Ben and Alonna

Blog

  • Hanging out in Munich

    Yes, we’re still here! Although we’ve been quiet for the last week, Ben and I have enjoyed spending time with friends and family in Germany.

    We spent 5 nights with our friend Dave from Boise, who moved to Germany a year ago with his family.  They live in a cute small town in the country 20 minutes outside of Munich, called Pfaffenhofen.  It was so nice to stay in their home and they were such great hosts!  We stayed in their guest room, hung out with Dave, Kristin and their two cute kids, and Dave cooked great meals every night.

    Dave\'s house in Pfaffenhofen

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  • Exploring Salzburg, Austria

    Salzburg, Austria by day and night…

    Salzburg by day
    Salzburg by night
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  • Travelling Through France and Switzerland

    Guten tag! We just arrived in Innsbruck, Austria last night and are heading to Salzburg this afternoon. But first, here’s some miscellaneous photos from the last ~week.

    Annecy

    On our way from Southern France to Chamonix in the French Alps, we stopped overnight in Annecy. We didn’t know it before, but this is a popular resort city on a nice lake in the mountains.

    Annecy, France
    Cute canal in Annecy
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  • The top of the Alps

    I’ve heard there are tons of chair lifts and gondolas in the Alps, but I don’t know how they could top the Aiguille du Midi.  Two lifts take you from the town of Chamonix, straight up the mountain to the top of a 12,000 foot peak, right next to Mont Blanc.  In the photo below, the pointed peak on the left is where the cable car climbs to.  Mont Blanc is the tallest snow-covered peak in the middle.

    Aiguille du Midi (sharp peak on left) and Mont Blanc (tallest one)

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  • Taking it easy in Chamonix

    The view from our mountain chalet in Chamonix:

    View from our hostel in Chamonix

    Our first stop in the Alps is on the French side, in a popular resort town called Chamonix (sham-oh-nee). The tallest mountain in the alps, Mont Blanc (15,781 ft), is right outside our door. In fact I see it right now as I type this and eat breakfast: (more…)

  • Roman Ruins and Hill Towns in Provence

    Ben and I spent about 3 days exploring Provence, France.  Our rental car was great for driving through the countryside and visiting small towns (but a bit stressful driving and parking in the cities).  We stayed 2 nights in Arles, and one night further north in the Cote du Rhone area.  If I were doing it over, I’d spend more time exploring the Cote du Rhone hill towns, they’re beautiful.

    Here’s some of the highlights from Southern France… (more…)

  • Driving In France

    We rented a car for 4 days for a road trip through southern France from Perpignan to Annecy.  The region is filled with Roman ruins, medieval castles, and endless fields of grape vines.  It is also where Van Gogh made his most famous paintings.


    View Drive in Southern France in a larger map
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  • More on Carcassonne

    Ben briefly mentioned Carcassonne in a previous post… but since then we took a few more photos that I wanted to share.

    Carcassonne is really quite the sight.  It’s a fairy tale medieval castle in real life.   The walled city is huge and it’s always open so you can walk around and get lost on the tiny cobblestone streets.  We really enjoyed it, and I think kids would love it too.  However, (more…)

  • A Bit About Barcelona

    Before our current road trip through Southern France we spent a few days in Barcelona recuperating from the gotta-see-it-all site seeing we had done in Paris and visiting Alonna’s college friend Julien.

    IMG_5147-BenAndAlonnaBarcelona
    Ben and Alonna somewhere in Barcelona

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  • Southern France Adventures

    The next phase of our European adventure is a road trip through southern France.  We started today by taking a train from Barcelona to Perpignan, France.  We had concocted a scheme to save €35 by renting our car on the outskirts of Perpignan instead of at the train station.  This resulted in a spectactular misadventure not unlike you might see on The Amazing Race – we took a bus with no idea of where to get off, we walked around an industrial district loaded down with our overstuffed backpacks and attempted to converse with people using our limited French (consisting mostly of “Parle vous Engles?” – the answer is always no – and words like “rendezvous”, “reconnaissance”, and “raconteur”), and eventually (more…)