European Vacation Part I

Hello friends. I have been missing from my blog for a few weeks and missing you but things here have been really crazy. Here is the story, beware this may be like the old days when your friends invite you over to look at vacation pictures or slides or whatever, here goes:

A few months ago my husband and I decided to take a trip out of the country. We hadn’t been on a big trip in a couple of years. Mark, my husband, was very interested in seeing Germany and some of the countries around it. We went online and started looking at some travel packages. In the meantime I was talking to my nephew Tyler, he is 17, and he said he would love to see Germany. So I said “well you should come with us you can think of it as an early graduation gift”. He actually graduates next year. So the plan started to take shape.

We actually went with a tour company called Globus. We knew for the amount of time we had, about 12 days, and all the countries we wanted to see this would be our best chance to see everything we wanted to see.

Mid June is actually a time of year that my work is slow before really going crazy during the summer. So We chose the dates June 15-25.

We decided to visit Central Europe where we would be traveling through five countries. Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria.

Of course the time leading up to the trip is usually unbelievably stressful for me. I do it to myself. I know I will be having people come to the house to care for Kitty Kitty and Molly, so me in typical me fashion goes crazy trying to make my house look perfect. I don’t know why I do this because it never happens and it is just fine anyway. But as I said I had a huge list of things to do like cleaning the house from top to bottom, making my yard and shrubs look immaculate, clean out my garage, oh and work up until the day before I leave so I will stay caught up on work. Silly silly me. I didn’t get any of those things done and the trip came and went and just as I said it was all fine. I know my sisters had to see my less than perfect house, garage and overgrown yard, and it was ok. My sister in law always keeps Scruffy for us because he is a little needier.

We arrived in Munich on Sunday morning around 8:30 AM. We had to wait a bit for a shuttle to take us to our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Munich City hotel. There was a little problem with an extra bed for Tyler but they quickly moved us to another room so all was good.  After a small nap we went out to see the sights. Munich is a very busy city even on a Sunday. There was a festival going on in the town square so we walked into town and listened to some live music and of course tried the beer.

On Monday morning we had a short city tour of Munich and went back to some of the places we had been the day before. Lots of people in Munich ride bikes. There are designated bike routes everywhere. Our tour guide told us they always have the right of way. He may have been joking about that.

Later that day we traveled 255 miles into The Czech Republic to Prague. I was blown away by the beauty of this city.  Prague is considered one of Europe’s most exquisite cities.  We stayed at the Grandium Prague We saw the Astronomical Clock.  I am adding a link here so you can check out the history of this clock.  It is so amazing.  http://www.pragueastronomicalclock.info The clock strikes on the hour and the “show” lasts for 26 seconds.  You can see all of the people waiting for the top of the hour.  It really is something to see.

We also did a boat ride in Prague and saw several beautiful sites from the river.

  The Charles Bridge

As I said I was blown away by the beauty of this city. Just when I thought I had seen the most beautiful site I would turn around and there would be another one. Ahhhhh this was my favorite city.

After we left Prague we drove into Slovakia. We were only there for a short stop in the city of Bratislava. An adorable city with lots of open air vendors. We had time here for lunch and a little shopping.

Prague to Budapest was about 329 miles so stopping in Slovakia was a nice break. I did buy a few linens, a hat, I love my hats, and ice cream.

Now on to Budapest. I will cover more of the trip in part 2. I will tell you that I got incredibly homesick. I’m not sure why it’s the first time it ever happened this strong. I’m not sure if I was missing the fur babies, my friends, or maybe because it got incredibly hot and crowded or I just missed home and the familiar. I felt so very far away. Anyway a wonderful trip one I will never forget. Stay tuned soon for part 2. Heck there may be a part 3 to this European adventure.

Remember.

Love your day your way