WeDoTravel Blog

Grand Hotel Chandelier

Originally uploaded by Badcowboy

The Grand Hotel in Rimini is the ‘grand dame’ of the Rimini Hotels. It has been around since 1908, has seen two world wars and numerous social changes.

Upon arrival, you will find that the hotel is very classic in its style of doing business. The items that we noticed when we checked in that were different from the normal:

1. Room keys are real. You leave the key with the front desk when you leave and pick it up upon your return.  This can be a change for Americans as we are used to the credit card key systems.
2. The doors and locks are real. They do not automatically lock behind you and you have to use your key on the inside to lock the door.  I left my room unlocked for a day because I did not think to turn around and lock it as I was leaving.  I have gotten to used to the automatic locking.  The nice thing is you can’t get locked outside your room accidentally.
3. There is no shower curtain.  Taking a shower was a challenge in maneuvering to keep the water from going all over the bathroom.
4. There is one receptacle in the room where everything connects to.  This becomes a problem when you get your laptop, camera battery charger and all of the other electronic devices ready to connect.  The receptacle already looks like an accident waiting to happen with the plasma tv, cable box and refrigerator connected.  I did not have any problems though, just did not watch TV while charging everything.
5. The Internet is pricey. This is a problem world wide.  The smaller, less expensive hotels tend to include the internet in their basic rates.  The more expensive high end hotels tend to charge extra for accessing the internet.  Here it was around 24 Euros for 24 hours.  I decided to forgo the internet.

Those are the basic differences between the Grand Hotel and other world class hotels that I am used to. Most of the differences are actually refreshing because they give you the feeling of stepping back to a less complicated time.

The breakfast buffet is incredible. A complete taste of local flavors and specialties as well as staple breakfast foods from around the world - and cappuccinos that bring a smile to a tired face in the mornings.  The other meals that we ate at the hotel were exquisite, with a local flair and wonderful styling.

The rooms are very nicely apportioned and had the feature that I consider a bonus in warm climates - the beds are not adorned with so much down and pillows that you have to dig your way into them.

Simple, Elegant and delicious are the words I would use to describe the hotel.

Hong Kong is a vertical city and the transportation system works.  The underground subway and above ground rail (the MTR) is one of the best I have used and almost everything to see or do is located on or very close to one of the stops.  Shopping malls, hotels, museums, the airport and even Disneyland are all located along this system.

The Star Ferry has been around since the lat 1800’s and was the main form of transportation between Hong Kong and the mainland (Kowloon) for many years until a tunnel was built for the highway (1972) and then the subway (1979).  It is inexpensive and is a great way to see the skylines of both Hong Kong and Kowloon.

The bus system is very effecient as well, but is subject to the traffic jams that occur on the roads.

The great part of the system is the Octopus card.  This prepaid card works on the subway, rail, and bus systems and can even be used at 7-11 and Starbucks (among others).  I wish San Francisco and the bay area would adopt a system like this.

The independent republic of San Marino is a 23.5 square mile patch of mountain that was founded in 301.  We arrived mid morning in a pouring rain, which turned out to be a good time to visit.  The rain stopped while we were enjoying lunch and the city was quiet.  I had fun exploring the many landmarks and the city was remarkably clean and fresh.  The picture above was taken from the main square with the restaurant we were we had lunch in the upper left side of the photo.

The sun made its appearance shortly after lunch and the city sprang to life.  The plazas and streets quickly filled with tourists shopping and enjoying the sunny afternoon.  The unique shopping opportunities and  historic landmarks make San Marino a good destination.

I would recommend getting there early in the morning to enjoy the peace and quiet before the crowds take over or stay over night in the city and enjoy the evening at a restaurant with breathtaking views overlooking the Italian countryside as the sun sets and wake up early in the morning, get a cappiciono,  and enjoy a stroll around town.

Guilin

Originally uploaded by Badcowboy

On the road from Guilin to get to the Li river, you get a sense of mystery. This photo was taken from the tour bus as we were approaching the starting point of our cruise.

The timing of your visit is important because the river can get very low in the fall. We were only able to cruise a very short piece of the river, and although it was still full of images you will remember for a lifetime, the logistics of getting to the starting and from the ending point took a good portion of the day.

Verucchio

Originally uploaded by Badcowboy

The town of Verucchio is located on a hill overlooking several valleys. In fact, the name Verrucchio is derived from the root Vero Occhio which means “true eye”.

There are several restaurants and hotels in the city. Some of the group we were with stayed in the hotel and it sounded very nice. The breakfast spread looked very good and as with the other hotels, cappuccino’s flowed freely in the mornings.

The Archaeological Museum, will not large, handles its exhibits very well and there is a wealth of knowledge that can be obtained there. The burial urns and the history surrounding them is very interesting, and the museum goes into that area in depth. Plan on spending 4 to 5 hours exploring the museum and the castle.

The Malatesta Castle is almost an extension of the museum and offers the best views of the surrounding valleys. The exhibits include armor and weapons of the period and again, the history is explained well.

The individual museums and sites will be talked about in separate postings, so keep watching the blog for updates.

The Calicanto Restaurant in Santarcangelo was the first restaurant we dined at upon our arrival in Italy. It is a short walk from either of the hotels (the Il Villino and the Della Porta).

Every part of the meal was extremely good and the flavors blended together.  I will not repeat how good everything was in the description — although I could say it over and over again.

Starters

• Pomodoro Calycanto - Stuffed salad tomato filled with ragu, topped with Parmesan cheese and oven baked
• Vol au vent - small pastry puffs filled and dressed with caramelized Tropea onions
• Carciofi alla Zorba - Freshly picked artichoke cooked Greek style with mint and parsley served with a creamy honey mustard dip.

Pasta Courses

• Guitar string spaghetti served with a rocket pesto
• Strozzapreti with homemade beef fillet sauce flavored with red wine and bay leaves

Main Courses

• Galletto - half a spatch cock flame grilled chicken marinated in lemon and rosemary
• Roast Potatoes

Desert

• Garden Trifle

The ‘rocket’ pesto had some arugula mixed in with the basil to add a little extra kick and a unique flavor.

The restaurant has a very friendly atmosphere and in typical Italian dining style, you are in for the evening when you dine.  This would be a highly recommended stop for at least one of your evening meals.

I just finished enabling the gallery so that it can handle the new web plugin Piclens. This has to be one of the coolest web extensions I have seen to date. Load it up and check it out — adds a three dimensional view to any of the albums.

One tip when using neck pillows on a plane - take them off before you stand up and walk around. If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, people who walk around with the neck pillow attached to the neck are from another planet all together.

The 777 aircraft that serves the LAX to FCO (Los Angeles to Rome) route is new. It has the modern entertainment system that allows you to choose a movie, pause, restart, call other seats, etc. This is a great system when it is working, but they were still working the bugs out of it on our flight from LAX to FCO and we had 11 hours of no movies or other entertainment. The system was mostly working on the return flight (if you are experiencing problems, you will need to ask the flight attendant to reset your terminal).

The power connectors are not the same type of power connectors that I am used to — you will want to read the article over at SeatGuru.com and make sure you have the correct adapter for your equipment (this plane used the EM power system).

One item that some people love and some people hate is the seat configuration.  They have a 3×3x3 seat configuration instead of the 2×5x2 seat configuration.  Bad if you are traveling with family or just two people, good if you end up getting stuck in the center of 5.  Something you will have to decide on how you like it after you have tried it.

The food in coach is typical mediocre airline food. Don’t expect top of the line Italian cuisine. The flight over was very rough and dinner was delayed and very overcooked by the time they were able to serve it.

The flight crew was very friendly and mostly responsive.

There is an issue with check-in with Alitalia airlines at LAX that you need to be aware of (at least until they correct it). When transferring from another airline to Alitalia, you will need to leave the secure area, go to the Alitalia ticket counter and check in to obtain your boarding pass. Since this was a new service, it could have been a glitch with the system that has been corrected, but it is something to keep in mind if you schedule your own flight to LAX to connect with the Alitalia flight - you need to leave enough time to leave security, check in again and get back through security to get onto your flight.