May=Visitors: part zwei

The second half of May brought us a little more sunshine and another set of visitors...this time it was my former boss and his partner.  They arrived just 6 days after my parents left, and we had a hefty travel agenda ahead of us:  Salzburg, Vienna, Prague...and King Ludwig's castles.  In the picture above, we are having delicious wurst on the street in Vienna.

So....first on the agenda was a little sightseeing here in Munich.  We covered all of the basics...we visited a beer garden, the English Garden with it's surfers and the Asam kirche.  The idea was to keep them outside and awake on their first day...

The following day it was time to hit the airport for the missing bags and head out to Salzburg on the train for the day....but only one of the suitcases came...Delta had left one on the tarmac in Atlanta-Ugh!  We got to Salzburg a little later, so we tried to maximize our time and took the Sound of Music tour, starting at the Mirabella Garden and on to sights like the famous gazebo and the houses that the movie filmed...which are actually spread out all over the city.

On the tour, we stopped at this summer luge that you speed down hillside curves..so fun! You get pulled up backward, then pick up your cart and start at the top.  I hadn't ever done this before, but they had and were old pros. It was the highlight of the tour!

The next day it was time to pack the bags and head out to the airport once again for the missing bag (it finally came!) and then travel to Vienna overnight.  We ran into a street market outside of St. Stephen's, went to the opera and saw a performance of Salome', and went to Prater Park (a little amusement park withing the city). Steve went on the swing ride, while Nick and I were too chicken!

Next, their friend Trula came to meet up with us...we kept her awake for the day in the same manner-outside in the fresh air visiting sights in Munich and then to Dachau...after a good night's sleep it was on to Prague.  We boarded the train  in Munich and transferred in Plizn to a smelly, old Czech train and 7.5 hours after we began our journey we arrived! (btw, our return trip was on a lovely German train that took only 6 hours...gotta love that German engineering!)

And then we were back to Munich...with just enough time to visit Neuschwanstein and for our second set of May visitors to be on their way home to the States. 

The week went by in an instant...throughout the entire time, I kept saying..."Next time, 2 weeks!"  and I mean it...so for all of you who are coming or want to come, 2 weeks, okay?

May=Visitors

They say that April showers bring May flowers.  This year, May showers brought us lots of visitors!  And ugh!  did it rain...I think that we had over 20 days in May in a row with rain. Who would have thought?  Last year, May was balmy and warm-I remember, because our container had not arrived yet and all I had were woolies because March had been so blustery that is all I packed. In 2009, June was the bad month-not this year, May and June did a secret rainy swap.  Blah.  Thank goodness we had lots of family and friends here to keep us cheery!

In the beginning of the month my parents came to town.  Here they are cheesing it up for me at Andechs-note the crispy pork knuckle in the foreground?  We had a lovely time, but not lovely weather...so we did some Munich things that we could enjoy indoors:  the Residenz, and a visit to Nymphenburg Schloss, the palace that is within the city limits. My parents were such good sports:

But, I did get to spend Mother's Day in Italy with my Mom...which was wonderful!  While they were here, the Hub traveled for business during the first week.  We went to Bolzano, Italy for the weekend in the middle and had nice weather there.  During the second week, the rain in Munich didn't let up-but we didn't let that stop us-off to Salzburg for a day, to Garmisch to visit the highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze and then a trip to see the castles-Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.

My mother even got into not one, but 2 cable cars...although she is afraid of heights!

And we bought dad the bavarian-style hat I had been wanting to get for him...

He is looking pretty dapper, huh?  All in all, a good trip.  It was great to have them here-to show them our place, a little of my German skill, and what our life looks like on a daily basis.  We took it easy that first week and then ran around during the second, sending them home a little worn out, but with a lot of great photos and memories! 

Chirp, chirp.....

In my not so distant past life, I was a District Manager for a major kitchen and home retailer.  I had 10 stores in 3 states and 2 time zones.....so the weekly conference call was an important way to get the same message across to all of my stores and management teams.  But, I never wanted it to be a one-way call.  Ideas and inspiration from the stores was something that I was always looking for.

During a call, when I would ask a question, for status, or just input there would some times be silence.  I would say, okay crickets...someone needs to give me something here.  That's when the participants would stop writing the schedule for the next week or filing their nails or eating their lunch that they pushed off until the conference call time slot and again become a part of the call.

So now I say to you.....okay crickets...I have noticed that you haven't been commenting lately...tell me what you want to hear about (or don't want to hear about!)...if I have been writing about traveling too much or haven't been posting enough...let me know. If you want more pictures or fewer pictures or more words or fewer words...let me know. In several posts I have asked questions thinking you might respond and also because I am really interested in what you think.  

If you lurk about reading and haven't signed up as a follower yet, please know that here, following is a good thing! And, your comments can be left too-just leave me a signature to let me know you stopped by and what you are interested in knowing!

Give me some feedback-I definitely don't want to make this a one way conversation, although the nature of a blog is somewhat one way directionally...but I am interested in blogging about what you want to hear about!  Let me be your ace reporter if I can.  Looking forward to hearing what you want to know about!  Thanks, in advance to you all, dear readers!