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).

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent Continue (screw what day it is)

I think the last I wrote, it was right before leaving the Black Forest area of Germany and heading to Bovaria (another region of Germany) to see Neuswanstein castle. Let me tell you... it is huge! It is actually much bigger than I thought it would be. Well, that is not quite right. It is exactly the size I thought it would be because I expected all castles to be that big. Then after seeing the sizes of the castles from earlier in our trip, my expectations were lowered. And thus Neuswanstein ended up being bigger than I expected.

It was definitely pretty, though. Very fairytale-ish. It is strange to think that Disney chose it as the inspiration for the Disneyland castle just 50 years ago, when the castle is only about 100 years old in the first place. It was built by crazy Ludwig. It didn´t have the same level of history as the Eltz Castle that we liked so much, because it wasn´t built as a fortress. The only reason it was built was because Ludwig wanted a big fancy girly-man´s castle. He never finished it, and it remains only 30% finished, so the tour was a little disappointing. However, the views of the castle were amazing! Very very pretty. Disney chose well.

We stayed in a small bed and breakfast, that was located in a small town with two main features... an ambitious church (ambitious is a nice way to say obnoxious in this case) and some very horny cows. It is hard to say which was more obnoxious. The church (which, by the way, I usually LOVE churches) had a nasty habit of going off for 15 minutes at random times... including 6am. The cows... well... they were just horny. And right outside our window. Michael succeeded in attracting both of them by ringing our cowbell from Switzerland and giving his best MOOOO. They both came running. And there was much laughing.

After Neuswanstein, I had to say goodbye to Katya and Dirk. They were so friendly, I didn´t want to leave. Overall, meeting Katya went very well. It was a little strange having to find the balance between having known this person for 15 years, and yet not knowing her at all. Her accent was adorable. She had a Russian accent because... well doh. She´s Russian. But she also had a German accent because she´s been there for the last 3 years, and finally she had a little bit of an English accent because her courses were taught with Brittish English. Super-cute. Dirk, on the other hand, sounded a lot like Arnold Schwartzeneger. Yah, shuwa.

I also learned that no matter what country you are from... if you drive through a town called Wank, the guys in the car will chuckle.

We are now in Salzburg, which is where Mozart is from. There has been many discussions about where Salzburg fits on our list of favorites. It is so difficult to compare places because they are all so different, but Salzburg is definitely high on the list. It is surrounded by the Alps (and the hills are alive....). The old town is seperate from the modern city and is all in a very nice, compact area. There is a river, and a nice castle overlooking the town. There are a lot of neat churches, too. They aren´t the gothic style we have become accustomed to seeing, but are more Baroque (I think?). Super-purty.

Two of my favorite things about Salzburg... 1. Music everywhere! We went to a dinner concert last night, which gave us a sample of some of Mozart´s operas. It was nice because we would listen to 20 minutes of opera songs (we did have it translated in the program), then we would eat one course for the meal. It was a lot of fun, and great music and great food... a rare combination.

2. The little wrought-iron cemetary. Apparently it was (and still is) cheaper to make iron crosses for graves than a stone tombstone. An interesting side-note... families have to pay rent for graveyard space. Every ten years, they get a bill for their ancestors´ plots, and if they don´t pay, then their ancestors can´t stay. But anyway, the cemetary was a small, gorgeous little park that was tucked into the corner of the city. Each grave was a small garden. And those that know me best, know that there is something about a cute old cemetary that I absolutely love.

Ok, I should go before this becomes another book. We have our eyes set on touring one of the oldest saltmines in the world today... then we´re off to Vienna.

Niffer loses count - We're on day 18 I think?

Ok, so no one commented on the "Days 14 & 15" email that followed the "Days 13-15" email. Apparently Michael and I have found a time machine and have repeated Days 14 & 15, but somehow missed out on Days 16 & 17. Maybe someday time-traveling technology will be advanced enough that you can time travel without losing days during the travel. =)

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 14 and 15

I have to make a public appology to both my parents. First, to my mom. My mother has always been so enthusiastic about singing. If that is what you call it. To wake us up, she would sing Home on the Range so out of key that it was more painful to stay in bed and continue listening than it would be to get out of bed (sometimes hours before the sun knew it was morning). The other song I remember Mom singing was an Italian song. She would sing "Oh, sole mio!" and I assumed that she was making it up because it was very apparent to me that she did not know the words. Well, mom. I am sorry. While standing in the tourist office, I saw a big poster for Venice and it had "O sole mio" in big words.

Second, I believe is for my father. Apparently the word "kaput" is an actual word, only it is a German word. I wish I knew that my dad was as worldly as he really is. =)

So, to my parents, I must appologize. You deserve more respect than I thought you did. Now that I know this, I will try to keep my eye out for proof that you really are not as full of it as I think you are. =)

Another thing I learned today... "Nix" in German means "water nymph", and here I thought I was a nymph of the woodsy sort. =) Oh, and just 5 minutes ago, I learned that though rum cherries may claim to be cherries, they are really only red balls of alcohol.

My penpal, Katya, is so friendly. Yesterday we saw Baden Baden and today we went to see Hidelburg. Both were great towns, and neither would have been on our list to see if she had not been with us. It is amazing how many great places there are in Europe. Katya has been so patient with us. She is from Russia, and has lived in Germany for the last 3 years. So, she has the pressure to speak in German and translate into English, when neither of them are her native language. She is very good at both. Well, I can only assume she speaks German well... it sounds right to me. Both Michael and I have been surprised by the vocabulary that she and her boyfriend, Dirk, have. Words like prestigiousness... lol... I don´t even know how to spell it. I can not imagine knowing how to say that in French. Heck, I don´t think I use such formal, elaborate words in English!

Dirk´s parents have been very friendly. They volunteered to sit through our pictures, which I am sure they are now just being polite when they said they enjoyed it (and even claim to want to see more). You are all lucky... by the time you see the pictures, we will have deleted the bad and boring ones. This unfortunate German family did not have such luck.

So... in a nutshell... Hiedelburg = pretty, O sole mio is a real song, kaput is an actual German word and Katya and family are amazingly nice. Oh, and German sauerkraut (sp?) does not taste any better than the American version (to which, Michael says "bah"... he has German blood in him).

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 13, 14 and 15

First, you will be relieved to know that you no longer have to worry about us. We are no longer stranded in Switzerland. Second, let me tell you that we were stranded in Switzerland. You did not know this because we did not have electricity and thus could not email, or call for that matter. If we did have electricity, then we would have been able to leave the town (which is situated on the side of a cliff) by using the finicular (sp?) or gondola down the side of the mountain. Of course, that would not have helped much with the stranded situation because the road and train tracks were covered in water.

So we were stranded in the Swiss Alps. We could not get to the top of the mountains that we wanted to see (see above explanation), and we only had enough money (ATM machines require electricity) to either a) buy food to eat or b) buy our cow bell. I will give you one guess as to which we chose. Do not worry... we were able to beg for something to eat.

Why were we stuck in the Swiss Alps, you might ask. Or at least, I am assuming you would ask because I am assuming you did not see it on American TV. There was a storm that swept through Europe. Spain got snow. Switzerland got lots and lots and lots and lots of water. When we showed up, the rivers looked like chocolate milk. In fact, Switzerland is the only country in the world that mixes their chocolate by waterfalls (if you do not get the Wonka reference, then never mind). Anyway, the result was many roads and bridges being washed out, and the train tracks being flooded. Luckily we were stranded in a beautiful place. The weather cleared and we were able to see wonderful snow capped peaks. We just were not able to leave.

Then this morning we were told we could not stay any longer. The road down the mountain was open and they shuttled us out. Just in time, too, since I had to meet my pen-pal (more later).

Anyway, I will try to keep it short...
1. We learned that a European town can substitute a good church bell with many cow bells.
2. Cows and sheep act like dogs. They run up to their owners, all excited, and then follow them through the fields (straight down the side of a mountain, but that is beside the point).
3. Rain and gushing water and streams and waterfalls make it very difficult to walk quick enough when you have to use the bathroom.
4. Clouds move up the side of mountains.

I guess that is it. If it is not, then I am just too tired to remember. Oh, I finally met my penpal (I have been writing to her for 15.5 years - I recounted today). She is so pretty and so friendly. I am looking forward to spending the next couple of days with her.

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 10, 11 and 12

Well, we're now in Siena. And WOW! I just realized that the ' key is in the right place. Hey! Look, all the keys are in the right place, even the @ key! Yay! This email should go quickly.

Where was I? Oh, yeah... Siena. One of the best things about European towns and cities must be the bells. In fact, I think that in order to be an official European town, you need to have church bells of some sort. It's the law. But it's surprising how different the bells can be. For example, in the Cinque Terre, the bells were very simple and easy to understand. If it was 2:00, you would hear BONG BONG. If it was 3:30, you'd hear BONG BONG BONG BING. Everyone there knew what time it was, and didn't need watches (they'd only make a funny tan line anyway).

Here, though, it's different. When you enter Siena, you enter the land of chaotic bells. I like to call them "Happy bells." It's hard to tell if the bells are coming from many many churches, or just a select few with lots of echos. But it doesn't matter. The result is a chaotic mess of BONGS and BINGS with a few DINGS and DONGS. BONG BONG BING DONG DING BONG BONG DING DONG BING. Maybe even a BOINK. It's so pretty. But it's hard to tell if there is any rhyme or reason to them. We sure can't tell what time it is when they go off. Maybe the Sienese people look at the sun to know the time. lol, I've never been very good at that.

Tuscany is beautiful! I LOVE Tuscany. Michael asked me the other day how I would describe Paradise, and I have to say that Tuscany is near perfection. The landscape is beautiful, scattered with vineyards, cypress trees, sunflowers and hill-top medieval towns. The wine is good. The people are friendly. You can't ask for much more. Last year I told my friend, Jen, that I need to spend more time in Tuscany, and now after spending a little more time here, nothing has changed. I still need more time in Tuscany.

Yesterday we went on a tour with a guide who specializes in history and archeology. He was really good. We went to an archeological dig for an Entruscan burial site. The history that he told us about was just fascinating. I felt like he was speaking of more than just Italian history. It was more like the history of civilization. It was our history too.

Today we went to San Gimignano, which was yet another beautiful Tuscan hill top town. We took so many pictures in the last couple days. Well, ok... ***I*** took so many pictures. I think I took almost 100! Don't worry. I'm sure we'll sort through them and pick our favorite ones before forcing any of our friends and family to see them.

Ok. I guess we're now off to the Swiss Alps to track down our cowbell.

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 8 and 9

The night train to Italy... well let's just say that
it was a character building experience and move on to
the better stuff...

We did meet a beautiful person from Masadonia
(afterwards, Jennifer did have to ask Michael where
that was... lol). She was traveling alone and was a
little scared. She could speak English amazingly
well, especially considering she's never visited an
English-speaking country yet. On top of that, she had
a great accent. Of course. We got her address, so
maybe we will keep in touch, and maybe, just maybe...
we have a friend to visit in Masadonia the next time
we're in the neighborhood.

In our travel book, Rick Steves says that Cinque Terre
kills your traveling momentum. Coming in from a night
train where neither of us slept well, sitting in a
cafe and sipping a beer, nibbling on a pesto pizza we
could feel the knots in our backs loosening up
emensely. There are a ton of tame cats living around
here. That must be because cats love to lay in the
sun, and that is thr forte of the Cinque Terre. This
is our vacation from our vacation, and there is
delightfully little to do. Sorta the equivalent of
going to the beach, only with beautiful towns nestled
in amongst cliffs.

This is the birthplace of foccacia and pesto. They
have a pasta called "trofie" specifically designed to
compliment pesto sause. The local trade has been wine
and fishing (anchovies specifically) for generations.
Jennifer actually tried both! weird. The anchovies
are much different than the canned over-salty ones we
have in the states. Jennifer does not like wine or
fish, but the tratorria owner made her finish both,
saying "They are good for you!"

This morning we hiked from Vernazza to Manarola, which
took us around three hours. The hike was beautiful,
it followed the coast from town to town, through
vineyards and olive groves. And about 6,437 steps up
and down the cliffs. When you see the native old
ladies (if there are any other natives, we haven't
seen them), you may think they would be a bit out of
shape, or in poor health. Let me tell ya, I bet they
would be able to run circles around any of us. These
towns are built in such steep valleys that their
streets are actually alleys of staircase upon
staircase. The old folks happily putter past you,
leaving you in the dust kicked up by their canes.
Jennifer is trying to start a "boycott the stairs up,
support the downs only" campaign...not working so far.

Our batteries now recharged, we are heading out to
Siena and the hill-towns of Tuscany. Hopefully they
don't believe in steps.

Ciao!

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 5, 6, and 7

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.

So, Michael and I left Brugges after learning that riding a tandam biczcle is not quite as romantic and relaxing as the pictures and movies make it seem...

J: AAAAHHHH!! Where are zou going???
M: Trzing to turn left!!!! LEEEFT!!! CAAAARRRRR!!!!
J: I was trzing to avoid the babz in the stroller
M: Screw the babz, we have to live at least three more weeks
J: CAAAAAR!!!!
M: I think we are getting the hang of this...lean right. THE OTHER RIGHT!!!! CAAARRR!!!
J: I have the worst weggie right now. Where the heck are the brakes, anzwaz?
...and so on..

On to Germanz. We started in Bacharach, which is a super cute medieval town underneath one of the manz castles along the Rhzne Vallez. The town was so cute! So much tudor! Niffer loves Tudor. Look at that! Cute! Cute! Niffer sees too manz cute buildings!

We decided it would be more romantic and adventurous to hike to the Castle Eltz (that z is correct this time). We had this vision of us hiking through the woods, seeing an occasional unicorn and such, but apparentlz the unicorns onlz come out when it is sunnz. We got lots of rain. But the castle-hunting adventure was still fun, and we found the perfect castle! Castle Eltz is bz far our favorite site we have ever seen. We took so manz pictures! What we found to be most impressive about the castle is that it is still lived in! And still bz the same familz as 800 zears ago! Can zou imagine that? Now, that is what I would call familz heritage! How can I get on their adoption list? 800 zears makes for a hell of a lot of generations to live there!

Next comes Rothenburg, which is a walled citz (also medieval). It is so well preserved and is beautiful. Niffer feels like exploding because she has seen too manz prettz places. Bring on the uglz ones! She needs a break!

An interesting storz about Rothenburg... The citz was not invaded for the first 500 zears. Thez were successful at surviving the seiges for manz reasons, one of which is that everz citiyen had to keep a zears worth of grain, and the rich had to keep a storage of salt (to be shared with the poor during an attack). Anzwaz, 500 zears go bz and thez are still successful at withstanding attacks. Then the 30 zears war came (between the Catholics and Protestants), where the citz was attacked. This time, though, it was successfullz defended for onlz 3 dazs, until the gatekeeper was dumb enough to bring a torch down to the gun powder room. Wall go BOOM! After killing hundreds of the attackers, and onlz losing two of their own (the man carrzing the torch, and his friend who was standing too close), thez surrendered. Can we saz "Doh"?

Since our bed and breakfast was owned bz the same cute man as the grocerz store below, we stocked up on picnic supplies and plan on eating in the castle gardens. After that, we are off to catch a night train into Cinque Terre, in the Italian Riveria.

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 3 and 4

First, let me start by saying that the only people I got responses from regarding the redlight district were either my family or my friends. Not Michael's. Not sure what that says about me. lol. But, to all of you who responded (you know who you are)... Too much information! I'll need a couple more years of counseling now. =)

Michael and I stopped by to see the windmills in Holland (we had to pick up wooden clogs for our treasure hunt list)... I was going to talk about them some more, and the killer slugs we saw along the way, but the thoughts have all passed since we arrived into Brugges. We love Brugges!

Brugges is full of Hondo dogs! If you don't know what a Hondo dog is, just trust me. It's got lots of horses with carriages. Clop clop clop. It's got canals! And beautiful old buildings. Even the pharmacies are super-cute! And best of all..... chocolate!!!! OH MY GOD! Neither Michael or I are big chocolate fans, but we're in heaven here. We've decided that Brugges is by far our favorite town we've ever visited.

Mom... YOU HAVE TO COME HERE!!! If you're concerned about the language barrier... have no fear. We have learned that when you ask someone Do you speak English? And their response is Only a little what they *really* mean is I missed a couple words in the back of Webster's, but I know how to speak English better than you. Plus I have a sexy accent.

Ok, well I suppose that's it for today. We're off to Germany tomorrow!

Adventures of Niffer and Mincent: Days 1a, 1b and 2

Hello from Amsterdam!

I appologize for the mass email, but hey... consider yourselves the lucky few that I'm taking the time to share my adventures with! Congrats!

Our trip to Europe (for those of you who do not know... Michael and I are in Europe for an entire month!) started off pretty well. I had to sit next to a Michigan student all the way from Baltimore to London. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Michigan. However, I do have a better appreciation for the patience that Michael shows during the rare nights that I periodically kick (apparently every 30 seconds), because the girl would twitch every minute or so, and everytime she did, her Michigan sweatshirt would rub up against my elbow. 60 twitches per minute multiply by 60 minutes per hour, mulitply by 6 hours... Don't worry, I *think* we both made it off the airplane alive. =)

Arriving in Amsterdam, we were surprised at how much we liked it here. The only reason we're here really is because that's where the cheap flights went to. But it's actually a really really nice city. The architecture is beautiful! All the buildings are old, but they're all different from each other. The rooflines are all different shapes and styles, and often different heights. I LOVE IT!!! And the city has lots of canals... super-purty!

The best part? THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!!! It's really a miracle that as Americans, we can survive without such things!

Anyway, with it being Amsterdam and all, our trip started off on a naughty note. Amsterdam is cute like Venice. Cute, but with a kinky side. ;-) Pot is legal here, as is prostitution. They have a redlight district scattered with window shops (yes, you can see the merchandise-girls in the window), and toy stores. lol... glad to have gotten all that out of the way. :-)

Other sites we saw today... Anne (yes, with an E) Frank's house. I gotta say... it's much bigger than I thought. And not what I imagined. In fact, I went around looking for a building that looked more appropriate. :-) No, actually, it was very moving.

We also saw a neat Catholic church that was hidden in the attic of a house because for a while it was Catholicism was not permitted. Whoa! Now that's a different twist.

Tonight we went to a comedy show... great times. They did a pretty good job of making fun of of the Dutch as well as Americans. If you're ever in Amsterdam, let me know... I'll give you the name of the place. It was hilarious!

Ok, now I'm off to sleep... I think we get to see windmills tomorrow! Yay!