CAMPING TIBER ~ ROMA

June 23.09 – arrived at Camping Tiber just outside Roma 10:30am

Fabulous campsite along the Tiber river – http://www.campingtiber.com
Large swimming pool and lounging area (Meg will love this, she can get her laps in) free internet at the bar (Bren will be there all day) and a large outdoor restaurant area. Off to Roma for our 1st day of exploring. To eventually caught the free bus to the train/subway in Porta Prima, 1 mile away, bought our tickets for 1euro and got on. Takes about 25minutes to get to the subway stop-Flaminio-Piazza del Popolo. From here we got onto the metro for 2 stops and got off at the Collosseo. Stepped outside to the grand Collosseo. Walked around the outside and then decided to walk up the Via dei Fori Imperiali towards Palazzo Nuovo and then onto the Pantheon. Wound our way through narrow streets lined with side cafes and pizarrias until we found the famous Fontana di Trevi. A bit of a mob scene here jam packed with bodies all sitting around the fountain steps. Gams was on her eternal search for true Italian salami and finally found some in a small store while we tried to inch our way in front of the fountain for a photo. Pizza is everywhere in this country, but to sit and actually rest while eating some pizza and enjoying a cappuccino is pricy, so everyone stands at the standup bar which is usually half the price of a table price. We bought some pizza by weight and ate as we walked. You can quite easily live off fresh pizza, pasta, gelato, and café for a reasonable price.
From the Trevi fountain we made our way to the famous Spanish Steps or Palazzo Spagna. Although flowing with people, there were quite a few spots to rest on the steps and this is just what we did. Having a drink in the hot sun and gathering some energy to make the journey back to our campsite, we choose the closest metro, Spagna and made perfect connections all the way home.
Dinner was a combination of pasta, pizza, G&T’s , beer, salami and brie. Our set up is quite comfortable sitting under the awning.
Brendan put in his city time this afternoon and has decided that’s it for him. We’ve convinced Megin that catching the 9am bus to the metro is a good time to start tomorrow. Off to bed knowing we will have a full day of the Vatican and whatever else we can fit in.

June 24.09 – Roma day 2 – Musee Vaticani, Castel Sant’ Angela, Campo di Fiori, Circo Massimo, and ended at Collosseo.

Crossed over onto Isola Tiberina via Ponte Fabricio and then off by Ponte Cestio. Back onto the other side of the river via Ponte Palatino to the Circo Massimo and up the main cobbled street, Via di S. Gregorio.

Headed back home at 6:30pm with just enough energy for a pickmeup summer drink, some yoga stretching, scenes from Gladiator. Believe it or not, this campground supplies live music and their restaurant. From our campsite we can hear tunes from Dylan, the Stones, Beatles…I take a walk up and while the place is mainly filled with 20somethings in major party mode, the band itself is made up of players from the 60’s. Mom, Geoff, and I take over the dance floor and stretch out the other muscles that didn’t get a work out today. Dancing and singing away till 11pm we finish our day in Roma. The party doesn’t stop here though, the music still plays well into the night. While this campsite is perfectly suited to traveling twenties, it is also great for families as there’s so much room you can easily camp far enough away from the action to still enjoy peace and quiet.

VENEZIA ~ ROMA

June 20.09 – driving from Munchen to Venezia via Salzburg

(Trying to upload pictures, but not working. check out my facebook for pics)

Steady rain, truck engines groaning, and constant sound of passing cars woke us up at 7:00am. Driving all day to get to Camping Fusina. Arrived at 6:30pm and set up camp in the wind right on the water. Run in the evening along the canal road. Lots of road riders – mostly older in shape men! No word for senior in this place!

June 21.09 – ferry over to Venezia

Left on the 10am ferry to Venezia. 12Euros for a return trip on the boat. Takes 30mins to land at the Zattere dock. Sunshine, gorgeous day. Strolled around Piazza San Marco and meandered up to the Ponte Rialto. Grabbed great pizzas on the go and window shopped till our eyes fell out. Bought a few bits of shiny murano glass and made our way back to Fusina on the 5:30pm boat. Our 2^nd lovely day in Venezia. The wind had died down considerable from the night before and it was quite pleasant to make a perch with my G&T looking out back to the islands.

June 22.09 – enroute to Roma

Awoke to a completely calm lagoon, sunshine, and peace. Had morning café looking over to Venice with the morning sun on my face. Went for a run with Meg before it got too hot out then prepared for takeoff. Pulled out of Fusina at noon and pointed our compass for San Marino. Arrived in the Republic of San Marino at 4pm and parked up as high as we could on the mountain. Explored the castle, had some sandwiches and headed out again down the coast for L’Aquila about 200km South.

Ended up driving down to Pescaro and then across towards Roma. Slept in the only pull out for parking we’d seen in many kilometers just before Vezzamo.

June 23.09 – arrived at Camping Tiber just outside Roma 10:30am

Fabulous campsite along the Tiber river. Large swimming pool and lounging area (Meg will love this, she can get her laps in) free internet at the bar (Bren will be there all day) and a large outdoor restaurant area. Off to Roma for our 1^st day of exploring.

EXPLORING PRAGUE!

June 18.09 – Prague

It took us about 4 hours to get ourselves up and ready to hit the road. The campground is surrounded by crop fields and very quiet. Very clean showers and bathrooms, a friendly owner and free internet!! An easy place to hang out and camp. You can catch a bus from the campsite to the metro and then into the center of town. It takes 30 minutes and with a 24 hour transit ticket for $5,00, is a pretty cheap way to go.

We wandered around Prague for the afternoon mostly just looking at all the amazing buildings, statues, squares, churches, and people! Cobblestone streets go for miles through the old town area and across the river up to the Castle. There are shops filled with beautiful bohemian crystal glass, marionettes, handmade wooden toys and more cafes than I’ve ever seen in my life. We stopped for break at one place and the pilsner beer was 31 koruna which is just over a buck eighty CAD or 10RMB for half liter! Our most expensive beer was 125 ($7CAD) Koruna so there’s quite a range depending on where you decide to enjoy your drink.

It was turning out to be quite a hot day . We walked through the old town square and surrounding area and across the Charles Bridge to the other side where we sought out a rooftop restaurant that we read about in the NYTimes just before we left Shanghai. The Aria Hotel up on the 5^th floor has a lovely terraced area with orange umbrellas to match the tiled roofs. It’s just a small terrace, but gives you a view above all the other backyard terraces that are tucked away from the road. We stayed for one drink and then moved on to climbing up the stairs of the Church of St. Nicholas just up the street.

There was one more 93 year deli listed in the NYTImes that we wanted to find so we made that our last target for the day. By some miracle, with the help of Geoff’s iPhone and google maps, we found the deli and had a dinner snack on their ‘little bread’ open face sandwiches ($1.00 each) along with some wholesome Ceczh desserts of poppyseed and ricotta cheese cakes. Time to head back to camp, eventually reach home at 8pm. The sky has clouded over and is looking predictable with rain.

June 19.09 – Camp Drusus - http://www.drusus.com

Woke to the sound of light rain. A strong cup of Oso Negro coffee always helps get

the morning going. Up at 8am with a consensus to forge ahead again into Prague if even for a couple of hours to see St. Vitus’s Cathedral at the castle and be around the beauty of the buildings and statues one last time. The kids want to stay behind and relax in the caravan so we head out at 10am for the bus in the rain. This time we are getting more adventurous and taking a 2^nd metro line into a new area where Geoff has marked the Erhart ova Cukrarna – http://www.erhartcafe.cz as the place to start our day. Eventually we find this quaint little café in a completely different area of town and sit down to enjoy an excellent cappuccino and some amazing custard fruit tarts. The prices in Prague are very reasonable to us Westerners - $10 for 3 caps and a few pastries. By time we are ready to leave the weather has brightened up and it’s perfect for boarding the bus towards the Prague Castle. St. Vitus, is a cathedral one must see while in Prague and admission is free. Absolutely breathtaking!

We walked back across the Charles Bridge, not as busy today, and heard more musicians playing didgeredoo and an old time jazz band complete with an elderly man playing the washboard with two small wisks! We stopped in the old square to take in the Astronomical Clock tower and Catholic Church. More Pilsner Urquell’s while watching the dark clouds and wind move in. The waiter’s take down the umbrellas in seconds and shoo us all inside the restaurant. Time to head back at 3:30pm.

We leave Camp Drusus at 8pm headed for Munchen. Weather will dictate if we do the alpine pass through Austria or not tomorrow. Next stop is Venezia and Camping Fusina. Slept at a carparking pullout just outside Munchen to the sound of steady rain.

MANNHEIM 2 ZURICH

June 16.09 – Train to Mannheim, Caravan pickup and drive to Zurich

We had one more episode of hauling all our stuff to the hauptbahnhof from the hostel. We had something to eat in the train station and then caught the hour long train to Mannheim. From the Mannheim station we had to find the local train that would take us the last few stops to where the caravan was. Not an easy job moving all our stuff on and off trains, up and down stairs – 50lb suitcases and backpacks – what is all this stuff I need?! It was raining out now as we got off the last train so Geoff did a 10minute walk to pick up our campervan. Finally, we are on our way around 3:00pm headed South for Zurich.

We are about 20 minutes outside Zurich when we notice there’s a small car in front of us with a flashing light in the rear window. It says something like ‘Flaugen Polizei Bitte’ and keeps repeating itself. Wondering why this car has flashing lights in it and a hand that now waves outside the window with another red sign, we are starting to think the people driving this car are a little strange. We bought the vignette road pass for Switzerland and haven’t done anything wrong, so they can’t be after us. I tell Geoff to pull around them, but when he makes a move to go into the other lane, more hands come waving out of the window so we figure they must want us. What could they want with us? Turns out they the Polizei are very upset with us. One of them gets out and comes over to the driver’s window and starts yelling in German at Geoff. After he figures out we’re not German and don’t speak German he proceeds to tell us in English what we’ve done wrong. A tip if you’re ever driving in Switzerland, don’t ever switch lanes before you head into a tunnel especially if there’s an unmarked car behind you. It’ll cost you 200CHF!! Welcome to SwissJ

About an hour later, we manage to find Mary and Kevin’s place and the spot where we’ll park free for the night. Bonus, no camping fees here!! Mary and Kevin live just outside Zurich in a canton called Gattikon. Their place backs up onto a treed hill with trails heading all over the place. No cars, just horses, ducks, kids and locals.

Morning of the 16^th Geoff and I have appointments to visit two international schools in the area which we do and leave the kids and Gams to hang out in the peace and quiet of the Brownings abode. Emily, Mary and Kevin’s daughter, flys in from Vancouver today and now makes the Browning family complete with David who came earlier after his graduation from Cornell. A big feast with us, Brownings, and Jason & Liz (just in from Shanghai). Poor Huck left behind to bark for 4 hours in his new unfamiliar home.

June 17.09 – Breakfast in Wengi at Welgo’s chalet then to Prague

Heading out deeper into the Swiss countryside to find Jason and Liz’s chalet in Wengi for breakfast. Up and over a mountain we find their tiny and very cute place tucked away in a hamlet of 40 people. They have been busy making pancakes, eggs, and applesauce. The perfect breakfast we needed for a long drive ahead. By time we got out of Zurich – an hour with road construction – and on the road to Munchen it was 12 noon. We ended up driving straight through to Camp Drusus just outside the Prague city center. The gate closed at 10pm and our clock showed half past, but a friendly man with little English kindly let us inside the campground. We passed out pretty easily and awoke to a beautiful day.

Zai Jian Shanghai! Wilkommen Frankfurt!!

June 15.09
Yahoo!! I woke up this morning at the 5Elements Hostel in Frankfurt and had the brilliant idea that I could get back on my blogger site again to track our 2nd European Extravaganza!! So here the Peake family lies, poised perfectly to explore some of our favorite areas of Europe.

We left Shanghai after packing up the remains of our Westwood Green apartment and moving all the little bits of important leftover things to the SRC (Shanghai Racquet Club). We couldn't have done it without the help of our hardworking Ayi (maid) and a new-found friend, Wu Qun who's family is our official plant source. She showed up at my request for a 2nd round of helping us in her small van. The Chinese are such incredibly hardworking people-the women work at everykind of dirty job that's out there. After 8 hours of moving, we finalized our packing and left for the airport with our other wonderful connection, Jordan who we have established as our 'personal driver' whenever we need airport rides or have friends taken around the city.

We are flying Lufthansa the whole summer. Left Pu Dong airport at 11:30pm and flew to Munich then transferred onto Frankfurt. All the flights were smooth and uneventful-just the way I like them:-) Being a little more seasoned then the last time we did Europe we decided to travel by rail once we hit Frankfurt, which is so much cheaper than getting a taxi into town and as we discovered amazingly easy too! 3 stops away is the Frankfurt Main Train Station (FFHbt).

We literally shlepped all of our stuff from the station to the Hostel we were booked into. (Megin was not impressed looking like a tourist backpacker) We looked like a typical portage family all 3 of us with a backpack each, another roller type piece, not your typical portage item, and Geoff with a massive hockey duffle stuffed with sleeping bags and bulky stuff and another oversized canoe pack with straps, plus computer bags.

The 5Element hostel is a block away from the train station . I am coming to love this hostel traveling especially with teenagers. The price is right, they always have excellent cappuccinos and coffee’s, this one is extremely clean and the showers awesome. Free internet, cheap food (especially important in Europe) and open common areas. Great for seeing all the other people traveling – mostly younger than us, but not always.

We bought a 24 hour train and local transport pass, about 5 euros/day and went to Mainz for a walk around. It’s only 38minutes away – exactly on the train – and saw the town’s Domo, around a 1000 years old and St. Stephens Church. Gorgeous stained glass designed by Marc Chagall. All the glass is in shades of blue and is just stunning.

Came back to meet Mom coming in on her flight from Amsterdam at 5:00pm. Finally connected!! All headed back to the hostel and jet lag set in. It was 3:00am for my body when I went to bed at 9pm. Had a great sleep and am now ready for a new day. Off to pick up our official touring mobile in Mannheim today and then onto Zurich.