München

This afternoon we traveled to Munich, known to Germans as München. It was named because of the monks that use to live in Old Town. 

Dad arrived today! EF dropped him off at his hotel so that we could settle in while we were driving to Munich. We met up at Marienplatz. 

We started the day with some free time. One of the other leaders wanted to go over to the Hofbräuhaus. This is a famous beer tavern. The people dress in traditional dress and there was a band playing music for everyone. It was packed--there wasn't an open table anywhere! 

We went on a bus tour at 3. It started raining at this time, so it worked out well. She drove us by Olympic Park, but I could only get a picture of the tower. We got to go into BMW World for awhile. They let you sit it various cars and take pictures. We chose the Mini Cooper for Joe :) 

During our free time today, we searched for some typical German pastries. I found the apple strudel, and later we shared some pretzels. 

Our hotel is a cute little country hotel. Dad likes the river that runs behind it. He is using his last few minutes this morning to take some pictures of it. 

We are headed to Innsbruck today. We have 2 hours there, but the rest of our time will be driving today. We will be in Venice tonight. 

Rain, rain, go away...

It appears we will have cold and rainy weather until we get to Italy. Today started off with some rain, and we saw it sporadically throughout the day. We loaded the bus at 6am and left for Heidelberg. 

We arrived in Heidelberg around 2pm and went straight to the castle. 

We walked around the castle for about an hour and a half. It's claim to fame is this large wine barrel located in the cellars. You can see how large it is in comparison to the people above and below it. 

After the castle, we went to Old Town. It was quite rainy, so we all went into the shops on Main Street.

We ate dinner at the restaurant below. We had to wait for another EF tour to clear out, so we waited outside for awhile. 

Dad will be flying in tomorrow, so we will all be meeting up in Munich! 

Amsterdam

We have arrived in Amsterdam with only a few hiccups along the way (a missing boarding pass, baggage left at security check point..). Other than that, we seemlessly navigated through all three airports. 

 

Once we arrived in Amsterdam, we realized our EF tour director was not waiting in the arrivals area for us. Luckily, I was able to email her and find her rather quickly. She had been told we would be at a different arrival gate. We waited for about 2 hours until the last group arrived. There is a group from Spokane, Washington; Springfield, Illinois; and Greensboro, North Carolina with us. 

After all groups had arrived, the bus dropped us off in the center of Amsterdam. We had free time for most of the afternoon. Since I told my girls that they would have no unchaperoned "free" time in Amsterdam, we walked through the city together. They were obsessed with the free cheese samples and photo opportunities that this shop (below) offered. 

We walked through the flower market. I figured mom would be proud--I took several flower pictures on my other camera. 

After free time, and 10+ gift shops (for some reason they didn't believe me when I said they all sell the same thing) we left for dinner. We ate at Dovers Dog for dinner--an Australian restuarant. We had chili served over rice...which means I had a couple of bites of rice and a granola bar. 

We have finally checked into our hotel and are exhausted. I have just finished my threatening "I'll fly you home tomorrow if you try anything" speech and am excited to be heading to bed. 

As always, please excuse any typos. I will always blame the lack of sleep :)

Amsterdam: Day Two

As I woke up this morning, my thoughts and prayers were with my family on this difficult day. 

The weather in Amsterdam has been in the 50s and 60s. Today it was cloudy and windy--but it didn't bother the students too much. We started the morning at the Anne Frank House. They don't allow pictures inside, but I got a better picture of the outside of the house than I did last year. 

They have bought the two houses beside her house in order to extend the museum. There is no furniture inside, but they have left her room empty with all the pictures she had posted on the wall. Her diary is store there in a display case, with several of her entries on the wall. (Mom, I told some of the other teachers about how they have republished her book with the additional excerpts include--a couple of them bought that copy at the gift store) 

Next, we went on a short walking tour through town before our canal cruise. It was fun to see the city from the canals. 

After the cruise, we had some free time. The girls wanted to go practice their photography skills, so we went back and walked down the Singel Canal for some photo opportunities. 

We met up with the group again for a bus tour. Our last stop was at a cheese demonstration. Since the girls love cheese even more than I do, they spent awhile making friends with the owner and eating free samples! 

We are now back at the hotel. We leave for Heidelberg in the morning. 

Madrid: Dia Numbera Dos

Today had a rocky start due to a lack of sleep last night--my roommate and I didn't know how to turn on the heat in our room, so we froze all night. Apparently, Madrid is the same latitude as Ohio, Michigan, etc..so they experience quite cold winters. I did not do enough weather research before coming. Tomorrow they are expecting sleet and snow. 

We started today with a bus tour of Madrid. I got to hang out with Don Quixote. 

 

Then we visited the Royal Palace of Madrid. The royal family does not live here, but in a smaller palace in order to be more common. The previous king abdicated recently--to everyone's surprise. 

  

After the palace, we drove about an hour to the ancient city of Toledo. 

We visited a cathedral, church, and synagogue. The cathedral had amazing decor. 

I tried marzipan here. I didn't love it, but it wasn't terrible. We saw a sword making demo station. 

 

And almost bought Sting. 

 

We had the evening to ourselves and so we ate a dinner of churros and chocolate. We then walked it off when we went to find this temple--a gift from the Egyptians. 

We just concluded our evening. Amy, Scott and I successfully navigated ourselves back across Madrid. We were proud. 

Madrid!

Hello all! I made it to Madrid this morning around 8AM. They immediately loaded us into a bus and took us to our hotel. We only were there for an hour to drop off our luggage. Then all 50 jet lagged participates slugged our way to the center of Madrid. 

We had 3 hours to walk around Puerta de Sol. I took some pictures, shopped, and of course had to try out a Spanish McDonalds. 

We continued to walk a few more miles to the Prado Museum. Here are some pics I snapped along the way. 

This is what their street signs look like. 

There are still Christmas decorations everywhere. 

These creepos stalk you all over. 

The Prado Museum. I am currently taking a break in the cafe. After our museum visit, we are having a welcome dinner and then off to bed!

Thanksgiving 2014