Day 4 Florence; July 19, 2008

We've settled into a routine: I lead the 4 others around and show them things, and then we split up for meals. Larry, Dick and I eat on the cheap, and Ron and Edith go to a sit-down restaurant. It seems to work pretty well, and gives everyone a little free time.

We took the train from Rome to Florence this morning. It was a Eurostar, which means it was fast and expensive. It slid like glass through the Italian countryside, with old fortresses and ruins topping the hills and vineyards and newer towns below. My people all thought it was wonderful, but some were so tired they kept falling asleep. Less than 2 hours later, we were in Florence.

Ah, Florence! Birthplace of the Renaissance and home to the powerful Medicis, ruthless patrons of the arts! Much of it still looks the same, with narrow little streets and red tile roofs, with the powerful Duomo overlooking it all.

Bus to hotel to drop our bags, then another bus to the Accademia. I wanted to show my people where Michelangelo's David is, so they could meet me back there at 4:00 for our reserved entrance time. We had a lovely walk down through the center of the old town, from the Accademia past the Medici Palace and the Orsanmichele church that in the 1300's was a granary, through the courtyard of the Uffizzi (fabulous Italian art we will see tomorrow) down to the River Arno.




We wandered out onto the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) to see the river and the gold shops and feel the ambiance of Renaissance Florence. It was evening and everyone was out for their passagiata (evening stroll.) This is really living!


Then we had to really book it to get back to the Accademia for our appointment. The David you see in the picture is a copy. they moved the original indoors, because in a riot someone threw a couch out of an upstairs window and damaged him. The real David is still as wonderful as he was 500 years ago! To me that is really amazing. People still look up at him and marvel. What makes a statue that much better than all the thousands of others?

Larry and Dick wanted to climb up to the top of the dome of the Cathedral, so they left the group and had an invigorating session with 467 stairs upward, in between the dome-in-a-dome construction of the first big dome since Roman times. It was a marvel then, and it still amazes. They came out way up on top and could see all over the red tile roofs of the city and clear to the mountains in the distance.

Larry and Dick and I wandered to the Straw Market and rubbed the nose of a big brass pig That's supposed to make sure you come back to Florence! I'm sure I will, because I love it here.

I'm eating my wieght in gelato. Italian ice cream is the best in the world! I'm going to have to quit it before I get really fat!

Day 3 Rome: Vatican, St. Peter's, Forum & Palatine; July 18, 2008

Today has been absolutely the most wonderful really long day on my feet any tourist would ever do! Of course, you know that when I go alone, I go longer and further, but no tourist wants to run that hard!
The Vatican Museums were at the top of my people's list, so we went there first, even though I knew it was prime time and the line would be forever. It was! The line stretched along the ancient brick wall surrounding Vatican city, down the street and around the corner, so Larry and Dick stayed in line while I took Edith and Ron on a walk over to see St. Peter's Square. By the time we returned, they were already waiting for us at the front of the line. It actually moved pretty fast.

The Vatican museum is one of the very best in the world. We saw lots of original Roman and Greek statues, many of which had fig leaves added in strategic places during the 1800's. We found Leonardo da Vinci's St. Jerome looking appropriately miserable. I think he's the Catholic version of the prophet Jeremiah, the one who predicted the destruction of Jerusalem at the time of Lehi. We found a Caravaggio of Christ being taken down from the cross (very cool) and a couple of Salvador Dalis (not very cool.) My favorite was Raphael's School of Athens. We stood and talked about it for awhile. Edith pointed out that it's very pagan, but it was painted in the Pope's chambers.

We loved discussing Michelangelo's Last Judgment as we gazed at it in the Sistine Chapel. Then we scooted out the back door and right into St. Peter's Cathedral. It's huge and ornate, and the seat of a billion Catholics. If you kiss the bronze toe on the statue of St. Peter, it's supposed to make you go to heaven, so they did and I took pictures to prove it. They have their hand on the toe in the picture. I notice the toe is getting worn out, so much that it's almost gone. I guess eventually no one will be able to go to heaven!

At 4:00 we met at the entrance to the Palatine Hill to see where Rome was founded. There's lots of tall pines and ruins of palaces from the time of Caesar. It overlooks the Forum, and it was a nice break in the trees, on the hill above the bustle of Rome.

Then we went down to the Forum and I gave them a little tour of the ancient center of the known world. It's so amazing to think it's still here! All my kids, do you remember when you were little, and we got in trouble for you making so much noise in the Forum and climbing all over the monuments? It's still just as wonderful!
We came out the far end of the Forum into the Campidoglio and up the back side of the Wedding Cake. (Military museum and tomb of the Italian unknown soldier, picture at left) There's a little cafe on the high terrace where we rested and had a melon drink and looked out all over the city. It was magical!

At left you see Edith and Ron on the steps of the Campidoglio, which is the town square designed by Michelangelo to show the new Renaissance paower of Rome.

Day 1, & 2 Viva Roma! A Comedy of Errors; July 16 & 17, 2008

Hello everyone, here we are in Rome! I love this!

Larry, Dick and I arrived yesterday morning, after a long overnight flight, and the comedy of errors began! Oh, my heck! I should have known I was in for it when the plane came in to land, and we were very close to the sea. Huh? Oops! I thought we'd be arriving at the other airport! Oh, well, how tough can it be? That meant we'd have to hunt to find the train into town, but that was OK.

Then we were in a hurry to get on the train, and yes, you guessed it, I jumped on the wrong train! I kind of suspected when I saw everyone carrying suitcases getting onto the other train, but there were so many people in the aisle, I couldn't get off to check. As soon as the train pulled out, the conductor's voice came on and announced all the stops, and none of them sounded familiar. Oh dear, now should we get off, go back to the airport, and start over? I went to ask, but couldn't find anyone official. I was really worried that the conductor might come along and ask to see our tickets (which they usually do) and we didn't have a ticket to ride that train, so all 3 of us would get hefty fines. Just the perfect start for a trip to Europe!

After several stops and asking again, we decided to get off at Cittavecchia and try to transfer to the metro for the rest of the trip. After asking some more, we finally found the metro. The metro stop had a different name than the train stop (unusual) but lo and behold, I recognized where I was! So we hopped on, and it was the right line to take us directly to our hotel, and we didn't even have to transfer at the main station, and in 20 minutes we were at our hotel!

Larry and Dick and I flew over together, while Dick's brother Ron from England, and his girlfriend Edith from Paris were joining us a few hours later. Meanwhile, we had a hard time deciding which bus tour to take while we waited. Boy, did pick wrong! The bus was a double-decker with an open top and commentary in your earphones in any one of 8 languages. The ones I've had before were great, but this one was really boring. We were dying, fighting sleepy jet lag. At least it was good to sit down and be driven all around Rome to the sound of classical music!

When we 5 finally all got together, we headed for the Colosseum. Every time I go, it amazes me more! Here's a tip: the way to skip the 2-hour line for general admission is to march right around it and go to the window that sells guided tours! Hooray! Our guide was a little Italian lady that looked about 14, but she's already an architect, so maybe she knows an ancient Roman beauty secret. Anyway, she gave us lots of great info and we loved it.

By then it was too late to get into the Forum or Palatine Hill, so we went to dinner in a little family-run place near our hotel. It was so authentic Larry couldn't even eat his "roast beef." It was sliced really thin and was bright red! He was convinced it was raw, but Edith said you could tell it had been cooked, because it was brown around the edges. He sent it back to be cooked, and the owner gave him weird looks, but he cooked it brown!

The way to beat jet lag going this direction is to stay up until the regular bedtime in Europe. that means we'd been up for 40 hours straight before we went to bed, but we had no trouble at all falling asleep!

Day 15 Back to Amsterdam, Coming Home Tomorrow! June 30, 2008

5 hours, hotel to hotel, that's what it takes to change cities around here.
I took the train this morning from Brugges to Amsterdam, and it was much less stressful than when I went from Utrecht to Brugges! I only had to change trains once in Antwerp, and I'd been to the very cool 4-level Antwerp station on the way in, so I understood the layout.

My hotel is a real jewel. My room is up 85 steep, narrow stairs (yes, I actually counted them.) It's on the top floor and the toilet is in a little room down the hall; same with the shower. It's super tiny and very plain, but it has a lovely leafy view out the window, and it's only two blocks from the Anne Frank House, right in downtown Amsterdam, and it's cheap and clean. This is the street with my hotel.

15 minutes after I checked in, I was back out and on the way to the Rijksmuseum. Two heavenly hours I spent exploring only the best of the best of their collection, because the rest is closed for renovation and not on view. This is definitely the way to see a museum! Don't waste time on the lesser masterpieces, just go for the gold. In fact, for one of their new acquisitions they spent a cool 12 million euros! The main painters I studied were Vermeer, Jan Steen, and Rembrandt. It was really fun, and Angela can be jealous all day for me!

I knew that the Anne Frank house is open until 9:00, and the lines are gone in the evening, so I did that after the Rijksmuseum closed. The building you see at left is actually her father's business. There was another building hidden behind, which couldn't be seen from the street. So they hid behind the warehouse.

On the way I stopped into a supermarket, looking for both supper and breakfast, and came out with a nectarine, 2 rolls, lots of chocolate (your souvenirs) and something labeled "luchtige" yoghurt. The cognate is "light" so I thought that meant lo-cal. OK. But it really meant "airy," like whipped. So I had airy yoghurt, and it was great!

Some of you may remember when we took you to the Anne Frank House about 1990. Well, they've changed it a lot since then! They bought 2 buildings next to it, to give you a better visitor's center-type introduction to what you will see. They also have blacked out most of the windows, so it will seem more like when the Frank family hid there. I was very involved. In fact, when I realized I'd finished the house and was returning to the visitor's center, I walked backwards against the flow to see it all again before I left. The only entrance to the house was behind the cupboard you see below. The church steeple at the top of this post is what she could see from her attic window.

It is amazing to me how one bright teenager could express so well what she felt and what happened to her. She actually became the voice for millions of others who had no voice. She taught us the horror of the Holocaust, by personalizing it for us.

Otto Frank (her dad) did not read the diary until after he came back from the concentration camp. All his family was gone. Miep (one who had helped them hide) presented the diary to him, but he faound it too painful to read for awhile. When he finally did read, he was amazed. They had had a very good relationship, but he never knew she had such deep thoughts and feelings. He felt like she was an entirely different person than the daughter he knew. He concluded that most parents don't really know their own children. Is that possible? I have thought a lot about that, and I think he's right.

I kind of didn't want to let go of the moment, so I just sat down on a bench with my back to the canal and ate my yoghurt and nectarine and looked up at the old warehouse with the secret annex in back. I guess I don't have any desire to check out the famous Amsterdam nightlife!

The picture just above is the neighborhood, and the picture to the left is the warehouse from across the canal. It's right beside the red awning. The next 2 doors to the right are the visitor's center.

Day 14 Brugges Wonderful Day! Bike Ride; June 29, 2008

I did it! I rented a bike and rode all around Brugges! And I didn,t even fall!
Brugges is an amazingly beautiful city, all restored about 150 years ago, so it,s super cooler than other tozns:

This keyboqrd is driving me crqzy! I can figure out most of the letters but if I do it right I only type about 5 words per pinute: I thought it zas French but now I think it,s either Flemish or Turkish; I found out it's Flemish. That's the same a Dutch, but it's what the Belgians call it.

The first night I arrived, someone was up in the bell tower playing an amazingly difficult concert. I found the courtyard below where lots of people were just sitting around listening, and I joined them. The sky was getting dark and it was really romantic.

I did one smart thing: I bought q ticket for 3 museums qnd q bike ride for qll dqy for €15; Sqved me q bundle; It qlso hqd q free drink qt sope plqce but I never mqde it to there;

I went into several reqlly neqt old churches qnd climbed the bell tower of course; Hqve to get in my dqily 365 stqir steps! One of the churches hqd qn originql Michelangelo Mother and Child sculpture in white marble qnd it zqs very cool: It zqs intended for a church in Sienna Italy; but it zqs purchased by a wealthy Brugges merchant and shipped here: the only Michelangelo work to leave Italy during his lifetime; Brugges was very wealthy port tozn at thqt time, shipping tqpestries qnd wool all over the knozn zorld.

I wandered all over town and saw everything I wanted to. Since everthing zas restored 150 years ago, the colors are lots brighter than in other tozns: I SO wish you could see how cool this place is! Most stuff is from the Golden Age, zhich is the 1600,s zhen Brugges rivaled Florence and Venice as a cultural center. There are lots of canals qnd romqntic little bridges and really unusual churches:

I rode my bike about 7K along the canals and out to a little tozn called Damme; There is a dedicated bike path qlong most streets: The streets are narroz qnd hqve 2 rows of tall trees; one on eqch side: Why do the Belgians plant trees on each side of the street? Same joke as the French: so the Germans can march in the shade: It zqs so beautiful qnd I ended up on q footpqth zith sheep qnd q church qnd I reqlly enjoyed it:

Coming home it zqs qll slightly uphill (aack) zith q huge heqdzind so I hqd to go reqlly slozly, big pain in the legs but that;s more excercise I guess: I can't figure out hoz there caqn be q heqdzind even zhen I turn qnd chqnge directions; but there zqs qnd it zqs qbout 40 miles an hour heqdzind!

I was hqving such a good time I kind of didnùt want to return the bike. I had it for free until 10 PM, so I just rode all around the old section of town for qzhile: Then I hqd to get to this internet place qnd it closes qt 10 so I hqd to tqke the bike bqck. Boo hoo!

Tonight Spain plays Germany in the European Cup finals; so restqrqunts qnd bqrs qll over tozn hqve their biggest TV set up outside for their outside diners to zqtch: The game stqrted qt 8:45 PM; I guess it zill be a noisy evening

Day 13 Utrecht to Brugges; June 28, 2008

So today zqs plqnned to be q trqvel dqy, but I zqnted to do something zith Shel before I levt: She ùs going ho,e to,orroz, but I am going on to Brugges for 2 days.

I found q flozer pqrket qcross the street behind the church qnd ze zqndered qround thqt for qzhile: The flowers were fresh and cheap. Some of them were made into arrangements, and the prices were much lower than in the states. Flowers are the only thing that's cheaper in Europe!

Then ze zent over to zhqt they cqll q clothing ,qrket? It zqs qll bolts of fqbric: Ze zere in hog heqven? It zqs rqining qnd there zere lots of Turkish lqdies zith their heqds covered qnd thousqnds of bolts of fqbric in probqbly 50 stqlls: Shel zqs looking for curtqin fqbric: Ze sqid ze zill repepber this pqrket qnd long for it zhen ze qre gone:


We hqd Kroquetten for lunch in the Winkel & Sinkel. It's famous because it held the first-ever department store in the Nethelands in the 1800's. It's right on a canal and a very nostalgic restaraunt now.






Then we zqndered over to the cqthedrql: There zqs q concert tonight; so the orchedstrq qnd the singers zere prqcticing for the Bqch Mass and the music zqs so good qnd bequtiful in thqt setting thqt I cried,

Took me 5 hours to get from Utrecht to Brugge big pqin but Brugge is FQBULOUS qnd Iùll zrite qbout it tomorrow

Dqy 12 Mom Goes Clubbing, Fabulous ICLS Dinner; June 27, 2008

You'll never believe what Shelley got me to do the other night1 She took me to the party night for her conference1 Later note: The letters are different on this computer and I'm in too much of a hurry to look for the right ones!
It zqs in a cellar in the old quarter: Ze found the qddress qnd zent a dozn or so stqirs into this blqck pqinted bqse,ent under so,e store dozntozn: There zqs q live bqnd qnd colored lights flqshing qnd the ,usic zqs reqlly Loud: Shelley qnd I eqch got q free Sprite: I think her conference hqd reserved the zhole plqce for the evening: Then ze dqnced qnd dqnced zith nobody in pqrticulqr except ourselves: She felt like she needed to be seen there becquse she used to be the secretqry of the zhole orgqniwqtion; qnd they pqid her zqy to the conference this time becquse she zqs one of their keynote speqkers: So ze dqnced qzhile qnd it zqs reqlly loud; so I pulled ,y trusty qirplqne eqrplugs out of ,y purse: Yes; I did put in the eqrplugs qnd grinned qt everybody like q blinkin idiot becquse I could not heqr zhqt they zere sqying: But ze hqd q greqt ti,e: Shel spoke to everyone zhe thought needed to see her: I think I zqs here excuse to leqve eqrly: She sqys itùs not the sqme in the club scene noz thqt sheùs married; she just feels different about it: So ze got there qbout 9;00 qnd left qbout 10;30: Whqt big partyers ze are1

Tonight I qm in Brussels; Belguim qnd this internet cqfe zqnts to close qnd go ho,e eqrly so I could only buy hqlf qn hour: Plus I qm on q dqng French Keyboqrd qnd lots of the letters qre in different plqces qnd if I sloz dozn tço do it right I zill not be qble to finish this post1

Last night we had another completely unreal, fairytqle evening: the conference hqd this qbsolutley fqbulous dinner in the hqll of the originql University of Utrecht: It zqs in zhqt used to be pqrt of the monqstery; so it zqs tqn stone zith q reqlly high Medievql ceiling qnd it zqs like hqving q wedding cqtered in q cathedral: Zhqt qn qtsosphere1 I was astounded the zhole night:

Drinks zere qn hour before in the cloister of the monqstery of the Benedictine monks: There zere lots of glqsses qt our plqces qnd severql courses of FQBULOUS gour,et foodl It zqs lit by 5 brqss chqndeliers qnd the zhole thing zqs Magic1

The guy that is helping shel get her PhD from Open University of the Netherlands was of course in chqrge: So Shel zqs qble to get me q ticket to it, zhich is zithout doubt the most fqbulous dinner I hqve ever qttended:

At our tqble zere some peqlly interesting people; q Chinese guy selling something like qnd iPhone for school kids to leqrn qll their subjects on; q lqdy from MIT zho designed q mystery leqrning gqme for the Ohio zoo bqsed on the kid locqtion qnd GPS, some lqdy studying creqtivity, qnd q big)mouth stud type zith silver hair zho sqid very loudily hoz Mitt Romney zqs q Zero severql ti,mes until I qsked him zhy qnd he shut up: No fqctys to bqck his opinions; too bqd: Iùd hqve like to knoz zhy he thought thqt but I couldnùt get it out of him:

Day 11 Delft, as in Blue & White China; June 26, 2008

Today was a total wild goose chase that ended really well!

I wanted to go to the Peace Palace at The Hague. I knew it would be a problem because I should have gotten tickets earlier, but I tried anyway. I took the train from Utrecht to The Hague and hunted 10 blocks for the tourist information. That was my only chance to get in today. They called but all tickets for today and tomorrow are already taken. Not possible.

So, onto the tram for the ride South to Delft. It's a pretty little town with canals and old buildings mixed with new. The canals are at street level. It's amazing to me that the canals are not lower. (?) If the water rose 6 inches everything would flood.

Caught the blue and white tourist bus to the Delft porcelain factory. It's been making delft porcelain since 1637. There used to be lots, like 40 porcelain manufacturers in that town. About 200 years ago the market dwindled and all but this one went out of business. They survive by being extremely expensive and exclusive.

The factory is now in a 1900's brick building and is smaller than you'd expect considering how famous it is. I really enjoyed the tour. I saw lots of greenware stacked up waiting to be painted and their demonstrations were really clear. Our guide was fun and our group was small. Our tour was in Dutch and English and we were being followed by a German tour group. On the other hand, this is definitely not a destination worth making a special trip for. I noticed tour buses stop here but you can't afford to buy anything. I admired a lovely dish with a lid, about 8 inches across. I turned it upside down to find the price and it was 334 Euros which is about $500!

The highlight of the day was the toothless driver of the little blue and white bus that took me to the factory. He gave me a running guided tour of Delft as we drove around. The bus ran out to a camp ground outside of town, and it was lovely with cows and trees. "Happy cows" as Laura would call them (-line inserted by Shelley who is typing because Mom types slow as molasses).

I knew there was a market in Delft on Thursdays. I've discovered how people can afford to live here. They don't buy anything in the shops because the prices are horrible. They buy from the market. I found two-tone organza sheer fabric for 1.50 Euro a meter. I bought 6 meters and felt like I got a real steal. The chocolates were a lot cheaper in the market too; I had a few of those, of course!

I also discovered that the InterCity train is faster than the 'Stoptrein' by about double. I took the fast train there and the slow train back and it took forever!

Day 10 Shelley's Presentation A Triumph! June 25, 2008

Shelley was great!
She gave her keynote address today at 1:30 p.m. at the University of Utrecht, the largest university in The Netherlands. It's the COSL Conference, put on by the Open University of the Netherlands.
The previous speaker was German and reported on his very minute research to prove that people who use on-line chat in their schoolwork learn more. He was extremely scientific, but dry. Shel says many people there will be glad for his research, so they can quote him. I almost fell asleep.
Shelley's keynote address was a definite wake up! Her Powerpoint presentation slides were colorful, and she was friendly and entertaining. Her slides, in accordance with their philosophy of open, free internet everything which this organization espouses, are all available online for free. She seemed extremely confident and happy. Everyone there enjoyed it, and lots came up after to tell her how great she did.
I'm on a 15 minute computer and I have to post this before it quits!
Aha! I got another free 15 minutes from the hotel desk clerk! Great!
The hall where she presented seats about 500, and probably 300 people were there. It's all extremely modern, with a huge screen, maybe 15 feet high and 40 feet long, to show whatever you want from your computer. She looked really good standing up there, talking into the microphone and switching her slides on the screen. It was a good venue for her style, because the walls are wood and the seats are all different colors, sloping up to the sound booth at the top. In the picture you see the foyer outside the hall. The sound booth is on the left. It's a really cool-looking sound command center, because it is shaped the the blimp Hindenburg and it's made of little strips of wood and it projects from both inside and outside walls of the auditorium.
After her address they presented her with a picture book of the Netherlands and some great chocolates. We went outside and sat in a quiet place by some trees and just let her decompress. Then, of course, she went back to work to edit her article she's publishing.
I, of course, went back to town for more sightseeing!

Day 9 Utrecht; June 24, 2008

What a glorious day! Blue sky and a breeze and an old city to explore is my idea of a great time!







Our hotel is a hundred year old building right in the center of the old town, directly across from the very oldest church. It started as a monastery over a thousand years ago.


First order of business was figure out how to get to the place where Shelley's conference is. I went with her just to see, so I can go on my own later. It's a number of bus stops away, at a huge modern university complex. The building with the conference is ultra-modern fabulous architecture with curved walls and ramps up instead of stairs.

This conference is way cool for her to be a keynote speaker. She will present in a big auditorium at 1:30 Wednesday, which is in 2 hours but is 3:30 A.M. your time!

Shel wanted to take a couple of hours just to sight-see, so we came back and wandered the town. Then she returned to the conference and locked herself into her friend's office to work on an article they will joint publish. We set up a meeting time for 6:00, which gave her 4 hours to work.
Meanwhile, I entertained myself walking around the old town. It has quaint canals and tall skinny buildings right out of the 1600's right next to modern steel and glass structure. The streets and canals are lined with chestnut and sycamore and linden trees. The fragrance of the lindens is in the air and it's lovely!

Bicycles are the main mode of transport. Everyone rides them; businessmen with briefcases, old ladies with their shopping baskets, students wearing i-pods. There are literally tousands of them everywhere! There is a two-tier sidewalk system. The outer area is for pedestrians, the next sidewalk is for bicycles, and then there's the street. Look very carefully before crossing, because you'll get mowed down by another silent bicycle!

I have a new favorite building. It's this library I'm in right now, typing away to you on the internet. On the street level there are the usual shops, but there is a door with a small sign that says "Ütrecht bibliotek" and a door that leads into the innards of the building. Upstairs, the building is huge and several stories. It's a modern library with a central atrium on the top 3 floors of a small city block. A cute little pregnant lady showed me how to buy a voucher from the machine to get a code to get on the internet. Internet is only €2 and hour here, but at the hotel it's €10. There is even a snack area up here. It's kind of like being at Barnes and Noble, but with really modern architecture in an old building!

Got to go, my time will run out in one minute!