Athens: 6/26/14

Today we were ported in Athens for a full day.  I had booked a private tour guide & driver for Kyle and I for the day to get the most out of time (this is what I did for most cities).  When you get off the ship the private guides are waiting, holding signs with your name.  People without private tours usually booked via the boat and they are in large groups on big buses, therefore they have to wait on everyone to get off before leaving the port.

The first place we went was the Acropolis which is the hill in Athens that houses important buildings including the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, and the temple of Athena Nike.  This was to beat the crowds and the heat!  I was very thankful for getting their early as it was getting very crowded by the time we left there!  Also extremely hot!  We were told that it got up to 114 degrees while in Athens... It was a very hot day!!  Here are some pictures from these amazing Ancient Greek structures on the hill:

Of course, the Parthenon:

in the Propylaia:

 Temple of Athena Nike

Next stop was the temple of Zeus, the God of Gods in Greek mythology.  It was originally 104 pillars, but not many remain.  

Next we visited the old Olympic stadium and then the parliament to watch the changing of the guards.  We had a very interesting experience at parliament!  One of the guards literally ate shit while marching.  Their commander guy freaked and was yelling for no one to take photos.  Well, our gopro video caught it, and it is really funny.  I'm thinking it could be a YouTube hit.... Or I may send it to tosh.o because they would definitely love it!  In the guys defense, what they do is not easy and takes incredible strength & control.  Here are a couple pictures of the stadium & guard change, pre-fall, and then that amazing video is below the pics.  Enjoy!

Next we went to view Athens from a very large hill with amazing views of the city.  I had no idea how big of a city Athens is.  There are over 5.5 million people living there.  Crazy!

By this time we were getting hungry, so we made a quick stop through the souvenier shopping area, and then sat for an amazing Greek lunch.  After lunch were a few more stops through ruins like the Ancient Agora.  The coolest of these was the temple of Hephaistos, the God of Fire.  It was the most in-tact of the temples we saw which was neat.  

My overall synapse of Athens: the city is kind of dirty, with too many stray dogs and cats running around, however, there is amazing history there and everyone should visit it once to experience.

6/24/14 & 6/25/14: At Sea

We were at sea for 2 days after departing from Venice.  Something I was originally not looking forward to, but at this point we were both very ready for down time & the ability to sleep!!  The 2 days actually ended up much more fun than expected, too!  Not only were we able to catch up on sleep, but we met several great young people.... Forming kind of like a little boat possy.  It started when Kyle entered the Ping pong tournament.  He and a guy named Garrett both lost to the 2 guys who ended up playing each other in the finals.  Because they were both young and from the states they then played each other for fun and that is kind of how the group kicked off (Kyle won 22-20... I'm sure he would want me to include that).  Garrett is here with his family and his mom makes friends with EVERYONE.  Literally, everyone!  Garrett plays football in college (at Liberty in Virginia), so he, and the rest of our possy, are a bit younger than us (we are mom and dad of the group).  There is also Jesse and Danny who played basketball in their college years (they are from Iowa), Garrett's sister who plays volleyball in college (their family lives in Georgia), and then sisters from California, Lexi & Brittany.  Basically all of these people met via Garrett's mom finding friends, haha.  Because of all the athleticism, some very solid 3 on 3 basketball teams were formed making activities more enjoyable... Especially for Kyle.  He even had guys willing to totally play the boy band rolls for karayoke.  They were quite a hit singing BSB I want it that way.  There are videos and pictures out there of karaoke and basketball that we will get from these people when it doesn't cost an arm and leg to send them (aka when we r back in the states).  We also learned a fun iPhone game called heads up from them.  Download the ap, it's fun!

Venice: 6/23/14

Well, we made it into Venice despite a quite interesting overnight train ride.  I didn't get much sleep at all on the train ride over for a few reasons.  One, our couchette room (6 beds to a "room") was so small we could barely fit our bags in them, two, the beds above you are so close you cannot sit up, and three (saving the worst for last), there was a very large group of high school seniors on our train that were soooo loud.  I guess since they are able to drink in Europe they were going crazy, but they were definitely drunk, had music playing all night & one girl was going up & down the hall asking who wanted to smoke weed in her room.  Remind you that this train did not even depart until 1:30 am.  We are now running on 4 nights combined sleep of about 15 hours.  At this point the sea days we start with on the cruise are looking quite nice to us!  Anyways..... Besides the trip into Venice, Venice itself is totally amazing.  There was a good possibility of rain, but it never did rain, and we actually ended up with very blue skies towards the end of the day.  We pretty much spent the entire day navigating the island, getting lost in back allys, etc.  We were first in line to the cruise port to check in so that went quick and smooth although we just didn't get on the boat opting to explore for the rest of the day instead.  There are no cars allowed into the island so all travel is via some type of boat.  St. Marks Square is the main touristy area and it is super crowded there.  We pretty much went to see that area, but didn't spend too long there as Venice has many other amazing areas.  The realto market is another crowded area of shops, etc that we saw some of then avoided like the plague due to the amount of people.  Venice is definitely the most unique city I have been to in Europe though..... So beautiful in the most artistic way!  Here are some pictures I took that can do the talking & I think they do a great job depicting the city.

We made it onto the boat after exploring the city, and so now we begin our cruise ship leg of the trip!  We will start with some good sleep!  :)

Salzburg: 6/22/14

Today we woke up early (again) because we had to catch our 7:30 AM train to Salzburg, Austria.  The train ride is quite short, we were in Salzburg at 9 AM, and had until 1 AM when our overnight train left for Venice.  This left us with a full day to explore and enjoy Salzburg.  Salzburg is known for 2 big things... One, the birthplace of Motzart.  You can hear his pieces resenating through the streets of he city.  And two, the backdrop & location of the Sound of Music!  If you remember how beautiful some of the scenery was in the movie then you may understand when I say the city is GORGEOUS!  All of Austria seems to be pretty and Austrians are nice people too.... It makes me proud of my Austrian heritage!  And we really lucked out on weather again.  In a city where there are more rainy days than sunny we had blue skies and weather that makes you want to skip around while singing "Do, a deer, a female deer. Rae, a drop of golden son. Mi, a name, I call myself.  Fa, a long long way to run. So, a needle pointing thread. La, a note to follow soooo. Ti, a drink with jam and bread. And that will bring us back to Do!" :).  Here are a few initial views of the city.  The large castle in the hill is called the Fortress.

First up on the itinerary was a ride up the Monchberg lift in the Museum der Moderne.  It offers fantastic birds eye views of the city.... See??

After this we headed to Stiegl Brewery... What I have called my favorite beer since trying it 10 years ago while studying in Innsbruck, Austria.  I have not been able to find it in Houston, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to retaste!  The brewery is pretty nice, and it has a very nice view, too!  We did the museum tour, but skipped the brewery tour since it is only offered in German.  Afterwards we got 3 free tastings, and had lunch... The best Wiener schnitzel I have ever had!  They even gave us free souvenirs!  Here are a couple pics....

After the brewery we had a boat tour down the river that runs through Salzburg.  It was such a relaxing break before our bike tour of the city.  It was actually a Sound of Music bike tour that teaches not only about the city but takes you to all of the famous settings from the movie.  Every bike has a characters name from the movie... And Kyle and I we're given Fräulein Maria and Captain Von Trapp, woohoo!  We also learned a little Austrian newlywed tradition involving pretzels (they love their pretzels there!).  Similar to a wishbone, you are supposed to each grab a side of the pretzel and pull.  The person who ends up with the bigger side gets to wear the pants in the relationship.  Even though we are not newlyweds, we decided to give it a whirl.... Results below!  Okay, so Salzburg is picturesque, and in case you wanted more proof, here are some pictures of the city from our bike tour.  You will see some reinactments from the movie (featuring Kyle & Liz)... The best of which is a video it won't let me post but we are skipping in the hills holding hands while "the hills are alive, with the sound of music" is playing.  Lol.  Do you recognize the buildings though?!

That pretty much concluded our day in Salzburg.  After the tour we walked around a bit, had dinner, and headed back to the train station.  So with that said...."so long, farewell, auf wiedesten (sp?), goodnight"!

Bavaria: 6/21/14

Today we had a another tour with Mikes Bike Tours- this one into Bavaria.  They actually call it Bus Bavaria since some of the time is spent on coaches going out to the Bavarian Mountains.  It is such an awesome way to see the area!!  I was definitely regretting the late night at the Hofbrauhaus though, waking up in the morning was quite rough!  On the way to meet the coach we got a few shots at the Marienplatz.  It worked out great since no one in town was up that early in a place usually packed with people making photo-taking difficult!

Next it was off to Bavaria.  The biggest attraction to Bavaria is King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle (pronounced Noi-Schwan-stein), one of the most famous castles in the world.  It is the inspiration behind Disney's castle, and you have certainly seen photos of it before.  We could not have been luckier with weather!  There are not many days without heavy clouds in the Bavarian Alps, so we were feeling pretty blessed with blue skies and amazing views of the castle!!  When we arrived, we got our bikes and had 2-3 hours of biking around the area first.  We got to see the gorgeous Swan Lake, the beautiful river, the picturesque Alps, and got lots of views of both castles (both King Ludwig's) in the area.  Here are a couple pics from that stent of the day:

After the bike tour part, we had lunch, and then got to watch Brad's magic show.  Brad was our tour guide who has been doing this tour for 15 years.  What you wouldn't expect from Brad is that he actually went to the German School for Magic, won 2nd place at the world magic competition, and is ridiculously good at card tricks.  I could never explain, and certainly not show you how good they were because I have no idea how he was doing what he was doing!!  Great entertainment!  Anyways, so after lunch we had time to go do the Alpine Slide before hiking up to tour the castle.  The Alpine Slide is similar to bobsledding, but sitting on a luge type cart.  It was soooo much fun!  Kyle had a bit of an accident on it though while flying around a corner.... He has an ugly burn on his arm to go along with it.  It's a good thing he had the GoPro on- we can forever laugh at the wipeout now! ;). The footage is all really cool actually.

So after the Luge it was time to make the trek up the hill to the castle.  He views from the bridge on the way up were impeccable!!!  The castle is just stunning!  I didn't get photos inside because you are not allowed to take them.  Don't be upset though.... Because of the Kings insistence on detail, only around 15 of the rooms were completed by the time he died, and the others never finished.  Therefore the tour of the inside is quite short.

After the tour, we hoped back on the coach and headed back for Munich.  We arrived back in town at 8 PM and the town was out and about sporting their German pride for the World Cup game vs Ghana that was getting ready to begin.  Being in Europe during the World Cup has been a pretty cool thing, I must say.  Kyle had gotten in touch with a friend named Nikolas, who invited us to come watch the game a bar where they had a reserved table.  Kyle met Nikolas while he was working at the business building in college and Nikolas was in the masters program getting his MBA.  We had not seen him since he was in Houston many years ago.  We met him at a big Greek bar (he is Greek), and it was such a treat!  We got to try all kinds of neat Greek foods, all while watching & cheering on Germany from a large patio loud with fans!  Thank you for a fun night, Nik!

Munich: 6/20/14

We made it to Germany!  We arrived in Munich around 9:30 AM, exhausted from a long flight.  We took the city transportation to central station and walked to our hotel from there.  It was drizzling on us on the walk so we were worried our first day wouldn't be great.  We had some time for showers and a quick power nap before our Munich city bike tour, and by that time it had turned into a gorgeous day!  Phew!  Some of the highlights of the bus tour include:  the Marienplatz, the Theatinerkirche (a gorgeous church on the inside, with a less impressive yellow outside), the lions adjacent the Theatinerkirche (on the statue is a smaller lion head you are supposed to rub for happiness... But never all 4 because that is a sign you are greedy), the Englischer Garten (a park bigger than Central Park with 3 beer gardens also in it.  We visited the Chinese beer garden on the tour for dinner, drinks, music, etc.), watching the surfers surfing the 24/7 wave caused by the bridge in the lake, and last but not least, the ever-famous Hofbräuhaus!  Here are some pictures from our bike ride around Munich:

 

After our bike tour I wanted Kyle to experience the joys of the Hofbräuhaus, so we went there for a bit of fun.  That turned into waaaay too much fun, however, ha!  We met a bunch of people, but 2 guys in particular that were sharing our table provided some excellent stories.  They are on an international drug bust team working for the DEA out of DC.  They had just finished the biggest drug bust Greece has ever had... 13,000 pounds (or 13 kilo) of Heroine.  The pictures were insane!  They were stopping through Munich on their way to Eastern Jamaica for another bust going down.  Their work stories were the coolest!  They actually want to recruit Kyle to be on their team, haha!  Anyways, we didn't end up leaving the Hofbräuhaus until 2 AM, putting us home around 2:30.  We had to be up the next morning very early for a bus tour to Bavaria.  Ugh, you have done it again, Hofbräuhaus!!!!!