Switzerland

Me, Carrie and Charlotte went to Bern, Lucerne, and Zurich for the weekend. Wonderful food (we splurged on some Swiss Cheese fondue), and great weather on Sunday- perfect for paddle boating in Lake Lucerne! We didn't do much but walk around and enjoy the cities, but the people were friendly and the different trains were quite the experience- from the tiny 6 person couchette overnight trains to the regional trains that had spectacular views of the countryside- I will say that Swiss cows were some of the happiest cows I've ever seen...

Lake Zurich

Zurich

View from out on Lake Lucerne

Cows on my train ride

About to paddle boat on Lake Lucerne

Lucerne

Bern

Big fans of ice hockey in Bern (the World Championships were taking place in Switzerland and the games were being aired everywhere- and everyone was wearing jerseys and funny hats...)

Capri and the Amalfi Coast

April 24-26
I went with our school to visit Naples, the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. Beautiful weekend altogether, enjoyed being outside in the sun taking ferries from town to town and finally making it to the island of Capri- where I was able to lay out on a little rocky beach and even take a quick swim in the Mediterranean!


Pompeii's Temple of Jupiter with Mount Vesuvius in the background

A few of the huge lemons they had... and these weren't even close to the biggest ones I saw!

Duomo in Amalfi

View leaving Capri via ferry in the late afternoon

The main port in Capri

Positano

The View of Mount Vesuvius from Naples

Rome and Tuscany

Cara and I met Mom and Dad for a weekend driving through Tuscany (really quite reminiscent of Chevy Chase's European Vacation from the moment we entered the rental Fiat), where we visited multiple towns in just 2 days (not all of which are shown): Greve in Chianti, San Gimignano, Volterre, Pisa, and Lucca...
These are just a few pictures from that weekend, and from my trip to Rome with mom and dad for Easter weekend after Cara's departure.
Once again, the pictures go backwards in order as I have yet to master the art of uploading pictures on to this blog- and this is just a sample- but don't worry, between both mom and dad they will have a zillion more pictures to share by the time they get back!
--Also, you may have to click on these to see the bigger version, some of them are hard to see in this small format.
Enjoy!

The Pope's Easter Blessing

Easter Morning mass in Vatican Square

The Roman Forum and Colosseum

Riding Tandem Bicycles in Lucca

Volterre

Etruscan Amphitheater Ruins in Volterre

By the cistern in San Gimignano's main piazza

The view from mom and dad's hotel terrace: the 3 towers of San Gimignano

Prague

I spent a week in Prague for my Spring break, visiting my friend Christina (who went to Loretto and is in Pi Phi with me at Cal), and also meeting up with our friend Rob who came from Barcelona for the weekend!

Day trip to the Karlstejn Castle

Traditional Czech Goulash

Cemetery in the Jewish Quarter where multiple graves are piled on top of each other

The Cathedral up by the Castle

View from near the Castle

Old Town Square, where everyone waits for the astronomical clock (you can't really see it in this picture, its to the left) to chime on the hour. Miniature in comparison to the clock in Munich!

Lennon Wall

Munich!!

Munich trip: March 7-9, if you want to see the pictures in order start from the bottom of this post and go up! Just a brief overview of the weekend, I have many more pictures to share when I get back! Went with the school group, so got the perk of having our own bus to take us to way more places than I would have been able to see on foot and in one weekend... lots of fun, possibly my favorite trip yet!My view of the Alps from our sweet Mercedes tour bus on our way home

The entrance to Dachau, "work will set you free"

Steins at Hofbrau, night 2

Our bratwurst samplers at the beer house where Hitler used to hold meetings. I ate way too much of this plate...

One of the (many) Nymphenburg Palace carraiges. I think they really understood the concept of simplicity....

Inside the Palace (which was originally just a hunting lodge- not too shabby!)

Nymphenburg Palace

Our tour group waiting for the bus in the snow- it was freezing!
(and our guide in the black coat smoking a cigarette)

The Dining Room in the Munich Palace

One Big Glockenspiel!

Inside one of the churches we visited

Roast Pork, Potato Dumpling, and Red Cabbage- Wow.

Augustiner Beer House, night 1

Me in front of Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle- the one the Disney Castle is based off. We took a horse drawn carriage up this far, and then walked the rest of the way up.