Salzburg Austria and some guy I know.

On Saturday, Matt and I drove to Salzburg. It was a long trip, but there was a good reason.

My bestest friend in the entire world, Nathan was there!

I've known Nathan since middle school, so a good more than half of my life. I haven't seen him since last July, so I was super excited we could meet up with him and his girlfriend, Sarah, who I hadn't met yet. They were coming from Vienna by train (about 2.5 hours) and we were hightailing it across Germany. After crossing the border Salzburg is the first major city.

Upon arrival, we first started with some lunch. Nathan and Sarah had heard about this wurst, the Bosna, that was supposed to be the best since it's from the area. So, we stood in a line....

And it was excellent. Bravo. It was gone before I could take a picture.

Next, we decided to check out the Fortress Hohensalzburg, which is this huge monstrosity that sits atop the city. Instead of taking the funicular up, we decided not to be lazy and walked up instead.

Some of us were a little enamoured to be in a fortress...

We all had to take multiple pictures, or pictures of us taking pictures....here is Nathan and Sarah. I've seen this shot from multiple angles now and it's super.

Oh, and there were pretty views as well.

They had a ton of fortress-y stuff and museum-like items inside. Along with views of the Alps. Those things were all over the skyline!

After exploring the "B" side, we wandered over to the "A" side where we got to climb to the tower for even better pictures.

A few of my dinos ventured out to take a look as well.

Aren't they cute?! (Sorry Nathan for that random person in the shot... next time I'll take the picture instead of Matt).

Nathan got a good one of us, too.

After exploring and taking the funicular back down, we stopped in a cafe for beers and a late lunch snack. We introduced them to the joys of goulash and dumplings, mmm.

Lastly, our travel buddies for the day told us about this Mozart chocolate ball that's also special to the area, and when we went to the store, they were kind enough to let us try one...

Upon enjoying it, we later came back for some more.

After having another drink, we parted ways, with them heading to the train station and us back to the car. I was volunteered to drive by Matt, who was really enjoying the beers. We were staying in Munich that night before driving back on Sunday, so it wasn't far (maybe an hour and a half?) But it was dark, started raining, and my contacts were causing my eyes to be super dry. (Side note: Europeans don't seem to use a bright white as lane markers... not cool).

Having said that, I'm SO happy we got to hang out! I hope they come visit us soon, this time with a direct flight to Germany.

Beaune, France: So much adorableness.

On our way back to Germany, our last stop was Beaune, which is about 30 minutes south of Dijon. Beaune is the capital of the Burgundy wine region in the country, and totally quaint. It's also a walled city.

We parked the car and headed to the hotel. Since it was Monday, the weekend recycling was out and ready. I get what they mean about the city being a wine region capital:

Part of the appeal of this last night was staying at Abbaye de Maizieres for the evening. It used to be an abbey, and now it's a hotel! One of the nicest hotels we've ever stayed at, I might add.

When you first arrive, you have to open this double door that looks too short for you, until you realize there are stairs leading down, descending into this gorgeous lobby that used to be the abbey cellar. After checking in, the receptionist took us up the stairs, along the way explaining the history of the building. I've never had that before in a hotel - but maybe all the others just weren't as interesting!

The room was cozy and beautiful. There was even a tapestry on the wall, with a unicorn on it! Oh, heaven... That bed was one of the more comfortable of the trip, too. (Did I mention the linens were custom with the hotel logo and everything? Super nice.)

 The bed faced a super pretty exposed wall and even had a stained glass window!

 My favorite thing, though, was the bathroom. Tiny yes, but check out that sink!

The shower had a decadent waterfall showerhead, which when paired with above average water pressure, made for a perfectly indulgent experience. The tub had a headrest too, although we didn't have time for a bath. Probably would have been great.

Even the towels were logoed! (And fluffy and nice).

Once we dropped our stuff and moved the car to a closer parking area, we walked around and found a cafe to have some wine and do what the French do so well: people watch.

After we had a little buzz going (and made it through the entire time in all French, yay me!), we decided to venture over to a mustard store and see if they were still open.

They were! And oh, we got to sample ALL THE MUSTARDS! And buy some, of course. This is the nifty tasting station where we could squirt some out and try.

The only sour note of the day was not being able to find an Italian restaurant that looked good online. It being a Monday evening, many restaurants were closed. No worries though- we made up a tasty meal of supermarket treats like cheese, ham, baguette, and wine. And eclairs.

In the morning before hitting the road, we got two chocolate croissants for breakfast (fresh off the oven rack at a bakery). I'd love to come back to this city - their Saturday markets are supposed to be amazing.

And that restaurant we couldn't find the night before? We totally drove by it on the way out of town. Blast!

Definitely have to go back.

Montpellier, Bridges & Beyond: Southern France (Provence)

***WARNING: If you don't like lots of pictures of bridges and the like, this post is not for you.***

Departing from Avignon, it was a short distance to Montpellier, but before our arrival there, we wanted to see a few things along the way.

The first stop was Matt's choice, to Pont du Gard, which is the highest Roman aqueduct bridge and one of the best preserved. They made the thing in the 1st century and it's still hanging in there!

Here I am walking up to it after we went through the museum. The whole thing is cool because when you drive in, your parking lot ticket is the ticket to everything. Too bad we didn't have a fuller car, it would have been even cheaper to split.

 (One of many shots that Matt got, part of his "Through the Trees" series. He's artsy like that.)

 You get to walk on it!!

 Matt inspecting things...

 More through the trees...

 We also decided we had to take pictures on the other side, too...

 This is me. Thumbs down for walking up this hike "path" - we opted to walk around and up to get some more pictures instead.

 ... and I asked Matt to take a picture of me in this cave thing.

 Gosh, what awful weather we had, huh?

 I spy a castle in the distance....

 Here's me, holding the thing up. You're welcome.

 Matt doing his part. By the time we left (I think we spent a good 2+ hours there?), it was getting windy and crowded, so on to the next fun!

 But first we crossed over another bridge, so I took a picture.

Our second stop was my idea, the Carrieres de Lumieres. This place was so neat!

It's essentially an art gallery inside of a cave. But the art changes because it's projected onto the walls and set to music. It's a music-art show!

I like museums as much as the next guy, but sometimes I feel like I don't "get" some of the art. This place, though, I got. In fact, I found it very moving being immersed in the show.

A bit difficult to see, but here is what it's like inside. The caves are huge so you are really a part of the art, and the projections run ceiling to floor.

(If you check out the website, you can get an even better idea.) I'm so glad we went!

After our artscapade (hee!), we headed over to an abbey but didn't feel like spending more cash to peek inside. We opted instead to sit outside and have some lunch before making our way to our hotel out the outskirts of Montpellier and checked in just in time for a nice afternoon nap.

At night, we had reservations at L'Oracle, which I think was one of my favorite meals of the trip. I was able to communicate the entire thing in French, which was awesome for me. We split a carafe of wine, and I started with foie gras, followed by a calf fillet with risotto and a super tasty Tea Gourmand (which is tea with a bunch of little desserts on a tray).

For our second day in the Montpellier area, we hopped back into the car to see the Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world. It did not disappoint. Here's a short video we took on the drive up to it.

From a distance...

And then some shots upon arrival underneath, looking up at its awesomeness. Through trees, of course.

 Here we are from the parking lot, next to the tiny visitor's center.

 We had fully prepared for this day with copious amounts of car snacks to keep us going. We hit the grocery store and had yogurt and yummy wraps in the car for lunch, mmm....

Oh - we also drove to Roquefort. It's a town. And a cheese. Hence, it's a cheese town. They only make this kind of cheese there, and so of course we had to check out the cheese caves.

That's right, CAVES filled with cheese. A cheese lover's dream. Or worst nightmare if you don't like caves, I suppose.

We arrived a little early before they re-opened for the afternoon, so we walked around to take in the views. We also checked out the remains of an old church.

 Here's Matt in what once was a church.

 Such a cute town!

 Really was too bad the weather was so, ugh....

But yes, into the caves we went! We didn't take pictures inside, but what we did do was go on a guided tour. In French.

Completely in French. Matt was lost. I was half-lost. But I knew enough to laugh along when someone made a joke, and nobody suspected we didn't speak French since I'm the one who bought the tickets. Take that, France! We fooled you!

As any good food-related tour has, there were free samples at the end. Matt was a little bummed we didn't get some to take with us, but we did find some in our big grocery bonanza on the drive back to Germany on our last day.

And thus endeth a weekend filled with bridges and sunshine. My next post will cover our final city on the journey, Beaune, which is on the way back home to Germany.