Dublin, Ireland

Yay!  Finally get to see my best friend!  The first day in we did a nice walking tour of Dublin city center. taking the bus in and ending at Queen of Tarts off of a small farmers market.

Spent the evening playing fetch with these guys!  Both gave me a dog fix and made me miss Bella all at the same time!   I'm here with Captain, Bella's boyfriend.  He seems a bit sad she didn't come with me!  I'll send his love.  After this we went to a local haunt called Coppers where we were out into the wee hours of the morning.  Past 4am and the sun was coming up when we walked outside.  I have never had a night quite like it!  Met some new friends along the way as well.  

Next day we went to Dun Laoghaire for an even better farmer's market, yummy potstickers, beautiful day, a walk on the pier and a slushie.  :)   Everyone was enjoying the weather and there tons of sailboats out on the water.  Some people even went swimming!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

When Bec told us at the beginning of this trip that wee would be sad to see our bus-mates go... I didn't believe her.  I do now.  The tour is coming to an end in Amsterdam.  Some people are going on to London as their final stop.  I'm taking advantage of a few more hours in Amsterdam and then a quick flight to Dublin to continue my vacation.

It's bittersweet to say goodbye, but we've really had an amazing trip.  It's not over yet though!

So the original Sin City, is not as sinful as I had anticipated!  The red light district is close and unmarked but it's a beautiful city strip with a canal and boats running through the middle just like all the other parts of town. I found my way there by accident getting back to the bus, and it wasn't until I looked up from my map and saw a bikini clad woman in a window shaking her hips at me that I realized exactly where I was.  I'm constantly confused by the sex industry, every woman in these windows was beautiful, and surely could put their powers of persuasion into other tasks.  I suppose without a wanting audience, their trade wouldn't exist.

Coffee shops... are not shops that sell coffee.  The wafting aroma was much different.

Day two in Amsterdam we went on a bike ride in a small town called Edam.  We stopped along the way at a Gouda cheese factory and clog making shop.  They sound like they don't go together, but leftovers from the cheese process actually going into making clogs.  The bike ride was so much fun, simple bikes, but beautiful little town.  We stopped at a dike with lock system as well as a windmill... not pictured (sorry!)

The afternoon to ourselves, I tagged along with a group for a rooftop lunch and then a humbling visit to Anne Frank's house.

The evening ended with a night on the town after a wonderful canal cruise.  Picture courtesy of Hilary.

Rhine Valley: St. Goar, Germany

So Amsterdam is a long way from Prague, so we drove most of the day with a planned night stay in a small German town called St. Goar.

St. Goar was more under water than Prague!  The whole first floor of the hotel was flooded. The difference is that it was finally sunny!

The town had constructed a series of walkways to get around the flood areas.  To get to our hotel, we had to walk the plank... straight into the second story bar area, haha.

In a small town there isn't much to do, but we did wander and found some charming hideaway places!

That an entertained ourselves the best way we knew how, haha.

Prague, Czech Republic

Really given all the rain in the last few weeks, I should have expected flooding.  But I didn't.  While in Prague there were many flood warnings and the river had escaped it's bank at many points along the way.  Old Prague was being threatened by rising waters, as the rivers still hadn't crested yet.  But you know, we were on vacation!  First night in we split up girls going with Bec and boys going with Firo, all to meet up at midnight in the square to continue our evening.  We ended up at a place called Bed in Lounge.  An awesome girls night out.  We drank girly cocktails and actually curled up on a bed surrounded by pillows.  Very relaxing.

Pictures from the main square.

Inside of the Bed lounge.

Here is some of the flooding we witnessed the next day.  Our evening was cut short because the clubs we were going to go to were right on the river, and closed due to the possibility of flooding.  Prague was pretty empty for sure!  

View from the castle

Gargoyle water spouts, and you know, since it was raining, we could actually see the water pouring out of them :)

Sightseeing is hard, we gathered for coffee and treats.

Vienna, Austria

Here we had much more time!!  It was beautiful when we arrived, a quick stop at the summer castle, then a trip to a Schnapps museum.  Later we got dressed up for a night of classical music.

We had the opportunity to go to a music concert, the concert hall was quite small, probably only sat about 50 people or so.

Girls night out

At dinner where we had Schnitzel and Strudel, absolutely delicious!

And this is the building that we had our dinner in!  

The next day:

Another rainy day in Europe, but we had a nice day out!

This quite possibly could be my most favorite church yet, Stehansdom.  The outside a beautiful gothic, but the inside was so surprising!  

Then off to enjoy the local faire.  A chocolate torte that had been created specifically for a Prince called Sacher-Torte.

I look exhausted...  good thing I had that coffee!

Outside of the Natural History Museum.  I had been to the Imperial Palace museum earlier and purchased a ticket, that I thought, would get me into the Natural History Museum as well... yeah, it didnt'.  

My sister will understand exactly, because I had a very similar meltdown in Madrid.  I was upset, but mostly because I couldn't communicate very well.  This whole trip has been very overwhelming, and all in all I think a quick cry in the rain did me good.  My spirits are lifted, and look at this super cute elephant I got a picture with outside?! 

Munich, Germany

I don't actually have many pics from Munich... we were only there a few short hours (in the rain).  I ended up doing some shopping (more like window shopping) but that's ok!  Found a lovely market where I was going to try some new foods, I picked up one to purchase and immediately got scolded... in German.  After a few questions turns out I wasn't supposed to touch the food, even if I was buying.  Seems she didn't really want to sell me anything because I walked out empty handed. Boo!  

Enjoyed some lovely cafe at a shop called Tranquillo.

A stop in the countryside to stretch our legs.  Beautiful!

Day 18 - But I like the location titles better!! Hoptgarten, Austria

So!  Today I am in Hoptgarten!

It is a Catholic holiday today, so most things are closed, but it is beautful!  Most of the locals got dressed in traditional garb to go to church, and there was a parade shortly after.

I wasn't sure I was going to be brave enough, but it turned out I was.  I went paragliding!  The weather wasn't fantastic, raining and such.  When we made it to the top of the mountain via gondola, it was definitely snowing/sleeting.   We had to wait it out a little bit for some fog to clear, but it was well worth it.  Here are some of the photos!

The not so graceful looking landing, lol!

Adventures worth their weight in gold.  Very thankful for this experience.