Day 8: Goodbye Germany...Ciao Venice, Italy!!!

On Day 8, we arrived in Venice...aka Venezia! Our Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Venice went perfectly. Of course, I was a little nervous before the flight (like always), but by that point we were becoming pros! Seeing the Swiss Alps from 33,000 feet in the air quickly made all my nervousness subside. That view of the Alps was absolutely unbelievable...I was honestly in awe and glued to the window. I couldn't stop taking photos! Here are a few for you to enjoy:

On the flight...Venice, here we come!

French/Italian/German Phrase Book + German cookies + Coca Cola Light = Plane survival kit...haha

The AMAZING Swiss Alps from an altitude of 33,000 ft...WOW.

Once we made it to the airport in Italy, we found our water-bus fairly easily. We took the Alilaguna shuttle over to the island, just like the hotel staff had recommended. It was a gorgeous but slow ride...haha. The scenery along the way made the long ride well worth it.

On the water-bus...yay!

After arriving on the island, we had quite a ways to walk...with our heavy luggage...haha. I had read about arriving in Venice and having to walk to your hotel...it was pretty interesting! LOL. We had to walk about 10 minutes, but it wasn't so bad. We eventually made it to our hotel - Hotel Ala. I was blown away by the Murano glass chandelier in the lobby...it was AMAZING!!! Our room was also beautiful...very Venice.

The Murano glass chandelier in the hotel lobby...Simply stunning! I wish that you could see all the intricate detail in the photo...

Our room...

The view from our room...I loved it!!!

When we got settled in the room, we set out to explore the city a bit. It was already dinner time, so we found a nice little restaurant and had a dinner of pizza and wine. It hit the spot. After dinner, we wandered through the streets and alleyways until we found St. Mark's Square....what a sight!!! It is truly beautiful and so romantic at night!

The store windows in Venice are incredible! Just look at these:

Pinocchio!!!

We bought a beautiful hand-painted watercolor from this artist...

We strolled around a bit more and eventually headed back to the hotel so we could get an early start on our first day in Venezia! After all, it had been a long day of traveling. :)

Day 7: Heidelberg, Germany

Well, Day 7 was another wonderful day in Germany. We went to an a.m.a.z.i.n.g place - the Heidelberg castle. Castles are everywhere in Germany...it's so cool. You just ride down the rode and see random, abandoned castles on the sides of hills. Wouldn't it be neat to have an ancient castle down the street?!? Now, the Neuschwanstein Castle was amazing in its own right, but the Heidelberg Castle may be even cooler. It's A LOT older and part of it is in ruins. That just adds to its uniqueness, though.

Here's a model of what the castle used to look like:

Pretty archways...

Castle courtyard...

Walking through the castle gardens and walls, you can just imagine the things that took place there...and what it would have been like to have lived there all those years ago. Of course, after reading fairytales as a child, you can't help but picture knights in shining armor, ladies in distress and fire-breathing dragons...haha. It was SO neat! I felt like a little kid walking through the place...my imagination was running wild. Even the knobby trees in the garden seemed to have friendly faces and personalities of their own.

Here's a pretty panorama of the city:

The castle gardens were so beautiful...

A tower in ruins...

This statue is also in the gardens...

Part of the castle moat...so cool!

Castle courtyard...

We found a knight! Look at those pointy shoes!!!

Gorgeous view!

The wine cellar in the castle was pretty awesome. The pic below was of a GIANT wine barrel...that thing used to hold A LOT of wine! Haha.

Okay, so they played a joke on me here...You pull on this handle, and a furry thing pops out at you...I wasn't expecting it. Can you tell I was surprised? Haha. It was hilarious.

After wandering through the castle, we ventured down to the town below - Heidelberg. It was definitely one of my favorite little German towns that we visited. It was so incredibly unique. We stumbled across a violin shop and after peering into the shop windows, we saw a man hand-carving the violins. He was so into what he was doing, I don't think he even noticed we were there. It was SO cool to come across something like that!

Up ahead, we walked up to a bridge that had a gorgeous view of the city. The church towers always look so majestic standing tall over their city. The Neckar river that flows through the town is very pretty too. In fact, it is the river that inspired Mark Twain to write "Huckleberry Finn." The view of the castle from down below was also breath-taking.

When we left Heidelberg, we drove back to a town close to Kit & Donna's house for dinner. We ate at an Italian place called "The Red Rooster." I had spaghetti and Brad ordered a delicious pizza. But guess what - We had escargot too!!! Can you believe that??? Snails! We had never had it before. The most surprising thing was that we actually liked it! It was served with butter and herbs, and it was delicious with a piece of toast.

Escargot!

Next, the four of us headed home and had a champagne toast to celebrate our time together. Italy was only a few hours away! :)

Day 6: Neuschwanstein Castle & Munich, Germany!

Guten Tag!

Well, here we are at Day 6 of the journey. Our first destination of the day was the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. We woke up at 6am and got an early start. The drive was absolutely incredible! I've never seen that much snow in all my life...it was quite amazing. The Swiss Alps are truly breath-taking. We drove through several adorable little mountain towns on the way. The cutest one was probably Garmisch. The German houses there were all painted with fairytale scenes right on the front of the building...like Hansel & Gretel. It was adorable. We saw a lot of people skiing up in the Swiss Alps too...it looked like a lot of fun, although I've never even attempted skiing...haha.

I loved these windmills...they were beautiful in the snow.

Now THAT's a snowball! :)

We took a horse-drawn carriage ride up the mountain...so fun!

Once we made it to the castle, we were blown away. It truly is something from a fairytale. We rode in a horse-drawn carriage all the way up the mountain, so that just added to the fantasy of the day. This castle was actually the inspiration for the design of Cinderella's castle at Disney World. You really can see the similarities. The inside was just as pretty. My favorite things were King Ludwig's elaborate bed and all the murals on the walls. The bed was made of dark wood and had amazingly ornate carvings in the wood....hand-carved, of course. The fabric was a wonderful turquoise color and the top of the bed had gold stars...it would almost be like falling asleep under the stars. The wall murals were also beautiful. King Ludwig was a huge fan of the famous composer Wagner, and all the paintings depicted scenes from Wagner's plays. For example, scenes from Tristan & Isolde were painted in the bedroom...which is a tragic love story similar to Romeo & Juliet.

They wouldn't allow photos inside the castle...so, we could only get shots of the exterior.

Now, you didn't think I could go through the castle kitchen without a photo, did you? One day, I'll have a kitchen this fabulous...haha.

Oh, and before I forget...we stopped and had our first German bratwurst before going into the castle...there on the mountain. It was SO good!!! Here's a pic:




When we were finished at the castle, we drove all the way to Munich! On the way, we actually drove through Austria for a bit, so we can add that to our "Countries Visited" list! Munich is such a fantastic city!!! It reminded me a little bit of Paris. We ate dinner at the legendary Hofbrauhaus...it was delicious!

Austria!

Brad and I both ordered the "Original Hofbrauhaus Braumiestersteak: vom Schwein mit gedunsteten Zwiebeln und uberbackenen Millirahmerdapfeln." - Wow...I had no idea what this menu said! The food was amazing, though! It was basically a tender pork steak with onions and sauce drizzled over the top and au gratin potatoes...Mmm!


Their beer was DELISH. Brad ordered a ginormous mug of beer...it was huge...haha. There was a polka band playing in the center of the restaurant. The atmosphere was so cool, and it's SUCH a fun place! At almost every table, big groups of people were toasting each other with their HUGE mugs of beer.

With the polka band...

After dinner, we headed out and walked the streets of Munich...there are some fabulous stores. I could spend an entire day just shopping and looking at the elaborate store windows. There was everything from Christian Dior to Jimmy Choo....wow! Kit walked us around and was our official tour guide of the evening...hah. He taught us a lot about the history of the city.

After all that walking around, we made it back to the car so that we could start our 5 hour drive home. We didn't get home until about 1:30am, but we had a blast!
Another day of exploring castles was coming our way!