Claire and Taylor's European Odyssey

It was like night and day between Italy and Austria... well actually like sunshine and rain. We had not seen rain since Biarritz a month ago so it was a bit of a shock comming up on the train. For Taylor it was refreshing, but for Claire it was most deffinately not! But the scenery and mountains were beautiful, reminded us alot of home. We had not seen a forest of green trees in quite some time. We arrived in Innsbruck, which is nessled between the alps, late as we were on the TrenItalia (surprise surprise) from Venice. We took the bus to Markus and Nina's just in time to say goodnight to their beautiful children Kira and Paula.

That evening Markus stayed home with the kids while we went into town to watch a free movie in the town square with Nina. Good movie but we are getting tired of watching english movies dubbed in another language. However, Nina did an excelent job translating!

The next morning we walked into town. The nice thing about Innsbruck is it is not a typical tourist city. There isn't alot of sights to see or a tourist map, it is just a beautiful clean city. Everything runs on time, and runs well. The people are just as organized as the Germans but are layed back at the same time. The alps are litteraly just in their back yard. Taylor fell in love with Austria(Innsbruck). The city seemed very young as it is a univercity city. A nice mix of modern and old (well taken care of) building. That afternoon Nina prepared us some very delicious Austrian dumplings and the kids created some masterpieces for a fridge in our new apartment (when we get one). After lunch we literally stepped out the back door and we were walking in the alps.

We had a great time with Markus and Nina, but now we are off to see the Swiss Miss!