Art’s Travel Adventures

This trip was a possibility for a long time though there were lots of hoops that needed to be jumped through that would allow it to happen. The idea for the trip? My friend Matt, his daughter Lilli and I go to Belize and do some scuba diving. The hoops? Matt’s moving to a new place in Portland, scheduling a wrist surgery in August and the typical work required when you run your own business and are headed out of town for a bit. And then I got COVID. Despite these challenges we found dates, booked the trip and I’m sitting in a beautiful condo on Caye (pronounced “key”) Caulker, Belize.

Caye Caulker is a small 4.5 mile long island off the coast of mainland Belize. It is really two islands separated by a split (which they call “The Split”) into a North side and South side. I am on the North side which is the much less populated side of the island. (Caye Caulker’s total population is only 2000 people.)

As you can see from the picture, there is island jungle just to the left of our condo and an ocean view in the front. There are lots of birds stopping by a small water hole that I spent a bunch of time watching plus humming birds visiting the flowering bush right outside the window. This is Central America so there are also some pretty big lizards.

This is my third time out of the country this year and it’s been the easiest, quickest international travel.

A 3 hour flight from Sacramento to Dallas. Very brief layover and then another 3 hour flight to Belize City.

The most interesting part of the journey was the last 10 minute flight to the island.

As we started our quick taxi down the runway I realized I hadn’t put on my seatbelt. No safety demo on this plane. I managed to connect my seatbelt just was we were lifting off. Apparently you slide the clip into the buckle and lift to release. The plane was loud and bumpy and fun. For some reason I don’t have a lot of flight anxiety on tiny planes. The lady in the front was having a rough time.

The little plane stopped in Caye Caulker first and I was the only one that got off. The resort said they’d arranged for a taxi (golf cart, that’s all that is driven on this island) to pick me up but Maya Air loaded me on an earlier flight so I was frantically shooting off an email off tot he hotel to see if they could have Ivan, my taxi driver arrive a little early. THAT’S why I didn’t buckle my seatbelt! Ivan wasn’t there but another golf cart jockey asked me where I was going. I told him and he said, “Ivan?” Yeah. So he called Ivan and said he’d bring me over to the dock since he was already there. With a population of 2000 all of the taxi drivers know each other. A arrived at the dock just before the ferry to BluZen resort was leaving. A 15 minute boat ride later and I was walking down the private dock to the resort.

Matt and Lilli got delayed due to a paperwork snafu but they will arrive tomorrow afternoon so I get the place to myself for a night.

A little dinner (pizza delivered to the room) and a crappy movie on Nexflix and I was ready to crash. Nice start to the trip.

Thanks for following along.

Here’s a big lizard as a reward.

We were up a little early this morning, which is probably best since tomorrow our first flight of two to come home is at 6am. To the airport by 4am. Fortunately, we are staying at the Brussels Airport Sheraton (I have status here thanks to a credit card perk.) Breakfast, included at the hotel here starts at 6am, about when we’ll be taking off…🤦

Kitty #2 came in for a visit. She sits at the window until I open it.

We ate breakfast and said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts who arranged for a taxi to the train station for us at 1pm and offered to store our bags for us, too. There’s also a little bathroom off the hall that we can use if needed. Very nice.

We headed across to St. James Church.

I’m glad we stopped in. It was an interesting church.

Mike gave me the church giggles so we had to leave, (“excuse me, sir…SIR!”) but not before taking a white ribbon that the church was offering as a sign for a desire of world peace.

We still had three stops on our “top 5 chocolate shops of Bruges” tour leftover from day 1 so that was the rest of our morning.

All of the chocolates we had were good but I. Don’t think my palette is so refined that I can really tell much difference between a super high quality and a decent quality chocolate.

We made better time that we thought we would since the chocolate shops were grouped pretty close together. We ended up standing in front of the Torture Museum and looking at our watches seeing that we had about an hour and 1/2 to kill so…in we went.

I went to a torture museum in Germany back in 2012 and it had many authentic and disturbing torture devices. This one, on the other hand, had lots of replicas with very cheesy mannequins. It was…a way to kill 45 minutes. Or to at least torture 45 minutes.

The gift shop was interesting…

We sat in the square watching the world go by for a bit then headed back to the B&B to catch our taxi. Good bye Bruges!

A couple of hours later we were all checked in to the Sheraton in Brussels. I took a quick nap and then we had a late lunch/early dinner at the hotel.

Time for bed so we can get up at 3am to prep for our flight…

The next morning…

We were up before our alarms went off and got ready for the flight. Other than struggling to exit our hotel (all of the doors were locked…Mike Hulked a red button off the wall in frustration…) and a long passport line in Lisbon, we made it to our final flight home.

The flight was pretty bumpy at times but we made it safely to SFO. We just have to grab our bags and our rental to make the drive home. It’s Friday so I’m guessing it will take us 3-4 hours to make it home. Stupid Bay Area Friday traffic.

Well, this was one hell of a trip. Zürich and Freitag, Zermatt and the Matterhorn, the silly Leaning Tower in Pisa, and lovely Lucca, amazing Vernazza in the Cinque Terre. And of course Bruges. Plus the joy of spending quality time with my husband who made me laugh multiple times a day everyday. What a gift.

Thanks again for following along. Goodbye until the next trip…

We started the day just like any other. With a cat hopping through the window.

Our plan today was to use the suggested Visit Bruges app and follow one of the self-guided walking tours. The tour we chose had 18 stops and was supposed to take around 4 hours.

But first, breakfast. A delicious pancake, fried egg and the usual European suspects plus coffee.

After breakfast I sat out on the canal in the back of our B&B for a bit.

I was hoping to see kitty #2 who seems to hang out there but no dice.

We learned that we are staying in an Almshouse. Housing for the poor back in the day. I couldn’t get back far enough without swimming in the canal to get a full picture (I know, I know, where is my photojournalist commitment?) but it’s pretty wide. The owner just renovated the inside. Not sure what he did but it all looks great.

We got ourselves together and headed out the door. There was a decent sized wind and rain storm last night but this morning was crisp and clear. Fortunately, we covered our e-bike seats with plastic bags last night so our butts wouldn’t get wet this morning.

Off we went on our 18 stop tour.

I don’t have the energy to write about the entire tour. And I doubt your commitment to read it all. 🙂 Here are some highlights.

The last time we were in Bruges we met Janis Rozentals, a very talented weaver from Latvia. We bought ourselves a couple of scarves that we still wear to this day. We were hoping to see he and his wife again, but they weren’t at their normal spot yesterday, the old fish market, which just happened to be stop number 2 on our tour today. When we arrived this morning there was Janis at his loom weaving away. We found a couple of new treasures as you can see.

We chatted for a while as we decided which scarves to get. Turns out our timing was great since they were off to Latvia in the morning and wouldn’t be back for a few weeks.

Next to the fish market was the Tanners Square. If you zoom in on the picture above you’ll see carved scenes of tanners making hides into leather. Tanning hides is a stinky affair so this little sculpture of a guy with a “someone just farted” expression on his face is on the corner of the square.

Here’s a little summary of the next several stops of the map.

Bruges is beautiful. Most of the tour so far had been pretty close to the Market Square which we were pretty familiar with.

The next part took us to some new areas, a couple of churches, a swan area and a house Mike has promised to buy us.

We made it to the city wall again and saw this interesting on-the-water flower garden.

We rode along the city walls until we circled back around to where we’d grabbed some chocolate the day before. It was around 2pm so we had a bite of lunch in Stevin Square, number 17 on our tour of 18 stops, named after Simon Stevin, a famous Bruges mathematician. Mike bought us a few chocolates at Chocolate Line (to celebrate math? Yes, let’s say it was to celebrate math) and then we headed back to the room for a nap.

We were greeted by Kitty #1 but still no Kitty #2 today, yet.

After the nap we sat out on the back bench while I had a cup of coffee.

It was almost time to return the bikes. I loved having the bikes for 2 days. I’ve had Plantar Fasciitis for a couple of months and the bikes allowed us to cover so much more ground than I would have been able to do on foot without some decent pain. Plus, it felt so European to be zipping around the city on a bike.

Number 18 on the tour was the Market Square, the main tourist destination and we’ve spent plenty of time there this trip and last trip.

We walked through the square after returning our bikes and had a Waffle at Chez Albert.

We returned to the B&B on foot (walking is for suckers) and saw the trio of our stand-in pets. Kitty 1 and 2 and Pickles the dog.

The animals here helped ease the longing for our own dog. Fortunately, we begin the journey home tomorrow. Brussels to Lisbon to SFO and home.

Thanks for following along…

Yesterday I mentioned the cat that came inside and visited us last night. Well…now we have two cats. And a dog named Pickles. That escalated quickly.

Meet Nepsy (at least that’s what I think the owner called her.)

She sat at the window expectantly and we, being trained by the other cat, knew exactly what to do. Let her in. She hangs out for a bit, then goes to the door to be let out. I miss our dog.

We woke up and headed over to the breakfast room where we had a nice meal and great conversation with our breakfast host. She was very excited about seeing a reggae concert this evening and that led down a rabbit hole of conversations about concerts and musical tastes. We found that we had a love for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in common. (I’d forgotten I’d seen them in concert back when Navarro was playing guitar.)

We headed back to the room to plan our day and kitty #1 came in for a visit. After a few pets she took over Mike’s chair.

I’m glad the cats are letting us stay here…

Our plan today was to rent bikes ride around the town. That’s exactly what we did.

On our e-bikes we rode out to the windmills, a little place on the edge of old town that we’d been to the last time we were here. It was here that we said the next time we come to Bruges we have to rent bikes!

Having gotten used to the bikes we decided to start our chocolate tour. In our room there was a list of suggested chocolate shops with chocolates actually made here in Bruges. I guess a lot of the shops just have their chocolates made overseas and sell them to the tourists.

First stop, The Old Chocolate House, conveniently located in an old house. Five out of five yums.

Our second stop…

…as seen on TV and magazines. A sort of hard core tattooed chef kind of chocolate shop. They have their own cocoa roaster and everything. 4 out of 5 yums just because of the douchey vibes.

More chocolate shops tomorrow.

Time to ride and take more pictures.

We would see a church spire and just sort of follow it. That led us here.

I jokingly said, “hey! A French Fry Museum!” when I saw a sign the said Frietes Museum. I thought it couldn’t really be a fry museum. I was wrong.

Did we do the fry museum? Hell yes we did. And it was ridiculous.

No Fry Museum is complete without a Chucky Cheese style band.

If you’re going to do the fry museum, you simply MUST visit the chocolate museum.

And we did.

It was fun but it was no Fry Museum.

Back to the room and I had a quick nap. We tried to make a decision on dinner based on the recommendations of the B&B. We had some options in mind as we headed to the bike shop to let them know we’d be keeping the bikes for another day. Around the corner we found a nice little place to eat that seemed to be a local haunt. No English menus on the table boded well for this not being a tourist trap. I had (needed?) a salad after all the chocolates. It was delicious.

We rode around a bit after dinner.

We found a park we’d been to before and recognized the restaurant we’d eaten at and a sketchy part of the park we also remembered. Still. Pretty.

We felt like we were done for the day. The bikes made it easy and fun to zip around and do nothing while seeing a lot. And then do a lot while zipping around. When we got back Pickles the dog came rushing out to greet us. He’s the owners dog and loves EVERYBODY. I miss our dog.

We received a couple more visits from kitty #2 while we worked on our blogs.

What a packed day of laughter and pretty sites. A lovely day. I really like how Mike and I make each other laugh. ❤️♥️❤️

Thanks for following along.

I was really sad to be leaving our beautiful room in this beautiful little cliffside town. I mean really sad. I’m not sure we will ever return but the time we spent here was incredibly special. I will remember it for the rest of my life. What a beautiful part of the world.

We had breakfast at another restaurant. Our regular place was closed because the staff was taking the day off after the late night party (and they usually take Mondays off). We had focaccia with Parma ham and cheese and focaccia with Nutella. Both were delicious.

We finished packing up and then headed to the train station.

Stairs. More stairs. I’m glad we packed relatively light because we hauled our our stuff up and down so many stairs today.

We got to the station early enough to sneak on an earlier train and then hung out in La Spezia to catch a train to Pisa, then on to the Pisa Airport via the Pismover. Yes, that’s the name.

We found a place to sit down and have a sandwich and coffee before we could check in for our 4:25pm flight to Brussels.

We cleared security quickly and hung out at the gate as the area grew more and more crowded. Our plane finally started to board around 1/2 an hour late and took off a good hour later than scheduled. Seems like time is relative in Italy. Trains late, planes late. You just have to relax and go with it.

We flew on Ryan Air on a 737-8 Max. I don’t like flying in general and flying in a Max with all the troubles they’ve had doesn’t help. Nonetheless, we arrived safely after a smooth flight.

Ryan Air is a discount airline akin to Spirit. It was…cheap.

We got in an hour later than expected but our driver Dino (not Nico) was still waiting for us so we were quickly off to Bruges. An hour later and we were at the door of our B&B being greeted by the owner and his dog and a lovely lady who gave us the tour of our incredible B&B.

Ummm, this place? Incredible. On the ground floor a working fire place, two cozy chairs, Nespresso maker and fridge.

Top floor up the spiral staircase, the bedroom.

On the lower floor, bathroom with a huge tub and a door that leads out to a little canal with a sitting area. (Bruges is the Venice of Belgium.)

This place is amazing and really reasonably priced.

While looking out the window from the top floor we saw a little kitty staring back at us. We went down to the bathroom and opened up the door and an adorable cat ran up to us for pets.

And then promptly ran inside and up the stairs. I’m sure she’s done this before.

We let her out the front door and then sat with her in the garden for a while.

It was 9pm and we hadn’t eaten so we headed to the main square and got some fries and a bratwurst. The fries were good but I ate about a 1/3 before I said uncle.

Bruges is as cute as we remembered from our first trip here. I’m looking forward to exploring areas we haven’t seen yet.

We headed back to the room and washed up and called it a day. Oh, I had a fresh waffle with Nutella on it. Nutella on focaccia in Italy in the morning and Nutella on a Belgian Waffle (they just call it a waffle) here in Bruges. Not a bad way to book end a day.

Thanks for following along…

This is the restaurant where we’ve had breakfast every morning. A delicious mix of cheese, meats and pastries and, of course an espresso macchiato. This morning we were going on a boat ride. Since we booked our room directly (vs. online via Booking.com or some other travel site) we got a “bonus.” Either a bike ride or a boat tour. Boat tour, please!

After breakfast we began to try and find Nico, the person who the hotel owner said we needed to find to have the boat tour. Mike had been messaging him to find where we should meet him. Since this town is so small and the harbor tiny, I’m guessing it’s never very hard to find someone so they didn’t bother making it a specific place. Mike spotted an Italian looking older gentleman who looked ravaged by the sea and said, “Nico…?” It was not Nico.

We eventually found our boat and hopped aboard for a leisurely trip down the coast to Monterosso, the village we visited to do our laundry.

It was a great little ride. I just love being on the water. On the return ride from Monterosso we could see a few of the 5 Terre’s. It photographed horribly but was really neat to see.

We got some neat history from Nico and some insight on what it’s like to live in Vernazza with the blessing/curse of tourism. Nico farms in the winter and does boat tours during the tourist season. He prefers the tours since the farming is essentially cliff climbing. The reason this area is a UNESCO world heritage site is because of the agriculture, planted on the mountain side terraces.

Nico says everything grows well here thanks to the ample water, rich soil and sunlight. Mike and I have loved the fresh produce in our dinners and Mike said it’s the best lettuce he’s ever eaten.

Curious about a few openings like this we saw, Nico explained that it was vents for the train tunnels which run through the mountain from village to village. The train system was built in 1872. Then it was a single tunnel, likely with coal fired steam locomotives. That smoke and steam needed venting. The tunnels were bombed during one of the world wars and rebuilt after WW2 with two tunnels.

Now that the trains are electric I’m not sure there’s a need for the vents, though the trains generate a lot of wind in the tunnel as they are approaching the stations.

The boat dropped us off and then took the rest of the group on for a longer ride. (Our trip was a freebie, I think the others had paid?) We thought we spent just enough time on the boat.

A satisfying day and it was only around 10:15am.

Walking along the harbor I spotted a little jellyfish.

We saw at least at a dozen of these little guys. Their bodies were about the size 1/2 a baseball.

We headed down the main drag to grab a couple of gifts before heading back up to the room. We hung out on the terrace while the housekeeper made up the room for us. After relaxing for a bit we headed down for lunch. The meal? Trofie with Pesto. Again. This time at a different restaurant.

Good but not as good as the other restaurant. Nutella gelato, likely our last gelato in Italy was just as good as yesterday’s. Maybe better because I bonded with the gelato shop owner who confessed to loving all things Nutella just like me. Soul sister.

Belly full of pasta and gelato, we headed back up to the room to crash for a bit. We clearly had to carb up for the nap.

We woke up and read and hung out. I went to my 8:30am meeting (5:30pm local time.)

I mentioned to Mike I sort of wanted to climb the tower across the way from us. We’ve been staring at it for a few days, watching tourists take in the view from the top.

We asked the pharmacist earlier in the day how to get up there. With his directions and following the blue arrow signs…

…and after a ton a steps, we made it to the top.

It was worth the climb.

We made up about 1/2 an hour before they closed.

As we descended Mikey made a friend.

We meandered through the back alleys on the opposite side of the village from where we’re staying.

When we emerged onto the Main Street we sat for a bit and then grabbed some focaccia for dinner. We also grabbed Mille-feuille with chocolate.

We noticed strewn flowers on the street that let to a little chapel.

Then we heard some singing and then saw a large procession of villagers marching toward the chapel from the church dropping handfuls of flowers. Shop owners came out and dropped flowers petals in their path. We went back up to the room and watched them process back to the church soon after.

We ate dinner and split a lemon soda. There’s a band set up in the square below so I think we will be serenaded throughout the rest of the evening.

Hearing the music down below I couldn’t resist running down and checking it out. Mike came along to Facebook live the event. Children playing in front of the band while it looked like nearly the whole town population was out enjoying the concert. The band was…well…the band had a fog machine.

Spending time in the Cinque Terre, particularly Vernazza, has been a once in a lifetime experience. It’s been such a blessing to stay in a beautiful space with beautiful view with my beautiful husband. I’m glad we have this last night here.

Thanks for following along.

We felt almost an obligation to go and visit at least one more of the 5 “Terre’s” in the QT. After some quick research we opted for Manarola, two towns over. But first…

Breakfast was the same for me, focaccia, egg, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and croissant. Espresso Macchiato.

The clock tower outside our window chimes every hour and 1/2 hour starting at 7am. Here’s the last 5 chimes of a nine chimed 8:30am. Notice how the last chime is higher, denoting the 1/2 hour.

We got on the train to Manarola. I took a picture when the train stopped in Corniglia so we could say we’d been there. 😂

This maybe says something about our commitment to visiting the other towns…

We arrived in Manarola soon after.

From the train station we walked through a long tunnel to get into Manarola.

It was a cute scenic little town. We walked up the hill a ways and then headed back down all the way to the water. Same colorful buildings with the same touristy food places and shops as Monterosso.

No beach at the water, just rocks. In the 4th picture above you can see a little crane. Looks like the fishing boats (that are parked up and down the street) pull into the little lagoon and are hoisted up to street level. Clever.

It had been around 30-40 minutes since we’d arrived. We stood watching the water for a bit, then looked at each other and decided we were done with Manarola. Good timing since it was already a bit crowded and as we were walking back through the tunnel we were salmon swimming upstream.

Corniglia was in between our town and where we were so we convinced ourselves to stop there.

You can either climb 370 steps to where this town is or take the bus to the top. When we saw the line for the bus, we turned around and went back to the train station. Screw Corniglia. 🤣

I stopped into the little convenience shop at the train station to grab a lemon soda. Inside a man and his son were building an airplane out of cardboard boxes and tinfoil. The kid (around 4 years old?) was very proud of the plane and happy to being doing a project with his dad. Neat.

We chatted with a gay couple from Toronto comparing places we’d been and places where we were still going as we waited for the train back to Vernazza.

We got back to Vernazza and grabbed some focaccia for lunch.

We ate on our terrace watching Vernazza below. It, I think, is the best of the 5 Cinque Terre towns.

I got sleepy after lunch so, with all of the windows open I crashed to the sounds of the bell tower and waves. Cut to 2 1/2 hours later…good nap.

I wanted espresso and Mike wanted gelato so we found a place we hadn’t tried before. I had a Nutella gelato that is the best gelato I’ve ever had in my entire life. And an espresso.

Earlier I noticed the door to the church was open so we wanted to take a look inside.

I love a gothic church. The one was built in the 1400’s and Mike says it looks like she’s had some work done. I’m guessing the bell tower came much later. Still, super thick walls and mean little windows. Neat.

I wanted to go to an online meeting and my regular 8:30am would take place 5:30pm local time so I logged in while Mike worked on his blog. Then it was dinner time.

I’d been craving this since I had a bite of Mike’s last night. It was delicious.

The bread served at dinner in Italy has been…lackluster. It’s become a joke with us.

Dinner was great dispite the bread’s best attempt to ruin it.

Dinner was accompanied by 5 local boys (5 or 6 years old?) running though the square dodging tourists. I kept hearing them yell “Pasta!” At each other for the last two evening while playing. I realized tonight it was “Basta!” Google translate says that means “Enough!” I’ve decided to work it into our lexicon only pronouncing it “Pasta!”

We decided to walk down to the water and take some more pictures.

We headed back up the many stairs to our room.

We sat out on the terrace until it got a little chilly then went inside to work on our blogs and get ready for bed.

We get one more day and night here. It feels just about right. Glad it’s not any less or more.

I guess that’s more than “Pasta!” for now. (Is it working? I think it’s working.)

Good night. Thanks for following along.

We woke up to a neat wind and rain storm. We’d left the windows open and slept to the crashing waves. then the shutters started banging with the wind so we got up and secured them. It was raining hard enough that we had to class the windows so the rain wouldn’t come inside. The power went out for a bit and when we got up around 8am the storm had passed.

Perhaps you remember my joke from yesterday’s blog where I suggested to Mike we should pack our suitcases and head to the train station, just to keep in practice. Well…today we packed a suitcase full of dirty laundry and headed to the train station…

In Monterosso there’s a laundromat that will do your laundry for you. We hopped the train to Monterosso and dropped off our laundry and set out to explore this little town.

Mike researched a bit on his phone and then navigated us to the old town.

The new section was, according to Mike, the Venice beach of the Cinque Terre. Old town Monterosso was charming. Narrow pathways and a couple of churches. A Beetlejuice church and a death church.

I love skeletons and skulls in church iconography.

We strolled through the twisted narrow paths petting cats and looking for a place to grab some focaccia. I had a delicious 4 cheese focaccia that I couldn’t finish. So yummy!

We found a restroom behind an octopus and headed back over to the newer part of town to pick up our laundry.

The sun was blazing and shady spots were sparse. We managed to find a place to hang out until it was time to grab our clothes. They weren’t quite done yet so we hung out in the porch of a closed grocery store which was wonderfully shaded. A breeze was blowing through that was quite pleasant.

With a suitcase full of fresh laundry we waited for a train on a very crowded platform. The train was packed full of tour groups and getting off and out of the Vernazza station was really tough. Mike took this shot as we were leaving the station.

Just at to the right of the crowd there’s a little alley that leads to our apartment and it was completely empty of people.

I’ve heard a lot about the crowds in the Cinque Terre. This is true to a degree. During the day the Train Station and main drag here in Vernazza are packed but the back alleys are pretty tame. In the morning and evening all of the day trippers have yet to arrive or have left and it’s super pleasant. Being up above the crowds on our terrace is a lovely place to observe the crowds, too. I’m glad we decided to stay here for a few nights and see this little town when the crowds go away.

I took a nap and when I got up we headed out for dinner. I had an amazing pizza and Mike had a fantastic pasta which I want to have tomorrow. Mine was great. His was greaterer.

We walked down the main drag to get gelato. Most of the crowds have left or were departing.

We went down to the seawall and took pictures and watched the waves crash. Then headed up to the room to watch the sunset.

A lovely day and relaxing evening.

Thanks for following along. Good night!

I’m really glad we had the morning to explore Lucca. Jet lag had us up at 5:45am. We opened up the windows and I made an espresso then meditated for a bit, wrapped in a blanket sitting at a window that is directly across from a wall. The wall was really fascinating. So much history on this wall. Old archways and doors bricked over. Exposed wires running above the door. A little plant growing in a crack. It’s the type of thing my friend Rob would paint.

We wanted to explore a bit so we headed out to stroll around the little walled city.

On our way down the stairs we took pictures of the well of Saint Zita. Or Pozzo de Santa Zita, the name of our hotel.

Half way down the stairs there is a thick piece of glass through which you can see the well.

Already exploring and we’re not even out the door!

Outside hardly anyone else was around we nearly had the place to ourselves for the first 1/2 an hour or so. We’d spotted a tower from our bathroom window and figured that was good a place as any to begin our exploration. Turns out it was a college of some sort.

We found ourselves at the wall which no longer protects the city but is a park-like walkway around the city.

We met a random lady at the top of the wall who was also snapping shots of the lovely villa above. We all decided to go threesies and buy it for a summer home. You’re invited to stay if you’d like.

We continued our wandering by heading toward another tower. Towers seem to be the theme today. This one has a trees at the top of it. Trees. Torre Guigini.

As we were trying to take one of the pictures above some lady kept getting in our shot. I decided to use Mike’s head to block her out. Worked out pretty well.

We made it back to the amphitheater and there was hardly anyone there expect for a guy walking his dog.

We found a cafe and had a coffee and a croissant filled with Nutella. Heaven.

We scarfed down the croissants before realizing we didn’t take a picture. They were delicious.

Feeling extremely grateful we had an hour or two to explore Lucca, we headed back to the hotel to pack up and call a taxi.

Our next stop was Pisa, to see yet another tower.

A quick train ride took us to Pisa and after dropping off our luggage at the train station’s luggage storage we made the tourist pilgrimage to the leaning tower of Pisa. For two minutes we took it seriously and did what everyone else was doing:

Then Mike suggested we purposely take some “fail” pictures. We giggled our asses off taking these.

Mike said some girls were watching me take a purposeful fail picture and were horrified at my lack of skill. Priceless. Also, I learned how to use the “stickers” function on my phone so…these…

I completely understand why Rick Steves suggests visiting the leaning tower at Pisa but sleeping in Lucca. In Lucca we couldn’t turn a corner and not want to take a picture. In Pisa, not so much. At one point, heading back to the train station from the tower, I saw something and said, “that so nice I almost want to take a picture of it!“ Lucca is thoroughly charming, Pisa is a one hit wonder. Yet, worth the tourist pilgrimage, partly to see the tower but mostly to be around a bunch of other tourists taking silly pictures and enjoying the spectacle. But I’m glad we didn’t stay the night there and I’m grateful we met Lucca.

We returned to the train station and just missed a train to La Spezia, gateway to the Cinque Terre. Fortunately another came a long in just around 20 minutes. An hour and 10 minutes later and we switched trains and then made it to Vernazza, one of five little villages of the Cinque Terre. And our home for the next 4 nights. Despite pouring rain, crowded streets and twisted, staired pathways we made it to our little suite. This place is beautiful.

And the view from our terrace?

We were so grateful for the amazing room and the view. The price of this place was ridiculously low for what it is.

We grabbed some lunch and sat out in the terrace enjoying the views and our lemon soda. we napped with all of the windows open and then headed down to walk to the end of the harbor wall seen above.

We watched a daredevil climb on rocks that seemed too dangerous to climb on while his wife told him to stop. Finally, a big wave splashed the daredevil. Mike caught it on video. Anyone else watch FailArmy? The daredevil and his wife were very sweet and we chatted for a while. Mike shared the splash video with the wife and she seemed to be excited to have it.

We grabbed dinner after hanging out on the sea wall. Mike had pasta with crunched up crab shells and I had a delicious fried seafood dish. Shrimp, squid, anchovies and other small locally caught fish, all fried up to perfection. Not a shell in sight. It came with week old bread.

After 6 days of travel and packing and unpacking and hauling luggage we are so grateful to get to stay here for 4 glorious nights. I suggested we pack our bags in the morning and haul them to the train station just to stay in practice. Mike has stopped talking to me for some reason.

Seriously, we have laughed so much today. Mike is a joy to be with and travel with.

Here’s a little summary of our day that iMovie created.

Thanks for following along.

I woke up around 5:45am and hopped out of bed to see if the skies were clear. They were so I threw on my clothes and a hat and went to see the Matterhorn in morning light.

I joined several people waiting to see the same. I texted Mike a picture and he came out to enjoy the tourist ritual. Here’s the progression of light on the mountain.

It didn’t get really pretty until we were eating breakfast.

And Mike climbed into a wooden shoe…

The rest of the morning was spent packing up and heading to the train station. One last departing shot of you know who:

From Zermatt we caught a train to two different stations in Switzerland before crossing the border into Italy. We noticed a distinct difference in cleanliness and infrastructure upon crossing into Italy. Trains were hot, stuffy, smelly and running a little behind. Still not a horrible journey.

We went to the Milan Main Train Station and caught another train to Florence and then to (finally) Lucca. Mike finagled a better train that went direct to Lucca for our last leg.

A quick taxi ride to our palace (yes, palace) and we quickly dropped our bags and headed to find something to eat.

Il Pozzo De Santa Zita is an old palace converted into a hotel. (I could be making the palace part up but I think I read it somewhere…) Thick walls, exposed beams and just charming. But screw the room. I was really hungry.

We headed out to find a restaurant. Thank god Italians like to eat late because it was around 9pm. We found this place.

It was packed and the food smelled delicious. And it tasted just as good as it smelled.

Pizza with baby arugula, ricotta, mozzarella, tomatoes and prosciutto and garlic bread that was really garlic forward. Mike had a delicious beefy tortellini. I had a lemon soda that was delicious. I had a little freak-out moment when I was reading the ingredients of the soda and saw a word that looked like alcoholic. (Most know I’ve been sober and in recovery for a long time.) It didn’t taste boozy at all. I used google translate and what I thought said alcoholic simply said soft drink with 12% lemon juice.

It was a great birthday dinner. Oh, today is my birthday and starting with breakfast under the Matterhorn and ending with a Tuscan feast in old town Lucca is a pretty good birthday in my books. If only we could have a little gelato before going to bed it would be perfect.

The gelato shop was located in Piazza dell’Anfiteatro which is a public square in the northeast quadrant of the walled center of Lucca, Italy. The ring of buildings surrounding the square follows the elliptical shape of the former second century Roman amphitheater of Lucca. So, gelato in a second century Roman amphitheater. Not a band end to the day.

Thanks for following along.