Europe 2010 Part II

Europe trip Cont...

Our next stop was in Munich. In hind site I am grateful that it was COLD and rainy when we were in Munich because it sort of forced our hand into taking a bus tour of the city. This was the only city that we did that in and I was grateful because it was not my favorite of the places we visited. I loved the history of it and it was cool to go wander through the Royal Residence but it was definitely the best way for me to see Munich.

There was the bonus of snuggling up with each other and hot chocolate too!!

Beautiful church with the twin bell towers!

A model of the Royal Residence. It was so big that it was nice to have this to look at and try to get your barrings on where you were!

Main Hall

Chapel in the RR. It was badly damaged in WWII. You can see the line of new bricks where the roof had to be rebuilt.

Before and after pictures of the chapel

Lunch at the Hauf Braun Haus

The Alps between Austria and Italy

(out of order)

Saltz River in Salzberg, Austria

Mozart's first violin

We took this scary looking ride up the side of the cliff to get to the fortress at the top. Once you were inside it wasn't as scary as it looked, but when you were at the bottom looking up it was a bit daunting!!

The view from the top was AMAZING! The whole city laid out at your feet!!


We took the "Sound of Music" tour while we were in Salzburg. It was a fun tour and we enjoyed seeing all the sights from the movie as well as about an hour of driving through some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen!

This house was used in the movie for all the scenes that were outside. The lunch of the terrace and the kids falling in the lake.

The gazebo from "Sixteen Going of Seventeen", and "Something Good". It used to be on the grounds of the house above but they had a problem with people jumping the fences and walls to take pictures so they moved it to a public park.

The Abby is still a working nunnery so they were not allowed to film the wedding there, (that is where the Captain and Maria were really married) they went about an hour outside the city to this chapel and filmed the wedding here. I thought it was one of the most beautiful churches we saw on our trip.

It was fun to go to the Christmas shops in the city centers. These shops literally get set up and stocked one day and open the next. It was so much fun to get the kids Christmas ornaments from each of the countries that we visited.

This giant chess set with the old men hanging out playing made me giggle. I could just imagine the conversation before this picture... "Well dear, when you are done with your shopping you can find me OVER THERE!"

How romantic can you get? A horse drawn carriage ride through the beautiful city of Salzburg! I can't believe what a lucky girl I am to have this amazing man to share my life with! 16 years and more in love than I can possibly express!!!

Vicenza, Italy

This park was so cool. What would it be like to be able to wake up, go out on your terrace and look out on this?

This is a cannon ball still stuck in the wall from Napoleon's invasion of Vicenza.

City center, they were stringing Christmas lights from the bell tower!

GELATO

Real Italian pizza .... so good!

Venis, Italy

My two goofy companions in Italy!! Tracy, being his usual charming self, and Scott. Scott worked with Tracy and lives in Italy. It was nice to have someone that knows his way around and speaks Italian. We had such a great time staying with Scott and Bonnie, it was sad that she had a stress fracture in her foot and wasn't able to join us for most of our outings.

More Venis!!

Piazza de San Marco (The Plaza San Marco) with the Basilica de San Marco in the background.

The Rialto Bridge in Venis! SOOO cool.

Verona, Italy

This is Juliet's balcony in Verona

statue of Juliet

The courtyard by her blacony.

The Alps on our way through Switzerland back into Germany.

Heidelburg, Germany again. We fell in love with this city on our way through the first time, so we decided that it would be a wonderful way to end our trip together.

View from our hotel room.

We splurged and got the suite in this charming hotel in the city center. That is me in the top window!! The views were spectacular!