Road Trip: Salzburg, Austria

Our last trip outside of Germany was to Salzburg, Austria. We've been to Austria several times, but never over night. We've driven and taken the train through Austria more times than I can count. We've even stayed in hotels only 5 minutes from the border, but never actually "visited" Austria. So, for our last trip, we decided to go to Salzburg. Salzburg was chosen as our last vacation over Prague, which is probably my favorite European city, but it didn't disappoint.

Rome, Pompeii and Mt Vesuvious, Italy

[Disclaimer: I wrote most of this post a month ago and believed that I had already published it. Sadly, I hadn't and just realized that today!]

Fourth of July weekend was a four-day weekend for us, so we decided to take a trip. After reviewing a few different options, our best bet was a trip to Rome, Italy.

Day Trip: Worms, Germany

One of the cool things about living in Europe is getting to go do and see some of the less popular or less "touristy" things. I can almost promise that no one has ever said they wanted to go to Germany so that they could visit Worms, but it was only a short drive for us to see. Worms was the (arguable) birthplace of the Lutheran Church and is the location of the oldest remaining Jewish cemetery in Europe. Neither of these things probably attract all that many visitors, but I have to make a very honest confession. I love cemeteries. At one point when I was a kid, I begged my dad to take me to Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. While I can't remember much about the Louvre or Versailles from my trip to Paris in high school, I can still recall exactly what I was wearing when we went to Cimetière du Père Lachaise and how disappointed I was when we couldn't go into the catacombs. I've been to Bonaventure in Savannah multiple times for ghost tours when I lived nearby and was even excited to find out there was a private family cemetery behind my house in Augusta. I know, this whole paragraph comes across extremely creepy. Some people like the beach, other people like cemeteries... right?

Day Trip: St. Goar and Rhinefels

Last time I posted about visiting a castle, Burg Eltz, I made the mistake of including it as part of the Rhineland, which is misleading because it's technically in the Moselle Valley. Speaking of castles, we took a short trip today to visit some nearby ruins in St Goar on the Rhine River.

Day Trip: Cologne, Germany

Today, we took our first real adventure outside of the comfort zone of our city or a neighboring military installation. We packed up the GTI and headed to Cologne!