Because of a four hour traffic delay, we arrived at the Steiff Bear Museum (Giengin, Germany) minutes before closing time 😢😢 Alas, there was only time for a quick look around the gift shop, as all the tours were over. Steiff were pioneers in the stuffed bear industry, and are $$$, new or old. Paul adopted tiny Charly for me, as a consolation prize for missing the Museum 😍 The animatronic animals in the huge front display were my favorite. 🐻🐰🐵🐯🦁🐮🐷🐸🐱🐶🐭🐹🐧🐘🦄
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Luxembourg 2017
After our late arrival in Stuttgart, we pretty much went straight to sleep, and were up even bright and earlier Sunday to continue our #EuroHoman vacation road trip! We took the Autobahn, yes there are stretches with no speed limit, but around 170 kph (kilometers) and with luxury cars and Smart cars FLYING by still, Paul turned off and took some amazing side roads. Germany is leading in the renewables department, with fields of solar panels. Nearly every roof, including cow shacks and abandoned barn ruins, has solar. There are also wind turbines everywhere.
We had to have a family picture, as well as caffeine (this is the first anything-not-Coke Classic I’ve seen in all of Europe) (yes, really).
Luxembourg, although small, was very modern. At least in its buildings. We drove through Luxembourg City, and the entire main road was modern architecture or construction of.
We walked around the city center, which included the Royal Palace,viewed several ancient bridges, some war memorials, had lunch, bought Diesel Bear a pin, and continued on.
We drove through a bit of Belgium as we continued north. Saw several signs with familiar names, some of the worst battles of WWII having been fought in the forests.
After clipping The Netherlands and getting to our nightly destination of Aachen, Germany (the western-most city in Germany), we ventured about 10 miles out of town to the Three Countries Point. Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany all meet there (like our Four Corners), complete with viewing tower and restaurant. There was a marathon going on, so we didn’t explore much, having already driven through all three countries today.
The Alps and the Dolomites 2017
So, bright and early Saturday morning we left Vincenza, Italy, and headed north on our #EuroHoman vacation! We drove both ‘autostrada’ (the interstate) and ‘strada provincial’ (regional highways), and the traffic was beyond ridiculously horrible 😒 We were four hours behind schedule, cranky, and cursing minivans. But we made it out of Italy, through a bit of Austria, and to Stuttgart, Germany. The weather was in the 80’s, sunny, but smoggy in the beginning. We drove through the Dolomites mountain range, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as the Alps.
Venice, Italy 2017
Bright and early on a Sunday morning, we walked about half a mile to the train station, paid €12 each, roundtrip, and took the high-speed train to Venice! It was about an hour ride, nobody was onboard at 7am, and it was awesome!
This is what you see when you walk out of the central train station on the island.
We arrived on the island well before the tourist crush, and were able to get a lot of sights in easily. It was sooo nice to take our selfies without five hundred sticks in the way, and no kids underfoot running rampant.
So much marble, and sculpture, and architecture 😍
Venice may be a tourist trap now, but its neighboring islands, Murano and Burano, are still famous for their artisans. Wrought iron design is everywhere, securing doors, windows, gates, and as purely decorative wall hangings. There were, of course, Venetian masks everywhere. Beyond the typical Mardi Gras eye masks, these were full on, ceramic and glass animal heads! Every single store seemed to have a wall covered in them. And of course Murano glass is world famous. I’m still trying to figure out how they made these platters without destroying the plants inside! Bialetti, the little silver coffee pots, are from Italy and are a staple in most every store. There was even an official Bialleti store on the island that did engraving of your coffee pot.
By about 2pm, we had seen our fill of Venice and the tourist crush was in full swing. We headed back to the train station and were back in our apartment by 3:30pm! No parking lots, no taking your shoes off for security, it was great!
Bassano del Grappa 2017
Since he is here longterm, and hotels don’t have kitchenettes/microwaves/mini fridges here, Paul is in an Air BnB! It’s pretty sweet! Big bedroom, small bedroom, full bath, balcony, WiFi, super secure entryway and locks. Bassano del Grappo, about an hour north of Venice!
Old City Center of Bassano Del Grappa was about a 1.5 mile walk from our apartment. The centerpiece is the Alpini Bridge, which you can read all about by clicking on the link! Of course it had to be under restoration while I was there, but I did the best I could with my pictures!
And yes, that IS a self-serve wine filling station! Available in as big a size as your tiny euro-shopping-basket can carry! It was actually oil and vinegar, I think. But still!
The Avenue of Martyrs is amazing. Following a battle here, the Nazis promised any surrendering townspeople would be spared. Many parents actually walked their sons to the city center to surrender. But the Nazis had lied and either shot or hanged 30 some young soldiers. They are known as the Martyrs and there are memorials for each along the river bank. Each ‘gum drop tree’ has a plaque and a flower planter strapped to its trunk, with a picture of a martyr. Viale de Martiri…Avenue of Martyrs.
name of the street of the martyrs killed during the Second World War in Bsasano del Grappa a small town near Vicenza in Northern Italy
Along with the river, Bassano sits at the base of Mount Grappa. It’s famous for it’s winding roads, bicyclists come from all over the world to practice on it, especially in the lead up to the Tour de France. It is also famous for it’s paragliding and hang gliding crowd. Paul loves to drive up the road, as much for the paragliding watching as for the winding roads with his manual rental car.
The mountains around Bassano del Grappa were the scene of many battles, in both WWI and WWII. There are a LOT of remaining trenches and tunnels in the area. All hand dug out of the hard stone. At the very top of the mountain, there is Cima Grappa, one of seventeen Military Cemeteries in Italy. The following pictures are from the website in the link above. Every time I’ve been up there, it’s been foggy, or snowy. Paul has been there several times, you can still walk through the tunnels into the mountain stronghold. You can also read my blog about the Asiago Cemetery here.
The Roman Coliseum 2017
We arrived in Rome about 6pm Friday. We stayed at an Air BnB less than a mile away from the Coliseum! After checking in, we walked up the steep hill and it just came right into view! The inside was closed for the evening, but we wandered around the outside for awhile.
Again, well-armed soldiers patrolling. Not sure if this was a heightened thing because of the recent attacks or just normal procedure for a 2000 year old icon. We returned to our apartment, in a high rise building, and had an amazing pizza at the cafe on the ground floor, sitting at a table on the sidewalk watching people and enjoying the breeze.
You can definitely tell where the assorted attempts at restoration and outright emergency salvation, were attempted. As with many ancient landmarks, as the ages passed, civilizations scavenged the marble and gold and assorted building materials for other projects. The grid of holes you see in the Coliseum walls is the result of where Marble slabs used to hang, in it’s heyday.
Originally, the entire ‘floor’ was covered with wooden planks and sand, to soak up the blood of the millions of beasts that were slaughtered there. This recreation is believed to be an accurate representation of how it looked. And worked, as there were several elevators in the floor that would bring the people and animals up. PBS actually had a documentary on the building of this platform, and also one on the elevator that is there now. (I love PBS!) At the height of it’s popularity, the stadium would be waterproofed, and mock navel battles would be held inside!
Saturday morning, Paul booked us on an afternoon walking tour that covered the Coliseum, The Roman Forum, and Palantine Hill. All are right there together, along with many other ruins. After a delicious lunch across from the Coliseum, we walked forever! We actually ate at the cafe on this placemat! The place has been there for decades!
The tour was well worth the €40 each, as it was three hours, our guide spoke excellent English, and she really explained a lot the details, intricacies, and misconceptions about the Coliseum. It wasn’t just a thumbs-up/thumbs-down, fight to the death place. We walked around for three hours, looking at ruins and imagining what used to stand there. Our guide had an excellent book, with transparent layovers, so we could see how things were situated before crumbling.
The Catacombs, Trevi Fountain, and The Pantheon 2017
The Catacombs we saw in Rome weren’t the typical ossuary ones, with chandeliers made of bones and stuff. 😕 But it was still quite interesting. As a working church and a sacred site, there was no photography allowed, so these are some postcards and a booklet I got. Apparently Gift Shops don’t violate sanctity 🤔
All of the actual remains have been moved and re-interred in a closed-to-the-public section of the Catacombs. But the frescos, marble ‘headstones’, and other remnants were pretty amazing! There were nine Popes here, making it a highly sought-after place to be buried. There were no class distinctions, money talked. The more you could afford, the closer to a Pope or important Martyr you could be entombed. There are several other Catacombs around Rome, but with the Popes here, this was the most coveted.
Along the way, we also saw (or tried to see, damn tourists!) The Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, and some Roman Baths remains.
Pisa, Italy 2017
We arrived in Pisa, Italy late on a Thursday evening. Our Hostel (a kind of cheap, backpacker’s dorm) was quite literally across the street from the Tower. Our room faced the opposite way, but you could see the Tower from our parking spot!
The Tower complex, inside a large medieval wall, consists of the Tower, a Church, A Baptistery, and some other buildings. The site is open all night and so at nearly midnight, we walked across the street, down a few hundred yards to the archway entry, and into the site. Between the whiteness of the Tower and the floodlights, pictures were great! There were a lot of tourists there, even at midnight, and well-armed soldiers patrolled the area. We took some pics, walked around a bit, and then returned to the Hostel via a side road.
Pisa has a 20,000+ college student population and all the area Squares (courtyards/intersections) were packed with pubs, clubs, and people out on the streets drinking and socializing. The Hostel was really nice (all IKEA stuff ) and at $18/per person, was a great place to crash on a bunk bed and have a hot shower the next morning. Friday morning, we walked around the Tower site a bit more, already packed at 8 am, and then drove off towards the Mediterranean coast to go south to Rome.
Some postcards and history about why the Tower of Pisa leans. You can actually see the curvature of the Tower, as they tried to straighten it in later layers by making one side a little taller. So each layer isn’t quite a perfect disc.
Operation: Migraine VooDoo Continues
Here it is, Day 27 of #DaithPiercing, and things are still feeling good! I would like to think that any placebo or newness effect would have worn off by now…but who knows? I remain cautiously optimistic, though!
Having had migraines since I was about 5 years old (I’m 40 now), I can honestly say I’ve been through most all of the symptoms and…styles, for lack of a better word. When I was young, the pain would make me throw up, then the headache was gone. Through my teens, it turned into the three-week-long, endless headaches. My twenties saw the heavy auras, the flashing spots, the nausea, and throwing up but not ending the headache. My thirties turned more trigger-happy. Bright lights, strong smells, those really spiked up the activity. And now, as I grow older still, the hormonal cycle seems to dictate my migraines for the most part. There are definitely still triggers and unexplained migraines happening, but there is a week-long one waiting every month. Guaranteed. This week is my ear’s first test for that.
It’s not really clear if this ear piercing is specifically for migraines, or headaches in general. Does it help sinus headaches, or cluster headaches? I haven’t really found any good research or even opinion articles on that. But for now, it seems to be helping with my own head. And that’s all I need. A little help, via an extra hole in my head! As far as healing, this particular piercing can take up to six months to completely heal. So far, after roughly one month, I am happy with that aspect as well. I can sleep on my side, the ring moves freely, there doesn’t seem to be much crusty ooze (which is a common complaint). But then, the Piercer said I have really good ears for this kind of thing. Deep-set cartilage, so the ring is pretty well tucked away and protected. #PrettyEars It is only really sore if I accidentally forget and try to stick my finger in my ear to scratch an itch. But that is my own fault!
I can also report that my painkiller consumption has dropped dramatically! My liver is undoubtedly happy about that! I think that is actually contributing to my better head, having fewer rebound headaches as I come down off the constant Ibuprofen intake. And the pills never really helped anyway, I think I only got in the habit of taking them, in some twisted logic that “hey, I’m at least trying to fix this” or something. But, as I mentioned above, I do remain cautiously optimistic. This piercing is certainly not an exact science, and even people that have reported great results, have also stated that it quit working after ‘X’ amount of time. So! I am just going to enjoy one day at a time, and try to figure out what people do with all this extra free time that doesn’t hurt.
Operation: Migraine VooDoo
So it’s been three weeks since I did a thing! And it has been three weeks without an extreme migraine! Along with the daith piercing on my left side (where 95% of my migraines happen), I got my glasses tinted pink in November. Both are believed to help with migraines, and I do feel like it is helping. After 35 years of migraines, anything that even remotely lessens the pain (even if it’s just a placebo effect), is welcomed! #DaithPiercing 👂📌🚫🤯
The Mishafesto 