News Blackout

I have lots of stories, friends, but no time to blog. I hope to write more about all we are experiencing, but for now will let you know we are alive and well and seeing the world. We made it out of Amsterdam on July 10 and are slowly learning how to travel as campers. Since then, we have

• been to a festival of street theater on stilts in the medieval city of Deventer, Holland
• Spent two nights with my distant cousin Karl Lovink and his wife Thecla
• watched the Dutch narrowly lose the world cup finals with 9000 excited, then dejected Dutchmen and women
• figured out how to unclog and empty the stinking wastewater tank in our van, which was full upon delivery . . . also had the air-conditioning repaired (thank heavens)
• camped near the spa town of Bad Ems and gargled with the water from the hot springs
• flown along the "fantasticable" from on Alpine mountaintop to another, 100 km an hour and hundreds of meters high
• Spent an evening at the Montreux Jazz Festival
• hiked in the Alps
• stayed with our good friends Jenny and Peter in Morgins, Switzerland
• lost Dennis's backpack in a tiny medieval town in the Aost region of Italy (it was basically empty)
• Missed our Dutch friends!
  
• seen the opera Aida in the Arena at Verona 
• camped in the ruins of a castle above Verona
• taken the Vaporetto in Venice and explored the Doge's Palace
• Seen the sixth century mosaics in Ravenna
• left my wallet on a chair in a Ravenna church and had it returned by -- who else? -- Dutch tourists
• swum in the Adriatic Sea
• Gotten sunburned
• Eaten gallons of gelato
• More . . . . but I have to get off the wireless now . . .