Day Ten/June 9: From Delaware to New York/Odds and Ends

Jet lag left us wide awake at about 4 a.m. this morning.  But we did get a good night's rest in the Gateway Inn/Best Western in Dover, Del.  Bob went out for a bike ride -- his first since we left on May 31 -- and I went for a short walk.

We enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel, and left about 10 a.m., arriving back home in Rome, NY, about 4 p.m.

Here are some odds and ends about our travels and a few more photos:

-- One military guy we met -- who I will not identify -- told us how he used to get around paying more for hotels in Europe.  Unlike hotels in the U.S., hotels in Europe charge per person/per bed.  So it can be expensive for families.  For example, their charge for one person might be $50/night. But add $50 for a spouse, and $50 each for two children, and the rate is now $200/night.  When his kids were young, he would ask for a 2-bedroom room, pay $100, and not tell the hotel about the kids.  He would then carry the kids, one at a time, up to the room in a big green Army duffel bag, and try not to get caught!

-- More than half the public toilets in Italy, that we saw, did not have toilet seats.  No one that we talked to could explain why.  It may be because people steal them.  Or maybe it made cleaning the toilets easier?  Or maybe it was just because the guys did not like putting the toilet seats down, so they just didn't have them????!!  Also, the public toilets most often did not have TP.  So, just as in Spain and some other countries, you have to BYOTP!

Let's see if I can read this sign.  From top:  Center of the City, Panoramic Point, Train Station, Community?, Beach, Hospital, Municipal Police

There's lots of graffitti in Italy.  Must be the artists' blood in them!

Bob is trying to find the Chiesa di S'Agostino on the map,
when it's right behind him!  Just kidding :)

I have to say, parts of Italy are pretty dirty.  But this street
sweeper was doing his part to
clean up some trash, with a broom made from twigs.

The woman at right is a gypsy, holding a baby.  She was going along a main street in Catania, Sicily, begging for money.  Most people waved her away.  We used to see this in Spain, too.

Joe Cocker was performing at the Antique Theater in Taormina, Sicily

"Hereafter," a Matt Damon movie, was playing
at the Central Cinema in Catania, Sicily

Even if you don't know that "Pesce" means fish, you can
figure out that "Nemo" is on the menu at this Cafe!

Bob used to work in what was called Fleet Weather Central, in this building, across from the terminal at Rota Naval Air Station, Spain. 
Our son Nick was born at the base hospital here.

We saw lots of stray cats in Italy.  Except around the restaurants. 
Just kidding!

-- I feel tons of sympathy for the military involved in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya.  They leave the safety of their homes and the love of their families, and go far away to help fight U.S. battles in countries most Americans can't even find on a map.  Meanwhile, their spouses, kids, parents and other family members are left behind to worry about and pray for them.  Seeing so many of them on this trip often brought tears to my eyes.

-- Just FYI, when retired military like us fly, it is on a Space-Available basis.  The plane and crew's mission is to carry cargo, whether it's helicopters or tanks or guns or food, etc.  Secondarily, if they have the room and the time, they will take passengers.  The priority of the passengers includes:  active-duty military on orders, then active duty military on emergency leave, then active duty military on vacation, then spouses and children of active duty military, and retired military are the lowest priority.

-- On every Space-A trip, we've seen some old retired military guys who look like all they do is come to the terminal, wander around until they can catch a plane, then travel and wander and travel and wander some more.  There was one on our flight home who was 95 years old!  He was short, wore thick glasses, and could not hear well.  I made Bob promise that, if I ever get too old to travel with him, he will not turn into that old guy!

Well, that's it for this trip.  Hope everyone has enjoyed reading my stories!  It keeps me from having to repeat them a dozen times, to friends and relatives, now that we are back home!  My blog stats today showed more than 150 "hits," so I know someone is reading this!  Any questions, just email me at:  chiphaley@yahoo.com.  Ciao!

Day Nine: Wednesday, June 8 Back to Spain and the U.S.

Today we met some other retired military Space-Available travellers, including one who has taught at Utica College and Herkimer County Community College.

We got up and enjoyed our breakfast, which came with the cost of the room at the Millenium Hotel in Naples.  The hotel provided a free shuttle back to the base.  As we walked into the terminal, we met two other retired couples, who were also hoping to catch a military flight back to Spain.  One was Tom Lenahan, a professor who taught at Utica College and Herkimer County Community College.  He was a retired Air Force security officer who had started the criminal justice studies program at HCCC.  He knew lots of law enforcement officials with whom I and others at the Rome Daily Sentinel, Rome, NY, had worked over the years:  Peter Paravati, Jerry Washburn, Ed Stevens, many, many more.  Tom, his wife, and their friends from Arizona, had been in Europe since mid-May.  They had done a cruise in the Mediterranean, out of Rome, Italy, to Greece and elsewhere.  Now they were headed back to their home in Clifton Park, NY, near Albany.

Here's a photo of them:

Fellow Space-A travelers, the Lemmermanns and the Lenahans.  Tom Lenahan, in jacket, has taught at UC and HCCC.

All 6 of us checked in at the terminal, and were booked on the flight to Rota Naval Air Station, Spain.  There were a total of 10 passengers, and it was about a four-hour flight.

The plane had an interesting bathroom.  It was in an open space, in back of the plane, with a curtain rather than a door.  To get to it, you had to climb up a short, steep ramp, then up on a platform. It was kind of like an outhouse seat.  A little primitive, but no one complains because the price is right on these flights!

While we flew, Bob totalled up our travel expenses for this trip.  It came to about $1.400, including about $600 for hotels.  We decided that we would come back sometime to Naples, reserve rooms in advance for a week at the Navy Lodge or through http://www.vrbo.com/, or http://www.afvclub.com/, and use Naples as a base for travel to other sites in Italy.  Maybe next year?  Have to save our money in the meantime!

Again on this flight, we sat in nylon seats along the sides of the plane, and had a friendly crew.  One crewman invited a little girl on board to "help" him oversee the plane's movement, from the big back door of the cargo plane. See below:

Crewman works at the big open cargo door of a C-131 at Naples base

He did make sure she held on tight, so she did not fall out!  On some Space-Available military plane trips, some passengers are asked if they want to sit in the cockpit.  Bob got to sit there on one flight some years ago, in a KC-135 tanker, out of Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, NY.  Also during that flight, our kids and ourselves got to watch, laying down on our bellies, one at a time, through a window in the belly of the tanker plane, as small fighter jets came up to the tanker to refuel in air.  Very cool!

We arrived at the Rota, Spain, base, and found that two flights to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware were scheduled for this evening.  Both are the huge C-5s, with about 73 seats available on each.

While we waited in the terminal, we talked to a young man, Andrew E. Glassing, who was in the Navy Reserves.  His hometown was Fort Collins, Colorado, where our son Nick works.  A graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy, he now works as a harbor pilot in New York City, guiding ships into the harbor there.  His temporary military duty in Spain was to guide ships into the harbor at Rota.

His father-in-law had worked as a FDNY official, and his brother-in-law was a FDNY firefighter.  His father-in-law had retired Sept. 1, 2001, from an office job near the World Trade Center in NYCity, just missing the 9-11 terror attacks by a few days.  If he had still been working, he would have been killed that day.  His replacement was killed in the attack.  Instead, he was in Italy celebrating his retirement, accompanied by his firefighter son, who also escaped probable death that day. 

The harbor pilot himself had been vacationing in Colorado on 9-11, and was due to fly home to NY that morning.  When all the flights were cancelled, he tried to rent a car, but they were all taken.  He showed his Navy Reserve ID and said he had to get back to NY, and somehow the car rental place found him a car.  He drove 35 hours straight to get back to NY.

Another man we talked to was a retired Air Force crewman, who had been stationed in Newfoundland, Labrador and Iceland, on the watch for Russian planes during the Cold War.  He was now an engineer with a freight train company in New Hampshire.  He was also trying to catch a Space-A flight back to the U.S.  On his trip so far, he had flown to California, Washington state, Ramstein in Germany, Aviano in Italy, Sicily and then Rota.  On one of those flights he got to sit in the cockpit, in the navigator's seat, of a P-3.

We boarded our flight from Spain to Delaware at about 8 p.m.  There were 35 passengers, including several young mothers travelling with young children.  In some cases, their husbands had been deployed, in the activity in Libya or Afghanistan or Iraq, and they were going back to their hometowns and their families for the duration of the deployment.

The flight last 8 hours, and we arrived in Delaware at about 11 p.m.  Very tired!  Found a hotel off base -- once again, the base hotel was full --  and crashed.

In my last post, I will include some interesting odds and ends about our trip.  In  the meantime, if anyone has any questions, I can be reached at:  chiphaley@yahoo.com.  And if anyone is interested, I have a blog about our  Space-A trip to Spain last year at:  http://www.bobandchipsspace-atrip.blogspot.com/.

Day Eight: Sorrento, Italy

We checked out of the Navy Lodge this morning, but they let us store our luggage there until we returned from Sorrento in the afternoon.

We walked to a bus stop near the base gym to board the ITT travel agency bus to Sorrento.  Behind us on the bus was a lady from Fort Smith, Arkansas, who was there visiting her daughter.  Her daughter was married to a teacher at the high school on base.

It was a beautiful and interesting drive to Sorrento, although there was lots of traffic part of the way.  Drivers weave in and out on the roads, with little regard for the lines on the road, the no-passing markings, or other traffic!  Motorcyclists are everywhere, and drive between the lines of traffic whenever they want.  Throw in a few bicyclists, big trucks and crazy drivers, and you can imagine how wild this gets!  We saw much the same crazy traffic during the three years we lived in Spain in the 1970s, and during about a dozen other military Space-Available trips to European countries during the 1980s and 1990s.  It is often like playing bumper cars!  Bob wanted to rent a car during this trip, as we have done elsewhere in Europe in the past, but I was not anxious to do that.  Besides the traffic, it was very difficult to find our way around in the cities.  Many of the military people we saw driving used GPS systems.  The streets are not well marked, and they often change names as you go along.  We have a GPS, but only for the U.S.  We will look into adding European city streets to our GPS device.  By the way, gas in Italy goes for about $7 per gallon.  So it's much cheaper, safer and more relaxing to take a bus, train or shuttle!

Anyway, back to our trip to Sorrento.  The bus stopped at one scenic point to let everyone take photos.  See below:

Coastline along road to Sorrento, Italy

Coastline on the way to Sorrento, Italy

The bus let us off in Sorrento for about 3 hours of shopping, sightseeing and lunch.  There were all kinds of shops, including one that sold sandals, made to order, right in the store as you waited.  Here's a photo of their sandals:



Display at sandal store, Sorrento, Italy



Other stores sold ceramics, lemon products (Sorrento is known for its lemons), inlaid wood, hand-embroidered table cloths and clothes.  There were lots and lots of tourists here, from England, Germany and the U.S. 

We had a light lunch, then boarded the shuttle for the ride back to the base.  We bought sub sandwiches for dinner, from the Subway shop on the base, then walked off base to the Millennium Hotel ($130).

We had to decide whether to stay longer in Italy, whether to stay where we were or go elsewhere in Italy or Europe, or return home.  We decided to try to return home, because we were getting worn out, most of the base hotels were full meaning our hotel costs were getting expensive, and because there were two flights scheduled to leave from the Navy base in Naples tomorrow for Spain so it looked like a good bet that we could start heading back towards home.

In tomorrow's post, I will tell about some more interesting people we met, and about our ride back to Spain.

Day Seven: Monday, June 6 -- Flight to Naples

Got up about 5 a.m., called the base terminal, and were told "showtime" for the military flight to Naples was about 7 a.m.  So we checked out of the Navy Lodge, and caught a shuttle to the terminal.
They called us to the terminal desk, checked our luggage, and we boarded a C-17 military aircraft.  Bob and I were the only passengers, on a plane that could hold about 50!  The seats were nylon, not webbing, so fairly comfortable, and they were lined up along both sides of the plane.  The flight was about one hour.
We arrived at Naples Naval Support Activity, and thanked the crew for the "hop."
Here, we got to see Mount Vesuvius.  Unlike Mount Etna, which is regularly letting off steam, Mount Vesuvius is just "spitting" a little lava regulary from small fissures inside its crater.  And its crater is not as defined as Mount Etna's so it does not make quite as cool a photo!  See it below:

Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy

We had breakfast, then waited for a shuttle to the Navy Lodge.  Before it came, a young woman offered us a ride.  She was in the Navy, came to the U.S. from Romania at the age of ten.  She offered to drive us around Naples tomorrow, but we declined, saying that was asking too much.  Anyway, she was a pretty crazy driver!  She drove like Naples residents do!
Went shopping, and checked into trips arranged by an ITT travel agency on base.  Ate dinner at the Bambusa restaurant next to the Navy Lodge, and again enjoyed some delightful Italian pasta.
We made reservations for a trip tomorrow to Sorrento, just up the coast in Italy.  The Navy Lodge had no rooms available tomorrow, so we reserved a room at the Millennium Hotel, off base.  We are finding that a lot of hotels at bases in Italy -- which are cheaper than those off base -- are filled, due to the military activity around Libya.
Read all about our trip to Sorrento in tomorrow's post.

Day Six: Sunday, June 5 - Back to Sigonella Naval Air Station, Sicily

We returned to Sigonella Naval Air Station today, and rested up.

We checked out of the Garden Hotel, and paid 30 Euros for a shuttle ride to the Navy base.  We got a room at the Navy Lodge ($77).  We grabbed our swim suits and walked over to the base pool for a swim.  It was a nice, big, new pool with two waterslides.  Photo below:

Base pool at Sigonella Naval Air Station, Sicily

We just sunned and relaxed for a couple hours, then went to the base PX/store for a little shopping.  We went over to a food court, but an Italian worker there said it was closing and recommended another place to eat, just off the base.  I thought she said it was called "Messina."  (Pronounced like Massena, NY.)  There is a city by that name in Italy.  But it sounded like she was saying "Dessina." A female American sailor sitting nearby translated for me:  the Italian worker was actually saying "Days Inn-a."  The restaurant was called "Days Inn," and she was adding an "a" on to the end of the word.  We walked to the restaurant, and enjoyed some nice Italian pasta.
Bob checked flights at the base terminal, and found two military planes scheduled to go to Naples tomorrow.  Next post will described our trip and our stay there.

Day Five Saturday, June 4: Going for Baroque in Catania, Sicily

Today, we decided to tour the old, historic part of the city of Catania, Sicily, which has lots of Baroque architecture.  It was another long day!


As we left our hotel, we ran into a young couple from Australia, just checking in. They asked the hotel clerk about buses into the city, and she told them they could take the hotel shuttle into the city for 30 Euros.  We told them they could just walk down the street and catch a city bus for 1-2 Euros. 


We caught the city bus all the way to the downtown bus and train station.  Again, the bus squeezed through traffic and very narrow streets, the walls along the streets sometimes so close that we could reach out and touch them.  Once, a car had parked too close in the street to let the bus squeeze by, so the bus driver honked and honked and waited, and all the cars backed up behind us honked and waited, too, until  the errant driver showed up and moved his car.


We got off at the downtown train and bus station, and found our way to Via Vittoria Emmanuel, a main street with lots of old buildings, including churches.  We walked to the ruins of a Roman amphitheater, through an old monastery, saw lots of old churches, and did some souvenir shopping.  See photos below:



Old church in Catania



Stockings on sale in a store in Catania, Sicily

Ruins of old Roman amphitheatre in Catania, Sicily

We also saw a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, enjoying each other's company on a park bench in a plaza filled with people, and a McDonald's:

Romeo and Juliet?

McDonald's surrounded by nice architecture

We bought and shared an ice cream cone in a large plaza area. We walked around until 4 p.m., then back to try to catch our bus at the bus and train station.  We kept asking when the bus to our area was due, but no one seemed to really know, they just kept telling us to wait.  Finally, one of the drivers said he did not think that bus came until 6:45 p.m., so we just took another bus and then transferred to another one.  On that bus was the young Australian couple from this morning, headed back to the hotel, so we talked to them a bit about their experiences that day.


Too tired to try any other restaurant, we just got pizza again from the little place down the street.  When we returned to the hotel room, our air-conditioning did not work.  We called the front desk and were told that their computer said the AC did not work because one of our windows was open!  So, we checked the window, found that it was open, and closed it!


Tomorrow, we just relaxed most of the day, as  you will see in the next blog.

Day Four/Friday, June 3: Mount Etna

Mount Etna lets off some volcanic steam!

This was a long, exciting day!

After our complimentary breakfast at the Garden Hotel, we walked down the street to catch a city bus (2 Euros each).  Then we hoped to catch another city bus to Mount Etna, hike around a little and return home.

But we got off the first bus too soon.  And that led us to an entirely different plan.  We got off in a big plaza (Plaza Cavour).  We started trying to ask people where the train station was, but no one understood the words "train" or "railroad"  or even "choo-choo."  Later, I realized I should have shown them the city map where the train station was marked, and used the word for train that was on the map:  "ferrovia."  We asked at the bus ticket counter ( the local kiosk for newspapers, cigarettes, etc.).  We asked at the bank.  We asked a police officer.  And more.  Just could not find anyone who spoke English. 

Finally, a young woman who understood a little English pointed up the street.  So, we went up the street.  There we found the "Ferrovia Circum Etnea."  It was not the downtown train station, but a public and tourist train, which took passengers on a circle route, all around Mount Etna.

So we said, "What the heck, let's take the train around Mount Etna."  Tickets were 7 Euros, for about a 4-5 hour ride, with a 3-hour stopover in one of the cities along the way.  The guy at this train station spoke only a few words of English, but he tried very hard to make sure we understood where and when the train was going.  Then, he gave us 2 baseball caps with the train logo on them, and some free postcards!

The train was kind of an old one, and it started chugging up toward the mountain.  Mount Etna is about 10,000 feet up.  The train only went up about 3,000 feet.  The mountain top was covered by clouds, so if we had gone up higher, we would not have been able to see the view down.



The train that circumnavigates Mount Etna



We took photos out the window of lava fields, lava rock walls and cottages, wild flowers, horses and goats, the lower mountain tops, volcanic craters along the way, and of course of Mount Etna.  After about 2 hours, the train stopped in the city of Randazzo, where we had 3 free hours.  We walked around, shopped a little, had an ice cream cone and some cookies at a little shop, saw an old church, old convent, etc.

We talked a little to a young Irish couple -- the only English-speaking people we had heard all day -- who were also on our train.  The woman later helped us find a connecting train and to buy the tickets for that train.  Not sure we could have done this without her help, despite our years of travel experience!

As we waited for the connecting train, a middle-aged man with two young children came over to talk.  He was from near Paris, France, but had gone to school in Philadelphia for a while.  He was also on the first train with us.  He had once ridden Amtrak trains all across the U.S. and back.  He had been working in the field of engineering, but his wife had died and he had switched careers to spend more time with his children.  He was now a farmer!

So we traded stories about farming -- I grew up on a farm, and my youngest brother still farms, when he has time from his full-time job at a bank!

We also talked to him about President Obama, government health care, travel, immigration, Libya, WWII (his grandfathers had both been imprisoned by the Germans in the first days of the war) etc.  Very interesting!  When we got on the connecting train, Bob suggested that I give the 2 train caps we had been given to this man's children, which I did.  They were very appreciative!

French engineer/farmer with 2 children
wearing the train caps we gave them.

He showed us where to get off the train to catch our bus.  Again, we ran into some "challenges" getting back to our hotel.  As we rode the bus, an inspector came around looking at everyone's tickets.  When we showed him our all-day bus tickets, he shook his head "No" and showed us someone else's ticket.  We kind of sunk into our seats, worried that he would throw us off, or give us a ticket/fine, or both!  We breathed a sigh of relief when he got off at the next stop.

At the bus transfer point, we showed the driver our tickets before we got on the bus this time.  He also shook his head "No" and pointed to the ticket kiosk.  Bob ran over and bought 2 more tickets.  We later figured out that there were 2 bus lines, one serving the city, another serving the suburban area where our hotel was.  We later suggested to our hotel that they provide guests with some directions about how to buy bus tickets and where to catch the buses!

We finally got back to the hotel.  We had started out about 10 a.m., and got back about 8-9 p.m.  Very tired!  Which is why we got pizza at the same place as last night.  While there, I saw a guy load a little box about the size of a microwave oven on his back, put some pizza in it, then jump on a motorcycle to go deliver it.  Check him out below:

Pizza delivery guy, pizza on his back, rides a motorcycle.

When we got back to our hotel, we had an email from the guy from the Bronx.  He thought it was "awesome" that we just jump on planes, without knowing in advance where we are going, he said.  He also said we were like "hoboes jumping on a train."  So we decided to call ourselves the "Hobo Haleys."

In the next blog, you can read about us Hoboes exploring the city of Catania.