New Years in Ischia

After we got back from Amsterdam we took off to Ischia which is an island in the bay of Naples for New Years. We flew into Naples and then took a Hydrofoil to Ischia. We were staying at an apartment in the town of Forio called Villa Ravino. The hotel had a thermal bath which they would fill up with hot water from the sea every morning. So we would spend a few hours in the thermal bath every morning before doing anything. And most of the time we had the thing to ourselves because there weren't many people in the hotel over the holiday.


The town of Forio is the second biggest town on the Island, and isn't quite as busy. We walked from our hotel into town one day, it was a nice walk along the sea. We stopped along the way and took pictures of all of the volcanic rocks sticking up out of the water. Forio has a big church which was built in the 16th century and a large watch tower in the middle of the town, to watch out for pirates. The town is filled with tasty restaurants which are filled with tasty food. We had some tasty tasty seafood pastas, excellent pizzas and some veal thing in lemony-creamy-gravy sauce... (not all in one meal)


One day while we were out for a walk I noticed that you could rent scooters. When I asked at our hotel about it, we were told that renting one car is more cost effective then renting two scooters. So the next morning when we woke up we had a note on our door telling us our car was ready for us. So we toured the island in our little Fiat Panda. Driving on the island was easy once I got over the fact that the streets are often as wide as the car. The first stop on our driving tour was St. Angelo, a small fisherman's village. There is a very large rock sticking out of the Sea in St. Angelos which we climbed up.We found an old house about half way up that had been abandoned. It looked like it might have been a grotto carved by the sea at one point and people had just moved in.


After St. Angelo we headed to Ischia Ponte and visited The Aragonese Castle of Ischia. The Castle has changed hands and was rebuilt by the romans etc. There is a whole garden around the castle, several churches, a monastery, and a nunnery. It turns out that the nunnery was the most interesting part.
Heaven's Toilet
Not 'His and Hers' religious toilets... Instead Nuns would put rotting corpses on these seats and let all of their bodily fluids drain off into a pot below until there was just a skeleton left. And while the corpses were rotting away the Nuns would spend much of their day in there praying too... So guess what? The Nuns would catch a disease, and soon it was their turn to rot away on heaven's toilet too! The Castle also had catacombs, a destroyed church and stuff.


One day we took a cool trip to another island in the bay of Naples: Capri. Capri unlike Ischia is a Limestone island. Unfortunately at this time of year there are no boats running between Ischia and Capri so we had to travel all the way back to Naples in between. On the boat, on the way over, we were suckered into joining a tour which turned out to be a bit of a waste of money. We got a bus ride from Capri to Anacapri, some free time, then a bus ride from Anacapri to Capri then a 20 minute walking tour, then Free time! and it only cost 20 euro per person. It would have cost maybe $20 total in taxi fee's for the bus rides. But luckily Capri was cool enough that I didn't care we'd been swindled. In Anacapri we took a chair-lift to the top where the view was unbelievable. You could see Ischia, Naples and Mount Vesuvius. In Capri we had our 20 minute tour before we went our separate ways. Nat and I walked along a scenic route to find the Natural Arch which is an arch that had been slowly carved into stone by the sea. After that we watched the sunset before heading back to Ischia.


All of the wine made in Ischia is called Epomeo which is also the name of the Volcano. For our last full day in ischia we climbed to the top. We didn't have a car so we could only go as high as the bus would take us, and then we walked. It took about an hour and a half (Nat says 3 hours I suggest you take an average) to walk the all the way to the top and it was quite steep at parts. And just before the summit there was a small restaurant where we enjoyed a half litre of Epomeo wine to celebrate!

All of the pictures from this trip

A Map showing where all our pictures were taken

Christmas in Amsterdam

We flew into Amsterdam on the 22nd of December and grabbed a Cab to the apartment we were staying in where we learned about how the dutch enjoy stairs that are very very steep... We had the room on the top floor so it was a new and exciting experience to haul our bags up! It turned out to be worth the effort because we got a room with its own kitchen. The apartment was quite close to The Van Gogh Museum and the Rijks Museum (I have no idea how to say the 2nd)...

Our first full day in Amsterdam we wondered around to an area called Leidseplein where there were many carts selling the most fantastical dough balls you've ever had... They had raison, apple, pineapple, banana, and plain. All were covered in lots Icing Sugar. We managed to try every type in our 5 day visit. Raison was the best!

Amsterdam has fantastic food from all over the world. Indonesian, Thai, pancakes, and Indian.. We found a fantastic indian spot and it was so good we returned again before we left... We also ate our share of Pancakes... Nat ate a pancake with Pineapple, ham, green pepper and cheese sauce on christmas morning.

In Amsterdam regular games of chess are frowned upon because the game pieces are too small so instead they play giant chess.. Here is a picture of some of the locals enjoying a friendly game.

While in amsterdam we visited several museums, The Van Gogh Museum, The Rijks Museum, The Sex Museum, and the Heineken Brewery which I suppose isn't quite a museum. But it comes with free beer so it heightens your sense of enjoyment.

We also took some time to wonder through the Red Light District where many ladies can be seen waiting in the window basked under the glow of their red lights. Nat tells me that the red light hides the imperfections. As you can see in figure 1.1 I've used photoshop to remove most of the red lighting. The results are surprising.

Our tour of the Heineken Brewery was nice because it offered free refreshments. The Van Gogh museum was nice too but not once did anyone give me a beer. I took notes to figure out how to make beer, apparently I will need a Giant Magnet to remove metal shards and nails from the barley. Also Mr. Spock prefers Heineken.

Here are all of our trip photos from Amsterdam

A map showing where all our pictures were taken.