“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” ~Jawaharial Nehru
I do apologize, this post is a bit delayed. It's hard to sit and write about what has already happened when I could be out exploring the beautiful city of Paris, France. Yep, we have made it to Paris and I love it! It smells horrible, but I'll tell you all about that later.
You know you have been traveling a long time when your toiletries are dry!
We've been on the road for a month now and we've seen 8 of the 10 countries we planned to visit. We still have money and just barely enough energy to be tourist for another month or so. We've done laundry twice and shipped one box of goodies back to the states! I think my pack is getting lighter even though I don't think I've left anything behind...maybe I'm just getting stronger!
If you read my last travel post you know that we were headed to Salzburg after Vienna, Austria. The rain stuck with us, but Salzburg was such a welcomed change from Vienna. I loved Salzburg and hope to visit again!
We arrived in the beautiful mountain town in the afternoon on Monday the 11th. We found our way and dropped our bags at the hostel before exploring the old town. Salzburg truly is beautiful with snow capped mountains in the distance, green rolling hills, and a pocket of city right in the middle. There are castles built on top of the rocky mountains and the beautiful _ river running through. The highlight of our two days in Salzburg would probably be the Sound of Music tour, but we did so many other fun things too. We toured Old Town, visited the Dom Cathedral, meandered through the cemetery (where they pay rent for their graves...or their families I guess), hiked our way to the castle for a beautiful view of the city, we ate pretzel sandwiches, we shopped through the markets, and enjoyed some beer and futbol in the evenings. We meet several friends and spent some time at the Augustiner beer garden too. Like I said...I think my favorite part of our time in Salzburg was the Sound of Music bus tour. We boarded a bus that drove us through and around Salzburg to see and explore some of the sights from the movie. I can't wait to watch the movie again and see all the sights we visited. The tour also drove us about 1.5 hours outside of Salzburg and gave us the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful lakes ever. The clearest blue water pooled under huge mountains with adorable Austrian style homes built throughout.
I absolutely loved our time in Salzburg and wish we could have stayed longer. I hope to visit sooner rather than later and enjoy it all over again!
We left Salzburg on a rainy morning and took a train to Munich, Germany. Munich was quite an experience. Chris says its his favorite city so far. I liked the city, but enjoyed our time there more because of the people I met and the place we stayed. I kept running into problems when I was booking our hostel for Munich. There were either no rooms available or the prices were crazy high. I found out later that it was because of a big festival that was going on in Munich that week. Anywho...the most reasonable place I could find was to book us at "the tent" for a couple nights. "The Tent" was literally a big tent. Like one you would see at a circus or fair. It slept 100 people in bunk beds in one tent without heating or AC. I was so hesitant about booking it, but it ended up being my favorite place we've stayed so far.There was "family" dinner every night, a bonfire, ping pong tables, a piano cabin, and hammocks scattered everywhere. I loved it! The environment and people made our stay here great! Follow the link and check out the site to see what I am talking about.
Back to Munich itself. I was pretty sick of museums at this point so we didn't step foot in a single one while there. Instead we walked around town, had a beer in the central square while watching the Glockenspiel (clock with figurines and bells from the 30's) in the Marienplatz, we shopped and ate our way through the Viktualen market, and spent plenty of time with friends at the Hoffbrau and Augustiner beer gardens. We walked through the English gardens and watched the river surfers. We wondered around the beautiful Nyphenburg Palace and gardens. And we spent some time at the concentration camp Dachau. I am so grateful for this visit, but can't seem to put into words what I experienced. It's so much to wrap your head around and then to see it as it was just 60 years ago is something I won't ever forget.
Munich treated us well! We ended up staying 3 nights instead of 2 because we loved "the tent" and it's $10.50/ night bed!
I was sad to leave, but seeing the bug on my pillow early Saturday morning made it much easier to pack up and board the train to Switzerland!
The journey from Munich, Germany to Grindelwald, Switzerland was a mess. We left Munich around 7 am on Saturday. 4 trains and about 8 hours later we finally checked into our place in the beautiful Swiss Alps. While the ride was long, the view was absolutely worth it. Running through the mountains was a huge lake of clear, clean, blue/green glacial water. It was stunning! I could have spent a week up in the mountains and on the lake!
We didn't have much time in Switzerland, but we definitely made the most of it. We hiked through the mountains and enjoyed a nice dinner in the village of Grindelwald where we slept. Grindelwald is a small farming village further up in the mountains from Interlaken. The town was so nice and peaceful and the view was one for the books!
We spent Sunday canyoning through the Alps. I have to say that this was the best part of our trip so far!! I absolutely can not wait to get our pictures in from this adventure so I can share with you, but until then I'll try to tell you how amazing it was. We started by getting sized for our wet suits in Interlaken and having a short intro session to the sport. From there we boarded a bus with about 10 other people and two guides for the hour drive up the mountain. We found our canyon and suited up! Our first obstacle was the repel down to the canyon from the street. The driver dropped us in the middle of the road and next thing I knew I was standing the clear, freezing canyon water surrounded by ice and snow. We spent the next 4 hours sliding, swimming,jumping, zip lining, and floating down the canyon. The experience was once in a lifetime!! I seriously can not wait to show pictures so you all understand what I'm talking about. The views from the canyon were pretty spectacular as well!
We went straight from the canyon to the train station where we boarded a train for Paris, France!
I've had a wonderful trip so far! It's been crazy, and fast, and full of adventure! I am looking forward to spending more than a couple days in our next countries and will write a about Paris ASAP!
Love Life and be adventurous
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