Rome

September 3, 2017

Swiss Guard at Vatican City

The Pope in the window addressing the crowd

Marching Band in jeans at St Peters

St Peters from the back

Viaduct for the world's shortest state Railway to Vatican City

Castel Sant'Angelo & the Tiber

The Pantheon 

Interior fresco, Church of St Mary in Campitelli

Foro Buario to the left, Temple of Portuna to the right

La Bocca della Verittá

Roman Arch detail

The Colleseum

Refugee camp/protest site

Old stuff; Rome is full of it

Roman street scene

Train to Rome

September 2, 2017

San Marino

September 1, 2017

I found a cheap flight to Anconna, Italy through Brussels, so we decided to go to the Anconna on the Adriatic coast. Upon arrival, we rented a car and drove up the coast through thunderstorms to a seaside town called Riccione, where we had some lunch at a beach cafe as the sun appeared.

A short drive then took us to the independent, enclave country (1) of San Marino. San Marino was the only state (other than Vatican City) to remain independent during Italian unification in the mid 1800s. 

According to the man at the tourist information counter,

The historic center of San Marino city is high on a bluff about 20 miles from the Italian coastal city of Rimini (2). While wandering about, we noticed a large number of people with kelly-green shirts from Northern Ireland. They told us (with incredudilty as if we could not possibly know such an important fact) that San Marino was hosting Northern Ireland in a soccer world cup qualifying match that evening. The town got very quiet as evening fell. I don't know if this was typical for a Friday evening, or if everyone in the country was at home watching the soccer match.

After returning to the hotel, we watched the frequent cloud-to-cloud over the Adriatic.

Whimsical advertisement at Charleroi Airport. Belgium is presumably not known for its sunny weather.

View of the Italian coast and the Adriatic from our hotel in San Marino

San Marino city on bluff

Tower 1, San Marino. Note the green shirts of the Northern Ireland Soccer fans in the foreground

Towers 2 & 3 from Tower 1

View of Tower 1 from Tower 2

Sunset view from San Marino

Twilight at San Marino

NW Spain: Quintana del Castillo

August 27, 2017

My wife's grandfather came from a small town called Quintana del Castillo, near Astroga. She had visited Quintana for a month with her grandfather in 1973 when she was twelve years old. She stayed at the old family house where her great aunt and uncle lived. When we arrived, nothing initially looked familiar to her.

It was Sunday morning and church was just getting out, so we approached an older couple walking home from church and asked (in very broken Spanish) if they knew where the old family house was. They recognized the name and asked a woman (Oliva) who appeared to be at least an octogenarian. She did remember the family, remembered that one brother had gone to America, one to Buenos Aires, and one to Cuba. Much to our pleasant surprise, she also remembered that the brother from America had once visited and brought his granddaughter (my wife) with him.

Church, Quintana del Castillo

Oliva's granddaughter (Anna) showed us the house, which my wife remembered well when she saw it. Anna was soon joined by her husband (Javier) who spoke a bit of English also together they brought us to the cemetery, where we eventually found my wife's great aunt fonal resting place. She died in 2004 when she was 97 years old. 

The old family house where my wife stayed in 1973

Visiting the house again, a man came out from the house acroos the street. We both spoke a little French, so we explained what we doing. He told us he owns the house, which is currently unoccupied. 

Cat in dry river bed, Quintana del Castillo

We drove to Astorga to try to find some flowers for the grave; no luck with flowers, so we got some cookies instead. A quick visit to the Astorga cathedral revealed an unusual statue of Mary Magdaline.

Mary Magdaline, Astorga Cathedral

. We returned to to Quintana, paid our respects at the grave (by leaving cookies) and drove on to León, where we spent the night. Tomorrow, I travel to Scotland for a few days for business

Storm clouds gathering over the Castillan hills

León Cathedral

NW Spain: Cape Finisterre

August 26, 2017

The early morning train from Burela to Ferrol afforded very pleasant views of the sunrise over the ocean. We learned the Spanish words for one-way and round trip from the train conductor as we bought our tickets.

Sunrise in Galicia, Views from Train

Local Galician Train at Ferrol

Upon arrival a Ferrol, we walked across town to collect a rental car and drive down the coast to Cape Finisterre (Land's End). There were a large number of hikers walking out to the end of the penninsula. This is the end of a common Spanish hiking/pilgrimage trailed called "Camino de Santiago."

Cape Finisterre Lighthouse

Lighthouse Detail

Islet at Cape Finisterre

After a nice visit, we drove up over the mountains into the neighboring region of Castillo y Leon. We spent the night at an lovely old house in the small village of El Valle that has been converted to a small hotel.

View from hotel window, El Valle

NW Spain: Feve train to Burela

August 25, 2017

After an early morning arrival at Asturias Airport, we took the bus downtown Oviedo. We walked to see the cathedral, which is rather grandiose.

Altar, Oviedo Cathedral

Cloisters, Oviedo Cathedral

We took the afternoon train to Burela, a small port town in Galicia. The train is meter guage due to the light loads and frequent tunnels on the line. About 1/2 hour into the trip, everybody got off at a small station. A nice woman signalled to us to get off as well; for some reason, we had to change trains. 

Old-Time Tile Advertisement, 

Unscheduled change of trains

The train was soon on the coast of the Atlantic, passing pleasant towns and villages. After crossing into Galicia, the terrian looked more maritime and rural. In Galicia, there were two languages on the signs at the train stations: Spanish and Galician (1). The town of Burela is a fishing port, where the few tourists are almost all Spanish.

(1) Galician, spoken in northwest Spain (adjacent to Portugal) is either a dialect of Portuguese, or its own language, depending on whom you believe. The language was forbidden during Franco era (1930s until 1975).

Views from the train, Asturias

Views from the train, Galicia

Adriatic: Venice

July 14 to 15, 2017

We arrived in Venice mid-afternoon via train from Hermagor, Austria (both of us agreed that would make a good name for a metal band - see prior Villach on Fire days). We walked the maze of pedestrian streets (thankfully, Charlie has an internal compass and Venice street map in the quick reference synapses of his brain) and we were able to reach our destination directly (well, for Venice). Our domicile was the Universitaria Gesuiti, a converted dorm room in a prime location right on the canal near the airport vaparetto stop. It wasn't a barrel, but our 2nd floor corner room did offer amazing views and cross ventilation when the windows were open. We were unbelievably lucky in the fact that the temperature was moderate and the breeze constant.  We wandered the streets in search of spaghetti all'Amatriciana, which was finally found. We squeezed into our seats on the side walk terrace (now I know how dough feels like when pressed through a pasta maker) and had a delicious meal (at least the birthday girl did) accompanied by a marvelous house red wine. We strolled the streets in search of the perfect cafe latte; we remembered having great coffee at Mejor and Charlie was able to find the shop in 4 locations.  We tried out 2 of them and yes, it's still delicious! We then walked to the Piazza San Marco and took in the atmosphere. We were bombarded by men selling flying light-up helicopters (do we really look like we want to buy a toy?) and roses. 

The next day we found a Mejor in the Ghetto section and again enjoyed a cafe latte with tasty pastries. We again found our way to Sainte Marcos Square and toured the basilica and museum. The 4 horses dated back to the 1st century and were from Constantinople  (not exactly a gift). We dined at a restaurant that we found on our last visit and Charlie ordered the exact meal! The tiramisu was the hands down best I've ever tried. We enjoyed talking with the British couple at the table next to ours who were on their honeymoon.

Cathedral San Marco

Venetian scene

The Grand Canal

Adriatic: To Austria

July 13, 2017

Lake Bled is close to the three-way border where Slovenia, Austria, and Italy meet, so we decided to pop up to Villach, the nearest Austrian city. Upon arrival, we noticed banners announcing "Villach on Fire," which we thought was a great name for a rock festival. The city had even positioned fire trucks in the main square to go along with the theme. 

Villach's Main plaza with fired-colored streamers

As we ate lunch outside and observed the passersby, we realized the Austrians were a bit more literal than we: "Villach on Fire" was a gathering of teams of fire fighters from various European countries to participate in competitions. That also explains the tents set up in the main plaza selling fire-resistant safety boots and the large number of beer tents; fighting fires is thirsty work. Judging by our observations, Team Sweden and the Team Portugal department were the most color-coordinated teams.

Statue of beer man, Villach

After lunch, we noticed people boarding a boat in the river, so we did too. The boat went down and back up the Drau river for two hours, dropping off and picking up passengers at various informal ramps along the way. There were at least two dozen guys from the Porto, Portugal fire department on board with us (1). They seemed to enjoy shouting out encouragement to canoers on the river.

View from the boat, Drau River Valley

There was a shortage of rooms available in Villach (presumably due to Villach on Fire), so we hopped on a local train to Hermagor, about an hour west of Villach, up the steep-sided Gail River Valley. 

View from the train, Gail River Valley

We walked about a mile from the station to a campground that had a barrel available for us to sleep in. As we registered, the attendant inquired about our reason for visiting Austria. I said (half jokingly) that we came to try the Sacher Torte, a rich Austrian chocolate cake. He looked rather concerned and said he did not think the on-site restaurant had any (2). I assued him that I already had some at lunch.

The campground was filled with Austrians and Germans with camping trailers on summer vacation. There were indoor and outdoor pools and a spa (no incremental cost) with three different kinds of saunuas. I have never understood the point of saunas, but pictures showed what to do and in what order. Now I fully understand the point of a sauna.

Our sleeping barrel accommodations

(1) I hope no major fires broke out in Porto as the entire fire department seemed to be in Villach. 

(2) While they did not have Sacher Torte, the apple strudel was quite tasty.

Adriatic: Lake Bled

July 12, 2017

We caught the morning train up the Bohiny rail line to Lake Bled. The Bohiny line was built by the Austro-Hungarian empire between 1901 amd 1906 to more directly connect Vienna, the imperial capital, to Trieste, Austro-Hungary's main seaport. The line was officially opened by Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination 8 years later set off the First World War.

The rail line passes through very mountanous terrain. On the line's 144 kilometers, there are 42 tunnels, 5 galleries (1), and 168 bridges. As we rode, I pondered the train schedule. In addition to the numerous trains covering the whole line each day, there were 3 or 4 trains that only went a few stops in the middle, and had long pauses at the few stations. I saw one such train: it consisted of just one passenger car and a few freight flat cars in the back. A look at the topographical map revealed the point: there is a very long tunnel under a steep ridge and there is no road between these points. The trains are car ferries to travel between the Soči and the Sava river valleys. Otherwise, it is a very long drive around.

Junior station master signalling departure time

Upon arriving at Lake Bled, we rented a traditional wooden boat to row out to Beld Island. There is a church on the island that hosts many weddings. The local tradition is that the bride agrees to the marriage only if the groom can carry her up the steep stairs leading up the hill to the church; I counted 98 steps. 

Bled Island & Church

Stairs to Bled Island Church

Rowing to the far side of the lake, we had good views of Mount Triglav, which is depicted on the Slovenian flag and is the nation's highest mountain. Tradtion says that all true Slovenians must reach Triglav's summit at least once in their life.

Mount Triglav (the highest mountain in Slovenia) in the clouds

After a refreshing swim, we climbed up the hill to Bled Castle which was complicated by the informality of some of the trails and a lack of signage, but we found our way and enjoyed the views. We completed our circumambulation of the lake on the pathways that circle it.

Bled Castle

(1) A gallery is like a tunnel, except one side has some open arches. These galleries are used to build rail lines on steep hillsides.