guest blogger jen: the wedding trip!

Our 10-day trip started out leaving on a Saturday for London and then catching a flight to Munich, Germany from there. Our intent was to start in Germany, drive to Italy and then back to Germany after the wedding. The volcano had other plans for us. When we arrived in London, our flight kept saying "Enquire Airline". We came to find out that what this meant was our flight had been cancelled and there was no way we were getting to Munich as the airport had been closed due to the volcano! After a two-hour wait in line (after a 10 hour flight - we were not the peppiest couple at this point haha), we were told we could fly to Milan the next day. So, we were put up in a hotel and flown out the next morning to Milan where the rest of our family drove to join us!


Parking in Milan!

Milan was very fun! We, of course, went shopping all day! We also enjoyed this quaint outdoor cafe...

The birds were everywhere! I had to take a picture of them all over the tables!

The most amazing part about Milan was seeing the 4th largest church in the world, the Duomo. Pictures do not do this breath-taking cathedral justice and there are simply no words extraordinary enough to describe it. It is so large that one could literally spend an entire day there.

The interior of the Duomo. Just a tiny, tiny piece of this magnificent place!

After only a day in Milan, we had to head to Malcesine for our last bit of paperwork that needed to be done the next day. When we arrived, this was our view...


The town is literally breathtaking because it sits right on the edge of beautiful Lake Garda. Then when you look up, all you see is mountains! We took a cable car up the mountains one day - not only does the town have the tree-covered mountains, but also the snow-capped Alps in the distance!

We loved dining at the many restaurants on the lake. Seafood here is wonderful as they fish it right from the water! Ok, all the food was phenomenal - everything you hear about food in Italy is exactly right!

Here's the gang enjoying the day! My Alternative sweater from The Willows was my wardrobe for many pictures!

A closer view of the castle - it is so beautiful!

I can't say enough about Hotel Erika - the bed and breakfast we stayed at! We picked her because of her close proximity to the castle and because of the amazing reviews we read online about her hotel. She is an amazing woman, and truly became like family in our short stay with her (she's on the right in this picture)!

Here is a sampling of our breakfast every morning. She always had farm-fresh eggs hardboiled with adorable little egg covers! There was always more food than you could ever dream of eating and the table linens were different every day. She told us that every year she takes a trip to Paris where she finds many of the accessories for her hotel. How nice would that be???


We sat at the same table every morning so on the morning of our wedding, Erika had decorated the table for good luck. It was so sweet and wonderful.

Well, that's it for today - I am excited for tomorrow when I share our wedding day with you!