MALE POSTSCRIPT:
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| Must be seen to be believed - the hike up was fun too. |
Well - we returned Thursday.
Have you read the blog? I don't blame you. Pamela pretty well summed things up en route, and I pitched in with the pithy photo captions. Here's my Classic Comic summary of our travels:
* Rhine River Cruise on Viking: si!
* Aegean Cruise on Odessey: no!
* Amsterdam: Si!
* Germany: Ditto.
* Switzerland: $i. (Fortunately, only 1 day)
* Prague: mas-o-menos. (See extended version)
* Athens: Si!
* Delphi: SI!
* Greek Isles: Si.
* Turkish Coast: mas-o-menos
* Istanbul: Not really
* Bologna: Bella!
* Florence: I thought Disneyland was in France
* Siena: Excuse me, excuse me (crowded)
* Montepulciano/Tuscany: Heaven on Earth
* Lucca: Mark Knopfler's there next July 22. C u then.
* Pisa: Awesome!
* Schipol Airport (AMS): The Best overnight airport.
* Seattle: Beautiful in autumn this year.
* S.F Giants: unreal: http://www.csnbayarea.
If you must know:
It was L-O-N-G. Turns out we're too old for this kind of trip, and bit off more then we could chew. Quite a few late mornings in bed, and blown-off guided tours (not necessarily a bad idea). Interesting thing about travel is, you have all these fantasies about going here-and-there, and seeing this-and-that, but you forget that you bring yourself along for the ride (to paraphrase Alain de Botton - The Art of Travel). You bring along your old feet and knees, your dislike of crowds, your misanthropy. A trip like this can really make you despise tourists. Heh heh.
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| Firenze Boutique |
But then Revisionist History kicks in, we look at the photos and forget the daily miseries, and the myths and lies start to prevail - it's just what happens. If you asked me if I'd do it again: nunca. But, there's plenty that I'd recommend YOU do. Heh.
More random notes:
* I thought the first boat would be "bourgeois" and boring, and the second boat "intellectual" and stimulating. Wrong on both counts. [NOTE: travel is subjective!] The Viking cruise up the Rhine was cozy, relaxing, and professional, staff could not be better, and we saw a lot of beautiful towns in Germany without repacking suitcases once. Six nights was perfect, and I'd get on another Viking boat anytime.
* The Aegean Odessey WAS boring - poor guides (mostly), not a great itinerary, and about 6 days too long (12 nights). AND they lacked good coffee (in Europe? say what??), charged for everything extra (how IS that $3 Pepsi?), and lacked WiFi. ("We're out to sea, you know.") ('However, you may want to purchase it for $6/hr, at dial-up speeds you haven't seen since the '80s.) Since los Gigantes were in the middle of their relentless march to the World Series, this was Not Acceptable. Next time, just take the Blue Seas Ferries that are ubiquitous around the Aegean.
* Just as peeps said 'Rome stinks' before I ever saw it, I heard 'Athens stinks' too - polluted, can't walk anywhere, dangerous, blah blah. Wrong on both cities. We were only there 3 days, but to simply see the Acropolis up close is worth going all that way. The day-trip bus to Delphi was a bonus (Pamela will attest), stayed in a cozy mountainside B&B for all of $40, and walked thru mostly empty ruins. Greeks are mellow, and seem like our Mexican amigos. Viva Grecia!
* Well, our taxi driver in Athens said, "Everybody hates the Turks, all they care about is your pesos"- but he would say that - he's Greek. The Turks are good peeps, but mostly we did not have good experiences in Turkey. The modern coastline towns are ugly, and Istanbul is overrun with hordes of tourists, even in mid-October. There were so many touts it made the beach in Vallarta seem quiet. We avoided the Blue Mosque and Haj Sofia because of that, and stuck to out-of-the-way sights. The bazaars - forget it. Crummy restaurants too. The other small mosque (I forget) and Archaeological Museum were awesome, and so were the Cisterns. But you've seen those photos.
[Remember, your mileage may vary!]
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| "I'm a Liar"
* I skipped ahead. You may recall, we flew to Prague for a week after got off Viking boat. Mixed reviews - Pamela wanted to leave early but we couldn't manage to get to Budapest - once we got used to our filthy hippie hovel I dug Prague. As previously noted - tourist hordes - but a seriously beautiful city with so much to see. I used to think Paris was the best city to walk around - now I'm not so sure.
* Florence - at some point on a voyage like this you just go, fuck it. Too crowded, expensive, crummy museum interpretations, and really, kinda dirty. Fleecing the hordes. Maybe Pamela can remember something good to say about Firenze.
* After Istanbul we flew to Bologna for the final 2.5 weeks of the trip in Italy. Bella Italia! Bologna is a great city to walk around, old universities, monasteries, towers and arcades - not touristy at all. Felt a bit like NYC - no b.s. Even I noticed that the food was pretty good.
* The best part of our journeys were in Italy, moving on thru Montepulciano, Pienza, Lucca, and Pisa. The photos pretty much tell it all. Even driving was a breeze (pay for the extra rental car insurance - it saved me $800 bucks on a scratched bumper). Roads perfect, and signage made it easy for an old Gringo. As noted before, Tuscany is Napa Valley times 10 or maybe 100. So bonita!
* Have to say about the last two nights in Pisa (because that's where the airport is) - everyone says, 'go there for an afternoon and see the tower, that's enough.' Uh, not so fast, Rick Steves. I thought I was all domo-ed and tower-ed out, but Pisa has to be seen to be believed. The "Field of Saints" including the Tower, Duomo, Baptistry, and Camposanto cemetery is magnificent - photos don't approach its' beauty - and the Tower is huge, pristine white marble, and, well, LEANING.
More pix below.
(Sorry about the margins and captions - sometimes this blogging is for the birds.)
  
    
Thanks for watching. Adios!
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