Ouray Yoga™

A quirky anomaly about this part of the world, specifically France and Italy is their love of cafés. At virtually every gas station is a coffee bar, and specific to Italy, a real bar. The ease of grabbing an espresso is appriciated on this day as John begins to crash hard from jet lag. I offered to drive but he gets very antsy when not driving long stretches of road plus he is enjoying our Audi at sea level.       The roads of Italy are definitely showing the wear of the economy (except the toll roads) and the 'wealth' of state is becoming more apparent. Churches are charging for entrance and suspect street vendors with thick migrant accents hit-you-up for selfie sticks and umbrellas.  Every where there are small construction areas that are dubiously protected from the public. I realized that since Italy, and all of Europe, are on a socialized medical system protections and OSHA are less needed, or at least are an afterthought. Part of the reason driving is more ag...

After my bodacious airport bungle, we land in Rome and proceed to the hotel via a private service, we wind down what appears to be narrow back alleys with 6 floor buildings looming at every corner. In a sudden, intentional manner he pulls over next to a non-descript building and starts unloading our bags. I suss him out and think: "he's old, I could take him...please tell me our hotel is tucked-in somewhere." He rounds a corner with one of our rolling bags and walks us upstairs to the front desk. The sign for the hotel was tiny and I would have never found it had I just hired a taxi. Throughout Europe I have found tiny business signs and pocket countertops make-up many chic hotels. Our's thankfully had a bistro attached that served dinner well past 23:00.                    Pantheon at Night                       Vicctoria           ...

                              My greatest fear this whole trip has been the execution around France and Italy. By this leg, we were going to ditch our suitcases and go in backpack, eurotrash style. However, since John is joining us in Italy and at that point we will rent a car (vs taking trains), we decided to take our suitcases with us, only having a short amount of traveling by public transportation.                I have had some serious realizations on this trip, one of which is how well I was taken care of by my father and by my husband when I travelled with them. I have managed to get around both Germany and England just fine. I think the ability to speak the language (or at least fake it) was a huge help. If nothing else, they don't know what words I don't know. I even received a compliment on my driving by a relative, who was an Audi prototype ...