[Editor's note: OK so here's how this is going to work. Kate and I asked Barbara to write a blog about her trip here (below), but we thought she'd just write about Vienna, leaving me to write about our trip to Switzerland. Well, we both wrote a little something about Switzerland....so, since I'm not one to let intellectual property go to waste and since we have so many good pictures of the trip, I'm going to post my version of the trip as well. Enjoy!
Kate and Justin are amazing when it comes to making travel arrangements and using local transportation systems. We thought flying to Vienna the same day we crossed the Atlantic would be exhausting, but somehow because they knew what they were doing, we managed to get there smoothly and effortlessly. Our accommodations at the Golden Tulip-Art Hotel in Vienna were very nice and the buffet breakfast was a fun challenge, as we each strove to outdo our personal best every morning. It seemed no matter how much Kate and Justin walked us during the day (Bill called them "forced marches" which required medicinal hot baths at the end of each day, as well as the emergency purchase of new, more substantial sneakers for me), according to our scale, it did not quite compensate for our breakfast of champions. 
Vienna is a very regal city and we took in as many sites as we possibly could: the Winter palace, the Maria Kirche, St. Stephen's cathedral, Hundertwasser village, the Summer palace (Schonenbrun), the Glorietta, morning exercises at the Spanish Riding School, the Hapsburg hearts in their golden urns, Spittlebug, the old Jewish quarter with the Vienna
history clock, the Belvedere, the Naschmarket, etc. And, since Vienna is famous for it's music we also enjoyed a concert of Mozart and Strauss at the Kursalon, an Organ concert at St. Peter's and a little Hayden at St. Augustine Kirche. We also enjoyed the cafes with their Viennese Sacher Torte and Apfel Strudel and tasting the new wine (Heuriger) of the season.
Bill says the Bier was "ok" too! :) Yet, of all the sights, sounds, formal gardens, food and architectural beauty our favorite part was simply being together and walking through the parks of golden trees and being silly together.
Bratislava is quickly being rebuilt and becoming quite an up and coming city. We climbed the hill to the castle that overlooks the Danube as well as the Novy Most (the new bridge with a restaurant at the top). We walked into town and went through Michael's Gate (the original gate to the fortified old town, saw the canon ball in the side of the church, the various bronze statues and lunched at the Butterfly where Bill found a great Bier- Zlaty Bazant (12%). He liked it so much he had it again at the Cafe Mayer because it went so well with his crème cake!
As happy as that sounds, Bill was even happier when we got back to Wiesbaden to find that Navy beat Notre Dame, 46 to 44 in triple overtime, ending Navy's 43 (year) game losing streak.
On Wednesday we headed north to see Gisela in Köln. After traffic delays we finally got to meet her outside the Kölner Dom. We went to lunch at the Brauhaus Sion and had Kölsch bier (a special bier made in Köln) and Bauerschnitzel and then went to visit the Dom and saw the oldest crucifix and the mausoleum for the three Magi as well as the beautiful architecture of the second largest church in Europe dating back to the 1200s. We especially appreciated the flying buttresses (makes me smile) and the beautiful stained glass of the cathedral, and of course our time with Gisela. 
Thursday was spent getting ready to head to Triberg (Germany’s largest waterfall) and Switzerland with Randy and Gillian, and of course our favorite dachshund Pecos! It started to snow just as we were entering the Black Forest and by the time we got to Triberg we were in a picture postcard. Snow covered pines and a rushing water fall, and of course, Justin torturing the dog by throwing snowballs into the waterfall. Fortunately, the dog is much smarter than the boy, he did not jump into the falls to get the snowballs, he just skidded to the edge and whined!
The snow wasn't a problem until we were about a mile outside of Interlaken. Then as we watched the temperature drop to 0 degrees and our directions got a little sketchy we knew we were in trouble. Fortunately, when we did get stuck in the snow (think pushing a minivan up a mountain) it was right outside our cabin. So we simply left the car at the bottom of the hill and hauled ourselves and our luggage up the rest of the way. Through the rest of the night we kept hoping that the snow would stop, but it didn't stop that night or any time during the next day or night … which wasn't a big thrill for the Pennsylvanians (they get plenty of snow) but for us south of the mason-Dixon we were pretty impressed with the beauty of the snow accumulating on the mountains and trees all around us.
The view of Grindelwald from our balcony was picture post card beautiful! Fortunately,
as we were leaving the snow stopped, the roads were clear and the sun came out to make our trek up to Lauterbrunnen (the Swiss waterfall) and our cable car ride up to Mürren out of this world! The pictures speak for themselves, this was by far my favorite day...absolutely beautiful!
Our stop for dinner in Heidelberg was the perfect ending - back to the Schnookeloch for family, food, bier and surreptitiously feeding Pecos under the table...as good as it gets!
We left the next day a little tired with big smiles on our faces as we reminisced about our great European family adventure.
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