In our last post Carrie and I mentioned that we would be flying back to the US via London. We planned to spend four nights in Paris, and then three nights in London. We wanted to wind down and relax in two of our favorite cities. Well things certainly changed!

We planned to use our 60 day Eurail pass (which expired 10/30) to get us to London, where we could rest up for the last few days of our trip before our flight. That was a good plan, until we learned that we couldn’t get tickets for the Eurostar train out of Paris through our Eurail app. All the online ticketing sites told us the trains were either full or we’d have to pay about $500 extra (outside our passes), or go to a Eurostar ticketing agent (in Paris!) to figure things out. So we had to wait until we arrived in Paris, and hoped we could get reasonably priced tickets from the Eurostar agent at the rail station.

As soon as we got to Paris we walked to the Gare du Nord train station, which happened to be close to our hotel. The Eurostar agent looked at our Eurail passes, noting that they expired on 10/30, but somehow booked us seats on the train for 10/31, one day after our passes expired, all for about $75! In Business Class! We quickly cancelled our London hotel plans and extended our stay in Paris. We were thrilled to get seats on the train, although that meant we’d have to catch the train at 7:00AM on Tuesday morning, arrive in London about 9:30, and immediately take the Underground from the train station to London Heathrow Airport to catch our 1:30PM flight to the US. So, on the day we tried to board the Eurostar to London, the gate agents didn’t like the fact that our Eurail passes had expired, and yet we had a boarding pass for the train. After a few minutes, the gate agent just shrugged, and let us board. Whew!

Spending the whole week in Paris turned out to be just the right amount of time. We found all kinds of fun things to do and see, and we sampled as many bistros and brasseries as we could find. It was a great way to finish out our trip. We tried to do some off the beaten path sight seeing we didn’t get a chance to do in past visits to Paris. One of those things was searching out some of the old passageways that still exist. These are covered alleyways where Parisians shopped and dined in the great French restaurants for many years. The idea of the passageway is kind of like a version of our modern shopping malls, although there is so much more charm, color and architectural interest here.

When we think of Paris we always imagine the Belle Epoque, the golden age that Paris and much of Europe experienced between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. We also think of the great expansion of art here, especially with the Impressionists. We visited the Musee D’Orsay, which just happened to have a special new exhibit of Van Gogh opening. We stopped in at the Musee Marmottan Monet, a museum with the largest permanent collection of Monet in the world. They also had a special exhibit of the works of Berthe Morisot, who was Eduard Manet’s sister-in-law. We also visited the incredible Louvre, the Picasso Museum, and took a day trip to the Palace of Versailles.

While we enjoyed most of the museums on our own, some with audio guides, we did take a walking gourmet food tour around Paris, where we sampled delicacies from around the Marais district. We stopped and tasted at a bakery, a Macaroon store, a cheese seller and a wine shop, and also wandered through one of the oldest markets in Paris.

Carrie and I traveled the metro line all over Paris, with mostly good luck. We were only baffled a couple of times, when a line was shut down and we had to scramble to find another route. We purchased a pack of ten tickets at a time from the ticket offices in the subway stations. It was easy, but not nearly as easy as it is to use the Underground in London, where you don’t even have to buy a ticket, as you can simply tap a credit card or use Apple Pay from an Apple Watch to enter the system. It rained a little almost every day we were in Paris, so using the Metro to get around kept us nice and dry. It was easy to plan a restaurant reservation just about anywhere in the city and not rely on expensive taxis.

I hope you have had as much fun reading our blog as we have had presenting it to you. This trip is finished but we’ll have great memories to cherish for years to come. Cheers!

In the last few weeks Carrie and I thought it would be a good idea to start to wind down this trip and plan out where we would depart Europe. It worked out that our best option was to return to London, where we could get the return flight that we wanted. The first step was to start heading north. Europe has several low cost airlines that can take you just about anywhere. We booked a flight on EasyJet from Rome to Lyon, France, as we wanted to tour some of the southern parts of France, starting in Avignon. We had a hectic travel day: Our short flight on EasyJet cost $233 for both of us, including luggage. At the Lyon airport, we caught the Rhone express ($35) to get us to the Lyon central rail station. From there we used our rail pass which brought us to Avignon. Our hotel was right next to the train station, and all the main sites of the city were just a few minutes walk from the hotel.

Avignon

Avignon is another small city with a beautiful and charming old district, filled with typical French bistros and bars. One of our favorite meals was a lunch where we enjoyed the “Plat Du Jour”, which is their plate of the day. They offered a main dish, a glass of wine and a dessert all for one price. In this case it was about $20 per person, a pretty good bargain for high quality dining.

Avignon is most well known for its ancient Palace of the Popes, the fortification and palace that once housed the Papacity residence during the 14th century. We toured the enormous estate and were captivated by some of the frescoes and woodwork that still adorn the walls and ceilings. Our self guided audio/video tour was intriguing as it gave life to how the palace might have looked and operated in those years.

Montpelier

After a coupe of days in Avignon we took the train about an hour south to Montpelier, a city of about 300,000. It is comprised of a large historic district surrounded by a modern metropolis. The city offers an excellent tram system which can get you to just about anywhere in the area. Upon arriving we learned how to use the trams with a simple Google search and downloaded a tram map to help us get around. We were able to take the tram directly from the train station to our the tram stop that was situated right across the street from our hotel.

We stayed at a modern Marriott property not far from the historic part of town. One of its benefits was that it offered a free breakfast, which really helps out budget conscious travelers like us. The hotel was well run with excellent customer service. However, one morning, when we arrived for the buffet breakfast, we were seated at a table for two. Carrie left her purse at the table, as there weren’t that many people in the room just then. After we grabbed a plate of food and came back to the table, someone else had also been seated there, and obviously didn’t notice Carrie’s purse. We simply moved to another table. Soon after, we noticed that the hostesses kept doing the same thing to other diners! They were seating folks at tables where they had already seated people. We also noticed that a couple of times, when people went up to the buffet for more food, the staff would clear off the table before these people returned with their second helpings and proceed to sit new diners there! It was chaos, but it was sure hilarious for us to watch. We couldn’t understand that the staff didn’t grasp how a buffet works.

Pic Saint loup Tour

It seems that there are excellent wines all over the south of France. Carrie and I have toured many wineries over the years, so we wanted the same experience in this Languedoc region. One of this areas wine sub-regions is called Pic Saint Loup, named after a prominent mountain peak. We toured a couple of vineyards, sampled their wines and then enjoyed a tasty lunch at the home of the tour guide. The guide’s mother and wife were the excellent chefs for our lunch and we dined in an intimate courtyard at the back of their home. We had a great time with our small group and tasted some very nice wines.

Tour to Nimes

With our Eurail passes, it is so easy to just jump on a train and visit any of the nearby towns that are reachable by train. I love walking around old Roman ruins. Nimes, is just a half an hour by train from Montpelier, and offers one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters in France. For a small fee, we were able to walk about the entire ruin and learn about its history and importance for this one time Roman colony.

Next stop: Paris!

As our final stop in Italy, Carrie and I left the beautiful Salento region and trained up to Rome. We love Rome and would like to have stayed and enjoyed all the city has to offer, but we were really just passing through on our way north. Rome is vibrant, noisy and packed with tourists, even late in October. There was not much intimacy here. We were just a part of the crowd. This is such a small world as twice on the same day we met families from Carmel, Indiana! One in a restaurant seated near enough to us that we heard them mention Carmel, and the others on our tour to the catacombs.

Carrie and I rented a nice suite in the Trastevere neighborhood, just across the Tiber River from all the main attractions in Rome. Our large flat gave us room to stretch out and relax, and contemplate the great fun we’ve had on our trip. We’ve realized that sometimes just a hotel room, with nowhere to sit and relax other than the bed is not enough for us. We strive to look for accommodations, in our price range, that offer a sofa or comfortable chairs, that give us more of a feeling of home.

Things alway change and at the same time they remain the same. The first time we were in Rome, we wandered a couple winding blocks from our hotel, and were astounded to meet the Pantheon, just standing there in the middle of a small square, where its been for a couple thousand years. It is still just as awe inspiring today. The only thing that has changed is that it costs several euros to walk in and see its glory now whereas it’s been free to do so for centuries. There was always a constant long line of tourists stretched out across the piazza waiting to enter. We also wandered by the Trevi Fountain site several times on our way around Rome, and are still amazed that it’s such a major tourist draw, when there are so many more interesting places to see here.

We only had a few days to enjoy Rome, so we joined a tour group that took us to several sites around the city that we had not seen before. One stop was at one of the many catacombs scattered around the city. It was quite impressive seeing bones and skulls used as decorations in some of the chambers. We wonder who thought that was a good idea! The tour also took us outside the city, along the ancient Appian Way, the road laid down by the Romans, to view one of the aqueducts, a marvel of Roman engineering.

We reluctantly said arrivederci to Rome and Italy after spending nearly a month here. The weather has been great, with mild temps and almost no rain while we’ve been here. We know that as we venture north we’ll be met with cooler days and rain, and we’ll probably have to get out the long pants and jackets that we’ve had packed away for this whole trip so far.

Salento is the boot heel of Italy, an area with deep roots in Greek and Roman culture, language and architecture. It is dominated by its largest city Lecce, but there are many other beautiful cities here, where the Adriatic and Ionic Seas meet. There are some sandy beaches here, but mostly there are ragged rock croppings that sit high above the pristine blue water. This is where many Italians take their summer vacations, in cliffside villages such as Santa Cesarea, Castro or along the expansive beaches near Porto Cesareo

Carrie and I ventured to this out of the way place to find a haven away from the crowds of tourists we knew were gathered in the more trafficked parts of Italy. Tourists are everywhere in Italy, even in the less trodden far reaches of the country such as Lecce. Even so, there were fewer crowds here and the atmosphere and the people are less hurried and welcoming.

Lecce

I’m not sure what I expected to find in Lecce. I had an image in my mind that it would be the typical crowded, chaotic small town that resembles what I thought the real Italy is all about, full of mostly non English speaking locals going about with their lives, with a few tourists in the mix. But it was much more than that. Lecce embraces its past, with a castle and a Roman amphitheater, twenty seven churches and numerous landmarks linking it to its history. However, it is also a modern city outside the historic district. We stayed in an apartment just inside the old city walls, where we could easily find a grocery store to fill our refrigerator and still walk through the enchanting old town, dotted with numerous restaurants and soaked with its ancient history.

In Lecce we were excited to catch up with our good friend Renae again. She had been traveling in Scotland and Ireland, and decided to meet us in Lecce before moving on. One of the most fun things we did was take a cooking class, where we made orecchiette, or ear shaped pasta, from just semolina flour and water. We had a lot of fun with other tourists trying our best to create the perfect shaped pasta. After fumbling through the process, the chef gathered our imperfect attempts, cooked them and served them in a rich tomato sauce. We all enjoyed the meal with lots of delicious local wines.

Day trip to Galatina, Otranto, Lueca and Gallipoli

We took a driving tour of a few of the most prominent cities in Salento. We started in Galatina and then moved to the seaside town of Otranto. From there our guide followed the coastal road, pointing out the numerous watchtowers that dotted the coast, reminders of when the Spanish ruled this part of Italy. The views from the road were spectacular, as we made our way down to Santa Maria di Luca, the most southern point of the peninsula.

The day trip to these four cities, with a drive along the coast was breathtaking. We were happy that we had a good tour guide to explain the sites were encountered and the history of the region.

We are starting to wind down on our trip and will be heading north, with our next stop in the eternal city, Rome.

Yes, we were in the stunning seaside town of Polignano a Mare, just south of Bari in Italy. Little did we know that the 1958 blockbuster record of that year, known as just “Volare” was penned by Domenico Modugno, who was born in this popular tourist paradise. There is even a statue overlooking the white cliffs, honoring his contribution to pop music. I’m sure I’ll be humming this song to myself for the next week!

Carrie and I were taken aback by the beauty of this city; the white washed dwellings, the meandering narrow streets, the striking colors of the numerous flowers set against blinding white backdrops. There was charm in every little alleyway we walked down as we explored the maze of what is the old part (or old country as a guide called it) of the city,

Monopoli, another beach town a few minutes south of Polignano a Mare, was a great place for us to make a day trip, where we walked along the harbor and beach, and enjoyed the culinary offerings at an outdoor cafe.

Day trip to Alberobello and Matera

Carrie and I made a day trip with a tour group to these two interesting cities, both unique and historical. Alberobello is chock full of the Trulli style homes, conical structures with limestone slab roofs, which you can only find here. Our tour group wandered through the ancient village, where many of the homes have been converted to B&Bs.

Alberobello and Matera are both UNESCO world heritage sites. Matera has been inhabited for the last 10,000 years, since the Bronze Age. Early residents carved living spaces into the soft limestone, in an area called the Sassi. People have been living in them, along with livestock, without proper sanitary conditions up until the 1950s, when they were forced to move to more modern residences.

Some observations on our travels:

• if you are going to have coffee, why not spice it up a little? We enjoyed a “Speciale” coffee with Amaretto in Polignano a Mare.

• Alfresco dining is great, except that all the smokers are there. We have had to vacate a comfortable table on occasion when we were surrounded by smoke.
• In the beach towns we have been accosted by street vendors, even while dining, selling trinkets, bracelets hats and such. They don’t take no for an answer.
• Sunday is the best day to travel. We have found that it is difficult to get into a restaurant in some towns on Sunday unless you have a reservation. Its better to be on the road that day.
• We have stayed at both apartments and hotels. Both have their good and bad points: apartments have more room and comfort, while hotels might only have a bed to sit on. It’s easier to check in to a hotel which has a front desk, and they might hold your luggage for you. With an apartment, you can only check in and out at a certain time, and you have to communicate with the property several times to get check in information, house rules or access codes.
• Air travel vs train travel: We like the ease of using trains, in that you don’t have to arrive at the train station until a few minutes before the train arrives. If you miss your train, you just get on the next one. With air travel you have to get to the airport early, and if you miss your flight it’s a major hassle and another cost. Getting luggage on and off a train can be difficult, and you might have trouble finding a spot on the train to store it and keep an eye on it.

After a busy month of traveling, Carrie and I booked a full week in a spacious two bedroom apartment in a small Adriatic town called Termoli. Our apartment had a view of the beach and wharf, was walkable to the old city and castle, and most of all had it had a clothes washer. When we arrived here on a Saturday afternoon, we checked in with our landlord, unloaded our things, and immediately went out to explore the town and load up on a few groceries. As we ambled down the main pedestrian street, we were surprised to see the streets vacant and quiet, with very few people around. All the shops and restaurants were shuttered. Not until about 4:30 did we start seeing the stores opening up and a few people wandering about. By 6:30, the streets were full of locals and tourists and the shops were all opened for business. We quickly realized that this is a typical small Italian town, where most folks, after lunch, take a short break from the bustle of daily life, and retire to their homes before getting busy again in the afternoon. Prior to arriving in Termoli Carrie and I had mostly been visiting larger communities with an active tourist trade, so the down time in the afternoon didn’t exist or was not as noticeable.

Our apartment faces the east, and every morning, just as the glow of the sun breaks the horizon, we could hear the drone of diesel engines from fishing boats going out for the day’s catch intermingled with shouts from crew boats as they paddled their way across the same waters.

Just like everywhere we’ve visited in Italy, the food here is amazing, with an emphasis on succulent seafood. Along this section of the coast, south of Pescara, in the 1600’s, a family of Sephardic jews built piers on which they built a mechanical system of nets and pulleys (called trabocchi) to reap the bounties of the sea. There are still remnants of these devices up and down the coast.

Day trip to the Termiti Islands

Just a few miles off the coast of Termoli are a group of rock formations called the Termiti Islands. Carrie and I took a ferry across the waters to visit this interesting place where the relentless waves and wind have created sea caves and steep rocky walls.

Day trip to Pescara

A great way to experience the culture of a city or country, especially if you don’t have a car, is to book a tour. There are many tour operators, such as Get Your Guide and Viator that cater tours to specific interests of tourists, You can also take guided walking tours in the historic areas, some paid and some free. Some of the tours can be an excellent way to spend your time and money, but not always. We booked a walking food and wine tour in the historic part of Pescara. After a pretty good start, visiting a long established city market, discussing the local products, and tasting along the way, the tour abruptly came to and end when our planned lunch spot was not prepared for us. Because there was no lunch, the tour ended there. We demanded a full refund, and are still waiting for Viator to do the right thing. Even though the tour was shortened, we were able to taste a few treats from a bakery and a stall which served roasted pork. Of all the delicious seafood and pasta meals we’ve enjoyed while in Italy, the savory pork sandwich we tasted here, with a bit of the pork crackling skin, was one of the most flavorful foods we encountered.

From Termoli we will continue our trek south, eventually reaching the boot heal of Italy.

Carrie always says that her happy place is on our four season porch back home in Indiana, where we start most mornings relaxing with a steaming hot cup of coffee for me and a green tea for Carrie, and contemplate the day ahead. However, right after that, comes Italy! There’s something about this country that makes one feel right at home. Maybe it’s the friendly people, or the casual relaxed pace of living, the quintessential charm of the cafe lined narrow streets or just the incredible tasty food and delicious wine that you find everywhere you go.

Our first stop in Italy is Padua (or Padova, in Italian). We picked this moderate sized town as our first stop because it sits at a crossroads of north/south and east/west railway lines, it offers its own historic sites and it has close proximity to the three Vs: Verona, Vicenza and Venice. We knew we could spend several days here and find plenty of things to see and do.

When choosing a location as a base to work from, location is tremendously important. We were very fortunate in cities like Prague and Strasbourg, where even though we stayed outside the city centers, we had easy access to affordable and convenient public transportation to get us to anywhere in the city. In Padua, we chose to stay at a Marriott property a ways outside the city (thinking our typical upgrade would be a suite but no such room option at this one), but it didn’t have easy transport options to the city center or to the train station. We have had to rely on taxies much of the time, which is more costly than we would like. Lesson learned!

In Padua we visited the Orto Botanico, founded in 1545, the world’s oldest academic botanical garden. It is part of the University of Padua, the world’s fifth oldest surviving university, which boasts Copernicus as one of its alumni and Galileo as a notable faculty member. We saw some amazing fly catcher plants as pictured below.

And, of course, the food.

Vicenza

We made a day trip to close by Vicenza to see the old theatre and walk through the small historical town.

Italians start their dinner time around 7:30PM. That’s a little late for Americans like us. We frequently choose to have a big lunch, and maybe just a snack later on. This works well as the restaurants are set up to have lunch menus similar to their dinner menus, as well as providing us the opportunity to walk off those calories.

Verona

Timing is everything. On our visit to Verona, my primary objective was to see the fabulous Roman arena, only to find it was closed on Monday, the day of our visit. Also, one of its famous bridges was being renovated and completely covered with scaffolding. We still enjoyed walking through the beautiful old city.

Romeo and Juliet

Verona is also famous for the balcony where Shakespeare’s star crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet pined for each other. It’s not true history, but it was fun to see the crowds gather to see the balcony and touch the statue of Juliet.

In many European cities English is readily available in signage, menus and schedules. In Italy, not so much. One of the managers at a restaurant we visited showed us that our iPhones could translate just about any language to English. This has been a great help, especially here in Italy. See below:

Next up is Bologna!!

From Prague, Carrie and I trained back to Germany, this time to Munich. It might have been planned, or by sheer coincidence, but we were there just in time for Octoberfest! Wow, but that is some crazy big beer party. We loved the huge crowds, mostly attired in Bavarian costumes, all there for one thing: to drink as much beer as they can while they are still conscious.

Actually, the main reason we wanted to stop in Munich was to visit with Carrie’s nephew Ryan, who is now living here, and to meet Courtney. We all went out to a typical German restaurant and had a great time. Our hotel was near the English Garden part of Munich, a vast green space in the center of the city.

I noticed, besides beer, they drink some very good Austrian dry wines here in the southern part of Germany. I’ll be looking for some when we get back home.

We have two grand daughters in our family, Mackenzie and Chloe, who are big fans of anything Disney, especially the Cinderella story. Not far from Munich is the famous Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for the Disney Cinderella castle. We took a short train down to see it and were not disappointed. We picked up a few postcards and souvenirs for the girls back home.

We keep heading south as the days grow shorter. As I write this blog, today is the Autumn Equinox, a reminder that the sun’s warmth and light are diminishing. But our future is brightening as we head to Italy.

What a beautiful city! I read that Prague is the fifth of all major European cities in drawing tourists (after London, Paris, Istanbul and Rome). We could certainly tell by the throngs of people roaming through the cobblestone streets and plazas. We had a hotel a short way from the bustling old town, but the underground rail system was right around the corner from us, and it was efficient and easy to get to any of the destinations we wanted to see.

Our trip from Berlin to Prague by train was somewhat of an ordeal. First, we didn’t have seat reservations and the train was entirely packed with travelers and screaming babies. We were forced to stay in the aisles with all our luggage for the first hour. After a few stops some seats opened up and we quickly grabbed them. Unfortunately, we sat across from what I think was a neo nazi who espoused a supposed upcoming German/Austrian uprising. I thought I was back in the states!

Carrie and I toured the Prague Castle and the Jewish Museum, which included the centuries old Jewish Cemetery. Both were fascinating. We also enjoyed the delicious hearty Prague dishes and the cold Pilsners. While dining in the cave-like White Horse Restaurant, we were entertained by a musician. Again, we were surprised when he sang Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. That’s twice this week we’ve heard the tune!

We are now in our fourth week of travel! We’ve been moving from place to place rather quickly, which is wearing on us. We hope to slow things down more in the weeks ahead and employ the practice of slow travel that we envisioned.

Visiting Berlin was not like we expected at all. I knew Berlin was a modern city, but I expected it to feel more German, with more beer gardens and lederhosen, and quaint traditional timbered homes. That’s not it at all. What we saw was a modern, eclectic, sprawling city that aims to be on the cutting edge with comtempory architecture and art, along side examples of its Gothic past.

Carrie and I were happy to visit my nephew Brian, his wife Liz and their two children, who we haven’t seen in several years. It was great to catch up with them again, and they were great tour guides for us, even though they have just moved to Berlin. Brian is the Air Attache to the US Ambassador, so he works at the US Embassy, which is located in the center of the city, near the Brandenburg Gate. We were excited to stay with them at their home in a typical Berlin suburb so we could really feel how the average Berlin resident lives. The house was provided to them by the embassy and it was huge and lovely! We toured much of the city and also enjoyed a boat ride down the Spree River through the center of the city. On that boat ride, we were entertained by typical American music, but were surprised to hear Dolly Parton belting our “Jolene” from the sound system. That’s not what we expected in Berlin.

Everywhere we went we were reminded of some of the major historical events that Berlin was central to. Mainly, WWII and the Holocaust, and the Soviet control of East Berlin, along with the Wall crumbling down. We were deeply moved by the exihibition at the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” museum. We were enthralled at the artifacts and history we viewed at the museum at Checkpoint Charlie, a compilation of articles and facts of the Berlin Wall and its fall.

Many of the sections of concrete that formed the Berlin Wall have been turned into art canvases for artists from around the world, creating an interesting collection of artistic styles and messages, called the East Side Gallery.

And of course it wouldn’t be fair to not offer pics of some of the great food we ate at Brian’s favorite restaurant: