Sono Su Una Barca

This summer, Kevin and I decided that rather than get birthday/anniversary gifts for each other, that we should go on a trip.  We bided our time, waiting for a good flight deal (we didn’t care where we went).  Eventually, one of the fantastic Ryan air sales came around, and we booked tickets to Venice (120 pounds total for 2 round trip tickets).  I’ve wanted to go to Italy since I saw my first Roberto Begnini movie (Life is Beautiful…although my favorite is still Johnny Stecchino).  We flew from Liverpool to Treviso (Ryan Air’s terminal about 50 minutes from Venice) and arrived late Friday night, managing to find our hotel on the first try (Venice is a maze of tiny streets and alleys made even more difficult by the many canals running through the city). 

Needless to say, I awoke extremely excited to see the city on Saturday morning.  We decided to visit the biggest tourist destination, Piazza San Marco, first thing on Saturday morning, intending to get breakfast on the way.  Now, I had forgotten that breakfast is an American/British thing, so we had an extremely hard time finding somewhere to eat.  We finally decided to be tourists and get a cappuccino and croissant at one of the outdoor cafes in the Piazza.  30 euros later (seriously – it was 30 Euros for two cappuccinos and two croissants), we were ready to start our day.  Of course, I immediately started taking picture after picture.  While I’m sure that I annoyed Kevin, at least I don’t disappear like Don!

 

    

Recognize this?  They filmed part of Casino Royale here.

One of the buildings that makes up Piazzo San Marco is the Palazzo Ducale (or Doge’s Palace in English).  The Doge of Venice was the elected Chief Magistrate of the city of Venice by the aristocracy.  However, this did not make the Doge the “King” as his power was checked by the city’s wide range of officials.  Thus, the Palazzo Ducale was the official residence of the Doge while in power.  As soon as the current Doge died, the family had only a few days to clear out his personal belongings in order to make way for the new Doge (once he was elected).  Not only did the Palazzo house the Doge, but it also contained a great number of political institutions (seat of government, city courtrooms, a jail, offices for various parts of government). 

The building itself is a wonderfully preseved example of gothic architecture.  The palace, as it looks today, was constructed between 1309 and 1423, although a building has occupied this site for much longer.     When the last Ducale  abdicated in 1797      (because Napoleon took over Venice), the building sat unused for around 100 years until it was restored and turned into a museum.

Interesting facts about the Palazzo Ducale

• The facade of the Italy building at Epcot is an exact mirror image of Palazzo Ducale.
• Mark Twain toured the Palazzo when visiting Venice in 1867 and even includes a description of the building in The Innocents Abroad

 

“Bridge of Sighs” – Prisoners would be transported over this bridge from the jail to the courtroom, and legend has it you could hear them sighing.

After we finished touring the Palace, we decided to see the city by boat.  However, we were too cheap to use the traditional method of seeing the city – Gondola (they want 80 euro for 45 minutes – that almost 160 dollars!) so we decided to use our previously purchased water taxi tickets and just ride the water taxi up and down the grand canal.

The Grand Canal is the major waterway through the center of the city

The Grand Canal has always been the major waterway for the city of Venice and thus, prime real estate for Venetian aristocrats.  Extravagant Palazzos line the canal.  Many of the palaces have seen better days, but you can imagine what they must have looked like in their prime and it is amazing.

I was fascinated by the barber poles (to tie boats up to) and stairs leading right to the water(to access your boat from your house)  In many of the more grand houses, there was a gated doorway into the bottom story of the house that was filled with water so you could park your boat right in your basement.  

Ha Ha suckers! Hope you are enjoying your 80 Euro ride!

We rode the water taxi, or Vaporetti, to the end of the canal and decided to ride it back all the way to the other end of its route, Lido, and get some lunch.  However, by the time we got there, it was 3 o’clock, which in Italy is similar to the Witching Hour.  Shops all close up and Italians disappear, leaving two hungry Americans to ride the boat back to Venice and beg a cafe to serve them a sandwich.  So if you are ever in Italy – make sure you eat between 12 and 3 or you will be sorry!

 

By the time we were done eating, the sun was starting to set, so I once again got sucked into taking some pictures of the sunset before Kevin could drag me away.

“You don’t get to taste the honey without the sting of the bee”

Back during my first trip to Ulverston in May/June, I was doing my quarterly task of checking to see which musical artists were touring and might be coming to my hometown area.  While many of my favorite artists were not touring at that time (Michael Buble, John Mayer, Guster, Tom Petty), I did get an email that a favorite of Mini and I’s, James Morrison, was touring in the UK and tickets could be purchased starting that day for members of the mailing list.  I briefly glanced over the dates and locations and saw that he was playing a gig in Manchester on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  As if fate were intervening and trying to force me to go to the show, Katie and John had to be driven to the airport in Manchester Sunday morning, and Mini Deal had to be there Monday morning.  I squealed with joy, went online and promptly purchased 3 tickets, not stopping to think if Kevin actually wanted to go to James Morrison.  He is one of Mini and I’s favorite and therefore Kevin had to come.  (Although I suppose we could have just left Kevin at a pub somewhere, but that’s beside the point). 

 

iTunes first told me about James Morrison 2 years ago when I was searching for new music to buy with my annual iTunes gift card that Kevin always gets me.  Since the album I was obsessed with at the time (and still am) was John Mayer’s Continuum album, I decided to use the “Artists You May Like” function and find artists with a similar sound to that particular album.  iTunes came up with Amos Lee and James Morrison, so I purchased both albums.  While I love both artists, Amos Lee has a more folk-music meets blues feel while James Morrison has a gospel meets blues meets pop feel  that makes it easier to listen to.  Since Mini and I share music tastes (the only artist she likes that I don’t is Billy Joel.  She hates David Bowie…..how is that possible when he rocks?). 

 

Needless to say, Mini and I were  extremely excited, but it seemed like fate was going to intervene and keep us from James.

• Problem 1:   However, when I went to pack for my trip out here, I searched for my tickets only to realize that they had never sent them to me! However, several people on the James Morrison website had gotten their tickets a month ago. If you want to give yourself an ulcer, try contacting a ticket broker and getting a response.  Luckily, I found some woman who took pity on me and agreed to have the box office reprint my tickets and hold them there.   I just needed to bring my conformation email and the credit card I purchased them with.
• Problem 2:  I didn’t hear back from the ticket people until I was already in Ulverston.  Where I had no printer.  And no way of printing the conformation.  I wound up writing the conformation code down and hoping that was good enough.
• Problem 3: I went into my purse in Chester to get the postcode for our hotel in Manchester for the Sat Nav, when I realized I didn’t have my wallet.  The wallet contained my credit card that I purchased the tickets with along with the conformation code.  In addition, I had no way of proving who I was as all I had was an Amtrak frequent customer card and a boarding pass. I will admit I had a mini-meltdown in the car on the way to Manchester. I could care less if my wallet was stolen or lost, but I had to see James Morrison!

Once we got to the hotel, we fired up Cailin’s laptop and I got the conformation code from my email (and took a picture of the conformation email with my camera) and set off for the area in hopes that the ticket people would take pity on me (especially since I was still holding back tears).  After all my freaking out, they just asked me to tell them the conformation code and handed over the tickets.  All those tears for nothing! Kevin was also pleased to find out that OneRepublic was the opening band.   At least he would enjoy 45 minutes of the concert.

 

By the way, OneRepublic was awesome!  They never impressed me with their radio hits, especially that annoying Timbaland mix.  However, they sound awesome live.  I think the studio processes their music too much.  Also, I have a soft spot in my heart for rock music that contains instruments other than guitars and drums.  They have a piano, cello and violin. (On a side note, Cailin and I LOVED the cello player because he had a huge white boy fro on his head that bounced when he played).    Also, after the lead singer hit a freakishly high note, he referenced that he was now singing in Justin Hawking territory.  (Probably only John Felty will get this reference, but Justin was the lead singer for The Darkness, one of the greatest British Bands ever with the best music video ever!  And no, the video is not from the 80s…)  I definitely recommend giving OneRepublic a try. 

 

While I was pleasantly surprised by OneRepublic, I was blown away by James Morrison.  First of all, he cut his hair so he looks less like Bob Dylan and more like Milan Lucic, which is much better in my book.  He had a great backing band complete with a horn section.  However, the best part was how soulful and beautiful his voice was.  Sometimes large arenas cause great singers voices to sound crappy, but his sounded just as good as on his albums.  He played the perfect mix of popular singles and other tracks.  In addition, he played some of his slower pieces without killing the mood.  He also played a killer MJ cover, complete with cute dance moves at the beginning.  Probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to.  The only regret I have is not bringing my camera.  The tickets said no cameras so I left mine at the hotel.  We had fantastic seats, so I would have gotten some great pictures/videos.  However, I did steal some from youtube to try and entice more people into the James Morrison cult.   Maybe if we can get him some more American Fans, he’ll tour in the states!

 

 

 

Sorry Michael Buble, you’ve been replaced!

Chester chooses chestnuts, cheddar cheese and chewy chives

Sunday morning brought rain, and the departure of Katie.  Originally, we had planned on dropping Katie at the airport and then hanging out in Manchester for the day.  However, when we dropped Katie off, we looked at the clock and realized that it was only 7:15am.  Nothing in Manchester would be open until at least 10.  Driving to the airport, I had seen signs indicating that the town of Chester wasn’t too far away.  According to the English Heritage book, Chester housed England’s largest Roman Amphitheater that was conveniently open at “any reasonable hour” along with a castle so we decided to head to Chester for the day.

 

Since Chester is only about 24 miles from the airport, we still arrived in the very early hours of the morning.  We decided to start our day with a walk on the city walls.  Once a city completely walled in for protection, much of the original city walls remain, and can be walked on.  The walls reminded me of the walls in York, but not quite as extensive.  Roman gardens 

Cailin was VERY cold, so she tried jumping up and down.  When that failed, she bought an ice coffee…my sister the genius

 

By the time we finished, it was 9:00 am.  Kevin was hungry (is anyone surprised?) so we decided to get some breakfast.  Cailin and I vetoed the first place that we saw as it looked fancy.  We then spent the next hour wandering around the shopping area looking for a place that was actually open besides McDonalds while Kevin got mad at us for not just eating in the first place we found an hour earlier.  We finally found a pub that served breakfast, and Kevin and I got various forms of breakfast sandwiches and hash browns while Cailin attempted to warm up, still drinking her ice coffee.  While it was only 9 am, the pub had about 20 people drinking pints of beer.  This not only upset my stomach at the thought of drinking beer so early, but it was also quite sad.

 

After we re-fueled Kevin, we decided to walk around the shopping area.  They had quite a selection of stores, and the best part was that you could walk under-cover around the shopping area.  Very useful for us as it had started raining and my umbrella had broken.  We spent an hour or so walking around, admiring the Tudor architecture of the buildings and doing a little shopping -a new wind-resistant umbrella for me and a little something for John Felty (no, not more scotch).

 

Kevin really liked the Tudor style architecture.  He kept demanding that I take pictures.

Right near the shopping area was a huge cathedral.  Being Sunday, we couldn’t go inside and check it out (unless we wanted to sit through mass which is quite painful for a couple of girls who grew up going to a Baptist church that had much shorter services and didn’t require kneeling and sitting and kneeling and standing.)  We did however get a few pictures of the outside. 

When we emerged on the other side of the cathedral, Cailin and I saw one of our favorite things – McDonalds.  Cailin didn’t eat any breakfast so she was hungry and I can never turn down a double-cheeseburger so we made a quick pit stop into McDonalds.  Cailin, like myself, has an ongoing contest to eat at McDonalds in every country she goes to.  So far, she has the US, South Africa, The Netherlands and now England.  I have the US, France, England, Belgium, and South Africa.  I should also have Greece, but Kevin refused to let me eat there when we were in Athens on our honeymoon.  I’m hoping (but doubtful) that there is a McDonalds in Venice so I can add Italy to my list this weekend.

 

After our brief stop at McDonalds, we set out to check out Chester castle.  We found the castle easy enough, but it took us forever to find a way to get in.  Once we did find a way in, we realized that the castle was inexplicably closed for the day.  Boo!   Cailin and Kevin trying to find a way in

We decided to head back to the car and make our way back to Manchester for the James Morrison concert.  On the way back, I realized we had never seen the Roman Amphitheater, which was located right near where we had parked.  However, once we got to the Amphitheater, we realized that it was, like the castle, closed-this time because they were doing work to it.  It looked pretty cool, and I wish I had gotten a chance to see it up close, but a picture from the city wall will have to do for now.

Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire

Saturday arrived, bringing with it sunshine and the most anticipated day of the year – Dickensian Festival.  Ulverston could probably be called the “festival town” since they seem to have some sort of festival every week.  However, their most popular festival is without a doubt Dickensian Festival.  Since I first heard of this festival involving 1850’s style costumes (or fancy dress as they call it here), I knew I had to attend as I love any reason to wear a costume.  I was even more thrilled when I realized that the festival coincided with the arrival of Katie and Cailin, two others who love costume parties as much as I do.

 

The costume shop in town, Inspirations, had a small selection of costumes for rent, but the main source for costumes is through a catalogue that is located at one of the local clothing stores, and has a wide selection of costumes in various sizes.  Since Cailin and Katie are very tiny, we wound up getting their costumes from the catalogue since it had a better selection of dresses in small sizes.  In addition, they had an extensive selection of suits, cravats and top hats for men, so Kevin got his costume (and John’s that he couldn’t use :( ) as well.  My dress I found in the costume shop the last time I was in Ulverston.

 

When I arrived in England two weeks ago, I was greatly dismayed to find a beard on Kevin’s face.  However, the reason for this beard was evident when Kevin shaved authentic mutton chops for the festival.  While I absolutely HATE his beard, I actually love the mutton chops.  I’m trying to convince him to keep them for Christmas so that all our American family and friends can enjoy them.  So, if you are reading this in the States, make sure to request that he keeps them!

Before

After

Mutton chops completed, we set off with our costumes around 1 pm, walking up Market Street and taking a few pictures before we headed to our friends Fred and Jen’s house for a little party.  As we were heading up the street, we thought the costume aspect of the festival may have been an “embarrass the Americans” prank as we were the only ones in costume.  In addition, every time we tried to take a few pictures, random people kept taking our picture like we were a tourist attraction.  Needless to say, I was excited when we made it to Fred and Jen’s and I saw other people in costume. 

    

About 100 random people have the same pictures

Victorian Pimp?

Jen and Fred not only had a huge spread of delicious food, but the best view of the festival around.  You could see everything going without having to be outside in the cold.  We filled up on some yummy snacks and drinks before we headed outside to take part in the costume parade.

 

   

Cailin and Katie enjoy some non-Victorian Drinks.  Diet coke and a Dickensian please?

 

  Some of the other fantastic costumes

The costume parade was probably the weirdest part of the day.  Everyone in costume meets at the Town Hall and is lead through town by a woman dressed as Queen Victoria and accompanied by the town marching band and a Bag Pipe band.  I absolutely abhor bagpipes and some how we got stuck directly in front of them, which naturally made me very angry.  However, it was fun seeing all the other costumes.  The weird part came when everyone else in town watched the parade and took pictures.

 

Queen Victoria

 

 

 

 

 

If only the Von Schnauzers were here! 

AHH! Bagpipes!

 

After we made a spectacle of ourselves, we went back to Jen and Fred’s to warm up and watch the lights be switched on, after which we went to grab a drink at the Swan.  Overall, a fantastic day!  I hope to be able to come back next year and attend.  This time, I’m making sure John Felty and Doyle get there as well!