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!

Reading Time

Not much to report today. It has been raining here in CK since last
night, so we took this time to do absolutly nothing. We have eaten
and we have read quite alot, and thats about it. I just finished Mark
Twains "Tramp Abroad" and Bethany is working on Steven Kings "The Dead
Zone".
We are a pretty exciting couple eh?
But it is sunday, and not alot is open on sundays in Europe. At least
that is the excuse we are telling ourselves.
It looks like it could stay raining till Wed. which would be a shame.
But if thats the case, we will just enjoy the rain.

We saw the London explosions while we were still in Austria, and still
had a TV. Very tragic, but it hasn't really impacted our trip thus
far. We talked to a man from the UK on a train and he said it was
shocking but not surprising that it happened. He also said that all
but one of the train stations were up and running with really minimal
delays.

An interesting side note-- there is alot of rafting and what not down
the river, as afore mentioned. Well last night we were returning home
when we saw an overturned canoe which had spilled out its contents and
these items were now floating down the river. A man near the water
stripped down to his underwear jumped into the water, and saved the
packages from continuing down the stream. But upon returning to dry
land he proceeded to remove his underwear as well so as to put on his
pants without getting them wet. But for awhile he was unabashedly
completely nude, in full view of a great deal of people, including us.
Just a slightly odd thing to see after dinner in the Czech Republic.

The Bohemian Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov (or CK as the cool kids say) is an old medeval looking
town in the Czech Republic. Mostly it seems, backpackers come here
for a day or two of relaxation, because its so cheap. We came here
for the same reason, but we will be staying a week!
We are in the Pension Merlin, with a very nice bed and our own shower.
It has a communal kitchen area, so that we can have breakfast with
all the other tourists. Today we ate with a couple from california who
were about to burn the place down because the coffee pot was taking
too long. They seemed to like coffee.
Everything is cobblestone roads and stone and brick shanties. Czech
is another confusing language, akin to hungarian, and it doesn't seem
german is as useful here as it was there. So we bought a dictionary
and will be trying to figure out what all the dashes and commas on all
the letters mean.
Everything is pretty cheap. Our hotel is only around 25 American
dollars a night. And most meals cost around 5 bucks. Everything
Looks expensive though as the exchange rate is 1 US dollar = 25 Czech
dollars. So $125 is pretty cheap.
Today is walking around and eating, as tommorrow will be also. Monday
we might go see the castle and other touristy things. There seem to be
alot of people canoeing down the river here. Perhaps I can get
Bethany to take part... but considering the biking experience, I doubt
it. Plus that would mean I would have to buy a speedo, which is quite
in style here, which I don't feel much like doing.
We have free internet here, which is nice, so don't stop commmenting -
we read and enjoy them all.
Bethany says were not going to Salzburg, which is a shame, but thats ok.
We have sent our first wave of postcards, so those who emailed us your
address (only Jeremy so far) should expect one in a month or two. We
did send them from austria, as we heard the postal service was more
reliable there.
We are going to go walk around now for a bit. And have a bohemain time of it!

Got Melk? hahahaha

We made it through Melk and are now in the Czech Republic.
The Monastery was cool but nothing what I thought a monastery should
be. This home of the monks was filled to the brim with golds and
technology. They had at least 5 video projectors in one room for a
kind of moving art thing. And the art was pretty bizzaro too. Some
old guy (perhaps a monk, we're not sure) did all of these sculptures
of humaniod figures with huge hands and feet. Weird. They still use
the place as a school for kids, but I'm not sure what they teach
exactly.
The biking tour was fun, except that Bethany hates biking, and didn't
hide that fact for very long. But we got to see lots of the Danube,
which was cool. And we ate at an even smaller village some 4.5
kilometers down the road. So we biked a whole 9 km total. I have no
idea how far that is, but it sure took us awhile (because bethany
doesn't believe in bikes that have more than one speed.) All and all
Melk was a good place to hang out. But now we've moved on to the
mellower Cesky Krumlov

Vienna to Melk

So we jumped a train to Melk this afternoon.  After some thought, we decided that we had gotten everything we could from Vienna, and that it was time to move on.  But we didn't leave the city of music before checking out a massive castle, schloss schoenbrunn, that Maria Theresa, and the other Hapsburgs, used as her summer home.  I would have stayed there all year.  Nice audio guide, but very crowded.  It also had a cool courtyard and a maze AND a labryinth!  don't get both usually. 

So now we're in Melk, a much smaller and quainter Austrian town.  It has a large monestary we will visit tommorrow, as well as some cool bike trails along the Blue Danube that we will also try  out.  Another reason to come here early was to get out of our crummy hotel in Vienna (bethany was starting to smell bad, since she wouldn´t brave the scary shower)  Its very nice here, and we should have a good time.

No other celebrity sightings as of yet, but I'm hoping for the front man of Weezer, to keep up the large plastic glasses theme. 

After this its on to the Czech Repulic for another small and cool town.

Vienna Art Museum

Hello again, today we spent most of the morning at a large art museum near our hotel.  It was a nice place, lots of famous art, but everything in german of course, so that was a bit frustrating.  What made the day (and hopefully this entry) interesting was the short, but cool run in with a famous individual. 

As I have written in my non-online journal:

We arrived at the museum right at 10 am, as it was opening.  Because of the cold, rainy weather, everyone rushed to get inside.  As we stood in the large crowd waiting for a chance to buy tickets, to my right I saw a person that very much fit the idea of what Elvis Costello should look like.  He was wearing a leather jacket, and a near tropical shirt underneath it, but what was most giving was his thick dark glasses.  I repeated my notion to my wife, but she had even less of an idea of what Costello would look like up close than I did.  Unfortunatly, he already had his ticket and got out of the crowd before I was able to obtain photographic proof of his presence. 

So we went in and toured some of the rooms of the smaller exhibits, then went to the main level to see the larger rooms of art and sculpture.  By chance, with all the people there, and all the rooms possible, this same individual appeared before us again.  We passed right in front of him and I thought that my notions were right that this was indeed the Costello.   So I decided to track him, to get a picture to show others that I might say "I saw Elvis Costello in an art museum and here's the proof!"  I turned around and started the camera up and followed him for awhile, but his movements were too quick for me to get a shot of him and the 'no flash' rule of the musuem further confounded my attempts.  After a few rooms I gave up my persuit.   I suspected that he would find it a bit rude if he noticed me chasing him around in the Reuben section.  I returned to Bethany and suggested that we start this section over, as there were many images I had not seen due to the chase.  We exited the area to enter again on the other side, when Costello again appeared coming out of the door we were going into.  I went back on the hunt and was about to call out to him when he turned and went straight into the restroom.  I halted my advances, as I percieved it would be even more acquarward to talk to him in a public restroom.  But his time inside allowed me to rethink my plan.  With Bethany's encouragement I resolved to not only get a picture with him but also an autograph.  We he came out I was ready.  Here is our converstation before the picture and paper signing:

"Excuse me, are you Elvis Costello?"

"Why yes I am"

 

So now I have something to show Matt, and every other Costello fan.

I saw and talked to Elvis Costello in a Vienna Art Museum.

First day of Vienna

Well we did a good job of covering some of the basics of Vienna our first full day here.  Saw St. Stephan's Cathedral, many horse statues, and lots of other really old and really big buildings.  Much of the day was taken by the "House of Music".  This was a museum dedicated no only to great composers that lived in and worked in Vienna, but also of music & sound itself.  It had a whole floor devoted to the creation of and manipulation of sounds.  Lots of cool computer mediated activities.  And a nice audio tour through the great composers floor.  A good museum, and at student prices!

For lunch we stopped at a outdoor eatery and had some scnitzel and some chicken.  We also got some pretty decent icecream -- lemon, grapefruit, cappichino, and raseberry.  Bethany's combination was better than mine.  We came back to the hotel and went out to the grocery store for wine, water, and sweets.  I think I've decided that bubbling mineral water is better than my other option, flat mineral water.  I say that after two days of drinking the later, which really has a terrible aftertaste.  Tonight, we may go see war of the worlds, or batman at the english theatre. Tommorrow, its more of Vienna, and hopefully, more icecream

Wien -- Now we can understand

Hello hello again.  We had a great time in Györ with Nicole and her friends.  Saw the sights and sounds of the city, and went to club 96.4 -- which is just a bar, but they labelled it as a coffee & tea shop.  A thumping beat from the local DJ kept everyone going till around 2.  there were counter-culture Hungarians in the corner smoking pot, and others crazy dancing by themselves.  It was a good time.  There was also a traditional Hungarian festival going on the next night so we got to see lots of Hungarian dancing and singing.  We also met some of Nicole's friends from the Audi plant where she works.  And we met a lower boss who's actual name was ''Assman''.  It was awesome.  We couldn't say his name without laughing, which meant we couldn't talk to him at all.  Nicole was too nice to us the whole time.  She took us to a old monastery today before we left, and we got to see some more catholic coolness.  But we had to leave little Györ.  So we caught a train to Vienna (Wien) and thats where we are now.  we walked to our hotel, which is a little run down, but not bad at all.  We ate some turkish foods, and found an internet café.  So every thing is all cool.  Its nice to be in a country that we understand (bethany understands) a little of the language. 

We will see if these computers will allow picture transfers later. 

Miss you all.

 

New Photos Added

We are on Dial up, and on a German computer, but there are a few new pics on the flickr site.  Click on the Pictures link, or go to

www.flickr.com/photos/vlandham

Nicole and Györ

Well the train system wasn´t that bad... we figured it out eventually.  The subway system was no fun because aparently part of it is closed due to construction.  But we made it to Hero´s square and saw the sites.  Nice statues and the most tourists we had seen yet.  We then walked to the train station, which took around 45 min.  But we got there way too early, so we spent 2 hours just waiting for our train to show up.  It did come, after a bit of waiting, and we hopped aboard, and got to share a train car with two fat hungarian women, and two other guys of indeterminant origin.  We are now in Györ which is in the most western part of Hungary.  Nicole is letting us stay in her apartment for a few days, which is cool that we will have a guide around Györ!

Nicole just said that in Germany, George Bush is viewed as Satan!  Pretty funny.  But anyways, shes cooking us a traditional hungarian dinner right now, and then its out for some traditional hungarian clubing!