J'aime Paris!

Fourth of July weekend in Italy is viewed as an extra three day weekend and an extra opportunity to travel.  Yes, the base does a celebration that it inevitably storms for every year, but a three day weekend is a treasured opportunity to leave the country.  Last year we went to London, this year Taylor and I went to Paris.  We planned the trip pretty last minute, as we plan most of our trips...and we headed out on Friday night to take our Ryan Air flight into the city.

Ryan Air is an experience in itself and even more so when you take the discount airline out of the Venice airport.  A fun cultural fact for you that you quickly figure out when living in Italy, Italians have no respect for lines.  There is no such thing as a true line...people barge in, cut, start their own lines, and pay no attention to signs or directions.  So you can only imagine how that works with a discount airline with no assigned seating...yes...think a cattle call.  But I digress...

We headed to Paris and made our way to our hotel via bus and the Underground.  We had a couple tours booked for the weekend, Taylor's pick was a day trip to Normandy to tour the beaches of Normandy and my pick was a day biking tour of the the Palace of Versaille.  They both were fabulous.  We spent all day Saturday on a biking tour...I was a little afraid I would be the one who hasn't touched a bike in 10 years and would go crashing to the street during the middle of the tour, but I'm happy to report I was not the girl who crashed into a tree in the park (yes, there was one on our tour).  We took off through the city...loaded a tour of about 25 people AND our bikes onto a train...got off in Versaille and continued our tour.  We stopped at the local market to buy fresh baguettes, meat, cheese, wine, and pastries for our picnic lunch on the canal in the Palace grounds.  We stuck our purchases in our bags and on the back of our guide's bike (literally like in the movies) and headed off to continue the tour.  We biked all through the Palace grounds, stopped and had a big picnic lunch with everyone in the grass next to the canals and then headed into the palace.  It's hard to imagine the building as a person's home and the arrogance and pompous attitude of Louis XIV was quite apparent while touring through his extravagant home. 

Taylor and I in front of the Grand Canal in the Palace of Versaille.

Biking on my beach cruiser...LOVED it!

The hallway of mirrors in the Louis XIV home...such extravagance!

After our tour Taylor and I wandered the city, we went to the Eiffel tower which we agreed is really quite ugly during the day as it is a large brown metal structure, but we re-visited it at night and it's simply stunning.  We spent some time just lying in the grass at the base of the tower appreciating the beauty and the blessings that surround us.  We walked over to the Louvre to see it at night with everything lit up.  The city came alive at night.  For one, it stayed light until about 1015.  The famous road, Champ d'Elysee, was packed with people walking, shopping, and eating at 1130 at night...it looked like 5:00 in the afternoon!  We attempted to eat dinner on this famous road and we were seated at a way overpriced restaurant at the same table with two other couples...one on each side of us.  As we're awkwardly looking at the menu attempting to not listen to the other couples' conversations, I'm kicking Taylor under the table shaking my head no!  So we politely got up and stopped at the next best place we found.  The Haagen Dazs restaurant...yes restaurant.  They had menus, servers and all!  We ordered 15 dollar ice cream with cookies and waffle cones and it was so delicous and a much better option then sharing our dinner table with strangers!

On Sunday we took a day tour to visit the beaches of Normandy.  We picked up our train tickets on Saturday and caught the 0900 train from Paris to the medieval town of Bayeux 2 hours away.  We arrived in town in the midst of their 1100 year celebration with a medieval festival taking place with re-enactments, crafts, food, and carnival stands.  We had some time to wander through the town, tour the church, and have a little lunch before finding our meeting point.  We met our tour guide and hopped in a bus with 4 other people.  Our guide was great and so very knowledgeable.  We stopped at a German cemetary, Pointe du Hoc, Omaha beach, and the American military cemetary.  As cheesy as it sounds, the history books really came alive at Pointe du Hoc as we were walking on the soil and hearing the story of the military troops taking over the beaches/cliffs and their successes and failures during the endeavor.  We were walking down in the cannon/explosion craters left in the land and climbing down into the bunkers to the look out points for the German forces overlooking the channel.  The land looks like the surface of the moon (or what I would imagine the moon would look like with grass) with the amount of craters and holes left there from the explosions.  Omaha beach, on the other hand, is a regular European beach with sun bathers and vacationers enjoying the surf and sand.  The only remnants of the dreadful day is a small memorial above an original German gunner (a massive 10 foot long machine gun) still stationed under a cement slab pointing out towards the water.

The German WWII cemetary located in the Normandy region of France.

Point du Hoc- a landing point for the Allied Forces on D-Day.

Looking out from a German bunker over the channel at Point du Hoc.

I'm standing in one of the hundreds of craters that scatter the land from the explosions during D-Day.

Another underground bunker built to watch the English Channel, but to keep the German forces protected.

This is the memorial left overlooking Omaha beach.  The rest of the beach is a regular vacationing spot.  You can see the beach below the plaque.

The last stop on the tour was the American military cemetary overlooking the water in Normandy.  It was quite a powerful site to see the thousands of white crosses and stars of David set in perfectly manicured grounds overlooking the water with the Star Spangled Banner playing intermittenly with Taps.  What a beautifully, humbling site.  So many people who came to fight not only for our country, but for humanity and what was right for our world.  So many, young and old, who gave up their life during their service and now rest forever on American soil in France.  The tour was well worth the money and was the highlight of our trip to France.

After our tour, we again walked the city by night to take in all the sites we were unable to see during the day.  On Monday morning we got up to hit the rest of the spots on our list.  This included the Louvre to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, although we had been warned by everyone that it is so small and quite disappointing.  We got to the museum around 10am to find a two hour line.  It was an easy decision to skip the famous museum without second thought and head over to the Luxembourg Gardens where we spent a good hour sitting, people watching, and taking in the beauty of the gardens and the comfortable sunshine.  By the afternoon I was exhausted, totally over walking another step, and dragging my bag back on the Underground, to head to the bus stop, to head to the airport, to finally make it back to Venice.  Phew...what a trip.  But when you only have a three day weekend, there's no time to lounge when there's so much to see!

We marked another city (and country) off the list and as often happens after visiting a city, it moved to the top (or close to the top) of favorite cities we've visited! 

I am currently laying in a hotel room by myself in Germany on Ramstein Air Base.  I am up here for a conference for work this week, so I am trying to take advantage of my evenings alone to catch up on my blogs since I'm so far behind.  So I will try to upload pictures later, but I wanted to at least document the trip, as I print my blogs into yearly books and keep them as an official journal.  So hopefully a few more posts will be coming in the next few days!

Good night, friends!

Re-Cap Time

We are taking a little trip back to June 6th, 2011.  Okay, so it's only 2 months ago, but I've missed so much on the blog, it feels like much longer.  This would be the exciting day that my family showed up in Venice ready for their jam packed two weeks of travel and fun.  As I mentioned before, my Mom did an excellent job journaling the trip in emails, so I am going to cheat a little and include her emails in the update.  Or I guess I could say, I'm going to have a "guest blogger" join us to put in her two cents on Europe 2011 trip!  My guest blogger today is the fabulously talented, Jenni Peterson.
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Day 1:
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We all arrived at the same time to a solid day of rain.  We went to base, visited the Youth Center, went to the BX, and got our first Monopoly money from the machine.  Funny - it was $450 for $300 of Monopoly money.  Katie is a tyrant - she won't let us go to sleep until at least 8:00 tonight.  We have driven through San Quirino and it is charming - just like you would imagine an Italian village to look.  We are going to dinner tonight at an osteria - which serves local food - our first Italian meal.  Katie thinks that food might keep us awake until a proper bedtime.  Her place is fabulous and spotless - now we can start the fun.

The Osteria in my town.

Note from the editor: Mom, Kelly, and Aunt Joyce were all flying stand-by and I was fairly certain it would take at least 3 trips down to the airport and four days for everyone to arrive in Italy.  Much to all of our pleasant surprise they ALL made it on the first flight, and they flew business class.  Doesn't get much better than that!
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Day 2:
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Dinner our first night was at a local place. We saw on the sign that they opened at 6, so we got there at 6:30. They didn't serve hot food until 8:00! So Katie took us on a hike around San Quirino. The waterways were so interesting - they channel the local streams into concrete water lines that look like "lazy rivers" around the town - they are beautiful. There are evidently no zoning laws here, so there is a spectacular house that overlooks a rundown shack, but it is kind of like driving through Georgia on the way to Florida with the azaleas in front of the shacks. There are flowers everywhere - Joyce was amazed by all of the shutters on the building and the fact that they shut them every night.


Dinner was delicious - we had a little bit of everything and shared. My favorite was the gnocci pasta- potato pasta- no wonder I loved it.
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Day Two - Katie could hardly pull us out of bed. Kelly thought she was dreaming when she heard the "Good morning little sunshine" song. I talked Katie into another hour of sleep and she used that time to drive to Pordenone to visit Rosario in the hospital. Taylor and Katie had been worried about him because his mail had not been picked up for two days. She went to his son's house in town several times and no one was home. Then the mail was gone and Katie thought he had just been visiting one of his children, but another neighbor said we was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She did not get into see him because visiting hours are only 10 - 12 and 4 - 6. She said the hospital looks like it is straight out of a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - with the pale green walls and everything. She will try to go again tomorrow.
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We took the train to Venice - wow. It is absolutely amazing. We got there about 1:00 and got home about 9:45 this evening. We walked forever.....and couldn't get over the gorgeous balconies and the flowers and plants everywhere. We splurged for a gondola ride and it was well worth the 80 euros (not apiece - all of us together). We have pictures from the Rialto Bridge and San Marco Square. Katie took us in every church that was open - they are all beautiful and so different. One of the churches had a clock tower with a 24 hour circular clock - I have never seen that before.

Our Gondola ride with Marco.

In St. Marco's Square in Venice

On a bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice.

We had pizza and wine for lunch. The wine comes out of a beer tap at the restaurants and they pour it into pitchers. There are shops with beautiful masks everywhere. Joyce and I bought Christmas ornaments and Kelly and I bought magnets. Katie inspired us because they have magnets from everywhere they have been. Their freezer section is almost full already. They are planning a trip to Ireland on the Fourth of July because they will each have an extra day off. Paris is still on the list and it looks like Thanksgiving will be a ski trip to Switzerland - rough life.
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We were very fortunate to have our own personal tour guide. It is wonderful going with someone who knows how to get on the train - how to validate the tickets - and where to get off the train. We are all impressed with Katie's ability to speak Italian. She definitely knows enough to get around everywhere and enjoys speaking to people. It is off to bed because the local market is tomorrow morning.

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Day 3:

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Today we went to the open air market in Sacile. What an experience! This gives the true local flavor - Katie bought us more cheese from the market. They sell clothes, purses, housewares, scarves, fresh produce, and lots of fresh flowers. The local markets come to each town once each week on a set day. We missed the San Quirino market because our flight didn't come in until noon.

 

At the cheese stand (formaggio) and personally my favorite part of the markets!

Leaving the Sacile market with some fresh flowers for Rosario.

The "SQUATTY POTTY"!!!!

Note from the editor:  I don't know that I have spoken of the "squatty potty" on the blog, and I'm certain I've not posted a picture of it.  This lovely contraption is what you find in about 30% of the public bathrooms you enter, whether it's a restaurant, amusement park, or store.  And I warned the family about these wonderful toilets in the ground, and Aunt Joyce ran into her first one in a cafe off the market.  Needless to say, she took a picture so others could share in the craziness and proceeded to do her business elsewhere.  Why these could EVER be a good idea is beside me, but it's quite common over here.  I can't help but wonder how the grandmas handle the "squatty potties" when they come upon them...
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Katie dropped us off at a cafe in Pordenone to get a drink while she went to visit Rosario in the hospital. We had to order Cafe Americano. They give you the regular Italian espresso with a small pitcher of hot water. It is still strong coffee and one is enough. Joyce got carbonated water for the second time. Katie told her that she wanted to order "naturale." At the cafe she did pick up a "naturale" but it was effervescent - still bubbly. We are learning. Katie said that Rosario was very glad to see her and he was so sorry that he couldn't meet the family. He was hoping to come home today - Katie does not know what was wrong with him - translation issues. Hopefully, he will be home soon. I hope the Loud Family isn't too much for a recovering neighbor.
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We had lunch in Aviano at a local cafe next to base. It was adorable. We had spaghetti carbonara which is spaghetti with eggs, ham, bacon, and cream sauce. Joyce and Kelly loved it. Katie and I had lasagne, it was way creamier than our lasagne, and absolutely delicious. Katie ordered us bruschetta and they bring toasted bread with a sauce in a bowl in the middle - olive oil, herbs, parmesan - a creamy mixture. It was too strong for Joyce but the rest of us enjoyed it. We had way too much food again.
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In the rain we drove to Katie's personal lake, Lake Barcis, in the Italian Alps. It is a 20 minute drive through windy roads and long tunnels. Katie and Kelly used to hold their breath in tunnels, but it didn't work here. Kelly would have passed out. The lake was a beautiful turquoise green color. It changes color based on the minerals that are washed down from the mountains. It is fed by a beautiful river - it looks like the Black River Bank but with blue water. This is where Katie and Kika like to go hike and hang out for the day. There is so much natural beauty here.

My crazy seeeester.

A beautiful day for a visit to the lake.  Our schedule was so full of things to see we had to go in the rain!

Day 4:
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Today we had an easy morning - sleeping late and then a local lunch in town. Wonderful pasta again. We went to the Antonio Gelisi Winery, right next to Katie's house, for a tour. We did a tasting, bought some wine, but we were unable to see the inside where they make they wine because they were in the middle of the bottlling process. It was a beautiful day and the winery is at the base of the mountains - in the magic valley where the mountains protect the grapes.

Afterwards we went to Aviano Air Base to see the Thunderbirds. They are a group of F-16 fighter jets that fly in precision formation - they are here doing a show in Gesolo Beach tomorrow. Kika was there and is totally a Thunderbird fan. Greg and Taylor were there also - talking about how cocky the pilots are. They have to shut down the gym facility so that the pilots can work out by themselves. The guys talk about how their jumpsuits get painted on their bodies and that it is truly like "Top Gun" with their cockiness. Today they did a ground show where the mechanics work in precision checking the planes, the pilots arrive, and there is a whole ceremony "show" surrounding the take-off. I must admit it was pretty impressive - I've never seen anything like it. There were six jets taking off - evidently even a rock in the engine can be very dangerous. The maintenance crew walks around the planes shoulder to shoulder looking for stray rocks on the ground. Greg said their engines are like tornadoes and suck up anything around. People on the fllight line cannot even wear hats because they can get sucked into the engines. I am guessing these things are not fuel efficient! It was incredible when they took off today.

We were all amazed when we saw Taylor in full work gear today. He has an 80 pound pack that he has to wear at work - bullet proof armor front and back, a pouch with a gas mask, three containers of ammo, a M-16 rifle, a "man purse" for his extra things (like a leatherman, sunglass case, ID), canteen, radio, and handcuffs. We took pictures of him!

We just came back from dinner at Masiere, a restaurant in Aviano, with another beautiful view of the mountains. Kika joined us for dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed trying all of the different meals - several were a surprise even when Katie and Kika thought they knew what we were ordering.
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Tomorrow morning Taylor is coming with us to Florence. We are staying Saturday and Sunday. Taylor has to go back to work and is taking a train home on Monday morning. Monday we are going to Chianti to take a wine tour in the morning and then we will drive to Rome in the afternoon. We will be in Rome Monday evening until Wednesday, when we will drive home. I can't wait to see all of this history. Ciao!
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Day 5-9:
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Saturday Taylor drove us to Florence. We felt like we were walking through history. We went to the Duomo, an incredibly beautiful church from the outside and incredibly simple on the inside so people could focus on worship. The Baptistry, another beautiful building with doors with twelve panels depicting the life of Christ. Then we went to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, the only bridge to survive the bombings of WW II.

The Duomo.

Ponte Vecchio- a bridge full of shopping on the inside.

There was great shopping in an open air Florence market..especially leather. We had dinner in the Piazza del Republica and had Bistecca di Fiorentina at Katie's suggestion. After dinner Katie was sure that this was the same restaurant Drew and Megan ate at on the fateful Dancing Queen night!!




Florence daily open air market.


Another highlight was the tour of Palazzo Pitti and the Bobolini Gardens....we felt so at home...obviously we were meant to be rich.....it was an oasis in the middle of Florence.

Kelly found herself a date in Florence!

Exploring the gardens.

Day two in Florence we went to the Uffizi art museum. Joyce and Kelly got mad at me because I wanted to read everything. We saw Michaelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, and so many others. We ate every meal at an outdoor cafe. There was a huge replica of David in the Piazza del Signoria. Katie insisted that we still go to the Academia to see Michaelangelos real David...especially since we grew up with a bust of David by our front door. It was truly incredible to see the real statue carved from one solid piece of marble.

The David statue in the Piazza.  The one in the Academia is even more stunning.

Hanging out on the steps of Santa Croce resting our legs.

Then we went to the church of Santa Croce, but it was closed. Early the next morning Taylor had to go back to work and took the train back to Pordenone. Katie drove us to the Chianti region in Tuscany. We had a private tour of the winery, had a tasting and bought some wine and olive oil at Casa Emma. The young guy giving the tour said that he would never live in Chianti's because it was SO boring...he drove in to work from Florence. It was a gorgeous place.

Then we drove to Roma...kudos to Katie for her driving skills in Rome with crazy drivers and motorcycles....Our hotel has two small beds and two Murphy bunk beds...guess who slept there? We headed out to the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. We had a great tour guide..you could feel the history in the Roman Forum. We had dinner and then went to the Trevi Fountain. We all threw in a coin to insure our return to Rome.....except Katie because this was her third trip to Rome. We were so tired that we could hardly walk when we got home.

After our tour of the Colosseum waiting for our tour of Palatine Hill and the Roman Ruins.

Overlooking the Roman Ruins.

Tossing their coin in Trevi Fountain to ensure their return to Rome!

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Tuesday in Rome we took the subway, Kelly's first time in a subway...in Florence we took a bus. We went to St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica...All of the marble there was taken from the old Roman Palaces. At one o clock we met our tour guide from yesterday to tour the Vatican museum. We had only six people on our tour including us..it was so amazing..he was an ancient history major from London and had been in Rome giving tours for three years. We ended with the Sistine chapels looking at Michaelangelo's ceiling. We had another wonderful pasta dinner.



Michaelangelo's Pieta sculpture of Mary and Jesus.



Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museum





Inside St. Peter's

Today is Friday - we are getting ready to leave for Lake Bled, Slovenia for the weekend.  Taylor has to work tomorrow, so he can't join us for the trip.  Lake Bled is listed as one of the ten most beautiful lakes in the world.  Yesterday we stayed at Katie's house all day in our pjs - Katie had to go into work to catch up because their summer program kicks off on Monday.  After all of the walking and touring for five days, it was very nice to sleep late and rest.  Rosario brought his famous homemade spaghetti and breaded veal chops, and wine that his friend makes for him.  He joined us for a dinner.  He obviously adores Katie!  He is going to buy pizza for us Sunday evening from the local San Quirino pizza parlor.  Unfortunately Taylor was working late - he had an event where he had to wear his "dress blues."  Joyce got a picture of him in his "wedding attire."  Ciao!

With Rosario for dinner at my house.

The delicious homemade spaghetti dinner he made and brought over for us!

And Taylor finally arrived home after a formal dinner on base...in his penguin suit as he likes to call it.

And the final portion of the the trip, the last weekend, was spent in Lake Bled, Slovenia.  It was an incredibly relaxing weekend full of shopping, bike rides, train rides, boat rides, swimming, massages, and good company.  Here are a few pictures from the trip.

On the tram ride around Lake Bled.

Taking a boat ride to the island in the middle of the lake with the pretty church!

On the steps from the water up to the church on the island.  There were wedding pictures taking place on the steps while we were there overlooking the water....beautiful!

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On our bike ride.

Lunch overlooking the lake.

Thank you Mom, Kelly, and Aunt Joyce for wonderful company and a fabulous trip.  I love you all!