Final Day: Through the Alps, to Venice

On our final day in Europe, we made the 6-8 hour drive from Geneva back to Venice, where we'll catch our flight tomorrow. I put the range in the driving time because we discovered that the time it takes depends largely on the flow of traffic up Mont Blanc.

We discovered this morning that Geneva sits at the bottom of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. To get to the other side (toward Venice), you can drive through the 11.6 km tunnel, but there's only one lane of traffic going up. You also want to make sure you have enough gas, don't have to pee, and don't have a car that will overheat (we got dangerously close to having problems with all three of these issues). We passed a car that had definitely overheated with three young women sitting on the side of the road. Because the traffic was so slow, I got out and gave them a bottle of water while they waited for help.

Still, the mountain was very beautiful, and the Alpine drive was quite lovely. We spent pretty much the entire day driving back to Venice, where we ended our trip with our new Italian tradition: pizza with hot dogs and french fries, plus gelato for dessert.

This trip was truly epic for us: an entire month in Europe, covering many countries and many amazing historical sites. I realize how privileged we are to have this opportunity. We've tried to enjoy it as much as possible, while being sure to experience the "local" atmosphere of each place as well. While we have many wonderful memories, and it's been a month out of a dream, we are both looking forward to being home, with friends, family, and puppies.

Here's a picture of a small waterfall we passed on the road, with the peak of Mont Blanc in the background.

Day 28: Geneva, Switzerland

Our final city on the trip was Geneva. We wanted to see at least a bit of Switzerland as we drove back to Italy, for our flight home, so we decided to spend the night in this famous city.

This time, our hotel was in a downtown location, but by coincidence, it was also in the heart of the sex district. Snuggled between two sex shops, our hotel's front door is also surrounded by a wide variety of eager prostitutes. I couldn't help but compare them to the ones we saw in Amsterdam. The women here were, in fact, different. There was a much greater variety of ethnicities (Clint pointed out that they had probably been trafficked from different locations than Amsterdam), and the women all were highly made-up, mostly with surgical enhancements. I still wondered about their life circumstances.

We spent the evening in a really wonderful fondue restaurant just a few blocks out of the neighborhood. It was really delicious! We tried Swiss cheeses and Swiss sausages, along with Swiss apple tart for dessert.

Day 27: Marseille, in the South of France

We knew we wanted to see more of France than just Paris, but our time is getting short. Actually, we decided to go back home a week earlier than originally planned, which means we only have a few days left. So, we spent most of the day driving through France down to the Southern border town of Marseille. The drive was nice, changing from the Midwestern-esque landscapes of cornfields to rolling hills, to the beginning of jagged foothills. We passed several vineyards and olive groves.

Marseille is the oldest town in France (they have prehistoric cave paintings, and brick foundations of houses from around 6000 BCE!), and we were attracted to it due to its placement on the coast. Ever since our trip to Crete several years ago, we've had a fondness for Mediterranean cities.

Our hotel is downtown, so it was an easy walk to see the busiest part of the city. Unfortunately there was construction along most of the port, but we were able to find a great restaurant in the pedestrian area. Clint got seafood, which was fitting. I hate seafood, so of course I got gnocchi with 3 cheeses, plus gelato for dessert. I guess I'm Italian if you go by my stomach! Still, the waiter didn't speak English, so I managed to do the entire transaction over dinner in French, which felt pretty good.

Tomorrow: the drive to Geneva! Below is a photo of the Marseille port, about a block from our hotel and where we had dinner.

Day 26: Paris

Goal for the day: See Paris! We got up in the late morning and took the "local" train route back to the Eiffel Tower. There, we got on our "hop on/hop off" bus to tour the city. We went pretty much all the way around and through Paris, taking about two and a half hours (not counting the "hop off" stops) to see the major sites. It was a beautiful day for the open-top bus; not too hot, with a wonderful breeze.

We spent the afternoon doing the tour, then we had a late lunch at a street-side cafe about two blocks from the Tower. We then decided just to rest for the remainder of the day, so we took the trains back to the hotel for some work, a nap, and a late dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel.

Tomorrow we have a long drive, to the South of France: Marseilles. Below are some of the photos I took on our tour today.

Day 25: Versailles and Paris, France

This morning we did the three hour drive from Brussels to the general area of Paris in France. Instead of going right into the city, though, we decided to spend the afternoon touring the famous Versailles Palace, started by Louis XIII, expanded by Louis XIV, and finished by Louis XV (more or less).

We got there around 2:15 pm. First, we drove around for about 30 minutes looking for appropriate parking. Then, we got in our first line of the day, to purchase tickets. We decided to skip the gardens and just see the palace (we were able to see some of the gardens from the windows of the palace anyway). That line took about an hour.

We then saw the REAL line, the one to get inside the palace. It was super huge, winding back and forth through the enormous courtyard in front. We stood there for a minute, silently feeling the depression kick in and realizing that by the time we actually got into the palace, we might be dead.

So I now admit that we were a bit naughty: We simply walked right up to the entry, flashed our tickets, and walked in. No one in the line stopped us. The guards didn't stop us. So we just went in. It saved us the two hour line in the hot sun. We don't regret it. We then had to stand in another line, about 30 minutes, for the audioguides. Seriously, Versailles? By this time I was starting to get hungry for dinner, and that just got me thinking about eating cake... you know, 'cause it's Versailles.

So by the time we finally got in, we were ready to see some opulence. We weren't disappointed. It's pretty fancy in there, with lots of gold, paintings, etc. Actually a lot of the paintings on display are original old paintings by famous people, but they are the thumbnail sketches of really huge paintings that they later put on ceilings, parts of the palace we aren't allowed to see, etc. There's a decent little history lesson next to each thing where they teach you about the different Louis-es, French artists, etc. The entire thing took around four hours.

We then drove to our hotel, which is near the airport, so we had to figure out the Metro system into the main part of town. I asked the woman at the hotel desk how to get into downtown Paris. She said, "Take the shuttle from the hotel to the airport. That will cost five Euros. Then you take the tourist train from the airport to the Eiffel Tower. That costs fifteen Euros." What the who? Twenty Euros?? For each of us? Each way??? No thanks.

So we just went to our computers and Googled how to get from the airport to the Eiffel Tower. In about twenty seconds we got the local instructions and did that, which consisted of driving to a local parking lot for the Metro and taking three trains in. We bought a booklet of 10 tickets for a total of twelve Euros.

We took the trains to the Eiffel Tower and had dinner there, looking up at the tower during sunset, and we watched the lights on the tower become brighter as the daylight faded. It was very nice. Tomorrow, we'll take a bus tour of the city, where I hope to see the Arch de Triumph and Notre Dame.

Photos below are the main gate into Versailles and the Tower, just after sunset.

Day 24: Brussels, Belgium

It was an easy two hour drive this morning from Amsterdam to Brussels, Belgium. I've been looking forward to Brussels and France because I took two years of French twenty years ago back in high school, and I finally have a chance to use a little bit of it! It took us a while to figure out how to get to the hotel due to lots of one-way, curvy roads and road construction, but we finally were able to settle in. Our new hotel is again in a great location, very close to the "center" of town, with lots of touristy-type stuff and beautiful old buildings to see.

We wandered randomly trying to find a good place for lunch, and we decided on a very small, humble-looking bar/pub type place with almost no one inside. The proprietor didn't speak much English, and my terrible French didn't seem to be a good idea, so finally she managed to ask if we wanted "mussels" or "steak." We went with steak. In just a few minutes two steaks came out of the kitchen, along with two gigantic piles of French fries. This made us both pretty happy, actually, because "French" fries were really invented here in Belgium. We ate about half of our plates, and then the cook came out and asked us if we wanted MORE fries. Geez, it was like the Mt. Everest of fries in that place.

We then came back to the hotel for a little afternoon nap, then ventured back out to see the city. We walked around for about 30 minutes, got lost, and I managed to ask a guy (in French!) where we were, and how to get to where we wanted to go? He was super nice and helpful, and I understood about 40% of what he said, which got us going in the correct direction. We finally hit the "Grand Place," the main city square with the typical beautiful buildings, churches, and tons of people milling around and taking photos (including us).

We wandered around the square and little pedestrian alleys with shops, enjoying the atmosphere and cool evening air. We then decided to stop in a place for some Belgian beers. I don't actually like beer too much, but they have delicious fruit beers here that I enjoy. I got a great raspberry one.

We then went around the corner and I got "Belgian waffles," which I'm sure aren't too authentic, but hey, it's part of the experience. I chose one with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. It was good. We then wandered around some more, drank more beer (cherry this time), and finally went back to the hotel.

We didn't do anything "official" in Brussels, and we didn't visit any museums. But I had a great time here! Below are just a few of the photos I took of buildings near the hotel and/or in the Grand Place.

Day 23: Amsterdam, Netherlands

We spent the morning and afternoon driving from Berlin to Amsterdam, a trip about six hours long. On the way, Clint saw a cool windmill (clearly a sign that we're in Holland). I took a nap.

Our hotel here is the opposite from our last few hotels -- it's fairly crappy, but in an extremely convenient location (no two hour train rides this time). We're about one block from Centraal Station on Damrak, for people who have been here. That's basically the main street of town. It's a fun place to be, with hundreds of interesting people wandering around.

After checking in to the hotel, we found out that the Anne Frank house is open late during the summer. That was the #1 thing I wanted to do while here, so we visited. You can see the two-story "Annex" where she lived with her family and another family (total of eight people) until they were discovered, separated, and sent to different concentration camps. It was a moving museum, but honestly I was surprised at how spacious it was. When I read the diary in high school, I always imagined a tiny, poorly-lit, unfinished space. The visit definitely made me want to read her diary again.

We then walked back to the hotel to get our bearings, and decided to find the Red Light district. Two years ago when I taught "Honors Human Sexuality" at BVU, we all did a class project on sex trafficking. Amsterdam has one of the worst records for this crime, and I was curious to see it for myself. We saw several women standing in their underwear behind windows, trying to get "customers." They were all ethnic minorities, for which the area is known (exploiting certain types of people more than others, kidnapping the minority women of certain countries, etc.).

That entire experience was pretty depressing, especially after visiting the also depressing Anne Frank house. But, the thing that brightened my mood was that we serendipitously walked through the gathering spot for Amsterdam's gay pride weekend, which was really fun to see. So many guys in tight leather pants! It was nice to see a city celebrating something that's so close to my heart.

We had a late dinner at the pizzeria on the ground floor of our hotel, which is an open space. When I'm visiting new cities, I prefer to eat outside where I can watch everything that's happening. I always feel more like I'm really experiencing the environment if I'm outside. Amsterdam seems to be a very friendly city. Even though I've been here two times before, it was only on quick layovers between flights. I'm glad I get to be here on a more relaxed schedule. It's a beautiful place.

Below is a photo of the building where Anne Frank lived for the last year of her life.

Day 22: Berlin, Germany

We woke at mid-morning and made the 90 minute trek to our pick-up point for the "hop on/hop off" bus tour of Berlin. The entire tour takes two hours if you don't "hop off" (which we did in two places), and goes past 90 important/historical places in both East and West Berlin. It also goes past a few "unofficial" places pointed out by the driver, such as the nudist park!

As mentioned, we got off the bus for a better look at two locations. First was the famous "Checkpoint Charlie," a cross-over spot in the historic Berlin Wall. It was interesting to see the sign indicating "You are now in East/West Berlin," and the fake guards dressed up for tourists at the checkpoint. You can even pay to get a replica of the stamp in your passport they used to use.

Our second "hop off" point was the famous Brandenburg Gate. This was a very nice part of Berlin, with tons of people milling around, having snacks, taking photos, etc. The tour explained that Berlin is about 1/3 parks, and it appears to be a very attractive city, with an interesting mix of ancient and modern. It kind of reminded me of a combination of Chicago and New York.

We spent around three or four hours total on the tour. When we got off the bus at the final stop, there was a little street carnival going on, with a few rides and several cute shops with souvenirs, food, and beer. I got a snack and we walked around for a bit. It was fun to just see families having a good time in the city.

After our afternoon in the city, we made the journey back to the hotel, then I took a nap while Clint booked the rest of the hotels for the trip. We then grabbed some simple sandwiches in the hotel lobby and spent the evening getting some work done. It was an easy day, but we feel like we got to have a nice taste of Berlin. Tomorrow, we travel to Amsterdam.

Day 21: Drive to Berlin

We let ourselves sleep until 10:00 today, then drove to Berlin. It was nice to get back into one of the EU countries, as we realized (after our run-in with the police in Bratislava) that we were driving around Eastern Europe illegally. Whoops!

The drive to Berlin took the entire day, pretty much. When we got to the hotel, we checked in, then figured out what Metro stop we needed to get on our "hop on/hop off" bus tour of the city tomorrow. We decided to spend the evening doing a "practice run" to the stop we need for tomorrow, have dinner somewhere around there, then come back for the night.

Unfortunately, it took us about two hours to get from our hotel to the correct stop. We did take the wrong train at one point (we had to switch around among 3 different ones), but that only delayed us about 15 minutes. So it was quite a journey -- basically starting from the far Eastern side of the city to the mid-Western side. So by the time we got back to the hotel, it was around midnight.

That's about all to report for today; really it was just a travel day. Tomorrow I should be able to post about our tour of Berlin.

Day 20: Prague

Today was going to be a relatively leisurely day for us. So, in the morning we joined a "hop on hop off" bus tour of the city, where you ride around on the open-top bus while they point out various sites, and you can get off whenever you want to check out a particular location (then get back on whenever you want as well). The tour was pretty nice, but the cobblestones on all the streets made it kind of hard to hear the commentary.

We got off at the famous Prague Castle, which is the largest "castle complex" in the world. That means that they're counting all of the various buildings that make up the actual "castle" (which is dozens of buildings), plus the huge church, all the out-buildings, etc. I did a tour of the complex when I was here a couple of years ago through a BVU J-term travel course, but it was Clint's first time. We did a brief tour, just seeing the highlights, but it's certainly a beautiful place.

One reason Prague is so pretty now is that it's one of the only major cities that didn't get bombed in WWII, so it still has really nice older buildings, churches, etc. The "castle" itself is known for having buildings and structures that cover 1000 years of different architectural styles, so we saw Gothic, Renaissance, Victorian, etc. We also got to see the changing of the guard at noon.

After the castle and bus tour, we stopped at the main city square for a light lunch. We chose a little restaurant that was located with a perfect view of the famous clock tower that has a show every hour. Basically, the little dudes on the tower move around, the bells go off, and two windows open up to show the "parade of saints," which are little mechanized paintings of about 10 different saints. There's also a dude at the top of the tower who plays the trumpet. It's a pretty nice little show (and it's free!).

After that, we wanted to chill out for the rest of the day (partially that's literally, as it was super hot and humid today). So we rested in the hotel for about an hour, then found our way to an air-conditioned movie theatre that was showing an English-language version of "The Dark Knight Rises" (Batman). It was a great movie, in my opinion, and it was great just to sit in air-conditioning with a large soda for a few hours.

One weird thing about the theater: they had two different kinds of popcorn. They had the regular kind we get in the states, plus a kind that was "ham and cheese flavored." The woman behind the counter let us try it -- it really did taste like ham and cheese! It was like "chicken cordon bleu popcorn." It freaked me out.

Photos below are of Prague.

Day 19: Auschwitz, Poland & Prague, Czech Republic

We knew today would be a long day, both in terms of our itinerary and emotionally. Our morning's tour was of Auschwitz. I knew it would be an especially long day when the roosters woke me up at 6:00 a.m. I told you our hotel was rural.

So, we started with a nice breakfast at the hotel, then drove to Auschwitz. We joined the English-speaking tour and were told that it would take about four hours. The tour starts at "Auschwitz I" which started as a pure "concentration" camp, meaning a place to warehouse all the "undesirable" people, but not necessarily a death camp. This is where they started doing medical experiments and did their first testing to see how much cyanide it took to kill a bunch of people huddled together in one building. We toured several of the original buildings, which are now set up as museums of various aspects of the camp, such as daily life, the experiments, the prison building, the SS quarters, and the first gas chamber. One of the buildings showcases all of the luggage people brought with them, not knowing they would be forced to immediately turn it over to the SS guards upon arrival. Later in the camp history, when people were simply immediately killed upon arrival, things like their shoes were kept. After being gassed, the women's hair was shaved and sold to shops where it was weaved into cloth. One room was simply a huge pile of hair from 30,000 women who were murdered.

The second half of the tour was to the nearby death-camp Birkenau. We saw the temporary living conditions, the remains of the crematoria, and the SS watchtower.

It's hard for me to put my experience and impression into words. It was chilling, sobering, depressing, and simply sad. I found myself about to cry on several occasions, and nauseated on many more. I looked at the faces of victims, captured in photos taken by the SS guards right before they were sent to the "showers." One of my distant relatives was an Austrian Jewish man. Are some of my relatives in those photos? I looked at the chart showing the various ways they classified and marked the prisoners... Jews, criminals, homosexuals.

Because I was in Rwanda only a few weeks ago, I couldn't help but compare the European genocide to the Rwandan genocide. How are they similar, and how are they different? Is one "worse" than the other? Here are some thoughts that flitted through my mind:

Similarities:
1. Thousands and thousands of people were murdered every day.
2. People were chosen for death based on their birth conditions, mostly, something over which they had no control.
3. The types of people chosen for death were classes of people who at one time, in some way, were "privileged" (at least, most of them). Thus, at least part of the genocide was due to simple envy and frustration, which turned to hatred.

Differences:
1. In Europe, people killed strangers in factory-like conditions, making it an industrial machine. In Rwanda, neighbors and friends killed each other close-up, face to face.
2. "Only" one million people were killed in Rwanda. Over eight million were killed in Europe. However, the killing in Rwanda happened much more quickly and efficiently.
3. In Europe, priests and other religious leaders were marked for death due to their higher level of education and the fear that their advanced thinking in terms of ethics would cause them to protest the genocide. In Rwanda, many priests and other religious leaders contributed and helped the genocide.

Similarity:
1. Both made my academic "psychology sense" come out, as I tried to analyze the who, what, when, where, and why of what happened. Only by understanding these questions can we try to prevent such atrocities in the future.
2. Both made me want to cry.

In the afternoon, we drove to Prague. I felt nauseated, but couldn't tell if it was because I hadn't eaten, because the Polish roads were hilly and curvy, or because of what my mind couldn't repress. I eventually took a pill and fell asleep.

We arrived in Prague about five hours later. We settled into our room, took the local tram to a non-tourist part of town, and had dinner. We plan to get up relatively early tomorrow and tour this beautifully preserved city.

For now, I want to sleep. I hope that I don't dream. Photos below are from this morning.

Day 18: Bratislava, Slovakia, & Oswiecim, Poland

We knew today was going to be a leisurely day, which was nice. We left Vienna this morning; our plan was to make the short drive over to Slovakia and have lunch in Bratislava. Why did we want to go to Bratislava? Three reasons.

First, we simply wanted to add another country to our list. Second, the movie "Eurotrip" made Bratislava famous! We wanted to see if it was the same in real life as it was portrayed in the movie (Miami Vice, #1 new show!). Finally, we had done some research on Bratislava, and it's actually supposed to be a very nice cultural center of Eastern Europe.

So, we made the pretty drive about an hour from Vienna. We had chosen a particular restaurant where we wanted to eat lunch, a place known as one of the best restaurants/pubs in Bratislava. Each room is themed to represent one historical era in the country's history, and the food is supposed to be authentic Slovakian food.

So, we typed the address into the GPS and started weaving through the confusing, curvy streets. Our impression of Bratislava is that it's actually very beautiful, with several super-cool castles. As we finally hit the street we wanted, we realized after just a couple of seconds that there were no other cars... and people kept looking at us with annoyed expressions... and we realized we were driving on the historic pedestrian street of the ancient city. The GPS told us to turn there! After this realization, we also noticed a police car quickly approaching us.

So, the police instructed us to pull to the side and show our "documents." They didn't speak much English. They tried German. We didn't speak German or... Slovak? I don't know. Clint presented his passport, the Hertz rental agreement, and his US driver's license. They told us that they needed to see a Slovakian driver's license. Ummm....

They then explained to us (in Slovak?) that we were driving on a pedestrian street. We told them we figured that out, but were only here because of the GPS. They explained (in Slovak?) that we should ignore the GPS and read the road signs. We agreed that was a good idea. They told us we had to pay a fee. We were happy to oblige if that meant avoiding getting arrested or deported. They explained they COULD charge us 60 Euros, but were only going to charge us 30 Euros. Great! We forked over the cash, they gave us our stuff back, and we drove away as quickly as possible.

After our brief conversation with the Slovakian police, we did manage to find the restaurant, which turned out to be great. Clint got bean soup and deep-fried perogies, and I got garlic soup and the Slovakian national dish, which is potato dumplings covered in sheep's cheese and bacon. It was awesome.

We then drove about four hours through the Carpathian mountains to get to our evening's destination, Oswiecim, Poland. This is basically a tiny little town that is next to Auschwitz, where we'll tour tomorrow morning. The hotel is seriously rural, with a couple of houses and an empty field across the street. The people are very nice, but definitely don't speak English. They only take cash (good thing we got Polish money -- no Euros). The rooms are clearly clean and nice, but very old. It's kind of like visiting the equivalent of a place like Storm Lake (meaning just a small, rural town) instead of the huge cities where we've been staying. Clint realized that in Polish, "Osweicim" is basically the same sound as "Auschwitz."

For dinner, we decided the best bet for authentic Polish food would be to eat at the hotel restaurant, which is clearly just the family's personal kitchen. We split an appetizer of heated sausages, then we both got perogies with cream cheese, which was really good. For dessert I got a huge ice cream sundae. Drinks were a large beer and a Coke; the total price for all of this was the equivalent of $15.

Below you can see photos showing: (1) our rural hotel in Poland, (2) the pedestrian street in downtown Bratislava, and (3) the countryside bordering Slovakia and Poland. It looks just like Storm Lake, Iowa!

Day 17: Vienna, Austria

We woke up surprisingly ready for the day (considering the beer tour went pretty late last night). So, we quickly packed, grabbed some cheesy bread at the bakery next to the hotel, and started our driving journey to our new city: Vienna.

The drive was, again, very beautiful, and parts of it reminded us of home. It took about four hours to get to Vienna, and because it was early afternoon, we decided to go to our first stop before even checking into the hotel. What was the first stop? The Freud museum, of course!

I talk about Freud in almost all of my psych classes, at least for a few minutes. While some of his ideas are certainly controversial, and while he is NOT the "Father of Psychology," he was a brilliant man with lots of good contributions to the field.

The museum is basically where he lived and worked for many years, until he had to leave Austria due to Nazi movements pre-WWII. The museum shows a couple of rooms as they were when he lived here (all the furnishings, etc. were donated by his daughter, Anna), and several rooms that show photos, books, etc. from his life. It's a small museum, and it didn't have as much as I expected, but it was still a very fun experience just to be in the place where he made himself famous.

We had the rest of the afternoon and evening free, so we checked into the hotel, and took a nap. Then, we took the local tram to the part of town called "The Ring," a sort of circular area downtown with parks, museums, the university, and the famous St. Thomas church. We walked around there for a bit, walked through the area where students live, drank a beer at the Scottish pub, then found a nice local restaurant. The cook himself came out and made some recommendations, so I got the goulash and Clint got the wiener schnitzel.

It was a relatively quiet day, but a relaxing one, which is good because we don't want to get too exhausted by trying to fit in too many tours, exhibits, etc.

Photos below are of some of the sights from today.

Day 16: Dachau & Munich, Germany

We started the day by driving from Munich to Dachau, the famous work camp set up by Hitler. We spent the entire morning there, slowly walking through the remains of the camp, the crematoria, and the museum. It was quite sobering and depressing, but very relevant to my research on prejudice. It will be interesting to compare/contrast Dachau to Auschwitz, which we plan to visit in a couple of days.

On our way back to Munich, we decided to stop in a Chinese restaurant to see if the German Chinese food is different from U.S. Chinese food. Clint got chicken chop suey, while I ordered pork fried rice. Both were very similar to what we'd get back home, and both were really delicious.

We rested in the hotel for about an hour, then went back to downtown Munich to see the famous glockenspiel chime at 5:00 pm. We ended the day with our evening event: Beer Tour. This consisted of meeting up with a group of random people at one of the local hostels, then walking around Munich and drinking beer at several different locations. One of them was the second largest beer garden in the world (it allows 7000 people to sit there at any given time), and another was a favorite hang-out of Hitler, where he made several speeches. The people on the tour were very friendly, and a good time was had by all.

Photos below are of the famous sign entering Dachau ("work will set you free"), the Munich glockenspiel, and the crematorium at the work camp.

Day 15: Venice to Munich, Germany

We got up early to disembark from the ship, and took a bus back to the airport where we picked up our new rental car. We spent the late morning/early afternoon driving through Northern Italy and Austria, making our way to our stop for the next two days: Munich.

The drive was absolutely gorgeous, as we wound our way through the heart of the Alps. (I was happy that I decided to leave my motion-sickness patch on, though). At some points on the drive, we were at cloud level or just above, looking down at the charming little Austrian villages tucked into the mountain valleys.

We finally got to our hotel in the early evening. The hotel we chose is a little bit out of town (so it's relatively inexpensive), and it has a laundry room, which is great after two weeks of the same clothes (and still three weeks to go before we're home).

We caught the train a few blocks from our hotel and just headed into the center of downtown Munich, to explore for the evening. As soon as we got off the train, we ran smack into a band parade that was wandering around the central part of town. We followed them for about eight blocks, just because we were enjoying the music and wanted to see where they were going. They led us into one of the main squares in town, a section that started a pedestrian walkway.

From there, we walked several more blocks, enjoying the Bavarian architecture and lively Saturday night crowd. We finally stopped at a beautiful, huge restaurant called "Weisses Brauhaus," which Clint told me means "Wheat Beer House." The building has been a brewery for wheat beers since 1540, and they now offer many different kinds, as well as traditional German food. Clint ordered two kinds of beers, along with a plate of 5 different kinds of sausage. I got wiener schnitzel and apple strudel. It was great! We both commented that German food feels just like we're back in the midwest: meat, potatoes, and beer.

Here are some random shots of Munich I snapped as we walked around town.

Day 14: At Sea

All day today, the ship was at sea, going back to Venice. That meant that for seven hours, I was in classes. We covered different types of interventions, and then some of the people did a role-playing exercise (I observed, as I always find role-playing uncomfortable). I was glad to be done around 4:00 pm, as I wanted to spend the last evening on the cruise hanging out with Clint.

So, we hung out at our favorite lounge for a bit, then went to the casino and each played around $30. I played Blackjack for the first time ever, and I managed to win a whole $6.00!

Our final evening was busy packing up all of our bags and then going to our final dinner, which was in the ship's steakhouse. It was a very good meal. We grabbed a nightcap at the lounge and listened to the really excellent piano player/singer, then headed to bed early.

The cruise was fun in general, and I'd definitely consider another in the future. But, we're both looking forward to having the freedom of land and a car.

Day 13: Olympia, Greece

Class this morning covered fetal alcohol syndrome and an hour's discussion of alcoholism, specifically. Then we got a couple of hours off between classes and docking at the port, so I went back to the room and went back to sleep. We got up around 11:30, grabbed a quick lunch at the buffet, and got off the ship for our last port: Olympia.

We had to take a bus about 45 minutes to reach the site of the ancient ruins of Olympia; this is where the first Olympic games were held. I had been there before for the Greece/Turkey Jterm trip two years ago, but again, it's a beautiful site, and Clint had never been there, so it was fun to go back.

The ruins are quite large, and they include the first Greek temple ever (to Hera) and one of the largest temples ever, the temple of Zeus, which used to hold the famous golden statue of Zeus, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. We were able to spend about an hour walking around the ancient site, then about an hour walking around the museum to see all the original statues, tools, helmets, pottery, etc. that's been excavated from the site.

I'm posting this blog entry (and adding photos to the entries from the past week) because we're sitting at a beautiful seaside cafe with fast wifi! Tonight we'll have dinner in the "regular" restaurant again, because it's our second formal night. Everyone will get all dressed up and we'll get a special fancy menu. Last time it was really great, so we're looking forward to it.

Photos below are from Olympia.

Day 12: Ephesus, Turkey

Today I got my second day off from classes on the ship, because our excursion started pretty early in the morning. The port today was Ephesus, Turkey; this is the portion of Turkey in Asia, so we got to add another continent to the trip. Although I went to Ephesus two years ago through a BVU Travel Course, Clint had never been there before. Also, Ephesus is my favorite site for ancient ruins (at least, of the ones I've seen so far), so I was excited to go back.

We had booked a group tour, and it turned out to just be us and one other couple, which was really great because we basically had a private tour. Ephesus is an absolutely beautiful marble city, and much of the city is still there, after thousands of years. Cleopatra came here, and Paul the Apostle preached here (and lived here for a while). This time, I got to see both the main city area and the terrace houses (we had to skip the houses last time). It's absolutely huge, covered in white marble, mosaics, frescoes, etc.

After our tour (which lasted about four hours), we stopped by the Starbucks to use their wifi. I bought wifi on the ship, but it's so slow that it doesn't work for me to upload the blogs. So if you are a regular reader, that's why you saw a bunch of days pop up all at once a while ago, and again when we exit the cruise on the last day.

When we got back on the ship, we wandered over to our favorite lounge for some Diet Coke to help us wake up a bit. We accidentally walked into a sodoku challenge that was already started, so I went ahead and played along, and ended up coming in first place (thanks, Mom, for teaching me!). I won a super amazing keychain and pen.

In the evening, we had a reservation for the Chef's Table, the very exclusive restaurant on the ship where only 12 people can eat each night. Today is our 14th anniversary, so we wanted to celebrate by going to this special restaurant. One of the main chefs for the ship created a tasting menu, and we got wine pairings with each course. Our meal included the following: (1) lobster & king crab salad, (2) trio of mini soups, (3) duck egg rolls with sake, (4) lamb shank on top of potato risotto, and (5) trio of desserts. I told the waiter that it was our anniversary, so they also brought out a chocolate cake with candles. Then the chef brought out a second round of 5 different mini-desserts for all of us. The basket of bread was also really amazing. It was a fun day.

Day 11: Santorini, Greece

I went to class at 8:00 this morning. We watched a documentary about some people who were addicts, then we went over a couple of surveys practitioners can use to screen new clients who are addicted to various substances.

After joining Clint for a quick lunch in the buffet restaurant, we were ready for today's excursion onto the island of Santorini. This was a day toward which we were both looking forward, as Santorini is supposed to be the most beautiful location in Greece. We joined a group today that first visited a winery, then drove to a little picturesque village. The village was placed on the top of an extremely steep cliff, so to get to the top we had three choices: (1) take the cable car, (2) ride a donkey up the 600 stairs, or (3) walk up the 600 stairs. We opted for the cable car.

It was a very beautiful island in general, but it was so extremely hot and humid today that we were sort of distracted by the sweat pouring off us in waves. To get back down to the bottom of the cliff, the line for the cable car looked ridiculously long, so we decided to just take the 600 stairs (it's much better going down, right)? Well, the only problems with this plan were (1) there's no shade the entire time, and we were already super sweaty, and (2) the donkeys use the same steps. So fairly frequently, we had to smoosh ourselves up against the stone wall to let a donkey pass. And we had to make sure not to step in the ubiquitous donkey poo.

As soon as we got back to our cabin we took showers, changed clothes, and grabbed some cold drinks in our favorite lounge. We were only there for a few minutes when another couple asked to join us. They were very nice; they're Scottish, and we talked about our trip to Scotland last year. We enjoyed their company very much and invited them to join us for our late dinner. Afterward, we went to the piano bar for a final drink, then came back to get some sleep before our early morning excursion tomorrow.

It was a beautiful, fun day.... and really, really hot. It made me miss the usual trips I take through BVU, which are in January!

Day 10: Corfu, Greece

I didn't have to go to any classes today, so we got to enjoy a day of leisure. We got up around 10:00 and grabbed a small breakfast, then headed into our port of the day: Corfu, Greece. Corfu is a Greek island and is the most westerly part of the country.

In order to get to the historic part of town, we would have had to pay for an expensive private bus. We elected to just walk around the more residential part of town, which was still very beautiful, as it went along the coast of the island. It was a nice morning.

In the afternoon and evening, we were back on the ship. We went to the on-ship gym first. Then, we tried to play Bingo, but not enough people showed up. We decided to go back to the casino, where Clint won $50 playing Blackjack. We also participated in trivia, and came in first place this time! So we won two magnets. I know, you're envious about the magnets.

In the evenings, the ship always has a party/dance/dinner along a certain theme. Tonight's theme was "ballroom formal," and they offered free dance classes. So everyone got all dressed up, and the menu in the restaurant was very fancy (the menu for dinner changes every night). We decided to start with escargot and lobster bisque. Then we had to decide on our entree, and we told the waiter that we couldn't decide between the roast duck and prime rib. So he said, "No problem -- I'll bring both." BOTH. Two prime rib plates and one duck to share. He also brought us an extra order of escargot because we liked it so much. Note, this entire thing is already included in the price of the cruise, so we didn't have to order based on price. We also got free flutes of champaign!

The service here on the cruise is absolutely amazing. In addition to our awesome waiter, we've had two other truly dedicated staff members helping us. The first is a man named Rodrigo who bar-tends every day in our favorite lounge (there are about 5 different ones). He's super friendly, asks if we like our drinks, offered to get new ones if we don't like them, and chats with us every time we're in there. He can also do the whole "juggling bartender" thing with the bottles.

Finally, there's a man named Jose who cleans our room twice a day. He does everything -- we come back to the room after a couple of hours, and he'll do things like fold our clothes! The entire staff here is truly top-notch.

There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to traveling via cruise, compared to a road trip. We love the amazing service, gourmet food, tons of activities offered, and the ability to truly relax as the ship simply takes us to the next port. There are also some drawbacks. Beyond simply being expensive, we can't decide to stay in a particular place longer. We also share a table with seven other people every time we have dinner in the main dining room, and they're pretty friendly, but we can't really avoid them due to the reserved table. Finally, I have terrible motion sickness. I'm taking two different types of medication for it, but if I don't find the exact balance of food, medicine, etc., I get nauseated. I've felt it a couple of times, but I'm surprised that it's not worse.

My general assessment of the cruise so far is that it's a really fun experience to have at least once. I would consider doing another one, but it is expensive. Both Clint and I have felt most comfortable talking to the staff instead of the other passengers, but that's probably because we aren't particularly fancy. All that said, we're having a really great time. It should be a great week.