Europe

Tristan has a friend whose mother is Croatian. They invited us to tour some cities in Europe with them. Conveniently stimulus checks and tax rebates arrived about that time. Is it even a decision?

Here is the condensed version of our vacation...I hope you like pictures. :)

We happened to arrive during the Eurocup, Europe's soccer version of the Superbowl. The only difference is the WHOLE country celebrates. I'm wearing a Croatia bandana...how supportive am I?!

Overlooking Zagrab, Croatia. This is just after we arrived...such a LONG flight.

This is how they tow cars in Europe because the roads are to thin to do it as we do in America. Everyone calls it the spider. I guess you can't tell what is really going on...they wrapped chains around the tires adn picked the car up from the side to lift it on the bed of the truck.

In Vienna we saw everything from the homes of Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss, to masterpieces of Monet, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. This picture above was in a museum that housed actual mummies. Tristan is next to a sarcophagus. There were also actual statues from Rome, etc. The items in these buildings are so neat that you often forget to look at the building that houses them which are in themselves amazing.

One thing I'll never forget about Vienna was the ice cream.....SO good.

This is Schonbrun Palace. I'm sure I just slaughtered the name, but it is HUGE!! The picture below shows the palace from the other side and the gardens and land around. Yes, hidden in the trees is a zoo...and tropical gardens, etc. etc.

In the background at the very right you see a tall cathedral. It is Stephansplatz. The tower is 445 ft. tall!!! When you stand next to it, it is dizzying.

Venice is just as beautiful as I ever imagined. Some surprises were that sitting was not allowed unless you were at a cafe...and you had to order something to sit there. Just to get money out of tourists...speaking of tourists...there were SO many here. It wasn't as quaint as I'd thought....too many people...and pigeons. Only walking on the island...no bikes or cars...mostly because they couldn't fit down some of the streets that were no more than 20 inches wide. The gondolas were awesome! We didn't go on one, but spent alot of time on the bridges watching them going on underneath. 

We stayed in Maribor, Slovenia and used it as a hub as we travelled from city to city.

Here is the Parliament building on the Pest side of Budapest. Below is a crown used by the kings for centuries. It is over 1000 years old. Next to it is the King's orb, scepter and sword.

We had a chance to see Hungarian dancers in their cultural clothes. They danced traditional dances and sang traditional tunes, which I didn't care for. They sounded so sad...like a sad chant, but the rest was neat.

This is Loseijn, a city on an island just off Croatia. I took a picture of the trail we had to walk (hike) to get to the beach. It reminded me of all the fairy tales I had ever read or heard that took place near the woods.
Anyways, the whole island was rocky....you can see that in the picture of the beach. Everywhere were rock walls. People had to clear land for buildings and homes so they built walls and more walls. Having no sand made the water SO clear...you could easily see over 40 feet deep in the water.
We had to be careful with the pictures we took because on Europen beaches, clothing is optional.

We ended our trip here. We had so much fun but made a lot of realizations that really let us know how blessed we are to live in America and to have the gospel. The world is such a neat place...we both love learning about the history of cultures and to actually see the works of those we've always read about in books. We actually saw originals...and truly old buildings of the kind that are non-existent in America. In the end, there's no place like home.