We just returned from our vacation in Germany and Austria. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We had fun catching up with old friends and seeing many of the beautiful sights. I will be slowly adding pictures from our trip!
Month: September 2011
The last stop on our vacation was Köln Germany. For those of you who don't know, Bryan and I met in Germany in 1999. When we were there the first time I had the opportunity to travel to Köln. I Loved the city then and being able to come back with Bryan and Ezekiel was such a treat. Unfortunately, Bryan didn't have a chance to go to Köln, so as a last minute birthday surprise I scheduled a few days for us to see the sights in Köln. Bryan had always wanted to see the cathedral in Köln so it was the perfect place to end our trip.
Our first stop was, of course, the cathedral. The structure is hard to describe in words. The detail of the building is amazing. Not to mention that it took us at least 4 shots in order to get the whole cathedral in pictures. Just look at the pictures below and you will see what I'm talking about.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the town and enjoying the views of the Rhine river. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful vacation!
One day when we were in Ingolstadt I wasn't feeling very well; so, Bryan and Patricia took Ezekiel to the park while I rested. Apparently Ezekiel didn't think the park was landscaped quite right because he kept picking up all of the rocks and moving them to different locations. He is a silly boy! When they returned home they cam bearing gifts from a local bakery! Thank you Patricia for taking pictures for me!
We were able to spend one whole day exploring Munich. It is such a beautiful city! Per and Patricia kindly watched Ezekiel for us while we climbed to the top of a cathedral tower to see Munich from above. It was a beautiful clear day and we had such a nice view of the city. We went inside the famous Haufbrauhaus and heard the "oompah" music from a traditional German band. The restaurant serves huge portions of meat while the patrons enjoy the music and atmosphere. After we walked around some markets we were off to the English garden. The English garden is a massive (1.4 square mile) garden in the center of Munich. We only saw a small section of the garden, but what we saw was simply amazing. After the gardens, Ezekiel had worked up an appetite from sitting in the stroller and taking a nap so he drank 12oz of the 16oz smoothie we bought. I am so glad that we decided to visit Munich, it was such a fun and beautiful city.
Our next stop on our trip was to Ingolstadt. The famous home to Audi, which Bryan had to see while we were there. We stayed with our good friends Per and Patricia. It was so nice being able to catch up with them after not having seen them in over 12 years. Ezekiel warmed up to both Per and Patricia right away. At first I thought he liked Per so much because they share the same birthday, but then I realized that he fell in love with Per when he would share his apple kuchen with Ezekiel. Patricia made us some delicious apple kuchen that we would eat in the afternoon after Ezekiel's nap. Then when Per would get home from work Ezekiel would convince Per that he needed more apple kuchen and Per would kindly share with him. They were friends instantly!
On our first night there we saw a lot of "downtown" Ingolstadt. It was beautiful. I love the old German architecture. For dinner we stopped in a restaurant with typical bavarian food. We had brats and beer. It was lecker, that is German for yummy.
The beautiful Hohensalzburg fortress in Salzburg sits on a mountain high above the city. It is a beautiful fortress that remains one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. When on top of the fortress we had beautiful panoramic views of the city.
Ezekiel really enjoyed the gardens and the trick fountains at the Hellbrunn castle outside of Salzburg. The palace was built for one of the prince archbishops of Salzburg in 1613. The archbishop had trick fountains built on the grounds to entertain guests when they visited the palace. All of the trick fountains were designed using only gravity to power them and they were intended to spray the guests visiting the gardens while the archbishop remained dry. There were also several water operated "theaters"used to entertain the guests. These theaters were very intricate and seemed very advanced for when they were built. Apparently, part of the grounds and buildings were used in the Sound Of Music film.
On our second day in Heidelberg we went on a tour of the old town. Unfortunately, we were so engrossed in all the information that we forgot to take a bunch of pictures. The tour ended in the old student prison that held the "bad" students from the old Heidelberg university. Later in the evening we stayed up late for the castle illumination. We were fortunate enough to be there on one of the three days in the summer that they hold the castle illumination. Around 11 PM they have fireworks and illuminate the castle to resemble the time when the French burned the castle down over 300 years ago.
On our first day in Heidelberg Fabian took us on the Philosophenweg (English translation, Philosophers Walk). We had a beautiful panoramic view of the old town and the castle. Thank you Fabian for helping us to have such a fabulous time in Heidelberg!
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