Rothenburg, Germany: July 26th

(Saturday)

Rothenburg, Germany!

Such an adorable and cute town! We only were here for one full day, but had a great time roaming the streets, visiting a museum, walking the city wall, and going on a night watchman tour.

Hostel experience & getting sick:

We also stayed in a hostel for the first time! I've been wanting to try it out the whole trip, but we've never had a reason to because our rooms through www.airbnb.com are always cheaper than what a hostel would cost. In this case there weren't any rooms on airbnb to stay in, so we decided to go with the hostel right in town. We were in a room with two other ladies. It was kinda fun... besides the wifi being awful, having to get ready for bed without waking other people up, listening to intense snoring throughout the night, and trying not to wake people up when you get up in the morning. Other than that I think I enjoyed the experience! It didn't help that I got sick during this part of the trip so I couldn't really sleep the two nights we were there anyways. So while I was awake in the dead of the night, bored to death, I recorded the orchestra of crazy snoring from one lady, combined with the deep breathing from the other girl that was taking place. It was a beautiful arrangement!

I like to joke that Alex's prayers were answered for a couple days because I almost completely lost my voice for two days! She's had to listen to me talk nonstop for almost a month now! Haha, poor thing. She probably thought it would be a nice break... Until she realized I could still whisper and talk in a really creepy voice. 

I forgot how much I like to talk until my voice was gone and it's a struggle to say anything! Not fun when you're in a foreign country and people have a hard enough time understanding you without a low, raspy voice that cuts out like a boy going through puberty. Good thing I had Alex there to translate what I was trying to say or speak for me. :)

The Midevil Crime and Punishment Museum:

This was a super interesting museum! It showed many different ways that people were tortured and killed back in the day. It's crazy to think that was real! People getting their limbs stretched until they died, getting hung having big weights tied to their legs, and all sorts of wild things you wouldn't want to have happen to you

Table used to stretch people's bodies. Sick!

I thought the executioner's mask was really interesting. The drawing below shows a child getting disciplined in school... Riding on a donkey and wearing ears doesn't seem too bad compared to some kids getting whipped or put in a dark closet for a while. 

Walking the city wall:

I love colorful homes here!

The Night Watchman Tour:

This tour was led by a crazy, yet pretty funny, older gentleman. He guided a group of us around the city square and shared history from the Midevil time period. He told stories of how the city wasn't conquered for over 400 years and also talked about the World War II bombings by the United States. He shared a lot of interesting stories that helped us have a good idea of Rothenburg's history.

Here's our tour guide!

Salzburg, Austria: July 25th

(Friday)

Sounds of Music bike tour:

The Frauline Maria bike tour was the BEST TOUR OF THE TRIP!!! Alex and I had so much fun! We were like giddy little kids the whole time! Our tour guide was so nice and enthusiastic. She encouraged us to be our normal, goofy selves by suggesting picture poses to do at each site we visited that was featured in the Sound of Music movie. We also got to sing the songs as we biked around the beautiful city of Salzburg! Our tour guide lady had a little boom box that played the songs with. It was pretty sweet! I can't wait to watch the movie again to better recognize the places that we were able to see in real life!!

Don't know how I had the opportunity to represent Frauline Maria! Haha, nobody else would take the hat! 

On our bikes we had cards with pictures of the sites from the movie and also lyrics to a lot of he songs!! :)

The nunnery that Frauline Maria was at.

Frolicking through the fields to the tune of "the hills are alive... with the sound of music!"

Stopped to get some fresh milk along the way! Soo good!

Taking pictures while riding a bike is a lot harder than you would think...

Visiting the Von Trapp's house!!

My favorite spot... Featuring Lesiel and Ralph! :) 

Look familiar? "You are sixteen going on seventeen!"

Beautiful view of Salzburg!

I loved, loved, loved singing and biking through Salzburg, Austria! What a dream!!

Vienna, Austria: July 24th

(Thursday)

Today we went to a market and tried some falafel. I thought it would taste like a meatball, but it definitely didn't. Let's just say that we weren't he biggest fans. The market was really cute though!

Hofburg Palace:

Then we went on a tour of the Hofburg Palace! This is the complex of palaces where the Habsburg emperors lived. Pretty nifty! 

Vienna was nice, but I probably wouldn't plan to go back. (No offense, Vienna). We definitely felt like foreigners in this city! I don't know what gave away that we weren't from there, besides our accents, but so many people stared at us! It was also harder to feel super excited about Vienna because it had many similar sites as places we had been to in the past, just not quite as extravagant. It was nice to experience a new place and soak in a new culture for a little while. 

Continue readin for our favorite part of Austria!! :)

Vienna, Austria: July 23rd

The Opera House:

Vienna is known to be the world capital of classical music. That makes their opera house "one of the planet's premier houses of music," says our buddy and tour guide, Rick Steves. We took a tour of the building and were fascinated by the architectural history and all of the productions they've held there. It's sad, the main architect received a lot of negative feedback about the building's structure and people said it was dull and boring. Before the opera house was officially completed he committed suicide, which they assume was directly correlated with people giving him a hard time about the building. How sad is that?! Especially since people really admire the building now. Poor guy. 

Alex found herself a man on this trip!

St. Stephen's Cathedral

The Opera Concert!

The best part about our stay in Vienna was the Opera that we went to! It had everything... Classical music by an orchestra, opera singers, and dancing!! My favorite was the dancing and opera singers! There was a couple that did some Vienese dancing and it was so fun! I mostly enjoyed the male dancer who shamelessly pranced around doing high kicks, leaps, and the works! Forget about the Latin dancing, I found a new style that I need to get into now. I'm sure Andrew will be thrilled that I found a new hobby for us! Hahaha! After hearing the opera singers I also felt inspired to work on developing that talent as well. I'll start asap when I'm home in the states driving in my car, all by myself. This was such a fun, cultural, and motivating experience! :)

We couldn't take pictures of the performance, so here's what the venue looked like.

Switzerland to Austria: July 22nd

(Tuesday)

Today was an intense travel day!

We spent 9 hours on the train traveling from Düdingen, Switzerland to Vienna, Austria! I spent most of the time reading Insurgent, the second book in the Divergent series. It's really good! I also got to sleep and do some blogging. I think Alex and I asked each other "would you rather..." questions for a really long time back and forth as well! Haha, the things we do to entertain ourselves!

Sleeping beauty!

Vienna, Austria:

Once we arrived to Vienna later that night we easily found the place were staying at! (Woo hoo!!) The girlfriend of our host greeted us and pointed out some cool things to do in Vienna. She was really nice!

We knew that schnitzels are popular in that area so we went for a walk and found a restaurant called "Schnitzel" and figured that sounded promising! So we tried it for the first time! Honestly, it tasted like normal fried chicken to me. Still good though!!

Gimmelwald, Switzerland: July 21st

The Swiss Alps!

Visiting the Swiss Alps in the small town of Gimmelwald was INCREDIBLE!! I can't even describe in words how breathtaking the view is! So far the alps and Venice have been the most beautiful places I've experienced on the trip and probably in my entire 24 years of living! I just wish you all could be here with us!

Gimmelwald (AKA-Grindelwald):

Alex and I took a gondola ride up to a high point on the mountain so we could get an even better view of the mountains. The ride was so fun! We sang, we danced, we took some videos and pictures, and admired Mother Nature, of course. 

Making our father proud, "Hang loose, baby!"

When we got to the top it was still raining and even colder. The clouds were covering the tops of the mountains, but it was still gorgeous.

Such a breathtaking view!!! 

Theme quote in Switzerland:

Throughout our Switzerland adventures, Alex and I couldn't help but constantly and randomly quote the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. We especially love the part when she shows her boyfriend the photo album of their future family and says, "Here's our kids in Switzerland, yodel-oldeling!!" (One of my favorite quotes from my favorite movie! So fitting!) 

You can safely assume that we definitely got our yodeling on when we were on top of the mountain in Switzerland. That would've been a real shame and tragedy to miss out on that kind of opportunity. :) #YOLO!! 

While in Switzerland we stayed the night in another small town called Düdingen. This was about an hour and a half away from the other cities we spent a little time in... Interlocken, Burne, and Gimmelwald. 

This is the view from across the street from our house! Lots of greenery and rolling hills!

Alex and I thought this house's decorations were pretty sweet! Nome city!!!

We love our trains! :) 

Switzerland was an amazing place and we were sad to leave so soon! It's a beautiful country! The areas we were in were also very clean and well kept. That was a nice change compared to other cities we've been in. I would definitely recommend visiting the Swiss Alps if you get the opportunity! These pictures hardly show how amazing it is.