ciao!!

we have been walking the narrow winding streets of venice this evening...getting lost in the maze of canals and little streets that intersect and turn and get lost and emerge again into a piazza or another thoroughfare or little bridge....quite picturesque, yet again...it has been our week of picturesqueness, from the beauty of the vienna buildings all painted in yellows and cremes and rose-peaches....to the train ride to salzburg through the danube river valley, with a multitude of green fields and church steeples rising up in every town, to salzburg and it's sound-of-music-ness, dramatic castles on the cliff, snow flakes big enough to aim and catch them with your mouth, a cozy big hostel that plays the sound of music every night on a big tv (wouldn't that get old after...say...one night?!)...to our trainride through the austrian alps, which started out snowy and foggy and mysterious, trying to see the peaks, and then we emerged through one tunnel and the sky was blue in patches and it was SO beautiful, just amazing, riding in the middle of the valley between all of those magnificent mountains with the cute little ski village towns interspersed.

we arrived to bled, slovenia in the dark, and made our way to the place where carson's aunt and uncle live....they set us up in a little self-catering apartment for two nights, it was so luxurious, our own little room and private bathroom and even a kitchen which we did not have time to use, because the first night they took us out to a traditional slovenian restaurant where i had a whole trout baked with potatoes in foil (fresh from the pure lake nearby) and carson had dumplings with turkey and mushrooms, a local special...of course we had some lovely slovenian wine, which was very good too! yesterday the sky was entirely blue and we walked around the lake in bled which is absolutely stunning (search on google images for bled, slovenia to see pictures!) the castle there rises above these sheer rock cliffs, and we walked up to that too....the mountains rise in the distance...it is so beautiful. everyone we met was so very nice and friendly to us. bill and lisa drove us to ljubljana last night, which is the capital of slovenia and was quite charming down by the river with little bridges and willows hanging over the water...we went to a mexican restaurant which may have been the loudest restaurant we've ever eaten in! it was so much fun, we saw two of bill's friends from the shipyard and ate huge plates of mexican food and had a bucket of assorted mexican beer....wow was it fun to hang out with bill and lisa, they've been traveling and sailing around the world and working in between for about 20 years and have been to so many places, a real inspiration for us right now! it is such a blessing to spend time with family and to see familiar faces. bill also gave us a most thorough, informative, and behind the scenes tour of the 80 foot luxury sailing yacht they are working on, we went down below and saw everything coming together, and toured the warehouses to see other boats in process and a huge robotic computerized machine that drills and cuts so precisely (and quickly, compared to doing it all by hand) one of the only machines in the world like that. bill and lisa inspired us about sailing some day, maybe checking out the possibility of working on a yacht as crew (massage...serving...?!) they are so great!!!!!!!!

today we took a train to venice, through the rest of the alps that we'll see and through flatter lands where many backyards of houses have their own little grape collection growing. venice is wild...beautiful, confusing, charming, quite touristy at every turn, amazing, and a wonder of the world for sure. we spent the evening wandering around endlessly, getting lost a little and then finding our way back to something familiar, looking for places to eat, drinking a delicious cappuccino made from an old large tall copper espresso machine, and having lovely thin crust pizzas with ricotta and spinach on them...(and of course, wine again, a beverage i've never enjoyed so much of since coming to france/spain/slovenia/italy)....we will spend the morning in venice and then take a train to cecina via florence for our next help exchange, on 200 acres of beautiful property near the coast, working with pruning olive trees and hopefully working with the many horses that are boarded on the property, as well as some golden retrievers, which i have to say are my favorite kind of dog (i miss you tobin!.....and we miss you too, bernard!)

we are not sure of our internet access at our next help exchange, but we will write when we can and we are thinking of you all!!
much love,
m & c