Operation Europe Begins

Well, our group trip, also known as "Operation Europe" (sounds exciting, doesn't it??? It's because it IS.) began on Thursday.  And, I realize it's Saturday, but we finally have some internet access so I thought I'd let you know how the first day went at least!

We left very early on Thursday morning.  We were given sack breakfasts (which are really sack lunches, let's be real, because breakfast consisted of two sandwiches, potato salad, an apple, a candy bar, and a Fanta. Yeah.... in America, we call that lunch. But I'm not complaining!) We got on the bus and drove to Germany (which is only about a half hour drive) to little town called Koblenz. We unloaded and got to walk around a climb up to the top of this really cool statue, which overlooked two merging rivers. Check it out:

After that, we drove a little farther to Boppard, Germany. Here, we boarded a ferry for our day cruise.

Wow.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The river we were cruising on was in a valley between these big rolling green hills and on these hills were all of these beautiful castles.

After our afternoon cruise, we drove to Wurzburg, Germany.  In Wurzburg there is this AMAZING palace which was originally built in the 13th century, i believe. It was HUGE.  The outside of it was actually was modeled after Versailles, so these pictures might  looks a little familiar... that is, if you know what Versailles looks like. If not, then these pictures will just look like an incredible palace. Either way, you'll probably be in awe.

 We were given a tour by a very proper-looking German guy (who was probably not much older than I am) of the palace, and it was stunning.  Frescas on the ceiling, gold all over the walls, jewels on the chandeliers....it was absolutely amazing. One of the cool things about the paintings on the ceilings was that they were 3 dimensional.  For example, there would be a sculpture of a foot protruding from the painting, where the foot of someone should be. If that makes sense. It was like an optical illusion. Very cool.
We were not allowed to take pictures inside of the palace but a picture wouldn't have even been able to capture how incredible this palace was anyway. But I highly recommend google imaging it.

Out behind the palace, there was a beautiful, perfectly trimmed garden.  Talk about the best backyard EVER.

conical trees=comical trees

We ended up staying in Wurzburg that night.  We walked around the city a little bit and saw this really cool church:

We ended up getting dinner in this little restaurant on the corner of the main square. As expected, the entire menu was in German.
I'd like to suggest to Forrest Gump that his well-known adage be changed to: Life is like ordering off of a German menu, you never know what you're gonna get. Having eaten at a German restaurant, i think that seems to be a more accurate statement.

Me and Sarah enjoying dinner in Wurzburg.

After dinner, Chelsea and I just walked around the town a bit and sat on a little street, which overlooked the river and some castles.

Chelsea lookin' beautiful by the river.

Then we went back to the hotel room and watched some German TV.  I really think that might be the best way to learn a language. See? TV CAN, in fact, be very educational.