Switzerland Adventures!

I want a cottage. With cows and a goat and green fields in the Swiss mountains. Let me explain why :)

This past weekend I went to Switzerland! My friend Jessica and I left early early Friday morning and arrived in Zurich at about 11:30. My cousin made us a delicious lunch: cheeseburgers. Then we had a wonderful tour of the city! That night, Anja made us a traditional Swiss meal that consists of melted cheese (that you melt on your own with a hot pan type thing) over cooked potatoes. YUM! And Saturday, we went on a beautiful hike. Our trail wrapped around the beautiful lake and there were mountains surrounding us on every side. It was wonderful! I also just loved being with family. Peter and Anja also have the cutest little girl, named Priscilla Jolene. Love her! Anyway, even though I took over 200 pictures, I picked these 20 or so just to give you an idea of what it was all like :) Enjoy!


On our second train to Zurich!


Me in front of the Zurich HB (Main Train Station)


Me outside the Swiss Country Museum!


The Zurich river


Another view of the beautiful river!


Beautiful church in Zurich


The Walen-See lake, about an hour from Zurich.


The trail that we took for the hike took us right along the lake!


The first of two tunnels along our trail! :)


Me taking my first walking picture!


The amazing Swiss mountains.


My favorite part: cows with cow bells.


I want to live there!


One of my options for cottages ;)


Me in the fields!


The church I fell in love with.


Waterfall!


The town across the lake.


Bridge in b&w


Me and the mountains.


I loved Switzerland!! Thanks Peter and Anja for a fantastic weekend!

Travel Schedule!

After the request of my mother, I thought I'd let everyone know the exact places that I'm going and when. By the end of the semester, I will have visited 8 countries total. Here you go :)

Switzerland- Zurich
Friday, September 25th- Sunday, September 27

Austria- Vienna & Salzburg
Wednesday, September 30th- Sunday, October 4th

England- London
Thursday, October 15th-Sunday, October 18th

N. Germany- Eisenach & Weimar & Leipzig
Thursday, October 29th- Sunday, November 1st

France- Paris
Thursday, November 5th- Sunday, November 8th

Greece- Athens
Thursday, November 12th- Sunday, November 15th

Spain- Barcelona
Sunday, December 7th- Thursday, December 10th

Italy- Rome
Thursday, December 10th- Sunday, December 13th


My trip to Barcelona and Rome is after the semester ends, since we have our finals from Monday, November 30th until Thursday, December 3rd. And on the 13th, we fly from Rome back to Frankfurt, and the next day (the 14th) we fly home to America!! Looks like a pretty fun semester.. what do you think? :)

Neckarsteinach's Castles

On Saturday, we took a day trip to Neckarsteinach to tour three of the castles there! You can see my pictures below of the breathtaking castle that is still in use, and the second castle that's in ruins now, but still has a complete tower you can climb up to. Looking at these castles, I can't help but wonder what they looked like when they were first built and being lived in. Where were the bedrooms? Where was the kitchen? The dining halls? I've been looking online and so far I haven't found anything about these castles.. but I'll keep you posted. I just think that everything about these castles is so fascinating! I wish I could live in a castle. My roommate said that one of her friends actually inherited a castle in Ireland and wants to live there someday... ahh, jealousy! Anyway, we got to the third castle and my camera died. So I stole a few pictures from my fellow Heidelberg-ians for you.

Enjoy!!


This is the first castle we saw, and it is actually still lived in. I wanna live in a castle!


You can see the second castle in the far background.


The second and third castle from a distance. We walked to both!


Beautiful shot of one of the corners of the castle wall.




On the walk to the second castle.


The second castle!! A musician lived here in 1100 or so.




Looking down onto the river and the town of Neckarsteinach.




A view from inside the second castle :) I like to imagine that it had been a banquet hall of sorts.


Looking down into the courtyards of the front of the castle.


Another corridor!




So when we climbed these stairs it was completely dark, but we got to the top of the tower!


The view of the right side of the river from the top of the tower.


This is the third castle. A little bigger than the second one and more intact.


Me, Tavia and Heidi in one of the towers in the third castle!

So those were the three castles of Neckarsteinach. Hope you found them as beautiful as I did!

Andre Rieu!

Last Thursday, the 17th, I chose to pick up a couple grocery items at the City Markt, down the Hauptstraße a little ways, and then return home for a relaxing night. I had only had one class that day, and had none the next day, so everything was looking pretty nice! As I was about to turn down my street to return to the Pension I noticed the construction in the next square over. It had been in process for about three days by the time, but only then did I connect it with the Andre Rieu performances that I knew were going to take place in Heidelberg on the 18th and 19th!

So... Heidi, Brice and I decided to watch them set up the stage for the Andre Rieu. Then we saw many ladies and gents in dresses and tuxedos with their instruments, so we realized that they were having a dress rehearsal. We ended up sitting fourth row center for the entire thing! Here are some pictures and videos! :)


Us being excited :)


The stage from far away.


As soon as we sat down in the fourth row and they started tuning!


Andre Rieu with the three tenors that performed for a couple songs!


This guy at the piano looking instrument? He was playing those bells in the back!


The quintet. They were hilarious :)


The Heidelberg diva! She was from Australia, actually.


All the soloists and the orchestra bowing at the end!


So afterward we kind of stalked him a little ways... and I got a picture standing next to him.



Here are some videos!


This is the opening song that they played for us, entitled "I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg"


Andre Rieu with three tenors. Pretty fantastic!


One of my FAVORITE moments of the night! The competing xylophone and bells song! They did amazing!


The quintet! The second from the left is the most hilarious.


The Heidelberg diva singing about her two men. You can see the bass player and violin player fighting over her throughout the entire song! Haha.


The end of the finale :)



Hope you all enjoyed the pictures and videos!! It was an amazing experience :)
I think in October this performance is being shown on European TV, then the DVDs will be out of it. Exciting!

Ladenburg Alstadtfest Pictures- finally!

I haven't posted a blog in a very long time. So here is my start to catching you all up on what I've done lately! First off, I think I already mentioned this in one of my previous blogs, but last Saturday we went to the Alstadtfest festival in Ladenburg. It was fun, and these are some pictures of the city all decorated and looking pretty :)



They put up flags everywhere!



Ladenburg is full of old, beautiful buildings.



They had about three stages set up around the town with different types of music playing. This one was a community band that played super catchy songs!



Some of the band members up close.



In the courtyard inside the old Roman wall, they had four older couples dancing to American folk songs! Interesting.



3 Euro cotton candy :) So yummy!



Tim's kids! Adam and Vivian.



The Luft's amazing old house! I think it used to be an orphanage, and it's right in the middle of old town Ladenburg. Yvonne Luft is our German mother (I've mentioned her before) and her husband, Herbert Luft, is our German History professor. Love them both!