Monday, June 2, 2008

Damn, I Need a Beer...



...It all started out so well: We headed back down to Italy for a long weekend in Cinque Terre along the Italian Riviera. The weather was great, the wine was aflowin', and amore was in the air. THEN THE FREAKING ITALIAN TRAIN STRIKE BEGAN and it was all downhill from there. After a couple days in this Italian paradiso, we found out that most of the trains were "sopresso"--on strike--no go--so sorry. Come to find out that this sort of thing happens damn near EVERY TIME they have a long weekend. It was right about then I was longing for Germany where you can set your watch by when your train leaves the station. Long story short, we missed our flight out of Milan and got only a few hours of sleep last night. After an extra five hundred dollars and a half day of missed work later, we finally made it back to Germany.

Okay, the truth is Vernazza and the rest of Cinque Terre is great. The hiking was incredible, the people were very warm, and our son "Lucca" was the Prince of Vernazza for the weekend. I'll be sure to post pix and some more positive commentary when I get a few minutes. The bottom line is, however, this trip was one I would rather forget. Hopefully in a few years I will be able to sit back and have a good laugh at this travel nightmare. We'll have to see. Until then, I'm going to sip my German beer in my German house with my German gummi bear of a son back here in Germany where the train workers don't extend their fiesta an extra day by going on strike.

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