Where are all the Dalmatians?

We didn't see any dogs, but boy did we see cats! Everywhere in Croatia and Montenegro. They looked to be in pretty good shape so they must be well enough fed by tourists and locals alike.
We made a quick trip south through Croatia deciding to take a more leisurely visit on the way back up. We stayed one night in Opatija on the coast in north Croatia. It used to be a famous destination for Austro-Hungarian and Italian aristocracy. You can tell from the grand hotels in this bay that it was quite a happening place. Still is.... and it has the prices to match. We stayed overnight at the Savoy hotel where Marcus met a Slovenian entrepreneur who helped set us up on Skype. The two of them hung out in the lounge all evening while I relaxed in our room.

The next morning we drove up into the mountains and unexpectedly encountered a snow storm. It was slippery - we came across a car with high performance tires who couldn't make it up a ramp. We drove with bated breath hoping we'd make it to a lower elevation before it got really bad. (We are such wusses without our SUV and snow tires!) It did clear up then as we headed back down to the coast towards Split. The US and EU have invested a lot of money in Croatia in the past few years and much of this has funded the building of a new highway that runs nearly the entire length of the country. It stops just past Split and if you are driving to Dubrovnik, plan on 3.5 hours of a winding, twisting road along the coast. It was especially fun for us since we were doing it in the dark and it was raining! I (Kristine) was pleased that it was dark out, as it meant I couldn't see the shear drops off to my side of the car. Anyhow, we stayed comfortably behind a truck with bright running lights, using him as our guide.

In Dubrovnik we found a 5 star hotel called Hotel More for a very reasonable 80 Euros. It was a great place. I was very excited because the bathroom had a bath tub and the last soak I had was in.... I don't even remember when (I think Casablanca at the Sheraton). Well wouldn't you know it - everything was perfect in our room, except they didn't have hot water. We complained, but they informed us that it was normal. I guess they are mostly a summer destination when you don't need hot showers and baths, but still! Marcus had a pretty cold shower the next morning. It was an amazing spot on the coast though, and we noticed that their high season rates were pretty reasonable. We would recommend it - the only disadvantage is that it is a little ways away from the old town.

The old town - Dubrovnik - was really impressive. It's been criticized as having turned into a tacky tourist destination with no local flavour or soul, which is probably true, but nonetheless, it's a fantastic place from a visual and architectural perspective. We spent about 2 hours exploring the Main Street Placa and some of the very narrow side alleys.

I have to say, that despite all the rain we've had during our travels, we have certainly lucked out with sun whenever we planned to be in a city or town for one day. Monaco was sunny, one day in Nice was sunny, Venice was sunny, Dubrovnik was sunny. The days in between it rained.

Kotor Montenegro was only about 2 hours from Dubrovnik and we had a nice leisurely drive (it was inland and away from the coast). Here we noticed a very similar landscape to Tuscany - farming fields with those tall evergreens (cypress?) that are the typical image when imagining the Italian countryside (to me these look strange - they look like ornamental trees that we would put in a highly manicured landscape and here they grow naturally but haphazardly!) Marcus remarked that Italy and the Dalmatian coast would have been attached at one point in time and so not surprising that the landscape is similar. We had only a short delay at the border. We paid a 10 Euro eco tax for bringing our brand new fuel efficient car into the country. No doubt to make up for all the communist era death traps the locals drive.

If you look at a map of Montenegro you'll notice that along the coast it has an fairly large inlet vaguely in the shape of an lopsided "infinity" sign (no doubt there is a better way to describe it but that's the best I can do). Along the water edge there is development and behind that the mountains rise straight up - it makes for very dramatic scenery.

Kotor is probably the largest town on this inlet. It is an old walled city, situated at the foot of the looming mountains that completely surround Kotor Bay. The steep slopes do not support much vegetation, giving the surrounding area a barren, moon-like feeling (well what we imagine the moon to look like, kind of like Sudbury, Ontario), but nonetheless very beautiful.

One of many plazas in Kotor old town with mountain snuggled up behind it.

A view of Kotor from the fortress

The town is completely surrounded by an old fortress wall which reaches way up into the hills and it still has a moat. The Kotor city walls are more than 4 km in length and reach a height of 850 feet. We were enthralled by the drawbridge hardware - chains and counterweights - that still hung from either side of the gateway. We climbed the hundreds of steps all the way to the top to see the views of Kotor and the bay. I loved exploring the still existing stone buildings carved into the mountain side. I tried to imagine the "daily commute" of a defense soldier who would be stationed at the top keeping watch for invaders like the blasted Saracens! Don't worry - I am not too sure who they were either - suffice it to say, almost every early medieval power tried to capture this part of the coast. Still remaining, although overgrown with weeds, are the rooms where he would have lived - did he have his family up there with him? Was he provided a cook or did he have a lonely vigil eating stale bread and sausage for a week waiting for the next rotational guard to replace him? Behind the fortress (we climbed through a window) we visited a lonely little church. There was no one else about and it was very windy. Clouds moving swiftly overhead obscured the top of the mountain and I felt a little like Dorothy caught in a strange land in a past life. Flying monkeys would not have outside the realm of possibilities I thought, but thankfully we didn't see any!

We stayed in a very nice apartment right in the old town. Just a step away from a bakery that had cherry turnovers for breakfast! We also tried a "burek" a greasy layered pie with clotted cheese (or ground meat), but it was very heavy so we stayed away from that particular delicatessen. Our shutters opened up right onto a main alleyway, and we felt a little part of the community as we could hear people walking by chatting and kids playing. (This would have driven us nuts at home, but here it was all part of the experience!)

We made most of our meals at the apartment getting food supplies at the a small grocery store. Fruit and vegetables were limited. For fresh fruit, you had a choice of soft apples, moldy clementines or bruised bananas. The fruit was kept behind a counter and when we tried to ask for some bananas we got major attitude from the server. She in fact kicked hard at an empty box on the floor and started muttering. Not knowing what made her upset we retreated to the safety of the canned good section.

We spent most of the week relaxing in our cozy apartment reading and surfing the web. We drove 15 minutes up the coast to a town called Perast which used to be a prosperous city because it had preferential trading agreements with Venice (they paid no taxes). The town was renowned for their seamanship skills and the Venetians hired many of them to act as captains of their navel ships. It was a very quiet town at this time of year. We saw a mansion under renovation up on the hill and decided to explore inside when we saw that no one was there. I can only imagine that this place once belonged to a wealthy seafaring family. All three levels of the home had balconies and the marble balustrades were all new. The wife would have been able to look out any window to keep a constant lookout for the return of her husbands ship (hopefully with him on it!). Inside, the rooms were small and a bit awkward as they were essentially built into the side of the mountain. In one room, some of the vaulted painted ceiling remained. I wish we could find out more about the history of this dwelling - it was a romantic spot!

In a former life I think I was a black cat in Dubrovnik!

Link to web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/20081127CroatiaMontenegro

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is coming
The geese are getting fat
Can you please spare a penny for an old mans hat
If you haven't got a penny, a half penny will do
And if you haven't got a half penny
God bless you!

Leaving Italy (Padua and Venice)

After Rome, it was time to head up and over to the Dalmatian coast.  We contemplated heading further south in Italy to visit Naples and the Amalfi coast, and maybe even Sicily, but decided that it might be better to save that for a separate trip in a warmer season. It was hard to point the car north though, when all we wanted to was get as far south as possible for the chance to reach some sun.

Our friend Giorgio recommended going to Padua (or Padova) and this is where we decided to base ourselves in order to visit Venice, which is about 30 minutes away.  Padua is a small city and has been mostly rebuilt after the WWII, but it still has some neat sites to check out including the famous Giotto frescoes at the Cappella degli Scrovegni.  The story goes... in the 13th century a rich nobleman had a chapel built and dedicated to the holy virgin to save the soul of his father who was a usurer.  A usurer you ask?  Uh huh!  Usury is the act of charging interest.  And in medieval Europe this was considered a mortal sin (basically, you were expected to accept your lot in life and "work" was integral to being human - it was god's will, so to make money without actually working for it was an insult to God).  And so many nobleman decided to trade a life in hell (in fact the father mentioned above is mentioned in Dante's Inferno) in order to advance the lot of their families.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the chapel but we did capture a few in the Baptistery, which were done in a similar style by Giotto's contemporary, Giusto de' Menabuoi.

By the time we were through with both of these sites, I felt pretty confident being able to recognize the main scenes from the New Testament such as: the Last Judgement, The Adoration of the Magi, the Resurrection, Massacre of the Innocents, etc...   If it were me, I'd get pretty tired telling the same old story over and over again (but that's just me).

We also checked out the September 11th monument designed by Daniel Libeskind, which was a little depressing, but we cheered up after buying new slippers at the market.  Nothing like a bit of shopping and cosy toes to pick up one's spirit. 

Although we didn't intend to visit every single church in Padua, we did because we kept thinking that the next one on the map was Saint Anthony's Basilica.  By the time we reached Saint Anthony's a full service was in process, but many people were milling about so we felt fairly inconspicuous as tourists.  Marcus lined up to visit the tomb of Saint Anthony which was very busy with people praying with the palms pressed onto his tomb and pinning pictures of saved loved ones onto the wall.  Apparently he is invoked for the recovery of things lost and by those who have been saved from harm. Of course we couldn't miss seeing the relics of his lower jaw and vocal cords!  All in all, Padua was a nice little surprise. 

From here we drove to Venice on a wonderfully sunny but cold day.  We parked just in the outskirts and took a boat bus to the San Marco square.  Despite the cold, Venice was packed.  We strolled about for a few hours, had a nice meal in a restaurant that we would never be able to find again.  We asked some people where they got takeout hot chocolate and they kindly guided us the shop.   We were getting cold and so made our way back to the car.   Five days later, Venice would experience the worse flooding in 20 years, with tourists having to wade through thigh-deep water.  Ick!

More pictures of Padua and Venice:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/20081126PadovaVenice#

All roads lead to Rome

Too many pictures of Rome: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/Rome#

It was inevitable that our European road trip would include Rome, given the famous saying that all roads lead there. And so, after enjoying Florence, we hit the road for a three hour drive south. Entering Rome, we were immediately engulfed by a traffic jam. We observed the scooter-riders, so accustomed to effortlessly weaving through the thick Roman traffic, become evermore frantic in their efforts to penetrate the backed-up cars, squeezing their way between the stopped vehicles, brushing fenders, mirrors, and elbows as they went. The car drivers seemed oblivious, chalking up yet one more scrape as the cost of doing business in the city. Somehow, we remained unscathed.

With the help of GPS Madge, we made our way to our rental apartment, which we found located in the midst of a huge construction project to build a new metro line. Strangely, this detail had escaped mention on the apartment advertisement...fortunately, we were not disturbed for the duration of our stay, although the romance of Rome was a little hard to immediately discern amid the construction hoarding and heavy equipment taking over much of our street.

We decided to go for a quick evening walk to get a lay of the land. Our first find was that of Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome (i.e the Pope). Pope Clement V abandoned it in 1309 in favour of transferring the official seat of the Catholic Church to Avignon. When the Avignon papacy ended, this church was deemed inadequate (due to fires and deterioration) and the Popes eventually moved to the Vatican, where they remain to this date. The basilica features a cloister displaying old architectural artifacts, six papal tombs, striking sculptures of the twelve apostles, and in the baldacchino over the high altar (at center in the photo), a reliquary said to contain the heads of Saints Peter and Paul. Really.

We arranged for a private tour with an American ex-pat, who had completed his Masters in ancient history here and stayed on to work as a guide (who says a degree in history can't get you places). That morning we caught the bus (conveniently, at our front door) for ride to our meeting place. We boarded and offered the driver our fare, but as the bus moved on, only received a terse "no ticket here." We shrugged...and spent the rest of the ride exchanging guilty looks and watching out for fare inspectors. With some relief, we disembarked at our destination, and were quickly met by our guide, Rich.

Then began an intense, four-hour whirlwind tour of the Roman forum, Palatine Hill, the Colosseum, and other nearby sites. Trust me, you will have even less patience reading an account of this tour than I have in writing it, so suffice to say that we saw a lot of really, really old stuff. Piles of rocks dates back thousands of years. Lots and lots of ancient history. Google is your friend, if you want more.

Another notable sight included the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (below left) built on the site of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The floorplan was said to have been laid out by a miraculous snowfall in the year 352. Really.

We also enjoyed the Pantheon, a magnificent ancient temple in Rome that was later converted into the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres. Dating from 125 AD, this is the most complete ancient building in Rome and one of the city's most spectacular sights (below).

 

 

 

Of course, Rome would not be complete without a visit to the Vatican, including the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's basilica, and St. Peter's square. We took a tour of the Vatican Museums that included the Map Room (with painted frescos of the world known and an ornate ceiling), various sculptures, tapestries, and works of art. Below, our tour group takes in the Belvedere Torso, said to have acted as a model for Michelangelo's works. The tour culminated with a visit to the Sistine Chapel, a surprisingly small space made that much cozier by the presence of a throng of other tourists. The small space amplified the cacophony of whispers, coughs, and exclamations, and was punctuated periodically by the custodians' sharp "shushes" and terse "no pictures!" It didn't feel particularly holy.

We then took in St. Peter's basilica, an overwhelmingly large and impressive space that dwarfs even the immense crowds that regularly throng about in its nave and arcades. Below, is a shot of the dome. Our last evening was spent with our new friends Rocco and Donatella, who graciously (despite the short notice), whipped up a fantastic meal that completely satisfied our cravings for a home-cooked meal. Thanks guys, and Ciao!

Pictures from Florence

We didn't have time to do all we wanted in Florence.  Guess we are going to have to go back! ;-)

Our favorite church was the one called San Miniato el Monte.  We went back during the evening to take in the Gregorian chants and church service (in Italian).

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/20081115Florence#

Levanto and Lucca (Italy)

[Our posts are slightly out of order - this one precedes the Florence (Firenze) blog entry]

We were introduced to Italy by two wonderful small towns:  Levanto and Lucca - each a treasure.  After leaving France and Monaco, we drove to Levanto.  It is one town north of the popular Cinque Terre region - a series of 5 small fishing villages that are joined by a walking path and a train.   We had heard and read that Cinque Terre is not well suited to car traffic, so we headed to Levanto (more easily accessible by car) and planned to use the train linking the towns to explore them. When we checked into our hotel in Levanto, we were informed that the train would be on strike the next day.  Figures!   Davide at the hotel (who was very helpful) suggested we hop on the train right then and explore the next town over - Monterosso.  We are  very glad we did.  The train ride was all of 5 minutes and we explored the entire village (which we would not have done if we were doing the walk through each village).  We came across a cobblestone pathway covered in moss that led us to a charming church (La Chiesa Covento) and cemetery on the cliff side.  We had seen several of these tiered cemeteries that are built right into the side of the cliffs, full of mausoleums and little pathways.  In Monterosso, the cemetery is at the top of a steep hill and we passed an older man making a very slow ascent to the top.  We wondered if he was making his weekly visit to a love one.   He was quick to correct our "buongiorno" with "buonsera - good evening!"  Back at the bottom, we explored a few shops in town, bought some limoncello and taste-tested Sciacchetrà - a sweet wine from the Liguria region.

The next day (the day the train was on strike) we explored the town of Levanto where we were staying.  Here we saw the second example of the black (green) and white striped marble churches that are common in this area of Italy.  

We were thrilled when we came across a small ice rink in the square, music blaring and kids skating in really small circles!

 

  A view of Levanto from above.

The next day, we finally made our way by train to the southern fishing village and started to walk our way back.  One section of the pathway was closed (due to erosion - from the rain, because, yes the big black rainy cloud was still following us), so we had to hop back on the train.  My legs were actually very thankful for this break as the trail consisted of huge stone stairs requiring giant size steps = sore butt!  Despite the rain, the train strike and the partially closed path, we were very glad we stopped and spent a few days in this lovely spot of Italy.

After Cinque Terre we drove to Lucca.  At one point along the way we saw the distant mountains covered in snow.  But then we figured they weren't high enough to be snow.  I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of slabs of marble stockpiled in yards on each side of the highway and when I pointed this out to Marcus, he exclaimed "that's because we are in Carrara!"  The white mountains were marble!  Incredible - it was really neat!    We skirted past Pisa and not once did it dawn on me that this is where the leaning tower of Pisa is... duh!  Needless to say, we didn't see it.  

But Lucca we did - and it's a charming town, one that we would definitely revisit (in sunshine).  The city has a fortified wall around the entire perimeter and you can walk (or run) along the top (it's 4.5 km).  The town is known for it's round "square" - it was once a Roman amphitheater and over time buildings were erected around it and on the steps going up.    This is one of the few medieval walled cities we've encountered that is not built on the top of a hill.  It was easy to explore all the narrow roadways and all the expensive shops that lined them.  Here is a link to a Google picture of the Piazza Anfiteatro in Lucca - gives you a better idea of what it looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Anfiteatro.gif

Lucca is known for a few things.  If you read my history lesson from Avignon, you learned about the papacy schism.  Lucca is where the convocation was held in 1408 to end it.   Lucca also appears in the first line of Tolstoy's War & Peace... "Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Bonapartes.(...)".... not that that would make me want to read it!

Lucca is also the birth place of Puccini.  And this year is the 150th anniversary.  They have held a opera concert every day of the year.  So despite the pouring rain, we bought tickets to see a 45 minute opera show - 2 opera singers and one pianist.  It was held in a stone church with no heating.  There was only 10 of us in the audience - you could see the singers breath as they sang.  The woman sang one of my favorites - Gianni Schicchi O mio babbino caro, which has the following line, "I would go to the Ponte Vecchio and throw myself in the Arno!"  When we next went to Florence we went the Ponte Vecchio and hung out by the Arno.  Now I will always remember our time in Florence whenever I hear this opera piece.

More pictures of our time in Cinque Terre:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/20081129CinqueTerre#

Sorry, no pictures of Lucca (except those in text above).  It really was pouring!  I had to hold the umbrella over Marcus' head so that he could take the few we do have. 

Firenza

In the wet sunshine (rain), we departed Lucca for Firenza (Florence), driving along the winding roads, through the mist clinging to the rolling hills of Tuscany. While not brilliant as in Canada, the fall leaves highlighted the hills with soft earthy shades of mustard and brown. Lucca had been beautiful (as far as we could tell from under our umbrellas), and we were looking forward to experiencing the Renaissance splendor of Florence.

We had found a suitable hotel through Tripadvisor.com, the aptly named Hotel David (after Michelangelo's David, which is displayed in Florence). We arrived and were shown a nicely appointed room that was lacking only heat to actually make it comfortable. As is common in Italy, heating was restricted to the morning and late afternoon/early evening periods...at other times, you were expected to be either sightseeing or wearing a heavy sweater. The hotel made up for this by hosting an evening happy hour, which enabled us to meet a few nice folks from England, Australia, and the US.

We spent the afternoon after arriving relaxing and enjoying some remarkably good take out food (roasted chicken, bread soup, pasta, etc.) from a deli around the corner. The Italians must like to keep this place to themselves, because we never saw it open again over the following three days.

That evening we enjoyed an excellent meal at Bellagi, where we met Sue and Mike, a charming British couple on holiday. We again bumped into the them the following evening at another restaurant they had recommended and shared another meal, exchanging travel stories.

We tackled Florence the next morning, after a good breakfast supplied by the hotel. We started out walking along the River Arno, which bisects Florence, until we arrived at the famous Ponte Vecchio, a bridge that had been built in more or less its present form in the mid-14th century. This bridge is lined with jewelery shops, having been home to goldsmiths since the 16th century.

Thereafter, we made our way to the Uffizi, a palace built in the mid-16th century for the city's administrative and government offices. It later was used to house the art collections of the Medici family (leading family of Florence) and subsequently enriched through various acquisitions. Today, it is one of the most important artistic collections in the world. We were impressed.

Florence contains, like many European cities, a compact core in which most sights are situated. We spent many hours wandering the streets and taking in the beautiful buildings, churches, and monuments. Some notables included the Piazza della Signoria (where David was originally displayed; a replica remains, but was under renovations while we were there), the Church of Orsanmichele (built for grain merchants and later consecrated as a church), and the Cathedral & bell tower (left), and Baptistery.

A delightful find was the Church of San Miniato al Monte, which is was located on a hill overlooking Florence. This church was built, starting in 1030, on the site of a previous church to honour Saint Miniato. According to Wikipedia, and the leaflet from the church, he was an Armenian prince serving in the Roman army. He was denounced as a Christian and  ordered to be thrown to beasts in the Amphitheater. A panther was called upon him but refused to devour him. Beheaded in the presence of the Emperor, he is alleged to have picked up his head, crossed the Arno and walked up the hill where the church now stands. The photo shows the Saint (with head fully attached) handing his crown to the rightful king.

Another highlight of our visit was attending Puccini's La Traviatta, presented in an intimate setting in a small church by four performers with piano accompaniment. It was a lovely performance, although, shockingly, she dies in the end.

Our last day found us eating a picnic lunch by the banks of the Arno, basking in some welcome sunshine, reading our books, and trying not to look like tourists. We forgot glasses, so had to drink our wine from the bottle...we fit right in.

Cagnes-Sur-Mer

(Link to more pictures at bottom).
After leaving rainy Provence we headed towards Nice. We ended up renting a lovely apartment in Cagnes-Sur-Mer (15 minutes outside of Nice). The apartment was nestled in a very steep part of the medieval town -  it was really cool.  Luckily, a local saw us hopelessly trying to fit our car into a tiny parking spot and he generously moved his car so that we could park ours!  How nice - it saved us from having to use the elevator parking lot that went 14 floors underground (I think Marcus secretly wanted to park there just to try it out). As it happened, a Smart car was able to park in the tiny spot we were originally trying to squish into. Gotta tell ya - if I lived here, I'd buy a Smart car or a Fiat. I'm practically bigger than a Fiat. I wonder if they come in orange.

Despite the torrential downpour we decided to head into Nice on our first day. We wandered through the old part of town and I was finally able to convince Marcus to stay in a linen shop long enough to choose a classic Provencal table linen and cushion covers.  Despite our shopping success and a yummy lunch (kebabs) the weather was pretty miserable, so we made our way back. We fared better weather-wise the next day and we walked along the seaside promenade and took in a few churches along the way. We went inside the hotel Negresco and were very impressed.  Next time (after we win the lottery), we'll stay there!

Overall, Nice is a lovely seaside town. It would be a nice place to stay in the summer to enjoy both the pebbled beach and the surrounding area. We also quite enjoyed our medieval apartment in Cagnes Sur Mer and spent 1.5 half days exploring that area.

After attempting the walk up to our apartment once (it was so steep you had to bend your body forward by 45 degrees and walk like a crab. Honestly!), we discovered a free shuttle that dropped us off above our apartment, with only a short set of stairs to descend.  Halleluah!  The bus driver was a bit of a maniac (I had to close my eyes), but it was better than crawling my way up. 

This is a picture of the little patio we had.  Despite being one of a hodge-podge of apartments it was very quiet and private. The neighbourhood was a series of twisted cobblestone pathways, so quaint that we wanted to take a picture of every entryway we encountered. We did tour the Grimaldi castle at the top of the hill and a few artisan shops. One woman had made fantastic pieces made of braided cash register paper. We had quite a long chat with her in German, French and English. 

We are very jealous of the moderate temperatures they have here in the winter. They have wonderful potted plants (jade plants and other cactus-like species) that thrive all year long.

We explored the local cemetery, built up into a hill, and had a wonderful dinner at the "Entre Cour et Jardin" restaurant.  All in all, we really enjoyed Cagnes-Sur-Mer and we would definitely go back.  Apparently you can walk down to the ocean in 15 minutes and they have quite a long promenade there as well, although not as nice as in Nice (couldn't resist!)

A view of Hautes Cagnes-Sur-Mer with the Castle at the top.

Here are more pictures of Nice and Cagnes-Sur-Mer:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/NiceCagnesSurMer

Ciao!

Monaco pictures

Here are more pictures of Monaco...

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/Monaco#

K&M

Monaco

To envision Monaco, consider Toronto's Yorkville...with a harbour filled with huge yachts and exotic cars that seemingly outnumber everyday transportation. It's like Vegas for the truly, exceedingly rich, an exclusive enclave set within the overtaxed French populace where the "nobility" continues to party like its 1789. And no Elvis.

Monaco is a principality (it's not technically a country) and although Prince Albert II is in charge of things (since the death of Prince Rainer in 2005), the administration and general running of the place is handled by the French government, which takes care of most services and infrastructure. Monaco is free of income tax for its residents, which number about 30,000 (with only 10,000 true Monaques). 

We took the stunningly beautiful "middle" Corniche into Monaco, a winding and twisting road that hugs the cliffs from Nice and then drops down in a series of tight switchbacks into the city, like an airliner swooping in for a landing.

We then made our way through the labyrinthine roads and tunnels that weave through the city towards our hotel (the Marriott...on points, score!).

We then spent the afternoon walking about the principality, essentially covering everything in about four hours.

We saw the famous Monte Carlo casino (you are charged 10 euros to actually enter the gaming room - pass on that), gardens, the palace, Monaco Ville,the cathedral (with the tombs of Princess Grace and Prince Rainer), the harbour, and got a generally good feel of the place.

We returned to our hotel for a rest and then sought out a nice little restaurant in the downtown, where we were treated to a nice beef carpaccio and pasta dishes. And wine. You can't forget about the wine.

And that's all for Monaco. You really only need a day...unless you are entertaining friends on your yacht.

Rain, rain go away...

Well ok.  So it's been raining a lot.  But I am not worried.  I have a husband who is handy and I downloaded the schematics of Noah's Arc from the Internet.  Because we are in farm country, we figure we'll find some tools.  Trouble is, France is definitely lacking wood, so that might require some creative thinking.  Guess we'll have to make it out of here by car after all.  Let's hope we can drive up the mud track that passes for a road here without skidding into a lavender field.  Here's what happened to the last car that tried...

Our week started out quite promising.   On Monday we woke up to a wonderful sunrise before heading to the airport to pick up our friend Lynn, who was flying in from Toronto for a break in Provence.  

We stocked up on some French food goodies and then, after our run to the airport, had a nice lunch sitting in the warm sun on our patio, overlooking the distant Alps. We then went for a short ramble through olive groves and fields, admiring the fantastic views of mountains and valleys.  We came across a ruin and one very scary bug.  This guy had an inch long stinger on his butt!

 

 

 

 

Little did we know that this first day was the best we were going to get, weather-wise, as the sky clouded over and pelted us with rain for the next several days.  However, you can't fight the weather and we made the best of it.

We drove to Avignon, parked and made a beeline for the first warm restaurant we could find to gorge on cassoulet.  Not only was it raining, it was cold!  We trudged through pouring rain to the Palais de Papes (the Popes' Palace).  Lynn and I tried to decipher the French descriptions while Marcus took surreptitious photos, repeatedly getting caught by the undercover photo-cops. He risked deportation for this blog!  Here is a picture of the wall painting in Pope Clement VI's study.  We left the Palais and made a beeline back to the car.  It was getting dark and we had a long drive back.  We left Avignon without seeing the Pont d'Avignon!!!

For those of you who (like me) had not heard of the Palais des Papes up until reading this, please read the next paragraph.

*****Kristine's little history lesson******
(in no way do I contend that this is accurate)
Pope Clement V was a lover of good things - wine and opulent surroundings.  He was obviously a bit of a wimp, too, because he moved the pope's headquarters from Rome to Avignon in 1309 because of unrest after his election.  Every thing went along tickety boo (that is each successive pope made the palace bigger and encouraged more wine production), until they tried to return to Rome in 1377.  This prompted a Papal Schism - in which several popes claimed to be the true pope.  What really happened was that the papal council elected a pope who they then regretted electing.  No one liked him, and so a few other powerful cardinals declared (and were popularly backed) to be the Pope (these were called antipopes).  (Hmm... the Americans should have tried a Presidential Schism after W's re-election).  Regions throughout Europe had to choose between the Avignon Papacy or the Rome Papacy - you can imagine that this caused a few problems.  Finally in 1418 the council encouraged two antipopes to resign and a third was excommunicated (cause he refused to resign) and Pope Martin V was elected.  I guess everyone was glad to end the confusion because Pope Martin V stuck.  Even today the Papacy has not bothered to officially declare if the Avignon or the Rome line of Popes is the "true" line of succession. ***********************

Our next day in Provence was pouring rain and so we hung out in our cottage and trekked uphill to the small hamlet of La Blache.  It is a lovely little spot, even in the rain.

Despite more cold rain on Day 3, we decided to get out anyway and we visited another quaint hillside town called Lurs. We then made our way into Forcalquier for lunch.  We climbed our way up to the citadel which, on a nice day, would have given us spectacular views of the mountains.  Still it was a special place - even in the rain.  With very wet feet, we decided to try one more attraction - the Notre-Dame de Lures cathedral...as we drove up the mountain, we encountered warning signs for snow tires and chains, which we felt were a little out of season. However, when we actually DID encounter snow (!) we thought maybe our little Megane, with it's all season tires, should just turn right back around. We got a bit map muddled heading back to the cottage because it was dark and Kristine wasn't paying attention and we missed a turn.  But Madge rerouted us and, after driving along a very deserted track in the pitch black (mostly by feel: our headlights are pathetic!), we made it home.

Lynn decided to see if the weather was any better in Paris and so we drove her to the TGV on Friday. We miss her company already!  We will spend our remaining day here planning where to go next and dream of returning to Provence in the summertime!

10 reasons I love Barcelona

1.  It's flat!  Easy walking, my friends...

2. It's on a grid pattern (for the most part).  Even the old city, the Barri Gotic, is perfectly easy to navigate.

3. It has wonderful "grande allees" or boulevards - every third street is a wide avenue.  This picture is the Arc de Triomf.

4.  The architecture - while Barcelona has many famous attractions, such as the Sagrada Familia, it's the beautifully designed buildings that line every street that makes the city a visually exciting place.

5. Shopping - fashion boutiques abound, from high end to moderately priced, and everyone is dressed up (I'd say the people here are more fashionable than those in Paris - don't berate me for saying so!)  This is a great window display - these are security cameras all checking out the Louis Vuitton bag.

6.  The food - finally in Spain we come across awesome tapas!  Yummy!

7.  It's on the water.  Interestingly enough, Barcelona demolished the railway tracks that used to divide the living city from the waterfront! (gee, sound familiar?)

8.  The weather - it's Oct 25th, 22 degrees and sunny outside. 

9.  No habla espanol - most people here do speak some English (unlike our experiences in the rest of Spain).

10.  Finally - they have Starbucks!

I swear, everytime I looked behind me this elephant was following us.  I wonder how he'll manage on the autoroute to France!

Managing in Marrakech

Sitting in the comfort of our room at the Sheraton in Casablanca (on our way back to Spain), I wrote an email to my sister Laura saying, "I am glad to be leaving Marrakech and Morocco, but already I want to go back".  And that pretty much sums it up!  

The Lonely Planet guide book on Morocco provides many suggestions for those with Western sensibilities (yup, that would be me!) and I just wish we had read more of it in advance to be able to follow its sage advice.  We very nearly went without a book at all!  It wasn't for the lack of trying though, and we did find, purely by chance after we had given up looking, an English travel book on Morocco in Seville, two days prior to leaving.

The guide book says to plan for quiet retreats periodically during the day while touring through Marrakech. Now we know why!!! You cannot get away from the noise, the smells - diesel exhaust, cooking, raw food, sewage - and the heat. 

The guide book recommends staying in a centrally located riad for 2-3 nights and then escaping to the less congested new town - with its modern, upscale hotels - for the remainder of the week. I would definitely pass this advice along to anyone planning on going.

We booked a lovely room in the Oasis Riad. It was right in the heart of the medina and the souks (markets). The riad itself was relatively quiet, but any trip in and out through the congested alleys was mayhem. One evening we decided to dine on apples and cookies so we wouldn't have to face the trek out and back.

We stayed very close to Jemaa El Fna Place. Picture a large plaza filled with people (including crowds of tourists), motorcycles, cars, scooters, and donkey carts, and well as groups of buskers. These included snake charmers playing their high pitched horns, drummers, food stall owners, and lots of other Moroccans selling their wares (our favorite was the guy selling teeth - he had a table heaped up high with them).

Everyone here is going in every which way and it is very hard to walk through without being pulled in various directions due to the flow of traffic and aggressive merchants and other hustlers.

The guide book provides advice on how to avoid Marrakech "Medina rage" (honestly, it does). We learned that humour and a few white lies was the best way to deal with constant demands for our attention (& money): "We just ate thank you" and "We'll come back tomorrow" were somewhat, but not completely, effective. Once you provided a somewhat genuine reason for not wanting to buy out their entire store, they'd usually leave you alone. 

You know you are in a very different area of the world the first time you hear the call for prayer. Muslins pray 5 times a day (4:30 am, 12 noon, 4:30 pm, 6:30 pm and 8 pm). I guess anyone (no matter how devout) would need encouragement to drop everything and go to a mosque to pray - or in the case of 4:30 am just to wake up - and so the mosques use loudspeakers mounted on the minarets to call people to pray. We asked our riad hostess Saida what they were calling and she said, "come and pray, you will feel better," "come and pray, don't go back to sleep". We are not sure if we totally believe her or not. I am glad to say that I was only woken up once by the 4:30 am call to prayer.

By the third day we were able to navigate our way around (even through parts of the maze-like souks). Nevertheless, you had to remain vigilant. The architecture in Marrakesh is the same throughout - streets lined with 2 storey red colored buildings. Every street and roundabout looks the same to the uninitiated eye, and so you have to start looking for very specific land marks to make you way around.

Back to the guide book. It says that if you do not want to buy a carpet, don't even enter into the shops as the owners are extremely persuasive! We did our fair share of contributing the the Marrakesh economy. I think we got some exceptional deals on some things, such as two woven silk bedspreads (each $30), but other things are similar to prices in Toronto (once you factor in the cost of shipping the stuff home)! All in all we are happy with our purchases...each is a reminder and has a story to tell.

 

We didn't just shop! We also visited the El Badi Royal Palace and the Majorelle Gardens, a beautiful oasis in the city (pictured here). And of course the obligatory stint at a hamman. The "girls" area was very busy and I was herded from one treatment to the next (desperately trying not to skid on the wet floor) and ended up waiting over 1/2 hour at the end for Marcus to finish (and he ended up having to skip his relaxation time with mint tea). I think I could have skipped this experience.

Our riad was managed by Saida. She is a French-speaking Moroccan of Berber heritage and acted as our guide throughout our stay. We were the only guests at the riad during our week's stay and luckily had Saida at our complete disposal. She was indispensable - even though sometimes it took quite a bit of back and forth (in French) for us to communicate accurately. I spent the whole week not entirely sure what was going on! I have to admit that I did not like that one bit! This is a picture of us relaxing after shopping and enjoying an excellent cafe au lait (the best since Figueira de Foz in Portugal).

The guidebook says that if you stay in Morocco for more than 3-4 days you will get sick. I got sick. Pretty much right after my visit to the hamman actually. To our great disappointment, we had to miss our next day's excursion, which was a planned hike in the Atlas mountains. This was to be our main event! Very unfortunate. Now we definitely have to go back because I believe the best that Morocco has to offer is it's dramatic countryside.

The one thing the guide book does not tell you is to bring along a fluent French (or Arabic) speaking friend - offer to pay their accommodation or airfare - it will be worth it! That being said, thank god for the guidebook!