Last day in Venice

It was my last day in Venice and in Europe (other than travel). We bought a 12 hour vaporetto pass and took the boat to Murano island. Once there, we checked out the various glass shops and eventually had lunch. Lunch was very reasonable on the island, so it was necessary to have a bottle of wine, dessert, and cappuccino to accompany lunch :-)

The "free entrance" to the glass blowing factory is not too informative, but it is still neat to see some glass making in action. Apparently around 200 pieces are hand made each day by one person. After our tour we went back to the main island of Venice.

Our goal turned to souvenir shopping. I was amazed at how quickly this sucked the joy and energy out of shopping. I vowed to only buy souvenirs along the way in the future...when you know it is something someone will enjoy. Regardless, shopping was mostly done and it was time to refuel. I ordered another pesto dish; this time with spaghetti. I need to make pesto more often...okay, I need to try making pesto for the first time when I return.

After dinner we suddenly had another boost of shopping energy, so we hit up the Rialto area. We then headed back to the hotel to confirm travel plans; primarily ensuring I could meet up with the Kopfelsbergers again to get my passport. Plans were confirmed, so I could now comfortably ride the vaporetto around for some final night sightseeing along the grand canal. What a beautiful city! The vaporetto headed to Lido island and then turned around for one final pass along the canal before arriving at the train station.

We boarded the night train back to Munich. The following morning we arrived in Munich. We ate breakfast at Marienplatz in Munich with a fellow traveler we met on the train. We then parted to take the S-Bahn to the airport. At the airport we met up with mama and papa Kopfelsberger. I now had my key to re-enter the US. I had one last cappuccino with Katie, mama, and papa and began the series of checkpoints for my flight.

Just a 9 hour flight, a layover in Washington DC, a couple more hours, a layover in Chicago, another hour, and 30 hours after leaving Venice I was back. Brian and Jess picked me up from the airport and honored my request for some late night sushi before hopefully settling in for a long sleep. A nice end to a wonderful trip.

Venice: Day 2

Still no word on the passport, but not going to let that ruin my vacation. If anything, it will only extend it :-)

It was another day of perfect weather in Venice. Frankly, I could not have asked for better weather for the entire trip. We went to the local shop to get some rolls and cheese to combine with our salami leftover from Germany. It was a nice breakfast. Of course, I had to stop for a cappuccino at an espresso bar as well. In typical style, I stood at the espresso bar to refuel and then went on my way.

We headed back to San Marco square and checked out some shops south of there. Lots of beautiful Murano glass, but some things get old after viewing at each shop. We attempted to watch glass blowing, but it was only open for scheduled group tours. Still plenty to see though. We eventually stopped for our first pizza in Italy; the pesto pizza was excellent!

We continue south along the grand canal and just took everything in. I bought a canvas oil painting of Venice that I look forward to hanging up at home. Eventually I had my late afternoon gelato and headed back to the hotel. Upon my return, I found out that my passport was indeed left in the Kopfelsberger's car seat pocket (which I stowed because my backpack had a hole and I didn't want to lose it). So, although I must inconvenience them, I look forward to seeing them again and knowing that I will be able to re-enter the country (and to a country with Obama as president-elect...yeah!)

For dinner, I had a seafood pasta followed by a scallopini with mushrooms...good eats! We then headed to an opera concert that was quite impressive. The opera is really amazing in person, which include baroque period wardrobe this time as well. I especially like the barotone...wish the pamphlet had the names of tonight's performers.

Venice: Day 1

Wednesday, November 05, 2008 – Today we arrived in Venice on the overnight train from Munich. Most things still seem closed at 6:30am, so we grab our luggage and hit the streets…not quite sure where our hotel is. We stopped for breakfast and I had the espresso I promised myself. We also got directions, but eventually bailed on those after buying a map and realizing we had a long way to go. So, we took our first Vaporetto ride, which are the boat equivalent of the public bus. We still had to tackle a few stairs / bridges to get to the hotel, but eventually we found our way. We left our luggage at the hotel and headed out to explore the city.

On a side note, I was unable to find my passport for check-in. We sent an email to the Kopfelsbergers hoping that it might be in their car. If not, I may have an extended vacation…I probably shouldn’t have joked about throwing out my passport once I got here.

We attempted to follow a walking tour, which is quite difficult when every alley forces you to zig zag and may eventually dead end entirely or end at a canal. Winging it does not seem to work as well as other cities. Lots of venetian masks, scarfs, and glass works being sold by vendors. Every direction contains a canal, bridge, colorful building, public square or alley...really all that I would have imagined.

I had lunch along the grand canal close to the Rialto bridge. Good food, but dinner ended up being even better...the spaghetti as the first plate was great, followed by my second plate which was pork scallopini. Great flavor! Seeing San Marco square and the view from the top was amazing. I'm just taking it all in!

Change in plans

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 – We signed up for another hike and hitched a ride with the same couple from Stuttgart. This time we went to a small town south of Oberstaufen and took a ski lift car to the top. From there, you are able to hike many miles of trails across the mountain range, but we ended up doing a 10 km loop. Of course, mid-way we stopped for a beer and cheesecake (or whatever one cared to order). It was a nice hike; green mountains of grass and pine trees. The hills were marked with the cow paths acting like latitude lines. Some higher snow capped peaks appeared out in the distance. I kept thinking how great it would be to mountain bike on the trails.

Once we got to the bottom, we made a meal with eggs, meat, and cheese. Our goal was to use up some of the food because we decided to end our stay at Oberstaufen and venture on to Italy. We stopped at the travel buro in town and booked an overnight train to Venice…returning just in time to catch my flight back to the U.S.

I would have liked to have seen the mountain ranges along the way; instead I only saw giant shadows lingering over the occasional twinkling lights of village homes scattered on the hillside. I attempted to get some sleep, but I am not one for sleeping while lying across the narrow train seats. No worries though, a nice Italian espresso awaits me!

To the market

Monday, November 03, 2008 – Today we went on a group hike from the hotel. We car pooled with a couple with a car. She was from L.A. and now lives in Stuttgart with her husband. They were nice and we seemed to be of similar mindset. The hike was along a gorge and started 6km from the hotel. It was very nice with little waterfalls as the water worked its way down the gorge. It was a nice 2 hour hike.

After the hike we got dropped off in town and walked to the grocery store. We put one Euro into a slot on the grocery cart handle to check out the cart, and we get the Euro back when we insert the key from the kart in front of it; not a bad system. The store is much smaller than home, which isn’t a bad thing. We bought lots of nice rolls / bread, then we picked out some meats, cheeses, and a few other items for dinner…what has become our typical meal. I especially figured I would have some raw milk cheese since we are not allowed to have that in the states. We packed the food in a clothe sack and my backpack and headed back down the foot path to the hotel. On the way we stopped at the travel agency to see how much a train to Zurich or Venice would be.

Once we got back we had a great meal with our new groceries. We relaxed a bit and then went back into town. We decided to do the Venice trip, so we went back and booked our trip…we saved $40E on the train reservation from a few hours earlier; however, we decided to get a better hotel in the city closer to the train station – so it ended up being the same.
We then did a bit of shopping and eventually returned to the hotel. We made a vegetable ravioli with a good tomato sauce. We decided to bypass the schnapps tasting and call it an early evening. We didn’t do much today, but managed to get some exercise and stock up on some food.

An dem Staufen

Sunday, November 02, 2008 – Today I started the day after a 13-14 hour nap. After having a few nights without good sleep, this felt good. We took the foot path into town to find breakfast. We ordered a breakfast for two that included bread rolls with meats, cheese, jam, etc…the breakfast we have become accustomed to J.

After breakfast, we needed to find a place to buy feminine hygiene products, which was a challenge given that almost all places were closed except restaurants. I stopped and asked “Wo kann man ein Apotheke finden?” to ask where we can find a pharmacy. The older woman and her mother seemed to hesitate, so I went on to clarify saying “drogen”, which translates to “drugs”. The woman said I should not ask for that, since those are bad drugs only…apparently her English was better than my German. Now I know to use the word medicine…unless I want the good stuff J. At the train station I attempted to ask for paper for women and after some gesturing she recommended what I understood to be the gas station. Mission accomplished.

Once prepared, we went for a hike up Staufen mountain on the “am den Staufen” trail. It was a nice hike with some great views from the trail. We talked to a mountain biker (or attempted to) and he said that there are good trails in the area. Tomorrow the bike store will be open and we can ask about renting a bike. Since this is a holiday week, the bike store is only open on Monday and Thursday, so I am not sure if we would need to rent for several days or not.

After the hike we went back into town and stopped at an “eiscafe”, which serves fancy looking ice cream desserts. We had a “Spaghetti Eis” that looks like spaghetti (go figure) and a Nutella Becher, which had chocolate Nutella with peanut and vanilla ice cream. Very good with my cappacino. We then hiked back down the foot path to the Mondi-hotel and labeled some photos and relaxed a bit. Eventually we went to the Italian restaurant on the hotel campus. I had a salmon and spinach lasagna that was excellent. I am a bit too full, but hopefully I will get another good nights sleep. I think today was a good mix of catching up on sleep and also getting some exercise.
Oh, we also checked on internet usage…we must pay $8 Euro for an hour, so I will likely not post this until we leave. Either way, at some point I will post this.

Immenstadt

Saturday, November 01, 2008 – Today we left the Pension St. Jacob (?). They had an amazing breakfast that resembled our breakfasts at the Kopfelsberger’s…it will be difficult going back to not having a big breakfast. The 6 of us got in the car to head to Immenstadt, which is a great town in the mountains about 30km East of Oberstaufen. We met Franz’s friend Stilla who took us hiking on the mountainside just behind her parent’s home. It was a farmer’s field that had walking trails established. The view of the surrounding mountains and eventually the view of the lake were amazing. On a side note, I learned that the German word for “piggyback” is “Hockeypuck” (sp?); not schweinezuruck (the literal translation).

When we returned from our 1-2 hour hike, Stilla’s mom had juices, coffee, and a home-made apple streudel hot from the oven. It was very tasty; especially after we worked up an appetite on the hike. The weather was a gorgeous 50F or so and sunny. This is great hiking weather, and even nicer considering we expected 40F and rain.

We then left for Katie and my final destination for a while…Oberstaufen. I said goodbye to my new German family, which was said…I really am fortunate to have had such a rich experience with such wonderful people. I will miss them. Katie will return once I depart, so it was easier for her at the moment.

Once we settled in we headed into town to find some food. It is a holiday today, so most things were closed. We will try to buy some food at a supermarket tomorrow. We had a good pork steak dinner and talked to a couple from Texas…I think the guy was scared about a non-white person possibly becoming president, so I figured I would keep some of my thoughts to myself (go Obama!). Frankly, both candidates scare me – Obama because he is a bit too polished (can I trust him?) and McCain because he is too Bush-like regarding social, economic, and environmental policies. Either way, I am enjoying NOT following the election…I will return to a president-elect.

I’m not sure what the rest of the week will hold, but I suspect we will go on a lot of hikes in the surrounding mountains. I also hope to take a train or bus to some of the nearby cities. There is a land bobsled course nearby, so I hope to check that out as well. That’s all for today.