More photos

Here are a few more photos:

Off the Beaten Path

We got to Italy after our two day delay at the Ramstein Airport, waited for two days to get our rental car, endured a tornado, and once we finally got our car, we took a scenic drive into the mountains. It was beautiful…going up the mountain, life threatening going down. Our handy dandy GPS found us a nice route down the mountain, little did we know that it was a goat trail. This road was so narrow; I couldn’t see the road out my window, only the steep 200 ft drop. I know Gary is so competent and great in a pinch, but I have to say, I was worried this time. His knuckles were white, we said a family prayer, and we inched our way 4-5 miles down, off-roading in our rental. Lesson: Never buy a rental! As Gary’s dad would say, “What’s the best off-road vehicle, what’s the fastest? A rental.” Anyway, we lived to tell about it, and the rental lived to take us another thousand miles. (Photo of the mountain we drove up...then down)

"THE TERMINAL"

We were going to go to Italy on Sept 5th, but our flight was delayed due to maintenance and we were stranded in the airport all day, with no reservations lined up for the night. But the great US military came to our rescue and provided lodging for the night, which ended up being the nicest place we stayed on our entire trip! They sent us to a hotel for the night in Germany, and it was a sweet suite! We had two rooms, a kitchen, a living room, fireplace, and marble floors, not to mention a great dinner-all paid for. So it worked out for the best, because we hadn’t secured lodging yet in Italy anyway. We spent the following day in the airport as well, but it was nice for the kids because the USO provides a family area with toys, TV, even cribs. They are really amazing and so helpful to the military and their families-we were very grateful.

France

Since we were so close to the French border, we felt like we just had to go there, so we went to a couple of charming towns, one called Colmar- recommended by Rick Steves and slightly disappointing, the other-Eguisheim- much more enjoyable. Eguisheim was adorable with flowers everywhere and rolling vineyards surrounding it. We had some tasty quiche, nice beef stew (reminded me of Holly), and good wine.

LUGERS

We took Cohen on a luge ride in Austria and not only was the setting stunning, but the ride was so much fun. We rode a “ski” lift up to the top of the run, and then rode down Austria’s longest luge track. I rode twice with Cohen and Gary rode once. We didn’t want to take Gavin down the ride though he probably would have been alright. Cohen, of course, wanted to control the speed stick, which meant out of control, so the ride was a thrill to say the least. So far that is probably Cohen’s only highlight of the trip-he’s not easily impressed by ancient ruins and scenic landscape…he’s got the need for speed.

Austria

We spent two days in Austria, first driving to Salzburg, the city of Mozart and Sound of Music country. We didn’t get to see many highlights, but we weren’t too disappointed because we were looking so forward to our next stop. We moved on to a place called Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut Lake District of Austria. This place was so unique and magical. The town is basically built on the cliff-edge of a high mountain lake in the Austrian Alps- it’s very small, only about 1000 people live there year round. There’s only one road via a tunnel through a mountain leading to the town. There’s a very narrow alley road that goes through the town, but its closed most of the day for tourists. We found a quaint room right over the water, and the owner, Klaus, made our breakfast very special by not only dressing in authentic Lederhosen, but also by giving Cohen bread to feed the swans and ducks, and making him some hot chocolate. Along with Rothenburg, this was one of our favorite towns.

Driving and GPS

Driving the autobahn in our rental car has worked great in both Germany and Austria. The roads are nice and though we’ve had some trouble reading all the road signs (ignorance IS an excuse for breaking the law though, right?) we’re fairly certain we haven’t broken any speed limits, since we’ve been passed by little old ladies in station wagons while driving 170 km/hr which is equivalent to 100 mi/hr. We’ve covered a lot of road, over 1600 miles and thanks to our handy GPS-no ladies this is not just another tech toy-we have never been lost. We’re glad we’ve had the car since it can double as lodging in a pinch ;-) and we can stop and take breaks when the kids have maxed out on their riding. Gas is only a 1.48/gal ohhh, I mean liter!! So that means we’re paying $5i to $6 /gal, but we would have had to pay for Cohen to ride the trains now that he’s the ripe ol’ age of 4, so it evens out and we have the flexibility we need. Yours truly even drove in both Germany and Austria and it worked out great.

Parks and kids

Parks have been our saving grace with the kids, as we’ve tried to find places for them to play in every city. We’ve enjoyed seeing the different play equipment they have, and listening and watching families. Cohen has seemed a bit lonely at times; he’s attempted to play with some German children with mixed success. He keeps saying, “Why is everyone speaking Spanish?” as this is the language he most associates as a foreign language. He often says, “When are we going to Brennan’s or Elias’s”, or asks about his school-which he won’t be going to anymore. He was afraid that Edmond might be too far for his friends to come and visit.

Gavin began clapping right after we arrived, and now he’s added “light” and “duck” to his vocabulary. He likes to dance on command and then proudly claps for himself. He has enjoyed any and all attention he gets from the people we’ve met along the way. He smiles really big at them and then buries his head into my shoulder and cuts his eyes back at them with a shy grin. The Asian tourists in particular have been really enamored with him.

They both sleep pretty well and we try to plan our driving stretches around nap times which as worked out nicely-most of the time. Now on to driving…

Munich

This was a really fun city, beautiful architecture, and seemed to be the most cosmopolitan of the cities we’ve visited so far. Most famous for hosting the original and largest Oktoberfest, Munich has street performers around every corner and tons and tons of biergartens (outside places to enjoy some beer). We didn’t spend the night there as the same room can vary from 60 to 360 euros/night, and we just happened to be there during a convention when the 360 euro/night doesn’t get you much. This was just as well for us, as we’ve found the more rural communities to be so much more enjoyable traveling as a family. But we got the T-shirt and we moved on to….

Did he or did he not???

I know the suspense is killing you, did he or did he not jump? We’ve kept you waiting so long. Well, he DID decide to take the plunge and paraglided his way down the Zugspitze. Paragliding is a combination of hangliding and skydiving. He had a great time and we got most of it on video, though since he was but a speck for a bit I wasn’t sure which one was him. I even captured a few landings of other jumpers just so that I would make sure and get his on film. His “pilot” (he jumped tandem) even took him for a few spins, which looked like great fun. His hair was windblown and he had a big smile on his face once on the ground…OK, so his hair wasn’t windblown, but he was smiling.

House

Just wanted to let you all know that we bought a house! We put an offer in the day before we left, and the inspections were completed this last week-with success! We wanted to wait until we were fairly sure it was going to go through to tell everyone, since as most of you know, we've had a few that didn't . It's on an acre is east Edmond-just like we wanted and we close on the 20th of October. Just wanted to share this great news with you all.

Concentration Camp

We went to the concentration camp Dachau, which was the first concentration camp established and also the longest operational camp-12 years. It was obviously a solemn experience and impacted me more than simply reading about the atrocities committed in such places. What was surprising, was that the camp is in the middle of town with strip malls and McDonalds right outside. There is even an elementary school right near the grounds where kids currently attend; We believe the children of the SS men attended school there. It felt strange having such hallowed ground intermingled with modern every day life, almost irreverent. Since the late 50's, some church sancutarys have been set up there honoring the different ethnic groups subjected to the Nazi regime, and to serve as a place of redemption for those who participated.

Mountain Climbing...and jumping

Well, we went to the top of the highest peak in Germany on Wednesday called the Zugspitze. We rode a clog wheeled train up the mountain and then took a cable car the remaining bit to reach the summit. The mountain is a very steep 10k feet. The kids of course, being the Bishops that they are, were unafraid of the extreme heights, so they flocked near the edge, even attempting to climb the railing to get a glimpse over the edge. There was even a church up there-amazing! It was a great experience for so many reasons:

1. We had never ridden a train, at least not one that wasn't geared for kiddos

2. We were actually in the clouds, they were literally surrounding us

3. We got to be in two countries almost silmultaneously-one side of the summit was in Germany and one was in Austria

4. We ate lunch on top of a mountain

5. We got to ride a cable car

6. We felt the sensation of floating in the clouds

And then...Gary decided to jump off of it. Stay tuned for a future post.

Funny Things/More photos

View of Ludwig's castle from boyhood

Neuschwanstein Castle (Disney)

View from the window of Neuschwanstein

All of us at Lake Eibsee

Just a few funny things that have happened:


I tried to get a few grocery items for our stay at this US lodge. I thought Gary had said we were staying in a suite with a mini kitchen, and it wasn't until after I got out to the car (he entertained the kids outside) that he clarified his definition of mini kitchen, i.e. fridge and coffeemaker. So, most of the things I bought were things I planned on cooking and thus most of the items were a bust. You all know how frugal I am, so there was no way I was going to keep a bunch of items we were never going to use, language barrier or not. Sooooo, I moseyed back into the store, and fortunately found a fellow customer who spoke some English and she helped explain my poor ignorant case, and they reluctantly let me return my items all the while under the scornful gaze of the natives (it interrupted their checkout). Ooops; well I just told myself "I'll never see them again, so what does it matter." With the current exchange rate it was well worth it.


Another funny thing we've encountered: Probably 4 cars full of Germans have stopped us to ask for directions, and when we tell them we're Americans they just drive off laughing.

Garmisch/Bavarian Alps

The boys in their PJ's in the "backyard"

Castle ruins on top of a mountain on the German/Austrian border

Cohen in front of King Ludwig's boyhood castle

Authentic German lunch - pretzel and bratwurst

Cohen took this picture of us with the castle in the background (not bad)

We have been in the Bavarian Alps since Monday, and it is breathtaking. We're staying at a military lodge, but it feels like a very nice resort. We even had Tex-Mex here at the Lodge on Tuesday night; a nice departure from the German food. We've really been trying to have authentic cuisine for most of our meals, and with some success, but I did tell Gary I'll look forward to having some BBQ when we get back home.

Our day began with a tour of The "Disney Castle". It was actually Mad King Ludwig's castle (king of Bavaria, who apparently went crazy). Americans call it the Disney castle because it's the one the theme park modeled theirs after. It was pretty amazing-the ornate paintings adorning the walls and the craftsmanship of the interior. We missed our bus for our tour time, so had to try and get a new admission time, which the clerk did very reluctantly. We then had lunch next to the bus stop which takes you to the castle, and we still nearly missed the next bus in time to make our tour. We have serious time management issues. But the evening redeemed itself with a picnic dinner at an amazing lake called Lake Eibsee.

The photo of the kids in their pj's shows the view from our room at the resort. We plan to take a cogwheel train to the top of those mountains next.

More photos

Here are a few more photos:

Frankfurt/Rothenburg

We went to Frankfurt on the 23rd and it was a nice city with some great sights, but the highlight of our time there (believe it or not) was actually running a mile and half through a rainshower pushing two strollers trying to get back to the car, amazed the kids weren't complaining, only to find both sound asleep. Keep in mind they don't have sidewalks, so the cobblestone roads must have shaken them into slumber. We were soaked and exhilirated at the same time.

Rothenburg, ahh, Rothenburg. This town was so beautiful, plucked right from the pages of a storybook. We drove there from Frankfurt on what is called the Romantic Road, and it was just that...even with the kids. Charming little villiages, tree covered hills, and the greenest pastureland you can imagine line nearly the entire route. Unbelievably, both kids slept for 2 hrs of the 2 1/2 hr drive. It was bliss!

The town itself is a preserved midieval town, complete with castles, narrow cobblestone roads, and torture museums. This was the highlight up to that point. Even Cohen enjoyed this town; getting "lost" in a castle and him trying to find our way out. We will definitely make our way back to this town someday, sans kids.

We made it...and then some

Well, we've been here nearly a week and it has already been so amazing! We've had technical trouble, so our blogging is getting off to a late start, but incredibly here in the middle of the Bavarian Alps, we're good to go...for the right price ;-)

From the beginning:

We got on a flight to Germany the same night we flew into Baltimore (this was unexpected-we thought it would be the next day), so we were up for nearly 30 hrs. The kids handled all of this really well, but needless to say, Gary and I were dragging. Cohen slept the entire 7 hr flight, and Gavin did too, mostly.

It took a couple of days to get acclimated, but we've all adjusted. Our first authentic night, we ate at a boathouse along a river and the lady who owned the place was very nice and spoke some English-she asked Cohen if he wanted to try some beer, so we took some fun little photos of him "sampling" his first German bier. How do you think we got him acclimated so quickly??? Works better than Benadryl :-)

We have gone to some great parks, one had a really fun zip line, which I have insisted Gary try to replicate since all of us had so much fun riding on it.