Germany to Switzerland, Next up Austria

Greetings from Zurich (again). This morning we saw Cassie off at the airport... so the trio is now a duo. Cassie had no problems checking in and will be arriving in San Francisco this evening. It was sad to see her go but know she will have fun with her family and boyfriend in Seattle.

The rest of our stay in Germany was wonderful. We spent one day shopping in Köln with Maria and Franzi, it was fun to not feel like tourists. At some points we felt like we were shopping at home due to every store playing American music. So weird. In some stores the music choice did not match the atmosphere at all...haha.

The next day we traveled to Schaffhausen to meet up with Flo (Marias boyfriend). We explored the Rhine Fall, the biggest waterfall in Europe. We took a series of boat rides and climbed a boulder in the middle of the falls...SO COOL!

That evening we had a marvolous dinner at Flos parents house, which is in the Black Forest in Southern Germany. It was again another evening of great food, laughs, and excellent company.

The next morning (yesterday) we said goodbye to Maria and Franzi and thanked them for showing us around Germany. The rest of the day Flo played tour guide...we saw the largest coo-coo clock in the world, the tallest waterfall in Germany, and part of Lake Constance. After our wonderful day of adventures Flo dropped us off at the train station and we headed to Zurich.

During this German chapter of our trip Katie learned how to speak some German from Franzi. She can say "Hello. Excuse me. My name is Katie. How do you get to the main train station? I dont speak German, please use English. Thank you." And good night or good day depending on the situation. The best part was eating dinner last night, Katie said thank you to the waiter in German he replied in German "Oh you speak German" and then began rambling the specials in German. We stopped him and Katie used her sentence "I dont speak German please use English"... the waiter gave a hearty laugh and started the specials in English. Way to go!

Today Makenna and Katie are adventuring to Bregenz, Austria. It is on Lake Constance (we liked it so much we want to explore some more of the lake). Our plan is to swim and relax on the beach.

We will let you know how it goes. :)

Now it is too hot...

We are currently in Köln, Maria's hometown. We arrived last night and were greeted by her warm, loving family and lots of food. It was our first home cooked meal since we have been gone...much needed and appreciated. We enjoyed the dinner of lots of meat (literally there were three different types to try), bread, cous cous, salad, and Köln beer. The conversation switched back and forth from German to English with many laughs and explanations. Dinner lasted about four hours and we went to bed feeling full and happy.

THis morning we repeated the food event with breakfast, lasting an hour plus. We wish we had breakfast like this all the time. Yum Yum!!! After breakfast we went to city center, Hauptbahnhof (the train station). We saw the most famous cathedral in the city...it was not destroyed in WWII and is one of the oldest churches in Germany. Then we walked across a famous bridge...where people put locks along the fence representing special occasions. There were so many!!! And thanks to Maria and her parents we added our own to the collection. Then as tradition states we threw the keys into the Rhine River. So cool!

It was getting quite warm by now...actually way too hot according to Katie and Cassie. We went up to one of the only tall buildings in Köln to get a great 360 degree view. Afterwards we enjoying a cool drink with Maria‘s mom and watched people walk by the Rhine River.

The next goal was to find a place to watch Germany vs. England soccer match. We went to a biergarten in a park. It was extremely packed with German fans, but by the middle of the first half we had two chairs to share between the five of us...and we managed to fit four of us on those two chairs. Go us!!! It was an intense game and Germany came out victorious, 4 to 1 win! On our walk to dinner it looked like Köln had morphed into a drunk parade times a thousand on every street and street corner. We have never seen so many flags, heard so many honking cars, or just plain happy people celebrating in the streets. It was truly fascinating and slightly ridiculous to see, but the enthusiasm was contagious.

We had dinner at a different biergarten, walked around Köln, and then came home to Maria‘s house. We are excited for tomorrow‘s adventures. Nothing on the schedule...just going to go with the flow. Ahhhhhh...

Guten Morgen

That is good morning...to all of you non-German speakers.

This morning we slept in; which is a crazy concept in our world. It was much needed. Yesterday we arrived in Munich at 8:30am to meet Maria and her friend Franzi. We were greeted with big smiles and hugs and got some breakfast. Cassie finally got her Starbucks coffee.

Then we got in the car (which seemed unusual and was very welcomed) and went to the Neuschwanstein castle. This is the castle that Disney modeled the Cinderella castle after. It is even more incredible than Disney makes it look...It is certainly fairytale status and every little girls dream to visit...we were just like those little girls in princess heaven.

We then drove back to Munich and went to the famous Hofbräuhaus for dinner. It is the most famous beergarden in Munich, it is a typical Bavarian beergarden. We had Radler, which is a combo of lemonade and beer, and why it is not in America is beyond us! It really should be! We also had typical Bavarian meals that were outstanding and certainly satisfied our craving.

We wandered around Munich looking at farmers markets and shops after dinner. Then drove to Bayreuth, where Maria and Franzi go to university.

Today we are going to explore Wagner's Hall and other Bayreuth specailties, of course that is after a wonderfully prepared breakfast at Maria's with Flo, her boyfriend, (We met Flo when he came to visit Maria in the States and she lived with Cassie) and his brother.

Food is calling...

...here are some more...

OK, so we cant write on each picture to tell you which is what and where. So you will just have to figure it out yourself...just like we have been doing the whold trip...kinda just kidding. So here you go: :)

Here are some more pictures!!!!

We are in Germany with Maria...and enjoying our wonderful day of stress free communication and great sight seeing. We are going to bed soon and will fill you in later. We wanted to add some more pictures while we had the chance. Hope you enjoy them!

German...in Salzburg...

OK, so we had some trouble leaving Italy...the train station said to take a bus and the bus station said we had a train ticket. now what? Eventually we did figure it out (we left from the bus station) and even made the right one!

Salzburg is our first experience with German...thankfully we meet up with Maria (Cassies former roomate) tomorrow. What a relief.

Salzburg is beautiful. When we arrived we got a little lost finding our accomidation. Silly us, we left with only the address of our location...we should know better than that. We didnt have directions or a map... oops.

We did however, somehow stumble upon the right place due Makenna realizing we were on the right street. Our sign of civilizazion that we were going to ask for help turned out to be our hostel. GO US!

The next two days we have spent wandering the city seeing highlights such as Mozarts house and birthplace, the fortress, the trick fountians...which are actually tricks due to water pressure when people walk by. (where Cassie got all wet, Katie slightly wet, and Makenna somehow lift dry).

We have had a lot of fun and our favorite part is moving past the pasta and pizza onto meat and potatos! Tomoorow we are in Munich with Maria and will be traveling with her for the next few days.

Keep in touch...we love your comments!

Guten Nacht

Salzburg

just wanted to let you know that we are safe and sound in Salzburg...our switch to German has been difficult...but we are surviving...all details to come tomorrow, but we are off to watch the Germany futbol game.

must catch our bus.

We have had an eventful and great day

and we thought rain coats would be sufficient....

ok, we know this is very short period of time for us to blog again, but we just couldnt wait to tell you what just happened...

We visited San Marco Plazza today and when we arrived, there were small little puddles in the middle. We thought that was strange, but continued our sightseeing. After admiring the music of orchestras and the views we realized the water was bubbling from the puddles. As we walked around the square the puddles got larger and larger. Cant go around it, cant go under it, cant go over it, must go through it. So off our shoes came and away we went with the other tourists.

Much to Cassie and Katies dismay, this was after making fun of Makenna that she wanted to do this in the first place. Katie and Cassie tried to go around, but it was impossible...the water was shin deep already, and Makenna laughed when we met up with her and our shoes were off anyway.

We did find it rather funny that we are definitly in other toursits photos because they were ones not taking their shoes and laughing at us. We posed for at least 3 pictures...what fun!

Now we are off to eat our last Italian dinner and hopefully will stay dry, both from the rain and the sea...

Ciao! Pictures to come...

A picture from Paris!

We finally found a computer with SD capatibility!!! =)
But we dont want to use any more internt time so that is all you get for now. hehe

Its good weather for ducks (or backpackers with raincoats)

Ciao! We have lots of updates for you all so lets get started since we have been in a land of no internet, and we also wanted to say we love all the comments!!!

Three days ago we left Florence and headed to Cinque Terre on a lovely regional train with no problems of seats or finding the train. GO US! We arrived in a rainy Manarola (the second town in a set of five when heading northbound). First goal was to find a place to stay, many people had told us it is no problem to find a room in Cinque Terre. They were correct... there are lots and lots....but finding an empty one for three people is a slighlty different story. We found one with one big bed, the owner was happy to make up another bed but the owner suggested we all share the big bed and save 15 euro. we said you bet. Surprisingly we slept great, sorry Greg and Matt we snuggled without you. We went to a quant little place for dinner and Makenna has mixed fried fish, and created quite a lovely pile of fish heads and vertebre on the side of her plate. Cassie and Katie were glad they got pasta and lobster.

The five towns are adorable fishing villages on cliffs overlooking turquise water. We spent the next day exploring in the rain 4 towns. We did a walk between two of them called Via della Amore. The other walks were sadly closed due to the storm. Exploring was fun and it was beautiful, Katie hopes her future husband wants to go on their honeymoon here. haha

Cinque Terre was beautiful and Sunday we headed to Venice. All trains were again uneventful. go us! Sadly, we missed the Italy and New Zealand game due to train travel. But we did see the Brazil vs. someone in a cute little Venizan resturante and there were many cute old brazilian fans with there flags watching the game. One old Italian women stood up every time they scored and clapped above her head. Adorable!

Today we went to Murano Island and watched Glass Blowing demonstrations and browsed show rooms and stores. It was fun and we each found a souvionir we are currently wearing. And the water taxi was fun.

This afternoon we are going to explore San Marco plazza and who knows what else!

Tomorrow we are ridding a bus to Salzburg, Austria!! We hope to blog soon but dont know when. Hope you can see the picture, it is from Cinque Terre before we got on the train to leave and we actually had sunshine then! haha

Maybe when we leave Italy we will leave the rain behind too. Too bad we are finally feeling some what comfortable with Italian. Oh well. Toodles!

Ciao Florence...Ciao Cinque Terre

We had the best breakfast of our life this morning. With a view and the sun shining. Priceless, and cheap hehe. We also had our first bit our coffee in a while. (well except Makenna)

Now we are in the train station and leaving in 30 minutes for Cinque Terre. OUr conversation skills are improving...some of us at least. We do not need a reservation for this train and that is exciting...and we have been told we can sit everywhere, so lets hope we dont have to move mid train again...

We are rested and ready to explore a new part of Italy...

Ciao!

its raining its pouring

It is raining buckets in Florence, but it is as pretty as ever!!! Today we hiked up a hill to Michaelangelo Piazza and enjoyed a view of the entire city! It was stunning. As we were admiring the view, we noticed dark clouds forming overhead. So we started down the hill and almost at the base of the hill it started POURING and hailing!!! We ran to a church porch and took shelter. A local joined us in our shelter and exclaimed "Mama Mia". This makes it officially our new favorite word! We have never seen hail so big and were laughing at the amount of rain pouring down (we brought our rain jackets yesterday...not today)! About 10 minutes later it seemed to have stopped so we headed out, only to dash to another covering a few moments later! Katie bargained with a sales man and bought an umbrella for 2 euros, original price 5. oh yeah! And we can all kind of stand under it. haha

Lets give a food update. Food is amazing!!! Meal times are always a joy, and each meal seems to be better than the last. Amazing we are staying within our budget as well. Go us!! =) We cannot seem to get enough gelato!! We have it almost every day and are trying to find the best in Italy, so far each place we go to gets better and better!

We decided to stay another night in Florence because we love our hostel so much. It is nice to be out in the country and enjoy the views and relaxation. Today we are heading back there soon to journal, read, and watch more World Cup with the fun workers. We might swim but dont know about the weather.

Tomorrow off to Cinque Terre! Until then, arriverderci!!

Ti Amo you all!

more Rome and now Florence

Our second day in Rome was just as eventful as the first. We spent the morning walking towards the Vatican taking in all the sights and along the way we saw many fountains, and the Spanish Steps, and panthenon. We finally got the Vatican and we awed by the architecture. We then enjoyed the beautiful organ music and choir while attending mass at the Vatican in Italian. We were excited when we understood some words. We also attended a little bar we found and watched the world cup with the locals. The best part was when they exclaimed "Mama Mia" during the broadcast, what fun. We also got our faces painted with Italian flags.

The next day we were going to Florence, we missed our train due to many circumstances, but got another one in 45 minutes and sat next to wonderful Aussies and a Swedish boy. We talked the whole way, Cassie taught the Aussies how to shuffle cards and in turn they taught her a new card game...what a trade.

We got to florence and found our bus tha took us out into the middle of the country to our hostel. It is so beautiful with green hills, vinyards, sheep, and a pool!! It is dreamy...

We have had a great day exploring Florence today and we are heading back out to our country resort.

Ciao!

Where to begin...

Last night we traveled on a 15 hour sleep train to get from Paris to Rome. Little did we know, that we were traveling first class with the high society people...a delightful surprise. Although, even with first class we still did not get much sleep, but we got a kick out of discovering the hidden ammenities around the room, which we had all to ourselves.

Ok, Rome. More trouble with hostels...thankgoodness this is the last one we had reserved! The beds we reserved we not available, they were not actually rooms yet. But the man was helpful and allowed to take a shower and got us another hostel at the same price...which is super good. Just some extra walking...just what we needed.

We visited the Colosseo, or Colosseum for you non Italian speaking friends. It was a novel of archeticture and we are glad we saw it. Next, we visited Palatino Hill and the Roman Forum, they are a picture of the past which we enjoyed. After we wandered...actually we were lost we just knew where we wanted to go and didnt know how to get there. But along the way we found gellato...so it was worth the aimless wandering and was amazing...we will never return to ice cream the same way again...

Anyway we are off for pasta and vino.

Ciao!

Rome

Just so you know...we are safely in Rome.

Off to explore....Ciao!

The Spectacular Time in Paris

Bonjour again. First we'll upate you from what we did yesterday, it was the perfect but also longest day imaginable. smile! we started off by waking up at 6:45am because we couldn't sleep any longer. We had breakfast at the hostel, yummy coffe or tea and pasteries. Then headed out the door by 8:45 and started our marathon!

Notre Dame was our first stop. When we saw the beautiful cathedral in the distance we were so excited to be approaching our destination, since we were walking. haha. The stain glass, arched ceiling, detail outside, and other feautres were breath taking.

We continued on our journey and enjoyed bookenistas, we think that is how it's spelled. They are all along the river and are trunks that vendors sell old books, posters, magazines, and other trinkets. What fun along a picture perfect walk.

Next we made it to the Louve gardens and devoured a whole package of salami and cheese. Best we've ever had!!! With the backdrop of flowers, trees, and greenery galore.

Later in the evening we discovered the METRO! And we liked it a lot! So...we rode it to the Eiffel Tower instead of walking the 8 km that we were planning to, since our millage for the day was already over 8 km. We are going to be really fit when we get back! YA!

The Eiffel Tower is beyond words. We got there at dusk and watched the sunset. We stumbed upon the World Cup Game of France vs. Urugauy at the International Fifa Fan Fest, they were projecting it on a huge movie screen with the Eiffel Tower directly behind it! THERE WE SO MANY PEOPLE and so much energy it was crazy. Today we realized the location was also a historic monument that we were sitting on the lawn of, Palace de Chaillot. hehe

We finished the day eatting food from a French Cafe along the river looking at the now lit Eiffle Tower. All and all this day was unbelieveable and spectacular. We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was real!




Today, June 12, has been wonderful as well.

We went to the Arc de Triomphe, back to Eiffle Tower, walked along the south side of the river, went to the Musse d'Orsay and saw Monet, Degas, Renoir, and other famous artists.

On the walk back we finally found a Cafe with a long line and were happy we had finally found a popular one! The pastries were AMAZING and the sandwiches too. It was another great meal; like all of our meals have been.

We are waiting impatiently to leave on our night train from Paris to Rome. Tomorrow morning we'll be there!

Until then Au revoir Paris and Buongiorno Rome.

Oh lala Paris

Bonjour from Paris!!!

Well.... yesterday was as long day to say the least. It started with our train ride from Zurich to Paris, it took three train transfers and 6 1/2 hours. We did quite well navigating between stations but had many adventures on board. The most exciting adventure was on the last train where the seats were reserved. We were unaware of this until a nice French man informed us we were in his seat. Katie responded in German asking the French man if he spoke English. He politely smiled and said "yes" and turned out to be a huge asset to our success. He informed us that the first two cars on the train were non reserved. So we picked up our stuff and headed forward and let us tell you it is not easy to walk on a moving train with twenty pound backpacks. We continued walking forward three cars until we were face to face with the engine. We must have passed it so we turned around and headed back three cars. Hum...... Luckily a conductor stepped out and said up ahead. So we did just that and looked for empty seats. We reached the engine again to realize the only compartment with empty seats was the first one, two cars back. So we turned around walked by the compartments for the fourth time and could feel people stare and laugh. And we made it to Paris.

We then hiked 3 km to our hostel in the rain (only making one wrong turn :).) to discover our hostel had lost our reservation. They eventually helped us find another hostel that had a room available (it was another 30 min walk away with French directions). It is called the Blue Planet and is delightful.

Today has been a great day exploring Paris. We will fill you in later. Off to have more fun.

goodbye Zurich, hello Paris

alright. today we have some more thinking power. We have gone to the grocery store and bought breakfast and lunch for the train ride. we fell asleep to the sound of a wonderful live band last night at a resturant below us. we figure thats what happens when you go to bed before the evening has begun. :)

here is yesterdays recap:

our first advendture was switching planes in phildelphia where we bought a cheesessteak steak sandwhiches. upon arrival in frankfurt, we asked a nice gentleman where to get our boardding pass. his reply was, "what the f*** is that?" refering to the leftover cheesesteak...it took us some time to realize what he was talking about. in the end we walked off laughing and found our boardingpasses.

in zurich, we figured out how to purchase a train ticket and find the correct train...all in german. we were very proud of our accomplishment.

for lunch we found a place called the coop which is now our favorite store in zurich. we can successfully buy food. YEAH! we took our lunch out to the lake and decided to watch the swans and admire the beautiful scenery. the swans decided that our toes looked yummy too. although we proceded to eat our lunch without the swans eating us.

our hostel was a quaint place with friendly people. we were excited when we navigated to the correct place. we opened the door walked up three flights of spiral stairs, walkeed down a hallway, up one more flight of spiral stairs, checked in, and had one more flight of stairs to get to our room. success!

we visited three beautiful churches.
1. famous for largest clock face in europe
2. famous for stained glass by chagall
3. simply beautiful from the reformation

now we are off to conquer train changes and navigation in paris. we hope to be to our hostel by 6pm, but it is a 2.5km, by our rough estimation, to get there from the station.

wish us luck! talk to you soon...

Hello from Zurich

We are here in Zurich, Switzerland and we are super tired and going to bed within twenty minutes. We had a long and successful day of travel and exploring. All of the fun stories will be shared tomorrow.

Until then,
Guten Naught

So long, farewell...

We arrived in San Francisco around dinner time and had a great little reunion from the two weeks we have been apart. We are all anxious to leave in the morning and have our shuttle arranged to pick us up at 3:45 AM. Oh boy... err... gross....

Now all we have to do is try to get some shut eye and let the slow moving clock tick bye...


So long, farewell
Auf Weidersehen, goodbye
We leave and heave
A sigh and say goodbye
Goodbye

We're glad to go
We cannot tell a lie
We flit, we float
We fleetly flee, we fly

The sun has gone
To bed and so must we
So long, farewell
Auf Weidersehen, goodbye

Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye

Departure Today...

Off we go...into the wild blue yonder. :)

We have officially been graduated for 16 days and we are heading out of the country!
We are meeting in San Francisco in a few short hours and we will be beginning our adventures. We will keep you posted as often as we can. Please enjoy our thoughts and keep us posted with what is happening at home. We love you all and will miss you.
Thanks for your love, support, and prayers!