So So Vienna & Beginning of Venice

We were in Vienna for a couple of days (Aug 2-5). Not much to say about it; it was pretty boring. Really beautiful city, but not a whole lot to do there, unless you like museums.

The Hapsburg's city palace.

The Parliament building.

I'm not sure if you know this about us, but we are huge thrill seekers (haha). The sign reads: 'Due to storm entire park area DANGEROUS!'. Still not sure why the park was dangerous, but man were we careful...

August 4 we went to a palace in Vienna and the grounds were gorgeous.

 
We went through a maze and only ran into dead ends a few times.

I wasn't feeling great so we headed back to the hotel early. We figure we spent only 6 hours out of the hotel in Vienna because I was sick (or just a baby). The time in the hotel was spent watching 'The Wire'.

Yesterday, August 5, we spent the afternoon watching 'Inception'. It was a great movie and our favourite part of Vienna (is that bad?). We caught a night train last night and it was deluxe compared to the train from Poland to Prague (had AC, no bugs, got breakfast delivered to us in bed). When we arrived in Venice this morning at 8:30 we were well rested and ready for the day. We immediately fell in love with Venice. It is amazing. Here are a few pictures from this morning.

The Grand Canal.

Us.

We spent a few minutes in St. Mark's Square and although it is very pretty, there were too many people, so we left as quickly as we could.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent wandering the streets/canals. We didn't get too lost... yet. We really needed a huge change in scenery after so much Germany & Austria, and this definitely hit the spot.  We have the next 4 nights in Venice and are looking forward to it.

The Hills Are Alive

We were slummin' it in Salzburg, as we were booked into a hostel, but the hostel wasn't too bad and its  always nice to have access to a kitchen. We arrived July 29 and got settled. It was raining so we weren't tempted to go outside.

July 30, it was still raining, pouring actually, but we decided to brave the weather for a few hours for a quick tour of the city.

Salzburg is very beautiful... even in the rain.

We were just wandering around and we came across this:

Anybody recognize it? If you don't, you need to watch the Sound of Music again. It is the fountain and gates that they dance around when Fraulein Maria takes the Von Trapp kids into the city. 

As we were visiting these gardens we saw a group of girls singing 'Do, Re, Mi' from the Sound of Music and dancing around a fountain. When I saw 2 members (a mother and daughter) from the song and dance crew a few minutes later I complimented them on their song and dance and they informed us that they were a team in a race (kind of like the Amazing Race but low key) and that they gathered all the other people to dance and sing with them for part of their competition, but did it around the wrong fountain, so they needed more volunteers to sing and dance around the proper Sound of Music fountain. They asked Andrew and I and we couldn't say no (trust me, I tried) so we sang and danced around the Pegasus Fountain. Unfortunately... the video has been posted on youtube... Andrew looks like he is pregnant because the camera bag is underneath his jacket, and I am mostly hidden behind the dancing daughter (thank god).

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/momdot2310#p/u/4/4uURiXsRvYQ

I think Andrew might be retarded.

We didn't get to see too much of the city because it was really pouring out. We decided to head back to the hostel after a few hours.

July 31 we decided we were going to go to Hellbrunn (just outside of Salzburg) to see the Hellbrunn Castle. This castle is known for its 'trick fountains'. I think it is better known for having the glass pavilion (where Liesl and Rolfe sing 'Sixteen Going On Seventeen') from the Sound of Music in its gardens. 

Getting to the Castle was a huge event. We decided that since it was a beautiful day and because we hate waiting for buses, we were going to walk. It was quite a walk, at least 6 km to get to the Castle, but we were always surrounded by beautiful scenery. 

Here is the famous glass pavilion. It was locked so I couldn't run around on the benches like Liesl did.

Here is a 'trick fountain'. At this one, the owner of the castle would invite guests over and eat dinner at this table. Sometime during or after the meal he would turn the fountain on and a stream of water would be squirted up the middle of all of the seats except his, which is at the head of the table.

August 1, we went to Werfen to see the largest ice caves in the world. 

We were really tired of walking from the day before so we opted to use public transit to get from the train station to the top of the mountain. THANK GOD!! It would have taken months for us to make it up to the top. This picture was taken from our gondola.

The hole is the entrance to the ice cave.

View from the inside of the cave.

The ice cave was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cave but they were beautiful. We learned a lot of very interesting facts, most of which we have forgotten or will soon forget. The temperature inside the cave was close to 0, it was really nice to feel cold again. A lot of people got really cold during the 70 minute tour, include a little girl who was maybe 4 and crying before we even got into the caves because she was so cold. We were fine in our spring jackets.

On our way back to the hostel from the train station we walked through the Mirabell Gardens again (the Sound of Music Gardens). This time, it wasn't raining.

We had a busy couple of days in Salzburg but we are now in Vienna (and in a hotel again!) and although there aren't any Sound of Music sites I'm sure we will keep busy.

Munich - Parks, Lederhosen & Castles

Munich is our favourite Germany city. We have had a great time here.

July 25, we started off the day by walking through a park on our way to city center. We saw a playground and decided to have a seat and watch kids play. I know it sounds a little creepy and maybe it is, but we can't help it. Kids are so funny and so interesting to watch. We saw something we have never seen before at the playground. It was all Dads playing with their kids, no Moms in sight. It was really nice to see. At one point a little girl called to her father, "dah dah, dah dah!", to which he shouted, 'JaAaa'. We found our favourite Father/Son, and they were so cute Andrew took a couple of pictures of them. Here is Alex playing with his Dad.

After being creepy people watching kids at a playground we went to the main square called Marienplatz and to the royal palace called Residenz. The 'Culture Cup' was on, where a bunch of different sports (mainly fussball) were played along with other games and activities. Andrew and I had our picture taken by the local radio station. I think this makes us local celebrities now. Right?

We managed to catch the new Twilight movie. We have been going through a movie theater drought as we haven't seen a movie in a theater since the B Team was here almost 2 months ago. It was a great movie, but now we have to wait for the next one to be released.

July 26 was dedicated to exploring the Englischer Garden, one of the biggest city parks in all of Europe. Munich knows how to do gardens! We walked into one of the park entrances and saw a guy surfing in the river.

Then we had lunch overlooking a beautiful waterfall in the park.

Then we decided to go to the beer garden for a beer. Bavarian beer garden are very special; they serve beer by the litre. Below is what will forever be remembered as 'A Big Mistake'.

As we were drinking our beer, we looked over and to see group of men roll up on bicycles dressed in lederhosen. I thought that people who dressed in lederhosen were a myth. At one point, when they were finishing up their litre beers, they all 'moo'd' into their glasses very loudly. It was hilarious, and to my embarrassment, we laughed out loud so hard that they all looked over at us and started laughing with us. One of them even gave me a loud 'moo' when I took my next drink, just for a laugh. We managed to strike up a conversation with them as they were leaving. They're a group of carpenters from Austria. I'm still not sure why they were dressed up in lederhosen, although we tried to figure it out through the language barrier.

Round two of 'A Big Mistake'... with our moo'ing friends in the background.

July 28 we went to Fussen to see some castles. It was a gorgeous area. Here is a picture of the first castle, 'Schloss Hohenschwangau'.

The Disneyland castle is supposedly modeled after this castle, 'Schloss Neuschwanstein'.

We are sad to be leaving Germany and will definitely miss Munich, but tomorrow we are off to Austria. I can't wait for the Sound of Music Tour and of course Andrew can't either...

Prague & Nuremberg

Prague lived up to its hype. It is a beautiful city. The majority of the buildings are really well maintained, which is very different from Poland.

Our first day of sightseeing in Prague was dedicated to visiting the Old Town and New Town, which are really just two different sections of downtown. First we saw Old Town Square, which included a stop at the astronomical clock (somewhat similar to our experience with the changing of the guards in Monaco: "Was that it?"). The square is enormous and gorgeous. Here is a picture of one corner.

Next we walked to Letna Park for a view of the river and bridges.

At the park we found my favourite type of swing (a two person wooden swing, like the one by Oak Bay Marina in Victoria). We went for a swing, until Andrew got sick (3 or 4 minutes), and then left the park to see New Town. Poor Andrew didn't quite recover from the swinging until well into the evening.

New Town Square was really cool too. Although it was more recently built, the buildings look very similar to the buildings in Old Town.

We returned to Old Town Square at night.

We also walked along the famous Charles Bridge for a view of Prague Castle.

July 20 we started out the day walking to the famous 'Dancing House' (which a Canadian architect apparently worked on').

Here is a picture of us crossing a bridge.

We hiked up Petrin Park (it's a very large hill). Poor Andrew had to put up with me, as I complained that I didn't know about our 'hike' beforehand, and had therefore worn the wrong footwear (flipflops).

After descending Petrin Park/hill, we 'hiked' up to Prague Castle.

We walked around the grounds and found a great view of the City.

July 21 we left Prague to go back to Germany. Once we got into Nuremberg, we did what we always do on the first day: check into our hotel and then find the nearest grocery store to find some food.

July 22 we left the hotel to see the city. Nuremberg is a very interesting city because it has a bunch of pedestrian walkways and a few squares where there are markets set up every day of the week.

We walked around Kaiserburg Imperial Castle.

We spent most of the day wandering around the pedestrian streets and found a little pedestrian island in the middle of city center with a bunch of small artsy shops.

July 23 we went to visit the Documentation Center (a museum dedicated to educating people about the rise and fall of the Nazi party), the Nazi rally grounds (which were in Nuremberg and are huge: the term "megalomaniacal proportions" was used to describe it), and the Nuremberg trials. We went for a walk around part of the rally grounds (many of which were never completed or were demolished after the war). Here is a picture of a field where parts of large rallies were held. It is now used for open-air concerts.

Then we went to the Museum, held within a building designed by Hitler to house another part of the rallies.

Once again, we learned a lot. We spent several hours in the museum (until it closed at 6pm). We were going to tour around the old rally grounds some more after the museum closed, but it was raining really hard.

The heat wave seems to be over as the weather forecast is called for a week of rain and for once we are actually looking forward to rainy days.

We are now in Munich for 5 days of exploring.

Chocolate, Cruise & Sweat

We spent the last few days in Cologne Germany. Andrew and I both had a cold for the first couple of days so we took it easy at the beginning of the week.

July 6, we took a spin around the city and book our next couple of weeks in Germany.

We walked along the Rhein River and went to the "Hohenzollern Brucke". It is a bridge with a bunch of locks on it. Couples come to the bridge and attach a 'love lock' to it and throw the key in the river. Romantic, i guess... if you're into that kind of thing. Some people went all out and got their names engraved on the locks, while others used permanent markers.

July 7 we were feeling better and so we took the city by storm. We climbed up the cathedral (near 500 steps) to get a better view of the city.

Then we went to the Lindt chocolate factory. WOW!! Upon entry we got a free chocolate and then we got to taste chocolate out of a huge chocolate fountain, Andrew and I managed to sample the chocolate fountain twice. It made me miss the chocolate chip muffins we were getting in Ireland from Dunnes!

Then we went to a big city park to read/nap (me/Andrew... he always seems to be napping, actually he is trying to nap on the train right now as I am writing). The park was huge and really beautiful.

Afterwards we went to find a pub to watch Germany vs. Spain. All the pubs were really busy and everyone was dressed up in Germany colours, jerseys, etc. We ended up finding a pub and spent the night cheering for Germany and enjoying German beer (a little too much)... though nothing compares to Guinness. We were sad that Germany lost, but now we have a reason to watch the game Saturday (for third place). Plus, I really want the Netherlands to win the Cup on Sunday. After the game we walked back to the hotel. We passed the cathedral and Andrew managed to snap some good pics (some were a little blurry, I suggested that this was because of too many beers, Andrew prefers to think that it is because of the slow shutter speed of the camera).

July 8 (yesterday) we took a river cruise along the Rhein from Rudesheim to Koblenz... which was free with our train passes, which made us REALLY happy!

A lot of the time Andrew and I look around and feel really out of place. We always seem to be doing things that people aged 60 or 70 + are doing. So of course we were on this river cruise with people aged 60 or 70 + and to top it off they were all southern Americans, to make it even worse... they were TEACHERS (like Brian, ewww!!!). The southern Americans are usually quite entertaining... in small doses. For example one of the ladies would yell out: 'Castle alert' when we would see a castle (which was every couple of minutes). Also they seemed to be extremely confused about which stop they were suppose to get off at and kept talking about it (in their southern accents of course, which Andrew is getting pretty good at mimicking). I'm pretty sure some of them were so worried about which stop they should be getting off at that they forgot to enjoy the view. Others were entertaining because of their wardrobe selection. I am not one to be critical of what other people are wearing, considering I am wearing sweatpants (or maybe even worse, lululemon outfits) everyday, but oh my god!!! All of these people (mostly women, although some we couldn't tell their gender) were wearing ugly visors, their pants were pulled up to their nipples and of course they were wearing monstrous fanny packs (the ones that hold multiple water bottles). This is what we were dealing with:

The castles were really beautiful and there were a ton of them!

We were on the cruise for 4 hours, and by looking at the pictures it looks like it was a nude cruise.

My excuse: I really am wearing clothes, but I was working on my tan so I had my dress pulled up and straps down.

It was very hot out yesterday (around 30 degrees), but being on the river we were enjoying the breeze. It wasn't until we docked in Koblenz that I noticed the heat. Most days it is so hot that when we get back from being out and about we are totally disgusting and need a shower. Yesterday was no exception.

In order to save a few bucks of course we opted not to take the bus from the dock to the train station. So we are walking (for about 20-25 minutes) in the crazy heat and just dripping. We looked especially bad yesterday because we put on sunscreen. I thought that once we got on the train we would cool down because the majority of the trains have AC, but of course, not the one that we caught! So on the train we continued to get more disgusting.

It is important to note that nobody else seems to be affected by the heat, or at least not as much as we are. People on the train were wearing jeans and shirts and didn't appear to be sweating at all.

Too much information? Probably! Andrew and I were reminiscing today about how I was cold in Ireland. What I would give to be cold again! I have begun to take cold showers in the evening and even then I don't cool down enough. Hopefully we will have AC in the room in Berlin, which is our next stop!