Anyway we last left you in Naples, which is in the South of Italy. The day after our last blog, we visited Pompeii, which was a bustling Roman town. One day in 72 AD Mt Vesuvius, sitting just behind town, blew, causing the whole place to be buried in about six meters (20 feet) of volcanic ash in a matter of minutes. No one had time to flee, and a lot of the people died right where they sat. The town was basically buried as a time capsule.
It is a bit freaky to be in Pompeii because a lot of the remnants of daily life are still apparent - political slogans painted on people's houses, graffiti, etc. A lot of the artifacts were excavated by the authorities so the town is essentially a bare shell now.
Freakiest of all, the ash managed to preserve the bodies of the victims in such a way that the archaeologists were able to create plaster casts of them and show the positions the people were in when they died. This person was particularly poignant, as she or he appears to be praying or begging.
From Naples, we headed north to Venice, which is so exorbitantly expensive we were only able to stay one day. But it really is all it's cracked up to be. The canals are cool, and there are gondolas everywhere (the most amusing of them including a stereotype Italian singer man, with accordion, serenading a gondola full of Japanese tourists).
We basically spent the day wandering the streets, which was cool - basically, just being in Venice is the reason to go.
The main square in Venice (Piazza San Marco) is known for pigeons.
After that we spent a very. long. day. getting to Innsbruck, Austria. The train left Venice at about 10 AM and was supposed to get in at about 4.30 PM, but due to the overwhelming wonderfulness of the Italian train system, we didn't get there until 10:30, and then we were stupid enough to get on the wrong bus, so we didn't get in until midnight.
But we have been riding the trains all over Europe. They vary widely in quality. The Austrian trains are by far the best ones we have encountered so far. They are very comfortable.
Long hours on trains means we've been reading a lot. That's not to say that we don't get bored.
That's our Platypus water bag on my head.Anyway, Innsbruck is famous for having hosted the 1968 and 1972 winter Olympics. It's a pretty town.
We went to visit the recently refurbished Olympic ski jump, which makes you wonder who would be crazy enough to start way up there and then jump off the ramp. We went to the top of the ramp and mentally went through the motions of jumping off. Pretty scary stuff. This is the only picture we could manage that actually shows the scale of the thing. The jumpers start at the very top.
If you're wondering what ski jumping looks like, here's a video on YouTube.http://youtube.com/watch?v=UE31hCwYoMg&mode=related&search=
Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time in Innsbruck, so we headed off to Budapest, which is the capital of Hungary. Budapest isn't a place a lot of Americans would think to come, but it's got pretty much everything you would think of in an European capital. The architecture here is stunning, it's orderly, and clean. We like it a lot more than other cities that you might otherwise think of, like Rome.
Here I am being stupid with some souvenirs for sale on the street.
Hungary has some pretty cool money. It's called forint and it's got these great photos of the heroes of Hungarian history. Here's a picture:http://www.davidpride.com/Europe/Hungary/images/Forint.jpg
We are on a mad dash to finish up our travels in Europe. We are in Budapest two days, then on to Prague for just one day, then one day in Krakow to see the Auschwitz concentration camp. From there, we are off to Ireland for a few days to visit with our friends Sean and Ann who are going to be there right at the start of their own round the world trip. Then home. We are leaving in just ten days! Time does fly.
By the way, you can click on most of our photos and they will blow up to a bigger size.
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