Next time...

Well for some reason the computer has stopped allowing us to post pictures. We will try and post images from Florence when we get to Rome...we catch a train at 8:30 tomorrow morning and will be there for 2 days.

Images from Florence

As promised, here are a few pictures from Florence...and we even posted them while we are still here! Pete hasn't taken any pictures since we've been in Florence so the selection is not as good...enjoy! The first image is Pete looking down at me from the staircase up to our hotel...pretty neat, the stairs are made out of stone and it smells like a basement. 2: This is what the street looks like after the market...trash everywhere. 3: Interesting window display...space suit anyone? 4: Us eating some yummy gelato (while waiting in line like we mentioned earlier today). 5: Pete sitting on the side of the river with the Old Bridge in the background

More Florence...

Day 2 started with blogging at the Internet cafe, followed by pizza at a small Pizzeria. After that, we got more gelato and headed to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David....which is AMAZING! So much bigger and better in real life...we were going to attempt a photo, but after seeing others get cursed out in Italian we opted to pass. Sorry guys! By the way, the gelato was fabulous as always, and makes a museum line bearable.



We walked through some open air markets (just to look due to such a tight budget). Speaking of markets, Florence has AMAZING stores! It's hard to walk by the window displays and not go in the stores (for me more than Pete). They have every kind of high end fashion imaginable.



One nice thing about our hotel is the free cappuccino and chocolate filled croissants in our room each morning! To get into our hotel we have 3 keys...which open 3 BIG doors...this makes us feel safe. Florence is not what we expected...we will explain when we get home. But, one thing is for sure...watch for pick pocketers!



Last night (night 2) we enjoyed a FABULOUS dinner! The sign outside said free cover and one free drink for students...most European restaurants charge around a 4 Euro service fee just to sit down. So...they won us over with such a great deal! We had a great Greek salad with fresh mozzarella and veggies, a great house wine, and a brick oven pizza with basil and eggplant...and course bread with oil and vinegar. Delizioso!



Again with the budget, because pizza is splittable and cheap we have found ourselves eating lots of it! By the time we get home, we should be pizza connoisseurs :)



We plan on visiting the Uffizi and climbing the Duomo before the day is through. We are about to go across the street to a grocery store and pick up some picnic goodies. Finally caught up on our blogging...feels good. Until next time, Ciao!

Florence

Well we are getting close to being caught up on our blogs...minus a few videos we still hope to post. But we are currently enjoying our last day in Florence. Let's jump back to day one.

Our first priority in Florence was LAUNDRY! You can only wash your underwear in the sink so many times before the stink won't wash off...haha. Fortunately, we were only a few minutes from a laundry mat...it sure makes you appreciate having a washer and dryer in your home! Goal 2 was to buy/reserve our train tickets to avoid another situation like the one we encountered from Paris to Interlaken! Got the tickets...avoided the long lines by learning how to use the electric kiosk on our own...YAAAY!


After taking care of business, we researched some local eateries within our very tight budget and found a local Italian restaurant (trattoria). The food, spaghetti with marinara and ravioli with cheese and spinich, bruscetta (however you spell it...you get the idea) was probably some of the best we ever had! We would have stepped out of the box and experimented a bit more, but due to grumpy waiter's lack of English and our lack of Italian vocabulary we decided to play it safe by pointing to what others were eating! After our Indionnesian experience and knowledge that that locals enjoy pig brains and horse meat we were thankful our meal didn't include either.





After our meal...we found a gelato stand that came highly recommended in our guide book. Gelato is famous in Florence, however we have found it to be fabulous in every town so far. Pete actually likes the gelato in Paris best so far...and I was a huge fan of the watermelon gelato in Bruge. They say to get the full experience you need to blend different flavors...but Pete ALWAYS gets the strawberry as one of his picks. While enjoying our gelato we walked across the old bridge, Ponte Vecchio, where a man played classical guitar for all the people to enjoy...It was magical and so romantic! Too bad we didn't bring our cameras to capture the moment.





Speaking of capturing moments...It's been difficult to take photos in this town, between the narrow sidewalks and KILLER scooter drivers! You really have to watch out for these guys as you cross the street...they don't seem to care if the light is red and seem to enjoying speeding up as you attempt to cross the street! So far, we've only lost a toe...just kidding! Don't worry mothers, we have been super precautious :)

On top of Sacre Couer

A few random thoughts...

Europeans love American music...everywhere we go you hear it...from the radio, to bars, to live music. We actually heard the Hanson Brothers in a bar, and street performers singing Sweet Home Alabama...it's a nice reminder of home. Makes us proud!

Another thing...Obama is a SUPERSTAR over here...he's everywhere! He's on tshirts, hats, posters, tabloids, and we even saw a live performer painting a picture of him at the Pompido Museum (the modern art museum we spoke about in a previous blog).

The image is not very good, we had to snap it fast so the merchant wouldn't yell at us...but if you look closely you can see a poster for sale of Obama transposed on the Statue of Liberty. This was shot on our way to the internet

cafe in one of the open air markets.

Pictures from Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Incase you are confused by the title...we stayed in Interlaken, which is a base camp to enter the mountains. Gimmelwald sits up in the Swiss Alps and 3 train rides, a bus ride, and a lift away from Interlaken. Basically, you sleep in Interlaken and play in the mountains.

Gimmelwald is the most beautiful place we have ever seen...straight out of the movies Heidi and the Sound of Music, and yes at one point we broke with "the hills are alive with the sound of music"...you can see God's work in this place. The town has a saying, "If heaven isn't all it's cracked up to be...take me back to Gimmelwald."

Once we arrived mountain side, we began our hike with a short trip through the small village...sounds of cow bells and farmers working their hay echoed down the hillside. Before we left home we printed out several hiking trails...we chose an easy one which was about 1.25 hours each way. Of course with all our stops to take pictures and soak in the scenery it took about 2.5 each way. Half way through the hike, we found a beautiful spot in the valley where we took a break and had a lovely picnic. We have a video that we hope to post, but just incase...the picnic included a loaf of fresh baked bread, salami, edam cheese, yogurt, plums, and bar of Swiss milk chocolate for desert. As we set down to enjoy this picnic, a wild mountain goat came up for a closer look to see what was on the menu...but Pete got a big rock and promised to protect me, luckily he didn't have to use it. Also...at one point during our hike, the trail narrowed to about 3 feet wide, was very rocky, with a drop about 100 ft on one side directly into the swirling rapids below...pretty scary! It was such a great experience...we regret not alloting more time for this place. You could spend weeks here...if your budget allowed (getting to the mountains is pricey).

There are some hostels and resorts in the mountains, but you have to book them ahead of time. The town of Interlaken was very laid back. Our hostel was nice and the people were really helpful...and they make a mean Sangria :)

Road Bumps to Switzerland

Originally we had planned for 2 days in Interlaken, Switzerland. However, we failed to reserve our train tickets ahead of time...and almost got stuck in Paris another night. The man at the ticket booth told us there were no seats leaving that day, but luckily we have 1st class Eurail Passes and when he saw this, he altered his search and found a PRICEY ticket that included 5 trains and 4 changes...but it was music to our ears (we would have had to pay for another room in Paris plus the room in Switzerland we already reserved). We arrived at the train station approximately 12:00 and arrived in Interlaken at 24:00...fortunately the walk to the hostel was safe and short. Thank goodness for first class tickets...the image shows Pete with our many tickets!

A Few More Pictures from Paris

From top to bottom, left to right: 1. Moulin Rouge 2. In front of Sacre Couer 3. Inside the Louve 4. Night Picnic under the Eiffel Tower 5. Behind Notre Dame

Once again...

Sorry guys, but once again we are going to have to finish this later. It takes so long to upload pictures and video that it's hard to get anything done. We have been at the internet cafe for 2 hours now and have only got these few posts...as much as we would like to stay and get caught up...Florence is waiting. They stay open late though, so we will try and come back tonight to upload more pictures. Until next time...Cioa!

Paris Day 2

This is a small clip just before we entered the Louve. I wan't to start the video over but Pete wouldn't let me...he said it was cute (whatever). FYI: I'm typing but Pete is sitting next to me, editing as I type. After walking so much the first day, we took my brother A.J.a's advice and decided to use public transportation...definitely worth the money! We arrived at the Louve and began our tour of this massive museum....it would be impossible to view everything in one day so we hit the highlights (still took a few hours)...which mainly reside in the Denon wing. We saw paintings from Titian, Giotto, and of course Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. So many other master's works but not enough time to name them all...wish we could post all the pictures Pete took. From the Louve we caught a bus to Sacre Couer and climbed up to the dome...the view was magnificient. It seems like every place we go we climb some sort of tower or dome which has a minimum of 200 steps!

Ok, well as we are typing we are realizing that our timeline may be a little off, but the experiences are all the same. Sorry if it gets confusing or out of order. We are running out of time for Paris...so in a nutshell, we also: had a night time picnic on the lawn under the Eiffel Tower, picniced there again the following day for lunch (unfortunately we had to throw away our leftovers to enter a museum), we also saw Modern art at the Pompidou...which I loved and Pete thought it was "a bit strange"...except for some Picassos and a few other works. Saw Notre Dome, didn't climb due to a line that was about 2 miles long! The last night we went down Pigalle and saw the Moulin Rouge.

A few key things about Paris: People were friendlier and more helpful then the stereotypes led us to believe. They drive like maniacs...but not as bad as here in Florence. Such a beautiful time, we were there only 3 days and you would need a lifetime, or atleast a week to see it all!

Paris Day I

Well we can't figure out how to rotate these images with the programs we have avaliable...oh yeah that reminds me (Loren...I'm typing) that the computers are set in their language so we can't read any of the commands and the keyboards are different. But anyway, here are a few pictures from our fist day in Paris...which was great! The people were a lot nicer than we expected. So, when we arrived of course as you all know by now we dropped off our heavy bags at our hotel...which was very small but lovely. The shower was probably the smallest so far...don't drop the soap unless you can pick it up with your feet...haha. We started our self guided walking tour through Paris...walked by the Louve (freakin HUGE), continued down Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe...what a lovely stroll. You can't imagine how big the Arc is until you are actually standing under it...you have to go through a tunnel to get to it...very neat. From there...we walked to the Eiffel Tower. We found the shortest line and waited to buy our tickets...it wasn't until we bought them that we realized we had to climb the stairs instead of riding the lift. Wow, what a climb it was...trying to keep up with Pete's pace was exhausting! We decided that the 2nd level view was good enough for us (also cheaper). The first picture is a view from the second level...gorgeous with the setting sun. Fortunately, we were able to ride the lift back down where we met a couple from Georgia on the last night of their honeymoon...they gave us some great tips. One of which was to see Sacre Coeur, a basillica that rests of the highest point in Paris. All in all, we walked about 15- 20 miles our first day in Paris.

Picnic at the Eiffel Tower (Day 2)

We have lots of videos, and we just figured out how to load them...the only problem is it takes about 30 minutes to load each one...we will try to get them all on eventually. This video is from our second night in Paris.

On the go...

We just wanted to say sorry for not posting in a few days, but we have been SO busy and time seems to fly by. We are trying to pack so much activity into each country. Since we last posted, we've spent 3 days in Paris, 2 in Switzerland (1 day travel 1 day sightseeing), and 1.5 days in Florence. Locating internet cafes is not as easy as we had hoped...we have had internet access where we have been staying, but no computer...and the blogspot is not compatible with Pete's phone (as we hoped it would be). Please bare with us...we have lots to share.

Belgium Bound...

We woke up early and made the train to Belgium with no problems. Arrived in Bruge around 12:00, found the hostel where we were staying...small delay...room wasn't ready. Fortunately, the hostel had a bar/restaurant connected to it...enjoyed a pizza and a complimentary Belgium beer sampler. Very good!

After settling in, we packed a day bag and set out to explore Bruge. We climbed the Belfry, a very old monistery with a very tall bell tower...what a view. Then we rented bikes to escape the tourist trails and get lost in the backroads and parks of Bruge. Great idea, it's been one of our best experiences yet. We had so much fun getting lost that we didn't realize until about 19:30 that the chocolate stores had already closed (It doesn't get dark here until 22:30). We went to bed early to rest up for the journey ahead.

Where we left off...

Well last time we posted we were headed to try Indonesian, which was at one time a Dutch colony...and is now apart of the culture. Well, we tried it...and it will be the last time we ever do! We received what would amount to a sampling dish, of about 12 small dishes served with white and yellow rice (you add coconut to the white). Unfortunately, there wasn't a dish that we enjoyed. We barely put a dent in the VERY EXPENSIVE meal. It was definately a learning experience we will never forget...but you never know unless you try.