Day 2_Graz

Kunsthaus Graz by Peter Cook
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We started our second day in Graz, which was amazingly beautiful.  I would like to go back someday.  The weather was nice and sunny again too.  We started off by checking out the Kunsthaus which basically looked like a peanut with glazed panels.  It was closed when we first got there, but was open later, but we only got to go into the cafe area, which was really cool.

Then, there's an amphitheater out on the river, Mur, that we went out on.  It's a really nice space.  Then, probably my favorite part of the visit was we took an elevator up a hill (Schlossberg).  The elevator was through a little cave and was all glass.  At the top of the hill was a castle, clock tower, and an amazing view over the city with all the red sloped roofs.  We took stairs down the hill.

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After a little more time in the city, we headed to Palmanova, our first city in Italy!  They didn't check our passports when we crossed into Italy.  Jacek said they don't really do that anymore.  We ate at an Autogrill, which is kind of their fastfood places when you want to stop and eat somewhere off the interstate.  It was our first Italian meal..haha.  Dianna and I split some spinach and ricotta ravioli and a blueberry muffin and I got some fruit salad.  My fruit salad was the best part of the meal.  From where we were sitting we could see the Alps.  When we left, we continued to drive through the Alps.  Jacek pointed out to us how the Alps don't really die out, it just goes from huge mountains to flat plains.  It was a really nice drive.