We spent our last few days in the Mosel Valley, in the small town of Cochem. Here we continued to enjoy the great wine, the hike up to Berg Eltz, as well as a river cruise.

This has been a great adventure for both of us - and we still like each other J after eight weeks. We hope that you have enjoyed following our travels as summarized in the website, and welcome you to join us in reviewing the over 3000 pictures we took (think we are going to need a new camera).

Seriously, looking forward to seeing everyone back home, and sitting around this summer over cocktails (we got very good at that) with friends and family sharing our adventures in person.

May 25, 2009  We spent the last few days in Baden-Baden enjoying the very leisurely walking trails and thermal baths. Although this stop had a disappointing room, the day at the thermal spa made up for it. We headed out Sunday morning towards Bacharach, and despite road construction, we made it to our destination. We are in the heart of the wine country, specifically the Rhine Valley, so have done lots of sampling of wines, and today spent the day in a very leisurely (and hot) cruise down the Rhine River - which had castle after castle and tons of vineyards.

Tomorrow we head off to Cochem (Mosel River area) to spend our last few days.

May 21, 2009  We left Lausanne/Ouchy on Wednesday morning, after enjoying once more the bright sun, calm waters and spectacular views during my morning run. The drive to Staufen, Germany was pretty much autobahn, except for the last little bit which was great little windy roads through wine country. Our B&B turned out really great and we were very surprised to find out that the German holiday (Ascension Thursday) worked out very much in our favour - as it was a bi-annual wine festival. One could not imagine a better way to spend a holiday, than walking from one vineyard to another sampling wine J J .

Tomorrow we are going to drive through the Black Forest and make our way to Baden-Baden.

May 19, 2009  We drove from Gimmelwald to Lausanne/Ouchy yesterday and fit in a couple of detours to a cheese factory (Gruyere) and a chocolate factory (Cailler). The tourist information that we stopped ironically was in Ouchy (the lake front district) and this is where we decided to stay as the view of Lake Geneva was just too appealing. Today we spent the day enjoying the highlights of the area - a cruise on Lake Geneva, a visit to the Chateau de Chillon and a tour of the Olympic Museum.

Tomorrow we are leaving Switzerland and making our way up through the Black Forest and Rhine Valley in Germany.

May 17, 2009  Today we rented bikes in Lauterbrunnen, and thought we would cycle down to Interlaken as the trail looked pretty straight forward on the map.  The rental guy recommended the valley trail instead and after discovering that we had to share the trail with traffic to find our way to Interlaken, we decided to take the rental guys recommendation.  It was a really nice and sunny day here today.

Tonight we are probably having supper at the local hostel and packing up our gear.  Tomorrow we are driving to Lausanne for a few days before leaving Switzerland.

May 16, 2009  The past three days have been spent in the Swiss Alps, and words or pictures can not do this place justice - it is very scenic and relaxing. We are very glad that we are traveling off season, as you can just imagine what this small area would be like crammed with too many tourists. Anyways, on Thursday we spent it hiking through the valley and enjoyed the many natural waterfalls. Friday the weather was not that nice as it rained all day, so our pictures on the Golden Pass panoramic train from Interlaken to Montreux really aren't much.

Today was incredible - we awoke to breaking clouds and headed up to the Schilthorn for a panoramic view and the 007 breakfast buffet, before coming back to Gimmelwald by cable car, and changing into shorts for hikes back up the mountain. We managed a couple of hikes and enjoyed the bright sun, spectacular mountain scenery, blooming meadows and yes even some snow. 

May 13, 2009  We spent two days in Chur, Switzerland with the primary objective of taking one of the many scenic train trips available.  So yesterday morning we headed out on the Bernina Express panoramic train from Chur, spiraling up to the Bernina Pass at 7380 feet above sea level - and this seemed to done in a very short space (many loop backs to climb this height).  The scenery on this trip was very spectacular and our pictures just don't do it justice, but I can tell you Scott was in train heaven.

Today (Wednesday) we took the autobahn further into Switzerland, and despite Scott's repeated attempts at programing the GPS to take us up over the mountain pass,  we soon found out the best (and only route) was from Chur, via Lucern to the Berner Oberland area to Gimmelwald.  We are truly in the mountains here, away from the city, as this destination can only be reached by cable car.  I think we are going to love it up here and are really looking forward to spending the next five nights up here in the mountains!

May 11 (part 2), 2009  After leaving  the lake district on Sunday, we drove to Hall, Austria for an overnight stay before heading to Chur, Switzerland.  We had a very scenic drive to Hall (steep climbs/decents, multiple hair pin turns on narrow roads) that left us both a bit exhausted.  However, we did have a few hours to nose around the medieval town and check out another church.

After getting our PC fixed, we headed out to Switzerland, where we went through many, many tunnels, but again enjoyed spending less time on the autobahn and more time taking the windy, slower (and more scenic) routes to our destinations.  We are posting our pictures from yesterday, and hope to add more from our scheduled scenic train trip (Tuesday) later this week.

May 11, 2009  Okay - so we have had some challenges with our computer, so are a bit behind on our updates.  Today we sit at the Halls University where we talked some very nice system engineers into fixing the PC - a long story but minor problem...

So we spent the weekend at the lake (Hallstatt, Austria) and drove to Hall yesterday afternoon (pictures to be posted later).  We absolutely loved Hallstatt, and hope you enjoy our pictures.  We are driving into Switzerland this afternoon and hope to take a scenic train ride from Chur.

May 7, 2009  We arrived in Salzburg on Tuesday after picking up our car rental in Munich.  Scott was happy that it was an Audi A3 with plenty of zip.  Once we managed to turn off the German speaking navigation system we headed off on the autobahn - cruising at 150 km/hr (we were still being passsed by many others).

Along the route we stopped at Lake Chemise to see the Mad King Ludwig's Castle - which was modelled after Versailles in France.  Once in Salzburg we parked the car in this huge parkade inside of a mountain, and proceeded to enjoy the sights and sounds of Salzburg by foot.  It has been a great three days here and we are so glad to enjoy the smaller towns and green spaces.

Tomorrow we are off to lake country and will make our way into Switzerland.  Expect that our access to internet may be periodic, but we will post updates when possible. 

May 4, 2009  We left Vienna early Sunday morning and had a pleasant and scenic train trip to Munich.  Taking a taxi to our Maximilian Apartments we checked in and promptly proceeded to the main square for lunch and a beer.  We took in two walking tours this day - the first was a city walk and the second was a brewery tour.  Fortunately, this wasn't a pub crawl and quite informative - but we both had our fill of beer!

Monday we awoke to rain - our first day since we arrived that it remained cloudy and showery throughout the day.  We took the opportunity to catch up on a few things - planning our next few weeks and leisurely strolling through the city.  Tomorrow we pick up our car and the fun begins - our first destination is Salzburg.

May 2, 2009  We have enjoyed our past two days in Vienna despite the cooler temperatures and unforgiving wind.  Friday we spent viewing the Opera House, watching the Vienna Boys Choir, and wandering around to take more (and better) pictures.  Saturday we spent at the Schonbrunn Palace and the gardens.  Very early tomorrow we depart by train to Munich.

April 30, 2009  Traveled by train yesterday from Budapest to Vienna.  As we approached Vienna we saw the sunny skies get cloudy than darker.  We took a open air bus tour around the Vienna ring road to get orientated and of course the skies opened up during this trip - but fortunately the had a canvas roof top that deployed very quickly. 

Today we did a self-guided walking tour and due to the cooler (and very windy weather) we spent most of the day in the museums.  We even took in a touristy Vienna concert sampler - opera, ballet and classical music.  So yes we are doing some of these cheesy things.

April 28, 2009  It is hard to believe - but it was four weeks ago today that we left snowy Edmonton. The good news is that we are still talking to each other and enjoying the trip despite a few hick-ups along the way.

We have had several packed days here in Budapest taking walking tours, river cruises and generally walking around - and have enjoyed our stay here. Tonight we visit the Opera House for a symphony concert. We have decided to spend an extra day in Vienna, so will depart from Budapest a day early, leaving tomorrow.