Interlaken, Switzerland

After missing our original train to Interlaken, the next day we started out early and made it there fine with still plenty of time to do everything we wanted.  We stayed at a hostel in Interlaken, but 4 to a room and our own bathroom, so it was basically like a cheap hotel.  It was run by Christians- we had a little scripture verse on our breakfast table, so that was neat.  We spent the first day walking around the little town, having dinner, then taking a train up into the mountains to a village called Grindelwald.  The view there was awesome!!  Ben took a bunch of mountain pictures you can check out in the Interlaken, Switzerland gallery, along with all the other pictures from there.  

That night we also made the decision to all go paragliding the next day!  In the morning, Ben and Mom seemed the most nervous for the jump (we had scheduled for them to come pick us up and take us up the mountain for the jump at 10AM).  But after they drove us up the mountain and we hiked a few minutes to the exact spot where we were to run off the mountain, I'll admit that my legs were starting to feel shaky.  There was a grassy slope, followed by a drop off that you wouldn't be able to walk down on your own.  We each picked an instructor for the tandem jump (and they were all extremely nice, which made it even better!), who harnessed us up and explained that we were just to start running when they told us to and the wind would pick us up.  I asked how long that would take, and the instructor told me to just run over the steep cliff and keep running...this is when I really started feeling nervous!!  Luckily, she was right...you just run over the drop off, and a second later the wind catches the parachute and lifts you right off your feet.  Mom and her instructor went off first, then me, Ben, and lastly Dad.  The 10-15 minute glide down was so relaxing and easy, and the scenery was unbelievable!  We each asked our instructor to do some tricks, so they all spun us around really fast when we got nearer to the ground.  Dad's instructor was a dare devil, so from what I could see, it looked like he was getting the wildest spins!  We all loved it...so now I can say that paragliding off the Alps was probably the neatest thing I have ever done!!  

We ended the day with dinner, a ride around town in a horse and buggy, and for Ben and me, a frantic 1+ mile sprint to a gift shop (Ben left his wallet there- luckily they had it and didn't take anything!) and back to the train station.  Praise the Lord that we caught a bus on the way back and got to the station just in time to catch the train...that was a miracle!  All in all, Interlaken was my favorite place we visited- the town was so authentic, so quaint, it didn't feel overrun by tourists, and the mountains and lake were breathtaking!  What a great end to a great 5-day vacation with my parents!!!

Venice, Italy

After our exciting day and a half in Innsbruck, we hopped on a train to Venice.  We first dropped our bags off at a really cute, inexpensive bed and breakfast type place we were staying that is on the mainland (Mestre), and then we took a quick 10 minute train to the island of Venice.  The site was stunning...canals for streets, intricate buildings floating right on the water...unlike anything I have ever seen!!  

We had dinner at an overpriced, touristy restaurant right along the Grand Canal, then headed back to our room for the evening.  We started early the next day- took the train to Venice, took a boat (which they packed us all on like sardines!) over to San Marco's (St. Mark's) Square.  The buildings there were fabulous!  We went in St. Mark's Basilica, where we saw the tomb of Mark himself...I almost couldn't get in because a sign out front said you couldn't enter unless your knees and shoulders were covered, and of course I was wearing shorts and a tank top.  Luckily, Dad gave me his shirt to put on (he just wore his t-shirt underneath) and since it was so long on me, I literally sagged my shorts as far down as I could...and they let me in!  

We also saw Doge's Palace, which was incredible too...intricate 24 carat gold-guilded ceilings, paintings, a dungeon...Ben sneaked a few pictures of the dungeon, but no pictures were allowed anywhere else.  Out in the square, Dad and Ben both fed the pigeons, but I am scared of birds being on me like that and I wouldn't do it!  

We spent a long time just wandering around, through the tiny streets between the buildings, completely lined with tourist shops.  We then took a nice boat tour down the Grand Canal and then through the "back streets" of Venice to see life of the real Venetians.  This was my favorite part of the day- it was a small boat with about 10 of us on it- we got to sit and enjoy the ride while the tour guide told us about all the buildings we passed, and we each got a free glass of Bellini (a peach-flavored wine made in that area) to sip on.  After the tour, we had a delicious (and expensive!) pasta dinner, then headed back to the train station to wander around for what we thought was another couple hours.  Well, we realized all of a sudden that the overnight train we thought we were catching at 11:30 actually left from a different town, and we had to catch a train to that other town at 8!  The moment we realized this, it was already after 8, so we missed our train.  We ended up staying at a Best Western right there by the train station and taking a train in the morning.  That cut into our time in Switzerland (a post on that to follow!), but it turned out to be worth it we thought, given that we got the chance to sleep in a hotel room and get showers after a long day of walking around in the heat all day in Venice.  Overall, Venice was something you can't imagine unless you've been there, and it was spectacular to see- but the tourists were thick, the people were pushy, and people selling knock-0ff purses hassled you at every corner...I think one time in Venice was enough for me!  Be sure to check out our Venice, Italy gallery for more pictures and to see the bigger version of the thumbnail pictures on here!

Innsbruck, Austria

The Archers are now on their way back to the states. The journey began in Innsbruck, Austria. We went by train and even just nearing the Alps the view was beautiful with the snow-topped mountains and small towns all around with Ron and I snapping as many pictures as we could.

The first day we went up into the Alps themselves to 2800+ meters. For those that don't know, I have a fear of heights. That made it a bit difficult for me to want to go way up. I wasn't going to, but Megan and the archers were all going, and I thought to myself what my family would say if

I didn't go. Here I was in the alps, afraid to go up to the top of this mountain. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm about to let it slip away. I went, but was definitely scared on the way up...

Megan and her parents went to the very top where there was a cross. No way I was going up there, it was inches from the edge of a cliff with no railings or anything. I was already scared...

By the time we got down it was nearing dark, we ate dinner, walked around and saw the town. The next day we went to a castle before catching our train around noon. All of the pictures are in the Innsbruck Picture Gallery so be sure to check them out. It had some really neat stuff to look at. It felt like more of a real castle, whereas the place we went on the Rhine cruise was a glorified Gift Shop. We had a great time with Ron and Debi being here and are going to miss them, we wish they could've stayed longer! Have a safe trip home!

We're still on the lookout for a Castle that is as non-updated as we can with as much of it's original stuff in tact. We'll see how that goes.

We'll post about Venice tomorrow, and Switzerland the day after.

Mid Travel Update

I figured it's about time to give you guys an update. We've been on the "tracks" now for 2 days and have visited Innsbruck, Austria where we went to a peak way up at the top of the Alps and visited a castle as well which had a full arsenal of weaponry, artwork, and more. We've now made our way to Venice Italy. We had dinner along the canal tonight and tomorrow will proceed to hit all the sites. Tomorrow night we are taking an overnight train (at 11 PM) which will take us to Bern, Switzerland. We will be there until Sunday when we head back to Dusseldorf.

I've uploaded approximently 6 food pictures, 15 in the Innsbruck gallery, and I've got another 250 or so that I haven't uploaded as well. It'll take time to get all of these uploaded and go through them so it won't all happen till next week.

A Cruise on the Rhine

We had our first out of town adventure yesterday...still in Germany, starting at a city called Cologne (or "Köln" in German).  We took a train there in the morning, and got off at the wrong stop...there are several stops in Cologne, and we mistakenly got off at the first one we came to instead of the main station.  We realized our mistake, got back on the next train (which came in about 10 minutes), then ended up at the right station.  As you can see from the picture, once we came to the next stop, we knew for sure it was the correct station...it was amazing!

We walked straight to the river from the train station and bought tickets for a cruise down the Rhine.  We had some time before the cruise loaded, so we walked around a little, then sat down and waited by the river.

We loaded around 9:30AM and didn't get back to Cologne until about 8PM.  The cruise was really neat- we passed villages, castles, ruins, churches, countryside...a really scenic trip!

Our stop was at a town called Linz, and there was a flea market going on right where we dropped off.  My parents looked at a few possible purchases like antique dishes and an old clock from Holland (with me doing the communicating in German), but the only thing they ended up buying was a bratwurst.  

We heard there was a free castle to tour here, but it turned out to be sort of lame, more of a tourist stop with gift shops and restaurants than an actual old castle.  We did see a live glass-blowing demonstration that was cool though.

We only had a little over an hour at this stop before we had to get back on board and return to Cologne...the trip back was quicker going with the current.  We stopped in Cologne at the Dom Cathedral...it wasn't open to go inside that night, but just the outside was unbelievable!!  It felt like I was looking at something from Lord of the Rings...it almost looked fake it was so huge and intricate and incredible...it's hard to describe, and I'm not sure of the pictures do it justice, but it was just awesome!

Before we left Cologne, we picked up some train tickets there at the station to cover the rest of the traveling we will be doing next week with my parents (France, Austria, and Switzerland- in 5 days! more posts to follow after that trip).  After a quick stop in the train station at Pizza Hut (yep, we finally broke down and ate American food...most of the places in the station were American chains, although even for a Pizza Hut you could tell the quality of the ingredients was way better than American Pizza Hut), we headed home after a fun but exhausting day!

Weekend Update

Megan's parents got here safely, but their luggage didn't. Theygot here yesterday morning, it's now 5 PM on friday and they still dont' have their luggage. In a nutshell, the Germans came here to deliver it (it didn't make it on their flight over due to weather conditions they were delayed, etc.) and rather than call us on the number provided to tell us they're here, or press each of the 7 buzzers (one for each apartment) on the front door to get our attention. They decide to leave and not deliver the luggage. It's a frustrating day, we've called the airlines at least 5-6 times at $1.30/minute trying to find out what's going on. Debi is bowling on the wii, I'm here, and Ron/Megan are outside waiting on the luggage guy to come back.

We still don't know what we're doing. We've looked at train passes, airfare, etc., but still haven't made any plans. Hopefully they'll decide where they want to go tonight/tomorrow. Of course step 1 of that is getting their luggage.

Megan just got here, her work had a full day at a castle where it was one of those "team bonding" type things where 80 people from her work were there playing "team building" games and things. They spent the night at the castle (she has a few pictures I'll upload affter posting this) and and she just got back here about 3:30.

The Archers on the way..... almost

Megan's parents leave in about 7 hours to come to Germany! We're excited for them to come, the first of family to come and visit! My dad will be here in about 5 weeks, then Scott and Jennifer (Megan's sister & husband) in another 1 or 2 months after that.

We're still not exactly sure what we're doing this weekend, we'll be deciding on that finally tomorrow. We do have a plan to do some traveling in southern Germany that was recommended in Rick Steve's Best of Europe guide but we may hold off till next weekend to do that. Who knows, maybe we'll end up in paris this weekend?

I've added a full gallery to our links on the left menu, I'm just going to upload all of our pictures here - minus the food. More pictures are here than what you've seen on the blog. The blog pictures will be a bit more selective.

Night of Museums

Last night, Düsseldorf had an event called "Night of Museums", where 37 museums and galleries all over the town were open for viewing with just one ticket a person for 12 euros.  They also had free shuttle busses between the stops.  The museums didn't open until 7PM, but the food opened earlier, so we ventured out around 4:45.  Walking toward the river, it seemed pretty quiet...cut through the park with the tall trees, down the cobblestone streets, in front of an old church...

...but once we got by the river, it was PACKED!!  A live band was playing, which we figured out quickly was a Christian group by their banner, which I translated to mean "open the doors for Christ."  Then they were singing a song with "Hallelujah" in it over and over...so that was pretty cool! 

Food stands were set up by the river, just like you would have at a fair...so of course we had to try something from every stand!  The lines were really long, especially the "Reibe-kuchen" line we got in (as you can see from the crowd in line in front of us).  They had this potato batter (potatoes shredded with a machine then some sort of batter with it) that they would just drop into hot oil and fry up like a hashbrown.  That was all they sold at that stand, and it came with applesauce...but it was delicious!

And the eating continued...Krakauer (like a giant hotdog) fresh off the grill...

...a soft pretzel (yummmm)...

...and of course dessert, a chocolate crepe, and who knows what the thing on the right was...some sort of spongy cake with banana pudding and chocolate and sugar goodness all over it...we just pointed and they made us one. 

They had a huge booth of candy for sell, gummy worms and sweet tarts and everything sugary you can imagine except for chocolate...but don't worry Carl, we passed on it all...now if there had been chocolate, who knows what I would have come home with!

So after we were officially stuffed, we headed to the first museum we came across- an art musuem with really modern photography, mostly of famous people, and also a lot of nudity.  At most of these museums we did not see anyone taking pictures, so we just followed the crowd and didn't take pictures either since we couldn't read the signs to see if it was allowed.  However, when we went to the next stop, the Aquazoo, we took several pictures.  This one is out front of the building...not sure why they have horse statues and not giant sharks or something...but whatever.

There was a live band inside, and as soon as we walked in they started playing Johnny B Good, so it felt like home.  Here's a picture of me and some penguins, if you can see them...

...they had other little animals too, like these blue-breasted quails...

...and fish of course...

...we found Nemo (and Dory!)...

...and bugs!!!  Eeewww!!!  The guy in the cowboy hat was doing cockroach races, and all these people were letting the bugs crawl on their hands....ick!!!  Not me!!!!

Outside was a small fire show, with people fire breathing and twirling batons with the ends lit...the pictures are blurred, but neat I thought.  It was fun to watch, but I think they were really amateur because they kept dropping the batons and once even sort of threw one by accident toward the crowd...can't believe they didn't catch something on fire or burn themselves!

Ellie and Noah, we thought of you all when we saw a couple buildings with "Atelier" written on them (for those who don't know, that is the name of their custom-written wedding music company).

We ended the night with some more art museums, a paper museum, glass museum, and the town hall.  I think altogether we saw about 6 or 7 museums.  I would like to have seen a lot more, but it was midnight and after 7 hours of walking around we were drained!  Too bad they didn't open earlier in the day.