Due to requests, here's a write-up for Mike's and my European adventure and annual honeymoon. I call this trip our Central Europe "Sampler Platter" because we averaged one country each day, seeing highlights without delving in and fully experiencing one location.
We covered 2700km in 8 days and spent plenty of time in the car, listening to Rick Steves and a variety of podcasts. Here's the map and travel log.
Day 1: Drop the boys off at school with hugs and head to the airport for an overnight direct flight to Amsterdam & then to Prague
Day 2: Land in Prague, pick up our rental car with only 17km on it and attack jet lag head on. We hit the ground running, complete with souvenir eggs, gelato, Russian nesting dolls from China, and an audio walking tour with Rick Steves.
Gelato flavors of choice with a mutual consensus: Dark chocolate, coconut, gianduja or hazelnut, pistachio
Medieval astronomical clock attached to the Old Town Hall
Pysanky, Ukrainian Easter eggs
My limited research listed pork knuckle as the dish of choice.
View from our hotel room in the old town center.
After spring cleaning, outgrowing the majority of my shoes, and clearing out closets, we put our extra checked bag to use and brought donations for our friends crossing borders from Ukraine.
Day 3: Drive to Loket and the spa town of Karlovy Vary, Czech. Walk the town and stay in another amazing and cheap hotel.
Day 4: We planned a hefty itinerary and almost cut out this next stop. Thanks to a 20 minute video by Rick Steves, we decided to keep Dresden in the plan and how grateful we are that we did! Our afternoon in Germany was a definite highlight for me. Not only because I'm probably half German, but because this city is absolutely gorgeous, I LOVE the German people, we got to practice the couple of conversational German words that we know, and we got to experience the beautiful Frauenkirche in person. This church was destroyed during WWII and lay in rubble for 50 years until it was rebuilt.
One woman selling food nearby recalled walking past the ruins as a child and has enjoyed witnessing its remarkable transformation back to a cherished and inspiring building of worship.
With reference to this city, I was reminded of one of my favorite messages:
"Surely, if man can take the ruins, rubble, and remains of a broken city and rebuild an awe-inspiring structure that rises toward the heavens, how much more capable is our Almighty Father to restore His children who have fallen, struggled, or become lost?"
The interior was just as beautiful, and as always, we elected to pay the fee to climb the interior stairs to the top for both the view at the top, but also to see up close the inside engineering.
We love traveling in the late spring and early fall amidst idyllic weather and crowds.
I didn't do the normal amount of research for this trip, and both Mike and I were beyond thrilled to discover that our free night at the Hilton landed us in the center of the UNESCO world heritage site of Castle Hill and next door to Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion. Accompanied with a pristine view of the Hungarian Parliament Building on the Danube.
View from our Hotel, Hilton on Hess András tér 1-3, 1014 Hungary
We've lucked out before, including by being in the right place at the right time.
Because of that, I call myself the "lucky clueless tourist."
Additionally, I've never been so grateful to have English is native language. Even amongst traveling Europeans, it was the universal language. Upon complementing our hotel receptionist on his English he said: "Well, it's easier for me to learn English than for you to learn a difficult language that only 10 million people speak." We were pleasantly surprised at how many people spoke English and how friendly and willing to communicate with and help us out.
Day 5: Today’s scriptures was: “I did enter the city not knowing beforehand what I should do…”
We really had no idea what we were going to do in Budapest, just knew we wanted to see it. Luckily we saw these cool little scooters parked near our hotel and so we called the company that rents them. Because we were traveling during a slow off-season, they still had some for that day. Who knew exploring Budapest on E-scooters could be so fun!? If you ever find yourself in Budapest make sure to reserve one of these weeks or months before you arrive and zoom over to and all around Margaret island. And just for some wild fun, dodge buses and taxies as you navigate through the main roads as well!
By mid afternoon it became apparent to us that we had Budapest to ourselves and that we were experiencing a small and prime window to be traveling Europe. Between war in neighboring Ukraine and unclear covid regulations, outside of Europeans, we were some of the only few tourists in these cities. Coming over we weren't sure if we'd be able to cross borders or stick to our itinerary, but much to our surprise there were very few mask regulations, no Covid cards, and no crowds! It was a once in a lifetime experience to be some of the only Americans in these countries right now and before Europe's upcoming travel surge.
Our evening drive took us through the beautiful Hungarian countryside along Lake Balaton and into Zagreb, Croatia.
Day 6: One of my very favorite parts of traveling is attending church in other states and countries. Today we attended a branch in Zagreb, enjoyed visiting with about 18 missionaries, one of which was from our Highland stake, sang hymns in Croatian, and enjoyed hearing the translation from a fast and testimony meeting. There were times where the translator would say: "I don't know, or I don't understand." I took that to mean that she really couldn't understand what they were saying, but later she explained that the words and ideas they were sharing are what didn't make sense and she didn't want to repeat/endorse them. It's so good to get out! Later, we drove to Rovinj for dinner and enjoyed walking this peaceful Adriatic Sea town with shiny cobblestone. We met one of my favorite people on trip after sunset: a man playing his accordion and singing to it at the top of his lungs. Croatia, thank you for your beautiful music, food, sunset, water, and people!
We quickly learned that one does not pronounce the 'j' in Rovinj and a 'j' is pronounced as a 'y' in Croatian.
Out taxi boat out to our hotel on its own little private island that looks across the water at the city on the hill. I highly recommend the beautiful and very affordable Hotel Katarina.
Fresh, flavorful, affordable seafood.
Sunset in Rovinj in the Istrian Peninsula
Photo taken by our American friend who moved to Budapest 3 years ago. When asked why Prague was his very favorite city in Europe he cheerfully replied: "Because the Czech people are the kindest and most genuine people you will ever meet. They meet come across rough on the outside but once they know you they will do absolutely anything for you." Additionally new friend, thank you for letting me know that the seagulls attacked my breakfast plate while I stepped away from it for a minute.
Day 7: Drive across Croatia and into beautiful Slovenia and then through Austria.
Lake Bled, Slovenia in the Julian Alps.
Our E-boat ride out to The Church of Mary the Queen or Our Lady of the Lake,
located on a small island in Lake Bled. We loved visiting with our friendly driver who trades off with his coworkers paddling tour boats out to the lake. He grew up playing hockey on this lake when it used to freeze in the winters, speaks impeccable English, and now spends his winters in South America.
Arrived in Vienna just in time for the first rain of the week. It lasted just long enough for us to check in and put on our rain coats. We had just enough time to hop on the Wiener Linien and listen to Rick Steve's Ringstrasse Tram Tour. We had no idea that Vienna is so huge and filled with such massive buildings. They call it a head without a body because even though they have the infrastructure to run a huge country, they are no longer a powerful and leading country. We toured St Stephen's Cathedral & Platz & Empress Sissi's rooms at the Hofburg
My favorite Austrian takeaway are the Lippizaner horses and "Gemütlichkeit" which means comfy, cozy. And where else than the Lindt store to find comfy and cozy amazingness.
Meet this week's mode of transportation, the "Blackberry"
thoughtfully coined from Gus's "blueberry" from Psych.
Dobra Vida near the Czech-Austria border. I'm pretty sure that Mike and I would both agree that meeting the people and getting off the beaten path is our very favorite part of Europe. The cities, history, art, architecture, food, languages, gelato, treats, music, stories, jewels, and treasures are great, but there's nothing like the smells and sounds of the thick forests.
"Right when I think I’ve seen all the different little European towns, I see another one.
And I love it! I want to go visit and spend some time in it.
We’re that same way to God. He loves all of us. We are all beautiful in our own, unique ways.
I've noticed that some of the towns that are most broken are the most beautiful in their own way." -Mike
Next and final city is Cesky Krumlov, Czech. We came upon this beautiful city during golden hour. Typically a highly touristed UNESCO city, we had this place literally to ourselves! No lines, waits, and even people eating meals were locals out with their friends. It was an absolutely breathtaking city surrounded by a lush and hilly countryside. Our favorites included a morning walk through a park filled with loud birds welcoming in the day, our Thai fusion restaurant and server, the view from "Pension" window, the Gingerbread bakery, and the bear rugs with names in the castle. They have bears living in the once full mote, and every time one dies, they skin it and find a place for it in the castle.
Our last night, spent in Prague, eating Trdlnik, buying souvenir overpriced Russian nesting dolls on Amazon because they all have a "made in China" sticker on the bottom of them, and one last stroll over King Charles Bridge at sunset.
View of the castle,
Vltava River and St Charles Bridge
My very favorite thing about travel is the people that we meet. The languages, backgrounds, and life experiences. I had a tender mercy moment on the parking spot bus ride back to our car in SLC. The driver reminded me more of the people we met in Europe than who we have regular contact with in our sheltered Utah County. He was larger than life, led a friendly and vivacious conversation, was rough around the edges, and had a giant tattoo along his right leg that read “sober 86.” It was God’s little way of saying to me: "you met some great people, but you don’t have to leave Utah to find real. You can find these children of mine here too. And if you try, I'll bring you to them.”
And Finally, after two years, I finally found a use for my face mask and Mike was thrilled to get one last stamp in his passport... in the SLC airport.
Europe, you were great to us, and we're already planning our next trip!
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