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Italy

 

 

 

 

Germany:

 

 

Week 1--San Gigignano, Italy

Week 2--Traben-Trarbach, Germany

March 17th--

Had a nice leisurely drive to airport, went through security fast, and while waiting to board up pops the flight screen showing an hour delay.  Turns out JFK was having wind troubles; steady at 30mph and gusts up to 45mph.  This caused 2 runways to be closed causing massive backups.  We finally boarded about 90 minutes late and sat on the tarmac for another 30 minutes before getting to take off.  Landing at JFK was uneventful.  We boarded our flight to Milan on time, but with so many airplanes running late, our taxi time was about 90 minutes.

March 18th

Landed at Milan about 70 mins late at 11:10am local time.  After waiting for another hour we finally figured out that the airline had lost Mike’s checked bag.  So another 90 minutes to set up paperwork to “find” Mike’s bag.  Got to the car rental and had another 90 minute wait (11 people in front of me).  Finally about 2:30pm we are off to San Gimignano.  Traffic was heavy and we missed a sign so had about a 45 minute detour.  Finally arrived at Hotel Sovestro about 7:45pm.  Had a great dinner and just died in bed.  (No pictures today -- too frustrated!)

 

March 19th

Where did Wednesday go;  seems like a bad dream – and Mike still doesn’t have his suitcase!

Slept til 8 and after a nice breakfast , we drove into town (San Gimignano) and walked all around the town.  Today was market day so there were vendors all around the piazza.  After a long walk, we sat in an outdoor café and enjoyed pizza and drinks and sunshine.  A little more wandering and we decided to go back to hotel.  On the way out of town,  though, we had to get a gelato---Mike had almond cookie and Lynne had limon. Yum!

Rested in room that afternoon and went back to town later for dinner.  Most of the restaurants don't open until 7:30pm!

 

March 20th

Our room has shutters that make it real dark when closed---so we must have been really tired, because we slept til 10:30!  We missed breakfast, so had a few crackers and an apple in the room, got dressed and Mike called about his suitcase.  They still have not found it!  So our first order of business was to go to a store and get him some clothes (supposedly the airline will reimburse for things you have to buy).  Got him some underwear, socks, a pair of pants and three shirts, so hopefully this will be enough.

Since more than half the day was over, we drove on to another old town, Volterra, which isn’t too far away.  Unlke San Gimigano, which is very tourist oriented, Volterra has a long history back to the Etruscan era, but is not near as tourist oriented. In fact in Rick Steve’s book on Tuscany, he reports on a city meeting a while back about bringing faster internet to Volterra.  One of the townspeople said at the meeting, “If the Etruscans didn’t need, then neither do we!”.  It is a quaint town also on a hill with very narrow streets, and like San Gimignano, you park outside the city walls and walk to the city center.  Volterra is on a higher hill, so from our parking lot, we had a steep set of stairs to walk up and an even steeper set to walk back to our car.

Came back to the hotel and ate at the hotel restaurant---our first meal of the day.  We tried to find a place earlier in Volterra, but unless you want pizza, the restaurants don’t start to serve until 7 or 7:30 pm.  

March 21st

Woke up early enough for breakfast today!  Then drove into town to a laundromat to wash Mike’s clothes so he can make it until we get to Germany.  A call to the airport brought no new news re his suitcase!

Brought the clean clothes back to room, then followed the footpath from hotel to town (1 ½ km). Very scenic, but a long walk uphill to get to town.  We ate lunch at a small bakery/sandwich shop and had paninis.  Walked around a little bit, then walked back to the hotel.  Mike had seen a couple of wine tasting places yesterday, so we decided to drive back that way until we found one that was open.  Had a good time talking to the daughter for the tasting and at the end her father came in also (both spoke very good English).  It is a family business that makes wine, olive oil, and they have rooms to stay in.  The father actually knew of Austin and Fredericksburg.

Since it was not near supper time (most restaurants don’t open until 7-7:30), we drove a different direction to see two other little towns.  Came back to San Gimignano, walked around and found a restaurant that was actually open before 7 pm (tho’ we were the first ones in there).  Mike had a vension-like goulash that was very good.  Stopped on the way back to the car and bought small cups of gelato (lemon for Lynne, Tiramisu for Mike).

March 22nd

Got up and ready early, grabbed apples and bread from breakfast area, and drove into nearby town (Poggibonsi---pronounced poh-jee-BOHN-see) to catch the bus to Florence.  Nothing is real clear—we parked in garage that said “Parking Statzione” but found no place to get a ticket or pay. Mike finally walked outside and asked a policeman who said we could park all day in there at no cost (first thing we’ve found in Italy that was free).

Buying tickets was also not clear, but finally asked at a little magazine stand and lady said we buy them from her---no signs reflecting that or what the cost was.  We paid what she said and waited for the bus which was pretty much on time and full.  Took 50 minutes to get to Florence.  Would have liked to see the countryside, but the windows were fogged over inside the bus, so could see very little.

Followed our handy Rick Steves’ guidebook map and went first to the Ponte Vecchio bridge.  Walked across and back quickly, as Mike had no desire to look at jewelry (what they sell in the little shops on the bridge) (image that!).  Walked down the road by the river a couple blocks and went to the Galileo Science Museum.  Very interesting displays of his telescopes and other inventions for figuring out science questions of the 1500’s.  They even had two display containers holding one (middle) finger in one and an index finger, thumb and one tooth in the other container.  Fingers were pointing up as he was known to do when talking about his studies of the stars and planets.

From there we walked toward the Duomo and Baptistery, passing the outside of the Uffizi Gallery.  As you can see in the pictures, there were tons of people---mostly young teenage kids—all over town.  It was Sunday, but we couldn’t figure out why there were so many groups of kids.  We found a place to have a small lunch, luckily inside as it was very cool and windy today, then walked to the Duomo.  To get in you have to buy tickets ahead so we didn’t get in.  Mike was tired, so we decided to head back to bus station to catch the 2:40 bus.  On the way, we passed the Medici Chapel (which has a lot of Michelangelo sculptures), but they had just closed.

Went on to the bus station with a stop for gelato on the way.  This bus was not a direct, so we made several stops making the ride an hour and 20 minutes.  Happily no ticket on the car and so we drove back to the hotel (taking ~20 minutes).  Mike called about his luggage again.  Hallelujah---they said they have it!  But since we go back to Milan on Tuesday morning, they will hold it and we will get it then. Until we actually see it, we are still holding our breath!

Had dinner down the road at a small bar/restaurant.  As usual food was very good and we ordered more than we could eat.

 

March 23rd

 

Not much to report today.  After breakfast we drove west to the coastal area.  We were looking to see if we could find the town on the beach we stayed in back in June of 1982.  Weren’t sure of the name, but we had stayed in a pension and went to the Armed Forces Recreation area beach.  We found the town, Tirrenia, just north of Livorno and south of Pisa.  We wandered around and found Camp Darby, the US Army base that ran the rec area.  Were able to get on base and found out that the rec area closed last year. 

But we ate lunch on the beach area which doesn’t look like what we remembered, as it looks like they have brought in rocks to shore up the erosion of the beach.  In fact by the restaurant, they had big boulders of marble. 

We decided not to go on to Pisa, since we saw the tower in our previous visit, and instead to come back to the hotel to get our stuff ready to leave tomorrow.  Will go into San Gimignano tonight one last time to eat dinner and leave early tomorrow morning to drive to Milan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 24th--

Got up early this morning, grabbed a brief bite at the hotel and drove back north to Milan.  The drive was brutal because there were so many trucks on the road.  Sort of reminded me of IH40.  Anyway, we got to the Milan airport about noon, checked in the car and amazingly I got my missing bag!  It appeared to be ok and nothing was missing although TSA had rummaged through it. 

Our flight to Luxembourg was via LuxAir.  Arrived about 5pm, got our rental car (VW Golf TSI) and it has all kinds of gizmos on it.  When you lock it, the outside mirrors turn inward automatically.  Compared to the MB Roma we had in Italy, this had tons of power.  Was nice driving on the autobahn at 140-150kph.  Got to Hotel Bisenius at 7:30, then went into town for schnitzel – boy was it good.

 

March 25th--

 

After breakfast, we were going to ride bicycles, but when we got outside it was cooler than we thought and windy and a few sprinkles.  So we decided instead to drive to see Spangdahlem AB.  Found where Mike’s squadron, 23 TFS, was, but it is now occupied by a Canadian squadron (the 23rd was deactivated in 2010).  Also drove to where we lived off base, but it is no longer housing for Americans.  It was in a very little village called Herforst.  The village has really grown.  Of course we were there in 1981-84!

We drove back to Wittlich, a larger town, and went to Bungert’s, a store Lynne used to shop in often when we lived in Herforst.  Mike was bored stiff while Lynne looked at everything and bought a few things.

Came back to hotel to rest and will go out for Greek food around 5 or so.  Weather is even cooler and overcast now than this morning. (See video locking/unlocking car.)

March 26th--

After breakfast, we decided if we were going to ride bikes, it had to be this morning as the weather is supposed to get rainy.  So we bundled up and went outside, and lo and behold, the sun was shining.  It was still breezy and cold, but nice.  We went down the river one way, then came back another way to the middle of town.  We crossed the bridge to the Trarbach side (there I had a hard time getting Lynne to stay with me as there were many shop windows she kept looking at).  Crossed back over the bridge and had lunch at a small (very local) café we had passed earlier and had lunch of curry wurst and pomme frites (French Fries).  We then returned to the hotel and put away the bikes.

Decided to drive to Burg (small town about 7 km north on the river) to see Leni Schmidt, the wife of our friend and wine maker, Otto.  Otto died two years ago and we hadn’t seen Leni since.  No one was home, so we drove up river to Bernkastel Keus and then up the hill to Hahn Flugplatz (airport,) which used to be Hahn AB where Mike was stationed from 1980-1981.  Wound back down the hill to the Mosel again and went back to Burg.  Leni was home now and we had a nice visit with her. 

Went to local gasthaus for dinner---had several of our favorites:  gulasche soup, wiener schnitzel, and for dessert, vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce.  

March 27th--

Since it was cloudy and really windy when we ate breakfast, we decided to stay in for a while.  Mike worked on problem for one of his clients and Lynne read.  When Mike was through with his work, it was still very windy, so we decided to drive to Trier.  Trier is about 40 km away and is the oldest city in Germany dating back over 2000 years.  We parked in a parking garage and walked down the main street/square which is foot traffic only.  Mike was very patient going into the two department stores that Lynne used to shop in when we lived here.  For lunch we went to the Ratskellar restaurant which is located in the basement of the one store. 

We headed back to Traben-Trarbach around 2 pm, rested, then walked to a wine vendor for a tasting that our hotel had arranged.  We, of course, bought a few bottles to bring home!

Ate dinner in a different restaurant tonight (about a block from where we are staying) and called it a day.

March 28th--

Woke up to sunny skies this morning and little wind, so decided to go bicycle riding again.  Headed south and went farther than we had the other day, to the locks near Enkirch.  There was one barge already in the lock, with two waiting to go thru behind it and one on the other side waiting to go upriver.  We were able to go to an observation area and watch the first one go thru.  As it left the area, the one waiting to go upriver came in and they elevated it, then slowly the other two waiting to go down river were cycled thru.  Lynne had not seen a lock operate up close like that, so it was an interesting experience.

Went back to the hotel, straightened ourselves up (hair was all blown as the wind had once again picked up).  We then left to go to back towards Hahn area.  First went to village of Sohren and visited Kaefers (kitchen household good, china, crystal, decorations); a very popular shopping store for the women when we were here in the early 80s.  Managed to get out of there only spending $60.  Then went and visited a German national that I met on the internet via the 496th squadron email chain maintained by our squadron commander.  He has a collection of name tag patches from squadrons at Hahn, Spangdahlem, Bitburg, and Ramstein Air Bases.  We had a very nice visit (~ 2 hours).  Then went on to the Schinderhannes Restaurant where we had eaten many times while Mike was stationed at Hahn.  After a great supper, we returned back to our hotel in Traben Trarbach.  

 

 

March 29th--

Got up this morning and it was cold with rain coming down at a 45 degree angle.  So we just decided to have a reading day and only left the room for meals.  No pictures and nothing to report.

March 30th--

Packed and ready to go, we ate breakfast, settled our bill with the hotel, and headed out to Luxemburg.  We had read about the National Museum of Military History in Diekirch, Luxemburg, which had a large display on the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Luxemburg in 1945.  With the GPS navigation in our rental car, we made our way to Diekirch.  Spent about two hours in the museum, ate lunch at a closeby café, then headed to Luxemburg City.

In the 1980’s when we lived in Germany, we had visited the American WWII Cemetary in Luxemburg City, as well as the nearby German WWII cemetary.  While at the American cemetary today, we met another American (from New York) who was staying over in Lux City before heading home from a working job in Ghana.  He wanted to see the German cemetary too, so we offered him a ride since he was on foot or riding a bus.  It was closeby, but too far to walk.  The American cemetary is impressive and includes Gen. Patton’s grave.  It is kept closely manicured always, as was evident today by the man cutting grass very carefully around each gravestone. Each cross is an American soldier buried there.  The German cemetary is a bit more somber.  Each gravestone has two names on each side---so that each cross was for four soldiers.  In some cases, it had a name and also “Eine Deutsche Soldat” (One German Soldier), meaning that they didn’t know the name of the other soldier buried on that side of the cross.  One even had “Zwei Deutsche Soldaten”---Two German Soldiers.  Many of their soldiers were only 17 or 18 years old.

We headed then to the airport, giving our new acquaintance a ride to the bus stop.  Checked into our hotel (about two blocks from the airport), then returned the rental car.  We take a shuttle to the airport at 5 am tomorrow, fly to Milan, then JFK, and back to Austin arriving very late.  Will probably be after midnight before we get back to the lake house.  

 

 

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