Quist World Tour

Well, okay, maybe not everything we learned, but here are a few things. Always double check your hotel reservations. See the tragedy of our Venice accomodations for more details. You will find out things about your family you may not wish to know. Kids fight no matter what continent you are on. I can turn surly when the kids fight too much (to be honest, Brian was already pretty clear on this). Brian is a bit of a control freak--he prefers to carry any sort of important document, cash or anything else of value in his pants (in a waistbelt of course). This does cut down on trip expenses. You may not want to bring a snowglobe through security. Turns out it's a liquid, and it's in glass, and for some reason that means we shouldn't carry it on a plane. Since we didn't check any luggage through, we didn't really have any other plan for the tiny snowglobe that an unnamed middle school daughter of ours picked out for a friend who requested one. The Swiss security ...

Doing what they do best: electronics of any form. A seven hour drive from Paris to Singen , Germany made up the most of our day. I can’t tell you much about the first hour or so, since I slept through that part of the drive. I can, however, tell you more about our rest area experiences. When I started this blog, I had no idea that it would turn into a serial harangue on public restrooms in Europe . After all, I’ve been to Europe before, I know the public bathrooms are not plentiful or free, and I’m over it. But driving gives it a whole new dimension. So when we started in France a few days earlier, I mentioned the porcelain pit toilet that we encountered. I said it was possibly worse than the automatic flushing toilet for those toilet-training children. I had no idea it could be even worse. On the way out of France , we stopped again. This time, we were looking for a picnic table and were happy to find one with a bathroom nearby. Little did we know. Again, the modern pit toil...

Love this city. Natalie started our day by scrambling eggs for all of us. We didn’t rush it, knowing this was our last full day of sightseeing. Brian packed a lunch for us, and off we went. First we went to the Louvre, the enormous museum that we considered skipping altogether. But it’s not terribly expensive, and Rita suggested that we just pick a few things to see. That’s what we did. Of course we went to see the Mona Lisa. We had heard it was small and much more modest than its fame suggests, and that was true. However, many would-be pop stars dream of paparazzi like this. A huge crowd of people maneuvering to the front of the line to get a photo of a painting they don’t really seem to look at with their actual eyes. Her colors are rich and deep, and the painting is subtle, and it’s completely at odds with the mob scene played out before it! We examined the Wedding Feast at Cana , found the Venus de Milo, and then made our way to the Napoleon III apartments. The canopy bed is ve...

This morning we packed up from our splendid stay at the Splendid Hotel, after a better night’s sleep since the party across the hall had moved out. The shower plan is this: everyone stays in their bed either sleeping or reading while someone else takes a shower, trying to ensure a bit of privacy in spite of all the glass doors. It seems to work. We made a quick stop at the bakery for some chocolate pastries to go. As sad as it is to leave the Alps behind, our real apprehension was another long driving trip. We knew we would have a couple of nights free yet on this trip, and one option was to go see a couple of places in Switzerland . We immediately nixed that plan when we started looking at hotel prices in Switzerland . Un. Be. Lieve. Able. So we picked the second most expensive place we could find, Paris . Really, Paris only came up because it was a place that our children wanted to see. It seems a good 5 hour drive from Grenoble , and the drive from Paris to the town in Germany ...

This morning we didn’t have to make the decision—will we have cereal in our room again or venture out for an expensive but tasty breakfast? Which was good, considering that some sort of party was going on in the room across the hall, which involved numerous groups of people coming and going, knocking on the door and waiting in the hallway, laughing and running around until 4 AM. The kids slept through it, Brian would wake up, hear a bit of it, and fall asleep, while I lay there with a pillow over my head, trying to control my rage. At one point, I did pop my red-eyed, frizzy haired blonde self out the door and, lacking any French, said “Shhhhhh” very forcefully. The 4 people in the hallway giggled and got a bit quieter, but then they went into the room across the hall and more people took their place. Let’s just say that, upon waking, I was not in my finest mood. No matter. Rita was serving breakfast. Back we went for more Selles hospitality: Chocolate muesli and croissants made every...

The rain poured down overnight, and the skies were clearing as we rolled out of bed. Today we leave Italy behind for France . After getting our gear packed in the car, we drove to the road along the beach that would take us northward. I got a chill when Brian said, distressed, “Oh no, we just missed it.” I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about at first, then I realized that we had come to a one way tunnel. We had hit one yesterday, and the sign then told us that the light would turn green every 10 minutes. This tunnel’s light would be green at 5 minutes after, 25 minutes after and 45 minutes after the hour. We got there at 9:47. So we parked our car for the next 18 minutes at the red light, and I took a little walk to see the beach in daylight. Such a lovely summer town—I would love to see it in full swing. The drive took us from our beach town up through Genoa , Turin and on to Grenoble , France . We think we spent as much time going through tunnels as out in the open! We s...

This morning we packed up our bags and headed north. We were headed to the Italian version of the French Riviera, the Cinque Terre. This is an area of 5 beach towns that are old and beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to snap some pictures with dramatic views.  We're not so original...  First we stopped off in Pisa , to see the leaning tower. This was mostly because the tower is something that our children have heard of and were interested in seeing. Brian and I were feeling sort of sheepish, stopping at such an obvious tourist attraction. The guidebook suggested parking at a bus parking lot, where you could park for free, then getting on the bus (which cost all of 2 Euro for the 5 of us) for a round trip ride to the tower area. We were the only ones on the bus, and the kids stood in the “joint” between the two connected bus lengths, so that when the bus turned a corner, they spun back and forth with the connector. We got off when the bus stopped and the driver said “This is it.”...

Rather than a third day spent fighting the crowds in Rome , we decided to go to the ancient Roman town of Tivoli to visit Villa d’Este. This is the summer home of some cardinal or other who was in power way back when. He built it on the remains of a Roman structure, which was then a convent, which he then replaced with his vacation home. It’s amazing! He channeled the natural flow of water to fill the entire building and grounds with fountains. Paintings and sculpture abound, and we only had to share the space with a few other people. Highly recommend it. We enjoyed lunch in the main square, to which several in our group were attracted because of a sign that said you could get a hamburger and French fries for 5 Euro. The hamburger, to their disappointment, was not as expected—just a small hamburger patty minus the bun, tomato, lettuce, whatever. Andrew even requested his with some mozzerella on top, a request which made the server shake her head. It was hard not to laugh at thei...

A slightly later morning again today, after which we got on the train to Rome once again. This time the train felt a bit longer, because it made many more stops and was so crowded that we were just packed in the aisles. We were all relieved to get off of the train. At least someone did give up their seat so that Louise could sit down with the baby. Today we pushed into Roman Catholic territory. We got to the Vatican Museum just in time to be hungry for lunch, so we looked for some pizza before going in. As we walked down the busy street, we were approached by about 20 different people on the sidewalk who asked if we were interested in an English tour. Andrew answered once with “No habla ingles” which made me laugh, because while he meant “I don’t speak English,” he said “You don’t speak English” or “He doesn’t speak English.” Apparently he doesn’t speak Spanish either. We knew that the museum was the home of the Sistene Chapel, and for that reason were excited to go in, but we had ...

Carsten, Louise, and their 4 children flew in last night, getting here later than expected because of some protests in the city. They had to take a shuttle from the airport to the train station, then take a train from Rome to the outside town, Zagarolo, where we are staying. The shuttle to the train station took much longer than expected, because there were protests in Rome , with police everywhere and some cars burning in the streets. We saw them this morning at breakfast after a long night’s sleep. Their new baby, Emil, is just adorable! He’s round and fat-cheeked and very good-natured. He also has 4 mothers, as sisters Sidsel (14), Anne (13) and Line (8) take over when they can. Who could be crabby with all that love? The place we are staying this time, Olive Tree Hill, is a small olive grove with a bed and breakfast complex. The hosts, Ivano and Terhi, live in a house on the grounds, they have another building across the place where the rooms and common room are, and then they ...

Last night and this morning, the girls have been on a mission to finish the bulk of their schoolwork. And they’ve done it. There is great rejoicing in the land. Poor Andrew. We said goodbye to Isabela, who so warmly wished to make everything perfect for us. We also said goodbye to the wonderful “apartment” we had in her old farmhouse, which is so equipped with everything you might ever need that it is hard to find a place to put your own stuff. Our biggest concern was that we would not be able to tell if we left anything there! And then, saddest of all for at least 2 of us, was saying goodbye to the crazy galoot of a dog, Tata. Lots of hugs for her before we departed. Today I turned 43 years old. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than the itinerary for the day: Drive through Tuscany , stop off at a chocolate festival in Perugia , and end the day with our arrival at the rooms we are renting near Rome . There was one minor flaw in the plan—the drive through Tuscany . It’s brea...

One day does not acquaint you with a city, but it can give you just enough taste of it to make you want more. Today we had an appetizer plate full of Florence , and we can’t help but want to go back again. But before our taste of Florence , we had a taste of French toast left outside the door of our room by Isabela Manfredini, the female half of the proprietorship of our bed and breakfast. Yum. Staying out in the countryside, we needed to drive our car to a nearby city, park it in a public parking lot and get on the tram service to Florence . This worked well, and soon we were deposited in Florence , near the train station. Nothing pretty is ever right near the train station, as far as we’ve experienced, but we went to Tourist Information for the free map and headed out. And really, it’s a very walkable place. More vinegar anyone? We walked first to central market, where you can find a dizzying variety of pastas, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, vinegars, oils and wines. Also, you c...