Europe 2007 - Part 3 - Tuscany

After leaving the Haswells in Northern Italy, we drove to Tuscany (in the rain, for several hours). Luckily, the rain let up right when we arrived at one of the nicest campgrounds in the world: two swimming pools (one Olympic sized and one indoor), a water slide, restaraunts, grocery store, nightly wine tasting at the wine specialty store,...The next morning we went into Florence. Tour books usually devote an entire volume just to Florence (like Venice) so it is impossible to see or appreciate it in one day.



Florence is, for example, the birthplace of the Renaissance and also has a leading role in the history of Italy. The primary attraction in Florence is the cathedral complex including the baptistry. The first picture here is of the complex. The buildings are so tall, and the
surrounding square so relatively small, that it is
difficult to get a piture of everything at once.
The building on the left (in the foreground) is the
baptistry.






Shown here more fully, it dates from the 6th to the
9th centuries. This puts it right in the middle of the dark ages when (suposedly) nothing much was happening. As our tour book says "it might as well have dropped from heaven".














But, the building is best known now for the "gates of paradise" - the double doors on the east of the building (shown here with the kids).

















About 50 meters to the east is the cathedral or "Duomo" with Brunelleschi's famous dome. Although it looked very impressive to us, the critics don't say much about the cathedral itself (especially compared to Sienna's) but the dome is another story. This is a marvel of construction and
the most famous landmark in Florence. You can walk between the two concentric domes and get to the top. This is where Nathan and Katie are in the picture below.

















Here the kids are asking dad "Are you done with the history lesson yet? When's ice cream?"












Another landmark in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge shown behind the kids.










Returning from there, we stopped in front of the Uffuzi (one of the most important art museums in Florence) to buy some art. We bought two water colors from this man then watched as he painted some others.







Unfortunately, we do not have a picture of the best experience we had in Florence. At the end of the day, while walking back to our car, the heavens opened up and it rained in buckets. We were soaked and quickly ducked into the nearest open door that turned out to be a sort of deli. A woman named Serena took us into her care and we had the most wonderful time trying to communicate with signs and broken Italian (William just added "o" to the French words he knew.) They sold wine from a tap and put together a meat sampler plate and bread for us.



The next day, we went to Sienna and San Giminiano. Sienna and Florence used to be enemies in the late middle ages. Sienna is much smaller, quieter, and (we think) a must-see in Italy. It is known especially for its catherdral shown here and below that, the main square.






















Once a year, the main square is converted to a race track and each neighborhood has a jockey that represents it. We've heard that it is taken VERY seriously. The race is shown in a picture here (not ours - unfortunately).






The last picture from Sienna is a great one of the kids at a playground.













San Giminiano is a place that we had heard of many times before. In the middle ages, the wealth and power of Tuscan cities was judged, in part, by the number of towers. San Giminiano is one of the better preserved cities and has something like 17 remaining towers. I think it had something like 70 in its prime.








Besides the towers, there are many quaint stores, houses, even doors like this one we liked.

Europe 2007 - Part 2 - Northern Italy

Following our time in Germany, we headed south to link up with family in Italy. William’s cousin Brett and his family just happened to be visiting near where we would be staying and at the last minute, we had made plans to meet them.

We stayed in a very nice campground on the west side of Lake Garda near Verona. Here is a picture of our (very nice) 2-bedroom cabin.






The campground had an excellent swimming pool and wonderful staff. For reasons we still don’t quite understand, this campground required that everyone wear bathing caps. When in Italy…… (Do you notice who is not willing to be caught dead on film wearing her bathing cap?)








Brett, Cheryl, Jessica and Isabella found us at the camp and we all went to Salo for dinner and the first of our 1,073 servings of Italian gelato (ice cream). The number might be a bit high, but I’m not kidding when I say we had gelato an average of two times a day in Italy.








This is the view of Salo from near our campground.






The next day, William (white knuckles and all) drove into Desenzano and found the Haswells for a trip into Sirmione (below). Sirmione is a very quaint town at the end of a peninsula that sticks out into Lake Garda at the center of the southern shore. Baths here date from the Roman times. After strolling through the market and eating cherries, we went into the old part of town.
























The next day we took the train from Desenzano into Venice. There are very few streets in Venice and water is the way most everything is moved – including people. So, we took one of the water buses (the larger boats shown here) to St. Mark’s Square.











One could easily spend more than a week just in Venice, so we only hit a few highlights. We made a quick tour of St. Marks shown here and let the kids feed the pigeons. They would have done that all day if we would have let them.






















The big event of the day was the gondola ride. Our gondolier was very nice and sang to us a bit. A few more stops, some more gelato, and we were headed back to Desenzano. The next morning we left for Tuscany.

Europe 2007 - Part 1 - Southern Germany

We were greated in Germany by cold and steady, but not heavy, rain. Unfortunately, this was to be the section of the vacation where we camped in a tent. Our first stop was near Baden-Baden in southern Germany near the French border.

While it was a bit damp, we fared well, and it turned out that the rain lasted only the day we arrived and the next day. After that, although we did have some rain from time to time, it never affected our travels like it did these first two days. Here we are at our first campground. Nathan (7), Karina (4), Katie (6) and Nancy.

Our first full day, we went to Burg Hohenzollern in the black forest. Having been to many German castles over the years, this was one of the more impressive ones. It contained an excellent small museum and a very nice chapel. Unfortunately, it was hard to enjoy the grounds due to the rain, so we mostly stayed inside. This picture is NOT from our camera, but it is a very accurate picture of the good condition of the castle.

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I had told the kids that we needed to get spaghetti ice cream in Germany. Our first campground had it and I'm glad we got it there as we never saw it again. The vanilla ice cream is pushed through a press to make it look like the spaghetti, then it is topped with strawberry sauce (tomato sauce) and topped with grated coconut (grated cheese).

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On the second full day, we drove to our campsite in Seefeld, just south of Munich. Seefeld had its own castle and we ate dinner there one night. We took the train into Munich for the next two days. The first day we went to the big sites (like the Frauen Kirche shown here). The second day we went to the Deutsches Museum - a very good technology and science museum that is kid and adult friendly.

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We took the kids to the Ratskeller. It is in the basement of the bulding that holds the Glockenspiel in Mariana Platz if you have ever been to Munich. A Ratskeller is a resteraunt in the basement of the town hall. William always goes here when he is in Munich and Nancy and William had eaten there back in 1997. The waiter was quite friendly and was very kind to the kids.

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The last day, before the Deutsches Museum opened, we went to the market place where shopped. We also went around to the butcher, baker and cheese stalls to get our breakfast which we ate surrounded by Germans having their breakfast beer.

We enjoyed listening to a small german singing group that was entertaining the crowds.

Europen Tour 2007 - Introduction

We have just returned from a month vacation in Europe including time in Germany, Italy, France and a brief stop in Luxemburg. This is a very brief overview of the trip. Hopefully, over the next few days, I can post some more pictures and good stories.

While in Germany we visited: the Black Forest, castles, the Deutsches Museum, the Glockenspiel, Frauenkirche, Asam Brothers Church and one or two ice cream shops, several cafes, and at least one beer hall.

Kids loved: the Deutsches Museum, Asam Brothers Church, the funny toilets that cleaned themselves, schnitzel, Neu Schwanstein.





From Germany, we crossed over into northern Italy.

Using Lake Garda as a base, we toured the area with William's cousin Brett and his family who happened to be in the area. The highlight was probably Venice. Here we are in front of St. Mark's.




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Taking a gondola ride was a favorite for all of us.

After nothern Italy, we travelled to Tuscany where we saw Florence, Sienna and a few other small towns.

Hightlights of Italy: spending time with the Haswell's, Venice, the dog with the tutu, LOTS of ice cream, the cathedral in Sienna, buying watercolor pictures in Florence and watching the artist work, climbing the dome in Florence.

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After Italy, we crossed into France and the Cote d'Azur region. We spent an wonderful afternoon with some French friends then took a day to drive from Cannes to St. Tropez. This was very pretty and the pictures don't come close to showing all the beauty.

After a day of viewing Roman ruins in Nimes, we visited two small towns near Nice. St. Paul has to be one of the most quaint places in the world. A pefect place to meet friends Chris, Susan and Sarah Mack.







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From the south of France, we drove towards Geneva and stopped for a few days at Annecy based on the recommendation of Chris Sallee. Annecy is both a lake and a city right in the mountains. This building is the most photographed in the area. It looks like a ship in the water

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No foreign travel journal would be complete without the "I can't believe I ordered that" story. William ordered "fish from Lake Annecy". I think it was really "60 tiny fishES from Lake Annecy". And, yes, he ate them whole, heads and all, just like french fries. They were actually very tasty - a bit crunchy.

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After Annecy, it was off to Paris. The first day was spent seeing the big sites, like the Eifel Tower, the Louvre, and Notre Dame. The second day was spent at the excellent children's science museum.

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The last few days were spent back in Germany close to where William served in the Army. Here we are at the castle that was just outside the town where William lived.

We were able to connect here with our nephew Jeff. We travelled together to Trier, Luxemburg and onto Frankfurt.

A very memorable trip.

WNNKK



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