Saturday 29 September 2012

It's only wafer thin.

Cassie food talking again...

Mmm, Italian food - not sure if other countries conjure up such immediate thoughts of delicious food...or maybe that's just me. For the short time we're in Italy, I feel like I want to eat pasta at every meal and finish off with gelato. I'm sure I'm not alone....but it turns out we do broaden our narrow plans.

Food porn shots here, so skip if you're sensitive ;-)

In our "stop-over" city of Imperia, the two of us are sent to a lovey little restaurant down the hill (and in Imperia everything is either up or down the hill). The gentleman at the front desk of our hotel says this restaurant passed their toughest test - grandmama. They took the whole family there over Christmas, and when asked what she thought, she said it was "alright" - so they knew it was fabulous and perfect to recommend.

L'alchemist:
Best. Calamari. Ever.
It was so tender, it practically ripped as you picked it up with a fork. Sizzling hot as it hit our table, on a bed of pan-fried sui-choy, sitting in a radicchio cup.


And because we were right at the seaside, we had fish for the main course. Never did get the translation, but a beautiful piece of baked white fish, like think sole, dressed with a light vegetable puree and then topped with paper thin potato slices.


Cassie's dessert was a yogurt set custard, similar to a panacotta, with fresh strawberries. Brad's chocolate cake is in the background.


Which was filled with warm chocolate...


In Siena, the four of us dined within the old city at Osteria Babazuf, very cozy and a nice un-tourist feel to the place.

Brad and I had the set menu for two which starts with a set of three appetizers. Chicken liver pâté (very tangy and rich tasting), fresh tomato bruschetta (refreshing and crisp), and warm pecorino cheese soufflé (rich mellow flavour that melted in your mouth).

The pasta course was the area's pasta, pici (like thick spaghetti), dressed with butter and breadcrumbs and fusilli pasta with a light veal sauce.


And then the meat course - medium-rare veal with rucola and a medieval dish of creamy chick peas and chicken.


And finally dessert, candied orange peel slices set on little pots of buttermilk mousse.


Sono piena!

Friday 28 September 2012

Mod Museum

Hey, Brad here.

On our road trip to Italy, we found ourselves (okay, it was my idea) wanting to visit a famous Italian museum. As we had just picked up our friends in Florence, they probably had already taken in the Galleria degli Uffizi, famous I believe for its collection of Renaissance paintings and sculpture. How about the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli? Too far away... The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, in Rome? Modern art is awesome, but driving in Rome... Maybe next time.

HOWEVER, halfway between Florence and Siena, the town of Pontedera offers up the Museo Piaggio! Now we're talking! The home of Cassie's (and literally millions of others) Vespa scooter.

...and what did we see? Well, without boring you too much about its history, I will just say that the museum was full of significant, and bizarre, Vespas.

And the museum is free!

The SS90. One of the rarer Vespas around.


What every Vespa owner needs: a rocket launcher.


Here is the original prototype scooter, which was never put into production...because it didn't work very well. But it looks pretty cool.


Cassie checking out the extra large frame Vespa.


If "big" is not your thing, then how about long?


The Carrera marble seat, however, may not be so comfy, but it does match the tail light.


An original Ape (pronounced ah-pay), which are still being made in modern versions. It seems every farmer, plumber, plasterer and electrician has one.


Brad with the long distance record holders....around the world, Alaska to Chile, etc. even found a Vancouver sticker on one of them.


And finally, since the designer of the Vespa was also the inventor of the modern helicopter... it seems so right!

Yet more dazzling Tuscan sites

We spent one afternoon away from the cute town of Siena to visit another nearby cute town. To be honest, you can't throw an olive pit without hitting at least three medieval, walled cities. And leading up to them - tall, slender cedar trees creating the effect of evergreen fence posts. It's just so....Tuscan! I'm sure car bingo here doesn't include olive tree or grape vine as the game would be over before pulling out of the drive way.

San Gimignano is a small medieval walled city dating back to the 10th century (the village actually started centuries before that). The town was once dotted with seventy-two (!) towers, but economic decline, a nasty bout of the Black Death and wars have reduced the number to 14 (which is still amazing).

We strolled through the town (actually up and down, because the streets, like Siena, undulate) and paused to admire the main square, Piazza del Duomo. When the band came through.

Yes, marching band.

Not sure if this is a daily tourist show or if the municipal band just felt like stretching their legs and getting some sun in the square - either way, most everyone was surprised and delighted by the impromptu show. And Cassie being someone who's schlepped an instrument through European streets and squawk away on a clarinet, well, it brought back some fun memories.

And finally a food note. Beside the Duomo (church) there was a small market set-up. Only three stalls, some produce, bread and these guys:

Even in a tiny town like San Gimignano, these Italians know how to 'sandwich'.....no tiny portions of pork roast here...it's the whole beast, baby.

Thursday 27 September 2012

And they're off!


Italy.

We have come to drink your wine,
eat your pasta
and party with some other Canucks.

And we did. Plus gelato.

We have driven from France to meet up with some friends from Victoria who are vacationing in Italy. Our timing worked to meet them in the beautiful city of Siena. If you don't know the town, but have seen Daniel Craig as Bond in Quantum of Solace, then you've glimpsed the city. The horse race (and ensuing roof-top chase) are set in Siena.

This medieval, walled city is made up of piazzas, duomos and winding, angled streets that put San Francisco to shame. The main square, Piazza del Campo is bordered on one side by the huge tower, Torre del Mangia.

Nearby is the Duomo di Siena (the main cathedral). The most striking feature is its marble facade - alternating white a dark marble to give it a striped appearance.

One of the most interesting aspects of Siena is the contradas, or districts, of which there are seventeen. It's kind of like Victoria and all its municipalities....except instead of mayors arguing, these Italians let a horse race settle it.

The twice yearly Palio race pits contradas against one another in a short, brutal winner-takes-all circuit of the Campo. Spectators (draped in their contrada's colours) pack the centre of the square and line the outside, and the horses race a circle in between. The jockeys ride bare-back for three laps of the campo - the horse that crosses the finish first wins the glory for its contrada (note: jockey still on horse is not necessary!).

The contradas are a physical aspect of Siena as well, with the old city broken into these 17 districts, each with its own flag and symbol. This photo shows the flag for Onda, or wave, whose symbol is the dolphin. Their blue checkered flags lead down the main street away from the Campo:

And a close-up of the lights that line the streets, each changing in colour and form, depending on the contrada that you're walking through.

We beging to realise that the contrada you're part of is something very passionate for the people of Siena (passion and Italians, who'd have thought?!?). The hotel we were staying at had a beautiful display of plates hung on the wall, each painted for one contrada. When we chatted (broken Italian to broken English) with the owner, he said the best contrada was his - Pantera, or Panther (and he patted his chest with his open palm to emphasize the point).

Here Umbeto is striking a serious pose for us. Note the framed picture to his right - about twenty years ago, Umberto was part of the Palio celebrations.

And another, less serious, picture of Umberto with Megan and me. He was a wonderful host of his hotel (and not just because he spent a great deal of time helping Cassie say 'thank-you' properly....gratzee-eh!)

Ciao Umberto, we will miss you and Siena!

The Côte d'Azur and all things expensive.

Back on the road again, this time a trip east, to the boot, Italy, that is. We opted for the coastal drive, winding through the seaside resorts. The settings are beautiful and it's no wonder that people toiled so hard to put these roads and towns in with hills on either side. The drive is constantly descending into one village then back up the hill to round another hill/mountain and descend into another.

There's typically not many viewpoints to stop and take a picture but we finally came upon one. This shot could have been taken about eight different times for different towns. They are all beautiful, Spanish-influenced cities shoe-horned into tight valleys.

We did opt for a drive through the crowded streets of Monaco to see if we could say "Hi!" to Albert, but alas he must have been holed up at the palace. Our route took us past the famous casino, but we weren't up to channeling our inner Bond, so settled for the drive by.

We stopped en route for the night in Imperia, Italy, assuming Monte Carlo wasn't going to be producing the expedia deals we could afford. This town had recently constructed an expansion to their existing wharves, allowing them to berth more boats ships mega yachts.

'How big?' You ask? As we strolled the docks before dinner that evening, we came across this very slick speed boat:

Which was the dingy for this boat:

No joke. The large vessel is called Space and the smaller one, Tender to Space, is the zip-around boat they use when they're docked for a while. The one percent were obviously at sea-level, the rest of us ninety-nine were in the family run hotels with balconies overlooking the water.

But if you do get down to that part of town, stay at the Hotel Ariston. It was a sweet, family run hotel with beautiful large rooms (yes, in Europe!) and a lovely breakfast buffet with seating out on the terrace. Homemade baking and jams - wonderful - made even more so by the Italian-laced English explanations of the staff.

Ahhh - questa è la vita

Traffic in Austria

On our drive back from Austria to Belgium to drop off our rental car (and pop into a few other countries...such is life in Europe when this drive is like Vancouver to Jasper with a whole other country to see in between), we saw some fun stuff along the way.

The scenery, as you can imagine, is drop dead gorgeous: endless rolling green hills with darling little villages nestled into the valleys (or climbing up the hills themselves, on switch-backed roads - and making me happy I wasn't having to bike home to THAT house). It's definitely very "The hills are alive with the...".

And the road-side stands are a little different from ours - similar to the over-flowing peaches and nectarines in the Okanagan, this area is rich in, well, squash/gourds/kurbises, however you want to say it. Not sure if they cook them or are creating their Martha Stewart fall harvest table display, but there were tons of these squash honour bars.

And you'll notice the purple flowers on the rack in the background - flowering artichoke heads. For that splash of colour, I assume (but really, wouldn't they have been better picked about a month ago, trimmed and steamed with some butter?)

And further along the road amongst the other rental cars and caravans, we came upon this unique motorcyclist. And unique can only begin to describe him. Would have loved to take a picture of him at a rest stop, but ended up settling for a quick snap out the window.

His helmet was nearer to Genghis Khan battle gear than Hell's Angels skull cap. His flowing hair and beard gave the helmet edge an almost fur-trimmed appearance (with help from the animal tail hanging down the back). And for company on what we're sure was probably a long road-trip, a separate trailer....for his dog (who was snoozing comfortably when we peered in). If you look close enough, you can see the "Harley Dog" decal on the side of the canine unit.


And you would not believe all the traffic they have in Austria - it's crazy man! We were held up for ages on the highway...it was bumper to bumper...or was that nose to tail?
Moo, honk...



Friday 21 September 2012

Are we in Sweden?

And in one of those, only in France scenes (oh, by the way, we're in France now....more on that later).

A really nice 'cheese buffet':



At IKEA. Complete with condiments and spreads.

Just past the meatballs and before the desserts.

Monday 17 September 2012

Hitting the dirt... and stairs... for racing

Also appearing at Saalfelden was a full slate of cross country racing, all the way from juniors to the elite of the world. We bought tickets to the final day of cross country racing to watch the elite women and men compete. The race course was excellent! I had been a bit disappointed in the Olympic course as it seemed just a little too 'made up', but the Saalfelden course reminded me of riding/racing in Cumberland. Lots of roots, lots of single track and lots of riders (Americans) complaining how technical the course was. Indeed, the conditions were perfect; it was a warm, dry day and the fans crowded along all parts of the racecourse.
Unfortunately, our Canadians did not fare too well in the women's race, where Catherine Pendrell finished 15th, even though she had won the overall series this year. On the men's side, Geoff Kabush finished 18th, which, considering the field, was probably better than expected.

Here's a shot of Nino Schurter winning the men's race, ahead of the Flükiger brothers (Lukas and Mathias), who made it a Swiss sweep of the podium. To say the Swiss men's team is strong is a huge understatement!


Catharine Pendrell is behind a Polish racer early in the women's race.


Here is Geoff Kabush on one of the single track climbs. The pace of the race was actually quite startling. Once a rider was more than a minute behind the leaders, his race was essentially over...


There weren't a lot of Canadian fans at the race, but there sure were Swiss fans, complete with their own amplifiers! At least if we squinted, they sort of looked Canadian...


The next day was something new, called X-Country Eliminator, where the racers from all age categories could compete on a short, urban XC course (about one minute lap times) down stairs, through tunnels and over man-made jumps. Each rider did a two lap qualifier run to determine the eliminator rounds. The 32 fastest riders went onto the next round (close to 150 men attempted) where they raced in groupings of four, with the two slowest racers being eliminated. After many heats, the four fastest racers competed for the medals. Geoff actually did very well, qualifying ninth and finishing tenth overall! It is an interesting offshoot of cross country racing.

Here is Geoff overtaking the guy who started 30 seconds ahead of him in the qualifying round.


Racers in action...


Make sure you bring your best cow bell to the race!


One final photo of the day: in road racing, the domestiques on a team go back to team car for bottles of water, etc. However, in mountain biking, domestiques could be spotted leaving the local McDonalds with ice cream sundaes...

Saturday 15 September 2012

Mountain Biking, Austrian style...

After being in Saalfelden for a day, we decided that we needed to ride! It had been two months or more since we had gone on an actual mountain bike ride. So off we went to Leogang, the local "Kona-approved" mountain biking area.

Actually, if you squint, you swear you were in the Whistler bike park, but then it hits you; most guys (and girls) are lighting up a smoke after each descent!

We rented two very nice full suspension bikes and decided to do a recommended ride from a guidebook we picked up the day before. Coolest guidebook ever! Each ride is printed on a single page with map, elevation and description. Plus the pages are perforated, so we just pulled out the one page and took it with us!

We took the gondola to the top of the bike park to start our ride; I just want to say that the ride wasn't just downhill as we actually had close to 800 meters of climbing to go with the 1700 meters of downhill over the 32 km distance.


Here's a nice view from the gondola


It's worth noting that we were perhaps a little worried about the length of the ride. We had once gone to ride Comfortably Numb, a trail of a similar distance, in Whistler with Darren and Kiri and decided to take the shortcut out at the halfway point, but then found ourselves on a seemingly endless power line road back to the hotel. By the time we returned, the four of us were exhausted, and more than a little cranky.

However, as the photo below shows, all of the riding was double track and fairly easy, but it was fun and challenging nonetheless!

The guide wasn't always perfect as sometimes we took a wrong turn (usually up an extra hill or two) but one of our mistakes introduced us to a couple of Czech guys who claimed we Canadians were their heroes for riding such steep uphills without clip in pedals. It turns out that even over here in the Alps, these guys dream of riding Whistler and the North Shore of Vancouver!

The highlight of the ride, and here is what makes riding in the Alps sooo different from at home, is the fact that even on what seems at times to be the most remote trails you are never far from some sort of civilization. We came across other bikers, hikers and whole families out for a mountain walk... And restaurants... Up in the mountains... With BEER! So after 20 or so kms, we stopped for lunch.

Cassie with her radler (beer and 7up):


And here was our view, and me with my beer:


And thus we ate our lunch, drank our beers and rode down the final 10 km back to the resort...

...at which point we had one last hill to ride.

Bus + Bus-ette

OK, only a brief deviation into transit geekdom here.

Saw this bus in one of the many towns whilst driving around. Two buses in a row you say?


Nope. Tchnically one bus or to be more correct, a bus and trailer....for people:


I guess when it's off peak, they can disconnect the caboose and drive solo. Not sure of the farebox logistics, but that's starting to really delve deep....

And now back to the holiday mode.

Hopping around Austria

And finally the reason we've come to Austria (which was not to find our inner Marias or make our biking clothes from the hotel curtains).

Saalfelden-Leogang is host to the Union of Cycling International (aka UCI and the reason some atheletes get to wear a rainbow stripe on their shirt). Between the two mountains, they are hosting downhill, cross-country and trials. And it's the trials that we're focused on - specifically to see an old student from Bonner, John Webster - who's in the elite in this sport.

The trials course is set up throughout the town. If there's a small, cramped area to be had, the organizer's have put up a set of obstacles for the riders to be balancing around and jumping onto and off of. Each obstacle grouping has a different theme, some with a nice Austrian feel.....no schnitzel shaped ones though....

This one is the oil sponsor, Motorex - before any of the competition. The riders are allowed to walk through and climb on each item, but only sans bike.

Later that day, this was the same obstacle group in action. We had positioned ourselves at the entry point to a series of rollers the riders had to negotiate down. The first four rollers were well executed for most riders....the last one, well, let's just say more riders than not became up-close and friendly with the last roller, closely followed by the pavement. In trials-terms, it's pretty much third strike. Putting one foot down is a demerit (and you can't move the foot, similar to traveling in basketball), but two feet down is an automatic five demerits - the maximum allowed.

Another obstacle grouping with a metal theme to it:

And it wouldn't be Austria without a beer-themed obstacle set. And yes, there were bottles in all the cases.


The final two obstacle groupings were wood (logs, sheds and poles) and cement (highway culvert pieces) where we had staked out a spot to watch the competition. This is John on top of the tower of cement rings - he did quite well through this set of obstacles - we saw a couple of guys lose it on the first portion of the cement round.

And to truly give you a short idea of what John does - a video we shot while he was in our field of view:
It was great to chat with John at the end of his competition. It's amazing knowing he's traveled to Austria (and elsewhere for other world cup events) on his own. He met up with one person part way through his travels and this guy was the one standing on the sidelines, holding drinks and snacks for John and waiting at the finish. It's hard knowing that because trials riding isn't as 'big' a sport as downhill or cross-country, the riders (if they're good enough, which John is) are left up to their own devices to get from event to event and self-support themselves)...while the other style of cyclists have team vans, tents, support staff coming out their chain-rings. And off my 'give trials some respect' soapbox. All in all, a fabulous time watching the trials, these guys (not sure why no girls) are amazing and the show put on in Austria was great for the spectators. OK, one food thing. There was a traditional bladl food kiosk at the event. Serving a fried pastry full of diced potatoes and bacon. How could this not be good? Mmmmm