gelato report

buongiorno...

today was full of slightly confusing but eventually successful train travel here to Florence. We've walked around a bit, planned our time for the next two days, and had some EXCELLENT gelato, definitely the best yet. We both tried chocolate and nut related flavors, and it was perfect...melted on our fingers, faces, and both of my shoes, but perfect.

Finally I have sent some pictures of the trip to my brother to up-load...be sure to check out the one of Deanna eating her gelato today, mouth agape. :) Not flattering, but true to her nature....



more tomorrow after we actually do some florentine activites besides eating. :)

ciao,
e

Guinea Ham: Pig or Fowl?

Hello everyone,

Today was a very long day...we visited two island in the lagoon, named as follows:

Murano: known for glass. we saw a man make a very kitschy and slightly ugly but yet somehow fascinating and amazing horse.

Burano: known for lace. very cute, houses are colorful according to strict city plan, and we met a very sweet and slightly lonely Canadian college student named Emma, with whom we spent the afternoon. She's au pairing for a wealthy Milanese family, and gets do things like Venice on the weekends.

So, last night, we went after much difficulty with navigating the alleyways/calles/canals of Venice, to a small bar/restaurant for dinner. We had to choose from several dishes on display to order from...Deanna pointed to something that looked awfully lot like boneless chicken breast chunks in sauce, and asked if it was chicken. The slightly grumpy proprietress replied NO. It's GUINEA HAM. Guinea ham??? We asked again. GUINEA HAM, she said. We ordered it. We sat down, waited, and discussed, could it possibly be guinea pig? D had some logic that weirdly made sense...pig is called ham, thus guinea ham could be....guinea pig? It came. We ate it. It tasted awfully like chicken. Wes Reed, any opinions? (we're pretty sure it was GUINEA FOWL, but it's kind of a funny story, no?)


The "bus" here is a large boat, with several lines going all around Venice and surrounding islands. Between missing boats by a few minutes, or making mistakes/not understanding directions given, we managed to spend about 1.5 hours waiting for boats today....but on the bright side, it was beautiful out, we made a new friend, and for goodness sakes we're in Venice...

tomorrow we drag our aching bodies and increasing luggage to the train station for Florence...more from Firenze!

ciao!
e & d

Venetian Statistics...

Hello all...

here is some info. about our day so far...

number of major sites visited: 3 (St. Marks, Doge's Palace, Rialto Bridge)
number of gelato flavors sampled: 6 (Deanna likes dark cherry, Erin hazelnut)
number of miles walked today, according to Erin's newly acquired pedometer: 3.05
number of times older Italian matron overheard saying "mama mia" on her cell phone in one 3 minute conversation: 3
number of euro Deanna had to pay to use the WC at Rialto Bridge, since she didn't go earlier when it was free: .50
number of minutes we had to wait in the alley of a little shop, waiting for the drunken owner to come back to sell Erin a little glass cross: 22 (I really wanted that particular cross!)
number of minutes it took for said owner to make change from a 50 euro note: 4 (included walking out of the shop to get help)

so those are just a few small details to give the flavor of Venice...we still haven't done the gondola thing but are enjoying watching many others do so...it costs around $100, so maybe watching is all we'll do. For those of you who asked for words from Deanna, she says she'll post soon.

ciao!
Erin

Auf Wiedersehen and Buongiorno!

So Deanna and I are safely in Venice, after some boring train travel (me) and almost-missing-the-plane travel (D). We are staying in a lovely, 3 room B&B, and have been thoroughly welcomed by Riccardo, who runs the place for his family and informed us we are staying is his sister's old room. We have a lovely fresco on the ceiling, and matching twin beds that look very cute.

Venice, if possible, is more picturesque than all the pictures of it I've ever seen. We are out walking around, doing errands like laundry and bank and calls home to moms. It's just lovely.

Thanks to those who posted concerns about safety...there was defintely more of a police presence on the trains today, but everything seems fairly calm. And, it's definitely an answer to prayer that Deanna made her flight after much delay in Houston and confusion in Paris.

Ciao for now!
Erin

Serious times

I'm sure that you all will have heard the news about London by the time you read this...it's very sobering and all over the news here. Although the attacks seem tied to the G8 summit, it seems strange and a little scary to think that I was in London last year at this time...

I'm now safely in my hotel room, after hours of being lost in the industrial parts of Innsbruck, trying to figure out where to return the rental car. I was feeling low and grumpy until I turned on CNN and got some perspective...

peace,
erin

Dinner Adventure

Hello again,

Just wanted to report on our evening...we found a place in Rick Steves that was supposed to be very local, very atmospheric, and so on. So we wandered around the little streets near the town square until we finally stumbled upon it. The door to the bar downstairs was closed, but we went upstairs to the restaurant, where the door was also closed, although we could hear the accordion music and singing....Gretchen was brave, I was not, and she opened the door and we went inside....

The place was small and packed full of Müncheners drinking and singing along to the accordion player...we were seated at a table approximately two feet away from him and his accordion. He asked something, we didn't understand, and then someone translated and we said we were from California, at which he made muscles like Arnold and everybody there laughed. And the laughing continued...we had no idea what he was saying, but he seemed to be making some pretty great jokes at our expense, because everyone in the place was laughing and laughing....we just raised our beers at the appropriate times, and said "Pröst", and smiled.

We ordered two things off the menu that we couldn't read and didn't know what to expect, but when the food came it was very tasty...maybe some of the best food we've had since we've been here. We ate, we drank, and the folks were getting louder and louder....we couldn't sing along, and so when men from the bar started buying us drinks and toasting us after every song we figured it was time for the two California girls to say goodbye...

Tchuss for now...
erin

München, city of wild weather patterns

Greetings,

Today is our second day in Munich. We have been to the lovely Nymphenburg Palace, and have now rented bikes to save on all the walking. (walking, walking, always the walking...) We are going to bike around the old town, maybe visit one more palace, and do some shopping and eating tonight, which is Gretchen's last. The sun is out, there is a slight breeze, and a few fleecy clouds. Nothing to indicate that yesterday was a day of pelting rain, temperatures so cold that I was wishing for warmer clothes, and us walking around with our raincoats tight around our faces, severely limiting our peripheral vision.

Habits I have picked up here, like the chameleon that I am, include: drinking my (very strong) morning coffee black, eating a kaiser roll with a hard boiled egg for breakfast, and saying "Ja, Ja" very breezily in answer to questions. Who knows what Italy will bring :)

I'll write again tomorrow from Innsbruck, my last stop before meeting Deanna in Venice on Friday. It is my mission in Innsbruck to find a way to upload pictures that will not cost me a small fortune. But to those of you chomping at the bit for photos, I ask, are not my word pictures enough!?!

Tchuss,
Erin