It was a long day (June 20). I got up about 3am, the girls got up at 5:30 am, we had breakfast, packed the car, and headed to Milan's Malpensa airport for our return to the US. Turned in the rental car, found our gates, went thru security, and chilled for a couple of hours before our 9+ hour flight to Newark, NJ. Everything was on time, in fact we got in 15 minutes early. Good thing we had a 6 hour layover in Newark - took us almost 3 hours to get thru passport control, customs, recheck our bags, and the longest line to get to security I've EVER seen! We had to stand in a line for more than a half hour before we could get in the line to go thru security!!!
Anyway, after 6 hours we departed Newark on time headed for Omaha. However, Omaha was having monster storms and almost a tornado in downtown, where they were playing the College World Series, and had to close the airport, so we got diverted to Des Moines. Got into Des Moines at 8:45pm, sat on the plane till 9:15 when they decided to let us sit in the terminal until they decided if they were going to try to make it into Omaha. Finally at 1:15am they decided the weather in both Des Moines and Omaha was good enough to try it, so we jumped on the plane for a 28 minute hop to Omaha. Massive Kudos to the Continental flight crew and the Continental ground crew in Des Moines - they went way out of the way to keep us informed and tried to make us comfortable. Got our bags and were home by 2:45am THIS morning. Thanks to Joe Reiter for picking us up at that late/early hour. 28 hours later and plenty tired!!
Will post some photos shortly... and over the next week I'll fill in the blanks on the days I haven't previously posted, go thru the over 3000 photos I took, and go thru the 1500 e-mails I received while gone. We were really without internet access for a lot of the trip. Kinda surprising..
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Almost Over
Sunday, June 19, 2011
We left the opera about midnight. We had already had 2 rain stoppages and the second act (of 4) was over. The best of this opera is in Act 2 so we were ready to leave. We said goodbye to Flavio and Loredana close to where they had parked and walked the several blocks back to the apartment, just as it was starting to sprinkle again.
Had some monster thunderstorms about 2am and 3am so I hope the opera was done by then. One of the good things about the overnight rain was that it cooled things off and kept people off the streets so it was a quieter night.
Woke at 7am on Sunday to clear skies and cooler air.
We had a light breakfast, finished our packing, loaded all the suitcases in the car, gassed the car, and departed Verona about 9:45am. It was a leisurely 1 and a half hour drive to Milan on the autostada. As we got half way, we could start seeing the western side of the Italian Alps, where thee was still a lot of snow. Drove around Milan for an hour looking for a couple sights but the signage was so bad we didn't find a thing so headed north to find Milan's airport - Malpensa. It's almost 4o miles out of town and in the middle of nowhere. The Holiday Inn Express is rather neatly hidden in the middle of nowhere as well...
More later...
We left the opera about midnight. We had already had 2 rain stoppages and the second act (of 4) was over. The best of this opera is in Act 2 so we were ready to leave. We said goodbye to Flavio and Loredana close to where they had parked and walked the several blocks back to the apartment, just as it was starting to sprinkle again.
Had some monster thunderstorms about 2am and 3am so I hope the opera was done by then. One of the good things about the overnight rain was that it cooled things off and kept people off the streets so it was a quieter night.
Woke at 7am on Sunday to clear skies and cooler air.
We had a light breakfast, finished our packing, loaded all the suitcases in the car, gassed the car, and departed Verona about 9:45am. It was a leisurely 1 and a half hour drive to Milan on the autostada. As we got half way, we could start seeing the western side of the Italian Alps, where thee was still a lot of snow. Drove around Milan for an hour looking for a couple sights but the signage was so bad we didn't find a thing so headed north to find Milan's airport - Malpensa. It's almost 4o miles out of town and in the middle of nowhere. The Holiday Inn Express is rather neatly hidden in the middle of nowhere as well...
More later...
Monday, June 13, 2011
June 14 Update
June 14 - Flag Day
and the 236th birthday of the Army!!
Another cool, cloudy, and rainy wake-up in the paradise known as Garmisch. We had planned to take the cog train up the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, but with the weather we will not. I just checked out the mountain webcams and every one shows a white blur - all fogged in...
So we'll have a leisurely start, get packed and head to Italy.
Stay tuned..
and the 236th birthday of the Army!!
Another cool, cloudy, and rainy wake-up in the paradise known as Garmisch. We had planned to take the cog train up the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, but with the weather we will not. I just checked out the mountain webcams and every one shows a white blur - all fogged in...
So we'll have a leisurely start, get packed and head to Italy.
Stay tuned..
June 13 Update
Woke to a cool, cloudy and rainy Garmisch. Had a very nice American buffet breakfast, accompanied by real American coffee. Espresso is wonderful, but the taste of real American coffee is a nice break.
We were on the wait list yesterday for the Neuschwanstein Castle tour this morning, and I guess the rain did not dissuade anyone from going. They all showed up so we didn't make the AFRC guided tour. We'll head out soon to do it on our own, as well as maybe other stops too.
We headed out about 11am and got there about noon. Even with the rain there were loads of people. The line to get entry tickets was over an hour wait, so just got some tickets to hop the bus up to the Marienbrucke drop off and headed up. Took about 10 minutes to get up to the "Mary's Bridge" overlook. In all the times I have been to Neuschwanstein I had never been over to this bridge. What a magnificent view of the castle!
We took several photos from that vantage point then walked back to the bus stop and walked up to the castle. Since we didn't have entry tickets we just gawked from the front gates. We then walked down and headed back to Garmisch.
Just before entering Garmisch I drove up into Grainau, drove around and went to the Eibsee. That is a lake I swam in when we were there in 1958! All the parking is now totally pay parking so we just drove around and headed into Garmisch.
We went to dinner at a local stube - excellent food!!! The food at Edelweiss is really good, but it's just American style food. Too many people staying at the Edelweiss eat all their meals there. For the same price they could be experiencing the real German cuisine..
Time to repack. We head for the last segment of this vacation tomorrow morning - going to Verona, Italy...
We were on the wait list yesterday for the Neuschwanstein Castle tour this morning, and I guess the rain did not dissuade anyone from going. They all showed up so we didn't make the AFRC guided tour. We'll head out soon to do it on our own, as well as maybe other stops too.
We headed out about 11am and got there about noon. Even with the rain there were loads of people. The line to get entry tickets was over an hour wait, so just got some tickets to hop the bus up to the Marienbrucke drop off and headed up. Took about 10 minutes to get up to the "Mary's Bridge" overlook. In all the times I have been to Neuschwanstein I had never been over to this bridge. What a magnificent view of the castle!
We took several photos from that vantage point then walked back to the bus stop and walked up to the castle. Since we didn't have entry tickets we just gawked from the front gates. We then walked down and headed back to Garmisch.
Just before entering Garmisch I drove up into Grainau, drove around and went to the Eibsee. That is a lake I swam in when we were there in 1958! All the parking is now totally pay parking so we just drove around and headed into Garmisch.
We went to dinner at a local stube - excellent food!!! The food at Edelweiss is really good, but it's just American style food. Too many people staying at the Edelweiss eat all their meals there. For the same price they could be experiencing the real German cuisine..
Time to repack. We head for the last segment of this vacation tomorrow morning - going to Verona, Italy...
Sunday, June 12, 2011
June 12 Update
We spent yesterday, June 11, traveling thru Slovenia to Croatia where we then went to the furthest southern point of the Istrian peninsula, to an old Roman city named Pula. Pula has one of the few remaining coliseums left.
It's in worse shape than the one in Rome and the one in Verona, Italy. But it was great to see it...
This area is also part of what has been called the Dalmatian coast. It used to belong to Yugoslavia when it existed.
Made our way back to Trieste and had to go out for pizza and gelato, again... As they say - Someone's got to do it...
Today, on Sunday, we left Trieste early and headed back thru Slovenia, then thru Austria, past Salzburg, into Bavaria, Germany, past Munich, and down to Garmisch, Germany.
While passing thru Austria we did stop at Lake Bled, not a well known place by most Americans. Just happened to be hosting the 2011 World Rowing Championships there today so we took in the scenery and watched some of the competitions. Never heard an American name called...
It was a REALLY nice place to visit. Too bad it is so difficult to reach. Becca and Jenny kept entertained by trying to feed all the ducks and swans.
We checked into the Armed Forces Recreation Cdenter's (AFRC) newest hotel-the Edleweiss, built in 2004 when we were last visiting. It's really nice. Unpacked a bit and headed to one of my facvorite spots in the world - Oberammergau, Germany - thew capital of woodcarving. Took a tour of the town, then had to eat. 3 types of noodles/dumplings fo9r Jenny, a cheesy spaetzle for Becca, and I had again to sacrifice by having a schnitzel and beer...
It's in worse shape than the one in Rome and the one in Verona, Italy. But it was great to see it...This area is also part of what has been called the Dalmatian coast. It used to belong to Yugoslavia when it existed.
Made our way back to Trieste and had to go out for pizza and gelato, again... As they say - Someone's got to do it...
Today, on Sunday, we left Trieste early and headed back thru Slovenia, then thru Austria, past Salzburg, into Bavaria, Germany, past Munich, and down to Garmisch, Germany.
While passing thru Austria we did stop at Lake Bled, not a well known place by most Americans. Just happened to be hosting the 2011 World Rowing Championships there today so we took in the scenery and watched some of the competitions. Never heard an American name called...
It was a REALLY nice place to visit. Too bad it is so difficult to reach. Becca and Jenny kept entertained by trying to feed all the ducks and swans.
We checked into the Armed Forces Recreation Cdenter's (AFRC) newest hotel-the Edleweiss, built in 2004 when we were last visiting. It's really nice. Unpacked a bit and headed to one of my facvorite spots in the world - Oberammergau, Germany - thew capital of woodcarving. Took a tour of the town, then had to eat. 3 types of noodles/dumplings fo9r Jenny, a cheesy spaetzle for Becca, and I had again to sacrifice by having a schnitzel and beer...
Friday, June 10, 2011
June 10 Update
We have still been having issues finding reliable Internet connectivity. Europe is very connected with wireless, but little of it seems to actually connect to the Internet. We now have a great connection for the next couple of days while we are in Trieste.We broke off from the Girl Scout tour when we saw them off at the Rome airport Wednesday, June 8. We rented a car and headed north. We stopped at Orvieto to see the magnificent cathedral there.
We then headed further north to Siena, but the city was packed!! We had no place to park and with all the visitors we just decided to head east towards the Adriatic.
Spent the night at a 4-star hotel that at one time must have been glorious. The rooms were nice and there was a gourmet restaurant next door, but the hotel had the feeling of a combination of the hotel in "The Shining" and the Bates Motel. Didn't let the girls wander far and kept the door locked. I think we were the only guests... But we made it to breakfast so it wasn't that scary.
After we left the hotel we went further east till we hit the Adriatic then north. We buzzed thru the tiny Republic of San Marino - lots of tourists, then on to Rimini where we found a nice 4-start hotel for a very reasonable price. We are before the high season starts here in Europe, or at least in Italy, so there are some great deals.
The girls went down to beach and found many sea shells and played with a jellyfish !!
Monday, May 2, 2011
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