January 15th-Feruary 10th

Rudy and I want to express our gratitude to both of our families and all of
our friends who came to Jackie and Jason's surprise party and to Stacy for
organizing the well-organized and successful party.  Everyone took time out
of his or her busy lives at a very hectic time of the year to spend time
with us.   Even families with small children traveled to and from Long
Island in one day.  We truly appreciate the time and effort and honor you
showed our family.  It was truly wonderful except for the fact that the time
was much too short.  We are planning to spend more time next year with
family and friends.

ROAD TRIP: UK to Gaeta

On January 22nd we arrived in the UK and met Bob and Cindy on their sailboat
Godspeed.  They are friends of ours from Trinidad! They had a very nice
Atlantic crossing this past summer from the Caribbean to the UK.  Bob and
Cindy who are staying at St. Katherine's, a marina in London, welcomed us
with open arms.  The next day we went car hunting and we found one.  It is a
left hand drive, 1995 BMW, in very good condition (318i with moon roof). We
decided to buy it and would have been able to drive it out of the
dealership, but the car hadn't been registered yet with the dealer.  In
Italy or most other EU countries it is impossible for a non-citizen to
purchase a used car.  That night to celebrate, we went out to an Indian
restaurant for dinner with Dom, Graham and Ross (from Gemini).  Ross was
visiting his friends Dominic and Graham in London and Graham was very
generous and treated us all to dinner!!!  Thank you Graham!!

On Friday the 24th, we picked up our car fully insured and registered, which
was done by the dealer.  We took Cindy and Bob out to a Thai restaurant to
show our appreciation of our stay on their boat and a beautiful boat it is.

On Saturday the 25th, we left Great Britain by ferry and entered Belgium. We
had a grand view of the white Cliffs of Dover as we left the UK.  We stopped
at Brugee for lunch at a restaurant called Hollywood.  The restaurant had
more than 200 pictures and/or statues of Marilyn Monroe.  After walking and
driving through the town, we drove to Brussels and found a hotel for the
night.  On Sunday we saw the sights and went to Luxembourg.  We were in
Luxembourg and Strasbourg about ten years ago when we had flown our Hot Air
Balloon in a ten-day rally with 800 other balloons in near-by Nancy, France.
All the cities looked different without all the people, tables, chairs and
brightly colored umbrellas lining the streets in front of the restaurants,
but we were able to see all the sites without any lines!!!  On Monday, we
went to Bern, Switzerland and stayed there for the night.  We drove around
the city and then left for Strasbourg.  We stopped there for lunch along the
Rhine River.  The rain makes everything so green and bright.  The houses
with the steep tile roofs of the stone and brick and their dormers with
skylights are so distinctive in this area.  You know you are in northern
Europe.

Then on Tuesday, we headed for Val d'Isere, France driving through Gruyere
(cheese), Evian (water), Genenva (UN), Chambery (cheese and wine) and
stopping at Alberville (Olympics) where we had lunch.  In Val d'Isere, we
surprised our friends from Vermont who were skiing there.  We had some
drinks and promised to ski with them next year!!  We drove about half an
hour down the road and found a very inexpensive hotel and probably the best
dinner we had on the whole car trip!!  As we drove the next morning, we
could see the very obvious freezing line on the trees.  It looked like God
took a paintbrush and painted the frozen trees with a very straight line.

On Wednesday the 29thof January, we traveled to Rapallo, driving through
Torino and Genova.  The tunnel between France and Italy cost about $30 or
almost $3/mile. In the morning, we went to see Portafino, St. Margarita and
the Cinque Terre.  Cinque Terre is the name of five towns built on high
cliffs overlooking the dramatic coastline falling to the sea. We visited
each one and stopped to take in the fantastic view. The first town
Monterosso al Mare is the largest, and then came Vernazza, Corniglia,
Marnarola and finally Riomaggiore.  These towns have very narrow streets and
are probably off limits to cars in the summer.  Then on to Pisa and the
famous Leaning Tower one of the seven wonders of the world!!!  I didn't
think I would be so impressed!!  I was!!!  Since there were very few people
there, we were able to go right up the tower. No lines, no waiting!!!  It
was fantastic and very invigorating climbing the 300 steps!!!  We thought of
Galileo performing his famous trial of gravitation.   We went inside the
Cathedral next to the tower, which was one of the most beautiful churches I
have visited so far.  Even though it is very large inside, it gives the
feeling of warmth and comfort because of the style of frescos on the walls
and ceilings as well as the beautiful statues and other structures.

Then on to Florence!!!

When we got to Florence that night, we were looking for the hotel I located
in a guidebook.  The only problem. it was in a walking area in the center of
the old town where cars are not allowed.  One police officer stopped us and
when we told him the hotel's name, he let us pass. When we got to the hotel,
it was converted to apartments.  So there we were. in a no car area with no
hotel. We drove closer to the center of the square and I quickly got out of
the car and went to two other hotels.  We found one that was about 50 feet
from the center of the main square with the beautiful Domo Cathedral.  On
Friday, February 1st, we walked from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.  We visited many sites
and beautiful churches in this famous city of art and beauty.   We passed
many groups of American students studying the beauty of this renowned city
as well.   The next day we walked from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. to finish visiting
the sites we wanted to see and then we drove to Siena.  There we saw the
sights, had lunch and then we were off to Assisi.  That night during dinner,
we found out about the disaster of the Columbia Shuttle.  We tried to piece
together the details from the Italian T.V. program as best as we could, but
the details would elude us until we reached Gaeta and the US Armed Forces TV
Network.

On Sunday the 3rd, we saw the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi.  It has
three floors. Rudy and I were the only people on the top floor.  On the
middle floor, there was a mass going on and we thought of the astronauts who
died the day before while we experienced the mass.  The tomb of St. Francis
is located on the bottom floor.

We left for Gaeta and our boat and arrived at about 3 p.m. with our new-old
car.

For the past several days we have been doing boat stuff and visiting with
our friends.  I am still volunteering at the American school and Rudy is
building me shelves for my galley. Life on Boundless continues!