Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Fresh pasta for supper

Walked the wall again this morning. They are working on a couple of sections of the wall. One place we thought they were making progress but they just expanded the area they are working on. Another section they are planting some trees to replace dead ones or missing spots where there were none. Otherwise nothing else too exciting this morning.

The outside of the prison near our palce

A few place under construction. 

Car, Police car, move over Wendy


Garbage bins if you have a card to open them up




The closest I have been to a beer this trip.  I guess someone else enjoyed it.


For lunch, we had a large salad with tons of stuff topped with tuna. I also had bread with Gorgonzola cheese. We also finished some spicy salami that we had lying around.
At lunchtime, we went to the information center to find out if there were any activities going on for Mardis Gras. Nothing is going on. We also had an address outside the wall where to get fresh made pasta. I had checked it out on Google and I was sure I knew where we were going. When we get outside the wall the road forks into 3 roads. I picked the wrong one and after walking around for a while we find the pasta place. But since it is now after 1:30 it is closed for 3 hours for lunch.

We also stopped at the bus station to get times for tomorrow. I am planning to go to Barga which is more like a mountain town.

Bike for 2

Bike for 3


We then walk thru town to finish our walk. Lots of high school kids walking around. Not sure what their school schedule is like here. If they get a 2 hour lunch break like the stores do or it is like home and just one hour. We often see some in the morning when we walk the wall or if we go for a walk before supper. They often have musical instruments with them or what looks like art supplies.

It was supposed to rain this afternoon but it had not started yet, so I decided to go for a bike around town and keep close to the wall and look for other tunnels that I could go check out. It was drizzling when I left but not enough to bother so I went ahead anyway.

I was almost as far as I could get from the apartment when it started to rain. So I started to peddal faster to try to beat the rain. About a third of the way home I found a tunnel that was open and provided me with shelter.

There were 4 or 5 art pieces inside and I spend some time taking pictures. By the time I was done the rain had stopped.

This one is locked


Found this old bike that I don't think has moved for years

Hand brakes

If you see this driving a car, you are in trouble.  This is a not tourist zone.  Only locals are allowed.

Same here






Once Wendy was done we walked to the pasta place and bought some Spanish & Ricotta cheese ravioli. I made a mushroom sauce with some oyster mushroom that I had picked up yesterday at the grocery store. The ravioli were delicious and the mushroom was a good choice. We had one of the white bottles of wine that Lucie & Dan had left for us. It made a great meal.

At supper time the skies open up and it down-poured. We were happy to be inside and not on one of our walks.

We played crib and Wendy chatted with Joey on Skype.




Monday, February 27, 2017

R&R in Lucca


A very nice quiet day today after a busy weekend in Cinque Terre and the Carnival in Viareggio.

Before leaving for the walk, We loaded up the washer/dryer and got it started. Can't remember if we talked about this before or not. Senior moment and the fact that sometimes I write the blog and sometimes Wendy does. So if I did I apologize for repeating myself. This is a combination washer/dryer. There is a setting that will wash and then dry your clothes in one cycle. The only thing is that it takes about 3 hours and it is only about 90% dry not 100% ready to put away. Then you still need to put you clothes on a rack to dry. If it is nice we put it outside for that fresh smell. The air quality here in town is excellent and there are not manufacturing at all and so little car traffic.

Started the usual walk on the wall this morning going counter clockwise as I will be going to exit the wall around 3/4 of the way and go for groceries. No sense making more steps than I need to today as the last 2 days, we were close to 30,000 steps each day. 

This was the first morning we saw frost here. Not heavy but would still need to be scraped off probably with a credit card as I do not think most cars would have scrappers but I may be wrong. Our rental car did not. The sun was out so it was not as cold as one may think.


Frost on the cars this morning in the shade

This was also the first time we saw a traffic jam in town. The garbage men were stopped for a couple of minutes for a pickup. There were about 6 cars, 5 bikes and a few people walking all at the same stop at the same time. It got clear up in about 1 minutes. That is what happen when you live in a city (town), you can expect traffic jams I guess.

Traffic jam in Lucca!


We had a nice walk and always seem to see something we had not seem before. May be the fact that some days you go in one direction and the next you go in the other. Wendy says I am like a dog (in a good way I hope). When I see something to photograph (squirrel) I will wander over, take a couple of pictures and run back to her. She does not pause her walking for me to take pictures, she just keeps on motoring along.


View of mountains from the wall

Different monuments statues along the wall

Nice patio on top

Language School

I wonder how I could get in to take picture.  Mmmm I 'll go in as a prospect student


Groceries did not take very long as I have to carry the bags back to our place. It was mostly salad stuff as we finished everything for salad on Friday. 1 bottle of wine and some bread. 12 items including the wine for 16 Euros. If I was at home that would mean 11 things for $12 if I do not count the wine.

Love the layers of changing bricks/stones


Our main grocery store Esselunga.  Always wine on sale at 50% off

Sometimes it helps if you know fresh, other stuff, nope

These are the scanners you can take to scan your groceries as you go along or for price check

I love groceries & Liquor.  Good prices also.

Trees are starting to blossom



After breakfast, surf the web, worked on the blog and pictures.

Laundry got done around 10:30 and got put outside. Only one little problem. My dearly beloved wool socks shrunk about 4-5 sizes and looked like they might fit our grandson Riley. Will see what happen when they are fully dry.

These started as size 12 socks before the laundry




Lunch, I made a sandwich with tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese on a crusty loaf of bread. Probably a little too crusty but was still good. Will make something similar for lunch on Friday as we will be on the train to Bologna this weekend, perhaps a less crusty bread.

Before heading out for our lunch time walk, we took in the laundry inside as it was calling for some mid-day showers. We walked in the streets around town near our apartment in case the skies decided to open up. There was a tiny drizzle when we started off and after about 30 minutes got a tad heavier but still no rain. We decided that was good enough for today.

The afternoon was spent like the morning plus some R&R. My size 6 wool socks are now dry. Time to try them on and see what happens. The good news is that is it not permanent and they do stretch back to size 12 and they are comfortable and warm still. They do return to size 6 when you take them off.

At one time, these were the same size

Just before 6 we went for another walk into town for about 1 hour or so to see if there was any activities. Nothing special but many people wandering the street.

One of the small squares in town


Looks like it is getting a bit busier. More and more store & restaurants/bars seem to be opening or re-opening up in town. I wonder if it is like home and people go south for a couple of months in the winter.

We did buy a fridge magnet of Lucca in a ceramic shop. The owner said it was made here in town outside the walls by his family. He had all kinds of beautiful stuff. Not cheap but that is to be expected. We may end up picking up a little something else to take home.

Nice ceramic shop not far from our apartment.  Family run, everything made in Lucca


The skating rink was not open and is scheduled to close tomorrow.  Perhaps something will be happening as it is Mardi Gras. 

Skating rink closed tonight, tomorrow is supposed to be the last day




Between the 3 walks, we still managed to get 15,000 steps in today. Not too bad for taking it easy. Starting to know the streets around town pretty good so it is fun to walk around without a map and kinda laugh at the poor tourist, like I was 2 weeks ago, looking lost and trying to figure which way to turn.  We did see one poor tourist car that had wandered inside the wall, the couple in front did not seem to be talking...I see a fine coming there way by mail some time in the next year.

Wendy made a delicious chili for supper. One of her specialties. And it turned out to be one of her best. I had bought a 1 litre tetra pack of wine for 1 Euro when I had gotten here for mostly cooking but also for those afternoon when I needed a glass of wine. It was half gone so we decided to finish it with the chili. It is actually not bad wine but also not a great wine compared to what you get in a bottle. Just not tons of flavours and aroma.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Viareggio Carnivale

Sunday afternoon we spent at the Viareggio carnival.  They have 5 different parade dates over about one month time, and some nights there are also fireworks.  Tonight there are no fireworks, we would have never made it that late anyway!

The circuit for the floats is a 4 km circle, and you can walk between the floats as there are going by. We were there early enough that we walked the entire route and took pictures of the floats before they were moving.  I did not realise how animated the floats would be, it was amazing to see.  Many of the floats had dancers that were in front of them leading the float, a little hard to see because of the amount of people, but lots of loud music, lots of confetti throwing and just a good time had by all.

Admission was 18.00 Euro to get in, and this was just to get it, no seats in the bleachers.  It was another 15 Euro per person for a seat, pass we will stand.  We grabbed something to eat from one of the vendors that were set up, again we were so hungry that it tasted great.  In hindsight we should have eaten on our walk to the parade grounds, which was about 20 minutes from the train station.  The parade grounds also run parallel to a beautiful beach.




Lots of spots around the parade route were set up to get something to eat


A local treat that we have seen at all the markets we have been to.  Taste a little like waffle cones for ice cream, yummy

Confetti vendors, kids were running around with bags of this stuff to throw

Kid throwing confetti from the balcony above, like New Orleans without the beads!


Reminded us a bit of our Palm Springs trip last year

Some families went all out and everyone was dressed up

These people were on their way to their float

Wigs, masks for sale if you forgot yours at home


Even some dogs were in costume


This apartment building on the parade route dressed themselves up as hospital workers and added decorations to their building





Confetti is fun!




Trump was very popular as part of the floats















It's 3PM, the parade is starting, lots of people around.  No roped off area. You can walk in front of in the back of the floats.


That is a real person on the end of Donalds hair



Some of the floats are huge!




The carnival pagentry
She was so excited to see the polar bear.




Lots of fun on the floats, they had the whole audience singing except us, we have no idea what song it was



The kid on his moms shoulders beside us did not like this float

OK, maybe I'll peek just a bit





We didn't really understand this one, a bull, US, Chinese?