Germany & Austria

 On the road through Germany we saw beautiful fields of yellow

and found out

these are the plants used to make Canola oil!

 From Boppard we took a river cruise down the Rhine

 enjoying lunch of sausages and beer

 past small villages

 and large castles

 and beautiful tulips in St. Goar

 then spending the night in Mannheim.
 

Then the next morning, off to the hills

to Fussen to see King Ludwig's castle

only to find a perfectly scaffold-ed Neuchwanstein Castle!

At least the Schwangau Castle was visible.
And what a beautiful day with blue skies and temps in the eighties!

 On to Innsbruck.

Past spectacular scenery!

We stayed at the Hilton which had beautiful views.

But then again, all of Innsbruck had views!

I bought a yodeling bear for our granddaughter here.
I know her parents will be thrilled:-)
 

We had drinks (and dinner later) at the beer garden
with some of our bff's Barb and Roy.

 Inside of the beer garden.

 more tour buddies Petra and Sean, Rosa and Ann

 Clean and quiet,,,

 narrow alleys

open up to

 wide avenues

with no cars.

 We hated saying good-bye to Innsbruck.

Our next stop is Verona to see Juliet's balcony,
then to Venice, Italy!

Amsterdam

Our trip to Amsterdam started by taking the ferry from Dover to Calais.

It was really rainy, so the white cliffs of Dover were not clearly visible.

 But still impressive.

We arrived in Calais and then had a rainy bus ride to Amsterdam.

Where we stayed at the Movenpick Hotel.

with awesome views from our room

and best of all....the clouds were giving way to blue sky!

We met the rest of our travel buddies and
got to know them during the events to come.

We went on a canal cruise

under bridges

 past crooked houses

 and by lots of houseboats.

We discovered there are millions of bicycles in Amsterdam.

Seems everyone bikes everywhere.

There was a bike parking garage for 3000 bikes! Wonder how you ever find yours.

That night we went to Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Fifteen, with Bill and Trish.

The restaurant is a training center for 15 street kids

who learn the restaurant business.Good food and a good cause.

While in Amsterdam we were privileged to visit the Anne Frank house.  It was such a profound experience that photos could not come close to describing it.  I hadn't read the book in years, but was still so touched by the history that lived there. 


After two days in Amsterdam we're off to Germany and Austria next!