Heidelberg

We visited Heidelberg* on Sunday and enjoyed a really fun visit with Brian's cousin, Verena! (*sidenote: watch that video twice - once to soak in the jazz flute and the hilarity of Joystick and then mute the music and enjoy the stunning pictures of the city)


Verena took us on the Philosophenweg (Philosopher's Walk) on one side of the valley where we had a great view of the city. Verena was an excellent tour guide - she pointed out many interesting buildings and taught us a lot of history about Heidelberg.

Tour guide Verena on the Philospher's Walk

It was a really windy day, so Verena got something in her contact while we were on the Philosopher's Walk. When she took it out to clean it, the lens blew into the leaves on the side of the path! We were so afraid that we would never find it, but I found it! Brian has better eyes than me, so he usually can see/find anything - we were quite surprised when I won the "contact lens hunt". A reenactment of the search...
We ate lunch at the Essighaus restaurant, which was one of the best traditional German restaurants we've been to - everything we ate was delicious! Then we walked up the other side of the valley to the Heidelberg Schloss (castle). 315 stairs to the top, but it was worth it!

As Verena described it, at sunset all of the houses on the other side of the river looked like little windows of an Advent Calendar

Inside the castle

The castle at sunset - beautifully lit!

Heidelberg

Verena is such a busy woman - she is studying to be a doctor, she is extremely dedicated to her work at Mannheim Hospital, and she is moving to Switzerland this week! She was so nice to make time in her busy schedule for us, and we really appreciated her generous and educational hospitality! We can't wait to visit her in Switzerland!

Milan

Cappuccinos, cannolis, and gelato - ooooh my : ) Oh, and motorcycles and Prada. Those are a few of my favorite things that consumed our weekend in Milan! We chose this weekend to go to Milan because it was the weekend of the international motorcycle show that unveiled the 2010 model of the BMW GS Adventure that Brian and I will buy early next year. YAY!! The show was very impressive - every type of motorcycle you could imagine was there. Plus, everything you could ever think to put on a motorcyle was on display. And BMW's sponsored stunt rider, Chris Pfeiffer, was there doing tricks! Seriously, watch that video - he is freakin awesome. He did all of those tricks at the show we attended - only not on the top of a building.

Foreshadowing...

My dream scooter : )

Chris Pfeiffer

The rest of the weekend, we enjoyed downtown Milan! The Duomo, the Aperitivos (what we called, all you can eat snacks), the luxurious shopping - we did it all! One of the highlights was seeing da Vinci's Last Supper. It was breathtaking!

Milan's Duomo

Inside the Duomo

You can climb to the top for an amazing view of the city and the cathedral! Where's Waldo? : )

In my hands, I hold a calzone that is made of delicious fried pastry bread and the yummiest tomato and cheese filling. Look around the tiny alley where I'm standing - it's packed for a reason!

Castle in Milan

Cannoli Heaven

Yum. 13 gorgeous Prada heels

Shopping! There were plenty of Lamborghinis among the Fiat planters.

Frankenstein's Castle

I've fallen quite behind - I can't believe it's already November 15!

For Halloween weekend, Brian and I went to Frankenstein's Castle with some friends! For the month of October, you can walk through the castle like you would a haunted house and see all kinds of scary creatures. This haunted house was nothing like those I've seen in the States - the characters can do whatever they want to you! (Mom, remember when I would walk through haunted houses when I was younger? I'd tell all of the actors that they legally couldn't touch me - I couldn't do that here because that would just encourage them to scare me more!) They grab you, corner you, touch you with the chain saw - I even saw someone thrown onto a torture table and chained down! Another guy near us was trying to take pictures of the monster who was holding a real sword to his neck. It was a scary, fun way to spend Halloween!

The crew (minus Bri)

Brian obviously wasn't scared of these monsters. If photographs had soundtracks, however, you would hear me screaming in the background FOR Brian. "Don't eat him! Don't eat him!"

I was even afraid of the monsters that were behind bars! The guys pushed me toward this cage, and this is me sprinting for my life away from it.

Romantic Road Trip

Cheesy title? Nope! Actually, it's the name of the road we ventured out on last week - there were even signs saying "Romantische Strasse"!

We left Frankfurt around 7am on Saturday morning, just as the sun was coming up, and we made it to our first destination, Tauberbischofsheim, just in time for breakfast and coffee!

One of many quaint streets of Tauberbischofsheim

Next we drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which was my favorite stop. We spent a few hours wandering the streets of this little old town. It was really cool to walk along the wall of the city; there were some really great views!

The wall surrounding the city.

View of Rothenburg from one part of the wall

There were a lot of shops selling schneeballen - yum!!

Next we went to Dinkelsbuhl where there was a really peaceful trail around the city.

One of the views on our walk along the trail.

Brian thinks the goat was posing for the picture :)

The streets of Dinkelsbuhl

We spent the night in Augsburg where we went spent the evening at a great pub.

On Sunday morning, we drove to our final destination, Neuschwanstein Castle. It was the perfect weekend to visit this castle - the drive there was gorgeous with superb views of the Alps and the leaves were bright with fall colors as we got closer to the mountains.

We walked up to the castle and took a tour through it; it was so impressive!

The trail to the castle

View from the castle

Another view from the castle. Brian called the castle in this picture "Schloss Forgottenstein" because we hadn't heard of it, even though it's right next to Neuschwanstein!

Neuschwanstein Castle!

On the walk back down from the castle, we found a little stand selling donut balls. They were by FAR the BEST donuts we've ever had. Germans really have mastered the art of frying things :)

On our way back to Frankfurt, we stopped through Heidelburg to visit Brian's cousin, Verena. She took us to dinner at a great restaurant, and we planned another weekend in November to visit with her again and see more of Heidelburg!

It was a really great road trip that truly highlighted the beauty of Germany! We love our new home!