We touched down in NYC from Brussels in July ending our 10 month journey around the world stopping at the first three tennis grand slams for 2010.  The travel excitement was not ending. We have been attending the US Open for over 25 years. There was excitement from the vibrancy of New York City to the expectations of the last slam of the year. Could Federer hold off the ascent of Nadal by winning the Open, could Nadal get the career slam, would the two greatest players Federer and Nadal play each other for the first time ever in the North American slam? Some talking heads were billing that match would be the greatest match ever in tennis.

We got our usual seats in the second row behind the baseline in the Grand Stand and witnessed at least 8 hours per day of great tennis for 4 days, stopping in at Armstrong stadium for a day and a half day in our nose bleed seats in Arthur Ashe. The play was fast and furious as was the 4 days, as was the last 10 months.

Monfils-takes a break for one of many shoe concerns.

Tipsarevic. Are those tennis tips on his arms?

Our first match was a barnburner with Monfils versus Tipsaveric. Tipsarevic knocked out Roddick in the previous round with some heavy ground stroking producing 66 winners and only 30 unforced errors. Today was different, Monfils was able to track down Tipsaveric balls making him to go for too much. Monfils took a timeout during one game for broken shoes.  The man is an entertainer.

21 year old Wickmayer

Schnyder-ranked 52

Wickmayer needed all her speed to take the first and third set tiebreakers for the win. The third was a thrilling last minute standoff by Schnyder but she came up short 8-6 in the tiebreaker.  What happened to the promising 32 year old Schnyder’s career?  Wickmayer is too high strung on the court for my liking. But a good showing for Belgium with 3 women and three men in the draw and the eventual women’s champion. Where are the young Americans?

The 15th seed Melzer

Ferrero-the 22th seed and a former number one player.

The twenty-nine year old Melzer, the 2010 Wimbledon doubles champion is having the best year of his career and easily deposed of the thirty year old Ferrero in three sets. Melzer would have his run stopped in the next round by Federer, just like it happened at Wimbledon.

Schiavone-the 6th seed and French Open champion.

Pavlyuchenkova-the hard hitting 20th seed.

The 19 year old could not get the ball by the French champion, producing 29 errors to Schiavone’s 14. Schiavone is a dynamo bull dog on the court and will tire you out just watching her all court game. The thirty year old squashed the promising Russian. Schiavone’s run ended in the next round by Venus Williams.

Almagro-part of the Spanish Armada at the Open.

Querrey-one of the surging Americans.

This was the battle of one of the biggest one handed backhands and one of the biggest forehands in the game. The big forehand easily stopped Almagro. Almagro could be seen shaking his head  and saying to his coaches box, “I can’t beat him”. Querrey wowed the crowd with 42 winners, mostly off the forehand and threw in 19 aces for a convincing 3 set win over the 14th seed.  Querrey is on the rise.

Murray-the 4th seed, using his head.

Wawrinka-25th seed and the other Swiss.

If new coaches ever made a difference it was today by the Swiss and the Brit. Wawrinka was all positive energy even with a thigh injury timeout. He would not let Murray hang around. After losing the 1st set tiebreaker, he came back with a thrilling 2nd set tiebreaker win and that was enough for Murray who hang dogged it to his coaching mother for the next 2 sets.

Monfils-only a couple players can do this.

Gasquet-24 years old and once ranked 7th

This was the battle of supremacy for the 2 highest ranked French players. Gasquet’s pretty game was not enough for the shoe weary Monfils. Monfils even stopped play with a timeout after a shin scrapping tumble on the court and walked gingerly to the umpire and sat down in his seat. It amused the crowd that the umpire announced that Monfils was going to change his shoes.

Fish-no fish joke here.

Djokovic-the 3rd seed.

This was an highly anticipated match because the American Fish was on a resurrected career and having a surging summer, everyone wanted to see him go on further but the 3rd seed is the real stuff and slowly tired out Fish who had a 5 set win over Clement in the previous round.

Wozniacki- top seed, 2 in the world, no slams.

Sharapova-23yrs old, former #1, 3 slams

This was a test for both women. Was Wozniacki the real top seed at the tournament or was the former 2006 Open champion back true form? With Serena out, it was wide open for someone on top of their game to win it. Sharapova attacked in the blue for most of the 2 sets, but Wozniacki’s 10 only unforced errors keep Sharapova going for broke and the loss.

On our first day at the Open I forgot to put a SD disk in my camera, so no images of our first day, but what a first match it was. This match is what you hope for when going to the Open. An 18 year old American ranked 220 in the world who had to play the qualifying tournament to get into the Open draw was up against the 36 ranked and unseeded player Stakhovsky. Harrison had already won his first round against Ljubicic the 15th seed. So the hype was on, was he the next American hope? The grandstand was filled and the crowd was chanting “Ryan, Ryan…”. Harrison lost the first set fairly easily, but what was surprising was this kid was a serve and volley player, in an era that does not lend itself to that style. Harrison was also strong from the baseline picking spots to get to the net and served consistently in the 120′s and over 100 on the second. The crowd watched in disbelief that there could be such a stronger baseliner and server that vollied at every opportunity and he was an new and unknown American. His opponent also pick times to get to the net, making 91 approaches to Harrison’s 83. When was the last time that many net plays occurred?  Harrison’s game clicked in the 2nd set and he took it 7-5 and the crowd was wild and buckling down for the best of the 3 remaining sets.  Harrison took the 3rd set easily and it looked like he was going to the next round, the crowd was ecstatic. Stakvohsky’s experience came into play, showing he was not done yet. Taking the fourth. Both players were looking tired for the fifth set, where the player with the most will usually wins. Since there was so much net play there were more lobs in the match than probably all other matches in the tournament together. Harrison at one point succeeded in running down a lob and hit a winning tweener that put the crowd in a standing frenzy.  The fifth set went to a tie breaker that brought the crowd to a standing ovation after the 4 hour display of tennis like it hasn’t been played in decades. The crowd started chanting “Lets go Ryan..”. It was an electric tie breaker and Harrison was feeding off the energy of the crowd and it was soon at 3 match points for Harrison. The players had to wait long for the crowd to silence. Stakvohsky served two big serves and followed them in for two put away volleys. It was next up to Harrison at 6-5 to close out the match. He kicked his first serve out wide just barely missing an ace that the crowd thought it was responding with a quick loud cheer then a sigh. The second serve was a lollipop and Stakvohsky took control with a long rally that Harrison lost with a missed shot. At 6-6 Harrison double faulted. Match point Stakvohsky. The air was out of Harrison’s play from then on and he lost 8-6 with a lob to Stakvohsky standing at the net. It was a big let down to see Harrison lose, so much energy was generated in that stadium, it seemed like the tournament was over, but it was the first match of the four in the Grandstands for the day. Everyone was drained and disappointed but they knew they saw something special.

One of the benefits of the tournament is a ear piece radio.  The matches are not only broadcast over the radio but they have special segments of tennis interest. One such is an early morning interview with Nick Bolleteri. In the segment the next day after the Harrison match he said Harrison is the real thing. In 2 to 3 years’ tennis can expect really big things from him.  He was really enthusiastic about his development.

The next match was Schiavone versus Bondarenko. Schiavone also hit a tweener (remember the Sabatweeny?)that set her jumping 3 feet off the ground in celebration. Bondarenko could beat any male tennis player with just her good looks but it didn’t help her against Schiavonne.

Nalbandian watched the ball as good as Federer but gives a big snarled look at the ball before striking it. Serra was not in the same league and Nalbandian was on the comeback trail.

After 10 hours of tennis we had to beat the crowd to the subway.

Line 7 subway stop at US Open- Willets Point.

CLICK-to see our search for England's Crown Jewels.

Having just been at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London, I wondered what could possibly be more exciting in London.  Walking through Hyde Park several times a day was an extremely pleasurable city activity just across the street from our apartment, but it was not exciting. Then we  discovered, by chance when walking by the park concert grandstand, that Paul McCartney was to perform in the park while we were in London. He was the headliner for an all-day concert that was part of an all-weekend concert, which was part of an all-month concert in the park. We could not believe our eyes, we thought we must be reading something wrong and went home to goggle it and sure enough tickets were for sale and two were ours! The London itinerary did not include 4 days at Wimbledon with McCartney singing in the park where we were staying. This could not be a better tour package!

CLICK-for Sir Paul McCartney singing in Hyde Park, London.

We arrived for the act before McCartney which was Crosby, Stills and Nash. The crowd had grown to about 50,000 by then with a mixture of all age groups. The crowd was in a dance mood which CSN obliged.  I liked CSN, especially in the 70′s, and  most of their lyrics are about those times.  I wondered, as the younger concert goers danced, what relevance do any of the CSN’s songs have to this generation. What could “Almost Cut My Hair” mean today?  All of McCartney’s songs seem to have stood the test of 40+ years of time and the crowd was in a dancing mood the whole time. It was strange,though, to see some try to jump/sway/and twitch to Eleanor Rigby. The night was full of Beatle and Wings hits with a touching Lennon tribute song that McCartney said he only wished he could have played for John when Lennon was alive. He also sang  Harrison’s “Something in the Way She Moves” accompanying himself at the start on a ukulele and ending the song with his full rocking guitar backup. Maybe everyone’s  last concert is their favorite, and this was no exception. McCartney did three encores ending with “Yesterday” and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Club Band (We hope  you have enjoyed the show)  Ann’s favorite Beatle’s song has always been “A Day In The Life”.  It was a show-stopper in Hyde Park.

CLICK - for scenes around Brugge Belgium.

If a town has a Salvador Dali museum in its city center, then I think the the town should be a great visit. Salvador Dali  said “There are some days that I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.” This is how I felt about Brugge, Belgium. It was a perfect town for what we do best – walk, shop, talk and eat or just plain explore.  The town is a UNESCO World Heritage site with cobblestone roads of medieval architecture with a small system of canals and  an unusual array of shops and friendly people. Brugge refers to itself as the “Venice of Northern Europe”. This last leg of our trip was out of Brussels, Belgium with visits to Brugge and Amsterdam.  Because Brugge has such a fascinating and relaxing atmosphere, and probably because it is near the end of our trip, I did a lot of thinking about past experiences. I was reminded of our Tokyo city walk when we exited a Buddha shrine the same time as a lone Japanese traveler.  After asking for directions, we ended up for the rest of the evening walking the city with him .  He was a doctor and said that walking around Tokyo frees his mind to think of better ways to care for his patients.  Brugge had this kind of effect.  At times it felt like we were on a movie set.  European World Cup fever reached its pinnacle while we were in Brugge. The night before the football final, a dance and concert was held on market square. It was interesting that the band talked in Dutch before and after every song, but all night  long they performed songs like  Beach Boys and Eagles in perfect English. A good time was had by all. This is a good time to mention that Belgium has close to 1000 different beer brands. The Belgium beach season is short from July 1st to August 31st. On the first 80 + degree day we took a train and a tram to Bredene aan Zee for a day at the beach. It was early in the season and the north winds were blowing across the really cold water of the North Sea. Wind shields are a real popular beach accessory.

CLICK-for scenes of Amsterdam

The Belgium rail system took us into Amsterdam Netherlands for a 7 night stay in a Joordan apartment. We had to connect to another train in Rotterdam. Our train could not get into the Amsterdam station because an estimated 1 million people were celebrating the return of the Netherlands soccer team from the World Cup. Fortunately when we arrived, the mob was retreating away from the center of town but had left the city trashed.  It is an historically fascinating city known for its high tolerance level that helped it become the wealthiest city in the world 350 plus years ago. A series of plagues, Napolean and Hilter has robbed the city of most of its wealth. Today, Amsterdam’s liberal drug laws and almost non existent alcohol law attracts huge throngs of teenage urban backpackers looking for the next party – which they found with the soccer welcome-home celebration. The whole city structure is unique with its wide canals and 4 story buildings built at sea level.  A unique feature of the homes is the incredibly steep stairs connecting the different floors. Therefore, most homes are narrow and 3,4 or 5 stories tall. Amsterdam does not fill its streets with statues as the other European cities we visited, but one  monument that has left a strong imprint on Dutch history is the windmill. After the 80 year war with Spain, the skilled craftsmen and merchants from Antwerp immigrated to Amsterdam, a town of skilled seamen and mapmakers. Soon, thousands of windmills were built. Some windmills were built to power sawmills that were used to build ships. Before long, the Dutch had the best shipping routes and captured the rich spice trade of the day. This led to accumulating a lot of the wealth  that led to creating the world’s first stock exchange  (Dutch East India Company), the first central bank and the first economic bubble -  the tulip mania.

CLICK-for a short tour of Brussels Belgium.

This was the Dutch “Golden Age”. The Dutch extended their influence into the New World setting up New Amsterdam in their colony of New Netherlands. In 1664, the Dutch surrendered the city to the English and it was renamed New York. Many famous and familiar Dutch names came from this era. One name that everyone is familiar with is  Rembrandt. who was a son of a miller. You have to wonder if the paradigm will shift again with today’s resurgence of the windmill.

From the lava flow of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii to the windmills of Zaanse Schans Netherlands with 3 tennis grand slam tournaments in between, these 10 months of no more snow have gone by fast. Ten months though is a long time traveling and we are in need of a pit-stop at home, family and friends. The weather we experienced for the last 3 months in Europe has been high 60′s, and 70′s with an occasional low 80 degrees. We can not wait to totally enjoy in this summer’s New York scorcher especially at the US Open!

Stay tuned for TT production’s video of the Terrible Towel Goes Around the World.

Nadal had his eye on one thing.

The ghost of Fred Perry haunted Murray.

S.Williams was ace supreme.

CLICK image -In "The Queue" with queue card and instruction booklet.

BUT THE REALLY BIG NEWS WAS………….

Our first full day in London was spent trying to secure tickets for Wimbledon with no luck.  At noon, the tournament sold returned tickets on Ticketmaster. We tried getting returns for hours. Also at 8:30pm,  400 more tickets were released for the back row of Center Court.  Many more hours on the website and no tickets. It looked like we would have to go to Wimbledon and wait in “The Queue”. The next day, arriving on the edge of the tournament grounds, we were greeted by overly-friendly Wimbledon stewards who directed us through a gate for non-ticket holders. A walkway led to a grassy field with greeting stewards directing us to the end of the queue where another steward gave us our queue number: 8486.  The stewards said we had a good chance of making today’s cutoff of 8500, at which time the entrance gate would close.  It was 10:30.  Once our section of the queue was situated, the roving stewards suggested for everyone to sit because it would be awhile before we moved. It felt like a big picnic in the park, with occasionally moving forward and sitting back down. At 12:30 we made it through the gate and then the gate closed behind us. We were the last in! We went through an airport-type security and purchased our 20 pound field pass and headed for the schedule board to see where the Isner/Mahut continuation would be. It was the 3rd match on Court 18. We were lucky again because the outside court matches started at 12:00.  No one left Court 18 until after first match and then only about 20 people left. We got 2 of the remaining 10 seats and watched the Pennetta/Niculesu match. No one left after that match! There was a one-hour delay before Isner/Mahut and a feeling of something special was about to happen was filling the air. Court 18 was now swamped with fans around it and walkways were jammed up with no movement.  Click the scoreboard for a summary of the longest tennis match in history 70-68 in the fifth set, and click on the photo of me in “The Queue” image for photos of this huge, record-breaking match.

Court 18 is next to Henman Hill and next to the resell ticket office. After the Isner match, we walked right up the Court 1 resell window and for 5 pounds got seats to watch the finish of the other big American – Querrey playing Dodig.

After such a thrilling day of tennis, we decided that “The Queue” was not so bad after all. After many hours of trying to get tickets on Ticketmaster, again with no success, we decided to try queuing again. We planned to leave the apartment one hour earlier in hopes of getting into Wimbledon to watch Isner continue his tournament run.

Bigger Queue second day.

There were also more campers.

View from top of Henman Hill.

Our second day in “The Queue” was a disaster. We did not make the cutoff. It took 6 hours in “The Queue” before we got in. We experienced Queue fatigue! We missed all the early matches. Once in, we decided to watch Mayer on a small court thinking it was the same entertaining Mayer we saw at the French Open. It was not Leonardo  but  Flavian Mayer. But what we did see was this guy named Lu, who we never saw before. He was terrific. He later took out Roddick in the tournament. Before leaving, we stopped in at some other matches and roamed the grounds, particularly Henman hill, which is a great jumbo TV viewing experience. Back at the apartment, we decided to use both of our computers to try to get tickets. Within minutes, Ann got lucky with 2 Center Court tickets.

CLICK image for center court quarterfinal play matchups.

After our first day at Center Court, we decided to again use two computers to attempt ticket purchases. Unbeliveably, Ann snagged 2 tickets for the next day within minutes…for the Men’s Quarterfinals.

One difference in viewing tennis live and on TV is that the speed of the ball looks consistent on TV, but when viewed live, there are many different speeds and spins going on. Sometimes, one player hits the ball so much harder than the other. This was noticeable when we watched the Berdych/Federer match live at Center Court and later watched coverage of the match on TV. Berdych’s forehand and serves were so much faster than Federer’s that it made Federer look a bit slow, which is not the case. Berdych’s forehand is flat and fast. On TV it was hard to see the difference in Berdych’s and Federer’s other than Federer was not getting to a lot of Berdych’s. It was hard to watch Federer get pushed around like he was in the third set.  The crowd was definitely cheering for a Federer comeback after his third set 1-6 loss.  Federer, at times, did rev it up to true Federer form but it did not last.  It was still good to see he could play like the Federer of legend, if only for a couple points. There is so much more other than the speed of the ball that comes through in live tennis that TV just cannot show. Click the handshake image for a match summary. 

Rooftop public viewing of Wimbledon.

Our expectations were real low about being able to enter the Wimbledon grounds during our whole 10 month trip, until a steward in The Queue said, “You will get in”. After our first day having watched the Isner/Mahut match, we could not believe our good fortune. It was way more than we had expected. You cannot believe, on top of that, how fortunate we felt getting good Center Court seats for 2 days. The rest of the tournament we spent at a public viewing of Wimbledon at at modern corporate rooftop plaza around the corner from Buckingham Palace. It was a great walk through Hyde Park each day to get to the TV. With our 2010 US Open tennis tickets already  in the mail, it looks like we really will make the Grand Slam this year.

Wimbledon lives up to its tradition.

Roland Garros is at the crossroads of Grand Slam tennis.

The train ride from Venice Italy to Paris France is 8 hours long with a 20 minute train transfer in Milan Italy. The only way to get to the train station in Venice, other than walking, is by water taxi. Riding in the canals was a fun experience, as was the train ride to Milan. But once in Milan, all the train seats faced forward, which must have confused everyone for no one could find their right seat or car. For about 20 minutes in our car it was musical chairs. Different languages were trying to settle seating disputes. Once we crossed the French border, the French National police asked everyone for their passports. At the next station stop, about 6 people were taken off the train…and taken somewhere.

Click image to see who belongs to this arm.

We arrived late in Paris, and the next day headed for Roland Garros with a day pass we got from the 2010 Roland Garros website. We settled into Court Three and watched our first French Open match. We stayed all day at Court Three and did not roam around the grounds because the tennis was too exciting. We picked up the ground pass while in Barcelona. In Nice, we discovered that by repeatedly accessing the Viagogo website it is possible to purchase returned French Open tickets at face value. Some new tickets would show up periodically at random times. If you were fast enough, you could click the “buy option” before someone else did and snag tickets for days at Roland Garros.  Tickets came and went in a matter of  seconds. We got lucky enough for four additional days of reserved seats, 2 in Langlen and 2 in Chatrier. Chatrier seats 15,000 and Lenglen 10,000. All good viewing, no nose bleed sections. An interesting note about exiting the stadiums is that ushers issue you an re-entry ticket that must be shown to re-enter the stadium. Many people leaving for the day will give their re-entry ticket to the first person who asks in the waiting crowd.

Day 7

8 & 9

We sent some reports to the TU tennis blog on our first experiences at the French Open. Click the flags for our first two reports. 

The two highlights of this year’s tournament were that Roger Federer, for the first time in 23 grand slam tournaments, did not reach the semifinals and an Italian, a women, won a grand slam tournament for the first time ever. Click here for a report, of one of her matches we saw on her way to her French Open victory along with the Federer loss. Nadal’s victory brings him one win away from tying Borg’s French Open victories.

CLICK image for some museum viewing.

At the same time as Roland Garros, World Cup fever was rampant in the city, which I think took over all the outdoor TV viewing in the city. We were unable to find any outdoor viewing other than at Roland Garros. The viewing area there has limited space and seating. We decided we were spoiled by the Australian Open Federation Square experience.

We spent 26 days in Paris, and could have spent more to fully explore the city. We spent 3 entire days trying to see most of the Louvre and more was definitely needed to fully appreciate everything it has to offer. Paris has many museums to visit, way too many to go to all of them. We made trips to the Orsay, the Pompidou, and the Orange.  Paris is a city that has attracted many famous artists for many centuries and Parisians are proud of this fact. Our favorite museum was the Dali.

The city is a fairly new-looking city with wide roadways and sidewalks with almost every restaurant having tables or chairs on the sidewalk, and there are many. Every block also seems to have a Patisserie where the best baked goods ever can be found. There is not a better baguette anywhere in the world.

CLICK image for some street scenes.

There are numerous well known landmarks in the city that we did not want to miss like the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and Sacre Couer to name a few. Everywhere you go there are beautiful parks. One we walked through almost everyday was the Tuileries Garden, that is the entrance to the Louvre. A great walk is from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées to the Louvre.

Needless to say Paris itself was a bonus besides going to Roland Garros. The 26 days went fast and we were off to London next to see if we could secure tickets for Wimbledon. We were not having luck in finding tickets… so far.

Wouldn't an evening in Paris by train be delightful.

Train travel in Europe is fun, efficient, and inexpensive with spectacular views.  You may even encounter English speaking travelers sitting across from you. The ride is so smooth that when traveling through the dark tunnels you feel that the train has stopped. But if you never bought train tickets in Europe before, this is where the real adventure begins. We forgot to buy a Eurail pass before we left the US and found that a premium is paid if you buy one in Europe. It is further complicated because not all the combination options are available such as the France/Italy pass we wanted. Some of the 2 weeks in Barcelona were spent planning  our 3 week trip to Paris from Barcelona, in time for Roland Garros.  We weighed renting a car or buying the Eurail pass or individual train tickets.  With the help of the website seat61, we went with the tickets. It would seem with the internet all we would need do is purchase and print, not true. The train station is best. The train stations are busy and long waiting lines for tickets are not uncommon. Be wary of the queue-hoppers that hover in the crowd around the queue looking for weak links to saunter into pretending to be rejoining a group in the queue. Also, be sure to know the train number you want. Buying tickets in Spain for France and Italy is impossible, but a ticket from Barcelona into France is not. We got a ticket as far into France as we could and ended up in Montpellier. There we could buy our tickets to Nice and then to Genova Italy. In Italy we could buy our tickets from Genova to Rome, Rome to Florence, Florence to Venice, and the Venice to Paris. The Montipellier, Genova, and Venice stayovers were decided because of train scheduling difficulties with other cities. We wanted to get the Italy to Paris overnight couchette, but they sold out before we could get into Italy. The French train website could only be used in French. If you used the English version, you had to pick up the tickets in the UK. The Italian train website has major problems accepting credit card payments, so it was useless.

Nice by the Mediterranean

We stayed 2 nights in Montipellier. The town is divided into an old section and a newer section. The older section looked much like Barcelona and the new part was large cement buildings with false columns and balconies.  The weather was rainy while we were there so we did not do much except wander around. Montpellier has such a fantastic modern tram system that we wondered why the Capital District does not have one like it.  Population Montpellier 250,000. Capital District 1,000,000.  My point-and-shoot camera broke here, so no photos.

CLICK-for a show of this Nice France train stop while staying in this Kyoto studio.

Getting to the train station on the tram was simple and we were off to Nice. The train seats are two seats facing each other around a table. Most French people know at least a little English.  Our apartment in Nice was unique in that all the apartments in the building had a different country decorating theme. Ours was Kyoto Japan. Since the weather was still early spring in  May, it was not beach weather and all the beaches in Nice are stones. We did a couple museums, shopping for a camera, hiking, and getting in the sun whenever the sun did shine.

Next stop was Genova Italy for two days, mainly to get our Italian train tickets and the 8 hour train trip ticket to Paris. We stayed by the rail station, a few steps from the statue of Christopher Columbus, who was born in Genova. This city is also divided into the old section and new section. We stayed in the old and were surprised by the museum visits we could do there. The city has developed the old section and the harbor section of the town into an attractive tourist destination.

CLICK-for more Roman statues seen everywhere even on vendor carts.

Our much anticipated trip to Rome was next. Getting from the train station to our place was our first introduction to the Italian lively way of speaking. Leaving the train station is exclusively by taxi and there is bustle of excitement with drivers meeting travelers. We were about to leave in the taxi when a policemen calmly approached the driver’s window and said something to the driver that provoked the driver into a loud, shouting conversation that escalated to an in-your-face street argument. People from the busy train station were soon gathered around watching and participating in the flailing of arms and shouting in what looked like the beginning of a riot. As more police cars arrived,  it became apparent that our driver was occupied with business other than driving.  As we were leaving the cab, we watched men holding our driver and pulling him away from the police as he was screaming and waving at them.  We were surprised how calm and unprotected the police were! We stayed a week in a top floor apartment off a cobbled street a half block from the Pantheon. The plaza of the Pantheon is surrounded by outdoor restaurants with a fountain in the middle. It was always filled with people either being serenaded at the restaurants, with people lounging on the fountain wall, drinking, eating, singing or people-watching, and people coming and going from the Pantheon. It was a great place to spend a week.

CLICK- for images of Florence.

We took the bus to the train station for the trip to Florence with what is called a Roma Pass that can be used to get into museums and for using the bus system. Unfortunately we were unaware that our pass had expired the previous day.  We became aware of our expired passes with the help of the transit authority control agents that roam the buses asking riders for their tickets.  They were so kind to inform us about our expired tickets and were more than helpful in letting with us continue on the bus to the train terminal. They wouldn’t let us purchase tickets and charged us 50 Euros each for their help.  Needless to say. this left us with a such a bad feeling about Rome’s bus system that even after having such a great time in Rome, we felt that we should advise everyone to avoid the Roman buses like the Plague.

CLICK-for images of Venice.

Although the train is roomy you must bring all your luggage on board with you and store it overhead, between your legs or in the aisles.  On the Venice train the overhead was smaller than usual, so we put our carry-ons on the seats across from us hoping no one would show up. Across the aisle from us 4 big senior Italians showed up with 4 big suitcases.  They maneuvered around and around trying to get their suitcases and themselves situated comfortably. They chattered and waved their arms at each other while trying to solve their suitcase puzzle.  After about 15 minutes of their commotion I suggested for them to put some of their cases on the seat across from us. Together we maneuvered their  suitcases onto the two seats until a comfortable arrangement was found. Luckily no one showed up for those two seats and the ride was enjoyable. The six of us laughed together as we talked about what went on and the Italians passed around Italian candies for all to share. Its amazing how people can get things can get done when they don’t speak the same language.

Next stop, Paris.

Entrance to the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona 1899 site of the Barcelona Open

Our first 4 days in Barcelona were spent at the 2010 Barcelona Tennis Open at a tennis club. We stayed in a hotel right outside the train station and took bus 32 right to the stadium.

Gasquet CLICK

If you click the image of Gasquet a tournament player slide show of the matches we watched will appear with the match results.

We sent logs to the Albany Times Union Tennis Blog. If you click this scoreboard you will see our day one log of the event. If you click this scoreboard you will get day three activity.

Verdasco beat Soderling in the final 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Sagrada Familia and park outside chruch. CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE GUADI

After the tournament we moved to a central Barcelona apartment to walk the city better. The city is laid out very easy for walking.  The city intersections have the corners gone making for hexagonal intersections.  A lot of these are huge with a fountain and/or statue in the middle. Most of the buildings in the city of 1.6 million are no higher than 5 stories.  Throughout the city Antoni Gaudi has left his mark, from street posts to fence posts, apartment buildings to churches, and his dream urban housing development that flopped and now is a park. His architectural style is unique and is best represented by the Sagrada Familia, that is taking over a century to build.

Art in Barcelona CLICK IMAGE

If you click the Sagrada Familia image, examples of Gaudi’s work throughout Barcelona will display.  He built a home in Guell Park where there is only one other home. Later it was turned into park. The park is on a hill overlooking the city. There are lots of examples of his usage of broken tiles made into a mosaic design.  His architecture style is displayed across the city. Another Barcelona artist Joan Miro also used broken tiles in mosaic design. There is a Miro Museum and some of his art is displayed around the city. Picasso was also born in Barcelona and there is a museum in the Gothic area of the city displaying the works of his first 20 years and his last 10. Some of Piscasso’s early works lacked detail in the faces. We both thought he was not very good at this stage. His best paintings are in private holdings. Some are in Barcelona’s National Museum(MNAC). The MNAC is in a park-like setting where the Miro Museum, Olympic grounds and Spanish Village are found.  Outside on the front stoop of the museum there is a musician that plays a real good Spanish guitar. Clicking the Barcelona image will display some of the art around Barcelona.

Statues are everywhere. CLICK IMAGE

Most of the museums prohibit photos of their most famous exhibits. Sculptures are frequent in the city as fountains, friezes, and statues. Many buildings have statues up on the rooftops or on top of domes. Click the gondola over the angel statue image for a look at some of Barcelona’s statues.

We used some of the Barcelona time in planning the train trip from Barcelona to Paris. We planned stops in Montpellier, Nice, Montpellier, Rome, Florence, and Venice. We forgot to buy a Eurrail pass before we left and we found you could not buy the France/Italy pass in Europe, only the individual countries passes which are more expense than the city to city tickets. In Spain we found you can only buy France train tickets in France and the Italian train website has problems accepting foreign credit cards, so Italian tickets had to be bought in Italy.

Its different on the other side of the wall.

After Marrakesh our next stop was the Medina of Essaouira, another city surrounded by a wall. There is a very good bus trip to Essaouira from Marrakesh provided by SupraTours.. It is inexpensive and comfortable on a luxury tour bus. The Moroccan views going by the window keep you entertained.

Essaouira is on the ocean so we expected to do some beach time.  The city has a reputation to be a little more laid back than Marrakesh. We stayed in a Riad which is the Moroccan type of Bed and Breakfast.

Click here for a Essaouira Photo slideshow.

Our African visit to Morocco and South Africa completed our avoidance of the northern hemisphere winter.  We left the US in late fall and slowly went back in the seasons until when we visited the Atlas Mountains of Morocco it was spring. The weather and the blooming springtime made us a little homesick. Morocco is an exciting place to visit but I can not envision avoiding New York’s winter there.  It is a popular vacation destination for Europeans because it is only a few hour flight and many Europeans go for the weekend.  To cross the Atlantic to Africa we would choose South Africa as a winter haven.  It is back to Kruger National Park someday.  What an experience KNP is.

Its on to Europe.

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We arranged a bus trip to  Essaouira next.

What a great country to spend an USA winter in!