ALPS.

For the last 6 years, I have wanted to do one thing:


I've wanted to be in the Alps again.


Everyone could tell you that before this trip, I was absolutely petrified to be driving from Germany to Austria to Italy through the Alps.


After about 6 hours+ driving, all I can say is: Can I do it again?


It was exquisitely, incredibly beautiful.

It's hard to capture or describe the sheer size of the mountains.

And here begins the series of Adrienne randomly waving the camera and clicking at things I wanted to capture.  While driving at 140 kph.  Hmm?

So, we drove through lots of Alps, and a bit of Austria, and finally we came down to Lake Grada in Italy.  It was spectacular.

This is a corner of it - the rest of the lake was too bright to photograph.  It's miles long and the wind was whipping through.  Sailers and parasailers (is that what they're called?) were zipping across at crazy speeds.  It was amazing.

Then we dropped by Verona, which has a mini Colloseum.

This is Juliet Capulet's balcony.  There was a horrid mass of making-out teenagers underneath.  Yet another reason to not like that play.  

Verona's main square.

And then we zipped our way to Venice (passing Padua along the way - thought of you, M., H., and J. - and the crappa mappa that got us NOWHERE!!  My boss wants us to go there on Wednesday - heh heh).  And then we got to Venice and parked and got into a private water taxi.  This was the part where I started to think to myself, my life is kind of sick.  

Down the street from our Hotel.  The building to the left is where we're holding our conference.  The green squiggles are part of the Hubble exhibit.  They represent galaxy signals.  I'll explain tomorrow.

Off to bed with 2% power in my battery.  Till tomorrow!  Off to find a cobbler and sit in on science papers!