• Family Fun,  Travels

    Shop Til You Stop!

    Naturally, part of any vacation is finding cool places to shop and buy souvenirs. We were actually pretty controlled on the spending while in Europe, probably buying waaaay less than the average tourist. But browsing was still fun. We bought lots of postcards to send to Julesie (she collects them) and for the older boy to send to his girlfriend. In downtown Munich, we found this totally cool store called Kare. If money was no object and my luggage weight didn’t matter, I could’ve spent hours (and hundreds of Euros) in there. I loved it! I’ll let the pictures tell the story of how fun this place is. This picture…

  • Family Fun,  Too Funny To Ignore,  Travels

    Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Der Gemütlichkeit

    Before I begin my post, I want to send greetings to Kat’s father, who has been following my Germany posts with the help of Google Translate. Hallo Kat’s Vati/Vater/Papa! I hope to meet you on my next visit! When I say “Beverages in Germany”, you think…beer. And you’d be right, but I’ll get to that in a minute. There were other beverages that were consumed and enjoyed very much on this trip to Bavaria, too. (Did I mention that I don’t drink beer?) One day while shopping in downtown Munich, we were pleased to happen upon the Coke Zero Street Team, because we were parched. Free Coke Zero for everyone!…

  • Family Fun,  Food,  Travels

    I’ll Tell You What’s Yummy: Cold Spaghetti and Room Temperature Snowballs.

    Those of you who know me well probably read last night’s post about the food we ate in Germany and wondered if I was holding something back, because I only mentioned a dessert (Black Forest cherry cake) once. You’d be right. We had lots of sweet treats while in Europe, and I thought I’d tell you about two of the standouts. The younger boy’s German teacher (who used to be the older boy’s teacher when she was at his high school), a really cool woman who is a real, live, native German, told him all about “Spaghetti Eis”. Eis is the German word for “ice cream”, by the way. Once…

  • Family Fun,  Travels

    We Even Went to Church in Germany…Sort Of.

    Europe is full of castles. (I think there are almost as many castles as Starbucks locations, but I can’t prove that) Another thing Europe is full of is beautiful churches. I visited one of the most gorgeous churches in the world in Dresden back in 2006, but Munich has its own treasure: the Frauenkirche. A Catholic Church whose full name is “Dom zu unserer lieben Frau” (Cathedral of our Dear Lady), the Frauenkirche has landmark status. It’s got two breathtakingly pretty towers. Yes, I said TWO. One of them is covered for renovation, though, so it’s not as pretty. See? The doors are carved. Here’s the inside. Nice, eh? I…

  • Family Fun,  Food,  Travels

    They* Made Eating Fun.

    A few years ago, Jim went on a week-long business trip to Japan, accompanied by a co-worker friend. This co-worker had never been to Japan before, and drove Jim crazy with the massive amounts of pictures he took, all along the way. He took a picture of EVERY SINGLE MEAL he had while in Japan, too, and the idea of that was pretty funny to us. But then again, when I think about it, it’s not really as silly as it sounds. If you’re going to a foreign country, it’s not any less silly to take pictures of the food than it is to take pictures of the buildings, right?…

  • Travels

    Germany Is Obviously Full of Green Thumbs.

    The planters all over the towns we visited as well as the flower boxes hanging outside of the houses were exploding with gorgeousness. It was ridiculous. (And by “ridiculous”, I mean “something I am way jealous of because I have a hard time keeping weeds alive”.)

  • Family Fun,  Travels

    These Walls Were Made For Walkin’

    We spent a day in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a medieval town which is located near the northern end of the Romantic Road. It was my second visit, having first been there in 1983, and I was truly psyched to return. It is probably one of the most picturesque places I’ve ever seen in my entire life (and if you know how old I am, you know I’ve been around long enough to see a lot!). Rothenburg has a wall around it, which was used in medieval times to, obviously, protect the people in town. Even today, visitors can walk around most of the town ON the wall, which is…

  • Family Fun,  Travels

    Above God And Everybody

    A visit to Bavaria wouldn’t be complete without taking a drive to the Alps. We left Kat and Holger’s house bright and early one morning (okay, truth be told we were actually an hour later getting out than we originally intended…but we were on vacation so it didn’t matter much!) and drove south. Our destination? The Zugspitze, which is the highest point in all of Germany at 2962 meters (9717 feet). It’s no easy (or quick!) feat to get to what they call “The Top of Germany”*. You have to ride a combination of trains and cable cars, and in total it took us about an hour to get up…

  • Food,  Travels

    Apparently I Should Be Eating More Marshmallows.

    You might be surprised at what I have chosen to write about today. On second thought, you might not. In spite of the castles, the Alps, the colorful town squares in the Altstadts of Bavaria, and all of the other local flavor we experienced, what I’ve decided to tell you about first are… THE GROCERY STORES. Yes, the grocery stores. I loved going to the grocery stores in Germany. Let me back up a bit. Some of you new readers may not know the extent of my foreign fetish: you can read about why foreigners make me giddy by clicking here. Anyway, I let Kat know ahead of time that…

  • Family Fun,  Travels

    Gemütlichkeit

    We’re home. The past eight days in Germany on our family vacation were QUITE the whirlwind, and I can’t wait to write all about it for you. (okay, and for me.) We saw some beautiful scenery, ate some fabulous food, toured some castles, and so much more. What tied it all together though, was the Gemütlichkeit (hospitality) shown to us by our hosts, my lovely German “twin”, Kat, and her adorable hubby, Holger. The pair of them generously offered to put us up in their home so we could be more comfortable than we would’ve been in a hotel (needless to say, saving us lots of money at the same…