9 Countries, 9 Days

...with two happy kids!  We had an amazing trip and were able to see so many things, relax, play at parks and just have fun as a family.

For those interested (and just so it documented for myself) click here for our driving route and here's some trip stats (family of 4 - 2 adults, 3 yr old, 1 yr old):
Hours Driving: approx 35
Countries: 9 - Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Liechtenstien, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg
Gas: 280 Euros (plus a full tank when we left)
Tolls: 80 Euros
Hotels: 440 Euros
Food: 290 Euros
Ice Cream: 60 Euros
Other: 120 Euros
TOTAL: 1275 Euros
*Other = parking, tours, metro, cable car, etc;  For food we ate McDonalds/Subway when driving (or in need of a play area) then kebaps, bratwurst, and pizza.

We totally lucked out with weather.  We left the 50 degree rainy Brussels and traded it in for the 70/80 degree sunny weather.  Pretty sweet swap.  I can't remember the last time I felt hot outside.  Okay, on with the documenting :)

Day 1: Drive / Salzburg
We got up when we felt like it (aka when the kids woke up), got packed and headed off.  Without really planning to be, we were on the road by 8am.  We plugged in our destination to the GPS and were pleasantly surprised that the GPS time was a little over an hour less than the google maps time.   Now that is the way to start a trip :)!

We got checked-in to our hotel and had time to wander around the historic center and find some dinner.  Kevin couldn't refrain from chowing down on the gravel in the square we ate in.  Gross.  This was just the beginning of his gravel sampling on the trip.  I guess he can say he's tried gravel all over Europe.  Kherington on other hand prefer to sample the ice cream.  Many, many, many, many ice cream pictures to come (doesn't really have a favorite flavor, but keeps requesting pink).  Of course we picked up some ice cream on our walk back to the hotel :).

*I definitely recommend this hotel for those traveling on a budget.  We were about a 5 minute walk from old town.  Yes, there were teens running all around the place, but we had 3 beds plus a crib (and sink, microwave and fridge).  It was a JUFA.  It's a chain so I'm planning on checking out where their other hotels are to see if they are in places we'd like to visit.

Day 2: Salzburg
Using our handy Rick Steves guide book, we went through and did the walking tour of Salzburg's historic center in the morning.  We had already seen most of it the night before, but it is fun to actually learn the significance behind different sites.  The kids played for awhile around the big fountain we had dinner below the previous night.  It was warm with a breeze...one particularly strong gust below the fountain water over onto us like a huge down pour.  Ryan thought it felt refreshing...Kherington thought it as the end of the world to be wet.  Kevin spent the beginning of the tour chasing the orange McDonald balloon around.  Then it popped.  Of course it popped in a main square as church was getting out and echoed throughout.  One of my favorite things about the city was its drinking water fountains (they're marked either with a cup or with an x through the cup so you know which are okay to drink).  Nice cold 'midevil' water as they call it.  We ended the tour with some ice cream.  The workers even remembered the Kherington wanted pink :).

After making a brief stop at church where we had a nice chat with one of the ward members, we head to the Silent Night (Stille Nicht) Church just a 15-20 minute drive away.  Normally you can go inside, but there was a wedding so we weren't able to.  It is a very small church where Silent Night was written.  It is actually across the river so it's in Germany instead of Austria.

After making a pit stop at the hotel, we stopped for a lunch of bratwursts and banana then we started our walk up to Mayberry park.  The kids got to get some wiggles out on the playground.  Kherington went on a crazy slide that I think is prepping her to love the dead drop slides that you can find at swim parks like Seven Peaks.  Kevin spent most of his time trying to make the Chimes ring.  Basically, the kids jump on a square and it chimes BUT Kevin is still a light weight so the only time he could get it to chime on his own was when he fell.

We had done a TON of walking and were beat so we played in the toy room at the hotel for awhile.   Dinner was pizza and ice cream at a little place in town, then were still able to make it up to the top of the castle and back before the sunset.  Kherington climbed the entire thing on her own.  If one of us got to far ahead she'd tells us we needed to wait, but she refused to let us carry her (yes, she's and independent little thing).  When we got to the castle, we were able to roam the courtyards on our own.  It has some amazing views of the town.  We found a ring toss unicorn to play with.  The kids like throwing the rings (not at the unicorn) and riding the unicorn.

An no evening is complete without more ice cream :).

Salzburg was one of my favorite cities we've visited since moving to Europe.  It is very scenic, wasn't jam packed with people, has some history to it (Mozart) and is small enough to walk everywhere but big enough to feel like there is more to see/do.

Day 3: Salzburg / Bratslava / Budapest
I woke up early (5:30am) and enjoyed a pleasant run along the river in Salzburg.  I wasn't sure if I could get myself to keep up the exercising while we were on vacation, I ended up running 4 morning (the morning I didn't were either Sunday or I wasn't sure how smart it was to be out by myself in the area).  I returned to the room to find everyone still catching some zzzz's.  The hotel included breakfast which Kevin and Kherington loved.  Kevin ate TONS of eggs.  He can already out eat Kherington...I think he's going to make our food budget double!  Kherington stuck with the jam cone.  They had a selection of jam that you scoop into mini ice cream cones, then from there you can spread it on your bread. Well, she skipped the bread and at it like an ice cream cone :).

Bratislava
We had planned on making the 1hr detour through Bratislava on day 4, but it ended up being perfect timing to stop for a short lunch then wander the town in Bratislava so we headed there first.  It wasn't anything amazing, but it did add another country to our list and was a good break point for us.  We stopped at the TI (tourist information) and picked up a map.  For the rest of our trip Kherington always needed to know where we were on the map.  Oh and no worries, we had more ice cream too.

Budapest
I wish we had spent another day in Budapest.  As we were driving through the city to get to our hotel, I just kept thinking that Budapest seeming like a cross between normal Europe and America.  There were chains of stores all over the place, malls, billboards (lots and lots of billboards), but then old buildings, small streets, trams/train tracks, etc. Two surprising things in Budapest:
1.  Ambulances weaving in and out of traffic without using any breaks (this is downtown with street lights and pedestrians all over the place) AND a police escort of at least 20 motorcycles and black sedans with security sitting side ways watching out the widows zooming through the same area.
2.  Crazy fast escalators in the metro stations.  You have to time your step to get on and off or else you could seriously get hurt...kinda like how you time yourself when jumping into a double dutch jump rope game.  I didn't think about it one of the times and I had Kevin on my shoulders going down into the metro station...that was scary.

After checking into the hotel, we took the metro downtown.  It was the night before May Day (European holiday) and hot so there were people all over the place.  We did our normal wandering of downtown, ate pizza in the pedestrian area where a street performer serenaded us the entire time (perfect for the kids) and grabbed some ice cream to eat (think time pink was bubble gum flavor)  on our walk back to the metro (the metro's aren't marked super well; we missed it and ended up walking quite a bit before figuring out mistake and turning around).

Day 4: Budapest / Vienna
The morning was dedicated to seeing Budapest.  We parked our car in what we though was a parking garage close to the center of town and walked away from town down to a big park where there are lots of baths (sad we didn't get to do the baths here...not sure how it would have been with kids plus the crowds of people off of work on a hot holiday) and a castle with some event going on.  On our walk we walked past a parade of senior citizen protesting something (think snails pace parade).  We only had a tiny bit of time at the park before turning back to meet up with the free walking tour we planned on taking.  We did a speed walk to the center of town and it still took us about 30 minutes to get there (our parking spot was NOT where we thought it was...instead a good 15 minutes away). That's just how it goes when you travel/explore...you don't know it until you do it.

Back to the walking tour.  We did a free walking tour in Prague and liked it so we did this one again.  Basically the guides do the tour for tips.  I wasn't nearly as impressed with this tour.  I felt like we stood in one place and got tons of Hungarian history then moved onto the next location and got lots more history as opposed to wandering town and hearing about different buildings/parks with history intertwined. 

It was HOT.  The tour was 2.5 hours long and our kids were done so instead of going up to the top of the hill in Buda (Buda is one side of the river, Pest is the other...now it's all one city), we headed off to get some ice cream.  I did learn a couple things from the tour.  I wanted to try a Hungarian chocolate bar favorite called TuroRudi (found in the refrigerated section at the grocery store in a what with red polka dots package), but it was a holiday so the main stores were all closed and we didn't find any corner market type stores.  On the walk back to the car, Kherington fell asleep, I grabbed sandwiches for lunch and Kevin got control of the car :).

 On our drive to Vienna just after we entered Austria, traffic was being funneled off the free way and police were stopping each car and checking it.  I don't know what the deal was, but there was a similar thing in Germany at the beginning of our trip (except in Germany they stopped us on the freeway). We didn't have an problems.  They basically look in your car then flag your through.  The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful.

Vienna
After our traditional hotel pit stop to dump our stuff, we jumped on the metro and headed downtown.  We took the wrong exist from the metro and got all turned around, but in just a little time we were able to find the Opera House.  From there we moved a couple roads off the main pedestrian walkway to find a recommended Gyro place.  The yogurt sauce was a little heavy on the dill but all in all it was delicious. 

Next up was ice cream.  As you'll see, this was the BEST ice cream place of the trip (Vienna is still the overall best...they had peanut butter).  Kherington kept with her pink theme and while she wasn't looking, Kevin helped himself.  They were being pretty silly.

We took the metro one stop past our hotel to a huge amusement park that was packed with people and smoke.  On the metro ride, a little girl has 2 balloons so she gave Kherington one which was very sweet (but, it only took a couple minutes of walking outside before Kevin grabbed it floated away).

Day 5: Vienna
The Rick Steves walking tour of Vienna was pretty good.  It even took us by Zanoni & Zanoni (the ice cream place) which was open at 9:45am so we could get some more :). 

The tour ended, but we kept walking and found a park with a fountain.  Kevin slept, I rested, Kherington ran and Ryan chased here.  It was fun :).  We had parked near a playground so we decided to head there to get more wiggles out..on the walk guess what we walked past?  Yep, more ice cream...we learned that Zanoni & Zanoni actually has multiple locations.

We didn't want to leave with out seeing at least one of their castles, so we stopped at just a couple miles outside the city.  We chased the kids around the playground area, but it was too hot to stay for a long time. Kevin's favorite toy was a spinning car like thing and Kherington's favorite was a maze type thing.

Day 6: Drive / Liechtenstien / Zurich / Bern
This was a long drive day.  We made it a tad bit longer by going a route through Liechtenstein.  It really is nothing special (not a big difference between Switzerland which was just the other side of the river).  After taking Kheringotn potty at the McDonalds, Ryan got out at the TI and asked if there were any ice cream (or gelato) shops.  In the entire country of Lichtenstein (I think it is 7 miles by 12 miles) there are NO ice cream shops.  As a last resort, we grabbed some at the gas station. 

Day 7: Bern / Interlaken / Murren
To enter Switzerland, we had to fork over 40 euros for our toll pass.  It is good for a year (calendar year) so maybe we'll make our way back before the end of the year.  The mountains were cool, but what really made the drive amazing was the rich teal blue water.  Pretty much unbelievable.

We stayed in temple housing which saved us almost $100 a night and allowed us to both do some temple work each day.  The room had 2 bunk bed, shower, sink and toilet.  We had to made our own beds with sheets they provide, but didn't realize we were supposed to bring our own towels. 


Switzerland was by far the most expensive place to eat.  A kebap here costs 8-10 euros (compared to the normal 3-4 euros).  For dinner each night we did a kebap and a pizza that we got take-away and ate in front of the temple.

We wandered around Interlaken for a very short period of time.  Everyone had told us that they loved it there, but I wasn't way impressed.  I didn't find it very different than any other place.   I do think it would have been cool to go hiking in the mountain there though so maybe that would have changed my point of view.  In our short time there, we did find some fountains that the kids could run through so we stripped them and let them have a little fun.  Kevin and the Dalmatian was pretty cute :).

Next up was what really made Switzerland for me.  The Cable Car Ride!  Yes it was a little pricey (not too bad since both kids were free), but if your there it should definitely be on the 'must do' list.  We took the cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Murren (which is actually half cable car then a quick switch to train).  The views were so so so amazing.  It was off-season there though so most of the restaurants were closed. 

Some how Kherington found an ice cream place and had some very delicious (we think homemade) strawberry and raspberry ice cream.  I didn't want to fork that much over for Kevin so I took him the grocery store and bought a box of cones that we then all enjoyed as we wandered.

Heading back to the cable car, we found a little park that we couldn't resist.  They had the same toy that Kevin had fallen in love with at a different park, but it was surrounded by snow.  Kevin's little crocs and the snow didn't quite mix. 

The kids had fun, we had fun...pretty much a win win until we went to get in our car.  On the cable car ride, Ryan handed Kevin a piece of paper to play with.  I figured it was his cable card ticket...no big deal.  Kevin played, crumpled, ate...just did what a normal 1 year old would do.  I through the pieces in the trash at the bottom.  Come to find out that was our parking ticket.  Uh oh.  Ryan dug the pieces out of the trash and we headed to where we pay.  Well, the in-person counter was closed for the day BUT there was a guys in a red shirt at one of the machines that I noticed someone said hi to like they knew him so I decided to see if he worked there.  Yep.  Whew.  He opened up the office for us and let us pay (just 3 euros for parking...way better than Interlaken).

 We took a couple night pictures with the Bern temple in the background...Kherington insisted that Bruce (formerly known as Rainbow Bear) join us for the pictures.

Day 8: Strasbourg
While Ryan did some temple work in the morning, the kids and I rocked out in the car and chowed down on bananas and strawberry's.  We asked a missionary to take a picture for us...probably the worst picture taker ever.  No 1-2-3 or anything.  Just a click here you go.  Come on, if you're going to do that just say you won't take the picture.

On our way to Strasbourg we made a couple stops.  First was Colmur.  I had read that it was a fun town, but we couldn't find our France guide book and didn't know what to do plus the kids were asleep and it was raining (first day of bad weather for the trip) so we just kept going.

We went up to the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle but decided to only wander the exterior instead of paying to go in.  With no kids I would have done it, but with little kids that like to touch everything and go where ever they want we opted not to try it.  Why ruin a perfectly good trip?  

From here we continued on to our hotel in Strasbourg.  We were pleasantly surprised with (1) a very nice worker that provided a map, sites to see, how to get there and how much it would cost and (2) our hotel was only a 15 minute walk from the historic center AND the walk was on a nice path that ran along the river.  Score.  When I booked it, this was the one hotel that wasn't near a metro and I didn't think was right downtown.

The only downside was that it was still pouring, so instead of hitting the town, we hit up Mickey D's.  Indoor playgrounds are a life savor.  It poured and poured while we were there, but by the time we got back to the hotel it has cleared up so we walked into town.  We found a carousel with a pink car for Kherington to ride, ice cream and kebaps.

Day 9: Luxembourg City
The trip was coming to an end, but not before a couple more tolls.  13 euros in tolls for 2 roads in France.  I much prefer buying a country pass like in Austria, Switzerland or Hungary.

Strasbourg is just 4 hours from Brussels and Luxembourg is pretty much exactly half way there so we had planned to stop and wander around, but it was still pouring.  I grabbed us some kebaps for lunch and we kept going.  Luxembourg City is now on our list of good day trip places.

As were driving down the freeway we passed a exit with a playground.  It looked dry and we weren't in any hurry to get home (just 1 hr left to drive) so we looped around and stopped.  The slides were wide and enjoyed by both kids.

There was also an obstacle course that Ryan tried.  Kinda fun.  I wish they had these at rest stops in the US.

Well, that's the end of our trip.  The kids were amazing.  No meltdowns in the car.  The weather was awesome and we were able to get a taste of a lot of different places.  Why can't we have vacations like these all the time?  Because they did so well, we decided to go ahead with planning a road trip to the UK.