It's a few weeks later, but Zabeth and I are back from our two week vacation, and so things around here are returning to normal: the Shirt Pocket Support "autoresponder" is turned off (since I'm able to respond more quickly now), and Z's begun her internship in Bridgewater.
The motivation for the vacation: Z just graduated from Vet School, and she had two weeks to recharge before her internship started. So, we decided to make a strong memory to carry her through the next year of work-without-sleep. And so -- we had a great time bopping around Germany and Italy, from Munich down to Matera -- actually, even further, down in Ostuni -- staying in Siena, Rome, Positano, Santa Agata sui due Golfi and Lake Garda along the way, and stopping at too many other places to list.
It was a "working vacation", which means a full work day, every day, but broken into little pieces all day long. It's a bit haphazard and nerve-wracking as the support cases build up and questions need to be answered, but it works well enough that I can still deliver good service to my valued users. Or try to!
Germany
Munich
One of the things we did while in Munich was tour the factory where BMWs are built, quite literally in the middle of the city. The plant -- which is huge and cannot grow beyond its current boundaries -- is on multiple levels, and uses a lot of techniques to reduce noise, pollution, and make efficient use of space. It's an extremely worthwhile three hours if you're a fan of sophisticated manufacturing (check out the videos at the plant site), and completely free.
It's amazing how much car manufacturing has changed -- one (award winning!) assembly station had something like 13 robots all working together to weld a unibody... incredibly complicated programming and layout. Very cool.
After the plant tour, we had a great time in Munich thanks to our friend Mathey and his girlfriend Sonja, who were kind enough to show us around their beautiful city. In which you can surf. Who knew: video evidence pending!
Anyway, we spent far too little time in Germany, something I plan to rectify next time. Hopefully we'll be back in less than ten years!
Italy
Siena
Our first stop in Italy was Siena, at a beautiful Bed and Breakfast (Frances' Lodge) outside the city. Our hosts -- Franco and Frances -- couldn't have been more gracious, nor their property more beautiful.
Internet access was extremely problematic, though, so I ended up spending a few hours of each day at an Internet Café in Siena itself -- so, if you saw a guy frantically typing at a MacBook Pro, in between the people browsing Facebook/My Space/Flickr, without stopping to breathe, that was me. (Note the laptop bag strap in this picture, just across from Siena's Duomo...)
Both Frances and Franco (Frances from Florence, and Franco Torre through-and-through) helped us find good places to visit, eat and helped fill us in on the details of Siena and the Palio di Siena, which is much more involved than you might expect given the length of the race, with tons of fascinating political intrigue and behind the scenes machinations.
We enjoyed taking various side-trips to towns and hikes through the Tuscan countryside, although I wish we had Taiko along -- he would have loved romping through the hills and fields during our long walks! And the gelato! (For the curious - cinnamon and black cherry.)
Rome
After (again) too few days, we headed down to Rome to meet our old friends Mike (my college roommate and old business partner at UnderWare) and Robin and their kids Ian and Leah. We hadn't been able to share vacation time in a long while, and it was great to spend some quality, relaxing time with them.
We were only able to spend two days in Rome (sound like a theme?), so we hardly scratched the surface of the place, but enjoyed seeing things we'd only read about, with a tour guide who supplied many helpful details as we walked -- quickly -- through history.
Positano via Pompeii
A few days after we arrived in Rome we left our friends and were off to the Amalfi coast -- specifically Positano. On the way, we stopped in Herculaneum and Pompeii to take in a bit of their amazing history (and it's well worth seeing both - the contrasts between the two towns are fascinating).
And from there down to the coast and Positano for a relaxing few days at the beach, and some invigorating hiking in the extremely steep hills above.
The Amalfi Drive and Matera
From there, we drove down the Amalfi Drive (which is a blast and would make a terrific video game)
to the Basilicata region and Matera to meet back up with our friends. Matera's old section, where we stayed, is quite ancient and built into the rock hills above a deep ravine. Squint a little and it's the 3rd century BC, and you're heading home after tending the flock all day.
Il Frantoio
One afternoon we drove from Matera to Ostuni to have a delightful homestyle meal at Masseria Il Frantoio, where our hosts Armando and Rosalba Balestrazzi stuffed us silly with all manner of delicious treats, all grown organically on their farm.
Don Alfonso 1890
And, finally, a long drive back from Matera to Sant'Agata sui due Golfi (near Naples), for a blowout last meal at Don Alfonso, celebrating Ian's 16th birthday and Zabeth's graduation and upcoming trial-by-fire Internship. Everybody's pretty comatose here, as we'd been eating for something like 5 hours...
A lovely location and spectacular dinner... which no doubt would have been followed by an amazing breakfast had we not been forced to check out so early due to inconvenient flights.
Lake Garda
Since Zabeth had to start her Internship on Monday, I dropped her off at the Naples Airport early, and started the long solo drive back to Munich, stopping at Lake Garda for a quick overnight, and continuing to Munich -- on the Autostrada/Autobahn through Austria, stopping every so often for a shot or two of Espresso -- much too early the next morning.
A long few flights, and I'm back!
Thanks
It'd been quite a while since we'd been in Europe, and it was really great to get away (even while still needing to work every day -- it's very cool that I have a job that I can do anywhere), to see things we'd never had a chance to see before, and to revisit where Zabeth and I got engaged ten years ago.
Big thanks to Mike -- our resident Italy/travel/food expert -- for doing much of the planning; Mike, Robin, Ian and Leah for sharing part of their vacation with us; Mathey and Sonja for their time in Munich; my parents and brother Paul for taking great care of Taiko; and to Jonas Salling of Salling Software for helping out in the forums.
Very special thanks to all of you for your patience during the trip, your understanding when support responses didn't get turned around in minutes, and the chance to recharge our batteries before her internship starts, which will be 14 months with less than a week's break.
Wish us luck!
