Hamstereeeeen at Albert Heijn!

When we returned from our trip we needed to go to the grocery store to stock up on fresh food. Albert Heijn is having their Hamstereeeeen days!  It means...stock up (like a hamster) and save!

This morning we picked up Sammy and Socrates from the kennel. Sammy was fine-he apparently had a great time there! Socrates was not doing as well.......he was hiding behind the litter box in the cage. There is a beautiful room there for the cats to run around and sit up on cat condos and play, but he wasn't comfortable. So, he spent most of his time in the kennel. He had to be hand fed for two days, because he wasn't eating at first. Since we have been home, both of them have been very "clingy"! We have made a point of spending a lot of time petting them and reassuring them both!

Tomorrow I head out for the States...first stop....Minnesota! I will probably not be posting much while I'm gone because I won't be bringing my laptop and I probably won't have time.....sooo..check back in a few weeks and I'll try to catch up with my blogging!

Heading home.......through Wiesbaden and Limburg, Germany

We looked at the map and decided to stop overnight in Wiesbaden, which looked like a good halfway point.

We stayed at the Marriott, Wiesbaden, where we could add to our Marriott points!  It was about a 10 minute drive from the downtown area. We checked in and drove downtown for dinner. We have found that parking in the cities, especially in Europe can be challenging when it comes to parking. Luckily the car we're driving isn't too big, so it's not too bad to park.

We had dinner at:

On the way back to the hotel I saw this beautiful woodwork on a building.....

The next morning we started back towards home. We had about a 4-5 hour drive ahead of us, so got an early start. We decided to stop somewhere on the way for something to eat after getting in about an hour of driving. We ended up stopping in Limburg, Germany. What a treat!!!!

This was one of my favorite places...and we just happened upon it!

 We walked up to the Dom:

We walked around town:

We stopped for lunch.....Fantastic little French Creperie!  The woman owner told us she had lived in France for many years and always wanted to own a creperie. When she saw this building, she knew it was the right spot! The food was delicious...and she introduced us to Cidre-a French sparkling cider with 4% alcohol level.

After lunch, we walked a bit more, then headed home!

While driving home we noticed that it doesn't seem to matter what country you are in...there is graffiti everywhere! It's a worldwide problem......very sad.....

Salzburg, Austria

The next morning we left for Salzburg, Austria. We stayed at the NH Hotel on Franz Joseph Strasse. While driving there it started to rain (the first rain of the trip!). We had some trouble finding it because it was covered up in sheets and scaffolding.  I got out of the car and was able to locate it and the woman at the desk told me where to park. Andrew drove around the block and pulled into a parking garage (we thought it was the right one!)...and we were trapped....like rats....I mean mice! It was kind of scary!  We pulled in, the door behind us closed and there was no where to go! There was no one around and it was just an empty space. It looked like it might have been one of those elevator garages we'd seen on t.v. (where you get out of the car and the machine moves your car around).  Andrew beeped the horn and the door in front of us opened (thank goooooodness!) and we drove out as quickly as possible!  We drove around the block and we were able to find the correct garage to the hotel (very small, but Andrew was able to maneuver the car into a spot)!

We checked into the hotel and went walking around Salzburg. We had been there before (about 7 years ago) also. We love that town!  We did a little shopping and decided to buy a few Salzburg Christmas ornaments...here are just a few of the choices we had!

We did a little walking through town:

We went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner!  We had tickets for the Mozart Dinner Concert at the Stiftskeller St. Peter. It is a restaurant that was built around 803 a.d. It is said to be the oldest restaurant in Europe!

We were seated with Bill and his wife Fran, who were traveling from Canada with their friends Nicki and Polly and another couple from California-Dave and Cathy. The food, unfortunately, was nothing to write home about. There wasn't much flavor.......But, we did have a nice bottle of wine, good company and wonderful music!  There were two violins, a cello, a bass and a viola, and singers-one male and one female.

What a wonderful evening!  After the concert we went back to Dave and Cathy's hotel and had a glass of wine and just talked for about an hour. What a nice couple!  It was around midnight when we headed back to our hotel.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast at: