Tour of Tuscany, Days 4 and 5

Note: We've posted two blogs simulatenously. Please see the blog for days 1 through 3 via the link on the right.


Tuesday, Oct 10th

Our flight left Hahn, Germany at 8:15am, meaning that we had to get up around 4:30am to ensure we got to the airport with enough time to check in and position ourselves in the waiting area (so that we wouldn’t get stomped over by the hordes of cattle that are the Ryan Air passengers). It was fun to sit from a distance and show Steph and Pete how these people act. “Look, now that guy’s going to sneak over there like he’s not sure where he’s going…..now this lady is going to move her bag just in front of that guy….” Then BAM! people were crowding around the check in desk in no recognizable form of a line and jockeying with each other for position. This was 40 minutes before the plane was due to be boarded!

Anyways, we had no problems with our flight and when we got to Milan we picked up our rental car and were ready to drive to Cinque Terre, then Pisa, then through the Chianti region, then to Florence, then to Siena, then to Venice….yes we had places to go and see!

Okay, so it’s important to note here that we didn’t really know anything about our car. Basically, we knew it was 15 euros a day and had 4 doors. I should have taken note that something might be a bit weird about the car when the lady at the counter repeated several times, “This is a Fiat Panda. That is okay?” Of course, it had 4 doors and I assumed it would be fine right? Well……
We get to the parking lot to pick up our car and just laugh. Honestly, the car was bright smurf blue. The horn went “Meep, Meep!” instead of “Beep, Beep!” The back had JUST enough room for our bags (creatively packed) and Ag and Steph had a few backpacks laid across the back seat with them. It was crucial that Steph and Pete had packed so light!! The car was a stick, but there was no odometer box on the dash…shifting was a function of just listening to/feeling the car. As you can imagine, the thing had NO pick up what so ever. Seriously, Pete and I would pull out on the highway and were flooring it with the hopes of moving….at one point, going up a slight hill, I said, “Everyone start leaning forward!”

Anyway, the car became the joke of the trip. I nicknamed it the “Shiat” (instead of Fiat). We started to use the word “Smurf” in our sentences and sayings. For instance, we would see a really cool building, “This is Smurf-tacular!” The simple things in life humor us, I guess.
So, we finally get on the road and start our drive to Cinque Terre. This was mine and Ag’s second trip to this tiny, beautiful place. (Please see the blog, “The Cinque Terre” for those adventures.) Our drive to Cinque Terre was about 3.5 hours...roughly 450 clicks! (Pete was calling kilometers “clicks” and we all thought it was great).

On the way to Cinque Terre, we stopped in Parma. Parma is the parmigiano-reggiano cheese capital of the world! We parked and planned on just grabbing a bite to eat. We went to the tourist information office and they provided us with a map and recommendations on a restaurant. We headed into the town which was really cute and quaint (did I just say cute? no…Agnes wrote this and I’m just editing). Anyway, it was a nice town and we found the restaurant without any problems. It was called Gallo d’Oro and was located through the center area of town and down a small side street. This was perfect because we got to see a bit of the city as we walked to it. The meal we had may have been the best meal on the whole trip.

We got a tray of assorted cheeses and a few pasta dishes. The cheeses, especially the parmigiano-reggiano, were delicious! I guess the best way to describe the experience is as follow: You are with great company, the sun is shining but you are under an umbrella, sipping on wine, snacking on cheese….does it get any better than this??

We got back on the road and the next city we hit was LaSpezia. It was an awesome town along the Med Sea. The city actually reminded Ag and I of Sardinia. The palm trees were blowing and the sun was shining. We pulled over and snapped a few pictures and then got back in the car. We had about another 1/2 hour to go.

The rest of the drive was through the mountains to Cinque Terre. The road was really windy and literally along the coast, overlooking the sea. We got to our village, Vernazza, and parked the Shiat. As soon as we stopped the car, it started smoking! Seriously, we didn't know what was going on...apparently, the brakes had a rough time maneuvering through the mountains and needed a break!

So we walked down the hill to the town and checked into our hotel…it was awesome! However, the set up to get to our rooms was a bit difficult (physically that is). We had to walk though a small part of the village, up a few sidewalks (everything was an upward incline), up a few steps, and finally got to our building. Well, then we had to climb 3 flights of stairs to get to the room. Whew. It was all worth it though! We had two rooms with a joining bathroom. There was a small patio area with chairs that overlooked the sea. It was beautiful.

At this point, it was close to 4:30pm and we had to get moving on our hike before it got dark. If you recall from the previous blog about Cinque Terre, there are five villages connected via train, boat and a hiking trail. We were staying in the second village (going from North to South). Our plan was to hike South to the remaining 3 (Corneglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore) and then check out Monterosso (the Northern-most village) the next day.

We got to see 2 of the 3 villages that night before it turned completely black on us. However, the sunset was really beautiful from the trail and the villages looked pretty sweet lit up at night. We caught the train back to our village but had to wait about 20 minutes for it….so we whipped our hand-dandy cork opener (we now travel with one everywhere we go!) and opened a bottle of wine (2 euros in the local grocery store, Dixie cups included) while we waited!

The train was 50 cents back to our village and we were home by 8:00pm. We got ready, showered, etc and were at dinner by 9:00pm. We ate at the restaurant that was associated with our hotel. The bread, pasta, seafood, wine….everything was great. After dinner we grabbed a few blankets and the rest of our bottle of wine from earlier that night. We then sat out on our balcony overlooking the sea. I of course fell asleep right there in the chair while everyone was talking. It was a great day…


Wednesday, October 11th

We woke up the next day and took the train to the first town, Monterosso. We had croissants and coffee overlooking the water and then headed into the village to walk around a bit. Ag and I didn’t explore this town as much the last time we were here so it was great to just take in the sites and absorb everything around us. The beach area was really nice too! The one interesting thing we did notice was a TON of English speaking people. Last time we were here, hardly anyone spoke English.

After breakfast and a stroll on the beach, back to the Smurf we went….it was close to 11:00am and it was time to hit the heart of Tuscany! We stuffed the car with our things and our bodies, praying it would make it out of the mountains. So far so good…we passed through La Spezia and headed onto Pisa. Pisa was roughly 83 clicks from La Spezia (45min to 1hour). The drive was great; the mountains were on the left and the ocean was to the right.

We arrived on the outskirts of Pisa and kind of struggled figuring out how to get into the city area. We managed though, parked the car and found a small pizzeria for lunch. The food was really good, our server was funny, but my one complaint: they charged 3 euros for ONE can of diet Coke!

After that money rape we walked just a bit further to the Piazza dei Miracoli. The Piazza was a huge great lawn area that had the Duomo, the Cathedral and the Leaning Tower, which houses the bells for the Cathedral. The construction for the tower began in 1173 and took 200 years to finish. The soil was so soft that the tower started sinking in areas and hence the reason it leans today (there’s a little fun fact for ya!). It was really cool to see.

After that, we got back into our car and headed toward our hotel. It was about 3:00pm at this point. The drive through Tuscany was on complete back roads and you could seriously smell the wine. We passed through many small towns, stopping to take pictures, etc. Most of the buildings and homes were a dark burnt orange/yellow colors. Many were made of stone too. The hills just rolled, and rolled, and rolled. The other thing besides tons of vineyards were that there were olive trees everywhere. All I have to say is we had some of the best, most fresh olive oil we’ve ever tasted during this part of the trip.

We pulled up to our hotel to find that it was literally smack dab in the middle of a wine field. There was a court yard with tables and a patio area out front, lawn chairs overlooking the vineyard and fields out back, and beautiful flowers growing everywhere. Plus, they had this sweet swimming pool…what a place.

The rooms were all scattered around the property. Our quad room was in the back, off a small path. We settled into our room and went to sit overlooking the vineyard and have some wine. We decided to have dinner at the hotel that evening which was a 4 course meal starting at 7:00pm. The meal consisted of the following items: bread, wine and olive oil (of course), ham/beef pâté, the best tomato soup I have ever tasted, bowtie pasta, roast pork tenderloin, and a baked puff with ice cream in the middle. Tasty!

After dinner we sat out back on the lawn chairs, chatting, sipping on wine…another great day and night!

Tour of Tuscany, Days 1 through 3

Saturday, Oct 7th-Monday, Oct 9th

After a tough week of work, we were very excited that our vacation with Steph and Pete was about to begin. We woke up on Saturday, went out for our respective runs and by 10:30am Ag and I were on the road heading to Amsterdam to pick up our pals. We arrived around 3:00pm, parked and checked into our hotel. Pete and Steph’s flight landed at 4:20pm, so we figured we had plenty of time to figure out how to get to the airport. Our hotel manager informed that there was a bus, which stopped about 3 blocks away, that would take us directly to the airport. “But,” he said, “You better hurry because it comes in 5 minutes and the next one doesn’t leave until 4:30pm.” The next thing we knew, we were literally sprinting about to the city center to catch the bus. It was like an episode of “Amazing Race.” Luckily, we made it to the stop just as the bus was pulling up.

When we got to the airport, we found out their flight was a bit delayed so we had a sandwich and beer to pass the time. After awhile, they showed up carrying only two normal size backpacks and a pretty small suitcase (one that you could definitely carry on to a plane). “Well, let’s go get your stuff,” I said. Lo and behold, that was all they brought! I couldn’t believe it. Talk about awesome packers! This little detail turned out to be one of the most critical occurrences of the trip, as you will read in the next couple of blogs. So, we headed toward the bus stop and arrived to discover that we had just missed the bus back to the city center. The next one wasn’t for another hour, so we had a beer and chatted as we waited.

Eventually we got to our hotel and we were out in the city exploring by 7:00pm. A few bars later, we were in a Mexican restaurant sipping on margaritas and eating a delicious meal. We went to a few other places and then walked through the Red Light district with all the other tourists. The area was booming to say the least. After that we headed back toward our hotel but not before we stopped for a piece of pizza and ice cream!

When we got back to our hotel we all made the “climb” to our room. Honestly, the steps were so steep it was like climbing a ladder. Plus our quad room was on the 4th floor!

After a breakfast of breads and spreads, we headed back to Luxembourg. We got home around 3:00pm and just chilled. We had some tasty wine and cheese, Wheat Thins (Steph brought some for us!), beer, etc. Later we ordered Indian food and our Irish friends Robbie and Laura came over to hang out as well. We watched the NFL games and had a great, great night.

The next day we drove to Trier, Germany and went to my favorite restaurant for their breakfast buffet. As always, it was delicious! After breakfast we shopped around and walked through the Roman Gardens. Also in the city center, there are two huge Catholic churches built right next to each other. The architecture in both churches are extremely different and unique. One church is Gothic and the other is Roman architecture.

After Trier we headed into Luxembourg Centre Ville (the city center). We parked in the Grund area, walked up to the city center and strolled around, did some shopping, etc. It was a beautiful day so as we walked we took some great pictures of the city. On our way home, we went to the grocery store and picked some things up for dinner.

When we got home, Agnes and I were really itching to get out and run a little. We planned to do the Amsterdam half marathon the next weekend (right after Pete and Steph were due to leave), and we knew we wouldn’t get a chance to run for the rest of the week. So while Ag and I went for jogs, Steph and Pete made dinner! Nothing like making your guests feel welcome, huh?!

After dinner that night we just packed and organized our things….ready for our Italy tour to begin!

Tour of Tuscany 2006

What a week! We just got back on Sunday around 9:30p after a very eventful week of traveling. As stated in previous blogs, our good friends, Pete and Stephanie Stratil, from Seattle (before living in Chicago with us for 6 years!) were here for a visit.

Our itinerary consisted of the following:

Saturday, Oct 7th: Steph and Pete arrived in Amsterdam. We stayed and partied there that night, then headed to Lux the next day.

Sunday, Oct 8th and Monday, Oct 9th: We toured around Lux and Trier, Germany.

Tuesday, Oct 10th: We flew from Hahn, Germany to Milan, Italy, then drove to Cinque Terre, stopping along the way in Parma.

Wednesday, Oct 11th: We hung out in Cinque Terre for a bit, then headed to the Tuscany wine region (the heart of Italy).

Wednesday, Oct 11th-Friday, Oct 13th: We toured around Tuscany, including stops in Florence and Siena, as well as wine tasting and tasty dinners in the countryside.

Friday, Oct 13th: We drove to and toured around Venice.

Saturday, Oct 14th: From Venice, we flew back to Hahn, Germany, where we picked up my friend from work Robert and drove back up to Amsterdam.

Sunday, October 15th: We took Steph and Pete to the airport in Amsterdam that morning for their flight home, then ran in the Amsterdam ½ marathon in the afternoon.

Stephanie had been to Europe but most of the places on our agenda were new to her. Pete had never been across the pond so this was quite an opportunity for him. We will be writing the blog of our travels by day, similar to Ferd and Andrea’s visit. We have lots going on this week and next (out of town for training, etc.), but we will do our best to update the blog ASAP. To summarize, the trip was awesome, we ate and drank well and had the best time.

On a side note, Uncle Tim, your comment on the Oktoberfest blog was awesome and Ag couldn‘t stop giggling about it after she read it…Yes we forgot to mention there were chicken stands among the brat, pretzel and beer stands. The chicken stands were huge and basically had whole chickens roasting rotisserie style. There were probably 200-300 chickens cooking in one stand at one time. Part of the reason Agnes thinks this is so funny is because after being in the beer garden all day/night, she was craving a chicken and basically walked up to the stand and declared “I’ll have a chicken!” And a chicken is what she got! I had a few bites of it and it was delicious!

On a second side note, our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to you, Kris. Stay strong, get better, and we’ll see you in a couple of months when we get home for Christmas.

Munich...Beer We Come!!

“…We are going to pick Ryan up around 6.30am and be at Rob and Laura's by 7.10am at the latest. I will drive like a bat out of hell (albeit very safely) and that will put us in Munich around lunch....err.....beer time. We'll get to Munich and park at our hotel….we'll all throw our bags down and then rendezvous at a place to be determined ….once we get there, it's no-holds-barred. Like, I wouldn't be opposed to going streaking through the quad and into the gymnasium, taking a beer shower, or even going to KFC (if it's still open)….Holla! let's go get drizzunk!”

Okay-so that was the short version of the email I sent out to the crew on Friday, September 22 to fire them up for Oktoberfest 2006!!

First thing’s first. The facts about Oktoberfest…..

- Oktoberfest is always celebrated the last two weeks of September.

- 30% of the year's production of beer by Munich breweries will be consumed in the two weeks of Oktoberfest.

- 12,000 People are employed at the Oktoberfest. Of these, 1,600 are waitresses.

- There is available seating for 100,000 people.

- The six Oktoberfest breweries, (Spaten, Augustiner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau) sold 6 million mugs of beer in 2005 (5.5 million in 2004).

- Roasted oxen served: 88

- Sausages served: 219,443 pairs

- Roasted chickens served: 459,279

- There are currently 14 main tents at the Oktoberfest. The tents themselves are semi-permanent structures which are only occupied during the festival.

So, as you can see, this was my kind of party. The troops on this “mission” were myself, Ag, Robbie, Laura and Ryan (a new dude in our office from Seattle). We were running pretty much on schedule Saturday morning and arrived at Rob and Laura’s at 7:04am. After a few pit-stops and a little traffic, we arrived in Munich around 1:30pm. We all got settled at our hotels and Ryan, Aggie and I went to “whet our pallets” with a small sample of beer at the hotel bar as we waited for Laura and Robbie.

Then off we went onto the subway, destination: a wonderful place known as Pretzel, Beer and Brat Land. Basically, Oktoberfest is a HUGE festival/carnival in an area of Munich called Theresienwiese. Really, the festival is similar to a state fair. Rides, games, tents, food, beer, people….it was awesome. People were everywhere and the atmosphere just seemed to ooze fun!

The main brew hall tents were enormous, and basically, they looked like huge buildings. We went up to a few of the tents to see if there were any tickets/spaces available but unfortunately, every place was full. We weren’t too worried though. Our plan was to just walk around and drink a few beers and then head into the city and hang out at some biergartens that we knew we could get into. So, we got some brats, pretzels, etc and as we were eating, we noticed a small gated area behind one of the tents. The gate to this area kept opening and closing, people were going in and out…..HUMMMM??? Maybe we can go in too?

We jumped in the small line and within 10 minutes we were seated in the biergarten of the Augustiner Tent! The setting: there were long tables and long benches where people were sitting, chatting, eating and sipping on their liters of beer. Everyone in the place seemed really happy. Roughly 8-10 people fit at a table. We sat down at our table and ordered our 1st of many liters….I looked at my watch…it was 2:30pm….

There was a couple with their kid eating at our table when we sat down. The dude was really nice and chatty; he totally became our friend right away. Eventually they left and a group of 5 sat with us (tight squeeze at the table!) and with this group there was a random 20 yr old guy from Texas who was engaged to one of the German chicks at our table.

They eventually left and we found out that after 1hr of sitting in the garden, you were supposed to leave. Supposedly that was the “rule” so that they can turn over tables, etc. Well, I’m not sure how we managed to stay there all day and all night but we did and we had fun!!

Throughout the night, we all just had a blast! Really, everyone just talks to everyone, people are relaxed and chilled, it was great. Robbie and I managed to try on a couple “Bayerish” vests, chat it up (and arm wrestle) with a couple of East Berliners, and meet some Dirndl ladies (as Ag took pics of us/them!). All I have to say about the Dirndl ladies is “bombs”!

We finally left our little garden around 11pm. The festival grounds had cleared out a bit and we headed to the subway. When we got back to the hotel, we decided we needed a mid-night snack and found a Greek restaurant around the corner of our hotel and it was open till 1am!

When we walked in, the place was dead and the host and cooks were sitting at a table. They seated us with smiles and even brought us shots! Anyway, after a tasty meal of pitas, gyros, meatballs, etc., we headed back to the hotel. As we were leaving, we looked around and noticed that the place had actually gotten kind of crowded….everyone was all about the late night food!

We finally went to bed but not before Ag got a picture of Ryan and I passed out on the bed. In the most heterosexual way possible that two guys could be passed out on a bed together. Lovely.

The next day we walked around Munich for a bit and grabbed lunch at the Hofbrauhaus. We left around 2pm and estimated that we should be home by 7 or 8pm. Unfortunately, there was a major crash on the autobahn and we were in stand-still/slow moving traffic for about 2 hours. Finally, we got home at 10:30pm.

All in all, I highly recommend Oktoberfest and would go again in a heartbeat. Munich itself is awesome, and when coupled with the enormous festival, it makes for an even better time.
So now it is back to reality. I have been extremely busy with work because I am in a new manager role. There’s lots to do and learn…and things are definitely not the same here as in the U.S. I will not bore you with the details but obviously, it makes things more challenging.

However, the living and traveling experience is amazing and Ag and I couldn’t be happier. Speaking of traveling, Pete and Stephanie Stratil arrive in Amsterdam on Saturday. We will of course be picking them up and proceeding to travel all of next week. The nonsense is about to begin again…..

"Tour" - The Last Days...Salzburg, Luxembourg and Trier

Note : Please read the previous blogs to catch up on any of the adventures you may have missed!

Monday, September 11th

Again, the church bells were our wake up call. We got up, had our generous breakfast buffet, and decided to head to Salzburg, Austria. We were only an hour away and how could we not see the place where The Sound of Music was filmed?? Salzburg is also famous for being the place where Mozart was born (a little trivia for ya!).

So we jumped in the car, got there without too much hassle, parked and found a map right away. I could tell the “hills were alive” in the city and we were excited to explore (Note: that was Agnes’ comment…I would never say anything so girly). We did some shopping on the cobblestone streets that had tons of little, unique shops and boutiques. It was really beautiful and quaint. We saw a few castles, the Abby where Maria stayed, and the Cathedral. We took a carriage ride and then strolled through some beautiful flower gardens. We stopped into a local grocery store, bought some food for lunch and then sat in a park and had ourselves a little picnic. Before we knew it, Salzburg turned out to be one of our favorite stops.

We left around 4pm and started the long drive back to Luxembourg (roughly 7-8 hours). After some bumper to bumper traffic in Munich, a hail storm near Stuttgart, and a slight diversion (e.g., I turned off the wrong exit again….damnit!), we finally pulled up to the homestead, tired but happy. It was about 2am and we all went right to sleep with no plans to get up early the next day. What a fun week…..

Tuesday, September 12th

We were woken up the next morning around 8am, not by the lovely church bells we had grown accustomed to hearing, but to a loud and annoying drilling sound in our neighbor’s apartment. Obviously, something was under construction!

Anyway, we sat around for a bit, chatted and had some coffee and pastries. We then went into Luxembourg Centre to show my parents the Grund (the valley area of town where we usually go out). We walked around and then grabbed lunch at a place Agnes and I really like called Oscar Wilde’s. I really like this place because they have a delicious Sunday roast every week, great food in general every other day, and a nice beer garden area where they’ll show sporting events on a big screen. Plus, the signs for the toilets say “Flip Dry” (for men) and “Drip Dry” (for women)…how can you not like a place like this? Andrea had the best burger she's ever had (finally she got her burger!!), and the rest of us had a variety of other good stuff.

Afterwards we walked off our lunch by taking a stroll in the Bambesch…a forest behind my apartment with what seems like a million different running and mountain biking trails. From there, we heading to the United States Military Cemetery and World War II Memorial. The weather was gorgeous and made these two events incredibly enjoyable.

From the Memorial we drove into Remich, which is about 30 minutes outside of Luxembourg Centre on the Luxembourg - Germany border, and also the place where Agnes works. We ended up going to see the Carters, the family Ag works for. It was nice to sit and chat with them for a bit since we hadn’t seem them for some time. Plus, Ag got to see her buddy, Sebastian. It was obvious that Seb was happy to see Aggie…he ran up, hugged her around the neck and said “Ag, where have you been? I’ve wanted to play with you for ages!”

From Remich we decided to drive over to Trier, Germany. The drive from Remich to Trier is awesome! The road is all along the Moselle River and there are just tons of vineyards along the way. Basically, we were driving on the Lux side and across the river was Germany (kind of like the West Side and Lindenwald, or Cincinnati and Kentucky). The hills were just green and rolling and it was a beautiful drive.

In Trier we walked around and shopped for a bit. Then we met our friends, Robbie and Laura, at our favorite restaurant in town. We ate, drank and were merry. After dinner we walked through town to the Roman gardens. Trier is the oldest Roman town in Europe, besides Rome of course….another trivia tip!

We got home around 10pm and Ferd and Andrea just organized and packed their fudge. Off to bed we went and then on Wednesday we just woke up, had breakfast and hung out till their flight home at 2:30pm. Unfortunately, once they left, we had to go back to reality….

So all of this happened between September 5th and 13th. Last weekend (September 23rd and 24th), we went to the world famous Oktoberfest….meaning we drove back to Munich again! Even though we didn’t have tickets to any of the beer tents, Aggie randomly found a sweet set up for us (nice hotel close to the action) so we went just to check it out. Robbie and Laura came along, as well as a new American guy from our office, Ryan. We’ll be blogging all about that sometime later this week. Oh, and Mike, there'll be plenty of Drindl photos for you!

This weekend we’re chillin and I’m catching up on some work. It’s been a lazy weekend so far and we’re glad!! We needed a little break, because next weekend our great friends Steph and Pete Stratil will be coming and we’ll be off to road trip and conquer another European country. Which one? Stay tuned!