The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round

So we left the beautiful Alps Tuesday morning and basically, we were in the bus most of the day. We took a quick stop at the Rhine Falls mid-morning. 

Then a few hours later we stopped in a cute little rest stop that they had built up to be a sort of Hale Farm complete with glass-blowing and wood-working buildings and a restaurant. After lunch, back on the bus for a few more hours to Heidelberg. The bus took us all the way to the castle at the top of the hill where we enjoyed the lookouts and saw huge wine barrels in the cellar. 

We had a little free time to explore the city and get a "little" ice cream. 

Then we had a hotel in Heppenheim with a lookout of cute, quintessentially German timbered houses. 

We repacked our suitcases and got a good night's sleep in preparation for our day of travel today. (I'm writing this from the Frankfurt Airport while we're waiting to board.). 

See you soon!  

(Roxy, I'll be home soon!!) 😺

Best. Day. Ever.

We didn't get to see the beautiful view from our balcony due to the low-hanging clouds/fog but that was okay because we were on our way out anyways. We drove into Lucerne for a quick stop to grab lunch for later. Then we went just a little bit farther by bus to get to the starting point for our ascent to Mount Pilatus. We took 4-person sky gondolas up halfway and then transferred to a bigger gondola for the rest of the way up. Here's a view from our gondola going up: 

When we arrived at the top, it was pretty cold and pretty cloudy so we had limited visibility. This was about as good as it got: 

Frau and I thought it would be nice to sit at an outside table and eat our sandwiches. But that was short-lived because these black birds with yellow beaks and orange feet kept eyeing our lunches, especially hers. They kept getting so close and so bold, we ended up having to abandon our table and leave our stuff while they ate our crumbs and the seeds that had fallen off Frau's bun. Yikes!  

Alpine horn players: 

After a while, we took the steepest cog railway in the world to descend. What beautiful views!! 

Then finally back to the lake, we jumped on a boat and took it back to Lucerne. 

Then we fought the crowds and crowds of tourists for our Swiss Army knife orders at a souvenir store. It was awful; one step away from Black Friday. We finally escaped the madhouse and walked across the Chapel Bridge, the most well-known site in Lucerne and then moseyed our way to the famous Lion Memorial. 

We returned to our hotel for a late dinner and now we're back to Germany tomorrow for one more full day of touring before heading home. 

I have been utterly impressed with Switzerland. My first experience many years ago was basically the same itinerary as today but it was cold, rainy and gray the two days we were here. Before this trip, I longed to see Switzerland under blue skies and sun and that's pretty much exactly what we got today. Pilatus was still a bit cloudy but I guess that's to be expected when it comes to a 7000-foot mountain. 

Head in the clouds part deux

This morning we left that fabulous little inn on the side of the mountain to head down from the clouds and back to civilization. It was so cloudy/foggy this morning that we couldn't really see anything of that view we had seen last night. So we said goodbye to Austria and after a few hours in the bus, we took a quick stop in the principality of Liechtenstein. The sticky situation was that everything was expensive, in Swiss francs instead of Euros and since it was Sunday, many things were closed. So Frau and I holed ourselves up in a restaurant with free wifi, ate lunch and caught up on blogs, Instagram and Facebook since we were without wifi last night. We met the bus afterwards and since the weather was mostly rainy and quite chilly today, Ottokar nixed the outdoor plans and talked our bus driver into taking us to Zurich instead. What a pleasant surprise! Some of the best memories are those not on the original itinerary. It rained most of the time that we were there but it was still lovely to explore a new city. Zurich is the most expensive place to live in the world and it's crazy how high some prices are. One of the students found a Happy Meal for $10!? 

So after a few hours of roaming the city and watching the ducks and swans, we headed to Seelisberg, a tiny village outside of Lucerne, which is where we will be exploring tomorrow. Here is the view from our balcony tonight. It seems unreal - like it's a postcard or from a movie and we're not actually here. 

I've got my head in the clouds...literally.

So we left Munich this morning and traveled to the fairy tale castle of Ludwig II, Neuschwanstein. 

I had visited this castle way in my high school days during my first trip to Europe and barely remember the castle. The only thing I remember clearly is the hike up the mountain. So, yes, I'm a wimp and I cringed at the thought of the climb so I abandoned the rest of the group for the bus ride to the top for the whopping price tag of 1,80€. I made it to the castle about the same time as the first group of our students. After a short wait in the light rain, we got inside for an English tour. Ludwig II took 18 years to build this dream castle but only got to finish 1/3 of the rooms and he only got to live the 172 days before his mysterious death. The decorated rooms are absolutely gorgeous with such a unique style from the other French castles or other palaces I have seen. Even comparing it to Schönbrunn that we saw the other day, which was modeled after Versailles, it was so beautifully different. The king loved the operas of Wagner so each room is decorated in a different Wagner opera. Besides the castle, the mountaintop has great views of Alpine valleys, lakes and villages. 

So after the trek down the hill and lunch, we bussed two hours back into Austria - the town of Innsbruck, to be exact. We had a few hours to shop, including the Swarovski crystal store with discount prices. Then after, we traveled to our quaint, little hotel for the night which is more like a country inn literally perched on the side of a mountain. No joke, our bus driver certainly earned his dinner (and mine...and everyone else's) getting this big bus up through these hairpin turns that I would be scared of even in my little car. So now we've had a lovely dinner and because this place is so little and remote, there's only one tv in the whole place and no wifi. So the kids are, heaven forbid, talking, playing games  and bonding. Most adults are in the tv room watching the EuroCup Austria/Portugal game. Just because I'm so impressed with our view from this place, here's a panoramic shot off our room's balcony. 

Birkenstocks, brats, BMW and Bruce

Today was our full day in Munich (München) and we had a somber start to the day with a visit to Dachau concentration camp just outside of the city. The cold rain was fitting. First, we watched a short documentary on the camp and then had time to explore on our own. Not much has changed since I had been there in high school and it's still as sobering and gut-twisting as ever. We walked through recreated barracks, visited the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish memorial chapels and saw the gas chamber and crematoriums. We also had a pertinent discussion with our guide about remembering the horrors as not to repeat them. 

After lunch, we had a bus tour with Tom, an American living in Munich, and he showed us Nymphenburg Palace, various spots in town including a place where they river surf. 

Nymphenburg 

River surfers

We then had time to shop and explore branching off of the Marienplatz. I bought Birks (of course) and we got back to the square by 5pm to see the famous glockenspiel. 

A little more free time before dinner which were brats and potatoes and then we bussed back to the hotel for a quick pit stop. Since our hotel is so close to the BMW headquarters and factory, we visited BMW World to see some of the pretty cars including a section dedicated to MINI Coopers! Yay!

Again, with our hotel being so close to the 1972 Olympic Park, Bruce Springsteen was having a concert there tonight. We could hear the music so we went up just outside the arena to sit in the grass on a hill made of covered-over WW2 rubble, enjoyed Nutella crepes and listened to his last few songs. When in Germany, right?

So now we'll be heading out tomorrow for the fairy tale castle of Neuschwanstein and the Tyrol region tomorrow. Bis morgen! 

The hills are alive with the sound of...fußball

We said goodbye to Vienna this morning and got on the road toward Salzburg. We took the highway partway, stopped at the  nicest rest stop with the most beautiful overlook. I can't help but share my selfie: 

Très belle. Molto bella. Sehr schön. Very beautiful! 

Then after a while, we got off the highway to a more scenic route through little villages with mountains on one side, our road on the other and lakes in between. We arrived in Salzburg about 12:45pm, got to walk around a market, through the Mirabellgarten (rose garden from the Do-Re-Mi song), over the river. Then we maneuvered our way through small streets, avoiding all the Asian tourists with their selfie sticks to visit Mozart's birthplace, the horse fountain from the Sound of Music, the Dom cathedral and Mozartplatz - and we did this all without our guide who gave us a long leash for a few hours! We are so impressed with ourselves. And we were still early back to the meeting spot. Yay us. 

Mirabellgarten:

Mozart's birthplace:

Residenzplatz (horse fountain Maria splashed in):

So after Salzburg, we had about two hours more in the bus to get to Munich. During the trip, it got cooler and cloudier which was actually fine with me because the sun was getting a little too hot in Salzburg. By the time we got off the bus for dinner in Munich, it had dropped about 6-7 degrees Celsius and by the time we arrived at the hotel an hour or so after that, the cold rain had started again. Tonight's the big EuroCup game of Germany vs. Poland and while we were hoping to go to a big viewing party just for the experience, the rain has put a damper on those plans. So most likely, we'll hole up and watch the match from our cozy hotel. 

(This may be the only time I say this:) Go Germany!!

We survived the death swings, the Black Plague and the Bermuda Triangle

This morning, we had a bus tour with Ingrid, a local guide, who pointed out various important sites, including a weird apartment complex, the Hundertwasser House, where the man wanted the architecture to blend with nature so nothing is level, there are trees on the roof, and no right angles. Then, with Ingrid, we faced the cold rain to visit the beautiful palace of Schönbrunn just outside of Vienna. We visited the gorgeous gardens and 22 of the 1,441 rooms of the palace, which were incredibly impressive especially with the original floors. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside so I can't even show you how beautifully intricate they were.  Here are the gardens in the back: 

After, it was still sprinkling a bit but we headed to the Prater, a local permanent amusement park/carnival featuring the Riesenrad, a big, antique Ferris wheel with trolley cars. (They even have special cars for a romantic dinner for two or another for dinner for eight.) We ate lunch  and by the time we finished, the rain had stopped and the sky started to clear. 

We were terrified of these really high swings that we nicknamed the death swings. No...way...would we ever go on these! We think they were taller than the Riesenrad! 

Then it was almost time for dinner so we headed back down to the 1st district to the shopping area which also includes a memorial to the victims of the Black Plague that wiped out about half of the city's population. Dinner was noodle soup, a giant meatball, mashed potatoes and apple strudel for dessert. One of our girls has been sick all day and stayed back at the hotel with her dad (who's luckily along for the trip) so Frau decided to head back to the hotel to check on them and the rest of our group stayed downtown for a little longer. We walked to Ottokar's favorite ice cream place, walked through the historical Jewish neighborhood which part of is also nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle for its number of bars and probable crazy nights. We then took the underground (subway/metro) back to the hotel. 

Now we're done with Vienna and will be visiting Salzburg tomorrow before heading out of Austria and onto Munich, Germany. 

Please say a prayer for Kelcey and her health, especially for having to be a few hours in a bus tomorrow. Nobody likes to be feeling sick away from home. 

Days 1 & 2: Travel to Vienna, Austria

About 12 hours ago, I had that recurring thought: why, oh, why am I doing this again? Is it really worth the 6-8 hour flight and the loss of sleep because it's impossible for me to sleep in a sitting position? Why do I do this to myself?  And then, I land. I exit the airport, unload my suitcase for a few more hours and stroll through a breathtakingly beautiful European city. I admire the architecture, the clean streets and the surprisingly quiet capital city of Vienna and I remember. I exhale and say "yes, it's all worth it to see, experience and enjoy all of this once again."  And I will gladly do it any day if this is the end result. 

Quick recap: we had three legs of our journey: Cleveland to Detroit to Amsterdam, Netherlands to Vienna, Austria. All went off without a hitch and I finally got to use my secret weapon on the overnight flight. Years ago, I had heard the travel tip of partially inflating a medium-sized beach ball and using it as a pillow instead of those slippery, flimsy airline pillows that always get lost. Let's just say I was a lot more comfortable than probably most of the other people around me and I will definitely be traveling with my beach ball again. (I also slipped it in a pillowcase from home so my face wasn't against that plastic.). Score one for Schilling. 

We landed, met Ottokar our Tour Director and rode into the city center of Vienna. I've never been to this city before and my first impressions are how clean and quiet it is. (Ottokar would contribute that to everyone's home watching Austria's EuroCup match tonight.) The city is full of beautiful parks and palaces and statues or tributes to everyone from Mozart, Goethe and even victims of the Black Plague. We also visited St. Stephen's Cathedral which apparently is the third largest in Europe (after Cologne and Strasbourg).  We ate a traditional schnitzel dinner and pound cake with raspberry sauce for dessert. Now Ottokar has been nice enough to bring us to the hotel early so we can get the day's grime off of us and catch up on our zzzzz's. 

Horses of the horse-drawn carriages with pointy ear covers. 

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna