Euro days 24-40 Germany...Italy...Germany again...home
The 21st was Parent Fest at the kids' daycare. We enjoyed meeting the counselors and seeing all the activities the kids participated in. The highlights of their activities so far included helping build a low wall for sitting (with decorative tiles), finishing wood for a small building, participating in a play at the fest (in German), and learning how to ride a unicycle. Some other children made a pizza oven - and baked pizzas for the the whole daycare! The most unusual activity was "trade a potato day" in the main shopping area of downtown. They went to shops and asked what the shopkeeper would give for a potato. They received some ornaments, a small bear soap, and my son scored with a giant jar of gummy bears (pronounced "goomi bars"). We liked the program they put on for the parents. It was all in German, but we made the best of it. A 7 or 8 year old girl who sat next us asked me a question. I replied that I only speak English. She actually rolled her eyes (subtext "I can't believe these adults are so clueless they can't speak German").
The next day we visited the Heidelberg Schloss. We had fun taking pictures of the kids in the same locations we took pictures 3+ years ago. The children allowed us to go through the apothecary museum at a more sedate pace this time.
The following day we went to Saalburg, a reconstructed Roman Fort, near the excavation site of said fort. A number of artifacts were found in a well, so the moisture preserved articles that normally are not recovered. There were sandals on display (they had recovered shoes plus reconstructed copies) that looked quite stylish. As in Milan stylish. As in how do I get a pair? There were recovered measuring tools (a ruler with finger width, palm width, and foot length markings that folded just like the one in your parent's toolbox - you know the one that when folded was about the width of a chalkboard eraser) and all manner of daily living items.
The weekend of the 29th we drove to San Gimignano (our route takes us by Lake Como - I wondered if George Clooney was in residence) San Gimignano is known as "Medieval Manhattan". The rich folks would build towers for themselves - the taller the better. Our hotel had been in continuous operation (upgraded tremendously of course) since the 12 or 13th century. The town is now a tourist destination with many curio shops (linens, pottery, more linens, more pottery, restaurants, gelatto, various sundries, more restaurants, bakeries, more pottery, and a torture museum (um, ick! - we didn't visit this.) All the shopping opportunities and the icky museum in no way takes away the charm of narrow streets, unexpected corridors, soaring towers, churches, and the HISTORY you feel all around you.
The following day we drove to Castellammare di Stabia where my husband was attending a conference. We had bought one of those GPS route finder things before we left Germany which was an absolute route-saver. I had to make a guess of the street for the hotel in CdS. The address for the hotel was "Viale delle Puglie, 45", but this didn't register, so I entered "Viale Puglia, 45" which did. Amazingly enough it found the hotel which is not far from a very working class neighborhood, so navigating by following chic wasn't going to work (The GPS thingy worked after a bazillion auto-reboots as we were driving. My theory was that the Italian map and or interface to Italian GPS information was extra buggy causing it to freak out. I turned off the avoidance of traffic delay algorithm which helped some.) The next few days when we were not on excursions we spent time in the pool and ate local pizza for dinner (the hotel dinners were very expensive). Lunches were a bit problematic as myself and the children were "accompanying persons" which meant we didn't get a free lunch and hotel lunches were expensive, too. So we braved the local supermarket. The walk down the hill to the pizzeria and grocery store was an adventure. We passed trash collecting points (lets just say that folks are not timid about dumping all manner of stuff) and had to cross streets with streams of scooters and small cars where the traffic mentality is optimized for traffic flow, not lane management. Given that, once you got up the nerve to cross the street, the cars and scooters would stop for you. If you moved quickly they didn't even seem to mind.
Our first excursion was a trip to the Island of Capri. Through limited English by the booking agent and even more limited French and German and couple of Italian words by us, we were able to get the tickets for the two ferries over and the one ferry for the return (we missed the direct morning ferry to Capri by an hour.) Upon arrival in Capri, we took the insane bus up to Anacapri (bus was small, packed, and hurtled around corners next to giant sea cliffs). After the bus ride up, we decided to walk down to the blue grotto - a sea cave where reflected light turns the water a luminescent blue (only got a little lost on the walk down, but found the paved path again). The blue grotto was amazing - you are taken in by boat and the oarsman will tell you facts about the cave and sing Italian arias! We took another insane bus back up to Anacapri and decided to walk down the other side back to the port (giant staircase down the mountain...)
Our next excursion was a trip to Pompeii. After a civilized picnic and impromptu soccer game by some of the tour participants in the park right inside the entrance, we started the tour. I was expecting something much smaller. Not a city that had 20,000 residents. I also had assumed that most of the residents perished. About a thousand perished (still, not a small number), but most were rescued by the navy stationed in Naples. We could see chariot ruts and there were still pedestrian crossing stones. Some of the buildings we visited included a fast food restaurant (an eatery with a counter with inset big ceramic pots to keep hot food hot or cold food cold and had space for tables in the back (not on display) for conducting business lunches, bakery, laundry cleaner, a brothel (!), and the baths (there were 3 chambers: cold, warm, hot - they even had numbered lockers.) The day was quite hot, so we left the tour early and retreated to the hotel pool. That night we attended the conference dinner. The restaurant was near the hotel, but at first I thought we had been dropped off at some dive. The buses left us at an entrance to an alley with not an insignificant eau de dumpster smell where we had to walk past derelict houses and a small car junkyard. We get to the restaurant and mill around the patio area with drinks, snacks, and an opportunity to buy fine Italian cheese, pasta, and wine. They made fresh mozzarella - a process that reminded us of how taffy is made - quite delicious to sample. After a suitable period where they figured they had gotten as many purchases they were going to get, we went into the dining room. There were giant canvas umbrellas mounted from the ceiling that with the open window spaces (no screens) on the side gave the illusion of eating outdoors on a patio. The meal was huge and yummy (we avoided the meat, but I'm sure it was quite good for those who like that sort of thing). There were 3 pasta courses - and those were just the appetizers! I skipped a couple of courses as there simply was too much food that I could eat. We were also treated to a singer/performer who sang/cavorted/nabbed hapless conference guests/changed costumes and generally made a nuisance of himself until the audience's smiles became rather fixed. Fortunately he did take a break between some courses.
The next day the children and I lounged around the pool while husband networked.
The following day we drove 18 hours back to Frankfurt followed by an 11 hour flight back to the US the following day.