Adam & Stephanie's Blog

Day 48: Homeward Bound

adamwartman — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:37:52 +0000

We sit here waiting for our plane from Boston to Minneapolis, with a brief layover in Chicago. By the end of today, we will have traveled for nearly 28 hours straight, taken a train, the metro, a tram, and 4 airplanes…oofta! We know we have a few days of blogging to catch up on from Rome and Venice, and that will come shortly. Thank you to all who followed us and commented on our blog. We hope you enjoyed “traveling” along with us. Chow!

Day 47: Northbound

adamwartman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:22:52 +0000

We had an early ride to catch to get to our destination of Strasbourg. This involved a train from Venice to Switzerland, and then from Switzerland to Strasbourg, France. This was some of the most gorgeous country side we had ever seen, right up and there with Iceland and possibly surpassing it. Rolling hills, crazy beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, beautiful homes; as much as we wanted to shut our eyes a bit, we kept them open to enjoy the scenery. This was our last full day in Europe, and tomorrow was a quick ride to Paris to fly out. We arrived in Strasbourg to pouring rain, and though we had picked a hotel within throwing distance of the station, we still got soaked. We got tickets for the next day to Paris, and there was good news and bad news. The good, we got tickets. The bad, we had to leave at 4:30am because nothing else was available. The interesting part about buying Eurail reservations is that you have to buy them in the country you are traveling in. So we couldn’t buy our tickets to Paris until we were back in France, so there is no way to gaurantee as spot on a train, and this was the first time we had an issue…but a bad day considering we had to catch a flight the next day. Oh well, at least we got a seat and this would ensure us plenty of room for error once we got to Paris. The rain eventually calmed down a bit, and we ventured out to get a bite to eat. We had a place in mind that we wanted to try, but after walking around for sometime and never finding the place, we settled for a gyro at one of the last places open, and just barely at that! With the early flight, and not much to do in the small town, we went back to the hotel to relax and get ready for a traveling day like non other before! Thanks Europe for such an amazing trip.

Day 46: Venice-At a glance

adamwartman — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:20:20 +0000

Anyone thinking they can just find their way around Venice better think again. The alleys are narrow, crammed with people, shops, and scattered kiosks selling masks and magnets. Today is Halloween, and though some are trying to bring the tradition here, most don’t seem to think much of it. The majority of our morning was spent bouncing in and out of shops, looking at hundreds of masks, and simply trying not to get “alley rage” from all the people around, suddenly stopping or turning around or just walking too flipping slow for Adam! We managed to make our way back to the train station so we could be sure to have tickets for tomorrow’s train that we needed to catch, and nearby found a really neat mini-mart that had fresh baked goods as well! We bought some pizza by the kilo, grabbed some beer, and found a somewhat sunny place on the steps into the canal. The entire city of Venice is slowly sinking, and steps that once were above water are now submersed, making it somewhat of a mind trick to look at. Our trick thus far to navigate Venice was to follow signs to a major destination near where we wanted to go…and tried not to deviate too far off course. At the end of the day, at Piazza San Marco, near where we were staying, was the gorgeous San Marco Basilica, and low and behold, it was free admission, so we were game. We actually almost decided we had seen enough, but were very happy we took this opportunity because it ended up being one of our favorites. Gold mosaics everywhere, intricate tiled floors, grand bronze statues detail the interior, while the exterior is arches, domes, great horse statues, marble columns and is one of the greatest examples of Byzantine Architecture around. We left very content with our decision to spend some time enjoying this masterpiece, and content with our day overall. We went back to our room, showered, had some wine, and decided to give dinner at the restaurant a go again. This time we were told to wait 20 min and so we grabbed a seat outside. Twenty minutes turned into almost 2 hours, and we weren’t the only ones waiting and being told the same thing…”just a few more minutes”. Eventually, we were let in and had a delicious dinner that may or may not have been worth the wait, but it was definitely better than the night before! Tomorrow we leave early, so it is a early bed time tonight!

Day 45: Venice, italy: Boats and Bridges!

adamwartman — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:17:20 +0000

After a day of walking, we woke up a little slower than usual and began to pack yet again to move to our next destination…Venice! The bus to the train station was luckily fairly close by, and after a stop at the grocery store on the way so we had food to eat for our trip, we climbed on board. The Rome train station is fairly easy to get to, and all the buses meet there at some point or another, which is very convenient. Unfortunately, everyone and their mother was headed out of Rome today, and we hadn’t even made it to the ticket counter before our scheduled train departed. So, we had a couple hours to burn, so off to the café. And what a café it was! Though we already had food from our grocery stop, we were very tempted to grab some of the delicious looking food! There was a full line of gourmet cafeteria food, from premade salads to roast lamb shins! But running low on our budget, we somehow found the self control to sit at our table and eat what we had purchased earlier! After blogging a bit, and of course reading, we finally were ready to get on our train. The trip to Venice is relatively painless, but the end was the most exciting. Suddenly we were looking out the window to both sides at water beneath us! We were on the railway bridge to our island destination, and man was it cool. We arrived in the canal laden city late afternoon, and upon exiting the quaint station, were greeted by the famous waterways, the walking bridges that cross over them, and the dozens of boats everywhere, all the time! We weren’t sure exactly how to use the water taxis, but there were several platforms right in front of the train station, so we bought our tickets and stood on the one we needed; or so we thought! Thanks to a friendly Californian, yes they are out there, who had made the same mistake we had, had heard us talking and came over to tell us that we were on the “coming” platform instead of the “going”! He was on his last leg of a several month traveling spree also. We had about a 45min ride ahead of us, and sun had already set, so like driving anywhere at night, we were anxious to see all that we were passing by on our little journey. We finally arrived at our destination platform, and had just a short walk ahead of us to our bed and breakfast. “Ring, Ring” on the doorbell…nothing! We had come in a little later than planned thanks to our mishap that morning, and had no way to contact our host in the meantime. After waiting for a bit, and trying to get a wifi signal so we could Skype him, we finally decided to try to go find a payphone. This is more difficult than it probably used to be with everyone having cell phones, so after jogging about a half a mile, Adam finally found one. The owner was just a few minutes away, and Nicola said he would be there shortly. Nicola has a very nice, classic Venician home near San Marco where he runs his B&B. He offered to help in any way he could and recommended a few restaurants to try as well as things to do. He also has a boat where he offers tours, but we opted out of this and decided to make our way through Venice by foot. For tonight however, we were ready for some food and, as usual, a bed after our full days travel. Unfortunately, most places were closing down by now, and the one place we really wanted to try was fully booked with reservations and of course we didn’t have one. So, after browsing a few other menus of the limited restaurants open, we opted for a cheap pizza at an asian-run dive…and it was nothing special. It is amazing how quiet the streets are at this time of year, this time of night. It is a little chilly out, but really, just being out of tourism season, and we suspected that it would have been a much different situation two month prior. After eventually coming to the conclusion that there wasn’t much going on tonight, we made our way back to our two night home, and got some much needed rest…again!

Day 44: Vatican City the beautiful!

adamwartman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:16:44 +0000

Up and at’em for the big day in Vatican City! We were told there was no need to rush, because it would be best to “let the Japanese get there early and take all their pictures”. So we took our time with our morning coffees and croissants, and read up a little more on our adventure for the day. We had definitely realized the value of a few minutes of reading and other research to make the experience more full and overall more enjoyable. We left around 10am to catch the subway to the Vatican. It was funny to see nuns and priests next to us on the subway; sometimes we forget that they need to get around too! The enterance to St. Peter’s Square iis not far from the subway station, and it was pretty easy to find by just following the crowds of people. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as busy as what it would have been yesterday with the pope making an appearance, and also thanks to our late season timing. The square is enormous, with the Basillica on one ende, and statues atop the high walls surrounding the square. Metal detectors and multiple Swiss Guards protect the basillica from people looking to cause it, or others, harm. The Swiss Guard uniform was designed by Michaelangelo, and looks more like a jesters outfit than that of a highly trained guard. We only had a short “queue” and were looking at the interior in only about 20 minutes…worth every minute!!!!!

Day 43: Roma! So much more to see!

adamwartman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:13:16 +0000

Today many of our roommates were up and gone by 7am due to the Pope making an appearance. Our lovely host gave us the heads up on this fortunately, so we decided to avoid the Vatican for the day, and thus avoid the crowds. We took our time getting out of bed, deciding it wasn’t worth it to get up just to wait for the bathroom. After finally getting up once the hostel had mostly cleared out, we headed out to the garden for a delicious cup of coffee for breakfast, made anyway you would like it, including cappacinos and lattes, from our amazing host, accompanied by some croissants…not half bad! We decided we had better get a little quicker pace going if we were going to see everything we wanted, and so we were off! We made the mile or so walk to the center of Rome. We first visited the Spanish steps, which were filled with people from top to bottom. Next, we went to the Trevi Fountain, where people crammed to get pictures taken throwing in coins for good luck. Thousands of Euros are thrown in everyday, leading us to wonder just how they were extracted and how many Euros were stolen everyday from it. After having our fill of getting elbowed by fellow gawkers, we exited, doing our best to stay our of others photos, which is near impossible! It was time now to get to the big attraction, the Colosseum! After a short walk, we found ourselves zipping in front of everyone else in line thanks to our handy-dandy Rome passes! Not only were they discounted admissions, but we got to go in the express lane! The Colosseum was awesome, so grand, so well preserved, and such an incredible architectural feat! Arches everywhere, almost as if they were showing off their mastery of them, which they very well may have been. We went right to the top, and stared down into where the area floor once was, trying to imagine what it might have been like back in the day to come here and watch the famous gladiator battles, or the more exquisite sea battles that took place after they would flood the stadium! We listened in on some English tours where we could, and combined with what we had read in our guide books, we were able to more fully enjoy the experience. After the grandness of the Colosseum, we strolled in the gorgeous sun to the Ruins, a huge area, almost a park, of ruins that lie pretty much as they fell. We hadn’t read up much on these, and to be truly honest, we needed a little break from all the info, so we just wandered around and enjoyed what we saw, simply for what it was at the moment…and I can tell you we weren’t alone. Although a handful of people had tour guides, some university students offering a cheaper rate and maybe a little more energy than some other “professionals”, but most just wandered and guessed as to what they were seeing. We had walked miles and miles today, and it was time to get back to the hostel for a little R&R and regroup before dinner. Our hostel host had recommended a place near by where we were staying, and supposedly it was a great deal and great quality. Well….he was right on! We sat down and ordered the menu of the evening, and before we knew it we had ten, that is 10, appetizers in front of us! And these weren’t just tiny things, they were decent size! By the time we knew what hit us, we were stuffed with appetizers and the complimentary bottle of wine, and we hadn’t even gotten our main course yet! Needless to say, we left feeling more than full, and not even finishing our entire meal, and that NEVER happens!!! We were certain we were not going to eat a single meal tomorrow, and tonight we wish we had a little more self restraint…but it is too late now, and definitely time for bed!!! If only our metabolisms weren’t running a million miles an hour, maybe we could fall asleep! Wish us luck! Good Night…hopefully!

Day 42: Roma!

adamwartman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:37:32 +0000

We arrived today after a easy 2 hour train ride on one of the speedy ones! For the extra 10 Euros a piece, thanks to the Eurail, we saved about 3 hours on our trip from Florence to Rome. We made it with plenty of daylight to spare, which is something we have learned to value greatly when arriving at a new destination. After a short bus ride, and about a 2 block walk, we arrived at our “home” for 3 days…Hostel Lodi. We were greeted by the very friendly and welcoming staff, who, with our permission, pretty much planned our three days there before we could even get to our room. The hostel is very clean, with a computer room, a large garden with tables and shade areas, and a small kitchen for those who choose to use it. The only thing that seemed a little odd was one bathroom for about 12 people! Oh well, I guess we will be taking showers at night when it will be less busy, and hoping we can make it through the line in the morning without peeing our pants!
We decided to head out shortly after putting our bags in our room, to get some food and check out Rome at night. We jumped on the bus, after a longer walk than we anticipated due to some bus route changes because of road work. After a nice walk, we spotted the Colossuem off in the distance. What an amazing sight!!! It was hard for us not to run there because of our excitement, but we settled for a fast walk and arrived just as the sun was setting. We knew we would be returning again, so we briefly admired the grand structure and moved on to the Piazza Venezia that was being lit up brightly. After taking some pictures that didn’t quite do it justice, we made our way around to a tourist center to get our Rome pass. The Rome pass is a fairly decent deal, giving discounts on admissions to a few sights, and includes bus and metro transit for, in our case, 3 days. We made a quick visit to the Patheon, an enormous domed building, known for following the architectural “rule“ of being able to encompass a perfect sphere, with only cm to spare on the side. Continuing on, we stopped at Plaza Navona, a huge oval plaza with several fountains within it, and then decided we were both starving. We stumbled upon a little, seeming local bar, that had the soccer game playing and an complimentary appetizer buffet with the order of a drink…so naturally we grabbed a seat and indulged it large glasses of beer and some delicious bite size apps before finally heading back to get rested for the next day. There is a lot to see!!!

Day 41: Florence, Italy

adamwartman — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:16:56 +0000

Wow, so we feel pretty worthless today. We spent yesterday doing basically nothing but enjoying doing exactly that…and today looks much the same. We thought about going to Arezzo, another daytrip, but really, truly are “duomoed” out. So we are spending another day reading, and catching up on emails, chats, and Facebook messages. Adam got a little restless, so Stephanie sent him on several runs for water, milk, pizza, and of course, Gelato! Apparently, according to some guide books, Santa Trinita has the best gelato in Florence, so that is where he headed, and Stephanie was pretty happy; dark chocolate and coffee…they will be remembered. Other than that, it was pretty low key. Our last day in Florence, but we enjoyed it quite a bit. A great city, with great places to visit, great daytrips, great food, and great gelato…no complaining here!!! Off to Rome tomorrow!

Day 40: Florence, Italy

adamwartman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:15:53 +0000

Holy Cow!!!! Day 40!!!!! That is just crazy! We can’t believe we have been on traveling so long! Today is Sunday, and we are taking it easy. We decided against a daytrip today to a smaller town, since it is Sunday, many places essentially shut down, especially when not in tourist season. Instead, we are spending the day reading, blogging, watching movies, napping, and of course, eating! Stephanie has now completed the entire Stephanie Meyer “Twilight” series, and Adam has been switching between the books Steph has finished and Dan Brown’s series. We decided it would be best to try and clear out whatever we had left in the fridge, since we only have one day left, and it is also helpful with the budget to eat frozen pizzas and bruschetta we made ourselves. AND…THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY FOLKS!

Day 39: Lucca, Italy

adamwartman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:50:43 +0000

Today is GORGEOUS!!! Awakening to a break from the rain was wonderful, and then having it be warm, but not too warm for walking around…just perfect! We ate a healthy breakfast of Special-K, bananas, and tea, before pulling ourselves together, and making the trek to the train station once again. This time, we were headed to the northwestern portion of Tuscany, a little town called Lucca. We had heard it was beautiful, and seeing that it once rivaled Florence and Siena in military and political power, we thought we should go. On our way, we stopped at the little town of Pistoia, once a city where blood flowed freely and it’s inhabitants were, according to Michelangelo, enemies of heaven. This is where the word Pistol came from actually…never knew that one! Though the town was quite cute, it was fairly small, and aside from another gothic duomo and a cute little market, it was fairly quiet and we only stayed long enough to browse a bit and eat our picnic lunch. Back on the train, we rode the final 45 minutes to Lucca. Immediately after exiting the train station, we were greeted by an enormous wall that surrounds the city. Unlike most cities we had been to where these walls had been mostly torn down, Lucca’s remained intact and was beautiful. We decided to walk around the city and do some exploring before we rented bikes and rode around the top of the wall. We made our way inside the massive wall and into the center of Lucca. We were a little “duomoed” out for now, and so we just admired the outside of the gothic-style Duomo di San Martino, before heading to the Torre delle Ore. This bell tower is one of 15 still standing in Lucca, a city that once had 250!!! Crazy, but once we climbed the 207 steps to the top, we could see why…literally-you could see so far due to the flat land all around, and it was a beautiful view. We took some pictures, oriented ourselves in the town a bit, and made our way back down. We slowly zig-zagged our way over to the bike rental place, where we rented a couple of cruisers and began the 14km loop around the city. It truly was a gorgeous way to tour the outside of the city, and just off the sharp edge of the wall lay bright-green grass pastures where people stroll and dogs play. We did the loop twice, since we liked it so much, and then returned the bikes after about an hour. The sun was setting, and we wanted to get a good glimpse over the wall. So we grabbed some beers and a little “party” snack, and nestled down atop the wall. Peaceful is about the only way to describe it! Even with dozens of people walking, biking, and running on the path behind us, it was really nice. As 7:00 approached, our stomachs were calling us into action, and we decided to make them happy by finding some food. Our first choice of restaurants was booked solid for the night, so we decided we must be pretty good guessers…as it seemed to be the choice of many people. Fortunately, we had narrowed it down to two choices before that, so we had a plan b…another choice of Let’s Go…Ristorante da Francesco. This time, Adam grabbed the menu quickly and searched for pork shin, found it, and put the menu down…he was set! Stephanie chose the tortelli lucchesi that she had read about in the book and had been looking forward to. The staff was very friendly, and we once again left stuffed and very content with our restaurant and food selection. We made our way back to the train station, and just missed the train home…so we had to wait for the next one. Oh well, another lesson learned-check the train schedule, and not just the last train out, but also ones before that incase you want to catch an earlier one, that way less time is spent wasted in a train station. We just love learning the hard way lately! Another late night!