Into each traveler’s travels, a little rain must fall

we have two sets of grandchildren…  one  set in Duluth, Minnesota, three hours north of where we live in Maplewood and one set in Riverside, Ca…  while the kids are little, we have tried to spend Halloween with one set one year and the other set the next year…  Halloween is a big deal to little kids in the USA…

so, this year was our year to go to Riverside, Ca for the holiday…  we flew to LAX on October 21, 2023 and took the Metrolink out to Riverside…  we had a wonderful visit with our daughter and our three amazing grandchildren…  carved pumpkins and watched soccer practices and games… and generally enjoyed the warm southern California sun…  on the day after Halloween, November 1, (all saints day on the Christian calendar), our daughter dropped us off on her way to work at the Rialto Metrolink station and we caught the train for Union Station…  then, the flyaway bus from Union Station to LAX…  the trip usually takes about two hours depending on traffic…  sort of weird that southern California does not have a more efficient mass transit system, but, they do love their cars…

anyway, it was a bright sunny day and we had a beautiful view from the train of Mount Baldy, the mountain that borders the Los Angeles basin to the north…  it is an interesting view from the junk strewn rail yards with their elaborate gang graffiti, across the suburban sprawl that begins to crawl up the edge of the mountain, then to the magnificent bulk of the mountain itself, looming in the distance, with its vast ridges edged against the incredible cerulean southern California sky…

we had a flight booked on ITA, successor airline to Alitalia, that left at 4:30 pm… it was a direct flight over the USA to hit the Canadian border over North Dakota then just south of Hudson Bay…  across the Atlantic over the southern tip of Greenland, then over England and Europe to FCO, Rome, Italy’s airport… we arrived at about noon and as we were going through customs, Mary’s passport had a problem and we got separated…  I had her phone in my bag…  I could not contact her and since I was through customs, there was no way I could go back to the secured area to look for her… I asked information people and officials that I could find and there was simply nothing to do but wait and hope she came out the exit that I was waiting at…  which she eventually did…  but I spent a tense hour waiting…  it turned out she had to go through a very long line to talk to a real live customs person and there never was any real problem with the passport…  but it was a crazy, helpless feeling…

there is a train station at the Rome airport, so we took the train to Rome Termini, the central train station in Rome…  we had decided to avoid the hustle of Rome and so I had found a small hotel in the city of Ladispoli, which is considered to be part of Rome but is actually out in the country about twenty minutes from the Rome Termini…  the Italian trains are very fast and dependable… so, we flew through the countryside of farms and fields with eventual views of the Mediterranean sea… and got off on the platform of Ladispoli…

Ladispoli is a city of some 44,000 people…  it is an older resort on the shore of the Mediterranean… I had found a lovely back to the fifties hotel with a balcony that looked out across the street over the black sand beach to the crashing surf…  it was very windy while we were there, so the waves were large and spectacular…  the temps in the day time got up to the upper 60s/lower 70s…  which we found comfortable to walk around with a light jacket…  we did have some light rain while we were there… the town had a busy shopping district with upscale clothing stores…  the Italians seem to be very fashion conscious and I assume that these stores did a good business catering to the stylish needs of the locals…  there were trattorias and restaurants on every corner and numerous pizza stalls…  hole in the wall places selling slices of freshly made Italian pizza…  we found the food in all of the venues to be delicious… so, we fell asleep to the whistling of the wind and the roar of the surf across the street from our hotel…  the next day, Friday, we caught the train back to Rome…  to do some sightseeing…  I had never actually seen a Michelangelo statue that is in a church in Rome…  it is a statue of Christ the Redeemer in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva… so, we made our way from the Termini via subway to the Pantheon stop…  we walked around the outside of the Pantheon admiring this wonderful ancient building, one of the very few buildings from Roman Times standing more or less intact…  due to the all saints day holiday, this was a holiday weekend in Rome and so the streets were very crowded with tourists from all over the world, but mostly, it seemed from the USA… 

we found the church of the Minerva and it was cool and lovely inside with soaring, barrel vaulted naves and spectacular stained glass glowing in blue and other rainbows of colors, impossibly high in the gloom of the vault… there just to the left of the high altar was the Michelangelo statue… just standing there with a rope to keep the spectators a few feet away…  this is supposedly a work that Michelangelo was unhappy with and had others work on…  but it was easy to see the master’s hand in the beautifully carved torso and the intricate musculature of the legs…  it was overpowering to be in the presence of a work of such genius…  most places in the world would build a special museum to house this work from the hand of Michelangelo, but it Rome, it just stands there by the alter…  you can deposit a euro in a box which causes a light to shine down from the ceiling and illuminate the statue…  we spent an hour looking at this wonderful work and feeling blessed to be in the presence of such true genius…

when we left the church, it was raining…  so we walked to a bus stop to catch a bus back to the Termini…  I had my credit cards and id in a pouch under my clothes to keep safe from the ever-present Rome pickpockets… but I had 35 euros in my pocket to use for incidentals…  when the bus came, it was very crowded, but because of the rain, we boarded it anyway and were accosted by one of the pickpockets who got the 35 euros out of my pocket before we managed to get off the bus…  it was a stupid mistake to get on such a crowded bus, but, I was really glad that I had secured my cards and my id…  35 euros is about 35 dollars, so it was a small loss and kind of annoying, but c’est la vie… the bus and train fares were so low as to be almost free, so it was a very inexpensive day, even including the theft…

the next day, we had planned on an outing to a small town north of Rome, but when the ticket agent at the train station told us that it would take two and a half hours each way by train to get there, we decided to go to another small town just a few minutes away from Ladispoli by train…  this town Santa Marinella was very quiet…  we walked around the town and looked down at the boats in the marina…  we then decided to have a nice lunch at a nice restaurant…  we found a lovely place with amazing home made pasta where two large meals, including chianti, cost less than $40…  

the next day, Sunday, we spent walking around Ladispoli and ended up with a seafood dinner at one of the many seafood restaurants…  the spaghetti with clams was delicious…  then, on Monday, we hauled our suitcases six blocks to the train station and caught the train for Civitavecchia…  as we walked through the town, we noticed that what looked like a small carnival was set up in the park near our hotel…

in Civitavecchia, we boarded a cruise ship for a 16 day cruise to Tampa, Fl… the next morning, at about 3 am, I awoke violently ill with what seemed like a norovirus…  I was sick for one day and missed the first port which was Toulon, France… I then did not feel terrific, but was good enough to go to shore at the next port which was Palma de Majorca…  we had a nice walk around the city and ended up at a coffee shop near the cathedral…  it was lovely and warm…  and Mary much enjoyed her coffee…  we stopped in at a church we walked by and enjoyed the beautiful stained glass and then spent some time sitting quietly in the garden in front of the cathedral… we then stopped at two ports in Spain, Malaga and Cartegena, both of which we have visited before and both of which are lovely cities to walk around in…  we hired a horse and carriage for a ride around Cartegena and visited the central market in Malaga which had lots of olives, seafood and cheese…  picture the fish, large and small on thick beds of ice, vegetable stalls with fresh oranges, berries, tomatoes, etc… the aisles crowded with shoppers picking up the ingredients of dinner… lots of smiles and talk in the quick native Spanish of the venders and the customers…

the next port was Gibraltar… we had been scheduled to stop at Azores, but bad weather in the north Atlantic dictated a more southerly crossing, so we stopped in Gibraltar…  we hired a tour and rode a mini van up to the top of the rock with stops along the way to enjoy the spectacular views of Spain and of Africa, across the strait…  there are troops of monkeys, Barbary Macaques, who live in the woods up the side of the rock and seem to enjoy bugging the tourists, trying to steal their Starbucks coffee and snacks…  one jumped up and grabbed a lollipop out of the mouth of one of the tourists…  the tour guides were on very good terms with the monkeys, visiting them every day, and carried sliced apples for the monkeys…  across the strait, we could see the shadowy bulk of the Atlas mountains of Morocco…   looking the other way, you could see the harbor and beyond the city, the green hills of southern Spain…

well, we said goodbye to the monkeys and embarked on a nine day sea voyage to Tampa, Florida…  the sea was kind of rough for the whole voyage…  we have done this trip or similar trips across the Atlantic many times and always had calm seas, more or less…  when the boat rocks, I take a medication to prevent seasickness…  this stuff works like magic, but leaves me kind of stoned and drowsy…  but not seasick…  unfortunately, a couple days out, I became ill again, this time with respiratory symptoms and fever…  I was worried that it was Covid, even though, I have had six inoculations for Covid and have actually had Covid three times, most recently, in June…  the Covid tests proved negative and I was diagnosed with acute bronchitis…  the doctor gave me a strong antibiotic that had some very strong digestive side effects, so, while I felt better, I was still uncomfortable for a couple days…  aside from that the sea voyage was lovely…

every morning, I would walk my usual 40 minutes, round and round the top deck…  this walking/jogging track was kind of bouncing around with the motion of the ship and as we were usually heading into a head wind, very windy…  but the air was amazingly fresh and watching the sun come up over the deep blue of the ocean horizon and light the clouds on fire was spectacular…  it was warm enough that we could eat breakfast on the open deck in the back of the ship where the bulk of the ship blocked the wind and the morning sun became warmer and warmer as we approach the Bahamas…  I breakfasted on the lovely fresh rolls with butter and jam and a piece of English bacon, maybe varied a few times with the full English breakfast of eggs, baked beans, mushrooms and grilled tomato with bangers and English bacon…  breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day…  and looking out at the vast blue circle of the ocean, we felt very privileged to have this experience of crossing the ocean…  out in the ocean, it is very rare to see any wildlife…  you will occasionally see a frigate bird soaring just above the waves and occasionally, flying fish jumping away from the bow wave of the ship…  but that is about it…  when you get closer to land, you begin seeing sea gulls and other birds and if you are very lucky, you may see a dolphin or two…  we did not see any dolphins or whales on this trip…

after all those days at sea, we were pretty excited to get off at the port of Nassau in the Bahamas which was our first stop in 9 days…  we wandered around the straw market in Nassau, I bought a hat that said Nassau on the front…  and we bought a few trinkets…  mostly, it was lovely to sit in the shade and look out over the port where no less that six cruise ships were tied up along with an assortment of cargo ships and pleasure boats… in the distance, we could see the pink spires and towers of the fancy Atlantis resort…   it was not as hot as it usually is in Nassau and so was a very pleasant sunny day…

then we got back on the ship for one more day at sea going around the Florida Keys to Tampa… it was fun to be close to land again and to see the lights of Key West in the distance…

we disembarked in Tampa the day before Thanksgiving and got an afternoon direct flight back to Minnesota…  we were tired and glad to be home…  our daughter in California sent us a news article she had seen to the effect that a real male lion had been released from his cage by animal rights activists…  apparently, this was at a circus in Ladispoli, which was the small carnival we had seen and walked past… so, not long after we left Ladispoli, a Lion was loose, wandering around the streets looking quite lost and forlorn…  he was later captured, the article said, and returned to his cage… which was a bittersweet ending to a very odd story…  I mean, the Lion was not harmed, but then he was returned to his life in a cage, which must have been awful for him…

it had been an interesting trip with some negative times, getting robbed, getting sick, being separated at customs in Rome, some wind and rain on land and then rough seas… but overall, it was a fascinating trip and the highs more than made up for the lows…  and it is good to remember that travel always involves some risk… even the fairly sheltered type of travel that we do can have its difficult and uncomfortable moments….  still from the monkeys of Gibraltar to the spectacular sunrises of the central Atlantic, I am glad we went…  now, we are home in Minnesota where the temperature had not been above freezing for a week and we have had some light snow… we have, I think a new appreciation of our beautiful and tranquil home and of the many privileges we are blessed to enjoy at home in Minnesota…

a fast train

I was standing on the

railroad platform in the Ladispoli-Cerveteri

train station,

when a red train came

roaring through at 150 miles per hour…

two feet from where I was standing…

the blast of noise and wind

almost knocked me over…

an Italian commuter sat

on a concrete bench, playing

with her phone and

did not even look up… 

a visit to Palma de Majorca

what I remember of the stop

in Palma de Majorca, was that

the walk into the town was

straight up hill…  alongside the

old mustard colored

cathedral, a forest of spires

and buttresses, build between 1229

and 1601…

we stopped at a coffee shop with

a bright, white and blue tiled floor

and a bathroom at the

bottom of a tight circular

stairway, in the basement… finding

bathrooms in cities we

visit has become more

important now that we

are in our mid 70s… and facing

our bodily limitations…

walking back down the hill, we stopped at

another church, Parròquia de Santa Eulàlia,

to admire the

stained glass, then sat for a while in the

shade of a park at the front

of the cathedral and watched the

fountain jets squirt in arcs

over oblong pools…  the old

trees were green with twisted black trunks

and

the hedges were trimmed square around the

pools…  from where

we sat, we could see the

port through the trees

and the cruise ship, like

a white and black mirage

looming over a concrete dock…