Final Post - Thanks for following our trip!

So now we've come to the end. We want to start by thanking everyone (all 5 of you) who read this travel blog and followed us on our Christmas journey. We like sharing the trip with the people back home and you guys seem to enjoy reading it as well. This is a tradition we started in 2008 with our Europe trip and continued for this trip, and maybe with some luck, we can continue to do it in the future.

Time to reflect on the trip. Wow, what a trip. We saw several places and also saw lots of snow. This trip was particularly interesting because it seemed like alot of the American summer tourists were gone home, and we were spending Christmas with the local Belgians, Germans, and Austrians. In a way, it felt more real than the cathedral sightseeing tours that alot of summer Europe trips become. Summer trips have their obvious advantages too, so I wouldn't say this one was better, just different. And that brings us to the weather. It was definitely colder than we expected. And the chill intensified the longer you stayed out in the cold too. We did our best to adjust and I think we did okay. Sometimes the cold did inhibit the exploratory gene, so there wasn't as much random exploring as on a summer Europe trip.

So I think I'll sum up the trip with a couple of lists.

The Top 5 Funniest Moments from the Trip:

1. Some crazy Austrian was singing Christmas songs in German to everyone as he walked by them. As he walked by us he basically yelled, "Und, und, und" really loudly and it sounded pretty hilarious.

2. At the Hofbrauhaus, a large family of American tourists walks in late at night into a very crowded Hofbrauhaus. The only table with enough space for all of them has one crazy bum looking guy with a dirty gray beard sitting at it. To make it funnier, he was very excitedly waving them over to sit down with him in a really excited and friendly way. The apprehension on the family's face was hilarious and they were fighting about who had to sit next to him.

3. In Bruges, they had an ice skating rink in the middle of the town square. There was one teenager or maybe early 20-something guy that either was a) very drunk, b) couldn't ice skate at all, or c) both. He was completely wiping out and could not get up. At one point he fell and his leg went through an open area in the wooden rail fence around the rink. His leg got stuck and he couldn't get it out for several minutes. His friends with him were laughing at him too.

4. In Vienna, it was funny to watch the interaction between our ruthlessly efficient waitress and this solicitor who walked in the restaurant to try and sell magazines to the people that were eating dinner. She turned him away and told him to leave several times, but he would act like he was leaving and then just come back and keep asking people to buy his magazine. At one point they got a little bit heated and it was entertaining for sure.

5. The last one isn't a particular moment, but a series of events. It includes pretty much the whole night or afternoon after visiting the Hofbrauhaus. Everything seemed alot funnier after the 1 liter beers, even if it was just me and Chelsy hanging out.


The Best/Most Special Moments of the Trip:

1. Getting off the bus in Bruges, which was essentially the final event of our travel sequence to get us to our first hotel in Europe. Our bus dropped us off at the Markt Square, and it was competely lit up with Christmas lights, an ice skating rink, a small Christmas market, and tons of people enjoying themselves. It was quite a special sight to see as the very first thing you see when getting off the bus. The only downside was we still had our luggage with us at that point.

2. Climbing the hill up to the castle in Salzburg, Austria. It was a completely unexpected and unplanned activity, which is part of what made it so special. It was also challenging but with a big reward at the end. The view was amazing and we had lots of fun laughing as we climbed our way to the top.

3. The first big Christmas market in Nuremberg. We had seen a smaller market in Bruges, but the one in Nuremberg was bustling with people and was decorated very well. It felt like we were achieving the major purpose of our trip (which was the Christmas markets). It took us a while to walk through the stalls, but we got some gluhwein, gingerbread, and some crepes in the meantime. It was a fun afternoon.

4. Climbing to the top of the Zugspitze on our last full day in Europe. It felt like a culmination of the entire trip, and it was very nice to spend the last day at the top of the Alps, checking out the out-of-this-world view. Even if traveling doesn't seem that grand or momentous while you're doing it, those are the moments you look back on and remember and are glad you did them.

5. Coming home to spend Christmas with our families. As much as we enjoyed our trip to Europe, we were ready to come home and see our families and take part in the Christmas festivities. The coming home part of our trip was always the most important, and the first part in Europe was just for me and Chelsy, while the second part in KY was for the family.

6. (Bonus) Getting home to Baton Rouge and finally sleeping in our own beds. This hasn't happened yet, but when it does, it will be very nice. We're going to spend that whole week unwinding, playing with the dog, and just relaxing in general. That will be our final Christmas gift we receive and it may be the best of all.

So thanks for following us on our trip! All of the posts (except this one and a few at the beginning) were typed on a phone, so we apologize for any spelling errors or lack of creativity. We probably would have been funnier and more imaginative in our posts if not for the lack of time/energy and the difficulties of posting from an iPhone. We really enjoyed all of the feedback from the comments and read them while we were on our trip. We also heard from a few people that tried to comment but they never showed up on the page. Sorry about that, we don't know what happened, but we appreciate the effort you took to respond.

Three times now, we've taken overseas trips on the even years (2006, 2008, 2010), so maybe our next big trip will be in 2012. If so, you may see another installment of our travel blogs. Until then, thanks for following and be sure to let us know if you ever write a travel blog of your own that we can follow.

Auf wiedersehen!

"PREET!"

I'm not sure what that means but some crazy foreigner on our last flight kept yelling that to his mom and it almost had him escorted off the plane. He also asked about 12 times (really) if he could get an "assurance" or "guarantee" that his bags were on this plane. All these theatrics, while hilarious, made us a little late to NY. But we got here in time, and it looks like the flight to Lexington should be close to on time. I'll be sure to post one final time in Lexington either tonight or tomorrow. But first things first, we're...

Back in the States

Back in the old US of A.

After some issues with Munich's metro line to the airport (that line was temporarily shut down, which worried us a little), we had a really pleasant overseas flight into Philadelphia. It was really the best case scenario outside of flying first class. We were first row in the economy section, so we had tons of legroom. Also we had adjacent seats that were a window and aisle so that was good. Also our TVs worked (didn't the first time overseas) and they were high quality pictures as well. That led to me watching 3.9 movies during the flight which made the time fly.

The only part of our flight that wasn't enjoyable was our brash flight attendant Charles, or Chuck as Chelsy called him. He always seemed in a hurry and impatient, even though he only had two meal services to do over an 8 hour span, and he was going to get to Philly the same time as us. His best line was to me during the first meal service, "Put your soda on the right side of your tray, not your left" in a mean way. My face kinda had a "Um, what?" look to it.

But we are here now and it looks like out flight to LaGuardia is on time for now. Then it's on to Lexington. We'll try to update again in New York.

Our Europe finale...from the top of Germany

Going to bed last night, we faced a difficult question. We had two options for our last day.

1). Spend the day sightseeing in Munich, which we mostly hadn't done yet. We could do some things like tour the Residenz, tour some breweries, check out museums/cathedrals, etc.

2). Use one of our unused days on our rail pass to go to a ski town and take a cogwheel train to the summit of the highest mountain in Germany.

We chose number 2, with the caveat that we need to come back to Munich when it's warmer to do the things we wanted to do.

We took about an hour train ride to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a famous German ski town which has hosted many international winter sports events.

After arriving in the town, we took a special cogwheel train to the summit of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. The ride took a little over an hour and had some amazingly beautiful views of the Alps on the way up.

After arriving near the top, we took a very fast cable car the rest of the way to the actual summit. The summit is near 10,000 ft. Here are some views from the top.










Looking at these pictures now, it kind of looks like Chelsy is superimposed using a green screen, but I can assure you we were there. It was really breathtaking and somewhat difficult to take it all in or decide exactly what to think about it. Regardless, a very fun experience. Oh, and it was crazy windy and crazy cold. It was about -9 C (about 16 F) but was much colder with the wind chill. We could only stay out on the observation decks for about 2 minutes worth of pictures at a time.

At the summit, they had 2 or 3 restaurants, a beer garden, and even a old border crossing station because that is the border between Germany and Austria. There were lots of skiers at the summit but unfortunately we didn't have time to do that.

After a few hours at the top of the mountain, we made out way back down the mountain and back to Munich.

In Munich, we decided to end our Europe trip with a really nice dinner. The first place we wanted to go didn't have any tables because an opera had just let out and it was full of people dressed way better than us.

We found a suitable alternative and had one of the best meals we had on this trip and probably the best atmosphere we've enjoyed so far. I had roasted saddle of veal with gratined potatoes and a dunkel beer. (I think their descriptions sometimes lost a little bit in translation)




Chelsy had half a Canadian lobster with spinach lasagne and fried tomatoes. We had pretty good service from a waiter that wouldn't stop making jokes and winking at us. Seriously, he winked about 10 times. But he did get us probably the last table in the place full of opera patrons.

We took a romantic little walk back to the hotel past all the lit up (but closed) shops. Now we're going through the hectic repacking of stuff that never seems to fit into the original luggage. It might be a late night.

Flight update - Weather in Munich has gotten much warmer, like high 30s. If we have problems tomorrow it shouldn't be because local weather here. Several big European airports are still struggling with their schedules right now, so if our plane is coming from one of those, we could be delayed.

We'll just have to wait and see. Everything looks good at this point. I'll try to post at some point in the flying process tomorrow and maybe once at home to wrap things up.

Wish us luck tomorrow so we can make it home by Christmas!

Beer capital of the world

Ah, Munich. The land where water comes in bottles but beer comes out of the faucet. Well almost. Our first full day in Munich was a day where we didn't do much, but we relaxed and had fun.

We woke up and started with the big Christmas market. At this point they are getting a tad repetitive so we just quickly went through this one. We decided to head to the famous Hofbrauhaus for lunch.




Those are 1 liter beers if you're wondering. The food was good and the beer was excellent. We probably had a bit too much, but that's all part of the experience. The men's bathroom had a vomitorium for that reason. We spent the next few hours buying some overpriced souvenirs and doing some shopping. Afterwards we recharged at the hotel.

Upon leaving the hotel in the evening, we explored a new part of town and did some window shopping in the upscale district. We decided to have dinner from the bratwurst stands located through town. Very delicious.

With it being late at night and most stores closed, we tried to figure out what to do.

We'll go to the Hofbrauhaus again, of course!




This time we didn't really eat, except for pretzels, but we tried their Radler, or half beer and half lemon lime soda (think Sprite). Surprisingly, it wasn't gross but actually quite decent. We probably drank too much again and stumbled back to the hotel.

Tomorrow should be more planned events and sightseeing, unless of course we walk past another beer hall. See ya then!

A little visit to Mozart's hometown

After yesterday's great day in Vienna, we were sad to leave but had to move on, so today was mostly a travel day.

We started the day with another train through the beautiful Austrian countryside, taking pictures of the snow covered houses. Our connection was in Mozart's town, Salzburg, Austria. We decided to stop for a few hours instead of heading right to Munich. So we put out luggage into storage and took off for the bus station.

It's always a challenge to figure out how to travel from the station into town, especially for a town that you haven't read about and has no metro. After a bit of legwork, we figured out where to go and took the bus there.

We got off the bus and went directly into a beautiful, old-style town with narrow alleys, tons of small, interconnected squares, and Christmas lights everywhere.







The markets were some of the best we've seen so far. It seemed like a decent amount of tourists, but mostly Austrian and German tourists. The atmosphere was very quaint and fun. Chelsy and I were even playing with these little kids on a big plowed mound of snow.

We were all set to catch the train to Munich with plenty of time to do some things later that night. However, plans sometimes change. Just before we planned to take the bus back to the train station, we saw some stairs heading up a hill. We were initially drawn to the stairs because people kept wiping out on them. I know you're probably thinking we are evil, but we went over there to try to warn people. It's just that they didn't understand English and would wipe out anyway. We tried to get the ice patch up with our shoes but a metal chisel type instrument was probably needed.

Anyway, Chelsy decided to climb the stairs some so I followed. Before you know it, we were a couple of hundred feet up the hill heading towards a castle at the top. We both knew it would kill our schedule, but sometimes the best things are the spontaneous ones.

Here we are, getting the hardest workout of our lives climbing this hill, and we come upon a admission booth. 4 euros each. Might as well, came this far. Very effective placement of that booth. As we get near the top, we can tell this place is going to be amazing. Chelsy somehow goes through an entire camera memory card. Don't worry I had another, just had to delete our wedding pictures off to use it. Come on, computer at home, don't crash while we're gone.

At the top, there is (surprise!) another small Christmas market. They put these things everywhere. Also at the top were these panoramic views which were just awesome.







The pictures fail to show what it was really like. But Chelsy has some good pictures on her camera to remember it by.

At this point our schedule is pretty shot, so we hurry to the bus stop we originally hopped off at. This is where something unexpected happened again, but not really with the greatest results. We hop on the same route we came in on, because the map shows it doing a loop around the town center and going back to the train station. Well, it doesn't do that. It apparently goes off the map and doesn't come back. We figured out something was wrong after about 3 stops in the wrong direction.

No problem, just hop off, catch one in the opposite direction right? According to the semi-American local on the train to do that we'd have to "find a way across the river". Since we are only a few stops from another train station we figure we'll go there and ride a train back to the main station. Well we go to the new station and it's possibly the most depressing, desolate station ever. Two platforms (one each way), completely snow covered, and not a soul in sight except one old woman all by herself on a snow covered platform. I wish I would've taken a picture. To make things worse, the train we need comes about once an hour. After some debate, we find a bus and decide to take it back to the original train station. We only wasted about an hour of our time, but it was an adventure and a story, so it was sorta worth it. That's what we keep telling ourselves anyway.

Because of all this, we get to Munich late (on a Sunday) so everything is closed. We find a bite to eat and that's where we stand now. We're going to get some rest and do some exploring tomorrow. We'll update again after.

Last night in Vienna

Our last day in Vienna. So much to see, so little time. I decided we would start by going to visit the Schonnbrunn Palace. Home to much of the historical Austrian royalty, the palace was a pretty amazing sight to behold. To top it all off, they had a Christmas market to visit as well.




Yep, that's Chelsy hogging up my shot. The one downside to the palace was it seemed like every tour bus in the city showed up the same time we did. So Chelsy and I were trying to navigate multiple crowds of 80+ people at all times. Other than that, it was very beautiful, especially in the snow. We also had a very good lunch there before going back to the center of town.

After the palace, we attempted to weasel our way into the Vienna Opera house to look around, but were unsuccessful. Instead, we visited the Hotel Sacher next door and had the famous Sacher Torte (their signature cake).



Very delicious. I believe this is a somewhat manufactured "famous" thing to do (kind of like a cheesesteak from Pat's or Geno's in Philly) but at least we can say we did it.

After some having some cake, we walked to the Hofburg and enjoyed the scenery. We stepped in a museum that I'm pretty sure was haunted so we left. We also took some pictures next to a Rolls Royce that was running with the keys in the ignition and the driver door open.

We hopped back on the metro and headed to Prater, a somewhat odd amusement park/nightlife/casino area. The odd part was even in the dead of winter, they were open. This place was the size of a normal Six Flags, but with no more than 200 people there. Most of the roller coasters were closed, but a few attractions were open. We saw some weird stuff. Bumper cars with only 2 people in the arena. Go karts with only 2 racers. They were operating the big swing ride with only one person on one swing. I kid you not. Very odd. There were people running taverns/pizzerias/casinos with no patrons. It had a very post-apocalyptic zombie movie feel to it. Anyway, the whole reason we were there was for the ferris wheel for spectators, kind of like the London Eye.




It was by far the most popular attraction at the park, drawing at least 10 people. Overall, a very fun and odd experience. I always wanted a theme park to myself. We also saw some weird stuff on the way out, like this wall clock.




We went back to the hotel to prepare for a nice dinner. Because we didn't want to dress nice and still go through our scarf/gloves/hat/jacket/layering routine, we just dressed nice and went to the restaurant at our hotel which is very nice.

I had maybe the best meal of the past few months, and I believe Chelsy enjoyed hers as well. I had veal filet with king prawns (biggest shrimp I've ever seen) and a mushroom and Parmesan risotto. Yum.




Chelsy had the Argentinean filet of beef with baked potato and grilled tomato.




And what for dessert you may ask? Only a dessert called "The Chocolate Trilogy".




Maybe those pictures may not look super delicious but it was all pretty good.

Tomorrow we leave Vienna. I'm sad to go and would like to come with Chelsy during a warmer month to explore it even more. Tomorrow we will check out Salzburg on the way to Munich, our final destination.