A Few Days in Innsbruck

Mike's winter break started the day he left for Kyrgystan.  Unlike last year where we did a four week non-stop trip, this year, we broke it up a bit.  It didn't make sense for me to go to Kyrgystan and hang out in a yurt all day while the guys were skiing, so Mike came back to Berlin for a couple of days to do laundry, get reorganized and pick me up before we hopped in the car and drove down south (all while saying a little prayer that our car would make it) to Innsbruck.  We stopped at the airport in Munich to pick up our friends, Melissa and Ryan, (Melissa is the scholar in Rabat, Morocco and Ryan is her husband) and headed on our way to Innsbruck.  We checked in to our hotel and met up with another scholar, Claire, and a friend of hers for dinner at an Italian restaurant before calling it a night. 

The next day, the rest of the gang hit the slopes for skiing while I hung back in town. I enjoyed a few hours at the hotel, lounging around before working out.  Then, I ventured out to explore Innsbruck, which is a super cute mountain town. 

There is a palace and a cathedral which are the main sight seeing highlights. I didn't go in either, but they both have received phenomenal reviews.  After spending a couple of hours, it was time for a nap, so I headed back to the hotel to nap and wait for the skiers to return. 

After showers and a little rest, we all headed out for dinner and trivia at a local Irish pub (we manage to find an Irish pub in every town we go!).  Despite our lackluster performance, it was a blast.  We laughed at the fact that most rounds we got less than half of the questions right, while the team next to us were semi-professionals, wore head lamps to see the questions better, studied in between rounds and rarely missed more than two questions. To each their own...

The next day was a skiing bust.  After much debate over whether to drive to the further slopes which were better or to stay closer.  They decided to drive to the further ones, only to find out the weather conditions were pretty terrible, so they ended up not skiing that day.   They were back at the hotel by two, so Mike and I went out for a late lunch while everyone else rested.  We went to this sushi restaurant where I had the best vegetarian sushi to date.  Mango, avocado, and cucumber make the perfect vegetarian roll. After lunch, we met up with Melissa and Ryan for a stroll around the town before stopping for a snack at a burger joint.  Ryan had a burger and we all devoured macaroni and cheese.  We ended day two at this awesome beer bar that had delicious pizza.  Basically, it was a successful day of eating and drinking, even if there wasn't any skiing involved.

Wednesday we headed to Liechtenstein and I'm going to do a whole separate post on that, but we ended the day back at the burger joint for dinner where we enjoyed more macaroni and cheese, burgers and I had a milkshake while everyone else got beer.  I wasn't jealous because that milkshake was life changing.  They should be jealous.

Still dreaming of this milkshake

Thursday was a day that was always up in the air.  Melissa and Ryan eventually needed to make it to Munich because their flight left at some ungodly hour Friday morning.  In planning this trip, Mike and I decided that it'd make sense for us to just stay in Munich Thursday night to help break up the drive back to Berlin since we were going to be dropping the Dombrocks off there anyways.  The question was, what to do all day on Thursday.    

Wednesday, we tossed around the idea of them skiing in Innsbruck, as well as skiing in Garmisch, which is kind of on the way to Munich.  No one really seemed dead set on skiing, so we decided to head to Garmisch for the day and do some sight seeing.  If the ski reports were amazing, people could spend the afternoon skiing, too.    Ultimately, everyone decided against skiing and instead, we took the lift up to the top of the mountain for lunch and to say we have been to the highest peak in Germany.  Ryan and Melissa try to hike up to the highest peak in various places, but it was not possible in the winter here, so on the ski lift we went!

Mike and Melissa with the Olmsted coin at the top!

Me, Mike and Maximus

Couldn't resist taking a selfie!

We walked around for a bit, ran into some Coca Cola polar bears and stopped for lunch.  Warm soup never tasted so good!

Little did we know when we were planning this trip that another Olmsted family, the Stevens who are in Kiel, Germany, were planning a week at Garmisch. Luckily, they had the afternoon free to meet up with us for some drinks and a snack after our venture to the top of the mountain. I always love meeting up with other scholars and hearing about their adventure.  The Stevens put our travel to shame! Man oh man! Anyways, after a couple of hours of catching up, we had to hit the road, so we said farewell and headed on our way to Munich. 

Ryan Stevens (Kiel, Germany), Melissa Dombrock (Rabat, Morocco) and Mike (Izmir/Berlin).  Three Olmsted scholars!

We made it to Munich around nine, ordered Indian food and hung out at the Dombrocks' hotel before saying goodbye.  It's gotten to the point in our Olmsted adventure where we know that we might not see each other for a little bit longer since our adventure is coming to an end, so it's always a little sad to say goodbye, but I think the greatest gift of this Olmsted experience is the friendships.  Moving abroad isn't easy and knowing that there are 17 other families who are going through the same thing definitely forges a bond like no other.  So, until next time Dombrocks! Can't wait to see you stateside!

We ended our trip with a stop at the Commissary on the drive home to stock up for some post-baby rations and treats. Mike ended up getting food poisoning from the hotel continental breakfast, so the drive back was less than delightful, but we made it back in one piece and were glad to be home after a fun week away.

This was my last trip pre-baby since I'm not allowed to travel after TODAY!!! Mike is currently at a wedding in South Africa, but once he returns in a week, we'll both just be hunkering down in Berlin until Baby Maximus makes his debut!

Ending our Trip in Vienna

Guys, I feel like we finished our Eastern European road trip ages ago, but it is taking for-ev-er to blog all about it. I've been busy with my parents here, but I've also lost all motivation to blog about anything except baby stuff.  Since our lives involve a little bit more than just waiting for Baby Maximus, I am really trying to not turn this in to a pregnancy blog, but I promise there will be lots of updates, mainly because my mom, aunts and Anna want them, but also because they're just so fun!

Anyways, our last stop on our road trip around Eastern Europe was Vienna.  We did this purposefully because it was the farthest north the Ottomans made it.  Like I said before, we were really hoping to do a big Eastern Europe road trip to mimmick the Ottoman Empire, but the evacuation wouldn't allow for that, so this was our attempt.

We left Bratislava first thing in the morning and arrived in Vienna by mid-morning. This gave us a day and a half in Vienna, which was plenty of time to see the main sights.  There is a ton of stuff to do in Vienna, but a day and a half was more than enough to hit the highlights.

Our first stop was the Schonbrunn Palace.  If you have been/know Versailles, this is the Austrian version. It was built during the reign of Maria Theresa, who was an impressive lady, just like the palace.  Unfortunately, there are no pictures allowed in the palace, but it's definitely worth a tour.  You have to do the audio tour, but it's worth it and has a ton of information.

After the Palace, we wandered around the old city, which is stunning.  You could spend a whole day just taking in the architecture.  Unlike a lot of the other Eastern European cities we've visited, every street and alley seemed to have that charming old feel.  Many other cities, like Budapest, have that charm on their main streets, but looking down an alley or side street gives a view into what old Eastern Europe used to be like.  Not Vienna.  Every turn is stunning.  It's just as pretty and magnificent as it's reputation says it is. 

We did Rick Steve's audioguide, which actually has you getting on the tram and riding the loop around the Old City.  It was a great way to see the sights and learn a little bit about some of the lesser known buildings and monuments of the city.  Definitely recommended! We love our buddy Steve!

 We even found a monument (in a dog park of all places) to the Turks!!  So much of what was described was true.

We hung out in the public gardens, which were beautiful and provided some respite for this pregnant lady who was tired of walking.  Plus, it was a beautiful day, so really, it was just a great place for anyone to hang.

Walking down a random street.  What if every city were this beautiful?

In our retirement home, I'm making sure all of my windows look like this.  :)

And last but not least, we couldn't walk down Annagasse (Anna Street) without getting a picture for my favorite Floridian!

We loved Vienna! We always find that the last stop on our trip gets the shaft because home, our bed and a normalcy are within reach and we're usually pretty tired, which was definitely true this time around, but Vienna did it's best to keep us out and about.  It was the perfect stop for our last couple of days, but I could also see how you could spend a week in the city and surrounding area and manage to stay busy.  Until next time Vienna! You were great!

Salzburg, Austria

About a week after we got back from our big trip, we were at it again and on our way to our next trip.  This time, it was only for a weekend, but still a great vacation.  We packed our bags and our skis and headed to Salzburg, Austria for a weekend of skiing with another scholar, Claire.


We arrived around lunch time in Salzburg and met Claire at our hotel so we could drop our stuff off.  We then proceeded to a restaurant down the street for lunch.  I got a salad, but Mike and Claire enjoyed a more typical German meal of bratwurst and potatoes (Gotta stock up on our pork intake while we can!). We walked off our lunch later while wandering the city.  It's a beautiful, small European town surrounded by mountains.

Just like most old European towns, there is a square where the church is located in the center of town.

Outside of the church, there were these two old men playing human chess.  It was so fun to watch.  

There is a castle at the top of the hill overlooking the town.  You have to pay to go inside, but the hike up the hill is worth it because you get some pretty incredible views.

That night, we stumbled upon this small Mozart concert put on by a quintet.  There were only about 30 chairs and the acoustics were incredible.  I don't know a ton about music, but both Mike and Claire who played instruments growing up backed up my sentiments that it was pretty incredible.

We headed to bed kind of early mainly because Mike and I had been up since 4:00am, but also because we were going to be hitting the slopes all day the next day.  Claire found a shuttle that would pick us up in town and take us to a ski resort about an hour outside of town called Flachau.   

Mike has been skiing on his dad's old skis and with his boots for the past few years and it was time to get new boots.  I inherited Mike's sister, Kelly's old skis that she outgrew, but I too needed new boots.  Luckily, it was the end of the season and everything was on sale.  We both got new boots and Mike got his skis tuned.  My skis required more maintenance, so we ended up just renting skis for me, but my boots were super comfortable.  It's amazing the difference between overly used rental boots and your own pair of new ski boots.  Ski boots are never comfortable, but these are pretty close. 

After getting our gear all figured out, we hit the slopes.  

It was pretty warm that day, which is always really nice because I hate being cold, but it meant that by lunch time, the snow was pretty slushy and both Mike and I had wiped out when we caught a patch of extra slushy snow.   Even though the conditions weren't the best, it was still an amazing ski day.  The runs were long, the lift lines short and the views incredible.

We caught the shuttle back at four, so we were back at our hotel around five.   We all showered and relaxed for a little bit before heading out for dinner and drinks.  We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, but then we ended up at a more stereotypical German/Austrian bar.  There were tons of people in lederhosens and dirndls and a group even played some music for us for a while.  It was such an accident that we found them, but so fun!

The next day, we (okay really just me) wanted to do the Sound of Music tour. The tour takes you to all of the sights in and outside of of Salzburg where the movie was filmed.  

The lake where the kids in the boat capsized.

blurry, but the Nonnberg Abby where the nuns lived!

The famous Sixteen going on Seventeen gazebo!

Not my most flattering picture, but the lane where Maria sings "I have Confidence!"

The church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp got married

The alter where they got married.

The tour was a lot of fun.  If you're like me, when you find out a movie or a book is based on a true story, you want to know the truth about what really happens. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time on the internet reading up on the discrepancies between movies and real life. If this sounds like you, then this tour is perfect.  Our tour guide was hilarious and was really into what really happened, as well as what happened on the set. I loved this.  Some people, though, were a little upset that their picture perfect movie was ruined by the behind-the-scenes look. Our tour group wasn't the best.  Mike, Claire and I were the only ones singing along to the songs on the bus and asking questions about the set or the actors.  It would have been even more fun if everyone else had been as excited and enthusiastic as we were, but it was still a ton of fun. 

Claire had to catch a bus that evening, so we said farewell after the tour and soaked up a few more hours of this beautiful view before we headed back to Izmir the next morning.  Not a bad view, for sure.