KTMusings

Steps as in the 14,888 Lauren took today! Abby only wore her watch half the day.  And steps as in the Spanish Steps, which both girls walked all the way to the top of!  Backing up … we left our apt about 11, walked through Piazza Novana again, got a donut and a latte near there, and then walked up to the river. We walked along the river, found a cool water feature outside a small museum and sat there for a bit. Abby got her zen on (pic below). We then walked up Piazza de Popolo. The girls played by those fountains while Jeff found a place to buy sandwiches. We walked up a ton of stairs to get into Borghese gardens. We found a shady bench and sat. The 3 of us shared the sandwiches Jeff bought and Lauren had a PBJ. The girls had the most fun running around a small area collecting sticks and acorns (and assorted garbage 🙄) for their “house”.  We walked partway back down the hill to a public bathroom (I hate paying to use the bathroom - I’m not opposed to it, it’s just a pai...

Well, that was a long night. I crashed 8-11 as did Abby, then she was awake and hungry (she really hadn’t had dinner) so we sat in the kitchen while she ate a banana with peanut butter (we brought a giant jar with us!) and some Cheezits (whatever survived the flight). And talked, as only Abby can.  “Mommy, what’s that noise?” (A clock) “mommy, do you think the big clock across the street makes noise?” “Mommy, are those people I hear in our building?” (No, outside). “Mommy, it’s cool we’re on the top floor.” (We’re not) “mommy, are those bars on the ceiling (exposed beams) stuck in there good? I’m worried about them.” She laid with me after that, and tossed and turned for almost 3 hours. Lauren was better about waking up, restarting her music, getting a drink, and going back to sleep. We all slept soundly after 3am which makes sense. Lauren woke me up, I was guessing it was 8, but it was 10! Yikes.  Off to Borghese gardens for the day. 

We all managed to sleep for almost 4 hours, it was hard to get everyone moving, but we rallied. We are staying in an apartment on Via De Guibbonari, so we turned up that street and after a couple of blocks we were at Campo de Fiori. The girls were sooo excited to see their first Italian fountain! Lauren is *extremely* disappointed that no one throws coins in. That is a huge mom fail on my because I talked it up a ton and now it seems it’s not a thing? Hopefully they still do at Trevi Fountain?  We got our first gelato - Abby got mint chip and Lauren asked for crema/cream, which I was worried about so I also got mint chip and she and I ended up trading. So much ice cream. We wandered up to Piazza Navona and looked at the fountains there. We briefly walked through a church. Then found Curio Pompeia … which are some cool ruins where Julius Caesar was assassinated. And also is home to a bunch of cats, which the girls were delighted by! We spent a lot of time looking around there and fo...

We made it. Abby was the only one who slept (fitfully) on the plane. She fell asleep for about an hour before we landed and didn’t even wake up when I put her shoes and socks back on and picked her up to leave the plane. Jeff sweet talked them into two rows of 3, so we each had one girl and one extra seat!  We got the train from the airport to city center and then a taxi to within a couple of blocks of our rental house.  Girls are busy exploring while we unpack a bit. About to make everyone take a little rest before we go exploring … I know you’re supposed to stay awake, but this was also my second trans-Atlantic flight with kids and … well, I need everyone to fall asleep so the whining stops 😂

We’re leaving in a week for Italy! We fly out on Saturday 10/21 and land early Sunday morning (Jeff’s birthday!) in Rome. We rented our VRBO starting the night before, so we should be able to head right there to drop our stuff, shower, nap, whatever we need. After several days in Rome, we’ll take the train to Florence for a few nights. Then we wrap up in Venice for several nights before flying home on Friday 11/3.  We are all excited for some special time together, for exploring, and for yummy food 😋

I finally slept well on Tuesday night - yay!  We woke up Wednesday and had breakfast, then bundled up and headed to the deck. We sailed for roughly 90 min through the Wachau Valley and George (the Program Director) provided commentary from the bridge. It. Was. Cold. The temp was probably 50*, but there was a stiff headwind that was brutal. All 8 of our group were outside at one point, but most lasted less than 10 min. Jeff was smart and we packed our rain pants and both put them on. I had on a wool sweater, down jacket, rain jacket /windbreaker, cashmere scarf, hat, and gloves. And a blanket from the deck on my lap. Brrr! We did have a clear day and were able to see a lot! At one point they served a shot of apricot schnapps to everyone to warm up.  We arrived in Krems around 11am and disembarked at 11:30 for the Goettweig Abbey. Viking apparently has exclusive rights to bring river tour groups there, though we saw other individuals  visiting as well. The Abbey is known fo...

We spent most of the day in the Czeck Republic! (And yes, T-Mobile texted me when we crossed the border 😂). Got up after a terrible night of sleep (Jeff slept fine) and went to breakfast a bit earlier today. Then 45 of us headed to a bus to take us north to Cesky Krumlov. Our tour guide, Stefan, was fabulous. He talked about Linz (where we were docked) for a bit and then gave a ton of history about the Czech Republic, his own personal stories about the fall of the communist party (he was 4), his grandfather’s story of emigrating to Switzerland by posing as an airline steward, etc. Fascinating. Was about a 75min drive.  Some other interesting things we learned on the drive:  Passed the continental water divide - everything south runs to Danube and Black Sea and Mediterranean. Everything north runs to North Sea .  There were lots of farmers out with their “Poop spreaders”, as Jeff calls them. Smelled like home!  Biggest Lego factory in Europe is just outside of Prague...