Bologna Italy

Greetings from Bologna.  We arrived at the hotel last night about 1700ish.  We were just exhausted.  Delta is not afraid to cram as many rows of seats as possible into coach.  I'm not that tall and my knees were up against the back of the seat in front of me.  The guy behind me wanted to put his foot on my arm rest.  I decided it was my space and pushed the foot off.  We didn't get much sleep.  It was an old 767ER with the movie screens on the ceilings.  The movie playing while we were trying to sleep had mass explosions and the light was penetrating my eyelids.  I ended up hanging my blanket from my glasses - very attractive.  Anyway, we've about decided that our advancing years are taking a toll on our ability to stay up all night.  We slept 11 hours last night, and I napped a fair amount this afternoon.  I am glad we decided to put a rest break in our path to Riccioni, if I'd had to take a train last night I think I would have perished.
We chose this hotel because it's close to the train station, as in right across the street.  There are old wooden shutters still on the building.  Between the shutters, the surprisingly good sound deadening windows and the air conditioner, we slept well.  There was virtually no street noise.  This is the view from our bedroom window at the train station.  People here use mass transit.

 

This is one of the night stands next to the bed.  It's an ancient Phillips console radio, made in Italy.  It's odd to see real wood furniture in a Mercure.  Most of them have remodeled and are now prefab laminate.

 

The beds, which are firm.  Another pillow would be nice, but one can't have it all.  Look to the right by the curtain, that's a pants press.

 

We did make one foray out today, to the grocery store.  I do love a grocery store in another country.  It's very interesting. Ham is very popular in Italy.

 

We're remembering that many trips start with one REALLY BAD DAY, like the Germany trip when, if possible, I would have turned around and gone home.  But we didn't and it got much better.  Fatigue makes everything difficult, so we are going to have an early dinner, go to bed and buck up!  Tomorrow we will brave the automated ticket machine in the train station and make our way to Riccione.  The cool thing is that it will talk to us in English.

Day Before Departure

Greetings from the GPNW.  The climate continues to amaze and astound us.  We had rain the night before last, so we didn't break the record of 51 days of no rain, but it was close.  Good weather is hanging tough this year.  A new road hazard for the bikes is fruit.  I never noticed it before, but there are a fair number of apple trees along the streets, along with what I think are plums. In addition to pointing at rocks, we're now pointing at fruit as we go up the road.

 

This is my beloved husband, who has developed an ill timed cold.  Can you believe it?  He has developed a cold the very day before we're flying to Italy.  I'll probably be next to get it. 

 

This is where we are going, the Belvedere Bike Hotel.   We're going to be there for two weeks, renting bikes and riding in the area.  Unless, of course, Jim develops the plague.  It's one of the many sections of Italy we haven't seen yet.  We were in Tuscany/Umbria in 2004 and just loved all of it.  After the Belvedere, we're renting a car and will amble over to Marseilles and then fly home. 

Let the Packing Begin

Posting has been very light because we are perilously close to our data limit with Verizon.  We switched from 3g to 4g, and while extra speed is nice, it does encourage excessive use.  So there you go. 
We saw Justin & Britt Friday night, as well as the grandchildren.  Here is the baby who continues to be a big strong infant.  Cute, just so cute.

 

Today we begin the packing process.  Luggage must be unearthed from the bowels of the storage bays, clothing for three possible climates selected, and constant weighing of it all is required. Jim and I are not light packers.  We like to have options for climate change should it happen while we are on vacation.  Other than this, I have not too much to report.

Lake Sammamish

Another delightful day was on tap for the GPNW.  It's just eerie. It did not rain once in August, not once!  We rode around Lake Sammamish today.  It was good,  I did better on the three terrible hills than I have been doing.  This is the lake.  This is high dollar real estate.  Once upon a time, it was not high dollar, because it was "too far out", now it's smack dab in the middle of the eastern megalopolis.  The time to buy was decades ago.  Ah, the benefits of 20-20 hindsight.

 

Some years the water is high enough to submerge the docks.  This year the water levels are quite reasonable.

 

We have new technology for the trip.  Rather than taking a stack of books, we bought Nooks.  They're pretty cool.  I registered both of them to me, and every book I buy shows up on Jim's Nook.   We have recently discovered Vince Flynn, and we like his books.  They're of the "CIA shoots the bad guy" genre, and are a fun read.  So we downloaded a few of them, and some Jane Austen as well.  There will be a new Jack Reacher book out the day before we leave, so I'm hoping we can get that, as well. 

Car Rental Weirdness

Checking the calendar reveals that we are departing ONE WEEK FROM TODAY for Italy.  We're not completely ready for this trip.  I've been printing out hotel reservations, airline stuff and etc.  I like the old-fashioned paper backups of documents.  Hertz sent us a three page car reservation confirmation, with this text on page three.  I find this paragraph incomprehensible.  Is this something that allows them to cancel your reservation, should they not like the look of you when you arrive for your car?  I think it's very odd.
 

This reservation is based on information you have provided

Hertz, including information regarding your current

geographic location.  Hertz reserves the right to demand

proof of what you have told us.  In particular, if you have

indicated that you are located outside your country of

residence,  you may, at the time of rental, be required to

prove where you were when this reservation was made,

through evidence such as an air or rail carrier ticket

receipt, a hotel bill or a utility bill addressed to you at

the location where you say you were.  Failure to provide

such substantiation may invalidate the rates you have been

quoted, or invalidate the entire reservation.  Providing

false information to Hertz in connection with this

reservation would also breach your rental agreement and

could violate the law.

We're taking two months of receipts from the RV park, to show where we were when we called, but how strange is that?

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day! 
Saturday was Carnation Valley.  It was a gorgeous day.  We keep waiting for the rain, but so far it hasn't arrived.  This is Sikes Lake, one of my favorite places on the planet.  While we were standing on the bridge soaking it all in, a flock of geese landed.  The migration has started.  The valley is also full of swallows, eating their weight in bugs before making their trek south.

Washington used to have liquor stores.  You could buy beer and wine in the grocery stores, but not liquor.  After more than one failed attempt, an initiative passed that would close the liquor stores and allow Target, Walgreen's, Costco and etc. to sell liquor.  Also part of that initiative was another great wanging increase in the tax on liquor, so even though the state no longer foots the bill for real estate, salaries and all of that, prices did not drop significantly.  Some stores post the price on the shelf without the taxes included, and then the poor consumer receives sticker shock while checking out.  We find it amusing that the Ace hardware store in Carnation is now selling liquor.  Nail guns and whiskey, that can't be good,.

Sunday night Chris and Roseann hosted a dinner party.  It was impressive.  Chris is the master of the grill.  Note the broad expanse of counter top in the kitchen.  They remodeled awhile back, and the kitchen is just stupendous.

They have a great deck in the back.

My friend Kim made two varieties of sorbet for the cleansing of the palate between courses.  Many limes were squeezed, by hand.  Kim has an excellent sous chef.  One flavor was lime/basil and it was really good.  I had doubts about the combination of those two flavors, but I was wrong.  The red was pomegranate and was also delightful.  I like how the halogen lights make the stemware shine.

A close up of the sorbet.

The deck faces more or less east.  There was a nice false sunset as the setting sun illuminated the clouds on its way down.

Today we rode a circuit of Mercer Island.  We had planned to go farther, but my legs were just not having it.  This is the beach at Enatai.  The pale north westerners were out, working on being tan.

I hope you've had a restorative three day weekend, and that your travels, if any, were safe.