Well we've spent the last couple of days in apeldoorn,Netherlands , we arrived on Sunday and Everything I mean everything was closed so we went to our hotel which is away from the centre good hotel but.... We needed some supper so we went into town in the pouring rain and it was completely abandoned only schecky dudes hanging around so we quickly left and was forced to eat at the hotel restaurant - it was horrid, so we gave up and went to sleep. The next day we had hoped to go to either a art museum in a cool national park or to the apenhul -a zoo with free roaming monkeys but it was pouring rain and the museum wasn't open on Monday's. So we went and got groceries so we would have food later and came up with the plan to take the train to the next town over , well we got there and it was basically the same thing rain and not much to do. We just went back to the hotel and hung out there for the rest of the day/night we were so board Dam rain!!! Tuesday we woke up determined to do something so we went with our umbrella to the apenhuel monkey zoo. It was amazing , you start by putting your purse in a monkey proof bag ,we were thinking yah right monkeys won't really be near you. We were wrong the first part was squirrel monkeys all around outside climbing on you and strollers swinging above your head. One came right on Corey and before we knew it it had stolen his pen from his pocket, it was so funny, we did manage to get it back from him though. There were chimps, oranagtangs, various other bigger monkeys not able to get near but very close, they were actually on islands and a small river was all the seperated you from them. Next we went ito the lemurs island were you can get close , they are so cute just like Madagascar. The highlight was defiantly the gorillas we went to watch them get feed and again very close, ivenever seen gorillas normative glass and we went and watched them on their island for a while after including when 2other monkeys swung onto the gorilla island and we saw the silverbacks male growl so loudcand chase them away scary and coolWe just couldn't believe how these monkeys cavan roam free among the visitors , there ere quite a few more fre roaming species and non free roaming ones. The zoo was defiantly worth the 2days of wsiiting through the rain to go to. Today we are off to Amsterdam until Monday, we got a amazing deal for a hotel that is a monument in Amsterdam and built in 1900 it should belts of fun.

Aug.27,2011

Hannover is a pretty cool city, very north american like. We stubled uopn a fabulous hotel a little ways from the centre but so worth it, it is ultra modern with overhead lights in the rooms with 5 diffrent colours and 2 big flat screen tvs built in one for tv and the other for free internet, we barely wanted to leave the room. Today we ventured to the flea market, lots of good old stuff, but unfortunaly when you know you have to carry it in your pack on your back it makes you think extra hard about what you buy. We also walked down to the old town and shopping distict, the big surpirse for the day was the Tj maxx store- so weird seeing one in Europe. We also went to the indoor food market and Corey ate lunch there, after that we ventured down to the big indoor mall as it was raining on and off and we wanted to be dry for a while. Wow we have never seen a mall so busy, i guess everyone had the same idea. Tonight we are being lame and staying in because tomorrow we are moving on to Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands

August 26th

Hello from Hannover, as we decided to travel too in the afternoon yesterday while sitting in a internet cafe.

Munich was a great stop even despite the heat and the lack of AC. Our last day in Munich we spent a good portion of it at the pinakothek der moderne museum with tons of great art to see, new and old as well as a huge selection of design items from the ages. It seems thats about all we had in us for the day, a little worn out I suppose haha...so we took advantage of the english movie channel we had at the hotel! its been awhile since we#ve heard anything in english other than cnn updates on Libia. Come to think of it we didnt even go for supper instead we just picked up something small from the bakery near by. It was a much needed rest as the next day we had to put on our backpacks and ride the rail to Rothenburg, Germany.

Arriving there it was prettz amazing as we had to walk from the train station through midevil gates to find the hotel inside the walls of the historic rothenburg! this place is 100% authentic, something like we've never seen before, towers and buildings built thousands of years ago in some cases; It all dates back to the 900's. We found our hotel without much trouble and made our way out into the town, we stumbbled accross St. James church which had an organ concert inside in a few min so we went in. Another very beautiful church and the music wasnt to bad either haha. He played some Bach, Patchbell and a few others music on a 1960's buildt organ...tons of diversity in sound unlike i've heard before and at the low end the building would shake! After the concert we stopped at a place in the main square for supper, I had the meatloaf and mushroom sauce and cristelle had the roasted pork and I found out they consider a flattened pig sausage to be meatloaf...yuck. The next day we walked and walked and what a great place for it, we walked through a vineyard to a very old looking church then down under an aquaduct looking bridge and then back up the hill through another castle style gate to get back in. We also walked into the walls of that gate which still had cannons and wagons inside the dark stone walls! We also took a stroll along the top of the walls and covered a good portion of the border. A fairytale place to be sure.

Munich

We are currently in munich and its HOT and getting hotter, +34 tomorrow...
Our first day in muich we decided to go to the museum of technology and let me tell you what an amazing place! To say it was huge is an understatment and I totally geeked out for a solid 4 hours in the place and I could go back every day and still not make it into each section... Cristelle was very nice about letting me geek out by the way haha and I think she also enjoyed it quite a bit. It covered everything from aviation to energy and nanotechnology... I could go on but I will save it for now haha.
Yesterday we went to a nearbye concentration camp, a very intense experience for us needless to say. We also had the chance this week to watch the 5pm display of mechanical dancers rotating to the music of the church bells at the top of a neogothic building in the downtown marienplatz area. Today being Monday all the museums and attractions are closed for the day so we had a good chance to check out a bunch of the areas in Munich such as the university area, downtown outdoor market and the huge park near our hotel; biggest innercity park in the world I belive. Lots and lots of walking haha but lots to see. Here are a few pictures as I can finally upload them from the hotel computer!

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Zell Am See

Corey eating a very homemade Austrian treat in Zell Am See at their downtown street festival

This the glacier made gourge and hiking path in the mountians near Zell Am See

from the sound of music tour...look familiar to you SOM fans

Cristelle in the Swartzski crystal world

Innsbruck

these last 3 are of Eagles Nest, The Tech Museum and the concentration camp

Berchesgaden

We finallY found a decent internet cafe in which to sit, reasearch, do our banking and type! The last one we tryed to go into was 3 dudes, obviously intoxicated sitting on beanbag chairs blasting some german hiphop and all around the one computer... Yikes! I think Wifi is taking over the idea of the Internet Cafe but luckly there are still a few of us chumps that bought Windows PC's that will eventualy need to use a cafe haha. Ok enough about that.

Salzburg
Were to start? Well we had a really good time in salzburg although accomidation was tough to find and we had to move hotels between the first and second night. We despite my objections went on the sound of music tour which was a 4 hour bus ride with stops along the way. To my suprise a pretty fun way to see the city and the area around it, the tour guide was hilarious, which made for a really good time. Cristelle was singing along to the soundtrack that they were playing on the bus, it was very cute. We leared alot about the #behind the scenes# and what to look for next time we watch the movie, as well as a lot about the history of salzburg. We also stummbled upon a concert at the Dumo which was an orcherstra, full choir and 4 operatic singers playing Mozarts (salzbrug is Mozart's birthplace) Requiem...and we got in for 1/2 price as it had just begun when we got there!

Innsbruck
Innsbruck was great! the weather shaped up the second day we were there so we made it up the mountian, it was gorgeous! At one point we sat and watched a cloud make it#s way up the mountian right towards us and then completely take over our view! A very peacfull place to be. We also went to the Alpine Zoo which was basicly a hike partialy up and down the mountian and a few animals along the way...we definatly burned off some goulache and spatzle fat that day! Speaking of which we#ve had some really great meals and some not so good, a highlight would be Cristelle had a footlong currywerst wiener and mine is every time i#ve eaten goulache. I am goulache crazy! goulach soup, with beef, with onlY mushrooms...doesn#t matter I will eat every last bite haha.

Today
We're in Berchesgaden, Germany right now which is quite close to salzburg and is a little mountian city, which is a good place to rest up before Munich.
Today we took a bus, then an elevator to get to the top of a mountian...thats right an elevator that is inside a mountian and brings you to the top where Eagles Nest is located; hitlers hidaway during the war. We walked partialy down the mountian and the walk was amazing all kinds of different flowers, plants, bugs and what a view! We then picked up some groceries and had supper at the hotel, which we multitasked with doing our laundry downstairs...and about time! our bags were starting to smell like Cody's hockey bag... haha kidding nothing can smell that bad. Tomorrow we make our way to Munich so we will post again soon!

It's been a while since we wrote last. We are now in Innsbruck as it is a good base to start our trek into GeRmany. We went to swarski crystal world today , it sucked!!! But the town is fabulous and we are going up the mountain and to the zoo tomorrow so that will be good. this is going to be a short post beacause we have to do it on the iPod and it is difficult to type, oh well once we get to a real computer we will write more

Tuesdat Aug.9

Ok I am a little bit less angry about the computer situation but still annoyed. Anyways today was quite the day first we planned on taking the gondola up the mountain, but the tourism office said its really too cloudy to be good so we didn't, then we decided to take the bus to a near by waterfall, but we realized that we can take a steam train to it another day so... we were quite stumped on what to do. At the last minute at the bus stop we asked some people who were speaking english about where to go, amazingly they were from Kindersly and Lethbridge, ssmall world!!! Anyways we got on a bus not really knowing too much and then the one place we were going to go to a Gorge, the driver tells us it is closed today cause of the rain, so we are sitting on the bus stumped again and who gets on at the next stop, our Sask, Alberta friends. They tell us they are going to the dam , so we say sure and go with them not nknowing what to expect. WOW WOW WOW, This dam is up up in the mountains we had to take 1 bus through 1km long tunnle, then go up a open fuctular lift then take another bus on a 10 min journy that incled more tunnles, hairpin turns and sheer cliffs. When we arrive it is indescribable( we will see if we can put up pics) green mountains, snow covered peaks 3 dams and 2 lakes. If anyone has seen Band of Brothers this lake was the one he jumped into in the end seen!! Anyways, we were blown away, we had lunch with our sask friends Rika one of the ladies spoke german so it helped with ordering alot, had agreat lunch talking english with other people then we headed back out side to explore. At this time a cloud had come in and we are up so high we are actually in the cloud, you couldnt see more than 1 block ahead, so cool!
The cloud passed and we walke around took lots of pictures and came back into town, where it is now raining:( oh well mabey tomorrow it will be nicer. It was a great day!!
oh P.S Grandpa you guys must visit this place I thought of how much you would of loved where we were today it is called Kitzsteinhorn-Gletscherbahnen Kaprun

monday aug.8

Well we got to Zell am See, Austria, it is lovely. We are here for 4 days, mabey more due to it#s raining today and all the stuff we came to do is outside but they tell us it#s not suposed to rain any other days this week.
HUGE side note our peice of $&#? computerr that we just bought is not working so we may be back to using internet cafe's- boo!!!!!!
So less blogging, but we will try when we can. Oh if anyone goes buy London Drugs in Regina tell them I hate them for selling us a refurbished computer, those lying sacks of #!&$. It is late at night now and I am having to do this on a commuity computer in the hotel so thats where my anger is comming from. Anywasy Austria is beautiful and we cant wait to get out and explore some more tomorrow.

Riggamore Via Del Amour

Via Del Amour- you are encouraged to write/carve your names along the trail and in this tunnel.

eating lunch at the Riggamore marina

part of the trail; along the cliffside

church in Florence- Gailao's grave

Florence- fake David staue #2 above the city

awful picture of me in Pisa

we called this the alien autopsy, but it was actually an important Saint

Cathedral in Pisa

coming into Florence train station

The last week in a nutshell

It's been awhile so there is a lot to catch up on, but I will keep it simple.

Juan les Pins - Vernazza
Train-wise everything went smoothly no hiccups at all, seems travelling in the morning is the way to go as the french rail system seems to go haywire by the afternoon. Once we arrive we were to meet out bed and breakfast style hotel owner in the first wine shop on the left, or at least ask for him when we arrived. So we did as asked and sure enough 2 min later he was there to greet us and take us to our room, but that's when took a turn for the worse. He was showing us sights and places to visit along the way to the room and decides to slip in this: "um..someone broke the tap in the room last night so I um found you another place to stay." Cristelle and my ears perk up like a german Shepard: where is this guy taking us now we wonder. We met an old lady at the bottom of a staircase and the two of them took us up to the room. No obvious threat here so we decided to feel this one out. Once we were at the top of this really old-skool building we see the room, looks like an retirement home apt. So we talked it over, avoided the obvious scam and left! Our back-up plan was to take the train, 9 min to the city of La Spezia instead. We found a nice room in a nice 'real' hotel and toured the city.

It turned out for the best we really liked the city and ran into the most authentic street food style pizzeria, it was busy, hardworking and amazing. We both agreed a highlight in the trip so far (of all things a pizza joint). The next day we took the train to Rioggimorre, Cinnqe Terre, a series of towns built into the cliff side facing the sea. This is where we started a 45 min walk to Manorla the trail is called the via dell'amore 'walk of love.' A stunning walk along the cliff side, with tons to look at and explore and we were taking our time to soak it all in. After the walk we grabbed some homemade focaccia bread pizzas and walked down to the marina to eat. We ended up picking a spot on the coastal rocks along the harbour, huge boulders rather. We sat for at least an hour or more, a very picturesque and relaxing place to be, we could see the ocean and the town above. We took tons of pictures.

La Spezia - Florence
Again, pretty easy going as far as taking the train is concerned, Italy seems a little more stable with the schedules. We made our way to the hotel, took a breather and then started exploring. We love this city. The next day we decided to fork out the cash for the uber touristy open top, hop on and hop off bus. We wanted to explore the arts and crafts district that's across the river, but almost every shop and studio was closed for the month of august...I can't blame them, its pretty freak'n hot here. After we toured the city a little more, checked out the sights and I (corey) finally bought the sketchbook i've been waiting for since last time here. Florenzia marbled paper and hand crafted leatherbound! I could go on believe me haha. We also visited the apparent grave-site and church where Galileo, Michelangelo, Rossini are berried, an amazing church with tons to see including a traditional leather made goods production space and gold-leafing studio. We found a plaza off the main touristy streets to sit and have supper in; homemade pasta! Cristelle had the ravioli and I had a thick wide noodle (fettechini on steroids) with tomato sauce, awesome.

Today we took a day trip to Pisa, we were pretty underwhelmed with the place overall but to be fair we weren't there long enough to get a good feel for it. Just to paint a picture here; the 1 min walk from the train station to the information building provided us with an assortment of shady people including an old man in hospital clothes dropping his pants as we walked buy. Pisa, one square filled with tourists the rest of it; a little unsettling, and we are pretty open minded to shady areas. However, we DID get a picture of the leaning tower for Nick as he asked us to do!! We will post it soon nick! We checked out a few of the sights near the tower and were off, back to Florence. Had another good supper of pasta and pizza and off to bed. Tomorrow is our last day in Florence and then we are off to...well we're not sure yet. We will post pictures soon.

we are here in Florence, we had to come back here again cause we really enjoyed it last trip. Well we've a a good last few days, I will write more later cause there are some stories to tell but just a quick check in now.
oh yah little fun tidbits about the Italian trains we taken so far
1) dont look into the toilet on the train becuase you will see that it is just a open hole onto the tracks-ewwww!!!!!
2)the non-reservation trains are more rustic I'll say as we shared this last one with 2 men carrying cardboard boxes of live, chicken or doves or ducks not sure what was in there but it was moving and we did not ask.

Monday Aug.1

today we were in Juan Les Pins, about 10 min from Cannes. It was very hot here but the water is freezing, mabey slightly warmer than Regina beach ( no maui for sure) anyways we went to the beach today for about a hour both of us could feel the burn comming on so we left and went on a glass bottom boat ride. The boat ride was very cool we got to see the coast and went into the " bay of Millionares" called that because you need to have a million dollars to live there- just for refrence we saw a house that the owners of BMW own so yah that much $$. But we could see some fish and plant life that was in the bay from the glass bottom- very cool. We went back to the beach later ( in the shade) then went off for supper the streets we were on look like what I imagine burboun st to look like all pedestrian and bars and resturuants filled one after another. Well it was a good day and made up for the 12 plus hours on the train to get here. Tomorrow we are off on 7 hours of trains to get to
Vernazza, Italy until Thursday then we are going to somewhere else in Italy ( we are undecided yet where)

one part of the public beach in Juan Les Pins