Some of my favorite pictures and more...

We have taken humdreds of photos.  These are just a few of my favorites...after all, one picture can speak a thousand words.

And one of Rocky's favorites:

So, this is our last night in Bratislava.  We spent the morning looking for second hand stores we had noticed last time we passed through.  We found several, and one was open.  The rest of the day was spent figuring out how to get to the train station, making Budapest reservations and packing and re-packing.

Our journey is about to come full circle...and there is one story we deliberately left out until now.  Having returned Michael's brother's car we can say now what we weren't able to stay before, not wanting George to worry for the majority of the time we had his car in our care.  We had just spent 2 lovely days in Gleisdorf Austria, and were heading for Italy,  All was well.  We were happy, relaxed and getting used to driving 120 km per hour (about 75 mph), while others whizzed past us at unthinkable speeds of at least 150 kmh.  We were on the Einbahn, Austria's fastest road, and I was driving, passing a very slow truck in the very slow right lane as we were going up an incline.  Suddenly, the car seemed to lose power.  I shifted down thinking I would be able to accelerate then, only to feel the car's power continue to fail.  "Shit, oh shit, oh fucking shit", I thought.  "What the hell is going on?"  Fortunately there was a merging lane coming onto the Einbahn that seemed little used and I managed to pull over and come to a stop out of the way of traffic.  When I did we noticed steam.  Oh that ugly steam that usually indicates an overheated engine (there was no engine heat indicator on the dashboard, which did seem strange now that I was thinking about it).  It was energetically pouring forth from the engine compartment.  "OMG...SHIT, SHIT, SHIT...the phone doesn't work!!!"  "No Vodafone service in Austria...Crap, Crap, CRAP."  There was, however, a police station down the road attached to the merge lane we were parked in and an Einbahn Administration building.  Rocky stayed with the car, I walked down to the police station, hoping that someone would speak English and that we hadn't blown up the fucking engine.  I was barely keeping the tears at bay.  But as I walked, someone had called the Austrian highway technicians, who were, AMAZING, based about 50 meters from the police station.  The police were very helpful and insisted on driving me back to the car, where our rescuers had already arrived.  They were actually prepared to fix the car if at all possible but they didn't have the right hose...it turned out that a radiator hose had sprung a leak.  They waited as the police called a tow truck, and we got towed away...

The moral of the story is Opels are great cars.  They have this electronic emergency sensor system that shuts the engine down as soon as it senses overheating, so that no engine damage is done.  The mechanics replaced the hose in a couple of hours, checked the engine out and gave us a cash payment discount.  Needless to say, though we were exhausted, we were elated at not having to pay for an engine rebuild (there are good reasons to rent, rather than borrow, a car...though all is well that ends well).  The next day, after an exhausted rest, we made for Italy...and that's when Rocky ran over my foot, and then broke his toe.

We have, however, continued to walk all over the place, while inhaling Ibuprofen (good stuff that).

The sights, and sounds and the good company soon dispelled the stress as we explored Venice, Florence, Pistoia and enjoyed the hospitality of an Tuscan B & B and watched the moon rise over Tuscany.

We do have more photos and some fun video footage to share when we get back.  And, course, a few more stories (particularly about the terrifying Swiss Alp roads...we recommend taking trains in Switzerland).

We are looking forward to being home.

Love to you all!!!

K

The Story

The big story begins in Austria...amazing castles.  We saw numerous ruins as we journeyed from Slovakia through Austria.  The first one we stopped to exam was available for viewing only through a guided tour, which we paid for without understanding there was no self-guided access.  We missed the tour but oohed and ahhed never-the-less.  This castle was accessible to the guide-impaired.

Our journey that day ended in a town named Gleisdorf...the designated solar city in southern Austria.  Though we did not expect to stay in Austria more than one night, we ended up tracking down the designers of this solar tree, among many other solar features, and getting a full two hours of discussion.  AND...BEST OF ALL we found an organic chocolate factory which was amazing.  We managed to catch the tour expecting a brief tour and a small tasting of ten varieties of chocolate.  3 hours later we were stuffed to the gills with unbelievable varieties of chocolate.  My favorites were the bars of very dark chocolate, one made with mares milk and the other made with goats milk...MMMMM.

We also found our first farmers market in Gleisdorf and got luscious farmstead cheese, peppers, cukes and homemade pastries.  Yummm!!!

The following day we headed to Italy.

And this is where the DRAMA begins...

So, here is the question.  Whose foot looks as if it had been run over by a car?

If you guessed Rockys foot on the right, you would be WRONG.  Just past the Austrian border into Northern Italy we stopped in a mountain town to regroup and get our bearings.  Rocky was driving and I was helping him back out of a parking space as visibility in either direction was for shit.  All was clear and I told him to stop so that I could get in the car.  As I reached for the door handle he, for some unknown reason, decided he needed to back up more and managed to run over my foot.  Now I know what it feels like...I had wondered when I saw such scenes in movies.  It hurt like hell.  Rocky was chagrined and almost helpless with remorse.  A quick trip to a local clinic reassured me that nothing was broken, and within a couple of hours I was actually laughing about it.  Rocky, on the other hand was very upset...after all he ran over his wifes foot.

To make it up to me he found an agriturissmo establishment for our bed that night...ay, ay, ay mama mia...9 X 12 foot metal cabin with a bed made of lumpy springs, chicken and duck shit all over the ground and over cooked and oversalted vegetables with dinner.  The best part about it, according to Rocky, was the wall heater that occupied 5 inches of the 10 that seperated the bed from the wall on which he broke his toe that night.  He felt much better then, as if he had atoned for the sin of running over my foot.  The following day he could laugh about the whole incident, because his limp was much worse than mine.

There have been a few other mishaps...but none quite so dramatic.

My poor shoes, however, did not survive.

We did make up.

We did make our way into Tuscany, and we did, finally find an Italian farmers market.  Unfortunately, not the caliber we are used to in Arcata or found in Gleisdorf, but great to finally find some late season tomatoes.

Great food we have found...

Olives, cheese and salami

Advise for anyone travelling to Europe...GPS, GPS, GPS!!!!

Venice...needs about a week.

Florence...needs about a week. 

The Italian Riviera...too crowded.

The mountains between the Mediterranean coast and Parma...beautiful.

Now, we are in Switzarland to see ALPS, but will start to meander back towards Bratislava in the next couple of days in preparation to fly back to the States on October 6.

Abish says SQUEEK, and Squeal says PEEP.

Whew!!!!

We are in Italy, in Tuscany, finally, the land of gastronomic dreams.  We came with visions of daily open-air markets, in one town or another, and expectations of vast stretches of green, growing abundance uninterrupted by cities or even the tiniest hint of sprawl;  looking forward to, "a culture of food," as Barbara Kingsolver says is practiced in the daily lives of Italian families, beyond what we, even in beautiful, bountiful Arcata, could ever hope to find  What we have found is somewhere in between the visions promulgated in dozens of travel books and the pure cynical view that everything changes and nothing could possibly be as quaint as one might hope.

Unfortunately, after a dearth of internet cafes in the small towns there are (and really there are plenty), and after learning how to ask where the library is in Italian, the library in the small, but touristy, town of Vinci (you guessed, it the birthplace of Leonardo Da...though his actual birthplace is 3 kilometers away) does not allow the use of USB devices.  Very sorry, molto spaciacente, for this post there are no pictures.

How can I possible tell the story of our travels without pictures?

Well, suffice it to say that yes we have stories, along with hundreds of pictures, many of them (bless Rocky's ever-lovin' heart) of heat pumps (some mini-splits, some simply air-conditioning units) but most of them will have to wait until we can plug in our USB for the accompanying photos...because some of the stories are dramatic.  Did that get your attention for next time?

I will tell you that we are currently operating under wine bliss having spent an hour this afternoon with a real Tuscan wine artisan who, along with his parents, uncle, aunt, wife and kids, makes only 120,000 bottles of wine a year from 15 hectares of grapevines (don't ask me what a hectare is yet).  We toured, he explained, we tasted...yes I said WE.  After 25 years of abstinence Rocky has broken his vows with, I am proud to say, absolutely no ill effects and no indication of a tendency to over do.  After 18 years of marriage we have finally shared a glass of wine with lunch (that's how it's done here in Italy).  Mousey, now Abish, and Quail, now Squeal are very delighted with their adventures, and we plan to keep them that way.

More later...sometime in the next day or two.

Ciao

The Tatras

After a long drive to the family cabin in the Slovakian Low Tatras we all needed a good night's sleep.

The following morning gave me time to torture all of Michael's poor neighbors with my burgeoning trumpet skills.

Another short drive and a couple of gondola and ski lift rides later we were ready to start our trek to the highest peak in the Low Tatras.

On the way, of course, Rocky indulged in very scientific geological study.  Here he stopped to say, "look, Kathy, someone must have taken a piss on this rock."  Oh, that will be good for a laugh for a long time.  Right Michael?

The highest peak in the Low Tatras...we made it.  It is marked wtih the Slovakian symbol of the double cross.

This is typical of the trails.  They are like Roman roads and there are intermitent huts along the way where people can buy a meal or even get a bed for the night.  Many of them are so inaccesible, however, that supplies must be packed in and waste packed out...not by animals but by humans.  We arrived at a hut at the same time that a sherpa, as they call themselves, arrived with a pressurized keg of beer, water and assorted other commestibles on his back, weighing a grand total of about 240 lbs.  He had great legs!!!

 Unfortunately, we missed the last gondolas down, so we had to hike back down to the car.  The first route we took was straight down under the ski lift, through the brush and berries to the next godola station which was also closed.  The rest of the hike back was less trecherous but our knees were really hutrting by then.  However, the company was great and we celebrated our safe and sound arrival back in civilization with a toast of the local specialty, Horic.

The following day Rocky and I spent the afternoon in the ironclad water of a nearby spa surrounded by Slovakian native palm trees.

The next day found us treking the High Tatras with our native Mountain guide.

We all enjoyed the views.

Having gone back to Bratislava after our Tatra adventures we prepared to leave for lands further afield, until we discovered we couldn't find the cell phone.  Per Rocky's request I had turned it off to conserve the battery (never again) so we couldn't call it to see if it was simply hiding in our luggage.  Thinking that we had left it at the cottage Rock and I headed back in the borrowed car with the borrowed GPS (Thank you George and Kristina) where we did not find the phone...until I accidently spied it peeking out of my toiletry bag, which I had the whole time.  The phone is on, never to be misplaced again.  So we took advantage of the time and place just to rest...reading our books and messing around.

This is Rocky doing his best Bruno imitation.

Tomorrow we hit the road.

Love to you all

Day trip to Vienna

Okay everybody, we're going to play a little game called "Name That Architectural Style".  Is it gothic, renaissance, neoclassical...?  I took an art history class, oh so many years ago at the tender age of 19.  I loved the information, but failed the class.  I never took the final.  I don't think that after all these years taking that final would have helped me remember anything anyway.  But, after this trip I might be inspired to take another one and, since all this art is tied inextricably to history, maybe even read that European history book Rocky has been recommending for years.  The first picture is the interior of a gothic church in which mass is still held several times a day.  When mass begins the many tourists are politley escorted out so they will not disturb the service with their whispering and ohs and ahs.

The second picture is part of the exterior of the church with a view of its fabulously tiled roof.

UP: Buildings old and new proclaim their beauty and importance through monumental sculpture.

DOWN:  History is revealed in the middle of Vienna by the Roman archaelogical ruins recently discovered during a modernization project.

AND STRAIGHT AHEAD:  So many ordinary buildings, not museums or municipal buildings, have luscious columns with alluring clothed and naked godesses watching the comings and goings of their streets.

Everywhere we look we see art and history which is jaw-droppingly awe-inspiring.

Of course, who could resist a classic carriage ride in the midst of all that splendor, especially since it was recommended as a pinacle romantic experience by our Slovakian host Michael.  One of Michael and Jana's first dates was to Vienna for a carriage ride.  Rocky and I took full advantage with a long, full kiss which he recorded on video.  You'll all have to wait until we get home to see that one.

Of course sustainance is always necessary, and after a full morning of sight seeing, Abish, the mouse and Squeal, the quail, insisted that we stop and EAT.  Abish is what Michael and Jana will name their wedding cat (it is a contraction of their nicknames) and Squeal is the sound of delight a waitress made when she noticed us carrying our friends everywhere we went.

Later we met an elderly gentleman as we were looking into an entryway he was exiting.  He was very well dressed in suit and tie with hat in hand and asked us if we needed help.  It turns out he was just leaving his gentleman's club where he lunched and played bridge daily.  He had actually lived in Spain for 25 years after the war and had finally repatriated himself to Austria after his wife had died.  He had been a POW in a British prison for much of the war.  He recommended that we visit the secular Hapsburg museum which he not only directed us to, but escorted us right to its door.  He felt that this museum was the best as it is secular, rather than religious.

The following pictures are of 3 generations of Hapsburg crowns.

I have nearly finished reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks much of which takes place in Europe, particularly Vienna, and discusses some of the Hapsburg history.  Their austentaion and wealth are very evident in this museum's artifacts.  All of these crowns are truly encrusted with precious gems...hand tooled gold, natural pearls, rubys, diamonds, sapphires, etc.  Their robes were all hand embroidered with thread made of similar materials...silver and gold thread.  Reading The People of the Book has given me even more appreciation for the human time and skill it took to craft these treasures.

Later that evening we headed back to Bratislava to prepare for the next day's trip to the Tatras.

Photos from Budapest

Our first morning in Budapest.  Breakfast was brought to our room by a very delightful young woman who was more than happy to see mousy and quail dive right in.  They were very hungry after our long journey.

But even after satisfying their ravenous morning appetites, they were enthralled with the variety of goodies, especially the honey specialties, available at Budapests Central Market ...I have not figured out punctuation marks on European keyboards yet.

The Central Market was huge and filled not only with Tourists, but with locals doing their daily shopping.  After browsing for a couple of hours, we all made our way to the Buda side of Budapest and spent the rest of the day partaking of the local pasttime...spa bathing.  Budapest is known for its thermal waters and Turkish baths, the most famous of which is probably the Gellert Bath.  We did not take pictures there because we did not realize that once our belongings were locked up for security that we could access them at any time, and then put them away again.  So, we relaxed and enjoyed, found a great Hungarian restaurant and went back for a restful night in our hotel.

The next morning we left our hotel nice and early, making our way on the Metro back to the Buda side...Budapest is divided into 2 main areas, Buda is the green, sedate side, while Pest is the more densely develped side with more tourist attractions such as museums, shops and clubs. After admiring the monumental statues of Heros Square,

we made our way to a bath that caters to locals as opposed to the more tourist oriented Gellert.

Few of the attendants spoke any English and all of the signs were in Hungarian, but none of that mattered to us and the many other tourists who joined the natives.  This time we got photos.

The following day we hopped on a Bratislva bound ferry along the Danube.  Rocky had a nice long snooze.We had dinner with Michael, Janka and Denisa...Michaels mom...and the next day were honored to attend Michael and Jankas wedding, the entire reason for the trip.  You better believe these Slovakians know how to have a wedding.  We partied until about 2 in the morning, the glowing couple partied longer and harder, but were none the worse for wear today.
 

Tomorrow we will take another ferry to spend the day in Vienna and Tuesday we will head to Michaels familys cabin in the Slovakian Tatras.