Sometimes in travel, just like in life in general, things just don't go fabulously. This was the case for my husband and I the day we traveled to Venice from Austria. Everything started off fine. We caught a train from one town in Austria to another, and with 15 minutes in between when the train got into the station and when the bus to Venice left, we figured out where the bus was and made it with a couple minutes to spare. The not so great part of the day started when we got off the bus and had to figure out where the ferry was that could take us to the Lido of Venice where we were staying. After walking around confused for awhile, we found the ferry area but could only find ticket window drive-thrus. My husband went to ask the kiosk man where we could buy tickets, and the man ... [Read More]
European travel
Vegetarian Living in Austria
Happy Friday! I am SO happy it's the weekend. I've been feeling so crazy busy and tired since getting back from my trip and am really looking forward to relaxing and resting up a bit over the next few days. Today's post is about my eats while in Austria. Let me start by saying that one of the reasons I love California is because it's so easy to be a vegetarian here. Both areas I've lived in in this state, San Diego and now the Bay Area, are wonderful for a girl like me who is into healthy, meat-free living and real food. I can go down the street to a farm and pick up some fruit & veggies, and mostly every restaurant has at least one thing that's vegetarian. I anticipated the cuisine of Germany & Austria to be dominated by meat, but what I found there was that nearly every ... [Read More]
The World’s Largest Ice Cave: Austria’s Eisriesenwelt
One of the few things I had planned on doing ahead of time while we were in Austria was seeing Eisriesenwelt - which translates to "World of Giants Ices" in German - the largest ice cave in the whole world. The cave is 26 miles long, so you can nearly run a marathon in the cave if it weren't for, ya know, all of the slippery ice and freezing temperatures in there. (source of images) The ice cave is located in Werfen, a town not a far distance from where we were staying in St. Johann, but it was quite the trip getting there (which is half the fun might I add!) that went as follows: Walking from our hotel to the train station --> train ride --> walked to a bus stop, but not before walking completely into town to figure out what we were doing --> hiking --> cable car --> ... [Read More]
A Natural Wonder: Austria’s Liechtenstein Gorge
Hi friends! After many hours of travel, I arrived back in the good ole USA last night. My trip was amazing, and as usual when I go on trips, I’ve caught the travel bug and am plotting my next 5 excursions! ;-) Here’s a look at the route we took once in Europe: Last year my hubby and I bought a timeshare. Since we've experienced some buyers’ remorse from the moment we bought it, and since we’ve been paying it without seeing anything up front, we wanted to be sure to use it for the first time during this vacation. I checked out my timeshare options with only about 6 weeks notice, and this is how Austria became a big part of our vacation. To be honest, I didn’t know too much about Austria until planning this trip, but once I started to learn more about the country, I knew it’d be an ... [Read More]
Exploring Cologne, Germany
While planning this vacation, a lot of thought and research went into figuring out just where to visit. Once I decided that we’d spend some days in Austria after being in Amsterdam, I knew that I wanted to see Germany in between the two. After doing some reading and Googling, I decided that we’d visit the city of Cologne. After a couple of hours on the train, we stepped out in Cologne and immediately saw what the city is most known for – the massive gothic Roman Catholic cathedral known as Kölner Dom. The church is the most visited landmark in all of Europe, with an estimated 20,000 people visiting it daily. It was certainly a site to see, especially if you’re into churches and their architecture. Afterwards, Adam and I were reading online about the history of the church, ... [Read More]
Memorable Vegetarian Eats & Drinks in Amsterdam
My days in Amsterdam this time around have come and gone. I had a great time there for work, but I was excited to leave the city and start my European vacation! My hubby and I spent some time in Cologne (more on that later!), and now we're rolling through the German countryside on the train en route to Austria. But today I'm sharing my eats and drinks from my time in Amsterdam. A lot of my eats were at the city's convention center where my work event was, looking mostly like this... ...but I also had some fun foodie experiences. Here are my top 3: 1.) TerraZen Cafe: I talked about this Japanese/Caribbean fusion vegan eatery last year, and this year I went back to the restaurant - twice actually! It's completely hippy-ish & not in the least bit a formal eatery...and the ... [Read More]