Cool things about Italy

Scooters rule!

Motorcycle cops ride Ducatis!

There are no cars in Venice!

Today I prayed beside the tombs, bodies or bones of St. Domenic, St; Catherine of Bologna, St. Anthony and St. Mark, author of the gospel. What a country;

Caio!

St. Dominic

You may have noticed the errors in my last post. On this keyboard the w and the z are szitched. The m is also switched zith the se,icolon.

Today we went to the Basilica of St. Petrinos, the patron saint of Bologna. It is magnificent. We also took a tour of the Basilica of St. Dominic, founder of the Dominicans. The saint's sarcophogas is in a side chapel. Michelangelo contributed to its statues. He was in Bologna when he was only 18 years old. The Church has an amazing history. It represents centuries of work beginning in the 13 century. Nopolean took it and expelled the Monks: The Italian police still occupy some of the property. More later.

The David and Bologna

Ciao from Bologna. We saw the most famous statue in the world on Wednesday morning. It was everything we might have expected and more. The trip to Bologna was much more difficult than we might have hoped; delayed train, missed buses, long hikes zith packs: When we fianllay arrived we fell in love with the little campground and decided to stay until Sunday. We zillmake day trips fro, here to Venice and Padua; More soon.

Firenze

Florence was not even a city we had originally planned to visit. We are so glad we came. We decided to spend two nights here. This morning we had the unbelievable pleasure of going to mass in the Duomo, one of the most incredible cathedrals in Europe. Dante was baptized in its babtistry. While we got up early to stand in line, we ended up going to mass before the cathedral even opened to the public. What a gift. We got to experience this massive structure with dozens of side alters, giant statues of the apostles and countless frescoes and stained glass windows, not as tourists, but as pilgrims. It literally took my breath away. After mass, we did join the throngs to climb to the summit of the dome, 463 steps up. Not for the faint of heart. (I haven't tried to post pictures yet, but I will). The frescoe on the dome represents Christ and the saints in heaven and hell below. From the most beautiful to the most horrific. It inspires one to heaven and warns of the pains of hell. Incredible.

After a little rest in the hostel (a whole other story) we set out for the Galleries. We ended up in the Patrina in the home of the Medici family. If the collection of Florentine art weren't enough, even the frescoes on the walls and celings blew us away. We would have to stare at different angles to see if a figure in the corner were painted or a statue. I have never seen a flat representation appear so three dimensional. We ended this days tour with the Boboli gardens. They are massive and beautiful and afford a great veiw of the city.

Tonight we will return to a festival we enjoyed last night celebrating the 60 anniversary of the liberation of Italy. We viewed the photo exhibit of the liberation and saw some flaminco dancing that made Betsy cry.

The gypsies who beg make me sad. The saddest is an old woman who literally crawls with her face on the ground with her hand outstretched. So far I have stuck to my plan not to give directly to the beggers but to look for other ways to help them. A woman at the festival collected money for all of the homeless in the city. Tonight, in the piazza, a gypsy band entertained and sold CDs. It looked like they did quite well and we did our part. The bass player reminded me of a rock-a-billy player the way he spun the big stand up around his waist and beat it like a drum.

My credit/debit card has worked to pay for hotel rooms, but it is not letting me get cast. Betsy's works. We put some money for the trip in her account but most of it is in mine. We'll need to get mine working this week. It is 10:00 here in Florence so that means it is 1:00 back home. I'm going to give our banker a call and try to straighten the problem out.

Tomorrow we go to Bologna to see St. Catherine, whose name Theresa took at her confirmation.

My first train

Believe it or not, today's ride was not only my first on a European train, it was my first on any train. What a civilized way to travel. The trip from Frankfurt to Bern took a little less than 4 hours and the entire trip was completely enjoyable. There was some confusion at the Eurail office. The agent first told us the train we wanted as well as subsequent trains were almost completely booked. When she discovered separate seats, 2 in non smoking, 4 together in smoking and 1 alone in smoking, I agreed. After our tickets were checked a few minutes into the trip, and just before I was completely enveloped in smoke, I explored and discovered the non smoking car in front of us to be almost completely empty. We changed seats and discovered there had been no reservations made for any seats in that car. I'm not sure where the misinformation came from, but the reservations were a waste. Our plan is to keep things loose enough and take our chances.

Marthahaus in Bern is a sweet hostel. We had a chance to walk through the old capital and see the once great 15th century cathedral now part of the schismatic Swiss KristKatholic Church. They split with the Church in the 19th century but still consider themselves old catholics.

The graffiti is out of control. I actually admired much of what we saw along the train tracks. Even some of it in the city had to be admired. But after seeing every single building on block after block, it starts to look like folks just don't care. I guess the novelty of living among amazing centuries old architecture wears off. The urban artists do not distinguish between a 50's era cinder block and steel and a Gothic masterpiece from the 1400s. If I were mayor of the Swiss capital, I'd form a taskforce and turn these kids loose on a great big protest mural or something.

Beer update. Remember Lowenbraü (note the handy "ü" symbol available on this keyboard) Lowenbraü was a cheep domestic disguised as an import. Well, I had a Lowen Weis, brewed in München since 1383. Tonight, tonight, let it be Lowen Weis.

Peace.

Frankfurt

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Frankfurt. The z and the y are switched on the kezboard. < is in the place of the shift button. I"ll do mz best to correct things as I go but pazing bz the minute might just mean leaving things as is.

Departure day was long yet...grueling! The plane was delayed again from 10:00am to 12:00noon to 3:00. Things got a little ugly with some of the passengers, especially a couple of German gentlemen who were travelling first class and did not appreciate being lied to. Metro showed up at one point as 3 or 4 passengers filmed the verbal altercations wondering what would happen next. We boarded after 4:00 and the engines started up. The captain then announced that we would push back from the gate in AN HOUR and then sit on the runwaz for ANOTHER HOUR due to runwaz traffic. When we finallz lifted off there was audible relief from the close to three hundred or so on board.

We got off in Frankfurt in the mid afternoon and had little trouble finding the Hotel Europa. Its location in the guidebook was described as the sleazy part of town. The authors of the guidebook couldn't know these particular readers live in downtown Las Vegas. Oh that Vegas were this "sleazy." Next time I'll try to upload pictures. We did get a tour of the worst part of Frankfurt when we first tried to walk to the Main River. We took a wrong turn and walked through what looked very much like Sparks. Some of us wondered what we had made all the effort for. When we realized our mistake, turned around and walked to downtown Frankfurt we were, of course, blown away. We easily found the main square and I was able to order food and drink in German, "Heffeveisen unt Bockwurst."

Getting back to the Hostile by 8:00 or so, we fell into our beds. I, for one, slept like the dead. This morning we had a wonderful breakfast offered by our hosts at the hostel. We are getting on a train bound for Zurich in an hour. We will sleep tonight in a hostel in Bern.

It is so verz good to be here!

Peace and Love.

Flying high but still on the ground

The adventure has begun...but not exactly as we had planned. We are spending the first night of our trip not in Frankfurt, but at the Riviera Hotel in Fabulous Las Vegas. There was a problem with the plane. A sensor with the big 767 indicated a leak in one of the air conditioner ducts. The poor German pilot apologized several times and said "De Boeing von't verk vell when is 120 degrees in de Fahrenheit." (I don't either.) After more than 2 hours on the warm plane, the cabin a/c had to be turned off to allow the techs to locate the leak, we deboarded and returned to the terminal. There was no leak but the sensor was still on and the flight crew had by then worked there full duty time. They wouldn't be going to Frankfurt tonight. We were treated to pizza hut pizza and for the price of a twelve pack I bought Betsy and I a couple of cold Heinekin. We were asked to wait a couple more hours because another crew might arrive and they might get the sensor fixed. Finally, we were told the flight was postponed until Thursday sometime and we would all board buses bound for the Riviera. Tomorrow we will eat the breakfast buffet and then return to the terminal for the flight at a still undisclosed time.

I am amazed at two things. First, the family not only took the whole thing in stride, they had fun. We enjoyed each others company and didn't mind the delay or the stay in a Vegas hotel instead of a Frankfurt Hostel. Next, I have to laugh at my good fortune in getting to get back to the house. I have to admit that I was stressed when we left. After all this time, I still rushed around at the last minute. I forgot to do some things I wanted to do before I left and I forgot some things I wanted to bring. Because of the delay I got to come home and take care of those things. I booked a couple more Hostels and even got to properly say good bye to Tina and the cats, belly rubs and all.

Thanks to the additional chance to get online, we know have a bit of an itinery for our first week. We will spend Friday night in Frankfurt, Saturday night in Burn, Switzerland, Sunday night on a train to Italy and Monday night in a Hostel in Florence. We'll spend the rest of that week visiting Bologna and Venice for sure. On Sunday, August 31, we begin our 4 night stay in an apartment in Rome. We have a flat in Paris August 8 through 11. World Youth Day events begin then for Sean, Selina and Nicole. Thanks to Thomas H, it looks like the rest of us will miraculously have places to stay in Cologne from August 15 to 21 after all.

Leben ist gut!

The Family

The Melancons pre-Europe, last Christmas to be precise.

Countdown

Dreaming for years...
Planning for months...
Forgetting for weeks...
The time has finally arrived.

We depart for Europe this Wednesday. We have our airline tickets, Eurail passes, a couple of places to stay, some money and hearts full of wonder. I guess it is finally time to get excited.