Monday, October 6, 2014

Deutschland

Holy Guacamole.


I feel like I've dropped off the face of the planet earth for the last month...

September 3rd, we got married, then went on our honeymoon.. (Bow-chic-a-wow-wow!)

Then on September 15th through the 30th we went to Europe!

It has always been a dream of mine to go there, and it was everything I had hoped it would be.

And here is a little taste of our trip:

Day 1
  • Flew to Frankfurt. Rented a giant black van/bus that I named, Georg. Drove to Rothenburg, Germany.
  • Got to Rothenburg. Wandered around the Disney Fantasyland city. Went into a massive Christmas Store, and looked longingly at Black Forest Coo-Coo Clocks.
  • Went to Dinner. We ate Sauerbraten, red cabbage, and bread. Lots, and LOTS of bread.
  • Night Watchman's Tour!



Day 2
  • Ate a hardy breakfast with more bread, meats, cheeses, nutella, jams, and hot chocolate.
  • walked around the city a bit more
  • drove to Neuschwanstein Castle (the Disneyland Castle) (side note--I made sure to make Disney references every day of our trip)
  • checked into our hotel
  • HIKED up to the castle, and took a tour of said castle. It was sick-nasty!
  • spotted a frog on our way down.

can you see the frog?? 

Day 3
  • drove to Salzburg, Austria. 
  • left 10 minutes after arriving because of stressful traffic reasons :)
  • decided to drive to Halstatt, Austria instead.
  • arrived in Halstatt, walked around. This place is soooo pretty! It was probably one of my favorite cities of the whole trip.
  • ate dünors.
  • drove to Wald Im Pinzgau, Austria



Day 4

  • Woke up in Wald Im Pinzgau
  • drove up the mountain to Gretlholf
  • took some Sound Of Music pics. see below..
  • listened to the moo-cows and their cow bells
  • walked to the church, went inside, and drank some trinkwasser from the fountain.
  • drove to Venice, Italy
  • rode the water taxi into Venice
  • Explored Venice in the pouring rain
  • ate margarita pizza -- Jared ate a whole fish..
  • went to St Mark's Square and put on my glare face to all of the weirdos that hand you flowers, and then want 5 Euro. Stinkers.
  • Went on top of our little apartment that we stayed in and watched the eeriness of Venice settle in. It was a pretty cool place to see.



Day 5

  • Went to a Fresh Fish market in Venice--where I saw a massive Sword Fish. So nasty.
  • I also saw nasty fish that were staring at me.
  • walked to the water bus
  • went to Burano, Italy
  • Bought Linens :)
  • Came home, took a nap
  • Then we went out again that night, and wandered around eerie Venice.





Day 6

  • Left Venice back through a water taxi
  • found our car at the airport
  • Drove to the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera
  • Layed out on the beach, and read/relxed
  • Walked along the beach, Jared and I also had a rock skipping contest! (I won)
  • Hung out in our little city that we stayed in that night--Moneglia, Italy
  • Watched the people from the Catholic Church carry around the lit up altar around the streets.
  • played Rook with Jared's parents




Day 7

  • Explored the Cinque Terre
  • went on a hike from Monterosso to Vernazza... It was so hot. And there were soooo many stairs. I thought I would die. Good news, I didn't die.
  • Walked through Vernazza, and saw the neat shaped noodles.....(side note: it took me about a minute to figure out what the noodles on the right were... Jared was like, "I dunno.." oh, he knew EXACTLY what they were. We all had a good laugh about the male genitalia shaped noodles.)
  • had the BEST GELATO EVER!!
  • Rode the train to Manarola
  • ate pesto lasagna
  • took the train back
  • napped
  • got pizza from a local store, took it back to the hotel, and then we played Rook again.







Day 8

  • Left bright and early and drove 7 hours back to Munich. The boys wanted to go to the Soccer game, and so Jared and I delivered a package to Elder Zach Huff, and went to the REAL Oktoberfest.
  • Ate the best food ever.
  • Went to a mall, but every place closed at 8, so then we rode to the airport thinking that from there we could catch a bus to our hotel. Turns out you couldn't. So we waited at the airport until the game was over for us to get picked up.
  • Went and stayed at a Marriott.


Day 9

  • Left Munich, and drove 
  • Went to Dachau, Germany, and visited a concentration camp. It was really eerie. I walked into a gas chamber, and that is when I told Jared I wanted to leave. It was hard being there, but good at the same time. I am so grateful to all of those people who suffered there.
  • drove back to Switzerland
  • stopped in Appenzell, Switzerland
  • ate crepes
  • lost our passports (we didn't know we had left them at the restaurant at this point)
  • drove to our hotel
  • realized once we got to the hotel that our passports were missing..
  • the nice hotel peeps still let us check in and go to sleep.



Day 10

  • called the US Embassy to find our passports
  • They told us to call Bürn US Embassy, but they don't open til 2, so we go about our day
  • drove this beautiful pass in the Swiss Alps
  • saw a Porche gang, as opposed to a motorcycle gang
  • 2 o'clock came around, we call Bürn
  • The lady says that her co-worker has been working on a case with 6 missing passports
  • we talk to that person, they are at the Police Station in Appenzell.
  • We drive immediately back to Appenzell
  • RETRIEVE OUR PASSPORTS!
  • tell the lady in the restaurant thank you.
  • drive to Andermatt, Switzerland


Day 11

  • Walk around Andermatt--to the church, and by the river that goes through the city
  • drove to Lucerne, Switzerland
  • ate more crepes
  • drove to Aachen, Germany
  • Go to Jared's old apartment building
  • eat the ice cream he used to eat
  • eat the dünors he used to eat
  • went to his old ward's party
  • came back to our hotel
  • walked around Aachen -- just Jared and I walked to the old grocery store that he used to shop at. We got drinks for everyone, and then came back to the apartment, and played Rook again.



Day 12

  • Went to church in Aachen. The sweet Elders translated for us. It was fun to sing the Hymns in German
  • Drove to Heidlburg, Germany
  • went to the Bishop's house for a visit
  • ate his delicious ice cream -- ROSEMARY flavored. So good. I will probably crave it for the rest of my entire life.
  • left the Bishops house
  • Drove to the castle at night to see it lit up

Day 13

  • Walked to the Castle--about 3 miles
  • climbed 303ish stairs up to the castle
  • explored the city
  • Went to the Christmas store
  • walked back to the hotel--another 3 miles
  • took naps
  • drove to Jared's favorite Italian restaurant in Manheim -- Vapiano
  • walked to the grocery store and bought 12 years worth of chocolate.

Day 14

  • Flew home
These are the highlights of our trip. It was definately a trip that I will never forget. I saw some amazingly beautiful places, and will probably wish to go back for the rest of my life.

2 comments:

  1. Wow!! What an incredible experience!! ...Except the part where you lost your passports for a day -I remember when I was traveling with Chelsea Freeman and hers got stolen in Norway, it was awful :( I still feel bad about it. I hope you get many many more opportunities in the future to go back to Europe or at the very least visit all the places you've ever dreamed of going to. :)

    P.S. Can we do a Nielson/Keetch/Hawkins/Hess game night some time in the future?

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  2. 2 things.. 1. Super jealous reading this. 2. You crack me up! Love all the random things you remember about your trip.

    ReplyDelete