Wild & Crazy Adventures with Jim and Aleycia

July 31, 2007 Orvieto

2008-09-18T21:05:00.004-07:00

Orvieto was a great place to site see. We started by going down St. Patrick's well. Great views in this area of the town. The well was made in the 16th century when Rome was sacked and the pope needed a place to flea. (My elementary history lesson for you!). The well was built because there wasn't a water source...the town is on top of a hill. It was inspired by a well built in Ireland. It features a double helix stairway pattern- all traffic is one way, so those going down never had to go against traffic.

Next we headed to the Duomo. We admired the beautiful Basilica over a nice gelato.

We also did laundry today at a laundry mat. It was a nice break from hand washing our clothes in the sink! There was an italian man who did the work for us. He gave us tips on where to buy wine. We walked to the New Town, Orvieto where I bought 3 bottles of the Orvieto Classico for less than 1/2 the price it would have been in the Old Town. We bought food for a picnic lunch. We had a nice LONG city walk...we weren't lost, it was totally planned :)

We planned our trip to Rome this evening. Tried to get some sleep because our HUGE task tomorrow is to cover Rome in a DAY! I didn't think it would be a problem getting sleep, except that the MOB was right below us. Well, okay, maybe not, but my imagination got the better of me. This man, who sounded like Andre the Giant, was talking/yelling at these other men...and my imagination could only tell me that it was the mob and they were doing their business! So, what did I do?? #1 Freaked out and #2 took an Ativan (okay #3 took a second Ativan 15 minutes later). Thank you Dr. M for that nice prescription for the airplane ride!

July 30, 2007 Another traveling day...

2008-09-18T21:05:00.003-07:00

We headed to Florence and Orvieto today. Since it was Monday, many of the sites were closed in Florence. We decided to skip this city and take the train to Orvieto. We arrived in Orvieto. Found a room. This was a "Bed NO Breakfast." We stayed at Valentina's. I never actually met "Valentina", only her assistant Karmen. We had to barter for the price of this room.

Tonight, we had a feast at Antonico Bucchero's Restorante. Our meal was delicious!

Antipasti: Bruschetta with tomato, zucchini, deli meats, and a vinagrette/oil

Noodle Dish: Tortelloni in tomato-based sauce

Main Dish: Lamb

and Orvieto wine (my favorite!)

We visited with a couple of Aussie gals during the trip to Orvieto. I quickly became jealous that they were spending 9 weeks in Europe (and had just come from Greece). Jim about died when he heard they were vacationing that long.

July 29, 2007

2008-09-18T21:05:00.002-07:00

We woke up later than anticipated today. Our plan was to hike the 5 towns. We quick had breakfast at Cristianna's bar. Jim had a croissant with marmalade and fresh squeezed OJ. I had a creme-filled croissant and cappuccino.

We began our hike in Montorosso (#5)

around 1200. We hiked to Vernazza (#4). This was a bit of a difficult hike and it would have been better to get an earlier start. Needless to say, the views were breathtaking. We had lunch in Vernazza and hiked from Vernazza to Corneglia. This was more difficult. Once we got to Corneglia, we decided to be done and skip the "easy romantic" walk to #2 and #1. We were so exhausted, our legs were shaking.

We spent

the rest of the evening at the beach again. Saw another amazing sunset. And off to sleep...

July 28, 2007

2008-09-18T21:05:00.001-07:00

We made it to today! Took the bus to the train station. We didn't pay for the bus (figured we'd paid enough for the taxi last night). Back on the train, we went from Milano to Genova to Monterosso (Cinque Terre town #5). At Monterosso, we took a milk run train to Cornelgia. Then a bus up to town.

The population of Corneglia is 240. It is a small and colorful villiage. Fewer tourists stay in this town compared to the other 4. We headed to Cristianna Ricci's bar and she showed us to our room. The room was very small, but the view was absolutely amazing! Some of the most spectacular views were right outside the window. There are no sand beaches in Cornelgia, only rocks. The sun set behind the mountains as we enjoyed a bottle of the local white wine. Although the travel to this beautiful place was a BIT confusing, we were so happy to enjoy a vacation from our vacation.

July 27th: Last day in Paris!

2007-09-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

Today, we packed our bags at La Guriere. Plans for today are to spend the day in Paris seeing a last few sights, then head to Genoa Italy (to spend the night, and then get to Cinque Terre Italy tomorrow). On our way out the door of our B&B we met Ryan and Iris from Los Angeles. They just came from Cinque Terre, and gave us some tips for our vacation there. Then headed to the market- lots of stuff there...looked for some gifts, but no such luck. Then We went to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc honors all who fought in Napoleon's wars. Napoleon himself is actually buried here, along with other famous French people. The tomb of the unknown soldier is here. We were here just a few days from the end of the Tour de France...this is where the riders finish. The ride around the arc on the craziest street I have ever seen! 12 boulevards enter onto this street containing to street signs, lines, or any traffic signals that I could see. We watched in amazement as cars managed their way around the circle without crashing!

We ended with a nice walk down the Champs de Elysses. Walked into a few stores including Peugeot and Mercedes. Then were tired, so we sat on a picnic bench and people watched through a little sprinkle storm. And read about our next destination....Italy!!

At the end of the day, we made it to the train station and hopped on our train to Genoa Italy. Our first EuroStar ride! We were going so fast, it was hard to believe that we made it to Italy in 4 hours! Midnight came, and we were at our destination. Walked off the train, went through customs...and Jim gets a weird feeling. He looks around and says, "Aleycia, I don't think we are where we want to be." I look around and reassure him that we are exactly where we want to be. Shortly after, we head outside to begin to look for our hotel (which the French woman said would be "right across the tracks"). No hotel to be found. Then I see it...and discover...we are NOT...where we want to be.... I look ahead and see Swiss Security Guards! We are in Geneve Switzerland! The French lady booked us to Geneve, not Genoa. The good news is that we have a hotel booked in Geneve. We look around, attempt to use the phones, ask for directions...and still can't figure out where the hotel is. So, at 1am Jim decides we will just take a taxi to our hotel. The taxi lady was very nice, and asked us how long we were staying in Geneve. We said overnight. She said, "Why are you staying so far from the train station?" Turns out the French lady had booked us a hotel right across the border into Geneve, France! Oh, we were sick of the French by that time! Well, 35euros later we were in our hotel, lights out, and sleeping on the hardest mattress ever! Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough!!

July 26th: More Paris!

2007-09-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in Paris! Slept in late (10:00am) at La Gurniere. Micheline had a carbohydrate cuisine for us: Bread, Croissants, yogurt, juice, & caffe. After getting ready, we headed for Gare de Lyon (the train station) to make reservations to Genoa, Italy. A very nice French lady kindly booked our reservation. After this errand, we headed to the Louvre...and EXPERIENCED the Louvre!

The Louvre is Europe's oldest, biggest, greatest, and second-most-crowded museum (after the Vatican). The museum is housed in a 16th century palace, and has this cool glass pyramid in the center. We downloaded Rick Steve's audio guide on my ipod to help us navigate through the 12 miles of museum.

A few of the famous masterpieces...

This is La Venus De Milo. She's an ancient greek statute who is supposed to depict the Goddess of love and beauty. She lost her arms, can you guess what they were doing??

Next is Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
The painting was so much smaller than I imagined. "Lady Lisa" is very mysterious...is she smiling or frowning? Very crowded place to be!

Here are Michelangelos' Slaves.
There's the Dying Slave and the Rebellious Slave.

Well, we were at the Louvre all day until it closed, and still only saw 1 of the 3 wings of art! It was so exciting! Where next??We grabbed a quick bite to eat (Baguette and sweets) and headed to Pont Neuf and caught the 8pm cruise on the Seine River. Saw all the beautiful sights of Paris including the Orsay Museum, Eiffel Tower, Royal Palace, Napoleon's Palace, Notre Dame, and heard the history of the old bridges. Under this bridge, we had to make a wish, then kiss someone for it to come true! Try kissing someone and taking a photo at the same time while concentrating very hard on your wish!!

After our lovely cruise we walked to the Eiffel Tower. Waited in line for about 30 minutes and headed up to the top level. Breath-taking views from the top, and it was so beautiful at night. The tower is lit up at night, and every so often the strobe lights come on...very cool!

Once we set foot on ground again, we ran to catch the midnight train back to La Gurniere. Note: the Metro is often hidden!

July 25th: Paris!

2007-08-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

La Gurniere- our B&B

We made it to Paris! Very little sleep, but we're in Paris!! Took a nice walk from the train station down to the Old City- where everything is. Figured out the subway system, which was amazingly easy, and we headed to Micheline and Jean Paul's (our B&B for the next 2 nights). Micheline had renovated an old trashed home over the course of 5 years...and here is the beautiful B&B today! Hard to believe that this was located right in the city!

We did the Rick Steve's self-guided walking tour of Paris. Was a good orientation to the city. Saw some of the great places like Notre Dame. Very Interesting! Did I mention that you have to pay to use the WCs? Usually about .50-1euro. The public WCs are gross, so we got pretty good at walking into restaurants like we owned them, using the WC, and leaving. Sometimes we'd think that we were spotted, so we'd buy a soda or something! Here are a couple pictures of Notre Dame. Important to watch for pick pockets in the touristy areas- especially Notre Dame. People would come up and ask, "Excuse me, do you speak English," then hold up a sign for us to read. Then while people would read the sign, their chances of being pick pocketed were greatly increased. We just started shaking our heads "No" when someone would approach us. But, didn't have much to worry about since we each had money belts on and there was nothing in our pockets.

Paris is divided in half by the Seine River. There are some 36 bridges connecting the two sides. EVERY bridge is named after someone. This one is Alexander the Great's Bridge. Other bridges included Pont Neuf and Princess Diana's Bridge.

We mainly picnicked in Paris. First shopped for groceries at the market- baguettes, cheese (didn't pick the tastiest cheese), fruit, and THE BEST yogurt. Oh, I miss European yogurt. How do the French stay so skinny when their diets consist of mostly bread, cheese, and desserts? (From what I saw, I guess). My take on it... they must skip meals and supplement with smoking. Everybody smokes.

Exhausted, we made it an early evening at La Guriniere.

July 24th: Baden-Baden

2007-08-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight we take an overnight train to Paris! We left Bacharach and headed for Baden-Baden. Ended up taking a little detour (part of figuring out the train stations, but was only about a 45 minute correction). Made it to Frankfurt, and did I say that we did not like the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof? (That is main train station). Okay, we hated the Frankfurt Hbf! After we were getting sick of figuring out how to find the right train, I stumbled upon this add. It took me awhile to figure out what it was, but I finally did...and suggested to Jim that we take a photo. He was completely embarrassed by his wife standing in front of the sign snapping a shot. I had to. Must be the nurse in me! Jim made a run in the other direction. Tried to get him in the shot, but he would have none of it...so I got his photo afterwards! Later we discovered the Fahrkarten (automated ticket stand that you could get timetable information...and you could print out your whole itinerary...and it gave you the track number of where to go!) Jim called the Fahrkarten Frankincense!

So Baden-Baden is a romantic resort town. Royalty used to come from all over Europe to take the Kur- a soak in the curative mineral waters, and enjoy the world's top casino (According to Rick Steves). The town has a Parisian feel...kind of like a bistro. Beautiful walking paths and gardens complete with couples strolling around with their poodles.

The Roman baths are still popular in this town. There are two different baths: One naked, and one with swim suits. You actually lose a kilo after the ritual. We weren't into the whole naked bath option, but I was all about losing a kilo! But, I forgot my suit in the lockers at the train station. Oh, well!

Ate supper at the Lowenbrau Biergarten. Started getting sick of pork, but that's all there is here. I had sausage and Jim had roasted pork and potato dumplings. And, being the frugal people we are, we ordered the least expensive drink on the menu- Beer. Jim said he ordered beer because I did. After a few sips, he said he had to stop because the world was spinning.
I think they brought us each a half liter of beer. Did you know that the average German drinks a pint of beer every 32 hours (which is slightly less than the average Irish or Czech)?

We took the train back to Karlsruhe, where we caught our night train to Paris. Nothing like sitting in the dark station at midnight waiting for our 12:30am train to come in. Well, at least there were two nuns sitting near to us :) We didn't reserve a couchette (room with 4-6 bunks to sleep in), but we were told that the seats lay out flat and you can sleep in the compartments on the train. Well, ours didn't fold out, and we ended up sharing a compartment with "Paris" a German man in his 70's probably. Very nice man. We showed him pictures of ND and our family....and he thinks you are all very beautiful! He was a very hard breather, lets say, and maybe had some COPD. So, I spent the night wondering if he was going to make it. Breathe. Pause. Pause. Pause. Cough. Breathe. Pause. Pause. Pause......Pause. COUGH! Oh, it was stressful. It was a bad idea not to have a couchette. We were awake most of the night- no room to lie down, no pillow, etc. Long night considering we don't arrive till 8:00am. Well, Paris (the German) shared his polish caramels with us in the morning, which made the experience well worth it!!

July 23rd: Our 2 year Anniverary

2007-08-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

Children Playing!!

Woo-hoo! Today is our 2 year anniversary! Here's a shout out to all friends and family who remember that blessed 104 degree day! Ahh...seems like yesterday. Well, in honor of that, here's the happy couple 2 years ago...
and the happIER couple today...
Spent another day in the Rhine Valley. Lettie had a traditional German breakfast for us: bread, cold cut meat (ham assortment), cheese, and awesome coffee. We headed to Mosselkern where it was about an hour hike in the forest to Burg Eltz (the castle we toured). The hike was so beautiful. We met a couple of Americans along the way. This castle is medieval and was/is owned by 3 families. It took 500 years to build and 33 generations have lived in it. Parts of the castle are still lived in today. Of the areas we were able to tour, we saw an armory and different rooms (living room, bedroom, great hall, hunting room, housewife room, children's room, chapel, one of three kitchens, etc.) There were 20 toilets that all washed down into the moat--pew! In the hunting room were huge animals that the family had hunted in Alaska, Dakotas, etc.
We ate supper at Altes Haus (oldest house) in Bacharach, where we met Marline and Tony from Holland. I think they were our favorite people! We all sat at a table together (as people do in Germany, instead of each party having their own table). They were on a biking trip down from Holland and along the Rhine. Spent about 2 hours eating dinner and enjoyed a nice glass of the area's famous Riesling wine. Mmm...sehr gut!

July 22nd: The Adventure Continues!

2007-08-29T23:09:00.001-07:00

Well, we landed in Frankfurt around 11:00am. It was a little strange getting off the plan, because we did not hear ANY English being spoken! First bit of culture. (Well, I think that we had some "airplane culture" yesterday).

Unshowered and having brushed our teeth in a WC (you'll see "WC" signs all over Europe. They are the universal toilet signs aka "Water Closets"), we validated our Rail passes and got on a train to Bacharach, Germany. Our first encounter with a German was at the train validation stand. He asked us where we were planning to go, and we said "all over" and he looked at us like we were insane to go anywhere in Europe without making train reservations. According to him, we should have made reservations MONTHS in advance! Now, up until this point, I had Jim convinced that it would be okay to "fly by the seat of our pants." Well, the German was not helping my case! But, we decided not to spend an obscene amount of money for reservations. This ended up working out without any problems...I think he just wanted to see us freak out. It was easy to get to Bacharach. Left Frankfurt and had one change to make before ending up at our destination.

We were finally at our train stop...sick of moving and being stinky. Time to get off. Jim tried to open the door to get out...it won't open! Aleycia tried to open the door...won't open! Finally a nice man came over to help us figure out this minor problem, and managed to open the door (sounded like he broke it). As the train began to move, Jim and I looked at each other and decided we were NOT traveling to the next town to have to turn around and come back...so we made a quick getaway and jumped! Meanwhile, one of the train workers opens the window and starts yelling at us from the moving train! We had NO IDEA what she was saying, but I don't think she was happy with us. So, we just smiled and waved. Nothing like getting yelled at twice in one day :)

Here's the infamous train station.

We made a small hike to Pension Lettie...our B&B for the next two nights. Dropped our bags off, and headed for the KD Ferry where we cruised the Best of the Rhine. Saw some grand castles. We met "Yurmar" and Japanese man living in Germany who loves German beer and wienerschnitzel.

Made it to another Rhine town and got off the ferry. Headed to Reinfels Castle where we hiked around the castle ruins. We thought these castles were awesome...but had no idea how beautiful the castles were in southern Germany (more to come later).

And we ended the evening with a nice stop at the Biergarten. Took Yurmar's advice to eat the Wienerschnitzel and drink a beer. Our first German meal complete with Apple Streussel & Ice cream for dessert!

Oh, and we showered today!

July 21st, First day of Vacation!

2007-08-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

The first day of Vacation! Yay! (Forgive me for posting these late, I'm just not on the ball, so we travel back in time!). We woke up at 6:30am today. Our flight didn't leave till 11am, but we had a few last minute errands to do (like get money..."hondos"). R, N, & B picked us up for a little morning Coffeebreak and Bread Poets, then dropped us off at the Airport. Nothing like a nice morning before a nice flight overseas...or so we thought! Our flight plan was to travel from Bismarck to Minneapolis to New York and overseas to Frankfurt, Germany.This is us at the airport, before the "events" begin. While waiting to board, we said a prayer for our trip. I kid you not, as Jim was saying "Amen," we hear an announcement overhead "Flight blah blah blah to Minneapolis/St. Paul will be delayed until further notice." Since when is anyone ever delayed in the 2-terminal Bismarck airport? So we wait...and wait...and finally an hour later the plane leaves (mind you, we had a 1/2 hour connection to make in Minneapolis... but we had a back-up plan). Apparently the x-ray machine broke down at the baggage check. Oh, see our backpacks? That's all we brought with us, and they counted as carry-ons.
Well, we made it to MSP, but missed our connection. Remember I said we had a back-up plan? There was another flight scheduled to leave a couple hours later. So, we went and checked the monitors to see which gate that flight was leaving from...and we see "Flight Canceled." (Remember the thousands of flights that were canceled in July/August due to the pilot shortage?). We Started to sweat a little, since the next flight to JFK is at 6pm which would put us in New York after our connection to Frankfurt! So, Jim ends up talking to some of the counter attendants, who weren't very helpful. I'm on the phone with mom trying to figure out what we could do. Mom is on the phone with aunt S who is also searching like mad to figure out how to get us to NY. Meanwhile, Jim heads over to the American Airlines attendant and asks if there is room to get us on their flight to Newark. We end up being on standby. Then get the flight. Arrived in Newark, and looked for a shuttle, which of course wouldn't get us to JFK in time...so go to the taxi stand and ask the taxi if he can drive fast. He says yes!

We hop into the cab and red flags start popping up. The taxi driver is from Africa and is watching some movie from his home country which looks really weird. Kinda freaks me out a little. We start heading down the street and he says that he needs to stop and get some gas. Ugh...we are like in a hurry! Well, $100 later, the driver gets us to the airport just in the nick of time for us to clear our international travel and hop on the plane. We were so relieved to sit in our seats!!

We flew Singapore Airlines and had royal treatment!! The airplane wasn't crowded. Everyone had their own TV screen with about 100 movies to pick from and TV shows and nintendo games, and you could even learn a language! The stewardess' worked hard- we had 2 meals, and they continually were walking by with wine, beer, OJ, and hot towels for our faces! This was so fun, I had a sleeping pill to take, but debated whether or not I was going to take it, because I didn't want to miss out on all the fun! Well, I took it anyway...lights out...next stop Frankfurt, Germany!!

Introduction

2007-07-16T12:17:00.001-07:00

Hello-
Just getting the novel started! Join us on our adventure to Europe. We'll be posting updates often!