Praha

We are now in Prague, our last stop on the trip, so this is probably our last post on the blog.
We very sadly said goodbye to Greece yesterday morning. We really loved Greece, and hope to get back there some day. If you have never been there, we highly recommend it. It's just a great place to travel--everyone is friendly and speaks perfect English, the food is incredible, and the sights are out of this world. Of course, sunny days and the constant temperature of 70 degrees that we enjoyed never hurts either.
So yesterday we woke up in Athens, had lunch in Rome (layover), and dinner in Prague. Air travel is really something. On that note, props to Alitalia--they serve chocolate ice cream cones on their flights...c'mon Delta, step up!
Anyway, we got to Prague yesterday evening. Our hotel here is incredibly nice and we took much-needed showers. Then we hit the streets and walked around the town a little bit. We ended up eating at a Columbian restaurant of all things but it was good.
Today we took a four-hour walking tour of the city with a really good tour guide and learned about the history of the city and about the important sites. (Really a sad history since they've only been truly free since 1989.)
The city is gorgeous with art and sculptures in every nook and cranny, tons of public parks, and countless buildings dating back hundreds of years ago.
Late this afternoon, we explored a Czech shopping mall and grocery store. Very interesting to say the least. Salmon flavored chips anyone?
Now, we are about to shower and get ready for a nice dinner. Tomorrow will be another day of walking around the city, and then the next day we finally come home. We've had a blast, but I think we're ready to sleep in our own beds and use wash cloths again, and have unlimited access to ice. Someone needs to introduce Europe to the ice cube--they'd make a fortune.
We may post again, but probably not. Hope to see everyone soon on the other side of the pond!

Mykonos

We have made it to Mykonos, an island in the Greek island chain called the Cyclades. Athens was wonderful--much better than we even expected it to be. We had a full day yesterday. We spent half the day at the Greek Nat'l Archeological Museuem which was of course a unmatched collection of statues, freezes, urns, etc. from as far back as 5000 years ago. Then we grabbed gyros and headed for the acropolis and toured the Parthenon.
But without a doubt the highlight of the day, and of the entire trip so far, was last night. Athens is hosting a summer series of concerts and performances at an ancient amphitheater at the acropolis called the Theater of Herodes Atticus (see picture). So we decided to give that a try and boy was it an experience! A Russian orchestra performed, playing both Greek and Russian pieces. So there we were listening to great music under the stars, with the lit-up Parthenon to our backs, in a theater built in AD 161! Needless to say, it was unforgettable.
This morning we got up at the crack of dawn and caught the ferry to Mykonos. This place as the classic Greek island look: all the buildings look like sugar cubes with blue trim. It's really unique. We plan to spend the next two days laying around the beach, relaxing and recharging our batteries for the home stretch of the trip.
Well, it's off to bed for now.

PS Sorry about all the weird comments to these posts. Apparently telemarketing companies have discovered blogs and are now bombarding them with their "comments." Oh well...

Athens

Greetings from Athens, Greece! We arrived here this afternoon after spending last night at a beachfront hotel not far from the Rome airport. This was in a very non-international-touristy town. We were feeling pretty adverturous after spending a week in Italy so we went to a very local family-owned restaurant for dinner. I really think we were among the first Americans to ever darken their door. The owner/waiter/(maybe cook?) did not speak a word of English...not even "yes." But we managed to get great meals of homemade pasta as a farewell to Italy.
This morning, with great sadness, we returned our rental car, a Fiat Panda to which we had become quite attached, and flew to Athens. (If they ever sell Fiats in the States, specifically the Panda, I highly recommend it!)
Our hotel here is nice, nothing really fancy, but the location is perfect and we have a balcony that looks straight out at the Parthenon. This picture was not taken by us, it's from a Google search, but it's not far off from what we see from our blacony!
After checking in, we immediately went out for a walk around the city. The weather was perfect: about 70 degrees, sunny, and breezy. We just looked at all the touristy shops and then had a very Greek dinner: salads loaded with great feta cheese, mousaka, pork-ka-bobs, and watermellon.
Our first impression of Athens (although we've only seen about 20 blocks of it) is very positive. This area if very clean and there are lots of nice stores, restaurants, and hotels. It looks like they really did a lot of recent renovations for the Olympics and much of this part of the city is spotless. Several of the smaller streets are pedestian-only and believe it or not, they are made of squares of tumbled marble*! We wish we had countertops that nice!
Right now, it's 1:30am here in Greece so it's Monday afternoon in the States. I'm at a 24-hour internet cafe actually listening to the broadcast of the Ole Miss football game. (Alexis is asleep in hotel about 5 minutes away.) The internet is an incredible thing.
Tomorrow we are going to all the Athens sights--the Parthenon, Syntagma Square, and the National Museum which has artifacts dating back to 1000's of years B.C. Should be fun.
That's it for now...hope to post again soon, probably from the island of Mykonos.

* This is a term I know only because Alexis is an interior designer.

The Amalfi Coast

Well, sorry it's taken us so long to post, but internet access in Tuscany was pretty non-existant. Anyway...
Tuscany was unreal, better than we ever hoped it would be. It's no wonder that people have been going to war over that land for centuries. I can't even describe the beauty...but I'll try. Rolling hills, wineries with fields of grapes, strange trees that look like green sticks coming out of the ground. While we were there, we went to Montepulciano, Pienza, Montelcino, and Sienna, tasting wines, balsamic vinegars, and cheeses everywhere we went. Each of these towns are on the tops of hills and many have the ancient walls surrounding them that used to exist to keep out neighboring armies. Our first night we stayed at the Residenza d'Arte which was a really funky artsy farmhouse with a great view and a really nice owner who helped us plan our time in the area. The second night was in an equally nice, but very different farm house in southern Tuscany--the Quercia Rossa. It took a looooong and wiiiiinding road to get there, but when we did (at 9:00), the owners welcomed us with an absolute feast. We sat at a long dining room table by ourselves and had a five-course meal.
After that, we drove south to Naples, handled Naples' rush hour traffic, and boarded a ferry to Capri. Sadly, this was a disappointing part of the trip. Our hotel was great, but Capri did not live up to its reputation in our opinion.
So, the next day, we ferried back to Naples, had some great local pizza (in the city where it was invented), and drove to the Amalfi Coast, where we are now.
This area is really unique. It's a collection of towns that hug a giant cliff looking out on the ocean. They're all connected by a series of stairs...or you can risk driving the winding roads. Our hotel here is nice too, and for the first time in three nights, we have air conditioning! That means sleeping without hearing the sounds of goats (like in Capri) or hunting (Tuscany).
Tomorrow we are going to Pompeii and the next day, it's off to Greece.
We miss everyone! It's been great, but we also look forward to coming back and seeing everyone....we'll post again soon, probably from Athens!

Firenze

Well, we made it to Florence today via a train ride shared with a very nice Italian family. This city is unbelievable. Almost every street is one narrow lane, lined with wonderful pastry and coffee shops, nice restaurants with outdoor seating, and cool stores. And of course all of these things are in the shadows of ancient churches and statues carved by renaissance masters. The best thing is that there are almost no cars on the streets. Everyone just walks down the middle of the street and gets back on the sidewalk if a car does come.
Speaking of that, our biggest challenge will come Wednesday when we actually rent a car and drive through Tuscany and down the coast of Italy toward Naples and the Amalfi Coast. We have seen first hand how crazy the drivers are in Italy so who knows if we will live to tell the story.
Tomorrow we go to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David, among other works. I realize I've left out a lot of things, including our trip to the Vatican where we climbed a bajillion steps to the top of St. Peter's cupola for a great view of Rome and a couple of blisters to boot, but it's getting late. It's off to bed now.
We just heard this morning about New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast and we've been thinking about it all day. I hope everthing is okay (relatively) and that everyone's families and friends are safe.

PS Happy late birthday to Suzi and to Jonathan Mattox...sorry we missed them!
PPS Shout out to Stacy!

Bienvenudo a Roma!

Hello everyone. We made it to Rome safe and sound after a very long flight and a quick layover in Zurich which included a sample of Swiss chocolate. We arrived, checked into our hotel, showered, and immediately went out for lunch/dinner (it was about 3:30). Then we went on a walking tour of the city which hit all of the hot spots including the colosseum, the pantheon, the ancient city, Trevi fountain, etc. Then we slept. And slept. For 12 hours.
Today, we basically spent the entire day walking around Rome, seeing more sites, eating more (great) food, shopping, and drinking (strong) espresso. We have probably walked 20 miles already. The highlights of the day were (1) Alexis getting a quarter of a hard boiled egg on part of her pizza, and (2) the owner of our hotel thinking I speak Italian because of my pronunciation of "va bene."
Tomorrow we're going to Vatican City if the crowds aren't insane.
PS. Look at what this computer can do: è, é, à. Even: ù and ç!!!

Heeeeeeere's Lu-dog!

Alexis and I have been in North Carolina for the past week spending as much time as possible with Ryan and Fabiola's new son Luigi, who was born on July 14. So far he has completed quite a number of bodily functions on his Aunt Alexis (including peeing in her face), but somehow managed to look cute in the process.