The End

The reason I haven't posted since Salzburg is because after leaving Salzburg for Munich, I made a spontaneous trip to Prague to visit a Czechish friend of mine from my exchange student days. I would have loved to stay in Munich longer than the day and a half I did, but Erika was leaving for Finnland that Sunday and it was already Wednesday. So with very little planning I hopped on a train the next day for Horovice, a small town about 50 minutes outside of Prague, but fortunately directly on the regional train line from Munich to Prague.

It was great to see Erika again (it's been over two years now) in her home country. We relived a few of our exchange student moments, but we did a bunch of new things as well. She toured me around Prague one afternoon. The other day I was there we went to Carlsteign, the Czech Republic's most famous castle. Otherwise we spent most of our time taking walks through the fields, woods, and hills behind her house.
The National Museum, a statue of a national hero, and non-nationals.
Overlooking Prague.

Carls Bridge
Carl.



Astrological clock

Inside of Prague's main cathedral. What's odd is that Atheism is the Czech Republic's official religion...

Erika and I.
Carlsteign, built by the same Carl who built the bridge. He was the Czech's most popular king (and as far as I am aware of, one of the first; guess it went downhill from there).
Horovice:
Believe it or not, this is an ant hill.

Erika had to throw her dog, Benji, into a lake to wash him off during one of our walks. He took a detour through some mud puddles.

Epilogue:

After the Czech Republic I left for Frankfurt, where I met with my host family and ended my backpacking trip. The drive back up to Wesel was only about 3 hours, which seemed incredibly short (I was bracing for 7; I forgot that Germany is so small). I flew out of Düsseldorf on Friday and, after a 5 1/2 hour flight, am safely back in California.

The Hills are Alive!

I spent most of the weekend in Salzburg, which is a cute little city nestled between two hills (at least, the old part of town is cute, but I think they made sure it looked like that for tourists). Unfortunately, the weather has left something to be desired. Monday, for instance, the only hours that it wasn't pouring buckets was between 10:00AM and 2:00PM.

Considering that I spend most of my time walking through cities, the weather didn't work so well with my unplanned plans. Instead I stayed at the hostel for most of the afternoon and evening and had a full warm meal and watched 'The Sound of Music' for the third time in three days.

It's a great musical, actually.

Florence and Venice

Florence!


David.

The Gold Bridge

Some of Florence's beautiful churches, most of which I only saw from the outside.




Venice!

Feeding the pigeons on San Marcos square.

San Marcos by night!



Tempting...
The Adriatic

Grüß Gott!

Photos from Vienna:

Former Empress Maria Theresa
Austrian Parlament

Viennese Town Hall. It's hard to see in the photo, but the window sills are filled with white and red flowers.
The Hundertwasser Haus. It looks even more amazing in person.
The Hoffburg
St. Peters Kirche in Vienna, where I've been going every day to hear the free organ concerts.
Volksgarten.
The Danube
Schloss Schönbrunn


Some of the imperial silver. Why they needed so many plates/spoons/knives/soufflé pans is beyond me.
One of the museums.