Paris

Oh how I love Paris.  Everything is so quaint and picturesque and just what you imagine Paris to be like--the old buildings, the green plants, people playing the accordion on the side of the street, the artists lining the sidewalk, the patisseries and creperies on every corner, and of course hearing French everywhere!

Our train pulled into Paris Monday night.  When we were only a few minutes away from our hotel our driver pulled over to the side of the road and told us to look out the window.  And as we did, the Eiffel Tower lit up and started sparkling...it was beautiful!  What a perfect way to see Paris for the first time.  That night, we dropped off our luggage and took the metro straight to the Eiffel Tower to see it up close.  Unfortunately, they had stopped selling tickets, so we couldn't climb to the top that night.  Instead we got a crêpe.

The next morning we ate croissants, and oh boy, the croissants in Paris are amazing and always fresh and perfect.  After breakfast we headed off to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  It gives such a cool view of the city.  The streets all start at the Arc and head out from it, so they end up looking like an asterisk with the Arc de Triomphe as the center point.  From the Arc we walked through the city to see Napoleon's tomb, which I learned is in a tomb in a tomb in a tomb in a tomb in a tomb in a tomb in a tomb (is that seven tombs?).  For lunch we ate at Café Flore, the same café that Fitzgerald and Hemmingway would hang out at when they lived in Paris.  Later we took the subway to a street where artists are literally all crammed together painting and sketching and sculpting.  I just wanted to stop every step and stare at all the amazing art...but then I was afraid if I stopped they would start trying to sell me everything, which then gets awkward.  That evening we went back to the Eiffel Tower to climb to the top.  Buuuut...we got bored waiting in line and decided to come back at 8:30 in the morning when the line was the shortest.

After staying up late and watching Psych, our plans to get up early and climb the Eiffel Tower were thwarted...we slept in and by the time we ate and actually got to the Eiffel Tower, it was 12:30.  Lucky for us, the line wasn't extremely long and we were finally able to get through the line and to the top.  We climbed the 670 stairs to the second platform and took an elevator to the top to see the amazing view of Paris.  The rest of that afternoon and evening, we walked across the bridge of locks, the Notre Dame, and saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.  It's neat to be able to see in person all these paintings and places that are always talked about and pictured and in books.

Thursday, our last day in Paris, we spent the day at Versailles.  I'll admit, I expected to go and see another palace and think it was cool and then leave.  But, it blew me away.  The grounds are huge and extend as far as you can see.  Perfectly trimmed and huge trees surround you everywhere, you could rent boats and row across the lake, the guest house is a palace itself, and the gardens are amazing.  We brought a picnic and ate in the park while watching Mary Antoinette's sheep's grandchildren sheep graze.  (My mom learned that fun fact about the sheep last time she was in Paris.)  We rented bikes and biked around the lake and through the trees, which was a really fun way to see the grounds without walking miles and miles.  I also got to use my French a lot today, which was quite exciting.  Bonjour.  Je voudrais six croissants.  Deux avec chocolat.  Oui.  D'accord.  Merci beaucoup.  Parlez-vous anglais?  Non?  D'accord.  J'ai besoin de six billets à Versailles et retourner de Versailles.  Trois enfants, trois adultes.  Un enfant moins de dix ans.  Merci.

Friday we left Paris and Europe to return back home.  I had such a fun trip and loved every minute of it!  I was sad to have to leave, but it's always nice to get back home and see your friends and sleep in your own bed.

Arrivederci, auf Wiedersehen, au revoir Europe!  You've treated us well.

At the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Putting their heads through the fence when Mom wasn't looking.

Caramel upon caramel upon caramel upon caramel...

The prettiest ice cream I have ever seen!

"That's not the color of the bridge...those are locks!" -Nicholas

Is that a real easel? 

Grindelwald

We pulled into our hotel in Switzerland late Saturday night and spent the evening watching more Psych.  Switzerland is beautiful with green grass and wild flowers shooting up everywhere.  Not to mention, the mountains are huge and surrounded us on every side.  They still speak German, but they have French on all the signs as well, so I have been having fun practicing my French before going to Paris.

Sunday we took the train up to Jungfraujoch to sled, zip line, and walk through an ice cave.  It's not that often you get to go sledding in July.  And it's not that often you get to go sledding in the Alps.  We loved running around in the snow and seeing who could actually stay on the sled the whole ride.  I did not love that my feet were soaking wet because there was no room to pack boots, but that hardly mattered because we were having so much fun just being in the snow.

Monday we left Switzerland and took a train to Paris.  But our train wasn't until later in the afternoon, so we still had a whole morning to kill.  We learned they had an alpine slide close by and of course could not pass that up.  Especially so we could say "I've actually ridden an alpine slide IN the Alps!"  (Except in Switzerland they call it the Rodelbahn.)

Just another "Mortal Danger" sign.

Peace and love from the top of a mountain.

Inside the "Ice Palace."

Dad and our beloved FedEx truck.

Munich

The boys have been particularly excited about Munich for two reasons.  1--BMW factory tour.  And 2--seeing Despicable Me 2.  Our first day, we walked to Marianplatz to see the life size glockenspiel that only played twice a day.  I was expecting more of a cuckoo clock with animals popping out of the clock.  Instead, the figures turned in circles and jousted, which was still pretty cool!  We wandered through the farmers' market and through a park and then back to the hotel to watch some Psych (a new nightly tradition as of this trip).

And now Day 2...the boys' day.  We started off the morning bright and early to make sure that we would get to the tour with plenty of time to spare.  We looked at all the different cars on display in BMW World (pretty much a dad's theme park) including an electric car that will hit the market in a few years and a Rolls-Royce, which apparently is extremely cool.  And one of the most exciting parts was that not only were the cars on display to look at, but most of them were on display to touch and sit in!  Totally wicked.  The tour was actually pretty cool and it was really interesting to see all the robots move around so precisely and work together to build the cars.  My dad kept reminding me, "Courtney, mechanical engineers build all this stuff!"  Interesting facts from the tour?  1. BMW builds the cars 99% by robots.  2. 900 cars are produced a day.  3. Only 30 grams of material goes to waste per car and everything else is recycled and used for the other cars.  After BMW World and the factory tour, we took the subway to the movie theater.  I was a little skeptical and didn't want to be watching Despicable Me all in German, but luckily it was an Original Version theater, so we watched it in English!  As fun as it would have been to try to play charades and watch the whole movie without knowing anything besides "Guten tag" and "Danke," I think I liked the English version much better.

The next day we said goodbye to Germany and headed off to Switzerland.  But on the way, we stopped to tour the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is the castle that the Disneyland castle is patterned after.  Let me just say, castles are amazing.  

See-saws and merry-go-rounds aren't banned from parks here in Germany!

He rode up and down these stairs several times...sooo cool to watch.

Salzburg/Berchtesgaden

Guten tag.  Danke.  Ausfahrt.  These are the German words I have learned while here in Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.  Hello.  Thank you.  Exit.  I have learned that German words can be so long because they often combine adjectives with the noun it’s describing.  For example, the word for potato is kartoffel.  The word for oven is ofen.  The word for baked potato is ofenkaratoffel.  German is so much fun to try and speak!  My main source of entertainment is to try and read every sign we pass.  Okay, here are some that we are passing right now: As grabenstatt gespert; tiroler achen; aussichtspunkt.  Isn’t that so much fun to read out loud?  I never realized how much influence German culture has had on the U.S.  But, many of the words are really similar (not any of the ones above, obviously, but many others) and a lot of the food is a lot like what we eat (fries, hamburgers, eggs, all that good stuff).

Early Tuesday morning, we woke up and took a plane from Venice to Munich.  We picked up our rental car (we have been calling it the FedEx Truck because it is a huge nine passenger van) and drove to our hotel in Berchtesgaden, Germany.  Along the way we stopped at the Herrenchiemsee castle, complete with two bedrooms for the King, a table that lowered into the floor for the servants to put the food on, a hall of mirrors, and a swimming-pool-sized bathtub.  However, he ran out of money and 50 of the 70 rooms were left unfinished…what a shame, it’s a beautiful castle.  That night after checking in, we walked around the town to find dinner and the laundromat.  The laundromat was small and thank goodness no one else was there, because we used all of the washing machines and dryers to try to have our laundry done before dinner.  I had never been to a laundromat before so it was pretty exciting.

Wednesday morning started out at the salt mines.  This is what Nicholas has been waiting for since the day we started planning this trip.  His friends went to Europe last summer and came back telling him all about the Salzbergwerk Salt Mines and how cool they were.  I do admit, the salt mines are now going to be one of my highlights of the trip!  We put on the miner outfits, rode a train deep into the mountain, rode a lift, slid down wooden slides, rode a boat across a small lake, and even saw real miners.  After the salt mines, we drove into Salzburg, Austria for the Fraulein Maria’s Sound of Music bike tour.  We biked past all the different places in Salzburg where The Sound of Music was filmed and since we had just watched the movie a couple of nights before, it was fun to be able to recognize the different locations from certain scenes as well as get to know the city of Salzburg.

This morning we ate breakfast (I say breakfast, but really it was 12:30 and so it was lunch.  We have been sleeping in.) at a café in the mountains overlooking the town below.  What a great way to end our time here in Berchtesgaden and Salzburg.  Next stop?  Munich, Germany!

Repp'n it in Salzbergwerk.

Notice the biggest castle in Europe up on the hill.

Photo taken by Nicholas.

Can you find the house inside the mountain?

"The hills are alive with the sound of music!"

In front of the house used in The Sound of Music.

I love the countryside.

Our view from breakfast.

"Cream puffs are like heaven.  Heaven in a little puff." -JD
JD, for today I would like to change that just a little bit... "Heaven in an {enormous} puff."