Tag Archives: museums

Baden-Württemberg

Breakfast at the Ritter Sport factory cafe…

This morning, Bill and I decided to go to the Ritter Sport factory’s cafe for breakfast.  Although we’ve  lived in the Stuttgart area for a total of over three years and have been enjoying Ritter Sports the whole time, this was our first visit to the museum in Waldenbuch.  We kept meaning to go there and check out the museum, but never got around to it.  I had heard that they offered a nice breakfast at their restaurant and it’s open on Sundays.  We showed up there at about 9:45 this morning and noticed that quite a few tables were reserved.  Fortunately, we found a spot to sit down next to a very nice German couple.

We were managing with the German menu, but the waitress kindly brought us one in English, even though we didn’t request it.  I heard the Ritter Sport cappuccino is very good, but I decided to go with #11 on the menu,  a chocolate filled croissant and hot chocolate.  I also had orange juice because I need more sugar in my diet…  😉

Flaky croissant… I don’t think it was full of Nutella, which is a good thing.  The hot chocolate was amazing.  It had chocolate melted on the bottom.

 

Bill ordered scrambled eggs with ham, but ended up with eggs that had mozzarella and tomatoes in it and a cup of regular coffee.  They were good.

 

Bill is all done with breakfast.  Behind him is a case full of delicious looking pastries.  The cafe is obviously a great place to have coffee and cake.

 

I expected to see more Americans at the cafe, but the place was full of locals enjoying themselves, including one guy who was having beer.  We were finishing up breakfast when a familiar face came into view.  I finally got to meet our local Dutch handyman hero, Bram, and his adorable daughter.  It was an honor and a pleasure to finally see in person the man with whom I have interacted many times online.

After we paid, we took a quick walk around the grounds…

The folks living next to the factory had a cute little primate statue…

I noted that the fence was electric and Bill warned me that it’s not a good idea to pee on an electric fence.  Not that I was tempted to do that, of course.  

They also had lots of signs…  This one was especially stern.  

 

Apparently, people have been letting their dogs crap on their property… I took pictures of two signs, though there were several…  I take it the shit and run action has been a real struggle for them.  I don’t blame them for being “pissed”…

Pretty fall foliage.

After we were finished with breakfast, we went to Panzer so I could pick up a couple of sympathy cards for my cousin and her stepmother.  I hadn’t been there since they finished the roadwork.  Nice to see that area somewhat functional again.

If this post makes you want to visit the Ritter Sport Cafe for breakfast, I recommend making reservations or showing up early.  The place was pretty packed when we left.  And if you walk your dog in the area by the museum, be sure to bring your crap bags so more anti dog shit signs don’t get posted.  We’ll have to go back and actually tour the museum sometime.  I think we could have today, but we didn’t feel like waiting around for it to open.

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Nagold on a nasty hot July day… lunch at Hotel Adler

is still a lot of fun!

The hot temperatures have been getting me down this weekend because they have made me not want to venture out.  We bought a new air conditioner yesterday that is keeping my office much cooler and more pleasant; but it’s no help out and about, where a lot of places are hotter than the dickens, as my mom would put it.  Still, I was in a bit of a mood, so I told Bill that I wanted to go out for a little while.  I suggested we visit Nagold, since it’s very close to where we live, has restaurants we haven’t tried, and is super cute.  An added bonus is that free parking is plentiful on Sundays and holidays.

We dropped by the bank for euros and I stopped to take a photo of the tower… and the kids playing in the fountain.  We saw at least two fountains with kids in them as well as a kid swimming in the river. Nagold is very kid friendly.

We decided to try a new restaurant for lunch.  The first time we visited Nagold last fall, I had noticed a cute little gasthaus near the river.  Hotel Adler offers Schwabish fare.  It’s a bit pricey, but you get a very elegant meal for your euros.  One of the proprietors stuck her head out the window as we were perusing the menu and said hello, so we decided to go in.  Of course, we were the only ones in the dining room, though they do have an outdoor area.  No one was sitting out there, either.  Everybody was eating ice cream at the ice cafes or hanging out by the river, where there was a small fest going on.

An obligatory face from Bill…

I ordered a weizenbier from Hochdorf.  Bill had a radler.  We also had some water with gas.  The restaurant offers some nice traditional German dishes, but my mind was on fish, since it was so hot outside.  Bill also had fish.  I am not sure anyone spoke English at all.  Fortunately, Bill speaks some German and I am improving by the day (though I still suck).  We were able to get by relatively successfully.  Our waitress wore a dirndl, though the rest of the staff was casually attired.  The dining room was really beautiful, though it was also the reception area.

Bill’s zander filet with mustard sauce and pfefferlingen mushrooms.  It came with a big bowl of noodles.

My dish was a Black Forest trout with salted potatoes and a lemon sauce.  I was glad the sauces were served on the side, since they were a little heavy for such a hot day.  Still, they were tasty.

I might have been tempted to try dessert.  They had a few that were inviting.  However, I was well satiated after this lunch and wanted to get out into the breeze.  It was very hot in the restaurant and even the owners conceded that most people wouldn’t be comfortable in there today.  A couple of fans would have made the dining room a lot more temperate, though maybe the few really hot days Germany gets every year aren’t worth the investment.  

We really enjoyed the Hotel Adler and will go back when the weather is a little more hospitable.  I would definitely recommend it to others.  They do have a children’s menu, though the offerings appear to be more skewed toward adults.  The dining room is lovely and so are the people.

After lunch, we stepped into the museum next door, which was open and offering free admission.  Only the first floor was open, but it was cool in there both temperature and exhibit wise.  The current exhibit is basically about Nagold during Hitler’s era.  The displays all had explanations in German, but I understood enough to get the basic gist.  Apparently, Nagold was quite the hot spot during the Nazi regime.  If you are interested in World War II in Germany, the museum may make a worthwhile stop in Nagold.

A man and some kids were punting.  We watched them, then wandered across the bridge toward Nagold’s awesome park.  There are public bathrooms there, which is a good thing to know.

The park has a little miniature train that was popular with kids…

There’s also a fun looking playground…

Dogs are not allowed on the green spaces, though they can be walked on the paved trail.  Please clean up your shit.

And there’s a Keltenfest at the end of the month… we might have to check this one out.  My German friend says special beer will be offered.

 

I had been giving thought to visiting Nagold’s freibad, but figured it would be ridiculously crowded.  And it was…

The pool has a great water slide, a high dive, volleyball courts, a kiddie pool, a sand area, and playground equipment.  It was really teeming with people today, though.

It’s four euros for a ticket per adult, which you buy from the machine…  Tickets for kids are 2,50 euros.  You get a price break if you come after 5:30 pm.  Then, the price drops to 2,50 euros per adult and 2 euros for kids.  Season passes are also available.

I snapped a quick shot of the band in the distance.  There was a Christian band, then a girl tried to sing Adele.  She wasn’t too bad… looked a bit young and could probably use a little vocal instruction.  The band was good, though.

Nagold is so cute.  We need to visit more often.  When the weather is milder, we will have to check out the ruins that sit on a hilltop in Nagold.  I know nothing about them, but think they look cool.

I have yet to be disappointed by a trip to Nagold.  I am starting to feel the same way about Nagold as I do about Tuebingen.  My mom will be visiting in a couple of weeks and this is one place we will take her.

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Our trip to The Netherlands via Luxembourg… part 6

Yesterday, I was determined to see something.  Paleis Het Loo is literally right next to our hotel.  A bonus is that there are restaurants there.  I could have lunch and not walk my ass all the way to the Centrum.  And I could see a palace dating back 300 years that, since 1984, has been open to the public.  Paleis Het Loo (The Woods Palace) served as home to the royal family of The Netherlands, princes and monarchs of the House of Orange Nassau.

To be totally honest, I don’t usually find palaces to be that interesting, especially in places where I have to work to understand the language.  Paleis Het Loo does offer information in English and Dutch in the house and there are headsets that can be rented.  Some of the exhibits are only in Dutch, though.

I didn’t care too much.  I wanted to kill some time and see something different.  And I’d be an asshole if I didn’t venture next door to the hotel and see this historic residence for myself.  I could have purchased tickets online and saved a couple of euros, but I didn’t have the means of printing them.  I decided to walk to the main entrance, which required a short stroll.  For future reference, if you stay at the Bilderberg hotel in Apeldoorn, you can buy your tickets at the reception or you can walk to the main gate from the entrance closest to the palace.  Since I didn’t know what was going on, I walked to the main entrance, where the parking lot is.  I’m glad I did it that way, since I got to see the pretty wooded drive into the palace.

A couple of shots of the dog park, which I passed on my way to the palace.  I probably would have had as much fun hanging out there.

 

This cool looking building was across from the Palace entrance.

 

Welcome, y’all.

As I approached the cashier, a Dutch guy stopped me and asked something in the local language.  I think he was a tour guide and maybe thought I was meeting his group.  I responded in English that I didn’t understand.  He apologized and I went on my way…  I have to admit, I get a thrill when Europeans don’t immediately take me as an American.

I paid 14,50 euros for my ticket.  I could have paid another 3 euros to see Sisi, a temporary exhibit they have going on right now.  I actually wanted to see Sisi, but the cashier either didn’t hear me or didn’t understand when I asked.  And then I realized I probably didn’t care enough to see it anyway.

I walked into the palace grounds and was immediately confronted by one of three wandering peacocks.  A large restaurant was to my right, while the stables were to my left.  I went into the barn, which was chained off.  I could peer inside and see two draft horses being kept company by a barn swallow.  I breathed in the seductive scent of the equines and remembered how much horses helped me get through childhood.  Someday, I hope to have them in my life again.  Maybe when I’m not traveling so much.

Horses…  I wish they’d said hello.

You can actually visit the stables and the coach area without a ticket.  I saw a lot of folks on bikes who appeared to be doing just that.  If you want to see the palace and the grounds, you have to walk along a pretty tree lined lane to the fenced off interior.  As I approached it, I was suddenly reminded of Colonial Williamsburg.  Everything from the country landscaping to the architecture of the buildings reminded me of my adopted hometown in Virginia.

Don’t walk on the grass.

I pretty much did things backwards.  The first thing I did was visit a restaurant just inside the entrance.  I had to pass through the Sisi exhibit to get to it.  If you want to buy a ticket for it, you can use a vending machine.  I might have tried that but noticed a couple of Dutch visitors struggling with it.  I decided I didn’t mind not seeing everything.

Lunch consisted of a Heineken draft beer and a chicken salad with yogurt dressing.  The chicken was very spicy and coupled with green apples, tomatoes, cabbage, and cilantro.  I was kind of proud of myself, since I’m usually not a salad fan.  The restaurant also offered high tea, which was 22,95 a person.  I would have probably gone for that had Bill been with me.

Lovely dining room.  WiFi is free and easily accessible!  Look at the back of the menu for the password.

 

Haven’t had one of these in a long time.

 

Spicy chicken salad!

 

High tea, anyone?

After I ate, I walked around the grounds.  Honestly, I think just walking through the gardens would have been enough for me.  They are very beautifully kept, serene, and tranquil and you can just sit there, gaze at the lake, watch the waterfowl, and dream.  But I felt compelled to check out the house, too; so I wandered back to the palace and found the gift shop.  I left the gift shop thoroughly confused about how to enter the palace until I finally found the route… which I proceeded to do backwards.

I ran into a palace “goon”, a super tall, thin, Dutch lady who spoke Dutch to me at first.  When I looked at her blankly, she asked if I spoke English.  I said I did and she told me I had already seen the rooms I was about to enter.  Actually, I hadn’t seen them because I went through the house backwards.  But I went back the way I came, then found the correct route, which I enjoyed until I ran into her again.  She asked if I needed help leaving the palace.  By that point, I figured I had seen enough… I was getting tired and cranky trying to get around people with no situational awareness and I didn’t feel like explaining to the woman that I had initially come through the house backwards.  I docilely let her lead me to the elevator and offer an easy way out of the palace.  Then, feeling somewhat crabby and palaced out, I skipped the East wing and walked back to the hotel, where I proceeded to chill out with some wine.

I waited there until Bill showed up, somewhat early.  I sense his conference is winding down and with any luck, it will end today instead of tomorrow.  Then we can go see some monkeys before we head toward Haarlem/Amsterdam.

Stay tuned for my post on last night’s dinner…  a surprise menu consisting of things I usually hate eating.

This REALLY reminds me of Williamsburg, minus the Dutch flag.

Peacocks!

 

The “shell cave”, a grotto made of seashells.  I thought this was really cool… literally.

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Roaming around Rome…

Bill and I left Florence on the afternoon of May 9th.  Our train was scheduled to depart at about 12:30 pm, but was a few minutes delayed.  Consequently, we had to wait a bit in the train station, which was loud, dirty, and chaotic.  Since we were a little early, Italo’s track hadn’t been identified.  We put our RedOxx bags down on the dirty floor and Bill went to McDonald’s to get sandwiches.  As I stood there waiting for him and the train, I heard the incessant announcements and it occurred to me that it was pretty impossible to hear and understand what the announcers were saying.  The announcements just sounded like incessant squawking, which raised the stress level of waiting in the place.

Our Italo car was fuller on the trip to Rome than it was to Florence.  There was a couple sitting behind us who were American.  They had a very large suitcase that was a challenge to put on the overhead luggage rack.  Bill’s polite suggestion to the man sitting behind him that the suitcase would fit better in the storage area between the cars was completely ignored.  I mean, the guy acted like he hadn’t even heard Bill speak to him and didn’t even acknowledge his presence.  I immediately got the impression that the guy was a major asshole.  When he and his wife got on their cellphone and started having a loud conversation with their son, who was still in the United States, my initial impression was confirmed.  The guy kept asking their son if his “check had come in”; he seemed very preoccupied with the status of this check and asked about it several times in the course of their short conversation.  That was the last I heard from the guy, since I pulled out my new Bose noise canceling headphones.  At the end of our short journey, Bill said that the guy had complained the entire way from Florence to Rome about everything from the boxed lunch he had ordered to the fact that he didn’t seem to like Italy.  His poor wife had been trying to placate him the whole time.  I felt really sorry for her.  The man didn’t seem like a fun travel companion.

We got off at the Rome Tiburtina station.  Neither Bill nor I had ever been to Rome, so we didn’t know a thing about this huge station or where we were supposed to go.  We ended up wandering around for several minutes, trying to find our way to the taxi stand.  Poor Bill’s thumb was throbbing and he was being quite the trooper, carrying my big duffel bag.  After we walked through the crowded metro section of the station, we found the taxis and a long haired guy wearing sunglasses took us to the Relais Hotel Orso, another Jetsetter find.

Of all the hotels we stayed at during our trip, the Relais Orso was my least favorite.  It’s a stylish new boutique hotel in a very good location in Rome.  However, right next door to the hotel, there is construction going on.  During the daytime hours, there’s lots of banging, drilling, and dust.

I had booked us a junior suite, which had sort of a loft look to it.  There were three windows in the room, all of which opened into the elevator shaft.  On the wall, there was a cryptic quote about how we had all become “broken”.  I guess it was supposed to be deep, but it seemed kind of pretentious to me.

The bathroom had a rainfall shower, but there wasn’t enough water pressure to use all the jets in the shower.  Consequently, the water didn’t really come down in streams as much as it blended together.  The toilet and bidet were square shaped, which looked kind of cool.  The bidet took up valuable floor space, but actually came in handy on our last morning when we had run out of toilet paper.  The room came with free WiFi, but I couldn’t log on with my iPad; nor could I log on with the iPad that came with the room.  My phone picked up the signal, though.

Anyway, despite the fact that Aunt Flow was unexpectedly still in full force that Thursday afternoon and I was feeling kind of yucky, we decided we had to get out of the room and away from the banging of sledgehammers.  We walked to Vatican City, where we ran into a whole lot of Lamborghinis.  It turned out there was some kind of race going on to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the brand.

A sign about the race…

One of many Lamborghinis we ran into in Rome.  

Vatican City

 

*Slightly TMI*

I got a kick out of all the touristy religious souvenirs in Vatican City.  I mean, there were pictures of the Pope all over the place.  I would have stopped to purchase a magnet or something, but I was on a mission.  I had run out of maxi pads, thanks to an unexpectedly long visit from Aunt Flow and needed to stop by a pharmacy to pick up some more.  We popped into a little shop on a street just off the main drag through Vatican City and a very kind looking lady sold me some Italian maxis.  My husband paid for and carried them for me, which is a sign that he must love me very much.  I have to say, using those Italian pads was definitely an incentive to pack more American feminine hygiene products next time.

We walked around some more and I looked up and suddenly realized that we were standing outside the Armenian Orthodox church.  I spent two years living in Armenia, so this was a pretty cool thing for me.

I stood there trying to translate, though I never did learn how to read Armenian as well as I could speak it… and I never did speak it very well.  We continued to walk and passed a police station, where there were lots of cops standing around.  A quiet street took us past a church where a homeless looking guy was sitting on the steps drinking beer.  Bill and I watched in amusement as a man passed and yelled something at the guy.  Neither Bill nor I speak Italian, but it looked like he was shaming the street person for drinking in front of the church.  The street person did not seem affected by the shaming.  He casually raised his bottle as if to offer a sip to the guy who had just yelled at him.

Me and my food idiosyncrasies…

We decided to stop for dinner, but it was still somewhat early.  Or maybe we just missed something in the translation.  The upshot is, we ended up having a “snack” at a cafe.  The waiter was a bit pushy and had a tattoo of a spider web on one of his elbows.  He suggested a meat and cheese platter and a bottle of wine.  I don’t actually like to eat cold cheese… it’s a texture thing.  I can eat mild cheeses that are melted or have been melted but have gone cold (like cold pizza).  But I can’t eat a piece of cheese that is just cold.  So I asked for the menu so I could see if there was something on there that wouldn’t force Bill to eat a lot of cheese.  The waiter was offended and said, “I’m not dishonest!  It’s not expensive!”

I laughed and explained that I don’t like to eat a lot of cheese and I wanted to see if he had anything that Bill and I would both like.  It turned out he didn’t, so we got the meat and cheese platter.  I must say, it was pretty good…  The wine was especially nice.  Wine always soothes Aunt Flow.

For dinner that night, we stumbled across a German/Austrian restaurant that was very close to our hotel.  I know we were in Italy and who wants to eat German/Austrian food in Italy, right?  But we had been eating a lot of stereotypical Italian food since our arrival and this little restaurant had Scottish and German beers.  So we went in…  Things got off to a good start with the above appetizer, which was sea bass with orange peel and greens.  Our waitress was really young and very cute and there were little teddy bears all over the place, one of which had a German fest hat on its head…

We ordered chateaubriand for dinner, but it came to us in a way we didn’t expect…  It looked like slices of beef smothered in hunter’s sauce, which is LOADED with mushrooms.  Unfortunately, mushrooms are one of a few foods I cannot eat.  I kind of freaked out.  The waitress was gracious and brought me another serving with just the sauce, minus the mushrooms.  Unfortunately, I was still a little freaked out.  We made it up to her by ordering dessert.  She was careful to tell me there were strawberries on the cheesecake I ordered.  I said that was just fine.  And I did enjoy a lovely beer or two as well.

There was another American couple dining near us and one of them noticed me taking photos.  She offered to take my picture with Bill, but I declined.  People are usually taken aback when I do this, but I actually hate having my picture taken because I hate the way I look in photos.  I think my pictures are best when I’m not in them!  The one exception is when I can take my picture with a web cam, but even those require editing and strategic posing in order not to make me cringe.

This is a photo of one of the ceilings in the Museum of Rome…

The next day, we wandered around Rome and ended up going into many cathedrals.  We also visited the Museum of Rome, which was actually a very interesting place.  Bill loves art and this place was packed with works from artists all over the world.  I even found a couple of works done by an artist from Charleston, South Carolina back in the 1800s.  The museum also had some really beautiful ceilings.  The above photo is one of about a dozen I took of the ceilings in this place… some of which were more interesting than the works on the walls.

More ceilings…

I snuck a photo of this painting…

A ceiling at a cathedral dedicated to Pope John Paul II…

Look carefully at this photo…  There’s a guy with his shirt rolled up.  He kept walking around, rubbing his stomach…

 
 

I got a kick out of the caricatures that were being done… especially of the one of Prince, who is painted in all his oversexed 80s era glory…

We snuck into this amazing cathedral where I shot yet another rotunda photo…

We went out to lunch on the second day and ended up at a little trattoria close to our hotel.  I enjoyed a fantastic piece of Bolognese style lasagna there.  But when it came time for dessert, I made the unfortunate choice of lemon sorbet.  Actually, I can’t say it was unfortunate, since the sorbet tasted good and was very refreshing.  But, it wasn’t frozen!  The waiter, a young Asian man wearing braces, told me that there are two kinds of sorbet.  One is like ice cream and the other was like the soupy stuff he served me.  I think that was bullshit, but I didn’t complain because it was still cool and tasted good.  Dessert is one of my many vices.  And, I have to hand it to that waiter for his brazen line of bullshit.  He delivered it without a trace of hesitation.

Our hotel offered the use of the Twizy, which is a tiny battery operated “car”.  Rome was too scary to attempt driving and parking this thing…

Coffee break




Later, we ended up near the Pantheon, which was teeming with people.  There were street performers there.  My attention was captured by Tibetan monks… or, at least I think that’s what they were…

Notice the two guys in orange.  One seems to be balancing the other on a pole.  As I turned away from these two guys, a very tall American man, apparently from the South, said something along the lines of “What in the HELL…”  That made me laugh out loud.

 Ceiling in the Pantheon

After taking in the Pantheon, it was time for a beer.  We found an Irish pub.  As we were sitting there, an older Scottish gentleman came in with a pretty blonde on his arm.  It turned out she was just some girl he’d run into and bought a drink.  She ditched him rather suddenly and Bill heard him asking the bartender where the blonde had gone.  Bill felt sorry for him.  He seemed lonely.

Spilled wine…

A couple of hours later, we stopped for dinner at a very touristy restaurant.  I usually try not to eat at the obviously touristy spots, but we were hungry and I desperately needed to pee.  There were two waiters  taking care of the tables outside.  The older one was obviously very experienced and very Italian.  As soon as I put my bag down, he said “The toilets are downstairs.”  I thanked him and marveled at his ability to see what I really needed.  The other waiter was a young Filipino man who was very eager to upsell and create a clientele.

We took his suggestion of a dry white wine, which turned out to be very good for what we were eating.  I had chicken, but I don’t remember what Bill had.  Anyway, there was a British couple sitting behind us and a third waiter who seemed to be running food, accidentally dumped half a bottle of wine all over the guy sitting there.  Suddenly, there was a scene being made…  The waiter had charged the couple for the bottle of wine, half of which they had ended up wearing, thanks to the clumsy waiter.  The male half of the couple seemed embarrassed and just wanted to GTFO of there, but the woman he was with was very irate.  She said, “Apologies are nice, but you just wasted our wine!”  The incident went on for a few uncomfortable moments and I tried to tune out because it reminded me of my days waiting tables.

When I got up to pee again, the older Italian guy gave me a look and laughed when I explained that water and wine does a number on my kidneys.  By the time I got back, the British couple had left.  We ordered dessert and our waiter came out and apologized that we had to witness that incident, explaining that his colleague was drunk and that was why he had spilled the wine.  I didn’t need to hear that and, in fact, know that spilling wine is entirely possible even when a person is stone cold sober.  That kind of shit happens when you wait tables.  I told him that I completely understood and it wasn’t a problem for us.  He brought us a round of prosecco, which made the older Italian waiter shake his head in amusement.  He recognized us as tourists who wouldn’t be back again anytime soon.  I appreciated the Filipino waiter’s enthusiasm, though, even if he did throw his colleague under the bus.

Mmm…

The next day was the big day…. May 11th, the day we would once again board SeaDream I!  Stay tuned!

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Italo… and Florence…

We left for Florence on the afternoon of May 7th.  I had booked us a room at the Hotel Relais Marignolle through Jetsetter.com.  I was excited about Florence because Bill had never been there and he loves art.  When I was there in 1997, I didn’t get to see too much because I was very poor and traveling with a couple of equally poor folks.  We had big plans to try to get to the Uffizi.

As I was researching train travel in Italy, I discovered that Italy has a new high speed private train system called Italo which competes with TrenItalia.  We had experienced traveling on TrenItalia before, but I was curious about the new train system.  It turned out the prices were pretty good, too.

Italo has three different classes of service: Smart, Prima, and Club.  Club is basically first class service, while Smart class consists of cheap seats.  We booked Prima, which has more room, bigger seats, and offers a free beverage and snack.  We thought Club only offered television over the Prima– since we don’t speak Italian, we figured we didn’t need it.  But it turns out Club is actually really first class and, given the fact that our train cars were pretty crowded on both trips, might be worth looking into for next time.  I noticed our car was chock full of Americans and Asians, too, at least on the leg from Venice to Florence.  There were a few Italians on our leg from Florence to Rome.

Italo offers boxed lunches you can purchase from Eataly, which is a really cool gourmet store.  Bill and I visited Eataly’s flagship store in Torino, Italy back in May 2008.  They have expanded since then, with more locations in Italy, New York, and Tokyo.  Italo’s snacks are also made by Eataly.

Italo offers free Wi-Fi, but you have to have an Italian cell phone number to access it.  I noticed one resourceful lady on the train made friends with some guy who appeared to be an American living in Italy.  He shared his number with her so she could log on.  They also offer outlets so you can charge your phone or iPad.  Make sure you bring a plug converter.  The restrooms were super clean, efficient, and easy to use.  Our tickets cost about $100 per leg– $50 per person.  Overall, it was a good experience, clean, fast, and convenient.

Not all the TrenItalia trains looked as bad as the one of the left does…

When we got to Florence’s train station, I gave my first dirty look of the trip.  An older Italian woman was in the car with us as we were trying to get off.  In Europe, a lot of times you have to open the train doors by yourself when you want to get off.  However, because everything on the train had either been automatic or done for us, I was unsure how to proceed.  She was yelling at me in Italian to hit the green button.  I did, but for some reason, it didn’t respond.  So I hit another button and she yelled at me again. I gave her what must have been an annoyed look.  Bill caught it and her reaction, which was apparently one of unpleasant surprise and annoyance.

We got off the train and into a waiting taxi, which took us to the Hotel Marignolle.  This place is a few miles outside of Florence on a beautiful estate.  You really have to have a car or the ability to pay for taxis to stay at this little inn, but if you have the means, it’s worth it.  The access is gated and once you’re inside it, it’s like an oasis of calm.  They have a pool and serve breakfast in a charming gazebo.  I didn’t like the breakfast that much, but I have to admit the place was gorgeous.  Hotel Marignolle is owned and run by a family and they seem to take a lot of pride in their inn.  It was nice to go there in the evenings after having been walking around in the crowds all day.  Taxis to get there are expensive, though… about 16 euros each way.

We stayed in room 3…

There was a very charming French couple staying at this hotel and they decided to join us for dinner at Trattoria Bibe, which is very close to the inn.  The owners of the trattoria will actually come up to the hotel to pick you up.  I have to say, of all the meals we ate on our trip, the one at this little place was probably the best.  Our waiter was especially impressive.  He spoke four languages fluently while in our presence… English, French, Italian, and German.  The French couple asked if he spoke Spanish and he said he didn’t, but I’m guessing he could easily get by.  Most of the rest of the staff didn’t seem to speak English.  It was actually very refreshing.  There was a great looking garden out front with lots of lemon trees; I bet it’s beautiful to sit there in nice weather with a bottle of wine.

The food at this place was excellent.  I had ribs that were served with a delicious apricot chutney.  Before that, I had a savory flan made with leeks.  Dessert was especially awesome, with white and dark chocolate mousse and ice cream.  Bill had something that he said reminded him of a really high speed Nestle Drumstick, with nuts and chocolate.  When we paid the bill, they brought out a round of limoncello on the house.  Then the same guy drove us back up the hill to the inn.

The next day, we ventured into Florence and visited a couple of museums, though neither was the Uffizi.  We saw the Bargello museum, the cathedral, the baptistery, Santa Croce, and another church museum, which we stumbled upon when I really had to pee.

We stopped for lunch at a cute little place that lured us in with smells of garlic.  A couple of young American women were there with a guy who could have been a local.  I’m sorry to say, this group was pretty embarrassing.  They sat at probably the best table in the restaurant and were very loud, as one of them talked about the terrible menstrual cramps she’d suffered on a recent date.  When they tried to pay their bill with a credit card, it was rejected.  The women left, ostensibly to get some cash.  When they came back, one of the women asked for water, which she apparently never got.  They made some comment about being late and got up… and based on the shocked and dismayed expression of the waiter’s face when he opened the check, apparently didn’t pay their bill.  It was very brazen.  I got a bad feeling about them anyway, since when we came into the place, one of the women, who was wearing a very short dress, was standing outside smoking and looked a bit like a prostitute.

I ate this salad…

Bill had a salad, too.  

 

Somehow, I forgot to pack my contact lens case and you can’t just pop into the drug store to pick one up when you’re in Italy.  We ended up having to visit an optician in order to buy one.  The first guy didn’t have any cases for me, but the second one had what I needed after I explained that I was willing to buy saline solution, too.  I needed it anyway.

Here are some photos from our too brief time in lovely Florence…

The ceiling in the baptistery…

Santa Croce

 

 

Caught in the rain as we crossed the Arno… 

The restaurant where we had dinner.  I had cannelloni as I watched the very sexy waiter… He had two young, good looking helpers, but neither could hold a candle to him…

The cathedral. Yes, Bill cried.

Baptistery 

 

Ceiling in the cathedral…

 I love flower and produce markets…

The Arno before the rain hit… Made me want to break into “O Mio Babbino Caro”


The above photos are from a cathedral/museum we visited because I needed to pee.  I think it might be San Lorenzo, but I’m not positive.  The urge to pee was so great that I didn’t pay that much attention as we paid our 12 euros!  The inside of this place was awesome, though.  You could stare at the frescoes all day and not see the same thing twice.  I will post more photos after I’m finished with the trip report. 

  We stopped for a breather in this park.  When we sat down, there was just one elderly lady on the park bench, but she was soon visited by friends, obviously neighborhood folks.  They were fun to watch.  This park also had a really cool station where people could get fresh bottled water.

 

It started to rain while we were in Florence and we decided to wait it out in this place by the bus/train station.  It was fun to watch the guys running the place, selling ice cream, coffee, beer, and convenience items.  The bathroom was disgusting, though.

On the way back from dinner, we ran into a street musician named Piotr Tomaszewski playing guitar.  His music touched me so much that I cried, so Bill bought me a couple of discs.  He is Polish and has a MySpace.  Go on YouTube and you’ll see many people had the same weepy reaction to his music that I did.  I’m listening to one of his CDs right now and it’s just as gorgeous as it was hearing him live.

I didn’t make this video, but this is him…
Bill loved Florence, just as I expected he would.  We will definitely have to go back there.  It’s a big, busy city, but compared to Rome, it’s positively and pleasantly doable.

Check out the graffiti… 

My video of Florence…  Recycled photos, but more music by Piotr Tomaszewski

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