Home again.....

We arrived home last night (Wed 9/22) about 10pm.....exhausted.  We were able to get on both of the flights we requested, but the standby option is a little stressful.  Our flight from Washington DC to Indy was delayed 3 hours due to weather, but we were aboard.  Debbie, our friend who has been house-sitting, greeted us along with the dog and 4 cats.  Everyone was glad to see everyone else!  Thank you Debbie for being the perfect house-sitter.....the house was spotless, animals well-cared for and grand-daughter Preslee reached first for "Auntie Debbie" this morning when her Mom & Dad dropped her off !!  Fortunately, it didn't take her long to remember her Grannie & Papa.

I can't wait to watch some football this weekend...Ft Wayne Dwenger on Fri, IU on Sat and the Colts on Sun.  The Europeans truly could not care less about American football.  Aside from family & friends, football was the thing I missed most while traveling abroad in September.

Thanks to my sister Shirley, I started working on this blog, and I will say I am surprised at the amount of enjoyment I have gotten from it.  I prefer this forum over Facebook as it seems more personal.  Each day of the trip, we enjoyed trying to decide which events to write about....plus the act of getting connected to the internet everyday certainly presented some challenges.  And the feedback we received from y'all was wonderful.  We felt connected, even though we were a long way from home. So, now that I have begun, I will try to keep posting to this blog. Hopefully, some interesting things will happen that I want to share with you....otherwise....it will be pretty boring.

Stay tuned....you know.... not all excellent adventures take place a long way from home....

Perugia & Cortona

Sorry we missed an update, we have been out of touch for awhile.  We are now installed in the Comfort Inn near the airport in Roma, preparing for our attempt to get home tomorrow.

Yesterday we traveled to Perugia, looked at the sights and toured a wonderful museum.....then met up with another set of friends....David Miller, Tom & Diane Houlihan.

 We are pretty amazed that on a trip to the other side of the world, we were able to connect with so many wonderful friends to share our adventure.  Tom & David have been touring in France with another friend for the past 2 weeks, visiting WW-I battle sights.  After Diane joined them in Paris, they flew to Firenze, then drove to a villa they rented near Cortona.  The villa is beautiful with another incredible view, but the road to get there is a little scary.  We went into town last night for a great dinner and a good evening of laughter with friends.

Thank you David, Tom & Diane for sharing your home and your spirit.

We will attempt a quick sight-seeing trip to the ruins of Rome this afternoon, then tomorrow, we start the trip home.  The trip has been more incredible than we could have ever imagined.  We feel like we are completely saturated with memories of incredible people, sights, food, wine and bread.  If you do not hear from us, assume we are en-route.  Thanks to all of you for following along and all of your warm greetings.  We are looking forward to seeing our kids, grandkids, friends, neighbors and pets.

Scurrying in and scurrying out....

Today we made quick time visiting three villages from David Miller's list.  After 8 days of visiting Tuscan villages, we have this down pretty well.  We can arrive, park, see the high points, shop the shops, have a gellato or capacino, take 50+ pictures and be out of town in 2 hours.  All three of the villages we visited today were very interesting for different reasons.

Montepulciano featured an incredible view from every point in the city.  Panoramas so magnificent that photos do not do them justice....so I won't post one....

In Chiusi, we met a nice dog while enjoying a glass of wine, then discovered a very good museum of 2,500 year old Etruscan artifacts.  And admission was only 4 Euro....best bargain of the trip !!

In Pienza, we heard a street musician who was thoroughly entertaining.

Tomorrow, we go to Perugia to meet with two old fraternity brothers.....certainly another unforgettable day.

By the way, we are now around 1,000 photos.....if you ask to see our pictures, pack a lunch !!

P. S.  We just went up the hill to the downtown part of Terme -{ believe me you wouldn't want to drive those roads for the first time in the dark} to a little restaurant that we had found during the day when we got lost and drove on some roads that no sane American would drive!!!!!  Anyhow;;;;;;; we went to this little ristarante for dinner after 7:30 pm - it was just exactly like our friend Brenda said it could be.  The food was just wonderful, the owner and staff were even more so.  I would eat there every day for the rest of my life if I could.  Granted, I am a little tipsy from all the Casa Red but I can tell you it was delightful!!  Raymond said I am done so I reckon I am.....xome

Rick & Lucy go to Siena.....

We packed this morning and said goodbye to the cats, then closed the gates of Casale  Diece for the last time and headed toward Siena.  We had programmed the GPS to take us to the center of town….which in most of these cities is the center of the historical area.  We were being very careful not to get too close to the historical area, yet find the best possible parking space.  We found a spot that would easily accommodate a pair of men’s shoes and spent much effort installing our mini-diesel in that spot.  Then….we realized that spot was reserved parking for Siena residents only (those displaying the appropriate stickers) So we inched toward the center of town, and before realizing it….we were traveling on the single-lane cobblestone streets of Sienna.  Shoppers were moving to the side as we passed…..Echo was trying to hide under the dash……we feared a revolt might ensue and the tourists would carry our car out of town.  It was indeed, like an episode from Sienfeld.

We considered walking away but figured that was unacceptable.  Then, we found a trash truck and figured if he could make it through, we could make it through as well.  At an intersection, both of us were passed by a taxi….so we started following the taxi….letting him anger the tourists while we followed.  The taxi turned back into town and we attempted an exit….then we found ourselves behind a small drum corps celebrating with the Siena flag.  We were so proud to be in their parade that Echo came out from under the dash.  Then, the parade moved over and waved us on.

After all of that, we still managed to find a pretty good parking spot. 

Siena is another incredible city.  There is a large beautiful piazza where they stage a brutal horse race twice a year.

 While standing in that piazza, groups of vintage racing cars on some sort of tour began appearing from one of the side streets.  We stood and watched many outrageously beautiful old racing cars as they passed through the check-point for their stamp.

 We walked and shopped and enjoyed Sienna, but began to worry we might sleep in the car if we did not start searching for lodging.  Finding lodging in Italy is completely different from the US.  You have to search for it…..and they keep it hidden.  Without going into detail, we are now in a lovely hotel in Terme, a small town southeast of Siena.

A day of rest...

We didn't stray far from the house today.  I think we were all tired and Echo is nursing a bad cold.  We did go out and walk for awhile enjoying the olive groves and vineyards.

It is hard to believe we have been in this house for a week or that we have been on this trip for almost two weeks.  The things we have seen and experiences we have had are all so unbelievable.

We made a trip this afternoon to Firenze to drop off Brenda at the airport as she has to return to work.  We might have been able to do this trip without her help, but I am certain we would have missed a lot.  Thank you Brenda for all that you have done....we truly enjoyed our time together.

Tomorrow we pack up again and probably head for Siena.  We have no plans yet, but that seems to be when we do the best.  So long San Gigimnano.

Traveling the Chianti area...

We arrived home too late and too tired to post yesterday.  We had another full day.

Trying to beat the rush of tourists, we left early for San Gigimnano.  After admiring the village from our house for days, we had not yet walked her streets because of the lack of parking and rush of tourists.  So we arrived early for some coffee and fresh baked goods before the crowds arrived. Soon after we entered the town, the streets filled quickly as yesterday was market day in San Gig.

At the market, we bought some roast pork and few other things and went back to the house where Echo & Brenda prepared a wonderful lunch.  Then we were off again to explore the Chianti area.  We happened onto a very small, family run winery and met the family and purchased some wine and olive oil.

Over the past two days we have visited in about five villages in this area.  Each one unique in it's own way, yet all of them featuring beautiful buildings, wonderful food and pleasant local flavor.  And of course, the countryside between all of them is simply stunning.

We have not yet decided today's plan, or where we will go when we leave this house tomorrow, but we are certain it will be beautiful and an adventure indeed.

A laid-back day in Tuscany....

Given the intensity of yesterday's visit to Firenze, we decided to take things a little easier today. After a quick trip to the grocery (too late last night when we got home), we had a great home cooked breakfast on the terrace.

,,,greeted the 4 new cats that arrived with Gellato for breakfast......took some goofy photos....this one of Echo emulating Meryl Streep fro Mam Mia....

...and set out to explore San Gigimnano.  By now it was already 11:00 and San Gigi is like the Galinburg of Italy.....absolutely no parking.  So we set off to explore the quaint little Tuscan villages in the Chianti region.  We had a fabulous day.  We had a wonderful lunch at a 3 generation ristorante and saw wonderful landscapes and wonderful village scenes....lots of shopping and visiting with locals.

I don't remember the names of the towns, and it is too dark to look at the map. We are out on the terrace and it is dark.  I can't explain how we were able to connect to the internet from here, but it involved a coat hanger, some string and a bottle of wine....

We have not yet made plans for tomorrow, but it will surely be fabulous.  This continues to be a great adventure.

Firenze....(We call it Florence....go figure)

We left early again today and drove to Firenze for a day of sigh-seeing and to meet up with our friend Brenda.  We arrived in the city limits at about 7:30.....the 12 million folks were on their way to work......3 million of them are on scooters.  Traffic moves just like a swarm of bees.  If there is an opening, everyone goes for it.....if there isn't an opening....they go for it anyway.  We are on speaking terms again with the little guy in the GPS and he managed to get us to a parking garage.  We left the garage....walked about 3 blocks and realized we couldn't even find where we were on the map....back to the garage and some help from the attendant (who spoke no English)....a map....a few hand signals.....and we were off.  The streets are so narrow and so crowded, it makes Boston look spacious.
The art and architecture are truly remarkable....everywhere you look is a beautiful statue, building or piazzo.  We toured a palace this morning and incredible gardens....

Then shopped at some of the wonderful markets....and yes...we did meet up with Brenda.  After some more wandering and lunch, we walked up 480+ steps to the top of the dome of the Duoma Cathedral.  Scenery was breathtaking to say the least.....

Some more wandering and viewing and an art purchase, a beautiful little water color by this friendly man we met in the market....

We are on our way back to our house, to rest and regroup for tomorrow's adventure.  Thanks for everyone's good wishes.

Ducati factory tour

We were up early and on the road by 6am to get to Bologna for our appointment to tour the Ducati factory.  We made it in plenty of time and had a great tour.  Suffice to say I have lots of Ducati pics, but too stressful to post here.  We are sitting in the parking lot at the bus station in Poggibonsi using some 'off-the-wall' internet connection.  Trying to coordinate the pickup of Brenda in Florence tomorrow.  As Echo says, "how hard can it be ?"
We did have an adventure trying to get out of Bologna this afternoon...after finally finding a ristorante for lunch.  We have become very good friends with the little man that lives in the GPS unit, however, he is sometimes difficult to understand.  We made a loop of about 25 miles three times today before we understood his instructions.  We literally drove the same route and paid the same 0,70E toll three separate times before we figured it out.  Italian driving is indeed an adventure.  You may be lost, and not know where you are going, but you are always making good time getting there.
We are going to head back to our little villa, cook some pasta, drink some wine, feed the cat, and rest up for tomorrow's adventure in Florence.  We just read where they have a population of over 12 million....should be easy to find Brenda....How hard can it be?

Laundry day...

Laundry day in San Gig.  Since we have been on tour for eight days, it is time to launder our seven-day wardrobe. Our house features two laundry areas….one indoors (kitchen) and one outdoors……with a nifty drying rack.  If you are going to hang your clothes outdoors, it may as well be overlooking an 1,800 year old city !!  Echo longs for the stacked facilities of home.

Internet access is a little tricky here.  The early Etruscans ran very little Cat-6 wire and installed very few wireless Hot-Spots.  We drive around in our mini-diesel until we find a connection, then park  the car and use it as our mobile office.  If you don’t hear from us for awhile, it is not because we are not thinking of you, we are searching for a connection.  We love sharing this with you and love the contact from home.  We wish all of you were here to share this delicious country with us, but we would want you to do your own laundry !!

Here is our house cat.  We haven’t determined it’s gender, but is very sweet.  We call it Gellato.

After chores, we headed off to Pisa.  Boy those folks built a lot of really cool stuff....too bad the tower leaned.  We didn't take the tour to the top.....looked like it might fall over !!

Up early tomorrow.....drive to Florence for Ducati tour.  Brenda arrives Tuesday to hang out with us for a few days.  Talk to you later.....

Dragon-Schmagon

We left Treviso this morning by train, and made it to Bologna on time without getting scolded by the trainman.  We are learning.  Then it took us an hour to find the car rental place.....finally got installed in a nifty diesel Fiat.  Headed toward Florence on the FAST CRAZY HIGHWAY, but got off to find the famed twisty road from Bologna to Florence.

For all of our motorcycle friends, you should see this. Makes Deals Gap look like a walk in the park.
Dragon--Schmagon !!  Plenty of motorcycles....all kinds......all fast.....all geared up in Dainese & AlpineStar.  Oh....and they are crazy!!  I can't wait for the trip that includes this ride.

So we made it to San Gigimnano....we can barely spell it and can't pronounce it.  We call it San Chimichanga!!
We rented a house here for 7 days, found it on the last minute deal page for half price.  This is our back patio.....

And this is the view from our patio......

And the house comes with it's own cat. Perfect.

That's San Gig up there.  We did a little exploring this afternoon, but will spend more time as the week progresses.

Aaaaahhhhh Venice.....

After we went to the train station to buy some tickets this morning, we made a quick tour of the area around our hotel in Treviso.

Then we were off to Venice.  We didn't realize how huge the city was or how many people would be there just looking around.  To say it is not like any place you have ever been is an extreme understatement.....it is 1,500 years old and has canals for streets!!  It is HUGE and it is amazing.  Just thinking about the logistics of getting all off the goods to the stores and all of the trash out of there is staggering.  We saw the UPS boat making deliveries !!

Can you imagine being allergic to mold here ??  We didn't ride the gondolla because the "quote" we got for the ride was 200 Euros....and Echo has to work way too hard for that much money.  So we rode with the common folk on the "water bus"....it was awful.....way over capacity...but a treasured experience.  We did see a lot of Venice as we took the full tour of the city.  Then we went to San Sombody's Piazza and toured the basillica...pretty amazing.  Quite a bit of the this area is under reconstruction.

And so....if you are going to sell advertising on your 1,500 year old artifacts, why not Guess Jeans ??

And as further proof that Venice is modern, even the gondoliers use cel phones.

We got back back on the train to Treviso, and promptly got scolded by the conductor in front of the other passengers for not doing some thing we were supposed to do with our ticket.  At least he didn't throw us off....and we decided we liked German people better than Italian people.  However, after we returned to Treviso, we went to the "American Bar" (because they have free wi-fi and good beer) and asked the bartender for a dinner recomendation...he obliged with a little restaurant one block away and we had a tremendous dinner.  We asked the waiter to pick the wine, entre and desert....and they were all quite tasty.  Didn't remind us of Olive Garden at all.

Tomorrow, we are off to Bolagna, via train (we are becoming train professionals), then a rental car to our house we have rented near San Gigimnano (sp?). (in Tuscan area)  PS. We got our Ducati Factory Tour confirmation for Monday in today's e-mail.....we are excited.

Long train day....

Axel dropped us off at the Kaufbeuren station and helped us purchase our tickets at 9:30 this morning.  First leg back to Munchen, then 5-1/2 ride to Verona, Italy.  We were to catch a train at 5:29pm to the west edge of Venice, then a 20 minute connection to Treviso.  Well, the train from Verona was 25 minutes late leaving.....some contract train was in the way at the station....so when we got to Venice, it was already 5 minutes past when we were supposed to leave for Treviso.  We checked the schedule and decided to dash to the appropriate track in hopes the next connection was late as well.  When we got to the track, a train was sitting there about to leave....I quickly asked the conductor if that was the train to Treviso, and she said yes as she climbed aboard.  There was truly not enough room on that train for another human being....so we threw our cases into the thresh-hold of the car and climbed aboard.  Fortunately, it was only a 15 minute ride and we were packed in like sardines.  So, we have found our hotel and are sitting in front of the "American Bar" having a beer.  I think we got our first full lesson in European train travel today.
Tomorrow.....Venice.
Sorry no pictures, scenery through the Alps was awesome, but only got pictures of the reflection of the camera in the window.

Linderhoff Palace

Another rainy day in Bavaria.  We took a trip south of here to visit the Linderhoff Palace.  I suggest checking out Wikipedia's description, that will give you a good idea of the description.  This palace/castle was one of three built and used by King Ludwig II.  He seemed odd to say the least.  His death is still considered a mystery as his body was found in a lake at one of his other castles in 1886.

Despite the rain, we had a grand time.  The hiking at this park is pretty strenuous for us old folks as it is in the mountains and has some pretty significant elevation changes to visit the various gardens, houses and of course, the King's man-made cave.  After looking at some of the decorating in the castle, I think he was like Elvis, just a century early.

Around the grounds, the gardens and statuaries are incredible.  We were a little surprised to find this tribute to Kermit the Frog......

Particularly with him posed peaking up this woman's dress !!!!

Tomorrow we travel.  We catch a regional train back to Munchen at 9:30, then a train headed South through the Alps......Innsbruck, Verona, Padova and ending for us in Treviso, Italy.  We have a hotel there for 2 nights.  It's about 25 Km North of Venice.  There is some large festival or something going on in Venice, so we were unable to get lodging there or a rental car out of there.  We will take the train over there on Friday, then a train out of Treviso on Saturday toward Bologna.

Evening at Connie and Axel's - Day in downtown Munchen

Last night it was just great to have a quiet evening at the Strasser's.  Brenda said to stay up and get on German time and we did.

 The inn we are staying is an old brewery in the village of Irsee - settled by monks.  The monastery and brewery have been beautifully renovated and it smells like wood that has been freshly cut.  Beautiful church, village and trails to walk by gardens and cottages straight from Heidi books.

This is a picture of one of the ceilings in the monastery....notice how the leg appears to be 3-D and stick out of the painting.  There are several of these techniques visable in the paintngs....some with other limbs and some with snakes.

Today it was drizzle rain so Connie took us downtown to Munchen where we just looked at people and buildings.

We even went into the most amazing hardware store - they have the coolest bathroom fixtures here you could ever imagine.  We will never look at Lowes and Home Depot the same.

 I especially liked the fact that people take their dogs everywhere, into all the stores even Prada and Cartier.  We didn't go into those stores but people driving Bentleys and Ferrarris did and they took their dogs with them!!!

Tomorrow we are going to a castle where the king always liked being alone - he was a little nuts and the people of government decided he was building too many bachelor pad castles and chased him into a lake and drowned him!!  At least that is the story Axel shared and he has read a lot of books on stuff like that.