London

Lots of London; lots of pictures.  We were allowed to leave the Schengen countries despite our snafu at the Belgian border, and we took the Eurostar to London.  Such a nice train!  Grabbed the key to our AirBnB flat at the local pub and most happily set ourselves up right off Hollowell Road in northern London.  (BTW, I highly recommend AirBnB.  We stayed in some great places, thanks to AirBnB!)  It was so nice to be in a home after so many hotels.  The flat belonged to a young couple who were on their honeymoon, and they have very funky taste in decor!  Plus they had a lovely patio, a piano, and, major bonus, two kitties!  For a family missing its cats, it was great.  We spent five fantastic days in jolly old London.  What a great city.  Every time I visit, I love it more.  

Of course, this spot! 

 It took a lot to get Max to pose for this.  What you don't see is the big crowd waiting to take pictures here!

 A ramble in the English countryside.  8 miles!

 You shall not pass!

 At the gates of Hogwarts at the Warner Bros. Studios Harry Potter tour.  This is the studio where they made all the movies, and these are all the real props and sets.  It really was magic!

 The Hogwarts model. 

Another important destination: the TARDIS. 

 Waiting for the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

 Tea with our good friend, Steph.

Maggie with Pepper.  Salt was a little more shy.  

June 14: Brussels

This was a travel day...drop off the car in Cologne, train to Brussels, layover in Brussels, Eurostar to London.  I love train travel....hop on, let someone else drive.  And of course, the European trains are so stellar.

We left time in Brussels to check it out, so we took a walk from the station.  And we had frites, naturally!

Made entirely of chocolate! 

Just another cool European building. 

Judging from the tourist hordes, this peeing boy statue is very famous.

June 13: Castles!!

Germany is excellent castle country.  We visited two of the coolest castles...on the same day!  One because it was a ruin you could prowl around, the other because OMG would you look at the pictures?!!  Also, the Rhein river valley...a beautiful, beautiful place and drive.

 In the stocks at Rheinfuls castle.

Amazing views of the Rhein from the tower. 

The Rheinfuls ruin...

Lunch on the Rhein. 

 Burg Eltz castle, hidden in the hills and owned by the same family for 850 years.

Would you look at this place?

June 12: Ummmmmm

Well, let's just say that German road signs are cryptic.  And they don't put some towns on the map.  And we can't read German, so if there were some more helpful instructions posted when we hit a closed road, um....

So this day was supposed to be a more driving-heavy day with stops in a walled city and in the area where I lived with my parents when my dad was in the Air Force.  Unfortunately, it ended up just being a driving day.  Sad face.  I really would have liked to see where I lived as a toddler, but by the time we reached the general area, we all just wanted to get to our overnight stop and get out of the car.  We did have a nice lunch stop in Ulm, which is charming.

We stopped in Osthofen, a very small town close to the Rhine, and we got lucky by staying at this adorable, hilarious inn that had suits of armor in our suite and a medieval feasting hall on the premises.  The owner was so kind, and his dad took us to feed some ponies and walk around his vineyard.  A nice end to the day.

 King Maximilian.

 Sunset in Osthofen.

Everyone needs a suit of armor in their room!  

June 11: Austria

We had hoped to get a good hike up to a waterfall this day, but with poor maps we ended up just having a long walk along this lake in Maurach, Austria.  It was still really hot!! So a dip in the lake was quite welcome.  Then onward to Germany with a quick coffee break in Innsbruck.  Innsbruck was actually quite crowded and had an unattractive sprawl.  Still you can't be too disappointed in a city ringed with mountains.  In Germany, we found a hotel right on the square in a little city called Kempten.   BTW, the Germans (and the Austrians) do drive fast.  But they drive well, so I thoroughly enjoyed the autobahn driving!

 Passed this along the way.

 Those two little dots are Max and Maggie.  This lake was actually an extraordinary turquoise blue!  

 We took a quick coffee break in Innsbruck, Austria.  Beautiful setting, cute Old Town, but the town seems to have a bit of ugly sprawl.

Dinner on the square.  Always nice.  The Radler helps, too.

June 10: Salzburg

Because we were packed for a Denmark climate, we had very few clothes for a heat wave.  I will probably be ready to throw my two or three hot weather items in the trash when we get home.  Laundry is scarce on the road.  Twice we stayed in Meininger Hotels, which are a cross between a hostel and a hotel.  They are one of the few places that has rooms that can accommodate a family.  Many places only have two person rooms.  They have one laundry machine and a guest kitchen as well.  With the number of backpackers who stay at these places, it's hard to use those facilities, but I managed to wash our few clothes that we had been wearing repeatedly.  Salzburg was wonderful...I'm so glad we decided to go there!  It is what I expected of Vienna, beautiful and quaint with a huge dose of history.  Plus....mountains.  

The fountain from the Sound of Music in Mirabelle Gardens!!

Fa....a long, long way to go!

On the Salzach River, with the Hohensalzburg Fortress in the background.

Afternoon break on the Salzach.  Necessary in 90 degrees.

The hills are alive!  I wanted to sing, too!  View from the fortress.

June 9

Some places take their holidays very seriously.  In Denmark, EVERYTHING is closed on national holidays, including grocery stores (many restaurants are open, though), so you better have some food!   Well, apparently Austria is the same and we had planned to pick up some groceries for this day.  Gas station groceries it was for our hike!  We did a little more exploration of beautiful Gmunden, then headed up to hike.  Of course, we all thought it would be cooler in the mountains, but Austria was still having a heat wave.  It was not cool.  The hike was beautiful, though, and we found a very cold lake where we all took a dip.  We had reserved a hotel in Salzburg, so we headed there in the evening.

Schloss Ort in Gmunden....actually in the Traunsee Lake in Gmunden!  A 1000 year old castle. 

 Ice cold lake on our hike.  Felt great in 90 degree temps!  There was also a cafe/pub...we didn't stop for a beer, but the Austrians know what they're doing.

Trees!

June 8 and forward

Playing catch up.  Been too tired or had too crappy wifi to post!  It's been a great week.  We started by picking a spot on the map: Gmunden, Austria.  Beautiful lake surrounded by mountains.  You can't get much more stunning than this place.  Just add a couple of kids.

This was our view from the hotel....a splurge for my birthday.  Would you believe there were fireworks that night?  Perfect.

June 6 - 8: Vienna

Well, wifi here stinks, so I don't think I'll even try a picture.  Vienna impressions: meh.  Maybe we shouldn't have traveled from a small city to a big city; or maybe it was too many cities in a row.  Whatever the reason, I'm not in love with Vienna.  Maybe because it's been 90 degrees here and our hotel/hostel room is stifling hot.  Maybe it's because it's a huge city and crowded like a huge city.  Maybe because it has a huge city's dirt.  Maybe because I get tired of tourist hucksters asking me if I want to buy tickets to a Mozart concert.  

The buildings are certainly impressive.  Pompous, really.  You can tell this was the seat of a very wealthy empire.

The bright spot: the reason we came here - to visit the Hundertwasser museum and house.  The kids studies him with their wonderful Danish art teacher, and they really wanted to come see his stuff.  Check him out!

Visiting his museum was a good way to get us excited about the next leg of our trip: renting a car and getting the heck out of the city into the mountains, heading through Austria and Germany.  Nature! (and cooler temps, I hope!)!

Not sure what kind of wifi I'll find, so posting may be spotty.

June 4 - 6: Prague

Wifi is not good at our place in Vienna (essentially a hostel...a lot of scruffy looking college kids here), so few pictures.  But Prague...everyone says it's such a beautiful city...well, I didn't realize.  An amazingly beautiful place!  We arrived rather bedraggled after the overnight train (did I mention it was like sleeping at camp...on a train?) and proceeded to try to walk to our hotel.  Ha ha ha!!  Somehow I thought Prague would be smallish like Krakow.  Wrong.  Anyway, the weather was beautiful, the city was beautiful, we found great places to eat, and the exchange rate is favorable.  You really must go.  The only down side?  Holy tourists, Batman.

We saw the cool Old Town, Charles Bridge and astronomical clock with its scary figures glaring down at us; took a funicular up the hill to beautiful gardens and views; took the tram up to the castle grounds and St. Vitus Cathedral; met our friends Deborah and Jonathan from Grinnell for a great lunch and walk around less touristy 'hoods;  saw the Vysehrad castle grounds.  There is much more to do and see there, but I think we got a good taste.

 Charles Bridge and St. Vitus cathedral visible from the river.

An essential part of each stop.

June 3: Krakow

June 3: Last day in Krakow.  We started at my new favorite cafe in the world: Les Couleurs on Plac Nowy.  Go there!  We visited the armory and cathedral at Wawel Castle (no pictures, please!).  We also visited the Jagellonian University museum, which is a sweet little collection of random university items (Copernicus studied here), plus a glimpse into the oldest university in Europe: over 650 years old!  Did I mention that we saw the trumpeter of Krakow in St. Mary's church?  If you want, check that story out here.

I'm behind on posting because yes, traveling this can wipe you out.  We are trying to be conscious of that and to make sure we have down times.  But I'm also exhausted because I had the bright idea of taking the overnight train from Krakow to Prague.  It'll be fun, I thought!!   I had some Orient Express-like romantic notions.  Um, no.  As my friend, Deborah, said today, "Oh, that's rough." The rest of the family thought it was pretty cool, and I guess it kind of was.  But it was loud and cramped, and I pretty much didn't sleep.  Even if I was 20 years younger, it would have been rough!

Next stop, Prague!

My new favorite cafe: Les Couleurs in Kazimierz. 

Max on the overnight train.  It almost looks spacious here.

Maggie in the hall of the train.

June 2: Krakow

Today we went to Oskar Schindler's Factory Museum in Krakow.  Not much in the way of pictures, obviously.  They did a good job of illuminating life for Jews in Krakow before the Nazi invasion...and after.  We stayed in an old building in the Jewish neighborhood, Kazimierz, and it's sobering to know that whoever lived in our apartment was likely moved to the ghetto and then a camp.  P.S.  The scene from the movie "Schindler's List" where he dictates the list is not true; someone else prepared the lists.  But he did try to save his workers and their family and friends, including having children added to the list even though they were too young to work.

 The stairway to our apartment...wooden stairs, extremely worn.

 This is now a bookstore, but it has the feel of so many Kazimierz buildings.

 Krakow pastry break!  Helps lift the spirits after a rough morning.

 The Nazis tore this sculpture down during the occupation.  The Poles rebuilt it.

June 1: Krakow

 First up today...Wawel Castle high on a hill overlooking the Vistula (Wisła) River.  The grounds are enormous, so we only saw part.

 View of Krakow from a tower of the castle.

 In the Dragon's Den!!

 Cool-looking cheeses.  We got one of course.

 We luckily happened to be here on the day of the Great Dragon Parade.  The legend is that a dragon used to live under the castle (see lair above) and terrorized the area.  A cobbler's apprentice finally defeated him and got to marry King Krakus' daughter in reward.  (Why is the king's daughter always the reward??)  These dragons were built by schoolchildren, who marched in the parade as well.

For lunch, we were invited to the home of Marian and Dorota Lewandowski.  They both are scientists at Jagiellonian University, and Mark met them the last time he was here.  They served us a most delicious, traditional Polish meal in their apartment which overlooks the river.  Wonderful people!  For dinner, pierogis!! at Mr. Vincent's Pierogis which was decorated with Van Goghs: plum, curry, spinach, and potato pierogis.  Beer for 5 złoty, which is about $1.60.  Woot!