Iif you aren't bored with our trip yet...

I posted another time on Kkimberlee's blog.

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Hey, go ahead and check out Kimberlee's blog for other updates....and leave your comments please.


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Thanks!

.....New York, New York

This is a blog we wrote while we were in New York. We haven't had an opportunity to post it. Also, I am adding our pictures to blogs we have written, and some more to the one we haven't written.

Jared in Lavender
Kimberlee is Black

Unfortunately I have to start the blog tonight. It would be better if I had Kim's thoughts to get me started. Well, my dear, that is what marriage is all about….give a little, take a little. That's ok, I think I can come up with something. New York City was less exciting today and it all started when we ignored Frank Sinatra's advice. We didn't wake up in the city that doesn't sleep. Rather, we slept in, in the city that doesn't sleep. We set our alarm for 7:45 so we could be ready for the 9:00 shuttle and then woke up very briefly at 7:45 and bolted out of bed at 9:05. Oh well, it did cost us one leg of the tour bus schedule, but sleeping in felt really good. As it was, we got to do the “uptown” tour, and see a few cool things. Cool things like, Julliard and the bridge, and the Apollo…and the beautiful central park…did jared mention that we had to wait for almost an hour for our shuttle! It was really hot and really humid and really hard to find a street vendor that sold Gyros. We looked and looked and asked and asked again. One dude thought I was looking to exchange money when I asked “Hey man, you know any street vendors that sell Gyros (pronounced Euros)? Another said that there was no such thing.

Well, if you have never been to NYC you don’t realize just how many street vendors there are, but you also get to realize that there might be about 6 million of them but there are only about 4 varieties. Hot Dog guys, Peanut guys, Artwork guys and “genuine D & G handbag” guys. OK, there are a few others- sunglass guys, and magazine and candy guys, but for the most part you just see the same guys over and over again. But If you think there are a whole bunch of Gyro guys….well I have got news for you. My buddy Will and I went to NYC last April and looked all over for a gyro guy, we finally found a couple selling them down by Wall Street. Kim and I looked all over, and never did find one. I was defeated, and sad, and hot, and tired, and to top it off we ate a joint called the Belly Deli that by all appearances looked fantastic……and it was awful. Not to mention, expensive….we had to pay for our food by the pound, and the best stuff we ate, was the naked juice (Blue, of course) and the frozen yogurt…So there we were feeling full but unsatisfied, looking for the subway station to go back to the hotel to pick up our bags. All of a sudden, when I had given up on gyros completely, Kim says to me “Hey honey, there is a gyro guy right there.” What? Are you kiddin’ me? 20 steps away from the subway is the guy I have been looking for all day long. “But babe, I am stuffed” I say. “Just get one, you can eat it later” says my wife, sensing my anxiety. Let me clarify just a bit, it was not his anxiety that I was worried about; it was mine. Think about this for a minute, jared has been talking about “when we go to NY ---gyros this, and gyros, that” for months! Months! So, if I don’t find him a gyro…from a street vendor, not a restaurant, I am going to hear him complain and belly ache about this for the next 14 days! And, what if we don’t find one when we come back to new york in a few weeks….how long will I be the victim of his desire for a “new York, street vendor gyro???” Do you sense MY anxiety here????!!!!

So, I walk up to the gyro guy and say, “a gyro please.” He speaks fluently, just not English. I guess I should get used to this since I will wake up tomorrow in Germany. But I am pretty sure he wasn’t speaking German either. Anyway, he fixes me up a gyro, and it smells delicious, and in his native tongue, he says, “@#^*$” I say, “yes” as he squirts some tasty white sauce on my gyro. Then he says “@^%&**#,” I say “yes” not realizing that what he was trying to say was “would you like some of the hottest sauce that has ever touched the lips of a human?” I will attest to the spicy sauce comment, it was blazing!

In April, I was offered two sauces, cucumber sauce and BBQ sauce, I accepted both and realized a combination of flavors that made me long to visit Greece. In July, already full but not willing to go without that experience again, I unwittingly had the Gyro guy RUIN my Gyro with a sauce that made my lips scream for mercy. Well, there were parts of the Gyro that were delicious and reminiscent of my first NYC gyro experience, but after about half of it my lips were on fire, I had finished my water, and could not conceive of eating more of this gyro that I wasn’t hungry for in the first place. So, here we are at JFK, waiting for our Singapore Airlines flight to Frankfurt, and hoping we get some sleep on the plane. When we land it will be 11:15AM in Germany and 3:15AM in Utah. As we type, our gate has filled with people of all colors, shapes, and sizes….we are looking at a full flight. Oh, and I had quite an experience in the “international” airport bathroom….I walked in to see a completely nude women (we are still in america people…)washing her parts….then, when I went back in, she was clothed (thank heaven!) and brushing her teeth….Wow! We will be hungry, and really tired, and unable to go to bed, because if we give into jet lag it will ruin our trip. Lets hope I understand how to order condiments for my Sauer Kraut and Bratwurst. I’m just hoping to know how to ask for a bathroom….

Love you all!

P.S. I would not have belly-ached for 14 more days. I would have only belly ached for a few days, and then found something else to complain about.

A Midnight Adventure...

Okay, so let me start out by saying that we are UNABLE to post pictures or video's right now. We are having to pay to use a computer that accesses the internet, and there is no ability to download onto a public computer. So, as soon as we are able to access the internet using our own computer, I will post pictures of our trip. Sorry, for all of you waiting for visuals.

So, I left off the last blog as we headed out of Germany towards Italy. The plan was originally, to drive an hour or so, and then stop before entering Austria...Jared and I are driving completely by the directions of our GPS...now, anyone who knows a little about GPS systems knows that they are not always accurate, and many times, you can't figure out if you are really going where you think you're going. Particularly when all of the city and street names are in German/Italian. We headed out of Munich, and a couple hours later, we were very tired and decided to get a hotel. I kept punching in a variety of cities along our route, and each time the results were strange...We tried to match up our results with a map, and it was absolutely pointless...We pulled off on an exit, to a little seemingly deserted, town. We tried to find the city on our AAA map....We plugged in all kinds of information into the GPS, only to find very strange results. We did this for about 45 minutes. Then, we headed back towards the freeway and noticed a big "map" posted on the sidewalk. We went to look. Jared came back, completely frustrated, and said, "I can't figure it out." He went and looked again and came back completely shocked! We were already half way into Austria...and without our "Austrian permit" for driving. We were kind of worried, but decided to keep going. We passed through several tolls, and no one said a word. We were happy to finally arrive in Italy, where a pass is unnecessary.

We drove for a long time in Italy, and all we saw were mountains and industrial cities...no hotels, not a single one! Jared was exhausted, and I was trying to stay awake and support him (Oh, I can't drive here in Europe - I am not on the rental car, I am way too cautious, and the BIGGEST reason.....I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A STICK SHIFT!!!!! You can all laugh all you want, but I still can't drive one....) Anyways, he kept driving and I kept trying to talk to him. Let me say this; Thank heavens for Apple and the IPOD and our wonderful car with a jack for it. If I had to drive overnight in Italy while listening to a variety of "hits" from the 80's and 90's (American hits, such as a Cher song I have never heard, something by a guy who sounded a lot like Nat King Cole and then followed up with "My Sherona") I would have crashed for sure. And believe me, I have offered to teach my otherwise quite capable wife to drive a stick, but she won't hear of it. At least not here in Europe.

Eventually, we just couldn't drive anymore, so we pulled off into a "good sized" town...or so we thought. Our GPS was supposed to be taking us to a hotel, and we never did find the hotel. The gas stations were closed, and they don't take credit. The town was completely deserted, although, it reminded me of every picture and postcard I've seen of Italian villages. We drove for about an hour (seemed like more) through the streets hoping to maybe find an LDS church to crash in...figured if we showed our temple recommends, maybe the Stake President would be kind to us??!?!? We even tried to GPS a church, but we don't know Italian, and my Spanish wasn't getting us any results!

After driving for a while, we decided to GPS Venice and head back towards the freeway. After about an hour of driving, we ended up in the mountains of wherever we were...driving on very, very small roads, with not a car in sight. I'm sure that the mountains were beautiful, however, it was 2 am, and then 3 am, and then 4 am, and then 5 am before we finally "saw" the mountains....yes folks, we probably drove through the Alps without ever seeing them.....We seriously drove the entire night and by the time we saw another freeway, it was almost 6:30 am...so, we did the next best thing (besides sleeping at the church) and pulled into a gas station to crash...and we slept. Jared in the drivers seat, and I slept in the back. We slept for around 4 hours....it was so, so crazy! (And so completely un-refreshing, yet amazingly, sort of, umm really a cool thing to do).

We got back on the road and continued towards Venice. We wanted to hit a supermarket along the way, so, we turned to our trusty GPS unit, and stopped at the next big city. We drove through streets barely big enough for our car, we nearly eliminated several bicycles and pedestrians. We followed the GPS until it kindly said, "lost satellite reception" and then, we were on our own. We navigated to a little bakery, and then to a bigger post office. Then, we left and decided not to stop again until we arrived in Venice......

OK, now for a few more of my tidbits about our fantastic voyage. First let me say that our GPS unit had led us to where we needed to be without issues until that night. It has also proven to be a wonderful companion since then. I would never want to drive Europe without it. That being said, wow that night seemed to last forever. By the time we pulled off at the Middle Eastern owned gas station for 40 winks I was literally fini (as they say in Italy). Funny thing is, as exhausted as I was then, I was even more tired after our first day in Venice. I was delirious by the time we went camping last night. Since then, sleep has been much better, even camping on a HARD piece of dirt for half the night and opting for the front seat of the car for the last 4 hours was a lot better than driving over night and sleeping in the light of day at a gas station. I am writing this two days after Kim wrote hers, so if the time line seems messed up, it is. Tonight we stay in the lap of luxury, I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

Life is Beautiful and I cannot wait till Cinque Terre. (google that and salivate at the beauty). Amazing. Until later....it is 3:30 AM in Italy, so it is bed time. (literally our average bed time has been almost exactly 3AM so far). Choi Bella........

Once again, I'll post pictures and video as soon as possible......

Camping in Italy with a bunch of kids

Night one was in Germany looking for a hotel in Munich after 1AM. The cost for a stripped down room was $101Euro or about $165 USD. So after this experience we decided that we needed to find cheaper options. Especially since we only slept there for 4.5 hours. (We were lucky enough to get the room without a shared shower and toilette..and breakfast was included and fantastic. Very German, with meats, cheeses, breads, and cold musli!...okay, so I am not really a fan of musli, but Jared seemed to like it.)

After a very short sleep, we drove into down town Munich and signed up for a white water rafting tour down the River Isar. (So, we signed up and then realized we needed to find some place to park our car....after driving around for an hour, only to realize that parking is nil is Munich, it is totally a biking city....we finally found "paid" parking for 22 E. for the day!) We met up with our American tour guide, Mike, and a really nice Phillipino girl from the Netherlands named Abigail. After meeting at the train stations, we headed to Bad Tolz. The train ride was beautiful and reminded Jared of the scenery from Band of Brothers. Once we arrive in Bad Tolz, we tried to get on the bus only to find out that the tickets we were given were the wrong ones and we needed to walk, quickly, through the city, over a bridge, along the river to the meeting place for the rafting tour. Our group had three rafts, with half of our boat speaking German and the other half speaking English...(lucky for us, our boat was the sober one of the three). The family speaking German was actually from Switzerland on holiday. The English speaking included us, Abigail, and a couple from New York. Our tour guide spoke reasonably good Enlish, enough to say "left, right, and paddle hard."

We were taken up the river, by bus, and then proceeded down the river....I was suppose to yell something that sounded very similar to "Asalan" when we were going to be hit by a tree......but, I couldn't remember the word so it was pretty much pointless. What she was supposed to yell was Austalarm. Translated "Tree alarm". Instead when we got close to overhanging branches she started laughing hysterically and couldnt yell anything in either language. Bear with us if we bore you with some of the details. This is effectively our journal of the entire trip so hopefully you will read on without falling asleep. The rafting trip was great for two main reasons, the scenery was spectacular and the river Isar is one of the most beautiful rivers I have ever seen. What Jared really enjoyed as far as scenery, was the naked women with very large boobies, as well as very large everything else....and the nake men, legs spread eagle and all! Wow! What a sight.... : - £ If she would have let me finish I was going to say that Actually the river was the most beautiful I have ever seen and the "other scenery" was quite spectacular as well. LEt me explain what I have learned about Germans. The less confident one should be about his/her body the more confident they are. Teh attractive people all had their clothes on. However the men who chose to wear clothes on the river shore were mostly in speedos and there is something inherently wrong about that. Unless you are going fot a swimming medal in the olympics you should never wear a speedo. Can I hear an AMEN?

After the rafting trip we experienced a small town in Germany. It was Sunday and several people were wering their traditional clothing including men in Lederhosen and women in their Tracht Dirndl. We also stopped for some traditional Italina Gelato in Bad Tolz. Regardless of what country you might find yourself in, Gelato is always a good idea.

Once we made it back to Munich, we decided to have our first German restaurant meal. This was intimidating. How do you order food you have never eaten in a language you can't speak? We GPSed our first choice, and walked up to the door to look at the menu. Nothing in English and not even as much as a kraut or a bratwurst listed. Oh and the prices.....ughh. SO, we found a place called weinerwurld. Can you belive it? Weiner world! We had to find this place. We drove right to a place at the address where weinerwurld was supposed to be, and found instead a little bar and grill that was a wursthaus. I know what that means. So we went there.

We were alone in the place, it was very authentic feeling, and kind of in the outskirts of town. The guy at the bar spoke very limited English. He did have one copy of his menu in English though. YEAH. We ordered and wow. Wait I understated that WOW. Amazing, authentic German cuisine. Kim loved hers and I loved mine, and we had some extra tasy cheese and bread as an appetizer. If I had our notes here I would tell you what we got. Oh well, I will post that later. Our food was absolutely the best. I had some kind of egg noodle with a turkey and mushroom sauces...it was so, so tasty. Jared enjoyed something with pickles, and potatoes, and roast....it was also very tasty. We even tried pronouncing the names of our food, I was not successful, but, I have a hard time pronouncing anyword that is more than 10 letters!

After eating, we decided to make our way towards Venice. We planned to drive for an hour or so and stop someplace to sleep.....

We are going to post this blog, and continue on another blog.

Here we are in Venice

OK, So internet isnt nearly as available here in Europe as we were led to believe. When it is available it is about 6Euros for 40 minutes. We have a myriad of things to say, and other blogs we have written but been unable to post, so we will post them as soon as we have internet available with our own computer. Suffice it to say, we are seeing everything, and travelling much like vagabonds...(how many of you sleep in your car on vacation???? Or, say, at a gas station along the highway? Or, think that you are in Germany, when you happen to be almost all the way through Austria...without an Austrian vehicle permit??????!!!!) We are pretty sure that we climbed and descended over the Alps...however, it was too dark to tell and we are simply being guided by our trusty Garmin GPS.....how were we suppose to know that once we left the freeway in Italy, that there was no going back?

Good news is, we are safe and sound. And we are extremely hungry in a town full of Pizzarias. We are exhausted, as we have yet to get more than 4 hours of sleep in any one stretch.

Later, we will tell you about our white water rafting experience, yummy German food, and how ridiculously weak the dollar is in Europe....as it is, we have used our alloted time on this internet connection....

We love you all.
Thanks for the posts, we will try to update you again soon!

Mary Poppins???? Yes, you read it right!

Kimberlee's is in Black
Jared's is in Lavender

Well, besides having our first experience on the subway here in New York, we also managed to get lost....several times.....But, we are safely back in our hotel room. We wandered around Times Square for the entire day, well, what was left of it after our long nap!

So how the heck is one to know which direction to take on the subway? I mean, Brooklyn street numbers are different than Manhattan street numbers and we were coming from Queens to begin with. We only made 2 mistakes that only cost us about 30 minutes, but 30 minutes underground in a muggy, urine drenched subway stop seems longer than 30 minutes....say anywhere else. Oh well, by the end of the night we were seasoned vets at subway riding and we had a little fun watching the ummm, shall I say, variety of people that were riding along with us.

My fabulous husband (We will see if the superlatives like fabulous, wonderful and fantastic keep up after 14 days of me without any distractions. My guess is that about the time we are hitting Venice the the new adjectives od choice might be more like annoying, confused and frustrating) said that I could see ANY show I wanted to see while we were here......unfortunately for me, that was probably the most difficult choice I will have to make on this trip....I love musicals, and there were so many good ones playing, and even more new ones that I haven't seen yet! I decided to eliminate all the shows I have already seen, but I still wanted to go to one that I was fairly familiar with the music! I decided I really wanted to see Mary Poppins. (OK, here is where I get to show a little of my fabulousness that will most certainly dry up by trip's end. You see, I am sitting there at the Marquee looking at all of the 50% off shows available for tonight. There were several that had been on Kim's short list still available. But I told my dear wife that any show she wanted was fine with me and I meant it. So we decided to pay full price for Mary Poppins. MARY POPPINS? A children's show? A Disney movie turned musical show? It seemed like a bad choice to me at the time, but I kept my mouth shut and smiled as we walked the 4 blocks from the Marquee to the box office. When we got there I told my beautiful bride that I didn't want crappy seats like we had at Spamalot in Seattle, so we splurged and got amazing seats, 7th row center. Now, I was still unconvinced, but she was happy and I figured that scoring points early might help me out when I do something stupid in Europe.....say crash into a pedestrian or go wrong way to traffic on the Autobahn.) Now, although I have NEVER actually seen the movie, I do know the music. (I have never seen the movie either, I mean...Mary Poppins, come on.) I have to say, Mary Poppins is up there on my list of favorites now...right next to Wicked! It was such an amazing show. The scenery was out of this world! I could not believe how intricate and huge the set was! WOW! And, the cast was fantastic.....it was absolutely the most amazing show...All the new songs are completely in line with the originals, and the new arrangements of the original songs are even better than before!

Well, Kim was exhausted from our Red eye flight and getting roughly 3 hours of sleep last night, so that's all you get from her tonight, if only you could be so lucky with me. But alas, I go on. You know, I have always been a guy who feels like he is right at least 98% of the time. So it is hard for me to be proven wrong by my wife who has 6 years less experience on this planet than I do. But....Oops she did it again. Mary Poppins was flipping great. A real eye opener for me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love old Disney stuff, but when there are so many other, bigger and seemingly better options (particularly at half price) why do something you can see on DVD with better actors? Well, I will tell you why, because the chimney sweep was amazing and Mary was captivating in her performance. I don't know diddly squat about Broadway but I know great entertainment when I see it, and I saw it tonight. The children who played the Banks kids were great and Mr. and Mrs. Banks were fantastic as well. Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious is a great word and a great song (although I am pretty sure it would be better by Dream Theater) and that dang Poppins made me long for the Nanny I never had. What a great night in a great theater (which was obviously built when the average height of an American theater goer was about 5'2", the leg room...hah, made a coach class flight look spacious, I love being 5'6"), with a great woman.

As for food, the hotel food was fantastic.....the NY food, well, it wasn't nearly as good. We stopped in what seemed like a great little bakery, serving a variety of food....and nothing we ate tasted very good.....Alas, we will try again tomorrow....and it is Jared's choice on the food....I'll let you know what I think about street vendor gyro's and Gray's Papaya hot dogs.......

Tomorrow will bring a lot of touring and learning from our double decker bus guides what makes NYC so NYC. We will also enjoy a street vendor Gyro and a Gray's Papaya hot dog and I will be giving full food reviews as well. Until then.....We wish you were here....well, some of you....well, actually it is much more romantic without any of you here. So go on your own dang vacation. Blog ya tomorrow.