Austria :)

Austria is a beautiful country. I loved every minute of it. Well, the hotel in Salzburg was hot and noisy, so excluding those minutes it was wonderful!!!

WHO KNOWS WHAT THIS IS??? First person to answer correctly in the comments gets a souvenir from Russia!

The Hellbrunn Palace, some scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed here.

Beautiful Salzburg!

Children in traditional dress. I'd love a dress like this one day...

Waltzing in the parking lot :D

The Mirabell Gardens, more Sound of Music scenes filmed here. Once I get access to Dad's pictures I'll post more of the family. :)

Salzburg at night. The cliffs are right there at the end of the city!

Now to Vienna... A Beautiful bright city.

Madame Lucy the Photographer ordered a ballet pose. It turned out well! I think... Street cafes are everywhere. The Big building is a big palace.

And of course, the Danube river. Well, that's it for Austria, now we move to Czech Republic!

Germany

Although we only drove through Germany, I saw tons of beautiful scenery through the car window. I was able to take some pictures... not decent in my eyes, but I'll show them anyway. When we did stop, we stopped at gas stations. I was impressed by the quality of food there. It's really made there, with quality ingredients. WOW! And! On the famous, Autobahn! And I thought we were going fast, people came zipping by, some going 180-200 km/hr!!!! CRAZY!!!

And some of the beautiful German countryside.

A church that we passed...

And this, believe it or not is Berchtesgaden! It's really in Austria but technically in Bavaria which is more Germany. And I have way too many pictures for Austria. Well, that's all for Germany.

Update Finally!

Hi again! Yes, it's been a while since I've updated and I apologize ... I will start by doing a post on each country we visited on our drive through Eastern Europe. For now, we are in Russia, moving into our own apartment tonight! Yay!

Rhinefalls!

Now, last post from Switzerland for a while. :) We went to the Rhinefalls today. Here are a few pictures:

Simply beautiful!!!

and the sun sets on our time in Zürich, Switzerland. We'll be back in December. I don't know how much I'll be able to blog while we are on our Road trip... I'm guessing not much. But I'll have to dump my pictures sometimes!!! Off to finish packing now!

Postcards

Please let me know if/when you receive your postcards because then I know how long it takes to get mail to each of you! Thanks!

Culture Galore!

Today we went to Ballenberg, a village with an open-air museum. The museum shows really old buildings and crafts from Switzerland back in the 1500s - 1800s. It was an amazing cultural experience into the country where I was born.

On our drive up, we stopped at a viewpoint of the village below. That lake in the photo, is SO blue. The clouds made it grey but when we were driving down beside it, it was as blue as ummm the iTunes logo! (ok, not the best comparison, but it was the right blue!!!)

Up in Ballenberg, the little chapel there. Built in the 18th century.

A house and barn built in 1568. Inside, the loom. At this museum, people are there to actually use the loom, make the cheese, weave the baskets, etc!

A mountain house where the shepherd boy lived during the summers on the mountains.

Making Cheese!!!!!

Tons of cowbells....

FRESH cheese and hand carved wood carvings. We saw the carver carving some camels for a nativity scene. SO MUCH DETAIL goes into them.

A little petting area where the goats came to nibble you... They are adorable... I love goats...

PIGGIES!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS THEY ARE THE CUTEST THINGS EVER!!!!!!

The old village

Our Lunch! (don't covet)

Mama and baby cows... Oh so beautiful... Then we left the museum, and went into Meiringen to visit none other than.... SHERLOCK HOLMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and the Reichenbach Falls...

And last, but not least, the clouds opened up for us to be able to see the freshly snowed upon mountains. :D Beautiful!!!