Interlaken & Paris

Our next stop on the trip was Interlaken, Switzerland.  We left Italy and headed into the heart of Switzerland by train and were treated to amazing views of the country side.  Switzerland definitely lived up to its reputation in our minds - it was so pristine and clean and beautiful!  Blue skies, crisp clean air, beautiful mountains, clear lakes and very friendly people.  Once again, taking the train was great because we got to see a significant part of the country by riding through it during the day.

We arrived in Interlaken in the evening and started out towards our hostel.  The other part of Switzerland that lived up to its reputation was the cost of things!  We looked at a few hotels and decided instead to "rough" it in a hostel instead of paying so much for a hotel room for the few days we were in Interlaken.  We walked ten minutes and found our hostel easily and were so pleasantly surprised at our accommodation!

The Backpackers Villa Sonnenhof was fantastic!  Not only was the price right, but it was just a wonderful place to stay for a few days and relax.  We had our own room and bathroom, so we still enjoyed a high level of privacy, but then we got all the extra perks of being in a hostel.  There was a lounge to hang out in, a huge kitchen to cook our food in, free internet, laundry facilities, a bar and a coffee machine!  They even gave you a number of tokens corresponding to the number of nights you were staying and these could be used to operate the laundry machines and also to pay for the coffees, etc in the coffee machine.  Mom was thrilled - she was able to get multiple coffees, cappacinos, hot chocolates, etc per day!  I also enjoyed the warm beverages every night before bed too!
And the hostel was filled with a lot of great people too, so we met and visited with some fellow Canadians, other families traveling together, etc.

Our first full day there was a Saturday, so we decided to spend the day exploring the town and save hiking until Sunday, as we had heard everything closes down on Sunday and thus it would be a perfect day to be in the mountains.  Upon leaving our hostel in the daylight, we realized that we were on the edge of a field/park in the middle of town that was half filled with cows!  They were just grazing in the middle of the town - in front of the biggest hotel and bank and casino!  And they all had bells on - so they generated a good deal of noise as they were grazing!  I found them adorable!

We started off towards one end of the town to see the east lake that borders the town....the path was not marked very clearly but with the help of some locals who pointed us in the right direction we came to the lake early that morning.  Again, the best word to describe the view and the water was pristine.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  After seeing the lake we then walked along the river that led into town and enjoyed seeing the ducks and swans in the river and the houses that framed the shore.

We had packed a picnic lunch so around noon when our stomachs started growling we found a bench along the river and enjoyed our sandwiches and apples.  As we sat we watched familes and couples walk, run or bike along the path.  And over our next few days we consistently saw people exercising - and not in a leisurely way in that they happened to be walking or riding their bike to a friend's house, but purposely, decked out in gear and ready to work!  It struck us as a very physically fit and healthy place to live!

We then walked around the town and looked at the buildings and houses.  There were so many beautiful little chalet homes, restaurants and hotels.  After a while I stopped taking pictures of them, but here is a taste of what you would see on the streets of Interlaken.

After our full day of exploring the town we went back to the hostel to make dinner and spend the night relaxing and doing laundry.  It was great to be able to cook our own meals for a few days and take a break from restuarant and bought food.  We had chicken and salad and for dessert a Swiss chocolate bar!  A friend from church had recommended Swiss chocolate to us before we left and we followed her advice and had chocolate every day we were there! 

The next day we went hiking.  It was a little cold and rainy out, but we dressed in layers and found that at times during the day we were hot, at other times we were cold.  Of course it depended a lot on what elevation we were at and whether or not the sun was out - but all in all it was a good day for hiking. 
We did not do anything too extrenuous as we wanted to just take in the scenery and enjoy some trails just outside the town.  We hiked to an old castle ruin, then over to a nearby village and above many fields containing cows.  At one point we looked down and saw a field full of cows, again wearing their bells, and next to the field a children's soccor game being played.  Well the sound that dominates was the cow bells, not the children playing soccor!  The ringing of the bells seemed to echo across the field up to us as we walked above.  Both mom and I could not believe how loud they were!

When we got back to the town after our hike it was starting to rain, so we went back to the hostel to get warm and dry and spent a few hours in doors, reading and then I took a nap!  After dinner and once the rain cleared up we went out for another walk around the town, but this time at night.  It was clear out by this time and the sky was black with shining bright stars.  And sure enough - the sound of cow bells accompanied us!

We left the next morning after having had a wonderful, relaxing few days in Switzerland.  And if you ever visit - make sure to have lots of chocolate!

We took the train from Interlaken into France, and arrived in Paris around 3pm.  Paris, of course, was a totally different world compared to Interlaken, just 5 hours away!  We arrived at Gare Lyon and had to take a RER train to Gare Nord as our hotel was located near that station.  We got lost in the maze of Gare Lyon trying to find the right level underground to catch the RER.  When we finally got to Gare Nord after taking more escalators and stairs than necessary, we thought we should check with the tourist information office for a map and instructions for how to get to our hotel.

We located the tourist office booth on the main floor of Gare Nord, but found that it was empty.  There was a woman standing nearby who told us they would be back in a few minutes.  15 minutes later three people entered the booth - when the man whose counter we were waiting at sat down we waited for him to acknowledge us...eventually he said, yes?  My mom asked if he spoke English, to which he rolled his eyes and replied yes.....!  To me this experience was worse than the Venice tourist lady who did not even look at us - he rolled his eyes!  Plus, the whole time we were there he was texting on his cell phone!  I was kind of furious, but my mom continued to be her pleasant self and got a map and directions to our hotel!

Ten minutes later we had arrived at our hotel - after settling in we decided to go exploring and find the Lafayette Galleries, as it was raining out and we thought it would be best to contain our exploring indoors for the next couple of hours!  We took to the streets with our umbrellas and headed out in the direction of the Galleries.  Despite the rain, it was pretty awesome to be walking the streets of Paris.  I found the city very beautiful - so many gorgeous buildings, cute shops and cafes and crazy intersections....however we did find it dirty, particularly after coming from Interlaken!  There was garbage piled up on the streets, and in the rain it was soggy and smelly.  Plus over our two full days in the city we saw 4 men peeing on the street...those were the ones we unfortunately glanced upon.  It was definitely gross!

We reached the galleries after about a 20 minute walk and realized that there were three department stores that constituted the Galleries Lafayette at that spot in Paris.  One was for women, one was for men and one was entirely devoted to home decorations, linen, etc.  We started with the women's department store and explored its 5 stories of clothes, purses, lingerie, make up, etc.  Although we could not afford to buy anything there, it was fun to walk around and see the decorations and everything that was taking place within.  In the centre of the department store was a huge tree, with large present decorations hanging from the domed ceiling above.  There was also a photo shoot going on on the second floor, so we stopped and watched that for a few minutes - see the photographers adjust the lighting, direct the models and make some unreasonable demands - it was very interesting! 

We then moved onto the home department store and I was tempted to buy a lot of stuff!  We only looked at one floor, but there was art, vases, candles, mini lights and lamps - and best of all a giant vat of Nutella selling for 40 euros!  Yummy!  After realizing that I could not buy anything at the Galleries, both for price reasons and for suitcase room reasons, we exited the department store and took in some of the sights right outside the Galleries.  Their display windows were all elaborately done up with dancing toys, ABBA singing dolls, and other mini shows that you could stop and watch!  There were also vendors set up along the walls of the Galleries selling jewelry, hats, scarves, souviners, etc.  So we wandered through these and enjoyed the atmosphere.

It was getting dark at this point but the rain had stopped for the time being.  Mom and I decided to take advantage of the dryness and walk around the city.  We saw the Madeline, the Eiffel tower by night (sparkling with lights!), the Louvre....I kept telling my mom we should go further, but at one point she wisely pointed out to me that we still had to walk back to our hotel and we were getting farther and farther away from it with my directions!  So after seeing some of Paris at night, which was beautiful, we turned our attention to finding our way back to our hotel.  And one thing that might already be obvious about mom and I when we travel is that we walk everywhere.  We both enjoy exploring new places best on foot, plus the abundant exercise enables us to justify eating whatever sweets we come upon in our travels!  So when we headed back to our hotel, there was no question of hopping on the metro or taking a cab.  We walk!
However, this particular time, it may have been wise to abandon our strict adherence to walking and catch a metro!  It took us over an hour to get back to our hotel and by the time we reached the stairway we were both groaning in pain walking up the stairs!  We did not bring a pedometer with us, so I do not know how far we walked that day, but it was A LOT and we were feeling it!

We rested in our hotel and then went next door to an Indian restaurant for dinner - note that it was next door!  We choose it mainly for its proximity to the hotel, but we were happy to find that the food was amazing!  We sat and enjoyed a beer, coke, naan, basmati rice, vegetable curry and butter chicken!  It was so good!  Plus, I had not had Indian food since leaving Winnipeg as I have not tried it yet in Strasbourg, so it was even more enjoyable for me after such a long time without!

The next morning we woke up to more rain and a forecast predicting rain for the entire day!  Plus it was November, so it was cold out as well.  Cold and wet makes for miserable traveling sometimes, so mom and I decided to get tickets for one of those hop on hop off bus tours that takes you around the city so that we could do some exploring by bus rather than by foot in the rain.  Plus it was a good way of transportation for taking us to the far corners of the city that we would not be able to walk to and from - even we could realize our limitations!
We eventually found the first stop for one of the tour routes and upon getting on the bus found the entire bottom level full - so we climbed up onto the top and took our seats on the open air top floor of the double decker! Thankfully at that moment it was not raining, however this was not to last long!  As the day wore on we kept sitting on the top level after realizing you can't really see anything from the bottom level, so even though we were cold and sometimes wet, at least we got to see the sights clearly!  And at some points when it began to rain hard we and our other tour takers on top just opened our umbrellas and sheltered ourselves with them!

We saw a lot of things that day - both on the bus and on the ground exploring them by foot!  We saw the Eiffel tower, this time by day light, we saw the Notre Dame, the Ill de Cite, the Palais des Invalides, the Opera house, the Arc de Triumphe, the Champs Elysees, the Moulin Rouge, etc.  It was a full day with lots of sight seeing, but it was also good to be on the bus to get the audio commentary about each place we saw.

Mom and I decided not to go up the Eiffle tower - I know that this is a big deal to a lot of people, but it was so grey and rainy out that we would not have seen anything and would not have enjoyed it the same way as we would have if it had been sunny and clear!  I will try to return to Paris in the spring when the weather is nice and go up it then.

One interesting things I learned on the tour was about the Institut de France that houses the Academie Francaise - a group of people from all walks of life who oversee all matters pertaining to the French language.  There are 40 members of the Academie who hold their seats for life, thus they are called the immortals!  I found this fascinating in a secret society kind of way - and it was something I had never heard of before!

The next day it was not raining quite so much, just off and on, so mom and I did more exploring on foot.  We wandered through the shops and flower market on Ill de Cite, we walked along the West and East banks where the book sellers were open for the dry day, and we went to the Louvre!

 

The Louvre was gigantic - I had heard it was big, I just never realized that the Louvre had been a Palace, so it was spread out over multiple city blocks!  Mom and I spent about 3 hours in it looking at art, sculptures, egyption mummies and artifacts and of course the Mona Lisa!   One thing we were disappointed about however is that all of the information pertaining to the works of art were only in French...there was no other languages explaining what we were looking at.  And if you used the audio commentary it only was programmed to explain select pieces of art, so a lot of the time mom and I wondered about what the descriptions by each work said, as we both wanted to learn more but were unable to understand French writing.  In museums in Strasbourg there are about 3-4 languages available to read descriptions, I was just surprised the Louvre does not provide more as it is such a tourist hot spot for people from all over the world.

All in all we enjoyed Paris but both agreed it was our least favorite of the places we had been.  A lot of that may have had to do with the weather we experienced while in Paris - it was the coldest and the wettest of the places we had traveled which did put a damper on things.  However, since I am only 2 hours away from Paris I am going to try and return in the spring and plan my weekend there spontaneously so I will get some good sunny weather and perhaps I will enjoy it more then!

We took the train home to Strasbourg on Thursday the 11th and it was so good to be home!  We both enjoyed our travles, but were tired out from them and ready to be in one place for more than 3 nights! And I was very excited to see Dave.  Plus, since mom was staying with me in Strasbourg for another week and a half, we did not have to say goodbye yet!  We had a week of outings around Strasbourg planned and relaxing times just cooking and shopping together - and that week will be the subject of the next blog!

Sorry I am late in getting these posts up - I am trying to catch up and get up to date again...hopefully in the next few days my last post on my time with mom will be up and then I will start in on the exciting details once again of my day to day life here in Strasbourg!

From Venice to Pisa & the Cinque Terre

We left Venice on a Tuesday morning and started our train journey toward the Cinque Terre - a series of 5 villages on the north Italian coast that had been recommended to me by several people as a must see when touring Europe.

Our first train took us to Florance, where we got off and walked around for an hour.  We were soon on another train to Pisa and enjoyed watching the beautiful scenery as we left the city of Florance and passed through the region of Tuscany.

We arrived in Pisa around 2pm and decided to take advantage of our 2 hour lay over to visit the leaning tower of Pisa!  We went to the tourist office and got a map to direct us to the site.  However, for some reason my map reading skills were not honed that day and I ended up taking us to the east of the tower - thankfully upon looking around we were able to spot it from a distance!
Mom and I were not extremely enthusiastic about seeing the tower - but we thought since we were in Pisa we needed to take the 20 minute walk and check it out.  Upon coming up to the tower we both were extremely impressed!  It was SO cool - especially from the angle we approached it from, the tower was leaning so far you had to wonder why it did not topple over!  Plus, the tower itself was beautiful - with ornate carvings and beautiful white stone.  Both of us stood for a few minutes in awe and kept asking each other how it could be?

We spent about half an hour looking around the grounds where the tower is and taking advantage of photo ops (however we did not do the classic photos of us pushing the tower up - we could just not position ourselves rightly!).  It was truly an incredible thing to see and we were so glad that we had the opportunity to visit Pisa in the end.

We then took the train heading towards the Cinque Terre, planning to get off in the city of La Spezia - the gateway to the Cinque Terre - to book our tickets to Switzerland for when we left.  Unfortunately we ended up getting off at the wrong station, one on the outskirts of La Spezia.  We knew something wasn't quite right because when we went to find a ticket office to book our tickets to Switzerland we realized there was no ticket office at that station and ended up in the control room with the engineers!  Here we were, two Canadian women pulling suitcases behind us standing just inside the door of the control room looking at a roomful of Italian men yelling at each other!  We both did not know what to do so we just stood there until they looked up at us and asked what we were doing - first in Italian and afterwards in English when they realized that was the only language we could speak!  Thankfully a very nice man came up to us and asked us where we needed to be and told us what train to take and what time it was coming - so even without a train office to inquire in we were able to find our way to the correct place thanks to the kindness of this man!

We stopped in at the La Spezia main train station to book our Switzerland tickets and then continued onto the town in the Cinque Terre where we were staying, called Riomaggiore.  By the time we arrived it was around 6pm and already dark out.  I had booked our accommodation online at a place called Rio Rooms - which is not a hotel or a B&B but rather different apartments scattered throughout the town.  My reservation instructions were to call the number given when we arrived in Riomaggiore and we would be told where to go!  I was a little nervous about this arrangement as I cannot speak Italian and had never had arrangements such as these before, but I dialed the number and was quickly speaking to Ugo, the man I presume who owns the properties.  He spoke to me in broken English and when I told him we were at the train station he told me "you stay there" and he would come and meet us in 5 minutes to show us to the apartment.  Sure enough a few minutes later an older man was walking down the hill towards us with a big smile and we met Ugo!  He took us into the town and up to our apartment - thankfully we had a personal escort to deliver us to the apartment otherwise we would never have found it.  All the Cinque Terre towns are built on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and thus the buildings are stacked one on top of the other - so in order for us to get to our apartment we had to walk up staircases and go down alleyways to find the address - again it was somewhat like a maze, and in the dark we would have been hopeless!

When Ugo took us into our apartment we were delighted - it was perfect!  We had the usual trappings of a small apartment - a little kitchen with a fridge and stove, a bathroom, a bedroom - but the best part was the sun room and terrace overlooking the ocean!  We were so happy that night when we arrived, but even happier the next morning when we woke up to see the large terrace and view from it in the morning light!

The night we arrived we went out for dinner at a little Italian restaurant below our apartment - we sat in a sealed terrace with heat lamps and I ate the most delicious ravioli and mom had fresh grilled tuna and vegetables.  It was a lovely dinner and when we were finished we walked over the a little store nearby that was still open and bought a 2 euro bottle of wine and chocolate to take up to our apartment and enjoy!

The next morning we spent some time standing on our balcony taking in the view and marveling at the scenery by day light.  It was marvelous to look to your right and see the ocean and look to your left and see the mountains.  And below us was the town's center street and at one end the little harbour where the fishing boats left from for early morning fishing!

We ate our breakfast in the sun room and then got ready for the day.  I decided to blow dry my hair and unfortunately ended up blowing a breaker and all the lights went out in the apartment!  Mom and I looked in the fuse box to try and determine which switch had been tripped but could not tell as they were all in the same position.  Not wanting to touch anything I shouldn't, I hesitantly called Ugo again to try and explain the situation and what had happened in English - hoping he would understand what I was saying.  As soon as he answered and I said who was calling he asked "what's wrong?".  I explained what had happened and he immediately said "we come, we come"!  Half an hour later his wife showed up at our apartment and was looking questioningly into the fuse box.  She tried a few things and still, there was no power.  I started to panic and was worried I did something terribly wrong!  Ugo's wife opened the door and beckoned the first two men she saw into the apartment and they exchanged words in rapid fire Italian.  The men were able to locate another fuse box (I think?) and had the electricity back on in 2 minutes!  I decided not to blow dry my again while in the Cinque Terre!

We had planned to spend the day hiking between the five villages of the Cinque Terre on the coastal hiking path that connects them.  We had been advised to start at the opposite end of the Cinque Terra from where we were, in Monterrosso, and hike towards home.  We went to the little train station we had arrived at last night to buy our Cinque Terre train pass for the day (lets you take the little train in between all the villages an unlimited amount of times during the day) to go to Monterrosso to begin our hike and were informed that the coastal path was closed due to the fact there had been heavy rains the week previous and it was not safe to be on.
Mom and I were very disappointed initially - we had been looking forward to doing the hike along the ocean!  However, we decided to go to Monterrosso anyway and spend the day going to each town and looking around.  It was sunny and getting increasingly warm out as the morning coolness faded away and we arrived in Monterrosso around 11 am.

Monterrosso is probably the largest of the Cinque Terre towns, and it has an expanse of beach where mom and I walked and watched people swimming.  It not even occurred to me to bring my bathing suit on this trip but at that moment I regretted it!  It was warm enough to go swimming in the ocean and lay on the beach in the sun!

Mom and I then walked up into the town and into the hills above it.  There were a lot of inclines and stairs for our prairie legs to conquer but we enjoyed being outside in the sun and feeling the "burn"!  Upon coming back down into the town and onto the beach we decided to reward ourselves with a treat - gelato!  I had peach and lemon while mom tried the walnut and strawberry.  Gelato in Italy is truly fantastic - the flavours, particularly of the fruit variety, burst with flavour! 

When we were finished exploring Monterrosso we took the train to the next town, Vernazza.  It was another beautiful village filled with little shops and cafes and had a really cute little harbour filled with fishing boats.  We did a little bit of shopping and enjoyed exploring the little streets and alleyways of the town.
The whole time we were in the Cinque Terre we both felt as if we were just looking in on the life of the locals.  It did not feel to us that all the little shops, cafes, etc were there for tourists, but rather were places where the locals frequented and also served the tourists that were passing through.  This may have been due largely to the fact that mom and I were there in the low tourist season - but it really did feel to us that we were able to observe and enjoy the way of life that the locals experienced.  This was particularly true in Riomaggiore, where we stayed in the apartment.  Every morning our neighbours would be out on their own terraces hanging up their laundry, the women talking to each other through their windows and yelling at their children in the streets below and we would see the men coming in from the ocean after their long early morning fishing expeditions.  It was very refreshing after being in Venice where everything is geared towards tourists and before going to Paris where we found the situation largely similar to Venice.

We decided we should try and visit the next town, Corniglia, before night fell, so we took the train that we thought would take us there.  However, it whizzed by Corniglia and the next stop was back in La Spezia!  Ooops!  By the time we got on a train taking us back into the Cinque Terre it was already dark so we got off in Riomaggiore and decided to spend the evening in our apartment as it was dark and getting cold out.

My mom had read somewhere in one of her travel books that the Cinque Terre was known for its amazing focaccia bread, so we went to a little store that was still open and picked up the ingredients for a salad and also a big package of focaccia bread.  Wow - I am so glad my mom did her research, the focaccia was amazing!  The best I have ever had!  It was crisp and crunchy on the outside and soft and moist in the inside from all the wonderful olive oil they used to make it.  So delicious!!!
After dinner we spent the rest of the night reading, me in the bedroom and mom in the sun room and went to bed early after a full day of walking and being in the sun!

The next day we went to the next town, Manarola, by train and looked around for the morning before walking back to Riomaggiore.  The only part of the coastal path that was open was between these two towns - so we left Manarola round noon to walk back to Riomaggiore.  We wanted to spend some lazy hours laying in the sun on our terrace so we decided to head back for when the afternoon heat set in.  The coastal path was really a very even, easy walk between these two villages and we had a nice "stroll" back to Riomaggiore.  It was gorgeous to look back as we walked at Manarola, set on the cliffs, and to see Riomaggiore as we approached it.  It was definitely a view that you do not get while arriving by train, so we were thankful that we were able to experience even part of the coastal path before leaving.

We picked up a coke for me, a beer for mom and some focaccia bread for us both for lunch and ate it happily on our terrace! Not the healthiest lunch, but we were indulging and trying to eat as much focaccia before we left!  We spent the next few hours in lounge chairs on our terrace in the sun - dressed in shorts and tank tops and loving every minute of it!

When the afternoon heat started to fade we decided to stop being lazy and explore Riomaggiore!  We walked down to the little harbour, up the center street and into the mountains above the town.  We may have been biased, but this was our favorite village in the Cinque Terre!

When the sun started to fade we made our way back down into the village from the hills and were able to look down on the town as the sun was beginning to set.  It was so beautiful with the sun shimmering on the water and the town glowing in the soft light.  What an incredible place - it was unlike anywhere I had ever been before.

We spent our last night eating a homemade pasta dinner and more focaccia (so many carbs!).  We went to bed early as the next day we needed to be up at 5:30am to catch our first train on our journey to Switzerland.  We woke up in the dark and made our way to the train station.  We said goodbye to the Cinque Terre just as the sun was rising over the cliffs and got one last breath taking view....

Strasbourg to.....Venice!

So I must admit that I have neglected the blog over the last few weeks.  At first it was alternatively business and then laziness that kept me from posting, but these last two weeks I have been away from the computer and the internet as I travelled with my mom!  We have now returned and my suitcase is unpacked, my laundry is done and my grocery shopping complete - so here I am back to a routine and back to the blog!  I have missed writing and am excited to update everyone with our going-ons from the last few weeks!

The last couple of weeks in October were quite busy.  I was attending my French class every morning and looking after the little girls twice a week - plus I was trying to get ready for my trip with my mom, taking care of last minute reservations, travel iteneraries, etc.  However, there were a few highlights from those weeks that I would like to write about because they are worth mentioning and I am sure will always be fond memories for me.

Dave wrote his first module exam on October 18th...after weeks of preparing and a weekend of intense studying he was finally done with module 1 and was rewarded with a whole day off!  So while he stayed in bed Tuesday morning for a MUCH deserved sleep in, I left for a full day of French - class in the morning and a tour around the city in the afternoon.  That day was a definite role reversal day for us as I had to get up early and left him in a warm bed sleeping! 
When I came home late that afternoon I opened the door to find Dave cooking dinner for me, flowers and candles on the table, and wine ready to be poured!  He had spent a large part of his day off planning and preparing for the evening - as a thank you to me for cooking, cleaning, and giving him support as he does his Masters.  I was so touched, but more than anything I was thrilled for us to have a whole evening together where he did not need to hurry off to study or prepare for a group project meeting!  It was wonderful to just spend time together without any distractions. 

The next week a few of us significant others to the ISU students went for a picnic one afternoon.  Mark, Zahira and I met downtown and were going to go for a bike ride to a park for our picnic.  However, bicycle complications prevented the bike ride part of the plan.  However, the day was sunny and beautiful and we decided to just enjoy the afternoon together - eating!  We found a sunny spot on the banks of the river along the canal and laid out our feast.  Zahira made a spanish omelette (sooooo amazingly good), Mark brought all the French necessities - a baguette, brie, camembert and WINE (plus tasty sandwiches) and I brought pain au chocolate and crackers for the cheeses!  Wow - do these two know how to picnic, it was the most amazing lunch, sitting on the river banks eating and drinking and soaking up the sun!  I had a fabulous time!

My mom arrived in Strasbourg on October 28th at 1:30 pm.  It was so good to see her!  She had been able to sleep a few hours on the plane so she was awake and alert enough for us to talk and walk around Strasbourg's town centre for the afternoon!  She loved Strasbourg right away and really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful buildings.
The next night my mom and I went to a baby shower.  Two women from our church, Whitney and Eloise, are expecting at the end of November/early December, so some women from the church put on a surprise baby shower for them!  Baby showers are not a tradition in France as they are at home, however, both Whitney and Eloise moved to Strasbourg from the US and were delighted that they and their babies were honoured with a shower!  It was such a fun night, watching them come in and look shocked at all of us as we yelled "suprise", looking at all the cute baby gifts and hearing all the advice and stories from the other moms in the room.  Plus, the food was incredible.  It was a really special night and I am so looking forward to meeting these two new little babies who will be joining us soon!

The next morning mom and I set out for our trip.  As I wrote earlier, the weeks leading up to the trip were busy.  For me, but even more so for Dave.  Thus, we did not get to spend a lot of time together before I left and while I was excited for the trip I was also sad to be leaving Dave for two weeks.  We had never been apart longer than 10 days and 2 weeks seemed like such a long time....I know its sappy, but that is how I felt!  So it was with mixed emotions that I kissed Dave goodbye and set out for the train station.  I knew he would be busy, like usual, while I was gone, but I was worried about not being there to look after him, even though he had been independant and looking after himself just fine for years before I ever came along! 

Mom and I spent the whole day traveling to Venice, Italy from Strasbourg.  We first took a train into Germany to a little town called Karlsruhe.  We waited there for 3 hours until a bus picked us up to take us to the Frankfurt Hahn airport.  The bus was late (which gave us quite a scare b/c it was our only means of making it to our flight on time) and while on route encountered an accident on the highway.  So as our bus slowed down we looked and saw traffic backed up and pretty much at a standstill.  So what does our bus driver do?  He decides to squeeze the bus onto the shoulder between the guardrails and traffic and speed up to make his connection deadline!  There were some tense moments but he managed to get us thru the traffic jam and on our way - yikes!

When we arrived at the airport we had to wait a few hours before we boarded, so we had a nice dinner together and talked.  It is these little things that I miss most about home - being able to sit and chat with my mom, my sister, my friends.  Sit by my dad as we both read and eat!  So while there was a lot of waiting time that traveling day, it was also great to just be able to talk with my mom and catch up!
When it finally came time to board I was surprised to find that our tickets had no seat numbers listed - rather the plane was filled by way of rush seating!!!!!  We flew Ryanair and apparently this is standard procedure for them.  I had never encountered anything like it - there was quite a crowd waiting at the gate who wanted to get their seats - but thankfully everyone got on in a somewhat orderly manner and there was no mass mob behaviour!

We arrived in Venice at about 10pm.  We then took a shuttle bus into the city and got off at the Mestre train station, which was the nearest landmark to our hotel on the bus route.  While there we were determining the best way to get to our hotel when a taxi driver came up to us to see where we were going.  We told him the name of our hotel and he told us the fare: 12 euros.  Now I knew the hotel was close by and had not yet decided on the best way to get there so I said no thanks....and the taxi driver walked away saying "you shouldn't come to Italy if you don't speak Italian"!  After determining that a taxi would probably be the best way to get to the hotel, as it was dark and we were both so tired, we found another driver to ask him to take us there.  He pleasantly told us that we did not need a taxi as it was a 10 minute walk and he showed us the way - so we arrived safely, walking out the opposite end of the train station through a residential area, to our hotel!  So we had two extreme experiences with Venice taxi drivers that night!
We were shown to our lovely, clean, quiet room - had hot showers and went to bed after a very full day!

Now, some may be wondering why it took us so long and why we took such an odd route to get to Venice.  The reason is that I found a really cheap flight from Frankfurt Hahn airport to Venice - thus we needed to get to the Frankfurt Hahn airport!  However, Frankfurt Hahn is not Frankfurt....it is much further out of the way and more isolated that Frankfurt so getting there required us to first take a train and then a bus!  It turned out that our train and bus rides were more expensive than our flights!  But still, all in all we both got to Venice for under $100 Canadian.  The rest of the trip we took trains, as we had a rail pass, which made for shorter travel days and less stress!

The next morning we woke up to clouds and rain - however, we put on our rain coats, took our umbrellas and set out to explore Venice.  The good thing was that it was actually quite warm out despite the rain.  We needed our raincoats with sweaters underneath, but we were not cold (like I had been in Prague in similar rainy conditions).
We arrived on the island of Venice after a ten minute train ride costing 1 euro (we stayed on the mainland where hotels were A LOT cheaper).  We went to the tourist office in the train station - we were wondering about doing a tour of the old Jewish quarter and some other tours of the island - so we had some questions and were looking for information.  However when we got to the counter the woman on the other side was sitting down looking at her computer....so we waited for her to look up before starting to talk.  She continued to look at her computer and said yes?  We asked her a few questions and were told "no" to each one - and not at any point did she look us in the face!  We left after 2 minutes realizing that the tourist office was not going to provide much information or assistance - or friendliness!
So we left the train station and I pulled out my map of Venice thinking we would look at it and make our way to Piazza San Marco.  However after 5 minutes in Venice I realized that a map was not going to help us!  It is a city filled with mazes - so many little alleyways, bridges, canals, corners, etc that you never know where you are!  The only way we found anything was by following the very helpful signs with arrows!

The first day we decided to just wander through the streets of Venice and discard the map - we went shopping and explored the alleyways and canals.  It was very fun and very facinating.  I had never seen anything like it - no road, just little alleys, canals, boats and bridges...and lots of water!  At one point we found ourselves on top of the Rialto bridge - we had wondered up there - but did not know it was the Rialto bridge until the next day when we saw it from the water and realized we had been on it!

We had a wonderful lunch at a cute little restaurant where we both had pizza and I had a cannoli for dessert that was sooooo good!  Best I have ever had!  I was not going to have dessert but after I finished my pizza they brought a big tray to our table piled with desserts and wafted them under my nose.  So my will power faded and I gave in...but it was worth it!  It was a very nice meal out and the waiters were very friendly and funny - and offerred over and over again to take our picture!

We finally found Piazza San Marco - it was quite the site and I was in awe of the basillica.  But it was SO windy that we only stayed for about half an hour and then left for the protection of the alleys to get out of the wind!  Everyone's umbrellas came to an untimely end due to the wind in the square!

In the evening when darkness fell and all the lights came on Venice was so beautiful.  It was charming and interesting in the day, but at night, lit up against the water it was breathtaking.  Mom and I took a canal bus back to the train stop and the ride took us along the grand canal all lit up - it was gorgeous!  At first our bus was PACKED with people to the point that I did not really feel safe floating in such an overcrowded vessel, but I got used to it and mom and I squeezed our way next to the captain's area at the front of the boat and had a wonderful view of the city as we passed by.

The next day we did more wondering and explored new parts of the island that we did not get to the first day.
We went to a grocery store for lunch and got fresh buns, brie and salami and ate along one of the canals.  The grocery store was very busy and the lines for the cashiers extended to the back wall of the store...it was a funny experience waiting in line though, listening to the Italian women and men chat and get impatient waiting in the lines.  At one point one of the ladies walked up to the cashier and began questioning her about why she had to wait so long (from what I gathered from the conversation) - she was not pleased to have to wait and I do not blame her because it was a little bit ridiculous!

We bought some "treasures" in Venice to take home with us - I bought a T-shirt and mom bought some jewellery that was made on the island and a new leather purse.  And of course we had to indulge in some of the local goodies - licorice, gelato, and cookies.  I had to take pictures of the food as they were no only tasty, but so colourful and fun to look at!

 At the end of our last night in Venice we found a little bar near the train station and settled in for drinks and a simple dinner of paninis!  Mom had a beer, I had a coke and we shared a bag of potato chips to eat with our sandwiches - it was one of my favorite places we had dinner!  It was a tiny hole in the wall bar, with money bills from all over the world posted on the walls and there was just one younger man working there by himself doing the bartending, the "cooking/grilling" of the paninis, the dishwashing and handling the money!  Mom and I were very impressed with his one man operation.


The next day we set out for the Cinque Terra - a series of 5 towns on the north Italian coast.  On our way there we stopped in Pisa to see the tower - these experiences will be the subject of my next post, hopefully to be up in the next couple of days!

Love Heather & (this time) Cathy!