Naples, Italy

Our good friends Jane and Ty from Vancouver (but now they live in Calgary) arrived in London on Saturday, April 14th, exactly one month before John and Ty’s 30th birthday. They weren’t here long before heading out on a whirlwind trip through Southern France and Italy, but we did manage to get some Ultimate Frisbee in on Sunday afternoon in Hyde Park. Those two are so hard core they even brought their cleats with them.

We arranged to meet them at the airport in Naples, Italy the following Friday evening for a fun filled weekend touring Sorrento, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and Capri. I was so excited for this trip; it fulfilled two of my travel dreams and exceeded my expectations. Since I was a kid I have wanted to visit Pompeii as I find the volcano-preserved history fascinating, and for a about a year before we left Vancouver we kept a newspaper article and photo of the Amalfi Coast posted on our fridge as inspiration to get to Europe.

The challenge of the weekend was surviving and navigating traffic in Naples. London traffic and roads are nothing in comparison. We were petrified and in awe. Cars and scooters speed along, honking like they are in a wedding procession, and passing at any opportunity on single lane highways, taking chances that any Canadian driver would consider insane. We rented a car and John did an impressive job of driving all weekend. The frequency of honks at us reduced from two in the first two minutes, to almost nothing by the last day there.

We managed to get out of Naples, past Mt. Vesuvius, and along the other side of the Bay of Naples to Sorrento. The chaos of Naples highways turned into chaos of skinny, windy roads on the edge of breathtaking cliffs as we went through Sorrento and area. Our hotel was high up on a cliff, overlooking Sorrento, the Bay of Naples, Mt. Vesuvius and our pool. It was called La Terrazze, named for its large terraces with amazing views.

We got there around 11:00pm and luckily a nearby restaurant, Don Pedro’s, was still open for dinner. Don Pedro, the owner, picked us up and then waited on us all night. Oh, the food! Don Pedro has a small farm in behind the restaurant where he grows the fruits and vegetables served. I had the best Caprese salad ever, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella like I’ve never tasted before. Of course, the rest of the courses, pasta, meat and wine were just as stellar. Ty became a fan of the Lemoncello (strong lemon alcohol) served after dinner. It was great to chat with Ty & Jane over a long meal.

We awoke Saturday to sun beaming onto our terrace. It was tough to leave that glorious spot but we had places to see. Our first stop was Pompeii, the Roman city buried and preserved by the ash of Mt. Vesuvius’ explosion in 79 AD. We were all surprised by the sheer size of the city. It was so well preserved that it was easy to imagine what it would have been like to live there, unlike the ruins in Rome. Eighty percent has been excavated and the remainder is still in progress; it is hard to fathom the amount of work that would have taken.

Jane received a tip from a colleague to get a guided tour of the city, so at the entrance we started to enquire. The guides prowl the entrance hunting for business. We were scooped up by an aggressive older guide, Giovanni, well dressed and well tanned from his many days under the Italian sun. He offered us EUR40 for the four of us; we said we would opt for the cheaper audio guides instead. In an amusing way, he said that would be the “biggest mistake of our lives!” and then offered EUR30, equivalent to the audio guides, so we accepted. Payment was not required until the end. He certainly provided some added entertainment to the tour.

Our tour group totaled 9 as we entered the gates. We passed some people with audio guides who chose not to go with Giovanni’s tour, and he loudly expressed to them that “that was the biggest mistake of their lives!” After about 15 minutes, Giovanni started to drone on a bit and when we next stopped, 3 members of our group had disappeared. He was livid, because he wouldn’t have started the tour with only 6 people. He went on a hunt for them but to no avail. We kept going but could tell that Giovanni was distracted, his eyes always peeled for the missing tourists. We bumped into them later in the day and he lectured them loudly about honour and integrity, and how the money didn’t matter to him, it was the principle. We got a kick out of that. Soon after that, he asked two good looking young ladies to join the tour for free. Then, at the end of the tour he said that we had to pay EUR40 because those three others left at the beginning and he wouldn’t make any money. Simple solution – get payment up front. What happened to “honouring your word” and “I’m not in it for the money”? We paid him EUR30 and he went off in a huff. We chuckled about it several times over the weekend.

As for giving us a tour of Pompeii, Giovanni did a pretty good job. Highlights included the Roman forum, the Roman Baths, one of over 50 bakeries, one of over 25 brothels, the amphitheater, the “flying penises” to ward off the “evil eye”, and the houses. Each home had a winter and summer reception room and depending on how wealthy you were, you had different dining rooms for different seasons. Frescoes adorned the walls and tile mosaics the floors. The brothel had beds made of stone in the bedrooms and frescoes on the walls of different sexual positions for the patrons to choose from.

While in the baths, Giovanni sat us all down and gave us a talk about seizing the day, carpe diem. Life is short, spend your money now, because who knows when it will end. I guess you would have to have that mentality living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, with scientists predicting it is well overdue for an eruption…

After Pompeii we drove along the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast to the town of Positano. We’ve done a few edge of the ocean drives, Sea to Sky highway in BC and Chapman’s Peak Drive in South Africa, but this was the scariest; steeper cliffs, skinnier roads and crazier drivers. The views were worth it though. Positano is a colourful village built into the cliffs up from the water. It was a larger version of the quaint towns of the Cinque Terre which we visited on our honeymoon. We parked at a high part of Positano and walked down many stairs and steep roads to the town centre by the water. I was dreading the walk back up but it wasn’t so bad and it helped burn off all of the gelato we ate at the beach. There are several other villages along the coast, including Ravello, which got rave reviews from some of our friends. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it farther down the coast to see them, but that will be a good excuse to go back.

After Positano, we were pooped and decided to head back to our terrace with the gorgeous view to enjoy some drinks before going to dinner. Our venue of choice for dinner was not a traditional restaurant. It was at a farm house, high up on the ridge over the Bay of Salerno, with a rustic dining area. The produce served came from the farm. Like the night before, the owner picked us up and waited on us all night. We had a huge course of sample dishes (lots of new things to try), then pasta, and then dessert (we didn’t have room for a meat course). All the food was so delicious; I can’t say enough good things about it.

We were hoping to enjoy breakfast on our sunny hotel terrace on Sunday morning but we didn’t get up early enough and we wanted to catch the 9:55 boat from Sorrento to the island of Capri (25 minute boat ride). The departure time was actually 9:45 and we just made it in time by sprinting down the docks. We had received recommendations to take a boat ride around the island. When we arrived in the Capri harbour it was swarming with people and we were trying to figure out the best way to circumnavigate the island. There were huge line ups for the larger commercial boats that sped around the island in an hour or ones that just took you to the Blue Grotto (cave with amazingly blue water). We were trying to figure out what to do and Ty started talking to a guy trying to sell us a boat ride. John, Jane and I thought “what is Ty getting conned into?” Turns out Ty made the move of the weekend talking to this guy; he arranged us a private, two hour boat ride around the island, stopping wherever we wanted. Taking the big public boats would have, in the words of our Pompeii tour guide, been the “biggest mistake of our lives!”

Our Italian driver picked us up at the docks. The boat had a big open bow for us to lie out on and a few benches in the back. The trip was the highlight of the weekend. The cliffs rose above the water and seagulls soared gracefully beside them. The water was the most brilliant blue I have ever seen. It was tough to take it all in. My descriptions won’t do it justice so please check out the photos. Our driver took the boat very close to shore and took us into several grottos carved into the cliffs. Jane said her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Ty was the brave one and dove into the cold water for a quick swim. The water was so inviting but not quite warm enough for me.

After the boat ride, we hiked up to the town centre of Capri for lunch and then took a bus to Anacapri on the other side of the island for gelato. Part of the road to Anacapri had the scariest cliff to date; it could only fit one car at a time. Pooped from all the sunshine and good times, we caught the boat back to Sorrento and began the drive back to Naples airport.

It was a good thing we left ourselves extra time because traffic was thick and slow all the way into Naples. Once in Naples we were all stressed trying to find the signs to the airport and then we got stuck in a traffic jam. Two lines of cars were squeezed into a one lane of an elevated road not moving, scooters were honking and trying to get through and we didn’t even know if we were on the right road! Stressful! Luckily, we made it to the airport in time and John had a well deserved beer after his impressive driving. Jane and Ty took the bus from there to their hostel in downtown Naples and we got on the plane back to London.

What a weekend! I still can’t believe we were just there. April was a very good time to visit because the weather was comfortably warm and the area wasn’t overrun by tourists yet. It was busy enough for us; I can’t imagine what it would be like in July and August.

Thanks Jane and Ty! We had such a great time with the two of you.

Cotswolds, England

It was getting close to the end of March and we realized that we still hadn’t booked a trip for the Easter long weekend. How could we not be taking advantage of four days off in a row? We hunted for cheap flights to Europe, but to no avail, so then we thought, why not explore somewhere in England? At the last minute, we managed to book a cabin for four on a farm in the Cotswolds, about two hours west of London. Jess and Andrew joined us.

We lucked out with weather as the whole weekend was sunny and warm. It was just the kind of trip we were in need of: slow paced, low stress travelling, lots of fresh air and comfy accommodation where we could sleep in, make our own food and chill out. It was very appropriate for Easter too as the leaves were coming out, flowers were in bloom, bunnies were running around and sheep with their lambs scattered the fields.

The farm we stayed on was just north of a city called Cheltenham, it was a sheep farm and they had some race horses. Most importantly, it had a big, open, unused field which we used to set up Frickets (a backyard Frisbee game for two or four people, usually involving beer). Every night before dinner we would spend a good hour playing as the sun was going down.

Post dinner activities involved cards. A&J taught us diminishing whist a while ago and we are slowly getting better at it. They kindly surprised us with a cribbage board as a present thus enabling us to teach them how to play crib (our fave). Andrew had been studying up on line and holds the record for the most strategic beginner crib player we have ever come across. (The crib board’s next trip will be to Spain for a week in May. Sarah and Kev better have their game ready.)

Over the weekend, we managed to cross three of England’s cities off our “places to visit” list.

The first one was Oxford; we stopped there on our drive out to the Cotswolds on Friday. Oxford is a beautiful university town, straight out of the past, with grand old stone buildings. Unfortunately, we don’t have photos that do it justice. We had fun exploring the heart of the city and wishing we could have gone to school there. Oxford, we recommend.

Next up for cities was Bath on Saturday. We didn’t make it there until late afternoon, and the traffic (pedestrian and vehicle) was heavy. We had a nice lunch on a patio and then hit the main sights on foot but didn’t partake in any of the Roman baths (natural hot springs). My personal favourite was the Royal Crescent, a huge, grand, half moon shaped building opening onto a park with beautiful flowers. Later on as we ate ice cream overlooking the river, we saw crowds start to stream out of a rugby match. We decided that was time to make our move. Bath was a neat spot but crowded, so we would recommend going there in the off season (whatever that might be).

Our third city was Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. If you have read past blogs you will know we have a bit of an aversion to cities that cash in on famous people that used to live there. Stratford was one of those places. If you really like Shakespeare then it’s a place for you, if not, just go explore the Cotswolds, which is what we did.

Our city visits were quick and efficient, because what we really wanted to do was see more of the Cotswolds (meaning cottage in the wolds – open country). Cotswolds – we highly recommend. The area is beautiful farm land with lots of tiny villages with buildings only made of stone and all of the fields are surrounded by stone walls. The work that went into building all those walls astounds me! Exploring the Cotswolds is like going back in time.

Back in the 80s, John’s grandparents did a house exchange for a year and lived in a cottage in the Cotswolds. On Friday night, John called his grandma and got the approximate location of Post Cottage where they lived, near Oakridge and Water Lane. So, on Saturday before going to Bath, we went on the hunt for Post Cottage.

The search first took us through a stone village built onto a hill with a very skinny main road that the car barely fit through. We got directions to Oakridge from an adorable old man out for a walk. The single lane route took us through a fairy tale forest and then into more quaint rolling farm land. We decided to park the car and explore on foot because the public footpaths were beckoning. (You can walk on private land here and there are signs every where showing you where the public footpaths are.) We walked into the village of Oakridge and went into the local pub to get directions. It was about noon and there were two sweet couples in having a beer. What a classic scene! As we left we were met with another classic scene; a seniors walking group headed to the local pub after their morning walk.

We managed to find our way to the little village of Water Lane and Post Cottage appeared right before us, just as one of the couples in the pub had described. What a beautiful spot! An adorable cottage with a large garden in bloom with spring flowers. John and I want to do a house exchange there!

We knocked on the door and met the owner, Joy. Despite surprising her (and likely scaring her as John was not clean shaven), Joy was very welcoming and figured out that John must be Pat’s grandson from Vancouver. Pretty impressive. She told us how Pat and Ron did so much work around the cottage and the community during their stay. They were very popular. Ron made the Post Cottage sign that still hangs on the gate. We caught a glimpse of the inside of the cottage and it looked just like Pat’s photos from 20 years ago.

On Sunday after Stratford, we went to the cute little town of Broadway. We did a walk through the sheep fields around the town and then had a great pub lunch. We drove back to our farm on the little side roads so that we could get our fill of the villages and countryside (the village of Snowshill is one to go back to), and we checked out a tiny place called Deerhurst. It had a chapel built in 1056. On our way home on Monday we stopped in Winchcombe for a walk and to check out its castle.

The highlight of the weekend was finding Post Cottage and realising this beautiful country with great walking trails is only a couple of hours away. We’ll have to fit some walking day trips into the schedule. Hopefully we get similar weather.

Thank you to A&J for joining us, cooking up such great food, feeding us with lots of Easter chocolate, and helping make the trip so much fun. I think we are going to have to plan a Canada Day Frickets tournament in London.

Vilnius, Lithuania

Although I've tried to find some way around this, since Leah didn't come on this trip, I can't stick her with writing the blog for it. So, here goes the John (low quality) blog:

Gil and I went to Lithuania for about five days. Gil's parents lived in the capital, Vilnius until about 1970, and have not been back since. It was a great adventure for us to go there and get a glimpse of their former lives. We found the various apartments that his folks used to live in, and had dinner in the swank Hotel Neringa, where his dad used to lead the band. Very cool.

Actually Vilnius in general was pretty cool. The old town is great, we had tons of local food, beer was very cheap, and we had a great time. We stayed in the Centrum UniqueStay Hotel, and it was unique. We took a day trip to Trakai, a small town on a lake with an island castle. We took pictures. Some of them are on Flickr.

Mike somehow managed to simultaneously contract every disease known to man (in the interests of saving disk space I won't list them all), but he hung in quite well. He was healthy enough to complain incessantly about the low quality of Lonely Planet's writers, who say that only a handful of Lithuanians speak Russian. Gil is fluent in Russian, spoke it with practically everybody we met, and cursed the Lonely Planet after each conversation.

Gil - thanks for the great trip!

Don't you miss Leah's blogs?

Amsterdam

On Thursday, March 24th, our friend Mike Giligson (aka Gil) arrived from Vancouver. John was flying out of Heathrow for Amsterdam when Gil’s plane landed so they managed a quick visit. John went to Amsterdam for a work meeting on Thursday night and an ice hockey tournament with his new British team, The Westminster Statesmen, from Friday to Sunday (you have to call it ice hockey here because “hockey” means field hockey). Teams were travelling from parts of Europe and North America for the tournament.

On the trip, we were lucky to have the company of Gil, our friend Dan (aka Dan the Man, DTM, from Van but lives in London) and our travel buddies Jess and Andrew (J&A). John’s tourney was in Zoetermeer, about an hour’s train ride from Amsterdam. John and I stayed in Zoetermeer, while J&A, DTM and Gil stayed near the action in Amsterdam (AMS).

I flew with Dan and Mike on Friday night. Our flight was occupied by two different groups of guys on stags, one of which was sitting in the row behind me. Needless to say, they were loud and obnoxious, and to add to it, the guys behind me had the morphed British accents which are like nails one a chalkboard to me. Pronunciation examples: sumfink instead of something, bruva instead of brother, “init?” which translates to “isn’t it?” but is used in any context even when it makes no sense. (I’m going to drink my body weight in Heineken this weekend, init?) I shouldn’t say anything bad though because I imagine that is what John and all his buddies will be like enroute to Vegas in August for Kristian’s stag.

J&A arrived in Schiphol on a slightly earlier flight and John took the train in to meet us all. We promptly parted ways; the AMS crew took a cab to their hotel and John and I trained to Zoetermeer. We used the time to catch up. John had a game Friday afternoon, which they unfortunately lost. He had heard from other players that in previous years after games local kids (and teenagers) hang around the dressing rooms for autographs. The tradition continued and John even signed some – keep an eye out for a hockey autograph on eBay with a negative reserve price…

The train ride went by quickly but I still had time for a little people watching. The lady beside us had the neatest fold up bike; it collapsed down to about the size of brief case. We saw them many times over the next few days. Across the isle from us was a man with a big pit bull at his feet; they lived up to the dog resembling owner stereotype.

Our hotel was right by the train station which was convenient, but it didn’t even come close to its 4 star rating (I’d say more like 2). Our TV had a message displayed for us, “Welcome Mr. and Mr. Weatherill”. We were definitely in Holland.

John was up early on Saturday to get to the rink for his 8:00 a.m. game. I waited until the second game, which was at the more respectable time of 10:40, to begin my “puck bunny” duties. I was in far better shape than a fellow puck bunny who was partying until 5:30am, but I was not nearly as devoted as one lady, Sarah, who got up for the 8:00 game, with a hangover, was losing her voice from screaming and had her nails painted in team colours. I got a kick out of Sarah’s boyfriend, also John, who lit up a cigarette on the bench in between periods! The arena had a speed skating track around the top of the stands; training grounds for more Dutch Olympians. The Statesmen were victorious in their second game which propelled them into the finals – scheduled for 8:00 am Sunday morning (same morning as European daylight savings “spring forward” came into effect).

John and I trained into AMS mid afternoon and enjoyed the passing views of green fields, canals, daffodils, and windmills. It is quite strange looking across a field and seeing a boat floating in the middle of it. After spending the morning at Anne Frank House and exploring AMS, A&J met us at central station and we walked around for a while. John and I had been in AMS before, on the last two days of our honeymoon, so we weren’t itching to hit all the sites. As we strolled, memories came flooding back and the streets and buildings felt so familiar. We made our way to a pancake house that we ate at on our honeymoon and decided to indulge again; everyone opted for sweet, not savory. We then walked through the flower market, past several public urinals, into Rembrant’s square and then found ourselves at a pub serving beer on the patio.

During this time Gil and DTM were napping at Hotel Euphemia and we figured it was time to get them up. The Euphemia was a cute 1 Star hotel, a step up from a hostel. (I thought it was cute, but I wasn’t staying there.) There were three long, very steep staircases to get up to the room, quite the hazard in my opinion, given the various activities that go on in AMS.

We all had a really fun dinner; put Mike, John, Dan and Andrew together and hilarious conversation ensues. We went to In De Wildeman pub for post-dinner drinks on Andrew’s friend’s recommendation. What a great spot; very old, neat posters on the walls, over 200 different kinds of beers and perfect for more fun conversations. Unfortunately, John and I cut the evening short so we could catch the train back to Zoetermeer. We arrived at our hotel at 12:30 and wished our 5 hour sleep could have been longer.

John was up, raring to go for the big final! I was moving very slowly (I managed to nap in the arena bar before and after the game). The first period was evenly matched, point for point, but then things got scrappy and turned for the worse for the Statesmen. They lost, which put them 2nd place overall in the tourney. Not bad for John’s first hockey tournament ever, eh? John has a new plaque to put beside his previous “man of the match” plaque in the bathroom.

We spent the rest of the day with our travelling companions in the adorably cute town of Delft. Before we left on our honeymoon several years ago, a customer of mine who was from Delft recommended going there. We didn’t make it at the time so I had to do it this trip. What a highlight! I highly recommend. Delft is like a mini Amsterdam but more rural. It has really neat old buildings, including several churches (one with a leaning bell tower) and a huge town hall. Vermeer, the painter of The Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid, is from Delft, and so is the famous blue and white pottery.

We had a very yummy lunch of savory and sweet pancakes in the warm sun in the town square. Heaven! Then Jess guided us on a walking tour past all of the town’s architectural highlights. I just loved exploring Delft! It shouldn’t be a big surprise that we stopped for a beer after the walk.

We all took the train back to Schiphol airport and had dinner there before our flights. John, Mike, Dan and I were faced with a huge line up at customs in Heathrow but it was nothing compared to the over two hour delay A&J had leaving AMS.

I know I keep saying this, but it was another great weekend away! I’m so grateful for these experiences and for having people to share them with. Have a look at more photos on Andrew and Jess’s blog from March 26th on http://www.fushmush.net/. Thank you to all our traveling companions – you made it a great time! Thank you John for organising (your Christmas present). I hope you enjoyed it :)

John and Mike headed to Vilnius, Lithuania on Wednesday, the home town of Mike’s parents. Mike brought a DVD with him of film footage shot by his Dad in the late sixties of Vilnius and area. We watched it on Monday night. It was fascinating to see what the city used to look like, but even more fascinating to see the people and how they lived, and hear their stories. I’m sure it will make going to Vilnius even more meaningful and interesting for Mike and John after watching this.

I should also note that Mike made us an awesome dinner on Monday night and even got John to eat spinach! Thanks Mike!!