Rapallo, Italy, Finally

It is now Saturday, November 14th, and we are now on the 8:43 am train from Ravalli to Milan. So let's  back up a bit.

Yesterday after finally getting to Rapallo and dropping our bags at our hotel (the Europa) for safekeeping because it was only noon and checking wasn't until 2 pm, we went to the nearest atmosphere machine and for more euros because we were both  out. Then we  began walking along the waterfront  taking photos and enjoying the warm, sunny weather when we happened upon a man selling purses. I didn't put up much resistance and ended up bargaining a good prize for a lovely red handbag, which I am now using instead of the big, heavy black tote that Janet tell loaned me. Sharonville bought a smaller handbag for next to nothing. We continued our walking up a long winding road toward S. Margarita. It was beautiful but we were facing the traffic and a very windy and narrow road so the many cars and scooters looked like they would run right into us! We finally a got to a place where we could catch a bus to take us the rest of the way.

We were hungry by then so we stopped at a wonderful  pizzeria and ordered a glass of sparkling white wine and split a pizza for €8 (which is about  $8.50.) They didn't speak English so they tried to show us and tell us that the pizza was very small, maybe 8 inches. That was OK with us but when they brought it out, you can see from the photo it was much bigger then they said. We were enjoying our pizza when the waitress asked if we wanted "dulce" or dessert and we indicated that we were too full. She came back to our table with a bottle of lemon cello and two short glasses indicated she was leaving and waves goodbye to us as she left through the front door and went up the sidewalk. We were wondering  if they wold charge us for this yummy delight or if they were just treating us extra nice.

We were all alone in the restaurant with no server and no one manning the cash register but I got up and looked through the door to the other half of the restaurant and a man was sitting there and jumped up to see what I needed. I indicated that we were ready to pay and he brought us our bill. We thought he said €50 and we assumed since the pizza was so big and we had access to a whole bottle of lemon cello that maybe that was a reasonable price. We certainly had a wonderful time there. Thankfully, it was only €15 which was a  euro less that it should have been, considering €8 pizza and €4 per glass of wine. We were SO happy! Look at the picture showing the view from our table out the front door. Crazy traffic!

Trains, trains, trains=run, run, run

Right now we are stuck in Genova for an hour, because we believed the hotel man at the front to desk. He gave us bad info....trying to go Rapallo and instead we went right past with no stopping. So here we are waiting to haul all this luggage onto yet another train back to Rapallo. We were feeling pretty smug about being able to run, take the slow elevators to the correct platform and see that the train was 5 minutes late allowing us to make it on the train and then we find out it was not stopping where we thought it would. No worries. Hurry and wait. We just boarded another train back to Rapello. We would have just stayed here tonight but I had already made reservations in Rapallo so another €3.40 for another ticket.

Things are different here, not to mention that not everyone has the decency to speak English! :) I have had to wrap my brain around the fact that the elevators may say floor "0" or "-1"....what is that about??? Some places make you pay to use the toilet, which seems wrong since sometimes there are no paper towels to dry your hands.

Another thing. Every day is laundry day. Sheets, jeans, towels, etc all hanging from people's balconys. And train tunnels everywhere. Wish we had trains in the US like here. Screeching train brakes, short stops making having luggage to deal with a bit difficult. What is with all these shutters? All the buildings seem to have shuttered windows. And old rusty bikes. You hardly see anybody riding a bike to be proud to own!! Such differences in lifestyles. Despite all this, Italy has charm and mostly friendly people. Still enjoying this trip even though we are either running like crazy or twiddling our thumbs while we wait.

First photo shows about all we saw in Genova. Second one is of Sharon waiting for the train with all our luggage. I packed light like we had agreed to do, but Sharon had a harder time sticking to that plan!! Life is an adventure. Overlook the struggles and keep moving forward pushing any worries away. I haven't felt this relaxed in awhile!!

More photos

Today we got a train pass good for the day, which took us to Cinque Terre this morning. The pass was €12 and allowed us to hop on and off as much as we wanted from village to village and use the small bus service as well.

First stop was Monterosso, the northern most village. Then we worked our way down on the train to Vernazza, got lots of good pictures and chatted with people here and there. The weather was warm and sunny. Then we went on the train to Corniglia and since it is high above the train station, we took a bus up to the town, if you can call it that! Such peaceful villages. We only had today to see everything in Cinque Terre and we were in the middle of a late lunch in the most quaint restaurant in Corniglia when we discovered we had not left enough time to catch the bus to get down to the train station to catch the train to Manarola. Oops! After lunch, we had to wait for the bus so had a small cone with gelato. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as I remembered.

When we finally got to the train station, we were told the schedule had changed and the train we needed to get to Manarola was coming much later. After waiting and waiting, it was beginning to get dark and by the time we got on the train we figured we needed to forego seeing both Manarola and Riomaggiore and just get back to our hotel (Hotel Firenze English Continentale.) Part of me was sorry we wouldn't get to all 5 villages but I told Sharon "If you've seen one village, you've seen them all!" So no worries.

After getting to La Spezia we bought our train tickets for Rapallo, Italy, which is a hop, skip and a jump to the Portofino area. Got back to our hotel Room And immediately Began searching for a hotel in Rapello. Good fortune again in that since another traveler that we had talked to said that they enjoyed staying at the Europa Hotel which is just a short walk to from the train station, I called and got a room for €84. She matched the rate I had found online which is a €15 savings from the €99 she quoted. It is always smart to ask!

At about 6:30 pm we went walking, very safe to walk in the evening. We found the outdoor mall and enjoyed seeing lots of people out walking their dogs. Got back to the room at 8:30 or so and that is that! Here are some photos from today's adventures.

Whirlwind First 2 or is it 3 days

I flew Delta straight to Amsterdam on the 10th (Tuesday) at 1:20 pm. Arrived on the 11th at 9:30 am. Finished reading my Fanny Flagg book, listened to music while I tried to sleep....unsuccessfully.....and watched a movie on the pop up screen attached to my seat. I sat next to a nice man who was born in the Netherlands of all things. He and his wife are now US citizens and he was on his way to Basel, Switzerland for a business conference. They fed us plenty of snacks and 2 meals, free wine even. I was surprised to see a canal next to the Amsterdam runway as we landed and the gentleman next to me explained that the airport was built in a  very wet area so they need the canal to keep it from flooding.

After exiting the plane I had to find my way to the right gate to catch the flight to Rome. Quick and pleasant flight but was surprised once again when I discovered that when the flight crew came around offering something to drink, they asked if we wanted milk! I've never seen so any people asking for a cup of milk and have never seen it served as a regular thing.

When I checked my phone after we touched down, I saw that Sharon had sent a text saying she had left a phone message (which I never got) and I gathered she wanted me to take the train  from the airport to Termini. She had planned on being at baggage claim but realized that the airport is so far from Rome proper that it would make more sense for me to catch a train and she could meet me at the Termini train station since we were going to catch another train to Le Spezia, Italy. After a bit of frustration because my texts didn't go through to her and her texts to me were no taking much sense to me, neither one of us was sure the other got our messages! I quickly got a train ticket and when I was halfway to Termini I was finally able to connect with her on my cell phone. All worked out fine and she was waiting for me when I got off the train. Phew.

Then the frenzy began because as we were trying to figure out whether to wait in a long line to buy our train tickets or try using one of the many machines on site and hope we would get it right, we were approached by several people who wanted to "help" us. We were leary. They all seemed to think we were not going to be able to figure it out without their help and when we asked if they were with the train company, of course they said "yes, yes!" It turned out they were all gypsies trying to get money from us for their "help." They were like leeches that we kept trying to brush off! They didn't get our money.

After a long train ride we arrived in Le Spezia at 8 pm, with no reservation! Lucky us, we found a wonderful one across and up a half a block from the train station. I decided to just plow through with no sleep and ignore that I lost a night's sleep. I was getting a bit rummy and having trouble thinking clearly BUT we decided to have "dinner" in the hotel's wine tasting room. Only €5.50 apiece for a glass of wine, nuts and enough horsdourves to take away any hunger. We finally got into bed at 10:15 pm and I was really ready for sleep.

We got up this morning, the 12th, and had the most wonderful complimentary breakfast I have ever seen! The Italian coffee was dark, rich and not bitter  and the food was fabulous. That will be a photo below of the buffet. We get to do that again tomorrow morning. Don't worry, Dave, the room was on the top floor (5th) and was €89 per night with comfy twin beds and included breakfast. A super deal.

I will stop here and post more on today's happenings after I take a shower and get ready to call it a night.

Transition Bikes

Today we drove to Bellingham to visit with our son Kyle, dil Kari and Saben and Annika. We met for a tasty lunch at Keegan's (thanks K&K) then drove over to check out Kyle's new warehouse/office building. It has all the bells and whistles and will soon include a showroom for those who want to visit and buy their bike directly from Transition. It is not completely finished as they need some furniture and wallhangings, etc. but they are getting there!I still can't figure out how to label photos from my cell phone. Drat! Here are some shots of their new building.

This and That

Next week I will be flying to Europe for an almost 3 week trip with my friend, Sharon. Since I am hoping to somehow find time to post my adventures on my blog, I figured I better figure out how to do this. So, here is my first attempt at a moblog with photos. I can't seem to figure out how to  add captions to my photos, so what I have done is post 2 photos of Jason's birthday dinner tonight at our house. Happy Birthday, Jason! 

Next is a photo of the October PatchAbilities design which I stitched up recently.

The last photo is of our Bunco group at my house last month for our monthly dinner bunco gathering.

Shakeology....The Healthiest Meal of the Day

" target="_blank">Why you should drink Shakeology.

If you would like to find out more, leave me a message and I will answer any questions you may have.

Art Journal 2nd Layout

Whenever I begin a project, I never quite know how it will end up. That's what happened with this layout. I began with some shimmer coral/pink pearlescent powder and smudged it on the surface with my fingers. Then I added some shimmer violet. I've had these small "pots" of color for several years and can't remember just what the product is. I'm glad I didn't get rid of all my art supplies when we moved! I then wrote a couple of paragraphs from the book The Five Little Peppers and how they grew because I like children's books and I bought the book years ago with the intent of reading it, which I have yet to do.

My dear mother-in-law, Jan, had told me that it was one of her favorite book series when she was a child. I figured what a good way this would be to remember my MIL! Of course, the hot peppers are just a reminder of the five children written about in the book. And the big black dog is featured in the book. One day I will get around to reading it. I have a compilation of the stories that was published in 1984, but the stories were actually written by Margaret Sidney from 1881 to 1916.

I used one of my favorite products, acrylic Gesso by Liquitex, to set the powder, dog picture and handwriting. I made a stamp out of a potato to make the puppy paws and found some drawings online of peppers so I could glue them onto the page. All in all, it was a fun page to make and sort of memorialize my mother-in-law.

My Art Journal 2015

It's time to share with you a new project that I have embarked on. I happened on a blog for people that are interested in stretching their artistic muscles. Well, that's me! Check it out
here. I went ahead and ordered my Ranger brand dylusions creative journal from Amazon. You can buy yours here.

It arrived today, so then the fun began.

The first step was to find scraps of paper to glue on to make the background. I used a simple glue stick. Not that it mattered what I used since they will all be pretty well covered up by the end anyway.

Then I brushed on some Acrylic Gesso and used a paper towel to soak up some of the gesso so I could still see through it.

Next it was time for some color. I used some acrylic artist paints. Since we downsized and I got rid of so much stuff I've been hyperventilating over all the tools and products that I no longer have. BUT I still have some supplies so I will use what I have. I brushed on some more gesso to tone the colors down a bit.

Here is my finished page I used a black oil stick for the words "Celebrate" and "Dream," smudging them a bit, a micropen for the written words and a black IDenti-pen for the other words. I also added a couple of pieces of paper tape. After it had set overnight, I sprayed it with fixative to set it.

This journal project involves making a 2-page layout each week for the year. That is 52 of these pages. I entered into this project 3 weeks late, so I will have to catch up. The words I used on this page are: Dream, Love, Believe, Take a Chance, Hope, Create;, Pray, Laugh, Practice, Be Thankful, One Step at a Time, Celebrate and Change. It seemed like words fitting for the beginning of a new year. And I can't help but be inspired by my grandkids!