one weekend in october the evergreen tandem club had a public group ride we participated in. turns out amy and thyce (sp?) were also on the ride.
this was about a 20 mile loop ride through the city of seattle, visiting 10 sundials. we had the opera that night and knew we might have to bail early if we as a group tended to dwadle at any of the stops. and we only made it to the 8th sundial. on top of that the camera batts died at the 6th one! oh well. we might try to find the last couple on our own - and there are supposed to be about 2 dozen total in this city, so why not add those as well?
here's a brief rundown that the ride leader had put together for us.
#1: gasworks park (on top of large kite hill)
the 28' analemmatic dial was built in 1979 by c. Greening and K. Lazare. The sundial is sculptural and shows each sign of the zodiac. it is from colored concrete with inlaid objects scattered throughout, including a bronze bear claw, ceramic crab, pottery, glass and shells. the main features are bronze and the standing position (the person looking at the sundial is the gnomon) depends on the date. there are 3 bronze footprints in the design: greening's, the anonymous donor's, and the donor's dog.
#2: UW campus (physics/astronomy building)
built in 1994 by woody sullivan, larry stark and mihaly turbucz, the large sundial is painted bronze aluminum and measures 20'x30'. the gnomon (the part that casts the shadow) extends 6.9' from the building. this sundial is accurate to .5 minutes, and to be maintenance free for 50 years. this sundial's motto is "what you seek is but a shadow". the numbers on the bottom represent summer hours while numbers on the top represent winter hours (notice daylight saving time!). the figure-8 curve are called the analemma, and plots the location of each day throughout the year. we were lucky to have prof. woody sullivan talk to us about this sundial and explain how it works.
#3: Burke-Gilman trail (near sandpoint way & NE52nd)
located in a small amiptheatre in a playground this is a horizontal sundial with a vertical conical gnomon. it is tiled concrete designed by robert shimbo and completed in 1987. there is about 2-3 inches of hte top of the gnomon missing. the colored tiles represent the different seasons.
#4: UW campus (drumheller fountain (frosh pond) just off red square)
A small sundial fastened to a 30" chunk of stone. it is a traditional horizontal dial with a triangular wedge for the gnomon. it is one of the older sundials in the city, being a gift from the class of 1912. weathered copper alloy has roman numerals.
#5: cowen park (in play area near ravenna & cowen)
a horizontal sundial consists of a large stainless steel sculpture and built in 1999 as part of the seattle neighborhood matching fund. designed by randy nussbaum and built by the community all parts came from boeing surplus. the 15' gnomon is set at the site to be parallel to the earth's axis. it is also centered on a circular slab of concrete and the hour numbers run along the perimeter. the marker for the winter solstice is actually off the sundial to the north a few yards. this sundial is unusual in that the NSEW markers are based on magnetic north, and the the sundial itself and hour markers are based on true north.
#6: University Prep Academy (main entrance)
a 10' tall variation on the traditional portable shepherd's or pillar sundial in which a rotatable gnomon is moved so as to cast a vertical shadow on a cylinder. This one was fabricated by charles wiemeyer and peggy dow, ray monnat and woody sullivan. it was built in 2002 a a gift from the parent council to the students. the motto "who's turning". there is a handle at the base of the cylinder for the user to turn the cylinder until the gnomon's shadow is vertical. shepherd's sundials are usually hollow to ease transportation. the puma on the back is the school's mascot.(this is where the camera died.)
#7: olympic view elementary (south wall of school and another painted on the asphalt of neighboring playground)
there's a large vertical dial on the south wall. woody sullivan headed a group of teachers and students in grades 4-5 to design this sundial. it was installed in 1999 by sullivan, PSE, and school volunteers. the gnomon is topped by the school mascot, an eagle. the children painted tiles and these were placed withing the calendar of the sundial on their birthdays as the gnomon passes across the dial.
the 2nd is an analemmatic dial. you stand on the date and become the gnomon.
#8: north seattle community college (just east of cafeteria)
i think this was my favorite as far as artistic visuals.
this sundial is an equatorial bow dial, meaning it's a dial aligned with the earth's equator and poles. the gnomon is a bar parallel to the celestial axis. perpendicular is a 2nd semicircular bow with hour markings and aligned parallel to the plane of the equator. the bar rotates so a user can align the slot in the bar to be aligned with the sun. it was completed in 1990 by daryl smith and is mounted on a granite plinth. it is accurate to 1 minute. this dial is a memorial to george lewis, who was founder of the college's horology dept. (the study of time). this type of bow dial, built at a width of 6' of temperature-invariant steel invar was used to keep the trains running on time in france before WW1.
a little more info given to us by the ride-leader:
sundials have long and rich history, extending back to the 2nd millenium BC in egypt. until reliable watches and clocks became common in the 19th century, any educated person was well-versed in their principles of operations and construction. although their purpose was practical, they were also often designed with strong aesthetics and with moral principles in mind. today we have superior ways of keeping time to split-second accuracy, but the allure of the sundial has not faded. it is still the most apposite and striking means of indicating time.
a will-designed sundial has many effects on viewers. perhaps the most profound are those of a philosophical nature, in which this device that records time ironically engages the viewer in a timeless manner.
although the principles of a sundial are universal, its design is completely specific to a site and intimately conjoins the viewer, the locale, and the heavens. although a sundial is stationary (no moving parts) it records fleeting time. although the dial is passive in character, it speaks strongly and leads to contemplation - of hte sun, the cosmos, and our place in it, of time and its passing, of history and mortality.
we can admire them for their beauty and craftsmanship and historical value, even if it's raining. we can be fascinated by their technical details and read the time and many other parameters to high accuracy. a well-designed sundial displays for the viewer a marvellous mapping of positions and events on the celestial sphere, based on the relationships between the site, the dial surface, and the ever-changing path of the sun. it affords the student of the cosmos an experience of the passage of the days and of the seasons that is direct, not learned from pages of a text.
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Friday, November 28, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Friday Harbor
Friday Harbor:
yesterday i spent most of the day up in friday harbor on san juan island.
if you've seen my tagline on any of a few sites you might have noticed the line 'driving a 24ft truck to the san juans (via ferry) just for the float plane home'. well, that's exactly what i was doing!
we got a call from santana cycles on saturday morning. something happened and their truck driver was a no-go for yesterday, and bill asked us if either of us wanted to do it. we'd get 100$, ferry reimbursed, and a ticket home on the sea plane. if we both wanted to go we'd be booked on the victoria clipper (not the hydrofoil) which takes 3-4 hours. luckily for me matt's busiest day of work is monday so he couldn't get away. but it would've been so much nicer if he'd been able to join me. so i'm driving the truck up on my own.
so when you go to rent a truck and they say it's a '24 foot truck' the rental place is 99% referring to the length of hte box of hte truck. this dimension would not take into account the liftgate or cab and engine. turns out i was driving a 35ft truck! that's the official measurementfrom the ferry dude. 13ft and change is what i needed for vertical clearance. it was easy enough to drive - but man, there were some spots where it was VERY bumpy! like the stutter of a student in a standard where the car lurches several times? only this was an automatic transmission. and the 'lurching' didn't stop unless i dropped my speed and then increased it a few times.
while we were loading up the truck at the hotel nicole and michael from italy were there and we chatted very briefly. on the phone when i was getting all the details bill wanted me there by 4.30 so i could leave by 5. ok, so i have to get up before the crack of dawn. but it was all for the sea plane! anyway, i get there and find the truck, and low and behold no one's around. turns out bill meant 5.30! oh well.
he drive up to anacortes (~100 miles) was uneventful. i didn't curb the truck, i stayed in my lane, i hit no branches... and following bill's last words of instruction "whatever you do don't back up!" i obeyed. i got to the ferry about 8am and made it onto the 8.45 sailing. while i was waiting some guy walks up and asks me 'if by chance i'm loaded up with a bunch of tandems'. 'uh...yeah. as a matter of fact i am'. turns out he and his wife from vancouver were also in italy with us! se we chatted while waiting for the ferry.
once i got to FH i found the hotel and the bike guy was already there. i had actually gone past the front parking lot and pulled over to parallel park on the sidestreet since i had no idea where the unload would take place. i'm just getting out when he tells me they want the truck at the front door! so i get to back the truck up! but he helps me, so it was ok. he works at the bike shop on orcas island. truck gets unloaded i hand over the keys and then off to lunch with the 2 canadians. it was fun. then they went back to the hotel to put their bike together and i was off to mosey around the shops and galleries. 2 hours is more than enough time to see friday harbor. i was able to sit and read for about an hour before heading back up ot the hotel to get paid/reimbursed and say goodby to jan and bill. then i still had 2 hours to sit and watch the boats coming and going from the marina.
the flight back was great! turns out i was on the beaver. the majority of kenmore's fleet are de havillands, but they only have 1 beaver. a couple otters and some otehrs. when we had stowed all our luggage - briefcases and backpacks - the pilot asks 'who wants to be copilot?' if there had been an olympic sport for 'me first' i'd've won it. i don't think any of the other passengers had even processed what he said and i had already shot my hand into the air and shouted "ME!" i laughed and told them i wasnt' going to be shy, that i wanted to sit up there. so if any of them had wanted it, oh well. you couldn't wipe the smile off my face if you'd tried. you know that stupidly silly smile from childhood? that's what i wore from takeoff to beyond landing. it was so awesome! i think it was the smoothest takeoff and landing i've ever experienced. i've watched and sometimes they bounce a little on landing, but i had to look twice to confirm we had actually touched down!
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yesterday i spent most of the day up in friday harbor on san juan island.
if you've seen my tagline on any of a few sites you might have noticed the line 'driving a 24ft truck to the san juans (via ferry) just for the float plane home'. well, that's exactly what i was doing!
we got a call from santana cycles on saturday morning. something happened and their truck driver was a no-go for yesterday, and bill asked us if either of us wanted to do it. we'd get 100$, ferry reimbursed, and a ticket home on the sea plane. if we both wanted to go we'd be booked on the victoria clipper (not the hydrofoil) which takes 3-4 hours. luckily for me matt's busiest day of work is monday so he couldn't get away. but it would've been so much nicer if he'd been able to join me. so i'm driving the truck up on my own.
so when you go to rent a truck and they say it's a '24 foot truck' the rental place is 99% referring to the length of hte box of hte truck. this dimension would not take into account the liftgate or cab and engine. turns out i was driving a 35ft truck! that's the official measurementfrom the ferry dude. 13ft and change is what i needed for vertical clearance. it was easy enough to drive - but man, there were some spots where it was VERY bumpy! like the stutter of a student in a standard where the car lurches several times? only this was an automatic transmission. and the 'lurching' didn't stop unless i dropped my speed and then increased it a few times.
while we were loading up the truck at the hotel nicole and michael from italy were there and we chatted very briefly. on the phone when i was getting all the details bill wanted me there by 4.30 so i could leave by 5. ok, so i have to get up before the crack of dawn. but it was all for the sea plane! anyway, i get there and find the truck, and low and behold no one's around. turns out bill meant 5.30! oh well.
he drive up to anacortes (~100 miles) was uneventful. i didn't curb the truck, i stayed in my lane, i hit no branches... and following bill's last words of instruction "whatever you do don't back up!" i obeyed. i got to the ferry about 8am and made it onto the 8.45 sailing. while i was waiting some guy walks up and asks me 'if by chance i'm loaded up with a bunch of tandems'. 'uh...yeah. as a matter of fact i am'. turns out he and his wife from vancouver were also in italy with us! se we chatted while waiting for the ferry.
once i got to FH i found the hotel and the bike guy was already there. i had actually gone past the front parking lot and pulled over to parallel park on the sidestreet since i had no idea where the unload would take place. i'm just getting out when he tells me they want the truck at the front door! so i get to back the truck up! but he helps me, so it was ok. he works at the bike shop on orcas island. truck gets unloaded i hand over the keys and then off to lunch with the 2 canadians. it was fun. then they went back to the hotel to put their bike together and i was off to mosey around the shops and galleries. 2 hours is more than enough time to see friday harbor. i was able to sit and read for about an hour before heading back up ot the hotel to get paid/reimbursed and say goodby to jan and bill. then i still had 2 hours to sit and watch the boats coming and going from the marina.
the flight back was great! turns out i was on the beaver. the majority of kenmore's fleet are de havillands, but they only have 1 beaver. a couple otters and some otehrs. when we had stowed all our luggage - briefcases and backpacks - the pilot asks 'who wants to be copilot?' if there had been an olympic sport for 'me first' i'd've won it. i don't think any of the other passengers had even processed what he said and i had already shot my hand into the air and shouted "ME!" i laughed and told them i wasnt' going to be shy, that i wanted to sit up there. so if any of them had wanted it, oh well. you couldn't wipe the smile off my face if you'd tried. you know that stupidly silly smile from childhood? that's what i wore from takeoff to beyond landing. it was so awesome! i think it was the smoothest takeoff and landing i've ever experienced. i've watched and sometimes they bounce a little on landing, but i had to look twice to confirm we had actually touched down!
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Hawai'i feb 2008
day 1: arrival
it's raining an d 40 when we left seattle, but upper 70s and sun when we get to kahalui, maui. in fact, i went and changed out of jeans and socks and into shorts and sandals while we were waiting for the shuttle bus. usually i hate waiting for them, but it was so nice and warm i totally didn't mind sitting and waiting in the sun. in fact we could see the sails of the kitesurfers from where we were. when we got checked into the hotel we decided to put together our bike that night before dinner so we wouldn't have to get up as early the next morning. it was a gorgeous night and we walked about a mile to 'the whaler's village' for dinner.
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day 2:
the official start day of tour, everyone who hadn't yet done so put their bikes together and the local bike guy checked out any issues with them. There were 34 bikes on this tour - 68 people. the map pictures show which days we rode what routes on the islands. maui has a couple extra depicting matt and my return to maui after the tour. it was only about 25 miles. a nice easy ride actually. about 3/4 of the way through we ended up at the town square. the world's largest banyon tree is there and we had hagendaas ice cream. Dinner that night was on a catamaran out in the channel between maui and lani'i. we saw a lot of whales, but my 'bike camera' was too slow to really catch anything, but i tried!
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day 3:
up at 3am! we had to be on the buses by 3.30 to make it up to the top of haleakala. we got there just about on time. the sun was just starting to rise. from sea level to 10,000'+ elevation in 3 hours. then we got to bike or should i say coast, down the volcano. you pass through 16 different eco systems en route. it was way cool. we tried to video it but it didn't really turn out. i put 1 very short clip of our brakes literally smoking and a longer ~5 minute clip of our start on youtube.com/camelland. man there were some hills this day. of course the 1st was all down, but after that there were quite a few ups. and bill and jan said it would be nothing like tuscany! there were actually days where we had steeper hills than volterra, altho none were as long. about 3/4 of the way through the ride we stopped at twin falls smoothie stand. the smoothies are made with real sugar cane and yummy! that night we attended a (tourist) luau. it was fun for what it was. ticket price included a variety of rum-based drinks and a few non-alcoholic drinks for the younger crowd. boy did we as a group get our money's worth! the dancers were pretty good - had the coconut-clad girls, the fire dancing dude, the humorous and lovable (?) emcee. but to me the star of the show was the kalua pork. OOOOoooooooohh. it was so good! they actually did do the pig in the ground. matt of course has a joke to tell about this night: "2 days in hawai'i and i finally got lei-ed!" ok, sorry, he made me do it.
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day 4:
another pre-dawn morning. we had to be at the docks to board a ferry for a 6am sailing (or something close to that). on the way to lanai we saw whales. it was cool. lanai is a private island, but the owner owns a santana bike, so he allows the santana tours to come ashore. we started with a couple hours at the sheraton's beach. bill gates got married on the back lawn just above. matt went snorkeling and i just kind of enjoyed the beach. we had to be up in lanai town for lunch. while it was nice for the hotel to pack a sack breakfast for us for on the ferry, it was so not enough to get us through lunch. that hill was like 11 miles up. well ok, i think we had to ride 11 miles from beach to resort, but most of it was all uphill, longer and steeper than bill would admit out loud to anyone. thank goodness for the garmin. lunch at the 4 seasons was superb. there's a world-reknown golf course there designed by some famous golfer. and there's a putt-putt course as well, which we allowed to play. i'm thinking 'great, take me to hawai'i for putt-putt. but as it turns out, the course was a perfect scale model of the real pro's course! so it was actually kinda cool! i totally sucked at it! i think my best hole was in 5, and my worst (ok i'll be honest) about 17. i won't tell you what par was! after lunch we rode out to the west end of the island to the cargo docks, where we boarded another ferry for molokai. the channel crossing was pretty rough. we were up top with almost everyone, and the captain comes on the PA and says he can't guarantee we won't get wet, that we'll definitely experience some spray. the crew member working up top at one point says to everyone 'ok, i'm going down below, you're on your own!' take heed - if a crew member says this to you - follow them! we got a few small sprays and then WHAM!!! a wave of cold salt water comes over the bow and just drenches us! after the 3rd wave matt and i decided to go below. i looked like a sopping wet kitty! anyone from our trip who has pics of us from this ride i would really love to get a copy! there was also whale sightings - gee, really? in fact we probably saw the largest whale on this crossing. he was breaching over and over. i wish i had my digi 35mm with us but oh well. on the ride from the ferry dock on molokai we stopped at big daddy's for the best shaved ice i've ever had. man it was good! the ice was so finely textured. that night before dinner (but after showers) we decorated and mailed coconuts. dinner was a (local) luau. the teacher and some students came down to entertain us. turns out the hula originated on molokai'i, and is quite slow more sensual than you see anyone doing in the tourist luau. the music was great! they sang the songs and explained them to us for the dance. and again, kalua pork!!!
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day 5:
today's ride consisted of yet another hill that was longer and steeper than bill admitted. you starting to see a trend here? we were on our way to the kalaupapa mule barns. matt was great. he said for valentine's day i could ride the mule both down and back up the cliff. i'm so happy, too! that was quite a climb, and while i'm getting much better at 'beign outdoors' i still have issues with hiking and climbing. but man that dam mule makani was so frustrating! he kept wanting to snack at the scrub all the way down the path. my legs hurt from kicking him. but he's well named, becuase he was sure windy on the way back up the cliff. - uh, think about it a minute. anyway, only a few people can do this tour - you have to be over a certain age and get special permission, or be an ivited guest of a resident. we saw some of the churches, got a small tour of the town, and then headed out to 'the back country'. they actually filmed the movie molokai'i here. everything was brought in by barge or ship. we saw the church where father damien presided and his grave. his right hand is still buried there. a little farther down the road we had a nice lunch stop. the view of the coastline from there is a scene from jurassic park 3. dinner was just fine, except there was this great chicken dish that just didn't serve enough people. when we ran out the chef said that was all of it and wasn't making any more of it. (or couldn't??) anyway, a lot of people didn't get any of it, and most of us were out of luck for 2nds.
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day 6:
today's ride was beautiful. ~24 miles were along the coast and then...the mutha hill. 900' elevation in 1 mile. almost at the top we finally saw ne-nes - the hawai'ian state bird, a goose. well, once we were at the top of that hill, there was no where to go but down. we were on our way to halawa point and there's only 1 road in and out. so back down 900' we go. we had a great picnic lunch and then had a couple hours to hang out on the basically private beach since there was hardly anyone there. if you wanted to hike about 90 minutes inland to a waterfall you could. that group spent about 30 minutes there before hiking back out. we didn't do this, but we did get some views of the falls on our ride down the hill. on our way back to the hotel we encountered our first rain of the trip. at least it was warm rain! we were lucky in that we were almost at a little store when it started, so we stopped, used the loo, got some chocolate bars and had a small rest while waiting out the rain. but no, it kept coming. we were only about 5 miles from the hotel so we decided to go for it. a couple miles in it just stopped. it was as if someone had drawn a chalk line across the road and said 'this side is dry, that side is wet'. i think we came the closest to laying down our bikes on this ride. a van passes us and then decides to just stop in the middle of the road. no warning, no apparent reason... we skidded a bit, but managed to stay upright. talk about getting the adrenaline pumping! dinner was pretty festive. we're supposed to get a meat course and a vege course (for those who don't eat meat) at each meal, right? well this dinner there was just fish. now there are vege people who don't eat fish, and there are meat eaters who don't eat fish. one of the gals and i decided we just couldn't get our fill with the salad and breads, so we ordered some chicken quesadillas. as it was it took about 45 mintues to put in a drink order that night. yes fridays are a big thing at this place - hotel molokai. the older crowd shows up with mics, ukuleles and a few other instruments, sit around a table and sing and play. it was fun to listen. but man the service that night was horribly slow. anyway, it was over an hour before we got our food. i almost gave up waiting i was so tired. but there was another event later that night! i could't do it! i'm so disappointed with myself, but i crashed. matt went and took pics for me. it was the bread run. there's a bakery on molokai and the ferry the goods over to maui in the morning. so if you show up at a certain time in this little dark alley and knock on this unmarked door, someone will answer and hand you some fresh-baked bread. i got to have mine in the morning when i woke up and boy was it good.
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day 7:
i don't have many pics from this day. but the food saga continues. we get to breakfast and there's not much laid out, but there's some stuff. it was just before 9 so we thought the kitchen staff might be running a little late. uh, no. turns out the head chef picked up her knives and walked out last night after being told the 'fish only option' was not good enough, and not what had been planned or paid for by the tour. anyone watch that show on food network 'the next top chef' or something like that? if you did you might remember chef mia. well, that's who this was! so breakfast was haphazzard, get what you can when it's available. they did get bacon and pancakes out while we were there so that was good for us. anyway, while we slept in and ate at 9, some of the group had gone out on a 7am sea-kayaking trip. they were supposed to be back 9.30 and eat, while we were supposed to be done eating so we could go out in the kayaks. well, they were over an hour late getting back to the hotel, and well, there was no more breakfast. they didn't get anything to eat until lunch. wah! but it also meant that we were over an hour late getting out there and we had to be washed, packed, and out of the rooms by noon. i think we just made it. another ferry crossing with - you guessed it - more whales to maui. a good number of people went straight to the airport shuttle from disembarking, but us and a few others grabbed a cab, sent 1 person with all the luggage to the hotel, and then we rode the bikes back to ka'anapali (i think that's the right name). not having an underwater camera at that time, and not knowing how much turbulence there'd be on the kayak i left the camera at the hotel. oh. america's only reef is off molokai. but it's dying. they're trying to figure out what's causing it so hopefully they can stop it. it was quite lovely. we saw sea turtles, more whales, and lots of colorful fish. even a ray of some sort. pretty much just hung out, had dinner, took it easy, enjoyed the beautiful weather and of course continued the daily routine of the must-have rum-based drink!
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day 8:
up early, we headed off for the 'road to hana'. it's this narrow, twisty, winding road with lots of blind corners and waterfalls and beautiful vistas. there are actually places to stop and visit along the way, but we skipped a few of them. we did take one of the side trips to an overlook point where we ate the lunch we picked up that morning from a local deli. it was great. we saw lots of beautiful things. there was a stop at the park at the end of the road where charles lindburg's buried, and inside haleakala state park we stopped and walked to the '7 sacred pools'. only there's more than 7. we also stopped at another park that was way cool. there was a nice little black sand beach, some trails, campgrounds. and mongoose. yup. we first saw them on molokai, but they were on maui, too. those suckers are fast! they were originally brought in to rid the island of rats. once released into the wild their dietary delight was something other than the rats however! we returned to paia for dinner at a local pizza joint.
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day 9:
no sleep on this vacation, i tell you! up and down at the docks again just after sunrise. we were off on a snorkeling trip. we were actually supposed to be returning on this day, but after 1 hour on lanai matt decided it wasn't enough. we had both wanted to stay longer and see and do more, but he's in the middle of that book for MS and just couldn't spare the time. but that last day on molokai, before we rode to the ferry, he got on the phone, extended the hotel another night, had the concierge book the rental car for our following day, sign us up for snorkeling, and pushed our flight reservations back a day. we were both so happy he made that decision! we sailed through the whales to molokini, a small sunken crater, where the depth is about 30-40' in clear blue waters. wow there were so many fish! we only had an hour, and there were way too many people - probably 50 at least on our boat, and there were about a dozen boats tied up doing the same thing. hot dog an dhamburgers for lunch, prepared by the captian himself, then off we went to turtle town. this is a hang out for the endangered green sea turtles. they sit down on the bottom and these little fishys nibble the parasites and gunk and whatever off the turtle's shells. the water wasn't quite as clear here, but still was quite amazing. there were so many turtles! we got a few good pics of them. both matt and i had gotten some underwater cameras the night before just for this trip. we both ended up following a turtle. they were so gentle and big! unfortunately we only had about an hour before we had to return to the boat and head back to lahaina. we spent the afternoon walking around town. i got fitted for a toe ring, but i can't wear it when i'm travelling or it'll turn my toe blue! we bought some souvenirs, and then returned the rental car.
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day 10: departure
no pics from this day. all we did was get up and have breakfast, then start packing. matt took care of the bike while i did the suitcases. we got to the airport a little early, but we ate lunch there. the airport reminded us of palm springs - instead of windows it's open to the outside. so it was a pleasant little relaxation before getting on a crowded flight back to seattle.
it was a great trip. we were so out of shape on the bike - 2 weeks after italy i had surgery again, then 2 more weeks before i'm allowed back on, then thanksgiving, christmas in prescott, and of course cold cold cold and rain. matt purchased himself a superwarm cycling outfit for christmas and after i saw it i was in love. so we found one for me. and boy were we glad we did! those were our 2nd layer on the haleakala ride. there were a few people who were like 'wow, wish i had one of those!' but luckily almost everyone did bring enough warm things to wear for that ride. anyway i digress. we had ridden maybe 4 times between italy and hawai'i and hardly any hills. but as sore as we were after those 5 consecutive days of riding we felt a lot better. and you know what? it's been rainy and cold ever since we got back! actually have had a couple nice days, but matt's been cranking on the book so we haven't gone out and then i just returned from 10 days in ohio with my grandma and aunt. hopefully he'll be done soon and we can start riding again. while hawai'i had never been on my top places to visit, i'm so glad we went. it was beautiful. of course there's no telling what oahu, kuai and the big island are like - i'm sure they're quite nice and i know there's more people there, but molokai'i is my place. plop me down at the hotel molokai'i with a rum drink, the sun and just let me drift off into my dreams. it's such a quiet, undeveloped place it's heaven. i actually wouldn't mind going back.
it's raining an d 40 when we left seattle, but upper 70s and sun when we get to kahalui, maui. in fact, i went and changed out of jeans and socks and into shorts and sandals while we were waiting for the shuttle bus. usually i hate waiting for them, but it was so nice and warm i totally didn't mind sitting and waiting in the sun. in fact we could see the sails of the kitesurfers from where we were. when we got checked into the hotel we decided to put together our bike that night before dinner so we wouldn't have to get up as early the next morning. it was a gorgeous night and we walked about a mile to 'the whaler's village' for dinner.
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day 2:
the official start day of tour, everyone who hadn't yet done so put their bikes together and the local bike guy checked out any issues with them. There were 34 bikes on this tour - 68 people. the map pictures show which days we rode what routes on the islands. maui has a couple extra depicting matt and my return to maui after the tour. it was only about 25 miles. a nice easy ride actually. about 3/4 of the way through we ended up at the town square. the world's largest banyon tree is there and we had hagendaas ice cream. Dinner that night was on a catamaran out in the channel between maui and lani'i. we saw a lot of whales, but my 'bike camera' was too slow to really catch anything, but i tried!
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day 3:
up at 3am! we had to be on the buses by 3.30 to make it up to the top of haleakala. we got there just about on time. the sun was just starting to rise. from sea level to 10,000'+ elevation in 3 hours. then we got to bike or should i say coast, down the volcano. you pass through 16 different eco systems en route. it was way cool. we tried to video it but it didn't really turn out. i put 1 very short clip of our brakes literally smoking and a longer ~5 minute clip of our start on youtube.com/camelland. man there were some hills this day. of course the 1st was all down, but after that there were quite a few ups. and bill and jan said it would be nothing like tuscany! there were actually days where we had steeper hills than volterra, altho none were as long. about 3/4 of the way through the ride we stopped at twin falls smoothie stand. the smoothies are made with real sugar cane and yummy! that night we attended a (tourist) luau. it was fun for what it was. ticket price included a variety of rum-based drinks and a few non-alcoholic drinks for the younger crowd. boy did we as a group get our money's worth! the dancers were pretty good - had the coconut-clad girls, the fire dancing dude, the humorous and lovable (?) emcee. but to me the star of the show was the kalua pork. OOOOoooooooohh. it was so good! they actually did do the pig in the ground. matt of course has a joke to tell about this night: "2 days in hawai'i and i finally got lei-ed!" ok, sorry, he made me do it.
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day 4:
another pre-dawn morning. we had to be at the docks to board a ferry for a 6am sailing (or something close to that). on the way to lanai we saw whales. it was cool. lanai is a private island, but the owner owns a santana bike, so he allows the santana tours to come ashore. we started with a couple hours at the sheraton's beach. bill gates got married on the back lawn just above. matt went snorkeling and i just kind of enjoyed the beach. we had to be up in lanai town for lunch. while it was nice for the hotel to pack a sack breakfast for us for on the ferry, it was so not enough to get us through lunch. that hill was like 11 miles up. well ok, i think we had to ride 11 miles from beach to resort, but most of it was all uphill, longer and steeper than bill would admit out loud to anyone. thank goodness for the garmin. lunch at the 4 seasons was superb. there's a world-reknown golf course there designed by some famous golfer. and there's a putt-putt course as well, which we allowed to play. i'm thinking 'great, take me to hawai'i for putt-putt. but as it turns out, the course was a perfect scale model of the real pro's course! so it was actually kinda cool! i totally sucked at it! i think my best hole was in 5, and my worst (ok i'll be honest) about 17. i won't tell you what par was! after lunch we rode out to the west end of the island to the cargo docks, where we boarded another ferry for molokai. the channel crossing was pretty rough. we were up top with almost everyone, and the captain comes on the PA and says he can't guarantee we won't get wet, that we'll definitely experience some spray. the crew member working up top at one point says to everyone 'ok, i'm going down below, you're on your own!' take heed - if a crew member says this to you - follow them! we got a few small sprays and then WHAM!!! a wave of cold salt water comes over the bow and just drenches us! after the 3rd wave matt and i decided to go below. i looked like a sopping wet kitty! anyone from our trip who has pics of us from this ride i would really love to get a copy! there was also whale sightings - gee, really? in fact we probably saw the largest whale on this crossing. he was breaching over and over. i wish i had my digi 35mm with us but oh well. on the ride from the ferry dock on molokai we stopped at big daddy's for the best shaved ice i've ever had. man it was good! the ice was so finely textured. that night before dinner (but after showers) we decorated and mailed coconuts. dinner was a (local) luau. the teacher and some students came down to entertain us. turns out the hula originated on molokai'i, and is quite slow more sensual than you see anyone doing in the tourist luau. the music was great! they sang the songs and explained them to us for the dance. and again, kalua pork!!!
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day 5:
today's ride consisted of yet another hill that was longer and steeper than bill admitted. you starting to see a trend here? we were on our way to the kalaupapa mule barns. matt was great. he said for valentine's day i could ride the mule both down and back up the cliff. i'm so happy, too! that was quite a climb, and while i'm getting much better at 'beign outdoors' i still have issues with hiking and climbing. but man that dam mule makani was so frustrating! he kept wanting to snack at the scrub all the way down the path. my legs hurt from kicking him. but he's well named, becuase he was sure windy on the way back up the cliff. - uh, think about it a minute. anyway, only a few people can do this tour - you have to be over a certain age and get special permission, or be an ivited guest of a resident. we saw some of the churches, got a small tour of the town, and then headed out to 'the back country'. they actually filmed the movie molokai'i here. everything was brought in by barge or ship. we saw the church where father damien presided and his grave. his right hand is still buried there. a little farther down the road we had a nice lunch stop. the view of the coastline from there is a scene from jurassic park 3. dinner was just fine, except there was this great chicken dish that just didn't serve enough people. when we ran out the chef said that was all of it and wasn't making any more of it. (or couldn't??) anyway, a lot of people didn't get any of it, and most of us were out of luck for 2nds.
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day 6:
today's ride was beautiful. ~24 miles were along the coast and then...the mutha hill. 900' elevation in 1 mile. almost at the top we finally saw ne-nes - the hawai'ian state bird, a goose. well, once we were at the top of that hill, there was no where to go but down. we were on our way to halawa point and there's only 1 road in and out. so back down 900' we go. we had a great picnic lunch and then had a couple hours to hang out on the basically private beach since there was hardly anyone there. if you wanted to hike about 90 minutes inland to a waterfall you could. that group spent about 30 minutes there before hiking back out. we didn't do this, but we did get some views of the falls on our ride down the hill. on our way back to the hotel we encountered our first rain of the trip. at least it was warm rain! we were lucky in that we were almost at a little store when it started, so we stopped, used the loo, got some chocolate bars and had a small rest while waiting out the rain. but no, it kept coming. we were only about 5 miles from the hotel so we decided to go for it. a couple miles in it just stopped. it was as if someone had drawn a chalk line across the road and said 'this side is dry, that side is wet'. i think we came the closest to laying down our bikes on this ride. a van passes us and then decides to just stop in the middle of the road. no warning, no apparent reason... we skidded a bit, but managed to stay upright. talk about getting the adrenaline pumping! dinner was pretty festive. we're supposed to get a meat course and a vege course (for those who don't eat meat) at each meal, right? well this dinner there was just fish. now there are vege people who don't eat fish, and there are meat eaters who don't eat fish. one of the gals and i decided we just couldn't get our fill with the salad and breads, so we ordered some chicken quesadillas. as it was it took about 45 mintues to put in a drink order that night. yes fridays are a big thing at this place - hotel molokai. the older crowd shows up with mics, ukuleles and a few other instruments, sit around a table and sing and play. it was fun to listen. but man the service that night was horribly slow. anyway, it was over an hour before we got our food. i almost gave up waiting i was so tired. but there was another event later that night! i could't do it! i'm so disappointed with myself, but i crashed. matt went and took pics for me. it was the bread run. there's a bakery on molokai and the ferry the goods over to maui in the morning. so if you show up at a certain time in this little dark alley and knock on this unmarked door, someone will answer and hand you some fresh-baked bread. i got to have mine in the morning when i woke up and boy was it good.
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day 7:
i don't have many pics from this day. but the food saga continues. we get to breakfast and there's not much laid out, but there's some stuff. it was just before 9 so we thought the kitchen staff might be running a little late. uh, no. turns out the head chef picked up her knives and walked out last night after being told the 'fish only option' was not good enough, and not what had been planned or paid for by the tour. anyone watch that show on food network 'the next top chef' or something like that? if you did you might remember chef mia. well, that's who this was! so breakfast was haphazzard, get what you can when it's available. they did get bacon and pancakes out while we were there so that was good for us. anyway, while we slept in and ate at 9, some of the group had gone out on a 7am sea-kayaking trip. they were supposed to be back 9.30 and eat, while we were supposed to be done eating so we could go out in the kayaks. well, they were over an hour late getting back to the hotel, and well, there was no more breakfast. they didn't get anything to eat until lunch. wah! but it also meant that we were over an hour late getting out there and we had to be washed, packed, and out of the rooms by noon. i think we just made it. another ferry crossing with - you guessed it - more whales to maui. a good number of people went straight to the airport shuttle from disembarking, but us and a few others grabbed a cab, sent 1 person with all the luggage to the hotel, and then we rode the bikes back to ka'anapali (i think that's the right name). not having an underwater camera at that time, and not knowing how much turbulence there'd be on the kayak i left the camera at the hotel. oh. america's only reef is off molokai. but it's dying. they're trying to figure out what's causing it so hopefully they can stop it. it was quite lovely. we saw sea turtles, more whales, and lots of colorful fish. even a ray of some sort. pretty much just hung out, had dinner, took it easy, enjoyed the beautiful weather and of course continued the daily routine of the must-have rum-based drink!
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day 8:
up early, we headed off for the 'road to hana'. it's this narrow, twisty, winding road with lots of blind corners and waterfalls and beautiful vistas. there are actually places to stop and visit along the way, but we skipped a few of them. we did take one of the side trips to an overlook point where we ate the lunch we picked up that morning from a local deli. it was great. we saw lots of beautiful things. there was a stop at the park at the end of the road where charles lindburg's buried, and inside haleakala state park we stopped and walked to the '7 sacred pools'. only there's more than 7. we also stopped at another park that was way cool. there was a nice little black sand beach, some trails, campgrounds. and mongoose. yup. we first saw them on molokai, but they were on maui, too. those suckers are fast! they were originally brought in to rid the island of rats. once released into the wild their dietary delight was something other than the rats however! we returned to paia for dinner at a local pizza joint.
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day 9:
no sleep on this vacation, i tell you! up and down at the docks again just after sunrise. we were off on a snorkeling trip. we were actually supposed to be returning on this day, but after 1 hour on lanai matt decided it wasn't enough. we had both wanted to stay longer and see and do more, but he's in the middle of that book for MS and just couldn't spare the time. but that last day on molokai, before we rode to the ferry, he got on the phone, extended the hotel another night, had the concierge book the rental car for our following day, sign us up for snorkeling, and pushed our flight reservations back a day. we were both so happy he made that decision! we sailed through the whales to molokini, a small sunken crater, where the depth is about 30-40' in clear blue waters. wow there were so many fish! we only had an hour, and there were way too many people - probably 50 at least on our boat, and there were about a dozen boats tied up doing the same thing. hot dog an dhamburgers for lunch, prepared by the captian himself, then off we went to turtle town. this is a hang out for the endangered green sea turtles. they sit down on the bottom and these little fishys nibble the parasites and gunk and whatever off the turtle's shells. the water wasn't quite as clear here, but still was quite amazing. there were so many turtles! we got a few good pics of them. both matt and i had gotten some underwater cameras the night before just for this trip. we both ended up following a turtle. they were so gentle and big! unfortunately we only had about an hour before we had to return to the boat and head back to lahaina. we spent the afternoon walking around town. i got fitted for a toe ring, but i can't wear it when i'm travelling or it'll turn my toe blue! we bought some souvenirs, and then returned the rental car.
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day 10: departure
no pics from this day. all we did was get up and have breakfast, then start packing. matt took care of the bike while i did the suitcases. we got to the airport a little early, but we ate lunch there. the airport reminded us of palm springs - instead of windows it's open to the outside. so it was a pleasant little relaxation before getting on a crowded flight back to seattle.
it was a great trip. we were so out of shape on the bike - 2 weeks after italy i had surgery again, then 2 more weeks before i'm allowed back on, then thanksgiving, christmas in prescott, and of course cold cold cold and rain. matt purchased himself a superwarm cycling outfit for christmas and after i saw it i was in love. so we found one for me. and boy were we glad we did! those were our 2nd layer on the haleakala ride. there were a few people who were like 'wow, wish i had one of those!' but luckily almost everyone did bring enough warm things to wear for that ride. anyway i digress. we had ridden maybe 4 times between italy and hawai'i and hardly any hills. but as sore as we were after those 5 consecutive days of riding we felt a lot better. and you know what? it's been rainy and cold ever since we got back! actually have had a couple nice days, but matt's been cranking on the book so we haven't gone out and then i just returned from 10 days in ohio with my grandma and aunt. hopefully he'll be done soon and we can start riding again. while hawai'i had never been on my top places to visit, i'm so glad we went. it was beautiful. of course there's no telling what oahu, kuai and the big island are like - i'm sure they're quite nice and i know there's more people there, but molokai'i is my place. plop me down at the hotel molokai'i with a rum drink, the sun and just let me drift off into my dreams. it's such a quiet, undeveloped place it's heaven. i actually wouldn't mind going back.
Italy sep 2007 pt2
italy days 1-9
few stories from italy.
matt and i knew we wouldn't get to see everything we wanted to in any location, so we decided we'd enjoy what we saw and take the time to see it, and if that meant we missed something else, oh well, put it on the list for the next trip. for the most part we managed to do that. we took the hotel shuttle to st. peter's each morning and back after dinner. in fact, we were at breakfast at 7 am so we could make the early shuttle to be in town when everything opened. oh my what a breakfast! they called it an "american buffet". the only thing american about it was it was a buffet breakfast. there were cheeses, meats, over a dozen different types of pastries and rolls, fruit, nuts, cereals, grilled zucchini, scrambled eggs, juices - blood orange juice!! oh it was sooo good! and of course coffees and teas. we managed to avoid the drip and get a cuppa almost every morning which was good. i know i've forgotten quite a few items, but you get the idea. if any of these people came to the states expecting to get this for breakfast anywhere they'll be very disappointed. anyway, we had a pseudo-plan for day 1. go into town, start walking, stop when we see something that looks interesting.
day 0: leaving for italy. had a fairly early departure out of seattle into cincinnati. but when we arrived in OH for our 4-5hr layover we had a great time. arlene, aunt marilyn and grandma came down to the airport and we had lunch and visited together. they all looked good. grandma was looking as strong as she ever has. it was such a short visit it was kind of sad it went by so fast, but oh well. eventually we said goodby and we made our way to the international security checkpoint. our flight across the ocean was in business class - man, now that i've done that its the only way to travel! yeah 1st class might have a few more frivolous luxeries but business has the extra room and private movie screens and that's all that was important to us! we arrived in rome around lunchtime, took about ah hour to get a cab large enough for the tandem. once we had one and were off, i noticed we were passing most of hte other cars, but i didn't think much about it. matt however, was white-knuckled by the time we arrived at the hotel. he said we were going over 100. of course! it's in clicks - 100 = about 60mph. "no, we were doing almost 200clicks, 100+ mph". well, that explained that! we checked in, after they couldn't find our reservation (just like what happened in firenze as it turns out!) and had lunch in the restuarant, then crashed.
day 1 pics #0001-0320 (named not actual): walked past vatican city, st. peters, saw castel st. angelo, crossed over trastavere (tras TEV er eh) or the tiber river. we headed across town, past the pantheon, through piazza navona, got a gelato, visited the altar of peace, marveled at some fugly versace gowns, walked around augustus' mausoleum, then headed towards the spanish steps, climed the SS, headed west towards villa borghese (a museum but also a huge park) then down to piazza del popola. had lunch at a tratoria and then went into the church, then headed back to trajan's column, sat and looked at hte ruins for a few minutes, then climbed the hill to campidoglio and went into the capitaline museums. after that we got food and walked all the way back across town to st. peters to catch the shuttle back. you'll notice i've numbered the obelisks. there are 13 obelisks which were brought back from egypt during the whole Antony and Cleo time. today there are only 5 obelisks in egypt.
day 2 pics #0321-0525: we took our 1st ride on the Roman subway. 2 lines is all they can manage so far becuase they keep running into ancient ruins! we started at campo cestio, then walked back to the arch of constantine passing the mouth fo truth, outside the colosseum, where we were meeting up with morgan, our private guide for ancient rome. she took us through the forum, colosseum, circus maximus, palantine hill, pantheon, trajans column, a few other forums, and the odd place in between places we asked about. yes it was expensive for 4-5 hours, but it was worth it to us. we really enjoyed the one-on-one attention. did we learn stuff we couldn't learn with a big 'bus organized' tour? maybe, maybe not. you can ask yourself the same Q? in comparing 2+ of those 'big bus' tours even. this might be a good time to mention that with all the walking in rome, even though i was wearing very comfy shoes that fit well, i had managed to get 2 very nice blisters on the ball of my foot - on both feet. top off with the fact that my feet and ankles were very swollen. enough so i was actually having thoughts of lymphodemia! - except it was my feet, not my arm...
day 3 pics #0526-0701: matt put together day 3. it's basically rick steve's "pilgim tour" if you have his book. it was a day of churches and cathedrals. the only thing we hadn't thought of was this was also sunday, so we were limited in what we could see or where we could gain entrance depending on if a servicewas being said or not. at 1 church we managed to get back to later in the day, 1 we couldn't see it in the am, and it was closed in the afternoon. we had lunch at a trattoria across the street from 1 while we waited for services to end. we didn't make all of the tour - ran out of time as we were meeting up with the santana tour that afternoon and all the time we'd take with what we did see. oh well. it gives us something to look forward to next time. we did see santa maria maggiore, st peter in chains; which has michelangelo's moses, st clements - which was actually 3 in 1, san giovanni in laterna; which is actually not in rome but is part of the vatican. it holds the throne the pope must sit in once being named. then to trevi fountain to meet up with the tour. they took us to 1 of the catacombs, piazza navona, briefly to the pantheon, then up to an overlook/park of the city.
day 4 pics #0702-1025: this day couldn't have been a bigger fiasco. a year ago i'd've been so stressed and pissed. don't get me wrong, i was still pissed but i was able to laugh at the incompetence of various people. we started out trying to get into the vatican museums. after that didn't wok we walked to the pantheon, to lunch, then back to the vatican museum where we were able to get inside. afte being swept along with the flood of people matt and i got seperated, which is what really upset me. our tour was supposed to spend at least 3 hours there (per a phone call i had to clarify this) but instead everyone headed straight for the sisteen chapel. matt and i wanted to see the museum, and i so wanted to share the experience with hiting sperated just totally did me in mentally. after barely being able to breathe in the sisteen chapel we headed to st. peters. it was here that i said screw the tour, we'll meet them at trevi ftn at 8. we'll miss the dinner, but i'm going to wait for matt here, and that i did. it was at least 30mins before he showed up in the basilica, and we enjoyed walking around together and climbing the dome. we ate at yet another little trattoria - mind you, sitting outside every time! then made our way to trevi ftn for the night's "lit-up monument tour". which was yet another fiasco! there were quite a few people that had arrived in rome that day, and so many people were tired and sleepy that after about 5 monuments they took us back to the hotel. what a jip of a pretour tour.it was that night matt and i decided we were never going to book a pretour with a group again. he said our 1st 3 days before meeting up with a large group was so much more enjoyable.
day 5 pics #1027-1043: up early we loaded onto coaches for a 3 hour tour...no really, it was a 3 hour ride to piombino, where we were to catch the ferry moby lally to the isle of elba's port town of portoferraio. matt takes me 1/2 way around the world for a ferry ride! we got there just in time for sailing. they were hollering at us to "run on board!" or something like that, instead of waiting for the coaches to board and then going up on the decks. as another couple and us reached the topf hte gangplank one of the officers was taken a bit aback at the number of us running onboard. when he found out there were 3 busloads of us, his jaw hit the floor, eyebrows shot up and all he dould do was exclaim "tres bus?!?!" oh it was a great moment. the mediterranean was such a gorgeous color! it was basically a relaxing day. the trucks carrying all bikes didn't make the ferry so our afternoon's schedule was all rearranged. it was a very relaxing place we stayed - hotel hermitage. 1 of many resorts on the island. it had it's own private beach which we enjoyed for a couple hours. i was laying on one of those beach loungers, sun umbrella shading me, and matt went into the ocean. i actually thought it'd be a bit cold, so i was just going to watch. matt talked me into going in and doing a little bodysurfing. there was a nice surf breaking, and it turned out the water was really quite nice. so we were out about 30 minutes maybe less when i went to put my foot down on the sea floor and i just 'fell over' in pain. i couldn't put any weight at all on my left foot, and my right foot was very tender. i told matt i needed to get out of hte water but couldn't stand, and it took us both a good bit to get me on shore... the surf pounding in and having trouble putting feet on the ground made it very interesting. i felt like a bit of flotsom being tossed on the sand. we eventually got me back to the loungers and when i showed matt my feet - he couldn't believe it. what happened was both blisters had collapsed, split, and then flled like overstuffed pita sandwhiches with ocean sand. OUCH! matt went back to get nail scissors water and bandages, and we washed out my feet as best we could. i got in a tub (or my feet did) to try and wash out the blisters while he joined the others to put the bikes together. after that i went and had a massage. the list of offerings were so different from the states! there was a breast anti-sag massage! i had the lymphatic drainage one. it was quite nice. no modest american would be relaxed tho. i was given a pair of paper panties - just to give the appearance of modesty, but the masseuse was in the room as i was changing. and whil we were on our belly she pulled them up and out of the way to get to the glutes. she couldn't believe i had had a mastectomy. she didn't speak a lot of english but we were able to communicate well enough. it wasw pretty much a fullbody massage.
day 6 pics #1044-1120: wow. that's about all i can say about elba. wow. we left the resort after an absolutely fantastic breakfast. this was probably the best breakfast place on the trip. the pastries were outta this world! of course it didn't hurt that you could smell them baking from our balcony! we learned 1 thing about staying at a resort on the beach though. it's quite a climb on a bike getting to the main road! you couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. clear sky, the bluest water you've ever seen, being with someone you love, doing something healthy... we were warned to stop for gelato in a town 'at the bottom of the hill'. it took about 45 minutes to climb the hill into poggio for lunch. instead of taking the turnoff to the resort we continued on to portoferraio to see the napolionic sites.
day 7 pics #1121-1215: it was up early this day. we were to ride to the dock board the ferry to piombino, and then continue biking to volterra. the ride to lunch was pretty flat and matt and i felt pretty good with our performance. we stayed in the lead group, which was moving at a pretty good clip. it also consisted of the couple that runs the tour! thanks to him we ended up in a 'timing line'. he's shouting instructions to people on what to say when, how to pedal, how to adjust speeds, give up the lead and take the lead. all we wanted was to get in a line and draft a few minutes! after lunch we slowed up a bit. joined the middle ranks. but we were still in the front 1/2. there was this real cool village on a hilltop off in the distance. it was so far and so high, there's no way that's where we're going... the tour had a rendevous for a sag van to take the stragglers up the hill - a 10 mile, 1600' or so elevation. turns out it's a cat 1 hill in cycling. just looked it up: if you've got a stickshift car, a cat 4 hill = super easy, you're driving the car in 4th gear. if you have to shift down into 1st gear, you've found a cat 1 hill. make sense? we were cruising up the hill about 6 mph and we start to get passed by show cars, people parked along the road, police closing off intersecting traffic. something was going on but we couldn't find anything we could understand to tell us what. finally a police car comes by and waves us off the road. that we understood! we get onto the shoulder and dismount just as a peleton of female cyclists come pedalling up the hill at like 20 mph! they were flying! not only were we sidelined while all the racers went past, but the rest of our tour group, too! oh well, so what if you're the last one into town. it was already late enough we weren't going to get to climb the tower, see the cathedral or museums... we skipped the walking tour of town which i would've like to do but our hotel was so far out there's no way we could make the timing especially as we both wanted to shower. we were treated to an exhibition by the town's flag throwers which was fun.
day 8 pics #1217-1273: we had to rise early and get across town (all 10 minutes of walking) for the ride talk. we were on our way to sienna, but stopping in san gimingano for lunch and shopping (the van stayed to stash and haul purchases) and for those who wanted, a stop mid-afternoon in montereggione. San G was cool, very crowded with tourists though. Many of these towns you have to park outside the walls and only bike or walk in. and you know, there are so many people and such narrow streets, i wouldn't want to try and drive! Once San G. had mucho torre, but now only about 14 are left. We climbed the belltower - 300 or so steps for a great view of the town. Mat and i chose to stop in Montereggione for a gelato as well. the last little bit up to that town was a horrid cat 1 - but hey, it was only about 50 feet. ok maybe it was a little longer, but nowhere near as bad as the climb into volterra! this is the town immortalized in dante's inferno. it was a wonderfully quiet place! the piazza was surrounded by 1 or 2 trattoria, an enoteca (wine shop), little gift shop, gelato shop, and church. it was just so simple, unburdened or caught up in today's modern world. alas we must get to sienna... because we really lingered we were almost the last to arrive at the hotel. by then we just decided to crash until dinner.
day 9 pics #1274-1416: we had the option of taking "dagmar's ride" or having the day totally on our own. yeah. we've seen dagmar and wolfgang. they can do the ride, i'm staying home! we were actually up pretty early and out the door. it was off to see as much as we could of sienna. we ran into services at our first cathedral, and it was such an open room, which echoed loudly, so we actually didn't stay inside long. we were planning on trying to get back but ah well, that didn't happen. we saw the church of St. Catherine, patron saint of sienna i believe, which was a really small place and way cool. walked the back roads to the duomo, saw the baptistry, the crypt, the main cathedral and a little bit of the duomo musuem. the cathedral was amazing! the piccolomini library was off the left nave (apse?). anyway, wow, the frescoes in there were so fantastic! they've never been restored! after we walked up to the Piazza where they hold the palio and had lunch al fresca as we wathced tourists walk by. my gosh that was a good pizza! we decided to take it easy. we were actually pretty wiped from all the cycling. we walked up to anotehr church and cloisters, then back to the hotel. i crashed for a couple hours and dinner was on our own.
few stories from italy.
matt and i knew we wouldn't get to see everything we wanted to in any location, so we decided we'd enjoy what we saw and take the time to see it, and if that meant we missed something else, oh well, put it on the list for the next trip. for the most part we managed to do that. we took the hotel shuttle to st. peter's each morning and back after dinner. in fact, we were at breakfast at 7 am so we could make the early shuttle to be in town when everything opened. oh my what a breakfast! they called it an "american buffet". the only thing american about it was it was a buffet breakfast. there were cheeses, meats, over a dozen different types of pastries and rolls, fruit, nuts, cereals, grilled zucchini, scrambled eggs, juices - blood orange juice!! oh it was sooo good! and of course coffees and teas. we managed to avoid the drip and get a cuppa almost every morning which was good. i know i've forgotten quite a few items, but you get the idea. if any of these people came to the states expecting to get this for breakfast anywhere they'll be very disappointed. anyway, we had a pseudo-plan for day 1. go into town, start walking, stop when we see something that looks interesting.
day 0: leaving for italy. had a fairly early departure out of seattle into cincinnati. but when we arrived in OH for our 4-5hr layover we had a great time. arlene, aunt marilyn and grandma came down to the airport and we had lunch and visited together. they all looked good. grandma was looking as strong as she ever has. it was such a short visit it was kind of sad it went by so fast, but oh well. eventually we said goodby and we made our way to the international security checkpoint. our flight across the ocean was in business class - man, now that i've done that its the only way to travel! yeah 1st class might have a few more frivolous luxeries but business has the extra room and private movie screens and that's all that was important to us! we arrived in rome around lunchtime, took about ah hour to get a cab large enough for the tandem. once we had one and were off, i noticed we were passing most of hte other cars, but i didn't think much about it. matt however, was white-knuckled by the time we arrived at the hotel. he said we were going over 100. of course! it's in clicks - 100 = about 60mph. "no, we were doing almost 200clicks, 100+ mph". well, that explained that! we checked in, after they couldn't find our reservation (just like what happened in firenze as it turns out!) and had lunch in the restuarant, then crashed.
day 1 pics #0001-0320 (named not actual): walked past vatican city, st. peters, saw castel st. angelo, crossed over trastavere (tras TEV er eh) or the tiber river. we headed across town, past the pantheon, through piazza navona, got a gelato, visited the altar of peace, marveled at some fugly versace gowns, walked around augustus' mausoleum, then headed towards the spanish steps, climed the SS, headed west towards villa borghese (a museum but also a huge park) then down to piazza del popola. had lunch at a tratoria and then went into the church, then headed back to trajan's column, sat and looked at hte ruins for a few minutes, then climbed the hill to campidoglio and went into the capitaline museums. after that we got food and walked all the way back across town to st. peters to catch the shuttle back. you'll notice i've numbered the obelisks. there are 13 obelisks which were brought back from egypt during the whole Antony and Cleo time. today there are only 5 obelisks in egypt.
day 2 pics #0321-0525: we took our 1st ride on the Roman subway. 2 lines is all they can manage so far becuase they keep running into ancient ruins! we started at campo cestio, then walked back to the arch of constantine passing the mouth fo truth, outside the colosseum, where we were meeting up with morgan, our private guide for ancient rome. she took us through the forum, colosseum, circus maximus, palantine hill, pantheon, trajans column, a few other forums, and the odd place in between places we asked about. yes it was expensive for 4-5 hours, but it was worth it to us. we really enjoyed the one-on-one attention. did we learn stuff we couldn't learn with a big 'bus organized' tour? maybe, maybe not. you can ask yourself the same Q? in comparing 2+ of those 'big bus' tours even. this might be a good time to mention that with all the walking in rome, even though i was wearing very comfy shoes that fit well, i had managed to get 2 very nice blisters on the ball of my foot - on both feet. top off with the fact that my feet and ankles were very swollen. enough so i was actually having thoughts of lymphodemia! - except it was my feet, not my arm...
day 3 pics #0526-0701: matt put together day 3. it's basically rick steve's "pilgim tour" if you have his book. it was a day of churches and cathedrals. the only thing we hadn't thought of was this was also sunday, so we were limited in what we could see or where we could gain entrance depending on if a servicewas being said or not. at 1 church we managed to get back to later in the day, 1 we couldn't see it in the am, and it was closed in the afternoon. we had lunch at a trattoria across the street from 1 while we waited for services to end. we didn't make all of the tour - ran out of time as we were meeting up with the santana tour that afternoon and all the time we'd take with what we did see. oh well. it gives us something to look forward to next time. we did see santa maria maggiore, st peter in chains; which has michelangelo's moses, st clements - which was actually 3 in 1, san giovanni in laterna; which is actually not in rome but is part of the vatican. it holds the throne the pope must sit in once being named. then to trevi fountain to meet up with the tour. they took us to 1 of the catacombs, piazza navona, briefly to the pantheon, then up to an overlook/park of the city.
day 4 pics #0702-1025: this day couldn't have been a bigger fiasco. a year ago i'd've been so stressed and pissed. don't get me wrong, i was still pissed but i was able to laugh at the incompetence of various people. we started out trying to get into the vatican museums. after that didn't wok we walked to the pantheon, to lunch, then back to the vatican museum where we were able to get inside. afte being swept along with the flood of people matt and i got seperated, which is what really upset me. our tour was supposed to spend at least 3 hours there (per a phone call i had to clarify this) but instead everyone headed straight for the sisteen chapel. matt and i wanted to see the museum, and i so wanted to share the experience with hiting sperated just totally did me in mentally. after barely being able to breathe in the sisteen chapel we headed to st. peters. it was here that i said screw the tour, we'll meet them at trevi ftn at 8. we'll miss the dinner, but i'm going to wait for matt here, and that i did. it was at least 30mins before he showed up in the basilica, and we enjoyed walking around together and climbing the dome. we ate at yet another little trattoria - mind you, sitting outside every time! then made our way to trevi ftn for the night's "lit-up monument tour". which was yet another fiasco! there were quite a few people that had arrived in rome that day, and so many people were tired and sleepy that after about 5 monuments they took us back to the hotel. what a jip of a pretour tour.it was that night matt and i decided we were never going to book a pretour with a group again. he said our 1st 3 days before meeting up with a large group was so much more enjoyable.
day 5 pics #1027-1043: up early we loaded onto coaches for a 3 hour tour...no really, it was a 3 hour ride to piombino, where we were to catch the ferry moby lally to the isle of elba's port town of portoferraio. matt takes me 1/2 way around the world for a ferry ride! we got there just in time for sailing. they were hollering at us to "run on board!" or something like that, instead of waiting for the coaches to board and then going up on the decks. as another couple and us reached the topf hte gangplank one of the officers was taken a bit aback at the number of us running onboard. when he found out there were 3 busloads of us, his jaw hit the floor, eyebrows shot up and all he dould do was exclaim "tres bus?!?!" oh it was a great moment. the mediterranean was such a gorgeous color! it was basically a relaxing day. the trucks carrying all bikes didn't make the ferry so our afternoon's schedule was all rearranged. it was a very relaxing place we stayed - hotel hermitage. 1 of many resorts on the island. it had it's own private beach which we enjoyed for a couple hours. i was laying on one of those beach loungers, sun umbrella shading me, and matt went into the ocean. i actually thought it'd be a bit cold, so i was just going to watch. matt talked me into going in and doing a little bodysurfing. there was a nice surf breaking, and it turned out the water was really quite nice. so we were out about 30 minutes maybe less when i went to put my foot down on the sea floor and i just 'fell over' in pain. i couldn't put any weight at all on my left foot, and my right foot was very tender. i told matt i needed to get out of hte water but couldn't stand, and it took us both a good bit to get me on shore... the surf pounding in and having trouble putting feet on the ground made it very interesting. i felt like a bit of flotsom being tossed on the sand. we eventually got me back to the loungers and when i showed matt my feet - he couldn't believe it. what happened was both blisters had collapsed, split, and then flled like overstuffed pita sandwhiches with ocean sand. OUCH! matt went back to get nail scissors water and bandages, and we washed out my feet as best we could. i got in a tub (or my feet did) to try and wash out the blisters while he joined the others to put the bikes together. after that i went and had a massage. the list of offerings were so different from the states! there was a breast anti-sag massage! i had the lymphatic drainage one. it was quite nice. no modest american would be relaxed tho. i was given a pair of paper panties - just to give the appearance of modesty, but the masseuse was in the room as i was changing. and whil we were on our belly she pulled them up and out of the way to get to the glutes. she couldn't believe i had had a mastectomy. she didn't speak a lot of english but we were able to communicate well enough. it wasw pretty much a fullbody massage.
day 6 pics #1044-1120: wow. that's about all i can say about elba. wow. we left the resort after an absolutely fantastic breakfast. this was probably the best breakfast place on the trip. the pastries were outta this world! of course it didn't hurt that you could smell them baking from our balcony! we learned 1 thing about staying at a resort on the beach though. it's quite a climb on a bike getting to the main road! you couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. clear sky, the bluest water you've ever seen, being with someone you love, doing something healthy... we were warned to stop for gelato in a town 'at the bottom of the hill'. it took about 45 minutes to climb the hill into poggio for lunch. instead of taking the turnoff to the resort we continued on to portoferraio to see the napolionic sites.
day 7 pics #1121-1215: it was up early this day. we were to ride to the dock board the ferry to piombino, and then continue biking to volterra. the ride to lunch was pretty flat and matt and i felt pretty good with our performance. we stayed in the lead group, which was moving at a pretty good clip. it also consisted of the couple that runs the tour! thanks to him we ended up in a 'timing line'. he's shouting instructions to people on what to say when, how to pedal, how to adjust speeds, give up the lead and take the lead. all we wanted was to get in a line and draft a few minutes! after lunch we slowed up a bit. joined the middle ranks. but we were still in the front 1/2. there was this real cool village on a hilltop off in the distance. it was so far and so high, there's no way that's where we're going... the tour had a rendevous for a sag van to take the stragglers up the hill - a 10 mile, 1600' or so elevation. turns out it's a cat 1 hill in cycling. just looked it up: if you've got a stickshift car, a cat 4 hill = super easy, you're driving the car in 4th gear. if you have to shift down into 1st gear, you've found a cat 1 hill. make sense? we were cruising up the hill about 6 mph and we start to get passed by show cars, people parked along the road, police closing off intersecting traffic. something was going on but we couldn't find anything we could understand to tell us what. finally a police car comes by and waves us off the road. that we understood! we get onto the shoulder and dismount just as a peleton of female cyclists come pedalling up the hill at like 20 mph! they were flying! not only were we sidelined while all the racers went past, but the rest of our tour group, too! oh well, so what if you're the last one into town. it was already late enough we weren't going to get to climb the tower, see the cathedral or museums... we skipped the walking tour of town which i would've like to do but our hotel was so far out there's no way we could make the timing especially as we both wanted to shower. we were treated to an exhibition by the town's flag throwers which was fun.
day 8 pics #1217-1273: we had to rise early and get across town (all 10 minutes of walking) for the ride talk. we were on our way to sienna, but stopping in san gimingano for lunch and shopping (the van stayed to stash and haul purchases) and for those who wanted, a stop mid-afternoon in montereggione. San G was cool, very crowded with tourists though. Many of these towns you have to park outside the walls and only bike or walk in. and you know, there are so many people and such narrow streets, i wouldn't want to try and drive! Once San G. had mucho torre, but now only about 14 are left. We climbed the belltower - 300 or so steps for a great view of the town. Mat and i chose to stop in Montereggione for a gelato as well. the last little bit up to that town was a horrid cat 1 - but hey, it was only about 50 feet. ok maybe it was a little longer, but nowhere near as bad as the climb into volterra! this is the town immortalized in dante's inferno. it was a wonderfully quiet place! the piazza was surrounded by 1 or 2 trattoria, an enoteca (wine shop), little gift shop, gelato shop, and church. it was just so simple, unburdened or caught up in today's modern world. alas we must get to sienna... because we really lingered we were almost the last to arrive at the hotel. by then we just decided to crash until dinner.
day 9 pics #1274-1416: we had the option of taking "dagmar's ride" or having the day totally on our own. yeah. we've seen dagmar and wolfgang. they can do the ride, i'm staying home! we were actually up pretty early and out the door. it was off to see as much as we could of sienna. we ran into services at our first cathedral, and it was such an open room, which echoed loudly, so we actually didn't stay inside long. we were planning on trying to get back but ah well, that didn't happen. we saw the church of St. Catherine, patron saint of sienna i believe, which was a really small place and way cool. walked the back roads to the duomo, saw the baptistry, the crypt, the main cathedral and a little bit of the duomo musuem. the cathedral was amazing! the piccolomini library was off the left nave (apse?). anyway, wow, the frescoes in there were so fantastic! they've never been restored! after we walked up to the Piazza where they hold the palio and had lunch al fresca as we wathced tourists walk by. my gosh that was a good pizza! we decided to take it easy. we were actually pretty wiped from all the cycling. we walked up to anotehr church and cloisters, then back to the hotel. i crashed for a couple hours and dinner was on our own.
Italy sep 2007 pt1
italy days 10-17
day 10 pics #1417-1431: up and off to chianti. castellina-in-chianti, to be exact. gelato junction - supposedly the best gelato in the world. i gotta say it was pretty darn good! we stayed at villa casalecchi, a click out of town.
day 11 pics #1432-1556: after meeting in the town square, or piazza, we had a ride out to castel brolio. still owned by 1 branch of the medici family. on our way we stopped briefly in radda.
day 12 pics #1557-1633: the next day started the same but we had a short stop in gaiole (gale) en route to lunch at badia a coltibuono. the abbey still owned by 1 branch (the other branch) of the medici family.
day 13 pics #1633a-1708: we're on the final leg of our trip. today we leave for firenze. a brief stop in greve for shopping - the support van stayed to haul purchases had us buying 2 cases of wine. then it was on our way. we stopped and meditated at the italian/american cemetery memorial. it was very peaceful, very tasteful. then while we were almost the last to arrive at the bike-packing station in firenze, we were one of the 1st to be totally packed up! then we had to figure out how to get us, our bags, the wine, and the bike 4 blocks to the hotel! we touched base with terry to firm up the next day's trip - we were meeting in pisa in the am.
day 14 pics #1709-1875: field of miracles was our 1st stop. after figuring out the italian train system and making our way on a 45-50min. ride to pisa. then we had to walk across town to get to the field of miracles - about 30 minutes taking our time. we got there a little early and had a chance to walk around and look at a few things, and we went into the baptistry while we waited to meet up. we climbed the bell tower, went inside the duomo and then visited the camposanto, where the fresco which inspired liszt to write totentanz. after pisa we trained about 40 mins out to lucca, home of puccini. we ate gelato on the main piazza, and people watched or maybe child-watched is more acurate. back to the train station terry and christian grabbed the train to pisa where they were staying that night, and we went back to firenze - about an hours ride. tried to catch up with rory, but missed him for dinner but we didn manage to communicate to meet up for the next morning.
day 15 pics #1876-2028: up early everyone met at our hotel and we started at the medici chapel. (no pics allowed) it was pretty cool. there was the family monument for 4 carved by michelangelo. walked over to the bargello and found it already closed, had lunch - oh, it rained for the 1st time this day. and then back to the duomo. the bell tower was closed due to the windy weather, but we were allowed to climb the duomo, which was fine as it was taller! then we went to the museo del'opera - or the cathdral museum. - the only museum in firenze allowing photos to be taken. afterwards we made our way to santa croce, a large church where many famous people have been buried. rory had found a great place the night before and had us follow him there for dinner that night. it was great! il latini, if you're going to be in firenze. and man did we consume wine. it wasn't that far from the hotel, but man it took us quite a while to get back! matt was leading. he swears up and down that we took the "most direct and quickest way" back to the hotel. it was so funny. we were going in circles. terry and i were crying and could barely walk we were laughing so hard! rory could barely talk he was laughing so hard.
day 16 pics #2029-2054: a day of museums, we took in the bargello, academia and uffizi. terry and christian had to leave before the uffizi to catch their plane, so that was sad. after the uffizi rory met us and we walked down and across the ponte vecchio, then did a little shopping on teh way back to the hotel where we had to pack before meeting him for dinner. after another good amount of wine we finally said goodby. rory stayed a few more days, but we were off early to the airport in the morning.
day 17: up and off to firenze's airport, we ha a 2hr flight to amsterdam where we had a 5 hour or so layover. checking in for that flight was US customs - they set up stantions and ropes at the gate itself where someone did a pre-check ckecking for the checker kind of thing. we joked about it becuase they were set up for everyone to go through 3 people before being allowed to board the plane! but that flight didn't stop before we arrived in seattle. getting through customs was interesting. found our way through to passport control, went through the 'gate' with the questions etc. and then claimed our bags. before we could leave the carausel (sp?) area there was another 'passport control' and we were told we had to go through the agricultural checkpoint. mind you we have 1 backpack, 1 camera bag, 1 laptop bag, 2 suitcases, a gear bag and a tandem bike bag. so off the cart they come, and onto this exray machine/belt/thingy. after everything was scanned it was load stuffback onto the cart to go through a room. and becuase we were in one of the satellite concourses, we had to offload all the luggage onto yet another conveyor belt, to be re-claimed at hte main terminal bag-claim area! oh my gosh! all in all it took less than 2 hours, but geez! we left firenze that morning at 5ish, and we arrived in seattle and were in our car around 3pm that afternoon.
day 10 pics #1417-1431: up and off to chianti. castellina-in-chianti, to be exact. gelato junction - supposedly the best gelato in the world. i gotta say it was pretty darn good! we stayed at villa casalecchi, a click out of town.
day 11 pics #1432-1556: after meeting in the town square, or piazza, we had a ride out to castel brolio. still owned by 1 branch of the medici family. on our way we stopped briefly in radda.
day 12 pics #1557-1633: the next day started the same but we had a short stop in gaiole (gale) en route to lunch at badia a coltibuono. the abbey still owned by 1 branch (the other branch) of the medici family.
day 13 pics #1633a-1708: we're on the final leg of our trip. today we leave for firenze. a brief stop in greve for shopping - the support van stayed to haul purchases had us buying 2 cases of wine. then it was on our way. we stopped and meditated at the italian/american cemetery memorial. it was very peaceful, very tasteful. then while we were almost the last to arrive at the bike-packing station in firenze, we were one of the 1st to be totally packed up! then we had to figure out how to get us, our bags, the wine, and the bike 4 blocks to the hotel! we touched base with terry to firm up the next day's trip - we were meeting in pisa in the am.
day 14 pics #1709-1875: field of miracles was our 1st stop. after figuring out the italian train system and making our way on a 45-50min. ride to pisa. then we had to walk across town to get to the field of miracles - about 30 minutes taking our time. we got there a little early and had a chance to walk around and look at a few things, and we went into the baptistry while we waited to meet up. we climbed the bell tower, went inside the duomo and then visited the camposanto, where the fresco which inspired liszt to write totentanz. after pisa we trained about 40 mins out to lucca, home of puccini. we ate gelato on the main piazza, and people watched or maybe child-watched is more acurate. back to the train station terry and christian grabbed the train to pisa where they were staying that night, and we went back to firenze - about an hours ride. tried to catch up with rory, but missed him for dinner but we didn manage to communicate to meet up for the next morning.
day 15 pics #1876-2028: up early everyone met at our hotel and we started at the medici chapel. (no pics allowed) it was pretty cool. there was the family monument for 4 carved by michelangelo. walked over to the bargello and found it already closed, had lunch - oh, it rained for the 1st time this day. and then back to the duomo. the bell tower was closed due to the windy weather, but we were allowed to climb the duomo, which was fine as it was taller! then we went to the museo del'opera - or the cathdral museum. - the only museum in firenze allowing photos to be taken. afterwards we made our way to santa croce, a large church where many famous people have been buried. rory had found a great place the night before and had us follow him there for dinner that night. it was great! il latini, if you're going to be in firenze. and man did we consume wine. it wasn't that far from the hotel, but man it took us quite a while to get back! matt was leading. he swears up and down that we took the "most direct and quickest way" back to the hotel. it was so funny. we were going in circles. terry and i were crying and could barely walk we were laughing so hard! rory could barely talk he was laughing so hard.
day 16 pics #2029-2054: a day of museums, we took in the bargello, academia and uffizi. terry and christian had to leave before the uffizi to catch their plane, so that was sad. after the uffizi rory met us and we walked down and across the ponte vecchio, then did a little shopping on teh way back to the hotel where we had to pack before meeting him for dinner. after another good amount of wine we finally said goodby. rory stayed a few more days, but we were off early to the airport in the morning.
day 17: up and off to firenze's airport, we ha a 2hr flight to amsterdam where we had a 5 hour or so layover. checking in for that flight was US customs - they set up stantions and ropes at the gate itself where someone did a pre-check ckecking for the checker kind of thing. we joked about it becuase they were set up for everyone to go through 3 people before being allowed to board the plane! but that flight didn't stop before we arrived in seattle. getting through customs was interesting. found our way through to passport control, went through the 'gate' with the questions etc. and then claimed our bags. before we could leave the carausel (sp?) area there was another 'passport control' and we were told we had to go through the agricultural checkpoint. mind you we have 1 backpack, 1 camera bag, 1 laptop bag, 2 suitcases, a gear bag and a tandem bike bag. so off the cart they come, and onto this exray machine/belt/thingy. after everything was scanned it was load stuffback onto the cart to go through a room. and becuase we were in one of the satellite concourses, we had to offload all the luggage onto yet another conveyor belt, to be re-claimed at hte main terminal bag-claim area! oh my gosh! all in all it took less than 2 hours, but geez! we left firenze that morning at 5ish, and we arrived in seattle and were in our car around 3pm that afternoon.
Italy sep 2007
greetings from rome
We got here just fine. Left the house at something like 4am on Wed, got the tandem and luggage checked in with no problems. Man that case is nice. Matt said we had a soft-side case, and I'm thinking canvas duffle type bag, but that bag weighs more than the bike. In fact, I can't lift the bag at all! But it's got4 wheels, 2 which rotate, and is quite easy to maneuver. The flight took off from SeaTac about 30 mins late, but our captain requested a speed increase and a more direct route and we made up the time, landing on the original schedule's time. Aunty, Grandma (4 months shy of her 101st birthday!!!) adn family friend Arlene came out to the airport to see us. We had a 5 hr layover, so we were able to spend almost 4 hours together. I took Grandma a couple decks of large print playing cards, and 4 boxes of various flavor apples and cotlets. she just loves those things! she's looking real good. still hurts when she hugs! :-)
The flight from Cinti to Rome was a new experience. Delta had removed some coach seats up front, expanding the '1st class' section into more of a '1st class/biz section' and we were able to get seats up there. so instead of 3-aisle-4 aisle-3 seating it was 2-aisle-2-aisle-2. we had our own individual little tv, where we could watch hbo, tv, the movies, or play video games! of course you had to watch what was being aired :-( it was a really comfy ride. we're hoping to call klm and get waitlisted fro upgrades on teh return flight - when matt called before we left home there was nothing available. so we'll see. he's still such a little boy when it comes to airports and flying!
We got into Rome about 11am ish on Thurs. beautiful day! got through passport control easy-peasy, retrieved our bags, and then went outside to try and find a taxi. if you need a minivan or large vehicle you might want to make arrangements with the hotel to have them pick you up, even if you have to 'rent the larger car' - it might be a little more $$ than the taxi (our hotel quoted 90$ and we ended up paying 80$) but it took us an hour to secure a ride and get the van there. not that we minded. it was a beautiful day!
Our 1st glitch came when we checked into the hotel. They couldn't find our reservation for the advance days. They looked under my name, matts and the tour groups and couldn't find anything until the 16th! wah! but they had rooms available so no biggie - although it could've been. we'll have to get with jan from santana tours and have her work it out since we have, in essence, double paid for the room. After a shower and lunch we came upstairs and jut crashed. matt was starting to feel a bit under the weather from lack of sleep (mon & tues he only had about 3 hours, too, becuase he had office deadlines he had to meet before we left). And i was feeling a little out becuase the plane was so cold... so it's about 3pm when we sit down. I had plans to catch you up on the stp but after 30 mins of trying to figure out the internet here - they have WiFi but it isn't free. so we got a week's IE pass, but are limited to 1 gig of traffic for the week.
I've been takign pictures and I promised to email a "postcard". I won't be able to send it until either the last night or morning, so i don't use up the gig too soon. I also may not be able to upload pics of Rome to my soace, either... I'll get them on the laptop, and I'm hoping that last night, with whatever space is left on our pass to upload as many as possible, but no idea.
We got here just fine. Left the house at something like 4am on Wed, got the tandem and luggage checked in with no problems. Man that case is nice. Matt said we had a soft-side case, and I'm thinking canvas duffle type bag, but that bag weighs more than the bike. In fact, I can't lift the bag at all! But it's got4 wheels, 2 which rotate, and is quite easy to maneuver. The flight took off from SeaTac about 30 mins late, but our captain requested a speed increase and a more direct route and we made up the time, landing on the original schedule's time. Aunty, Grandma (4 months shy of her 101st birthday!!!) adn family friend Arlene came out to the airport to see us. We had a 5 hr layover, so we were able to spend almost 4 hours together. I took Grandma a couple decks of large print playing cards, and 4 boxes of various flavor apples and cotlets. she just loves those things! she's looking real good. still hurts when she hugs! :-)
The flight from Cinti to Rome was a new experience. Delta had removed some coach seats up front, expanding the '1st class' section into more of a '1st class/biz section' and we were able to get seats up there. so instead of 3-aisle-4 aisle-3 seating it was 2-aisle-2-aisle-2. we had our own individual little tv, where we could watch hbo, tv, the movies, or play video games! of course you had to watch what was being aired :-( it was a really comfy ride. we're hoping to call klm and get waitlisted fro upgrades on teh return flight - when matt called before we left home there was nothing available. so we'll see. he's still such a little boy when it comes to airports and flying!
We got into Rome about 11am ish on Thurs. beautiful day! got through passport control easy-peasy, retrieved our bags, and then went outside to try and find a taxi. if you need a minivan or large vehicle you might want to make arrangements with the hotel to have them pick you up, even if you have to 'rent the larger car' - it might be a little more $$ than the taxi (our hotel quoted 90$ and we ended up paying 80$) but it took us an hour to secure a ride and get the van there. not that we minded. it was a beautiful day!
Our 1st glitch came when we checked into the hotel. They couldn't find our reservation for the advance days. They looked under my name, matts and the tour groups and couldn't find anything until the 16th! wah! but they had rooms available so no biggie - although it could've been. we'll have to get with jan from santana tours and have her work it out since we have, in essence, double paid for the room. After a shower and lunch we came upstairs and jut crashed. matt was starting to feel a bit under the weather from lack of sleep (mon & tues he only had about 3 hours, too, becuase he had office deadlines he had to meet before we left). And i was feeling a little out becuase the plane was so cold... so it's about 3pm when we sit down. I had plans to catch you up on the stp but after 30 mins of trying to figure out the internet here - they have WiFi but it isn't free. so we got a week's IE pass, but are limited to 1 gig of traffic for the week.
I've been takign pictures and I promised to email a "postcard". I won't be able to send it until either the last night or morning, so i don't use up the gig too soon. I also may not be able to upload pics of Rome to my soace, either... I'll get them on the laptop, and I'm hoping that last night, with whatever space is left on our pass to upload as many as possible, but no idea.
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