Fri, 13 Oct 2000 20:42:28 GMT
Dear loyal readers :) 

My how time flies.  We´re currently in Malaga, in the south of Spain. Internet access is easy, once again, after great difficulties in Germany and Italy.  We are going to be....ooops, we´re getting ahead of the story. 

Flash back to Aug 28.  We flew from Athens to Munich, returning to a lovely city where we lived and worked (sans kids) in 85 to 86.  It was refreshing to be in a country where we were not starting at level zero with the language, having picked up some German while living there. 
Munich, in the southern part of Germany known as Bavaria, was a wonderful place 13 years ago, and still is.  We enjoyed seeing the sights again, swimming at the Olympic stadium pool, taking U-bahn and S-bahns (trains, subways), showing the kids the glockenspiel in Mariensplatz (center town square), and returning to a very efficient first world European economy.  Some new sights for us were the Tierpark (zoo), which is a lovely zoo with lots of open spaces and fun things for the kids.  Bonnie and the kids went to Schloss Nymphenberg, a palace nearby, and marvelled at the way royalty used to live. 

One thing we did NOT particularly enjoy was the cold, as we are seeking warm weather on this trip.  When we arrived downtown in sandals and shorts, and everyone else had on leather jackets, we knew we would not last long.  After one week of cool weather, bits of rain, and slightly gloomy dispositions, we hopped a train and headed south through Austria and on to northern Italy. 

In Italy we popped around quite a bit, spending over a month in various places in northern Italy.  We rented a car and were quite mobile. The kids LOVED the food, and showed their first interest in picking up words in a foreign language.  For Bonnie and Ky, it was like heaven to again taste true Italian food...the fresh pasta, the pizzas (lots of quattro stagione pizzas), red wine, the language, the driving. 

Here´s a quick list of where we stayed in Italy: 
Verona - short stay, would go back anytime.  Great river city with a neat castle that has a REAL drawbrige - fascinated Nathan to no end. 
Vicenza - SERVAS stop, Beautiful city, as usual, lots of history 
Padova - SERVAS stop, we stayed outside town and the countryside is     gorgeous, great location to go to Venice easily 
Venice - crowded, expensive, but a must see 
Lago Di Garda - only one night, but a FULL day at the Disneyland of Italy (Gardaland) for Bonnie and the kids - Ky opted out!  It´s really a blast. 
Milan - nerve center for northern Italy.  A place to live and work. 
Lago Di Orta - a place to relax. 
Chiavari - poor mans neighbor to Santa Margharita and Portofino. 
Alassio - Liguria beach stop.  Pretty slow this time of year when most of the tourists are gone and many shop owners close up to take their much needed vacations. 

In Vicenza and Padova we stayed with SERVAS hosts, and these stays were certainly among our Italian highlights.  We have to take a moment to toot SERVAS´s horn.  Take a minute to surf over to www.servas.org , and you´ll see why we love it.  It has enabled us to live for 2,3 and more days with local families (in Italy, Australia, and New Zealand) who have been gracious enough to open up their homes to travelling foreigners.  In Vicenza our SERVAS hosts allowed us to attend a small community festival with them, cut their grass (our request!), practice our Italian (they spoke essentially no English), took us out for dinner with their friends, and more.  In Padova, our SERVAS hosts lived in the country on an organic farm.  While staying with them, we joined them and others in a huge outdoor pizza feed, went with them to spend a late summer day lounging on a beach, and practice a lot more Italian.  We take our SERVAS host lists everywhere we go so we can use it whenever possible. 

These new friends near Padova would really love to do a home exchange with someone in the U.S. within the next year for a month or so.  They have a lovely home in a very beautiful and interesting area, so if anyone is interested please let us know and we´ll hook you up.  They also have two sons and they would love to do a youth exchange at some point.  The oldest is 12 and he´s been working to learn English so they are eager to give him the opportunity for immersion. 

Another highlight was seeing old friends, and meeting new ones in Milano.  Our old friends generously invited us to spend some time at their summer villa at Lago Di Orta, the smallest (and arguably the most beautiful) of the northern Italian lakes, a picturesque setting indeed.  It was tempting to throw away the plane tickets and sign up for Italian residency, but the cooling weather urged us on.  Our new friends, daughter and son in law of Ky´s dad´s boss, joined us for a lovely lakeside lunch in Orta, and we joined up again near Chiavari taking our 2 families for a day trip to on of the Cinque Terra towns.  And we just happened meet them in Portofino when both our families took day trips there.  What a coincidence! 

After Italy, we ended up in Nice, France for 3 nights, preparing for our drive to southern Spain. We had a pleasant surprise there with very friendly people and interesting sights but we were eager to get to our ultimate destination, which is where we are now (Malaga). We plan to be here for about 3 months, until early January if all goes as planned.  If anybody has interest in coming out this way - supposed to be a great mild winter here, please let us know.  Check out www.malaga.com for some info on this place.  We are trying to avoid the tourist centers, and immerse ourselves in Spanish language and culture.  More on how we do comes in a message later....  We intend to rent a place that has some extra space so we can accomodate visitors, so please get in contact if you have any interest in heading out this way.  Malaga is on the Costa del Sol, near Gilbratar, Sevilla, Granada, and Portugal and Morocco are short trips away. 

Random travel bits: 
Jessica is now the proud owner of 21 collectors spoons and two forks acquired from each country we have visited.  Be prepared to admire them when you next see her! 
Nathan has become a master colorer and stays inside the lines. 
Jessica and Nathan are now wonderfully BEST buddies, playing for hours together, laughing, making up stories, building things, drawing, etc. 
Bonnie turned 40 last month (OUCH!), as is now officially older than Ky for another couple of days. 
Bonnie has been enjoying running daily (except Sundays) for about 3 months, and Ky hasn´t run for months (who would have thunk it?)  (Maybe the truth of 40 hasn´t hit him yet!) 

That´s all for now, 
We remain going aRound The World With 2 Kids (RTWW2K), 
Ky, Bonnie, Jessica, Nathan