What I learned in Europe

1.  There are a lot of stairs.  a.lot.  Many of those stairs are skinny and curvy or the treads are very worn and treacherous.  My thighs hurt a.lot.

2.  People love their dogs. They take their dogs everywhere, even to castles which the dogs cannot enter. I'm not sure what happens to those dogs when it's time for their tour. Maybe the dogs go to the dungeon.  They even take them to IKEA and the mall.  Seeing them everywhere reminded me that I really am not a fan of dogs. 

3.  When you see a WC that looks clean, use it.  You don't know when another WC will come along.  Free ones are great but in a pinch they are worth the 50 cents.
 
4.  Gelato (aka Eis) is amazing.  It is never too early in the day for gelato.  There are never too many times to have gelato in one day.

5.  Driving on the Auto Bahn is a lot of fun for Matt and slightly scary for Holly.  Passing the police doing 200km/h is my breaking point. 

6.  The cliff is really close when driving in the mountains.

7.  The Alps.  I can't explain in words, or in a bazillion photos this impressive and amazing landform.  Clearly the people that live by them are used to them, but it seemed that around every corner we were saying some superlative to describe it.  Waterfalls and twisty roads everywhere.  I think we have a few hundred pictures of the Alps.

8.  Germans are really nice people.  Except for the guy at Schloss Linderhof who yelled at us for parking in the wrong spot.  At least we think he yelled at us, we don't speak German so we're not quite sure.  The only thing we understood was, "believable," which I think meant, "unbelievable."  One guy out of millions isn't bad.

9.  Clocks in hotel rooms are not guaranteed.  I don't know about you, but I need to know the time when I wake up in the middle of the night.

10.  Pink and Nickelback have amazing publicists because their music was on the radio all the time.  Along with some Phil Collins & Queen.  We also saw a David Hasselhoff video on MTV. 

11.  Dubbed versions of our favorite shows get easier to understand after two weeks.  Although they did have QVC; I was close to ordering something :)

12.  Acid washed jeans are not dead and apparently the "wrinkled" acid wash are quite popular.  It is also socially acceptable for men to wear capris.

13.  We'd go back in a heartbeat, preferably when we have enough frequent flier miles for airfare.