The Adventures of Team H

First, the fine print: We returned safely home on Jan 12. We ran out of blogging steam - and much spare time - in Innsbruck and thereafter. We'll try to fill things in now, but of course, it just isn't the same telling the tales after the fact from home.

Innsbruck

We were amazed how quickly the trip had changed when we crossed the border by rail into Austria. The new snow-covered landscape was expected, but the overall tranquility we found in the Innsbruck area was a welcome surprise after all the bustle in Italy. We checked in to our delightful hotel, after getting some beyond-the-call-of-duty navigational help from the city bus driver (who patiently listened to my "broken German") as well as one of his patrons, who spoke perfect English.

At this point though, we had to take stock: Plans were still not firmed up for the remainder of the trip. Partly this was because I was still hashing out a plan with my Mom's long-time Austrian penpals, Tony and Traudi, to meet them in Salzburg for lunch the next day. But that evening just a few hours later, I had firmed up our next two nights in Austria - and again, with the help of enthusiastic assistance from the locals (our hotel staff).

Mountain view at dawn, Innsbruck

Taking a rental car (Mercedes!), I drove us out to Salzburg, with plans to meet the penpals for lunch at 1:30 pm. Somewhat regrettably, we had to make fast time, and so we took not the most scenic route through Austria, but the one that stays on the Autobahn and shortcuts through the little corner of Germany (which I was told is known as Deutsche Ecke). This drive was actually quite scenic and fun in its own right, but I wish we hadn't missed Zell am See and so many other sights in Austria.

View from an Austrian rest stop

Salzburg

Impossibly, we made it to our appointment in Salzburg, locating not only our friends, but the train station and a parking space nearby. For the next few hours they gave us a charming tour of downtown, also treating us to lunch and coffee at "Thomaselis", which is apparently a local favorite. They practiced English, and I got some good practice with German in turn. They had to drive back home to Vienna that evening, so we parted company, and Lauren and I remained downtown for some more wandering and window-shopping.

Downtown Salzburg with Mom's penpals

Salzburg

Salzburg Fortress

Posing at a viewpoint on the way out of the fortress

The View! Salzburg and mountains

Over the next couple of days we did a lot of sightseeing. We hiked up to the impressive Salzburg fortress (we are told, the best preserved midevil fortress in Europe) and enjoyed spectacular mountain and city views from the top. We also took the 4-hour "Sound of Music" bus tour - a veeery touristy experience of course, but quite relaxing, especially after all the walking and hill-climbing we'd been doing up to then.

But meanwhile, it was becoming clear that a scratchy throat I had felt back in Venice wasn't just some second-hand smoke, as I'd hoped it was. Yep, a full blown cold or flu with fever. After about 10 hours lying under two blankets back at the room, the fever broke and I was starting to get back on the mend.

Austria, we hardly knew you...

In the end, there was much more we wanted to see in Austria, but no more time to do it. In spite of feeling rushed and dealing with a bug, this place was truly enjoyable and full of surprises. It's on our short list of places to visit again (but perhaps in a warmer month next time)

Once again, we've stumbled by chance into an internet cafe (or 'internet point' - in fact there's no coffee here). This one in Venice is the strangest we've seen yet, but the details are not central to the story. So enough about the internet point...

Yesterday we arrived in Venice by rail. Once you get off the train and step out of the station, there it all is - no build-up or suspense - simply what you expect and came to see: the Grand Canal, lined by quant old buildings, trafficked by motorboats and gondolas. Just like the movies, the photographs and paintings.

Gondolas at Dusk

Crossing a typical canal in Venice

The most interesting unexpected impression was the quietness here (albeit New Years Day). There are absolutely no cars or motorcycles anywhere, a charming and welcome realization after Rome and Florence. We bought a map, took the tall footbridge over the canal and found our humble hotel with minimal trouble.

At this end of the city the tourists were sparse, and we felt empowered, able to take on this truly walkable city. We set out that afternoon for St. Mark square located at the other end of town. Initially the map helped. We followed a highlighted path on the map that guided us through dozens of narrow zigzag stone-paved streets past some churches, statues, pizza joints and shops along the way. Then, we discovered, an hour or two later, we were still going along like this, zigzagging, now joined by more tourists, mostly European and American window-shoppers. We gradually gave up on the map and started relying on signs and arrows. Night fell, and we continued. At least once, we went in a circle. More small canal crossings, statues and churches and piazzas - dozens maybe? At least 2 statues of St. Bartholemew, it seemed. Finally we arrived (with everybody else) at St. Marks square and the waterfront.

St. Mark's Square

Church in scaffolds, from our water taxi

Like in Rome and Florence, much of the area seems to be under winter season renovation, creating eyesores where impressive monuments should be. But we found the perfect condition of the buildings here to be suitably impressive. We walked the waterfront and passed vendors, games and a circus like atmosphere. At last it got cold and we headed back.

Ah, if it were only that simple... We tried that night to retrace our steps. Several hours and one shameful Burger King stop later, we finally made it back to the hotel. (Pictures and videos will be up asap)

Today, having had our fill of the inner streets, we took the water taxis around and visited the nearby island of Murano (where we even got a glass pendant or 2). This place was a bit more laid back, conducive to strolling. Funny though, a whole island of almost nothing but glass shops.

Time to sign off. Tomorrow at 6:51 am is our train to Innsbruck.

The morning of our final day in Rome, we hopped on the bus to cross the Tiber river over to Vatican City.

We held reservations for 8:15 am, so we felt confident as we got off and began our approach to the imposing Vatican. Only one thing troubled us: Where do we go stand in line? We know we have to meet the guide at the Museum entrance. That must be here, at the Church, right?
Oops...
With some fumbling and direction-asking, we determined we were around 1 km away from the Museum entrance! Time to hustle... We speed-walked down the street, obeying some rough directions. We came upon an intersection, and a mysterious American woman, sensing our befuddlement, instructed us to turn left and pass everbody standing in line, and to carefully use the street to get around them if need be. Running out of time now, we did exactly this, passing hundreds of visitors in a line 10 people thick - evidently the ones lacking reservations. Then we kept passing more hundreds of people. Dodging motorcycles and little cars every now and then. Finally we made it to what appeared to be the Museum entrance... Now, where's our guide? The frantic search for him began. There seemed to be a half dozen tour groups swirling around. Then by accident we found a few of our own tour group members. Then, our smiling guide showed up, and we were finally back in business.

The next few hours were total immersion in art. Our guide took us through rows of sculpture, paintings, frescos, tapestries, explaining everything he could and answering any and all questions, offering a lot of historical context. After some anticipation, we finally entered the Sistine Chapel (where no photography is allowed), followed up by Saint Peter's Basilica. It's tough to do justice trying to describe these sights, while writing from a timed terminal at an internet cafe. But again, imagine total art immersion! Sistine = Paintings, Everywhere! St. Peters = Sculpture and tombs and marble decor, everywhere! My hope is that some choice photo uploads will help where the prose falls short.

After all this we were pretty hungry and tired, ready for a quick pizza lunch down the street. This was achieved with ease. Now refueled, we walked out toward a fortress-like castle just to the east, then followed the river south, sort of aimlessly, half trying to make it to another church. But we had already had a full day and a full Rome experience, and remembered the adage, that you can' see everything on one trip. Satisfied, we took a bus back to the hotel and began plotting our next move up through Italy.

Finally, an internet cafe! We almost gave up hope...

First glimpse of Rome

We touched down in Rome a bit before 8:00 am on Christmas day, pretty well wiped out after the 9 hour leg from Atlanta. Our first job, after recovering our bags, was to find a taxi to the hotel. Immediately we were approached by Mr. Charisma, a guy who offered to take us there by van. Within moments we surmised he was probably unlicensed, saw the error in this and slipped away toward the licensed taxi area, a line of various beat-up white cars inching forward. Our taxi driver, an older white-haired gentleman, pulled up to the front and soon we were on the road.

We sped down the Autostrata, catching our first baffling glimpse of Italy from the back seat. We were realizing at this point how lacking we were in our knowledge of the outskirts of Rome. For several minutes the scenery was rural, looking like any number of areas you find in the US. Then we entered the city - a shock! For the next several minutes, our driver, who had still not said a word to us, careened down the vacant, twisty streets, through run-down graffiti-marked residential neighborhoods. The area looked like some of the guidebook pictures of Mussolini-era construction, but that was as familiar as it got; ancient Rome this was not.

Venturing conversation, I tried asking the driver what district this was. He grunted something like 'despachio'. (Later we learned this meant 'sorry'). It had become apparent by the end of the ride that our driver, in his years of experience shuttling tourists, had already learned all the English he cared to. After struggling to settle the fare, we realized we had a little Italian to teach ourselves in the coming days...

We finally made it to our hotel, a nondescript building on the North end of town, and settled in, pleased how clean and nice the room was. It was now time to catch a few hour nap and head out for a bite to eat.

A Spontaneous Walk to The Colloseum

Our first outing was camera-free; we had left in in the room, and didn't bother to retrieve it, because we weren't planning on getting much more done that evening beyond dinner. It was just before dusk and not as cold as expected. Before long we found ourselves at the top of the famous Spanish Steps, its obelisk under renovation (more on this later). We found - as did most other Americans that everning - an appealing little restaurant near the steps. Two pasta dishes and a carafe of red wine later, we were satisfied with our accomplishments.

It was dark as we left, but still not especially cold. We could see throngs of people in the cobblestone streets wandering around, interspersed with street vendors, practically covered in brightly colored LED baubles, occasionally flinging little toy flying saucers skyward. (This saucer toy looked pretty cool, I thought, which did entertain Lauren) We decided to get out there and see what we could find before jet-lag exhaustion would finally take hold of us for good.

Headed about South, armed with a map from the hotel, we strolled and watched the locals (and their dogs), and other tourists go about their evening under a full moon. To our surprise, we checked the map and found we were already well on our way to the city center and the Colloseum!

Every block had some sort of attraction it seemed, and they sort of drew us further along. Around a final corner we went, and there it was in the distance at the end of a long avenue - the Colusseum.

Down the avenue, past more vendors and their flashing lights, as the ruin grows larger... We strolled on, finally passing the last of the trincket guys, who seemed to be keeping a respectful - or perhaps required - distance from the actual site. Joined by only a few clusters of other visitors, we felt unrushed as we took in the sight and meandered around the outer wall and iron-gated archways. Looking straight up the walls from the base, you're struck by how truly massive the structure is. The walls had a haunting look, with the higher arches bathed by orange-tinged lights. We stepped up on some rounded lumps of stone as we walked (originally cut at right angles, you'd have to think). We started walking around the perimeter, past some fenced-in trenches, apparently new archaological digs. The Colosseum revealed new dark passageways as we peeked in from the different viewpoints. There at night, you could try to imagine what must have occured long ago (the deafening cheers and terrifying games of violence). I fell short of being able to picture much of this. Our Colosseum on Christmas eve was a peaceful giant, and delightfully, more than just another tourist attraction.

Our planned Colosseum visit was first thing the next day. We got there this time via a speeding public bus. It was raining since dawn, and now quite glad to encounter a street vendor, we picked up a couple of cheap umbrellas on the way to the bus stop. It was an entertaining and fascinating couple of hours, as we did the popular stuff: got our pictures with the rowdy 'gladiators' (for a mere 20 Euros), and did the self guided tour inside. Quite a place, but probably better shown than explained. We'll get the pictures up, as soon as we get our stuff completely figured out here at the internet cafe...

We're boarding our flight to Rome one week from today!

Over the last six weeks since the previous post (can that be right?), we've been locked in that ongoing rat race, doing some holiday stuff, and sneaking in a moment of trip planning every now and then. All our Italy arrangements are now in order, we have our global GSM phone, our Eurail passes, voltage converter, two 4GB digicam chips, tasteful walking shoes, Target brand warm accessories, and what remains a very rough plan for Austria and Germany (mainly involving castles and dark beer).

Our hope is to get some photos up here every few days, depending on the internet cafe situation and our technical savvy, given we've decided to leave the laptop behind.

Now, if this final week evaporates as fast as the others, the next thing we know we'll be at the airport and on our way!