Milan Italy: Tourism and Shopping Streets On A Great Day In Milan

Obviously being a historical city, Milan totally blew us away. We LOVED it! We tend to enjoy smaller, less touristy cities better, and even though Milan definitely did not fit that mold (it was basically a big crowded city), we definitely enjoyed seeing so many of the amazing things in this city.
Mara took us to the train and we rode it into the Milan train station. (We’re not sure who was on the train before us, but the train sort of had a smell which reminded us of the smell that accompanied people who had spent too much time on Mount Kilimanjaro, going months without a bath (probably like us on day 8 of the climb). Stinky doesn’t begin to describe it, but I digress…)
We got off the train in this phenomenally large train station. There was an odd art exhibit outside of the Milan train station, which we didn’t take any pictures of, and I don’t know if it will still be there when you go, but definitely go to the courtyard outside of the train station.
From there, we caught the subway to the Milan cathedral, which was just amazing. Carrie and I have both seen a fair number of cathedrals, but both of us agreed that this Milan’s cathedral was of the most amazing. We primarily loved the cathedral for the stained glass windows, which we both took LOTS of pictures of.
WE SEE DEAD PEOPLE
One of the more amazing, as well as disturbing, portions of the cathedral are the altars that are dedicated to saints. This isn’t out of the ordinary in Catholic cathedrals, but was the first time that either of us had seen hermetically sealed glass caskets where you can look in at the actual physical remains of the saint that the altar is dedicated to. While it does create an environment of respect and reverence, it simultaneously creates an atmosphere that is imposing and foreboding, and could easily give little children nightmares.

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Bergamo Italy Tourism: The Bergamo Tourist Day In The Cathedral and at the Castle

Today, we had a really nice (although very rainy) day in Bergamo. Our friend Mara lives really close to Bergamo, and we spent some time here, with Mara showing us all of the amazing sites.
Carrie and I agree that the cathedral in Bergamo was one of the nicest (if not the nicest) cathedral we have ever visited. Everything was guilded in gold, and being right next to a monastery, it was well cared for by the monks, and just had the feeling that there was a ton of history there. Plus, because there were so few people there, it gave a really cool and powerful ambiance to the place that really was very prayerful, like a church should be (but so often isn’t).
There was also all of this elaborate wood paneling and woodwork throughout the church. Here’s an example from one of the entrance doors.
We had a lot of fun just playing in the rain under our umbrellas as well.
The day was also filled with awesome food (how could a day in Italy not be, right?) Right after the cathedral, we went and had a hot chocolate at a caf

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Parmesan vs. Parmigiano Reggiano

Parmesan has been ruined forever.
That is, American Parmesan has been ruined for me forever. That is because Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy is something entirely different than American Parmesan cheese. I mean, the cheese we get from Sam’s Club is pretty good, but it’s definitely an imitation of the stuff we’ve eaten here in the northern part of Italy.
And if you’re eating the pre-shredded stuff (or even better, the stuff that comes in the preprocessed can that is marketed as “finely grated Parmesean cheese”), and you don’t want it to be spoiled for you, then I recommend staying as far away from this region of the world as you possibly can.
Really, the Parmigiano Reggiano alone is worth traveling here for.

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Verona: Our Wonderful Day In Verona

We wrote our experiences of Verona separately (for no particular reason)… so today, you get to experience Verona through both of our eyes in one short post!

Verona: Jonathan’s experience
To be honest, before going, I wasn’t that excited about going to Verona. I knew it was a fabled city because of the story of Romeo and Juliet, but didn’t know that Shakespeare’s story actually came from such a cool city. There are a number of things to see and do in Verona, but let’s get to the topic everyone would want to know about…
Did we see where Romeo met, courted, and eventually died with Juliet?
Well…
Here’s the balcony of Juliet

The balcony of Juliet as it stands today is actually believed to be three sides of an ancient sarcophagus (read – built for a dead person), and the house of Juliet was actually the house of the family Capulletto (or something like that), so it’s unclear if Shakespeare was inspired to write his story because there was actually a “Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet” or, if he created Romeo and Juliet after hearing about or seeing the house of Capulletto. Anyway, maybe I’m too practical in wanting the story to be true before buying into the whole story and getting really excited about seeing the lives and times of the lovers, but in my estimation, it was a bit of an overrated attraction. It was fun to go and see nonetheless.
We didn’t see the tomb of Juliet (again, due to the fact that we don’t know if the story is true, and so there are more interesting things to see).
So what was so cool about Verona? Nothing in particular, AND everything about it really… It’s actually a city where people live, and have lives that aren’t solely based around tourists coming to the city (which was how we felt in Venice – which is still a nice city though), and has some really great attractions… including the arena (www.arena.it), which is like a smaller version of the Coliseum, but what’s really cool is that in summertime, it’s still actively used for plays and shows.

How cool would it be to sit in an arena that was used in Roman times and actually see a show today, over 1,500 years later? (Personally, I think it would be cool to see a lion battling a person, like they used to do in Roman times, but maybe I only think that would be cool, and then once I saw it, I would think otherwise: probably a bit violent and gory to watch a lion mauling a person or vice-versa).
Verona is a city which has a beautiful compilation of churches and beautiful sights. There are three major castles, some very nice bridges, and neat little caf

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Bergamo to Venice: Our Guide and Day in Venice

Venice… ah Venice… the city of love, canals, and funny smells.
Venice was nice.
It is definitely a place everyone should see.
We’re glad we went, and we enjoyed the time there. But to be honest, it felt a bit hyped and overrated at times.
We’re here during a relatively low time of the year for tourism. However, the city is still overrun with people taking pictures of things.
One of the things they’re taking pictures of is all the pigeons.
What are the pigeons doing?
Eating the crumbs of items which were dropped by tourists, who are eating stuff (and throwing stuff to the birds) which was made for tourists.
But we did have a great Venice guide in our friend Mara (who has been to Venice more than once before).

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From Bremen to Bergamo (Milan)

Because of the strike happening with the German train system, we were unable to take the train from Bad Zwischenahn into Bremen to catch our flight this morning. Sabine was nice enough to drive us to the Bremen airport, which was about an hour away. Thanks Sabine!

We flew from Bremen into Bergamo (marketed as Milan by Ryan Air) where Mara was kind enough to pick us up. It was my first time meeting her, and she and Jonathan hadn’t seen each other for six years (since they studied together in Oldenburg).

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Bad Zwischenahn, Bremen, and the Twistringen Cemetery

On the 24th, we went into the town of Bad Zwischenahn, which is kind of a quiet little village in the wintertime and a well-visited lake/resort town in the summertime. (For those of you living in Colorado, who have been to Estes Park in both summer and wintertime, you know what we are talking about.)
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While Bad Zwischenahn is a nice town, we felt we saw the majority of it in under 30 minutes, so we took the train through Oldenburg (since we had been there the day previous), and went into the fabled town of Bremen.

If you haven’t read the story of the Bremen Town Musicians (by the Brothers Grimm), you should. It’s not the highlight of the Brothers’ Grimm’s tales, but is a fun and short read.

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Bad Zwischenahn and Oldenburg

Today, Carrie and I left from our wonderful time in Hammoor with Anne Link.

We traveled by train from Hamburg to Bad Zwischenahn, where Carrie’s family picked us up.
Many people are surprised when we tell them that Carrie still has family in Germany. But…

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Exploring Hamburg

Today we went into Hamburg. Jonathan and I were fortunate once again to have Anne as our guide. I was still feeling quite tired, and found it sort of hard to focus still from our all-nighter a few nights ago. But I was still excited for the day that would come. On our way there we stopped by this castle in Ahrensburg.

We walked around the garden and took a quick peek inside.

From here we took the subway into Hamburg.

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Luebeck and Kegeln in Hammoor

Our flight from Stansted left at 6:30am and we arrived in Lubeck (which is marketed by Ryan Air as Hamburg – an hour away) at 9:00am. After our sleepless night, Jonathan didn’t really seem to feel the effects too much, but I did. I tried to sleep on the plane, but while I am an excellent car sleeper, my plane sleeping skills need some work still.
Once we met up with Anne Link, she took us into Lubeck to have a look around. We had breakfast together at a fun caf

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