Jen and Rebecca Have a Happy Meal

It’s our last full day in Spain!  But we had to spend a lot of it in the car getting back to the Madrid airport.  We made sure to get up early enough to enjoy morning tea on our terrace once more before hitting the road back north.  The day was a bit dreary, but we by the time we got to our day’s stop in Toledo, about an hour outside Madrid, it had cleared up well enough for us not to be rained on.

Riding the escalator into Toledo

After several misadventures in other city centers, we decided not to risk it in Toledo and parked outside the city walls.  As a bonus, we got to ride an escalator to the top of the hill!  It may not seem like much, but our legs appreciated it!  We had a quick lunch (by European standards, anyway) and then headed out to explore Toledo.  Once again, we got lost, but this time it was more of a plan than an annoyance.  We wandered into various shops and down tiny alley ways. We each picked up some souvenirs and enjoyed our last day in Spain. 

It is Rebecca with Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha

The drive back to Madrid was thankfully uneventful.  We stopped by the Hilton to check in and drop off our bags before returning the car to the airport.  Returning the car, however, was a bit eventful because we did have, shall we say, an incident in a Malaga parking garage involving the rear end of the car.  To console ourselves over the extra cost of a new coat of paint for the rental car bumper, Jen and Rebecca decided they needed some good old fashioned comfort food, McDonald’s.  It’s really about that cultural experience of seeing how different McDonald’s tastes in different countries, we swear!  So we took the shuttle to Terminal 4 just to have McDonald’s for dinner.  Yes, this is lame, but we were oh so happy with our choice. 

We are ridiculously happy to have found th eTerminal 4 McDonald's for dinner.

Especially since upon waiting for the Hilton shuttle, we got to see an incredibly eclectic woman dressed in crazy attire that not only made us laugh (completely sober, we swear!) but also made all of the other hotel shuttle drivers look at her strangely and shake their heads.  Somehow, this crazy lady made our night.

We have morning flights tomorrow, which means getting up early to get to the airport, so we decided to spend our last night packing, relaxing and drinking the rest of the Spanish wine and eating the cheese we had in our hoard instead of trying to get into the city center. Spain, you’ve been wonderful.  It’s possible we’ll be back, but it’s also possible we have a million other new places to explore!

A mere tantalizing glimpse of the crazily dressed woman on the Hilton shuttle.

Jen and Rebecca See Seville (in a Single Day)

Since we’ve fully adapted to the part of the Spanish timetable that keeps us up late at night, but not the part that starts our day later (because we’re tourists who need to see it all!) we decided to give that part a try and have a more relaxed morning.  Plus we were staying in a very nice penthouse apartment with two floors so we thought we ought to enjoy it a bit.  Anna made us tea for a leisurely late morning on our terrace where we basked in the sun with the honking traffic noises of Seville below us.  Once we finally got moving for the day, we headed to the featured attraction in Seville, the cathedral, which is the third largest in the world after The Vatican (which Jen still hasn’t seen because Rebecca’s already been to Rome twice without her) and St. Paul’s in London.

We found the cathedral!  (Or at least we found the exit.)

After managing to find about 4 churches other than the third largest cathedral in the world, we finally navigated our way to the right one.  We followed Rick Steve’s walking tour of the vast interior, wowed by the high altar and Columbus’s tomb.  Because Rebecca enjoys climbing things (and only partially because heights freak Jen out) we headed up to the top of the bell tower for views of the city.  We think the Moorish ramps designed for horses to take someone to the top 5 times a day to call citizens to prayer were preferable to stairs to climb the 34 floors.  (Our calves have gotten some major workouts on all these inclines in Spain!)

View of cathedral from the bell tower.

We decided that we’d had our fill of Spanish castles for the trip, so we skipped the Alcazar and instead headed to the Plaza de Espana, built for the World’s Fair in the 1920s.  We did some more leisurely strolling before heading back into the city center to get lost only a few more times on our way to the Plaza de Encarnacion where we had a very late lunch and pondered the weird Parasole sculpture. Next we met our instructor for our scheduled flamenco lesson.

Plaza de Espana

Our instructor, Emilia, attempted to teach us the basics of the dance.  We did ok when it was just hands or just feet, but somehow, combining the two caused each of us to lose concentration and coordination.  We also learned how to adapt the dance moves to “happy” vs “sad” flamenco music.  Sadly for you readers but happy for us, there is no photographic evidence of the class.  You’ll just have to believe us. 

Fake flamenco dancers on the balcony

We enjoyed our complimentary glass of sangria before heading back out to the streets of Seville for a last vacation night.  We toured one last church, San Salvador, before settling in at a restaurant for a free flamenco show.  It was supposed to start at 9, but by 10, the band still wasn’t set up and we were hungry.  We hunted down one of the restaurants recommended by the owner of the previous night’s restaurant.  Rebecca and Jen agreed that it wasn’t as good as our first dinner in Seville, but it was still delicious.  Plus we were secretly pleased that we’d kept Anna up past her bedtime.

We found Jen and Anna's people!

Jen and Rebecca Monkey Around

As soon as we could check out of our room and get our massive deposit back, we hit the road for our next destination, in fact a whole new country.  We were heading for Gibraltar, the very controversial  and legendary territory on the most southern point of the Iberian peninsula in the possession of Great Britain since the early eighteen century.  As Anglophiles, all three of us were super excited to be in a subset of Britain even for only a few hours.

Gilbraltar from the airport runway

We secured parking on the Spain side of the border and walked through border control into Gibraltar where we joined a taxi tour to the top of the Rock, Gibraltar’s primary attraction that we could see for miles as we approached.  Despite Jen’s spilling coffee on herself in the mini-bus, we enjoyed our trip to the (near) top where we could see Africa across the water, got a history and culture lesson from our tour guide on the way up, wandered through the St. Michael’s Cave (which was cool, but lit with cheesy colored lights with musak playing in the background), and finally the highlight, we got to not only see the famed apes of Gibraltar, but our tour guide got them to sit in our out-stretched hands.  We held monkeys!  It was pretty darned cool, and the monkeys were pretty darned cute.  Our tour guide even knew them by name.  Adorbs. 

Rebecca's holding a monkey!

Jen's also holding a monkey!

As we headed down, we walked to the very end of the Siege Tunnels site, a segment of miles of tunnels cut into the rock for military maneuvers from the eighteenth century through WWII.  From this vantage point, we also saw a plane land on the Gibraltar airstrip which actually crosses the one road leading into Gibraltar from Spain, which we later got to walk across to exit the country.  It’s a little wacky, but so is this entire British enclave.  Upon hiking back down the rock after leaving our tour, we found a lunch of fish and chips, quiche and chicken-mushroom pie at a local Brit Pub.  It almost felt like we were now vacationing in London, except it was way sunnier and way warmer, despite the wind.

Jen's almost excited about fish and chips as she was about holding a monkey.

Once back in Spain, we sped a little bit in order to get to our appointed 5:00 tour at the Tio Pepe Winery in Jerez (but I assure you we were not the fastest drivers on the Spanish autovia.)  Rebecca picked this tour because they have a train that takes you around the winery complex, but we also got to learn about their history and sherry and brandy making facilities.  Apparently they have this blending process so that there’s always some old and new sherry in the barrels.  This tour was interesting until we actually tried the stuff.  Turns out that sherry is really not our thing.  Anna is a white wine gal and Jen and Rebecca both prefer red wine.  Sherry is really neither.  But because Rebecca is no quitter, she drank all four samples she was given in their entirety.  Victory!  Good thing we had also ordered the tapas to nibble on between sips.

Way more sherry than non-sherry-lovers need.

The drive to Sevilla was uneventful until we actually got to the heart of the city looking for our lodgings.  Somehow one wrong turn led us onto streets that were never meant to hold cars.  Anna was a trouper and maintained her calm as we got good and lost (and blue dot wasn’t keeping up).  At one point, three people from a café came out to help us get the car turned in a very narrow passageway without scratching the hell out of the car.  Another victory!  But this whole experience exhausted Anna, so she opted for bed in our super fancy penthouse apartment instead of having dinner once we got settled.  So Jen and Rebecca ventured out into Sevilla on their own, finding a heavenly dinner location that locally sources and changes its menu daily, called Fargo.  The owner chatted with us throughout our meal, making it both entertaining as well as delicious!  It was a marvelously positive note to end the day on.

They set out sherry with ladders for the mice at Tio Pepe to keep them drunk and happy.

Jen and Rebecca Manage a Memorable Day in Malaga

Somehow in a town that prides itself on being sunny 320 days a year, we managed to tour Malaga on one of the 45 cloudy days.  It wouldn’t have been too bad if it wasn’t so windy.  And, the wind wouldn’t have been so bad if we had each added a layer of clothing when leaving the apartment in the morning.  But the saving grace was that it finished raining over night.

Since the only thing Rick Steve had to tell us about Malaga was how to leave it as quickly as you arrive in it, we thought it would be good to get our bearings with a free walking tour of the city from Pancho Tours.  Apple maps failed us again, taking us to the Roman Theater instead of the Cervantes Theater, but fortunately the tour was still gathering when we found the right meeting point.  We then spent the next three hours with our self-confessed talkative tour guide Luis, a native of Malaga.  We learned a lot about the city and its history, including that it’s Antonio Banderas’s hometown and he is a majordomo for the Holy Week celebrations in Malaga (yes, this is clearly the most important thing we learned about Malaga.)  The city was the second to last Muslim stronghold in Spain, succumbing to the Christian Reconquista only a few years before Granada. Plus, like everywhere else in the Mediterranean, the Romans were once here, so we walked through the Roman amphitheater which was in the shadow of the Muslim Alcazar.

Your humble bloggers at the Roman amphitheater

After the tour ended, we needed lunch (we were on the typical Andalucian late lunch of about 2:00/3:00.)  We stumbled upon a cute restaurant with a fixed price menu whose name translated to The Dog House.  It was delicious!  After a few glasses of wine, and realizing that we hadn’t been overly silly with our photography thus far this trip, we went into the Alcazar and managed to stage way too many ridiculous photos.  The castle had a ton of paths we could follow without much of any signs to explain what we were looking at, so we were free to wander.  It wasn’t exactly the Alhambra, but as an Alcazar, it was better than the Alcazar at the Alhambra, we thought.

Alcazar silliness

Turns out Antonio Banderas isn’t the only famous hometown boy of Malaga.  Pablo Picasso was also born here and lived here in his youth before abandoning the dictatorship of Spain for permanent self-exile in France.  So we went to the Picasso Museum for some artsy local culture.  Thanks to the audio guide, we may now understand some of what Picasso was trying to do with the unusual human-forms in his paintings.  (Maybe.)

After the museum, we weren’t quite ready to eat, so we decided to join the locals for a spot of tea.  We wandered a bit before finding the Tea Saloon.  Turns out, it was primarily a hookah bar, but they have delicious tea as well.  We all tried new-to-us/local tea varieties; we even got Anna to drink something other than her daily English Breakfast.  It also made imagining life in the Alcazar a little bit clearer! And made us feel like we’d visited Morocco even though we abandoned that planned side trip weeks before we left on this trip.

Shaun enjoys some tea and the contact high from the hookah fumes

Sadly we ended up at a place which was essentially a tapas sports bar with futbol on the TV and a limited menu.  There was a slight ordering snafu due to Rebecca’s crappy Spanish pronunciation, but we eventually had both patatas bravas and some chicken skewers which were surprisingly tasty.  Weirdly, the bar was out of both olives and cheese, so on our walk back to our apartment, we stopped and got some freshly sliced cheese from a shop and had a little wine and cheese picnic on Rebecca’s pull-out sofa/hide-a-bed as a way to round out the evening.

Happy about manchego!

Jen and Rebecca Lose Their Way (About 5 Times in One Day)

Our plan was to leave Malaga early (well….early-ish) so that we would have several hours to explore the Alhambra and Granada. After all, the guidebooks say to allow 4 hours for leisurely exploration of the vast grounds. The GPS gods, however, had other ideas. We took a few wrong turns before we even made it out of the city. Thankfully, the rented tablet has Google maps and we were able to correct our mistakes relatively quickly. The rest of the drive went well until we missed our turn to the Granada city center. It didn’t take us too long to work our way back, but we came into the city from a slightly different direction than anticipated and gave up on our planned route and pulled into the first available public parking structure.

At which point we left our primary GPS source in the car and figured that a giant monument at the top of a hill couldn’t possibly be that hard to find without specific directions. The Granada city planners were apparently pretty evil, however, and we wound through many streets with nary a glimpse of the Alhambra in our attempt to find it. We finally got out the cell phone and used some of our precious international data plan to try to map our way to the entrance. Sadly, Rebecca only had Apple maps on her phone and the next hour was reminiscent of that one time in Zagreb when Apple maps took us to the tarmac of the airport instead of the front entrance. In Granada, we ended up climbing steep, deserted streets with no real sense that we were going the right direction other than the somewhat false affirmation of Apple’s blue dot. We did eventually reach the main entrance, but it was more by luck than anything else.

Somehow this isn't visible from the city center.

At this point, our legs were already sore and we were starving, but our tickets were only good until 2 pm. There was a lot to see in just under 3 hours! We started out at the palace of Carlos V. The existing palace wasn’t good enough for him, so he built a new one. It was square on the outside, but had a circular courtyard inside. He definitely had his own style. Next up was the Alcazar. There wasn’t much to see inside, but the towers had some great views of the Alhambra and the city. After a mediocre quick lunch, we got into the Palace at our appointed ticket time, and this was really the highlight of the Alhambra visit. There were a lot of intricately carved walls and ceilings that were jaw-droppingly impressive. Plus the Muslims really knew how to use pretty reflecting pools and plants to great effect.

Intricate arches with so-called stalactite ceilings

We lucked out and the ticket taker let us into the Generalife Gardens at 2:15, even though our tickets were set to expire at 2:00. All in all, we saw the entire Alhambra (including the original burial chapel of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand) in about 3.5 hours. To be on the safe side, we Apple mapped our path back down to the city and amazingly found our Segway tour meeting point in short order, with only one missed turn. We figured since we only had one day in Granada, we’d be able to hit more of the highlights on Segways than on foot. And at this point in the day after our directional mishaps, our legs would have been way too tired to manage a walking tour of the city.

Pretty reflecting pool reflecting the throngs of tourists

Turns out Anna’s Wii-Fit balance training makes her a rock star at the Segway. Rebecca did pretty decently and Jen only crashed once. But we were wearing helmets and yellow safety vests, so we were safe as kittens. The Segways had thick tires to handle Granada’s cobblestones and steep hills. It was pretty fun once we got the hang of it! We saw some nice views overlooking the Alhambra and got some not-long-enough-for-us-history-nerds tour guide descriptions of the city and its inhabitants. We were a little worried about our ability to find our parked car at the end of the adventure, but a map acquired at the tour company made things mostly clear to us, and after a quick pit stop to see the city’s cathedral (because, come on, it’s a church!) we managed to get out of Granada in one piece. Though the drivers in Spain are mainly insane. For realisies.

Look ma, we're balancing on Segways!

We decided earlier in the day to take the southerly route back to Malaga and have dinner on the Costa del Sol. Nerja was theoretically only an hour away from Granada, but somehow, we managed to exit the A44 (Spain’s interstate) and ended up on a windy two-lane highway. Since it was the 4th time today that we had gotten turned around, it was more funny than frustrating. We corrected the route soon enough and had dinner in Nerja on the so-called “Balcony of Europe”. The view of the Mediterranean in the pitch dark left a little to be desired, but it was nice to wander through a quiet seaside town and have dinner (Italian again, for convenience’s sake) with the sound of the surf below. Sadly, we got lost yet one more time trying to find our car because we got cute and decided not to just retrace our steps in order to see more of the town. Oops. But with nthe aid of a Rick Steves guidebook back and Jen's inner blue dot, we found the car without GPS! Good thing Malaga was less than an hour away. We were tired (and tired of getting lost!) by this point in the evening! But we enjoyed the day anyway.

Jen and Rebecca Leave the Plains in Spain and Flee for the Hills

We didn’t love Cordoba as an overall city, finding it a bit too modern, but we did love the old town and the Mezquita and the ruins.  We didn’t feel too remorseful bidding Cordoba farewell as we jumped back in the car and headed for the white hill town of Ronda.  Our GPS was a little spotty as the elevation climbed, but we managed to navigate there just fine.  (Thank goodness paper maps are still in existence!)  We walked down the central pedestrian thoroughfare to tour the first great bullring in Spain, in the birthplace of modern bullfighting.  Yes, this was our second bullring of the trip, and also the second bullring without any live bulls in attendance.  But, we did see the bullpens.  That counts, right?


Release the bulls!



Another bullring

We stopped for a delicious lunch of tapas (pan-fried goat cheese with carmelized red onions, tempura fried vegetables, more patatas bravas, and a tangine chicken with couscous) plus sangria before heading out to explore the rest of the old town.  We hiked down to the bottom of the canyon for views of the “old” bridge, “new” bridge and “Arab” bridge before realizing that meant we had to walk back up the hill!  Jen managed to convince Rebecca that we didn’t need to walk down the canyon on the other side of town as well, especially since we could occupy ourselves watching some sort of competition of people rapelling off the bridge into the canyon.  We went to a Catholic church built on the site of a mosque built on the site of a temple instead.  It was an eclectic mix of Gothic and Renaissance architecture, but the audio guide told us just what we should know.

The rapeller is that tiny spot in green on the New Bridge

View of the Old Bridge from the Arab Bridge

We were only a little late meeting the caretaker at our Malaga apartment (what’s up with caretakers being the parent of the apartment owner?)  Rebecca continues to impress herself with her ability to communicate in crappy college Spanish-III to mostly be understood.  (Yes, in fact, there are extra towels here…)  Finding the city center proved not very difficult (and was a pretty straight shot down the road).  We wandered until we found a tapas bar that looked good for dinner.  But the delicious smells and speedy service of the Italian restaurant across the street was too much to resist.  Spanish-Italian pasta is quite delicious!  Rebecca decided to try out our theory that if you order a beer, they bring you olives.  They don't, unless you ask.  But as a result, she tried the ubiquitous CruzCampos beer WITH her nightly wine, and she was pretty excited to have a drink in each hand.

Jen and Rebecca Have a Religious Experience

Since we were in Cordoba, we figured we ought to explore the city a bit. Our lodgings are in a modern part of town, so we walked about 30 minutes to find the city center and the old town where the central attraction of Cordoba sits, the Mezquita, a once-mosque that was co-opted by the Christians and converted into a cathedral. In fact, the Christians built a cathedral right in the middle of the mosque. Thankfully we had our trusty Rick Steves guide to tell us all about the history of the Mezquita, its red colored arches, and its 850 columns. (Dude, that’s a lot of columns.)

After properly venerating both the Muslim and Christian sanctuaries enclosed in the Mezquita, we took a walk down the river and saw the Roman bridge and climbed the Triumphal Arch (because as we know, Rebecca doesn’t let any opportunity to climb something pass her by.) Next we thought we’d go see the Alcazar, but the outside proved good enough when we saw how long the line was for a site that Rick didn’t think was worth the effort anyhow. Instead we opted for a tour of the baths of the Caliphate Alcazar and a snack of Serrano ham, cheese and Cokes. It was a pretty good trade. Next, it was time for a tour of the synagogue (last used in 1492 and remarkably tiny by today’s standards) and a tour of the Casa de Sefarad (a museum dedicated to Cordoba’s Jewish heritage). The day’s religious history lesson ended with a trip to the archaeological site of Madinat Al-Zahra on the outskirts of town. (The brown signs got us there without aid of GPS!) It stands in ruins now, but was once a powerful center of Muslim government in Spain. We had fun wandering the ruins and watching other girls get yelled at for crossing into the roped off areas. We were total rule followers!


Ruins!

 After a bit of rest, we wandered partway back into town for dinner, this time more traditional Spanish fare than the Chinese from yesterday. Is it wrong that we liked the patatas bravas so much that we got a second order? Fried potatoes! And we followed up dinner with a final religious experience for the day, our first ice cream (helados) of the trip, even though the ice cream shop lady limited our options to those she hadn’t cleaned up for the night. We’re pretty sure we saw all of the highlights Cordoba had to offer. We will hit the road again for points further south next. 


Mint chocolate chip for both of us.

Jen and Rebecca Make the Mercury Rise

Madrid was just our one-night layover for the real Spainish destination: Andalucia in the south. Helpful Hilton’s free shuttle returned us to the airport to pick up the rental car so we could really get the journey started. (You can thank our rental car’s wireless hotspot for the ability to make blog posts in the car, and we are thanking it for the ability to navigate us across the plains in Spain.)

Since our failure to take a tour of the Idrja mercury mine in Slovenia last year due to not figuring out in advance what times they actually offer tours, we had a bee in our bonnets to see a mercury mine. Turns out the other mercury mine World Heritage Site is right here in Spain! So we specifically planned our journey south to Cordoba to go to this mine in Almaden, a sleepy little town in Castile-La Mancha. (Insert your favorite Don Quixote references here, or just imagine Rebecca singing “To Dream the Impossible Dream” ad nauseum.)

Pretty view over Almaden

Since we arrived with extra time before our tour (we learned our lesson last year and made reservations ahead of time) we wandered through Almaden and walked onto the world’s only hexagonal bullring (no bulls were present at the time, though that would certainly have added an element of excitement!) We also climbed up to the Alcazar Retamar for lovely views of the surrounding countryside, and which seemed to be the home of a very large bird, at least judging from the gigantor nest on top.

Hexagonal Bullring 



Castle's giant nest



Rebecca’s three semesters of college Spanish seems to have come flooding back to her, and she was able to haltingly order lunch, though inadvertently getting everyone croquettes instead of the sandwiches Jen and Anna had chosen from the menu. (Let it be known that Anna has a minor in Spanish, but doesn’t feel comfortable speaking it, so Rebecca, being the take charge gal she is, has stepped up and attempted communication at most opportunities.) At least everyone got the Coke they wanted.

The mine tour was very interesting. We got our own private tour from a guide who sorta spoke English. The mine extracted cinnabar for centuries, well into the 21st century even. We took a claustrophobic elevator down 50 meters into the mine and walked through a bunch of tunnels, including the escape route cut into the side of the city hill. Thank goodness we had helmets on since I think we all hit our head on low hanging rock at least once. (We are too tall to be miners, apparently.) One of the highlights was the rickety old train ride we took to exit the tunnels. The guide seemed to be having a great time speeding along the tracks and tooting the horn. The end of the tour was a museum where we got to push buttons to watch mercury rise and fall in various science experiments.

Mine at the surface level

We found our way the rest of the way to Cordoba through some lovely hilly scenery. Our appointed meeting spot with our apartment landlady was on a street corner, and unfortunately the caretaker was 30 minutes late to meet us due, apparently to some miscommunication between landlady and caretaker. But we finally got into our lodgings and headed out to find a place for dinner. Too tired and hungry to go further than necessary, we ended up at a Chinese restaurant in Spain. But it was pretty tasty! In our wanderings, we saw only a few people (young and old) wandering around in Halloween costumes. The adults were mostly in Day of the Dead-style costumes. We opted not to follow any of them to find a Halloween party to crash.

Jen and Rebecca Experience Madrid from the Airport Hilton

So working a full day then getting on an airplane bound for Europe is kind of exhausting.  But Jen and Rebecca are willing to make that sacrifice for the sake of their loyal readership.  We made it as far as Madrid today, Jen via Heathrow and Rebecca (with Anna in tow) via Amsterdam.  There were some minor communications snafus at the aiport because we arrived at different terminals, so a few airport busses were taken that weren't necessary.  (Thanks for failing us, imessage!)  But eventually, our merry trio was united and we took the free shuttle to the airport Hilton in Madrid.  As our final destinations are in the south of Spain, we decided to overnight here in Madrid before picking up the car tomorrow for the journey south. 

Jen and Anna with everyone's luggage at the airport.  Hooray!  So relieved

And given our level of exhaustion, we didn't feel too terrible about taking advantage of Jen's Hilton gold status for free appetizers and wine for two hours before ordering room service and hitting the hay to prepare for our journey tomorrow.  But the best news is that no one's luggage was lost this year.  Rebecca and Anna's flight even arrived early to Madrid!

Rebecca attempts to get onto the hotel balcony around the rollaway bed blocking the view.

Jen and Rebecca Row, Row, Row a Boat

The centerpiece of our visit to Venice was our gondolier rowing lesson scheduled for this morning.  After we let the apartment owner and the gas man into our lodgings to install a new gas meter, we set off to find our meeting point.  It was on a quiet canal near the edge of Venice – a perfect spot to learn.  Jane, our Australian rowing teacher, took up rowing as a hobby shortly after moving to Italy 23 years ago after she married a Venetian.  After a brief lesson at the dock, we set off down the canal.  Rebecca took the first turn and was a natural at it.  Jen over-thought everything (surprise!) and didn’t do nearly as well, but she managed to keep the boat moving!  Anna did really well too, but she had the luck (?) of rowing us through the shipping channel so that we could practice steering in the lagoon. 

Jen guiding us down a canal.

The real fun came as we became “real” gondoliers our in the lagoon, getting up on the back of the boat and rowing just like the guys in the stripey shirts in the touristy sections of the city.  All of us managed to row us in a straight line without going in circles, which we consider an accomplishment.  Jen probably won’t be moving to Venice any time soon to become a competitive rower like our instructor, but we all had a good time learning a traditional Venetian craft.  It was also a nice way to get to ride through the side canals with someone else rowing you instead of paying the exorbitant fees to hire a gondola.

Rebecca as a gondolier out on the lagoon.

After our lessons and a quick lunch at a sidewalk café, we headed back to do the more traditional touristy things. But first, we found a shop that filled a 1.5 liter water bottle full of Pinot Grigio for us for 3.5 Euros. Delicious bargain!  And just what the locals do. Our last night in Venice evening entertainment was secured!

It looks like water, but really it's wine!

We made our way down the Grand Canal in a Vaporetto during daylight this time, and ended up at the Doge’s Palace where we wandered through the elaborate rooms as well as the jail, over the Bridge of Sighs, so named for the sighs made by prisoners as they caught a glimpse of the canal for the last time for the duration of their sentence.  We were pretty impressed by the awe-inspiring art in the rooms, and we were excited to find ourselves in the palace hall, which is the largest room in Europe.

Fancy Doge's Palace

Jen is obsessed with seeing churches, so after we finished our tour of the palace and a quick trip to the purse store, we set off for a church on the other side of the canal.  Sadly, it was already closed for the day.  But we roll with the punches, so we hopped back on the Vaporetto to find a spot to watch the sunset over the city.  We sat at the edge of the canal for about 30 minutes as we watched the sun slowly set.  It was well worth the wait.

Salute was closed, but still pretty on the outside.

Sun setting on Venice, and our vacation.

We headed back to our neighborhood in the Canareggio for dinner.  It may have been one of the best that we’ve had in Italy so far.  Pizza and pasta all around!  We had a round of limoncello and some cheesecake before going home to pack for the flights home tomorrow. We packed while starting in our 1.5 liters of Pinot, and finishing off our wheel of truffle cheese.  Thanks for the good times, Venice.

Keep your fingers crossed that we all see our luggage again!

Jen and Rebecca have Boatloads of Fun

Venice may be made for lovers, but Jen, Rebecca ,and Anna are figuring out how to have a swell non-romantic time here.  Luckily, Venice was also made for shoppers and the directionally challenged!  We set off in search of San Marco Square this morning, but got distracted by tiny shops and alley ways.  Since there are no direct routes in Venice, it’s exceptionally easy to get turned around.  Happily, each time you do, there’s usually a cute store selling clothes, paintings, glass, paper or souvenirs.  And then eventually you find another sign directing you to the major landmark you were looking for.

Narrow Venetian street.

We hit the fish market at Rialto Bridge (and Anna even plugged her nose to walk through it with us), then found a restaurant for lunch after a tough morning of wandering the Venetian streets.  We broke our general rule of not eating at a place where no one else is eating, but they seated us in the window and we began a trend.  Soon the place was swamped with American tourists like us, all ordering pizza instead of the fancy first and second courses they were offering.  I guess we’re not so cultured, but we can mostly accept that fact (though maybe Rebecca has a tougher time with acceptance). We are on board with the custom of ordering wine with every meal, though. That’s gotta count for semi-cultural emersion!

Octopus at the fish market.

We eventually meandered far enough to see the Piazza San Marco in the daylight and were overwhelmed by the warm and beautiful sunlight.  And all those people.  Our first official site-seeing stop of the day (beyond the nooks and crannies we passed through thus far) was a ride up in the elevator to the top of the campanile to see views over the city. Stunning.  Next we toured the San Marco Basilica.  All of the intricate gold mosaic patterns in the church were also completely stunning.  Check and check on two major tourist sites in Venice.

With a Venetian lion in Piazza San Marco

Our next stop was the “Most Beautiful Bookshop in the World,” according to the bookmark distributed by the shop.  Beautiful is subjective, but it was definitely interesting.  There were rooms upon rooms of books in various languages.  It was difficult to determine the organizational system the owners had in place--there did seem to be one.  We found books stacked in old row boats, bathtubs and even turned into a staircase.

Jen absorbing a lot of knowledge on the book staircase.

After the bookstore, we felt the need for a little more culture in our day so we headed across town to an exhibit about Da Vinci’s various scientific experiments and theories.  Did anyone else know that he was responsible for the bicycle?  Flying machines, sure, but bikes?  Jen and Rebecca took turns trying out the various hands on exhibits (with photos, of course).  Da Vinci certainly was a genius!  (And he shares his birthday with Jen!)

Testing Da Vinci's scientific genius.

Our full day of wandering left us tired and thirsty.  So, we decided to indulge in a local specialty called the Aperol Spritz.  No idea what it was made of, but it was orange, tasted great and came with an olive.  (Thanks to Rebecca’s cousin Marc and his wife Barbara for making that drink recommendation!)  We decided to continue the day of wandering by walking the rest of the way home.  We stopped at the glass bridge for a photo op since it is apparently the only new bridge in Venice since Rebecca was last here 10 years ago (without Jen, tragically.) 

On the glass bridge.

We decided we were too hungry to drop the day’s purchases off at home first, so we consulted Rick Steves again for a dinner recommendation.  We might be trusting Rick too much.  Or rather Rick just doesn’t know us and our preferences very well.  He recommended a nice restaurant in the Canareggio relatively near our apartment, just a short walk through the old Jewish ghetto to get to and with seating directly on a canal.  But seafood was their specialty and of the three of us, only Jen is really interested in seafood.  Anna and Rebecca had an okay pesto dish, and of course the wine was good, but we’ve learned to stop putting all of our faith in Rick (that may have been the fault of Anna and Rebecca more than Jen) and actually consult a menu before choosing a restaurant.  But it’s okay.  We have a wheel of truffle cheese and more wine back at our apartment to round out our day quite nicely.

Jen and Rebecca Stimulate the Local Venetian Economy

We got up extra early today to return the rental car, then drag our suitcases (all three of them!) to the Venizia Lines ferry stop.  Turns out that following the harbor thinking that will get you to the ferry stop isn’t always the most efficient route.  We wheeled those suitcases over far more cobblestone streets than was necessary.  Good thing Eddie Bauer has a lifetime guarantee on its luggage and both Jen and Rebecca may need replacement wheels soon.

Wheeling luggage, before the cobblestone detour.

We managed to keep calm as we checked our luggage for the ferry ride, avoiding any serious separation anxiety.  (Rebecca had only been reunited with her suitcase for barely more than 24 hours, after all!)  It helped that we actually witnessed the luggage being put on board and the ferry had only one stop to make before Venice, seriously reducing the luggage mishap possibilities.

Upon our arrival in Venice, we quickly made our way through Immigration and then set off for what was supposed to be a 20 minute walk to our apartment.  It turns out that Venice is an exceptionally easy to get lost in.  We walked for awhile before coming to the realization that we were going the wrong direction.  We had success with Google Maps in Croatia and Slovenia, so we attempted to use them again in Venice.  Unfortunately, it kept trying to send us up roads that didn’t exist (mostly next to canals that did exist).  So, we accepted defeat and took the Vaporetto (a water bus, the Venice version of public transportation) to our meeting point with the new landlord.  It turns out some of our confusion was an honest mistake.  The ferry docked at a different port than we expected.  But we found our way, so all was well.

Waiting for the Vaporetto.

The first half of our day was subsumed in travel, so once we got settled into our rooms (sadly we’re going to have to adjust to a reduction in bedrooms from three to two and in bathrooms from four to one…how will we cope?) we quickly set about with the important business of getting to know Venice, starting with some pasta and wine for lunch.  Since our apartment is in the Canareggio on the northwest side of the main islands of Venice, we decided to spend our first afternoon not doing the traditional city center activities but heading out to the island of Murano, only a few Vaporetto stops away.  Murano is the traditional glass-making center of Venice, and had shop after shop after shop of colorful glass items for gawking at (and of course for purchasing.)  And, of course, we purchased.  Those of you who know Jen and Rebecca well will not be surprised that it took us two hours and several stores to make a decision on our final purchases.  Sadly (?), once we started buying, it was really hard to stop.

Displaying our purchases, still neatly packed in bubblewrap for the flight home.

After our glass shopping spree, we dropped off our goods at the apartment and set off on a Vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal. The sun was setting, so we got to peek into a lot of old refurbished and/or renovated mansions on the canal that happened to have some lights on inside.  We wandered around San Marco Square and were somehow not surprised the San Marco Basilica has scaffolding on the front of it.  (At least you can still see the horses over the entrance.)  Europe seems to always be encased in scaffolding.

On San Marco Square at night.

Our hunger took over so we went to find some dinner slightly off the beaten trail.  When Rick Steves failed us (we found a restaurant he recommended, but it was shuttered) we found a perfectly nice trattoria where we all three tried different pastas, the result of which was deliciousness all around.  We braved the twisty Venetian streets to walk home and we managed to find our way.  Hooray!  We even found a grocery store to stock up on breakfast supplies (and wine) and of course we had to have our first Italian gelato of the trip.  More deliciousness. 

Rialto Bridge at night, with moon.