GERMANY

I flew into Germany on Thursday and had to take a bus to Frankfurt where I was met by Teresa, Frank, and Steveo. We took a train to Steveo's apartment in Darmstadt where ho goes to school.. this is Frank and Teresa on the train.



That night Frank, Teresa, and I walked around Darmstadt while Steveo went back to Frankfurt to pick up our other friends Joey and Meg who were coming in from Verona, Italy.



While walking we encountered the most creepy Easter bunnies you have ever seen



The next morning we all took a train to Heidelburg. We climbed the hill on one side of the river that runs through the city to catch a view of the city and its castle from above.






Near the top of the hill was a small park that had this thing in it. Not only does it go up and down like a see-saw, but spins in a circle at the same time! I want to know why parks in the U.S. didnt have these when I was growing up.



A view of the Heidelburg Castle from the hill.



top row: Steveo, Frank, me
Bottom: Joey, Teresa, Meg



A small path on the way back down the hill



pretzels = Germany



One of the walls of the castle and a view of the city and hill we previously climbed up and back down.



A huge barrel of apfelwein in the castle



Behind the castle



look, Germany.






Inside the train station in Frankfurt



Frankfurt is home of the European Central Bank.. this apparrently means that they need a very large euro.



This was definitely my favorite park of Frankfurt. The apfelwine tour! well.. not really a tour so much as an expensive and crazily decorated tram that you drink apfelwein and eat pretzels on.



Joey and Meg



Frank, me, and Teresa



apfelwein!



Me, Joey, Teresa, and Frank in front of the only part of downtown Frankfurt that looked historically German.






When it started to get dark out Joey told us about a building that he saw the night before that was lit up completely in blue. We saw this building nowhere and started not to believe him.. maybe he saw something else that he thought was a blue building..? then, an hour later a lot of blue lights switched on on this building on the riverfront.

Pisa and Lucca

The Duomo (main cathedral) in Pisa has the best manicured lawn in the word. Even during the last weekend in February, it looked like this.


hah.. these are great. sometimes you just have to be a straight up tourist.





The towers original purpose was to be the bell tower of the Duomo in Pisa. It started to lean while they were building it, and it still leaning.. although it is now supported by cables attatched to other buildings that help hold it up.



Aron and I ate lunch at an outdoor cafe near the tower.. there wasnt much to do in Pisa except see the tower and eat, so we ate. Wine with lunch is a tradition that I dont argue with.



This guys came up to the restaurant with his guitar and started singing things off of the menu.



Some grafitti under a bridge in Pisa.



We took a bus from the train station to the tower and decided that we were going to walk back to the station by following the route the bus took to get us there. We, of course, got lost and neither of us brought a map of Pisa with.. these signs didnt help anything. It was worth it though, because we ended up finding the original wall of the city, and some awesome views.



The Arno river that runs through Florence also runs through Pisa.









Lucca is a small city about an hour and a half train ride from Florence. It is still surrounded by its original walls, so to get into the city you have to walk through small passageways like this one.



One of the main attractions in Lucca is the Roman amphitheatre where they used to hold shows.. it is now basically an oval shaped Piazza that is completley walled in by buildings.



We rended some bikes and took a bike ride around the city on top of the wall.



Mel met us in Lucca that morning.







Aron and I on our bikes.. and me, always with the cameras.







There is graffiti all over the place in Italian cities.







Piazza Napoleone was my favorite place in Lucca.






We were in Lucca during the week of Carnivale in Italy, so we got to see a lot of street preformances and a marching band.



Right before we left, I bought a small painting from a street artist that we met and talked to earlier in the day.