Travel Day

Today is day ten and that means it is travel day. With 18 hours of travel ahead and the time change we hope to our feet in Edmonton on Saturday night.

With the worries if the airline strike behind us (hopefully); we boarded our planes in Venice for Frankfurt; our guide Mario ensures us that the international flights are never affected by the strikes. It was a sad farewell last night as we had to part ways with our guide Mario. The group as a whole appreciated Mario's stories and humour.

With the last leg of our trip to go I'm afraid so is this portion of the blog. While I hoped to have provided a little insight into our trip and a few photos (which complete and full size will be available on the school's website), I am sure that you are eager to hear the stories of your family members and see the photos.

Chow for now,
Mr. Kohle

Post Script: we are presently in Vancouver and on schedule (so far). See Wainwright in about 7 hours.
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Last Stop Venice

Well we were all shocked as we did the walk of Venice. There is no vehicles on the islands of Venice. We said goodbye to our driver who must have been trained on a race car circuit; he would drive a double decker bus through the switchbacks of the Alps at speeds up to 100 km/h.
While I enjoyed the ride by a driver who does this every day of his life, some found the ride too much for them. I figured that people pay good money at at the stampede for a ride like this.

Anyways, we are now in the city of canals and gondolas. After supper, our guide Mario took us to the city center; over bridges and down winding roads through the city. Meanwhile he was teaching us how to read the signs. He challenged us to find our way back to the hotel (1.5 miles away). Well we took him up on his challenge and returned via a different route. On the way we listened to a few Quintets (five piece orchestras) in a area of the city which charges 20 Euros for a cup of coffee. We finally returned to the hotel with a few times wondering if we going down a "correct" street.

Tomorrow we get a city guided tour and a boat ride. I can hardly wait.

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World Championship Curling

Price of ticket - 8 Euros, price of ham sandwich - 4 Euros, price of sprite - 2.5 Euros, being in Cortina Italy to watch the Canadians beat China 9 to 3 - priceless.

It is a beautiful day in Italy, it took us a little longer to get to Cortina than originally thought. Who knew that there was more than one Cortina in Italy? We got pictures and autographs with Kevin Kuo's team.

After catching a bite in Cortina, we are on our way to Venice for our last stop on the tour. I cannot believe that we will be back in Wainwright in a few days.

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Day Eight

Well It's day eight (if you can call it day). With most of us getting a wakeup call at 4 am such that we are loaded and ready to go by 5 am. The remaining got a wakeup call at 5 am (they say they didn't get the call or did they sleep through it; we'll never know). But as of 5:15 am we are on the road to Cortina to cheer on Team Canada. Right now at 5:45 am(as I write) they do not seem to be in a cheering mood as most of them are asleep after the full day yesterday with Dachau in the morning and Newschwanstein in the afternnon. I myself am about to get some sleep since I cannot appreciate the Alps in the dark. By the time you read the blog we would have already watched the match and everyone will have seen the score.

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Neuschwanstein

We finally went through the legendary castle of Mad King Ludwig. The castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney's "sleeping beauty castle". Ludwig decorated each of the rooms as part of an opera from his favourite composer. He only managed to decorate 16 of 100 rooms inside before his mysterious death in 1886 when the parliament declared him insane and he died under his doctors care only after one day. His final wish to his family was to destroy the castle upon his death so that no one else may enjoy it. His daughter did the opposite, she opened it to the public within weeks of his death.

The students enjoyed a little shopping at the base of the mountain in which the castle was on, as well as walking around the lake. Then came the one mile climb up the pathway to the castle. The students were amazed at the size of the castle and the detail of each room. We finished day seven in the city of Freussen where we wait for the 5 am bus ride to Cortina for the curling game at the World Championships of Canada vs China.


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Sorry for no updates

I apologize for the lack of updates on the blog, I am writing them but I need wifi to upload.  When I arrive in Venice tomorrow, I will have updates of all the days. 
There is also a facebook page set up by Dr Watson

PS I hate European keyboards (there are extra keys on the board and the z and y are interchanged)

Dachau

The visit to Dachau was different from Auschwitz. The museum was a walk and read. Even though we spent 2 hrs there we could have spent more. Dachau was the first camp opened within months of Hitler getting power in 1933 to serve as political prison and a SS training camp to teach the "Dachau spirit" to new
soldiers. The camp was opened for the full twelve years (1933 to 1945) and was infamous for the methods of torture and punishment of the prisoners. While there was deaths at Dachau, it wasn't considered to be a death camp; prisoners that were reformed by torture and abuse was reintegrated into society.

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