Rome Saturday 8/31/13

Today we headed off to see the antiquities of Rome. We started out on the bus to the metro station so that we could buy a week long pass for the public transportation. So to get to the Colosseum we took 1 bus and 2 subways! Lori, Jerry and I were ready to leave the Colosseum before the others and Scherry was taking bets, I think, on whether or not we could find our way back! But we did! Anyhow...

The Palatine Hill, the Forum, and the Colosseum were great. Really amazing to think that they built these huge buildings over 2000 years ago. We wandered the Palatine Hill first - it was fascinating. Then wandered down into the Forum. Et tu, Brute? It is just amazing to think of all the history that has taken place here.

It was lunch time after the Forum and we found a nice restaurant to sit and eat lunch. The food was good enough, just not great. But it sure felt good to sit down.

After lunch we went into the Colosseum. It is such an impressive edifice! Think of all the gladiators and the Christians and lions. There sure are a lot of stairs to climb! And it was hot! Hard work being a tourist sometimes!

All in all it was a very good day. We just ate cheese and crackers and drank beer for dinner! Nice relaxing evening - didn't have to walk miles for a mediocre dinner.

Enjoy the pics!

All from the Palatine Hill

The Roman Forum

The Colosseum

 

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Venice to Rome & Rome day1 Friday 8/30/13

Yesterday was a travel day. We Took a high speed train from Venice at 10:25 and arrived here at a little after 2. The train was good except when we went through tunnels our ears HURT!! It was really wild but it hurt! I think it was because we were going so fast and the pressure changed in the tunnels. The scenery was quite beautiful.

When we got to Rome we took a cab to the apartment and our landlady was waiting for us. It is a nice apartment with a few glitches. But to get anywhere you have to do a lot of walking and our apartment is on top of one of those "7 hills" upon which Rome was built!

We walked to a restaurant that the landlady had suggested - it was a LONG walk and the food was AWFUL!!! The beer was cold but hardly made up for the rest.

Today we headed off the the Vatican. We were going to buy a metro pass and take a bus but the place did not sell the week long passes so we decided to walk! Luckily it was all downhill and only a little over a mile! All downhill until we got to the Vatican and then we had a staircase of about 72 steps!

The Vatican Museum was very crowded and I have probably seen enough religious pictures to last a lifetime! The building itself was much more interesting to me - it was fantastically beautiful in parts. The tile floors and the painted ceilings! We followed the herds on into the Sistine Chapel - we were packed in like sardines and the guards kept telling everyone not to talk with microphones which was much more disturbing than the hum of the whispering crowds. Then we ate lunch in the cafeteria before leaving. It is really a maze - you get in and then you can't get out! The last part to go out the exit is this really neat spiral staircase.

Then we walked over to St. Peter's and the line to go in there was miles long. Scherry,Chris and Jody opted to stand in line. Lori, Jerry, and I opted for gelato and a taxi ride home!

We have done our laundry which we have to hang outside to dry!

Just walked to the grocery and of course it is well down the hill so we had to walk back up carrying groceries - certainly limits what you buy!

Here are some pics

Scherry and Chris walking up the gazillion steps to the Vatican.

Vatican Museum ceilings.

Looking up the spiral staircase.

Swiss Guard

Our laundry drying on the balcony!

 

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Venice Wednesday 8/28/13

You know the stories you have heard about pickpockets in Italy being pros? Well, from personal experience I can tell you all the stories you may have ever heard are true! I had on a fanny pack - in front of me - zipped - and next thing I knew it was open and my wallet with all my Euros, my drivers license, and my credit card were gone! They were slick. And after the fact we realized that it was a group of 4 - 2 to seem like normal people to distract us and 2 to see what they could steal! Well, they hit the jackpot today - won't have to work for a couple of days. Yes - I feel stupid, and violated, and MAD!!! I immediately canceled the credit card - thank heavens I have another with me - and an ATM card too that I can use to get cash. But, SHIT, it has kind of put a damper on my vacation!

Anyhow... We did see quite a bit of Venice and we did ride in a gondola. The crowds were really overwhelming - we did not even go into San Marcos Basilica because the line was too long. And riding in the water bus was so hot and so crowded that it was not much fun. It was in line for the water bus that they got my wallet but really it was not in a crowd then.

The gondola ride was nice. It is amazing how quiet and peaceful it gets when you are not on the Grand Canal.

We walked to the casino BUT they wanted you to pay 10€ to go in and play slots to lose more! We decided against such idiocy!

We rode the train back to Mestre which is where our hotel is an walked to the closest ATM which was not close to get some more money since we have to pay the rent in Rome tomorrow in cash. Then we ate dinner and drank BEER and now it is time to end this trying day!

Here are some pics.

 

San Marco Square -too many people

Jerry and Lori on the gondola

Gondola ride! Notice the new purse - no one in Rome will steal my shit!

Gondola going through on of the back canals - gondolier has to duck to go under the bridges.

Beer at the end of the day!!

 

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Salzburg to Venice Tuesday 8/27/13

The trip today was through some beautiful countryside. Beautiful mountains with picturesque towns. The train went as far as Villach, Austria where we were supposed to get on a bus for the rest of the journey. We had 6 minutes and nowhere was there a sign saying "here is your bus!" We were starting to panic when we found it. We were a lot luckier than Scherry and Chris and Jody who had mechanical problems on their train and missed the bus - they won't get here until almost midnight. I imagine right now they wish they had opted for the earlier train.

Once here and in our hotel which is actually as advertised and directly across from the train station, Jerry and Lori and I headed into Venice. It is truly amazing. An easy place to get lost though. We were wandering around and stopped at some random small sidewalk cafe for dinner. It was excellent. Then we started trying to find our way back to the train station - when we finally stopped to ask we were very close to it!

Tomorrow we have a full day to go out and explore Venice and ride a gondola! Should be a good day.

Here are a few pictures.

These two pictures were taken from the train.

The Grand Canal

A smaller canal

Tonight's beer.

 

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Salzburg Monday 8/26/13

Today, once again it was a rainy drizzly day. We got up and headed over to the Munich train station to eat some breakfast and catch our train toSalzburg. The train station is much like an airport with one glaring exception! No place to sit down and wait. Lots and lots of food kiosks but very few places to sit. We went into Burger King but they don't even have a breakfast menu so we ordered cokes and coffee and went into the terminal for pastries which we brought back to Burger King!

The train to Salzburg was nice. Little separate compartments with six seats in each. We got to Salzburg and took a cab to the hotel called All You Need Hotel! Not really all you need cause there is no Internet in the room and no airconditioning! Glad it is cool enough outside to have the window open.

Then we did a two hour walking tour of Salzburg - means Salt Castle or some such. They made their money from the salt mines that were close by and shipped the salt down river to much of Europe. Salt was as expensive as gold in the Middle Ages because it was used to preserve meat and fish. We saw a lot of the places that were used in the filming of the Sound of Music. It is a beautiful town and it makes about 70% of its money from tourism. It reminds me a lot of a European Vail.

After the two hour walking tour we did a four hour bus tour about the Sound of Music. We saw the lake where the house was though the house in the movie was not really there - it was someplace else in Salzburg and dubbed in! Can't believe anything you see in the movies! We saw the gazebo from the movie but in the movie there were really two because the one that was filmed from a distance really wasn't big enough to do all that dancing in!

Then we drove up into the mountain and lakes region which was beautiful even if we really couldn't see much of the mountains because of the clouds and the rain. Sorry Kathe - no Hills are alive... on this trip, too rainy though we did sing all the songs in the bus. Felt like I was back in camp!! We stopped to see the church which was used for the wedding scene in the movie.

When we got back to Salzburg we went out to dinner. Wiener schnitzel for dinner again and a beer that came in a bottle like a champagne and had a ginger taste to it. Jerry and Lori hated it but I thought it was pretty good!

Pictures to follow.

The steps where they sang Do,Re,Mi

The gardens with the fortress in the background

This pedestrian bridge had all these locks on it - the tradition in Salzburg is to put a lock on the bridge the day you get married and throw the key in the river!

How's this for a Golden Arches sign? You could eat here, Emmy!

 

I miss Breck so much I even take pictures of strange dogs!

The Sound of Music lake.

The Sound of Music wedding church.

 

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Munich/Dachau Sunday 8/25/13

Today we got off the boat at 6:30 for our ride to the train station in Nuremburg. It was raining which was appropriate for a day on which we were going to Dachau Concentration Camp. When we got tithe train station we found that the ticket office did not open until after we left and we were supposed to get our Euro passes validated before we took our first train ride. Made our wait for the train a little nerve-racking BUT it was no problem at all.

When we got to Munich we headed out on foot to find the hotel which was supposed to be close. The lady in the train station sent us in the wrong direction and we walked a couple of miles lugging our suitcases in the rain! When we finally found the hotel it was VERY close to the train station!! We left our luggage in their luggage room and headed out for our tour of Dachau.

The tour was very interesting and very sobering. Dachau was the first concentration built in Germany and was a concentration camp not an extermination camp though the was a gas chamber and a crematorium. But any people died over the course of the camp existence. Toward the end of the war when they were closing camps in front of the advancing armies the population of the camp swelled to about 65000 when it was built to house about 6000 prisoners. In Dachau was the training camp for all SS officers - so it was where a lot of the ideas for the Final Solution were worked out and where a lot of forms of torture and experimentation were first tried out.

After the tour we came back to Munich and went to dinner at the Augustner Biergarten. Had our best meal thus far. Great beer that was served in huge steins and superb Wiener schnitzel!

Here are some pics. Maybe I'll write today's blog about Salzburg on the train to Venice tomorrow.

Guard tower.

Bathroom for the barracks.

Bunks.

Sculpture by an artist who survived Dachau.

First memorial put up at the site in the 1950s - it says remember the dead and warn the living.

Augustner beer!

 

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Nuremburg, Germany Saturday 8/24/13

Today we docked at Nuremburg during breakfast after coming through 12 locks from Regensburg. The locks took us over the highest pass (for lack of a better word) on a navigable river in the world. The Danube is connected to the Mien River by way of canal connecting the North Sea with the Black Sea.

Our tour of Nuremburg was very interesting combing information on the Nazi reign of the 20th century with the medieval city of the 15th century. Much of the city was destroyed by Allied bombing toward the end of WWII. And the trial of the top Nazis took place in Nuremburg shortly after the end of the war.

We started the tour with a stop at the Nazi parade grounds - the famous pictures of Hitler at the huge rally were taken here. Then we drove by the building in which the trial took place and the prison where the Nazis were kept until execution. The guide told us that the Germans destroyed the cell block and the execution block and scattered the executed's ashes in the Danube so that there would be no place for people to honor as a shrine to the Nazi ideas.

Then we drove up to the castle which was the seat of power in the 1400s. It was an impressive castle. The methods of defense were amazing. It was on top of a hill. It had a dry moat all the way around it. The heavy doors were at the top of a steep slope. All this made it very hard to attack. And it looked down on what had been then a walled medieval city. All in all a neat place.

Tomorrow we get off the boat and head out on our own. Our first trainride into Munich.

Here are some pictures.

The Nazi Parade ground reviewing stands - used to be a huge swastika on top of the center building that the US army removed on Hitler's birthday in 1946.

The Germans named the streets around the parade grounds after prime ministers of Isreal.

The castle tower.

The castle residence.

Just for you Megan, Emily, and Matthew - even in Germany they are watching Planes!

 

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