Jaco Euro Tour

Day 37 and a bit - Roma to Kuala Lumpur

2009-01-24, 25

Our first of two travel days that lye between us and our home.  It officially signifies the beginning of the end. It’s up early, finish packing, a breakfast and off to the train station to get to the airport.  The airport particularly quite, no queues for checking in, the counter some 20 meters from the board telling us where to go. Could it get better?   The plane 1/3rd full, no stereophonic vomiting over breakfast, despite mild turbulence 80% of the trip, the most gorgeous of flight attendants and the knowledge of disembarking after 11 hours and not 20. Could it get better?  Easy passport control, no customs check, a taxi waiting, an easy ride to our hotel with immediate check-in at 8am rather than at 2pm and then 5 hours sleep. A nearly perfect travel day, but could it get better? Yep, 4 hours beside the pool in the afternoon, Long Island Iced Teas, impeccable service. Watching the kids frolic in the pool highlights my concern that their fondest part of the journey will be so close to home. And need I ask again the rhetorical question, Could it get better?  All of this with my 3 favourite people, Calum, Ethan and my lovely wife Tracey. 

At the airport it was a goodbye  to Penelope.  Pen opting to return to Perth rather than follow us on to Kuala Lumpur.  Pen was a good addition to our holiday, a much enjoyed participant in our travels.  Pen’s spent a lot of time in our company over the last couple of years and fits into our family well.  I think at times, we were still a challenge for her, but she never showed it.  We love Penelope, in a purely plutonic way… Just in case you were wondering.

Day 36 - Roma

2009-01-23

After the day yesterday we needed some sanity, a slow start before the expected lines at the Vatican.   Today we were to venture on our first metro bus service for the trip, it coincides with our last full day in Europe. The bus being a good way to reduce the walking for the day, having decided the Vatican close enough to walk, but probably only best in one direction.

For most of the trip I’ve been doing most of the transport arrangements, which trains to get from where, where to switch, etc.  But today, Penelope had done the research.  Now I’m a nerd, I like to know things like routes, and stops and streets to look out for when on buses. Some would say I’m a bit over prepared.  It filled me with mild concern when I asked Pen at which stop we get off and I received a resounding “I don’t know”.  Needless to say we found the correct stop but it highlights some critical elements of my personality.

Once at the Vatican, it was a short wait in queue into St Peters Basilica.  Inside it was enormous, although the expression on my face was different to everyone else’s, somewhat a bewildered amazement at Catholic excess.  I have no religious leanings, but I do find churches to be an interesting focus for human talent, the craftsmanship, art, and engineering rarely found elsewhere combined to such effect. St Peters has to be one of the best displays of this.

Other than the shear marvel of a cathedral like St Peters, another aspect the boys and I have grown to love is the stairs.  I enjoy it for the workout, missing my bike and weekend rides up into Kalamunda.  The stair count up to the Cupola is 551, unless you take a lift, but that leaves only 360, thats no where near enough. Trace and Penelope didn’t join us in our quick paced ascent. We passed many people, some going slow, others stopped to catch their breath, but no such frivolous delays for us.  

Down near the main alter, Trace and Penelope waited to spy us around the base of dome, a perfect viewing spot for the artwork adorning it.  With the summit looming, we barely slowed down, opting to wizz past the more culturally sensitive in favour of achieving our objective.  The final 20 stairs, a tight spiral staircase with a rope to assist in the ascent, an inspiring technical end to a good climb.  The view from the top is no where near as pretty as from Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, but its hard to top that view.  

The decent was tricky, my weight and knee slowed me, the centrifical force at speed increases with weight.  Although I could power up the stairs, the boys could descend much quicker, Ethan been the final winner.  

After our controlled workout, it was off to the Vatican Museum.  We spent an hour or so in the Museum, the primary focus, much like most of the visitors, was the Sistine Chapel. An amazing creation, although mattress’s on the floor would have helped my sore neck.  The boys had free reign of the camera through most of the Museum.

Is it a window or a painting on a roof? Had me second guessing when I was looking through the days photographs.

I was glad to see some Salvador Dali having, a couple of days prior, lamented the fact I hadn’t been organised to check whether there was any on display at various cities we had visited.  They were three of his less known pieces, but they were unmistakable when I entered the room, the light and form denying them anonymity.  He still remains one of my favourites. 

We wandered slowly back to the apartment, with a couple of Limoncello stops at various bars on the way.  We like Limoncello. A nice way to see Rome.

Day 35 - Roma

2009-01-22

It was always going to be a busy, if not, stressful day today.  A planned trip to Pompeii from Rome requires a 2 hour train ride to Naples, then another 30 minutes on a train from there.  So we were in for 5 hours of traveling to see the ruins. We had packed a bag full of things to entertain the kids, some food to feed them, and other bits and pieces that might be of use on a day like today. 

There were two things that contributed to probably our worst day on tour, first was that I forgot to grab the bag with all the bits in it.  The second being the key, which I had dropped from the 4th floor apartment onto the road below to let the girls up the night before, was bent and didn’t let me back in to collect it.  What a great start.

Not much we could do, I had bought the tickets for the train, it was quite early in the morning, we had to ignore the problem and continue on our journey.  As it happened the boys were entertained but the added stress of missing vital entertainment items, knowing we have to sort out the key when we get back to Roma later that night, and five to six hours of travel left some of us grumpy.

The train was slow and noisy, the windows so dirty the view nearly invisible, and being in 2nd class we missed our comfy seats and tables between us. We arrived in Naples on time, but signage was limited and we obviously stood out as being slightly bewildered.  A nice gentleman showed us the way to the correct metro line, it being around a few corners and down a few stairs, helped organise tickets and took us onto the platform, then insisted on a tip.  It was fine, and I was expecting it, it got us to where we needed to be with limited fuss.  You pay money for time savings.  

Did I mention that also in the morning the adults didn’t have any breakfast, choosing to consume items within the missing bag instead.  We were getting hungry, it now being just before 11am and we still had 30 minutes of train ride left.

The train from Naples to Pompeii seems to take you the past the poorer area’s, just about everything covered in graffiti, rubbish everywhere, dilapidated building and large ugly flats lined the route.  The general mood of people seemed much more tense than in Rome and knowing the rate of petty crime in busy area’s I was forever vigilant.

Finally we reached the Pompeii excavation site, but desperate for food we looked for somewhere decent to eat.  Alas our search was in vain, and we unwittingly subjected ourselves to our first truly dreadful meal all trip.  The service bad, the food somewhat average and lets not even discuss the cheap sweet insipid liquid they tried to pass as wine.  Needless to say, we were all in the mood that, “Pompeii had better be the most impressive sight ever or someone was going to die in a grump implosion.”

Pompeii lived up to the hype and was spectacular, I even saw Trace smile, something I thought I would never see again after the train trip there.  We were all suitably impressed, in the end we spent a bit over 2 hours wandering around, not nearly enough time to do the area justice.

I would suggest that embarking on a day trip from Rome to see Pompeii is never going to give the site the time it deserves.  I even think a solid 6 to 8 hours would see you missing things. 

There will be a section in the photo gallery just for Pompeii, Trace, somewhat excited, took in the order of 230 photo’s of the site. Here is just one.

A street in Pompeii.

Being somewhat tired and emotional we set off back to Rome knowing we needed to get back to organise a new key from the owners and have dinner before they boys bed time.  Back in Naples we made an executive decision to purchase tickets for the faster, more comfortable train, something our sanity needed.  The train lived up to the expectations and we were back in Rome 45 minutes sooner. In organising a new key we were given a good tip for a restaurant near by, one not so “touristico”, a good thing in Italy. The few locals we spoke to said the tourist focused restaurants, particularly with their set “touristico” menus, created substandard food for those dishes.

The meal we had was exceptional, a real treat, and a highlight of the meals we had in Europe. The food, the wine, the weird black aperitif we saw the locals drinking and asked for a serve, and of course the company.  A day of ruin, finalised by a meal of kings.

Taverna Urbana - A great place to eat.

Just a quick note, I’m still behind in the blog a couple of days.  We’ve been quite tired lately and thats been limiting my enthusiasm for writing.  I have a heap of photo’s to upload, but it takes time to process them, some 250+ photo’s that I have to rename, copy, resize and upload. 

I know it been a while since an update, it’s a travel day tomorrow, and then I should have Internet access for a couple of days.  I’ll get it all upto date then.

Love you all,

Nick, Trace, Calum and Ethan

Day 34 - Roma

2009-01-21

The night before I looked for fresh food markets in the couple of Italy guide we have, the main markets were across town, and maybe 45 minute walk away or a bus ride.  I would have like to take a walk through them, however there was a smaller, “international” food market less than 10 minutes away.  I needed to check on the availability of train tickets to Naples the following day, and that was not far from the markets.  Needing some quite, reflective time I set my alarm and got up earlier than the others went to the train station organised tickets and set off to greet the market shortly after opening time of 7am.

I was glad I did, the markets, much like the Florence market, were full of fresh meat and vegetables, it also had a good selection of Asian spices and an fresh seafood.  Lots of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans still wiggling about in fresh beds of ice. I was given the mandate to decide on the nights dinner, but given my inability to decide I just bought some Prosccuito and eggs for another Omelette, and decided to drag the family back for a look and decisions before setting off on the days explorations. 

After breakfast with the family in tow we secured a couple of nice pieces of back strap, fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion and a few accompanying veg for a cook up later.  The boys and the girls set off in different directions for todays events.

The girls, sent off to the shops for shoes, bags and anything else of importance. The boys in search of the best Gelati shop in Rome and a full flight simulator history of Rome movie.

The girls found some good bargains, some shoes, which I’ll add later, at this point probably when I get to KL. Internet access is limited for us in Rome, as you might have guessed. 

The boys and I found our Gelati store however it wasn’t open for another hour, we choose to go and watch the movie first.  However it didn’t start until 12:15, so further time needed to be killed.  A 20 minute walk up and down the local shops and we were ready for our movie extravaganza.  We paid for two movies, first up was a 3D computer animated movie of the history of earth.  Being Rome, I wasn’t sure what version we were going to get. Luckily it was the Darwinian view.  It included all sorts of additions, including, air blown by big fans, sprays of water and shots of air.  We were all impressed when a Wooly Mammoth sneezed and we were covered with a spray of water.  The sort of quality you just cant buy.

The second movie was 3000 years of history of Rome compacted into 25 minutes.. So if you want to know any details, just ask me, I am now a full bottle.  The highlight being during the days of the black death, and a rat ran up a persons leg at the same time a shot of air came from under our seats onto our leg.  The lady in front screamed, much to my amusement.

Afterwards we walked through rain back to the Gelati store, now it was open.  Not your run of the mill one either.  This one had stainless steel covers so you couldn’t see the Gelati.  We made some guesses about what we wanted and headed for home.  A good day out for the boys.  Given that neither of they boys vomited at the movie, the motion being that rough.  Although Calum confessed to being close.  Ethan the main motion sickness protagonist barely showed a concern, it must be connected with the sort of motion.

The boys and I stopped off for Pizza for lunch and then home to put on the dinner.

I cooked up some onions and garlic, browned the back stap, removed it, then added a back the onions again, with a bit of pureed tomato I scrapped the bottom of the pot clean and chucked in 4 fresh tomatoes.  Fried them for 5 minutes until soft and added some salted anchovies, fried them too.  Then the rest of the tomato puree and the meat back in.  I cooked it for another 5 hours and served it with a mash of potato and sweet potato.  One of our highlight home cooked meals. Simple and delicious. I now know why food in Italy tastes so good, with the quality of the ingredients, it’s hard to go wrong.

Day 33 - Roma  

2009-01-20

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we were going to see as much as we could in a single day of walking… with kids.  We got up relatively early, fortified us with another one of Traces award winning omelettes  and set off to see the sights.

Around the corner and down the street a bit, was this big old stadium thingame.  I think they called it the Colosseum, or something.  An impressive structure, large marble blocks on the outside and brick on the inside.   We happened across a number of independent tour guides, the first one was nice then we nearly got abused by a second. When saying we didn’t want a tour, we were asked quite rudely by this American guide,  ”Don’t you want to know about what you came all this way to see?”  This somewhat rude questioning was best ignored by me and taken care of by my normally well mannered wife.  The story of Jeckle and Hyde was a watered down children’s story based loosely on Traces reactions to these situations.  Needless to say, I kept walking and Trace sent her scurrying away.

After a small wait in line, we spent an hour or so wandering the Colosseum, the boys “stabbing” and “hacking” at each other most of the way interspersed with some excellent questions from Calum.  ”If you were a gladiator and you were in a fight with someone you weren’t meant to kill, and you accidentally killed them, what would happen? Would you get killed?”  The boys really want to be gladiators when they grow up, so much so, that Ethan chucked a grump because he really wanted to have a fight with one of the gladiators walking around outside the Colosseum and we told him they were only there for photo’s.

Off to for a look through the Roman Forums and Palantine among other ancient ruins. Plenty of time is needed to get a full understanding of this area, we spent an hour or so wandering it, and barely did it justice. Some sections we missed completely.  From ‘82 I remember walking through this area, with people still digging stuff up.  Its much more impressive now than then, but there is still a lot of excavations happening up on the hill, these things take time. 

We had two more stops before the end of the day. But before then we had to have some lunch and give the kids a bit of a break, we found a little restaurant tucked out of the way and relaxed.  

After lunch it was onwards to the Trevi Fountain. A spectacular fountain with many an onlooker, we had been given four 5c pieces before we left home, one each, to throw in.  Somewhere in the order of 1500 Euro gets thrown into the fountain a day, the pond is cleared once a week and the money donated to charity. A homeless man used to use a magnet and collect 1000 Euro a day in the fountain, much to peoples outcries. He did it for 30 years, but I question, if he collected that much, surely he wasn’t homeless for long. With the introduction of the Euro and non magnetic coins, it became harder for him to collect it.

If you throw:

One coin, it means you’ll come back to Rome.

Two coins, it means you’ll come back to Rome and fall in love with an Italian.

Three coins, it means you’ll come back to Rome, fall in love with an Italian, and marry them.

Of course I threw two coins, but Trace need not know about that…. and mums the word ok? Trace says she only threw one coin but she had a naughty smile on her face the rest of the day.  The boys both threw 3 coins, and why not, it will give us somewhere to stay when we come back.  Penelope in a very “European” way threw 6 coins hoping to come back and marry two guys, although she denys it and says she only threw 1, but she had a naughty smile on her face the rest of the day too.

So we’ve come to Rome, seen some old stuff, and now thrown half our life savings on a whim into a fountain, that some guy will steal, to supposedly alter our fate.  One last stop for the day before we head home.

The Spanish Steps look lovely in all the postcards, with flowers lining it and the light all right.  Today it was lined with youths, the magic somewhat lack lustre. The boys and I raced up and down them while the girls got given red roses by a somewhat romantic man that then wanted a “donation” when I showed up with the money.  The day was drawing to a close, and we still had a 30 minute walk home.  They boy’s ability to walk without complaining has increased significantly since the beginning of the trip.  They walked home without complaining, we picked up some fresh vegies from a local shop and home for a special baked vegetable dish the girls invented. 

Day 32 - Firenze to Roma  

2009-01-19

Another frantic travel day was upon us, luckily this one was easy, a short train ride from Florence to Roma.  We spent the morning packing and cleaning, much like other travel days.  Having been so organised we had a hour or so spare before having to leave. Trace read her book, the boys played on the Nintendo DS’s and Penelope and I went for a walk to a market near by.  Penelope had seen a purse there the day before she wanted to buy. Unfortunatly it seemed to be the one stall out of 50 that wasn’t open and Pen missed out.  We did take a look at the local food market, that was closed the day before.  All manner of weird things in the butchers window’s.  Tripe, Hoofs, livers, kidneys, rabbits and pigs heads but what I had not seem before, and I now like to call “Pig Mask”, was just the skin off a pig, or other animal, snout, and eye holes somewhat reminiscent of a  mask, one to surely scare the kids. So after the nightmares I caused Trace has told me I’m not allowed to buy another one, even if it does make me look better.

The train ride was somewhat uneventful, although for the first time we didn’t get seats facing each other with a table in the middle.  The journey was short and kids well behaved. Trace wanting a photo of the Italian countryside for her computer screensaver, took a few out the window.

Taken from a moving train through a dirty window.... It's still lovely.

Roma Termini is a busy station with people rushing everywhere, in somewhat a contrast to our beloved Firenze.  As we reach the end of the platform until we leave the station we seem to be set upon by either hotel room spruikers, taxi drivers or umbrella salesman.  Trying to avoid as much of this unnecessary interruption we inform everyone we know what we’re doing and head for the door walk a few paces then stand bewildered, looking at maps trying to get our barings. Something that happened in London and Paris when coming out of underground stations and you’ve no idea which exit you came out of, and your substandard tourist map doesn’t have all the streets marked.  At least this time I knew we had to head down a street in a particular direction, but just couldn’t see the road signs.  I had written down the directions to our apartment, having derived them from Google Maps the night before.  Once on the first road we were fine and my directions got us to our street.

We were looking for 72b, we hit the street at number 10-11, we need to go this way, and as we walked the numbers increased, 20, 23 etc, up to 43 and the road ended. OK, doesn’t look like the road extends any further, number 50 is across the street. Where could 72 be?  We asked a local, that turned out to be an Englishman living nearby, he was very nice but didn’t know and spoke to another couple walking past for us, then investigated in the local bar for us too.  All to no avail.  We tried calling the owners, and with broken English all we could get from them was to find number 72. We were starting to get frustrated and weren’t sure what to do.  Then the local couple had come back after 5 minutes and had found it for us, and pointed us in the right direction.  The numbers on the street going up one side then up the other side, not to adjacent houses like I was expecting.  That put the apartment not far from number 10, where we started.  Finally at the apartment, we got to climb four flights of stairs and settle in for the evening, after purchasing supplies from the local supermarket.

Day 31 - Firenze  

2009-01-18

We’re starting to get a bit travel weary about now, we’ve been on the go for 36 days, I miss my pillow and the beds never seem as comfy homes.  I’m also a bit behind in writing, sporadic  Internet access has quelled my desire to keep up to date, since this is the 31’s day, entry you can see how far behind I am. I hope you are all well.

After yesterdays travels to Pisa and our general mood of tiredness we opted today for a wander around the city.  The plan was to go aimlessly through the town to get more a feel for it.  

The highlights of the walk include numerous designer clothes shops, we just happened across, the local fresh food market, although closed was really around the corner and we’re a bit disappointed we didn’t find them sooner rather than using a dodgy supermarket around the other corner. We worked our way to “Festival de Gelati”,  it’s one of the premier gelati stores in Florence with 70 different types.  The boys had a couple of different chocolate combinations, Trace had an almond liquor one I can’t remember the name of, and she’s asleep, best not wake her just for the name, and I had a Meranga, which was a weird combination of Merang and icecream, sweet, fluffy, cold and soft. 

We like Florence, the feel of the city, the streets, all the vintage bikes, the markets, gelati and the people seem happy and relaxed.  After the walk Trace and I have decided to come live here for 6 months somehow… sometime, probably when the kids are older and we don’t have to take them.

Day 30- Firenze  

2009-01-17

Another sunny day greeted us this morning, a few grey clouds lurked about but nothing to be concerned with.  Today we were off to visit the most celebrated engineering failure humanity has ever accomplished.  The tower of Pisa. 

Pisa, situated an easy 1 hour train ride away, was a certainty for this trip to Florence.  We purchased the tickets from the vending machine on the platform and the frequency of them left little waiting time.  I remember the tower and Cathedral as being quite separate from the town, in a big green field, with lovely manicured lawn around it.  At least my memory of the lawn was correct.  The monuments being not removed from the town at all, but on the outskirts of the small town centre.

The white tower stood resplendid against the blue sky, tourists lined the street taking “holding up the tower” shots and knock off agents sold “good” quality Rolex’s through the crowds.  Our intention had been for the men to climb the tower, the girls still feeling sore after the steps up Santa Maria yesterday.  But for 15 Euro a head, it was decided that the venture was too expensive to undertake.  

Calum is getting better at taking Photo's. This is one.

We opted for a look through the Cathedral and a quite stroll through Pisa instead.  It’s a lovely city with large sections of pedestrian only streets. Having walked down the main sections, we deviated down a quite street to the local food market.  Choosing one of the small restaurants there to have lunch vs one of the tourist restaurants on the main street.  The prices at least half what we would have paid, and the food was good, if not better.  A carafe of sparkling white wine made us doze on the train back to Florence.  All still a bit weary we were in bed early and decided on casual relaxed morning the next day.

Day 29- Firenze  

2009-01-16

A slow start this morning, we had a fair amount to fit in, but our location in Florence is exceptional, everything is within an easy walking distance. First stop, Piazza San Marco, not sure why, but it was close and the one in Venice is much more a place to look at that this one, being full of Buses and Taxis.  But it was just around the corner, and just around the corner from that was Galleria dell’ Accademia, which for any tourist in Florence is a must.

The gallery has some outstanding pieces, but in particular it houses Michelangelo’s David, which is impressive enough in books, and pictures, but its size is huge and has great detail in the muscles and veins.  The boys were very attentive to each artwork but that might have something to do with a “count the penis” competition Trace set them as we walked in the front door.  Really a good way to keep kids entertained. Calum’s modest but probably realistic count of 67 was blown away by Ethan’s very imaginative 199.

After leaving Galleria dell Accademia we headed in the direction of Galleria degli Uffizi but had a couple of stops to make on the way.  We stop by Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, an impressive building having been constructed with different coloured marble, we had a look through, before scaling 450+ stairs to the view from the top of the dome.

Great views from the top.

I thought it was a fairly high priority to get up and have a look at the city from above and this certainly achieved that objective.  Apart from causing a degree of oxygen usage in the girls it was a splendid view.  There should be a number of photo’s in the gallery of the view.

The stair climbing and descending took its toll and we were forced to stop for lunch.  Onwards to look at Uffizi.  All the literature we had previously read, and stories we had previously heard was that we were in for significant lines to enter this gallery.  But today the stars aligned and we walked straight in.  We spent a couple of hours perusing the artwork, Botticelli’s  The Birth of Venus was one.  The boys commented how Uncle Jules and Aunty Ny have that one on the wall too.

We wandered past Ponte Vecchio, this is the one I was getting confused with Rialto in Venice, through a few markets on the way home.  It was quite a full day, and left us all a bit tired.