European Journal July 10, 2010

Our wake up call was early today- 6:15am. We got up around 5:45am. Our luggage was out at 6:45am, and we went to breakfast. It was a cold buffet, with cold cuts, cheese, cereals, breads, yogurt, fruit, "kaffe", and juice. We boarded our bus at 7:30am to travel to Italy. We had a beautiful view of the Tyrolean Alps. We had quite an advantage with Chiara as our tour guide, as she gave us a near continuous commentary of what we were driving by, Italian history, things we should know to order coffee, etc. We saw some vineyards, and I know Bryan and I were both getting excited about trying some Italian wine!

Her lesson on how to order coffee came in handy at our morning comfort stop. Bryan and I ordered a cappuccino, and it was delicious!

We continued on for a couple of more hours before we stopped for lunch. It was at a roadside rest area, but the food was delicious. We've found that, as a rule, European roadside restaurants are very very good. Not like the food you would get at a truck stop in the US. Bryan had fettucine and a red wine called Valpolcella. I had prosciutto ham, mozzarella cheese, and focaccia bread. We re boarded our bus to head to Venice! We stopped on mainland Venice and took a boat down to the Giudecco canal to the island of Venice. It was hot and sunny, and more beautiful than we had imagined.

We saw a glassblowing demonstration by a master glassblower at Murano Glass. We then had almost three hours to walk around.

We walked to Rialtos Bridge, the largest bridge in Venice.

We eventually made our way to a small cafe on the bank of the Grand Canal.

We had a plate of assorted cheese, some bread, and a Bardolino red wine, that was very good.

Our waiter was from Mumbai, India, and was in Venice studying.

Chiara tells us the best school for architecture in Italy is in Venice. After the cafe, (where we couldn't resist feeding the begging birds just a little bit of bread) we walked to Saint Mark's Square to visit St. Mark's Basilica.

The line was not too long, about 5 minutes, and we didn't have to pay to see the main portion.

There is a church dress code for the basilicas, that your shoulders and knees must be covered. They had sheets of tissue paper, and would have people cover themselves before entering.

There were numerous signs that prohibited photography, but some people took pictures. We just admired the beautiful mosaic tile on the floors, walls, and ceiling. It was so detailed, and exceptionally beautiful. We had some gelato, too- chocolate and tiramisu flavored near the basilica.

There were several gypsies begging in St. Mark's Square, and on the bridges.

We met back at the boat at 6pm, and unfortunately, two people from our group were missing. We had to leave them, but two others from their family of eight stayed behind to find them. We took the boat back to the mainland, and then took our bus to Hotel Poppi.

It was a very beautiful, modern hotel. We even had a proper bed! It had a sheet, too! up until Hotel Poppi, none of our beds had a flat sheet; only a duvet. There bathroom had a bidet, which was very entertaining for us to see.

We purchased some internet time (4 euros for one hour) to update out families and check our email. We had time for a shower before our included dinner at 8:15pm. Dinner was very good, and the company was as well. We sat with some of our group from Australia, and the US. Dinner was buffet style, with pasta, tomato sauce, meatballs, roast pork, peas, corn, omelets, salad, and wine (to purchase). Dessert was a kind of chocolate swirl cake. we got to bed at a relatively early time.

European Journal July 9, 2010

Our alarm worked (because I didn't try to use the snooze button!), and we were ready for breakfast at 7am. It was in the same restaurant at the Anker Hotel. The buffet was not what we'd had at our last two hotels. There was yogurt, cold cereal, cold cuts, cheese, bread, and rolls. We boarded our bus at 8am, and drove about 45 minutes to the town of Boppard. The drive was mountainous and had beautiful scenery.

We got on a small touring ship in Boppard to take a 2 hour cruise on the Rhein River.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we had a nice breeze. The ship had two floors, and there was seating on the top that allowed a great view. Bryan and I sat on top, enjoying the sun and breeze.

We saw several castle ruins and remnants of Roman fortresses. The small villages on either bank were very quaint and pretty, with lots of flowers and attention to detail. Germany was really much more beautiful than we had imagined it would be.

We saw Loreley's Rock... there's an old legend about a woman who sat on the very tall rock ledge and sang to seduce the sailors as they sailed down the Rhein.

We re-boarded our bus and drove until 1pm, when we stopped at a "Restplatz" (rest plaza) to have lunch. It was a very traditional German, self-service restaurant. The toilets were pay toilets, .50 euro, but you could get that money discounted (all of it!) if you made a purchase.

We got some Scniltz-something. It was egg noodles with a pork and mushroom sauce. It was very tasty. We had chocolate pudding for dessert.

We then re-boarded at 1:45pm and embarked on the long drive to Austria. The drive was lengthened by several car accidents and LOTS of traffic, as a result. I watched, in horror, as one of our group member's feet swelled to twice their original size. We had more delays, more traffic, and were even stopped by the German Police! It took them a very long time to go over the bus and driver's records. We could see the Tyrolean Alps, so the drive was at least made more interesting by the beautiful views.

We didn't arrive in Innsbruck, Austria, until 10pm! We had our dinner at the Hotel, Rumer Hof. It was a good dinner, with soup, salad, a boneless piece of schnitzel (pork), rice, and vegetables. Bryan and I had a Fohrenberger beer, as well. We had "Joghurt" with fruit for dessert.

The Hotel Rumer Hof was very pretty and modern. Moreso, when you compared it to our hotel in Andernach! There were elevators, and you could buy internet use for .17 euro per minute. We tried to use the internet, but it was remarkably slow, and we gave up after a short time. The weather was again, unusually hot for the area. There was no air conditioning, and it was 82 degrees in our room! We had a nice balcony with a view of the Tyrolean Alps, but no screens, and it was shared with the entire second floor, so we slept with the doors closed. Regardless, I think we ended up sleeping well after such a long day.Bryan had just discovered our "shared" balcony :)

This picture of the outside of our hotel was taken the next morning... it was too dark when we got in to take a picture!