Know what this blog needs?

More cowbell.

Part of our European journey was supposed to involve an 8-mile hike through the Alps followed by a drive on this crazy road.

Unfortunately, the day dawned cold and wet. The Roman owner of the hotel looked online to find that 18 cm of snow had already fallen on the crazy road, and our car had no snow tires, so driving on the crazy road was out. We inquired about a shorter hike, and were given a couple of options. When we walked out on the porch and saw how icky it really was, the hotel owner said "OK, you go to museum."

Well there was no way I was going to museum, so I marched purposefully off the porch, trailed by tiny-lunged, diabetic Cousin B. He was pretty irritated for the first 45 minutes or so of hiking, which was done on a cow-ploppy dirt road, but then we broke through onto an actual hiking trail and even in the pouring rain (which was now heavy wet snow) was incredibly, breathtakingly beautiful. A hawk flew by overhead. There were crazy mushrooms and wildflowers everywhere. And soon, there were cowbells. I started having heart palpitations and soon realized this was because what I thought had been regular coffee at breakfast was actually espresso and I'd had about six.