Ok, so maybe this post is a few months late, but I'm getting it up and that's all that really matters. All I can say is that Europe never disappoints. Every time I go it is full of wonder, beauty and oh my word the best food! I will admit that Andrew and I definitely gained a couple pounds after only two weeks of being over there. Jenny and Eric were the greatest of hosts, planning everything out for our trip through Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Eric was nice enough to have us drive, instead of flying, so we could see my exchange family in Darmstadt, Germany. Andrew has always wanted to go to Italy (and secretly wanted to go there on his mission, but we all had wishes like this) so the Hatch family planned the trip out to see as much of Italy as Eric had time off from work, namely 1 week). We visited Pisa, Lucca, Florence and Cinque Terre that were filled with new sites, smells and food. I had been to Rome with my mom back in 2009 and was thinking that the rest of Italy would be the same, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that these cities were very unique and different in each there own ways. I loved seeing family and being able to go beautiful places with them.
I can't believe what we were able to see and visit in just two straight weeks.
1-land in Brussels
2-travel to Darmstadt to visit the Pilz's
3-visit Neuschwanstein schluss in Bavaria
4-spend the night in Garmisch, Germany
5-travel to Pisa, Italy
6-visit Leaning Tower of Pisa
7- travel to the city of Lucca where we rode bikes around
8- visit city of Florence
9-visit Cinque Terre
10-travel to Basel, Switzerland on our way home
11- visit Brussels, Belgium
12-visit Ghent
13-OH my, oh my we had fun!!
Here we are with my German family the Pilz's (well some of them anyway).
We had a great time riding bikes on the wall surrounding the city of Lucca, we wished we could do it longer. Reed was always fascinated with the drains everywhere we went. He would immediately lay down and take a close and in depth look at each one.
Reed and Isaac had a fun dance break to the tunes of some street performers.
There is always time to stop for gelato, and according to Rick Steves, Florence, Italy as the best gelato in the whole country. We loved it and had it at least once, sometimes twice a day.
Poor Reed ended up falling asleep quite often in his backpack carrier.
Here we are just getting to Cinque Terre
Our awesome boat ride to the different towns in Cinque Terre.
Reed is always open to playing at the beach, he's not so much a fan of playing in the water just yet.
I can never say enough about how good the food is in Europe. The pizza in Italy really was so good.
Brussels was so beautiful and the downtown area lived up to all it's splendor and timeless buildings.
I was able to introduce Jenny and Benjamin to my favorite dessert dish in Germany on our trip to Aachen, spaghetti eis. It is so so so good and I am craving it right now as I am remembering how good it tasted.
This old church in Aachen is typical to the north west parts of Germany. All of the old buildings are covered in black from the industrial age. It takes them years to restore and clean them up and it looked like they were just starting to do that here.
We enjoyed spending time with the Hatch family in their beautiful chateau, I can't believe they get to call this home.
We owe a huge thanks to the Hatch family for planning such a wonderful vacation full of beautiful places, delicious food and great company to travel along with.
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