We were fascinated a couple of years ago when we visited Rothenburg; so much so that we put it on our list of places to return to next time we were in Germany. This week, we did just that, and the weather was in full cooperation. Last visit, we had only one full day to discover the city and it was a near total wash-out. We left our Nikons in the room and braved the city streets with rain gear and phone cameras, but weren’t too happy about talking our phones out in the rain either.
This time the weather cooperated completely. We budgeted two full days to re-discover this town, and ended up walking as much of it as we could in that time.
If you want to take a walk back in time, you can walk the wall built around Rothenburg in the 13th century. Photo by Donald Fink.
Rothenburg is generally regarded as one of Europe’s best preserved Medieval towns. There are a couple of reasons for this that date back to 1631 when it was occupied by an unfriendly Army, and again a couple of years later when it was ravaged by the Black Plague. There were some tense moments again in World War II, but again the city came out in better shape than many European towns at the time. We wrote about all this in an earlier story, and you can see our remarks in that first article, about Rothenburg. There are some images in that article that we managed to get in between rain that’s worth a look.
Rothenburg sits just southwest of Nuremberg, but it was an easy drive from Frankfurt too. You can click on “View Larger Map” above to see a full page map of the area.
Here’s a quick video showing our impression of the town of Rothenberg. Enjoy.
Yorktown was established in 1691 as a seaport, primarily for the export of tobacco. Because of its great location along Chesapeake Bay, it quickly became a favored location for receiving and sending many other goods by ship. It had a wharf area along the waterfront, and a bluff overlooking the York River where many prosperous merchants and workers built their homes.
Cannons are placed like they might have been during the battle in 1781. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Like Jamestown and Williamsburg, this little town is rich in early American history, but its most famous event took place during the American Revolutionary War, when the last major battle of the war took place.
In the summer of 1781, British General Lord Cornwallis took possession of Yorktown to use as a naval base. When he heard about this, General George Washington, in cooperation with French General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur (comte de Rochambeau) and Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse, traveled to Yorktown to engage the British. General Washington was also assisted by the 2nd Canadian Regiment, commanded by General Moses Hazen.
Yorktown is a protected harbor but still very accessible to the Atlantic, which is why it made such a desirable port during the American Revolutionary War.
Upon arriving at Chesapeake Bay, Admiral de Grasse’s fleet of 28 ships defeated the British Navy and set up a blockade, blocking General Cornwallis’ access to supplies and reinforcements. This was a significant sea battle because it marked the first major defeat of the British Navy in over 200 years.
When Washington arrived in Yorktown on September 28, 1781, he faced a British Army that was entrenched in good defensive positions around the town. The British had dug 10 redoubts (forward fortifications) to defend their position, had 65 guns mounted in the redoubts and a total of 240 artillery pieces. Unfortunately, they had no horses to help move the guns around, which limited their ability to move. Washington had 365 guns. The shelling on Yorktown and the British artillery was so intense that the British were only able to return fire during the night, when Colonial firing diminished. Washington shelled the British for three weeks while preparations were made for the assault. Overall, cannons were fired at the British at the rate of nearly 1.2 per minute for a total of over 36,000 shots fired in the shelling.
Washington’s army – combined with French and Canadian troops – totaled nearly 20,000. Cornwallis’ British army, assisted by a small contingent of German soldiers, numbered only 7,500. After continual shelling, Washington finally gave the order to begin the attack in earnest on October 9th. On October 17th, Cornwallis offered to surrender unconditionally.
It was customary during the 18th century that, when a commander surrendered, he did so in person, and handed over his sword to the victorious commander. In the case of General Cornwallis, he sent a subordinate to the French Army to surrender. When the French directed him to General Washington’s camp, the subordinate was received, not by General Washington, but by a subordinate that Washington appointed.
While the Revolutionary War officially lasted another year after the Battle of Yorktown, this was the last major battle. It shouldn’t be implied that the battle of Yorktown broke the British, or defeated them in any significant way. They lost 7,000 troops (taken prisoner), but still had over 30,000 in the Americas, outnumbering the Continental Army. They still held New York City, Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. They also held parts of Florida and Canada. If the British were only fighting in the Americas, they might have continued indefinitely. Instead, they were fighting the French and Spanish elsewhere, and the loss at Yorktown probably helped the British realign their priorities. While it was clear that the Continental Army could not singlehandedly defeat the British Army, it was also clear that Britain could not control the Colonies. Two years after the Battle was over, the peace treaties were signed in September, 1783, and the British Army left New York, their final occupation, on November 25th.
What’s the difference between a cruise and an all-inclusive resort? That could be a question that has a great deal of importance for some of us, so we checked out an all-inclusive Sandals Resort and Spa on the island of Antigua.
Sandals, as you may know, is a relatively well known and popular destination resort that owns and manages resorts all over the Caribbean and even into the Mediterranean. They feature all-inclusive destination stays in a luxury style that can only be approached by luxury cruise ships. Let’s see what they have to offer:
What are the Rooms Like?
The rooms are comfortable at Sandals Grande Antigua Resort and Spa. Photo by Donald Fink.
There are several kinds of rooms at the Sandals Grande Antigua. Our room was called a Caribbean Honeymoon Premium, but you could get others with a variety of features. There was a tower that provided more hotel-like rooms, but there were also beach front rooms called Mediterranean one bedroom butler villas that featured their own private plunge pools and butlers. Pretty much any level of comfort was available.
Our room was a single room with a patio overlooking a garden view. It included a king size bed, a fridge stocked with drinks, and a coffee maker as well as a kettle for heating water. There was an air conditioner and a fan, so controlling the temperature was not a problem.
It was central to the amenities, about a minute’s walk to the lobby and even closer to the beach. There was a covered porch too. Overall it was roomy and comfortable.
If absolute luxury is on your mind, there are rooms available that include a bedroom, living area, private plunge pool, private spa, and a butler. The butler seems to do all kinds of things, including serve drinks and meals, and making reservations at restaurants, or securing lounge chairs at the beach. The experience is of course more expensive, but the treatment appears to be world class. And if you don’t mind being pampered, why not?
What’s Included?
Guests enjoy breakfast in the open air Bayside Restaurant; a comfortable covered setting with the waves lapping at the beach as you enjoy your meal. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Pretty much everything is included. At Sandals Grand Antigua, there are over 10 restaurants, and all of them are included in the price. Actually, they mention 11 restaurants, but one of them is a hot dog stand near the main pool. But if you like hot dogs, that should count too, right?
All drinks at the resort are included. Yes. All of them, and that’s where Sandals seems to get really competitive with cruising in terms of price. An average drink package on a cruise ship can cost $55.00 US per day per person. At Sandals, that’s part of the experience. And while we don’t have firsthand experience with the quality of the alcohol, the people in our group didn’t appear to be complaining. Beer was mostly local, but many of the wines were from the Napa Valley in California, and the hard liquor seemed to be labels we recognized. Coffee and tea was available too.
Our room had both a coffee pot and a kettle for heating water, as well as a completely stocked fridge with water, soft drinks, and juices. Some of the rooms had a mini bar included too.
Are There Beaches?
At Sandals Grande Antigua Resort and spa, the white sand beaches stretched the length of the resort. Beaches here are public, but Sandals provides chairs and umbrellas exclusively for Sandals guests. Photo by Donald Fink.
There are indeed beaches. The Grande Antigua Resort is situated on a white sand beach overlooking the Caribbean Sea. As you sit on the beach in the included Sandals lounge chairs, you’re either in the sun or under a grass shade. The choice is yours.
Off shore, there’s a small barrier reef that seems to help keep the beach quiet most of the time. We noticed the reef as we were headed out for some diving. You can see the waves breaking on the reef, making the waters calm closer to shore.
How’s the Food?
When we travel, we judge the food we encounter based on the food we see on cruise ships, and the food at Sandals is very similar to some of the better offerings we see. If we had to name a brand, we might say that the meals at Sandals was in line with the quality we expect on Royal Caribbean, maybe a little better.
Our main, go-to restaurant for this visit was called Bayside Restaurant. It is a buffet style offering for breakfast and lunch, but converts over to table service for dinner.
The wait staff is good here in that they are friendly and competent, but the service was less formal, even in the specialty settings. In other words, while the food was really good, no one came around and removed the crumbs from your table between courses. And most meals were three courses, with appetizer, main course, and dessert.
It should be mentioned that not all restaurants are open all the time. At Grand Antigua, for example, there’s a restaurant called The OK Corral that features Tex-Mex, but was only open a couple of times in the week we were there. There’s another Italian styled restaurant called Mario’s that was open every night. And another British Pub called the Drunken duck that was open too. We enjoyed a couple of seriously good hamburgers there, by the way.
On Wednesday nights, there’s a beach bar-b-que that probably goes down as one of the included restaurants. It looked like a fun meal.
Another restaurant down by the main pool is called Barefoot by the Sea. This open-air restaurant is nearly on the beach, with rustic tables, comfortable chairs, and sand on your feet. They’re open every day for lunch and most nights for dinner.
There’s a dress code for the restaurants at Sandals. The two designations are Evening Attire, and Resort Casual Attire. As you might guess, Resort Casual Attire means, “come as you are.” And Evening Attire means long pants for men with no T-shirts. Shoes or elegant sandals are required. For the ladies, the expected dress is evening pants, skirts, elegant top, sundress, with sandals or shoes. And to be clear, the above description is not verbatim from the Sandals guide. Be sure to check the dress codes directly with sandals before you pack for the trip.
What Else Is There to Do?
There’s a pool behind the dive shop that’s dedicated to scuba instruction and “check-out” dives. Here, Don is entering the water to prove he still remembers how to dive. Divers are required to demonstrate basic skills if they don’t have signed log books indicating recent dives. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Aside from the pool time, the walks on the beach, and lazing away the day watching the waves patter on the sand, what else can you do at Sandals?
This particular Sandals had an active scuba dive program with dives nearly every day. There were mostly single tank trips, but a couple of two tank trips were also thrown in, presumably when the dive site was close by. All dive equipment is included. You can see a quick video of one of the dives below, where we went to a site called Billy’s Reef.
Snorkeling was available every day. They discourage snorkeling directly off the beach because of the amount of boat traffic, but dive boats left daily to other destinations where you could get your snorkel fill. All equipment is included.
Sail boats are available on the beach. To take one out, you simply walk over to the dive shop, get a life jacket, and grab a boat. We noticed four or five small catamaran sail boats available. Those things are fast, by the way, but easy to sail.
There are jet skis available too, but at an extra cost. We noticed two jet skis on the beach, but with all the included activities, we didn’t have the time to take one out.
Horseback riding is available at an extra cost too. Not being avid riders, and with so much else to do anyway, we didn’t take a ride.
There’s an area marked out for general swimming in case you felt the need to cool off.
Final Thoughts
We’re mostly cruising people, so we naturally want to compare this new all-inclusive resort idea with our cruising experiences. What we came away with is that the cost versus benefit was very close. The Sandals stay was a bit more expensive than a typical Caribbean cruise for the same period of time, but you need to factor in the free alcohol, free snorkeling and Scuba Diving, and an impressive beach-front.
Would we stay at a Sandals again? Sure, we would definitely return. But more likely, we’d visit one of their many other resorts in the Caribbean or even in the Mediterranean.
The question we asked at the beginning of this post was, is a stay at a Sandals Resort as good as a cruise on a luxury cruise liner? For many people, the answer has to be, “Yes, a stay at a Sandals Resort is as good or even better than a luxury cruise.” The high-quality restaurants, the included drinks, and the many recreational activities that are already included is a powerful draw. Did we mention the included drinks? And yes, we mean the alcoholic drinks, the soft drinks, and coffee and tea. Just to be clear.
Still, for us, we’re drawn to the ship where we wake up in a different place every morning, but we see the advantages of Sandals too. Everyone is different, so we encourage you to take a look for yourself.
During one of our last visits to Europe, we were fortunate enough to make a British Isles cruise. We were aboard the Caribbean Princess, a Princess Ship that we’ve sailed before, surprisingly, in the Caribbean. This time the ship was the same, but the setting was different.
One of our stops along this cruise was in Glasgow, where we jumped off the ship and boarded a bus for a day out in the Scottish countryside. We made a couple of quick stops along the way, but ended up at the Culzean Castle (pronounced Kul-LAYN) around noon.
This is one of those kinds of ship tours we like, where we get basic transportation to and from a place with some explanation along the way. Once we get there, we’re turned loose to find our own way, which is what we did here.
History
The gardens in front of Culzean Castle. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Culzean Castle was built in the late 18th century, between 1777 and 1792, by the then 10th Earl of Cassillis. The Earl was the head of the Clan Kennedy, and the castle remained in the Kennedy family until 1945, when it was turned over to the National Trust for Scotland in order to avoid inheritance taxes. There was one stipulation when the property was turned over, and that was that the uppermost floor was to be held for the use of General Dwight D. Eisenhower for as long as he wanted to use it, in recognition of his contribution to the efforts of World War II. And indeed, General Eisenhower, and later President Eisenhower, visited the apartment four times, beginning in 1946.
Local folk lore says that there are at least seven ghosts present in the castle. One of which is a servant girl who has been seen on the grand staircase, and another is a piper, who has been heard playing his instrument in the caves along the cliff walls beneath the castle.
Hotel Eisenhower
Something we don’t get to enjoy from a ship’s tour are some of the more exclusive things that come with a place like Culzean Castle. There’s a hotel located on the top floor, which are the rooms of General Eisenhower’s apartment. After President Eisenhower’s death, the apartment was converted into the Hotel Eisenhower, a small hotel capable of accommodating up to 20 guests.
There is a restaurant that serves an upscale dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, and breakfast is served daily.
Prices to stay at the Hotel Eisenhower are surprisingly moderate, considering the exclusive and luxurious nature of the surrounding. Of course, the definition of our use of the term “moderate” may not be the same as another’s idea. For some it might be out of the question and for others, the price might be trivial. Only you can decide if it’s right for you. Reviews of the hotel seem to indicate that most folks regard it as a good value.
Deer Park
There’s a deer park on the Culzean Castle grounds. There are several deer and llamas as well as other animals. This is, of course, one of the Llamas on the castle grounds, and the annoying little insects flying around. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Across the main parking lot from Culzean Castle there’s a large fenced area where you can view several different species of animals. There were various deer herds, llamas, a few goats, and so on. But one of the most interesting animals we found was the pheasant we found walking in the grass among all the ungulates. The bird was certainly a wild animal since he was clearly capable of flight, but probably learned to hang with the Deer Park animals, mainly for the food.
The purpose of the Deer Park at one time might have been to demonstrate some of the animals that might have been hunted on the property back in the last part of the 18th century, when the Castle was new. That is, of course, until the Llamas showed up. And there might actually be a purpose for the Llamas that we’re missing, so we can leave it at that.
The Deer Park wouldn’t be a reason to come to Culzean Castle in and of itself, but it was fun to watch the animals as they went about their business, mostly ignoring the tourists.
How to get there
Culzean Castle is on the coast of Scotland overlooking the Firth of Clyde, which is a body of water between Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s about 50 miles southwest of Glasgow, and 430 miles north of London. The two ways that make sense to us for visiting is either from a British Isles Cruise like we did aboard the Caribbean Princess, or from a plain ol’ road trip. We flew into London and rented a car a couple of years ago and drove up into northern Scotland for a little over a week. We had a great time visiting the sights. Culzean Castle could have easily been on the list had we known about it at the time. Actually, we would have strongly considered spending the night, had we known about it at the time.
Another way to visit Culzean Castle is to consider a train to Glasgow, then use a tour company from town to get out into the countryside. We’ve found these advertised at modest prices.
We’ll no doubt make another road trip into northern Scotland at some point in the future, and Culzean Castle will be on the list. We would like to spend more time there, perhaps staying the night and walking the beaches below the Castle along the cliffs. Who knows, we might find the ghost of the piper.
However you may prefer to travel, if you find yourself in Scotland, this is a place to see. In the meantime, here are a few of our images:
We’ve talked about Schwerin before, and we’ve mentioned the iconic Schwerin Palace, but we’ve never given the Palace the attention it deserves. After all, it was Schwerin Palace that originally drew us to this northern German town in the first place.
Schwerin Palace sits on a small island in Lake Schwerin. It is, of course, near the town of Schwerin in northern Germany near the Baltic Sea. Our first visit here was during a Baltic Sea cruise aboard a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship. We stopped in Warnemünde for a day and caught a bus into Schwerin. Our first stop was the Palace where we did a walk through its interior and the grounds.
Like so many other buildings in Europe, Schwerin Palace has a rich and interesting history. While people have been living in the area for many thousands of years, the generally accepted year that the palace was established is 1160, when a famous medieval lord Henriech der Löwe (Henry the Lion), Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, conquered a group of Slavic tribes who had occupied the fortress of Schwerin since 960. As it is, Schwerin is one of the last true residence palaces to be built in Germany.
From 1945 through 1989 it was used as Mecklenburg’s parliamentary seat, an educational college, a museum of prehistory and early history, and a polytechnic museum. In 1990, after the reunification of East and West Germany, Schwerin Palace became the seat of the regional parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, one of sixteen federal states in Germany. Extensive restoration work also began and continues to some extent today.
For us, as tourists, there’s a large area of the palace that’s open for tours. You can see re-created rooms as they probably were in the 15th century when royalty lived here. You can also see a regional parliament in action if they’re in session, but you’ll of course want to brush up on your German.
The ghost of Schwerin Castle, named Petermännchen, is said to be no more than four feet tall. One legend says that this little guy is a spirit servant of a pagan god. When the pagan god was driven out of Schwerin by Christianity, Petermännchen remained behind, refusing to leave his post.
There’s a ghost at Schwerin Palace called Petermännchen, or, Little Peterman. This good-natured spirit is said to be only about four feet tall. There’s a statue of him at the Palace. He’s described in a couple of ways. One is that he’s occasionally seen wandering the vaults and tunnels under the castle. He carries keys, unlocking doors as he goes along. Another legend says that he patrols the grounds with a lantern and a small sword or dagger, guarding the Palace against thieves. He rewards good behavior and plays pranks and tricks on others. He makes banging noises at night, and has been known to awaken sleeping guards to keep them from being punished.
In our wanderings around Germany, we’ve now made two stops at Schwerin Palace. Below you can see some of the images we brought back. You can also see an article we recently posted about Schwerin here along with a post about our favorite hotel in Schwerin, the Weinhaus Uhle.
Why is Pompeii so fascinating? We know that it was an ancient Roman city that was destroyed in a volcanic eruption when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. We also know that it was a city frozen in time at the instant of the eruption because the volcanic ash covered everything as the blistering hot gas cloud killed everything alive, then burned all that stood above the ash. And that, in a nutshell, is why we find it so fascinating. Not considering the agonizing death and destruction that rained down on this relatively large and sophisticated city, it’s our chance to observe something as it was, without the effect of time interfering with our interpretations of how things were. We’re reminded of our first visit to the famous ghost town of Bodie in the Eastern Sierras of California, where you walk through this gold rush era mining town that looks as if the residents simply walked away and left the city as it was.
You may see reference to Pompeii as “Pompei” because that’s the proper spelling of the new, more modern city of Pompei. The original city that was destroyed in 79 AD was spelled Pompeii. It’s also spelled Pompeji, depending on the language you’re viewing your Google Maps in.
Mount Vesuvius has erupted many times in the past and continues to be a dangerous volcano. Our tour guide told us that there are at least 1,200,000 people living in what the Italian government calls “The Red Zone”, which is the area that needs to be evacuated in the event of an imminent eruption. And what’s the likelihood it will erupt again? Here’s a quote from one Wikipedia article that talks about past eruptions:
“Mount Vesuvius has erupted many times. The famous eruption in AD 79 was preceded by numerous others in prehistory, including at least three significantly larger ones, the best known being the Avellino eruption around 1800 BC which engulfed several Bronze Age settlements. Since AD 79, the volcano has also erupted repeatedly, in 172, 203, 222, possibly in 303, 379, 472, 512, 536, 685, 787, around 860, around 900, 968, 991, 999, 1006, 1037, 1049, around 1073, 1139, 1150, and there may have been eruptions in 1270, 1347, and 1500. The volcano erupted again in 1631, six times in the 18th century (especially in 1779 and 1794), eight times in the 19th century (notably in 1872), and in 1906, 1929 and 1944. There have been no eruptions since 1944, and none of the eruptions after AD 79 were as large or destructive as the Pompeian one.”
These structures are thought to be homes like our condos, with Mount Vesuvius in the background. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
It’s thought—based on core samples of sediment and carbon dating—that Pompeii was originally founded between 800 and 600 BC. In its present location, it was originally much closer to the ocean, but we’re not sure if the distance it now sits away from the ocean is a result of lower ocean levels, sediment from nearby rivers filling in the Bay of Naples, or volcanic ash covering the shallower depths of the bay. The original Pompeii, while it was on the shore of the Bay of Naples, is only five miles from Mount Vesuvius.
The population of Pompeii was between 11,000 and 20,000 people, depending on which account you read. The first number is based on the number of households in the city and the second number seems to account for the transient population as well. Pompeii was a major commercial center and probably had a great many non-permanent residents within its walls at any particular time. There were hotels, restaurants, baths, marketplaces and exchanges, and even brothels that all catered to the large transient populations.
At the time of the eruption, approximately 2,000 people died, which suggests that much of the population heeded the initial warnings from Mount Vesuvius and fled the city. The eruption took about 24 hours to run its full course, and evidently started with earthquakes and a large ash cloud exploding about 20 miles into the sky, giving people an indication of what was to come. In the interest of accuracy though, we should point out that the 2,000 number is an estimate of the people who died within the city itself. Our reading also tells us there is a substantial number of bodies located along the area that was once the shoreline of the Bay of Naples, and most of them have not been excavated. This suggests that an unknown number of people were trying to flee but were caught up in the eruption and unable to escape by land. They met their fate waiting, hoping for rescue from the sea.
A plaster cast of one of the many bodies found in Pompeii. The plaster casting was made by locating a cavity in the underlying volcanic ash, indicating a place where a person had perished. The cavity was then pumped full of plaster, revealing the shape of the person as they were when they were overcome during the eruption. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Archeologists were able to make several plaster castings of the people who died in the eruption by locating the cavities in the ash where people had died, and injecting those cavities with plaster, creating the shape of the people as they were at the moment they died. It gives a very clear picture into the life in Pompeii during the time. It also shows the agony that these people—and their animals—must have suffered in the last moments of life during the eruption.
As we walked through the restored areas of Pompeii, our first impressions were of a place that, given the level of sophistication and civilization, we could have managed a life here in 79 AD. The streets were paved, there were pipes that carried water to various places throughout the city, and while the sewer basically ran down the street, there were sidewalks and stepping stones to get across. Yes, civilized as Pompeii was, the Romans hadn’t quite worked out a sewer system yet. Chamber pots were basically thrown out in the street, and everything ran downhill. And of course, those pipes that carried drinking water throughout the city were made of lead.
With all the death and destruction in Pompeii, and with the virtual certainty that it will erupt again, the question is, are we going back? The answer is, absolutely. With a town as well preserved as this one, it’s a window into how the Romans lived, worked, and played. Many of the paintings on the walls are as they were in 79 AD, the building ruins for the most part are easily worked out in terms of their purpose, and much of life around the city was well documented, either through careful examination of these ruins, or other documentation from the time. With the certainty of eruption, it’s still hard to pass up a chance to see this place. After all, what are the chances? Right?
On our recent cruise in the Mediterranean, our ship stopped at La Spezia, a small port along the western coast of Italy. It was in close proximity to Pisa and Florence, and having been to Pisa once before, we elected to take a ship’s tour to Florence. The bus ride was about two hours through the northwestern parts of the Tuscany Region of Italy and we had the opportunity to see a good deal of the Tuscan landscape. Florence, of course, plays a big part in a great deal of our modern world, but it’s almost staggering how big that part really is. It’s said that the Renaissance began there, and with great minds like Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Dante, and Galileo all hailing from this one place, it’s hard to argue to the contrary.
Florence is the capital of Tuscany, which is a Region of Italy. A Region, in case you need a refresher, is like a state, or a province. Of course, just to confuse things, a province is an administrative area inside a region, sort of like a county in the U.S. Cities are referred to as Communes for Italian administrative purposes. Got that? We’ll move on then.
The countryside in Tuscany, based on our trip from La Spezia to Florence, is not unlike California. Sort of a southern California meets the Napa Valley kind of place. With Marble Rock quarries located in the hills in the backdrop. The climate looks to be kinda dry, and there was evidence that Italy suffers the same forest fire problems that much of the western United States does. The trees tend to be smaller, but the fire danger seems to be very real. This was even more evident on our visit of Pompeii, but we’ll talk about that more in a future article.
The History
Florence goes way back. More so than many European cities, but it got its start to stardom with the Romans. When Rome took responsibility for the area, they brought in roads, aqueducts, sewers, and constructed a number of public and private buildings. The city was established in 59 AD by Julius Caesar as a military post for the Tuscan area. With the improvements from the Romans for largely military reasons, it didn’t take much time until the city began to flourish as a major commercial area too.
Rome fell in the Florence area around the 5th Century, and Tuscany reverted back to Kingdoms, but Florence continued to thrive, serving a growing travel business as a major stopover point for people traveling from Rome to France.
More or less concurrent with the Renaissance—which began in Florence—was the rise of the House of Medici, also from Florence. The Medicis were a family of bankers that, while considering themselves “citizens” rather than royalty, were far from ordinary. They were responsible for much of the progress in Europe from the 15th century, when Giovanni di Bicci de Medici (c. 1360-1429) founded the Medici Bank. The family has a colorful and convoluted history as they intertwined their family into the most important circles in Europe along their rise to power. They managed to produce three popes, two queens, and a number of other local royal figures. Also, the family, through their bank, financed much of the progress from the Dark Ages through the Renaissance in Italy and a great deal of Europe in general.
What to see in Florence
Where do we start? First, the idea that we could come to Florence and see any significant part of the sights in an afternoon from a cruise ship was just plain silly. Florence was ground zero for the entire Renaissance. Much of what we hold as important in terms of art, music, literature, and especially science, originated here in Florence at the end of the Dark Ages. Some really important stuff happened here. And if the whole Renaissanceidea isn’t important enough, some of the most influential ideas in banking and commerce originated here in Florence with the rise of the Medici family and their world bank.
A statue to Dante who also lived in Florence sits in front of the Basilica of Santa Croce. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Some of the important sights include the Uffizi Gallery where several important paintings of the Renaissance are displayed, or the Accademia Museum where you can see Michelangelo’s David. We enjoyed the Museo Galileo, a science museum near the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) in the heart of Florence. It wasn’t the most popular museum in town judging by the fact that there was no line to get in, but science is our interest above art, so it was a good fit. And it was very interesting to learn that of the scientific discoveries being made as the world emerged from the Dark Ages, Florence was in the middle of the action.
Did you know that when the Church placed Galileo under house arrest for life for claiming that the universe did not revolve around the earth, he chose his home in Florence to spend the rest of his life? That’s because he had his main observatory at his Florence home, and since he was going to be under house arrest, he wanted to spend his time continuing his studies in astronomy.
You can see more about Florence in the images we have below. But the problem is, how do you prioritize your time in Florence and see the things that are the most important to you? For many people, any number of museums displaying art from the Renaissance might be important. In our afternoon of free time from our ship’s tour, we found lunch, then made our way to the Museo Galileo because we had heard that Galileo’s original telescope was there. If it was, we didn’t find it, but we found nearly every other notable astronomer’s telescope from the period in the museum. We also found a number of other scientific instruments whose purpose escaped us. We’ll need to return to spend a bit more time just to ponder the things in this one museum.
Ponte Vecchio is a medieval stone arch bridge over the Arno River, built in 1345. When it was built it housed fish and meat markets. Today it consists of jewelry vendors. There’s an interesting story about the bridges over the Arno River in Florence. There are several versions of exactly why the Ponte Vicchio was spared destruction by the retreating German army in world War II, but the fact remains that it was the only medieval bridge to be left standing after the war. Photo by Donald Fink.
One way to see Florence might be to consider a private guide. We had a guide that took us from the ship and around Florence. Her name was Valentina Bassi, and we learned that she also has a private tour business, giving custom designed individual or small group tours of Florence and Pisa. Her web site is at www.florenceandpisatours.com. We plan to re-visit Florence one day in the future, and we think an ideal plan, at least for us, would be to contact Valentina and tell her what we want to see, and arrange for our first day as a private tour with her. We could then plan subsequent visits by ourselves as follow-ups.
The point in using a tour guide to show you the sights is not that we think we need someone to hold our hand as we make our way through the city, but rather, the fact is that a competent guide—as Ms. Valentina most certainly is—has literally years of experience seeing the sights. She has knowledge that would take us time to uncover, and she possess anecdotal stories that we might not ever discover on our own.
Florence today continues to be an interesting center for art, architecture, engineering, or just about any emerging field of study, but for us, that’s not the reason we want to visit again. The history is so full of colorful stories, and so many of the things we’ve heard about all our lives originated in this historical city, it’s rewarding and fun to be able to come here and see where many of them started.
If you have a chance to visit Florence, whether it’s a destination or just a day visit from a passing cruise ship, this is one stop not to miss.
We were in Schwangau last week. It’s in the southern part of Germany, on the border with Austria. In fact, some of our day trips in the car took us up into the Alps of Austria just to see the sights.
The main draw for this incredibly popular tourist town is the two pristine, 19th Century castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. It seems that every bus tour that visits Germany makes its way there. For such a small town with barely a cell phone signal, it seems packed with tourists.
We were here two years ago and spent the little time we had visiting the castles. We wrote about it here along with some images of the castles and surrounding area. This time we’ll be spending more time in the area, admiring the castles from afar. We don’t mind going back to a place we’ve visited before, but we usually like to spend that time doing the things we weren’t able to do the first time.
Last time we visited Schwangau we stayed at a hotel called Villa Ludwig. We were so pleased with it we decided to stay there again. We’re not people who believe you can re-create the magic of a trip simply by doing the same thing again, and we’re not necessarily interested in doing exactly the same things when we visit a place for the second time. But some things, like your hotel accommodations, are not a trivial choice. If it was good the first time, think about doing it again. And this time it paid off. Villa Ludwig was easily as good as it was the first time around. We wrote a more detailed report about the hotel here.
Lake Alpsee
For much of the walk along the south side of Lake Alpsee, you could turn back and see both castles in Schwangau. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
There’s a small lake at the edge of town called Alpsee bie Schwangau, and of course it has a reasonably well groomed hiking trail around it. Being a lake, it’s reasonably flat and easy to walk. It takes a normal person about 1 1/2 hours to walk the perimeter of the lake, but with the nearly 400 photographs and over 50 video clips we took, the short trek in the woods took us nearly 3 hours. It would have been longer if we had used a tripod, but that’s how we do things in the woods.
At nearly every vantage point along the way, meaning every time we cared to stop and look, there was a view of one or both of the castles in the backdrop of this pristine alpine lake. The lake was flat the day we were there with almost no wind in the crisp morning air. The water seemed to be fed by a single spring, but there is a sizeable streambed that appears to be seasonable where most of the water apparently enters the lake. The water-like many of the streams and rivers in the areas-has a slight turquoise color like so many of the glacier fed rivers do in Montana, near Glacier National Park.
We enjoyed our walk around Alpsee bie Schwangau. If you visit Schwangau and you have the time, this trek in the woods is worth it. If you don’t have the time for the full five kilometers, go out and back with the time you have. If you do, head left as you face the lake. It’s the flattest part of the walk.
Austria
Looking down into the Austrian valley of Gurgltal. Photo by Bonnie FInk.
We also wanted to see a little more of the surrounding area this trip and we were instinctively drawn to the mountains immediately to the south of town, also known as Austria. On our second day here, we took a drive into the hills along Highway 179. It wound its way through the mountains through something called Fernpass. We saw mountain scenery that rivaled the Rockies of the northern US and British Columbia. Elevations weren’t particularly high like the Rockies, but the landscape was definitely Alpine in nature, probably because of the northern latitude. There were ferns along the forest floor in the lower areas that were starting to turn brown from the cooling evenings. The trees ranged from evergreens of various kinds to deciduous trees that were starting to change with the fall weather. Higher up along the mountains, you could see a definite tree line where the big trees suddenly stopped and only grasses and shrubs lived, and finally, higher still, there was no vegetation at all.
Photography was interesting too, again, probably because of the high latitude. The images when shot with a daylight balance rendered a bit of sunset color, along with the long shadows associated with either late afternoon shooting,or making images in the deep winter in lower latitude areas.
We drove all the way to Innsbruck, but since we didn’t have a plan for the day, and no pre-planning to visit the city, we basically turned around at the outskirts of the city. We’ll certainly come back when we have an actual plan to see the city, but this day was for looking over the mountains.
Along the way through the mountains, we couldn’t help but see several side roads that led to who knows where, but they looked inviting. Next trip down to this area we’ll see about renting a little more capable vehicle. Our little diesel powered Renault Dacia does a pretty good job on the Autobahn, but didn’t seem too willing to go off road, four-wheeling. This trip we were resolved to enjoying the beauty from the various pull-outs along the road.
There were pull-outs with what looks like trail head parking for hiking into the hills. No doubt some research will reveal a plan of action for our next trip that will be lots of fun.
It turns out that this trip to Schwangau was more about an impromptu journey into Austria. Considering that when we showed up in town, we didn’t have a plan other than to do something we didn’t do last time, we think our time was well spent. True, we didn’t actually spend much time in town other than the hike around the lake and a couple of meals, but we had enough fun that we’ll definitely be back; probably on our next trip to Europe.
