India (World Wonder #4)

While on international assignment, Boeing gives employees a "home leave," but you don't have to use the trip to go home. We chose to check off another world wonder, but we didn't really want to spend all of our time off in India. So, we flew from Germany to India and spent 2 days there (long enough to see the Taj Mahal), then flew back to Europe for a different kind of adventure (different blog post to follow). India was about what I expected...similar to Africa: hot, humid, dirty, dusty, crazy drivers, nice people, good food.

On the drive to Taj Mahal

Subway is everywhere in the world!

World Wonder #4, check!

The Taj Mahal was built by the Emperor for his favorite wife as a mausoleum. The marble was brought from over 300 kilometers away by elephants. The construction was finished in 1643.

This was a "guest house"

Everybody trying to stay in the shade ;)

Inside the guest house

We also got to tour the Agra Fort which is across the river from the Taj Mahal. This was started in 1565!

Taj Mahal behind us

Our guide

Crazy driving!!!

Random people who wanted to take a picture with us...our guide said they don't see Americans very often and want to take pictures with us when they do. :)

Overall, we thought the Taj Mahal was really beautiful, but soooo hot, even in April! We were glad we didn't plan for more time there, two days was plenty to do what we needed to do. :)

Six Country European Road Trip (Bakers visit)

Guys, March-May in Germany is lousy with holidays. If you didn't know, Germany (and Bavaria in particular) gets 26 holidays a year. A bunch of these fall within March-May, and in order to take advantage of all the long weekends, we were gone more than we were here. Definitely not complaining, but it made keeping up with my blogs difficult. 

This trip happened in April 2017 and was with my little brother and his wife. They left their kids in capable hands and escaped to visit us in Europe. :) They decided their "excursion" would be a European road trip so I got to planning. The final itinerary included Germany, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, and Austria (mostly driving through, but we also stopped for dinner). Driving through Italy is super expensive because of the tolls, but it's still very simple to go from country to country. 

Our first stop was Venice. The drive from Reichertshofen to Venice is about 6 hours. We got to see the sunset over the Dolomite mountains...so pretty!

We did Rick Steves' audio tour of the Grand Canal again...just as good the second time! We also did a food tour which was nice.

Bridge of Sighs

Rialto Bridge

After Venice, we drove to Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia. This place was more beautiful than the pictures could capture. 

After Croatia, we made a quick jaunt into Bosnia. I wasn't too sure what to expect from Bosnia, as my only frame of reference was war, but it was a really beautiful country! We stopped at a castle and toured the grounds and ruins. So fun to see another part of the world!

We were careful, I promise :)

Our next stop was Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle. They were really cool to visit again!

We also spent some time in Munich, and it snowed on us!

Coffee break to warm up :)

Dinner at the Hofbrauhaus as part of a food tour around Munich

Bavarian Brotzeit

It was so fun to see some new places and revisit some we'd seen before. We loved our time with Zach and Elaine!