Taken for a ride in Athens!

5.11.08

Our flight to Greece left at 10:30 this morning and to our surprise we were in business class instead of economy! We have no idea how it happened, maybe our travel agent accidentally booked it. Who cares, it was fantastic! As soon as we sat down we were offered drinks, had a great smoked rainbow trout for lunch, and enjoyed being waited on hand and foot! It was a nice treat after the long night before.

Brooke had read about how taxi drivers in Greece are notorious for ripping tourist, and even locals off. The nicest ones were supposed to be some of the worst too. Well..... I guess we had a genuine Greek taxi ride then, because our driver was insane! We got in the taxi, told him where we needed to go, and he told us "7 minutes". Hmmm ok.

When we tore out of the airport and whizzed around corners, even faster than I would, I began to think we might really make it in 7 minutes! The cabbie flew through athens, passing on the shoulders, disregarding speed limits and laws. At one point he was going 140kph and the limit was 70kph! This guy tried to speak some English but it didn't make ANY sense. He didn't understand anything I was asking, either. I think he was trying to play that nice guy act by telling us where things were in the city too....we still had no idea what he was saying.

Well 7 minutes turned into about 30, and every now and then he would lean over and push a button on the meter, bumping the price up a little. We were aware there was an airport toll that everyone has to pay, so I thought he was just figuring that in by adjusting the meter.....Well he bumped it like 5 times and I was going to say something if he did it again. Once we got to the Athens Gate Hotel the meter said 25.77 euro. The smallest I had was 50, so I forked it over and was at his mercy. He blabbed something in Greek and handed me 15 euro back and got back in the cab! ...TIME OUT

...The airport toll was 2 euro....so that makes a total of 27.77. He owed me a little more than 22 euro back, shorting me 7 euro (about 12 dollars).

I rushed to the passenger side window and asked him why I only got 15 back. The only word I caught was "toll" (the airport toll that was only 2, not 7). Because he seemed to be having a hard time with basic addition and subtraction ;) I of course illustrated the math for him, "The meter says 25.77, the airport toll was 2, I gave you fifty. You owe me 22 but you only gave me 15." I think he understood me JUST fine, but he got mad and just shouted in Greek. The cabbie started to drive away! Luckily a guy from the hotel was coming out to greet us and help with our bags. Thinking quickly, I got the guy to interpret for me. He repeated what I was saying, the driver angrily handed over a 5 euro bill, and peeled away. So that was a nice semi-victory, he still got away with bumping that meter a little along the way though.

The nice guy that translated for me was impressed that we caught the guy and actually confronted him. He said must tourists don't catch on that fast. The hotel was very modern and chic,I'd say this hotel was in the top 3 we stayed in. Our room wasn't quite ready yet, so they showed us to the rooftop bar for a complimentary drink while we waited. We got a nice view of Athens and chilled out for a while.

First order of business was to take care of our moms. My first idea was to write letters and take a picture, and post that on the blog, but remembered that my little point and shoot camera records low-res video that was perfect size for the blog. We both probably had 5 or 6 takes to get it respectable... we kept crackin' up.

That evening we walked around Plaka area of Athens, the oldest area of the city. Athens was a huge culture shock, but we really started to fall in love it. We ate our first Greek meal ever, and it was great! Both of us had traditional Gyros, which isn't actually wrapped in the pita bread but served in separate portions. For dessert of course we had to have Baklava! The Baklava I've had in the states was flakey and dry. Over here it's served with honey, and not nearly as flakey. I also tried out my newly learned Greek phrases on our waiter, he was amused ;)

Here's a view of Athens from Acropolis Hill. To get an idea of how huge the city is, it would take 8 or 9 of these pictures put together to get a full 360 view.



*Posted from Philadelphia airport, on the way back to Dallas.

Royal Austrian Ballers

5.10.08

Our last day in Vienna was a long one. We started out by taking a local train to the Schonnbrun Palace. The palace served as a "a little summer home" that was in what was the country at the time. It seemed like it was only 10 miles away from their palace in the city. That's how the royal Austrians roll! The country palace was incredibly impressive even though much of the interior decoration and furniture is no longer there. The most famous residents were Queen Maria Teresa (mother of Marie Antoinette) and the beloved Sisi.




Brooke and I walked around the manicured gardens and lawns outside the palace, then toured the inside. The outside of the palace used to be pink! One of the male rulers was so desperate to get rid of the pink color, he used a two-tone yellow paint, the very cheapest color at the time. Yellow became the royal color in Austria, ever since then you have to get special permission to use it on the outside of a building.

This evening we went back to the same restaurant we ate at the first night, the one with the goulash. This time we both ate Wiener Schnitzel and shared a sacher tort. Sooo good!

After a really long day of walking around we wanted to get a good night's sleep, but we ended up only getting a few hours.... The bar located below our hotel room on the first floor had a ton of people coming in and out, shouting, screaming, and singing. Even the guy at the front desk of the hotel got fed up, and tried to keep people from lingering outside the hotel.

*Posted from Philadelphia airport, on the way back to Dallas

Adultery & Classical Music Today

5.9.08



It's estimated Ludwig van Beethoven lived in a total of 80 something apartments in his lifetime, never really settling down. The apartment we visited this morning, was the one he lived in the longest. Beethoven knew the owner of the building, and always had an apartment held for him because he always came back to Vienna. Brooke and I walked through the apartment, viewed one of his pianos, some of his manuscripts, and learned more about this deaf oddball genius. We like to think we absorbed some of the musical brilliance by being in his apartment! In this apartment he composed the 5th, 7th, and 8th Symphonies, Piano Trio B flat major, and "Fur Elise".

Genius chicken scratch.....


Next, it was the Vienna Boy's Choir performance.....For me, it was just ok. It is something unique to Vienna that has was established over 500 years ago, and they perform for half a million people each year, so thats kinda cool. Brooke enjoyed it, but I could have skipped it this time around. They sang in German for most of it, some in Latin I think, and one random song in English(lollypop lollypop.....weird). Ranging from ages 10-14, they are required to attend the boarding school and only see their family on Sundays.

We walked around the baroque Karlskirche church, completed in 1737. We didn't go in, but it's sure interesting from the outside. Later we walked through a popular street lined with cafes, shops, and street musicians. There are SO many people our age here too, its nice!

Here's the church....


One important thing to note. We came across a group holding a candlelit vigil of sorts, for the people of the Myanmar disaster with flowers and candles laid out all over the ground. It reminded me of the Imagine memorial for Lennon, in New York's Central Park.

Such a sad deal...


(BIG GEAR SHIFT HERE)....After having yet another relaxing dinner in an outdoor cafe:) we headed back to the hotel. The windows were open in our room, but the curtains were blocking anyone from seeing in. While I was sitting on the bed working on my laptop I heard a man sarcastically yell out to a woman, "I"M GUNNA PEE MY PANTS". Being a sarcastic person myself I shouted, "WELL, DON'T PEE YOUR PANTS!!" The man replied with a big fat, "F-YOU". Brooke and I were kinda shocked because he was really....well, pissed at me. Later we found out he had just had an argument with his MISTRESS when he made the comment.

It wasn't for another hour or so until we heard him again. This time he was talking with the woman he had the argument with, right under our first story window!
So naturally we start listening in to their serious talk......We heard comments from him like, "It will be hard at first but she(his wife) will get over it"......."I don't know if I can ever love you enough"......."I don't know what to tell you, I'm 54 and your 21, it's difficult". YES, HE IS 54 AND SHE IS 21. They went on arguing about how they were going to work out their relationship. It sounded like she wanted him all to herself, and he was having a hard time with one little detail.....HIS WIFE. I feel bad for her because she probably has no idea. That was the juiciest ease-drop for us!

* I am posting this on the eve of our return flight home from Athens. Greece is AMAZINGLY COOL. I will possibly do a mega post in Philadelphia, where our layover is. I'll have 11 hours to write and edit pictures, hopefully I can get caught up!

2nd day in Vienna

5.8.08


Today was laundry day, so we slept in ;) When we got up we had to take a subway across town to get to the laundro mat, where we did 4 loads. This place and the place in Italy had weak dryers.....probably on purpose so they don't shrink a bunch of stuff, or so you spend more money on drying the clothes. We loaded up the suitcase with all of our clothes, a few still damp, and headed back to the hotel to drop it off.

After that we walked through an older part of Vienna and a central park that reminded us of New York a little. Vienna is nice because it has a ton of people our age, it's clean, and the buildings are all really old and cool looking.

This evening we craved american food and stopped at a Friday's. American restaurants like that are rare here so when we saw it in on our map and had to eat there.

For dessert we wanted to try the famous Sacher-Torte that Vienna is known for. It's a kind of chocolate cake that was invented by chance in 1832. The chef at the court of Prince Metternich got sick right before they were about to have an important dinner so it was up to the apprentice cook to create a good dessert for them. He came up with the Sacher-Torte. After a lawsuit, the Sacher Hotel is the only company in the world that can call theirs the "Original Sacher-Torte". If it doesn't say "Original", it's not the real deal. It takes 32 steps to make it, and the recipe is locked in an actual safe. To this day, only a few staff have ever seen the recipe!

We also had a coffee with the dessert because the coffee house originated in Vienna (i think coffee beans originally came from Turkey).

This is what Vienna looks like. It's so nice here. Also, excuse the image quality, it was from my little point and shoot camera.

End of Salzburg, start of Vienna

5.7.08

Our second and last day in Salzburg was a short one because we needed to get on the train to Vienna, 3 hrs away. We woke up semi-early, check out of the hotel so they could start cleaning it for the next people, stored our bags with the front desk, and headed out for a few last things to see.

First, we went to the house Mozart was born in, then we visited the house he actually spent most of his childhood/teenage years in. We were able to see some of his pianos, manuscripts, and letters to his family. His dad Leopold, was a successful musician himself who was a hired composer for the courts. You would think his dad was one of those crazy dads that put tons of pressure on their sons to succeeded, but they sometimes had to actually keep Mozart away from the piano or he would play all day. Leopold was smart though and knew his son was incredibly gifted so he did manage and push his early career. Mozart's career started around age 5! After seeing his houses, we went back to the hotel and picked up our luggage. Lunch was at the train station, and off we went on our last train ride on this vacation.

When we got to Vienna we dropped off our luggage and got a restaurant recommendation. I'm glad we did too because we had an amazing Austrian dinner! I had veal goulash and Brooke had beef stroganoff. I would have never thought I would love veal goulash! During dinner we heard people singing in a nearby cathedral. Then we saw a bunch of catholic priests and congregation walk out of the church in the opposite direction from us. We finished dinner and started to walk back but ran into that same group now coming towards us.

We stopped to listen and watch because it was so interesting. I''ve never seen a group of priest and catholics walking down the street holding candles, singing and praying in Latin. As they went by, an older woman came up to us and asked us to join them. She was super nice, and actually reminded me of my 'Nanny' (grandmother). The lady asked if we were catholic, we said no, but she asked us to come along anyway! She explained to us that they were walking through Vienna visiting 7 different cathedrals where they pray, sing along the way, and have a picnic at the end. It sounded cool and we are open to trying new cultures. We got our candles and book with the song lyrics, and started walking! We stuck out like sore thumbs.... two obvious Americans, me with a Mavs cap on and Brooke with a Pasadena California sweatshirt on haha.

I'm pretty sure it was a form of communal liturgy but I'm not sure if they call this particular event something different. It was really interesting how they came together to do this, and I was really impressed with the dedication and unabashed religious display showed.

Mozart's birthplace

Details of 1st full day in Salzburg

I'm behind again on posting....I'll pick up where I left off, the first day in Salzburg Austria.

Also here's a brief update of the day's I haven't posted about yet.... We had 3 nights in Salzburg and 4 nights in Vienna. We also flew down to Athens yesterday, did a tour of Delphi Greece today, and we fly to the Greek Island Santorini tomorrow.

5.6.08

This morning we got up really early to return our rent car and meet our The Sound Of Music Movie Tour bus in downtown Salzburg. I didn't know what to think about this going into it because it seemed like a real girl thing to do. Before we got on the bus we picked up an Austrian breakfast from a little stand/grill that was quite interesting. When we walked up everyone was eating what looked like hotdogs and rolls.... Well they were eating frankfurters and bread, and we thought it must be the thing to do, so we ordered a couple! We liked it, and would order it again too.

Our tour guide was hilarious and sounded just like Jon Lovitz. We drove around most of Salzburg while he gave a good general history of the city as well as pointing out different spots used in the musical Sound of Music. He also gave an interesting background on the movie itself. Germany actually made an accurate movie about the Von Trapp family first, then Hollywood saw the success it had in Germany and Austria, eventually bought the rights, paid off Maria Von Trapp (because Hollywood's version wasn't accurate), and the rest was history. For example at the end of Hollywood's movie, the Von Trapp family was hiking through the mountains towards Switzerland to escape the Nazis when they were actually walking directly towards Germany haha! In reality the family dressed like they were going on a hike but took a train to Italy, boat to England, then flew to America where they settled in Vermont! The Von Trapp family to this day has a hotel open there and still run by an actual Von Trapp. Despite the huge amount of money generated by tourism, Austrians don't like the movie because of it's inaccuracies and because Hollywood pushed their way onto the scene. Many Austrians haven't even SEEN the movie!

We stopped at the famous gazebo, the walkway were Maria skipped/sang down at the beginning (same one the kids hung from the trees), the house they used for the 'frontal shots of the house' (they used a different house for the back view), and the backyard scene with the lake (FYI- the scene when Maria and the kids fall out of the boat, Grettle almost drowned! When you watch it you see her head pop up a little and go back down). Next we drove into the countryside. On the way we stopped in St. Gilgen to take some pictures then drove on to Mondsee. Here we got to go inside the church where they filmed the marriage ceremony from the movie. We also had our first true Austrian apple strudel with vanilla cream in a local cafe! Delicious! We rode back into Salzburg while they played the soundtrack to the movie....that was funny. Several people sang along too.

After the tour we walked around the gardens in town where they filmed the song Do-Re-Mi, a really pretty place. We walked back to the hotel for a break. Brooke fell asleep and I went to speak with management about switching rooms or getting a discount because the vomit smell had gotten worse than the night before. I almost didn't go talk to them but decided to because we were spending a good amount of money to stay there. I started with honey instead of vinegar by being nice, but the hotel ended up being very difficult and changed their story several times throughout this ordeal.

I approached the front desk and asked for the manager. The manager wasn't there so I went over the problem with the lady at the desk. She said they had NO more rooms to offer and also played dumb about the smell and mold above the shower. She said to wait until the manager got back so I sat in the lobby to get online.

I got on the internet to check our credit card account because a hotel in Venice, that we never official booked, was trying to charge us a no show fee. Our travel agent initially tried booking our stay on their website but they emailed him back and said they didn't take American Express. We had found a better place to stay anyways, and let our agent know. He said he emailed them back to tell them forget it, but they say he didn't....which doesn't matter anyway. If you cannot make a reservation with an American Express, how can you charge that same American Express (that you don't take) a no show fee for a non-existant reservation????? I noticed the charge went through online...... those bastards did it. So I called AMEX to start the dispute process. FUN.

Out of no where, and while I was finishing up my call to American Express, the same hotel lady walked up and offered a 10% discount on the smelly room (the price of a meal basically). That was not good enough because I knew they had another room, plus it was about the awful smell and mold not the money.
THEN they said....."Well, we do have another room but not in 'that' price range". I told them that wasn't acceptable and we wouldn't be paying more. I even said we would downgrade rooms just to get away from the horrible odor and mold.
THEN right in the middle of this process they let someone else switch rooms because it wasn't big enough for them!! They catered to their every need...I got nothing but resistance (probably because I'm young).
THEN the lady went back to saying they didn't have ANY rooms available, which made no sense...
I obviously called them out on 'not having any other rooms' because another couple just switched, leaving one open. Management gave in finally. THEN THE TRUTH CAME OUT.
While the manager showed me to new room, she said the odor is a KNOWN problem with particular rooms in their hotel and they are slowly renovating those bathrooms. So they knowingly do this to people! She didn't think it was their fault though because the building is very old and "old buildings have these problems" .....In Venice we stayed in a hotel twice its age, with elevators, without odor or mold.....

She also told me since our travel agent booked the reservation through booking.com, we weren't normally allowed in the main hotel building but only in the sister building with the bad rooms. I didn't know that, but they had to make the situation right and bend that policy. I mean come ON it was gross.

While she was showing me the new room she goes on and on with excuses, and is basically arguing with herself at this point. Once she told me we could move to the better building with elevators, no mold, and no odor, I shut up. She made it out to be OUR problem that we couldn't cope with the odor and mold on the ceiling, instead of owning up to the fact the hotel is behind on renovating known problems and continue to let out the rooms. So I went and woke up Brooke to fill her in on everything. We moved our things over into a smaller, but bounty fresh room with no mold!

The end of the day was very nice though, with a real Austrian meal......Wiener Schnitzel!!! I always thought it was like a bratwurst or something because of the word Wiener but it's pronounced with a "V" not a "We"....so it's not a weeny at all. It's pan fried veal. I WAS WAY OFF. It is served with boiled potatoes and a lemon wedge to squeeze over the Schnitzel. It might sound a little weird but it was SO good! Another great find was a drink called Almdudler (pronounced ALMDOOODLER), made in Austia. It's the the second most popular drink in Austria after Coca Cola and kinda tastes like ginger ale but better. I've already been searching online for importers in Texas :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

We JUST got into Athens and decided to do a little Mother's day video. Moms, we hope you like it.... we know we look goofy, but y'all are worth it!

Correction

Somehow I accidentally deleted a chunk of that last day I wrote about, toward the end of it. I fixed that, along with some of the grammar lol....that's what I get for not proof reading it.

Tonight I will update notes and picture from Salzburg and some of Vienna.

Thanks!

This is the car we rented in Garmisch, Brooke is taking care of the videography over there.

Here is a picture of a picture of the Neuschwanstein Castle we visited. Sorry I didn't have a helicopter to get this shot ;)

The view out of the castle! We drove through that to get here!

This one is mine of the castle.

A picture I took while driving to Austria, out of my window. That's a golf course in the foreground.

Another picture of our Puegeot but top down!

Thoroughly enjoying myself behind the wheel. 6 hours of European driving, parts of it on the Autobahn! Dream come true.

Train stop on the way to Switzerland.

The Jungfrau, highest point in Europe. This was from front of our hotel.

Brooke's reaction to the "Stinky Cheese Fondue"

No this is not us but we vowed to do this when we go back someday.

Another view from near the front of our hotel. I will be contacting Hallmark when I get back ;)

Here is Lauterbrunnen Valley, further up into the Alps from Interlaken. This shows one of the waterfalls cascading into the valley.

That same waterfall

Taken from the window of the train that took us up to the Jungfrau. This is Lauterbrunnen Valley but from above it this time.

Typical Swiss house

Glacier coming off the Jungfraujoch. This is at the train station there, the highest station in Europe.

To put the size of this landscape in perspective, the dots in the red circle are skiers!!! Be sure to click on these pictures to enlarge them so you can see.
Here is the same picture but zoomed in 100%. This is funny to me....In the red circle on the right is SPECK of dust on my lens, just about the size of one of those people.

Awesome train station in Milan

Commercial Milan

This really isn't that great of a picture but I couldn't stop thinking about how it looks each one of those birds have somewhere to go but the people look clueless.

Brooke at the Alla Scalla Opera house.

Cathedral in Milan with the stirrings of May Day going on.

A girl with one of the religious groups dancing to music. It was weird because I just flipped into "photographer mode" and started documenting this group just like I do when I'm shooting a wedding.

Drummers that made that music.

Socialist group, nice guys actually.

These last two are the essence of Milan.

Update of the last 5 of 6 days

Here are a ton of notes but sorry no pictures yet...there are about 25 I will be putting up later but we have to kinda rush and get checked out of our hotel in Salzburg right now.


5.5.08

Today started out to be a bad Monday but turned in to THE BEST AND LONGEST Monday I've EVER had. *Warning this is a long post ;)

This was our only day in Garmisch and was meant to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle "just outside" the city. We were told it was only 20 minutes away by bus but this morning we found out it takes 2 hours each way. This presented a problem because we were supposed to leave this evening for Salzburg Austria and that didn't allow enough time. Riding the bus to the castle, exploring it, and and riding the bus back would have put us in too late to catch the train. It wasn't looking like we couldn't do it. I wanted to see the castle but was prepared to except not seeing it. Brooke really really wanted to see it, and pushed for an alternative. I'm glad she did too! So what did we do?

Yep, we rented a car in Germany! We had to talk it over and weigh it out for about 10 minutes, but decided to go for it. The plan was to drive east to Fussen where the castle is, explore for a couple of hours, then drive back west all the way into Salzburg where we would turn the car in the next morning.

I have never driven outside of the USA but have always dreamed of driving on the AUTOBAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was everything I dreamed it to be, and to my amazement all the rental company asked for was my passport and my driver's license. We got a French made Peugeot 207cc (convertible!), that is not sold in the States. So cool. We packed that little car to the brim with luggage, even with things IN the floor boards behind our seats.

Without any research or training on what the road signs mean, we ventured off. It took us about 30 minutes of wrong turns before we got out of Garmisch and pointed the right direction. As it turned out we started on correct roads the first try, but doubted ourselves and made a few u-turns. It really didn't take that long to get acquainted with the road signs and flow of traffic. Signs are much smaller here so you have to really pay attention. The stop lights are neat too. When you are at a red light, it goes to yellow, then to green giving you a chance to be rolling when it turns green. For me it's kind of like a drag strip starting line with multiple lights going off before the green. Also the green lights start to blink when they are about to go yellow, then to red again.!

The roads here are everything I could've asked for. They are smooth and winding. People are MUCH more educated on how to drive (to get an actual license here you have to pass a test that is so much harder). In Texas, the computer you take the test on just SHUTS OFF when you get a "sufficient" amount of the test correct.....horrible standard. On top of that, people here in Europe treat driving with a greater respect and awareness. You don't see idiots on cell phones or bimbo soccer moms in suburbans doing their make-up. I'm sure it's against the law to do so, but people actually follow the law on the road here.

Once we got out of Garmisch we drove through the countryside of southern Germany and parts of northern Austria. At this point we weren't on the "Autobahn" (which literally just means highway), we were on small country roads with speed limits.

The drive was fantastic and without doubt the coolest place I have ever driven. We wound through little German villages where there are no tourist, just real German life. We made it into Fussen, were the castle is, without a hitch thanks to Brooke navigating with the little map the rental place gave us. For lunch we HAD to have traditional German food after the Asian dinner the night before. We both had bratwurst, potatoes, and beer for lunch at a German cafe in Fussen. It was really really good too! MUCH better than anything we had in Switzerland.

The castle is up on the side of a mountain available either by horse carriage or by a 40 minute hike on foot. For some reason we decided to hike it.....We made it but about collapsed at the top :) This castle was the inspiration for the castle in Disneyworld but SO much more impressive being in the Alps rather than Florida. Everybody has to join a tour with a group of people and a guide to get in the castle, costing around 8 euro each. The guide we had is very hard to describe to do him justice.....

Picture a very thin and boney person, with a blonde boyish haircut, hollow eyes, stood feet together and a little hunched over. We walked up TOTALLY thinking it was a woman with a bad haircut and posture.... We were greeted with high pitched, " Haallow" in a thick German accent. Not until the tour actually started did we see his name tag......Benjamin and realize it was a guy. I was in disbelief.

Benjamin had really funny mannerisms. Slowly turning his head to the right, closing his eyes while bringing one hand close to his mouth point toward the ceiling - just like he always did before speaking - and said, " Now, ve vill start zee tour". I bit my lip to fight laughter and just looked down. Benjamin never turned his head, only his entire body when he went left or right with that hand close to his mound pointed at the ceiling. He was the strangest, nerdiest, little German guy ever and it was perfect for a tour of a castle haha! We were not the only ones fighting laughter. I noticed several others, so I don't feel so bad.

The hike down was much easier and when we got to the car, we decided to put the top down for the cruise to Salzburg because it was a gorgeous day. This is when I found the best driving roads. We headed back west but further north of Garmisch this time, into more country roads. It was the most picturesque, smooth, winding roads. The only thing I could have asked for was say, a Porsche 911 without 200 lbs of luggage haha! But hey, can I really complain? No. I even called home to rub in the fact that I was spending my Monday driving through the Alps in a convertible and they weren't. I just had to do it.

I pulled over and re-taught Brooke how to drive a standard transmission because my next car will probably be a smaller standard trans car, plus she has been wanting to re-learn anyways. She has it on her mind I'm going going to let her drive my future sports cars........Her performance gave me hope. She did pretty well!

Then it was back on the open road with the top down. We eventually hit a major highway, the Autobahn!!!!!! One of my fantasies was coming true. As soon as I drove onto the on-ramp, cars were BLOWING by me at well over 100 mph.....so I nailed it, rowing through the gears!

People on the Autobahn are very aware and always move to the right lane unless they are passing. It is strictly forbidden to pass on the right. This makes high speeds much safer. I was cruising at 150 kph(93 mph) - 190 kph(118 mph ). I WAS FREQUENTLY GETTING PASSED AT THESE SPEEDS < COOL ! I did have the top up and the car would not have gone much, if any faster than about 195 kph. It was such a small car it felt alot faster than 118 mph....Brooke never got freaked out either. We can thank Adolf Hitler for the Autobahn, he was the one who pushed for the completion of it. There really aren't speed limits, only suggestions.

Getting into Salzburg Austria was not too hard at all. We did have a problem with out hotel room. It smelled like total vomit, it was gross! It was also on the 3rd floor and there is no elevator. Brooke was NOT thrilled about smell. I was so tired and happy from the drive I didn't care. The guy that showed us to the room left to check if there was another room but never came back! I later called the front desk and he said he checked and there wasn't another room open. Then he told me to go park my car......nice..... We used their parking garage, aired out the room best we could and went to sleep.

It didn't ruin my day, it was the best Monday ever! I did a total of 6 awesome hours of driving in Europe today........I WILL be back to the Autobahn.



5.4.08

This was the 8 hr train ride day I briefly described from my phone on the train. We traveled from Interlaken to Garmisch Germany. That post from my phone was towards the beginning of the train trip, so I was pretty happy-go-lucky about it....
At about the 5-6th hour ,when we got on a low-end local train that had an air-conditioner that barely worked, with locked windows , and was packed, that when the trip started to DRAG. The 2 little screaming babies didn't help either. We had a little stretch there of bad luck with crying babies on the trains.

We switched trains in Basel, Olm(this was the bad train), Munich, then to Garmisch.
Checked into our little German hotel where the staff wears traditional German clothing and were very nice.

Wandered in the dark to find some German food......accidentally ended up in an Asian/eccletic restaurant! It was actually good though.


5.3.08

Took an hour and a half train to the highest railway in Europe, the Jungfroughjoch at 11,782 feet.

We rode through Wengen, a very cool little village at the top of the cliffs looking over down over Lauterbrunnen Valley. We tried to stay their but most hotels were closed because its the low season.

The train ride up was miserable. There were a ton of a certain race of people that all desperately needed to take a shower and buy deodorant. They would't let us open the window, it was DISGUSTINGLY over powering. Again, there were screaming babies on this train ride too.

We gazed at the mountains and glaciers on top of the Jungfroughjoch center who guarantees snow year round at their station. It was kinda hazy but still had incredible views! We then came back through Grindelwald and look around a bit and went back to Interlaken.

We made the mistake of going into a Swiss chocolate store when we were hungry.....we bought like 4 pounds of chocolate! It made from a little shop outside of Zurich they aren't a reseller of the big name brands like Lindt Chocolate. It's amazing stuff!

Side note: we were on the top floor our hotel and there was something strange going on down the hallway...... There were 50 or so boxes with Arabic writing all over them outside of the rooms, with gaurds 24/7, with walkie talkies (and probably guns) watching over them. It was really strange, who knows.



5.2.08

Got up late, walked around Interlaken for a while. Relaxed, quite town with great views!

Went to a tiny town called Lauterbrunnen about 30 minutes away. It's at the bottom of an enormous valley that has water falls coming down the sides! Stopped at a local pub for a coke. sat outside with the sad pub dog.

Had dinner in one of our hotel's resteraunts, that is traditional Swiss cuisine. I had some kind veal dish and brooke had fish that had the "green fairy" in it....ABSINTHE haha. We have never had that so I'm not sure you could even taste it i the food. This was the only Swiss meal we liked, but not loved. I am not impressed with Swiss food. They are surrounded by countries with great food and what they have come up with pales in comparison. Sorry.


5.1.08

This morning we went inside the duomo in Milan, it has a very gothic style which wasn't characteristic of the time it was built. Being gothic, it was really dark inside and kinda erie, but thats what made it interesting.

There was a May Day rally going on in the square in front of the duomo with some political leader speaking,religious groups celebrating and putting on demonstrations.

We headed out to Interlaken Switzerland after that. Swiss trains are really nice, I think they are newer. We ended up talking to 2 american guys on the train and that was nice to talk to someone who speaks english. They are covering more countries in a shorter amount of time that us, in 3 weeks, not staying in one place more than 1 or 2 nights in hostels.

After train switches in Brig and Speiz, we made it into Switzerland and got to our hotel just fine. We splurged a little on this hotel, it's super nice. It's called the Victoria Jungfrau, a 5 star hotel. Brooke actually found a half price deal online, so it was the price of a nice 3 star.

That evening we walked around town and looked for a Swiss restaurant to eat at. We found one and asked waitress for the best Swiss meal and she recommended the Cheese Fondue. He had noticed the putrid smell of what seemed like stinky feet when we walked in........well as it turns out that's the cheese fondue. She set it down in front of us, we dipped out bread in, and tried it.......VERY bitter! It was no good at all. Brooke took like 3 bites, but I kept eating because I felt bad leaving it. I mean I asked the lady for thier best and everything. So slang for that meal is the stinky cheese fondue.

Others couples came in after us, saw the fondue on our table and ordered it. We watched the grimaces on their faces when they tried it the first time. We laughed about it ;)

So we went back to the hotel and ordered room service. We had a club sandwich haha!

Hang On!

We are in Austria now and loving it. I PROMISE I will update with details and pictures tomorrow morning. We have unlimited Internet access here. Thanks for reading everyone!

"road trip"

I'm blogging from a train on my beloved iPhone right now, just enjoying our long journey to Germany. I know I haven't posted about Switzerland yet, and that's coming but I just wanted to give a brief update. Interlaken was very nice and refreshing....details and pictures coming soon.

We have 8 hrs of train riding today, with 3 train changes. Bern, Basel, Ulm, and Munich are some of the towns we ride through. Swiss trains are by far the cleanest and nicest trains we have been on.

Once you make it on, long train rides are relaxing and alot like a road trips. They are usually quite spacious allowing you to stretch out with your magazines, music, computer, and food... I like kickin back listening to music looking at all of the European landscape.

If our hotel in Garmisch has access I'll upload some pictures. Cya!