Our European Adventure

Punchy in Paris

2009europe — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:36:19 +0000

Thirty days into the world’s best family vacation, we were definitely feeling the full effects of tired feet, sleep deprivation, monument overload, and a touch of homesickness ! But it was a phenomenal city to end our tour and one we are all keen to visit again. You can fall in love with Paris for any one of a hundred reasons — art, architecture, churches, gardens, history, shopping, food and nightlife — just to name a few.

The Eurostar trip from London to Paris is fast and easy -- although Zack forgot to pack a knife for his scone.

Hello Notre Dame! Arriving at our studio apartment -- we were surprised that the view from the room was even better than advertised.

We were as impressed with the size and beauty of the Louvre's exterior, as we were by the gems found inside.

This simple painting drew quite a crowd.

Sometimes you have to use your imagination to picture what these ancient sculptures originally looked like.

Queen of the Nile

All of the best sights in Paris are located around the Seine.

We enjoyed the Paris Cafe scene at night -- perhaps a little too much. Not sure how we started this contest to see who could fit the beer glass in your mouth, but some of us were more talented than others.

We may have set a record on day two in Paris that will stand the test of time.

Climb Notre Dame, climb the Arc de Triomphe, walk the length of the Champs Elysee, check out Musee de l’Orangerie, take in the impressionists at the Musee d’Orsay, tour the Rodin Museum, late lunch on Rue Cler, ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Then collapse for the evening.

On a day that brought us to the top of Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower -- our best elevated ambience award goes to the gargoyle riddled church tower.

The 80 scenes in this rose window at Notre Dame must be amazing up close -- but from our vantage point it resembles a beautiful kaleidoscope

Despite the crazy traffic circle, the Arc de Triomphe looks almost sedate compared to the pictures we've seen of Hitler marching triumphantly past it into the city.

After 300 steps up the Arc de Triomphe, you're treated to a stellar view of the Champs Elysses and the other 11 streets radiating from Place Charles de Gaulle.

The Musee de l'Orangerie is a worthwhile stop for the water lilly rooms -- designed specifically to house an impressive slice of Monet's great work.

We were out of gas by the time we reached the Rodin Museum, but even so, we really appreciated the unusual treat of seeing all of his great works in the mansion and grounds where he once lived.

The family was easily able to replicate the weariness of Adam in Rodin's The Three Shades

You have to stand about a half mile away from the tower to fit it all into perspective.

In the case of the Eiffel Tower, I'm not quite sure a picture paints a thousand words. The delta in height between the top of the tower and rest of Paris creates a sensation of height and distance not replicated anywhere else.

We made a game day decision to scrap the plan to visit Versailles on our last day in Europe. Instead we opted for an agenda-free day to sleep in a bit, do some shopping and just see whatever came our way. It was a great finale to a fabulous trip.

On a fairly lightweight last day in Europe, we enjoyed the festive atmosphere around Sacre Cour in Montemarte.

For our last hurrah in Paris (and Europe), we capped things off with a stunning night cruise on the Seine. The Eiffel Tower is a stunner again -- and tops this view each hour when it erupts into a light show.

Jolly Old London

2009europe — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:19 +0000

We drove from Bath into London on Sunday — stopping first at Windsor for the Queen’s official residence at the palace and a peek at Eton College. This was the last we’d have a car, and by the time we finished with two major traffic jams on the M4 and then the Kanye West concert in Hyde Park — we were ok with that. The tube suited us all fine for the three days we rolled around London.

Windsor Palace probably wasn't this sunny and peaceful 500 years ago when Henry VIII was lording about

The staterooms at Windsor were the best that we toured all month -- pity we couldn't snap any pics inside the Queen's residence

First stop on our night tour of London was The Globe for fish and chips. This pub has served everyone from Shakespeare to Sinatra to the Panos' over the past 450 years.

Trafalgar Square was lit up and abuzz on Sunday night

It takes awhile to get used to the London Eye on the skyline -- but we left big fans

You can almost hear Winston Churchill's voice when you get your first look at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben on the Thames

After a great tour of Westminster Abbey -- the ponchos made their first appearance of the month long trip

The ravens still rule the roost at the Tower of London -- but the Crown Jewels always steal the show

Nothing like a huge pot pie to take the edge off. We were lucky to get four seats upstairs in the famous pie room at Newman Arms for lunch.

It didn't happen often, but the skies did clear from time to time

Christopher Wren's beautiful St Paul's Cathedral is too large and wedged into place to easily capture it on camera. This is the best we could do -- and you still can't make out its massive dome.

Our quest to climb every dome and tower in Europe brought us to the top of St Pauls - only to discover a huge storm had rolled in.

Dodging the rain (and even hail) became a preoccupation most of the time in London

While the Roman's left a few interesting artifacts behind from their stay in the UK, the Brits were more than determined to bring back half of Greece to the British Museum

It was an exciting time to be in London -- as the world premier of Harry Potter 6 happened in Leicester Square while we were in town

A Little Night Music was a big hit with the whole family

The early bird gets to watch -- we learned the hard way that you have to get to Buckingham Palace early if you want to actually see the changing of the guard. Our 2nd attempt notched this spot on the fence.

The whole routine took 1/2 an hour and included two marching bands and lots of guys with guns. These two guys are finishing off the guard change while the band played a tribute to Michael Jackson (Beat It)

The London Eye experience was awesome -- and for once we didn't have to climb any steps to see the view.

From 443 feet -- London really comes into view from the Eye

London is such a great cityand we ran ourselves pretty ragged trying to take in just the big sights. We managed to see plays on two nights — and the whole family enjoyed them tremendously. The Observer was a great drama put on in the National Theatre and Stephen Sondheim’s musical A Little Night Music at the Garrick Theater was a big hit too. Even the kids were still singing show tunes two days later. London is also the first place where we could really feel the trip starting to wind down to a close — and with Paris in our sights we headed to St Pancras for the train ride across the channel.

Beautiful Bath

2009europe — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:27:25 +0000

Bath was appreciated by the Romans and British royals alike. The natural hot springs were attraction enough to develop a city almost exclusively focused on tourism. Today it’s a perfectly preserved Georgian city with great sites, shopping, and restaurants. Architecturally interesting and just fun to wander around — Bath is the most popular tourist spot outside of London and just a couple hours away by car or train.

We stayed at a fantastic B&B that treated us to the best food of the trip each morning and enjoyed the local cider at some great watering holes. We even took in a George Bernard Shaw play at the Theatre Royal.

Bath is noted for it's honey colored limestone and uniform architecture style -- this wedge of The Circus exemplifies what you see all over town.

The River Avon runs right through the center of town

Like most British towns, Bath prides itself on plenty of greenery, parks and gardens

We saw scores of people in European squares doing the statue act -- but this guy was so good a pigeon actually landed on his head !

Bath Abbey is the centerpiece of downtown

Lovely Bath Abbey has some of the finest fan vaulted ceilings in the country

This "insider's view" of the abbey clock was part of the tower climb and tour

The view from the top of Bath Abbey

There are a lot of jokes that can be made about this chocolate sculpture

The huge, inexplicable hare statues sort of stood out in Victorian Bath's central plaza

The Athole House B&B was one of our favorite stays of the trip -- and Wolfgang was definitely our favorite host!

Driving the English Countryside

2009europe — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:58:42 +0000

Who knew driving a big stickshift car on the wrong side of the road could be so much fun? Well, it is fun for the driver at least — I’m not sure that everyone else would agree!

Having been herding around on public transportation since arriving in Europe, it has been fun to have absolute control of your day. If only those pesky roundabouts didn’t appear every kilometer or two.

We have three or four days to explore the countryside around Southwest England, using Bath as our base. And we spent the first half of it on the road taking in the gorgeous countryside visiting little piddly towns and big ticket stops like Stonehenge. As Zack said, it’s almost too quaint — as every turn of the road unveils another thatched roof cottage, an ancient pub, or unspoiled little farm village.

A population of 350 people keep the medieval town of Castle Combe in good enough shape to consistently win the "Prettiest Village in England" award

Avebury features an interesting stone circle about a mile in diameter -- and plenty of sheep grazing nearby. We stopped here on the way to its more famous cousing Stonehenge.

We stopped for roadside potty break and noticed these rocks piled up in a field...

Salisbury is a fantastic old town with one of the prettiest churches we visited (and we toured 20 of them)

Dave easily manhandled England's tallest spire at Salisbury Cathedral

I wonder what Sunday attendance was like at St Michaels cathedral -- having a mile hike up Glastonbury Tor ensured that only the most earnest Christians worshipped here until an earthquake knocked most of it down. It was active from 500 to 1250 AD.

Glastonbury and The Tor have many mystical and mythical connections -- including fairies, King Arthur and Avalon. The nearby town now hosts the UK version of Woodstock each year.

Feeling a bit tired after hiking up the huge Tor hill at the end of a long day.

Not sure what the real story of the Tor is -- but I know the view is truly inspiring and you walk down feeling pounds lighter.

Wells Cathedral is one of the oldest and largest gothic cathedrals in England -- and placed in a tiny little town that is now well off the beaten path.

We put nearly 400 miles on our trusty Ford station wagon

Goodbye Med — Hello Alps !

2009europe — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:58:28 +0000

A very interesting series of train rides brought us from Tuscany up into the Italian Alps and then the Swiss Alps. We have learned to love the ease of European train travel where two hours and a beer later you end up in an entirely different world. (The washing machines take longer here than moving between climates.) And it’s so much easier than all the nonsense of security and air travel.

Thanks to the Internet, we found a vacation rental condo / chalet in Zermatt, Switzerland and ended up in a terrific two bedroom chalet with a wraparound balcony for about 25% less than a normal hotel room in town. It provided a great chance to stretch out a bit, do some wash, and catch up on some much needed sleep.

Zermatt is a tiny little village at the foot of the Matterhorn — and it doesn’t allow cars — so you have to take a special train up into this pristine little village. Perhaps best of all, there is absolutely nothing of historic significance here — so you have to just chill out in the great outdoors and enjoy it all by riding cable cars around and hiking from peak to peak. I did Zermatt in 1983 with some college buddies, in 1989 with Karen and now 2009 with the whole family. As far as these things go, not much has changed — which is why we love it so much.

This is the view from the balcony of our chalet at Casa Vanessa II

The first day in Zermatt we walked into town to get some breakfast and light supplies for our first hike. We took the cable car system from Zermatt up about 11,000 feet and walked around a glacier lake before starting the trek back down to town. Although it’s mostly downhill, it’s actually pretty strenuous and bites at your knees and achilles the whole way. And it’s also unbelievably beautiful.

One of our favorite features of Zermatt is how the town disappears into a picturesque postage stamp as you head up the cable cars

What can you say?

Hiking down what might be the prettiest place on earth

As the glacier melts in the summer, it provides a beautiful back drop and audio accompaniment

This is the land of Heidi -- can you hear Edelweiss playing in the background?

These Swiss dairy cows thought Zack was very cute and authentic

The 3 1/2 hour hike took its toll -- Karen, Zack and Kayla enjoy the big down comforters. Who knew downhill could hurt so bad?

On the second day in Zermatt we decided to tackle the Kleine Matterhorn — the slightly smaller peak that sits up in the glacier belt. Of course we went up the easy way — taking three different cable cars over the course of an hour until we reached the 12,500 foot summit. You get a view of 20+ peaks, including the Matterhorn itself, and you’re deposited on a glacier where summer skiing is going full tilt. We didn’t have time to put the skiis on this trip — but we had a ton of fun on top of the world.

The cable car station at Kleine Matterhorn (Little Matterhorn) is the highest point in Europe that mortals can reach without a pick axe.

Glaciers, glaciers everywhere...

You have to love a good snowball fight on July 1

This is the Glacier Palace -- they dug a really cool cave below the surface of the Little Matterhorn to show off what it's like inside the glacier.

As we headed down, a storm started to blow in -- and it brought this rectangular cloud along with it. Never seen anything like it -- and the camera captured it perfectly. It's a REAL 90 degree edge to a puffy cloud.

The view heading down from the Little Matterhorn -- and a neighboring cable car heading up

After the second day poking around the peaks of Zermatt we treated ourselves to a tremendous Swiss Fondue meal at the Stockhorn Restaurant.

Switzerland was a great way to break things up before heading north to the UK. Tomorrow we head out on a 5:39am! train to Geneva before catching a noon flight to southwest England and a few nights in the great little town of Bath.

Florence – Birthplace of the Renaissance

2009europe — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:57:11 +0000

An early bird train from Rome brought us into Florence by late morning. A charming medieval city that remains much the same today as it did 600 hundred years ago, we quickly discovered that its cobblestones and narrow streets were not very conducive to our caravan of luggage wheelers. We look like the Ringling Brothers Circus when we arrive in town and the route from the train station to the pension challenged our elephants!

The hotel Il Bargellino is run by a native Florentine (Pino) and his American wife Carmel. It was a very quaint two story B&B styled home that dates back to the 1500s. Best of all was the roof top garden terrace, which serves as ground zero for all of the guests. In the afternoons and evenings, the guests assemble there with their wine bottles to share their tales from the day. Everyone is so friendly — including Leopold, the resident parrot.

Kayla and Leopold got chummy on the first day at Il Bargellino

Florence is the birthplace of the Renaissance — and so we naturally spent most of our time in the churches and art museums that hold all of these treasures. We are all now quasi-experts on Italian artists for sure — and names of famous Italian lineages like Medici and Pitti just roll of the tip of our tongues.

The famous dome designed by Brunelleschi peeks around the facade of Il Duomo

The Byzantine era baptistry next to the Dome is home to the most amazing mosaic ceiling that we've seen on the trip

The contest to design these doors for the Baptistry is widely recognized as kicking off the Renaissance. Ghiberti won, ironically leaving Brunelleschi with lots of free time to figure out how to build the largest dome of its day.

San Lorenzo's reliquary houses the finger of the apostle Matthew. This whole idea of saving pieces of your favorite saints is new to us protestants from the US.

The ancient Ponte Vecchia bridge crosses the Arno River and is home to dozens of jewelry stores today.

After the high prices in Rome, we were glad to find the Euro Store in Florence. The dollar store in the mall has nothing on this place.

17 foot tall David is literally a larger than life stunning work of art. Zack covertly snapped this picture inside the Accademia when the guards weren't watching.

We headed up to a large piazza overlooking the city for a spectacular sunset

This dome climb was awesome and quite different than St Peters. At one point you literally head straight up the face of the dome, instead of spiraling around it.

After the hike up the 462 steps of the Dome, we were rewarded with this great view of the city

After two and half weeks in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, we are turning our sights north for a change of pace (and temperature) in Switzerland. We embark on a 8 hour, three train journey through Italy and into the Alps for Zermatt !

Rome – Take II

2009europe — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:47:46 +0000

Waking up in the port of Civitavecchia — we drew a long straw and walked straight off the cruise ship, no lines or waiting, right at 6:30am. Hauled the 300 pounds of luggage we are carrying over to the station and caught an early morning train back to our hotel, beating the morning rush hour. (by the way, we’re not sure who actually works in southern Italy — as you never see a business person and the streets are full of men standing around)

Being ahead of schedule and without our hotel room ready, we hustled over to the Vatican Museum — the one really big site that still needed to be crossed off our list. Over the past five years Dave has become a big Italian history and art nerd — primarily through reading books like The Pope’s Ceiling, Brunelleschi’s Dome, and Galileo’s Daughter. So this was a highly anticipated stop on the tour.

We are excited to be revisiting Vatican City and walking over the Vatican Museum

We were pleasantly surprised to not face massive lines as we entered the museum (although every room insides was packed like sardines)

Young Raphael's School of Athens adorns the walls of the Pope's Chamber in the Vatican Palace

Michelangelo's recently restored Sistine Chapel -- the 1st wonder of the Renaissance art world

23 years after he painted the ceiling, an encore performance produced The Last Judgement, an incredible alter wall fresco

This is one massive museum -- you could easily spend 4-6 hours here (well, at least some of us could...)

To each his own...Zack and Kayla enjoy the bread and pastry from the tasty Il Fornaio bakery

While Dave consults the map about our next stop -- Zack works the crowd in true Rome begging fashion

We spent the rest of the day tooling around some of our favorite piazza’s and sights and doing a bit of shopping. Oh yeah, and there was a 2 hour nap thrown in there somewhere too.

We leave Rome feeling like we really got a chance to know and appreciate it — yet there is plenty of meat left on the bone should we be fortunate enough to visit again.

Early to bed because we have a 7:30am train to catch to Florence. Despite the number and size of bags in our entourage, we are getting efficient at packing up and hitting the road !

Cruise Wrap Up

2009europe — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:01:00 +0000

Eleven nights and seven wonderful ports of call later, we were sad to say goodbye to the Celebrity Solstice and all of the good times that the family had on board.

Thought we’d throw in a few extra pictures from the cruise that didn’t quite fit into the “ports of call” theme of the earlier posts.

Rose on the veranda

Big soup bowls in the Murano dining room

Zack catches up on the news on formal night -- with flesh tone socks

The prettiest girls on board

Family photo opp on the last formal night

Kayla looking good in her new dress

24 years and still in love...

We’re heading for land — another day in Rome and then a weekend in Florence. The journey continues…

Touring Italy’s Amalfi Coast

2009europe — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:38:03 +0000

It was tough to decide what to do in Naples — all of the advance advice from the books and Cruise Critics panned the port itself but raved about the ruins of Pompeii, climbing up Mount Vesuvius, taking the hydrofoil to Capri, or doing the cliffside drive around the Amalfi coast. Confronted with these choices, I know I spent more time doing research for the cruise stop than we were going to spend in the port itself. And in the end, I left the playbook and did something completely different. We rented a boat and skipper to show us the Amalfi coast from the water!

Our skipper Francesca picks us up in our 21 foot traditional Sorrento vessel -- called a Smeraldo. The mast is cool but purely decorative.

Leaving the Marina Piccola in Sorrento

Zack and Kayla enjoying the sun deck as we head toward the island of Capri

The famous rocks of Faraglione -- where Bill Gates' boat was tied up the week before we arrived

Zack and Dave dive in to swim through the Green Grotto

Approaching the rocks of Faraglione on the south side of Capri

Kayla and Dave enjoying the open seas

Family shot by Francesca as we approach beautiful Positano

Our one hour stop in Positano was a tease -- we must come back !

The best pizza of the trip -- pizza margherita in Positano

Kayla reclines on the Smeraldo's sun deck as we head back for Sorrento

Athens — the motherland

2009europe — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:42:11 +0000

Do you speak Greek? That was the question of the day during our visit to Athens. They check out my credit card, see the Panos name, and then the question is asked. My answer — “no, but I love Greek food.”

Of all the ports we visited, Athens wins “Last Place”. Congested, extra hot, dirty, and lacking any form of urban planning — we didn’t enjoy the hometown of Grandpa Tom the way we thought we might. What it lacks in looks and charm, it makes up in Greek ruins and food. Plus, it was the last chance to sample the delicious Mythos beer — which we learned to love in the Greek Isles.

This ancient theatre at the foot of the Acropolis is still used for concerts today

Maybe we should have gone earlier...

We were bummed to learn the Parthenon was under reconstruction, until we learned that it has been this way since 1983. My speedy Greek brothers.

The urban sprawl of Athens -- millions of four story apartment buildings. With all of those beautiful Greek islands, would you choose to live here?

The was more room for a family photo on the back side of the Parthenon

The dual temple of Athena and Poseidon on the Acropolis

The doric temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved classical temple in Greece

The Temple of Zeus, 16 columns remaining out of the original 104

Yummm, traditional Greek gyros in the Plaka neighborhood of Athens

One extra bit of excitement was the attempted pickpocketing on the Athens metro. We were crowded in a metro car and the guy standing next to me looks down and picks up a blue cruise ship wallet from the floor — he pulls out the first card and it’s Kayla’s cruise pass. Turns out that somebody had unsnapped the left thigh pocket of my shorts, pulled out this card carrying wallet the cruise line gives you, then dropped it when they realized it wasn’t worth anything. Well, it was worth something to us — it would have been a hassle getting back on board without it. But the real blessing is that he didn’t try the right pocket — that was where my wallet was (where I thought it was safe and sound behind the two snaps on the short pocket.)

We’ve been a bit rough on our review of Athens here — but don’t get us wrong, it was still a great stop and something we wouldn’t want to have missed. But compared to the beauty of virtually everywhere else that we’ve been on this trip, Athens came up just a bit short. At this point in the cruise, we head for our third day at sea — which we always enjoy — and then the final stop in Naples / Amalfi coast.