Tourist Day 1 Recap

I got into Florence on Friday, found my apartment, went to the local store to get food, and that was that.

on Saturday, I was slow getting started, but walked to the plaza of Santa Maria de Fiori, the cathedral, with both the duomo and baptistry. It was afternoon, so I bought a ticket and went through the museum. It’s a really interesting museum and has Donatello’s Magdalen and a late Pieta by Michelangelo which he supposedly broke in frustration (and was then repaired)

they also have Ghiberti’s baptisry doors, which are stunning

and lots of information about the facades of the Cathedral, whish have been changed over the years

My apartment in Florence

this is my apartment, about a mile east of most of the big tourist attractions

There’s a bidet, which I’ve tried it takes a long time for the water to get warm, which sort of defeats the purpose

The door to the stairwell is just to the left of the blue chair

Florence: Catching up, part 1

I left for Italy on Thursday morning, making it to Florence on Friday morning. One of my flights was held up a bit, but I ran and made the next one. My checked bag didn’t. But happily for me it came in the next morning and was delivered by 10am about.

Doh! Blogger no longer publishes pictures without payment. I’m happy to pay but not sure I can do it on my iPad.

I think I did it.

The New Adventures of Old Bardiac

I haen’t blogged for a long time, but I had a lot of adventures last year, and now I’m sorry that I didn’t Blog about them. It’s been a great way to remember my other adventures, so I’m going to try again.

I’m retired now, so all the old department and academic stresses have gone. I retired in May 2022, and since then I’ve kept busy seeing the headwaters of the Mississippi at Itasca State Park, been to Capitol Reef, Grand Teton, and Yosemite National parks, visited Machu Picchu, Barcelona, and Berlin, along with some other places.

Machu Picchu was most recent, so I’ll catch that up a bit. I went with EF Go Ahead Tours, and enjoyed the tour very much. The guide was especially good.

Day 1: Sept 21: Flew to Lima and met folks at the airport before going to the hotel.

Day 2: 9/22: we did guided sightseeing around Lima, visited the Huaca Pucllana ruins, and ended the day with a ceviche cooking class which was way more fun than I expected and tasted great!

Day 3: 9/23: we flew to Iquitos and took a boat ride for about an hour on the Amazon to the Ceibo Top Lodge. Ceibo is a local tree and there was a huge one on the property.

Day 4: 9/24: we went on a 6am birding boat near the lodge and saw lots of Yellow Crowned Nightherons, kingfishers, ani. Etc. (I can’t find my list).

we took a boat to a Yagui indigenous village and petted/held a sloth, saw some demonstrations, and had a chance to buy stuff.

In the afternoon we fished for piranha, caught 3 in all (which we shared for dinner), then went out to see pink and grey river dolphins!! Way cool!

Day 5: 9/25: we took the boat back to Iquitos, then flew to Cuzco, where we had a free afternoon. I was feeling blah so slept, and then felt way better.

Day 6: 9/26: we visited the Sacsayhuaman ruins, the city, where the Temple of Koricancha (aka Qoricancha) which is now the Convent of Sta Domingo.

Day 7: 9/27: we visited the Sacred Valley and a textile cooperative where we learned about making thread and dying textiles.

Then we went to the palace of Emperor Pachacuti and Ollantaytambo, the Temple of the Sun. We learned about some agricultural practices of the Inca.

Day 8: 9/28: More in the Sacred Valley: visited the Misimiway community to learn about traditional weaving. We had a short hike to the Moray ruins, terraces for Incan ag experiments.

we went to the Mara’s salt evaporation ponds which are pre-Incan and absolutely fascinating!

Day 9: 9/29: we took a bus then train to Aguas Calientes, aka Machu Picchu village, and then spent about 2 and a half hours with a guide in Machu Picchu on circuit 2. Absolutely massive and breathtaking!

Day 10: 9/30: Those of us who signed up for the extension went back to Machu Picchu, and had another 2 and a half hours to walk around and marvel. I’m really glad I did the extension! It was sort of foggy and quieter, and really special. We were on Circuit 3.

In the afternoon, we took the train and bus back to Cuzco to our hotel.

Day 11: 10/1: we took a bus to Puno and on to Lake Titicaca. We visited the Incan ruins at Raqch’i archaeological park, and the Temple of Wiracocha. And visited with a Raqch’i family.

Day 12: 10/2: took a cruise on Lake Titicaca to the floating islands community Uris, where we visited and learned about their island and culture a little.

then on Taquile Island, we hiked up to a restaurant for lunch. Then back down and back to Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca.

Day 13: 10/3: visited Sillustani, a pre-Incan and Incan burial area with lots of smallish towers. We flew from Juliaca airport to Lima, where we were to fly out later that day.

But my flight was delayed til the next night, so I got a bonus day in Lima! I went to the fabulous Largo Museum and saw the most amazing Incan artifacts!

Beginning in media res

Saturday - It's been a while.  I've been meaning to get caught up, but I have a problem getting pictures from my phone organized onto the computer.  So there won't be many pictures until I figure that out better.

Still I like that this blog is a sort of record of my travels, so now that I'm on travels, here goes.

Today is my first full day of about a month in Berlin.  I came in by train from Frankfurt yesterday, a train right that was more bust than not.  Even though I supposedly had a window seat, there wasn't much window, so I didn't get to see much.  

I'd flown from Barcelona to Berlin the day before, and thought I'd manage to walk around a bit in Frankfurt, but it turned out not so much, because I was lugging stuff.  I''m travelling with my old backpack, a carryon size hard luggage, and a small day pack.  It's not bad for two months in different climates, but still a lot to lug around.

So, today, day one in Berlin.  I got up after a good sleep in my little apartment, and found my way to the underground train station close to me (about a block).  And I bought a month ticket.  At least, I hope it's that.  And then I took the train to the only station name I recognized, the Alexanderplatz.  I walked around there.  I lost my reading glasses (I think I left them on the plane to Frankfurt), so asked in an apothecary, and the woman there suggested another store, and voila, reading glasses!  I also managed to find an ATM and get more cash.  (Berlin seems much more cash-favoring than Barcelona.) 

I walked around near the Alexanderplatz, and went into the St. Nicholaskirche museum, which was interesting.  I have a feeling Berlin is going to be very different to Barcelona in many ways, but a big one is that everything was bombed during the war.  Other differences:  Barcelona is way more full of tourists, and the metro system is way easier to understand from the point of view of someone who doesn't know their way around.  Also, I'm at that point of German where everything I try to say comes out in Spanish.  Very frustrating!

I'm going on a tour of a concentration camp tomorrow.  I think it will be hard, but it's important not to forget such things.

Total Trivia: the 2 r rule

 Bev of Excelsior has a post recently on trivial knowledge.  What's the most trivial thing you know?

Here's mine:  in black letter printing, there are two forms of the letter "r" (miniscule).

It's easier to show than to describe, so here goes:

Here's what it says:  Institutions or princypal grounds of the lawes and statues of Englande, newly and very truelye corrected and amended, with many new and goodly additions, very profytable for all sorts of people to know, lately augmented and imprinted.

Compare the word "princypal" and "groundes" (second and third lines).  See how the "r" in princypal looks like a "2," but the "r" in groundes looks like a more usual r?  

How look at "corrected" in the fifth line.  See how the first "r" looks like a 2 and the second one looks like a more usual "r"?  

The "rule" for when one used a "2 r" was whenever it followed one of the letters in "whipboys."  That's it.  Some trivia I learned in a grad class or something, that has stuck with me for years because it's mildly suggestive.  Or something.

What's your most trivial piece of knowledge?

ps.  I've been sorting through photos and am almost ready to start posting catch up posts about my recent travels!  If anyone has good ways to organize and work with photos on an iphone, please tell me!

Not Flying

In Life, the Universe, and Everything, Douglas Adams writes

There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. … Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties. 

It's that simple, yes, of course. Today, I didn't miss. OOPS!

I was at my group tennis lesson, for beginners, though it's sort of semi-advanced beginners, the same lesson I started taking last fall, and then let lapse at some point.  We were rallying doubles, three students and the instructor, and the instructor hit a ball to my backhand, and I hustled after it, hit it (supposedly good, they told me after), and then my second foot didn't keep up and I fell in the way that sometimes happens.

I wasn't hurt and got up pretty quickly, and we went back to it.

And I've been thinking about that.

First, it's good to fall sometimes (until, I suppose, it isn't).  It reminds me that falling is okay when it happens for a reason, like running after a tennis ball.

Second, and more important:  I've been working semi-hard since I retired to get in better shape.  I've been slowly (emphasis on slowly) doing the couch to 5k program, riding my bike some, and walking some.  But it's been slow, because I'm rather lazy, and if I can think of an excuse, I use it, and don't go.  And I basically took off an entire week to go camping last week, and then my run on Sunday was miserable and slow.

But today, I hustled.  I wouldn't have made that shot, or gotten anywhere close to hitting it last fall.  I'm getting just a little better at moving.  (Between Covid and being chair, I really didn't get much exercise for the past three years, and it really tells at my age.)

Before the camping trip (more on that in the next post), I'd walked 10k one afternoon, and I've run/walked 2 miles.  

(NOTE: the couch to 5k program assumes people run about a 10-12 minute mile when they run, I think.  So that by the time you're done, and able to run a half an hour, you do, indeed, cover 3.1 miles, or 5k.  I do not run a 10-12 minute mile these days.  My best is closer to 18 minutes.  Yes, normal, non-racewalking people walk faster than I run.  I've always been a slow runner.  When I was in first grade, I was so slow at the 50 yard "dash" that the teacher thought her stop watch had a problem and made me and my friend S run it again.  We were both just that slow.)

Yesterday I walked 3.6 miles, so we'll see about tomorrow.

 I think I am slowly getting in better shape, and hopefully by the time I go to Barcelona, I'll be able to walk 10 or so miles a day or whatever.

Packing

I'm getting ready to head north to International Falls tomorrow.  So I should be packed.  I'm not.  Most of my camping stuff is on the floor of the living room, but I really have to dig in and get packing.

This is not unusual for me.  When I was getting ready to leave home for the Peace Corps, my Mom was super frustrated at my not packing weeks ahead.  So I let her pack my stuff, and she packed, unpacked, repacked, and by the time she was done, my stuff was beautifully packed, and she was far less frustrated.  And I didn't have to pack.

But today I have to pack.  Really.

Practice Run

I don't camp nearly often enough.  Or something.

When I talked to the guide about camping at Voyageurs, I asked about temperatures, and he said I could expect 40 F or so at night, and 60s during the day.  60s during the day is nice enough.  But 40 at night can be a bit chilly.

So I started trying out my sleeping bag, well, one of my sleeping bags, which is down and rated to 45.  It's super cozy and comfortable, and was quite nice down to 60 as it was in my room with the window open and fan on.  But the other night, it was supposed to get down to 40, so I decided to practice.

I went to dinner with friends, so it was a bit dark as I started to put up the tent, which was fine, since I'd put it up once before.  (This is a newish backpacking tent.)

Degression: whoever is designing tents these days deserves kudus.  They're so much easier than before.  This tent is even easier than my car camping tent, which has cloth tube-like things to put the aluminum "poles" through (the "poles" break down into foot or 18 inch pieces that fit together like magic).  This tent has hooks that fit over the "poles" so they're even easier.  And the poles fit into the tent bottom so that it's not a struggle to get them bent up at all.  (My old one is a bit more of a struggle, though I've gotten pretty good at it with practice.)  And the rain fly fits more closely to the tent than with the old one, which could be good or bad: less air flow which can be good or bad, depending.)

End digression:  I put up the tent, and took extra clothes for over my base-layer, and an extra blanket.  And in the night, I woke up cold enough to pull over the extra blanket, but not cold enough to want more clothes.  So I think I'll be okay down to below 40, if I take the extra clothes just in case.

I feel better having checked it out, and slept outside again the next night, which was a bit warmer, and things in the tent were great.

A few years ago, I bought an earlier version of this little solar lantern, two of them, and they're just so helpful in all sorts of ways!  Worth the weight!

Next Adventure

 For a few years now, I've been looking at Voyageurs National Park and thinking I'd like to visit.  But Voyageurs is sort of unique, different from most National Parks.  Most parks, at least the ones I know more, you can drive in and there are camping spots, maybe a lodge, so you can car camp or even, if you're a backpacker, park at a trailhead and hike into the backcountry to camp and hike more.

But Voyageurs is pretty much set around a couple of lakes and mostly, you need a boat to get to the "frontcountry" spots (the sort of spots one might normally drive to and car camp), or a boat to get to a trailhead to hike to backcountry spots.  There are a couple backountry spots that you can park at a trailhead and hike to, and I considered those.

Digression:  I remember being in the backseat when my family was on a trip, I think along Highway 1 in California, probably south of San Francisco, and seeing a biker with a backpack and panniers, and thinking what a cool, amazing person that biker must be, and wishing I could do that sort of thing.  But my family didn't do much like that.  I biked in the way kids bike, all over my neighborhood for hours on end.  We car camped but only as a way of going waterskiing at Berryessa or Trinity.  

I remember us once, probably when we rented a houseboat on Shasta, taking a short ranger hike.  But that's the only hike I remember taking with my family.  

In fact, when I went with my Mom on a trip to The Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion (part 1, part 2, part 3) and my Mom mentioning that she didn't realize people actually wanted to hike.  She was 81 at the time, and we went on short walks in the flatest areas we could.  (I really like that I can look back at trips with blogger!)

End Digression

The point of that was that as an adult, and especially now as a retired adult, I can be my version of that biker if I want to.

So, anyway, I've been really hesistant to make plans to go to Voyageurs.  I don't think my kayak can fit my camping stuff and don't feel confident that I could paddle however far I'd need to to get to a camping spot.  I kept telling myself that I should make some calls to the guide companies the park lists, and to the park, and figure out how things work.  On Friday, I finally did it!  And the upshot is that I've made arrangements with a guide's taxi service to get a ride to and from a campsite and a tour of Rainy Lake, and have reserved a recommended camp site (the guide was super helpful: this site looks North across the lake, and should have a great view IF the Northern Lights are visible, and great views of dawn and dusk.)

I'm a little anxious because I'll really be alone out there, but I'm also excited for a totally new challenge.

Dreaming

 Last night, I had my third academic anxiety dream in recent weeks.  They've all been basically the same: I'm trying to figure out my schedule or where my class meets, or something similar, and I can't get the scheduling records system that shows such things to work.  So in a way, it's a technology/computer anxiety dream, more than an academic one, but it doesn't feel that way.

Today, I tried and was able to get the scheduling/records system to work, so maybe that will solve that dream?