germany austria italy

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Sorry the blog had a short lapse. Wifi was slim in Italy and even when we found some on the street it was slow.

We have finally agreed on a name for our GPS. We call her Sadie and she is very good to us. We are driving a Mercedes so "Sadie" for short. Alright, Ken and I like the name and Kjerstin and Alicia like "Neville". Annika hasn't decided yet.

"Ooh look at that huge castle on that mountain. Aah there's a church spire near that castle. What beautiful scenery. Look there's more mountainside vinyards." (Repeat)

We bought gas for our car and paid 1.33 euros per liter. Warning...I'm going to do the math. If you want to figure it out on your own do not keep reading. Ok....that would be almost $7 per gallon. At least we have a diesel car which is cheaper gas. The man at the gas station had to point to the truck picture on top of the diesel pump we were parked in front of to tell us not to get truck diesel but instead back up to the car diesel pump. The speed limit on the interstate we were on is 130 k/h and many cars are passing us like we are standing still. The lanes are more narrow so the many trucks in the slow lane are sometimes scary to pass.

Three languages in three days is sometimes making our language a mix of all three. The girls are still responding in the Swedish language sometimes. Alot of "nay" between them when they don't like what the other is doing in their close quarters in the back seat.

Riommagiore is the first of 5 of the cinque terre towns in the northern italien riviera on the Mediterranean. We got to la spezia Italy and figured out where to park for FREE and walked to the centrale train station through some seedy parts of town to catch a train to Riomaggiore. Once we got to our town we were suppose to call our host's father Ugo for directions. It took a little faith to believe there really was an apartment and there really was a father named Ugo but....we called and Ugo came. Ugo (ken says he looks and acts like the godfather) led us through a tunnel to the town and then through some very narrow walkways to our apartment. It is perfect! It is older (like everything here) but clean and has air conditioning and it overlooks the bay.

After Ugo showed us around the house, we got settled, and walked back through the maze of walkways back to the town. We found a small pizzeria that was cheaper to order "take away" and bought a beer, a bottle of wine, and gelato across the street and walked to the harbor and had supper. We ate on the rocks, in the dark, with other adventurous souls overlooking the Mediterranean and the little village. The moon was half full and was reflecting off the sea. The girls had to pinch me so I knew it was real. SO VERY COOL!!

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