NEVER... say no to an adventure!

Never... ;)

August 4th: Princess for a day!!

 We were so excited to go to the Disney castle!! (Referred to as the Disney castle because it was the inspiration for the Disneyland sleeping beauty castle). We were warned a couple days earlier by the couple we met in the pool, that the castle was being renovated and that part of it was covered in scaffolding. Even though we knew that beforehand, it was a bit anticlimactic to pull up and see this giant bandaid perched up on top of a cliff. Despite the slightly less than ideal view, and not so promising weather, we bought tickets to go inside both castles. (yes, there are two.)

Our first tour was of Hohenschwangau Castle, the summer home of King Maximilian II. I really don’t like being told that I can’t take pictures, however, I followed the rules a bit better than I did in the ice caves... Maybe because in my mind, anything Disney related demands the utmost respect.The views from the castle were amazing. There were so many intricate gold and silver statues and decorations that were beautiful but otherwise completely useless. The servant corridors and sneaky passageways would have made it a great place to play hide and seek.

We decided that this was the castle that they copied for Mario :)

 As cool as Maximilian's castle was... it was nothing in comparison to the castle of his son King Ludwig II.

Neuschwanstein Castle!!!

I really don't know how to describe the inside of this castle to you. It was AMAZING! The detail on everything was so much more ridiculous than any other castle. One thing that I really appreciate about Ludwig is that he liked color! Just even standing in the entryway of the castle, the carvings and moulding on the walls and ceiling had details highlighted in bright blues and pinks and yellows! My initial reaction was that it was almost Dr. Seuss-like. Everything from the gold covered throne room, to the artificial cave hallway, to his average-size bedroom that took 14 woodcarvers 4 years to complete. The walls of every room were covered with scenes from Richard Wagner's operas. Ludwig was so obsessed with Wagner that the entire inspiration for the castle came from him and thus he dedicated the castle to him. Nick and I were both convinced that there had to be secret messages and meanings hidden in all the paintings. Taking into account Ludwig's "mysterious death," we really don't understand how nobody has made a movie about this guy yet!? After our tour, we followed the progression of people along the one-way route through the castle... until we got outside and I decided that I wanted to go back and get something from the gift shop inside... sooo we snuck back in the back door and went allllllllllllllll the way back, up the endless spiral stairs, though all the rooms, getting looks from everyone as we squeezed by. (Have I mentioned that Nick is a keeper? ;) 

To end the day, we walked out to the suspension bridge that overlooked the side of the castle that wasn't being renovated. Nick had sneakily bought me a tiara when we were in the castle, so I got to be a princess in the picture :).

From there, we ran back to the car in another rainstorm, got completely soaking wet, and spent the evening driving back to Zurich (and arguably getting the most lost that we have been on the entire trip). 

August 3rd: Why Not Throw in Germany?

We altered our trip a little bit towards the end. We decided that the Disney castle in Schwangau was too close and incredible to miss. Making the trip would also break up the 6 hour drive to Zurich we were planning on making beforehand. So although it didn't make monetary sense, we left our condo a day early and headed northwest to Fussen, Germany. As we weren't in any big hurry, we slept in very late that day. We didn't get home till late the night before and we deserved to sleep in. We had been on the run for like a month you know?

We stopped several times to take pictures. I have been trying to improve my eye for pictures. (I don't think its working.) However, we did meet some friends that we stopped and hung out with. No, our friends are not from here.

Fred and Julie.

Paul.

Me and Jeff.

Jen and the friendly one.

Bully.

Wassup?!

Dale mamacita.......Takata!

He was rude to Jen.

I made that for her. :)

During one of our picture stops, Jen got attacked by killer ants!! Why do they like her so much??

This particular drive was really easy and well broken up by the picture taking stops. We found the little town just outside of Fussen with out any turn arounds or skull duggery. We drove straight to the wrong place and I asked confidently for our room. The lady seemed somewhat entertained to ask us in english, "are you sure you booked THIS hotel?" My answer, "um......no not really". But she pointed us to our real hotel just down the road. Both hotels had the word pension in them. German is really hard to understand. I mix up the names of things all the time. I frequently say the name of something and just trail off........Jen knows that I can't remember ANY of the german street names she gives me. I wish Germans spoke Spanish.

We got to our REAL hotel and checked in, awkwardly. I couldn't find the reception desk and then left the building to make sure we were at the right place and look at parking spots. The receptionist/waitress came out and got me. Not a smooth interaction, but we got taken care of. Jen was really tired so I took all the luggage up to the room (in one trip I might add) and then we went for a run! Gotta get ready for Vegas!

It felt great to exercise after being couped up in the car all day. We sat down and ate some schnitzel and potatoes for dinner at the hotel. To end the night we stayed up after everyone went to bed and tried to catch up on the blogging. We were the last ones to go to bed and turned off the lights. We were excited to see the castle in the morning!!

August 2nd: “Man...You My Monkey”

Tours booked. We had a plan for today! We grabbed our breakfast from our favorite spot and left for Salzburg! Once again the directions proved to be pretty confusing. We had actually made it into town and in the right area, in time for our walking tour of the city... but unfortunately, we couldn’t find the exact meeting place or parking in time. With only one way in and one way out, it was difficult to turn around when we missed a street, and we had to do the whole loop again in traffic. 

By the time we did park and make it to the kiosk, our only other (short tour) option was to do a 1hr bus tour. Considering the whole point of taking a tour in the first place was just to get a layout of the city and basic info so we could explore on our own after, neither of us really minded. We had just enough time to have a picnic lunch in the park before our tour started.

The tour itself was not impressive, there were 7 of us that got on a VERY stuffy/hot van (not a bus). It was hard to focus on anything because we were all concerned about the lack of air conditioning. Our guide spoke ridiculously fast and would also translate in French for the couple in front of us. To be honest, it was really difficult to tell when he was speaking English... about halfway through Nick gave up trying to follow what he was saying, “it’s too much thinking.” We did however manage to pick up some important info... like the fact that the Monks had their own brewery, and the beer garden opened up at 3pm. We did make a pitstop at the now Harvard University owned, Sound of Music house that they used in the movie (which apparently isn’t much less then we would have saw on the Sound of Music tour because a lot of the sites are actually in Germany).

In front of the Sound of Music house (from the movie)

Our tour guide dropped us off in the middle of town, where we now had some time to kill before our Mozart dinner. We wandered through the courtyards of St. Peters, shopped a  little, stopped a few times just to be in the shade and have a cold drink. We saw where Mozart was born, of which the ground floor of the house is now a Spar. We saw houses built into the side of the hills (literally), and avoided the remnants of horse poop left by the horses pulling carriages, as we navigated our way through the city. By 4pm we decided to wander down the street to find the Augustiner Baue (the monk brewery). Unsure of whether or not we were in the right place, we passed by a building that had one lonely sign out front indicating that we had found it. When we walked inside, there was nobody there and multiple doors to choose from. Not sure if we were even allowed to be wherever we were, we kept going.... down the staircase, we started passing by food counters.... down more stairs and through the door outside, we found a HUGE beer garden, hundreds of people! It looked awesome! It was the funniest thing walking through that... nothing, nothing, nothing, PEOPLE! So many people... It was a huge hangout spot, there were families that brought a full BBQ picnic with them. There were so many tables to sit at, but none open. Thankfully an Australian couple saw us wandering around and offered to let us sit with them. They were on their honeymoon and we found out that they were very disappointed with Italian food as well (It wasn’t just us!!) We ended up chatting with them all the way up until we had to leave for our dinner concert. 

buildings built into the hills.

Mozart's house.

Our Mozart dinner was amazing!! We were in the Baroque Hall of St. Peters. A small dining room that only sat about 60 people. It had huge vaulted ceilings, big sparkly chandeliers, and candles everywhere. It was very fancy looking. We had a three course 18th Century inspired dinner, and each course was broken up by a 20/30min set of Mozart music. A five piece ensemble and two opera singers. It was amazing to hear how the sound filled the room. 

During the dinner part, we chatted with the couple from South Carolina, and the family from Madrid that were also at our table. It was fun talking to Adrian, his wife and his two daughters, partially because he was so excited to try and speak to us in English. The girls giggled at Nick when he imitated the songs. They laughed when Adrian pointed out that we “ate Mozart” (the chocolate powder on the desert was in the shape of Mozart.... we didn’t notice. We took a picture of it because of the music note.). Overall, it was a fun night! Good food (we’re still not sure what Caton is, but we ate it!), great company and live entertainment.

And then we stuck our heads in a fountain :)

August 1st: Wasserfall: Fully Trusting Alien George.........

Today was hiking day!! We had been talking about doing a hike since we got to our cozy condo in the Austrian alps and today was the day. Overwhelmed with options, we decided to go with the advice we got from our alien ice cave guide; George. George had given us a hint about a giant waterfall in a town close by called St. Johann. Or that's what we thought he said......

Fully trusting alien George, we set off to find the waterfall (wasserfall in German). We had no problem finding St. Johann, or rather, J Quest had no problem telling me how to get there. :) But once we were there we had a short hiccup trying to find said wasserfall, which was supposedly called Lichtenstein Klum. After asking around and finding an information desk, Jen found out that the wasserfall did not exist. At least not in St. Johann. Thanks a lot, Alien Ice Cave George.

A little confused, we moved on and found a different wasserfall to hike to. One that was actually in St. Johann. Problem solved. Crisis avoided. Oh Europe, when will you give us solid directions? Oh well.

On the way up the mountain there were houses with very welcoming people working in their yards. We did our best to say something politely in German, but most of the time we just smiled back. My "gutentogg" is probably said with the worst german accent ever. Even still, a couple of them even pointed out the poorly marked trail. Really nice, helpful people in Austria. It's a lot like Switzerland that way. Barring George.

On the way up we followed a little stream that ran peacefully paralleling the trail. The peaceful little stream didn't look like it would lead us to much of a waterfall. Not going to lie, after the 6 hour, 90 degree up hike we did in Switzerland, this seemed like a walk in the park.

We took pictures and chatted on the way up. I tried not to sing, "THHHHEEEEE hills are allliiiiiiiiiiive, with the sound of MUUUUUSSSIIIICCC........As the beginning of the hike especially reminded me of that movie.

Towards the top, Jen gave me a little lesson in photography. I learned about lighting and shutter speed and we talked about what makes a good picture. I think I might need a nice camera. Uh oh. The waterfall itself was gorgeous and we spent about a half hour hanging out underneath taking pictures and relaxing in the shady area. Then we headed home to swim!!

This was part of my lesson on shutter speed. Photography by JQ.

I think I actually took this one. See how artistic I am? I hope I'm telling the truth...

We almost stopped ourselves from laying down and resting when we got home..........But after about 20 minutes we dragged ourselves out to swim. "Gotta get ready for Vegas!", we kept saying.

After we finished a short arm workout in the pool, Jen tried to teach me to flip turn in the pool (I swallowed a lot of water during this lesson-but I got better) We then met an older couple and shared travel stories. They were hilarious and very nice. They talked and talked. We listened and listened. We talked too, I guess. I remember them being fairly long winded, however. I was getting pruny and cold but I liked them so I didn't say anything. Finally we got out of the water and headed to dinner in Maria Alm.

Dinner was delicious!! We started out with goulash and tomato soup. Splendid. Then ordered grillteller and chicken curry. Amazing. Also, the Austrians and the Germans do well in the beer game. We got in the habit of ordering something and sharing it. That way we could try more things when we went out. I like it that way. Sometimes I finish her food too. I might have gained some weight in Europe. :/

Great food. Full, great day!

July 31st: Olympic Party

We had a late start to the day, enjoying the sun out on our balcony. Deciding that we wanted to spend a full day in Salzburg and take a tour (since we know nothing about it), we figured it wouldn’t hurt to go today and just walk around and explore on our own. 

This is our breakfast spot! Bauer (The Austrian Starbucks)

Well, Salzburg is a big city, and we went without a plan, or any idea of which part of town to go to. So it’s no surprise that we went to the wrong part of town. We went to modern Salzburg, not the old town. Confused and at a loss of what to do, we wandered around, snuck into a cafe to use the bathroom and snuck back out without buying anything (with everyone staring at us), and went to......... (drum roll)...... SPAR! We bought snacks and chocolate and beer so that we could have an Olympic watching party later.

After our short day trip, we headed back to Saafeldon where we searched for Nick’s illusive “steakhouse.” He swore that he had seen a sign for one, and was on a mission to eat there, only there. Some time later, we managed to find it, only to see that it was closed, so we settled on eating at another restaurant that looked pretty popular. Have we mentioned that we like the food in Austria better than Italy? One schnitzel and a calzone later, we were headed back to our condo to watch the Olympics.... in style :)

We both rocked our American flag bandanas :)

It’s funny to see the Olympic sports that are popular here. This was the night we discovered team handball. For those of you who know me and know about my Olympic aspirations. Handball was made for me, and I WILL be playing it soon. :)

July 30th: You Won't Find Nobody....Else Like Me.

We had already decided that we were doing something epic today. What could be more epic than exploring the largest ice cave in the entire world?! 

After a healthy breakfast of vitamins and frosted flakes we hit the road towards somewhere cold in July. Eisreisensomething wasnt hard to find with all the highway signs with giant icicles on them. On the way, we stopped and took some pictures of the scenery. 

We parked and began our hike up a mountain.From the base where we parked, you couldn’t see any trace of a cave and definitely not any ice. But up we went. For a while actually. We finally made it to the ticket center where they had a little memorobilia shop as well. We then learned that we needed to buy tickets to a cable car and a guided tour of the cave. But first, we needed to go more UP. So we kept hiking.  On the way up we went through a creepy feeling tunnel. It was dimly lighted and had water dripping every few feet. Cool. 

 Creepy tunnel on the way to the cave.

Hangin in the cave. The cave makes you blurry.

Shortly after was the cable car. We waited in line forever. The whole time worrying we would miss the last tour. We were cutting it close, but we made it!

Me piggin out on a pretzel in line.

Our trusty ride up the really steep part of the mountain. We maintain that we could have hiked it if we had more time. That's ok, we hadn't ridden in a cable car yet.

When we finally got to the cave we were happy to find out that our tour would be in English! English is beginning to sound sweeter and sweeter these days. The cave was monstrous. It was so dark that every few people had to hold an oil candle to see inside. A huge gust of wind guards the entrance of the cave (difference in temperature creates wind I learned). Our guide George, reminded us sternly that there was no photography allowed in the caves. We obeyed all of the rules, of course. haha........

So Jennifer sneakily took pictures all the way through the caves. She was very sneaky. The dim lighting wasnt helpful, but still got some cool pics.

Road to the ice cave!

Told you it was big!!

Sneaky photos.

cont'd.

There were 700 steps in the caves that go 1 full km deep. The other 41 km are not explored on the tour! The ice formed massive structures that lit up different colors. At many points our guide George would stand on or in one of the structures and talk about it. The pictures of him make it look like we are looking at an alien! One of the structures looked like a giant elephant. Another like a wall with a secret tunnel. The cave as a whole left me kind of dumb-struck because I had no idea how it was made. Also, the size of it blew me away. I would have been amazed by the tour without the ice. But there was SO much ice! Deeper and deeper we went into the cave (that I was secretly pretending was the bat cave). Deep inside the cave the founder of the cave is buried. His dying wish was to have his ashes stored in his beloved cave. Weird. I think the cave is probably haunted. Which makes it even cooler.

George the ice cave alien.

We walked down to the car with shaky legs from the 700 steep steps up and the 700 steep steps down. Thats 1400 to the non math majors. When we got to the car we ended up stopping and talking for about an hour. We were the last ones to leave the mountain. 

Tired and hungry, we ate and went to bed.