Florida to Home!

Whew that was a long boat ride!  We practically sprint off the ship in Florida so excited to be on our own again. We're now on day 76 of our 77-day voyage facing two full days of power driving to get us home to Colorado.

One last time lugging the backpack as we hump several blocks to Hertz to pick up our rental car.  Florida is very tropical, swampy with colorful plants and lots of humidity so I'm glad we didn't have too long of a hike.  

Since we've been trying to experience life like the locals on our journey, we rent a huge American sport utility vehicle for our drive across the eastern US - even though we won't ever be leaving the interstate pavement.  Good thing gas is so cheap here. 

We spend the long drive out of Flordia debating what food a new tourist to the US should sample. Something uniquely American not found everywhere else in the world. Here's what we came up with for today: a huge salad... in a sports bar... with buffalo wings... and a Budweiser.  Hooray 'Merica!

We have one overnight stop on the drive in Clarksville, TN.  And wouldn't you know it - after 76 days and 14 countries we have our first major logistical issue on the last night of the journey here in the US.  We arrive to the hotel (where we have confirmed and prepaid reservations) at 11:00 pm and find the office completely dark, empty and locked. We're able to rouse a maintenance guy and are told that the hotel is entirely booked and isn't able to get us a room. When we call them, Expedia isn't very happy with the hotel staff either but steps up to book us a room in a nearby hotel on their dime. At least all this happened in the US where we could speak the language (and corresponding swear words).  

Back on the road the next morning it seems a little unusual to be traveling so long without some kind of border crossing.  It definitely reminds us of our long train trip though Russia - in fact I think our SUV might be bigger than our Russian train cabin.  But we're going to call it a tie between the quality and variety of Siberian train station junk food vs. US interstate gas station junk food.  There were some fresh-baked options in Siberia but there's a far larger selection of crap in the US.  We do our best to choose a semi-healthy option.  

Here's the pastry case we find in the US convenience stores. No fresh fruit fillings? Quite a step down in quality compared to Europe.

And the US gas station hot dogs - without even tasting need I say, this is no Prague dog!

We've officially passed from the eastern US to the western US as we swing by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.  Getting excited!  About half way home.

Brian was very excited about the great Royals season this year but was very sad that he could only scoreboard watch from Europe at the time. Even though it's called the World Series, the rest of the world doesn't seem to care enough about it to broadcast it. 

The other US-unique food we came up with for tourists is barbeque. Since we're passing through KC we stop at the best damn BBQ joint on the planet.  (Oklahoma) Joes in KC! This definitely goes on the short list of the best food we had the entire trip. Gonna have to fire up the smoker when we get home and keep trying to improve our rib recipe.

We're 40 miles outside of Denver and it decides to start snowing.  While it makes for scenic mountain views in the morning it also makes for a difficult end to the trip.  With slow driving and a tight grip on the steering wheel we're finally home! Whew! What a journey! All the way around the Earth and back to Colorado!

Thanks for following along with us while we trekked around the globe. Here's the lesson we'll take away from the trip. This was our big crazy idea. And now we've done it.  I'm sure you have a big crazy idea too - and it probably doesn't involve spending 77 days in trains, boats and cars. But whatever YOUR big crazy idea is... get out there and do it.  Life is short, you only live once, pick your cliche. But get started on it - because it's these big crazy ideas that make life fun and memorable.  We look forward to hearing about your big crazy ideas....whatever they are!

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."  - Ernest Hemingway

Atlantic Crossing + Mediterranean Ports

We take one last European train ride from Rome to the port city of Civitavecchia and after a long hike to the dock (hooray backpacks again!) we board the cruise ship to Ft. Lauderdale.  This is one of the big mileage segments of the trip: a two-week repositioning cruise crossing the Atlantic Ocean.  We are very excited to pull our stuff out of the backpacks and put our clothes on hangers and in drawers again.  A small little cruise cabin will be home for the next couple of weeks - but at least we can live out of a closet instead of our packs for a while.

Like our Pacific crossing, this ship is filled with lots of full-time cruisers. But this time instead of Chinese tourists we get to share the ship with a pack of Florida retirees.  It's a very concentrated dosage of American tourists to get used to after shuttling through Europe on our own.  We're trying to stay focused on the positive things about traveling by cruise ship: lots of veggies, a big salad bar, warm weather and live music.

On boarding the ship, it finally feels like we're heading home. We saw an airplane take off at one of our ports and felt a little longing to just be able to hop on a plane and be home tomorrow. But that would be breaking our crazy made-up rules for this crazy made-up adventure. So we lounge back, ratchet up our tourist patience and try to enjoy the 15-day boat ride to the US.  

But first we have a few port stops along the Mediterranean before we cross the Atlantic ocean.

Livorno, Italy

We've just finished a week-plus trekking around Italy so we opted to wander around this small port city on our own instead of sprinting into Florence for a couple of hour tour.  The stop gives us one more chance to get some walking in before the sea days begin.  Not surprisingly, our wanders end up at the local food market. Like many other cities across Europe, the Livorno market is housed in an amazing  old building. We continue to be jealous of the Eurpoean food market buildings and high quality selections available there.  

Cartagena, Spain

We've visited Spain on a previous trip so we were pretty excited to spend a day tasting tapas and sipping sangria (how's that for some awesome alliteration?). The Spanish have definitely figured out a great way to eat - pair a drink with a tasty bite of food, then do it again and again. Combine that with a two-hour siesta and you have a recipe for a great afternoon. We're getting warmer weather now that we're moving into the southern European countries so our afternoons are spent walking the pedestrian malls and lounging on sunny tapa bar patios. (Tapas pics at the end of the post)  It's a welcome weather change from the brisk days we had in eastern Europe. Cartagena hit all our happy buttons and definitely goes on our list to visit again. 

Agadir, Morocco

We hit our first logistics issue of any significance here in Agadir. The Moroccan cooking class we scheduled was cancelled so we land at this port without any plans.  We wander off the ship to enjoy some more wonderful sunshine walking - this time along their beachfront resort area. It definitely feels like a completely different culture from Europe: the signs are in Arabic, camels are scattered on the beach waiting for tourists rides and peddlers harass you trying to sell their trinkets. It's an interesting enough place but it didn't really hit our happy buttons.

Canary Islands, Spain

One of the reasons we chose this partiular trans-Atlantic cruise was to visit the Canary Islands - they've been on my list to check out for quite a while.  We found them to be a very interesting blend of Hawaiian landscapes, Virgin Islands bustle and Spanish culture.  We enjoy more walks through pedestrian streets and more patios at tapas bars. More happy button pushing for us. Next time we visit (that list is getting kind of long) we'll have to hit the pretty beaches too.  

Atlantic Crossing

After the back-to-back Mediterranean port stops we settle into a routine for the remaining nine sea days crossing the Atlantic ocean. We're trapped on this ship with tons of old retirees so we try and fit in with the crowd.  That means an early breakfast, an afternoon nap poolside, a cheap happy hour glass of wine, early bird dinner, the nightly glee club show and in bed by 8pm.  We refuse to join them in wearing socks with sandals and bath robes in the public areas. I guess we're not quite old enough to have that don't-give-a-crap attitude that evidentially comes at a certain age.

Eventually we find a quiet oceanside deck away from the crowds to soak in the rays and read our Kindles. By the end of the two weeks we've also figured out the most popular activities and make sure we're on the opposite side of the ship. 

Half way across the Atlantic, we get the news about the Paris terrorist attacks. It definitely added a somber note to the rest of the cruise.  But in talking to our fellow passengers, it also wasn't going to scare anyone into changing their future travel plans.  There's risks in getting up in the morning or  driving to the store or going to the movie theater.  You can't let the fear of remote possibilities keep you from living the life you want to live. 

All and all, the crossing was quite smooth but also quite long.  After two weeks, three continents, six time zones and 5,600 nautical miles further west, we have completed the last major segment of the journey.  The finishing leg of the trip starts Thursday: driving home to Colorado!

"Like all travelers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen."  - Benjamin Disraeli

Spanish Tapas

We're not going to bore you with pictures of the cruise food and buffet lines this time. Instead you'll get food shots from our stops in Spain. You've probably heard of Spanish tapas - the small bites of food they serve with drinks. This is pretty much our perfect way to spend a day - hanging on a sunny patio and snacking our way through the day.  And yes, you're reading that board right: a beer, a soda or a glass of wine with a tapa for about two bucks.

First, you want to order a drink. Spain has some great wine so you can choose either a red or a white and probably end up with a tasty start to the afternoon. 

Then you get a couple of little tapa bites. These are mussels with a little fresh salsa. We love the small portion sizes because it means you can try that many more dishes. More dishes = more flavors!

Tomatoes with farmer's cheese, anchovy and olive oil.  We tried it with the anchovy but both of us ended up picking it off. I guess we not quite full-on adventure eaters yet.

Then you order another drink. Spain also makes a very tasty sangria so that's a great option too. 

And you get another couple of little tapa bites. This is braised chorizo (can't leave Europe without eating more pork sausage) with potatoes and peppers. This was Brian's favorite tapa of the set - it brought back fond memories of the infamous Prauge Dog.

This one was kinda weird. It's something like a potato salad but with mashed potatoes instead of the potato chunks like we're used to. And I guess you dip those cracker/biscuits in it? This one will not make our recipe box.

And you order another drink. If you're pacing yourself, you might switch to a refresco for one round so you don't need to take a siesta in the middle of the day.

And you get another couple of tapas. This is the classic Torta Espanola - eggs and potatos cooked and layered together served room temperature. We make a version of this with peas and red peppers for our 'traditional' Christmas morning breakfast. Delish!  Hmmm... Sangria might be a tasty addition to our Christmas traditions.

This is another classic Spanish dish: Paella. It's safron-flavored rice with a bunch of other stuff tucked into it. This version had mussels, chorizo, chicken and clams. Went great with the dry white wine. And the perfect sized tasting.

And then you order another drink.

And you get another couple snacks. I'm going to call this 'Spanish' rice but I think it might have just been left-over paella rice with all the seafood picked out.

Then you grab a little dessert.  LOVE churros dipped in their thick rich hot chocolate. It's almost worth a trip to Spain just for this dessert.  

And maybe there's time for one more drink before your ship departs from the dock. Salud from Spain!

Italy: Venice, Bologna and Rome

The train ride from Salzburg, Austria to Venice, Italy is the prettiest countryside we've seen so far. We wind through snow-capped Alps, cute European mountain villages and alpine forests with changing aspen leaves.  Pictures through the train windows never seem to quite capture the brilliance of the leaf colors and the stately mountains. It's a lovely small taste of the fall we're missing in Colorado. 

Venice

Venice has been on my travel list for a while - mostly out of curiosity because it's supposed to be so unique. It certainly doesn't disappoint!  Yes, it's busy with tourists. Yes, it's easy to get lost in the maze-like streets. But the colorful old houses lining the blue canals are stunning and completely worth a special trip.

Venice is all about wandering around and getting lost and so that's what we did. We'd meander through the narrow passages and then pop out on a plaza. The small alleys and plazas hid endless gelaterias, bakeries and bars.  We took advantage of lots of window shopping too - but no purchases. I'm beginning to think that Brian's preference for the backpacks was also a shopping budget strategy too.

We love that Venice is such a pedestrian only.  Actually, we've enjoyed all the pedestrian-friendly areas in Europe.  I wish the US cities weren't so parking-dependent that they could convert more of their streets to pedestrian plazas.

    

The weather was a little if'fy to grab a gondola ride so we watched the other crazy tourist jockey through the canals in their rain gear.  I guess we'll have to come back to cross a gondola ride off our travel list.

The sun peeks out for a bit- right at happy hour - perfect timing!  So we scamper over to have a couple of italian cocktails by the canal. A great way to finish our stay in Venice.

Bologna

It's a quick train from Venice to Bologna and an easy walk to our hotel.  Our favorite thing about the architecture in Bologna are these cool porticos.  They make for a very classy window shopping experience!  Bologna is home to the oldest university in Europe so the city is very lively and surprisingly reasonably priced. Anyone that has college age kids should definitely make a school visit here. 

Bologna is not heavily touristed which leads to a more authentic feel in the trattorias, gelaterias and markets. That's great because we feel like we're wandering around with the locals. That's not so great because the menus have zero English.  Luckily, we find a little traditional trattoria where the friendly matriarch guides us through exactly what we should have for dinner.  Always take the recommendations from the matriarch! 

Bologna sits in the middle of one of the great food regions of Italy. The area is home to Parmesan cheese, prosciutto ham, balsamic vinegar, mortadella and of course ragu bolognese.  We specifically stopped here so Brian could immerse in the food culture and make traditional pasta in Italy. The pasta making class included a tour through the market. Even late in the season, they had some great looking tomatoes. Imagine the tasty sauces that can be made with these.

The market also featured lots of homemade pasta in case you didn't have time to make it yourself. Us tourists will take no such shortcuts today.

Brian definitely wanted to smuggle some of this prosciutto and parmesan through customs. Just look at that! Alas, there wasn't room in the backpack for both clothes and contraband.

And then we get to work making some authentic hand-rolled grandma-approved pasta.  This is the kind of work I don't mind doing.  First mix the eggs and flour. Yep - just eggs and flour.

Then knead it and roll it out.  I think I'm going to spend my retirement becoming an Italian nana.

Then roll up the sheet of pasta, cut it into ribbons and shake out the noodles.

Or if you're making filled pasta, pinch the shapes together.

Ta da!  Tortelloni!

Look for the finished results in the food section.  A tasty way to complete our visit to Bologna.

Rome

We pass through rolling hills and cute vineyards on our train ride from Bologna to Rome. Our expectations for Rome are a little low because this will be our last big touristy city of the journey.  Wow!  Are we pleasantly surprised at how much we like Rome!  Rome has magnificent old buildings and ancient sights scattered everywhere.  We begin checking off all the cool sights.

First up is the Pope's house: St. Peter's Basilica. Very impressive and probably more so if you're Catholic.

And great timing on our part, they just finished renovations on the famous Trevi fountain yesterday so we get to enjoy this site scaffolding-free.

And of course, the iconic Colosseum.  It wasn't entirely scaffolding-free but there still sections where we could get a clean picture.

And it got even more dramatic as the sun set and the lighting took effect.

Just like many of the European cities we visited (especially Moscow and Budapest), Rome was even prettier at night. Here's the Pantheon. 

Buonasera Italy!  You were a gorgeous and delicious part of our journey!  

Tomorrow we'll catch our 15-day Atlantic crossing cruise that will take us from Rome to Florida (with a couple of stops in the Mediterranean along the way).  We're too cheap to spring for the flakey internet package on the cruise so it'll be a couple of unplugged weeks until our next blog post.

"The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."  - Eleanor Roosevelt

Italian Food & Drink

I think we might have came to Italy more for the delicious food than for the historic sites. If you know us at all, that shouldn't be too surprising of an insight. And so this section is going to run a little long (ok, maybe a lot long) with Italian food pictures. You might need to upgrade your data plan if you're reading this via mobile.

Breakfast: In Italy, the day is usually started with a shot of espresso or cappuccino taken at a stand-up cafe. If you're looking for a little nibble with it, you'll find several different variations of pastries and cornettos (croissants). Brian isn't a big coffee drinker and even he had a cappucino every day working his way up to a shot of straight espresso by the end of our visit. He thinks he's a very manly Italian now.

Pizza Lunch/Snack: A small little cornetto isn't much for breakfast.  So around 11:00, you might have a little slice of pizza to tide you over until a late lunch which is usually around 12:30-1:00. Sometimes we just had another slice of pizza for the late lunch to save our appetites for the main dining event later in the day.

We had a very hard time resisting pizza displays like these while we wandered between city sites. Resistance was futile. 

After all those street kielbasas in eastern Europe, Brian was very happy to switch to street pizza.

Brian had a little bit of a food orgasm over this pizza. This is now the standard by which all other pizzas will be judged (sorry Little Ceasars).  The crust was perfectly blistered, slightly chewy and delicious. The sauce was light and fresh. And then it was topped with just a little bit of cheese and real-deal thin-sliced prosciutto. Amazing.  He had a hard time not ordering another one for dessert.

Aperitvo: Let's have a little late-afternoon drink and snack. Just a little crostini or something. That should hold us until dinner.  Italians call this happy hour time 'aperitvo'.  We definitely want to respect their food traditions so we sip an aperitif and nibble on cicchetti - tiny open face sandwiches.  They also charge $2 for using their table but that means you can sit back and monopolize that table for as long as you want.

We had these Italian spritz cocktails everywhere.  They are a shot of slightly bitter liquor (the orange is Aperol and the red is Campari) topped with prosecco and perhaps soda water.  These are definitely going on heavy rotation when patio seasion comes around again next summer - although we might come up with something a little more creative than potato chips to serve with them.  

Or maybe you'd rather add some gin to that Campari to make a little stronger Negroni. 

How about a little snack to go with those cocktails?  These are cicchetti with mortadella and pickle, smoked tuna and cream cheese, roast beef and cream cheese.

These plates in the crostini display case are empty because we decided to just keep having crostini for dinner this night. The locals thought we were silly and completely unrespectful of their food traditions. We didn't mind breaking tradition a bit for crostini as tasty as these.

This case of little sandwiches were also attacked during our crostini dinner.

Another bar and more crostini snacks to eat with apertivo cocktails.

Delicious pumpkin and prosciutto crostini paired with prosecco and a (very large) Campari spritz.

Antipasti: What would you like for your starter course at dinner? A little something to kick off the evening? Perhaps a salad or a small appetizer or one of the best damn meat and cheese boards you've ever had? 

Here's a simple salad with artichokes, greens and fresh burrata cheese.  Hooray fresh food!

Zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and parmesan.  Light and fresh (despite the oil that is collecting on the plate in this photo).

Figs with gorgonzola and prosciutto. We made these in class and they were great - but not quite as pretty after they were baked in the oven so you get to see the before shot.

This antipasti spoke to everything that was great about the food in Italy. It was very clean and simple: crunchy artichokes, parmesan shavings and balsamic vinegar. But every component was top-notch and worked so well together.  Just perfect.

Primi: This is why we came to Italy - fresh pasta! I think we had pasta every day we were here. Here are just some of the highlights.

A simple dish of fresh tagliatelle pasta, prosciutto and asparagus. We really had to recalibrate our idea of how much sauce goes on pasta.  The fresh pasta here is *very* lightly sauced so that you can appreciate all the work that went into the pasta.

Here's spaghetti carbonara.  Nice try Italy, but the best carbonara we had was in Seattle - kudos to Diane!

One of the results from our pasta-making class. Tortelloni stuffed with butternut squash and lightly sauced with sage butter.

Another result from our class.  Tagliatelle tossed with tomato, eggplant, ricotta salata and basil. Another fresh and simple pasta.

The ubiquitous pasta in Rome: Cacio e Pepe. Translates to cheese and pepper in English. It's made with cheese and pepper (shocker!). Another very simple but incredibly tasty dish and one that will make the recipe box when we get home.

More cheese and pepper pasta but this time topped with bacon. Bacon!

Secondi: This would typically be the main course for the meal - usually some type of sauteed or stewed meat dish. But we were always too full from the pasta to ever order a second course. We saw several couples who split one secondi dish between the two of them. I think I would have rather just ordered another dish of pasta if I was that hungry. But I'm sure that would have been a major faux-pas (or however you say that in Italian). So instead of any pictures of secondi courses, I give you MORE PASTA!

Red wine tagliatelle with sausage and a parmesan frico.

Tortelloni stuffed with ricotta and parmesan sauced with traditional Bologna beef and pork ragu. Are you hungry for some pasta yet? 

Spaghetti with clams.

Tagliatelle with porchini mushrooms and tomatoes. That's the end of the pasta pictures but not the end of our pasta research. We'll definitely continue our exploring at home.

Dolci:  After all that pasta, dessert was fairly light for us - usually a scoop of delicious, intensely flavored gelato. But sometimes we mixed in another little something just for variety's sake. All in the sake of food research.

Here Dawn is patiently waiting to dig into a cappucino gelato while Brian takes the picture.

And the classic pistachio - wow!  My personal favorite. 

Another gelato glamour shot... this time dark chocolate with Grand Marnier.

We got suckered into this one. "Must try in Rome" & "Don't miss" our scouting sources said. "Harrumph" we say.  Just a ball of chocolate gelato rolled in chocolate chips and then topped with pretty stuff.  Should have just spent our euros and calories on more cones of gelato.

Marscapone cream topped with a bit of chocolate sauce.  Simple, small and tasty - a great way to end a meal.

Vanilla panna cotta topped with wild (yes, wild!) strawberries. While I doubt we'll ever see wild strawberries at Safeway, we definitely need to find a source for that delicious vanilla bean paste we used.

A fresh ricotta cannoli. Now I've got to figure out a recipe for home-made ricotta. Add that to the ever-expanding food To Do list when we get home.

Can't visit Italy without some tiramisu.  This was as good as we've ever had, but we learned that the secret is to portion the tiramisu in individual cups. That way the tasty coffee boozy liquid collects at the bottom so it can be slurped up at the end. sluuuuuurrrrrp!

Or maybe dessert could be just a little more prosecco while we enjoy the cafe's patio and watch the Italian evening fade into night. Saluti from Rome!