Vesuvius/Pompeii

Aimee: Ciao, buonasera! We write to you tonight from the Mediterranean Sea. We have left the Port of Salerno and are now sailing toward Venice. The trip should take a day and a half. We are exhausted and definitely ready for a day at sea. Tonight for your reading pleasure all four Allens will be alternating paragraphs. We’ll start with Mike, the old mountain goat. Being a Colorado boy he had a certain vision of Vesuvius looming in the distance and well, it might not have immediately measured up…

Mike: I was not impressed with Mt. Vesuvius until…we reached the summit. The size of the crater was astonishing. It was amazing to think that mother earth could expel that much land in such a short period of time.

Madison: It was a three mile hike total, going up and down the mountain (from the place where the bus dropped us off). The view was incredible! Looking down you could see the city of Naples and if you looked in the right area you could also see Herculanium. The hike was tiring, but worth it.

Max: Before the trip I researched Mt. Vesuvius. I couldn’t pronounce it; I called it Mt. Vanchewvius and stuff like that. Anyway, I found out that it is the third largest volcano on Earth. We definitely didn’t start our hike at the bottom. The views nearby and at the top were stupendous.

Aimee: While we were at the beautiful summit we noticed an Australian camera crew filming. We were shushed and hushed while they did their thing. We have no idea what it was about, but we hope to find it on the internet at some point. Maybe we’ll hear some background conversations like Maddee saying “Mom where can I put my pear core,” or Max saying “Are they checking for eruptions?” Those quotes will promptly be followed by several loud “SHHH”s from stern adults.

On to Pompeii

Mike- when asked to contribute to his paragraph about Pompeii, he looks up sleepily from his pillow and gives a thumbs-up. I guess that sums it up for him. (This will mark the second night that he has fallen asleep while we are working on our blog-or the third night or maybe even the fourth night).

Madison: After getting ice creams and pizzas we entered the gates to Pompeii. There were lots of trees and flowers some were bright pink, some were a great shade of purple. Archeologists actually figured out what plants they had in Pompeii before it was covered in volcanic ash. After finally walking in to the actual sight a big building that looked similar to the colosseum style (same building materials) loomed before my eyes. It was amazing you could actually go into one of the houses. Unlike the colosseum, which is supposed to have a bunch of cats living in it, we actually saw animals in Pompeii…

Max: When we entered the building of an important person, we walked about two feet in and looked to the left. We saw pretty much an empty room, if you took another step and looked to the left you saw a room that had mostly faded, chipped paintings on the wall and when you looked down to the corner you saw a dog! A cute dog that was used to people. He was in there to keep from the blazing sun. He never barked and was always nice. There was a room with bones in a case. There were plenty of skulls in it. We moved on and saw more dead, blech! They were completely covered in plaster so you couldn’t see their bones, which is better than just a couple of skeletons. Right beside one of them was another dog! Across the room there was another dog! Going right into the next room which was connected to that room there was… a bathhouse. There was a lot more than that in the house, but we didn’t go everywhere in the house because it was huge!

Aimee: Okay, let me fill in some of the details here. Pompeii was really awesome. The city, as you likely know was covered in ash, pumice and lava after a terrible eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. The city was not unearthed until sometime in the 1700s. Mike and I were expecting a small village with some ruins, but we were both impressed to find it was a rather large Roman city. Much of the city was still in tact including some frescos on the walls, some wood and unfortunately the skeleton remains of many of the residents of Pompeii. We all appreciated the tour, but it was definitely a hot, hot day in a city with very little shade. As Max said at one point when the sun was beaming down on us, “The only thing that would make this worse is if we were carrying torches.” For me the whole city with its houses, shops, amphitheaters and cobblestone streets was impressive. However, I was most impressed with the huge forum and the ruins in that particular area.

 

Our tour ended with some free samples of limoncello for the adults (candies for the kids) and a few minutes of free time. We took the opportunity to get a slush or another gelato (big surprise) and then headed to the bus. We were leaving the parking lot when we noticed that one of the members of our tour group didn’t make it back to the bus. We drove around until we found the poor guy who seemed utterly embarrassed. When he boarded the bus everyone clapped and cheered for him. I bet he will never forget his visit to Pompeii. I know we won’t forget ours.

Arrivederci Roma

Today was Rome! We docked in Civitavecchia on the coast and headed in to Rome by train. Because it is Sunday, the train schedule was limited. We weren’t in the world’s biggest hurry, so we ended up on the 9:35 train which made several stops (at least that’s what I have been told, I was sleeping for most of the trip)and finally we got to Rome around 11:00. We switched from the train to the subway and went straight to the Colosseo (Italian for Colisseum). Newsflash, when in Rome, everyone wants to go to the Colosseo, so there was a bit of a line (three hour wait). We took our chances with a shady fellow who promised us a tour and a quick entry. It turns out he was legit and we joined a tour group and headed in-no wait! Mike and the kids had the Colosseo at the top of their list. I was content to just see it from outside, but I changed my tune once I got in. It really is very impressive. I am happy we dropped the several Euros that we did to get in there.

When we left the Colisseum it was about 1:00 and we had to be back to the train around 3:45ish to catch the 4:10 back to the ship. Now if it were any day but Sunday we would have been able to take a later train, but the next train would have put us back to the ship around 6:30, which was too late. Anyway, it was 1:00 and we had so much more to see. We knew going into this trip that we would just be getting a taste of each city as we are in port for such a short time. However, it was still disappointing to realize that we would only have a few hours in the great city of Rome. We chose just two other things we really wanted to see (Fountain Trevi and Spanish Steps) and then took to the streets. We meandered our way through the city getting glimpses of amazing buildings, old and new as we headed to the Fountain. We spent only a few minutes admiring the fountain and then we were off to Harry’s café which was recommended by Daniella our tour guide in the Colosseum. Harry’s Café sits above an entire ancient neighborhood excavated only 14 or 15 years ago. Harry’s was closed, but you could get into that ancient town through a movie theater that sits above it as well. We were happy to go in for two reasons: one we all love ancient history and two it was far underground and much cooler than the 90 degree streets of Rome.

Our bellies were pretty empty about now, we of course had a gelato earlier in the afternoon, but gelatos do not a meal make (or do they?). We found a pizza place that wrapped their slices in a nice little paper pocket so you can eat and run (perhaps literally). This pizza loving girl thinks this to-go pocket might be the next best thing. Please America, let’s do this! Pizza pockets to eat on the run-yes please! Sorry, where was I? Oh right, Rome, vacation, trip of a lifetime back to it...

 Here’s the mental picture for you, four Allens scrambling through the streets of Rome, sweating, eating pizza, snapping pictures, glancing at a map and occasionally stopping to drink from one of the many fountains of fresh water found all over the city. Side note: I think this freaked our dinner companions out when we traded notes with them over our evening meal. The thought of drinking foreign water was a bit much for them, even though the water of Rome comes from the mountains through the aqueducts and is guaranteed fresh and clean. Side note two: I bet my mother is reading this and freaking out a little bit as well. But when in Rome…

We got to the Spanish Steps, took a nice walk up and down them and then the kids and Mike soaked their heads to cool off in the fountain below. We also refilled our water bottles there, sorry mom. I chose not to soak my hair, mainly because I was having a rare good hair day and didn't want to mess with it.  Soon enough we were back in the Metro station headed for the train. There are so many places I wish we saw, like St. Peter’s Basilica and the Roman forum. I heard the Pope came out to St. Peter’s square around noon and was blessing people. I wish we could have been there for that. Still, what a wonderful day, in a wonderful city. I have heard some people say they don’t like Rome, and I feel sorry for them. It’s too bad they didn’t see it through our eyes.

Of course, the fun didn’t end there; we had a nice long train ride back to the coast. Of all the things we could have included in this blog today, Maddee and Max both wanted to make sure I mentioned boarding the train back. First of all, Mike and I thought we were so city savvy at Roma Termini, the Roman equivalent of Grand Central Station. Apparently, we didn’t look as cosmopolitan as we felt, because a kind Italian woman approached us and asked if we needed help. Good thing she did, too, because our train was already at the station, but was at track 28, we were standing by track nine! We hustled over to 28 and boarded. We went through car after car after car with absolutely no place to sit. We finally found two seats, Mike and Madison took them and Max and I continued on. We happened upon a car toward the front of the train that was not only almost empty but was also ten degrees cooler than any we had been through. Jackpot! Mike and Maddee joined us and back to Civitavecchia we went. As soon as we boarded the train an all out rain/hail storm hit Rome. We watched the storm from the comforts of our train.

Tomorrow we hike Mt. Vesuvius and then go to Pompeii. It’s supposed to be about 90 degrees again and no shade. Still, I have a feeling it will be worth it! Arrivederci.

 

 

Firenze (Florence)

Bongiorno! Today we are in Italy! We spent the day in the beautiful city of Florence. It was hot and crowded, but it was worth it.

We started out in an air conditioned bus. Our ride took two hours, Max froze to death and then there were only three of us. Okay that’s too far. Max was still with us. We were all blissfully unaware of how much we would long for the cold bus.

But let’s not complain. We’re in Italy!! We had a partial guided tour complete with radio/earbuds to hear our guide amongst the many other tour groups out there. She was smart, informative and friendly. We have been really impressed with our tour guides so far. After our tour we were left to our own devices for a few hours. We’ve always heard how beautiful the Duomo is in Florence, but words can’t really describe it. It’s one of those places that you need to see to fully appreciate. It’s like when you see the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building for the first time, you are impressed, yet it doesn’t truly feel like the first time you’ve seen it, because of all the exposure those buildings get on TV and movies. The duomo however, wow, it’s so amazing. It’s all marble, it’s in the gothic style and there are not only religious figures carved into the building, but important Italians as well. And let’s not forget it is HUGE. Max and I are sitting here trying to think of appropriate adjectives, because big  & beautiful don’t even touch it.

Oh and that isn’t the only amazing sight in Florence, no sirree. There is the piazza della signoria, the statue/sculpture garden, the ponte vecchio and of course there is “The David.” There are more beautiful churches such as the church of St. Croce which houses the tombs of several great Italians, such as Michelangelo. Interestingly the Church of St. Croce, a catholic church, was designed and built by a Jewish Italian man who happened to include a prominent decorative six pointed star on the front of the church.

So, we saw the sights, which were impressive to say the least. The lines were too long and our time was too short to go inside any of these beautiful buildings, but the outside of each building was a work of art in and of itself. After the sightseeing, we, of course, went to find some authentic Italian eats. Okay, I realize our blogs always mention food, but hello, we are in Europe, so of course we are eating like kings and queens. Mike and Madison split a bistecca alla fiorentina, which was a huge, ridiculously thick piece of steak. It was incredibly delicious. I know, as I had a few nibbles. Max and I each had our own pizza. Let me give you some inside info here: the restaurant where we ate has two specific chefs from Naples whose sole job is to make pizza. They also have two chefs from Sicily whose sole job is to make the homemade gelato. Mmm. Anyway, the food was accompanied by  wine for the adults and sucre pesca for the kids (what a relief to find out it was peach juice, using my sharp Italian reading skills I originally translated it to fish juice.  Dessert was obviously gelato for everyone, except me, I spied a cannoli in the pastry case and couldn’t resist.

After lunch we rolled out of the restaurant and did some more walking around and souvenir shopping. I bought a Pinocchio puppet (Pinocchio was originally created in Florence) & a Rooster pitcher. I’ve been obsessed with getting a rooster pitcher ever since I read a story about the Medici family and the roosters.

When we got back to the ship, we actually went to dinner. I don’t know how we fit more food in our bodies, but we managed to do so. This was the first night we actually ate in the dining room. We sat with a family from Ottawa who are fairly experienced “cruisers” and definitely better planners than we are. We picked their brains a little bit. We ended our evening with some hot tub/pool time. And now here we are getting settled in for the night. Tomorrow is another big day-Rome here we come!

Voila. Bon Voyage. Tarte aux Pommes and other such things…

 

Bonjour! Today we anchored outside Cannes and took small boats into the French Riviera. We walked around the beach for a little while, put our toes in the warm Mediterranean Sea and then, of course, did some eating. Apple tart for Mike & me, homemade ice cream bars for the kids. The beach was crowded and there were all sorts of people enjoying their day.  From ping-pong playing topless grandmas to speedo clad grandpas, there was no body shame on the Riviera today!

After our beach time we boarded a bus for our shore excursion to the Villages of Provence. The ride was over an hour long, winding along the coast and then into the countryside. We stopped at Seillans first. A great village with steep hills and cobblestone roads. Every corner was like an old world photo, laundry hanging off of balconies, multi-colored doors and shutters and vines growing on all the buildings. We went into a little church and I was quite pleased to see that over 50% of the statues and paintings were of women saints and Virgin Mary. Yay girl power!  We loved our tour guide who was an absolute wealth of knowledge. I hope I can remember at least 1/10 of what she told us. Here are some cool facts we learned:

*Seillans was once a walled city- you can still see parts of the old wall all over the village

*Many of the houses were built up high with an archway forming above the roads, this way people would be able to live above the wet, filthy streets. Added bonus: it would be less likely that invaders would get into their houses.

*All the entrances to the houses were ladders, so they could just pull the ladder up and make it more challenging for those darned invaders again.

*The Greeks settled the French Riviera around 6 or 7 BCE. They weren’t warriors and they had a lot of problems with pirates. Eventually they asked the Romans (around 1 BCE) to help them out. Villages like Seillans were the perfect place for Romans to settle-just far enough away from their Greek allies, to well, stay allies. Much of the architecture is influenced by the Roman Empire.

*Another point of interest is that the butchers and bakers were extremely important village members. There was only one butcher and one baker per village and it was a five year stint guaranteed. For a long time the baker was the only person in the village with an oven. If you wanted to bake something you would have to pay the baker to use his oven. Sweet deal for the baker (cheesy pun semi-intended).

Seillans is one of those places that make you think” if I only had an extra few million dollars I would totally have a second house here in the French countryside.” I just loved it.

Okay moving on to gorgeous Fayence. Fayence is a bigger village with an upper and lower “city.” There is a beautiful church, bell tower and some really amazing lookout spots. We had (and I quote Caroline our tour guide) “less blah, blah, blah and more free time,” in Fayence. It had been a long day and we were hungry. So we set off to find food. We had a couple of distractions along the way-Mike almost bought a fancy shirt, but backed out, I tried to translate a French menu, but all I could decipher was that there was going to be a lot of ham and a lot of eggplant in every dish-and little things like that. We finally ended up at a little outdoor restaurant where I butchered just enough French to get us a table and a few menus.

That’s when I took a moment to look at the time and see that we had less than 20 minutes to get back to the bus. I don’t know much about France, but I feel pretty confident that you cannot order and eat a full meal in twenty minutes. Things got a little rough here, we ended up only ordering drinks, I couldn’t for the life of me string a couple of sentences together, couldn’t remember how to say we only have fifteen minutes, and so on. Time ticked on and our drinks didn’t come and I had to go in and tell them we had to leave. The waitress was lovely about the whole thing. Her English and my French were equally pathetic, but we both tried. The owner on the other hand was pretty angry. I had a terrible mood dive, forgetting that I am soooo lucky to be in FRANCE right now.  I was hungry and frustrated with myself, plus totally embarrassed that I retained next to nothing of my five plus years of school girl French. Try as I might I could not manage to get mon petit chou or zut alors! into a single conversation.  Ah well. Once we got back to the ship I got an attitude adjustment in the form of sugar, carbs, and a little protein to boot. I’m my old self again.

Tomorrow we hit Florence. I’m hoping one of these other lovely family members will take on tomorrow night’s blog. Stay tuned!  A biento!

 

 

 

Underway

Written on Thursday 7/18/13

What a busy and fantastic day! We got a late jet-lagged start, but who cares? We’re on vacation. I redeemed myself in the Spanish category by helping Mike order an iced coffee café frio & throwing around an exceptional amount of holas and mucho gracias(es). After bustling around Barcelona-beautiful buildings, nice people, yummy gelato-we caught a cab for the port. We boarded our ship “The Serenade of the Seas” early in the afternoon and got right to exploring!

Madison and I are curled up in bed trying to pick through the day’s excitement in order to make this blog “the-opposite-of-boring”, but when we get down to the dirty details our day really consisted of walking up and down many flights of stairs, checking out all the different places we might want to visit in the future, (such as the rock wall, waterslide, arcade, shops, fitness center, mini-golf course and pools). The rest of our time was spent well, eating. Eating and eating. And then eating some more.

Our ship set sail around 5:00. We went out on the deck to wave at the crowds gathered at the pier just like on the Love Boat. Well, there weren’t crowds per se, but there was a young boy clad in fluorescent green with his mom in a semi-abandoned parking lot. They had binoculars and were waving like crazy. I’m not sure who they were waving to, but I am guessing it was me.

Speaking of waving, our stateroom, on the 10^th floor, is in view of the Bridge. When we were out on our deck earlier Max waved at the captain and the Captain waved back. So, that was pretty exciting. At least to us. Maybe you landlubbers don’t think it’s a big deal, but umm, it is. So there.

Our stateroom is COZY with limited walking space. I am absolutely not complaining though, at least not today, maybe by day eleven of the cruise our close quarters and the unfortunate smell of sweaty feet will change my attitude, but for now it’s all good. Mike and I have a queen size bed, Madison had a sofa bed and Max is in a bunk above us, his bed actually comes out of the ceiling! Maddee wants to put in her two cents here and let you know that she and Max will actually be switching beds each night. They have a rotation worked out. I think they intend to put Mike and me in the rotation as well, but it’s not happening. That’s right cute girl leaning on my shoulder as I type, it’s not happening. J

Well it’s getting late and we are heading into the French countryside in the morning. I plan to make Mrs. Mahoney and my other high school French teachers proud tomorrow with my expert ability to parler Francais. (un peu).

Adios! I mean Au Revoir.

Let the Adventure Begin

Hola from Barcelona!
We left our house at 4:00 am Pacific time on Tuesday morning. We had three flights and they were almost completely smooth, aside from the EXTREMELY bumpy take-off in Seattle and some storms over southern France. We all loved the huge airbus from New York to Helsinki, Finland.After approximately 33 hours give or take an hour we arrived at our hotel in Barcelona at 9:30 in the evening on Wednesday. Because of all the time zone changes we only experienced 2 hours of night.

We had an eight hour layover in Helsinki so decided to go explore the downtown area. It's a great city. We were so tired and sleep deprived that we may not have had the best experience, especially since we all took a turn being too tired or too grumpy to function. We still were a mostly pleasant crew.  We are fortunate enough to have another layover there on the way back,  this time 24 hours, so we can see more of the city and hopefully be more attentive the next time around. Don't get me wrong, we were mostly happy though dazed for sure.
I am going to try to post some pix on here.


In Finland almost everyone speaks English and quite well. Here in Barcelona the experience has been different. Our taxi driver was a fantastic lady in her 50s or 60s who yelled, honked her horn and then dropped us off by an alley which turned out to be the closest she could get us to the hotel. She just couldn't communicate that with us, since all the Spanish I know I learned from Sesame Street in the late 70s. Agua, Caliente, mucho gracias amigos. We checked into our hotel and lugged our bags up four flight of stairs, totally worth it, though (well for me anyone the hotel manager carried my bags).We walked around the alley where our hotel is, where there are several restaurants. We settled on  La Taberna del Cobre where we struggled to try to get out a few Spanish words. The owner spoke no English (not that he should have to), our kids who have taken Spanish for a long time totally froze and we relied almost completely on body language to order. Dinner was delicious any way. Maddee and I tried calamari for the first time, which was extremely, extremely buttery. We didn't love it, but Mike did.

We finally got to bed around midnight and are now enjoying pastries chocolate for breakfast, which are beyond rich and delicious. I feel like if I were wearing jeans my button would have involuntarily popped open by now. Fortunately, I have a stretchy skirt on. Mike is drinking a shot of espresso, since once again I botched my communication skills. I ordered Café. She asked Café espresso?  I replied with a confident Si. Then I saw her pouring a shot into a to go container. Mike doesn't care, he's energetically packing our bags.

We check out of here in 40 minutes and then walk around for a bit. Our cruise starts this evening! Can't wait.

I have some pix on FB and will figure out how to get them on here as well. But not right now. The streets of Spain are calling us!

Adios.