Week 38 Germany Pisa

Week 38 Germany  Pisa, Italy

Dear All:

Once again I am sitting in the airport writing this as I wait for our flight to be called.  Well this will be  the last Ryan Air trip and it was like all the rest a long way to get to the airport but great once it happened. We ended up flying right to Pisa which was really nice- the airport was right in the town. The hotel was great--walking distance to the leaning tower and I loved it.  I of course had to get all of the hokey pictures see below—believe me we took all kinds but some we were a bit off but I put a few in there.

The hotel had breakfast and we ate dinner there also since they had great meals and we got a discount since we were staying at the hotel.  We loved the Maitre de at the hotel- He was so entertaining .  As a matter of fact the first night we were too late for dinner but we walked in and sat down unknowing.  One of the waiters told us we would have to go since they were closed.  But the Maître de took a liking to us and said he would make us up something special.  For the next hour he brought us course after course of meals.  Every time we thought we were finished he would bring more food.  It was delicious.  At the end thinking we would owe him a monstrous bill he brought about a 35 Euros bill which was unbelievable to us.  We ate there the rest of the time.  LOL.  The hotel room had a balcony with a view of the city which was so nice. Of course we tried the pizza, spaghetti and Gregg even had the sea bass.  The area where the leaning tower is has a bunch of building and museums.  See pictures.  We got a tickets to them all and then walked Pisa first thing Saturday morning  It is 293 steps up.  I have height sickness so it was a difficult task for me to traverse those stairs.  The steps had settled also and  had dipped  parts in the middle of most steps.  Just about the time you  thought you were at the top there was another set of stairs.  We went all the way to the top but when I got there I could not stand up.  Just too much for me.  One of the places I could not walk across one side because of the way it was leaning.  After that we went to a crypt type church.  In there was crypts of people dated a long way back.  One of the things I noticed was the attempt to restore some of the old paintings that were damaged during World War II.

Then we  went to a singing cathedral called Baptisma.  A man went in the middle of the cathedral and sang a note and the building sang back.  It was awesome.  I had never heard anything like it.  Then we went to a few museums that had old dresses and costumes from the Romeo and Juliet era.  There were many stone carving and lots of art in most of the buildings. 

After that we went on the hop on hop off and leaned about the history of Pisa and the town.  It is a small town.  I really enjoyed it.   On our way to find the bus to the beach we ran into a protest and took  pictures along the way.  Since it was just too much trouble to figure out how to get there we decided to stay in Pisa. We had plans to go to a few other places but were  so enthralled with Pisa that we just ended up staying there

Flying out was bittersweet as we realize that this is our last Ryan Air flight.  For our time left we plan on concentrating on day trips to Germany.

I am looking forward to coming home.

Adds from this morning--

So on the plane I learned that the two places I wanted to visit form Pisa were Cinque Terre –well we ran out of time and didn’t make it but it seems there was a strike there and we would have had to take a taxi to Pisa- very pricey—whew dodged that bullet-- and that the beach cost around 100 dollars a day to rent a beach spot—C’mon people the beach belongs to everyone!!! Anyway once again we Forest Gumped it!! LOL   Great time and none of these issues!!!

Second thing got calls from both my kids and they ingeniously sent me a mother’s day present through the email-  Thanks Thomas and Amanda—I am so proud to be your Mom!!!

Happy Mother’s day to all of the mothers.

With that I will close.

Hugs from Germany,

Susan