A short story

Well, our hotel in Verona has free internet, so here is another post. Yesterday, we went for another great hike in the Alpe de Siusi of the Dolomite mountain range in the north of Italy. We focused on the meadows, flowers, and also getting a closer look at the mountain peaks. We stopped again for appelstrudel and coffee at a mountain hut, saw cows and horses, and even got to take a ski lift. Last night, we bought a picnic dinner at the market and relaxed in our room (in our little kitchen nook with a view of the mountains)...and did laundry the old fashioned way, in the bathtub hang drying everything on the balcony!!!

Today, we left early in the morning for Bolzano...now for an intersting side story. We didn't want to worry anyone at home, so we hadn't said anything, but upon our check in at the hotel in Castelrotto, we discovered that Jen's money belt with all of our US money and her passport were missing!!! We promptly freaked out, argued, got frustrated, etc. We also figured out what happened. Basically, Jen felt the money belt was uncomfortable/unflattering so she didn't want to wear it anymore. Josh warned her that the whole point of having the money belt was to keep on your body at all times so you can't lose anything even if it's uncomfortable/unflattering. Jen did not heed his advice and decided to put it in the backpack as she was wearing a dress that day and could not get to the money belt without a very awkward dance to shake it down to her ankles. Sometime between this moment and hotel check in, the money belt disappeared!!! Guess what? Our hotel checked with the bus company and the money belt was turned in. We picked it up this morning and not only did it have Jen's passport, credit card, etc., but also all of the cash!! WOW WOW WOW!!! We could not believe our good fortune...and now Jen wears her money belt all the time.

Moral of the story. Always listen to Josh.

We have spent a few hours in Verona today and it'really nice. Unfortunately, we were not able to go to the opera festival, but we were able to go to a jazz concert in a 2000 year old Roman amphitheater instead. We took a walking tour and had a scrumtious Italian dinner with gelato for dessert...of course. Now, we are going to bed. Good nite from Verona!!

Ciao

Venice to Kastelruth

bongiorno! we have been busy since our last post. we finished our cruise on saturday. the cruise was great. some of our favorite parts about the cruise were the amazing new and HUGE ship - the norwegian gem. the ship holds 2000 passengers and 1000 crew. to give you an idea of the size of the ship, it is only 3 laps around the 7th floor deck to make a mile. during our 2 days at sea, we especially enjoyed relaxing outside on the back of the ship, watching the ocean, reading and chatting, within a few feet of the soft serve ice cream and coffee stations. my favorite port was mykonos, greece which looked like a post card of beautiful white greek buildings and shore line.

after our cruise we went to venice, my FAVORITE city!!! i could not get over the "bride of the sea" as it is sometimes called. how did they build the city on the water? it is unbelievable! and the architecture!! i was awestruck by the beauty the entire time. on top of that, the food was incredibley delicious. fresh, homemade pizza for lunch and dinner with gelato in between!!! i felt like josh & i could have wandered the streets of venice, eating pizza and stopping at cafes for cappucinos for weeks! venice is definitely a place i hope to return to.

we left venice and had a long day of travel. First, a 30 minute train ride to Padua. We blitzed through Padua in about 4 hours. First seeing the Scrovegni Chapel which was incredible. The entire inside was frescoed by Giottto in the years 1303 to 1305. It was one of the most beautiful places either of us has ever been in. You can only go in for 15 minutes and they keep the entire place climate controlled (it's a pretty neat system). Then, we got lost in Padua for a while (oops Josh's navigation skills are still improving) then hustled back to the train station to catch a one hour train to Verona. Then we had 8 minutes to make it to our next train, which took us way up north to Bolzano. Finally, we took the one hour bus ride through the mountains (which made topanga cyn seem like nothing) to our destination.

now we are in the beautiful mountain town of kastelruth. kastelruth is set high up in the northern mountains of italy. we are very close to the borders of austria and switzerland and it feels like it. yesterday we went hiking in the mountains and saw beautiful mountains and meadows. during our hike we stopped for strudel and to take lots of pics including a few with some new friends (horses and cows.) kastelruth looks like a postcard and we are trying to "take it all in" as josh says!

OUR FAVORITE MOMENTS OF THE PAST FEW DAYS

Coffee, capuccinos, espresso, coke light (anything with caffeine...especially for Jen!!)

The gondola ride in venice

The amazing greek seaside town of Mykonos

Clean and FREE bathrooms!!

Josh carrying the backpack and all the heavy stuff

The great food and feeling of euphoria after the meal

The unbelievable views on our hikes in the Dolomites of northern Italy

Jen saying wow, wow WOW WOOOWWW WWWWOOOOWWWWWW

OUR LEAST FAVORITE MOMENTS OF THE PAST FEW DAYS

Josh carrying the backpack and all the heavy stuff!!!

Long, tiring travel days.

Dirty bathrooms that cost 2 euros!!

Getting lost again...again...again...even worse when Jen is hungry/tired/in need of caffeine

Ciao and we miss you all

Jen and Josh

Corfu, Greece

Well, here we are in Corfu. It's raining, cloudy, and we're having a great time! I can also promise you we will not be able to keep up this rate of blog updates. We've been very lucky so far and have found easy and cheap internet cafes. Anyway, Corfu is great...we've spent the day just wandering the town, enjoying the sights and sounds of Greece. BTW, Greek food is as good as advertised. I also bought a watch and Jen bought sunglasses. We're both so cheap that combined we didn't even spend more than 15 bucks for them both!! The cruise ship is huge...brand new and really nice facilities. The food is awesome and there is a great pool deck with a huge waterslide. So far so good. That's all for now. We'll post again soon, hopefully!!

venice & split, croatia

hello from croatia. yes, that means we made it! after traveling by taxi, plane, train and boat we arrived safely and happily (although exhausted) in venice on friday evening. the flights were long but josh was kind enough to give me the aisle seat most of the time and not watch the map station (my moms personal fave.) during our layover we were able to sight see in london for a few hours. we saw buckingham palace, big ben and had tea with the queen. unfortunately the princes were at the world cup so they were not able to join us.

we spent our first night at a beautiful waterfront hotel along the grand canal. they definitely call it grand for a reason. venice is breath-taking!! after checking into the hotel in venice we had our first delicious italian meal of pizza and pasta, we then spent a while getting lost in the streets of venice. one thing i have learned is to use the term street loosely. in venice a street can be a narrow coblestone alley that if you blink you may miss.

on saturday morning we woke up refreshed and enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel. we then walked around venice and saw st marks square. saturday afternoon (yesterday) we boarded our cruise ship the norwegian gem. the ship is brand new and beautiful. it carries over 2000 passengers! this is the first cruise ship i have been on with a bowling alley. this morning our ship arrived in split, croatia. we just finished a walking tour of diocletians palace. it is just amazing how big and old the palace is. it is incredible to think that this structure was here 1000 years ago and all of the people and things that have happened in the very places we just toured.

Getting Ready

We leave tomorrow for our honeymoon and to say we're excited and looking forward to it would be an understatement. It began as a 2 week trip, soon Josh convinced me to expand our honeymoon to 3 weeks, then 4 weeks, and now 5 weeks!! At first I was unsure about taking a 5 week vacation (too expensive, too long to be away from home, insert other reasons/excuses here.) Soon however Josh utilitzed his superb persuasion skills (thanks Janice & Alan!) to convince me that we can afford it and who knows when the next time will be that we'll have the opportunity to take a trip like this? Besides, as my sister Ali would argue, 5 weeks is really not very long at all. When we were in Thailand and Cambodia last summer we met people who were traveling for months which made my 2 week trip seem short.