Nov 15

A Hole in the Skyline

There’s a hole in the skyline of our neighborhood. The Douglas fir holding the eagles’ nest was taken down the day after Labor Day. The tree was dead and needed to be taken down before it fell and caused property or bodily harm. The Homeowners’ Association had to obtain numerous permits from local, state, and Federal authorities to remove the tree because it housed a protected species. We also had to wait until the eagle family left for their summer nest in the mountains. Their departure occurred later than in past years. This year’s eaglet, Junior, was a bit of a slow learner.

The tree’s demise did not go unnoticed by the neighbors. One neighbor hosted a celebration of the tree’s life two days before it came down. The contractors had an audience watching the show, including Julian. Julian’s photos of the event are posted here. Unfortunately, this was our first day back from Europe and I was up to my eyebrows cleaning out my inbox of 2 1/2 weeks of work emails.

Even though the tree’s been gone for over two months, we still catch ourselves looking toward the sky where the nest used to be. I hope the birds build a new nest in the neighborhood so we can keep track of them going forward.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/11/15/a-hole-in-the-skyline/

Sep 21

Vacation Postmortem

Now that we’ve been home for over two weeks, I’ve had a chance to sort my thoughts on this year’s European junket. Here are some words from this wiseacre if you’re planning to head to Europe in the near future:

  • Getting Covid while on vacation sucks. Airports and airplanes, not to mention crowded public spaces, are fetid cesspools of viruses. Social distancing is non-existent. Bring plenty of N95-equivalent masks and wear them. Get the latest booster shot before you go.
  • One visit was enough for Venice. Going during peak tourist season was crazy. Everything was priced to take maximum money out of tourist pockets. Julian had originally wanted to attend the Regata Storica (Historic Regatta, where craft of all kinds go up and down the Grand Canal), but I wasn’t up for standing in the heat, humidity, and crowds all day. Instead we walked up to the Jewish Ghetto, which was interesting. We had lunch at a South Asian restaurant across a canal from the Ghetto.
  • Sometimes the best places to eat are chain restaurants or buffets. This was a surprise to me. We had two dinners at the Italian equivalent of Olive Garden, Rosso Pomodoro (Red Tomato), a couple blocks from our apartment. Yes, it was touristy, but so were all the other restaurants. The salad with cantaloupe was first rate. The buffet restaurant near Schiphol Airport where we had the family reunion was excellent.
  • Renting an apartment is the way to go in Venice. This was especially true as we were still dealing with Covid.
  • If you do stay in a hotel, chat up the staff. We met a lovely young woman in Santa Cristina who was from Sardinia who helped us figure out the laundry facility in the hotel. The manager of the hotel in Misurina was very accommodating of our illness and made sure we could stay away from other patrons when we ate at the hotel.

I’m not sure where we’ll head on our next vacation. We’ve got to pay off this one first.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/09/21/vacation-postmortem/

Sep 21

The Altana

You see these everywhere in Venice: a small platform on the roof of a building, often appearing rickety and precariously attached. This is a rooftop terrace (Altana, in Italian). Venetians have been building them for centuries, and they are used for a variety of purposes: hanging laundry out to dry, growing potted plants, or simply relaxing and enjoying some sun, fresh air, and “dolce far niente” – the sweetness of doing nothing. There was an altana attached to our apartment, and from this perch we could watch gondolas and water taxis navigating the intersection of two canals below.

The view from our altana. Notice two more altanas on the other buildings.

(Text and photo courtesy of Julian.)

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/09/21/the-altana/

Sep 03

Opera Night

Opera isn’t our favorite musical genre, but we’ve gone to a few over the years. We’ve been to La Bohème and Carmen. I went to Rigoletto with our friend Bruce four years ago (my review is here). Julian wanted to see the Venice Opera House, affectionately known as La Fenice (The Phoenix) because it burned in 1996 and was rebuilt. The opera Thursday night was Cavalleria Rusticana, one I’d never heard of. The intermezzo is the only generally recognized bit of music in the piece.

La Fenice is an architectural confection. While not as large as the Paris Opera Houses (old or new), it has its charms. The façade is on a small plaza where opera fans cruise and schmooze before and after performances. Some of the audience was quite spiffed up, but nobody was wearing furs in the humid Venice evening.

La Fenice after the performance.
The view from our seats.

As you can see, we had a great view of the stage and orchestra pit.

The plot of Cavallaria Rusticana is a standard love quadrangle with jilted lovers and jealous men bent on revenge. The whole piece was less than 90 minutes long with no intermission. The scenery was minimalist. The main characters had excellent voices. The harpist took on the intermezzo full steam ahead.

La Fenice was celebrating the centenary of Maria Callas’s birth. Our level of the theater had numerous photos of the diva. She developed her vocal style from Wagnerian to bel canto in Venice during the early 1950s.

After reading my earlier post, Julian said, “Can’t you say something positive about Venice?” I’m saying it now, the opera was a high point of our visit.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/09/03/opera-night/

Sep 02

Venice as Theme Park

I’ve never been much for theme parks. I went to Epcot a couple of times when my mother was spending winters outside Orlando. I went to Six Flags Over Texas once. I’ve been to Las Vegas, a grown-up theme park, twice. Venice takes the cake as a theme park, in my estimation. Let me count the ways:

A high ratio of tourists to residents. The building where we’re renting an apartment has seven tourist rentals. Because tourists can pay more for temporary lodging, natives are priced out. We’ve gone to several restaurants this week where Italian was the second or third language spoken.

Souvenirs and more souvenirs. The streets of Venice are packed with souvenir shops, all designed to separate tourists from their money. Some of them sell T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, and hats; others sell more upscale items. This was a display window Julian saw in Piazza San Marco the other night.

How much did this souvenir shop have to pay Disney to sell these?

Theme park rides. The gondolas are Venice’s answer to bumper cars. The other night we were watching the gondolas and other boats jockeying for position in the canal below our rental apartment. Our water taxi ride from the airport was analogous to a roller coaster, given the choppy water in the lagoon.

“Add-ons.” Julian reserved a date and time for us to tour St. Mark’s Basilica. We were in and out in less than half an hour. I wasn’t feeling well; in addition, the basilica had added charges to see specific areas such as the altar.

This was as close as we could get to the altar.

I guess we can cross Venice off the bucket list after this trip. One visit was sufficient.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/09/02/venice-as-theme-park/

Sep 02

Orientation to Venice

Venice is an island. In fact, it’s numerous islands because of the canals. Bridges of varying sizes connect the islands. The bridges often have stairs, making the city a nightmare for disabled persons or tourists with lots of luggage. Venice has no land motor vehicles. The streets and alleys are far too narrow for even Vespas. Commuters and tourists alike walk or use the mass transit boats, or vaporetti, to get around.

Venice’s geography presents interesting challenges. Once in Venice, boats or human-powered hand carts move items to businesses or homes. Anything that leaves Venice has to follow the reverse route. In the mornings, workers collect trash into carts to be loaded on boats. If someone gets injured or suffers a heart attack, an ambulance boat ferries them to the hospital. See below. If the patient doesn’t survive the hospital stay, a boat may take the deceased and mourners to the cemetery, which is on the island in the background of the photo.

An ambulance boat.

Prepare to do A LOT of walking if you come to Venice. Sensible shoes are a must. (Apologies to my friends in the Cult of Cute Shoes.) The Hokas we brought have been a godsend for negotiating the streets. Instead of fighting crazy drivers and scooter riders, you’ll just be swimming against the tide of tourists.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/09/02/orientation-to-venice/

Aug 30

First Impressions of Venice

We landed in Venice yesterday afternoon. We bid our rental car farewell at the airport. Although it was the priciest option, we took a water taxi from the airport to St. Mark’s Square. The lagoon was full of other water taxis and craft kicking up wakes. I was having a blast bouncing up and down as we made it into town. We immediately ran into the first impression:

Claustrophobic. St. Mark’s Square is tourist central. A large wedding party blocked our way off the dock when we landed. We had to repeat, “Scusi, scusi…” to get through the crowd onto dry land. Then we had to negotiate the throngs in the square to reach our rental apartment. We got to the apartment earlier than our greeter could, so we cooled our heels at a bar nearby. When the greeter brought us upstairs to the apartment and opened the door, I had my second first impression:

Clammy. This is to be expected, as Venice is an island cross-hatched by canals. I noticed the oppressive humidity when we first landed in Venice last week. Fortunately, the rains of the last few days have moderated the temperature. I was running out of socks, so I hand-washed three pairs last night. Two pairs are still wet. If you work up a sweat walking around, it will not evaporate and cool you off.

More impressions of Venice to come.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/08/30/first-impressions-of-venice/

Aug 29

Misery in Misurina

We left Santa Cristina on Saturday and negotiated more hairpin turns in Guido Carducci. I wasn’t feeling well. We stopped in Cortina, a relatively large town in the Dolomites favored by the moneyed gentry. Cortina hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics and will do so in 2026 with Milan. The downtown area is full of designer shops and high-end sporting goods stores. We split pizza and salad at an open-air pizzeria while an oompah band played next door. I was barely able to eat half of my portion. The drive from Cortina to Misurina was still twisty, but mercifully short.

On the way to Misurina, I suggested that we might want to do Covid tests on ourselves once we arrived at the hotel. Results: Positive and positive. I didn’t have to wait the 15 minutes to read my test – it was positive at three. Julian’s took a bit longer to develop. I was wiped out and was asleep by 7 after an earlier nap. Julian ordered a room service dinner. I didn’t stir until 7:30 the next morning.

In contrast to Cortina, Misurina is puny. It has no pharmacy. The grocery store sells homeopathic nostrums, but no effective decongestants or analgesics. This negated the opportunity to get any Paxlovid to beat back the virus.

I took a nap after breakfast, then Julian rousted me to take a bus ride up to Tre Cime, a popular site for climbers and hikers. It took most of my energy to walk to the bus stop. I stayed at the Rifugio (cafeteria/visitor center) while Julian took a short hike. I didn’t know until I attempted to read an information plaque that the Dolomites were a key battleground during World War I, when Italy was on the side of the allies against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Julian’s panorama shot near Tre Cime.

I felt well enough on Monday to do some walking near the lake across the street from our hotel. It had rained overnight and was still raining off and on that day. Ducks were attempting to mooch food off human passersby to mixed effects.

Misurina. We had lunch at the little restaurant on the right of the photo.

Other than being ill, we had great luck in the Dolomites. The staffs at both hotels were friendly, and the weather was mostly cooperative. Now we’ll see what Venice has in store for us.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/08/29/misery-in-misurina/

Aug 28

Ciao d’Italia

Our next stop on the Canals and Cannolis Tour is Italy. We caught an early flight from Amsterdam to Venice on Tuesday. We rented a car so we could get to the Dolomite Mountains. Here’s this year’s model, an Abarth 595 (souped-up Fiat 500). Miraculously, we fit in all of our luggage with the back seats down. Julian thought about calling it Fredo, after the middle brother in the Godfather saga. I protested. I didn’t want the car whacked in a lake before we returned it to Venice. He finally settled on Guido Carducci, a take-off on the Don Novello character on the original Saturday Night Live.

The person at the rental car counter kept asking Julian, “Are you sure you don’t want an SUV?” He assumed that all Americans would want to drive an SUV. We’ve been though this before in Europe. Large cars aren’t easy to negotiate on narrow roads. Our logic was spot on. The roads to the Dolomites have hairpin turns, crazy motorcyclists, and tour buses. Little Guido was a champ, even though my knuckles were very white by the time we got to the hotel. It’s a good thing I outgrew carsickness years ago.

Our rental car, with some Dolomite Mountains in the background.

The Dolomite Mountains are in northeastern Italy, near the border with Austria. The mountains are made of the same rock that give them their name, a form of limestone. The United Nations declared it a World Heritage Site. The area is popular with skiers and hikers. In fact, a world skiing competition was held in the Dolomites earlier in the year.

Our first stop in the Dolomites was Santa Cristina. Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, which meant dinner options were limited unless you took a bus downtown or to Ortisei, a couple of kilometers down the road.

Downtown Santa Cristina. We had lunch and dinner here.

We took the bus to Ortisei twice to do day hikes. This is a view of Seceda.

We did NOT climb that mountain. Signs warned that only climbers should do so, but that didn’t stop some testosterone-poisoned youth.

This is the view from an alpine meadow, Alpe di Siusi, we hiked on the second day. The hiking was a bit easier, plus we saw plenty of cattle, sheep, and goats.

A panorama that Julian took at the Alps di Siusi.

The next temporary home in the Dolomites was Misurina.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/08/28/ciao-ditalia/

Aug 27

Dutch Treats

Zaanse Schans is the Dutch equivalent of Colonial Williamsburg. It showcases Dutch heritage and craft from the 16th to 19th centuries. The houses are well maintained. Some people live in these old houses, although some have moved because of tourists invading their privacy. Some of the other buildings showcase crafts such as wooden shoe making and the Dutch heritage of clock making. We were going to watch the shoe-making demonstration, but the sawdust was getting into my contact lenses. Several museums require admission fees. And several buildings were devoted to selling food and souvenirs.

Downtown Zaanse Schans.
And what would a Dutch heritage park be without windmills?

Each windmill serves (or served) a specific purpose. One ground mustard seeds, another grains, a third was a sawmill.

Farm animals also inhabit Zaanse Schans, mostly sheep. We also saw a few goats and cattle. The critters keep the grass trimmed and simultaneously fertilize the lawn.

Sheep may safely graze.

I smelled chocolate as we approached the park. This is a very familiar smell to me, as the hospital where I was born was one block away from the Nestle chocolate plant where my father worked. Kitty said there were two chocolate factories in the area. A little something familiar in a strange place.

We highly recommend Zaanse Schans for a good walk, architecture, and history.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/08/27/dutch-treats/

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