After mechanical difficulty (who needs an ice sensor when you're taking off in a snowstorm?) and a slow airplane, we arrived in Atlanta exactly two minutes after our plane to Munich departed. Several hours later, we finally sorted out an alternate route, via Amsterdam, and arrived at the castle late last night. The students were relaxed, even with the long delay and uncertainty about when we'd arrive, and the toddler was a real trooper, sleeping on the overnight flight and relatively patient through our extra flight and long layovers. We never even broke out the DVD player.
The bus ride over the Brenner Pass from Munich to Italy was alpine and Medieval, with castles scattered across the hills. When I woke up this morning, after not enough hours of sleep, I saw the view above from the window.
J and I spent most of the day with the croft-dwellers, exploring the larger town a mile's hike down the hill through vineyards (and a shorter bus ride back up). It's a good thing we brought 14 extra helpers to Italy--the paths and roads here are steep, and it would have been difficult to walk to town without the generosity of the Crofters in helping with bags, the stroller, etc.
We visited the weekly market, had a picnic by the Passeier River, and explored the old part of the city. We even found a little playground. People seem to like kids here--J got lots of samples of fruits and vegetables at the market, and two elderly women together stopped by our picnic to talk to him (one in Italian and one in German, interestingly), telling me in each language that they thought he was beautiful. For J, the two highlights of the day were eating gelato by the river and riding the bus. And, of course, we met the castle's animals--donkeys, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, and cats.
No comments:
Post a Comment