Week 9 Munich to Berlin

Sunday afternoon we tested the phone again and called for a taxi Monday morning, so it was just get ready and wait. Taxi arrived pretty much right on time. Off to the hauptbahnhof with lots of time to spare. Had a Starbucks and bought a few things to munch on the train (it's a 6 hour trip). Our train starts here in Munich so an empty ICE (Inter City Express) pulls up to the platform. We find our first class coach and our reserved seats. Crap... RailEurope booked us a wndow & aisle right between windows with only about 8 inches of viewing out the window. The seats in front and behind us had the full size windows (a good 24 inches). Looking around the coach we can tell it is fully booked so, as we've said before, it is what it is! A bit lucky though, the seats behind us were booked by someone getting on about an hour out of Munich so we sat there until then and at the same stop, the folks in front of us got off so we just moved there. Great scenery etc but then after a couple of hours a couple with 2 young children, maybe about 18 months and 3 years, got on and their reservations were for those seats. So back to our own seats. It was right about this time we came to the full realization that we were actually on the "young families, with crying babies and screaming youngsters, going home after an Easter weekend at Grandma's and everyone is cranky" train!!! 

Man oh man... At times what a racket AND three hours to go AND a packed train so nowhere to escape to! It appeared the family in front of us is fomenting a great sibling rivalry; most if not all attention on the baby; periodically the older one would start to scream and throw things at the baby, one time hitting it in the face with a small hardcover book, with little repercussion. Later, after things in the coach had calmed down a bit, one woman who had been cuddling her baby in her arms (and this baby had not made a sound to this point) decided a good thing to do would be to take the baby for a walk. Not to judge whether or not this was a good idea but she had not taken more than about 10 steps before another baby starts to cry which sets off her baby crying, then another... it was like a round of firecrackers going off one after the other!

By this time, the two older women (yes, even older than us) sitting behind us decided the best course of action was to put earphones on and to sing along with whatever was playing on their iPhone, thereby adding to the general cacophony! Thank goodness there were some generous reasonably quiet interludes and soon we rolled into the Berlin hauptbahnhof.

On the positive side, there was one little one whose father walked him up and down the aisle at great length while the little one smiled and waved, like the queen, to everyone as he went. That was quite sweet.
Anyway, we grabbed a taxi to get to our apartment. The taxi driver was a guy from Lebanon who had lived here for about 30 years. Brian asked if he ever longed to go back, his response included the line "... when I get old like you...". What!!! We ended up having a good friendly discussion with him and he promptly dropped us off at our apartment. Elias & Christa were waiting for us and we were quickly all settled, after which we wandered down along the river Spree to the Patio Restaurantschiff, a floating restaurant not far from our place , for a bottle of wine, a couple of excellent pizzas, and to admire the bears on the "bear bridge"...

(Ooops; forgot to put the week 9 marker in the photo album... Look for the bear. It is the first pic for the week).

Tuesday was a shopping day. We decided to head over to a shopping area we had gone to when we were here a few years ago. We bought a couple of 7 day metro passes for about 29 euro each (a good deal) and headed off on the S-Bahn S5 line to Friedrichstrasse where we expected to see a Muji store right outside the S-Bahn station. Hmmm, no Muji store! We must be a bit disoriented, but still sure we were remembering that we were in the right place, we wandered around a bit. Crap, looks like our collective memories have failed us, so time to go back to the apartment and do a bit of research. On the way back to the metro Kris spots a group of young people walking along with Muji shopping bags. Brian runs over and asks, pointing at the bag, "... where is that store?". They tell us that we must go one metro stop to Hackescher Markt. Aha... Ok, so we were off by one metro stop! Back to the S-Bahn, pick the right line and direction and one stop later there we are, right outside Muji. A bit down the street we spotted the Starbucks we had planned to stop in for a coffee, so in we went for a couple of cafe americano. This is a fun shopping area, particularly the inner courtyard complex of Hackesche Hof, with great shops with a wide variety of goods. Kris picked up a very nice pair of Trippen shoes. We had an excellent lunch (burger for Brian and sausage for Kris) at the sidewalk cafe, Restaurant 1840, then jumped on the S-Bahn to the Savigny Platz stop for a walk down into the Ku'damm area. We spent about an hour in the huge Ka De We department store before heading home for the day. After a brief rest we walked to the nearby Kaiser grocery store then stopped again at the patio restaurant for a nice sit out in the evening air overlooking the river.

Wednesday we started off by heading back over to the Hackescher Markt area where Kris had seen a belt she though she would like. We arrived a while before the store opened so we waited it out over a couple of Starbucks americanos. After picking out the buckle and leather we had to wait another half hour or so while it was all put together. We wandered around the neighbourhood checking out some of the neat architectural details...

.... and wondering what it would be like to stay in this area. Likely a bit noisier but might be worth a try on a future visit.

Back to pick up the belt; looks great! Leaving the area, we walked over toward Alexander Platz to catch what we thought was tram M48 with the intent of taking it to Potsdamer Platz and the Gemaldegalerie museum. Turns out M48 is just a bus which we ended up catching going "the wrong way". A couple of stops later the bus reaches the end of it's run (ie, before it goes back the other way). After everyone else left, Brian goes and asks the driver "does this bus go to Potsdamer Platz". The driver motions for us to stay on the bus. A couple of stops later, while we were still the only ones on the bus, another driver gets on and the two of them call and motion Brian to come to the front. They proceed to tell us we have to transfer to the S-Bahn. Somewhat confused Brian pulls out a Berlin map that shows a M48 stop at Potsdamer Platz, points at it and says "M48 doesn't stop here?". The "new" guy laughs and says "Potsdamer Platz? Don't you want to go to Potsdam?"... Well no, but now we see the confusion. M48 does go where we want to go, Potsdamer Platz, so we stay on board. We get off right outside the huge Sony Center.

By now it is time for some lunch so we go into the plaza and stop at Lindenbrau restaurant for some sausages for Kris and a burger for Brian. Then we got back on a M48 to go one stop (it was about a km down the road) for our planned visit to the Gemaldgalerie. It has an excellent, large collection of 13th to 18th century masterpieces...

After a couple of hours we exited the main gallery to find we were now in the midst of a thunderstorm. Time to stay inside for a while. We asked if our pass was good for the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Decorative Arts museum) in the same building complex. Yes, but too bad, it is closed for renovations! We went upstairs to the cafeteria for a cappucino each while we waited out the downpour. Eventually the rain stopped and we headed off. Caught a M48 bus back to Potsdamer Platz, a S-bahn train to Friedrichstrasse and another S-Bahn train to the hauptbahnhof. When we made our reservations through RailEurope the agent booked our trip from Berlin to Paris with a transfer, partway, at Mannheim, but the transfer time is only 16 minutes. We decided it might be wiser to book an earlier train to Mannheim. The agent at the hauptbahnhof concurred... "You are smart to do this!". We also decided to book tickets to Dresden for tomorrow so booked the 8:46 am to Dresden and the 5:04 pm back to Berlin. With the trip being a little over 2 hours each way that leaves us with about 5.5 hours in Dresden. Allowing for transit times, some lunch and getting back to the station we're down to about 4 hours max museum time with a bit left for sightseeing.

Our past years experience with German trains has left us with the feeling that these trains are so reliable on their departure times that you could set your watch by them. What has happened? Our 8:46 am departure to Dresden didn't leave Berlin until about 9:15. Coming back our 5:04 departure was delayed by more than an hour!

So, Thursday morning, anticipating an on-time departure we arrive early enough to pick up some sandwiches and coffee to have on the train. Well, the coffee ended up being pretty well gone by the time the train even arrived! When the train did finally arrive there was an older couple sitting in our seats so we had to ask them to move. No problem. Arriving in Dresden we stopped at the information desk for a transit map, found out we can catch the #8 tram right outside the station to near the museum. At the tram stop we bought a 4 ride tcket which gets us both to the museum area and back to the hauptbahnhof. Good deal over single ride tickets.

First up in Dresden was the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister (no photos allowed), followed by a lunch break at a Paulaner pub, a quick stop in the cathedral...

... then on to the Galerie Neue Meister where Kris specifically wanted to see a Van Gogh but as it seems to often be the case for us... "Sorry, not available, out on loan"! After that it was a quick coffee break and time to head back to the train station not yet knowing that we'd sit there an extra hour! While waiting on the platform, Brian struck up a conversation with a Chinese couple using the standard "Do you speak English?" line. "Of course...". Turns out they are from New York and he is a professor, of political science, teaching in Berlin for a semester. They also have a Eurail Pass and use it to do day or weekend trips out of Berlin. Had a nice chat to kill the extra hour wait. Also took one pic of an approaching train, not ours though, so here's a typical view from a platform in a large station (many more tracks not visible in this pic)...

When the train arrives we find our reserved seats. Guess What? In this 6 seat compartment is a young couple with two very small children. Yikes, is it the Munich train all over again? And yes, this train is full as well! Anyway, to make a long two hour story short, this couple had the "best behaved kids". No yelling or screaming. Only happy baby sounds which are ok, even with the odd happy baby scream thrown in for good luck. Also joining us in the compartment was a youngish (maybe mid to late 30s) business guy on his way home after a day of consulting in Dresden. He works for KPMG and is on the road close to 180 nights a year. He does work all over Europe and the Middle East with the odd foray to the USA. Hasn't been to Canada yet though. He recently took a 20% pay cut, to go to a 4 day week, so now has an extra day to spend with his 2 young children, although he admitted he still spends too much time "on the coputer working from home on those days". Sounds a tad familiar! Both he and the other couple spoke English so we had good chats on the trip back to Berlin.

They didn't want to talk about Bayern Munich's 1-0 loss to Real Madrid in Tuesday's first leg Champions League semi-final match though! The second leg next Tuesday, in Munich, should be interesting! One thing we asked about was the small garden plots we have seen along the railway in or near virtually every German town we have ever gone through on the train. They explained that these are a part of German culture, going back many generations, meant to provide people who live in apartments an ability to grow some of their own food. Once you have one of these the annual rent is quite small, around 100 euro and your right to it can be passed to the next generation. You can't sell it but when you let it go the next owner has to pay for the little house/shed you have constructed on it. Lots of rules about how much of it must be garden, how much can be shed and/or grass etc. you can't live in it but some likely do and if you become a homeowner with your own garden space you must (are supposed to anyway) give it up. Very interesting. Maybe next train ride we'll try to get a few pics of some.

Since we got home later than expected we headed directly to a restaurant we really liked the last time we were here, the 12 Apostel Restaurant at Savigny Platz. By the time we got there it was going on 9:00 pm so the guy seating us said there were two things 1) they close at 10:30 pm - No problem for us; and 2) they don't take credit cards - crap, forgot about that part... we only have about 30 euro on us, not enough for pizza and wine! So, off we go deciding to try a newer place closer to our apartment. When we get there we notice a guy paying with a credit card so no problem. Have a decent dinner, call for the check, and ... you got it... "We don't take credit cards"... but, wait, what about that other guy... turns out they only take some obscure "diner" card. Crap. At least the 12 Apostel folks have the decency to tell you before you sit down! After some argument the only recourse ended up with Kris sitting there while Brian hoofed it back to the apartment for the required cash. Cross those idiots off our list!

Friday was a sort of do nothing day. To start the day we caught the S-Bahn over to Savigny Platz and walked down to the Ku'damm for a stroll along with many other people. We stopped in at the Starbucks beside the Karstadt for coffee and a whack of "people watching" as we sat on the sidewalk out front. While we were there a city worker came by to patch up a part of the cobblestone sidewalk out front of Starbucks. Brian thoroughly enjoyed watching the guy dig up a bunch of the coblestones, prepare the dirt for replacement, stick in the new stones, tamp it all down, wet it with some swept in sand/concrete mix and voila... done. We spent the day wandering the area only stopping for an excellent lunch in an old pub. On the way home we stopped in the Karstadt for some groceries then at a local Paulaner's for a couple of glasses of wine and a really good Bavarian cheese sampler plate.

Saturday was an attempt at a museum day. We took the S-bahn to Friedrichstrasse then walked the 5 blocks or so to Museum Island. The lineups for the Pergamon and Neues Museums were quite long so we opted for the much less popular Alte Nationalgalerie.

There was a special exhibit of sculptures by Rembrandt Bugatti (yes of the car family fame). This man, totally self taught with an obvious natural talent produced a fabulous array of sculptures, mostly animal, from the time of his first international show, at age 16, to the time of his suicide a mere 15 years later at the age of 31...

The rest of the museum was quite interestng but the best, for us, was the central gallery room featuring Impressionists such as Monet and Manet, and where, in this place, photos are allowed...

Leaving the museum we checked out a sidewalk arts & crafts sale, had an abyssmal lunch at a sidewalk restaurant, wandered through a flea market then made our way to the Checkpoint Charlie area on Friedrichstrasse. We've been through the Checkpoint Charlie museum before and today being a Saturday with a lot of tourists we decided to not go into the museum today. This is a fascinating area nonetheless with numerous street billboards outlining significant events during the life of the "wall". We have lots of info and pics from our trip here a few years ago.

Later we thought we'd like a coffee and some nice cake which we'd like to sit and draw then eat. We picked a place on Unter den Linden. The cakes looked delicious so we ordered a cake for Brian and an Apple Strudel for Kris along with a couple of cappucino. The cofee was good and the pastries were good to draw but that's about it, not really all that tasty. Leaving the area we thought we'd take the circular bus route 100 back to near our place. Well we had to wait forever then the bus was sooooo slow it was hard to stay awake. When the bus stopped at Alexandrplatz and the driver turned off the engine we decided to abandon that idea and opted for the much quicker S-Bahn home. For dinner we made sure we had the cash and went back to the 12 Apostel Restaurant at Savigny Platz and had a wonderfully delicious salmon and fresh cream pizza along with some very nice chardonnay for dinner. Paid in cash!

Sunday we did a day trip out to Potsdam about 40 minutes away on the S-Bahn. Wow, what a wonderful place. The gardens at the Sanssouci Palace are out in full colour and the walk through the park is just so pleasant.... 

At one point there were some young folks joking around and this one fellow wearing a "crown" of dandelions who jumped up onto a pedestal to pose as if a statue (los of fun)...

We didn't go into the palaces. Been there, done that too many times so don't really need to spend the 25 euros or so just to see much of the same. 

Later, we walked down the hill into the historical centre of Potsdam. What a neat place in which to wander. Most businesses were closed but restaurants were open. We stopped in at La Maison du Chocolat for an absolutely divine cup of hot chocolate each and a couple of equally divine pastries. Yummmmmm!...

... did we mention Yummmmmm?

Returning to Berlin, we took the S-Bahn to Friedrichstrasse to walk across the river bridge for a couple of glasses of wine at a sidewalk/riverfront restaurant to pass a lovely evening. Very nice way to wrap up the week!

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Back to Week 8

On to Week 10

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Week 8 Florence to Munich

This week marks the half way point for this trip. Our photo album has over 600 photos. Not a huge number but, for this trip, we are using "Blogsy", an iPad blogging app. When posting photos, from picasa (which we do), Blogsy has to load all the images from picasa and only does 20 at a time... so as we go along this is starting to get a bit tedious. So, to make life easier, starting this week we have created a new album "2014 Europe - Part 2".

Monday morning and time to head on. Our "landlady", Isabella dropped by to have us re-sign the original contract because apparently the rules here have changed. She told us something along the lines that she now has to pay a registration fee for "renters" who stay less than one month. She said that the additional tax, for her, was 100 euro. Didn't cost us any more but that would sure cut unto her profit margin on a one week rental of 530 euro. She also described the changes she is having made to the small kitchen. Should be much nicer.

Isabella was nice enough to call a taxi for us; it arrived on time and off we went to the Santa Maria Novella train station. We arrived, as planned, way early then looking at the schedule decided to jump on an earlier train to Bologna. Our original booking had us arriving in Bologna at 11:35 with our connecting train to Munich departing 17 minutes later. Normally lots of time for European train connections. The earlier train got us to Bologna with a 50 minute connect time. Just as well. With all the construction going on for the huge expansion of Bologna Centrale, it would have been a very very tight 17 minute connection. Bologna Centrale is now a major passenger rail hub with approximately 800 trains a day going through there. It is close to being on par with Roma Termini as the largest, volume wise, stations in Italy.

Anyway, our train arrived on time and off we went. Unfortunately, just outside of Bologna we hit some sort of delay and sat there for about 15 minutes so were that late at every stop along the way. We shared a compartment with an older German couple, Peter & Gertrude. They were on their way home to Hannover after vacationing in Italy. They have travelled quite a bit throughouyt the US, in particular Texas, where Peter had been involved with arranging student exchange programmes. They are planning a trip through Virginia and the Carolinas next year to see a bit of Civil War history. Had nice chats along the way. We also had a great clear day through the Brenner Pass and souhwest part of the Austrian alps. Lots of snow covered peaks and in some places there were still pockets of snow along the tracks...

Oh, that 15 minute delay... when we got to Muenchen Ost, the last stop before Muenchen HBF, they suddenly announced, in German of couse, that everyone had to leave the train because it was not going to go to the HBF. Lucky that Peter was there to tell us because who knows where we would have ended up! A bit of a bugger but we caught a taxi from there rather than try to wrangle our way onto a crowded S-Bahn metro train. Taxi guy didn't seem to know where Hiltenspergerstrasse was but his "navy" (GPS) came to the rescue. Seems to be one way to help make sure a taxi driver isn't taking you the long way. If you can't trust the "navy" who can you trust?

Bettina was waiting for us and within a few minutes we were all settled and she was off to the theatre. Only obstacle now was the not yet delivered football tickets we had ordered online for the Muenchen 1860 game on Saturday. We received an email yesterday indicating the tickets would be sipped by courier on Tuesday. Now, as an aside, one has to wonder why, in this day and age, they have to ship by courier! E-Tickets anyone? Or maybe Will-Call? Anyway, it is what it is. We had been on a tour of the Allianz Arena a few years ago and now wanted too see a game there. Seeing Bayern Munich would have been way cool but their tickets were in the 500 euro each range, and not easy to get, when we checked.

So, anyway, we have to arrange to contact Bettina's husband Timm by phone to arrange for us to pick up the tickets. We decided it's time to buy a SIM card for Kris' iPhone... 35 euro to activate with 100 minutes. Bettina & Timm live in Schliersee an hour away by train... 55 euro return 2nd class. Hmmm, the price for these tickets is going up. Hope it's a good game! But we still have to wait and hope the tickets arrive.

Monday night we headed off looking for a pub of some kind. Looking at the map it appeared that Eliabethstasse would be a good candidate. Not so much. Nice wide street with a few stores and a few closed restaurants but that was about it. We asked a young guy who directed us further along to Leopoldstrasse where we knew, from our last trip, there was a Karstadt with a grocery floor so headed in that direction. We went aways then stopped two young women and asked how far it was to the Karstadt. They said "not far, but it doesn't matter; it is 8:00 o'clock and they are closing". Crap! Looking across the street we saw another grocery store with it's doors open so hurried over there. We couldn't see any wine so we asked a young fellow working there. He said "it doesn't matter; it is 8:00 o'clock and we are closed". Sound familiar? Then he reconsidered and pointed to a down ramp and said "there, go quick". Well, we don't need to be told twice... down the ramp, found the wine, grabbed a botttle, hustled to the cashier before she could snap everything shut, paid and back up the ramp. Thanked the young man, went out and back across the street to where we had seen a pub, the Bachmaier Hofbrau. Had excellent dinners of schnitzel and sausages along with some wine then walked home the 17 blocks to call it a night with a nice bottle of wine.

Tuesday was shopping day. We started with a stop at a metro station for a 3 day Partner Pass which allows us both unlimited bus, metro and tram rides until midnight Thursday for 25.90 euro. Pretty good value. Then we strolled across Hohenzollernstrasse back over towards Leopoldstrasse where we had seen a Starbucks last night. On the way Kris picked up some nice clothing at Oska. Folks in Calgary are lucky to have one of these stores now. Soon Vancouver apparently. After coffee we caught the U6 line metro to Odeonsplatz from where we had a pleasant walk along very upscale streets to Marienplatz, the centre of the city. We decided to have lunch at the famous Hofbrauhaus. Having an idea where to go we were following a group of young men. When they walked right past a strip joint we were pretty sure they had only one thing on their minds - beer... so we kept following them and sure enough straight into the Hofbrauhaus. Busy place would be an understatement...

... excellent lunches of meatloaf for Brian and fried pork sausage with sauerkraut for Kris. Not to mention the giant pretzel Brian couldn't resist (new rule: never order something bigger than your head)...

After lunch we wandered along the main pedestrian mall, leading from Marienplatz to the Karstadt near the haupbahnoff, looking in a varirty of stores and just taking in the city. We decided to go into the Augustiner beer hall on the pedestrian mall for an early evening respite. We sat at a table next to a German couple from Frankfurt. He was a lawyer who had studied law in Padova, Italy. Had a nice chat about many things Italian and German. After they left a young Japanese couple joined us at our table. We asked them if they spoke English. Very little but still substantially more than our Japanese (which, at this time is zilch). We tried to communicate with little success until the word "baseball" came up. After that it almost became a contest to see who could name another Japanese star in MLB with howls of laughter after each new one. When Kris mentioned Hideki Matsui the both of them almost fell off their chairs jumping for joy. When Brian said he knew of Masahiro Tanaka (new Yankees pitcher) and that he went 24-0 for the Eagles (couldn't remember the city), our new Japanese friend almost went ballistic with cheers. Great fun. However, we were very surprised when they didn't recognize Sadaharu Oh (the Japanese home run king) but we just chalked that up to our pronunciation. This couple are truely on a fast adventure. They leave tomorrow for Venice. All together they are traveling for only one week. Nice evening.

Now... Back to the tickets... Wednesday morning Timm emails Brian that the tickets have arrived, provides his phone # and says give him a call. Armed with the spiffy newly actvated iPhone Brian does just that. Dials the number, gets a recorded message, in German of course, then the line goes dead; call ended. Several more attempts before Brian goes off to a coffee shop down the street where the owner speaks English. She listens to the message and says that it is just a recording telling us we have 3 euro left on our account (more than enough to make numerous calls) but she could not explain why the call then ends. She tries it on her phone ... "Number does not exist"! Oh really!
Back at the apartment Brian goes through older emails from Bettina and finds that Timm has fat fingered the number and was off by one digit. Probably good thing it turned out to be a non-existent number. We can only wonder what the conversation would have been like with Brian asking some totally non-English speaking stranger for his tickets! So Brian tries the 'correct' number and Timm answers... Yeah! We make arrangements for Timm to meet us at the train station in Schliersee Thursday morning to give us the tickets.

After that was all arranged what to do for the rest of Wednesday? We decided to just wander various "shopping" streets listed in our Top 10 Munich guide book. We jumped on the nearby tram #27 which took us to Sendlinger Tor. Sendlingerstrasse is a pretty cool street to wander along and look in store windows and just browse a wide variety of store types. This walk took us toward Marienplatz so we decided to return to the Hofbrauhaus for another lunch. This time we shared a table with a German couple with two very cute and active children who spent a great deal of their time crawling under the table. They are from a place about 275 kms away and were making a bit of a vacation out of a trip to Munich to get a visa for her to travel to the USA. Man, could this guy put away the food, not to mention the beer! While we were there he put away a schnitzel dinner, a roast pig's knuckle dinner and a half roast chicken dinner not to mention helping his wife and the kids finish theirs. Brian barely made it through his one schnitzel dinner! Another nice visit and chat. Always good fun to try to strike up a conversation in these places. After lunch we walked over to the haupbahnhof to get tickets for tomorrow's train out to Schliersee.

Thursday morning we head down to the haupbahnhof to catch our train. Platform 33. Train is already there so we get on with about 20 minutes to spare. Hmmm, but something doesn't seem right. Brian takes our ticket and asks another fellow in the car if this is the correct train (showing him the ticket). Not speaking any English at all this fellow loudly says "Nein, Nein, Nein" and waves his hand frantically indicating we have to go further along the platform... but there's only one train on the platform??? Turns out this one train is actually 3 trains. They leave the station as one but after about 6 stops they all separate and go in different directions. Good thing we asked!

Anyway, what seemed to start out on the wrong foot turned out to be a wonderful day, probably a highlight of the whole trip. The ride out into, as our bar waiter later that night put it, "the real Bavaria" was very nice. We chatted with a young German couple who sat beside us. They were off to the mountains for a weekend of hiking. She apparently was the smart one... she brought snowshoes! They told us we didn't need snowshoes where we were going. Whew! We showed them pictures of the Comox glacier and of many eagles in trees along the estuary. They were blown away! Also on the train were many other people heading to the mountains for hiking, mostly older folks with their hiking sticks. Sort of like heading to Banff on a long weekend.

Timm met us at the station and handed us the tickets. He couldn't stay and chat because he is a musician, plays the organ at churches and this being the day before Good Friday he was prepping for a very busy weekend. So off we wandered into the streets of this very pretty little alpine lakeside town and along the lake side trail a bit...

While we walked Kris noticed a gondola going up one of the mountains. We asked a woman on the street how to find the gondola. She said it was just "a few steps away" and pointed the way. Well, go 2 blocks then turn right and walk up a relatively steep hill for 3 or 4 blocks is what she actually meant to say! The scenery from the gondola and the restaurant patio at the top is just stunning...

We had a very nice lunch on the restaurant patio, overlooking the valley, then wandered around looking at all the things they have up there. Mostly for children but one mechanical animation gizmo they had was quite cute...

... you put in 50 cents and these two "guys" start sawing the log. They get through it in about a minute and your souvenir slice of the log falls into a chute and slides down to where you can pick it up...

Fun stuff! All in all it was a terrific day so we'll just chalk up the price of the SIM card and train tickets to a wonderful day in Bavaria which we probably would not have done otherwise. .

Friday was Good Friday and most things were closed. We decided it was another wandering day so we followed a Munich Top 10 Guide walk around the university area to the Neue Pinakothek museum. Along the way, on Leopoldstrasse, we passed by a cool looking arched gate we had not seen before, the Siegestor...

Very nice walk with a stop on Schellingstrasse for lunch but by the time we got to the museum it was raining quite hard. We paid our entrance fees and headed into the galleries. Our favorites were two galleries featuring Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, and Gauguin pieces...

Fantastic. The rest of the galleries not so interesting. After going back to the apartment for a rest we thought we'd try a new pub we had noticed on our walk down Leopolstrasse, the Wirsthaus Zur Brez'n. Very pleasant!

Saturday was game day. On the way over to Leopoldstrasse, to catch the U-Bahn U6 line to the Allianz Arena, we stopped in at a Vodafone store to ask how it can be that we have only 3 euro left on our phone account. We had bought 15 euro/100 minutes worth of time but have made all of 2 calls lasting maybe 5 minutes in total. The young fellow looked up some info and then explained to us that our account was actually "in the hole" (we paraphrase) by 0.05 euro. So how can this be? He is not sure and tells us we must go back to the store where we bought it. Good grief! So it looks like that 35 euro might be down the drain!

We stopped in at tha Karstadt on Leopoldstrasse for a quick lunch. They have a food fair area where we each had excellent poached salmon with potatoes. Then onto the metro to Allianz Arena. A short ride later we joined the relatively small crowd heading over to the arena...

I
t is sort of too bad this is a day game because for night games the arena is lit up and is supposed to look really neat, as can be seen in this collage of postcards; red for Bayern Munich games and blue for Munich 1860 games...

Oh well, in we went through security (an actual pat down - separate line for ladies) and found our seats just before opening ceremonies started...

The hardcore Munich fans filled the seats in one end zone and the Arminia contigent was well and safely barricaded in a corner zone at the opposite end. There are more pics from te game on our picasa album. For this match, unfortunately the rest of the stands were, maybe, half full. Typical end of season meaningless game (in the standings) fan support. We were hoping for a really loud capacity crowd as we've witnessed in other games we've been to in Italy and Germany but not this time. Not a stellar game and we concluded that any MLS team would likely be able to beat either of these team, or at least give them a run for their money. Final score 2-1 in favor of the home team Munich 1860.

It was still only mid afternoon by the time we boarded the metro so we decided to go down to the haupbahnhof, where we bought the Vodafone SIM card. There are so many underground plazas in the area it took us a while but we eventually found the store. To make a long story short, the guy explained that we bought the card and it's activation for 20 euro then bought 100 minutes for 15 euro. The card activation comes with a 3 euro "slush fund" (best way we coudl understand it) which we didn't need to use but apparently we did. However that doesn't matter that the slush is negative, he said, because we still have the extra time we bought. To prove that we had time he used our phone to call his own (if we were out of time the call would not go through). He said we likely have most of our 100 minutes left but there is no way to tell. Like really? No way? Well, we could register with the German App Store and download an app which will, obviously, be in German. Ok, so let's just assume we don't have an issue afterall and just try it later.

Saturday evening we went back to the Wirsthaus. Met a young German couple from near Mannheim who are on an easter weekend getaway. Nice evening.

Sunday morning we used Canada Direct to call Scotiabank. We've been having the odd issue with Deutsche Bank ATM withdrawals and thought this would be a good way to check the phone. Well, 40 minutes later we finished talking with the bank and the phone still worked - bonus! So we should have about 50 or so minutes left. Late morning we headed downtown for lunch at the Augustiner Brauhaus and had excellent meals of roast chicken and veal meatballs with mashed potato, veggies and salad. Then we jumped the #16 tram over to the Deutsches Museum. This is a science and technology museum and it has so much stuff it is mind boggling. We spent several hours and did't come close to scratching the surface. A person would need to live here and go weekly for about a year to get full appreciation for ths place!

Later, after doing some preliminary packing (we leave for Berlin tomorrow), we went, for one last time, to the Wirsthaus for some wine and munchies. After several times there we finally had a look at one of their menus from which we chose a very nice cream cheese and pretzel sampler plate and also where we caught our first glimpse of what might be a motto...

The end of the pig is the beginning of the sausage!

That's it for this week...

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Back to Week 7

On to Week 9

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Week 7 Rome to Florence

Monday was moving day. We hired a car to take us to Termini where we caught a late morning train to Florence. An hour and a half later... tada... Florence Santa Maria Novella train station. We elected to take a taxi to our VRBO apartment near the Basillica of Santa Croce. After getting settled we wandered over to Santa Croce where we had an excellent lunch at Ristorante Francescano. Following lunch we checked out the goods currently available at the School of Leather, then walked across the town to also check out Infinity and Angela Caputi. A good refresher of a few of our favorite stores in Florence. We also stopped in at an internet point place to print off our confirmation for Tuesday's tour to the nearby outlet malls. On the way back to the apartment we stopped in at Conad for some grocery supplies then at a couple of sidewalk cafes on the Piazza Santa Croce for some wine on a fantastic evening.

Tuesday was our designated "outlet shopping" day. Since we expected to get back into town around 8:00 pm we took a quick walk up to Conad and picked up a few "easy to prepare" things to eat later. Then we took our time making our way along past the Duomo to the tour starting point near the main train station. Arriving a bit early we sat at a sidewalk cafe for a cappucino. At about the annointed time we walked over to the meeting place. Turned out to be a slow day and our late registration was enough to hit the minimum number. There were 6 of us. Anyway, nice day for a drive through the country. First stop was the Prada Space Outlet where we came away empty handed. Next stop the optional Fashion Valley which none of us were interested in and lastly The Mall where Kris picked up a beautiful Ferragamo scarf. The interesting thing that stands out is the huge number of Asian folks at these malls and these folks are here for one reason: "Power Shopping" and they clearly want the big brands. Since the last time we were here, 2 years ago, The Mall has expanded and has added a large Prada store. In this store we looked at the checkout lines. There were 8 or 9 lines each at least 10 shoppers deep and every single person was Asian and they weren't there to buy just one thing. These folks have cash to spend and they are leaving happy, happy, happy!

Another thing. Now that The Mall has a large Prada store there really is no reason, for us anyway, to go to the Prada Space outlet AND there is now a direct commuter like bus service between Florence and The Mall. Direct bus: 10 euro/each return with at least 2 buses per hour. Our tour: 35 euro/each wth fixed times. Hmmm seems a no brainer for future visits.

Got back around 7:30 pm, stopped in at a sidewalk bar for a bit of refreshment during which time it started to rain. We drank slowly and eventually the rain gave up... but not before giving our, by now dry, laundry a re-wetting. Oh well, haul it inside to be dry by morning.

Wednesday morning we checked out the nearby CO-OP grocery store and the Saint Ambrogio daily market both not far from our apartment. Fabulous meats, seafood, veggies etc, but unfortunately for us, the apartment we chose is not set up for major culinary experiences. We are only here for a short period so larger lunches out and evening snacks is our strategy for now. If we were to come to Florence for an extended stay we would opt for an apartment with much more robust culinary capabilities. In any event we did pick up some basics and had a good walk over there and through the markets.

After dropping off the goods we headed off into the center, stopping at Ristorante I Ghibellini in Piazza di San Pier Maggiore for lunch where we had an excellent salad and rigatoni with ragu. After lunch we headed off past the Piazza Republica to the Palazzo Strozzi where we spent a couple of hours going through the Pontormo & Rosso: Diverging Paths of Mannerism special art exhibit currently on (note, the url link for this show might be short lived as the exhibit ends July 20, 2014). Needing a bit of a rest after the exhibit we stopped at a sidewalk cafe, on the Piazza Republica, for a couple of cappucini while we sat and watched the activities going on in the piazza. Then it was time for a visit to Grom where we joined the line for the ever excellent ice cream these folks dish out. For the evening we wandered back over to near the CO-OP where we had noticed a few "bars" earlier in the day, picked one at random, had some wine and excellent munchies before heading home for the night.

Thursday was an out of town day. After a quick coffee in the apartment we walked over to the Santa Maria Novella (SMN) train station, bought tickets for the next train to Prato and hoped aboard. Twenty minutes later, there we were getting off the train at Prato Centrale. Objective for the day was the Prato Textile Museum. Since we had been here before we thought we remembered the way but we managed to get turned around and must have ended up walking several extra kms to get there in a most circular route!

Oh well... excellent museum. For centuries, Prato was the centre of textile production in Italy and the museum reflects much of that history. However, the main attraction at this time was a special exhibit honouring the life and work of fashion designer Gianfranco Ferre, specifically his couture designs featuring his signature "white shirts". Stunning...

... more pics from the museum are in the new La Camicia Bianco Secondo Me photo album we set up specifically for this exhibit.

After leaving the museum we wandered over to near the Duomo and stopped in at Le Barrique enoteca/wine bar for lunch. Kris ordered a sausage and spinach plate, Brian ordered lasagne and, to share, we ordered a "central Italy" sampler plate which was to come first. The "mains" came first and were excellent. Later the sampler plate came. We took one look at it and both said something like "... we'll never get through that!". Well, not too many minutes later that delicious plate of meats and cheese was picked clean!

Later, in the evening back in Florence, we walked down the street the 3 blocks to Piazza Santa Croce where we sat at the Tasty Toscano sidewalk cafe for wine and munchies. Being "happy hour", the wine entitled us to their "buffet" and what an excellent little buffet it is... no dinner required after that. We did have some entertainment though. Our table abutted a main pedestrian thoroughfare for large tour groups. One such group was mainly teenagers and as will often happen at least one young lad has to show off, in this case attempting to leap frog over a relatively high stanchion in the roadway. From the sounds he made and the subsequent howls of laughter from the group of girls he was with, we can only surmise that he may have left at least part of one testicle on the stanchion!

Oh, before we forget. In Florence they have installed many "in ground" garbage and recycling containers. You walk up to these things, step on a lever, a mouth opens, you drop in your stuff, the mouth closes and your stuff disappears into the earth....

... Quite slick actually, but we didn't really have any idea of what happens. Do they compact? How does it get collected? etc, etc... Walking to the train station this morning we happened upon "the emptying". A big truck comes along, a mechanical arm reaches out and hooks onto the top of the container then lifts this very large box out of the ground and swings it over the top of the truck; the bottom of the box opens up and all the trash falls into the truck. The large box container is then reinserted into the ground....

Very slick indeed.

Also Thursday we tried to use a BNL ATM to get some cash. The machine spit out our card while displaying an onscreen message "we have been instructed to return your card!". Crap... we'll try a different one in the morning.

Friday morning we tried a different BNL branch ATM. Same result. Double crap! Not having a local phone we asked the fellow at Infinity leather if we could borrow his phone No problem. Nice. Using Canada Direct, Brian called ScotiaBank only to learn there was no problem with our account or card. No indication of a rejected transactions in the last two days. Must be just a BNL glitch of some kind. This took quite a while and since we had thought we might buy something in his shop anyway, we ended up with a new shoulder bag for Brian and a new "dumper" for Kris. Absolutely beautiful leather and workmanship. This is one of our favorite local small independent leather shop/workshop places in Florence.

Leaving Infinity we went over to a different BNL and had better luck this time. Then it was off to the large San Lorenzo market for a look through the marketplace...

... followed by lunch at one of the several little snack bars in the market.

For the afternoon we decided to just do some wandering. We stopped in for a cappucino break at the Gran Caffe San Marco then walked past the very long line of hopefuls waiting patiently for a chance to enter the Accademia to get a glimpse of "David". Lucky we've been there a couple of times before so no need to join that crowd! After another break, for ice cream at Grom, we wandered down Via dei Calzaiuoli stopping in at Geronico Pelletterie where Kris picked up a very nice classic Fiorentina style hand bag of finest leather. Enough bags for this day!

Saturday and Sunday were Florence wrap up days, going for revisits to some of our favorite places starting with San Marco museum. This is a fabulous place. The simplicity of it compared to the massive cathedrals is really what makes it so neat, especially the upper floor where each of the monk's cells contains an exceptional religious fresco by Fra Angelico. There are no photos allowed but the nice little gift shop sells postcards illustrating some of the frescoes... here's a collage of 5 of them...

Later Saturday we went to Trattoria Marione for lunch. Excellent lunch but unfortunately Brian's ended up being, what one might call, "fast food" if you catch the drift! No other negative side effects though. Later we sat for awhile at a sidewalk cafe at the Piazza della Repubblica where people watching is always fun...

Sunday we strolled around the Duomo...

... and along the river and across the Ponte Vecchio...

Late afternoon we walked back up near the Duomo for an ice cream at Grom then back over to the Piazza della Repubblica for a glass of wine and more people watching. This time it was a young couple who chose the very public carousel as a place for wedding pictures. Very sweet...

While we get ready to bid Italy adieu we can reflect on some of the graffiti we have seen here. Some might call it "urban art", "political expression", "gang tagging", or just an ugly defacement of property. In any event it definitely varies. Here's a small collection...

In Naples most of the historic centre area where we stayed is covered with this type...

... while this artist might need a regular reminder of where he/she is...

In Rome the metro, in particular the B-Line cars, are covered in what appears to be gang tagging thus providing a moving glimpse...

... whereas this wall offers an example of a more artistic attempt...

In Florence we didn't see as much but somebody was apparently trying to make a statement...

... and, if you zoom in on the photo you can see where it appears that a second person/artist added an addional comment. We are not sure if it is meant as an endorsement of, or a rebuttal against, the initial statement!

In any event, time to move on...

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Back to Week 6

On to Week 8

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Week 6 Rome - Naples - Rome

We deciced to start this week by offloading some personal items we thought we no longer needed on ths trip as well as some of the souvenir items we have collected. So off to UPS we go with several bags in hand. The "local" Mailboxes Etc. (mbe 691 Roma) is only one metro stop away and eay to find. Language a bit of a barrier but no biggie. Their copier was busted so Brian had to go across the street to get a passport copy. Hope that is not an indication of what will become of our stuff. Anyway, we left all with them and the box should arrive at our friend Marian's house in just over a week. Fingers crossed.

Feeling pretty good about offloading that extra weight we caught the #2 tram, right outside their door, north to near Piazza Mancini where we hoped to see the controversial MAXXI (Museum of the Arts of the 21st Century) which has been open only a few years. It's webpage seemed to inicate open daily but alas, not so. We arrived at about the same time as a large tour group and all experienced the same let down - closed Monday! Right!

Oh well, on the way we happened upon a small but beautiful church, the Parrocchia Santa Croce...

So, with the museum being closed, it was back on the tram to Piazza del Popolo to see if the Santa Maria del Popolo church was open. Again, not so, wrong time of day. Went to a neat little cafe near the metro and had an excellent lunch complete with some pretty darn good bruschetta. Then we went home for an afternoon of rest. At least the box of stuff was out of our hands!

After a good rest we decided to give the church a try again so off to the metro and got off at station Flaminio with a short walk over to the church. The Chigi Chapel is pretty spectacular with the works by Raffael and Bernini.

On the way home we walked along Via Cola di Rienzo. At one point there were two women, perhaps in their mid 40's walking ahead of us. There was an old man, with a cane standing on the sidewalk. He pointed at one of the women's shoes, she was wearing sneakers, and blew a loud raspberry at her! Funny, anyway we continued along Via Cola di Rienzo and found a new cafe/bar, Portofino, with a very nice seating area out on the street. Best prices we have had so far and definitely the best munchies.

Tuesday being a "no chance of rain" day (according to weather.com) looked to be a good day to wander around Trastevere... and it was. We took the #280 bus along the river to the south end of Trastevere where it was a short walk to see the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Since we had to wait quite a while for the bus and by the time we got off we had less than an hour before the church was closed for the afternoon. Best to get help with directions, so shortly after alighting from the bus we encountered a young woman out walking her two dogs. We asked in our best Italian.. "excuse, dove chiesa Santa Cecilia?" To which she hemmed for a moment then motioned for us to follow. She took us directly to the church. How sweet is that? Even with the stop to allow one dog to take a poop, and for her to pick it up, we got there in plenty of time for a look around the church and the wonderful crypt...

... we had a good amount of time in the crypt and the church itself before they started to close up for the afternoon. Leaving the church we wandered over to the main Tratevere drag where we found an Oviesse store which is always good for a bit of a peruse. We found a white collar worker type eatery for a decent lunch then headed for the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, another of our favorite churches...

After visiting the church for a while we wandered around the surrounding streets before settling in at a cafe on the Piazza Santa Maria di Trastevere for a cappucino and a bit of sketching. We finished the afternoon with a walk across the river into the Centro Storico where Kris found a store selling way cool neoprene handbags. Who can resist a beautiful red bag with a bright purple interior? On to Campo de Fiori for some Grom ice cream and to purchase a new supply of the "ugly but good" cookies before catching a bus back to our hood. Got some cash from a BNL ATM (because it is a partner with Scotia Bank, so no fees) then stopped in at Portofino Caffe for a nice sit with wine and munchies before heading home. On the way home we stopped in at our local Conad grocery store for some supplies and wine. They had some excellent Chianti on sale for less than half price so we decided to stock up a bit with 3 bottles. When we got to the cashier she rang the wine up at full price. What the??? Brian says "... In sconto?" (discount)... the cashier and Brian disappear into the wine section of the store where the cashier looks at the discount sticker and tries to explain, in Italian of course, that the discount is for "customer loyalty card holders only". Brian "no capisce"! So the cashier just goes back to the cash station and asks the next customer something, whereupon customer hands her a card which she scans and, voila... discount given. A great big AHA!! Ok, thank you... where can I get this card? Cashier calls manager who directs Brian into a small office. A couple of minutes later Brian emerges with a card. Well wth a card for someone named "Priem Em...something". Anyway language differences can be fun and customer loyalty cards make excellent souvenirs. Looking at our receipt later we found that the good samaritan customer, behind us, received 40 bonus points for using her card to get us the discount. Winners all around.

Wednesday was a get up early day to catch the train to Naples, or Napoli as they would say here. Well not so much as a "get up early" as "get out of the apartment relatively early". Our train reservation was for 9:10 am on one of the newer "fast" trains. We hit nearly 300 kph and it was a quick 1 hour 10 minutes from Rome Termini to Napoli Centrale. Nice. We had done some research on how to get to our hotel but there was a whack of new construction outside the terminal and everything we thought we knew went out the window. To our luck, Brian ran into a couple of english speaking women, who now live in Italy, who were also looking for information. They were kind enough to let us join them since we were all going to the same metro station. Once out of the Universita metro station one of them asked a local who gave directions to the Via Mezzocannone. From there it was easy, but as we walked along and turned the required street corners the streets got narrower with more trash and much more graffiti. Turning the final corner we passed by a small piazza crowded with young people (we were right beside the large university) who seemed to think nothing of mass littering. Beer & pop bottles and other crap strewn around. Sidestepping numerous piles of dog poop we finally entered a courtyard over which hung a banner announcing our hotel. Could this grotty looking place be it? It looked so nice on the web! We noticed a small sign pointing towards an alcove with an elevator to the hotel on the second floor. Oh well, onward & upward, so we crammed ourselves into the tiny elevator and stepped out into the foyer and beautiful little lobby of the Decumani Hotel de Charme. Much relief! It was only 11:00 am with checkin not until 3:00 pm so we asked if we could just leave our overnight luggage while we went out. "No problem sir... but wait, we do have one room available right now. It is an upgrade but we will give it to you for the same price and you can checkin now" Sweet!

After a brief rest we headed off. Our mission for the day... Pompeii... but first some lunch. We went into a pizza place near the metro where Brian just had to try a pizza with "mozzarella, cream, corn & ham". Never had a pizza with cream or corn before. Messy, not bad but probably won't try again. Then it was back onto the metro to Napoli Centrale to catch the Circumvesuviana train to Pompei.

Now, this train is the grottiest little piece of crap four car train we have ever been on (even counting India)! Ok, some people might think quaint or some other nicer word... but no, it's not! Packed in like sardines it's hard to imagine what this must be like in the much busier, hotter times of the year. To top it off, it's a pick pocket bonanza - maybe that's why they keep it this way. After about half way when some of the regular commuters (poor buggers) got off we managed to grab a couple of seats across the aisle from each other. Next stop the two seats across from Brian opened up and two American guys plopped into them. These guys and their wives, who were still standing near a door, were fully "into the experience", boisterous, having fun etc etc... BUT not paying attention. A couple more stops and one of them suddenly stands up patting his front jeans pockets and exclaimed "my wallet is gone... they got it out of my front pocket".

This is a mistake too many men make! We learned that lesson years ago when Brian had his front pocket picked in a small Mexican town market. All they need is a small scrum with a bit of pushing and shoving. Front pocket is not the answer!

His wife asks if they got his passport whereupon he pats his open shirt pocket. Lucky it was still there. Only credit cards and a fair bit of cash. This guy was the perfect target. Hauling luggage, totally distracted and stuck in the scrum by the door. Frankly, it's a bloody shame that the authorities turn a blind eye to this but it is a well known fact about Naples. Be Aware!

Anyway, Pompeii. This place is huge. We spent about 3 hours just wandering around the ruins and saw but a fraction of it. Lots of interesting bits of detail but most of it is just reconstructed walls to give you a feel for the size and grandeur of the place....

Occasionally you catch a glimpse of some architectural or artistic detail but most of the really good stuff has been moved to the National Archaeology Museum in Naples.

Back on the train to Naples. Kris snoozed a bit but Brian figured that if we both fell asleep we'd likely be picked clean and wake up naked! As we took the metro back to the hotel we looked at the map and seeing that the metro stop looked to be about 4 blocks from the waterfront decided to wander down there to see if we could find a good seafood restaurant. Well, we must be in the wrong part of Naples for that. Moving further away from Corso Umberto, the same thing as this morning... nothing favorable to mention and it appeared that the waterfront was blocked by a freeway and high fencing. Clearly a light, or maybe even heavy, industrial area. We worked our way back up towards Corso Umberto thinking that this whole experience might not be worth the time and money! We crossed over the main drag and continued up the Via Duomo (maybe that has promise) then turned into an alley like side street that looked interesting. Well, we sort of lucked out. We had wandered right into the Centro Storico (Historical Center) and things started to get a whole lot more interesting within a couple of blocks. We even stumbled upon the neat Largo Corpo di Napoli and it's beautiful statue...

By this time it was starting to get dark and we were starting to get hungry. Mostly little standup pizza places but soon we came across a larger piazza with an actual restaurant and while sitting there we verified that we'd come almost full circle and were only a few blocks from our hotel. An excellent meal with a couple of glasses of wine later we headed back to the hotel where we had one of the best sleeps of this trip. Things were looking up.

Thursday after a decent breakfast in the hotel we checked out. Since our train back to Rome wasn't until 5:10 pm, they let us leave our luggage there. We told the receptionist that we were going to take the metro to the Museum stop to go to the National Archaeology Museum (NAM) at which point she exclaimed "No, you must walk... it is not far" and promptly pulled out a map to show us. She also pointed out a small church that we should see on the way.
So, off we went on foot, up the street from our hotel...

... must say, looked a little better after a good night's sleep! At the top of the street we were right back in the middle of the Centro Storico. We passed by many interesting looking antique refinishing and other craft shops on the way to the museum. The first entrance we came across for the NAM turned out to be just an exhibit showing the many types of historical artifacts they encountered while digging the new metro stations along Corso Umberto. Very interesting by itself, but not part of the museum. Into the main museum we go.

This is a fabulous museum. We focused on just 2 sections: ancient Roman sculptures and Pompeii.
Great array of sculptures. Some of them huge...

... and stunning displays of frescoes, mosaics and artifacts (pottery, glassware, etc) from Pompeii...

For some sculptures and paintings it was fun to imagine a dialog going on. For example, for this sculpture...

• Sculpture Guy, looking off camera: "What did you say? Where's my penis? Wait, It was here a second ago!"
• Another guy off camera: "Hey, what's that in your hand?"

... or for this picture fragment...

• Guy in upper right corner: "Hey, come on you guys. Why do I always have to do the naked ironing?"

Fabulous museum. Leaving the museum we ventured back into the historic center to find the Capello San Severo, the small church the hotel clerk recommended. Beautiful and interesting but no pics allowed. Continuing along we came across the church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco, went inside for a peek. Kris noticed a sign pointing to a lower level "church", so started to go there. Buddy runs over and loudly exclaims "No madam, you must not go there... closed". We found out later that is where believers go to take bones from crypts, clean them and communicate with the dead, asking things like "what are good lottery numbers?". Outside the church are three pedestals with bronze skulls...

We finished our walk with a stop at the Duomo, then back to the hotel to pick up luggage, to the metro to Napoli Centrale, fast train to Rome and before we knew it we were back in our apartment. Whew... a good trip to Naples after all and all wallets intact. Bonus!

Friday, it was time for another try at the MAXXI. This time it was open. A fabulous ultramodern building with some excellent exhibits, but at this time we found most of the temporary exhibits boring and uninteresting. Just as well there are no pics allowed! Not much else to say about this day. Wandered down Via Corso, mediocre lunch at a sidewalk cafe in front of the Pantheon. Nice evening to sit out at the Gran Caffe Mazzini for a few drinks and munchies.

Saturday we decided that after several visits to Rome, it was about time we "did" the Forum. Long slow lineup to get tickets (it's not even the busy season yet!) and lots of school children groups even on a Saturday. Bought the audio guides but they were of only limited use. However, this is a neat place to wander through as the shear size of the still standing columns gives a real feel as to how it must have been here in it's heyday...

A couple of hours of looking about followed by some sketching and it was time for lunch. Took a bus up Via Corso to get close to the Pantheon and one of our favorite restaurants La Sagrestia. Bruschetta, Carfioli alla Romana, Pizza Pescatore. Very nice. Followed by an ice cream at Gelateria del Teatro on Via dei Coronari. Even nicer.

Sunday, the eve of our departure, was a day to visit the Trevi Fountain...

... to toss in a couple of coins to ensure a return trip someday. Hey, it has worked every other time we have been here so why not this time? Followed that with a last wander through the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori. The places we thought we'd go to for lunch were all closed so time for another random pick, this time along Corso Vittorio Emanuele III. Decent bruschetta (always have to try that), salad and a pretty good sausage and mushroom pizza. Then it was time to head home and get ready for tomorrow's departure.

Later, it was time for one last "Roma" evening out at a sidewalk cafe. We chose Portofino. Very nice!

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Back to Week 5

On to Week 7

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