Sweet, sweet bread.

Switzerland has THE BEST FREAKING BREAD YOU HAVE EVER TASTED.
(I capitalized that and bolded it, so it must be delicious:)

So we drove through Switzerland to get to Innsbruck, Austria, and along the way, we had a ton of bread. And the bread here is nothing like you have ever seen. It's so ridiculous delicious! I don't even know how to describe it. I'd bring some back for you guys, but I'm afraid I'd eat it all before I got it back to the states...
But now time for the boring stuff.

So we drove and drove through Switzerland, and I almost died of boredom, like I thought my heart rate was going to stop from being so bored.

Switzerland is a really pretty country, all green and countryside-ish. Ya know. Just like every where else in Europe!
But we drove and then we stopped in this place called Lichtenstein. (Pronounced Lick-den-stine, but you gotta get a little rasp on the -ick part, like your hawkin a loogy)
Lichtenstein is one of the only places with a reigning Monarchy, so it's goverment is just like England's. Lichtenstein is it's own sovereign state, so it's not technically part of Switzerland or anywhere else. They're like their own little island floating around in the great scheme of Europe.

So we partied there for a little while, and then continued on our drive to Innsbruck. Just for future reference for you guys, Austria has 35465768675453 tunnels, and they are all at least 3 miles long. So you go through a super long one, and then you're like, "oh good, there's no more tunnels." And then you go down the road 300 feet and then there's another one! My goodness! But they're cool, nonetheless, so it's all right.

I think the United States could take a lesson on roadways from these European guys. They're roads are so smooth and the tunnels take you THROUGH the mountain, so you don't have to blow half of the mountain up to get a road to go over/through/around it. There's also a lot less crashes on the roads. I think the reason for this is that there isn't really a speed limit on most of the roads, so people aren't trying to go faster than the person next to them. Something else that needs to be learned.

Speaking of driving, guess who get's their learner's permit on Monday!(:
woo!

Well, that's all for now.
Innsbruck is cold, but cool.
Tell you more tomorrow.

-Annie

p.s, pictures later, i have to get them loaded.

Geneva, no not the company.

i think this is pretty swell, dont you?

good ol' swiss flag

a cool little swiss town

out at the race track

geneva

Okay.

As of now, I have re-written this blog entry 7 times due to lack of imagination right now. Everything I write just looks dumb. What the heck! Sorry if this entry is confusing or dull or stupid and whatnot. My thought process is kind of lacking right now.

So last night we spent the night in Geneva, which is in Switzerland. Geneva is the largest United Nations capital outside of their headquarters in New York. They have massive important international meetings there, and it's the first place we've ever been where we've thought that something big could happen while we there. But don't fret, nothing happened there. The room we stayed in was fantastic, and the breakfast this morning was delicious.

We didn't get to the city until late last night, so we didn't really get to see much of anything since it was dark. But seeing everything lit up in the city was pretty cool.

Yesterday we spent like, half of the day in the car. That sounds so awesome, ya?

NO.

It stunk. Alot.

Literally. My dad got these potato chips, and ya know what the flavor was?

CHICKEN AND THYME.

Every time he opened the bag, it was like a new awakening of some kind of beast. Grossest food I have ever smelled.

Honestly.

So we drove and we drove, admiring the beautiful country side, blahblablah. And then the chips were gone, we were low on fuel, and we had to stop to use the "facilities", if you catch my drift. Which you do, of course. So we stopped and got out and stretched our legs, and picked up some (less smelly) snacks.

Something about European gas stations is that they have these little sandwiches in the refrigerator section. Sometimes they're good, and sometimes they are just plain nasty.

Can you guess which kind we got?

Ya, we got the nasty kind. I had this sandwich that had ham and cheese and mayonnaise on it? It was probably the grossest thing I've had in a while. I couldn't even finish the second half. My parents had these like, submarine sandwiches with turkey and mayonniase and mustard and lettuce and whatnot on them. My dad couldn't even finish half of his, and my mom didn't finish all of hers either. And when our family can't finish something, you know it must be nasty.

I guess I'm kind of getting ahead of myself. I forgot a major detail to put before that paragraph. But it's so long, and I don't want to erase it, so here's what happened before we got in the car for 959040 hours.

There's a series of car races out there called the Le Mans Series, (it's pronounced leh-mah, not lee mans). It's a series of car races, obviously, and the winner and the runners-up automatically get entry in to a race in the next year that lasts 24 hours. Serious. 24 hours of driving on a race track. But don't worry, it's not all one driver. They have several drivers that switch off during the course of the race so the others can rest and sleep and blahblablah. The Le Mans series is big in Europe, just like Formula 1, but they also have an American version called the American Le Mans.

So anyway.

They have this race track in France called the Paul Ricard Circuit, and it was only 45 minutes from our hotel in Aix-en-Provence. I would just like you all to imagine my dad's reaction when he figured this out. If you know my dad at all, you can probably imagine it. I guess he found out that the race was going on this weekend on one of the racing websites he goes on, and when he found out, the first thing that came out of his mouth was, and I quote,

"Annie, we may have hit the jackpot here! We are totally going to this racetrack!"

So after talking my mom into it, we headed up to the race track and watched these cars qualify. The cars I'm talking about aren't like the normal sissy race cars you see all over the place. They're called

SUPER CARS

and they're these suped-up race cars with massive engines. Totally wicked. This was our once-in-a-lifetime-have-to-do-it-right-now kind of experience. When would we be able to see cars racing in Europe? Right, never.

So we went to the race track, and the cars were just qualifying to enter the race, but it was still awesome none the less. We stayed and enjoyed the 75 degree weather for a couple hours, and then hopped back in the car. (Now the first paragraph comes back into play.)

So let's get to today.

We woke up in Geneva, and got on our way. Our hotel was a couple blocks from the big lake in Geneva, so we walked to it, and almost turned into ice cubes. It was soooooo cold, and the wind was blowing 450090 miles an hour. Not even exaggerating. So we went to lake, and spent .3 seconds there, and then left. Then we hopped in the car AGAIN so we could get to our next stop, Luzern, Switzerland.

So now I'm sitting in the hotel, and I finished my Vanilla Frappuccino from Starbucks and my chicken mcnuggets from McDonalds. That must mean that it's time to quit, right?

So now I'm going to go get some more chicken nuggets, as it has been at least 3 hours since I last ate.

Hey, don't judge. I'm just a growing girl who freaking loves to eat!

-Annie

p.s, since I'm going to eat, I will put pictures on after my return, if the picture uploader works. which it should.

When monkeys fly...

pretty little rolls royce we saw at the monte carlo.

"grand prix de monaco 2010, historique,formule 1, 13 au 16 mai"

some of the ridiculous yachts in monaco

the monte carlo casino

view of monaco from the top of this scenic view

Okay. I have to write on this more often. Sorry for the delay. I just keep forgetting, and falling asleep and whatnot. How inconsiderate of me..
Anyways. Here we go.
After we went to Maranello, we got in the car and drove to Monaco. You've all heard of Monaco, right? Well, if you haven't, I'll just tell you a little about it.
So Monaco is one mile long, and a half a mile wide. Not that great, right? WRONG. Monaco is a city that is basically built upon itself. The roads are insanely narrow and twisty, and not to mention dangerous. You come into the city, and everything is squished together. You look up, and it's more of the same.
Monaco is home of the Monte Carlo Casino. I'm sure you have all heard of it. The casino itself was started in 1850 in Monaco because the Royal family was almost bankrupt. They needed a "get rich quick" scheme, so they started the casino. It didn't start out so great, and it took a while for it to get itself going. When the railroad was put into Monaco, it brought a ton of people to the casino, and the Royal family was pretty much swimming in money. In fact, they had so much money that they abolished the taxes for the citizens. And to this day there is still no taxes for the citizens.
And I bet right now, you're thinking, "Man, I wish I could move to Monaco, they're so lucky."
But that is where things get complicated. There is SO much money in that town. There are Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Maserati's, Bentley's, Rolls Royce, you name it. They're all there.
We looked at apartment prices there, and we decided to live there, you needed like, 2 million dollars. So let's just all pack up our things and move to Monaco...
Monaco is also home to the Monaco Grand Prix. It's a car race, and it's a car class called Formula 1. It's like NASCAR, but classier and more European. If you don't watch it, I highly recommend that you do. The Grand Prix is in a couple weeks, of course it's right after we leave.
Well enough of that jibber-jabber. So we stayed at Monaco for a night, and admired all the multimillion dollar yachts and expensive cars. Blahblahblah.
The next morning, my parents got out of the hotel to go look around some more while I slept. I didn't actually wake up until 1 in the afternoon. I believe I am totally sleep deprived. Jet lag kills..Just kidding. It actually doesn't, but you catch my drift, right? Right.
So after my parents come in and get me up, we drove out to this little town called Cannes. I bet you've heard of that town, too. It's home of numerous designer shops, and of course the Cannes film festival. I guess the film festival is in like, 2 weeks. What the heck! Everything is going on after we leave!
Well we went to Cannes, and spent the night in this hotel called Hotel America. But you know something that's ironic? On the television, there was NOT A SINGLE CHANNEL in English. How does that work?! So we watched this French version of CSI. It was really weird if you ask me. CSI is a lot better, just in case you were wondering.
Off to our next stop. We got up this morning and drove across France to this little places called Aix-en-Provence. It's a little town kind of by the border of France and Switzerland. So in this place called Aix, there's all these little alleys and side streets, and that's where all the shopping is. Most of the stores are American take offs, but we do the same to them, don't we? We do.
There's not much more to write about this place,,,,it's pretty uneventful.
So I PROMISE that I will write tomorrow about Switzerland, as soon as I get the chance. I'll tell you if the chocolate is good too(:
-Annie.

Twinkle twinkle.

Sorry I forgot to write yesterday everyone. I know that once again, you were anxiously awaiting my next entry. Well you don't have to wait anymore. Here we go.

Yesterday we were in the city of Venice. For those of you who don't know, it's in Italy, and it's built right in the ocean. Crazy, huh?

We spent the day in Venice, and everything there is extremely pricey and designer.

The way it works in Venice is that you can walk to your destination, or you could have a water taxi (just a dude that drives a boat that takes you around), or you could even have a gondola (you know, those things in the French movies where the guy is standing on the back whistling and rowing the boat while the romantic couple is sitting ahead smooching). Gondolas are super expensive, and walking would take forever, so we took the water taxi. It's a really cool experience to be able to see the whole city from the water. Definetly a must see.

After we got done in Venice, we got in our car and made the drive to Maranello, Italy. This city is where Ferrari was born. My dad and I were looking forward to this part the most, and for good reason. The actual Ferrari factory is right within the city limit, and it's pretty much what the town was built around. The factory is huge, and as much as we would have like to go in and tour it, we couldn't. So we went to the Ferrari Museum, and it was very cool. My dad and I have had our eyes out for the new Ferrari 458 Italia, which pretty much replaces the f430. They're not released in the United States yet, so we were keeping our eyes out for one. And much to our delight, they had a yellow one in the museum. That has been the highlight of the trip for me so far. I had never seen one in person until that morning, when a red one flew past us on the way into town. I thought my dad would never start breathing again. It was truly a miracle sent from above! So we saw the red one on the way in, and the yellow one in the museum. I though that would be the last of our 458 sightings, but I was wrong.

We were going around a round-about, and we pull out, and BAM! a black 458 streaks past the corner of our vision. So my dad of course starts to chase it down the road he thinks it went down. Now something you have to understand is that we rented a Volvo station wagon, and that thing's get up and go must have got up and went. We pulled down the road, and not to our surprise, the car was no where to be seen. So bummer on that one. But wait, there is more to the story.

We're driving down the main drag, and just as we go by an auto body shop, I see what looks like the headlights of the 458. I tell my dad, and he of course turns around. And then he saw it. It was like a kid who had just seen a candy bar on the counter with his name on it. His eyes got all wide, and he just took it in. There, in the garage, was a classic Ferrari red 458. We slowed down and he checked it out, and again I though he wouldn't start breathing. Another miracle!

So we trekked back to our hotel, and we stayed the night there. Our hotel was this cute little place in the back part of town. It was impossible to find, but when we did, it was a glorious night. We spent the night there, and I'll tell you the rest in the next post. This one is too long.

-Annie

p.s. the stupid picture thing wont work AGAIN! and i just put pictures on the other one. i'll try again later!

Vienna.

Top to bottom: Me and my dad, the famous Demel chocolates, the crystal dresses, some tasty food, and the Sacher Torte.

Well

everyone. Being the spacey child that I am, I didn't write for, 3 days? I know you guys were all in suspense, so I apologize for not writing things down.

We spent the Saturday before in Vienna, and Easter Sunday, too. We were planning on going to Easter service at the giant cathedral right down by our hotel, but we overslept :( We were kinda bummed, since it was Easter and whatnot. So what do we do when we can't go to church? We walk around, ALL day. I'm not even joking. We walked from 10 a.m (I think that's when it started) to almost 9 that night. Talk about exhausting.

SATURDAY

I can't really remember everything about Saturday, but I can tell you a little that I do.

We just got to Vienna, and we walked around until nightfall, so that was pretty cool.

And then we went to this place called Cafe Sacher. They're supposedly famous for their "Sacher Torte". You can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachertorte

I think it's gross. But that's just me(:

Then we just went back to our hotel and chilled.

SUNDAY

First off, we had breakfast in the Mariott "Garten Café" We got french toast, which was surprisingly delicious, and Oatmeal, too. In Austria, they have sugar cubes that are wrapped in paper, and insanely hard. So you unwrap them, and then put them in your tea, or in this case oatmeal, and they don't do anything whatsoever. They just sit there and make your oatmeal all lumpy, and they don't make it any sweeter. So much for that idea.

After breakfast, we headed out into downtown Austria, which was right down the street from our hotel. Pretty much downtown is this huge pedestrian shopping center, full of designer shops and old buildings. It goes on for like, a million streets. (Well maybe not that much, but you get the idea:) So we walked around there for several hours and looked around. All the shops were closed, it was Easter remember, so we just looked at all the stuff. They have a Swarovski Crystal shop there, and on display they have these multi-million dollar dresses covered in crystals. No pressure wearing those, right?

So after the shops, we went to a really old cathedral that's right around there. They had Sunday mass going on, and it was really cool to listen to them for a little while. We left the cathedral, and headed on our way to other things.

The nice thing about Vienna is that everything is within walking distance. The shops, and a bunch of cool palaces. One of them is called The Hofburg Palace. It's amazing inside, and very gaudy. The won't even let you take pictures. How lame is that?! Anyways, you can read about them/it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofburg_Imperial_Palace

The lady that lived there, Empress Elizabeth, had so many dining utensils it's ridiculous. She must have had at least a thousand plates and saucers and all that stuff! Gosh! She kinda was a stuck up snob in our opinion. But who are we to judge?

So we went there, and then got TOTALLY turned around when we left the palace. Thanks to my superb guiding skills, we got home safely before nightfall(:

(Well, my superb guiding skills + a really good map of the city...)

All in all, Vienna is an AMAZING city. I highly recommend you go there if you ever get the chance. It has everything you could ever look for in a city, plus it's clean!

-Annie

p.s. Pretty sure that only the city named Vienna is nice. Definetly not the girl on the Bachelor(:

p.ss If you want a FANTASTIC book to read, I highly recommend The Zookeepers Wife, A War Story By Diane Ackerman.

Oh snap.

-Let's see. Waking up at 4 a.m, then the time switching all around, and then getting fifteen minutes of sleep on the airplane? That's a grand total of, what, 15 minutes of sleep while being awake for almost 48 hours? I think I'm about ready to pass out. My parents on the other hand, slept like a brick on the plane. Of course I'm the only one who can't get a second of shut eye while we're up in the air. Wow.
--We got to sit in first class the whole way there, and we get to again on the whole way back. My dad flys so much that he gets one free European upgrade per year. Pretty sweet, huh? Well, anyways, the seats in first class recline all the way flat, so that was pretty sweet. The only problem was that they weren't very comfortable..): bummer. But other than that, the flight was good, and there was little turbulence. Good thing too, that kind of stuff scares the crap out of me. But I think the coolest thing about that flight was that just before dawn, when I looked out on the ocean, I could see all the lights from the boats. Hands down, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen.
---Well, right now we're in a cute little hotel in Austria. This hotel is where part of The Sound Of Music was filmed. You know when they're coming out of the water between those horse things? That's the hotel we're at.
----We also went to this castle today, and it was bitter cold. And then we thought we could ride this train up to the top, and walk down the other side. But could we? No. So we're all tired and sore, it's freezing and almost dark, and we have to walk back to our hotel. Not exactly my idea of fun..But oh well. We're safe and sound now, and that's all that matters.
-----On our way out from the airport we drove on the Autobahn with our "cool" little Volvo station wagon. I would have to say that the Autobahn is the second coolest thing I have ever seen. No speed limits? Sign us up(:
---Well, my eyelids are drooping, and I'm sure your tired of reading this.
So have a good day, and a good nights rest. I'm off to bed.
-Annie

Phili cheese stake.

Well everyone,

We just landed in good ol' Philidelphia! We're just chillin in the lounge, the US Airways Onvoy Lounge, if you want to get all technical. Our flight leaves at 6:30 p.m. Phili time (4:30 for all you Utah folks.)

So that gives us, let's see, 3 hours to kill? So that's 3 hours of just sitting in this lounge thing, waiting. Oh joyus.

Anyways,

The flight from PHX was long, but smooth. The family all woke up at 4 a.m. at Uncle Johns house and journeyed to the airport. Waking up at 4 a.m. on a vacation sure is fun. Let me tell you!

Well. The flight, as I said before, was smooth with little turbulance. We all caught some shut eye that we missed out on the night before. All in all, it was pretty good. Better than school, anyway(:

Well, there will be more when we land in Munich.

Happy april fools day(: if only we were at the house,,,,so many good ideas![:

-Annie