Today we did a full day bus trip to the Italian Riviera, namely the costal towns of Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino. [click above for big panorama picture]
We started out at 7 AM, taking a taxi to catch our bus. The next 2.5 h we spend (gladly all 3 of us) mainly dozing off while the bus was heading south. We first hit the town of Rappalo, where we transferred to local transportation (the traffic in that area is amazingly bad as we had discovered when we returned from Cinque Terre) and the tourbus could not bring us any closer.
But finally we arrived in Santa Margherita and while some people opted to just join the masses on the beach for some human BBQ, we joined the walking tour and visited the beautiful cathedral (mass was going on when we arrived), checking out the beautiful ‘deception’ of how most of the houses have their decoration (marble pillars and such) merely painted on. I forgot the name for this technique .. if I find it, I will ad links [long time reader Jaelithe found this link, which is a step in the right direction ... but not the right thing yet ... it is merely just to create some arcitectual features that otherwise would have cost way more money]. Check out the beautiful 360 view of the main piazza. And then we scaled a little hill which houses a beautiful garden belonging to a villa with adjacent guest-villa and another cathedral. There finally we stopped for a big bottle of water and enjoyed the view over the bay.
Next adventure was finding lunch and we got very lucky and must have found the most kid-friendly place in town. They had high chair, kid’s plates and cuttlery and even an indoor playground. And served all the things kids love, namely pasta and pizza and fries. The food was ok, the service was very nice and for the 3 of us we only paid a bit over 30€ (they even charge lower coperto for kids, which was a first I had seen) … I think the name of the place was Cinza Mario … but not sure and can’t find anything online. Oh, and they advertize that on Saturdays they even have a clown show for the kids! Wow.
Next event was hopping on the ferry to Portofino. A mere 20 minute trip along the beautiful coastal line. We happened to pass this little boat (i mean luxury yacht) on the way … Portofino is a very sheltered harbour, very hard to get to by car, thus it has become a yacht haven for the rich and more or less beautiful and the prices in the restaurants reflect that very clearly. Besides walking along the very picturesque water promenade (full with inviting cafes and wine bars) [and maybe doing a cray hike up to an old castle and / or visit the lighthouse] there is not THAT much to do, so we sat down just for a drink and some icecream. My beer (0.4l) was 7€, our 1l water bottle was 6€ and Ritsu’s ice was 9.5€. Very clear what kind of people can afford a full time vacation there 
Maybe our US based readers wanna save some money and settle with the disney-fied version of it.
At 4 PM we all met to catch the ferry back, by then everyone showed signs of heat exhaution and sunburn (I kept wiping sweat off my head, so no chance for any sunscreen to stay in place) and of course, no trip without incident … one person of our group did not make it in time … and in addition, he had given his backpack, with money and everything inside, to someone else … so .. we discussed a while if we should all wait for one person for another hour, or if we should just leave … well .. it took like 30 minutes to get to the point where we did a show of hands … and that lucky bastard got 20 vs 18 votes in his favor. What probably helped was that someone started to open wine bottles and passed around glasses … so we had an impromptu party. And the lost guy showed up 5 minutes before the ferry that we had expected him on arrived (he had taken a bus, but was unable to guess for some time where (if) we would wait for him).
Our tourguide had arranged for an exception for our bus so we could just wait there… but then the bus got stopped by the police and we had to wait another 30 minutes … in the heat … but FINALLY we were on our way back. Since Julius had slept from Portofino all the way back, he was awake all through the 2.5h, but behaved fairly well. And since the bus arrived back at Ritsu’s office, we simply had dinner at the cafetaria (surprisingly good and cheap)
Please enjoy the pictures.
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Yeah, not much today … just tried to get a decent shot to use as a semi-official passport pic.
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Just a little fun thing I noticed on our saturday shopping walk in the city
[in case you did not notice ... there are 2 things to keep an eye out for]
… always a fun thing to record. This time he is discussing with him mom the fine differences between 2 of his favourite movies: Tigger and The Incredibles (which he pronounces as ‘cable’ or ‘kebo’ .. listen and you can make it out). Also cute the losely thrown in ‘what?’ and him casually trying to convince my older laptop to read the DVD he just stuck in.
(better resolution, longer download version here)
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The little man has been a bit tricky lately when we’d go out … like last time we went to our neighborhood restaurant (of which I still have to take pictures and write about, if they ever let us in again) .. it appears that he just wants to run around the very moment that food has finally arrived .. and getting him to sit down .. problem … ah well .. more on that later, unless it irons itself out shortly (and then we all forget about it)
Anyways … we went to Cafe Gran Madre again for the apperetivo buffet. The owners recognized us and were very nice, the guy just took Julius by the hand and kidnapped him to behind the counter to give him fresh strawberries. Julius also received several free cookies. The buffet was not that elaborate (Understandable, it is like no one is coming out during the summer) but still nice and hey, we paid 15€ for a beer, a caipirinha and some very artificial tasting yoghurt frappe .. and all the food Can’t complain.
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Ah, the joys of snail mail .. stuff arrives either too late .. or early … (in case of Italian mail it is a wonder it arrived at all .. still waiting on a CDR from Chicago .. sent out 4 weeks ago)
Anyways, Julius received a very nice envelope from Isaac, Judy and John and I just could not hold out any longer and try that disney-fied shirt on … with that great shark on it! Too funny how Julius tried to still watch what is one the back of the shirt after I put it on (you know .. like that dog trying to bite its tail) …
Very awsome shirt (and cool to car) and we well re-wrap it and deliver it to him as a present next week .. yes .. Julius is about to hit the big TWO!!!! Coming up August 6!!!! Woah!!!!
| Big thanks to our friends over in the midwest of the US. I really hope that Isaac and Julius will meet some day soon! |  |
Last night we were invited to Vincent’s place for a small farewell get-together, as he is moving on with his carreer and will leave Torino soon. Julius loved to explore a place he had never seen before (and yes, we were wondering if we might want to change apartments and move into his place, but the potential work compared to the bit of added space and possibly unforseeable changes .. well .. no .. just no … )
It was a lot of fun and we wanted to get some pics with Julius and Vincent … but Julius was not super happy (maybe a bit tired by that point), but I had fun, and I keep enjoying that ‘slow response’ effect of my camera … which basically is a long time exposure with an added flash. In low light it keeps the colors warm and makes sure that at least a bit is in focus and in better light situations it can create these pretty dynamic looking pics.
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.. well ..sort of … first of all, it is ‘inai inai .. BAAAAA” in Japanese (example on youtube)… also he hides behind my yukata and knocks down our IKEA lamp .. fun enough to watch … please enjoy
(better resolution, longer download version here)
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Yes, I am still having a bit of an eye on that cute little island in the south pacific.
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Longtime reader and from the sidelines commentator V/A let me know that now you can get Suva radio station FM96 online !!! HERE |
While I am not a total sucker for the music … I am loving the commercials .. and the whole ‘my old home feel’ … go check it out !!!
In the next few hours we will say hello to visitor 100.000 on this blog … if you know who you are .. please send a screen print of your #100.000 count and tell us how you came here …
[update] so .. visitor 100.000 came and went .. and so far I have no idea who it was .. someone from NYC was very busy around that time going through the archives .. maybe image googlers …
but SCM sent in this
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23:28 < @SCM> nacken HEY! FLWU*!
:*23:28 < @SCM> ich war 99999 :*
23:28 < @SCM> und 10001 :*
23:29 < @SCM> 100001 mein ich
:*
so .. he was very very close ..
Maybe I do a ‘real’ contest at 250k or 500k ..
*In case you were wondering: FLWU = four letter word unknown
Well … it is very very hot here and energy and motivation are running a bit on reserve power … so .. well, I actually dug out my old camera which does much better resolution video (of which you will not much notice via the online download) but what also happens is that I tend to take takes way too long and end up being to lazy to snappy quick edit it together for the ‘i-only-have-20secs-attention-span’ crowd … so ok .. too hot to watch a video anyway … or you are some of the very unfortunate people without power right now. (read this post!!! it is amazing!)
So, bookmark this for a rainy day .. and please note that this is the first time I have seen that Julius is actually able to slurp his spaghetti .. just like any other good Italian kid would do (or Japanese kid, as we were eating cold Japanese summer noodles that Ritsu had made for us)
(better resolution, longer download version here)
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Just a silly video about it being too hot, staying in, using mom as a trampolin, then kiss her, silly laughing, then squeeze daddy’s nose .. and have pizza in the end …
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There was a BBQ at Ritsu’s campus tonight and we went. Since it is usually a very international audience, we decided to wear some of our summer garbs that would fit the environment: Ritsu wore her Nepalese pants, Julius his Japanese jinbei and I had my purple African outfit on (going well with that koofi hat to hide my most recent summer haircut)
The BBQ started but we came a bit after 8, which meant that the rationed beer was nearly gone, but there was a huge pot full of Sangria left pretty much untouched (maybe because it was not that good and all the ice must have melted and had left it a bit watery). The selection of BBQ good was nice, all kinds of meats, chicken, roasted veggies. It was too hot to eat much anyways. There was some live music and Julius found some other kids to play with.
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Julius enjoys celebrating his Fijian herritage by running around in one of his 2 bula shirts. Maybe next time we should also get him a matching sulu!
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The things he does when in Kindergarten … and we get to see months later …
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Partially inspired by this movie (Youtube link) we are continuing our potty training efforts and bought Julius his first set of ‘real’ underwear. When the timing is right and he did most of his deeds, we let him run around in those disney-fied cotton thingies, he thinks it feels great … until .. well .. until the moment comes that shows that he is not yet the master of his bodily functions …
Maybe this video works on other kids But what I find quite amazing about this video: the participation of the father. I think a US video would have made it very clear that the mother should wipe the kid’s bottom.
Big thanks to Jaelithe for bringing this video to my attention.
.. and there is SO MUCH TO update .. so please bear with me and keep scrolling down frequently .. and I mihght be adding more silly pics, maps, facts and videos to more recent posts … but now I reallyneed to sleep …
(ok, this time I would be kidding if I told you this was the view from our hotelroom)
First item of the day was some shopping: Ritsu got this very cool hat you can see in the pics below … and I got this funny “Kill Bill” spoof t-shirt … which later made me wonder just how many Heidis I must have offended while I was in Switzerland …
Just like Mürren, Saas Fee has a cable car going up to the possibly highest mountain and they also have a revolving restaurant … the differences: Saas Fee’s place is another half kilometer higher, it has snow even in July, the last stretch to get up is done by an underground train thingie, the menu of the revolving restaurant kinda sucked …
But gladly they have a self service restaurant which makes surprisingly good hamburgers (I think their secret is the sauce: instead of dealing with Ketchup, Mayo and Mustard, they have a bottle of pre-mix .. and it seems that quite a punch of Tabasco found its way in there) and you can sit outside! So we had a bit of a low key lunch… but the Gulash soup that Ritsu had was great, we picked out all kinds of veggies from the salad menu for the little one … but he decided to fall asleep. He was actually sleeping so well in his carrier that a man walked up to us and asked if we are sure if he is ok. The altitude maybe being a threat to the little man … ok .. advice much appreciated, we checked his pulse, his eyes, his breathing .. and yes .. he was ok and just taking his nap.
We also explored the ice cave under the restaurant. According to Guinnes the biggest in the world … and yes. it was kinda fun … it seems that quite a lot of pathways were closed for whatever reasons .. and stuff we had seen in brochures … well .. we did not get to see… but it was still very impressive … again, a steep pricetag of 69 CHF per person .. but thanks to our hotel’s guest card we got 10% off. Just being in the snow in the middle of the summer .. that was well worth it.
This kinda concludes our trip. We took the cable car down (no ear problems this time), our hotel had kept our luggage and provided us with a transport to the parking lot. And soon we were winding up an down the Swiss / Italian roads on our way home….
The last picture is actually from our shopping event at the carrefour in Visp. Since we had a big car with us, we used the chance to buy big items like that 12l bowl that Julius uses as a hat, another fan, discounted kids clothing … well .. all the stuff I am not getting at the local Di Per Di …
The little man really enjoyed the baked goods at our scrumptious breakfast buffet. Again, no eggs … but plenty of other nice things
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I need to update my knowledge about fondue. And about general car travelling in the mountains.
As for the car thing … our trusty, bit confusing guide printed from viamichelin.com said something about a train link. Little did I know that we are actually driving the car on a train and we remain in the car whil the train is going through a 15 km (10miles) tunnel.
Back to the fondue .. or rather back to the place we stayed. Saas Fee is another car free mountain town. But in this case you have a big parking structure just at the doorstep and your nice hotel is picking you and your luggage up in one of the many electric cars that are around. Saas Fee is way bigger than Mürren, lots more shopping opportunities and there was actually some kind of festival going on … but I think we missed most of it.
Having had some fun experiences with dinner on our trips in Italy, we pre-booked dinner with the hotel we stayed and we were told they have meat fondue on Sunday nights. Nice, well .. for me, meat fondue means meat fried table side in oil .. but it seems that in the last 20 years someone realized that this is not the most healthy way to prepare meat and they decided to cook slices of beef or chicken in broth .. and call it ‘Fondue Chinoise’ … probably after the Chinese hot pot thing …
Anyways .. we loved it .. but what was even better … (and we thought the Eiger Stuebli in Mürren was kid friendly) was the big toy box they brought for Julius .. (they also happened to have the same Trip Trap high chair we have at home) .. after some nibblies, mainly fries, Julius was happy playing with 3 different batmobiles .. while we were sampling the different fresh sauces that came with the fondue.
A bit more about the hotel: Very friendly staff, seems that in summer the whole family is working, the room was nice (although they said many times before ‘our rooms are small’) no fridge. but bathtub and wifi internet connection.
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