The Drexler European Adventure, 2014: June 2014

Salzburg to Lucca, by way of Venice!

The Austrian Alps by train (June 30)

We left Salzburg (and Dad, Kateri, Will and Joan) yesterday morning and headed south, by train, over the lovely lovely Austrian Alps. One connection in Villach and we were headed straight to Venice, Italy!

A day trip intro Venice

If you're ever wondering if Venice is 'worth it' just for the day - it IS! We had a lovely afternoon walk over Rialto bridge and into St. Mark's square and decided to get to the top of the tower for a view down onto the basilica and the city. My god, what a view! After about 20 minutes of snapping 100 photos, the sun came out which was surreal. THEN, 4 huge tower bells started ringing in different tones (it was SO loud next to them) but such a cool experience.

follow below:

from atop the Bell Tower in St. Mark's Square: St. Mark's Cathedral with scaffolding in front! What!?

Piazza San Marco!

The bells!! So loud! So huge! So amazing!

After another half hour at the top, a storm was starting to come in so we headed as far back to the hotel as we could before the rain started. We landed at this pizzeria place about half way before a very-close lightning/thunder storm came in a pounded the streets. Torrential rain came down for a half hour - but we were totally cozy having a delicious meat/arugula/parmesan pizza and spritzers (of course). :)

Part of the fun of Venice is weaving your way to/from where you started. We never take the same route; we get 'lost' in alleys and plaza and beautiful canals and streets all the time - but it's totally worth it. Knowing exactly where you are and where you should go is futile in this town. It's fun though to get lost and wander. Eventually you'll find your way back.

This morning, we are enjoying a slow breakfast, doing a little work, and relaxing before our train ride to Lucca! We love Italy!!

Lucca (July 1-3)

Day 1 -- Arriving in Lucca: We love love love Lucca.
We arrived early evening in Lucca, so had just enough time to check into Claudio's B&B and walk around the town. Such a gorgeous and relaxing place!

Aperol and prosecco spritzer after a long day of traveling!

Day 2 -- Biking to the Frattoria Sardi Giurgiana Vineyard

On our first full day here in Lucca, we rented bikes all day and headed to the Tuscan country side in search of wineries. We found a beautiful one - spent a least 3 hours there touring the farm and cellar, and then tasting many different wines paired with cheese, ham, olive oil and bread. We were having such great conversation with "Roi" (our vineyard guide) from Athens, Greece we didn't want to leave. (she gave us a ton of tips about our visit to Athens. Yay!)

Their Vineyard is certified organic and some other special certification (I forget the name) that means that they pay attention to the stars and moon as they plant and harvest. In addition to the regular "no pesticides" and such of organic growing, this special certification follows certain philosophies like: they plant roses in front of the vineyards because the roses are supposed to "collect the illness" from the vines if they get sick (it doesn't work very often, said Roi.) :)

We were having some fun by the time we left, having tasted multiple wines. So, after buying a couple of bottles to take with us, our pedal back was pretty fun and easy. We continued our scenic loop, stopped beside the river for a short break, and then headed back to Lucca to collapse at the hotel.

And then back to the hotel to relax, and drink a bit of wine with Claudio

Jane and Claudio

Day 3 -- Cooking Class!

Wednesday we had an all-day cooking class with Chef Paulo Monti - the same chef from 2 years ago (we both agreed it was one of our favorite experiences in Italy last time). It was even better the second time - what a fantastic day.

We still had the bikes we rented from the day before, so we rode over to the cooking class by way of the riverside bike path right outside the Lucca walls. The path is amazing, but we still have not figured out the best (or an easy!) way to get from Lucca center to the path. Luccans don't mark the way to their path--which we can't understand! No matter, we are explorers, and have been finding out at least the "not good" ways to go. By process of elimination, sometime soon, we will find the perfect way. It shall require more "research trips," we are certain. :)

Chef Monti's course this time was mostly about sauces and main ingredients...the basic building blocks of Italian cooking. We started by discussing the history of Italian food and spices, selecting flours, rices, wines/vinegars, etc. for different dishes, and then taste testing 8 olive oils from different regions of Italy (wow - we had no idea there was that much difference in flavor!) (general rule: the closer to the sea, the milder the flavor of the oil. Who knew?).

Chef Paolo Monti, and olive oil

We took the class with another woman named Lisa, from London, whose husband gave this class to her as a gift (really, a gift for both of them, wouldn't you say?).

(She had an awesome Cockney accent!)

Kristi learns a better method for chopping!

Sauces, sauces, sauces

Cooking as art

The stock start -- so pretty

Just one of the many many dishes we learned to make! (this is a warm pasta salad with hard ricotta, local olives, tomatoes, and basil!). We also learned how to make a) another kind of Bolognese, b) a spicy tomato and mozzarella sauce, c) a surprising sauce with a lot of marjoram and chili pepper, and a d) traditional tomato sauce with cherry tomatoes. We also made several kinds of bruschetta: A bean one, a mushroom one, and the classic tomato and basil one. We made a couple of main dishes: Chicken Cacciatore (literally, "Hunter's") (Chef Paolo joked that it was really the "unlucky hunter's" dish since if he's eating chicken then he didn't have a successful hunt, now did he?...and it uses dried mushrooms, sot the hunter didn't even manage to find any fresh ones!); and pork tenderloin medallions with a creamy lemon sauce. :) Finally, we also made....

Yep.... Tiramisu

Bruschetti

The best part!

We Love Chef Paolo Monti!

Clearly we'll have to return to learn more from the chef. He's a lot of fun. Next time, a pasta class or a fish class, or maybe a pizza class....

After an amazing day of cooking--and after some food-coma resting at Claudio's B&B--we went on a sunset walk around the wall of Lucca. So incredible! (Afterwards, we even got to listen to The Eagles in concert in the park right next to our B&B, as we packed, drank a bit of wine, and relaxed)

We haven't even scratched the surface of what Lucca has to offer.

What does this building look like inside? We'll have to come back to see.

Bello tramonto!

We saw some towers...and trees...

...and some Eagles

Prague, Budapest and Salzburg

Prague (June 23-24)

We flew into sparkling clean Prague airport this afternoon and had an awesome taxi driver guide show us sites on the way to the hotel. We met up with dad (aka "Pete"), Kateri, Will and Joan at the centrally located Charles hotel (right by the Charles bridge) and set out walking historic Prague center. WOW!! This is such a beautiful city.

Will, Kateri, Jane, Dad
(Joan is in the background checking out the Astronomical clock, Kristi is taking the picture)

Cool church interior. (The ceiling!)

It's more of a guideline than a rule....

Heading towards the Charles Bridge

Dad practicing the Segway for tomorrow...Yes, you read that right

Old Town Square

Check out this street musician - at least 7 different instrument at once...

Perfect walking weather

...and looking up weather

Will, ordering 400 beers

Day 2 in Prague (June 24) -- Kristi's Birthday!!

Stopping and looking at the sewing machines in this street shop, the guy kicked out "Pete" on paper in about 5 seconds.

The start of Rick Steve's walking tour - under the horse's tail by the National Museum

The metro was 24 crowns for 30 minutes - which stretched into about 3 hours. These are good for the trams as well which we took uphill to the castle.

Our metro adventure...

...which included the tram up to the Palace at the top of the hill

At the castle, we went to St. Vitus cathedral. The stained glass was incredible. Kateri bought tickets inside so we could see St. George's basilica and a front view of the gigantic castle. On the way back, Jane and Kristi ran into some Broadneck High School students on a group trip (small world!). (The class of 2015....they hadn't even been born in when Jane graduated (1987)...they found that amusing. Jane found it disconcerting).

The Cathedral

The tiny basilica near the palace

View from the palace

After a very short break at the hotel to rest our feet and have a beer and snack, we headed off to the Segway tour. Dominique was our tour guide - a cutie patootie Czech lad with perfect English and great stories.

We started by going through the Old Town Square where Dom told the story about the astronomical clock maker (and how they blinded him after he created it so he'd never create another like this one).

Group Segway shot at the Old Town Square :)))

Another story: One building had a row of statues of famous composers, and when the Nazis turned that building into SS headquarters, a couple soldiers were told to destroy the statue of the Jewish composer (can't remember his name). But when they got up to the row of statues, they couldn't figure out which one was the "Jewish one." So, they destroyed the one that was, according to their propaganda, the most "Jewish looking" one: It was Wagner. Hitler's favorite composer. (Dominique summarized it perfectly, as he turned to ride on: Something like, "that's a little bit of humor about our town's occupation by the Nazis)

A third story: recently, when an unpopular president was elected - a famous and controversial Prague artist created a sculpture of a hand flipping the bird and sent it on a boat into on the river in protest of the election. It stayed on the river in front of the President's residence for about a week.

The segway tour continued through old Jewish quarter. We saw the oldest standing synagogue in Europe. Also, a building of the Knights of Malta - part of the Crusades - but on humaniarian missions, helping, feeding, protecting).

We stopped at the John Lennon wall. People used to illegally smuggle his music in - they loved the Beatles. And, in 1980, when Lennon was murdered, someone painted a picture of him on the wall. A rebellious act, which was immediately painted over and investigated. But a couple days later, someone painted him again and then someone else and else.. People had started gathering at the wall and listening to music. The police beat them and tried to get them to stop, but they kept coming back. Dominque, this early-20's man, who wasn't even alive when that happened, spoke of it as this monumental event, that Czechs believe was one of the main sparks of the Velvet Revolution, which finally achieved Czech independence in 1989. (our city tour (where the horse's ass was) took us down the avenue where 500,000 Czechs came for weeks in 1989, jangling keys in defiant message "go home oppressors.") There were so many of these kinds of stories: defiant, courageous, inspiring. This is just a few.

Next, we segway'd through a lovely park - a really nice green and calm space. Also, an art exhibit of 100 Jewish kids saved from Nazi's. The displays - pictures of the kids and their life stories through adulthood was powerful. We finished by zooming around a relatively empty square before we headed back in. It was great...everyone's favorite part of the Prague stay. We saw part of old town we never knew existed; for example there's way more under the Charles bridge than you can see being ON the bridge. That was really cool.

And Hello. Dad and Joan rode Segways. (and rode them well!)

After covering nearly every inch of Prague in a single day, we sat down (at about 9:30) for a wonderful birthday dinner at a traditional Czech restaurant. The waiter helped us select wines from the area to go along with our goulash in a bread bowl, salads, and potato soups. And the waiter brought Kristi a birthday sundae, and it had a sparkler on it.

Kristi's birthday dinner

A group "selfie" near the Astronomical Clock

Then we mozied (limped) back through the Old Town square and over the Charles bridge, trying to capture in photos the incredible views of the lights on the town. The castle lit up, the Teem Church, the Clock, and rows of soft-lit townhouses....so pretty.

After an early breakfast, we checked out of the Charles (a great hotel in Prague center). We got to the train station , picked up the sweet van - a Peugot which Kateri expertly drove through the Czech country side on a rainy day. We decided to change plans for the train - we would keep the van for the whole trip and cancel our train reservations to save us the rush and allow more freedom to explore the country sides.

Dad wanted to "take pictures of various and sundry buildings, the lay of the land, etc to sort of ground truth what he and Mark had been seeing on Google Earth. Dad and Joan wanted to see where their grandparents were raised - "where our mother's parents were raised - the Weigels and Groeligs.

Trebarov and Rychanov (June 25)

Trebarov is the primary reason Dad and Aunt Joan wanted to come to this region of the world. It's where their grandparents (on their mother's side) grew up. (Their mom's mom grew up in Trebarov, their mom's dad grew up in nearby Rychanov na Morave).

Uncle Mark had helped us out by writing up a detailed description of what he had been able to figure out about that part of the family history and Joan read it to us as we drove through the beautiful countryside during a light and gorgeous rain. (The smells of the rain on the forest trees and fields of crops was so great, we couldn't take deep enough breaths).

Joan reading from Mark's family research write up

Our spacious van!

The Trebarov countryside: a very rural area, but simply beautiful!

Budapest (June 25/26)

Driving via Brno, we arrived in Budapest!

This is a panoramic view from our hotel, The Bellevue B&B. It is on the Buda side with a stunning view of the Parliament building right from the balcony of Joan's room (so we spent a fair amount of time bothering Joan). This building, several others, and the bridges were lit up amazingly each night.

Parliament Building

...at night

Mathias Castle on top of Castle Hill....we walked around a corner....and this is what we saw!

Our first evening in Budapest, we checked into the Bellevue and received *very detailed* instructions on how the B&B works (how to lock the doors, open the balcony doors, turn on the lights, heat the water, etc.) from the owners of the establishment: Judit and Lajosh, a very Hungarian couple. (The husband smiled and made jokes all the time. The wife was very nice...and also very, er, Hungarian: "eat this now. You will like. Spread butter on the bread now. Don't turn on this fan." etc.) Awesome.

A lovely breakfast, accommodating hosts - watching us eat making sure we had everything we needed!

Lajosh and Judit

After checking in, we ate dinner at an amazing Hungarian restaurant a few hundred feet from our B&B, The Hunyadi. And after a long drive, were happy to eat great food, drink lots of wine, tell stories and laugh. Then an amble back to the B&B and a good sleep.

The next day was our big tour day. We signed up for a hop on/hop off bus tour, which was nice because we could see a lot of the city without wearing out our already tired legs. Although it wasn't totally our cup of tea (too many stop-and-waits), there was an audio history lesson and explanation of buildings playing through headphones, so we got to learn a bit, and overall it was good. This tour also included a boat ride down the Danube, and that WAS worth it!

Kateri and Will - in front of the "Drexler" palace (highlighted on the bus' audio tour)

Kateri over the Danube - just a tiny bit breezy on the bus

Cool tunnel view of the Chain Bridge

We had lunch on a docked ship overlooking the Danube River before our boat tour

Will, Dad, Joan and Kristi decided to walk a few blocks to check out the basilica:

View from the pedestrian mall approaching the basilica. Beautiful!

The Chain Bridge: the first suspension bridge in Europe

After a nice break at the hotel - and about 500 pictures of the beautiful sunset on the Parliament building across the Danube from us - we headed to the Castle Hill Overlook to see Budapest illuminated...

This was an amazing day in a place that none of us ever expected to visit, let alone together.

We marveled multiple times about how incomprehensible it was that we we eating, walking, chatting, taking pictures, etc. on the Danube. In Budapest. Crazy.

After a relaxed evening and a good sleep, we had a early breakfast (because Judit and Lajosh were heading out to go on their own vacation to Krakow!), and then headed out towards Salzburg.

Two Hungarian words we learned: "koszonom" (pronounced Goosenem) and "Szivesen" (pronounced "shdeeveshayne"): "Thank you" and "you're welcome."

Koszonom, Budapest. Until next time.

Castle Hill view

Beautiful city at night!

Salzburg (June 27/28)

A lovely drive from Budapest to Salzburg, Austria through the mountains and lake region. Mondsee Lake (right off the A1 highway) - SUCH a gorgeous place!

Beautiful Mondsee Lake...

Nice photo of Joan - and her shirt matches the blue water!

Kateri and Joan pre-booked us another lovely B&B in Salzburg - the Pension/Zimmer Scheck. Very close to the bike path into old town. We walked into to check out the sites, figure out the lay of the land for the next day's castle touring and to have dinner. Salzburg was perfect - weather, people, mountain air just lovely.

Finding our way from the hotel to old town - using Jane's map and trusty Ipod map.

Old town streets/shops

Fountain near Cathedral (This is where Fraulein Maria sang "I have Confidence")

Inside the Cathedral at Salzburg

Kateri and Jane playing a nice game of chess on the Salzburg plaza (directly 'under' the castle)

Entrance to Plaza right below Castle

The castle - walking into Old town

Dinner out in old town. The schpritzers, bier and traditional Austrian dishes here were awesoooome

We spent the next morning checking out the Castle and fortress area of old town. This is what dad had been looking forward to the whole trip - so it was great to spend some time here checking out all the nooks in this area and taking sweeping views of the landscape. Austria is gorgeous!

View from Castle/fortress east of funicular drop off

East side of castle

West side of castle

The Salzburg Stier - the thing dad wanted to see and hear the most.
(we have a distant cousin that actually fixed this organ.)

At 11:05, we heard it from the wood box above us!

"Exit"

Lunch at the top. Check...out...the...view!

The cemetery - also recognizable from the Sound of Music

Mozart statue in Salzburg old town

Jane, Kateri, Will and Kristi spent the afternoon on electric bikes and rode through and around town to some lovely lovely sites. The ebikes gave us an extra shove as we pedaled so we were flying down these paths. We loved it!