2016 Europe - Day 8 - Ghent, Belgium and Liile, France

Forgetting to set any kind of alarm, we all slept really late. It was almost 9:00 am by the time we got up.

Getting cleaned up, we wandered towards the Saint Bavo Cathedral. We had breakfast on the street near the Cathedral (eggs and bacon). Afterwards, we headed into the cathedral.

The church houses the Ghent Altarpiece. The Ghent Altarpiece (also called the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb or The Lamb of God) is a very large and complex early 15th-century Early Flemish panel painting. It is attributed to the van Eyck brothers. It ranks among the most significant works of art in Europe. The altarpiece is another one of the works of art featured in The Monuments Men... There was a good audio tour of the altarpiece. The church also has the Saint Bavo enters the Convent at Ghent by Peter Paul Rubens.

Finishing up touring the church, we did the Rick Steve's walking tour of the historical center of Ghent. After Bruges, I was frankly surprised at how big a city Ghent is.

After the walking tour, we stopped for a snack at a place called the 13 Monkeys. Sharon had frog legs, while Jack had chicken wings.

The plan for the rest of the day was to head to Lille for the Wales versus Belgium Euro soccer game. Originally, I was thinking that we were going to take a train from Ghent to Lille and back. Although Lille is only about 45 miles from Ghent, it turns out that you would have to go to Brussels to get a train to Lille and it would take almost 3 hours one way.

About 1:30 pm, I split up from Sharon and Jack and headed back to the hotel. After about a 30 minute wait, I finally got a cab to Hertz. I picked up a rental car and brought it back to the hotel.

We took off a little before 5:00 pm for the game. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to the Lille. It turns out that most of the parking requires a reservation?!?. Eventually, we found the only lot that apparently doesn't require a reservation and ended up parking in a walkway on the top floor (there were literally no other spots left).

We walked about a mile to the stadium in the pouring rain. Getting through security and the ticket lines was fairly easy. Sharon felt that the security wasn't tight enough. We grabbed a hot dog before the game. The game had a 9:00 pm kick-off.

We had great seats about 35 rows up close to midfield. It was a great game. Belgium scored first, but then seemed to sit back. Wales went on to score three goals and win the game by the score of 3 to 1. It was a very, very cool atmosphere. I have to learn the words to a couple of the songs that the Welsh were singing.

After the game, it took us over an hour to get out of the parking lot. We were back to the hotel in bed at 2:00 am. A very long day...

2016 Europe - Day 1 - To Amsterdam, Netherlands

Staying at a Marriott near the San Francisco Airport, we were up about 5:30 am. This turned out to be one of those days when nothing goes quite right. As we were packing up the hotel room, Sharon realized that she had forgotten to give Eric the house key... As a result, we spent most of the rest of the day trying to find somewhere to ship the key back to Eric overnight without success.

We drove from the hotel to the SFO long term parking garage. [Note to Self], we are not paying to park here again. We caught a shuttle to the terminal. Checking our bags and getting boarding passes, the three of us got TSA Pre boarding. We breezed through security. Sharon, Jack and I boarded a 9:20 am United flight to Chicago O'Hare.

The flight to Chicago was easy. Unfortunately, Sharon realized on the flight that she couldn't find her United credit card. She thinks that she put it in her passport after she checked in and then dropped it as we were wandering the SFO terminal looking for somewhere to ship the key to Eric.

Landing at O'Hare about 3:00 pm, we wandered the C gates of Terminal ! trying to find somewhere to get a bite to eat. About 5:00 pm, we boarded a 5:50 pm United flight to Amsterdam. This is where the fun really began.

After taxiing away from the gate and sitting at the tarmac for almost an hour, the captain informed us that they were having problems with the anti-skid brakes. The plane went back to the gate. We ended up sitting at the gate for almost two more hours with little or no information from the crew. Much to my chagrin, the United iPhone app kept sending updated departure time delays to my watch.

Eventually, they took everyone off the plane in order to run some maintenance checks. United said that if they couldn't fix the problem they were going to put us on another plane. Finally, about 10:15 pm, they announced that the problem was resolved. They loaded everyone back on the plane, but had to find a new crew of flight attendants. It was after 11:00 pm before the plane pulled away from the gate again.

Instead of arriving in Amsterdam at 9:20 am in the morning on Saturday, we are now scheduled to be there at 2:00 pm Saturday afternoon. In the twenty plus years that Sharon and I have traveled together, we have one rule: any day that you end up where you were supposed to be is a good day.

I am writing this post over Nova Scotia with five more hours to Amsterdam. The wireless is better on this flight than it was on the flight from San Francisco to Chicago!

2016 Europe - Day 11 - To Hohenschwangau

This was the longest driving day of the trip. We set an early alarm and had breakfast in the hotel. By 9:15 am, we were packed, checked out and on the road.

We drove southeast across Southern Germany. The trip took us through a bunch of small towns along the top of Lake Constance. Jack had wanted to have lunch in Litchensutein so he could add another country, but that would have added an hour and a half to two hours to the day. With one stop, we made the drive about 4 1/2 hours.

After two one night stops, we will be spending two nights at Villa Ludwig Suite Hotel in Hohenschwangau. We checked in and dumped our stuff in the room. When we checked in, we arranged with the hotel staff to make reservations for the castle tours.

We wandered up into the tourist area below the castles for lunch. Sharon's brother Tom suggested this stop; he and his family had stopped here. It is a major tourist attraction. There were people everywhere. Apparently, a lot of people come on day trip tours from Munich. After getting a bit to eat, we wandered back to the room.

We then headed to Tegelburg Cable Car. There is a luge at the base of the cable car. All three of us took multiple runs down the luge. Afterwards, Sharon and Jack took the cable car to the top of the mountain, while I had a cold drink... There were a lot of parasails jumping off the top of the cable car and floating down into the valley.

Back at the hotel, the three of us spent some time in the spa. The hotel had a great spa with a hot tub, steam room and sauna. We then spent some time on the hotel patio with a cold drink. The hotel has a fantastic view of the Neuschwanstein Castle from the patio and the hot tub!

After getting cleaned up, we wandered back up into the tourist area for dinner about 8:15 pm. It was empty... Jack and I had Bauernschmaus, while Sharon had pork and spaetzle,

Just before we crashed for the night, we got some upsetting news.

2016 Europe - Day 6 - Bruges, Belgium

I got up at 6:00 am. I couldn't sleep anymore... Sharon and Jack slept until 8:00 am.

The hotel had given Sharon directions to three places to have waffles for breakfast. I couldn’t find the first place. It turns out it had moved… We ran across it later in the day on a different square. We ended up having waffles at the Prestige. Apparently, the Belgium’s don't really eat waffles for breakfast. They are more of a desert or a snack.

After breakfast, we walked to the De Halve Maan Brewery and brought tickets for the 11 am tour. With some time to kill, we walked through the Begijnhof and associated church. This is a complex which formerly housed beguines, lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world.

The three of us took the De Halve Maan Brewery tour. It lasted a little over an hour. Their brands are Zot and Strong Henry. The tour was followed by a tasting.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we headed to the Bell Tower. We hit it just right; there was essentially no line. It is 392 steps to the top. Have I said recently that I am not a heights person...

We had a nice lunch in a restaurant on a small square on Simon Stevinplein street. After lunch, we toured the Groeninge Museum. This is a fairly small museum. The most notable piece is Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele by the early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. The last couple of rooms merit only a speed walk.

Sharon shopped for chocolate in the same small square where we had lunch. We then wandered back to the Beer wall and got a different sampler than on Tuesday. We sat along the canal in the rain. I have been very surprised how much that it has rained on this trip. We have gotten rained on every day!

The package with the home keys finally got delivered to Eric on Wednesday morning his time. While we had a drink in the hotel bar, Sharon spent some time talking to Eric while he was at the house and checking on the cat.

After struggling with the hotel staff to find a restaurant, we ended up just walking into town. We were heading back towards the neighborhood near the brewery. Close to the hotel, we stumbled on a small restaurant called The Habit. It turned out to be a very nice flemish meal. We had a shrimp appetizer. Sharon had rabbit, I had beef stew and Jack had Brugse Waterzeei (chicken cream soup).

2016 Europe - Day 10 - To Frieburg, Germany

Since we had gotten there late, we made a decision to stay late in Luxembourg City. Unfortunately, we failed to set an alarm. With the room darkened by shades, we slept until after 8:40 am.

Getting cleaned up, we wandered the square around the hotel. Given that it was Sunday morning, it was very dead... We finally settled on a place to have some coffee and pastries.

From there we walked through the Notre-Dame Cathedral. We then took the elevator down to the Grund. The Grund is a city quarter located in the valley below the centre of Luxembourg City on the banks of the Alzette River. We spent some time exploring the area before walking back up to the city center.

By the time, we got back to the room, it was time to check out. We loaded up the car and set the GPS for Offenburg. We traveled out of Belgium, across part of France and finally into Germany. Part of the route included toll roads and the autobahn without any speed limit.

We had lunch in the Offenburg city center. After running into a lot of English speakers in Netherlands and Belgium, as we move south into Germany, we are getting more and more people who don't speak much English. This created somewhat of a comedy of errors at lunch. We all ordered the same thing which we thought was salad and sausages. As the lunch progressed, we started to think that all we had ordered was salad and bread. It turned out that we had ordered a very good chicken special with salad and bread!

Part of the plan for the day was to visit Zunsweier. Sharon's grand grandfather left Zunsweier in the 1850's and emigrated to Philadelphia. We stopped in the village and took some pictures.

From there we took a smaller back road to Frieburg. This area is the heart of the Black Forest. There is a lot of hiking and biking. I would be interested in coming back and spending a week in the Black Forest.

We will be spending one night at the Hotel Oberkirch. This was another hotel on the pedestrian mall in the city center. Sharon went to find the hotel, while I waited with the car. Unfortunately, rather than sending a person to help us get to the hotel like they did in Luxembourg City, they sent Sharon back with a map. It took us some time to figure out how to navigate the streets to the hotel.

By the time, I parked the car and we got settled in the room it was almost 6:00 pm. We wandered through the city cathedral. There is a picture in the cathedral of the town essentially destroyed by allied bombing in World War II, but the cathedral untouched. Afterwards, we explored the rest of the city center for about an hour and a half. We were scouting for somewhere to have dinner and watch the soccer game. We ended up back on the square around the cathedral for a cold drink.

We went to dinner about 8:45 pm at Tacheles. We all had different kinds of schnitzel. We watched the France versus Iceland. France won the game by the score of 5 to 2. With a long day on Monday, we crashed early. We are going to try and get an early start tomorrow.

2016 Europe - Day 7 - To Ghent, Belgium

We all slept in until 8 am. This is a moving day... We will be heading to Ghent.

For the second time on the trip, Jack and I went for a morning run. This has been a very unexpected development (pleasure). We did a loop out to the four remaining windmills and back. A map of our run is here. While Jack and I ran, Sharon went to the spa.

After getting cleaned up, we wandered down to the Market Square and had omelettes at one of the restaurants lining the square. Packing up the room and checking out, we caught a taxi to the train station. I was disappointed with how long it took for the taxi to show up. Overall, although we had a great room at the hotel (Dukes Palace), the desk service was at best mediocre.

We caught a 12:37 train to Ghent. It was only a 30 minute train ride to the Ghent St. Peter train station. We caught a taxi to the hotel. We are spending two nights at the Ghent Marriott. This turned out to be a very unusual Marriott right in the middle of the historic city center.

After getting unpack, we headed to the Castle of the Courts. This is castle built in the middle ages.

When we finished the castle, we had a snack along the river canal. From there, Jack and Sharon went to the top of the Belfry of Ghent. Having had enough of towers at this point, I toured the St. Nicholas Church.

Meeting back up, we did a 40 minute boat cruise. Compared to Amsterdam and Bruges, the Ghent boat canal tour covers a fairly small area. Interestingly, there was a canal that ran 30 miles to the North Sea at one point. Parts of it are filled in now.

Scouting a place for dinner, we walked through the neighborhood near the castle, but didn't find anything promising. We ended up having dinner at Pakhuis. Sharon found this restaurant in the Rick Steve's book. It was a very cool setting. Jack and I spilt some oysters (not as good as day 1...), while Sharon had smoked eel. For the main course, I had chicken, Jack had ham, and Sharon had salmon. The only shortcoming of the dinner was that my food was not very warm.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and watched the Portugal versus Poland Euro2016 soccer game. Portugal won the game on penalties. Jack and I have watched the last two Portugal games and they have been pretty boring. Jack and I wandered around the area to take some night pictures after the game was over. It was after midnight by the time we got to bed.

2016 Europe - Day 16 - Munich

Up fairly early, we had a very nice free breakfast at the hotel. Given the size of Munich, the plan for the day was to take the Grey Line on and off bus to a number of sites.

We walked to the subway station and took the subway to the Marienplatz stop. From there, we walked to the main railway station. We bought tickets and boarded a 10:20 am bus.

The first stop was the Nymphenburg Palace. The palace is the main summer residence of the former rulers of Bavaria. We spent about 45 minutes touring the palace and the gardens.

Jumping back on the bus, we got off at the BMW Welt (BMW World) and BMW Museum. We wandered through the BMW World which is mostly current and future technology. Jack has been talking the whole trip about wanting a BMW station wagon. We saw them everywhere in Europe. We then toured the BMW Museum which showcases the history of the company. I was astonished at the number of people; both sites were packed. Overall, we spent almost two hours between the two venues.

The next bus stop was the English Garden. This is essentially Munich's equivalent to New York City's central park. We walked into the park and had lunch at the Chinese Tower beer garden.

Afterwards, we walked the length of the English Garden. At the tip, people were actually surfing on the river where it came into the park.

At this point, we started along the reverse direction of Rick Steve's walking tour of Munich. Struggling with a cold for the last couple of days, I was really starting to wear down at this point. We made a couple of stops to tour the Frauenkirche and St. Michaels Churches. We ended having a couple of good drinks in the Frauenplatz and watched an entertaining street performer.

We had one odd experience in and around Munich. It seemed like they were more reluctant to take credit cards than everywhere else that we went in the two and a half weeks. There were a couple of places that wouldn't take cards and a couple of other places where they acted very bent out of shape when we used a credit card.

We caught the subway back to the hotel. We headed down to the pool and the spa at the hotel. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. The hot tub was not hot and the steam room was a far cry from the one at Hohenschwangau.

We finished the night with a late dinner in the Champions sport bar attached to the hotel!?! This is an Amercian restaurant chain. I had a cobb salad, Jack had hot wings and Sharon had a quesadilla. I was frankly done with German food at this point. I have had enough sausages, sauerkraut and schnitzel to last me a couple of years. We watched the European track and field champions while we ate...

2016 Europe - Day 5 - To Bruges, Belgium

To my surprise, Jack wanted to do an early morning run. We ended up running more than 5.7 miles through the city to Vondelpark. We circled the park and then ran back to the hotel. A map of our run is here.

We had breakfast at the hotel for the second straight day. Thankfully, the Fedex package is now in the system and shows up in Germany. Packing up the room, we walked to the train station.

We caught the 11:17 am high speed train to Antwerp. We had a nice conversation with an American couple along the way. The leg was about an hour and 15 minutes. The Antwerp train station is architecturally interesting. We switched to an intercity train to Bruges. Making about six stops, it took another hour and a half. We got to Bruges about 2:30 pm and caught a cab to the hotel.

We are spending two nights at Dukes Palace. Janie had stayed here a couple of years ago and recommended the hotel to Sharon. To Jack and my surprise, we have a large multi-level family suite.

After getting settled in the room, we headed into town. With too many people trying to decide which way to go, we had a ragged start.

The first stop was the Church of Our Lady. This church contains a Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. It is said to be the only Michelangelo statue to leave Italy during his lifetime. The statue was taken by Napoleon and the Nazis. The statue is featured in The Monuments Men...

From there, we wandered through the Burg Square and ended up somewhat accidentally in the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Built in the 12th century as the chapel of the residence of the Count of Flanders, the church houses a venerated relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought from the Holy Land by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders.

Belgium is known for its beer. We wandered to the beer wall at 2be. We had a sampler and watched the boats on the canal.

Afterwards, we took a boat cruise of Bruges. This was a much more intimate experience than Amsterdam.

We stopped on the Market Square for a cold drink and a snack. Jack wants to climb the Bell Tower tomorrow.

We crashed in the hotel room for a while. Sharon and I wandered down to check out the hotel bar before dinner. Eventually, we went to dinner at Breydel De Coninc about 8:30 pm. Sharon and Jack had mussels with white sauce, while I had mussels with Bruges beer sauce. We split an ice cream desert. The food was very good.

We struggled to get the check when we were ready to leave. Sharon and I have experienced this in past trips to Europe, but this may have been one of the more bizarre episodes. I swear the waiter was purposely ignoring us!

We walked back to the hotel in the pouring rain after dinner; we didn't bring jackets with us. We crashed a little after 11:00 pm. The earliest that we have gotten to bed so far on the trip.

2016 Europe - Day 12 - Hohenschwangau

Up at 7:00 am, we had breakfast at the hotel, we picked up our castle tickets at the front desk just after 8:15 am. It is a steep 2 km hike from the hotel up to the Neuschwanstein Castle. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner. It serves as the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

We had tickets for a 9:40 am tour. It was nice to be there early. The courtyard where you wait for the tour was pretty empty. The tour plus wandering out of the castle took about an hour. It was definitely worth it. There is a bridge across the gorge above the castle, but it was closed.

We walked back down to the village and then up to Hohenschwangau Castle. We wandered around the ground. We had a 11:50 tour of this castle. This is s 19th-century palace built King Maximilian II of Bavaria. While not as impressive as the Neuschwanstein Castle, it was interesting.

After the castle tours, we had a pasta lunch along the shore of the lake. We headed back to the hotel and took a short nap.

I eventually wandered down to the front desk and got bikes and helmets. We ended up wandering over a fairly large area for more than two hours, including the shore of Lake Forggensee and around Lake Schwansee (Swan Lake). Jack got bored with our pace and took off on his own for the end of the ride. We covered more than 14 miles. Unfortunately, somehow I screwed up and didn't save the map...

After the bike ride, we again spent some time in the hot tub, sweat room and sauna. Both days, it was just the three of us in the spa.

We drove into Fussen for a fairly early dinner. The hotel had made a recommendation, but that restaurant was closed. Wandering into town, we finally settled on Gasthaus Zum Schwanen; this was a German Croatia restaurant. Jack had pork, Sharon had schnitzel and I had sausages.

The Germans don't eat as late as some of the Europeans. We were the last group that they seated and we were done with dinner about 9:00 pm. Tomorrow is another travel day.

2016 Europe - Day 9 - To Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

We are going to cover a lot of ground over the next couple of days. This trip had a number of goals that I will explore in a future post. The goals necessitated a couple of longer travel days.

After a very late night on Saturday morning, we set the alarm for 8:00 am. Getting cleaned up and having breakfast at the hotel, we packed, checked out of the hotel and were on the road shortly after 10 am.

Jack set the GPS for town center in Clerxaux. We drove across most of Belgium and into the tip of Luxembourg. It rained heavily over the first two hours of the drive. As I told Sharon and Jack, I am getting !@#$%^&* tired of the rain. It took us about four hours to drive from Ghent to Clervaux.

We had a nice lunch in the town square. After lunch, we toured The Family of Man, a exhibit of photos collected by Edward Steichen in permanent display in Clervaux Castle. As Sharon said, we could have spent hours looking through the photos.

Needing to drop one car and pick up another car, we started toward Luxembourg Airport. Unfortunately, the GPS lead a little astray. We ended up on a dead end dirt road paralleling the freeway. As part of this leg, we were essentially driving the length of Luxembourg.

We finally found our way to the airport about 4:00 pm, but then had some struggles figuring out where Hertz was. The Luxembourg airport is very small. We picked up the car that we are going to have for the next week.

Driving from Clervauz to Luxembourg City, we covered almost the entire length of the country of Luxembourg. We finally got to Luxembourg City about 5:00 pm.

We are staying at the La Place D'Armes for one night. This hotel is in the city center on a pedestrian mall. I dropped Sharon and Jack at the edge of the mall. Jack brought back one of the hotel staff who guided me to the hotel through all of the people walking in the mall. The hotel gave us a nice upgraded multi-level room.

This turned out to be a little like the Orvieto experience. I hadn't read the Luxembourg book. We got there very late in the day and weren't organized about what we were going to do. Jack had wanted to come to Luxembourg so I was kind of letting him drive.

After some initial confusion, Jack led us to the Bock casemates. We toured the underground fortification. Afterwards, Sharon and Jack walked along the city walls, while I explored the area.

Getting cleaned up, we walked to a late dinner at Le Sud. It started pouring rain on the way. We had a very nice dinner; this might turn out to be the most expensive place on the trip. I had risotto and lamb, Jack had veal and Sharon had had fish cappuccino and pigeon. We took a cab back to the hotel and crashed...

2016 Europe - Day 2 - Amsterdam, Netherlands

We finally landed in Amsterdam a little after 2:00 pm. We breezed through customs and collected our luggage. My biggest surprise was that the taxi was a Tesla. It took about 20 minutes from the airport to our hotel. We are spending three nights at the Amsterdam Renaissance. We actually have two rooms for the first three nights of the trip. We were in our rooms a little after 3:00 pm.

After getting settled in the rooms, Sharon and I spent some time with the concierge trying to figure out how to ship the house key to Eric. Eventually, they sent us to a post office about a quarter of mile away. Unfortunately, the post office couldn't get the key out until Monday. The saga continues...

From there, we walked by the Anne Frank House and the Westerkerk (West Church). Jack wants to come back and climb the bell tower. We found a spot along one of the canals for a cold drink near the Anne Frank house.

We then walked to Dam Square. The Royal Palace (picture right) is one side of the square. Unfortunately, the palace is closed until July 2 to set up an exhibit. On another side of the square is the New Church. This is now an exhibit hall. We bought museum passes (museum kaart) that we can use for the next couple of days and spent some time browsing the exhibits. We finished the afternoon walking back to the hotel up a busy pedestrian shopping street called Nieuwedijk.

Doing some research ahead of time, Sharon made restaurant reservations for all three nights in Amsterdam. We had an early dinner at bistrot nerf near the hotel. Sharon had veal, while Jack and I had duck breast. Jack and I spilt some very good Irish and Dutch oysters as an appetizer.

Jack and I finished the night in an Irish Pub watching Portugal play Croatia in the round of 16 of the Eurocup. With the score tied 0 to 0 at the end of regular time, Jack and I moved to the hotel lounge to watch the end of the game. In extended time, Portugal won by the score of 1 to 0. By the time, we crawled up to the room it was after 11:30 p.m.

Although we lost four and a half hours to the plane problems in Chicago, it was very successful first day. We had a chance to get our bearings and built a plan of attack for the next two days in Amsterdam.

Given my family history, I have always wanted to come to the Netherlands!

2016 Europe - Day 14 - Salzburg

We set an alarm for 7:30 am. Getting dressed, we headed into the old city center for breakfast. We had a hard time finding a place for breakfast. We wandered back and forth before finally just settling on a Starbucks! Finding a place for breakfast is a struggle that we occasionally have when we are traveling. Every culture deals with breakfast slightly differently and sometimes we just can't find the right rhythm to get in sync.

After breakfast, using the Rick Steve's book, Jack led us on a great walking tour of the old city. We toured the Salzburg Cathedral, St. Peter Cemetery's and St. Peter's Church. The old city, including the cathedral, have some very Italian influences. In the cemetery, we climbed up into the cliff to tour some hillside caves where the medieval monks had lived.

Along the walking tour, we stopped at the University of Salzburg. In the summer of 1985, Sharon spent six weeks taking classes here between her second and third year of law school. After 31 years, Sharon was excited to have a chance to come back!

After a quick stop at the hotel, we headed to the Mirabell Gardens. We wandered through the gardens.

Next, we went looking for Hotel Amedus. When Sharon came to Salzburg in 1985, she got there a couple of days before the dorms were open. Wandering in the city, she ended up staying a couple of nights at the Hotel Amedus. She has some very fond memories of her stay there and the view of the church cemetery out the windows.

From here, we headed to the Museum of Modern Art. Located on a cliff overlooking the city, we took an elevator up to the museum. The plan was to have lunch there. The museum restaurant has some fantastic views. All of three of us had a business special (soup and risotto). Sharon has been talking for weeks about special desert that they have in Salzburg. We didn't get it on the first night. With our schedule, this was our only chance to order the desert. Sharon ordered the Salzburg Nockerl. It was huge.

Continuing to feel under the weather, I wandered back to the hotel to take a nap. Sharon and Jack explored the ridge above the city.

When they got back to hotel, we got cleaned up and dressed up a little. Sharon had made a package of reservations for the rest of the day that included four parts.

First, we took a boat tour on the Satz River. We sat on the river and had a cold drink while we waited for the tour. We caught the boat on the river right across from our hotel. The boat tour lasted about an hour.

Second, when the boat tour was done, we walked across the old city and took a funicular train up into the fort. It is literally a 30 second ride.

Third, we had dinner in the restaurant on the far side of the Hohensalzburg Fortress. While the food was mediocre, the views were stunning. There was a fixed meal; Sharon and I had a fish plate, while Jack had veal.

Fourth, after dinner, we went up to the top of the fortress (the high floor of windows in the picture at the top of this post) and listened to an hour and a half concert that included Mozart and other composers.

After the concert, we took the train back down and headed back to the hotel. Jack and I finished the night watching the France versus Germany semi-final Euro soccer game in the bar. France scored twice in the second half to win by the score of 2 to 0. For a couple of reasons that I will explain later, we were really rooting for Germany. By the time, we crashed in the room it was almost 11:30 pm...

2016 Europe - Day 3 - Amsterdam, Netherlands

Sharon probably spent more time researching the food in Amsterdam than she has on any trip that I can remember. We ended up having an early breakfast at Pancakes Amsterdam. While Jack and I ordered sweet dutch pancakes, Sharon ordered a savory pancake. All were all excellent. I had strawberries and yogurt. Sharon's pancake was almost like an omelet.

From there, we walked towards the museums. We started with the Van Gogh Museum. Sharon and I had seen several traveling Van Gogh exhibitions in Los Angeles and Denver in 1999 and 2000. Consequently, I was a little disappointed by the breadth of the museum's collection. I was surprised by some of the Japanese style paintings that he had done as well as his sketches. The Tree Roots painting that he was apparently working on at the end of his life was interesting. It took us almost an hour and a half to cover the museum.

The Rijksmuseum was next. This is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam. It has masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. I was very surprised by Rembrandt's Night Watch. It is very impressive! We spent another hour and a half exploring this museum.

Done with the two major museums, we wandered to the Leidseplein and made a stop for a cold drink. This marked one end of Rick Steve's walking tour. Eventually, we started back towards the hotel following the walking tour. Sharon enjoyed the flower market along the way.

We walked through the Begijnhof. The Begijnhof is one of the oldest inner courts in the city of Amsterdam. The Begijnhof is the only inner court in Amsterdam which was founded during the Middle Ages, and therefore lies within the Singel — the innermost canal of Amsterdam's circular canal system.

Afterwards we spent 30 minutes exploring the Amsterdam Museum. This museum focuses on the development of Amsterdam as a city.

We continued along pedestrian shopping mall on the Rick Steve's walk towards Dam Square and then continued up Damrak to the train station. The walk ended very close to our hotel.

After we got back to the hotel, Sharon and I wandered across the street from the hotel to a Spanish tapas restaurant for a snack.

Sharon had a made a late dinner reservation so we decided to stand in line for the Anne Frank Museum. I had tried to buy tickets ahead of time, but they were all sold out. We ended up standing in line for about an hour. It takes about 30 minutes to tour the museum. It was worthwhile. I will probably end up reading the book at some point...

We finished the night with a 9:00 pm. dinner at Balthazars Kejken. The restaurant had a three course fixed menu with a meat and fish main course choice. Jack and I had white fish, while Sharon had rabbit.

By the time we wandered back to the hotel, it was about 11:15 pm. I have been using my iPhone and watch to navigate, but it died shortly after we left the restaurant. As a result, Jack and I took a different way back to the hotel. As Sharon was getting miffed that we had lead her on a wild goose taste, we walked up on the hotel.

2016 Europe - Day 15 - To Munich

With a short hop planned from Salzburg to Munich, we decided to leave Salzburg late. After yesterday's struggles finding breakfast, we had a very, very expensive breakfast in the hotel.

Afterwards, we headed to Mozart's Residence. In addition to the Sound of Music, the town is crazy for Mozart! We did an audio tour of the museum. I have to agree with Jack: they could have done a better job providing an overview of his life.

We wandered back to the hotel, checked out of the room and headed towards Munich. This was a fairly easy drive of less than two hours on the autobahn.

We were at the hotel in Munich about 2:00 pm. We are spending two nights at the Munich Marriott. This is the first hotel on the trip that is not in the heart of the city center.

Getting the bags in the room, I took off to get rid of the rental car. I returned the rental car to the main railway station. Sharon encouraged me to call get the exact address for the rental return. I did and they give me a street address on an alley near the station. Like usual, I missed the turn the first time and had to loop around.

When I parked in the garage, I was next to three young Americans with large backpacks who were also returning a car. The side of their car had three deep gouges running the length of the car. It looked like some kind of dinosaur clawed the side of the car.

I grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. We walked to the subway and took the subway downtown. We walked from the Opeonsplatz stop to the Alta Pinakothek Museum. This museum is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses one of the most famous collections of Old Master paintings. I was astonished at the number of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens.

From there, we walked to the Marienplatz, Munich's main square. Eventually, we found our way to the Hofbräuhaus. This is a world-famous beer hall. Eventually, we found a table and had an early dinner of sausage and sauerkraut.

After some discussion, we ended up heading back to the hotel after dinner. Two plus weeks into the trip and with both Sharon and I nursing colds, we decided just to crash early in the room...

2016 Europe - Day 13 - To Salzburg

Up early, we had breakfast at the hotel. We were packed, checked out and were loaded in the car by 8:40 am.

We are heading to Salzburg, Austria. For the first hour and a half, the GPS lead us over a series of small country roads through small villages. In the drive from Freiburg to Hohenschwangau to Salzburg, we saw a lot of rural Southern Germany.

Eventually, we hit the autobahn to Salzburg, We got to the hotel about 11:40 am. In heavy traffic, I missed the hotel the first time and it took 20 minutes to loop back around.

We dropped the bags and the car. The hotel said that the room wouldn't be ready until 2:00 pm. This wasn't a problem. Sharon had made plans for the afternoon.

We wandered across the river into the historic old town and had lunch on the Mozartplatz. Sharon had salmon trout, Jack had sausage and I had risotto.

From there, we wandered to Bob's Special Tours. Sharon had made a reservation for a four hour Sound of Music Tour! This was a highlight spotlighted in the Rick Steve's book. Frankly, I didn't even realize that the Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg.

Let me start with the positives. Both Jack and I felt like the driving tour give us a great feel for the city, the area around the hilltop fortress and the surrounding countryside. We also enjoyed the stop to ride the luge.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of negatives. We were in an eight passenger van. Siding in the middle row, we had a six year old and her grandparents sitting behind us. The tour guide/driver's English was not good. You really had to focus to figure out what the driver was saying. The six year quickly lost interest and was just yapping away about all kinds of things. Her grandparents couldn't hear the guide and got frustrated about where we were going and what we were seeing.

The traffic was very heavy. The driver kept muttering about how usually bad the traffic was. We ended sitting in traffic for much of the first hour trying to get to a number of stops in and around the city.

Over the second half of the tour, we started playing leapfrog with a Panoramic van that was doing the same tour. When we got to the parish church at Mondsee, I followed that group for a while. Their guide spoke great English and was being much more pro-active about actually leading the tour. This was actually the company recommended by the hotel...

What we really needed was a reference sheet and map that supplemented the tour. This would have provided a much better perspective on what was going on.

We got back to the city about 4:00 pm, but it took us almost 30 minutes to wind our way to the hotel in very heavy traffic. I finally convinced Sharon to get out and walk the last 100 yards rather than sit in the van.

We picked up our key and went up to the room. We are spending the next two nights at the Hotel Sacher.

Jack had come on the trip with a cold. Starting Sunday or Monday night, I started to feel it a little. Walking in the room, I essentially collapsed. I couldn't go any further. Sharon and Jack wandered down to the hotel bar, while I slept.

Sharon had made a dinner reservation in the old city center, but she and Jack decided to eat in the hotel grill instead. Jack had more schnitzel, while Sharon and I had hamburgers. Jack spent the last week of the trip raving about how much he loved German food.

Jack and I finished the night in the room watching the second half of the Portugal versus Wales Euro semi-final. We were rooting for Wales, but Portugal won by the score of 2 to 0.

2016 Europe - Day 4 - Amsterdam, Netherlands

We had breakfast in the concierge lounge of the hotel. The plan for the morning was to take a canal tour. Using Rick Steve's Jordaan walk, we headed back to the Anne Frank House. We ended up taking the Orange Line on the Grey Line Company This trip trough the city took about an hour and a half and had five stops. In hindsight, I think that we would have been better off with a sightseeing boat, but everything worked out. It is a great way to get a different perspective on the city.

After the canal tour, we bought tickets for the Westerkerk Church Tower. They take six person groups up the tower on a 30 minute tour. The tour guide stops at each floor and talks about the tower construction and the bells. I am not a heights person and stayed inside at the top rather than walking around the outside of the tower in the rain. Jack gets the photo credit...

The next stop was lunch. Liz had recommended that we try shoarama. Sharon lead us back to a place that we had seen on Oude Lellestraat near the beginning of the Jordaan walk.

After lunch, we finished the Rick Steve's Jordaan walking tour. We stopped for a cold drink along one of the canals in the heart of the Jordaan neighborhood.

At this point, we walked back to the flower market to do a little shopping. I bought Sharon a Christmas ornament, while she shopped for some Delftware.

On the way back to hotel, we toured the De Papegaal Hidden Catholic Church along the busy pedestrian shopping mall. It was closed when we were doing the walking tour yesterday.

Back at the hotel, Sharon tried to check on the status of the Fedex package of the keys to Eric. She got very frustrated with the hotel staff. We had a drink in the bar at the hotel to unwind.

We did the Rick Steves' walk through the Red Light District about 6:00 pm. Although I have read descriptions of the set up, I am not very good visualizing the physical layouts based on written descriptions. As a result, I was "surprised" how it is organized. Given the early hour, the area was not very active yet.

We ended up having a cold beverage at a restaurant just off Dam Square and watching the Italy versus Spain Eurocup Soccer game. The bartender was Italian. Italy won the game by the score of 2 to 0.

We finally wandered off and got a cab near the front of the New Church. Sharon had made a 8:00 pm dinner reservation at Tempo Deoleo. This is a Michelin rated Indonesian restaurant. We had the international rice table. The food was very, very good.

We got a cab back to the hotel. Sharon and Jack went out for a while. Surprisedly, they stumbled across a Red Light district very close to the hotel which was much more active than they had seen earlier!

It was almost midnight by the time they got home and everyone got to bed.

2016 Europe - Day 0 - San Francisco

Dropping Tiber with Eric, Sharon, Jack and I took off for San Francisco at 6:30 pm. Using some Marriott points, we are spending the night at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront. It was an easy drive into the city. We got to the hotel a little after 8:00 pm. With an early start on Friday, we crashed fairly early.

2016 Europe - Day 17 - To Sacramento

In hindsight, we probably didn't use our time in Munich as efficiently as possible. If Sharon and I had felt better, we could have covered more ground on Friday night and Sunday morning.

We had a lazy Sunday morning. We slept in and had a nice free breakfast in the hotel. We eventually caught a taxi from the hotel to the airport about noon. It is actually a pretty long ride out to the airport. The cab driver was not happy that I used a credit card...

We had a nonstop flight from Munich to San Francisco on Lufthansa. We checked our bags. I swear that Jack's bag was probably more than 55 pounds. I think that Jack's bag only weighted 43 pounds when we started. Sharon and Jack bought quite a bit of swag.

Lufthansa doesn't seem to care about overweight bags. We had a similar experience with Sharon's bag coming out of Italy four years ago.

We breezed through security. With a 3:25 pm boarding time, we had some time to kill. We ended up having a cold drink and some sushi followed by some Italian food.

The boarding was delayed about 45 minutes. In spite of loading a very big plane, Lufthansa didn't seem to have a very organized boarding process...

It was an 11 1/2 hour flight. Jack and I watched Portugal beat France in the Euro final by the score of 1 to 0. We had been hoping that Germany would be in the final. It would have been wild to be on a Lufthansa flight from Munich with a couple hundred Germans watching the game! Although the food was particularly horrible, the flight was uneventful.

We landed at 7:00 pm Sunday evening. We moved through the password control, baggage claim and customs fairly quickly. Jack's girlfriend picked him up at the curb. Sharon and I dragged the luggage on to the parking shuttle and wound our way to the car. By the time, we got home it was almost 11:30 pm. The cold had gotten the best of me and I was done.