Europe photos are here!

After over 3 weeks of being home, I've finally finished up my Europe photosite. So here is the address: www.klove9.photosite.com.
There are only about 1/2 my photos posted. I just chose the ones I like, to share. Plus there are some bonus pics!...other photography I've done.
Hope you all enjoy them!

And here are my "faves" and "least faves" of Europe, to accompany Lara's (see thelarablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/i-cant-stop-blogging.html):
Prettiest city: Paris, France.......
Runner up: Venice, Italy
Best food: Paris, France
Runner up: Greece
Worst food: Spain
Friendliest people: Netherlands
Hottest/muggiest city: Prague, Czech Republic
Runner up: Milan, Italy
Best scenery: Switzerland & Santorini (Greece)..............
Runner up: Portugal
Best shopping: Spain & Italy
Least helpful people: Spain
Runner up: Italy
Most helpful people: Switzerland
Runner up: Milan, Italy. It's the only city where twice total strangers came up to us on the street and asked if we needed help.
Most culture shock: Tangier, Morocco......
Favorite city/country I'd want to live in: Lausanne, Switzerland
Runner up: St. Remy, France (or really anywhere in the South of France, except Nice)
...which brings me to...Most ghetto city: Nice, France (the name does not say it all)
Runner up: Gemert, Netherlands.........ha! just kidding!
Most good looking/well dressed men: Paris, France
Best dressed women: also Paris, France...they know their fashion!
Most overrated: Prague & Florence (Italy)
Runner up: St. Tropez, France
Most underrated: Siena (Italy), Stockholm (Sweden), Lisbon (Portugal)
Least favorite places: Spain, Nice, Florence, Tangier
Place I most want to go back to on a sunny day: Copenhagen....
......it was cloudy and cold the entire time we were there
Favorite overall (food, scenery, language, etc.): France
Runner up: Switzerland (I know I've told many of you that Switzerland was my fave, but France's food was better).

-Kate

Ciao, Adios, Tot Ziens, Au Revoir...

It's my last evening in Europe. I am writing this blog from Stockholm, the city of endless light (ok, it's not really called that, just made it up).
I'm sad to leave my unrealistically ideal life of travel and go back to the real world, but this can't go on forever. I've spent all my savings and more. I'll write one last entry when I get home and have more time...stay tuned.
Stockholm, by the way, has this amazing sunlight that seems like it's 10 times brighter than anywhere else i've ever been, which now is many places. Even the water sparkles more and the sky seems bluer. Hope to talk to and see everyone soon!
Love, Kate

Get ready for nonstop stories and about 800 photos of Europe cause I'll be back in the States by Saturday night! CRAZY!!!! We're in Copenhagen now, our 2nd to last city. It's very reminiscent of Amsterdam... lots of canals and bikes. Will try to write more before I leave the continent...
-Kate

a few pictures from germany

Once again, I have to sing the praises of staying with friends with free internet and fast computers! Thanks Stephan and Verena! here's some pictures at last.

sorry if these captions don't line up right.


here's Kate and Lara in a biergarten in Rothenburg...


and here's a pretty fairy-tale type street in Bacharach...


Amy, since you're our most loyal blog-reader, below right - is totally what we're getting you for a souvenir... pink leiderhosen. Zoom in on these babies, they are SO hot.


and way below, last picture, is Kate sitting outside our castle hostel at dusk with a gorgeous view of the Rhine.

Hup Holland!

the question of the day is, did we get to see the world cup match in Frankfurt?! yes, yes, of course we got to see it.

Did we get tickets? uh, no. But we watched it from a huge screen on the riverbanks with literally 60,000 other Dutch fans which was even better. The whole city was decked out in bright orange. I didn't have anything orange except my REI towel so I wore it as a turban. What?


I have to say, it's funny how some guys will find any excuse to dress in drag. What does a curly blonde wig have anything to do with football? But my favorite choice of headgear was the chicken hat! Yep.


unfortunately the match itself was REALLY lame, both teams played all defense and no offense so it ended with a 0-0. come on!! but on the bright side, that meant no rioting afterwards.

Note to Jessica: all the cute Dutch guys you've been looking for are apparently at football matches. Maybe your next job should be working for a football stadium. : ) Hope you had fun with RW!
-Lara

Yay for "wunderbar" and fussball!

"Wunderbar" is such a funny word to me! Don't know why. I've heard people a few times saying it since we've been in Germany. It's been crazy humid and warm here! I hate feeling sticky. Ick :P But I'm pleasantly surprised by Germany...very pretty, good food. And there was the most awesome thunderstorm ever the other night. We were in Rothenburg (that's pronounced Row-ten-burg) eating dinner outside and all of a sudden the wind picked up and dark clouds moved in and lightning started flashing. The lightning was going every 30-60 seconds for about an hour. The most phenomenal lightning I've ever seen! (Shelley, you would have loved it)
Ohmygosh, the FUNNIEST thing happened the other day: we were in this little train station in Steinach just switching platforms to get on another train. Next to their stairs they had little conveyor belts to put your luggage on so you didn't have to carry it on the stairs. Lara put hers on 1st and walked down the stairs. I tried to put mine on but it was too wide (didn't think to turn it on its side) so when I let go of it, it rolled all the way down and flew off past Lara at the bottom. It was really loud so people who saw it were laughing and Lara and I were cracking up as I walked down the stairs. It's the hardest I've laughed on this trip so far! :D
When we were in Bacharach, Lara got reprimanded by this German waitress after she asked for butter for the bread. The lady was like "You already told me you wanted a salad and drink. Now you want butter too?!" Yikes! We were scared to ask for the check after that.
Btw, just found out that "fussbal" is the German word for football. So THAT'S why the table game is called that...I geeeeet it! Sorry to those of you who already knew that and are like "yah, DUH kate!"
We were in Wurzburg lastnight after Germany won their world cup match...CRAZY!!! here are some words to describe the scene: loud, flags, painted cars, wigs, mohawks, facepaint, scarfs, hats, cheering, singing, drinking. All items mentioned were in German colors (black, red, and yellow) of course. Tonight we're going to sell our souls to try and get into the Holland vs Argentina game in Frankfurt. Ha! Keep your fingers crossed!
-Kate

6 Countries in 3 days

I'm posting an identical blog on my site, sorry - lazy. - Lara

It's true. Train journeys included, we've passed through 6 countries in the last 72 hours -Switzerland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Netherlands. A little accelleration now that we have about 15 days left.

The last 3 nights we have spent 1 night in a city and moved on to the next place in the morning, which means lots of train travel and seeing the city in 6 hours or less. All great places, but Kate and I are BEAT.

First we saw Strasbourg on the French/German border, then we rented bikes to quickly zip around Bruges in Belgium (mmm, belgian chocolate), then I did a half-day of museums in Antwerp today, and met up with Kate and her friend Jessica in Holland tonight who has offered us a place to crash between countries twice now. Yay friends. Yay free internet. And especially Yay homecooked meal!!

Tomorrow we're making a run for the German border and I'm still a little worried that we may not be able to get in or out of the country all week despite their normally-reliable trains. Earlier today Kate went to ask about getting train tickets between Frankfurt to Prague and the train agent practically laughed in her face. Hmm. Getting to Prague may require some creative form of transportation. Not sure what we're going to do yet. But I suppose in the worst case scenario, if we're trapped in Belgium or Holland for a few days, that's not so bad. Plenty of bars to watch the World Cup from.

Wish us luck!

Top of the Jungfraujoch

We made it to the top today! YAY!!!
I was so surprised it wasn't very cold at all, I didn't even need my jacket at times.


We had a couple nice big beers after the long, exhausting day (ok, we're really lazy, it was just an all-day train ride, but you get really breathless walking around at the top), and we had some AMAZING homemade hashbrowns with fried egg and cheese on top for dinner. YUMMM. (Amy, don't worry, I ate enough for 2 on behalf of you because I knew you'd love these so much.)

More photos de Lara

Hi,
since our photos below were a big hit, and we have a good internet connection for the next 12 hours, I'm posting a couple more photos.

One thing I have to mention, is I lost about 40 photos because one of my flash cards I used seems to be damaged now. I can't figure it out though, because half of the pictures on the card are fine, and they looked fine the first time I uploaded them to the blog. They're on the card but they say "can't access". On a semi-bright note, the only photos lost were of Cannes and of the Chagall Museum in Nice and I already posted three of those on my blog, so those three can be salvaged. And I have postcards of all the Chagall stuff.


Yeah, it was a tad bit windy on the top of the duomo in San Marco's square in Venice when we were there. Nice umbrella, huh? And nice hair. It rained and was cold our first day in Venice but at least that makes for fewer tourists on the streets and the second day was sunny.


ditto but with Kate.

Switzerland + a couple Greece photos

Kate driving our ATV (above)


and Kate waving from the volcano hike (above)

Hi, Kate here. So I decided to take the time and write a blog since I just read a comment on my site that it's getting boring (ahem!) probably since I haven't been adding that much. Or maybe I'm just a boring blogger. I'm sure the person will tell me which she meant :)
So we're in Gimmelwald and it's gorgeous! very Heidi-esque! i expect to see Julie Andrews come skipping down the hill singing...er, oops, that's Austria. It's so picturesque here and there are cute little garden gnomes and cow memorabilia all over the place.
So at dinner tonight I ate my first cheese fondue ever! I know, my FIRST, can you believe it?? It was super yummy! I guess I never had it b/c I was expecting cheap orange cheese like they pour on your nachos at ballparks. but this was a swiss cheese with spices and white wine and cherry schnapps (ok, that last ingredient is a little random but it tasted good all mixed up). Then at the end of dinner, a gigantic bug (lara's says it was small, but it felt huge) bounced off my ear, and like a dork, i strained my neck muscle when i jerked my head away from it. but my neck is ok now, thanks for asking.
I've decided for those of you who haven't heard, I'm moving to Lausanne, Switzerland. That is, after I learn a little French. And find a job. And save up money. So maybe not for like 3 years.
That's all for now! Off to bed...

photos from Lara's camera

Here's some new photos in random order from the last month of our trip... and I do mean RANDOM!!! click over to Lara's page too for a few more pictures just added.



Kate riding a gnome in a boat in Lausanne, Switzerland next to Lake Geneva. go kate!



and I took a little ride in Kit which actually came with the music from Knight Rider... what I was cracking up about was that Kate and I just wanted to take pictures on these things, but the men behind me in the picture sneaked up behind us put a 1 Franc coin in the machine to make it go, and when we were embarassed and tried to get off, they were like "No, No, No" and wouldn't let us leave until it was over.



some pretty straw umbrellas on Perisa Beach in Santorini, Greece...



Kate demonstrating the tiny bathroom shower we had in Greece (it was in the corner next to the toilet. no curtain. no door. no step up. the water just drained to the same floor that you stand on to use the sink or toilet. Lovely!)


Kate with red horse sculpture outside the Uffizi Gallery...



Lara with a pretty statue in Milan...


Kate working the cuteness with a mosaic mural in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre...

a few photos

Click over to Lara's blog (linked on the left) for a few photos of Cinque Terre, Greece and Rome I've uploaded so far. More to come soon hopefully...

Siena vs. Florence

I've read in guidebooks that Siena and Florence once were (and still are?) big rival cities. Of the two, I love Siena and don't care much for Florence. Which surprises me. Between the two, I had expected it to be the other way around. Siena had so much character...a beautiful old city with hilly, medieval-like streets. Florence is kinda shabby and not as pretty, in my opinion.
The coolest thing happened in Siena. I was walking around Il Campo, the famous square, which is lined with lots of restaurants and shops. As I was perusing the menus for dinner ideas, a man sitting at a table said to me "are you from Chico?" My first thought was "how in the world would he know I lived in Chico?!" But of course it was obvious b/c I was wearing my pink Lulu's shirt (Lulu's, for those of you who don't know, is a super cute clothing store in Chico). I started chatting with him and the other man and woman he was with. Turns out, he was Celestino, the owner and namesake of the pizza restaurant in Chico which just so happens to be my all time favorite pizza anywhere! Which of course I told him. What a small world!
The funniest thing happened later...after we finished eating that night, I ordered a coffee. The waiter brought me a tiny cappucino mug, half full. So I asked him for some milk. He stared incredulously at me for about five seconds and then exclaimed "milk?!" Then when he brought it, it was hot! So the lesson learned that night, Italians don't put milk in their cappucinos.
Tomorrow we leave for Rome, which I've been dying to see for the last 10 years or so! Super excited!
-Kate

Cinque Terre dreams

WOW WOW WOW! The Cinque Terre (on the Italian Riviera) is truely a mediteranean paradise! There are 5 villages that make up the area (cinque=5). We are staying in the furthest east of the five, Riomaggiore. It is, in my opinion, the most beautiful. We have a kickass room overlooking the village and the sea, although the hike up the many steep stairs to get to it are not fun with luggage. This is definitely not a wheelchair friendly area. But living here would be a great workout for your legs. We did a five hour hike today along a trail that connects the villages. Some of it was smooth and flat and paved, but the last two hours was rocky and up/down. i don't live i've ever sweat so much in my life, b/c the majority of the hike was out in the sun. there were spectacular views of the ocean all along the way!
yesterday just after we arrived, we went kayaking and lara's pants got TOTALLY drenched. the water was gorgeous, warm and a dark teal color, which you could see through in some places to the sea floor. the water really wasn't THAT deep where we were but i found it a little unnerving that they didn't give us lifejackets. we watched the sunset which was spectacular from a little restaurant terrace, to the sound of Pink Floyd in the background. There are HEAPS of Americans here, wonder if it's b/c it's Memorial Day weekend in the US.
Ciao,
Kate

photos!

some photos of Paris & Holland:

lara & kate at the top of the Arc de Triomphe:


Kate and Dad at the Cartier store on Champs Elysees:



Jorlan and Jeanine's 2 cats both had babies when we were visiting, only 1 week old!

Wow, I'm in Venice!

I can't believe I'm actually here...the reality has not yet hit me. Venice is like a fantasy destination for me. It's gorgeous here! Tomorrow is the first full day we get to explore the city, which is actually smaller and less crowded than I expected. Maybe we were just on side streets tonight, but Lara and I were like "where IS everyone????"
It actually rained tonight yet it's still warm, and very humid!
Yesterday I had an interesting public bathroom experience in St. Tropez, France: it was one of those coin operated self-washing/sanitizing restrooms. I went in and there was just a stainless steel trough in the floor that led to a hole. Luckily I was wearing a skirt so I didn't pee on my pants b/c I had to squat. And thank goodness there was a bar on the wall for me to hold onto. As if that weren't enough, I was paranoid the entire time that the wash cycle was going to start with me in there. You see, the water comes out of the ceiling and while I was in there it was kinda drippy still. I don't think the wash cycle comes on until after you open the door to leave anyways, but I was still paranoid.
We ate yummy fresh pesto pasta tonight and a side of grilled veggies. And I had amazing tiramisu, which I've been waiting to eat once I got to Italy.
Well, gotta run. Times up on the internet.
-Kate

Gay Paris

I LOVE PARIS!!!! that's all i have to say really. but i'll say more.
The architecture here is gorgeous!! We've had all overcast days but it's not cold.
The food is amazing, I could get fat here! Have to keep this entry short, my time is almost up, and the french keyboard is extremely frustrating to use.
-kate

Portugal Photos

These are about a week late but finally had the time to get some photos up...

Kate and I brought 2 little puppets to take pictures of in different cities, but we´re mostly taking them with our disposable cameras so the background´s not blurry.






One of the funniest things we have ever seen, was a woman walking her pet bunny in Lisbon.




...we thought the graffiti on the walls in Lisbon was so cool and much more creative than most places, lots of gigantic stickers!

This is the Monument of Discoveries, probably Lisbon´s most popular tourist site, and really amazing. Each of the figures is about 15 feet tall.

The houses in Lisbon are particularly adorable - lots of them are made from bright blue and white tiles, or are painted bright colors.

On the train ride to southern Portugal, we saw tons of fields of yellow and purple wildflowers.

The beaches near Salema had a really rugged rocky coastline, so beautiful, and the rocks below were covered in bright green moss.

The Rock

we went over to tangier yesterday for the day. blech :P that´s all i can say. i´m sure the rest of morocco is lovely but tangier was gross...old and rundown. and smelly. and i caught a cold. and can you believe it rained?? we went with a guide, which i was very thankful for because, after we got there, i realized i woundn´t want to be there on my own. i know, i know, every guidebook told me tangier would suck, the ¨tiajuana¨ of morocco. so now i know for myself. but i did get some beautiful silver bangles and some spices. i would like to go back someday and see the ¨real¨morocco, like marakesh.
we leave sat. for barcelona and then after a few days there, we fly up to the netherlands. i´m looking forward to leaving the south of europe, not that i don´t love it, just want some new scenery. and i can´t wait to use my dutch. i keep accidentally speaking dutch to spanish and porguguese people when i´m trying to communicate with them.
ps- look at all the cool things a spanish keyboard can do: ñ, ¿, ª,Ç, €
-kate

Quick Download

This is really weird, the blog site wouldn´t let me add photos to our blogs, so I´ll just post a few with quick descriptions here:

In Sevilla, it´s so cute, there´s nuns everywhere!

In the Placa de España, there are tons of little tiled shrines to different cities or colonies in Spain, I think referencing different battles or military achievements.

One of the most memorable Spanish experiences was a Flamenco show, surprisingly not too tacky or touristy and very traditional.

The Cathedral of Sevilla, where Christopher Columbus is buried, was beautiful and according to Kate, the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe (hmmm):

Bullfighting: Interesting but cruel

So as you might already know, we are in Seville, Spain after quite an adventure trying to get here. May 1st is Labor Day in Europe (or at least Portugal) so buses that normally run, didn´t. So we ended up having to stay in a hotel in Huelva, Spain (just over the Portugal/Spain border) after wandering the streets there at midnight trying to figure out how to best get ourselves to Seville.
The city is beautiful! Muy bonita! We went and saw the cathedral (the largest gothic cathedral in Europe, according to Rick Steves). Wow! It was breathtaking!
Then I meandered my way over to Seville´s famous bullring. It was very cool, although the tour was a little lacking. Got a bunch of great pics (actually took an entire 36 roll of Seville today). It´s interesting but sad: there are 6 bulls in each bullfight (every Sunday from april to september, I think). The bull meat goes to market after the fights. A matador was killed by a bull in the early 1920´s so out of superstition, they killed the mother of the bull who killed the matador. And her head is mounted on the wall in the museum (along with the heads of other famous bulls).
Oh, something unique in Spain: they serve bull´s tail in restaurants...yum...ya right...think I´ll skip that.
-Kate

Sightseeing Sevilla

Hola, amigos- I´m back in España now and Kate´s seeing it for the first time. We had a rough time coming here from Salema (click over to my personal blog site, link on the left below) and frankly I´m going to spend most our one day in Sevilla taking a long nap and taking a shower, but Kate´s off seeing the famous bull ring here, and this morning we took a little walk around the plazas and the famous Gothic Cathedral in Sevilla, where Christopher Colon is buried. Bonus points if anyone can explain to me how his name got translated to COLUMBUS in English, that just doesn´t seem right.

We had a GREAT time in Salema, a beautiful, sleepy town on the Portugese coast. One day we sat on the beach and lazed around the apartment, and the other day, we took a hike along the cliffs above the beach, and then lazed around the apartment. I paid 12 € to have all my laundry washed, dried, and ironed for me as a little splurge. Two days worth of groceries at the mini-mercado were about 14 € for both of us.

One hysterical moment was on one of the public beaches, we hadn´t even put our towels down before we noticed a nude older man enthusiastically building sand castles with his children, wading in the ocean, bending over to pick up things, etc. His wife and kids were fully clothed, but I guess he had nothing to hide. It was too funny. I expected some topless women maybe, but not fathers in the buff.

Hopefully we´ll get some pictures posted later this week - of the beautiful coast, I mean.

Overall Portugal was great, Lisbon and Salema were beautiful, the people are very kind and low key, but I wish Portugal and Spain would get their train system organized to go more easily between the two, that was the most frustrating thing -- train agents would shrug if we asked them for any schedules for trains going to Spain - and as Kate pointed out, it didn´t seem as though they can´t look up the times, it seemed like they won´t.

Today for lunch I tried some Spanish specialties, Gaspacho - a very garlicy cold tomato soup, and Paella, a safron rice with shrimp and muscles (nope, didn´t eat the muscles) and now I´m off for a siesta before I get cranky. We might go see a Flamenco show tonight, and then we´re off to the coast again, southern Spain tomorrow, and probably Morocco on Thursday!

Luego, Lara

Bom Dia de Portugal

Hi everyone,
I picked up Kate at the airport on Wednesday and we jetted around Lisbon a little by taxi and bus, trying to find our hostel the first day. Lisbon's Barrio Alto neighborhood rests on steep hills, like San Francisco.

People told us the weather was prematurely warm for Spring, so we really enjoyed walking the city in flip flops, and photographing the tons of pretty outdoor monuments in placas (plazas).

Lisbon strikes me as a bit more conscious of itself as a big city than most, and it's very classy. The metro is filled with pretty murals, mostly made out of colored tiles, a characteristic which the city prides itself for. Many buildings throughout the old city quarters have entirely tiled walls, and they always have laundry hanging outside the windows. Very charming!

The assumption that most people told me, that the Portugese don't mind you speaking Spanish since it's so similar, is way off-base. I got a lot of glares for saying "Gracias" on accident, so now we stick to "Obrigada" but for most other communication, I try a little Spanglish, or the good ol' sign language / charade game which frankly is the most effective method in every country.

This morning Kate and I headed for Salema, a coastal town very off-the-beaten-path, but not too far off, since it is recommended by our guidebook guru, Rick Steves. It was a complicated system of small trains and one €2 bus ride to get here but nevertheless, completely worth it. Portugal's coast is gorgeous and this fishing village is the perfect balance of slow-paced mood, yet a few lively cafes and bars.

When we got here, the sun was just setting over the beach, maybe 20 yards from our door. We are renting an apartment as a rare splurge, so we both marvelled immediately at the size of our bathroom, and our patio. Private bathrooms are so exciting when you're on a budget, it's hilarious. I also was shocked that we have satellite TV, like mutliple channels? what's that? I almost forgot about TV.

We've sampled so far the specialties of porto and sangria, as well as Portugal's unique ginjinha, a dark brown, cherry flavored liquor that we both agreed tastes like a very, very strong shot of Dr. Pepper.

Menus are still 90% bacon, pork, and ham like Spain, but equally popular is any seafood, and specifically octopus in this region. I opted for a salad with shredded bacon and some toast with goat cheese for dinner tonight which was excellent.

As usual, dealing with slow computers, but check back soon for photos!
- Lara Sue

Aiports galore

At the present moment, I am sitting in London airport, waiting for my flight to Lisbon which doesn't leave for about another hour. This is my 3rd airport in the last 12 hours...in order, the airports being: San Francisco, Montreal (Canada), and now London. Next stop, Lisbon airport. But luckily that is the last one on this long journey to reach Lara. Boy, will I be glad to finally see her.
I've been awake for awake for about 20 hours...and I'm going to be awake and out & about for the next 10 (or so) more. phew...that's what i call a long day. but it's worth it.
more later...

Moving Day

good golly, miss molly! what a mess...

Today I moved my stuff (well, the big stuff at least + some boxes, etc.) into storage in preparation
to leave this joint (this NICE joint) and get on with my travels in Europe. This is it, this is the real
deal. I've taken the major steps, those being:
1) quit my job
2) bought a rail pass that cost more $$ than I have had in my checking account on a regular basis
3) started to move out of my apartment
Tomorrow is easter AND my 2nd to last sunday in the United States in the following
months to come.
btw, isn't it funny how your room goes from decently clean to chaotically messy when
you're trying to pack stuff up.
-Kate

Dreams

I've been having dreams about Europe recently. Not just daydreams, actual dreams while I'm sleeping. It's happened twice now. But they aren't just nice little dreams about seeing sights and stuff, they are weird dreams. I don't remember the first very well but in lastnights dream, I got on this weird short plane that was more like a bus. I had to climb through a tube-like door to get inside. And then there were no empty seats. So they sent me to this Japanese plane, but when I got to it, they were in the process of pulling it apart and then putting it back together. They told me there was no room for me on that plane either. So I got really frustrated and upset and was like "but I'm supposed to meet Lara and now our schedule is going to be all messed up!"
Nicole thinks I have traveler's anxiety. I think she's right.

Last day

Today was my last day at work. crazy. it only feels like i've been planning this trip for a few months, rather than a year. i can't believe the time has already come to quit my job. the day went well. i ate lots of sweets (my friendly coworkers had a "dessert potluck" for me). i think they are secretly trying to fatten me up. it was kind of a bittersweet end...i am very excited to be done b/c of what lays ahead, but i was also a little sad to finally leave.
lara is in germany rightnow. i've heard from her a few times via email already - she had to wait in the airport in frankfurt for 6 1/2 hours, waiting for chris' delayed flight. bummer. but it sounds like she is having a good time (of course) already.
as for me, now that i'm done with work, the real fun begins...packing up my apartment! but hey, if it means i'm going to be enjoying europe in 3 weeks, i guess i can't complain.
-kate

Our Itinerary:
April 3-25 Lara will be in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Turkey, and Spain
April 25 I fly from San Fran to London
April 26 I meet Lara in Lisbon (stay in Portugal till April 30)
May 1-3 Seville, Spain
May 4 Day trip to Morocco (Tangier)
May 5-8 More Spain...Barcelona, Costa Brava
May 10-14 Netherlands (hoi Willem, Jes, en Familie Peeters!)
May 14- meet Dad in Gemert
May 15-18 Paris (w/Dad!)
May 19-23 South of France & Monaco
May 24-June 3 Italy (Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre, Siena, Florence, Rome)
June 4-10 Greece (Athens & Santorini)
June 11-14 Switzerland (Geneva/Lausanne & Gimmelwald...think "Heidi")
June 15 Strasbourg, France
June 16 Brugges, Belgium
June 17 Lara in Antwerp, Belgium; me in Gemert
June 18-22 Germany (Bacharach, Rhine river trip, Romantic Road, Frankfurt)
June 23-25 Prague, Czech Republic
June 27-28 Copenhagen, Denmark
June 29-30 Stockholm, Sweden
July 1 Kate flies home from London to San Fran
July 2 Lara flies home from Frankfurt to Denver

THE END!

Lara in 2 and me in 24

So Larasue is leaving for Europe in just two short days, Monday, April 3rd (btw, happy anniversary to mom and dad that day). She's going to be blissfully enjoying Europe with her boy Chris and her Russian friend Luba while I pack up my apartment (well, my portion of it anyways) and get all ready to fly from San Fran to London (via Canada, eh) on April 25th.
I'm so excited. I've got everything I need...passport, check. Rolling backback...check. Eurail pass, check.
The only downer to my planning, moneywise that is, is that Uncle Sam hit me hard this year. Bummer. But I guess that's what credit cards are for.
-Kate