This trip has helped me to grow immensely in so many ways and I´ve been humbled many times each day, it seems. I thought I´d share a few of these "growth moments" with you....
Trip planning- I am such a planner but trips are a bit overwhelming. This is even more true when they are long and involve lots of places you´ve never been. In the midst of changing some things for the last part of our trip, we had several cancelations to make, train tickets to book, and new hotel reservations to take care of. I was in charge of Salzburg, the last minute place we decided to visit on our way to Munich. In trying to book a nice place fast and not being thorough enough, I ended up booking a hotel in a village about 20km from Salzburg. Oops. This would have been just fine if our train into Salzburg was anytime during the day as trains go there often. However, we got in at midnight and the only option was a cab. Yikes. I was prepared to pay dearly....we are two blessed girls and always have someone looking over us. We ended up with a cab driver who gave me a good price up front, was a sweet gentleman who reminded me of a kind grandpa, and was very impressed with the handful of German words I knew(thanks, Jake!). We ended up safe and sound at a goreous hotel with a view of the mountains out our balcony. Its a charming village surrounded by mountains with a slow pace, wonderful people, great food, and awesome hiking.
It turned out to be a good mistake to make....still humbling.
In most of the places we´ve traveled, the language hasn´t been TOO much of an issue. Knowing some Spanish helps in pronunciation and figuring out basic words. Germany is an entirely different story. It is incredibly humbling to ask for help for EVRYTHING including what to order for lunch because the menu is completely in German. People are wonderful and the food ended up being great....I didn´t know what I was getting but it was great!!
We very much missed our third travel cmpanion last night on the train as we were being serenaded and begged to polka to a couple of intoxicated guys playing trombone and accordian. It was quite the show and they were harmless but definately convinced that dancing with us would be the perfect welcome to Austria as they offered to share their whiskey. We always have someone coming to the rescue and the train supervisor came to hang out with us in our car and we were fine. The music was actually good but we could have done with a little bit more distance and less begging :) We miss Jake for more reasons than that but it was a great situation to have a guy in the group!!!
We´ve seen some incredibley beautiful man-made landmarks, memorials, churches, buildings, art, etc. But it is completely overwhelming to stand in the wonder of God´s masterpiece and gaze at the ocean, mountains, and beauty in what He created. Very humbling...our God is amazing.
As soon as I can, I´ll post some pictures of the beautiful villiage we are in now, Bad Reichenhall. It is on the border of Germany and Austria, technically in Germany. We´re here tonight, will tour Salzburg tomorrow, and then head to Munich for 2 nights. There were many people drinking beer already this morning which shocked me a bit so I may have to try this famous German beer.
God bless!
Tara
Trip planning- I am such a planner but trips are a bit overwhelming. This is even more true when they are long and involve lots of places you´ve never been. In the midst of changing some things for the last part of our trip, we had several cancelations to make, train tickets to book, and new hotel reservations to take care of. I was in charge of Salzburg, the last minute place we decided to visit on our way to Munich. In trying to book a nice place fast and not being thorough enough, I ended up booking a hotel in a village about 20km from Salzburg. Oops. This would have been just fine if our train into Salzburg was anytime during the day as trains go there often. However, we got in at midnight and the only option was a cab. Yikes. I was prepared to pay dearly....we are two blessed girls and always have someone looking over us. We ended up with a cab driver who gave me a good price up front, was a sweet gentleman who reminded me of a kind grandpa, and was very impressed with the handful of German words I knew(thanks, Jake!). We ended up safe and sound at a goreous hotel with a view of the mountains out our balcony. Its a charming village surrounded by mountains with a slow pace, wonderful people, great food, and awesome hiking.
It turned out to be a good mistake to make....still humbling.
In most of the places we´ve traveled, the language hasn´t been TOO much of an issue. Knowing some Spanish helps in pronunciation and figuring out basic words. Germany is an entirely different story. It is incredibly humbling to ask for help for EVRYTHING including what to order for lunch because the menu is completely in German. People are wonderful and the food ended up being great....I didn´t know what I was getting but it was great!!
We very much missed our third travel cmpanion last night on the train as we were being serenaded and begged to polka to a couple of intoxicated guys playing trombone and accordian. It was quite the show and they were harmless but definately convinced that dancing with us would be the perfect welcome to Austria as they offered to share their whiskey. We always have someone coming to the rescue and the train supervisor came to hang out with us in our car and we were fine. The music was actually good but we could have done with a little bit more distance and less begging :) We miss Jake for more reasons than that but it was a great situation to have a guy in the group!!!
We´ve seen some incredibley beautiful man-made landmarks, memorials, churches, buildings, art, etc. But it is completely overwhelming to stand in the wonder of God´s masterpiece and gaze at the ocean, mountains, and beauty in what He created. Very humbling...our God is amazing.
As soon as I can, I´ll post some pictures of the beautiful villiage we are in now, Bad Reichenhall. It is on the border of Germany and Austria, technically in Germany. We´re here tonight, will tour Salzburg tomorrow, and then head to Munich for 2 nights. There were many people drinking beer already this morning which shocked me a bit so I may have to try this famous German beer.
God bless!
Tara
