Follow the Yellow Brick Road
October 19th-November 3rd
It was a bit surreal when we landed in NYC, got our luggage, and headed to the curb to catch a cab to our friends’ Bryan and Julie’s apartment in the city. We just did not want to believe our journey was over. I think most people who have spent an appreciable amount of time in Europe would agree you come back a changed person. Everything about the big city and big lights no longer seems appealing and you yearn for the simplicity and comfortableness of life in Europe. We were no exception.
Nevertheless we were home and prepared ourselves for our three week southern tour. We spent a few days with Bryan and Julie. They were in the process of packing up to move back to Wydaho and we helped them complete their bucket list of new restaurants. Then we were off to Philly to pick up our truck at my sister’s house. My parents drove over from Cleveland to spend some time with us since we were unable to meet them in Florence.
We had planned to leave on Friday but the weather started to turn on us so we decided to spend one extra day in Philly. Unfortunately the weather continued not to cooperate so we had to take off in a torrential downpour. We mapped out our route with our newly acquired Garmin GPS unit given to us by my parents. I do not know how we made it across the United States without that “purple line” to follow.
Luckily while we were passing through Gettysburg the rain stopped for a brief period and we were able to visit the National Military Cemetery. During the walk we saw where Lincoln gave his famous speech and the National Monument dedicated to the soldiers. Thankfully we took our umbrella because it started pouring during our stroll. With the grey skies and stormy conditions we decided to cut our day short and spend the night in Virginia just over the Pennsylvania border. Due to our delayed start out of Pennsylvania and shortened drive we had quite a haul to make it to Asheville the next day.
We wanted to take the back roads through the Shenandoah National Park and stop to do a hike. The drive through the mountains with the array of fall colors made the long day worthwhile. Roby was wide-eyed and in complete amazement as he saw for the first time the reds, yellows, and oranges. The colors only intensified when we went for our four mile hike. It was a “religious moment” for Roby.
As we continued down the parkway we decided to take a detour, why not add a few more hours to the trip, and we headed toward Charlottesville Virginia to see Monticello. The ride up to the Museum was incredible with the continuation of fall colors and gorgeous southern plantation homes. We walked through the visitor center and presentation gardens but unfortunately we were unable to tour the home and main garden. The next tour was going to be at 4:30 pm which would last at least two hours and we still had 4 more hours to drive to reach Asheville. Twist our arm to make us come back to this area!!
Although we still had a long ride ahead of us we were so excited to be heading toward Asheville. It was a long awaited stop on our trip as the town is one we may be considering for our next landing spot. We have read so much about the area and been told by many people how great it is. It was now time to see for ourselves. Also, we were going to be celebrating our lucky 13th anniversary so we were splurging on a really nice hotel across from the “real” Biltmore estate. We pulled into town at about 9:30 pm and spent our first night at a Super 8. Once the sun came up we were eager to explore the city. Luckily the weather was cooperating and we had another perfect fall afternoon. The town did not disappoint. A perfect sized community with a great downtown area revitalized with new shops and great unique restaurants. North Carolina next to Oregon sports the most independent brew pubs. After a tour of mainstreet we checked into our “luxurious hotel”. Once we stepped into the room, we looked at each other and said “Score!” The room had a full kitchen, a bath with a huge shower and double sinks, a raised king sized bed with special linens, and a large flat screen tv. We could easily live here. Although we wanted to spend all our time in the room we forced ourselves to take a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Good thing we did. Spectacular is an understatement. The road winds through the Smokey Mountains and the trees were at peak fall colors. After a short drive we stopped and found an old forest service road system where we went for an incredible bike ride. The trail was covered in fallen leaves and the sunlight peered through the canopies of the oak trees. We were so excited to be back on our bikes except when we had to ride back uphill to the car. Three weeks of eating and drinking was catching up to us.
With big smiles on our faces, we headed back to the hotel, took an incredibly hot shower and then headed out for Happy Hour at “Jack of the Wood” Brewery. We learned about the Irish Car Bomb- Guinness with a shot of baileys dropped into the beer. You have to drink it quickly otherwise the baileys will curdle. While hanging out at the bar we had another “one night stan”. Neil was a transplant from Knoxville Tennessee. We got the lowdown about life in Asheville, and a recommendation for dinner. The Cuban restaurant was happening for a Monday night. With full stomachs we gladly crawled in our warm comfy bed.
Morning came too soon and we milked the room for all we could and even asked for a late checkout. Unfortunately the rain started again so it hampered our visit to the Biltmore Estate. Instead we enjoyed a great bowl of soup and sandwich at the local organic deli. During lunch we discussed how easy it would be to live in Asheville. We loved everything about the town: the size, the quality restaurants, great biking and hiking trails, rafting, climbing, and nightlife. It also is in close proximity to Raleigh and Atlanta in case you want city life. The only thing it is missing is a big ski mountain. Nine out of Ten is not bad.
We finished lunch, said our farewells but not our goodbyes, and headed down the parkway to Atlanta. The entire drive was in the rain. At the crossroad we had to decide if we were heading toward Atlanta or Savannah. Because we could not get a hold of Roby’s high school friend who was working on a movie set in Savannah, we decided to take the shorter route and made the turn toward Atlanta. With the nasty weather and the long drive we still had ahead of us, it turned out for the best we did not go to Savannah. Atlanta was just a stopping point for us with a quick tour of the Olympic Centennial Park, CNN, Turner Broadcasting and Coca-Cola Headquarters. Our goal was to make it to Seaside Florida in the Panhandle early enough to enjoy the day. We arrived around 3:00 pm, turned off the main highway and saw the white sand beaches. The town of Seaside is a well known planned community of the early 90’s and Roby has been studying it for so long he just wanted to see it. It could easily be described as “Pleasantville”. The architecture is all beach type cottages with big front porches on every house. The native landscape fills the pocket parks throughout the community. Built to be pedestrian friendly we took the opportunity to bike the neighborhoods. After a perfect day in Seaside we decided to get a campsite at Grayton Beach State Park . We stopped off at the grocery store and picked up some food for dinner. After setting up camp we went for a quick walk on the beach in the waning minutes of sunlight. We walked for about 2 miles enjoying a beer and the warm breeze. When we got to a point we could no longer see we headed back to the campsite and finished off a pound of shrimp. The mosquitoes started feasting on us so we headed into the tent.
Waking invigorated we decided to get up early and have a run on the beach before we headed out toward New Orleans. With the sun coming up and the gentle breeze coming off the water, the conditions were perfect for our 2 mile run. Being our first form of exercise in awhile, I am sure our marathon friends would be disappointed in our effort. Breathing heavily and the humidity getting to us, we decided to head back to camp. After a quick shower and breakfast we picked up the I-10 and headed toward New Orleans.
We rolled into town about 3:00 pm and immediately met up with our good friends Scott and Katie from Phoenix. They were in town for business and we were so grateful they stayed an extra night just to visit with us. Roby’s sister Theresa and husband Doug also made the trip over from Houston to celebrate Halloween. After a few hours of catching up with Scott and Katie we decided to hit the town. We received VIP treatment with Scott as our guide. He grew up in New Orleans and had worked in the restaurant industry while in college. Scott took charge and led us into a classy bar/restaurant where we enjoyed the local beer Abita and samples of a few local cuisines. The BBQ shrimp was so delicious we were licking the bowl. Our next stop was Felix’ oyster bar. Instead of going to the “famous” restaurant where the line was out the door, we entered the one across the street. It served the exact same oysters for less and had more charm. The best part was the stand up bar where you watched the server shuck the oysters right in front of you and then place them directly on the bar top. No plates needed. After four dozen it was time to enjoy some music. Scott and Katie knew a couple who were part of a classical jazz band playing at the famed Preservation Hall. It is a historic building with a small stage and standing room only. The music was outstanding. You definitely felt like you were in New Orleans. We listened to the first session and then were off again. This time we landed in a bar where we had to sample the famed Absinthe drink. All I can tell you is Roby’s sister Theresa was not be the same after she finished hers. We then ventured to listen to some classic rock bands. Once you get tired of one bar you just ask for a “to go” cup pour the rest of your drink in it, walk outside to the next bar and enjoy country music if you want. At about midnight we walked to the famed Café de Monde to sample the delicious beignets. An amazing scene, the café is packed with people at midnight eating the fresh hot pastries covered in powder sugar. Roby was in heaven and was eating the powder sugar by the spoonful. Unbeknownst to us, this was just a reprieve; we had several more hours of fun ahead of us. Katie and Scott are known for owning the “house of pain” in Phoenix and we were getting the royal treatment. We spent the next several hours dodging the rain by hopping from one venue to another. Around 1:30 am we hit our last stop the carousel bar. Not sure if this was a good idea but we all sat at the bar watching the room revolve. We were unsure of whether it was the bar or just our heads spinning. We finished our drinks and headed to our rooms and clocked out at about 2:30 am. We did New Orleans!
It was not over because the next night was Halloween. Everyone is in costume and the streets are flowing with people but not too crazy like Mardi gras. Roby and I went as ourselves-homeless people but his sister Theresa and brother-in-law Doug were more creative and went as a witch and voodoo doll. The music and drinks continued for another night. Although we did not have our tour guide we managed to find some good food and lively entertainment. The clock struck midnight and Roby and I called it a night.
The next morning we headed out to the 9th Ward to see Brad Pitt’s new project called Make it Right. He is building affordable eco-friendly sustainable homes for the residents. His goal is to build over 150 houses. While we were driving around the neighborhood looking at the cool houses, we were able to still see considerable destruction and dilapidated homes. Quite a surreal feeling as you drive along the streets and you see the ships floating by at about 20 feet above your head demonstrating how low lying this area is. Then to notice that the levee is literally their backyard wall; it was almost too much to fathom what they experienced when it broke. The new houses are being built as post and pier and some are evening going to be floating homes. Hopefully this never happens again.
After our educational tour we did a quick run through the historic district of New Orleans to see the classic Victorian style homes in the neighborhood and experience our last Cajun meal of the famous po-boy sandwiches at Parasol’s- a Diner, Drive-in and Dives restaurant. We made one more stop in Louisiana at my friend Ruby and her husband Bob’s house. They live about an hour and a half outside of New Orleans along I-10 so it was a perfect resting point for us since we did not want to drive all the way to Houston that day. Talk about the quintessential southern home. They have done a remarkable job on renovating the house and filling it with wonderful antiques. Each piece of furniture has its own story and they have collected them from all over the country. It was definitely too short a visit but we had a wonderful authentic Cajun gumbo for dinner and a perfect night’s rest in the most comfortable bed we have ever slept.
Roby woke up not feeling well so I took over the driving. He crashed in the passenger seat while I enjoyed the wonderful scenery along I-10. After 4 hours of driving we took a break in Houston and spent the night with his sister Theresa. The next three days were uneventful and long trying to make it across the state of Texas. I can say I have driven the entire length of the I-10 freeway from Florida to California and I do not need to do it ever again. Roby still was under the weather so it was me, the radio, and the flatland of Texas for 750 miles. We reached Artesia New Mexico and decided on getting a hotel room instead of staying with his sister. Roby did not want to get her family sick. His brother Jaime and wife Bev from Seattle along with his cousins Sam and Dan from Las Cruces and Andrus Texas flew into Artesia to have a mini Snow Family reunion. The annual Bluegrass and Balloons festival was going on while we were visiting. Hayley, Roby’s sister, was in charge of the event so she was able to get us a free ride in one of the hot air balloons. We spent the balance of the afternoon enjoying the music and catching up with the cousins. Toward three o’clock we packed up the car and headed out of town.
After a quick stopover in Socorro New Mexico to see Jaime’s property, we finished the eight hour journey back to Phoenix. We pulled into our friends Scott and Katie’s driveway around 8:30 pm and were greeted with a delicious dinner and a warm comfy bed. We woke the next morning wondering “Who Shot JR”.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Geneva Here We Come
Northern Italy
October 16th - 19th
As we left Calvi we worked our way north making a few pit stops. Our friend Ryan had spent a semester in Italy and he told us to check out Sienna. Being on our way, we pulled up to the city wall and put a few euros in the meter and took in the sites. The plaza is famous for the ancient horse races. A University is located within the city limits making this a very cool college town. Anyone who wants to do a semester or year abroad should check out Sienna. A perfect spot to have our last piece of pizza.
Next stop Firenze. With our great timing we reached downtown at rush hour. Having entered the city from the opposite end of where we picked up our friend Steve, we did not have the aid of the stazione signs. Thankfully Nick had a detailed map of the city and he guided Roby to the train station perfectly. Once we dropped Nick and Hayley off we headed to Fiesole, a small hillside “suburb” of Firenze, to revisit our favorite place from our honeymoon trip. Our goal was to find the restaurant where we shared and enjoyed the best meal we have ever eaten. It was going to be so fitting because our anniversary was coming up within a week- our present to each other. As we neared the town center we started salivating because we were going to have some of the best eggplant ever known. But to our horror Fiesole was no longer the one horse town we remembered but a thriving tourist Mecca. I experienced what Chrissy Hines described when she wrote “No More Ohio”. So many new buildings, homes and shops had been erected since our visit in 1997, we had difficulty finding our restaurant. I got weary and sick to my stomach when I realized I was not going to re-live my favorite meal because our restaurant had been converted into an art school. Distraught and disappointed I told Roby we had to go-it was no longer my Fiesole!!!
Not having much of a plan anymore we drove northward in silence trying to overcome our disappointment. I pulled out the map looking for a town to stop for the night. Not knowing one from the other we chose Lucca. It was written in larger letters leading us to believe hotels would be available. As we exited the Autostrade the town was nothing special until we reached the centro area. Jackpot! Lucca was a medieval walled city with a modern flair. Located just two hours north of Firenze close to the mountains Lucca was the ideal town. The walled city, although catering to some tourism, still maintained its small town personality. Our frown turned upside down immediately. Now all we had to do was find some good food and I would forget about my eggplant dinner. Based on our hotel manager’s suggestion we went to a local’s bistro. Located in a small renovated house in a back alley aptly called a plaza, the owners provided a warm and homey environment. Roby had a great Osso Bucco dinner served Luccian style with tomato sauce and I had a calamari dinner.
Having arrived late in the evening the lighting was not very good for photographing; therefore we decided to spend a good part of the next day in town. After a chocolate croissant at the famous local bakery next to our hotel, we walked over to the walled section of town near the Santa Maria entrance. As we crossed the arch we found the stone stairway up to the grassed pathway which encircled the town. It was an elevated park on top of the wall giving you a different perspective of the city. Everyone used it to jog, walk their dogs or just visit. We looked at each other and jinxed each other when we said-we could live here. We spent the next hour walking along the path photographing the history and architecture. At the junction we headed down into town and walked along the canal enjoying our last tour of the city. We grabbed a few things at the market for lunch to take with us on our ride toward Cinque Terre. As we strolled back through the Santa Maria entrance to our car, the smile returned to our faces. “Finding Lucca” was our salvation!!!!
Our last major stop was the Cinque Terre area on the northern Mediterranean coast. With a similar geography as the Almalfi Coast in southern Italy, the Cinque Terre provides you with breathtaking views and unfathomable architecture. The best part is the drive is nowhere near as dangerous. The road sports lanes built for the average sized vehicle. You can actually enjoy the view. The Cinque Terre is five small towns linked by the railroad or one continuous hiking trail. One can walk from town to town in about four hours along either a coastal path or a hillside trail. We did not have enough time to complete the entire hike but we did a few small sections allowing us to get some incredible photos while perched above the villages. Maintaining its old world charm and restriction of automobiles into the towns, the Cinque Terre area is not spoiled by its tourism as much as the Amalfi coast. Designated a World Heritage Site, Cinque Terre has quite a bit of protected wilderness areas. The terraced vineyards and farms dot the steep hillside with nothing hampering the incredible views. Being a bit more primitive, hotels do not line the main roadway like along the Amalfi coast. Because we had sworn off booking a hotel in advance, we were just going to wing it. As we navigated our way we took a turn toward the town of Monterosso. We parked the car and headed into town. When we came upon the “hotel district”-three hotels- a lady sitting in a chair on the sidewalk selling “local wine” overheard us talking about finding a room. In her broken English she slyly asked us if we needed a place to stay. A bit surprised by her forwardness, we reluctantly said yes. She pointed to the opening in the building and said she had a room. Knowing that the hotels in the area were quite expensive we asked how much the room rental was. She said 80 euros which was 25 euros less than the hotels. She took us up the stairs and showed us a spare room in a two bedroom apartment. No one else was staying in the unit so we had it to ourselves. Accommodations solved.
Once settled in our room, we took a stroll along the coastline path. As sunset arrived we took up at a sidewalk cafe and enjoyed our last Italian beer, watched our last Italian sunset and ate our last Italian gelato.
We got up a bit late the next morning, packed our bags; left the key in the door as instructed and headed out. As an added bonus when we were departing, the European Porsche Club was coming into town and we got a show of over 80 Porsche 911’s streaming along the windy roadway.
Passing through Aosta, our last Italian town, we reached the border, looked back with a tear in our eye, and said our final goodbyes.
October 16th - 19th
As we left Calvi we worked our way north making a few pit stops. Our friend Ryan had spent a semester in Italy and he told us to check out Sienna. Being on our way, we pulled up to the city wall and put a few euros in the meter and took in the sites. The plaza is famous for the ancient horse races. A University is located within the city limits making this a very cool college town. Anyone who wants to do a semester or year abroad should check out Sienna. A perfect spot to have our last piece of pizza.
Next stop Firenze. With our great timing we reached downtown at rush hour. Having entered the city from the opposite end of where we picked up our friend Steve, we did not have the aid of the stazione signs. Thankfully Nick had a detailed map of the city and he guided Roby to the train station perfectly. Once we dropped Nick and Hayley off we headed to Fiesole, a small hillside “suburb” of Firenze, to revisit our favorite place from our honeymoon trip. Our goal was to find the restaurant where we shared and enjoyed the best meal we have ever eaten. It was going to be so fitting because our anniversary was coming up within a week- our present to each other. As we neared the town center we started salivating because we were going to have some of the best eggplant ever known. But to our horror Fiesole was no longer the one horse town we remembered but a thriving tourist Mecca. I experienced what Chrissy Hines described when she wrote “No More Ohio”. So many new buildings, homes and shops had been erected since our visit in 1997, we had difficulty finding our restaurant. I got weary and sick to my stomach when I realized I was not going to re-live my favorite meal because our restaurant had been converted into an art school. Distraught and disappointed I told Roby we had to go-it was no longer my Fiesole!!!
Not having much of a plan anymore we drove northward in silence trying to overcome our disappointment. I pulled out the map looking for a town to stop for the night. Not knowing one from the other we chose Lucca. It was written in larger letters leading us to believe hotels would be available. As we exited the Autostrade the town was nothing special until we reached the centro area. Jackpot! Lucca was a medieval walled city with a modern flair. Located just two hours north of Firenze close to the mountains Lucca was the ideal town. The walled city, although catering to some tourism, still maintained its small town personality. Our frown turned upside down immediately. Now all we had to do was find some good food and I would forget about my eggplant dinner. Based on our hotel manager’s suggestion we went to a local’s bistro. Located in a small renovated house in a back alley aptly called a plaza, the owners provided a warm and homey environment. Roby had a great Osso Bucco dinner served Luccian style with tomato sauce and I had a calamari dinner.
Having arrived late in the evening the lighting was not very good for photographing; therefore we decided to spend a good part of the next day in town. After a chocolate croissant at the famous local bakery next to our hotel, we walked over to the walled section of town near the Santa Maria entrance. As we crossed the arch we found the stone stairway up to the grassed pathway which encircled the town. It was an elevated park on top of the wall giving you a different perspective of the city. Everyone used it to jog, walk their dogs or just visit. We looked at each other and jinxed each other when we said-we could live here. We spent the next hour walking along the path photographing the history and architecture. At the junction we headed down into town and walked along the canal enjoying our last tour of the city. We grabbed a few things at the market for lunch to take with us on our ride toward Cinque Terre. As we strolled back through the Santa Maria entrance to our car, the smile returned to our faces. “Finding Lucca” was our salvation!!!!
Our last major stop was the Cinque Terre area on the northern Mediterranean coast. With a similar geography as the Almalfi Coast in southern Italy, the Cinque Terre provides you with breathtaking views and unfathomable architecture. The best part is the drive is nowhere near as dangerous. The road sports lanes built for the average sized vehicle. You can actually enjoy the view. The Cinque Terre is five small towns linked by the railroad or one continuous hiking trail. One can walk from town to town in about four hours along either a coastal path or a hillside trail. We did not have enough time to complete the entire hike but we did a few small sections allowing us to get some incredible photos while perched above the villages. Maintaining its old world charm and restriction of automobiles into the towns, the Cinque Terre area is not spoiled by its tourism as much as the Amalfi coast. Designated a World Heritage Site, Cinque Terre has quite a bit of protected wilderness areas. The terraced vineyards and farms dot the steep hillside with nothing hampering the incredible views. Being a bit more primitive, hotels do not line the main roadway like along the Amalfi coast. Because we had sworn off booking a hotel in advance, we were just going to wing it. As we navigated our way we took a turn toward the town of Monterosso. We parked the car and headed into town. When we came upon the “hotel district”-three hotels- a lady sitting in a chair on the sidewalk selling “local wine” overheard us talking about finding a room. In her broken English she slyly asked us if we needed a place to stay. A bit surprised by her forwardness, we reluctantly said yes. She pointed to the opening in the building and said she had a room. Knowing that the hotels in the area were quite expensive we asked how much the room rental was. She said 80 euros which was 25 euros less than the hotels. She took us up the stairs and showed us a spare room in a two bedroom apartment. No one else was staying in the unit so we had it to ourselves. Accommodations solved.
Once settled in our room, we took a stroll along the coastline path. As sunset arrived we took up at a sidewalk cafe and enjoyed our last Italian beer, watched our last Italian sunset and ate our last Italian gelato.
We got up a bit late the next morning, packed our bags; left the key in the door as instructed and headed out. As an added bonus when we were departing, the European Porsche Club was coming into town and we got a show of over 80 Porsche 911’s streaming along the windy roadway.
Passing through Aosta, our last Italian town, we reached the border, looked back with a tear in our eye, and said our final goodbyes.
The Roman Hillside
Calvi-The Art Monastery
October 11th-15th
Although having a car in Europe is extremely expensive-about $70 for a tank of gas and the ungodly tolls on the autostrade, we were still glad we had our beloved Skoda. The scenery and towns we frequented would not have been feasible if we had used public transportation, especially our next stop Calvi dell Umbria. An hour and a half outside of Rome approximately 20 miles off the main highway snaking our way through the countryside, we reached The Art Monastery.
We found this volunteer program on a website called Working Away. We chose it not only for its location but it was a different type of program than WWOOFing. The project is run by two Americans from San Francisco with a vision to start an artist colony housed in an old monastery in the town square in Calvi dell Umbria. The monastery is being refurbished so the organization rents out an old bed and breakfast to house the artists and hold their events and seminars. It is perfectly situated on the pinnacle of the Umbrian hillside overlooking acres of olive trees with distant views of the neighboring villages. Located at a higher altitude, Calvi was showing the first signs of Fall. The first day we noticed the fog rolling in over the hillside and within minutes a horrendous rainstorm hit knocking out the electricity and rattling the windows with the wind gusts.
With October being the slow season, we had our own room in one of the suites. We shared the common areas with another worker Genevieve who is from the Philly/Boston area. Two of the other volunteers were high school graduates Hayley and Nick from Pittsburgh. They deferred their first year of college to travel throughout Europe. The rest of the cast of characters included Julia, the marketing manager, who is from the east coast, Judith the volunteer coordinator who is from “The Hague” (that’s for you Leo) and the caretaker who is from Italy. Although we were not expecting any visiting artists, we were pleasantly surprised when several travelers arrived to spend the night at the bed and breakfast. The first night, Billy and Anna from San Francisco stayed with us. Being a surprise visit, Julia had to whip together a dinner for the guests. Roby and I decided to eat with the group and we were so grateful because the conversation at dinner with Billy and Anna was so enjoyable. We “talked story” for about three hours listening to Billy’s adventures and involvement with Burning Man in Nevada . The next night our visitors were from Holland and Germany. We had planned to do a potluck dinner with all the employees and volunteers that evening so instead of cancelling it we invited Jasper and his girlfriend to join us. They fit in right away and even helped cook and clean afterwards. The kitchen scene reminded me of the Big Chill. With the wine flowing the conversation was lively. We learned Jasper is a producer of outdoor festivals in Holland. The uniqueness is they are held at castles. He researches the family who owns each castle and designs his shows around the family history. He had driven from Holland just to see this special garden in Bomarzo Italy as research for his events. Jasper and his girlfriend decided to stay a few extra days so they helped us celebrate Judith’s 30th birthday.
Thursday the weather cleared up so after our chores Roby and I drove over to the Bomarzo Gardens which is the sculpture park Jasper had told us about at dinner. It is an estate designed by an eccentric old man. After he passed away the park sat in disarray for many years until it was purchased by a foundation and revamped into a park. The pictures we took cannot capture the proportion and size of the stone sculptures. Walking through the park sparks an immediate response you are in a fairytale scene. The fog lingering over the garden pathways set the scene for the scary sculptures to come alive and attack you. A perfect place to have a festival.
One would think with all this fun we did not work. Each morning, though, Judith had a list of chores for us to complete. I helped Nick and Hayley with the maintenance and cleaning and Roby was tasked with building a new chicken tractor. The organization did not have a lot of tools or materials. After scrounging around the site, Roby found some old lumber, a used broken screen door, and some bent nails. Walla, he had everything he needed. On our last day he put on the finishing touches-a solar sunscreen to provide shade. Judith and I grabbed the chickens to test out the new contraption. They loved it. Now they could move around the yard instead of being cooped up in one spot. Roby was their hero.
Our week went by too quickly. Roby and I said goodbye to Judith and the gang, letting them know we would be back to see the finished project. Since we were heading toward Florence we offered to give Hayley and Nick a ride to the train station for their trip to Pisa. Road Trip!
October 11th-15th
Although having a car in Europe is extremely expensive-about $70 for a tank of gas and the ungodly tolls on the autostrade, we were still glad we had our beloved Skoda. The scenery and towns we frequented would not have been feasible if we had used public transportation, especially our next stop Calvi dell Umbria. An hour and a half outside of Rome approximately 20 miles off the main highway snaking our way through the countryside, we reached The Art Monastery.
We found this volunteer program on a website called Working Away. We chose it not only for its location but it was a different type of program than WWOOFing. The project is run by two Americans from San Francisco with a vision to start an artist colony housed in an old monastery in the town square in Calvi dell Umbria. The monastery is being refurbished so the organization rents out an old bed and breakfast to house the artists and hold their events and seminars. It is perfectly situated on the pinnacle of the Umbrian hillside overlooking acres of olive trees with distant views of the neighboring villages. Located at a higher altitude, Calvi was showing the first signs of Fall. The first day we noticed the fog rolling in over the hillside and within minutes a horrendous rainstorm hit knocking out the electricity and rattling the windows with the wind gusts.
With October being the slow season, we had our own room in one of the suites. We shared the common areas with another worker Genevieve who is from the Philly/Boston area. Two of the other volunteers were high school graduates Hayley and Nick from Pittsburgh. They deferred their first year of college to travel throughout Europe. The rest of the cast of characters included Julia, the marketing manager, who is from the east coast, Judith the volunteer coordinator who is from “The Hague” (that’s for you Leo) and the caretaker who is from Italy. Although we were not expecting any visiting artists, we were pleasantly surprised when several travelers arrived to spend the night at the bed and breakfast. The first night, Billy and Anna from San Francisco stayed with us. Being a surprise visit, Julia had to whip together a dinner for the guests. Roby and I decided to eat with the group and we were so grateful because the conversation at dinner with Billy and Anna was so enjoyable. We “talked story” for about three hours listening to Billy’s adventures and involvement with Burning Man in Nevada . The next night our visitors were from Holland and Germany. We had planned to do a potluck dinner with all the employees and volunteers that evening so instead of cancelling it we invited Jasper and his girlfriend to join us. They fit in right away and even helped cook and clean afterwards. The kitchen scene reminded me of the Big Chill. With the wine flowing the conversation was lively. We learned Jasper is a producer of outdoor festivals in Holland. The uniqueness is they are held at castles. He researches the family who owns each castle and designs his shows around the family history. He had driven from Holland just to see this special garden in Bomarzo Italy as research for his events. Jasper and his girlfriend decided to stay a few extra days so they helped us celebrate Judith’s 30th birthday.
Thursday the weather cleared up so after our chores Roby and I drove over to the Bomarzo Gardens which is the sculpture park Jasper had told us about at dinner. It is an estate designed by an eccentric old man. After he passed away the park sat in disarray for many years until it was purchased by a foundation and revamped into a park. The pictures we took cannot capture the proportion and size of the stone sculptures. Walking through the park sparks an immediate response you are in a fairytale scene. The fog lingering over the garden pathways set the scene for the scary sculptures to come alive and attack you. A perfect place to have a festival.
One would think with all this fun we did not work. Each morning, though, Judith had a list of chores for us to complete. I helped Nick and Hayley with the maintenance and cleaning and Roby was tasked with building a new chicken tractor. The organization did not have a lot of tools or materials. After scrounging around the site, Roby found some old lumber, a used broken screen door, and some bent nails. Walla, he had everything he needed. On our last day he put on the finishing touches-a solar sunscreen to provide shade. Judith and I grabbed the chickens to test out the new contraption. They loved it. Now they could move around the yard instead of being cooped up in one spot. Roby was their hero.
Our week went by too quickly. Roby and I said goodbye to Judith and the gang, letting them know we would be back to see the finished project. Since we were heading toward Florence we offered to give Hayley and Nick a ride to the train station for their trip to Pisa. Road Trip!
The Road to Calvi
Amalfi Coast and Rome
October 9th and 10th
After 10 days of manual labor on the farm we left with fond memories, blisters on our hands from digging fence post holes, cranberry red stained fingernails from making Pinot Noir wine, a fat lip from hitting my head on a stone countertop during a fall and 10 newly earned pounds from eating pasta at every meal. We decided we needed some rest and relaxation. Therefore, we chose to spend some time on the Amalfi Coast before heading up to Calvi dell Umbria for our next assignment.
From San Giovanni two different driving routes led to the Coast. Of course we took the “Zen” way-heading up the Italian version of the PCH along the Mediterranean Sea. Once we passed Salerno we were in for a ride. Now I know why Europeans are better at Grand Prix and Motorcycle Racing. We had approximately 50 miles on a one and a half lane windy no guard rail road carved into the mountain at 500 feet above sea level. Roby was driving with white knuckles wishing he knew how to swear in Italian at the crazy tour bus drivers who had no business being on this road and the completely lunatic scooter riders. Some of the turns were at such a sharp angle you had to come to a complete stop, make sure no oncoming traffic was in your way, and then quickly bend around the corner. The only consolation to this hair raising ride was the incredible unobstructed view of the entire Amalfi Coast from The Hotel Doria at the summit.
All we needed to cure us was a hot shower and a drink. After 10 days of cold slow dripping showers at the farm, I just wanted to let hot water drown me for at least 15 minutes. I also needed to shave desperately. I was starting to look like a European!!! Squeaky clean and in new outfits we headed down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. Not having the energy to venture too far from home we decided to enjoy our immediate surroundings for the afternoon. Roby took full advantage of our deck soaking up some sun, playing his guitar and drinking a cold beer. That evening our nerves had calmed down so we decided to head into the town of Amalfi back down the hill. Thankfully we did not have to drive; the hotel had a shuttle. I am not sure if being a passenger is any better especially with an Italian driver. We were vindicated though because the hotel driver was swearing at the same tour bus drivers and scooters as we were. He dropped us off in the town square and would be back to pick us up in 4 hours.
The town square is perfectly located on the water’s edge with a big jetty and boardwalk. It was almost sunset so we took a stroll along the waterway enjoying the view. The weather was perfect-what we call “no weather”. The air is still and the temperature is exactly where you can be completely naked and not feel anything. Okay we had clothes on but we did not need a jacket. We headed toward the tourist trap area with all the shops and ventured through the narrow streets window shopping. We happened upon a great little store famous for its locally made limoncello and olive oil. Everything made in this region has a twinge of lemon in it even the chocolate. We can attest, the lemon white chocolate is delicious. The store owner gave us some samples and we ate the whole plate. After purchasing several items and cleaning out our bank account, we decided to have a glass of wine and people watch. The café was perfectly located in the center of town with the colossal church anchoring the street scene. As the sun set we continued our stroll through town and found a quaint little restaurant tucked away behind several buildings up three flights of stairs. To find the good food you have to let your nose lead you.
With the fall breeze coming through the open window it took the coffee to wake Roby up the next morning. Luckily, because we had only 20 minutes to spare for the free breakfast buffet. It was delightful, fresh squeezed juice, fresh fruit and yogurt, and chocolate pastries all with a view of the mountains and sea. Trying to delay our departure we hiked up the hotel spiral staircase to the outdoor veranda where we had an unobstructed view of the entire coastline. The noon bell rang and with the long ride to Rome we forced ourselves out of the lounge chairs. Wish we could have stopped time.
We loaded up and decided to continue around the mountain through Positano and Sorrento before we hit the A1 freeway to Rome. This choice was made after we missed the turn to the freeway just outside of Amalfi. Sometimes mistakes turn out for the better because the drive was gorgeous. The three hour ride turned into five because of our wonderful navigation skills. No problem finding Rome it was our hotel we could not locate even though we passed it several times. Luckily we noticed the street name on our third pass and finally rolled into the parking lot close to dark. Despite our best efforts to head into the city for an evening of pleasure, we ended up having dinner at the local German Bier Garden. One would think the menu would be filled with wonderful sausage sandwiches and sauerkraut but in Italy, every restaurant regardless of its ethnicity only serves Italian food. Therefore it was pizza and Bier.
The next morning we drove to the subway station and took the train into Rome. Two places we missed on our last visit to Italy was the Vatican Museum and the Pantheon. Unbeknownst to us the Vatican Museum is not open on Sunday. Although we were disappointed in not getting to see the famous art collection, the Pope was in town and once we made it through the tight security and metal detectors we watched Him give Mass. Unfortunately there was no shade and it was an excruciatingly hot day so we cut our visit with the Pope short and headed toward our next stop. As we walked to the Pantheon I remembered why I loved Rome so much. I am not sure another place exists where history hits you around every corner. Paris is an incredible city but the architecture is mostly from one era. In Rome you are bombarded with buildings and sculptures from an array of time periods. The Pantheon is no exception. The outside reveals its age but once you enter the church you are surprised by the preservation of the interior. Stunned by the use of color and carvings in the stone walls as well as its design, we were amazed such a scientific feat was accomplished. As we exited the Pantheon we happened upon the Trevi Fountain. Oh just another masterpiece from Roman times.
October 9th and 10th
After 10 days of manual labor on the farm we left with fond memories, blisters on our hands from digging fence post holes, cranberry red stained fingernails from making Pinot Noir wine, a fat lip from hitting my head on a stone countertop during a fall and 10 newly earned pounds from eating pasta at every meal. We decided we needed some rest and relaxation. Therefore, we chose to spend some time on the Amalfi Coast before heading up to Calvi dell Umbria for our next assignment.
From San Giovanni two different driving routes led to the Coast. Of course we took the “Zen” way-heading up the Italian version of the PCH along the Mediterranean Sea. Once we passed Salerno we were in for a ride. Now I know why Europeans are better at Grand Prix and Motorcycle Racing. We had approximately 50 miles on a one and a half lane windy no guard rail road carved into the mountain at 500 feet above sea level. Roby was driving with white knuckles wishing he knew how to swear in Italian at the crazy tour bus drivers who had no business being on this road and the completely lunatic scooter riders. Some of the turns were at such a sharp angle you had to come to a complete stop, make sure no oncoming traffic was in your way, and then quickly bend around the corner. The only consolation to this hair raising ride was the incredible unobstructed view of the entire Amalfi Coast from The Hotel Doria at the summit.
All we needed to cure us was a hot shower and a drink. After 10 days of cold slow dripping showers at the farm, I just wanted to let hot water drown me for at least 15 minutes. I also needed to shave desperately. I was starting to look like a European!!! Squeaky clean and in new outfits we headed down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. Not having the energy to venture too far from home we decided to enjoy our immediate surroundings for the afternoon. Roby took full advantage of our deck soaking up some sun, playing his guitar and drinking a cold beer. That evening our nerves had calmed down so we decided to head into the town of Amalfi back down the hill. Thankfully we did not have to drive; the hotel had a shuttle. I am not sure if being a passenger is any better especially with an Italian driver. We were vindicated though because the hotel driver was swearing at the same tour bus drivers and scooters as we were. He dropped us off in the town square and would be back to pick us up in 4 hours.
The town square is perfectly located on the water’s edge with a big jetty and boardwalk. It was almost sunset so we took a stroll along the waterway enjoying the view. The weather was perfect-what we call “no weather”. The air is still and the temperature is exactly where you can be completely naked and not feel anything. Okay we had clothes on but we did not need a jacket. We headed toward the tourist trap area with all the shops and ventured through the narrow streets window shopping. We happened upon a great little store famous for its locally made limoncello and olive oil. Everything made in this region has a twinge of lemon in it even the chocolate. We can attest, the lemon white chocolate is delicious. The store owner gave us some samples and we ate the whole plate. After purchasing several items and cleaning out our bank account, we decided to have a glass of wine and people watch. The café was perfectly located in the center of town with the colossal church anchoring the street scene. As the sun set we continued our stroll through town and found a quaint little restaurant tucked away behind several buildings up three flights of stairs. To find the good food you have to let your nose lead you.
With the fall breeze coming through the open window it took the coffee to wake Roby up the next morning. Luckily, because we had only 20 minutes to spare for the free breakfast buffet. It was delightful, fresh squeezed juice, fresh fruit and yogurt, and chocolate pastries all with a view of the mountains and sea. Trying to delay our departure we hiked up the hotel spiral staircase to the outdoor veranda where we had an unobstructed view of the entire coastline. The noon bell rang and with the long ride to Rome we forced ourselves out of the lounge chairs. Wish we could have stopped time.
We loaded up and decided to continue around the mountain through Positano and Sorrento before we hit the A1 freeway to Rome. This choice was made after we missed the turn to the freeway just outside of Amalfi. Sometimes mistakes turn out for the better because the drive was gorgeous. The three hour ride turned into five because of our wonderful navigation skills. No problem finding Rome it was our hotel we could not locate even though we passed it several times. Luckily we noticed the street name on our third pass and finally rolled into the parking lot close to dark. Despite our best efforts to head into the city for an evening of pleasure, we ended up having dinner at the local German Bier Garden. One would think the menu would be filled with wonderful sausage sandwiches and sauerkraut but in Italy, every restaurant regardless of its ethnicity only serves Italian food. Therefore it was pizza and Bier.
The next morning we drove to the subway station and took the train into Rome. Two places we missed on our last visit to Italy was the Vatican Museum and the Pantheon. Unbeknownst to us the Vatican Museum is not open on Sunday. Although we were disappointed in not getting to see the famous art collection, the Pope was in town and once we made it through the tight security and metal detectors we watched Him give Mass. Unfortunately there was no shade and it was an excruciatingly hot day so we cut our visit with the Pope short and headed toward our next stop. As we walked to the Pantheon I remembered why I loved Rome so much. I am not sure another place exists where history hits you around every corner. Paris is an incredible city but the architecture is mostly from one era. In Rome you are bombarded with buildings and sculptures from an array of time periods. The Pantheon is no exception. The outside reveals its age but once you enter the church you are surprised by the preservation of the interior. Stunned by the use of color and carvings in the stone walls as well as its design, we were amazed such a scientific feat was accomplished. As we exited the Pantheon we happened upon the Trevi Fountain. Oh just another masterpiece from Roman times.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
WWOOFING In Italy
San Giovani a Piro, Italy - Oct. 10th-20th 2009
We made our daredevil 7 hr drive on the autostrada in the Skoda Roomster rental car from Umbria south to San Giovani. When we exited the freeway and headed toward the sea on the narrow curvy roads, the terrain became more dramatic with higher mountains and deeper valleys. From the exit, after about an hour of driving, we finally made the climb up the mountain road and arrived in a small picturesque Italian hillside village. We tried to find the road per our instructions but there were not many street signs so we called the owner of the wwoofing farm where we were going to stay and he said he would meet us. Sebastiano was a handsome and fit 50 yr old well dressed grey headed guy driving a beat-up 2 door 4 wheel drive white Fiat Panda hatch back. We followed him up and down and around very narrow cobbled village streets at a rather high rate of speed until we reached the house, a large old building anchoring the lower edge of this medieval hilltop village. The house was a massive 4 story tall but narrow structure that followed the contour of the land for probably 150 ft with stone retaining walls above and below it. It was old with areas of exposed stone masonry but mostly stucco of various mottled shades of beige and of course the red clay tiled roof.
We entered the back door on the ground floor into what was like a huge old basement with rough cobbled floors, and century old relics of farming tools, olive grinding mills, wine making presses and oak barrels spread out in work rooms and storage rooms that seemed to go in both directions forever. He led us up the stairs to the main entrance level where there were 12 ft tall double wood doors with hand forged iron hardware that opened out onto the village street. Another flight of stairs took us up to the much more refined and finished main living area with polished Italian marble floors, antique furniture, chandeliers and large paintings. There were two bedrooms and an office on one end with the formal dinning room, kitchen, den and outdoor terrace on the other end. Up another flight of stairs to the top floor there were three more large bedrooms, another office and some other storage rooms. I’d say with all floors probably 12k sf of house.
After unloading our bags in our room on the top floor we went down to the kitchen area to meet the two other woofers and Sebastiano’s 75 year old Mother Fiamma. She explained to us that the house was a 400 yr old family country hunting palace and went over some of her specific details of the house and kitchen dos and don’ts. I had a hard time focusing because I kept looking out of the huge windows at the surrounding landscape and the unbelievable setting of this little town. Below the house was a sloped green river valley with intermittent farm cottages surrounded by pastures, field crops, vineyards and olive orchards. In the distance across the valley were residing ridges of overlapping shades of green forests. Looking to the left the valley continued to slope quickly upwards to a fantastic vertical light grey almost white granite mountain peak that towered over the village - to the right the valley sloped for 20 miles all the way down to where you good see the blue half moon Bay of Sapri on the Mediterranean Sea. All of the land immediately below the house all the way down to the river was Sebastiano’s – probably a few hundred acres of prime farmland with an old farm house that he was renovating into an agro-tourism lodge. And this was just one of several of his parcels of land in the area.
As Sebastiano made dinner we chatted with our housemates Andrew – a recent college grad from New York and Stefan – a late 20-something chef from Paris. They both had been there already for a few weeks so they showed us around the house a bit more and gave us a run down on how things worked, what the work days would be like and how to stay on mama Fiama’s good side. She was not real comfortable with Sebastiano inviting these yahoo strangers from god knows where into her house to live and work. She is an intelligent, rather fussy, prim and proper widower from Italian royalty whose prized possessions were her wine glasses and stoneware. She also had a pet peeve for beautiful
and absolutely correct table settings. Dinners were delicious (always with bread and homemade wine), very formal presentations and usually filled with lively conversation which escalated into a loud almost yelling mix of Italian / English between Sebastiano and his mother over some obscure community political issue.
Later in the evening Andrew told us the daily routine was to wake and have breakfast around 7:30 am then take the kitchen scrap bucket down the hill to collect semi rotten fruit from the fig trees, persimmon trees and Indian fig cactus, along with a basket of moldy pressed grape pulp down through the vineyard to feed the two pigs. Once we finished feeding the pigs we would come back up to the house and wait for Sebastiano to instruct us on the day’s chores. I was asked to “Turn The Wine” – I was so excited. Andrew and Stefan had just harvested and pressed the pinot noir grapes a few days before we got there. The grape pulp and juices were now fermenting in four 500 liter tubs but had to be turned twice a day once in the morning and once at night unless of course it was a full moon then you shouldn’t touch it for two days. Turning is required because the grapes rise to the top of the tub to form this mat of pulp and the juice is at the bottom. The wine needs to be mixed up so it all ferments evenly. It’s a chore but a messy bit of fun.
We then hopped into the Fiat Panda with Sebass, as Andrew called him, to go off and harvest some walnuts. Patti shared the passenger seat with Vikka the black cocker and Andrew and I sat backwards in the hatchback complete with some scattered hand tools, old gloves for cushioning, a gas soaked rope, a water jug and 2 big baskets for the nuts. We headed through the windy streets of town and up a steep mountain on a mix of cobble and dirt roads at near rally speeds with our feet hanging out of the open hatchback to let some fresh non-emission controlled tail pipe fumes into the car. When we arrived Sebastiano pulled up onto a grassy leveled pasture under the shade of a walnut loaded tree. We piled out of the car, dizzy from the blur of riding backwards, to take in an incredible view from the site which was just below the vertical granite bluffs looking all the way down to the sea. It was about 68 degrees with sunshine, a faint breeze, a few misty clouds hanging half way up on the mountain and wild fennel & mint growing everywhere. Andrew scaled the tree to shake some nuts loose and we filled our baskets to the sound of wild donkey kongs echoing in the cliffs and jingling herds of bell collared goats somewhere down valley.
After lunch on the fourth story open air sunset terrace back at the palace we sat and ate American grapes for dessert. They are like concord grapes you just squeeze on the skin, and the meat, sweet juices and seeds pop into you mouth. We had a little siesta up in our room for an hour or so between 2 and 3 pm and then Sebass suggested we all go wild mushroom hunting. We followed him in our Skoda around to the back side of the mountain and up this gnarly rock road to his favorite childhood hunting grounds. We each grabbed a basket and a hiking cane and headed down the steep wooded slopes. It was a rich mix of biodiversity with pines and oaks evenly spaced over lush grasses, ferns, wild herbs and giant hidden mushrooms. We later found out that it’s not unheard of to run into the highly poisonous Viper snake in this region of Italy - Greaaat. After an hour of hiking around we had filled our baskets with probably 8 or 10 different varieties of edible mushrooms. Sebass would rummage through our findings and toss out the toxic species and praise us with an approving chuckle and a “Well Done” if we had found any of the rarer varieties – some so prized that they cost as much as $75 an entrée in a good restaurant in Rome. Dinner was gonna be special tonight! Actually we had mushrooms on pizza, in pasta, in soup, in salads, in the risotto and of course just sautéed pretty much every night all week. Fine with us!
The next day, after turning the wine and feeding the pigs, we harvested some organic tomatoes and tilled & weeded a 25’ by 50’ section of the garden with hand tools to prepare it for planting later in the week - a good little morning’s workout. Midweek Patti and Stefan boiled some jars and prepared a hug vat of fig jam for canning in the basement. Of course I had to sample a ladle or two of the sugary slurry straight from the caldron before they were allowed to can.
About every other night Fiama would have friends or neighbors from the local village over to join us for dinner – always a formal occasion with impeccable place settings accompanied by a table center piece arrangement of flowers, garden fruits or vegetables and some of our beautiful mushrooms. We normally didn’t sit for dinner until about 9 pm and the mostly Italian conversation would get louder in direct proportion to the amount of wine that was poured - lasting until 11 pm at times. One evening we were pleasantly surprised with an impromptu concert. Fiamma’s guest was a professional musician and he brought his guitar with him so after dinner we congregated in the kitchen and he and Andrew who played the banjo, put on a two hour jam session for us all.
Waiting for dinner one night Patti and I were lounging around upstairs, Patti reading and I practicing my guitar, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small shadow streak across the wall in dim light. We looked at each other at the same time and both said – what was that? Then, as it made another pass, we both clearly saw what it was and screeched in unison – It’s A Bat! Patti immediately ducked under her pillow and I began to nervously dance around the room unsuccessfully wielding my guitar as a bat swatter. After stirring us around for a minute or two it finally disappeared into the adjoining office and I quickly closed the double doors. As I said, we were in a 400 year old structure.
At diner that night we made plans with Andrew to join us for a Saturday road trip to the Pompeii ruins. The 2 hr. drive along the Italian coastal back roads was great. We stopped along the way at a cheese shop, in the middle of the Buffalo Mozzarella producing region of Campana, to get some fresh Buffalo Mozzarella cheese balls. We didn’t even get back to the car before we opened up the package and passed it around scarfing it down as we stood in the parking lot. Incredible stuff.
Pompeii was a wonderful look back in time. What an amazing city and lifestyle it must have been. With Mt.Vesuvius towering overhead, we walked along Pompeii’s 2000 year old cobbled stone streets in and out of palatial residences with colorfully plastered walls, marble floors and courtyard fountains and strolled up to what used to be a street side wine bar with wine vases and stone tile mosaic counter tops still intact. The wonder of what it must have been like?
We were having a lot of fun on the farm and the surrounding area so far but Sebastiano had a sizable chore in store for us the last week we were there. We would now start to earn our room and board by constructing a hog wire fence around the walnut tree pasture. Sebastiano planned to build a new pinot noir vineyard and he needed to keep out the free-range goats. After a twenty minute argument between Sebass and his farm manager Savalio as to how to construct the fence, Sebass strung a rope along the proposed alignment, took two paces to show me the spacing and handed me a 15 pound straight iron digging bar to make the post holes. Sebass would cut the salvaged tree limb fence post to length, I would dig the holes, Andrew would pound the post in and Patti and Stefan would be the wire fence stringers and tiers. The soil was moist and loose, easy for digging in, and had just the right amount of gravel in it to make the post sturdy. It was tough work but it actually went much quicker and easier than expected. Unfortunately Andrew and Stefan were leaving; so Roby and I had to finish the job by ourselves. Sebass decided he wanted to change the alignment requiring us to remove a portion of the fence and redo it. Four days later we completed 500 linear feet of fence.
Feeling bad about the extra hours he had us work, Sebass gave us an early reprieve the next day. Roby and I took a drive and hung out at the beach on the Mediterranean Sea. Nestled at the base of the Cilento National Forest the beach creeps out from the primitive sand dunes and native vegetation. The sand is more gravel-like with a rocky entrance into the water. Although not as warm as on the Spanish coast, we braved the waves. Trying to absorb the balance of the sun, we hung out on our make-shift beach blanket, but as the sun was going down, Patti started shivering. She immediately ran back to the car and changed into her clothes. We spent the remaining portion of the evening enjoying the dark reddish-orange sunset.
We realized we had been in San Giovanni for almost a week and had hiked up to the mountain above the village and driven to the neighboring villages of Sapri and Scario, but we hadn’t walked up through the heart of the old village centro of San Giovanni even though it was located within walking distance from the house. Our next free afternoon Patti and I ventured up the steep streets to find a beautiful historic centre that is a labyrinth of little alley-ways and lanes that wind and intersect around the 2 ancient town squares: Piazza Teodoro Gaza, where you can find the Chiesa Madre (church) dating back to the 15th century, and Piazza San Gaetano. The narrow steep passage ways which were barely wide enough to walk led you through 3 to 5 story medieval stone and stucco structures terraced up the hillside. Each home had its own personality with mottled layers of paint, tons of hand crafted stone, and wood and iron details. The village as most of the Italian towns was initially built thousands of years ago as a high density community to protect itself from neighboring warriors but also for the efficiency of shared resources. What a concept!
Our final days were spent tending to the wine. After letting the wine rest during the full moon phase, we completed one last “turn” and checked the sugar content. The gravitational pull from the moon did its job and extracted the rest of the juices from the pulp. It was time to make the wine!! Savalio, the expert winemaker and winedrinker, instructed us on the procedure. In short form: you scoop out the fermented grape pulp from the hug vats with a 5 gallon bucket and dump it into the wine press. Another person compresses the grapes in the press until it is full. Then you manually crank the press hundreds of times to get all the juices out which would be collecting in small plastic buckets under the spickets of the press. Each time these buckets filled up, you would pump the wine juice into the curing barrels, and keep going until no juice is left in the press. Any remaining juice in the vats, after all pulp was removed, would be pumped directly into the curing barrel. Unfortunately during the process, Savalio had to leave and Roby and I were left on our own. Thankfully Maria, Savalio’s wife and her mother came over and helped us pack and press the wine. To make the afternoon more enjoyable all four of us sampled the wine frequently straight from the press spout for quality control. A few minor mechanical difficulties set us back a bit making it two 10 hour workdays. The night before we left, we put the finishing touches on over 1500 liters of Pinot Noir and set it to rest for a few weeks before it was to be bottled.
Roby and Patti professional wine-makers.
We made our daredevil 7 hr drive on the autostrada in the Skoda Roomster rental car from Umbria south to San Giovani. When we exited the freeway and headed toward the sea on the narrow curvy roads, the terrain became more dramatic with higher mountains and deeper valleys. From the exit, after about an hour of driving, we finally made the climb up the mountain road and arrived in a small picturesque Italian hillside village. We tried to find the road per our instructions but there were not many street signs so we called the owner of the wwoofing farm where we were going to stay and he said he would meet us. Sebastiano was a handsome and fit 50 yr old well dressed grey headed guy driving a beat-up 2 door 4 wheel drive white Fiat Panda hatch back. We followed him up and down and around very narrow cobbled village streets at a rather high rate of speed until we reached the house, a large old building anchoring the lower edge of this medieval hilltop village. The house was a massive 4 story tall but narrow structure that followed the contour of the land for probably 150 ft with stone retaining walls above and below it. It was old with areas of exposed stone masonry but mostly stucco of various mottled shades of beige and of course the red clay tiled roof.
We entered the back door on the ground floor into what was like a huge old basement with rough cobbled floors, and century old relics of farming tools, olive grinding mills, wine making presses and oak barrels spread out in work rooms and storage rooms that seemed to go in both directions forever. He led us up the stairs to the main entrance level where there were 12 ft tall double wood doors with hand forged iron hardware that opened out onto the village street. Another flight of stairs took us up to the much more refined and finished main living area with polished Italian marble floors, antique furniture, chandeliers and large paintings. There were two bedrooms and an office on one end with the formal dinning room, kitchen, den and outdoor terrace on the other end. Up another flight of stairs to the top floor there were three more large bedrooms, another office and some other storage rooms. I’d say with all floors probably 12k sf of house.
After unloading our bags in our room on the top floor we went down to the kitchen area to meet the two other woofers and Sebastiano’s 75 year old Mother Fiamma. She explained to us that the house was a 400 yr old family country hunting palace and went over some of her specific details of the house and kitchen dos and don’ts. I had a hard time focusing because I kept looking out of the huge windows at the surrounding landscape and the unbelievable setting of this little town. Below the house was a sloped green river valley with intermittent farm cottages surrounded by pastures, field crops, vineyards and olive orchards. In the distance across the valley were residing ridges of overlapping shades of green forests. Looking to the left the valley continued to slope quickly upwards to a fantastic vertical light grey almost white granite mountain peak that towered over the village - to the right the valley sloped for 20 miles all the way down to where you good see the blue half moon Bay of Sapri on the Mediterranean Sea. All of the land immediately below the house all the way down to the river was Sebastiano’s – probably a few hundred acres of prime farmland with an old farm house that he was renovating into an agro-tourism lodge. And this was just one of several of his parcels of land in the area.
As Sebastiano made dinner we chatted with our housemates Andrew – a recent college grad from New York and Stefan – a late 20-something chef from Paris. They both had been there already for a few weeks so they showed us around the house a bit more and gave us a run down on how things worked, what the work days would be like and how to stay on mama Fiama’s good side. She was not real comfortable with Sebastiano inviting these yahoo strangers from god knows where into her house to live and work. She is an intelligent, rather fussy, prim and proper widower from Italian royalty whose prized possessions were her wine glasses and stoneware. She also had a pet peeve for beautiful
and absolutely correct table settings. Dinners were delicious (always with bread and homemade wine), very formal presentations and usually filled with lively conversation which escalated into a loud almost yelling mix of Italian / English between Sebastiano and his mother over some obscure community political issue.
Later in the evening Andrew told us the daily routine was to wake and have breakfast around 7:30 am then take the kitchen scrap bucket down the hill to collect semi rotten fruit from the fig trees, persimmon trees and Indian fig cactus, along with a basket of moldy pressed grape pulp down through the vineyard to feed the two pigs. Once we finished feeding the pigs we would come back up to the house and wait for Sebastiano to instruct us on the day’s chores. I was asked to “Turn The Wine” – I was so excited. Andrew and Stefan had just harvested and pressed the pinot noir grapes a few days before we got there. The grape pulp and juices were now fermenting in four 500 liter tubs but had to be turned twice a day once in the morning and once at night unless of course it was a full moon then you shouldn’t touch it for two days. Turning is required because the grapes rise to the top of the tub to form this mat of pulp and the juice is at the bottom. The wine needs to be mixed up so it all ferments evenly. It’s a chore but a messy bit of fun.
We then hopped into the Fiat Panda with Sebass, as Andrew called him, to go off and harvest some walnuts. Patti shared the passenger seat with Vikka the black cocker and Andrew and I sat backwards in the hatchback complete with some scattered hand tools, old gloves for cushioning, a gas soaked rope, a water jug and 2 big baskets for the nuts. We headed through the windy streets of town and up a steep mountain on a mix of cobble and dirt roads at near rally speeds with our feet hanging out of the open hatchback to let some fresh non-emission controlled tail pipe fumes into the car. When we arrived Sebastiano pulled up onto a grassy leveled pasture under the shade of a walnut loaded tree. We piled out of the car, dizzy from the blur of riding backwards, to take in an incredible view from the site which was just below the vertical granite bluffs looking all the way down to the sea. It was about 68 degrees with sunshine, a faint breeze, a few misty clouds hanging half way up on the mountain and wild fennel & mint growing everywhere. Andrew scaled the tree to shake some nuts loose and we filled our baskets to the sound of wild donkey kongs echoing in the cliffs and jingling herds of bell collared goats somewhere down valley.
After lunch on the fourth story open air sunset terrace back at the palace we sat and ate American grapes for dessert. They are like concord grapes you just squeeze on the skin, and the meat, sweet juices and seeds pop into you mouth. We had a little siesta up in our room for an hour or so between 2 and 3 pm and then Sebass suggested we all go wild mushroom hunting. We followed him in our Skoda around to the back side of the mountain and up this gnarly rock road to his favorite childhood hunting grounds. We each grabbed a basket and a hiking cane and headed down the steep wooded slopes. It was a rich mix of biodiversity with pines and oaks evenly spaced over lush grasses, ferns, wild herbs and giant hidden mushrooms. We later found out that it’s not unheard of to run into the highly poisonous Viper snake in this region of Italy - Greaaat. After an hour of hiking around we had filled our baskets with probably 8 or 10 different varieties of edible mushrooms. Sebass would rummage through our findings and toss out the toxic species and praise us with an approving chuckle and a “Well Done” if we had found any of the rarer varieties – some so prized that they cost as much as $75 an entrée in a good restaurant in Rome. Dinner was gonna be special tonight! Actually we had mushrooms on pizza, in pasta, in soup, in salads, in the risotto and of course just sautéed pretty much every night all week. Fine with us!
The next day, after turning the wine and feeding the pigs, we harvested some organic tomatoes and tilled & weeded a 25’ by 50’ section of the garden with hand tools to prepare it for planting later in the week - a good little morning’s workout. Midweek Patti and Stefan boiled some jars and prepared a hug vat of fig jam for canning in the basement. Of course I had to sample a ladle or two of the sugary slurry straight from the caldron before they were allowed to can.
About every other night Fiama would have friends or neighbors from the local village over to join us for dinner – always a formal occasion with impeccable place settings accompanied by a table center piece arrangement of flowers, garden fruits or vegetables and some of our beautiful mushrooms. We normally didn’t sit for dinner until about 9 pm and the mostly Italian conversation would get louder in direct proportion to the amount of wine that was poured - lasting until 11 pm at times. One evening we were pleasantly surprised with an impromptu concert. Fiamma’s guest was a professional musician and he brought his guitar with him so after dinner we congregated in the kitchen and he and Andrew who played the banjo, put on a two hour jam session for us all.
Waiting for dinner one night Patti and I were lounging around upstairs, Patti reading and I practicing my guitar, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small shadow streak across the wall in dim light. We looked at each other at the same time and both said – what was that? Then, as it made another pass, we both clearly saw what it was and screeched in unison – It’s A Bat! Patti immediately ducked under her pillow and I began to nervously dance around the room unsuccessfully wielding my guitar as a bat swatter. After stirring us around for a minute or two it finally disappeared into the adjoining office and I quickly closed the double doors. As I said, we were in a 400 year old structure.
At diner that night we made plans with Andrew to join us for a Saturday road trip to the Pompeii ruins. The 2 hr. drive along the Italian coastal back roads was great. We stopped along the way at a cheese shop, in the middle of the Buffalo Mozzarella producing region of Campana, to get some fresh Buffalo Mozzarella cheese balls. We didn’t even get back to the car before we opened up the package and passed it around scarfing it down as we stood in the parking lot. Incredible stuff.
Pompeii was a wonderful look back in time. What an amazing city and lifestyle it must have been. With Mt.Vesuvius towering overhead, we walked along Pompeii’s 2000 year old cobbled stone streets in and out of palatial residences with colorfully plastered walls, marble floors and courtyard fountains and strolled up to what used to be a street side wine bar with wine vases and stone tile mosaic counter tops still intact. The wonder of what it must have been like?
We were having a lot of fun on the farm and the surrounding area so far but Sebastiano had a sizable chore in store for us the last week we were there. We would now start to earn our room and board by constructing a hog wire fence around the walnut tree pasture. Sebastiano planned to build a new pinot noir vineyard and he needed to keep out the free-range goats. After a twenty minute argument between Sebass and his farm manager Savalio as to how to construct the fence, Sebass strung a rope along the proposed alignment, took two paces to show me the spacing and handed me a 15 pound straight iron digging bar to make the post holes. Sebass would cut the salvaged tree limb fence post to length, I would dig the holes, Andrew would pound the post in and Patti and Stefan would be the wire fence stringers and tiers. The soil was moist and loose, easy for digging in, and had just the right amount of gravel in it to make the post sturdy. It was tough work but it actually went much quicker and easier than expected. Unfortunately Andrew and Stefan were leaving; so Roby and I had to finish the job by ourselves. Sebass decided he wanted to change the alignment requiring us to remove a portion of the fence and redo it. Four days later we completed 500 linear feet of fence.
Feeling bad about the extra hours he had us work, Sebass gave us an early reprieve the next day. Roby and I took a drive and hung out at the beach on the Mediterranean Sea. Nestled at the base of the Cilento National Forest the beach creeps out from the primitive sand dunes and native vegetation. The sand is more gravel-like with a rocky entrance into the water. Although not as warm as on the Spanish coast, we braved the waves. Trying to absorb the balance of the sun, we hung out on our make-shift beach blanket, but as the sun was going down, Patti started shivering. She immediately ran back to the car and changed into her clothes. We spent the remaining portion of the evening enjoying the dark reddish-orange sunset.
We realized we had been in San Giovanni for almost a week and had hiked up to the mountain above the village and driven to the neighboring villages of Sapri and Scario, but we hadn’t walked up through the heart of the old village centro of San Giovanni even though it was located within walking distance from the house. Our next free afternoon Patti and I ventured up the steep streets to find a beautiful historic centre that is a labyrinth of little alley-ways and lanes that wind and intersect around the 2 ancient town squares: Piazza Teodoro Gaza, where you can find the Chiesa Madre (church) dating back to the 15th century, and Piazza San Gaetano. The narrow steep passage ways which were barely wide enough to walk led you through 3 to 5 story medieval stone and stucco structures terraced up the hillside. Each home had its own personality with mottled layers of paint, tons of hand crafted stone, and wood and iron details. The village as most of the Italian towns was initially built thousands of years ago as a high density community to protect itself from neighboring warriors but also for the efficiency of shared resources. What a concept!
Our final days were spent tending to the wine. After letting the wine rest during the full moon phase, we completed one last “turn” and checked the sugar content. The gravitational pull from the moon did its job and extracted the rest of the juices from the pulp. It was time to make the wine!! Savalio, the expert winemaker and winedrinker, instructed us on the procedure. In short form: you scoop out the fermented grape pulp from the hug vats with a 5 gallon bucket and dump it into the wine press. Another person compresses the grapes in the press until it is full. Then you manually crank the press hundreds of times to get all the juices out which would be collecting in small plastic buckets under the spickets of the press. Each time these buckets filled up, you would pump the wine juice into the curing barrels, and keep going until no juice is left in the press. Any remaining juice in the vats, after all pulp was removed, would be pumped directly into the curing barrel. Unfortunately during the process, Savalio had to leave and Roby and I were left on our own. Thankfully Maria, Savalio’s wife and her mother came over and helped us pack and press the wine. To make the afternoon more enjoyable all four of us sampled the wine frequently straight from the press spout for quality control. A few minor mechanical difficulties set us back a bit making it two 10 hour workdays. The night before we left, we put the finishing touches on over 1500 liters of Pinot Noir and set it to rest for a few weeks before it was to be bottled.
Roby and Patti professional wine-makers.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Ciao Bella
Umbria Italy
September 25th through 30th
The time was 3:00 pm when Roby and I finally made it back to our car in Tasch Switzerland and we had at least four hours to travel to reach our destination in Italy. Our well thought out plan was to spend the night in Parma and have a leisurely morning and head to Florence to pi ck up our friend Steve from Kauai. We had been exchanging emails with him and set a date and time to meet at the main train station in Florence. Of course nothing goes according to plan. Roby was driving and I was navigating and we were doing fine until we hit Milan. The intention was to stay on the autostrade and bypass the city which we thought we had done but unfortunately more than one freeway exists in Milan and we got completely turned around. After about thirty minutes we stopped at the gas station and a nice Italian driver said some words and gave us hand gesture directions. We were on the road again. No chance of getting lost again it was a straight shot to Parma.
The sun was beginning to set and we still had several hours to drive. Did we want to call it a night and have a further drive in the morning or continue toward Parma. Unfortunately Motel 6 was not leaving the light on for us. We would see signs every 20 km for a hotel but nothing in sight and we did not want to chance getting off the autostrade in a small town in the middle of the night so we kept chugging along. At least we were not lost this way. Prior to Parma we saw a Motel right off the freeway so we decided it was time to get off the road. We drove into the parking lot and the place was definitely too fancy for us so we left and figured another hotel had to be nearby. What did we do, the thing we said we did not want to do, get off the freeway and try and find a hotel. An hour later after cruising through the entire town and its industrial area there was no hotel in sight. Now we had to find our way back to the freeway. UGGH!
The hour is now 8:30 pm and we are still an hour from Parma and we have not eaten since Zermatt. The signs for Parma are in sight so we get off and take the first hotel we can find. At this time I would pay 100 euors for a room just to get out of the car. We happened upon a nice place in the outskirts of town and took a room. Now we had to find something to eat. Thankfully the restaurants in Europe stay open late because we did not sit down for dinner until 11:30 pm and people were coming in after us. Our first plate of spaghetti with real “Parma-giano Reggiano” cheese. I was in heaven. Bedtime-1:30 am- wakeup 9:00 am- 10:00 am-breakfast-11:00- on the road again. So much for the carefully thought out plan.
I thought I was so prepared with our route. I had printed out Google Maps and corresponding directions to each location. The test was going to be finding the train station in Florence. If the street signage was anything like Switzerland we were in trouble. All was going well; we were making all the right connections on the autostrade, and we were on time to meet Steve. The exit for Florence arrived. I pulled out my Google directions ready to lead Roby straight for the train station. At the T-intersection the signage had 20 different locations and arrows pointing in three different directions, none of which represented the name I was looking for. With traffic behind us and without thinking we turned left heading somewhere. We were officially lost. With Google being worthless, we decided to find signage for the train station. Although Europe does not sign its streets well, you can always find signs for the train station, airport and football stadium. With the flow of traffic, Roby kept driving and I watched out for the signs. We still had thirty minutes to meet Steve so plenty of time to be lost. Amazingly, once we got on the right track, the names of the streets on my Google map starting appearing. We arrived at the train station within 10 minutes of our meeting time and found Steve waiting for us on the curb. Miracles do happen.
The ride to Umbria was full of conversation catching up on Steve’s hike in Switzerland, his last few months in Kauai and our plans for Italy. An hour and a half went by so quickly. Things went smoothly and we drove directly to our farmhouse in Maggione Italy above Lake Trasimeno. It helps when you get directions from the owner of the home. As we turned into the driveway we could see the two story stone farmhouse overlooking acres of olive trees and distant views of the Umbrian hillside. We all looked at each other and smiled. Jackpot!! Our unit was two story with a spiral staircase and small kitchenette. The bedroom had antique furniture and big wooden shutters on the windows which opened up to the most incredible view of Umbria. Our own “under the Tuscan Sun House”. The living room had a futon so Steve made himself at home. The grounds had several covered patios, a BBQ, ping pong table, foosball table and a 25 yd. pool with lounge chairs encircling it resort style. Best of all, we had the entire place to ourselves. After unpacking we headed into the small village of Maggione to experience the local cuisine. Unfortunately we arrived during the siesta hour so we had to have Happy Hour at a local bar for a few hours. Darn!! Steve filled us in on more of the details of his hike and his plans for when he heads back to the States and we just reminisced about Kauai. The restaurants and stores started reopening so we headed up to the tiny trattoria upstairs from the bar and had an excellent pasta dinner with a terra cotta carafe of the local wine which goes for 2 euros. Gotta love Italy!!
We had still not fully recovered from our jetlag nor our long days of driving so it was not surprising we did not wake until 10:00 am the next morning. Roby pried me out of bed by opening the big wood shutters and letting the sunshine into the room. We spent the next hour enjoying the morning and our wonderful view, but we had to venture out because Roby and Steve were in desperate need of some coffee. We decided since we got such a late start we would drive over to Perugia do some grocery shopping and check out the town. Perugia is a university town so it is much bigger than Maggione but still maintains the hillside character. The centro is at the city’s highest point providing you with a view of the surrounding countryside. That evening we decided to cook our dinner at the house. We made a ravioli with homemade sauce and sautéed zucchini and served it with the region’s finest red wine. To top it off we had biscotti with nutella. I think we all rolled into bed that night.
Needing to work off our huge meal from the night before we set out to hike the mountain near the house. This was going to be an adventure because we did not have any directions. Thankfully we had Steve with us because I am not the best navigator. We got to the general location but we could not find any trailhead or marker. After driving around we decided to ask a few hunters loading their rifles if they could direct us to any good hiking trails in the area. With my limited Italian with a mixture of Spanish and some hand signals, the hunters were able to point us in the right direction. Still even after we made the requisite number of turns no trail existed. We took a chance down a dirt road up to the castle. Once we reached the plateau near the castle we could see others on the mountain. Two options existed and we initially took the wrong one but quickly figured it out and got on the right route. It was reassuring when we passed a couple of hikers coming down the slope. Our trail was not much better than the pig trails on Kauai. It appears National Parks in Italy do not mean the same thing as in the United States. We initially wound through the forest with great tree cover from the sun which we needed because the trail was straight up hill. Once you exited the forest you were introduced to a view of rolling hills covered with olive trees and Lake Trasimeno below. At the top we found a perfect vantage point and enjoyed a homemade proscuitto with mozzarella and tomato sandwich. On the way down we decided instead of traversing we would just head straight down. Being steep our toes were hitting the ends of our running shoes and our quads were enjoying the workout. We made it down in record time which was needed because we had a futbol match to attend in Perugia.
Once we arrived at the futbol stadio we knew we were in for a treat. Although this was not a Division 1 League the fans were just as intense. Everyone was in the team colors of red and white waiving their flags and scarves. The team anthem was being sung at the top of their lungs all taking place 30 minutes before the game even started. Being in a smaller stadio made you feel part of the event. We made sure we were cheering for the right team because at these matches the opposing team’s fans have to sit in a special section and be fenced off from the home team to prevent any fighting. We saw a couple of tussles break out on the field but no major damage. The fans stand throughout the match and sing and chant non-stop. Even at the end of the game the guys were climbing the fences to try and get on the field. Amazing for a minor league match. We had an awesome experience and are now hooked on futbol. After the match we headed back to Maggione to grab some dinner. When we arrived in town we had forgotten about the celebration for the new civic building was taking place that evening. As the fireworks were going off we watched what could be best described as a modern interpretative dance show being put on in the piazza for the town. The surprising feature was the entire show was done on stilts and the dancers were dressed in full elaborate colored costumes with full head dresses and masks. Because we arrived in the middle of the show we did not understand the theme but the choreography and dance routines were unique and enjoyable. Roby and Steve caught quite a bit of video especially of the cute Italian girl in the tight spandex outfit!! The show ended and we found a great little restaurant tucked away in a garden setting. The interior was decorated in the perfect Italian stone and wooden booths. It had a nice homey feeling and the food was exceptional. We finished supper and headed back to the house and enjoyed a couple bottles of wine and the last of our nutella for dessert.
Steve had to leave the next day and he wanted to jump in the swimming pool before he left, but the water was extremely cold so that morning we went for a run in the olive fields to get all hot and sweaty. Not sure if it really helped because the water still took your breath away when you dove in. We took quick showers and Steve got some laundry done while we waited for my friend Alice from Phoenix to show up at the house. We were going to do lunch with her and some of her friends while they were traveling through Italy. Due to them getting lost, time was running short so we dropped Steve off at the train station for his 20 hour ride to Barcelona and went to a small café and had a drink with them. They headed off to Assisi and Roby and I headed home to hang out by the pool and enjoy the beautiful weather. I think we timed it perfectly for Italy; sun, cool breezes, and mild temperatures. Blissful.
We had one more day at the farmhouse so Roby and I took full advantage of doing exactly what we wanted to do- absolutely nothing. After sleeping in till 10:00 am we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast on the outdoor patio. Then we proceeded to the pool area pulled up a lounge chair and soaked up some sun while treasuring our free time. I read a good novel- The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. I would highly recommend it. Roby serenaded me with some quality guitar. Our best day yet!!! Umbria turned out to be exactly what we had dreamed of for our Radical Sabbatical.
September 25th through 30th
The time was 3:00 pm when Roby and I finally made it back to our car in Tasch Switzerland and we had at least four hours to travel to reach our destination in Italy. Our well thought out plan was to spend the night in Parma and have a leisurely morning and head to Florence to pi ck up our friend Steve from Kauai. We had been exchanging emails with him and set a date and time to meet at the main train station in Florence. Of course nothing goes according to plan. Roby was driving and I was navigating and we were doing fine until we hit Milan. The intention was to stay on the autostrade and bypass the city which we thought we had done but unfortunately more than one freeway exists in Milan and we got completely turned around. After about thirty minutes we stopped at the gas station and a nice Italian driver said some words and gave us hand gesture directions. We were on the road again. No chance of getting lost again it was a straight shot to Parma.
The sun was beginning to set and we still had several hours to drive. Did we want to call it a night and have a further drive in the morning or continue toward Parma. Unfortunately Motel 6 was not leaving the light on for us. We would see signs every 20 km for a hotel but nothing in sight and we did not want to chance getting off the autostrade in a small town in the middle of the night so we kept chugging along. At least we were not lost this way. Prior to Parma we saw a Motel right off the freeway so we decided it was time to get off the road. We drove into the parking lot and the place was definitely too fancy for us so we left and figured another hotel had to be nearby. What did we do, the thing we said we did not want to do, get off the freeway and try and find a hotel. An hour later after cruising through the entire town and its industrial area there was no hotel in sight. Now we had to find our way back to the freeway. UGGH!
The hour is now 8:30 pm and we are still an hour from Parma and we have not eaten since Zermatt. The signs for Parma are in sight so we get off and take the first hotel we can find. At this time I would pay 100 euors for a room just to get out of the car. We happened upon a nice place in the outskirts of town and took a room. Now we had to find something to eat. Thankfully the restaurants in Europe stay open late because we did not sit down for dinner until 11:30 pm and people were coming in after us. Our first plate of spaghetti with real “Parma-giano Reggiano” cheese. I was in heaven. Bedtime-1:30 am- wakeup 9:00 am- 10:00 am-breakfast-11:00- on the road again. So much for the carefully thought out plan.
I thought I was so prepared with our route. I had printed out Google Maps and corresponding directions to each location. The test was going to be finding the train station in Florence. If the street signage was anything like Switzerland we were in trouble. All was going well; we were making all the right connections on the autostrade, and we were on time to meet Steve. The exit for Florence arrived. I pulled out my Google directions ready to lead Roby straight for the train station. At the T-intersection the signage had 20 different locations and arrows pointing in three different directions, none of which represented the name I was looking for. With traffic behind us and without thinking we turned left heading somewhere. We were officially lost. With Google being worthless, we decided to find signage for the train station. Although Europe does not sign its streets well, you can always find signs for the train station, airport and football stadium. With the flow of traffic, Roby kept driving and I watched out for the signs. We still had thirty minutes to meet Steve so plenty of time to be lost. Amazingly, once we got on the right track, the names of the streets on my Google map starting appearing. We arrived at the train station within 10 minutes of our meeting time and found Steve waiting for us on the curb. Miracles do happen.
The ride to Umbria was full of conversation catching up on Steve’s hike in Switzerland, his last few months in Kauai and our plans for Italy. An hour and a half went by so quickly. Things went smoothly and we drove directly to our farmhouse in Maggione Italy above Lake Trasimeno. It helps when you get directions from the owner of the home. As we turned into the driveway we could see the two story stone farmhouse overlooking acres of olive trees and distant views of the Umbrian hillside. We all looked at each other and smiled. Jackpot!! Our unit was two story with a spiral staircase and small kitchenette. The bedroom had antique furniture and big wooden shutters on the windows which opened up to the most incredible view of Umbria. Our own “under the Tuscan Sun House”. The living room had a futon so Steve made himself at home. The grounds had several covered patios, a BBQ, ping pong table, foosball table and a 25 yd. pool with lounge chairs encircling it resort style. Best of all, we had the entire place to ourselves. After unpacking we headed into the small village of Maggione to experience the local cuisine. Unfortunately we arrived during the siesta hour so we had to have Happy Hour at a local bar for a few hours. Darn!! Steve filled us in on more of the details of his hike and his plans for when he heads back to the States and we just reminisced about Kauai. The restaurants and stores started reopening so we headed up to the tiny trattoria upstairs from the bar and had an excellent pasta dinner with a terra cotta carafe of the local wine which goes for 2 euros. Gotta love Italy!!
We had still not fully recovered from our jetlag nor our long days of driving so it was not surprising we did not wake until 10:00 am the next morning. Roby pried me out of bed by opening the big wood shutters and letting the sunshine into the room. We spent the next hour enjoying the morning and our wonderful view, but we had to venture out because Roby and Steve were in desperate need of some coffee. We decided since we got such a late start we would drive over to Perugia do some grocery shopping and check out the town. Perugia is a university town so it is much bigger than Maggione but still maintains the hillside character. The centro is at the city’s highest point providing you with a view of the surrounding countryside. That evening we decided to cook our dinner at the house. We made a ravioli with homemade sauce and sautéed zucchini and served it with the region’s finest red wine. To top it off we had biscotti with nutella. I think we all rolled into bed that night.
Needing to work off our huge meal from the night before we set out to hike the mountain near the house. This was going to be an adventure because we did not have any directions. Thankfully we had Steve with us because I am not the best navigator. We got to the general location but we could not find any trailhead or marker. After driving around we decided to ask a few hunters loading their rifles if they could direct us to any good hiking trails in the area. With my limited Italian with a mixture of Spanish and some hand signals, the hunters were able to point us in the right direction. Still even after we made the requisite number of turns no trail existed. We took a chance down a dirt road up to the castle. Once we reached the plateau near the castle we could see others on the mountain. Two options existed and we initially took the wrong one but quickly figured it out and got on the right route. It was reassuring when we passed a couple of hikers coming down the slope. Our trail was not much better than the pig trails on Kauai. It appears National Parks in Italy do not mean the same thing as in the United States. We initially wound through the forest with great tree cover from the sun which we needed because the trail was straight up hill. Once you exited the forest you were introduced to a view of rolling hills covered with olive trees and Lake Trasimeno below. At the top we found a perfect vantage point and enjoyed a homemade proscuitto with mozzarella and tomato sandwich. On the way down we decided instead of traversing we would just head straight down. Being steep our toes were hitting the ends of our running shoes and our quads were enjoying the workout. We made it down in record time which was needed because we had a futbol match to attend in Perugia.
Once we arrived at the futbol stadio we knew we were in for a treat. Although this was not a Division 1 League the fans were just as intense. Everyone was in the team colors of red and white waiving their flags and scarves. The team anthem was being sung at the top of their lungs all taking place 30 minutes before the game even started. Being in a smaller stadio made you feel part of the event. We made sure we were cheering for the right team because at these matches the opposing team’s fans have to sit in a special section and be fenced off from the home team to prevent any fighting. We saw a couple of tussles break out on the field but no major damage. The fans stand throughout the match and sing and chant non-stop. Even at the end of the game the guys were climbing the fences to try and get on the field. Amazing for a minor league match. We had an awesome experience and are now hooked on futbol. After the match we headed back to Maggione to grab some dinner. When we arrived in town we had forgotten about the celebration for the new civic building was taking place that evening. As the fireworks were going off we watched what could be best described as a modern interpretative dance show being put on in the piazza for the town. The surprising feature was the entire show was done on stilts and the dancers were dressed in full elaborate colored costumes with full head dresses and masks. Because we arrived in the middle of the show we did not understand the theme but the choreography and dance routines were unique and enjoyable. Roby and Steve caught quite a bit of video especially of the cute Italian girl in the tight spandex outfit!! The show ended and we found a great little restaurant tucked away in a garden setting. The interior was decorated in the perfect Italian stone and wooden booths. It had a nice homey feeling and the food was exceptional. We finished supper and headed back to the house and enjoyed a couple bottles of wine and the last of our nutella for dessert.
Steve had to leave the next day and he wanted to jump in the swimming pool before he left, but the water was extremely cold so that morning we went for a run in the olive fields to get all hot and sweaty. Not sure if it really helped because the water still took your breath away when you dove in. We took quick showers and Steve got some laundry done while we waited for my friend Alice from Phoenix to show up at the house. We were going to do lunch with her and some of her friends while they were traveling through Italy. Due to them getting lost, time was running short so we dropped Steve off at the train station for his 20 hour ride to Barcelona and went to a small café and had a drink with them. They headed off to Assisi and Roby and I headed home to hang out by the pool and enjoy the beautiful weather. I think we timed it perfectly for Italy; sun, cool breezes, and mild temperatures. Blissful.
We had one more day at the farmhouse so Roby and I took full advantage of doing exactly what we wanted to do- absolutely nothing. After sleeping in till 10:00 am we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast on the outdoor patio. Then we proceeded to the pool area pulled up a lounge chair and soaked up some sun while treasuring our free time. I read a good novel- The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. I would highly recommend it. Roby serenaded me with some quality guitar. Our best day yet!!! Umbria turned out to be exactly what we had dreamed of for our Radical Sabbatical.
The Matterhorn Thrill Ride
Hansel and Gretel Village
Zermatt Switzerland
September 22nd
After our blissful nap in the Skoda Roomster, a strange looking vehicle, we set out on the trail to find the little village of Zermatt. Driving gave us a new perspective on the landscape and a lesson in the rules of the European roadway. We quickly learned the left hand lane was solely meant for tailgating and hauling ass. We quickly found our spot in the middle lane trying not to bother anyone. Once we settled in we were able to take in some of the scenery. From Geneva to Zermatt the countryside is speckled with villages sprouting out of the hillsides. One town’s homes’ foundations were mere extensions of the mountain walls. In complete amazement we snaked our way through the mountain passes and wound our way up to the town of Tasch which is the final destination to park your car and take the shuttle up the mountain to Zermatt. No cars are permitted in town.
We timed the shuttle perfectly and after a short ride we disembarked from the train in the town center and were met by a bustle of people milling around the shops and restaurants. The architecture is quintessential Swiss Chalet and our favorite wrought iron flower boxes filled with red and orange blooming flowers adorned every window. Looking closely at the buildings which is always required with Roby, you found attention given to every detail even the ornate downspouts on the gutters. Once we gathered ourselves and came back from Cloud Nine we set out to find our hotel. The air was cool and the sun was getting ready to set over the world famous Matterhorn Mountain.
Although the village is small we still managed to get lost trying to find our hotel. We thought my blackberry with Google Earth would be a great tool. Unfortunately no one told Google’s mapmakers that the towns and cities in Europe neglect to sign any of their streets so the directions are pretty much useless. You basically have to “sniff” your way to your destination. After two passes up the steep hill through town we finally found our road unmarked of course. The hotel was of a unique design; a very tall narrow building almost triangular in shape due to its strategic location on the hillside sandwiched between two larger buildings. Once inside all the rooms were tiny with a funky spiral staircase wrapped around the 3 dimensional triangle. We had a great comfy queen size bed with CNN on the TV so we were set. After a quick shower we headed out on the town to find a nice dinner and then a good long sleep. For the fall season the weather was exceptional and we only needed our long-sleeved shirts and jeans. After sticker shock on the first few menus we happened upon a cute little bar serving burgers and salads for a reasonable price-$15 dollars!! The tall frosty glass of beer went down a bit quick and the long trip and jet lag were setting in on us. Thankfully we only had a short walk back to our hotel. Before we could undress our eyes were closed.
The room was pitch black and we were hoping to sleep in a bit before we headed up the mountain. Unfortunately we forgot our hotel was located right next to an elementary school and a church. 7:00 am came and immediately we were welcomed to morning with loud church bells ringing for 15 minutes and schoolchildren running and screaming to school. Our intentions were good but were not to be had. Instead of fighting the noise we begrudgingly rose and prepped ourselves for the day. After a hearty “free” breakfast Roby and I headed toward the train station to take the highest open cog train in the world to the top of an alpine ridge with spectacular views of the Matterhorn. As we were chugging up the mountain we witnessed glacier capped mountains jutted above green meadowy fields. Again we were fortunate to have such incredible weather and clear skies to experience a perfect unobstructed view of the Matterhorn similar to our wonderful vista of Mont Blanc. At the top is a wonderful rooftop restaurant and giftshop along with observation decks for viewing the different vantage points of the mountain. Many ventured off to explore the area along the thousands of hiking trails along the glaciers winding their way down the mountain back to town. Unfortunately we did not have time to partake in the adventure so we huddled back on the train with all the geriatrics and lazy people. Our stay was short but memorable. Off to Eat our way through Italy!!!
Zermatt Switzerland
September 22nd
After our blissful nap in the Skoda Roomster, a strange looking vehicle, we set out on the trail to find the little village of Zermatt. Driving gave us a new perspective on the landscape and a lesson in the rules of the European roadway. We quickly learned the left hand lane was solely meant for tailgating and hauling ass. We quickly found our spot in the middle lane trying not to bother anyone. Once we settled in we were able to take in some of the scenery. From Geneva to Zermatt the countryside is speckled with villages sprouting out of the hillsides. One town’s homes’ foundations were mere extensions of the mountain walls. In complete amazement we snaked our way through the mountain passes and wound our way up to the town of Tasch which is the final destination to park your car and take the shuttle up the mountain to Zermatt. No cars are permitted in town.
We timed the shuttle perfectly and after a short ride we disembarked from the train in the town center and were met by a bustle of people milling around the shops and restaurants. The architecture is quintessential Swiss Chalet and our favorite wrought iron flower boxes filled with red and orange blooming flowers adorned every window. Looking closely at the buildings which is always required with Roby, you found attention given to every detail even the ornate downspouts on the gutters. Once we gathered ourselves and came back from Cloud Nine we set out to find our hotel. The air was cool and the sun was getting ready to set over the world famous Matterhorn Mountain.
Although the village is small we still managed to get lost trying to find our hotel. We thought my blackberry with Google Earth would be a great tool. Unfortunately no one told Google’s mapmakers that the towns and cities in Europe neglect to sign any of their streets so the directions are pretty much useless. You basically have to “sniff” your way to your destination. After two passes up the steep hill through town we finally found our road unmarked of course. The hotel was of a unique design; a very tall narrow building almost triangular in shape due to its strategic location on the hillside sandwiched between two larger buildings. Once inside all the rooms were tiny with a funky spiral staircase wrapped around the 3 dimensional triangle. We had a great comfy queen size bed with CNN on the TV so we were set. After a quick shower we headed out on the town to find a nice dinner and then a good long sleep. For the fall season the weather was exceptional and we only needed our long-sleeved shirts and jeans. After sticker shock on the first few menus we happened upon a cute little bar serving burgers and salads for a reasonable price-$15 dollars!! The tall frosty glass of beer went down a bit quick and the long trip and jet lag were setting in on us. Thankfully we only had a short walk back to our hotel. Before we could undress our eyes were closed.
The room was pitch black and we were hoping to sleep in a bit before we headed up the mountain. Unfortunately we forgot our hotel was located right next to an elementary school and a church. 7:00 am came and immediately we were welcomed to morning with loud church bells ringing for 15 minutes and schoolchildren running and screaming to school. Our intentions were good but were not to be had. Instead of fighting the noise we begrudgingly rose and prepped ourselves for the day. After a hearty “free” breakfast Roby and I headed toward the train station to take the highest open cog train in the world to the top of an alpine ridge with spectacular views of the Matterhorn. As we were chugging up the mountain we witnessed glacier capped mountains jutted above green meadowy fields. Again we were fortunate to have such incredible weather and clear skies to experience a perfect unobstructed view of the Matterhorn similar to our wonderful vista of Mont Blanc. At the top is a wonderful rooftop restaurant and giftshop along with observation decks for viewing the different vantage points of the mountain. Many ventured off to explore the area along the thousands of hiking trails along the glaciers winding their way down the mountain back to town. Unfortunately we did not have time to partake in the adventure so we huddled back on the train with all the geriatrics and lazy people. Our stay was short but memorable. Off to Eat our way through Italy!!!
Back on the Road Again
déjà vu
Geneva Switzerland
September 21st
The adventure continues. After three weeks in Seattle Roby and I had itchy feet and needed to be back on the road. Very strange how comfortable it has become to be on the move, almost feels like home. No rest for the weary on this little journey. Seattle has never been good to us when it comes to traveling. We had it perfectly planned to leave Seattle on Monday mid-day and arrive in New York and catch a cab to our friends Bryan and Julie’s house for a good night’s sleep and then visit with them for most of Tuesday before we left for Geneva. We should have known better when we received an email alerting us our flight from Seattle was going to be two hours late but they still wanted us there on time just in case. Well that was not going to happen. Good thing because when we did arrive, our plane was going to be delayed again because the maintenance crew noticed the pilot’s window was cracked and needed to be replaced. All they could tell us it was going to be at least another two hour delay. Thankfully we had Monday Night Football to occupy our time. However, the two hour delay turned into a four hour delay and we were now not going to be leaving Seattle until 7:00 pm. This entitled us to a meal voucher worth $7.00. Please tell me where you can find anything to eat for $7 in an airport that has any nutritional value. They gave us the option to take the next morning’s flight at 6:30 am and they would put us up in a hotel. We thought about it but if the morning flight was delayed even an hour we would miss our connection in NYC to Geneva. Therefore, we opted to hold out for the evening flight and endure the pain of arriving in NYC at 3:00 am. Because we had nowhere to go at that hour this led to the climax of our journey a three hour nap on the airport floor next to the baggage claim. Being rudely awoken by the passengers from the 1st flight arriving in NYC at 6:00 am, we wrestled ourselves off the floor and decided this was a more reasonable hour to arrive at Bryan and Julie’s so we flagged down a cab to Brooklyn. The two disheveled travelers with backpacks and a broken down duffle bag from the Salvation Army arrived at the high-rise condominium under the watchful eye of the skeptical doorman. He did not believe we belonged so he called up to Bryan’s unit to confirm we were invited guests. Arrival time Brooklyn-8:00 am. --Departure time JFK-3:30 pm--Arrival time (Geneva) 11:00 am the next day). A record for us-two days without sleep. We were not finished- a 4 hour drive to Zermatt.
We gathered our luggage; no customs inspections because we had nothing to declare we headed toward the car rental counter. The clerk gave Roby the key and a trusty map of Switzerland and off we were in our Skoda Roomster. Leaving the airport was tricky but amazingly we figured (okay luckily figured) our way to the freeway entrance and headed down the road. After a couple of hours unfortunately jet lag caught up with us and the “neck-bone boogey” was in full force. We pulled into a rest stop parking lot, shut off the car, hand-rolled the seats flat, assumed the position, and passed out for an hour. Welcome Back!!!
Geneva Switzerland
September 21st
The adventure continues. After three weeks in Seattle Roby and I had itchy feet and needed to be back on the road. Very strange how comfortable it has become to be on the move, almost feels like home. No rest for the weary on this little journey. Seattle has never been good to us when it comes to traveling. We had it perfectly planned to leave Seattle on Monday mid-day and arrive in New York and catch a cab to our friends Bryan and Julie’s house for a good night’s sleep and then visit with them for most of Tuesday before we left for Geneva. We should have known better when we received an email alerting us our flight from Seattle was going to be two hours late but they still wanted us there on time just in case. Well that was not going to happen. Good thing because when we did arrive, our plane was going to be delayed again because the maintenance crew noticed the pilot’s window was cracked and needed to be replaced. All they could tell us it was going to be at least another two hour delay. Thankfully we had Monday Night Football to occupy our time. However, the two hour delay turned into a four hour delay and we were now not going to be leaving Seattle until 7:00 pm. This entitled us to a meal voucher worth $7.00. Please tell me where you can find anything to eat for $7 in an airport that has any nutritional value. They gave us the option to take the next morning’s flight at 6:30 am and they would put us up in a hotel. We thought about it but if the morning flight was delayed even an hour we would miss our connection in NYC to Geneva. Therefore, we opted to hold out for the evening flight and endure the pain of arriving in NYC at 3:00 am. Because we had nowhere to go at that hour this led to the climax of our journey a three hour nap on the airport floor next to the baggage claim. Being rudely awoken by the passengers from the 1st flight arriving in NYC at 6:00 am, we wrestled ourselves off the floor and decided this was a more reasonable hour to arrive at Bryan and Julie’s so we flagged down a cab to Brooklyn. The two disheveled travelers with backpacks and a broken down duffle bag from the Salvation Army arrived at the high-rise condominium under the watchful eye of the skeptical doorman. He did not believe we belonged so he called up to Bryan’s unit to confirm we were invited guests. Arrival time Brooklyn-8:00 am. --Departure time JFK-3:30 pm--Arrival time (Geneva) 11:00 am the next day). A record for us-two days without sleep. We were not finished- a 4 hour drive to Zermatt.
We gathered our luggage; no customs inspections because we had nothing to declare we headed toward the car rental counter. The clerk gave Roby the key and a trusty map of Switzerland and off we were in our Skoda Roomster. Leaving the airport was tricky but amazingly we figured (okay luckily figured) our way to the freeway entrance and headed down the road. After a couple of hours unfortunately jet lag caught up with us and the “neck-bone boogey” was in full force. We pulled into a rest stop parking lot, shut off the car, hand-rolled the seats flat, assumed the position, and passed out for an hour. Welcome Back!!!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Soaring Above Chamonix
Chamonix France
August 26th and 27th
We had a smile on our face as we left Avignon not just because we had such a wonderful time decompressing in Provence but we were heading to the long awaited village of Chamonix. Once we arrived in the picturesque valley engulfed in the Alps we knew we were “home”. It is truly amazing how when we arrive in any mountain ski town we just fit right in and feel comfortable. I don’t know if it is the clean air, slow pace, or the fact that everyone is wearing gortex and sports apparel, but we love it and may just have to settle down in one, perhaps Chamonix. As usual when we exit the train or bus we have our moment of confusion trying to find out where we are going. The train station attendant did not know where our hotel was located and directed us to the tourist information office at the end of the main street in town. This probably was our favorite walk as we headed straight toward Mont Blanc down the pedestrian only walkway with swiss chalet hotels and street cafes with people hanging out enjoying a coffee or beer with the sun shining and glistening off the glacier snow on the mountain. We could have been lost for hours for all we cared at the moment. I knew we had to be close to our hotel because I remembered in the description on the internet that it was located right at the base of Mont Blanc. We were splurging for our last two nights. We got the Superior Junior Suite at the Croix Blanche. As we were walking toward the information center we stumbled upon our hotel and it was indeed at the base of the mountain. Our view from our balcony was spectacular similar to the one we had from when we were in Italy near the Dolmites for our honeymoon. We even could see the mountain laying down in the bed. Although we could have stayed in our room and been happy we needed to explore the rest of town. Unbeknownst to us Chamonix was hosting the North Face Ultra Trail Runs that weekend. It was a set of runs over Mont Blanc ranging from 92 km to 250 km over a three day period. No wonder there were so many athletic looking people wandering around town. It definitely was a wake up call to us that we needed to get back in shape. So, the next morning we were out and about and heading up the mountain for a hike. We wanted to do a portion of the 100 mile Mont Blanc Trail because we were going to miss out on meeting our friend Steve from Kauai who was coming over in the next few days to do the entire trail. At the top we took a picture and emailed it to Steve to get him excited for his trip. (Amazing how good the cellphone service is in Europe). The view was indescribable with the white fluffy clouds, sunshine, crisp temperatures, and towering snow-capped mountain peaks. Heck we could even see Italy from our window!!! We headed down the trail which turned out to be a bit technical at the beginning. We had to use several ladders to climb down because the trail was too steep and had to do our fair share of boulder hopping and scrambling but all in all it was a great hike. Half way we decided to take a break and have lunch perched on a plateau with a million dollar view of the glacier on Mont Blanc. I hate to keep using the word amazing but it is so difficult to call it anything but. The glaciers are immense and traverse down the entire side of the mountain almost coming all the way down into town. There is even a tram which goes through a tunnel directly through the mountain up close and personal to the glacier. We could see it from our lunch spot. Realizing we could not stay up there forever we decided instead of turning around and retracing our path we would hike down the mountain and pick up the last gondola to the bottom.
To top off our evening we would shower and put on our good jeans (oh how nice it was to put on our jeans and fleece jacket) and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and great music out on the patio of our hotel. Then we took a walk through town and had our last Nutella Crepe reminiscing about our wonderful trip through Europe.
The next morning we were scheduled to go paragliding over the Chamonix Valley with our launching spot being the top of the Plan Praz Gondola at about 7000 feet in elevation. We had watched several flights the day before and decided we needed to do it. Unfortunately, just before we were to go we received a message from Roby’s brother that his father had passed away that morning. We decided that we should go and fly on the wings of Angels over God’s country and say a little prayer for his Dad. Our guides were great and prepped us for a whole two minutes on the techniques before the first one said, ok, one of you come with me and the other go with Enrica. So I said which one of you is the better pilot and he said that he was bad at the takeoffs and Enrica was bad at the landings so for us to pick. Great - that gave me a lot of confidence as we stood at the top of this 7000 foot bluff with the wind in our face. Once we were hooked in there wasn’t much time to think about it; he just told us to run forward and stay standing until we ran off the top of the mountain and were aloft. It was effortless and happened so quickly you did not even realize your feet had left the ground. Normally the sky is crowded with other flights but Roby and I were lucky and had the whole world to ourselves. His guide flew right by us so he could take some photos and video. A truly breathtaking experience and probably the best place in the world to soar over. We both looked to the heavens and smiled to Papa Snow.
The wonderful peaceful serene ride turned a bit tumultuous when our guides decided to show us some fun. About half way down they decided to put us in a tailspin. They asked us and both of us said sure why not have some excitement. After about 10 seconds we had to make them stop. I don’t think my head has ever spun so fast in my life. Now I know what a fighter pilot feels like when his plane gets caught in a jet wash. We landed softly and safely and bid our farewell to our guides and Mont Blanc. Before we headed to the bus we had to take a break in the town park and lay down so we could unscramble our brains and settle our stomachs. We gathered our belongings, had some lunch, and set off to Geneva. We were heading home.
Provence
Avignon France
August 25th
WE CAME. . .
. . . On a long, hot and very adventurous bus ride from Barcelona. We should have figured with all the public transportation we have been on we were bound to have one of those unfortunate but memorable bus rides. All was going well until we made a stop and picked up new passengers. We thought we had chosen the right section of the bus but a mother and her five children decided they had to sit right by us and they made the little rascals look tame. Two of the little ones were running up and down the aisles on the bus and the two older ones were jumping up and down in the seats yelling at each other and the mother was screaming and spanking them with very little luck. The joys of public transportation. To top it off the mother smelled something awful and the air conditioning system was not ventilating very well due to the large crowd on the bus. This was not going to be a fun 8 hours. The excitement was just beginning because once we stopped in Girona for a quick break this mother and the bus driver got into it. He had to clear the bus because she was screaming at him over what we did not know because we could not understand her French. The police were called and she continued to rant and rave but the police handled the situation and we were off again albeit 40 minutes late. (it was cutting into our precious little time we had in Avignon). The lady thought she was my friend and had to tell me what happened. With our limited communication skills in Spanish and English she was angry with the bus driver because he was accusing her of not taking care of her children and controlling their behavior. I just smiled and agreed with her that the bus driver was loco. After seeing her reaction I was not going to disagree with her. We thought it could not get any worse. Guess again. We reached the border of France and they had the drug sniffing dogs on the luggage of the bus and they hit on someone’s bag. So another 20 minute delay with the passenger having to get off. Thankfully he was able to rectify the situation. Finally back on the road again. At our next stop we moved up to the front of the bus to get more air and away from the psycho smelly mother. Good thing because the last hour the two small kids continued to cry. We pulled into Avignon at 5:30 pm an hour late. I forgot to mention that during all this fiasco we enjoyed the beautiful scenery through the Provence region. The ride from Nimes to Avignon was speckled with hillside homes and green pastures and cooler temperatures.
WE SAW
With only this evening we hit the town running. After a quick trip to the train station to purchase our tickets for Chamonix the next day we dropped off our luggage and headed to the sites. Avignon was the original home of the Catholic Church Papacy over 700 years ago so we wanted to see the Palais des Papes which is Europe’s largest Gothic Church. When we arrived it immediately gave me a visual idea of what the “church cities” looked like as described in the book Pillars of the Earth. Not only the Church but the surrounding buildings and gardens were vast in size and grandeur and it had to have the best view of the Rhone River and surrounding hillside villages. Just marvelous. No wonder they had to build a wall around the city to protect it from invasion. In fact this huge medieval wall is still in tact and completely surrounds the old village part of town and gives it a unique character. We were definitely falling in love with Avignon and the Provence region and wished we had more time to venture out to other villages in the area. With the sun going down and our stomachs telling us they needed food we went to find a nice quiet restaurant. We chose to eat off the main square because the restaurants resembled the “hodge podge, we will serve any and all types of food” as in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, etc. We found a cute little Cantonese/Hong Kong restaurant tucked back in a corner of one of the medieval cobblestone streets and enjoyed an excellent meal. Not being one of those “cities that never sleeps” the restaurants do not stay open all night so we took a stroll through town back to our air conditioned room (bliss) for a good night sleep.
WE CONQUERED
18 Hours later we were on the train heading to Chamonix. We will be back.
Gaudi Everywhere
Barcelona
August 22-25th
We were on the fast track of Eastern Spain. Just a taste is all we were going to get due to our needing to get back to the States for Roby’s dad. It was going to be several days of 8 hours of walking to try and get in as much as we could to say we did Barcelona. It was a long 8 hour train ride from Cartagena to Barcelona and we did not arrive until almost 9:00 pm. Although we had taken some food with us for the ride we neglected to realize we would be on the train for two meals so needless to say we were starving when we disembarked in Barcelona. We picked up the metro map and proceeded down the thousands of stairs and tunnels till we reached the train, suffocating due to the lack of air movement let alone any air. Had to be the least friendly metro system we have been on in Europe and it did not help that it is hot and humid in Barcelona. Thankfully the metro itself is air cooled. Our hostel was perfectly located near Catalyuna and Las Ramblas in the “rich and posh” district, but that is all it had going for it. Our room was the size of a shoebox and it was not air conditioned nor did we have a fan the first night. The second night they were able to give us a fan but the only outlet was at the head of the bed so we had the fan within inches of our faces but it was better than nothing. We should not be complaining because we had just spent 10 days in the jungle with no running water and compost toilets. I think I liked the jungle better!!!
We dropped of our bags and headed for the first restaurant we could find. Guess what we had-our favorite food of Europe falafel and doner kababs. They have become the national staple of all European countries. We called it an early evening hoping to get some quality sleep. Well this hostel was located on the second floor of an office type building so the windows opened to the staircase and all the sound from any location resonated off the walls. So, every time the outside door opened, or the buzzer was rung, or the drunk and wild Italian boys came home at all hours of the night, we heard it. The only consolation is that it got us up early so we had the full day to venture through the city. We were up and about at the earliest we had every been on our trip. First stop was coffee for Roby which has been a bit of a dilemna because he always wants a big cup of coffee and they only serve him a “Barbie sized” cup. He is learning to drink slower and has figured out that the coffee con leche gives him the best option. It usually requires us to stop for two cups along the way. Our first stop was the Sagrada Familia. A unique masterpiece started by Gaudi in 19__ but never finished and is actually still under construction to build another 10 spires on it by a private foundation. They are hopeful to have it all completed by 2025. Seems like they are on Kauai time. The day started to heat up and our sunscreen had caused an imbreathable coating on our skin from all the humidity. We marched on toward the Parc Guell another Gaudi creation. More of an architecturally gifted park than a green grass and shady nap taking park. Roby had studied Gaudi in school and had a classmate who had been to the area so he was excited to see it. The structures were typical Gaudi-non-conforming buildings with inorganic lines and trippy designs. Some of them look as if he had been on an acid trip when he designed them. Again, Roby marveled and was perplexed at the intricacies of the designs and the laborious detail wondering how the project manager was able to get this done on time and on budget.
After a three hour tour of the park with a hike to the top to get a view of the city, it was a time for a well needed break from the heat so we proceeded to the café and enjoyed a liter of sangria. This however did not motive us for our 2 mile walk to the metro station but we begrudgingly got up and made the trek. We headed to the La Rambla district for dinner at an outdoor restaurant right on the plaza and were going to have a true Spanish dinner-tapas and paella. The evening had cooled off and we were able to enjoy the street scene from our table but unfortunately the dinner was nothing to write home about. The food was only mediocre at best and the paella was too salty almost inedible. I have come to the conclusion that the restaurants along the plazas whether in France or Spain are merely tourist traps and don’t care about the food they serve you. This is the second time we have struck out with our paella so I am going to have to make it myself! Having been out for over 12 hours in the hot sun we were ready for a shower and a good night’s sleep. Thankfully we had a fan tonight!
I think all the traveling and the heat were getting to us so our last day in Barcelona was quite casual and lax. We had a leisurely morning and ventured out around midday. We had to go to the bus station to purchase our tickets for Avignon and then we headed toward the waterfront to stroll along the boardwalk. We conveniently plopped ourselves down at an outdoor café and enjoyed a few beers and a McDonalds McFlurry. We hung out for a good two hours talking and “just being still”. While heading back to our hotel we found a CarreFour store (it is a company which sponsors one of the Tour de France bike teams) and we wanted to check one out because they said they were a new concept type store-well maybe for Europe but it is like a Super Walmart for us). It was perfect because we were able to buy food for breakfast and lunch for our 8 hour journey to Avignon. With perishable food we needed to head back and put it in the fridge at the hostel. Hunger was looming so we made our quick pit stop and then headed back out to find this restaurant recommended by Let’s Go Europe. We figured we bought the book so we better try something out it highlights. It did not disappoint. Probably our best meal not only the food but the décor, and the service were incredible. If you go to Barcelona you need to eat at the Attic in Las Ramblas near the Liceu metro station. A perfect way to end our stay in the City.
Tribute to Annika and Leo
Cartagena
August 20th-21st
Our new friends VJ and Rosh from Sunseed were so kind to take us to the bus stop in Sorbas for our 6:30 am bus to Vera even though they only had three hours of sleep. Being at the mercy of public transportation we had to take this bus because the connecting bus to Cartagena from Vera was at 11:00 am. The bus was right on time and we even got to watch sunrise. We were heading to Cartagena so we could check out the old stomping grounds of our good friends Leo and Annika who lived there for 4 years before moving to Kauai. What a change of scenery, probably as drastic as ours from Arizona. Not too many shades of green in Cartagena, but they do have the Mediterranean See. We arrived in town and had a nice walk to our hotel in the heat of the day so when we hit our room the clothes were off; we cranked up the AC to full blast; took a long awaited “real” shower and then hit the clean white sheets for a siesta. Oh heaven!!!
After a blissful rest we ventured out to old town and the harbor area for some dinner. We had been complete omnivores for 10 days so we were on the hunt for some meat. Actually we ate very well at Sunseed and probably will change our diet for the better. That could wait. We wondered upon a waterfront café and pulled up a chair and ordered a few beers and a meal and enjoyed our view of the sea. Although the days are hot and sticky from the humidity, the nights cool off rather nicely and are very enjoyable. We did a quick Blackberry photo and emailed a message to our friends Annika and Leo to let them know we were here. Unfortunately the dinner was anti-climatic and we both wished for some of the excellent food from Sunseed. It is amazing the 101 different ways to use vegetables and beans. We finished off the evening with a stroll through old town. It was a nice change from the hectic cities and the town was surprisedly quiet.
We chose to stay two days so that we would be able to hit the beaches in La Manga where Annika and Leo lived. Everyone in Spain must venture to the southern beaches in the summer because there was not a morsel of sand which did not have a blanket or umbrella. We can definitely understand why they flock to these beaches. It has to be the warmest water on Earth. My kind of sea- bathtub temperature and gentlely rolling waves with very little current or under tow. We spent 4 hours at the beach near Cabo de Palos.
The area reminded us very much of Rocky Point. After a 30 minute stroll we stopped at a little beach hut and had a Tinto Verano (our new favorite drink-red wine and lemon soda). As we were enjoying our drink with our thousand dollar view under the shade of the perfectly positioned umbrella we both had cardiac arrest when we realized we had just used our last euro. The Tinto Verano did not seem to taste so good now because it was going to be a long walk home. We needed 2 euro 50 for the bus ride and we only had a total of 2 euros. We started thinking of our plan B- do an 18 mile hike in 90 degree weather or try and hitch a ride. Neither sounded appealing so we decided to finish our drinks and prayed that a euro would fall from heaven. We checked our pockets for any loose change and emptied our beach bag hoping for anything, something. When we left the hotel I did not even think of getting money because I had remembered my credit card and figured I could get money when we were in La Manga. Well I grabbed my credit card and not my debit card so I could not access an ATM and as advanced as the bus system may be in Spain, they are not equipped with credit card machines as of yet. As Roby reached into the zipper section of our Michael Jordan daypack he pulled out three shiny euros to our delight. A big sigh of relief came over us and we enjoyed our last sips of our drinks. Truly our best Tinto Veranos!!!
Later that night we celebrated in our well worn wrinkled “dress clothes” at the Columbus Restaurant in old town. I guess the Spainards take claim to him since they financed his trip(As a side note, Columbus discussed his voyage and request for money with the King at Alhambra in Granada.) We bid our farewell to Cartagena and had wished our friends could have been with us, but they were with us in spirit.
Going to the Great Unknown
Sunseed Desert Technologies
Los Molinos Spain
August 10th-20th
We left Granada full of excitement for our next adventure-our first eco-volunteer program/vacation. As we headed south the landscape become more and more arid to the point that I am not sure anything is capable of growing in this region. Per our instructions from the program we connected in Almeria to catch the local bus to Sorbas Spain. When we arrived in Sorbas which is a town of about 1000 we were dropped off at the bus stop which was basically at the side of the road next to the bar in town. I am not sure how someone is supposed to know this is the bus stop because there is no sign indicating such. Nevertheless, we found it. Our next instruction was to go into the bar and use the payphone to call Sunseed and see if the van was in town or we had the choice of walking to the village of Los Molinos or taking a cab. Well the bartender was not very helpful and would not allow us to use a phone so we trudged into town and found the visitor center and hoped maybe they had a phone or could help us. The lady was very helpful and when I told her we were trying to get to Sunseed she pulled out her own cellphone and called a cab for us. Within minutes he was there and we headed down the windy curvy road to the Village of Los Molinos de Agua. The cab dropped us off next to an abandoned rundown half-finished building on the side of a desert canyon and said we were here. Roby and I looked at each other and wondered what had we gotten ourselves into. Thankfully I had remembered that we needed to find the house with the blue door which I noticed was a bit further down the dirt path through the village. We were greeted by Sophia the sustainability coordinator from New Zealand. After she showed us to our room and dropped off our bags she gave us the grand tour of the project. We learned where the compost toilet (Vietnamese style-for those who don’t know, there is no toilet just a strategically placed hole in the deck) was located aptly named the “jungle loo”. Oh did I mention this is a British Charity Project so the majority of the staff members, in fact all of them except Sophia are British. We were shown where the shower, kitchen and laundry facilities (I.e. bucket and clothesline) along with being given the rules of which water lines (both river and rainwater) to use for cleaning, showering and brushing your teeth. With the village being completely off the grid there were very detailed methods of how the facility ran down to the three bucket process for washing dishes. The project had several different types of solar cookers and they had just completed a rammed earth type oven the previous week. The electricity was powered solely by solar along with the water, and the waste systems were all compost with the water being recycled and filtered through a reed bed system which then watered their organic garden and then back to the river. They did have a propane stove which handled most of the cooking but they did have a haybox system set up to keep things warm or cold depending upon what was put in it. There was no refrigeration and the once a week purchase of eggs or cheese had to be consumed that day. The project in promoting its sustainability and healthy but basic lifestyle only serves a vegetarian diet. It was truly amazing what wonderful food we had during our visit and they have converted us into eating less meat. Everyone is required to pitch in with the household chores choosing whether you want to clean, wash dishes or cook a meal. You were feeding anywhere from 15 to 20 people per meal so no easy task and you have to be creative because you are limited on the ingredients. On our third day there Roby and I along with James the Technology Manager from Wales were cooking lunch. Luckily we were on egg day, so I was the Top Chef and wrote the menu and the boys helped prep the meal. We made a great egg, vegetable, and potato soufflé along with baked zucchini and homemade tomato/garlic sauce and a fresh cabbage salad and fruit salad with a honey mustard dressing. (Sounds like a 5 star meal). It turned out awesome and we were accepted into the Sunseed Family! One of the helpers, Enriquo , who had been a volunteer at Sunseed in the past and loved the village so much ended up staying there would make us several meals while we were there along with his girlfriend Lucy from Britain. We were treated to some real Italian style food because Enriquo is originally from Venice. He has traded in his gondola for a tent along the stream in the Los Molinos Canyon. We just fell in love with the staff members and other volunteers. You could not have found a group of people from such vast backgrounds together supporting the same cause and belief system-to live simple and have a low impact on the environment. Our first friend Theresa was a fellow American volunteer from of all places Brooklyn, New York. We were labeled by the Brits as “The Americans” while Roman, Aurora, and Samantha were collectively called the “French people”. Theresa was only there for a week but we managed to do a couple of nice walks together, a swim in one of the neighbors makeshift pools (which by the way was really cool-he built a round stone structure which had a concrete canal system that brought the river water to his house and it would fill up in the pool which had a spillway when it overflowed and it went to water his garden.) and we even went together to one of the furthest southern beaches near a town called San Jose. We cheated that night at dinner and had chicken enchiladas at a Mexican food restaurant in San Jose. This was our first experience in the Mediterranean Sea and we were hooked. The water was divine and the temperature was a perfect 82 degrees. You could not ask for anything better. We ventured through several of the small beach towns along the way taking in the desert mountainous landscape. It is definitely drier than Arizona but has its own beauty.
Each day at lunch each staff member would advise what type of project they were working on for the next day and you had to pick one to help. The newest person was always allowed to pick first and then so forth. Roby became the designated painter and he helped VJ scrape and paint the main room of the main house for several days but he did go off and help in the organic garden for a few days. I did several different jobs, I helped make jam and jellies, I helped do some research on education grants for sustainable projects, I went on the weekly grocery shopping trip and I helped in the garden and in my downtime I helped Roby scrape and paint. We fell into our routines with ease, the morning wakeup at 7:15 which was difficult on a few mornings when we had a few late evenings, breakfast at 8:00 consisting of oatmeal or “porridge” as the Brits call it and Tea or homemade bread and jam (they go through a lot of tea at this place), then off to your assigned tasks for two hours. We then took a break at 10:00 with a quick snack and Tea again and then back to work for two hours before we settled down for lunch. If you were on lunch duty you did not have to go back to work after break, you got to start cooking. Everyone looked forward to the meals because as mentioned before the food was outstanding. Each day someone assigned to the garden would harvest vegetables and fresh fruit (figs, blackberries and plums were abundant along with grapevines growing everywhere). Everyone should have a fig tree in their yard. It has become our new favorite fruit. We even used the fruit from the agave cactus in several of the meals. One of the neighbors in the village had a special tool and showed us how to pluck them off the cactus without thorning ourselves to death. Once lunch was over the afternoon was yours. Everyone would venture to the swimming hole down by the stream which was a good mile walk through the jungle but once you found it the cold water was delightful. It was quite hot in the village and no AC so this was our way of cooling off. One day Roby and I ventured to a different section of the stream called Los Tessoros where there were several larger pools of water and a small waterfall through the canyon walls. Several of the staff members gave us directions and after some route finding and about an hour later we found them. Heaven. You could not have asked for a cooler spot and since we had it all to ourselves it made it even more special. As you will see in the photos we went Native. Most afternoons also consisted of a siesta especially after a tough morning of working!!! Then it was time for dinner. Did I mention how great the food was.
After supper there were usually different activities going on in the village or in the town of Sorbas that we would partake in. Every Tuesday Timbay, one of the local villagers who lived in a very cool renovated adobe style house with some more modern conveniences but still completely off the grid, hosted an open house where he showed off his museum of artifacts and products he made out of the agave stalk and served Ethiopian Coffee (which according to Roby was excellent). His parents were activists who built a school and sponsored programs to help improve the conditions in Ethiopia. Timbay continues to help them and is in the process of finding funding to set up agave groves in remote poor villages throughout Africa and the world. He showed us several films he produced which were dedicated to his agave business and the school his parents started. It is amazing what incredible things can be made out of agave-musical instruments called digidoos, furniture, flooring, and drum sets. He is pretty talented and maybe some day we will read about him. He lived in a home owned by Dave “the self-appointed” mayor of Los Molinos. Dave is one of the original villagers who came to reclaim the abandoned village. He has been there for over 25 years and is an expat from Britian. In fact the majority of the people who live in the village are British or American. His homes have been featured in several magazines as examples of how you can live off the grid and still enjoy the luxuries of civilization (music, tv, radio, hot shower). He is a great guy full of wonderful stories and the best outlook on life. He just hangs out and enjoys life. He told us one day-”there is no wrong way-just a different way”. Words to live by. In fact that is how everyone in the village lives. A simple life with good friends, good food, and good times. We are hooked.
Rod the resident “Dad” of our group, set up a star gazing presentation for us during one of the best meteor showers. He is from England and about 70 years old but he stayed up later and had more energy than most of us youngsters. He got along famously with the villagers and as any good Englishman he helped them polish off the beers. At about 10:00 pm he gathered us all together to watch a slide presentation relating to meteors and the constellations and then we headed out beyond our village to watch the meteor show. We were all lying on the ground looking up and screaming when we saw one shoot through the sky. A great evening.
It seemed like there was an event going on every evening. We timed it right and were in town while many fiestas were going on in town. It was amazing how much time and effort went into preparing for these events especially in such a small and remote town. One fiesta we attended was to crown the Princess of Sorbas and the other was to celebrate one of the many catholic saints. This event was huge and everyone from several villages attended because it entailed the annual bagel throwing event. As several of the villagers walked through town carrying a replica of the saint, the residents stood at their second story windows and threw bagels at the crowd. People were knocking others down and shoving and pushing to get the bagels. These were not soft bagels either and I was beaned in the eye with one and the back of the head. Sophia suffered a bruised foot and a cut on her finger. But we did manage to collect over two large sacks of bagels so we were set for bread for the next week. We ate bagels with everything. They were creative at meal time-bagel bruchetta, bread pudding, bagel chips, bread soup, pizza bagels, peanut butter and jelly bagels. Nothing goes to waste at Sunseed. This celebration in Sorbas went on until 3:00 in the morning. The Spanish know how to party. Even the kids are up until the sun comes up. We were allowed to have a late start the next morning due to the festival. Roby was in charge of making lunch one day and his partner Marlena a young German girl of about 18 who did not have much experience cooking so I pitched in to help them out. We made a great risotto with mushrooms, tomatoes and amaranth leaves from the garden along with a beautiful salad. It was gobbled down within minutes. Everyone is a good eater at Sunseed.
Our last couple of days were our best. James and his friend Aaron who came in from England to help with the wind turbine course gave us a presentation on their company V3 Technologies and the process they were going to teach on how to build a low-tech wind turbine. The slideshow was incredible and we wished we could have stayed for the course. He did give us a name of a company in Colorado who is similar so we are going to check it out when we get back. After the presentation we went over to a different village which was located about 40 minutes from Los Molinos near what they call Little Hollywood. This is the area where they filmed a lot of the Clint Eastwood movies-The Good, Bad and the Ugly, and A Fist Full of Dollars. One of the ten residents of Desert Stars has a private restaurant and movie night at his home. His home is located about 15 minutes from the main highway of which you have to travel down a dirt road which is actually a dried up river bed so you have to watch for flash floods! Once you arrive you are greeted by Lawrence and his wife outside their home which is under construction and probably has been for years. The home is basically a makeshift yurt but with an open front so you have an unobstructed view of the mountains. He has his “clubhouse” where he entertains and serves his meals and then just outside of the dining area are couches and chairs set up under the stars with a huge large movie screen where he shows either the Spaghetti Westerns that were filmed in the area or other popular films. Lawrence, a trained chef, served us an incredible meal of chicken and mushroom pie, carved chicken, eggplant, sautéed vegetables and a mushroom soup. Then for dessert he made apple pie with English cream. His wife was the bartender and we enjoyed our new favorite cocktail called the Tinto Verano which is red wine and lemon soda. It is similar to a sangria and they go down like kool-aid. We learned about them from Roshini (VJ’s girlfriend who was visiting him from London). She is a great girl and we had a fun time hanging out with her and VJ. She met him on a different conservation project and has come to visit him a couple of times while he has been working at Sunseed. She was getting ready to start her first year of teaching back in London. She has a great English accent and I think we learned a new language from her. In fact it was rather funny because we understood the German volunteers Marlena and Tim when they spoke English better than the Brits. We had fun with each other with our American phrases vs. the British phrases. They thought it was funny when we were heading into town and someone had to sit in the way back of the van and we said we would “ride dog”. Rosh loved it and I think it has been added to her vocabulary.
I think I have digressed a bit and forgot what I was writing about-oh yea- The dinner and movie night at Desert Stars. After our wonderful meal and before we watched the movie we were entertained and mesmerized by Lawrence and his stories about his travels through Europe and the Middle East in the 60’s & 70’s. He then told us he had written a book called “How to Build a Flying Saucer”. We all thought it was a fictionally story about his life but it turns out it really is about how to build one with the use of a gyroscope. He pulled out all these drawings and gave us an hour lesson on the science and physics of how it can be done along with his story of the prototype he has built. He was amazingly fascinating with the myriad of stories and knowledge he possessed. He reminds me of my friend Mike (I will leave out the last name to protect the innocent) who know everything about anything. He then changed topics and told us about the different levels of mysticism and showed us some more drawings which were incredible. He definitely confirmed you never judge a book by its cover. I think we could have sat there and listened to him all night but it was getting late so we decided it was time for the movie. We watched “Water for Chocolate” . We capped off the evening with a farewell drink and then headed home by the glow of the night sky. It truly was an epic evening and a perfect way to end our two weeks at Sunseed. We made some new friends and had an experience we will never forget.
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