As unique as they come

Day 4 of the Europe trip was Venice. We reached on the evening of day 3 from Pisa (previous post on the series is here...) and saw Venice by night. Our first challenge was to go from the Train station to the Air B&B. It was a 10 minute walk but the challenge was crossing the bridge over the grand canal with a broken suitcase. It was done.. with great difficulty!

The Air B&B we had was on the "attic" floor. We had pretty much the entire floor to ourselves and a great view from the window. We dropped our bags and went back quickly to catch a gondola ride. We were very lucky as we got the last ride out. It was a 40 minute ride and the sun was just starting to set.

Right when we finished the ride and docked, it started raining. The views we got on the trip were amazing. Vibrant colors from the setting sun..

I got two photographs to cherish thanks to this Gondola ride... the first one with me and San 

and the second one when we were just about to go below a bridge. The kids were in focus and the bricks look like they are moving towards us..

a fun portrait session during breakfast time using the large mirror as a frame.. we were the only ones at breakfast and they had quite a spread!

We got dinner at different places (Jr. at a burger king, San and the little one went for an Italian place where the service was terrible and the food was okay and I decided to skip) and headed back to sleep. 

Day 4 was fully dedicated to Venice. We walked around on either side of the grand canal in the morning and took a boat to Murano island. 

How they make these pencil type structures is amazing..

This is an interesting place where they have all the glass factories and the museum. There was a glass blowing demo (no photos/videos allowed!) and elaborate descriptions of how they make the different glass pieces. We spent half a day there and took a boat back to the Grand Canal station. 

Here are two slide shows of photos from Venice and Murano..

After checking out a few places and realizing that the farther we went from the train station, the better the places for lunch (price, quality and service) and we had a really nice lunch at this place.. 

Saw a lot of interesting notices like this on displays..

The people of Venice see the tourists as a necessary evil. They are not nice to tourists. We saw some blatant xenophobia and racism. The only folks they hated more than dark skinned folks were Chinese. We were joking that if DJT wants to go win somewhere outside of US, he need to look no further than Venice! 

Funny thing was another note we had read earlier in the day at Murano..

did the Syrians have a similar notice about cheap Venitian glass being dumped into their market in 1500's ?! Who knows?

Venice is beautiful. The people understanably are stressed out by the influx of tourists and the strain has taken its toll.. Still, Venice is beautiful. When you go there, do spend money. Do be nice to the locals. Maybe things will change. 

We had already checked out and put our luggage at the train station. We were walking around with just our backpacks. 

One interesting thing is the service provided to take your luggage across the bridges. All they have to do is to put a ramp on the end of the stair case on either side so folks can drag their luggage up and down. Instead there is a thriving market for these porters with their dollys and they make a living moving luggage to either side. Most of them are from Bangladesh! Guess that is not helping with the strain.. (you can see it at the end of the video)

We had exactly 24 hours in Venice and we made the most of it. We did not want to go through more museums and cathedrals. So skipped those little tours. The glass museum was unique and we enjoyed it!

After some shopping for cute things in the shops, tasting things, some ice cream and buying a new suitcase, we made it to the bus station and were off to the Venice airport.

It was time to fly back to Zurich! 

Lean baby Lean..

The previous post on the Europe trip series is here...

Day 3 of the Europe trip was visiting Pisa. Now Pisa is neither here nor there on the big city list. So we did not want to stay overnight in Pisa. 

The plan was to take the first available train to Pisa from Rome (which is via Florence with a 10 minute window to change trains) and leave the luggage in the cloak room at Pisa station. Now you know why each of us was allowed only one check in bag and a backpack. 

We dragged the check in bags from train to train and from train to baggage room. My suitcase handle broke. I had to improvise and used Jr's bandana as the handle and dragged the suitcase along. We were on a tight schedule. Once we paid and gave the luggage in (6 euros per bag), we had to go to the leaning tower by 11:45 and that meant 45 mintues to walk there.

It took us almost 35 minutes to walk and we did stop for 5 minutes to get some ice cream for the kids. They were tired. We did stop for a few seconds every now and then to take pics on the way..

If you are going up the tower, you have to book it well in advance. They have a limit on how many people can go up and down the tower and you have time slots. We reached at 11:45 and found out that no backpacks allowed (even a camera backpack). So we walked across the field to a locker and put the handbags/ camera bag there. When we walked back to the line, it was our turn. 

It is a narrow walkway with pretty much one person at a time except for few niches where you could let someone pass through. We climbed up and got beautiful views of Pisa and the Cathedral. 

After coming back down we went to the cathedral. The tickets were included with the tower. So we didn't have to stand in that line. We strongly recommend buying tickets well in advance for this or you cannot cover the cathedral and get back to train station if you try to do Pisa as a half day stop. Remember the Florence to Pisa train is a local train that is not fast and most trains to other important places are from Florence. 

This cathedral was beautiful. Amazing ceiling, altar, paintings on the walls. We spent 30 minutes walking to the sanctum and back.

From the top of the tower, realized that we had taken a longer route to come to the tower. So on the way back I suggested a shortcut. The family came along reluctantly. Then I made one mistake. That almost proved costly as it took us to a city center courtyard. Once we figured it out we were off by one block. Luckily I asked for directions and we were back on track. I got yelled at for the next 15 minutes by all three for losing the 5 minutes. We ate lunch at a quiet restaurant. The service was excellent as was the food. For a guy who eats cheese sticks at Denny's, cheese balls were a novelty. Had that for the first time in Pisa. 

Here are two slideshows with pictures..

and a Pano slide show. The Panoramic views at Pisa were amazing!

We made it back to the train station and waited for our luggage to be handed out. The cloak room is all the way in the back of the platform. So yet again we barely made it to our train to Florence and then to Venice.. I was already limping by then with the hardened skin in my foot hurting me every time the foot touched the ground.

The video highlights of the trip.. including a time lapse of my entire walk down from the top of the tower.. 

So it was a relief to sit on the train and catch our breath!

To be continued..

All roads lead to Rome...

Within Rome, all roads also lead to a central point.. in spite of this, it is possible to get lost in Rome today. Google Maps comes in very handy!

The previous post on this Europe trip (day1) is here..

On day 2 we got up, had breakfast at Hotel Canada (they have a very good breakfast for 10$/person) and walked to the train station. We were taking a local metro to the Vatican. The local metros in Rome are really good. On time, every efficient and people on the trains are friendly. The ticket buying system is also very easy to use. 

We were to meet our tour guide at the bottom of the steps directly opposite the Vatican entrance per instructions. This is like telling a Penguin, you walk up that island of ice and your partner will meet you there.. It looks like all of Rome is at those steps, trying to find their tour guide. There are a zillion tour guides holding flags with the tour company names and some other little beanie baby or toy tied to their little flags. The trick is to go early so you can be united with your guide. Then it is easy.. or not.. depending on, if you belong to our family.

The tour guide looked at San and the girls and shook her head. My guess was she was thinking "if you girls dress like this to Vatican, what do you wear at home? do you wear anything at all?" and my answer would have been "I have been married to this woman for 19 years and I have seen her ankles only three times in public and her knees once when she came to our Christian friends wedding in Napa. she is usually covered head to toe and gives middle eastern burka wearing woman feeling under clothed!"..

Anyways, I don't know what got into San and the kids. They decided that given Europe was going to be hot and all we had was one carry on and a backpack each for this trip (to save time at airports), they packed and dressed "light". Short skirts and shorts everywhere for the most part. Out of all of those, they decided to pick the shortest for Vatican day. Turns out the Vatican has a dress code. No exposing shoulders or knees when going into the place. 

This was interesting because most of the tourists were stuck. This problem was solved by a bunch of African and Middle eastern immigrants who were selling scarves with pictures of vatican for anywhere from 10 to 3 Euros.. "knee cover. shoulder cover".. they kept shouting and were walking among the penguins trying to find their guides doing brisk business. We bargained with two or three of these fellows, found the LCM on the price (kids, note how math comes in handy) and got three of these. The boys just pulled down their shorts to cover the knees and started walking funny with a rap star gait! I now know why these rap star folks walk funny.. when you are constantly trying to avoid your shorts from falling off your hip, you walk like that!

Where were we? yes, Vatican..

We had booked trips on Viator. The tour guides were good. They had all the tickets pre booked and it was all "jump the line". Also they made sure most of our group was from USA/Canada and they grouped families with kids together. We had a 14 people group and the walking started. 

The Vatican museum is amazing. The Christian leadership went out of their way to create this place and they made sure it will be preserved well. 

We had seen a lot of stuff in Uffizi that was repeated here, which was good. We had already been conditioned on what to expect. There is a lot of history in this place... and also some statues that put the previous one in Uffizi to shame.. like this one..Take that Uffizi!

The photographs in Portrait format in slide show..

another slide show..

 

We went to the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately there were no Photographs allowed. Some of the folks in our group were taking pictures by holding their iPhones at waist level. I thought that was not right. If me being a non Christian could accept the rules there and put my camera inside, these folks with their Crosses on their neck chains could have done better.. San told me to mind my business and we kept walking out. We also found that there were lot of folks who did expose their knees and shoulders and no one said anything. But the scarves were not exactly returnable..  I liked the ceiling but thought it was too depressing. Loved the ceiling in the Palace de Vecchio better. 

I did find a new favorite painter after this trip. Raphael! The one painting on a wall above a window where he painted a prison room with amazing shadows stayed with me for a long time. Pity this guy died young. His work was the best in that place..

The basilica is a completely different story. The place is well lit compared to most of the other churches we visited and I loved it. I like places of worship that are not dark and dinghy.. a place that can lift up your spirit. Saint Peters Basilica is amazing. I could kneel down there and say a prayer and feel a sense of calm that you get in some of the grand temples in India. Totally awe inspiring place.

Once we were done with the Museum tour, the Sistine Chapel and Basilica, the morning part of the tour ended with us in the open courtyard. That in itself is grand. (see the Pano pics below). The Pano feature on iPhone was best to capture these places.. 

this is a Vertical Pano shot by doing backbends.. 

We had a tricky situation. it was already 12:30. We were supposed to be at the Coliseum to find our guide there at 1:45 for a 2PM tour. Now that we knew that finding your tour guide takes time, we rushed out to the metro. It was a 20 minute walk. We took the train, changed trains, then went to the stop for the Coliseum. Our first thought was let's get there, check in with guide and hope to find something to eat. The kids were starting to strike saying "lets eat here and then go there". 

Eventually we ended up right in front of the Coliseum and there was a restaurant where we found food. They had sandwiches, fries, juice, etc.. so it worked out. The outside temperatures were close to 100F. There were no trees in the area. Mostly ruins for touring around. It is a good idea to have a hat or an umbrella if you are doing these tours in summer. We walked through multiple levels of the Coliseum with our tourguide Ursus. He was a family man with three kids of his own and given our group was just the 8 of us and a Canadian family with two kids and a grandma, he made sure the kids were the focus of the tour. They were all attentive and he was giving them a history lesson. The adults mostly trudged along taking pictures. 

The Coliesum in an interesting place. Human depravity knows no bounds. At least that was my one line takeaway after walking around this place and the surrounding ruins for almost 4 hours. Good news here? Free water fountains everywhere in Rome with great cool drinking water! 

After the tour, he gave us an option to continue on the other side. We said "we are all extremely tired. We will pass". Handed him the head phones and went back to take the metro to the hotel. 

A video to cover our Day 2 of the Europe trip..

We did laundry at a Laundromat near the hotel, the ladies decided their hubbies should get something for being nice the whole day and sponsored a Thai massage at a place one block from the hotel. I promptly got an allergic reaction from the oil the lady used for the massage. We ate a nice dinner again within a block from the hotel at a restaurant that played world cup games on the big screen. Think it was the Belgium Japan match where Belgium came from behind and won. It was a Monday evening.  After the dinner we called it a night.

We were going to go our different routes on the trip. We said our byes and it was time to pack up everything. The hotel part of the trip was over.

It was B&B time.. 

When in Rome.. get a mask

Don't do as the Romans do... you will likely die of lung cancer before you can see your grandkids. That was my first impression of Rome after getting out of the airport. We got to Hotel Canada which was a 10 minute walk from the main Train station in Rome. This was our only Hotel booking on the trip. The rest was Air B&B. We stayed at a hotel to be with San's sisters family who joined us for this leg of the trip.

The first picture in the blogpost always gets picked up by Facebook, Google+ etc.. so all these posts will start with my favorite family portrait of the day!

After a good nights rest, we got up for the breakfast which started at 7AM. Per San and Co-brother, the train was at 8AM. So we ate breakfast, had the kids put on sunscreen, took some photos of me doing backbends in the lobby and walked at a leisurely pace to the station and handed our tickets to the guy at the gate... all of which is shown in exhibits below.. (get used to exhibits for this series of blog posts)

He looked at us and said "Your train leaves at 7:54AM. It is now 7:56AM. It has already left! You will have to buy tickets again at that counter. There is another one that leaves for Florence in 30 minutes"

History has taught me many things. One of them is to not say anything about what has passed and just get to solution space. History has also taught me not to forget some stuff so it can come in handy for a blog post 10 years later..

History? There was a time when the kids were young and we were to go to Seattle to visit my BIL. We had booked the four tickets and let BIL know.. he looked at the email and told us he will be there to receive us at the airport on time. When we went to San Jose airport in the morning to check in, the lady at the counter looked at us and said "you are on a flight this morning, but it leaves from Seattle to come here! you booked Seattle to San Jose and back instead of the other way around.. We can cancel the ticket but it will cost you. There are four seats left on this mornings flight. Would you like to buy them?!" to which we replied "just get us the tickets to go there!" 

That experience taught me some valuable life lessons.. which came in very handy in the Roma train station. I told San to just go get the tickets and lets get to Florence! It was an interesting beginning to the trip. We are easily swayed by superstition.. first the delay at Zurich the previous day..then this delay.. was it a sign of things to come?! 

We got the tickets and were in Florence after a few hours. All was well again. Then we walked from the Florence station to the Uffizi gallery. Saw some interesting things on the way..we walked all around the Santa Maria Novella church

There was no paid jump the line tour as it was a Sunday and it was free for everyone. We checked out the line. Only 1200 people and a 2 1/2 hour wait.

So we decided to go to the Palace de Vecchio instead. This was another smaller Palace turned into a Museum but the attraction was the Vechchio tower which we had to climb at the end. It was an interesting climb and we got an amazing view of the City of Florence from the Tower. The paintings on the walls and ceilings just took our breath away..

When we came back down, finished lunch at the Ristorante Cavallino (really good food and nice ambience inside), the line to Uffizi was not that long.

It was a 30-40 minute wait. So we stood in line, got into the Gallery and walked for a good 3 hours through the gallery. Lot of great art work to take in that it was overwhelming.

These guys are marketing this all wrong. One of the galleries should be renamed as "Dickapalooza" and the other one "Boobfest". Those are actually apt descriptions..

We never realized Jesus was painted in this many angles by this many artists. Growing up in India and being raised on Hindu temple art, realized that Indian tempels have an advantage with many different gods, creatures etc. where there is a lot of room for diversity and creativity for statues and paintings. These guys all started painting when Christianity became mainstream and the Church allowed them to paint again (painting and statues were banned for a long time before the Pope realized that they were valuable for PR) and they had to paint Mary and Jesus with either Jesus as a baby, holding a sheep or being crucified. Given the limited options, they did an amazing job and I say that in all sincerity. 

There is a sense of grandeur that hits you in all these places.. lots of money and time spent.. Using my patented backbending Pano technology (I hold the iPhone and do backbends in every room to take Pano shots) give you a series of Pano shots in slide show.. which is probably why the family stayed clear of my sweat smell.. while all the tourists were really giving me "I am impressed" looks for my technique.

I would like to share two things I really liked in the gallery.. the first was one of my favorite paintings "the birth of Venus" and the second was a series of paintings by "the divine painter" .. they are amazing (see collage of all paintings)

There was only one problem with the Uffizi gallery. There were no places where you could just sit on a bench and give your tired knees a rest. So we were almost out of the gallery where there was a solitary painting in a round frame but with a sofa across it. The entire family crammed itself into the sofa and we were making jokes about how that should be named the best painting, just for the sofa. It was a painting of a father and mother teaching a child (not Jesus we were told).

A monk in a gray robe walked to the group and shouted at my co-brother "dont laugh at the cross". We were clearly not laughing at the cross. Where is the cross in that painting? We would not disrespect the cross. We go light candles in churches when we cannot find a temple to light a dia. So that dude was clearly having some issues with anyone laughing in the gallery. We walked around a few more rooms on the way to the exit in the ground floor and...

Finally walked out and wandered towards the train station. 

All the art that caught our eye (portrait format) is in this slide show..

Landscape format photos are in this slide show..

Stopped on the way at an outdoor restaurant and had an early dinner after watching some world cup soccer outside another restaurant on the way to the place..these were cheap restaurants which had folks outside trying to get customers inside with deals.. they advertised a full meal per person for under 10 Euros.. so we eenie meenie miney mo'ed and entered a place..the food was decent but the smoking was unbearable. Folks smoke right outside the place. so if you sit inside it is actually worse. 

Our train back to Rome was at 8 PM. This time we made it! 

It was a really hot day in Rome. My corn cap was still holding but the wife and kids complained that I smelled. It was like I was drenched in sweat.

A video to wrap up Florence.. 

Day 1, saw everything we had planned to see and had made it back in one piece. The next morning we had to take another local train to go on an all day tour.. we were on time.. no.. ahead of time on day 2!

To be continued..