Big Update 061608

Taoromina, Italy (Sicily) 05-23-08

Beautiful day in Taoromina. The family of tourist was enforce today with over two hundred photos taken. I think my dad was shocked that I shared a similar penchant for taking photos as my Mom and Kathleen. Needless to say, we did get some great shots and with that, forward progress in learning to use the Canon 40D.

Taromino is another yupee city with great scenary comingled with the best of commercialism. Other than being in Sicily, the southernmost point in Italy, it's also perched high on a hill. A 20 minute bus ride uphill and a twenty story elevator ride puts you in a unique plateau atop mountains with similar sattelite cities surrounding. It seems just as big as any other cities, just that you're up in the hills and if you stray off the main path, you either go up steps or down but only to find even more shops, restaurants and residences.

Below are some pics. We liked Tauromino and would recommend it although it is not a common destination. Crystal Cruises tends to pick lesser known places.













Corfu, Greece 05-26-08

We were supposed to go to the beach today. Taking ourselves as veterans in travel and disdain of those on board who chose to cruise yet were able to "travel" so to speak, we figured we would save $500 in excursion expenses to do as we did in the past, take public transportation and "find a way" without a clear or locally approved plan.

We were quickly aware that things are different under a time table. Unlike our prior travels, dock / port occurs around 8:00am and passengers are required to get back at 4:00pm generally. The 4pm actually doesn't make any sense since the boat really doesn't have to leave until midnight or even later since each of the stops aren't too far from each other. I can only gather it's to fill the dining room for "early seaters" at 6:30pm and to allow the guests to enjoy leaving port during normal waking hours. Anyway. The point is there a fixed band of time and to miss getting back is a huge penalty (trying to find your way to the next port of call as the boat will leave with out you). So, learning that the bus stop was hours away and we had "cruising tourst please rip me off" stamped all over us, we relegated as so many other cruisers did and just toured the city.

It was still a great day. The sun was out and the weather perfect, particularly as we enjoyed our gryo in a local eatery. The mediterranean was a torquois blue as I last remembered it 12+ years ago when I was in Greece and the food, equally fresh, simple and delicious.

The pictures below are of the restaurant we ate at as well as some city scenes. I don't know why we didn't select a picture of the water but take my word for it, it's pretty nice. Corfu is supposed to be one of the top visited islands of Greece. The last picture encapsulated the theme of the cruise: food.

We would eat twice each evening. My parents (primarily Dad), being the consumate cruiser and gastronomist he is, booked the late seating for the main dining room. Meaning, we don't eat (main dining room) dinner until 8:30pm. The specialty reastaurants (Prego and Silk Road) open at 6pm. Hence, my Dad, Kathleen and I usually showed up to support our favorite Nobu sushi chef to enjoy some pre "main dinner" sashimi. We usually ordered toro, hamachi, spicy hamachi handrolls and whatever was fresh that day. The head chef would personally make us some "omakase" which included various sashimis he was able to procure fresh at each port of calls to cooked dishes like spicy lobster miso soup, seasonal cherries, chawamushi and so forth. It was definately a treat and we were very appreciative of the meals - or as I like to say - cullinary adventure ;)

Anyway, I basically gained back all weight I took off in the first leg of the trip so its back to being active and eating salads + fish for the most part. From the time to time though, I get strong urges for comfort food. We had a huge bowl of Pho~ in Stuttgart of all places (its not US beef) and some sweet and sour chicken today.










Dubrovnik, Croatia 05-26-08

It's pretty late here in Germany as I'm writing this to you. Rather than face the wrath tomorrow on "barely missing" our breakfast and thus get the full value of our hotel, I'm going to write more simply and elaborate later if I'm in the mood.

Dubrovnik is a beautiful city surrounded by castle walls. We walked all around the walls where halfway I thought I was ripped off when 4 sodas plus 2 waters costed me $30. I found out later that in Europe, for the most part, soda costs as much as beer (which btw is why we drink beer with our meal all the time as it just doesn't seem right to spend just a much on a soda or bottled water - since most restaurants won't actually give you tap water on request).

Anyway, it was really hot. We took a ton of pictures and it was a fun day out with the parents. We ate some local food as I convinced my dad that it was okay to miss out cruise-included lunch. Lunch was good - fresh seafood scampi with related deli meats and 'small plates' local and indigenous to the Croatians.

It's intersting to see the midievil structures particullarly riddled with bullet holds from a recent war. Its quite sad. Needless to say, we finished lunch and then went to an island where we hung out for an hour and took a bunch of pictures.











Cruise at Sea Day 05-27-08

Today was at sea. We had a "Gala Buffet" which basically is a really fancy buffet that the chefs prepare. Shortly after we took a tour of the kitchen. It is pretty crazy how business and food operations take place. It is a well oiled machine and clockwork. Kathleen here is holding some starched-based artificial fruit. I have no idea why she is so fascinated with them. I feel the same way with my mom's infatuation with glass candy. What's going on here?








Trieste, Italy 05-28-08

This was a nice day about but rather uneventful in my opinion from a cultural perspective. It seems like just another city with a bunch of important looking buildings and some foothills and so forth. It was nice at the top of the town. We toured a museum, which included a midieval weapons tour that was cool. All sorts of weaponry was featured, which was the highlight of the day. I have NO idea why I think weapons are cool. I just think they are and one day I will collect them. In fact, I always wanted a study where if you pull on a light, the wall flips around and there various weapons from various times. In the middle would be a plated pair of custom 1911's with cool metal work and some quote meaningful in the pursuit of truth inscribed somewhere. In the meantime, I will visit museums and watch more Nicolaus Cage + history channel movies.

















Venice 05-29-08





Venice is definately a must-see if you come to Italy. There is actually some cool stuff there and it's a unique place in that it is sinking and the primary thoroughfare is by boat. It's pretty much all tourism based. It's also really romantic and also a rip off. There are though real artisans here that do hand work that is not made in China. We spent three days in Venice. We also happened to meet another couple there and we hung out for a day - it was good to get some interaction outside of ourselves.

Murano 05-30-08

Murano is famous for glass blowing, hence the glass structure and related below. It's interesting to note that the same glass candy on Murano will go for 5 euro and then 10 euro in venice and increasing as a function of distance from Murano. By the time we got to Germany, the price went up to 30 euros. It defies modern thinking which is price is a function of supply/demand/logistics. If you buy / sell in bulk than you get better deals and tend to pass that down to the customer (sorta). Anyway, this stuff ain't made in volume so it actually followed conventional logic that stuff gets more expensive the further you travel away from it. Kinda cool, I think.

Anyway, Murano is a ferry ride away from Venice and within the Lagoon. Kathleen probably spent a cummulative 3 hours looking at various glass figurines.










Lido 05-31-08

Lido is the "art deco" place to be in Venice. It is a huge beach area that has a beach that I think stretches about 5-10 miles with beach clubs and hotels built along the way - essentially Miami beach. The beach isn't that great. It doesn't have any scenic value and there is too much development. The 50 yr old topless sunbathers also don't help. It reminds me of Hilton Head and other east coast beaches, of which, clearly, I'm not really a fan of in terms of geographic value.






Milano 06-01-08

Milano is theft capital of the world. Here I am apparently wearing my "chump suit." We got onto the subway from the airport and I saw a guy basically cut in front of line in front of a line of folks waiting to get onto the subway, then proceeded to stand in front of the door. I figured either he's an asshole or someone trying to rub up against us clearly marked tourists to grab a wallet or what not.

While getting on the train, I was aware of those so basically instead of moving out of the way, I pretty much just pushed him out of the way. 225 lbs + 55 lb pack + 30 lb rolly is pretty much 310 lbs of momentum potential. I then shouted some obsenities or what not to tell him to get the !@$@ out of the way (he had also pissed off a couple ladies in line so I kind of felt it was my duty).

A stop later, we get off and so does he. We walk up the stairs some dude drops a water bottle right in front of Kathleen. I looked at the bottle but keep on moving plowing through (I would have stopped but I had so much p = mv at the that point I couldn't stop anyway). Kathleen saw the whole thing (she is acutely aware of situations and expert at guarding and sensing danges). Three guys were working in concert. The guy dropping the water bottle to distract us and the guy I confronted on the subway right behind me (I didn't even notice) and a third who was somewhere in the midst. This, RIGHT after I confronted that guy and we were literally 5 ft from the office where the train cop was.

I seriously reviewed how I was acting and what I was wearing that day. I was indeed, in my chump suit or this place was just crawling with pick pockets and the like. Anyway, I have a newfound respect for Kathleen's diligence and "eagle eye" for spotting things. I also have a new found humility for not being able to spot things, despite having done a good share of foreign travel already.





Big update. Haven't for some time due to the standard causes: procrastination and lack of good Internet connection. We're taking "the night off" in Fussen, Germany after some intense driving and touring through the Rhine Valley and the "Romantic Road." Fussen is the so-to-speak end of the Romantic Road and fortunately, we found a hotel with a fixed wired ethernet connection straight to the broadband router. It is pretty fast.

Needless to say, between each of these keystrokes has been the horns of exhuberant German soccer fans honking, yelling and all-in-all debaucherouly celebrating their win over Austria. As I type there are at least 50 honks and a few coruses of "Olay Olay Olay Oh Lay..." plus incorrigible German songs going on per minute. The the past ten days since we've been in Germany, we've certainly developed a strong enchantment with its history, culture and its people. In short, we like Germany and we're happy the Germans tonight have much to celebrate.

Euro 2008 has been something of a built up sport that we've started to follow. It began in Bern, Switzerland, which is one of the cities that is hosting the competition. The other country hosting, Austria is actually on our itinerary next and is probably having a more somber night exacerbated by Germans living in Austria taking to their streets and gloating via Peugot, Meagan, Mercedes and what not. Since Bern, we've followed Euro 2008 quite closely and found it quite fun to partake in watching the sport with the locals in the local watering hole.

In anycase, one of my goals this evening was providing an update similar to whta we had done for Ireland. Kathleen's goal tonight is actually getting through three to four weeks of laundry that otherwise could not have been air dried. Since, I've become more used to (and a fan of I might add) of wearing your non-undergarment clothes for more than one day. In the past, I would wear pants at most two days and tops at most one. When you travel and when washing requires 68 squishes and squashes with requisite dry processes, you begin to cut Mr. Clean and Clorox some slack and let the microbial struggles in their balance begin to take fold.

However, as with all conflicts in the post war era, these small wars must be stamped out before becomming big ones and thus, Kathleen has made trip number seven from going down stairs to the free laundry and back up.

Can they shut up already? Its been an hour since they started celebrating. But- good for them. What was originally a plan to stay for two days has now turned into more than twelve. Alas, we have liked every German that we have met thus far. Contrary to historical bias, we have found Germans to be the least racist and the most open to new cultures. A good friend of mine asked if it's a function of their past or inherent good nature. I replied a function of their past.

I didn't realize until now that it was a fundamentally loaded question; however, instead of getting into that debate - I replied that it's a function of the past. IMHO there has been a cultural hubris associated with the war and a confluence of a culture that has embraced American-ism, which includes a staunch and shameful portrael of Nazi Germanany.

In anycase, like I said we have been having a great time here and spending more time than we thought in Germany. We are going to hit up Austria after two nights in Munich (capital of Bavaria) after.

Anyway, here are some pictures: