the hills are alive...

well here we are in austria! (yes we did post this morning from the czech republic) we took a very long, hot ride on a train and ended up here. we are in a hostel tonight sharing a room with two ladies who do not really speak much english. so far in vienna we have only met very nice, very helpful people. we're wishing we were staying here longer but we already bought our ticket on the night train tomorrow to venice.
here in the hostel we actually have access to post pictures so go back and check the old posts for some updates and also here are some random pictures that we wanted you all to see. love and miss you! steph (and rach) p.s. reba if you are checking the last picture is especially for you!

prague is cold

hello again everyone. this time we are in prague! we didnt plan on coming here originally but while in germany realized how close we were and thought we'd make a side trip on over to the czech republic. so, probably checking to make sure this country honors the eurorail passes would have been smart but we are sort of sleep deprived and just didn't think of that. so on the train we ended up having to buy a ticket and now will have to buy another one to get out. coming into a country where we dont speak a word of the language was quite challenging but we have been ok. there are enough english speakers here for the most part (even though they HATE us). our stay with the paszler family in kreinitz was a much needed break. they made us feel so welcome and even did our laundry!! cecily was the best tour guide ever. (thanks again cecily).

this is a short entry but we just wanted to let everyone know where we are and that we are still doing great. it's freezing here but we just put on like half the clothes in our bags to keep warm while walking around this morning. we miss you all! love, rach (and steph)

hello from pleinfeld...

a small town outside of nurnberg. since our last post we have been in a new town every night. it has been fun and difficult at times...arriving at a new city, getting off the train, searching for the tourist center to ask for a map and list of hotels and hostels, walking all over the city looking for a place to stay the night...(yes we could have booked them early but where is the adventure in that). many times when we finally find a room free it is getting dark and we have enough time to have dinner and see some of the city at night. then we get up early the next morning and put our bags in lockers at the train station so we can see some of the city by day before we have to jump on the next train to our next destination. we have covered munich (the highlight being the hofbrauhous (http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/) and the giant steins of beer we drank ...rachael drank two...pictures to come soon hopefully), heidelberg (we toured the castle there), cologne (we saw the huge cologne cathedral, it houses the supposed bones of the three magi) and last night took the train here to cecilys house in pleinfeld. she is teaching class today and when she is done we will take her moms car to kreinitz to stay the weekend with her family. we are looking forward to spending some relaxing time in a small quiet town with good food and company, some walks by the elbe river and maybe even a bike ride. unfortunately we still cant post any more new pics but hope to this weekend. love ya! steph (and rach)

p.s. on the way to kreinitz we stopped and met cecily's grandparents for a few minutes. we had chocolate and practiced our german. grandpa had a crush on rachael...he called her his christmas angel.

If you want it, you can have it!!

so, we went from guarding our belongings and making sure we were always safe to just leaving our backpacks out in the open just PRAYING that someone will steal them. see the thing is, our backpacks hurt. they hurt a lot. no no, you dont understand.....it is very hard to breath while carrying them around. so we have taken to leaving them out in the middle of the train station hoping some vagrants will carry them off, but then our train comes and they are still there and we have to take them with us. so anyway now we are in munich. with the backpacks. but we found a hotel with real glasses, not plastic and we got TWO TOWELS instead of one to share. so this is like our Hilton. of course we payed twice as much but at this point it is worth it. we carried those backpacks all over munich looking for a place to sleep. once we dropped them off we went on a little walking tour of the city that ended at the Hofbrauhaus, the home of giant beers. between us we shared three steins, a pretzel, and an apple struedel. last night in strasbourg we made friends with a few locals and went to kareoke. try to imagine french people who cannot speak any english, singing frank sinatra....very nasel. we fell in love with strasbourg. if we could post any pictures right now you would all fall in love too. it was almost too perfect to be real!! tomorrow we are heading to cologne and thence to berlin. we are still figuring out the whole eurorail thing and people say they dont speak much english because they hate americans and dont want to help us, but we think that was mostly just in france. germans are very friendly so far and we have only been here a few hours. well, that is all for now. hopefully pictures later if we find a place that lets us post them! love, rach and steph

paris in the fall

hi again, we stopped in the internet cafe to say hello and catch you all up on our adventure. yesterday we had our first experience using our eurail pass on the train. we took the train to Rouen in Normandy. it is a cute little french town with a beautiful old cathedral. it is one that monet painted and we could see why. also this is the town where joan of arc was burned at the stake. there is a huge cross that marks the spot and a church built near the site in her honour. it began to rain while we were walking around and we were able to use our rain jackets from REI for the first time...so glad we got those it really poured and we didn´t get too wet. we also mailed some post cards that we wrote on the train but dont hold your breath...we´re not sure we dropped them in the right box. today we had a leisurely day in paris, we walked around and saw more of the little cobble stone back streets. just when we think we´ve seen everything we will round the corner and there will be even more cute little shops and cafe´s. we have to decide now where we are off to tomorrow. keep writing your comments its so good to hear from home. love steph (and rach)

101 ways to use a baguette

everywhere you go here someone is carrying around a big long baguette. now, you might think you can only eat these things but steph and i have found many more uses! for instance, you could use one as a weapon if you come across any shady looking people. or you might have to use it as a walking stick when your knee gives out (like steph's has been doing). the best use we've decided though is leaving a crumb trail. the streets here are not on a grid. our street map already has had to be taped back together because of all the use its gotten. we've seen so much already and it's only the start of day four. some highlights of our sightseeing are having a glass of wine at the cafe on the eiffel tower at night, the louvre (yep, the mona lisa is still there and still looks like a man), Notre Dame, The Moulin Rouge in Montemart where we also went to Sacre-Coeur during mass. (p.s. we're catholic now)(sorry dad). we've also toured the Conciergerie where people (including Marie Antoinette) were improsoned during the french revolution before they were taken to the guillotine (made us want to watch the scarlet pimpernel again now that we've seen where it all really happened) , and Sainte-Chapelle which is paris's Sistine Chapel. today is my 26th birthday and i am still in shock that i'm in paris for it. first thing we did was have some cafe noir at a little cafe here in the latin quarter (our favorite neighborhood)while we people watched. now we are off on our first little trip out of the city to Rouen. i almost hate to leave but we have much more to see before our time is up! au revoir, Rach (and Steph)

hot dog fingers

qfter ,qny hours on the plqne:::

in case you all did not know the keyboards are different over here, we have to hunt and peck to find the letters so this one will be short. i was trying to say that after 14 hours in a plane our fingers are swollen to the size of hot dogs and our feet no longer fit in our shoes. which made wandering, lost, all over paris with heavy backpacks a lot of fun. actually it was fun, especially the part where we stumbled onto the eiffel tower...its so magnificent. we are slowely getting the courage to approach people and try to use some french. we bought a 5 dollar cafe au lait near notre dame while trying to stay warm and figure out the subway. our money may not last as long as we thought. now we are off to visit the bohemian district to find some good french food and walk off our jetlag. love and miss you all.

all our bags are packed

22 hours and counting before we get on the plane to paris. we have created this blog so our friends and family can travel with us. check back often for pictures and stories of our adventures. love, rach and steph