There is a lot to love about Iceland in the summer: extra long days, other-worldly landscapes, and incredibly fresh air.  But there are also some drawbacks: it's cold, it's expensive, puffin and horse are menu items and it's almost impossible to see anything when it rains, which I'm told, happens often. 

We arrived late at night (around 11:30pm) and picked up our rental car.  Note, car rentals in Iceland are super expensive.  Our 2 -day Iceland car rental cost slightly less than our 3 week car rental in Australia.  The car rental companies have big signs warning you to hold your car doors at all times because the wind can be so strong that they rip off the doors or slam them into a limb that might be in the process of entering or exiting the car. Yikes!  

We drove about 40 minutes to our hotel called Hotel Hafnarfjordur, which was about a 20-minute drive from the capital, Reykjavik.  The drive was really cool because it wasn't fully dark yet -there was an orange glow coming from the horizon where the sun set.  The hotel, on the other hand, was nothing special. It provided a comfortable room and decent breakfast at a reasonable rate (for Iceland).  The guy working the front desk messed up the exchange rate and ended up charging us 50% more, which didn't occur to us at the time. We paid in cash, but luckily insisted on a receipt with the amount we paid, so we were able to sort out the difference the following morning and get a refund.  It was a good reminder that, when traveling, always know your exchange rates before arrival and always insist on a receipt!

We were lucky the next day: it was a clear day and relatively warm. Since we had such lovely weather, we decided to drive the 'Golden Circle' - a name Iceland gave to a driving route that brings you to a series of sites including a massive waterfall and geysers. Here is what we saw:

Geysers are the Worst
One of my many quirks is that I strongly dislike anticipation. Things like a Jack-in-the-box or opening a champagne bottle bring me close to a nervous breakdown. Even the Jack-in-the-box song, Pop Goes the Weasel, causes my stress level to spike. Well, bubbles & Jack are no match for a geyser. 

The largest active geyser in Iceland is called Strokkur and it's supposed to erupt about every 8-10 minutes. Having come from Germany, I was expecting this bad boy to run like clockwork. So I waited, and waited some more, and just when I gave up, BOOM, Strokkur shot water 20 meters into the air.  Of course, I was caught off-guard, which resulted in me screaming and then cursing Strokkur. Overall, I'm glad I saw the geysers, but I definitely don't need visit them again.

After the geysers we saw one of Iceland's many waterfalls called Gullfoss (golden falls). It was stunning! 

At Gullfoss we stopped for some lunch (traditional lamb stew and Icelandic yogurt) and checked out the tourist shops where they sell lots of wool, furs and other traditional Icelandic fashions. 

During the afternoon we drove back to Reykjavik to check out the town and grab some dinner. 

After dinner, it was around 10pm. Our waitress suggested we drive to the lighthouse to watch the sunset. We are so happy we followed her recommendation, because the sunset was beautiful. Here are some of my favorite shots from the lighthouse:

The Blue Lagoon
The next morning we awoke to clouds and rain. Our flight departed late in the afternoon, so we decided to spend our last day at the Blue Lagoon - a geothermal spa located in a lava field fairly close to the airport. It was a great experience! You check in, change into your bathing suit and a robe, and then head out into the cold misty air for a second, only to immerse yourself into warm bright blue water surrounded by black lava fields. They provide silica mud, which is supposed to be good for your skin so you see people swimming around with white faces due to the caked mud they applied earlier. There is also a swim-up bar where you can get beer and different types of smoothies. We both enjoyed the experience and it was the perfect way to relax before our flight to Boston. 

Iceland - A Great Stop-Over Coming Home
Afterwards, we checked into our flight to Boston and we were home by 8pm local time. Iceland is a great way to break up your trip back to the US from Europe for a few reasons:

1)  It's only 5 hours away from the northeast coast of the US and just a few hours from much of Europe. 
2) You start adjusting to the time change while in Iceland (since they are 2 hours behind most of Europe).  By the time you get home, you really only have a day of slight jet lag. 
3) Iceland Air is a really affordable airline so you can get a flight home from major Europen cities with a stop in Iceland for less than most flights home on other airlines. Keep in mind you can easily spend the difference while in Iceland. It's a very expensive country.

Iceland was a cool place to visit, but because it's so expensive, I wouldn't recommend planning a trip longer than 2 full days there, and I'd definitely tack it on to a trip to elsewhere in Europe. 

After Rügen Island, we had to make our way back toward Amsterdam. Sadly, our time in Europe was coming to an end and in just two days we'd be on a flight to Iceland.

Quirky Hamburg
We  originally wanted to spend one night in Hamburg, but decided stay in nearby Bremen because we found a really good price on a hotel and Bremen was an hour closer to Amsterdam. Therefore we only spent an afternoon in Hamburg- driving around the new town and walking around the old party of the city, near the fair grounds.  If I could do it again, I'd spend more time in Hamburg because there is a lot to see and this town would be so much fun at night!   

This was a novel concept.  A mobile bar where the drinkers do the pedaling while the bartender (in the middle of the bar) pours from a keg.  I guess there are no DUI laws here!

A really cool coffee shop we stopped off at for a drink.  

We also stopped into a few shops and walked through a pretty big flea market. That was about all we had time for in Hamburg, and I'm sure we missed most of the highlights.  However, we did enjoy our few hours walking around and I hope to be back someday to see more!

Bremen
That night we just needed a simple place to crash before our flight out of Amsterdam the next day, so we picked a place called Bremen which was about an hour further up the road from Hamburg.  We didn't know anything about Bremen other than the fact that it had a reasonably-priced Holiday Inn Express.  Turns out Bremen is a manufacturing town most notable for its Mercedes and EADS plants, with a really nice downtown area.  

We did some poking around and found a great little place to eat in the middle of a cool residential neighborhood. It's called Medoo, and it was packed with locals from the area. Lots of families and friends were having dinner here and they all seemed to know one another. It reminded me a lot of the neighborhood restaurants we used to frequent when we lived in Chicago.  We had the friendliest waitress who helped us navigate the German menu. I ended up with a delicious vegetable strudel and Chris had a nice fish dish. After we paid for our meal, Chris tipped the waitress which led to a lot of confusion on her part  because apparently they don't tip here (though it is common elsewhere in Germany). We insisted she keep the money since she spent a lot of time walking us through the menu and she was elated! 

Sunday Afternoon Beach Clubbing
We left Bremen before noon the next morning and arrived on the outskirts of Amsterdam by the afternoon. We didn't have to drop off our car until 8pm for a 10pm flight, so we had some time to kill. We had already been to Amsterdam and didn't want to deal with driving in the city.  Since it was a beautiful day we decided to check out a popular beach north of Amsterdam called Bloemendaal. 

Upon first glance, Bloemendall is a beautiful massive sandy beach with lots of kite surfers and regular surfers enjoying the windy conditions.

We noticed a string of restaurants below so decided to check it out. 

We arrived at the first restaurant to see a bunch of people hanging out and enjoying lunch. It was a very chill scene. Then we started noticing something odd - people dressed up in clubbing outfits were walking by.  What were girls in 5 inch heels and guys in leather doing on the beach at 2pm on a Sunday??  We had to investigate. 

We walked past a couple more restaurants, each one a little swankier then the last. As we walked the heels got higher, skirts shorter and the leather and mesh more common. We soon heard the thumping of a DJ and walked right by this MASSIVE club on the beach:

The picture doesn't even do its size justice. This first club went on and on and every inch was packed with people. The DJ was spinning pop music and I'd say the average age of the patrons was around 22.   Right next door was another club - this one even more packed than the first one. This club explained all the leather sightings. The DJ was playing some kind of heavy metal dub-step mix that was so loud that you shook as you walked by. I didn't take a picture of this club, fearing that someone might punch me in the face for the fun of it. 

We saw one more club at the end that was much more chill. It was colorful, quieter full of different places to lounge around.  We both thought this could be a cool place to hang out. Upon closer inspection we realized that the average age of these folks was probably mid-40's to early 50's.  This was the catch-all club. If you aren't a 20 something or a metal head, you go here.  

Chris and I decided to pass on the clubs and head back over to the chill restaurant we saw when we first arrived.  It was the perfect little spot! We had a tasty lunch right by the beach while listening to someone playing the acoustic guitar. 

Bye Bye Citroen
After our meal we went to the airport where we dropped off our Citroen, ending our short-term lease.  We were pretty sad to say goodbye to this car which drove us for 2 months throughout Europe. With the exception of when the GPS lost its signal in Vienna, this car was a great way to travel throughout Europe!

That night we said goodbye to continental Europe and made our way north west to Iceland!

About three hours north of Berlin sits Germany’s largest island – Rügen Island.  Rügen is a great weekend destination for residents of Berlin and Hamburg since it's only a few hours' drive from both cities.  We had heard great things about Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, so decided to head up for a couple of nights. 

We booked a hotel in Binz, which is one of the main seaside towns on the island.  Binz features a really nice beachfront promenade with lots of great shops and restaurants.  The area reminded us a lot of Cape Cod, with slightly warmer water, whiter beaches and newer buildings.  While people do live on Rügen, in the summer time it’s mainly filled with vacationers – probably about 80% from Germany and most of the rest from Sweden, which is a short ferry ride away.

After a short time in Rügen, we also proclaimed it the friendliest place on earth.  Everyone we saw there was happy and cheerful, and without fail, everyone we saw said hello to us! 

White Cliffs of Rügen
The morning after we arrived, we headed up to Jasmund National Park, home to Rügen's famous white chalk cliffs, leading many people to call it the Dover of Germany.  There are some nice hiking trails that take you along the top of the cliffs and down to the water.

Prora: Abandoned Nazi Resort
Next, we stopped off at Prora.  This place was very interesting and a little spooky.  Shortly after the Nazi’s came to power, they introduced a program called ‘Strength Through Joy’.  It was sort of a ‘work hard, play hard’ concept, where they believed that happy people would be productive workers.  As part of this program, they decided to build a huge resort on Rügen Island called Prora, which could accommodate over 20,000 vacationers simultaneously.  Between 1936-1939, seven massive (and ugly) concrete buildings were built along the coast.  Each building was 1.5km long and six floors tall.  Each room was to have a sea view, and all rooms were to be identical.   The halls and communal bathrooms occupied the side of the building facing away from the sea.  The beginning of WWII meant that these monstrosities were never used as a holiday resort, but instead, as military housing.  After WWII, Rügen became a part of East Germany, and the Soviet and East German armies both maintained a presence here.  Today, the buildings are abandoned, and two of the seven have been demolished.  There are plans to redevelop the area, and a large hostel recently opened in a portion of the northernmost building.   The good news is that if you pass through the ruins of the Prora buildings, you find yourself on a beautiful, expansive beach, which has become very popular with vacationers.

Beautiful Binz
We spent the rest of the day back in Binz, walking around the town and later, enjoying a local festival.  We heard a great local band playing – sort of a Rockabilly type group covering techno songs, which was much better than it sounds.  

We also sampled some of the local fare:

We really enjoyed this pretty little island and would highly recommend a few nights here if you ever find yourself in the area.  One word of advice – another thing Rügen has in common with Cape Cod is its weekend traffic.  There is only one road in and one road out, and you can expect to sit in some major traffic jams if your timing is poor, so plan carefully!

We loved Berlin so much that we decided to add an extra night to our stay while we were there.  We stayed in the former West Berlin near Savignyplatz, which is a great area due to its proximity to loads of restaurants, shopping and unique design boutiques - including clothing, jewelry and home.  I'd highly recommend visiting this area to anyone who designs jewelry or interiors.  

After many successive stays in hotels with uncomfortable European style mattresses, we broke down and booked ourselves at the good old Hampton Inn (incidentally, rated the #16 hotel in Berlin on TripAdvisor!).  It ended up being a good choice, as the beds were comfortable, the internet fast and the A/C cold.  This triple threat is a very tough score in Europe. 

Our first morning in Berlin, we had, of course, booked ourselves on a bike tour of the city.  This particular tour was a Fat Tire tour on one of their new e-bikes.  An e-bike operates like a regular bike, but has an electric motor that gives a turbo boost to your pedaling effort.  Therefore, you can accelerate uphill and zip around the city all day without breaking a sweat.  This was great, as it allowed us to cover a lot of ground in this massive city. 

The bike tour was fantastic. Our guide, a British expat named Neil, was extremely knowledgable about the city's complex history.  Berlin is a fairly young city by European standards, and Germany is a very young country. Until the late 1800's, Berlin was the capital of Prussia, at which point Prussia merged with several other states to become the German Empire.  Most of our tour, therefore, was focused on the events of the twentieth century.  Here are some of the sites we visited along  our tour and during our next couple of days in town.

We also enjoyed a wide variety of food in Berlin.  In Savignyplatz alone, we had Vietnamese, Spanish, Mexican and Mediterranean meals.   You can find just about anything within a few blocks.  This was a nice break from non-stop German fare for several weeks.  

Aside from the sight seeing and the food, we had a lot of fun exploring different neighborhoods throughout the city.  It's a very diverse city that is changing and growing rapidly as the East continues to evolve following the fall of the wall.  There are lots of fun and interesting neighborhoods to explore and many different types of people to meet.  This city really does have something for everyone.  We had an awesome time in Berlin and can't wait to come back.  

I love Berlin. I'll write about our adventures there later, but first I want to highlight one of my favorite features of this city - the artwork.  I'm not talking about the art hidden behind marble walls, but the everyday creativity you stumble upon while walking down the street.  Every inch of Berlin's streets is full of color, expression, and emotion. The art is unexpected and makes a neighborhood stroll a really fun experience . Here is some of the artwork we saw throughout Berlin:

After three nights in Vienna, we drove three hours to beautiful Prague. 

Hotel 16
Our hotel in Prague – Hotel 16 – is worth a mention because, so far, it has been one of our favorite hotels.  It's a small place with 14 rooms, so it felt a bit more like a B&B. The hotel offers a great breakfast and free snacks and drinks round the clock which was a nice touch. Our room was nice and fairly basic, and the hotel was located about a twenty-minute walk from the old city.  However, the people who run the hotel were some of the friendliest and happiest we’ve met so far on our travels.  We arrived mid-afternoon on a hot day and were immediately welcomed by the enthusiastic guy and girl working the desk, with some cold water and juice. After chatting with them a bit, they provided lots of recommendations and introduced us to the local Czech drink called Becherovka.  We later met several other people who work there, all of whom were really great people who were always smiling, happy and went out of their way to give us great tips and recommendations about their city.  When we left they even gave us a couple of mugs as keepsakes.

The Czech Republic, one of the former Soviet Bloc countries (when it was part of Czechoslovakia), has only fairly recently (1989) introduced a free market economy and democratic political system after many decades under the influence of the Soviet Union.  There are still reminders of the communist period throughout the city.  In fact, Hotel 16 was seized from its owners by the government when communism was introduced.  Following the communist regime, the family who had formerly owned the hotel was able to reclaim it, and still operates it today.  There are interesting stories like this all over the country. 

The Golden City
On our first afternoon in Prague, we spent a few hours walking through Wenceslas Square (main shopping area) and around the old city. We tried to grab a drink on the rooftop of  the U Prince Hotel in the old city. The views were spectacular but it was just too hot to stay for a drink. Had we not have been in the midst of a heat wave, this place would have been an awesome way to spend an evening! We finally made our way to Letna Park at sunset, where there is a great beer garden.  We grabbed some beers and 2 massive pork gyros from a stand and enjoyed the watching Prague turn to gold under the setting sun.

Jewish Museum
The next day was Friday, and so we decided to visit the Jewish quarter, called Josefov, since it would be closed on Saturday.  Prague is unique among cities that came under Nazi control during WWII, as it was one area where the Nazis did not destroy all Jewish property, synagogues, and artifacts.  While most of the former residents of the area sadly perished during the Holocaust, many of the important buildings and sites in the neighborhood remain intact, as they were pre-WWII.  The Nazis wanted to preserve Josefov in order to use it for a planned Exotic Museum of An Extinct Race.  This means the Nazis gathered Jewish artifacts from all over Europe to display in Josefov, since, in their vision for the future, Jewish people would cease to exist. 

Many of the items stored in Josefov during the war form the basis for the Jewish museum, a collection of several sites throughout the neighborhood, each containing a variety of important relics used by the Jewish people who called this neighborhood home over the centuries.  Today, the museum tells the story of the people who lived here, what their lives were like, and interestingly, their relationship with the government and the rights afforded to them – or lack thereof – during the various stages of Czech history.

One of the most powerful exhibitions was the Pinkas Synagogue.  It is a beautiful, yet simple building, with no furnishings.  Its walls are covered with the names of many of the Czech Jews that were murdered under the Nazi regime, and the only sound is man’s voice reading the names. Over two thirds of the Jewish people from Prague perished during the Holocaust, which is quite a lot of people considering Jews made up over 20% of Prague's population pre-WWII.  The walls are covered top to bottom, which physically reminds us of the large scale of senseless deaths. 

Perhaps the most difficult part of the exhibit was on the top floor.  Many children were shipped off to concentration camps, and in an effort to make it seem “normal” and help them to cope with the difficult conditions, their parents would do their best to develop activities for them like plays, musicals, concerts and drawing.  It's somewhat reminiscent of the father-son relationship in my favorite movie, Life is Beautiful. One woman, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, was an educator and used art as way to provide therapy to the children in the camps. She had the children draw different things – how they felt about the camp, life before the camp, and what life would be like afterwards. The drawings speak for themselves. Many are very sad and depict images of fear or abuse.  Others are simply scenes of every day life in a camp.  Some are more hopeful, depicting visions of a happy future somewhere safe. The hardest part of the exhibit was seeing a label by each drawing with the child’s name and sometimes their picture, date of birth and date of death. If they survived the camp, the label would say “survived” instead of a date of death.  Sadly, most had a date of death. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis died in Auschwitz concentration camp, but her suitcase full of hundreds of children’s drawings survived. If you are ever in Prague, visit the Pinkas Synagogue and see this exhibit. 

The last thing we saw in the Jewish quarter was the Jewish Cemetery.  Even before the Nazis, Jews were restricted to a specific area of the city.  This included restrictions on where they could bury their dead.  In Jewish custom, the dead must be buried right away, and cremation is not permitted. Since they were given such little land for a cemetery, they had to bury people on top of each other. Therefore, on this small plot of land, experts suspect over 100,000 people have been buried over hundreds of years. This is why the cemetery looks like this:

Reflecting in the Park
As you can imagine, the Jewish Museum is a mostly sad and somber experience. After we were done, we decided to start our evening off with something low key.  We went back to our hotel to freshen up, and then we headed up to Riegrovy Sady, another park and beer garden overlooking the city.  This area was much more laid back than where we were the previous night, with lots of local residents sitting on a big grassy hill overlooking Prague and its beautiful sunset.  We picked up some snacks on the way there, as well as some beers and bubbles, and had a nice picnic.  This was a great suggestion from our hotel and we got to enjoy another view of the city from a different angle!

After sunset, we headed back into town to check out Friday night in Prague.  We started out at the Chapeau Rouge, something of a Prague institution going back to the early post-communism days.  A friend of ours is an artist who used to live in Prague, so we had actually first seen this bar in his paintings. (See his work at Johnhetzel.com)  Chapeau Rouge remains a favorite of both locals and visitors, and is fun because of its laid-back atmosphere and the interesting people who frequent it.  Downstairs there is also a dance club.  Admittedly, we did not last long here, as the steamy summer evening outside was intensified inside the confines of this cozy bar!  

Scottish Stag Party
We next moved on to an outdoor café where we met up with a large group of Scottish guys on a stag party.  While they were already well ahead of us in the drinking department, we had a lot of fun hanging out with them and spent the next several hours having fun, laughing and singing (these guys loved Neil Diamond).  Like any good Scotsman, they were really into Scotch. When I told them I didn't drink Scotch, they were a little upset, but not surprised. They bought us each a glass of their favorite Scotch (I forget the brand) and proceeded to give me a lesson on how to properly drink it.  I took a sip, followed their ritual and told them it was better than my past experiences trying the liquor. I then secretly handed off my glass to Chris:)

Fairytale Prague
The next day, we checked out more of the old city, heading over to the castle district, where Prague Castle is located.  Within this castle are several interesting sites, including Prague’s largest cathedral, St. Vitus, several royal palaces and residences including a large indoor hall where jousting tournaments were held, and a small ‘city within a city’ called the Golden Lane which shows what life would have been like here centuries ago.  

We headed back into town over the Charles Bridge, Prague's oldest and most famous bridge.

That night, we realized we had not really sampled any typical Czech food yet, and headed out to a local restaurant near our hotel, which also brewed its own beer.  Of course we tried the beer sampler, including a variety of wheat beers and pilsners, as well as banana, cherry, coffee and nettle flavored brews. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the banana beer!  We each got a typical Czech dish to eat.   Chris ordered vepřová pečeně which was essentially pork and sauerkraut slathered with thick gravy, and I ordered svíčková na smetaně, which was essentially beef and potatoes slathered with a different type of thick gravy.  Despite their simplicity, both were very tasty!

A Three-Hour Tour…
Our supposed three-hour drive from Salzburg to Vienna turned into a seven-hour ordeal. Austria decided to close down a 10km stretch of the main highway for a construction project without telling anyone.  This meant a highway totally full of travelers came to a complete standstill without warning.  We spent the next two hours sitting in our car, going nowhere.  Eventually, traffic began to creep slowly forward and after another hour or so, we made our way to an exit from which we could take back roads for the next thirty miles, before meeting back up with the main highway. 

At this point, we thought it would be smooth sailing.  Little did we know our GPS would lose its signal just when we needed it most.  We had unwisely become overly reliant on our trusty navigation system and had no backup maps.  We made it to Vienna, but had no clue how to find our hotel.  We spent about half an hour on the phone with the friendly receptionist at the hotel, trying to explain to her where we were, while she attempted to locate us on Google maps and walk us through the directions.  Between her shaky English and our awful pronunciation of the German street names, the endeavor proved unsuccessful. We were lost in the streets of Vienna.  At this point, it was around 11:30 at night.

We spent another hour driving around Vienna asking people for directions (note it's midnight at this point so there weren't many folks outside who were qualified to be giving anyone directions, which may have contributed to our plight). We were about to give up and sleep in the car when we heard a familiar British accent say At the roundabout take the second exit. Hooray! Our navigation system miraculously started working agin and we found the place in about 2 minutes. To our credit, this hotel was quite well-hidden, buried in a construction zone.

We stayed at the Zeitgeist Hotel.  Chris chose this hotel and I have a feeling it had something to do with the picture on the hotel's homepage:

Zeitgeist opened within the past year and is located near the new central train station, which is currently under construction.  The area around the hotel is being redeveloped and looks like it will be really nice 2-3 years from now.  The hotel itself was great, although the air conditioning did not work that well which made for some uncomfortable nights as the hot weather streak was still going strong.

Central Vienna
The next day we went on a bit of a self-guided walking tour of the old city.  Here are some highlights:

That evening we had dinner back in our neighborhood outside the city center. We went to a brew pub called Columbusbräu. Chris ordered and finished a massive set of spicy ribs, which left him quite content after a long day of sightseeing.

Biking around Vienna
Our hotel offered us free loaner bikes, so we took advantage on our second day in town and explored some other parts of the city.

Schönbrunn Palace
This massive palace was the Hapsburg summer residence and is located about 4km outside the city center. Here we took a quick tour of the main palace and learned about famous Hapsburgs who have called it home, including their beloved Empress, Maria Theresa . She was the only female Hapsburg ruler, reigning for 40 years! She had 16 children including the ill-fated Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Their other famous and beloved Emperor, Franz Josef, lived here with his controversial wife, Sisi.  Lots of drama took place behind these walls!

Belvedere Castle and Museum
This castle was built by Prince Eugene of Savoy who turns out to be a very interesting historical character. Eugene was a member of the French royalty who proved a military genius.  However, he was small and had several physical deformities, including a hunchback, so was rejected for military service by King Louis XIV.  Therefore he moved to Austria where he enjoyed a hugely successful military career commanding the Hapsburg armies.  Eugene built the Belvedere as his personal residence, and was also a great patron of the arts.  

Today, Eugene is known as one of Austria's great heroes and the Belvedere is now an art museum, notable for its collection of Gustav Klimt's works. Klimt is one of Austria's most famous painters, and is also one of my favorite artists, so I was very excited about the chance to finally see his work in person. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, not only did the Belvedere have a great Klimt collection, but they also had several pieces from the Impressionism (Monet, Van Gogh, Manet to name a few),  Expressionism (lots of Egon Scheile!)  and Contemporary periods. If you are ever in Vienna, definitely visit this museum!

St. Marx Cemetery
This cemetery is one of the most famous in Vienna and many think Mozart was buried here, among other famous Austrians throughout history. We rode by the cemetery on our way home, around dusk, and had the place to ourselves, which was a little spooky! 

After our three nights in Vienna, we departed the next morning for our next stop - Prague.

Hot as in sweaty, thirsty, too-hot-to-move Bostonians.  When we arrived in Salzburg, temperatures had reached record highs.  It was easily over 100F, sunny, and humid.  

Upon arrival, we spent most of the daylight hours in our hotel - Motel One - a modern and (thankfully) air-conditioned hotel about a 10 minute walk from the city center.  Across the river from the hotel was a laundromat, so being much too hot to walk around the city, we decided to do our laundry.  The laundromat, not having A/C, was even hotter than the weather outside.  We threw our clothes in the wash and attempted to find a bar, or bottle of water at the very least. Nothing was open, likely due to the heat wave.  Chris, who is much more tolerant of extreme temperatures than me, went on a walk to track down some water and eventually came back with a tiny bottle which we crushed in about 5 seconds.  Twenty minutes later, our wash was done.  We bailed on the dryer and walked back with the wet clothes around our arms and neck, protecting us from the sun while cooling us off a bit.  This may have defeated the purpose of washing our clothes, but we didn't care!

That evening it cooled down just enough to make walking tolerable, so we headed into town. 

Fraulein Maria Bike Tour
We love bike tours because they allow you to see a lot of the city in a short period of time and you learn a lot along the way.  The only bike tour available on our second day in Salzburg was the Fraulein Maria tour which takes you to all the famous places from the movie The Sound of Music. I'm a huge fan of musicals and this one is no exception. I love it! So I was pretty excited about the tour.  Chris, who also enjoyed the movie, was hoping for a tour with a little more historical context about the city.  Thankfully the heatwave broke and it was quiet pleasant outside.  All in all we had a great time. Our guide Steffi even looked a little bit like Liesel (the capitan's eldest daughter)! Here are some pictures from our tour:

Trick Fountains
The next day we went to Hellbrunn Palace before driving to Vienna.  Hellbrunn Palace was built in the early 1600's by Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Apparently the Archbishop had too much time and money on his hands, and spent said excess time and money devising an elaborate home and gardens with hidden water fountains everywhere.  This would allow him to soak his unsuspecting guests during meals, strolls, conversations, etc.  Needless to say, we got a bit wet on this tour.

After drying off at Hellbrunn, we began what turned out to be a painfully long journey to Vienna. Stay tuned for more!

Yup, you can surf in land-locked Munich! But more on that later.  Bavaria and its main city, Munich, is the Germany of fairytales. It's surrounded by beautiful mountains and quaint villages, there are beer gardens everywhere, ladies clad in durndls sell giant pretzels out of baskets,  oompah bands play in plazas and restaurants, and men really do wear lederhosen (it's considered dressing up and many men wear them to church). If you want to see the Germany of story books then definitely pay a visit to Munich. 

We arrived in Munich in the late afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Eurostars Grand Central.  We highly recommend this hotel for a trip to Munich.  Although it is located near an office park just west of central Munich, it is right around the corner from an S-bahn stop (Munich's metro system).  This meant we could get from our hotel room to the center of Munich in 10-15 minutes. It also had one of the best free breakfasts we've experienced so far - complete with two violinists as entertainment.  The rooms were spacious, wifi was fast and the beds were really comfortable which was a nice change from the lumpy Italian beds. We could park for free on the street next to the hotel, and best of all, it was very reasonably priced for the area. 

Beer as Big as Your Head
On our first night in town, we decided we needed to check out the famous Hofbräuhaus, the huge state-owned beer hall that goes back hundreds of years.  They say that here, Oktoberfest lasts all year long.  The place was absolutely mobbed, hot and loud, but lots of fun! Interestingly, the crowd was a mix of tourists and locals, and many of the locals were clad in their best lederhosen.  We ordered a couple of plates - Sauerbraten (basically pot roast) and a bunch of sausages, and washed it all down with the obligatory giant beers.  

Biking Munich
The next day, we booked a Mike's Bike Tour at 4:30 pm.  Since the weatherman was forecasting temperatures in the upper 90's, we chose the later tour to miss the hottest part of the day.  We spent the early afternoon checking out some of the sites around the center of Munich, then met up with our tour, which brought us through some historical spots in central Munich and through the Englischer Garten, the city's main park.  Here are a few things we saw along the way:

Check out one of the surfers in action:

The next morning, we set out to see a few of the spots we had missed the day before.

White Rose Society
This was a pretty fascinating story. When the Nazis were in power, there was a secret non-violent society of brave students at the University of Munich.  Their mission was to anonymously distribute leaflets that encourage opposition to Hitler and his regime.  Some of their leaflets were smuggled into the UK, copied and then dropped all over Germany by Allied planes under the title The Manifesto of the Students of Munich. One day a gardener saw White Rose member, Sophie Scholl, dropping leaflets out a window at the university and reported her to the gestapo.  She and five more members (including her brother Hans) were arrested by the gestapo and were subsequently beheaded via guillotine.  Today, there is memorial for these brave students and they are considered among Germany's greatest heroes. 

Marienplatz
Marienplatz is the biggest plaza in central Munich, home to many shops, outdoor markets, and the New Rathaus (City Hall).  We had a lot of fun wandering through this bustling area. 

One more food-related recommendation - while searching for a supermarket to buy water, we stumbled into the Galeria Gourmet in the basement of the Galeria Kaufhof near Marienplatz. This was hands down the nicest supermarket we've ever seen!

Team Tanda Tula Reunited! 
During our safari in the South African Timbavati reserve, we became friends with a really nice German couple, Thomas and Sabine.  

They live near Munich, so we all got together one night while we were visiting town. Thomas and Sabine picked us up at our hotel and we drove about 45 minutes to Schliersee, a lake town south of Munich near the Austrian border, where we met up with Sabine's sister Karin and her boyfriend Michael.  That evening there was a festival called Seefest, where we enjoyed traditional Bavarian food, music, games and other customs, some of which we might bring back to the States :)  We had such a great time catching up with Thomas and Sabine and meeting their family.  We can't thank them enough for their hospitality and a really fun night! 

While our time in Munich was short, it was very memorable. This is definitely a place we plan to visit again one day.  

We spent days 82-85 in a variety of places. First we took Chris' parents to see Orvieto. Since we had such a nice time at La Rocca the week before they arrived, we decided to go back for their last two days in Italy. This time we stayed in a two bedroom apartment in Villa dell'Olio. Once again we had a great time relaxing by the pool, grilling dinner and wandering the streets of Orvieto. 

Orvieto Cathedral
This time we entered the beautiful cathedral in Orvieto.  While the facade of this cathedral is its most impressive feature, the inside of the cathedral is also stunning. Inside the cathedral there are two chapels covered in frescos. My favorite part was the Chapel of the Madonna San Brizio which is adorned with gold-toned frescoes by Luca Signorelli. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral but I did capture this shot of the facade in the late afternoon sun:

Butcher? Buuutcher? Bu-CHER? 
One night we decided to grill at the apartment but we were missing a key ingredient - meat! Therefore we were on the hunt for a butcher during our visit to Orvieto. Before we left, we looked up the Italian word for butcher which is macellaio.  In and effort to remember the word, we walked down the street repeating macellaio - but all of us pronounced it in a different way. We kept saying it over and over for what felt like 10 minutes and then realized that all the Italian people around us probably thought we were crazy. Imagine if you were in the US and a group of 4 adults kept saying butcher in various accents over and over and over again. We eventually found the macellaio so while we may have sounded crazy, our efforts paid off!  

Ciao Ciao! 
After 2 days in Orvieto we drove back to Rome where we dropped Mom & Dad Barbier off at the airport.  While we were sad to say goodbye, we were so happy and thankful they made the trip out to Italy to see us! 

Verona & Lake Garda
From the Rome airport, we immediately drove up to Lake Garda in northern Italy, where we would spend the night before heading up to Munich. On the way we stopped in the fair city of Verona.  We all know Verona as the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. There is even a tourist spot where you can pay to take pictures on Juliet's (supposed) balcony. We briefly stopped by the balcony but it was mobbed with tourists. Chris quickly wrote our names on the Wall of Love, as is custom, and we skedaddled out of there. We enjoyed walking through the colorful streets of Verona and decided it would be a very romantic vacation destination if we were ever to come back to Italy. 

We arrived in Lake Garda that afternoon and stayed at the Arciduca Charming House in the little town of Arco. It was a bit rainy in the evening so we took a quick stroll around Arco and then spent most of the evening at a cute little cafe in the park.  The next day we visited the giant blue lake surrounded by grey and green mountains.  The towns are not as picturesque as those on Lake Como, but I think it's a better place for people who enjoy swimming & sailing. There seemed to be more families on the beach enjoying the water. In fact, the water seemed a lot cleaner than Lake Como's.  There were also lots of older people sitting along the lake which makes me suspect that this is a popular retirement destination. 

Neuschwanstein Castle
On our way to Munich, we took a small detour to see Neuschwanstein Castle.  This is the castle after which Disney modeled Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disney World.  However, do not refer to it as The Disney Castle if you are speaking with a German. I did this, simply because I didn't know how to pronounce Neuschwanstein and was immediately informed that this castle predates Mr. Walt Disney and the Magic Kingdom:)  Our German friend Thomas did provide a tip that really helped me remember the German name for the castle: In German the name Neu-schwan-stein translates to New-Swan-Stone.   The English and German words are very similar! When I first tried to pronounce it, I said the German words for New-Swine-Stone, which elicited a few more chuckles.  I eventually got it right and now I will never forget how to say Neuschwanstien! 

The castle dates back to 1892 and is definitely worth a visit. It's about an hour outside of Munich in Southern Bavaria and easy to reach by car or public transportation.  Consider buying your tickets for an indoor tour in advance because you can only enter the castle with a tour guide at a set time. By the time we arrived, it was too late to book an indoor tour. However, we enjoyed seeing it from outside and walking around the little town below. Here are a few pictures of this fairytale castle:

Next stop...Munich!!!