A collection of random thoughts and observations we gathered during our travels :-)
- Parisian dress code: black pants, black, white or grey blouse. Black or grey scarf. This applies to both men and women. Women love it when you can see their bra.
- Germans are REALLY nice; the nicest of the entire trip. I must admit I was a bit disappointed in the Italians. Hernan and I both come from Italian families and we were looking forward to visiting the "mother ship" and eating our way through Rome but they were not very nice, actually a bit rude most of the time. It didn't help that we went to Italy at the end of our trip and the airline lost our bags for 3 days so exhaustion and frustration were also involved in this experience :(
- German beds are weird. They're 2 twin beds pushed together - I felt like Fred and Wilma Flinstone and kept falling through the crack!
- Smoking is not only a problem in Paris: Luzern, Füssen, Munich, Salzburg, Madrid and Rome are all the same.
- Wireless and Internet access are not widespread like in the US. It is very difficult to get online, which drove me crazy but helped me look up and appreciate my surroundings a lot more. I suffered from serious "WiFidrawal" (yup, I just made up that word)
- Cars come with the same "fashion" sense as people: the great majority are black or grey - very much like in Brasil
- BMW and Audi in Germany are like Subarus in Oregon: pretty much every other person has one.
- German-speaking countries teach English as a basic subject in school since they believe its in their best interest for tourism. Quite a contrast from Spain where you have to pay for English classes outside of school.
- The food was excellent everywhere and it's very similar to Portland: food sourced from local farmers, extremely fresh. Also, in most places we went to salad wasn't a choice, you got it anyway. Vegetables covered 3/4 of the plate you ordered and they were really good.
- The svelte Parisian figures stayed in Paris. I know my idea about the "Parisian figure" is a bit silly and crazy but I'm convinced there is something going on with the flavor quota and the amount of walking going on in France's capital. They eat tons of bread, butter and cheese, drink wine left and right and still look great!
- Hernan learned a very valuable lesson on the importance of making early reservations ;-)
We were supposed to visit BMW and Audi factories while staying in Munich but he waited until 10 days before to reserve our tickets and unfortunately they were already booked for the whole month. Since we were so close to Salzburg we deviated from our plans and went to visit this beautiful city where they filmed The Sound of Music - my all-time favorite movie! Being trapped in a bus with 30 tourists (including me, of course) singing "Do a Deer" to the top of their lungs while driving along the Austrian countryside was better than writing 1000 times "I will make early reservations next time". JAJA!