insider berlin

4-5 hours in rain and sunshine plus 12 euros per person will get you in-depth history of berlin with personality.  whatever we felt lacking in understanding of german history, especially berlin being overshadowed by the 20th century, we walked away with a deeper appreciation for the complexities and got some great book recommendations to learn more.  (1919 paris - reading it now.  really good so far.)

tarek of insider tours led the famous walk tour, hitting all the major sites and providing historical context.

this is a total must-do in berlin for a crash course in history.  bring your walking shoes.  and if you're game, come try the pub crawl tour with us next time

groupon berlin

we planned a weekend in berlin using groupon vouchers for hotel and flight.  this was our first taste of germany and it was wonderful. 

the groupon voucher was for bmi business class.  and we love business class simply because of access to the lounge = free food and drinks while we wait to board.  especially after our latest experience flying first class with air france (which is awful - swiss economy is better), we resolutely agree that bmi is one of our preferred airlines even if the flight attendants have to wear silly hats.  i was sad to learn it's a loss maker and lufthansa may sell it

our hotel is one block off ku'damm in charlottenburg, includes breakfast.  with our groupon, the hotel provided 1 dinner, 1 packed lunch and 1 bottle of wine.  the location may be commercial for some but for our first time, it's a very convenient walk from the main station (zoo garten) as we get to know the lay of the land.  if we do come back, we think we'll try mitte.  it's so funny - that even with guide books and maps, we find our preferences AFTER we arrive.  so if we ever get the chance to revisit any cities during our 2 years in europe, we can only improve on our great experience.

theme of this blog - research and if good, purchase social vouchers for traveling.  all in, our flights were GBP 100 per and two nights plus all those goodies and meals was GBP 195.  we look forward to using groupons for budapest and paris!

new friends

this was our first cruise by ourselves, just the two of us.  to save us for staring at each other or looking down at our food during dinner, or maybe like a couple with whom we're friends, will say to each other "laugh now" so as to not appear like a boring couple, we were sat with 2 other couples. 

we hit it off the first night and from then on, our servers had problems getting our attention as we would quickly catch up on the days events.  all good people...we feel extremely fortunate.  although, we wonder if we were a good influence...

for simplicity sake, we'll name the couples air force and irish.

mrs. irish taught mrs. air force and i how to play roulette.  we got pretty good.

jason taught mr. air force how to play black jack at the table.

no one got trashed or lost a bunch - it was all in good fun.

we exchanged information and hopefully, during our travels, we'll run into each other again.

venice of all seasons

we must have experienced 3 different climates in venice - between the flash rain, sticky humidity to the scorching reflective heat on the zattere - during the 2 day period.

it's such a unique city and one for art lovers as everything is an expression of art.  nothing is as it seems.  coffee is an extragavant affair in san marco piazza.  glass is the famed production of venice.  and the many little alleys lead to somewhere or nowhere.  you just have to try it all.

we did pass on a gondola ride.  it's 70-80 euros for 45 minutes and we much preferred a splurge on a barbini so we opted for the few euro-ride on the ferry that runs along the grand canal.  and it seemed meant to be as we got prime seats when the sun finally came out in its full might.

our hope is to go back one day for a full blown art tour where a docent can walk us through the intricacies and immaculate care performed to maintain the character of the sinking city.

dubrovnik - where clergymen defend the city

a tour of the old city is a must...well, it was the only thing we did in dubrovnik.  the only other piece of advice i have to give is to try to time it when a cruise ship is not in port.  fortunately for us, we got an early start so the fortified old city was near people-less when we arrived for the audio-guide walking tour.

in my memory and i might even venture out to say for my generation, croatia and its neighbors are primarily known for the genocidal yugoslav wars.  beyond that, i remember serbia mentioned in history class in relation to WWI.  so with these terrible references, it was a must-visit when we were told of croatia's clear-water beaches knowing that our american education in geography and history somehow missed out on more.

dubrovnik, the pearl of the adriatic during the middle ages, the only rival to venice, is a proud resilient fortification that blotted out the destruction of earthquakes and wars.  a full walk around the city and the walls took us about 3 hours. the walls themselves are lined with monasteries and convents as it was the single men who were considered most suited to fight and single women to tend to the sick and injured.  it's easy to meander through the countless alleys, take in the character of the old city and visit the many churches.

the adriatic sea runs along the fortification - the views from the wall were spectacular.  we plan to visit the beaches of croatia one day!

sassi di matera (near bari)

bari was our one big excursion on the cruise which actually took us about 1 hour inland to matera so we didn't see anything in bari except for the port.  the hour long bus ride out made us want to claw at our hearing ability as the air was filled with a long, informative discussion of sassi di matera's history while looping the same pitchy music.

thankfully, the ride didn't disappoint. 

we stopped for lunch in new matera at caffe ristorante il borghese.  we were really looking forward to pasta as italy is the only place we allow ourselves to binge on pasta...at least it's the only place worth binging on pasta.  the set menu was a lovely surprise, introducing local food traditions, which didn't serve up pasta.  succulent veal, creamed spinach...one dish we will never forget and hope to figure out the recipe to was fried red chilli peppers...fried like potato chips and a sweet spice.  what a little treasure.

and the city...

sassi di matera, a stone city with origins from 9000 years ago, was pretty amazing.  we got a view of the stone age caves then walked through the homes, dug out of the hill's rock, dating to medieval times.  this was the film site for the passion.  so much history and our guide was home-grown in sassi, where her grandmother tells of childhood in the stone homes.  it was common to feed children poppy tea to put them to sleep for a few days as the adults waited to collect food.  they were poor but happy.

ravenna

it was nice to see (what i believe may be) the namesake to my old neighborhood of ravenna, seattle.  it's also funny to see that many of the names in america were surprisingly unoriginal.  (like all the "new" and "little" cities, copycat name cities, sierra nevada in spain - you get the idea.)   i can't help but think to myself when i come those, "so this is the original...i thought we were the first" because saying it out loud would seem rather ignorant.

ravenna is famous for all its mosaics and byzantine decorated churches.  cruisers waited in line for transportation to the city (25 min drive)  then another line for church/museum tickets.  as we were sick of lines on par with disneyland minus the clear direction of what we're actually in line for, we passed on the tickets.  one important thing to note - ravenna only sells combo tickets (12 euros for 3 churches/museums).  the city does NOT sell individual sight tickets.  we agreed that ravenna would be better toured with a docent who understood the history and complexities of the art.

it's also a rather quiet and unspoiled town where the piazzas have restaurants and flowers hang from windows sills...and closing stores between 1230p and 330p (some 4p!).  this midday break creates a few rush hours.  the city has more bikes than cars and being italians, there's an organized chaos.  we didn't have a clue who had right of way as bikes whizzed by in the old stone streets or if there was a bike v pedestrian lane.  just a lot of ding-dings as we trudged in the rain to give way to bicyclists - one hand on the handle bar with a finger on the bell and the other holding an umbrella.

so while we were ready to shop in euros, locals stuck to their guns and let the 3000 tourists wander aimlessly and listlessly back to the ship. 

koper, slovenia

koper is one of those cities where we definitely have to specify the country and the following question is, "what's there?"

it's one of the many roman cities with an old town (thus, suggesting there's a new town) that every tourist walks through in search of authenticity.  fortunately, they make it super easy for tourists to walk from the port up to the city.  unfortunately, the clouds let loose heavy rain which caused an interesting sight in the little alleys of old town.

people hopskotched from covered doorways and awnings in the hopes of few moments of dry reprieve or waiting out the rain.  some bought umbrellas but as the doorways filled up, it was clear no one had packed for rain or the sudden drop in temperature.  we soon gave up hope and hailed a taxi back to the ship.

the taxi driver asked if he could show us some sights in koper because a must-do are the caves.  um...no, thanks.  wet, cold caves while dressed for warm weather would not be fun.

it turns out we saw more of old town than we originally thought - we entered the city at the got in the taxi from the old gate and drove along the pier.  too bad the rain came because it really was a quaint town with more locals than tourists being the third cruise ship to dock in koper.

walk on the ocean

we set sail from venice for a 7 day adriatic cruise on rci's voyager of the seas.  it's a lovely ship with an ice skating rink, promenade of shops, pubs and cafes, and completely dwarfed the other ships in the harbor.  our ports of call are koper (slovenia), ravenna (italy), bari (italy), dubrovnik (croatia) then back to venice for a full day.

we thought this cruise would be a good way to take in multiple cities, especially since we've heard so much about dubrovnik.  the tough problem with our finite time in europe is that we try to squeeze so much in but also have finite vacation time and definitely, just as limited funding!

so we're off, just the two of us...embarking following a glimpse of venice...and lamenting that our group is incomplete without jb.  warm sun on our grey london skin reminded us why we booked the cruise.

all nighter in CDG

the plan was to fly to paris, spend a few hours if not the night in the business class lounge, then continue onto our flight to venice where we set sail on the adriatic cruise.

that was the plan.  the reality is that the arrival terminal automatically puts us into this no-man's land where we either continue through passport control or go through gate security.  and since our boarding pass is dated for the next day, c'est impossible.

we were afraid to leave baggage and so asked the first we saw in the deserted area who happened to be a customs agent.  he promptly responded, "i'm not tourist information.  you'll have to go outside and ask them."  and when we asked information about logistics (are we allowed in here, what's open, etc.), she said, "the best place to get water is the tap in the bathrooms."

we're hanging out in departures.  and i got bottled water from a vending machine.  and i booked an airport hotel for our return flight.

i suppose it was poor planning on our part assuming that the this would be easy in a place where we found people inhospitable if not rude, and signs painfully unclear.  and even if we wanted to head into the city for night life, transportation information from charles de gaulle is only in french...terribly misleading when the splash page allows for translation to english but then all subsequent pages are in french.

we actually have plans to come back to paris in august for a weekend.  we've concluded that it has to be a kick ass experience to redeem any of our bad memories.

in the mean time, we need to kill a few hours before we can head into the lounge and maybe catch a few minutes of shut eye.

punting on the river cam

we went up to cambridge last saturday and it felt like another failure to launch as the day started off rough.  -the week before we tried to get up to cambridge but then got a flat tire.  last saturday we decided to take the train and due to unscheduled tube failures on the trusty-never-down central line and the longest bus ride of my life, we missed the train i booked and i stood in the ticket line hoping for some redemption.

turns out that when you purchase off-peak fare which is designated to specific times, no one monitors it so my tickets were good for any train.  i don't get that...so much lost sales for national express!  but i guess that saves a few quid for tourists.  another helpful tip - national express runs from liverpool to cambridge but takes about 1.5 hours with a gazillion stops that make time move slower.  southwest runs direct from kings cross to cambridge and takes about 1 hour.  that may be worth the extra few pounds.

so punting on the cam.  we got to cambridge - named for the river and its many bridges - and the weather was overcast.  we had a walking guide all printed out but then a good natured south african in flip-flops was looking for people who had booked punting so we got mixed up in the crowd.

we both think that punting is the best way to see the colleges.  and because the weather was so-so, it wasn't too crowded on the river so we were able to enjoy the ride.  we may even try it ourselves next time. 

jb was the perfect sightsee-er, laying down in the boat or resting her head on the side to watch ducks.  she was apparently a tourist attraction as other boats passing by took pictures of her.  so the 3 of us may turn up in some stranger's photo album...

cambridge still has the charm of an old college town but tourist friendly with the punting and market (in market square, of course).  the market had everything - cheese, meats, candy, hot food, trinkets and toys.  lots of restaurants and super crowded!

jb was wiped out at the end of the day.  many people stopped by to comment at her good behavior and asked to pet her.  our little girl passed out on the train and tube ride home.  it's a good life.