Berlin

From Hallstatt, we drove back to Berlin to pick up Laura. We did a little sightseeing before meeting Laura and Emily at church for their closing event which was a testimony meeting. It was awesome! The young single adults from all over Europe (and a few from the United States and South America) bore testimony of how volunteering for the Special Olympics brought them closer to the Savior. It was a great meeting! We then sent Emily to the airport to fly home and the three of us did some more sightseeing in Berlin before taking a train to Prague for the last leg of our trip. Berlin is an interesting and sad city. I'm glad we got to see it, but also glad we didn't spend a lot of time there. We were so proud of Laura and Emily for volunteering, navigating the city, and making some new friends. They had a great experience together!

 

Hallstatt

Just when I thought things couldn't get any prettier, we arrived in Hallstatt. We drove from Salzburg to this beautiful little town on a lake in the mountains of Austria. We did some wandering around and window shopping and rode the funicular to the top of the mountain where we had lunch. It was amazing!

 

Salzburg

When we were planning our trip, I told Nate I really wanted to go to Salzburg since we were going to be so close to it. I knew it was a cool, historic city, but mostly I wanted to go because it's where the Sound of Music was filmed. Nate was nice to go along. It really is a cool and historic city, but it was also cool to see the Sound of Music sights, even for Nate. We saw a Sound of Music marionette show while we were there that was fun (even though we were so tired I think we slept through the whole first half). And I loved the hotel we stayed in!