Sep 6/7 - back in the saddle

... the driving saddle; the internet saddle ... whatever !

Yesterday, the 6th that is, we drove to La Spezia which is less than a half hour away and gawked at the yaghts. We're talking 100'-150' multi-million $$ yachts ... from everywhere - local, London, Marshall Islands -- you name it. This is old money, big money. These people have never "worked" in the true sense of the word.

The harbour was our first stop in La Spezia and turned out to be our last. We drove around and decided that there really wasn't a tourist sea-view section worth stopping in. It's a large shipping harbour and we'd seen the sights walking around the yacht club. Perhaps I should have shown them my Smyrna Yacht Club membership card ? Asked to borrow a "boat" for the afternoon ? ... ha !

Sandy then hit on the idea of driving to Cinque Terre and going to Porto Venere for lunch, which we did. What a great spot ! The only problem that I had was that at our lunch table I couldn't get out of the sun; it was blinding (and burning). However, we walked the town, climbed up the castle steps at the narrow cut between the island and the mainland, basically enjoyed another day.

By the time we got back to our Corvara castle, it was 4:30 or so and we did some reading. I started a new book, finally finishing the 1050 page fine print book that I'd started on the way out and by the end of the evening (of course we also had dinner somewhere in there), I was 2/3 through that book, a Jeffrey Archer that I picked up in the airport on the way out.

We ate in the hotel restaurant for the third night, again having a great meal and this morning, breakfast and packing complete, we checked out and said good-bye to our hostess. She and her husband run the place along with her in-laws.

Today we headed for Venice, actually Mestre on the mainland. It was an interesting drive through the mountains and for a while driving on the very flat land but after a while became boring. Sticking to the autostrade through Balogna, we headed for the Adriatic coast but didn't ever get to see the sea :). When it's flat even the grass is high enough to block your view, unlike the west coast.

So ... tomorrow into Venice and then the next day Zurich, the Meaux (Paris suburbs) and then fly home. We'll be happy to get back home -- always are -- but this has been a long trip.

Onward !