The catch up

Finally, we can catch everyone up; now were in Venice, We can see why so many people come to visit, it looks exactly like the pictures! There are tons of tourists here though, its sometimes nice to be around other Americans though because then you dont feel so isolated.

Innsbruck Austria is a places James and I would highly reccomend visiting, we would like to go back. The train ride through Austria and Lichtenstein was absolutely gorgeous! Theres tons of cheap skiing too!

Switzerland wasnt quite as pictureque as wed imagined, but still very pretty, the vinyards on mountain sides looked really neat from the train. We stayed in Interlaken, we had really wanted to do some extreme sport, as itàs the extreme sport capital of EU or somethng like that but the prices were outrageous! Whitewater rafting was close to 100 swissfrancs a person and we can do it in Bozeman for $32! So we went hiking and took a tram ride instead. We, okay James, "accidently" missed the tram back down the mountain so we had to hike. It took several days for our legs to recover. We saw cows with real cowbells though, smelt them too!

Onto France, When we arrived on our first evening, it was hot out! The lake (Lake Annecy) was so beautiful we couldnt wait to go swimming! And then it rained clear until we left. We did see some amazing lightning strikes though, and we still walked around the Veille Ville (Old town) and ate cheap delicious croissants until we were stuffed. I tried Violette ice cream, and it does taste pretty much like violettes, but that much isnt as good as it sounds, i think violeetes are better as a garnish. Oh, and we ate out once, since it was a tourist trap town restaurants were very expensive, so we ate at the cheapest one we could find and then wished we wouldnt have. James had a 4 cheese pizza and then couldnt get the taste of dirt out of his mouth for quite awhile. I had salad nicoise, yuck! I found a bug in it and lost my appetite. James ate one of the anchovies off my salad, and he, who will eat almost anything, had a hard time swallowing it. Unfortunately the only grocery store we could find was tiny place that didnt sell much worth eating so we stuck with cheap sandwiches and croissants. We spent one night in Aix-Les-Bains, which turned into a small nightmare. We had a cheap hotel, but it turned out to be in BFE (very far away in other words) so we had to take a taxi (22 Euros) There was not a grocery store or restaurant open anywhere so we had potato chips and a power bar for dinner. Then we found a bus we could take from our hotel, with the most uncomfortable bed weve ever slept in, and it didnt come the next morning when we thought it would. So we had to take a taxi back to the train station. Anyway, we made it to Venice with out any further problems, we even had a few hours to explore Geneva while we waited for our next train.

Today we went to Piazzo San Marco, Mobs of tourists and pidgeons but pretty neat. Its so cool that there are no car here, everyting is done by boat! many of the "streets" are only a few feet wide and everything is done via the canal, even garbage collection!

I dont know when well have internet access again, not all of our hostels have it and internet cafes can be expensive.

Dad: Ive tried calling you but your phone wont accept calls from pay phones. I heard Bruce Springsteen in Poland, At our Hostel in Switzerland a girl from Japan was wearing a Leinenkugels t shirt.

Ive been sending postcards so either youll get your own or check grandma and grandpas.

Disclaimer: I dont know where the apostrophe is on this crazy keyboard and im typing really fast because im paying for internet time so exscuse all of my errors.