Tuesday June 21, 2011

Good morning! Let the longest bus ride of my life begin. We were up at 6:30 this morning to load our luggage in a car that would drive it down the hill to our bus. Cars are not allowed in the street of San Gimignano so our bags get taken down to meet the bus and we walk. We met everyone for breakfast. Breakfast in Italy is awesome- they have so much gluten free stuff- bread, cakes, crackers and lots of other stuff. People filled their purses with all of the gluten free stuff the breakfast place had and now I have about one hundred gluten free things for when I am on the bus :)

We walked to the bus and pulled out San Gimignano by 8:00. I took some Benadryl so I could spend the morning sleeping. Michelle fell asleep right away as well. We are getting so good at this traveling thing. Before this trip I did not sleep in cars or planes. I can honestly sleep anywhere now. You have to keep moving into different positions because your body starts hurting from being curled up- Chiropractors would have a field day with this group after all the sleeping we have done on planes, buses and rock hard beds. I slept from 8:00 to 1:00 and woke up once when we stopped for a bathroom break. We stop every two hours for a break to get food and use the bathroom.

The drive through Italy this afternoon was gorgeous. I did not realize how many mountains are in Italy. We traveled through northern Italy which is so much different looking than the part of Italy we stayed in. I am seriously starting to believe that America got screwed over and most of it does not compare to the beauty of what we see in Europe but its home and I love it despite of its lacking landscapes ;) We drove through Italy, Germany and Austria today. At least the scenery is constantly changing and giving us something new to look at. We also passed time watching the Incredibles, Leap Year and The Blind Side.

The bus ride was long but I got caught up on all my pictures and organized all of them. We had pretty crappy internet while in Italy and we were pretty busy so we did not get on really to update anything. We arrived in Salzburg, Austria tonight around 7:00pm. We checked into our hotel which is very nice and has comfy beds!! We met up with everyone for dinner at a really fun German bar and restaurant. We had schnitzel and sausage for dinner and apple strudel for dessert. The place was really cool, it had loud music inside and a lot going on on the patio where we ate. WE walked back to our hotel and now where are all kinda just lying around. It has been a long day. Most of us are going to just hang out at the hotel. We are going to be at Hitler's Eagles nest tomorrow and exploring Austria. Hoepfully we will have our pictures uploaded tonight and be caught up on that. The trip is quickly coming to an end…Getting sad but excited to see the people we miss back home.