Today, was our first day biking around Bodensee.  We will do about 300km by the end of the trip.  It rained hard last night but lucky for us just cloudy and no rain today.  Today we only road 35km.  It was a very pleasant and pretty ride.  We went from Salem to Friedrichshafen.  Suprise, we are staying at a very nice Best Western- would never think a Best Western would be nice.  We have the penthouse room with great huge windows and views of the cute town and lake. 

 

Yesterday, we arrived in Salem and walked around the castle- Scholoss Salem.  Our hotel was very cute with views out to the castle and garden maze.  There was a very cool turn of the century wine press- see below.  We had some amazing white wines from the area and one very interesting Pinot Noir.  The Pinots in Europe are very different from Oregon, of-course we think Oregon’s are better!  More pictures and stories to come later in the week.  A few pictures below:

 

We just spent a lovely week in Tuscany!  I AM A HUGE FAN!  We started last Saturday picking up our rental car from Avis, which did not go so well.  As we reserved a station wagon for our mountain bikes and all the junk we were taking to Tuscany-they had no station wagons!  What is the point of making a reservation if you don’t get what you reserve.  Thankfully Greg is very good at loading a car and was able to fit both our bikes, both suitcases, backpacks, and of-course my laptop bag- me travel without my trusty computer- never!

 

We then headed on our 6 hour drive to Bologne. Wow, can I say Germans love to drive fast and Italians are crazy drivers that love to cut you off!  We drove through Germany, Austria and Italy.  It was a very pretty drive with lots of castles, check out the album to the side for more pictures of my lovely passenger pictures while Greg tries to drive.  Bologne was dead, everyone was on vacation and very few places were open.  We found a great little place for dinner.  We were using our starwood points with the Sheraton in Bologne.  Lets just say it was a little underwhelming, in the middle of no where by the airport.  Not your heavenly bed Sheraton….

 

When we arrive in Suvereto, it is a beautiful little medieval city.  We had a jammed pack schedule with three mountain bike trips with Thomas.  If you want to toodle and see the sites, mountain biking with Thomas is not for you.  He likes to go fast we did two trips at around 35km each, we gave up on the alst day due to rain.  We then rode our bikes to another medievel city and to the beach.  We did a few wine tastings, saw an olive oil press and did a trip with Fillipo- we highly suggest not to do Fillipos guided trip it is over priced and not very good.  We also did a wine tasting with our host Vital Dolce- which was awesome.  Christine and Stefano take very good care of you- we definely suggest working with them!  We met several wonderful couples from Austria, Germany and Italy.  You will see pictures of our new friends from Milano who will be heading to life in Dubai.  Greg and I both did a cooking class and now know how to make pasta!  We also were there for a night of stars and wine tasting and seeing a competition where they roll barrels through the town.  It was a lot of fun, very relaxing and we ate and drank way too much!!! 

 

We then left Suvereto and headed to Padova for a night before going back to Munich.  Love Podova, its a much bigger city than I expected with great food.  We were there a night of a concert of the most famous Italian rapper and fireworks.  We have a two day break in Munich where we saw Eric Clapton in Konigsplatz, catching up in laundry and head out tomorrow to Lake Constance for 6 days roadbike ride around the lake.  Stay tuned for more stories and pictures….

 

I had the opportunity to do my FY09 planning with my boss and friend Leila in London.  I have always not been to keen on living in London but after my four days there, I am ready to make the jump.  It is a very fun and easy city.  Lots to do, so much history and sites.  I still would say it is a little too spendy but check out a couple of the fun sites and the album on the side for more.  Too bad Leila is leaving me to work full-time in London and soon I will have a new boss, but now we can hang-out more and enjoy Europe together.