Day 4 - Wolfsburg
The one requirement from my friend Nathan to go on the trip was that we stop in Wolfsburg, Germany to visit the Volkswagen museum and factory. (He is a bit of a Volkswagen enthusiast.) While I would have never made the trip on my own, it turned out to be a great day seeing many Volkswagen cars, enjoying the Autostadt a sort of car theme park, and the Volkswagen factory.
After our day in Wolfsburg we drove to Koningstein to stop for the night, our hotel was off the road a little ways and it took a while to find. In fact we are lucky that we were able to reach reception, and avoided sleeping in the car.
Day 5 -
Before taking off for the many activities of the day we got breakfast at this little bakery just down from our hotel. (Surprise surprise when would you not get breakfast at a bakery in Europe?) I loved sitting outside observing people coming and going along the street. I realize it was just their everyday routine to go and buy bread and be about whatever it was they had to do, but I found it charming to be an outside observer.
This was a day of many emotions. We faced some difficulty getting to our first destination due to a glitch in the GPS and an unexpected road closure in the middle of nowhere. Even with these little setbacks we made it to Dachau mid morning. I'm not sure why I have always wanted my own personal witness to a WWII concentration camp, but ever since reading Anne Frank, Number the Stars, and Night and other literature about what happened I have felt inclined to go see for myself. To say the least Dachau and its bleak remains sobered me to the core. I felt numb from the time we walked in the gates, through the exhibits, the barracks, the yard, and finally when we arrived at the crematorium I lost it. Those awful terrible things that I had seen in textbooks or documentaries were right in front of me. I couldn't help but sob. That trip served its purpose for me in that I'll never forget.
The second half of the day we spent at the Neuschwanstein castle. It seemed right out of a storybook, this castle in the mountains. I had a short debate with Nathan about it being a castle versus just a palace. While it is with hesitancy that I admit it, I was wrong, it is not a castle. It is a fancy little palace even though it is what everybody thinks of when they think of a castle. We took a carriage ride to the top from the small town below, took in the spectacular views from around the castle, and enjoyed a great little walking tour of crazy King Ludwig's home. Before taking off we enjoyed this lovely very original German dinner in the restaurant of a little hotel sitting in the middle of a cow pasture. The simplest things make me happy including the fact that the cows had bells.
We had to be on the road again, but this was one of the more spectacular parts of the drives as we drove through Austria into Italy. It is as beautiful as any postcard you've ever seen. Once again we arrived very late at night to an empty reception and locked door. We rang the bell and a very groggy man came on the intercom. Michelle spoke to him there was silence and then I tried speaking to him in Spanish. He responded in Italian and then hung up. I said if I understood right he said he needed to get dressed and he'd be down in five minutes. Sure enough five minutes later he showed up.
Day 6 - Seeing as we got in late, we had no idea the amazing views that greeted us in the morning. They were inspiring. I can only imagine what it'd be like to wake up to those mountains everyday. Day 6 took us to Venice. Here are the highlights:
Campanile bell tower
Gelato
Paying 9 dollar bottle of water and not knowing until we got the bill. Blah.
Gondola ride
I have always wanted to kick a pigeon but haven't been able to bring myself to do it. But while in St. Mark's Square Nathan actually kicking a pigeon or two.
Just wandering around in and out of the small alleys and canals that make up Venice.
Day 7 - Rome
Great visits to the Vatican museum including seeing the Sistine Chapel.
St. Peter's Basilica never ceases to impress me with how grandiose it is yet so intricate with the amount of mosaic work that is found throughout. (Sidenote: Don't you just love the new Pope? I'm so impressed.)
Incredible at night roaming around Rome. There seemed to be something around every corner including an incredible amount of gelato: there was no self control there. We continued to wander as we tried to find some fountains that Michelle and Kelson sworn they had seen in some different movies . I love that the city is still alive late at night and has this dim glow about it. I loved the occasional accordion player; it added to the magic of the night. This was one of my favorite nights of the trip, and if I could have ended our stay in Rome then, I probably would have.
Day 8 - Rome again...and heading north.
As I said I would have ended Rome the night before. We spent the morning walking to the Colosseum in ridiculous heat while a barrage of Harley Davidson motorcycles took to the streets. Have I mentioned how much I hate the sound of motorcycles? I do. So it probably just added to my annoyance. We saw some great ruins and ate some awful pizza and then took off.
We drove up the Italian coast to Pisa. We caught the leaning tower at what seemed to be a perfect time. Everything seemed to glow. Not a whole lot to see, but nice to say I've been.
Once again we found ourselves on a twisted back road in search of our hotel. Tucked away in the mountains was Lunezia resort not exactly a resort, but the surrounding mountains and vineyards were beautiful. We were greeted by a sweaty man that reminded me of Joe Fusco on While You Were Sleeping. He had a very minimalist reception area, but was kind enough to call down to a local restaurant in town to help reserve a table.
That restaurant was fantastic. We were the only tourists there, and it was nice to get a feel for what an average little Italian restaurant would be like. I loved people watching. At one point we were waiting in the reception and there were these kid cooing over a baby and then one girl seemed to take the lead with this small pack of children and then read them a story. For whatever reason, it is refreshing and humbling to see so many of the similarities that no matter our culture we're human. Completing the experience, our waitress was a doll and had patience with the language barrier. Later that night at the hotel I saw fireflies, again is silly, but made me so happy.
Day 9 - Switzerland
We drove to Lugano Switzerland in the morning. We took the funicular up the side of a mountain then had a very humid hike down the other side. Michelle and I took some time to frolic in the meadows, how could we not? On the other side we had a slight problem as the boat that was to take us back to the other side had already left and there were no more boats leaving the rest of the day. In addition the buses were to have made there final run, but by some small miracle a bus was running late and we caught it back to the other side.
We spent the night in Lucerne, Switzerland and woke up to our last day in Europe with a spectacular view of the mountains. It was a wonderful way to cap off the trip.
OTHER PICTURES
The one requirement from my friend Nathan to go on the trip was that we stop in Wolfsburg, Germany to visit the Volkswagen museum and factory. (He is a bit of a Volkswagen enthusiast.) While I would have never made the trip on my own, it turned out to be a great day seeing many Volkswagen cars, enjoying the Autostadt a sort of car theme park, and the Volkswagen factory.
After our day in Wolfsburg we drove to Koningstein to stop for the night, our hotel was off the road a little ways and it took a while to find. In fact we are lucky that we were able to reach reception, and avoided sleeping in the car.
Day 5 -
Before taking off for the many activities of the day we got breakfast at this little bakery just down from our hotel. (Surprise surprise when would you not get breakfast at a bakery in Europe?) I loved sitting outside observing people coming and going along the street. I realize it was just their everyday routine to go and buy bread and be about whatever it was they had to do, but I found it charming to be an outside observer.
Day 6 - Seeing as we got in late, we had no idea the amazing views that greeted us in the morning. They were inspiring. I can only imagine what it'd be like to wake up to those mountains everyday. Day 6 took us to Venice. Here are the highlights:
Campanile bell tower
Gelato
Paying 9 dollar bottle of water and not knowing until we got the bill. Blah.
Gondola ride
I have always wanted to kick a pigeon but haven't been able to bring myself to do it. But while in St. Mark's Square Nathan actually kicking a pigeon or two.
Just wandering around in and out of the small alleys and canals that make up Venice.
Day 7 - Rome
St. Peter's Basilica never ceases to impress me with how grandiose it is yet so intricate with the amount of mosaic work that is found throughout. (Sidenote: Don't you just love the new Pope? I'm so impressed.)
Incredible at night roaming around Rome. There seemed to be something around every corner including an incredible amount of gelato: there was no self control there. We continued to wander as we tried to find some fountains that Michelle and Kelson sworn they had seen in some different movies . I love that the city is still alive late at night and has this dim glow about it. I loved the occasional accordion player; it added to the magic of the night. This was one of my favorite nights of the trip, and if I could have ended our stay in Rome then, I probably would have.
Day 8 - Rome again...and heading north.
As I said I would have ended Rome the night before. We spent the morning walking to the Colosseum in ridiculous heat while a barrage of Harley Davidson motorcycles took to the streets. Have I mentioned how much I hate the sound of motorcycles? I do. So it probably just added to my annoyance. We saw some great ruins and ate some awful pizza and then took off.
Once again we found ourselves on a twisted back road in search of our hotel. Tucked away in the mountains was Lunezia resort not exactly a resort, but the surrounding mountains and vineyards were beautiful. We were greeted by a sweaty man that reminded me of Joe Fusco on While You Were Sleeping. He had a very minimalist reception area, but was kind enough to call down to a local restaurant in town to help reserve a table.
That restaurant was fantastic. We were the only tourists there, and it was nice to get a feel for what an average little Italian restaurant would be like. I loved people watching. At one point we were waiting in the reception and there were these kid cooing over a baby and then one girl seemed to take the lead with this small pack of children and then read them a story. For whatever reason, it is refreshing and humbling to see so many of the similarities that no matter our culture we're human. Completing the experience, our waitress was a doll and had patience with the language barrier. Later that night at the hotel I saw fireflies, again is silly, but made me so happy.
Day 9 - Switzerland
We spent the night in Lucerne, Switzerland and woke up to our last day in Europe with a spectacular view of the mountains. It was a wonderful way to cap off the trip.
OTHER PICTURES
