Summer in Europe

now - that the european winter is trying to push open the gateways, a bit late, or so i am told, but still pushing, trying to cool down the entire country until it is dazzling in snowy white - i am finally adding my european summer story to this trip.

august 2006 saw the wedding of my younger sister, kind of funny to think about her, my little sister to get married, and in some way it is still a strange thought to me. i still see her as the little girl that she once was, at a time when i was also a little girl, maybe a bit bigger, but still small, and now, wham bang shebang, she is married... ups, where did this come from... well presumably from meeting the right guy at the right time... and he certainly is the right guy, or so i think. so here they are the newly weds, or by now not- quite- so- newly- weds- anymore, my granny dancing her pants off, renate, girls-disco-gallore, 99 luftballons, the bride maid and best man, and... well just go and have a look :)








but, now to something totally different: abruzzo
making most of my trip to europe i decided to go to italy with uli, and with moltepulciano d'abruzzio being my favourite wine and ryanair going to pescara i decided that this might just be the place to go. and as the region is one big wild places with wolves and bears and the lot the decision was an easy one to make.... so there we went on a 5 day abruzzo galore.
now here the abruzzo story in short:

uli and i flew to pescara, landed 30min after a major hailstorm that left all the rental car at the airport dented, persuaded a rather cute italian to rent one of them to us anyway, got a blue turbo diesel fiat panda - my dream car - and off we went riding into the sunset in hot pursuit of a room, which we eventually found long after nightfall, asking in many dubious places and by following a pick up truck to a lone guesthouse in some remote village somewhere in the mountains. at this time location mattered little, neither did price, all we needed was a bed, and we got it, together with a good meal and a bottle of the above mentioned vine.

the next day saw us driving across la maiella region in hot pursuit of the, for me, long awaited parco nationale d'abruzzo, where we had another afternoon fun trying to find a room. somehow we forgot that the very week in august was the busiest in the italian travel calendar, with a public holiday and school holidays all in one, resulting in a rather competitive room search situation, featuring two germans versus the entire population of rome and a third of italy. but, because we were persistent, positive and shrewd we managed to get a fantastic room in a fantastic village in a fantastic location, right smack bang in the middle of the national park, away from the huge tourist hype, for a decent price and with a village that held the cheapest and best pizzeria, offering the local wine (see above) at ridiculously cheep prices, of which we made ample use, of course :)
making most not only of the wine and pizza, we went on a superb walk into the mountains - the information officers in the park told us that bears are not to be seen in august, because they are too scared of all the tourists, so we opted for scenery and horses as the decorative big mammals which turned out to be a superbly beautiful choice. then, after another night of wine and pizza, off we went to the northern mountains of the grand sasso and santo stefano, a beautiful medici stronghold on top of the mountains, full of low archways, round towers, little nukes and corners, and of course a brilliant restaurant for us to indulge in… ah what culinary pleasures! pleasures that furbished us with enough strength to take on the gigantic landscape of the campo imperatore the next day, which we traversed before slowly returning to pescara via the medieval town of penne. now as me if abruzzo is worth a visit and i will ask you what are you waisting your time with? go! go! go! go! go!