The Great Europe Adventure begins!

We had a very tiring train ride from Switzerland through Milano to Genoa, Italy where we
spent the night.  We got into Genoa late due to missing our train in Milano and lost an hour. 
Too tired to explore Genoa we checked into the hotel then walked and ate pizza with wine.
Got up early to catch the 6:45am train to Monte Carlo, yeah that is the one with 27 stops!
Long ride, but we caught glimpses of the Mediterranean along the way.  Made it to the
Marriott and met up with David & Denise.  Monte Carlo is unbelievable, there are multi-million
dollar mega-yachts anchored everywhere.  We went to the Jacques Cousteau Museum and
visited the royal palace of the Prince of Monaco.  Very nice to see a functioning palace.
Then we ate a great dinner at a tiny restaurant run by a father-son team that Denise had
found.  I had the tuna and it was awesome.  Had a lazy breakfast at a nearby cafe named Les
Oliviers, but didn't find any cousins.  Pretty good coffee and croissants though.
Then we took the train to Nice and picked up a rental car.  We have to pick up the boat on
Sunday afternoon so had a free day with no plans.  As we were driving and talking about
where we'd like to spend the night Denise shouted "Sainte Marie de la Mer, that might be by
the sea!"  So we all said "why not?" and took the next exit.  We drove for almost an hour
along this little country road following the river wondering if we should have done this or not.
Finally the terrain starting changing to marshy ground and we drove into this neat little town. 
We followed the road to the end where we could see the Mediterranean, passing all of these
little cafes and shops.  We found the greatest little resort town and it was the last Saturday
night of the "holiday season" so the local people had the town packed all having a great time. 
We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the local ambiance, had a snack with marinated
olives, fromage panini, beer and wine.  Then found a little restaurant and had a wonderful
fresh fish dinner.  Not knowing the local fish varieties our waiter brought out a platter of fresh
uncooked fish for us to choose.  Cindy and I split Loup, which was similar to speckled trout
and D&D chose the Lotte which was monkfish.  Both were incredibly good.  After dinner we
walked through the maze of little streets browing the shops and watching all of the locals
enjoying a good time eating and drinking.  Little kids running everywhere, it was truly a joy
to see a local small town, with NO highrises!
We watched some folk dancers performing in front of the bullfight arena.
Then we headed a few kilometers out of town to find our hotel for the night since the town
was totally booked.  It was already dark when we found it after taking a wrong turn.  It was
separate bungalows and we couldn't find an office so as David was trying to call I found a
doorbell hidden on a post.  So we finally made it and got a pretty good night sleep. 
Now we have to find another adventure before we get to the boat.
After a breakfast of coffee, juice, croissants and baguetes we headed to Port Cassafrieres.  It
was a nice ride through the french countryside.  We stopped at a fruit stand and then a
grocery for essentials before turning in the rental car and getting a taxi to the boat.
The boat is very nice, 13.5 meters long with 2 staterooms and a huge flying bridge.  After
being checked out we headed to Marseillan, a quaint little town with a harbor for the night. 
After going through 2 locks which were relatively easy, and with the women handling the
ropes and David spotting me, we crossed a small bay and managed to back the boat into a
spot alongside another boat while battling the wind.
We walked through town enjoying the sights then ate a great dinner at a restaurant at the
harbor.  The church was built in the 1100s and still in use today.  And of course found a
gelato stand.
Today is another beautiful day as I wait for coffee to finish brewing.

Thun

 This morning after a leisurely breakfast we walked over to the boat and enjoyed a nice cool ride across the lake to Thun, pronounced toon. 
Thun is a beautiful city with a castle. The castle was built in the 1100's and is now a museum. We enjoyed walking through all of the little streets looking at the old swiss houses.  We found a little bakery and shared a piece of delicious chocolate cake. 
On the walk back to the boat we stumbled upon a gelato shop and had to stop.
The town has three small rivers running through it and kids would jump from the bridges and let the 6 mph current carry them down to the next bridge.  It looked like they were having lots of fun, but I told Cindy if kids would try that back home they would probably get arrested.  Oh well, at least these kids know how to have real fun like we did growing up.
We made our way back to the boat and enjoyed a ride back to Interlocken.
We're packing up since we head to Genoa, Italy tomorrow morning.
Switzerland has been fun and is definately on our return list.

I wanted to ride on the side paddle wheeler but couldn't time it right

some captive they were about to torture

saw this sculpture as we were walking back to the boat.

Murren & Schilthorn

It is Tuesday and the weather here in Interlaken, Switzerland is beautiful.  When I opened my eyes this morning I could see the snow covered mountains right outside our patio door.  We slept with the patio door and window opened last night.  We don't have A/C and had really not cooled off enough from our long, hot day of travel.  The room cooled down really well during the night and was nice and cool this morning.  We have a corner room with a window on one side and a small patio/porch with a little table and 2 chairs on the other side.  The view is fabulous.  Our room includes breakfast in the morning from 7:30 - 9:30.  So we went on down about 8 for breakfast.  It was really nice.  There is an espresso coffee maker, fresh bread, croissants, 6 or 8 cereals, yogurt, ham, salami, cheese, fruit, fresh preserves, milk, OJ....... all set out for self service.  So we enjoyed a very filling, relaxed breakfast.

We headed out about 9:30 this morning for Schilthorn.  We took the train from Interlaken West to Interlaken Ost, just about a 5 minute ride.  Then onto another train to Lautenbraunen, then a gondola, another train, 2 more gondolas, with a stop in Murren (a beautiful alpine village, no cars, then finally arrived at Schilthorn.  We enjoyed the 360 degree view of the Alps for quite a while, and the cool temps.  It was 14 C or about 58 F, then went inside to the revolving restaurant and enjoyed the view while we enjoyed a light lunch.  We chose the soup buffet and had hungarian goulash soup, after I had finished my bowl Cindy asked what meat did I think was in it?  I told her I'd rather not know since it was so good!
On the way back we sat in Murren and watched the para-gliders take off from one of the ski slopes and ride the thermals up through the valleys.  You can see dozens of them in the valleys soaring overhead, it's fun to hear them whooping it up when they start spinning up in an updraft.  Then we started our trip back to Interlaken, gondolas and trains.  Really an enjoying voyage.  We stopped and picked up fresh pears, peaches, apples, figs, bread, and a bottle of wine for dinner.  The fruit is very good.
So another gorgeous day in the Swiss Alps.  Tomorrow we might take a lake tour on a classic side paddle wheeler.  Tanja at the B&B said there are castles along one of the lakes so we may have to check that out.

Interlaken, Switzerland

We left Rome at 7:15am on the fast train, about 200mph.  Amtrak could learn some lessons from Eurail.  Smooth, comfortable leather seats, quiet, the only negative was the a/c could have been cooler.  But our travels today weren't without challenges.  At Milano we switched trains, had 45 minutes so figured it wouldn't be a problem.  Well when we got to bin #4 our train was cancelled.  We frantically tried to find a worker who could speak english.  Finally Cindy found someone who said to get on train #35552.  OK, so we got on with about 7 minutes to spare but there was no assigned seating.  We finally found a compartment where we could sit together after the train was out of the station.  Then when we got to another station they put us on buses (which we knew about) and took us to Domodolossa.  We got back on the train and had a pleasant ride to Spiez.  When we got off the train the one to Interlaken had just pulled in so we hurried and got on that one and got to Interlaken  30 minutes early.  Found our way to the B&B and relaxed for a couple hours.  Watched it rain then when it cleared we walked to town and had dinner.  Cindy had fish and I had schnitzel with hash browns.  Both were very good but pricy.  Dinner was about $80 US. 
We decided to pass on the horse steak with vegetables....
Pretty little town, tomorrow we'll either take the train up to Murren then the gondola to the top of Schilthorn, or take a cruise on the lake.  Such tough decisions....

the view from our balcony

Last day in Rome

Cindy asked what I wanted to do on our last day.  So I told her something unusual.  

We tried to make mass at St. Peters but would have been about a 1/2 hour or longer wait in the hot sun so took the bus out to a small church.  After mass we saw the museum for the Capuchin Monk Order.  Here is a description from the webpage:
  "In 1631, the Capuchin friars - so-called because of the "capuche" or hood attached to their religious habit - left the friary of St. Bonaventure near the Trevi Fountain and came to live in the present one, of which only the church and cemetery remain. The remains of the deceased friars were transported from the old friary and laid to rest in this cemetery, underneath the present church. The bones were arranged along the walls, and the friars began to bury their own dead here, as well as the bodies of poor Romans, whose tomb was under the floor of the present Mass chapel."

They transported dirt from Jerusalem and all wanted to be buried in this dirt in their cemetery.  But quickly ran into the problem of not having enough space.  So they decided to dig up the bones and use them for artwork!

Check out the pictures and see if this place qualifies as unusual....(and again sorry about the composition, this was another place I wasn't supposed to take pictures)

This place was truly bizarre, but in a very holy way.
Rome has been fun, but hot, and crowded.  (Anybody who knows me knows I don't like crowds, I'm just a country boy at heart)
Looking forward to a couple days in Switzerland and cool weather, fondue, cheese, chocolate....

Sistene Chapel

This morning we did the Scavi Tour which took us underneath St. Peters Basilica.  When the Basilica was originally built, Constantine filled the top of Vatican Hill in order to create the floor.  This also preserved the grave and small shrine of St. Peter and also of many other Christians and people of other faiths.  The shrine was discovered in 1929 when doing work on the current Basilica.  Archaeologists then excavated a 70 meter corridor underneath the Basilica where they found numerous crypts in the Necropolis and also found the shrine built over St. Peters burial spot.  We were able to see some of these crypts and also part of the original shrine and most importantly the bones which are believed to be those of St. Peter.  Very inspiring.
After that we went to the Museo Vaticano and pushed our way through a sea of sardines through the exhibits to the Sistene Chapel.  It was very crowded in the museum and the Chapel.

"No photography or filming is permitted in the Sistine Chapel. The surveillance is authorized to collect any kind of photography made inside the Sistine Chapel."

Oops, guess that's why one of the security guards made me turn my camera off.  But don't tell anyone, I was able to sneak a few shots. Sorry about the composition but these were mostly taken holding my camera at waist level.  The last 3 pictures are of the Sistene Chapel.
Tomorrow we plan to make mass at St. Peters then enjoy a relaxing day since Monday morning we take a 7:15 train through Milano to Interlaken, Switzerland for a couple days.
We've enjoyed our stay in Rome.  The apartment is very nice and roomy, only 200 meters from the Museo Vaticano and 500 meters more to the entrance to St. Peters Square.  A very convenient but quiet area.