Vacation on a Vacation!

When we first arrived in Salzburg we took the tram to our hostel, which again was super nice for a hostel, and then figured out how to get to “Old Town” where we would go on Rick Steve’s self-guided walking tour to get acquainted with the history, and figure out how to get around. Salzburg was absolutely beautiful, and the weather was fantastic, so taking the walking tour was perfect for us! We walked around to all the famous monuments and each took turns reading good ole Rick, out loud.

Throughout the trip we have used Rick Steve’s books SO much! I wouldn’t come to Europe without one! It has been fantastic, and I have learned so much, and saved money, which is always a super bonus! So we refer to the book as Rick, just as if he is our best friend! It is really funny!

During the walking tour, we were approached by this little old woman named Kristina, who was literally 4’8 and wearing Gucci glasses and extravagant clothes. She just started mumbling about something and we were getting ready to walk away, when she started talking about how she worked in Hollywood, and is good friends with Tom Cruise…so random! She told us to Youtube her and look her up on Google, but we have forgotten to do so yet! We all think she is a fake, but it was still a hilarious moment we could not stop laughing or talking about! She literally told us her life story in like 15 minutes! It was so funny!

Next we decided to go get something to eat, so we started looking and realize that everything is closed…it is 5:30 pm. (We were quite cranky.) We decided that it might just be because it was a Sunday night and Palm Sunday as well. So we went back to the hotel and had a loaf of bread and peanut butter…so not European!

Monday morning, we woke up early to go on the Sound of Music tour! It was SO much fun and I loved every minute of it! It was so cheesy, we had sing alongs in the bus and danced in the places she danced, but it was so wonderful and we had a blast! We watched the Sound of Music once before the tour and once after, and have not stopped singing Do, Re, Mi since! It was well worth it though! It was an experience I will never forget.

After the tour we decided to go shopping and hopefully have a good dinner because we were starving! Come to find out, there are literally no restaurants that aren’t astronomically expensive (we have a tight budget here, especially after shopping) and open. The whole town literally shuts down at 5 or 5:30. Ridiculous! So since we needed some meat, we found a McDonalds close to our hostel. First time to eat a hamburger in a month! It was really funny to see how European McDonalds were, but I also felt a little silly eating at a McDonalds in Europe, but they are literally everywhere! We also got a chocolate chip cookie that was SO good! I am literally dying over here with no chocolate chip cookies, so that was a nice treat!

We woke up on Tuesday morning and went to the river that cuts right through Salzburg. We sat by the river, had a Bible study and quiet time, which was much needed! It was absolutely wonderful to just relax and soak up the city! We also got attacked by a duck that was trying to steal my baguette! We were cracking up though and Caroline and I have come to realize that animals must hate us, because that is the third animal to attack us! (goose, squirrel, and duck!) Crazy European animals!

We finally got on the train to Munich where we met Caroline’s parents, who were here to visit her over Easter break! It was so great to have some “stand in parents” for a few days, and just have them lead the trip for a while! We had the best time with them! They were truly amazing!

First day in Munich, we got there and started to shop, of course! We wanted to see the huge Glockenspiel that was going to ring so we stayed in that area, which was absolutely crazy!! France and Germany has just played in a soccer game, so everyone was going insane! There was chanting, and yelling, and lots of beer! It was really funny to see the culture literally within the first hour of being there! And although I was grateful to be on the outside, it was hilarious to watch!

We shopped a bit more and then decided that it was time for a good meal, so we sat down at a nice restaurant, which was delicious! The funny thing about this was the waiter, who spoke ok English, kept saying “Time, Time, Time!” every time we asked for something. It was like he was saying more time, but just time time time over and over. It was so funny, so that was our inside joke for the rest of the trip! We would just say “time time time” to each other! I’m sure he thought we were so stupid!

The next day, we woke up really early and headed to Dachau, the old concentration camp, for the morning. It was really touching and moving to see. Some parts were very hard to see, and most of it I still cannot wrap my brain around, but it was a very neat experience. That took up most of the day, so when we finally got back into the city, we decided to go shop some more and then figure out a good place for dinner!

We shopped till we dropped, and then headed to another nice dinner! We were in a rush because the girls decided that we were going to go see Hunger Games, and we found an American Cinema where it would be playing in English! We had to rush because we first wanted to go to a spot in the city that Trey had told me about that only the locals know about where there are four lions outside of a museum and plaza. The locals rub their noses for good luck! We wanted to find these so bad, so we started asking everyone and most people had no idea what we were talking about, but one little girl finally understood us and pointed us in the right direction! She was with her dad and he was like “Wow, I am so proud of my daughter for knowing that!” It was really cute! We ran over to the lions and rubbed all of their noses for extra good luck and a local came up to us after seeing us take pictures and told us the back round of rubbing their noses and said that he tries to come that way whenever he can for good luck! It was a really awesome thing! Thanks Trey for that!

After that we ran to go catch the Hunger Games and later found out that we ran over two miles to get there! INSANE! We were dedicated though! It was amazing, and so awesome for us to be able to say we saw it in Munich!

Today we woke up early early and got on the train to the Nueschwanstein castle. It is the castle that Walt Disney got the design for Cinderella’s castle! It was so neat! The fog was really bad, so we couldn’t see a whole lot of the outside, but the inside was amazing! So detailed and really awesome!

We left the castle and shopped some more for little knick-knack souvenirs and then got on the train back to Munich so we could catch our next train to Luzern, Switzerland! I am so excited to see Switzerland for a few days and we are hoping to just relax by the lake after a busy, busy week!

Thanks for all the prayers! Sorry for the extremely long post! I will try to do better about updating it more often!

Hope y’all have a great weekend and Happy Easter!!