We booked a private walking tour to see the highlights. We spent 7 hours with our guide, exploring the Old Town, the Jewish Quarter & Castle Districts, making stops at Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in the world, and to have a beer at Strahov Monastery Brewery, which has been brewing its own beer for over 600 years.

The Monastery itself was actually founded in 1142. We crossed Charles bridge, a medieval stone arch bridge, which construction began in 1357, and is one of the only medieval bridges still standing and in use today.

We had a tour guide to show us the main city highlights while giving us a fantastic lesson in history. We were able to see:

• Liberty Bridge - a beautiful backdrop for a photo opp
• I tried a shot of Unicom, a beloved Hungarian herbal liqueur, drunk as a digestif or aperitif. The liqueur was created in 1790, and is currently produced by Zwack according to a secret formula consisting of more than 40 herbs.
• Matthias Church, located in Holy Trinity Square in front of Fisherman's Bastion
• Budapest Great Market Hall to discover & sample the most symbolic products of Hungarian cuisine ... lot's of sausages, picked EVERYTHING, and Fois Gras.
• Hungarian State Opera House
• Davin & Madeleine even took a dip in one of the many thermal springs bath houses located around the city.
  
  
  
  

• Where We Stayed: Hotel Imperial, A Luxury Collection Hotel. The one time Queen Elizabeth visited Vienna, she stayed at this hotel. We completely lucked out and were upgraded to the most AMAZING suite that looked more like a palace than a hotel room!
• What We Saw: It was a very cold & rainy day, but we toured the city with our private guide to make sure we saw the most important highlights of the city, trying to soak up as much of the history as possible. Vienna was so beautiful, and was definitely the most luxurious city we visited on this trip!
• Where We Ate: Huth Gastwirtschaft for traditional Viennese cuisine

• Where We Stayed: Hotel Goldener Hirsch, A Luxury Collection Hotel. This was the most charming boutique hotel! With the property dating back to 1407, it was the perfect combination of original country house & luxury boutique hotel.
• What We Saw: After seeing a few must-see spots in town, our private guide drove us around the country side, village to village, to view 5 of the most magnificent lakes in the area. The water was beautiful and completely clear ... and so clean, apparently you could actually drink the water straight from the lake! The mountains in the background provided the most amazing backdrops.

After arriving by train, we quickly checked into our hotel and headed to the famed Hofbrauhaus Beer Hall, which was founded in 1589, by the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm V. This was definitely a must for my husband, so Madeleine & I happily tagged along! We listened to live music while we enjoyed lunch ... Pork Knuckle, more Schnitzel and a pretzel as wide as Madeleine's shoulders!

After lunch, we met up with our tour guide for a 5-hour city tour that included several historical highlights, a visit to the BMW Headquarters (quite impressive), and the Olympic Village that was built for the 1972 Olympics (which began with absolute jubilation, but was plagued with horrific tragedy).

For the last day of our spring break trip we went skiing in the Bavarian Alps. It was beautiful & so enjoyable ... well worth lugging the extra suitcase with all of our ski clothes!

We took an Uber about 1.5 hours outside of Munich to the quaintest little ski town ... Garmisch. We had the best day and cannot wait to do it again! I was so much nicer and way less expensive than skiing in the United States! The only difficult part was getting back to Munich ... We had to walk about 2 1/2 miles to the main train station, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat!