The Hill Family

We had a long weekend in May. We decided to take advantage of the long weekend, rent a car, and go explore. The main reason for our little trip was to go to the temple, but we made a few stops before we got there. Our first stop was Vienna. Here are some pictures of our day. Schoenbrunn Palace The Opera house in Vienna. Unfortunately, there wasn't an opera the night we were there. Luckily there is a big opera festival over the summer in Munich! This is part of the Hofburg complex. This is where the Vienna Boys Choir performs and the where the Lipizzaner horses are trained. Down the street by the Stephansplatz St. Stephen's Cathedral I like the brightly colored tiles on the roof. Simon thinks that it looks out of place. Us enjoying a Rapid Vienna soccer game I just love the soccer fans over here!

The beginning of the small parade to the Maypole. They are holding the banner that will be raised on the Maypole. Auburn enjoying the day in her traditional dirndle. When we first came to Munich, we realized that there are maypoles in every city. I was really excited to see a maypole being put up. They take the poles down, redecorate them and then raise them on May Day. The poles then stay up for the rest of the year. These poles are huge!!! The traditional way of putting up the maypole is done manually with a system of wood beams and brute strength. It can take a few hours to raise it. Some smaller villages still use this method, but machines are now used in the city for safety reasons. We didn't catch the actually raising, because Simon had the day off and we wanted to sleep in. We did see a parade and the raising of the flag on the Maypole. Later that day we went to the Bayern Munich training grounds to see the players up close. All the big names were there. It was such a great...

This is the last and final post, I promise. Cadaques It was a beautiful coastal town. Montserrat A monastery set up in the montains. We went for a hike to get a good view. Casa Batillo La Sagrada Familia The Salvador Dali museum Cosmocaixa The coolest science museum I have ever been to. This is actually inside. It had so many interactive attractions. Villareal game Plaza Mayor in Madrid Palace in Madrid Plaza de Toros in Madrid We saw a competition where these guys tried to do stunts with the bulls. This guy would flip over the bulls as they were charging him. It was crazy. We went to see a real bull fight later. Do you know what they do to the bull? The last game the night before we left. Simon went to see Atletico Madrid. We had a wonderful time!

Cordoba This is inside the Mosque of Cordoba. It was taken over by Christians in the 16th century. A cathedral was put in the middle of the mosque. This is the inside of the cathedral that is inside the mosque. Seville This is Seville's cathedral. It is where Christopher Columbus is buried. It has a great tower to climb up to see the whole city of Seville. The bull ring in Seville. Ronda This city has this beautiful gorge right in the middle of it. It is called a whitewash town because all of the buildings are painted white. This was taken from the huge bridge in the middle. El Torcal We hiked through these weird rock formations. It was really cool! Granada This is inside the Alhambra in Granada. This place gets a lot of hype, but we were underwhelmed. It had some cool architecture, but nothing that wowed us. Alcala de Jucar This neat little city built up against the rocks. Some of the houses are actually built into the mountain. We hiked up to the castle at the top. Alba...