Sunday, May 23, 2010

A Few of My Favorite Things

So! My family and I went to Europe and it was very fun! We went to the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany.

Here's what I was expecting:
Here's what it actually was:

No, no, don't let frauline fool you, our trip was fabulous. This was at a ski resort in the Alps (The hills were nonetheless very alive). Our trip did, however, include nine straight days of rain and unseasonably cold weather with bitter winds. Our umbrellas were more effective horizontal than vertical. The cold weather did however mean limited crowds and avoiding making my dad hot and agitated, two things you don't want to see Bill.

But anyways... we started our trip delayed because of the volcano. Because we missed our connecting flight we spent the afternoon in Paris where I got to see the Sacre Cour, something I've been wanting to see for a long time.


That night we caught a flight to Prague... and off we go seeing the sights.


Please note that the window I'm standing below is the location of the Defenestration of Prague. Mr. Felt would be so proud.

We definitely had an emphasis on music in our trip. One night we saw The Magic Flute at the Prague Opera in one of those fancy boxes. It was very fun. We also went to a few music museums and Amanda found some very old bassoons.

Our new friend named Ed also showed us around and more or less introduced us to the president of the Czech Republic. For real.

From there we drove through the Czech countryside (an adventure in and of itself) guided by our iPhones and spent the night in a medieval walking-only town called Cesky-Krumlov. It rained there too.


On to Vienna! Not only did it rain, but it was windy.

Amanda and my mom saw both the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Opera, and pretty much made Amanda's life as the Vienna Phil is apparently the best symphony in Europe.


In Vienna we also toured the Hapsburg palace, the family that ruled the Holy Roman Empire for 600 years, and saw statues of musicians. Did I mention went to very musical cities?


From Vienna we drove to Salzburg, a city famous for many things including being Mozart's birthplace, but most importantly home to THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Yes we took the four hour Sound of Music tour. Yes we sang the soundtrack.


Salzburg was not only beautiful, but apple strudel, gnomes and leiderhosen abounded!


From our adventures in Austria we took the Autobahn (there really aren't speed limits) to Munich, Germany where we ended our trip on kind of a downer and saw the concentration camp at Dachau.



After eating meal after meal of weinerschnitzel (glorified chicken nuggets) it was time to come home. It was an awesome trip for sure, and I had a blast with the Von Trapps, I mean my family.

3 comments:

  1. hahahahahah!!! I love it. Such a creative way of letting us see your trip! I am so jealous. I envy how well traveled you are.

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  2. Too bad I was there to sing "Doe, a deer, a female deer..." with you! Your trip looks amazing. I'm jealous! Glad you had fun and you're home safe!

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  3. Steph I had no idea you went to Europe! If I had I probably would have talked your ear off about it this weekend :)

    Looks like it was awesome though. You'll have to give me all the details sometime. And that picture of you in the liederhosen? HOT.

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