Tina & Rob’s excellent adventure

We are in Nazare Portugal, a beautiful old fishing village turned tourist mecca, however, old traditions still remain. The ladies dress in traditional attire: scarf, embroidered apron, and crinoline skirt. They sell roasted nuts and nut cookies from their street stands. You also see racks of fish drying in the sun. You can see them being sold by the couple in the picture. Luckily it is off-season and there are very few tourists. We have rented another apartment for a week and will spend the time visiting the surrounding area.

Once again, having the luck of the Irish with us, we stumbled upon the city of Salamanca. Rob sort of looked at the map and picked it for its proximity to Portugal. Much to our surprise it is a gem in the middle of the plateau land of North Spain. Beautiful Cathedrals and architecture provide the backdrop to the University of Salamanca. People come here to study the purest form of Spanish, Castilian. Tomorrow we head for Portugal, still not sure where yet, but we’re working on it. Maybe we’ll use a map and a dart board this time…..

Ciao Italia! Heading toward Spain and Portugal, we stopped by our friend’s place in France. Ed and Sabine and daughter Eva invited us to join them on their holiday. It is in a picturesque little village near Lyon. I wish we had photos of the landscape, it was so beautiful with the fall colors, but we had some rainy days. As you can see, the puppies, Dodge and Isa, have grown quite a bit since we saw them last! The country house is a great get away with lots of room for the kids and dogs. How do we manage to end up in such great spots? We must be wearing Irish underwear, we are so lucky!

We are at the half-way point, 6 months into our trip. Unbelievable how fast the time is going.

We’ve been to 12 countries, traveled by plane, train, bus, ferry and car (Booger’s odometer just turned over 10,000 km) and LOTS of walking!

We’ve read 16 books, and only watched approximately 100 hours of TV (this includes soccer matches), Struggled with various languages…Italian, French, German, Czech, Arabic, Welsh, Dutch (no struggle for Rob, of course, just me) and English, (a struggle in some places in the UK!) 4 Currencies exchanged so far..Euros, British Pounds, Egyptian Pounds, and the CZ Kroner. We have booked lodging in 38 different accomodations, some better than others, but all quite acceptable. Our favorite so far is La Casa di Alice (courtyard of apt pictured) here in Verona. The owner, Antonella has made a home away from home for us weary travelers. It is clean, comfortable, and has all the nice little touches provided (eg: snacks in the fridge and chocolates on the pillow)

So far, Egypt has been the most interesting and culturally different spot we have visited. However, Italy also has it’s share of ancient ruins, interesting culture, AND the food is 100 percent better. I’m going to miss shopping in the little markets, and cooking with fresh, delicious ingredients.

In December we head to South Africa, then on to Singapore, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. We are really looking forward to exploring these new and exciting places. And exchanging 5 more currencies!

We do miss family and friends sometimes, and love hearing from you all, so please keep those e-mails coming!

If you go to Italy be sure to put Verona on your itinerary. It is a beautiful town along the River Adige. Lots of Roman remnants…walls, gates and amphitheaters .. in the one pictured they have live opera performances! Verona is also home to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Their houses are here in Verona. You can visit Juliet’s house (picture of balcony is from her house). It is amazing the number of people who leave notes and love letters to her. The tale has touched them, I guess.

Welcome to Vesuvius National Park. Trash pick up does not seem to be a priority in this area. Everywhere you go there are mounts of junk laying next to the roads.

We did however climb Vesuvius. The last picture is of the town of Caserta Vecchia where we are staying during our visit to the Naples area. Our quiet mountain retreat after a hectic day on the road.

Getting to the archaeological sites is the interesting part, as they sit in the middle of the urban blight of Naples. Rob did a great job negotiating the roadways where traffic lights are either not working or ignored entirely! Then throw in some crazy scooters and fearless pedestrians for good measure and you get the picture. I drove him crazy shouting “look out” every 2 minutes!

Herculaneum is one of the towns buried after the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The second one being Pompeii. The difference is that Herculaneum was covered by volcanic mud which kept the remains more intact while Pompeii was covered by the ash of the eruption. Both sites amazingly show the towns frozen in time; the grand houses with frescoed walls and mosaic floors and the shops still holding clay pots intact inside the counters. It is believed Herculaneum at the time of its destruction had around 5,000 inhabitants, Pompeii 20,000.

We drove from Lucca towards Naples taking the Appian Way, the original road leading to Rome. We were hoping to see remnants of old Rome, but only saw the remains of an aqueduct. It was an interesting drive though, through small towns and agricultural areas, tree farms, and greenhouses. We stopped at the land’s end town of Terracina, with its beautiful beaches, and fishing boats. There the fishermen have their catches weighed and sold at the fish auction right off the boats.

We took a 30 minute train ride from Lucca to Pisa to see the famous tower. From the train station it is a 30 minute walk to the Piazza del Duomo where the Tower, Cathedral and Baptistery stand. Other impressive buildings belong to the University of Pisa.

We rented a small apartment approximately 1 Kilometer outside the walled center of Lucca. You can walk all along the top of the medieval wall that wraps around the city. It is all tree-lined paths for pedestrians and bicycles. Lucca is a great town, known especially for their wine and olive oil. But the real treasure lies in the shops. Beautiful shoes, clothes and purses beckon from the windows. Did I mention Puccini? The composer of La Boheme and Madame Butterfly was born in Lucca.