TRAVAILS IN EUROPE in 2003
Hotel Fira from our Balcony
We were always surprised that our used toilet paper had to
go in a separate container, but with the preparation for the Olympics here in
Athens, we thought they might have upgraded their sewer system to accept toilet
paper. But NO. didn’t happen, although we were a couple of months before
opening time, and Calatrava’s partial
covering of the football (Soccer) stadium was nowhere close to being finished. We never stayed in expensive hotels and
always wondered if they used the same miserable system as the lower class
ones. Well, our breakfasts were not
improved during the 20 years, as the eggs were still over-cooked on one side,
rather raw on the sun side. Forget their bread, it’s forgettable. And Coffee?
Not on your life, get to like Nescafe.!
Let’s try a nice sunset dinner at an upscale restaurant, Selene. Pretty hard to beat the location, on the
Caldera lip, a thousand feet above the water, too bad they thought to have a
restaurant here. Joy’s rooster ( Entre
$20, wine $32) was too tough to chew and we couldn’t discern what the various
parts of a chicken there was. My fish
was just OK.
Back in Athens, we
thought we would see some local dance show
of “Greek Dancing” on a walk up to the Acropolis. We stopped on a well known
Taverna in the Plaka area (Old
Town) . A large room with a dozen dancers on a teeny stage faced a dozen
Japanese and a couple of Brits and us. The show started off with a dozen
‘dancers’ who reduced their numbers
until just two guys were left. They had great costumes but totally uninspired.
Hell, me and my kids used to Greek dance better than that. But wait, there’s more. During intermission, we were all waiting for
the show to start the band played a few numbers (Piano, trumpet, drums,
balalaika) so here comes an old Brit with his Old Korean wife in bobby sox on
the stage and scooted around slowly with her for a couple of numbers. Man, was
that ever weird! I would have enjoyed just listening to a good balalaika just
by itself, though, Didn’t happen.
Later, in Firenze, where we Met our friends , Bill and 2D when they got off the train from Venice, to discover Bill had lost his
purse + wallet+ passport) on the train . Man, was he forever in deep shit!
Later on, we all
went down to Chianti area, stayed at a 500 year old Locandas . Bill drove us all
down to Siena, about an hours drive , but finding a parking place there is a
miracle. We found our small miracle in the soccer stadium, near center of town
where there are spaces for several cars,
but all really jammed in. However, parking is very close and we had to fold up
our rear view mirrors for the operation.
Bill, backing in and out to get into our space, he backed into the
adjoining car ,but as the other car had was already full of small dents, but
our rental had a broken taillight. His plan was to ignore the whole
episode, which turned out later to be
the correct one.
 |
| PORTOFINO, ITALY |
After a few days
in Rapallo, a small village on the Ligurian Coast, we were going to train to Nice, then
Lyon for some wine tasting in the Burgundy area. First, we had to get to Genoa. 50 miles up
the coast. Fortunately, our train was to be on Binario (Platform) one, so we
didn’t have to drag our bags up and down stairs to get to the tracks. Chris
Columbus is a big name here, as he was born here. This is a huge heavy
industrial Port city, after all, they nearly conquered Venizia in the 15th
Century. While waiting for the train, we checked the makeup of it which is
displayed on all platforms. Our car was number 12, or the end one. Fast trains
are in groups of 12, as some are connected together and makes them pretty long.
Therefore we moved to the end of the binario where our car should be ,
except the train came in backwards (Don’t ask me how they do that),
which meant our car was on the other end of this 12 car segment. Nothing to do
but curse and run to the end as these babies stop for five minutes only. Next time, we barely made it but next time we
wait in the center of the un-arrived train.
On to Nice! What a
joke! Comfortably seated we are at last on our way to FrANCE. About half of
this trip is thru tunnels and high viaducts hanging over the Mediterrain Sea,
more rugged that the Big Sur Coast but also developed with small villages all
over. Only made a few stops, even though
there was a town about every 50 feet. We
arrived in one called Ventimiglia, the last Italian town on the Italian/French
border. The train was stopped for a very long time and we wondered what the
matter was until the conductor came by and said everyone off the train! OK, we packed our bags (We had three small ones total). And stood
around on the platform expecting a French Train to arrive (That sometimes
happens). Finally, a French couple
informed us that the French train was on strike. However, In the small station, there was a long line ,
signing up for a bus to Nice. Joy got
into it while I guarded the baggage. Well, by the time she got near the front,
we were told “No more bus”, and didn’t
know if there would be another. OK, we’ve handled strikes before in Greece,
Italy & France, so we punt. If we
don’t get to our Hotel in Nice, we lose the €130 deposit so we negotiated for a
taxi to take us 50 miles to the Hotel Windsor in Nice for €90. We felt a lot better, after showering
and a cool drink in our hotel, just forget about the money! We’ll work on Phase 2
manana (Getting to Lyon and Burgundy
country.).
OLD WINE PRESS in Beaune
VIDEO ALERT
“Who shall we
invade next? “ BY Michael Moore
Mr. Moore, makes me sick. He is such a fat slob, always
wearing a baseball cap, showing zero class.
But has some redeeming features. This video is his research on
several areas of our life in a democracy that need revising, and he does it
well, if mostly one sided.
He shows us that
some grade school kids have nutritious lunches,(Iceland) served on plates with glass containers for
their drink (Non- Coke). You’ll see how
Norwegians have a prison that is designed to change the prisoners concept of
crime. (Recidivists are 20%)This is contrasted with our prison in Attica, New
York? Recidivists are 80%) .How about a
free University in Slovenia? In Portugal, Drug treatment is 180 degree
different than here and a lot more effective.
Try Health treatments in Germany, etc.
These are issues we do not like to see or even hear about,
but come on, we’ve got to do better.
