The Rest of Europe...

At the end of our time in Italy we realized that, due to the sad state of the American Dollar and the fact that Western Europe is just plain expensive, our funds were depleting a bit more rapidly than we had anticipated and although the name of this blog is "going broke" we would actually like to avoid that, if at all possible. So...we decided to head out of Europe a bit earlier than we had originally planned and make our way to South East Asia where it is cheap! This gives us more time to explore there and some extra money in our pockets. Once we changed our tickets, we kind of sped through a few more stops in Europe. From Florence, we headed up to Munich, then we went over to Switzerland, then into France. Here are some highlights from the end of our Europe trip:

Munich:

The place we stayed in Munich was a cute little hotel recommended by Rick Steves and it was perfect. I feel like we are getting old...Rick Steves recommendations are so appealing these days and we just do not fit in well with the 20-something hostelers anymore; we have little in common with them to talk about, we can't seem to stay up as late as them, and they are all like 18 to 20 (so young!). Sad, we are officially old! Anyway, the hotel was great...super clean, quiet and affordable. We spent our time in Munich seeing the sites, eating hot dogs, browsing through the farmers markets, drinking disappointing coffee that couldn't compare to amazing Italian cappuccinos, drinking beer in the beer houses/gardens, eating amazing sushi (of all things to be found in Munich), and we rode bikes through the city with Mike's Bike Tours. Mike's Bikes was an interesting experience. The group we had was a bit small and was mostly couples and 30-somethings who really just wanted to see the city. I believe this really disappointed our tour guide as he seemed to be hoping for a rowdy, loud group of 20-somethings who would want to spend the entire time at the beer garden. He told some stories that seemed truly unbelievable, complained about Mike (the company owner), and pouted because our group wasn't fun enough. I should add that this man was well into adulthood, maybe even approaching 40, and he has been doing these tours for about 13 years...he was quite the character. We still had a great time biking around the city and he entertained us nonetheless. One interesting thing we noticed in Munich, is that Germany loves Michael Jackson...he was everywhere. There was a shrine set up for him (that covered an existing monument in the city) and there were people gathered around, fully dressed up in Michael gear, dancing around and doing Michael moves. Just right there, in the center of the square. It was kind of amazing.

(in front of the Glockenspiel)


(riding bikes through the English garden)


(enjoying more hot dogs)

Switzerland:
From Munich we headed into Lucerne, Switzerland. We were excited to see the beautiful mountains and Alps surrounding the serene lakeside town, but the fog was socked in so tightly that we could barely see across the lake! It was still very beautiful though. Fall colors everywhere, bridges across the river, cobblestone streets and beautiful old buildings in the old town. We explored, walked along the old city wall and got some amazing views of the sleepy town. Also, one of the most amazing things happened to me (SA) in Lucerne...if you have been reading this blog since the beginning, you may remember that in Argentina I picked up a little book called Twilight and, somewhat ashamedly, got completely sucked in. Well, I bought book number two in the series before we left for Europe, and finished it quickly, of course. Then, when we were at our hostel in Lucerne scanning the book exchange rack, Nathan saw something magical on the bookshelf. There it was, shining in all its glory...book number three! English books are crazy expensive in non-English speaking countries in Europe...and probably in English speaking countries as well, so to get a free book - and not just any free book, but this specific one - just happened to make my day...week...and maybe even my Europe trip. Don't judge me for liking Twilight...it's so juicy and good.

Lucerne at night:

From Lucerne, we headed out to Lauterbrunnen which is in a beautiful valley outside Interlakken. The valley is stunning with towering Alps on either side and waterfalls jutting off the cliffs into the valley below. We stayed here for a couple of days and hiked around. We spent one day hiking through the valley from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg and back, then the next day we took a nail biting ride up the mountain on a cable car and hiked the "mountain trail" into Gimmelwald. It was stunningly beautiful and I imagine it would be even more beautiful in the Springtime when wildflowers would cover the entire mountainside. It was just so serene and quiet and jaw droppingly gorgeous, which made the grueling hike up the mountain at the beginning of the trail entirely worth it. The people in Lauterbrunnen are so warm and friendly and the valley itself is just surreal; towered by alps on each side, green rolling hills, beautiful orange, red and gold trees, and cows, sheep, and goats scattered throughout the entire valley and in the mountains. All of the animals wear bells around their necks, so as you walk through the valley or in the hills, all you can hear is the bells echoing and they sound like wind chimes. It was wonderful.


(stunning Lauterbrunnen Valley)


(picnic-ing at the top of the world)

After Lauterbrunnen, we headed out to Bern. We really liked Bern. It is a beautiful city with a river snaking through it...bridges, old buildings and covered sidewalks throughout the entire old town. Although we loved exploring Bern, I think our favorite moment was in the kitchen of our hostel. When we were shopping at the local market, we realized that they had avocados...ripe avocados. We also saw that they had cilantro, something we hadn't found at any other grocery store in all of Europe. We then discovered that they had tortilla chips! Not potato chips or paprika chips (which are all over every country we visited), but actual corn tortilla chips. Soooo, we had our usual cheap ramen soup for dinner, some veggies and we made a HUGE bowl of guacamole and stuffed ourselves with that and chips and, of course, beer. It was AMAZING. A little taste of home over here on the other side of the world. :)

Beautiful Bern:




France:
On our way out to Paris, where we would catch our flight to Bangkok, we stopped in a few cute towns along the French/Swiss border - Colmar and Strasbourg. They are picturesque little cities with colorful buildings crowded along cobblestone streets with bridges over rivers that wind their way through the towns; the buildings are all half timber construction which gives the town this unique, quaint feel. We spent a few days in Colmar and explored Strasbourg for a day as we waited for our late night train to Paris. We had coffee at my favorite coffee shop in all of our trip; a tiny, pink art nouveau building with amazing French vintage decor, owned by a group of elderly French women who were all smiles, just loving the business that they run. It was packed and the customers loved it too; all of their pastries and dishes were homemade and they took such care in making us the best cappuccinos. They were so cute and warm and you could tell they just loved what they did. Loved it.


(the cute little vintage coffee shop)

(Colmar)


(Strasbourg)

After Colmar and Strasbourg we headed out to spend our last days in Europe in Paris!





Aside from our hostel, Paris was fabulous (albeit expensive). Our hostel seemed to be run by college boys who have never cleaned a day in their life - it was expensive, dirty and I got bedbug bites - but we got free breakfast, which means a lot in a place as expensive as Paris. We saw the sites and soaked up our last few days in Europe and then boarded our plane and headed off for...Bangkok!