Christmas 2013

This last Christmas, we did a tour of Austria, Germany and a day trip to Switzerland and Lichtenstein.  It was a great getaway!  I fell in love with Innsbruck and Germany was wonderful, too!  I am still having issues with finding all my pictures now that we have switched to the new computer, which means I might be missing pictures from some locations.  However, this post will not be short photos!

The first part of our trip was spent in Innsbruck.  The main goal of the trip was to go to the Christmas Markets, and they are all I  had hoped!

Tommy and Sam with the Alps in the background in Innsbruck

This is the train that brought us up the mountain, about halfway.

This is a view from up the mountain.  We were clearly slackers taking the train.
There were several groups of people walking up.

A really "cool" bar at the top.  Who needs to ski when you can
take the train up and hang out here?

It was surprisingly warm.  I could have sat there for hours.

Some goulash, Austria style.

We went from Innsbruck to Salzburg where we walked through the house where Mozart was born and saw some of the places the Sound of Music was filmed.  We also grabbed a warm white Russian at the Christmas Market there, and it was delish!  Unfortunately, these are the pictures which are currently lost.

From Salzburg, we drove to Garmish, Germany.  The DoD has a resort there which is so nice.  Most of the hotels we have stayed at in Europe are nice, but really small and not what we, as Americans, are used to.  Edelweiss is all that we had hoped.  Large rooms, a nice bar/grill kind of restaurant, a hot tub, and plenty to do.  We spent Christmas here and they had a nice buffet dinner.  It was a relaxing day of hanging out at the resort, walking around Garmish, and sitting in the hot tub.

Edelweiss is a great place to stay while being able to do some exploring.  We were able to visit 2 of King Ludwig's 3 castles

Linderhof, a small yet over the top castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for Cinderella's Castle

The kids while we waited for our number to go into the castle

 In addition to the castles, Mike and I went for a brewery tour.  The trip to the Griesbrau Brewery was offered through Edelweiss.  The kids had no desire to go, so they stayed back at the hotel and chilled.  Tommy really enjoyed having some down time on this trip.  Usually we are constantly on the go, this was a nice break.

Our Brewmeister, Wofgang. He was the best part of the tour.
You could tell he loved every part of his job, especially sharing it with tourists.

In addition to several different kind of beers, they also make a beer liquor, which he is holding here.

To make the beer liquor shots look more like beer, Wolfgang added some whipped cream.

Dinner at the Brewery

Since we were so close, we decided to take a drive to Liechtenstein and Switzerland.  We had to leave the Eurozone and were hoping to get our passports stamped in Liechtenstein, because how cool would that be.  Well, going into the country the boarder guards barely looked at the car and waved us on.  If we wanted a stamp, we had to go to the visitors' center and pay for one.  

Main street Liechtenstein, not a lot happening there.

The castle of Liechtenstein

 After a quick walk around Liechtenstein, we got back into the car and drove to Switzerland.  The town that would be the quickest trip in and out of Switzerland was this little one called St. Gallen.  It was really very cute.

The kids had clearly had enough exploring for the day!

We had to buy some chocolate.  I am not sure we got a good sample of Swiss chocolate, but this stuff was not good.  I would have Belgian chocolate over Swiss Chocolate any day!

We flew in and out of Munich, so the day before we left we drove to Munich and spent the day and night there.  Before going to our hotel in the city, we toured Dachau, a former concentration camp.  It was educational and really opened up my eyes.  Reading and learning about what happened there does not prepare you for what you see and the conditions the prisoners had to live in, and words can't describe seeing where they cremated all the bodies.  

From Dachau we headed to Munich.  Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and not a lot was open, but there were a lot of people walking around, and I loved the spirit you felt there.

The view from our hotel.  It doesn't look great here, but it was pretty cool

Behind my crazy kid is the Glockenspiel

The one thing we wanted to do while in Munich was go to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner.  The kids felt like they were in Epcot.  It was a great experience.  Girls walking around selling pretzels, beer served by the liter, live music and some decent food.  Again, not sure where all the pictures here are, but below is the ceiling, very elaborate.

One of the days we were in Garmish, we went to the Ettaler Monastary.  The monks there make cheese and beer.  Mike bought a sampler pack of the beer, which we had to bring with us to Munich.  We also bought some of the cheese.  Both were pretty good.

We opted not to pay the 20+ Euro per person for breakfast the next morning, so Mike and I walked down to one of the bakeries we had seen the day before.  I think Mike got a pretzel.  The kids each picked the cream filled donut and I had the apple strudel.

The top of the Alps from the airplane.

That is pretty much the story of our Christmas break.  We got back home in time for New Year's eve, and we spent that with friends, munchies, and a little guitar hero.

Belgium - Long Distance Champs 2014

While we are trying to visit new places each time we travel, when it comes to swimming, we go where the pool brings us.  Of course, none of us were complaining about going back to Belgium for long distance champs.  I mean who can complain about visiting the land of waffles and chocolate!  Our trip looked pretty much like last year's trip.

To get to Belgium, we flew in and out of a small airport in Germany, and spent the night we arrived and the night before we left in that area.

Tommy outside our first hotel in Germany.  He is looking so thrilled to have his picture taken!

We spent some time in Antwerp, mostly at the pool.  It is an indoor pool, so I decided not to try and get photos.  But we did visit our favorite restaurant, Beer Central, at least twice while we were there.  They literally have an encyclopedia of beers for you to read and pick from.  The first night Mike let our server randomly select a beer and the second night Mike did some reading and made his own choice.  Both were really good, this from the former non-beer drinker who is now just a discriminating beer drinker.  If you would like details on the beers, you'd have to ask Mike, or let me know and I can ask Mike.

Waffles in Antwerp from the waffle food truck

Beer Central with the teammates.  We had to share our love of this place!
Mike and Tommy were our token males.

Then we hit Bruges for a couple of days.  Since we only had a day there last year, we didn't do a whole lot. This time we did a little more exploring.

Brewery in Bruges

So the first thing we did in Bruges was go on a brewery tour.  It was in a beautiful old building and we toured from top to bottom, literally, we even climbed out on the roof.  At the end we got a glass of one of their beers.  Not one of my favorites, but not horrible.

from the roof of the brewery looking into town

French fries are a must in Belgium!

I love the square in Bruges, so quaint and colorful!

We also spent some time in Brussels, but I have no idea where the pictures are of that!  In addition, we drove around and hit the American cemeteries in the area.  By the end of this trip, Tommy decided he didn't need to see any more cemeteries, castles, or churches!  Poor kid, there are lots more in his future!

As I said, we finished this trip back in Germany.  The hotel we stayed in was a family run hotel, where the family lived on the second floor (or first floor if you are counting the way they do in Europe).  It really felt like I was in my Granny's house, had that kind of decor and even scent.

Our cute little bed.  2 mattresses and 2 comforters, no sheets.  Not uncommon in Europe.

I know it is blurry, but I tried to capture the miniature doors to our rooms.
Tommy barely fit through without ducking.

This hotel did have breakfast in the morning, and anyone who knows Tommy, knows my kid loves his breakfast.  Well, this one did not satisfy!  Most of the hotels we have stayed in have offered an English or American style breakfast, which essentially means they have eggs and bacon in addition to the cold cuts and cheese they put out.  Not this place!  Needless to say, Tommy was less than thrilled.  We all ate a little before we left, but no one was really satisfied.  Fortunately, this town was known for it's shopping, and it had a huge pedestrian mall which included a nice bakery.

Tommy's cappuccino and "pudding pretzle"

Sam's breakfast, if I remember right, that is hot chocolate.

Mike and I just went for pretzels, yum!

Love our trips to Belgium!  I could move there and be very happy!

Catching Up!

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blogging thing.  Going home for the summer kind of got me out of the habit.  That coupled with memory issues from our aging computer and my plain old laziness meant we had pictures of things we did and places we have gone, but no one was getting to see them or hear about our adventures.  So I am going to try and catch everyone up on our fall of 2013.  I am putting a lot into this post, but will still have some catching up to do.

Obviously, the kids started back to school, which means sports:

Cross country for Sam

Our girls before the race

Tommy out showing his support for the cross country team

Sam almost done with her 5K, with Etna smoking in the background

Both girls teams after finishing

Our first swim meet of the season

Mike and Sam and I, along with a group of others, went to the home of the family who comes into housing on Thursdays to sell their goods.  The father is a butcher, and we order our meats from him, the mom makes the great olive oil soaps we love, and the son is a baker.  We helped them pick olives and they provided us with a lovely day and a great cook out after our hard work.  And let me tell you, picking olives is hard work.  If you can see through the tree, I have a small yellow rake which you use to gently pull off the olives, and sometimes you have to climb the trees to get to the olives.  The olives then fall onto a green mesh-like blanket and then are collected into bins.  If you are wondering where Sam is, she is behind the camera.  She has found a new love and I am hoping she might share some of her cool pictures on here with a guest write up.

Mike and I took a day trip to the Turkish Steps.  This is a beautiful limestone formation that loosely resembles steps, it is a steep climb.  There are two beaches, one on either side of the rock.  It is a really pretty location.  Of course no kids, because they would rather be sitting at home than exploring Sicily…crazy!

And more swimming, because what would life be without more swimming.  Sam would like you to note that she is wearing the team suit from the Bayview Tigers.  This is the suit she wore in 3rd or 4th grade.

And another day trip that Mike and I took was to Ragusa and Modica….

Mike in Ragusa

Chocolate shop in Modica

And one last photo from the olive picking day.

New Furniture

While the kids and I were home this summer, Mike decided to surprise me with a new bed, well at least a new bed frame.  There is a gentleman, Mario, who makes iron furniture who comes to the housing complex every Thursday for the small market we have.  We have never had a real bed frame, so Mike decided to get a wrought iron one made.  The neat thing about Mario is that if you can draw it, he can make it.  So he and Mike spoke and Mike drew up a design for Mario to create.

Here is the original design

Mario took pictures and sent Mike updates on how the construction was going......

And the final product........

It is really tall, much taller than Mike had intended, and the small size of our bedroom doesn't help much.  However, it is beautiful and so cool that it is a one of a kind piece designed for me!  I love it!

As a matter of fact, we liked Mario's work so much we decided to go check out his baker's racks.  He has several samples in his workshop, but he customizes them so no two are the same.  Lava stone is a popular material for many items in Sicily, including the shelves on the baker's racks.  Lava stone almost always has a very elaborate Sicilian style painting on top of it and this requires some special firing and treatment of the stone making it quite expensive.  In addition to the expense, Mario pointed out that if the shelf is used, the the painting is covered and it is almost a waste of money to have the lava stone on the baker's rack, and it would be money better spent on an item that would have more visibility. So we will save lava stone for a future purchase.  Other options we had were marble and granite.  I really like the marble, and it was the least expensive option, but Mario said that it scratches easily.  So we settled on the granite and picked a dark granite for our shelves.  Mike wanted the baker's rack to also be wine storage, so we opted for a larger portion of it to be a wine rack than others that we saw.  Here is what Mario made for us

Again, a beautiful piece.  There is a large shelf that we will use like a buffet in the dining room, storage for 54 bottles of wine, racks for 12 wine glasses, and two smaller shelves above.  The tile on the top is hand painted and is from Caltagiorne.  I really don't miss the lava stone and feel like the tiles give it the Sicilian feel.  Mike has some work to do filling the wine storage, and I have to figure out what I want to put on it, but I love it, too!