Arrivata a Bologna



It was another short night and a long day for us on Friday. I woke up at 3:00am and just happened to have the computer on the floor right next to the bed and queued up for the live feed of the Giants game. By the time I signed in, the Giants were behind 3-1 to the Phillies. Within minutes they scored to make it 3-2, but they could not get it any closer. Unlike the other day, we both were able to get back to sleep around 5:00ish after it ended. Hopefully, they’ll be able to close this one out in Game 6.

We were already committed to the B & B owner to show up for breakfast at 8:30. I wish we had said later than that, but c’est la vie as they say here in Bordeaux. After breakfast we headed out for a self-conducted walking tour of Bordeaux. We tried to cram in as many sights as we could knowing that we had to be back at the B & B by 2:30 so that the owner could drive us to the train station to pick up the airporter bus. These people were so nice to us…….they even offered to do our laundry (which we turned down).

Below are a few of the sights we saw, but the highlight was the Pey Berland Bell Tower that was adjacent to the Cathédrale Saint-André. We climbed the 231 steps up the seemingly unending narrow spiral staircase to the observation level where we got an incredible birds-eye view of the city. Judy was freaking out just a little on the staircase, not because of the height, but because it seemed a little claustrophobic. Once she was out on the observation ledge, all was well. As we were climbing down and got even with the bottom of the bell inside the tower, it was the noon hour and the bell starting ringing. Now that was something!

We continued walking around after that and saw the Hotel de Ville, the Jardin Public and various other sights around town. On the way back, we grabbed a sandwich and sat in one of the public and did some gawking & eating.

After a relatively short ride to the airport………Judy claims that I slept through some of it so that is why it didn’t seem so long…………we managed to embark on a whole new flight experience. We were riding with RyanAir from Bordeaux to Bologna, an Irish airline out of France taking us to Italy. The flight was very cheap, $34 each including the luggage charge. Unfortunately, you certainly get what you pay for. All I can say is that I will never complain about Southwest ever again, as that is like flying first class compared to RyanAir.

In any case, we got to Bologna just fine which, I guess, is the objective. We caught the airport shuttle to the city and that was interesting. We were packed in like sardines as Judy & I were the last 2 on the bus and each had to stand on one leg sideways just so that they could close the front door. We found our hotel…….eventually……and went to a trattoria around the corner for a nice meal. We were quickly reminded why we love Italy so much…..we just popped into any old place, sat down, and ate a really good, relatively inexpensive meal without having to wander around and look at a number of places to see if it’s a good place to eat or not. I think Judy even managed to get a little drunj.

It’s off to bed late again with an early morning wakeup (6:00am)  scheduled for an all day food & wine tour to Modena & Parma. Yeah, I know…….it’s a tough life..........but someone has to do it.