Mr Toad's wild ride

Another lightning and thunderstorm filled night, we awoke on Wednesday in Positano deciding to hit the road north for a 7 hour drive. We had thought we might stop and stay overnight along the way, but found nothing too intriguing. With two hours to go to Cinque Terre, we just decided to drive to our final destination. Once again the heavens opened up on us. We had reservations at a hotel in Portovenere beginning on Thursday night, but called ahead and asked if we could arrive a day early, we’d be there is less than 2 hours, or so we thought. Portovenere is on the Italian Rivera, about a 20 minute boat ride from the 1st of the 5 towns of Cinque Terre (5 fishing villages). Thank goodness for our friendly Navigation system that leads us to the long, narrow and winding road to our hotel. The Nav system counted down, destination is 6 minutes, then 5, 4, we knew we were close. It was pouring rain and lightning like crazy. We couldn’t find or see the hotel. It was so dark, no one was home in this building, than that one, wait there was no power is this town, we couldn’t see anything! Funny enough, thought we were on a hilltop, then we rounded this corner and there was the ocean. We’re on a one way street, so we’ll need to circle this town once again. This time we turn on another road, we’re going uphill, it’s getting narrower, thick with brush and Mr. Nav shows us on an unmarked road. There’s nowhere to go, it’s a dead end so were forced to turn around. Back on the road, we saw a police car and we pull up to them. They don’t speak English but points up the hill and say look for a temple. Well thanks a lot, how about a police escort! So up the hill again. Glenn pulls the car over to walk up this steep driveway because in case he’s wrong, he doesn’t want to back the car down. Now mind you, this is the set up for one of those scary movies when you know you’re not supposed to leave the female in the car. Moments later Glenn’s orange cap is visible coming down the hill, this isn’t the place! Let’s try calling, but the cell won’t connect, there’s no power in the town. We decided we should give up on this town, and head back to a larger town with power! But then we see these people on the sidewalk. Do you know where this hotel is, do you speak English? Ah, American’s and it’s here. The lights come up and we unload the car, Glenn goes to park. Standing on the sidewalk, the lights go again. Where’s that flashlight? Now in the hotel, its 9:30 and the restaurant is only serving pasta, providing the power stays on. The waiter warns the power could go. We pull out our flashlight, order some wine, laugh about our adventure and high five each other on remaining calm in the car.

Amalfi Coast

We have just spent 4 days in the Amalfi Coast of Italy, one night in Sorrento and three in Positano. It has rained, major thunderstorms that have rattled the room at night, for half our stay. This is unfortunate since we are on the water and this area is known for foot travel because it is all carved into the hillside with minimal roads that are very narrow. No one has flipped us off (the hand jesture interruption previously shown has been confirmed by a couple from Australia and Ireland one night at dinner) since our car has been parked. We did witness two scooters crash though. Positano is the nicest town in Amalfi, very romantic and picturesque.

We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast, great view but almost 6 flights of stairs with NO ELEVATOR. It was worth every penny to pay the porter to schlep our luggage up the stairs. See picture to the right, can you pick out our white B&B? Glenn's swimming trunks are on the balcony (which took flight one night in the storm).

If you were in Italy and someone did this to you, what would you think they were saying?

A. Arrivederci (Good bye)

B. Wow, what a cool mini van you're driving!

C. Moron, you're driving the wrong way on a one way street!

Seriously, this gesture was thrown at us quite animated! Driving in Italy isn't easy. Roz can't figure out the difference between do not enter this way and no parking. A Grandma wouldn't move out of the way and started knocking on the car window. Scooters honk at us repeatly. A police car turned around and pulled up next to us and advised what we already knew (that we were driving in a pedestrian walking zone)!

RyanAir to Brindisi, Italy

It's Thursday morning, 9/10/09, and we have a flight to catch at some far off airport. We're worried that our $1.99 cheap air flight is going to cost us a fortunate between the cab ride and overweight luggage. There was no direct metro or train to Charleroi airport outside Brussels. The check-in attendant at the airport was very gracious and advised us to step aside and load up our backpacks. Despite the air ticket warning of only 10kgs to carry on, we were told just do it. The attendant even fudged the weight for us and reduced our penalty from Euro150 to Euro45! The only worry now was the little old lady and her cane could easily topple us over with our bulging backpacks. Ryan Air is reminiscent of Southwest Air, decent. But I kid you not, perhaps the locals were more weary than us, that when the plane landed, the passengers errupted in applause.

We are now enjoying a lovely bed and breakfast built around the 16th century. A former farm, now lodging and an olive tree/olive oil farm located in Pezze di Grecco in the Pulgia region of Italy. Picture the map of Italy, we in the heel of the boot on the Adriatic Sea side. Somewhat off the typical beaten path for tourists, English is either non-existent or poorly spoken. Thank goodness that the word "Toilet" is universal.

Enough of Brussels, Hop a train to Brugge

Unable to figure out at the moment how to change the date, our day trip to Brugges was on Wednesday, 9/9/09. After having taken our bike ride through Brussels, we really could not think of any place we wanted to investigate more in depth, so we decided to take an hour train ride to Brugge. We had just seen the movie "In Brugge" and wasn't to excited about visiting, but enough of Brussels. Brugge was charming and very Disneyland like. We kept singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho the Pirate's life for me" on this canal ride.

Amsterdam more interesting than Brussels

Train ride from Amsterdam was great and easy. After arriving in Brussels we decided to take a 4 hour bike ride covering the sights of the city and to orient ourselves. Unlike Amsterdam which is very bicycle riding friendly, bike lanes and all flat, Brussels is automobile dominant, bumpy roads and hilly! The city is a mixture of touristy old world paved road and ancient architecture on the one side and modern city, tall building, nicely paved roads on the side that contains the European Union Parliament. Surprisingly lack of security in the EU section of buildings, no tours or anything unfortunately. Seems that Belgium has been occupied by so many countries over the centuries, that there is a lack of Belgium identify. French is the major language followed by Dutch. One major tourist stop is Mannequin Pis, which is a small statue of a little boy pissing and the other of course is one Belgium chocolate store after another. Animated cartoons are another big claim to fame. Smurfs was created in Belgium. Charming dining one evening, on a warm night, cozy cobblestone streets with so many people dining street side, but we were accosted by multiple beggars making it unpleasant. City is seems dirty with heavy graffiti.

Bike ride to Countryside outside Amsterdam

notice fresh clothes, we got our luggage, hooray!