European Celebration

October has been a month for celebrating. October 14th we flew to Munich for a European vacation and stayed with my friend Luisa and her boyfriend Bjorn. They were the most warm/welcoming hosts and truly spoiled us with their hospitality during our stay. Luisa must get it from her mom and dad who had us over for an authentic German dinner on our first night - Homemade potatoe soup followed by Schweinerbraten and Knodel (ie. pork roast with giant dumplings and gravy - so yummmmm). Below is a photo from dinner with the Lazavoricis.

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On Friday Travis and I toured Munich. The day was cold with snow flurries(!) but we bundled up and walked comfortably all over the city.

Early that evening I tried to keep my anxiety in check as I awaited the results of the TN Bar Exam. At 5:30 just as our beer tour was begining under the Glockenspiel our cell phone rang - it was my dad with some of the best news I've ever heard in my life -- I passed!!!

We celebrated that evening with a tour of Munich's finest brew houses, like the Pauliner (to the right - where we received an awesome behind the scenes tour of the art of German beer making).

The next day we headed to Salzburg, Austria for a tour of the city, where Motzart was born and scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed (shopping was not bad there either, and much less crowded then the more metropolitan Munich).

Sunday we departed Munich for Paris. It was there that we realized how truly fortunate we had been to have had Luisa and Bjorn to navigate us through Munich and Salzburg - when my German language skills were not up to par.

We got a little, okay a lot-a lost, our first day in the city. But when we finally found our hotel after numerous wrong turns - we were so pleased. It was the Hilton Arc de Triumphe, and the rooms and staff there were fabulous! To the left is a picture of the gorgeous view from our hotel window overlooking the courtyard.

Paris was packed full of as much sight seeing as you could possibly imagine over the next 36 hours.From the Louvre to the Seine to the Eiffel tower to the Arc De Triumphe to Notre Dame - and all the wonderful restaurants in between (whew!) it was a magically magnificent trip of a life time.

Our final evening was capped off with the most romantic dinner cruise on the Bateaux Parisien down the Seine. The boat was enveloped in glass so you could take in the city at night, and dinner was a fabulous three course meal served with two bottles of wine. It ended in front of a twinkling Eiffel tower. I could not have imagined a better trip...