Spain in April-recap

The Benedictine Monk retreat at Montserrat in Catalunya (Spain)

To get there, you ride this yellow cable car. . .
until you reach this
Then if you hike above the monastery. . . you see this.
Enjoying our favorite snack in Barcelona. Churros (long stick like donuts) and Chocolate (hot chocolate that is so thick it is like drinking warm homemade pudding).

Looking out over the Mediterranean Ocean.


It was actually pretty chilly the whole week we were there (55-65 degrees) but the kids insisted on swimming anyway. This time, fully clothed. We loved all the beaches!!!!
I love this building but I never figured out what the pink camo thing in front of it is.
The highlight of every vacation for Mia is finding playgrounds.
This one had a zipline.
Morgan's hair clip. We shopped at a flea market and found great hair accesories.

We passed this to and from Barcelona and our apartment. It is some sort of crypt. It kind of creeped out the kids.We spent quite a bit of time hunting this cathedral down--several subway changes, lots of walking and when we finally get there we decide that next time, we buy a postcard and just say we went there. It was rather hideous, closed for renovation, and it was the warmest day we had there. This is the La Sagrada Familia Cathedral.
Park Guell von Antonio Gaudi-
So, after the cathedral disaster we decided to take the kids to what the guidebook said was a nice quiet park to see the gaudi lizard statue and enjoy the park. Apparantly it's not such a quiet park anymore.
and the lizard statue was quite small and you couldn't see it well due to all the people. Oh well.
The architecture was neat though.

December 2008-Feb 2009 re-cap

Gaby's 9th birthday--I don't know why she has a smiley face on her forehead.
We went to this Christmas market that had a lot of medieval artisans. This guy was using a forge to make metal garden hangers.
Morgan's favorite stall was this one with all the bows and arrows


This guy made really cool trinkets and things. We ended up buying the swirly thing in the front with the blue ball. As it twirls in the wind it looks like it is traveling up or down the spiral. It is really neat.
Riding on Daddy's shoulders makes Mia one tired girl.


For Christmas we went to Berchesgarten, Germany. We did some skiing and we went to Salzburg, Austria. We didn't get to see Hitler's Eagles Nest because the road was closed for the winter.

Fortress Hohensalzburg in Salzburg--no, we are not all talking on cell phones. They are recorded tour guides--All you have to do is pick your language.

The Fortress Hohensalzburg is the biggest still maintaining fortress in Central Europe. This is the view from the top.
This is inside the fortress
This cow represents a story that I thought was really neat. Once time during an attempted seige, all the residents had holed up in the fortress. Things were getting pretty desperate and they didn't have any more food. The enemy was trying to starve them out. Down to the last cow the residents thought up a far-fetched plan. They paraded their cow around the walls, took it inside and painted it. Then paraded the painted cow. They did this over and over until the enemy left. The enemy believed that a huge herd of cows was still inside the fortress walls--desperate for food themselves they left and never conquered Salzburg.


Getting ready to go on a Salt Mine Tour. They give you these really cool (note the sarcasm) outfits to wear. We really felt like Oompa Lumpas.
Sliding down the rails- a highlight of every salt mine tour.

At the Celtic museum-A lover of all things celtic, Morgan was not impressed.At Konigsee (King's Lake) in Berchesgarten
We took a boat ride to this island. This is us in the FREEZING cold at St. Bartholomew.
Skiing at Jenner Ski Resort






German's take skiing quite seriously-at least in Bavaria. They run these ski schools at every ski resort. Full of kids in the 3-5 range. We have seen some very talented 3 year olds doing the intermediate slopes and more.Craig took this picture WHILE skiing. I can barely stay upright on skies but my husband takes photos while he skies. Amazing. We love how dotted the landscape is with little villages.
This is hoarfrost--it was so gorgeous. It looked like snowy forest shots taken from an airplane.


Skiing at Arber

When Mia was tired of skiing we built an igloo--O.k. and igloo wall.

This is what happens when you ski in the fog

My friend Mary thinks that Mia is hilarious. The colder it gets the less she wears. She thinks a spring dress is perfect for a snowy day. Then on a really warm day she'll decide to wear fleece pants and a jacket. This day she finally agreed to boots hat and gloves but no jacket and no tights.

This is a video clip of Mia skiing

Vienna for Thanksgiving

At the Schoenbrunn Palace (summer residence) of the Hapsburgs. They had 16 children including Marie Antoinette.

They have a kids museum with hand-on exibits--dress-up, setting the royal table, learning the language of fan-holding, leech medicine, etc.

royal kids chamber with toys

Outside of the palace with a Christmas market in front of it





Another Chrismas Market
Mia loved riding on the subway-here she is waving to all the people still on the platform.

Grave marker for Franz Schubert
Grave marker for Brahams
Grave marker for Johann Strauss
Grave marker for Beethoven
Vienna by night.

On the carraige ride--could there be anything more fun than horses?


The Musical Instrument museum. These were some of our favorites. It is hard to take pictures in the museums because they don't let you use flash.



How do you make a guitar? Why, you grow one of course!
The Arms and Armour museum--KIDS (and Craig and I) loved this one!!

for children. . .

love the hat. . .

every shape and size. . . .



Schatskammer- home of the royal jewels from the holy roman empire.




This is part of the Hofburg palace. The empirial residence of the Hapburg family. Also home of the Lippinzanner stallians. Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures at the stallians performance. The man in gold in front is a street performer dressed as a mozart statue. He was rather amusing.
The Beethoven museum had this wax statue that at first freaked out the kids, until they decided to ham it up for the camera.
shaking Beethoven's hand
Original work by Beethoven
Piano he played on. This museum was at a house he lived in while in Baden trying to find a solution for his deafness.
The line of horse carraiges. Tourists!!
Another view of the Hofburg Palace and Mozartplatz.
Town Hall.
Some weird statue--I can't remember but this one might be the ode to plague victims.
This is the dragon boat in the SEEGROTTE. An underground lake. Actually it was a mine shaft that flooded but it is cool nonetheless. This boat was left here by the movie makers from The 3 Musketeers who used it in the film and then couldn't be bothered to take it out. We took a boat tour but ours was a flatbottomed boat with an electric motor. Part of this mine system was used to build the first Jet airplanes for WWII. They would build the fuselage and then take it to the surface. Though bombed it was never damaged. There is also a place they used for prison scenes in The Scarlet Pimpernel, a movie about the french revolution.