Bacoli and Monte di Procida, Italy

This is two posts in one. The last 2 days we have been relaxing and enjoying the beautiful coastal areas outside of Naples. We visited some old Roman ruins in a little town called Bacoli. The ruins were a place where they used to store and filter water for the area. It is a massive underground room. Kinda interesting, I guess. Later that day we had a nice lunch at a little local restaurant on the water. Clearly we needed a nap after lunch, so we did. That night we went to a place that Keebs and Maggie knew about for dinner. The owners just asked us what kind of food we wanted, and they just kept bringing more food until we finally said no more. Very good.

Today we were supposed to get on the airplane, but it is delayed until Saturday. So instead, we lounged around for awhile this morning, then went for a walk through town. We decided to go to a few local shops and buy some fresh bread, provolone cheese, prosciutto, and the best fresh mozzarella I have ever had. We took this to some tables by the water and made our own sandwiches for lunch. Perfect setting.

Well hopefully we will be getting on a flight tomorrow, so this may be our last blog. It's been a trip of a lifetime, but it's time to come home.

Hey Puppy Doos

Hello Oscar! We are coming home soon. Hopefully we will get on the flight Saturday morning. We miss you very much. I sure hope you enjoyed that steak bone. I hope you said thank you after you got it.

Naples/Amalfi Coast

After eating some good blueberry muffins, we drove today to the Amalfi Coast, which is just south of Naples, around a few peninsulas. Wow, what a different place than Naples. It is very picturesque. There are small towns built on the cliffs that drop into the ocean. The first town we went to was Sorrento. Apparently this town gets overridden with tourists during the summer, but the weather was great today, and there was hardly anyone there. We walked around awhile, and then had a great lunch with very fresh ingredients. We drove from there along the coast for about 30 minutes to a small town on the cliffs named Positano. This is a sleepy little place that probably comes alive during the summer. We had some great gelato on the beach before winding our way back up to the car. The drive back was just as good as the way there. Few pics below.

Milan to Naples

We got up and headed to the train station for our ride to Naples. It is a 6 hour train ride, so it was kinda painful. The restaurant car on the train didn't have much to offer for food, so by the time we got to Rome, we were pretty hungry. The liquid diet only gets you so far. We had 15 minutes in Rome before the train left, so I got off and found some pizza for us. Corley was sure I was going to miss the train. Anyway, we made it to Naples, and Keebs was there waiting for us. We took the subway to the base where he works and then got his car and drove to his house. How anyone drives in Naples is beyond me. Again Naples is not the cleanest place on Earth. However, once we got out of the city towards their house, the place is actually quite nice. Everything is coastal, with the mountains and hills coming right down to the water. The pictures below are from their balcony. The second picture has Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

Milano

Today we decided to take a tour of the city with a company we used in Budapest. It allows you to hop on/off the bus during the day with only the purchase of one ticket. There are great commentaries about the sites, and they have two extended routes. We did a little shopping today at some of the high end stores, then went to the luxury outlet. It was off the beaten path and recommended by the hotel. It had some great finds but still a bit too pricey for us. Afterwards, we went to the Duomo cathedral in the middle of the old city and climbed to the top for some great pictures. The cathedral is in Gothic style and very intricate detailing. The view was great. There are at least 1,000 statues on the exterior of the church. It was hard to take it all in. We had a great lunch in the shopping area. Great risotto. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around and enjoying the city.

Tomorrow is our last train ride. We are heading down to Naples to stay with Keebs and Maggie, our Knighthawk friends from Va Beach, for three nights. Keebs is over here for two years working a NATO job. Almost home! We are excited to see the puppy and the rest of the family.

Interlaken to Milan

We woke up this morning to a lot of snow falling. Big flakes. We got the early train to Milan (7:30 am) so we could spend some time there in the afternoon. We were the only ones out walking to the train station that early so it was very peaceful and pretty in the snow. The train trip was going to take us through the Alps of Switzerland down in to Italy. It turns out, most of the trip is in tunnels. We went in one tunnel with it snowing like crazy, and we came out 15 minutes later to clear skies. Big tunnel. The northern part of Italy is full of some big lakes and big villas. This is where George Clooney has his house.
We made it to Milano and dropped our bags off at the hotel. Milan has 2 soccer teams, Inter Milan and AC Milan. AC Milan was playing today so we went to the game. We got to the stadium about 2 hours before the game to get tickets. There were swarms of people around a small building, so we assumed that was the ticket office. We were correct, but of course the ticket lady didn’t speak English, and we didn’t know what to ask for. Anyway, we got the tickets and attended our first international soccer game. Very cool. AC Milan is the team that has “borrowed” David Beckham from the LA Galaxy. So we saw him too. Italians sure like their soccer.
After the game, sightseeing around the main cathedral and the shopping district, then dinner.

Interlaken

Today was our day to relax. After breakfast we spent some time using the computer to catch up on things. We found a little restaurant by the river for a good lunch. There was a walking path along the river that we took to the train station to get our tickets for the trip to Milan. After that we continued our walk, making a big loop through the town. About a 2.5 mile trip total. We went to a place recommended by our book for dinner. Good food.
All in all, Interlaken is a quaint Alpine town. It is definitely a ski town in the Winter. Spring, Summer, and Fall would be great for hiking, biking, etc. It has a Gatlinberg feel to it that looks like it was renovated in 1983 and not touched since.

Interlaken/Grindelwald, Switzerland

The clouds this morning gave way to one of the most beautiful, sunny days we have had thus far. We spent the morning walking around Interlaken, popping in and out of shops. In the afternoon we took a 30 minute train ride to the small Alpine village of Grindelwald. We might be the only people in this area not here to ski. The entire skiing area seemed different than what we are used to back home. It seemed much less organized/groomed than our runs. They seem to just ski wherever they want to even if it is through a back yard. The views from up there were great. By the way, there is a Hooters in Interlaken. Really?

Train ride from Salzburg to Interlaken, Switzerland

The first thing on the agenda was laundry. We were at the bare minimums. We got the laundry done then made it to the train station for our trip. The train ride took most of the day to Interlaken. It was a beautiful train ride, and the pictures below give a good idea of what we saw. We could have taken pictures every few minutes. We traveled through sections with just a few inches of snow and through areas with feet of snow. Pictures below.

Salzburg, Austria

The church which showed the wedding of Captain von Trapp and Maria.



The back of the Sound of Music house and the frozen lake where Maria and the kids fell into the water. The actress playing little Gretel actually almost drowned when she fell in. She couldn't swim.



We are in Salzburg, Austria. So needless to say we went on The Sound of Music Tour today. As this was a different experience for each we are going to make two separate posts.

Corley's Post:
We basically ran from the train station, with our packs, to the tour site. After our many trains and all of the very prompt times; our train today from Munich was late. That made our 37 minute transfer from the train station to the tour site reduced to about 25 minutes on foot. We made it. David had made several snide comments about how few people there would be on the tour and that it would be painful for all the men. Well.....the tour bus was PACKED and we all enjoyed the music and sites from the film. It was great.I have seen this movie countless times, can sing every song, and can recite most of the movie. We went to the lake region and had many beautiful views of the Alps. Our guide was an expert in the film and the actually history of the von Trapp family. We saw so many of the film locations, which were scattered all around Salzburg. So, the sing along on the way back from the lake region might have been a bit much, but, really, this is the most famous music of all time. Just because one "person" on the bus happens to have a terrible voice and a didn't know the words; that didnt stop the rest of us from enjoying ourselves. The rest of the day was awesome. I want to come back to Salzburg, specifically during the spring. This is such a quaint, beautiful city. We have had so much fun. I hate that we don't have more time here.

David's Post:
So our train was late leaving Munich. When we got to Salzburg, we had to run with our packs to what I thought was going to be our hotel. However, our packs are quite heavy, and we didn't have a map, so we made it to the tour starting point at about 9:27 for a 9:30 show time. At least we made the tour. Husband of the Year!!! I could have sworn that we would have been the only people on this tour, since it was the middle of February. I mean who really cares about the Sound of Music anyway, besides Corley and CJ. The bus pulls up and it was packed. I didn't think we were going to be able to sit next to each other. If I had to sit next to a Japanese tourist for 4 hours, it was not going to be fun. So the tour guide gets on the bus, and he is already singing and dancing through the aisle. This guy would have gotten beat up in an American high school. He was more excited about a musical than anyone should be. And he kept calling it the greatest movie ever made. Whatever, we made it, and Corley was happy. Therefore, I am happy. My first surprise comes when he says that we are going through the sights in the city as well as a drive out to the mountains and lakes district. So the tour itself was great. We saw lots of stuff in the city, including some caste/palaces that we would not have seen otherwise. The problem was, there were probably 60 people on the bus and 40 of them were really really really really excited about the Sound of Music, and the other 20 of us were 'obliged' to go. There was an excitement in the air, like it was Christmas Day, but it wasn't. The British lady behind us kept humming and singing as we went along. There was even trivia questions from the movie on the bus. Really??? So we leave the city to go out to the mountains. Wow. Absolutely incredible. This was the Alps that we missed yesterday. Beautiful views of huge snow covered mountains and shimmering lakes below. Then came the music. Oh boy. The tour guide said he was going to play a CD with the music, and everyone was free to sing along. He said, "go ahead and sing. It's not like you are ever going to see any of these people again." Great, thanks for the encouragement. You can imagine what happened for the next 30 minutes. Then there were 3 terrible jokes, which shouldn't be repeated unless you are entertaining 4 year olds. Maybe I will tell Conner. All in all, though, the tour was absolutely worth it for the incredible scenery and Corley's happiness, but just bring earplugs next time.

The rest of the day was awesome. Lots of walking, although it was freezing. really cool castle up on the hill with great views. Found the local brewery too, which was founded by monks. I took over 100 pictures today, so I will have to sort through them before I post a few.

Royal Castle Tour Germany

We left early this morning in a blizzard on a double-decker bus to drive to 2 castles built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It snowed most of the night, so there was already a good bit of snow on the ground. As we drove south towards the Austrian border, it started snowing harder, and it did not stop until we got back to Munich, 10 hours later. The snow was great, but we were at the beginning of the Alps, so the scenery would have been awesome, but it was snowing too much to even know where we were. It was hard to get good pictures of the castles because of the weather. We could see them from good vantage points along the way, but the camera didn't do a good job of picking them up.
The first stop was Linderhof. The castle is actually not much more than a fancy house. The king actually referred to it as a villa. It was 2 stories with about 5 rooms on each floor. Ludwig II was never married and didn't like to entertain guests, so it was pretty much just him. However, he was quite eccentric. He liked to create a fantasy world around him, decorating with pictures of the French royal family, none of whom he ever met.
From here we stopped at a little town called Oberammergau. It is known for it's Passion Plays. Every 10 years the town puts on a play depicting the Passion of Christ. Apparently they do it for 20 weeks, and the performances are sold out a year in advance. Charming.
The last stop was at Hohenschwangau, the site of the most famous castle in the world, Neuschwanstein. Walt Disney used this castle as his design for the castle at Disney Land. This castle shows his true insanity. Parts of the castle look like it is part of the Candyland board game. He was obsessed with composer Richard Wagner and designed most rooms to be themes from his operas. They spent 19 years building the castle and then quit when Ludwig died, around 1868ish. The castle is only 1/3 complete. Crazy.
Sound of Music tomorrow. Sweet!!!!

Munich

We started the day with a very cold walking tour of old Munich. We had a guide who was a native of Munich, but she spoke English pretty well. We started in Marienplatz, which is the center of the old town. It contains the 'new' and 'old' Rathaus, city halls. They are called new and old, even though they were both heavily damaged and rebuilt after WWII. The Neues Rathaus has the Glockenspiel, which is a tall tower with a clock on one face, and below it are some figures that dance and move with music. Not all that exciting. From here we walked to the Viktualienmarkt, which is the old open air market that is still in use today. The Hofbrauhaus was the next stop, though only for a quick visit, no beer involved. See the picture below of the cages where the locals lock their steins up when not in use. We then walked to the National Theater and the Residenz, which was the residence of the Bavarian kings. The front is covered with scaffolding for renovations and a huge Apple iPod billboard. The final stop was the steps where Hitler's attempted coup was met by the police and several were killed. During Nazi times, a memorial was here, and the citizens were required to give the Nazi salute as they passed. It's obviously not there anymore. The rest of the day we walked around and did some shopping.

We decided to alter our travel plans. We are going to skip Zurich since it is mostly just a big financial city. Not as much history and museums as other places. We are going to spend tomorrow on a 10.5 hour tour to the royal castles, including Neuschwanstein, which is the castle that the one at Disney World is modeled after. It is on the Austrian border in the mountains. Supposedly there is going to be a lot of snow there tonight. We are excited. The next day we are going to Salzburg to spend the night, and of course, do the "Sound of Music" tour. I am SO excited. Corley is too. From there we will go to Lucerne, Switzerland.

We have this funny little old man that works the reception desk at our hotel. He tried to tell me a joke today when he was booking our tour. He said that Americans always show up with heavy bags. He always tells them that our Rocky Mountains are just going to be Rocky Hills soon because we keep bring over chunks of rock, which makes our bags so heavy. At least I think that's what he was saying. He thought it was hilarious, so I just smiled.