WE GOT HOME!

We loved Cinque Terre, and had an amazing day just lazzing at the beach. It was beautiful and fun. We needed that down time. Traveling home was a bit crazy, but we made it, after busses and a few train rides later, we got to our hotel in Zurich. Got to our flight bright an early the next day, and had the longest day ever with a lay over in NYC and finally got to TEXAS!  We were so grateful for an amazing trip!

Florence/Cinque Terre

 ON our way to Florence/Firenze...unfortunately something has to go wrong in the trip, and that is Quin's health. He hasn't been feeling that great, probably because we've been doing way too much. He's feeling better today (sun,) but the last couple of days we both have been feeling run down, so take it easy days have been ordered. Yesterday, coming to Florence was nice and easy, and we spent the day walking around the old town and doing the renaissance walk. The old town is full of splendor and charm. sculptures line some of the piazzas. It's beautiful. We loved the duomo (church) and the pink, green and white marble. It's decorated so greatly and very Renaissancey. Thanks Emily Jorgenson for all your tips, I thought of you throughout the city.
We got really lucky, and saw the procession of all the neighborhood rugby/soccer/football, (it's all 3 of those sports together,) teams getting ready for their traditional annual match. It's really neat, they march up the street to the field with drums, trumpets, songs and shouts. It was neat. Quin and I thought it would be fun to go, but due to the fact we were feeling rough, we thought the traditional Uffizi museum of all the local Renaissance art would be better. It was so neat to see original art and compare it to others. The Madonnas' (or Mary's) were all so neat to think of each artist and how they wanted to compare the Virgin Mary. We enjoyed original Rafael work as well as DaVinci and some of our favorites of Venus's birth and Venus's Primavera.
We then knew it should be an early night...got food (take out pasta and pizza with fresh basil and pesto..can't go wrong,) and went to bed. Off to Cinque Terre!

Cinque Terre is marvelous. It's these 5 beautiful villages all stacked up on the side of the west coast of Italy. We are staying in Manarola, (the second village south of all the villages.) They are quaint, filled with cute people milling about, and beautiful turquoise waters. Our view from our hostel is so fun. On top of the hilltop overlooking the Liguara Sea. We are excited to relax after all the hectic city life. We're walking around here (noi esplorare,) and just grateful for God's creations and differences around the world. It's so neat! =)

Cats like to hang out randomly all over, and this one was really interested in this restaurant's kitchen with its live fishies!

Roma....Vatican

Vatican City literally left us breathless. The museum was incredible. More sculptures, beautiful and original...literally pieces of art, artists dream about studying.  It was quite worth the 20€. We spent like 4 hrs there, Raphael's apts with his famous art. I'm so glad we saw his work. The Sistine Chapel was next. Unreal, to be Michelangelo and tilt his head to paint was literally blood, sweat and tears in his face. We marveled at the creation and fall of mankind. So detailed...it took 4 years just to do the ceiling, and 23 years later he was asked to do behind the altar and Rome was different then, and it is evident in the painting. It was incredible. We then toured St. Peter's Square, and St. Peter's Basilica. Woah, huge and amazing. Who knew the square used to be Nero' s chariot races. The Basilica houses most of the dead popes as well as St. Peter himself. As well, as Michelangelo' s pieta. Stunning. Cool history there as its like our Salt Lake Temple Square! Bernini sculpted much here and Michaelangelo did some things as well. We really loved this 24 year holy door that the pope only opens every 24 years....So we have to wait another 11 years for it.

The Vatican wiped us out, off to siesta time...then The Dolce Vita tour after to see Augustus's mausoleum and the Altar of Peace and off to dinner at this next place behind The Pantheon, Miscellanea. Loved Roma but too crazy, lots of scammers....but so dreamy and so historical...on our way to Firenze or Florence. 

St. Peter's Square- SO HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL

Quin at Raphael's Apts. in the Vatican Museum

St. Peter's Basilica- The Dome

Roma

Rome is totally crazy busy...Our first night we toured The Colesseum. It's a history teachers dream! It was amazing. Quin and I really just took it all in. It took them years to build. It fit 50,000 ancient Romans!!! Even slaves, woman and others. They had the first sports roof essentially. We really loved being there, thinking about the fans screaming for their favorite barbarian or gladiator...or wishing their death. We spent some time just sitting there taking it all in. WE then took the Heart of Rome tour, where it was difficult to find Campo Di Fiori, this neat piazza. When we finally did, we were super tired and wanted to speed it up. Crazily, we met people from Palatine, IL, small world. The Italian piazzas are amazing..there everywhere with public drinking fonts. It was just a dream walking through them. The Pantheon at night, Trevi fountain lit up, amazing gelaterias, I loved it. Getting lost really didn't matter....even though Rome is crazy confusing.
The next day we toured The Pantheon. Yes, the idea came from Greece, but they actually didn't want it to be the same. They wanted it to be more rounded in the back and have different things inside. That was successful. Even  though, someone measured off and the roof is uneven. There was Raphael' s tomb, a dedicating to the royal Savoy family,  and just super pretty. Plus, for St. Peter's Basilica, they took bronze from The Pantheon, as well.as some ideas from the dome to make it better and grander. We then had amazing, cheap pizza and walked around. Took a brief siests and headed to the Roman Forum. Holy cow, this place was neat. Blew me away with all that's left. Arches, history from B.C. times are amazing. Julius Caesar's temple where he was buried right by his house (even though he was killed in a Senate meeting not nearby, when normally meetings did take place in that area.) The grassy area nearby, where Romans sold fast food because their apts were too small they often didn't cook. We just felt it come alive...We really liked Palatine Hill, where the legend of Remix and Romulus were raised by a she-wolf and took over the nearby city and stole the women to essentially create Rome. Their huts, as well as gardens and Augustus' s (Julius Caeser' s son who was great and brought peace,) house facing Rome were amazing. We can chat later if you want history teacher details =)
After, we attended the national museum of Rome's sculpture and mosaics. We loved it...escape the heat, see history...Roman sculptors...Hercules, Zeus....and then everyday, normal people. We also saw best preserved mosaics from normal people's homes.
We then ate at an Irish pub...sounds weird, but it was recommended and it was great!

Famous Spanish Steps

Venice To Roma

One of Venice's many random piazzas in the maze of streets

We had just arrived- thus completing my dream!

Mon June 11

So after the long six hr train ride we finally arrived, and the weather was beautiful. We first took our bus to Mestre, which took longer than you may think.  When we arrived, luckily Quin is the guru of traveling, we found our airbandb.com apt, and met our owner...she's great...gave us the keys to our rm and we were off to Venice. We took the Grand Canal tour via Rick Steve's audio tour, and it was gorgeous. Wagner died here, really neat old, medieval houses still dot the canal.  We just took it all in. The sights, smells, sounds of Venice. It's hard to phrase into words how breathtaking the canal is, but it's an amazing perserved city.  We got off at St. Zacharia vaporetto stop, which led to San Marco Piazza (St. Mark's Square).  We knew we needed to eat, but we were just exploring this huge place. Everyone's trying to sell things...some guy handed me a flower...yep not free, so we handed it back and he got mad! We ate at a delicious restaurant, and met our friend Richard. He's from Ohio, but lives in China. He was a super nice guy and we chatted for awhile. We were grateful for really nice people. He actually got a pizza for his son, and he didn't want it, so he gave it to us. We were so happy and grateful. We decided to get home knowing it would take some time. We were right. We took the vaporetto back, and the bus home. Btw don't leave Italian windows open for awhile, bugs get in....that's what welcomed us home! Yay! 

After a goodnight's rest today, we had a cute Italian breakfast and got on our way back to Venice to explore and figure out our train tickets via Roma. We had to take our luggage with us around Venice, which was quite the adventure. However, it was so fun around Venice, exploring the small streets, getting panini's...seeing the luster of the piazza's was awesome. Loving the public drinking fountains was my favorite. We loved seeing the birds, local Venetians and the beautiful bridges all throughout the city. On our way to Roma we met some fellow Chicagoans from Yorkville (shoutout to mom...their kids go to St. Mary's church in Plano...i think) and also from Elmhurst. It was super fun to talk to them about Chicago, life..., church...it was really neat to connect with them. The man was a financial planner too...what are the odds? We really enjoyed the four hour train ride a lot more. 

More Munich

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau  were two amazingly large castles near Munich where King Maximillian II lived with his Prussian wife Marie and they lived in their summer hunting castle Hohenschwangau. Mad King Ludwig II inherited next at 19, because his dad died early. Ludwig is super interesting, broke off an engagement to Princess Sissy's sister Sophie, obsessed with the composer Wagner who Hitler liked, and mysteriously died in a lake near Munich at 40. Rather mysterious. We have our theories, but no one is really sure what happened. Our friends in Munich say he was the Michael Jackson of the 19th century. He was very artsy and interested in music and building his new castle, Neuschwanstein. We loved the castles and walking around. They were so particular with style and architecture, it was very interesting.

Neuschwanstein- stands for new swan stone

Ice swan Land- or Hohenschwangua

We later went to the Hofbraeuhaus, which is a traditional Bavarian drinking house. The food was great. Really good spaetzl and pretzels. We stayed there for houses drinking in...the atmosphere of the whole place, of course. We had a crazy Bavarian drunk man yelling at people right next to us. Our German friends were getting mad at him, and they tried to calm him down, but instead he tried to explain the Bavarian rules for these houses from 600 years ago! ha...Apparently, you can have a locker with your beer stein and you are assigned a spot due to tradition. You can basically stay there all night if you wish. Some Bavarian men are nicer than others. We then had a personalized tour of the city with our friends. It was great. We were so grateful to hang out with them and reconnect. We saw the opera house, the main piazza, beautiful gardens, and the town hall that looks like a church at MarienPlatz. It was a great night.  Off to Italy now via train.

Recently re-done where many rich people would live to go to the opera in the olden days across the street

Hofbraeuhaus

Our Provo friends now living in Munich!

The Town Hall that looks like a castle! This is only half of the building!

Munich!

Sunday was great. We were most excited because church was a 2-3 min walk from our hotel. We arrived and two members were waiting outdoor
outside. We asked them about church,and they said it wasn't here today. We then all finally decided it was at a hotel, and Elder Nelson was visiting. It was a rare privilege to be on vacation, and be treated by an apostle of the Lord. Wev) felt really blessed to listen to the Munich mission president and his wife, as well as the temple president. Then sister Nelson and Elder Nelson spoke. I felt the theme of the meeting was go to the temple, help the missionaries, the Book of Mormon is true and that's why we do peculiar things, and keep pushing onward even when things may look less hopeful. Elder Nelson said, keep trusting in the Lord no matter what happens in life. Floods may come, (as they did in Germany,) things may test our faith. Keep on! He also explained that we need to help our kids with the scriptures and help them to learn another language. Be with them, encourage them. While we were there, Quin ran into two sisters that he taught in the MTC. It was a small world, they sure weren't expecting him to be there. We also ran into some old friends from Provo! What are the odds? They happen to be living in Munich because she grew up nearby. We chatted with them for awhile.

We ended up going to Dachau Concentration Camp for the rest of the afternoon. We probably needed another day to be there. We got through half the museum, and some of the other things were closed. I learned so much here, and was fascinated by the people who were here. It was such an awful experience, and it made me grateful for where I grew up, and all that I have. The camp is huge, and the barracks were small. It was amazing to think everyday, normal people lived here, as it was open for around 12 years! There are now five churches commemorating all of the lives that were lost. It was great to see that. I was most impacted by the pictures of the inmates, and the propaganda used to tell everyone else that the inmates were treated well, and to remember they were prisoners and bad. It was fascinating all of the clean equipment and dental things that were never actually used for the inmates but for the dead to extract gold teeth worth a lot. I was moved and touched by the museum, and was in a somber mood as we continued around the camp. I will never forget all I felt there and all that it represents. It's truly a remarkable place full of learning and enlightenment.

It's hard to know what to do in these pictures, smile or not? so it's a half smile...Entrance to Dachau, also this was the train and road used to bring the people, that had no idea where they were going. Just thought it was a nice walk.

If you work then you are free is what this is saying

The horrible conditions of where they slept

Facing the main part of Dachau inside

We went to the BMW museum after and looked around at all the neat concept cars soon to come out. We then ate some amazing Italian food preparing us for Italy.

Prague into Salzburg/Munich THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!

We love Salzburg

What a day! We finished off Prague with a beautiful St. Peter & Paul cathedral visit. Conveniently, it was right by our hotel. We just walked right to it. It was above us, sheltered by a big castle wall in a little village. We walked around the cemetery first and found a famous composer's, (Dvorak,) grave. It was a beautifully decorated graveyard with a bright sunny day, so it wasn't as creepy. The church was beautiful with baroque, gothic architecture inside and out. There was actually a wedding as we were there. We then preceded onto Salzburg. Such a historically Alive city. It was full of grandeur with the Alps in the back. Just magical. We checked into our Austrian haus and it was so cute like an Austrian little villa. We then decided to attend dinner and a Konzert at the historic castle of Salzburg. The food was okay, but the view was breathtaking. The concert was all our favorites, because it was Mozart, Bach, Dvorak, Schubert and Hydan...and perfect for the musical city "of class." This morning 6/8, was our morning self tour of Old Town. We loved it. The neat Roman architecture, Roman arches...Mozart Platz, the markets...just a neat place. We loved the views, especially of the Alps. We ran into a Sr. couple today serving in nearby Austria with their family. We recognized them because of their son's BYU shirt. Small world! We ended up getting a delicious traditional Austrian meal of sausages for lunch. A Sulzburger and a Bosna roll thing. It was delicious. We drank Almdudler, which is an Austrian ginger ale. Yum yum! We had fresh strawberries from the market and are on our way via Munchen! We got to Munich, and ate at restaurant Opatija...it was great. Huge cornflakes crusted schnitzel and just joy!  With a little walk around the city ended with a great day and wonderful evening. The weather was splendid and we feel like we're getting used to this European thing!

View of the Alps from our sweet little loft room

Our room

Day 8-Prague

View on top of St. Nicholas Church of Praha

Stairs leading up to the Royal Palaces...Quin loved this

Changing of the guards. The men loved this!

Beautiful Old Town. I LOVE THIS AREA RIGHT HERE!

Beautiful Prague church

Quin=Knight

These amazing cinnamon rolls on a stick called-Trdelnik- OMG AMAZING

The amazing bell tower

St. Peter and Paul right by where we were staying

Wow...Prague is an amazing magical city. So much of old mixed with new. We started off at St. Nicholas's church and hiked up to the bell tower. It was a magnificent view of the city and the flowing trees and rooftops. We then walked up the castle steps to the palace grounds where the Czech president works today. So neat, with their own 17th c. castle. pretty convenient. My favorite part was Old Town. The huge, sprawling city center, the old clocks. I felt like Mandy Moore on Chasing Liberty...lol They also have these rolled cinnamon roll things that were heaven...can't go wrong with that. We took a bus tour and loved the city's history...dating far back. What a blessing WWII didn't hit this remarkable city where my first novel may take place in =') I also felt at home,(despite my lack of Czech,) becuause my grandpa is from somewhere in this area...So it was neat to want to learn more about my people, the bohemians. All in all go visit Prague or Praha everyone!

Day 7-Enroute to Prague 6/5/13

We first stopped in Lisbrec where Quin's companion from the mission lived, and it was so neat to hang out and learn about the Czech Republic. It was a great day with them and traveling to get to Prague. Prague at night is amazing!

Our cute hotel