Jules Abroad

In late April through May we were lucky enough to have my mom join us for THREE WHOLE WEEKS! Jon and I asked her to put together a list of all of her must-see places while she was in Europe. The list…was big. For months and months we planned where to go and what to do. We used an amazing website, Route Perfect, to help us get started on an itinerary. You list the cities you want to visit and it suggests a route and time table for your travels. It also has nice summaries about each city with background information and things to do. We knew the first week would be spent in Amsterdam, and eventually we settled on visits to Vienna, Salzburg, Lake Bled, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Rome, and Florence over the remaining two weeks.

I’m happy to say that when Mom headed back the the U.S., Amsterdam was one of her favorite cities of the trip. Unfortunately, Spring weather wasn’t quite upon us, but that didn’t stop us! We biked around town and through Vondelpark, we ate great food and did fun shopping, and we visited some old churches and went to the Anne Frank House. Far and away the best part of the week was our day trip to Keukenhof Garden. When Jon and I arrived in Amsterdam last year we just missed the high season at Keukenhof, so we had to wait until 2016 to visit. It was 100 percent worth the wait, and our timing couldn’t have been better; everything was in peak bloom. We traveled by train and then biked through the tulip fields- amazing- to get there. Everything was so colorful and smelled so good! Certainly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Vienna came next. Jonny decided to stick around Amsterdam for King’s Day, so he was set to join us in Salzburg in a few days. We spent most of our time in the old town part of the city. The architecture was very decorative; someone commented that the city looked like the frosting of a wedding cake! We had the most beautiful day of sunshine while we were there (a nice change of pace from the mostly gray days of Amsterdam)! Mom and I posted up at a table outside in one of the shopping squares to people watch, soak up some rays, and enjoy some Austrian wine. On our last night in Vienna we attended a quartet Mozart performance in the lovely (and very gold) Saint Anne church. We were able to sit front (literally the first pew) and center for a perfect hour and a half of classical tunes.

From Vienna we hopped on a train for our third stop- Salzburg. What a fantastic city! I didn’t really have an expectations except that Salzburg was more scenic (in terms of nature) than Vienna; the perfect backdrop for The Sound of Music 🙂 The Alps were stunning and were visible immediately after we got off the train. We even experienced a little snow… We ate at old pubs and drank beer at brewery attached to an old church. Before Jonny joined us, Jules and I did the Sound of Music tour. It was, of course, incredibly cheesy…but also totally awesome! We boarded a completely inconspicuous (NOT) bus and drove into the mountains and lakes region of Salzburg to see all the sites used in the film.

We thought Salzburg was pretty… Lake Bled, Slovenia blew our minds. The scenic train ride itself was worth the entire trip, and once we arrived in this sweet little town it was like we had been transported into some sort of fairytale. We were completely surrounded by the Julian Alps, and the weather was perfect. We took a boat ride across the lake to the island in the center to see the pilgrimage church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. Unfortunately, much of it was under construction, but I did get a chance to ring the bell, so that was kind of cool 🙂 We enjoyed a delicous dinner and one of the best bottles of wine we have EVER had.

Theres isn’t much entertainment, but Lake Bled is the perfect place for nature lovers. Lots of opportunity for water activities- you can take out your own row boat or paddle board, and there are tons of hiking trails along the lake. It also serves as sort of a hub for people who come to ski the Alps. We spent the night at the charming (Parish House) and had to move on the next day. A short bus ride (new mode of transportation) took us to the capitol city of Ljubljana. We only stopped here for a few hours, but it was definitely a highlight! Mom’s great grandfather was born in Ljubljana, so we actually got to walk along the street where he was born and lived. We did have the house number, but sadly it was too far for us to walk in the short amount of time that we had. Very neat none the less…

FINALLY we headed for Croatia! As part of our family heritage – and certainly of mom’s upbringing, we were very excited to arrive. We stopped over in the capitol of Zagreb for an evening before flying to the Dalmatian Coast and the city of Dubrovnik. Far and away this was the city I was most looking forward to. Warm temperatures, the sparkling Adriatic Sea, lots of sunshine… Well, the joke was on us. It was COLD and it RAINED nearly the. entire. time. Such a bummer! Of course, that only effected our/my mood and not the beauty of the city.  We walked the fortress wall around the entire Old Town for incredible rooftop views and had drinks at a secret cliffside bar overlooking the water. It is so amazing that after hundreds and hundreds of years, the ancient integrity of these European cities remains. Regret: Didn’t even eat ONE piece of povitica 😦

And for the grand finale….Italy! We had a little more time to relax and explore with 3 nights in both Rome and Florence. We started in Florence and stayed at a great AirBnB on the backside of the Pallazo Vecchio. Thanks to my old Art History classmate Hannah, who studied in Florence, and has a terrific blog of her own – www.florenceforfree.co – we had plenty of ideas for what to do. One of her best suggestions was that we take the Secret Passages Tour through the Palazzo Vecchio which was not disappointing. It goes without saying that we enjoyed amazing food…pizza, gelato, pasta, yum. We also took a day trip into the Tuscan countryside for some wine and olive oil tastings. My favorite part was all of the art – surprise! It was totally surreal to stand in front of all of these masterpieces I studied from textbooks IN REAL LIFE. It’s almost indescribable.

Our main activity in Rome was the Vatican tour. We did an early morning, skip the line tour that started at 8 a.m. sharp (it was already insanely crowded…I can’t even imagine trying to go later in the day or by yourself). We were with a group of about 20 people, and our tour was directed in English by an Italian archaeologist. She told us how big of a pain it is to try and build something new in Rome, because before any sort of construction begins, archaeologists have to visit the site and do a sort of excavation to make sure nothing precious will be destroyed. Can you imagine living in a place where below the surface of nearly everywhere you walk is precious antiquities!? We also waited until the early evening to check out the Colosseum and the Ancient Ruins. Late afternoon and early evenings seems to be the trick for avoiding long lines and mega crowds!

Overall Mom’s visit was pretty darn great. We covered a lot of ground and saw SO many amazing things. We knew our itinerary was ambitions… 2 weeks of travel sounds like a lot, but when you visit 7 cities it goes by in a flash. Next time we’ve decided that we’ll definitely slow things down a bit with more time in places we love and nice, relaxing activities. Isn’t that what vacation is for after all? 🙂