Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Leonardo’s Machines

Posted by sylvan on Tuesday, 16 April 2019, 9:01

My dad and I went to the Leonardo da Vinci museum in Venezia. We’ve been to quite a few museums here in Europe, and this one was different for a couple reasons: relative to the others, it’s pretty small (only about 5 rooms, none of them particularly large) and much more interactive than the others as well.

Leonardo da Vinci was the son of a nobleman and a peasant woman. He was born in 1452 in Italy, in Vinci, a small village near Florence.

The room of mirrors

The museum had replicas of some of Leonardo’s paintings and his scientific drawings. Leonardo drew and wrote a whole onion-load of scientific observations, and he revolutionized science and the scientific method.

There were polyhedrons to construct.(yay!)

A self supporting bridge!

The museum also had some of his machines. The machines had been built based on Leonardo’s blueprints, of which he had many. The museum let you use and touch these machines, which was pretty darn fun.

If Leonardo had designed this, it might have turned out a bit better.

Paris

Posted by sylvan on Wednesday, 3 April 2019, 11:33

We went to Paris. It was good. We moved. There was a metal many person wheel box ride. The box took a long time.

We saw big tall stuck together metal pieces of Eiffel (very popular pieces from the Great Ball of Water and Rocks’ Big Outdoor People Grouping of about 130 years in the past). We saw these pieces from a boat, the ground, a 2-wheeled rolly metal thing with a chain, and from in between the pieces.

Really, they're kinda sick.

Eiffel made a big thing

There were also popular stacked important rocks.There were pictures and shaped rocks. Those are good looking. They are in a pictures-and-shaped rocks-looking-at SUPERSTRUCTURE. Rock standing can be hurtful to leg insides.

Ours Blanc

SUPERSTRUCTURE

It’s not a vase, It’s a vaaass

We went to a place where people can give employed people slips of super important plastic with numbers and other scribblys on them so that they can take glued together pieces of paper with letters on them from the employed people. Place said “SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY” on it.

in English too!

Methinks this place of great bardic knowledge shant be easily lost.

There were also stick board vroomers. They were 2 wheels with a board in between the wheels and a T shaped stick on it. There is a button thingy. Button thingy is on the stick. When a 4-year-old stands on board and presses thingy, the 4-and-a-half-year-old might go vroom.

 

VWØØØMM!!

This is fun

A Day in the Life, 14 Days in

Posted by julie on Wednesday, 22 August 2018, 11:57

Many of our days here in Bolzano have included bouncing from apartment rental agency to apartment rental agency, watching the agent shake his head while blowing through pursed lips. “Short-term rental? Niente.” Or complaining about our cobblestone-street-sore feet while airing our sweaty armpits in the waiting room of the Questura (State Police), attempting to bring the correct document on the right day to the person who will be persuaded by it.

Those affairs are not very photogenic, although I bet Chris will write an exhaustive, helpful blog post later for anyone who wants the details.

But here are photos from yesterday. It was lovely. We didn’t do much work (other than worry about the rental contract we signed; there will undoubtedly be more on that later), and we spent the day together, laughing a lot and whining only a little.

Suit of armor at Castel Roncolo/Schloss Runkelstein.

“One day, lad, all of this will be yours.” “What, the curtains?”

This place is beautiful. Do you think they’ll mind if I come back with my laptop to write while sitting in one of their many window seats? (I didn’t find many outlets…)

I just love this room. It’s the “bathroom” in Roncolo/Runkelstein, so-called due to a series of naked men painted in the arches on the right wall (perhaps just unfinished by the painter, but no one is sure, as they were painted about 620 years ago).

“Bathroom” panorama, complete with Chris and Sylvan acting like Chris and Sylvan.

Evening fun at the pool on a hot day.

The Piscina di Soprabolzano, just a couple of minutes’ walk from our AirBnB. This place is great: after 4 p.m., it’s half-price, so our family pays 10 euros. The views are magnificent, the lifeguard is indifferent, the French fries are truly wonderful, and it’s a great place to get cool.

Go! Go! Go!

Posted by jonesey on Tuesday, 31 July 2012, 19:42

I made Julie stop for this tribute to Pudge. Hi dad!

Pushing it fair, ovah the Monstah.

If you don’t get the historical reference, don’t despair — you’re in for a treat. Go watch the drama. There’s a lot of goose-bump inducing setup, but basically: Red Sox v. Reds, 1975 World Series on the line, Game 6, tied in the bottom of the 12th inning. If you’re impatient, you can fast-forward to 1:10 and watch the rest.

 

No question about it

Posted by jonesey on Sunday, 11 December 2011, 6:13

“Louis liked Boston the minute he saw it from the sky.” – E.B. White, The Trumpet of the Swan, chapter 14.

OK, not exactly what the author intended, but it's pretty nice this way too.

21st Century Schizoid Phone

Posted by jonesey on Saturday, 10 December 2011, 6:22

2000!  2000!  TWO! THOUSAND!

Wait, what?

Still a phone booth, just not in the way the 20th century intended.

 

 

 

Note to pedants (I know all you pedants will read this far): I know 2000 is not in the 21st century. As an infamous man said about his bad decision in the year 2000: Get over it.

Five hot things

Posted by jonesey on Thursday, 8 December 2011, 5:54

San Diego. April 2011.

I worked on a grant application in my hotel room for 12 hours that day.

My creative wife. This project took her no time at all. She is amazing.

No, not the little girl, you sick puppy. *Behind* the little girl!

Thank you, Mr. Lawyer.

!

Using our senses

Posted by jonesey on Monday, 21 November 2011, 6:03

[This is the first of many posts that I have accumulated in a giant pile of things to post. They will be events and photos from the past, sometimes from many years ago, that I just didn’t get around to posting. I’ll try to date all of them. Most of them are things that one of the kids said. We write these things down on a piece of paper that lives on the refrigerator door. Consider this a visit to our kitchen.]

6 May 2010. Sylvan, age 4 1/2: “We’re going to Mars. If we smell a bad smell, it might be Martians.”

Clothes? We don't need clothes to go to Mars.

Hell freezes over

Posted by jonesey on Sunday, 20 November 2011, 17:05

“I’ll never have a cell phone” slowly turned into “Well, unless I could get an iPhone. Those things are pretty nice” and then into “I’m going on this long trip by myself. I should probably get a cell phone. You can’t find a pay phone anymore, for one thing.”

A long-lost Best Buy $10 gift card from a friend turned into a Wire-style burner phone, then a little trip to tip-land turned that into this:

Julie joins the 21st century. And not a moment too soon.

Thought for a Thursday: Small Adventures Are Still Adventures

Posted by julie on Thursday, 13 October 2011, 19:12

This afternoon, with no preparation (in my household, that means with no snacks), Elena and I drove to the Dover Firehouse and parked, then walked up the sidewalk to the official Stone Church trailhead nearby.

This was translated from the original Korean at a sign-making facility in Greece. The cavern was killed by Mohawks? Who really knows how a comma should be used?

We walked down the new stone stairs to the freshly-mown path, lined by deciduous trees planted in just the past couple of years. Tufts of milkweed seeds sat in bright white clusters atop the dead, waist-high flowers and grasses. I took only a few, stuffing them into the memory card pocket of my camera case, the only thing I carried. When we walked through the older trees—certainly there and huge when I was a kid, over 30 years ago—peepers called from somewhere in the canopy above us.

My little rubber boot sprite

Elena and I walked upstream, chatting about what this trail was like 30 years ago, muddy boots, and where Daddy and I got married (legally, right here, it turns out). She powered on, not once asking me to carry her. It’s a short hike, maybe a mile round-trip; and we took it slowly, looking around. She posed for photos, asked about the downed tree that had been cut into rounds, and said, “Ooh, that’s pretty” when the stream steepened and turned to whitewater. She was surprised when I told her that the Stone Church is a cave. When we got there, I pointed out some names etched into the stone, one from 1860. It turns out 151 years is a bit too much for a 3-year-old to grasp.

Stone Church October 2011

One of my favorite places, and so easily shareable. I tend to turn outings into BIG EVENTS. Sometimes, it’s good to remember that all you need to do is step out the door. Would it be nice to have some peanuts in your pocket to stave off the grumpies? Sure. But, really, it doesn’t take much. We were back in the car in an hour, and we certainly hadn’t hurried.