Rome Day 4: Day Trip to Pompeii

POMPEII!

Does anyone *not* have a memory from, like, fourth grade learning about Pompeii?

For me it's one of a handful of experiences I can point to and say, "that stuck with me." It was tragic and ancient, and amazing that a perfectly persevered-in-a-moment archaeological site came out of it. And today I walked it. I saw the plaster casts and the ruts from chariots.

It's not like Pompeii has occupied my thoughts incessantly for 20-some-odd years. Other than the basic pop-culture ancient-history tragedy I didn't know much about Pompeii before today. Turns out it was a huge, functional, on-its-way-to-glory city. It had crosswalks and bakeries and Roman baths and a red light district and impressive mosaics. Yet the people of Pompeii didn't know Vesuvius was a volcano. Go figure. 

Whether or not I had done my homework, Pompeii was really neat. Our two-hour tour explained the methodology of how archaeologists and historians have pieced together daily life, and they offered insight into most of what we were looking at. And it's all fascinating. What we know and how we know it is the kind of facts that just make you go Hmmmm. 

Let's let the photos do the talking, eh?

(More about the Dark Rome/City Wonders tour at the end of the post.)

H'okay. So. About the tour. 

It was, honestly, perfectly fine. Our two tour guides on the bus were fantastic and our guide around Pompeii was delightful. I very sincerely learned a lot and wanted it to continue for the whole day.

But it was still very much a get-on-the-bus; get-off-the-bus; listen-to-the-guide-in-headphones type of tour. According to our guides, Pompeii was busy today, and I'd doubt it gets any better if you're taking the tour in the summer. I got frustrated at certain points because I didn't feel like I had enough time to really take it all in. There was a boat-load of information but I just wanted to look at it. Which there frankly wasn't always time for. 

We stopped for lunch at a pizza place just down the road from the historic site, and the pizza was delicious (salad was meh). We also stopped by the National Archaeological Museum of Naples to see a lot of artifacts that had been "removed" (CoughLootedCough) including AHMAZING mosaic murals (HUGE, intricate murals) and erotic art originally from a Pompeii brothel (also, ahem, huge...).

Ultimately I felt like it was worth the money and I'd do it again, especially since it was my first day tour based out of Rome. But if I go back just for Pompeii, I'm definitely doing it DIY. High-speed trains leave frequently from Rome, so if you time it right you could have a lot more time to spend at the ruins than the two hours allotted for our tour (and we didn't get to go back to look at things!). 

Honestly, I'd seriously consider staying in Naples or Sorrento for a couple of nights if this is high on your to-do list. We had tried to work that into our itinerary but it was going to make everything super frantic. The ruins themselves have enough to look at for at least a day. Rick Steves (of Colosseum/Roman Forum fame) suggested three hours to follow along with his podcast on the site. You could very easily spend more time here.

Rome Day 3: Audio tours FTW

Today was full of ancient ruins! The Colosseum and Roman Forum are central to Rome's ancient history, and they're mighty impressive to look at. But even though I was here in 2012 and saw both I didn't take a tour, and of course I didn't look up any information before this trip because that would have been sensible.

Enter: The Rick Steves Audio Tours. If you've traveled much, you know the name Rick Steves. If you're like me and grew up on a television diet of PBS, you know him from the Saturday afternoon lineup (probably right after Bob Ross). He's a be-khakied, be-polo-shirted Very Nice Dude who has traveled the world and he brings it to your living room in soft-spoken, digestible 30-minute nuggets. It's delightful! And today we learned, he has an app for Europe. Day = enriched.

All four of us were able to download audio tours of the Colosseum and Roman Forum, then plug in our ear buds and meander on our own through the buildings and ruins. It worked really well for our group. We kind of stayed together without having to stay together or talk to each other. Plus we were still able to talk about what we learned afterwards. Each tour took about an hour start-to-finish, so if you play your cards right — or skip the line by buying your tickets ahead of time (this link is not an endorsement!) — you could easily get to both of these sights before noon. We took a bit longer than that, but we also didn't have a whole heckuva lot else to do today, so we definitely meandered more than we might have if today were our first day.

 

We also ate some delicious pizza, fried anchovies (surprisingly delicious!), perfect pasta, and of course MOAR GELATO. Because when you're in Rome, the food is as much of an attraction as anything else.

For those of you keeping track at home, today makes three gelatos in three days. Batting 1.000! I've tried lemongrass, pear and cheese, strawberry, giuliano chocolate (traditional Italian flavor), and "black passion" which was mega chocolate plus berries. OM NOM NOM.

Rome Day 2: Ancient Aqueduct, Walking Tour, Gelato

OHEMGEE AQUEDUCT.

I jumped around with glee at the sight of the ruins of Rome's ancient aqueduct at Parco degli Acquedotti in south Rome.

The arches, now in several segments instead of one long structure, loom on the horizon as you walk along the path. You're transported immediately from the busy Viale Giulio Agricola to a peaceful park, where locals are running with their dogs and greeting each other on the pathways. Children were laughing. There was even a babbling brook running through this thing. I'll tell you what, ancient Rome knew what was up.

It was super simple to get to, just take Metro A to Guilio Agricola, then head down Viale Guilio Agricola until you see a freakin' aqueduct.

Today we also went on a walking tour with Rome's Ultimate. I was so relieved to finally be on a tour with only six humans and a guide! After the cumbersome 30-plus member groups in Munich, having the guide almost to ourselves was super. Our guide was full of information and was flexible when I commandeered the route to stop for gelato. (What? I hadn't had any yet today!)

I didn't take too many photos (most of what we saw is plenty-well documented by the internets), but I do feel like I learned quite a bit that I didn't know before. And I got to eat gelato.

Carefonfidence: It's the Roman Way

Rome is not Munich.

Rome is not London.

Rome is Rome, and I love it.

Rome does not have the structure of London, nor the discipline of Munich. Rome is chaotic and alive and full of ancient history — the kind of ancient history that hooks you on ancient history for the rest of your life and ultimately leads you to get a degree in Anthropology. But enough about me.

To cross the street in London, you need to know the rules (zebra crossings FTW). To cross the street in Munich, you need to follow the rules (green man ONLY). To cross the street in Rome, you need carefonfidence(™). 

You must be careful and also confident.

Carefonfident. 

You might be at a crosswalk, but Rome isn't going to stop for you just because you look pretty today. Rome has places to be and cappuccinos to drink! Rome has no time for your floundering! Are you crossing or not because I'm only slowing down once!

Carefonfidence means looking for traffic in all directions, then closing your eyes to cross. (Metaphorically. (Sort of.)) One sign of hesitation, of uncertainty in the moment, and that Fiat is hitting the gas.

Carefonfidence is checking the dance floor for slick spots before busting a move at homecoming.

Carefonfidence is a life skill taught by your estranged aunt who'll teach you how to smoke then rat you out to your mother. Check all around you. Clear? Okay go!

Carefonfidence means owning that crosswalk like a lioness owns a cub. Put it between your teeth and declare, This Is Mine. I Tell It What To Do.

Am I getting carried away? I'm getting carried away.

My point is, Rome has a way of teaching you to be awesome. You learn how to be aware of your surroundings and how to gauge a situation. Then it teaches you how to say, "eff it" and go do whatchyoo gotta do. Or how to decide when maybe it's time to relax with a latte and try again later.

Munich Day 4: In Photos

I got up and went to Aroma Kaffeebar to drink a latte and eat müseli:

We visited BMW Welk (BMW World) and peeked in at the museum:

We wandered around Olympiapark, built on hills made of WWII rubble, and where the 1972 Olympics were held:

Aquatic center still in use!

SUNNNNNnnnnnn

The construction is for a RedBull downhill skating race in January. 

Sunnnn!

YARN BOMB'D

Munich / München from the top

Then Britton and I found more beers. We'd hoped to revisit the Jodlerwirt, but today it was closed. Sad face. We wandered around a bit, and decided to cut our losses and head to the Hofbrauhaus for one last gigantic beer each. I always love the energy and atmosphere of that place! Plus we got to hear some live oompa-loompa music and see dancers perform some traditional steps.

The end!

Munich Day 3 (Part 2): "I want to try" not "eins zwei drei"

Dachau was pretty heavy stuff, so we found lighter activities for the afternoon.

First stop, a quick look at the Victory Gate (Siegestor). This arch sits in the middle of a rather busy street, crowned with a statue of Bavaria and four lions. The arch was heavily damaged during World War II, and was never fully restored, in order to serve as a reminder of the war. In the second photo below, the columns should be supporting a ledge, like you can see in the first photo.

Second stop, watching the surfers at the Eisbach River. (Yep, surfing in water with the name "ice brook".) I can't believe these guys were still out there when it's nearly January! Today was mild, but it sounds like this is a year-round activity even when the weather isn't abnormally warm. It was really fun to watch. I'd be here weekly if I lived in Munich. You could tell some of these guys were very new at this, and for such a strenuous sport I can imagine the learning curve is pretty steep. 

We walked back through the Englischer Garten, aka Munich's "Green Lung" — a huge park near the east side of central Munich. It was very popular on a Saturday evening, with musicians, picnickers, and lots of doggies. And of course a biergarten!

We finished up the day at Augustiner Keller, a beer hall near-ish to where we're staying. I only ordered potato dumplings, and the waiter only rolled his eyes a little bit. It was a win-win.

Today's title came from yesterday. We were attempting to order pretzels with a waiter who was really energetic but not so great with English. We wanted one order to try, but "I want to try" sounds just like "eins zwei drei", drei being the German word for three! We almost ordered three baskets of bread (not pretzels; the pretzels never materialized) for four people before we realized why he kept holding up three fingers. Language!

Munich: Dachau Concentration Camp Tour

There's no easy way to write about visiting a Concentration Camp. But I think it's important that you visit, if you have an opportunity. I'm not going to write much about it because it seems like everyone will have a similar-but-different, powerful experience. I certainly did.

It's horrifying and astounding to realize the scale of Dachau, and how it compares to other camps and other atrocities during the war: the 41,000+ who were murdered at Dachau are a fraction of the millions at other camps.

It's redeeming to realize that Germany today has a very deep respect, reverence, or even shame, for what happened. You don't make jokes about the Holocaust here. A Nazi salute — even in jest — is punishable with jail time.

And there's hope in realizing that we can say "Never Again" and mean it.

What's this?

I went to Dachau with a tour, which I would highly recommend. Our trip today was actually the second time my husband toured Dachau; he was here in 2007 on his own and did the self-guided, read-the-placards method. He mentioned a couple times that he preferred the guided since our guide provided a lot of context for what the signs within the memorial and museum describe. Guides also have answers to your random questions. A four-hour tour only covered the very basics of Dachau; with a guide you can ask more in-depth questions between group stops. We used Sandemans New Munich Tours, but there are plenty of tour groups to choose from.

Travel pro-tip: we bought sandwiches at the train station before heading out. Our tour started at 9:30 and finished at Dachau around 2:30/3:00, so I was quite thankful that the family had the forethought to grab some sandwiches to eat on the S-bahn home. (No food allowed within the memorial.)

DIY Travel: Getting to and from Dachau would be very easy. Take the S2 S-bahn toward Petershausen; get off at Dachau Bahnhof. Exit the station and walk to the bus stop, which is right outside. Then, take bus 726 to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. If you have a metro pass for the entire network, your travel costs are already covered. The bus waited for a long time at either terminus, so it's very easy to navigate. (Most tours include travel costs in the price if you don't have a travel pass.)