Jessica has been recognized as a preferred vendor to work with by her industry peers, earned TheKnot.com’s Best of Weddings award 9 times, and been inducted into TheKnot.com Hall of Fame. Jessica is a multi-award-winning photographer, a leader in her industry, and an educator to up-and-coming photographers through her Embark Retreat.
Hello everyone!! The last week has been incredible to say the least! We left Houston Texas last Thursday, and today, I’m sitting in an old villa in Tuscany, Italy taking a moment to soak it all in and share photos from the first few days of the trip. In the last 7 days we’ve stayed with a good friend of mine in Munich, Germany – traveled to visit Neuschwanstein castle, the Swarovski crystal museum then Eric and I journeyed to Salzburg Austria, then to Venice, Italy then to Florence, Italy and just got off the local train in Cortona, Italy! We’ve traveled and slept in airplanes, trains, apartments, villas and even a yacht! We’re taking an adventurous look on our travels and soaking up as much as the local culture as possible and I’m so glad we are! If you’re following us on Instagram, then you know what I’m talking about – and if you’re not and want to follow us, look me up @jessicafreyphotography or hashtag us #FreysRTW.
Some of my favorite moments so far from Germany and Austria:
1) Dining al fresco with the Kessen’s at their Munich apartment and enjoying eating Bavarian food with them at a local Bier Garten! Always enjoyable when you have locals ordering your food and drinks, especially when you can’t pronounce a single word. 🙂
2) Checking off one of my Top 10 things to do and visiting Neuschwanstein – King Ludwig’s castle in Bavaria….the inspiration for Cinderella’s castle in Orlando! It was beautiful!!!! (Our tour guide was something else too…the most delicate man I’ve ever seen – made it interesting!)
3) Getting a collector’s piece from Swarovski in Austria at their plant! I have always admired and eventually inherited my grandmother’s swarovski animal collection, so it was a special memory for me to add to her collection with such a beautiful and special piece – a butterfly (SCHMETTERLINGE!!!!!!)
4. Getting to enjoy time in the Swarovski VIP location as members of their SCS!! Free coffee and the opportunity to look at all of their special pieces including the very first mouse that was made to start the collection. I definitely spotted some out of production pieces I’d LOVE to have someday!!
4. The Sound of Music tour! We took a short train from Munich to Salzburg and decided to hop on a Sound of Music tour that took us all around to locations they filmed the movie….then enjoyed local food of goulach, wiener schnizel and topped off our night with cappucino’s and apple strudel at the Mozart cafe! How Austrian of us.
Our local tour guide and one of my best friends, Anna!! So glad she could join us for a day of royalty castle questing!
The front door and inside – only spot I was allowed to take a photo!
We toured Hohenschwangau castle, the actual location King Ludwig grew up and lived in while Neuschwanstein was being built. Pretty impressive as well!
Wessen, Austria : Swarovski Crystal Museum
This is the “Giant” and inside is the – different rooms designated to artists who use the crystal to display their version of art. Definitely unique and interesting!
Inside the Crystal Dome! 590 mirrors make you feel as though you’re inside a crystal. Here are a few shots to help show case it a little bit! The lights and music change throughout your time there, so it made for quite an experience!
From a crystal Christmas tree design:
There was a lot of “concept art” using the crystal….I’m leaving out images of the weirder pieces…hard to explain, but I don’t get “art” sometimes!
The mouse that started it all….hmmm, sound familiar?!
Welcome to Salzburg, Austria – home of Mozart and The Sound of Music movie!
St. Peter’s Abby
The gazebo where Lisle and the boy danced and sang “16 going on 17”
Our sweet tourguide…Heidi I think…showing us the home used in the movie for outdoor scenes: ‘
OK….there you go! This blog has taken me 5 days to complete….I’ve found I’m spending most of my days enjoying the experiences and soaking in every moment. So, please forgive me – I do want to blog and share this journey with you all, it’s just going to be when I have excess time not spent wandering our locations, taking photos, enjoying the local food and people or napping! I’m overjoyed that you guys are following our adventure, thank you for the prayers for safety and great travels – they’re working!! We are off for a few days in Rome, then Barcelona this week so I’ll try to get to “Italy” for the next blog! Caio!! Jessica & Eric
(If you’re not following us on Instagram, you should….more frequent photos & videos!! @jessicafreyphotography @erickingfrey or hashtag #FreysRTW)
Jessica Frey is an award-winning, Texas Hill Country-based international wedding and event photographer committed to delivering a high-quality experience complete with stunning and joyful images.