And then we went through a long tunnel and came out in Italy. Oddly, we knew we were in a different country right away. Buildings were different, there were more vineyards. I would never guess that a border could be so definitive but I guess before the tunnel the two countries were divided by mountains for centuries. It took us much longer than we thought to get to the national park that was our destination, Cinque Terre. When we got off the highway for the final leg of our journey, we found that leg was a sinewy road that did not always permit the driver (Chris) to see what was around the corner. So a lot of honking (to let any oncoming cars know we were coming) and sharp inhales later, we arrived at our destination. I should note that along the nail-biting inducing road were spectacular views, so the drive was not all bad. Thankfully Eliot was OK with being in the car for longer than we had planned. In fact, never once did I have to pull out the DVD player on this whole vacation. I did have to read a lot of Richard Scary and from a book called 50 bedtime stories.... but that was no problem.
Cars are only allowed in the 5 towns that make up this national park for a few hours in the evening. Luckily, we made it to the town we stayed in, Manarola, just before the no car rule (which we did not know about in advance) came into force. So we drove down the steep hill into town, quickly unloaded our gear which we had thankfully organized the night before, and hustled it into the (very) small apartment we rented. The first picture of this post is Chris and Eliot standing outside and up the stairs from the apartment. Then, Chris had to go park the car in the lot at the top of the very steep hill and walk back down. We had a very yummy Italian pasta dinner and then fell asleep!
The next day we set out to do some hiking, assisted by the train that runs along the coast. We walked along the most famous part of the trail that links these towns to the southern most town. Eliot rode in the backpack happily and walked a bit, too. Then we took the train to the northernmost town, toured its quaint streets and a couple churches, got lunch, and then set out on the trail for some real hiking. It was hilly and the day was sunny and hot, but the views were so great. We saw vineyards, lemon trees, olive trees, the sea, and the towns that were our start and end points. It was a very memorable hike. Chris got many comments as he carried Eliot (who dozed part of the way) on his back. In the next town, we had some gelato on the beach as a reward. Eliot played in the sand and water and got his clothes totally soaked. Luckily I had a spare set. He got a kick out of watching some Italian teenaged boys kick around a soccer ball. We enjoyed talking to a mother and her daughter (a recent college grad) who were touring Europe together. They were from Ann Arbor.
In fact, Cinque Terre was teeming with Americans, which we ascribe to a recent Rick Steves documentary on the area.
We used the train to get to the next town where we had a quasi dinner since the same hours of operation problem that I described in Avignon applied here. Then I carried Eliot in the backpack to our base of Manarola. This last picture is with sunlight-bathed Manarola in the background. Cinque Terre was great. Hopefully next time Eliot will do his own hiking and we can do the whole trail!
Pascale started at URS Belgium one day after I did. We sat next to each other in the office and worked on some projects together but, most importantly, had a lot of fun! Making a friend in Belgium was the best part of my time there. And, I was so happy that I would see Pascale again so soon after we left Brussels. She traveled here with her mom. They first went to NYC for a few days and then came to Chicago for a few days. We ate at some great restaurants and toured the city. We had a lot of fun and it was so great to spend time with Pascale and her mom. Eliot had a great time, too!
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