rome 89 steps up

hi all!

this is a shot of our apartment building through one of the arches of the colusieum which we toured yesterday...hot hot hot!!!

you can also see it in the background of the second shot..

finding a place to park the car near here was a tough job. Barrett and i drove around for like and hour trying to figure out the rules etc. we finally found a good legal spot...and a motorhome jumped into it!

its not like there are very many motorhomes around.......we couldn't believe it.

we have walked a lot, and find ourselves wandering around even when we think we are cutting it short.

last night we all split up. two couples were having their anniversary night dinner.

lynda and i toured the capitoline museum and then left when it was closing at 8pm to find a nice place to get dinner.....

we ran into barrett and trilly in the piazza nuevollia (spelling error) and two of our favorite "acts" were there. The french finger puppet guy and the freeze man.

later right after dinner we ran into 7 and lauren!

they had picked a place to eat within 50 meters of the place we did, and finished dinner at almost the exact same time!

so everyone is up now...so i have to close.

as always

jim/j

we are in rome...but here is venice......

well.....jim here...

first time i have had time to do this.....and had internet.

today is june 17th....both 7 and lauren's and lynda and my aniversary.

we walked our feet off in venice going through all the winding streets and canals. actually didn't walk on the canals......

Venice is lynda and my favorite city, because you can just wander around and there is always something new around the next corner.

yachts are parked all along the dock at san marco....and there are lots of interesting people watching opportunities.

this one was named siran

we bought some cool murano glass when we rode the boat over to that island...

the kids only stayed about and hour...lynda and i stayed for about 3 or four ate, shopped and

enjoyed this "mini venice"

glass blowing was moved there about 400 years ago to avoid fires on the main island.

..

well it is very late and i have done enough.

i will try again on another day


jim/j

ok, Venice this time

So last post I wanted to talk about Venice, but I got sidetracked because there was a ton of interesting stuff in the couple days before, and then got pulled away from my computer because it was time to go back out and tour Rome. Now finally I get to cover Venice, and maybe someday I will actually catch up and post about what I am doing right now.

As for Venice, I would say it is the most unique city I have ever been to. It feels very old, but still very nice, and the history is fascinating. Above is a picture from the bell tower in san Marco's square, the main square in Venice. You can also see the grand canal on the far left. Then the next picture shows a view of the bell tower, and you can also see the doge's palce (the 'Doge' was like the king of Venice, which was the most powerful city-state in europe for 400 years).

There are no cars in Venice, which is really weird, but I quickly got used to it. The canals weave everywhere and seem endless. I think my favorite thing was walking around the city and exploring. Riding a boat down the grand canal was amazing. all the buildings are right up against the water, and it is full of "traffic."

The food in Italy has been amazing, and I would have to say the food here in Rome is even better than it was in Venice. We did eat at a great place in a back alley of Venice. The best part was the cannoli, and my "4 seasons" pizza was really good too. It was four pizzas in one, mushroom, ham, artichoke, and pepperoni (which in Italy is peppers). I've got some roman churches to see tomorrow, which hopefully you will hear about soon. I'll end with a final picture from our three wonderful days in Venezia. It's Trillion and I on the Realto bridge.

Venezia!

It's more than a week into our grand tour of Europe, and I wish this wasn't my first post, but a combination of spotty Wifi and a very busy schedule didn't leave much time for a blog. Trillion was able to write about Paris, and since then we have traveled across most of Western Europe and toured all around the beautiful city of Venice (or Venezia, in italian).

On our way, we traveled across Switzerland, Austria, and the Dolomite region of Italy. In Switzerland we visited interlaken before driving the Sustenpass, a high elevation mountain pass in the middle of the alps. It was terrifying as we meandered up switchbacks in to the clouds where we could only see 30 ft in front of us. Unfortunately, the clouds meant no stunning views of the valley below, but there were plenty of other spectacular views when we were not at such a high elevation.

We stayed the night in the sleepy skiing village of Gaschurn, Austria (shown in the picture, notice the clouds covering the tops of the mountains). We were the only people staying in our Bed and Breakfast called Gastehaus Rifa. Dinner was the memorable

part. We ate at a nearby restaurant and all got classic Austrian fare. The inside was covered with cuckoo clocks and wood carvings and it was truly spectacular. I got the schnitzel (fried pork) and it came with a ton of delicious fries.

The next day we went to Innsbruck, and then drove on down through the alps to a town called Treviso near venice. Innsbruck was a really interesting city. The picture is of Trillion and I in front of the town square, with the famous golden roof behind us. I got some good

Schweinebraten at the biergarten we ate at. You'll probably hear about more Schweinebraten in about a month and a half. It's time to head back out to Venice, so that's all for now. Hopefully I will post about Venice soon! It is truly a unique place. Hope all is well in the states.

1029 steps later

That's right, yesterday Barrett, Lauren, 7, and I (10^12) did over 1000 stairs. I did this with a cold/fever. So worth it! Yesterday, our last day in Pairs, The young ones walked to the top of the famous Notre Dame bell tower (407 steps each way) and saw where Quasimodo used to live. Then, we met up with Lynda and Jim and went to the catacombs. They were pretty amazing and well worth the wait. Then we saw Napoleon's tomb which was massive and way to big for his size. We went through the Musee L'Armee and saw Rodin's house and the Thinker before heading to the Eiffel Tour. We were smart and got tickets in advance so we could go up right at 9:30 pm which was sunset. I had never been up there at sunset and must say it was quite amazing. We thankfully rode the elevator. We stayed at the top to watch darkness set and the lights of the city turn on. We got some amazing pictures. Speaking of pictures...I look EXTREMELY pale in all of the pictures. I blame this not only on the fact that I am somehow related to Casper the ghost but also on the fact that I was sick. 7 assures me he can edit in a nice tan for me on any pictures he took with his nice camera. I plan on taking advantage of that edit option.

Today, we woke up early and had to leave our lovely Paris apartment. We got our new car which is a Renault Scenic Grande and headed out of Paris. The car is very nice but a bit snug. It turns out the back pull up seats are for children aka no foot room and very small chair. Lauren and I are practicing our kid voices so we'll be ready if a cop pulls us over and sees one of in the back haha. We stopped in a quaint city called Beaunne for a late lunch and ate at a wonderful restaurant. Definitely the best meal of the trip so far. Then we did the rest of the driving which landed us at a hotel in Besancon. We walked around the city and ate dinner there. It was kind of depressing. The city was huge and had a lot of potential, but was completely run down and covered in graffiti. Tomorrow we head through Switzerland and drive through the Alps. Dramamine here we come!

Time to go!!

It's time for me to have a go with this. This is Barrett, 7's brother-in-law, his sister Trillion's husband (everyone may know this already, but I don't know who all reads this blog). I will hopefully be making a lot of posts this summer because Trillion and I would like to document that, so it seems natural for me post throughout the entire trip.

I am unbelievably excited right now!! We leave tomorrow morning, and the anticipation is killing me. I have my one large backpack and one small backpack all packed up and ready to go. I decided not to go with the rollers like everyone else because I couldn't stand rolling something like that around the streets of all the big cities in Europe. I also have a functional back.

After the 6 of us tour around Italy for a month, we are heading to Barcelona, and from there Trillion and I will be breaking off and traveling by train and bus through Spain, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. It's going to be an amazing experience, and I hope you all enjoy following along.

Finally I would like to give a shout out to Shaq. Thats right, the newly proclaimed big AARP is retiring and quite frankly I think Shaq is awesome. I hope we see him as an analyst or in a movie soon...

Anyway, it's time to sleep so we can finally get to tomorrow and get over to the other side of the pond. Have a great summer everyone!

Last Minute

After months of planning and searching our trip to Europe is almost here! Only 2 more days of waiting and then we will be on a plane headed to Paris (with a couple of detours to NYC and Helsinki...so I will be able to say I've been to Finland!). These last few days are not filled with waiting through, they have been occupied with last minute errands, laundry, cleaning, and lists. As many of you know I am a queen of lists...I love making them and checking things off...so right now I have a list going for everything...packing, "to do's", food my parents can take, care notes for our cat...you get the idea.

I love packing for vacation and this one is especially challenging. I have had to fit everything I need for 6 weeks of travel in 1 carry on backpack and 1 suitcase measuring 22"w x 14"d x 6" h. Challenging. I managed quite a variety of tanks, dresses, and shorts and my list is a bit more extensive than 7's, so I'm not going to list it here. I'm pretty proud of what I fit in my bag and I even left some room so I can buy things while we are there!

I will miss you all while we're gone...enjoy following our Dots on the Map! :)