We're Home - Welcome to "4 Letter" Words

Sara and I arrived back from Europe yesterday afternoon - it is great to be home! We had an amazing time in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria (Salzburg and Vienna). Not sure how to capture 8 kid-free days in a quick blog update - I will share some highlights here and then add another post with pics only.

"4 Letter Words"
1. SNOW! In Vienna we enjoyed records temps near 90 - landing in MSP we were warmly welcomed home with snow! I guess Logan's soccer team enjoyed their Sat game during the snow - we have his final game tonight and there is still a couple inches on the ground.

2. "SUCK!" Logan ran to Dad from the bus yesterday. When Shawn asked why he wore his snow pants home he responded..."the teacher told me to, it sucks!" Let's just say if it wasn't our first time seeing him since we returned, his little tush would have gone straight to the time out chair. Per "grandma closer" he must have picked it up on the bus as they were chanting "Vikings are awesome, Packers suck." Great - the bus education begins!

3. "Zone" - or time zones. Sara and I are getting older as it was more difficult adjusting to the 7 hour time zone difference than we thought. We slept about 11 hours per night in Europe - this morning we woke up at 3:30am ready to go.

Synopsis of our trip:
Flights - very smooth. Shawn's elite status got us exit row seats both ways

Switzerland (Zurich). Enjoyed a beautiful hotel looking out over the city. Did a ferry tour of the lake. Walked around looking at a ton of churches. Enjoyed Zurich style wiener schnitzel and beer.

Train from Zurich to Salzburg. Probably the best part of the trip. Amazing 6 hours traveling through the Alps. Pictures can's capture the majesty of the mountains and glacier lakes!

Salzburg. Toured Aldstadt, Schloss Mirabell, drank more beer and ate more Wiener Schnitzel, toured Festung Hohen Salzburg and a bunch of churches. Took a day trip to Germany and visited the Salt Mines and Hitler's Eagle Nest.

Train from Salzburg to Vienna.

Vienna. Shawn enjoyed touring his old college stomping grounds. Visited tons of things: KartnerStrasse, St. Stephans Dom, numerous churches, FlohMarkt, NaschMarkt, Schloss Schunbrunn, Schloss Belveder, enjoyed drinking Sturm and Beer. We went to mass at St Stephans Dom on Sunday. The service included a local orchestra and the sound was beautiful in the huge cathedral. We also enjoyed an organ concert at St Karl's Church.

In short everything went great and we enjoyed the time together. Thank you soooo MUCH to grandma closer and grandma far-far for partnering in their kid duties. They told us they had a blast with both of you - and according to your diary they didn't even miss us. Guess we will not have to wait another 6 years before our next solo journey.