Ski School US-Style...

A big advantage of going to Edelweiss is that they have their own American ski school. Not only do the instructors all speak English, but they charge in the new American peso which saves a considerable amount. The girls both loved their four days of ski school. Veronica was up the mountain on intermediate slopes most of the time. Ashlynn began at the bottom of the mountain, but spent the final two days up the mountain on the beginner and even some intermediate runs. I wimped out with the excuse that the conditions weren’t perfect. Jimmy attempted snowboarding, but found that his good sense of balance did nothing to stop him from landing repeatedly on his knees and wrists, body parts he needs for running and his job, respectively. If he’d only fallen on his head, he may have stuck it out. Instead he switched to snowblades for a day then hung out with me for two days. On Saturday, he took Veronica by cog train to ski the glacier at the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain at 9,700 feet (sorry, he didn’t bring the camera).

A Fairy Tale Castle...

We took the train to Garmisch- Partenkirchen, home of the 1936 Olympics. We stayed for a week at the Edelweiss Resort, a US Armed Forces lodge that reminded us of the Disney Wilderness Lodge in Orlando but set in the Bavarian Alps. We had an extra day before ski school started, so we went on a bus tour to the Neuschwanstein Castle. While I normally avoid bus tours because they put me to sleep, I really wanted the girls to see the castle that helped inspire Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyland. As you can see, there was no snow around, which would have been beautiful to see, but the skies were a wonderful clear blue and it wasn’t too cold. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photos inside of this magical palace. King Ludwig II’s obsession with building castles nearly bankrupted Bavaria. He only lived in this incomplete castle for 6 months in 1886 before mysteriously drowning two days after being declared unfit to be king.

Back to Germany...

After only one week back at the office, it was time for Jimmy to take a week off so we could go on his company ski trip. We flew into Munich for a quick overnight stay. We found yummy all-you-can-eat sushi for lunch, then headed to the Deutsches Museum, the world’s largest science and technology museum that Jimmy had visited as a teen with his parents. We were bummed that the brick making factory was out of order, but thoroughly enjoyed the mines underground, the room of bridges and tunnels, and the high voltage show. We’ll definitely plan on a longer visit next time. The next morning we spent in the wellness center at our hotel, which was amazingly sophisticated (we’ve had great luck staying at Novotels in many cities--we highly recommend them for families). Jimmy found a discounted bakery on the way to the train station; the name was a bit discouraging, but the giant pretzels were great.

Welcome Home, Daddy!

The girls were very excited that we were traveling home by plane instead of train since they thought it would be more dramatic to greet us at the airport than the train station. They had a fun week staying at David and Andrew’s, where they all helped to make this great sign. When we got home, the girls played a PowerPoint presentation that they made him. The four months that Jimmy was away really did seem to fly by quickly. It definitely helped that he emailed almost daily and called at least once a week--thank goodness for the Internet and speaker phones!

A Morning in Switzerland...

After a near panic when we thought we’d locked ourselves in the historic chapel at the hotel, we managed to be on our way back to Switzerland for our final morning of sightseeing before heading to the airport. Our first stop was at Augusta Raurica to see some Roman ruins. We met up with some very aggressive geese and I was happy to have my red umbrella along to defend myself. Next we ventured into Basel where we were carried along by the wind in the above motorless boat across the Rhine into the historic center. We met Bill’s wife Nina for lunch near her office and then were dropped off at the airport for our return flight to reality.

The Rhine Falls...

The Rhine River definitely was a big part of our travels with Bill. First we saw one of its lakes, then we headed to its falls, which just happened to be in Switzerland. The Rhine Falls is the largest falls in Europe, obviously because of its width not height. We’re hoping to come back this summer when the Swiss Hash hosts a special weekend at the youth hostel in the castle at the top of the falls. Our route to our hotel on the bank of the Rhine took us back and forth across the river and jumping between the two countries several times along the way. It was interesting to see how some of the borders were quite official where we were made to show passports and others were literally two guys sitting in a truck waving us through.

Road Tripping in Germany...

Bill was a very enthusiastic tour guide. After a night in Freiburg, we hit the road to see the Black Forest. We ended up in the historic town of Meersburg along the eastern coast of Lake Constance (which is actually a lake on the Rhine River) where we found a restaurant with this beautiful view of the Alps in the distance.
We toured this medieval castle, Germany’s oldest remaining fortress, then took a car ferry across the lake to the quaint city of Konstanz, where additional Fastnacht events were taking place.

Fastnacht...

Jimmy had been to Mardi Gras twice in New Orleans back in the 80’s, but that didn’t prepare him for what we saw or in this case, didn’t see. There were no women flashing for beads or drunks peeing in the bushes. In fact there was no decadence at all. Of course, to help make up for the lack of vomiting spectators, the above spinning wheel could easily cause these participants to spew instead.
Afterwards, we headed into the oldest part of Freiburg (90% of this town was destroyed during WWII--the Germans accidentally dropped 60 bombs in 1940, then the Allies followed up in 1944) to go to a microbrewery. As you can see, Bill loaned us his goofy hats so he wouldn’t have to wear one.

Carnival German-Style...

When our old San Diego Hash buddy Webfoot, known these days as Bill, heard we’d be in the area, he invited us to join him in his town of Freiburg for Carnival. Germans call the pre-Lenten Carnival season “the foolish season.” After seeing dozens of groups wearing strange masks, the name definitely fits. Carnival can be traced back to pagan Roman festivals. Ugly masks were worn to drive out the evil spirits of winter and encourage the coming of spring and good crops. The weather was rather spring-like, so perhaps it was working.

Romance in Medieval France...

After two nights in the big city, it was time to head somewhere more quaint. We trained to Colmar, France where we checked into a hotel built in 1565 in the district known as Petite Venice. Lucky for us the hotel had a nice restaurant along the canal since it turned out that much of the town was closed for a winter break. It was very relaxing being in this sleepy, old town.

What a Reunion!

After much confusion and changes in plans due to an unexpected deportation that actually worked to our benefit (but you’ll have to hear that story in person), Jimmy arrived back in Europe on February 1st after over 4 months away. Lucky for us, Sally looked after the girls so we could have some time alone. I met him in Germany, complete with running down the train platform to jump in his arms, and we trained to Strasbourg, France for 2 nights. We found a nice hotel in the historic city center and spent many hours just wandering around. We visited the Kronenbourg Brewery without realizing the brewing had moved to another city several years ago, we wouldn’t understand a word of the tour, and the French version of Guiness sucks. We had more success visiting the beautiful gothic cathedral and the fine art museum. We took lots of photos, but only managed to get this one of the two of us.

Deltaworks...

It was definitely worth the walk in the wind to actually enter the Deltaworks. It was very cool to actual enter the superstructure and walk in an area above the swinging gates and below the road, although I didn’t take any photos inside. Then we walked around outside, which was very impressive. For the first time since the barrier was completed in 1986, it was closed in November 2007 along with all the other barriers on the coast as Holland braced for a huge storm surge. We were relieved to learn that they all worked and there was no flooding.

Neeltje Jans...

We were thrilled that while visiting Europe, Buddy decided to spend his birthday with us despite Jimmy being out of town. He had rented a car and was happy to take a day trip, so we headed south to for a fun day at the water theme park called Neeltje Jans (which means “Lady of the North Sea”). There was a small aquarium, an exhibit on mussels and a seal show. There was also several films and a museum explaining the Deltaworks, a series of storm surge barriers protecting much of the Dutch coast. It was a cold day in January and Buddy wasn’t thrilled about the walk outside, but we couldn’t drive that far and not see the barrier up close. We’d actually driven across this barrier on the way to the artificial island where Neeltje Jans was built.

Finnish Toilets...

I always enjoy finding unusual signs when we visit a new country. I especially liked the above sign at the National Gallery in Helsinki. Luckily the WC wasn’t full so we didn’t have to use the “one in the ground.” Also, luckily the WC during the husky ride was more than a hole in the ground. There was a compost toilet, which came in handy, but not much fun stripping out of our ski overalls to use.

Searching for Rudolph...

On our last full day in the Artic, we didn’t have any big adventures planned. We set off to see if we could find any reindeer in the woods behind the igloo village since we’d seen some from the bus. Our search was successful, but the photos aren’t the best since I didn’t have a telephoto lens. Veronica tried creeping closer, but didn’t have much luck before they ran off.