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For most of our vacation, we managed to spend 2-3 full days in the cities we visited. But in order to see everything we (okay, so really I) wanted to see, we had to some short stays in the middle of our trip.
Unfortunately, we only had one night and one day in Munich, which wasn't nearly enough. We arrived on a cold Saturday afternoon, I had hoped to take the family to the Haubrahaus, but the tables were packed, so we ended up at a nearby place eating (yet again) a meal consisting almost entirely of meat.
The next morning, we woke to sunny skies and streets empty of people (Munich basically shuts down on Sunday), which was the perfect start to our city bike tour (through Mike's bike tours). Our guide, Scott, was funny and two other grade schoolers were on the tour (I cannot explain how excited my kids were to hang with other children their age).
Apparently, rubbing this guy's nose brings you luck.
Memorial to the White Roses movement (which F knew about, but I had never heard of before). Such a sad story.
A beer garden in the park? Yes please.
The girls never stopped with the hand games.
Urban surfing.
After our bike tour, we picked up our bags at the hotel and hopped on the train to Salzburg.
After college, I toured Europe with some friends and Salzburg was one of my favorite cities. On one hand, I couldn't wait to see it again; on the other hand, I was a little nervous that it wouldn't live up to 20 year old memories. Luckily, I had no reason for concern. Salzburg was gorgeous and not too crowded. We had a fabulous dinner at an Italian place close to our apartment and loved walking around the city at night.
In the morning, we couldn't wait for our Sound of Music bike tour ("the hills are alive . . ." ), as we had watched the movie about 10 times to prepare.
After college, we went on the Sound of Music bus tour, which was sort of a dud (though, honestly, I find most bus tours pretty horrible), but riding bikes through gorgeous countryside while speakers blared "I am 16 Going on 17" - that was totally amazing.
The the views are from the abbey. Yes, the actual abbey!! (totally nerding out). Sometimes you can hear the nuns sing, but, unfortunately, we missed it.
Remember this wall?
This is our only family photo from the vacation. (I really wish we would have splurged on a flytographer).
After the bike tour, we hiked up to a beer garden overlooking the city, which happened to be next to a cool playground. By this point, we were all totally in love with Salzburg and never wanted to leave.
Then at night, we hiked even further up to the castle (which was admission free after 7 pm).
Possibly the skinniest I've ever looked.
The Salzburg Festival is a big deal for classical music and opera buffs (not us). But if you can't afford tickets (or don't want to pay the high prices) every night they broadcast performances in the public square. Pretty cool.
T still LOVES a castle.
More Salzburg awesomeness.
The next morning, we took another train, this time to Ljubljana, Slovenia. I thought this would be an "off the beaten bath" type of destination, but Ljubljana was full of restaurants and stores, located on gorgeous patios next to the river.
We tried to hear "local" music in the square and found ourselves surrounded by about 100 Hari Krishnas as we attempted to explain to the children what a cult was. (P - "But the music is sort of catchy.")
You've probably noticed a pattern already, but just in case - can you guess what we did our first morning in Ljubljana? That's right! A bike tour! Of the four bike tours we took, this was the first one narrated and created by a local, making it somewhat different from our other three tours, as our guide didn't focus on the war years. Instead, we learned a lot about Ljubljana's ancient past (did you know the oldest wheel and axle ever discovered were found right outside the city?) and things that had happened within the last 20 or so years, after the fall of Communism - particularly the city's urban development.
Despite not focusing the tour on the war years, the guide answered questions asked. One particular sentence really stuck in my head for the rest of the trip, "my grandfather was born a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died a citizen of the EU - that's a lot of change in only 100 years."
Much like Berlin, Ljubljana had some cool street art/places.
After the bike tour, we ate pizza (according to our guide, this is really the national food of Slovenia) and explored the town.
In the evening, Dan and T walked to the castle, while the girls and I toured the Museum of Illusions, which had an infinity room similar to one of Yayoi Kusama's but without the lines.
In the morning, we rented a car and drove to the seaside town of Piran, Slovenia. I'll have more photos up next week . . .
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