Auf Weidersehen We're off to Europe!

Well, get ready for picture overload, but it is hard not uploading every picture I took onto my blog from our recent trip to Europe! 

But here goes with a two part wrap up of our adventures.

We began with a flight from Boise to Seattle, don't we look like excited travelers?

We had a short wait at the Seattle Airport for our next flight on IcelandAir to Reykjavik, Iceland where we changed planes and then flew onto Zurich Switzerland.

All in all we had smooth connections and it was a pretty great flight for a good price! 

Plus we got to see Iceland!

We landed in Zurich, rented our car and took off to find Elder Morris' old stomping grounds.

Here he is in front of his apartment/house in Rumlang which is right by the Zurich airport.

The town had hardly changed at all, so we grabbed some snacks from the grocery store Tom used to shop at and headed to Austria.

Switzerland was beautiful that day and we could even see the alps off in the distance

 We took a side trip to Appenzell and found this beautiful town with a picturesque church and cemetery.  We ended up on a small one lane country dirt road, but it was an adventure and breathtakingly beautiful!

We checked into our bed and breakfast place in Dornbirn Austria and we were starving so we found a place for dinner.

Boy did that Almdudler taste good.

It is Austria's national drink you know!

These guys look like they've been up all night.

The weinerschnitzel was so delicious!

This salad was incredible and this might have been my favorite meal of the whole trip!
We sat outside and ate "al fresco" and had such a wonderful dinner.

Right across from where we ate was the Tom Tailor store which I thought was pretty appropriate

Don't you love how the Austrians paint their buildings?

After dinner we drove to Lake Constance/Bodinsee and took a walk.

It was a beautiful lake and evening.

Each year Bregenz, Austria puts on an Opera right on the lake.

This is the set for this year's opera "Carmen"

Check this link out and you can see some of the amazing sets from the past.

The next morning we got up early and drove to Bavaria.

First stop, the Weis Kirche.  Taylor took a Humanities class at BYU

and had heard of this beautiful Rococo baroque church out in the middle of nowhere really.

It is incredibly gorgeous.

We then drove on to Newschwanstein castle built by crazy King Ludwig.

We felt like we had driven into Disneyland.  There were so many tourists and tour buses.

We hiked up the hill to the castle, chose not to do the tour of the castle because there was a 3 hour wait, but we hiked around the castle. and up above it.

It was a beautiful day and we could see all over southern Germany.

What a beautiful setting!!!

We ate a brat for lunch and then drove to Linderhoef, another of King Ludwig's castles.

We did tour the inside of this one and it is similar to Versailles but on a much smaller scale.

King Ludwig was really odd.  He would sleep all day and get up at 11pm and stay up all night.

Did he ever see the beautiful grounds all around him?

That night we stayed in Oberammergau.

It is a picturesque town in Bavaria and every 10 years they host a Pageant known as the Passion play depicting the life and crucifixion of Christ.

All the buildings are painted with fairy tales.

Another delicious German meal at a Magic house.

The owner was a Magician and he did a little magic show for us.

The next morning the church bells across the street woke us up.

In Germany and Austria they celebrate Ascension day and May 25 was the day.

The church had a special mass and many of it's members dressed in their native German costumes and lined up and then marched into the church.

It was really cool to see.

Here's Pension Dedlerhaus where we stayed.

We drove from Oberammergau and our first stop was Ettal Monastery.

Another gorgeous church

Taylor loves copying these ancient statues taking selfies.

Next stop was Innsbruck Austria.

The drive through the mountains was glorious!

The golden roof in the background is sumptuously decorated with 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles, all still original, it forms the roof of an alcove balcony that the great Emperor Maximilian I had added to the existing “Neuhof” building around 1500.

We found a grocery store and bought some sandwiches and had a picnic in the town square.

Then we visited the Hofkirche where Emporor Maxmillan's tomb is.

These bronze statues of all of his family and the world leaders at the time line the tomb.

We left Innsbruck and drove down through the Italian alps to Rive del Garda.  Unfortunately a bunch of Germans and Austrians who were on holiday because of Ascension day, had the same idea.  When we got off the freeway, we had bumper to bumper traffic and it took us an hour and a half to go 10 miles.  We were stuck in a tunnel for an hour. Yuck!,

but once we made it to our hotel, the views out the windows were amazing.

We ate dinner in a little town, Arco (Italy's version of Teluride, Colorado, a mountain biking, rock climbing mecca)

then treated ourselves to our first of many Italian gelatos

This place is gorgeous!!!

The next morning, we stopped for some more pictures

and then we were off to Florence.

We drove to our hotel and checked in and then took the train into the city center.

 

The baptistry doors

Lunch at the food market

The duomo in Florence is surreal.

It is so impressively beautiful!

The Medici palace

Taking a break in the shade

A view back to Florence

The duomo at night looks fake.

The next morning we had reservations at the Academia to see David.

Taylor was impressed.

It is breath taking!

One of Michelangelo's pieta's showing how he sculpted from the marble.

Tom and I took a break for a pizza lunch

and Taylor waited in line to climb the bell tower and tour the museums.

We met Taylor at the Uffizi gallery, the Medici's art collection where we had a reservation.

It was amazing and I'm so glad we did the tour.

The birth of Venus.

Having Rick Steves, and Taylor along really helped us know what we were seeing.

 The Ponte Vecchio bridge from inside the Uffizi

Taylor with his pizza lunch

Tom saw all these people on the street eating these amazing sandwiches so we found the sandwich shop and got in line.

Once we got inside the sandwich shop we saw part of the reason why,

there were 4 very handsome young Italian guys making the sandwiches,

but the sandwiches were amazing and really cheap!!

For dinner we ate out on the courtyard.

I had some delicious sage and brown butter, ravioli.

Tom and Pinocchio

We walked over 10 miles each day in Florence but we had to see Florence

 at night up at the Piazzale Michelangelo

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and drove to Siena Italy where we attended church.

It was awesome. It is just a little branch but BYU has a study abroad program there and there were about 20 BYU students in attendance.

Afterwards we toured Siena

Again, Rick Steves was a big help to know what we were seeing.

Then we drove to San Giminjano

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful Tuscan town

More gelato please!!

We finished the day by driving to Rome and checking into our hotel.

Next morning, Taylor and Rick Steves took us on a tour of Rome.

First stop was a church with the Michelangelo sculpture of the horned Moses.

Then to the Colosseum 

 

and the Roman forum

I think Mussolini built this and the Italians hate it?

We had a delicious pizza lunch.

Do I look hot and tired because I was?

Rick Steve's walking tour of Rome was really great!

This is a sculture that inspired Michelangelo to do what he did.

The pantheon, impressive!

Inside the Pantheon, the dome is so cool.

the Trevi fountain.

There were probably 1000 people there.

Crazy tourist spot.

Two coins in a fountain

The Spanish steps

I don't remember where this was but we walked about 15 miles so I was worn out!

The next morning we were off to the Vatican.

We had tickets to the Vatican lined up but ended up joining a tour so we could go right from the Sistine chapel into Saint Peter's basillica

We toured the Vatican museum, then visited the Sistine chapel, then St. Peter's

The Pieta by Michelangelo.

My favorite sculpture!!

Tom and Taylor climbed to the top of the duomo while I took a break

 

We saw the changing of the Swiss guard

If you read any of the Dan Brown books or watched the movies, you'll recognize this

We bought bread and cheese at a grocery store and had a quick picnic, then it was off to the Borghese gallery for some Bernini sculptures and Carvaggio paintings.

The Borghese gallery

While Taylor and I toured the Borghese gallery, this is what Tom did

 

The view from the top of the Spanish steps

We had dinner at a cafe on the street by the Spanish steps,

then we visited the Trevi fountain again, so pretty at night.

Farewell to Roma.

What a beautiful city!