Paris, France

This weekend was a busy and exciting one for us. We got on the bus Friday night to head to Paris on an Express trip, meaning no hotels you just sleep on the bus. It took about eleven hours for us to get to Paris. Our bus parked right in front of the Eiffel Tower and we were free to do what we wanted for the day.

Getting off the bus was hectic. As soon as our bus parked people trying to sell stuff came running over to the doors trying to get us to buy stuff before our feet even hit the ground. In the end we did end up buying from them because the product they were selling was also sold at all the tourist shops but theirs was cheaper.

We spent probably a good 45 minutes just walking around the Eiffel Tower taking pictures. We have decided that it's pretty much impossible to take a bad picture of the Eiffel Tower, it's just so photogenic!

 

 

After we got what we thought was enough pictures (we actually ended up taking MANY more before leaving) we started looking for the pick up stop for the hop on, hop off bus.

About a week before we left for Paris I started looking online for the best way for us to get around Paris. Since we were only there for a day we needed something easy to navigate, not to pricey, and quick to get us to all the places we wanted to see. We opted for the Big Bus Paris.

The Big Bus Paris is a hop on, hop off tourist bus. It cost us 29 euros a piece and was a double decker bus with an open top. For those of you who don't know a hop on, hop off bus is basically where the bus goes to all of the main attractions and you can get off to see whichever attractions you're interested in. Then you can hop on the next bus that comes by. This company had a lot of buses. A new one was coming by each attraction about every 10-15 minutes!

 

 

The first place we decided to hop off the bus at was the Louvre. I have been wanting to see the Louvre since I was little. Unfortunately, we were unable to go inside because the line was already crazy long! But no worries there is another Paris trip in April and we are considering going on it. The architecture was amazing to look at and the glass pyramids were just WOW!

 

 

After we finished admiring the Louvre we walked across the way to the love lock bridge. Recently Paris has asked people to stop putting the locks on the bridges because the weight of the locks are causing the sides of the bridge to collapse. It was still really cool to go look at though.

 

 

Once we were done looking at the bridge we hopped back on the Big Bus Paris and headed to our next destination. Can you guess where that was? I'll give you a hint, there is a Disney movie about it.

Notre Dame was hands down the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen. It was packed full of people trying to get inside to go up top. We opted not to go up top. There are well over 300 stairs going up to the top and absolutely no elevators. Yikes! However, we were able to see the gargoyles from the ground and the bells went off during our stop there. I never knew bells could sound so awesome.

 

 

Our next and last stop that we made on the hop on, hop off bus was the Arc de Triomphe. Beautifully built and crazy busy with people it stood on the Champs Elysees avenue, which is known as the most beautiful avenue in the world.

 

 

After we got done at the Arc de Triomphe we headed to the Eiffel and grabbed lunch across the street at one of the many carts that were set up. I had a hot dog, but not just any hot dog. This hot dog had a homemade bun, two hot dogs crammed into the bun, and the guy put ketchup and mayonnaise on it! My husband had a banana and nutella crepe, plus some of my hot dog.

After lunch (which we didn't end up eating till almost 2:30) we did a little souvenir shopping. We picked up our usual shot glass, bell, and postcards. Plus this time we also got a miniature Eiffel Tower, a Paris purse, and a snow globe.

Once we were done with all of our shopping we decided to get back on the hop on, hop off bus and ride it all the way through. The cool thing about the Big Bus Paris is that they provide you with headphones so you can get interesting facts and information. We didn't use the headphones earlier in the day because we got off and on so much that we were missing too much of the information. It took about 2.5 hours to ride the bus all the way through but it was definitely worth it.

The weather in Paris this weekend was in the low 60's. Jackets were needed the whole time, especially considering we were riding on the open top of the Big Bus. Towards the end of our ride on the bus it even started raining a little bit!

After the Big Bus dropped us off at the Eiffel Tower we made our way back to our bus as it was about time to head home. We left Paris at almost 7pm and finally arrived back home at 5am Sunday morning.

 



Zurich, Switzerland

Yesterday we went to Zurich, Switzerland! It was such a blast. I know everyone is probably thinking that it's crazy that we only went for a day but it was a full and long day. We got on the bus at 2:30 in the morning! the bus stopped around 8am for breakfast at a little place just before the border. The place we stopped at had a really pretty view.

 

 

After our 45 minute breakfast stop we continued on and reached Zurich at around 9:30. The walking tour didn't start until 10:30am so everyone walked over to the tourist information place inside the train station to get maps and Swiss Francs.

The tour was a two hour walking tour of Zurich's Old Town and while it was nice to have a guide we ended up ducking out of the tour early. We only had a day there, so we wanted to enjoy it at our own pace. Our guide moved so fast that no one had time to take pictures and she talked so quietly that we couldn't hear her.

Once we left the tour we stopped at a Starbucks to grab coffee and water because the temperature there was on the low 60's and it rained off and on the whole time. So it was kind of chilly! Thank goodness we decided that it would be a good idea to take jackets. The Starbucks we stopped at was on this cute street filled with small shops.

 

 

After our coffee and water we pulled out our tourist map and just started walking to the dots on the list that interested us. We saw three churches in Zurich.

St. Peter church, which has the largest church face clock in Europe. It's 8.7 meters in diameter!

 

 

The Grossmünster (Great minster) was my favorite church to go see. It has two steeples that were put up in 1487 and 1492. They steeples were originally made of wood but were replaced when the wood burned down.

 

 

The third church we saw was the Fraumünster (Women's Minster). The Fraumünster was built on the remains of a former abbey. I found the clock on it to be quite beautiful.

 

 

In the middle of seeing the churches we stopped at a park to just take in the view. The park had a huge chess board, a bird coop, a fountain (which people were drinking out of), and a bunch of benches for people to sit and relax on.

Interesting tidbit: All of the many fountains in the city are all fed by a pure natural spring, so it's perfectly okay to drink out of them.

 

 

Next to the Grossmünster was a little shop called Teddy's Souvenir Shop. We of course stopped in there to get our usual things that we get on each trip; shot glass, bell, and post cards. We paid almost twice as much for the souvenirs there than we have at every other place we've been too! Switzerland is expensive.

 

 

After picking up our souvenirs we started to head back across town so that we could pick up some chocolate and eat supper before we had to get back on the bus.

We got our chocolate from Confiserie Sprüngli. We had the option of either buying chocolate by the piece or getting an already packaged box. We opted for the box because in the end it was cheaper (20 Swiss Franc for 10 pieces). So far we've only had two pieces out of it. We're trying to go slow so that it lasts awhile. :) We split a piece once a day.

 

 

The river was gorgeous! We crossed it a few times throughout the day because it runs right through the city. There were swans and ducks and we could even see to the bottom in some places.

 

 

We were lame and ate at McDonalds for supper (Hey souvenirs and chocolate aren't cheap!). But in the end it ended up being expensive too. It was 24 Swiss Francs!! That is the most that the two of us have ever spent at a fast food chain. Ben got a cheeseburger and I got chicken nuggets.

Our last stop on the way back to the bus was the train station. We have to walk through it in order to get to the bus parking on the other side.

 

 



56th Annual German-American Volksfest

 

This year was our last year to go to Volksfest. Our first summer we were purchasing furniture and last year it was cancelled due to budget cuts. So this year we decided we'd go all out and spend all weekend there.

It started on Friday with the ribbon cutting and ceremonial keg tapping. We went out there as soon as it began on Friday so that we could get our beer mug (only 10,000 mugs and an expected 100,000 people expected to be there) but we weren't able to stay long because Ben had to work and he needed to get some sleep before then. We missed the ribbon cutting because we were on the bus but we get to watch the keg tapping.

 

 

 

On Saturday we spent all afternoon there. We looked at all of the German and American military vehicles that were there on display and looked at all the booths that were set up. We spent some time in the German beer tent and then decided to play some games before we headed home.

 

 

 

 

There were so many different types of food available there from kebabs, to fried Oreos, funnel cakes to steak sandwiches and fries, and Thai food. There was something there available for everyone!

We found a game that we're both pretty good at. There was a booth full of beer mugs, steins, glasses, and shot glasses. The goal was to toss/bounce a ping pong ball into one of the cups and whatever your ball landed in you got to keep.

 

 

 

By the end of the weekend we ended up with quite a few steins and glasses.

 

 

 

We decided to wait until later in the afternoon on Sunday to go because it was supposed to rain in the morning and we had a few things that needed done before the weekend was over. The rides were all lit up and there were so many people there:

 

 

 We also didn't want to miss out on our last chance to see this band perform: