Atherton Family Notes

We decided to pay for one tour while we were staying in the Napoli region: a trip to the Isle of Capri. Realistically, we probably could have saved a little money doing it ourselves, but we decided it was worth allowing someone else figure out the details, like when, where, and how to meet the boat for transportation to the island.

The tour left at around 7AM. It Was a little difficult to get the girls up at that hour, but we did it anyway. CeCe was a little wild on the bus, but Rissa was pretty quiet.

The bus to the dock at Salerno was pretty slow, and it was complicated by the fact that we stopped at several other hotels to pick up other tourists. The trip back in the evening was worse though, because traffic was really heavy, much worse than it had been in the morning.

Once we arrived in Salerno, we boarded a large passenger boat. Avery crowded passenger boat. The route to Capri from Salerno skims along the south side of the Amalfi coast, where we drove yesterday, and the all of the seats on that side of the boat were already occupied when we boarded.

That didn’t stop us from seeing a lot of the beautiful scenery we saw yesterday from the opposite viewpoint. The trip itself was longer than we expected, and it was almost 11 by the time we disembarked.

The island itself is not very big, but it makes up for its length and width shortcomings by being largely vertical. There are two villages on the island: Capri and Anacapri. When you arrive you can either take a taxi (the only cars on the island) to the villages or you can take the funicular to Capri. We elected to take the funicular.

We bought lunch atone of the many bakeries-it consisted of cold pizza, more or less. We ate while sitting in the middle of one of the “streets”.

Because there are almost no cars on the island, the streets are really just glorified paved walking paths. It makes the walk claustrophobic in some areas, since the buildings are packed so close together, especially near the (very expensive) shopping district.

The really odd thing about Capri though, is that it is hard to actually sight-see. The island is beautiful, but most of the interesting locations are spread far apart. We only saw a fraction of these, partly because we had to drag the girls along, but I don’t think it would have made much difference anyway. We never even made it to Anacapri.

I think to really see Capri, you would need to stay a few days at one of the hotels on the island. It’s very hard to see in one day.

We did manage to see several of the natural wonders on the island and a beautiful garden. And as I mentioned before, there are beautiful views almost any direction you look. We had to return to the boat at5:30PM, which in some ways made the day seem too short, but I don’t think we could have put the girls through much more. It was very hot, and the crowds were often very rude even by Italian standards.

We arrived back at our hotel at9PM, just barely in time to get dinner at the restaurant. Nobody had to be rocked to sleep on this night.

CeCe, enjoying the view.

This is a picture of the Natural Arch. I would have gotten closer to take the picture, but the path I was on sloped down towards the railing. You can’t see it in the picture, but the post near the center of the picture has broken free of the concrete, and another whole section has been replaced by chicken wire. There was a woman here who I thought was going to have a heart attack out of fear that Carissa was going to go through the chicken wire while I was taking the picture.

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We just wanted to show you how industrious 3-year-old Kindergarteners in Germany spend their days.

Carissa is really starting to enjoy colors, and also brings home anew picture for Mommy almost every day.

Here’s today’s picture:

The work shows a strong crosshatch motif, and a wonderful use of color. There is also an underlying emotional thrust with an honesty that only a child can acheive. Jackson Pollock, eat your heart out. Blah, blah, blah, blah….

Of course, there remain some unanswered questions about the authorship of the work. In certain circles, there is a belief that Carissa either did not create the work, or that she had significant help from her classmates. Also, there is something that appears to be a signature in the bottom right corner that doesn’t look like Carissa’s handwriting. (Just kidding.)

In any case, Carissa wanted to make sure that Grandma, Nana, and the Papaws saw it. So here it is.

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At first thought, I had decided that since Thanksgiving would be no fun without all the favorite foods, I would just skip the whole ordeal. After seeing the poor, pathetic look on Ken’s face when he was faced with a year of no pumpkin pie, I changed my other mind and dug into a little research. I discovered several recipes that were related to a Thanksgiving dinner and also ones that I could find ingredients for. Thanksgiving day had come so it was to late to celebrate on Thursday with everyone else. But hey, when it is only the two of you and some kids that do not know the difference, you can pull anything off. I then played hooky from school last night (shhh…don’t tell Ken!!) and went grocery shopping to my hearts content. I found the ingredients on my list, and that was no small feat! It took trips to 4 different stores, constant reference to the German dictionary, and the help of one very patient sales clerk. There is one thing I have learned about living in Germany: everything is cooked from fresh foods. That means no canned goods that you really want.

I then spent the entire day (and I do mean ENTIRE DAY ) chopping, cutting, slicing, and dicing. I chopped carrots, diced celery and onions, cut pumpkins and bread, and even sliced my finger really good. In the end my menu consisted of turkey, sausage stuffing made from fresh bread, carrot salad (carrots, pineapple, raisins, marshmallows, and dressing), oranged cranberries simmered on the stove all day, and corn on the cob (just was not possible to do the favorite T-day veggies here so we made do). I have to admit that the hard work slaving in the kitchen paid off. the dinner turned out very nicely. To top off the wonderful dinner, I even convinced myself to go through the trouble of pumpkin pie made from none other than fresh pumpkin and whipped topping from scratch. (You guessed it…no canned pumpkin or cool whip here!!!) There is however something to be said about pie made completely fresh. “Divine” comes to mind pretty quickly.

I had managed to keep all of this a secret from Ken. I was anticipating the look on his face when he laid eyes on the stuffing and pumpkin pie, and even told Carissa about the excitement of the surprise for daddy. After the cooking was complete we headed out to pick him up from work. Would you believe the first words out of Carissa’s mouth were “daddy we made you a surprise! (whispering now) It is pumpkin pie!!” I could not believe what my ears had just heard! I now know to NEVER trust a 3 year old with secrets.

We sat down to a great meal and worth every labor of pain it took to make. Only sweet potato casserole and family could have made it better. It has been 3 hours since we ate and I am still stuffed beyond imagination.

You know what? SSSHHHH….listen. The pumpkin pie is calling my name. Do you here it calling???? Sorry, gotta go now!

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