Salzburg, Austria

My sweet, adorable husband bought me tickets to the Salzburg Festival for my birthday and planned the whole fun-filled weekend for us. Then he had to go on a work trip that weekend so I took my girl friend whose birthday was the day after mine. It worked out well but I was sad that Corey didn't get to go.
We went to 2 concerts, toured 2 castles, ate at beautiful restaurants and enjoyed being the youngest people in the city. Turns out Salzburg is what you might call a retirement village. It's the Florida of Europe. Luckily I like old people things so we had a great time!

Werfen, Austria in front of the Burg Hohenwerfen.

Austrian Alps

Inside the castle

Hellbrun Palace outside of Salzburg.

Lovely place to dine.

Fountains at Hellbrun.

The unicorn compelled me.

We drove home and stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. It was horrible and so sad of course, but I'm glad I made it out there. I would like to see a few more before we leave Germany so more to come. 

Bruges, Belgium

I love smaller cities so if you do too, go to Bruges. It is adorable, easy to navigate, quaint, full of deliciousness and overall enchanting. This city is old and was untouched during both World Wars so it retains all of its medieval charm.
I ate my weight in chocolate and waffles and didn't regret it for a second. If you wash it down with enough beer, you'll poop it all out the next day anyway.

Look at that little golfer! 

Mmmmm...the beer.

Your car must match your front door. Just kidding. But I think that's a great idea.

Unusual car to see in Europe.

Window details.

There is a canal around the city.

I love the buildings.

Could this be anymore adorable? No.

Little Tea Rooms everywhere.

Street view.

Boat rides on the canal.

Clogs.

Venice & How soon can you have your bags packed for Milan?

We celebrated our 4th anniversary in Venice. Italy is my new favorite place and our latest dream for a vacation home. We're dreamers so it's nothing serious. Why I love Italy:
The food
The accents
The wine
The buildings
The laid back culture
The water
Venice was so incredibly beautiful and such a crazy maze and pretty unbelievable. You can't stop taking pictures because every canal and alley is so unique and perfect. If you go to Venice here are my recommendations:
Stay in a hotel as close to the train station as possible
Don't bring a roller suitcase if you have to walk a ways
Prepare to get lost (good shoes, comfortable clothes, water, etc)
See a Vivaldi concert
Do the Venice Urban Adventures Chiccheti Tour

I want turquoise rolladens

Flower boxes everywhere

So many canals

I can't remember what building this is...

Seriously, I can't take the cuteness!

Heads up, gondola rides are a set price and they are 80 euro during the day

The Grand Canal

My favorite windows of all time

The bridges are steps, there are a lot of bridges, don't bring a roller suitcase

San Marco's Square

A heart in Venice

I was going to take a lot of door pictures, but this is the only one I got

Oh hi, I just live on a beautiful canal

Dressed up for Vivaldi! It's really not that classy but when in Venice...

A stop on the chiccheti tour

We left Venice and drove to Milan to see cousin Doug. We shopped at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the oldest mall in the world, saw the Duomo then wined and dined the rest of the night with Doug (at Naboccu and I highly recommend it). I bought the world's cutest italian leather gloves and decided I'd rather be able to afford another trip back to Italy than buy anything else in Milan. Not cheap.

The Duomo

Shopping Mall

Frousins! (stolen copyright from Stefanie Farnsworth)

I've Been Through the Desert

I returned to Bahrain and Oman last month. I went there this time last year and was asked (told) to go again. My Bahrain experience was better this year but I didn't get enough time in Oman to do all the things I wanted (the beach). 

The weather in Manama, Bahrain was perfect and there was no sand storm this year. We got a tour of a 2500 BC fort, went to the middle of the desert to see The Tree of Life, a 400 year old lonely tree and got tear gased during dinner. The tear gas was from Police attempts to stop a fight down the street we were having dinner on. Luckily we only felt a small amount of the effects. It was nothing like the tear, snot fest I experience in Basic Training. Hahahha! 

Taxi cabs in Bahrain

Fort Bahrain in Manama

Fort Bahrain

The Tree of Life

The beautiful desert night

Love notes by the Tree of Life

Arabic love notes in the sand 

Salalah, Oman is not an easy destination to reach so we took 3 flights from Bahrain and finally arrived after a 16 hour day. I was really hoping for some beach time but you can tell from my pasty, translucent skin that I didn't get that. We did go to Job's tomb and see his massive footprint that looks like BigFoot's. We saw a lot of camels, ate delicious food, almost ate camel, chickened out, found normal food and then came home with a stomach bug. I did lose 5 lbs though :) 

Desert flowers in Thumrait, Oman

Pretty sure this was the stomach bug culprit, Chicken 65

Accommodations in Thumrait, Oman

Always in the road!

SUV love!

Job's Tomb in the mountains near Salalah, Oman