Dull Day

Today I woke up by my mom's loud voice saying,  "Get up, get up!"   So I woke up and did what she asked, defiantly.  We were catching a train to Passau today.  We are visiting one of my dad's close friends, named Herbert.  If you remember, we already visited him early in the trip, but with a limited amount of time.  I am glad that we came back to see him.  I think it will be a blast.  He has two children, one 12 and one 14.  I am about to go watch a German soccer game with them on TV.  It is the National Woman's Cup. 

When we got on the train I had work to do.  I did my math and wrote a couple postcards.  In fact, I did math for 4 hours, and wrote my postcards in about 15 minutes.  We had to change trains in Munich. That may sound boring, but we actually got on the wrong train car and barely got off in time.

On the next train ride I had no work to do!  My dad convinced mom to allow us to watch a movie.  We watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  I have not seen that one for awhile.  I think it is one of my favorites!

When we arrived in Passau we were greeted by Herbert.  We had to stop at the grocery store before we got to his house.  They have a interesting way of shopping in Europe.  You put one Euro in a slot in the cart and you only get that Euro back when you return the cart.  It must be a way of making people put the carts back where they found them. In the produce section, you have to weigh your items in a bag and print out a bar code to stick on the bag.  Normally in the U.S., the cashier does all that.

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic. 

The Disappointing Day

This morning my mom woke me up at a pretty reasonable time, if being woken up is ever reasonable!  Well, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. Today we were taking a train to Verona where a disappointment and sadness awaited us. 

First of all, the train ride was only supposed to take a hour or so.  It actually turned out to take 2 hours and 15 minutes. This would normally have been fine, but today we only had the rest of the day to stay in Verona. 

When we got into Verona we had to walk a bit to get to our hotel.  When we finally got there, we realized that they did not have internet.  So we spent another hour, in vain, trying to figure out our internet situation.  When it rains it pours! (I am writing this entry on “pages”,  and will post it later when I have internet.)

Then we explored the town and saw a big coliseum like the one in Rome.  It was made in the time of the Gladiators (200A.D.) and is now used for opera performances. It holds several thousand people.  The opera, Aida, by Verdi, is playing tomorrow night.  My parents were going to extend our visit to be able to watch the opera.  Then we found out that it would not work.  I am distraught to not see the opera!  I had become so excited!

I wish I had seen more of Verona.  It’s sad that we did not have enough time.  It seems like it is an interesting and relatively tourist-free town.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic


 

 

Economics 101

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

The Ocean City

This morning I was dragged out of bed at 7:00.  I did not mind though, I was going to Venice.  I was so excited!  I had heard so much about it, but had never seen a glimpse of it.   After we all hopped out of bed, our host drove us to the train station in Tervisio.  I just could not wait.  When we got on the train, we could hardly contain ourselves. Venice was slowly getting closer! 

After the three of us ecstatically jumped off the train, we had to catch a boat to get to our hotel.  Venice is made up of many small islands off the coast of Italy.  It is probably  efficient to have more boats than cars.   Our hotel is on an island off of the city center.  We will be taking boats in to the city every day. I hoped Venice would live up to its reputation.

When we got to our yellow water taxi we were toured around the city  en route to our hotel.  Venice was just as I had thought.  The city has ubiquitous canals, and vibrant, beautiful old buildings in all colors.


Before we checked in to our hotel, we got some fresh Italian ice cream.  It was the best ice cream I had ever had!  It was much softer and more delicate than the ice cream in the U.S.  There were also so many ice cream stands, all with the same amazing quality as our first stop.  The result of all this delicious ice cream, was that I stuffed my face with three double scopes through out the day.  The food keeps getting better!!!!!

After checking into the hotel, we decided to go to the beach on the island. The island on which we are staying, is the furthest island out to sea in Venice. There for it is facing the Adriatic Sea. The beach has a very different system than beaches in the U.S.  At the hotel, they give guests a bracelet that activates the shower on the beach.  The beach is lined with hundreds of neat, blue cabins.  The bracelet also activates one of the cabin locks.  The water was a perfect temperature.  Today was one of my favorite days on the entire trip!

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.

Another Lazy Day

The lazy river

This morning was very nice but tomorrow is going to be brutal!  We have to wake up at 7:00!  We are taking a train into Venice.  There was a little change of plans.  Instead of staying at the cottage and

Cottage near Trevisio

taking daily trains into Venice, we found a hotel in Venice!  We are only staying at cites for 1 or 2 days.  I am having to pack up my gear almost every night! I think we are moving too fast!

After breakfast, yet again I had work to do, like always!  I had to do thirty tricky problems of math!  My dad says that I need to work on my accuracy.  I agree with him.  I am making careless errors on ten of thirty daily problems.  I am working very hard and I am trying my best.  I think I am getting better!

When I was done with my thirty problems, my parents took me to the river again.  I have to say, I love

skipping stones

that beach!  It is so peaceful!  We swam to the other side of the river!  In order to not be carried too far down stream, you have to practically swim up stream!  My parents played guitar for most of the time.  I also worked on skipping rocks.  When we finished our relaxing beach time, we trudged in our shorts and flip-flops back to our little cottage to get ready for dinner.    

Trudge home

After the beach, we went to dinner at the same place as last night.  (Starting to see the pattern!)   We met a very nice waitress who’s name was Michelle.  She was patient with our Italian.  Or, I guess you could call It Italian!  She helped us decide what food to order.  We had a yummy pizza covered in bacon and onions.  We also ordered pasta, salad, and a pork dish!  I thought the German food was good, but tonight’s meal was fantastic!   

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!                    

I Mean It, Be More Careful.

This morning, for the first time ever, I woke up on a train.  I have to say, sleeping on a train was very fun!   I loved being bumped around on my little bunk!   The only problem was, when we stopped at a station, the lights filled the train.  I cannot sleep with lights at all!   It tells my brain that it is daytime, therefore shutting down sleep mode. 

When we got to Italy, we were greeted by our hosts with whom we will will be staying this weekend.  They have a little cottage out in a small village about a hour train ride from Venice.  The cottage is so relaxing!  I love it!  We are planning one day just staying at their house and enjoying doing nothing.  We all agree that we have been moving way too fast!

I had a bit of work to do.  I did barely anything on the train.  So, I had to catch up, or I would not meet my week’s goal.  I had to do a long lesson in math, and read 55 pages of Anne Frank.  I also had to write a sentence about the word “insidious.”   After I read the 55 pages, I realized I only had 38 pages left in the book, so I decided to get it finished!  The book was really interesting for the first couple of hundred pages, but then it got a little boring hearing about a 14 year old girl’s feelings.

When I had completed some work, we went down to a river with good swimming potential.  When we got there, we were all astonished by the beach’s beauty.  We were exploring when I tripped over a branch and landed on my knee again.  Ouch.  I keep saying that I need to be more careful.  Maybe I should listen to myself.




After we went to the river we were all famished from the long day and barely any sleep.  We then experienced our first Italian dinner.  It was so good!  The Pizza was amazing!  Such yummy thin crust, mmmm.  Also dessert, I am telling you, was the best I had ever had!  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!


    

Night Train

This morning we barely got up in time for breakfast.  It was another sad case of hotels that don’t let you sleep.  It’s either room service or an early closing time for breakfast.  Yeesh.  What’s next, hotels with alarms that never turn off?  Also in the morning, David said that he wanted to go back home.  He changed his airplane ticket to tomorrow morning from Vienna. 

After breakfast, we had to get an ace wrap for my sore knee. With the ace wrap on, I was ready to hop around town and start sightseeing.  Our first stop was St Stephan’s Cathedral.  The church looked a lot like the Regensburg Dom. It had the same Gothic features: high ceilings, very dark lighting inside, very tall columns, and stained glass windows. The unique part of the church was its two towers up which you could climb.  One of the towers was bigger than the other one.  The higher tower had stairs, but I could not climb them because of my injured knee.  I cannot climb long staircases as this will make my knee swell.  The shorter tower, however, had a elevator so I could go!  I initially did not think the short tower was very high, but when I got up to the steeple, I scared myself to death!  I wonder how it feels on the higher tower!

Once I was done scaring my self silly we went to a museum.  The museum buildings were two of the biggest I have ever seen.  They each were about the size of the the White House.  The museum had one of the biggest mineral collections in the world. The museum was so large, that in two hours we only got half way through it!  It is a really old museum.  It belonged to the Kaiser of Austria back in the 1800s.  There was a one inch stone statue of a lady that was made 35,000 years ago. I also learned a lot about molecules and how DNA is created. It was the best museum I had ever seen!  

I am writing from an overnight train to Venice.  It is so cool!  It has 4 beds, two on the bottom of the cabin, and two on the top of the cabin, where the bags are normally put. I already called the top bunk!  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic. 
      

Really, Be Carefull!!!

This morning, no one woke me up.  I woke up of my own accord.  I had to do my work.  I did not want to have to stay up late tonight. When I was starting my work, I accidentally woke mom and dad up.  Well, they were not happy with that, but they were glad that I was doing my work.

After breakfast, we decided we wanted to move to a different hotel.  We wanted a hotel nearer to the center of town.  The hotel that the bike outfitters gave us was miles away from the old city and points of interest.  Mmmmmm, “sounds hollow!"

We took a subway across town to our new hotel.  We quickly checked in to our hotel and went to explore the town.  I found it interesting that the old city of Vienna looks a lot like the stereotypical Rome.  All the old buildings have many statues on them.  One of the buildings even had a big fountain of people and gods united.  On the top of the fountain, there was a big statue of a Greek god.  I think the god might be Ares, the god of war.  He had a big shield and a sword in his hand.

After exploring the town we went back to the hotel.  As in the morning, I had work to do.  I jumped right into my reading.  While I was reading, dad checked my math.  Then dad, David, and mom went downstairs to find a place to stay in Venice (our next destination.)  While they were doing that, I finished my reading, corrected my mistakes in math, and went downstairs to check on my parents.  When I got there, dad said he wanted to recheck my math.  On the way up, dad raced me to our room. We ran up three flights of stairs.  I beat my dad up the stairs, but tripped in the hall at the top and I fell on my knee again.  I now have a large knee effusion, which means that my knee is swelling and if I am not careful it could get infected.  I have to wear a gauze wrap and antibiotic ointment.  At dinner, my parents had to bring up food for me, while I wrote this blog with my leg elevated and iced. Ouch.......!

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

Be More Careful

This morning, my mom woke me up at 7:00.  This time, though, that wake up time was reasonable.  Today we faced a 82 kilometer day!  I was not sure whether to be scared or excited.  We all walked down to breakfast with an excited glare in our eyes. We gobbled up our breakfast and were off!

After we had biked for a little while, I took a bad crash.  I hurt mostly both of my knees, but my elbows took a bit of damage also.  Mom had crashed a couple of days before and she got a bruise on her elbow too, so now we have matching elbows! 

                                                                                                                            

After having a nice and filling lunch, I had my second crash. This one was more serious.  I took off a big chunk of my knee.  It smarted badly and I had to limp the rest of the day.  I crashed because I was not looking at the road.  Instead, I was looking at a swimming area.  It was sweltering outside and I was hankering to get into the water.   Thankfully, we decided to take a jump in, "splash!"  So I washed the blood off my knee and swam for awhile.  It felt really refreshing!  You take the good with the bad!

From the swimming area, the way to Vienna (our final destination today) felt short because of a new technique I learned this morning.  It is a fascinating thing to do with my bike, called drafting.  My dad told me that bike racers draft, too.  It is where many bikers bike in a line, and the first person in line pushes through the air resistance.  The people following bike in an air pocket that the first person creates.  Therefore, the people behind the leader get an easier ride because they have less resistance by the air.  I used this technique along the flats of the Danube.  We all drafted in a line today.  It came in handy especially today because the wind was blowing super hard, I was pooped, it was hot, and the mileage was long.   

I am not sure what I think of the bike trip being over.  I am really tired, and am excited to sleep in and relax.  Yet I will miss the adventures my family had along the waters of the Danube.  I will write to you soon.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.

A Pain Free Morning!

Thankfully, this morning my mom let me sleep.  I love it when she does that even if she only does it on rare occasions.  When I did wake up, though, I realized that I had had a noise bleed in my sleep.  I did not even know that was possible!  After I got up and moving, I went down to breakfast.  The breakfast at the hotel was amazing.  It even had cake for dessert!  I never knew there could be dessert after breakfast! Yummy.  Europe is my kind of place!

First thing in the morning, before our long bike ride, we visited the palace in Artstettan (the town where we stayed last night.)  It was the same palace that Archduke Ferdinand lived in.  He and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo and that very assassination started World War I. The castle was transformed into a museum.  It explained everything about his royal family at the time.  The most interesting thing I saw at the museum was the car that Ferdinand and his wife were in when they were assassinated.

Our next stop was an energy efficient ferry.  It was carried cars, trucks, bikes and people across the river,  It used no motor, but ferried with just the right angel for the current to push it directly across the water.  There was a cable attached to the bow of the boat that connected to another cable that ran across the river.  This cable prevented the ferry from being pushed downstream by the current. Seeing this ferry was the most interesting part of my day.  I wish companies in the US would think of such ingenious ideas as this one!

On the Ferry.  Cable in background.

The rest of my day included a brief stop at a swimming area, and an extremely yummy lunch.  We also biked through a region where grapes are grown and pressed and wine is made.  This “Find Harry” picture was taken in the grape vines.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.

Find Harry

The Somnolent Day

This morning, I woke up to my mom roaming around the room at 7:00.  I dozed for another hour and was then woken up intentionally by her.  Its funny, though.   She wakes me up so sweetly, and yet I am going through great pain.  I wouldn’t get up, so Mom eventually gave up and left me to go have breakfast.  I eventually got out of bed,  though I was very somnolent the rest of the morning.  Unfortunately, my sleepiness kept me from having a very good day.

We started biking in the late morning after touring a palace in Grein.  When we had biked for a while we found an old castle ruin.  This castle was supposed to be haunted by a ghost that is rarely seen, and only comes out at the full moon.  I think that story is a load of poppycock.  The castle ruin was really interesting.  The most fascinating thing about it was that one of the towers had been accessed by a big outside staircase back in the day.  The staircase has worn down and now you have to climb up the wall to get to the doorway that is about 10 meters high.  None of us made it.  For now, only the birds know what is inside the castle tower.

After touring the castle, and biking several more miles, we had to bike up a huge hill to get to our hotel.  It was 6 kilometers long.  I have never biked a hill that long.  I couldn’t take any pictures because it was too strenuous of a ride.  When I got up to the top, I felt proud of myself for accomplishing such a big hill.  It was really good weather to bike in, not sunny but also not too cold.   After reaching the top, we still had to go a little farther to get to our hotel.  The good news was that most of the final push was down hill, with only occasional up hills.    When we got to the hotel I was relieved that the long day was over. 

I’m really tired now, and want to go to bed.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.

The Nazi Camp

The Nazi Camp

This morning, yet again, my parents woke me up at 8:15.  Yet another morning with no sleep!  I do not think I would have been looking forward to this bike trip as much if I had known about the “get up early” policy!  Yeesh!  Give me some sleep!  

Our first stop today was a concentration camp in the village of Mathausen.  It was used during the Holocaust.  It was just shocking to see what the Nazis did to people during World War II.  The camps contained many different groups of people.  There were political dissidents, prisoners of war, and homosexuals, as well as Jews.  The Nazis would throw prisoners off high cliffs to their deaths!  Other prisoners were shot dead. The lucky ones were worked to death.  Probably the worst thing the Nazis did was to do experiments on the prisoners, when they were still alive!  They would take out their organs, or inject them with poisons and see how long It would take them to die.  I could not look at the camp for long.  It was too emotional for me.

Our next stop on our daily route was a playground!  It is really interesting to me that playgrounds in Europe are much more fun than the ones in the U.S.  For instance, this playground had a huge, sideways barrel that you could step into.  Once inside, I had to start walking and the barrel would start spinning.  I had to run in it to keep myself from falling.  It was similar to a gerbil exercise wheel.  The playground also had a slide that was about 9 meters long.  That’s 27 feet!  There was a teeter-totter that was made for four people.  It was basically like a big X with a seat on the end of each arm.  The playground was practically like an amusement park!

The Giant Barrel

The Long Slide

Dizzy David

After the play ground, we biked to our next hotel, a pension in the village of Grein.  The people at the hotel are really kooky.  When we rang the door bell, the manager, an old lady, opened a window upstairs, leaned out and asked us what we wanted.  The halls  reek of cat pee.  Thankfully our stay is only one night!  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!                           

Raining Hard

This morning, my mom woke me up at 8:15.  We had a long day of biking ahead of us.  Today we were biking from Niederranna to Linz.  We had to bike about 35 miles, or 64 kilometers!  Today was going to be long, hard, and fun!  I was extremely excited.  Well, at the moment I was just tired.  I had to get up fast or I would miss breakfast!

Once we got biking, mom told us that we had a couple ferry crossings to do today.  Our first ferry was a little after our departure.  It was a long ferry ride.  We were all eager to explore the opposite side of the river!  Our second ride was 20 miles, or 33 kilometers, from our hotel in Linz.  When we got of the second ferry we all cranked hard to get to lunch and to finish the day early!  

The next destination (lunch, in the town of Ottensheim) was only 6 miles from Linz.  When we got there it was sprinkling.  We found a nice outside lunch spot with an umbrella.  It had really good food and yet an even better dessert.  Yum!

After we had lunch, we explored the town of Ottensheim.  It had started to rain a bit more, but none of us cared.  We found an interesting craft fair where they were selling home made artwork.  They had booths under tents where they were selling their crafts.  The homemade pieces were of amazing quality!  I have never seen such high quality craft!  We only had one problem now;  it was pouring!

On our ride to the hotel in Linz, we were all soaked!  We loved being wet!  It was so fun feeling the rain on our faces!  We road along a highway, so the passing cars were spraying us!  The wet way to the hotel was definitely the highlight of my day!

When we got to our hotel, we realized that it was a four star hotel!  We were in luck! The bike outfitters had made a mistake!  Once we checked in and settled down, we were ready for the nice and relaxing night. Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.  


The Long and Winding Road

In the morning, we had to wake up at 7:30.  We were leaving on a big bike trip!  I was extremely excited!  We are taking a bike ride from Passau to Vienna along the Danube River.  We are taking 6 days to get there and are stoping at hotels along the way.   Our first hotel is in the village of Niederranna.  The outfitter gave us minimal information about the hotels, so we had barely any expectations. They did tell us that we were staying in 3 star hotels, though.

Before we got on the bike trail, we had to buy a camera.  I had dropped my old camera in the sand the night before. I was playing on a zip line and it fell out of my pocket.  The sad thing is, a camera costs a hundred euros which is about a hundred and fifty dollars.  I had to pay for my camera with my savings. ahhg!!  I had been thinking about what I would buy when I got back to the US with this money.  Well, at least I got a new camera out of the deal.  It has high tech settings and a new zoom system, not to mention that it is a bright vibrant blue.  

When we had pedaled for a while, we all decided that we were very hungry.  So, about half way through today’s bike ride, we stopped at a nice beer garden.  It was located in a natural and pretty garden along the river.  It was as if you were sitting down in the middle of nature.  It also had many beautiful flowers.  The  colorful flowers had many bees feeding on their pollen.

Our next destination was just after we crossed the border into Austria. It was a bright and sunny beach.  We sat there and had some cookies that my mom had brought.  My dad had the idea to swim.  He was the first person with the bravery to jump in.  Then followed David, then me, then cat.  When we emerged from the water, we dried off and jumped back on our bikes. 

For Andrew

When we arrived at our hotel, we were in luck.  This hotel was rated a three star hotel but has the quality of four stars!  It has big soulful rooms and a wooden porch facing the river.  The people are also really nice here.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

Passau Day 2

This morning was my first awakening in our new hotel.  That was not to say it was a nice awakening.  We forgot to put a Do Not Disturb sign on our door.  The room service woke us up in the morning with a big, loud, knock on our door.  Oh, I forgot to tell you, breakfast stopped at 10:00.  So we had to wake up early.  If it were my hotel, I would let my guests sleep more.   

After breakfast, I was doing a little school work, you know the standard math and reading, when David surprised us by coming to our hotel!  He had been staying at another hotel for a few days. When he arrived, we decided to go explore around town for awhile.  Our first destination was a wooded park.  It had a nice swing set and a teeter-totter.  We tried to balance on the teeter-totter without either side touching the ground. Then my dad stood balancing on the middle. To get the balance right, you had to move your weight along the log.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Later in the day, we visited some interesting churches. The first one was St. Paul’s Cathedral and it had black walls with a white curved Gothic ceiling and was lined with gold. It had many beautiful paintings of Jesus and Mary.  This church was built originally around 700 AD but was rebuilt later in the Baroque style. The Baroque style uses lots of gold. The second church we visited was the Passau Dom. It was much larger and had tall towers and a high ceiling which reminded me of the Gothic Regenburg Dom. This cathedral had many paintings of angels on the ceilings and was filled with an immense amount of gold lining.  I think the Passau Dom was originally a Gothic church and was transformed into a Baroque church in later years. This church appears Baroque to me because the style is light and happy.

After a lunch break, we headed up a long path to an old castle which had been renovated and changed into a museum.  When we got there, to our disappointment, the museum was already closed.  As we turned our faces in defeat down the steep stairs, we found the way out locked.  We jumped over a fence then continued down the trail. Unbeknownst to us, there were two more gates in our path, both locked. We barely managed to squeeze through one of the gates but accepted defeat on the other.  In shame, we crawled back through the gates to the museum and asked one of the museum guards to let us out and show us the way down.

Back in town we ended the day on the swings. Today was a long day and I thank my mom and dad for there help with this entry.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic

Passau Day 1

This morning another one of my dad’s friends, Eva, woke us up. Yes, again we had the German breakfast tradition.  I am getting tired of it.  When I get tired of something, I think of the people that do not have any food.  They would find it a huge gift just to have a little piece of bread.  Anyway, we were leaving Regendorf today.  So, we said goodbye to Eva and Gunther, Eva’s husband. After we had breakfast, we were ready to face the day.

After we made one errand, we took on the long drive to Passau.  I dislike long drives, but this one was really fun (or fun for a car ride).  I listened to this really awesome album.  It is by the band Deep Purple.  They are the same band that does Smoke on the Water.  Their band actually has better songs than Smoke on the Water, though it is their most popular song.  You should really check them out.  One of their really good songs is called Highway Star.

Find Harry!

When we checked into our hotel, we realized they had a wacky internet system.  Of course we need internet for maps, blog and travel information.  You could use internet for 60 minutes in the lobby and in the restaurant for free if you got a card from the front desk.  In the rooms, though, you had to pay.  I cracked their system.  I used the 60 minutes in my room by using the card I got from the front desk.

After we checked in, we went to an old village that had a castle we could tour.  When we got there, the way to the castle was blocked by a gate.  That was a disappointment.  I had been looking forward to this all day.  They had turned the castle into a place you could only see with a tour group.  Well, I hope we have better luck next time.  We also looked around the village for awhile.  It had this fascinating place were they would put people who had done something bad. They locked them up on a ledge in the town square. The townspeople mocked them from below.  They would even throw vegetables and food at them.  It was harsh what they did to people back then. The device was called the stocks.  People were put in the stocks so that others would laugh at them.  That explains the expression, “my dad became the laughing stock of the family for wrecking the rental car”.  Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.

I am not kidding!!!

      

Regensburg

find Harry

Today I was woken up by my dad by accident.  Do you think he needs to be more careful?  Anyway this morning I had left overs from last morning's breakfast.  I was fine having the same delicious meal for two mornings.  Mmmm, so yummy.  There was meat,  Nutella, and cheese.  I really love that Nutella!  My parents liked all the cheeses.  Personally I thought the cheeses were too strong.

When the morning was over, we went to the old city of Regensburg.   This city has many beautiful old churches.  One of the churches is very famous in Europe. It is a Gothic cathedral.  It is called the Regensburger Dom. The church was built in 700 AD.  The church was expanded into a bigger, fancy Gothic cathedral throughout the thirteenth century.  It is really interesting to imagine that hundreds of years ago a person walked in the same church.

Front of the Dom

Stained glass windows inside the Dom

The Alter in the Dom

The other church was also beautiful.  It was called the Alta Kapella.  This means the old chapel.  This church was designed in a Rococo style.  Rococo means that it is very bright and happy and is lined with gold.  The problem with this church was the sanctuary was closed off with bars.  You could see through the bars.  A camera lens could also fit through the bars. 

Alta Kapella Church - Rococo Style

   









Dinner was on us tonight, so we had to get home fast.  We also did not have the amount of food we needed to cook dinner.  We went to the grocery store.  The interesting thing about the grocery store was that you have to pay for the grocery cart to use it.  But, you do get the money back when you turn the cart back in.  Tonight for dinner, we cooked pork tenderloin.  Whenever my parents make pork tenderloin at home it is always killer!  I also love their sauce.    It was as yummy today!