Nice to Florence to Venice to Munich to Interlaken to Strasbourg

Sorry it has taken so long to write but we have not been going to the Internet cafes every time we get to a city. Right now we are typing on a french keyboard so its taking a long time to write because the keys are moved around. So we are currently in Strasbourg, France, capital of the Alsace region on the border of France and Germany. It is definitely one of our favorite cities in Europe because of its architecture, charm, and lack of American tourists. It must not be an extremely popular stop for Americans. We probably would not have come through here either were it not for the fact that some of Matts ancestors came from here. A lot of the Riesling wines come from here as well. We looked into getting a car and doing a wine tour but it was too expensive so we will have to do it another time. As said before the architecture is amazing because it is a mix of German and French styles from Gothic to Renaissance with lots of half timber styles which are really cool. We took a walking tour today and I took lots of pictures to show you show. The last place we wrote we were in Nice, which was an amazing time. Next we went to Florence which was really cool. Although there were an excessive number of American tourists there, we were able to make our way to see Michelangelos David in The Accademia and get lost in the renaissance streets while looking at the architecture. Next we headed up to Venice, also a huge tourist spot. One cool thing we did was to try a local meal called cicchetti; samplings of seafood, cheese, artichokes and other meats that you essentially point at to order as you stand at a bar and drink wine. Rick Steves recommended it. Rick; by the way has turned out to be an invaluable resource on this trip. Next we took an overnight train up to Munich. We originally booked a six person sleeper but were able to upgrade to a double for ten euro a piece once we got on the train so we did it. It was actually a really fun experience because every once in a while i would wake up in the middle of the night and look out as we traveled over the alps into Germany. We got to Munich and booked two beds in a Hostel in kind of a little grouping of hostels that we had heard about from people we had met at the train station before we left Venice. The beds were in a forty person dorm room which despite being a little daunting at first turned out to be a really cool place to meet other travelers and hear about other cool things to do. That afternoon we went out to the Hofbrau House where we had a mixed sausage, sauerkraut, and mashed potato plate. We had such a good meal at the Hofbrau house that after we went back to the hostel for a nap, we rounded up some people we met in the hostel and brought everyone back there for dinner and liters of beer. Needless to say it was a very fun night and we actually ended up going back to the Hofrbrau house for dinner the next night. The next day we went to Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired the ones at Disneyland. It was a day trip and was very cool to see. We met up for dinner with Adam's old Au Pier Mickey and then took the two hour train back to Munich. Next we headed off to Interlaken, Switzerland, about a six hour train ride. We checked into another hostel that was recommended to us by other travelers, this time it was an eight person dorm room which was nice. Interlaken is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is set between two lakes, thus the name Interlaken, at the foot of the snow covered Alps. Our first day there we rented scooters and rode up into a canyon carved out by a Glacier. We rode along a river all the way up to almost the foot of the Glacier on to dirt rodes and everything. We have some pretty amazing pictures from it. We had a lunch of raclette and headed back down to Interlaken after about three hours on the scooters. Next we went river rafting with some other people met at the hostel the night before. It was guided and everything like back in the states but the setting was incomparable to anything I've ever seen. I had to pinch myself several times to make sure everything was real. I could not believe that I was river rafting in the Alps! It was a lot of fun and afterward the owner of the business made us a thin crust pizza that was the best i have ever had. Oh yeah, the water was around forty degrees Fahrenheit so we were in wetsuits and all. We stayed in Interlaken for one more night and attempted to take a train up to the Glacier the next morning but had to turn back after we found out it was one hundred forty euro! So now we are in Strasbourg and are leaving tomorrow on an overnight train to Berlin where we will probably spend two nights and then meet up with the Reiningers. Last night we had Alsatian Sauerkraut with pork sausage and fish. It was very good. Tonight we will try another Alsatian specialty, Flambee. Which is essentially a thin crust with some kind of cream topping and cheese and ham and onions. Hope all is well and we will write from Berlin!