Rozell letters

Finally got your kids an interesting stamp mom - too bad they aren't around to get it. Hi! (I know it was backwards did you expect something else from me?) We aren't in Rome anymore, but this is a postcard of their empty colosseum - a perfect match for the one in LA, no? I can't even believe we're doing all this so quickly - a day and a half in Rome? Still we managed to see the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Vatican and museums (most of the museums - had some time pressure that day), plus a few other assorted monuments - not too bad for a day and a half. Got to Florence last night adn went to bed early - all this travelling gets to you after a while, especially with Jules who thinks 9:00am is sleeping in AAARGH! We see things early and much that way at least, and fall in bed early. When I write have to do it all at once or it won't get done - 7 postcards and more work on 2 letters tonight. We have our reservations to Vienna for the night of the 3rd so that's all set, and we get in at 9:00 am on the 4th so no problem there either, we were afraid we'd lose more time travelling. 2 days then on to Salizburg. I'll write soon. Vickie

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Well gang, this is Salzburg. I can't even believe this place. I LOVE AUSTRIA! This town is really great, even though there are more tourists than inhabitants - its a real tourist town. We're even being bad and going on the Sound of Music [tour?] tomorrow if you can believe that - so silly. We saw Julie's relatives yesterday, most of them speak mostly German, but 2 from Oregon and 2 from Chicago were there too, and the daughter, son and son's girlfriend all speak very fluent English so we all got along pretty well. They were really warm and friendly (from what we can tell all Austrian people are - they're so helpful even when we can't talk coherently to each other they'll help as much as they can and get the point across somehow. They go out of their way to help anyone - foreigners, strangers, it doesn't matter. The kids are great too, all happy and friendly - quite unlike any of the other kids I've seen in Europe, they won't smile they just run away. I even played with a little Austrian boy in the post office while I waited for the call to go through today - unheard of anywhere else). Anyway, we saw the fortress today - super view of all Salzburg on one side and much of the farm land on the other with the River through the middle of everything - and everything is so green and beautiful! I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE! I'll write again soon and talk to you probably too. Vickie

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Salzburg, die Festpierstadt

OK Mom, you drooled all over me on the phone so here's more of Salzburg for your viewing pleasure. It's really a gorgeous city, one we still don't want to leave, but we really don't have much choice. It's so much fun, the people even wear all those typical Austrian clothes that you would figure they'd given up, but they haven't. We went into a [Lanz?] store yesterday and drooled alot, but couldn't possibly even afford a pair of socks. The dirndls (dresses) are over $100 and the coats and capes and hats...they're all gorgeous but so expensive! We got our rain for Austria today while we were out on the Sound of Music tour (so bad tourist, but took us to the countryside we couldn't have seen otherwise and some fun things to see in person and places I'd seen before that I hadn't recognized, so it was fun). Went up to Schloss Helbrun - an old castle home owned by an archbishop; I explained it to Grandma, so talk to her about it. Oh, I know what else I was going to say - if you haven't finished/gotten the inside of the house painted when we get home I'd be willing to offer my services at a reduced rate, I have 0 little experience and learn quickly and will be broke. So I'm sure we could make a deal. Think about it. See you soon.

Vickie