More Travels!

Just a quick note from the place we're calling our "home away from home away from home" -- Vienna. We've spent more time in this wonderful city than we've spent in any other city over the past year, with the exception, of course, of Belgrade. Wes, Virginia and I came here to see Wes' friend, Cole Cross, last August, and then our whole family and Lori and Mikayla spent two weeks here over Christmas. We're back again for some more medical tests for Graham -- it turns out that the Austrians know a little something about pediatric neurology. We spent last night here, and will be here overnight tonight, and then we'll head back to Belgrade, having had yet another wonderful adventure in Europe.

We started our Winter Break in Prague, where Wes was participating in a school choir festival. I had always heard that Prague was an amazing city, and I must say that it lived up to its reputation. To me, the city felt and looked like a cross between Salzburg and Budapest, with its river running through the middle of town, its castle on the hill, and its famous Charles Bridge spanning the river. Unfortunately, a portion of the bridge was under repair when we were there, and covered by scaffolding, which undoubtedly interfered with the whole experience of being on this amazing bridge. It was also really cold when we were there, which limited the amount of time we could spend outside with the kids. Although the city certainly was full of tourists, I can only imagine that the place would be crawling with tourists during the middle of the summer, and so were glad that we were there in the off season. I would come close to saying, though, that if you only had one European city to visit in your lifetime, Prague might make the top three list -- along with Paris and Rome. It's certainly much more affordable than those places, though, the people are incredibly friendly, and the beer is world-class. An outstanding place to visit, indeed.

From Prague, we headed southwest to Schwangau, Germany, where we spent the night in a great little family-run pension that sat right in the shadow of the Neuschwanstein Castle. After a super night in the pension, and a wonderful meal at an incredible traditional Bavarian restaurant (possibly our favorite meal over the past year!), we spent the following day touring the stunning Neuschwanstein Castle. When I return to Belgrade, and have access to a better computer, I'll post photos and talk more about the history of the castle and its eccentric builder.

From Schwangau, we drove to Munich, where we again stayed in a small, cozy pension. We toured the former concentration camp of Dachau, outside of Munich, on Wednesday, and spent some time in the city of Munich, as well. It was a quick visit to Munich, but a good one (with the exception of the fact that the city was overrun by Italian futbol fans who apparently were in Munich for a futbol match -- unfortunately these folks literally took over the enormous Hofbrau Haus, where we tried to go for a beer, so that was a bit of a downer.)

From Munich, we headed for Vienna, and will be here until tomorrow, when we head back home to Belgrade. As much as we love traveling and spending time together, it's always nice to get home and back into our routine. More on our trip after we return.

Hoping all of our blog readers are doing well!!

Erin