Author: mc4119

Sunday morning in Monaco – I’m looking at yachts in the harbor, an occasional helicopter landing on the hotel roof nearby, and a mix of locals and tourists wandering about in search of coffee.

But before we say arrivederci to Italy and bonjour to France, a wrap up of Bellagio-Belvedere Hotel-Lake Como…

The last time I spent any time vacationing on a lake was Locust Lake in the Poconos.  And while I will love that memory all my life, a few relaxing days in Lake Como was pretty darn sweet.  As noted earlier I swam laps in a pool sitting next to Lake Como.  Later that day, swimming was conducted in Lake Como.  As in jumped off the ledge of a perfectly restored mahogany speedboat and floated around on my back in Lake Como.  Really?  We paid a few euros to tour by boat but it was worth it.  My faux persona for a few hours was one part Hyannis Kennedy, one part movie star.  We saw George’s house, lovely and understated and completely ruining the surrounding real estate values for a buyer, also Versace’s house and gobs of others not viewable from the street.    Not sure that pictures will do the day justice but I have them and will show them when we get back.

While Rome was go, go, go in a city, Bellagio was wander wander wander through a small lake town.  I ran a few mornings and waved to locals hanging laundry, working on their cars, visiting the cemetery, dropping kids off at school.  Both the Mr. and I were jealous of the college kids working there for the summer.  A week of vacation split between Rome and Bellagio Italy is a vacation of a lifetime  – save your euros but well worth every sacrifice.

A mere four hours away we were winding down (literally) the road into Monaco, clearly we’re not in Kansas anymore.  Bucolic Bellagio in the reluctant rear view mirror.  Arrival day was dreary, our hotel room is meh (the natural comeuppance maybe for a room windfall at the Belvedere), but my years of Madame Amiry and Madame Shearer French are kicking in and I’m helping our little group navigate the big bad city of Monaco.

Have to pause here as the weather is dicey for the day and we want to get in as much people watching, yacht viewing, is that a daughter or a high end Russian hooker assessing as we can.  More later..

Did not spell check, grammar check at all so apologies…

 

Thursday morning greetings from Hotel Belvedere on Lake Como.

I promise to backtrack to details about Rome.  The newbie travel blogger is learning lots of lessons on this trip, a) don’t wait to blog the details of a day, especially if you’re in Rome, as the next day will match or eclipse the previous day and you’ll be overwhelmed trying to sum it all up b) if you’re going to blog, bring your own “tools” – relying on hotel set-ups to compliment my own devices was a rookie mistake and hence I continue to struggle uploading pictures.

Anyway, we reluctantly left Rome yesterday morning.  In 3 short days we fell in love with the city.  The Mr wants to go back at Christmas to see what it looks like in another season.  In short, we started early and stayed out late, some hours were focused to accommodate must see things like the Vatican and the Coliseum. And many hours were spent wandering down streets and marvelling at things like the Italian women and their effortless high heeled approach to cobblestone, glorious cold water from open fountains everywhere, expresso, not 24 ounces of Wawa coffee in a container with a lid, but a quick hit of expresso in a small cup had while standing at the counter, the fearlessness of the scooter drivers, the depth of history, art, and architecture.

But alas the next adventure was upon us so with a ciao ciao, we jumped on the fast train from Rome to Milan, local though fast train from Milan to Varenna, and lastly a short ferry over to the town of Bellagio on Lake Como.  Fairly hilarious sidetrack story upon arrival in Bellagio…we understood the hotel to say that they were within walking distance of the ferry landing.  By the time we “walked” the short distance, the Mr had had to pull his rolling bag through a field complete with gnats buzzing around his head and dodge traffic on a windy uphill road – no exaggeration.  Instead of arriving with an air of distinction, we arrived sweaty and with “distink”.  The hotel felt awful for the miscommunication, the normal route is via a courtesy car that meets you at the ferry blah blah blah.  We kept our sense of humor and ended up with a room upgrade.  Between us, thinking about the Mr in full stomp through the field makes me laugh to myself even a day later…and the room “upgrade” is glorious – all in, a win win for moi!

So..Lake Como…everything you have seen in pictures or read about, it is quite simply true.  I swam laps this morning in the hotel pool overlooking the lake.  If I die today, please someone eulogise my last morning on the planet as sublime.  Last night the Mr commented, “they must pipe in perfectly chirping birds”. Think the quietness of a lake that is jet ski free, add villas to the coastline outfitted with vegetation that is naturally pink, yellow, green, purple, with flower, throw in a mountain in the distance that still has snow cover, and then gently tuck in our hotel sitting up a bit from the lake looking down over narrow cobbled roads.  A graceful and lovely oasis.

Today we are touring a villa so I have to go now and soak up a little serenity before heading out.  More later and I will continue to work on the pictures..

So my numero uno travel/pack principle has stayed pretty constant over the gazillion years I’ve been on the planet.  Even with increased maturity (hopefully), finances (sometimes you’re up, sometimes not), the principle is this: less is more, but only if the less includes my contacts/contact solution, coke bottle glasses as a back-up, cash/wallet, and at least one set of running clothes including my sneakers.  The rest…meh, details.  In my early 20’s I traveled for 4 months with an old-school gym bag (not the monstrosities of today).  When I needed a change of clothes (after 3 -4 days in the current clothes), I headed to an open market wherever I was and haggled for a franc , a pound, a peseta’s worth of clothes.  Time of your life kid, time of your life.

Pretty much only 1 time when I strayed from the principle  and that was my honeymoon in France.  I adopted the persona of Fifi LaRue…and Fifi needed lots of accoutrements. Minimum disclosure, I packed every shade of kitten heel imaginable, wore maybe one pair, maybe for 3 hours seated at dinner – no walking required.  As a devotee of less is more, I defend my straying with 4 words…it was my honeymoon.

But alas Fifi appears to be making a limited reappearance.  Kind of like Cat Stevens at this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction  He’s gone on to be lots of other things, namely Yusuf Islam, but for a night, when he sang, man that was Cat Stevens.  So don’t judge, Fifi is coming out of moth balls briefly and heading to…Italy; Rome and Como, and Monaco.  I’m traveling with some of the Mr’s family and ceded considerations of “what to bring, what to wear”. There will be over-packing on full display and surely unworn clothes and shoes at trip’s end.

Don’t fret however, MC as Fifi will still assess judiciously if she has to pick demur and         de-lovely over da-what-is-MC-wearing.  And MC-like utilitarian clothes will make the cut.  But Fifi will be full on Fifi in the following scenarios: If the Pope needs me, summons me for an audience, I will make sure my underpants are holy and not holey (here’s hoping he doesn’t care one way or the other).  And If George Clooney needs me to swing by his house in Como, I promise no stained, it kind of fits t-shirt, and clunky MC-like shorts,

We leave Saturday night for a long week as I like to call it.  Arrive in Rome Sunday AM for a few days, Como area/actually Bellagio for a few days, Monaco for a few days, and then a thud back to reality on Tuesday 6/17.

It’s Thursday night and my current status is freaked out.  Necessary work deliverable due by tomorrow night and then switch gears for travel mode.

See attached pics for how well I’m adjusting to Fifi-ville….stay tuned.

 

 

 

God Gawd Gertie…last time I posted was July 2013.  Nearly unbelievable for someone as, how I wish there was a gentler word, narcissistic, as me.  Though not straying far from my stripes, the last post was squarely about me and my lack of running acumen.  HAHAHA

More importantly, what have you been doing for 11 months without me?  Yup, that’s what I thought, wishing and a-hoping that I would blog something.

Indeed lots to blog about over the last 11 months,.  And while I fancy myself a sage in so many areas, a guru whom (who? – always confuses) the masses flock to for guidance, let’s call bullshit immediately and get to the heart of this blog and why you visit…you’re friends and/or family and you’re curious what travel Adventures are afoot.

Impending travel for MC…so let’s head out on the 2014 installment of Adventures with MC.

Oh PS – synonym for narcissistic…”self-regarding”…sounds downright Zen…

 

And so last night after work, in the swampy humidity, with poison ivy itching and oozing (where in the hell did that come from) I slogged around the track for some miles.  Notice I’m not acknowledging the mile count; they were pure junk miles just to sweat out the work day.  Oh and the poison ivy…it’s on my legs, and, well, like any self-respecting 5 year old I itched it like crazy.  When salty sweat hits exposed skin…hello…now there’s a litte reward for your foolishness.

So why not just go home after work and have a cocktai to start the July 4th holiday.  Threefold answer, 1) missed my normal run time in the AM and 2) don’t you fret your pretty head a cocktail was had and 3) as of 1 July I’ve committed to getting my happy ass back in some sort of running shape.  At the very least some consistent mileage and/or committed schedule.

And why you may ask?  Well besides the fact that I’m the human trash can for food, and need to equalize calories in and calories expended, it appears there is one more marathon in this body.  Ohhh, please tell me more.  Yea right, who besides a runner actually says tell me more about your marathon training.  Kind of like, please tell me more about your recent trip to Cleveland.  (sorry Cleveland)

Well it’s my damn blog I can write whatever I want yup yup yup.  So after finally qualifying for Boston (it only took me about 12 years and 3 age ranges) and getting passed the lottery selection, hello 2013 start line.  And we all know what happened on that day.  I was part of the group that was stopped at the 25 or so mile mark.  Saving the full details for another day; the short story is that “my group” is being offered entrance in the 2014 race without having to qualfiy and go through the lottery again.  As I have said to anyone who asked, the 2013 race was amazing…until it wasn’t.  I ran with such joy, high fiving spectators along the way, having a beer instead of a water at an unofficial “fueling station”, last marathon, what a way to end 30 years of distance running, blah blah blah.  The BAA is lovely to offer us this opportunity; the idea of putting together another sequence of 20 milers, ugh, not so much..  But it would be disrespectful to those who suffered in so many ways to do anything but accept the generous offer and honor them with my best effort.  That said, the old gal is gonna need a longer training period which takes us back to 1 July.

My thought is to slog through the summer months with some balance between the right thing…consistent running, healthy eating, cross training, a good night’s sleep…and the real me.  By the fall, and please do not rush me to September as I adore my summer, I should have some semblance of fitness and start to map out a game plan for the cold months.

Okay we’ve chatted long enough.  This morning it’s a double…at least 1 mile swim, swimming, really loving by the way, and some miles with my scratchy oozy kind of gross looking legs.

Happy 4th, and to many who have crossed my path in various ways, thank you thank you thank you for my Independence.

More stories to tell, more pictures to show, but today is all about laundry!  This picture sums up our feelings about Japan.

These are random pictures from along the way.  You know you can count on wordy me if you need further commentary…

We leave tomorrow..

 

So we had been warned that many Japanese do not speak English and that we should familiarize ourselves with letters and numbers etc.  Of course I said psshaw ’cause I knew better right?!  Wrong!  Many flight hours were lost on bad Bruce Willis movies when I could have done a little advance prep.  Joe’s team hired an interpreter for a few days just to make sure everyone was on the same page.  One of many lessons learned… 

But what the Japanese do do is animate everything in some form or another.  Here are a few that caused me to pause, laugh, pull out my camera.  Some may require you to click on to the photo to get the full picture.  Hope they make you laugh as well.  

 

 

 

 

  

Heads Up (haha no pun intended to coincide with the post title) – Photos from the day are loaded at the end of the post. 

Tokyo is in a word, massive.  If I understood Professor Ryan correctly, the population of Tokyo is equal to Philadelphia, NY, Boston, Chicago, maybe also DC…combined!  (Don’t quote me on this as I’m operating on diminished sleep).  And this population is spread out for miles and miles.  To go from one side of the city to the other is relatively easy as the subway is incredibly efficient, but the other side of the city could be the equivlent of Philadelphia City Hall out to the suburbs, think Downingtown, not Narberth.  One of the ways to give perspective to what “massive” looks is to view the city from TMGO – the Metropolitan Governmant Office Observatory.  So I’ll take you there..

(Escaping our hotel on “the peninsula” requires one to cross The Rainbow Bridge.  I opted to walk just to get some perspective and take some pics.)

The Observatory at the TMGO is on the 45th Floor.  It is free to visit and like all things I have observed thus far, there is an orderly system to access and exit the elevator up.  I took a bunch of photos, none are duplicate views, to give a sense of the size of the city. 

From the TMGO I headed farther west to Mt Takao National Park.  Not sure how this popped on my radar as something to see, but it was very well worth it.  It was about a 45 minute train ride (above ground as opposed to the subway) so I was able to see life in the suburbs from the train window.  Would love to ask the question as to what is more desirable living, city or suburbs, but I’m not sure if that is appropriate.  Also wanted to take pictures but felt I may be the “stupid American” taking pictures of people’s laundry drying outside.  House after house had an elaborate set up for laundry drying in a very small area.  Needless to say there is no big Sears Washer/Dryer set up happening in this country.  

Up Mt Takao I went on a chair lift to the equivalent of a base camp, from which you walk almost 2 miles farther to the top.  Besides the mountain itself, I marveled at the ages of walkers – very young to very old, and the shoe selection.  Yes there were the perfectly equipped true hikers but predominantly the people were dressed in sandals, heels, flats, carrying umbrellas in the up position.  Just another day.  The pics are pretty self explanatory.  Not sure that Joe Ryan could have handled the heights from the chair lift or the guardless trail.   

Ended the day eating Korean barbeque with Joe’s Open Table team, bowling, and then wandering through one of the gagillion arcades.  We all stopped and cheered on a young guy using the dance machine…and a few of Joe’s co-workers jumped in from the sidelines.  Where was my camera??!!  Wonderful group of co-workers.

Still have not mastered how to insert photos in a more efficient way so I just load them all in at the end of the post.  If anyone has a tip, I’m all ears.

 

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