Friday, October 31, 2008

Pisa


Pisa: Yes, the place with the tower. And that is all that is in Pisa.
I'm doing my best to be a good tourist and take a foto like everyone else...
Corny group shot.
Probably the best part of Pisa: watching everyone else take their foto's. Its quite entertaining.
I quite enjoyed this group of Asian's shot. They are all so happy to be there.

Florence

Florence was a powerful trading, textiles and banking city starting in the late middle ages. There was a lot of money and influential people in city during those times, so the arts followed them from Rome. A few pieces that you might recognize:
Has anyone seen this guy before? The Accademia Museum, where Michelangelo's David calls home, is rather small and only has this large space for David and a few other rooms of artifacts of the time period.
Something that was interesting to see at the Accademia was several of these statues 'in progress' that Michelangelo was working on when he died. I don't know how someone could cut a person out of a square block of stone like that! The best Kabob that I had in all of Europe was this one in Florence. If you ever go, you have to try them. I found out that they are a middle eastern food, not European, but they sure are tasty if you find the right place to get them. They are a combination of three meats, lettuce, tomato, some sause and varied other ingredients depending on the shop. Pure goodness.
The Florence Market. The girls loved this place...It is most known for its leather, but they had almost any other random trinket that you could want too.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

! EUROPE !

Well, it has almost been three weeks for me on my tour of Europe. I have been online a few times and I have found that I was lucky at the first internet cafe: they let me hook up my camera and upload some pictures. Everywhere else has not allowed this.

SO, I will be posting lots of pictures and comments when I get back and semi-recovered from the trip.

For now, a quick update...

After Rome, we made quick stops in Podova, Pisa, Ravenna and Venice Italy. Pisa was only worth the two corny foto's that we took there. Venice was interesting to see the water streets, the glass was overly ornate, overly gold-leafed and definately overly priced.

Saltzburg was very cool. Green scenery and a slower feel. We made a stop at the Mauthausen concentration camp. That ruined the whole day. Berlin was also rather dismal.

We are now in Munich, Germany. A large city feel with a lot of different nationalities. It somewhat feels like the US, but everyone speaks German except me. The Germans are more approachable than the Italians, but not by much.

Three more stops on the tour: Geneva, Switzerland, Paris and London. Time moves quickly. It doesn't seem like it has been this long or that I have been in so many places...

It will be nice to be back in Rexburg, where I know how to talk to everyone, know my way around and don't have to convert everything from the Euro price to American to know how much it really costs...

Until next time...