Did I mention we are in Italy? That means we are in pizza country! My favorite dish! M and P understand my appetite for pizza and bought me some. It smelled delicious.
I closed my eyes to savour the smell even more, in anticipation of what was coming.
Then I ate it. All of it.
We stayed for a long time in the German mountains and made some splendid walks. Now we are in a different country. There are mountains here too and beautiful lakes and very pretty gardens. Unfortunately most of these gardens have high fences around them, so it is impossible for me to research them and sample the grass. I do smell them, which is second best, I guess.
We made a nice long walk to a mountain hut, from where we could see very far. M and P like that. Me, I enjoyed the smells coming from the mountain hut’s kitchen. I smelled cheese and ham!
M tells me we are in Italy and people here speak Italian. A lot of humans we meet here like dogs, especially beautiful dogs like me. You know what they say to me? ‘Ciao bella!’. Which means ‘hello pretty lady’. That is very nice of them. Of course I know I am pretty, but I never get tired of hearing it. I think I like Italians.
M tells me we are in the south of Germany and these mountains are called The Alps. I don’t care much about the name of the place, but I do like it here, very much. We make nice long walks and we are camping in our new campervan. When we walk M and P like to stop and have a drink and some food and they share it with me – so far I ate speck, big chunks of pancake called Kaiserschmarrn and schnitzel. So these mountains aren’t only great for walking, but also for eating out!
When we walk I smell loads of wildlife. The mountains must be swarming with it! Yesterday we sat for some drink at a place where a special kind of wildlife was roaming free. They came very close. I would have loved to catch them, they looked big and fat and juicy. Alas, M had me on a tight leash. Which was not fair. I have dreams about this wildlife now… In those dreams I do catch one of these big chunky birds and tear them to pieces. I think they will taste like Kaiserschmarrn. My mouth is watering!
We are in the mountains! That is great, I love mountains. The smells here are overwhelming, the air is fresh and pure and the grass tastes delicious. I like to eat grass, all dogs do. The grass back in Holland is okay, but here in the mountains it is something else.
We walk a lot here, up and down the mountains, through woods and meadows and over rocky little paths. There is even funny white stuff in some places, stuff that tickles between my toes. M tells me it is snow. Snow in summer! This is a truly magical place.
I am very excited, because M and P are packing. Books, food and hiking gear: everything is stowed in our new campervan. We will probably leave very soon! Of course I will keep you posted about our Adventures. It will be great, I am sure of that. This will be my fourth big long summer holiday – what, do you think I can not count because I am a canine? Don’t be silly, every dog can count. Why else do you think we are annoyed when you only give us one (1) cookie?
Anyway, these big long summer holidays are always great. Last year we enjoyed the hot weather in Croatia, which was very relaxing:
We had some great Adventures too, like canoeing on an awesome lake:
The year before that we had a great time in the mountains:
And the year before that I was still a puppy, having my very first Adventures with M and P. We went biking!
I am big enough now to run next to the bike, so I will do that. I don’t fit into this basket anymore, anyway. It was already a bit cramped when I was little, as you can see.
Who knows where I will go next? I’ll let you know!
