Verona

UPDATE: I am not near the train derailment but in two days I will be travelling though the area.

Day 1

Going to Verona was a lovely train ride. I love train rides, car rides, as long as I am not going backwards and can see out the window. Anyway, it was a lovely train ride through the countryside from Venice to Verona. Lots of corn and wine. As we approached Verona we started to see the mountains as well. I'm very excited about the mountains.


Verona is not as shocking as Venice was. There are cars and sidewalks so now I must start looking where I walk in case I am run over. The city is not as big as Venice either but the architecture is very beautiful. Verona also has some Lions of Saint Marks but you can often see the remains of the lions after they were torn down when Venice lost control.

I am very impressed with the Amphitheatre here. Tomorrow I will purchase the Verona pass which gives access to many museums and monuments and then I will rush around to see everything. The Amphitheatre is apparently in the best condition of all and they hold operas there during the summer. If I come back I would try to plan my visit around an opera.

We walked down one of the expensive shopping streets. This was lovely as the air conditioning kept things lovely and cool as it flowed out of the shops.



What also greatly impressed me was the portion of the original Roman gate that remains in the plaza around the amphitheatre. It is huge and very tall and looks so rough and old.


Verona is well known for being the setting of Romeo and Juliet and indeed in the plaza's you can buy all the trinkets including my favourite, an incredibly tacky ashtray with R&J sitting beside the amphitheatre. Might as well try to get the main points in together.

Afterwards I went out for dinner with the group to this lovely restaurant where the owner specialized in deli-ish meats. My meal was fantastic and with only two glasses of wine I was pretty .... happy. Maybe alcohol *is* the solution to life's woes.

Day 2

I am writing this in the courtyard/piazza/plaza (no idea) in front of the San Zeno church. I am now on my own as the people I've been walking around with today had to go back to the hotel as their feet hurt and they were tired (quitters!) I have been walking around from 8:30 till 4:30 and now I'm rather tired (though not as much a venice when I walked much further distances).

Verona is lovely, not as shocking as Venice. I love that every once in a while when you are on something tall you can catch a glimpse of hills and mountains in the distance.

The Roman Arena was fantastic, huge, old and still able to host concerts. Apparently (so wikipedia informs me) it is the third largest and in the best condition.

Here I am giving the thumbs down from the balcony.

It was great to walk through the tunnels around the arena. Imagine how long people have been doing that!


Verona is famous for being the setting of Romeo and Juliet. They have declared two houses to be the homes of these two fictional lovers and while we walked past Romeo's house Juliet's house was closed to us due to movie filming (Letters to Juliet). Instead, we visited 'Juliet's tomb' which had someone else's tomb plus a bunch of art.


Then it was to the tower of Lamberti (I have been travelling with my rooom mate so far). The elevator was out so we hiked up and it was very lovely. The view from the top was fantastic.

There we met some others from the tour group and together we continued onwards.


Next were two churches, Santa Anastasia


and Duomo. Both were very impressive and it was fascinating to see the older church's partially excavated below.


We grabbed some lunch, crossed the river and viewed the Roman Theatre. While this theatre was still in use as a theatre today it was not as well preserved as the arena we saw this morning.


A view through one of the arches at the theatre.


After the theatre we crossed the river again and made our way to the Old Castle. Again, there was a great gallery ("oh look, more Jesus") and wandering around on the rooftop battlements was amazing. Again we had lovely views of the far off hills.

It was at the castle that I left my friends and continued on to San Zeno church. This was the older church and didn't have huge windows so it was somewhat cave like. It also had a crypt that was accessible, the choir and alter section of the church was half a story up, and the crypt was down a grand set of stairs half a story down. I might have once seen another church like that but I can't remember any details of it at all.

Here is below in the crypt.


Looking at the alter.



Now I am in front of the church, kinda tired and needing to make my way to the hotel. Hopefully I can get some wifi.

Venice

Day 1

I have arrived in Venice. I am writing this after a dinner with my tour group while we sit out in the plaza. I am finally mostly warm, even in the evening (though it is a cold time right now here in Venice). I can wear shorts!! Vancouver was always too cold for me and shorts and it was even chilly in Holland.

I really liked arriving in Venice compared to Amsterdam, I'm sure because I am more used to travel right now and also I am much happier then when I left Canada. Venice is fantastic. My first impression is that it is a very 'other' city. Amsterdam was very different than Canada but it had streets and sidewalks, cars and pedistrians all which was recognizable. But in Venice there is no car traffic, it is all winding streets and buildings, and TONS of tourists. Winding through the main street there are so many shops selling the same thing (masks, glass) but from the second floor up everything looks amazing. It is also easy to step off the main tourist road and suddenly you are in quiet narrow winding streets, crossing over tiny canals with laundry hung to dry between the buildings. In fact, those tiny streets are the best thing about Venice so far. The bridges are also very different compared to Holland, they arch high over the canals and are only for pedestrians. I have not seen any vehicles since arriving at the bus station.

There are tons of small hotels amongst all the twists and turns, I have no idea how you would find them for a booking, I doubt they have a strong web presence. Our hotel is nice and close to the train station. It seems I am up for another lesson in how to flush the toilet, plus the bathroom has one of those old fashioned style keys (imagine something from gothic literature). You don't put the key in all the way, you need to fiddle around to find the locking mechanism.

The tourgroup is lovely and it is nice to have company viewing the sights. We are all here for similar things though the Italy tour is definitely a bit rushed. However, I am quite keen on the idea of coming back for another visit someday. If I find work in Europe this may be quite possible.

On an unrelated note, while I am aware that Michael Jackson has died, I see from the conversations with the tour guests that I have missed the full brunt of the media spectical of North America. I thought it was too much when the Vancouver RSS feed was dominated by stories but I see I got away lightly.

Day 2

Wow. What a day, it's only 4pm but I've been on my feet since 8:30. I've done a lot of walking. I started the day by heading to the Rialto bridge which crosses the grand canal. In Venice there are no streets, at least in the North American sense, just many tall buildings with bigger or smaller alley's winding in between. I can understand my guidebook making a joke about addresses are difficult. Sometimes instead of an alleyway there is a canal. To find the Rialto bridge I just followed signs pointing to it as I wound my way through the streets.

I got to Piazza St. Marco quite early and there I ran into the girl who I sat beside on the way into Venice the day before! She is a translator for a tour group. Then I went up the great tower and had a great view of the surrounding city. It was nice to be there so early as I had no line.

After the tower I went straight into the Doge's Palace. Wow. How amazing! It was simply gorgeous. Grand paintings on all the walls, In the courtyard I saw the mouth where you could slip in anonymous notes about problems against people.

The Lion of Saint Mark is everywhere, and I always say it with the book open (I was told that was when Venice was not at war). The only time I saw the lion with the closed book was at the Arsenale.


This room in the Doge's palace was huge, it was one of the official rooms but with a great seat for the Doge. I must say, my only familiarity with Venice is through Kushiel's Dart. If you have read the book, I saw the cabinents that would have held the names of the 'hundred worthy families' (of course, it is something a bit different in real life). The Doge's Palace was just amazing and I felt I could have wept at such beauty and grandeur. Truly this was the best part of Venice for me, it was just so beautiful.


Also at the Doge's palace was the prison. This was built on the other side of a canal and so the bridge leading to it is sealed from the outside and romatically called the Bridge of Sighs. In the prison I saw a well worked carving that must have been done over a long period of time by someone in the cell.

I also saw the grand staircase used by the Doge, this seems to be a theme, in the Escher gallery/palace only the queen and her ladies could use the main stair. I'll have to see about implementing a similar protocol whenever I get a place - the grand Carly staircase...

Also in Venice I have been drinking a lot from the fountains, they are in many Campo's (plazza type places) and I've just been filling up my water bottle. I've been told the drinking water is fine.


I also found the Venitian hospital. It has a very dramatic front. Around the back they have ambulence boats. In The Hague they had ambulence motorcycles.


I also visited the Basilica of Saint Mark's Square. This was another gorgeous building. I thought stuff from the 1500's was old in Holland but now we are looking at mossaics from the 1100's. First I visited the museum which was at the top of the Basilica, it had the really old artwork, music books and tapestries that you could examine closely. Then I went downstairs, skipped the line... and went straight into the Basilica.


There are so many church's, old buildings, stone carvings, statues, I have stopped noticing. Venice is amazing and I already am thinking about coming back. I would like to do the secret tour of the Doge's residence, they take you into other places not generally accessible. Oh yeah, in the Doge's Palace display on weapons I found a chastity belt. I couldn't take a picture but maybe I can find one online.

After all that walking I went back to the hotel and met with the tourgroup. We went for a Gondola ride through the canals which was very interesting, there are lots of canals with no walkways beside them so you see part of Venice that you could never see if you kept walking.

After the canal ride I left the tour group who went out for dinner and instead I walked to the Academics Bridge. This is the third and last bridge that crosses the Grand Canal. I walked to the veryy entrance of Venice and though I really really wanted to take the ferry back home I couldn't figure out how to pay. So instead I walked all the way back again. It was a very long ways, today I have walked at least 20 km's and I am finished for the day. Tomorrow is Verona.

Oh yes, I was told to expect all the Italian boys whistling etc. However it hasn't happened yet. I'll claim it's because I am surrounded only by tourists in Venice...

Delft

I enjoyed Delft, at least until the very end... but first, here in the New Church (1500's) was a lovely art deco glass window. The original windows have all been destroyed by explosions, fires etc. It means that the windows of the Gouda church are all the more special as the original designs were saved.

In the New Church are buried the Dutch Royalty. Here is the tomb of William of Orange, the start of Dutch royalty.


The New Church had a fantastic tower that you could climb. I didn't see many people going up but I went up anyway. I could see why, it was a long narrow stair climb (I must admit, I was excited to climb the stairs - missing the mountains). There were three levels you could get out at, seen in the picture at the interface where the colour's change.

Climbing the tower gave a great view of the city. Here is a view down to the large square (I think that's why I liked Delft so much).

While the view was fantastic, going outside the tower was pretty scary. There was very little space and it was quite a ways down...


At one of the middle levels I met some more people and I asked this British guy and his friends to take a photo for me. They took two and when the photo was finished they were sort of waiting around. Here's why (the first photo). Cheeky.

In between church's I talked to a microbiology prof at Delft TU. It was an excellent discussion and he was very generous with his time which I greatly appreciated. Then it was on to the Old Church (about 100 years older than the New Church) where I found a very exciting microbiology-related tourist attraction, the grave of Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek!

Here is a detail from his monument.


When I left Delft to catch the train, it turned out the power had gone out on the tracks and there were no trains into The Hague. I went back into Delft to read my book by the canal. There in a boat going on the canal was some young men's sports team shouting and drinking. As they drove by me they were shushing because I was reading ^_^ I don't know what they said but when I said English they asked me to read from my book.

Eventually I took the tram back into The Hague and thus ended my day and also my last full day in Holland. Next up is Italy. I anticipate much less internet access as I will be travelling more and not staying with friends.

Gouda

In Gouda (love the cheese) I briefly viewed the cheesemarket.

I didn't stay long though and went on to see the Gouda church with the fantastic glass windows. The windows in the Gouda church were pretty impressive and so was the church.



Then I visited the museum next door and saw the Dr's degree (looks better than mine).

At the museum they also showed the original 'cartoons' that they restoring, these are the full size drawings of the stained glass windows so that they could replace the glass as it broke.

In a nearby neighbourhood of Oudewater they had the honest weigh scales for weighing witches in the 16th century. I went to the museum and was weighed on the orignal scales. I also got a certificate stating that I was *not* a witch.

I also learned a dutch phrase (well, the english translation). You can't eat on both sides of the river (feeding the cows?), which is to say you can't have it both ways.