Amsterdam, London. Spain and Scandanvia. More to write.
Also, please note the Travel Blog Background Facts, for the inside scoop as to why blogging became my salvation, now more notably about the pics.
More details are on Blogspot, Here's the Story...Travels with Richard.
Small Facts: It is hot. Impossibly hot. And there are hills. Lots of hills. We walk from a bus stop, with our luggage, up a hill to find our hotel. Shops actually advertise air conditioning and a few leave their doors open to tempt us. I am excited to be in Portugal after Italy. I anticipate the proximity to Spain. No more pizza and pasta. I think I am getting rice, beans, perhaps some shrimp. Sadly disappointed, sardines are the cuisine du jour. And speaking Portuguese is not the same as speaking Spanish. Lesson learned!
Notable Pic: The hills and houses we missed, seen from below, while riding the wrong trolley.
Personal Anecdote: The No. 28 trolley is scenic. It weaves through the hills, too tiring to climb, past colorful homes and through narrow cobblestone streets. We trust our fearless leader to get us there. Sadly, he is off his game. Richard runs us through streets to the wrong trolley which we unwittingly get on taking us along the water, through a not so scenic industrial part of Lisbon.
I have kept a travel journal through many of our adventures, both in the US and in Europe. I wrote a travel blog, Here’s the Story…Travels with Richard on Blogspot.
We are the Brady 5, or at least we were until kids grew up, a blended family. The Man Not Named Brady is my husband, Richard, and was our fearless leader; a map obsessed, tightly planned tourist. I am The Lovely Lady, much more prone to being impulsive, whether it's a trinket I would decide to purchase or a direction I would want to walk. And of course there are the 3, most put upon children, who by the mere fact that we are family and they were young, had to endure the privilege of travel!
The blog began as a way to vent frustration with The Man Not Named Brady! And thus the creation of the Ten Commandments of Travel with Richard. It has since evolved to be a record of all the wonderful journeys we have been on!
The Ten Plus Commandments of Travel with Richard:
Antwerp 2013
Small Facts: Trolleys. Narrow streets with trolley tracks abound. The trolleys round the bend, a vision from the past. They seem so dated…so distinctly European. I find them irresistible to photograph. People crowd on them, as in Brussels, from the back and the front. This is the honor system, no?
Notable Pic: The trolley looms as Doug hides in the shadows.
Personal Anecdote: Richard is not the fearless leader he once was. The relentless, map obsessed tourist is not feeling well. And so, in freezing cold temperatures we drag through cobblestone streets to The Strom Museum, The Royal Arts Academy and an underwhelming red light district (as compared to Amsterdam). The highlight however is sitting on a curb outside an apothecary, too ill to move.
Brussels 2006
Small Facts: Gray. Everything seems gray and dreary. One child compares what he sees there to the movie Eurotrip, when in the movie they arrive in East Berlin! Nothing has color, buildings are beiges and grays, the sky is gray…even in a sunlit sky, the park is dull…perhaps it is the time of year…no green grass, no colorful flowers.
Notable Pic: The square. The architecture is fascinating, but the buildings are dark and my camera at the time does not do it justice. The architecture is the same in pics of the Antwerp square.
Personal Anecdote: We are excited to find our first communal table type restaurant on our way to the train to Bruges. This, turns out, to become a New York City favorite of future me, as Le Pain Quotidien branches out.
Bruges 2006
Small Facts: Trees. Fat trees, with seemingly cut off branches, like stumps…no leaves…bare. They match the dreariness of Belgium in general. They seem more pronounced here than in Brussels or Antwerp, as they line the canals, part of a passageway, weaving through Bruges.
Notable Pic: The trees, and once again the camera of the time does it’s feeble best.
Personal Anecdote: We buy lots of chocolate, although lace is the thing to purchase while in Bruges. We go to the square and have a hamburger! What kind of tourists are we, not indulging in the diversity of where we are? One other highlight, is when the kids stole Richard’s map from his back pocket…oh the drama…and the glee…as we no longer could follow the “plan”!
Small Facts: Wicker Chairs. The cafes line the boulevards with wicker chairs turned outwards towards the street. People watching is a sport while sipping an espresso or a glass of wine. The wicker chairs beckon you to look as the city of lights passes by.
Notable Pics: The man carrying the baguette, in motion, hurriedly passing on a Sunday morning. Caught while we sit eating a crepe for breakfast on Rue Cler.
Personal Anecdote: During our first visit the kids are young and so we wind up at a Planet Hollywood on the Champs Elysees. The maître d' does not speak English. So our youngest asks how long the wait will be in his best French accented English and she suddenly replies, understanding this interesting language twist!
The journey will continue in words & pictures...
Small Facts: Maze. Venice is a maze of streets. Yes, known for the canals, water is what we think about when we envision Venice. Yet it is not just water. The maze weaves behind the canals…with a random Disney store along the way. We get lost when we arrive. We cannot find our hotel.
Notable Pics: The regatta along the Grand Canal
Personal Anecdote: There is a sighting of the Asian stowaways, from the train to Florence, smoking cigarettes in an alcove near the Disney store.
Small Facts: Leather. I wasn’t supposed to buy anything. The exchange rate was 1.7. But then we turned a corner & crossed over cobblestone streets & bridges that smelled of leather. Jewelry stores & leather shops abound. I break down. Forgetting my receipt the shop owner rides his bike furiously to find us at Aqua Duo, a charming restaurant we happened to ask him for directions to.
Notable Pics: Rooftop views form the U’Fizzi Gallery & the Duomo.
Personal Anecdote: What are the chances? We ran into those same Americans from home as we ran to catch our train to Venice. No, they did not go to Venice. And then on the train, there were the stowaways. Three Asian men, who never sat, but walked back and forth continuously through the cars, coincidentally when the conductor walked through.
Small Facts: Roundabouts. If you are ever in Rome you must understand the rules of the roundabout. Crossing to a café near “The Wedding Cake”, Mussolini’s Altare della Patria with 3 kids & a map obsessed husband presents it’s problems. The husband, absorbed in his map, crosses without a thought, barely looking up, barely cognizant of the other 4. Two kids follow. Basically left terrified, with one child at my side, I realize the rules of the roundabout…close your eyes & run! Rely on the very precise braking of those Italian drivers in their lovely little sports cars, who will stop for you…on a dime. Pray their mechanics know what they are doing!
Notable Pics: The Coliseum, the Forum
Personal Anecdote: Gelato & those silly Americans. The randomness of life…the decisions as to what cobblestone street to walk on, how much time to linger somewhere, & what gelato café to stop in…led us to finding a needle in a haystack. While in Rome, we ran in to people we knew from home. And so, as we screamed and did the OMG thing, the Italian men behind the counter chuckled as they charged us 20 euro. At an exchange rate of 1.7, that was some very golden gelato.
Nature: Clouds and sky, sandy beaches, birds and flowers, colorful images...
NYC Streets: The gritty streets of Little Italy, swag on West 4th Street, cobblestone streets, graffiti...
People: The innocence of children, riding a carousel, the joy of being in love in Dumbo, capturing the essence of a person through their eyes...
Travel: The steel of the Eiffel Tower rising up in the fog, the rooftop chimneys of Gaudi’s Casa Batlló, light captured peeking through in a slot canyon in Utah, the reflection of colors that shimmer on the water in Copenhagen...
