Life Is Full At Flüela Pass - Switzerland

Back in June of 2014 we were on our way for a five day trip in Switzerland. The first night planned was in a little town called Scuol. But before we could spend that night in Scuol, we had to drive across one of the highest mountain passes in Switzerland, Flüela Pass, which sits at 2,383 meters or 7,818 feet. This part of Switzerland is extremely difficult to drive through. Lots and lots of ups and downs. (Flüela Pass is only open May through August, depending on snow fall.)

We had no plans to stop there, but upon reaching the summit of the pass, I was left speechless by the stark beauty that greeted us up above the tree line in this mountainous wonderland.

I had to get out.

I had to breathe thin mountain air. 

I wanted to smell snow, and rocks, and trees, and mountain wildflowers, and icy cold streams flowing down from the peaks. I wanted to feel cold mountain wind on my face, and feel it lift my hair and go through my jacket.

Not only did I want to feel these things, my children wanted to also. You see, we were born in the mountains, made in the mountains. We escaped to the mountains in our old life in America.

One of the best natural highs in the world has to be standing on a mountain with your face to the sun. Take a deep breath, and just... be.

We jumped over creeks of melting snow and climbed on rocks that had been tumbled down the mountain peaks by the receding glaciers.

We smiled. We laughed. We ran.

Our hearts beat with excitement and the exertion of breathing at almost 8,000 feet when you've been living around 300 feet above sea level. 

They say you find love at the beach, you find yourself in the desert, and you find God in the mountains.

Or maybe, God finds you. 

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau (You Know, Sleeping Beauty's Castle!) - Germany

Clear back in September, when my parents and brother and sister-in-law were visiting, we met them down in the village of Hohenschwangau for a visit to Schloss Neuschwanstein and  Schloss Hohenschwangau. Whew! Those are some mouthfuls. Let me tell you how to pronounce them first. Neuschwanstein = noy-shvawn-stine. Hohenschwangau = ho-hen-shvawn-gow. Rhymes with cow. Got it? After all that hard work, I now feel the need to reward you with a picture.

This is Neuschwanstein, which means new swan stone in English. It is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle was modeled after. It is absolutely breathtaking. I know it's overused, but the word awesome comes to mind. Built for Ludwig II of Bavaria (read more about that guy HERE) in 1882. Ultimately, it was never completed. Want to read more? Click HERE. Ludwig II, who was a little nuts it would seem, only lived in the castle for 172 days, having died in 1886. It was immediately opened for public viewing. 

Here are some shots from the castle grounds.

Spectacular. That little lake out there is Schwansee, or Swan Lake.

Here is the castle Hohenschwangau, Ludwig II's summer residence as a child. Not too shabby a place to summer.

Here are my children with their much missed Grammy. Or Graham, for short.

And we can't forget Uncle Rick and Aunt MaryAnn. We've missed you too! (This is the same brother that used to help me with my car! Read about him HERE! Psst... he is awesome!)

We drove down to this area of Germany from Wiesbaden, saw both castles, had dinner, and then drove back to Wiesbaden all in one day. It was one long, looooong, day.

We live up here.

And the castles are down here in Bavaria, close to the border of Austria. Kind of a far drive back and forth for one day. But to see my family? Totally worth it. In fact I would drive 10 times as far in one day just to see them for a precious minute. (Yeah, I kind of miss them. A lot.)

We bought a package called the King's Tickets that gets you into both castles. It was a great deal. You can find the website HERE. Look on the scroll on the left for the King's Tickets link.

I don't have any pictures of the inside of the castles as picture taking is a no-no. So I didn't take any pictures.

Except this one. He he he. I know, I know. But I was all alone in this room and just thought this was so beautiful and intricate. Yes, I am aware that this is evidence that I broke the rules. I am willing to risk it to show you how wonderful it is. So come and arrest me Polizei*.

Not only are the castles beautiful, but they are surrounded by beautiful scenery. Like here on the banks of the Schwansee.

Or this gorge near Neuschwanstein that you have to cross with a metal bridge. 

Or this view north into the farmland of Bavaria. Anyway you look at it, it is an amazing corner of the world. Get out there and explore a new corner of your world! Until next time!

Tchüss,

Kelly

* I was totally kidding when I said the Polizei (German police) could come and arrest me. I would rather they actually didn't come and arrest me. And if they think that picture of the inside of the castle is evidence, it really isn't. Somehow, when I got home and scrolled through my pictures, it was just there. Perfectly centered and everything. Hmmm... I wonder how that happened? Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yeah, Matt did it!

A Deluxe Day In Luxembourg

We went on a day trip to Luxembourg yesterday. You might be saying 'what is there to see in Luxembourg?' Some of you are probably saying 'where is Luxembourg?'

Luxembourg is a tiny land locked country that is squished between Germany, France, and Belgium. It is one of the last countries that is a grand duchy. They don't have a king or a president. Luxembourg is ruled by a grand duke! They speak French, German, and Luxembourgish. Don't worry, I had never heard of the language of Luxembourgish either. Its a High German language. But mostly walking around Luxembourg City, we heard French. Luxembourg's cuisine and culture, however, are the perfect mix of Romance and Germanic Europe.

We started our day at the Luxembourg American Cemetery. Interred here are American soldiers who died fighting in World War II. Most of those buried here died in the Battle of the Bulge which was fought nearby in the winter of 1944-1945.

The cemetery holds the remains 5,076 American service members, 101 which are unknown.

General Patton is interred here, per his request to "be buried with his men."

Near the American cemetery sits the German cemetery which holds the remains of the German soldiers that died during the same time period.

This is the Sandweiler German war cemetery. The cemetery was started by the American War Graves Service during the war. It holds the remains of 10,913 members of the German military.

As we left the German cemetery, I felt a quietness descend over me.

I thought about the two cemeteries. But I didn't think about "Americans" and "Germans." I didn't think about the good side or bad side, or soldiers or Nazis. I thought about sons. I thought about brothers, and uncles, and fathers, and grandfathers. I thought about WWII which shaped my family and Matt's (both my grandfathers were American soldiers in WWII and both of Matt's parents grew up in Germany during and after the war.) The youngest birthdate I saw in the German cemetery put the German soldier at the tender age of 17. That is only two years older than my son, Alexander.

I looked at this peaceful grove of trees and thought the words that Patton said right before the car accident that led to his death. "How awful war is. Think of the waste..." - Gen. George S. Patton.

After the cemeteries we headed to Luxembourg City, the capital of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a very rich country that deals with banking.

Here is a view of Luxembourg Castle which was the first settlement here. The city and eventually the whole country of Luxembourg sprang up around it.

The city is built on a gorge where two small rivers (Alzette and Pétrusse) meet. The gorge is quite deep in places, up to 70 meters (230 feet).

This is part of the old town which dates back to the 1500's situated down in one of the gorges.

All over the city of Luxembourg there were these elephant statues. They are there as part of an art exhibit to support saving the Asian elephant. Seemed kind of strange.

You could buy small copies of the elephants as souvenirs to take home. When I think of elephants the small country of Luxembourg really doesn't pop to my mind. But it probably will now!

The view from one side of the gorge over to the clock tower.

This is the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg, and the only cathedral in Luxembourg.

As Luxembourg has a heavy French influence, we knew we could get our favorite French thing. Pastry!

But apparently the difference between French pastry and Luxembourgish pastry is that French pastry lacks bees. Mmmm... Luxembourgish Bee pastry is good. I pointed it out to one of the girls working at the pastry counter and she said "Eh, it is dead. It won't hurt anybody now." Seems those Luxembourgers are pretty lax about bugs in their food.

Here is one of the many bridges that connect the two sides of the gorge. This is the Adolph Bridge.

If I couldn't see the buildings in the back ground I would think this picture was taken way out in the country side with all the trees in this city.

We hiked down to the bottom where the sides of the gorge walls were lined with little caves from years of flooding rivers running through them. Remember, this is right in the middle of city. Amazing.

Plenty of buildings, like this little church, are built right into the sides of the rock walls.

More of the old town of Luxembourg.

Something that I found quite funny about Luxembourg was that their gas and cigarettes were much cheaper than the neighboring countries of France, Germany, and Belgium. Luxembourg had all these little convenience stores situated close to the borders where it would seem every European in a 200 kilometer radius went to fill up gas and buy cigarettes by the kilo. So the next time you are in Luxembourg, remember you can drive and smoke to your hearts content.

We walked around old town Luxembourg (not smoking or driving, we really wasted our opportunity to stock up on cheap Luxembourgish gas and cigarettes) and just enjoyed the views and the people.

Luxembourg may be small, but it is unique and if you are in the area, it should definitely be on your travel list.

Travel on my friends!

Finishing Up Russia

Hi there! Sorry I was away so long. I was in the process of moving from Heidelberg to Wiesbaden. We only moved from Utah to Heidelberg 11 months ago so we still had stuff in boxes from that move. Yes, moving twice in less than a year is as awesome as you think it is. And we may move again next summer. Please, don't be jealous.

Anywho, back to our Baltic cruise. We were in Russia!

This is the Neva River that flows through St. Petersburg into the Gulf of Finland. St. Petersburg is rather flat and our tour guide told us how the city suffers with floods every fall from the heavy rains further inland. By this point, we knew our tour guide was a little different, but according to her, Russia suffers the worst flooding in the world and nobody understands how hard it is for the country and the city of St. Petersburg. On a funny side note, every time we crossed over the river, she would say, "This is the River Neva." Except with her accent it came out like this. "This is the Reeva Neva." For some reason I found this hysterical.

We continued to drive through the city on our way to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. We got the feeling that she was only taking us to see things that she wanted us to see. So when we would drive past an interesting sight, she would let us know if it was worth our time or not. Mostly not.

Through out the day, Miss Russia-kicks-the-whole-worlds-butt Natasha told us that St. Petersburg only gets a handful of sunny days in the year. Something like 60 total. Natasha told us several times how thankful we should be that we were here on a sunny day. So I started thinking, who should I be thankful to? Her? The Russian weather gods? Possibly Peter the Great? No! I know! Stalin! Stalin totally arranged for us to have good weather just like he arranged for the great subway stops for his people. (What am I talking about? Read about earlier in our day HERE.)

Thanks for the sunshine and blue skies Stalin!

Finally she took us to a spot on the "Neva Reeva" where we were allowed to get out of the van and take pictures. This is the Hermitage Museum. Founded by Catherine the Great in 1764, it is one the largest and oldest museums in the world. It is located in six different buildings including this one, the Winter Palace, former part time home of the Russian royalty. We opted not to go to it during our time in St. Petersburg. For one, it is usually quite crowded. And two, it is not air conditioned and it can get quite hot in there in the summer. I wasn't really in the mood to squish my body against thousands of other tourist bodies so we enjoyed this view from the river banks.

Here we are in front of the Russian war ship, the Aurora. Aurora was built in 1900 and was used in four different Russian wars. Remember earlier when I told you our tour guide told us about how Russia is always getting picked on and is never the aggressor? Yep. Nothing says "I am a peaceful country," like having war ships and tanks scattered through out your city.

You can tell from this picture who here makes a living saluting every day. I'll give you one guess who it is. Psst... come here. Guess what? It's not me. (Me whispering to you.)

By this point, some of our kids were hungry again after the Russian pastry meal that they had deemed "yucky" earlier. So what better than McDonald's, right? While Matt and Mrs. Point ran in, Mr. Point and I stayed in the van. Our tour guide would not allow Matt and Mrs. Point to go in alone. She went with them. Our driver got out of the van and stood on the sidewalk, almost like he was guarding it. At this point I got it. We were being babysat by them. As in, "Watch those Americans. Don't let them go or see or do anything naughty. Keep an eye on them."

Russian McDonald's turned out to be fairly the same as most other McDonald's around the world. Alexander had a Russian cheeseburger. Since vodka is such a standard drink in Russia, I wanted to see if McDonald's had a vodka dispenser right next to the Coke. Matt reported back that they didn't. Although we did drive past a vodka museum where you can taste different vodkas. Our tour guide babysitter told us it was one of the only museums where you can legally be drunk.

Next, we were off to the focal point of the afternoon. The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood.

Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded in the street by a grenade in 1881. The wounds bled heavily and soaked the street with the Tsar's blood. He died several hours later. His son, Tsar Alexander III, built this church as a memorial to him. Hence the name, on Spilled Blood.

The spot where the Tsar was hurt has been completely left alone and is now a shrine encapsulated by the church. It is still the original cobblestone street that ran down the side of the canal in 1881.

The church has suffered heavily during the history of St. Petersburg. It was ransacked and looted during the Russia Revolution (1917). It was used as a morgue during WWII. And then after the war, it was used to store vegetables, leading to the sardonic name of Savior on Potatoes (those Russians are such smart alecks).

Restoration of the church started in 1970. After 27 years of painstaking work, it reopened to the public in 1997.

At 7500 meters of mosaics, this church is said to have more than any other in the world. That's a lot of Russian tile my friends.

Here is the back view of the church. The domes on the top of the church are called onion domes and are used on churches through out Russia.

Some facts about Russia are they are on the Russian Ruble. One Russian Ruble is equal to three American cents. That's right, $0.03. And to say thank you in Russian is spasiba. So, spasiba for reading this.



After one last walk down the canal, it was time to head back to the cruise ship with our friends (and guards) Natasha and Sasha.



We cleared customs and immigrations and went back to the port. We didn't know if we would ever have the chance to be in Russia again. But upon seeing these six cruise ships plus ours for a total of seven docked here seeing St. Petersburg, we started thinking that we just might have a chance.

Until next time Russia!

PS A strange thing about this day was that it was the Fourth of July. A big holiday in the United States, but not so big in Russia. Stay tuned to read about how we celebrated the 4th on an Italian cruise line in Russia!