Berlin

We've been home a couple of days now and I'm just now writing about Berlin.... yikes! I've never gotten this behind before! Guess that's what happens when your husband brings his board game collection on the trip! LOL

The first day in Berlin was quite nice... we took a city tour which included quite a couple WWII stops- We saw the Holocaust Memorial site (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is its official name) 

as well as Hitler's bunker and the site of the famous book burning. (not pictured here)

We also saw remnants of the Berlin wall.

I'm not a HUGE history nerd, but some history is particularly interesting to me and this trip was full of just that-WWII sites. Seeing the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam as well as the sites in Berlin, and a concentration camp on the last day were all things that I had the upmost respect and appreciation for.

My favorite part of the day however was the Berliner Unterwelten tour which was extremely fascinating. We did tour M which was about escapes from under the Berlin wall. We went underneath the city to take the tour and our tour guide, Joep, was absolutely fantastic. He was so passionate and into telling these stories...we learned so much! 

^^These are replicas of tunnels used to escape from the east to the west in Berlin during the cold war.
By the way, this company also does other tours which seemed just as fascinating, but we unfortunately didn't have enough time to do them all! 

The second day in Berlin we spent visiting the Sachsenhausen Concentraion Camp. It's not a place that people WANT to visit... and it's not something you do for fun, but there is a lot of history there. 30,000 people lost their lives there and the camp has turned into a memorial. Our tour guide repeated over and over how thankful he was that we were coming to pay our respects. So many survivors of the Holocaust fear that once they pass on, people aren't going to remember or believe that the Holocaust actually happened. By showing interest and taking the time to visit and learn, we can educate future generations while at the same time saying NEVER AGAIN will we let this happen. 

I leave you with this quote from Elie Wiesel, an author whose book I read in school:

Catch up....

Yikes!! Falling behind again... speaking of falls... We had one more day in Interlaken in which we did another biking tour. We went to Lauterbrunnen within the Swiss Alps. It's commonly referred to as the land of 72 waterfalls. We went through the Trümmelbach Falls cave, but it was a little rushed as we had to make it back to town to catch a train. The falls produce 20,000 liters of water per second!!

You can see some pictures below:

This tour, again, was done through Flying Wheels. One of the highlights from the tour was traveling with my hund! (that means dog in German!)  ;) I really hope my dog is adventurous as this little one!! (you can see him strapped onto his owner in the back!)

After our time in Interlaken we went over to Hamburg to see Miniatur Wunderland!  It was exceptionally done and a LOT of thought has gone into the display... just like that of EnterTRAINment Junction. We took a behind the scenes tour and so much of the tour was similar to the behind the scenes tour at EJ.

I'm a bit partial, (obviously) but I was hoping Miniatur Wunderland would be more immersive and it wasn't.... (with the exception of one part) Most of the exhibit is walking around looking at trains running around on a table... not really feeling like you're IN the display. Don't get me wrong- the trains, cars, planes (!!) and boats were fully automated and very impressive... and there are so many hidden details you could spend FOREVER looking at everything. It has its pros and cons for sure, but we easily spent 4-5 hours there and that wasn't even seeing every little detail!! 

Three of my favorite parts about Miniatur Wunderland:
1. THE PLANES TAKING OFF/LANDING. The airport is mighty impressive.
2. THE FRICKIN' CHOCOLATE BAR THAT COMES OUT OF THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY WHEN YOU PRESS THE BUTTON.
3. The fact that they honor so many different cities and countries in their displays!

Next post will feature our time in Berlin!

Mt.Titlis and Interlaken

Ahhh! Got behind on the blog so this post covers two days!

Yesterday: we had a day trip up to Mt. Titlis. The ride up included a cable car and rotating gondola... once we got up there we rode the ice flyer which is basically a ski lift... was a nice view! We also did a cliff walk, ate some really yummy gelato, and walked through a glacier cave.

 Today: we arrived in Interlaken.... oh my gosh.... beautiful!!!

Started off with a bike tour of the city. Thanks, Flying Wheels! We visited some small villages that were really cute, a couple lakes, (thunersee and brienzersee) and farms as well. It's amazing to be biking along with mountains all around you! Did I mention the bikes were e-bikes?! Electric assisted bikes... you still have to do the work, but it gives you an extra boost! Makes going up hills a LOT easier!

After a 3 hour biking tour we decided to paraglide! Great view of a beautiful city!!

beautiful Switzerland :)

Back in Lucerne for the first time 11 years. Can't believe it has been that long!!

This time around has been much better...  I like the city last time, but this time it's actually SUNNY and beautiful weather! No rain and clouds like last time!

To start, our hotel is directly across from chapel bridge, which is super nice! We walked up and down the bridge, visited the Lion monument, and walked along the Musegg Wall. (didn't get to do musegg last time!)

The construction for the Chapel Bridge began in 1333. It's the world's oldest surviving truss bridge! (It also has interior paintings throughout!)

                                                             Iconic Jesuit church

      The Lion monument commemorates Swiss Guards who were massacred in the French Revolution

                                                          View from the Musegg wall

Part of the Musegg Wall!

 

We also did paddle boating on lake Lucerne and came back out at sunset to take some AMAZING pictures!!! 

I must have taken hundreds just at sunset alone...  :)   I love travel and I love taking photos. I hope that photos can be used to encourage people to visit new places and try out new things... it's funny because I take 50 photos of the same exact spot at the same exact time because I don't want to miss any of the beauty. I want it all to be captured in my photos, but real life is always better than pictures.

I love Amsterdam!

Sunday:

We woke up and went to Hillsong church... I have now been to Hillsong in Sydney, London, Cape Town, and Amsterdam! :)  We also took a tour of the Anne Frank house which was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Amsterdam in the first place! It was well worth booking 2 months in advance because standing there, seeing the bookcase that hid the family, and walking through each of the rooms was incredible. They give you an audio tour that is quite informative and you see some artifacts throughout as well.

Took some night pictures after dinner:

Monday:

We woke up today and decided to try out a little scavenger hunt thanks to my friend at big city hunt! I always thought the concept of these things were so neat so I was extremely excited to try it out! Basically, you download the app, enter your code and start the search! You have to start at a certain place in the city and the app will guide you to different landmarks, tell you interesting facts, and ask you questions along the way to see if you’re really paying attention! ;) They also give each person a special role with different tasks to complete along the way. We only had one phone so that part was a little tricky! I think if we had more people and everyone had the app on their phone it would have made the “special roles” aspect better. The app itself was super easy to use and again, a great way to see the city! It reminds me of the Amazing Race. :)


We had signed up for (what I thought) was a windmill and tulips tour, but there was some confusion so long story short, we went to see the windmills and left the tour early to go to the Keukenhof Gardens! This was the other HUGE reason for wanting to come to Amsterdam (and the reason why we came when we did!) the weather was  absolutely perfect and the gardens were so beautiful!! They have 7 million tulips and about 2 million visitors during this 7 or so week period where the tulips are in bloom!

More from Switzerland!!

Amsterdam. Day 1

Ah, where to begin...

First and foremost, the night before we left we got a call informing us that one of our friends had passed away. It was sudden and unexpected... very hard to focus on anything that night. Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends at home and we are sorry that we can’t be there with you all during this time.

Second... we had a 4 hour delay (and the flight was almost cancelled!) out of DC to Amsterdam. Not cool. Originally when we were thinking it would be cancelled, United told us we wouldn’t be able to fly out for another two days. HECK NO!!!!

Thankfully, they got us a new plane and all was well.

Third... this was one of the greatest flights I’ve ever had!! I didn’t get sick the entire flight!!!! I also, for the first time ever, actually slept quite a bit!!! Thanks for your shoulder, Mike!! Also for the first time ever I arrived in my destination ready to go... I didn’t feel sleepy or wanting to go rest in the hotel. (This also might have been in part because I wanted to be reunited with my sister!)

Day 1:
Arrived in Amsterdam and met up with Carla and her sister at Upstairs Pancakes. It’s the smallest restaurant in Europe and only has 4 tables... we had strawberry pancakes which were delicious!!!

We then, by chance, wondered into a free walking tour with the help of Carla’s pleading skills. :)  Freedam tours was wonderful and so informative... we all learned a lot!

We took a couple wrong turns after that, but we finally made it to I Amsterdam and the canal cruise.

I was also reminded of why I love traveling with Carla so much... she makes everything fun! She had us all laughing so hard with her constant picture taking and strict rules for taking the perfect photo.

I'm OBSESSED with the buildings here in Amsterdam. I love taking pictures of the houses and businesses along the canals.

That's all for now! :) Will write more tomorrow!!

PRE-TRIP

I'm BAAAA-AACK. 

Welp… I’ve had quite a range of emotions in regards to this trip.

For starters, this trip isn’t quite what I’m used to since it wasn’t all hand picked by me. LOL The main purpose of this trip is, in part, for my dad to see Miniatur Wunderland… he wanted to see more of Germany and Switzerland as well so everything has sort of stemmed from there. Don’t get me wrong- I enjoyed Switzerland and Germany last time I was there (and I did say that I wanted to go back again!) …but I probably would have arranged things differently had it been back in my old solo travel days. (i.e. see other cities, spend more time here, less time there, etc.) But it is what it is and I am still looking forward to this adventure! (And the people accompanying me!)  YAY FOR NO MORE TRAVELING SOLO!

One thing I am NOT looking forward to however is the flight. I don’t think people realize how much I HATE flying… not only do I get antsy sitting for long periods of time, not only am I NOT able to sleep on planes, but now I also get very sick on flights as well. All of this = not a good combination. Plus… does anyone else know that feeling when you arrive at your destination and you’re super tired? You feel gross because you haven’t showered in 24 hours and it’s just an all around nasty feeling…. Yeah, I hate it. Most of the time hotels won’t let you check in until the afternoon so you have to go around feeling bad for the first part of the day until you get a nice shower. BLAGH

Side note: I can’t believe it has been 13 years since my FIRST trip overseas/FIRST trip to Europe. HOW CAN THAT BE?!?! On the right, you can see one of my first pictures of Europe... VENICE!

One thing that I love about travel is that even though a particular destination might not be your first choice to visit, it’s still unique and it’s a chance to get away from the everyday routine! The sites, the smells, the culture… everything is different so how can you be bored with that?! Whether you’re a foodie, an artist, an adrenaline junkie, a history lover… there’s something for everyone everywhere.  

I’ve had a new continent to visit for the past 3 years and now I’m taking a break and heading back to Europe for the 4^th time!  One thing extra special about this trip is catching up with my sweet German sister!

For those of you who don’t know Carla….

Carla is from Germany and her and I met online back in 2013. (so it’s kind of perfect we’re meeting up for our 5 year friendiversary!) …. We were both interested in traveling around New Zealand and didn’t have anyone to travel with us. We ended up both using a site called helpx which is a volunteer based organization that allows you to work in peoples homes (cleaning, gardening, housework) in exchange for meals and accommodation. We met up in New Zealand, traveled over a month around the country together, and then a couple years later we decided we liked each other so much we met up again in Spain! We’ve kept in touch through the years and whenever we get together we have such a blast and laugh our heads off… she has been the best and longest online relationship that I’ve ever had and I can’t wait to be reunited!! :D 

Another special thing about this trip is that Mike’s parents are going to be meeting up with us in Berlin! (Hi Mike’s parents!)

Will write more when I arrive in Amsterdam!