Salzburg, Oesterreich:
On the way to Salzburg, we had to pass through Munich. Chris and I decided to stop in Munich for a bit to have a few drinks with Nate and Kyle, and to see Dara, who was visiting Munich from the US. It was a good time. I finally saw the Wombat hostel in Munich that everyone talks about. We also saw a camel walking down the street in Munich. That was very wierd. I had never seen a camel up close in my life before.
In other news ... a heat wave has hit all of Europe. Starting in Ludwigshafen and working its way east, the weather has been steadily sunny and HOT! We are talking almost 100 deg F here. Sooo hot! I have determined that the sun makes me very sleepy. All I want to do is sleep when it is hot and sunny out.
I went on a Sound of Music tour while in Salzburg. It was really fun. I here are the things I saw from the movie:
1. The abby where Maria is a novice
2. The hills where Maria sings "The Hills are Alive"
3. The gardens where Maria and the children sang "Doe a Deer"
4. The Gazebo where Liesel and Rolf sing "16 Going on 17"
5. The trees that the children are hanging from when Captain von Trapp drives up to the house
6. The front of the von Trapp house that Maria approaches singing "I Have Confidence"
7. The lake house where the ballroom scene and the interior house scenes were filmed
8. The lake that Maria and the children fell into while approaching the lake house
9. The cathedral where Maria and Captain von Trapp were married in
Luxembourg, Grand-Duche de Luxembourg:
The last trip with the Eurail pass was very successful. The Grand Duchy was impressive. Trees everywhere. You walk off a street and ... BAM ... you are in the woods.
Kyle and I got lost ... but refound ourselves in the underground casemates. Not for the faint of heart.
Firenze and Siene, Italia:
What a good trip. I win the prize for the longest train ride ever. 11.5 hours from Mannheim to Florence. It was good though. I enjoy train rides.
Chris said to me on the train, "tomorrow we have to get our horses on". I have no idea what that means. He tried to say it meant "giddy up". I do not believe him.
Upon arrival in Florence, Chris and I made our way to the hostel, which is right near the Duomo. We find it with no problem and go in to the check-in counter. While checking in, the girl at the desk informs us in broken english that there is no room at the hostel and we will be brought to another hostel. Chris was really confused at first. He didn't understand because we had made a reservation. What she was trying to say was that the hostel (David Inn) had two buildings, and the one we were standing in was full, but we had a room reserved in the other building. All was good. We were all little disappointed at first, because the building we thought we were staying in had a great location. The girl said that her co-worker would drive us to the other hostel (did this mean it was far away?). We go down to the street with her co-worker and follow him to his .... golf cart? That is right. We cruised through the streets of Florence in a golf car. It was the scariest thing ever. Italian drivers are crazy. Our driver thought it would be funny to pull the parking break while going top speeds (of 3?) to scare a dog in the street and bust on some friends. Caught me off guard. So we arrived at this other building and went in. The location was even better than the first place! Right in the city center. And ... for some reason, we landed the only private room in the whole place (with a balcony). We are so awesome. So that was the hostel experience. It was a pretty good hostel. Only 2 bathrooms though, which made it a bit frantic in the morning when everyone was trying to shower.
Chris watched a guy put two paintings of famous artwork in the trash. Chris took the paintings out of the trash and was happy for his two free souveniers.
After seeing countless churches, cathedrals and domes throughout Europe, it takes a pretty amazing one to still astound us. The Duomo in Siena did just that. Magnificent.
Our train home from Milan to Zurich left 20 minutes late. My layover in Zurich was only 10 minutes. I was not going to make my train back home to Mannheim. Magically, however, a train actually gained time as it made its way to Zurich. While I expected to arrive in Zurich 40 minutes late ... we arrived only 8 minutes late. So I sprinted and made my train. U2 started playing in my head.
Mallorca, Espana:
Ah, nothing quite beats enjoying a nice vacation on an island in the Mediterranean. I met up with Sareh, Tom, Ana, Rob, Sarge, and Sareh's friend Rebby. We had such a good time. We rented bicycles and scooters and even went SCUBA diving (the best part, I think).
Spanish sangria it total bad news. It is bad when an alcoholic beverage tastes like fruit juice. It is delicious though.
SCUBA diving was the coolest thing ever!! I always wanted to try it and never had the chance before, because normally it is so expensive. We were walking around town on Wednesday, checking out rental places and what else we could do in the coming days and we saw a sign that said "Snorkling 20 Euros". That sounded like a reasonable price so we decided to check it out. We go to the office (also a SCUBA place) and say that we are interested in snorkling. The guy immediately tells us we don't want to snorkle, but SCUBA dive. I respond by saying that of course we would
