VAPOR TRAILS

FIRENZE, FANTASTICO

 

As we peered out the 3rd story window of the fascinating Museo Galileo we witnessed something Florence hadn't seen for months. . . raindrops. As we prepared to depart the city that nurtured the Renaissance, it seemed only somehow fitting for the Gods should quench its thirst of the sprawling but parched gardens we had strolled thru earlier in the day.

This city has a most authentic vibe. . .if one just stays clear of the iconic piazzas which seem forever jammed with camera-slinging, guidebook touting tourists of all shapes, sizes and nationalities.

On the small and ancient sidestreets one senses that uniquely Florentine attitude. Delicate aromas, quaint cafes,  street vendors, and coming-of-age teens on the prowl . . . . and at every turn an exquisite structure or monument that literally exudes the essence of its rich past.

Florence is one of the special cities of which we never tire . . .it always is in the process of renewal.  We're off this evening on the overnight bullet train to Paris via Milan. Hope to catch up on a few posts from the last several action packed days in Tuscany. (G)

PER CASO, PER FORTUNA

One of the great pleasures of foreign travel is the serendipity of encounter; that chance meeting with other nomadic compatriots. Such was the case yesterday over lunch in the quaint village of Casole d'Elsa. Given the constraints of our Citroen Picasso hatchback rental car, the six of us cannot travel together, unless one of us (the always-willing Jerry Gray) rides orthogonally on propped pillows in the luggage area.This day, preoccupied with neglected photo editing tasks undone, I chose to stay behind. And as luck would have it, my compadres were, with my absence, able to join the table of a charming ex-pat UK couple that were already seated in the small cafe. The spirited and engaging conversation that ensued eventually led to a invitation for drinks at the couple's villa some ten minutes away, at least according to the hand-scribbled map drawn on the beige paper napkin.

Upon return to our villa, the troupe shared the story and the names of the British couple that serendinpity led them to. Always the sleuth, and of course always wired, I immediately Googled the pair. . . since among unwritten rules for charmed perpetual serendipity are discretion and etiquette, I will not share the flurry of details that my keystrokes unleashed. Suffice to say that first dispatch I read from BBC News, circa 2003, revealed our unassuming but obviously cultured sixty-something hostess as a hot fashion designer on a list of Britain's top twenty highest-paid female earners, just ahead of Madonna and the Queen of England!

Our now over-loaded Citroen slowly made its way up the winding dirt road. . to the white picket fench, metal gate and bell noted on our map. . The gate doors opened magically to the last hundred yard stretch leading to the hilltop villa. Upon arrival, the warm welcoming couple shared yummy nibbles and a luscious bottle of wine pulled from their cellar. . of course, from their 2007 private stock, made from the Pinot grapes plucked from the vines that line a hillside of the estate.

Here are a few discrete snaps to convey our memorable encounter while respecting the privacy of our very generous hosts - 'per caso, per fortuna' (literally means 'by chance, by good fortune'). (G)

AH, TOSCANA

We're now basking in the golden sunshine of Western Tuscany. We're in a newly constructed villa in Castello Di Casole, a 4200-acre hilltop estate at the end of a narrow, curvy, dirt road in a densely forested (and protected) wildlife reserve and hunting property. Large hare, deer and wild boar reportedly roam (haven't spotted any yet). Last night we feasted on a home-cooked meal prepared by chefs who drove down from Florence (just over an hour to the north). As it happened, Cindy Gray, one of our travelling companions for the leg of the trip, was celebrating her 65th birthday. The delectable chocolate mousse/sliced pear dessert prepared for her celebration was beyond decadent.  Cindy, a self-identified chocaholic, obviously enjoyed her special treat in the glow of the full Tuscan moon.

(G)

 

CULTURAL BLUR

Friday (9/9)  Crepes for breakfast in Reykjavik, lunch in Paris (@CDG :), pandimonium in Gare Lyon Part Deux,  then a late steak frites dinner in Geneva. . .A day of planes, trains (TGV) and trams. Lush countryside, quaint villages, a waxing moon behind Mont Blanc over Lake Geneva. No worse for the wear. (G)

 

ANOTHER DIMENSION

Saturday 9/10 - Woke to a warm clear day in Geneva. Took the tram from Cornevin Station (which somehow houses the Swiss-France border crossing) toCERN, home of the world's most powerful 'atom smasher' - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). An $8 billion particle accelerator in a 17-mile circular tunnel buried 150-500 feet under the Swiss-French countryside. More than 10,000 researchers from 20 member nations searching for the deepest mysteries of the universe. . .We're here because the Lab just recently announced an intriguing Digital Artist award called Collide@CERN that I intend to apply for next month. Winning artist spends expenses-paid three-month in residence in spring 2012.  Seems like a perfect fit with the current focus of my work . Nanci and I took a fascinating three-hour guided tour of the complex. . .then a delightful lunch and conversation on Lake Geneva with UoM researcher, Yuichi Kubota, who been at CERN for a year. I took this shot of Nanci's finger . . what an aura! Off by HS train to Milan-Florence-Tuscany tomorrow. Then six nights in a villa near Casole d' Elsa with friends. Can finally unpack (and wash some clothes) from our carry-ons. Believe it or not, Nanci has become a super-light packer and nary a broken nail!

BLUE LAGOON

We tried to arrive early at The Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s most visited tourist site to beat the mass of scantily dressed humanity. Mostly successful. The errily blue bathing lagoon spans 1.25 acres and holds 1.6 million gallons of steamy geothermal seawater that is renewed every 40 hours; sits between two continents as the Euro-Asian and American tectonic plates meet at the Blue Lagoon. Bathers slather their faces with a chalky white silicon/algae mix that supposedly has unique therapeutic properties.
(G)

Cool, Hip and Way UP NORTH

Reykjavik - At 64 deg. N. latitude, this town of 120,000 is cool (both culture and weather), hip and clean. Reminiscent of post oil-Oslo and strangely enough,Ushuaia the capital city of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world, which is 55 deg. South. (G)

Off on Another Adventure

After spending most of the mostly delightful summer at North Star Lake, Nanci and I are heading off again on Labor Day eve for a couple of weeks in faraway lands (Iceland, Switzerland, and Tuscany) . . .So we're lighting up the blog again for those who like to track our meanderings. . . My blogging skills have become a little rusty over this summer but I hope it'll be like riding a bike. . which I also haven't done much of for a few months.

G

BILLIONS and TRILLIONS of BYTES and BITS

Back in the US of A and back to high-speed internet. I'm more aware of how geeks like me take it for granted. On many occasions during our adventure downunder, I contemplated trying to post a promising high-res photo that I'd just offloaded from one of my fancy cameras. The images from such cameras are in very large files. . .>10 MB each . . that's 10 million bytes . . of data. The images I ended up posting on the blog we're typically <50 KB . . .that's 50 thousand bytes. That means that 95.5% of the image is lost in translation.

And forget about uploading video over a lame internet infrastructure. Post a short HD video clip over a slow internet is like trying to drain a swimming pool through a soda straw. The file below is >40 MB and it only runs 14 seconds. . .

You may have noticed that Netflix is trying to wean its user off of DVDs. The ability to stream HD video has made it possible for Netflix to deliver virtually any movie to you over the net. . a vastly less expensive distribution model, when compared to snail mail. It take very high bandwidth and very sophisticated software technology to pull this off. . .

Now that I'm connected to a 'big data pipe', I am going to slowly add more visually rich content to this blog. (Now that our Netflix account is active again, I just added a What We're Watching list).

Over the next few weeks I hope to sort thru all of the photos/videos that I shot downunder and begin posting the best online. 

To give some context to the explosion of data and bandwidth consider this. . . I'm am currently writing this post on a  $3,000 3 lb laptop that is vastly more powerful than the fastest $30M, multi-ton Cray computers in their heyday. I am directly connected to a small disk farm with >5 TB (that's terabytes or trillions of bytes). One terabyte of data storage in the 1980's cost about $20 million . . .and only a dozen companies in the world could afford a TB. . .I purchased my various hard drives over the last year or two at Costco . . total investment <$500. . .That's what is called disruptive technology. 

BILLY TK HD VIDEO RIFF (:14)

 

BIORHYTHMS BACK IN SYNC

 We're settled into to our charming, right-sized (2400 sq ft) rental home on the Santa Barbara coast. To our surprise, on the first evening while awaiting an unobstructed sunset in our picture window, we realized that due to the geography in this region of California coast, we were looking south over the Pacific.

Fortunately we were treated to one pictured above on Tues night . .while facing west from the breathtakingly spectacular hilltop site where fellow MN snowbirds, John and Martha Gabbert (founders of Room & Board) built their new getaway-from-it-all retreat home. On the spur of the moment, John and Martha graciously invited us over for a delightful dinner and offered helpful insights about life in SB. They have an unobstructed 360 degree panaramic view of the ocean, harbor, city, and mountains. Nanci and I both agreed that their home was, hands down, the most breathtakingly spectacular property we've ever seen. . .

I got my UCSB Access ID Card on Tuesday so I'm officially in-residence. I'm finding my way around this one-of-a-kind campus. . not only are there roundabouts for (heavy) bike traffic, they also have Skateboard Only lanes. . Pedestrians are best advised not to read their emails while traversing the campus.

Now that our bags are unpacked, clothes washed, and the refrig is filled, we'll be getting back to our regular posting routine. Lots of new experiences and impressions to share. (GPS)