Omaha Beach

yesterday we made it to omaha beach. this is the one where the majority of americans died on dday, ie saving private ryan, that should give you a visual. although the actual beach looks nothing like that now. all of the german defences have been removed. there is the american cemetary on top of the hill where all of the americans who were killed while fighting in normandy(the particular region of france) are buried. there are of course several memorials. The whole thing was very surreal and left us kind of speechless. on the trip i had read a book full of accounts of men who were there that day and ... well im not sure what else there is to say. its things like this and auschwitz that remind us how much bigger life is than our day to day worries.

Today we are doing the eiffel tower and notre dame etc and then in the rest of the days we will be in brussels, amsterdam and finally dublin. take care

Bon Jour!
we are right now in paris. barcelona was very interesting. when we got there 24hrs of train later, they were out of hostels...we had cancelled our reservations a day before because we thought we werent gonna get there, but then we decided cause we had heard a lot about it...anyways we ended up having to get two rooms at a hotel for 50 bucks a person...ouch but better than on the street. we got some good spanish food, tapas, basically potatoes, but they were good, plus some other food. then we had about 24 hrs to blitzkrieg the city, like with ,any other cities before getting on our last night train to paris. barcelona was nice but like many places, i feel we didnt spend enough time to fully appreciate it.

so now we are in paris, back on schedule, and it is raining very hard. hopefully the weather will get better. tomorrow we are hopefully going to the dday beaches. this euro,keyboqrd is annoying me noz so im done typing;

goodbye;

quick update

just a quick update to let you all know that we are still alive and our current plans.

we blitzkrieged rome, doing just about everything i could think of in not quite two days. it was very good to be back after two years, so many great memories. We can tell you all about it later but here are some highlights; in addition to all of the normal tourist sights we had some great italian food, wine and gelato, I saw a friend from when i studied there(Flavio), and we found an irish pub where we watched the brewers one night.

Then we went to florence and stayed at camping michelangelo...thats another post in itself.

Yesterday we hiked cinque terre...again like the castle google it and look at the pictures...amazing!

Now we have to change our plans a bit. we found out that what we originally wanted to do is not quite feasable so we have to cut nice out in order to salvage barcelona. so today and tomorrow we will be on trains from about noon till 2pm...5 different trains in all and then spend the better part of 2 days in barcelona before heading to paris. we will try to blog more soon.

Our hearts and prayers are with the victims of the bridge collapse and their families!
Ciao!

20 hours of train riding, 1 hour of hiking, and one broken camera landed us in Roma!

As you can tell by the title we have been on a train for basically all of yesterday. We got on the wrong train in the morning which turned out to be a 3 hour delay in our Alps hiking adventure. By the time we finally made it to Zurich we had 10 minutes to make reservations for the night train and get on a train to go to Goschenen to hike. Its a good thing the Alps were amazing! The cities and villages were built into the mountains and the trains went through tunnel after tunnel right through the mountains. The lakes looked like blue toothpaste and there were green trees everywhere. You can also tell by the title that I broke my camera which makes me pretty upset. I dropped it on a rock and now it won't close so i don't know if i can post more pictures, I do know i can't take anymore pictures so it is up to Swan to capture our trip from here on out.

We are now in Rome at a laundromat picking up our dirty clothes and checking into our hostel. We had some pizza already and will be heading out into the heat of the day to see all that is Rome. We have our own personal tour guide in Ben so it should be great. Talk to you all later.

Many thanks to the Stoetzel family!

To Emma, Vincent, and Daniel, Merci Merci! To the rest of you the Stoetzel family made our time in Strasbourg very comfortable as well as fun and relaxing. We got into Strasbourg around 6 oclock i believe and we had no clue who we were looking for, but thanks to this blog site Emma and Vincent were able to flag us down. We got back to Daniel's home which was very beautiful and had happy hour filled with conversation about the family as well as differences in our cultures. Everyone spoke very good English and it was fairly easy for us to communicate with one another. We tried some desperado beer, which is similar to Tequiza here, beer with tequila. After happy hour, we (minus Daniel) went to a French Restaraunt which Swan labeled as a French Applebees. We tried traditional french food and our marvelous hosts paid for our meal which was entirely unnecessary. After dinner Andrew needed to go home due to still feeling under the weather. Mark, Ben, Vincent and myself went to a bar for a beer........sorry i don't remember the names! Emma came back to get us and bring us home to sleep.

Our next day was filled with relaxation, sitting around the pool and playing pingpong for almost the whole day. It was exactly what we needed, as 2 of us had been sick and I was feeling a bit run down as well. Emma's friend Lollita (sorry if i mispelled that) came over as well. At 8 it was time for a home cooked french meal which lasted 3 hours and took 4 bottles of wine, i'm not much of a wino but these were delicious. The meal consisted of: tabouli, a tomato and cucumber salad, and sausages. Then we had french fries (pommes), and steak. Then the red wine came out with the traditional french cheeses and bagettes. Ben is obsessed with bagettes and has already eaten about 3 whole loaves. The meal ended with cantelope, and needless to say I was stuffed. But more than the food, the conversation was very fun and we really got a taste of French culture and in my opinion one of the best days of our trip thus far. After dinner we went to a karaokee bar (minus Andrew) where Mark sang Beat it, and Ben bellted out It's my life. We stayed out until 3 am drinking and dancing. That would have been fine but we were to be up at 7:30 to head out of town.

Once again we thank you Stoetzel's, you are more than welcome to come visit us in Wisconsin!!

Prague and Neuschwanstein Castle amazingly beautiful, night trains not so much

Before i get into the beauty of the city of prague and the neuschwanstein castle, i must discuss the long and interesting night trains. The first night train from krakow to prague consisted of the four of us stuffed in a compartment, where we schemed for any potention pickpocketing threats-basically locking all of our bags, and adam acting all tough, guarding the door-and how we were going to get some sleep. These non-reclining seats were very uncomfortable and it gave us some trouble sleeping-even me, rip vanwinkel. There was even supposed to be room for four more people in this compartment, but we contended on grabbing the first compartment available, closing the blinds, and pretending to fall asleep which pretty much told people ``we dont want you hear`` in a friendly, non-threatening way. The second night train, which was from Prague to Munich, was almost as uncomfortable-but there were reclining seats, so it helped to sleep a little more. There was some old German lady who yelled at us for being too loud at 8pm and we werent even being loud, and we also got moved once as well. So, night trains, not number 1 on our list right now, but power naps and our ambitious hearts help keep us going.

Along with Krakow, Prague is another very lively, beautiful city-in my opinion, the most beautiful city we have been to-with its beautiful buildings, facades, and bridges, it is hard to beat the city scenary of Prague. The first night, we hung out at the old towne square-like Krakow-and just chilled, drank some beers, and enjoyed the great atmosphere of the square. Following that, we headed to the Prague Castle-which i believe is the biggest castle in middle europe?-and got an awesome night view from the top, in which you can see the whole city. breathtaking. The next day, we had a free, 4 hour Prague tour-woohoo-which was nice because of the buildings we saw and the cost of the tour. You will hopefully get to see pictures of St. Charles Bridge-arguably the most famous bridge of europe-and hundreds of beautiful building, churches, paintings, facades-gorgeous. Next, following our nighttrain from prague to munich, we decided to head to neuschwanstein castle right away.

Neuschwanstein, which is replicated in disney world and i believe the castle in cinderella, was made for the view it displayed-which was freaking breathtaking. In the background were the northern part of the alps, and i a lot of beautiful trees and lakes. We also got tours of that castle and another older castle which definately made more gruling train travel time worth it.

We are in Munich right now, tired and possibly sick, but that wont stop us. We are heading to the Hofbrauhaus tonight for some german beers and awesome huge pretzels, and then tomorrow, make our way to strausbourg, france, which we will visit some of my relatives-that will be a nice visit. Until then, hope these blogs are a good and interesting read and we look forward to all your comments. aufwiedersehen.

mark

Anna, Remembering Aushwitz, and Our First Night Train Experience

Hello Hello- First of all, the speedo is black and it is very tight-kind of uncomfortable, but definately worth the purchase. But most importantly, Krakow in my opinion, has been quite wonderful-more particuarly because of the great atmosphere and beautiful women. I met this girl named Anna who gave us great service, some nice activities to attend to, but most importantly, set a spark in the ´flame´.

Moving on to Aushwitz, this place set a different tone, a different mood within all of us. Although the history of this death/concentration camp-the biggest camp in the war-was interesting and intriguing, it definately gave us a chance to contemplate what those people went through in such a magnifying way. You could just feel the difference in the air you breathed, the steps you walked on, the death cells you saw, the gas chambers and the exhibits you experienced. It is hard to put into words what you felt and how to rate the experience you had because it was so surreal and yet so impacting. We definately appreciate what we saw and it will always be a trigger to come back to whenever we feel alone, or complaining, or we feel like we lost out, because we will not be as down as those people were in the camps.

We next hit the night train to Prague, which was a long and interesting experience, but yet a great adventure nonetheless. This, and our tour of Prague which we will have today, will be told when we reach Munich tomorrow. Cheers to all those who are finding excitement and joy and hope in our adventure. thanks

Mark Who?
The Flame