Berchtesgaden

 

 After our travels to Slovenia, we came home by way of Berchtesgaden.  It is in the corner of Germany and Austria.  The very corner.  It is one of the most beautiful places around.  It is home of Hitler's Eagles Nest, but we didn't visit there this time.  It was a foggy day and we'd like to see the views, but we also plan on going back.

Here is a quick overview of our 2 days there.

Camping.  What a beautiful place to camp.



Dinner time. 



Packed in. 
 Europeans don't really observe the whole personal space thing.  Like in elevators, tables in resturants, or camping...there is always room for one more.



Rained at nights.  Yep, tent leaks a little!

 

Downtown Berchtesgaden Center.  Lots of shopping and food. Yum.

 



In Bavaria the houses and buildings are painted with neat scenes.

We are unable to go anywhere without a bakery stop.  I love bakeries.

 

 

Konigssee.  The highest lake in Germany.  Beautiful place for a skinny dip.

 



We didn't have time for a boat ride, but we did have time for a little hike down the side of the lake.

The boys wanted to swim.  Actually most of them wanted 1 euro.  I told Davis that I'd give him a euro to swim in the lake, but that he couldn't get his clothes wet because we were packed and going home that night.  So off came the clothes, but they didn't go full European, they kept undies on.  The men next to us did not.  All boys soon followed suit.  It was cold.

We couldn't put on dry clothes with wet undies.  Christian loaded them on a stick and "hobo'd" them back to the van.  None of the boys wanted to walk by him.

Going Commando for the rest of the day.



 Ramsau an der Ache.  Church, river, bridge, valley, and cemetary.  Beautiful.

 

 

 



The churches are usually connected or near a cemetary.  We like to walk through and see which people died in which war.  This was a very unique cemetary with all the house looking headstones.

Deutsch Dienstag-Painting the Bus Stop

 I couldn't start another year with my boys sitting at a bus stop that looked like this.  The side that you can't see, nearest Christian, is full of the worst words. 



Before

I asked my landlord to look into it again.  He said that he would try to find out who to ask.  I just wanted permission.  It took him awhile, and then I decided that nobody would mind if I fixed something up.  Besides Darin was out of town and we were looking for projects to do.  I find the need to fill my days with projects while he is gone, as if being a single parent of 5 isn't project enough. I may need to talk to someone about that one day...anyway...

We stopped waiting and bought paint.  We went and removed the graffiti from the metal and also a window, then painted it.  The boys got some scouting service hours and a much improved bus stop for a new school year. 

Davis and Christian painted and scrubbed with me.  Noah kept Anya from running in the road.  Then the two of them painted the ground with all of the water.  Jag was at scout day camp. 

We didn't do this without an audience. 

Nobody asked us any questions, but many watched.  We clearly weren't from the city because we weren't wearing the blue jumpsuits that are typically worn, also the addition of a stroller and young ones may have drawn the attention. 

Leaving our mark on Germany one bus stop at a time!

 

After
We bought this great spray that takes paint off of plastic and metal and just scrubbed the bad words away,  then painted over the wood.

Slovenia, a hidden gem!

"Why didn't anyone ever tell us that Slovenia is so amazing?"  Darin and I were wondering that the entire day that we were there.  Nobody around here really talks about Slovenia.  They should.  It was only a 2 hour day trip from the Venice area and so we had to go. (Davis is all about crossing off as many countries as he can.) I googled Things to do in Slovenia  and found a cool looking castle and a cave that were in the same area, so that was the plan.  Slovenia in one day. 

First of all Slovenia is very green, but not like Germany green because it was also hot.  It has tons of pine trees and Darin thought it looked like the High Unitah's.  Mountains.  Really pretty. 

 

Predjama Castle

Predjama castle first mentioned in 1274. Home of the knight Erazem.  The boys liked learning of Erazem and learning of his fate.  He was a sneaky, yet loved robber baron who would trick the soldiers.  Heres the story:

For a year and a day, Erazem was besieged in his fortress. But, much to the dismay of his adversaries, he continued to survive and taunt the attacking soldiers by pelting them with cherries. They couldn't figure out how he was getting his supplies. As far as they knew, there was only one way in and out of the valley, and the castle. But the cunning knight knew better. Unbeknownst to the soldiers, Erazem knew of a secret tunnel leading from the castle, which allowed him to travel to the nearby village of Vipava and collect supplies, including hoards of fresh cherries when the season was ripe.

But it seemed that the soldiers were to have the last laugh. With the strategic placement of a small signal flag, a servant of Erazem was bribed to reveal when his master was in attendance at that place where the elusive knight and even the noblest of men needed to go after consuming lots of cherries and wine: the outhouse. Unfortunately for Erazem, the toilet, situated on the top floor and at the very edge of the castle, was the one place that wasn't so impregnable. When the moment came, the flag was placed there by the treacherous servant. A single cannon ball was launched, and the errant knight was literally caught with his pants down.

Yep, they thought that it was funny that he died on the toilet.


First glance at the Predjama Castle.  It is half in a cave and half out.  Really cool.

The family in Slovenia.

Isn't that a cool castle in a cave?

Under the castle there is a cave that you can tour,but the cave is only open for 6 weeks because of the bats that live there. The thought of all that bat guano gave me the creeps and so we opted for the cooler cave down the road.

Climbing around in the castle.



Noah walked though the castle shooting "arrows" at everything.

 

This picture reminded me so much of one that I had taken in an underground city in Turkey when only 3 kids existed.  I wish I could find it and put it side by side with this one.  Davis is pulling that face on purpose because I made him climb up in a hole when he is 13!

 

On the drawbridge.  More arrows being shot.

Postojna Cave

 

Slovenia has dozens and dozens of caves.  I guess that with all the mountains and a perfectly placed river or so, tah-dah, caves.  This is the largest cave in the area.  First of all we got on this train to travel into the cave.  It was like a Disneyland ride.  Quite quick and we were surrounded by beauty everywhere.  We weaved around and through the cave for 3-1/2 kilometers, then we got out and walked around for another 1-1/2 kilometers and ended with another train ride for 5 kilometers.  The cave was the most amazing, sparkly cave ever.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to take the kinder, or myself for that matter, to another cave again.  Miles and miles of stalactites and stalagmites. 



 

Ready for the train ride.

It wasn't permissable to take photos in the cave.

My illegal photos don't do justice to the amazing sites.

 

Here is a picture that I found online that shows more of the things that we were able to see in the cave.  One of the strangest things was a room that had a huge chandelier hanging and lights all around.  An amazing location for a wedding reception or grand ball or something.  

We would have loved to go farther into Slovenia and explored more, but we just didn't have the time.  Slovenia is awesome.

Deutsch Dienstag-Out to the Wood Pile

Germans have wood piles. 

 But, to me, the most amazing thing about the wood piles are the way that they are organized and stacked.  They pile tons and tons of logs so neatly.  The wood piles don't fall over.  They are amazing. 

 

When Darin was a kid, to keep he and his brother busy, they would have the job of UNstacking and then REstacking their family wood pile.  He doesn't think that they ever used the wood, just stacked it...in case.  This would be a wood pile to keep a group of 4 boys busy for an entire summer.  Maybe Darin's dad had the right idea!

 

 

Venice, Part 2

Eating Lunch on the edge of the canal.

Everywhere we travel we pack Tuna Packs.  Tuna packs are small, light, flat and filling.  The kids all enjoy them.  We've eaten tuna in Turkey, London, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and on... Darin has decided to document all the tuna eating adventures.  One day the boys will associate tuna with travel. Here the boys were feeding tuna to the little crabs that were on the stairs where they sat.

Our Favorite Part of Venice. 
We sat on the edge of the Grand Canal and dangled our feet in the cool water.  We had a germ-a-phobe friend who was disgusted that we'd done this, but really in the Grand Canal wasn't dirty.  We loved doing this.

Anya refused to get out.

My turn to work out and hang Anya in the water.

Gelato!  Another favorite thing.

Love his "fierce face."

Realto bridge from the water.  Looks less crowded from here.

Not everything about Venice was great!  It was EXPENSIVE to pee!  (Think almost 2 dollars)

Visiting with our great friends at their house.

Venice, Part 1

Italy is hot.  Everyone told us that Venice was crowded and dirty.  That the worst time to go would be in July or August. 

We went to Venice in July and we loved it.  Yes it was hot, but we haven't been Hot in a year, so we didn't mind it too much.  We loved Venice.  We tried to stay away from the crowds and we didn't find it to be too dirty.  I think having "low" expectations helped us to have a fantastic time.  It was quite neat to wonder all over the bridges.

We wondered the back alleys.  The boys loved getting "lost" in Venice.

Notice:  Nobody is around us!  It was wonderful.

Got all my ducks in a row.

Refilling our waterbottles at a fountain.  We weren't quite sure that it was safe, but didn't end up getting sick.

By the Rialto Bridge.  Now we find a lot of people around.  We saw and then got lost again.

In front of San Marco.  We wondered for half the day trying to find this place.  With all the people around, I was glad that we chose to walk and not take a boat to the Plaza.

San Marco's plaza is packed with pigeons that will eat out of your hands.  Darin threatened and scared the boys about all the diseases they would get from the birds, but I told them to go ahead I had hand sanitizer.  They loved this part.