Europe 2004

Zach is working with an Army unit in Germany. What a good opportunity for a European adventure! Well at least the second week would be an adventure. We left on the afternoon of May 8th and arrived on the morning of the 9th, which is typical for European flights. Fortunately, we flew on a Delta partner, Air France. Air France planes have more leg room, better food than Delta and free wine. Did we mention free wine? When we arrived in Frankfurt we picked up a rental car. On the way to the rental lot Zach looked at the car info and said this can’t be right, so we walked back to the desk to check. Sure enough Avis had upgraded us to a brand new BMW 530 with a navigation system. The car was fast for the autobahns but best of all we never had to use a map. We’d just punch in where we wanted to go and it told us how to get there. The car had a lot of other fancy stuff we never figured out. While in Hanau we did go to Schloss (Castle) Philippsruhre and to Steinheim, the old part of Hanau, and ran by the Main River, but mostly Zach worked and Cathy walked around town. By Friday Cathy had become all too familiar with Hanau and was ready to see and do other things.

 

Saturday was the start our travel and did three countries in one day, Germany, France, and Switzerland. Our first stop was Schloss Heidelberg overlooking the Neckar River. From there we went to see the Schloss Schwetzingen Gardens, which were very beautiful with lakes, statues, fountains, hidden buildings, and etc. A short distance from there was the Speyer Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in Germany. Continuing down the autobahn we went to Strasbourg, France to see the old town and the incredible Notre Dame Cathedral, which has a four hundred year old four-story clock that is so mechanically intricate that it boggles the mind. We arrived at our friends in Zurich later that night.

The next day Ron and Irmi took us to Luzerne, which is the prettiest city in Switzerland. It has two several hundred year old wooden bridges crossing the river which runs through the middle of town. There is a Lion monument carving reminiscent of Stone Mountain. Nearby is the Glacier Garden which chronicles glacier activity in the area. Part of that complex is the “Alhambra” Hall of Mirrors which is a mirror maze that is very hard to find the way through. We kept running into ourselves at dead ends. The city has a well preserved wall with seven turrets called the Musegg Wall. To end the day we walked the promenade along the lake which runs for several miles and is lined with restaurants and hotels.

Monday Ron took us for a hike up the Uetliberg Mountain. After a hard climb to the top we had a great view of the Zurich area and all the mountains far into the distance. We caught a train back into Zurich, walked the streets, and took a boat back to Thalwil where they live. That night we found out how expensive Zurich is when we went out for a pizza dinner and paid almost $100.

An early start the next day brought us to Saint Gallen where we visited the Dome, another incredibly beautiful cathedral. Part of the complex is a school which has the Abby Library. This is an amazing collection of thousand of books and manuscripts dating to the Middle Ages. The room that houses the library is a work of art itself. We had to wear special shoes to prevent damage to the floors. In the basement of the Dome was the Lapidarium which contains parts of early church foundations.


Wednesday was an exciting day. We went back to the Luzerne and took the cog train up Mt Pilatus. This was a half hour ride up the steepest cog train in the world with an incline up to 48%. We were only able to walk around part of the top due to all the snow that was still on the ground. We took the half hour ride on cable car down the other side of the mountain, caught the bus to the lake front and took an hour and a half boat ride back to the car. On the way back to Zurich we went to the Einsiedeln Monastery which was the most spectacular church we visited during the week.

 

The next day we had to head back to Frankfurt. On the way back we stopped at the powerful Rheinfall and then we went on to the walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber where we spent the rest of the day. That night we stayed in the Frankfurt Marriott where we had to pay to park almost as much as the room cost with the Marriott Associate discount.

 

Friday we flew to London via Charles de Gaulle Airport where part of the terminal collapsed the next day. We had to take the train from Heathrow to London and walk to our hotel. The hotel had cancelled our reservation so they sent us by taxi to the Marriott Park Lane where we stayed. This is the real ritzy section of London where many famous people live. We didn’t have a lot of time so we took a bus tour of the city with stops at Piccadilly Circus, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, London Eye, Westminster Abby, and the House of Parliament. We also took a boat ride along the Thames River.

 

 

The next morning we took a run through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens with short stops at Kensington Palace, Albert Hall, and Buckingham Palace. Then it was time to leave for the airport. We took the express train to Gatwick and had a nine hour flight back to Atlanta.





Sunday morning we were up at 5am heading for the Callaway Gardens Duathlon. Competing in this race was the main reason we came home on Saturday. The race is apart of the fitness series and we have to defend our titles. We were no worse the wear from our trip, Cathy came in second and Zach was third.