October 5 – Les Baux, Provence and Pont du Gard aqueduct

Getting to Provence by car turned out to be surprisingly easy.  We were quite concerned about driving in Europe, especially after witnessing the driving habits in places like Rome.  However, we were far enough away from the bigger cities that the drivers were far tamer.  I would say that their aggression level lies somewhere in between Portland and Los Angeles.

Look out!   An American driver in France!

We woke up lazily after a good night’s sleep and slowly made our way to Le Chateau Les Baux, the prime attraction.  Le Chateaux Les Baux is a small, medieval town built in the 12^th century by the Balthazar family, who is rumored to be descendants of one of the magi.  This is an A-list attraction.  It has interesting history, interesting architecture, is well preserved (and restored) and is in an extremely scenic location.  We both enjoyed this visit very much.  So much that we are going to make Les Baux our home base for our 3-4 days in Provence!

The lower village of the medieval hill town of Les Baux

 The view from our hotel room.  Poor us for having to endure such things!

Overlooking the Alpilles mountains and the valley floor below Les Baux

The 12th century ruins of Chateau Les Baux

Brian’s punishment is to be locked into a stock listening to information about Chateau Les Baux on an infinite loop.

Later in the day we visited the Pont du Gard Aqueducts.  Wow!  Built around 19 B.C. by the Roman Empire, this aqueduct supplied water to Nimes.  The grand size of the aqueduct surprised us both.  The remains span 100 meters and have three levels of arches.  One of the more interesting facts (and there are many) is that the average grade of the aqueduct is 25 centimeters per kilometer for a distance of 50 kilometers. We are now glowing from such a good day.  

Leave it to Napoleon's 'gangs' to graffiti a national monument.

October 2,3 – Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

What a treat!  Villefranche-sur-Mer is an unashamed tourist town with a great beach and we love it.  Perhaps ‘unashamed’ it a bit strong since there weren’t a lot of cheesy gift shops, but there were enough to know where the town’s income came from.

We arrived at the restaurant on the harbor with our bags dragging behind us, we were stinky and worn looking.  When the hostess was bringing us our menus she saw me removing my zip-off pant legs, looked shocked and turned around and walked away.  A few minutes later the host, not the hostess, brought us our menus.  It took us less than one hour in France to offend a French person.  J 

Charming town of Villefranche-sur-Mer

View of the harbor from town

After walking for a while... beer!  Is this a French beer?

La Rue Obscure.  This old street is merely 500 years old.

How does the postman know where to deliver mail?

A nice restaurant.  Tom always finds new friends for us.

Our hotel 

Kidding!  This is our hotel.

Of course, I have to include a token night picture. 

Last and certainly not least, a solar powered boat.  SolarWorld should explore this emerging market!

October 1 – Cinque Terre

This is our one day to finally experience the acclaimed Cinque Terre.  Our first stop was Monterosso, the northern most town of the five and the “beach town”.  The terrain is relatively flat and a beach spans close to the entire length of the town.  This would be a great place to spend a day relaxing.  But since we were there to see the towns we meandered for an hour or so and were a bit unimpressed so we caught the train to the next stop…

Monterosso beach - we weren't expecting this from the Cinque Terre!

…which was Riomaggiore.  Riomaggiore was nice, but also not impressive.  It had the same feel as Monterosso, but with no beach and no great view from below of the Mediterranean.  

The space-like tunnel leading into town

Piazza in Riomaggiore

The miniscule harbor

After a confusing and roundabout train ride(s) we arrived in Vernazza.  This was definitely worth the stop and the extra effort it took to get here.  This town is a photographers dream.  From the train the road funnels you down to the protected waterfront in the middle of beautiful buildings, terraced cliffs and rock strata.

It’s like Vernazza was built for photographers.  Perhaps by Walt Disney.

 This is the Church E-ride.

After thinking carefully about it, we decided not to try to catch this train, but rather one with passenger seating and one that actually stopped.

September 30 - Chiavari

Chiavari is not a tourist town, which made it a very nice base station for us.  It is a town where the wealthy Italians have a second home and/or vacation.  This is what they prefer and they hope it remains that way.  But being on the Italian Riviera and close to Cinque Terre may eventually transform Chiavari into something different.

Here is Chiavari... that's pronounced "Chiavari" in case you were wondering.

This is a quaint, walkable town, which we did.

More walking and sight-seeing. 

I wonder what caught Tom's eye.  And stomach.  Hmmm.

Even more walking.

Too much walking.

Bandaging from too much walking.

Back to walking.  Chiavari is a lot like Santa Barbara, but on steroids.

Great little shops.

Most shops in Italy are an "-eria".  Even for blue jeans.

I went out at night by myself to take a few pictures, something I acquired an affinity for from our last trip to Italy.  

The park at night.  Bellissimo!

September 29 - Milano (continued)

To put blogospheric closure on Milan here a few real live touristy pictures of the Duomo.  Like I said before, the highlight was the creepy dead cardinals, but the roof of the Duomo was nice to visit as well.  

Here is one of a gazillion pictures of the front of the Duomo.  Of those, I'm sure this one is in the top 5%.

The roof was 10 euro each to take an elevator to the top, which took 5 seconds.  But being on the roof was spectacular, especially at sunset. 

A view of the city from the roof of the Duomo.

Some photographer was always in the way and a complete nuisance.

Finally, we came back for an evening concert on the Duomo roof and Tom climbed up a spire to get this great picture.  Unfortunately he knocked the head off a statue disrupting the nice concert and we are no longer allowed within 10 miles of the Duomo.

Look at all of the pigeons in the Palazzo.  Also notice the many birds.