GERMANY

May 1st-4th, 2011  

GERMANY

   

We left Switzerland and made a beeline to Paris France.  Which only afforded us 4 days in Germany.  Not nearly enough time to see Berlin, so we settled on 3 major stops;  Füssen, Munich and Frankfurt.  [Actually we stopped in Füssen, close to the Austrian border, on a side trip April 28th as we drove from Innsbruck to Zurich.]

FÜSSEN

The magnificient Neunschwanstein Castle (resting mid-hill in the background) in near Füssen.  Carolyn couldn't resist stretching out in this beautiful field of flowers.  She is the epitome of the Energizer Bunny, but even the Bunny needs to recharge at times.

Walt Disney patterned his castles after this one. 




 Built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, in 1885, he lived here only 172 days before he was declared "incompetent" by family members and fellow countrymen.  The next day he mysteriously died.

Now...just how do family members get the right to declare their Dad "incompetent"?  Do I have to be on the lookout?

We found deep fried bread during the climb to the castle.  It was so memorable we would return merely for the sweet hot bread balls.
















MUNICH

LDS church in Munich.  Modern, clean, in an up-scale commercial area.  

However, they only spoke German during the meeting, so they were difficult to understand.  But, luckily, a sweet sister missionary translated for us during the testimony meeting.  Carolyn sang the songs in German, but Lane had to sing in English.  Otherwise the words "didn't fit the notes" as Lane knew them.

Interior of another church.  An old cathedral, but light and bright and freshly painted.  And very beautiful.

Munich government building.    

Bratwurst.  Notice the typical bun is a round, short one.  Strange.  But the taste is wonderful.

Park near our hotel in Munich

FRANKFURT

Frankfurt Temple.  Actually, it is the smaller town of Friedrichsdorf.  It is on a small lot in a residential neighborhood.  We enjoyed a session with English translation via earphones. 

Old Town - Frankfurt.  The picture speaks for itself. 




 But Frankfurt is really known for its elegant skyscrapers with VERY modern architecture.

Frankfurt is the dynamic business and financial center of Germany and the 5th largest city in the country.








The grass is beginning to grow under our feet.  We've spent 2 nights in the same hotel...


Bring on a road trip to PARIS!




Love, Mom & Dad
(Carolyn & Lane)

Austria & Switzerland

AUSTRIA

We are catching up as we relax in our room in Innsbruck.  It has a good Internet connect, which makes life easier.  And the view of the mountains isn't so bad either.

 Startling discovery:  Highways and trains tunnel through every mountain, rather than going around.  One train tunnel through the Alps took over 15 minutes to get through, even going at a fairly good speed.  

We spent two nights in the small mountain town of Igls, above Innsbruck.  This view from our window made it hard for even Carolyn to sleep-in.

Photo of a delightful tasting but strange looking desert.  Kaiserschmarrn resembled scrambled apple pancakes with a dusting of powdered sugar ; ) 

We are officially in Alps territory.

SWITZERLAND

Zee Hamburger and fries are done differently in Zurich.   Zee "bun" is made of hash browns.

Beautiful swiss valley, perfect for yodeling.

Spring in Interlaken, Switzerland.

 

We took tram rides and train rides up to view some of the highest peaks in Europe.

Here is the view from the top of Schilthorn.

  Pictured from L to R.  The Eiger (13,025'), the Monch (13,448') and the Jungfrau (13,642'). 

These rise up over the most picturesque and startlingly beautiful mountain valley we have ever seen.  

 Lane considered jumping off the high mountainside in a tandem paraglider......momentarily. 

We came.  We saw.  May we be so blessed to come again... 

We love you forever!!!

~Dad & Mom

(Lane & Carolyn)

ITALY!!!

April 15th-26th

ITALY

First...

NAPLES 

POMPEII

SORRENTO

Fabulous food - ravioli, everywhere bread

Positano and the Amalfi Coast.  We got here by mistake.  Took a wrong turn on our way to Pompeii and Vesuvius.  Best wrong turn we ever took.  Cliff-side driving on narrow roads, with unbelievable views.  Driving our little Fiat car, with wide wheel base, we felt like race car drivers, going in slow motion through hair-pin turns.  Motorcycles buzzed around us like mosquitos, so that is what we called them.  Driving past parked cars only to pass oncoming cars, trucks, and even full size tourist buses bordered between nearly impossible and just plain scary.  Go to YOUtube Positano or Amalfi Coast to get some video adventure.

Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius.  Fascinating.  People caught in the act of living when the volcano blew.  Body impression casts from cavities in the lava show how the people died.  Aside:  BYU has recently used a new light-wave technique to read formerly unreadable document ashes from jars in Pompeii.  Amazing what they have found.

Fancy dessert following an expensive dinner.  Where's the chocolate cake?  The Gelatto? 

 

Our Sorrento Hotel view - across the bay from Vesuvius and Naples.  Vesuvius is just to the left, out of the picture.  But we literally could see this view from bed as we awoke the 1st morning near Naples.  This hotel and view was so spectacular we stayed 5 nights here.  (Besides, Carolyn had caught my cold and was in need of a rest).

ROME

Roma (Italian spelling) - Trevi Fountain.  Rome seems to have a fountain and a statue with naked people at every intersection.

Rome:   Il Vittoriano Monument.  A conquering hero obscures this view.  This monument wiped out a whole section of Rome's archealogical history 140 years ago when it was built.  But is sure is impressive.

The Vatican - St. Peters Square.  It was Easter time, so we couldn't get in for an audience with its noted occupant.  He has a nice museum and a church with a painted ceiling that was pretty impressive though.

Colosseum - Rome.  Truly iconic and unbelieveable.  Standing since 70 AD.

Interior - Colosseum.  The lions, tigers and bears were not having lunch with the gladiators. So, for entertainment we played our own games in the stands - sudokus.  

Traditional Lasagna, NOT "like-ah yor Granma usted to make-ah".

Small cars.  Our Fiat was gigantic in comparison.  We had 12 inches more width and 15 inches more length.  

Spanish Steps - Rome.  

Our hotel room was nearby in the historic sector.  Walking distance to every site in Rome.  Small room, shared bath.  

Every world-class store was on the nearby street...Giucci, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Swarovski, Prada.  Lucky we have no space for souvenirs.

We attended Church in Rome on Easter Sunday.  After sacrament meeting, a mission office couple, Elder and Sister B from Seattle, invited us to dinner.  To our surprise, two other guests also came to dinner -- The new Project Director for building the Rome Temple, and his wife.  Fascinating afternoon.  Hanno and Julie L., of Austria, talked about their experience building both German temples, The Hague temple, Preston, Kiev, Sweden and several more.  His discussion was faith-promoting, funny, dramatic, and insightful.  What a treat.

Never try to get out of Rome, Italy on Easter Sunday.  Every car, bus, train and bicycle is booked solid.  So are hotels...and we had already checked out of ours.  Fortunately something opened up across town for one night only.   

Even on Monday we could not get out of the country, so we settled for a bullet train to Florence.  Stroke of genius! 

FLORENCE

Renaissance City of the 15th century.  Birthplace of Michelangelo.

While planning our next move we took time to wash up so we could look our best for DAVID! 

He may be 17' tall and a bit stone-faced, but he is camera shy.  No photos allowed.  (Who needs photos of David when I have Lane in the flesh!!!)

The Ponte Vecchio Bridge, built in 1345 was the only town bridge to escape destruction during WWII.

Everywhere, we could behold carved masterpieces.  Italian gelato.  Tastes as good as it looks. 

Carolyn poses all statuesque-like (or gargoyle-like) in front of the Duomo, or cathedral set in the heart of Florence.  

In total we spent 12 days in Italy.  Leaving Florence, it took 3 more trains to get us to Austria.  (Italian rental cars are not permitted to cross borders, so we surrendered our car in Rome.)

What a breathtaking experience!  So much to see.  We missed Pisa and Venice and ...and...and...what to do?  

Love to you all,

Lane and Carolyn

The ROCK, Spanish Coast, Lisboa

April 10-15

GIBRALTAR

 Spain

Portugal

The saga continues.  But mundane tasks still control our lives.  Example:  When we left Morocco we really needed to wash our clothes.  Hotel laundry services are so expensive we could just as well buy new things.  So, we turned our tub in Gibraltar into a washing machine and used grape-stomping techniques for the "agitation".  Fun to do.  Fun to watch.  Especially the "Spin Cycle".

We also had snags.  Getting off the ferry after crossing the Straits of Gibralter, we were nearly out of cash, since our Debit Card would not work in ATM's in Morocco due to rampant fraud, and our card had been eaten by a machine in Casablanca.  Card was recovered in Marrakech a week later after much effort on our tour guide's part.  We made it to Gibralter with about $3.00 to spare which we gave as a tip to the ferry helpers.  Then, no car rentals on Sunday in a British territory.  No matter.  We just took a walk up Gibraltar and then taxied to a nearby city in Spain on Monday where we found "Europcar", which gave us a car that became a real friend.

The Rock of Gibraltar from our hotel balcony.

 Got attacked by a monkey on our walk.

Lookout view of our hotel (and the airport runway) from the Rock.

A piece of the Southern coast of Spain

Cadiz, Spain - oldest European city.  Fun to walk its narrow streets.

We drive across the border into Portugal.

Algarve coast, Portugal.  

Beautiful.  

Expensive.  

But a popular coastal retreat.  

At our fine restaurant, we were seated at a linen covered table set with bread, butter, cheese, liver pate' and an appetizer.  We ordered, we dined.   We were shocked when we got separate charges for the bread, butter, cheese, pate' and appetizer.  We almost told the waiter he forgot to charge us for rental on the forks, and for use of the napkins.  

The road then led to the southwest corner of Portugal, where a rocky cliff marks the place where the ocean goes west and south--the corner of Portugal, pictured below.

Driving into Lisbon was an experience.  Our room in the old city was almost not accessible.  And addresses are mostly "theoretical".  Night time made it more difficult.  After getting to the general area of our "hotel" on winding, steep, narrow cobblestone streets, we talked with 6 people to try to find the place:  a motor cyclist, a taxi driver, a maitre d, a waiter, a bar keeper, a policeman.  Then the checkin was 38 steps up a tower on a spiral staircase and past a security door.  The room was then down 15 steps, down a hall, and up several more steps.  But the place was inexpensive and had a spectacular view.

View of Lisbon from the Castle

Lisbon Castle steps (our hotel is connected near the base of this staircase).  This castle was fun to explore.  It is a formidable structure.

 Palace Square - Lisbon (Our Hotel and the Castle are on the tree covered hill to the right)

Terrace with a view - Lisbon.  Enjoyed the city an extra day while we waited for our mission call to be FedEx's to us.  Finally, we discovered the paperwork had been "returned to sender".  So we checked out and drove back to Spain via Seville....3 minutes before the FedEx truck arrived with our package.  In Seville, we caught an early flight the next morning to Naples, Italy, since Palermo, Sicily tickets were too expensive.

We love you and miss you.  Lane & Carolyn