I apologize for being MIA for the last....um...like 2 months....but at least this time I have a good reason! After we left Washington at the beginning of July, we came back down to Utah, had a fun time in Lake Powell with my family, and then spent the last three weeks of our summer backpacking our way across Europe.
It was amazing. Definitely the trip of a lifetime. Mark is my favorite person to travel with--we had so much fun together. We were a little worried when we left because neither of us had any idea what we were doing, but {thankfully} our whole trip went smoothly! Mark was a genius navigator with the maps, and I figured out all of the train and metro schedules--so together we made a good team. I should probably make each country we visited its own post, but I don't really have time for that. So if this gets a little long you will know why...we took over 800 pictures though so just know that it could be a lot worse :)
Spain:
We started our journey in Madrid. The city is absolutely beautiful...and very clean! Our hotel was within walking distance of pretty much everything so we spent our time walking around to all of the different sites:
The Royal Palace
parque del retiro.
everything from the rowboats on the lake to the old men playing their accordians and violins along the walkways made this place so picturesque.
The rest of the day was spent walking up the Grand Via, touring the famous Prado museum and eating paella at one of the city's best:
our second day in madrid was spent eating churros con chocolate at a little cafe for breakfast (again...so good!), walking around plaza mayor, doing a little shopping, buying some fruit at the famous san miguel market, and visiting the temple de debod-- a random egyptian temple that was stolen from egypt and reassembled in the middle of the city.
mark's brother jason went on his mission to spain and he had so many great tips. one of them was to go to segovia, a small spanish town a little ways out of madrid. we loved it there, it was exactly what I pictured Spain to be:
the roman aqueduct
the Alcazar Castle.
we decided that Spanish knights must have been teensy back in the 1500s, all of their armor was so small!
this is the tower at the castle that we climbed up for a beautiful view of the city
and of course, per jason's recommendation, we had to try segovia's renowned cuchinillo (roasted suckling pig), and, like the rest of the food we had in spain, it was amazing.
Rome:
It really was a dream come true for me to go to Italy, it was so amazing! It was also sooooooooo hot, we thought we were going to die a couple of times, but even with the heat it was totally worth it!
I love Rome.
the colosseum
the forum
the pantheon
it seemed like everyone in rome drove a scooter... so we decided to rent one for a day! it was such a fun way to see the city. Mark loved it because he didn't have to obey any traffic rules, and I loved it of course because of the cool looking helmets :)
both of these pictures are at the trevi fountain. we stopped by once in the afternoon and then went back to see it lit up at night...and maybe to stop at the really good gelateria that was close by...
Vatican City
St. Peter's square
the beautiful Sistine Chapel. so apparently you aren't supposed to take pictures in here, but when we walked in everyone was snapping away and so I just followed suit. I had already taken this when the guy yelled at everyone to stop taking pictures.
I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this, but it's so beautiful I couldn't resist
Florence:
As we made our way up through Italy we stopped in Florence--home of the Renaissance-- for the day.
ok, the David statue was way cooler than we thought it was going to be, it's like 14 ft tall!
incredible.
I admit that when we learned about how it's the most famous statue in the world we weren't really sure why, but once we saw it for ourselves we understood.
piazza vecchio
the duomo
Pordenone:
After our little stop in Florence we made our way up to the town of pordenone. Mark's cousin's wife Erica (who we have become friends with because they've lived beneath us since we got married), lives here and we stayed with her and her family for a few days. They were so kind and welcoming and we had such a great time staying with them. the morning after we got there, they took us up to their little house in the mountains, a famous vacationing spot for Italians.
these are the famous dolomites--these rocks are unique because they were at one time coral reef, which is why they have a reddish color
because the area we were at is right on the Italian/Austrian border, it was a major warzone during WWI. There were little caves carved out in the mountains where the troops would hide out, and so we climbed up to one. They were so tiny I can't imagine having to actually live there for weeks on end
on the way back from our little trip to the mountains we stopped at this restaurant in an old roman castle up on a hill. Fabulous pizza and an even more fabulous view
Croatia:
I was so excited when Erica's family took us snorkeling in croatia! It was so fun, and a nice relaxing break from all of the touring. The beach was beautiful, and there were a lot of fish to see. There were also a lot of...more inappropriate things to see as well: it's true what they say that in europe swimsuits are optional. as mark says, we definitely got a real taste for european culture!
Venice:
I loved venice.
it's picture perfect
and so romantic.
salzburg, austria:
home of...
mozart--we toured his birthplace and I got really excited to see the instruments he played and his original compositions, after all of those years playing mozart on the piano, I really was like a little music nerd, I made Mark get video footage of every little thing (no pictures allowed unfortunately)
and....
The Sound of Music! one of my favorite movies. Mark indulged me and we went on a little Sound of Music walking tour, do you recognize any of these places??
{the fountain in the "I Have Confidence" song}
Maribel gardens
the Abby
Munich:
After our little visit to austria we went to germany, and visited the Neushwenstein Castle, constructed by the crazy King Ludwig and the model for the Disney castle. It's like something straight out of a fairy tale, and thankfully they had a few hikes around the castle where you could go to get incredible views:
Switzerland:
Mark's favorite by far. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in a little town up in the alps called Murren. The town was so small we actually had to take a cable car to get up there, and it was situated right on the edge of a cliff. There is no way to describe it, the views were breathtaking. We spent a couple days just hiking around, having picnics, and enjoying our beautiful surroundings
not a bad view for dinner, huh?
on our way to France we stopped in Lucerne, an old fish harbor town. we had just enough time to walk through the quaint town and take a little boat cruise across the lake.
Normandy:
We spent our last couple of days in France. Our first day, we took the train out to Normandy to see the d-day sights. We misunderstood the bus schedule, and it turns out the buses only came by each sight like every 5 hours, so unfortunately we only ended up seeing the American cemetery, but it was still worth the visit. They have a new visitors center there with different films and documentaries explaining the details behind the d-day invasions and relating the stories of some of the men and women who fought there. It was an amazing reminder of the cost of our freedom, and of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. It was hard to believe looking out at the serene omaha beach from the quiet cemetery that such a bloody battle could have ever taken place there.
Paris:
The perfect end to a perfect trip.
We flew with my family to Dallas this weekend for the
