Valencia - a day trip to Montanejos and Segorbe and our FIRST visitors - my sister and brother-in-law 8.17.16 to 8.31.16

After a wonderful trip to Italy and Germany, especially being able to spend time with my niece, we returned to somewhat cooler temperatures.  But not that much cooler.  It looks like the rest of August and the beginning of September are still going to be hot.  

It was nice to get back into our "home" routine.  The gym, home studying Spanish, making meals at home, occasionally going to the beach, etc.

But after a week of being home Beth wanted to go to a place she found called Montanejos.  We rented a car on Thursday, August 25th and drove about an hour to spend the day.

Montanejos has natural springs, streams, caves, canyons, ravines, gullies, mountain paths and stunning views. The area has earned a reputation as being the most important center of rock climbing in Spain. Sporting enthusiasts from around the world come to scale the rocky, almost vertical gorge valley walls.

We headed to Fuente de Los Baños, the hot spring with a consistent water temperature of 25 (about 77) all year round.  This is a LOT cooler than the Mediterranean Sea.  This year the sea seems to feel a lot like the high average of 27 or 80 degrees.  I happen to love it as the warm water reminds me of my childhood days in Hollywood, Florida going to Dania Beach.

In Montanejos the crystalline waters of the Fuente de Los Baños lagoon bubble up from the earth.  It is well known by locals but still undiscovered by most travellers.  The story goes that the hot spring was the preferred bathing and relaxation site for a Moorish king's harem. The water was said to keep his women young and beautiful. 

"Reportedly there are published studies (in the Fuente de Baños Medicinal Properties Montanejos thermal Water, a study by Maria Amparo Perez Benajas) to ensure that these hot springs prevent skin damage caused by free radicals. It is also believed that these waters are suitable for treatment of liver, cardiovascular disease related to hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, etc." Now you know why Beth wanted to spend the day here. 

We brought our beach chairs our cooler, some drinks and snacks and spend the day in and out of the cool water....along with many other people with the same thought....get cool.

I didn't bring my camera but this link has a few images.

Once we left we drove a couple of kilometers to Arenoso Reservoir , quite beautiful.

On the drive back home we decide to take a detour to check our the town of Segorbe.  It is a beautiful old town.  The area of Segorbe was inhabited as early as the mid-Palaeolithic Age, as testified by archaeological remains.  Secorbe was once identified as the ancient Segobriga, described by PLINY THE ELDER as the capital od Celtiberia.

They also have. coming up September 5th to the 11th a Bull and Hourse droving in Segorbe. Bulls and horses running through the streets!  We love the town and had dinner before driving home.

Sunday, August 28th at 1:20 pm Our first visitors....my sister Claudia and Morry arrived from Barcelona by train.  After getting settled we walked over to have lunch at Lambrusqueria, our favorite Italian restaurant.  We had a lovely lunch then took a walk to Turia Garden River Park.  It is 5 1/2 miles long so we only spent a short time in it before we caught a bus home.

Morry was feeling a bit under the weather so after a rest at home we took a walk around 8:30 pm around town.  

We saw the Plaza del Toros (Bull ring) and right next to this is the Estació del Nord (North Railway Station).  It is a modernist jewel of the city, with "Sezesión Vienesa" style.  It was built between 1906 and 1917 by Valencian architect Demetrio Ribes.  On the front facade you can see the most typical elements of Valencian culture: oranges, barracas (traditional Valencian house), La Albuefera (the lake), women dressed with traditional Valencian dress.  Inside, the decoration of the vestibule is beautiful, and then there is the the iron nave over the rail roads, muy bonita (very beautiful).

From here we walked through the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Valencia.  This is Town Hall Square.  We carried on to Plaza La Renia, which is quite nice.   We then headed back to our apartment and our entire circle walk took about 50 minutes.  There is a lot to see in just a short distance from our apartment.

Monday, August 29th we had booked, as a surprise, a 10:00 am tour of the Lladro factory, in the City of Porcelain.  However, while Claudia was in France she sent us a message to ask about the Lladro factory, so the surprise was gone as we had to tell her that we had already booked a tour.  In any case it was WAY cool to actually get to see the process of how they make Lladro.  Would you believe that after the different parts of the molds are still wet in order to "build" the figure they use no glue, only a bit more liquid porcelain and water.  There are artists to assemble the figure, then those who clean up all the imperfections, then the painters.  What is also interesting is the molded piece is 15% bigger when it is wet than after it is fired in the kiln.  The most intricate work is placing ll the tiny flowers on the pieces, now I know why those with flowers cost so much more.

BTW the "campus" has a large pool, basketball courts, a refreshment bar....so cool.

No pictures where allowed except this one:  the 160,000 euro Queen of the Nile

  
I took this one at the Lladro store in Valencia

This link is their collection.  And this link gives the history of the three brothers Juan, José and Vicente.  Claudia even bought one, to add to her collection.  However this one will be special as she will always have the memory of getting it directly from the factory after touring it in person!

When we returned to Valencia we walked past the Torres Serranos

We then walked through the Plaza de la Virgen.  From here we walked to the Mercado Central (Central Market) for a little lunch at the Central Bar.  

Then home to rest and relax for the afternoon.

In the evening we took the Metro to the beach.  We had a cocktail at Marina Beach Club before dinner at La Pepica.  Hemingway used to eat here with his friends after the bull fights.  

Our finished appetizers - baby clams and fried and salted peppers:

We took the short walk down to the Mediterranean Sea to dip our feet in the warm water.  It was Claudia and Morry's last night. While their visit was short, 40 hours, it was so very nice that they visited! 

Wednesday, August 31 - we checked out another museum today, although it really is the family home of the famous painter José Benlliure Gil called Casa Museo - Bennlliure.  It was quite nice to see what they homes where like, especially that of a painter.  While the "back yard" could use a lot of TLC I could see how fantastic that space is with all the tile work on the walls.

Some of the rooms in the house

His art studio

The dining room followed by the living room

Finally just one of his art sketches that I liked

Well tomorrow is September but the weather does not appear to be cooling off.  Sunday is scheduled to be 36 or 97, oy vey!

Thursday, August 11th to Tuesday, August 16th - Varenna (Lake Como), Italy and Münich, Germany

Thursday, August 11th - Today I decided to take a hike.  Lake Como and Varenna has many wonderful hikes.  Today I chose to take a short hike to the castle above Varenna, called Castello de Vezio.  It has a wonderful view looking down at Varenna and of that section of Lake Como.

At the Castle Vezio has a Birds of Prey exhibition, I liked these two in particular.

After my hike I met Beth and we walked over to take out the kayaks today as the lake was much calmer.  We enjoyed being on the Lake.  Check out my kayaking Villa Monastero

For our last evening in  Varenna we had planned to eat at gourmet restaurant.  However as we were walking back to our hotel just across the street from this church

we saw workers setting up chairs and a movie screen for an outdoor movie.  Anyone who knows Beth, knows this is one of her many favorite things to do....watch movies outdoors.  So we changed our restaurants plans and just eat at our Royal Grill then walked next door to see Bridge of Spies, in Italian with English subtitles.

Friday, August 12th - Travel day....first train from Varenna to Milan, then bus from Milan to the Malpensa airport for our Easyjet flight from Milan to Münich.  At the airport we picked up our rental car and drove to the das Hotel in Münich.

Kim and Erwan walked over to meet us in our hotel.  It was SO WONDERFUL to finally see and HUG some of our family.  We have been away from home for 4 months and this was our FIRST family!!  We love Kim and Erwan is a wonderful young man.  In any case we then we all walked and had dinner in Kim's favorite restaurant Salz Kruste (Salt Crust).

Saturday, August 13 - Kim and Erwan met us at our hotel this morning, it was a glorious day so we decided to walk to their English Garden Park, it is one of Europe's largest urban public parks, it is smaller than Golden Gate Park but not much.

As we were heading towards the park Kim took us into the University of Münich to the hall that Sophie Magdalena Scholl made famous. 

"In the summer of 1942, Sophie's friends began to question and resist the principals and policies of the Nazi regime. The group, the White Rose, decided to adopt the strategy of passive resistance that was being used by students fighting against racial discrimination in

the United States. This included publishing leaflets for the restoration of democracy and social justice.  These were distributed

throughout central Germany and the Gestapo soon became aware of the group's activities.

The group (White Rose) co-authored six anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets. They instructed Germans to passively resist the Nazis.  They had been horrified by the behaviour of the Germans on the Eastern Front where they had witnessed a group of Naked Jews being shot in a pit"

So "Sophie and her brother Hans brought a suitcase of the final leaflets, to the University, and left them in corridors foe the students to discover and read."  They were reported and taken into Gestapo custody on February 18, 1943.  Sophie's "interrogation" was so cruel, she appeared in court with a broken leg.  He quote from that court appearance is:

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start.  What we wrote and said is also believed by many other.  They just don't dare express themselves as we did"

On February 22, 1942, within 4 days of her, her brother Hans, and their friend Christoph Probst arrest, they were found guilty of treason and condemned to death.  They were all beheaded by guillotine only a few hours later at 17:00 hours."   

JUST AMAZING what this women, her brothers and their friend stood up to in the face of the Nazi's", so powerful.  We did not know or expect this when Kim walked us into the the University.

From here it is just a block or so to the English Garden Park.  Everyone was out enjoying the incredible day.  Hiking, biking, skating, running, walking, playing, just loving the day. We walked through the park and towards the famous river surfing on the Eisbach (ice brook) a small man made river in the park.

Some photo's and a YouTube video of "surfing the river"

From here we walked to a central open air Beer Garden to have some lunch.  We went traditional with currywurst, schnitzel, pretzel and beer!  Delicious

We checked out the Asam Church, built as a "private" church by two brothers.  It's is quite "over the top" but interesting to see.

We were getting tired so we decided to walk to the river and rest, get some sun, dip our feet in the cool water and relax!!

After a next relaxing time at the river we walked back past the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.  It is quite a tourist attracting and this blog has some additional information and images.

Since we were close by Kim wanted to see another church called Frauenkirche (Cathedral of our Dear Lady).  Very nice but I can get "churched out".

So now it's beer and dinner time what better place to do both than the famous Hofbräuhaus München 

In this wikipedia link are a couple of interesting images (click on the photo on the right side), first you can see the SIZE of the beer we had.  Another one is of patron's mug stored under lock and key.

To hear the band play watch this

For dinner I had the crunchy knuckle of pork and roast pork served with gravy and potato dumplings....yum, yum good!

Sunday, August 14th - today we drove to Tegernsee Lake.  Since this was a 3 day weekend we expected it to be busy.....but bumper to bumper for about a 1/2 hour not exactly the type of driving I enjoy.  But once we arrived it was fantastic.  We had lunch at a local place where you pick your type of spread and then get bread with it to enjoy.  We had cream cheese with salmon, hummus and others.   

We then went to lay on the "beach" at the lake, swim and enjoy the warm weather.

When I saw this canoe I had to WhatsApp Jim Krantz as it reminded me of him as he has a beautiful canoe!

Cute part of town

Lake lake a sunset from the other side

We meet some people who recommended a "local" Bavarian restaurant so we enjoyed dinner their.  It is called Gasthof zum Hagn.  Very traditional German food!

Monday, August 15 - we decided to visit a place the Kim and Erwan had never heard of called Regensburg.  We met a man on our flight from Milan to Münich who recommend that we check it out. On the drive there we saw a lot of crops that were growing up lines, like vines, that were about 20 feet high.  We could not figure out what it was until Beth looked it up....they are growing Hops

We learned that "the first settlements in Regensburg date from the Stone Age."

"In 1096, on the way to the First Crusade, Peter the Hermit led mob of Crusaders that attempted to force the mass conversion of the Jews of Regensburg and killed all those who resisted."

"Between 1135 and 1146, the Stone Bridge across the Danube was built at Regensburg. This bridge opened major international trade routes between northern Europe and Venice, and this began the golden age as a residence of wealthy trading families.  Regensburg became the cultural centre of southern Germany and was celebrated for the gold work and fabrics."

This is statue of Don Juan Austria in Regensburg

The Coat of Arms in the center of this image

The entrance to the Stone Bridge

And a short video of the old stone bridge

We walked across the bridge and had lunch at Brauereigaststätte Spitalgarten overlooking the Danube and the city.  I had wieners and sauerkraut.  Here is our view

After lunch we had to hustle over to the Palace of St. Emmeram - Thurn und Taxis.

There is an interesting article in Town and Country about Gloria von Thurn und Taxi, formerly known as the Punk Princess. She first visited the Palace of St. Emmeram, as the 19 year old date of its over, Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn und Taxis, a descendant of the first postmaster of the Holy Roman Empire. She met the 53 year old Johannes in 1979 and despite their 34 year age difference they married.

Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn und Taxis.  He was known as a bi-sexual and this blog has some interesting details.

The current Prince is Albert von Thurn und Taxis.  He first appeared on Forbes's billionaire list as an 8 year old, the 12th prince in the family line, officially inherited his fortune in 2001, on his 18th birthday.  They say "the Prince has gasoline in his blood"

This link shows his sister Elizaabeth Thurn und Taxis images of their home in Vogue magazine.

What a place and what an interesting family!!!!!

And guess what we visited two more churches before we left Regensburg.

First was the Alte Kapelle church.

I really do not know what the concept of this "fake coffin" is but I am sure it has some meaning!

Nice candles, eh?

The second one was the Regensburg Cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter.  It is the seat of the Catholic diocese of Regensburg.  The church is the prime example of Gothic architecture in Bavria.

Regensburg Cathedral has some interesting things like the "Smiling Angel"

An impressive number of medieval stained glass windows have survived.  Most date from 1320 to 1370, but there are even some survivors from 1220-1230.  Including this one of St Peter

AND there are also weathered sculptures on the buttresses of the south side, UNFORTUNATELY including an example of the Judensau (Jews' sow) that faces the former Jewish Quarter.  The scuplture is quite damaged, but shows Jews suckling on a large sow (female pig).  It was intended to be degrading and insulting since the pig is unclean in Judaism, this was widespread in German speaking lands.

On our drive back to Münich on the section of autobhan with NO speed limit I hit 161 kilometers per hour, about 100 mph....not bad for a rental car.

Upon our return we ate at a local "burger" place called Hans IM Glück, which has Vegan, Vegetarian, Chicken, beef and many other types of burgers.  It was a nice and easy dinner to complete our fantastic weekend with Kim and Erwan.

Tuesday, August 16th  We fly Münich to Amsterdam then to Valencia. 

My sister Claudia and brother-in-law Morry are flying today from LAX to Paris for a vacation that will end with us in Valencia.

And today is my niece Ryanne Richter's Birthday!

Varenna (Lake Como), Italy - Monday, August 8th to Wednesday, August 10th

Monday, August 8th - we took the train from the central Milan train station to Varenna.  The train station is pretty impressive, 24 tracks and every day about 320,000 passengers (120 million annually) pass through the station using about 500 trains.  

The process was pretty simple, however I did read some blogs for tips. For example one tip I read about was "do not forget to validate your ticket before you get on the train".  There are these small yellow boxes at the beginning of each train track to validate your ticket.

In any case it was a pretty easy one hour (3 train stop) trip.  We took the short taxi ride (10 euro) to the Hotel Royal Victoria.  The Royal Victoria is the perfect type of hotel for our taste, it is small (43 rooms) quite nice but not to fancy, in a central location, on the beach (or lake in this case), has a pool and has drop dead gorgeous views.  Spending 4 nights here worked out well given that we needed to be in Münich on Friday to spend the weekend with our niece Kimberly.

We enjoyed the day walking around the small town of Varenna, the population is around 823 people.  We ate lunch just across the square from our hotel at Albergo Del Sole.  Nothing to really write about except as Beth was asking me about the taste of the "house red wine" I ordered an American women, Holly who was on the street walking by our table, struck up a conversation with us. She was with her daughter Min (so smart and cute - Holly adopted her from Korea).  They are on a 2 month vacation and as it turns out they live like 10 blocks from us in San Francisco.  We invited her to sit at our table until Min wanted to get going to the beach!  We made plans to meet again for the day, lunch or dinner.

After lunch we sat around our hotel bar/lounge area/pool and read.  When we were heading back to our room who did we see again....Holly and Min!

Tonight we had a very nice Italian (what else) dinner at Osteria Quatro Pass, we enjoyed it very much.

A few photo's of Varenna:

View from our room

One of the small alleys of Varenna leading down to Lake Como

Varenna from land

Varenna from the ferry ride to Bellagio

Tuesday, August 9th - it looked like rain in the afternoon today so we decided we would take the ferry to Bellagio and spend the day there.  

Bellagio has a long history "Before the Romans, there are signs of a human presence around Bellagio in the Paleolithic Period (about 30,000 years ago), it is only in the 7th to 5th centuries BC that there appears on the promontory a castellum, perhaps a place of worship and of exchange which served the numerous small villages on the lake. The first identifiable inhabitants of the territory of Bellagio, from 400 BC, were the Insubres a Celtic tribe."

Bellagio population is 3,820 however it is a very busy tourist site with many top hotels, restaurants and lots of shopping.  We thought these would be memorable tennis shoes to purchase from there.

Or these...

After "window shopping" we walked over to visit the I Giardini de Villa Melzi.  It is a beautiful villa.  It was built by Francisco Melzi D'Eril, VP of the Italian Republic founded by Napoleon (1801-1803).  Beautiful gardens with Chinese inspired water-garden and many groups of giants rhododendrons and azaleas.

All of a sudden we were starving....we just lost track of time.... we had entered the villa on the north end but we walked out of the south end there was this little restaurant, that we loved, called Alle Darsene Di Loppia.  For appetizers Beth had zucchini flower filled with sheep's ricotta cheese on candied tomatoes.  I has the asparagus salad with burrata cheese, red prawns an a egg yolk. My first course was spaghetti from Gragnano with Carbonara lake fish.  For Beth's main course she had Lake fish and vegetables fried in olive oil and for my second course I had the sliced grilled Spanish pork.  For desert I had the Apple tarte tatin with hazelnut ice cream, what a lunch. 

We walked back into the villa and across it to get back to the ferry back to Varenna.  Just before we got onto the ferry it started teeming, we did get wet but since it was warm we didn't mind. When got back to our room it started to thunder and lightning.  We loved it, how often do we every see rain in Northern California let along lighting bolts...it was awesome and continued into the night which was even more spectacular.   

Given the wind and rain we just ate in the Victoria Grill, part of our hotel, however it is in front of the hotel and thus overlooks the central square.

Wednesday, August 10th - today we tried to go out kayaking but was still a bit windy from the storm and the lake water was choppy. So we spend the day sunning ourselves, reading, enjoying our pool and swimming in the lake, which was just a but cool but very refreshing.

Where we ate our breakfast each morning

  

Our pool spot

Our lunch spot

This afternoon we decided to take a one hour private (shared with 2 other couples) boat tour around Lake Como, on Taxi Boat Varenna,  it is a beautiful boat.  We took the central lake classic tour.

Map which shows some of the locations we visited on our boat tour

First we went south of Varenna past Fiumelatte, the shortest river in Italy, then across to Bellagio and down past Villa Melzi and San Giovanni, which has a church on the lake.  We then went across the lake and down to Villa Balbianello.  A number of feature films have used Villa Balbianello for location shooting, including "A Month by the Lake (1995), 007 Casino Royale (2006), it was also used for the lake retreat scenes in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002)

Excellent choice on a incredible day, so lovely!

After our boat trip we enjoyed a cocktail overlooking the lake as the sunset.  Once the sun went down we met Holly and Min at the Varenna Monamour ristorante.  Min order the best meal Paccheri with Lobster.  The end of another glorious day on Lake Como.