Recap: Scotland, Day 2

My second day in Scotland was devoted to a tour of the Highlands, and as much as I LOVED Edinburgh, I'm so happy I got out of the city and saw more of the beautiful country. I got up bright and early and went to the meeting point - Rabbie's Cafe, associated with  Rabbie's Small Group Tours (available from London, Dublin, Glasgow, and Edinburgh). I got there thirty minutes early, just in time for the cafe to open, and had a really delightful cup of Scottish breakfast tea and a croissant stuffed with ham and cheese for breakfast. They also had snacks, sandwiches, and soups, so if you're in the mood for alliteration, you can find that there, too. I wanted to stay hydrated, so I nabbed a bottle of water for the road, too. Just around 0800, I hopped into a van with 16 other people and the second we hit the road, it started snowing. As the snow kept up in Edinburgh for most of the day, I was glad to NOT be walking around in it. And as luck would have it, we had miraculous weather for nearly our entire excursion! 

The Kelpies Photo from:www.visitscotland.com

Our guide was Dave, and he kept up a decent commentary on the sights and mixed in some topical Scottish music. One of the first things he pointed out was a canal in Falkirk, heralded by two enormous stainless steel horse statues. I was expecting some normal-sized statues, maybe 15 or 20-feet in height, but these horse heads were over 30 meters tall! They are called The Kelpies and were designed by Andy Scott. I guess Scotland has seen a resurgence of interest in their canal systems - which used to be more important in terms of North Sea transit shortcuts and industry movement, but are more and more frequently used by kayakers, canoers, and crew teams. Scotland also has a really long history of using horses to pull ploughs, wagons and even barges. 

Doune Castle Photo from: www.visitscotland.com

Next up, we had pretty good views of two very important castles: Linlithgow Palace and Doune Castle. There's been a building on the site of Linlithgow Palace since at least the 11th Century, and the current structure was once the "pleasure palace" for the Stewarts. My brain just boggles at this, and how people can trace lineage and history that far back in time. Doune Castle in its present form dates to the 14th century, though there was definitely a castle on that site much earlier than that. I've read the first four of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books, but I haven't finished the series, nor have I watched the tv show. However, Doune Castle is used for both interior and exterior scenes. And guess what else: it's the setting for Winterfell in Game of Thrones! It's also featured really heavily in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So yeah, cool. I wouldn't mind going back and poking around at either place.

Linlithgow Palace Photo and quote above from: www.historic-scotland.gov.uk

Somewhere in between the two castles, I saw my first - but certainly not my last - deer of the day. I asked Dave about it, and he said Scotland has four types of deer and no remaining natural predators, so deer are quite overpopulated in many parts of the country. This close to Edinburgh, he said the deer I spotted was a roe deer. Sure, sounds good. All I know is it was a deer and it had a very white butt. Later on, we saw herds and herds of giant red deer, especially around the snow line as the weather drove them down from the hills. Also: sheep. Scotland has sheep EVERYWHERE. And let me tell you, they really blended into the snowy areas! I spotted my first one by the red paint tagged on its back before I realized I was looking at a critter. After about five minutes, the sheep became less interesting because there were simply so many of them. (Although for the first five minutes, I had fun saying "Bah Ram You" in my head. And then I started thinking about ticks and poop and quickly started looking for more castles.)

View of the River Teith from near St. Kessog's Hill

We took our first pit stop in the town of Callander mid-morning. I followed Dave to a local bakery called Mohr's and bought a sandwich for lunch, and a meat pie for a snack. I got to eat the meat pie while it was nice and toasty, and it was delicious! In Scotland, you can call a meat pie a pasty, which I think is more English, or a bridie, which is how they were labeled in Mohr's. I wandered down behind the bakery and found myself on the banks of the River Teith. I watched an older gentleman feed the swans and ducks for a few minutes, and then climbed to the top of St. Kessog's Hill. (St. Kessog originated in Ireland and used to be the patron saint of Scotland.) I learned that the town is known as the gateway to the Highlands, where the Lowlands meet the Highlands, and that the former church is now a visitor's center. You'd never know it from a sleepy winter Saturday morning, but I get the impression that town gets very popular in the summer months. It looked like there were lots of interesting trails around, but I didn't have any time to explore further. 

Dave also gave us some history of the Stirling area, much of it to do with William Wallace and Robert I, aka Robert the Bruce. We got a recap of the Battle of Stirling Bridge and the Battle of Bannockburn, as well as a few reasons the movie "Braveheart" is historically inaccurate. (In fact, nearly every Scot I met made it a point to tell me just how woefully inaccurate that movie really is.) Oh and did I mention we passed Stirling Castle? It is situated high on a hill and commands a truly magnificent view. Apparently it is also one of the best-preserved Renaissance castles in all of the UK, but sadly, we didn't stop. Due to its location, it is one of the most strategic castles in all of Scotland, and you could probably write a dissertation on its importance in Scottish (and English) history. 

First pit stop. Thumbs-up to Rabbie's for the awesome tour.

 We passed several lakes - I mean lochs - including Loch Lubnaig, Loch Liebhann, and Loch Linnhe. I really hope I got those spellings right, but I could be way off. I learned that many places in Scotland have two names - and English name and a Gaelic name (pronounced Gal-lick, not Gay-lick), but that most of the lochs retain the original Gaelic spelling and pronunciation. Some of the lochs are freshwater and others, like Linnhe, are salty and are thus referred to as "sea lochs." Many of the lochs run along Scotland's natural fault lines, and some of them are quite deep. We also drove through Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, though we didn't get to actually see the loch. Too bad, as every time I heard the name I got the song stuck in my head. Actually, Scotland only has two national parks, and we drove through both of them! Apparently Scotland has some of the world's most liberal land access policies, so the designation of official national parks is relatively recent. They pretty much adhere to the "Leave the Gate as Found" policy and apparently it's illegal to prohibit people from accessing property, even if it's private property. I'm sure there are more subtleties to it than that, but that's the general gist. Oh I also learned that Scotland has over 300 mountains that are taller than 3,000 feet. The tallest, Ben Nevis - incidentally the tallest mountain in all of the British Isles (sorry for the parentheses again, but the 56 tallest mountains in the UK are all in Scotland) - was confirmed by a man called Sir Hugh Munro, who also generated the first mostly-complete list of all of the tall peaks in Scotland. In his honor, the 3,000-footers are referred to as Munros, and Munro-bagging is the attempt to climb all of the 3,000+ mountains in Scotland. We were very lucky in that we got to view Ben Nevis from several angles and the peak was visible, not buried among the clouds as is normal, particularly in wintertime. 

We also drove across Rannoch Moor, which is one of the largest and last wilderness areas in Europe. It is very boggy, full of the infamous Scottish peat, and is where I saw my first red deer. the U.K. is something like the 12th largest country in Europe, but Scotland is home to 25% of the continent's energy potential. Dave said they are very blessed with renewable resources, and the government has made a commitment to the country to be fully reliant on renewable energy by 2020. (Dave says it's more likely to be 2022 or 2023, but still, they seem to be ahead of most of the rest of the world.) Already, they get nearly half their energy from wind and water action, despite having huge reserves of fossil fuels. We passed quite a few windmills and a few dams that were used to power now-defunct "aluminium" plants but still provide power to the grid. We saw solar panels as well, but they're not as efficient as in other parts of the world due to Scotland's Northern latitude and significant cloud cover and precipitation. 

Just the view from a pit stop on the road. NBD.

Okay back from the scientific tangent. One of my favorite pit stops was Glen Coe. A glen is another term for a valley, and we drove right through it and had amazing views of the Three Sisters Mounts, among others. It was so clear we could even look through the valley and see the River Coe at the other end, and Dave was able to point out where Highland clans known for cattle-stealing would stash the cows to keep them hidden from foes (I think he was referring to the MacDonalds but I don't want to get in trouble for libel if I'm mis-remembering!). Dave told us a lot about volcanoes, but I don't seem to have absorbed much of that information, other than to say that most of Scotland consists of defunct volcanoes. We stopped at the Glen Coe Visitor Centre, but I spent most of my time taking pictures instead of reading the display, and I also grabbed a mint tea and used the facilities. 

I might be getting my timeline mixed up (and heaven forbid I actually refer to a map as I type) but I think next we drove through the town of Fort William, the largest settlement in the Highlands. Scotland has a population of 5 million. About half a million live in Glascow and nearly another half a million live in Edinburgh, and about 70% live in the middle of the country or in the Lowlands. Most Highland towns have a few hundred people, maximum, and the population is very very scattered and hearty in the Northern part of the country due to the mountainous terrain and harsh weather. Anyway, Fort William is one of the biggest cities in the Highlands, and it has a population of about 10,000, or about the size of Astoria, Oregon. It is near both the Rivers Nevis and Lochy (Ha, there's a Loch Lochy, which does not mean Lake Lakey, but it still makes me giggle!) and Loch Linnhe, and it's known for its water sports, bicycling, and access to great walking and hiking paths. Oh and while I'm thinking of things that made me giggle, I remember two places that tickled my funny bone: Golden Larches and the Thistle Stop Cafe. 

The only monster I saw all day

Where the river meets Loch Ness

Did I mention it was cold?

Finally, we approached our real destination: the town of Fort Augustus on the Caledonian Canal and Loch Ness. Interestingly, Loch Ness is not the largest lake in Scotland by surface area, but when you take into account its depth, it is the largest lake by volume in the entirety of the UK! When we got to Fort Augustus, we drove and parked along the canal where it meets the loch. I walked up the canal past five or six locks. Fort Augustus is tiny, with a population of about 300, and in the winter not many things are open. I'm glad I grabbed my sandwich in Callander, because otherwise it would have been gas station food for lunch! After I walked up and down the canal, I got in line for my boat ride. While I didn't get seasick, I can say that by and large it was one of the more unpleasant boat rides I've ever had, because it was COLD and there was nowhere to hide from the wind. Well, I could have hidden inside, but then it would have been really crowded and I wouldn't have had a very good view, so really it's my own fault for electing to stay topside. And frankly, it was kind of boring. I did see a goat - a feral goat, not a true mountain goat, and the lake was kind of pretty, but meh. I didn't even see any sea monsters! Allora. If my choices were to wander around the closed up wintertime town or take that freezing cold boat ride again, I think I'd wander around until I found the single open pub and park there. There seemed to be a fair amount of shops, just the wrong time of year for enjoying them. 

Both goats and deer are becoming problems in Scotland. I mentioned earlier that there are no known remaining natural predators, so they are overpopulated and preventing growth of much of the natural fauna. Scotland used to be home to wolves and lynx, but the last known Scottish wolf was killed hundreds of years ago. There's talk of reintroducing wolves, but many people are concerned, especially cattle and sheep farmers. Dave says that although lynx were thought to be extinct in Scotland before the middle ages, there have been recent claims of lynx sightings. Regardless, I don't think an official reintroduction will be happening any time soon, despite success stories in some parts of the U.S. Successful wolf reintroduction in the States has only been accomplished in areas where the wolves can roam freely, and Scotland doesn't really have any equivalent ginormous free wildlife areas because hey, it's an inhabited island and space is at a premium. I don't think wild boar eat deer either, except maybe the occasional fawn, but they're pretty much extinct in Scotland as well with the probable exception of some farm escapees. 

Pattack Falls

Anywho, the stop at Loch Ness was one of our last stops before booking it back to Edinburgh. We were able to take advantage of sunlight and stop at the River Pattack, home of the Pattack Falls, just before sunset. This was probably my favorite stop of the entire trip, and I enjoyed tramping around in the woods and looking at the river. There's even a viewing platform where you can look almost directly down onto the waterfall. There were many walking paths originating (or perhaps culminating) here and it seems like it would be a great place for a hiker to explore, or for mountain biking if that's allowed. I saw lots of footprints, but no bike tracks, but I don't know if that's because it's not allowed or because it was the wrong time of year, or simply because no bikers have been there since the last precipitation.

We got back into our van and headed back to Edinburgh. We saw many many more deer and sheep, and some beautiful mountains and lochs in the glow of sunset. It started snowing again, and we even saw some cloud iridescence so I got a little rainbow action, too. All in all, a fantastic day.

Palio #2: Monselice

My aunt recently came to visit from South Africa, and I wanted to try to give her a fantastic and authentic Italian experience in the limited free time we shared together. That's how we found ourselves taking a short road trip with another friend to the town of Monselice to experience their horse race called "quintana." Giostra della Quintana is, in short, a joust. Of course, we had no clue what we were in for when we hit the road, but that didn't stop us from having a wonderful day at the track and wandering around the town.

Monselice Castello

It took about 40-45 minutes to get to Monselice from Vicenza; it was an easy drive and tolls were less than five euro each way. You can see the hill with its tower before you can see the town proper, so we definitely knew we were heading the right direction long before we got there. Sometimes driving in Italy can be stressful, so affirmations like giant, easily-identifiable hills are a boon. We didn't exactly know where to go in town, so the vague plan was to arrive, look for the town center, and park somewhere close. That's generally a good plan, provided you don't accidentally stray into a residents only traffic zone, and it worked for us. When we arrived, we saw lots of people walking about in medieval costumes, so we knew we were close to the right spot. We started venturing away from that area of town and quickly found ourselves along a river in a residential neighborhood, so we stopped and asked for directions from a local. Twice. Thank goodness my aunt speaks better Italian than I do! We ended up just nabbing a great parking spot (for free!) along the river, and walking five or ten minutes into town, following the general flow of foot traffic.

Outside the Pub Enoteca Il Castello

One of the first things we saw once we walked into the town was a piazza, and bordering the piazza was a tower, clock, castle, and tourist information office. Bingo! We popped into the tourist office to obtain directions to the horse race and determine if there was anything else interesting or worthwhile to see while we were in town. I have no idea why more people don't know of this city, because it is home to a fantastically refurbished castle dating back to the 11th century, a pilgrimage of seven churches, two towers, and at least one really great restaurant. (There are probably more delicious restaurants, but we liked this one so much we ate there for lunch and came back for dinner!) We scoped out the castle tour schedule and then hit up the Pub/Enoteca Il Castello for lunch. And why is it called Pub/Enoteca Il Castello, you  might ask? Because it is located directly under the castle, has a secret passage connecting to the castle, and is owned by the city. A wonderful lady named Sabrina co-manages it with her husband. The inside is decorated with art, statues, pottery, and weaponry and the outside features a wonderful courtyard and seasonal flowers. Of course, since it was so nice we chose to sit a fuori, outside. We were intrigued by their extremely well-priced wine list, which is broken down by region and features some very local varietals, and asked about the possibility of a wine-tasting. The pub was slammed for lunch (always a good sign) so they suggested we come back in the early evening if we wanted to do that. Spoiler alert: we did. Two of us chose to have papardelle with wild boar ragu, and my aunt had crepes stuffed with ricotta and mushrooms. I drank a spritz and the others enjoyed some Prosecco, and then we were off to the races!

We walked for 10-15 minutes through the town to the foot of the hill, where we paid ten euro and sat in the bleachers with our backs to the sun to enjoy the spectacle. We had to pass through a gaggle of folks in costume to purchase our tickets, so we knew there would be a parade to kick everything off. Knowing Italy, we didn't think they would start on time, but they actually started five minutes early! Each of the nine communes of Monselice is represented by an animal or other symbol, and has its own colors. A representative troop from each commune marched in, accompanied by drums and/or buglers, and took their places in the opposite bleachers. They must have been broiling, what with all the velvet and brocade and facing directly into the sun! Unfortunately, the racing took for-eh-ver to start because various possibly important people needed to give welcome speeches. And then a cute kid read a presumably cute poem. I picked out a stanza about each commune, praising their speed, agility, horses, pretty colors, etc. People clapped. It was nice. More speeches. Blah blah blobbity blah, get to the good stuff! Finally, after no kidding an hour, the announcer started introducing the horses and riders and explaining the race.

A rider uses his joust to spear a suspended ring

Each commune had two riders, for a total of 18. I know this because all eighteen of them were introduced one at a time and each completed a lap around the track. See note above re: for-eh-ver. They would be pitted against each other two at a time with the task of spearing three impossibly small orange rings while racing around the track. Each rider would enter his respective outer side of the track when a two-minute warning bell rang. When that bell sounded, the competitors had two minutes to collect their spears, enter the inner track ring, and take position. They got a 30-second warning and a 5-second warning. Once the five-second warning sounded, they could begin racing the horses, but they couldn't cross the starting line with the rings until the official start bell sounded. We only saw one false start, which I thought was pretty impressive. The riders did one full lap before starting to collect their rings on the end of their jousting spear, and the rider who got three rings before the other won the heat. I think we stayed for five races, and the times ranged from 52-56 seconds, so you can understand the dirt track was not all that large. After each race a team of men wearing blue jeans, white button-down shirts, and baseball caps came out to rake the track, especially in the curves where we saw more than one horse stumble, but once everything kicked off there was a race every 5-6 minutes. So if you ever want to attend this event, know that you can pretty much skip the first hour and not miss much, but once it starts things move fairly quickly. Still, with so many riders it could take a couple hours to finish all the racing. This event was not nearly as big as the Palio of Montagnana, but equally well-organized. I'm glad I got to experience the two different styles of racing, and would recommend them both to anyone. Both events were very kid-friendly, too.

Because of our desire to see more of the town (and the fact that bleachers just aren't very comfortable), we left after only a few races. We headed back to the tourist shop to steal some of their very pretty brochures and then went to the Castello of Monselice, sometimes called the Castello Cini after one of its modern owners. We paid eight euro for an hour-long tour, and lucked out because we, along with one very lovely Canadian lady, wound up on an English-speaking tour for us instead of stuck with a group of 30 Italian-speakers. So we basically got a private tour of one of the most beautifully renovated castles I've ever seen, and our guide was exceptionally knowledgeable. It turns out he is an Italian who works for an American company out of Verona, and only works in Monselice on the weekends after putting in a regular five-day workweek. Art is his passion, and he joked about there not being much money in art, allora. For every question we asked, he was able to give us a detailed answer, and I was really impressed with his kindness and professionalism even though we could see he was just about dead on his feet. (At the end of the tour, our Canadian friend told him to start a six-day work schedule and take some time off.)

The castle consists of three main buildings (plus the bonus pub on the street below), connected but built across the span of several centuries. Unfortunately, the castle was bombed, left in shambles, and abandoned for a significant period of time so much of the layout, room purposing, and furnishing is speculation. That did not deter from the experience whatsoever. The first building we entered was set up as a weapons museum, and we learned one of the first rooms was likely used as sort of an armory and mudroom for local soldiers, who apparently had a crappy life back in the teen-hundreds. Poor blokes. We learned a lot about crossbows and suits of armor before moving on. We breezed through a courtyard and then walked up some stairs and then a ramp to the [European] first floor. As it turns out, the ramp was so visitors could ride their horses directly to the guest quarters and living space, hand off their animals to servants to be stabled, and enter the house without bothering with the peons on the ground floor. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the interior, and I was a good girl and followed the rules, but let me just tell you this place was stunning. There were tapestries on the walls, giant windows, tiny beds, heavy cupboards and wardrobes, and beautiful examples of glass, pottery, and other art. We also learned about some special chimneys very specific to not just the region, but this town. I commented earlier in the tour that I thought it was unusual to see so many round chimneys, and only one that was squared-off. Turns out the round chimneys housed smaller regular chimneys underneath, with a void in between. In medieval times, residents filled that void with sand, to retain the heat from the fireplace even once the fire was out. Brilliant! 

View from the upper courtyard in the Monselice Castello

Upper Courtyard in the Monselice Castello

After visiting the upper floors, we made our way across the courtyard to one of the other sections of the castle. It housed a chapel and a room with a hearth so enormous that historians think it was probably a kitchen. However, an alternate theory is that it was used as a forge for weaponry, considering the castle's defensive history. Nothing in that room was younger than 500 years old. Mind: boggled. The castle was owned by the town but now I understand it is owned by a regional museum authority or some such. Interestingly, 58% of the world heritage sites are located in Italy. Our guide carped that because Italians are surrounded by so much beauty and history, they have become complacent about maintaining them and delinquent in advertising them. Hence me stumbling across such surprises when I randomly venture out for the day. Why does no one know about these places? They are amazing! Anyway, rant over, tour pretty much over.

One of the seven chapels

After the tour, we continued walking uphill and peeked at the grounds of a private villa and into the Church of San Giustinia (St. Justina) which is also known as the Old Cathedral of Monselice. Continuing uphill, we walked past the Santuario Giubilare della Siete Chiese, or the Jubilee Shrine of the Seven Churches. There are seven chapels built into the hill, each one representing one of the major basilicas of Rome. They were constructed in the 1600s after a papal dispensation which basically said that a pilgrimage to these chapels was the same, and thus worthy of the same indulgences as a visit to the basilicas of Rome. Pretty good deal considering the status of travel in those days and the distance to Rome from the town. Each little church has a painting of its counterpart in Rome, and the seventh church also houses some pretty important and macabre relics. The seventh church is adjacent to another villa, across from which lead two sets of stairs. The first steps lead to an arched wall, and there were many people (mostly young folks) hanging out on the wall and steps enjoying the weather and the view of the town below. The second set of steps lead to the top of the Colle della Rocca, where there's another defensive tower. You can walk up there and climb the tower, but they let in the last visitors at 1800 and we got there around 1810. Boo. Oh well, we still enjoyed the walk and view. 

After scoping out the santuario, we headed back down the hill. We were thinking of doing wine tasting and having munchies at the castle Pub/Enoteca again, but were all pretty hungry so decided to have dinner as well. The establishment was far quieter than on our first visit, and we snagged a primo table outside. We started off by tasting a Serprino and a frizzante rose; I enjoyed the rose more and the other ladies preferred the Serprino, and they both worked out nicely with our meat and cheese platters. We decided to skip the whites and go straight for dinner and reds. For dinner, I ordered gnocchi with duck ragu, my aunt ordered veal ossobucco, and my friend ordered boar goulash with polenta. I think we were all very happy with our choices (I definitely was!) but my friend said the goulash tasted exactly the same as the boar ragu from our papardelle lunch. Still delicious, but basically the same meal only with polenta instead of noodles. Allora. We tasted a Merlot, a Merlot blend, a Rosso Riserva, and a Valpolicella. We all preferred different wines, and my favorite (surprise surprise) was the Valpolicella. I also got some tiramisu for dessert, and it was probably the lightest and fluffiest I've had since I moved to Italy. I ogled some of the other plates and desserts as they came out of the kitchen, and they all looked fantastic. Maybe next time I will order the mushroom and pumpkin lasagna, because I got a waft of it and it smelled delicious.

Another great adventure for the record books. Next time, I will climb to the tower when it's open, properly look inside each of the chapels, and do some more exploring around the town. I'll probably eat at the same restaurant though. Why try a new place when I've got a winner with unexplored menu options, amiright?

***

Here are some more pictures from the interior of the castle, which I did not take since I'm not allowed. Here is the original source: Monselice Castello

Armory Museum in the Monselice Castello

Interior room of the Monselice Castello

Interior Room and Chimney in the Monselice Castello

Uff da, the craziness and hectivity abound

Yes, hectivity is a real word. I made it up just now.

I have been a very busy bee, and it has been a roller coaster-ish couple of weeks. I had some friends come to visit, and we had a delightful time! We did wine-tasting at Villa Sceriman and Enomas, watched a historical regatta in Venice, found the castle in Bassano del Grappa along with the distillery museum, and explored the castle and ruins in Sirmione. We were blessed with terrific weather, and they came back from venturing on their own in Florence and Rome with some good tales and excellent advice. Can't wait for the next round of visitors! Now...who's it going to be, hmm?

Entry to Sceriman

In Venice, near sunset

"Pink ladies" in the Venice Regata Storica

Let's see, I got kidnapped for my birthday and celebrated with sushi, a walk around a street fair, and some really dang good gelato. (My delightful friends also presented me with a fruit tart in Venice to celebrate - there was a candle and they sang to me! Going down in the history books as a really wonderful birthday. I like 32 so far!) Then I tasted more wine and  harvested and stomped grapes at Le Pignole, which might be one of my new favorite places ever. I'm sensing a trend here, with all the vino...Which reminds me, if you like wine and drink a fair amount of it and like trying new ones, you may be interested in the app Vivino. I use it to help me remember what I've tasted, bought, liked, and disliked, and also to get recommendations. You can take pictures of wine bottles and the app will match it with something in its database, and if it's not in the database real live people will research and add it. You can rate wines and compare other people's ratings and pricing information, and it's pretty dang helpful.

First birthday picture!

At the Vicenza fair

Kids running around at Le Pignole

A real, genuine, authentic grape stomp!

I also dog-sat for a friend (the same lovely friend who kidnapped me) for four days, and had a very fun time cuddling and playing fetch. However, I think my favorite gelato place (conveniently located 1/8 of a mile from home) is probably the ONLY gelato joint in the entirety of Italy which does NOT allow dogs. Whoopsie.

I watched the bi-annual Live Chess tournament in Marostica, and had some delicious pumpkin risotto for dinner beforehand. I think there were a total of 12 of us who went as a group, and it was a really fun event despite the rain delay. If anyone is planning a visit in September 2016, I will take you to it!  There were flag twirlers and sword fighters and dancers and horses; the costumes and pageantry were great! Hopefully by 2016 I will understand more Italian and be able to translate a bit of the story. All I got were "La bella regina bianca," a few other chess piece names, and some disjointed words. But I had fun laughing smarmily when everyone else did.

Live chess match in Marostica

Then I battled a mid-term exam for roughly 30 hours, then I got sick, then I got better,  I recorded a bunch of radio commercials for the Local Red Cross, I'm going to a picture framing and matting class tomorrow, and Tony comes home soon! Next weekend: Oktoberfest in Munich!

Verily, life is good.

Nove and Marostica

Last Tuesday, I got to take a little jaunt to the towns of Nove and Marostica. They're, I dunno, maybe 30 minutes from our hotel. While Tony was working, a new friend (Hi, Jackie!) came and picked me up. She had to pick up some personalized ceramics in Nove and invited me to tag along. I'm so glad I did! Nove is a tiny little town well-known for its hand-crafted ceramics. Jackie has been collecting a pattern of blue poppies (Himalayan poppies, but they look more purple than blue, I think) and daisies. She basically created this pattern and now the owner can't keep it on the shelves! I wandered all three floors of the store, knowing there are a dozen more scattered throughout the town but assured that these guys have the lowest pricing, just delighting in all the different styles and patterns. I learned that it is good luck to give chicken or rooster pitchers as a gift, to ward off assassins. There's a good story behind that, but anyway, a few designs caught my eye, but I managed to resist any new purchases...this time...

After that, we ran over to Marostica, which is the next town over. It's known for cherries and especially for its live chess matches held in September of even years. If you Google "live chess Italy" I'm sure it'll pop up. They dress up in medieval costumes and have horses and knights and everything.  I saw the chess board in the middle of the square, and I'd really like to go one year. Marostica is known for it's two castles; there's an upper and a lower, and the sight as you drive into town is breathtaking. You can drive or hike to the upper castle, through olive groves and other beautiful sights. I'm told the view from up there is amazing; you can see into the Asiago valley. You know, Asiago as in cheese...that's right, it's only an hour from us! In the picture just below, you can see the lower castle in the foreground to the right, and the upper castle on the hill.

Unbeknownst to us, Marostica holds its local market on Tuesdays, so we had fun wandering around taking in all the vendors' booths. There were salami and cheese trucks, and stalls of clothes, shoes, vegetables, and knickknacks. We popped into a pasticcheria and tried a small assortment of pastries with delicious cappuccino, and then had pizza. In the picture above, the chess board is in the center, and we sat under an awning just to the right there. On non-market days, our seats would have had a great view of the upper castle, but the vendors were blocking our line of vision. That just means I have to go back! I really want to go back with Tony and hike up to the upper castle. I love how the walls span the entire hill. 

It was a short trip, but a really great one!

Ambras Castle and Innsbruck, Austria

Last week we swung by the base Outdoor and Recreation Center during a moment of down time to see what services they have available. In addition to gear rentals for things like rock climbing, camping, and snowboarding, they also put together trips for military people to take advantage of. Some of them are local field trips, others take you to the far corners of the country, and a few take you to other destinations in Europe. I've got my eye on a five-day scuba diving trip to Croatia...

There were three trips scheduled for this weekend, and two of them were already full.  Darn, no horseback riding in Verona...this time! However, there were seven spaces available on a bus ride to Innsbruck, Austria. For less than a hundred bucks, we got transportation, tickets to the Ambras Castle, and a guide. What else were we gonna do? We haven't gotten our Italian driver's licenses yet nor freed the car to get it registered and inspected, so our options are relatively limited. We met on post in front of the Outdoor Rec center at 0630 and snagged seats on a tour bus. It was a four-hour drive, with a stop in the middle for restroom break and food (unfiltered apple juice, yum!), but ye olde Google maps tells me by car it's 3 hours and 4 minutes from here. The drive was BEAUTIFUL, and best of all, we didn't have to navigate, pay tolls, or pay for gas, which is currently running about 1.56 Euro per liter. We drove right through the Dolomites and Alps; Innsbruck is basically the first major city you get to when crossing into Austria on that route. We passed the Olympic stadium and an enormous ski jump; if memory serves, Innsbruck hosted the Olympics in 1964 and again in 1974. If I had an editor I would ask him/her to fact check that for me, but I'm too lazy to look it up myself, so we'll just assume I'm correct and move on.

We arrived at the castle around 1030, and had until about 1230 to explore. It's a midieval castle that was updated to a Renaissance one by Ferdinand II. To say that Ferdinand was a collector is a giant understatement, and I enjoyed looking at all his stuff. Even back then, he started one of the first "modern" style museums, and many of the items on display noted they were part of an inventory taken in 1596, so most of it has been around a while. The first three rooms or halls were filled with weapons and armors, of all shapes and sizes and styles. I got quite a kick out of looking at the kids' armors, but even much of the adult equipment was quite small. I've heard that people used to be significantly shorter, but it was fun to have visual evidence of that fact. We also wandered through the Hapsburg portrait gallery and Spanish Hall, and got to take a peek into two of the chapels on site. I liked that it was a self-paced, self-guided tour, but one of the pieces of feedback I gave when we got back was that two hours was really too short. I'm one of those kinds of people who can wander around museums and cultural sites for days at a time, but I think most people would agree on this one. The grounds were beautiful and though we skipped it, there's a little restaurant on site that has some outdoor seating.

After Ambras, we hopped back on the bus for the 20-minute drive down into the town of Innsbruck. I say town, but I'd guess a couple hundred thousand people live there. We parked very near to the "old" part of the city, and walked through a park to get to the proper entrance. Our guide gave us a very brief tour and explanation, and then left us to our own devices for the next few hours. We found food first; Tony had a meat dish with sauerkraut and potatoes, and I had a Hungarian goulash with rye bread dumplings. He thoroughly enjoyed his meal but I only thought mine was so-so. On the other hand, the house wine was cheap and delicious, so that was a nice offset. I think it was a cab sav/Merlot/something else blend. In any case, after that we went to the St. Jakob basilica and the Imperial house, where many of the Hapsburgs stayed when they were not in Vienna. The basilica was notable for the paintings on the ceiling, some of the first examples of perspective to paint a domed look on a flat ceiling. (Our guide kept calling the ceiling the "roof" and correcting herself. She also referred to mustard as "the friend of mayonnaise".) We popped into a speck shop and had samples, and Tony bought a gelato. There's a small Swarovski shop/museum there, and we stopped to get a look at their fly display and take note of where the free restrooms were. Unless you are a restaurant patron - and even then it's not a guarantee - many of the restrooms are pay-only. So it's always good to know if/where there are free ones. There's your European tip of the day. :) We also wandered down to the Inn River and took a few pictures. Innsbruck is an incredibly scenic town; you turn a corner and oh look! mountains. It's also very pedestrian-friendly and clean, and most people were obviously multi-lingual. I felt bad for not having a very good grasp on ANY of those languages, but since it's a popular tourist location all of the servers and shopkeepers helped us in English. Give me a year...I also made sure to get a picture of the infamous Gold Roof, but aside from looking very different, it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the rest of the buildings in the square as much as I did that one.

We sadly had to hop back on the bus around 5:30, but by then we had done a good bit of walking and sight-seeing, so it was okay. We stopped at an AutoGrill on the way back, but just got snacky type foods instead of a meal. I had leftovers once we got back to our room, which was a short and pleasant walk back from where the bus dropped us. It was in the 50s all day, and a few people who've been here longer than us complained a bit. I guess it was very nice and spring-y the last couple of weeks, but it's been gray and cloudy since we got here...until today! We stayed pretty close today and caught up on a few things, but we did go for a walk and buy some groceries. I think it got up to about 80, and the birds have been chirping and I even saw quite a few lizards out sunning themselves. Tomorrow we have an appointment with the housing office, so hopefully we'll have a better idea of what our options are by the end of the day tomorrow.