May 26, Rome, Dubrovnik and Bosnia

May 25, 2015, Rome and Dubrovnik

Today began at the Sistine chapel, and Catherine sent this inspiring picture.

Huh! I had no idea that DaVinci even knew about sheep in Shaun the Sheep's flock. This is why travel is so important. :)

Actually, Catherine was disappointed in the Sistine Chapel--crowded, and super high ceilings, but she did manage to take this illegal picture.

After seeing the Chapel they boarded a plane headed toward Dubrovnik, Croatia. Airports are always fun for the interesting outfits.

Ciao Italy!

The rest of this post is wildly inaccurate, but fun anyway. I'm not entirely sure what's Dubrovnik or Bosnia, and somewhere in there they also went to Split---which I foolishly thought was a travel day split between two different places, not a county in and of itself.  

SOOOOO

Dinner tonight will be at the Mimoza restaurant at the west city gate. They are famous for lamb cooked in the special oven, but they got frickadellen, pork, chicken, soup and fried eggplant. Guess that will do. 

Some random pics from the day

May 27, 2015 Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is famous for it's old city walls. Reminiscent of the Great Wall of China I think.

I love the red roofs all over Europe

The group got to visit an old Franciscan monastery, built in the 1200's. It has one of the oldest and most valuable library collections in the world.

New bag!

The rest of the day was spent either eating or at the beach. Not a bad life!

She got to eat at the Marco Polo restaurant. The first appetizer was pumpkin soup shots.

The cheese plate featured smoked cow, young cow, sheep and goat cheeses.

The sea bass was caught just a few hours before being served.

Catherine says even the cauliflower is good. High praise! Normally, she hates cauliflower.

The city also has cats.

I don't have a picture yet of the end of her day, but it sounds lovely. In the city there is a very old church, in the evening, in the courtyard under the stars there was music playing. An elderly couple started to dance. Others joined in. She loved dancing under the stars in such a beautiful place.

May 28, 2015 BOSNIA

Bosnia Today--random fact, the literacy rate there is 98.5 percent. It sounds as though she spent most of her day on a bus without internet access, but she did manage a few pics and messages. 

The first stop was Biagaj Tekke, a village in the Mostar basin. 

Then back on the bus to have lunch in Mostar.

Then they met at the Mostar Bridge...

and took another bus 

To the Cornaro Hotel. Modest looking on the outside...

But a four-star wow on the inside. 

At first glance on my phone I thought this was a major bug, but it's actually a chocolate boat from the  the hotel.

After arriving, they had the rest of the evening free. Apparently, she ran into an aggressive salesperson. "New pants. Universal size. Five Euro only. Universal size. Good pattern. 5 Euro!"

And she bought them! What a bargain!

She had "kuna" (Croatian money) to get rid of, so she and a friend went to a fancy restaurant. She had gnocchi with asparagus shrimp cream sauce. 

Can't guarantee this picture is in Bosnia, but it looks plausible. 

The next day the group traveled to Amsterdam. These pictures can be found under Study Abroad 4 Amersterdam

May 22 Tuscany

Still raining.

They spent the morning in the famous Uffizi gallery that houses Botticelli's, Birth of Venus and enough art by DaVinci, Raphael and others to keep anybody busy for a lifetime.

After this they had lunch and stopped for gelato at Carapina's.

These meadows were by the farmhouse where she was staying.

I love that one of Catherine's hobbies is photography. I can't wait to see her 10,000 pics when she comes home .

Next up, a bus ride to the Roman baths at Bullicame. Catherine did herself proud and jumped into the cold pool after the hot pools to seal her pores. She reckons that they (her pores) are closed for good now.

And lastly, the day finished off with a long dinner of Boar Stroganoff.

May 21 Florence

Ahhh, Florence.

It looks as though she found the sun. First stop was the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, your basic European Cathedral with unbelievable history, architecture and art.

 Then they went to Brancacci Chapel which is crammed full of Masterpieces. This Chapel is considered to the be the "Sistine Chapel" of the early renaissance.

Then the leather market--which looks to be about equally visually bewildering. 

So much for the sun, but she found the Disney store (of course) and there was some singing--don't know yet if she went solo in silliness or if it was a group effort. 

And she said "Buongiorno" to Mickey. 

There are many markets and shops in Florence. Some are more preferable than others. 

Bread

Cheese

 And, oh dear. I think I'll head back to the bakery. 

Then they went to the Duomo. The dome is famous because it was the first marriage between art and science.

The interior of the dome looks amazing as well. She climbed the 463 stairs to the top.

View from the top of the Duomo

They also went to the Hospital of the Innocents. This was built around 1400 as an orphanage and refuge for children in bad circumstances. It was built of limestone and other cheap materials, but is still decorated with sculpture and art done by various masters. 

And of course, they went to the Accademia Gallery and saw David.

To finish the day she got to go to a cooking class and make pizza. Here's what she said about it. "Our team didn't win, but I was trying to roll out the crust to a good thinness and they were all like, 'don't overwork it' so it was super thick and sure enough it didn't cook and the chef said it was way too thick. But he was impressed with our stuffed crust."  

They should have listened to her. Catherine can really cook. 

May 20 Venice and Train to Florence

Today it poured rain. According to her fitbit, her sleep average for this week as 4 hours 11 min.  I trust that will get better!  The really important thing is that she found Nutella. Limited edition no less.

Rain notwithstanding, they went places. Some of these pictures are off of google, which is why it looks sunny, but Catherine looks like this. 

They went to Murano--one of the "lagoon islands" which is famous for glass making.

She got herself some lovely glass earrings

And, more importantly, got some for me too.

The island of Burano, is famous for fisherman, lacemakers, and colorful houses, but it looks to me as though Murano did all right with the colorful houses as well. 

May 19 Venice

The first text we got today was of a plate of spaghetti. Very appropriate!

It looks to have been an amazing day. I'm not sure of the order of things, but she got to see St. Mark's square.

And see the Doge's Palace--the Doge was the supreme authority of Venice for many centuries. I can never get over the sheer--mind-blowing opulence of places like this!

The palace is connected to the prison by the famous Bridge of Sighs. Built in 1600's the idea was that prisoners would sigh as they took in their last glimpse of beautiful Venice. 

And go to the Jewish Ghetto, which apparently is run mostly by American Hassidic Jews these days. But she got to eat a kosher dinner. Which included sever courses--the most important of which, to my mind was the cookie course. 

She got to visit the "Harry Bar" that Hemingway wrote about. Alas, my English degree failed me here. Never heard of it, but she said they served the best hot chocolate ever (and Catherine is a real expert) and I understand that. 

She DID get to go on a gondola ride

And float by an old Venetian Palace

And here is the souvenir of the all the gondola adventures.