GRUEZI ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

I LOVED the beauty of Switzerland.  I wish I could have spent more time in the Alps.  We only got to see them in the morning from the train.  The Alps are magnificent!  I'm from Colorado, and I've always loved and revered Colorado mountains.  I hate to admit it, but the Swiss Alps make the Rockies look like hills. They were spectacular!
We spent all day in Zurich.  We were exhausted from the lack of sleep on the train, but  the beauty compelled us forward.
The day started of raining... so Katia and I purchased umbrellas.  (FYI Zurich is EXPENSIVE.  Everything was more expensive here than anywhere else we visited.  That is why we only spent one day here and didn't even stay the night.)

We saw beautiful clocks, churches, reflection pools, and the beaches of lake Zurich.

I loved the pipe organ in this church.

This elephant statue made me laugh.

This courtyard was FULL of amazing murals.

And all of the murals were very unusual.

And on the corners of this courtyard were small one foot high statues of funny people.

They made me laugh.

What the heck?!  These are just a few of the unusual 1 foot statues on this building.

Loved the harbor.

Loved the swans.

And, of course, I found the opera house.

This church was spectacular.

The stain glass windows looked like geodes.

So beautiful!

Switzerland is great!

Fun with reflections...

My husband holds up my world!

We also spent a few hours at the soccer museum.  Scott LOVED that.

And we again watched another soccer game while we ate dinner.  This time Switzerland lost to Sweden, 0-1.
Due to train strikes in France, we ended up taking a short flight to Barcelona that evening... We arrived shortly after midnight and caught a cab to get to our hotel.  We were dead tired.  And spent the next day mostly recuperating....

SZIA BUDAPEST

I was so excited to go to Budapest because of George Ezra.  As our train pulled into the Budapest station, Katia and I were singing, "My house in Budapest, My hidden treasure chest, My golden grand piano, My beautiful Castillo... But for you... I'd leave it all."
Unfortunately, in my opinion, I was let down in Budapest.  It was OK.  I'm glad we went to Hungary, but it was my least favorite place we visited.  It felt old and dirty... not kept up as well. 
But we did get to see some beautiful things on our bus tour.  And I really enjoyed our boat tour.  And I loved the castles that we got to see on the boat. 

Katia and I relaxing on the bus.

A Church

The Boat Excursion

I thought this castle was spectacular!

This castle paled in comparison.

I loved the boat views.

The entire trip, we saw this sight.

Scott took over 4,000 pictures during out 15 day trip.

It was crazy!  He was crazy!  But he was happy!

We also enjoyed watching the Brazilian soccer game - again, at an outdoor cafe.  Brazil beat Mexico 2-0.  Scott was so glad.

Watching Brazil.

THEN We decided to head to Switzerland... by way of the night train.  We THOUGHT we had reserved sleeper cars.  But it was not to be.  We spent a restless, difficult night in the most uncomfortable of chairs... but at least had our own box.  It was worse than camping.  But we did make it to Switzerland....

To Be Continued...

SCHON VIENNA

War Memorial

I like Vienna more than Prague.  (Mostly because Prague was too busy with tourists.)  I felt like Vienna was more laid back, and beautiful!  And I loved the musical influence Vienna had on Beethoven, Schubert, and many other famous musicians.

When we got to Vienna, we went to Beethoven's apartment first.  It was not as exciting as Bach's church in Leipzig, but it was still cool to think that I walked where Beethoven walked.

I agree... Beethoven was an untamed talent!

On Sunday we went to Church in the Vienna 1st ward.  An American and Canadian missionary translated for us.  The building was very small and humble, but the Spirit was strong and the people were kind and good.

Church

Loved it!

After church, we took a bus tour around Vienna.  It was much more relaxing to ride, look and listen. 

Bus Tour

This Church was so unique...

On the outside...

And inside.

I thought this building was fun!

I wanted to tour this castle... but we didn't have time.

It's painted "royal yellow."

Dad told me about a book "The Third Man" that takes place in Vienna.

Apparently there is a huge sewer scene in the book and movie.

I just bought the book - so I'll be reading it next.

We took lots of pictures by bus and stopped at one of the two castles.  It was HUGE!  And of course it was beautiful!  

This castle is ginormous!

This picture doesn't do it justice....

It's colossal!

I love Vienna!

I'd love to come back... and spend more time.

Next stop: Budapest

AHOJ PRAGUE

Looking behind us to see Prague...

On Thursday we said a sad goodbye to the Findiesens!  They are "wundermar!"  We really do love them!
The next part of our trip was to Prague in the Czech Republic.  Our hotel was amazing!  We had a baby grand piano, two bathrooms, a laundry machine, 3 bedrooms and a small kitchen.  If you looked out of the apartment, we were right next the the Vltava River, with lots of beautiful swans.

A gorgeous hotel! - This is in our private rooms!

The white dots on the water are swans...

In Prague we saw a medieval castle. 

The Castle

The Castle Wall

We climbed a large tower (like the Eiffel tower) to look out over the entire city.

The Tower

The View from the Tower

We also went to a mirror maze that was created in the Baroque era.  The mirror maze was incredible and we all enjoyed it.

Across from the Mirrors

Mirrors are Fun!

We also went to a quaint folk museum and learned about the simple life. 

This is a gigantic nativity scene set in Prague!

Looking out Over the City...

The we went to St. Vitus Cathedral.  It was magnificent!  Grand - Large - Ornate - Spectacular = great words to describe this cathedral.  The Old Royal Palace paled in comparison to the church.

The guard in front of the castle.

It was so cool!

These street musicians played traditional Czech music!

I LOVED it!

The Castle

Another Church

I loved the art work of Christ... And Baby Jesus is my favorite!

Torture Room

These are Cheesy Potatoes.

Yummmm!

I loved this display of pencils.

Yes, I still collect pencils.

Charles Bride and the Old Town Bridge Tower were also amazing.  I love the art vendors all over the bridge.  It was exciting!  And crowded.  The bridge was built in 1357.

The bridge in the background.

Katia loved the view.

We also went to Vysehrad Casemate.  It was a giant, enclosed, protective wall that was never used for the military, although that is what it was built for.  It was used for potato storage.  It was dark and cold, but kinda cool.

Dark, but not scary.

Yes, there were spiders.

By the end of our exploration of Prague we were all exhausted (except for Scott - he really is the energizer bunny - he kept going and going and going and going...).
When we left Prague, we were all sad.  It really is an amazing, beautiful city!