AUSTRIA

ok... this is kind of a random post... with pictures of our hike in Austria. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast in Ramsau, Austria. We dicided that a nice little hike might be fun... Mark's friend Jordan told us about a lake that was up on this hill (mountain) that we should go look for.

One of these picture has an arrow that shows where are car was located... after we dropped over the other side of the mountain we found a lot of snow!!! and Bethany was wearing sandals!!!! We finally found a frozen over lake... and decided to take a break... build a little fire, and dry out our shoes and socks!!!! The scenery was amazing!!!! But the brush was a little much... Can you find Bethany in the bushes????? It was an exhausting but fun hike!!!! We left Ramsau, and spent the night in Melk... saw the abbey, and headed on to Vienna... where we are right at the moment... tomorrow we drive to Budapest.... I know... not on our original itinerary... but I'm excited!!!!! k... internet is running out... and it's a little spendy here... so I better go... keep checking!!!! After Budapest it's on to Cech Republic to see Prague... so stay tuned for more!!!!!

Salzburg

Our foursome has shrunk to a trio. Jamie´s three weeks with us ran out on Sunday and she flew back home to Washington. After dropping Jamie off in Zurich, we headed into Germany. We spent two nights in a small Bavarian town and toured crazy King Ludwig II´s three castles in the area (including the famous Neuschwanstein, which inspired the Disneyland castle). We had planned to spend the next two nights in Munich, but all of the lodging was booked solid due to some sort of convention going on in the city. Instead, we opted to head into Austria and will hit Munich on our way back through Germany. We´ve got lots more to tell, but the Internet cafe I´m typing from is closing, so this quick update will have to do for now. Ciao!

Katie the Groupie

This comes from the mouth of Mark. After reading the most recent blog written by Katie, he noticed one problem with the Rick Steves' story. It was mostly true until the part where she said that the rest of the group ''was not brave enough to go talk to him''. Actually, if you look real close to the writing she put about ten exclamation marks after everything she said, meaning she was head over heals over this ''superhero." To be honest, none of us really cared, we thought neat but no big deal - he's just another human, but inside Katie's little head she started to turn weird, which most of us would call ''starstruck'' and she started mumbling and foaming at the mouth. Well anyways, to make a long story short, she had to think of something to say to break the ice so she says to him ,''We are staying at a neat place that you could put in your book," with her eyes open wide, a blank stare and mouth open as if spotting a gelatto stand - and that's wide if you have not witnessed it. The response was ''Well, what is the name of the place?'' Her response was "Uhh...,uhhh...., the one around the corner," and for those who don't know, Venice is nothing but corners,at least she pointed in the direction of it though, and it only got worse because Rick Steves was going to charge her 5 dollars for the photo and she came back with ''fifty is a bargain'',so he realized her state of mind and felt bad for her and said,''OK,its free for you'',and from that day on we hear more about him than she eats Nutella and for those of you who don't how much that is...,well let's just say there aren't enough waterfalls where we are staying to compare it to. Well, The End.

Meeting Rick Steves!!!!!

Yes, this is the real Rick Steves... and yes we were really there with him!!!! For those of you who don't know... Rick Steves has become very popular in the traveling world. He spends a few months of every year in Europe doing research and shows etc... he has numerous books published every year (we have like 10 of them in the back of the car, because Bethany's cousin works for him) and what are the chances that between his schedule and ours that we would actually meet him???? Amazing!!!!!

ok... so here's the scoop... While sight seeing in Venice we were walking along in a piazza, and I walked by a guy just sitting in the square... and I thought "hey, that guy looks like Rick Steves" but then passed it off thinking "yeah right... I mean what are the chances" and of course didn't mention it to my traveling mates (they love to make fun of me any chance they get). Well, that evening we met a couple from the states traveling around Europe much like us... and they happened to mention that they ran into Rick Steves last night in Venice... then of course I told my story and what do you know... no one believed me.... big surprise!!!! A few moments later the couple we were talking to says "oh look... there he is" and sure enough there he was... the man himself... pretty much taking a picture of us!!!!!!! Well, I was the only one brave enough to go talk to him and get my picture taken... at first... then we got to talk to him a little and everyone thought that it would be a good idea to have a group picture taken to post on the blog!!!! Soooo... to make a short story long.... that's my version of it ;) I still can't get over it..... I mean... RICK STEVES!!!!!! Pretty cool!!!!!

Venezia, Italia

Here's a few Venice photos for your viewing pleasure, although pictures just don't allow you to be "lost in the magic" like when you're there in person (you'll be hearing more about that soon, but that's mostly Katie's story, so I'll let her tell). We actually left Venice today and are now in the breathtakingly beautiful Swiss Alps. It's a drastic change to go from Venice, where most of the greenery comes from planted window boxes and an occasional tree, to the cow-dotted hills, snow-capped mountains and waterfalls of the Alps. But for now, here's Venice . . .

Greetings from Venice!

It's interesting logging onto Blogger in Internet cafes in foreign countries, because not only are the keyboards different, but the entire Blogger Web site is in another language. Therefore, please excuse poor spelling because spellcheck is pretty useless when it's trying to correct my English using an Italian dictionary.

We reached Venice this afternoon after two nights in Florence. I spent the past couple hours wandering around the city - it's beautiful and a complete maze. There's little streets, alleys and bridges everywhere and you never know if they will lead you to another road or a dead end. And with no cars, buses or even bicyles competing for road space, it's the perfect place to be a pedestrian (unlike Rome, where you risk your life every time you cross the street). I carried my camera in hand and snapped lots of photos as I walked. I must have looked like I knew what I was doing because I was asked four times in about half an hour to take pictures for people. Unfortunately, I can't download photos here, so those will have to wait for another day.

Our accomodations here are the best we've had yet - we have a whole apartment to ourselves with a full kitchen! We were hoping to go grocery shopping and cook dinner for ourselves tonight, but evidently all the supermarkets close on Sundays (and they're nearly impossible to find - the maps here aren't very accurate). I guess it will be pizza or pasta yet again . . . I'm not really complaining. I do have a craving for Mexican or Chinese though.

Backtracking...

I have wireless access at the moment and was waiting for our laundry to dry, so I decided to do some photo posting from our trip so far. I only got Amsterdam (our first stop) posted before the dryer finished and now it's time to hit the road toward Florence, so I guess photos from the other cities will have to wait. So as not to confuse you by my out-of-order photo posting, here's a basic look at our itinerary thus far:
Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Nice, Rome . . . and now, off to Florence! Ciao!