Good morning everyone (it's actually the middle of the night for you guys)-

I hope everyone had a good start to their weekend yesterday!  Christian and I had a great day but I'm still recovering from being so tired!!  Jet lag plus a 14 hour trip yesterday is not the best thing for me.  But, I'm carrying on!

We went to the Aeolian Islands off of Sicily.  This is the "spa" trip I told you guys about.  We left base on a bus at about 6 a.m. yesterday, had a two hour ride up to the port town and then took a two hour ferry ride over to the islands.  It was a beautiful ride and we got lots of pictures!  I'll load them when I have more time.  The ferry stopped at one island first and the majority of the passengers got off and then it took us over to Vulcano (a volcanic island).  Our trip included the ferry ride and then entrance into this mineral pool place.  They had three different pools (all different temps) that were pure mineral water.  It was kind of neat.  Then, we had the opportunity to do the sulfur springs/mud but it smelled SOOOO bad that I refused to get in it!  haha  Christian wasn't too keen on it either.  The smell of sulfur was so strong so you had the constant smell of rotten boiled eggs.  It's supposed to be great for your skin but I like to think I already have great skin and don't need that!  haha  So, Christian and I lounged on the beach for a little while.  It was sooooo beautiful and the water is so crystal clear!  There were cliffs all around the little cover we were in.  We ate lunch twice haha.  One time I had a caprese panini that was super good and then we got pizza.  The pizza over here is amazing.  All of the menus are in Italian so I just try to pick one that sounds somewhat appetizing and it always turns out so good!

We had to be back on the ferry at 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon and then the ferry drove us all around the islands.  The sites were stunning!!!  I can't wait for you guys to see my pictures.  There are seven islands and we saw three up close.   There are beautiful rock formations jutting out in the middle of the sea and then caves that are so vibrant in color!  We saw where the lava used to flow from the islands and the steam still coming from one of the volcanos.

All in all, it was a good trip.  I think it was a bit expensive for what we actually got to do but it was beautiful.  So, we took another two hour ride back to port and two hour ride back to base.  We got back to our room around 8:30 and I was OUT!  Then, my slave driver husband made me get up at 8 this morning.  Ugh.  I could have slept all day!  Not sure what we're going to do today.  He wants to go climb Mt. Etna but I'm not feeling too great today so who knows.  We're going to Taormina later today for dinner and to see the sites.

We leave here Monday for our trip to Austria!  We're both so excited about that part of our trip!  I can't wait to see Austria and the family.  My german has gotten little better so hopefully I can somewhat communicate with his grandparents while we're in Austria.  Once we're back in Germany in a couple weeks, pretty much everyone in his family speaks english so that will be comforting.

Anyway, I just wanted to update everyone!  Love you all and miss you!!!

Chrissi