Firenze 2006-2007: January 2007

Friday, January 26, 2007

Beginning of the Semester and the a Weekend at the Lakes

We got back to Florence on the 11th and found the villa about half full with more people coming in ever hour. We hung around that day and early the next morning we all got up and got on busses to Carrara, the world famous marble mine. Our first stop was a marble workshop in the city where we learned all about how the statues were made and about the overall process that takes a block of marble to a statue like the David. From there, it was up into the quarries on the mountain. We went to a museum about the history of marble mining in the area. We heard about the types of marble mines- what types were statue material, and which types building material etc. After hearing everything we wanted to hear about marble and then some we went to lunch at a small town in the mountains near the quarries. We all had pannini as that was pretty much all there was to eat there. Then we had the “privilege” to see how lard is made which was pretty gross and, just having eaten lunch, kinda made me want to throw up. From there, it was back into the quarries, and we actually went to a quarry at the heart of the mountain. It was really cool to see the cathedral size hole in the middle of the mountain with marble composing the roof, walls, and floor. It was wet, dark, and cold in there but it was probably the coolest part of the trip just because it was so interesting to see the process actually taking place and to think about the entire mountain that was above us. After that we got to see the quarry that Michelangelo took his marble from and then headed back to Florence and dinner.
The next day was the trip to Assisi. We saw the main churches- the Church of St. Francis as a group. I got to see parts of the church that I hadn’t seen my last trip as there was an ongoing service last time I was there. I saw St. Francis’ tomb once again and then headed to the church above. After touring that second church the group had about three hours of free time so we decided to get an early lunch and then go from there. About 10 of us got some pannini and pizza at a place in the center and then went to the church of Santa Chiara, but it had just closed for their lunch break. We sat in the square for a while before Steven went to get a soccer ball, and for the next several hours, 10 of us guys played soccer by the side of the church on the brick-laid piazza with makeshift goals and not much organization. It was a lot of fun, and the three hours of free time that initially seemed like too much turned out not to be enough for us. We ran back to the bus and went down to see the church inside a church that St. Francis died in before heading back to Florence.
We all slept in on Sunday and took walks around the city, etc. just relaxing before the start of the semester. And, on Monday classes started. A pretty long a busy week later was our first weekend.
Brenden, West, Alex, and I decided to go up to Lausanne for a day on our soon to expire Eurail passes, so on Thursday night we headed out and made it to Lausanne on Friday morning. Amanda picked us up at the station and took us to their hotel for the semester that was several minutes walk away. We got a room, said hi to our friends who were around for the weekend, had breakfast and then headed out with Will and Jon, a couple of guys from the program. We made our plans to go to lake Como the next day to meet up with 11 people from our group and then went to Montreax to walk along lake Geneva a bit and see the old castle that sits lakefront there. The castle was awesome cause we could do anything we wanted there. We could climb up to get great views, we found secret passages and had a blast exploring the castle. After that we went back to Lausanne, looked around there a bit and then went to a nice dinner. We got a ton of beef fondue which was great. We ate all we could handle and then some before walking around the city a bit to see some of the sights before heading back to the hotel fairly early as we had a very early morning the next day.
We just barely made our 6:20am train to Milan the next day, but the rest of the connecting trip to Como was perfectly fine. We made it to Como at about noon and immediately went in search of a boat rental place, but as it was winter and down season we couldn’t find anything. After trying everything we could to find some kind of vehicle and failing we got on a bus and went to Bellagio to meet up with the group. We drove along the coast of the lake and had some amazing views and hairpin turns in a huge bus, but we made it to the small town. We walked around the main street that has shops along one side and the lake on the other. After walking from one end to the other, we went to a little waterfront park and met up with the other 11 people from our group that were in the area for the weekend. We all hung out there for a while on the lakefront. After a while, West, Brenden, and I decided to go for a swim in the freezing cold lake. We changed right there and went out on one of the short piers and dived in. It felt amazing when we first got in, but after about five seconds, I could feel my muscles starting to cramp up and go numb, so after a quick swim we got out and dried off. Our skin still felt cold for a good fifteen minutes after getting out of the lake, but it was worth it. A little bit after that, we got on a hydrofoil that took us to Gravadona, the city we would be staying in. We made it to the tiny city, got a piece of pizza and then headed out to the apartment that we had rented a short way out of town. There were 17 of us there so it was a bit crowded, but we were all comfortable and had a blast. We played games like mafia, watched movies, and made a ton of noise doing nothing really. We all went to bed at various times as we had an early morning again today.
We got up at 6:30 this morning, and were on our way by 6:45. We caught a bus back to Colico, the nearest town with a train station, caught a train back to Milan and then one back to Florence. We made it back at about two, took naps, caught up on work, ate, and then went to play soccer. Now, we are heading out to watch a bit of football before going to bed and starting another week of class.

(A look up at a mountain that is being mined)

(My shoes wrapped up in plastic bags to keep them clean in the mine inside the mountain)

(Leonardo and Michelangelo busts at the marble workshop we visited)

(Masaccio's Holy Trinity from Santa Maria Novella)

(Michelangelo's marble mine)

(A full size Cadillac statue)

(View from the Lausanne hotel)

(Alex, Will, West, and Brenden sitting lakefront at Lake Geneva)

(The castle at Montreaux)

(The view looking out of the ferry on lake Como)

(A view of the lake from Bellagio)

(Sunset on Lake Geneva from the Castle)

Sunday, January 21, 2007

The End of Winter Break

Steven and I spent a day in Florence recovering from our New Year’s before heading out on a 9 day tour of Eastern Europe. On the evening of the second, we left on the night train for Vienna, Austria, and got in fairly early the next morning. We didn’t leave the train station in Vienna, but we did get some breakfast and then tickets to Bratislava, Slovakia before getting on that train.
After an hour train ride we were in the capitol of Slovakia, and after getting out tickets for Budapest the next day squared away, we met Katka- a friend of Steven’s brother who lives near Bratislava. She met us and showed us around the major sights of the city- including the presidential palace, the Bratislava castle that had a great view of the city as well as a bit of snow around the grounds. From there, we saw the main church there and walked around the pedestrian center of the city and saw several other churches and buildings of importance for the government of Slovakia. Perhaps the most peculiar thing about Bratislava were the silver statues that we saw scattered around the city. They were all of odd people and in odd places- one being a man half sticking out of a manhole, another being a gumby-like figure, another being a man taking a picture, and the last being a man looking like a colonial soldier leaning on a bench. After seeing all the main tourist sights of the city, we headed to the Danube river and saw the bridges before going to the Shopping Center of Bratislava to look around a bit. We had lunch at a Café that was decorated a lot like the Rainforest Cafes in the states, but it had Slovakian food so that was kinda cool to try. After eating and walking around the mall, we decided to see a movie, so we all decided on Casino Royale as none of us had seen it and as it would be in English with Slovakian subtitles. We saw the movie and then headed back to main town where we walked around a bit more seeing more of the minor sights of Bratislava before getting a light dinner at a Mexican cantina. I had Nachos Mole Poblano, which was actually pretty good considering we were across the world from Mexico. After dinner we said bye and thanks to Katka for showing us around and then headed to our hostel which was near the presidential palace.
The next day, we were on a mid-day train to Budapest, Hungary which took about 3 hours, so we got into Budapest at about 3. Once again, we got our tickets for the following day taken care of and then went to look for a suitable place to stay. We didn’t have to go far because we ran into people at the tourist info office renting our rooms in apartments, so we got one of those as it was cheap and in a good place. After stopping by the room to drop off our bags, we went to do a bit of sightseeing. We took the metro to the Parliament building, looked around the outside there, and then headed up to the castle and church at the top of the hill in Buda. We saw the castle and the church before looking around the Fisherman’s Baston and watching the city get dark. I’d already done all of this on my trip to Budapest a few weeks before so I’m leaving out some detail. From there, we headed out to a shopping mall a little ways outside the center of town. We got some dinner at a Subway, having been unsuccessful in an attempt to find a Hard Rock Cafe there before going to the movies. I should mention that the reasons we went to and continued to go to the movies were that a. they were about $4 per ticket including popcorn, and b. we were 3 months behind in our movie going. So we headed to see the Prestige, which was pretty good but confusing to work out all the details etc, and then we saw the Departed which was great. We left the theaters at about 12:30 which was a problem as the metro we had taken out the theater no longer ran. So we headed back in the direction of the main city, looking for a bus stop or something that would get us in closer to the center of the city and our room. We finally found a bus stop and took a pretty long ride back into the city before getting off and walking back to our room.
Next morning we got cleaned up and headed out to do a bit more sightseeing. We went to the Northern part of Pest and saw the Heroes’ Square and a castle with grounds which had been turned into a museum and a garden. We walked around there then headed over and saw the elephants and giraffes from the zoo- the only animals visible from outside the zoo before heading to another museum and seeing the Van Gogh exhibit there. We walked through it and saw the eighty or so Van Gogh’s there- mostly drawings and lesser known paintings, but there were several there that I recognized. After seeing the museum, we went to the island in the middle of the Danube, which was just a huge park with a tower and several hotels, but nonetheless, it was neat to see and something off the beaten track in Budapest. From there we headed back near the Danube, saw the main bridge of the city the Queen Elizabeth bridge and then headed to the main pedestrian area of Pest. We ate lunch at a Subway there and walked around the promenade a bit. It then started to rain some, and as we had seen pretty much all we wanted to in Budapest, and as we had several hours left before our train was to leave, we went to an internet café to pass a bit of time. After that, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some food for the train as it would be a 17 hour ride. We then went back by our room, picked up our bags, and headed in the direction of the station. We ate a quick dinner at KFC before going to find our train. We had a bit of trouble finding which train exactly was ours because we got conflicting information from our tickets, the departure board, and a conductor, but we figured it out and made it onto our train for Bucharest, Romania.
Steven and I were the only two in our compartment for the ride, so we got to sleep in peace and move about as we wanted which is always nice. I had brought Macovaldo by Italo Calvino to read, but it is in Italian so it didn’t hold my attention all that much, so I bought the Rule of Four in Budapest to read. We read for a bit and then went to bed. When we woke up the next morning after sleeping in, we still had several hours left, so we ate and read some more before finally pulling into Bucharest. We walked from the station to the middle of town- which was no small feat as the town is pretty spread out. We tried several places but didn’t find a suitable place to stay until we came to the Hotel Hanul lui Manuc- the oldest hotel in Bucharest. It kinda looked like a Spanish Parador- at least the building did, but the rooms weren’t as nice. We then walked around the big plazas near us and wandered around, and found the Bucharest city mall, so we stopped in, and as it was kinda late we looked to see which movies were playing. We ended up seeing 3 movies that night- Borat, the Guardian, and we tried to see Apocalyto, but as the original language wasn’t English and the subtitles weren’t either, we had to see School for Scoundrels instead. It was hilarious, and better than Borat in my opinion. After the movies, we got a late dinner at a pizza place in the mall before heading back to the hotel and bed.
We saw pretty much all of Bucharest the next day. And we had all day. We first saw the Parliament building- the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon, and even though it doesn’t look that big from the outside, after taking the tour, I fully believe that it is the second largest building in the world- it’s enormous and every room seems to be some gigantic hall that is elaborately decorated. They said that it is only about 70% complete, so I would like to see it when it is fully done some day. On the tour, we learned that Romania had joined the European Union on the 1st of January- just about a week ago. After the tour, we looked around the grounds near the building and then headed up to the Arc d’ Triopumph- or at least the Romanian version of it. It was pretty much like the French Arc, but about half the size. On the way we walked past several important buildings for the Romanian government and several embassies. We then took a bus back to the center of town and had dinner at a cafeteria type place before heading back to get our bags before going to the train station. We made our train to Belgrade, Serbia with no trouble, and after the 17 hour ride we had taken previously, the 12 hour ride seemed like nothing.
We pulled into Belgrade mid morning the next day, and, once again after squaring away our tickets to Ljubljana for the next day, we looked for some tourist information before heading up to the Starigrad- or the old city. Walking up to the “touristy” part of the city I noticed something- the alphabet wasn’t completely the Roman alphabet- there were some Russian characters which made reading street signs pretty complicated over the next few days. We made it up through the city- which kind of reminded me of a smaller version of San Francisco with all the hills and just the layout of the city, and found the Hotel Royal- a place recommended to us by my travel book. We got a room there for pretty cheap and then went to find some food as neither of us had eaten. We found a café right next to our hotel so we stopped in and got some club sandwiches for a brunch before heading out to look around the city. First we went to St. Mark’s church- one of the main churches in Belgrade. The church itself was pretty, but the inside was plain, which may be typical of Orthodox churches, I’m not sure. There was a nice mosaic, much like the ones we saw in Sicily there, but that was about it as far as decorations or works of art go. Outside, there were a ton of beggars- most of the being children. We were tempted to give them money until we saw that one of them was smoking- a boy who could not have been more than six was smoking. It was really weird to see and kinda jolted both of us and made us realize where we were- or at least where we weren’t- the states. From there, we saw the Parliament building and the big squares of the city- most of them being on or near the pedestrian walkway named Knez Mihailova. We spent most of the afternoon looking around the shops there before heading back to the hotel to relax a bit before dinner. The café near us was so cheap and good that we decided to go back for dinner, and after eating a ton there for virtually nothing, we decided to keep our tradition of seeing movies going by seeing the Holiday. After that it was bed time with a full day in Belgrade to look forward to.
Our first stop the next morning was the Kalemegdan- or the citadel perched atop a hill overlooking the river. We spent an hour or so wandering around the grounds, climbing on the walls, and taking pictures at the view points that showed us a ton of Belgrade. We then walked down the path to the military museum that had tanks lining either side of it. We took pictures in and around the tanks before heading into the museum. It was interesting to see all the weaponry they had from history and to see how it progressed throughout the ages, culminating in stuff from the late 1990's that must have been collected during conflict in the area. After that, we walked by another big church in the area, but couldn’t get in due to a wedding there. From there we headed to find Skadarska street in the old town. We finally found the old cobblestone street lined with restaurants, and were glad we did. It was a nice part of town to look around, and something that we probably would not have seen if we had just been following the advice of our book. After walking down the short street, we came to a major street, and walked in the direction fo St. Sava church on the other side of town. It was getting to be mid-afternoon, so we stopped at a burrito bar that we passed on the way to the church. I had a burrito which had some ground beef in it- something I had not really had since August. After eating, we continued on our way to the church, finally finding it. The biggest Orthodox church in the world. It was gorgeous from the outside, but the inside was completely under construction and renovation, so it was completely bare and there were building materials everywhere. When we left, the sun was setting, and we still had several hours until our train so we headed back to the Knez Mihailova, walked around a bit and then got some dinner before heading off to the station. We got to the station in plenty of time which was fine until we learned that our train was about fifty minutes late. We had plenty of time to read and just lounge around before finally getting on our train and pulling away from Belgrade.
Once again, we had a couchette all to ourselves. This was a short ride- only about 11 hours but it was made longer, and we were awaken on 5 separate occasions for border crossings and customs inspections. Overall, it was not a restful night. We got to Ljubljana fairly early the next morning and got our tickets quickly, got some breakfast, and stored our luggage before heading out to see Ljubljana in our 12 hours or so. We walked to the center of the small capitol of Slovenia, saw the cathedral of St. Nicholas, the main town square, the dragon bridge, and then walked up the hill to the castle overlooking the whole city. We tried to go inside the castle, but it was closed as they were preparing for a festival that night, so we walked around the grounds and looked out over the city before heading to St. Jacob and seeing a part of the ancient Roman wall that once ran around the city. Then we went to a place called BTC city, a big shopping mall/ mini town that had a lot of interesting restaurants and stores. Most of their restaurants featured stuff with horse meat, something that we didn’t really feel like eating, so we choose a Mexican restaurant again. Like the others, it wasn’t bad. After eating, we looked around there for a bit, saw the micro-brewery there before heading back to the city center. We found the parliament building and walked around their small pedestrian center. We spent some time in the big bookstore there before going to eat dinner at Subway. Then, it was back to the station and Florence. We got a train to Villach, Austria and two hours later, we were there with a ninety minute layover. It turned out to be a two and a half hour layover because the train was late once again. We only had seats on the train, not beds, so it was not a comfortable night. Six hours of uneasy sleep later we were finally back in Florence. We got back to the villa at about 7am and said hi to everyone who was back. Now, its just a few days of relaxation and day trips before starting our new semester.
Overall, it was a good break, but it seemed so much longer than just the five weeks it actually was. I saw a ton of Europe, some stuff I’d always wanted to see, some stuff that I never thought I’d see and some stuff that I wanted to see again. I got to travel some with friends, family, and a bit alone. It was a great break, but I’m glad to be back in Florence and ready to be here for a while not have to worry about where I’m heading next and what time my next train is at etc.

(A view of Bratislava from the Castle)

(One of the weird silver statues in Bratislava)

(Me and Steven looking strangely at another of those weird statues)

(Across the Danube into Buda)

(Me and Steven at the Fisherman's Baston in Buda)

(The Heroe's square in Pest)

(A Castle/Museum in Pest)

(The view from our hotel in Bucharest)

(A park on an island in the middle of the Danube in Budapest)

(Me infront of the 2nd largest building in the world, the Romanian Parliament building)

(A view from midway up the Parliament building)

(The Parliament building from about a mile away)

(A park adjacent to the Parliament building)

(The Citadel in Belgrade)

(St. Mark's in Belgrade)

(A view of the Danube and part of Belgrade from the citadel)

(A droopy looking tree and some relics in the military museum)

(Steven in a tank at the military museum)

(Me fully inside a tank)

(Driving the tank)

(Me with Belgrade in the background)

(Ljubljana from one of the bridges)

(Ljubljana from the castle)

(The castle in Ljubljana)

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Break Part 2

So, after the 16+ hours on the train, I made it into Milan. I had enough time to check the incoming train times from Zurich before getting some lunch and meeting the next one- which Mammy and Pappy were actually on. After meeting them, we stored our luggage in the station and headed to the metro station and the center of town. I left them at Piazza Duomo and headed to make my appointment for the Last Supper in a chapel a little ways away. I got there and paid my ticket, and then went through what seemed like very elaborate security to see a fresco before getting to go inside the chapel. Only 25 people are allowed in the chapel at a time, so the chapel that was about 100 yards long and 10 wide seemed very empty. This was partly due to the fact that the Last Supper is one of only two works in the chapel, the rest is just white washed walls. The Last Supper itself was much bigger than I’d pictured it. It was about 30 feet wide and about 15 feet tall. Even though it had just been restored several years ago, it did not seem to be in that great a shape. The work was amazing, but the color fading and parts wanted to fall off and seemed to be just hanging on. The sense that this work was not long for this world was heightened by the fact that there was some sort of machine in the corner that regulated the temperature and humidity in the room. All in all, it was great to finally see and wonder about all the characters and see what the Da Vinci Code was talking about. After my fifteen minutes of time in the chapel was up, I headed back to meet Mammy and Pappy at the duomo. From there, we went back to the piazza stazione and had some dinner before getting on a bus up to Malpensa to meet dad and Stephen. We made it up there in plenty of time to meet their flight, but it was late getting in, so we had to wait a bit for them to finally get through security and customs, etc. We then had to wait a while for our hotel bus to pick us up, which it finally did and we were on our way to the hotel. It was off to bed pretty much immediately after that, as we were trying to head out fairly early the next day.
The next morning, we got breakfast at the hotel and then headed back to the airport to pick up our “azzurro settimo cielo” (Seventh heaven blue) Fiat Multipla. We piled in and headed in the direction of Torino- East South East from Milan. We got there in good time and drove through a bit of the city, not really wanting to get into the heart of the city and all the traffic there. We then headed to Cueneo, South from there. From there, it was onto the coast of Liguria near the French border. We stayed in a small town between Ventimiglia and San Remo that night on the beach. We had a pizza dinner at a little restaurant and then walked along the beach a bit before heading to bed.
Next morning, same story- breakfast at the hotel and then in the car. We crossed the border into France, drove along the coast through Menton, Nice, and then stopped in Monte Carlo, Monaco. We walked through a Christmas Market near the port and had lunch there before getting back in the car and heading to Avignon. We got to Avignon in the late afternoon and headed to the old city and the former Papal residence to look around a bit before it got dark. We saw the enormous castle that was elaborately decorated and designed where 9 Popes lived. From there, we headed down the street to the Christmas market there that we walked around for a while before getting back in the car and heading to find a hotel. We went a little ways out of the center of the city and found the hotel Ibis and checked in there for the night. Then, it was off to find dinner- we ended up at a cafeteria in the mall which wasn’t that bad. After the simple dinner, we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
The next morning, we went back to the Papal castle and went inside. We looked through the numerous chapels, halls, and rooms- not to mention courtyards and gardens that they showed on the tour. After several hours, we headed back down to the Christmas market and then back out of town. We left Avignon and headed along some small roads and stopped at the Pont du Gard, a UNESCO World Heritage sight, we’d end up seeing quite a few of them. We walked around the Roman aqueduct and up the river a bit before continuing in the car. The destination for tonight was Andorra, and it looked like it would be fairly easy to get to. Well, the map didn’t really show mountains, or fog, or snow. We drove through the Pyrenees which took quite a while. We stopped in a small town near the France-Andorra border for dinner before heading onto Andorra. We stopped for the night at one of the first hotels we saw after the border and spent the night there.
We drove through the entire country of Andorra in about 20 minutes the next morning, with a stop in Andorra le Ville, the capital. We looked around at the various landmark looking buildings there and walked down a fairly nice shopping street before heading on our way. Next stop was Montserrat and Spain. We hit the Spanish border almost immediately after leaving Andorra le Ville and were then on our way to Montserrat, North West of Barcelona. We stopped off in Cardona to see about staying in the Parador there, but it was full so we headed onto Montserrat and got there in the late afternoon. We took the train from the base of the mountain up to the monastery and looked around there- at the church that houses a statue of the Madonna and Child that was supposedly made by Luke. After looking around the church and enjoying the view from the top of the mountain, we headed back to the car and on our way- to Zaragosa. We stopped off in Lledira for dinner, or we tried to. Basically, it was an hour or so of us driving around the city looking either for parking or for a restaurant. We didn’t find anything, so we headed out in the direction of Zaragosa, but got lost coming out of the city, so that took a while longer. Finally, we were back on the highway to Zaragosa and on our way, but hungry. We got to Zaragosa and found another hotel Ibis. We stopped there for the night and got a pizza from their restaurant before going to bed after a really long day.
Next day, we saw the Cathedral in Zaragosa, as well as the Moorish palace there that is now a regional government building. Before heading back out of the town and North. From Zaragosa it was onto Bilbao on the Northern coast of Spain. We drove most of the day and got to Bilbao fairly late and after eating dinner at the Carrefour near the hotel we headed to find the Guggenheim. We got there parked and walked around the building and across the river to get a look at the pretty outrageous looking museum. We noticed a playground, so Stephen and I went there and climbed around all the ropes and military style nets that they had before heading back to the hotel to go to bed.
We actually went inside the Guggenheim the next morning, and wow. I wish I had those several hours of my life back. There is something about modern art that I either don’t get or that just doesn’t agree with me cause I didn’t find anything in there all that impressive. There was some kinda interesting stuff from African artists I’d never heard of, but for the most part, the building was much cooler than the museum itself. When we finally we able to leave that place, we ate lunch at the restaurant attached to the museum which was not bad. I got lamb and some fishy sushi like dish. Then, it was back into the car and on our way West. We drove most of the afternoon and ended up in Cudillero at a hotel off the highway.
Next day, we drove most of the morning, stopping off at a beach town near Santiago de Compostela before actually heading into the city. After that short stop we went into the city and headed for the cathedral there, a traditional place for pilgrimages for European Catholics. St. James is supposedly buried in the cathedral which is pretty neat and well decorated. After looking at the church for a bit we walked around the rest of the old town before heading back to the car and going on our way South down the Western Coast of Spain. We stopped for the night in Marin, a town near the beach once again.
We stopped off at another beach on our way to Portugal- this one seemed to be like rocky rolling planes that just kinda ended in the ocean. It was kinda weird scenery, but nice and a fun place to get out and hike around for a while. After that, it was on into Portugal. We drove South and after eating lunch, we were in Porto about mid-afternoon. We checked into the hotel Ibis and looked around there for a bit before heading into the city on the tram. We saw the cathedral and the main town squares there, as well as some nice view points that looked across the hilly city before heading back in the direction of the hotel and dinner at the mall attached to it.
We looked around Porto a bit that next morning- this time down near the waterfront and some more of the old city before getting back in the car and heading south to the capital city of Portugal. We got into Lisbon about midday on the 23rd. We found our hotel without too much trouble considering the size of Lisbon. We checked in and went out in search of the center of the city. We walked through some huge and traffic congested piazzas and down a large tree lined street before getting to the center of Lisbon. We walked through the main piazzas there and looked up at the castle sitting atop a hill overlooking the city before heading down to the water. We saw the large square there and watched the sunset at over the water there before heading back in the direction of the hotel. Stephen and I walked and looked through several shops while Dad, Mammy, and Pappy took the metro back. We ended up beating them back because of crowded trains etc. We all rested at the hotel a bit before heading down the street for dinner. We went to a restaurant that served Frango, like the Chicken Place in Arnhem. It was pretty much the same food, and just as good. Fries, Chicken and other side dishes. I was great, and after eating our late dinner, we headed back to the hotel to watch some CNN before going to bed. We woke up late on the 24th and after a relaxed breakfast in the hotel, we headed to the center of the city once again. This time, we went up to a view point, looked around there, and then walked around an old neighborhood atop a hill over looking Lisbon across the city from the castle. We found a Subway up there so decided to eat lunch before heading out along the water to neighborhood along the port. We saw a monument along the water dedicated to explorers, saw another UNESCO World Heritage sight and a memorial to Portugese soldiers before heading back to the hotel as it was getting fairly late and it was Christmas eve. We tried to find a place to eat dinner, but even the Mc Donalds and Pizza Hut were closed, so we stopped in a grocery store and got some sandwich stuff which we ate back in the room while watching EuroSport and CNN. We went to bed early that night and got up early on Christmas day with a long couple days of driving in front of us.
On Christmas day, we drove from Lisbon across Portugal and half of Spain to Madrid. The next morning we took Mammy and Pappy to the airport and then headed on our way back to Florence. We drove from Madrid back up through Zaragosa and north of Barcelona before getting to the French border. We then headed back across Southern France, stopping in Aix de Provence for the night. The next morning, we got up early again and headed to Florence through the rest of France and down along the Italian coast through Genova, Lucca, and then finally Florence. That ends the second part of my break. I’ve got two parts left, but each are shorter than the two I’ve already written about. The break is more than half over now and I’m back in Florence to regroup.