Fulda to Amsterdam

Monday, May 31st
Fulda to Amsterdam

While y'all are celebrating Memorial Day, we have had a long day of
driving. It started out with a hilarious event. Lonnie couldn't
remember whether he had paid for our hotel room or not. He went to the
desk to pay, and only the maid was there. No one at the hotel spoke
English, so he showed the maid our credit card. She, in turn, had to go
and find the owner of the hotel. When the owner came, she was wondering
why Lonnie was trying to give her his credit card again. She finally
went to the desk and showed him the receipt from last night, still
wondering why he was trying to pay again, I'm sure. So Lonnie just
looked at them, hit himself in the head and said, "Dumbkopf!" Both the
German ladies and I thought it was hilarious!!

Then, we hit the road. I decided that we must take the back roads. If
we're driving on the Interstate, we could be anywhere. You cannot get a
feel for the people and the culture if you travel on the Autobahn all of
the time! So we traveled the back roads and some of the way back
roads. It was a lot of fun. We drove through a lot of little quaint
villages. I saw an Antique store, but it wasn't open today. We saw
several old castles perched on the hills and even drove up to one in a
town (not sure we were supposed to do that, tho - on The Amazing Race we
probably would have received a penalty). We gave a teen-age girl in one
of the small towns a chance to practice her English when we went into a
grocery store and ordered something to eat. Then trying to understand
where the bathroom was became a real challenge. The cashier told us
where it was and said that we needed a key (all in German, of course).
She did not give us the key, tho, so we were at a total loss as to where
it was. We went into the "Euro" store (their equivalent of our Dollar
Store), where I bought some Crossword Puzzle books to help me with
learning the language. We asked the girl there about the bathroom, and
she, in German, explained that it was at the grocery store. We went
back to the grocery store and asked the girl who is learning English.
She told us where to go again. Finally I just held up my hands to
Lonnie to indicate that I didn't have a clue. That is when the cashier
realized that we needed the key and brought it to us. Good thing we
weren't in a hurry.

We eventually had to get back on the highway, which is where we are now,
so that we can get to our hotel in Haarlem tonight. We called to make
reservations, and they said not to bother with reservations because
they have plenty of rooms! Totally unusual for this time of year! (And
totally not true, as we found out when we got here!)

We saw our first fatality on the highway today. It was a trucker. We
are still not sure how it happened. The entire left side (driver's
side) of the cab of the truck looked like it had been blown away. The
driver's seat, however, looked like it was in perfect condition. The
rest of the truck looked fine, also. It was really strange. Don't know
if they will show it on the news in the Netherlands tonight or not,
since it happened in Germany.

Well - we made it to our hotel around 8:40PM and it looked like it was
about 3 in the afternoon. I love the long days of sunshine here. The
GPS quit working, so we weren't sure if we would be able to find it.
This is the same hotel that we spent a couple of hours trying to find
last time (and that was after we had checked in earlier in the day).
Tonight we came straight to it. I think Lonnie has been driving too
long, though! Today in one town we passed a McDonald's and a Subway.
We were talking about food, so I mentioned them. A little while later I
said something about the Subway again, and Lonnie acted like I was
crazy. He thought the entire time that I was talking about a real
Subway in the town that we were in instead of an eating place. Then
when we got to the hotel, we took the wrong elevator (even tho we knew
better - or at least I did) and Lonnie started to go into a conference
room where they were holding a training session. The man sitting there
told us that it was a training session, but Lonnie wanted to go see the
train. He thought that was what the man was talking about (that maybe
the train now came to the hotel). I laughed so hard that I nearly had
a problem. We thought that no-one noticed we took the wrong elevator,
but, sure enough, the girl at the reception desk saw us and asked about
it later. I told her that Lonnie never listens to me. We had a good
laugh again. Yeah, we probably would have been eliminated from the
Amazing Race today, but you never know!

We had a wonderfully delicious meal in the restaurant. The hotels over
here are where the great food is. I had a chicken filet stuffed with
wild spinach (not sure about the difference between wild spinach and
tame spinach) on a bed of grilled vegetables with a ciboulette sauce.
It was absolutely exquisite. The best meal I have had so far - except
for my gesnechzles. Now the sun has gone down (it's 11:30PM) and I am
ready to go to bed!
We have a lot planned for tomorrow. Haarlem, then Amsterdam.

'night all

Pictures from Rome

Fun Delays

Sunday, May 30
Erlangen - Coburg - Fulda
Another day in Deutschland has passed. We got up this morning and got
ready to leave, but could hear a band playing. I thought that surely
the Carnival (Volkfest) wasn't going on that early, but I was wrong. We
decided to go and check it out. Then it started raining again. The
showers didn't last long. By the time we walked the block to the
carnival, we saw that all of the Beer Halls already had lots of people
with their large tankards. It had gotten quiet sometime during the
night, so I am guessing that it closed down in the wee hours and opened
again early. We walked through the carnival again, with less people in
our way today, and filmed some of the bands that were playing in the
Beer Halls, as well as the rides and food stands. Then, Lonnie
finally agreed to go on the Gigantic Ferris Wheel with me. I love
Ferris Wheels and Scramblers (they didn't have one of those). I
purchased some Carnival food, then it was time to travel on.

We decided that since we had not made it very far from Nuremberg, that
we would drive back in to see the place where the War Crimes Trials were
held after WWII. All of my info said that it would not be open to the
public until Autumn. Later I read somewhere else that it might have
been open this afternoon. Maybe next time. We have so many places
that we want to go, and things we want to see, that we did not want to
stay around.

We drove on to Coburg, where Lonnie dropped me off and went in search of
Parking. Road construction, the carnival, and going back to Nuremberg
slowed us down, so we did not make it to Coburg as early as I had hoped.
I went upstairs to go into the Doll Museum, only to find that they had
closed at 4PM (we arrived at 4:15PM) :-( . I wasn't sure where Lonnie
was, or when he was coming back. We got two phones and SIM cards this
year, as well as a SIM card that I wanted so that we would be able to
communicate with each other in situations like this. The SIM cards
that Lonnie purchased have not really worked yet, so there was no way
to call him. I just stood on the street corner waiting for him to
return. There were some other people there with me for a few minutes,
waiting on their bus. One of the ladies was nice enough to translate
the opening and closing times for me. It was a Doll Club from
Northern Germany on a Doll Museum Tour. (Anyone want to do one of those
tours - I can plan it for us if you do :-) ). They were on their way
to the Kathe Kruse museum next, and were excited to learn that I had
visited that one as well. ourThere was really nothing to do in the
town, and parking was almost non-existent, so we headed on toward the
Netherlands.

We ended up getting a room tonight in Fulda. We were beginning to
wonder. Our GPS listed 58 hotels. We went to one that sounded good,
only to find that it was closed. Lonnie said to plot a course for the
Holiday Inn downtown (who wants to stay in an American hotel in
Germany??). Well, we got downtown only to find that the Holiday Inn was
closed, also. We drove past other places that looked closed. We were
beginning to think we were in a Ghost Town. We finally found a lovely,
inexpensive room at the Zieherser Hof. I may actually go to bed earlier
tonight. It's 9PM and we are actually in our room! Tomorrow it's on to
the Netherlands.

Fussen to Geingen to Donauworth

Saturday, May 29
It has been a busy two days. Yesterday we got up and drove to Fussen
to look at the two castles and take some more pics. We have been in
both castles, so we did not stay around to check them out again. Then
we traveled on to Giengen so that I could check out a toy store that I
saw there the last time we were in Europe. It was just a small toy
store, but it had some celluloid dolls. Once again, however, I did not
buy one of them because I wasn't certain that I could get it home
safely. It was really tempting, tho. We walked up and down the street
once (it is a short street), then decided to check out the Steiff Teddy
Bear Museum. The last time we were there, there were so many tour
buses that the wait time for the Museum was several hours. This time it
was so late in the day that we went in and found that there were only a
handful of people there. We asked about the museum, and the ticket
lady insisted that since we were there, we should see it! She told us
that there were tours starting every 7 minutes. We walked around a bit,
then asked her when the next tour was. She said, "Oh, we can start
right now!" Unbelievable, our very own private tour! Just Lonnie and
I. It was very interesting. I had not known that the lady who started
the company had polio and was in a wheel-chair. The museum told the
story of the Steiff family, then had Steiff toys on display from the
inception of the company. Very interesting.

After the Steiff tour, we traveled on to Donauworth. Lonnie thought
that he wanted to see where the Danube and Wornitz rivers join
together. Once he saw it, he decided that must not have been what he
wanted to see. I woke up all upset because Peyton is upset. I really
wish that he had come along on the trip. I know that the time is
passing slowly for him, even tho it is passing way too fast for us. We
will end up cutting several things from our original route (tonight we
decided to bypass Rothenburg and Cologne), just to get back to Zurich on
the 22nd. After Lonnie checked out the rivers, and I calmed down a bit,
we went to a Flea Market. Not much to see there. Then it was time for
the Kathe Kruse Museum to open, so I went and learned about her life,
and saw dolls that she had made over the years, as well as sculptures
that her husband had done. Her life story was also very interesting.

Next it was on to Nurnberg to see where the Nazi Party Rallys were
held. We toured the Documentationzentrum which was located in the Nazi
Party Congress Hall. I didn't get to see where the Nurnberg trials were
held. Maybe next time. We ended up rushing through the second half of
the museum so that I could get on to the Toy and Doll Museum before it
closed. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed, and they did not have
any books that had pictures of the exhibits :-( . They had some really
old toys on display, over 4 floors. They had dolls, dollhouses,
trains, erector sets, miniatures, toys from all eras and much, much
more. It was a good museum! After that, we walked around the old town
a little while then traveled on. We were going to drive for a little
while, but there was road construction, so all cars had to exit the
highway. We decided to find something in the town that we exited at,
which was just outside of Nurnberg.

It was here that I talked Lonnie into going into a place with the
largest number of drunks that Lonnie has ever been around (me,too, for
that matter!) And, they were all running crazily. (In their defense,
tho, I do have to add that it was pouring down rain.) We had gotten a
hotel a block from a large carnival, which also had numerous beer
gardens. Most of the people at the carnival were in their 20's and
30's. Many were dressed in their traditional lederhosen and dirndl
dresses. They had a beautiful, very large ferris wheel, but Lonnie
wouldn't go on it, so I didn't go either :-( . I'm not sure how it
would have been in the rain, but they were still running it and people
were still in line to get on it. After walking the length of it, we
found a somewhat quieter way back to the hotel. Then, of course, it
stopped raining. I am sure that the partying will go on all night. Now
I am typing this for you, and getting ready to go to bed. Tomorrow it
is on to Coburg, if their Doll Museum is open on Sunday. If not, we
will head toward the Netherlands.

Auf Wiedersehn for now!

Innsbruck

Friday - May 28
Innsbruck

Well, two weeks have passed already, and we are moving slower than
ever. Where did the time go?? For us it is passing so quickly, while
at home it is dragging along for Peyton.

We have cut out lots of stops that we had planned to make, and are still
behind. It seems like we just cannot get away from the hotel before
11AM every day. Yesterday we got away from the hotel earlier, but
laundry duty took forever! Then since we were in Innsbruck, we decided
to stay and have a look around. It was both a fun and exciting day, as
well as a very frustrating and trying day! We were excited to see that
Innsbruck had a laundrymat - something we needed, even tho we didn't
want to take the time! We packed up our dirty clothes (which pretty
much was all of them) and headed toward the laundrymat. Of course, we
couldn't seem to find it, so we asked our GPS lady for help. She
almost redeemed herself by taking us to one of the three in town.
(Later, however, she tried to take us away from a castle instead of
toward it, and locked up a few times, so she's still in trouble with
me! We foiled her dasterdly plan, tho, by actually following the signs
to the Castle!!)

Our first test came when we tried to do the laundry. There was another
couple there, as well, so the laundry man thought that I was with the
other man, took his money, and paid for my washer. Obviously that did
not go over well with the other man's wife. We got it all straightened
out, gave the wife the money to replace what the man had paid, and went
on to do our laundry. We found that the couple was from Australia,
traveling around for 3 months. The man, who is 82 years old (but
didn't look it), had fallen on an escalator in Llubjana, and had taken a
taxi to the hospital there, because he didn't want to pay for an
ambulance. They said that the line at the hospital was very long
(socialized medicine, here we come), but that they moved him to the
front of the line when they realized that he had a pacemaker, was a
foreigner, and could sit there and bleed to death on them. He had
stitches all the way up his leg, and was having to go to doctors along
the way to get the dressing changed. He refused to let that stop their
vacation plans! They still have 6 weeks to go. I hope that I still
feel that way about traveling when I am 82!

We finished our laundry around lunchtime, and as we were taking it to
the car, there stood a policewoman writing us a parking ticket.(First
time that's ever happened). Lonnie tried to talk her out of it. I
just asked her where I needed to go to pay it and thanked her. We also
found that the parking passes were about a half block down the street.
We had just missed them in our rush to get the laundry done! That
turned out to be some expensive laundry. Had she not come along when
she did, however, we would have walked on into town and found an even
bigger ticket on our car when we got back three hours later.

Innsbruck is beautiful. It is one of the places that I came on the
tour when I was 18. It is a smaller town nestled at the foot of the
Alps, with mountains rising all around it. Walking through the town
was fun - I bought some souvenirs, then toured the church where
Maximillian is buried, with life-size statues standing around his tomb.
It is really a neat place. I had been there before, but it had been
many years. Then we walked back to the car and drove up to the Schloss
Ambras. I had not been there (and still haven't seen the Castle - they
closed at 6). We did get to see the Armory, and the Hall of
Curiosities. It was great. There were some beautiful pieces in the
Hall of Curiosities (as well as some Ripley's Believe it or Not type
things - from the 1500's), and the Armory was fantastic! I had never
seen that many different types of armor before. I would have loved to
have seen the Castle, also, but that will have to wait for another day!
And the jousting sticks that Knights used were huge! I don't know how
they managed to hold them! Those knights must have had some muscles!

Once again we started out for where we were supposed to be the day
before - and once again, we are not there! To be perfectly honest, I am
not sure where we are - I just know that we are somewhere in Germany and
still a full day's drive from where we were supposed to be two days
ago. Hope we make it today, but Lonnie is still in bed asleep, so who
knows. Also, I know that we are near the Castles at Fussen, so we will
drive by there and take some pictures before traveling on. We have
been in both castles before, so it will just be a drive-by (I think).

My final frustration of the day came at 11PM last night. We were
finally in our hotel room, so I called and wanted Peyton to pay the
bills that are due on the first. He was able to pay a couple of them
okay, but was having trouble paying the credit card that we are using.
I was able to get on-line here at the hotel to try to pay it myself. It
was then that we discovered that while Bank of America had not changed
our credit limit, they had changed our card number and expiration
date!! (I told Lonnie that they probably just now figured out that
neither of us are working, and are afraid they won't get their money,
even though we have always paid our bills on time and in full! That
kind of attitude from banks makes me so angry that I cannot see straight
- and I usually don't get angry about much!) The new cards are being
mailed to our home address, and the expiration date has been changed to
November. Crazy people. We spent the last of my phone minutes calling
them to get it straightened out. Not sure that it is, but we will
see. (Don't worry Mom and Peyton, I plan to re-charge my phone minutes
this morning!)

It is a beautiful day in the German Alps, so I am ready to seize the
day!! Hopefully, my husband will be ready to seize it soon, too.
And, yes, even with all of the frustrations from time to time, I am
still thankful for the Lord's grace and goodness in letting us come on
this trip. I know that He is in control, and even with my frustration,
I still depend on Him totally! I hope that all of you do, too!

Going to go finish packing the bags now. Catch ya later!

Tivoli to ???

Wednesday, May 26
Tivoli
Yesterday was another busy day! We left our hotel and headed to what we
thought was a grocery store to pick up some water. It turned out to be
a "card only" store, much like Sam's or Costco. Couldn't shop there, so
headed on to Tivoli to check out Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa). I
made the mistake of wearing my sandals again, so my feet hurt
terribly! Not a good idea when going to a place that has 300 acres.
Between the heat and my feet, I made it through about a third of the
Villa. What a magnificent place! All ruins of course, but very
impressive! They had libraries, theaters, baths. And Hadrian even had
a retreat built for himself in the complex where he could go, close the
doors, go across a drawbridge over a moat, then pull the drawbridge up
so no one else could follow! Then, with the drawbridges up, he could
swim around his small island sanctuary in the moat. Now I could
definitely go for that!!

Last night I had a rather odd experience. We stopped at a motel just
off of the highway. The price was decent, and the room was okay, so we
went ahead and stayed there. They told us that the Restaurant would
open at 7PM, so we went down shortly after that to eat. When we walked
into the restaurant, there were at least 20-30 men all sitting at there
own tables, all facing the same way (toward the door that we came in).
All of them looked up at us as we came in, then went back to what they
were doing. I realized after we got in there, that they were all
facing the TV that was near the door, watching "Who Wants to be a
Millionaire" in Italian. It felt a little strange because I was the
only woman in there except for the waitresses. And, of course, the
waitresses did not speak English. They simply came up and asked us what
we wanted in Italian. We asked for a menu, and they had to go hunt for
one, because they never use them there. They just simply rattle off
the menu to the customer . Eventually another two couples came in, so
I was not alone! Apparently, most of the men were truckers who stopped
there for their meal all of the time!

Then we hit the road, and have been there ever since. We had planned
to go to Venice, Trieste, Bled then into Eastern Europe. Considering
that they were having to take things out of Auschwitz because of
flooding, we decided to reverse our route and give them a couple of
weeks to dry out. It meant having to give up some things since we were
already headed in that direction. It also meant adding a couple of days
of sheer driving to get to the Western side of Europe. We got started
early today (miracles never cease), but now we are behind again. I
asked Lonnie if he knew where we were heading, or if I needed to get out
the GPS, and he told me that we were headed toward Padua. Since it was
north of where we were, I took his word for it. Needless to say, we
were not supposed to go toward Padua at all. We were really supposed
to be heading toward Verona. We had gone quite aways South before it
was discovered that we were going in the wrong direction. Lonnie just
had me check the GPS again, and it says that we are 3 hours behind.
Not sure how we managed that, but we did stop to eat lunch. I have to
say, it is pretty frustrating to always be behind - especially since we
re-did the schedule last night and got started earlier today!

Roma

Monday, May 24
Roma, Italia

Today we spent a lovely day in Rome. I had started to take it off of
our list because it was so hot the last time we were here. It started
out hot this morning as we were walking to the train station about 15
minutes away. I decided to wear sandals, even though I knew it would be
hard walking on the cobblestones. I was in shorts and sandals, and
burning up - while the Romans were in long-sleeves, jackets and boots.
Apparently 90 degree weather is too cold for them. We made out way
into town on the train, then switched to the Metro like pros. We were
able to read the map, and managed to go to the Colosseum, the Circus
Maximus, the Forum, the Pyramid, and, of course, Trevi Fountain to throw
in more coins for my return trip! I told Lonnie that if he planned on
coming back with me again, he had better throw a coin in as well, so he
did. We stopped and saw a short film about Rome. It was great to get
in out of the heat. When we came out of the theater, we found that it
had been raining and the temperature had dropped considerably. It
started raining again, but we had our trusty raincoats, so we forged on
ahead. It was fantastic! And, such a blessing from the Lord! There
were no people in front of Trevi Fountain, bland no people sitting on
the Spanish Steps! You don't see that very often.

We were having such an enjoyable time, until we got ready to go back to
our hotel. We did well with the Metro lines, but couldn't figure out
how to catch the train back out of town to our station near the Hotel.
By the time we realized that we couldn't figure it out, we had missed
the last train! We went back to Central Termini to get help, but there
was a long line at the one counter that had a real person. By then my
feet and back were really hurting, so we decided we would get a Taxi and
just pay whatever. It turned out to not be so bad after all. We got
a quick Roman ride through town straight to our Hotel!!! And, I didn't
even have to walk back to the Hotel from the Train Station!! What a
great day!

Poggibonsi-San Galgano- Bomarzo - Roma

Monday - May 24
Yesterday was a lot of time on the road. It was a beautiful, sunny day
again in Italia! We left Poggibonsi and drove to San Galgano, where the
"real" sword in the stone is! Look up the story, kids. It's kind of
interesting. We saw the arm bones of a man who tried to pull San
Galgano's sword out of the stone. He was unsuccessful but a wolf friend
of San Galgano saw him try to do it and chewed off his arms. Carbon
dating shows that they are from that time period.

Then we traveled on to Bomarzo where we saw the Orsini Monster Garden.
If anyone sees Mac, tell him that we think he should design either a
Collodi Garden, or a Bomarzo Monster Garden. (and I have trouble just
planting and growing a couple of flowers! Maybe I should go for the
Monster Garden.) It was great seeing it, but a lot of walking. I
hadn't eaten much all day, so my sugar began plummeting. Fortunately
there was a snack bar nearby.

Then it was on to our hotel. We thought we were going to get there by
around 7 or 8PM. We called ahead and reserved a room (aren't cell
phones great!). We were doing great until we came to our exit, where
we had to pay our toll. There we met with 30 lanes of bumper-to-bumper,
shoulder-to-shoulder cars all vying for 15 toll booths! Unbelievable!
And, once you made it through the toll booths, those 15 lanes of cars
had to funnel into two lanes of highway!! Then, the GPS lady couldn't
decide which way we should go, so that took even more time! (I am still
not getting along with her very well! She can't make up her mind about
anything! And, by the time we got to the hotel, Lonnie was ready to
throw her out of the car also!!) Needless to say, we did not make it
to the hotel until around 10PM. By that time, I was absolutely
starving!! I scarfed down my veal scallopina while Lonnie was trying
to eat his salad (with the vinegar and oil on it - he is more of a Ranch
Dressing man). Then, when he didn't eat all of his pasta, the poor
waiter was upset that he didn't like it. Didn't have to worry about
that with my meal. I loved it! (Side note - apparently Trippa
Fionentina doesn't kill you because it has been over 24 hours and no
food poisoning - but that doesn't mean that I would eat it again!!
because I would not intentionally do that!!)

I have been telling Lonnie how much I admire his driving skills! I
would have been a nervous wreck trying to drive in some of the places we
have been! Especially the mountain roads. But even the small and
large towns pose a challenge. There are motorbikes everywhere (they
drive on the white lines between cars) as well as people walking in
front of you (pedestrians always have the right of way), car doors
opening in front of you (people pretty much park where they want to -
even on one lane roads), and 5 vehicles trying to drive in two lanes.
And forget about lane markers. People just drive wherever they want.
It would take us forever to get anywhere if I was trying to drive!
However, Lonnie does not do as well backing (in Gatlinburg he backed
into a tree - on the Grossglockener a few years back, he backed into a
boulder - this time it was a chain fence at the hotel.) Yes, the car
company will definitely notice the damage, even though a small scratch
on the bumper! They pointed something out to us that we couldn't see
when we rented the car, so I know they will see this! Oh well, maybe
that will be our only incident this trip!

Now it is off to the train station to ride into Rome (neither of us want
to drive here!) Catch ya later!