Palazzo Reale and the Archeological Museum of Palermo

We arrived early in the morning at Palermo's Palazzo Reale, which after having been occupied by Arabian, Norman and Spanish rulers over the centuries, now serves as Sicily's capitol building. We were there to visit the Cappella Palatina, and its first class mosaics covering not just the interior of the chapel, but also the wall that faces into palace's courtyard.

I was stunned by the detail of the outer mosaics and eagerly awaited our chance to enter the chapel.

  With us was a group of elderly Asian tourists. One of them was perhaps the oldest person I have ever seen. tiny, frail, wrinkled, and bent like an angle bracket, she relied on her can to prevent from toppling right over. She was, by my estimates one of the other grey haired tourists mother, and I would be surprised if she were not at least 100 years old. She had, despite her frailty, managed the stairs to this point; there was no wheel chair in evidence. Never let anyone say they are too old to travel.

When we entered the chapel, we were disappointed, not by the quality of the work, but by our inability to see it. Drop clothes hid the ceiling and the upper walls. Scaffolding reached towards the ceiling, somewhat obscuring what was visible. The down side, the reality, of visiting historical structures, is that they are often in the process of being restored. This was true of the ceiling in the residenz, the Brandenburg tor, and now, this place. We took the time to see what we could, but unfortunately, at that time, it was not very much.

Leaving the palace behind, we headed to the Museo Archeologico Regionale. Here, artifacts from all the great ancient eras of Italy are on display. Architectural elements and some Egyptian artifacts were of particular interest.

The Big Easy

My first visit to New Orleans was In late 2007 I believe. The weather was hot and humid as we wandered the area Near the aquarium. We wandered along and into some of the shops on the edge of the French Quarter, and down to Jackson Square, a lovely city park fenced in wrought iron, with a statue of Andrew Jackson as its centerpiece. On the sidewalks just outside the park, street artists sold their wares.

In front of the park is St. Louis Cathedral. This white faced church resembles a fairy tale castle. We poked our heads inside for a quick look, then headed back out onto the street. Between the church and Jackson Square was a wide cobbled way, filled with a few park benches. On one end were fortune tellers, on the other, a silver man, frozen in mid strum, playing his guitar.

The French Quarter is a mouse maze of businesses, with items for sale ranging from hot sauce to Mardi Gras masques and beads, to fine art. Sprinkled throughout are restaurants and bars, offering a true variety of options, from the expected Cajun faire and hurricanes, to the somewhat more surprising Italian, Chinese, and Indian.

Everywhere throughout the area, stands of beads from Mardi Gras past can be seen handing, off balconies, streetlamps, trees, and power lines.

Of course, with any visit to New Orleans, Bourbon Street is the real must see, but it's certainly not for children. Aside from bawdy window displays and the open doored strip clubs, some of the visitors themselves are sure to raise eyebrows. At night this street takes on a real party atmosphere, and gathers quite a crowd. Whatever you may have heard about New Orleans safety, I felt much more comfortable around the streets of French Quarter at night, even the more empty side streets, than San Francisco or Seattle in the early evening.

Of course the famed debauchery of New Orleans, and Bourbon Street in particular, attracts those who would save the heathen masses, or perhaps just insult them. Bearing signs that condemn such sins as being a liberal, feminist, or sports fanatic, they become merely part of the spectacle.

We did spend a fair amount of time in the downtown area, but we did take enough of a break to enjoy a trolley ride past the old houses and Loyola along St. Charles Avenue, and then enjoyed a walk up St Carrollton Ave to the Gelato Pazzo Caffe. It's well worth the little side trip. We also took a little time to wander one of the cemetaries around the city, which has it's own beauty.

While throughout town, the remnants of Katrina still remain, mostly in the form of high water marks and abandoned buildings, the city is very much alive, and very much worth a visit.

the Palermo hostel incident

We arrived on the outskirts of Palermo looking for our hostel, Baia del Corallo We easily found the bus stop it was supposed to be next to, but driving up and down the road, we saw no signs of the hostel, though we did find one other bus stop. Finally, we noticed a small sign on an equally small parking lot next to the first stop. It looked like it belonged to a small powerhouse of something next to the stop. Hung on the chain link fence surrounding the lot was a small sign for the YHA (Youth Hostel Association) We realized this was it. What would have been obvious to a backpacker coming off the bus was a little hard for us to find. Leaving the car outside the fence, where there was just enough room for a car, we entered the lot and saw steps leading down away from it.

The hostel consists of several little bungalows sprawled down the slope of a sea cliff. Surrounded by trees, it's a quite, well camouflaged place, at least until the water's edge bar gets going. Finally settling in to our room and bringing out car into the lot, we walked down the hill into this little stretch of seaside resort.

Wandering past several restaurants where seafood was understandably the food of choice, we finally came to a little ma and pa outdoor diner type of place. They served up hot sandwiches, more substantial than the average panini, and of every variety. Jake settled for the American, basically a cheeseburger panini. I was embarrassed to be unable to communicate, but the people running the shop took good care of us.

As we wound our way up the darkening street after our meal, we stopped in for some gelato from a little shop, and picked out spumoni. At this point, I had never had nor heard of this flavor, and I described it as mint chocolate bubble gum. I've never had any quite so good since.