Athens to Arizona

We have had a very busy and fun three days in Athens.  We have been to five archeological sites, several museums and eaten delicious ice cream everyday at a place called “I Scream!”.   We have seen amazing sites and walked all over town.  Our feet hurt and we are getting tired.  We started this trip with four small bags we now have six very full suitcases.  We are getting up at five tomorrow and walking to the bus stop where we take the bus to Athens airport, then fly to Heathrow and then another flight to Phoenix, AZ.  We are being picked up in Phoenix and driven to Tucson.  We will post some more when we get home because we missed some thing we would still like to share.

New Greece Photos

We finally uploaded some new pictures!  Check them out on our photo page!

Naxos– Wonderful

Hello from wonderful Naxos, an island in the Cyclades, south of Mykonos, north of Santorini, just East of Paros.  Naxos is the biggest Cyclades island, and was, briefly, in the 6th and 7th centuries BCE, the leading island power in the Aegean.   It is also, we now know, renowned for its marble, and for its Cycladic civilization in the third millennium BCE, long before, for instance, Minoan Crete and Knossos, a time during which  the Naxians produced their incredible Cycladic sculptures.

We are here for five nights, and we think (jonathan here) this is the best.   It is so wonderful here.  We are staying at a small, family run resort, about 40 rooms, about 25 meters from the prime resort beach here on Naxos, St. George’s beach.   the resort is really friendly, and serves a nice buffet breakfast every morning, and the boys love the pool here– but we have also had a lot of fun on the beach, swimming and snorkeling, playing paddleball (hard paddles, little balls).  Carman played volleyball for a while with a big group of Germans, (the hotel here, and the beach, is very much German dominated), and we even rented for an hour something I had never seen before, one of those plastic boats for four that you pedal with your feet, but with on top of it a slide, which you climb up 5 steps to the top of, and then slide down into the water.  They look a bit ungainly, and I was skeptical, but Spencer pleaded with us to do it, and you know what, it was really fun, pedling around the bay and sliding into the water.

Hora, or Naxos-town, the main town on the island, is about a 15 minute walk from here, along a beach boardwalk, and it is a lovely town, with a hilltop castle which has been built upon for centuries, and is now dominated by Venetian empire era buildings and castles.   Right at the port, facing outwards on a little adjacent island easily accessible from Hora, is the remains of the Temple of Apollo here from the sixth century, all that is left is one marble gateway, which looms over the town and is eerie and beautiful, simple and elegant, striking at sunset.    It is on all the tourist items here, a real icon/logo for the island.   The first full day we were here we walked out there and all around– really like it.

The second day here, we mostly spent at the beach and pool, but that evening, Sunday, Carman and I got a babysitter from the hotel (!!), and went into town, to the Venetian Castle, to attend a Naxos music and dance concert there, on a patio overlooking the harbor and out to the west, perfect for Sunset. It was such a nice event; the MC spoke at length in a very charming way about the 3,000+ year old tradition of song and dance on Naxos; he told us about all the wines and liquers they make here, and then they provided generously (unlimited) samples.   A nice night.  The music and dancers performed for an hour, and then invited everyone there to come and dance with them, and we danced Naxian style to end the evening!

Monday we had an amazing day, incredible, one of the biggest and best days of our trip.  We had a little rental car, and we set out to explore the island.   Usually on this trip, when we set out in a car for somewhere, we have a pretty precise itinerary, but we really were good about this day, having goals for things we wanted to see but also time and willingness to explore and see what we see.   First, we drove up about 30 minutes into the hills and to the south, and after a lot of twists and turns, arrived at the temple of Demeter, up in a plateau like valley filled with farms and fields. The temple is a gorgeous site, and we walked all around, all by ourself, and really enjoyed it.   We then went to the museum, which was closed for Monday, but we could peek in all the windows and see most of it.  The lizards here are enormous.

After the temple, we drove past a pottery workshop that had been recommended to us by a pair of Villanova professors we met awaiting the ferry, and the shop completely took us.  It was huge, we were alone, and the artist was charming.    We bought a couple beautiful cycladic pieces, a Christmas ornament, a plate, and the boys got water whistles that sound like trilling birds, and also a really funny cup with a hole in the center that doesnt’ drain, until it does— kind of hard to describe, we’ll have to show you.    The piece I got that I hope makes it home in one piece is a cycladic sculpture thinker, for my new desk in Tucson.

Then it was off to drive quickly through Halki, a nice interior village, and up to Filoti, a village of about 500 homes which is on a ridge facing the highest (about 1000m) mountain here, Mt. Zas.   We had lunch at a village taverna here, and it was great.   We explored the village, and kept looking across a little canyon to a narrow, pointy hilltop which rose maybe 700 feet from the canyon to a little tip, atop which was a little tiny chapel.  Well, Spencer and I had the bug, and we had to get to it, so we drove around to the other side, and hiked up about 35 minutes to see it, and it was spectacular. Then we drove around to another trailhead on Mt. Zas, and hiked another 30 minutes toward (but not to) the top and to a cave there; Mt. Zas is named for Zeus, who was raised here on Naxos, having been born on Mt. Ida on Crete.  We are now talking a lot about how we are tracking Zeus’ life, from birth on Crete (we went to that cave), to here his boyhood on Naxos– and now we are headed for Olympus.

But this day was not over yet!  We drove then up, up, up along a beautiful ridgeline highway and over the top to a slightly bigger village of Ampetheiros, which promotes itself by its five museums!  Well, the Archeological Museum was closed, but we went to all four other museums (each being only about a single room); Natural History, Geology, Fine Arts, and Folklore.  They were small but charmining, and we enjoyed them before having an ice cream.

Then, it was off again, down to Appollonus, a lovely small fishing village on the northeast coast and home of the famous kouros here, which we hiked up about 300m to find.  This is an enormous statue in marble, the size of a small bus, of either Apollo or Dionysus (the experts disagree), which was carved out of a marble quarry here intended for the Temple of Apollo in Delos.  Unfortunately, they then found that it was too big to be moved!   And so here on Naxos it lies, 2600 years later, still in the marble quarry.  It was really fun, we climbed all over it. This picture is a bit misleading, because you really can’t get the scale from it– for a little bit of help, look at the foot on the bottom right of the picture– when I stood next to the foot, the toes were higher than my head!

We then drove back to Hora through the center of the island, and, coming around one corner way up in the hills, you are suddenly presented with an enormous mountain of marble being quarried– it is a stunning site.   It is weirdly beautiful but also disturbing, knowing that they are literally dismantling this mountain piece by piece; as you drive down the hill you pass by a bunch of marble cutting facilities, with marble slabs stacked up.   We also stopped at one spot to admire the clay pipes of an aquaduct built here in the sixth century, BC.    We got back to the hotel about 630 after our nine hour day, and ordered pizza, which tasted great.

Yesterday we had another nice day, visiting Naxos’ renowned Archeological Museum, in Hora.   The museum was really great, one of our very favorites of the trip (we are up to 38 now!).  What is best are all the many cycladic sculptures, which you can really enjoy and marvel at for long times.   They are so fascinating, so old (4500 years old), and so stranglely ancient yet modern too– they are said to have inspired Brancusi and other modernist sculptors. There was a big group of Dartmouth students in the museum, and we had fun talking with them, comparing notes about our Greek travels.  Then last night, we went back into Hora for dinner on the waterfront, and selected a terrific place where they were grilling over hot coals the octupus and squid which were hanging, fresh, over a rail in front.  Carman had a fabulous plate of coal-grilled fresh fish and squid, and I had something I had never had before, but loved, a stuffed (cheese and peppers and tomatoes), grilled squid. 

Mykonos

We finally have internet again here on Naxos.  We arrived here yesterday after staying on Mykonos for three days.  When we arrived on Mykonos we did not have a place to stay so when we got off the ferry we were surrounded by a throng, what Lonely Planet guidebook calls a “raucous scrum” of people trying to get us to stay at their hotel or hostel.  One woman grabbed us and her place on the beach sounded good so we hopped in her car and she drove us there, a distance of three or four kilometers.  We had a very nice two room  little condo with kitchenette and a swimming pool,  just down from the beach in a town called Ornos.  Our hostess was really sweet.  she kept calling me “sweet lady” and she was very helpful.  We were surprized that all the craziness at the port worked out so well.

Mykonos definitely felt like the college party island.

The popular beaches are Paradise and (f paradise isn’t enough for you, you can go on t0) Super Paradise.  We felt we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get two tickets to paradise (the boys were free), so we took a boat from Ornos to Paradise.  The beach included a nude section which we somehow ended up next to (coincidentally!).  We didn’t mind the nudity (the boys just said to us: “Mom, Dad, those people are naked!”) but the conversation from the college boys was quite entertaining.   “Dude, It’s like seeing your mom naked!”  So, paradise wasn’t perfect but as we waited for the boat back the partying at the clubs started so the boys and I had our own dance party on the beach.  (We returned to the beach area where the boat to take us back to Ornos was to be, and looked up at the sign, which said, last boat to Ornos, 5:30, and looked at our watch, 5:12.  The guy looks at us, I say Ornos, and he says, um, that left two minutes ago, we could see it going around the bend.  I point to the sign, and he shakes his head, saying I know, I know, they always come at the wrong time.  Then he  was great, he made four or give calls on radio and cell phone, and arrranged for us to take another boat, to have that boat go the extra distance to make sure we got back.  Then he walked over to the bar, got a magic marker, stood up on his chair, crossed out Ornos 5:30, and wrote in Ornos, 5:10.   It gave us a little taste of why, on the T shirt of the staffing of Heaven and hell, the Germans organize everything in Heaven, and the Greeks organize everything in Hell.)

One of our days there we went to the archeological museum of Mykonos (our 28th museum of the trip) which was filled almost entirely with reconstructed pots from Delos (Jonathan will write about our terrific visit to Delos).  Nate was in kind of a silly mood so he started dancing around the museum.  I started having flashes of all the slapstick movies we have seen, envisioning Nate knocking one pot into the next and destroying all of them.  I decided we should wait outside until Spencer and Jonathan were done.  The museums here have signs that say “No Flash and No Photographs with the items and people”.  For some reason you are not allowed to take pictures which have people adjacent to the museum collections… we don’t know why?

Mykonos town was fun to explore, the narrow alleyways of white and blue.  We found the boys a nutella crepe and me a new blue bikini.  My last purchase of the trip, really, really (we will see) and definitely worth it.

OK OK So this is Jessica Alba and not me!  I do not look like that after all the Baklava but I still like my new bikini!

Santorini

Santorini has been terrific.  We were sad to leave Crete because we had made friends in our small village but when we took the ferry to Santorini on Saturday you couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the amazing volcanic island.  

We are staying in Fira which sits on top of the island. We walked all along the cobblestone alleyways in Fira with views of the cliffs, the water below and the iconic white and blue buildings.

We rented ATVs and drove to the beach on the other side of the island and towards Oia.  Stopped to look at more views as the sunset began.  We also saw a few sunset weddings going on at the cliffside hotels and restaurants.

Dinner was take out.  Two Euro Gyro pitas a Mythos beer for us and chocolate milk for the boys.  We ate them sitting on a ledge watching the end of the sunset.  The food and view were perfect but we made kind of a mess trying to eat in an akward location.  It was still worth it.  Of course we had banana chocolate ice cream on the way back to the hotel.  Today we had a nice breakfast at the hotel then headed down the steep hill to the dock below.  We then took at nice old fashioned boat over to the volcano.  We hiked the volcano for an hour.  One cool (or should I say hot) moment was when we found a hole that had steam coming out of it. The boys loved putting their hands in and feeling the heat.   Then the boat took us to another spot where there were some volcanic hot springs.  Jonathan and Spencer swam from the boat but Nate and I were not quite up for the swim.  Then our boat took us back to the mainland where we decided to take a donkey ride back up the hill.  The donkey ride was fun but bumpy.  Those donkeys have a mind of their own they go when and where they want.  Ours kept taking us to the very edge of the walkway and it was a steep drop down but of course we were safe.

Then we went back to our ATVs.  I am so embarassed to be driving one around but they are a cheap easy way to get around the island.  Nate and I ride together and Jonathan has Spencer.  Of course Spencer really wants to ride it by himself but we wont let him.  Yesterday as we were riding a boy ran out and threw a ball of pokey plants at us.  I was a little mad but I realized if someone was driving a noisy ATV through my neighborhood I would probably do the same thing.  Today we went to another nice beach.  It was great for the kids.  There was lots of sand and play structures.  We all swam.  When we got back we went to a bar with a view and Jonathan and I drank rose while we watched another beautiful sunset.  The boys complained because they wanted food.  They weren’t awe struck by the sunset like we were.  

Now back at the hotel after another delicious dinner of gyros and greek salad, I am blogging, Jonathan reading, Nate quickly fell asleep and Spencer is reading his new favorite magazine Wired.

Two of our Excursions on Crete

This week we have been really exploring the island of Crete.  Jonathan is terrific at planning our outings and we have seen some really wonderful sights.

Monday: Zeus’ cave

We set off early into the mountains of Crete.  After several days of bright sunshine we have had a few cloudy and slight to rainy days,  so the sky was cloudy and as we drove into the mountains it felt like we were driving up into the clouds. It really did feel like were driving up to the land of the gods.  It was very deserted up there except for a bus load of school children and a million goats running across the road. We got to the entrance of the trail where there was a large run down looking building with TABEPNA spray painted on the front.  That means that it is a taverna (B=V and P=R).  As we started our hike some men drove up to the taverna and started unloading the food for the day including two whole lambs slung over their shoulders.  Along the hike there were beautiful views of the valley below.   After a half an hour we reached the cave where “Zeus was born”.   It was a huge cave on the hill.  We went inside–all by ourselves, no other tourists or attendants, just us.  You could tell there were lots of birds and other animals inside.  It was such a big cave that it wasn’t dark inside and therefore not scary for the boys.  We hiked back down and drove to a nearby town for lunch.  Anogia was a very nice hill side town where I had cheese pies with honey for lunch.  Jonathan had his new favorite davos (hard bread covered with fresh tomato sauce, feta and oregano).  We read about the town and found out that Anogia was one of the villages where the nazis had killed every man in the village during the occupation of Crete.  It was such a horrible story and it made us wonder how the townspeople felt about all the german tourists that come through here.

Tuesday: Plaka and Spinalonga

When we arrived on Crete I found a book in our condo called The Island by Victoria Hislop.  I decided to read it since it was about Crete.  It was a really interesting book about a family in the small town of Plaka and the leper colony on the island across from Plaka called Spinalonga.  This historical novel is about a Cretan family from 1939-2001 dealing with leperosy, the war and more.  I enjoyed reading it and was really intrigued by the story of the leper colony on Spinalonga which was the last leper colony in Europe and was evacuated in 1957.  So Tuesday we drove to Plaka a very small and beautiful beach town.  We ate a very nice seafood lunch at a small taverna called Maria’s.  Then we took the boat to Spinalonga.  The small island has many layers of history.  Once a venetian fortress, a Turkish settlement, a leper colony and now a tourist attraction.  The island was fun to explore.  There were lots of ruins but also relatively new buildings that were built by the lepers.  My understanding from the book was that the leper colony was a strong community that was a real village with a market and a baker, etc..  I really enjoyed seeing the island after reading the book

Fodele and Crete

Loving Crete, and our village here of Fodele.  

Saturday, almost a week ago now, we had our “Day of Six Modes of Transportation!”  That morning we left our Venice apartment at about 8:30, and walked with our bags about half a kilometer to our vaporetto bus-boat stop at S. Pietro, and took the boat for 40 minutes to the Venice train station.   We then took a 9:50 train to Milan, and after an hour or two at the open market adjacent to the train station, we took a bus from the train station to the Milan airport.   From Milan, we flew to Athens, and then on to Heraklion, the main city here on Crete, arriving Heraklion at about 11:30 pm.   We then rented a car, and drove 40 minutes, getting a little lost, from Heraklion to our little village of Fodele, population 600.   It was almost 1 in the morning when we parked our car in the center of the village, and I found a flashlight and wandered through the park-playground adjacent to the parking area and across a river, searching for the promised little path that would lead us to our townhouse, and finding it after about a 15 minute hunt.

Our townhouse is two stories with a roof-deck, in a little development called Mandarin Grove, all occupied by English residents and tourists.   It is not on any street, but surrounded by orange groves, you can only get here by walking up the path from the village.   Next to us are Helen and Ken, who manage things here, and they have been super friendly.  They share their DVDs with us, and it is great– Helen manages a little touristy shop in the village, and introduces us to people.   Here at Mandarin Grove there is also a small, pleasant but unheated, swimming pool, and we often eat our meals by the pool.

The village just has one main street, and another side street leading up to the El Greco birthplace and museum. Tuesday we walked up the road to the site, and were excited to learn even more about El Greco watching a video about his life.   It explained that he was born here in Fodele, then lived in Venice, then Rome, and finally most of his maturity in Toledo, Spain– and as they explained all this, Nate exclaimed– hey, we have been to all these places!   

The street is pedestrian friendly except for the occasional teenagers, who look like they are 14, who race through in pickup truck or ATV.   Lining the street are tourist shops, selling lace and macrame items, and cafes– we have settled into be regulars already at Cafe Domenico (picture left), run by Smoothy George.  It is a little place with tables over the river, and at least once a day we take a

 meal there at the same table, and enjoy wonderful homecooked greek food and wine or beer, never paying more than 30 euros a meal.   We have had Cretan salads and mousakka and gyros and omelettes and it is all wonderful.   Smoothy George always come over and kisses Carman twice, or more(!), on the cheek, and tells us about his years working for the US Air Force, and about his wife Eva whom he married out of high school and makes the food in the kitchen while he entertains in front.   He always gives us freebies and extras, and it is pretty fun.  

The village is in a little canyon, surrounded by beautiful hills, and there are nature paths and hikes up the river and out of the canyon.  Two or three kilometers down the road is the beach, which is a top Cretan beach, and is wonderful. We take some of the freely available umbrellas and lounge chairs, sometimes lunch at the adjacent restaurant, and swim, read, and sand castle build to our heart’s content.    One day I rented a little sunfish and sailed for an hour. 

So far, after six days here, we have only done one real outing, spending Wednesday morning at the famous ruins of Knossos, the Minoan capital that is so renowned for its high living in the second millennium BC, roughly 1800 to 1400 BC.    This is the palace of the legendary Labyrinth, and a place of luxury and grandeur previously unknown, including flush toilets. We toured for about two hours, and thought it was hot, we really enjoyed it.  

Venice favorites, in pictures

1. One favorite was the Venice Clock Tower over St. Mark’s square, where we did an hour long tour with a great guide, taking us up the stairs to the top, and standing next to the “moors”– the two robot metal sculptures that bang the gong. 

2. We enjoyed very much the Academy Art museum, which we got to early and had the run of, all to ourselves.  Particularly favorite was the famous giorgione painting, the Tempest, which we took a long time to admire and puzzle over.  Making it fun for me (Jonathan) was that the painting was a centerpiece of the novel I was reading that same week, which had many scenes in Venice, a wonderful novel I highly recommend, called A Soldier of the Great War by Helprin.

3. A third favorite was our daily visits, each afternoon, to the Biennial Gardens, at the southeast tip of Venice, which beautiful views, lovely grass and trees, and where the boys made rafts every day to float in the canals, and where Spencer and I played a bunch of soccer. 

4. We were proud of ourselves for really mastering the use of the vaporettos for public transportation, the boat-buses.  We took them on four different days, and got skillful at reading the schedule and map, and getting on and off here and there– Spencer particularly got obsessed with making sense of the schedule and map.  And such fun– that we can use boats as buses!  One day, Thursday, we took five vaporetto rides, including a night-time ride down the grand canal seeing into the palaces lit up inside, and enjoying a full-moon.

5.  In fact, we were able to enjoy all four forms of transportation: vaporetto, gondola, water taxi, and traghetto.   The last is the gondola that takes you directly across the grand canal, standing up, for only 50cents, for about a two minute ride.   When you don’t have a bridge nearby, you just jump onto a traghetto.  I generally dislike motorboats, but water taxis are so sleek, such wonderful wooden boats, in which you can sit or stand in the back and enjoy the ride, living large almost like in a James Bond movie, that you have to love the water taxis.   Usually they cost 60-80 euros, but we got to ride one for 30 minutes for free, taking advantage of the offer the glass factory offered in Murano to taxi you there for free if you sat through their glass show.   Really great.  And then the gondola ride, which we did Friday evening, Spencer’s birthday, at twilight and under a full moon.   You know, it is so hokey, the touristy gondola ride, but it was really great fun, we really enjoyed it, gliding through canals, under the bridge of sighs, and back into areas where there are no alleys to walk, sliding past other gondolas going the other direction.  

6. Finally, we really enjoyed our little neck of the woods, in the Castello district, and Via Garibaldi.It was so wonderful that the boys could wander and explore, with our having NO fear of cars and traffic, and they could just run and discover.  Several times Spencer went off, alone or with Nate, with a map, and wearing his watch he knew he had to be back in 30 minutes, and he or they would just go, and we felt entirely comfortable.   Carman and I also found a favorite spot, a wine bar with fun tables out on the “street” of Via Garibaldi, and nearly every evening we enjoyed prosecco or Venetian spritzers, for just one or two euros each, while they bar played U2, and the boys ran off to get gelato or pastries or just explore.  

Venice proved to be a real triumph for us– I had feared we only were doing it because it was a “must-see”, and that we’d be disappointed, and that it wouldn’t live up, but it completely did, it was really great.

Venice highlights

We are loving Venice besides not having internet.  We have a really nice appartment on the island of san Pietro.  We are in a residential neighborhood so we feel less like tourists.  After the crazy drivers and motorscooters in Rome we love the lack of cars here.  I keep wondering why there are not more carless cities in the world.  We have gotten very comfortable taking the Vaperetto (boat bus) all over.  Yesterday we took a boat to Murano for a glass making demo and saw some incredible glass works.  Venice is covered with gorgeous glass jewelry.  We had a snack at a cute little cafe.  I had a club sandwich which had ham, cheese, fried egg, eggplant and zuccini.  It was so good! Then we took the vaperetto home and got ready for the beach.  Then the boat to Lido.  On lido we were surrounded by posters for the Giro d”italia (Tour of Italy) which starts there on Saturday.  Jonathan got a hat and T-shirt.  They are bright pink (the color of the tour) so it is easy to spot him in the crowd.  We had a very nice time at the beach.  Jonathan really swam in the Adriatic while the boys built sand castles and destroyed eachothers and started wrestling.  Just another relaxing day with the Martin family.  After the beach we came home for another brief rest then off to another bus boat to the train station which is at the top of the grand canal.  We had dinner near there and took a last vaperetto home down the grand canal in the dark with a beautiful full moon.  It was quite a special day.  Today we are celebrating Spencer’s 11th birthday.  We started the day by going to the top of the bell tower.  Spencer wanted to walk but luckily for us they only allow you to take the elevator.  the views of venice were spectacular.  After that we walked to the market near the Rialto bridge.  We have been especially enjoying the fish markets.  They have buckets of live snails and eels, huge octopus and sharks.  There is so much fish here.  The boys and I stoped to buy masked to paint.  The masks here are amazing.  Now Jonathan is off checking out another church while the boys and I have a quick internet break.  We leave Venice tomorrow by train to Milan.  We will spend the day in Milan and then we fly to Crete.  We have no idea how much internet we will have there.  Sorry this entry is so rushed but I dont have much time here.

Recent Days in Rome

Hello!  We miss everyone. Right now I am writing from a nearby cafe, where we are spending a few hours, being treated here by our landlord, as he works with a crew to fix the sewage system at our little house, which last night, during a rainstorm, overflowed and belched raw grossness into our patio, and because our little house is actually a foot below the patio level, we had anxiety all night it would overflow the stoop and flood are floors (but it didn’t!).   It is all good, and our landlord has been great about working to fix it today, (and clean up the patio!).

Let’s see, a recap.  Saturday we spent a terrific day walking the Trastevere neighborhood and Gianicolo park.  The Trastever  is about a mile south of us down the Tiber, and is a wonderful medieval feeling neighborhood.   We walked to it via Campo Fiori, and then across the pedestrian bridge into the area, and then up Via Garibaldi, up the hill to the big parks with views across the river to the city.   I was thrilled to see Brahmante’s Tempietto, picture, which I had studied in college as a gem of the Rennaissance.    Then we walked north through the park, and then down the hill and back into the neighborhood.  After a break, we visited the 4th century church that is here, Santa Maria de Trastevere, and let me say that again, this was a fourth century church, certainly the oldest church any of us had ever been in (15 centuries old, compared to the church where I grew up, which is the oldest in the US, which is four centuries old).  The mosaics were fabulous, and we really loved this historic church.  We then went into a very authentic, neighborhood pizzeria and got some wonderful pizza to take home.  The only down part of our time in Trastevere was my disappointing recognition that we should have taken an apartment here, in the Trastevere neighborhood, rather than in the St Peter’s neighborhood where we are.

Sunday we took the train out to the beach home of the Mazza family whom Carman had met and stayed with in Rome back in 1995, and they were incredibly nice.    We went to the beach for an hour and the boys made sand castles and Nate got soaking wet, as always; Spencer rode bikes for an hour with the 8yrd old boy Claudio; we sat and had a Sunday feast that they served us of Roman style spaghetti and meatballs.  It was so nice, and we hope to continue in future years our relationship with this family.    When we got back home, Spencer and Nate struck up a friendship with the neighborhood kids, who came over to our fence and engaged them– first they played on DS games together, linking them up and playing each other’s game for a while, and then running around playing Hide and Seek Tag for an hour in the streets around our little house– it was so fun to see them have such friendly play with peers.

Monday– yesterday, we took it easy in the morning, and then went out on my quest to see 5 churches.  We failed.   We took the bus to Piazza Venezia, where Mussolini spoke to the crowds, and then walked up the steps to the Campodoglio, Michealeangelo’s fabulous square atop Capitol hill.  We saw the overlook of the Forum, and walked up to the top of the steps of the horrible wedding cake monument to Vittor Emmanuel, and saw the largest equestrian statue in the world there.

Then it was into our first church, atop the hill there, but it was closed.  So we walked down and over to the second church, St. Peter in Chains, and were very happy to see Michaelangelo’s incredible Moses statue there.   We stood and looked at in awe, and also walked down the steps to see the relics here, yes, the chains of St. Peter.   Then it was onto Santa Maria Maggiore, which is a fifth century church, and also has awesome mosaic patterns in the floor, geometric and colorful and vaguely reminiscent of the mosaics we loved so much in Spain.

In Santa Maria Maggiore we also were overwhelmed by the relic there, down the steps, of the the splinters of wood from the crib of Jesus.

Too tired for anymore churches, and beaten down by the rain, we headed into a shoe shop, found some new shoes, and then were frustrated to find that we didn’t have enough cash and contrary to the sign in front, they didn’t take credit cards.  Urgh.. We then took the bus back home, and Spencer and I made soup.  Oh, I should have said, in the morning, Monday morning, we went to the local market a couple blocks from us, and Spencer and Nate went on a mission to pick and buy with their own money the ingredients for a soup they would make for us.   They carefully compared prices and purchased potatoes, zuchinni, garlic, meat, and curry powder.   Then, after our outing, we carefully cut everything, sauteed the veggies, stuck them in a pot with water, added the curry, and it was, I swear, one of the tastiest soups ever.  The rain outside, and the homemade quality, obviously all helped.

Today, we decided to go to South Rome, to see the Museum of Roman Civilization, which also has a Planetarium and Astronomy Center.  It was a hundred minute trip on a long bus and long, crowded subway, and then a walk of five blocks in the rain, so I got pretty mad when they said the planetarium and astronomy center was closed to the public today, just for school groups.   Arghhh.  I fought and whined and complained, but to no avail.  But the museum was fun, it was a huge place with room after room of models of ancient Roman cities and buildings and weapons and maps of wars and busts of emporers, and the boys were pretty into it, especially all the siege towers and weaponry they had.  The architecture of the museum is a bit fascist, and it is certainly dedicated to the glory that was Rome, but it was quite engaging.   Its highlight is an enormous, huge, floor model, the size of a basketball court almost, of ancient Rome, with every building and street perfectly visible.  On the way back we also stopped quickly at the Pyramide of Rome, an imitation Roman pyramid built in the time of Antony and Cleopatra.  Then another long bus trip, in the rain, back here.

We are doing pretty well, but struggling a bit with sightseeing fatigue, and the boys sometimes get cranky when they have only each other to play with.   They really miss their friends a lot, and talk and think about them quite a bit.  We were also sad yesterday to read on facebook that a pretty good friend Jim Manning, the Dad of Nate’s best friend in Preschool, died on Sunday, from a cancer he had been battling for two years.   Jim’s kids are now 7 and 3.   A tragedy.  Our sadness at his passing also makes us recognize yet again how fortunate we are as a family to be so healthy and have this amazing time together.

Cafe Biscione then and now.

Fourteen years ago, when I was living in France with the Saucisse family , I spent my spring break in Italy– mainly in Rome.

Before going to Rome, I had asked my friends in California if anyone knew people there whom I could look up when I was here.  At the time I was working at Peaberry’s in the Rockridge market hall and one of our best customers (4-5 espressos a day!) was Enzo the butcher.  He told me about his close friends in Rome the Mazza family.  My friend Layla and I arrived in Rome and found our way to a small cafe near Campo de Fiori.  There we met Loriana, Bruno, Roberto and more very friendly italians.  Loriana and Roberto (newlyweds) let us stay with them in their tiny apartment for a full week (!) including Easter Sunday.  They were such generous hosts. We often had snacks at the cafe and I even got a chance to make espressos in their cafe. But since that wonderful week 14 years ago,  I have not kept in contact with the Mazza family.   

So believe it or not I still have the address book I had on that trip, and it still had the address of the bar that the Mazza family owns.  We found it today and I shyly walked in.  There was a woman behind the counter,  so I asked if she was Loriana and she was (!).  It took a while before she remembered who I was, and during that 90 seconds or so we awkwardly chatted, until suddenly she did she cried out “You stayed in my house!!” and “I always think about the chicken you made us.”  (Layla and I had taken a french cooking class and that was the only way we had to thank them.)  It was really wonderful to see Loriana and be back in their cafe which has been expanded.  She and Roberto now have two kids, twelve and eight (whereas my boys are, of course, 11 and 7!).  We chatted for a while and are going to try to get together again while we are here.  It was a really special moment.  Someone who takes you in to their home and their family always has a special place in your life and it is terrific to reconnect even if it has been fourteen years!  It looks like we are going to take the train tomorrow to their beach house for the day.

Thursday and Friday in Rome– the halfway mark of our trip!

Thursday we took morning off, took it really easy here as we relaxed after two very long days.   At noon we headed out and walked along the Tiber for an hour to meet up for lunch with Ned and Nancy and Katie, an amazing antipasti lunch where we were served fourteen small plates of meatballs, eggplant, mushrooms, zuccchinni, mozarella, roasted red and green bell peppers, olives, artichokes, and more.  We ate until we were stuffed!

Then it was off back down the Tiber for a visit to Castle S. Angelo, which we were able to enter for free, because all this week it is “free week” in Rome, to celebrate Rome’s birthday, and so we have had free admission to the Forum, Colosseum, and much more (not the Vatican museums though, they are not “in” Rome proper).   The Castle was fun to walk through, and up the ramp and the stairs to the very top where they have what Rick Steves says is the very best viewing spot in all of Rome, and we spent a lot of time there identifying landmarks and enjoying the vistas.

At home Carman and I prepared a dinner to mark the departure of Ned and Nancy and Katie, and to mark the halfway mark of our trip, we are now entering the second half.   I did my best to replicate a favorite appetizer, the stuffed zuchinni flowers.  I cut the flowers of the top of the zucchinis, and rinsed them carefully.  I then sauteed anchovies and garlic to make a garlicky anchovy paste, and mashed that into a bowl with fresh mozzarella and Parmesan, then stuffed this into the zucchini flowers, and then fried them in olive oil.   They were good.

Friday, we again too it easy in the morning, and then set off at 1030 for Piazza del Popolo, Rome’s magnificent gateway from the North, where Nate spotted his seventh obelisk (he is keeping close count, and into S. Maria del Popolo, which Rick Steves calls one of Rome’s most overlooked churches, where we saw two more Bernini sculptures, and two awesome Caravaggios, including his painting of Paul being struck down on the road to Damascus, with an amazing use of light. 
After the church visit, we collected a great picnic and headed up into Villa Borghese, the Central Park of Rome, with wonderful trees and grass, something you don’t see much of in much of concrete-asphalt laden Rome, and enjoyed the picnic and rented bikes to ride around the park, Carman and Nate riding around in one of the pedipowered carts.   It was a beautiful day, which is all we ever have on this trip, I think it rained on us one day in Spain, and we had a great time.    Walking back from Villa Borghese we went to an open air market, and I bought a few ties, Carman was very excited to get a new beautiful dress and blouse and purse, and we bought for the boys some DVDs, including Lord of the Rings and Gladiator.

St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel

Wednesday we were again with our amazing guide Federico, and Dad, Nancy and Katie joined us this day, for a whirlwind tour of the Vatican.   Meeting him at a cafe outside the museum we had one of those classic tourism problems, finding ourselves with a bill for breakfast that charged 6euros per cappucino (that is nine dollars, almost, and we had never previously paid more than 1.50) and 8 euros for a donut!  Arghhh.

Into the museum and straight to the cafeteria, where Federico gave us a 90 minute lesson on the Sistine chapel, prior to going to see it, and we all learned all about Michaelangelo, what the chapel is for, the history of the paintings, and what we are seeing.  Federico actually prefers the last judgment, and spoke to us at length about that mural on the front wall.

In the museum itself we walked through hurriedly, awe-struck at all the splendid art.  He gave us a wonderful lecture on the Laocoon, the Hellenistic era sculpture that was a favorite in Roman empire days, then lost and buried for a thousand years before being rediscovered in the early 1500s and influencing the Rennnaissance.   He told us about the separation of the arm at top left, and how it was only in the 20th c. the arm was separately redisocovered and the reattached.  Spencer told us all the story of Laocoon, warning about the Trojan horse but being attacked by serpents, and I remembered how important this sculpture was in the silly but fun Camille Paglia book I used to like so much, Sexual Personae.

Down many a long hallway, through the crowds which were not so crowded because it was a Wednesday and the Pope had an appearance in St. Peter’s square, drawing many people there instead.   We heard many of Federico’s favorite expressions frequently– especially we must conquor this position!   We saw a magic tapestry where the eyes, and the direction of a platform upon which Jesus stood, followed us past, and then into the Chapel.  It was a little sad, that scores of people were taking flash photography in there despite all the signs and verbal announcements insisting they do not, and Federico got very angry at the guards for doing nothing.   but we enjoyed it a lot, the kids looked all around and craned their necks and saw the famous paintings, especially focusing on the creation of adam.

Leaving the chapel we were a bit sad to not have more time in the museum, and I was sorry not to see Raphael and a favorite, the School of Athens, but it is so big and we had a plan.   Out to lunch, and then back into St. Peter’s basilica, where for another 90 minutes Federico taught us about the great cathedral, its uses, where the Pope stands, the history of the church and its construction upon the grave of St. Peter, and much more.

We conquored a great position to see the Pieta, and Federico spoke of Michaelangelo’s masterpiece here, how young he was, and how popular this statue has always been, perhaps the world’s favorite.  He also told us the terrible story of its attack in the 1970s by a crazy guy.    So much more inside the cathedral– the body of beloved Pope Paul, the mosiacs everywhere and how they were made, the altarpiece. Carman continues to develop her passion for mosaic, and is interested in all of them.

And then we were done, another 8 hour day with Federico, 16 in total, from whom we learned a lot.  The kids gave him big and warm hugs, and he had to run, a driver was waiting to chauffer him to Florence where he was guiding a bigshot from LA for the next two days!    Below, more from St. Peter’s.

Rome! Touring and Tired Feet….

Hello Everyone, it is Wednesday afternoon here, and boy do my feet hurt.  We have been touring Rome for four days now, the most recent two of them being full-on 8 hour days with an amazing tour guide… more later.  We are staying here in a small mini-villa about half a mile from St. Peter’s Square, on the Vatican side of the Tiber.   The house itself is very small, just a little studio flat with a tiny kitchenette, a futon/twin bed right next to the kitchenette, and then a loft above, with two twin beds and no head room.   The boys do fine up there.  The  saving grace is that there is an adjacent patio area, into which we can spread out and the boys can be louder and we can all feel less claustrophobic.

Our first evening here, Sunday, we set out at about 630, had a pre-dinner gelato (!), and then walked across the river and started exploring, visiting Campo di Fiori, then to Piazza Navone and the wonderful Bernini fountains there, and then over to the Pantheon, where we sat and ate dinner and watched the sky turn to night and the Pantheon become lit up the lights, for which we had a front row seat from our restaurant patio.  After dinner, we walked a bit more, and then took the public bus back– we are fast becoming proficient users of Rome’s good public transit.

Monday we took it easy in the morning, and then at lunchtime setout again– taking the bus into the the center of the city and walking back up to the Pantheon.  After a sidewalk lunch of pizza slices and hot dogs, and Spencer’s getting a wonderful SPQR T shirt which he is really excited about, we toured the interior of the Pantheon. The space is really spectacular, and the boys really enjoyed it, and thinking about what happens when it rains, and how they built it, and all the rest.

Afterwards, we visited the nearby church S. Maria de Minerva, where we saw Michaelangelo’s Jesus, and then it was onto Trevi fountain, where the boys threw coins into to ensure their return to Rome in the future, and then the Spanish steps.  Whew.  Some grumpiness here, as the boys tired, but we walked up and down the steps, and then sat for an hour eating gelato inside the enormous and fancy MacDonald’s at the Spanish steps.   We were also delighted to find a wonderful English language bookstore here, where we spent a whole hour looking at, and buying too many of, books.

Then it was back to the bus, and home, and home-cooked pasta for dinner.

Tuesday, we got up early, and took a cab up to Villa Borghese, where we met our amazing guide for the first of two WHOLE days of touring.  Federico Pellegrini is a Ph.D. in Art History, and a professional “luxury” tour guide, and he was our host, provided to us very generously and courteously by our new Tucson friend Christine Turetti.   We met him at 9am at Villa Borghese, and then after a stroll down Via Veneto, the famous Dulce Vita prestige avenue, we took a taxi to the Forum.   Two hours in the Forum he taught us Roman history, including about SPQR, the Nostrum, the speeches, and in the Senate Curia, the death of Ceasar in great, graphic detail.   We saw the Roman sewer system, still in use, and we enjoyed playing the the always running water fountains, so strange to us from the droughtful American southwest, and learned how to plug the nose and use it to drink from.   Several times he made references to the twins, Romulus and Remus, who in legend founded Rome, but he learned not to, because each time he did Spencer and Nate began to fake-fight, trying to slay each other in imitation of the fratricidal Romulus.

Then, the Colosseum, where we got a thorough explanation of how it was built, the retractable shade structure that topped it, and many stories of the events that took place here.  Federico used a book that explained how Rome’s present ruins related to the past triumphs, with transparent overlays to make it clear. Looking down we could see the underground tunnels and channels, from which wild animals would spring up in elevators through trap doors to stun and surprise and attack their victims.  The boys loved playing gladiator and pretended to slay Federico.

After a terrific lunch, at Federico’s favorite trattoria, and where we had amazing stuffed zuchinni flowers with mozeralla and anchovy paste, linguini with clams, and these delicious wild strawberries, it was on to the Piazza Navone, briefly, gelato, and then the Borghese Gallery.   I think the Borghese gallery will always be a highlight for us of Rome and our trip, these pristine and sumptuous palace stuffed elegantly with amazing paintings and even more stunning sculptures.   Federico, the art history Ph.d., really came alive discussing Caravaggio, whom he called the best painter ever, but soared even higher explaining to us two Bernini sculptures, first the rape of Persephone and second the Apollo and Daphne.

For each, he spent nearly 20 minutes explicating, and for each, he had us enter the room eyes down, leading us to the starting viewing point, and then having us slowly tour each quarter in rotation, and showing us how very different the action is, very different the emotions are, very different the passage is, from each quarter viewpoint.  It was an amazing tour de force by Bernini and by Federico, and I will add, by Spencer, who is was 110% engaged and attentive, and frequently added insight from his own knowledge of greek mythology.   We dragged ourselves home after this 8 hour tour, first by walking through the big park to the metro, taking the metro 4 stops, then walking two miles through St. Peter’s square, home ten hours after we left.  (An hour after this, we went out again to meet Ned, Nancy and Katie for dinner at a chinese food restaurant.)   Wednesday’s report will be in the next posting.  Below is a picture of Federico in front of the Borghese gallery.

Positano, Pompeii, Paestum

Hello Everyone, we are now in Rome, and finally have internet access again.   Our week in Positano was wonderful, in a very nice villa where we had room to spread out and beautiful views out over the Gulf of Salerno.    We did laugh though at the description of the house as having only a “few steps to the beach.”  We gave up counting at around 200, but my estimate is that it was about 350 steps to the beach.  Positano is called ‘the vertical city,’ and boy do our heels and knees and hips feel it, stairs, stairs, stairs.    But it was beautiful, and we did really enjoy the beach– on the best day we all submerged ourselves and really swam, and we rented a kayak/canoe kind of plastic thing and tooled around for a while off the beach, Spencer and Katie each taking a turn.     Carman did a fun touristy thing and had herself custom-made leather sandals down at the beach, and she loves them (and thanks Rosanne for supporting this expense!).

One evening Carman and I left they boys with grandad and nancy, sleeping, and we went to the chic Positano nightclub, Music on the Beach, and danced for a few hours– even dancing for a bit with a pair of newlyweds still in their wedding dress and tuxedo, who turned out to be from Tucson!

On our last day in Positano, we did a ferry trip to Amalfi, another lovely coast town, where we toured the oldest papermill in Europe, and made our own paper from cotton rags, following the traditional process.

Positano was also a great base spot for our two big day trips– Pompeii and Paestum.   Well, I should say it was a beautiful base, but not entirely great– the drive in and out of Positano is SO windy and steep that it makes driving difficult, and we had some struggles with carsickness.  The Amalfi Coast drive is like Big Sur, but even more narrow, steep, windy, cliffside in its driving, with more tour buses and more traffic than Big Sur.  Nuts.

POMPEII

We spent the day Tuesday at Pompeii, and had a 2.5 hour tour with a guide Signor Ettor, a retired schoolteacher.  Pompeii is enormous, we were all stunned by how huge it was.  There are many destination spots, but there are also hundreds of home foundations, just lined up down long city streets.    We saw the forum, the “fast food” restaurants, the baths, the bordello with its famous erotic art to get customers in the mood, (or to be able to point to the services they preferred, if they didn’t speak the language, this being a port after all).

We were glad too that the kids didn’t get too freaked out by the plaster casts of the bodies left under the ashes, which we took a close look at, including one of a dog who couldn’t escape because he was chained. We saw some of the beautiful villas, such as the Villa of the Faun, and we saw a bakery with the grindstones still there.  As you tour Pompeii, you keep a watchful and nervous eye on Vesuvius, which looms large above the city.

The kids were excited about Vesuvius, and kept an ear out for birds, having learned that an absence of birdsong was one of the warning indicators of the volcano burst.   At the end we walked what seemed a mile to the other side of town and toured the large amphitheater, which the boys ran up and down in the aisles of.

PAESTUM

Thursday we went to Paestum, a city originally Greek a few hours south of Pompeii.   Rick Steves recommends it as the best set of ancient Greek ruins, particularly temples, found outside of Greece, and goes on to say that there is some good reason to judge these as actually better than any Greek temples in Greece!  Because the area silted up, the temples were covered in mud for millennia, and saved from destruction in the middle ages.   The drive there was hell, a full two hours on the crazy windy road, and then another difficult hour in traffic through Salerno, but we were not let-down.  Paestum is better than Pompeii, less famous for sure, but better!

Much of the ruins are actually Roman, from a later period where they had a city much like Pompeii, so you see the foundations of hundreds of homes, you see the Baths, the amphitheater, the forum, etc.   But in and amongst these Roman ruins are three fabulous Greek temples from the fifth and sixth centuries BC.

On one end is a slightly smaller temple to Athena, with a rare topping to the triangular pediment, which looms up high above.  It was graceful and elegant, and the girls, Carman, Nancy and Katie, posed in front of it, showing their girl power in support of the great Greek goddess of war and wisdom, Athena.

Then, about a half mile on the other side, are the two side by side temples, one called misleadingly a Basilica, and the other the grandest of them, the Temple of Hera.   This temple was built about 30 years before the Parthenon in Athens, and has many of the same architectural techniques, leading one to think that either the Athenians just copied this one, or they had the same engineer/architects on both projects.    Truly these temples were breathtaking in their beauty and grandeur.  We were there in the daytime, but we could imagine that a nighttime tour would also be spectacular.

We weren’t done with Paestum though.   After the ruins, we toured the on-site museum of the discoveries there, which is a big advantage Paestum has over Pompeii– at Pompeii there is no museum as all the findings are an hour north in the Naples museum.  But the Paestum museum, though not enormous (actually kind of nice that it is not enormous), has some very nice pieces, including nine vases discovered in the 1950s still containing liquid honey, with marvelous paintings on them, and, best of all, an AMAZING funeral tomb from the 470s BC that was only uncovered in 1968.  It is called the Tomb of the Diver, and it is fabulous, the diver being believed to represent the passage from life to death.  I will end here with photos from the Tomb of the Diver.

Real travelers

Yesterday was one of our craziest but it was also exciting to see how well we could deal with the crazy trains in Italy.  We left Vernazza Cinque terre at 8 and took a train to La Spezia, then a train to Pisa. 

We jumped off the train in Pisa and walked with all our luggage(that was a mistake tooo heavy) to the leaning tower.  We really enjoyed seeing it.  Then we took a taxi back to the train station and took a train to Rome then a train to Naples then the subway to Sorrento.  We missed our stop so we had to take the subway one stop back and then walk to the hotel. This really sweet hotel is also a cooking school so they invite all the guests to eat dinner together at eight.  So we arrived at the hotel at 730 just in time for dinner.  The boys did really well and we were proud of ourselves.  We have a eurail pass so we just jumped on to trains.  It was  a hard day but also great.  Now we are happily enjoying Sorrento.  Our hotel is a very sweet family run B and B.  As I am typing that some of the family is right next to me yelling in italian but I can never tell if it just the way they talk or if they are angry.

Vernazza!

Hello everyone, too long I know.  Sorry about that.  We are in Vernazza right now, Wednesday and Thursaday, and it is a fun special spot because it what the picture at the top of the blog is of.    It is a really busy time here on our trip, and I am at an internet cafe that is 15 euros an hour!  we only paid 1.50 an hour in spain!

we had a an amazing four hour hike today, really great.   it is a busy stretch for us, last friday we spent the afternoon at st. emilion near bordeaux, saturday we had an wonderful day at a castle in france, castelnaud; sunday we went to carcassonne the huge castle in southern france and into montepellier, monday we spent the day exploring montepellier and visiting with carmans french family there, tuesday we spent the day exploring and enjoying nice, and wednesday we came here into italy and the cinquaterra.  hope to write more next week, especially if we can find a less expensive internet cafe.

Wine tasting at Wild Earth Vineyard

Another lovely day yesterday. In the morning, the four of us visited a regional chateaux, a small castle, near here, and the best part was watching Nate with his little history of castles book, walking and comparing the diagrammed castle in his book with his observations of the building in front of us: “that is the keep, Mom!”

We then left the boys with my Dad and Nancy (who took them bottle throwing, hurling dozens of empty wine bottles into the recycling), and Carman and I went wine tasting at a organic, biodynamic vineyard about 3 kilometers from here in the middle of Saussignac.   Wild Earth also has a French name, Haut Garrigue, and was founded about 4 years ago by a wonderful Irish and South African couple, Sean and Caroline Feely.  They saved their money, retired from their careers in IT, and bought this property for their family (two daughters) and their enterprise. We met Caroline and Sean at a party here at Dad and Nancy’s Sunday, and it was really great to see their vineyard.

Caroline taught the three hour class to just the two of us, in her small tasting room.

First we toured the vines, watching Sean weed the vines with his tractor, because there is no pesticide used at this organic site, and Caroline explained what huge difference it makes to the grounds to not use pesticides.  This nine hectare site, on a hillside, is managed entirely by just Sean and Caroline, which astounded us, it seemed like so much work!  Caroline explained to us the history of wine, including that the Romans made wine in this region, and that Rabelais praised the wine of Saussignac in his writings.   We learned a lot of fascinating information about organic vineyards, and how for biodynamic farming you use a sort of farmer’s almanac to track the phases of the moon to determine the best moments for planting and pruning and harvesting.  At times, Carman and I were a bit skeptical, but Caroline was very sincere and very convincing.

Caroline provided an overview of Bordeaux wine regions, and especially instructed on us on this Saussignac regions, explaining all the rules of the appellation, which are very onerous.   We then started tasting, comparing first three versions of her sauvignon blanc, 2006, 2007, and 2007 oaked, and we developed our nose and our taste buds for discerning the differences.  This was the most fun, especially then tasting her very fine stilton and drinking with that her rose, her merlot, and her la source.   Fascinating comparing how differently the wine tastes, and feels in the mouth, with food and without.  Caroline gave us some book suggestions, and then we were done.

Later, we went out to the local restaurant here in Saussignac, Lion D’Or.  Spencer ordered the salmon in parchment paper, and ate it all; Nate was terrific, his best ever in a restaurant: he ordered the fish soup, loved it, and then complimented the owner…. in French!    Both boys have really been great, expanding their food tastes, trying new things, being a really good sport– though they did not choose to follow the lead of their eleven year old aunt, (in practice, cousin), Katie, who lives here, and ordered, as she always does, the snails, the escargot.

Canard á l’orange et souffle chocolat

Last night we had a terrific cooking class at the Miramont de Guyenne restaurant La table de Catherine.  The chef, Catherine herself, taught us all to make orange duck and chocolate souffle.  Ned, Nancy, Katie, Spencer, Nate, Jonathan and I were all there.  Catherine’s restaurant is closed for dinner on weekday evenings so we had the place to ourselves, for four entire hours.  Catherine spoke English pretty well due to spending a year of high school in Missouri.

First, Catherine brought out the duck, it still had its head on which was new for us city folk.  The boys were ok with the head until she hacked it of with the big knife, at which Spencer got quite freaked out and hid behind Jonathan.  We chopped onions, carrots, endives, mushrooms,  and finally we learned fancy techniques with the oranges.  The kids even got to make very cute little “baskets” out of the oranges for garnish.

After tying up the duck, stuffing it with orange, carrots, and onions, cooking onions and carrots in the pan, and browning the duck, it went into the oven.   Mushrooms and endives went into pans with butter and salt on top, and some water, to be glazed.    We melted chocolate in a double boiler, mixed it with butter and flour, and baked very good smelling chocolate souffles.   Potatoes were skinned, and then shredded in a food processor, then formed into “egg nests” before being fried in the deep fryer.

Vinegar and sugar was cooked into a sweet and sour sauce, and orange rinds boiled and rinsed three times to remove the bitterness, thus preparing us for the sauce.  When the duck came out of the oven, it was removed, and the burned parts of the pan deglazed with white wine, and then boiled down, and then we added the vinegar/sugar, boiled down, and then the orange rinds and a bunch of cut up orange.    Put it through a sieve, and you have your amazing orange sauce.  (Recipes (really, ingredients), here).

Most of us repaired to the dining room while Carman and Nancy plated duck, endive and mushroom, and the potato, and we enjoyed the marvelous meal with a great bottle of local wine.

The kids were especially excited to plate and serve the dessert of chocolate souffle and creme anglaise.

It was a long day, and our feet were tired; we did the four hour standing on our feet cooking lesson after a two hour walk in the countryside!  But it was a very fun day.

Relaxing in Saussignac

Don’t miss our new photo page!!! Just look at the top of this home page, and find the several tabs, and click on the one labeled photos.

Ned and Nancy’s home in Saussignac is the perfect french country home.  It is perched on the top of the hill so we have beautiful views in every direction.  The view out the front is a large lawn followed by vineyards and across the valley with a view of the town of Saussignac in the distance.  Being in France of course includes lots of good food and wine.  We had crepes with nutella for breakfast.

Last night was a dinner of barbequed oysters (the boys had hamburgers) followed by a bonfire in the yard where we roasted marshmallows.  Having a fire in the back yard is not something we have done before.

The kids loved it of course! I was a little nervous because it was a big fire.

The boys love being here.  They love the huge yard and freedom to run around, the wifi, the wii and they have really been enjoying playing with Katie.  They have struggled a bit with Coco.  Of course Coco is a very sweet dog, but she likes to play and jump and nip at your pants and Spencer just can not seem to relax around her.

Our first evening here Ned and Nan threw a small party so we could meet some of their friends.  They barbequed burgers and sausages and we had a terrific salad that included beets, walnuts, blue cheese, quail eggs and olives.  Dessert was a tart aux pommes and a tart aux poires that Nancy and Katie had made.  Several of Ned and Nancy’s friends are wine makers and we had the opportunity to drink their wine with them.  Of course it was all very good wine.  Jonathan and I are going to take a wine class on thursday with one of the winemakers.  There were lots of kids at the party but most of them were younger girls who mostly watched the big kids play wii Mario party 8.  There was little boy who arrived late named…Charlie Martin.  He was so cute.  I was especially keen on him because he only spoke French to me.  It reminded me of my preK French class that I loved so much.   The evening was really fun.

Yesterday the boys got to golf and Nancy and I got to go to the spa.  It was lots of fun.  Spencer was upset that he didn’t play better but Ned said he actually played quite well.  Nate was happy to Caddy and putt occasionally.  We then had lunch at the golf club.  The croque madamme was to die for.  Grilled ham and cheese sandwich covered with cheese and then toped with a fried egg.  After lunch and a rest we went to Bergerac for HAIRCUTS!!!  Yes, Jonathan finally cut his hair!  The boys also got their haircut.  After the haircuts I let the boys get a treat at a very fancy chocolatier.  The window was filled with a giant chocolate egg, bunny and duck.

Last Days in Spain, Arrival in Saussignac

After our very full day in Seville Thursday, Friday we rested in Arcos, taking it easy.   A neighbor, in the housing development of brand-new townshouses (only about 20% occupied, a real estate disaster it seemed) where we were staying, strolled over to say hello, and took Carman and me out for an espresso.   A Scot, but from Glasgow (we are partisans of Edinburugh), Rudgear was a friendly fellow, so friendly that he came over to our townhouse more than a dozen different times that afternoon, encouraging the boys to play games with his playstation and urging us to join him for a BBQ.   Sadly, he also was increasingly inebriated, and became a bit stressed that he had offended me with a comment he had made about my parenting (he hadn’t offended me, I don’t actually take offense easily, but his duress that he had became increasingly awkward and even heated– that he was accusing me of being offended), that we took a pass at joining him for the evening.  Instead, Friday evening we all went out for very good Chinese food.  

Arcos de las Fronteras really turned out to be a disappointment as a town, in and of itself, but it was a good based for our three excellent day trip outings to Ronda, Jerez, and Seville.  Saturday morning at 7am we packed up and left Arcos and drove six hours to Madrid, stopping for toast and coffee at one spot, and a nice Spanish lunch at another.    We brought my mom, grandma, into Madrid, driving her to Plaza Mayor, the popular central spot there where her hotel was.   It was fun to come back to a place we had been three weeks earlier, and see some of the same street performers, like the crazy brazilian surfer and the guy whose entire “act” is that he is a fat spiderman.    We then drove on to Madrid airport, turned in our rental car, flew to Toulouse, picked up another rental car, and drove 3 hours through France to my Dad’s house here, in Saussignac.  Below is a picture of the village of Saussignac, the view that is from the house here, taken by my Dad.  His photo website is here.

Sevilla!

Thursday was one of our biggest and busiest days thus far– a full day trip to Seville.  We drove in around 11, driving the beautiful boulevard to and along the river and into the center of town, and parking easily right by the bullring.  We walked a few blocks and arrived at the cathedral, which the Guiness book of records certifies as the cathedral with the largest area footpring in the world.   Spencer raced through a scavenger hunt, we admired the enormous gold altar of the life of Jesus, and enjoyed the treasury of crowns and pearls and other glittering gems, wondering what the net value could be– billions?    

 Then it was up the tower, the tallest in Seville, to see the view over the rooftops, up 20 floors or so on a ramp, no stairs, a walk that the boys raced up, and Grandma successfully accomplished too.     We took a quick break for a snack, and then found a walking tour for the next part of our day, visiting the Seville Alcazar.

Our guide was great, very Spanish and a bit dry, but very knowledgeable as he showed us palace after palace inside the walls of this ancient castle, a palace still used today by the Spanish royals.   He had many history lessons for us, which Spencer paid close attention to, and showed us rooms with great history, like the one where all sailors heading to, or returning from, the New World checked in with the Spanish government.   The palaces were strikingly familiar to us, as they are essentially copies of the Alhambra, designed and built by the same workers brought here by the Catholic kings to replicate.   But they are in better condition here, and are exquisite.   The tile work, and the patterns, are incredible, and Carman and my mom spoke often about they could be replicated.    We finished the Alcazar visit, which far exceeded our expectations, with a look at its gardens.

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But we were not done with Seville; we walked the Barrio Santa Cruz, the wonderful ancient Jewish quarter, all pedestrian, narrow streets, and had a lovely lunch.  We took a horse carraige tour for an hour, through the main park in town, built for a huge Worlds Fair, something the boys had been clamoring for and was fun to be able to provide for them.  

We walked along the river, and saw the Tower of Gold, and Carman enjoyed posing alongside a statue of Carmen.   By the time we drove away, we had been in the city seven hours, and greatly enjoyed it– so beautiful, historical, and energetic.

Jerez and Tio Pepe

Wednesday, after a diverting morning at the zoo, we headed back into downtown Jerez to find a sherry bodega to tour and taste.  Jerez is a sprawling city, but its downtown is nice, featuring lots of statuary including this one fabulous male torso, enormous, at the center of a roundabout, standing on one foot.

We got lost downtown, finding ourselves having to navigate an endless warren of narrow sidestreets, and then arrived at Gonzales Byass bodega, one of the largest of the many in Jerez– which itself, the word Jerez, is the orgin of our word sherry.  After a long wait, we took a bus tour and it was really fun, and the boys really enjoyed it.  We saw a 200 year old brandy making machine, saw a video, and tasted sherry, but the highlight may have been the gift shop, where while Carman and Grandma tasted more sherry, the boys went crazy about Tio Pepe, and all the Tio Pepe accessories they sold.   Once discovered, we started therafter seeing Tio Pepe everywhere in Spain– he is a huge icon, and the symbol of this sherry bodega.

Flamenco in Granada (March 17)

Flamenco:  We went to a gypsy cave bar to see a traditional Flamenco performance.  I was very excited.  When we got there we were the only ones in a huge cave.  The walls were covered with beautiful old photographs of Flamenco dancers and guitar players.  There were also some family pictures with a large beautiful black and white photo of a woman breast feeding.  It was so nice to see it there after all this crazy stuff going on in the US with photos of breastfeeding being considered inappropriate.  What a joke.  It is so beautiful and natural.  So we were sitting in the cave when all of the sudden the buses arrived.  Two large groups of middle school and high school students came to join us in the cave.  It was quite funny to be surrounded by american teenagers.  One of the groups was from The Potomac school in VA. 

So now for the actual Flamenco…It was amazing!  It is the strongest and most intense dance I have ever seen.  Lots of stomping and claping.  No smiling.  It is almost angry but so beautiful.  The women wore beautiful polka dot dresses and stomped there feet rhythmicaly incredibly fast.  Poor Jonathan got the seat right behind where the dancer was standing so he had the up close view of her shaking her hips.  But not too much hips mostly feet and hands.  Sometimes a quick jump or turn.  The men wore tight black pants and black or white shirt unbottoned half way with a polka dot scarf.  The men all have long hair and jonathans is almost long enough for him to dress the part.  They also sing in this deep low voice.  the whole experience was very powerful and moving even surrounded by teenagers.  These two pictures are of actual dancers we saw!

Birds and the bees and the Camels?

Today we went to Jerez de la frontera.  The boys were very excited about the zoo there.  It took us a while to find it driving  on one way streets and circling round a bouts but when we got there it was a very nice zoo.  Spencer was especially excited because they have a white tiger.  We saw all kinds of monkeys and lemurs and a red panda.  When we finally we got to the tiger cage and Spencer wanted a picture so he stood in front of the tiger cage and the two tigers were right behind him when we realized that one tiger was mounting the other.  It made for kind of funny picture.  So we moved on and left the tigers to their fun and made our way around the zoo when we got to the top we looked down into the camel area only to find the camels engaging in the same activity as the camels.  Definitly one of the most interesting trips to the zoo we have ever had.