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Thread: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

  1. #31
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    That sounds great Jim! Maybe we could meet for Pizza and a pint - my treat.

    I was going to decline the Acros as I have 50 sheets of 8x10 Delta and 100 sheets of 5x7 Delta unopened in the fridge but, hey, if the price is right I'll spring! I'm in the process of getting ready to make Palladotypes, Platinotypes, and Pt/Pd (Na2) prints in that order. Except for the Na2 I have enough Pd to get started and a "little" Pt - like less than 10mL available and a 1000mL Pyrex beaker is "out for delivery" today along with 200 grams of disodium EDTA. The 1000mL glass beaker that I bought from B&S developed cracks on the bottom and will leak so I bit the bullet and ordered the pyrex version since I will have to warm the developer to 90F in the microwave. Two new Crescolite trays (8x10 and 11x14), a 1000mL brown storage bottle, and a fresh pack of 11x14 HPR paper was received last week also along with the the developer chemistry. All I need now is some subject matter for a print. Speaking of which, since I am between jobs for a few days I was thinking of driving up to Tioga Lake for a view across the lake and then to Bodie for a front on shot of the general store and Bodie hotel. I shot both before but the former was taken from an angle which I find unappealing because of the store's large headpost and the latter because the crooked bellows I had on the 810G at the time vignetted the negative. Both have to be shot head-on, one in the morning (the hotel) and the other in the late afternoon. You're welcome to come along if you can make it. I have an extra tent and sleeping bag that you can use and commercial accommodations should be available in Lee Vining. Looking forward to seeing you next week.

    Thanks a lot for the update Emmanuel. I replaced the "97 Schwinn LeTour which was stolen from the outside storage locker with a new Fuji dedicated touring bike and one day I am going to take that trip.

    Thomas

  2. #32

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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Hi Thomas. The Price is Right! I'll trade for the pizza and beer. Speaking of Pizza - have you ever tried Rainbow Pizza in San Mateo?

    https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ra...4d-122.3372234

    It's just a couple of minutes from I-280/Rt 92 I haven't been there in a couple of years and was hoping to get there this trip.

  3. #33

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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Hi Emmanuel

    Question, having never been to France before. The Orient Express arrives at 7AM at Gare l'Est and we plan to take the train to St Malo which IIRC leaves from Gare Parnasse. There'll be four of us with luggage so we're debating if it's better to schlep the bags on the Metro or just take a taxi (or two) across town.

    Also - I discovered that there are no car rental places open on Sunday in st Malo. I was thinking of getting off in Rennes and picking up a car at the airport (maybe lunch in Rennes.) Does this seem practical? We'll be staying about 10 minutes drive from St Malo downtown so we could take a taxi to the hotel, but it would be nice to have a car for an early AM trip to Mont St Michel the next AM.

    I'd appreciate your thoughts.

  4. #34

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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Andrada View Post
    Hi Emmanuel
    Hi, Jim !

    Question, having never been to France before. The Orient Express arrives at 7AM at Gare l'Est and we plan to take the train to St Malo which IIRC leaves from Gare Parnasse. There'll be four of us with luggage so we're debating if it's better to schlep the bags on the Metro or just take a taxi (or two) across town.

    Well, taking into account the infinitesimal additional expense (in relative value of the total European trip) with respect to the price a Parisian Metro/Bus ticket (1.9 euro x 4 = 7.6, or a pack of 10 tickets = 14.90 euro), of one or two taxis from Gare-de-l'Est to Gare-Montparnasse (15 euro one taxi, 30 euro for two), I would favor sharing one or two taxis, so that you can have a look at the city from the streets and not ... from underground.
    Gare Montparnasse serving Brittany and part of Normandy is located on the other side of the river Seine w/respect to Gare-de-l'Est, so you'll have some interesting sightseeing during the (short, less that 15 minutes) taxi ride.
    However the Metro connection from Gare-de-l'Est to Gare-Montparnasse is straightforward, simply take Metro line#4 , no connection required, travel time is 14 minutes plus 6 minutes walk between Metro station Montparnasse-Bienvenue (Mr Bienvenüe with a strange spelling is the family name of the chief engineer who built the Metro at the end of the XIX-st century) and the SNCF station Gare-Montparnasse.

    Also - I discovered that there are no car rental places open on Sunday in st Malo. I was thinking of getting off in Rennes and picking up a car at the airport (maybe lunch in Rennes.) Does this seem practical? We'll be staying about 10 minutes drive from St Malo downtown so we could take a taxi to the hotel, but it would be nice to have a car for an early AM trip to Mont St Michel the next AM.

    Yes, picking up a car in Rennes instead of taking a connected train to Saint Malo will allow you to have a good feeling of the countryside and might not be more expensive, I do not know (be prepared to a very high price for gasoline or diesel in France if compared to the US, though - the rented car might be a diesel car, so be careful when refuelling!).
    The ViaMichelin.com route planner suggest from Rennes to Saint Malo a driving time of 00h53 including 00h39 on a motorway [to the best of my knowledge, motorways are free in Brittany, unlike most parts of France where motoraways are toll-motorways, but I've never used the motorway between Rennes and St Malo].

    I'd appreciate your thoughts.

    It's a pleasure for me, it is the bright side of the Internet: being able to help LF friends all over the word, 24/7!

  5. #35

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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Mille Grazie Emmanuel

    I'm prepared for the gasoline prices. We've driven in Germany, Austria, Italy, and UK.

    Japan as well. Gasoline is very pricey. Most folks don't rent a car in Japan, but it's not as hard to drive as you might think aside from left-side driving. Major roads are in great condition, well marked in Roman Letters as well as Japanese characters. One small quirk - there are no street names or house numbers as we're used to. But GPS can be your friend. If you're dragging an LF camera around Japan, consider a rental car.
    Last edited by Jim Andrada; 8-Sep-2018 at 18:04.

  6. #36
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Jim - Rainbow sounds good. I haven't eaten there that I recall but I am very familiar with the shopping center it is located in having had coffee in the Starbucks on many occasions and shopped in the Safeway on many occasions as well, In fact I was just there last week to pick-up a loaf of sourdough on the way home over 92. Did you have a date yet?

    The PO delivered the EDTA to my mailbox earlier today and just a few minutes ago, just after I arrived back home, Amazon delivery came with the beaker. I was a little worried about the beaker because unlike the PO Amazon will leave it outside under a bush or something if you're not home. All my other beakers are Pyrex and they are great - constructed to last - and this one also came with a Pyrex watch glass for weighing chemistry which I always wanted.

    A small earthquake (magnitude 2.8) struck in downtown Oakland early this afternoon https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/09/...-the-east-bay/ After a several year dry spell, seismic activity in the bay area has been on the increase so you may have a ground shaking experience on your visit.

    Thomas

  7. #37

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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Well, we survived the trip. I had back trouble a few weeks before the trip and got an Epidural injection a week before we left so I was still hobbling a bit for the first few days but aside from that...

    It was quite a trip. Camera-wise I wound up with MF gear only - a Mamiya C330 TLR and a Mamiya 645 AFD with film and (shudder) digital backs - and a Pen F digital that I used mainly for video. No problem getting it all onto the airplane - it fit in the overhead just fine. Tucson to Palermo "only" took 28 hours with three connections - LAX, Paris CDG, and Rome.The Paris connection was a real goat rodeo -time consuming and tiring. I'd try to avoid connecting at CDG in the future. Palermo was great. We have a good friend who's a professor at the University there and she arranged an apartment for us in the same building where she lives which was pretty nice - we were able to have dinner with her and her fiancee most nights. She took us to her home town (Montevago) where we stayed at her father's house for a couple of nights and visited the olive grove owned by her fiancee. 400 trees, some several hundred years old. The old town of Montevago was wiped out by an earthquake in the 1970's and they moved the town a mile or so and rebuilt it. We drove to the original town and it was quite a sight to see the remains of a town scattered over quite a few blocks. They're leaving it as is as a memorial to the prople who died. Our friend pointed out one pile of rubble and told us that it had been her grandfather's house. Somehow knowing the connection made us see the remains of the town in a different light. Then back to Palermo for a few more days where we were joined by two friends from Tokyo. The apartment building is right next to the cathedral, which is a fascinating blend of architectures - it was actually a mosque during the Moorish occupation of Sicily and the patterned tile work is rather amazing and not at all what you'd expect to see on a Catholic cathedral. I think you could spend a day photographing the cathedral.

    From Palermo we flew to Venice for two nights. We discovered that domestic Business Class is the same as domestic Coach with the center seat blocked off by a small table. We stayed at the Hotel Ala fairly close to St Mark's. We picked the hotel because we could reach it directly from the water taxi from the airport without having to cross any of the infamous Venetian bridges across the canals. They have steps at each end and dragging suitcases and camera bags over the bridges would be no fun at all. The hotel breakfast buffet was one of the best I've had in Europe and the staff were all friendly. Rooms were small but well appointed. Our room overlooked a small canal and i was able to get a couple of nice videos of gondolas and motorboats passing under our window.

    From Venice we took the Orient Express overnight to Paris. They sent a boat to pick us up at the hotel and bring us to Santa Lucia station. Good chance for a video of the ride. The train is a destination in and of itself. Outstanding service and the food was arguably the best we've had in decades. Our car was built in 1929, but of course it had been completely gutted and refurbished inside and out. Besides lunch and dinner, there was afternoon tea served in our compartment as well as a nice breakfast before arrival in Paris. The scenery was extraordinary as the route took us through Bolzano into Austria and Switzerland before entering France.

    From Paris we transfered to the TGV to Rennes, where we picked up a car to St Malo. Unfortunately we hit something in the road near our hotel and blew out both tires on the right side of the car. Fortunately the first car I flagged down was driven by a couple who both spoke English and they couldn't have been more helpful. She runs a business exporting antiques and he was an underwater photographer, so we had a lot to talk about.while waiting for the Hertz service guys to show up. They called Hertz for us and arranged for them to pick up the car and bring another one - which they never did, so we went to Mt St Michel the next day by taxi. I think an hour or two is more than enough for Mt St Michel - as Emmanuel Bigler suggested, St Malo is far more interesting as well as having better and less expensive restaurants. Very photogenic.

    Next stop was two days in Paris, where we stayed across the street from the Seine very clos to the Pont Neuf. We had wanted to stay in a new hotel called the Niepce - part of the Hilton chain with many Niepce photographs on the walls, but had a problem booking it so settled for the Citadines apartment hotel. I took the Mamiya out and ran into a family from Japan, one of whom was photographer - she was quite interested in the Mamiya having never used or even seen a flm camera. I gave her a quick lesson in how to use it and hopefully triggered a bit of interest in film.

    From Paris our friends flew back to Tokyo while Yukie and I headed to A Coruña, Galicia in the northwest corner of Spain, just North of Portugal. We stayed in a small inn which was in a 700 year old stone farmhouse that had been restored by the current owner - a charming gentlman who had actually lived in Salt Lake Ciyty for two years while his wife taught Spanish there and had been to Arizona several times. The biggest problem we had was finding the place since it turned out to be down a dirt track almost a mile from the paved road. We were rather surprised by how beautiful the area was and how tourist free it was. Almost nobody spoke English but everyone was friendly and obliging. The area is quite different than the common image of Spain - incredibly green with every day sunny, rainy, cloudy sunny again. From everything I've been able to find out, my father's family originated in that area and there's still an Andrade castle there - more of a decaying fort than a real castle, though.

    We then headed to Santiago de Compostela for our last real night in Europe. We splurged and stayed in the Parador - a converted hostel for Pilgrims who had made the month(s) long trek to the cathedral. The hostel was completed in 1491. Architecturally fascinating building built around four separate courtyards. Unfortunately, I had eaten something in France that had given me a bit of food poisoning and I got quite sick and had to get medical attention. The hotel arranged for a doctor to come to our room. He prescribed antibiotics and two liters a day of sports drink and was kind enough to drive Yukie to a pharmacy, get the medication, and bring her back to the hotel. So instead of our last night being a Wine and Roses evening, it was GatorAid and Ciprofloxacin!

    Oh well - somehow I made it to the Rome airport Hilton the next day where we stayed before our 6AM flight to Paris and then to LAX and home to Tucson. I was pretty wiped out and had to use a wheelchair at every connection point, but we made it. The food problem stayed with me though so I got to spend a relaxing (???) few days in the hospital. Since getting out I've been developing film and organizing the trip photos and hopefully I'll get them online in the next week or so, at which point I'll post a link.

  8. #38

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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Andrada View Post
    Galicia --- Unfortunately, I had eaten something in France that had given me a bit of food poisoning and I got quite sick and had to get medical attention.
    hmmm, you'll have to return in shape...

  9. #39
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Jim,

    I have experienced back problems also – probably arthritis. So a coupe of weeks ago I started doing weight training targeting the back in the gym and started feeking relief almost immediately. Look for the machined that target the back and do several sets each every day. You don't have to use a lot of weight – just enough that it works the muscles. A “Teter” inversion chair seems to make sense but I don't have room for it unless I put it on the patio and the property management might object to that.

    BTW the film turned out fine. A sheet had developed out too dark and I thought that it might be either the film or the developer (7month old working Xtol). So I reshot it with a sheet of fresh Delta and another Acros in fresh developer and both sheets turned out fine. First time I have experienced bad developer which is somewhat surprising since I make the stock with distilled water and have used older stock with no problems.

    Thomas

  10. #40

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    Re: Palermo, Venice, Paris in October

    Hi Thomas

    Glad it's working OK!!! It's looking like I might be in the Bay Area again in late January/early February.

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