090909

After leaving SD on Tuesday the 8th at 8am, we arrived in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday the 9th at 8am.  Ginny slept most of the flight, in between her comas, she dealt with getting crushed at UNO.  Kole met us at the airport and took us to his place using the extremely clean train which was only about 10 minutes and a couple blocks from his house. After getting charged $5 Swiss Franks equivalent to $5 dollars, for a 24oz water bottle, we realized this place would be tough on the wallet, or let me correct myself, tough on a very MANLY fanny pack. Indeed, a nap was in order.  Our first stop after leaving Kole’s was a place to eat, of course. It was lovely, but we found that although the exchange rate is 1 to 1 everything costs twice as much. Kole took us to see St. Pierre’s Cathedral, the big fountain in Lake Geneva, and the flower clock.

091009 Going to Madrid

 We slept in and Ginny made reservations at a hostel in Rome and booked a flight from Pisa to Munich for next week.  Our plane for Madrid departed at 3:15 and we both passed out for most of that flight.  When we got to Madrid we had to run the gambit of public transportation which was fairly easy after we figured out that we needed to take a subway, a bus, ask a few people for help, and then the subway again.  When we finally got to Puerta Del Sol we walked right past our hostel, which was no surprise being that the sign advertising our hostel was the size of a small menu.  Surrounding it however were huge brightly lit signs, most welcoming.  This part of the city is referenced as the Time Square of Madrid.  As it turned out, we had to stay at the sister hostel, because that dive had been completely sold out, so they upgraded us to a room with its own shower!  During the evening, we walked around Madrid,  watched a breathtaking sunset, had some tapas for dinner, consisting of albondigas(meatballs with rice) and vino tinto (red wine) and hit the sack.


***WARNING*** you may want to skip the next bit of info and scroll down to the following dated entry if you ever want to look at Dan the same again.  Hehehehe
Before heading to Europe, we made lists, checked them off, made new lists, and researched.  We consulted REI for the best backpack, day pack, travel bag, foot gear, pants, you name it, even down to the best underwear.  After reading, interviewing, and thorough research, we bought Dan $50 dollars worth of REI Under Armour, which should prove to help keep his body cool and chaffing to a minimum. Money well spent!  In fact, they even advertise that one pair of underwear can last 30 days by hand washing and a quick air dry.  Disgusting!  The night before we left, we decided that Dan's pack was too heavy and needed to be downsized. The 12 pairs of underwear that had originally been packed were cut down, saving them for Ecuador.  Now there were about eight or so, consisting of at least 6 pair of good humidity controlled skivies.  This made a huge difference in the pack, because the first thing Dan said the next day was, "Man, I packed this good!"
Well, as you can now guess, my lovely husband somehow realized this morning that in his attempts to lighten his load, he packed ALL his underwear in a suitcase that we will not see until October 8th, leaving him with ONE pair of REI Under Armour for 30 days!
Dan has already washed them and true to REI's word, they dried overnight!  Here's to 30 days with the same pair of undies!

091109

Jet lag still in effect. Got up at 2pm. 12 and a half hours of sleep.   Apparently the jet lag had not subsided.  We both hope that’s the end. We stopped by a market, which was really more like a deli/wine bar/food co-op. where the rest of Madrid was enjoying tapas beer and wine, so  we had a plate of olives and una copa de sangria! The rest of the day was spent at the magnificent Palacio Real de Madrid, and La Catedral.  For dinner, we had our first plate of seafood paella along with more vino tinto. Oops, part of the ceiling just landed on the bed!  As for the mighty Under Armour, three days, and going strong!