I am of the firm belief that when you go on vacation for any amount of time you come back home with a renewed sense of self and purpose. You see things differently when you’re on vacation. You notice little things that you might not otherwise. And when you return home, it carries over into every day life as you slide back into the routine.

Jay (my husband of 13 years and only #relationshipgoal for the past 19 years) and I have always enjoyed traveling and visiting new and different places. We don’t get it do it nearly often as we’d like because as you’re probably well aware, travel is not exactly cheap. At least not the way we do it. But we have had some incredible adventures!

Our most recent adventure has been years in the making. Yes, years.

Practically since we’ve been together Jay has been traveling to Switzerland (and in more recent years, Germany) with his company for business trips. I’ve heard countless stories about these countries, drooled over pictures, and gotten many souvenirs – usually of the chocolate variety.

The stars aligned this year and it was finally my turn to go on holiday (doesn’t that sound so European?) with him. We haven’t had the opportunity to travel alone together for awhile; it was really awesome to spend 10 days of Schmoopy time together.

During our visit we hopped from Zurich airport to Germany for 5 days and back to Switzerland for 5 days. On our way back to Switzerland we took a brief, unexpected drive through Austria. It amazes me how you can do that in Europe!

But enough of me prattling on, you want to see pictures, don’t you?

Our first day was spent at Mainau Island, which is a Botanical Garden off of Lake Constance in Germany. Our main goal this day was to stay awake. It was not easy but the scenery definitely helped!

After finally sleeping and getting over jetlag (staying awake the first day really did help), we visited Bavaria to see Castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.

The hike between these castles was about 20 minutes long and we hoofed it back and forth between each. Although it was gray and raining much of the day, the views were spectacular!

Castle Neuschwanstein’s design and architecture largely inspired both Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella’s castles in Disney. Rightly so!

Our home base in Germany was Ravensburg and after driving to visit the Castles, we decided to do things around the city on our 3rd day. Ravensburg is home of Museum Ravensburger, an interactive museum dedicated to puzzles and games.

Since we were hanging around our “home turf” and Ravensburg is known as the city of “towers and gates” we decided it would only be appropriate that we visited the Blaserturm, located at the center of town.

For our final full day in Germany, we decided to drive to Munich. It wasn’t exactly close by but Jay had heard about the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in the center of town and he was really looking forward to checking out the show.

From there we spent the rest of the day walking around the city, shopping for souvenirs, and taking a riding tour on a double decker bus. When we were in Spain we used them a lot to get from point A to B to C and decided to take advantage once again!

As we were traveling to Switzerland the next day, we decided to make it an earlier night, eat locally in Ravensburg and hang out back at our hotel (Hotel Obertor).

Next up, Switzerland! But that will have to wait for Monday’s post. See you soon, world travelers!

Where have you traveled lately? What is on your travel bucket list?