Carrie’s Current countries visited

visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World
On our trip through Central America, I got to add 6 countries to my map of visited countries. It’s too bad not all of them have a stamp representation in my passport.
I’ve actually been to more countries that this, but I didn’t spend the night, so they don’t count. I’ve been to France numerous times when I lived in Germany, and I also drove through Austria. They’ll be added to the list sometime soon through.

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Road trip through the Alps: Bergamo (Milan) Italy to Munich, Germany

If you have never taken a road trip, it is something you simply must do. Carrie and I have taken a couple of long road trips together, and we loved them – despite not loving all the time in the car, we got to stop and see a lot of fun things. (Caveat: It should go without saying, but if you are taking a road trip, take it with people whom you enjoy spending a LOT of time with.)
If you have never gotten to take a road trip across Europe, it’s something you simply must do.

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Milan Italy: Tourism and Shopping Streets On A Great Day In Milan

Obviously being a historical city, Milan totally blew us away. We LOVED it! We tend to enjoy smaller, less touristy cities better, and even though Milan definitely did not fit that mold (it was basically a big crowded city), we definitely enjoyed seeing so many of the amazing things in this city.
Mara took us to the train and we rode it into the Milan train station. (We’re not sure who was on the train before us, but the train sort of had a smell which reminded us of the smell that accompanied people who had spent too much time on Mount Kilimanjaro, going months without a bath (probably like us on day 8 of the climb). Stinky doesn’t begin to describe it, but I digress…)
We got off the train in this phenomenally large train station. There was an odd art exhibit outside of the Milan train station, which we didn’t take any pictures of, and I don’t know if it will still be there when you go, but definitely go to the courtyard outside of the train station.
From there, we caught the subway to the Milan cathedral, which was just amazing. Carrie and I have both seen a fair number of cathedrals, but both of us agreed that this Milan’s cathedral was of the most amazing. We primarily loved the cathedral for the stained glass windows, which we both took LOTS of pictures of.
WE SEE DEAD PEOPLE
One of the more amazing, as well as disturbing, portions of the cathedral are the altars that are dedicated to saints. This isn’t out of the ordinary in Catholic cathedrals, but was the first time that either of us had seen hermetically sealed glass caskets where you can look in at the actual physical remains of the saint that the altar is dedicated to. While it does create an environment of respect and reverence, it simultaneously creates an atmosphere that is imposing and foreboding, and could easily give little children nightmares.

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Bergamo Italy Tourism: The Bergamo Tourist Day In The Cathedral and at the Castle

Today, we had a really nice (although very rainy) day in Bergamo. Our friend Mara lives really close to Bergamo, and we spent some time here, with Mara showing us all of the amazing sites.

Carrie and I agree that the cathedral in Bergamo was one of the nicest (if not the nicest) cathedral we have ever visited. Everything was guilded in gold, and being right next to a monastery, it was well cared for by the monks, and just had the feeling that there was a ton of history there. Plus, because there were so few people there, it gave a really cool and powerful ambiance to the place that really was very prayerful, like a church should be (but so often isn’t).

There was also all of this elaborate wood paneling and woodwork throughout the church. Here’s an example from one of the entrance doors.

We had a lot of fun just playing in the rain under our umbrellas as well.

The day was also filled with awesome food (how could a day in Italy not be, right?) Right after the cathedral, we went and had a hot chocolate at a café nearby the cathedral… what’s crazy about the hot chocolate in Italy is that you really can’t drink it because it’s too thick. It’s really like melted chocolate that’s been heated up.

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Parmesan vs. Parmigiano Reggiano

Parmesan has been ruined forever.
That is, American Parmesan has been ruined for me forever. That is because Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy is something entirely different than American Parmesan cheese. I mean, the cheese we get from Sam’s Club is pretty good, but it’s definitely an imitation of the stuff we’ve eaten here in the northern part of Italy.
And if you’re eating the pre-shredded stuff (or even better, the stuff that comes in the preprocessed can that is marketed as “finely grated Parmesean cheese”), and you don’t want it to be spoiled for you, then I recommend staying as far away from this region of the world as you possibly can.
Really, the Parmigiano Reggiano alone is worth traveling here for.

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Verona: Our Wonderful Day In Verona

We wrote our experiences of Verona separately (for no particular reason)… so today, you get to experience Verona through both of our eyes in one short post!

Verona: Jonathan’s experience

To be honest, before going, I wasn’t that excited about going to Verona. I knew it was a fabled city because of the story of Romeo and Juliet, but didn’t know that Shakespeare’s story actually came from such a cool city. There are a number of things to see and do in Verona, but let’s get to the topic everyone would want to know about…

Did we see where Romeo met, courted, and eventually died with Juliet?

Well…

Here’s the balcony of Juliet

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Bergamo to Venice: Our Guide and Day in Venice

Venice… ah Venice… the city of love, canals, and funny smells.
Venice was nice.
It is definitely a place everyone should see.
We’re glad we went, and we enjoyed the time there. But to be honest, it felt a bit hyped and overrated at times.
We’re here during a relatively low time of the year for tourism. However, the city is still overrun with people taking pictures of things.
One of the things they’re taking pictures of is all the pigeons.
What are the pigeons doing?
Eating the crumbs of items which were dropped by tourists, who are eating stuff (and throwing stuff to the birds) which was made for tourists.
But we did have a great Venice guide in our friend Mara (who has been to Venice more than once before).

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From Bremen to Bergamo (Milan)

Because of the strike happening with the German train system, we were unable to take the train from Bad Zwischenahn into Bremen to catch our flight this morning. Sabine was nice enough to drive us to the Bremen airport, which was about an hour away. Thanks Sabine!

We flew from Bremen into Bergamo (marketed as Milan by Ryan Air) where Mara was kind enough to pick us up. It was my first time meeting her, and she and Jonathan hadn’t seen each other for six years (since they studied together in Oldenburg).

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