Stuff forgotten

Neglected to mention that we went to Caltanisetta last week....important because it's where my father was born. Caltanisetta is very much inland so it was a different kind of scenery completely. Caltanissetta has nothing much to offer to tourists and it's an annoyingly large, busy city. We got really lucky in kind of figuring out where city offices were likely to be and more lucky to find a parking lot nearby. We got to what we thought was the right building...typical Sicilian fashion there are no signs to help you out. We found a women sitting at a desk and asked where we could get birth certificates. She took us to another office which was CLOSED for the day but she knocked on the back door and begged for us so they let us in and I now have a copy of a birth record for my father!
Boring picture of the Caltanisetta Comune (hall of records.)

Busy days

For some reason, the old men gather on the benches in the squares or wherever and spend hours chit chatting. You may recognize one of the old men in this photo. (Once again, having a GREAT time!!) This is the temple at Segesta, an ancient Greek ruin that we visited on the way to Trapani from Cefalu.
This is a typical city street in any town in Sicily. Yes, cars go down these streets and they are NOT one way. Ira and Patty, you'll be pleased to know that Dick and I have managed to again get ourselves into these impossible streets, but....the car we rented is prescratched along the entire passenger side so no worries.

We visited Monreale today to see the cathedral that is the most famous in all of Sicily. Monreale is just outside Palermo so we had an opportunity to experience the craziest driving in the universe....it rivalled Delhi. The cathedral is famous for the incredible mosaics and inlays. It was spectacular. I've never seen anything like this except the Taj Mahal! The outside of the cathedral is totally unremarkable but the inside is awesome. I tried some photos but they don't come close to doing justice to the beauty and intricacy of the work. It's hard to imagine how this was accomplished in the 12th century!

More Cefalu, etc.

Here's Sicily. I misspoke....we're NOT on the Mediterranean. We're on the Tyrrenian Sea. The Mediterranean is to the south and west. The Ionian Sea is to the east and the Tyrrenian is to the north which is where we are. Our apartment is in a great location...walking distance from town and our bedroom is on the ocean side of the building so we hear the ocean and not too much in the way of traffic noise.
Yesterday we drove up the coast to Messina and stopped in a small town called Sant' Agata where we had this fabulous buffet antipasto lunch with some house wine and good bread. In Messina, we could look across the strait to mainland southern Italy. It looks close enough to throw a rock across. Day before yesterday we drove into the mountains to a small village where there is a church that's the site of a pilgrimage because they make a medicine from the resin of an alder tree that grows there. The medicine cures everything apparently and is sold all over the place. It's called manna, like manna from heaven I suppose.

The ocean is the most incredible, beautiful blue, This was a typical view on the drive up the coast.

This is a big weekend here. April 25 is "Liberation Day." (From what???? I don't know but apparently it's a big deal.) There's also a VESPER INTERNATIONAL gathering here 4/24-4/26 (I really regret you're not here to enjoy it Bob Harrington since I know how you would love it!!) Last night there was some big concert/celebration of all these really special things and it took us an hour to go the 5 minutes from the freeway exit to our apartment.......sigh....just like home!

Jo, you would be very proud....I'm wearing my pedometer (most of the time) and we're definitely getting our steps in. I didn't wear it in Amsterdam where I think the steps would have exceeded the pedometer's max!

Cefalu

The trip to Cefalu was one of those just kinda unpleasant travel ordeals. We left our Amsterdam apartment at 7 AM and arrived in Palermo about 4 with the usual delays in leaving and in our connection in Milan. Then there was the car rental where we just went ahead and gave them ALL the money we have in the world and drove off into Palermo 5PM traffic and got to Cefalu about 6. The apartment is not nearly the hit of the one in Amsterdam but I think it will grow on us. We wandered around trying to find the apt rental office using possibly the worst map ever drawn to report NO hot water and some small things like no kitchen towels and to pay the remainder of what we owed. Nice, typical Sicilian town, good dinner and that was that. Today we found that the "Bar" beneath our apt makes a great cappuccino and next to it is a wine store that also is a tiny restaurant....you tell them in the AM that you want to have dinner there and they make something. So that's where we'll have dinner tonight. We explored the town today and just had a nice kick back sort of day. I have to come into town to use the internet so it may be that the posts will be a bit infrequent.
Our building is the one below the lighthouse (Il faro.) I have no idea who this guy is that walked into my picture.A nice view from the townAnother nice view through an old town gate out to the Mediterranean.

More re last day in Amsterdam

Another super busy day. We started out trying to find the temporary location for the Stedlijk Museum of modern art. The permanent museum is being renovated and they have relocated to the "central station" (as in train station.) So we went to the train station which covers about half of Amsterdam. After being directed by about 10 different people we found the museum about a mile AWAY from the train station......ah well, we needed the exercise, right? It was just OK because the permanent collection wasn't there, only some new and REALLY weird new stuff. It's next to the public library so we went to the library to print our boarding passes for our flight to Palermo the next day. What a surprise! The library was fabulous! (Though the*$&*#@% KLM site wouldn't let us check in online.) We went to the top floor of the library for lunch! It has a really great view of Amsterdam and a really, really nice cafeteria type restaurant but everything is prepared to order. After lunch we walked to the flower market, on to the bike rental place and you know the rest.

View of Amsterdam from museum area.

View of Amsterdam from 8th floor of library

One of the offerings at the flower market. They alos have stand after stand of bulbs, plants, cut flowers and tourist schlock.

Zadel pyn (ass pain from riding a bike)

Soooo.....Alisha peddled our asses all over Amsterdam, then walked us until our feet fell off. I'm too tired to blog. Will catch up tomorrow. The expression on Dick's face says it all!

Culture day

Started our day of culture in a ridiculous line snaking about a block to get into the Rijsmuseum. It's being renovated and only a small portion of this gigantic museum is open. This is a temporary entrance. The REAL entrance should be in the middle of the building as pictured below.
Actually, the open portion was just about the right amount for our museum tolerance. Really enjoyed the many Rembrandts and Vermeers amongst lots of others.
And right out front just in case we were terribly homesick is the REAL AMERICAN HOTDOG stand.

Headed over to the Concertgebouw (above) which is right across from the Rijksmuseum and at 1:00PM got front row center balcony tickets for a 2:15PM concert. The guy sitting next to me was a friend of the conductor and told me that the seat I was in is the seat for Queen Beatrix when she attends. Seems only appropriate to me that I should have the queen's seat. Concert was a very weird but very interesting bunch of ultra modern, atonal non understandable music that was entertaining to watch but would have benefitted from the use of earplugs. The hall is phenomenal and the acoustics were great. I have always wanted to see this concert hall so even though the music wasn't my choice, I was happy to be there.

After the concert, we had just enough time to go to the van Gogh museum and see their huge collection of van Goghs and other art.

Tomorrow we need a day of scratching, swearing and drinking beer to make up for all the culture.

Fri

Here we are at Keukenhof Garden. The to and from and walking the gardens took up most of the day on Fri. The pictures don't do it justice. It's truly gorgeous with SEVEN MILLION bulbs planted there and 15 km of trails.
Lots of different varieties of tulips and other bulbs. Bad photographer trying to show how beautiful it is.

Picture/Amsterdam

Alisha tried to kill us by making us walk 3000 miles. We survived to her dismay. Here's our sweet appearing tormenter with Dick. He's still feeling OK here........(we had walked 50 ft)Canal view. Note beautiful blue sky!
Dick is not feeling so good by now....seriously considering visit to most famous of Amsterdam smoke shops, "The Bulldog." The Amsterdam smoke shops legally sell marijuana where you can buy up to 5 gms at once. You can do a take away or enjoy it there with your favorite people. You can buy prerolled or roll your own. VERY popular tourist destination for the younger folk and maybe Dick.

Another canal view with the "Old Church." (Oude Kerk.) "The Night Watch" sculptures (with additions) in Rembrandt Plein. Have now walked approximately 2000 miles. Note anguish on Dick's face. Partly because we didn't let him stay behind at the smoke shop.

Naked in the Netherlands

Got your attention, huh? We're not TRULY naked but have NO luggage so we're in the same clothes we left home in and getting a little rank. Our B&B hosts have loaned us jackets so we don't freeze since it's a bit cold here but really beautiful. We spent a really jet lagged afternoon walking the town with Alisha yesterday and are waiting for her to meet us for lunch and spend the afternoon/evening with us. Our trip to Milan was delayed in Heathrow by several hours so we didn't get to Milan until 10:30 PM Tues nite and , of course, with no luggage. Hopefully, the luggage will show up today. I'll remember my camera today and attempt to post some photos.