Milan, Italy (May 26&27)

Munich, Germany (May 17-21)

We saw lots in Munich, and will show you more, but this seems to stand out. In this church, we hung out with this patron saint of unwed mothers who is still looking fly after dieing in the year 300. Yes. 300. And yes, those are her actual bones. Yes, 300. Yes, real bones. Still intact. Not her real eyes.

Seriously though, very eerie, we couldn't believe it and no one else seemed as shocked as we were.

Vienna, Austria (May 14-16)

Ok so we found a computer with USB in this little town Engelberg so we will post Vienna which was right after Prague and before Munich (MAy 14-16th). Vienna was gorgeous with countless museums and beautiful architecture from every period. We only went into the Lipizzaner Museum (the famous white stallions) and pretty much just wandered around the city. It was very clean and was the safest here of any city with virtually no crime rate. So not much time to explain everything, but even we don`t know what everything is. We just need to get pics up so we don¨t miss our bus!


Vienna at night (it looked so fake!)









Our Hostel









Schnitzel!!They put some kind of drug in that stuff!











Finally clean clothes! Jodi was so excited to do laundry








Museumplatz courtyard (lots of museums, people just chill in the middle and read and draw)







Lipizzaner stables












Hofsburg Museum and horse carriage obviously













The Volksgarten (peoples garden) with hundreds of different types of roses











A sophie hat store for Mama V!!

Zürich, Switzerland (May 22-26)

You...you people of Zürich, you think you are so special, drinking your drinks from glasses, eating your hot food from restaurants, you think you are better than us?! Well you are!! Why? Because we cannot afford to do much of anything here. Literally it costs 27 CHF for a burger and fries at a restaurant. Keep in mind that the exchange is about 1.11 CAD = 1 CHF. Ya. So we having been shopping at the Co-op and eating loads of chocolate because it is the cheapest thing. Which is not so bad. We are actually mowing down and bar with nougat as we type this. All we drink is warm iced tea from a carton because it is 80 cents. This post is precious too. It costs 10 CHF for 1 hour of internet. So appreciate it. We still are behind on our posts but that looks like it will have to wait and it will be a little out of order when we do. It doesn`t look like Italy will be much better. There may be a huge gap of time where the blog goes untouched for a few weeks. But for all you hardcores out there (you know who you are!) we will keep checking it for comments because we are also obsessed.

Zürich is not all bad of course. The ridiculous prices have forced us to do other things like hang out by the lake and feed the swans (Diasy you'd love it, much bigger than penguins or squirrels). So at least our tan is free. It is so freakin hot here and no A/C (for us anyway). Good practice for Dubai and Asia.

The city is spotless and beautiful as the crystal clear river runs through the middle into Zürich lake. We sit on the steps down by the river and put our feet in, its really cold and refreshing. It looks like you can drink it. Jodi said "I would like to have a drink of that." So Jodi did. Tawnya'a mouth dropped as she heard the splash and looked over in amazement as Jodi's cupped hand served her up a nice cold drink. Tawnya is convinced the beaver fever will come on any day now. Jodi however is not worried and not thirsty. Good job Jode. Jodi also says there are no beavers here.

Tomorrow we are headed further into the mountains to a small resort village called Engelberg (angel mountain). Should be nice to be on a coach with AC. Heidi best be waiting to sign autographs, as you can imagine, it is not so cheap to do day trips. We are off to Milan for the weekend (havn't you always wanted to say that?!)and then to Venice on Monday. Sooo... that should be pretty crappy ;)

Just wanted to update everyone a little as like we said it may be a while before we can do this again with out selling our bodies for internet money. Much love to everyone at home, we miss you all!!

Neuschwanstein Castle

This is the castle we are trying to get to today!! Just killin time waiting for the train right now as the tour was cancelled so we are finding our own way. Yay! Good ol' independence. Hope it works out...

Copy and this paste this address to see...moms you can directly type it in the address slot. Yes, we said slot.(for mitz and keeks)

http://www.hohenschwangau.de/552.0.html

Update: WE MADE IT!!! Here is our evidence. We only have pics of the outside as it was not allowed to take pics inside. The inside was just as storybook fairytale as the outside. We got to see the throne room which is too amazing to describe, the bedroom (which had a toilet and running water back then) and a secret entry to the King's living room which had a man-made cave grotto. The door handles were swans and every corner was painted vibrantly. Well, only 18 rooms, as the castle was never finished. The King (Ludwig II) had a mysterious death and was deemed insane (although no evidence to prove this) by many before his death. He apparently was trying to sell parts of Bavaria to finance finishing his castle.

It was a 20 minute hike up to the castle although signs say 45 mins. Or you can take a horse drawn carriage. We got a half hour guided tour (the only way to see the inside) and then we hiked up to Marions Brigde which you can see below. We got some fantastic views of the castle and lower town and country. Pretty not bad day. Although we got caught in the rain at the very end, it was an incredible place to experience.












Views from the castle.












Marion's Bridge



Views from the bridge













Photo ops along the hike, Fussen train station and Hohenschlagger something castle in the town.

Praha!!

We arrived in Prague on May 9 by plane as it was nearly the same price to take the train. The hostel was great other than the 5 flights of stairs to our room which even without a backpack was death defying. There really was no one else on our floor so we pretty much had a private apartment. It had a fantastic view of Prague Castle and the Old town. Special mention to the hostel staff (AKA Vera!) who showed us a great night out on the town with her friends. It is an amazing city, maybe the most picturesque european city we have seen. Hopefully the pictures do it some justice. We were surprised at how touristy the city is. However, at night the walk back to the hostel was a gauntlet of sketchy men loitering on street corners most likely eyeing us up (we never made eye contact). The local prostitution ring was also quite apparent, as were the massive ladies cabarets which we understand to pretty much be brothels. But we do not want to paint a bad picture of this city because we really did love it and the local people were fantastic. We were lucky to be directed to less touristy areas and got more of a real feel for Czech culture and nightlife. When walking down the street you see many small looking pubs with a few people sitting at the bar. In reality, if you go in, there is usually many rooms and lower levels underground in cellar like spaces. They were always packed with loads of people dancing or whatever. Fire regulations anyone!? Clausterphobics need not apply. You would never know from the street the massive underground network that exists. It paints a real picture of the medieval origins of the city.














View of the castle from our hostel window







Astronomical Clock in the square











Jewish Quarters and the Jewish Cemetery (we would have had to pay like 10 euros to go into so forget it)












On the Charles Bridge, and the next two are the Prague Castle (and Cathedral)











Entrance to the castle. These guards switch it up every hour. Tawnya actually made eye contact with one.











View from the castle










Out with Alison from Sydney (and the Czech hotdog). The next one are our night out with our Czech friends, Vera, Kya, Lucie and their boys (Vera is the one in the red)And our very first taste of Absinth. Don't worry moms, we didn't hallucinate! Apparently if you drink alot of it things happen...or don't. We still can't believe Nick from Van had 7 and thats all he remembers. Well done.




















The moat behind me. The next pics are of our walk through it. Beautiful!













Jodi marching into the best bagel place ever!!