Sweden

The final destination of my European journey was the old standby, Stockholm. When I was in High School, our family had a foreign exchange student from Sweden and we've kept up with his family ever since. I've had the privilege of visiting them three times now.

The primary purpose of the visit was to see friends, but we still did some sightseeing. Here is a shot of a street in the old town. It's a good place for eating and finding Swedish souvenirs.

We also toured the city hall. There are a number of beautiful rooms and it's a beautiful structure all around. This room is of particular interest because it's where they give out the Nobel prizes. Lots of very talented people have hung out here.

Euro 2008 was still going on and Sweden had a big match against Spain while we were there. We went downtown to watch the game on a big screen with a big crowd and endured a bit of rain, but saw the game through to its finish. It was a lot of fun to get caught up in the excitement. Unfortunately, Spain won 2-1, and they went on to win the tournament.
Some of the better dressed fans.

They were handing out free t-shirts and we were all lucky enough to get one. Pictured below are my dad, mom, Stefan, and myself. An interesting side note - the t-shirts were mostly size medium. Good luck getting a free size medium t-shirt at an American sporting event.

On our last full day in Sweden, we left Stockholm and visited Uppsala, home of the Uppsala Castle (not pictured) and the Uppsala Cathedral. Below is a picture of Stefan's parents, Pelle and Britt, with my parents in front of the cathedral.

On the way back to Stockholm we ate at a restaurant near the Stockholm archipelago. Here's a picture of a sailboat traversing the waters of the archipelago.

Prague

From southern Germany, it was off to Prague. Everyone I talked to who had been there raved about it. I'm not sure if I would go so far as to rave, but I certainly did enjoy our time there, particularly the Lobkowicz Palace museum and music at Dvorak Hall.

Here we have our best view photograph. The River Vltava flows right through Prague's center and, as you can see, is crossed by a number of bridges, Charles Bridge (second from the bottom) being the most important.

Here's a closeup of Charles Bridge. It was important to Prague for many years as the connection between Old Town and Prague Castle, now it's an important tourist destination. You can see the vendors and pedestrians being watched over by a number of statues.

Here's another perspective of Charles Bridge, this time with Prague Castle in the background. It's crowned by St Vitus Cathedral (follow the link for lots of nice pictures of the cathedral).

Inside St Vitus Cathedral is the grave of Saint (good king) Wenceslas.

One surprising highlight of our time in Prague was a visit to the Lobkowicz Palace. It was a relatively new musuem that followed the history of the Lobkowicz family, a prominent family in Prague since the 16th century that lost all their possessions in 1948 when the communist regime came to power. After the fall of the communist regime, they regained almost everything and created a museum in the palace. The most amazing part of our visit was the music room, where we learned that the Lobkowicz family had been a primary benefactor of Beethoven, with three of his symphonies dedicated to the 7th Prince Lobkowicz. The museum had on hand original copies of a number of his works, many signed by Beethoven. It was astounding to be able to see such an amazing set of artifacts.

Still today Prague is known as a center for classical music and especially for its most famous composer Antonin Dvorak. We attended a concert at Dvorak Hall that featured an outstanding harpist, which was definitely a highlight of our stay. Below is a picture of my parents with the statue of Dvorak that stands outside the hall.
This is Old Town sqaure. It's a popular tourist destination partly because there's a clock that everyone likes to take a picture of when the hour changes (not pictured), but I think mostly because it's a good place for hanging out. There are a number of cafes to choose from and beautiful old buildings to look at.

One other place to visit that's nearby Old Town square is a house that Franz Kafka once lived in. Below is the obligatory picture. I confess to only ever having read The Metamorphosis.

Germany

After Austria, we spent a short time in Germany. From our base in Munich, we visited the Neuschwanstein Castle and explored a couple Bavarian towns. We actually did not explore Munich at all aside from a quick drive-through. We focus our time on the natural scenery.

The picture below is from a little town called Mittenwald, which is one of those postcard Bavarian towns. We stopped there only briefly, but we enjoyed it, largely because it was our first day in the Alps where you could see the tops of the mountains.

Our main destination in Germany was the Neuschwanstein Castle. It's quite striking because it has all the features that come to mind when you think "castle". There's the turrets, the courtyard, there isn't a moat actually, but there's a creek, and it's clearly very isolated. It was never finished because the guy who started it died before it was done and no one else wanted to continue financing such a large project. That's why it's owned by the state now and such a popular tourist destination. I felt lucky to have such a nice day for visiting.

Here's a view out one of the windows in the castle. Not bad.

Innsbruck

From Salzburg, we drove to Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck is up in the mountains and has been home to the winter Olympics twice. It's a true alpine village, as opposed to the "alpine" villages they build next to ski resorts. Unfortunately, the tips of the mountains were covered by clouds the entire time we were there. We enjoyed them nevertheless.

The picture below gives a pretty good idea of what it's like to be in Innsbruck. The streets were especially crowded and noisy because of Euro 2008. It was a very fun, festive atmosphere, which was great until you wanted to go to sleep. I hold no grudges though.

Our hotel was in the heart of the city and its claim to fame was that Mozart had once stayed there. Below is my dad standing next to a sign commemorating his stay. Apparently he wrote his wife saying, "We are in good health, thank God. We are staying at the Weisses Kreuz".

We went on a lovely hike up into the mountains. Unbeknownst to us when we started, the path led to a locally well-knownst restaurant. The cows with very loud bells did a great job of completing the scene.

Salzburg

From Paris, it was off to Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Mozart, a center for classical music, and of course former home of the Von Trapp family. It turns out that there are actually Sound of Music tours to choose from in Salzburg. And while it was certainly cheesy at times, it did end being a good way to see Salzburg and the beauty of the countryside surrounding it.

This classic view of Salzburg has the Hohensalzburg Castle in the back up on the hill and the Mirabell Gardens in the foreground. For those of you with an intimate knowledge of the Sound of Music, this is where they sang Do Re Mi.

We didn't just go on the Sound of Music tour, we also walked the streets. Below is the main shopping street. We were there for the opening night of Euro 2008, which was hosted by Austria and Switzerland. This might have been the reason for some rather crowded streets.

This pretty lake and castle also happen to be the spot where the famous canoe-tipping -over scene was filmed.

The gazebo.

It wasn't a perfect day to be in the Alps, but it was still quite beautiful. As you can see, my mom and dad were enjoying themselves.

The tour took us to a town nearby Salzburg called Mondsee, where they filmed the marriage scene. The town was very cute and there happened to be a number of sidewalk cafes selling crisp apple strudel. It was nice to see the locals taking advantage of the cuteness as well; below you can see a real wedding party at the church.

Paris with Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad soon joined me and Paris, and we had a good time seeing many of the classic sights, including a concert at Notre Dame. We also went to the Monet musuem. Unfortunately, due to a memory erasing snaffoo that caught both my dad and me by surprise, we have only a few surving photos.

Below is the best. I think it actually does a pretty good job of summing up the feel of being on the street in Paris.