Amsterdam photos

Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam on Monday and have really been enjoying sightseeing and discovering this beautiful city, known as the "Venice of the North".  Our hotel is right near the Amsterdam Centraal Station, a gorgeous train station that connects all parts of the city by bus, tram, or train.  Having arrived late afternoon, our first day here was shortened, so we set out for the Anne Frank House (Huis), which is along one of the city's numerous canals.  As you may remember from reading her diary,  Anne and her family and another family lived in a secret annex behind her father's former warehouse for about 2  years before they were discovered by the Germans and sent to concentration camps, from which they never returned (except her Dad - Otto). The warehouse is now a museum dedicated that poignantly tells Anne's story in her own words.  We climbed the steep stairs into the secret annex, passing through the same hidden bookcase opening that led to the annex from the warehouse, and walked through the rooms that Anne and her family lived in for those two dark years.  What a powerful and humbling experience, and one that cries out to all who experience it to never, ever forget the horror of what the Jewish people lived during WWII.  Much of the museum interpretation, however, focused on Anne's hopes for the post-war period, of the dreams of a young teenage girl.  We saw her bedroom, which was lined with photos of Hollywood stars, cut from magazines that those who helped the family provided. Anne dreamed of being a journalist and, in her own way and even after her senseless death (from typhus in the concentration camp), she has achieved that through the publication of her diary. 

After the Anne Frank house, we walked along the adjoining canal, visiting several shops and small museums.  One was the Tulip museum where we saw gorgeous tulips in a huge variety of colors.  Next, we continued to the Cheese museum, where we sampled some local gouda cheese in at least 20 flavors.  I bought a wasabi gouda and Rachel bought one with lavendar and blueberries.  I know they both sound strange, but boy are they good!  Downstairs, the museum had a cheese-making exhibit and a photo area where you could dress-up like a cheese farmer (see the picture - and no laughing!).  We had a quiet dinner at a small nearby restaurant and then headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day.

Yesterday, we began our day at the Van Gogh Museum, where Rachel got to see her favorite painting (the sunflowers) and I got to see one of mine (the irises).  The museum  has the largest Van Gogh collection in the world (over 200 of his paintings and sketches), including some by his contemporaries, like  Paul Gaughin.  The museum does a great job interpreting the works and incorporating aspects of his life into the audio tour, which gave us a well-rounded perspective not only about the paintings but about Van Gogh himself.  After lunch, we visited the flower market, which is located on a street bordering the Singel canal that is lined with shops that sell tulips bulbs and many other gorgeous cut flowers.  Almost every color of tulip immaginable is here - even black. They even sell tulip bulbs that have a customs cleared stamp on the packet if you want to take them out of the country.  After that, we continued on to the Waterlooplein Flea Market, a big outdoor bazaar that sells second hand clothing and general bric-a-brac.  It is considered the oldest and most interesting market of Amsterdam.  We bought a few souvenirs and enjoyed a warm cup of tea in a local coffee shop.  Greg had the largest cappuccino I ever saw - at least three rolled into one cup.

Before calling it a day, we took an evening canal cruise around the harbor and major inlet canals.  Amsterdam has over 100 km of canals, with the three main ones having been built (hand-dug) in the 17th century. Along side the canals are thousands of buildings, including the picturesque canal houses you've all seen in the picture-postcards of Amsterdam.  The canals were built in a concentric circle and it is around these waterways that the boats tour.  We traveled three canals: the Singel canal, which once encircled the medieval city of Amsterdam and served as a moat around the city; the Patrician's canal which was the first of several buit in the city center; and the Prince's canal, the longest and named after the Prince of Orange.  The canal houses along the Prince's canal were built during the Dutch Golden Age, a period when Dutch trade, science, military, and art wer the most acclaimed worldwide. The canals are simply beautiful and the houses even more so, giving this city a truly romantic setting day or night.  Rightfully so, the canals are a new addition to UNESCO's World Heritage list.

We woke up today (Wednesday) to rain, so our events were spent indoors.  This morning we visited the Royal Palace, which was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age.  It was once the home of Napolean Louis Bonaparte, followed by Prince William VI, finally becoming the property of the Kingdom of Netherlands in 1936.  The palace is still used by the monarchy for entertaining and official state functions.  After the palace, Rachel and Sierra visited a chocolate shop this afternoon and bought packages of truffles - yummy is all I can say.  Tonight we are heading out to walk the "Red Light District", so stay tuned for news about that colorful area!

House pictures

Pictures of the house, finally! Kitchen, sala, Lidia's bedroom, upstairs bathroom,  and outdoor shots.

Venezia

Here are a few photos of our day in Venezia.  Our room got upgraded to  beautiful suite overlooking Giudecca Canal.  In the picture you can see Lidia enjoying a glass of Bellini. We will be here this morning and the off to Padova this afternoon.

More Lisbon pictures

Lisbon Day 2

We awoke to thunderstorms and the prospect of sightseeing in the rain, which is just how the day turned out.  We started in the Belem area, at the mouth of the River Targus, where in the past the Portuguese ships set sail on their voyages of discovery.  Our first stop (luckily indoors) was the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia where we visited exhibits on recoveries from underwater archaeology projects, Egyptian artifacts, and a room of Greco-Roman finds.  After that, we toured the Moisteiro do Jeonimos, a beautiful monastery built in 1500 that was financed by tax monies leveed against spices, stones, and golds brought back after Vasco de Gama's return from historic voyage to India.  The monastery and adjoining Church of Santa Maria were built in the Manueline style of architecture, an ornate late Gothic style.  Our next stop was the Museu Nacional de Coches (Coach Museum) which houses a beautiful collection of 17th to 19th century European coaches.  Seeing them close up was amazing.  Each is really a piece of art, decorated with fine sculptures that reflect a  particular theme, such as the birth of an aristocratic child or commemorating the coronation of a king or even the Pope.  The rain thwarted our afternoon sightseeing, which was to outdoor venues such as the Monument to the Discoveries, a prominent waterfront built in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator.  The monument depicts various Portuguese navigators standing on a caravel, as well as the Portuguese coat of arms.  After snapping a few quick pictures in the rain, we walked to the Torre de Belem, a tower built as a fortress in the middle of the Tagus River in 1514-1520.  By this time the rain was heavy and unrelenting, so we didn't get a chance to visit the inside of the Torre, since the entrance line was long and outside.  Instead we headed for a neighboring coffee shop for coffee.  We then headed back to the city center where we visited the church built over the reported location of the house where St. Anthony of Padua was born, as well as a small museum with Anthonian items.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel where Sierra had her first glass of port wine.

The weather was far kinder on our final day in Lisbon, although we did get occasional light showers.  We spent the morning in the Alfama District at the Castelo de Sao Jorge (St. George's Castle) which was built following the recapture of Lisbon from the Moors in 1147.  Its position atop the highest hill in Lisbon offers a  beautiful panorama of the city.  A small archeological area within the castle has the ruins of settlements dating from the Moorish period back to the 7th century B.C., as well a later 16th century palace .  After that we did some souvenir shopping
and spent a leisurely afternoon walking around the Baixa district.  Before dinner, we stopped for some wine tasting along the waterfront area.  We paid 2 euros each for the tasting, which allowed us 0.50 euro shots of various Portuguese wines. Our final dinner was at an outdoor restaurant, where we all had grilled fish dishes that were quite tasty.

We leave Lisbon today, heading back home to Berzo.  Next Wednesday, we head to Venezia (!!!!!) and then Padova.  There probably won't be many posts between now and then but I will try to upload some house photos.

Lisbon

We arrived in Lisbon this afternoon to sunny skies and warm temperatures.  After checking into the hotel we headed for the downtown area for some sightseeing.  We toured the Restauadores and Baixa districts, strolling along the Avenida Liberdade, eventually making it to the waterfront area of the Rio Tagus.  Rachel and Sierra visited the Elevator de Santa Justa which gave them some great views of the city.  After that, we walked to the Prace Do Comercio (where the pictures were taken) where the ministerial buildings are.  The Praca is a very large plaza which was the site of the Royal Palace for over 400 years.The statue you see in the photos is that of King Jose I, erected in 1775.  The plaza area was once the gateway to Lisbon and it's still a very popular spot.  We stopped for dinner at an outdoor restaurant along the Rua Augusta, an upscale, mosaic-lined street lined with shops and cafe's. Tomorrow we are off to the Belem District, an area just outside the downtown district which is full of museums, historic buildings, and monuments.  The weather report is calling for rain for the next few days but hopefully not too much.

On our way to Lisbon

After spending the past two weeks on "house duty", vacation time is finally here!  We left Berzo at 7:30 AM this morning for the drive to Milan Malpensa airport to catch our flight to Lisbon.  After fighting rush hour traffic in Milan (something to avoid if you can), we arrived at the airport after 2 -1/2 hours.  Thinking it would be clear sailing after that, we entered the dreaded airport security line, where we spent almost an hour waiting to get through.  We made it to the gate with about 15 minutes to spare.  In total, the trip from home to the airport gate took about 4 hours.   

I haven't had much time to write much about the house, but now that I'm sitting here on the plane, here goes.  When we arrived in Berzo, my cousin Giorgio (the architect) met us at the house for the grand tour.  The outside has been transformed almost as much as the inside - we have a nice portico with an attic under which to park the car, and a walkway around the house perimeter. Our garden area still has the same fruit trees - cherry, apple, and fig.  Although the cherries are out-of-season, the apple has about a dozen pieces of fruit that my cousin Franco said should be ready in about a month.  We've been eating a few figs, which Lidia is loving.  Our neighbor's Mario and Luisa have a adjoining garden, so they've been giving us tomatoes and green beans - yummy!   Franco and Erina have been providing daily produce - bags of cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh eggs, and so much fruit - pears, apples, and peaches.  We had so much that we made a delicious fruit cobbler and topped it with amarena gelato!

When we left Berzo 2 years ago, the bottom floor of the house needed so much work - it was basically a storage area, cantina (with hooks for hanging salami in the ceiling of one room), and an indoor chicken coop, and it had no bathroom.  So, when we walked in for the first time last week, needless to say, we we absolutely amazed.  We now have a gorgeous living area with a new bathroom, laundry area, Lidia's bedroom, kitchen and living room.  We ordered the kitchen from a catalog and we couldn't be more happy with the way it turned out.  I understand from Giorgio that it took a bit of revamping from what we had initially planned, but it's just perfect and big by Italy standards.  This past week, our washer and dryer arrived and we bought a TV too, which gets a few English language channels, mostly older movies.  Unlike the US,  you don't pay for basic TV service here, so we have about 40 channels or so, including the Italian version of QVC and Fox.  I struggled for several days trying to get a DSL connection at the house, but I've basically given up for this year since the wireless modem from Vodafone started working - at least when it feels like it. The upstairs rooms are equally as gorgeous, and have been updated with new marble flooring and a fresh coat of paint.  The bathroom doubled in size and is a beautiful light green color.  The upstairs opens onto a balcony that overlooks our small street and we've put a few chairs out there.  We watched a fireworks display in the neighboring town of Grone from the balcony the other night - pretty cool! Honestly, I can't imagine what other improvements could have been made to make our house more beautiful - it's  an absolute dream come true!

There was a bit of excitement before Rachel, Greg, and Sierra arrived last week.  I got a text from Greg the day before they were set to leave (Labor Day)  saying that he had a big problem - his passport had expired last year!  Of course, I thought it was a joke but when I called him, I could tell that it was true.  At first, it seemed that he would be delayed for several weeks and would miss the trip to Lisbon and Amsterdam.  Because it was Labor Day, he couldn't talk to anyone at the passport office to get help.  Early Tuesday morning, he was able to make an appointment at the office in San Francisco and, after a frantic drive there and facing uncertainty about whether they could issue him a new one in time to make the 7PM flight, he arrived to meet Rachel and Sierra at the airport with a new passport in hand!  He wanted me to mention to everyone - "check your passports!!".  His little error is costing about $1500 in airline rebooking and 7-week parking fees in San Francisco - ouch!!

On Sunday we drove to Val Camonica with cousins Bepi and Mari for some sightseeing.  The area Bepi had been thinking of taking us to was closed for a car race, so we diverted to Lovere, a beautiful town on Lago d'Iseo where they we having a festival.  The town was so jam-packed that we couldn't find any parking, so we continued on to Sarnico, driving on a narrow, winding road along the western shore of the lake.  We walked around Sarnico for a few hours taking in an antique show along the lake. 

Getting ready to land soon, so I'll post more about Lisbon tomorrow.  I know, I still owe photos of the house....

Wow!

After 10 days of being here in Italy, I'm finally having the opportunity to write a post - sorry for the delay but it's been an absolute whirlwind of activity  here!  First, let me begin by saying that the house is "meravigliosa" - stunning and beautiful.  It far exceeds what we had been seeing in occasional pictures sent to us over the past two years.  We spent the first week trying to get settled in and on a frenetic buying spree to get basics for the house.  During that time, Lidia caught a pretty nasty cold, so she layed low for a few days and is now doing just fine.  I spent most of the time running around buying household items and trying to get internet access set-up, which was an absolute nightmare.  I've never appreciated AT&T until this week!!  We have limited access only though, as installing DSL at the house is quite costly so that might be something to consider next year.  We've ordered our couch and ceiling lights,  and tomorrow our washer/dryer arrives (yay!).  We're also getting screens installed on the windows as the mosquitos love, love, love Lidia.  Rachel, Greg, and Sierra arrived on Wednesday evening and have been settling in.  Our outings the past two days have centered on shopping for house items, and Sierra had her first visit to an IKEA, in Brescia.  Today we are heading to Citta Alta in Bergamo to show her something other than a supermarket or shopping area.  We were warned about cooler temperatures here and that warning has proven true.  Last week we had a few sunny days, otherwise this week it's been cloudy and drizzly.  Tonight we are going to Trescore for "Festa dell'Uva" (festival of the grapes) with my cousins Bepi and Mari - should be fun as long as the weather cooperates.  Tomorrow we are thinking of a trip to Lovere and around Lago d'Iseo, again depending on the predicted rain.  Tuesday we leave for a 3-day trip to Lisbon where we know the weather is sunnier and warmer.  I will post pictures of the house, hopefully by tomorrow!