Our Russian Relatives

Moscow

St. Petersburg

#37 -- Finland

#36 -- Sweden

#35 -- Czech Republic....PRAGUE

We took a train from Vienna to Prague. I am pretty terrible at reading military time. When I booked the tickets I remember thinking that the train would be 4-5 hours, but when we got to the station again I looked at the times and realized it would only be 3 hours. So we all sat in our compartment playing games and having a great time. After three hours we packed up our things, got out into the hall and ready to exit the train as it was slowing down. Well, no one else was getting off, and we looked like we were in the middle of nowhere, so we asked a conductor. He informed us that we can't read military time, and indeed the train would be another 2 hours. I am lucky that everyone was so nice and in good moods. We just laughed about the whole situation, unpacked our stuff again and started another rousing game of Phase 10. It was pretty hilarious.

Prague itself was gorgeous. Our hotel was in walking distance of the train station and every place in Old Town that you would like to go. We dropped off our stuff and walked 5 minutes to the main square that houses the oldest functioning astronomical clock in the world. We sat right next to it in a lovely cafe and ate dinner. The next day we spent wandering up to the castle, finding the Little Prince (first try) and eating more great food. Highlights: finding a KFC with AC, bathrooms, and FREE REFILLS!!! Diet Pepsi has never tasted so good. They even had ice. It was wonderful. Other great food was a shiskabob on a baguette from a farmer's market that looked more like a Christmas village. Fab.



One of the last activities was a 6 person circular bicycle ride. Ty was insistent that we went on it. We all dragged our feet, but in the end this was the funnest thing we did. We had a driver from the States who drove us all at break neck speeds through crowds of people fearing for their lives. It was quite a challenge to hold on, pedal, no kill anyone and not laugh so hard that I had bladder control problems. It was awesome!!!

Friday morning we woke up at 3:00 am to catch a 3:30 taxi to make a 6:10 flight that landed in Brussels and put us on an 8:15 am bus that took us to a train station where we took the metro back to my apartment. Exhausting.

Vienna

We spent 24 hours in Vienna. There was some great window shopping and food. Ty and I also went to a classical concert with a symphony, ballet dancers and opera singers featuring music by Mozart and other Austrian composers. It was definitely a highlight. I also got to return to the DeMel chocolate cafe I had visited three years ago.

#34--Slovakia

We took a late train from Budapest to Bratislava, Slovakia. Our hotel reminded us of an old Vegas casino where mob deals went down. The rooms were huge, the view amazing and breakfast was fantastic.

In the morning we wandered the city looking for a Slovakian copy of "The Little Prince" (which we found in a nearly empty book store). Then we wandered the old town of the city and got some authentic food before taking the hour-long bus to Vienna.

#33--Hungary...Beautiful Budapest

On Sunday night we flew into Budapest. It was absolutely gorgeous. We spent the night wandering the stunningly lit city. The next morning at 5:00 am we woke up and went to the Bath Complex. It was really like swimming in a bunch of palace fountains. There were over 20 pools over varying temperatures...from freezing (there was a snow machine producing the ice) to hot tubs. We also sat in many different saunas, the hottest being from 80-100 degrees celcius...which is rougly 200 degrees farenheit. Yikes!!



The rest of the day we spent on a Hop on Hop Off tour that tooks us to the Castle, Opera House, and over-look points. We also made sure to stop for some authentic Hungarian Goulosh and pastries.

Paris

 

I picked up Liz and Shannon in Paris on Wednesday. We took a great boat tour of the city and then spent Thursday at Disney Paris. It was amazing! We got into the park for free thanks to Liz's cast member discount and were totally surprised by how intense the rides were. Space Mountain pretty much should have required helmets.

#32 -- Luxembourg

 

Today I visited country #32...Luxembourg. We drove to Luxembourg city and took a fun (and highly dramatized)tourist train through the old city walls. Then we walked around the down town shops. That really was all there was to do in Luxembourg. The country is only 5 minutes away from Tim's house, so they always go there to buy gas, coffee and other things that are way cheaper than in Germany. Luxembourg city was about a 40 minute drive from Trier. After we had toured around I took a 3 hour train from Luxembourg City to Brussels.

#31 -- Germany

On Saturday I drove to Germany with Harry, Lucy, Steffi and Tim. We really had the royal treatment...amazing food, super nice car and house...everything we could dream of. Germany is the 31st country I have visited. We were in Trier...a beautiful town of about 100,000 people situated right along a river in the tall hills, forests and vineyards. It was so beautiful. I could have stayed forever.

I also had a very popular dish: spaghetti icecream...which is really just icecream put through a pasta maker and topped with strawberry sauce to look like spaghetti. We ate an amazing meal at Steffi's house...spaetzel, Hungarian meat, some other kind of skewered meat, potatoes, mousse, pudding, coca light, herbal tea...the works.

At Tim's house, the best part was breakfast each morning...a huge assortment of fresh breads, cheeses, jams, meats, etc.



The picture is hard to read, but it says "255 km/hour" which is roughly 159 miles per hour. We reached this speed on the German Autoban like it was nothing.

GPs in Brussels

 

On Friday the GPs (German People) came to visit Brussels. My cousin Harry, his wife Lucy, and their two German friends, Steffi and Tim, drove from Trier for the weekend. We all camped out at my cat apartment. Our first order of business was to visit Maison Antoine...the shack boasting the acclaimed title of "Home of the World's Best French Fries." Steffi and Tim had seen a TV show on the world's best food a few months ago, and this place showed up for the #1 French Fry place. And, truly, they were amazing! We wandered around Brussels, ate waffles, fries and kebaps...saw the Grand Place and Manekin Pis, had a cat sleepover, french toatst for breakfast...then we visited the Atonium and left for Germany. Brussels in 20 hours!!!