Hilton, Paris

James and I arrived at the Prague airport via a shuttle on time. We checked our luggage, went through customs, security, and spent the last of our crowns in the duty free shop. It was so nice to get on the plane, have exit row seats, and know you were going to sleep in your own bed that night. Well we ended up sitting at the gate for 4 hours hoping to have a wing flap problem resolved. It wasn't. So we got off the plane, got our hotel vouchers, went through customs, picked up our luggage and stayed at the hotel. It was noted our whole flight would be flying out at 10am the next morning.
We got up the next morning rode the shuttle and got in line for ticket check in and waited. We were so excited at the possibility of getting home that night (we knew nothing of our connections in Atlanta at this point) and sleeping in our beds. The line did not move. It turns out they were having computer problems and no one from Delta was at the desk only non Delta employees and these employees didn't know how to fix the problem. So after 2 hours of waiting in a line that did not move they got the computers running and slowly started to check people in. One hour later with a little bit of movement forward in line....the flight was cancelled and we were told to go to a desk and re book. Another three hours in line (total of six in all), three intertnational phone calls and one desk clerk got James and I on a flight to Paris that night, a flight from there to Atlanta in the morning and home to Milwaukee by 5 o'clock on Wednesday evening. So we checked in, went through customs, boarded the plane, and pulled away from the gate with a sigh of relief. At least we were going somewhere. Well an announcement was made that we had to go back to the gate because of mechanical difficulties that needed to be taken care of. ARGH!!! Well, we took off that day and spent the night in Paris.
Now I know most of you are thinking rather sarcastically "Oh poor baby you guys got stuck in Paris. Wah Wah Wah." Well we were exhausted, had no clean clothes left had hauled our luggage around so much and were generally a bit stressed so it wasn't such a joy. We got into the Parisian airport and deplaned, went through customs, picked up our luggage, and looked for the Delta counter per instruction. Well an information person at the airport told us the wrong terminal and when we got to the right terminal the desk was closed and had been for the last 2 hours. Our tickets from the Prague flight had "Hotel Hilton" written on the top so we hopped on the shuttle and headed that direction. The Hilton refused to check us in because we did not have vouchers as form of payment. They made us go back to the airport and talk to Air France desk to get vouchers. We went back on the shuttle, spent about 45 minutes there to learn that Air France couldn't help us at all. So back on the shuttle to the Hilton to figure out what we wanted. One condescending clerk and a credit card later we were checked in. We went downtown for dinner (thats a whole other story) and got to bed about 2am.
The next morning we checked in, went through customs, security, and boarded the plane. We took off on time and got home a little after scheduled arrival (we had a delay in Atlanta for some problems). Luckily we were reimbursed for our dinner and our hotel room by an friendly man at the Paris Delta counter. There is much more detail to the story but not that you want to read it all. Overall, I will be thinking twice about flying Delta internationally again. But I am home!!!

Music in Praha

So our final stop has been Prague and even after three days here we don't feel like we have enough time. We tried to take a bus today to see Terezin concentration camp but the 12 o'clock bus was full and the next was too late to "enjoy" enough time at the sights.
Last night we went to a classical musical performance at the Municipal House. It seems like a rather touristy thing to do but something that would be nice to hear. So we had to chose between an Opera medley in the main Smetana Hall and a classical music piece in the smaller hall. It was my choice and if I had been on my own it would have been the opera. The fear on James' face at opera was enough for me to decide on the classical concert. He honestly didn't have a strong opinion either way. We arrived early to get good seats. You see in this backwards country music concerts have no assigned seating, just zones from A-C while your movie theaters here have assigned seating in rows and seats. Hmmm Anyway so our performance is in the basement and I mean the basement. The place where they hide their two bars and such. When the open the doors the hall is small. (Sure glad I got here early!) There are a scattering of chairs in the front of the hall and some stands. Now I am thinking, why oh why did I not take the opera? The big hall for over 1,000 people and all that was so pretty with Carmen being sung and a ballet..... UGH! Aside from the fact that they played very limited amounts of the pieces (Mozart and so on) they had listed in the advertisments the show still was very good. When they started playing I was shocked by the sound in the room. It seemed like there were a lot more players up there than I saw. The acoustics were quite impressive. SO for a bit of an expense we saw a decent, but small, classical concert in Prague.
Fly home tomorrow morning. Keep praying for the Korean hostages in Afghanistan.

Throw Mama From the Train

So our final stop is Prague and we have arrived! We absoltuly love the city thus far and have been here over 24 hours. We got here via a train from Innsbruck. We left our baggage in the train station during the day as we toured and managed to kill time all day until about 1am when we finally came to wait for our 2:30 am train. We were exhausted, sweaty, and dirty and ready for a train experience better than hard sleeper in China. We joked as we waited about having to kick someone out of our beds at 2:30 and someone having slept on our sheets.
The train arrived, we hopped on and went to our compartment only to find....someone sleeping in my bed. Lucky there were was a bottom birth available for me to lay in. So we treid to shove our luggage in little places we could find trying to be quiet and getting helpful pointers from an American in the top berth about how to find our sheets and so forth. Now we are sweaty all over again from running down the platform to get into the last car with our bags and now the work of shoving bags this way and that in a tiny compartment for 6 people. We get settled in available beds (James on a middle bunk me on a bottom) and find the room to be very hot. The "voice from above" (i.e. the American) tells us this: "The old lady on the bottom says she can´t sleep with the window open." James says: ˝You´ve got to be kidding me.˝ James then asks me to try and open the window pulling me into the situation. I lean over and can´t get the window open. The American tells James that he needs to do it because it pulls from above. Suddenly the battle axe is awake and upset. She says in her thick Czech accent: "I talk to you about this already. You can have the door open butnot the window it is too loud. I pay to sleep and need to sleep.˝ James spits down to her: ˝Itś like 1,000 degrees in here.˝ She retorts to open the door to the compartment and wings the door open violently. Now all 5 people in the compartment are awake and annoyed. There is a bit more bickering a horrid stuffy heat inthe room and 4 people unhappy and one happy Czech. What about a democracy?I am thinking this whole time. James hops out of bed and says "Well I am gonna open a window in the hallway then" and proceeds to open two of them. He gets back into bed a few minutes later the battle axe gets up and mumbling Czech under her breath closes one of them. James and I are both wide awake and dreaming of CHINESE trains at this point staring at the bunks above us or looking at each other across the wazy and making faces. As people attempt to fall asleep what do I see occuring in the bunk across from me? The battle axe reaching out thosepale flabby arms. She closes the door a few inches and quickly withdraws her arms. A few minutes later she reaches out her arms again and does it a little more. So I turn on my side, reach out my arm and hold the door open. The light was right in her face, I am sure it bothered her, but it was so hot in there James' shirt and pillow were quite grossly damp. So we slept in a very loud furnace of a compartment for less than four hours. We woke up greasy, sweaty, extra exhausted and still dirty. In the morning when the battle axe was awake we opened the window and she closed the door and it was much quieter and cooler in the compartment the rest of the ride. The rest of the way she complained to all the employees about how full her compartment was and they needed to spread things out more.....at customs she was complaing about something else.....BLAH BLAH BLAH. Strangly she was anice person to talk to after all that but I wouldn't want to ride another train with her.....
Ah well no more trains for us for awhile but for right now I can honestly say I would rather take hard sleeper in China than the 2nd class train from Innsbruck.

The Man Who Went up a Mountain and Came Down (in) a Gondola

Still in Innsbruck. We are waiting for a train to Prague that leaves at 2:30 am. So we are killing time. We attempted to go to a movie but they are all in German without English subtitles. Yesterday was perhaps the hardest day of the trip physically. James and I decided to check out the glacier nearby Innsbruck and have some fun with the whole "snow in July" thing. It was about 90 degrees here so we thought how fun that would be. Well......
We arrived at the "hill" from a long bus ride and found out the gondola (not the water floating kind the up in the air kind) was expensive. We had wanted to hike so we looked at the signs and thought, why not do the three hour hike? It would be a nice hike, we will get to the middle station and take the gondola down for about 5 euros each. So we started to climb and climb and climb. I mean some serious uphill battles unlike any hike we have done in Georgia. There were few flat areas in this hike. There were cows and sheep and goats with their little bells on prancing all around and me DYING!!! It was hot, sunny and dusty. I got about 10 minutes into the hike and thought no way am I getting to the top. I cannot do this for three hours. No way. James said "You can always grab on to my backpack" I also thought "I am NOT going to be the new 'Crabby' who gets his butt hauled up the mountain either".
I have known you need to work through your muscle burn, your exhaustion and hit that plateau where you can go forever. I worked through the burn and was at the exhaustion for a looonnnng time. Lucky for me I was too stubborn to give up. I fought my way up that mountain. James went way ahead of me (darn men with their higher muscle mass) since he has been working out a lot more. I worked and worked and worked. We completed the hike (minus the hiking poles and boots everyone else had) in about 1.5 hours much better than the posted time. We sat looking at the glacier watched the snow melt and had panini sandwiches and wine while basking in the sun among the goat and sheep poop. We took the gondola down and dreamed of skiing here some winter day.
Alas when we got back in Innsbruck (after a sleepy busride) we found ourselves to be filthy dirty, horribly sweaty, and sunburnt. Both of our necks took the brunt of the burn along with face and upper arms. We felt good at "conquering the Alps" and I would put myself through that pain again!

An idea of how that hike feels: spin class on turbo

A Slight Venice Snare

Ahh Austria land of the Alps, snow, skiers, "The Sound of Music", lovely breezes and cool nights.
So here I am sweating my brains out in Austria. It has been quite hot since we arrived here yesterday. I have not blogged in a few days because the price was atrociously expensive in Venice. So here is an update:
We had a good time in Venice and happened to be there during a festival. There were some amazing fireworks one night, complete with music including 2001: A Space Odessey, Grease Medley, Great Balls of Fire and Josh Groban. The funny story of Venice is about our arrival. We arrived in Venice no problem and James found the bed and breakfast on the first try (very impressive). That's when the trouble started. First off the door had graffitti on it and had a broken window that had been covered over with boards. It was in a tiny courtyard near everything, but not an inviting place to spend a lot of time. When we looked at the door there was no buzzer for the B & B. there was a nice number on the card but no buzzer. So we sat down and tried the number. It didn't work, so we tried dialing another way and both ended up getting a woman who did not speak English and hung up on us. So we stared at the building awhile, perhaps assuming the doors would open independently and we would be escorted to our door on a golden staircase. No such luck. We tried the number again and it still didn't work. So we sent James off to the nearby (and again expensive) internet cafe where he learned absolutly nothing new! We sat awhile and asked some people how to get in....eventually we buzzed a tenant to distraction and he let us in to sit in the staircase. We were in trouble at this point because we knew there were not a lot of places to stay in Venice, we had had a lot of trouble booking before. I started to roam the winding streets of Venice with Credit card and passport in hand hoping to find a hotel with decent fee and a place to simply lay our heads. 200 euros a night with shared bathroom, a lot of hotels full so I returned to find an assistant to the owner helping James get into the B&B and get settled. So we stayed where we originally planned, only it took two hours or so to get into the hotel. Funny thing is it was the nicest room we have stayed in this trip....

Pisa Pizza

Short little post while I have the time. Waiting seems to be the game in Florence. We booked a tour for tomorrow to get us into one museum and waited for over two hours to get into the Uffizi gallery. We booked the tour tomorrow specifcally because we could skip the queues and get right in. The Uffizi had amazing art work and a wide variety of fabulous pieces. What an amazing collection!!! Since it was later in the afternoon when we got out of the museum and ate lunch we couldn't really check out another gallery or museum so we decided to head to Pisa.
The tour from one company cost about $100 to get us out to Pisa and to see inside the church. We took the train and saw the same sights and paid less than $30. The tower was amazing and beautiful. There was nice grassy areas we got to lay around in as well which was nice. It's been awhile since we could lay around outside on nice grass and enjoy an afternoon. It was a lovely day and I was glad we took the short ride to Pisa for a couple of hours. Now of for an overdose of Gelatto once again!
By the way I had my 5th pizza (not in Pisa though) of the trip and think that is quite enough. No more pizza for me on this trip. Our hotel total: 7 nights and 5 hotels

Florence the land of tourists

Florence. It is never a good thing when you are unsure you are in a foreign country when you are in one. The areas of Florence we have been in thus far have been very touristy. A lot of English speakers and other tourists around here. This is a busy place in the summer and most Florentines are not around for the summer they get out of the heat and humidity. So now we get to stay here for three nights which is absolutly fabulous. It will be nice to have the break a bit. Today we went to see one last thing in Rome as we passed through. We went down to the "southside" to go into the catacombs. These are miles and miles of tunnels of dead people. Very interesting place to be. In the catacombs Peter and Paul the apostles were once buried. It is so very interesting to be walking in areas that you can read about in the Bible (not that their reburial was in the Bible).
Our fun yet stressful story of the day: We had a trained booked for Florence from Rome for 2:52 via Eurostar a fast and sometimes expensive train. Well at 2:30 we were just leaving the hotel with the nuns after James wrote some postcards. We started at a good clip and tried to stop for pasteries but it was closed for lunch. (time: 2:40) Good thing it was because we were running late. So we headed to the train station and somehow got turned around. We basically got lost and had to ask someone in broken Italian where the train station was. It was the other direction. (Time: 2:47) So now we are running, me with a regular backback and a large duffel hauling it like you carry a baby and James with a side bag and his big backpack. We were weaving in and out of traffic down streets and jumping curbs. We bumped into all sorts of Italians yelling "scuzi" all the way down the road. We see the train station a block away (time: 2:52) and know we have missed it. Hoping that the train is late we continue to jog, speedwalk all the way to the end of the tracks. No dice. We missed it. Now I am thouroughly frustrated that we missed the train and got lost. I know it is not such a good idea to mention anything to James so I say little. I am sure he is just as frustrated as I am and so I leave it be. In the end we traded our tickets at no extra cost for a train to Milan that was going through Florence. Can't complain about that too much. We really blessed God for that one. Now we both can laugh about it already.

Back in Rome?

So we are back in Rome right now. Can you believe it? I can't. The visit to Pompeii was great. A city of amazingly intact ruins where you can walk about anywhere. We had a lot of freedom throughout the ruins and it was fun to see these mosaics and all. I was happy to leave Naples and my steely grip on my hip bag. I wasn't about to lose my camera or passport to some scooter rider grabbing it as they pass by. The drive (on the bus) through to the Amalfi coast was amazing as well. Plenty of buildings built into the stone and the beautiful sea as a background. Our current total for 6 nights shows 4 different hotels, hostels, or B&B. We actually will get to be in Florence for three nights. I might unpack a bit!
We took a boat today to Salerno to get back to Rome. The boat ride was great and as usual there were plenty of ruins to look at on the way. The ride was pretty steady so I don't think too many people would get seasick.
Italian fasion has been interesting. The men can get away with more than the American men but the women....well let me tell you about one of them. We were at an Italian restaurant (surprise surprise) when this girl walked in with underclothes. She was wearing a white lacey corset with laces up the back that barely kept her "together" and a lacey "skirt" that didn't cover her butt. It was right out of a western movie with a chorus line minus the skirts. I was so embarrased I just cringed. There wasn't much left to the imagination there!!! Hope all is well at home. Trying to keep up with the news. Here for just one night to see the Catacombs and then off the Florence!! Ciao!

Travel here and there and everywhere

So we have been in Italy for three days going on four and it feels like a long time. We spent most of that time in Rome and did a marathon tour of the city. We really loved the place. I guess the history just blows us away at times. Our country is so very young and Rome so very old. I am not going to go into all of the details of what we saw because that would be boring. I must say though that out of everything, the Pantheon was the best. We have already had a number of misunderstandings with people, once with James pulling a cord/string in the shower and sending the bed and breakfast owner over to the apartment to make sure everything was okay. It turns out James thought it was a clothes line and really it is an emergency cord in the shower required by law to have in it. Who knows how that law came out!!
We have eaten plenty of pizza and other good food. We are now in Naples and find the place to be extremely dangerous, dirty, passionate and crime ridden with a very strong mafia influence. Who knew? They claim 100 murders a year in this city are done by the mafia and they are part of the reason for the crime rate. We have been warned by three different Italians to be careful. One man told us "Don't go up these streets because someone will take out a gun and steal your money" GREAT!! A bus driver walked up to us and made the motion like a child having to go to the bathroom. I thought he was telling us we had to wait awhile and be patient. NOPE! He pulled his wallet out of his front pocket put it back in and put both hands over his pocket and crouched over like he had to go to the bathroom. Ahhh be careful with your wallet. I get it. "Capiche?" He asked us. "Capiche" (how do you spell that anyways?)
Supposedly last night we had some of the best pizza in the world. So they tell me. Naples, the pizza capitol, and the best place for pizza here in Naples. We waited two hours standing in the street to sit down. But it was amazing!
I am at an internet cafe where Italians are yelling into the phones and talking very passionatley. It is very distracting and humerous at the same time. Anyways, tommorow the Amalfi Coast for two days with a stopover in Pompeii. More travel after that with planes, trains and buses for us!!!