Blog entry July 11:
More differences and various other bits of information:

• Cell phones are called mobiles.
• Dogs wander around alone. We saw one with an empty
water bottle in his mouth, approaching people to play with him.
• Commas and decimal points are used opposite to the US.
For instance, a price in Euros would be 5,20 and a measurement in height would be 5.280 meters.
• Vacations are called “holidays.”
• In Italian restaurants, you have the price of the meal, a 2,50 cover charge per person at the table, and a 12% service fee. If you take the food to go, you save the last two charges.
• In Holland, American programs on TV have subtitles.
In Germany and Italy, they are dubbed. People in Holland
speak more fluent English, maybe because they hear it spoken on a regular basis.
• Cashiers in grocery stores are seated, at least in Holland and Germany. Customers bag their own groceries and bring their own cloth bags.
• Don’t order a latte in Italy or you will get just milk. Café latte is what you want.
• Windows in hotel rooms generally open and don’t have screens.
• Restrooms are called WC’s (water closets).

We stopped at some great places to eat when traveling from city to city. And in Italy, there was always gelato!

This is how deliveries are made in cities with no streets. These poor guys have to push their carts up and down bridges, and the taxis, of course, are boats.

There were pastry, candy, and gelato shops everywhere. We had vowed to eat at least one gelato every day while in Italy, and we kept our word! And the girls found lots of Murano glass jewelry to bring back home, but the chocolate we picked up through our travels--well, most of that didn’t quite last that long.

The moms realize they’re dressed alike.

Once again, we loved our hotel. This was the Al Codega. It had a great place to blog, but oh those foreign keyboards!

On the afternoon of our second day in Venice, we followed Karin’s instructions and “got lost.” No, she wasn’t just sick of us already; she wanted us to wander around and see what we could see, telling us to keep the Piazza San Marco as our anchor point. Getting directions from the locals was interesting. We’d hear, “Left after second bridge,” but then we’d find that two streets converged into one at that point. No worry, though. Venice is not hard to maneuver, and we had lots of fun exploring.

Blog entry July 9:
The gondola ride in Venice was absolutely one of the highlights of the trip for me. Gliding down the Grand Canal in a gondola as dusk turns to night, sipping champagne, being serenaded by an Italian crooner and a musician—it was surreal! I was grinning from ear-to-ear and couldn’t stop!

The buildings, the lights, the water, the sky, the music--it was a magical night.

As in every major stop, we had a great local guide who gave us an informative tour. Later we were on our own, seeing St. Mark’s Basilica, and Doges Palace.

Some of us had dinner at Trattoria Pizzeria da Roberto. We had to have pizza in Italy! When the waiter found out it was Jennifer’s birthday, he serenaded her and brought her tiramisu with a candle for dessert.

Venice is beautiful even when rain clouds approach.

We had an eight hour bus trip from Austria to Venice, and along the way our new tour guide, Karin, gave us lots of background information on Italy. I must admit that before the trip, I was a little concerned that we were going to spend so much time on the bus traveling from city to city, but it really was quite enjoyable. We needed that time to relax a little between our busy sight-seeing days. The scenery in Germany and Italy especially was so gorgeous, and the time went very quickly with lots of rest stops. We stopped in little hill towns in Italy, and ate at a couple of Autogrills (remember the old Howard Johnson’s built on overpasses?) where the food was all home-made and oh-so-good.