Yowza, well that was an EPIC series. That took me long enough and I still have to put together our album – eek!

Here’s a quick summary of the links:

Day 1 & 2: San Francisco

Day 3: San Francisco

Day 4: San Francisco

Day 5: San Francisco

Day 6: Napa Valley

Day 7: Napa Valley

Day 8 & 9: San Francisco

Day 10: San Francisco & surrounds

Day 11: San Francisco

Day 12: San Francisco

Day 14: London

Day 15: London

Day 16: London

Day 17 & 18: Berlin

Day 19: Berlin

Day 20 & 21: Dresden

Day 21 & 22: Prague

Day 23 & 24: Prague & Pilsen

Day 25: Cesky Krumlov

Day 26 & 27: Vienna

Day 28: Vienna

Day 29: Wels

Day 29: Salzburg

Day 30: Salzburg

Day 31: Innsbruck

Day 32 & 33: Dachau & Neuschwanstein

Day 34 & 35: Heidelberg

Day 36: Munich

Thanks so much for indulging me over the past few weeks. I’ve enjoyed sharing our travels with you but I’m looking forward to getting back into my regular content this afternoon.

I’ve got lots of fun things lined up for you, including new columns, themed months and easy projects. *Rubs hands together in glee* Can’t wait!

We left The Man’s family and took off to the beautiful university town of Heidelberg. Most of these photos are of the semi-ruined castle.

Can you believe this is a model?!

There was a small museum on the history of pharmacy, including this fabulous turn-of-the-century shop fitout.

We had our last dinner at a restaurant that served 100 different types of schnitzel!

After our time in Austria and Czech it was time to head back into Germany, this time in the south.

After a homecooked lunch and catch up with The Man’s uncle (who lives in a town outside Munich) we made our way to Dachau, the location of one of the Holocaust’s most horrific death camps.

We walked there from the train – not realising how far it was and that there was a bus – but it actually made the deepened the experience as we followed the journey of the prisoners’ arrival.

“Work sets you free.”

The bitter cold and bleak sky seemed appropriate for this awful place.

(I have to admit I was tempted to brighten up these photos so they looked nicer but it was actually nearing dusk while we were there so I kept them realistic.)

Words cannot describe the chilling experience of visiting the crematorium.

After our gut-wrenching sightseeing, we relaxed with another lovely homecooked meal, this time joined by The Man’s uncle’s niece and her husband (who all live in the house above). The niece and husband have excellent English, the uncle only a little, while The Man has good German and I have zilch. But we got by with a lot of bilingual talking and a lot of hand gestures.

The Man hadn’t seen his uncle since he was a boy and neither of us had met the niece, but they were so warm and friendly and their hospitality was embarrassingly good.

They were kind enough to drive us out to Neuschwanstein Castle a couple of hours away. I had been there as a kid (in summer) and it was just as magical.

We were at the top of the mountain waiting for our guided tour to start, when we heard our names being called out. It was a guy and a girl we went to school with! Totally bizarre.

On the way back, we stopped off at one of the couple’s favourite churches. It was very strange to see such an impressive church in what was essentially the middle of nowhere.

It was definitely a couple of days of opposites – both memorable in different ways.

We arrived in Innsbruck late at night and went straight to our hotel so we didn’t get a great sense of the city to begin with. Then we awoke to this view (above) from our hotel window. Wow!

We were on the opposite side of the river to the main town (closer to the ski slopes) but it was a beautiful walk so we didn’t mind at all.

Just for a change – ahem – we went to an Imperial Palace (we were on first name terms with Maria Theresia & co by this stage). Apart from the usual things you’d find in a royal residence, they also had a great display of the furniture through the ages and showed how they were actually constructed.

My 10am instant coffee just isn’t the same now that I’ve experienced Austrian hot drinks like this amaaaazing hot chocolate. I still have no idea how I managed to not put on any weight with how we were eating and drinking!

The Man kept threatening me with a snow fight but thankfully I always had the convenient excuse that he couldn’t throw snow at me while I was holding the camera.

Dear old men, you know they make small chess sets so you don’t have to play OUTSIDE IN THE FREEZING BLOODY COLD?

I’ve never got the whole moustache fad, but I had to admit this made me laugh.

There were plenty of galleries to choose from, but we felt we’d already covered a lot of 17th-20th century oil painting. So we ditched the idea of the fine art museum and instead went to the Volkskunst (Folk Art) Museum.

It was fascinating and well-presented. They even had entire rooms reconstructed to show how regular people would have lived (quite the contrast to the Hofburg Palace as you can imagine!).

Goodnight, Innsbruck!

I don’t know what it’s like in your part of the world right now but today’s photos might make you feel a little chilly!

Pre-school children tobogganing - cutest thing ever.

As you can tell by the volume of photos, we couldn’t get enough of the Mirabell Palace Gardens.

Our main activity of the day was a visit to the Fortress, which this guy is looking up to.

We found the entrance to the funicular (hillside cable car) but it was closed due to the snow!

It was not an easy walk, but thankfully the view was so beautiful I’m actually glad we weren’t able to take the funicular. Plus, it was probably good to work off some of the schnitzels and wine.

Sorry for the epic amount of photos – I couldn’t decide!

As well as the normal fortress exhibitions there was a also marionette museum which was quite cute.

After a more leisurely walk back down the hill, we treated ourselves to some shopping. Actually we mostly bought gifts for our family but it was still great fun.

My face lit up when I saw this shop consisting entirely of Christmas decorations!

…and this other store window featuring a giant Missoni ‘A’!

Next up, we head to Innsbruck.

After our morning in Wels, we arrived in Salzburg eager to start exploring.

We were blown away by the breathtaking view from the banks of the Salzach River.

By now you probably won’t be surprised to learn that our next activity was – you guessed it – a walking tour! Our local guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, although the tour was bilingual and she spoke way longer to the German-speaking tourists so we did feel like we were missing out a bit.

After the tour concluded, we went to Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart’s Birth House) which was a small but well-curated and fascinating museum of the famous Salzburger.

We had a pleasant (and by pleasant I mean pretty but effing freezing) moonlit stroll through the palace gardens.

On our way from Vienna to Salzburg, we hopped off the train for a quick look around the small town of Wels.

The Man’s maternal grandmother and auntie lived here until they emigrated to Australia, where his mother was later born. His great-grandmother remained here until her passing.

His mum gave us a couple of addresses where the great-grandmother had lived and we set out to find them. Unfortunately they were both old folks’ homes (one of which had been torn down and rebuilt) so it wasn’t a charming little house where his grandmother might have grown up.

Still, it was a lovely town and we enjoyed our short wander around. Come for the tour with me…

It was a tad cold if you hadn’t worked that out.

There were some surprisingly flash new houses, like this one. Very cool, huh?

The main street was very pretty.

I think my mother-in-law was really chuffed that we took the time to detour off the original itinerary and visit her family’s hometown.

After a couple of hours it was time to continue our journey. We were thankful to the person who had cleaned the train window so we could enjoy the view!

Having mostly visited cities, it was great to venture out to see the countryside and towns.

I took so many photos on this day that I’ve split up the afternoon in Salzburg into a separate post coming up tomorrow. See you then!

The historical goodness continued in Cesky Krumlov, a UNESCO Heritage Listed Town south of Prague.

After the train ride there, The Man and I (sporting dreadful beanie-hair) stopped for a coffee while we waited for our guided tour to start. It was a cute cafe; the owner was obviously a bit of a collector as there were some great collections of coffee grinders, clocks and sewing tables.

Now being quite the fans of walking tours, we signed up for another one, this time with a lovely local lady who had witnessed the town rise out of neglect and hardship into a beautifully restored national treasure.

Despite the impressive the restorations were, it was actually really good to see one of the few remaining unrestored buildings to put the whole process into context. It’s charming in its own way, don’t you think?

The view from the top of the belltower was definitely worth the climb!

Unfortunately much of the castle is closed in winter for safety reasons (there’s normally heavy snow that time of year) and due to the fact that it’s unheated.

Thankfully we were still able to enjoy the museum which chronicled 600+ years of local history, in an interior had been reproduced in its original style. I’m quite fond of historical buildings that are set up as if the owners have just stepped out of the room, I find it makes it so much more realistic.

I’m so pleased we ventured off the major city route to visit Cesky Krumlov, if only briefly. We  hopped on the train back to our base in nearby Ceske Budejovice.

Tomorrow we go to Austria!

On our last morning in Prague, we got up early to make sure we caught a glimpse of the famous Astronomical Clock as it struck the hour.

We then made our way out of the Old Town for the first time, into the suburbs where the National Gallery is. It was almost deserted which was sad because they had an excellent collection. We focused mainly on the 20th century galleries, plus a special exhibition of Alfons Mucha. I had previously only known Mucha for his iconic Art Nouveau era art and design so it was fascinating to see his later work: a series of enormous paintings called The Slav Epic.

We were there for most of the day (it didn’t help that we got a bit lost trying to find somewhere that sold a tram ticket!) so by the time we arrived back in the city and had a late lunch at an old monastery brewhouse, it was getting dark. We decided to visit the castle again to see the buildings and the cityscape at night.

The following morning, The Man and I hopped on a train to Pilsen, where we pushed and heaved our packs into some lockers at the train station so we could go and explore.

A charming old town square with impressive church? But of course!

On the recommendation of our walking guide back in Prague, we went up to a skyscraper cafe to get not only the best view in town, but also quite possibly the best hot chocolate ever (seriously, it was like drinking fondue)!

We then made our way to the Pilsener Urquell brewery, which, let’s face it, is the only reason The Man wanted to visit.

I don’t have the slightest interest in beer, but this room of old brewing tanks definitely make the tour more interesting. It has all the hallmarks of my dream kitchen!

Going down into the storage tunnels was pretty cool. Drinking unfiltered beer straight from the barrel: less cool. (The Man would say otherwise, of course.)

And then, with bellies full of beer and chocolate, it was time to run (you think I’m joking) back to the station to catch our onward train.

When The Man and I were first discussing our overseas trip (eons ago), we first needed to narrow down where in Europe we wanted to visit. Since I pretty much wanted to go, um, everywhere, we decided to concentrate on Germany and Austria since his mother’s side of the family hails from there.

My only condition was that we had to add Prague to the itinerary.

So naturally, I was already like an excited little girl when we finally arrived there, let alone when I saw all. the. fairy. lights.

Oooh…

Aaaah…

Cutest nativity scene ever? These were life-sized, just so you know.

I may or may not have planned our entire trip around being here while the Christmas markets were on. There were decorations to be bought and sugar-coated pastries to be consumed.

Seriously, there is something to be said for travelling in low season. We have NEVER stayed in a hotel this nice. Hello, medieval vaulted ceilings, antique furniture and beautiful parquetry floor.

Somehow we managed to get our arses out of our gorgeous hotel room with its Nespresso machine and out into the freezing cold (which the locals were calling a ‘heatwave’ I might add, since there was not half a metre of snow on the ground).

We had a six-hour walking tour that with a lovely girl as our guide. Apart from being a very knowledgeable local, she was also an art history student so she was particularly good with explaining all of the art and architecture, and she was even able to give us plenty of suggestions for other arty things to see later.

So unlike many days on the trip where we were inside at galleries and museums for much of the day, this one was aaaall outside, meaning there are a zillion photos. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Get that scrolling finger ready, here goes!

Gothic cathedrals + coloured stained glass. My favourite type of building, hands down.

I’m not a religious person but they never fail to take my breath away.

Truly awe-inspiring.

I think I could put together a series of all the creative nativity displays we saw. So charming, don’t you think?

Sigh.

The markings you can see on this buildings are historical flood levels, the top one being 2002. That is the second storey window, you realise.

We had lunch at an underground medieval-style tavern. (Thankfully they let us use knives and forks.)

I know you guys love a good before-and-after – how’s this one?!

Okay, so we didn’t have to walk for the full six hours: there was a boat ride down the river and canals for part of it.

After the tour ended, The Man and I continued to explore, determined to make the most of the quickly fading daylight. I loooved the displays in the window of the Cubist Building.

I had read that Jugendstil (this region’s version of the French Art Nouveau) had been a popular style here, so I was a bit baffled as to why we had not seen a single example throughout the entire day.

…and just at that moment we turned a corner and stumbled into what must have been the Jugendstil District. There was not only this gorgeous building, but shops dedicated to the style and even a restaurant named after one of the era’s icons!

Mission complete.