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......