna and my dinner last night was about $40.  that included mucho pivo and wine, drinks for the band and two dinners----------Donnas would have been enough for the four people at our table.  Apparently they cook a bunch of food at the start of the week, that will keep, and serve it the rest of the week.  By Sunday, they cross off everthing they're out of and load you up on the stuff they're trying to finish off................

chezh republic revisited

Left Prague Friday morning with freezing fog and cold weather.  Prague was more crowded in October than in June last time we visited.  Leaving Prague, which is a great city, easy to visit and just beautiful, is extremely difficult without Emily.  Street signs are most anywhere you can imagine, normally on the sides of buildings at intersections, but sometimes, not. So you really have to be alert at all times, lest you miss a turn.  Luckily, we ended up going the right way, which was a blessing in disguise.  (Last time we left here, we circled the city for about an hour, before we got back to where we started and got out.)  There's a light on the dashboard that flashes if the tempreature gets below 36, and it was on most of the morning.  The sun came out in places, and you could see in the shadowed area the frost was pretty thick.  Thr\e road was fine, and damn the fog, they're going to get there.  Driving here is not as bad as Poland, but you have to be aware.  Steam rose from the fields we passed as the sun hit it.  Almost surreal looking.  Took about three hours to get to Cseky Krumlov, which is a Unesco sight, and very easy to see why.  This place has more charm and appeal than most anyplace we've been.  The hotel is in a pedestrian only area, one of the few times I was able to actually drive into and not feel like an ass.  Dropped our bags and parked the car in the local car park, about a half mile away.  Our room looks at the river and over one of three bridges in the town.  locals were fishing in the river this afternoon, and I went down to watch.  Sunny and cold, which to us is much better than sunny and hot.  Much easier to warm up.  Our hostess at the hotel reccomended a place not 25 yards from here to eat.  "Local Czeck food".  Na louzi.  Went there for lunch after we arrived and it was incredible.  Kind of a share the table and enjoy the food place that held about thirty people at one time.  The czecks have a way of doing cabbage, as I've said before that we've never had.  Spent the rest of the day wandering around and seeing the sights.  Dinner at a place across the street, which was good food, but not like Na louzi.  This morning we got up and had a wonderful breakfast, before coming back to the room and looking for a place in Budapest, which we'll hit next week.  Went to the castle which is one of the reasons this is a Unesco sight.  Took a tour through the castle and then another through the theater.  The theater is one of two Baroque theaters in the world that is in original condition.  Most of the others burned (as they were lit by candles) or were rebuilt (such as Versaille).
In this theater, though the stage is only 15 meters long, it appears much longer, I guessed it was closer to 40 meters.  the optical illusion created by the sides and backdrops are amazing.  Went under the stage-----mind you this theater was built in the 1600's, where they could change scenery in about fifteen seconds.  Amazing.  Worth looking up online to see how it's done.  They put on about four or five perfomances a year in order ot maintain the integrity of the place.  Had a glog on the deck of a restaraunt next to the river and went back to Na louzi for dinner.  Tonight was music night and we felt as if we were in a Rick Steves show.  Turns out that this is his highest rated restaraunt in the city, which we had no idea of.  We thought we'd discovered the place and would go down in history as the first Americans to mention the place.  Day late and dollar short...............Tomorrow we head to Vienna.

Westward

Final morning in Krakow was again, just beautiful.  Our destination in the morning had me wondering what to expect, and it wasn't a feeling I cared for.  We were heading to Auschwitz.  I can't really explain my aprehensiveness in visiting.  Just a gut thing that i wasn't sure how I'd feel being there.  When we arrived, the only way to visit was an English tour, which actually helped.   Our guide was well spoken and served the information in as low key a way as possible.  The horrors of the place are obvious, the history ominous.  The tour at Auschwitz, with the narration is riveting.  I choose not to go into the details, except for one.  The doctor at the platform, shown in a picture, with a shadow, when the trains arrived, and you can see the shadow of his thumb------this way, you live for a short time,  that way, you die.  Berkinau was ten time the size of Auschwitz and more people were put to death there than Auschwitz.  Ninety thousand people in about six acres, in appalling conditions.  I swallowed tears a few times.

From there we started on our way to Prague.  The trees are really starting to turn after the cold weather started, and the colors are beautiful,  The farmers are fininshing the harvest, taking in the last of the hay and the corn.  Tractors are all over the road.  One thing we both noticed is that we pass at least one serious accident a day here in Poland.  We planned on staying one night on the road and that almost came to fruition. On our way to Klodsko, just about fifteen minutes out, a truck jacknifed and blocked the highway.  So close, yet so far away.............The guy behind us walked up and came back.  Donna insisted that i ask if he spoke English, which he did.  "Follow me" and we set off on back road that we would never have dreamed of.  The guy was an AMAZING driver, one of the best I've ever followed.  It was, as I mentioned earlier, like being in a rally car.  I was having the time of my life following this guy, though farmland, forests, and hills.  Down gullys and through intersections that weren't there.  What fun!
Got to the main road, he turned ahead of a truck, and we lost him.  Would have bought his dinner, but are pretty sure he just wanted to get home to his family.  Will pay it forward when the oppotunity presents itself........

Got to Klodsko, which they call the Prague of Poland.  Rain came and we made a circle of the town looking for a hotel.  I found one and was heading back to it when Donna spotted another.  A couple of illegal turns and we ended up and Casa d'oro hotel.  Room avialable for sixty bucks including breakfast.  Great room on the top floor, with a view of the old town, which was amazing.  The rain made everything shine.  It was lovely.  Went to the restaraunt and had the dinner special.  The starter, mushroom soup, was the best!  I will work on that recipe when we get back. We both were amazed.  Dinner was pork roast with "mashed" potatoes, and three kinds of "salad".  Two kinds of cabbage, both cooked and one kind of slaw that we've had in numerous places, and will try to replicate at home.
Total for everything, including drinks, wine, and grappa was less than thirty bucks.....

Arrived in Prague around noon yesterday, got to the hotel around 1:30.  Not the easiest place to find without a GPS.  Only drove down one pedestrian only street, though it seemed like many more.  The only good thing that came out of it was when I was in the middle of the pedestrian square, I was able too spot the Marriott.  We decided that after eleven years of keeping my Marriott points I had accumulated when I was working, by staying at a marriott one night a year, that this would be as good a place as any to finally use them up.  (I stlll have enoough left for one night in Paduchah Kentucky or some place like it.)  We actually decided on here versus Vienna, cause the parking at the hotel here is a third of Vienna.........great reasoning!  Prague is charming.  Last time we were here, we spent too much time with our friend Gordy, an ex-pat that lives here.  We didn't touch base with him this time so we could have the days for ourselves.  our location is great, about a quarter mile from the main square, an easy walk.  Lunch today was amazing, mixed grill with pork chop, belly, "neck" and sausage, with two kinds of cooked cabbage.  I've got to figure out a way to make cabbage this well.  Spent numerous stops at sidewalk cafes for coffee.  Heaters, fireplaces, and screen against the wind make it wonderful.  Sat directly under the astronomical clock at one, about 18 inches above the tourists on the square and had the most wonderful views of it.  Donna has posted the picture on her facebook page, and if you haven't signed to be her friend, you definitely should.  tommorrow we're heading for Cesky Krumlov for a coule of nights and then to Vienna........an unplanned visit.  From there, Budapest for four nights, the Julian Alps for a few, Lake Pevitza, and then towards Italy, via Slovenia and possibly Croatia.

Krakow 2

Woke again to sunny skies and cool temperatures.  Our plan for the day was to just truck around this city and look for gems we hadn't seen yet.  We found them.  They're filming two movies, one on the next street that we watched for a while after dinner last night, where they lit the street to look like daylight, and another we saw today, being filmed by an Indian production company.   Bollywood goes Polish?  Lot's of guys dressed up in white and black camos holding rifles.............
Did the Jewish quarter today once again and found the most beautiful temple weve ever seen.  Glass that glowed, gilt that shined, and of course, two brats running wild.  It was spectacular.  Glad we went back as it more than made up for my initial dissapointment.  Afterward we went to Wavel Castle, and spent four hours there.  Went through two areas, the Treasuery and state apartments where we didn't need a guide.  Had an hour to kill before our guided tour of the Royal apartments, so had a coffee and soaked up the sun---must have been 60 degrees.  Went to the tour and our guide, Anna, was incredible!  Knew every bit of the history and made the hour one of the most enjoyable we have ever spent on a tour.  We'd both reccomend this place, the people are great, friendly and warm.  What a city!

Tomorrow we 're heading out at 9:00am and going to Auschwitz, which I have very mixed feelings about, but realize that we must go.  Never forget.  Afterwards we're heading to the Czech border, in a mountainous area where we'll spend the night before going to Prague on Thursday.

Donna shared a poem with me today for the New Yorker that was here in the apartment, which made me think...........  by W.S. Merwin

            Turning

going too fast for myself I missed
more than I think I can remember

almost everything it seems sometimes
and yet there are chances that come back

that I did not notice when they stood
where I could have reached out and touched them

this morning the black shepherd dog
still young looking and saying

Are you ready this time

Krakow

Really cold this morning---about twenty five degrees when we got up, but since it was sunny, it didn't feel quite as bad.  Went for a walk through the market square and headed out for the salt mine.  By the time we got there, it was beautiful and about 55 degrees.  We decided to miss the weather and go underground on a tour.  To start the tour you walk down stairs for about 150 feet.  If you look down between the stairs that spiral, you get a lump in your throat.  It takes about fifteen minutes too get down tha far.  Donna joked that this might be the end of the tour.  But then you walk for about utwo miles through a series of mineshafts that have been in operation since the fourteen hundreds.  The walls and ceilings are supported by timbers, which as a result of all the salt in the air don't decompose over time.  Some of the actual logs from the 13th century are still there.  Pretty amazing.  There's lots of figures sculpeted out of salt, and huge cavernous rooms.  There's a cathedral, actually two, and a huge dining room tha looked like you could have at least a thousand for dinner.  At the end, they walk you through the gift shop, and tell you how to go towards the elevator that will take you to the top.  But not until you go through the restaurant, snack bar, and two other gift shops where they have quite the selection of over priced salt.  From there, you have to wait till a guide leads you to the elevator----a very loose term.  It's actually a miners elevator, which takes some getting used to.  It's pretty much a steel box with ventilation holes all through it that rises like a bat out of hell.  When the counterbalance goes by you like a runaway truck you swallow hard.

Back home and into town for dinner.  We hit the Aregentinian steakhouse, which actually imports beef from Argentina....Go Figure...We decide to share the mixed steak plate which the waiter says probably won't be quite enough..............brought the leftovers home and we'll be finishing them tomorrow nite.  Tonight we're just goung to read books and take a break, tomorrow we spend the day wandering around and hitting Wawel Castle.

Krakow

Wow-----woke up to sunshine and 30 degrees today.........sky completely blue.  Got off to a latish start and left the house at 10:00.  Walked into the market square, which is about a five minute walk from our place, and picked up a bagel for 50 cents that we shared.  Bagels here aren't like the ones we get at home.  They're larger in diameter and skinnier than we're used to.  My brother would be in hog heaven...........  There was some music playing in the square, a small jazz band that sounded wonderful.  It seemed that everybody from here and the outlying areas came to town today to enjoy the sunshine.  It was absolutely gorgeous when you were in it and quite a bit cooler when you weren't.  Walked around for most of the morning, and headed to the old Jewish quarter, which to be honest wasn't what I was expecting.  Had lunch in a jewish restaurant, matzoh ball soup, and what they called perogis, which were actually more like a knish-------but different than what i learned to make from my mom.  Went to a market there but, not quite what we're expecting.  Lot' of clothes but no food.............dissapointing compared to other European markets we've been to.  We like to pick up things to eat and take them back to reheat and enjoy.  Not today.

So we head back to the market square, and donna spies a food shop that looks suspect to me.  When you see a guard inside a food shop, you expect the prices to match that fact...........in fact, it's really reasonable, and we pick up a jar of zurek soup mix, which is actually a sour soup, that we've both had and really liked.  The girl in the store, called Kradowski Kredens, says that it goes really well with a kielbasa, that looks a lot like a veal bockwurst, so we go ahead and grab a couple to take back and cook.  We also pick up some dried sausages, the like of which you've never tasted.  The crispy casing and the great tooth of the meat is amazing  The total cost works out to be around eight dollars.  On the way back we stop and pick up a bottle of Tokai wine from hungary, amazing for 8 dollars, and some desert---------they have the best cheescake in the world here.  Donna's cooking as I write this so goodbye for now........

Warsaw to Krakow

After getting over the horrendous drive into the town, we ended up with a wonderful feeling for the place.  We stayed about two blocks off the main street, where the presidential palace and the university of warsaw are.  The lower half of the street is primarily shops and restaraunts, while the upper half consists of many palaces, many of which compose the university.  They do know how to build palaces.  Further up this road leads into a huge pedestrian square, with the old town portion of the city.  There's another square just there, filled with pigeons, which people acutually feed???  Our friend Lonnie calls them"flying rats"...........Further up, and you have to understand that further up with Donna can become an infantry training march, you get to the new town.
 It's really difficult to imagine this city is even here today.  We went to the Warsaw Uprising museum and spent most of the morning learning about the destruction of this city when the Nazis retreated.  As they did, they were issued orders to level the town, which they did.  So everything you see in our pictures has been rebuilt from rubble since the war.  It's quite remarkable.  Before the war, there were 1.3 million people living here---afterwards, 900,000.  Saw a portion of the ghetto wall afterwards and made another trip up to the old town.  My feet are-----never mind.
 Went to dinner at an Indian restaurant just down from our place.  Somebody posted on trip advisor that " this was the best restaurant ever!"  We imagine that he still works there.........as my cousin says, "not so much".

We leave the next morning for Krakow, about 200 miles away, with an estimated driving time of five hours.  Heading out of Warsaw, we're on this brand new motorway, doing 80, and I'm thinking they are so wrong,  we'll be there in a couple of hours.  Of course, they're right............We see two accidents where it's obvious that a car passing has had to go off the road-----on the other side, to avoid a head on.  I used to think the Spanish drivers the worst, but I have changed my mind.  the only stress that ever exists for us on these trips is driving into a large city.  Trying to read road signs in foreign languages has it's difficulties.  Donna is an incredible navigator----reminds me of the rally car races they show on tv over here....they're doing a hundred miles per hour on a logging road and the navigator in the passenger seat is saying "straight--fast, slow right--straight fast---hard left".  Arrive at the apartment building, but not sure that its the right one cause Donna's pretty sure it looks at the town square.  So off we go, get stuck in a dead end in the middle of the old town, which i have to back out of and end up at the same place we found originally.  Here, you can't judge a book by its cover.  Looking at this building you wouldn't want to go through into the courtyard.  Need paint, general clean-up.  Up three flights of bare wood stairs that haven't been redone in forty years, and into the most gorgeous apartment we've ever stayed in.  In our B&B in Warsaw, the room lacked heat----actually it didn't lack heat----it didn't have any.  Donna was able to cure her shin splints by pressing her leg against the wall during the night.  Here,we have heated marble floors in the bathroom.......for the same price...this morning we start to see krakow.

Gdansk to Warsaw

Donna writing, not David, as the camera ran out of batteries so I cannot load pics and comments on facebook.  After a few great days in surprising Gdansk we head for Warsaw, about 200 miles.  The roads in Poland are two lane roads which parallel super highways under construction.  In a year or two travel will be much easier, though perhaps not as interesting.  Our two lane road takes us through many villages and beautiful farmland.  When in Gdansk, I noticed that all the flower stalls seemed to be displaying funeral arrangements.  As we travel towards Warsaw, I understand why.  Every cemetary is filled with flowers.  It is absolutely amazing.  This time of year the skies are grey, but these numerous cemetaries - Poland has a kind of tragic, relatively recent, past - are brilliant with color.  I wish we had been able to stop for pictures, but on these roads, one does not stop for photo ops.  Because Warsaw is only 200 miles from Gdansk, we figure four hours max, we decide ato detour to Torun, highly recommended in the guide books and by the folk in Dansk.  We figure it might add 90 minutes or so to our trip.  We reach Torun with ease, but  the trip into the town center takes forever.  We wander around, see a statue of Copernicus and lots of school kiddies on field trips, eat a Kabob, Europes's cheapesst fast food, and hear back to Warsaw. The skies turn black and we find outselves in a three hour down pour following huge trucks and tailgated by small cars passing on curves, over double yellow lines, etc.. apparently oblivious to the dangers of head on collisions.  Six or seven hours after leaving Gdansk, we finally reach the outskirts of Warsaw.  The GPS does not work in Eastern Europe so we are relying on a road atlas with microscopic print nad no magnifying glass.  We have downloaded directions to our hotel on Mapquest, but after missing the first turn, these directions are useless.  We drive through rush hours traffic, Easstern European style, for abouttwo hours.  We have no phone, no GPS and it is too dark to read the map even if I could see.  David finally parks on the sidewak in front of a Sofhotel and gets directions from the concierge.  We are only two mintues from our destination.  Unfortuanately, a cop will not let us go through the roundabout, so we have to go over the bridge, into another part of Warsaw and 40 minuteslater we find our hotel. The people are nice, there is an elevator and we find parking.

Warsaw:  An amazing city.  After the devastation of WWII, the old part of the city has been meticulously reconstructed and is now a UNESCO world site.  We wander for hours, have lunch - the soups here are insanely good - wander some more.  Go to the roof of the university library, a green building with a park on its roof - then back to the hotel.  Our room has no heat so we go to a local wine bar and read and  people watch.  More soup, then back to the hotel.  We stop at a local store and I decide I want to try a flavored Vodka, which Ihave read is a Polish specialty.  I don't know what to ask for, the lady behind the country decides for me.  I get a small bottle  of purple vodka - David thinks it tastes like cough syrup.  I kind of like it.  We'll see how I feel in the morning  Will post pics. of this city on Facebook.

If you think traffic is bad in your neck of the woods............

Left Gdansk at 9:00 for a 200 mile drive to Warsaw.  Google said it would take about 5 hours, as the new motorway isn't open yet.  (They're working on it though!)  They're getting a load of EU funding to develop infrastructure---you see the signs everywhere.  So, the old roads are two lanes, and move along pretty well. Unless they happen to be building a a motorway the side of the two lane road you're driving on.  The grooves in the old road pretty much keep your tires in line, but if you venture out of them, it's like hitting wake turbulence from a 747.  It moves you around---quickly.  the driving here in Poland really reminds me of driving in Spain.  Signs and lines are there only for decoration.  Double yellow---no problem.  The car coming the other way will swerve in time.........Stopped in Torun for a quick bite.  It was an hour and a half out of the way, but supposed to be cool.  It seemed ok, but i don't think we'd stop there again.  Left there, and headed for Warsaw.  (For those of you on the know, Emily has been quite sick since we left Germany, and isn't functioning in Eastern Europe at all.)

And as it turns out, my rain allergies are starting again.  Poured today---heavy, heavy rain.  As we're driving into Warsaw.  Now Warsaw has no city bypass----you go through the city, and since we hit it at 5:00 pm sharp, it was miserable.  Took us two hours to find the hotel, without a city map.  Stopped into the Sofitel, and the concierge was kind enough to show me on a map that we were only about four blocks away.  I'm taking her a box of candy tomorrow.....................

Hotel room is huge and really nice, (though Donna suggests that the original artwork on the wall leaves you with a creepy feeling that someone is watching..........)  Check out the pictures on her facebook sight :)

G'day Gdansk

Thanks to Valli, I got to watch the last quarter of the Seahawks game with Betty last night, just like a normal away game.  Skype is a great thing!  Julia Child isn't quite sure what to make of it, but it's fun to see her......we're both missing her.

As we drove into Gdansk yesterday, we came through Gydinia, which seemed about 10 miles long as we drove through it.  Pretty high density housing, and I'm wondering what all these people do for a living?  My answer came today.  We took a cruise (on a pirate ship) with an English speaking guide.  The history of this city is amazing-----the size of the harbor is immense.  Thousands of cranes as far as you can see, building ships or repairing them.  When I say ships----I mean SHIPS.  the largest one we saw was an oil tanker, over a thousand feet long.  As it was empty, it sat probably twenty stories above the water.  Huge ferries, freighters, and even sailboats.  As the guide said, if you want a cheap ship, go to China.  if you want the best, come here.  It certainly brings light to what the Solidarity movement was about.  There's not a lot else to do here than work in that industry, and most of the jobs now are good paying respectable jobs thanks to Lech Walensa.

The old town has incredible charm.  the architecture is spectacular.  Amber shops are everywhere.  The main church is the seventh largest in th world and completely made of brick.  The gates of the old walls lead to a walkway along the water filled with charming restaraunts.  We went to the main square for lunch.   Donna had a "polish dumpling with Chicken and Mushroom".  Imagine a kninish filled with chicken and mushrooms in a bechamel sauce and you have it.    I had bigos with potatoes, which was described as sour cabbage with meat and sausage.  Both were incredible.  Can't wait to try them when we get back.  We're cooking in tonite--tenderloin smothered in mushrooms.  We bought the mushrooms on the way here---one pound of golden chantrelles for five bucks.  We'll eat well tonite.  Tomorrow we're going to see a couple of museums that were closed today (monday) and drive out to another town called Sopot, which is reported to be a resort town.  While we don't have exactly resort weather, we're anxious to see it.

We both would reccomend this city to anyone that will be near it.  It is a pain in the ass to get to, but well worth the experience.

Bye Bye Berlin

Saturday night we go for a bus tour (route 100 which is supposed to go around all the major attractions).  We board the bus about 6 pm and at exactly 6:01 pm nature lets all hell loose in the form of thunderstorms.  The windows on the bus fog up in seconds and we're stuck for the next 30 minutes on a bus that we can't see a thing from.  Then we get to the end of the route----last stop----please leave the bus---(and go out to the rain and drown).  We reboard around the corner heading back to where we started, on a bus that has foggier windows than the one we left.  Lesson learned,  We get off on Potsdamer place and start walking back towards Checkpoint Charlie, towards our hotel.  We're heading to a Chinese restaraunt that has really good reviews, and prices to match.  So we cross the street and go to an Irish pub.  The waiter is Scottish, went to U of Glasgow, a tour guide in Berlin and a parttime bartender.  Decent food---filling---but nothing to write home about.

Back to the hotel, where I notice that the instant coffee in the room hasn't been replaced.  So I call the front desk and ask if I could come down and get some............"that's a welcome gift and we don't re place that".   OK...............I go down to the front desk with the two teabags they have left us and suggest that I don't want these "welcome gifts" and really want to change them into coffee.  I can see the woman who suggested that they don't replace them cringing, as the other woman grabs me coffees as quick as she can.............Thank you.

Leave the hotel @8:30 today heading for Poland.  Emily's having a bad day and decides to take us to Gdansk, via Denmark.  After making a couple of adjustments to her attitude, she decides that instead of eleven hours to gdansk, it's going to be forty two.  Apparently Emily doesn't speak or understand Polish...........So we finally get on the right road, and head northeast to Poland, glad that we still have an actual map that we both know how to read.  Being dependent on a GPS can prove a problem.  Autobahn to the north, and then we hit the roads in Poland.  Just before the border is a stretch of German roads that compare to some of the worst I've ever been on.  More bumps and potholes than you can imagine for aobut a five mile stretch.  Hit the border and gas up.  At the stop area we are bombarded with many men trying to sell us chainsaws, of all the wierd things you might want to buy at a service station.  Let's see....".I'll have a chocolate bar, a bottle of water, a coissant, a sandwich, and yeah,  throw in that chainsaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Been thinking about that since I last got gas.  Do you have any with the 20 inch blade?"

The countryside is beautiful.  Fertile fields, gorgeous brown fields that look like you could grow anything in them.  Fields of potatoes, corn, and cattle.  Not at all what we were expecting, but so calm.  The roads weren't anything to write home about, most highways in the states are so much better, but you drive through all these small towns, where you have to slow down to 35 mph, and really get to see life there.  Old communist high rises, with the occasional smattering of new.  Abandoned buildings, and down the road, new distribution centers, amazing contrasts.  This is what we love.

I remember when I was a kid, Sunday morning would come around and my dad would say "who wants to go for a ride?"  One time, we took off from Anaheim, Ca, drove to Death Valley, through Death Valley, over to Bakersfield, via Borax, and we're home in time for dinner.  I'm sure i get my love of touring from him.  It's in my blood.

Get to Gdansk at 4pm.  Find the hotel easily, just inside the walls of the old town.  Forty four steps to our room on the third floor (really the fourth).  The apartment is spacious, large kitchen, huge living room/bedroom, and great foyer.  Anna, the owner is gracious, reccomends a restaraunt that is "more price friendly than most" and we head there for dinner.  Smoked fish, onion soup, borscht, steak tartare, bottle of wine and two drinks, for sixty bucks.   Gdank is surprising.......in the dark, more beautiful than you can imagine.  All the spy novels I've read have me ready to enter a dark city, with a seedy soul.  That is not this Gdansk....one of the most surprising cities we've ever visited.  Glad we changed our minds and came here.

Heading North

Thursday morning we picked up the car.  We always try to guess the color on the way, Donna, silver, me, blue---happy to find out it's a black metal flake special production.  Full glass roof, color coordinated seats and seatbelts.  I love Peugeots.  We also took time to pick up our friend Emily, who doesn't talk much, unless asked, and then sparingly.  She's so small you barely know she's there, and she DOESN'T read every road sign on the side of the highway. :)  The first thing she does is take an hour to get out of Nice..........We drive to Menton, stop at the Intermarche and grab some snacks and fuel up for the drive.  Dark, bright, dark, bright, dark, bright.........the tunnels along the coast last for about 50 miles, seems like hundreds, but the views between them are spectacular.  The greenhouses,on the cliffs going down to the sea, just across the Italian border, number in the thousands, most of the worlds flowers are grown here, in perfect conditions.  We head northeast through the farmlands, where they're gathering the hay for the winter.  Thousands and thousands of huge round plastice covered bales are everywhere.  We're going out of our way an hour or two to go back to a place we stayed near Brenner Pass a number of years ago.  Finally find it and it's not what we remembered or expecting.   It's a bit longer in the tooth.  So we head up the road towards Brenner and Donna finds a place that is twice as nice for the same cost.  The restaraunt is incredible, and the breakfast buffet is large enough for us to skip lunch. 

Out the next morning in some pretty good rain.  As we gain elevation, the rain becomes snow, but thankfully the roads are fine.  Brenner Pass is the lowest pass from the south of Europe to the north, and consequently, has the most truck traffic anywhere in Europe, which slows things down quite a bit.  We come out of the rain and snow in Innsbruk, then drive back into thunderstorms and downpours through the rest of Austria.  When we hit the German border, things clear up and we're able to make up the time lost.  At one point, I'm cruising at 100, and a car passes me so fast-----on a straight road--like Kansas---that it's out of sight in less than 20 seconds.  You just try to stay out of their way.  About an hour south of Berlin we start passing the hops fields, which go forever in every direction.  Emily guides us directly ot the hotel, which is in the old east Berlin side.  To say there is a striking difference would not do justice.  The west side looks prosporus and well kept, the east side looks like it's just starting to develop.  Empty lots, communist era building that are barely standing, vacant fields, and abandoned playgrounds are everywhere.  (Donna's facebook page has many more of the pictures than I can post here---you should take a look.)

Meet up with one of Donnas ex-students, Julia Benzinger, who is an opera singer, with the Berlin Opera.  To say that doesn't do her justice though as she has sung in opera halls throughout Europe.  Today she had to go to Poland for a production there next Saturday.  She gives us a list of things to do and see thata we otherwise would have missed.  We're a bit off the beaten tourist route and see alot of what others might miss.  Make sure you check out the pics of the chocolate store---pretty incredible.

Berlin is flat---the only hills here are where they mounded the rubble after the war.  Big boulevards, and even bigger buildings.  I've never been in a city with so many massive building footprints.  They're not particularly tall-----but they take up a chunk of real estate.  Start the morning with a five minute walk to checkpoint charlie, visit the wall museum, the Holocaust monument, Brandenburg Gate, and we haven't even made it to lunch time......Spend the rest of today walking around, with nothing in particular in mind.....................................the weather is cooler here, which suits us fine.

Tomorrow we head to Poland, starting in Gdansk, with no preconcieved ideas of what we'll find.

Nice for a day

Ajouter une légende

Woke up to hazy skies, walked a block to save 15 euros on breakfast.  The instant coffe in the room ain't bad, but the coffee in the square has quite a jolt to it.  Tried to get the phones cranked up but were told the roaming fees outside of France were prohibitive....so we're going with the skype feature.  Will be checking e-mails all along if you need us to call.  Walked towards the harbor, and went up to the old chateau on the hill, first place here.  Looked like a great place to take kids Eric and Char---nice big playground.  From there just walking around the old town, flower market, food market, etc.  Made resrevations for when we return, at a restaraunt that TripAdvisor rates the third best in Nice.  Called Chez Palmyre, it apparently needs to be booked well in advance, so we booked it for the 21st and the 23rd of Nov.  We're going to be staying about a block form there a the end of the trip.  Today we pick up the car and head to Brenner Pass in the Alps, via Italy, where we'll spend the night.

Nice (place to be)

Arrived to sunny warm weather after four hours in the business class lounge in Frankfurt.  Got there in time for the breakfast rush, which was pretty amazing.........croissants, cereal, fruit,coffee, ham, cheese, etc.  Then, three hours later, at 11:00 am sharp, the pretzels and frankfurters came out.  It was like a pack of dogs being thrown a leg of a cow!  The pretzels are the big ones we pay too much for at a spoting event or a fair, and the hot dogs come out at record pace.  And they were consumed the same way!

Got to the hotel at 3:15, checked in and took a two hour nap.  Took off for a walk towards the water which is about four blocks away.  The way the sound of an accordian player, echoing off the walls of the main pedestrian area is only a sound that can be heard here.  It's amazing.   Grab a bite to eat and by 8:00 all of the tall, lanky Africans, in their native costumes have set up for the night, trying to encourage you to buy authentic hand carved artifacts, or knock off purses, or cigarette lighters that actually look more like flamethrowers......with 2 hours of sleep in the last twenty three, good night.

A good start

Usually when you start a trip, and get to the airport counter to find out  your flight is delayed and the connection will be missed, it's not good news.  In our case today it turned out just fine.  They rebooked on a Lufthansa nonstop straignt to Frankfurt, and we were denied the joy of going thru Chicago.  Works out that we'll arrive in Nice at 2:00 this afternoon (Tuesday here) instead of 6:30 tonite.  So, we're ahead of schedule, which is a good thing.  Especially when compared to the alternative...........

Iam not sure what dreadful alternative David is referring to, but it is very nice being on the other side of the ocean after 10 hours from Seattle instead of the normal 14 or 15 it takes us when using free tickets.  We do have a layover of three hours in the Frankfurt airport, but it is not bad.  We are in the Lufthansa lounge and I am knitting, reading, drinking, eating and aware that in this overcrowded lounge, with very few vacant seats, men outnumber woman about 100 to one.  People working on computers outnumber those of us reading, knitting, drinking, eating about 50 to one.  It seems like ages since I was walking the dog in a  muddy park and trying to get her bathed and fluffed up so my mother would find her easier to cuddle.  One of the things I like best about travel is how it stretches out time.

Thanks to Vatlli for the ride today!

The prep

With four days to go the time is coming at us way to fast.  Originally we were scheduled for the 23rd of October, but after checking seat inventory we were able to advance it three weeks.  Hopefully that will keep us ahead of the snow in the alps.

Donna has put together a wonderful wardrobe with the help of Valli and Jamie....from Value Village and Goodwill.  I haven't even thought about what I'm taking, but I probably  should before the Seahawks game on Sunday:)