At Summer's End

This post officially gets me caught up on what we did this Summer!  We had a few miscellaneous adventures in between our big adventures that I wanted to make sure I journaled about.  Since this blog is mainly for my own family journal and also so loved ones far away can tune into our going's on.

 There is a wildlife area near where we live that has wild boars and deer that you can feed.  The boars, luckily, are kept a fence away from you as you feed, but the deer come right up to you.  They are pretty skittish, but we had some luck getting a small heard up near us.  The girls really wanted to feed the babies, but only the men were interested...or brave....enough to come close for a tasty snack!

 a few weeks later we went with a group of friends to hunt for some fossils.

They even had small boy sized safety goggles and rock picks.

 The girls all found some pretty cool fossils.  I was amazed at how many there were there to find!  The German fellow that runs it was amazing.  He must be a rock whisperer.  He would pick up a big, ordinary, looking rock and turn it over in his hands.  Then he would either toss it (if it was no good), or say..."Yes, this is a graveyard".  He would pick up his pick axe, whack it once at the spot he had chosen, and the rock would split apart to reveal many, many fossils.  It was brilliant...but frustrating for the girls.  They did not have the same success he did at picking the rocks.  Eventually we all found a few fossils on our own though...we just cracked way more then one rock to find them!

 Last, we went to the Nurnberg zoo. 

This is pretty close to where we live, about 40 minutes away.

The boys loved the lion, but he was pretty lazy!

 Our Tiger friend, however, was very entertaining.  He would stand on his rock and growl back at you , if you growled at him.  We spent a long time with him that day!

 Cora still loves Zebras!

We also got to see some Cheetah cubs.  Mama wasn't around, she must have been off taking a break, as mother's need to do at times, but they were sure cute!

We sure had a fun summer this year!

The Rhine River

Our last weekend of the summer we decided to knock of something else on our european bucket list.  Everyone here cruises the Rhine...so we thought we would give it a go as well!

The Rhine River is a main vein of commerce in the western part of Germany.  Naturally it would be a great place to build a castle and run part of the river.  Many ruins are found along this river, with stories of inflated river taxes charged to cross through "their" part of the Rhine.  It was pretty cool to see a castle around every corner as we cruised up the Rhine in our boat!  We did the portion between Bacharach and St. Goar.  It was incredibly scenic!

 Here are two castles, just around the bend of Bacharach.  The one up on the hill is the oldest, but fell to decay and ruin.  Later the white castle was built, in the shape of a ship.  They would string a huge, iron, chain across the river which they would pull up when a ship cruised up to cross.  You either paid the tax, don't pay and risk ruin to your ship and possible attack, or turned back.  Once tax was paid, the chain was lowered back into the water so the ship could pass.  I am guessing that most paid...

 I thought this castle was cool.  It is actually a youth hostel now, one of the cheapest castles you can sleep in, in Europe.

 Romans found their way here, of course.  This town had multitudes of roman fortifications and towers surrounding it.

A Japanese business man bought this castle at the bargain price of 4 million.  He wanted to restore it and use it as a vacation spa/resort for his countryman to come to.  However, the German village likes how their town looks, has strict building laws and codes.  All the business man's plans were denied, and he left defeated.  He still owns the castle, but to this day it sits empty still.

 So hard to get a good picture of all 5 of them (wink, wink)!

 St. Goar

This was the coolest castle ruin we have seen yet.  you could climb all through it towers and see where the old rooms would have been.  Underneath are a series of mining tunnels that you can explore.  We brought a flash light, but still managed to loose a girl or two.  Luckily we all met up in the end!

It was an awesome way to end the summer.  Go out with a bang, or a castle!  Now we are ready for the school year to start, fall to come and the Holidays to arrive.  We have a couple more big trips coming up, but for the most part our travels will start to slow down.  Not too much though, we still have a lot see and do, especially if we move next summer!

Rothenburg o.d.t.

Mid-August one of my good, dear friends from High school days and her husband dropped by for a quick visit.  It wasn't quite long enough, but we were able to pack a lot in!  One of the things that I have wanted to do for a long time is the night-watchman's tour at Rothenburg o.d.t.  It gets rave reviews by all, and it just so happened that my friend wanted to do this too.  So we all went.

 My friends hubby was so awesome...the kids loved him.  He packed around my kids all day for me!

 Rothenburg o.d.t. is a great, old, medieval city.  Parts of it date back to 1000a.d., and some claim to date back before. What I love about it, is the atmosphere.  All the buildings are jammed up on each other, and then surrounded by an in tact city wall...that you can walk along!

The golden gryphon is where we had dinner that night.

 We also toured the crime and punishment museum where we learned interesting facts like punishments for bakers for not baking bread in uniform loaves.

Here is Hunter looking at his future time-out chair...

 Anya in her time-out...

 Our night-watchmen.  

He takes you around the village, giving you a brief tour and explanation of what life was like living here in medieval times.  He spoke perfect English!

Blurry, but you can see part of the city wall peaking out from the trees.  We were standing on another section of the wall on the other side of the gorge.

It was an awesome experience!  I definitely recommend it if you are in Bavaria and want to take a nightwatchman's tour!

Wurzburg

The weekend after returning from our Summer vacation to Great Britain, we decided to take a day trip to a cool city about 1 1/2 hours away from us...Wurzburg.

 This is the Palace or Residence as the German's call it.

The ruling party of this region lived here for centuries.

 Huge door, with a little access door, just in case you don't want to open the whole thing.  Pictures weren't allowed inside, so no pictures for us to share, but it was magnificent.  The only other palace I have seen to outshine it so far is the Residence in Munich.

 The main market square in Old town Wurzburg.

They are getting so big.

 The day before we came to Wurzburg, Cora decided to break her nose.  It kept getting worse and worse as the day progressed...by the end of the weekend she ended up with two dark purple/black eyes that continued across the bridge of her nose and down the left side of her nose.  She looked awesome, and was so swollen!  She learned an important lesson about jumping/playing/swinging on beds...not such a good idea!

 Above Wurzburg, on a hill of vineyards is the fortress Marienburg.  This was pretty neat to see as well!

 Matt and the crew with the Fortress behind them.

On our way home we saw a hot air balloon floating above the vineyards, it looked so picturesque...I just had to take a picture!

An excellent day trip!  We really enjoyed touring and walking around this town!

The OLYMPICS!

While we visited England and Scotland, the London 2012 Olympics were going on.  We thought it would be an amazing addition to our family summer vacation if we tried to see an event while we were there.  So clear back last spring, we were able to buy tickets to an event.  First, we wanted to try to see the Olympic torch burning.  However, how they had it set up this Olympics was very disappointing.  It wasn't high, but very low, right in the middle of a stadium (Olympic Stadium) which is closed to the public unless you have tickets to events going on at that location.

Later we found out that this tower was built so people could go up it and see the Torch.  It was about 15 pounds a person to go up, with long waits.  Oh, and the day we found out about it, was our last day there...and you have to buy tickets in advance, online.  So...we didn't get to go up it.

Instead, we took a picture of our family, standing in front of Olympic Stadium.

In retrospect, I think we would have had a better time going to Hyde Park to watch some events on the big screen...but it was a neat experience to see the craziness of this area during the Olympics

The event we were able to see was the USA Women's Soccer game against North Korea.  This wasn't in London, but up in Manchester.

 Here were our seats...they were AMAZING seats.  Right in the pitch!

I took a picture of the score at half time, but didn't take a picture of the ending score.  I don't know why I did that...but I did.  Lucky for us, the score didn't change...USA won! 

 We got to see a lot of Hope Solo in action.  She is an amazing Goalie!

 There's Womback there in the Right corner.  She is another star and amazing player of the USA team.  She is the one who scored the one and only goal that night.

 We had such a great time.  But it was over way too fast!  We wished it had lasted longer, or been a double header.

 outside Old Trafford, home to Manchester's Football team.

The guys we asked to take a family photo of us were American.  They had this flag with them, and one said he would run behind us and hold it up during the picture.  It was cool, and also kind of funny!

We had a great trip and an unforgettable time watching our Olympic event.

We were able to watch all the rest of the USA women's soccer matchs.  

They went on to win the GOLD!

We wore our Olympic shirts every time...just to give them some extra luck!

A day in the English Countryside

Our last day in England we spent driving through the Cotswold's, which is where English wool comes from.  It was really charming.  We stopped to tour a highly recommended palace called Blenheim Palace.  The Duke of Marlborough lives here, and this is where the Churchill family comes from.  Winston Churchill's grandfather was the Duke of Marlborough when he was born, then later, the title passed to his Uncle.  We saw the room where Winston was born, having come a month premature while his mother was here visiting.

 It is very grand!  I loved it!

 The garden's were immaculate! 

My gang!  

 After Blenheim we drove up through the small Cotswold villages to hook back up with the Autobahn. Which is called Motorway in England!  We passed through such charming villages as Chippen Camden, Stow-on-the-wold, and Stratford upon Avon.  We passed many darling Thatched cottages.  I fell in love with these cute homes.  They looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.  A couple of the ones we passed were for sale...I tried to convince Matt we needed a summer cottage, but he didn't go for it.  I still think it would make an awesome vacation home!

Right before we linked up with the Motorway we saw this castle. It is a medieval castle called Warwick Castle.  I had to stop and take a picture, I thought it was pretty magnificent looking.

It was a fun morning spent in the English Countryside, but now we are headed to the crown jewel of our English experience...the OLYMPICS!