Yes, ladies and gentlemen, here it is: PART III. The final leg of the epic 2014 Mouritsen European Vacation. PARTS I and II will make you laugh and cry, but PART III will only make you tired considering all that we were able to accomplish in three weeks. Before we went, my brother Mike (the professional traveler) told me that if I accomplished what we set out to do, that I could potentially be invited to the professional vacationer club. We did it, so I'm waiting for the invitation.
Day Fifteen: We arrived the night before to an empty house in Eltville since Mike and Danielle had departed for their cruise to Iceland. Yes, we spread ourselves out in their absence, and no, we didn't leave stuff for them to clean up. We finished a load of laundry from the night before and set off for Prague. Luckily during our conversation with our friends the night before, they alerted us to yet another country that will require that we purchase a sticker for the right to drive on their roadways. We hit the border, bought the sticker, and continued along our way. It rained for the whole drive, and once we got to our hotel and got settled and ready to go -- it rained harder still. We were just out of walking distance from the old town city center with our young crew so we opted to explore around the hotel, which included a nice big mall with metro stop across the street. It was already late in the afternoon and it was pouring, so we enjoyed some delicious Czech food at the hotel and then explored the mall.
An interesting tidbit is that while the Czech Republic is part of the European Union, a lot of places did not accept the Euro. Fortunately I had exchanged some money at the border for some czech korunas and we used that to get us through the first day.
Day Sixteen: Knowing we lost an afternoon due to our later than expected arrival and the pouring rain, we got up, jumped on the metro and made our way to the Prague Castle complex.
The castle had a great view of the city. On our way to the St. Vitus Cathedral, we stopped at a Toy Museum, which had a some great vintage collectibles, and sam was amazed that Darth Vader was there. The museum in all wasn't all that impressive (except for the sheer number of Barbie Dolls), but it was fun to look at all the fun things in one place.
We continued up the hill to the main square, and then climbed the St. Vitus bell tower for a commanding view of the area (the picture up above). Having already tamed the first two levels of the Eiffel Tower, the kids were no longer afraid of climbing an unknown number of steps, and they powered to the top. The climb was made memorable by the administration giving us St. Vitus Cathedral commemorative coins for having made it to the top. We went down and walked around the complex.
After departing the complex, we noticed that tons of people were eating these weird-looking berries that were smaller than grapes. Never one to let an opportunity to do what the local are doing pass us by, Candace dropped some korunas and we bought a cup. I think between the 5 of us, we ate about 10 berries and tossed the rest. They were not good. :) We made our way to the famous Charles Bridge and walked across to old town Prague. Traveling with kids has its challenges, and one of the toughest is convincing them that every street vendor's goods (read: crap) is not worth purchasing. So we made a deal with the kids that they could purchase one nice souvenir when they found something they really wanted. Once across the river, we found a place the kids thought would be their place to find their souvenir. After picking up, shaking, smelling (in some cases), and handling quite possibly 1000 items, both Caroline and Claire settled on Matryoshka Dolls -- different colors so we can tell them apart. Since the girls got something, Sam was picking up everything (bottle openers, lighters, beer mug keychains) saying it was what he really wanted for his souvenir. We talked him off the ledge and moved along.
We headed over to the Prague Jewish Quarter and toured the Old Jewish Cemetery, where there are roughly 12,000 headstones with possibly up to 100,000 burials in the cemetery. It had a lot of history was very interesting to see firsthand. We got lunch at a nice restaurant on our way to the main square, where the kids played with the street performers, we saw the astronomical clock, and made our way to the Communism Museum. We both mentioned an interested in seeing the museum, and we were both disappointed in the end. Not only was the grumpy dude taking tickets particularly unwelcoming to children in the museum, it was just kind of boring. Not what we expected, but you can't win them all. It wasn't a total loss, as we found a nice souvenir (a chess board) for Sam on the way. After the bust of a museum, we went back to the hotel, got some ice cream at the mall across the street, and settled in for a good night's rest.
Day Seventeen: We were up and out the next morning and headed to Linz, Austria. We stopped along the way at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Along with the beaches of Normandy, the WWII sites have always been a personal interest of mine. Mauthausen was a labor camp nestled in a quiet hilly part of Austria. It is perched on a hill overlooking a quarry that was worked by the prisoners. The below picture is the entry gate to the camp, which used to have a large eagle with a swastika. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen-Gusen_concentration_camp)
Although not necessarily a location for young children, we have talked to our children about WWII and Hitler's actions. We agreed that within the walls, that Candace and I would be the first to enter into the buidlings/exhibits to see if it would be OK for the kids. Some were yes and some were no. We did not explain to them about the showers we saw or the ovens in the basement of one of the buildings, but it was a powerful experience for Candace and me. It was a hot day for us, and the impact of the place we visited was felt by each of us.
This is a picture taking from the "steps of death" taking one down to the bottom of the quarry. While not an extermination camp (like Auschwitz), there was considerable extermination through labor. The view looks across the quarry to the camp itself.
After our lengthy visit, I took a picture of the setting which really has a beautiful surrounding. A reminder of evil in the world can strike at any place.
Day Eighteen: We spent the night in Linz, which was not necessarily a desirable location, but I had two free nights from Marriott so that's where we stayed. We woke up and made the short drive to Salzburg, Austria. Not wanting to shell out another small fortune for the Sound of Music tour, we relied on our borrowed Rick Steves' book to take us on a walking tour of downtown Salzburg. On that tour, we saw a few Sound of Music sites, enough to satisfy our desires. Below the kids posed on the steps of the Mirabell Palace gardens where the Von Trapp kids finished their Do Re Mi song. We also walked around the Pegasus stature and walked under the arched trellis.
My plan was to follow the Rick Steves' tour to the letter to maximize our time. We crossed the bridge and followed to the Mozart statue and were making our way pretty well. Then we came to a crossroads: continue with Rick Steves, or detour up the funicular to the Hohensalzburg Castle. Candace overruled my plan to follow the tour (apologies to Rick Steves) and so we detoured (which I can admit in the end was the right move). We jumped on the funicular and went up the hill. Do you remember the picture of the our kids taking pictures in Belgium with their iTouches? Well, I thought that Rick Steves' karma was getting back at us for abandoning our plan when we stepped off the funicular and Sam's iTouch tumbled out of his hand and between the crack in the platform between the funicular and the curb. We could see it, but my beefy Popeye arms (I'm certain I had just eaten spinach) couldn't fit and I thought it was done for. Once again Candace to the rescue, she risked scraping her knee (and losing an arm) to reach down and retrieve the iTouch. Sam was already in tears thinking his precious was lost (no I did not forget a noun... much like The One Ring, Sam sometimes stares at his iTouch and talks to it).
After the castle and the fine commanding views of the area, we went back down and continued restored order to Rick Steves' universe. We had stopped at a small bakery for some yummy bread, and when we finished seeing Salzburg's highlights (including Mozart's sister's tomb), we got some ice cream and headed back to the hotel.
Day Nineteen: We woke up and went to church in Salzburg (our second time using headsets -- the first in Caen, France) and were not surprised to be there with a few other tourist families. The night in Salzburg was memorable as it was our last night in two separate hotel rooms. We then drove to Munich and arrived a little earlier than we thought we would. With it being Sunday, we wanted to avoid the pool, so we opted to go to Allianz Arena to the FC Bayern Munich Museum.
It was fun to be in Germany immediately following their World Cup 2014 victory, and since many of Die Mannschaft play for Bayern, if was fun to see first hand what a world club power's facilities were like. No we didn't get on the field, but we caught a glimpse of it.
Day Twenty: In an effort to make up for our Salzburg betrayal, we got up and rushed over to the metro and headed to downtown Munich to follow Rick Steves' walk. As was our custom in each new city, we climbed the first thing we found in the Marienplatz. We followed the walking tour and were able to make great time, seeing a lot of interesting things. I particularly though that the Asam Church was very interesting. You would never be bored during a sermon as there was so much to look at -- too much really.
Another interesting highlight on the tour was the Michael Jackson impromptu memorial. When I read it in the book, I thought it was a joke, but sure enough, it was there invading some statue of someone. It's across the street from the Bayerischer Hof Hotel -- which is NOT the hotel from which he dangled his son over that balcony (that was in Berlin).
Sam was particularly excited about the monument as his kindergarten teacher often played Beat It at school, and Sam knows all the words. We continued to the Munich Residenz and took the lengthy tour, and were amazed by some of the artsy stuff we found. Before going to the Residenz, we walked through a trendy part of town and were looking for lunch. We saw a Hard Rock Café amidst a bunch of other places with outdoor seating and tons of second hand smoke, and thought we could find something better. We got some ice cream there and moved along, but not before stopping in the Hofbräuhaus where Hitler gave some early Nazi speeches.
After the residence, we determined we needed to eat whatever we could find. We didn't see anything great in the area and continued to a park that had what looked like a spread out restaurant. We checked out the menu and thought it was as good as we were going to find. We sat down and waited... and waited... flagged down a waiter who gave us the Heisman and walked away. After about 10 minutes, a waiter came and took our drink orders of 5 waters (which he scoffed at), and he went on his way. 10 minutes later after not seeing him, we left. We decided that since we had to walk back by the trendy area to the metro, that we would find something there. After being on the road and eating lots of local foods in lots of areas, we decided on the Hard Rock Café (we didn't buy shirts). The food was great, much to Candace's surprise. The only way the kids made it through the day was by talking about Star Wars, chess strategies, the Lego Movie, and soccer teams (so Sam and I can pick a team to be fans of together). Candace and I also told the kids we had a surprise for them for the next day, but that we weren't going to tell them. They asked lots of questions, but didn't get the information out of us. We made it back to the hotel and were ready for the last good night's rest in a hotel.
Day Twenty-one: Legoland Deutschland. As we drove away from Munich, the kids still didn't know where we were going. It wasn't until we were about 5 minutes out (90 mins from Munich) that Claire said, "Are we doing to Legoland? I have been seeing lots of signs and we keep turning the way they say to turn to go to Legoland." When the response was in the affirmative, the kids went nuts. After 20 days of getting up early, walking all day, climbing stairs, being told to hurry and put your iTouch away, this was a day for the kids. They were so happy. We took our time riding the rides, but avoiding the German-language shows. The kids had a blast. We got ice cream, and kept the two commemorative cups (my idea). At the end of the day when the girls were watching the moving parts of the miniature lego Europe, I took Sam to the Lego Star Wars store. His eyes were big and he was so happy. When we walked out of the store, there were a stack of catalogs. I grabbed 3 for the kids so they would have something to look at... and it was the best souvenir of all. The girls looked at theirs and then put them aside. Sam looked at his for hours... and the next day... and the whole plane ride home... and pretty much every day since. It is right now (today is 6 September -- a month after we got home) on his nightstand. We had a great day, and the kids were so happy. We finished up and drove back to Eltville for our last night in Europe.
Day Twenty-two: With Mike and Danielle still on their cruise, we again had the house to ourselves. We slept in as much as we could and did one load of laundry to have something in our suitcases, and made our way back to the airport for what we thought would be a smooth departure. We checked in and made it through passport control with no issues. Once we made it to security, however, our luck ran out. With five of us and our five bags with water bottles for the kids and electronics, were were in for it. Having traveled a bunch (and internationally), we thought we knew what we could get away with. As we got to the conveyor belt for security, the TSA-equivalent lady freaked out where there was water in the kids 10-oz water bottles. I immediately opened the first and dumped the water in the garbage can right there. When the lady saw that Candace's larger water bottle had water in hit, Candace prepared to dump it in the garbage bin, and the lady GLARED at us saying the garbage can was for garbage. When asked what to do, she said we should get out of line and go back 100 meters of the restroom to dump it. Yeah, whatever. I drank the 20 oz on the spot and was ready to put that goofball behind us.
We put the bags through one by one... and were ready to move on, until our first bag was called out as having trouble. They asked to see it, so I opened it up and the second TSA-like brute started unpacking the bag. I asked what they were looking for and got no response. They took out the camera and some of our chargers back on the belt. While waiting for that, they zeroed in on our travel backpack (it was our diaper bag backpack until Caroline got bigger). All of the time asking us to move out of the way to let other passengers pass by. With a stack of passports and my wallet sitting there, I refused saying I would stay with my stuff. One of the guys looked at me and said, "I'm watching it." And I said, "I'll watch it, thanks." Once our electronics made it through, they handed them to me where I proceeded to methodically repack the bag how it was when we started. But then they pulled aside the travel backpack and proceeded to unpack that. They pulled out the offending Amazon Kindle, passed it through the belt again and then asked me to follow them.
I followed the lady under the security tape, and the family followed me. Two other guards freaked out when they followed me since they had not walked through the security funnel area. We said we were told to follow the guard with our Kindle, but they didn't care. Our Kindle was finally determined to NOT be any threat and it was returned to us. Then we made our way through the appropriate security exit and were on our way.
All in all, it us about 20 minutes to get through security. We were trying to make time to get some food before jumping on the 11 hour flight and were met with limited options near our gate. It ended up being a frustrating last hour in Germany after an awesome vacation. We boarded our Lufthansa flight direct to Bogotá and flew off into the sunset.
WRAP-UP: What a great trip. A twenty-two day vacation was enough to recharge the batteries. We were able to see so many awesome things, and we sure maximized our time. Some things were more expensive than we thought they would be (parking, gas), and some things were way less expensive than we thought (ok, not really). We had a blast and were happy to get home to get some rest.
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