Europe Part 4 - Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria

Next station: Austria. Many moons ago, we decided it would be a great idea to spend Christmas in Salzburg. Good thing it was only an hour train ride from Munich! Lucky us! We pulled into Salzburg on Christmas Eve and immediately found out that the town was shut down for the holidays, save a few gluhwein and bratwurst stands in the central plaza. Fortunately, we found an Italian restaurant open for dinner.


This is where we had dinner Christmas Eve. The clincher was they had Antinori wine on the menu.






















On the hike up the castle, you can see the cathedral. Our pension was just on the other side of the cathedral. In fact, our hotel was so close to the central area that the Christmas bells got a little old after ringing all day and night. Of course, there were five major churches with bells packed into a tiny area. They were competing for the loudest bells.
















Morning on the way up to the castle/fortress above Salzburg



















Our Chirstmas dinner in Salzburg. It was very good. Again, the only place open was Italian.



































A Baroque church in central Salzburg




















Nobody stirring on Christmas, hardly even a Krembs.




















On the 26th, we trained over to Innsbruck, Austria. What a beautiful town! Mountain peaks every which way you turn.



















Look down the street. Look at the white strip above the street. What do you see? That's the Olympic ski jump! This is my kinda town!





















Early morning at the Innsbruck train station on our way to Switzerland. You can see mountains from every angle in this town.

































Ah...such natural beauty. Next stop: Switzerland.

Europe Part 3 - Germany - Nurnburg and Munich

After Amsterdam, we took a train down to Nurnburg. We missed a train connection from Hannover to Nurnburg, so we took a detour to Frankfurt first. It added a couple of hours to the trip but it wasn't a big deal. We still got to Nurnberg in time to hit the Christmas Market. They had yummy little sausages, like mini grilled bratwurst, that you pile in a bun. Also, this was our first taste of gluhwein! Oh baby, that was tasty! The next day, we spent the morning at the market and then traveled down to Munich. We gave each other about 30 Euros to spend in the market on Christmas gifts for each other.


On the rails again, heading to Germany. SkipBo. Jen won the tournament...but barely!!




















Here's the entrance to a castle in the middle of Nurnburg.



















Jen searching around for me at the market.



















Near the Chirstmas Market.



















This is an incredibly awesome church in Nurnburg.



















The river that splits the town in half.
















This is the church in the Chirstmas Market square. Looks like it has a glockenspiel!




















Next, we rolled on in to Munich and headed for a day trip to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle is the brain child of the King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Apparently, he was diagnosed to be crazy, but we heard tales of possible foul play.

Riding the rails to Fussen. That's where you walk to the castles.
















Jen caught with some meat having a snack at the entrance to the castle.















An automatic popcorn machine that talks to you? What will they think of next?!!



















Neuschwanstein Castle of crazy King Ludwig II



















From the icy bridge.















Fussen



















Jen had the genius idea of taking a picture of the map so we could find our way.































Disneyland

Back to Munich-

The Cathedral of Munich



















Outside the Cathedral















An interesting Jesuit church that was destroyed in WWII right in the middle of pedestrian zone.

The Rathaus at night. Rathaus means City Hall.

Glockenspiel at the Rathaus.

The glockenspiel in motion at noon daily

The Munich Christmas Market at night.

Hofbrauhaus!

Yummy Bavarian beer!

The Hofbrau oompa band!














WOW! This old guy walked in, ordered a beer and proceeded to place it on his head. Very impressive!

Zwei gluhwein!















Next up Austria!

Europe Part 2 - Amsterdam

Next stop - Amsterdam, Netherlands


We took a 4 hour train from Paris to Amsterdam (with a baguette, cheese, and wine en route, of course). We arrived to some snow!
















The Amsterdam train station. Cool looking building.
















The 'Dam has such interesting buildings.
















Beautiful canals.





















Venice of the North.





















Tram traffic jam.





















The Anne Frank Hause was a fantastic, but tragic, museum dedicated to her life and death.
















REAL DUTCH GOUDA CHEESE! YUM!
















Amsterdam is a wacky place...
















The Reichs Museum. The Dutch National Museum. We also went to the Van Gogh Museum. Fantastic.
















This is the building we stayed at. It was an awesome tiny little hotel.
















The view out of our room.



















This was a very steep staircase to get to our room!