All Aboard - Western Med Cruise (Sept 08)

Having spent most of the summer getting settled into our new house or working, we decided to take a well deserved break and booked a western Mediterranean cruise with our great friends Jon, Marsha, and Julia Byrom.  So four adults and three children - Abi 4, James 22 months, and Julia Byrom 16 months set off on what would be a wonderful, fun-filled adventure.

We caught our boat, The Norwegian Gem in Barcelona, Spain and spent the first real day of vacation sailing in the Mediterranean to the island of Malta.  Early on the second morning Jon and I got up early and watched us sail into the port of Valletta, Malta at sunrise.  Looking over our pictures from that morning only confirms how incredible this port call was - complete with Turkish architecture from the 1500s and the European-style fortification built in the centuries following.  We were only able to spend a couple of hours in Malta's capital but it was enough to make us all hope to return to this unique island again one day.

    

Our next stop was the port of Naples, Italy where we decided to split our  time between Pompei and Sorrento.  Walking the streets of Pompei was surreal.  From the frescos painted on the wall to the temples of Venus and Apollo, the level of preservation was stunning.  I highly recommend it to anyone able to travel in Southern Italy.  Then a short cab ride with Lelo - our Italian cab driver for the day - we savored an incredible lunch in Sorrento... mussels, gnoche, pizza, chianti.  Cosi buon!

Our third stop was Civitavecchia which allowed us to train into Rome.  In Rome for the afternoon we toured the city in an open-topped bus typical in most European cities.  As with Malta, seeing the antiquities of Rome only encourages our planning for future travels in Italy.

Our last stop in Italy was Livorno which put us a 20 min bus ride from Pisa.  This was the only day it rained and we decided to brave our way through it.  Soaked to the bone, we still managed to pose in front of the leaning tower, find fine Italian leather purses for the ladies, and eat an incredible Tuscan-style lunch.  The kids were just happy to play with the 3 euro umbrellas we bought in a futile attempt to stay dry.

Our final stop on the cruise was on the French Riviera and Monoco.  It is perfectly clear why the rich and famous spend so much time in this beautiful part of the France.       

If interested, follow the link to our photo album to see more pictures of our cruise and the places we visited.

Abi's Spring Dance Recital

Last Friday Abi had her second and last dance recital with her dance group in Mannheim.  Despite costumes which were a little too much like "Little Miss Sunshine" for her Dad to handle, the recital was great fun.  (Luckily the person who sewed the costume tops didn't realize that when one stitches fringe onto elastic that if the elastic isn't stretched, then it looses its elasticity.  Thus, very few of the girls could actually fit into the tops and Abi now has a fringy top to dress up her baby dolls that cost her Dad $50.)   

The dance recital included both a tap and a ballet routine.   It was amazing to watch 3 and 4 year olds get up on stage.   The evening ended with each little girl receiving flowers and a trophy.  Abi was so proud of her trophy that she told Amanda that she thought we should display it in our curio cabinet - too cute.  Follow the photo album link on the right of the page to see a few more pictures  and we hope that everyone enjoys this small clip from the recital.   (Sorry about the poor resolution but I couldn't get anything better to post... I'm still learning how this whole blog thing works.)      

The Castles of the Neckar River Valley

Several weekends ago we took advantage of a beautiful spring afternoon and did some exploring here in the Neckar River valley.  We drove about 20 minutes from our home to the cities of Dilsberg and Neckarsteinach where five castle ruins remain nestled on the river's banks.  

Dislberg, Germany is a fortress city which sits a top of a small mountain - hence the "berg" in its name.  The walled city complete with castle ruins will celebrate  its 800th anniversary this year.  (To offer some perspective, Dilsberg existed for over 300 years before the Iroquois formed the League of Nations in what is  now the U.S.)  The very small city is complete with cobble stone streets and walled defenses.  It was amazing to walk around and see people still living within the city walls.  One of the most impressive  views of the city from our second stop of the

 afternoon Necharsteinach.                        

        

              

Necharsteinach, Germany is a small city with four castles, with two accessible to the public.  To get to each castle ruin we walked along some well-traveled walking trails and despite the age of the ruins, we were able to climb up and into the existing towers.  Hintersburg (pictured below with one central tower) originated in the 12th century and was closest to the river.  Schadeck (ruins pictured below with two towers) was started in the 13th century and a 15 minute walk from Hintersburg.  You can see from the picture that between 100 years and about 1 kilometer, architecture took a huge leap.

    

Abi's Birthday

Like the Queen, Abigail also enjoys a month long celebration for her birthday in April.  Now 4-years-old, Abi's birthday began with a small family celebration and followed with a party at  school, at home with Amanda and James on the 22nd (I was away unfortunately), and culminated with a party for five little girls from her pre-school class all born within two weeks of each other.  Attached are a few pictures.  For more see the link on the right-hand side of the blog.

A Weekend Getaway to the Netherlands

          Geode Dag.  We just returned from a great weekend in the Netherlands full of tulips, wooden shoes, and wind mills.  Arriving on Friday morning, we took a bus ride through blooming flower fields to the Keukenhof Spring Garden.  Although we were probably two weeks too early to see the garden at its spring peak, it was still beautiful.  Our pictures do not do Keukenhof justice so we included the link for those interested - www.keukenhof.nl/nm/english.html

          On Saturday we visited the community of Zaanse Schans - a picturesque Dutch village complete with several original and working windmills.  Although the weather threatened to ruin our day, we were fortunate that it held off long enough for us to explore the village and its windmills.  Because it is a "tourist attraction," Zaanse Schans also offered shops full of wooden shoes, diamonds, and porcelain.  

          We spent our final day in Amsterdam itself.  We started the day walking through the floating flower market where one can arguably find any variety of flower in the world.  Following the flower market we stumbled upon a Sunday art market in a region of the city known as Spiel.   In the afternoon we toured the city by canal and saw many of its main attractions - beautiful rows of canal houses, the Anne Frank House, and the Rijks Museum.  We were lucky enough to spend a couple of hours at the Van Gogh Museum which holds the largest single collection of Van Gogh's in the world to include The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers and Iris.  One of the best things about the museum was that it had a children's "treasure hunt."  The game involved a small questionnaire that asked Abi to examine a painting from each period of Van Gogh's career allowing her to describe its subject and the artist's technique along with capturing Abi's perspective of the painting.  It was amazing to see the works through Abi's eyes.  It was also an ingenious way to keep Abi engaged, allowing the rest of us - minus James because he couldn't snack in the gallery - to enjoy the collection. 

          And, what trip to Amsterdam would be complete without a peek at the "red-light" district.  Despite our best intentions to avoid "window shopping" with the kids, a short cut gone wrong allowed for a quick glance at Amsterdam's oldest tourist attraction on the way to the central train station.