Summer Adventure Season, 2016

Greg and I had an incredibly amazing and busy summer. Before I was even done teaching for the summer, our adventure season had begun. From May-September, I think we were home maybe two weekends. Hence the reason why I have not made a blog post during that time. Here I will share the highlights!

1. In late May, for our 2nd wedding anniversary, we toured Porto, Portugal!

 This library behind Greg, inspired the library in Harry Potter. It was super quirky and beautiful. 

 W took a bicycle tour from the center of the city, to the Atlantic Ocean. All of the other people who were signed up for the tour, cancelled. This is because it DOWNPOURED this day.  This photo was taken the split second that the clouds made a clearing. We didn't mind that others cancelled, and that we had to ride with our eyes shut at times as the wind/rain was stinging our pupils. We saw this as a private tour around Porto. :) 

 The thing that we loved most about Porto, was the food. Greg says that Portuguese food is now his favorite. We went to the same restaurant two days in a row because it was so delicious. The first time we went, we over-ordered food. The waiter even told us "I think that will be too much. You should not get the stew". We got the stew. The stew (pictured above) had meat, olives, meat, some other things, and meat it in. Absolutely delicious. After this dinner, we basically rolled back to our hotel, up hill, because the city was so hilly. We rolled until we saw a little shop that was selling our newfound (introduced by the bike tour guide) favorite dessert. The dessert was called "Natas"...I could be spelling that incorrectly. We stopped, ate, and continued to roll back to the hotel. 

 The home to Port! Of course, we went on a Port tour!

The guy who designed this bridge, also designed the Eiffel Tower. 

2. Greg and I spent a weekend in Munich shortly after Portugal, so we could see Paul McCartney! Truly one of the most amazing concerts I've been to. 

3. In June, two of our wonderful friends, Matt and Emily, came to visit us for a fun-filled two weeks! While they were here we traveled around in Germany, France, and a little bit of Switzerland. 

One of mine and Greg's favorite little German village, Rothenburg! 

The next few photos are from Wurzburg, Germany, and so far it looks like has worn one shirt all summer. 

Emily here just taking it all in. 

Royal residence...

Rothenburg, Wurzburg, and Nuremberg are all fairly close. We did these three cities on a three day trip, and hit Nuremberg (below) on the last day. 

For the next few days, Emily, Matt, and I took day trips to the following towns, while Greg had to work:

Heidelberg:

Triberg:

Kinzheim Ruins right at the edge of France...we saw a bird show!

Koenigsbourg Chateaux in France:

We drove from the castles to Colmar, France....the drive through the Alsace region of France is absolutely stunning! Way more stunning than is conveyed through these photos:

Colmar, France! They say that this is the town that inspired the village that Belle is from in Beauty and the Beast. 

Matt and Emily, taking a stroll on the cobblestone streets of Colmar.

One thing I love about traveling is finding these adorable little shops!

Auguste Bartholdi (the guy who designed the Statue of Liberty) was born in Colmar, so we went to his museum!

 I discovered this wine from the Alsace region to be one of my favorites:

Once Greg was off for the weekend, we took a couple says to explore Meersburg (a town on Lake Constance...which is a lake between Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein).

We stopped to see our friends at the monkey park:

We toured a little in Meersburg:

Then headed to our bed and breakfast:

This was the bathroom...note the glass wall. We had to get creative in order to shower in private...

The owners of this B&B were from Portugal. This made Greg super excited...as it seems Portugal is his favorite place on the entire planet. The owners were really nice, and treated the four of us as if we were their nieces and nephews...in town for a visit. 

Evening stroll near our B&B...we ran into this guy:

To wind down, we build houses of cards!

 The last outing with Matt and Emily, was to Rhine Falls, right at the Swiss border.

4. Shortly after Matt and Emily left us, in the beginning of July, Greg and I flew to London! This was my 3rd time to this city, and it is really one of my favorites. We initially booked this trip so that we could see Florence and the Machine at a music festival. We ended also seeing "Aladdin", and "In the Heights" in the West End. Both were incredible shows!

Westminster Abbey: Much more beautiful inside than I imagined it would be. Photos were not allowed. 

 Benjamin Franklin's house! How was this for a way to celebrate the 4th of July?

Aladdin!

Take a look at these two purchases...which one do the think the elementary teacher (me) picked out to read for fun?

British Summertime music festival!

Never go to London without an umbrella.

Florence and the Machine! 

On our last day in London, we toured the Tower of London:

Evening view of Buckingham:

Before our flight, we of course found a natural history museum (Greg's favorite)

5. Almost a week after I came home from London, I flew to Italy, for a family reunion of epic proportions. I spent two weeks in Italy, visiting Rome, The Vatican, Pompeii, The Amalfi Coast, Florence, and Venice. Greg joined us all about a week after me.

The Vatican:

Trevi Fountain:

Panteon:

Roman Forum:

 Colosseum:

Just roaming around...maybe a little shopping...

Yes, a little lipstick shopping...

Greg has finally arrived!

A castle with a name that I forget....but it as open until midnight, which was cool.

Pompeii:

Mt. Vesuvius is there in the distance..

And then we arrived to our villa in a town called Scala, which overlooked the Ravello and the Amalfi coast.

Amalfi:

We spent a day on the beach...probably my favorite day all summer. 

We had the best sunsets and sunrises in Scala!

Ravello:

Greg and I woke up at 5 am on our last day in Scala to watch the sunrise over the mountains and sea. So worth it!

Some of the family before we split and went to two different cities:

My group went to Florence!

...where we immediately haggled for our leather jackets!

Shots from an evening stroll in Florence:

The Duomo:

Some outer space museum.

We were sweating like crazy because we ran up the stairs to the top of this tower! We were running late for our appointment to meet the David...

The David..

After Florence, was Venice!

And after Venice we were back to Rome for a few more days!

My dad joined us!

Mom and Dad, checking out ancient Roman bathes:

The trains went on strike on my last day in Italy, so we ended up doing the hop on hop of tour!

My dad is still learning how to take a selfie..

6. Just a couple days after I returned from Italy, my Grandma came to visit us in Germany! We toured with her around Germany, and France. 

We stayed the night in Augsburg after touring Dachau Concentration Camp:

After Augsburg, we drove through the German countryside until we reached the town of Fussen, where we had a tour to see the Neuschwanstein Castle (the one that inspired the Disney castle)

Our next major stop with Grandma was Paris, France! The first time for all of us! Turns out, we really liked Paris. We've heard so many stories about it having terrible service, and being smelly. Well...every place can be smelly at times, and have bad customer service.We experienced wonderful service the whole time in Paris, and it smelled just like every other city to me. Paris is beautiful.

 Notre Dame Cathedral is one of my favorites. 

Palace of Versailles, Hall of Mirrors:

Versailles Gardens

Greg and I let my Grandma rest in the apartment while we tackled the Louvre.

On our last morning, we found a museum featuring works by Claude Monet!

7. Two days after my Grandma left, our friend Corey came to visit us! We went to Geneva, Switzerland (which was so gorgeous)!

We went on a tour for the Hadron Collider (science thing...with protons and stuff)

On our way home from Geneva, we stopped somewhere in the alps, and we rode on an alpine slide!

8. Our final little trip of the summer to Cologne Germany. Greg had some game convention he wanted to go to. My friend Lauren, and I tagged along, and did some sightseeing.

Another European church decorated with bones...

In a nutshell, that was summer travel season! I left out many many details, and I also left out a few places that we visited. There is just way too much to write about, but there comes a point when I just cannot look at a computer screen any longer! 

So, goodnight! 

-Gina