Chris' Journal
(SEPTEMBER, 2006)
Saturday, September 30
Wow -- another month has flown by. Next week is our first anniversary of living in Rome. Time moves too quickly! We're leaving for Prague Tuesday, so since we just returned home, we've got plenty of things to get done so we can leave again.
Friday, September 29
Laundry was first on the list today! And, a lot of it! Then off to the food market as the refrigerator was bare. We ate lunch out again as we didn't have much in the cupboard besides soup, and John said that didn't appeal to him.
I don't think John missed Rome as much as I did. During lunch he remarked about the graffiti, the trash and the noise of the autos. Even though I don't like the trash and the graffiti, I love living where it's so alive, so vibrant. I was really, really happy to be home again.
Poor John is so far behind in answering map proposals, queries for new projects and our on-going projects that he's already worn out. Since he wasn't able to relax as much as he had hoped and planned during our trip, he is not as energized as he would have been.
I answered emails, worked on the pharmaceutical project for a while, filed our renewals for our health insurance for another year, and did some things around the house. We both are ready to get back in the "work mode". Due to my going to the U. S. for 10 days and then leaving on our trip, I've only been home six days this entire month. With John's travels with our client for a week this month and then our trip, he's only been home for 10 days so needless to say, we're way, way far behind on worldatlas.
We went to dinner at Sam's restaurant and brought him his gift for watching our house. He loved his new shirt and we were so pleased to know we could count on him.
While visiting with Sam, one of the street performers walked by -- one that we absolutely cannot abide. First of all, he can't sing. Second, he only knows one song -- "Bésame mucho". Third, after he sings (or warbles), he then comes to the tables to collect money and is extremely rude if he is waved off. Sam said they won't allow him at their restaurant any more. And, we loved that! John said if he had only two options - listening to Besame mucho with this guy singing it or taking his last glimpse of the world on the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, he'd take the Bridge of Sighs.
Thursday, September 28
We got up at 5am as disembarkation began at 6am. A quick breakfast and back to our cabin to wait for our call. We were off by 7:45. Quite impressive how quickly and efficiently they are able to off-load 3,000 people. Total time was estimated to be 2.5 hours.
Our car service was right on time, so we were home by around 10am. And, I was very happy to be home...as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz: "There's no place like home."
After unpacking, we went and had a bite of lunch (pizza) as we had very little food in the house.
After lunch, John got very busy trying to respond to emails and return voice mails.
We had planned on going to the food market late day, but I got so tired (probably from not feeling well the last few days), so laid down. When I got up, we decided to forage through the refrigerator and cupboards for dinner. I found pasta, sauce and some vegetables, so we ate on the terrace and went to bed early.
Wednesday, September 27
Call us crazy! Call us insane! We stayed on the ship today as we have been to Florence numerous times, and we've been to Pisa and Siena and the Tuscany region. By staying on board, we had the opportunity to compile more of the research data accumulated thus far and get an early start on our packing up so that we didn't feel so rushed.
Tuesday, September 26
My second or maybe third favorite city on the trip: Cannes. It's a toss-up between Cannes and Barcelona for second and third places. First, and forever favorite is Venice.
We made our first stop and picked up information about the city and in particular, the areas we needed to research. The major "bragging" point for Cannes is the weather -- year round it offers a mild temperature, beautiful beaches, the aqua blue water and the wooded mountain sides in the distance. Plus, it was graffiti free and clean. (We've decided we notice clean much more now that we live in Rome).
Cannes was first settled by the Romans as Napoleon admired the town on his return from Elba. Then, Lord Brougham, former Chancellor of England, who was enamored by its beauty of the country side and the hospitality that was offered by a local inn-keeper, built a magnificent residence here. Cannes became the home of millionaires, artists, writers and poets.
Cannes was very busy -- some type of sailboat regatta was taking place, which made great sense, considering the world yachting authorities chose Cannes as their playground in 1859. There were also several other cruise ships in port. We spent quite a while on the waterfront looking at the boats and yachts.
From the waterfront, we went to The rue d'Antibes. This is the major shopping area and there were plenty of stores to visit. I had "assumed" that since Cannes is the home for many of the rich and famous, it would be very expensive. Not at all. We found their prices to be extremely reasonable and in fact, found a few items we liked and ultimately purchased.
With one exception....I spotted a ring in a window that was quite unique in its design. John, being the ultimate gift giver, said "go try it on. You have time for them to size it before we go back to the ship." Me, being the kinda frugal type asked myself "do I really need this?" and then said, "let's go have lunch and I'll ponder on it." So, John knew at that point, he was off the hook as once I say I'll ponder on it -- it means 99% of the time, I won't do it. And, I didn't!
After lunch, we went to Le Suquet which overlooks the old harbor and is the area where Saint Anne's Chapel, the Castre Museum and the church of Notre-Dame d'Espérance are located. During July this area is the setting for the Suquet Musical Nights featuring concerts by famous musicians, conductors and soloists.
We headed back to the ship where John spent a couple hours working before we went to dinner.
Since neither of us still felt "up to par", we were happy to get back and take it easy for a little while.
Monday, September 25
Barcelona today! Beautiful is all I can say.
Located on the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is Spain's most cosmopolitan city. Since today was a holiday, all the stores were closed. (We forget which holiday it was - Spain is similar to Italy with holidays every other week it seems).
We hadn't planned on doing much shopping, so stores being closed didn't bother us a bit. We hopped in a taxi and headed toward the Temple de la Sagrada Familia. Enroute, the driver offered to give us a private tour of Barcelona and we said "yes".
Our driver, Manuel, was great. He knew the places we should see. First stop was the Temple de la Sagrada Familia. The construction of this Temple began in 1882. Antoni Guadi was named project director and he worked on it until he died in 1926. The Temple is still under construction and from the looks of it, it will be a long, long time before it's completed.
Eight bell towers are completed, four are still to be finished. The financing for this massive project is only by donations, private funding and the entry fees. The sculptures are very modernistic and fascinating. The Temple is just too awesome to try to describe. I found a great link for reading and viewing much more about it: From the Temple, we went to the Park Guell also designed by Antonio Gaudi.
The Park is considered to be the most unique of the many works which Eusebi Güell entrusted to Gaudí. It was declared a universal monument by UNESCO in 1984. Construction of the park began in 1900. The park is surrounded by a rubblework wall. The tops of the walls are covered with ceramic "trencadís" (a type of mosaic made from broken pieces of tile).
The only problem with the park was the bathroom facilities. We decided since we saw the signs for "toilettes", we would take advantage of the opportunity. NOT! John took advantage. I didn't. I absolutely, positively refuse to use a portalet unless it's an extreme emergency.
Our next stop was at the very top of Sierra of Collserola. It's 1,745 feet above sea level. The view was absolutely spectacular. It was a clear day, so we could see across to Montserrat and the Pyrenees, far out in sea was Mallorca.
There is also an amusement park up and the Tower of Telecommunications which was built in 1992 for the Olympics.
From the top of Sierra of Collserola, we headed toward the downtown area as Manuel wanted to show us the major shopping district and financial sections of the city. Even though everything was closed for the holiday, there were many people in the downtown area taking advantage of the beautiful weather and a very large festival.
We next went to Casa Batllo, another building designed by Antoni Gaudi. This building was more of a sculpture than a building (at least it looked like it). It was a complete remodel of a former house that had been built in 1877.
The outside facade is covered by mosaics of all different colors. The balconies on the building look like pieces of skulls with eyes and mouth. The columns look like human bones. Quite an amazing piece of architecture.
Next stop was the La Pedrera, again designed by Antoni Gaudi. It's one of the most impressive of his residential works.
The outside facade is a varied mass of stone without any straight lines. The forged iron balconies represent various vegetal forms. The building was recognized by UNESCO as "World Heritage" in 1984.
By now, we were starving, so John asked Manuel to take us to a restaurant where we could enjoy seafood and he asked Manuel to join us. Manuel was quite taken by surprise that we would invite him.
He took us to a great restaurant right on the waterfront where we gorged ourselves on all kinds of seafood. We were happy Manuel came with us as he gave us a lot more insight into the city and Spain. We also learned that he is an avid mountain hiker and backpacker. He and his wife will leave in November for a 55 day holiday mountain hiking and snow skiing. 55 DAYS! Wow. They definitely know how to live in Europe.
Manuel also told us that for him to obtain his taxi license, the cost was 120,000 euros. Takes a lot of fares to pay that kind of fee.
After stuffing ourselves, Manuel dropped us back at the ship, where we rested for a bit and compiled our notes from the day.
We both decided that Barcelona is another place we could easily live.
Sunday, September 24
Today was another travel day as we headed for Spain. We did our usual - walked, worked out. Then, John worked for several hours, compiling data and answering more geography questions.
I was lazy. I read and laid by the pool for a while after lunch. I have been having some stomach problems, which I do experience on occasion. It's just been so long, that I had to determine what was causing them.
My two solutions were: the wine (not used to drinking American wines any more and they used to bother my stomach some when we lived in Texas) or the fact that we are dining at the last seating, which is 8:45pm. We're usually done eating by that time (or close to it).
Saturday, September 23
We spent the day exploring Sicily and Mt. Etna. Normally, we shun shore excursions as we like to make up our own itinerary. However, we knew we wanted to see Mt. Etna as we will include it in the travel guides, so took advantage of the opportunity of the bus ride versus renting a car.
It was an incredible trip. On the way up to Mt. Etna, the guide was giving us a lot of information - very useful and informative. All of a sudden, she said we were going to make a quick stop for photos.
We were so lucky! The skies were completely clear today and Mt. Etna was having some explosions. So, we got off the bus and took pictures. Now, that was very cool. But the big question is: "what if it had been like an eruption - not just some explosions?" As Larry, our tablemate said, "if there had been an eruption, you guys would have made ashes of yourselves." Very funny !
We went up to 6,200 feet where we could see the Silvestri Craters and the 1983, 2001 and 2002 lava flows.
The city of Messina, where we docked, was interesting and quite pretty. Messina is the third largest city of Sicily and the capital of the province of Messina. It was founded by Greek colonists in the 8th century BC and was originally called Zancle (scythe) because of the shape of its natural harbor.
One of the sites we were impressed with was the Cathedral Square. The Cathedral’s bell tower houses an unusual astronomical clock that moves through a 15-minute cycle of evangelical scenes at mid-day.
Friday, September 22
As we've been doing each day, we spent a couple hours walking and then working out in the gym. It's been great. We've decided as soon as we get home, we are going to join the fitness center just around the corner from us. Both of us really enjoy the physical exertion and muscle building from working out.
Today was a travel day. I went to the internet cafe and answered some of my emails, while John worked for several hours as Kathleen's computer hasn't been repaired as of yet.
John has managed to catch the cold I had when we boarded, so he didn't feel too well. So, it was good to have a day at sea where he could work at his computer instead of being out, running around.
Thursday, September 21
Because Venice is one of the first cities we are working on for our clients' new travel guides, we spent quite a bit more time looking around and exploring again early in the day.
I have fallen in love. What a fantastic city. We both agreed we could easily live in Venice.
We left Venice early evening and headed for Sicily. On our departure, we sat on the balcony for a long time. It was really awesome to go on the Grand Canal out of the city. People were lined up along the bridges and sidewalks to watch the ship leave.
Wednesday, September 20
We arrived in Venice mid afternoon. We loved the quiet - no motorinas, no cars, no trucks. And, it was clean. No trash. No graffiti.
We wandered through all the narrow streets, crossed the Grand Canal on the Rialto Bridge, caught a glimpse of the Bridge of Sighs, went to St. Mark's Square and strolled through the piazza. It's huge. The buildings around the Piazza, anti-clockwise from the Grand Canal, are the Doge's Palace, St Mark's Basilica, St Mark's Clocktower, the Procuratie Vecchie, the Napoleonic Wing of the Procuraties, the Procuratie Nuove, St Mark's Campanile and Logetta and the Biblioteca Marciana.
John had a brilliant idea and that was to hire a water taxi. We spent an hour exploring the Grand Canal and many of the smaller canals leading off the Grand. It was a truly spectacular way to see the city.
We ate dinner at one of the local restaurants and walked back to the ship.
Tuesday, September 19
Today we spent the day in Dubrovnik, Croatia. This magnificent walled city on the blue Adriatic Sea is an architectural wonder. We toured the old town area with its shops and restaurants and the nearby beaches.
The old town was completed in the 13th century and remains virtually unchanged to the present day. There are only two entrances to the old town which lead to the Stradun, the city's promenade.
We did a little shopping as today was Andy's birthday and we wanted to find him a gift to celebrate - especially since it was a "big" birthday - his 50th! Andy's a Coors Light consumer and we found the perfect beer stein for him.
Shopping for the stein made us thirsty, so we found a wine bar that overlooked the waterfront. They had a very large menu so we ordered lunch, some libations and sat for a goodly amount of time people watching, boat watching and enjoying the atmosphere.
Following lunch, it was time to head back to the ship. Rather than wait for the shuttle bus (John loves to wait for things - NOT) , we hopped in a taxi. We were happy we did. Our driver was from the U. S. (California), moved to Croatia when he was 15 and has lived there ever since. He told us a lot about his experiences in 1991 and 1992 when the Serbs shelled the city. He sent his wife and children to the states so they would be safe.
Following the end of the war, a major rebuilding project led by the Croatian authorities and UNESCO began. They rebuilt the city in the ancient style to keep its sense of beauty and history. By the end of 2005, most of the damaged buildings in the city had been repaired.
When we visited with our table partners, we all had lots to share and talk about from our day's experiences. Andy liked his beer mug and Doreen had ordered a chocolate birthday cake that was absolutely delicious. Too many nights like tonight and we'll join the ranks of other passengers on board the ship!
Monday, September 18
Today was a day at sea as we traveled to Croatia.
We rose early, found the jogging track and walked our four miles. From there, we checked out the workout room. The workout room had the most equipment of any ship we've been on. So, we used a lot of the machines and the weights.
Since it was a beautiful day and a sea day, there were a lot of people by the pool and of course, in the public areas. Now, after seeing the assortment of guests on board (mostly Americans), we understand why the European newspapers always use the U. S. as their basis of articles about obesity.
My goodness! I think we now notice overweight people much more since we've moved here as there are not many fat Italians.
First, I thought with all that weight on board the ship might sink, but then we discussed the fact that when cooking, fat rises to the top. So, we were probably lucky with so many overweight people on board that if the ship were to start going down, their combined fat would keep us afloat.
Sunday, September 17
First stop was Naples. Our original plan had been to visit the Isle of Ischia. However, when we awoke to dark skies and intermittent rain, we opted to stay on board. I was suffering a bit from a cold and John didn't care about getting damp and chilled on a ferry ride to Ischia.
Our plan to stay on board worked out well for a couple reasons. We were able to go over our research list one more time and make sure we were all set for the other cities so we didn't waste any time. The second reason was because one of the people who works with us out of Texas had major computer problems and could not do her work while the computer was being repaired. So, John ended up spending about three hours working on geography questions.
We were really glad he decided to bring his laptop as it made working so much easier. The ship was great as it had wireless access and he could work from our room.
The day went by very quickly and at dinner, we heard about our tablemates' travels for the day. In spite of the rain, they all had a great time.
Saturday, September 16
We left today on our almost two-week odyssey of traveling. We've combined a work/vacation trip by taking a cruise. Lots less hassle than us driving or flying or taking trains all over. The car service arrived promptly at noon and we were at the port by 1:30. On board by 2:30 and surprise, surprise. Our luggage was delivered immediately. We were unpacked and "at home" by 3:30. Delightful!
We wandered around for a while, getting acquainted with our floating home. The ship was well laid out - easy to find everything.
We met our tablemates at dinner this evening. One couple, Doreen and Andy, from Arizona and Dione and Larry from Florida. Both couples were very friendly, funny and interesting, so we were happy to know we would enjoy and look forward to our dinners each evening.
Tuesday through Friday, September 12 - 15
Home again! After visiting family in Florida for a day and a half, and then on to Houston and Galveston for work for a week and a day's visit with sons, daughters-in-law and grandkids, it was back home.
It was a great trip, we had a very successful event in Galveston. It was fun to see family and friends and to work with my great partners.
Friday, September 1
Today My flight left for the U.S., and I won't be returning to the city of Rome until Tuesday, September 12. I will have an update posted by mid-month before we leave on a two week trip through Europe.
Ciao for now!
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