Friday - We arrived at Schiphol Airport with visions of tulips everywhere! My favorite! We sat down at a cafe for a panini and hot chocolate for Matt, cappucino for me. We have seen many kids on the airplanes and at the airports, so Matt had an interesting question. "What would Troy do if he was here with this little boy who did not speak English?" Our answers were: "Are you speaking Spanish?" and "I don't know what you are saying (with his hands up in the air)." Either way, he would come away with a new best friend.
A charge up of devices and we were soon on our flight to Rome.
So, with a flight time of 1 hour and 50 minutes from Amsterdam to Rome, it is exactly the same time from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh to give you some perspective. I must say I am pretty impressed thus far with KLM services. So, as I am writing these thoughts down, I imagine we are at the top of the Italian boot and heading into Rome shortly. Matt is trying to catch some Zzzz's and I am practicing my Italian with my English to Italian dictionary. One of the many things I noticed flying in were all of the areas that had vineyards.
We were just given "Punselies" - Stroopkoekje - Crispy biscuit with caramel filling. The verdict on taste? Very yummy, especially with some tea. I might have to eat Matt's since he is asleep. I am very much a foodie, so do not be surprised by more descriptions of what we eat. My best meals have been in Europe, although Mum's lamb roast is a close third and in Australia.
For those who are interested - 1) Jules Verne - restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, Paris. That one came with a hefty price tag, but definitely worth it. Not only did you get the food, but you also got the ambience and a free visit out on the tower. 2) Chez George - Amsterdam. I still remember the lobster bisque they gave us before they even gave us our menus. With that in mind, we have A LOT to cover and many things to try.
So, we have arrived in Rome and we step off the plane to a Gelato Shop! I love it! We did not partake, however. The next interesting thing was the chewable toothbrush inside a dispenser in the bathrooms. I almost bought one just becaue I thought you would not believe me. Anyway, we made our way to baggage claim and the bags took awhile to come out. So long in fact, one gentleman walked up on the carousel to peer in and take a bag off. We think he thought it was causing the conveyor belt to stop. No luck.
We got our bags eventually and made our way to the train.
The train platform is quite interesting and just getting there is not an easy task. There are three main platforms, whereby you have to take a train to Rome Termino (Center of Rome). It reminded me of taking the train to Central in Sydney to get another train up and down the coast. That took us about 30 minutes. We then made our way on to the next train to Cinque Terre and it took almost 4 hours to get to our next stop. We were basically heading back north again, past Florence, past Pisa and into the curve.
To pass the time, Matt brought his HBO series "Rome" to watch on the computer. I thought it was a little cheesy, but it helped pass the time. The scenery was beautiful, except for the flood of graffitti that seemed to cover a lot of buildings by the stations. I love the clothes and sheets, however, hanging from the windows. I think I need more coffee.
There are quite a few business men on the train making me believe they work in the city during the week and go home on weekends. It is not a short treck to the first station. Pretty soon we saw the water and my gosh! Bellissimo! We finally made it to La Spezia, but had to get off for our last train into Levanto. This is much easier said than done. We had to get our tickets stamped, so had to get in a big line and ended up missing a train. Once we got to the platform, we got on a "finished" train thinking it was ours. Luckily, an Italian gentleman told us and we got on the correct one. Who knows where we would have ended up. After a quick call to the hotel, we arrived with the shuttle van waiting for us. We arrived at our hotel at 7:15 p.m. So, for those who are counting, it took us a long time to get here, but sooo worth it!
Just in the quick ride, I thought we were going to have an accident. The streets are too narrow for two cars to get through. Then, when you have a parked car to the mix, forgettaboutit! Matt talked about renting some scooters, which is the main mode of transportation around here, but I don't think driving on these roads is good for any type of transportation, especially since everything seems to be up a hill. Our hotel is way up and around quite a few bends.
We finally unloaded our gear and went down to the restaurant for dinner. In Italy, they do not eat until about 8 p.m., so we were right on time. We had our first pasta dish of the trip - tagliatelle noodles with squid. I thought it was a bit bland. Matt's lasagna noodles with pork was fair, he said. For the second course, I had salmon, which was fair. Matt had the lobster which was fair. So, not too impressed thus far with the cuisine. It was hard to stay awake any longer, so we called it a day.
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