Blogs from Europe - page 11959

This morning I lay around until breakfast at 9:00 with Jim and Mary and Dave and Betty from my Rome tour. Then we all walked into town. The Duomois so extraordinary as to be indescribable. It is on the highest point of the hill of Siena, of course, and is itself tall and elegant, made of white marble with a tower striped horizontally black and white. The façade soars over a relatively small plaza. The shape of the front is a triangle on top of a square and the length of the cathedral recedes away from the plaza. Another set of unfinished arched building elements extend at right angles. When the plague hit Siena, the economy and population collapsed and the money ran out. I am hoping to visit the Duomo and the museum later in ... read more

Hey everyone! I arrived in Athens on May 3rd 2007, Sas, Seb and Steve picked me up at the airport where I was ever so hopeful they would remember to come pick me up. They did! It was so great to see them, and have them carry my luggage as well as I was exhausted from the 7hr flight across the ocean, then my morning (1am-5am) sitting at Schipol Amsterdam Airport, and the next 3 hrs on the plane to Athens. Drinking? No thank you. Feeling a little knackered? yesssssssss!!! We went on the train, got threatened with a little fine by the train conductor because the boys like taking risks and chose to not buy tickets for their way back to Athens. They sweet-talked their way out of the fine, and were let off entirely ... read more

It's Saturday and has been pouring rain here in Siena most of the day -- complete with thunder and lightening. Our Guide, Carrrrrlito, picked us up at our hotel this morning and drove us to Fagliori B&B in the Tuscan countryside where we had a cooking lesson by chef Guilietta. We learned how to make homemade pasta, pesto sauce, a fresh vegetable dish, pork loin, and a yummy apple dessert in her kitchen. Fact: There are apples here named MELINDA! (She is VERY excited about that.) We enjoyed our creation and ate most of it ourselves. We have to tell you about this amaaaaazing B&B that's over 800 years old. Better yet, check out our pics. If you're ever in the middle of "nowhere Tuscany", you have to look this place up. www.fagliori.it She made ... read more

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, … in good old England - und in meiner leicht verqueren Welt. In den Kommentaren kann gern ein Vergleich zu JD gezogen werden, ich erwähne denjenigen welchen dann auch gerne lobend, wenn mir der Pulitzer-Preis verliehen wird. Also, ran an die Buletten, wa? Flug - Start ziemlich ruckelig, Ankunft bei typisch englischem Wetter (nein, nicht Regen, aber bedeckt und windig). Trotz der Tatsache, dass der Stuttgarter Flughafen von der Größe her eher als Nussschale und Heathrow dann wohl als Universum gesehen wird, hab ich mich bei letzterem erstaunlich gut zurecht gefunden (man bedenke: ich bin vorher noch nie geflogen). Uhr noch fix umgestellt und mich dann in den Bus gehockt. Meine Vermieterin - Jenie - hat mir damals gesagt, dass ich so ungefähr 20 min brauchen werde. Nun gut, ich fahr da ... read more

What do a banker, hairdresser, chef and me have in common? Sushi! We are now all certified Sushi and Sashimi Masters - what ever that may mean! Friday morning it was a 6 am start at the Billinggate Fish Market down in Canary Wharf (to which I now know was named by all the ships transporting goods from Canary Islands) I was one of two women in a great big icy shed filled with slippery slimy fish wranglers and their latest catch! I was starting to reconsider what it was I was doing there!! Meeting first with the Chief Inspector, who explained that they were practicing on laws passed in the 1700’s, he took us on a tour of ‘his’ market to learn how to choose a quality fish - to which we needed to ... read more