June

The first two weeks of June, Patrick and I went to Europe. Yes it does sound uppity. Don't care, I absolutely love Europe, and would go every year if I could. We flew into Paris and picked up a car. I will talk more about that at the end.

 We drove from Paris to Reims for the night. By the time we got there the only place we could eat was Burger King. The next morning we were up early and on our way to Verdun. Along the way we saw some memorials for the french soldiers in WW1. We then toured the trenches, cemetery, fort, and museum. It was so beautiful. After touring and reading all about the battle, I can't imagine what those poor men on both sides went through.

 From Verdun, we drove to Brugge in Belgium. Brugge was great. It was full of french fries, canals, chocolate, and windmills. We walked the town. We toured the french fry museum. We sampled hot chocolate. We even took a canal tour. I would most definitely return there sometime.

From Brugge we were off to Trier. We were supposed to stay the night there, but we found there wasn't much there, so we drove on to Wurtzburg. But while we were there, we were able to see the roman ruins, enjoy a german town square, and pick up a painting.

 The next few days of our trip took us down the "Romantic Road" in Germany. We went through tons of medieval towns. We walked town walls, ate tons of pretzels and sausage, and saw some of the most beautiful country side.

 The end of the road was Fussen. Here we were able to go to the local castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle from Disney Land is based on. We took the scenic route off the mountain, so we got see the waterfalls.

 After Germany, we were off to Switzerland. However on the way, we made a pit stop in Austria. The Aldi's there are called Hofer, so of course we had to stop.

 In Switzerland, we stayed in Bern. It had a nice old town with these great fountains, a big clock, and even bears. The problem with Switzerland was the price. Everything was way over priced. Even eating on the cheap, it was still over $30.

 Our second day in Switzerland, we drove out to one of the ski resorts. We road the Gondola up the mountain. We walked all over, up and down the mountain. We saw waterfalls and lakes. Then we road the alpine slide on top of the mountain. It was beautiful.

 We headed back into France next. We visited several cute little towns in the Alsacs region. We stayed in Strasbourg. It had the best cathedral. We even took another canal tour. Our second day, we toured one of the castles nearby. The castle was restored by Archduke Ferdinand.

 Our last stop was Paris. We turned the car in when we got there. The car was great, but we are still not sure how much it is going to cost us. First we lost a hubcap. That was an extra $200. Patrick also got at ticket, that we are still waiting to see how much it is going to cost. But it was the best way to get around. We had the tiniest apartment ever. The nice part was it had the best location. We decided to tour Versailles again. Unfortunately I had two horrible blisters on my feet, so all the walking about killed me, but I wasn't going to let it stop us for seeing what we wanted to. After that we just shopped, ate, and saw a few new places.

 Our trip was amazing. I can't wait until next time. The day after we got home, this happened. Thankfully Matilda heard something in the closet outside, and we caught this. Patrick was able to change it out quickly without any issues, so we are very grateful.

 In honor of our trip to Switzerland and the fact that we couldn't afford fondue, we had some when we got home with the girls. They loved it. Next time we will do all three courses.