Thayer's Europe Trip

Thursday and Friday, August 31 and September 1st.

Well the trip has come to it's conclusion. On Thursday we meet with Piet and Fia in 's Hertogenbosch for lunch - a small token of our appreciation for putting up with us five this summer. After a fantastic lunch, we head back to Veghel to clean the car, pack and get ready for the trip back to Vancouver the next day. The evening is spent enjoyably visiting with cousins Eric, Phillip and Anouk, and their darling son Rens for one last time.

Piet and Fia take us back to Den Bos to catch the train to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Tante Annemieke, Joep, Deborah and Joop meet us at the airport for coffee and our final good byes. Despite our plane being delayed due to a random security check, once we're on our way, the entire trip back to Vancouver was completely uneventful. That is a good thing since the last thing you want is excitement and stress after a 2 month tour of Europe!

I would like to thank all the people who put us up (and put up with us) during our stay in the Netherlands and Germany. With a very special thanks to Piet and Fia. Your generosity took much of the stress out of our time in the Netherlands. Thanks again for the use of the Chrysler, Piet. It was without a doubt, the greatest thing that you could have done to make our time in Europe as memorable as it will forever be.

Love to all of you out there...

Till the next trip - ciao, arrivaderci, tot ziens, au revoir, auf wiedersehen and see ya!!!

Glen (editing by Sue!)

August 29th and 30th

While we were meeting the Kouwenhoven relatives we had arranged to have Anita give us a guided tour of Delft on Tuesday the 29th. Anita and Manfred meet us at a parkade in Delft and we head into town to tour. The plan is to catch a boat/walking tour of the town and unlike most of the trip...that is exactly what happens.

Delft is a beautiful city with a rich history. It was the home of the Dutch East India Company, and, more importantly, the best beer in all Europe (way back then, anyway). The city has a church whose tower leans almost as bad as the leaning tower in Pisa. The tours were great.

After touring the city for many hours, we go to the botanical gardens. Just as the gardens are closing a huge downpour comes. A number of visitors to the gardens try to take shelter in a tented exhibit, but the mean park staff kick us out into the rain!

Johanna trying to get turn the frog into her Prince!

We wander back to the centre of the city where we have a great dinner at an Indian Restaurant. After we say goodbye to Anita and Manfred we drive to Sue's cousin Miriam's place to stay the night.

The next day we get some good directions from Miriam's husband Donald regarding how to get into Amsterdam and where to park. Off to Amsterdam we go.

Our first stop is the Rijksmuseum to see some Rembrandt and Vemeer paintings (plus whatever else is there). The museum is one of the best that we visited in Europe. It was just the right size to tour in a few hours and it had some famous art works (and a few surprises).

After the Museum we stop in at the Hard Rock Cafe for some lunch. Lucas and Haley play a game of chess on a large outdoor chess set (Lucas won).

The ladies decide to go to the Anne Frank Museum while Lucas and I wander around (I found the Mac Store and checked out the new Mac towers - cool).

After Anne Frank, we head off to the Dam square to see a monument to WWII. Interesting monument - I guess someone will treasure it in 200 years, but for now it is kinda modern art and that does not really interest me. We head into Amsterdam's famous Calverstraat to do some shopping. A few gifts and trinkets later we head back to Miriam and Donald's place for a home cooked Italian meal.

Donald is a fantastic cook. He served up an amazing 3 course meal that we will not soon forget. Another great night at Miriam and Donald's and its back to Veghel to pack and get ready for the journey home on Friday.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday August 27,28 and 29

After we returned from the West Coast of the Netherlands, we decided we needed a day of downtime and laundry. That is all I can say for Thursday. A nice quiet day.

Friday sees us heading out to visit Susan's high school mate, Tamara. Tammy, he husband Bartz and their 4 kids live in a very small village about an hour south of Aachen, Germany. Major Bartz "weeds" Sykes is an F16 pilot for the US Airforce. We get to Tamara's house about 15:30. This is much later than we anticipated. This time the GPS is not to blame, but a huge traffic jam in Eindhoven and road work causing us to detour around the route to Tammy's house (oh, and also the fact that we had to backtrack to Veghel a half hour into our trip because Haley forgot the entrance tickets or the World Equestrian Games - better then than in Germany, I guess!)

The visit with Tammy was great. It was nice to speak English with native English speakers again. I am actually only partly correct with regards to the English speaking. Tammy's oldest daughter actually speakers 4 languages: English, Japanese, Lithuanian and German. She has gone to school in all these countries when her dad was stationed there. Lucas and Jo have a great time playing with the kids. Lucas was especially accommodating with the two youngest members of the Sykes clan.

They tackled and played rough with him endlessly. We have a great dinner and then Bartz returns from "work". I put the work in quotes since he never really leaves work behind. He tells us about the interesting day he had (it involved a car, a C-130 transport and an awful lot of driving around).

In the morning Soleil makes us chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. We thank the Sykes for their wonderful hospitality and head off to Aachen to spend a day at the World Equestrian Games.

We are going to the games to see Haley's best friend's sister compete for Canada. Unfortunately, like the rest of the trip so far...the best laid plans of mice and men...this time involves the Canadian Vaulting Team not making it to the second round of the Vaulting competition. They did not since Canada is a relative new comer to the sport. For those of you who have no clue what vaulting on horses is, you can think of it as gymnastics while riding a horse. Extremely good balance is required. The Germans have some 60,000 (I think that's the figure we were told) people who do the sport. Canada has about 0.001% of that number. We watch some vaulting for a few hours hoping to find Hannah (Haley friend's sister). Between events we tour the various booths selling the wares of Equestrian life. It seems that most of Milan turns out for these games. Dolce & Gabanna, Prada, Hermes, Gucci...the list goes on. They even sell sterling silver serving and dinnerware there. Oh, and there are a few horsey type things around too. I thought it was hilarious. Back at the games, we are excited to finally see Hannah and her mom right after the last event. We visit with them for a while.

We decided while at the games that we wanted to visit Aachen the next day. Tamara had lent us a cycle tour book for the area that had many B&B type hotels just outside of Aachen (obviously the WEG had taken everything in Aachen). We found a place about 30 minutes away and stayed there for the night. While there we wowed the staff with our vast knowledge of German with a German tongue twister: Zehn zahme Ziegen zogen Zucker zum Zoo (Ten domesticated goats pulled sugar to the zoo). The nice lady who runs the hotel thought it was so funny that she went around telling it to her staff.

The next morning we enjoyed a yummy breakfast at the hotel (included in the night's cost) and drove into Aachen to see the sights. It was pouring rain, but we relentlessly plodded on to discover the sights of Aachen centre. The Dom was amazing in that portions of it date back to Charlemagne and the successive Roman Emperors. We were also able to tour the Treasury which had a phenomenal collection as a result of the gifts that were showered upon the church by emperors and visiting royalty.

That evening we returned to Vechel.

Hi there. We are back safely in Vernon (have been for 8 days). Unfortunately, our notebook has died and we are waiting on a part from Dell to fix it. That is why there have been no more posts.

It should not be too long before the computer is working again and I can wrap this trip up :)

Glen

Friday, Saturday and Sunday August 18, 19 and 20th

This is a long one, so go grab your favourite comfy drink before you start this one.

On Friday morning Fia and I went out to get our hair cut (yes I do need one sometimes) while the others slept in (finally they say). Now I look sexy again ;-)

In the afternoon, we head off to Uncle Joep and Aunt Annemieke's place to see the Kouwenhoven side of Sue's family. We are staying here till Wednesday in order see people and to see the west coast of the Netherlands. Joep and Annemieke have arranged gatherings for the Kouwenhoven crew on Saturday and Sunday. We have rented bikes for Monday and Tuesday so that we can ride to Den Haag, Madurodam (miniature-land) and Scheveningen (the Dutch equivalent to long beach).

On Friday we spent the evening playing cards with our hosts (we played 31) and the kids learnt how to count in Dutch. On Saturday morning, we picked up the rental bikes since the bike shop is closed on Monday's (like many of the shops in Holland). On Saturday afternoon, we met with the first group of Kouwenhoven relatives. We had a very pleasant time with aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins, including Oom Kees & Tante Jeanne, John & Wendy, Deborah & Joop, Rene, Chris, Oom Nino & Tante Corrie, Joyce & little Lena, Oom Paul and Tante Christina. Tante Annemieke made wonderful food for us all and the weather gods were kind enough to allow us to spend most of the time out on the patio. It did not go unnoticed by yours truly that Deborah and Annemieke spent much of the time catering to us all, and for that we are eternally grateful! By the time things wound down, it was quite late, and we all hit the sack around 12am.

Sunday dawned rainy and miserable (okay, so I didn't see dawn; you get the picture!) Haley and I went to Mass with Annemieke while the others relaxed and prepared for the next onslaught of family! In fact, since the weather was so bad, Oom Joep cleared out a section of the garage in order to accommodate the smokers (a BIG thanks for that sacrifice!!). Early Sunday afternoon, the visitors arrived and we enjoyed the company of John & Wendy again, Tante Ada, Oom Jan & Tante Nan, Deborah & Joop, Raymond & Gerdiene, Anita & Manfred, Marielle & little Daimee, and Oom Kees & Tante Thea. I hope I haven't missed anyone! Once again, Tante Annemieke outdid herself with the food and we all ate, and were merry until late in the evening again. Throughout the weekend, the kids struggled with all the Dutch that was being spoken around them, but so many of the relatives spoke English that they were able to enjoy themselves. They also truly enjoyed the company of Wendy on both days and it was neat to see them playing together despite language restrictions! I can't express how wonderful it was to spend time with our overseas family...I think it's good to meet your roots! Joep, Annemieke and their kids and significant others were amazing hosts and we loved this weekend thoroughly.

After these late nights, we were a little slow getting started on Monday morning to go sightseeing, but we managed to pack quite a bit in. First we go to Leidschendam to try to see the house where Sue's dad was born and the house that the family of 19 lived in. Unfortunately, we did not have the address with us, so we just got some lunch at the mall and rode to Uncle Nino's house in Den Haag. On Saturday, Aunt Corrie had offered to buy our passes into Madurodam. Tante Corrie came with us to the gates of Madurodam on bike so that she knew we got there safely (and she was shopping in the area anyway). We toured Madurodam for 2-3 hours and had a great time despite the weather. It started out well, but it was starting to rain by the end of the tour.

Madurodam is fun! They have recreated many of the great old and new buildings of the Netherlands in miniature. There are miniature train stations, docks, ships, churches, palaces and even a miniature Schiphol Airport.

After Madurodam, we returned to Oom Nino and Tante Corrie's place for dinner. Just as we got to the house, the skies opened up and the rain poured down. Anita and Manfred were there already. Dinner was delicious and the company was even better. By the time we had to leave, the rain had stopped. So, we got on our bikes and started back to Voorschoten. About 500 metres into the ride, the rains returned. It started slow, stopped and then proceeded to dump on us - we got drenched. The rain stopped after a while, but it did not matter since we were soaked by then. Dark and rainy, we rode back to Joep and Annemiekes at about 22:30.

Tuesday dawned much drier than Monday. We rode to Liedschendam with addresses in hand to see the places we missed the day before. After seeing the houses, we stopped at Aunt Ada's house to see her. Off to Wim's house on the canal next. We grabbed some lunch across the canal after meeting with Wim. Next stop was the Dutch Parliament buildings: Binnehof and Buitenhof. There was a crowd of people waiting by a door to the outer Parliament buildings. Like good little lemmings, we joined the crowd. After a few minutes Susan asked what they were all waiting for. The first people were there for the same reason we were...they did not know...the next people were waiting for some minister to come out. We moved along. A bit more riding and sightseeing in Den Haag brings us to the road to Scheveningen. Scheveningen is the popular Dutch beach. The beach is long and sandy and there is a large pier that we were told was quite boring unless you are going to eat on it or go to the Casino at the end of it. There is a Sea Life exhibit that the kids wanted to visit. So, Susan and I give them some money and they go in while we go to a beach bar for a drink! We should have done this more often on this trip!! While at the beach bar we plan our next vacation...hahaha.

After the kids get back we ride up the dunes to Wasenaar (near Joep's house). The dune bike tracks are busy with road and mountain bike riders. The path is paved, so they go whipping by our single speed bikes. I see hills and take off after the speedy bikes. It was a good warm up for Glen (he says). The hills were minor (4% grade at the most) but it was nice to be climbing again.

When we get back to Joep and Annemieke's we have dinner. Annemieke really made an awesome dinner for us, the main course of which was Ostrich. Out of all of us, Glen is the only one that has had it before. Ostrich does not taste like a bird at all but it's also not gamey - rather delicious, I must say. After wine and dinner, we watched some videos from the 1994 trip of Joep, Annemieke, Deborah and Raymond to Canada where we met them in Alberta. It was cool seeing the young us again and Lucas at 1 year old. 01:30 was bedtime (these late nights are getting a little silly).

Up late the next morning and we thank Joep and Annemieke for the wonderful hospitality they have shown us. Off to Gouda, Waddinxveen and Boskoop to see the area where Mom K grew up. Susan calls her cousins Betty and Suzan to arrange to meet with them. Suzan invites us for dinner. We get to Betty's and are surprised to see Miriam (another cousin) and Dirk (Betty's husband) there as well. We visit for a couple hours (Lucas gets some quality computer gaming time with Betty's 13 year old son)or so and head off with Miriam to get some ice cream at a famous Jannsen's Ijs shop in Boskoop. We take the ice cream to the canal edge to eat it. I do not know why it is famous since the ice cream was good, but not good enough to be famous (oom Piet later informed us that the only reason it was so good years ago was because there weren't that many ice cream shops around then, so people came from surrounding areas to get it!). While in Boskoop we pop over to see Miriam's very spacious (by Dutch standards) place, meet her dogs and see Donald's (her husband) extensive Scotch collection.

Leaving Boskoop we head for Gouda to see Tante Truus and Suzan and her family. Dinner at Suzan's was a nice casual affair with pizza, pops and salad (Lucas and Jo help Suzan's oldest with Harry Potter on the computer). After dinner we walk over to Tante Truus' for dessert. Some more ice cream (yummy) and conversation and then we walk back to Suzan's and we are on our way back to Veghel to bed down before our next excursion.

I have uploaded more pictures at:

http://pics.livejournal.com/thayers

Glen

Wednesday and Thursday, August 16th and 17th.

We camp on the banks of the Rhine river and watch the river barges and tour boats ply the river. Our campsite has some special residents. A family of swans lives in the area.

The campsite is beside the town of Bacharach. It is the first camping that is close enough the town to allow us to walk the town in the evening, so we do. Bacharach is a beautiful town with a medieval feel to it. While exploring we meet a family from Newark who are heading to the romantic road. We give them some tips and they tell us where to go in Bacharach.

In the morning we catch a river tour boat for a round trip to St. Goar (downstream). The trip along the river with castles on each sine of us makes me imagine what it must have been like in older times. Many of the castles along the river were financed by taxing passage along the river. Pay the tax, or we sink you. Now, we just pay before we get on the boat.

When we get to St. Goar we wander up the hill (17% grade for 500m) to the castle. Unfortunately, there is not enough time to tour the castle before the boat back to Bacharach comes.

On the way back to Bacharach we are on a paddle wheeler that was built in the 1930's. The drive system is behind Plexiglas, so you can see the cam arms driving the shaft that moves the paddle wheels.

That is the it for the site seeing part of our trip. The last night is spent in Koln (again on the banks of the Rhine). We made some friends at the camping in Koln. Since the camper is due back tomorrow, we have to get rid of all the remaining food. After dinner we go around to our neighbours with food gifts. I gave a pasta dinner to a couple of guys in a tent. A few minutes after I return to the camper one of them comes running up with some licorice Shnapps for us. Then a couple minutes later he returns with apricot schnapps for the ladies. It made for a "happy" evening for Sue, Haley and I.

After cleaning the camper, packing all our gear and sleeping for the night, we returned the camper at 10:00 on Thursday. As I write this we are on a train from Dusseldorf to Venlo (and then on to Eindhoven to meet Uncle Piet).

It was a great trip. We are all worn out from it, but filled with enough memories to last many many years.

Glen.

Sunday and Monday, August 14th and 15th.

In our haste to run from the cold, rainy Swiss Alps, we drove all day to make our way to the south end of the Romantic Road. In all honesty, we were somewhat unsettled as to our plans for the coming days because we realized that there simply would not be enough time to do everything we wanted to do. In fact, many of the things we wanted to do in Germany were going to have to wait for the NEXT trip! (sans kids) Most disappointing was the realization that we would not have time to go whitewater rafting while in the Alps - well, perhaps we could find somewhere in Holland before we come home???? Okay, maybe not; I guess we'll have to save that experience for the beautiful BC mountains - the ones I'm missing terribly right now. Also, after seeing an ad for the German Legoland, we realized that it was something we didn't need to see either - I guess our kids are growing up!

So, with our itinerary more organized, we made our way to Fussen, just north of the Austrian border, where we could start a trek northward on the Romantic Road. It took all day (in the pouring rain) to get there from Lauterbrunnen, so once we arrived, we were ready for food and bed.

Next morning dawned bright, as evidenced by Glen's picture of the lake we were camped next to:

And the weather held out while we made our way to and through the famed Neuschwanstein Castle of Krazy King Ludwig II of Bavaria. King Ludwig had the castle built in the late 1900's. He never saw it finished though. He died before it was complete. The castle remains in the state it was when he died since all work on the castle halted at the Kings death. A bit of a warning to those going to the castle. Buy your tickets on the internet the day before. You'll get the time you want and not have to wait in a huge line. We placed an order for our tickets at 21:00 and got in the really short line. When I got to the window the nice German girl said that we had to book before 18:00 the day before, but she sold us tickets anyways.

The castle is what Walt Disney based his castles in Disneyland on.

Our tour guide was an interesting sort. He was German but speaking English for the tour. He spoke quickly and efficiently in a high lilting voice, something like listening to an unpleasant sounding elf. After the tour we took a horse and carriage ride back down to the village. On the road again, we went along the romantic road to Dinkelsbuhl to camp.

In the morning we headed off to Rothenberg. Rothenberg is a old walled city 3 times the size of Carcassonne and still active as a city. You can explore the inner and outer walls all you want. It was really cool walking the ramparts, thinking that you were back in Medieval times.

From Rothenberg we head north to the Rhine river. All along the way we could not help but laugh at the speed signs that were on all the non-autobahn highways. They indicate one set of speeds for trucks and one set of speeds for tanks.

August 11,12, 13, 2006

The trip from Venice to Switzerland was certainly a change of scenery. From Venice we stayed a night in a little swiss town by a lake. It was a tiny camping but it had wireless internet for some odd reason. Anyways, lots of laundry done and we are off to see the Alps. The journey to the Alps takes us through the 17km long Goddard tunnel. You can see the alternate route to the tunnel in the picture. Thank you Swiss moles for the tunnel.

Welcome to the Alps. We are planted in Lauterbrunnen. For those of you who remember 1996 and 1997, the world cup was held here. The Eiger is to our left, the Monch and the Jungfrau to the right. 3 very famous Swiss peaks. The weather has finally cooled off. Actually it's cold. 8 degrees out in the evening, 14 during the day. To add insult to injury, it is pouring rain also. The peaks are not visible at all. Of all the times to get cooler, wet weather this is the worst. A bit of rain in Rome would have been fine, just not in the Alps. Ahhh well c'est la vie.

The camping that we are in is beside a beautiful waterfall.

Our camper is parked beside a rushing glacial river. It feels like home. Since it is raining we decide to hunker down and watch The Mummy on the laptop.

In the morning we rented bikes from the camp office and made our way to a series of water falls under the mountain.

A gondola take us and our rides up to the town of Gimmewald. Its a cute, very quiet little town. We ride up 400m on a nice paved trail to the town of Murren. At points along the way the clouds clear and the vistas that we are missing tease us.

Murren is a larger town than Gimmerwald. That is to say it has 150 permanent inhabitants as opposed to 50. There are some hotels also. A little shopping at the local shops. I buy an official Swiss Army knife (Lucas had already bought one in the camp ground). Now you may think this is cliche, but there is a story behind it. When we were in the Vatican museum, I had to check the authentic swiss army knife that I had bought at MEC in Vancouver. When I went to pick it up, the nice Italian security people had mixed up the claim tags and given my new knife to someone else. Ironically, he had checked in an old beat up fake swiss army knife. I'm sure the dude that now has my swiss army knife saw the authentic one and did not say a word about it not being his knife. Well he will rot in hell for sure since he performed this dastardly act in the Vatican. So new knife in backpack, we head down the hill to Lauterbrunnen. The descent was fun. It was down gravelly double track. I do want to come back to this area and do some real mountain biking. It looks like a great area.

The plan in the morning was to go up higher and get the panoramic view. That night the weather started to clear up but alas the morning saw more rain and cloud. We talked it over and decided that the train ride up the mountain would be a waste of money (and it was very expensive). So, change of plans again and we head for the German castles of the Romantic road.

August 7th and 8th, 2006

Water, water everywhere and Johanna can't swim in any of it. We are in Venice. Venice is to us the antithesis of Florence. There are almost no museums in Venice but there are many, many little streets to get explore.

So far Venice has failed to disappoint. We had a fairly eventful trip out of Florence. We needed to find groceries since we had not done a grocery shop since before Rome. The GPS indicated that there was a shopping centre north of Florence. First I take the wrong exit and end up having to double back. Next the GPS sends us down the wrong turn, then we get to the mall and there is a sign in Italian that seems to indicate that campers are not allowed in parking lot. Once around the mall and it dawns on us that it means no over night camping. Park, shop, leave for Venice (I was about to beat my head against the steering wheel at this point).

We get a camp spot (no swimming for Jo though) and catch the local bus into Venice for an evening of scouting the town out. Rick's through the back door makes only 3 things a priority to see in Venice: Piazza di S. Marc, the #82 waterbus and the Riolto bridge. We catch the #82 but it is in the wrong direction. A tour of the industrial outer area of Venice and the Vaperetto (waterbus) pulls up to S. Marc's square.

As we tour Piazza di San Marco, we notice that water is starting to bubble up into the square. It is a full moon and the tides are at their highest. Apparently a combination of higher tides and Venice sinking has resulted in Piazza di S. Marco flooding 250 times a year. We plan on timing Day 3 in Venice to arrive in Piazza S. Marco at high tide. Lucas wants to see the flooding at it's most wettest. A bit of Gelato and a wander down the streets of Venice (where we find Prada, Gucci, and a cool book store) and we find a tiny little alley that leads to the Vaperetto dock for the waterbus we want. We cruise down the Grand Canal seeing Venice at night. It was wonderful. Sue and I sneak a kiss under the Rialto Bridge.

Day 2 and we decide to go to Murano to see some glass blowing. I peak in the DK guide and discover that the church in Murano has a mosaic floor dating back to 1147. The church closes from noon to 16:00, we get there at 11:45. It turns out that you only need 15 minutes to see the church. The mosaic floor is amazing. Off to find some glass blowers do their art. After having a picnic lunch, wandering the streets, entering pretty much every glass shop, we find out that most all glass blowers on Murano take the month of August off. Oh well. We picked up some great souvenirs, some great presents and Glen bought Sue some pretty glass jewelry.

We decide to catch the Vaperetto to Burano. Uncle Piet had mentioned to us that this was a great place to buy masks. Burano was traditionally known for its lace, but that has died out over the years. There is still many lace shops there though. Haley was in heaven in Burano. Every time that we have mentioned Venice she has mentioned her love of Venetian masks. Burano is the place to go for unique and fairly priced masks. I cannot even begin to describe the variety of the masks. There were cats, foxes, devils, De Bergerac, Casanova, beautiful women, and theatre masks. You name it, there is a mask for it. All the masks in the non-"made in China" shops are hand made, so they are all unique. Picking a mask is a personal experience.

We arrived back in Venice at around 20:00. Sue and I decide that tonight is to be our night out. We send the kids off to the bus so they can go back to the camp site. Sue stops in a little inexpensive shop and buys a couple skirts and a shirt to wear for the evening. She looked great (except for the shoes ;) ! We hop on the waterbus and get off at the Rialto bridge. A bit of smooching on the bridge and we plant ourselves in a restaurant - a table for two right on the water. The actual dinner did not matter, it was good food, but the most important thing was that it was just the two of us together on the Grand Canal. It was very romantic. The wine, the food, our feet up on the table legs to keep them out of the high tide ;). You'd think after 16 years we would have run out of things to talk about, but we talked the whole time. The two of us walked back along the mostly deserted streets of Venice to the bus depot. We caught the midnight bus and got back to the kids still watching movies on the laptop - dinner dishes undone - oh well whatever.

Day 3 in Venice. The plan today is to go to the Piazza S. Marco to see the high tide at 13:30 and then get lost in the streets of Venice. We get to the Piazza but no high tide. Bummer. We take a trip up the Campanile. The view from there is spectacular. We wanted to go into the Basilica, but the girls were not dressed appropriately. Then we wanted to go into the Doges Palace, but they wanted 12 Euro each. That is more than the Louvre, so we decided against it. A picnic lunch in the Piazza and off to get lost in Venice. We let Johanna lead. She takes us left, right, left, left....I'm lost already. The girls decide that they want to find Prada and a cool book shop that we found on the first night. We cheat and use the GPS to point us in the right direction. The book shop was really cool (but really expensive). We never did find Prada again. More wandering, more shopping (even the boys don't mind the shopping in Venice). Then the evening started to fall apart...

From the start of our time in Venice Johanna has been asking for a gondola boat ride in Venice. Sue and I have been telling her no since they are 70 Euro+ for 40 minutes. After a while we debate the issue and decide that we should do it anyways. We decide to walk back along the main shopping street in Venice so that Haley could see a really cool mask shop that Sue and I had spotted the night before, then catch a gondola near to the train and bus station. It is about 19:30 by the time we get to the bus station (with all the shopping et al along the way). It turns out that there are no gondolas in this area of Venice. They are all back at the Rialto bridge and Piazza S. Marco area. Tired and now hungry, we start back down the shopping street to try and find a gondola operator. All the shops are starting to close since it is now past 20:00. We get some pizza at a little snack shop (the guy at the snack shop taught us a bit of Italian) and some dessert at another little shop (a bit of an aggravating mis- understanding between us and the shop lady about the price). Near the Riolto bridge we find a gondola operator and ask how much. To our shock, the price has gone up to 100 Euro for 40 minutes. We find another operator and same thing. Sue and I decide that this is just too much. Johanna is heartbroken. Sue and I are really down now (we all are really). We are tired from wandering the streets of Venice, disappointed about Saint Marco's and the gondola. Now comes the kicker. Way back on day 1 we decided not to spend 25 Euro each on a 3 day ride anything, anytime pass for the transit system. Instead, we tried to cheap it out by buying passes when we needed them (at 5 Euro for an hour). On Day 2 we did buy a pass for the day at 12 Euro each. Day 3 we did not since we were expecting to be walking the entire day. When we went to S. Marco's we did buy one at 5 Euro each. Now we are dead on our feet and wanting to catch a Vaperetto back to the bus depot. We don't want to spend 5 Euro each on a rip off system designed to milk tourists out of their money, so we decide to jump on a Vaperetto and risk getting caught. Bad plan. Up till this point there have been absolutely no ticket checks on any of the buses (water or land). Tonight is the ticket check night it seems. Along comes a nice young man who asks for our tickets. Lucas produces the ticket from the morning. The nice gentleman checks it and starts to explain that it was only good for 1 hour (his English was not very good). We act shocked and play dumb tourist - "1 hour? We thought that they were good for the day". The young ticket agent takes some pity on us and says that only Sue and I have to pay the 35 Euro (each) fine for trying to rip off the system. That sends Sue over the edge and the tears start {no kidding - I had really had it with bad luck by now, even if we walked into this one of our own accord. ST}. The young man takes more pity on us and only charges us the 5 Euro each fare - grazie mille to him! We finish the already bad evening by just missing the bus back to camp by 1 minute after sprinting from the Vaperetto station. 30 minutes of waiting for the next bus, 20 minute bus ride and we all collapse into bed.

The last day aside, Venice was a very memorable place. I would very much like to come back to it and stay in a hotel on the island itself. We learned a few lessons from the last day. Assume at the start that you are going to use the transit system and get a pass. If you make a decision not to do something, stick with that decision. Don't create some false hope and then try desperately to fulfil the hope. If you change your mind on the decision, act on it in the moment.

Ciao Italy...Switzerland next.

Glen

Hi all,

We have found a camping with wireless access, so we will have the notebook on all night. The address is susiekow@hotmail.com if you want to MSN Messanger us.

Glen

August 9th,

Having skipped Florence, we are currently on our last night in Venice. Venice is awesome. Don't miss it whatever you do.

For those wanting to know, we did not need a Jeep to get us out of the sand dunes in Pyla, France. My brilliant driving got us out of it ;-)

We are sadly leaving Italy tomorrow. Italy has been a treat. The weather cooled down finally. Off to Switzerland tomorrow. We should have an update from some Swiss alp town in a day or two.

Till them Caio Italy!

Glen, Susan, Lucas, Johanna and Haley.

Saturday and Sunday, August 5th and 6th.

Saturday finds us on the way to Florence with a stop at Civita di Bagnoreggio (a Rick Steves recommended back door site).

Civita is a wonderful, untouristy location. Sitting a top of a hill, it has few residents (only 15, I think) and seems stuck in the Middle Ages. We wandered into the town and stopped at the snack bar for lunch. The shopkeeper has a picture of her and Rick on the wall as well as many photos of old Civita.

Wandering down a little street finds us at the house of Maria. She sits at the entrance to her now popular (5-10 people per day) lookout garden. She takes a few Euro and rambles on in Italian (we have no idea what she said). The view from her garden is breathtaking.

We visit the brothers selling their olive oil (buy some of it) and see the old olive press. The church is next with its ancient crucifix (one of three made by Donatello) showing Jesus with his eyes open and alive. Its almost like he is staring at you.

A bit more wandering, a 3 km walk back to the rig (campers do not have access to the much closer parking for Civita), and we head north for Florence. Along the way to Florence we start wondering what we will get out the city. All of us are sick of museums (and they don't like Sue's back either) and Florence is the museum capital of the world. A decision is taken to skip Florence. That's right, you are not in the twilight zone, we are not going to Florence.

As I type this, I am finally caught up with the blog. I am sitting in a campground South East of Florence having done nothing today more than walking 2 km into town to go to a bank machine. We have all vegged this day and it has been great - no guilt here! Tomorrow we head to Venice (a long drive). Oddly enough, Florence was not in our original plans to visit. We are not really museum people, preferring instead to be active or be somewhere less structured. The rest of the trip will be that way, I think.

Glen

Wednesday to Friday, August 2nd to 4th, 2006

The saying goes...When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I have no idea what they mean by that, but we are here. If the Romans go to the Vatican, the Ancient Quarter, the Spanish steps, and wait for buses and trains, I guess the saying applies.

After finding a campsite at Happy Camping in Rome at a reasonable daytime hour, we sit back, relax and chill for a few hours (the bus takes a siesta from 13:30-16:00)and then head into Rome to scout it out.

The campsite is a bus ride (provided free by Happy Camping), a train ride and a metro ride away from the tourist area of Rome. Our first evening in Rome finds us seeing the Spanish steps, the Treve Fountain and the Pantheon, and just generally wandering around. There is some sort of German Christian Youth Conference going on, so the place is packed with many groups of 20-30 German youths having a great time. Found a huge Internet Cafe to update things and check the emails, and then had dinner in a nice little restaurant near Piazza Barbarino. Note to those that are travelling late in Rome: Metro Line-A closes at 21:00. Don't count on it getting you to your train station at that time. Unfortunately, we were not apprised of this (and had no reason to think otherwise), so we ended up running three metro stops in order to catch our train before the last bus returned us safely to the campsite.

(an Ontario canoe on the Tiber...go figure)

Thursday and we're off to the Vatican! No chance of seeing His Holiness since he only comes out to see the commoners on Wednesdays and Sundays. We opt for the Vatican Museum first. If you are in Rome, do not miss this museum. The Sistine Chapel (which is part of the museum) is worth the trip by itself. There was a line up around the block for the Museum, but it moved fast. The works in the Museum were fantastic, but it was far too crowded to be able to spend any time appreciating them. Don't miss the micro mosaic display. It is off to the right of the main flow (I can't remember which room exactly - again, go figure!). It shows many tile mosaics the size of small broaches. Truly amazing works.

I snuck a picture of God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel (no photos allowed). The big bronze dude is the original Hercules. The little round medallion is about 6 cm across and is a micro mosaic.

Friday brings us to the Ancient quarter. We had decided that the only two things we really wanted to see in Rome were the Ancient area and the Vatican. I would like to personally thank Rick Steves (and my wife Susan for reading his webpage) for the extremely helpful hint of getting tickets to the Palatine and the Colosseum at the Palatine. If I can put my travel writer hat on for a sec: Between the Colosseum and the Palatine is a large arch. If you face the arch with the Colosseum to your left and the Palatine to your right, you will see a road heading up to your right. Take that road till it almost stops. Tucked at the end of the road is a ticket booth. Buy your tickets there. The booth was empty when we got there and it saved us over an hour at the Colosseum.

The Palatine was a real step back in time. There are lots of old buildings including the house of the Emperor (Augustus). Unfortunately, some of it was closed due to restoration projects, so we did not get to see it all.

Colosseum next. What an amazing building. If you can ignore the fact that the building housed brutal acts of cruelty then you have to hand it to the Romans for an engineering feat. Even though our smartly achieved tickets allowed us to save a bunch of time at the Collesuem, we still had to wait in line for the metal detector and security check (these are at every important museum and historical site).

After the Colosseum, we wander up the road to the Roman Forum. In the DK book on Italy, they show a really nice garden around the abode of the Vestal Virgins. Apparently it was excavated for archaeological reasons, because it was definitely not there anymore. The temple of Saturn is cool, as well as the Arches. We listened in on an American tour guide (he was really bad) retelling the story of shared Emporer power between two brothers. One had the other assassinated and actually removed all traces of his brother from the great arch that their father had built. Unfortunately for him, it didn't do any good as he was assassinated a mere 10-15 years later.

We take the metro/train/bus combo back to Happy Camping and have a dinner at the restaurant there. Susan orders a Quarto Fromaggio pizza but she wants them to put pesto on the bottom. Lucas had ordered this pizza the night before (sans pesto since it is not supposed to come with it) and it was yummy delicious (as Haley would say). The waiter finally figures out what Susan wants and relays that to the pizza master. All hell breaks loose. The father of the restaurant (Marchelle?! - not positive on the name as he only said it once) comes over and explains in excellent English that 3 generations of his forefathers would roll over in their graves if they built such a pizza. Susan capitulates and has an excellent Quarto Frommagio pizza. The pizza at this restaurant is primo!! Martichello hangs around at our table and tells us about the Sistine Chapel since he used to be a tour guide. At some point I mention that it is our 16th wedding anniversary that day. Martichello stops all the conversation and orders a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate. Even Lucas and Johanna get a glass. It was a wonderful finish to our visit to Roma. Grazie mille Martichello and the staff of Happy Camping for the great time.

Glen

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

We head out of Cinque Terre on the way to see the tower in Pisa.

{Now, let me explain: originally, we were not too keen on even going to Pisa because it's been labelled as such a tourist trap. But upon the insistence of 4 of the 5 people in attendance, we braved the crowds, and the souvenir kiosks, and ended up having a really fun day in Pisa and Lucca.}

We park and head for the Duomo and tower of Pisa. The area is a zoo of street vendors selling everything and anything. In addition we see what we surmise to be pickpockets all over. Money belts safely tucked, cameras safely held, we take the gratuitous pictures of people (and stuffies!) holding up the tower.

We decide not to spend any money going up the tower or into the Duomo. A wander into the town of Pisa finds a little restaurant where we have some lunch. Back on the road and we are off to the town of Lucca.

Lucca is the Italian word for Lucas, so it is only natural that we should visit it. The old town itself is really nice. We decided to rent some bikes to get around town this time. Susan and Lucas, Haley and Jo rent tandem bikes. I take the single bike (a wise move if you ask me). A bit of struggling with the tandem bikes for Lucca and Sue {it takes a bit to get used to the extra weight!!!!} then off to the Piazza to see the sights of Lucas' village.

The decision for the camping for this night was to wing it on the way to Florence (stay in a "P"{a rest area on the "A" highway} or in a camping site) with the intention of getting into the Camping Michelangelo (in Florence) early the next day. As has been stated in this blog before...the best laid plans of mice and men...

Unfortunately the Autostrata between Lucca and Florence has few P's (a P is basically a souped up rest stop - usually with a a restaurant and gas station - that you can sleep at if you need to) so we decide to make a right turn before Florence to find a camping for the night. The right turn led to a twisty, windy mountain road that went on and on. We went over the hill to the south of Florence and into the Chianti region (without really realizing it). Susan does some research in the camping books that we have and finds a camping not far from where we stopped to figure out what we were going to do. Now the height of the bus {THE CAMPER!!} is 3.3m and the road to the camping unfortunately has an underpass of 3.15m on the end we were approaching from, so we have to find another direction to get to the camping. A bit of map and GPS work and off we go across the Arno River. I am convinced that no vehicle with greater than a 3.15m clearance can go to this camping because we encounter another 3.15m underpass on the other approach as well. We decide to find a P on the A1 south of Florence. It's now about 22:00, we are all tired and just want to rest...and EAT! After passing 3 P's that have no space left due to truckers and campers we find ourselves 30 minutes south of Florence. Susan and I discuss it with the others and the group decision is to skip Florence and come back to it after going to Roma first. I battle the rigs down the A1 and find a P with space. It's 23:30 and we are pooped.

Glen {and Sue}

Monday, July 31, 2006

Cinque Terre

5-Terre is a National Park in Italy consisting of 5 small towns nestled along the coast of the Med. The towns, from south to north, are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. The towns are not really accessible by car (you have to be really brave to attempt it - there is no way the bus {he keeps calling it a "bus"; IT'S A CAMPER! st}would make it). There is a milk run train that we caught in Deiva Marina early in the morning (at least for the sleepy heads that are on this trip) to Riomaggore. This was our biggest mistake of the day ... start in the North and head South instead of starting South and heading North - there's way less uphill that way.

(Haley and Johanna on the train)

There wasn't much to see in Riomaggore, so we decided to start our walk to the next town, Manarola. The walk was a peaceful stroll that reminded us of the Seawall in Stanley Park in Vancouver.

. (the trail heading east after the climb up the steps)

In Manarola we browsed the market, saw the town and picked up some small pizzas for lunch (good and cheap). We hiked our way up to the next town. The trail goes off the "seawall" and starts to climb just a bit since the next town is not on the ocean. As we walked, our thoughts were lost in the picturesque scenery. Looking down, you could see the rocks below with the gentle Med waves lapping them. There are many trails going down to the water for those wanting the warm Med waters.

It is now starting to get hot. The trail is almost completely south facing, so the sun beats upon us without mercy. At the end of this trail you can either walk to a famous clothing optional beach or take 300+ steps up to the town itself. We opt for the climb (although Johanna seemed genuinely interested in the alternative!?!).

After a break to catch our breath, we enter the town of Corniglia. It's streets are very narrow and cool. Susan finds a little bottle of a lemon liqueur that is shaped like the boot of Italy for a souvenir. We find some steps to have our well earned lunch (yes, we dragged it all the way up the steps). This town is the cutest of the 5 and my favourite. Throughout the hike, the hillsides are covered with little patches of vineyards, tomato farms, basil patches and many other regional specialities. It is truly a beautiful area.

The path to the next town, Vernazza, will take us up into the hills a bit. We thankfully fill up our water bottles from a free watering station in town (nice and cold) and head up the trail. It is now about 14:00 and at least 38 degrees with 100% humidity and the stupid tourists are going on a 90 minute "stroll" along the south face of a cliff with little or no shade. We meet some interesting people from Illinois and from New York along the way and exchange a few Europe stories. The trail basically goes up, up, up...and up and then back down. Johanna and I are really feeling the heat for some reason. We both began to feel the effects of heatstroke before we reached the descent. Luckily we reach Vernazza with out any ill effects. We head straight for the Med and into the water....ahhhhh.

We finally manage to find an internet cafe in Vernazza and spend 30 minutes or so checking e-mail. The internet cafes have been surprising less prevalent than I thought they world be (either that or we're looking in the wrong places). In France they were almost non-existent; Italy is better. After a bit of debate on train vs boat to the next town we decide on boat (we ARE tourists after all!).

In Monterosso we looked around for a bit and then caught the wrong train back to Deiva Marina. Someone was looking out for us because the train had a problem and had to stop in one of the towns before Deiva Marina, so we quickly hopped off and waited for the right train to arrive. Back at camp, we have some dinner, a shower or 3 and off to bed.

Glen {edited by Sue}

July 30 and 31

It's time to learn a new language. Up till this point we had Susan's Dutch knowledge and all our French knowledge. None of us speak Italian (or ever have tried). This should be fun. From the Provence region, we headed along the French Riviera toward Italy. We decided that we would follow the coastline to the next (and last) camping in France. For those of you that have driven the Sea to Sky highway to Whistler, triple how twisty it was in the mid 80's and you get the road along the Riviera. Not the best time, but the views were breathtaking!!!

We head trough Cannes to the camping for the night (the one with the reservation ;-) )

The next day we head for ITA. Driving this "A" route can be described as tunnel then bridge...lather, rinse and repeat. The towns and cities along this stretch of road are really cool. Everything is terraced. There are endless greenhouses on the terraces as well.

We reach the Cinque Terre region and camp in a little Seaside town called Devia Marina. After burning away some of the clutch getting into the camping site, we head for the beach. We all have endless fun in the waves...well until it's dinner time. Supper and we sleep.

Glen

July 29th, 2006

Time to a little Provencial magic. Since we really did not have a plan for this area we picked up some brochures at the camping and headed towards Les Baux de Provence. This is an old city built on a natural defencive point of limestone. Really cool place to visit. The fact that it had actual medieval siege engines was the original attraction.

We get there and there are a lot of Gendarmerie (French national Police) around. Apparently there was some sort of wedding of an important (a.k.a. really rich) French celebrity in the city. They actually closed off the streets leading up to the Citadel to accommodate the wedding. We saw the motorcade come from the wedding. Amid the ignorant, insulting and rude paparazzi (we were bumped by some twit with a high speed camera tring to get photos of the people in the cars), we got to see how the "other half" lived (sort of).

The site itself is amazing and well worth the visit (even though Rick Steeves does not mention it). They have an old busted trebogee, a beallita and a catapult. Lucas temped me at one point with the catapult:

The site is not "restored" so you get to see it in the raw state. There is a contant wind going over the hill that it is on. The wind is the Mistral wind. Very refreshing when it is 38+ degrees out ;-)

As you can see from the picture, the kids were not behaving well, so we took advantage of the local child laws.

After the tour we got to fire some cross bows at the range.

Susan was the only one to hit the target.

A great place to visit. Make the detour to it if you are in the Provence region!!

Glen

Wednesday, July 27 and Thursday, July 28, 2006

We decided to head for a camping near the Pont de Gard. This is the largest intact Roman aqueduct in existence. Little did we know (since none of the guide book said it) that it is also a favourite camping/swimming spot for the French. We did not get a spot at the Point. Had we known that it was a great swimming spot, we would have planned a day there for the kids to swim etc. The aqueduct is amazing. The Romans sure knew how to build things.

We decided to wing the camping for the night. Driving from Pint de Gard to Avignon we found a nice little camping not listed in any of the guides. While there we noticed a constant noise from the trees. We had no idea what was making the noise, but it was constant and not bothersome. The morning reviled the culprit. Something in the back of my mind said Cicada (I do not know if that is how you spell it) and I was right. A Cicada bug fell out of the tree on the ground by the motor home. Big suckers, but harmless. Off to Avignon.

We arrived in Avignon with plenty of time to see the city, get a camping and have a swim in the pool. Avignon is a cool place. The Popes Palace and the bridge are the big attractions here. The bridge is cool just for the age of it and the song that is associated with it. The Pope's palace was a bit of disappointment, but not bad. Yes, we did do some dancing on the Pint de Avignon :-D

Back to the campground for a swim. Finally some real French swimming ... the first top less (and thus far only) female. Lucas made no reaction...should I be worried?

We had the lady at the reception of the camp ground (they were very nice and almost thankful we were speaking English) reserve a camping at our next stop so that we could travel the real French Riviera with out any worry of the camping - I did marry a smart cookie ;)

Monday, July 23, 2006

Ahhh Carcassonne. The French have a saying that goes something like "I've seen Carcassonne, now I can die." Carcassonne is a fully restored (some argue too well restored) walled medieval city at the start of the French Riviera. It is an amazing sight. Not to be missed.

Take a full day (or two if you want to catch some of the dramas) to do Carcassonne. We did not get up to the city till just after noon. The first thing we did was to watch a joust. They had the good knight vs the bad knight. There 3 on a side. There was lances, accuracy games, and sword play. The good side won (just barely).

After the joust we head into the city.

We had supper in the city at a really nice restaurant.

Some of the highlights of Carcassonne was the sword/armour shops. Lucas really wanted a sword to have in his room. Lucas, Susan and Haley wanted to go into a haunted house. Jo an I wandered around while we waited. We were both sitting by the entrance to the haunted house when we heard this scream come from down the alley. It was Susan jumping out of her skin from the "scary" exit of the haunted house. Apparently they had creepy hands surprising them all the way along the house.

Susan and I decided to let Lucas have the small dragon dagger that he wanted, but with conditions. Unfortunately, the store was closed by the time we came to that decision. We decided to come back the next day. Off to camp for the night.

Tuesday, July Th, 2006

We start the day slowly and do some grocery shopping then head up to the city to get Lucas' sword. By the time we got the bus up the hill and get to the shop, it is closed for Lunch. We eat our lunch and head back into town to get the sword. This makes us very late leaving Carcassonne (15:00).

Just as an aside to all this...the temperature every day has been at least 35!!!

Glen