Back in the States!

We are back from our trip and finally settled back in at home! It always takes a while to get unpacked after a big vacation and back into your old routine... we got back last Tuesday and it's taken until now (Sunday) for me to have time to write on my blog! I wish that I could write about every single moment of our trip! Eric and I kept a journal together, as we did last time, and if I had a whole day to devote to my blog, I'd copy it word for word on here! But since I don't, I'll have to give you all the shortened version. I'll post some pictures on here... but if you're interested in seeing the whole collection (there's like 500!), just email me or leave a comment with your email address and I'll send them to you. And if you're planning a trip to Europe and need suggestions on where to go, where to stay, or where to eat, I'll be glad to share specifics.

First of all, let me say that it was incredibly difficult leaving Chase for so long! The morning that we left Charleston (we drove there first to drop Chase off at my parents' house), I felt like my feet were made of lead. I had to drag myself to the car, cried the whole way to the airport, then struggled getting on the plane and flying so far away from him. For the last 2 years of my life (including pregnancy), it seems that all I've thought about was Chase, and my focus has been on taking care of him every minute. It's hard to just turn that off and hand it over to someone else. But I'm fortunate that my family was willing and able to be there for him! Even my sisters pitched in in a huge way and I'm so grateful that I didn't really have to worry about him. I just missed him.

Days 1 and 2: We started our trip in London, where we met up with Eric's family (his parents and two sisters). Our first afternoon there we took a guided walking tour, which was nice because even though I've been to London a few times before, I never actually know what I'm looking at. For example, I'll look at the big clock tower and say, "oh, there's Big Ben!" just like everyone else... but on our tour we learned that "Big Ben" is actually just the name for the bell inside. The tower is called something else entirely. Okay, so I didn't learn too much... can't remember what the tower is called! Anyways, we spent 2 days in London, but I spent one of those in a little town to the southwest called Winchester. I took a coach (aka bus) to meet one of my old Clemson roommates, Kaylee! We hadn't seen each other in probably 7 years so we had lots of catching up to do! I loved my time with her and adored her semi-British accent!

"Big Ben" and Parliament:


Westminster Abbey:
The London Eye:Kaylee and I in front of the Winchester Cathedral:

Days 3, 4, and 5: Paris! We spent 2 days seeing all the sights in the city and then 4 of us took a day trip to Normandy and toured the D-Day beaches. I had worried that it might be a little boring... too much war history, but it was actually really interesting and SO beautiful! I loved every minute.

In Paris, at the Louvre:
Eric, me, Karin and Katie in front of the Eiffel Tower:


At night:The best part of Paris... the food and wine! This was my escargot dish at our favorite restaurant: La Varangue! If you're going to Paris, let me know and I'll give you directions! Eric and I had been back in 2003 and was just as good as we remembered!

The Normandy beaches were so beautiful!

Eric, pretending to be an American soldier who just found a Nazi bunker?

Standing in a bomb crater:

We did LOTS of this... just riding trains!

Days 6 and 7: the Alps, Switzerland. We had to hop lots of trains to make it high up into the Alps! We stayed 2 nights in a little town called Wengen, hiked all day, saw lots of waterfalls and mountain peaks, and just enjoyed the scenery! We were also lucky enough to be there on a night when they had a "folk fest" and we were treated to some yodeling, giant cow bells, dancing, the alp horn (think Ricola commercials), and even some spoon playing! I absolutely love Switzerland!! We took way too many pictures there.

In Interlaken, between train rides:

Our hotel... they have an awesome restaurant there too:
Some ladies making lace:

The giant cowbells! They were LOUD!

Playing on top of the mountain:

Hiking:
Picnicking:
Family picture:

Trummelbach Falls:

Day 8: another little town in Switzerland... but this one was close to the Germany border on the Rhein River, called Stein am Rhein. There's not much to do there other than look at the gorgeous old buildings and swim in the river with the locals (and the swans)... so that's what we did!

Day 9: Fussen, Germany to see King Ludwig's castles: Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. And to eat HUGE ice cream sundaes! We had lots of these throughout the course of our 17 day trip!

Hohenschwangau:
Neuschwanstein:
Waterfalls near the castles:

I still dream about these sundaes!

Day 10: Salzburg, Austria. We absolutely HAD to do laundry before we did anything else! We were "backpackers" on this trip, so we were extra conservative with our packing. I think I wore my 1 pair of jeans at least 6 times! So by Salzburg, we were a stinky mess. After our clothes were clean, we walked around the old town until the sky opened up and then we ran from awning to awning, in search of another old favorite restaurant of ours: the Stiegl Keller! Once there, we rewarded ourselves with a "mass" of beer (or a half mass for the weak ones, like me) and some traditional Viennese fare.

Mirabell Gardens:
Prost! (cheers!)
Salzburg's cute winding roads:
Day 11: A visit to Mauthausen concentration camp. This camp is not nearly as well-known and visited as Dachau and others, but it was one of the largest in Europe. I can't really say that we enjoyed our visit there, because how can you enjoy seeing such sights... but I learned a lot and I'm glad we went. That night we stayed in another small town in Austria called Melk, which is best known for it's very large abbey. We had an amazing meal in the garden beneath our hotel! I think I can honestly say it was the best salad I've ever had! And I've eaten a lot of salads. We followed it up with more ice cream, of course, and enjoyed listening to a local private school band playing their last concert of the school year in their courtyard! They were singing lots of American songs that we could sing along with... Matchbox 20, Smashmouth, etc.

The barracks at Mauthausen:

A guard tower:The beautiful Melk Abbey:

The Goldener Stern: home of the best salad ever!

Day 12: Biking along the Danube River. We rented bikes that day (some worked better than others!) and biked from Melk to Krems. Along the way, we passed through tons of vineyards, cute towns and orchards. The sights were amazing! We kind of forgot to stop along the way for lunch, so by time we made it to Krems we were starving! With no other better options, we ended up eating at the "Schnitzel Palace!" Think Burger King, with nothing but fried veal and french fries! They had every variation of wiener schnitzel you could think of! I had the "hawaiian," which had pineapple and cheese stuffed inside!

Days 13 and 14: Vienna. One of the main goals of our trip was to take Eric's dad back to the city where his parents were from. Vienna (aka Wien) is a beautiful city, and mostly we just enjoyed walking around and taking in all of the architecture and atmosphere. We just happened to be in Vienna during the 2 days when the Euro Cup semi-finals were taking place. They had closed down several of the streets and showed the games on giant TV screens. All day leading up to the game, you could see crazy fans from Spain, Russia, and elsewhere marching through the streets in packs and yelling out chants for their country's team. It made our experience there even more interesting! Both nights we went to the "fan zones" and stayed until (both nights) it started raining and lightning! We had a blast.

View of the city from the top of the St. Stephen's tower:

The Rathaus where we watched the game on the second night:

Schonbrunn Palace gardens:

Days 15 and 16: Prague. This was one of the few places that Eric and I had never been before and it was at the top of our list for where we wanted to go this time. We could definitely see why everyone recommended it! The buildings and streets are so well-preserved. We took another guided walking tour and got overloaded with all kinds of historical information! But we loved our time in Prague and it was a great place to end an awesome trip!

Gothic church in the Old Town Square:

Charles Bridge:
Day 17: Flew home. Usually there isn't much to say about the train, plane and automobile portions of traveling, but I have to mention that Eric and I had the best flight ever from London to Washington, DC! When we checked in at the airport, we discovered that our seats were no where near each other on the plane, so we asked the gate attendant to try to put us together (not too unreasonable I think, since it's an 8.5 hour flight)! Well it turns out that they decided to put us together in business class!!! There is probably no way we will ever be able to afford that kind of luxury on our own so we were thrilled! We had filet mignon and wine for lunch, ice cream for dessert, and an infinite amount of leg room! We were actually able to lay down and take a nap during the flight! So we were well rested when we finally made it back to Charleston and home to Chase Max!! We were SO happy to see him and I'm happy to report that he seemed pretty happy to see us too!