Herrenchiemsee Palace

 One of our favorite places is Herrenchiemsee. It was fun to take the train, then a bus, then a boat, all to see a beautiful Palace. Not only is the palace lovely, but everything around it is as well. We had beautiful weather for most of the day and just got a little bit of rain at the end.

 Hailee was thrilled to show Aunt Ruthann around. James was exhausted from the fun morning on the train then a bus, and to top it all off a boat ride. Transportation is always his favorite favorite part of the vacation.

 While James slept Ruthann and Hailee walked around the gardens and took a tour of the palace. He woke up just as they were getting back and it was time to catch the boat back.

 You may have noticed that he is wearing a different "soccer" shirt. It was no small task to convince him after a month of only wearing one shirt that it was time to try a different soccer shirt. On the boat ride back he saw a little boy around Hailee's age with a soccer shirt just like he had on (it's a Munich Club) and he was so excited. He was so pleased to be wearing a "soccer" shirt like the bigger boy.

The train ride home was a little warm, but once we got the window down it was lovely. As you can see, James loved having the window down on the train as well.

After yesterday's fiasco we decided to get information about the trains going and coming back and were quite proud of ourselves when we made it back to Munich without incident. We made it back to Ostbahnhof and then we just needed one stop on the S-bahn and a tram home. Right as we got on a S-bahn train with a lot of other commuters there was an announcement made in Germany. After asking around we found out that the S-bahn main line was closed because of a fire. So Todd had to come to our rescue again.

Salzburg

We were forcasted to have rain, so I figured we might as well go to Salzburg, since it was on the list of things Ruthann wanted to do and at this point why should we ruin a good streak. It did rain on us, but we were really lucky that it wasn't too bad and mostly while we were on the bus.

We didn't have as much time as we would have liked so we did the quick tour of Salzburg, hitting as many Sound of Music sites as we could. 

 We went to the Palace where the gazebo is...."I am sixteen going on seventeen..."

 Hailee was more excited about the unicorn statue.

 "I have confidence..." water fountain.

 St. Peter's Graveyard. Although it's not in the movie, they tried to recreate the set in hollywood to look like this one.

"Do-Re-Mi" tree tunnel.

 James did great on the trip. He stayed awake for his favorite parts (i.e, train and bus rides) and slept during the boring parts (ie, sightseeing).

 And this is why I am absolutely in love with my new camera we just got got. It takes amazing pictures in low-light without a flash. Heavenly.

We also discovered a very important thing when it comes to trains. We haven't taken a lot of trains since being here, so unfortunately for Ruthann she was learning right along with me. We checked the times of the trains coming home when we got to Salzburg. We debated on the five or six o'clock train. Since the five o'clock train was the faster of the two we decided to try and get back for that one. We made it back just in time and then we discovered that our tickets didn't work for that train. They told us that we needed to get the train on platform 23. We saw it was leaving at 5:30 but we couldn't find it on the schedule. After checking with a man that worked at the train station that didn't speak english I figured it would get us back to Munich. After about an hour on the train it stopped at a station and everyone in our car got off. We assumed that the train would start going again. When it didn't and I looked out the window and sign said the train was going to Salzburg we decided to get off and investigate. What we found out was that we were suppose to get a bus to a different town and then get on a  different train to get to Munich. But we had missed the bus and the next Munich train wasn't for another hour and a half. We called Todd and he was nice enough to come and rescue us.

The moral of the story. Just because the sign says "Munich Hbf" it doesn't really mean that it's going to Munich Hbf. Makes perfect sense.

Best €7 I ever spent

Ruthann spent Monday and Tuesday with us as well. Since I can't drive our new car that meant we were on trains if we wanted to go anywhere. We planned out our days and made it to the train station. We had a while to wait our first morning so we wandered around Ostbahnhof looking at shops. We went into a bookstore at one point. Hailee and James found the kid section. In Germany there are tons of kid magazines, Hailee found one in English and since I was going to get one for Hailee we got one for James as well.

I wasn't surprised that Hailee sat and read her magazine the whole time we were on the trains, but I was surprised that James did as well. He loved his Bob the Builder magazine. I'm going to have to get a new magazine every time we travel. We also learned a lot of interesting animal facts from Hailee. Did you know that a human and a chimpanzee have the same amount of hair follicles. That little fact even got a laugh from the guy sitting next to us.

Aunt Ruthann

We were so excited to go pick Aunt Ruthann up from the airport. We were lucky enough to get to see her on her fun backpacking around Europe trip. We were spoiled to have 4 days with her at the beginning and one in the middle of her fun trip.

 After picking her up at the airport and determining that she wasn't too exhausted from the flight we took her downtown. Marienplatz where the Rathaus is has a fun little restaurant in the basement of the Rathaus called the Ratskeller. Todd had eaten there before, but it was the first time for the rest of us. So far it's my favorite "Bavarian" restaurant. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was really nice. I hope we get to go back again.

 We also walked around the square before Ruthann was too exhausted. She was actually doing pretty good with the long flight schedule and time change.

 Hailee also really wanted to show Aunt Ruthann the Residence in Munich. The girls got to sneak away one afternoon while James was sleeping and had a great time downtown. Hailee is very serious about going to the Residence. She loves the audio tour and will refuse to leave until she has heard everything about the room in the audio tour.

 She gets quite annoyed if I try to hurry her along. I'm pretty sure we'll need to go a few more times for her to be happy.

Munich was also celebrating an anniversary so they had a lot of booths set up and dancers. It was fun to see the groups and individuals dancing to traditional music in traditional costume. Hailee loved it.

Königssee

Königssee is quite possibly one of our new favorite places in Germany. A week or so Ruthann came to visit us we were looking up a few new places that would be fun to take her. When we saw the pictures of Königssee we didn't think it could be as pretty as the pictures they were showing. We fully believed that a lot of photoshop liberties had been taken. We were so pleased to find out that it was as pretty as pictures made it out to be. In fact probably prettier in person than the pictures could ever do justice. It was peaceful and absolutely beautiful.

Königssee is the cleanest lake in Germany (which is really saying something because every lake we've been to has been very nice and clean. They have only allowed electric boats on the water since 1909 and it was made a National Park in 1978.

We took a boat tour of the lake. It was all in German, but it was kind of fun to discover the German holiday spot instead of having everything translated for us. At one point the captain of the ship stopped the boat and played his trumpet which in turn had a beautiful echo. It was so pretty. We tried getting it on video, but you couldn't hear the echo.

The weather and time didn't allow us to do everything, but it gave us a good taste of Königssee. Now we just need to go back to do everything.

St. Mark's Square

 We had a few camera issues in Venice. I had lost my camera and after a day of taking so many pictures Louise had a nearly dead battery. On our way to St. Mark's square we decided to stop by a camera store to see if we could buy a new battery or charger for Louise's camera. We were excited to find out that for a small fee they would charge her battery in an hour or so. Since we were on our way to St. Mark's I decided to buy a disposable camera. I knew the pictures wouldn't be phenomenal, but for a cheap disposable camera I was happy with how they turned out. It looks a little retro to me.

 The kids had the best time chasing the pigeons. Too bad they were interrupted with a torrential rain storm.

Venice - Day 3 and a half

The kids bedroom faced the canal. They loved looking out their window, but I can't tell you how many times I had to think "If one falls in...." how deep is it, how much of a drop, and how dirty is that water? Thankfully I never had to find out the answer to any of those questions.

Todd had to get back to work, so the kids and I stayed another day and a half with the Elder family. We love traveling with them. We both have two-year-olds and can both appreciate what it's like to travel with two-year-olds. Thankfully for the most part the meltdowns were kept fairly minimal and I think everyone had a great time. (At least we hope the Elder family will want to travel with us again.)

As we were preparing for our trip I kept a close eye on the weather. As it got closer it looked like we were going to get rained out. It was foretasted to rain every day we were there. Thankfully the rain held out until Monday. In the morning we went to St. Mark's square to chase after the pigeons (pictures coming soon). The kids loved it. Adelaide how to go to the bathroom, so I stayed with my kids and the two strollers while they went to find a bathroom. Not long after the Elder's left the sky got really dark and a sudden downpour started. Thanks to Hailee's help we were able to safely under some cover to watch it rain. The elder's found us and we enjoyed watching sheets of water drop on the now deserted square.

After a few minutes it cleared up a little and we were able to grab some lunch, and head off to Murano. Once we got there though the rain had come to stay. After trying to get around, we figured it was useless since we weren't prepared for rain and everyone was cold and wet. We made our way back to our apartment and dried out. Thankfully the sky decided to dry out as well and in a couple of hours we had sun shine again. We have a lovely time walking around that evening, grabbing some dinner and of course getting some ice cream.

 James, as you can see, really enjoyed his ice cream. He usually wants what his sister gets, but this time he told me he wanted "white" so vanilla it was and he was so pleased.

 Hailee and Biscuit. I had no idea Biscuit would be such a well traveled dog.

The next day the kids and I had to go home. I got up early in the morning to go for a walk before people were awake. It was beautiful. It felt like I had the streets of Venice to myself for a lot of the morning.My plan was to make it to St. Mark's square and then find my way back home. I was so proud of myself because I made it to St. Mark's square without getting lost. After taking a few pictures around the square I started back, with my new found confidence of finding my way around the crazy streets of Venice. It wasn't long however before I was miserably lost. I wandered around for another few minutes before I saw a girl that looked like she was on her way to work, headed in the exact direction I figured our apartment was. We had a shopping area right by our house. I decided to follow her. Sure enough she was headed to work and knew right where she was going....however she worked right by St. Mark's square. I was now back where I started. So after another bit of wandering around and finding all kinds of beautiful places I finally found my way back to the Rialto bridge and from there I knew my way back to our apartment.

After we got packed up we decided to try another time to get to Murano before my train. We made it there without the rain, but when it was time for me to go back the rain started.

Going home we debated taking the sleeper train home, but as it didn't leave until 11:00 at night, I wasn't sure I could do that by myself with two tired and cranky kids. In the end we decided to take the 1:30 pm train that would get us home by 8:30. I was a little worried at how the kids would do, but they were amazing. James and Hailee played happily for the first 2 hours and then James took a two hour nap. The last three hours were great as well, with the exception of the last 30 minutes or so. James got a little stir crazy and wasn't bad, just louder than everyone else on the train (we were the only kids). I'm sure everyone was happy to get there so they didn't have to listen to his silliness. Overall I would totally do it again. It was a beautiful train ride home and the kids were awesome.

It was hard to come home from such a beautiful place with such wonderful friends, but we were excited to see Todd again. So that made it a little easier. Now I just wish we could go back. I think I could go to Venice every year and enjoy it every time. It's just such a fascinating city with a fascinating history.

Venice - Day 2

These two little ones met and were so happy to see each other. They were so cute with each other the whole time. Adelaide was always willing to share her stuffed monkey with James. 

We woke up and met up with Jonathon and Louise. It was so great to catch up and head into Venice. We found our hotel thanks to Jonathon's faithful direction from the map and dropped of our luggage so we could go and explore. Venice was hot and crowded again so we decided to head out to another little Island. Today we chose Burano, where all the lace making takes place. It to had all the beautiful canals as the other islands,  but had a very different feel. The homes were smaller and more colorful. It also felt a little cooler than Venice and it certainly was a lot less crowded.

Burano was beautiful, just before getting back to the main island we decided to have dinner there. Todd wanted to have some of the local fish so he ordered a seafood pizza and a seafood spaghetti. Hailee wasn't super impressed with the mussels and octopus or squid that came with her pizza, but content to eat around it. Todd and I thought it was fun, and very different.

View from our terrace

Chandelier in the living room

Once we got back we checked in to our apartment. Louise found an incredible deal on an apartment for us. It was a floor of an old Venitian Palace....and absolutely amazing. From the marble columns to the huge chandelier it definitely lived up to the 'palace' feel. It had three rooms and fit us all very comfortably. After getting settled. Todd and I walked down to the boat/bus stop to check what time he had to be there to catch his train that evening. It was a fun little walk because we got to see 'Venice' coming home. The streets were quiet, things were closing down, and people were walking home. To me that was almost more fun than seeing St. Mark's square. A little old lady on the second floor poked her head out the window and asked us what time it was. Another lady walking home was talking to someone else up on the third floor that was expecting her arrival. It was lovely to see how this little city really lives once all the tourists get back on the boat.

 Jonathon, Louise, and Adelaide

Todd and Nicole

That night after Todd left we got the kids to bed and  Louise and I walked down to the Ponte di Rialto. It was fun to see Venice in the evening with all the lights on Grand Canal. It was also fun to walk around with Louise without the children. No matter what time of day this city is really magical, but I prefer the early morning and evenings the best.

Venice - Day One

While living in Germany it is so fun to have European friends. At any moment they can email you and say "Hey let's meet in Venice!" Sure we'd love to!  I'm not sure we would have done Venice on our own so we are really glad the Elder family planned it for us.  Todd had been to Venice before on a work trip to Italy, but it hadn't been a really great experience. It was end of January, freezing cold, and they were only there a few hours. After this trip we both agree that it is one of our favorite city's we've been to.

James on the train. He was so excited when he woke up and he was still on the train. This vacation was perfect for the little guy. We went in on a train, rode on a whole lot of boats, saw lots of water, and came home on a train. What could be better?

The Elder's were so kind as to plan just about everything about the trip, but it was up to us to get there. We went back and forth trying to decided which way to go. In the end we decided on the sleeper train. In theory it would have been perfect and in practice it wasn't too bad either. The few little hiccups we had were we didn't get our own compartment (apparently you have to book a little more ahead than the week before) and Hailee had bad dreams so she woke up quite a few times. I'm not sure what she was dreaming about, but every time I woke her up she gave me this really annoyed/confused look and said "Why are you waking me up." I told her it was because she was having a bad dream to which she responded, "no I wasn't." Well she could have fooled everyone in our car.

Even with the terrible night we were all excited to be in Venice. It truely was Magical. The train got us in at 6:30 in the morning and in my opinion the best time of day to be in Vienna. There was hardly anyone around. It was lovely. We went took a Vaporetto down the Grand Canal, saw St. Mark's square, and went up to the bell tower. While we were at the top of the Bell Tower we saw several huge cruise ships coming in and by the time we got down the line to see the inside of St. Marco's basilica was a million miles long and there were millions of people around. It was getting hot so we decided to get out of the crowds and head to one of the other islands around Venice.

Campanile di San Marco

View from the top of Campanile di San Marco

We chose Murano. The island where they make glass. In the year 1291 Venice kicked all the glass makers off the island because they were afraid the furnaces would burn down the city. I am so glad they did, Murano island is a lovely afternoon trip. Our favorite part of the trip was to go in and watch a glass blowing demonstration. It was AMAZING! We saw him make a vase and a horse. It was amazing how quickly he did it. After the vase was done to show how hot it still was the man put a piece of paper in it and it was immediately burned to ashes. The horse he made was amazing as well. It started out as just a big blob of glass and he 'pulled' out a head, four legs and a tail in just a few minutes.  The island itself was also really beautiful and definitely had that same "magical" feel of Venice, but very unique on it's own.

By early afternoon we were all wearing down. In fact we were all exhausted. We decided to go check into our hotel. Since we were meeting up with the Elder family and they were coming in from the airport we stayed at a hotel by the airport that first night. We got checked in and Todd went to go get us a few things to eat at the grocery store since the dinner places didn't open until seven. I was surprised with how quickly he came back and that he didn't have any groceries with him. We had forgotten about the afternoon siesta time, and everything was closed.

We did finally get to the grocery store, but by seven we were all starving. We went to the local little restaurant and ordered. It was INCREDIBLE. It tasted so good and it was just a local little shop, not expensive at all and completely authentic. I decided that when I get home I have to get a pasta maker and learn how to make it. Fresh pasta is so much better. Hailee wanted to try real Italian pizza. In looking at the menu and the 30 different choices it was hard to really know what to get for her so we asked for a recommendation from our waitress. She asked Hailee if she liked cheese, tomato, and french fries. Hailee of course said yes to all of the above. While we were waiting for our food, Todd was teasing her that they were going to put the french fries on the pizza. We all thought was just silly, fully knowing that they would come on the size. The joke was on us because they did in fact come right on the top of the pizza. Hailee loved it.

It was truly a wonderful day.

(The rest of our pictures from day one are on Todd's phone and I can't figure out how to get them off right now, I'll put them up later.)