Flickr Update

a quick note for anyone interested, I have just added a bunch of wedding pictures to our flickr site.  After 4 months, we figured it was about time to get these developed.
I'll be adding more soon, but these are the first.
Get there from the link on the side or

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlandham

Some of the previews have heads cut-off, but that doesn't show up in the real picture.  I think I just set the wrong dimensions when importing.

From Venice with Love

Well we went up the alps, and came back down.  Spent two nights in Padova, Italy, and are finishing it off with a night in Venice.

Believe you me, we did not know the meaning of "hiking around Europe" until we started our ascent to Rebekka's families alpine cottage.  The steep incline was all the more emphasized by the higher elevation and lack of oxygen.  I could feel the blood throbbing in my temples the whole 40 minutes we hiked up.  Bethany, still ill, said she was fearful of passing out, or throwing up, or both at any moment.  But we made it up there, and the view from the top made it worth the trip... I think.  At least we spent most of the evening enjoying that view for which we had struggled so hard to get.  But our alpine getaway did not last long.  The next morning we packed back up and climbed back down, at a much accelerated pace.  We spent the rest of the morning sight seeing with our guide, Beat, Rebekka's father.  It looked like he barely broke a sweat the whole time, up or down the mountain, and he was carrying a much larger pack than I, which was certainly heavier.

That afternoon we trained it to Padova where we took a taxi to our hotel and crashed.  The next day we toured the town and had a authentic multi-course Italian meal.  Everything was great, but I don't think Bethany was too fond of the horse meat...

Today we made it Venice, on our one month anniversary!  We walked around the shops a bit and then came back to the hotel for the free ice tea. Tomorrow, we will see the famous churches here, and the rest of the town, and then fly to London at 10:30 pm.  We get to spend the night in the London airport thanks to our 12 hour layover (boo)  and then its on to Georgia for the grand grandparent anniversary.

Hopefully we will get to check the blog a bit during our layover so wish us a safe return, and we will see you soon!

Pictures added

A few more pictures have been added.
Sorry none of Bethanys new doo.  Those took too long.
Follow this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlandham/

Switzerland Expedition

Well, Bethany did get sick, which is too bad.  But we took it pretty easy yesterday so hopefully she will be quicker to recover than I.  Yesterday we went to the French speaking part of Switzerland to a little town famous for making cheese.  There we got to see the whole cheese process, plus we received audio commentary of the process from the perspective of a cow, which was interesting...
We toured the small medieval town and then ate Fondue at one of the restaurants there.  Rebekka noted that Swiss people only eat fondue during the winter, and that this place served it only because of the tourists, but it was good just the same.
Then we came back and took it easy the rest of the day.  Bethany finished the latest Harry Potter book (which I had already read two days before, during my illness) and I surfed the 1400 channels of our satellite TV.  I found only two that were English speaking, but some of the German cartoons are entertaining even when you have no idea whats going on.
Today, we are going up to the mountains, and then to Rebekka`s parents house to go to their cabin tomorrow.
Hopefully Bethany can repair herself quick enough!

Bern is Better

Sorry for the lack of updates.  We have been unable to secure a computer until now that we made it to Bern and are staying with Rebekka and her husband.  Actually, as a wedding present to us, they have rented us a room at a little hotel / restaurant 2 minutes from their house.  So now we are even more in debt to them then ever.
We made it to Freiburg, after a few missed trains, and had most of the next day to tour the town.  We stayed at hotel Minerva, and had a massive room to make up for our attic stall of the last place.  As a bonus, it was a genuine 3 star hotel, with complementary shoe horn in the bathroom, and the best breakfast we have had yet.  Freiburg was even more eventful because Bethany decided to get a massive hair trimming from the student hair cutters in the train station.  At first, the slicked back puff made her look a little bit like David Bowie, or Toad from Super-Mario Brothers.  But now she has trained it a bit with some styling gel and its looking much better.
We met with Rebekka yesterday and she took us to their home where we had a great meal and showed off wedding pictures.  They have just gotten married one month and one day ago.  Today, we toured the city of Bern, once by ourselves, and then again after dinner with our hosts.  We toured the sites of the rose garden, cathedral, and Parliament building.  And we got to see the bears by which the city gets its name.  Plus we got to see one of the oldest pharmacies in the world!
Tomorrow, we are touring some of the smaller cities around here, with Rebekka, and hopefully Bethany won`t acquire the sickness I just got over.
And hopefully, if they let us on their computer again, we can finally get some pictures up... including some of Bethany`s new doo

From Munich`s floor to Munich`s attic

Well we moved our base from sleeping on the floor in the Tent to sleeping on the 4th floor of a hotel near the train station.  In many ways, these two places are complete opposites:  the tent was huge and frigid, our hotel room is tiny and sweltering.  But I did get a good nights sleep and am feeling a lot better today.  Plus we get free breakfast with our hotel, which is always nice.  Yesterday, we toured the Munich art gallery.  No celebrity sightings this time, but it was still fun.  We also saw some of the other sights of Munich such as St.  Peter`s cathedral and the  large market area.  We`ve had plenty of beer and braut to aide in my recovery. 

Today, we toured the large museum here.  Massive amounts of stuff to see. We missed alot of it, but saw a few interesting exhibits.  The Pharmacy exhibit, featuring the history of certain medicines such as aspirin and birth control was our favorite. 

Also saw the ´´Chinese tower´´ which is a large 5 story gazebo surrounded by a beer garden.  Not a bad place to enjoy a 6 euro liter of beer.

And our second naked man sighting:

  This time it was a really, really old guy who bicycled past us, then rode into the grass, put down a towl, and striped down in front of the river. 

  He was old.

 

Tomorrow, we go to Frieburg, so that we are closer to Switzerland when we go there to meet another of Bethany´s exchange friends Rebecca, on Monday. 

The Tent of Munich

Well we got on to a train last night and made our way from Cesky Krumlov to Munich.  Everything went smoothly and we made it to ´´The Tent´´ which is actually what it is, a big circus tent, perhaps 100ft long and 60ft wide.  For around 8 euro you get a spot on the floor, a foam mat, and some blankets.  They even threw in some towels for us, and a free breakfast.  Not a bad deal, eh?  We made it through one night, but because I´m a wuss, I don't think we will stay another.  Two nights ago I came down with a nasty sore throat and stuffy nose, and the Tent wasn't the best way to cure me of my ailments.  Particularly, because for some unknown phenomenon, inside the tent feels at least 10 degrees colder than outside.  So, while it was not a warm night outside, it felt like a meat locker inside.  Of course, Bethany isn't bothered by the floor or the cold, and had a pretty good nights sleep.  So it is just me that doesn`t want to stay here again.  Of course, as a loving wife, she agreed to look for a new place for tonight.  Today we tour Munich, and a large art gallery here.  Tomorrow, we are going to see their big museum, and a beer garden.  Hopefully I can shake this cold enough to enjoy the beer garden.

No Pictures for you

To address the recent requests, sorry we don't have more pictures
coming onto the site. Unfortunatly, most of the public internet
access we've found comes with great restrictions. And this has
blocked our attempts to upload photos. Hopefully, at our next
exchange student stop, things will be more lenient. But until then,
you'll just have to go by our visualling stimulating dictation and
wait till we get back to show you the 1000s of photos in person!

From CK to KC with love

Here's the Mrs. V-Ham checking in for the first time. Yesterday we
finally toured the main CK attraction, the castle. Our "english"
guide made the trip quite memorable with his terrible english grammar
and thick Czech accent. His favorite part of the tour seemed to be
the question/answer segments thrown in during each room. For example,
he would show us a giant gold-covered charriot and then ask "who can
guess how much gold is covering this charriot?". The best question,
however, was in regards to a giant painting of the town containing all
the princes. One prince was off by himself ("the black sheep") when
no one could guess correctly why this prince was thus ostracized, our
guide supplied the answer, "...because he was a BAS-tard" and after a
pause, added "an illigitimate son".

We also spent an hour following a local brewery tour, and had a drink
with a young couple from Sweden. The facility was a stark contrast to
the shiny-new and clean facility of Boulevard Brewery in KC.

We are pretty thankful today that the rain has finally stopped, we
leave for Munich tomorrow and our week in Cesky Krumlov was spent
mostly in our room watching the rain. Today, with the advent of the
sun breaking through the clouds, we were able to enjoy breakfast
outside! I hope the sun keeps up for the rest of our trip!