Holidays

<--- Our German friends in front of the "Dom" in Cologne>

We spent most of last week in Germany visiting friends that live just outside of Cologne. We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed ourselves, shopping, hiking and visiting with good friends. The kids enjoyed reconnecting. We had a pet sitter come in to take care of the cat and as she was fine when we returned there was no problem! Bob the dog went to the kennel. When we went to pick him up n Sunday you would have thought we had been gone for MONTHS! He was a very happy camper that we were home, although he needed a bath very badly! Went to the Doctor as my foot has been bothering me for over a month, after xrays and a very painful contrast shot I have found out that I have a blood clot in my foot, who would have thought!

Germany

The family was up at 3 am on August 3rd to go the Budapest so that the kids and I could fly to Cologne Germany to visit Claudia and Kilian Hopf. The flight was uneventful except for the cattle car loading ( yuck). We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing and going for a walk. Except for Chris and Kilian who decided to go on the bus to get an Ice Cream but didn't notice that the bus didn't return for three hours. We got "the phone call' and went and got them:-)

Sunday was fun, we drove to the River Rhine and took a boat tour which was awesome! We then drove down the river to look at the different landscape. The landscape around Cluadia's house is rolling farmland with trees, around the river it is valley walls and grape vines. We stopped at a place called Lorelei, that is named after a woman who sat on the cliffs combing her hair and lead a few ships to crash into the rocks below. On the way home we hit a traffic jam on the autobahn and so we took the back way home.

Monday was swim and go to the book store day. Nicole also picked up some shoes and a dress.
I also learned that in Germany on the three lane freeway you can't pass on the right. Interesting fact I thought!

Tuesday, we went to the Modern Germany Museum, which covers Germany from the end of WWII to the present. Even though it was all in German it was very interesting and enlightening. We then went and visited some more friends that were home for the summer from Kosice.

Wednesday was Zoo day. We took about 4 hours and wondered around Colognes very nice zoo. Then we took the gondola across the River Rhine and back. Claudia wasn't happy but she went along for the ride!

Thursday we went to the Big Catholic church in the middle of downtown Cologne. The church was building the 1500's and was the only building to survive the WWII bombings. We took the 509 steps up the tower. The only thing that was annoying was the fact that it was raining!! The inside of the Church is amazing, huge and very interesting to see. We then went to Subway for lunch and then shopped!!! The boys went to the Electronics store and the girls went shoe and clothes shopping. We met up with the boys later and on the way back to the car we picked up some Starbucks ( yummy)

Friday was another pool day but this was an inside outside pool. Claudia managed to get Nicole to really swim. The boys had a great time and the hot bubble pool was great. By the end of the 4 hours we were all wrinkles!! We went out that night for some good German food.

Saturday was return home day. I would go back to Germany to visit with Claudia and Kilian again!

Driving in Europe

Well as an American living in Europe I have had to learn quite a few new driving rules. Some of them make very good sense some just scare me to death! One of the ones that I am still not used to is roundabouts with more than one lane. The idea is great but for me I still panic a bit even using the one I know. The one lane roundabouts are simple. On our vacation to Italy more than once I did take the wrong exit and had to turn around and go back through and take the right one!
T

Hike

We went on a hike yesterday to a mountain called Sivec. We first picked op our neighbor Guido and then drove about 20 minutes outside of Kosice. The walk was almost all up hill, through trees and high meadows. The closer we got to the top the rockier it got. Finally at the end we were climbing over the rocks and looking for flatter routes. It was very much worth the hike. The views from the top were amazing! You could see all the way to the High Tatras ( the mountains, think Rockies). The lake below was stretched out for miles!
The walk down was just as interesting. The whole family including Guido was trying to be careful and not fall and of course I had to be the one to fall on my butt. I popped right back up but man it hurt!! I landed right on a large rock, in fact I have a large bruise on my butt in the shape of the rock!
All and all it was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Vacation the end

Saturday and Sunday
Drive days. We went from Italy to Austria to Germany ( were I got all turned around) and then back to Austria. The most exiting thing about Saturday was driving through the western Italian Alps. Very interesting landscape, very alpine. We would love to go back and take more time to look and see more things. Saturday night we stayed in Linz Austria.
Sunday was the push home. We left Linz about 9:30 and got home about 6pm. I was very glad to be home and Angel kitty was very glad to have us home.

Vacation VIII

Friday
Another Drive day. We retraced our route down except instead of going to Venice we went to Milan. The landscape went from flat farm land to rolling hills back to flat farm land. I liked the rolling hills best as it reminded me of Idaho. We arrived in Milan in time to get all the paper work done and try and leave Milan during rush hour. We were only trying to go about 70 miles east to spend the night. It took us forever since everyone else was also going East to the cooler mountains! Eric was following us and about 45 minutes in to the stop and go traffic we decided that he would go ahead since we both had GPS's and he could go fast on the motorcycle than I could in the car. Our hotel was clean and nice and the kids got to play in the pool before we went bed as Saturday was another drive day.

Vacation VII

Thursday
We headed down to the beach late since we slept in for once. The waves weren't as big so we were able to play out in the Ocean a bit. As it was closer to the weekend there were more people but it still was not crowded.
The afternoon was rest again and then Eric and I started getting ready to host dinner. We had planned on doing it at our place but there just wasn't enough room so we used our friends place. We were making Biscuits and Gravy since it was something that our friends had never had before. I also made a fruit salad since the gravy was spicy!! I was nervous that my biscuits wouldn't puff! Well everything turned out great and they loved the different food. It was an early night since we were leaving in the morning at 5 am for Milan to pick up Eric's motorcycle.
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