Paris... and more Paris

Eiffel Tower at night.

Place De La Concorde

Notre Dame. Our camera can take black and whites...

One of the stained glass windows in Notre Dame.

The "backyard."

I’m going to start this one a little different. Normally I try not to call out other people besides our family but this time it is deserved and I feel I owe it. I don’t think they even read this but, to the Geiger family, THANK YOU. I think we would still be in Paris (now Thursday) if it hadn’t been for their efforts and savvy use of the internet from 1000 miles away. From re-booking flights, Sam on hold with Lufthansa for 45 minutes, to Jana ultimately booking our rental car and good level headed/ detached advice. Also to Doug Hagenbuch who, I know, if we had really needed it he would have driven from Naples to Paris to get us. Our heart felt thanks.

Paris is a huge city. There are ~2.17 million people just within the inner city and 11 million in all of Paris. As of 2007 there were 3550 people per square mile. The closest US city is LA at 2700. The country history is interesting and very different from any of the cities/ countries we’ve been to so far. They have a rich history, all about them. I’ll explain. The most apparent way this is displayed is in their churches. For instance at Versailles, Louis XIV would enter upstairs and look down on the alter. Everyone else was down stairs and faced the back so they could look up at him. Notre Dame has a huge 300 foot spire. While the apostles are on corners looking down, the architect, Viollet-le-Duc is one of the highest figures and he is turned around looking up at his work. They turned another church into a monument to individuals they felt were important. Even Napoleon’s arch still stands and is now used to honor more victories. Every country has pride. Theirs just seemed a little, “In-your-face” at times. The people though were very nice. We never had a problem communicating. Most of the time they spoke English; other times we knew just enough key words to get our point across. It really does pay to at least try to speak your host’s language!

Let’s begin with the trip though… We flew out of Naples Monday afternoon to Milan and then on to Paris. Carey found a great apartment, right in downtown, in the Latin Quarter. By the end of the trip it was even greater… We dropped of our bags and found a simple little restaurant for a late dinner.
Tuesday morning we got up early and made our way out to Versailles. There is an early blog about the palace in Caserta and how nice it is and the huge “backyard”, including fountains, pools, etc. Versailles is described as the palace everyone else wished they had. Louis XIV turned this “little hunting lodge” into something extraordinary. The rooms and art go on and on. When mirrors were relatively new and expensive Louis had a hall nearly as long as a football field made with the inside wall of all mirrors reflecting the light from the outside wall which was mostly windows. King’s wing, Queens wing, entertaining halls… And the “backyard.” 800 hectares (1 hectare is 10,000 square meters). As you stand at the back of the palace you look out on reflecting ponds, fountains, statues and essentially forest. You get the same type of view standing at the back of the US capital looking out towards the Lincoln monument (not a coincidence). If that wasn’t enough, they had palaces to get away from the palace back in the yard, the trianon. These also had elaborate gardens in the backyard. I’m at a loss of words to describe how over-the-top this all was. Go to google maps and the satellite view and look at the distance scale when you finally zoom out enough to get the entire complex. Then keep in mind Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were maintaining and even expanding on all this while the peasants were suffering from France’s huge war debts. No wonder they revolted…
Wednesday. Pantheon, Notre Dame Cathedral, Historic Walk, and the Louvre Museum. The Pantheon was originally a smaller church dedicated to St. Genevieve. Louis XV was very sick and prayed to her for healing and was miraculously cured. In return he expanded it. Before it was complete though the revolution started and the revolutionaries decided it would be better as a place to honor great Frenchmen (and women). Again it seems like a “Look at what we did!” mentality. Entombed here are numerous French politicians and generals. Also though are the Curie’s (near and dear to me because of their work with radioactive decay, there is a unit of measurement, Curie, I use at work on subs). Also Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Alexander Dumas (The Three Musketeers), Louis Braille (the bumps for the blind).
Notre Dame: Very big, gothic style church. It is a nice contrast to the Baroque style so prevalent. The stained glass windows here, and also in the Sainte-Chapelle church, are very pretty. For me, the outside of Notre Dame was the impressive part. The sharp angles, spikes, flying buttresses, and gargoyles were just different.
The historic walk: Our good friend Rick Steves took us on a walk along the Seine river. The Sainte-Chapelle church mentioned above was part of it. Also included was the history of some of the shops/ apartments, and other monuments, like a statue of Henry IV. We bought a picture (surprise, surprise) from one of the small stands. The walked ended up with us near…
The Louvre Museum: The Louvre was the original palace before Louis XIV moved to Versailles. Now it is a huge museum. We spent 3 ½ hours inside and couldn’t see it all. Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa are here. Famous yes, but there were plenty of other things to see. Anything from ancient Egyptian statues/ carvings to Da Vinci paintings. So many artists; so many paintings; so many sculptures; so many styles. There is an entire wing we didn’t even go into.
Thursday. Orsay Museum, Walk along Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower at sunset.
The Orsay picks up where the Louvre left off time wise. A much smaller museum, we saw everything in it. Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Picasso… Classical, to impressionist, to realism. Again, so many artists. When we first got here I wasn’t so big on paintings. Still not to a certain extent but seeing this collection could keep anyone involved. Even the kids took it all in and, I think, have a real appreciation for the opportunity to see these works in person.
The Champs-Elysees walk: For $20 Rick will take you everywhere. The walk starts at a very large circle with an Egyptian Obelisk in the center. It was brought there by Charles X after they got rid of Napoleon. It was a monument to those executed after the first revolution, including his brother Louis XVI. Attached is a picture of the obelisk with fountains and the Eiffel tower in the background. Champs-Elysees itself is the name of the street that goes out to the Arc de Triomphe. It is packed with designer stores.
The Arc de Triomphe is another example of “We can build anything you can, bigger.” The 165 foot tall arch is like, and has the same meaning as, the Roman arches. Napoleon had it built to show how great they were. Today it is dedicated to all French armies. Lists of all French victories since the revolution and the names of Generals are inscribed and there is a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Finally, on to the Eiffel tower. It is big and impressive. We paid to take the elevator to the very top where you get some incredible views. We wanted to stay until it was dark to see it light up but the sun doesn’t completely set until about 9 (Paris is on the west side of the time zone and pretty far north) and we were tired.
And that completes our Paris trip. Not really.

Part two.

As we were eating dinner near the tower Thursday night I saw, in French, something about a volcano and some airports being closed. Charles De Gaulle wasn’t one of them. We got back to the apartment and a friend called Carey and asked if we had seen the news. With only a small TV, with French channels, and no internet at the time, the answer was no. Our flight was still on though at 10 PM. Friday morning we all got up early and took the train back out to the airport and were immediately greeted by a screen full of red cancels. We got rebooked for Sat afternoon. Next, we checked into the cheaper hotel at the airport. Sat morning at 8 our 2:50 flight was delayed. By 10, it was cancelled. That is when the apartment got better. Carey got the cell phone number for the girl who booked us and luckily it was empty until Thursday. We had a place to stay (for ½ the cost) with a stove, washing machine, refrigerator, and a market up the street. Carey and I went grocery shopping and then went to the train station while Mary and the kids stayed in the apartment. The first train out is… Friday. Sam, after being on hold, got us rebooked for Monday. Let’s go see some more!

The Eiffel tower at night is very pretty. At the top of the hour huge strobe lights make it sparkle.
Sunday. Luxemburg Park and the Montmartre Walk.
Luxemburg Park is a very pretty park area around what is now the senate building. Beautiful gardens, trees, a pond for sailing remote control sailboats, tennis, chess, cards… Had there not been other things to see we could have done what a lot of Parisians and other tourists were doing, just sitting in the sun taking it in.
Montmartre Walk: This Rick guy always has time for us… The walk takes you to the heart of the old bohemian Paris. We saw Van Gogh’s apartment and Renoir’s house. The biggest of the two hills in Paris is where we start. On top is Sacre-Coeur Basilica. Its outside is coated with gypsum, which whitens with age, so it is very white and impressive with its five domes. Also on the walk are the two remaining moulins (windmills). Finally, the Moulin Rouge. It is real, and it has a real history of can-can girls, but if you think it looks anything like the movie with Nicole Kidman you are sadly mistaken. It is now like every other bar and shop on either side. It just has a small windmill on top. We can still say we saw the Moulin Rouge though!
Sunday night the flight was still “on schedule.” Anxious, I woke up at 3 AM and checked the status. Cancelled. Sunday afternoon Jana had finally found that Europcar would rent cars one way across country lines. Prior to that we couldn’t find a rental that we could take from country to country. At 7 AM we called her and she got on-line to make a reservation for that morning (I wanted to make sure we had a car BEFORE we set out bags in hand). We took the train back out to Versailles and found the rental company. No GPS and no map, we navigated from Paris to Naples. No map because the only maps at the gas station AND rest area were of the greater Paris area. Carey and I shrugged our shoulders, looked at the kids and said, “A year ago we didn’t even own a GPS and we have managed to drive across the US 5 times…” Versailles was a good choice to start from. It is outside greater Paris and to the south, the direction we needed to go. Also as luck would have it, getting on the highway couldn’t have been easier.
The drive through the French and Italian Alps is AMAZING! So clear. So beautiful. The Italians, even more than the French, decided the best way through is to blast tunnels. So while we winded up the French side we shot down in a fairly straight line on the Italian side (the longest tunnel was 11.6 km long). 1,000 miles and 18 hours later our journey ends. Tuesday’s flight was cancelled too…

Paris and food. I’ve heard eating in Paris is expensive. That’s no lie. During the day we would go to a sandwich stand and eat for a mere 40 – 50 euro (taste the sarcasm?). At night dinner was 70-85 euro. Before we got delayed it wasn’t a huge deal, just a few days. After we got delayed though, we went to the market and made sandwiches and cooked dinner. 50 euro total for two breakfasts, three lunches, and two dinners. Much better.
I don’t know what escargot in the states tastes like but WOW it was good in Paris! Duck, steak, and chicken, all good. And of course French fries.
French wine. Very good. Again, I paid as much in the market (4-5 euro) for a whole bottle as I would have paid for 1 glass at a restaurant.

How does Paris rank in places we’ve gone? Definitely worth going. Carey put together a great itinerary that covered all we would want to see. Plus the extra days… I think we covered it.

Snow-boarding in the German Alps

I think we are becoming partial to Germany... Garmisch is beautiful. It is actually two towns, Garmisch and Partenkirchen. They were forced to combine by Hitler for the 1936 Olympics. Each town itself was to small for the venue, but together it worked out. They are near the edge of, but surrounded by the German Alps. Beautiful peaks and ridges all around.
We got up early on Sunday and took the 1 1/2 hour flight to Munich. From there a 2 hour train ride takes you right into Garmisch. Flights are only €100 each and the train for ALL of us was only €30. Gotta love the German train system.
We got into the hotel, Edelweiss, around noon. It is a US military hotel. The rooms are decent. The hotel has a few extras to make it easier on the families. There were plenty of washers and dryers down stairs, a couple restaurants, in-door pool, a huge hot tub, commissary…
So after a brief snowball fight, we had lunch and then later we went to the ski lodge (a quick cab ride) to get the kids fitted with snowboards and to get lockers. Good choice. It saved a bunch of time the next day. That night we ate at a Thai restaurant. Why Thai? Because we could.
Monday morning we were up and at the lodge before 8:30. Walking out of the hotel lobby, now with clear skies, you are immediately hit with an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. Brianna was signed up for a 4 hour snowboarding lesson with some friends of ours that also went up. So Carey, Austin, the other guy, his son, and I jumped on the gondola and headed for the slopes.
For those who have never snowboarded, think of it like a really long skateboard, if done right. One foot is in front of the other, sideways, so you have a front (toe) edge and back (heal) edge. When you first learn you spend a lot of time on your back edge plowing down the slope in a falling feather motion. It sucks because you go slow AND you push snow down off the trails. So as you get better you learn to transition from back edge to front and back again so you are pointing the board down the slope more (like skate boarding) in the same manner as a skier. Faster, better control, better for the trails.
Now that I’ve covered that… Austin and the other boy were in that learning to transition stage so the first run was a little slow. We stopped a lot. About half way down we all stopped, mostly off to the side, (not in the way and definitely visible). Out of no where a skier going faster than he should have, ran into Austin sending Austin 10 feet down the hill. The guy lost his ski and flew another 25 feet or so. It was enough of a hit that there was a line on Austin’s arm, through two shirts and a ski jacket, showing where the ski ran over him. Not a good start. His arm is fine. It swelled. It bruised. He could move everything. I pushed on everything all around it. After a binding repair and breather, he was back on the slopes.
We found a shorter, wide open run after lunch and stayed there for the rest of the day. The boys, both ride skateboards, learned fast. By the end of the day I picked a series of trails to get us back to the bottom to meet up with Brianna and the others from the snowboard lesson. I miss read the trail map a little. They only use colors vice colors and shapes that we use in the states. I ended up taking Carey and Austin down a little harder trail than I intended but they both did fine. Brianna’s lesson went well. She also started to get the hang of transitioning from edge to edge.
The World Cup is taking place on the same mountain! The American ski team, including Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso, came out to sign autographs and take pictures. Very cool. Not a bad first day.
Tuesday we were all up early again and were on the first gondola at 8:37 (I was impressed). We went up to the easy run from the day before to let the girls practice what they had learned in their lesson the day before. The problem with the lesson though was that they only went a little way up the practice hill so it was never steep and wasn’t very long. Snowboarding can be tricky. While the snow conditions weren’t bad, it was still hard packed with a small layer of loose snow on top so falls still hurt… By noon the other wife had smacked her head (even wearing a helmet it hurt) a few times and Brianna’s tail bone was hurt. All the women went down to recoup and head back to the hotel hot tub. The guys all set out for bigger, harder, longer trails. We found a couple combinations of trails that made the entire run over two miles long. By 4 PM we called it good. Over 7 hours of snowboarding (Austin and I skipped lunch to keep going). Awesome.
That night we took a covered horse drawn carriage ride through Garmisch. The girl driving/ giving the tour was very nice and knowledgeable. A little cold but worth it. Garmisch is about 1200 years old. The “Old Church” is about 800 years old. They refer to the churches as new and old because they otherwise have the same name…
Wednesday. The other family was a little bruised and beaten/ sore so they decided to make the most of things and rented a car to go see the Ludwig castles. One of them is what the Disney Cinderella castle is modeled after. Brianna, not sharing the same enthusiasm as Carey, Austin, and me decided to go with them. It worked out well. She really enjoyed her day.
So Carey, Austin, and I were back on the mountain by 8:45. That morning we tackled the long runs right off the bat. As I mentioned, the World Cup was taking place. We watched the racers as they flew down the mountain right below the gondola and right next to the trails we were boarding on! The TV doesn’t do it justice (we saw the same exact stuff on TV later that night). They are moving, cutting, and flying through the air.
By 10:30 the sky was clearing. We decided to get some brats, beer, and coke and then catch the cog train to Zugspitze. Zugspitze is the second ski area. It is glacier and at over 10,000 feet (2,964 meters), the highest point in Germany. About a 25 minute train ride and a 10 minute cable car (big gondola) ride later and there we were. The pictures below are from there. Absolutely amazing. The groomed trails were short but it is so wide open that you really don’t need the trails. I spent most of my time off the trails and in POWDER. Carey and Austin found a small jump to go off. It worked out well. After a couple hours the clouds started to roll in again so we called it a day just after 3.
That night we went to an old Bavarian restaurant. Good food; good beer; even a polka band.
When I first started looking into ski trips I was looking at week long trips. This turned out much better. One, a resort with an American side lodge/ hotel made it easy. Two, after three full days our bodies were getting pretty beat. Maybe if the local snow is better next year and we go a little more often a longer trip will be in store for next year. As for Garmisch, we will be going back sometime this summer for camping and hiking.
Next big trip… Paris!

Assisi (and other towns in Umbria)

We took our three day weekend and drove a little north of Rome to the Umbria region. We started by going to Marmore Falls near Terni. In about 250 BC the Romans made the falls by diverting water from a flood plain. They, according to Wikipedia, diverted it because the stagnant water was likely leading to the spread of malaria (mosquitoes). The result is the largest falls in Europe and the largest man-made falls in the world. They are about 550 ft high. Three different tiers. The first falls about 270 ft. The falls get turned on and off because now it gets diverted again for hydroelectric power. The picture I'll attach of the big falls is during the off time. There is so much flow and wind when they are on it was to misty for a clear shot. From there we drove on to Spello. At this point we are off the highway and driving through some really pretty valleys. Spello is a beautiful, small, not totally touristized town. Small alleyways. Pedestrian only areas. Churches that still feel like a church. Finally, on to Assisi and the "castle" we stayed at. Maybe it was a, barely royal, just passing through, castle. It was nice though. All together there were 10 families (coordinated a month or two ago). Of the 53 beds in the place, we occupied about 40. We ate dinner there, which was very good. There was a big open room where we sat around later and enjoyed the fireplace, games, wine and cheese. Sunday we went into Assisi. The town is famous for its two Saints, Frances and Claire. Frances was from a fairly well off family. Went off to fight in the crusades and then quickly realized he had a different calling. He ended up giving up everything and took up a very simple life. Monk robes, lots of time praying, fasting, teaching... Claire was from another well to do family in Assisi who heard Frances' teaching and also gave up everything. Some years later they were acknowledged by the church and were legitimate. We visited the church where both were baptized. Also to St. Claire’s. I liked this one. It was fairly simple. I say simple but it is hard to explain. Almost every other church we have been in in the last seven months has huge elaborate frescos, beautiful marble columns inside and out, and statues. This had some of this too but also a lot of simple white walls. The church built for St Frances was huge. There was an upstairs church where you could follow the story of his life around the frescoes. There was an equally large down stairs church (a church built below a church). And then finally, the tomb area below that where St Frances' body is. The last thing we saw in Assisi was the castle at the top of the hill just above the city. Amazing views of the area. The whole town was beautiful. I'm glad we went in February. I can only imagine how many people are there during the summer. One, because it really is beautiful. Two, the home of two Saints is a bit of a pilgrimage... Monday we drove down to Spelleto. A little bigger town then we anticipated but still some charm. The high point, both figuratively and literally, was the 700 year old aqueduct/ bridge. Ten towers, as tall as 250 feet, joined on top by arches to bridge the valley.
The entire area is beautiful. Rolling hills. Snow capped mountains. Clean. I've started to do the Rosetta Stone again on a fairly regular basis. The goal being to be able to go back to Cusana Mutri and actually communicate. Seeing some of these small towns and their simple beauty really re-enforces that.


Just a trickle. Check facebook in a couple days and you can see the dramatic full affect.

This is just a radom town we passed on the way from the falls to Spello. Pretty typical of a hillside town. As you drive through the country, Italy, you see random towns on top of hills.

Our castle.

St Frances. The building to the left and below is the "downstairs" church I was talking about. It extends completely beneath the upper church. You can see other small towns in the distance.

The bridge in Spelleto. Look at the center arch. Now look about an arch and a half to the right. You'll see tiny people. You'll have to click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see...

The Med cruise

Day 1: Let's start by saying there are 3 families, each with two kids. 11 days. Do the math and the luggage alone is crazy. We planned ahead though. We each had at least one car parked down in Naples at the Navy base. This way on the return trip we have transportation home... We then enlisted a small convoy of Honda Odysseys to get us all to the train station. So far so good... The train is an hour late... No big deal that is why we took the train the night before. Seven hour train ride to Genova. We got to our train station, got off and schlepped our ton of bags about a mile to the hotel. What a site for the good people of Genova. A long single file line of Americans and their kids and there dozen or so suitcases and garment bags at 11 PM. The hotel was pretty nice. We slept good.
Day 2: At sea. Room was a fiasco. Cold, rough day in the Med. If you had told me there could be 10 foot or better seas in the Med I would have said, "No way." There was.
Day 3: Olympia. Pretty neat seeing the site of the Olympic Games. They used to happen every five years, not four. She explained it weird. Four summers and then the next year they would have the games. The site was destroyed by earthquakes and covered by floods. It doesn't look like the Greeks restore like the Italians. For instance you can see in Pompeii where they are putting some back together as they excavate. It looks like in Olympia, as they excavated they left everything as it was found. They rebuilt a few key pieces so you can get a feel for what it looked like. Very pretty area though. Very green. Pines, oaks, olive trees, and grass. The site included the old stadium, different types of training areas (running, wrestling, boxing), a women’s area, and a small museum. Women were not allowed to enter the stadium area during the games. One woman did get away with it though. Her father was an Olympic champion. Her husband was an Olympic champion. Her son was competing. So she cut her hair and dressed up like a trainer. In true mom fashion as her son won, she cheered and made a scene. She pled her case and since she was surrounded by so many Olympic champions they let her off. If we decide to go back, traveling to Greece should be easy. We can take a ferry across the Adriatic. We'll have to do a little research first though.
Day 4: At sea.
Day 5: Israel. Really good tour guide for Jerusalem. As with any large group tour it was fast paced. We started off by going to Mt Olive where we got a nice view of old Jerusalem. This is also the site of the Church of the Ascension, where Christ was said to have ascended to heaven 40 days after his resurrection. It is interesting seeing so many large churches, mosques, and temples all over, together. Next we went into old Jerusalem and retraced Christ's final walk. The whole area is a giant market. We went into the church that was built on top of the crucifixion site. Within the church there are several denominations. It’s kinda weird to consider really. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant... The guide said sometimes it gets a little tense as the different factions argue about who gets to use the church on what days. The rock the cross was stuck into, the marble slab he was wrapped up on, and what's left of the pillaged tomb were all there. The actual cross was found there but is somewhere else now.
Next we followed the path he took while carrying his cross. Mostly market now there are markers on doors and walls where the different "stations" or events happened. Next was the West wall. The one wall that the Romans didn't flatten of the second Temple. Still a very active prayer site. Men and women are split so they don't "distract" each other. Here we happen to also see some of the Israeli Army. Three years required service for men. Two for women. Five? for officers. All heavily armed, but very friendly. Austin has a picture wearing one of their berets as they are carrying grenade launchers.
From there to lunch. Very good. Chicken, eggplant, couscous, some barley thing, a pasty type thing. All good. Then to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. First, Bethlehem is in Palestinian conntroled territory. Our Jewish tour guide was not allowed to go into the city because some guides have been kidnapped. The next guy wasn't anywhere as good. The first place they took us was a tourist, marked up, souvenir shop. The prices were easily jacked up 5 or more times what we could have gotten the same stuff for in the markets in Jerusalem. I'm pretty sure it’s like an entrance fee for the tour busses. The Church of the Nativity itself is built right on top of the site where Jesus was born. It was built around 300 AD when Constantine's mom, the reason Christianity exists on a large scale, wanted it. The background on that, some of our older Roman blogs might cover it, was Constantine’s mom was a Christian. Constantine became Emperor Constantine around 300 AD. The Emperor then made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire which then made it a big deal. Anyway, the church isn't small but isn't huge. There were maybe 500 people crammed in the various rooms. We got a quick run down on the fact that the church is split in three groups, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Armenian. The street venders (beggers) here were aggressive but manageable. Much better prices.
Not a bad tour over all. I don't think Bethlehem would have been better even with a different tour guide. Some friends booked a private tour for the same sites and because he was Israeli he couldn't go into Bethlehem either. So for political/ religious reasons you're stuck with guides that are really there just because they know tourists will come.
Day 6: Going to Egypt right? Not so much. We were about an hour or 2 late leaving Israel, same night the Lebanese plane crashed in a storm, and the weather remained so bad the Egyptians closed the port of Alexandria. A day at sea and off to Crete.
Day 7: Crete. A beautiful Greek island. The fifth largest island in the Med. Mountains and beautiful coast. Pretty old towns. The day would have been better if we spent a day researching on line what towns we wanted to see and what path along the coast to drive. That, a rental car, and a GPS would have been great. The tour we went on wasn't what we expected. It was labeled "Villages of Crete." In Italy if you do that you will find a town that is big in ceramics, another big in Lemmon cello, another for wine, etc. We ended up on a tour bus that took a very pretty drive, which would have been great if we could have stopped a few times to take in the fantastic views, to a small tourist town, which was mostly closed because it is off season, and then to a bigger town (also a small port town). The driver may have given us a brief history on each but I think his accent was rougher or something because we didn't get much more than the city names. We got about 30-45 minutes to walk around each town. So not a great tour, but the good thing is if we decide to go back we can catch the military rotator (space A flight) over on a Wednesday and back to Naples on a Friday and stay at the Air Station.
Day 8: We're in Egypt! The tour here was exactly what we expected and wanted. We took a tour bus from Alexandria (named when the Romans had control) to Giza. The pyramids here are amazing. Huge. The three big ones are for a father, son, grandson set of kings. Interesting enough each son had his pyramid built a little smaller than his fathers out of respect. So each king gets his own. The wives (one king had 37) get the little pyramid in back as their tomb. At one point there were 117 pyramids in Egypt. Even where we were in Giza if you looked through the binoculars you could see different pyramids in most directions. In Giza there is also the Sphinx. All of it was just wild to see in person. The sand, the camels, the donkeys... From Giza we went to Sakkarah to see the first pyramid. Built 4500 years ago, it is about 1/10? the size of the Giza pyramids. They are restoring the bottom portion now. The king at the time made an offer to a very good architect at the time that he couldn't refuse. Build me a grand, new type of tomb. If I like it I will give you the title of King of Architecture. If I don't I like it, I'll have you killed. He apparently liked it. We also got to see some of the elaborate entrance/ tunnel. It decended about 100 steps and even though straight line distance to the pyramid was about 100 yds, it curved and winded around so much it was 6KM long. Next was a 4x4 ride through the sand and over some dunes. Not a long ride but it was in between the two previous sites and offered a couple good views and photo opportunities. At the end of that we pulled up to a herd of camels. Everyone got their own and we rode camels back the rest of the way to where we started. It was about a 15-20 minute ride. There must be an art to riding camels because I was ready to get off. Maybe mine had a weird gate to his walk... Finally "lunch" at 4:30. We brought with us, and were given snacks earlier to hold us over. The food was great. It was at a small country club type of place. After that we stopped at a three story store for souvenirs. They had paintings, jewelry, and then anything else the street people were selling. In Israel/ Palestine I complained about this. Here not so much. The prices weren't as inflated and the paintings I bought (we got two) are of real quality. The other thing is the people at the sites are aggressive salesmen (sales kids). You can't simply be polite and say “No thank you” to most. Ignoring at least got you through and an occasional stern “NO” got the others off your back. So to not deal with that was worth it. The tour was great.
Most Egyptians make about $7200 a year. While not as poor as some countries that still hurts. Most of the economy is driven by crops, tourism, and although the guide did not say it, I assume some oil. Gas was less than a dollar a gallon. Driving around as much as we did (it is three hours from Alexandria to Giza) you notice a big disparity. Everywhere is trashy. Most places are run down. But then there are some places you can tell are for the wealthy or strictly for tourists. I think this life is what breeds aggressive street selling and a general dishonesty. After we got off the camels the guys tried to tell us we owed them 25 euro for each ride even though we were part of the group and they clearly knew that. The tour guide gave us good warning all along the way though the day. 80% of the population is Muslim. The remainder is Christians and a small group of Jews. While the tour guide said "We don't care about religious differences. We are all Egyptians" I don't think I really believed it. 95% of that 80% may feel that way but the small fraction made it a necessity for each tour bus to have a submachine gun toten private security guard on board the entire day. Someone else said it is a kidnapping issue also. I'm glad we got as good a tour as we did. I loved it and would recommend someone do it the same way, but I won't go back. My hair is a little longer and I had grown a decent beard by this point in the week. For the first time in the last seven months I felt that it was good to not look like a clean cut US military person. I didn't feel it as much in Bethlehem but I think that is because we were in and out. I didn't see a single place in Egypt that I thought, "We could stay at that hotel and easily and safely get around to see sites on our own." Maybe it’s all the American press telling us how bad Muslim states are for the past 10 years but the fact that Israeli tour guides can't go to Bethlehem and the fact that we had an armed escort in Egypt seems to support that it’s not all that safe.
Day 9: At sea to Messina Sicily. The cruise itinerary got changed the day Alexandria was shut down. No more Tunisia. Now Sicily. Not a bad thing. We weren't going to do much in Tunisia and Sicily is someplace I want to go but don't really want to drive 8 hours to get to (or take a ferry).
Day 10: So maybe I will make the 8 hour drive some day. If nothing else for the cannolli!! Taormina is a pretty little town. Our tour guide was a wealth of information. Messina, where we actually pulled in is a fairly newly rebuilt city. It was devasted in a few earthquakes, a tidal wave, and WWII bombing. Taormina is a beautiful hill side town. Like most of the Med countries it was under Greek control, Roman control, Byzantine control, Arab control and then finally back to the Italians. It is interesting to see the different building styles (material used) between Greeks and Romans. We saw the difference in Olympia also. The Greeks used big stone (lime or marble, whatever was local) while the Romans made bricks and used concrete between bricks. There were a few really great views. Mt Etna was mostly cloud covered at 11,000 ft. It is the tallest and most active volcano in Europe. The views of the coast are gorgeous. We were then given about an hour to explore the little city. We stopped at a small bakery where I had the best Cannolli I have ever had. So rich. So sweet. SO GOOD! On the way back to the ship we stopped at a really pretty church in Messina.
Day 11: Back in Naples. The ship got in on time. We gathered our bags and walked right off. "Customs" was funny. We walked off the ship through a small building where a guy asked, "Any alcohol or cigarettes?" I have a bottle of wine in one of the suitcases. "Okay."
We took cabs from the port to the base where we had our cars staged. Our cab driver was the most aggressive, yet polite, driver ever. Ah, good to be home.
The cruise was okay. Israel, Egypt, and Taormina were my highlights. I would not go on an MSC cruise again. Service wasn't the same as it was on our American cruises. For instance after a couple nights our waiter warmed up to us and was kidding around with us but I think he just had way to much going on to have the time to really be engaged. Our cabin staff while very friendly, again wasn't at the same level or caliber of Carnival. You pay for all of your drinks. Europeans don't do tap water. The cruise line sells coupon books for coke, water, beer, wine, ice cream, shakes, and alcohol. So then you have to carry them around and sort though them... As an alterative to the main restaurants, there are "theme" restaurants. You have to pay for those. We went one night and even though the guy had probably 1/4 of the work load that the dining room staff had, he was horrible. While the cruise can't control the weather they can plan the timing and distance between ports on the itinerary. I think Naples was the only port we arrived or left on time from (we had 12 hours to go less than 200 NMs).

Naples Underground

It wasn't what I was expecting but still interesting...

First, it really is underground. 90 feet underground. For some reason we had it in our head it was going to be old ruins or something. Not so.

We, a group of about 6 families paid one of the local tour guides to take us. He does a lot of the tours you can buy on base and is at least a second generation tour guide and has an archaeological degree. He was the same guy that gave us the tour of the archaeological museum when we first got here. Setting it up on our own makes it cheap. We all took the subway down into Naples and met Aldo at the museum subway stop. He actually started the tour here. Naples is still developing their subway system but part of the problem is every time they start to dig a new station they uncover another archaeological site. There are about six different layers of civilization below the current surface. Over the past 2500 years there have been a number of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and even a tsunami type of an event. One of the pictures attached is of a site where they found three large boats, and the pillars of old piers from an older coast line about 2000 years ago. The picture is a model.

Below it all though is Naples underground. It started out with the Greeks as a quarry project to mine the tufa-stone for building. They would chip at/ put a crack in the wall and then hammer wood wedges in. Next add water. The wood expands and you now have a nice big piece of building material broke off. Later the Romans expanded on the idea and developed an elaborate aqueduct system. The tunnels go on for miles and miles. Some, as you can see in the picture, are skinny (to raise the flow rate of the water). You can not go down there without a guide. Its pretty neat to look up as you are standing at the bottom of ancient wells. There are some other large areas where the wealthier people above had it dug out and made deeper so there would be a pool. Not for swimming but so when the water level in the aqueduct went down, they would still have water... On several of the wells you can see where notches were cut out to allow for people to climb up and down the well to clean it out. Not a glamorous job. Think of it as a chimney sweeper who actually climbs down the chimney. Still later, it served the people of Naples as a bomb shelter in WWII.

Pretty interesting three hour tour. From the uncovered boats and pier to the elaborate and well thought out water system we all still just shake our heads at where the technology was 2000 years ago. To bad the Roman empire collapsed and sent Europe into a 1000 year recession... Maybe we would be like the Jetsons now...

Looking into one of the dug out areas.

This wasn't too bad. I had to turn side ways for a couple...

Where we went in.

The largest boat was about 30 meters. The black specks on the left are the old pillars.

Some Munich Pictures

From the top:

A recent trip to Pompei

A monument at Dachau

The walking district in Munich

Carey "aquiring a taste"

New Town Hall.

Christmas in Munich, Germany

I really like Germany.
We had an early flight, 6:35, out of Naples and landed at about 8:20. Took a train in from the airport. The airport is actually about a 40 minute train ride from Munich (I think I mentioned that in one of our first posts). We were standing at the automated machines and a guy came over to help explain because we looked confused. After he showed us the ticket to get, which matched what I had in my head from reading, he offered us his ticket, the same kind, for a slightly lower price. It worked out well. I figure he bought it earlier that morning in Munich, rode the train to the airport and then sold us his ticket (its an all day ticket) for most of what he paid. He got a cheap ride, we got a discounted ticket...
We got into the hotel in Munich at about 10:30. Carey did really good with this one. It was actually an apartment. 2 bedrooms, a bar area and a living room. The only problem was the TVs didn't work. Not a huge deal since we didn't spend a whole lot of time there.
That afternoon, Thursday, we went downtown to the Christmas Markets. In addition to the markets there were sites to see. The "New" Town Hall is still over 100 years old. It served as US headquarters in WWII since it survived the bombings. It has a huge glockenspiel. Munich's largest cathedral is also here. At 2:00 all the booths were closing so we went back to the hotel to rest a little. After that we went to dinner at Hofbrauhaus. It is a touristy place but fun. Really good food. Excellent beer. Reasonably priced. The beers come in 1 liter mugs. The Dunkel (dark beer) was amazing. Even Carey had a sip and said she may be able to "acquire a taste" for it. This was the first place Hitler had a mass meeting/ speech.
Christmas day we slept in a little, then the kids opened their stockings (we opened everything else on the 23rd). Not a lot is open on Christmas. We did take a hop-on, hop-off bus around the city to see, or at least drive by, all the major sights within the city. The 1972 Olympic park, Nymphenburg Palace, BMW museum, and the Residenz (another royal house/ now museum) to name a few. After that we let the kids go ice-skating at an outdoor rink while we drank hot cider with Amaretto. It still made for a nice day.
Saturday we took a tour of Dachua. It was one of the first Nazi concentration camps. If you ever get a chance to go to a concentration camp, you should. This one was one of the only ones to be open the entire time the Nazis were in power from 1933 to 1945. It is where the SS were trained. It was essentially the prototype for every other concentration camp. As explained, if the "technique" was used in any other camp it was because it was done at Dachua. Our tour guide was very good. We actually got a really good deal out of it. He was meeting some friends of his from out of town at the site right after our tour was done. This meant he just gave us the transportation tickets and gave us the option of going back with another tour group or sticking around and getting back ourselves. This gave us all the time we wanted and translated into about an extra, well deserving, hour in the museum part. It wasn't just about exterminating Jews (that was a big part) but more about absolute power and destroying the human spirit. There is just way to much to talk about with it but it will be something we, and the kids, remember for life.
That night we went to a smaller restaurant down town and had another great dinner. The German and English written menus were slightly different (Carey's dad, John, noticed it first). I had something that was like a meatball but it was veil and ox that was on the German nightly special list (i.e. not in the English menu). Really good.
Sunday we flew out in the morning and got home in time to relax a little and then caught the Dolphin game (maybe more beer in Germany would have been better).

Some other highlights and side thoughts:
German mass transportation is amazing. You can get anywhere, cheap. A 3 day group ticket (covered all 5 of us) was 22 Euro and got you unlimited train and buses. If you wanted to go further outside the city you needed a different pass but it is still cheap and easy. It is run largely on a trust system. You buy your ticket at a machine. There is no gate to go through. Supposedly there are people that do random checks on the trains, but we never saw one. People must pay... the system is still running.
Munich is very clean.
There was a large pedestrian only district downtown. They started it in 1972 for the Olympics. Originally the store owners fought it but then realized it was a great idea because there is so much foot traffic.
The Germans are quiet people. The Italians stood out like a sore thumb (you could hear them).
German food and beer. What else is there to say. Delicious.

We are definitely getting to experience a lot. Just because its not "American" doesn't mean its wrong, or that it doesn't work as well. Why do we have stop signs? London doesn't, I didn't notice any in Munich, and Italians ignore them. Yet people don't run into each other... Why do we go to work so early and why don't we take extra time off (almost nothing was open Saturday)? Why do we think it is horrible service in a restaurant if we have to spend more than 45 minutes in the restaurant and have to ask for a check? I'm not saying we do things all wrong. I do miss having a covered tunnel to get on airplanes (most flights we've taken you go from terminal to bus to plane to bus to terminal). Our way is not the only "good" way though.