Gruenhundstrasse

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Schloss

"Schloss" means "Castle" in German!

We went to the Neuschwanstein Castle this weekend. If you think you have seen this castle before, then you probably haven't, you've just seen the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, which was inspired by this castle.

We walked up to the top of a mountain to see the castle. It took about 40 minutes from the village.

We waited for our tour to begin!

The little yellow castle you can see in the middle of the picture is called Hohenschwangau Castle and was built by the same person who built Neuschwanstein Castle, which was King Ludwig II of Bavaria. (Also known as crazy King Ludwig).

The inside of the castle was very nice, but only half of the interior was finished because the King died before it was finished. My favorite part was his bedroom because that was where the coolest furniture was and he had a door that looked like part of the wall. And he had an artificial cave built into his house because he liked an Opera by Wagner that part of it takes place in a cave. All the paintings in the castle were scenes of operas by Wagner. (He was a little obsessed with Wagner's operas...in case you have not noticed.)

Here is a cool waterfall by the castle.

Here is a closer shot of the Hohenschwangau Castle (the little yellow one).

Here is the castle from a distance at sunset.

Neuschwanstein Castle - smaller than I expected when I got up closer, but definitely bigger than the Sleeping Beauty Castle!

Fare la Speza

"Fare la speza" means "shopping" in Italian!

We did our Thanksgiving weekend shopping in Milan!

First we tried to go see the famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, "The Last Supper" but we found out you have to reserve tickets two weeks in advance. (Next time you visit Milan, keep this in mind...)

We saw the church where the painting is housed, anyway...

This is the Galleria, which is a famous shopping area of Milan.

And this is the Duomo, the big church in Milan.

There were lots of places to shop.

Well....window shop...

This is a picture of Kieran doing his own advertisements...

We took the Metro around Milan.

On the last day of our trip we drove back home, which really I don't count as a day of vacation.

We stopped to look at Lake Como for about 3 minutes. (We will have to come back another time.)

Half of Lake Como is in Italy and the other half is in Switzerland, because it's on the border.

We drove home through Switzerland. (Country # 6)

Here is a REAL Alpine slide. (In the Alps...get it?)

Bicicletta

"Bicicletta" means bicycle in Italian!

When we stayed in Tuscany we went to a city called Lucca. We rented a big four-person bicycle and went around on the city wall where they have lots of parks and trails.

This is our bike! (Only one of the steering wheels really works. The other one is just so the passenger can feel important.) There are two more seats in the back for the other people.

We stopped at several of the parks.

Another day while we were in Tuscany we went to Pisa.

We saw the leaning Tower of Pisa.

It looked like it was going to fall on me....Ahhhhhhhh!

But it didn't.

You simply cannot go to Pisa without taking a picture of yourself either

1. Holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa

2. Knocking down the Leaning Tower of Pisa

3. Leaning on the Leaning Tower of Pisa

4. Acting like the Leaning Tower of Pisa was going to crush you (see photo above)

5. Taking a sip from a cup that is the Leaning Tower of Pisa

(You get the picture...)

And so did I:

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Frohe Weihnachten

"Frohe Weihnachten" means "Merry Christmas" in German!

To get pumped up for Christmas we participated in our community Reindeer Run 5K. While we were running it was 23 degrees outside. Brrrr!!

It was so cold that you could see the frost on the plants!

A fire truck arrived with Santa in it. Here is a picture of the German firetruck, as requested by Coach Greenwood. The best part about German firetrucks is the noise that they make. It's funky.