Paris, Munich, Salzburg, and Cinderella's Castle!

Well the last couple of weeks have been busy.  I had planned on writing a blog when we got back from Paris, but my camera had died, and somehow all of my pictures from Paris got deleted.  We still haven't figured that one out.  But luckily, Joanna had her camera and I can get pictures from her.  It all started Friday, August 6.  We got up that morning and drove straight to Versailles!

Me and Jesse in front of Versailles

In the Garden

Versailles Garden

It was huge!  It took a long time to go through the whole palace.  I think my favorite thing to see was the garden!  Beautiful!

Lower Gardens

I loved the gardens!  They were sooo pretty!  And they were huge!  There was just so much to see.

Eiffel Tower at Night

We left Versailles late that afternoon, totally exhausted and went into Paris.  We got to see the Eiffel Tower at night!  It was beautiful!  The whole thing was lit up, and then on the hour, it would "sparkle" for about 10-15 minutes!  Loved to watch it!  We had a very yummy dinner at a very French cafe!  The next morning we got up and went to Notre Dame.  Talk about massive.  This church was huge.  We walked around and looked until it was time to go back to the Eiffel Tower.  We had bought our tickets the night before and scheduled our time to go up.  Best decision ever!  When we got there that morning, the line to buy tickets was so incredibly long.  All we had to do was walk straight up to the elevator!!!  We went up to the 2nd floor, and then had to wait in line to go all the way up to the top.  But we had a nice view to wait in line!  After we came back down, we went and took pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower

We got lucky with how clear the day was!  It was nice!








After the Eiffel Tower, we made our way to the Louvre.  It wasn't as easy as you thought it should be.  We hadn't quite figured out the subway system yet.  But we made it.  And the Louvre was enormous...  We definitely didn't have time to see everything.  It would take a long time to see the whole thing.  But we got to see the Mona Lisa!  It's not as big as you would think, but definitely worth seeing :)

The Louvre

Nutella & banana crepe, wonderful combination!

After the Louvre, we went to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  This is  church that is way up on a hill.  It was neat to see.  We finished off our Paris trip by having a crepe!  Who goes to Paris and doesn't have a crepe??!!  It was oh so yummy!

Fountain in Munich

The next weekend was a weekend full of travel.  Thursday, August 12 we left after Jesse got off of work, and drove to Munich.  Unfortunately it was rainy off and on, but we managed.  There were so many fountains as you walked around!  A lot of the buildings were under construction,  but there were still other things to see.  We tried to find the Hofbrauhaus.  This is a restaurant where Hitler used to have meetings.  It was crazy in there.  You just find a spot to squeeze in at any table where there is room and sit.  It was a little overwhelming, so we decided to eat somewhere else.We had dinner that night at this cute little restaurant that had really good schnitzel!  The next morning we got up and got on the train to go to the Dachau concentration camp.  It was a very sobering and sad experience.  It is very hard to understand the mindset of the people who did that.  I can't even fathom it.  It was very humbling to see.
We went back to Munich and made our way over to the Deutsche Museum.  Now that place is neat.  I definitely recommend this museum.  There are airplanes, cars, instruments, and much much more.  It is definitely a place I would go again.

B&B in Salzburg

We left Munich and headed over to Salzburg.  Austria is beautiful!!!  So much gorgeous scenery to look at on the drive.  And we stayed in an adorable bed & breakfast!  I loved this place.  I definitely want to stay here again.
We spent the eveining walking around Salzburg and eating a very yummy Italian meal :)









The next morning we got up and went to the Mirabell Gardens.  This is where they filmed the scene in The Sound of Music where Maria and the children are going around the fountain singing Do-Re-Mi.  It was very exciting to be there and see!!!

Mirabell Gardens

The fountain from The Sound of Music

I think Salzburg was my favorite place!  I loved walking around the town!

From the courtyard

After lunch, we left Salzburg and headed back to Germany, to the Schloss Neuschwanstein.  This is the castle that the Cinderella castle was designed after!    We got there and took a bus up the mountain.  Then we had to walk to get to it.  It was so well preserved!  And I saw a little girl there in a Cinderella dress!!!  SO cute!!!  We even walked onto this scary bridge to get a good picture of the castle.

Schloss Neuschwanstein aka "Cinderella Castle"

All in all, it was a rushed trip, but we got to see a lot of things!  Fortunately, it was still raining Monday and Tuesday, so Jesse didn't have to work!  He got some much needed rest, and got some of his real work done.  We are now rested and looking forward to a quiet weekend!

Love from Germany!