Jeremy graduated from high school on a Tuesday and went left the following Saturday. Here's a quick run down of our trip by day.
Day 1: Long travel day. After arriving in Frankfurt Germany we rented a car and drove to the Nürburgring race track. We watched people drive their personal cars around the track. We saw lots of Porsche's, BMW's, Ferrari's, Lotus', etc.. We paid to ride one lap in the "BMW Ring Taxi" (photos below). A professional driver drove the car. We stayed in Nürburg that night.
Day 2: A short two hour Rhine River cruise and train ride, then drove to Stuttgart.
Day 3: Porsche factory tour in Stuttgart, then drove to Munich and went on the BMW factory tour. We stayed in Munich.
Day 4: Munich sightseeing then drove to Hohenschwangau.
Day 5: Hohenschwangau castle and Neuschwanstein castle and drove to Salzburg Austria to stay.
Day 6: Salzburg sightseeing (Mozart's birthplace and boyhood home, Hohensalzburg Fortress, gondola up the mountain, and "Sound of Music" sites). We stayed another night in Salzburg.
Day 7: Berchtesgaden Germany including the salt mine tour, Nazi underground bunker and Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" home and drove to Vienna Austria.
Day 8: Church, and Vienna sightseeing including Schoenbrunn Palace.
Day 9: Depart Vienna and fly to Amsterdam, then on to New York. We had a long layover, so we took a taxi into the city and saw our son-in-law. We saw the Statue of Liberty (from a distance), World Trade Towers site and new building construction, Wall Street, & New York Stock Exchange. We got home late and very tired!
Highlights? For Rick it was the car things and driving over 120 MPH on the autobahn, for Jeremy, car stuff and experiencing Germany culture, listening to people speak German, reading the signs, watching TV, etc. Alisa? castles, museums, palaces, "The Sound of Music" sites, and just seeing everything!
Here's some photos. We took many many photos and tried to pick just a few for the blog. We saved them in low resolution format, so I hope they are clear enough to see. We did save one in high resolution format (Salzburg) because it was one of our favorites.
The explanation is above each photo.
Jeremy at the Nürburgring race track
Our rental car. We picked it up in Frankfurt and dropped it off on Vienna
Nürburgring race track. The sedan in the front is the BMW Ring Taxi
Nürburgring race track, this is the car we rode in. It was terrifyingly awesome! The driver went nearly 160 MPH. It was 12 miles long and took 9 minutes to do one lap.
First hotel
Rhine River cruise
Rhine River cruise
Rhine River cruise
Rhine River cruise, so many castles along this stretch of the Rhine.
Rhine River cruise
Taking the train back up river to where we parked the car
Porsche factory tour in Stuttgart
BMW "World" attraction and BMW factory tour in Munich
"Glockenspiel" clock in Munich
Hotel in Munich
Hohenschwangau Castle
Hotel in Hohenschwangau
Hotel in Hohenschwangau
Neuschwanstein Castle
Dinner at hotel in Hohenschwangau
Neuschwanstein Castle
Mozart's boyhood home in Salzburg Austria
Salzburg
Does anybody know if "Aus" means "old" in German??
Neuschwanstein castle in the background, taken from the Hohenschwangau Castle grounds
On a mountain near Salzburg
"I am 16 going on 17", for you Sound of Music fans this is the gazebo where that scene was filmed.
We saved this photo in a high resolution format, click on the photo to enlarge it. We especially like this photo of Salzburg Austria.
Hotel for 2 nights in Salzburg
Going into the salt mine at Berchtesgaden
Going up the mountain to Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" at Berchtesgaden
Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" at Berchtesgaden
View from Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" at Berchtesgaden
Church building in Vienna
Vienna
Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna
Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna
Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna
Apple strudel (Apfelstrudel) in Vienna
Apple strudel (Apfelstrudel) in Vienna
Hotel in Vienna (yellow building in center)
NYC with the Statue of Liberty in the background
Wall Street NYC
Wall Street NYC
And now we're home.
We all had a really great time. It was one of Rick & Alisa's best trips. Let us know if you have questions or want to be bored with more stories or photos.
4 comments:
Looks like an awesome trip! So, what ideas are Michael and Spencer thinking up, you know, for their trips!!!
That is so great! What was your favorite part? Did you find most of the countries to be easy to navigate in? We want to go to Europe sometime but were worried about the language barrier.
My dad went to the Swiss/Austria mission so a lot of these places remind me of the stores he shared. Looked like an awesome trip. Can you adopt me?
That is awesome awesome awesome! One of these days we will actually travel somewhere. I think it is a fun tradition to be able to take the graduate out on a trip of their choice! Aww, how is your family?
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