I flew home for Purdue's SAE Mom's weekend with DJ on April 9th. My flight left the Frankfurt airport at 8:20am, so David and I drove to Germany the night before and stayed in a hotel. I took the shuttle to the airport and he drove the 2 hours south to work.
My bff usually takes me to/from the Indy airport, but she was teaching and I needed to hire a car for the trip to my house. The car service had a mixup on my reservation, so I had to wait a couple of hours at the airport. I wasn't anticipating a REAL limo, but that's what I showed up.
Wednesday night was dinner with friends, Friday afternoon was lunch with Sarah in B-Town and then Saturday morning I was on my way to West Lafayette.
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| The Lion's Den inside the SAE house |
I had a great visit with DJ and Sarah (thanks for driving up from Bloomington!) on Saturday and drove back home on Sunday afternoon.
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| DJ, Sarah and Jenelle |
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| We won Pete at the auction |
Monday was a drive to Cincinnati and a lunch date with my mom and David's parents. Back to the airport on Tuesday for the trip back to France. Same car service (same limo) back to the Indy airport. Flight delay in Indy almost caused a missed connection in Chicago, but I literally made it as they were closing the door.
9 hours later I arrived in Frankfurt. David was at work so I took the Lufthansa shuttle (a charter bus) to Strasbourg. It drops you off at the Strasbourg train station and takes about 2 1/2 hours. I departed the bus and hailed a taxi for the last leg of my journey home. Let's just say that I was quite relieved to walk in the door of our apartment after a 20 hour journey.
Easter weekend in Europe is a little different than in the US. Here in Alsace, Good Friday is an official holiday and then "Easter Monday" is a National holiday.
That gave David a 4 day weekend and afforded us the opportunity to travel to Salzburg and Vienna, Austria and then onto Prague, Czech Republic.
The old saying "there is no rest for the weary" was certainly ringing true for me! We got up early Friday, loaded up the car and headed out for Salzburg. The drive was quite lovely and took us about 4 1/2 hours. Our hotel room was ready for us, so we dropped off our luggage and headed out to see the city. After touring one side of the river we stopped for a slice of a traditional Austrian dessert, Linzer torte (considered the oldest known cake in the world) and a delicious heiße Schokolade (hot chocolate) at the M32 restaurant. The views of the city from this terrace were delightful and provided us with a nice "rest" before we continued on our trek.
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| This was a powerful sight to see on Good Friday…. |
Our only traveling "snafu" came while we were attempting to find Hellbrunn Palace and the Trick Fountains. We walked and walked and walked and couldn't find the palace anywhere. It had begun to rain and while I didn't audibly complain about trudging around, my husband knew I was not happy. He felt responsible for leading us everywhere but to the right place, and so we finally gave up and just went to dinner. In his defense, we later found out that the map had a SMALL footnote saying that the actual Palace location was 2.5 km OFF the map…no wonder we couldn't find it! Sidenote: if you are a fan of "The Sound of Music" then you would enjoy this city. Many of the scenes were filmed on location here and you can take a "Sound of Music tour".
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| David in the Mirabell Palace gardens with Hohensalzburg Fortress behind him on the hill |
Back up Saturday morning and on the road again! Next stop was Vienna. This drive was a little shorter, only about 3 hours. We arrived at our hotel and unfortunately, our room was not quite ready. We stored our luggage and headed out. Our first stop was Schönbrunn Palace because of it's proximity to our hotel.
We entered the gates and BOOM….a line that was about 45 minutes long just to buy a ticket for the Palace tour. We decided against the tour and just walked around the front of the Palace. We ventured over to the east side and entered into a garden area. We had no idea what to expect, and fortunately took a "right" turn and were in awe of what we saw. The grounds were AMAZING…. if we had taken the other direction we would have totally missed seeing them.
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| Neptune Fountain and the Gloriette from the back of Schönbrunn Palace |
When we were finished we bought tickets for the Hop on-Hop off bus and headed into downtown Vienna. Again, we explored fast and furiously….I was able to experience a Viennese hot chocolate and we shared a hot raspberry sundae at a little ice cream shop that has been run by the same family since 1886.
Again, the rain started and we headed back to our hotel. We tried to go to a traditional Viennese restaurant (Herzog's…..Toni tell Blair!) but they were closed for Easter, so we settled for Pizza….yep, we are THOSE people. After dinner, the rain had stopped so we walked back to Schönbrunn Palace for a last look at the Palace when it was all "lit up".
Easter Sunday found us up early again and on the road to Prague. Another 4 hour drive and we were once again checking into another hotel. Fortunately, the Marriott offers a mobile check-in and our room was waiting. We went to the lounge and enjoyed a little snack and then headed out to explore on our own before our 2:30 walking tour.
David's grandfather immigrated from Prague, so it was especially nice to experience this leg of our journey. We also were fortunate in that it was Easter and there were several markets located around the city for us to enjoy. Easter traditions in Prague are quite fun….perhaps you should read up on an Easter "pomlázka" or an Easter "dousing" in the Czech Republic.
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| The crowds at the Easter market |
Vaclav (our guide) met us at 2:30 and we were off. He gave us an incredible 3 hour walking tour of the city "Old Town" and "New Town", and gave us a detailed narrative about each section that we entered.
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| St Charles Bridge |
There is SO MUCH to see in Prague and we had so little time. We were out until nearly 9:30 and finally had to head back to the hotel. David did enjoy his "traditional" Easter ham dinner….it was just not quite the style that we are accustomed to!
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| A slab of "Czech" ham from a market vendor |
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| Prague Castle |
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| Strahov Monastery |
So, my friends, you now know why this was called a travel blog. In an 11 day period, I traveled over 11,000 miles….into/through Germany, the United States, Austria and the Czech Republic. Would I do it again? Absolutely.
When David told a colleague our plans for the weekend he was astounded. He said, you know, most people would spend an entire 4-day weekend in EACH of those cities and you are going to try to do them all? Well, we did it and I'm happy we did. Prague is definitely on our "return" city list and we hope that David's parents and/or our kids are with us when we go back.Next edition will certainly be about my "cruise director/travel agent" role and the countless hours I have spent arranging travel, lodging arrangements and excursions for trips that are occurring during the month of May…stay tuned!
Disclaimer: this blog post may not be too interesting, but was a request from my father-in-love, Stan. I hope that you enjoy reading it!!
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