Saturday in Heidleberg!

Today the plan was to finish up the shopping and then head up to the castle, "Have fun stormin the castle!" (Princess Bride). We had nutella, peanut butter, graham crackers, toast, and cherries (yum)!

This is a picture of Julia's Mad Med chip and dip bowl, and Ritter candy bars!

Over breakfast we talked about the drinking and smoking in Germany - tons of smoking, just like Italy. And the drinking age is 16, but the driving age is 18, so when you're riding the bus or train you'll encounter large groups of teens drinking and frolicking. They say lots of people getting drunk on public transportation. But not a lot of trouble with drinking and driving. It takes a lot to drive here - you have to have classes that cost thousands of Euro, and then the license itself costs over a thousand Euro. So by the time you drive, you respect it more.

And in order to open a business here you have to be a master in whatever business. So you can't just decide to open a bakery or sell some windows - you have to apprentice, work your way up and become a certified master. It ensures the quality of the goods and services here.

Yesterday Julia introduced us to this great antibiotic cream made in France - they received it from the apothecary (almost as good as a doctor here), when one of the kids scrapped up their leg (large are of concrete burn) - put on this cream and the next day, CURED. So the Murphy's call it Jesus cream - it heals whatever it touches. We bought some to take home. :)

We got ready and headed out to tie up loose shopping ends - got some T-shirts with the German sayings that Joe and Flower helped us translate (I would tell you what they said but then I'd have to kill you)- found a few things at the Christmas store - and mailed our postcards. Julia has a strict policy on postcards, you get them the first day of the trip and send them so that they're on their way. You also keep a postcard log by city - list below who you sent postcards to. We haven't been that organized, we are studying at the knee of the master, clearly.

As we go along the Hauptstrasse again I think I've finally got a full grasp on the periods and commas related to Euros. It was strange at first because they use commas where we use periods. So instead of $2.50 its €2,50 ... And instead of commas, they use periods, So not $100,000 - its €100.000 - that looks the strangest to me, like the put an extra zero on $100.00. Also there are lots of sale signs here, but they don't say things like "40-50%" off... they just say "%"... odd. Come in, we have percent off!

We see a few signs for "iced drinks" and we laugh - the pictures are of frozen drinks. So the only way you get ice in your drink here is if its crushed and blended in. The street signs make us laugh too - streets are Strasse (or straBe), but alleys or smaller streets are Gasse... So we have several versions of streets about gasse. My favorite is the Mitellbadgasse.. OH, and passages for entering or exiting are Farhts! An entrance is an Enfarht... An exit is an Ausfarht. Now come on. We may be 13 mentally, but that's a little funny to every American, right?

We head to the very end of the Hauptstrasse for our second doner in two days. This is the place that Julia calls "The Man". He laughed at us a little because we didn't speak German, but it was cute - he was bemused, not mocking. If you order something at the counter, but eat in, you don't pay until after you finish. It feels weird. So then after you're done you go up and tell them what you had. John says that its because if you eat in, maybe you'll add drinks or get something else. Man, those things are filling! We're convinced we'll never be hungry again.

We wanted to go to the backerei (backery) to get some "apple purses" for dessert for the Murphys - they said they were incredible... The germans certainly know what to do with an apple. The bakers have no idea what we're talking about when we ask for apple purses... Apples pockets?... Blank stare. We huddle and confer - maybe strudel means purse? We opt for the strudel. Dinner will be grilled chicken salad - but we're so stuffed, we're thinking maybe a bowl of cereal and strudel.

We headed back to Murphy Central to drop off packages and the strudel - and then we head back out to go check out the castle (Kasse). We got the combination ticket which says that its a ride and the castle entry - we thought it would be cool to see the views from the very top and then come down and see the castle. Its a tram ride up - and there are three stops: the castle, the middle and the top. So we decided to go all the way up first - and at the middle we have to transfer trains. We get out and put our ticket in... Red light and buzzzzz - again, and again... We're confused. Turns out the combo is just a ride to the castle, and the entrance to the castle - we weren't even authorized to go to the middle, but the guy let us down for free. I think the confusion happen often.

The castle is cool - very castley, and great views of the town below. Got pics and we are beat...

Back to Murphy Headquarters to chill. The world cup is on tv, but not our game - and once its over we have two hours to kill before US plays. We put in Mad Men - Julia is more than a little disappointed in us for not watching it. After a couple of episodes and our solemn pledge to Julia that we will continue to watch it - its time for dinner. And we were wrong, we are hungry.

John provided this incredible spread - better than many salad bars... And American dressing (ranch, blue cheese, peppercorn)... Boiled eggs, peas, cucumbers, 2 kinds of cheeses and the most amazing seasoned chicken. We dug into the strudel.

By this time the game was on, but when we turned it on the US was already down one. Dang! But we also have a free jazz concert right under our windows in the church parking lot. Julia says this happens one day out of the year, and we're lucky we're here. It was great! Windows open to a great cool breeze, world cup on tv, jazz, blues and standards sung in English playing below - great view... What more could you want? Great way to end the day.

Old friends! Friday June 26th

It's good to see old friends and reconnect. We're staying with the Murphys now and they've taken us in like we're family. I didn't get this blog in last night because we didn't have much down time yesterday, no long train rides to make shorter by typing away.

The first night that we arrived we were greeted with comforts of home... American television (in ENGLISH!), diet coke (the real stuff, not this European Coca-light stuff), and INTERNET (I was twitching just a little). We watched "In Plain Sight" (Patti loves that show) and chatted about our plans for Heidelberg until 1am. It had been a really long day for us the day before, so we were beat and slept in this morning.

Amy and Dana slept in Julia's office with a foldout couch (comfy), and Patti and I stole Joe's room with two twin beds. Our room overlooks the river (neckar) with the green hills in the background and little German town below (makes me want to break into song... "The Hills are Aliiiiiiiive... ").... BUT just when you think that's a spectacular view (that the pictures can not do justice, btw) - you go to the other side of the house and look out those windows, and there a a MASSIVE castle looking down at you. We can't decide which view we enjoy more.

John made these incredible scrambled eggs with mushrooms and jalopenos and EVERYthing in them - another comfort of home - Patti has missed eggs, the Italians do pastries and fruit, no eggs, nothing like the good English breakfast. But someone Julia knows makes this amazing strawberry perserv We all slept in a little (about 8ish or a little later) and then took our time coming to life. We had to get Amy to the train station by 11:30, and on the walk there and back Julia made sure that we had our pics with the castle and area landmarks. We said goodbye to Amy - and crossed our fingers that she made it Bremen on her own. She's a world traveller, she'll be fine... but we won't see her again until we fly back.

Heidelberg is an amazing little town - it was one of the few towns that was not effected at all by bombings during World War II. Julia says that it's because Hitler made a deal, he wouldn't bomb Oxford, if we didn't bomb Heidelberg - she has seen pics of the era, the same buildings that are standing today, covered in huge Nazi flags; and there are memories of the war everywhere (if you know). The building where the SS officers stayed, the theatre where Hitler held ceremonies and gave speeches. There is an outline of a Jewish syangogue that was burned in 1939 and then the members were forced to pay for or do the labor for tearing down the rest of the "eyesore". The outline shows where the walls stood, they found the foundation, and a stone memorial is placed where the Ark stood. We see a lot of guided walking tour groups as we go through the city.

So besides the history and the castle (we're going up to that tmw), and the Alte Bruke (old bredge) - the major attraction in Heidelberg is the Hauptstrasse, a very long stretch of shops and markets. The plan today was to just make our way down the Hauptstrasse (the ss is the big B character, but I don't have it on the keyboard, so I'm using the sound) - and Julia was giving us some pointers before sending us on our way. She showed us the Josef Seibel shoe store, aptly called The European Comfort Shoe. Patti has heel spurs, so our trek across Europe has taken a toll - she bought some new shoes that were very comfortable (and still way cute)!

We started off at the Church in the center of town, this is at one end of the stretch of markets, and this is where you'll find the most kitchy stuff - if you want something that says Heidelberg, this is your place. You can tell what the cities are known for by their kitchy souvenirs, we've seen quite a few and there are some standards (like the shopping bag that just has the name of the city you're in a some different languages all over it) - the shot glasses, thimbles, spoons, magnets... but there is always something a little different. Here, what we see are hedgehogs (and later when we ask Julia, she has no idea why), spinning carousel displays powered by the heat of candles (do they have a name for those?), cowbells (hmmm), cuckcoo clocks (even cute cuckoo clock magnets that make noise, and we found one with a crucifix as the pendulum... wow), and everything Christmas. Apparently this is like Christmas city - they have little trees with mini-ornaments, and stores filled with every kind of ornament imaginable. This town is crazy for Christmas - and I see why, add a little snow and this looks like the perfect picture postcard of those scenes we see on Christmas cards.

We're getting a little peckish after our trip around the church, and we know that we want to get a döner today (the o has the oomlats, but I don't have that, so I copied and pasted from the net.. cool) - they smell incredible. We saw one at the bus station when we went to Dachau, but we didn't know what it was... after Julia told us, we knew we needed one, and after eating one, we know that we'll need another one tomorrow. They're similar to a gyro - but the German version... with coleslaw and different mystery white sauce, and in an open toasted pita pocket. YUM. We also had our pommes (sounds like hummus, which are fries, and our cokes with no ice)

The Haupfstrasse is loooong - and it took us a few hours just to walk it, plus ducking our head in the shops. There is a wide variety of stores, definitely some things that are meant for tourists, but Julia says that we'll also see the locals in many of the shops, because these are just the shops of the town, so grocery stores, clothing, kitchen wares, electronics, cool gadgets, and one HUGE Christmas store ... there was one store that was Japanese owned (we guessed by the labels that in three languages, German, English and Japanese), and it was confirmed when one of the walking tours, full of Japanese tourists was lead through the shop. I guess it's nice to be able to support Japanese owned businesses, even while abroad.

We bought a few things for ourselves and others to take back, but we made sure to pick up some Ritter bars. Ritter bars are like the German hershey bar, except with a lot more variety, and with German chocolate. They have them with everything under the sun in them - even corkflakes. Julia had a sample pack and we tried some over breakfast. We're taking back as many as will fit in our rapidly expanding luggage.

We came back to the apt - and it's a lovely apt, two levels, big rooms... gorgeous! Relayed our day to Julia, and we had Joe and Flower (the two kids still at home) help us with some German translations. I wanted to buy a shirt that had something German on it instead of one of those "I went to Heidelberg" shirts - but of course we don't know what any of them say. Joe and Flower are going to school here and they're picking up the language much quicker than Julia - so they have no problem telling us what the shirts say (we took pics to bring back to put into Babelfish, but there was so much slang that babelfish didn't really get it).

Dinner was an event! We knew we wanted more German food, and Julia knew just the place - they take all their out of town guests there, and its just as much for the atmosphere as the food. The tables are long wooden plank tables that seat a minimum of 8 people, so with only 3 of us there was a good chance we were going to be sharing a table, but it didn't happen. First came this incredible salad plate, with a little green salad in the middle, and then vinegar salads of carrots, onions, cucumbers, cabagge, and potato salad.... I ordered the Jagersteak (pork steak with a stroganoff type mushroom sauce) and egg noodes (spatzle). There were a few words on the menus that weren't translated into English - they would have the full German, Yagersteak mit spatzle (it was longer, but I didn't write it down) - and then they have the English below, "Pork steak with mushroom cream sauce and SPATZLE" with no indication what a spatzle was. There were a few words like that - its like, I could almost figure out everything else, and the one word in which I really need a translation for, doesn't have one. Easily solved, we asked the waitress. Anyway, Patti got the ham and cheese snitzeil (another word that isn't translated, and we didn't ask because we thought that it meant like a hot pocket type thing)... well sort of, we learned later that it's like a hot pocket, but a pork steak is the pocket instead of bread. So she had a pocket of fried pork with ham and cheese inside. Like a pork cordein blue. And Dana was still craving kraut and sausages - they also came with yummy mashed potatoes - and one sausage was like a brat, but the other came as like a big hamburger sized sausage patty that looked like a slice off of a big loaf of meat. All were quite tasty - and with our beer (no liter this time) - we left very full.

Ok so, the atmosphere! WOW! There is this little guy that plays the piano, and he sat right by our table. He starts playing and we think, oh great, lovely background music, this is what Julia was talking about. THEN as if rehearsed, the whole place erupts into song, singing along to whatever tune he plays... they all know them, and they're REALLY into it. You know those movies with everyone sings together and swinging their beer steins with arms flung over each other's shoulders?? We were in the middle of one, and couldn't join in. We did recognize one song, "Roll out the Barrell" - and we sang along in English. :) One lady was really getting into it, pointing at everyone to the beat of the music, swaying and singing in full voice.. Songs just went from one, straight into another and they all joined in without missing a beat - and if they wanted a particular song played, they didn't send a request up like we might - no, you just start singing it very loudly and the piano player will join in! After we heard Roll out the Barrel, we figured it was old folk like standards that everyone knows - like if we were to play Oh Suzannah or Row, Row, Row your boat, everyone could join in. We were going to trying to start our own song of Oh Suzannah, or even "Take me out to the Ballgame"... ok, not really. ;)

We got back to the apartment and showed Julia the video of everyone joining in song and she was delighted that we got to have that experience. She also had more plans for us - a trip to the old bridge and our Heidelberg photo shoot. We walked up to the bridge, got great views of the castle and the river (neckar), and we saw the monkey. There is a bronze statue of a babboon - and its bottom faces the entrance to the bridge, so if you were coming across the bridge into Heidelberg, you would first see the babboon's backside. She said that this was a message to enemies to try and scare them... ooohhh... but the front of the monkey also has a story. The face is formed kind of like a mask, and if you stick your head up there and touch the unidentifiable round thing in his hand, you'll get pregnant. Patti and Dana did it, so be looking for those shower invitations in the mail. The bridge isn't called the Old Bridge for nothing... it's OLD! On the side of the bridge is markings carved into the brick from past floods, year and where they were on the bridge - one is from 1784!

Long night... exhausted... we ended it by relaxing with the fam and watching NCIS. Good times.

Munich!

Last night was interesting. My bunk squeaked with every jiggle of the train, so once we were fairly certain that we were the only 4 in the compartment, I switched to a middle. Easier to get into, but less space and more claustrophobic - but no squeaks. Before I moved down I was on the same level as Patti - I had drifted to sleep for a second (while waiting for the blog to upload actually), and Patti scratches my wrist and tickles it, I JUMP!!! I scream! "Why are you trying to be a RAT!? You scared me!!". And then we both laughed at me.

We hit a station and the train shuts down - all the lights go out inside, and the air vents shut off. Not good. We open the door to let in some air - we assume we're at the Austrian border and they're checking our passports with the manifest. They took our passports when he checked tickets and said we would get them back in the morning. He would wake us up 30 min before arriving in Munich.

We arrive at the train station, and we are definitely not in Italy anymore, Toto...Culture shock all over again - we have to learn new words for things, new processes and ways of doing things. Its all German to us... We're all stiff from the train. We review the German we know to get ready for the day, and we keep adding to it as we think of more (none of these are spelled correctly, it will be painful if you know even a little bit of German) - Gutentàg, Dankashein, Wilkommen, Nein, Ja, Lederhosen, Ich bein ine Berliner, Ich Liebe dich, Kindergarton, Afvertesane, Actung!... Amy says "chews"... We're confused, but she insists its an informal expression like Ciao. (We also hear a lot of germans using ciao as goodbye.). Amy is reviewing this now and going into elaborate pronunciations of the "correct way" to say it... She says its spelled more like "tsjuice" - but when she says it, it still sounds like "chews" to us.

We eventually find the way to Dauchau - after asking a few people that point and say something German - we walk in that direction until we find a new person to ask and she tells us how to get to the subway. We actually almost miss the train, but Dana holds it by sticking her hand in so that the doors re-open. Our hero!

Its 9:00am and we're at the Dachau train station. We have 30 min before it opens, and there is a McDonalds, so we stick our head in - they don't have the breakfast menu - they're serving fries and burgers at 9am. Patti and Amy have a Doppel-Cheeseburger and I have a McChicken just to get something in our stomachs. We have sodas with no ice. And again, teenagers are swarming it - universal tastes. The bathroom costs 50cents, but we just keep the door open for the next person to get in - the tp is the color and consistency of the old Big Chief tablets that we used to get for school. Hmmm.

Dachau opens at 9:30. Walking tour or bus? We decide to walk, they have a memorial walk that traces the steps of prisoners from the train station, and there are pieces of info on signs as we go. I always had that image of the train going directly into the camp - but most prisoners were actually forced to walk over 3km to the camp. We find out this info on the second sign.. Already started our walk and we realize that we are also walking 3km. It was a good walk - I'm glad we did it. Very educational. Here are our directions... If you don't know how to pronounce them - no worries, they sound just like they're spelled. What I have written as capitol "B" is actually a loopy character that resembles a B to us - but its pronounced with a "sssh" We laughed a lot at our horrible German - we stopped trying to relay street names to each other and just started trying to match the written names to the street signs:::

Go down Fruhling straBe (so it sounds like Strasha)
Rt on Schleibheimer straBe
Left on FriedenstaBe straBe
Right on Sudetenland straBe
Left at jfk plaza (yes, our JFK)
Strabe der KZ-opfer straBe

We get to Dachau, get an audio guide and walk around. They have a couple of barracks with bunks reconstructed, and the original foundations of all the others stretch out behind them. The guard towers still watch over, there are remnants of the train tracks that went into the camp that were unearthed, and a massive sculpture that in meant to look like emaciated people and barbed wire at the same time. The crematorium is still standing, and the ovens still there. You can walk through the gas chamber, although these weren't used for mass killings like the ones at Auswitz - no one is sure why. The most amazing fact that I learned that I had never heard was that there was a "brothel" (their word) on the grounds, where the women were forced to try and procreate to create more laborers for the future of the slave workforce.

Most amazing to all of us is the number of frolicking groups of teenagers that don't seem to grasp where they are. They pose with cute smiles against the bunk beds, "now you take one of me" - I imagine them showing their friends and saying, "and this cute shot is of me next to the beds where hundreds of men slept in a space designed for 50..."

We take the bus back - the 3km walk was nice at 9am - its now the peek of the day and the sun is beating down pretty good. We're ready to get happy again and get some food. The Hofsbrauhaus can help with both.

Hofsbrau is this huge German beer hall. The entertainers consist of yodelers, cloggers, bell ringers, and polka bands. Today we have the band. There are large wooden tables filling the hall in lines - we find one and order our beers. We're all a little surprised that Dana is also ordering a beer.. It isn't until the head sized mugs filled with a liter of beer is set down in front of her that she realizes what we ordered. :). But its all good - she drank it all, and we took pics to prove it to the folks back home.

After 2 weeks straight of Italian food, we're ready for a change - the Germans eat hearty meals, meat and potato (and potato dumpling) meals. Dana is dying for a braut and saurkraut - and I must say she ordered well. The saurkraut is much sweeter than what we're used to, there is no bite at the base of you jaw. Very smooth flavor. After leaning over to check out the dishes being delivered to the neighboring table, Amy asked our waiter to show her in the menu what each thing was - our waiter looks like Dr. "Owen" on Grey's Anatomy - really (but we didn't get a good pic).

Amy decided on crispy pig and potato dumplings - they're an odd texture, but her "pig" was good. I'm a potato girl, and I was looking forward to them - but they were gelatinous and spongy with an unidentifiable after taste. Patti had Bockwurst and potato salad - its a smoked sausage (good!), and the potato salad wasn't like any "German potato salad" I've ever had - Patti says her mother used to heat theirs up - this was served warm and was yummy. I had boiled beef (Bavarian style) and potatos (kind of like pot roast). It felt good to have options other than fish or pasta. We had pretzels with mustard and finished it off by sharing two servings of apple struedel. Great meal!

We had been watching our time because we wanted to see the Glockenspeil at 5:00. Its a HUGE clock in the center of town, and at 11, 12, and 5 the figures in the clock dance. We got there at 25 til and found a spot - time flew by and the show was spectacular. There were two figures on horses who jousted, and the crowd gasped when one of them was knocked back on his horse. It lasted for about 5 or 6 minutes ... And we headed down the steps to the nearby subway stop to try and catch a 5:40 train to Heidelberg (through Stuttgart). We had to take the subway back to the train station, get our bags out of the "box" (its apparently a universal symbol) - and find our train... And we did it! So proud of us. We're ready for the Amazing Race. (Not). The German countryside is beautiful - green mountains with red roofed villages in the valleys below.

The first train was crazy crowded - we had to stand for a while until people got off at other stops. Now we're on the second train headed to Heidelberg and the Murphy Clan!! This whole trip came out of Julia's insistence that we come visit her, and it grew into this enormous adventure from there. It will be almost 10pm here before we arrive - we can't wait to see Julia, get her tour of Heidelberg, and have a huge (authentic American) diet coke with lots of ice.

But sadly for us this also means we'll splitting with Amy until we fly home. She's heading up to Bremen to visit Mirium, the exchange student she hosted - and her son Linus who is now 5 and can't wait to meet Oma Amy face to face.

I thought we were done for the day, but I am not. Its now 1am here and we've gotten a full briefing from Julia - the Murphy's couldn't be more gracious hosts. Joe has given up his bedroom for us - Julia has given us language lessons and a brief lesson of the area. We had an early start and a restless sleep last night, and a late night tonight - so we're looking forward to a slow start tmw, and exploring Heidelberg!

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Last Day in Italy

We were awoken to sounds of dogs this morning - or rather sea gulls that were barking and whining.

Breakfast is bananas, apples and croissants, all with nutella - Nutella has been the thread through our travels - we're thinking of calling it "European Vacation: Nutella Tour" - we need shirts.

Over breakfast we're listening to the radio; we have a teeeeny tv with an antennae that Ricardo apologized for, but we told him we wouldn't understand it anyway - no worries. Amy treats us to her breakfast dance - we see Amy's future. She'll be the old lady shakin her stuff alone on the dance floor that everyone thinks is cute.

The music mix on the radio is odd - mix of italian, spanish and English - pop and jazz and hispanic caliope... The song playing now says "She's a monster, beautiful monster, but I don't mind, no I don't mind" - its Amy's new favorite. From there it goes to the theme of The A-Team with house music remix, and and remake of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with a male singer, "Girl I'm just trying to have fun - You know you're You're still number one, girl I'm just trying to have fun, now" - And now I need a hero from Footloose - Let it Be... And a funky song "This is your invitation to the dance floor" that gets Patti singing along.

As we get further along our starts are slower and later and our "nights" end earlier... But that's a good pace for us. We're still trying to find time to just be and relax. We head out about 10:30, but we're stopped about a block from the apt at this beautiful Murano glass shop. We all get some baubles, and Amy has some shipped home. I'm attaching some pics of it - we wanted to get more than we did. It was a dangerous store.

We're walking the city today - and its a maze. Streets are randomly marked - so we just wander and hope we'll find something cool. We're heading in the general direction of a church that takes up a large space on the map - so its worthy of visiting.

We stop for lunch at this cheap place that says pizza and coke for 3Euro - It was a NYC style slice of pizza and it tasted a little like home. We've noticed that the food in Venice isn't as much about the food as it is in other places we've visited, its about being fast and convenient. You can spot a Venetians, they're the ones that walk past you going three times as fast with annoyed looks on their faces. Food is here is sandwiches, pizza and Riccardo says the natives go to a Bachassa (?) - its like a "small plates" place that serves red wine with your meal. Very fast. We saw one and there was a crowd of Italians out the door.

There are many covered wells here - we found one that we think is the hatch from the tv show Lost... Its a really big well. :)

We find the church - less ornate inside than others, but a nice collection of art. Our next stop is the Rialto bridge, a center with open markets. All the streets are lined with shops for masks, glass and leather - the things Venice and Italy are know for. The glass is Murano glass (one of the islands) and is a must get here. The masks were prevalent here during the plague - and Carnivale is celebrated here when the whole city wears elaborate costumes and masks.

We wanted to go see the bridge of fists, but its not labeled on the map - or if it is, we can't find it. We sit for a bit right by the water (pic of Patti where we sat), and we're talking and there is a fisherman that pulls his boat up right in front of us. I ask him about the bridge - no English - ok, sign language... Water (point), over (arch over like a bridge), fists, fight? Oh yah! We show him the map and he points it out for us! Yay!
Then says in English, "10 minutes" - we figure that it may be 10 in Venetian walking pace.. But we're taking the bus.

At the bus stop, while we're waiting, two old men start chatting with us, well, with Patti who is sitting on their side. They're speaking in full Italian, and one seems to make an obscene gesture that makes us think we are being hit on (or Patti is). Amy starts to get it through her spanish - these are guys who used to be opera singers, and now they put on shows. Another guy joins us and starts talking to the old guys and says "English, they speak English" (in Italian). One of the men points a finger at him like he's miming shooting a gun and says in English, but a very thick accent, "Ima not talkin to YOU". Then the other starts to serenade us - with the echo of the small waiting area, the sound quality is great. He has a beautiful voice. Amy says that when they sat down they were telling us who they were and inviting us to sing with them - the best part is that I have most of it on tape. One of our funniest experiences so far.

We find the bridge of fists, and its not labeled - so people look at us strangely as we pose in our fighting stances. We're used to that by now. :). Near the bridge we see some gandoliers, and we make Amy go approach them. We were pretty tired and actually were thinking that we didn't need to do a ride - but Amy was good and said we should. And she's right, we can't come to Venice and then go back home and honestly tell people we didn't do a gondola ride. It was 80euro for the ride - 20 each, not bad. Getting in the boat was a little shaky because there were two gondolas parked side by side and we had to take the other boat, so we step down and into one gondola, and up and into the second.

It was a nice leisurely ride through narrow passages and low bridges. We had a brief outing into the grand canal where our guy pointed out Napolean's palace and other sites of interest. He sang to us sporadically, "Besa mi mucho" and other standards. We were very impressed with how he balanced the boat and pushed off objects around us to propell us. We were glad we did it. Amy was right.

Every man here has a man bag, and we see a lot of guys here in capris. Looks funny on the old guys. Amy is writing a song about how she wants a man with a man bag. It sounds like a hit to me.

Its about 4:30 and we are done! Siesta time! We head back to apt to relax, lay around - find dinner, shower and pack. We head out tonight on an overnight train to Munich. It leaves at 10:51pm and we arrive at 6:30am in Munich, so we want to shower now for tmw.

We grab dinner at a place we scouted out yesterday - I order tuna, olives and tomatoes with penne; Patti, Dana and Amy all get the Tortellini carbonara. My food comes a full ten minutes before their food. Both are yummy, but I'm finished (even with eating slowly and pacing myself) before their food arrives. Amy orders bread ... That never arrives. So we don't feel bad about not tipping here. We asked for the check... Oh, you mean now... Now means 15min later. The Italians linger at their dinner tables and we are strange for wanting to eat and pay and go.

We have not been stared at like we were in Monopoli - but that's a small town. People there stared long, hard , and without shame. Even Riccardo hadn't heard of Monopoli and he was "made in Italy". But tonight Amy is getting stares from the German people at the table next to us. The lady is looking her up and down - Patti says in a voice that can be overheard that "I guess she's never seen a black person before"... And the lady never looked back, in fact moved her chair so that she couldn't turn and look anymore. Amy pointed out that Germans are required to take English lessons - she definitely understood what was said.

We have to get gelato tonight - our last night in Italy - we've been in this country 2 weeks tonight, and it will be strange to hear another language around us. Munich tomorrow, and we'll be at the Murphy's in Heidelburg by tmw evening! Home in a week. Wow.

Right now we're on the sleeper train. There are 6 beds in a cabin and Patti and I are on the top bunk, Amy and Dana on the bottom, and no one in the middle. The top bunk is high! And my bed is squeaky... We'll see how this goes. :)

Night!

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Water day!

We are wearing our little washing machine out - laundry is hung on these great drying racks that every Italian seems to have (and many hang out their upper story windows). We need one for home.

We bought three big bottles of Peroni's beer at the store last night to share, its like buying a bottle of wine - it tastes like Yeung Ling, if you're familiar.

Its seems more roomy here in Venice than other Italian cities, less cramped on the streets, but they're not any wider really... Then Patti pegged it, duh - we're not sharing the streets with cars. The "streets" are all walk ways, no cars here, so its the perfect place to have a dog - and many people do. We see lots of "free range" dogs with collars trotting around corners, followed by a person that seems to walking in that same direction. We've seen many dogs coppin' a squat right in the middle of the cobblestone streets, the puddles eventually make their way to the drains... I don't trust any puddle here.

So even without cars, they still have a metro system - water buses! We bought a 24 hour pass last night that activates the first time we use it, that was advised if we were going to take more than one trip, so we did (it was 18Euro, so we shall see).

Our apartment is by a high traffic area and there is no glass in the windows, so we hear a lot of lost tourists. Last night I was outside trying to get a signal and someone even asked me for directions to the train station (and I knew the answer) - yay.

We ate our nutello and sweet croissants for breakfast and caught the waterbus - and WOW - public transit shouldn't be so pretty. We headed down to Piazza San Marco. The bus ticket is good for 24 hours and we want to use it to its full advantage today and then walk and gondola tmw. There are little islands off of Venice - like keys, and the bus goes there too.

One of the stops along the way was Palanca - I heard it and asked Patti, "Did they just say 'Paul Anka'?". That's exactly how its pronounced. We stopped at San Marco and checked out the square (lots of pigeons, and Patti and Amy didn't scream once!). The Basillica is free to enter - and they hold St. Mark's Horses, brought back from Constantine in the 4th crusade. Copies on the outside of the church and the originals are inside (it was 4 Euro to go up, but it was worth it). The cathedral was beautiful - lots of mosaics. We grabbed quick sandwiches to curb our hunger pangs - this was the area where Ricardo told us not to eat, so we didn't want a sit down meal.

We caught another bus out to the first island (Lido) - it was MUCH more crowded than our first bus ride, we were smushed inside and they kept letting more people on. We had to switch lines at Lido because the buses that go further out are on a different line and they run once an hour. So we walked around for a while, sat in the shade and enjoyed the view until the bus arrived. Lido has cars and motorbikes - I guess they don't have enough canals to get around like in Venice.

We headed to Burano - its a long trip out, about 45minutes - and we weren't sure what we would find, but we're using our tickets to go as far as possible. We almost got off at an earlier stop, but ended up being very happy we waited. Burano reminds us of Puerto Rico with all the brightly colored buildings - more picture postcard moments. We ate, some nice fried calimari, lasagna, a bruschetta, and Patti and Dana experimented with hamburgers. They were ok - like cafeteria burgers, but good fries!

We went into a few shops, and this area has a lot of glass workers. There are these very cool fish bowl things everywhere - they look like fish in a bowl... But they're very expensive even for a tiny piece, about $30. Too much for something so small. Amy found some handmade clothes she liked - beautiful orange color... But the skirt was €239 and the top was €150.. And then let's convert it to dollars, its about $500. No thanks.

Its getting to be late afternoon now, so we decided to head back, we make a short trip over to Torcello (where we thought we could catch another line, but couldn't) and got right back on the bus and headed back to Burano. Oops. See good thing we have the unlimited pass. We plan to take the bus back to the main island, transfer to a bus that goes around to the Grand Canal - and again to one that goes up through the Grand Canal to get us back home.

We see the gondolas going up and down the canals, and some have people serenading them ... We've heard "Volare" so many times and we only been here a day.

We are water bussed out! We actually ended up going the wrong way and going up and down the Grand Canal twice, but it worked out. On our way back to the apt we got some gelato.. Patti got pistachio, Dana got mint choc chip, I got Choc chip and Amy got coconut. All very good.

Now we're just going to finish laundry, pen some postcards, chill out with some Peroni, and try to remember to take the trash out. Riccardo said we have to put the trash out every night. They pick trash up EVERY morning! I guess if you don't have a trash truck, you have to pick it in smaller amounts. I'm not sure what they use - maybe a bike?

We remembered another Ricardo story - he is from Genoa - same as Christopher Columbus, he pointed out - so we can thank him for America since he represents Genoa. We told him we were from St. Louis, Missouri.... Umm... In the middle... Ok! South of Chicago... OH! Missoooooolri! Yes! ... Hucklebirry Finn? Yes! Ha!!

Oh, and its Bizarro world with mosquitos here. I never get bit - and if I do, I don't really get a reaction. Amy and Patti are like mosquito bait back home, but here they have no bites. I have a bite everywhere I have skin - and not just normal bites, quarter sized, hard bites that itch like crazy. I had a theory that because they're always cold, they wrap up, there is no place to bite, so they move on to me with my feet and arms hanging out of the covers. Tonight I'm spraying down with OFF... Grrrr....

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