Swiss Misses

Friday's travels brought us to Lucerne, Switzerland, via Zurich.  It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so we quickly dropped our bags at the hotel and headed out to explore Old Town.  Lake Lucerne was lovely, with clear water and populated with white swans.

One of the main attractions in Lucerne is the Chapel Bridge, one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) wooden bridges in Switzerland, dating back to the 14th century.  It also houses old paintings under its roof.

The bridge was partially destroyed by fire in 1993.  83 of the 110 paintings were destroyed.  Some of the blackened paintings were left in place to show the fire damage.

Later in the afternoon we took a boat cruise on the lake.

Saturday afternoon found us on another bus, headed to Mount Titlis, the highest summit in the area at 10,623 feet (I had to look that up).  It boasts the world's first rotating cable car, an illuminated glacier cave ...

... and the highest elevation suspension bridge in Europe, allowing for gorgeous panoramic views of the Alps (that is, if it's not fogged in).

 As you can see (or can't see due to the fog/clouds), we didn't have the best weather for visiting a glacier.

While Shelley stayed within the relative warmth of the station, Abbey and I wandered around the glacier, getting lost at one point and having to return to our starting point.  But we soldiered on, making our way across the bridge to ride the Ice Flyer, a chair lift/ride that took us out over crevasses and abysses (so they claim - we couldn't see diddly-squat).

We also took advantage of the sleds, going for a quick ride before heading back up the conveyor belt.

All in all, not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Upon our return, we did some more sightseeing, finding the Lion of Lucerne monument, a stone, mortally wounded lion carved in remembrance of the Swiss guards killed during the French revolution of 1792.

Sunday found us dragging our bags to the train station for our final train ride of the trip.  Zurich would be our final destination.

Zurich also boasts a lake and an Old Town, so we hit the trail for one more walking tour.

As the majority of shops were closed, we just wandered around from cafe to cafe, drinking coffee (and/or beer) and reading.  For lupper (lunch + supper) we decided to eat as the Swiss eat, so we ordered fondue.  It was delicious and was a fitting culinary end to our European adventure.

After a 24-hour day of travelling, we finally arrived back home on Monday evening.  While it's wonderful to travel to new places, try new foods and explore new cities, it's wonderful to be home again and sleeping in my own bed (with my four pillows).

That's the end of our journey.  Thanks for joining us on this edition of Teresa's Travels!  Ciao!

Munich: Even better than the movie

After a not-so-restful overnight train from Budapest, we arrived in Munich.  Fortunately for us, we were able to check into our hotel and take a nap before heading out for the hop-on, hop-off bus tour we had booked.  Due to a traffic snarl involving an oil spill, our inner circle tour got expanded to the full tour.  Therefore, I got to see where I will need to go when I pick up my next BMW.

We also drove by Olympic Park, which Abbey and Shelley visited to see the pool where Mark Spitz won all his Olympic gold medals.

Later that evening, we joined a small group beer tour of Munich, which was kinda, sorta like a pub crawl.  We learned lots of interesting information about beer making in Germany, and more importantly, got to sample several different beers.

Our tour guide, Keith, a Scotsman ex-pat and local beer distributor, was both knowledgeable and personable. The outing was quite a hoot due to his wisecracks and out-takes.  A group of ladies from Ohio also provided some entertainment, as they got a little loopy after the first beer (lightweights) and then proceeded to lose each other in the crowd of 23 people, prompting them to call out each other's name repeatedly in a poor attempt at Marco Polo.

Like me, did you wonder why Europeans served their beer at approximately room temperature?  Well, it seems that unlike American beer, European brews have flavor so there is no need to deaden the taste buds by serving them ice cold.  At least, that's why according to Keith.

After a full first day in Munich, our second day included a day trip by tour bus to the royal palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  We first visited Linderhof, a lovely (and surprisingly small) palace.  We weren't allowed to take photos inside the palace, so we got our selfies in outside in the extensive gardens.  

The second royal palace was the perched-on-a-mountain Neuschwanstein Castle.  To get to the palace, we had the option of hiking up a one mile path or taking the bus for 2 euros.  We took the bus - this is vacation, after all.  Again, no photos of the interior were allowed, so please enjoy these exterior photos as you ponder "how in the heck did they get the materials to build this castle to the building site?"  

Our last day in Munich was pretty relaxing.  We strolled through town, visiting Karlsplatz and Marienplatz (Karl's Square and Mary's Square) and did some reading and beer drinking in the English Garden (a park larger than Central Park in NYC).  

We finished up with some shoe shopping.  The Europeans have the right idea when it comes to shoe shopping - the racks were organized by color, type and size.  Brilliant!

Friday will find us in Lucerne, Switzerland - see you there!

Two Days in Budapest

I wanted to start and finish the novel A Girl on a Train during our long train ride from Prague but I failed to take into account the rhythmic and lullabyic (I think I made up that word) nature of riding a train. In other words, I kept dozing off.

We arrived in Budapest late on Saturday night. Our taxi ride from the train station to the hotel took us by remarkable buildings, lit up and beautiful. We couldn't wait to explore the city in the daytime!

Our first adventure in Budapest was a bus/boat tour along the Danube river. We should have done a little more research before booking this tour, however, as we didn't realize this meant a tour of the ENTIRE river from Budapest to the border with Slovakia!

We traveled through the Hungarian countryside, finally arriving at the Center of the Catholic Church in Esztergom. Our first view of the basilica and surrounding buildings was from the Slovakian side of the Danube.

We then traveled back across the river to tour the basilica. As it was Sunday, Mass was in progress. This was no ordinary Mass, however. It was also First Communion and the local Cardinal was in the house!

Being respectful, I didn't take any photos inside. You'll have to trust me when I tell you it was gorgeous.

We also toured the exterior and this white marble statue of Stephen being crowned king of Hungary. It was really cool.  

After the visit to the basilica, we reboarded the bus and continued on our merry way. Next, we enjoyed lunch at a picturesque mountain retreat and then headed to an "artist's village" to do some shopping and pick up the boat back to Budapest.

Our hour long boat ride back to Budapest was tranquil and I spotted some cute homes along the river .... possible future vacation spots or a place to retire??

Upon our return, we did some more sightseeing before dinner. After dinner, Shelley was unfortunately stricken with a mysterious sickness. As I had sampled her dinner, we were reasonably sure it wasn't the food.  Abbey and I were convinced it was because she and she alone had ventured into the Christmas store in the artist village. 

Monday, Abbey and I callously abandoned Shelley in the hotel room and visited the baths at Gellért, the most beautiful baths in Budapest. Built in the early 1920s, the baths were of the Art Deco style. 

We soaked in each of the spas, and ten minutes in the 90 degree Celsius sauna was all I could take before plunging into the cold water tank.

This bath also featured a large outdoor pool with an artificial wave machine. I had some fun pretending I was bodysurfing in the ocean. A return trip to Budapest to check out the other baths will be necessary. 

At the end of the day, we boarded our overnight train to Munich and settled into our private sleeping compartment. It's not as fancy as it sounds.

Stay tuned for the next exciting update: Three days in Munich!

Prague Blogue

Our time in Prague has come to a close, but here is the recap for all of my faithful readers (if there are any).

After being reunited with Abbey on Thursday morning, the three of us headed out to do some quick sightseeing as Abbey still had class to attend in the afternoon.

Abbey gave us a primer on how to use public transportation and we hit the metro.

We visited Old Town ...

 ...  and checked out the Charles Bridge, one of the many bridges crossing the Vltava river.

After sending Abbey off to class, Shelley and I toured Prague Castle. History, cathedral, blah, blah, blah. 

In need of refreshments after walking 22,237 steps, Shelley and I visited a neighborhood pub for a quick pint.

Later that evening, we took Abbey and two of her friends to dinner at Cafe Slavia, a local mainstay where writers used to meet and discuss the hot topics of the day.  After dinner, Shelley and I headed back to our hotel and Abbey and her friends set off in a quest to see the sunrise from the Charles Bridge.  According to a reliable source, mission accomplished.

On Friday, Shelley and I took a day trip to France!

Just kidding, we visited the Petrin Tower, a mini replica of the Eiffel Tower and a great place to get a panoramic view of Prague.  I wish we could claim that we climbed the 299 steps to the top, but we were lazy and took the elevator instead (hey, did you see how many steps we took on Thursday? Cut us some slack!).

After enjoying the view from the tower, Shelley and I did some more wandering about and then parked ourselves in Republic Square to people watch and have a snack. I enjoyed a traditional pastry of my people (Bohemians). I can't remember what it's called, although it sounds something like turtleneck.

Our last adventure in Prague was a traditional folklore dinner tour.  Our small group included 2 Danes, 3 Welsh guys and a German couple.  The boys from Wales looked like the only other people in the room under the age of 50 (hey, we're close but we're not there yet!), so we sat with them.  The evening included dinner, traditional dancing (don't get me started on the creepy puppet ménage-a-trois) and this guy, who squirted wine with amazing accuracy from carafes he carried in/on his arms:

After unlimited refills of wine and beer, Shelley and I became quite good mates with the Welsh blokes.  They taught us some new drinking games (God Save the Queen and Penguin) and when the tour bus broke down on the way back, we ended up hanging out at a pub until I outdrank them and they had to go crawling back to their hotel.  Please note: Penguin is not a real game anywhere but Wales. If you try to play it in Prague, the waiters will yell at you.

Abbey said goodbye to her friends and checked out of the dorm on Saturday morning.  Before heading to the train station, we found some time for one last stroll around the city.  We toured Wenceslas Square and had lunch at Cafe Louvre, where, as a parting gift from Prague, Abbey may have gotten food poisoning.  So ended our stay in Prague.

Amster-DAMN! On the hunt for a Dutch letter

Shelley and I had a long layover in Amsterdam so we decided to get out of the airport and see some sights. After an hour of dashing through the airport trying to find customs and a place to store our carry-on luggage, we boarded a sprinter train and headed into the city. Upon arrival, we jumped on a boat and took a canal tour.  After seeing the sites from the water, we set out on a hunt for the elusive Dutch letter.

Little did we know, such a pastry does not exist in or around the central train station. We looked in every bake shop, coffee shop and supermarket, but alas, no Dutch letters. Never fear, though, I made do with warm apple strudel and a cup of coffee.  A delightful way to cap off a whirlwind tour of central Amsterdam. Next stop, Prague!

.

Watch out, Abbey, here we come!

Shelley and I are hanging out in the airport lounge prior to boarding the first leg of our trip to Prague. We thought maybe, just maybe, a cocktail would help us sleep on the way. If not, it was worth a shot! Cheers to us, we're on vacation!

Gearing up for a return to Europe!

While I certainly have travelled (internationally, even!) over the past four years, I haven't taken the time to keep the travel blog updated.  I plan to do better, and there is no better time to start than with Europe 2015!

Shelley's daughter Abbey is spending the semester studying in Prague.  As I'm always up for a trip, I jumped at the chance to go "pick up" Abbey and take the long way home.

So, in just over two weeks, my best bud Shelley and I will be heading to Prague (with an 8-hour layover in Amsterdam).  From Prague, the three of us will be visiting Budapest, Munich, Lucerne, and Zurich, with some possible detours along the way (Salzburg, Vienna, Dresden anyone?).

Now is the time to bookmark this blog again (if you are so inclined).  Stay tuned for more exciting (remember, exciting is a relative term) highlights of our adventures!