The Beck's

The hills are alive.......

At the start of this trip, I was looking forward to Salzburg, Austria the least. I think mostly because I didn't know very much about the country, but after spending 2 days here I have definitely changed my mind and it has become my favorite city we've visited so far. The drive in is breathtaking. We drove through numerous tunnels that were 3-15 miles long! After we checked into our hotel, our first excursion was to take a cable car up to a mountain and hike around for a bit. Grandma is deathly afraid of heights and closed her eyes and sang a song the entire ride up.

We ate at the top of the fortress and I had the most delicious grilled salmon and vegetables and Preston had this sausage, sauerkraut hash-brown dish, that was also to die for. Needless to say I was getting sick of Italian food, which is my least favorite type of food anyway!

the fortress

Later that day we went on the Sound of Music tour on a bicycle! The highlight of my trip was this tour! We got to see the whole city on a bicycle and looking at actual scenes from the movie. By the way, the movie is based on a true story (I didn't know that, think my parents did though) and Austrians don't know and don't want to know anything about the Sound of Music! Why?? I have no idea, but they're missing out for sure!

Jonas, the guide, most enthusiastic guy ever

Famous for pretzels...this one was basically a donut

the catacombs that inspired the scene in the movie where they're hiding from the Germans

Grandma on her bike

Our last morning in Salzburg was spent at the salt mines, which is where the name and the wealth of the city came from. The tour was great and the slides inside were really fun and steep!!

Venice

Absolutely my favorite city in Italy! Very clean, and you have to ride a boat or walk everywhere you go! We started our night off with a huge lobster and spaghetti dinner, Grandma does not mess around!!

The after!!

Bought some yummy licorice from this cute shop

Bought an etching from this man off the street

The next day we spent at the islands of Murano, famous for blown glass and we were able to walk through and see the masters at work, and the island of Burano where they make lace. Grandma bought the most beautiful outfit for Sammy and Laura's upcoming wedding.

One of the masters at work


He made this horse in about 30 seconds

We ended our trip with a lovely gondola ride in the evening, it was awesome! So many beautiful sites in Venice,


Sleeping on the vaporetto, we really wore these ladies out!

Gondola ride in Venice, here we go!

My new hat

I wanted a picture of the key, this is the best we got, it was a cool key :)

Florence

Well, Florence is more of an artsy city, so we went spent most of our time in art museums, and unfortunately they yell at you in Italian if you take pictures (although I did sneak a couple). We also spent a lot of time eating gelato, which is soooo good, especially because it is so HOT in Italy, even the northern part. Preston, Sue and Todd played tennis at a fancy sport complex for a few hours.

One of the cities most famous buildings is the Duomo, and it's a gorgeous cathedral made of green and pink marble. Beautiful. We saw the famous statue by Michelangelo, called the David, and we got a snapshot of the waist up :) They really are not shy at all about bodies and other things in Italy, it's crazy, I just laugh, I think I'm too immature to live here.

We stayed at this cute little bed and breakfast called Panella's Residence and the couple who owns it were so sweet and the woman, Graziella, asked Preston to write a review for them on Trip Advisor. After she read it, well Todd interpreted it for her, she jumped up on the chair and gave Preston a huge smacker on the cheek, she did ask my permission first asking if I would be jealous! She was really cute, she must of told us she loved us about a million times.