As we left Germany yesterday, I was sad to leave our new friends. We had been staying with Heidi, Bernd, Alexandra, Andreas and Jannis. These are some of the nicest people you will ever have the pleasure to meet. I was also sad to see that even almost halfway around the world, a problem such as graffiti is as common here and in Germany as it is at home.
Such outrageous words such as "HOMEWORK", "MUSTARD", and "SMILE" were spray painted across the walls of a playground in Germany and my personal Italian favorite, "LIVE THE DREAM!!". I guess problems are the same everywhere.
We arrived in Pisa last night and are now in Cinque Terra. The little bit of Italian I've learned has come in handy. We toured the leaning tower of Pisa and they aren't kidding-it really does lean. We went into the Cathedral behind the tower and I had forgotten that here, if you are entering a church, it is respectful to cover your shoulders. (I was wearing a sleeveless shirt) They have disposable "gowns" for women to wear and there are pictures of me looking like an escaped mental patient. Classy.
I should go now, it's getting late and I've haven't visited the other gelato store yet!!
Ciao!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Euro"peeing" bathroom tour of 2007
ACHTUNG!! This blog entry is rated P.G. 13
I have seen some of the most amazing things over the last 6 days that I have been here....streets that are too small for 1 car but there are 30 on them, no speed limit, cathedrals that have taken 600 years to complete, but nothing compares to what I happened across yesterday afternoon.
As we sat down in a well known pub in Köln, I decided that I should use the washroom before the hour long train ride home (my mother always said - you should have gone before you left). What happened in that particular bathroom on that particular day needs to be shared. First I am shown to an empty stall by a lovely woman who enjoys her job way too much for someone who works in a pub bathroom, then I sit down to do what I came to do. As I stand up (my pants weren't even done up yet), a small square come out from the back of the wall behind the toilet and as the seat SPINS AROUND, it sprays, SANITIZES, and wipes the seat clean!!!!
The lady in the bathroom spoke no English, but didn't have to to know exactly how I felt about what I had just saw. Then I had to, of course, wash my hands. The hand dryer was made by Dyson, which as most of you know, makes the ultimate vacuum cleaner. They broke all the rules for making hand dryers. It looks like a large "U" and once you put your hands in, it sounds like a jet engine but works in about 8 seconds with not a drop of water left over!!
It was worth the train fare just for that experience. Don't even get me started on the toilet paper here. Let's just say that we had suitcase full of gifts coming over and I'm loading it up before I come home!!!
I have seen some of the most amazing things over the last 6 days that I have been here....streets that are too small for 1 car but there are 30 on them, no speed limit, cathedrals that have taken 600 years to complete, but nothing compares to what I happened across yesterday afternoon.
As we sat down in a well known pub in Köln, I decided that I should use the washroom before the hour long train ride home (my mother always said - you should have gone before you left). What happened in that particular bathroom on that particular day needs to be shared. First I am shown to an empty stall by a lovely woman who enjoys her job way too much for someone who works in a pub bathroom, then I sit down to do what I came to do. As I stand up (my pants weren't even done up yet), a small square come out from the back of the wall behind the toilet and as the seat SPINS AROUND, it sprays, SANITIZES, and wipes the seat clean!!!!
The lady in the bathroom spoke no English, but didn't have to to know exactly how I felt about what I had just saw. Then I had to, of course, wash my hands. The hand dryer was made by Dyson, which as most of you know, makes the ultimate vacuum cleaner. They broke all the rules for making hand dryers. It looks like a large "U" and once you put your hands in, it sounds like a jet engine but works in about 8 seconds with not a drop of water left over!!
It was worth the train fare just for that experience. Don't even get me started on the toilet paper here. Let's just say that we had suitcase full of gifts coming over and I'm loading it up before I come home!!!
Tomorrow, we shall check out the bathrooms of Italy!!!
talk to you soon!!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
HISTORY 101
I love Canada, I really do...but come on!! Do we have a wall that was built in 373??!! Well now I have a picture of one that was.
The town that we are in is called Wiesbaden and the reason that they have so many old buildings is because in WWII, the American soldiers liked it here so much they made it their headquarters and didn't bomb it as much as the surrounding towns. So many of the houses and churches are still standing from when they were first built.
Mark and I toured around Wiesbaden and Mainz yesterday and I was completely blown away with what I saw. The amazing care and craftsmanship that these buildings were assembled with is something that I have never seen. We were lucky enough to be walking through a large church yesterday just as a wedding ceremony started. The organ began playing and the choir stared singing and I got goosebumps. It was unreal.
Today we toured the Rhine river on a boat for 3 hours taking way too many pictures of about 20 castles that stand along the banks. We hopped off in a town called St. Goar and were able to walk through the Burg Rheinfels. (castle Reinfels). Again way too many pictures.
The people we are staying with are as amazing as their country-
Sabine- a wonderful hostess who can't do enough for you.
Franz- the best and most knowledgeable tour guide I've ever had.
Melanie-So easy going and even if she's seen it a thousand times before, will show you again without a word of complaint.
Ava-a sweet 82 year old lady that starts to cry when she thinks about Canada because she loves it so much and.....
Heinz- the perfect host who makes sure that your glass is never empty. doesn't actually drink very much himself, but loves to watch the Canadians try to do their best with peach schnapps, cherry schnapps, asbach schnapps, schlein schnapps.....all in the same night. You could ask Mark how he did but I'm not sure he remembers.
I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures directly to the blog and not have to load them on the computer first, but alas everything is in German...
Have to run-we are on are way to Heidi and Bernd's for the next 3 nights and then off to Italy!!
Aufwiedersehen!!
The town that we are in is called Wiesbaden and the reason that they have so many old buildings is because in WWII, the American soldiers liked it here so much they made it their headquarters and didn't bomb it as much as the surrounding towns. So many of the houses and churches are still standing from when they were first built.
Mark and I toured around Wiesbaden and Mainz yesterday and I was completely blown away with what I saw. The amazing care and craftsmanship that these buildings were assembled with is something that I have never seen. We were lucky enough to be walking through a large church yesterday just as a wedding ceremony started. The organ began playing and the choir stared singing and I got goosebumps. It was unreal.
Today we toured the Rhine river on a boat for 3 hours taking way too many pictures of about 20 castles that stand along the banks. We hopped off in a town called St. Goar and were able to walk through the Burg Rheinfels. (castle Reinfels). Again way too many pictures.
The people we are staying with are as amazing as their country-
Sabine- a wonderful hostess who can't do enough for you.
Franz- the best and most knowledgeable tour guide I've ever had.
Melanie-So easy going and even if she's seen it a thousand times before, will show you again without a word of complaint.
Ava-a sweet 82 year old lady that starts to cry when she thinks about Canada because she loves it so much and.....
Heinz- the perfect host who makes sure that your glass is never empty. doesn't actually drink very much himself, but loves to watch the Canadians try to do their best with peach schnapps, cherry schnapps, asbach schnapps, schlein schnapps.....all in the same night. You could ask Mark how he did but I'm not sure he remembers.
I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures directly to the blog and not have to load them on the computer first, but alas everything is in German...
Have to run-we are on are way to Heidi and Bernd's for the next 3 nights and then off to Italy!!
Aufwiedersehen!!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
we're here....
Well day one on our trip. I won't bore you with the details of everyday, but today was a first for many things.
The day started out with us coming back to our hotel from shopping to see two police cars arriving at the same time. Nothing serious, just a belligerent guy who overslept past check out and (successfully) stole all the towels in the room. Then it was on to the airport, where we found a very nice bulldog named George, who was also taking the flight with us.
We were able to waste 3 hours in the airport playing games, shopping, watching on TV how the German police had just caught a group of terrorists who had plans for the Frankfurt airport..... (don't worry Mom, everything is good now)
Our plane was delayed an hour which was good because just before the boarding call Marks' glasses broke and we had to make a mad dash for the jewelery store to find a tiny screwdriver!! Thank Goodness for duty free shopping!!!
The day started out with us coming back to our hotel from shopping to see two police cars arriving at the same time. Nothing serious, just a belligerent guy who overslept past check out and (successfully) stole all the towels in the room. Then it was on to the airport, where we found a very nice bulldog named George, who was also taking the flight with us.
We were able to waste 3 hours in the airport playing games, shopping, watching on TV how the German police had just caught a group of terrorists who had plans for the Frankfurt airport..... (don't worry Mom, everything is good now)
Our plane was delayed an hour which was good because just before the boarding call Marks' glasses broke and we had to make a mad dash for the jewelery store to find a tiny screwdriver!! Thank Goodness for duty free shopping!!!
On the plane everything went smoothly... I was worried due to the fact that Mark choose the chinese/curry/japanese combo from the airport for lunch, but if accidently eating the red wax off the babybel cheese didn't bother him, I guess nothing will. The flight was uneventful, but very long. We both didn't sleep very much and were INCREDIBLY tired when we got here.
It took only 7 minutes to break out the German chocolate and 28 minutes for the schnapps!!
Gotta run-we are heading into town to meet friends and pick up dinner!!
Miss and love everyone-talk to you again soon!!
Cara and Mark
Saturday, September 1, 2007
This is our good friend Conrad. He came to stay with us recently.I love it when he's here, Mark never laughs as hard or as much as when Conrad's around. The two of them are like beligerent 8-year-old kids. Which bring me to my point.
If you think that your 34-year-old husband is a grown-up and would no longer find fart jokes and noises to be the funniest thing in the universe...
you are SO wrong.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Where did the time go.
So there are only 13 days left before Mark and I are on a plane to Europe. If you are counting only days of work left before we leave Mark has 6 and I have 10. I'm not sure when or how this happened because just yesterday there was still 146 days to go.
That being said, I'm COMPLETELY not ready. The only thing that I am actively doing is, no longer putting my clothes away after doing the laundry. What if I forget the pink shirt that I really like? I'd better leave it out. The passports are already in the suitcase. (another story entirely-let's just say that once you've been in one apartment fire, anytime you smell something burning, you throw all you own into your new suitcase just to see "how much it can hold").
We have most of what we wanted to bring for gifts. Maple syrup, socks with the Canada flag on them, maple syrup, Canada t-shirts, maple syrup, clover honey, maple syrup....
Mark has everything planned out carefully for us. I LOVE him. I haven't had to do a thing. He's booked tickets online for us to go the museum in Florence where Michelangelo's David in on display and he's read everything we'll need to know while we're there.
We'll be posting online about where we are and what we're doing, mostly here, but on facebook as well. If I can, I'll try to get some pictures posted.
I should probably go and take out our wedding pictures out of the suitcase.
That being said, I'm COMPLETELY not ready. The only thing that I am actively doing is, no longer putting my clothes away after doing the laundry. What if I forget the pink shirt that I really like? I'd better leave it out. The passports are already in the suitcase. (another story entirely-let's just say that once you've been in one apartment fire, anytime you smell something burning, you throw all you own into your new suitcase just to see "how much it can hold").
We have most of what we wanted to bring for gifts. Maple syrup, socks with the Canada flag on them, maple syrup, Canada t-shirts, maple syrup, clover honey, maple syrup....
Mark has everything planned out carefully for us. I LOVE him. I haven't had to do a thing. He's booked tickets online for us to go the museum in Florence where Michelangelo's David in on display and he's read everything we'll need to know while we're there.
We'll be posting online about where we are and what we're doing, mostly here, but on facebook as well. If I can, I'll try to get some pictures posted.
I should probably go and take out our wedding pictures out of the suitcase.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
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