Ein Wunderbares Ende

          We drove all the way from Venice to Frankfurt in one day. It was a 14 hour drive. It’s hard to do those long drives when we spend the whole day previously walking around all day. Well it’s okay because we did get to Frankfurt with literally no more money for gas. We went without food that day because we didn’t have enough money. We were so tired and hungry when we arrived at Nathan’s parents’ house, but they took good care of us. It was so nice to be looked after for a while. We had spent the last month not knowing where we were going to sleep or what to eat. It was really nice to not have to worry about that for a week. First thing the next morning we did our massive amount of laundry. It took quite a while, but the weather was good enough to dry the clothes outside. We were taken on a shopping trip to ‘Lidl’ where Nath’s parents bought us whatever our hearts desired and then some. My hearts desire was a chocolate treat called, ‘Duplo.’ They are one of my many favorite chocolates from Europe. 

It has been so long that I am not sure of the order of events, but I know we did the following things: We walked around most of Frankfurt with Nathans mum, Luz, in search of a tower that we could ride to the top that overlooked Frankfurt. We were lost for ages but it was really fun touring the city. We did find the tower and the view from the top was pretty amazing. It was really just fun to be spending some time with Luz alone. Nathan said that he heard stories from his mum that he hadn’t known before. It was a really great day.

Another day in Germany we went to Heidelberg. It is this fabulous city a few hours drive from Frankfurt. We went up this crazy steep hill on the most rickety old train that was pulled up by one cable. It was pretty terrifying but gorgeous when you get to the top. Nathan and I have never seen so many spectacular views in such a short few months. The view from the top of Heidelberg was one of the best. There is also a castle about halfway up the hill that we stopped at. Nathan’s dad, John, told us how in the castle there is a really big barrel. He said that we would think that we saw the big barrel, but it isn’t the big barrel, the big one is much bigger than the small ones up front. True to his word, we saw a really big barrel and thought it was the biggest one, but just around the corner was a ridiculously large barrel. It was so big we climbed quite a few steps up to get on top of it. Crazy big barrel. 

           Our last big outing was my favorite. We went to Rudesheim along the Rhine river with both John and Luz. It was a life goal come true. I have always wanted to take a boat ride on the Rhine, since taking 4 years of German and learning about it. It was just as beautiful as I had hoped. We rode the boat up the river a ways and got off at our stop. We had a quick treat, ice cream and hot chocolate (Nath’s parents are so good to us!), and had lovely conversations. I love hearing stories about Nathan when he was younger.

Next we got on a ski lift type of thing that took us up to the top of this mountain along the Rhine. This view really might have been my favorite. It was so surreal to be doing something like this. As we rode up to the top we teased John by raising the safety bar. I think we found it more funny than he did. Once at the top we walked along a trail that would take us back to where we started. It was a lovely tree covered area, with outlooks at the most beautiful views.  At the end of the trail there is a much safer looking gondola that takes you back down to the bottom over oceans of vineyards. Gorgeous. As we rode down Nathan and I looked out over this beautiful place realizing this was our last day in mainland Europe. We were to fly out the next morning. It was sad to say goodbye to the most beautiful places I have ever been to, but it was lucky that we still had three weeks in England when we returned. It was a perfect end to our little adventure around Europe.

Our Day on the Water

               We arrived at our hotel just outside Venice after a long day of driving. We booked our hotel the day before and when we made it there and knocked on the door for 10 minutes or so and no one came! We went to the store further down the building complex and asked the owner of the store if he knew if the B&B was still open or where the owner was. He looked at us like we were crazy and told us to just wait. We didn't wait much longer when the owner showed up and told us in the two words of English he knew... “no space!” We tried explaining that we booked it online and it was confirmed. He looked it up and sure enough we had a space but he had given it away! Ah! It's already 9pm! He walked over to the store we had just went to with the store owner who thinks we are retarded. They talked for a bit and then the B&B owner motioned for us to go with the store owner. Really?! That guy doesn't like us! Where are we going?! Well we followed him anyway just across the street to what we guess is the store owners hotel. We got a room at his place for the same price! Oh good! Another mini heart attack survived. :)

             The next morning we took the bus into VENICE! Who knew you could take a bus? There is just one bridge over to the island. We decided not to get a map so we could just wander and get lost in Venice. So we just began walking toward bridge after bridge. Nathan's favorite architectural things are bridges so he was loving Venice. There were many bridges but not all the streets are water. A lot of the streets were just very narrow stone paths between many 3 or 4 story buildings. It was just like a maze. We would walk all the way down one street only to turn the corner and realise it was just a dead end... of water. So funny. We did know that eventually we wanted to get to the main square so we just wandered about looking out for signs for it. As we walked past thousands of stores we noticed a pattern. The shops mainly sold two things: Vanician masks and glass. We tried on some masks in a few shops but quickly realised that the owners did NOT like you to take pictures. One guy told us to erase the picture.... we ran. :)

              We had some lunch at this awesome kabab place. It was very cheap and delicious. Win! After being fed we made it to the square. It was pretty cool. It was big and open with a really nice cathedral. The cathedral had a cool interior - gold mosaics from floor to ceiling. Out in the square there were thousands of pigeons! I guess it's a thing for people to put food on their heads and let birds attack their skulls. Nathan tried to get me to do it – yeah right! I have learned to hate pigeons. The “Rats of the Sky,” Nathan calls them.

            
             We spent the afternoon taking cool pictures and just having a great time. We had to sneak into restaurants to use the bathroom because the public toilets cost 1.50! We also somehow kept ending up at the main square! I would think we were walking the opposite direction and then we would end up in the square again! Crazy.







              For dinner we decided we wanted that same kabab place so we went back to where we started the day and retraced our steps so that we could find the same place, otherwise we would have never found it. We stayed til night just to look around and before anyone asks, no, we did not go on a gondola ride. They were outrageously expensive plus now we will have something new to do when we come back for our 50^th anniversary. Venice- Another success!