A lot has happened in the past few weeks – so much so that we’ve fallen a bit behind on our blog posts.  We won’t go into the full detail of every event, but here are the highlights of our most recent adventures:

Munich was the first stop on the “Kims do Europe Tour.”  Sadly, Chris didn’t have enough vacation time to tag along, but we both agreed it would be a great place to show the Kims because (unlike many Swiss cities) it is rich with history.

The positives:

• Seeing the world through Woman Kim’s eyes: Mom Kim had never been to Europe before this trip and simply watching her realize “This church is older than our country?!?” was one of Sarah’s favorite parts.
• Dachau Concentration Camp: We are hesitant to list this as a “positive” because of obvious reasons, but in all honesty, it was an eye-opening experience.  Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and we felt that the memorial did a good job of owning the atrocity and remembering those who suffered and died.  It was an incredibly grim but equally insightful day.
• Culture: Bavaria continues to be one of our favorite locations.  There’s just something very comforting about sitting around a big table, drinking big beers, and eating big pretzels.  Sharing this experience with her favorite “big guy” (Man Kim) made Sarah grin from ear to ear.

The negatives:

• Delays: The Kim’s had a hell of a time getting to Europe.  Flights were delayed and trains were missed, but after many, many hours of travel, we finally made it to Munich.  Unfortunately, this meant that we missed the fabulous walking tour of Munich and thus a lot of the historical background.  Sarah did her best to relay the information she remembered, but seeing that the only other times she had been there were during Oktoberfest …. it was less than a perfect rendition.
• Neuschwanstein Castle: Serving as the inspiration for the castle at the Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Neuschwanstein is considered to be the king of castles.  The castle is obviously extremely impressive, but we found the experience underwhelming for a few reasons. 1) The bus ride from Munich to Schwangau was rather long and uneventful 2) The place was swarming with tourists 3) the brief, 30-minute tour of the castle itself provided nothing beyond what is available in the summary section of Wikipedia.

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Switzerland is more of the Kims’ speed.  It’s small, it’s quiet, and it’s clean.  After a busy few days in Munich, it was nice to have a couple of laid back days.  We used Basel as home-base and made a few day trips to some of our favorite spots.

The positives:

• Interlaken and Mürren:  It was a long day, but we had an absolute blast in Interlaken and the surrounding area.  We took the funicular up Harder Kulm Mountain for fantastic views and a tasty lunch.  Afterward, we headed to Mürren for some light hiking and photo opportunities.  We will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The negatives:

• The Lavaux Valley: Sarah had raved about this place and was excited to finally share it with the Kims.  Unfortunately, there was an accident on the train line which made our travels very challenging and ultimately prevented us from making it to the vineyards.  We were still able to enjoy a nice afternoon in Lausanne, but sadly we weren’t able to walk through the vineyards or enjoy the tasty wine.  We will just have to add it to the list for their next visit.

 

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The Rhine River Cruise was one of the first trips we started planning when we moved abroad.  Knowing that we would likely have a pretty big crew in attendance, we felt that a cruise would be a good way for a large party to see Europe without having to fret over the details.

The positives:

• Family:  When people ask us what we miss most about the states, our first answer is always friends and family (followed closely by good Mexican food and crab cakes).  In July, we were fortunate in that we got to knock around Croatia and Switzerland with some of our best friends; however, we were still desperately missing our families, so spending a full week with them on the cruise was a nice little slice of home.  We played games, cracked jokes, and made an otherwise old and sleepy clientele and little more lively and fun.
• Convenience: As anticipated, exploring Europe via cruise takes all the challenges out of traveling.  There are no trains to book, no tours to schedule, and no itineraries to map out.  As the person who does most of the planning and logistics for our European adventures, Sarah enjoyed kicking back and letting someone else figure out all of the details.
• Amsterdam: The cruise ended in Amsterdam, and we decided to spend an extra day in town with Jessi and her husband, Chris.  Little did we know when we made the decision that our time there actually coincided with Pride Weekend.  The city was a bit chaotic, but we had an absolute blast watching the parade and partaking in the celebrations.
• Bike Rides: Our two favorite excursions from the cruise were definitely the days on bikes.  While both trips were through the countryside, they offered very different views.  In Breisach, we rode through orchards, fields, and a forest, but in Amsterdam, we saw cows, goats, a windmill, and a few adorable sea-side villages.  We both love activities and felt that the excursions were certainly worth the extra money.

 

The negatives:

• Value for Money: The price tag on this trip was a bit scandalous.  Having now experienced it, we definitely could have planned a trip with better locations and better excursions for a much more reasonable price.  Are we glad we did it? – absolutely!  Would we do it again? – probably not.
• Food: We have mentioned it before, but it’s worth repeating: Swiss food is mediocre at best.  It’s honestly one of the many incentives to travel, and we love finding tasty, local restaurants in new cities.  Sadly, the food on the boat was just passable.  It wasn’t necessarily bad, but for the price of the cruise, we expected a bit more.
• “Forced” stops:  It’s both a positive and a negative that we saw many cities we would have otherwise never seen (Breisach, Germany; Strasbourg, France; Heidelberg, Germany; Mainz, Germany; Rudesheim am Rhine, Germany; Koblenz, Germany; and Cologne, Germany).  In particular, Mainz was a place we had only vaguely heard of, but we ended up really enjoying our time there.  We visited the Guggenheim Museum (really cool old books and lots of info on the printing press), we visited a spectacular cathedral (an interesting conglomeration of architectural styles), and we had time to just explore the small town on our own (one of our favorite ways to really experience a new place).  Many of the other locations, however, seemed rather forced.  They were either very touristy (Heidelburg and Rudesheim am Rhine) or so small that there wasn’t much to explore (Breisach and Koblenz).

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Via Ferrata

This past Sunday, we took a day trip to Mürren, Switzerland for a Via Ferrata excursion.  The phrase “Via Ferrata” is Italian for “iron road,” and the hiking/climbing path was exactly that.  Basically, there is a steel cable fixed periodically to the face of the rock and below that are steel pegs on which to walk.  Climbers wear a harness (yes, moms: we also wore helmets) which clips onto the cable thus eliminating the danger of literally falling off the side of a mountain.  Parts of the path were typical hiking paths, but for much of the path, we were scaling the steel pegs that were 5500 feet high.  Neither of us is afraid of heights, but we both had moments where our knees were a little shaky.

There are actually hundreds of these paths all over Switzerland, and this first adventure whet our appetite for more.  Perhaps we will be purchasing climbing gear in the near future.