Pisa [Europe 2012: The forgotten blog posts]

You know what feels more productive than working today? Updating my blog about our trip to Europe last summer. Because I never finished writing about some of the best parts! Plus now Pinterest lets you pin things toa map, which is super cool. So, thus I start the first installment of Europe 2012: The forgotten blog posts.

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How iconic is the leaning tower of Pisa, when you think about traveling the world? To me, it’s one of my first memories of thinking “I want to see that.” I was probably in middle school I guess? I remember being fascinated by the story that Galileo dropped cannon balls off the side of it to prove gravity worked evenly on everything. You mean to tell me that something Galileo stood on is still standing (though tilted) today??

[The train ride from Rome was fine, except that the train car we chose didn’t have a working bathroom and I forgot to “go before we left.” My mother’s words haunted me for the last thirty minutes as I did everything short of dancing around the car to not wet myself. That might have been the most uncomfortable half-hour of my life, despite the comfy chairs and beautiful Italian countryside rolling by. To make matters worse, you had to PAY FOR the bathrooms in the Pisa train station (not uncommon in Europe, mind you) and I didn’t have any change. When I finally did get some change, I wound up hurriedly dropping my dime into the turnstile for — and then walking into — the MEN’S BATHROOM. Luckily the two restrooms were connected by a custodian’s closet, which was miraculously open, and the poor custodian cleaning the bathrooms — who spoke little, if any, English — frantically waved me through. Talk about a comedy of errors.]

So. Pisa. Yes.

The bus to the tower is just a normal city bus, so we had to figure that out. The herd of dazed tourists wandering from the station helped. We rode this crazily-driven bus through the tiny city (luckily with EMPTY bladders), trying not to fall on each other, until finally the driver yelled a few Italian words and we all decided that this must be the stop, even though there was no tower and no signs suggesting a tower.

So we walked. And walked a little more. I feel like it was at least a mile. B can attest that I’m a terrible judge of distance, but I distinctly remember wondering if we would ever see this tower.

We did, of course, and it was SO. COOL. The tower’s white façade against that day’s clear, blue skies was breathtaking, and it looked just like the photos! It was like seeing a celebrity on the street. I’d seen this tower so often in photos it had become like a myth. Seeing it in person, examining the foundation, realizing that a 4-degree tilt really does matter when something is 180 feet tall… it was just awesome.

And then we took silly photos. :D

Yes, I'll try the European sampler platter, please.

We know our trip's itinerary it pretty ambitious, but that's what we want to do - see as much as we can and go hard while we're here.

When we arrive in Frankfurt, we will have reached our 5th country in 4 days. England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and now Germany. A night in each since Paris.

I've liked each city more than the one before it, which makes traveling really exciting! We're already riding the emotional high of this trip, and then we continue to be wowed by the culture and rhythm of the next new place.

What hit me in Amsterdam was how much time we DON'T have to discover a city when we're only there a few hours. We become limited to the touristy things instead of being able to explore on our own. Plus this morning we ran ourselves out of time and since we had to hold ourselves to the timetable of the train, we had to compromise our original (more fun!) plans.

But in a way this is good market research; a small almost hor d'ourve -sized sampling of some of those cities you hear are worth a visit but never get to since they are out of the way or not as popular. Not many people we know have made Brussels or Amsterdam a part of their European adventures, and frankly we like being the ones to stride away from the well-worn paths. Plus now we know what we're most drawn to; we definitely want to try to get to Amsterdam again some day but are content with our visits to Paris & Brussels.

I am looking forward to the next few destinations. The whirlwind schedule of the first few days turns into a breeze just right for sailing. Each place gets at least two nights from now on which means a full day or more of exploring.