Epilogue – November, 2010

 The Trip  No Responses »
Nov 062010
 

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Since this trip has been concluded, I have put the Posts in “normal chronological order”, so now the posts start at the beginning (earliest date posts), showing the planning posts first, followed by the actual trip posts, in the order of the places we visited.  This is “backwards” from normal blog posts, where the newest post is first, etc.  However, we believe the posts are easier to read and navigate through in this revised order once the trip is concluded. If you want to skip all of the  posts about the trip planning efforts, and just read about the trip itself, click on the Tab above titled “Trip Posts Only”, and it will take you to directly to the posts for the trip itself, starting with this final post.

We have also gone through and edited the pictures posted in the Photo Albums, selecting some of our favorites. There are now only about 680 pictures, far fewer than the original 1,800+ that were initially uploaded without editing for content. The size of the sideshow has also been modified, the images now fit the width of the page.  The Photo Album Section on the right side of the page lists all of the Photo Albums we have made for the places we visited.

Planning Again!

 Planning  No Responses »
Dec 172009
 

After three consecutive Transatlantic Cruises, it is time to start planning for a land based trip.  Ever since our Honeymoon Trip, we have regretted not being able to visit Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera; having visited Pisa, only to see the Leaning Tower draped in scaffolding;  and  having spent too little time in Venice.  It had always been our desire to revisit Northern Italy again after that trip, and an itinerary for this trip began to form in my mind last year.

Before making the final choice on our last trip’s itinerary, the transatlantic cruise from Spain to the USA, I had briefly looked at flights in and out of both Milan, Italy, and Zurich, Switzerland in the early planning stages, while we were still trying to determine where we wanted to go for that trip.  Both of these cities had frequently schedued flights, and fairly direct connections.  In addition, they are both situated fairly close to Cinque Terre.  However, being limited on time away from work, and knowing we would not have sufficient time for a trip to Northern Italy, we chose the two week transatlantic trip from Spain.

While formulating a route for this trip, I realized that there was an opportunity to also visit Austria, and for a visit to the Black Forest in Germany, something that was on our list of future places to visit.  Looking at a map of Italy, Austria, and Germany, we came up with the following itinerary, basically making a large circle through the area encompassing those destinations.

Depending on flight prices and availability of one stop routes, flights in and out of Milan, Italy, or Zurich, Switzerland will be considered as entry and exit cities for this trip.

The itinerary would consist of the following major cities, but does not include all the places of interest we would visit (Letters Correspond to Designations Shown on Map Below):

  • Flight from USA into Milan, Italy (A)
  • Drive to Genoa, Italy (B)
  • Drive to Pisa, Italy (C)
  • Drive to Florence, Italy (D)
  • Drive to Bologna, Italy (E)
  • Train to Venice, Italy (F)
  • Train to Vienna, Austria (G)
  • Train to Salzburg, Austria (H)
  • Train to Munich, Germany (I)
  • Drive to Stuttgart, Germany (J)
  • Drive to Strasbourg, France (K)
  • Train to Zurich, Switzerland (L)
  • Flight from Zurich to USA
  • Alternate Departure Point – Milan, Italy (A)

This route makes a circle through the areas we are wanting to visit.  Certainly it is an aggressive trip to plan with this many stops, so consideration will be given to shortening the route, possibly eliminating Vienna, making the train trip directly from Venice to Salzburg.

Map of Possible Itinerary for Northern Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland

Map of Possible Itinerary for Northern Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland

As we look into the specifics of the trip, we will adjust both our expectations, and the routing, to make it realistic.  As it is shown now, it may just be too much for one trip.  However, we have to start somewhere, and this seemed to be a route that would interest us.

The time frame for this trip to take place is in mid to late  September, 2010.  Although we would prefer to see the areas in the Spring, that would put the trip too close to the current date to be able to accomplish all of the planning and make it a reality, and to wait until next Spring  (2011) would place the trip entirely too far away.  As a preliminary guess, 21 days would be the minimum duration, hence the need to build up our vacation time.

Stay posted as we start the planning effort.

Planning Update – Trip Dates Set

 Planning  No Responses »
Mar 242010
 

It has been a while since an update has been posted, but in recent weeks, we have decided on the dates for this trip, and are about to lock in our flights.  We have changed the itinerary slightly, it is more defined to include the actual places we expect to visit along the way, but certainly subject to minor detours here and there as time allows.

One of the biggest changes is our plan is that we will not be renting a car in Milan, as had initially been contemplated.  Instead, we will be taking a lot more trains.  Most of the areas in and around Cinque Terre are more accessible by train that by rental car, and once there, using the trains between towns is certainly easier and cheaper.  We will not be renting a car until well into the trip, only needing one once we are in Germany.

Included in this post is an updated map showing our revised route.  We are expecting to fly into Milan, Italy, and stay one night before heading out on a train to the Cinque Terre area of Northern Italy, which lies along the coast, south of Genoa.  Once there, we plan on staying for three nights, either in one of the 5 (Cinque) towns making up the Cinque Terre, or in an town nearby named Levanto.

We will leave the Cinque Terre area and travel via train to Pisa, either for the afternoon, or possibly overnight.  We have already been to Pisa on a previous trip, but had been disappointed to see scaffolding on the Leaning Tower.  We hope to see it without scaffolding, and also possibly spend some time in the Baptistery or Cathedral, neither of which we toured on our last trip there, as part of a cruise.  If we find out the Tower is still under repair, and is covered in scaffolding, we will not go into Pisa at all, opting to go directly to Florence, Italy as a substitute.

From  Pisa, (or Florence) we will travel by train to Venice, Italy and stay for three nights.  We visited Venice briefly on our Honeymoon Transatlantic Cruise, but really did not have enough time to visit as many of the areas there as we wanted.  After our time in Venice, we plan on taking a night train to Vienna, Austria.  The night train seems to be a little difficult to coordinate, the schedules are a little inconvenient, and the actual information on the costs seems a little sketchy.  We are looking into getting a Double Compartment for the trip, realizing we would prefer to spend a little more money than to have 4 to 6 “friends” sharing a Couchette compartment for the night with us.

The plan is to then spend 2 nights in Vienna, then travel from there by train to Salzburg.  We will stay one night in Salzburg before taking another train to Munich.  We might opt to stay an additional night in Salzburg, and one less night in Munich.  Hotel prices in Munich are out of sight, Oktoberfest is going on while we will be there.  We are hoping to go to Oktoberfest, but with hotel costs running about $300 per night, we can’t afford to stay long!  However, to be this close, we have to go and see what Oktoberfest is all about, even if it is just for a few hours.

From Munich, we will travel by train to Wurzburg, Germany.  This is the start of the “Romantic Road” that runs south to Fussen, Germany.  The plan is to stay one night in Wurzburg, then rent a car the next day, and begin the driving portion of the trip.  We will have about 7 days to wonder around this area in Bavaria, hoping to visit towns like Rothenburg, Ulm, Fussen, Konstanz and ending up in Freiburg, where we will turn in the rental car to avoid any extra rental car drop off charges we would incur taking the car into Switzerland.

We will train from Freiburg, Germany to Lucerne, Switzerland, spend the night there, and then train to Zurich.  After spending one night in Zurich, we will fly home to Florida.

We plan on having some flexibility in the last portion of the trip where we are in Germany, we are not sure where we will want to visit along the way, but having the rental car will give us some flexibility.  We may find that we see more in this area quicker than we expect, and as a result, end up getting to Lucerne earlier than currently scheduled.  If so, we will plan on taking a scenic train trip to some of the areas nearby.   Switzerland has several “scenic rail” routes.

We will then make the last train ride to Zurich, Switzerland, where we will depart on our flight back home to Florida.

As we look into the details of the trip, I am sure we will make a few more modifications to the itinerary.  The next step will be to look for and reserve hotels in the more accommodation limited cities on the trip.  Certainly, this will include the area in and around Cinque Terre, Munich with Oktoberfest, and as always, trying to find a good, but reasonable place to stay in Venice.

Here is a Map of the route described above, with a listing of the cities for each alphabetic location on the map.

  • A – Milan, Italy
  • B – Levanto & Cinque Terre, Italy
  • C – Pisa, Italy
  • D – Venice, Italy
  • E – Vienna, Austria
  • F – Salzburg, Austria
  • G – Munich, Germany
  • H – Wurzburg, Germany
  • I – Rothenburg, Germany
  • J – Ulm, Germany
  • K – Fussen, Germany
  • L – Konstanz, Germany
  • M – Freiburg, Germany
  • N – Lucerne, Switzerland
  • O – Zurich, Switzerland

April Planning Update – Itinerary Almost Final

 Planning  No Responses »
Apr 122010
 

We have been working hard in our planning efforts to put the final touches on the itinerary for the trip.  In looking at a couple of the cities, and where they fall in the schedule, we had several choices to try to make the logistics of travel the smoothest.  Somewhat anchoring our plan was trying to find and reserve a decent hotel in Munich, knowing we would be there for two days near the end of  Oktoberfest.  We felt that we should try and be in and out of Munich before the last weekend of Oktoberfest, trying to beat some of the crowds, so we set our schedule so that we arrive in Munich on Tuesday, September 28, and depart on Thursday, September 30.  That will give us two nights in Munich, and based on the “special” hotel rates for Oktoberfest, it was all we could afford.  We have reservations in the Hotel Der Tannenbaum Stadtmitte , which is located fairly close to the Oktoberfest site.  We will either be able to walk about 15 minutes, and/or take the metro.

Based on anchoring the trip in Munich for those dates, the other complexity in the planning was determining if there was a cost and/or time advantage to either flying into Pisa or Genoa, instead of Milan.  After checking into airfares, connections and total flight durations, availability of  Star Alliance member flights (frequent flyer miles) and putting together a timeline of total travel durations for the various arrival cities, we finally opted for continuing with the original plan and fly into Milan.   However, we have decided that instead of staying overnight in Milan, as previously planned, we will immediately depart on a train from Milan and travel to the city of Levanto, near Cinque Terre, and skip sightseeing in Milan altogether.  We have both been there before, and after weighing the alternatives, felt we would rather spend the time and hotel costs somewhere else.

The initial travel day will be quite a long day of travel, we have about a 2.5 hour train ride to Levanto after arrival in Milan, but that is somewhat offset by  avoiding the 45-60 minute travel time into the city center of Milan from the Malpensa Airport.  It appears from the train schedules on Trenitalia that we can take a train directly from the Malpensa Airport, and connect on to Levanto.

We now have a reservation for 4 nights in Levanto, at the Oasi Hotel.  We may still shorten that stay and opt for spending a night in Pisa, to hopefully be able to see the Tower with no, or at least less scaffolding than when we were there on our Honeymoon Trip.  At least we would be able to take pictures of the Tower and other buildings at night, and have a chance to visit the Cathedral and Baptistry, which we opted not to do last time on our short cruise visit so that we could also venture to Lucca that same day.  This would also give us the opportunity to see some of the other sights in Pisa, and make the train trip to Venice a little more direct (via Florence).  If we opt to stay the full four nights in Levanto, we will skip Pisa, and opt to get to Venice so that we can be leaving Venice before the weekend.  Hotel rates in Venice get even higher (they are already ridiculous) if  you are  there for a Friday or Saturday night.

In the process of evaluating the possibility of spending a night in Milan, we both agreed that we would rather  forfeit Milan for the possibility of spending one night in Pisa.  Since hotels are easier to reserve in Pisa as compared to either  Levanto, or Venice, we are not worried about getting a hotel there at the last minute.  Now we can go forth with our planning knowing we can either stay the additional day in Levanto, and then train directly to Venice, or, reduce the time in Levanto by one night, spend a night in Pisa, and then train to Venice.  Either plan will set our arrival date in Venice to be Tuesday, September 21, with our departure on Friday, September 24.

We are still planning on taking the night train from Venice to Vienna, Austria, arriving in Vienna on Saturday, September 25.  We are thinking about staying two nights in Vienna, then taking the train to Salzburg, and staying there for two nights.  This would put us arriving in Munich by our confirmed hotel reservation date of September 28.

The remainder of the trip itinerary was not changed, and remains as previously discussed in the last post.  Continuing on through Germany, the Black Forrest, and on to Switzerland.  Our schedule should become a little more flexible after we leave Munich, and hopefully, since we will not be staying in as popular of locations, finding hotels should be both a little easier, and a little less expensive.

Of course, we will continue to check hotels in cities where we have reservations to see if any better rates come up as potential cancellations by other guests occur close to the date of our arrival.  However, knowing we have a reservation in place frees us up to do more planning in other cities.  Next will be picking out a hotel for Venice, always a challenging proposition, trying to weigh cost against location and comfort, solely based on the opinions of others expressed in their reviews of those hotels.

Planning Update – June, 2010

 Planning  4 Responses »
Jun 162010
 

The overall planning effort for the trip has progressed well, but has been modified slightly from the last posting.  The itinerary for the trip was changed to accommodate more efficient travel plans, and to provide the opportunity to spend a few more consecutive nights in some of the cities along the way.  In order to visit the main sights we had identified, and to also keep from making hotel room changes every night, we focused our travel time on the main attraction cities.  The hotels we currently have reserved will be in bold, indicating a link to the hotel’s web site.

Our plan is still to fly in to Milan, Italy and return from Zurich, Switzerland.  We will be taking the shuttle bus from the Milan Airport to the Milan Central Train Station, then taking a train directly from the there to Levanto, Italy.  We have decided to shorten the stay in Levanto to three nights at the Oasi Hotel, then train to Pisa, Italy, where we will stay one night at the Hotel Bologna so that we can revisit the Leaning Tower.  We are hoping the scaffolding we saw in our visit two years ago will be gone, plus, we are wanting to see and photograph the Tower at night.

From Pisa, we will train to Venice, where we will be staying three nights in the Ca’ Arco Antico Hotel.  It is located in the Rialto neighborhood of the San Polo Area, far enough away from the touristy areas to keep us away from the crowds, but close enough to all of the main attractions of Venice.

From Venice, our plan is to still take the overnight train to Vienna, Austria, reserving a double sleeper for the trip. The sleeper reservations are not available before about 90 days from the date of travel, so we will have to wait to make these reservations until sometime later in June. We will be staying two nights in Vienna, in a pension, the Pension Dan In’n Out, which is similar to a hostel. These are different from a “youth hostel”, which are typically very low priced dormitory type of accommodations, designed for the young backpackers. A typical Pension or Hostel is just a no frills place to stay, usually very basic accommodations. This one is located in the Inner Stadt, or inner part of the city, which is the older historic area of Vienna. It received very good ratings, and has very good rates, so we decided to help defray some of the overall costs of hotels in other cities (like Munich $$$$), and stay there. It will probably be very similar to the Hostel we stayed at on our recent trip to Madrid, very basic, but quite comfortable.

From Vienna, we train to Salzburg, Austria, where we will stay for one night at the Alstad Hotel Zur Goldenen Ente.  This will be the date of our second wedding anniversary, so we may have to find something special to do for our one night in Salzburg.

We depart Salzburg via train to Munich, Germany, where we will be staying for two nights to experience Oktoberfest, and other sights in Munich.  Our hotel, the Hotel Der Tannenbaum Stadtmitte, is fairly close to the fairgrounds where the Oktoberfest is held, only a few block walk away.  Unfortunately, they do not have a direct web site, and therefore, no link to this hotel is include in this post. The hotel is as close to the Oktoberfest location as our wallets could afford, hotels in Munich are about three times the normal cost during Oktoberfest.  We were somewhat worried about having to get “reservations” to be able to sit at a table in one of the larger festival tents.  However, most of the information we were able to find indicated that the reservations were only available for parties of 10 or more, and that individuals can usually get in easily, especially earlier in the day.  There are some tricks involved, you have to sort of be a little pushy with the others in the crowd to protect your spot in line to get in.  We will have to do some more research on this to make sure we understand the “system”.  If time allows, and we are not too tired or suffering from excessive Oktoberfest celebrating, we might try and schedule a visit to the concentration camp in Dachau.  If not, we will try and stop there as we make our way south in our rental car on the portion of the trip encompassing the “Romantic Road” route.

From Munich, we travel to Wurzburg, Germany, once again by train.  We will be renting a car in Wurzburg for about a week.  The current plan is to spend one night in Wurzburg.  However, we may opt to just visit the city for the day, and then head south to Rothenberg, Germany.  Rothenberg is the best preserved medieval town in Germany, and we had planned to spend at least one night there.  If we do not stay in Wurzburg for a night, we will stay two nights in Rothenberg.  We currently have a reservation in Wurzburg at the Hotel Alter Kranen.

We also have two nights reserved in Rothenburg at the Hotel Gasthof Goldener Greifen.  We have been giving considerable thought to minimizing the number of “single night hotel stays” to avoid all of the hassles of packing and unpacking our suitcases.  If we opt to cut out the single night stay in Wurzburg, we will cancel that reservation, and keep the two night reservation for Rothenburg.  If that does become the plan, we will store our bags in the train station lockers after we arrive in Wurzburg and then try and figure out a couple of sights to see in Wurzburg before we pick up the rental car and head to Rothenburg.

Once we leave Rothernburg, we plan on staying  one night in Augsburg, Germany.  It is close to Dachau and will allow us the opportunity to visit there if we do not have time to go there while we are in Munich.  We will either elect to reserve a hotel there, or possibly just opt to find a place along the way for one night.

From Augsburg we will continue south to the area around the city of Fussen, Germany, and plan on staying in that area for two nights in the town of Hohenschwangau.  We have two nights reservations at the Hotel Alpenstuben. It is located at the base of the Neuschwanstein Castle, built by Ludwig.

From the Fussen area, we will drive to the Black Forest area of Bavaria, and currently have reservations to stay two nights in the town of Simonswald, Germany, at the  Hotel Landgasthaus.  Unfortunately, they do not have a web site in English, only German. From this location, we can drive short distances to some of the other smaller, more scenic Black Forest towns famous for items such as the cuckoo clock.

Next, we will be heading to Freiburg, Germany, where we will turn in our rental car, visit the city for a few hours, and then take the train to Lucerne, Switzerland.

We will be staying two nights in Lucerne, at the Hotel Des Alpes . The hotel is located on the river, and is also in the pedestrian only historic area of Lucerne.

From Lucerne, we will train to Zurich, where we will spend our last night at the Welcome Inn Hotel, close to the Zurich airport. We opted for lesser accommodations in Zurich so that we could splurge a little and stay in the nicer hotel in Lucerne. The Welcome Inn is just a couple of miles form the Zurich Airport, and offers a free shuttle to the airport. It is a fair distance from the historic area in Zurich, but only about a 30 minute train commute from our hotel near the airport, so we should have a little time to tour the city of Zurich on the day we arrive from Lucerne. We will probably just check our bags in the train station baggage storage area, and tour the town of Zurich before heading to the hotel. We wanted the comfort of knowing we were close to the airport for the flight home the next morning.

The Route Map

 

A – Milan, Italy – Via Flight From Florida
B – Levanto, Italy – Via Train From Milan
C – Pisa, Italy – Via Train From Levanto
D – Venice, Italy – Via Train From Pisa
E – Vienna, Austria – Via Overnight Train From Venice
F – Salzburg, Austria – Via Train From Vienna
G – Munich, Germany – Via Train From Salzburg
H – Wurzburg, Germany – Via Train From Munich
I – Rothenburg, Germany – Via Rental Car From Wurzburg
J – Augsburg, Germany – Via Rental Car From Rothenburg
K – Hohenschwangau, Germany – Via Rental Car From Augsburg
L – Simonswald, Germany – Via Rental Car From Hohenschwangau
M – Freiburg, Germany – Via Rental Car From Simonswald
N – Lucerne, Switzerland – Via Train From Freiburg
O – Zurich, Switzerland – Via Train From Lucerne – Flight Back to Florida

Planning Update – August, 2010

 Planning  No Responses »
Aug 252010
 

Well, we are within one month  of our departure date, and it still seems like there is a lot left for us to do!

We have gone ahead and bought some of the train tickets for Germany, at least their web site works, takes U.S. credit cards, and allows up too purchase more than 30 days out.  We really do this to save a little on the fares, some of the discounts are pretty good, but we are then locked into that departure time.  That will help motivate us to go ahead and get up and get going on those mornings.  We can always snooze a little on the train since the train rides are at least 2 hours long in most cases.  Well, at least Stephanie will be able to sleep some, someone has to make sure we get off at the correct station!

My plan is to try and do the blog updates on the train trips, alt least type up the posts, and reduce the picture sizes so they will post correctly when we have access to an internet connection.

We still have to wait for the Swiss train tickets and for the Austrian train tickets, hopefully we will find some discounted fares.  These train tickets can only be purchased online within a 30 day window.  If  the online purchase for these tickets becomes a hassle, we will just buy them in a station somewhere along the way.

I have been in contact with all of the hotels in Italy to get email confirmations directly form them to make sure the Booking.com reservations actually went through.  It would be very disruptive to get somewhere, only to find out the reservation was not confirmed and we had no room.  For the small amount of effort to send them an email, it buys a lot of peace of mind.  Next week, I will get confirmations for the hotels in Austria and Germany.  I want to be within a 30 day window of the dates of our stay, and we are only within that window of time for the portion of the trip in Italy at this time.

We purchased a refurbished Garmin GPS on Ebay last week, it comes loaded with maps for all of Europe and for the USA, and has a 1 year warranty from Garmin.  From what I have read, “renting” a GPS with the rental car in Germany can be expensive, so we decided to get one ourselves.  That way, we can go ahead and load up all of the addresses of the destinations we are going to visit before we leave.  The GPS may also work for walking around some of the cities for other parts of the trip where we are not driving,  but we are still trying to figure that feature out.

Today, we purchased a prepaid International SIM card for our Blackberry Storm. The rates are decent, but we still may experiment with purchasing a SIM card from a local cell provider in one or two of the countries we visit.  With some research, I did see where the local country SIM cards appear to be cheaper for local calls within that country.  However, it also looked like you really need one SIM card for each country you visit if you want to avoid roaming charges within the European Union.  It also looked like the charges to call the US were about the same or even higher than the SIM card we purchased, which works throughout Europe for the same cost per call.  This was a difficult task to figure out since most of the detailed information on the costs that one needs for making decisions is from web sites for cell phone companies in the specific countries, and of course, written in their language.  Thank goodness for Google Translate, at least you get an idea of what the sites are trying to tell you.

We mainly hope to use this for “emergency” calls, or short updates that we can’t do with Skype through the internet.  The SIM card we bought on Ebay was called the National Geographic International SIM Card from Cellular Abroad.  It is actually affiliated with National Geographic in some fashion.  The normal cost of the card if purchased directly from cellular Abroad is $49, but you get a $29 prepaid credit.  On Ebay, the same company sells the same card for $29 with a $29 prepaid credit, so you can’t go wrong, and even the shipping is free.  The card lasts for a year, and if you add credit to it, it will then last for another year after that date, so it can be used again.  Fortunately, our Verizon Storm phones are GSM capable, and we have already had both of them “unlocked” through Verizon, so we should be set to use them with the new SIM card.

Next week, we will be preparing all of our insurance papers for scanning to take with us electronically.  The only problem with September trips from Florida is Hurricane Season.  And, it has happened to me before where I was in Europe for two storms in 2004.  It was not a pleasant experience, but luckily, the storms weaken some before getting to our part of Florida.  The worst part back then was the lack of information available on the storms, since Internet access was very limited in most of Europe compared to what it is now.  The BBC Network does not give hurricanes top priority for some reason!  Just part of living in Florida, and something we need to prepare for as best as we can.

We are trying to finalize a listing of sights that we want to consider visiting in each city we are staying in.  Just so we have an idea of the available options.  That is really the last significant part of the planning effort for the trip.  We have a good idea for most parts of the trip, but still have some gaps.

Also, we need to start doing some preliminary packing, at least organizing some of the cooler climate clothing we will need to take.  It will be significantly cooler as we venture to the higher elevations in Germany and Switzerland, so we need to take that into consideration, and utilize layering to avoid having bulky cold weather clothing to pack.  We also hope to take some trams or cog railroad trains to a few of the higher peaks in Switzerland, so we know it will be cold up there.

Well, that wraps it up for now, stay posted as we get closer to the date of departure.

Last Update Before We Leave

 Planning  4 Responses »
Sep 132010
 

Well, we have just two days to go before we leave, and everything seems to be coming together.  Hopefully we won’t have to worry about the two hurricanes in the Atlantic, Igor and Julia.  It is Julia that worries us, it seems to have a predicted path that bends more towards the USA at this time.  More worried about our “extra” house in Charleston, SC.  It might be more in the ultimate path of that storm.

We sorted through our clothes last night, weeding out the excess that we felt we did not need to take, and making sure we had a good diversified set of matching clothes.  We will go through another round of reductions again tomorrow night when we actually start packing our clothes into the luggage.  We have enough to do Wednesday night without worrying about packing on the last night; much more fun things like mowing the grass, cleaning the house, etc., before we leave on Thursday.

The iterative  approach we take  to packing seems to make it easier to reduce what we end up taking, we do it a little at a time, and let it mentally sink in.  That seems to be much easier than trying to make all of the reductions at one time.  We will put everything into the bags tomorrow night and then go for the big weigh-in.  That will probably mean another fourth and final round of reductions before we call it good.  Until you get EVERYTHING  into the suitcase, the toiletries, the make-up, the shoes, etc. it is just a guess on the final weight.   All of the computer and camera gear is already packed in the camera backpack.  Our goal is 45 lbs per bag, 5 lbs under the airline’s 50 lb. limit.

We have sorted through all of the material we will take with us for information.  We normally tear out sections of our guide books, and only take the sections for the places we plan to visit.  Another good reason to purchase inexpensive Rick Steve’s books through Amazon and Wal-Mart, we don’t feel bad about pulling them apart.  They are actually pretty easy to pull apart while keeping the sections we want to take intact.  Besides, we can bring them back and reuse them, some are already making their second trip.

Hopefully, we will have enough time to keep these posts up to date, but a lot will depend on internet access, both availability and on reliability/speed.  This will especially be true for loading any photos.  If we load our trip information in delayed spurts, that usually means we are still recovering from jet lag, are worn out from the days activities, have bad internet service, or, maybe all of the above.  We have the system set up so we can write and load the postings on local version on the small laptop.  So, if we have decent internet, service we can usually copy and paste the written postings into the real version that everyone sees here.  Pictures are a little more time consuming to sort through, reduce in size, and load up, so they are usually delayed in getting posted.

Well, this is all for now.  The next posting will probably be from our three hour  layover in Philadelphia on Thursday.

On Our Way – Departure Day

 The Trip  2 Responses »
Sep 162010
 

Well, the big departure day is finally here, time to start the vacation!!

We left the house on-time at 8:45 AM for the ride to the airport.  Many thanks to Brant for taking us and then driving our car back home!!

The weather at home was really nice, and the ride to the airport was uneventful.  We had a little trouble checking in at the Airline Kiosk, it did not want to scan our passports correctly.  After getting all of the information loaded, we checked our two bags and received our boarding passes.  Off to security, and again, all went well, no problems or setting of any security alarms.  We got to experience the total body scanner for the first time, unfortunately, you can’t see your own ‘”body picture”.

We headed to our gate, and that was where we had a little problem with a broken zipper on my pants  after I made a visit to the rest room.  My zipper did not just break, the whole moving part of the zipper came off from the top.  We spent the next 15 minutes searching for a safety pin to help with the emergency, I guess we should now learn to pack them in the carry on bags.  We have a small sewing kit, but of course it is in the checked luggage.  Not the best way to start off the trip.  Stephanie kept asking if she could work on my zipper out in the waiting area, I could just picture her kneeling on the floor in front of me trying to work on my zipper, I can just imagine what people would think.

I pulled out my shirt to cover the situation and then it was time to get on the airplane.  Thinking about fighting a broken zipper for the next 12 hours of international travel was not making me a happy camper.  After we got to our seats, I tried desperately to re-start the zipper, but you just can’t do it from the top.  Stephanie asked the flight attendant if she had a safety pin, and lucky for us, she did.  I still had to fight with trying to make the zipper work when Stephanie suggested starting it from the top, but backwards so the zipper would close going downward.  That did work to a point, but there was not a way to keep the zipper from opening again at the top.  In went the safety pin, and we then began thinking about a contingency plan for zipper repair during the layover in Philadelphia.

After our flight landed, and we had departed the plane, we began to search for a men’s clothing store inside the airport, thinking we might be able to find another pair of pants to purchase.  We went into a Brooks Brothers store, and looked at a pair of $80 pants.  At this point, I was thinking that maybe a few more safety pins would do the job.  The salesman, Reggie, ended up knowing what to do to repair the zipper, had some scissors and thread, and he and Stephanie fixed the zipper while I waited in the dressing room, sans pants.  It is a neat trick to know, Reggie put a cut at the bottom of the zipper on one side, and re-threaded the escapee zipper closure portion back on from the bottom.  Then he stitched a couple of threads to keep the zipper from going back too far down, and also put a few at the top to replace the stops that had apparently come off .  It is delicate, but at least I do not have to worry about having an open fly while flying.  Many thanks to Reggie!

We still put the safety pin at the top as an additional safety measure, and now I just have to be really careful when I need to undo the zipper for potty breaks.  We can probably fix the pants better once we have our own sewing kit when we get our luggage.

After the trauma of the zipper incident, we were hungry, so we headed off to find a restaurant in the airport for some lunch, and then settling in for our 3.5 hour layover.  At least I have regained my peace of mind and my zipper.

We were able to get free wi-fi in the Philadelphia Airport to make this post.  We were also able to view the online radar for the Philadelphia area, which showed some rain approaching from the West.  Hopefully, it will either arrive after we leave, or be light enough not to cause any flight delays.  We have our fingers crossed, we need to make an on time departure in order to arrive in Frankfurt on-time, and make our fairly short layover connection to Milan.

Layover in Philadelphia

Arrival In Milan, Italy – On To Levanto.

 The Trip  No Responses »
Sep 172010
 

Our flight from Philadelphia arrived at Frankfurt, Germany a little earlier than scheduled, at 6:05 AM local Frankfurt time. We were directed to a remote gate, which is one where everyone departed the plane by going down steps on the outside of the plne, there was no snorkel connected to the terminal. Everyone was bused to Terminal 1 to be processed through Immigration. That was a little slow because there were only three Immigration processors for non-European Union visitors. We knew we only had about 1.5 hours for our layover, and in the end, it took all of that to get through to our connecting flight.

First, we had to go through Immigration. Most of the passengers on the plane were non-European Union visitors like us, and there was a fairly long line of people to be processed through Immigration in that line. Then, for some reason, there were some visitors from China that had issues with their passports, and could not speak German or English. It took at least 15 minutes to process those 5 people. After that, the line progressed pretty quickly, but would have gone faster if there were more than the three lines open. We were lucky to be up near  the front, the line behind us got a lot longer while we were waiting. After about 30 minutes, we made it through Immigration and started what turned out to be a very long walk to Concourse A. We finally got to Concourse A after about 20 minutes of walking, and discovered we had to go through security again, waiting in another line, and then more waiting. After security, we headed for Gate 30, which again turned out to be a much longer walk than expected.

When we finally arrived at the gate for our flight, they were already boarding the plane. We had our boarding passes for this flight from when we initially departed Florida, but they had us assigned in two seats that were not located together on the plane. Our plan had been to try and get the seats changed, but we had been told we had to do it in Frankfurt, at the gate, since U.S. Air did not have access to the Lufthansa Airlines reservation system to change our seat assignments. However, since we were so late getting to the gate for this flight, we could no longer get them changed.  Then, as we were boarding the plane, we discovered that it was over-booked, and there were no empty seats where we might have been able to move to to be closer. Luckily, it was only a 55 minute flight to Milan, so we just went to our assigned seats in different rows and that was that.

We arrived in Milan to find cloudy and rainy skies. We departed the plane and went to baggage claim, hoping our bags had made it through unloading in Frankfurt and then on to our flight to Milan. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before we saw our bags come out onto the baggage carousel. We were thankful that they both made it and we were not going to have to go through the hassle of getting any lost luggage delivered to us all the way to our hotel in Levanto.

After claiming our bags, we purchased our tickets for the shuttle bus from the airport to the Milano Centrale Train Station, and headed to the shuttle bus pick-up point. We were surprised at the number of Asian tourists waiting for the shuttle. I have to add that they seemed to very pushy and rude trying to get their luggage and themselves onto the bus. I think that is how they have to be to survive in their country of origin. We could not tell exactly where they came from, but they were very aggressive in getting their way, but somewhat in a nice pushy way. That was what gave us the impression it was just the way they are used to dealing with those situations in their crowded country. We boarded the bus for the 50 minute ride to the train station in Milan.

Once we arrived at the station, we found the automated ticket machines, and began the interesting process of buying our train tickets to Levanto. It was a little complicated, but the only hard part was how the credit card was inserted for payment, you had to push it into the reader, and leave it there. If you just swiped it like a USA gas station card reader, it would not work. Of course, a lot of other people are waiting impatiently in the line behind you, and it seemed like everyone was trying to get on a train that was leaving in the next few minutes. The first time through the ticket purchase process, we were booted out at the credit card payment phase, and had to start over again from the beginning. The lady waiting behind us asked if she could go ahead and get her ticket before us since she needed to be on her train in 15 minutes. Since we had over an hour to wait anyway, we let her go ahead, and stood close by to watch her go through the process. After she was finished, we tried once again, and on the third time, we were successful in getting our tickets.

Milano Centrale Train Station

We then went to a sandwich shop and bought some Paninis for lunch. We headed for our train platform, and got onto our train to Levanto. It was different from any of the trains we had ever been on in Europe before, this one had  compartments on one side of the train car that had six seats in each compartment. We had purchased tickets for the two opposing window seats, and found the Number 6 coach and boarded. We were the only persons in the compartment right up until it was time to depart. Then, three more people came in and took their seats, it was a man and wife, and their daughter. They were only on the train for a few stops, and then we had the compartment to ourselves.

The train ride was uneventful.  There was not a lot of interesting scenery to see along the way initially, mainly farmland. As we approached the coastline, the scenery became more interesting, it was more mountainous, and we could get glimpses of the coastline every now and then. However, because of the mountains, we started to go through a lot of fairly long train tunnels, and of course, could not really see that much of the area, just a little every now and then between tunnels.  At one of the stops for Genoa, we got two more compartment mates. One of them was a young man from the area near Portofino, Italy, and he spoke very good English. He was very interesting to talk to, and was planning a trip to the USA to visit Las Vegas and Miami Beach. He had been to Las Vegas before, but never to Miami. He was only on the train for a few stops, and then once again, were were by ourselves. It was close to a three hour train ride from Milan to Levanto, and finally we arrived at the Levanto Station. By this time, it had started to rain fairly hard. We departed the train, and went into the station to put on our rain coats that we had pulled from our luggage. While we were in the station, we purchased our Cinque Terre Travel Cards, which give you unlimited access to the trains and walking trails for the period of time you purchase them for, in our case, we got 2-Day tickets for Saturday and Sunday.

We began the walk from the Station to the Hotel. It was supposed to be about 600 meters. We had a Google Map and some directions from the hotel, but it was still more difficult to find than we expected, partly due to the rain soaking our map, and partly due to us being so tired from the long travel day. We finally made to the hotel and checked in. The staff was very friendly, and the room was very nice. We were glad to get out of our now rain soaked clothes that we had been wearing since leaving home, and get hot showers. We felt a lot better after that.

Rainy Beach In Levanto

We ventured out to wander around the town of Levanto a couple of hours later. It was still showering a little, and was somewhat windy.

We picked out a place to eat dinner it was an enjoyable meal. We visited a couple of grocery stores, just to see what was available, and we purchased a couple of bottles of inexpensive red wine. We headed back to the hotel about 8:30 PM, and settled in for the evening. We were quite tired from our long overnight travel day.  Hopefully the weather will clear up tomorrow for our first day in Cinque Terre.

First Day in Cinque Terre

 The Trip  3 Responses »
Sep 182010
 

We had a little problem with Internet Access at out hotel in Levanto, so we are behind in our posts.  It is Sunday night as I wrote this, catching up for Saturday.  Sunday’s post will have to wait until tomorrow sometime.  The internet here has been frustrating, sometimes it works, sometimes it does not…….well it must be Italy.

Levanto Seen From The Upper Trail

We awoke to partly cloudy skies, and found out from the hotel staff during breakfast that it had been raining for three straight days.  The forecast was for clearing in the afternoon today.  We decided to go ahead and venture out to the walking trails, and planned to walk the trail from Levanto to Monterosso.  It is one of the longer upper trails, and supposedly is less crowded.  True to the information, the trail was not crowded, and it was long.  The time for the trail walk we were taking was advertised as 2.5 hours, well it took longer than that for us.  It was very scenic, a lot of climbing up and down hills, and not all of the trail was well maintained.  In some parts, it was very difficult to traverse, and was very steep.  However, we did see a lot of the coastline along the way, and it was very beautiful.  We were glad we took three bottles of water with us for the hike, it was hot and humid for most of the day.  We saw a total of about six other couples on the hike, some going our way, and passing us by,  and the others going in the opposite direction.  We only got a little bit lost one time, and had to backtrack a little before we figured out how the trail identification system worked.  This happened during the only portion of the trail which utilized a section of the local paved road for about 300 meters, which is what threw us off.  We were not expecting to be on a paved road at all.  However, after we figured out how the trails were marked, we found where to go, and had no other problems following the remainder of the route.

For trail markers, there are painted red and white stripes on the rocks along the trails, sometimes on the trees, just whatever it takes to help identify that you are on the right path.  Some of the signs are missing, so the stripes are the only clue you are still on the correct path.  The trail needs to be marked because some of the other “trails” you pass are really access points to some of the vineyards or for other parcels of land used for farming that is done on terraces on the sides of the mountains.  The paths for the trails are actually part of the old system used by the locals to get access around their farmland.  Some of the areas contain olive groves, but most are vineyards.

Stopping For a Break on the Upper Trail

We did make it safely to the end of the trail in about 3.5 hours .  Near the end of the trail, at the top of a ridge, there was a really nice view of the coastline where you could see most if not all five of the cities comprising “Cinque Terre”, Cinque meaning five, Terre meaning lands.  There was also an old church on the trail at the top of the ridge, it was only partially intact, but still nice to visit and see.

When we finally made it into Monterosso, the city where this particular trail ended, we were beat.  It was a lot harder walk than we had anticipated, but we were glad we had done it.  We walked around a little in Monterosso and ate some lunch.  By this time, it was fairly sunny, and there were a few people out on the beach.  However, the sunshine was short lived, as it started to get cloudy again as we finished our lunch.

Rougher Section of the Upper Trail to Monterroso

We took a train to the last, or southern most  of the five cities, Riomaggiore.  We did not actually go into the city itself, we opted to go on what is called the Via del’  Amore’, which is the shortest and most “civilized” portion of the trails connecting the cities of Cinque Terre.  This trail is all paved and really set up to be accessible to everyone, for all ages and all abilities.  It takes about 20 minutes to walk this trail, and this is the portion of the trail system where all of the tourist groups visit since it is the most accessibility friendly.

Cinque Terre From The Upper Trail

By this time in the day, it had begun to get cloudy again, and then actually started to rain once more, just a steady drizzle, but enough to make it messy.

The short trail ended at another of the cities of Cinque Terre called Manarola.  We did not visit there, we just took the train to yet another one of the cities called Vernazza.  It was really nice there despite the rain.  It is probably the easiest of the cities to get to from the train station, most all of the city is downhill toward the sea.  We walked around a few stores, and visited the local Catholic church.  We noticed that they had a Mass on Saturday evening at 6:30 PM, so we decided to hang around there until that time, and go to Mass there instead of going to the Catholic Church tomorrow, on Sunday, that we had found in Levanto.

Vernazza Harbor After the Rain

After a while, the rain stopped, and we had a few peeks at  some sunshine.  We stopped off at a local outside bar and had a glass of wine.    We looked in a few more stores, and then headed to the church for Mass.  Of course all of the Mass was in Italian, but they handed us a bulletin that had most of the readings and prayers on it so we could at least try to follow and speak them in Italian.  After the Mass,  we went down to the waterfront area to watch the sun set over the Mediterranean Sea,  and enjoy a bottle of wine we had purchased earlier.   After the sun set, we headed back to the train station to catch our train back to Levanto.

Sunset From Vernazza

Once we arrived back in Levanto, we headed to a restaurant recommended by the hotel staff for its pizza.  We ordered two different pizzas, which were very good.  The place was popular with the locals, it was packed.  By the time we finished eating, it was about 10:30 PM, so we headed back to the Hotel.  It had been a long day, and we were certainly tired from all of the hiking and walking around in the cities we visited.

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