Mumsy and Guvna take on Europe: A 2016 Europe Trip Report! updated 5/29/2017

[annegirl]

On the side of the sidewalk at one point they had an entire section blocked off and the wind was blowing the green covering up. We could see that they were filming a movie behind it. I would love to know what it was!

Looking back toward the Arc...

I was told that if we needed anything we should stop at a Monoprix, that they were the closest thing to a Target. It really wasn't like a Target but it was a nice shop.

We went in when we passed one on the Champs Elysees as we were still looking for a few things and knew we would be leaving Paris the next morning.

My bag..

We ended up getting a few souvenirs and gifts in there (my mom got a cool Paris bag) and we also picked up some easy food to take back to our room for dinner.
We got some chicken sandwiches.

We went back to our room, warmed up, enjoyed our little picnic dinner, and said goodnight to the Eiffel Tower for the last time.

It was an absolutely wonderful, very full day where we ended up walking about 16 miles.
We were very tired.


​

 

[annegirl]

On Sunday, April 24th we woke up at 4am so we could meet our early train.We showered, finished packing, and got ready to go. We had zone bars but then when we were checking out they gave us some Pain au Chocolat to take along with us for a morning snack later.

We got a taxi to the Gare Lyon train station.

Everywhere we had been in Paris had a tremendous amount of security. There were armed guards at all of the big places, we were scanned before we were allowed on the boats. So we were really shocked when we saw how little there was at the train station.

We walked right in and to the area to wait for our trains. There was no ticket men between the waiting area and the trains the way there were at Paddington in London.

There was no security.

I became really nervous during this time period because there was one man that looked to be in his twenties that was sitting near us... he got up and ran over to the other side of the station. I then noticed him coming down off of one of the trains and go over by another one where I noticed he was just standing by it and it looked like he was touching it.

Then he got on another train and then a few minutes later back off of it again.

He ran up to many of the trains and then I saw him run out of the exit.

That made me extremely nervous.

At the same time there was a man that kept approaching us for money and food and so we had to be really diligent in watching our things.

I prayed that when it was time for our train that it would be one that hadn't been approached by the man that had left and.. it wasn't. I was so grateful.

We got on the train and I realized that I have heard so many people say they love train travel so much and yet it was just stressing me out. I think that if I only had a backpack it wouldn't have but we had so much luggage and apparently I'm not the most trusting person so I hated leaving it near the doors while finding a place to sit away from it.

Our train went to Bellegarde first. That was about a two and a half hour train ride.

The scenery was very pretty.

Then we had about a half an hour to the station in Geneva.

This was a very stressful day for me that had me in tears a few times and so, so grateful at other times. Story time!

When we got on the train in Paris I wasn't sure where to put the luggage at first.

We found a little room by the door and so we walked into there to leave it. The door closed with us in the room. It was a metal door and we couldn't find anyway to open it from the inside. We freaked out a bit more than we probably should have and it makes me laugh now but we were banging on the door. Finally someone opened it and showed us the button that we had missed. Ha.

No one spoke any English at all so our limited French didn't help much at this point.

We got to Bellegarde and got off the train. We couldn't see any other platforms except the one right next to us and there was no train there and we only had minutes between trains.

We got in really late so we were afraid we had missed it.

I saw a worker and approached to ask him if he spoke English to ask for help. He shook his head and seemed very annoyed with me. I tried to explain what we needed as well as I could but he waved me away. I walked away and we tried to ask a few people but no one could speak to us.

I was so stressed and at this point thinking he was the worst.. but then I was humbled because he noticed us still standing and came over. He spoke to us but we couldn't understand him. He pointed to a spot that we hadn't noticed before on the other side of a building. Then he called on his radio and told the train to wait for us. He then took my luggage and started walking really fast down the ramp and through a building while we followed him.

The train waited for us.

Let that sink in because we were told before and since that Swiss trains never wait.

We thanked him, thanked the woman waiting on the next train to help us on, and found our seats. As soon as the doors shut behind us, the train left.

When we arrived at Geneva we had to go through customs. The guys waved us through without checking our passports or anything and we found ourselves in a long hallway with signs for many terminals and we had no idea where to go. At this point the stress hit me and I started getting tears welling up in my eyes. My mom went and found a man that was speaking with some others while I prayed we could figure out where to go.

It was another little miracle. He not only spoke English quite well but he was the nicest guy in the world.He took us up to our platform but the train was pulling away as we got there.

I was so crushed because I thought we were out of luck but he told us that our tickets would be good for the next one as well. We spoke with him for awhile and then a woman from England heard us speaking English came over and chatted with us.

We bought some sandwiches and drinks at the station to take on with us since we now had some extra time. When the next train arrived at 11:30 we thanked him and said goodbye.

We got on this next train and there was hardly anyone in the car. We got a good spot for our luggage and confirmed with the next girl that got on that we were indeed on the train we needed to be on.



This train had some great scenery as we made our way around Lake Geneva.

This train seemed so much nicer than the ones we had been on so far. We had a lot of room , there weren't many other passengers, and the seats were so comfortable.

We got out our foccacia bread sandwiches and had an hour of bliss on this train.

The food was delicious. We chatted and relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the cozy seats, and the relaxed atmosphere of the train after so many stressful hours.

Then....

The ticket guy came through.

We showed him our tickets and he shook his head.

He told us we needed to get out.

At first I was so freaked out and confused but then he was able to explain that we had 2nd class tickets and we were sitting in 1st class. Woops.

He told us we could pay the extra or move to the next car back.

We felt dumb but were glad we were able to experience it anyway.

Our luggage felt safe there so we left it where it was and went back into the next car back.

It was really funny.

The next train stop we got off and we were so happy.

EVERYTHING was labeled in German so I could understand it better. I only know a little French but I took German for a few years and while I am no longer fluent I can usually understand it well.

We got off of our train and were on our way to the next platform.

Everything was labeled so much better as well so this was a really easy switch.

We were now on our train that would take us to Zermatt.
Yay.
A huge group of 200 Americans got onboard a little bit after us. They were SO loud and outgoing but very friendly.
The scenery was incredible. My pictures can not do it justice.

​

 

[annegirl]

The higher we got, the more beautiful it became.
The river was a really stunning crystal bluish green.

When we arrived in Zermatt we exited the train station.
We could have walked to our hotel but because we had so much luggage we decided to get a little taxi.
Cars aren't allowed here so they just have little electric powered taxis.
It took us right to the front door of our hotel.

We were so happy to be done with trains for the day and to be in Zermatt!
​

 

[annegirl]

We checked into our lovely chalet style hotel, The Hotel Antika.

This place was great. The people were friendly, the place was pretty and clean, they had a free breakfast, and we got a room with a view of the Matterhorn for just over $100.

Such a pretty setting.
Also, the outlets were different from my adapters. I had some for England and some that were generic European that worked in France and Germany. Neither fit here. I went to the front desk to ask if they had any for purchase but they gave me some to borrow for free.

Our room:

Our view was amazing every way you looked.

Our view of the Matterhorn didn't pan out too well as it was shrouded in clouds.
Every once in a while we would get a little peek of it but for the most part we couldn't see the peak.
Still gorgeous though.

After settling in we went out to walk around town.

Just up the road from our hotel there was a church with a graveyard.
It is called the Mountaineer's cemetery.
It is filled with the graves of those who have died in the mountains around this area, most from the 19th century.
One of the gravestones is for two climbers that died of natural causes, not on the mountain. It is that of a father and son, both named Peter Taugwalder. They were the guides for the first person to climb the Matterhorn, Edward Whymper. They were the only three that survived that first climb. They made the ascent on July 14, 1865 but on the way back down the other four members fell. All are buried here except one that they couldn't find.
On some of the headstones it tells you how they died whether it was falling, an avalanche, etc.
One headstone says, "I chose to climb." The climber's red axe is on his stone.
There is also a memorial to accident victims in recent years.
It was really interesting to walk around looking at the different headstones and memorials.

​

 

[annegirl]

We did a little shopping as well.

While we were in this little shop I started feeling like the ground was moving when I was standing still. My mom mentioned feeling the same way. We realized over the next few hours that we were experiencing something normal to people after long train rides where it makes you feel a bit dizzy and like you are still moving for hours afterward. It didn't really go away until I went to sleep that night.

We stopped in at a cool two story McDonalds to get ice cream.

We then walked back to our hotel to warm up a bit and make a plan for dinner.

We really wanted to have fondue for dinner as that is kind of an iconic dish for this area.

We looked up reviews for a few places and then set out to find them.

We walked through Old Village.

This old part of Zermatt is known as the "Hinterdorf" which means rear village.

The old houses, stables, and barns were built between the 16th and 18th century.

The buildings are made of larch. The roofs are big slabs of rock which were supposed to make the structure more sturdy. The wood in particular was supposed to be resistant to pests and would turn black through the years which made it better at storing heat.

Many of them were built on stilts to keep out pests, especially mice. Also, the animals would often live on the ground floor or under to provide heat for the above floor.

The places we went to eat were not open so we walked back up by our hotel and found a little spot in a building up the road. It was an interesting place with a very laid back vibe. They seemed surprised to see us and we were the only women there besides the workers. We wondered if maybe it was mostly locals.

They had fondue so we were happy to try it out.

I told my mom that in her striped shirt and cap she looked like the hamburgler and she did this... so funny.

There were a few kinds of fondue. It was crazy expensive. I think about $25 a person if I am remembering right.
There was the basic cheese fondue and then one that was more expensive that said "with herbs". I assumed that meant herbs in the cheese but it actually meant vegetables. So ours did not come with veggies like I thought it would.
It was only the cheese fondue, chunks of bread, and little baked potatoes.

It was really good at first, especially on a cold evening... but after a little while it got old.
It was a fun experience but I would recommend if you are trying to keep cost down to just go ahead and eat at the McDonalds and then use your cash for some of the other things like the yummy Swiss chocolate shop. However if you want the fondue experience and don't mind spending the money, it was fun.

After dinner we went back to our room, relaxed for awhile, and went to bed.
I bought three souvenirs in Zermatt....
I got these St. Bernard beanie boo stuffed animals for the girls and a Zermatt keychain to use as a Christmas ornament.

It was a very long, exhausting day but ending in such a beautiful place was a wonderful way to get over the stress of the trains.
We wished that we could have gone up the mountain on the little train or tram but we knew we didn't want to spend the money (it is expensive) when the Matterhorn was hiding in the clouds anyway.
​

 

[annegirl]

On Monday, April 25, 2016 we woke up in our little chalet hotel in Zermatt.

The Matterhorn was still playing peek a boo in the clouds so I used a Toblerone to see it!

We loved our little patio with the gorgeous view. It had these little cutouts in the wood so I couldn't resist taking a pictures like this.

We decided not to ride the train up higher because it was pretty expensive and there was no guarantee we would get a better view. We decided we would just take our time this morning and then go get our tickets to Germany and start heading that way.
Our hotel had a free breakfast so as soon as we were ready we went down to have that.
Some of the art around the place...

They had a really nice breakfast spread.

I was really worried about more train travel and even tried to figure out if there was a way to get to Freiburg without using a train... but we ended up just going with our original plan.
After breakfast and checking out we took the hotel taxi to the train station and bought our tickets.
It was very expensive but we wanted the least amount of stops possible and it wasn't far off from what we had budgeted for it so it was fine.
I am glad we ended up doing this because the train travel this day was so much better. Part of that was that these tickets told us the platform we would be dropped off at and the one we needed to get to. I don't know why the other tickets didn't do that but it was so nice.
We went from Zermatt to Visp first.

We had been to the station in Visp the day before so it was a smooth transition as we knew right where to go. Also, as we were waiting they announced that the platform had changed but since they said it in German I was able to pick up on it and get us to where we needed to be.
From there we rode the train to Basel.
This was a nice ride.

I was trying to read, but honestly it was hard to do with all the beautiful scenery to look at.
This part of the world is unbelievably stunning.

While we waited for our new train at Basel, we wanted to get lunch but the little cafe only took cash and we didn't have enough on us anymore at this point. That was unfortunate but we had some snacks with us so we turned to those.
We got on our next train and felt like we were on our way to Hogwarts because we had a ROOM! It was so awesome.

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[annegirl]

As soon as we got to Freiburg we called Enterprise and they told us where to meet them. I could see the building they were talking about but wasn't sure on the side of the road so we stood on the side we were on and then watched like hawks for a car that looked right. We saw a car pull up with a guy that looked like he was looking for someone... on the other side. So we ran across the road (at the crosswalk of course) and it was him.

He was a really cool guy and a lot of fun to talk to. As he drove us back to the Enterprise I quizzed him on a lot of the rules of the road and things we would need to know.

We didn't get a BMW like we thought we were going to but the car was really nice and I liked it a lot. The navigation was terrible though. Did not work well at all and we nicknamed it Maria as we sang "How do you solve a problem like Maria? a lot.

As soon as we finished the paperwork we drove out of Freiburg and drove into the Schwarzwald (The Black Forest). It was beautiful.

Soon we were pulling into our hotel. It was a main building and then a bunch of outbuildings all together in the middle of the forest all by themselves. It was amazing.
We stayed at the Best Western Hofgut Sternen.
We were upgraded to the Goethe House which was really fun.
This is the outside of the Goethe House.
Our room was the two windows on the left, ground level.

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, the poet, visited Hofgut Sternen in 1774. He was so impressed by the location that he returned again five years later.
Marie Antoinette also stayed here on her way to her wedding.

Our room:

We were right across from the main building. The painting on the building is of the visit of Marie Antoinette with her entourage of 450 horses and many coachmen in 1770.

There were a lot of cute buildings with little shops in them.
Huge working cuckoo clock....

The Ravenna Viaduct was a target of many bomber attacks during World War 2 but the bridge was never hit. But then right before the end of the war the retreating German forces blew up the three middle pillars.

We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant after doing some browsing and shopping.
We were given a little basket of bread.

My mom had Kasespatzle Bergkase which was pork with fries.

I ordered Schweineschnitzel- in other words Schnitzel with noodles.

It was a very good dinner.
After dinner we went back to our room to relax and just enjoy being there.
While my mom was getting ready for bed I had this funny text conversation with my dad that still makes me laugh... (I'm in blue)

In our room they left these little gummy sheep on our pillows. They were so cute. I took those home to give to Abi and Maddy.

I bought two things at the little shops.
This little ornament...And this owl made from Black Forest wood.

We were tired after another long (but thankfully much less stressful) day of travel.
We didn't have any motion sickness from the trains today so that was a nice change!
We had a wonderful day and were so excited to be in Germany!
​

 

[annegirl]

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 we woke up and enjoyed a nice, free breakfast in our hotel's restaurant.

Then we checked out. We drove through the snow and unbelievably beautiful scenery of the Black Forest.

Our next destination was the small town of Triberg, famous for their cuckoo clocks.

In our opinion Triberg ended up being a bit overrated.

We walked up and down the main hill trying to find a place to try Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte-

Black Forest cake. However even though I had checked hours in advance, the cafe wasn't open for us to have any. The scenery was beautiful of course.

So we just walked around until the Cuckoo Clock shop opened.

We didn't find anything we really wanted in there. They had a lot of amazing clocks but they were quite expensive and not exactly what we were looking for.
I hoped they would have a lot of other little things but they had a lot of random things that didn't interest me.
We left and walked up to the waterfalls.

Then we got back in the car and began our drive to where we would be staying in Bavaria- Garmisch Partenkirchen.
The drive was amazing.

We were hungry and needed some restrooms. Luckily we found a gas station/rest stop.
We went in and were happy to find it very well equipped with shops, restrooms, and a cafe.
I bought some candy to take home to the girls and then we bought some pretzels and pastries for our lunch.
They were delicious!

Then we continued our drive into the Bavarian Alps.

It was so beautiful.
I had to keep pulling over to take pictures and look at everything.
This was my little car.

We spotted these castle ruins up on a hill and had to stop to take some pictures of it. Then I had to just take pictures of everything around me in all directions because it was so pretty.

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[annegirl]

We drove around the corner and saw this huge walking suspended bridge going across the road and a ravine. There were some people up on it. I am assuming it takes you closer to the castle ruins.

We pulled over again on the other side of the hill so I could look back and get a picture of it.

Funny and gross story: After I got back in the car I smelled a very foul stench. I looked at my mom and said, "Did you poop?" That just made us both laugh so hard because it was such a ridiculous question as if 1) she would have and 2) she would be sitting there calmly if she had.

Turned out I had stepped in something while taking these pictures and had it on my shoe.



At this point we were just in awe of the beauty as we were driving. We kept going back and forth between Germany and Austria without changing roads.

Soon we were in our little town.

Then we found our hotel for the next couple of nights... our last European hotel before going home.

We would be staying in the Edelweiss Lodge.

This is a military lodge so we were able to stay here because of my dad being retired Navy.

It is in the most beautiful setting and it was a gorgeous hotel.

The hotel was so nice and the room was big with two queen beds. Very comfortable.

After settling in we went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

It was a buffet and they have a different theme each night.

This night was "Mediterranean" night. We enjoyed soup, spaghetti, salad, and bread sticks along with some dessert.

It was really good.

After dinner we went back to our room, relaxed, and watched Doctor Who.

Doug text me this picture of Maddy showing where her very first tooth fell out during school.

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[annegirl]

Wednesday, April 27, 2016 we got up early to make the drive to Neuschwanstein castle.
It was very cold and snowy.
We bought our tickets online because I was told that it works kind of like a fast pass. You pick the tickets up when you get there but you don't have to wait in the same line as everyone else... plus you are guaranteed entry at the time you want and on the day you want.
We didn't need a different line as there were hardly any other people there for the morning time but I know this is important to know if you go in busier times.
We knew we needed to get there early because if you are not at the castle exactly at your time you are out of luck. They will not wait for you nor let you go at another time.
Online it told us how long to get there before your time but since ours was the first time I learned something... they aren't open that early!
We got there and walked from the car park to the ticket station.
There were people inside but they were content to let us walk and stand around in the snow. Ha. We were pretty freezing.
A selfie while we waited...

Jennifer Rain came along of course...

While we waited we took advantage of the extra time to walk around (trying to stay warm) and take some pictures.
The castle on the hill.

I loved this house's mini castle birdhouse

The other castle- Hohenschwangau is on a neighboring hill very close to Neuschwanstein. They were both castles owned by Ludwig the 2nd. This one was his childhood castle. Neuschwanstein was his dream castle that he begin to build before his death.

At 8am they finally let us into the ticket office.
We picked up our tickets.
Then we begin to hike up the road to the castle.
They have horse carriages that you can take up most of the way and everyone else was waiting for that but we had been standing in the snow for a long time and felt like hiking.
The road is very steep and it is about a mile.
It sure was pretty!

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[annegirl]

Even with walking the path, we made it to the castle about 20 minutes before the others so we spent the time walking around taking in the view. It was so beautiful.

We really wanted to go up to Mary's Bridge - it is where most of the classic pictures you see of the castle are taken from- but it was closed because of weather and a rockfall.

Touring this castle was an amazing experience. I couldn't take any pictures inside during the tour but you can look it up online and find pictures of the different rooms and the grotto.

It was so beautiful and full of amazing artwork.

We loved the experience of touring it.

We shopped in the gift shop in the castle and then stopped for a snack in the cafe.

Of course we got hot chocolate!

To go with it we got some Black Forest Cake- the kind I wanted to try when we were in the Black Forest but couldn't find.
It had a slight rum flavor but was quite good.

After our tour we decided we would walk back down as well. As we made our way down there were tons of people going up.
At the bottom I took this picture with the other castle in it plus some of the carriage horses.

It had stopped snowing for a while at this point but was still pretty cold.
I took a lot of pictures as we walked back down to our car.

I really wanted a little Neuschwanstein model and I was able to buy one there.
I also bought a really pretty print of it and some postcards of some of my favorite rooms.

​

 

[annegirl]

After leaving the castle we drove to Oberammergau.

As we were leaving the castle area I had to pull over and get some more pictures of the area. It was just too beautiful.

My mom then took some more pictures as we drove...

Oberammergau is a fantastic little town full of shops and beautiful buildings.

We were heading to the Kathe Wohlfahrt store. It is basically where all your Christmas decor dreams come true.

We shopped for quite a while and bought a lot of things and then explored the village some more.

Then we decided to get back to our hotel.
The roads were amazing in Germany- so easy to navigate. And the tunnels were so cool. They had these huge fans in them that kept air flow going through.

Like I said, the road to our hotel weaved in and out of Austria so we get to say we technically went into Austria.
The Welcome to Austria sign...

I think some of the above pictures were taken in the morning when we left but they were out of order so I am just leaving them as is.
It was still afternoon when we got back to our hotel.
We hadn't eaten lunch yet so we picked up some food in our hotel and took it back to our room. They were sandwiches in pretzel type bread.

We spent the afternoon packing up all of our stuff for the return trip to the US.
At dinner time we ate in our hotel restaurant again.
Then we finished packing and just hung out.


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[annegirl]

Thursday, April 28, 2016 was a bittersweet day. It was not only our last day in Europe but also the day we would visit a concentration camp.

We woke up at 6am and got ready followed by having breakfast in our hotel.

After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and loaded the car with all of our things.

Then we drove to Dachau.

We didn't have a ton of time to spend here so we decided to skip the movies and indoor exhibits and just see the concentration camp itself.

We parked and then walked into the camp.

There were quite a few people there and a lot of them were school groups. This was slightly frustrating because a lot of the kids (and even adults) were loud and boisterous and it felt so wrong to be that way here.

After Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, on March 22, 1933 a concentration camp for political prisoners was set up in Dachau.

This camp was a model for later concentration camps and was used as a "school of violence" for the SS men who commanded it.

It was run for twelve years in which over 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned. 41,500 were murdered. On April 29, 1945 American troops liberated the survivors.

The Memorial site is on the grounds of the former concentration camp and was established in 1965.

It is really hard to describe how it felt to be here.
It was an experience I won't forget. I am so glad we went.
There was almost a reverence mixed with an eerie feeling.

Watchtower...

Translation of stone:

"Crematorium
Remember how we died here"

This statue below is known as the "Unknown Inmate" by Fritz Koelle. It was erected in 1950.
The words translate to mean "To honor the death, to admonish the living"

you may not want to look at all the pictures I'm going to share as even though they are not graphic... they are hard to think about.

This is a picture of the ovens in the crematorium.
There was a sign that said that the prisoners were hung from the hooks on the rafters before being put in.

"Here in Dachau on the 12th of September 1944
four young Woman Officers of the British Forces attached to Special Operations were
brutally murdered and their bodies cremated. They died as gallantly as they had served the Resistance in France during the common struggle for freedom from tyranny."

The gas chambers:

"The internees who were brought to Camp Dachau for the sole purpose of being executed were in most cases Jews and Russians. They were brought to the compound, lined up near the gas chambers, and were screened in a similar manner as internees who came to Dachau for imprisonment. Then they were marched to a room and told to undress. Everyone was given a towel and a piece of soap, as though they were about to take a shower. During this whole screening process, no hint was ever given that they were to be executed, for the routine was similar upon arrival of all internees in the camp." Quoted from The Official Report by the U.S. Seventh Army, released only days after the camp was liberated.

Entrance door: Brausebad translates to shower bath.
You can see that the inside of the door has no handle.

There was a little garden walk after we left these buildings.
This was the Jewish memorial along the walk. It is one of the mass graves.

"Do not forget"

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[annegirl]

Along the walk, which seemed so pretty and peaceful, you are reminded of the gravity of the place you are in as you see the signs for execution spots and firing ranges as well as more mass graves.

It was heartbreaking to stand here and think about those that were buried here.
It still makes me emotional to even write about it.

These raised areas are there to show where the many barracks were and their size.

This is the camp road.
It goes down between the two rows of barracks.
The trees, as I understand it, were either planted by the prisoners or are a representation of trees that had been planted by prisoners.

Roll Call Area with exhibit

The famous wording on the gate translates to "Work makes free".

As we were leaving I took a photo of this tree that was beautiful and in bloom on the grounds.
I don't know why but in that moment it felt important to grab a piece of the beauty of the world.

While this was an incredibly difficult place to visit and I have actually been quite emotional as I have been writing this post, I would definitely recommend a visit to Dachau. It is haunting but it is so important that we remember what happened and that we remember those that died here.


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[annegirl]

After leaving Dachau we drove straight to the airport and turned in our car.

I couldn't find a gas station along the way and was afraid to go off exits that I didn't know so I ended up having to pay for the gas through the rental company which was very expensive so I definitely wouldn't recommend doing that!

We checked in and got our flight.



Leaving beautiful Germany...

Once again we had a layover in Iceland although this time it was a short one.
Then we got on our second flight that would take us to Denver.
On this flight my airplane seat reserve trick FINALLY paid off.
I was told that if you reserved the window seat and the aisle seat you were much more likely to not have someone reserve the seat in between you unless it was a full flight.
This had not worked on any of our other flights but on this one it did!
We got to have the entire row. Yay!
This was so wonderful on such a long flight as well as the fact that it was a really comfortable plane and there was no real turbulence. It was probably the best flight I have ever had.
My mom spent time writing in her journal.

We used the middle tray for our drinks to free up our own trays.

Flying over the Faroe Islands.
The pilot directed our attention to them as he said that they weren't usually this visible.

I spent a lot of the flight listening to Salt to the Sea on audible and coloring. This was so calming and made the flight go by so fast.

We also both watched The Imitation Game on our own screens.
We landed in Denver and had to sadly say goodbye to Icelandair as they didn't fly into Salt Lake City.
We had reserved a cheap flight from Denver to Salt Lake with Southwest and all I can say is.. Never Again!
That was the worst flight I have ever been on in my life, save the one time I was in a small private plane that stalled and almost crashed. That should tell you how bad it was.
It was really cold out and so we had to sit in the plane for a while during the de-icing of the wings.
It was completely packed and since there are no reserved seating we had to bustle on as quickly as we could and ended up with the last two seats that were together.
And my seat was lopsided. Like it really was slanted so I was leaning into the window.
I have never 'felt' the actual flying through the air at tremendous speeds in this way before. My sister described it best when I was talking to her later and she told me that she had also had a recent bad flight with Southwest when she said it felt like flying through the air on a lawn chair.
I was terrified the entire flight so thankfully it wasn't a really long one.
We landed in Salt Lake and I was tempted to kiss the ground.
We went through customs and then met my dad who was there to pick us up.
We were sad to say goodbye to Europe but so happy to be home.
They drove me home and I went in to wake up my littles to say hello to them and kiss them all over their cute faces. It was so wonderful to see them again.

So that is it! I will be back in a few days to post about our final thoughts/ favorite things.

​

 

[missangelalexis]

The Notre Dame Cathedral and its grounds are beautiful!

Sounds like a wonderful stop at the book store!

Love the pictures of the Louvre, very cool!

Going up the Eiffel Tower must have been such a great experience. Loved all the photos!

The Palace of Versailles is huge! And very stunning inside!

I'm sorry your travel to Geneva was so stressful.

Beautiful pics from Switzerland! And the view from your room is gorgeous!

It may have been cold and snowy but it sure did make for some nice photos!

Visiting Dachau must have been quite an experience.

Glad it was a good journey home...except for when you actually got back into the states LOL

Really enjoyed reading about your epic trip!!

 

[annegirl]

The Notre Dame Cathedral and its grounds are beautiful!

Sounds like a wonderful stop at the book store!

Love the pictures of the Louvre, very cool!

Going up the Eiffel Tower must have been such a great experience. Loved all the photos!

The Palace of Versailles is huge! And very stunning inside!

I'm sorry your travel to Geneva was so stressful.

Beautiful pics from Switzerland! And the view from your room is gorgeous!

It may have been cold and snowy but it sure did make for some nice photos!

Visiting Dachau must have been quite an experience.

Glad it was a good journey home...except for when you actually got back into the states LOL

Really enjoyed reading about your epic trip!!

Thank you for reading along! IT was such an amazing trip. Looking back now even the little stresses and not so good things make good stories and I would do it all again in a second!

 

[GAN]

Uggghhh ...for some reason I wasn't getting my updates, so I'm wayyyyy behind. I love the Trip Report -glad to get back on track!

 

[minniebeth]

I've been following/reading your trip report for quite some time now but haven't had the chance to post.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful journey! What an amazing adventure you got to share with your mother! (So, so special!)
I have to say, I really admire your passion for literature and the real life history behind it! What a unique trip tailored around that.
I've told so many people about your trip! (Me: "So I'm reading about this really cool woman and her mom who did this amazing trip...." and proceed to tell them all about it. Then I have asked just about everyone I know if they want to do something similar. I haven't found any takers yet, lol. I'm SUCH a self-proclaimed literature and history nerd and this was such a dreamy report to follow!
I admire your courage and bravery to not only research and plan such a spectacular trip, but to travel it, navigate, drive, etc. I know you had moments of doubt, and difficulty, but you overcame it all and you should be so proud of yourself!
You have such an eye for beauty and love, it was very evident in your report!
Again, thank you for sharing!

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Thank you for sharing your trip. I love reading about all the places you've visited. Your pictures are amazing too!