Wednesday, March 16, 2011

8: A place I've traveled to

Dennen and I worked in Skagway, AK for two summers. When the next summer rolled around we were sick of telling people how tall certain mountains were and that they couldn't pet the bears (seriously, some genius lady asked me if she could). Instead, we decided to make it our summer of traveling.

As soon as school got out we headed to Europe with some friends of ours. First we went to Germany. We stayed in a home close to Frankfurt that Dennen's parents own. Dennen's mom came with us and I was able to meet all the relatives. It was neat to actually stay in a home there and visit Dennen's relatives. I love German homes. The doorknobs are different than ours and are more like handles. The windows open from the top so it looks like a V when they're open. The toilets have the tank up on the wall above the toilet. There are definitely a lot of other things that are different but I can't remember everything right now.

One of the things that I love about Germany is how clean and tidy it is. They also have cute little cobble stone roads and old homes and cottages that look like gnomes and woodland creatures would live in them. Last but not least... the bakeries!! Mmmm, just thinking about them makes my mouth salivate. Every little village had a bakery. Even the campgrounds we stayed in had fresh baked goods each morning.

After being in Germany for awhile, we headed out on a European road trip (we were so lucky, Dennen's parents also have a car there). We went to Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. I'm pretty sure that every day I got gelato. That was about all the German I learned while we were there, how to order a gelato. There was so much to see and do. We had a blast! I'll let the pictures do the talking now.

The left two pictures are in Hallstat, Austria; and the right one is in Munich, Germany.





















Frankfurt, eating dinner with some of Dennen's relatives, the LDS temple in Frankfurt























All of these pictures were taken in Hallstat, and Salzburg, Austria























The top left picture is one of the campgrounds we stayed at and our little blue car we drove, outside the coolest Christmas store ever, Dennen standing by a delivery vehicle of some sort, enjoying a sandwich























These are just some pictures from one of the markets we went to in Germany. Those eggs were as fresh as you could get! The old dude in the lederhosen was pretty hip too.























Rothenburg, Germany
























I can't wait to go back to Germany someday (although it probably won't be for a long time). I am so happy that we did quite a bit of traveling before we had Finn. We also went to Peru that summer. But that's another story. My advice to those of you who don't have kids yet? Take a big awesome trip somewhere where you've always wanted to go. I am so glad we did!

5 comments:

Trey said...

don't forget. Europe in 2020

Ben and Michelle said...

What a fun little fact about you two! I love your pictures. It looks like you had so much fun!

Tyler said...

These pictures are awesome!

MSmith said...

Beautiful photography and beautiful people :)

The Kynastons said...

Amen and amen to taking advantage of being able to travel before kids! I wish I could go back and tell myself that advice. We were able to take a lot of fun trips (nothing like Europe, though!) but I still wish we would've done more. It just gets WAY harder once the munchkins come along. Anyway, your trip looks amazing. How awesome that you had family there, access to a car, etc. It sounds perfect!

(Oh, and I when I went to Italy in college I think gelato was the one Italian word I learned, too. :) )