Yes, sorry … unlike the last summers, when we did 3.5 weeks in one piece, this time we are stretching vacation time around 2 nearly two week trips … we are off to the mountains now, and when we come back, it will be smelting hot, Julius’ school will be closed, me and Ritsu have to work …
Not sure about the online situation … I will see if I can keep the blog updated. And there is a birthday coming up!
Getting wet while here in northern Italy seems to be a privilege. I actually don’t know of any public pools, but I see a few overcrowded watering holes along the river, being part of over-prized clubs.
So, it was a rare treat and a brilliant find of Ritsu, this little farm, which had a fantastic idea of adding a very well designed and pretty big pool to their place.
We had found few other places in our favorite wine area (Roero, only 40 minutes away), but they were all of the basic rectangular shape. Now this place’s pool is on half shallow, with varying levels of height and then just really deep. Add to the mix a jacuzzi, a mist spraying shower and a little waterfall, surrounded by wooden lounge chairs and you feel like you are back in Fiji. Well, not quite. Instead of palm trees you are surrounded by the rolling hills of the country side, which is somewhat surreal, but very nice.
This farm has only four rooms, so the pool is open to other (paying) visitors. If I understood them correctly (no one there spoke English) to get the nice wooden lounge chairs right next to the pool, it is 15€ per head, per day, otherwise you can take the plastic ones which are a bit further away for 10€ a day … and then there is even a meadow for those bringing their towels. So, we would have paid 90€ for 2 days .. instead we booked a room for 70€, which includes using the pool.
Besides a very nice playground (which is shaded, obviously designed by a parent) there is also a bar / restaurant area, with equally superb views, nice cool area and somewhat decent food. Nothing to write home about, and the fact that they don’t have a menu did not make things easier. They offered pasta either with tomatoes or ‘white’ … from experience, ‘pasta bianca’ for me means with butter and maybe some sage … but this white pasta came with nothing at all 
We also had some salad and then a grilled piece of meat. On sunday I saw them preparing some BBQ items, which looked ok, nothing super refined.
Very friendly people, but it takes time to sense who is ‘staff’ and who is just extended family. Not sure if they are really prepared to deal with ‘foreigners’ (seems they mainly get locals, some local kids took a good look at Ritsu, as if they had never seen an Asian person in real life before). Saturday was emptier and Sunday felt crowded at times, but still manageable, especially when most moved to have lunch.
Needless to say, I have already booked another weekend in August.
One stray afterthought … having seen the big crowd the pool attracts, and the fact the Julius nearly managed to drown Ritsu, I keep wondering at what size the pool would have to hire a life guard? We actually enjoyed the complete absence of patronizing billboards forbidding everything that makes a pool stay fun (like RUNNING .. and JUMPING IN)
update It seems our worries about no real control were correct. When I called to confirm out new booking, I was told (and i have to interpret from my bad Italian) that their pool operation had been shut down (by the fire department?) .. so, we will check some other time if the are still operating this very nice pool
Inspired by our recent trip to Spain, I found the courage to start talking to the fish guy at the supermarket’s fish stand … and since then (and me finally learning to remember to ask for having the fish cleaned out) we have been having fish left and right.
What we also found out was that the perfect tools for eating fresh fish from the bones are CHOPSTICKS!
Julius is very much aware of the bone risk, but I think he so much enjoy’s eating fish like this, because it is a rare occasion we let him ‘play’ with his food (I mean, dissect it)
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[update] The craziness continues: After a pretty meaty weekend, we returned to fish on Monday, salmon trout, which was not that great (mine was somewhat bitter, but J&R finished theirs) and the Orata again (this time with soy sauce and ginger) on wednesday. I am really getting to know all the seafood people at the supermarkets. |
He discovered my ukulele, which I had just fixed and tuned again … I wonder if he will get into playing it … I am not pushing.
After 2 weeks gone, we had to get the essentials. I am still wondering about those plastic gloves they make you wear when you pick up your produce. Never seen that in any other country.
We made it! We just returned to Moncalieri after a surreal ferry experience and a 1.5 h drive from Genova.
Now laundry and stuff and then I will try to tackle the missing updates … tons of pictures and stories to share!
I had all forgotten about how surreal a long, over-night ferry trip can feel like, especially when you sail into a fog around dinner time.
We had chosen to return by ferry because it is about the same price compared to driving all the way back (lots of highway tolls in Spain, France and Italy) and, well, a new experience. The cruise company’s website was very promising about things like pool, food and entertainment on board.
The ship was scheduled to leave at 15:00 and we were asked to arrive at least 2 h before. So we were there at 12:30, waiting with a bunch of other cars, but no one there to give helpful info like ‘you need to exchange your internet self-print ticket into something more real at the check-in counters for which we on purpose did not put up any helpful signs’. I found that out when FINALLY at 14:20 they started boarding. Fun thing when they ask you to enter the ship in reverse.
Once on board there were actually a bunch of very helpful people getting passengers sorted into their cabins. We had a 3 bed outside room, which means we had a nice big window. As soon as we had settled in they announced that the restaurant will close in 15 minutes. So off we rushed and had a meager meal (1 appetizer, 1 primo, 1 secondo, not per person, but for the 3 of us to share) which was of lesser quality, but still cost 30€.
Then Julius and I explored the ship while Ritsu tried to evade sea-sickness by taking a long nap. First item: the pool!
| THE SWIMMING POOL Throughout the summer months, a swimming pool is in use on-board all the ferries in our fleet (weather and sea conditions permitting). |
The weather was good, the sea was calm, last time I checked, July was considered a summer month and the pool looked like it had not been used in ages. There was no water in it (instead some trash had accumulated) and it was closed off by a net. I am seriously considering complaining about that.
Other fun things:
| PIANO BAR At any time of day you can go to the piano bar and enjoy music played by a good pianist. The bar also offers a vast assortment to suit all tastes. |
That bar was open for like 90 minutes before dinner. The piano was secured by a padlock and there was no ‘good pianist’ in sight at ‘any time of day’
| CINEMA All of our ships have a cinema on-board, for the projection of films. (In the event that the cinema is set up as a seating area, no films will be shown). The service is completely free for all passengers. |
The big auditorium was totally taken over by passengers who did not feel like paying for a cabin, making up camps for the night. There was no big screen, instead 2 TVs showed random RAI programmes.
| GAMES ROOM For adults and children alike, all the ferries in the fleet are fitted out with an area equipped with the latest video games. This is a pay service. |
This room was really sad: 12 video games from the last millennium, of which ONE was actually operational, one more was illuminated, the rest was dark. Guess in the day and age of nintendo DS and iPod Touch, no one wants to throw money into an old arcade game anymore.
| Grandi Navi Veloci not only has one of the most modern fleets in Europe, but is also the carrier that continues to win the most awards and endorsements. [...] It’s no coincidence that Grandi Navi Veloci was voted Best Sea Carrier by travel agents, who elected it for the BIT Tourism Award 2007. Our goal is to offer our passengers more and offer them only the best. |
Seriously? (Ok, I have to take into account that this is a cruise ferry, not a cruise ship)
I could go on copy and pasting from the gnv.it website … but lets shorten it. The Gym: looks like they removed all exercise equipment and some passengers knowing of that have taken over the place for the night. The beauty parlor had become a storage unit for deck chairs. The ‘mini club’ was locked with chains at 16:20 when we checked, they were supposed to open at 16:00. In their defense, they opened later and actually put up some show with the kids, of which I had no clue, when I went there with Julius, nobody talked to us, the only staff member I was able to identify quickly went out for a smoke.
But the little man found many other kids to play with and was particularly fond of a group of girls who he raced around with, until the oldest of the bunch told him that they don’t want to play with him. It might have to do with him confusing the rules of ‘hide & seek’ with ‘running around crazy’
When dinner time came, we marveled at the line at the self service restaurant, with it’s great choice of chicken and fries … or … fried potato sticks with poultry. So we headed for the a la carte restaurant and actually got some decent food and a nice wine. Julius had especially fun with his bread roll:
In terms of entertainment, they actually put up a flamenco show at 10:30 in the glorious Magnifica Lounge (which had been closed off before).
We slept pretty ok and were surprised that we arrived earlier than I had anticipated in Genova. The disembarkation was again a bit of a cattle procedure (we had to go through passport control and customs) but before 9 AM we had left the ship and were on the road to Turin.
On a scale of 5 I would give them 2 points … 1 for bringing us securely from A to B … and 1 for the very clean and comfortable cabin + the helpful on-board check-in personal.
Would I do it again? Actually, YES. But I would pack a cooler with food and drink (cheapest beer on board was some Italian brew at 3.70€), get a good book, leave the pool bag in the car and just enjoy the sun.
update
After I heard from my colleague, who took the same line, same route only 2 days later, I might revise my statement that I am willing to do this again. His experience was very different / even worse. His ship arrived from Tanger 6 hours late due to weather, then they had super tough security checks, 10 police men with 4 drug sniffing dogs, each car had to be fully unloaded. Which meant they left with a 12 hour delay. Then on board, the sea and weather was so bad that they closed the outer decks. It must have been very choppy during the trip. Ritsu would have puked her guts out. Upon arrival it took him 3 hours to get off the ship (all 3 hours spent on the car, waiting for the cattle to move)
What a long day today: for the first time we explored the Barcelona public transport and found a very helpful person who explained to us that a 10 times ticket is cheaper than 2 rides back and forth for the 3 of us (in Barcelona, kids age 4 need their own ticket)
We went to Placa Catalunya from where south you find La Rambla de Estudias (the more touristy part) and north La Rambla Catalunya (the more shopping part). We headed south and Julius was fascinated by all the ‘living statues’ street performers. Some of which were less statue-y and more direct about requesting money if you took photos of them. There are also a number of stands selling small pets (who goes to La Rambla to buy a turtle? or a fish?) which was of course great fun for the little guy.
Next we swayed a bit to the east to explore the labyrinthine alleys of the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter) and visited the cathedral. Fun fact: They have replaced the classic offer candles with some electric light contraption. Hmmm … and they have geese in the courtyard.
After some more walking we checked out the beautiful St. Josep Market. A feast for the eyes, and once we found ‘Kiosko Universal‘ it was also a feast for our tummies. We had grilled shrimp, sole and mushrooms. Very delicious. For dessert we had fresh fruit smoothies from one of the many fruit vendors. You can find them for 1€, 1.5€ and 2€ … seems the cup size varies.
Then we ran into one ‘street performer’ we did not expect, one website calls him Mr. Dong. A guy of 60+. When you approach him, it looks like he is wearing swim trunks only. When you get close you realize, those swim trunks are only a tattoo and he is actually totally naked. It seems there is a basic Catalonian right to run around naked. I did not take any pictures, but googling for ‘naked man rambla‘ (NSFW) will show that he has been around a while. It does not look like he is doing this to collect money, like the other performers.
Then we took the subway again, connecting to the funicular going to Montjuïc, a hill overlooking Barcelona. There is a cable car going up to a fortress from which one can see the harbour and everything else very well … and a small outside café there sells the biggest plastic cup beers I have seen in a long time (i think it was 1 liter for less than 5€)
While our feet started hurting, we still had energy to explore some more of the old center afterwards and the walk up the Rambla Catalunya to have an early dinner at “Ciudad Condal“, another tapas place, recommended by a Spanish colleague. Very nice place, a bit more on the pricy side and the child friendly waiter was a tad pushy on recommending the higher priced items. But the food was great and we went back to the hotel happy, full and very tired!
Gallery with even MORE pictures coming soon.
So close to the sea, the sushi has to be great, and so, after some internet research, we ventured out to find the allegedly best Japanese restaurant in Barcelona: Wasabi
And we were not disappointed. We had some nice yakisoba noodles, a spicy kimchi dish, a spider roll (with fried soft shell crab) and a sashimi platter which came with some ikura. The quality was fantastic, the service was very nice, the setup of the place did not match (it looks like a much lesser quality place) and we were very happy about a great quality dinner at around 60€.
Today’s trip was to the 30 – 40 minutes away mountain of Montserrat, which has an old Benedictine Abbey nestled into one of it’s crevices.
A very spectacular place to visit. I always thought you had to decide wether you take the cable car or the rack railway to go up there. But as it turns out, you can drive all the way up (5€ parking ticket for the day seemed ok)
Once there, you can further explore the mountain thanks to 2 differen funiculars (Santa Cova goes down and Sant Joan goes up, great views, 7.75€ combo ticket) and there are some nice hiking trails which I hope we can explore some other time.
| The big tourist hot spot seems to be the black virgin statue, for which we lined up about 45 minutes to see. It is hard to estimate the waiting time when you line up outside, as you have to still line up all the way inside … a bit crazy, plus it is a church, you are supposed to be quiet, which Julius respected more than many of the adult visitors.
While we waited, they actually had a small service at 1 PM, conducted in 3 languages. This also made the wait a bit more bearable and showcased the great acoustics of this place. |
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So, we kept walking and exploring until we were all monestary-ied out and had a sandwich lunch from the cafeteria close to the parking lot, which was pretty ok.
Enjoy all the great pictures in the below gallery:
How nice that our city hotel has a small outdoor pool. And so much fun to watch that Julius is in no way afraid of water. He kept jumping and jumping.
Since it was Sunday, traffic looked light and we had no clue yet about the public transport system, we dared to do Barcelona sight-seeing by car. And it worked out surprisingly well.
First stopped was the Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí’s last work and probably Barcelona’s most popular building.
The line at the ticket counter was just crazy, so we just walked around it, found a playground to let Julius run around a bit and then we moved on to the Casa Batlló, a fantastic house designed by Gaudi and now it is a museum and the lines were not that long. 16.50€ per adult got us in, including audio guide, and it was a very interesting journey into a world partially inspired by Jules Verne.
Julius went along very well, but for the first time ever, he managed to smash something at the museum’s store. Does not matter that I remind him 2000 times not to touch anything … it is just mean of the store to put interesting things like snow globes in kids’ height. The store people were very cool about it and more worried if he got cut (which he got, in his meager attempt to hide the fact. He got cleaned up and a band aid)
It was time for food, so we looked around and found probably the very mcdonald-ish ‘TapaTapa‘ place, which serves a wide smorgasbord of … you guessed it … TAPAS. For beginners and tourists who do not read Catalan fluently, very nice and easy picture menu with translation book on the side. Very friendly waiter who spoke English and Hefe Weizen draft beer! We were very happy and food was overall very good. But as many find out, tapas looks cheap at first, but you easily end up paying 55€ for 3 people for ‘just lunch’.
To walk off all the food we headed north to see another Gaudi building, the Casa Milà (also known as ‘La Pedrera’). While Batllo looks more like a fairy-tale castle married to a steampunk submarine, Mila looks more like a rokky cliff in the middle of the city. This time the line was again super long and overall we were Gaudied out for the day.
Instead of taking the highway, I tried to navigate us along the costa brava.
Not as easy as I thought, the first bunch of towns were very crowded (Palamos). But then 20 km before Tossa de Mar it became very beautiful. Many stops along the way to take in the scenery:
We stopped in Blanes for lunch (Greek! Yummy and cheap) and slowly approached Barcelona and promptly found our hotel, which is a bit outside, so there is not much around in terms of eateries. We followed the receptionist’s recommendation and found the ‘Bar Tomas‘, which seems to be famous for their ‘patatas bravas‘, basically fried potatoes with garlic mayonnaise and hot sauce.
The place is a no-frills, mainly locals, menu on the wall (very few items) and tiny beers (called ‘cañas’). While it all sounds very simple, their main dish is so good and evil, no wonder everyone is ordering it, even for take out.
Can’t say we were full afterwards, but we did not dare to order more of those tasty carbo-fat bombs. We strolled around, found a supermarket, bought some essentials and returned to our room.
Gladly, for our last day in L’Escala, the sun came out again and we returned to the Montgo beach, much to Julius’ enjoyment.
This time even a bit of video
After 3 hours of sun, sand and fun, we found a nice small restaurant close to the harbor, ‘La Clota’ which had some very nice food. I asked the very nice Enlish speaking people at the next table if they know of any other similarly nice places, and it turned out they were the owners of La Clota.
Figueres, the birth and final resting place of Salvador Dalí is only 40 minutes away. And the sky was cloudy, so we went to visit the Teatro-Museo Dalí, allegedly the most visited museum in Spain. And indeed it was very crowded.
Julius was very fascinated initially (big paintings and wild sculptures) but later on he was probably a bit overwhelmed by the massive amount of surrealistic art and the mass of tourists.
The weather did not look sunny enough for the beach so we did a one day boat trip up north, checking out places like Dalí’s villa and other seaside villages which inspired him and other artists.
For lunch we stopped at a small cove where we could watch the fishes and had a pretty nice paella a la buffet, which was great fun for Julius. On the way back he fell in love with a cute 12 year old girl, but never got around to ask her name. I guess he does not yet have a facebook account 
Some pictures:
And video:
This has to be the top notch restaurant in L’Escala. Internet legend has it the king of Spain ate here during the Olympic games (well, he has to eat somewhere)
While the menu looks expensive, the best way to experience their cuisine is the tasting menu at 45€ (without wine) or 65€ with matching wines.
Before we had even ordered we got some nice focaccia like bread with cured anchovies on it.
Then a gaspacho, which usually is tomato / vegetable based, but they threw out the old concept, as their gaspacho is strawberry based, with some tomato sorbet like icecream. Fantastic (the a la carte version, which is probably bigger, would throw you back 17€)
Then a tiny toast with anchovie, followed by a small lobster salad, with 2 yummy pieces of the lobsters we kept looking at in the fish tank right behind us.
Off to the main dishes (so glad the Spanish do not bother with carbo heavy primis): A piece of monk fish accompanied by a shrimp and a mussel in a lovely broth. Followed by strips of rare seared beef, potato pieces cut like asparagus and slivers of black truffle.
As if that was not enough, we got 2 desserts: Fresh strawberries with a very cheese tasting cream and then chocolate ice cream with chocolate mousse.
With Ritsu’s coffee came another platter of sweet nibblies, but by that time we were too full.
Instead of the wine option, we had a bottle of Cava (no, not the Fijian mud water), a great sparkling wine.
I forgot the camera’s battery in the charger, so, we happily snapped around with our iPhones:
Since it looked kinda rainy, we first explored the old town of l’escala with it’s beautiful church. There are also 2 smaller beaches which are kinda cute.
Then we checked out a beach a bit further away at Montgo. I saw that mentioned in some guidebooks and we were very positively surprised by the change of scene.
Less people (maybe because it was overcast) but a much nicer crowd. More civilized. We had tons of fun. While yesterday’s beach is sandy all the way in, this one turns rocky 2 meters into the water.
But that does not keep us from playing around. Julius quickly found a much younger German girl to play with.
For lunch we had some nice grilled sardines (which l’escala is famous for) and fried calamari. Nothing super special, but very nice … one hickup at that restaurant … at some point they brought a glass of olives and a bag of chips, which we had not ordered. But we had seen earlier that they had given freebies to other tables with kids, so we gladly accepted. But it turned out to be a mistake, and while the manager lady could not retrieve the olives from us (we had already started eating them) she took away the bag of chips from Julius, who promptly started to cry …
But let’s change scenery:
The apartment complex we are in has 7 small pools … nothing for olympic aspirants, but perfect for a cool off:
We woke up fairly early to beat the crowds and it seems we were successful. Parking was not an issue and we found a nice spot at the longer Riells beach of L’escala. But it fill up quite quickly once we had set up camp.
Julius was super happy with the water and the sand and he could have gone on for hours and hours.
Once it got too warm and too crowded (it was hard taking pictures without some obese, pale, topless tourist in the background) we left for our nice air conditioned apartment and after another stop at the supermarket, we had a pretty relaxing afternoon.
Although Julius had been active all morning, he was not at all interested in a nap.
We have arrived in Spain and have already had a fun day at the beach
the place we are staying promised to have internet in the rooms by summer .. but alas, that did not happen … so .. they let me use the wifi from the office, which means I have to sit outside .. and ether it is too sunny, or it is drizzling …
so .. updates will come in when i get around to it …
cheers
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