No title

Since the last post we have moved to Prague for a new flavor of a different city. But before that tale... In Vienna we went to this museum called the Belvedere. We saw a painting by Gustav Klimt.

It was wonderful, beautiful, loving and thoughtful. I loved it. I could stare at it forever. But it has gotten me thinking about our travels and what we have seen. And how different things affect a person differently. We have been to many museums now in all the different cities. We have seen churches from the 1400's. Paintings from from the 1700's and before. Tools and jewelery from Mesopatamia. The mona lisa. Amazing treats to behold. And somehow they are starting to become the norm for us. Is this possible? In the Belvedere, where we saw Klimt's painting, we flew by the section of paintings from the 1500's – too quick to even blink. Although they are old they seemed so labored over. So unloved when painted. So routine for the artist. It probably isn't a fair judgement for me to make. But it makes me wonder about these churches we are visiting. The ones that were so labored over when made. With celiengs meters upon meters high. Organs bigger than houses. Stained glass with the most vivid pictures. Were they loved when made. What was the point?

Maybe we shouldn't visit churches for a while...

We are in Prague and doing pretty good. We haven´t had an overnight bus in a while and I think both of us are starting to feel rested when we wake up.

Prague is beautiful. That seems to be the adjective I use for every city. But it´s true. We wish it were warm but a person can't have everything. The city is ancient, like every city here. Old buildings with intricate carvings fill the streets and part of the skyline. Cobelstones make the roads. History and its stories reek from every corner waiting to be discovered. It washes a person away. I get lost in it.

A story: Last night dirn and i went to a true real live authenitic Czech restaurant. Long tabels filled with middle aged to aged czechs filled the place. Wagons and farm tools hung on the wall. Ciggarets burned, alcohol was drank and eating happened. Our plates of food were huge. It was great.

To Recap till now with a few skips

A. Michael J Dirnberger. Prague John Lennon Wall

B. Montpellier. Old monument

C. Barcelona. Gaudi Park

D. Paris - The TOWER

Christmas fairs and oh so much more

Again in Vienna we are. Today we started off by going to a royal palace. We toured the apartment of the famous Sisi. Who was the empress of Austria in the 1800's (approximately). She hated being in the public eye so she secluded herself from everyone including her children and her cousin-husband. Then when she was murdered she became an icon in Austria. She had a lot of stuff. Too much stuff.

Then we went to another big church. It was big.

After the church we went to the home of Sigmund Freud. His home was sparse and peculiar. It's not really what I expected. Mostly because there wasn't furniture or many actual things of his because he fled Vienna to London when the Nazis started to invade. And most of his things were either brought to London or they were destroyed. Still, it was impressive to see his home and some of his things. I always find it amazing to look at the things great minds once touched.

Lastly, we went to a Christmas fair this evening. The highlight I believe for the day. I ordered two different kinds of fries and chocolate covered strawberries. It was delicious. and warm and delicious. Dirn however did not indulge in the deliciousness. He didn't want to celebrate in the coming of Jesus' birthday like the rest of us. Maybe next time.

Dear Amanda what would you like from the christmas fair?

Milan, Venice, and Vienna. It has been a bit...

Since the last blog we have visited three additional cities (alluded to by the title). From Montpellier we moved to Milan and saw the fashion capital of the world. Unfortunately no Prada or Gucci was bought. We moved to Venice and now we are in Vienna.

Because we love church and churches we visited another large one. Which, I believe brings the tally count to IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII. How we love church. I (Ann) was given a beautiful bracelet by some lovely African man, luckily it only cost me my camera and my passport. No no i joke. But I did get a bracelet because they tied it around my wrist and then demanded money. We ran . Fast. Lastly, we saw a painting that was guarded like the hope diamond. However, we are unsure of what it was or its value. We just wanted to see it because everyone else was doing it. We tried to see "The Last Supper" but we did not make reservation two weeks in advance. We left Milan

Venice was lovely! It was warm and romantic and quaint and oh so charming. (nudge judi). We took a taxi boat through the city at night. We splurged on a one star hotel. We saw the Peggy Guggenheim house. and we walked the streets. It was lovely and beautiful and everyone must see it with their own eyes.

We are in Vienna. It is chilly. to quote the great Michael J Dirnberger "I thought Paris had bad weather but Vienna, oh Vienna..." We are staying at a five star hostel (if that exists, that's how our book described it). It's very nice. We haven't seen much of the town yet. We went to an artist/architect's house. His name isn't coming to me right now. But his works are as odd and unusual from that of Gaudi from Barcelona. It's almost as if his mind was a fairytale and he brought it to life with buildings. Pictures will describe it better than I can.

What to say next... We are staying in Vienna for three nights. Which will be a relief because it feels as though we have been on the run here for a while. We move to Prague next and then back to Weisbaden.

Take care and we love you

Montpellier forget that Marsell... place

We have arrived and we are in Montpellier. It is a little bit of a sleepy town. which is well needed after a few very intense days.

We are staying with another couch surfer for the moment. He is really nice and very generous. Last night he and his girlfriend took us to his little brother`s show. It was really nice and similar to runlikego shows I have seen in the past. just less hip thrusting.

Tonight we are moving on to Milan probably just for a day or two from the advisment of the travel book and other knowledgeable sources


much love

We are in a bar. No pictures again...

Hello again from Barcelona!

Boy oh boy. we have seen the sights. The architect Gaudi has rocked our eyes and our minds.

His work is amazing and possibly the first time architecture has rocked my mind [from ann]. but not michael j. dirnberger's.

We walked through Gaudi's design, Guell Park. It was the meeting of nature and dr. suess. It was amazing. and beautiful. It was supposed to be a village that he designed compelete with schools, catholic churches, stores, and houses. however it didn't happen and instead it is a beautiful park that we wish we could go to everyday. Everything was so detailed and colorful and wild and sunny again.

We went to three other works of gaudi and they stood the test of amazing and still impressed our eyes.

Besides Gaudi, we went to the Picasso musseum. which was eye opening. the museum presented picasso from the begining to pretty much the end. it was cool because we got to see Picasso change and develop and become his own and to see how prolific he was. We have never seen Picasso as "regular'' or ''normal,'' which is how he started.

Barcelona is so cool and has such an atmosphere of relaxation. We would reccomend it to anyone. The city waffes with flavor. It's beautiful!

*the spell check was in spanish, again forgive us.

Barcelona. We see sun

We are here!!! Here being Barcelona

Yesterday morning we staggered off the over night bus. Tirrrred. We met a nice Canadian couple who we hitched a taxi ride with to our current hostel. but before we made it to the hostel the taxi driver got lost and we saw a wild boar/pig. The taxi driver stopped and let us take pictures and made grunting sounds at the pig through the window. It hit the spot at 5am. (he told us it was a javelinno, but it was much bigger than that. It looked like a baby hippopotomus it was soo huge.)

(there are so many street performers and it is so cool. There was a guy dressed up like Michael Jackson and you would drop some some euros in a bucket and then he would do a dance that you selected for him. There were five to choose from. Hopefully we can put some pictures up of Paris and some of the pictures from Barcelona later tonight. We are using Ian's, the Canadian, computer to write this so it is much easier than in France and he said he would let us put some pictures up. Woo Hoo.)

The hostel is beautiful. It's on the outer edge of Barcelona on a hill side. and Barcelona is beautiful. Its livley and fun and most of all sunny. Today we will explore the city better with open eyes.

We will write more later and hopefully with pictures. If internet access allows.

Paris broke our legs

(anything you see with this is a comment of michael j. dirnberger)

We have walked and walked. and we have seen. Our eyes have touched things made thousands of years ago and then some. (and man are our feet tired)

Things are wonderful. We have a great Couch Surfing host. Couch Surfing is a free way to sleep in peoples homes. It has been wonderful to feel the generosity of strangers. A world wide connection of people.

We arrived a day later than thought because of bus scheduling. but when we arrived, we went on a free tour of Paris that lasted 3.5 hours. We climbed the eifel tower and peered over the city from hights unknown but only felt. (at this point ann got tired of writing capitols and stuff because the french keyboard is different from ours. the same sentance without changes. qt this point qnn got tired of ariting cqpitols qnd stuff becquse the french keyboqrd is different fro, ours.)

The next day we rewalked the tour only much faster with more pictures, which will be on the way. We stopped and went into the Musee d Orsay. beautiful van gough, monet, rodan, picasso, pissaro, serat... amazing and then we walked to the arc d triumph and under it and to the center. we shopped on paris*s rodeo drive. (we didnt take as many pictures because we didnt want to look like nerds)

Today we saw jim morrisons grave. it was small and wegged in between other graves. understated comes to mind when thinking of his death plot. we went to the luvere. to the mona lisa. eqyptian art and preserves. mesopotamian belongings. (understated for the mona lisa too)

My mind is a bogel of things we have seen.

To Judi and all the other sticklers out there: disregard the spelling. and UN proper english. (george bush is still in office, so its okay)

Walleyball?

Today it was rainy.  Luckily we are still in Wiesbaden under the tender loving care of Dirn's parents.  

We went to a volleyball game.  Most of the women on the team weren't from Germany; however, it seemed most adapted to German cheering.  Which consists of a lot of drums and in sync clapping on both the home team side and the opposing side.  Between every break in play blaring music played that rotated between 5 songs.  Wiesbaden won, of course.  

Tomorrow is our last day in Wiesbaden.  We are taking off at 10.00 pm for Paris and due to arrive there at 7.00 am.  It's going to be doozy!  We are planning on staying with a fellow couch surfer in Paris.  His name is Demitri.  I think it will be nice.   Apparently he lives in a very good area for the sightseer.      

It will be sad to say good bye to Dirn's parents for the moment but it will be nice to begin the backpacking part of the adventure.  

Good night for now.  

Lunch in a Vineyard

Today was our day in the vineyard, we are quite sophisticated as you all might know.  I was not aware of this before.  But Germany has vineyards that line the edges of the Rhine River and today we took advantage of that.  (Dirn's parents live right by the Rhine River.)  

It was amazing.  We drove to this little village.  Its name started with the letter R and the middle parts were similar to ushistian.  Making for something like Rushsitisianandna.  You get the picture.  From there we took buckets/ski lift to the top.  We ate at an quaint and charming restaurant (we thought of Judi the whole time).  It was so beautiful.   I know when I close my eyes tonight I will see the view we had as we ate.  It was beautiful and the pictures we posted do not do it justice.  

And then in the evening we went to a festival.  We crowded, we pushed, we tugged, we did the festival.  It was quite fun and impressive to see all the junk you could buy for a reasonable euro. In fact Dirn's dad bought seven different kinds of cheeses shoved into a bag for a mere 10 euro. He almost got roped into buying 8 kilos of sausage for 30 euros but decided it was a bit frivolous. 

After stomping around the sales grounds we went into the beer garden.  Where we sang american songs and watched 16 year olds cry, laugh and take shots.  I think the crying part was due to the alcohol pumping through their young veins.          

Enjoy the pictures

We are HERE

The Fussball Game.  The game wasn't happening the moments I took the pictures.  But... I think it's still cool.  I can't believe we actually went to the game.

Today is Friday.  Yesterday was Thursday.  We arrived yesterday in the morning;  tired, greasy and our teeth caked with plaque.  We recovered quickly with a delicious meal at the Army Dinner Hall.  Well we are not sure what to call it - Army version of Old Country Buffet, except you can not wear hats and there are sinks to wash your hands that greet you as you enter.  The rest of the day was spent mostly sleeping and laying around.  Not too exciting.

But today was the "headline maker."  We went to a Bundesliga Soccer Game.  It was so cool we were in the standing room only area at the end of the soccer field.  There was lots of singing, yelling, and hand waving.  What we cheered and sang is really up for grabs.  just like the saying: "When in rome do as the romans."  The end score for the game was 4-2 with Weisbaden the winning team. (Weisbaden is "our team" we of course, have been long time fans).       

Before the game we did a little sight seeing in a neighboring town of Maintz.  Which the above pictures demonstrate.

But... Before we leave for Minneapolis and then onto Frankfurt/Weisbaden. Here are pictures of Iowa. Or really, I guess, of Matty and Goose. Brotherly love.