Jan 5- Pisa
The morning started at our 5am workout, 6:30 breakfast and 7:30 leave normal routine. We all drove through the countryside while the sun rose. Our first stop was to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was constructed in 1350. For a while it was at a 9% lean and in real danger of falling. In 1990 a committee was formed to figure out how to support the tower. It has been reinforced by a counterbalanced weight underground and steel cable braces. The engineers did such a good job of stabilizing it, that it started to completely correct and slowly started to straighten up. The tourism board told the engineers that no one wanted to visit the Straight Tower of Pisa, and the engineers had to take away some of the improvements they had made! Now, it is safe and returned to its original leaning angle. It actually is part of a church and is technically a bell tower. There is a baptismal church and cathedral beside it (which we did not know). There are a few museums that surround it but for us it was really a picture and coffee stop. I got a fake Burberry bag to match my vey real coat from the previous day.
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| Top: Selfies, of course! Bottom- tourist picture fun |
From there was a scenic drive to nice along the Apenine mountains. We drove past dozens of hill towns and where the quarry marble. The road had the most tunnels of any road in Europe, 167 tunnels. Our guide challenged us to guess and I (Cecil) guessed the Price is Right answer (with 3 tunnels which was the lowest) and won a "lame duck" prize of lemon flavored soap from the perfume factory (more detail on that later). We passed into France from Italy still with the alps to one side and the Mediterranean on the other. Sheer cliffs, mountain towns, ocean and trees were everywhere. Beautiful, but impossible to photograph. We got to see Monaco , Eze and Niche and the other beautiful towns bordering the sea.
We stopped at the Fragonard perfume factory and learned a little on how perfume and soaps are made. They use a lot of products from that area of eze in the producrs. It looks more like a lab than what I expected. We also learned the difference between the different type of body sprays: Parfume is 24% oils, Toilette is 10% oil and Cologne is 5% alcohol. We got some toilette sprays and called it a day. I will not lie the soaps, hand creams and actual perfume was super tempting. It was still a beautiful day and we had dinner and a drive still to do so we all loaded up, checked in the hotel then got back in the coach for the optional excursion.
We first drove up the hill, leaving Nice, for Eze. We stopped at a viewpoint and enjoyed a view of Elton Johns (and other very rich) people's homes and the peninsula. We even got to see a local tiny car that seemed no more than a high speed golf cart with a cover. Anyway, It was particularly striking because of the sunset. Then we disembarked in Eze and walked up the hill past some super exclusive hotels and where Niche wrote some of his novels. At the top of the hill was the view and the remnants of the castle that stood there. The gardens and cannons and some walls were left. Some shops had sprung up in addition to the hotel. We walked through the twisted streets and visited the baroque church before walking down to Pinocchio Restaurant and enjoying dinner. Evening was funny with normal conversations about tv shows and movies. The ride back let us see Eze and Nice lit up, but no where as nice as sunset.
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| UL- View of the streets un Eze, UR- selfie at the lookout, Mid- sunset over the mediterranean, UL- more sunset photos, UR- the road climbing up the hill to Eze |
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| Our favorite selfie during our excursion |
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| Cecil with the crazy small could-almost-be-a-fast-golf-cart-car |
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| UL- Eze, UM- the restaurant sign, UR- view of the castle, Mid- Streets in the old Eze area, BL- sunset, BR- more streetview pictures, it looked like something out of a movie or assasins creed video game |
Jan 6- Nice
We started the morning with a drive down the promenade in Nice (pronounced Niece) in the south of France. The promenade was about 5 miles long and had scores of hotels and restaurants on our right, including some very old iconic hotels that have been in movie scenes. On our left we were blessed with another beautiful day and got to see the sun against a nearly cloudless blue sky.
The promenade was interrupted by the small international airport. It was a relatively small airport, but it did have many private jets parked. As we turned away from the waterfront, we could see the Alps in the background. They were about 1 1/2 hours away and it is possible to spend a morning skiing and then drive back to the ocean and spend the afternoon waterskiing. We kept on passing these tiny one story buildings that were really busy and had "Casino" on it. They were all really busy and we were surprised how early the French liked to gamble, until we were told that these were just grocery stores that were called "casino".
We drove about 15 minutes until we were in the town of Saint Paul and walked into the center of town. There was a famous French painter Chagall who lived here and is now buried here as well. One of the more quirky places was La Colome D'Or, where a very broke Picasso traded artwork for drinks.
We then went into St. Paul de Vence. This was a town from the 1700's that was an small enclosed town with city walls that were close to 30 feet high. We had some free time and were able to roam before we had to head back into town. We walked through a large park in the middle of the city and passed a large water foundatin that was easily half a football field in size. instead of one large fountain, it was a series of close to 100 fountains that looked like a blown up bed of nails when they were all going at the same time. We then ate at a very exclusive restaurant (not really, just Subway). The funniest part about Subway was how to order. Because of the metric system, there is no 6 inch or footlong, it was 15cm and 30cm.
After our free time we loaded back into the coach for Monaco.It was a scenic drive down a part of the promenade and heading through the bays to Monaco. Our tour guide told us hat there is so much money in Monaco that you can smell the money. It is a country of 30,000. Citizenship is obtained only through birth. Wee passed through three or four small towns along the water. We went into Monaco without any difficulty, but it was something else. There was a Ferrari dealership right next to a Porsche dealership. There were also some impressive older buildings and of course the royal palace. We even saw royalty! Princess Caroline was being driven to the palace when we were trying to cross the road. Dinner was at a local restaurant and the food was pretty good. It was time for our introduction to the Monaco Grand Prix, the only Formula 1 race that is held on regular roads. We saw the roads that they used from above when we were on the palace, including the starting line and the pit section. Then we got back on the bus and drove up the pole positions until we were at position 1 and stopped the bus, then Giovanni (the driver) gunned the engine and off we went! Then it was time to go to the other city in Monaco, Monte Carlo. It took a whole 20 seconds to drive from Monaco to Monte Carlo (no joke). We then kept on walking up the road and got to the main parking area of the Casino Monte Carlo. There was a veritable who's who of expensive cars here. We went into the casino and paid our cover fee and went in. It was suprisingly small, although there was gold plating and really expensive furtniture everywhere. We did play $10 each in blackjack and then left to spend some time in the gift shops. I was less than impressed with Monaco, because it seems to strike me as everything that was wrong with society today. Monaco seemed to be all about taking from people, like through cars, money, and clothes. other than the royal family, there are no real significant contributions from Monaco, like famous artists or scientiss. I was glad we went but wouldn't go back for any reason.
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| UL- posing in front of the bay and where the forumla one races go, UR- view from the cliffs, Bottom: the castle |
Jan 7- Arle
Today we started west and after an alarm snafu we missed a workout but were on the bus at 7:45. Out main stop for he day was Arles. We walked through the local markets first. They had chicken, pigs and fresh food longbow the the normal junk stores, clothing stores and other flea market kind of things. People there apparently buy the animals and then slaughter them at home to have it as fresh as possible. We saw some Romanesque churches and buildings followed by a cafe made famous in a Van Gogh painting. It was an ancient Roman city and even has a smaller, albeit it, better persevered Roman amphitheater. We walked around it a bit, but it was so cold and their was a really biting wind and wanted lunch so we only walked around half of it. The views from the top tower were beautiful and the original archways were staggering in their age. It's funny how the theater looks. They still use it for equestrian events and theater. The floor of it reminds me of the horse rings I showed in as a kid. Some things don't change much!
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| UL- view from the outside of the colosseum, UR- inside the colosseum, BL- view of the Arles river, BR- archways insisde the colosseum |
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| L- old church with great carvings, UR- the actual cafe made famous by van goh (bottom left is the painting) |
From Arles it was back on the bus for a ton of driving. Honestly, it was a boring and somewhat tiresome day. We had three rest stops and most of it cec watched moves and I alternated between sleeping and reading. Boring. The sunset was nice, the included dinner at the hotel was decent and the bed was welcome. Not the most exciting day, we were happy when it was done.
Jan 8- Barcelona
We started out with our local guide after a wonderful breakfast and workout. We were staying in the Spanish square and saw the monuments for the rivers as well as a bullring that had been converted to a shopping mall. There were a ton of interesting architectural buildings from mid-evil to minimalist. We saw where they had the olympics and worlds fair as well. The Olympic buildings are still all used for public good, people were even playing tennis in the cold when we drove by. The city is at maximum width and length. It is boxed in by other towns, the sea and mountains. The port is gigantic and very busy. As we drove around, most of the buildings we're newer (1900's) or newer but there were smatterings of mid-evil architecture, monuments and art interspersed. Many of the houses were beautiful with rod iron and other decorations. Famous homes of Gaudi (famous spanish architect) and other super elite were very impactful. Picasso learned art here and even has his own museum. Today was actually a big shopping day as it was after three kings day. The city celebrates the kings who came to visit baby Jesus and gifts are brought. In fact, papa Noel (Santa) doesn't bring presents, the kings do.
Our second stop was La Sangria Familia, a church dedicated for the holy family. It was started but then Guadi dedicated 40 years, unpaid, to building the church. He is now buried in the crypt under the church. He made three main facades: the passion, the glory and the nativity. It took 135 years and still isn't done. It is estimated to be done in 2026. There are fruit bowls representing the glory of he harvest in Murano glass. The church had an explosion of decoration everywhere. The passion facade was the easiest to read and done in cubist sculpture. Cecil and I were not great fans, but if art is meant to be shocking it succeeded in that. I think we just prefer traditional styled churches, or the ancient churches.
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| Posing in front of la sangria familia church |
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| Different pictures from la sangria familia. UL- showing the glory decoration, everything is decorated. Mid- la sangria familia from far away, showing it is still under construction. UR, BR- The passion cubist decoartions. BL- crypt where Gaudi was buried. BM- showing the fruit bowls on the left next to the glory facad on the front |
After the church we walked around some of the city. Near the church there is the main shopping center as well as the bar Picasso frequented. Barcelona is second to London for shopping so there were many places to window shop. It reminded cec and I of New York City, that 1950's style and/or art Nuevo style. There was tons of street art everywhere from signs, carvings and other building decorations. There are pieces of older buildings around like the cathedral de Santa Cruz, with a traditional gothic style. There were also old palaces and restored buildings mostly made into museums but still nice to see.
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| Walking tour through Barcelona |
After our tour we went to the aquarium. The walk there was pleasant and we passed the statue of Marco Polo pointing at New York as well as the rest of the harbor. The aquarium was nice, but nothing special. Good exhibits. After that we went to a sidewalk tapas bar and got some tapas and pizza and paella for lunch. We wandered around looking at street vendors, city streets, street art and even graffiti until we only had around an hour until we had to be at our meeting time for the evening program. We were walking back but took the taxi so we would have some time to rest. We went back, changed and then relaxed until 5.
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| L- the marina, UR-Caganer statues. They are all pooping because it is supposed to be good luck (aka back int he day to fertilize fields) and how it is a mark of someone famous or culturally relevant as well (we liked yoda and gollum but they also had trump and clinton both) , MR- art representing marjor arists in madrid, BR- columbus statue pointing to the USA |
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| Pictures from the aquarium |
At 5, we met for the dinner and flamenco show. Dinner was a gigantic and just seemed to be a never ending wave of food. We tried everything from berry salad, to paella, octopus, and cannelloni. They had a chocolate fountain, macaroons and dozens of other desserts to. Oh, and of course, Sangria (yummy!). The show has been running since 1970. The flamenco is a passionate dance and is impromptu dance, never the same twice. It was very emotional and strong footwork. It reminded me of river dance actually. Basically it was Spanish opera with dancers. Cecil and I both loved it. It was Karen's favorite dinner show so far.
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| Flamenco Dancers |
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| Selfie and food examples from the show's buffet |
A couple of miscellaneous tidbits from our time: Our guide also mentioned the infamous siesta. Siesta was created to give people a break in the diner because it was to hot to work without air conditioning. Now a lot of shops close in the afternoon for a siesta on tradition. Some other places work an hour longer M-Th and get out early on Friday to have a longer weekend. Sounds nice, right? The local language is Catalonian, a mix of Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Catalonians have a sect that would also like to separate from Spain, due to cultural and economic divides… however it is unlikely to happen (as likely as Texans abdicating in the USA).
Jan 9- Traveling to Madrid
Weather finally caught up with us as we left Barcelona. We had to leave at 7:45 and we're rushed through our workout and breakfast and onto the coach. The snow and fog made travel slower and the countryside that was supposed to be nice was covered in a grey fog and ice crystals. We had grey weather and naps and/or books until noon. We had a lunch stop and drove some more. The country was dotted with windmills for energy and farms. Actually, a lot of the old spaghetti westerns were filmed. They put on a movie as it was a distance to Madrid, we were grateful to be there.
Unfortunately, we only had an hour break but then we had another panoramic drive and dinner. We drove through the rich areas, including the palace and mountain views. There was also one of the largest 'normal' churches I've ever seen- like basilica size. The buildings reminded me of New England and Barcelona, lots of brick and iron work with old things dotted in. However, in the center were older buildings with more columns and art strewn everywhere. We also drove past a ham museum, they are all about fried pig here and the center point of Madrid. We saw dozens of fountains (Cebolis fountain the goddess of fertility and Neptune were my favs), plazas and museums. We learned a couple of miscellaneous fun fact: Madrid symbol is a bear eating strawberries, no one knows why. In the main plaza on New Years people gather and eat a grape every hour for good luck and celebration.
Dinner was ok. We were in a converted dukes wine cellar that was now a restaurant and enjoyed some nice cured ham, bland soup, well done suckling pig (cec disagrees about it being good), and average apple tart. The best part by far was the sangria (yummy sweetened fruit wine- if you've never had it it's delish). We had some musical entertainment with our desert and a trio playing the guitars and an accordion entertained with some Spanish songs. It didn't hurt that they were funny either.
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| UR- dinner in the duke's wine cellar, everything else showing Madrid at night |
Jan 10 - Madrid & Toledo
Morning workout and breakfast were done by 8:45am. Then, we started the morning on an excursion to the old city of Toledo. This used to be the capital of Spain until 1561 when the capital was moved to Madrid. There were a lot of sales going on and our tour guide was telling us how during Christmas in Spain they traditionally give small gifts for Christmas and on Jan 5th that is when the big gift exchange is given, because that is when the three kings presented the gifts to Jesus. So it works out for us because the stores have had pretty big sales since we have been in Spain.
Toledo is one of the oldest cities in the world. It flourished because it is built on a hilltop by a shallow river and is very hard to attack. This was a very interesting city where all three of the major religions were coexisting for close to 300 years. The city is somewhat frozen in time because it didn't really develop after the capital was moved to Madrid in 1561. It has many of the same fortifications and yellow sandstone that existed back then. The entire city proper is actually a UNESCO world heritage site.
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| Toledo |
The first stop was a local workshop where they were working with Damascus steel and inlaying then with gold and silver. There were several artists working while we were their and it was amazing to see them take a sliver of gold thread and stamp it onto the steel surface. After the shop the we started the tour of toledo and walked up to one of the city gates that had he coat of arms of the city, which was a two headed eagle on it. We started walking and the tour guide told us that this section of town was called the Jewish quarter because this is where the majority of the Jewish population lived. There were Hebrew letters on the street that pointed to different shops. We climbed up the hill and saw a beautiful church that was one of the last gothic churches to be built. It had stone crenellations that were meant to resemble flames as well as chains on the side of the wall. The chains were made to represent the people that were saved from slavery and had resettled in Toledo.
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| Views of Toledo and the coat of arms BL: one of the masters hammering gold thread into Damascus Steel |
Then just down the road from the church was the oldest synagogue in Europe. Santa Maria Blanca was originally built as a mosque in the 12th century but was later converted into a synagogue. After 1492, Jews were kicked out of toledo and the building then became a church. That lasted for a while when afterwards it was used as a halfway house for unwed mothers and it was eventually used as a stables for napoleons horses. It has been refurbished and is now a museum. The Jewish people who were from Toledo are still around, they are called sefardists and actually speak Spanish from the 1490's. Needless to say there aren't too many left.
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| Inside the Santa Maria Blanca which as been a mosque and synagog both |
We kept on walking and saw a painting that is very important to art history. The painter, El Greco who studied under the Venetian masters and came back to Spain to incorporate all of the different elements that he had learned from the masters that he met in Italy. He really wanted to be a part of a big cathedral that was being built in Madrid, but the King didn't like his style and he ended up moving to Toledo and becoming the premier artist here. He made a painting called "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" that is still regarded as a seminal piece of artwork in the world.
We then walked to the Muslim quarter and walked past some of the old mosques that are now churches. Interestingly, we passed a convent that practices silence but they sell marzipan from a window. Unfornately they were not selling anything at that time, so we did not end up getting anything from the marzipan nuns. we kept on walking through the narrow cobblestone streets and ended up walking through a small gate with steel bars. This was the gate that seperated the Christian side from the Muslim side of town, and at night, both sides would close and lock the gate to ensure peace between the community. Gives a new meaing to the phrase "good fences makes good neighbors"
The next part of Toledo was the big Catholic cathedral. It used to be a mosque, until it was used by catholics in 1282. It has had a lot of construction over the years, close to 400 years worth of construction. It used to be a mosque until the catholics took over in 1282. One of the most amazing things in the church was the Monstance. This was a 6 foot gold and silver base with another 15 foot high solid gold replica of the church tower. There was close to 20 kilograms (40 pounds) of gold that had been poured into it. It was meant to hold the holy sacrament. We were walking through the main hall of the cathedral and noticed that there was a hat hanging in midair. Apperently it is local lore that when the world ends and the people are called up to heaven from their graves, then the hat should fall to the ground.
Christopher Columbus is now a famous figure in history, but when he was going around trying to get funding for the trip, nearly everyone thought he was crazy. He was pretty much telling them that he was able to get to Pluto in a bathtub. But there was a cardinal that was based in Toledo that gave Columbus a lot of support and eventually got the money from the queen. Eventually when the Cardinal died, the crown "volunteereed" a lot of money to get the cardinal to be buried in the church, which is something that never usually happened in spanish churches (unlike British churches). We saw the cardinals body that was buried in the main alter of the church right next to a couple other bigwigs. We walked along the outside of the main chapel and saw an area in the front of the church that had a large opening. Apparently this was a very dangerous proposition because the entire church could have caved in, but luckily the construction was done right and the church survived.
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| Images from the cathedral. The organ (BL) was unsual as it was in stone and facing out and the monstance (BM), finally mary is smiling which is unsual for that time period (UL) |
Then after we got back to Madrid it was time for our city tour. There are close to 6 million people in Madrid, with three million commuting every day. It was founded in 1000BC by muslims in early Spain. The city exploded in sIze after becoming the capital. In the middle of the city was the Prado museum. It is known for its paintings from El Greco, Raphael, Rivera and many others. Because of Catholicism, nude paintings weren't allowed, but King Phillip had a special seperate room on the palace where he kept his private collection of nude paintings. After Phillips death the paintings were donated to the prado, and there was a special room where men had to pay extra to go into. The museum did have some amazing paintings, and it was time well spent. After the museum we went to another key area of the city. There was a egyptian temple that was 2,000 years old. There was some flooding in the area that the temple was in, and the temple was going to be submerged when the people from Madrid bought the temple and tore it down and had it reconstructed in the city. After that the tour was over and we were dropped off in the old city. We walked around and shopped for a while, and then walked to the Grand Via (main street) to see if we could get lucky enough to see the Lion King broadway show in spanish. The show was sold out, and we made our way back into the old town and ate at an enclosed market that had 9-10 different restaurants in it. So we ate small bites at 4-5 different restaurants. We had everything from fried anchovies, fried squid, to vegetarian paella and chorizo pizza. Then we headed back to the hotel and packed up to and headed to bed early.
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| UL- cec eating local ham, UM- the symbol fo Madrid a bear earing strawberries from a tree, no we don;t know why, UR- chocolate churros! ML- Marzapan, MR- an ancient egyptian church found in one of the parks, BL- the market were we had the Tapas, BM- sunset, BR- delicous veggie paella from the market |
Jan 11- driving to Bilbao (Guggenheim) and then Biarritz
Not much to report about today, we spent around 7 hours on the bus. We had the normal 5am wake up and workout. It was still pretty rainy and slick so the cloud cover hid the rocks and mountins for the most part. We slept, read and watch movies and/or played apps most of the time. We hit the Guggenheim in Bilbao and had about an hour to walk around and look at all the modern art. The building itself was the real marvel, intiricate structures linked together.
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| Guggenheim |
We drove more after the stop at the museum until arriving at Biaritz. Its a picturesque fishing village that is now a trendy seaside resort and spa area. We took a small drive out to the pier were we saw the town and beach and lighthouse, this time with a storm. We had dinner at the hotel, and it is the best included dinner so far. Tasty salad, baked salmon and fruit. Everyone on the bus was getting a little cranky so I thinkhaving a morning with no alarms the next day will do wonders for people's spirits.
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| On the coast near Biaritz, France |
Jan 12- driving to and in Bordeaux
We had a late morning after a wonderful sleep in a workout at 11:30. We reached Bordeaux at around 3pm. We had a scenic drive through the city and saw the river as well as the city center and some important buildings. It is know for its wines and ballet actually. The city is mostly built in the 18th century (including cobblestone streets) and is also a commercial hub for France. Our tour guide dropped us off and we had a little over an hour and a half to walk through the main square. Like many places, we could have spent more time there. We shopped as there wasn't much more to do and ogled at the buildings. It was raining a lot, but that's ok the rest of the trip has been so nice it is hard to complain. We relaxed at the hotel and had an ok dinner as the next morning we were set for a 5:45 wake up call. Pretty relaxing day all in all, gearing up for our trip to paris.
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| R- cec posing at one of the foutains, Left all- images from the streets in the city center |
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