Waterfalls in Oregon

After chatting with Paul yesterday about life goals and whatnot, I've decided to revive this blog for our miscellaneous travels. We both really enjoy traveling and thinking about traveling, so it's nice to keep a record of where we've been that we can review when we are stuck in dreary Pittsburgh.

Right now, we are in Oregon. I have a conference that starts Wednesday, so we came out a few days early for some sightseeing. Yesterday, we rented a car (a Subaru Forester - nice car!) and drove to the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area to see some waterfalls. We stopped first at Latourell falls:

We hiked there for a bit - a nice loop trail that went up and over the falls - and enjoyed the moss-covered flora:

It's clear that Portland is very moist. Moss is everywhere, even growing on the barriers in the middle of the highway. I didn't manage to snap a photo of that though - too busy speeding along in the Subaru.

Then we drove on to Wahkeena Falls where we hiked up many switchbacks to the top and then along a trail that took us to Multnomah Falls. It got pretty rainy at points, so we got rather damp. Luckily we had thought to pack our rain jackets. Overall, it was a good few hours of hiking, which is just what I had been hoping to accomplish on this trip. Multnomah is pretty epic - a very tall waterfall:

By the time we reached Multnomah, we were very hungry. We'd only had a muffin and a scone for breakfast, and it was about 4pm. Multnomah is reasonably touristy, so they had food for sale. We had our hearts set on big dinners, so we bought some toasted (read: sugary) pecans and a large mocha coffee to share. Maybe not the best thing to eat on such empty stomachs, but wow, did those taste amazing. Then we drove another half hour to Full Sail Brewing Company for some beer and burgers.

I'm currently reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and there was nothing I wanted more than a long day's hike followed by a large meal. And I got it. But now I want another. :)

Flowers, Figures, and Food in Füssen

[Third and final guest blog post from Liz]

And finally, my last blog post on Füssen!  No specific topic this time, just a few of my general observations.

The wildflowers in Füssen were a treat for me, and I took pictures of many, some known and some unknown.  Here's some of the better pictures, for those of you interested in plants.

A wild rose at the base of the Pollat waterfall by Neuschwanstein.

An unknown type of orchid.

Wild strawberries!  Unfortunately, they're too small and full of seeds to be really good for eating. 

Forget-me-nots, identified by Kate.

Something purple?

Füssen also had an interesting variety of sculpture, some old and some modern.  It was always a pleasant surprise to come upon one of these while wandering the town's small streets.  This first is a video of an interesting arrangement they had before the tourist information building.  The sculpture is several pillars of granite, with smaller spinning blocks of granite atop each one.  According to Rick Steves, they're purely powered by the water, and the spinning heads are supposed to represent friendly people talking with each other.

This statute was at Hohenschwangau, and looks like Robin Hood to me.

Reading girls.

This guy is a representative of an old lute making family in Füssen.  

I'm not exactly sure why, but this sad-looking girl represents the friendship between Füssen and another city in Japan.

And finally, a small mention of our favorite place to eat breakfast at in Füssen:  Gefühl Für Brot!  This translates into "The Feel for Bread," I believe, as exemplified by their fun sign.

And that's all from me!  I had a wonderful time traveling with Kate and Paul.  At this point in their trip, they're old pros at this whole Europe travel thing, and kindly tolerated my whole "This is sooo cool!" reaction to every thing.  : )  Thanks for everything, guys, I miss you already!

The Glacier Field of Chilchbalm

Welcome to Gimmelwald!

On our first day in Gimmelwald, we went for a hike to something Rick Steves described as a glacier field.  It's called Chilchbalm, as you can see in the photo below:

Paul poked the snow:

And I stuck my fingers in the icy cold water:

On the way back, we checked out the wildlife and beautiful wildflowers:

Also, speaking of glaciers, the hotel at which we stayed had an interesting shower experience, which I dubbed the Alpine Freeze.  You had to pay 1 franc for five minutes of shower time, the machine to add another franc was no where near the shower, and when you got near the end of your 5 minutes, your only warning signal was that the water became absolutely freezing cold (like, top of the mountain water cold).  It also did that occasionally during the shower, presumably when someone flushed a toilet or similar.  Not an experience you'd want right before bed, I'd say.

The hotel itself was run by an 89 year old gentleman, Walter (his photo is on the website linked above - check it out!), and his assistant, Tim, who has been working there on a somewhat informal basis for something like 14 years.  They have an amusing relationship.  Tim tries to get guests to eat elsewhere so Walter doesn't have to cook dinners by saying that Walter isn't feeling well.  When we arrived, Paul said to Walter that he hoped he was feeling better, and Walter was like "who told you I wasn't feeling well?"  And then he proceeded to joke about Tim making things up and telling us how Tim sticks around because he wants a room so he can paraglide in the area and see his girlfriend.  Pretty funny.

In many ways it was a great place to stay - we had some great conversations with people over breakfast and dinner (including the mother of Paul's best friend in second grade!), and Tim and Walter were both very friendly and super helpful.  However, the number of spider webs was amusing - in doorways, in the corners of rooms, everywhere.

The Second Coolest Churches in Europe

The Sagrada Familia is the coolest church in Europe, in my humble opinion, but I also really liked the churches with cloisters, too.  Something about a garden attached to a church just really appeals to me:

Another cloister church also had my favorite cross so far.  So much of the Christian iconography we have seen has been so dark, but this cross seems a bit more hopeful even though it is depicting a rather awful death:

Avignon

Since Avignon was only a short 20 minute train ride away, we went there twice during our stay in Arles.  Avignon is bigger and more popular with tourists than Arles with many more restaurants and shops.  We wandered around quite a bit and were impressed by this huge church:

I think it might have been called the Palace of the Popes or something.  We did not bother to go inside.  It seems a bit shameful but by this point in our trip, we are a bit church-, museum-, and ruined-out, so we aren't spending as much time learning about these places.  My favorite part about this church was the lady who sang opera in the square outside it while her dog wandered around enticing people to throw it a stick.

Part of Avignon (the part we spent our time in) is surrounded by a wall, which is pretty neat:

They also do dreadful things to trees in Arles and Avignon.  And I thought Lake Como was bad!  They left more leaves on those at least.  This just looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

I have no idea who he is, but I like this shiny, happy fellow:

And I really knew I wasn't in the US when I saw a sign for a happy hour at Subway:

I must say, I really like France so far.  Everyone is super nice here.  Maybe it will be different in Paris, but so far, I have seen no evidence of the whole "the French don't like Americans" thing.  They go out of their way to be helpful, they smile in amusement at our pitiful attempts at French, and they even have an American store (albeit with a rather interesting selection of items - apparently we are all cowboy bikers?):

Paul and I both agree that France, at least the few parts we've seen, feels the most like the US so far, which has been nice.

The Lovely Lake Como

Lake Como is bellissimo!  No wonder so many people vacation there.  Unfortunately, our visit coincided with what locals told us is the coldest spring in a hundred years or more.  Normally, it's 75-80 there, I think.  We considered ourselves quite lucky on the third day when we neared 65 degrees.  The other days were more in the 50s and very low 60s.  It was also cloudy and rainy the first 1.5 days, although the rain mostly stayed away while we were out and about.

We had a lovely view from our hotel room at Eremo Gaudio, a former hermitage, in the town of Varenna:

This hotel has its own private funicular.  We were in a room on the bottom part but took the funicular up to the top part twice for the wonderful views from the terrace:

There are a variety of ferries that you can take to other parts of the lake.  I was amused by the ferries for transporting vehicles.  It's pretty amazing to watch a large bus drive off of a ferry!

On our first full day on Lake Como, we took a ferry to the nearby city of Bellagio - it's a little bigger and has a lot more touristy shopping.  From the ferry, we admired the views of the Alps.  The photo belowwasn't actually taken from the ferry but shows some of the Alps hiding in the clouds.  I think at this time of year, there should not be any snow on them - ha!

In Bellagio, we purchased windbreakers/water resistant coats.  It's certainly been windy and rainy.  Plus, with plans to visit the Alps, we felt we'd get good use out of these.  Also, we match:

I would like to mention that I picked the coat first, and then Paul decided he liked it, too.  He said he was already planning on a black coat anyway, but I think he's just making excuses....

We also found a cute little library in Bellagio.  It's only open from 5-6:30 in the evening (wow, how do you like those hours?) though, so we didn't manage to go inside:

Walking away from the main shopping strip in Bellagio gave us some really great views - of the flowers growing along the rock walls leading to the water (this photo is taken looking downward along the wall into the water):

And of the scenery:

On our second day in Varenna, we took a cooking class, which I'll write about in another post, and went for a hike with yet more views of this gorgeous mountainous lake:

So far, there aren't a ton of places from this trip that I feel I must return to in the future, but Lake Como is definitely my top pick.  Especially if it were warmer.

Also, we've discovered that Italians take their hot chocolate seriously.  That stuff is thick and chocolate-y!  At first, I was kind of sad that they only filled the mug halfway, but then I learned why - can you see the thick drip of chocolate dangling off the spoon?

That's what I look like when wired up on chocolate, by the way (or when Paul uses the flash in a dark room).

And lastly, they have some peculiar tree-trimming habits in Lake Como.  They cut off the large branches and leave only the water sprouts, which I've always called suckers.  However, while looking up the term, I learned that suckers originate from the root of the tree.  These are water sprouts, since they are shooting up from large branches.  Who knew?  This isn't the best photo of it, unfortunately, but hopefully you can see how the very thick branches are covered with leaves from the water sprouts:

24 Hours in Assisi

We spent about 24 hours in Assisi from May 22-23.  Architecturally, Assisi is a very well-preserved medieval town.  It has tons of cute alleyways, many of which are decorated quite nicely with vines and flowers.  I believe Rick Steves said that there is a contest every year for best balcony flowers.  We certainly saw many fine examples:

and another:

Since the main attractions in so many cites are churches, we've seen tons of Christian iconography.  I've been intrigued by the fanciful scenes of the end of times, hell, and many others, but I think the picture below is my favorite.  That, my friends, is a lion eating a Christian outside the Church of San Rufino.

Assisi is built into the side of a hill, and there are some great views:

And, of course, the main attraction of Assisi is the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi.  No pictures allowed inside, but here's what it looks like from the outside!

Some R&R in Nafpllio

After Athens, we headed to Nafplio (also known as Nafplion and Navplion, making Google searches for buses rather confusing) for some much needed rest and relaxation.

The small family run pension at which we are staying (Pension Isabo, if you're ever in Nafplio!) is nearly perfect (minus the fact that we seem to be near the late night hangout district - nothing some earplugs can't solve):

It has two balconies.  A smaller one with a great view down a street chalk full of stores and people, and a larger one that is great for mealtime or relaxing with a cup of tea:

Also, the bougainvillea is truly lovely here:

In fact, we like Nafplio so much that we're staying a couple extra days.  It has nothing to do with the fact that we couldn't bear the thought of trying to coordinate buses to get to Kalamata and then more buses to get back to Patra to ferry over to Italy.  Nothing at all.  We certainly aren't eagerly anticipating the day we can actually start using our Eurail pass either....