Hi everyone! Coming out of the plane was like stepping into the hundreds of photographs my parents brought back. The only difference here is there is way more detail. They have the sweetest looking flowers, mixed into all the greenery. Unlike the photos, the cars actually honk and the big tankers give off the most horrendous stench. The palm trees wave at you gracefully, instead of just standing there. The people don?t say much more than they did on the pictures, they?re just as friendly as they manage to be with the little vocabulary they have....

Oops! Instead of landing in Nigeria, the plane got lost and ended up on Jupiter, well at least that what it looks and feels like! (Ok, Matthew CS, I can see you laughing at that one!) As we got lower and lower you could watch the outside temperature on the info screen go up, up and up. At 3000ft we were around 22 degree C. then 23, 24, 25, 26…I was thinking, "That’s quite enough already, you can stop now", 27, 28…Altitude 1500 ft and falling, temperature 29, 30 and still rising. The monitors shut off just before landing, so I didn’t get....

On Tuesday morning, we went to Astrid's parents for a short visit. We wanted to see her father's blacksmith shop, and also visit a bit longer. He makes antique looking metal work. Some of it is actually art. He used a furnace or a torch to heat the metal, and a hammer and anvil to form it. Just by watching him, you could see he was an expert in his trade. He demonstrated for us by making a horseshoe from a flat iron bar. A few years back, for his wife's 60th birthday, he made her

On Tuesday, we went to the village of Zlan. The Lutherans that joined the Hutterite Church went to church in that town. On the pews, in front of every person, there was a plaque with his last name on it. We found the Kleinsasser name, Hofer name and Waldner name, without the ‘n’. Somehow they forgot th....

On Monday, we headed out to South Tyrol with Lynda Lederer as our guide. This part of the country used to belong to Austria. After World War 2 or is that World War 1, I’m not sure now, it became part of Northern Italy. The signs change from German to both Italian and German. Our mission was to visit the birthplace of Jacob Hutter, which is located close to Bruneck. Right next to his house....