Thank You, Joe, Barbara and Staff

I wanted to come back and offer a large round of applause for Joe and Barbara and their great team at ItalySource.com. I highly recommend them to anyone wishing to take a trip to Italy that is primarily independent travel. You will not regret it for a second and you will have made some good friends to boot.

Thank you guys so much!!!

Tuesday, May 6 - Sorrento

Went to breakfast around 8:00 I guess. After that down to the marina to figure our how to catch a boat to Capri. Got one-way tickets in hopes of cathcing a different boat there to take us to Positano. It was about a 20 minute ride from Sorrento to Capri. When we got there we got a taxi to take us up the mountain to Ana Capri. That was cool. It was some kind of convertible, but like a Jeep too. When we got to the drop off area for the taxi, we got on a chair lift to the very top. That was scary. It had a bar that went acros your lap but it didn't lock or anything. When you got to the top the views were amazing from every way you could look. All you could do was just stare at it. Took lots of pictures up there. Then we went back down. I guess we were there about 15 minutes. When we got back to where we started, we stroled that little section of town doing some shopping. Got some gifts for the kids. Also got something to eat while we were there. Then we took the taxi back down to the harbor and bought tickets for the Blue Grotto. This is a cave that looks incredible inside if the sun is right. You get into a fairly big boat to get out there but when you're there, you have to climb down to get into rowboats. I had been anxious about this part but it went okay. The opening to the cave is just big enough for the boat. You have to duck your head way down to get in but once you're inside, there's plenty of room. It was beautiful too. The boat operators were singing and it was just a blast, very cool. They only stay in there maybe five minutes though and then they take you back to your boat. They didn't have a boat from Capri to Positano so we had to go back to Sorrento. After we got to Sorrento, Troy came up with the idea to rent a scooter for us to get to Positano. I was nervous at first because all I could think about was how much it would hurt if we got splatted, but eventually I was able to relax and enjoy it. It was a total trip and Troy was having so much fun driving it. He was beeping his horn at everybody. That Amalfi coast road is so awesome, riding the edge of the mountain all the way. We gave an old lady four euros to take our picture. She was selling fruit on the side of the road. We made it to Positano but it actually didn't look like much so we kept going to Amalfi. Amalfi was very cute. Lots of shops. We walked around there a good bit. I bought a gift for Charlene since she loaned us her iron and all her adapters. Then we remembered that we needed to buy another suitcase to get all our stuff home and we had seen a cheap one back in Sorrento. We had to haul butt back because it was getting late and we were worried they might be closed. It took about an hour to get there but we made it ande were able to buy the suitcase. Oh, on the way to Amalfi we got behind a school bus and the kids were standing up in the back waving at us. They were so stinkin' cute. The more we would wave back, the more kids that would come see what was going on. They loved it when Troy would beep the horn. Anyway, we bought the suitcase, got it to the room and re-arranged all of it, got packed up, bathed and went to bed. Forgot we did more shopping that evening in Sorrento, trying to get rid of the euros. This day runs a close tie with the Tuscany day. That Blue Grotto and the scooter ride was just the best.

**A funny thing that happened while we were in Amalfi. Troy and I were walking on a sidewalk next to the harbor and there was a man sitting alone on a bench maybe 100 feet away from us. I asked Troy, "Is that man only in his underwear?" and sure enough, all he had on were some really saggy briefs that had seen better days. He seemed like he was just trying to test how long he could sit there before someone noticed him. We were the only people around and as we got closer, some other people were coming from the opposite direction and everyone was pointing and laughing. Troy says, "Quick, get the camera!" and as I was digging for it in my backpack, he jumped up, ran to a little car and sped away. His droopy drawers were cracking us up as he ran to his car. How I wish I could have got that picture!


10558 steps walked
4.191 miles
538.5 calories burned
1:39 hrs walked

Monday, May 5 - Sorrento

6:30 a.m. hike to the train station. Not a fun way to wake up in the morning. With so many people smoking and all the exhaust fumes from the scooters, I truly felt like I had diminished lung capacity, huffing and puffing away. Then much to my annoyance I realized when we got on the train that that the step counter had not worked right. It had only counted 37 steps, when we had easily walked a mile. We went to Naples from Rome on a fast Eurostar train. It was a nice train. At Naples we had a man pick up up in a Mercedes to take us to Sorrento. He was cracking us up because at the end of EVERY sentence he would say, "You know?" We checked in at the Bellevue Syrene and I think that was the prettiest hotel yet. http://www.bellevue.it/eng/ We sampled the Lemoncello for which Sorrento is famous, but it was terrible. It is so strong, almost 45% alcohol I think. Nasty stuff, like furniture polish. We decided to spend our afternoon exploring Pompeii. We were both disappointed with it and it felt like a time suck. At first it was fun but after 30 minutes, it all looked the same. What I mainly wanted to see was the preserved victims but it turns out they are not there anymore. They are on display in a museum in Naples. All they had were three plaster casts of some of the victims. The place was huge and we stayed there four hours trying to make sure we weren't missing something but no, that was all there was. I'm still glad we saw it, just expected more somehow. When we got back to Sorrento, we took baths because we were so dusty and grubby after Pompeii. I had fallen twice in there. Once I had stepped in a hole and turned my right ankle and then later my left calf knotted up on me and I fell down a little gravel slope. Ended up with a blood blister on my hand from that one and beat my new camera all to heck. It felt good to get cleaned up and dressed nice. We went to this really nice restaurant (Caruso, San Antonino 12, off Piazza Tasso), with complimentary champagne when they seat you and complimentary wine with dessert. They had a guy playing guitar and going from table to table taking requests. When he came to us, he looked at me and said, "Any requests? Are you from Russia?" Apparently I look Russian. I told Troy I was changing my name to Oksana. Our food there was very good. After supper we went back to the hotel and sat on the balcony in our bathrobes and drank some more. I felt bad that we couldn't finish the bottle. It had been an anniversary gift from the hotel. It was a shame to waste it but it was making me sleepy. It was time to call it a day. It was our peak mileage day.

24460 steps walked
9.916 miles
1161 calories burned
3:28 hrs walked

**Funny thing on the train to Pompeii from Sorrento. It was a very confusing ticket to read and the person who sold it couldn't speak English very well. After we got on, we were really questioning if we were on teh right train. So we asked this official looking man if we had the right train. He looks at it for a while and he's saying something in Italian, apparently talking to himself. He goes and gets the other man who was in a suit and I thought that was his boss. They studied it for a long time and they kept telling us, "No refund, no refund." So Troy keeps saying, "Where do we get off?" He must have asked that three or four times. Finally these guys come to the conclusion that we were okay where we were. It turned out they weren't even train employees! Well, one of them may have been a security guard but the other one was just a passenger. We could not stop laughing at that

Sunday, May 4 - Rome

Today we stayed in the bed until nearly 10:0. It was great! We didn't have anything scheduled until 3:00, the Borghese gallery. I wanted to see The Mouth of Truth so we headed in that direction. ON the way we did some shopping. I got a necklace for me and a bracelet for Grace. Then we found a wedding gift for Dana. Troy took that back to the hotel and I waited for him.l Then we were back on the road for The Mouth of Truth. They had a bit of a wiat there but it wasn't too bad. There was a man sitting there making ocarina's and we bought two for the kids. We didn't lose our hands in the mouth so that was good. :-) By the time we were finished there, we needed to truck it over to teh Borghese. We started out walking but it was just too far. We found a taxi by "the Wedding Cake" and that was much better. The Borghese was like a really big park, very pretty, and the gallery part was in the villa. We had the audio guides for this tour. My favorite piece was the sculpture of Apollo and Daphne. After the Borghese we walked back towards the way the taxi had brought us because we had seen a Hard Rock Cafe on the way. We found it and yay for some American food, lol! We have been disappointed to find Italian food pretty bland, but we're from the New Orleans area and are used to food with some kick to it. We had good spicy hot wings and they were great. We each got a shirt there and then headed back to the Spanish Steps to hang out for the night.

16458 steps walked
6.533 miles
894.8 calories burned
2:17 hrs walked

Saturday, May 3 - Rome

We had to get up a little earlier than usual today because Barbara was coming at 8:30. Troy was so tired. This was the first time I could ever remember getting up and being ready before Troy. I went to breakfast by myself because he was still ironing his clothes. Today Barbara wook us to the Trevi fountain, a market, the Pantheon and the Castle of Angels. We also went in a few churches and she told us interesting facts about those. One church she pointed out to us had a deer's head on the top and a cross coming out of his head. Some man who had been a pagan was out hunting deer when a bolt of lightning came down and he heard Jesus telling him he should convert. So the story goes. ;-) There was a cafe across the street from there that was world famous for it's coffee. In the doorway on the floor was a mosaic of that deer head with the cross again. I took a picture of it. The market we went to was huge and seemed to have every fruit and vegetable imagineable. It was so colorful and smelled really good. I aksed Troy didn't it make him want to try some of it and he said no! Goofball. One church we went in had these paintings on the ceiling that were 3-d. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant'Ignazio) The angel's wings looked like they were sticking out from the ceiling. There was a dome that wasn't really a dome. It was flat but you could NOT tell. It had a window painted in the center that seemed to move as you changed your position in the room. We looked at it for so long and just could not get over that it was painted. It was amazing. They had a cardinal on display in a glass coffin. His face and hands were covered with a silver mask but beyond the edges of the face mask, you could see bare skull. That was wild. There was a wooden sculpture that was in a big circle. In the center was a large church. All around the edges were tiny little churches representing all the different countries in the world. The artist's idea was that eventually all religions should become only one religion with one truth with Jesus as King. Hmm, I think he's onto something. ;-) This man was 70 when he started building this thing and it took him 30 years to do it. He died 2 months after it was completed at 100 years old. The Pantheon was also very interesting. What was the coolest thing to me was the big opening in the top. When it rains, the water comes in and there are drains in the floor for that. It looks a column made of water when it rains really hard. On the summer solstice at noon, it looks like a column of light as the sun is straight above it. How cool is that? The Castle of Angels was the big round fortress where the popes would run to hide anytime the city was under attack. There was a wall that connected the Vatican to the castle and a tunnel or hallway inside that wall that allowed them to pass from one place to the other. Very smart. Our tour with Barbara was to finish at 12:30 and we started the Vatican museums tour at 1:15. So she helped us find our meeting point for that and said our farewells. We hated to see her go. She was a lot of fun. We were in a trou group of 9 people plus a guide for the Vatican. That place was so crowded and by that time, I was so tired and my feet hurt so bad that I just mostly concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. The only thing I was really interested in seeing anyway was the Sistine Chapel. That rom was shoulder-to-shoulder packed with no a/c on. I began to feel dizzy and claustrophobic. I eventually found a place where I could sit down against a wall and that was a little better. The last thing we walked through was St. Peter's basilica, which was huge. We walked all over the lower part of it. You could climb the 300+ steps to the top of the dome but there was no way that was happening. After that we took a taxi back to the room to rest a bit. Troy washed a lot of clothes that evening too. Our plan for that night was to go to the Spanish Steps and then figure out what to do for super. The steps were crowded with people just hanging out. It's a good place for that. We went to the top and took a left and walked along that street for a bit. We came to a really pretty restaurant called Ciampini. We had to wait about 30 minutes but it was worth it. The service and the food was very good. I had baked Mediterranean seabass with tomatoes and mozzerella. It came with veggies and I had classic Tiramisu for dessert. It was SO good. We were in there for two hours. I think it was about 10:30 when we left. We headed back to the room after that. Another long day.

17797 steps walked.
7.065 miles
892.4 calories burned
2:53 hrs walked

Friday, May 2 - Rome

This morning we started our day with the Scavi Tour. This is a tour that goes under the main alter of St. Peter's to where they say Peter was buried. They built that church on top of an entire cemetary so when you walk under it, you're in the little rows and aisleways between the tombs. It's like a little town of family tombs. We did see the little box of only 18 bones that truly all they can say about it is they are human remains. As to whether or not Peter is actually in there, I've yet to be completely convinced. I've read information that argues otherwise. I think it could be possible, but I'm not sure. Anyway after that was over, we walked around a bit in the Vatican City area. Saw some cars that I think were in a race, all Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. We got some sandwiches from a little shop and sat on a curb to eat and watch people. A woman parked her car right across the street from us. Not five minutes later a couple of cops came by. They felt her hood to see if her car had been there long. They stood there a while trying to decide whether or not to write a ticket. You're supposed to have a pass on the dash to park there. Just as they decided to give the ticket, she showed up and argued with them. She bought a pass from the machine that was right there close by and the cops left. It was pretty funny. We got a gelato after that and then went back to the hotel for a nap. We met our tour guide, Barbara, at 1:00. She was great! We learned so many things that, sadly, we'll never rmember but she did an awesome job. She took us to all the famous ruins that day, the Coloseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill. We saw where Julius Caesar was cremated and where Marc Antony made his "Friends, Romans, Countrymen...," speech. We saw the Quirinale Palace where the Italian president lives. It was MONSTROUS!!! Unbelievable. We also went to the building the locals refer to as "the Wedding Cake." It's huge, layered and white. It was here we stopped our tour with her and we parted ways. We were ready to go eat supper but she told us nobody eats this early (5:00). She suggested a gelato place to us that would be on our way and we could also check out the Trevi fountain. She suggested a restaurant to us and told us to make a reservation no earlier than 7:30. So we did exactly that, saw the fountain, got gelato, went to the room and made reservation. The place was La Piccola Cuccagna on Via della Cuccagna, south of Piazza Navona. (photo below) We were able to rest for about an hour before going over there. We took a taxi when we went because my feet were shot. The food was just so-so, very bland. I had roast veal and Troy had grilled sole. After supper we hung out in the piazza for a long time watching people and the peddlers and listening to various muscians trying to make a buck. We bought some flying toys that light up for the kids. I hope they work. There was also lots of artists in the square, one in particular who was drawing the most beautiful pencil portraits. They looked so real. Eventually we called it a night and headed back to the room. Our first full day in Rome was very full of activities.

17487 steps walked
6.942 miles
896 calories burned
2:45 hrs walked

Thursday, May 1 - Tuscany/Rome

Our tour guide, Christian, met us at 9:30 this morning for an 8 hour drive all over Tuscany. This has been my fovorite day so far in the trip. The coungtryside was just as I had pictured it, but better because we were really there. He took us to a butcher shop that has been in operation forever. (http://www.falorni.it/UK/uk_home.html ) To see the hams hanging from the ceiling was so cool. We went down into the cellar to see where they stored the cheese. Then he gave us a lesson on different types of Chianti and we got to sample that along with some cheese and meat. We ended up buying two bottles of Chianti there and also some cheese. The next stop was a winery where we tried some more samples and bought some sweet wine there, Vin Santo. ( http://www.felsina.it/eng/felsina/vinsanto.htm ) We got to see the cellars and the different varieties of barrels. From there we went to this little village, Volpaia, for lunch. We went to Paula's bar where I tried a "bread stew." Very good. Only maybe 50 people live there but they make their own wine, olive oil and also wine vinegar. The village had been fortified with a wall around it and a lot of the wall was still there. After we left that place, we toured two castles. You couldn't go inside but you could walk around the grounds. The second one still has the same family living in it. They've been there for 32 generations. I liked the second castle better. It had some really nice grounds, very pretty. Once we were finished there, it was time for Christian to drive us to the train station in Chiusi. The train would take us to Rome. That train was different because there were actually closed compartments of seats. I liked that. A man was waiting to take us to our hotel when we arrived and once we made it to our room, we never left it. (http://www.hotelbarberini.com/index_en.asp) That's the first time that happened but we really needed to rest. Ordered over-priced, over-rated room service food that night. This room is tiny, just enough space to walk around the bed, no tub and no view. It's fine but it's too bad this is the room we'll be in the longest. Not much walking today, mostly riding in the car and on the train.

7250 steps walked
2.878 miles
394.50 calories burned
1:01 hrs walked

**Note:  We found out after we got home that the Hotel Barberini did not give us the type of room Italy Source had booked for us.  We should have had a large room with a view.  We didn't know so we never questioned it.

Wednesday, April 30 - Florence

At breakfast I had loaded up my plate with pastries because I was tired of ham and cheese and then I realized they had eggs and bacon. I did end up eating that too. It was so good. After breakfast we met our guide for our 4-hour tour. We spent the entire morning at the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. We learned a lot of history about the Medici family and some interesting facts about some of the paintings in the Palatine gallery. There was one artist who was a 50 y/o priest that fell in love with a 18 y/o nun. They ended up getting married and then he caused a scandal when he used her as the model for a portrait of Mary and the baby Jesus. Afer we toured the Royal apartments, we went to the gardens, which were massive, 30,000 square meters. There were some steep hills in the gardens that had me out of breath in no time at all. The view of Florence and the Tuscany countryside was wonderful from the top. They had several fountaints that were in need of repair but it was easy to see how spectacular it would be if they were operating. We went back to the hotel for the bathroom and to re-group a bit so we could decide what to do with our afternoon. We decided to grab a sandwich and eat as we walked to the Accademia museum to the Michelangelo's "David." We almost opted to skip that but I'm glad we didn't. It was so massive and impressive. It was the sort of thing you could not stop looking at. The detail was unbelievable. Just so beautiful. Later we kept saying we couldn't believe we even thought about skipping that. From there we walked to the train station and bought a ticket for Pisa. Just before we got to the train station, we saw a woman on the sidewalk who had an "Awake!" tucked under her arm. Troy said, "Do you think she's a witness or do you think someone just gave that to her?" I had no idea of course. So Troy approached and said slowly in English while pointing to the magazine, "Is that yours?" The woman, "Yes, it's mine." She was a Brit, lol. Here Troy was worried she spoke only Italian. Come to find out she was a pioneer and she had been in Florence for 9 months helping out an English congregation. She said she and another sister had decided to "step over into Macedonia." {ha ha} But they were going home in a few days and she was so glad. She said she was sick of pasta and olive oil and fish and she was ready to eat some beef and potatoes! We chatted with her for maybe 10 minutes. She asked if we had heard the announcement about ending the small book studies. We had because my mother had called us the night before and told us. At that moment we could really appreciate how unified Jehovah's organization is. We got to the train station and went about trying to get some tickets. The train schedules can be very confusing to read, especially when some of the stations have over a dozen tracks. But we were getting good at figuring things out on the schedules and once we knew which train we needed, we just had to find a ticket counter. We found the counter and the lines were unbelievable. There was no way we would make it on the train we wanted in time if we waited in line. They have these machines where you can print out your own tickets and we were a bit nervous to try it and perhaps do it wrong and lose our money, but we watched some other people do it and it looked simple enough. So we printed out tickets there without incident and we were off. It took about an hour to get to the town of Pisa and then a taxi was needed to get to the tower itself. That was a crazy ride! I couldn't believe we got there without killing anybody! The tower was very cool. We took lots of pictures of it. We bought a ticket to go to the top. That was rough for me. I just can't handle a lot of climbing. I thought at first I would never make it. I had to stop and rest nearly every 15 steps. We did make it and I am glad we went. It was pretty at the top. When we got back to Florence it was late, about 9:30. We had planned to eat at the hotel but the menu was not appealing at all. We left headed to a restaurant recommended in a guide book but we got there 10 minutes before they closed. It was not enough time for them to cook for us. We did find supper but it wasn't that great. It filled us up though so that was okay. As we walked back to the hotel, we saw the "purse bandits." That's what Troy nicknamed them in Venice. It looks like a bunch of guys from Kenya selling these purses on the street. They carry them around in big trash bags. In Florence they were bold enough to display a few on the ground. Well the the police drove up and they scattered. They tried to pick up all the purses as they ran but there were two left behind. One cop ran to get those. He got one but one of the bandits got the other. Then from behind the cop another bandit ran by very fast and snatched the second purse out of the cops' hand. I couldn't believe how fast he was. They didn't run far, maybe to the next block and just stood there laughing at the police. We couldn't get over the fact that the police did nothing more.

16329 steps walked
6.482 miles
832.3 calories burned
2:33 hrs walked

Tuesday, April 29 - Venice/Florence

We woke up this morning to rain. There was an elementary school across the canal from our window and the little kids were so cute in their rain boots. We were scheduled for the 9:55 tour for the Secret Itineraries Tour at the Doge's Palace. So we got packed up, ate breakfast and checked out. We made it to the palace in plenty of time. The tour there was great. I especially enjoyed the part about how Casanova escaped from the prison four months after he got there. Grace would have loved to be in a palace. Troy says we are going to see one bigger and better than that one later on in the trip. When that tour was finished, we crossed the square to take an elevator to the top of the belltower. From there you can see all of Venice. Even in the rain it was very pretty.It was time for lunch when we finished there. We were in a hurry so we grabbed some McD's. We huddled in a little spot trying to stay dry while we ate. From there we headed to another side of the square where we had seen a post office. We bought some post cards at a little stand and I filled them out and mailed them. Then we went back to the hotel to wait for for the guy to take us to the train. He was right on time and even found the train for us and then found our seats for us. That was great! The train ride was fine but I personally was a little worried because the announcements for the stations were so low that I was afraid we would miss our stop. We didn't though and everything was fine. We checked in at the Hotel Degli Orafi and it was very nice, more modern than the last two. (http://www.hoteldegliorafi.it/Site/HomePage.html) After we got our stuff put away and had a minute to catch our breath, we went to find some supper. We didn't go far because we found a little sandwich shop that was cheap and quick. Just meat, cheese and bread but that was enough. We each got a sweet across the street, walked a bit more and decided to go back to the room. We washed clothes and strung out our clothesline to hang them. Then we bathed and were able to get to bed kind of early. Not as much walking today because of traveling.

13953 steps walked
5.539 miles
731 calories burned
2:04 hrs walked

Monday, April 28 - Venice

Monday morning breakfast was ham, cheese, fruit, croissants and some great little biscuits with applesauce inside. We were scheduled to start a four hour private tour of the city at 9:00 but our guide got stuck in traffic and wasn't coming until 10:00. So we went back to bed until the front desk called to say she was ready. Her name was Sylvia and she was about our age. She gave an excellent tour and gave us so much information that there was no way to remember it all. We learned that some wealthy people had black servants but they really weren't treated as servants but more like family members. They wanted them because they thought they were beautiful, kind of like a house decoration. The women had little images carved of their servants and they wore them around their necks. We saw some examples of this in a jewelry store. She told of one family whose son was killed in a war so they adopted the son's servant and gave him their family name. She took us into a neighborhood so we could see everday life. It's harder for the elderly because you have to walk everywhere and there are lots of steps. It's also hard for moms pushing strollers. We saw a daycare with little kids running around playing with toys. She explained that they never have to worry about someone getting ran over by a car, since there are no cars there. They do worry about them falling into the canals. Her own mother fell in when she was five years old and someone rescued her. She also took us to St. Mark's and we saw the crypt where Mark is kept. After the church she took us to see this beautiful spiral staircase in some courtyard. After that we parted ways and we went to lunch. We had a pizza and then we went back to the hotel and we took a nap for a couple of hours. When we went back out, we decided to walk the opposite way from the hotel, since we had never been in that direction. It became much less crowded and we were more in the residential areas. It was in this neighborhood that we found Troy some shoes. We had been looking for more dressy shoes for him everywhere but they all wanted 300 euros! These were on sale for 65, so a steal for Italy. He wore them out of the store. We kept walking and we found a nice park, very pretty. When we got to the end of the line for that, we turned around back to where we came from to find some food. We ended up at the Trattoria da Roberto near our hotel. It was so good and fun too. Everything we said to the waiter, his reply was "Fantastic!" He was cracking us up! Troy had grilled seabass and I had grilled scampi. We killed a bottle of Lambrusco Secco and had some dessert called "cooked cream." After supper we went on a gondola ride. The gondolier sang and he whistled. He was very good. Several times I thought he was going to hit other boats or houses but he never did. We saw Marco Polo's house and Casanova's house along the way. Afterwards I wasn't feeling very well so we went to the room. It was about 10:40.

16979 steps walked
6.74 miles
833.4 calories burned
2:51 hrs walked

Sunday, April 27 - Lucerne to Venice

Today was primarily a travel day. We got up at 5:45 to get ready. Breakfast was at 7:00 and we had to catch a train at 8:21. The train is nice but it gets boring eventually. The views of the Alps have been beautiful. We saw lots of waterfalls. Arrived in Milan close to 1:00. We had to change trains there. This time we were on a Eurostar, which goes really fast. We used Troy's GPS to clock it and it averaged around 100 mph but got as high as 105. We made it to Venice around 3:30 and a lady was waiting for us to take us to our hotel. The boat ride to the hotel was about 20 minutes. (http://www.hotelpriuli.com/en/index.htm) After we checked in and rested a bit, we hit the streets. We walked all over the whole town it seems like. We were hungry because we had never had any lunch due to being on the train all day. Everything here is expensive but we found a place kind of like a Piccadilly style restaurant. I had a roasted rabbit with roasted potatoes and Troy had grilled cod with fries. Then we went on a search for gelato. It was so good. After Troy finished his, he said he wished he had some more. He did end up getting another one. He was so cute! Later we ducked into a little shop in some alley. I don't know what it was called but I got something that was layers of pastry with some chocolate cream layered in and chocolate icing. Troy had some kind of cream filled cake. We walked until 8:30.

15018 steps walked
5.962 miles
749 calories burned
2:25 hours walked

Saturday, April 26 - Lucerne

Woke this morning around 8:00. Had breakfast at the hotel, eggs, ham, croissants, fruit, juice, very nice. The view from the dining room was beautiful. As soon as we finished we walked to the tourist info place to buy tickets for an excursion to the top of Mount Pilatus. We had to catch a bus to get there. Once we got off, we had to walk a ways uphill to the cable car station. (my tired legs!) We had a car all to ourselves. It was the longest cable car ride I've ever been on, about 30 minutes. The forests we passed over were just gorgeous. Eventually you get to a point where you have to change to a different kind of car. That one you had to stand up in and it could hold a lot of people. At one point all you could see was rock and it was like you could hit it when the car goes up and over and it and then every thing was white, this big valley full of snow. It was stunning. I figured we would be roped off from any areas with snow but I was wrong. It was everywhere! I did throw some at Troy but I missed. They had a man playing one of those long horns. I forget what they're called. We saw people climbing over the rail and taking off on snow shoes and even one man ran down a slope wearing a parachute and he sailed away. That was really cool. After that it was lunchtime and we went to the restaurant there. The food there was pretty good. Once we were done, it was time to head back down. They had 38 people packed in the car coming down. It was very tight. Troy said he was just glad no one had gas. Once we got off the bus back in Lucerne, we decided to walk to see this monument Troy had read about, the Dying Lion. So we found that and took pictures and rested a bit there. It was getting late and the town was very crowded because of some race. Everyone here either runs or rides a bike. We figured it would take a while to get to where we wanted to eat becaxuse of the crowds. We stopped to check out a meal on the way but they were closing. Come to find out, on Saturdays everythings shuts down. Stores close at 4:00. The kitchens in the restaurants close at 5:00 and if they are open, they are only serving drinks. We walked around looking for food until about 6:30, which is when we came back to the room. The hotel would still be serving until 9:30. We had to get dressed up to go down there but the restaurant was full, no tables. We took a menu back to the room and ordered from there. Troy had a steak he really enjoyed.

20413 steps walked
8.1 miles
1099 calories burned
2:53 hours walked

Friday, April 25 - Lucerne

We had a nice breakfast on the plane, croissant, banana, granola bar and juice. When we were descending in Zurich, it was very beautiful. It was misting rain but still pretty, so green. The airport was very big there. We found our driver with no problems. His name was John and he was very nice. The drive to the hotel was maybe an hour. Lots of turns through little villages that were just downright cute. The hotel is very nice. (http://www.hotel-montana.ch/e/index.htm)The view is amazing! Even the view from the toilet is good!

We then set out to explore the Old Town. It was really cute with one street after another filled with old shops and restaurants. We walked across a very old wooden bridge that had a scene painted on each truss. It was in German so of course we couldn't read it but it seemed to depict perhaps moments or events in Swiss history because they were all dated. We began to get hungry so we started looking for lunch. We ended up at a place next to the river. Troy had a pork chop and I had something like a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. They put Hawaiian toast on the bottom of a bowl, then ham and then poured very hot melted swiss cheese all over it. After we finished lunch we did more walking more into the modern part of town. We went to the tourist infor place trying to figure out how to call home. It is attached to the train station so we walked around in there. We needed to find a bathroom. It cost me two francs to use the bathroom. Then we decided to check out the grocery store there. Troy was thirsty and I was on the hunt for hair products. So we're just cruising the store comparing what is the same and what is different and, oh my God, we found horse meat there. I took a picture of Troy holding it! We couldn't get over that. We ended up buying a coke, a candybar, some mousse and a toothbrush. They didn't give us a bag. Guess these purchases didn't qualify. So I had to jam the mousse in one pocket and Troy put the toothbrush in his pocket. He ate a bit of the candy and then we put that in my other pocket. We decided we wanted to take a boat ride on the lake. We bought tickets for that and it ended up being a three hour tour--a three hour tour. It was beautiful, it really was but I was so tired that I kept dozing off. I was sitting inside in the main diningroom. Troy stayed outside most of the time, steadily snapping pictures. Every now and then I would go out to be with him, but I would be too cold and so I'd retreat back inside. Once that was over, we were hungry but we were also anxious to get our pictures online to be shared. We decided on McDonald's just because we could get online there. Once we finally accomplished that, we went back to the room for the night. The town is very pretty at night. Swans are a native bird here and they were everywhere on the lake. Under the moonlight, they glowed in the dark. Beautiful. We had a window open to let in the air (no a/c) and I woke up once just to go look at it. I never would have thought of this place as a vacation destination.

walked over 18,000 steps
approx 7.5 miles

Thursday, April 24

Arrived in New Orleans a little after 7:00 a.m. Got our bags tagged. Ran into a friend of ours who was putting her son onto a plane and chatted with her a bit. Then we went and got some beignets for breakfast. After that we did the security clearance and found our gate and waited. The flight to Atlanta was very quick, no problems. The airport was not as busy as I expected. We had lunch at a Mexican place there and then hung out until time to go. The big plane to Zurich was nice. I did actually enjoy it. Around 7:30 I looked out the window and could see we were passing over a big city, possibly St. John's around Nova Scotia??? It was very pretty. Troy slept pretty well but I couldn't. I was too excited to sleep.