A beautiful area, it has a geologic display of the 100 million year old birth of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Just a few thousand years ago, the Rigde was further sculptured by volcanoes and glaciers, leaving over 100 lakes.

Today the story reveals the gentle and slow aging of the region: lakes reverting to meadows and gradual invasion of forests. Within its heart, scattered stands of mature trees offer stark contrast to polished and sculpted granite. Flowers are abundant and beautiful against the massive display of rock.

Grouse Ridge Campground is located approximately 24 miles east of Nevada City at an elevation of 5,600 feet. This campground has 9 walk-in campsites. There is no potable water but toilets are available. There is no trash removal service. Hiking, fishing and swimming are available from this campground.

Information on hiking trails can be found at the Tahoe National Forest website. There are four hiking trails listed. Scroll down towards the bottom of the page to find the information.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ims0ZZqaHps

“During the Holocaust, Germans extinguished the lives of six million Jews and, had Germany not been defeated, would have annihilated millions more. The Holocaust was also the defining feature of German politics and political culture during the Nazi period, the most shocking event of the twentieth century, and the most difficult to understand in all of German history. The Germans’ persecution of the Jews culminating in the Holocaust is thus the central feature of Germany during the Nazi period. It is so not because we are retrospectively shocked by the most shocking event of the century, but because of what it meant to Germans at the time and why so many of them contributed to it.” Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust

What more can be said about this disgrace to humanity? The torture, the brutal beatings, the inhuman medical experiments on living persons, the extermination of human beings for no more reason than they did not fit some devils idea of a “superior race”. Indeed “superior race”, the very concept is an insult to all who have any trace what so ever of decency.

I remember the first time I saw the films of what the Nazis had done in the concentration camps, I quite frankly cried and for a year, I did not want to be a part of the human race. Visiting this concentration camp, reading and seeing pictures again about what the Nazis did to the people, again brought tears to my eyes. One has to visit the site, or just read what they did to understand the horrors of this infamous period in German history.

John J. O’Dell

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vA2-9VyMcY

The topper for the night was when we got back to Sorrento; Judy had an e-mail from a Sacramento Home Winemakers Club friend, saying another wine club couple was in Sorrento that same night. We called them up (using Skype) and met for dinner, thousands of miles from Sacramento, California. Amazing how small the world is, with technology.

Elevator to top of Eagle's Nest

A place of great beauty, in which a residence was built for the devil reincarnated, Adolf Hitler. Situated upon a mountain top in the Alps, at an elevation of 6,017 feet above sea level, it has breath taking views of the mountains and valleys below. Since then, the idyllic setting and remarkable architecture of the Eagle’s Nest on the Kehlstein have been overshadowed by its close connection with the Third Reich. Although Hitler rarely stayed in the building himself, his wicked tyrannical image still hangs over it today.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrHYUlWNm1k

Given this background, it is not surprising that a plan to demolish the Eagle’s Nest was very nearly approved in the 1960s. Just as Hitler’s command centre on the Obersalzberg had been destroyed by the bombs of the liberating Allied forces, so, it was hoped, would the Eagle’s Nest be wiped forever off the face of the beautiful Bavarian landscape. As it turned out, however, history took a different course, and the building has been administered by the Berchtesgaden Regional Tourist Office since 1960. Today, the Eagle’s Nest is leased out to private operators who run it as an alpine restaurant. The engineering feats and mighty architecture of the building leave many visitors speechless. Even the approach from the carpark is imposing: a tunnel of 124 metres in length, lined with panels of natural rock, runs through the mountain massif. At the end of the tunnel there is a grandiosely designed brass-plated lift. The lift ascends to the interior of the Eagle’s Nest in just forty-one seconds. Inside, visitors are surrounded by metre-thick walls and mighty bulwarks. At 1,834 metres above sea level, the Eagle’s Nest commands a breathtaking panoramic view.

The Kehlsteinhaus was commissioned by Martin Bormann, with construction proceeding over a 13-month period. It was completed in the summer of 1938, prior to its formal presentation to Hitler on his 50th birthday on April 20, 1939. It is situated on a ridge at the top of the Kehlstein Mountain 1,834 m (6,017 ft), reached by a 6.5 km (4.0 mi) long and 4 m (13 ft) wide road that cost 30 million RMs to build (about 150 million euros in 2007, adjusted in line with inflation). It includes five tunnels but only one hairpin turn and climbs 800 m (2,600 ft).

The last 124 m (407 ft) up to the Kehlsteinhaus are reached by an elevator bored straight down through the mountain and linked via a tunnel through the granite below that is 124 m (407 ft) long. The inside of the large elevator car is surfaced with polished brass, Venetian mirrors and green leather (the elevator is still used daily). Construction of the mountain elevator system cost the lives of 12 construction workers.The main reception room is dominated by a fireplace of red Italian marble, presented by Mussolini. Much of the furniture was designed by Paul László.

The Eagle´s Nest itself and the unique Kehlstein road were constructed in an extremely short period of time despite the difficulties of wartime: the fortress-like residence took one year to build, the Kehlstein road thirteen months. The unique design of the road has no counterpart anywhere in the world. It makes no more than a single bend in its ascent of the towering 700 metres between the Obersalzberg and the Kehlstein carpark, traversing the steep north-west face of the Kehlstein twice as it does so. The road is now closed to normal traffic; it can only be accessed by a bus service.

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Then, we were in the Gran Canal, surrounded on both sides by beautiful palaces, boats, people and lots of things to look at. Our hotel was very near the Rialto Bridge, one of the most famous sites in the city. Many of the Gran Canal pictures were taken from that bridge.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnsOKNiFUrs

One of the most wonderful things about Venice (besides all the canals and boats), is the absolute lack of any motorized vehicles, cars as well as the ever present motor scooters in the rest of Italy. It was total pedestrian bliss; even the crowds of tourists were not too bad.

In the afternoon, we walked to Saint Mark’s Square, although somehow we ended up at Accademia, we soon corrected ourselves and came to the famous plaza. Aside from the famous church (which was undergoing some reconstruction or cleaning work, was and partially covered), the first thing you noticed was all the crazy tame pigeons… all over people if they held still, or had some grain to feed.

Although the church and Doge’s Palace were closed, we rode the elevator to the top of the Campanile bell tower, and got some fantastic shots of the view of Venice in all directions.

Early the next morning we again arrived in the area, and this time took the tours of both Saint Mark’s Basilica (beautiful and technically free, but every time you turned the corner they wanted several Euros to go further, we were quite disappointed) as well as the Doge’s Palace (quite worth the cost), including the trip over the covered “Bridge of Sighs” into a medieval prison that must have been quite ghastly when in use… we could just imagine the smells and the sounds. We also toured the Correr Museum, and returned via the crazy twisted streets, bridges, and covered walkways, finishing with a fantastic dinner on a piazza under the lights.

Two days is certainly not enough for Venice, so we are scheduling this one for a return visit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE12zeX8mVw

First we stopped at Lipari the biggest island, and the administrative head of the whole group of about 7 livable islands, and some rocky crags, as you will see.  That was just to take on passengers, so we only got shots from the Boat. Lipari is a white island, rich in pumice. The Aeolian Islands’ culture extends back 6000 years and there is evidence of trade with virtually every Mediterranean culture from the Etruscans to the Greeks

Then we were off to Panarea, where we were able to get off for an hour, and have some gelato! Panarea is the smallest island and the most exclusive (according to the tour book), it is known for its coves (you will see a neat one), rocky islets, clear water for diving, and nightlife.

After that stop we went to Stromboli, had several hours wandering the island and having a nice dinner at reasonable rates. We also saw a (clearly) state sponsored film about the lava flow and emergency services protections in place on the islands. Ha! With the volcano erupting every 15 minutes and recent lava flow in 2001 that covered some houses, they can use all the protection they can get, but we can’t say it made us feel any safer!  Then out trip at night, around the back for the show, and back to Vulcano.

A bit about Vulcano, it is technically a “spent Volcano” but it still has a constant sulphur emissions seeping out of the ground all over… and I mean all over, sometimes in the ocean, causing little warm pockets of water, sometimes just out of the side of the mountain and a lot from the crater itself, as well as the famous fanghi mud baths (too stinky for Judy). It turns the rocks yellow and red, and on one side there is a beautiful black sands beach we walked. As you drive around you frequently smell the rotten eggs result of the emissions, thankfully not where we stayed though!

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The next morning, Judy and I decided to climb to the top of the volcano (named Gran Crater).  Reading the helpful sign along the road to the start of the climb, the sign said it was a Class 1 climb, EASY to do and you should get there and back in 1 hour and 45 minutes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MojHxonEA40

Several things are wrong here, for example, I am not a mountain climber. If I want to see the top of a mountain, I look at a satellite map on Google. Second, when they say a Class 1 climb, I expect at least an escalator not a steep gravelly path almost straight up the mountain.   I also advise you not to wear a pair of open toed sandals since the gravel kept getting into the bottom of my feet. PAIN to walk on! The gravel was small.  However, as I climbed, I noticed that the gravel between the bottom of my feet and my shoe seem to increase proportionally to the number of steps I took.  Soon, I thought the gravel had increased to some outrageous size that exceeded any other rock on the mountain. However, looking back, I’m sure that’s not true.

We started up the “easy Class 1 climb”, managing to go about 200 to 300 feet at a time before we had to stop to catch our breath and rest. Half way up, Judy started shaking, even while resting but after a brief rest and a drink of water, and some reassurance from a Swedish couple who spoke English, she was fine the rest of the way. Finally we came to some harder rock and the climb got better.

The climb to the top was well worth it, since the volcano is still spewing gases with a strong sulfur smell. The view of the gases, along with the sulfur color and deep crater inside the volcano made the climb worthwhile.

“It is difficult to imagine, and even more difficult to explain, how you feel on a narrow path, with a view to the sea and islands on one side, and on the other the heart of a living mountain, colored with sulphur and giving off steam, heat and hisses.  The awareness that, in the past, forces of nature capable of changing the shape of the landscape have broken out from the crater makes you respect and fear this place pulsating with life.” (Dr Franco Italiano, Vulcanologist)

In fact, a large portion of the island smells like sulfur, since there are sulfur dioxide emissions throughout the island and numerous hot springs. Finally, I would like to reclassify this posted Class 1 climb as a local Sicilian (or Vulcanian) joke against the tourists.

More of the Eolian Islands tomorrow!

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Italian Hospital

While in Rome, for some reason I got an asthma attack.  I haven’t had an asthma attack since I was a teen ager which was a couple of years ago, more or less.

In talking to the receptionist at the place we were staying at, he suggested that I go to the emergency room, since that would be free and if I wanted a doctor to come to our place it would cost a $100 euro’s.  I also had the option to go to a private hospital, but that would be expensive.

I arrived at the emergency room, not knowing what to expect, since in the U.S. you can wait a couple of hours or more. However, within 30 minutes or less, a doctor interviewed me (not some clerk wanting to know my life history and a promise to go to mediation if the doctor screwed up)

I told him I was having an asthma attack. He took the information down and told me to go to the waiting room. Sure enough, I had to wait about 30 to 40 minutes.  I was then taken to another room, a doctor listened to my chest, put me on a nebulizer, with vapor coming out of it, an IV (a shot of cortisone I think), took blood samples, did a EKG and sent me back to the waiting room.  While in the waiting room, someone came and took me up for two x-rays.  Finally after two doctors examined me, one a specialist in bronchial problems, I was told that indeed I had had an asthma attack.

The doctor gave me a prescription for three drugs, a full printout in Italian of the blood test results, the EKG, his diagnoses and told me when I got near another hospital in the next week or two, to go and talk to another doctor and give him this report to see how I was doing.

Total cost – zero. If I had been a senior citizen of Italy, the drugs would have been free. By the way, the total costs of the drugs were $83 euro’s, and that was only the ones I had to take afterwards, not those at the hospital.

I can well imagine the costs of going to an emergency room in the U.S. and getting that kind of treatment. The hospitals in the U.S. would charge at least $10 to $15 thousand for two doctors and all of the tests.  It was really nice to have the doctors in charge of my treatment, instead of a hospital administrator or an insurance company dictating what a doctor can do or not do.

If you don’t like socialized medicine, well, you don’t know what you’re missing, other than what the insurance and drug companies are telling you. (By the way, they’re in the market to make money off of well people and keep you from having to take any medical tests or procedures that they think are unnecessary, not the doctors ideas of how many tests or procedures you should have.

The argument I hear from people say that the American government can’t run anything (other than the military, the police, the road systems and on and on) In general I hear we have the best health care in the world. Sorry, according to the National Health Organization, the top health care country, that is the country that has the best health care for their citizens is France, followed by Italy. Where do we rank? Thirty seven out out of a hundred and ninety countries. Yep, we’re two steps above Cuba.

You know by now, that because medicine is so high in this country, people in this country are buying airplane tickets to India and other places because they can’t afford our great medical system.

Of course, the biggest joke I’ve seen in years was senior citizens protesting Obama’s attempt to have insurance for everyone.  They said they don’t want socialism but it was OK for them to collect their social security and have Medicare insurance.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1MqoGtAeP0

Some beautiful statues from the Farnese Collection, a very rich family that collected these statues, then donated them to the museum. The most famous is the Toro Farnese, depicting a woman being tied to a bull.  At 13 feet it is the tallest ancient marble group ever found. The story: In Greece, King Lycus was bewitched by Dirce. He abandoned his pregnant wife, Antiope (standing regally in the background.) The single mom then gave birth to twin boys, shown here. When they grew up, they killed their deadbeat dad and tied Dirce to the horns of a bull to be bashed against a mountain. Lots of other action in the marble, and in the background, Antiope sees this harsh ancient justice with satisfaction.

Many more beautiful statues, some done in different marble to show the difference between skin and clothing, pottery and other artifacts abound.

Next, along the Amalfi Coast

The Town of Sorrento

The waiter at the place we stayed in Rome runs a side business of taking guests on side trips or to their next destination.  We decided to use his services instead of taking a train to Sorrento.  It was much more convenient, we skipped the hour long train ride to Naples and the train ride from Naples and Sorrento, also we got to stop for a two hour lunch and we made several site seeing stops along the way.  Plus we got left off at the front door of our hotel in Sorrento which was a couple of blocks from the train station…

Trains are an excellent way of traveling in Italy.  We used the train from Sorrento to go to Pompeii and Naples. One suggestion is if you are traveling a long way on a train; go first class, much more comfortable and quieter, as Italians seem to be in the habit or getting into arguments on trains.

While we were in Sorrento (a very touristy town), we found a great family run restaurant down by the tranquil Marina Grande called Trattoria da Emilia. Wonderful fresh fried fish, heads included, we found a cat to feed those to. Lots of locals, which is always a good sign. It was quite a walk back in the dark though!

The next day we went to Pompeii and then (a smaller less known site also covered by the Mount Vesuvius explosion in A.D. 79, smaller, but in much better shape than Pompeii, because while Pompeii was covered with 30 feet of hot volcanic ash and pumice, Herculaneum was instead covered in 60 feet of hot, boiling mud, which baked into “tuff” rock, perfectly preserving the whole city. Also it wasn’t raided as early as Pompeii, due to the difficulty of exploration.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yDo6-2Odr0

Anyway back to Pompeii, it used to be on the sea coast, the first picture is the site where they tied up the boats, now it is a LONG way to the current sea coast, thanks to Vesuvius. And it is Huge, I never thought it would be so big, and there are still parts that haven’t been uncovered. 20,000 people were living there, but only 2,000 died in the ash that August 24, 79 A.D. I guess they were the ones that didn’t heed the emergency services warning! Joke.  Our video tells the tale.

Notice the Fast Food Joints in both cities. Apparently Romans (except the rich ones) did most of their eating out. The round tops lead down into a huge ceramic vase, which held olives, wine, soup and other foods of the day. (Judy had no idea how they could clean them out, no drains, so you could imagine the quality of the food… they must have had strong stomachs!

You can clearly see the chariot tracks in Pompeii, on the original roads, and tell by the number of stones in the road whether it was one way, two ways, a major thoroughfare or pedestrians only.

Herculaneum also was a sea front, most of the people found died while crouching under the arched docks which once held the boats. (I guess the first comers got away on them.) You can see in the pictures the high cliffs, with the modern town on top to see how much excavation had to be done to find the city.

This was a big day, with lots of walking. We were exhausted… more to come.

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