So many places...

Long time no write. The blog is not really set up to pull pictures from numerous Picasa accounts so I'm just frustrated at this point and going to give a quick recap of where we have went until I get pull pics in again....

Trevi Fountain

Lake Garda Sunset

Katie and Cathy in Monterosso

July- We went to Italy. Katie (my old roommate) was in the country with some friends for a wedding so what better time to meet up with her! Brian and I flew to Rome and saw all the sites, except the ones that were on strike i.e. Colosseum. Then Brian had to fly back and go to work :-( I headed with Katie, Aaron, and Paul to Cinque Terre, a beautiful place. We had some interesting moments, getting off trains too early, rental cars, German tourists, Italian waiters, sangria, etc. All in all we couldn't of asked for a better time, a beach day and a hiking day and an adventurous car ride to Lake Garda. We got to Lake Garda in time to see Jesse and Nicole before their rehearsal dinner. They were glowing and excited for the next days events. Lake Garda was a beautiful area but in an effort to to overstay my welcome I tried to leave before the wedding. Italy was trying to stop me but I dodged the strikes and took a cab and made my train and plane, safe and sound! While Italy is a beautiful country the best part was catching up with an old friend and meeting a couple new ones.

We also took a quick trip to Brussels. It was basically an eating/drinking extravaganza, Belgium beer and waffles mmmmmm sooo good. They also had the best coffee like drink ever (minus the coffee) it was at this fantastic gay coffee shop, if only I could remember the name of it.

August- We stayed in town and tried to avoid the European traffic jams. We did get caught in a couple of them, the longest on the way home from an exciting ropes course near the Swiss border. Who could forget the weindorf (winefest) in Stuttgart, fun was had by all, even if they can't remember it!

Sommerfest

Look at all the ropes courses!

mmmmmm just what you need at Weindorf

Sept.... I think I have pics of these so these will be future blogs.

Easter in Germany!

This last weekend was Easter. Germans as with most Europeans get actual days off for holidays! Easter is no exception, most Germans have Good Friday and the Monday after Easter off. Which means a lot of businesses were closed. On normal Sundays clothing stores, grocery stores and pretty much everything but half the restaurants, some gas stations, and museums are closed. Even the prostitutes take the day off! Easter Sunday almost everything was closed with the exception of maybe Starbucks and some Biergartens. Everyone seemed to leave town, which meant that hotels and roadways were crowded.

Since Brian didn't have any time off we decided to stay around town this weekend. We took the time to hang out with some new friends that Brian works with. They introduced us to some great places to hang out and some delicious food! Not to mention the great company and stories we got! We also figured out if you are only going 3 stops on the train it is only 1 Euro! Granted most of the time I could walk 3 stops but it's good to know especially for late nights!

On actual Easter we drove to the Black Forest and went searching for Little Red Riding Hood. We didn't find her or the big bad wolf but we did find a lot of trails and markers and some beautiful trees. It started to thunder and rain off in the distance so it really was almost like an eerie fairytale setting. Everything is so green and fragrant.

For some unknown reason we didn't take any pictures.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Another trip within the German borders. This weekend we headed northeast to Bamberg, Germany. (pronounced Bomb-berg)

This town is actually a UNESCO world heritage site all in its own. It's a unique town in that it is one of the few towns that did not suffer any damage from WWII. It is also known for its beer. We decided to see all there was to see. First off we visited the historic half-timbered & frescoed town hall, which happens to be built on it's own island. Apparently no one would give up land so they plopped it down in the middle of the river and built a couple bridges so both sides of town could reach it!

View from the bridge:

We saw some cute houses on the River Regnitz,

some churches,

and refreshments (Brian and Cathy size)...

When in Germany...

This brewery is famous for its smoked beer, I let Brian finish mine...

And last but not least we of course saw some Germans.

We also solved the marked door mystery. The marking on the door below is a Christmas time blessing.

The Germans also solved the space mystery...

Castles, Burgs and Bridges Oh MY!

This weekend was our first spring weekend in Germany. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend, sunny and warm all weekend, so we got out of the house and headed north to Castle Road or as the signs say Burgenstasse. You can see part of the road below, it actually goes all the way to Prague. We did the portion between the arrows.

Our first stop was in Bad Wimpfen. All that remains is one tower, and of course as you will see thru the course of this post there are a lot of stairs! The view from the top was quite amazing you could see up and down the Neckar River. The town is built of half wood houses. All the wooden beams in them are painted on the exterior of the house to stand out. We did well ordering our lunch in GERMAN!

Our next stop was Hornberg Castle or Burg Hornberg in German. (Burg means castle in German).

They tried to lock us out but Brian figured out the combination to get in!

This castle also had a winery! What luck for us! We sampled some and then bought a bottle to go. Personally I think this castle was created to keep an eye on the vineyards below!

And of course there were more stairs!

We decided that there was no way to stop at all the castles so some we just took pictures from afar. Like this one in Zwingenberg.

The next stop brought us to the ruins of the Hinterburg Castle. The overlook was fantastic, but there was not much left to this old burg.

The beautiful drive landed us in the bustling tourist town of Heidelberg. The narrow cobblestone streets were filled with flowers, cafe's, restaurants, shops, and lots of people. We walked around for an hour and then settled into a restaurant for dinner and drinks...and of course dessert! At 8:30pm it was only just getting dark! Summer nights will be long in Europe!

On Saturday we visited the Heidelberg Castle for stunning views of the town and river. The castle was huge and it was free to visit the grounds and outer perimeter.

Here is a view of the town and the famous bridge over the Neckar River.

Next we walked down to the bridge and took pictures of the Heidelberg Castle from below.

These love locks had couples names engraved on them and were attached to the bridge! Apparently this is becoming more and more frequent around Europe and some gates and bridges are filling up with locks!

After leaving Heidelberg we made our way to Mannheim to visit the Mannheim Palace.

It was a great weekend with a lot of exploring...and a lessoned learned! If traveling on the autobahn and you come upon a car accident, don't expect any traffic to get rerouted. The autobahn turns into a parking lot and it's okay to get out to mingle!

Thanks for reading! Until our next adventure!

~Cathy & Brian