Adventures of Niffer and Mincent come to an end

Well, we're back!

Let me first start out bz sazing that this kezboard has the y and the z mixed up. Zou will have to deal with it because it is a pain to backspace for all of them. lol.

Michael and I are now sitting in front of our desks at work, trzing to catch up on our emails. It's a strange feeling to be back.

We spent the last couple of dazs in Prague, visiting our friend Dan. He seems to be verz verz happz now, so that was great. Congrats, Dan on finding a job!

Anzwaz, before leaving, there were so manz people who told us that thez loved Prague. We found this to be a little strange because we had never reallz thought about visiting the Cyech Republic before, and reallz onlz did so because Dan had recentlz moved there. But over and over again, we were told that Prague was everzone's favorite European citz. And I must saz... I can't blame them there. Prague is beautiful! It is called the citz of 1000 spires, because there are spires (from churches or bell towers and such) everzwhere along the citz skzline. Verz little of Prague (if anz) was damaged during WWII, so it still maintained that old look that we all know and love about Europe.

Dan and his friend, Erica, took us to a cute little beer garden for dinner the first night. The food was great and the food was cheap. Onlz 67 crowns... which is under $3.00. The place was perfect, out of the waz and in front of a prettz old monestarz. We ended up going there again the last night because we loved it so much.

The rest of the time, Michael and I did our job as tourists and saw as much as we could of the city. We went to the Jewish Quarter, which is supposedlz the best in Europe. Apparentlz, Hitler used Prague to store the things he had collected from the Jewish, and planned on opening a "museum of the extinct Jewish race". Ah, how thoughtful of him. Ugh. However, the Jewish Quarter was actuallz verz interesting. We learned a lot about the Jewish Religion, and traditions. Thez had the names of all the Jews from Prague that died during the war (onlz 10,000 of the 180,000 survived) hand written on the walls of one of the synagagues. Verz verz touching.

We also went to a black light show, called "Aspects of Alice" (a unique to Prague thing to do). It was about the adventures of Alice after she went to Wonderland, and the steps she went through as she grew up. It was reallz neat and well done, but mazbe a little confusing. In case zou have never been to a black light show (I hadn't before this), thez do this low budget special affects through out the plaz. Everzthing is lit up bz black lights, and so anzthing located on the stage that happened to be black, could not be seen. This includes the people wearing all black, making the show work. For example... things flzing across the stage in slow motion - this was reallz someone carrzing it across the stage, but since thez were in black, zou couldn't tell. It was neat. Artsie, but neat.

Finallz, we saw Charles Bridge. Much to mz amayement, it was the bridge that I had seen in someone's picture from some time long ago. I saz "to mz amayement" because I remember seeing this bridge, and the church spires bezond it, and thinking "wow, what an exotic place. I doubt I'll ever go (I didn't know where it was), but wow!". And here I was, standing on the same bridge, the one that I had just assumed I'd never see. So, neat!

Hmmm.... I guess that is it. It had to end sometime. And now, I have a meeting to go to. I hope zou enjozed the emails. It was certainlz fun to write them, but more fun to experience them. With the exception of a few small things (and large slugs), we loved everzthing about the trip. Feel free to ask anz questions zou maz have. Mz office hours are 8:30am-5:00pm EST, Mondaz-Fridaz.

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Nearing the End

Random thoughts on some European differences:
1. Their slugs are huge, as I have mentioned before... but it is a European epedemic, not just Holland. If you don´t believe me, we have a picture of a slug that is over half the length of my foot... and I have big feet!!
2. Escalators are smart. We have seen some escalators that stop when there are no people on them, and some that slow down when there are no people on them. Why don´t we have smart escalators?
3. European cats are super-friendly. In fact, we almost killed one the other day. In Hallstatt (see below), we were petting a cat who was so happy that he rolled off the edge of a 20 foot-high sidewalk!!! Luckily, there were some branches and vines that caught him. It was just a good thing we weren´t 2 feet to the right!!!
4. Europeans eat their eggs in a non-messy, non-shell-peeling method. It takes some practice, but they are able to quickly chop the top off, eat the egg... leaving just the full empty shell.
5. German and Austrian sandwhich meat looks scary (so says Niffer - Michael says it is no scarier than bologna - you can decide who you believe the most).
6. Still haven´t figured out what the second button does for flushing the toilet.

Hallstatt was a quiet, relaxing stop between Salzburg and Vienna. It is in the Austrian Lake District, and is a small, cute town right on the edge of a mountain lake. It probably deserved more time just for relaxation sake, but we only stayed one night. Apparently Hallstatt is known worldwide for its salt mine - the oldest in the world. Salt has been mined there since 800 BC!!! We dressed up in authentic, bright magenta mining outfits (if you don´t believe me that the magenta color was authentic... well then just ask me), and took the mine tour. It was a lot of fun, with slides and trains and tunnels and even a little education on old and current salt mining techniques (thanks to a couple scary animatronic miners and a couple slide shows).

Hallstatt has a pretty cemetary similar to the one we saw in Salzburg. When you die, you only have 15 years of peace burried in the ground. Afterwhich, they dig up your bones, add them to a pile in the chapel (with some pretty artwork on your skull) to make way for the newly dead.

We are now in Vienna and staying in a small pension with padded doors. I can only assume that this is because they were tired of tourists sueing them for injuries resulting from running into closed doors, thinking that they were indeed open. Michael guesses it is for sound control. I think my story is better.

Vienna is a big city, and thus does not quite make our favorites list. Don´t get me wrong... it has been enjoyable, and has some amazing museums discussing the Hapsburg Empire including their impressive treasury and art collection. It makes you wonder just how many real nails there are that were used to hang Jesus on the cross. I think we´ve run across 5 Vatican-certified true nails. Hmm... And is it St. Catherine who has 6 arms distributed throughout Europe? Apparently, historically we looked more like Shiva.

Tomorrow we leave for Prague, which is sadly our last destination before heading home. Maybe it is for the best. Michael got an email today saying that his boss was rading his office for something, and Niffer is missing her hot baths (showers or half showers are getting a little tiring).