One of Those Coincidences?.....

Ok, so a Scottish Terrier last year, and.....this year.....

A Scottish Deerhound? Hummmm, you have to wonder about those coincidences we talked about in a prior post.

A Day Late...But Still With Love.

I fully intended to post this on Valentine's day, but got waylaid, I guess.  Anyway, I think this is a beautiful love song.  The title is Se Non Ho Te  (If I Don't Have You) by my favorite Italian group Nomadi playing with the Omni Symphony Orchestra (2007).



I also wanted to put in something about the Lucchetti Ponte Milvio in Rome. A few years ago, there was an Italian movie in which the lovers locked a chain around a lamp post on the Milvio Bridge over the Tiber River, and threw the key into the water. Since then, there have been so many people doing it, the lampost was starting to buckle. Instead of outlawing it, they put up a rack for people to put their locks (lucchetti) on, and the tradition continues.

There are places all over Italy where people put their locks, and in the tradition of a country which believes in "amore", it is tolerated, and in some cases even assisted. After all, St. Valentine was a Roman.

Becky Is On Vacation From Our Vacation...

So Becky is off to NYC for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show...

 Last year's winner.  Is it an omen?

I am not sure if I will hear from her while she is gone, or if she will Blog.  I hope she does because I think this outing is an important part of our planning.  It will give her some practice, and she can maybe get some ideas about what we need to prepare for as far as packing, clothing, etc. 

In any case, I have still been struggling with the trains.  I did, however make a great acquaintance in Vienna on Facebook, and she has given us a wonderful list of cheap things to do while we are there.  I think the best is information about the Vienna Tourist Card that we can buy for 18.50€.  It is good for 72 hours, and we have unlimited use of the buses, subways, and trams.  The site is very interesting, and there are discounts on nearly everything in Vienna that a tourist would want to see, including the Giant Ferris Wheel (cool!).  It is really interesting.  You can book a "cabin", apparently an enclosed area on the wheel, and have dinner. On the site there is even a place to plan your trip to the city.  Or if just interested in the transportation part of it, you can pay 10€ for unlimited public transportation for 48 hrs.  You can get on and off as much as you want.  Thank you, Isabella.

I hope Becky has realized (as I just did), that we are going to be in a country/city where NEITHER of us speaks the language.  I remember being in Albania and not speaking Shqip, but I had an interpreter.  This will be different.  I may need to learn a few German words or phrases, but they seem so difficult.  Maybe with English, my limited Italian, and a little (and I mean very little) German, we will get by.

This little foray into Becky's city actually started with me trying to find out where Wein was.  It is the destination for a train from Cologne that I am trying to figure out, and also a follow up on some things that Isabella (who is another Zucchero fan) sent me.  I will now go back to my train brain drain.



Now this is a committed fan!  The flies are replicas of ones on Zucchero's album "Fly".  Isabella designed the tribal part.  Beautiful tattoo and a good picture of Zucchero with Isabella.

Dee

(even)

 

Manarola

This is one of the villages of the Cinque Terre.  It is where the hostel we will be staying at is located.  If you are following our blog, Kim and Libby, this is where you could be spending some time.  Of course, to be honest, it will be late October, so may not be quite so sunny, but it IS the Riviera...so who knows.




I wish you could see this picture in HD.  If you have an HD screen, you can see the original here.  Amazing.

Dee

"The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent Was A Summer In San Francisco"

I don't know where I read this quote, or who said it, but it loosely applies to my story.

I was thinking about a weekend trip that Becky and I took to San Francisco to see Wicked.  Becky was picking the hotel and making the reservations for this trip, and she picked  a funky little old hotel that looked like the kind of place we like.  It was light years from new, but looked clean, and the location was good. 

She picked me up at the airport in Sacramento, and as we drove into SF we found ourselves on one of their inevitable one-way streets.  After making a second loop around we found a parking place in front, checked in, and then took off to go see something (I don't remember what). 

As we returned, and found ourselves turning onto the street where the hotel was, I had a moment of recognition....

BACK IN TIME:  In the 1950s, our dad was transferred to Hawaii by the Marine Corps.  We drove to San Francisco from Pennsylvania, and then we were put up in the Marine Corps Hotel until the plane was ready. I remember how cold it was, how wet, and that because we were going to Hawaii (Hello...Warm?) we didn't have heavy coats.  I remember my dad taking us to a movie (Pete Kelly's Blues with Jack Webb), and the walk up the street leaning into the cold wind.

BACK TO THIS DECADE:  Our hotel was about 4 buildings in from the corner in front of us. Two buildings from the corner was the Marine Corps Memorial Club and Hotel. 

That moment of recognition still gives me what the Italians call "la pelle d'oca" (goose bumps).  It was one of those times when you are actually transported through space to another time and place; where later, when you have somewhat recovered,  you contemplate with amazement the coincidences in the world, and are they really coincidences or lovely little miracles God gives us to remind us how small the world is and where we are in it.

I can't help but think that somewhere on this trip we may stumble into another little coincidence that will again give "la pelle d'oca" and make another incredible, unexplainable  memory that will remain long after the others are gone.  I hope so.

Dee

There is a Reason Why "Train" and "Bane" Rhymes (as in "the bane of my existence").

ARGGGHHHHH....train schedules!  Becky is having issues with the train routes and schedules in Britain, and I am also having issues with the Continent.  So far, the only relatively easy parts of this trip have been the flights over and back, and the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam.  Limited choices mean limited headaches. 

All I really want is a place that will give me a rough idea of how much it is to go from point A to point B so I can estimate our travel expenses.  I really don't need to have exact amounts.  I am realistic, I know the prices will change. I just want to get some idea.  Is that so hard?  Ok, so I also would like it all on one page so I didn't have to jump from one site to another, and one page to another.  Not too much to ask, but you would think I was asking for a free trip to Florence.

Ok, I feel better.  To bed and a new plan of attack tomorrow.  I will approach it with renewed enthusiasm and a clear vision.  And chocolate.  And probably something alcoholic.

OH, No...La Kiwiaise May Go Home

Oh, sadness.... Our Kiwi cousin may be going home.  Her teaching contract is coming to an end, and she is trying to make a decision about what to do. She indicates that the entire visa situation is a nightmare, that she has decided she doesn't want to be a schoolteacher, and she is missing home a bit.  I hope she finds a direction that will enable her to stay in France or Spain so we can connect while we are there.  It would be so very fun.

I hope things work out the way she wants them to, but that we can still meet up.  Although we want to go to New Zealand, we have to wait until Julie can go with us.

Dee
(I don't want to talk about it)