Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

adventures / movies / video — Comments Off
01
Jul 25

We are back

We woke up early. We got on the plane at Heathrow, our last long walk of the trip, which was punctuated by two long walks through the Milano airport after gate changes. And, sure, you have to get off the plane and through the U.S. Customs checkpoints, but the airport walk on the way back home never feels that long.

The march to the plane, however, that can take a while.

The airport security staff confiscated my toothpaste, apologetically. Too big, by volume, despite having made it to and through Heathrow on the way over. Ah well, if that’s the worst part of the day …

We were in Club World on British Airways, which means you get your own little pod, which means the seats lay all the way back, and also that you get more attention on a six or eight hour flight than anyone needs. I just wanted to watch the movies.

First up, Mickey 17, which was highly anticipated by fans of the book, of which I’d never heard. I think they missed. It was Douglas Adams without the funny. But Robert Pattinson wasn’t bad.

I got through about four minutes of the Tom Hanks movie, “Here,” and decided I wasn’t willing to watch that on a plane.

So I watched The Amateur, which is exactly what you imagined after seeing the trailer.

Now I suppose I’ll have to watch the 1981 version, for comparison’s sake.

For the last leg of the trip, and I couldn’t time this much better, I managed to just sneak in all of Oppenheimer. First time I’ve watched it; not sure why it took so long. Pretty sure I need to see it again, if nothing else to improve the audio. Probably there are some interesting historical tidbits I missed as well.

If I may trade heavily, and unfairly, on both stereotypes, I’m not really sure how the Barbieheimer summer worked. The crossover just seems so farfetched. (Then again, Barbie was fine, and this is a Christopher Nolan masterpiece. Or Barbie was a feminist signpost and this was a Christopher Nolan masterpiece. So what do I know?)

Anyway, the plane landed on time. We made it through customs with no problem. The luggage collected, the last walk of the trip was through the airport. My in-laws went this way to meet their driver. We went that way to get to an Uber which took us to our car, and then back home.

And now I’m going to sleep for two, maybe three days.

So this is it for the week. More here Monday. Until then!

adventures / Italy / Monday / photo — Comments Off
30
Jun 25

Cheese!

Marco picked up the four of us from the beautiful Contrada Beltramelli, our lovely last stop before the long return trip home. Everyone at the B&B was lovely. The dinner last night was outrageous. The breakfast table was filled to overflowing. They allowed us sit in their courtyard to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere for a few more hours until it was time to make our way to the airport. Just a charming group of people. We would definitely visit the Contrada Beltramelli again.

The only problem was that our air conditioner made a rhythmic coughing noise throughout the night. I chose to interpret this as a blessed confirmation of the chilled air, a divine intervention when it was 93 degrees yesterday and 95 degrees today. They’ve had a heat wave for most of our time visiting, and this part of the world is not accustomed to, nor prepared for, this kind of weather this time of year. A coughing air conditioner might interfere with your sleep, but only if you let it.

Anyway, Marco picked us up. Him and the four of us and our luggage in his little car for a two-hour ride down to the airport in Milano. He said he’s been on this particular job for six weeks, and it has allowed him to improve his English, which was quite good. Every day, he said, he’s learning something new, and so I began to wonder what he would learn from us. But then he told the 25 minute story of how he came to learn the language to begin with, when he was a younger man.

There was a woman. I’ll just leave it at that.

OK, he met a woman at a club. They had a fine night of dancing. There were drinks. They decided to go somewhere more private. She asked, through their broken bits of language, if he had any protection. He did not, so that was the end of the night, but the beginning of his motivation to study English, somehow.

I was really hoping the story’s punchline would wind up with him one day learning that he did have a preservativo, only he didn’t know the word, but that was not the case.

It was quite the story, filled with many of the people that have dropped into and out of his life giving him a little English here and there. And, just yesterday, he said, he learned the word for when you’re startled. As if a car had suddenly pulled out in front of you.

CHEESE!

We returned to that line over and over, and either everyone else heard “Jeez” or no one had the heart to correct him from the dairy product.

But then I offered up that the word can mean many things, depending on how you said the word. So I gave him CHEEEEEEEEEEEESE.

He gave us “Che seccatura,” as in, “What a drag this trip is over.”

We had dinner in the lounge of the airport, which was better than terminal food, but not a real dinner. I did find the secret platinum door.

As I stood there taking that photo the door detected my presence and slid open, as doors sometimes do. The chairs looked comfortable. It was a bit more spacious looking than the regular old VIP lounge we were in. No one looked up, maybe I could have walked right in. But, then, best not to cause an international incident.

We flew to London this evening, arriving later than scheduled because we took off on Italian time. (Which is unfair, because the previous flight was late getting in … from London.) We caught an Uber to an airport hotel, which was a place designed to look and feel like a club and, man, we’re gonna be here like seven hours. Can we just not do all of that?

Anyway, from London to New York tomorrow. Movies on a long flight. And then the drive home. And then a few days of dealing with jetlag.

adventures / Italy / Switzerland / video / weekend — Comments Off
29
Jun 25

Video from the Bernina Express

The grand finale of this wonderful vacation was a ride on the Bernina Express, a four-hour scenic train ride from Chur, Switzerland, to Tirano, Italy, crossing the Swiss Engadin Alps. We went over almost 200 bridges and dozens of tunnels. And the scenery … well, see for yourself.

Tomorrow we take a car from Tirano to Milan, and then onto our first plane ride, headed for home.

Time to start planning our next vacation, I guess.

adventures / Italy / photo / Switzerland / weekend — Comments Off
29
Jun 25

Riding the Bernina Express

Today we rode on the Bernina Express which, like yesterday’s ride on the Glacier Express, is a “Panorama Express.” It connects Chur, Switzerland, to Tirano, Italy by crossing the Swiss Engadin Alps a route designed for sightseeing, a route which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2008. You go over 196 bridges, through 55 tunnels and cross the Bernina Pass at 7,392 feet above sea level.

Like many of the trains we’ve seen, this one is electrified. Unlike some, this one does not use the cogwheel style to navigate the steeper gradients. This train route, which has been around for almost 120 years, does a few picturesque loops in choice places. But the scenery is grand everywhere, as you’ll see in the next video post.

Since we’re winding down — tomorrow we head home — I should take a customary moment to brag on the trip designer. My lovely bride put this whole thing together, from schedules to excursions, to places to sleep and many of the restaurants. As ever, she put together an amazing trip.

I just carried the luggage. And sweat through the heatwave.

Here’s another one of these amazing views on the Bernina Express route. This is a panorama, so you know what to do.

(Click to embiggen.)

At one of the really high up places the train actually for precisely eight minutes. You can get out on a landing which is high up in the mountains, and enjoy this view.

This route is a four-hour train ride. It is designed for tourists and isn’t the cheapest ticket. The people across from us did this the entire time.

When we exited the train in Tirano, we were in Italy, at the central train station, which is surely sufficient for the task, but hardly as grandiose as you might picture when you think of central train stations. The web told us there would be cabs aplenty waiting outside, but that wasn’t the case on an early Sunday evening.

Our hotel was a few miles away. Too far to walk. What to do, what to do.

Just across from the station there was tourist and newspaper kiosk. I walked over there. The guy said he spoke a little English, and he spoke a good amount of it.

He called every cab company in town, but everyone was busy. He helped us pirate the neighboring restaurant’s wifi, which bothered one of the waiters, but our guy — and I deeply regret not asking his name — did not care. Then, while still selling things to people as they passed through, he called the hotel and had them arrange a ride for us. They told him 10-15 minutes, and 15 minutes later, the ride showed up. If it wasn’t for the kiosk guy, we’d still be standing outside the train station instead of this beautifully restored rustic B&B. The The Contrada Beltramelli is probably the nicest place we’ve stayed on this trip, and the food is easily some of the most outrageously good food of the whole vacation. Plus! Despite part of this structure dating back to the 17th century, the rooms have air conditioning, helpful in this heat wave.

And while we’re leaving for home tomorrow, there’s still more to see. When you’re done exploring the Contrada Beltramelli’s site photos, come back here for some nice video highlights from today’s train ride. The views are definitely worth your time.

adventures / photo / Switzerland / video / weekend — Comments Off
29
Jun 25

St Martin Church, Chur

Before we caught the train out of Chur, we took a little walking tour of the Old Town. (Pronounce it “Coor.”) Two churches were on the agenda, but one of them was closed for visitors. St. Martin’s Church, however, was a highlight.

St. Martin’s square marks the historical north-south route through the inner city. The fountain, decorated with the signs of the zodiac, and the statue date to 1716. Much of it is still original. Also, it provides you cold water, which is a treat on a hot day like this.

Next to the fountain there’s a relief for the visually impaired, that gives a perspective on the entire city. St Martin’s is in the back of the shot, in the center of the relief. You can see the patina on the steeple.

It looks like this.

The Romanesque church was built in the 8th century, mostly destroyed 600 years later in one of those city-defining fires. Using parts of the original building, it was rebuilt in late Gothic style. It’s the largest late-Gothic church in the region. and was a critical part of the ancient town’s Reformation.

I doubt this door is original.

Wikipedia has a list of 116 churches named after St. Martin (there are five saints named Martin, our guy here is St. Martin of Tours) around the world, and this one isn’t even on the list!

After that fire, the tower was completed in 1534, complete with a watchman’s room and Renaissance dome. It stayed like that for 350 years, then got a neo-Gothic upgrade, which didn’t go over well in the neighborhood. Then came the current roof design in 1918 as part of a larger renovation. the tower was given a pointed roof as part of the church’s overall renovation.

I like the little details. This leaf is hand-carved in each of the congregations pews.

Off to the side, where musicians or choir members sit, are some other stylistic carvings.

At the end of the renovation, now 100-plus years ago, the nave received stained glass windows by Augusto Giacometti depicting the Christmas story. So these are relatively new parts of the church, still.

On the walk back to our hotel, and the train station, we passed some picture windows in the stores that had some antiques of their own. This looks like a National Cash Register (of Dayton, Ohio) Model 79, a nickle-plated number that they debuted in 1897. They’ll fetch you a pretty penny at an auction today, but what a beautiful showpiece.

Anyone want to guess what this is?

Figured it out yet?

Yeah?

No?

This is a cylindrical calculator. It will work out multiplication, division and more using graphically displayed logarithms. And if you need precision, you’re set up. This calculator is accurate to six decimal places. This is a smaller model, a 10

I’ve never seen one of those before.

You’re going to see some more sites you’ve never seen in the next post. I’ll be sharing a few of the views from our last train ride, today’s experience on the Bernina Express. Don’t miss it!