Where Ya Been?

[Cali_Nittany1]

This is all excellent info, that I need to re-read now that the trip is starting to come together (translated: BIL finally got around to asking about allowable expenses with his daughters on the trip).

Basic outline: Sorrento (2d), then Capri (2d), then Naples (3d), then Sicily (4-5d), then re-positioning flight to Naples or Milan the night before flying home. 15d total including the international flights for wife + me; BIL + nieces leave after 1 week.

We will visit Pompeii and Herculaneum from Sorrento ... thankfully, since that affords us more time in Sicily.

We still need to figure out where in Sicily. Any thoughts? We're basically down to: Siracusa with day trip to Noto; or Palermo with day trips to Monreale Cathedral and Cefalu.

I'm curious about Sicilia too. That's on the list.

 

[WanderingSpectator]

This is all excellent info, that I need to re-read now that the trip is starting to come together (translated: BIL finally got around to asking about allowable expenses with his daughters on the trip).

Basic outline: Sorrento (2d), then Capri (2d), then Naples (3d), then Sicily (4-5d), then re-positioning flight to Naples or Milan the night before flying home. 15d total including the international flights for wife + me; BIL + nieces leave after 1 week.

We will visit Pompeii and Herculaneum from Sorrento ... thankfully, since that affords us more time in Sicily.

We still need to figure out where in Sicily. Any thoughts? We're basically down to: Siracusa with day trip to Noto; or Palermo with day trips to Monreale Cathedral and Cefalu.

I can’t help with Sicily.

Get a guide for Pompeii and plan to spend a lot of time there.

 

[WanderingSpectator]

I went to the Pocono raceway in 71 or 72 for a huge rock concert but can't remember the exact name of it!!any help??

I had to look it up.

Concert 10 (July 8–9, 1972, at Pocono International Raceway / Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania) featured these performers:


July 8:

• Mother Night (opened ~1:00 p.m.)
• Claire Hamill (also spelled Clare in some accounts)
• The Groundhogs
• Ramatam (with Mitch Mitchell) (~6:00 p.m., after rain delay)
• Bull Angus
• Cactus
• Edgar Winter (or The Edgar Winter Group; ~10:00 p.m.; strong audience response, including extended “Tobacco Road”)
• Lace Pavement (listed on some schedules)

July 9 (early morning, after weather delays):

• Emerson, Lake & Palmer (~4:00 a.m.; performance later released)
• Faces with Rod Stewart (~5:00 a.m.)
• Humble Pie
• The J. Geils Band
• Three Dog Night (~7:40 a.m.; closed the show)

Black Sabbath and Badfinger were scheduled but canceled. The event drew an estimated 150,000–200,000+ people amid heat, then rain and mud (often compared to Woodstock). The show ran from afternoon into the next morning due to delays.

 

[tullfan68]

I had to look it up.

Concert 10 (July 8–9, 1972, at Pocono International Raceway / Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania) featured these performers:


July 8:

• Mother Night (opened ~1:00 p.m.)
• Claire Hamill (also spelled Clare in some accounts)
• The Groundhogs
• Ramatam (with Mitch Mitchell) (~6:00 p.m., after rain delay)
• Bull Angus
• Cactus
• Edgar Winter (or The Edgar Winter Group; ~10:00 p.m.; strong audience response, including extended “Tobacco Road”)
• Lace Pavement (listed on some schedules)

July 9 (early morning, after weather delays):

• Emerson, Lake & Palmer (~4:00 a.m.; performance later released)
• Faces with Rod Stewart (~5:00 a.m.)
• Humble Pie
• The J. Geils Band
• Three Dog Night (~7:40 a.m.; closed the show)

Black Sabbath and Badfinger were scheduled but canceled. The event drew an estimated 150,000–200,000+ people amid heat, then rain and mud (often compared to Woodstock). The show ran from afternoon into the next morning due to delays.

yea that's it thanks a lot,that was an awesome show!

 

[WexfordWarrior]

yea that's it thanks a lot,that was an awesome show!

Wow. Waking to Humble Pie singing this. You go Jethro!!

 

[Pointingdogsrule]

Very good chance we'll get a day or so in Rome at the end. The return flights to PHL from Sardinia and Sicily are atrocious -- require an airport change at the connection city, or an overnight in a non-EU city (so we'd have to deal with immigration and the like, just to see nothing but a hotel room), or both.

So we'll wind up doing a re-positioning flight somewhere. Could be Milan, Barcelona, or Madrid, but most likely it'll be Rome.

Bari is out. We're not renting a car. Maybe another trip.

My return flight was out of Catania to Rome. At Rome no airport change. For the first time I experienced the “Dreamliner” what an airplane . Didn’t even know I was flying.

 

[RockySmith]

This year we hit glacier in June. Really cool. Ended up on some hikes crossing snow fields with crampons and poles.

but as much as it is my favorite place on earth, nothing compares to both my kids getting engaged while we were on the trip b

Congrats on the kids!

We saw Glacier, which is great. But then we went to Banff, and it was much better. Same type of scenery but it’s much more accessible. Glacier has one main roadway with limited parking spots and 10,000 people on it at nearly all times. Not so with Banff. I hear Jasper (north of Banff) is even better.

 

[RockySmith]

Tell me more about the Viking cruise. How was it? Favorite sites?

We did the Viking Grand European, Amsterdam to Budapest, which hits the Danube, Rhine and Main.

It’s great! A bit pricey but you get what you pay for. With only 204 people on the boat, you feel like you get to know about half of them after 15 days. The sights and included excursions give you a great overview of the area. Budapest is an under-rated city. On the middle Rhine there is a great stretch where you can see a bunch of beautiful castles. The locks in the Main-Danube canal were interesting.

My only caveat was that at 55 and 53, my wife and I were younger than all but about 5 people on board. Everyone was super friendly though.

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

We did the Viking Grand European, Amsterdam to Budapest, which hits the Danube, Rhine and Main.

It’s great! A bit pricey but you get what you pay for. With only 204 people on the boat, you feel like you get to know about half of them after 15 days. The sights and included excursions give you a great overview of the area. Budapest is an under-rated city. On the middle Rhine there is a great stretch where you can see a bunch of beautiful castles. The locks in the Main-Danube canal were interesting.

My only caveat was that at 55 and 53, my wife and I were younger than all but about 5 people on board. Everyone was super friendly though.

Heading to central Europe this weekend. Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, and Prague.

 

[Aardvark86]

Congrats on the kids!

We saw Glacier, which is great. But then we went to Banff, and it was much better. Same type of scenery but it’s much more accessible. Glacier has one main roadway with limited parking spots and 10,000 people on it at nearly all times. Not so with Banff. I hear Jasper (north of Banff) is even better.

Banff jasper actually IS my favorite place on earth. (And don’t forget waterton). Here’s the secret sauce - in the us, park infrastructure was generally built AS park infrastructure. In Canada, you have functioning towns that happen to be in parks. So much more to do at your home base and better food to eat, better access, and…a little wilder and more dramatic once you get out of the towns.

Around Banff, loved the ink pots. the lake Louise tea house hike is probably my favorite ever. You see all the stuff about glacial dynamics you were supposed to learn in school, and you hear the avalanches around you, and you see the wildflowers. Lake moraine - hard to imagine a better view than sitting in a canoe in the valley of the ten peaks.



Jasper is beautiful, but not as dramatic for my money. Johnson canyon is cool as you go up the slot with that milky green water all around you. Oh, and in between? That glacier buggy experience is touristy but incredible to be out on the surface of the glacier at a triple continental divide with all the fluid dynamics going on around you.

 

[Pointingdogsrule]

This is all excellent info, that I need to re-read now that the trip is starting to come together (translated: BIL finally got around to asking about allowable expenses with his daughters on the trip).

Basic outline: Sorrento (2d), then Capri (2d), then Naples (3d), then Sicily (4-5d), then re-positioning flight to Naples or Milan the night before flying home. 15d total including the international flights for wife + me; BIL + nieces leave after 1 week.

We will visit Pompeii and Herculaneum from Sorrento ... thankfully, since that affords us more time in Sicily.

We still need to figure out where in Sicily. Any thoughts? We're basically down to: Siracusa with day trip to Noto; or Palermo with day trips to Monreale Cathedral and Cefalu.

Sicily. Palermo… neat city but dirty. There is an incredible “puppet show”. 3 foot puppets. Also great street food and an open air marketplace. Monreale !!! The most beautiful mosaics I could ever imagine!
Marsala, beautiful streets and lots of open air plays and concerts. Just up the road are the salt flats first built around 600 bc by the Phoenicians View attachment 1398765nearly 3000 years ago. . I would not miss the “Valley of the Temples” in southern Sicily. It’s in Agrigento. Such incredible history. Siracusa, nice place. Take the boat ride along the coast. Beautiful. Catania, lots of good food and cathedrals and street vendors. Black lava streets. Mt Etna, really neat if you are into geology… I loved it and did a hike. . The Sicilians call her, Mama Etna. Further up the east coast the fancy town of
Taormina, nice beach. The ancient amphitheater that looks over mt Etna is a don’t miss.
with the amount of time that you have…. I’d stick to the east coast. Agrigento, Sircusa, Catania, Taormina. Monreale is a jaunt.
I rented a car. I believe “Sicily by Car” $15 per day. Cars are cheap to rent on Sicily. 5 on the floor. Panda was my car type. Tons of fun driving on those roads. Note: it can barely fit 4 , without luggage

 

[Anon721945]

Did the Viking Rhine tour returning to USA on July 4th. As with Rocky Smith above the middle Rhine was spectacular, toured towns in Switzerland, Germany, France and Netherlands. Castles, Cathedrals, great food, paid a little extra for the preferred alcohol package. 2 weeks later I heard that some of the rivers shut down because of low water levels.

 

[Tryingtodoitright]

Did the Viking Rhine tour returning to USA on July 4th. As with Rocky Smith above the middle Rhine was spectacular, toured towns in Switzerland, Germany, France and Netherlands. Castles, Cathedrals, great food, paid a little extra for the preferred alcohol package. 2 weeks later I heard that some of the rivers shut down because of low water levels.

That Rhine river cruise is a Great First River cruise if that’s your thing. If you like smaller cities (not Paris or Rome-size) seen up close and personal, fine food and regional wines, relaxed travel, (not in a hurry to get things done), and attentive care, find a like-minded couple and book it. If you’re adventurous, don’t wait to locate a couple to go along. We’ve gone on two river cruises and the brochures are on the counter preparing for our third.

 

[Corby2]

That Rhine river cruise is a Great First River cruise if that’s your thing. If you like smaller cities (not Paris or Rome-size) seen up close and personal, fine food and regional wines, relaxed travel, (not in a hurry to get things done), and attentive care, find a like-minded couple and book it. If you’re adventurous, don’t wait to locate a couple to go along. We’ve gone on two river cruises and the brochures are on the counter preparing for our third.

We are 52 and thought about doing one but we decided to do a trip over and hit a few cities by train instead. I think it's something we will do though when we get older. How old were you when you took your first river cruise? Were all the cruises an older crowd?

This winter we are hitting Maui (11), Molakia (7) and Kauai (10) for 28 days . We have been to the other Hawaiian islands and Maui for 1 day in the past . So this trip will wrap up all the islands. We are doing 28 days with all flights and stays on the beach with a car for 3 days on each island for the same price as the Hawaiian cruise

 

[Tryingtodoitright]

We are 52 and thought about doing one but we decided to do a trip over and hit a few cities by train instead. I think it's something we will do though when we get older. How old were you when you took your first river cruise? Were all the cruises an older crowd?

This winter we are hitting Maui (11), Molakia (7) and Kauai (10) for 28 days . We have been to the other Hawaiian islands and Maui for 1 day in the past . So this trip will wrap up all the islands. We are doing 28 days with all flights and stays on the beach with a car for 3 days on each island for the same price as the Hawaiian cruise

We had planned to go in 2020/21 but Covid struck and the world got canceled. We went in the Rhine in 2024 I believe when we were 67. We were still some of the younger cruisers on board. We had a wonderful time. I’m the kind of guy who’s ‘made enough friends in my life’, but we honest to goodness met some of the most kind and gracious people I’ve ever met. One couple was sent on this cruise by a daughter who had died and willed them this cruise. (They were Christian missionaries who had saved their entire lives and lived very frugal but rich lives.) Over the course of the week they shared their heartfelt story about their daughter who had bought home and willed this to them, unknowingly. They shared some very sensitive parts of their lives with us.
Also met a lady and husband who were living in Johnson city TN and I shared the name of a customer that I had there. They knew the family and it was like old times. A little further digging and our stories further about someone she’d worked for in Elmira NY and I told them a story about the very first customer I called on in the horticulture industry. It was the guy she worked for almost 35 years ago. We marveled at the small world we live in. Lots more to tell - but we Can’t wait for our next trip.
If you do plan on going, let me know and we can talk wrestling the whole time!

 

[Corby2]

We had planned to go in 2020/21 but Covid struck and the world got canceled. We went in the Rhine in 2024 I believe when we were 67. We were still some of the younger cruisers on board. We had a wonderful time. I’m the kind of guy who’s ‘made enough friends in my life’, but we honest to goodness met some of the most kind and gracious people I’ve ever met. One couple was sent on this cruise by a daughter who had died and willed them this cruise. (They were Christian missionaries who had saved their entire lives and lived very frugal but rich lives.) Over the course of the week they shared their heartfelt story about their daughter who had bought home and willed this to them, unknowingly. They shared some very sensitive parts of their lives with us.
Also met a lady and husband who were living in Johnson city TN and I shared the name of a customer that I had there. They knew the family and it was like old times. A little further digging and our stories further about someone she’d worked for in Elmira NY and I told them a story about the very first customer I called on in the horticulture industry. It was the guy she worked for almost 35 years ago. We marveled at the small world we live in. Lots more to tell - but we Can’t wait for our next trip.
If you do plan on going, let me know and we can talk wrestling the whole time!

Thanks I appreciate you filling me in . We will definitely be doing one in the future. On a cruise and talking wrestling all day sounds like heaven

 

[PennState1985]

Thanks I appreciate you filling me in . We will definitely be doing one in the future. On a cruise and talking wrestling all day sounds like heaven

At least there won't be buses pushing you off the road if memory serves.

 

[Corby2]

At least there won't be buses pushing you off the road if memory serves.

Thank god. Yep that was in Scotland

 

[HikeNatParks]

We saw Glacier, which is great. But then we went to Banff, and it was much better. Same type of scenery but it’s much more accessible. Glacier has one main roadway with limited parking spots and 10,000 people on it at nearly all times. Not so with Banff.

Soft spot for Montana’s Glacier NP—seen most of my grizzlies there—but do agree with you and @Aardvark86 that Canadian Rockies may be more thrilling and accessible. Son and I plan to return next month for hikes in the other Glacier NP (British Columbia), Yoho NP, and Banff NP. First time there a few years back, we thought the Sentinel Pass hike up from Moraine Lake was special, but very doable, even for then 66-year-old, no-cartilage knees!
All these terrific posts on European trips always has me thinking of hikes in the Alps or Dolomites. Maybe some day!
Cool thread, though. Nice to see and hear where folks have been . . . and where Lion wrestling promotion has spread to (ha)!

 

[Aardvark86]

Soft spot for Montana’s Glacier NP—seen most of my grizzlies there—but do agree with you and @Aardvark86 that Canadian Rockies may be more thrilling and accessible. Son and I plan to return next month for hikes in the other Glacier NP (British Columbia), Yoho NP, and Banff NP. First time there a few years back, we thought the Sentinel Pass hike up from Moraine Lake was special, but very doable, even for then 66-year-old, no-cartilage knees!
All these terrific posts on European trips always has me thinking of hikes in the Alps or Dolomites. Maybe some day!
Cool thread, though. Nice to see and hear where folks have been . . . and where Lion wrestling promotion has spread to (ha)!
View attachment 1399946

When we hiked Grinnell some years ago, we came around a sharp bend in the trail and found ourselves between Scylla and Charybdis: to our left, a grizzly wallowing in the underbrush eating huckleberries, and on our right, a moose and her calf. We skedaddled, bear spray at the ready.

The other exceptionally cool thing these days out in those parks is visiting spots where there have been wildfires - seen that in Yellowstone, Waterton and this past trip in Glacier. Where really recent, it's a ghostlike atmosphere with the burned out trunks. A few years later, the wildflowers and low scrub start to emerge. A few years after that, a remarkably uniform and deep green floor of pine and spruce from the most evolutionarily elegant seed dispersal mechanism in nature (for my money, at least).

 

[Pointingdogsrule]

When we hiked Grinnell some years ago, we came around a sharp bend in the trail and found ourselves between Scylla and Charybdis: to our left, a grizzly wallowing in the underbrush eating huckleberries, and on our right, a moose and her calf. We skedaddled, bear spray at the ready.

The other exceptionally cool thing these days out in those parks is visiting spots where there have been wildfires - seen that in Yellowstone, Waterton and this past trip in Glacier. Where really recent, it's a ghostlike atmosphere with the burned out trunks. A few years later, the wildflowers and low scrub start to emerge. A few years after that, a remarkably uniform and deep green floor of pine and spruce from the most evolutionarily elegant seed dispersal mechanism in nature (for my money, at least).

I was to Mt. Saint Helens a few years after the eruption. I’d love to go back and see what she looks like …. Some 40 years later.