Day 13, No way

Daniel picked up the phrase “no way” today, I don't know where. Probably from me. So we ask him if he wants to take a shower, instead of “no”, it's “no way!”.

We thought of taking a boat to Amalfi or Positano today, but it wasn't going to be simple, so we decided to just spend another day walking around Sorrento. We walked down a steep road to the ocean at a little village called Marina Grande. It was relaxing. Lots of British people were there and we talked to a few of them. They're all very nice. We met Londoners, a Scottish couple who were hard to understand sometimes, and a couple from southern Ireland. Daniel is a good conversation topic, I think. We went to a gelato place which is supposedly one of the best in Sorrento (Gelateria Davide). It had a lot of choices, but we didn't think it was any better than the other gelato we've had here, and the people working there were kind of grumpy. I think I'd recommend a place that has nicer seating and friendlier employees.

We went to the park again, and Daniel had lots of fun again. Some freedom and independence is good for his little soul. He swang on the swing today, and this is the first time he's liked it. He loved it, actually, and laughed hysterically for most of 10 minutes. He did not want to stop. Sometimes I thought he might be feeling dizzy or something, so I'd stop it, and he would say “weee?”

There is a great wonder in Sorrento... but it is taken for granted. Just one block from the main square is a very deep valley, surrounded by streets and hotels. Inside the deep valley is the ruins of a paper mill. We were searching for it yesterday. The first woman didn't know what it was. The next person we asked didn't understand me until I said the Spanish word for mill (molino), at which point he realized what I was referring to and said "mulini!" This was the first and only time my Spanish was useful in Italy. My Spanish industrial engineering vocabulary was useful outside of work!

We had pizza that was cooked in a pizza oven today, and it was so good and we were so hungry. Daniel ate four slices.

We got to the bus stop 40 minutes early, and talked to an Irish couple for the whole wait. They were so friendly. Pompei tomorrow. 

 Emily making us breakfast with coffee, while Daniel watches Peppa Pig in Italian. I'm sure he was a couple days away from speaking fluent Italian.

 The mill, surrounded and mostly ignored by Sorrento.

Emily was clearly enamored by the ruins in a big hole.

 Next time, I'll find out how to enter that valley and explore the mill.

Mt Vesuvius and Naples. Beautiful, or if you think about it too much, ominous.

 Sorrento from Marina Grande

Day 12, Pigeons were made for toddlers

Today we slept in to maybe 10. That means Daniel slept for 12 hours. We walked the long and winding road down to Sorrento. It is for pedestrians and motorcycles only. It's lined with olive groves and lemon groves. We decided we (okay, mostly pregnant Emily) did not want to walk back up that road.

We found a nice cafe next to a plaza. It looked like it was run by a family, with the dad cooking and a young boy, teenaged girl, and a mom taking orders and bringing food out. It was really nice, and Daniel was enjoying himself. We ordered margherita pizza, fish and chips, and coffees, which was all delicious. I can't figure out the difference between a latte and a cappuccino, except one came in a mug and one in a tea cup. Next time I'm buying coffee and the person behind the counter speaks English, I'll ask.

After lunch we went over to the plaza to let Daniel run. He ran. He chased pigeons, he played fetch with a pine cone, he towed his bee around... His face was very red after about 45 minutes. Then we threw him in the stroller and he fell asleep for the next 2 hours.

We walked around Sorrento for a long time. A little too long. We walked out the other side Sorrento, and we knew we'd gone too far when we reached the monastery which Emily stayed at last time she was here. We walked back down a different road and found a little place which sold gelato and a drink they call limoncello. Sorrento is famous for its limoncello, and this place had a little factory where they made it. I tried a little sample, and it was very strong. The lady said 30% alcohol. We had gelato, and Daniel finally woke up. He learned four new colors by asking for which flavor he wanted from the gelato we ordered. Pink was his favorite. Pink strawberry, yellow mango, white stracciatella, and brown coffee.

We kept walking, and found a park with a playground. He had lots of run climbing and going down slides, and he made a friend with a little Italian two year old toddler. I think he must miss his cousins. He was sad to leave but accepted it when we said “ciao slide, ciao park, ciao people at the park, ciao.. etc etc”.

We found cheap supper with some meat filled pastries and a jam crepe. Pastries are so cheap here. Daniel was happy but a little bonkers... he was jumping around in his seat, falling on me, climbing on me, yelling hi and ciao at everyone, and dancing. When the sun went down, they closed off the main street and lots of people came out to walk. I tried to buy a SIM card for our tablet, but we needed a passport.

We bought bus tickets at a tobacco shop and waited by the bus stop. We were 30 minutes early, the bus was 20 minutes late, and Daniel did not want to be contained. The bus took us almost right to the gate of our neighborhood, and lots of people on the bus were nice to us, giving us seats and helping us figure out how to push the button to tell the driver we wanted off.

We finally figured out how to get the TV to work... actually it finally just started working, I don't know what we did except Daniel smacked the kitchen table really hard... but the TV is not near the kitchen table. I turned it to a kid's show, and Daniel was entranced, which made putting him to bed very easy. The show he likes was called Peppa Pig. It's a British show dubbed in Italian. It's nice that he likes it, because the channel we got to work played it nonstop all day (not that he watched it all day).

 Daniel in the piazza chasing pigeons.

 Sorrento, Italy

 A tiny old Fiat next to a car which, before seeing the Fiat, I thought was tiny.

 These old micro-Fiats are all over Sorrento!

 The playground which Daniel enjoyed.

Mt Vesuvius and Naples across the bay from Sorrento.

Days 10 and 11, The long journey to lemon land.

On yesterday we left our apartment said goodbye to Ligia and the woman who works in the cafe below us, whom we had befriended. I took our clothes to a lavandaria (laundromat). I was expecting a coin-wash kind of place, but it was a dry cleaner kind of place. But I was happy to find out they also had a washing machine and dryer. The woman at the desk didn't speak much English at all, but we figured out what would work best. At first she said we could come pick up the clothes at 5:30 PM, which was way too late, but I got her to agree to 11:30. She charged by the kg of clothes washed. We had the car packed and were ready to go at 11, so we walked over to the laundromat to see how close she was to being finished. She was just folding the last few items, and it cost us 4 Euros. Can you imagine? They wash, dry, and fold your clothes for you for $5.2? I would never do laundry myself again if I lived in Sintra. Contrast that with Italy, where this morning we heard a guy talking in the hotel, saying they charge 2 Euros per item of clothing.

After picking up our laundry, Emily wanted to find some more of her favorite Portuguese coffee, Nicola. The place where she used to live, Sao Marcos, was on the way, and there are some grocery stores there, so we stopped by. I saw her old neighborhood, and she said it had changed quite a bit. The road construction was gone, and there were lots of new businesses. (Sadly, we couldn't find her favorite coffee).

We drove to Lisbon, found a parking spot, and went to the oceanarium. Daniel really loved it, but his poor sleeping at night and lack of good naps had caught up with him, and he was swinging wildly between hysterical fits and euphoric love of fish. I thought the oceanarium was pretty cool. In the center is a huge tank with lots of big fish, and then surrounding it are some medium and small tanks with lots of interesting creatures. There was a penguin exhibit, and the penguins were very active. You could watch them underwater, diving around like little torpedoes. When Daniel says “fish”, it sounds like “pish”... which is very similar to the Portuguese word for fish, which sounds like “pesh”.

We returned our rental car, and then caught a flight on Portuguese Air to Rome. We arrived in Rome at 11:30 PM, and all of the hotel shuttles had stopped. We asked around and found that no one would take us to our hotel for cheaper than 35 Euros, so we paid to go on a nice looking shuttle. We were lucky to be the first people dropped off. Daniel was asleep by then, but he did not sleep at all on the flight and he was a wreck on the flight. He did not even stir as we changed his diaper.

This morning we work up earlier than our bodies wanted us to, got some decent hotel breakfast, and then took another shuttle into Rome. We had directions for how get to the Rome train station, Termini, by public transportation-- bus, then train, then metro-- but we thought we would save our energy and bought ourselves the shortcut of a shuttle. The shuttle driver dropped everyone off a good distance from the Termini, but they were sightseeing around Rome. We paid the driver an extra 7 Euros to take us directly to the Termini train station. It was very worth the price, because we had 2 rolling suitcases, 2 full backpacks, a stroller, and Daniel. Emily took Daniel and the stroller and I took the rest.

The first leg was from Rome to Naples. We took the 2 hour train because it was half the price of the 1 hour train and half the time as the 4 hour train. The train was very nice, and we sat across from a friendly Italian couple who liked Daniel.

We had to switch trains in Naples, and the one which would take us to Sorrento was in a different area and with a different company than the one we'd just been on. Their trains are not so nice, but they were much much cheaper. This train station was not intended for strollers, and the only way down to the platform was a steep, long stretch of stairs. A nice man helped Emily carry Daniel down in his stroller. We hardly got on the train because it was packed and we had to take Daniel out and fold the stroller when we realized we were not going to fit otherwise. I think the train driver waited for us. Emily had so much stuff (and so did I) that she was struggling to stay upright on the crazy rocking train, so some nice lady took sleeping Daniel out of Emily's arms (with her hand gesture permission), and someone else got up to let her sit down. It took a while for the train to empty enough for me to consolidate our luggage in the corner of the standing area. The train ride when past some very beautiful and interesting views. There was Mount Vesuvius, some other pretty mountains, the ocean, and some huge shipyards.

Arriving in Sorrento, there was a group of Swiss people who had bikes they were trying to get through the little exit gates, which are glass doors that slide in and out of metal stands. They have proximity sensors, and you have to hold your tongue just right to get the door to open. Their bikes were throwing everything off. I realized that our tickets had no effect on the machine, unlike some other stations which require you to hold your ticket on a little sensor to get the door to open. Everyone was assuming the tickets were the key until I realized that the proximity sensors were the key.

We were supposed to call our host Elena in Naples to give her warning so she could pick us up, but we were too rushed, couldn't find pay phones, couldn't find a SIM card place which didn't have a huge line, etc. The pay phones were not working at the Sorrento station, after I tried four. Even if they had been working, they were very confusing to use. We met a woman who had her credit card stolen. Emily thought she said her suitcases had been stolen too. We felt bad for her. We finally asked a guy selling lemonade ice if we could borrow his mobile phone. He was very nice and didn't let us pay him, so we about some lemonade ice from him, and it hit the spot. Elena came 15 minutes later in her little blue car.

Elena is a freshly graduated social work major who doesn't think she can find a job with her major in Sorrento, so she is studying to become a yoga instructor. She hopes to open a tourist oriented yoga studio in Sorrento. The place we're staying is on the mountain side above Sorrento in a little gated community. There's a pedestrian road down to Sorrento, and we'll soon find out how much of a killer hike the hill is. The house we're in is a little guest house next to what I'm guessing is a vacation home. She must rent it out for her family.

We got to the house without eating dinner, and we were hungry. I was going to hike into Sorrento and see what I could find, but 100 feet away from the gate was a hotel with a restaurant. They were very nice and I bought us gnocchi, spaghetti, and an omelet. The food was mediocre but very appreciated.

Right now I'm sitting next to Daniel while he's in his crib. He is so hyper and happy. He's kicking his feet, talking to himself, making animal noises, singing little songs, and being very restless. But at the same time, he's very happy to be in bed and isn't asking to get out. He has been in such a good mood this evening. It has been very nice. He's over his cold and jet lag, I think. 

 Looking out our Sintra apartment's window, this is Daniel's little friend.

 Moss grows everywhere.

 Here is a tour of our Sintra apartment, which is on the third floor of a building on Sintra's main street. The bathroom. Including Daniel's favorite play area, the bidet.

 Sintra apartment.

  Sintra apartment. The front door. It had a huge lock on it... three bolts went into the wall in the middle and then one more at the top and one more at the bottom. It used a huge skeleton key which you had to turn about 8 times.

 Here's the cafe below and to the right of our apartment.

 And Danie's favorite breakfast activity at that cafe, eating the foam off of the top of mama's coffee with the long spoon it came with.

 The cafe owner who we befriended. She spoke very good English, but had lived in Portugal her whole live. She also made very delicious pastries.

 Our little Fiat Punto.

 Daniel's normal state in the Fiat Punto. Maybe it was the gentle rumble of the diesel engine.

 At the Lisbon oceanarium.

 At the Lisbon oceanarium.

Our apartment in Sorrento, Italy.

 Our apartment in Sorrento, Italy.

Our apartment in Sorrento, Italy.

Our apartment in Sorrento, Italy.

Day 9, Tuesday, The Moors and more. 9-24-2013

Today was the day I've been looking forward to the most. We went to bed early last night (in other words, on time) and got up early go get to the Pena Palace and Moorish castle before the crowds. We were so confident in our earliness that we drove to the top of the mountain, and we gambled right because there was lots of parking. The road was really narrow, steep, and winding. I would hate to be a horse in the old times pulling something up those roads.

First we went to the Moorish castle, which I think was originally built in the 1100's. It has been restored a lot since Emily was there. It was interesting because the restoration had a wood theme, kind of like in a sauna. So in some places they restored old ruined buildings in the castle, but instead of using stone for the restored parts, they used beautiful wood. It was tasteful and helped things seem ruined still while giving places to offer services, and that method was a much better option than building new buildings among the old ones, I think. Archeologists had excavated some areas near the castle walls and found foundations of old Moorish homes that the castle walls had been built over. It was crazy thinking these stones were put here by people 1000 years ago. They also restored an old church, which was built at the castle after the castle was conquered from the Moors, or they said it may have been converted from a mosque. The restored church had the same wood thing going on, and it was very beautiful, but very simple. A contrast to most of the churches we've seen so far. We counted stairs going up to the top, and it was 184. On the way down, we took another route and counted 200ish, and then forgot to keep counting. Emily did great for this part.

Next we went to the Pena Palace, which was built by the queen of Portugal (and her husband, who was a prince-- he would only become a king if the queen died. Weird, huh?). The Pena Palace is a huge castle/palace on top of the hill next to and higher than the hill the Moorish Castle is on. Surrounding the Pena Palace is a huge garden/forest. The palace is full of unique, strange architecture and lots of colors. We didn't plan to go into the palace in order to save money, but combining admission to the castle, gardens, and palace was the same price as just the castle and the gardens, so we got a ticket to go inside. Half of the walk through the palace is outside, winding through arches, along the tops of walls, across terraces and balconies, and the other half is a path through the royal rooms and some galleries of royal collections. It's all very impressive. They were restoring some of the rooms, and it was interesting to watch the workers carefully do the detailed work of restoring old wall tiles. My favorite room was a study where all of the furniture was very finely carved ebony. There was a stand of drawers, two tables and four chairs. Each one must have taken the wood carver a year. The Pena Palace has amazing views of Sintra and the towns beyond to the ocean.

Finally we walked through the gardens surrounding the palace. At this point we were starting to get very tired. I was carrying Daniel in the baby carrier this whole time except for a bit of him walking at the castle, and Emily was carrying the not-yet-birthed child. Plus a heavy camera and a little backpack with diapers and water. The garden is a huge maze. Every path leads to a little stone house of arches or a pool or a statue. The foliage is huge cedar and oak trees, large boulders, and vines with moss covering everything. We tried to find the hermit's grotto, but got lost on meandering pathways, but instead found the queen's favorite spot to sit. A nice chair had been carved into the rock on the side of a hill, and it had a beautiful view of the Pena Palace and its hill. Our map told us the queen liked to come here and sit. 600 years ago. The more cultivated parts of the garden/estate are full of plants from around the world, planted back when Portugal was a major player in exploring the world. There is a huge fern garden, and it was interesting to see where they all originated.

When Daniel finally woke up and I didn't have to carry him, we got a bit of a second wind. We walked along a series of ponds that feed each other in a row. There were swans in the ponds, and Daniel was very excited about them. Quack quack! Also the fish.

When we made it back to our car, we had been walking for 7 and a half hours. We found a new restaurant based on the woman at the cafe below our apartment's recommendation and ordered bacalhau com natas and roast beef. This bacalhau com natas was very good, Emily said, and so was the roast beef. She said the only way bacalhau com natas can be better is if someone makes it at their house. We've noticed that the food at restaurants here tastes a lot more home-cooked than in the States. If it tastes this good in the States, it's usually super expensive. But maybe it's just all this exercise.

We found a great way to make Daniel behave at restaurants, which is to play Pingu on the tablet. He turns into a little angel/zombie. He was so tired tonight, because his two naps were very meager. 

 An tomb at the Moorish castle.

 The cistern at the Moorish castle.

 The Moorish castle. Behind us is the "top", called the royal tower, and in front of us is the keep.

 Pena Palace from the royal tower at the Moorish castle. The clouds were right at the level of the palace, and bits of cloud would fly in front of it.

 This is us almost at the keep, looking back at the royal tower.

 Daniel found a little bit of castle he could call his own, and he was very sad to leave it.

 I can see our apartment from here!

The Pena Palace

 Lots of strange and interesting architecture.

Happy snakes.
 

 Pena Palace

 Looking out to the ocean from the Pena Palace.

 Daniel being silly.

 Now this was interesting. I think I figured it out. On the left is obviously a sun dial and a solar calendar (not sure exactly how the calendar works, but maybe you have to look at the shadow at a certain time of the day to discover the date). On the right is a miniature cannon. I think you set the sextant thing to the correct date, and then the magnifying glass with ignite the fuse and fire the cannon.

 This is the amazing carved furniture I was talking about.

 Moose antlers on what is definitely not a moose head. All of the antlers were mounted on wood or brass heads. We imagined that some Portuguese royal hunter traveled to Canada, shot a moose, and brought it back to Portugal. He gave it to the royal taxidermist who said "what kind of deer is this?!?" The royal hunter said, "I don't know, just make something up."

In the Pena Palace gardens. These old mossy buildings were hidden all throughout the huge estate.

The view from the queen's rock chair hidden in the gardens. We had a polarizing filter on, but this photo is not edited, nor any of the others.

Sad Daniel.

Happy Daniel.

In the fern garden.

A pretty little spring.

A duck house.

Another duck house.

Looking at the swans.

Traditional Portuguese food.

Traditional Portuguese soup. It had spinach in it. It was very good.

Bacalhau com natas. Flaked cod with lots of cream and cheese and other stuff.