My Birthday! :) But the trip is almost over :'(

Hey everyone,

We have made it safely to our last European destination: Marseille!

We spent last night in Aix-en-Provence, and I had a great birthday. We made it from Cannes to Aix with no major French train problems, wandered the city and had crepes for lunch, took a quick siesta (popular here in the Mediterranean) and then went out for a great French birthday dinner.

We will be home at about 11pm Pacific time Monday night, and I'm sure we'll be a little jet lagged...but I'll write one long, detailed mega-blog post when we get home, and post all of our pictures ASAP.

Kristyn

I HATE French train strikes

UGH!

We finally have made it to France...the last few days in Italy have been great! Beaches, SCUBA diving, lots of mozzarella and tomatoes.

We tried to get on a train to France today only to be told that there WERE no trains leving to France, and that they were stiking for the 3rd or 4th day in a row. We made it to a town on the Italian/French border where one train was going into France but we were going to have to wait for 4 hours.

A nice European couple heard us (a German man and French woman, traveling to their summer home in Nice), and decided that they were going to take a cab the 40 minutes to Nice, and that we could come too!

They paid the driver €100 and we finally made it to Nice. We got on the wrong bus, but a couple hours later here we are :)

Forgive me for the short update, but I'm tired of sitting around - off to the beach!!

Kristyn

Amazing mountains and broken trains

Hey everyone,

We are officially stuck in Switzerland for a few more hours. Our train broke down on the tracks (at 7am no less) and we missed our connection to Milan. Now we have a nice 4 hour layover here in Interlaken, and will get to the Mediterranean coast by 7pm tonight....a whole day lost to the stupid train!

Oh well - there are worse places to be stuck :)

Yesterday we woke up late, had a lazy long breakfast, lounged around the hostel, and then went for a leisurely hike along an easy trail that winds along a beautiful alpine river through a canyon. We even saw some snow! There must have been an avalanche sometime during winter, but there was a huge pile of quicly melting snow near the trail. Since it was our last day in Gimmelwald (and a Sunday and everything was closed) we basically just sat aorund taking in the scenery. We cooked a huge dinner in the hostel kitchen (I love hostels with good kitchens) and we sat on the deck drinking 2 Euro champagne and taking it all in.

I am always sad to leave a place like this, so the layover here is bittersweet. I get to stare at the snow-capped peaks for another few hours, knowing that staying here means I don't get to lay in the sun on the coast this afternoon. Life is tough, huh? ;)

Anyway, off to be European: we are going to sit a sidewalk cafe for hours, reading and staring at the mountians....Italy tonight (I hope)!!

Kristyn

More Munich - and on to Switzerland!!!

Hey Everyone!

Pictures are up - you can click on them to make them bigger :)

We spent our last day in Munich touring the Residenz here. It was the huge amazing palace the rulers used to stay in (life was goo...they also had a giagantic summer home 3 miles away we didn't get to see). We took the tour and got to see 90 of the 130 room that have been restored so far - almost 100% of the place was LEVELED in WWII.

The rooms they have restored were pretty fantastic, and they saved a lot of the original artwork and wall hangings by removing them from the Residenz before the bombing started so some of the roms are supposed to be close to how they looked in the 17th and 18th centuries. Anyway the place was awesome, and we were pretty bummed when we thought about how much history, culture, and life was lost in the war.

After the tour we had yet another fantastic Bavarian meal. After a beer and a lot of different meats, we were exhausted. We took a nap and rested up for the night....we had plans to do a "Beer Crawl" - its an organized tour of the Beer gardens and pubs near our hostel. It started raining after our little nap, so we weren't sure that the tour would go on. We were quickly reassured that rain, hail or shine, the tour goes on!

We had a pretty good time, and saw 2 new beer gardens and had a couple more great beers. I had a "Radler" - its 1\2 beer and 1\2 leomonade, and it was great!

We woke up early and had to say goodbye to Munich, and got onto our FIRST CLASS train :) We had our own little compartment for the first half of the ride, and it was fun. The scenery was of course spectacular, and the train slid by so many adorable little Bavarian villages!

We switched trains, and eventually got to Interlaken. I LOVE SWITZERLAND! Like last time I was here, I am in awe of these mountains. Interlaken sits between two huge alpine lakes in a beautiful green valley. Every house has shutters and window boxes full of flowers on every window. Its adorable!

We found our hostel - we were staying in Switzerland's oldest hostel....Balmer's Herbage. Its huge!! We were only there for a night, so we threw down our stuff ran to the grocery store and had a picnic on the river between the two lakes outside of town.

We went to bed early, because today we woke up to go canyoning! I heard it was "like white water rafting without the raft" and that was pretty true. We got all dressed up in a super thick wetsuit, put on a helmet, threw on some booties, and hiked up a canyon with a river running through it.

They were smart enough not to let us get acclimated to the water, and basically made us jump off a cliff into a rapid into the FREEZING water! Taylor was the first one to jump in the group :) We slid down rocks, rappelled down cliffs, swang around boulders, and jumped over waterfalls. It was so much fun!

After the adventure, we rode the train, bus and cable car up to Gimmelwald...but people are waiting for the computer, so I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Enjoy the pictures,
Kristyn

Munich is great!

Hello loyal followers,

We spent last night and today exploring Munich! After getting our daily dose of internet (we are truly addicts to technology) we headed out to wander and find the world famous beer hall, the Hofbrauhaus. We had an awesome Bavarian meal (Taylor can't stop ordering schnitzel), a ton of giant pretzels, and some typical Baviarian brew.

When we were leaving we couldn't believe how late it was...I think it was about 9pm, but the sun was still out! It stays light so late here we get really confused on top of the jet lag. We decided to get some actual rest, so we put in our earplugs, donned the ever-annoying sleep mask, and went to bed, hoping to be fully rested for the next few nights in Munich.

We woke up this morning with our American clocks finally reset to German time, and headed out for a free tour of the city. Our tour guide was TERRIBLE, and after a couple hours of wandering in circles listening to his endless stories about nothing important, we finally ditched the group and did our own tour. We found the huge English Garden (the 7th biggest metropolitan park in the world) and had another leisurely beer in the Chinese beer garden (weird combo, huh?). In the park there is a river that runs the whole length. Below one of these bridges a "wave" is created by the water rushing past the bridges supports....and there were a ton of people surfing! In the middle of a city - it was so cool!

I know it sounds like we're doing a booze-tour of Europe, but its such a part of life here. People have a beer with breakfast! (Not us though). Anyway, we hung out in the park people watching and listening to the traditional Bavarian band for a long time. We are now back at the hostel re-grouping before dinner.

Tommorow should be a good day - we plan to tour the Residenz here (and then wander more? we haven't decided). I am loving the laid-back days...we didn't over schedule our time here, so we are definitely taking our time and seeing things we really want to see, and relaxing the rest of the time (something I'm usually bad at on trips).


Let us know if you're reading: leave a comment or send me an e-mail :)
Kristyn
(kristynfeldman@gmail.com)

Beer, castles and getting lost :)

Hey Everyone -

Please excuse the typos - Im on a German keyboard, and this is difficult!

We have had a fun last few days! We really liked Wurzburg (the first city we stayed in). We drank a beer the first night, got our bearings and then went ou to explore the town once the rain stopped. We were looking for one of the region's traditional wine bars, and accidentally stumbled into a open-air wine and music festival.

After paying our €6 per glass, we sat with all the locals and listened to jazz and drank some awesome wine in the garden of a picturesque courtyard. Once it started raining again we decided to find food and had a traditional meal at the wine bar/restaurant we were originally looking for. We had a great meal (of schnitzel and potato dumplings) and headed off to bed, exhausted from the 19+ hours of plane rides.

I guess I was jetlagged, because after passing out at 10 pm I woke up a few times before I made us get up and out before 7am! We wandered the streets, got breakfast, and took a stroll through the historic parts of town before heading over to the "Residenz" (or the Kings house). It had a beautiful garden surrounding 3 sides with tons of spring flowers and sculpted trees. We took the tour and were surprised how short it was... but most of the building had been leveled in WWII and only a few of the rooms of the palace like building have been restored. They had an interesting display all about the city and what happened during the war, and all about the restoration efforts to return the city to "normal."

After our tour, we packed the car and headed out to the "Romantic Road" which winds through all the quaint Bavarian towns....the only problem was the road was closed for construction, and since our German is decidedly lacking, we could NOT follow the "detour" (which I still think didn't even exist!). After driving in circles for a few minutes, we decided to just give up on that part ot the Road and try to find our next city via the highway. We easily found Rothenberg and wandered around the medieval town after a great lunch of brats and sauerkraut.

It was really neat walking trough the tiny little streets - the whole town is surrounded by a 3.5 km long wall, and you can walk along the top of the wall around most of the town! Its basically one big castle-y looking fortress on a hill. There are even vineyards surrounding the walls near the river that winds around the enclosed city. We took a little too much time relaxing and meandering, and I realised it was getting way too late to take the one lane "Romantic Road" for the rest of the 200km drive we had.

So we changed plans (Taylor's motto for the trip is "Adapt and overcome" :)... We hopped back on the autobahn, and after only one more episode of driving around in circles, we made it to our hostel in Fussen. It sits on the border of Austria in the foothills of the Alps and is very close to 2 breath-taking castles! We explored the town and found an Alpine waterfall (all these pictures to come soon, I promise!) and hiked around before having a quick dinner at a pizza shop and heading back to rest.

We woke up early today and went straight to the castles. It was foggy when we arrived, but all of a sudden the sun broke through the mist and we saw the huge castle looming on a hill over our heads - it is the castle Disney modeled his castles after and it is pretty ridiculous looking! It definitely looks like something out of Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty! We toured both of the castles and heard all about the "crazy" king who had the Disney-like castle built. The plan he had was so immense that even after something like 16 years of construction only 1/3 of the castle was complete when he died and they stopped construction. Those castles are definitely one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

After the castle hopping, we headed to Tegelberg - I wanted to go here becuase they have a giant luge!! You sit in a little cart (something like a sled with brakes) and get pulled for about 5 minutes by cable up a huge metal slide. Once you get to the top, the cable disappears and you careen down a HUGE slide (that looks alot like a bobsled track, but made out of metal). It was super fun and only €2 :)




I wanted to ride a few more times, but we had to get on the road to Munich. After a few more amazing glimpses of the castles, we turned towards Munich. We arrived (without getting lost!!), and have now returned our rental car and checked into the 5-bed hostel room we will call home for the next 3 nights. Up until now we have been in private rooms (or bigger rooms that nobody checked in to) but this time we have other people in our bunk-bed filled room.

We are about to head out of the hostel and find the most famous bar in the world, the Hopfbrauhaus! I can't wait to have a giant Bavarin beer out of a huge stein or boot!! Tomorrow we are taking a walking tour of the city and then touring the Munich Residenz.

I'm not going to lie and say I miss the US yet (we are having too much fun!)...but I hope all is well back in the states...

Will write/post pics soon,
Kristyn

We made it!

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know we made it to Germany!! Amazingly enough, all of our flights were super easy, and the carry on bag was definitely the way to go. We made it from San Diego, through Detroit, through Amsterdam, and arrived in Frankfurt. We quickly found our rental car....and once I figured out how to get the silly thing in reverse, we were off and running!!

Oh - I LOVE THE AUTOBAHN!!! No speed limit = awesome! But Taylor kept me in check and made sure my lead foot didn't get our little diesel car going too fast :)

Anyway, we have made it to Wurzburg and found our first hostel. We are both enjoying a local beer and are off in a few minutes to explore the town and find one of the traditional local wine bars I have been reading about. Hopefully the rolling thunder I can hear won't hinder the plans too much!

Much more to come, and stay tuned for picture updates and adventures...lots of castles and beautiful countryside tomorrow!

~Kristyn

Packed and ready!

Hey everyone -

We leave really soon!! 3 days and counting :)

Just wanted to post a few things Taylor's mom requested (yes, I do take blogging requests :)

Flight info:






























And here are a few great pictures of packing time with Taylor :) Amazingly, I think we fit everything we need for 2 weeks in a carry-on sized backpack!! We rock!


Almost there!
~Kristyn

Hostels book, car reserved, almost ready to go!!!

Hey Friends and Family :)

Taylor and I have been working hard at vacation planning and now have all our hotels booked! We also just reserved our rental car, which is adorable, tiny, and manual!! We will be driving it from Frankfurt, down the Romantic Road, to Munich. I have also booked us a 2 dive Scuba package in Italy, and we just booked a pretty cool "canyoning" trip for Switzerland, too! But I'll tell you more about those when we do them! :D

Here is the list of places we are staying (just in case anyone needs to find us :). We spent an average of only $57 per night! That means, on average, we are only spending $28.50 per person, per night. Most of the places are hostels, but we found a few cool, cheap hotels, too. They all have websites if you want to see where we are staying!

City, Hostel or Hotel Name, Cost per night:

1. Wurzburg, Babelfish Hostel, $58 (http://www.babelfish-hostel.de/relocation.htm)
2. Fussen, LA Hostel, $58 (http://www.housela.de/house-la-en.html)
3. Munich, Euro Youth Hostel, $52 (http://www.euro-youth-hotel.de/munich/)
4. Interlaken, Balmers, $50 (http://www.balmers.com/)
5. Gimmelwald, Mountain Hostel, $44 (http://www.mountainhostel.com/) My all-time favorite hostel! Stayed here last time!
6. Camogli, La Gabbianella, $92 (http://www.lagabbianella.eu/language/en/page/home.html)
7. Sn Margherita, La Vela, $0 (http://www.lavela.it/welcome.htm) This place is an actual CASTLE!! Check it out! I got it with my credit card "reward" points!
8. Finale Ligure, Savioa, $64 (http://www.hsavoia.com/)
9. Nice, Chez Patrick, $70 (http://www.chezpatrick.com/)
10. Cannes, Hotel Corona, $76 (http://www.cannes-corona.com/home_uk_1_A.html)
11. Aix, Hotel Paul, $60 (http://www.aix-en-provence.com/hotelpaul/)
12. Marseille, Vertigo, $88 (http://www.hotelvertigo.fr/)

Total = $860 for 15 nights! Average = $57 per night ($28.50 per person)

I am super excited - only 11 days to go!!!
~Kristyn