Boycotting Snoring

We are currently in Croatia, checked in at a guesthouse with our own private room.  Which means we don't have to be quiet.  And we don't have to put up with snoring.  And, to top it off, we have wireless!!!  Tomorrow we're off to do some hiking around a beautiful area called Plitvice.  But here are some pictures from the last bits of our trip.

Well, as usual, these didn't load in the order they were supposed to.  Oh well.  This was our breakfast of Belgian waffles smothered in strawberries and cream...and we got these in...drum roll...Belgium!  Complete with tea for two.
One of the great things about being in Germany is that you see my name everywhere.  I mean, it's the German spelling Ludwig instead of Lodwig, but still.
This is me in Leipzig outside the Thomaskirche where Bach taught and Mozart once played the organ.  And if you look closely at the bottom right (I don't know if they're clear or not) are Mozart and Beethoven, who have been traveling with us.
This is me in Berlin at the Holocaust memorial.  I really liked Berlin.  It's really cool how accessible they make everything.  There are a lot of free things, and they do what they can to make sure people learn the history of what happened there.  They're both honest about the horrors and eager to show the good they have to offer too.

This place is called Zaanse Schans.  It's a little Dutch village about a fifteen minute train ride from Amsterdam.  It was so cute and pretty, so once we finally found the ferry that took us out to the island, we loved the view.
Here's me in the village.  See, I'm still alive.
These are the chocolates we bought in Bruges, Belgium.  And I'm posting it here so that I can rub it in that we got a package of two dozen Ferrero Rocher chocolates for around six euro.  You can usually find a package of six for six dollars.  We felt crunchy.
Here I am in Brussels enjoying the instrument museum.  It was really fun because admission came with an audio guide that would play selections of the instruments you'd see when you were standing in front of them.  Needless to say, I had tons of fun.  And as a side note, Belgium and Holland both had great bells.  The bells didn't just toll out the usual tones.  They played actual folk tunes and such.  I loved them!
Apparently, fries were invented in Belgium.  So we got the traditional and oh so healthy lunch of fries with mayo.  They were good fries.

Did ew know...?

I know something you don't know.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

Comment Commenting

It occurs to me that I have not been doing a very good job of answering comment questions.  And since we're having technical issues with the internet connection at this hostel and can't seem to load pictures, this seems like a good time to answer a few questions.  Including some older ones.

Okay, the questions regarding vaklkl, and flint and polish...well, those comments had no logic.  They just sort of came about.  From my mind.  Somehow.

Yes, I did find a stone disk in Monte Carlo.  Or rather, I found a piece of stone that I convinced myself was a stone disk.  And then stuck it down a gutter and pulled it out again.  So yes.  Yes I did.  Thank you for asking.  :-)=

Sanna...yes, terre means lands in Italian.  :-)=

Sara...currently the pictures of Pisa are on the next page.

Mother...we actually have taken a couple of pictures of postcards when we couldn't get pictures of the thing itself.  It's hard sometimes not to get the glare in there, but we have tried.

In the cannon pictures, the last one was taken by Wolfgang, who was showing us around Ingolstadt.

No, High School Musical was not shown in German here.  The songs are always shown in English, but some of the theatres dub the rest of it.  This theatre however, showed it in English, which was nice.

And finally, I do believe at one point I posted about an illegal picture I took of a piano at a museum.  And I also believe that I didn't actually post that picture.  Well...OoPs.  Hee.  See, sometimes we type posts on the computer without internet connection and then just paste them in when we get the chance.  And then sometimes pictures don't load like they're supposed to.  And all kinds of other problems I won't bore you with.  But it's a cool looking piano.  I guess it just doesn't want to be seen, the little scamp.

Movies and Such

Well, for now I'm actually caught up.  Ish.  Right now we're in Berlin.  We haven't loaded any of those pictures, so that'll have to come later.  However, I wanted to mention our fantabulous day today.  This morning, we had to resolve some accommodation problems.  It's a long story.  Which of course always means it's not a long story, but I don't want to explain.  In this situation I don't want to think too much about it and it actually probably is a fairly long story, so meh.  All that is to say, we had a fun morning.  So we were a bit later getting out to Leipzig, but we made it.  We got to see some wonderful sights pertaining to Mendelssohn, Bach, and Mozart.  It was awesome.  And we got some new socks, which will also be nice.  Fuzzy and warm is always good.  After we got back from Leipzig, we had a light dinner at an Australian place (Australian fries and Oriental chicken fingers).  The fries were amazing!  After that we caught the 20.15 (8:15 pm) showing of High School Musical 3, which was released here a day earlier than it is there.  So yes, I'm bragging.  I know you all must be very jealous.  While we were eating before the movie, we got to see a red carpet thingy for a premiere of a German/Austrian movie called Nordwand.  All in all, a very German experience today, and I feel great about that.  :-)=  Well, now I really really am caught up.  Yippy doodles!  Now I'm going to bed.  Night night.

Did ew know...?

Fuzzy socks are the secret to happiness.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

France and Germany Assortments

Again with the order problems.  Honestly, once I get things figured out, it sakes things up again.  Quite a nuisance.

This is in Versailles.  The gardens were lovely, especially with the spring colours of the flowers and the fall colours of the trees behind them.
This was our lunch in Versailles: some lovely pastries and things we got in a bakery there.  There was an apricot tart, a pistachio cookie, a crepe pie thingy, and something like bignets, called bugnets.
Well, I had to go there.  It's kind of a strange area, and the building is not nearly as cool as the Moulin Rouge in the movie Moulin Rouge.  Actually it's rather tacky.  But it was cool to go anyway.
Here's my lovely sister on the river Seine.

It's always Christmas in Germany!  This is the famous Christmas store in Rothenberg, which was loads of fun.
Here are the three Garber kids in Rothenberg.
This was the amazingly lovely breakfast spread we were provided at the Garber home in Geisenfeld.  Yummy!
Paris...obviously.  I don't know of another building that really looks like that one in the background.  This was at Place de la Concorde, where the main guillotine used to be. Now they have an Egyptian obelisk.  Which...totally makes sense.

And now, to close up that post.  I must mention the fabulous puppet show we saw in Rothenberg.  The Garbers had seen it years ago, and it had been very cute.  Not a stupid puppet show for four year olds, but a charming puppet show that all ages could enjoy.  So we interrupted our conversation one night and rushed to see this remarkable show.  What we saw were chickens laying eggs, the Menamena song (does that even have a proper spelling?), a creepy yodeler, and a highly inappropriate hurdy-gurdy song at the end.  About halfway through we just started laughing.  And couldn't compose ourselves.  It was quite possibly the worst thing I've ever seen!  And of course, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.  Those make the best stories!  Gotta keep life interesting somehow, right?  Of course, now when I see a little doll with blonde braids that looks like the yodeler, I feel slightly irrational terror, but whaddaya do?  And the birds with the egg...hee hee hee... Anyway...that's all I suppose.

Did ew know...?

Men should not have long blonde braids and dresses.  Ever.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

Siena/Venice/L'abri

Flaws are one thing.  I can deal with flaws.  If you figure out the flaws, you can work around them.  But when the flaws change, then what does one do?  Well, these pictures are out of order, but I'll explain them anyway.

This was the bridge in Venice outside of our hostel.  I loved having a private bridge.

This was a very cool vineyard in Siena.  They play constant Mozart music for the vines.  They've done studies with one batch with music and one batch without.  The vines with music were apparently much healthier.

Don't freak out too much.  This was my favourite perch in our hostel in San Rocco, just outside of Siena.  We loved our room.
This was one of the lovely views on the walk around the grounds we stayed on in San Rocco.  Elizabeth was kind enough to pose.
Here we are in the Swiss Alps.  Saying it was beautiful doesn't even begin to describe it.
Here's the little group that went on the hike on our first full day.
This was the stunning view from our room at L'abri in the alps.
Here I am on a bridge in Venice.  I am pouting because Venice has no trees.  No trees means no sticks.  No sticks means I don't get to play Pooh Sticks.
And of course, what would Italy be without sampling some Tiramisu.  So we did.  And it was lovely.  Naturally.

So, the Siena/San Rocco pictures come first, then the Vienna pictures, then the L'abri.  There ya go.

The Cannon Saga Continues...

Sad to say, Elizabeth has not let go of her...desire for cannonage.  In these first two pictures, we were innocently enjoying our walk in San Rocco, when we happened upon this...thing.  And she started contemplating the many possibilities...

I'd like to say that this finally put an end to such insanity, but we were once again met by cannons in Paris.  Many cannons.  Too many cannons for sane people.  Which of course I am.  Sane.  But she clearly isn't.  Alas.




This really is becoming absurd.  What do people do with all these cannons?  Here we are in Ingolstadt, and I'm starting to really lose my mind.  One more threat from my sister with a cannon...

...Do As the Romans Do

Have you noticed no one actually says that part any more?  It's become assumed after the "when in Rome..."  Well, what if someone intended something different?  What if it was "When in Rome, rub your socks with flint and polish before wearing them"?

Okay...well, we haven’t had internet access in a while.  Even longer since we’ve had wireless.  But I’m typing this on the train in hopes that we shall have wireless in Berlin.  So now I shall finish up Italy.  And then probably post another entry with Switzerland and Paris.  But we all know how it goes when one puts me in a box...so don’t bother trying.

Okay...Rome.  What to say, what to say?  Well, we packed a lot into those three days.  And I certainly don’t really want to mention everything, because this train ride isn’t ten hours long.  Perhaps I should start with a little anecdote from Little Lod.  Our hostel was nice, and the staff was friendly.  However, it was rather loud.  In the common area, which was really just the entrance hallway, they liked to turn on loud music and drink under the blacklight.  I suppose that would have been all well and good, if the noise had been confined to outside the rooms.  Unfortunately, on our first night there, three people came in at three o’clock in the morning, completely drunk and completely loud.  Being awoken by the noise was irritating.  But then one of the guys got in the bed right next to me and proceeded to snore.  Loudly.  I found it quite unacceptable for him to wake me up and keep me awake.  His hand was above his head and tantalizingly close to me.  So I reached over and pinched him with my fingernails as hard as I could until he stopped snoring.  I had to do that twice.  And it worked.  And I slept.  But part of me will always wonder what he was thinking when he saw his hand the next morning.  Ah well.

Having set the stage now for Rome, I suppose I should proceed to explain my pictures.  But I’m sick of typing.  And every other word becomes a typo that has to be fixed five times.  So I’m just going to give a brief description of my pictures, and if you want any more detail, you can toodle over to Elizabeth’s site and hope she’s not as lazy as me.

1. Ostia Antica, with Elizabeth looking evilly through the window.  We were able to explore a bit here, which was fun.

2.  This...ball type thing was at the Vatican.  I thought it was cool.  I named it a Vaklkl.  And it shall be my Vaklkl.

3.  Goobs is keeping her eye on me over here in Europe.  She even had her spies in the Vatican.  Actually, one of those black cats might have even been her.

4.  These were Roman guards at St. Peter’s Basilica.  They’ve changed their look a bit, eh?  At least they don’t have those fluffy red things on their heads anymore.  I think all the guys in the U.S. should start wearing these.  They’d be pretty.

5.  This picture was taken in the Roman Forum.  I am posting it to show four things.  One is the Roman Forum.  See how pretty?  The second is my main function as navigator.  Unfortunately, now and then we get lost, and I have to spend ten minutes finding us.  Five minutes for the finding, and the other five for motivation to stand up again.   The third is to show off my tan line.  It really is there, and I’m certain you can see it in this picture.  Enjoy it, ‘cuz it’ll probably be faded by the time we get home.  The fourth and final is my souvenir sweater, as I’m calling it now.  I finally got to wash it yesterday, but it was accumulating all kinds of interesting spills, like butter in Scotland and jelly in Germany...to name a few.

6.  This is the Trevi fountain.  I’m pretending to threaten an Italian man with my purse, in honour of my dear mother, who actually did hit a man with her purse at the Trevi fountain.  Maybe someday my daughter will take of picture of herself pinching someone in Rome, in my honour.  Aren’t traditions special?

7.  This is a picture of the elusive information i.  We spent a lot of time hunting for the little scamp in the train station.  It was running up elevators and leading us in circles for quite some time.

8.  We found it difficult to take pictures of ourselves at the Colosseum.  It just feels a bit wrong to smile, when so many people were killed there.  But the Pope added a cross there at some point, which we found to be a good picture point.  And we did manage to smile once, which I have documented in number nine.

9.  Well, I got ahead of myself.  OoPs.

10.  And finally, here was our favourite snack in Rome. It was an ice cream thingy with whipped cream on top.  We got it at a gelato shop at Piazza Navona.

When In Rome...

ITly? What the Heck's She Doin' in ITly?

Yeah, I don't remember what that's from.  But it's from some movie where a woman goes looking for a man with a certain name in Italy.  N-E-wayz...

I'm in Italy.  In Rome.  But I'm not going to blog about Rome yet.  Mainly because I'm not done with Rome yet.  We're leaving in a couple days for Siena, which should be loads of fun.  We've booked a private room outside of the city, in a farm type area.  It should be really beautiful, and we're definitely looking forward to getting away from crowds for a couple of days.

Anyhoos, first on the list of Italy was Cinque Terre.  This was a charming area on the coast, with five small villages hidden within the hills there.  Hence the name.  Cinque meaning five.  And terre meaning something.  Five somethings.  The adorable hostel we stayed in was like a little flat really, with a kitchen, a couple of rooms, a washing machine...and a rope outside of the window.  So we got the true Italian experience of doing our laundry and hanging it out the window.  As our clothes dried, we enjoyed a spread we had purchased at a few stores in our town, Riomaggiore.  The next day we enjoyed the hike through all the towns, got our first taste of Italian pizza and Italian gelato.  Now, as charming as this area is, I have to say that the best part was all the cats.  I saw over a dozen within twenty-four hours.  Whereas Spain was primarily overrun by dogs, Italy seems to be very cat friendly, and I heartily approve.

From Cinque Terre we trained it to Florence, with a brief stop in Pisa to see the tower.  What else would we be there for?  The poor dears are like Roswell...one claim to fame.  Roswell has their aliens, Pisa its tower.  But then, at least Pisa has something to show for it.  Anyway, we took two kinds of pictures here: those for our Mother, and those for everyone else.  If you haven’t heard the story, I give the very short version.  As my mother is a perfectionist, when she took pictures of some of her friends there a long time ago, she accidentally straightened the tower with the camera and made her friends crooked.  So what kind of daughters would we be if we didn’t do the same?

One of the first things we did in Florence (after our first night there) was the Accademia Gallery, with the statue of David.  The line gets really long, but we had heard that if we went earlier in the morning, we’d miss the long lines.  They were right...we zipped right in.  I took one picture before I found out you aren’t supposed to take pictures in there.  So here’s an illegal picture for you viewing pleasure.  It’s a very old piano.  I hope you’re enjoying it as I’m hauled off to jail.  Honestly, I didn’t get the David going in.  It’s just a naked man, right?  But in all fairness to Michelangelo, it is a pretty magnificent statue, when you see it in real life.  They didn’t allow pictures, but there is a plaza farther south in the city with a copy of the David.  It’s not nearly as amazing, but we did take some pictures, and I have provided the G-rated version.  Later we enjoyed the sunset on the Arno River.

No worries

Calm down, loveys, calm down. I can't type long, but rest assured we are still alive and well. We haven't had convient wireless access for around two weeks, and still don't. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity in Berlin, but we'll see. I can't feel too bad about it right now, because we're being spoiled rotten by the lovely family we're staying with in Germany. (Thanx to Jake and Cas!) Lunch is ready, gotta go. Love alls y'alls!!!