Author Archive for Susan

Pictures are Posted!

Published
by
Susan
on June 10, 2008
in Post-trip
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Capitoline Museum in RomeTuscanyI know everyone thought I was stalling, or taking too long to show pictures, but I really have a good reason. We had 6,172 photos from our trip. Yep, that’s right, SIX THOUSAND+ pictures to go through. You didn’t really want to see all of those, did you? So after a lot of work, I have chosen 750 photos, geotagged them, cleaned em up in Picasa, and uploaded them to the web. I had planned to upload them to Flickr, but their website is causing me problems. So, I found a new website for displaying photos that I think is even better, and I couldn’t be happier to display my photos on SmugMug. Check out the website, it is a great place to keep all your digital photos.

Here is the link to our Europe trip photos: www.skaustin.smugmug.com

If there are photos you like, please give them the thumbs up.  Just put your mouse over the photo to see the thumbs up/down voting.

Little Things to Remember, Part I

Published
by
Susan
on May 24, 2008
in Post-trip
. 1 Comment

Stuff I do not want to forget about in twenty years:

  • The swiss franc was about equal to the dollar so it was easy to calculate how much things were really costing me (hint: a lot). The euro was very high to the dollar, so I would add 60% to every price to get my true cost. Converted from both francs and euros, $60 seemed to be the usual total for meals, both lunch and dinner.
  • Italian showers are all little. Even if the rest of the bathroom is spacious there will be a tiny little shower in the corner, always a pre-fab unit. My personal theory why it is so small is because Europeans use the bidet frequently so they don’t care about a large shower.
  • Favorite parts of Italy: driving to Volterra, Pigelleto Nature Reserve, the hilltown of Cetona as seen from a distance (did not stop there), the belvedere Etruscan park with the caves near Cetona, the waving wheat fields in Val D’Orcia, the villas along the shores of Lake Como.
  • Favorite parts of Switzerland: All of it I’ve seen. Driving to Lauterbrunnen, the mountains around Lake Brienz, the giant mountains along the austostrada heading to Belinzona.
  • Kevin and I were checking out a cave in the bronze-age Etruscan dwellings near Cetona when Kevin realized there were bats in there with us. One was flying around us to check us out.
  • Kevin and I carried matching Eagle Creek bags. Mine had a pink tag, Kevin’s had a blue tag.
  • There is no fresh-brewed ice tea available. Some places have Lipton in a can.  When I ordered Coke Light (Diet Coke) and Kevin ordered regular coke, the restaurant would always put a lemon slice in Kev’s coke to differentiate it from mine.

Pictures Coming Soon

Published
by
Susan
on May 21, 2008
in Post-trip
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Everybody is asking about pictures. Since Kevin and I took separate cameras and we both love to take pictures, we have several thousand pics from our trip (over 10 gigs worth!).  Some are great, some are duplicates, and some are boring, so we are going through all of them to cull down the collection to a manageable set.  Even for an 18 day trip, you probably don’t want to see more than 200, right?  Even that may be too many. I’m working on it for a few hours every night, so hopefully we will have them available for viewing soon.

Remember that I talked about taking our GPS? Because of my GPS data logger I have timestamped location information that I can match up with my pictures. That means you will be able to view my pictures on a map and see just where each picture was taken.  If you have never seen this before, click here for an example.

We’re Home

Published
by
Susan
on May 18, 2008
in Post-trip
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After 21+ hours of travel, we made it home. We left our Rome hotel at 6:30am (11:30pm Austin time) to catch the subway/train/plane, and arrived home in Austin at 9:00pm (4:00am Rome time). Getting to the plane in Rome was stressful, but after takeoff we were able to relax.

The best part of being home is spending time with Katie, our cat. She was very upset with us for being gone for so long, and let us know it. Her little voice sounds hoarse from howling for us, and she hissed at me (something she has never done before) when she first saw me. But she is recovering, and clings to me like duct tape. She’ll be fine, but Kevin thinks we shouldn’t be gone for so long in the future because it was so stressful for her.

Much thanks to Nathan, Chris, and Elvia who all helped to watch our house, take care of Katie, gather our mail, and mow our lawn while we were away.  You guys rock!  Without you there we would have worried the whole time and probably couldn’t have been gone so long.

Rome, Day 4

Published
by
Susan
on May 16, 2008
in Italy
. 0 Comments

Short post today. We just cannot get over being tired, so we slept in again today. We skipped doing the Angels & Demons tour that we had both looked forward to, but it just wasn’t something we could do this morning.

However, we did make it to Capitoline Hill Museum, which overlooks the ruins of the Roman Forum.   The museum is fantastic, and little visited.  This place was a highlight of Rome, and we stayed until they closed at 8pm.

We’re all packed  and ready for the morning travel.

Rome, Day 3

Published
by
Susan
on May 15, 2008
in Italy
. 0 Comments

We got an earlier start today than the past few days. We were dressed and packed up for the day by just after 8am, went down for breakfast, and was disappointed to learn that they were out of formaggio, so all we would have today is bread. This hotel is fantastic location-wise, but the food service has been pretty lackluster – which is funny since this place is primarily a restaurant with a few rooms.

We took the subway to the Spagna stop, home to the Spanish Steps area. Since we were on the subway at about 9am on a Thursday it was jam packed with locals on their way to work. It was so packed that there was trouble getting in through the door, then challenging to find a place to hold onto while we stood for the ride.

The whole reason to be out in this area at this time was to visit the Levi’s store to get new jeans and maybe a new shirt for Kevin. Well, the store didn’t carry custom jean lengths like you can find in the US, all were 4 inches longer. They could custom hem them, but pickup wouldn’t be until after 6p tomorrow, which is the night before we go home – what’s the use? Plus, the jeans and shirts were all way more expensive. After money conversion, the polo shirt we looked at would have been $125, waaaay tooooo much $$ for Kev’s wardrobe.

Then we went on a hunt for a store we saw on the map that sells Cuban cigars. Didn’t look to be too far away. Hmm, we ended up getting our city tour this morning, in an unplanned fashion, as Kevin hadn’t even brought his camera with him. We saw Piazza Colonna, Piazza Parliamento, Trevi Fountain, etc as we wound through the streets. After leaving Trevi Foutain we got turned around and walked the wrong direction, by the time w realized it we were far from a subway station. So we walked all the way back across town. Kev would want me to mention that he did most of this walking carrying a bag of groceries, since we bought a few things when we thought we were about to get on the subway to go back to the hotel.

The good part of the walk was that we found an excellent little hidden restaurant called Mario’s. Excellent service and food, with an outdoor patio under cover of ivy that was tucked back behind the ruins of Forum of Augustus on via Grillia.

After all the walking, we came home (to the hotel) to relax for a few hours. We have a lot of walking to do tonight at the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel and want to be rested and refreshed. I’ll write about the Vatican tour in a separate post.

Rome, Day 2

Published
by
Susan
on May 14, 2008
in Italy
. 0 Comments

We are eating healthy foods, but probably because of all the walking and hills and stairs, we are always soooo tired. Again, we slept in today.  Didn’t get down to breakfast until a bit after 11am. We should have just had lunch, but our free breakfast was waiting on us. We both had two cups of cappuccino with breakfast which really helped get us going.

Cattia gave us better directions to the laundry place, so we set out again to find it, this time with the suitcase of dirty clothes. Well, we did find it, but they could not get our clothes washed/dried the same day, and both of us really need some of these clothes to wear tomorrow. To make a long story short, after a fruitless search for a nearby self-service laundry we gave up and I washed the necessary clothes in the hotel sink. I’ll be lucky if my jeans are dry by tomorrow. And, a lot of precious time wasted that could be spent seeing the sights of Rome. Argh, I hate that these menial tasks take up so much time.

On a good note, the sun is back out today and we went to the Forum this afternoon. I love this place, but not as much as I used to. I fell in love with the Forum on my first trip here ten years ago. Then, it was free and you could just wander through the ruins any time you wanted. Now, not only is it 11 euros per person, but there are major walkways that you have to stick to, and you can’t go up to and get close to the ruins. Many paths are even closed off. I know it is to protect the ruins from the increased number of tourists, but it just isn’t the same intimate experience it used to be. I was very disappointed with the experience today, although the runs of the Forum shining in the sunlight are still awe-inspiring. This changes my opinion of Rome as my favorite city in the world.

We took a quick trip on the subway tonight. We went to the Spanish Steps area where there are a ton of retail shops to find the Levis store we saw on the map. Kevin’s jeans are ripping in an undesirable area and he needs replacement jeans pronto. Unfortunately, the store closed thirty minutes before we arrived so we’ll have to go back tomorrow.

We plan to get up early tomorrow to get pictures in the Forum with the morning sun. Tomorrow night is our Vatican tour, only two days left… :-(

Rome, Day 1

Published
by
Susan
on May 13, 2008
in Italy
. 1 Comment

We arrived in Rome via train from Chiusi, a little town in Tuscany. The train ride was only 1.5 hours, arriving at 3pm, and was uneventful. This train only cost 40 euros for both of us in first class, a far cry from the 240 franks we paid to get from Lugano to Florence. We got off the train at Rome Termini, the main train station in central Rome. Whew, that place is seriously busy and packed with people on a Tuesday mid-afternoon. Kevin didn’t like my plan to take the subway down two stops to Collosseo, the subway stop very close to our hotel, because he didn’t want to lug his luggage. So, we took a cab. A waste of money in my opinion, but it makes Kevin happy.

We’re staying at the Royal Art Cafe, which has a few hotel rooms above a restaurant directly facing the Collosseum. I’ll write more about it later.

The bad news is that it is a rainy day. There are still plenty of tourists walking around the Collosseum with umbrellas and plenty of vendors walking around offering to sell umbrellas to the tourists. We spent the afternoon in the hotel restaurant eating a long dinner and, as we had a table right in the front window, people watching. We just didn’t do much of anything, although my itinerary called for us to go to the Roman Imperial Forum and Collosseum today.

Tonight, we went for a little walk after dark. We started out looking for the laundry place that Cattia, the hotel manager, had told us about. She didn’t know where it was exactly, just the general area near the hotel, so we set off looking. After walking every street in the area we could not find it and were glad we had not lugged our suitcase of dirty clothes with us. Since we were in the area, we then took a walk around the back side of the Collosseum and Palatine Hill and I took some cool night shots of these sights.

Great Service at Avis Rental Car

Published
by
Susan
on May 13, 2008
in Italy
. 0 Comments

I like to give credit where it is due, and it is definitely due at Avis. Our experience picking up our car in Florence, which was booked through AutoEurope, was very good. The agent was very polite, helpful, and efficient. Not only did he do a good job explaining the terms of our car rental, but he offered us good directions to get out of town. Plus we got a great car, we really enjoyed the Alfa Romeo.

At drop off in Chiusi, although the Avis location is difficult to find on a back road, it is a very large business. They sell Avis cars as well as rent them, so they look like an American-style car dealership including a large glassed-in office/showroom. By the time we reached the desk inside, the agent already knew who we were and greeted us by name (he must have had a roster of cars due back, and recognized the car as it pulled in?) Check in was a breeze, but the best thing was that the agent asked us if we needed a ride to the train station, which of course we did. A very nice young guy drove us to the train station in the same car we just arrived in, our Alfa Romeo, and practiced his English with us all the way there (he is excited about a trip to New York planned for the Fall).

All in all excellent service. Really beats the lackluster service and grumpy agents at Hertz from early in our trip.

Catching Up

Published
by
Susan
on May 13, 2008
in Italy
. 1 Comment

I am almost a week behind in updating the blog, sorry. I will try to catch up today. I’m on a train to Rome right now, so hopefully it will give me some time to write. I’ll backdate the entries.