I'LL LEAVE YOU WITH THIS

Along the way we took a few breaks and got to enjoy some moments like this- if you listen hard hear you can hear Carol saying something about the two ducks being like two old men catching up the latest gossip-

I'll let you know how teaching goes tomorrow!

Alf Weidersen!

AUSTRIANS ON HOLIDAY

OK- honestly everyone was not walking around like this- but there were quite a few groups of people walking around dressed in traditional garb today!! Remember today was a holiday. I just looked it up and today is The Feast of Corpus Christi-

LUNCH

OK- I had pizza again- however, I call it paying "homage" to the Queen of Italy. You know a basic cheese pizza in Italy (and throughout Europe in this area) is called a Margherita pizza- named after the first Queen of Italy. And since we saw her tomb in Rome, I feel it only appropriate to honor her at lunch, and dinner- and more dinners---Here's a picture of Carol at lunch giving me the evil eye- and my lunch- Looks like Carol is having a beer doesn't it- but its actually this drink called Applesaft- (its apple juice and carbonated water)- Sadly EACH of those drinks cost about $3.00 each. Things I miss: Bottomless Diet Coke in the USA!

VELDEN

We managed to get to the town of Velden today (interestingly enough that's pronounced "Fel-den"- I figure that it was about 15 kilometers from Krumpendorf and so I guess that would be about 8 miles or so? But the path we took looped us around the lake shoreline in places so we figure we rode about 20 miles. Now that might not sound like that much to you major riders- but if you could only SEE what we are riding! If you are anywhere near our age, picture the bike that you had in about 1965, before the little banana bikes came out- and WAY before 10-speeds started- forget about mountain bikes- got the picture? Complete with the big wire basket on it and the hand brake that only stops the front so you have to be careful not to flip yourself over??? And then picture this bike weighing about 100 pounds and neither tire has enough air in it- so you're going slower than you'd ever go- we peddle and peddle and peddle and people pass us continually and I'll turn to Carol and say, "Yeah well I could go faster too if I had a helmet!" or "Yeah well I could go faster too if I had spandex shorts"- or "I've got a bike like that at home too buddy!" Plus our seats are just a little too low- and I even got Nicki to raise them the other day- but apparently just not QUITE enough. So we're riding along wishing that we had the hex-wrench to adjust the seat- and lamenting that we didn't when all of a sudden we hear SPRONNNNNG and something goes flying-

turns out the hex wrench set had been hanging on Carol's back seat, hanging down into the wheel- and at just that moment- one of the wrenchs had got caught in her spokes and gone FLYING! However- we rejoiced at having the rest of the wrenches cause no way would THAT be the one we needed- it was. So we spent the next half hour walking back and forth on this path while Germans and Austrians sped past us with helmets and spandex shorts- and there we are in our bulky fleeces and squinting eyes looking for this wrench to fix these 50 year old bikes-

In the end we gave up- but I got this nice shot of us :)

THE OLD R4

Greetings!!

I'm getting online for the first time a little later today because I actually had to PREP today cause I actually have to WORK tomorrow! All day!! Not only am I kicking off my course in Behavioral Accounting but then I'm working on a research project all afternoon with a colleague from here! I know-you have great pity for me.

So today, Carol and I decided to pretend that it wasn't threatening rain and we headed out on a multi-mile bike ride to the other side of the lake (The Woerthersees). I saw the correct spelling of the lake today on a sign and I think I have it right now. So off we went looking for these signs all the way.

SLOW DAY

HEY its been a slow rainy cold day- so I thought I'd give you a little taste of what our day has been like :)

I JUST REMEMBERED!

I took another shot in this little town of Portsach of this little guy- I just did a Google Translate of this (my LIFESAVER at times over here)- and the sign reads "Continuous Warm Kitchen 11am-Midnight". Speaking of- I never did tell you about our incident with some tiny ants in our room in Venice- I could have lived with them, especially since no one at the place we stayed spoke real English- however when we went to the grocery store, we looked for some ant spray. You know, you just never realize how something that simple can turn into a major, life endangering incident! We found the bug spray- and it was even the RAID brand- but everything else was in Italian.

So we're looking at this can, trying to figure out what it says- and you know, there's a BIG difference between spray that can be used inside, and spray that is supposed to be used OUTside- make a mistake- and you may not wake up. And I did NOT want to die in Italy! :)

We end up trying to decide which can is safe by the little drawings of dead bugs that showing up on the can- does that spray look like its going on a wall inside??? Or is that on a root outside?? We finally ended up getting what we knew to be a little bottle of "OFF" that showed it was safe to use on the skin- and Carol took care of the problem with that stuff. :)