To many beers

This is what happens when you've had to many beers and there are ducks located at the bank

Amsterdam

When Brian and I first decided to take a European vacation we wanted to go for a couple of weeks and visit a few different countries. Those plans fell through when my parents asked us to go to Costa Rica with them in December. My parents purchased a time share back in November of this year and have an all expensive paid vacation that they need to use by January 2010. I personally am not comfortable letting them out of the country by themselves and I feel obligated to go with them to make sure nothing happens.

So instead of taking a two week vacation to Europe we ended up talking a 9 day vacation that turned into ten days when our plane was delayed in Munich. The airline that we flew on is based out of The Netherlands and they only have two flights from Amsterdam to SFO each day. By the time we made it to Amsterdam our connecting flights had already departed. Although I was looking forward to having all day Sunday to relax before I headed back to work I was even more excited when I found out the airline would be paying us to explore another country. I can't say that Amsterdam was on my list of places to visit but I was pleasantly surprised. Its a beautiful city with a lot of history to offer.

I've never been a religious person in fact I've never even been to church. I find the whole thing foreign and completely over my head. At this point in my life I'm not sure if I even believe in god - although I do catch myself praying anytime I take a flight somewhere. I know, I know, I'm a complete hypocrite but I don't see the hurt in trying to get my foot through the door of those big pearly gates just encase I'm wrong.

To get to the reason that I started this post and the point that I'm trying to get across is that I think if I were to live in Europe I just might have to take up religion. I could spend hours sitting inside staring at the church walls. I'm overwhelmed at the shear beautiful and work that has been put into each and every room. Its hard to comprehend the fact that these buildings have stood for hundreds of years and built without the luxury of cranes, power tools, or steel. Breath taking.....

We're back!

We're finally back in Humboldt and I can honestly say that I'm glade to be home. Although I love to travel there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed, using your own bathroom, and have a certain routine that you can follow everyday.

We did so much in such a short amount of time and I have a thousand different stories and hope to be able to share them all with you, but with summer just around the bend and my work schedule picking up I'm not sure if I'll get the chance.

Christmas in April?

In the town of Rottenburg(which I'll post pictures of later) they have an entire street dedicated to Christmas. The whole town is surreal, I felt like I was at Disneyland.

Overview of Salzburg at 6000 feet

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I haven't had much time to blog about anything. We've been at a fast pace since we got here and I haven't had much time to do anything beside catch up on some much needed rest. I promise once we get home tomorrow that I'll go into some detail in regards to what we did. Just to give you an idea of how fast we've been going...

Church Yard

Salzburg, Austria

I don't even know where to begin when describing Salzburg, Austria. The town is something straight out of a magazine and blew away any expectations I've ever had of Austria.

Herrenchiemsee

Man Eating a Baby!

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On the way to Ettal

Ludwig Castles

Saint Peter's Church

There's nothing like walking up 800 steps of stairs to let yourself know you're completely out of shape. At one point I wasn't sure if the spiral stair case was ever going to end but the view was well worth the shortness of breath I was feeling once I got to the top. As you can see from these photos the weather in Germany has been unbelievable. I was excepting near freezing temperatures but we have been pleasantly surprised with temps runnning in the mid 70's.

Hofbrauhaus

Hofbrauhaus is a German Beer Garden in the heart of Munich. It atracks locals and tourist by the thousands. Brian and i decided to have a beer and being the tourist kind of girl that I am I wanted pictures of my first beer in Germany. In typical Brian style I got a fabulous photo of myself enjoying my first beer.