Finally in Finland... Well... Actually already back in Ottawa

I had some major issues with Internet connections throughout the trip

So here are couple of last postings from our trip, before I get back to my regular crafting posts

(Still too jet lagged to get the crafting gear going...)

While in Finland, we spent one week at my parents cottage, right at the Russian border (eastern Finland). The border really is only about 14 km from their cottage.

The image above is from Lappeenranta sand castle (a yearly event) and this years theme was the Finnish National Epic "Kalevala"

In this scene the Väinämöinen is singing (and playing the Kantele) Joukahainen to sink into the swamp

And I just have to post this delicious picture of our lunch at the city of Kotka, a restaurant called "Vanha Fiskari" (an old fisherman).

I just love all the fish you can get in Finland.

Neuschwanstein Castle and the crazy king of Bavaria

So, this was the reason for our visit to Hohen-Schwangau

The beautiful castle built by a Bavarian king, Ludvig II. This castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle

We learned, that he actually grew up in a castle situated below in the village and that the Neuschwanstein castle was built on the ruins of two mid-eval castles.

Ludvig II lived at night time, so he had his staff working a night shift! He had crazy dreams of building another castle, even though the country was bankrupted. So they pronounced him insane and took him to a castle near Munich, where he was found dead (drowned) the next day. They still don't know if he killed himself or if was murdered.

He was influenced by Wagner's operas like Tannhauser and Isobelle&Tristain.

After touring the castle on Friday, we headed to Munich, where we stayed at the airport hotel. The next morning we flew to Helsinki

St.Anton & Innsbruck, Austria

On the evening of Wednesday we reached St.Anton, a ski resort in the Tirolean alps.

We even got to enjoy a local band playing local music!

The next day (August 1, which BTW is the Swiss National Day) we drove to Innsbruck

We left Innsbruck and drove to Hohen-Schwangau via Garmish-Partenkirchen.

Hohen-Schwangau??? Check out the next post why!

Last day of July, leaving Switzerland

Okay, today was a crazy day. 3 countries!!! We left Thun after touring the castle surroundings. We decided, that we would take a smaller road instead of the highway. Well... Driving to Interlaken took us less than an hour, but then we climbed over some mountains - what's drive!!! We literally went through mountains and at one point were doing a spiraling loup INSIDE the mountain!!

Well... I enjoyed it but Tom could not have been happier when we reached Luzern ;-)

I just love all the painted and decorated buildings in this area!!!

After leaving Luzern, we stuck to the highways, which took us to Vaduz, Liechtenstein. This is one small principality! The country is approx. 10km wide and 20km long, and half of it is mountains!

Thun castle

The morning we left Thun, we walked up to the Thun castle. It was closed, but we got a nice view over the town and of the castle surroundings

Train ride to Wengen from Lauterbrunnen

We drove to Lauterbrunnen and took a train to Wengen. We were thinking of going all the way to Jungfraujoch, but it would have been over 300 cad for the 2 of us. Since the weather was not the clearest, I didn't feel comfortable in spending all that money and then just seeing clouds. Well.. I guess we will have to come back here one day to do that ;-)

Lauterbrunnen has a nice waterfall in the city. Can you see the Swiss flag?

From Wengen we took a cable car to the top of Männlichen

Thun, Switzerland

Okay, I could not get to my blog after Geneva - I have no idea why.

So after Geneva, we headed to Thun (just south from Bern) and stayed there for 2 nights

Thun was stunning little town situated along Arne river, which was freezing cold and the most beautiful clear blue river I have seen in my life!

We took a ride on the Ferris wheel and walked around the old town, which had shops in two level! The most unique old town I have encountered

I wish we would have stayed here longer!!!

From Thun we also toured Wengen and Lauterbrunnen. More on the next blog!