Way back when Neal was born in the late 70's, Cris Banks and I used to play softball together. Then life happened and we lost touch - until last year! She found me online (thanks, Deanna, for sharing my e-mail) and we met for a couple of days in Bergen, where she was starting a Backroads hiking trip. This year, we decided to do a Backroads trip bicycling along the Danube river from Germany, through Austria, Slovakia, and ending in Hungary. But that wasn't enough! No, we added Northern Italy to the mix. This is just a warning that this blog post will be a series.
The maps should help orient you. Cris and I met in
Milan, Italy, then went to
Como and then on to
Venice. We flew northeast to
Prague to meet the Backroads folks, who bussed us to Vilshofen, Germany right on the Danube. We were introduced to our bikes, then rode to meet our ship, Amasonata. For the next week, we didn't have to unpack and pack, just leave the boat in the morning, and rejoin her later in the day. Can't beat the service!
Journey begins: The Milan Cathedral is fantastic. It is fronted by a huge plaza and bordered by a huge shopping district in an arched glass-roofed
gallery. We visited the air-conditioned Prada, Versace, Swarovski, and other high-couture stores. Awestruck, we wandered on...
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| A worker on an I-beam in front of a union building |
Cris and I walked for hours seeing the sights. There were churches such as
Chiesa di Santa Maria presso San Celso, with beautiful art, floors, and even the glass-coffined body of San Celso.
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| This was on an intersection near our AirBnB |
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We had an adventure trying to buy train tickets to Bellagio and on to Venice online. Fail. I insisted that we talk to a real person at Central Station. We found a tobacco store, bought a tram ticket, and rode all around the east side of town to the train station. There we found 100 (!) people in front of us in line. We decided to see if two Ph.D.s could figure out the ticket machine. After one more failure, we did it! Woohoo!
Lunch was with
black truffles, since they are in season, over bass. The waiter slices a single truffle into very thin slices over your dish. We decided to learn Italian cooking! We got up early to take the train and boat to... Cooking Class in
Bellagio.
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| Cris listens to Chef Luigi of Salice Blu talk under the grape arbor |
We had several of us, including 2 children, in a professional kitchen. We created 3 pastas: green with spinach, red with beet, and cream with egg. We made ravioli - ta daa! and also tagliatelle with tomato sauce, a risotto with zucchini flowers, and a raspberry/blueberry panacotta.
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| Our works of art! Tri-color ravioli |
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| Proud chef! |
Lake Como and Bellagio are beautiful. I met a Norwegian woman from Sandviken, right next door to Bergen Sentrum where I live. I found salt and pepper shakers for my collection. Three sisters have owned that store,
Grandi Carlo, for 65 years. We talked with a street musician who plays with an orchestra in NYC during the winter. We met an American couple who came to Europe to pick up a new BMW. Such a small world we live in.
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| Crossing Lake Como from Bellagio to Varenna |
We took the train from Varenna to Milan, and on to Venice. The overnight thunderstorm broke the terrible heat that we had been suffering.
We stayed in a lovely hotel,
Ca' Sagredo, right on the Grand Canal. We took a much-needed, stickiness-removing shower, then did the complete blow-dry and makeup deal and went out to dinner.
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| Lovely canal-front |
We visited the
Doge's Palace and several connected museums. There was Sissi's apartment, prison cells, government and judicial chambers. Ceilings were covered with paintings that may have been morality stories. The ceilings became overwhelming after a few hours.
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| I put lots of effort into trying to figure out the paintings. Hmm? |
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| White, bright stairway, and another winged lion |
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| Venetian glass chandelier - look closely to see the glass flowers intertwined in it |
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| Austrian Empire's two-headed eagle. The heads represent the church and the state |
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| Shopping trip in Venice, Italy. How great is that? |
After complimentary Prosecco at the hotel, we went out for our first pizza in Italy! It's been fun traveling with Cris.
We took a water taxi to the airport in the morning, then flew to Prague.
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Stained glass front to the art nouveau Municipal House, where we listened to chamber music.
They played Mozart, Dvořák, and others |
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| Medieval street performers |
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| Showing my new pendant made from Czech garnet. Oh, and that's the Prague castle. |
Prague Castle is where my favorite Habsburg,
Rudolf II, ruled. Rudolf was a collector who would disappear behind closed doors with artists or magicians, ignoring the governing part of his job, for months. He had a lion and a tiger roaming the castle, with records of paying for injuries and deaths as proof of that. Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world.
St. Vitus Cathedral is amazing! Moderation and religious tolerance prevailed in his court, even with that beautiful Catholic building. Perhaps he delayed the Thirty Years war, which was a mad religious war between Catholics and Protestants.
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| I love Baroque organs with thousands of pipes |
And on the other end of the style spectrum, there's the Dancing House.
The maps should help orient you. Cris and I met in Milan, Italy, then went to Como and then on to Venice. We flew northeast to Prague to meet the Backroads folks, who bussed us to Vilshofen, Germany right on the Danube. We were introduced to our bikes, then rode to meet our ship, Amasonata. For the next week, we didn't have to unpack and pack, just leave the boat in the morning, and rejoin her later in the day. Can't beat the service!
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