A Strait Adventure (Part 2)

So, the next day we started our trek, before the sun got up, to head to Tangiers, Morocco. To get from Spain to Morocco, you have to take a ferry so we headed to the port of Tarifa, Spain. Just like at an airport, you have to go through customs when taking ferry's from country to country, and even a passport check on the boat, but you don't feel anywhere near as violated as you do flying. Though it can be painful in other ways, such as a very rough turf. Luckily, since this was the first time I'd gone on a “non lake/river” body of water I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get seasick at all, even with the boat tilting back and forth pretty drastically.

Now for what we were doing in Morocco, my friend Chris had organized a tour guide Said to pick us up from the port in Tangier to take us around. We started by walking around the old part of Tangier as our guide gave us tidbits and stories that only a local would know, even pointing out a man cover that had been made in Casablanca. 

 Pretty neat to see real world examples of places you've only seen in movies. The next adventure was to ride the bus to the Cape Spartel where we stopped at a few stops for photos like Cave of Hercules and the lighthouse on the cape.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the next part where we were able to ride camels in Africa!! I've never ridden a horse before but camels are something else. You have to get on while they are sitting on the ground. Then as they get up the lean so far forward that sometimes another person has to help you to stay on the camel as it gets up. And boy, were they bumpy to ride, but a blast. That's one thing that I never thought I would ever do. Chris did a fantastic job organizing this trip.

Finally we were returned to Tangiers where our guide organized a special lunch and we ate local specialties like camel cheese on local bread, and were even given free samples of the local olives. Everything tasted amazing. After that we had a final wander through the main market place in Tangiers where we met with a snake charmer, heard the sales pitch of the herbs and medicine salesman, and were accosted by antiquity salesmen. Finally, we were hustled back to the docks early due to bad weather canceling the last ferry crossing the straight. It was quite a site to see us being rushed through customs by our tour guide, like he owned the place.

Finally, we made our way back to Spain and our hotel to relax the rest of the night before dinner. Dinner that night was spent hunting around the local town and we found a small restaurant hidden far away from the main roads. Honestly no where near where we thought it was supposed to be. It was a really neat restaurant that even had small stage, foosball table, and other neat items in the backroom. The food was great and the owner even better, challenging one of us to a game of foosball. Declaring Spain 1, USA 0 after he won. Then we went back to the hotel to finish off the night. Man I wish I remembered the name of that place...

The next day we drove to our real destination of Malaga, Spain. On the way we stopped at a beach Playa de Bolonia where we wandered the sand and stopped at a local restaurant for a snack and some drinks of water. I have to say this is one of the most beautiful sections of beach and coastline I've seen, with the exception of possibly Ireland :-). When we reached Malaga, we checked into the Sahara Sunset Resort there, which were beautiful apartments with decent views of the ocean. You don't even need to be a member of the timeshare itself to tent rooms, though they are slightly more than I would be normally willing to pay if we weren't enjoying a pre-owned timeshare. Good amenities, such as pools and other standard things like that. But they charge for every extra, such as internet. We basically just relaxed after the drive but did have dinner at a very interesting restaurant that served both Italian and Indian food. Most of us ordered Indian, and it was fantastic. I highly recommend it. 

The next day started off by enjoying an awesome Full English breakfast at a cafe right in the resort before we drove to Seville, Spain. A very beautiful and quinte city with many attractions from it's towers, to the cathedrals and the home of a building built for the world fair that was held in Spain many years ago. My favorite part was the gardens in the main palace of Seville. I could have spent half a day wandering around those gardens easily. That said, I would say in my opinion, Seville is very beautiful but almost not worth a trip by itself. If you're in the area, definitely visit. But it's not a must see to me other than the gardens, especially when compared to things like Gibraltar, Conseugras, Toledo, Pamplona, or Barcelona. Very nice visit but in retrospect I would have been fine not seeing it.

 

The last day was a bit of a rush. As soon as we got up we all piled into our rental car and drove back to Madrid to make sure we caught our flight back to Germany. The downside was that a couple of us were starting to get sick, from what we believe was food poisoning, not sure from what. Otherwise the trip back to Germany, while long and tiring, was uneventful. Make sure you look twice at the food you eat, especially if you're concerned that it might not have been cooked or cleaned properly. I doubt we would have noticed anything but it pays to double check. Over all I don't regret anything from this trip. It was all absolutely fantastic, and I even got to step foot on another continent when we visited Morocco. I loved every minute of this trip.  Aside from food poisoning...

A Strait Adventure (Part 1)

Finally, I'm working on finishing writing up this trip.  This one is actually going to be a two part'er so I can make it look like I have more posts.  Ok, I really just want to stop posting super long posts. It begins after returning from the United States for Christmas break.  The first adventure I took in the year of 2014 was to return with friends to Spain to visit a completely different area from the last visit I had there. This time, instead of starting in Barcelona we started the adventure in Madrid,Spain. I flew there with four of my friends and we went straight to our home away where we were going to stay for 2 nights, which was Apartments Arenal in Madrid. 

Since we were arriving late at night, we did have to pay a small fee to late check-in, but for just a hair more the apartment managers offered to arrange for a shuttle to take us directly to the apartment from the airport. This was DEFINITELY worth it and prevented a lot of stress.  I will say that while this home-away was reasonable, it wasn't the best place I've stayed in.  The unfortunate part for us was that while we were there, there was a Spanish family staying below us who seemed to try very hard to be loud and annoying when we were trying to sleep.  That's not really something to blame on the apartment though.  However it's proximity to downtown Madrid (1 or 2 blocks) made any complaints we had irrelevant.  Definitely take advantage of these apartments if you can. As a side note, the Madrid airport was one of the more laid back airports I've been too. Both arriving and departing, the airport seemed to be mostly empty which also made everything a little easier to navigate and keep the process relatively stress free.

The main purpose I wanted to stop in Madrid for was to take our obligatory Sandeman's New Europe Madrid walking tour. As usual the tour provided a fascinating insight into the history of not only Madrid but the history of Spain. Definitely, a different perspective into Spanish history than the walking tour we took in Barcelona. Our tour guide made it very fun as well. One of the historical trips she took us on was a role playing adventure with the kings of Spain's past. From King Charles V to Philip the IV.  Drawing a few volunteers up front to pretend to be the king who brought Spain to it's height of power, the king who died because he was too lazy to remove a bed warmer, and wrapping it up with the kings that lost it all. It is what made the tour really special and added that personal touch. Beyond that we enjoyed wandered around and trying out some foods in Madrid to round out the experience.  I remember trying Mueso del Jamon and Cafeeke Cervezas y Tapas.  The Museo was tasty but very overcrowded.  The first time we tried it, we gave up getting a seat.  My favorite place was Cafeeke where we had dinner.  Basically a Belgian beer with tapas (and other meal items) restaurant when you wanted to relax.  We sat upstairs which was neatly set up with low rafters and a cozy feeling.  The waiter was very helpful at Cafeeke as well. I have to admit, while Madrid was nice, Barcelona was a much more enjoyable city for me to visit.

 The next day we picked up a rental car from Sixt and drove to our next destination of La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain. On the way we visited two locations. The first was Toledo, Spain. I have to admit it fascinated me quite a bit. Part of Toledo's access were controlled by escalators external to the city with some impressive gates. To be honest, it might be the perfect place to hide from a Zombie Apocalypse, but that's the nerd in me. Aside from that, Toledo was definitely a quaint feeling city. We ate Tapas at a fantastic little place in the middle called Lizarran .  The hostess was extremely friendly even though she didn't know that much English.  After lunch we explored Toledo and checked out the local Cathedral. I happened to be the only person willing to spend money to visit inside, and it was breathtaking to see like the Basilica in Zaragoza in my last Spanish trip.  Unfortunately photographs were not allowed so I can't share the views of that location. Well worth it if you like cathedrals, so I recommend a look inside.

The other place that we stopped was a small town called Consuegra, Spain. If you don't happen to know, this is the town that has some of the best examples of the windmills that inspired the story of Don Quixote.  The town is very small and probably not worth a day trip by it self, but the windmills make it a neat stop on the way to somewhere else.  Definitely beautiful and picturesque. If you can, I highly recommend a stopover to wander around the windmills, ruins and castle on top of the hill.

 Finally we reached our destination of La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain. We stayed at a nice hotel  AC Hotel La Linea for one night, as our stopping point for visiting Gibraltar. The next day we walked through the border crossing into Gibraltar and took the bus into the center of town. Right now, while short, this is a neat drive. The main road into Gibraltar passes through their airport runway (Yes the country smaller than most towns has it's own airport, 3^rd most dangerous in the world. Just saying).

As we wandered Gibraltar we were accosted by a tour guide who in the end convinced us to join him on a guided tour throughout the island of Gibraltar. He turned out to be a fantastic guide who was basically the monkey whisperer. As he drove us up the Rock and guided us to the various sites there from St. Michael's Cave to the Great Siege Tunnels built by the British to help fight against the Nazi's if they ever successfully took the Rock.
 
Through the whole trip the guide continually brought monkeys right up to the van, took us to their feeding ground, and even let us play with them. One climbed on my shoulder and took a break for a minute. All of it was absolutely amazing. Once we were done with the Rock, our guide pointed us to the place where we could get the best fish'n'chips place in the country. Not hard to say for a country that small.  It was a little place at the side of the plaza where we started our tour called Roy's Cod Place.  You could even chose from a couple of types of fish they would will make for you.  Now I'm not a fish and chips expert, but these were REALLY good.  I definitely recommend eating here if you want to stop of dinner.

After Gibraltar we again crossed the 3rd most dangerous airport in the world and went through the small customs point to return to Spain and travel to our next hotel of AC Hotel Algeciras, in Algeciras, Spain. This hotel was basically the same as AC Hotel La Linea. Both were decent, almost a Hilton level hotels. Nice to stay at if you want a little nice place or are a Marriott member.  So that's as far as I'm going to get on this post.  Stay tuned for the next portion of our trip.  Our visit to Morocco, Malaga and Sevilla, Spain! 

Sanguine Spain (The way too long of it - July 2013)

So, apologies but I'm now catching up on posting for a trip I took last year. This will also be quite a long post unfortunately. Back in July (the following week after the Belgium post I made in July) we took the opportunity to take a trip to Spain. Ironically we were just in Spain again, a few weeks ago, for another trip so stay tuned for that update soon. I started out the trip by flying directly into Barcelona after everyone else, due to scheduling. At the I was directed by the reasonably friendly airport staff to a bus that took me directly to downtown Barcelona, approximately a 15-20 minute walk from the stop to our home away in Barcelona.  Not a bad ride, so you don't need to worry about taking a more expensive taxi. The home away we stayed at was nice and was booked through EnjoyBCN.  Overall it was an enjoyable experience though we did have some delays due to a housekeeper issue.  I'd suggest you make sure you know when you can check in.

The first thing we really did was do our standard tour, the Sandeman's Walking tour of Barcelona. Again this was a big success. We had a lively tour guide who went through the history of Barcelona from the creation of the city, the story of the Chistopher Columbus to the current status of the city. One of the most amazing stops, due to the time of the year, was the Iglesia de San Felipe Neri (Church of San Felipe Neri).  We walked into what looked like a small courtyard of a somewhat hidden church.  As we walked in yellow pedals were falling all around us, almost like a movie setting.  It was really quite mesmerizing and beautiful.  I can't recommend the Sandeman tours enough, they have been amazing every time we've taken them.

In addition to the walking tour we also visited various sites of the city that weren't on the tour. The first sight that we saw was the beautiful, yet unfinished, cathedral of Sagrada Familia. While still unfinished (under construction since 1882) and designed by Antoni Gaudi, it is a beautiful example of his work and visually stunning especially when compared to other cathedrals of Europe. I was especially pleased by the curvatures and softness that was incorporated into the design, where most cathedrals are a much more jagged or square. While we didn't have the patience to wait in line to see the inside, based on external appearance alone I thought this was one of the more friendly and welcoming cathedrals I've seen in Europe. Definitely holds it's own when compared to the rest.

After the cathedral was Park Güell, the mosaic park that Antoni Gaudi also designed. An amazing and beautiful experience. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Barcelona with at least one day there. The views, garden and mosaics are well worth the trek we took from Sagrada Familia to see it.  It even had a beautiful view of the city you could enjoy as well, letting you get a feel for how some of the city is laid out. The garden was also especially enjoyable for me because it let me play with my camera in getting shots of flowers and things like that.  :-)

The final stop in our trip to Barcelona included one more site that bore the mark of Antoni Gaudi, Palau Güell, a mansion that Gaudi designed. It bore a lot of the same architectural traits that both Sagrada Familia and Park Güell bore, making it another beautiful site to see. Though I didn't enjoy it as much the other sites we visited. It was still well worth the visit. The best feature was the variety and designs of the chimneys on the roof. They were all designed and looked like they would fit magnificently into Park Güell with uniqueness of their mosaics. As a friend mentioned, it looked like they were designed for children to have fun with and claim as their own.

Throughout the whole journey to Barcelona we visited a number of restaurants for tapas and paella. All of which was fantastic Unfortunately I don't remember any of their names since they were so long ago... I'm sorry for that. But everything we tried was amazing.  In addition we did have a little bit of down time, during which we decided to enjoy the beach at Barcelona that was newly created since the Olympic games where held in Barcelona.  Finally, some actual relaxing in Europe!  Did I mention sunburn?  Yeah... Don't sleep for too long on the beach.

Once we were finished with Barcelona we started on our next journey towards Villafranca, Navarre, Spain. This was a villa we were going to stay at while going to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. I'll get to that in a minute though. On the way we stopped at another amazing place, Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, in Monistrol de Montserrat. A monastery on the top of a mountain just outside of Barcelona. The design, site and view were just breathtaking. The food in the cafeteria is definitely overrated... Essentially just gas station sandwiches and soda.  That's ok though, this is a monastery, not a 5 star restaurant.  But everything else was just fantastic.



We were originally going to take a cable car up to the top, but ended up driving our rental car to the top. The cable car might have been icing on the cake, but it definitely wasn't needed to enjoy this trip. The entire monastery is beautiful, and the insides of the buildings you can go into are astounding as well. One of the neat items is a step like, cube structure, something like a child might build. A number of people braved the climb of this monument to take pictures on top, with the amazing view. And it definitely looked worth it, if not a little reckless from the safety of the ground. Definitely one of the most amazing monasteries I've had the pleasure of seeing.

After this, we continued on to our lodging for the next two nights, the Hospederia de Alesves inVillafranca. I have to say, in my current 18 months of being in Europe, this has definitely been my favorite place to stay. And honestly speaking, some of the best food I've ever had in my life. While this hotel is in a small town in Spain, as you can guess they mostly spoke Spanish. The daughter or niece there did speak reasonable English, and the hostess spoke a small amount. That wasn't too difficult for us though since two of our company spoke reasonable Spanish, and I with my 4 years of high school Spanish was able to hold short, yet fun, conversations with the English the hostess knew. The staff at this hotel when well above and beyond in making us all fell at home. I would stay there again in a heart beat. They even translated their menu by hand, into English as best they could to help us understand what we were ordering. Every meal was fantastic and our hosts even provided us with free wine every night. They served what I think is common in the Spanish country side of 3 course meals. We were given the choice of an appetizer to start with. One night I had a Spanish dish of tomato, drizzled with egg crumbles, cheese and a vinaigrette. The other night I had a seafood based salad, which I believer was some kind of mini eel. Every appetizer they had listed was tried by at least on person in our group, and every one fantastic. Next came the main courses. One night I had a fish dish, and the other was a pasta dish. Again every option was fantastic. Finally comes the choice of desert. One night I chose a fruit cup and the other a pastry. Again amazing. The one warning about Spain, is that they didn't serve dinner until 2200 or 10:00pm at night, but it is well worth the wait. I highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting this area of Spain, even if you don't have a bit of Spanish in your repertoire they will go out of their way to make you welcome.

The next day, we woke up bright and early (4....am...) to go to Pamplona to get ready for the Running of the Bulls or what they locals call it San Fermin. We were there for the first bull run of the week, and already Pamplona was completely trashed from the party that had started the night before. While a few of my company were going to participate in the running, I was not.

The remainder of us went into the Plaza de Toros to get ringside seats to the Arena. If you want seats you will have to buy tickets to get in, if you don't want to run. But well worth it. After a long wait, but before the running they had a spanish marching band (ok, they didn't march) playing to entertain the crowd. Then you head the gun fire and could watch on a large screen the oncoming bulls as they charged towards the arena. Those that ran into the arena before the final bulls were allowed to be the fodder and entertainment for the rest of the crowd. 

They then let the baby bulls into the arena to play with the crowds. All in all it could be quite amuzing when a young bull would throw some of the more foolish people around. Though there were definitely moments of shock as someone took a particularly nasty toss from the bull. Luckily no one was hurt while we were there. Eventually the bulls had their fun and the people were allowed out and you wander the city until the real bull fights happen. Since we were all exhausted we grabbed some pastries, wandered around the city like tourists do, and then drove back to Pamplona for a much needed nap.

After the much needed nap we did one more thing (besides the amazing dinner that night) in the Province of Navarre. We visited the castle Palacio Real de Olite, in Olite, Spain. Castles have definitely turned into one of my favorite experiences in Europe. Every castle is soo different from the last, the castles in one country are especially different from ones in another country. Spanish castles (granted I've only seen one) looked sandy and, almost had a bright feeling to them. Probably helped that it was a bright, sunny, beautiful day. This castle seemed especially grand since you were able to wander on your own through the whole grounds and it is quite large. I think that if I had never been to Europe and you put a number of castles in front of me, and asked me which was the "Spanish Castle" this is the one that I would pick out. Amazing.

The next day we started our trek back to Barcelona for our last night before returning to Germany via plane. We had one last place to visit, which was Zaragoza, Spain. It was a reasonably quick stop. We mainly wandered around the city talking and stopped for a quick bite to eat. We ate at a little restaurant where you can order single servings of various foods from a small slider like sandwich, to hot chocolate to an assortment of other individual serving items. The big site that we saw in Zaragoza was Nuestra Señora delPilar Basilica, or Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar. This was huge, and the only thing I can say to describe the inside... was Grandiose... huge. It makes you think of how small you really are, which who knows? Maybe that was exactly what they were going for. After finishing up in Zaragoza, we continued our drive to Barcelona where we stayed one final night before flying home. I have to say that while it was relaxing, it was also a little lame. My dinner that night was at Ikea. What can I say, there wasn't a whole lot next to the airport and I didn't want to wander.

Once again, the trip was awesome. We didn't do a whole lot of relaxing besides a little time at the beach, but we did see a whole lot of things. And all of it was fantastic. The food, amazing. The hotels, fantastic. The activities, outstanding. If you get a chance to go to Spain, GO to Barcelona, go into the country side. I think Spain is one of those places where if you don't go outside of the major cities, you're missing a lot. Spain may be a little challenged (from what I hear) economically, but it is beautiful and friendly. Visit all you can.

A Quick Run - Nov 2013

Last weekend I took the opportunity to make a run to one of my favorite places, Val Dieu Abbey, just inside the Belgian border from Germany. The purpose of this trip was two fold. First, was to introduce a couple of my old friends who recently moved to Germany to my favorite Abbey and current favorite beverage and cheese source. Two, and most important, a beer run. A fairly short trip, but a pleasant one.

This trip was doubly exciting, the first is because we were able to see the Abbey and it's park in a fall setting, wandering it's park with changed leaves and a slight nip in the air. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me to take any new pictures, so some old summer pictures will have to suffice. The other reason that this was a great trip was that the Abbey had a seasonal Christmas beer "Biere de Noel". Which none of us knew was going on and tasted fantastic.

Our trip entailed sitting down to lunch and enjoying the meal and a Belgian beer or two. Almost all of use ordered the Noel beer to try, and everyone loved it. I also tried a new meal here, the duck (or Canard) dish. After enjoying a meal under a portion of the gears using water power in part of the brewing process, we purchased what beers we thought we might like to take home to share with friends and then wandered the Abbey's park for awhile. Enjoying the fall scenery and letting our delicious food settle. After that we hopped back in the cars and drove home content and happy.  I think part of the reason I enjoy this Abbey so much is just the chance to wander around such a beautiful park for a few minutes, and praise God for such a wonderful place.

Illustrious Italy Fall 2013

So, I know it's been a while since I last posted, more than a while actually, and I'm a few trips behind. Hopefully I'll get to them but for the most part I am going to skip past my trips to Barcelona/Pamplona, Spain and a second trip to Brussels, Belgium and hopefully I'll post them later. I want to jump to my most recent trip to Italy, which will also be a pretty long post since we did so much.

Our first night into Italy we stayed in the hotel Grand Hotel Duca di Mantova in Sesto San Giovanni outside of Milan. I have to admit, this was just a basic hotel and we didn't go into Milan on this trip so I don't have much to report. All in all, a reasonable hotel with adequate food in the restaurant. Nothing to shout home about but comfortable.

The next day we started our drive into western Italy, towards our next destination of Savona, near Albenga. Two of our cars GPS's took us along the Mediterranean Coast, which while a slow and somewhat tedious drive at ~50-60kph, was very beautiful with clear blue sky and water along the coast. The other two took a more direct route of the Autostrada. Ironically we only arrived ~10 – 15 minutes apart. At Albenga was our second hotel for the night, a villa called Villamir, a quaint and beautiful and very reasonable villa turned into a bed and breakfast. The proprietors (who had only been managing this B&B for a few years, spoke enough English to hold pleasant conversations and give us excellent suggestions for lunch and details of the surrounding area. I'm getting ahead of myself, but breakfast the next morning was a fantastic assortment of local meats, cheeses and pastries (including a few baked fresh by the proprietors). We the chatted pleasantly with the owners until we paid (cash or credit card) and left for Florence the next morning. I highly recommend and will definitely be interested in staying in this villa again.

After checking in, but before spending the night in Villamir, we also ate lunch in the local town of Savona. We grabbed some pizza at a local pizzeria while cautiously eyeing our sportier cars from some slightly sketching looking locals. Odds are nothing would have happened, but we decided to take no chances. As we've found with all Italian pizzeria's, the pizza was delicious. After lunch we took our main trek for the day which was planned to go to Monaco, and at least see the famous Monte Carlo Casino if not go in. Monaco was a very clean, if not crowded small country where the population reaches a staggering 50,000 per square mile (The country is .74 square miles). There also happened to be what appeared to be a Halloween related festival going on while we were in town. 

After finding parking in one of Monte Carlo's many parking garages, we wandered around, taking pictures, and even entered Monte Carlo Casino which was gold embossed as you might expect but rather underwhelming otherwise. In the public area there was a smidgeon of tables that tourists could poke at but the action was probably in all the private rooms where we weren't allowed. After that we wandered until it was dinner time and decided to eat at a small restaurant called which I believe was called La Shangre`la. All in all a very lack luster and uninteresting restaurant. While the food was not bad, we regretted not visiting another restaurant we had passed. Once we had finished dinner we began the hour plus drive back to Villamir and stared at the stars for a little while before going to bed. And you've already heard the rest of the story.

The next morning, after breakfast, we departed to head to our final, multi-night, destination of Park Hotel Chianti in Tuscany. This was a fantastic hotel, all the quality of a good Hilton or Sheraton without the need for membership for WiFi or breakfast. And quite affordable, it was lovely.  On the way to the hotel, we took the time to stop at a famous part of Italy, Cinque Terre, specifically the village of Riomaggiore.  We did have to hustle through the village since we were a little short of time, and parking there was extremely difficult.  I suggest leaving plenty of time to find a parking spot so you can leisurely spend time in the area.  It is very beautiful.

After we checked in and almost immediately departed for a food and wine tour (apologies, I didn't organize the tour so I don't have a link for you. I'll try to find one). Normally the tour is an all day affair, but our guide was flexible and picked us up from the airport to start us on our tour around 1200. After pausing for some history and picturesque photo opportunities from our guide, we started by heading towards the Tanuta Torciano Winery near medieval San Gimignano. where we were served a fantastic 3 course meal of meats and cheeses for appetizer, delicious Ribollita soup, and the main course of one of the best lasagna's I have ever had, drizzled with truffle flavored olive oil. Each course paired with a variety of wines for tastes and introductions to the wines, olive oils, and vinaigrette that this winery has to offer, all for direct purchase or delivery to your home. I came way with two bottles of wine and a bottle of the truffle olive oil. 

Once lunch was complete we continued for a small walking tour of San Gimignano, which was fascinating and a pleasure to wander it's streets and take photographs of it's 14 remaining towers representing families from medieval times. We even sampled gelato from the local gelato shop Gelateria Dondoli that has won the World Gelato Championships TWICE. Our guide knew and introduced us to the owner and it really was fantastic gelato. Finally to round of the day we headed to the winery at Fattoria Poggio Alloro where we sampled a few more wines and Italian appetizers of bread, cheese and olive oil and enjoyed a history of making wine and great conversation with our guide. Here I brought home some Italian pasta for future use. Another great stop. We then headed back to the hotel for the night, content and ready to sleep soundly through the night.

The following day, after a light and delicious breakfast at the hotel, we decided to take a trek into Florence for touring around the city. We consolidated our group into two cars and drove in. One group parking in a garage just inside the river, and the other parking in a small parking lot just below Piazzale Michelangelo which provides a fantastic overlook of Florence. We wandered around Florence, visiting such attractions as the statue of David, had lunch near the outdoor markets, Cathedral of Santa Maria delFiore and the Piazza della Signoria where the Fountain of Neptune lies. We even stopped for coffee at the Gucci Cafe outside of the Gucci Museum. The hot chocolate was had by a member of our group, and looked like melted chocolate. 

 Following a full day of wandering we returned to our vehicles via the Ponte Vecchio bridge and returned to the hotel. We then went next door to the restaurant Ristorante Pizzeria Pontenuovo and had some more amazing Italian food. Italian restaurants (at least the ones we attended) are organized into courses. You can order appetizers, first course and second course (or only one or two dishes) and you get treated to delicious dishes. Here I had Pappa al pomodoro, a tomato and bread soup, as well as a Gnocchi and seafood dish (potato noodles with seafood). All were fantastic. Finally, we ended the night with playing monopoly before going to bed to put a good relaxing feeling to the day.

The next day after breakfast, our group split up. Some heading home early, some going shopping, and some (me included) going to Pisa. Once arriving at Pisa and parking we wandered toward that famous leaning tour and the cathedral. Even doing the obligatory holding the tower up. We even paid to go up into the tower and partake of the fantastic panorama of Pisa and the nearby mountains with perfect weather. Another great day. 

 

When we were finally done wondering and acquiring some souvenirs we headed back to the hotel where the remainder of our group reconvened and we went out for our last dinner at Ristorante La Fattoria where once again we had amazing service and amazing food. Dinner this evening consisted of another bowl of the fantastic Ribollita, as well as the main dish of fried rabbit with fried vegetables, also quite spectacular.

After an amazing night sleep, we departed the hotel to start our last day in Italy and our trek home later that night. We had preplanned a trek through some Italian mountain roads on our way to Maranello, Italy where we planed to visit the Ferrari Museum. There we also took the opportunity to pay for some time (80 Euros for 10 minutes) to drive Ferrari's around for the fun. While some of us had great co-drivers that encouraged us to "have fun", I unfortunately had a co-pilot who grumpily kept me slow and steady. All in all a decent experience driving and seeing Ferrari's. (I no longer want one). After the museum we also visited the Pagani Factory in Modena and received a tour of the factory. We were able to see a Zonda R super car and walk through the factory as they actively worked on building new Pagani super-cars

. This was a very enjoyable tour. Finally we started our trek home at around 4pm, and after about 9.5 more hours of driving we arrived home after 1am in the morning to go to sleep and end our weekend vacation.

Even though we had a lot of driving, I highly recommend a road trip through Italy. Just remember to stay in the speed limit, since both Italy and Switzerland can gift you with speeding tickets of 100-200 Euros if caught. Safe travels!

Beguiling Brussels Summer 2013

It's been far too long since I had an excursion out and about, so I decided to head to Brussels for the weekend with a few of my friends, and some new friends. This turned out to be a decent trip though it did have one or two disappointing aspects.

We drove to Brussels and arrived just in time to attend the New Sandeman's Walking Tour of Brussels. As usual, this provided a great introduction to the history and sites available in Brussels. From Grand Place, to le Manneken-Pis, Cathedrals, Space Invaders, and even the Musical Instrument Museum. All in all, it proved to be another winner in my trip through Europe and it's history.

  In the middle of the walking tour, we took a break in a central market area near Grasmarkt to grab a snack and a break. We decided to try some Belgian Fries at Belgian Frit'n Toast, and I have to admit they were the best fries that I have had in a long time. Apparently the secret is to fry them once, at a lower temperature until cooked and then flash fry them at a higher temperature for the crispiness right before serving (or something like that). Fantastic.

Once we finished with the walking tour, we went to check into our hotel room. This time we stayed at an interesting hotel only a few blocks from Grand Place. It was called B-Apart Hotels. This hotel is intended to be a long term stay hotel, and it doesn't actually employ any desk staff. They email you an access code for the front door, and a code to retrieve your key from a key box in the main lobby. They do employ a cleaning staff that does not work on the weekend. So if you're staying from Friday to Sunday, don't expect your towels to be cleaned on Saturday. All in all, I thought this was a very good venue, with decent access. One of our group used the attached car garage for their parking, where we decided to park in the parking garage at Grand Place. This is easily able to fit small pickups if you need that. The parking garage at Grand Place was definitely cheaper than the attached garage, if you don't mind having to walk a few blocks with your luggage.

Once we checked in, we all went to Drug Opera for a quick beverage before continuing to wander around Brussels. As with everywhere in Brussels, if you like beers this is a pretty good place to visit. I can't actually comment on the food at this location since I wasn't hungry after those amazing fries. But the location and atmosphere was pretty good.

Following that we decided to try a local brewery Cantillon Brewery and go for a tour of the brewer as well as sampling of what they provide. The tour was actually pretty neat, they basically do a self-guided walking tour of the brewery. You buy a ticket, receive a brochure and you can walk around at your own pace and see how they do things. Not as informative as some breweries I've done a tour, but it is a neat change of pace. This brewery focuses on lambic style beer, so if you like really sour beer then you will really enjoy what they provide. Unfortunately, my friends and I weren't all that into this sour of a beer and did not really enjoy the samples. The lambic what I imagine a really sour, wheat wine would taste like. I also tried their Cherry beer, and while definitely tasting like cherry it was also very sour. So, I wouldn't suggest this brewery unless you have a taste for sour beers. A neat experience though with the tour, but a long walk away from the center of town.

After the brewery we walked over to Moeder Lambic for another beer or two, where I was introduced to Val Dieu beer. A very tasty beer if you like the standard Belgian style beer, but we'll get to that later. This Bar again, had a very nice atmosphere and was a pleasant break from our walking around Brussels to chill until dinner. Unfortunately I can't remember where dinner was at the moment so I'll have to provide that later. Needless to say it was very good :-)

After that we tried out Delirium Cafe. While not a scene I like to go to a lot, if you like bars than I could see it being a very good scene. They have a good selection of tasty beers to try from around the area. It will be very busy though. On our way back to the hotel afterwords, we stopped at one of the many Belgian Waffle stands around the city and had one. They make two styles, one is heavy and sweeter while the other is lighter and more like your standard waffle. You can put toppings on, but if you want to eat it like the locals do than stick with simply powdered sugar. Definitely something delicious to try.

The next day we wandered around Brussels and picked up souvenirs, Belgian chocolates, and tasty things to drink that we wanted to bring back home from our weekend excursion. All of it turned out to be amazing when I got around to trying them. We had breakfast at a local stand called Panos which is your basic European cafe with pastry treats. A great way to start the day or take a simple break.

After eating some breakfast and picking up somethings to take home, we started our trek back. This is where we headed to the Belgian Abbey I mentioned earlier called Val Dieu. We wandered around, explored the grounds and even stopped for some food. The food there is fantastic, the Abbey is amazing at making beers as well as cheeses. I ate Cheese Croquettes that were perhaps the best "cheese sticks" (OK not really cheese sticks, but an OK description for those that don't know what Croquettes are :-) ). 

When we were finished we picked up some cheese and a few more tasty things to drink and drove home.

While not my favorite trip in Europe, I did enjoy my stint in Belgium. There is a lot of history there, and a large number of museums that I would like to see so I plan on going back. Luckily for me, you don't have to be a big drinker to enjoy Brussels. There is a lot to do, and a lot of great food to try. Enjoy! :-)