We Are Still Alive

Sorry everyone for the lack of posts lately. It's been a challenge to find internet in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy as we've been camping off the beaten track mostly in smaller centres. We've also been moving around quite a bit since arriving in Frankfurt on May 1.

We met my(Scott's) parents in Frankfurt on May 2, the starting point for our journey south into Italy together. We spent the first night in traditional fashion, going to an old German tavern where we ate a huge meal of sauerkraut,sausage, potatoes and apple wine, after starting out with an appetizer of handcheese with music(a strong piece of cheese covered in vinegar and onions, which actually was quite tasty). We had been to this place a couple years ago when we were passing through frankfurt and felt quite ill after eating all the sour dishes, but this time realized that potatoes are the key to keeping the meal balanced. A much better experience this time.

The next day, my dad and I picked up our rental car which turned out to be a sweet vehicle(a small mercedes A180) because we missed our rental pickup the previous day and the car we were supposed to receive was gone. One of the key features of our new car was a gps navigation system, which remained unused for the first couple days until we could figure out how to change the language on it to English from German. This was a major breakthrough, however and has saved us many hours of stress. It is incredible now that we've gotten it working. All you have to do is type in the destination and the system takes over and tells you where to turn and when. You can even choose whether the voice speaking to you is a man or woman.

Ok, that's all I can say for now as our time's up at this internet place. By the way we're in Cremona, Italy, the world capital for violin making, but more on that and the everything else later. And hopefully some pictures too.