Friday, May 27, 2016

Salzburg to Munich


We didn't have a ton of time to spend in Salzburg, but we did spend most of the morning in old town checking things out. 
Rooftop views of the Alps
Stunning!
We found this fountain to be just gorgeous and Jackson was excited to eat his first pretzel of the trip!
Jackson by an awesome fountain
The pretzels here are large!! 

Pretzel time!!
Mozart was born and raised in Salzburg which is something in which they take great pride. So much so that they sell little chocolates everywhere called "Mozart balls." I'm not quite sure how that adds up...?! We found it humorous, though. 

Mozart balls LOL

Mozart's favorite cafe (they say)

One of the saddest part of any city for me is always the homeless population. Put a dog with a homeless person and I'm done for. This little guy looked so sad so I gave his owner €2 and stole some puppy pets! He was a sweet little guy and I'm sure he brings his owner a lot of joy. 
Homeless puppy :(

Salzburg looking lovely!

Once we'd seen enough of Salzburg we headed back to the train station to start the journey to Munich. 
Views from the train were hideous

seriously so ugly
Obsessed!
It was a quick 1.5 hour train ride to Munich with ample views. Our hotel in Munich was just outside of the train station so we literally walked out of the station and into the lobby. Awesome planning, Jackson! 


We got cleaned up a bit and then went to explore Munich. 

Fountains of Munich

Walking into old town
Showstopper.
Munich
A must stop.

Munich is a much livelier city than any of the others we'd seen (except maybe London) so there was a lot to take in! Everyone swears by Hofbräuhaus so we stopped in for dinner. Uhh, guys, the food was not good. At all. At all. At all. As in gross. If you must go, just get a drink and move on! 
Pretending for the photo
Inside the restaurant
Our dinner. Meh.
After our "dinner" we explored the city some more and just kind of soaked in the sights and sounds. 
Statue of Mary
No words.
Petefish.
Jackson had too much to drink...

Jackson had a very large beer at dinner and found himself and me particularly funny on our walk home. He enjoyed photobombing me and all. What a mess! 
and photobombed me! LOL
Drunk Jackson and I stopped in a Catholic Church to see its impressive interior. Drunk Jackson began kneeling and "thinking about God." It was really something, but he swears it was genuine and not beer induced. I'll let you decide. 
Inside St. Michael's
So ornate.
Just amazing
Such detail!
They were actually celebrating Corpus Christi (we'd run into celebrations earlier in Salzburg, too, which were pretty cool) so a Mass was about to happen. I gathered drunk Jackson (who by now wanted to buy and light a candle in someone's honor though we aren't Catholic and don't 100% know what that means) and we headed for the hotel. 
POPCORN never tasted so good!
In excellent news our hotel had both free laundry (we'd thought ahead and packed detergent packets to avoid getting rashes from different soap) and a microwave. We always pack popcorn in case we tire of dining out and, though we'd had dinner, it was gross so the popcorn was a welcome treat. We munched on popcorn and returned to the world of those with clean underwear. Lovely. :) 

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Train to Salzburg

We caught the train from Zurich in the mid-afternoon and headed for Salzburg. The views along the route were nothing short of amazing. 
A view of the Alps
Jackson capturing photos on the train

The results of his work


There are no words.
It was a long 4+ hour train ride, but it passed somewhat quickly and we got into town without issue. We walked from the train station to our hotel in about 10 minutes and were delighted at being upgraded to an awesome room with a balcony. 
Salzburg from our hotel

Jackson tells hotels that we are on our honeymoon and this time they did it up for us! Champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries and towel animals. It was so funny. 
The honeymoon suite
Champagne and all!
Jackson was pretty proud of himself for this one-ha! We got cleaned up and headed into old town for a late dinner. 
Pretty view from the bridge

One of my biggest complaints about European dining is the lack of ice in beverages. At dinner I kindly asked for ice with my tea and the waiter brought me a whole bucket. Hilarious. It was great, though! 
ICE for my drink!
Italian dinner in Austria because nothing else was open!
Our dinner was fine (I had gnocchi with chicken which was a bit short on chicken!) and we spent a bit more time wandering through a very quiet old town taking in the shop windows with awe before calling it a night in our honeymoon suite. ;) 
This was in a restaurant window- EWW! Tiny octopus!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Zürich (day 2)

Little things remind you that you're "not in Kansas anymore, Toto!" such as the numbering of floors on elevators. The Europeans start with 0 (which actually makes total sense) and will even have negative numbers for basements. As I said, a little thing. 
The Europeans do level "0"

We had breakfast included with our room (an oddity in Europe) so we ate at our hotel before heading into town. If I never eat at another breakfast buffet in Europe, it will be too soon. ;) Let me leave it with this: we have different hygiene standards for food service. 

We hopped on a train (we are really getting the hang of the train life now and love it) and headed into town. We were so impressed with Zurich's public transport- it was clean, fast and easy to navigate. I guess that rings true for all of Zurich. 
Bricks of chocolate
Listen, if I could capture smells I would have. This place (Läderach) was amazing. We tried chocolates. We bought chocolates. It was lovely.



We'd also read about a place to get macaroons in town and since they're a favorite of ours we popped in. They were OK, but not worth the fuss. 
Macaroons!!
We spent most of the day just meandering around the city taking it all in.

Zurich on the river
We rode a little tram up to the University and explored that area, too. 

University of Zurich

The views from the top of the hill did not disappoint. 
Zurich showing off!!
Jackson looking cute
Meandering through town...

Public fountains with fresh water-yum! 
Public restrooms were spotless and even had
a place to wash and dry your hands!

Pretty.

Jackson eating a sausage
He burnt his mouth on this weiner. ;)

Chocolate to bring home to family and friends!