Last night, we returned home after 2 weeks of traveling Europe. Before we even made it home, we had to stop at La Piñata for some Mexican food, which isn't available overseas.
We took almost 500 pictures so naturally, I won't be posting them all.
We took off from SFO on 8/15 around 6:50 pm. We took a flight directly to Frankfurt which wasn't bad at all. We enjoyed the movies on the plane, the constant flow of food and some good sleep. We got into Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon, had an hour layover and continued on to Zurich where LaVor's brother, Jason, picked us up.
In Zurich, Sunday morning.We spent the night with his family, went to church the next morning and left the train station at around noon and headed up to the Netherlands. We arrived in Arnhem at about 9:00 that night, checked into the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat and were out for the night.
On the train to ArnhemMonday morning, we woke up early and caught the train to Bussum, where his dad lived for a few years as a child. We had no clue where the house was that we were looking for so we just started walking. We came across a real estate office that had a home for sale on the same street we needed. The nice woman pulled out a map and showed us where the street was. We continued walking and walking and walking to find that there was a school in the spot where the house was. Disappointing but it was neat to be able to see where it once stood and soak in the cute atmosphere.
One of the canals in BussumOn our way back to the train station, it began to pour and we only had one umbrella. Unfortunately, it being Monday, several stores were closed so we were unable to buy an additional umbrella until LaVor had already gotten totally soaked. To lighten the mood, we stopped at a bakery to grab some pastries and enjoyed them while we waited for our train to Amsterdam.
The pastries got a little messyWe arrived in Amsterdam and the area right outside of the train station is equivalent to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Very crowded, lots of tourists and souvenir shops. The only thing we had planned in Amsterdam was to tour the Anne Frank house but our reservation wasn't until 6:30 that night so we had about 5 hours to kill. Just like Bussum, we walked our way through the city and got lost. We found ourselves in the outskirts and enjoyed walking up and down the canals. It rained off and on all day and we never completely dried from our downpour in Bussum so when the night came, it got cold. The Anne Frank house was interesting but sad to know what had happened, where we were standing. On our way back to the station, we grabbed a bite to eat at this cute hole in the wall pizza place. Super yum!
Tuesday morning, we woke up and headed into Arnhem and Velp to again, find another home that LaVor's great-grandparents lived in. Still, we had no map so we took the bus into Velp and hoped that we'd see something. We didn't. We finally stopped at a gas station that provided us with a map of the town and we found the street we needed. The address was 313 but when we got to the street, it only went up to 35. Things change over 40 years. Another disappointment but we bought some wooden shoes while we were in Velp. Red, to match our livingroom.
From Arnhem, we took the train to Berlin. I suppose I was excited to get there because the second I heard "Berlin" over the speaker, I thought it was our stop. We got off the train and realized it wasn't the HB but it was too late. We obviously looked puzzled because a nice man asked if we needed help. He told us the next train could take us to the HB and we'd be there in no time. He was right. We got in around 10 and again, crashed.
We had originally planned to take an overnight train from Berlin to Frankfurt but we would have gotten into Frankfurt at 4 am Thursday. So we decided to stay another night in Berlin and leave first thing in the morning. Much better choice.
We got into Frankfurt just after lunchtime on Thursday. We checked into our hotel and began walking the city. Our first stop was the Römerberg (city hall square) which was destroyed during WWII and later re-built. Very cute and touristy. That was really the only thing we wanted to see and we did. We then walked across the Rhine and sat on a bench, while watching people walk by. We made our way through a local farmers market that mainly sold meat. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped on a main street and enjoyed some ice cream. We thought we had an idea of where we were going but we totally didn't. We tried to determine our way back by a building we had seen earlier in the day. The one area I wanted to avoid was the red light district and that's exactly where we went through to get to our hotel. You would have thought we were competing in the Olympics for speed walking. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room and I watched the life down below from our window.
Friday morning came and we took the train to Mainz, where my parents met and lived when they first got married. Our plan was to visit my parents old landlord and chat for a bit. We got into Mainz and checked out a bus map to see where we should go. Again, we obviously looked confused because a man stopped and asked where we needed to go. We told him and he gasped, said it was quite a ways and recommended we take a bus. We thought we'd walk and see how far we could get :oP We ended up taking a bus. We got to the home only to find that the couple wasn't home. We took pictures and raced back to the station to catch our train back to Zurich. LaVor's brother was kind enough to pick us up at the station on several occasions. Greatly appreciated.
We woke up Saturday morning and headed into Zurich with his family. Tons of cute shops, some sort of Renaissance festival was going on and it rained and rained and rained. I decided to wear a pair of flats that day...with flower cutouts (aka holes) so it was as if I was walking around barefoot. Not fun. We ended the day by having cheese fondue. Very delicious.
Sunday, we piled into the car and Jason & Julie took us to Grindelwald, Gimmelwald and Mürren. Absolutely beautiful! It was hard to believe that we were actually experiencing this. It was cold in the shade but hot in the sun. We had a nice lunch in Mürren and we headed back down the mountain in the gondola and drove back home.
LaVor and I decided to make a small day trip to Como, Italy. The book we had brought said that the lake was a 10 minute walk from the train station but it didn't say in which direction. We walked about 30 minutes in the opposite direction and decided to make a few turns and head into the old town. Sure enough, we found the lake. We stopped to grab a bite to eat (LaVor was set on getting pizza in Italy. It was much better than my lasagna) and while we were eating, we saw some missionaries walking by. We had wanted to see some so I jumped out of my chair and ran over to them. Obviously from Utah. We chatted for a bit and they said if we needed anything, to give them a call. I ended up losing the pass along card they gave me with their number so the offer was shot. We hadn't planned to do anything in Como and so we didn't. We literally sat on a bench and watched for most of the afternoon. We went back to the train station and went home to Zurich.
We packed our bags and headed to Neuschwanstein on Tuesday. We literally ran to each of our trains that day. One of which smelled of urine. Not enjoyable. We hiked up the hills to Neuschwanstein and enjoyed the views and captured many pictures. We only stayed for a couple hours and continued on to Munich. We checked into our hotel and didn't feel like going out to dinner so we ate downstairs at "Champions", an American sports bar. We were the only ones in there. I was hoping to be able to get a lemonade since I had been craving it for the past week and a half but no such luck. We ended up eating way too much and just went upstairs and fell asleep.
We woke up Wednesday morning and set out to the concentration camp, Dachau. While we were taking the bus from the station to the camp, I couldn't help but think of the residents of Dachau during the war. Had they any idea what was happening in their own town? They must have. One of the exhibits at the camp said that once liberated, the American troops were directed to bring in the residents of Dachau and show them the piles of rotting corpses. On the way to be buried, the wagons carrying the bodies drove slowly through the town so all could see what had taken place. Many residents were also forced to bury the bodies. Just like the Anne Frank house, Dachau was...to me, it was interesting. Not in a "fun" sort of way, obviously. But again, to walk where history took place is appealing to me. I pictured the prisoners and what they might have been doing or who was walking to what building. We spent several hours touring the camp and ended up leaving just after lunch.
We then went into Munich and enjoyed again...pizza. It was quite good. Munich was also one of our favorites. Lots to see, do, eat, buy. Again, we saw another set of Elders, and chatted for a few moments. It was nice to feel some sort of connection to someone in a foreign country. We had to do the touristy thing and eat at the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones that weren't drinking beer. We enjoyed the band, as did the visitors from Asia. They even got the bands autographs on the beer coasters. We enjoyed that atmosphere for a bit and then headed back to the hotel.
Thursday morning came and we made it to the station to catch our 8:25 train to only find out that it apparently wasn't coming but the 8:48 train would take us to Salzburg. You mean we could have slept for an additional 23 minutes?! :o) We got into Salzburg a little after 11, rented some bikes and tried to find the gazebo from
The Sound of Music. We had only rented the bikes for 2 hours and the first 30 minutes were spent aimlessly riding around the city. We finally found the gazebo, shot a few pictures and raced back to have the bikes returned in time. We stopped at a small cafe for a quick lunch and caught the train back to Zurich. That was the worst ride ever! Each one of our trains was late and the last leg, the train kept randomly stopping. We got into Zurich around 9:15, stopped at Burger King to grab something really fast...which ended up not being really fast, then missed our train to Jason & Julies. We ended up not leaving Zurich until just after 10. It was a long day.
We went into Zurich again on Friday to grab a couple things and then went to the Swiss Temple that night. That's where my parents were married so it was ultra special for me. It was neat to know that I was walking where they walked.
Saturday came and we enjoyed a couple hours with the family. We then took the train to the airport and said our goodbyes.
The time went by slower than I expected, which was good, but we were ready to come home. We enjoyed ourselves very much and are grateful for the opportunity we had to visit.
to be jolly for Halloween!
good ole' Rosie.
