France - Visit with Diana and Nolan

Paul's parents are on a church mission in Geneva, but live in Segny, France, a few minutes away. They live in an upstairs apartment of the Tagg home. The Tagg's are a wonderful family. We really enjoyed our stay there. The beds were much more comfortable than those of the Bed and Breakfasts. Mom cooked delicious meals for us and Dad did the dishes on Monday, so the kids could relax.

Matthew is really interested in science, so dad took us to Cern. Cern is the site of the largest Particle Physics Laboratory. There is an underground tunnel where atoms are spun at high speeds and blown apart when they collide. It's amazing. It would have been fascinating to tour.

Switzerland - Geneva

Diana and Nolan live just minutes away from Geneva. They took us to a fabulous park in the center of the city, next to the University of Geneva. We all agree we need something like this near us here at home. Matthew got to play chess with this larger than life chess set. I think it was one of his favorite parts of the trip. He played his first game with me. I think he was hoping for more of a challenge than a game with his mom, but he was a good sport. He won in a matter of minutes. Then we found him a "real" player. Phillip is a park regular. Man, was he fast making his moves. Phillip won both games, but Matthew held him to literally the last few pieces. Phillip competes regularly in Chess competitions and is a pro, but he must have considered Matthew a worthy opponent to ask him for another game. I would love to make a chess set like this in our yard, if we had the room. (Paul's cringing right now, thinking of what that project would mean.)

During our entire trip, the European Football (soccer) Games were going on. Several games were hosted in Geneva. We saw fans from several nations showing their country pride. One night the Czech Republic was playing. There were Czechs everywhere! I loved it! I wish I could speak Czech, but I was able to find a few that spoke English. The enthusiasm was contagious. Paul bought a fan scarf for France. I couldn't find one for the Czech Republic, darn it.

One other neat thing in the park, was the Reformation Wall. It is very powerful and moving. There are carved likenesses of men, such as John Calvin, who helped to bring religion to the common man.

Switzerland

We saw most of Switzerland in a car. It is officially day 3 of our trip. We left Germany before 6am so that we could meet Paul's parents in the French Alps, litterally on the border of Switzerland. It was a 6 hour drive to La Chapelle d'Abondance, the little Alpine village. We did it in 6 1/2 because my inner GPS system had a mini-failure. We quickly got back on track after detouring through the Swiss countryside and with Paul's skill at speed.
Our lunch and experience at Les Cornettes (the restaurant/inn) was so fabulous, I didn't take photos. I was too busy taking it all in. You can see some at their website: www.lescornettes.com. We had a traditional French meal that lasted over 2 hours and had 4 delicious courses: meat and veggies, main entree', cheese course, and dessert, with herbal tea afterward. Ahhh, it was heaven.

After the meal, we headed to Lake Geneva or Lac Le'man. Paul's parents, Diana and Nolan, took us to a quaint little village on the lake, Yvoire (I think that's the name). It had beautiful old buildings that people lived in or had little shops. I found a beautiful glass pen; it's from Italy, but hey, we got it Europe. It was my mother's day gift from Paul. Thank you sweetie. He has great taste. =)

Germany - Garmisch

Garmisch is a charming town. So many of the buildings in Bavaria have these exquisite paintings on them. I took other photos, but cannot locate them. I'll add more if they are found.













Garmisch is much bigger than when I was thereover 20 years ago, so I wasn't able to locate where I lived. I was able to see the military base where my father served for almost two years. I wish I could talk to him about it, but it was still nice to see a part of my history.













The streets were lined with flowers; they were everywhere! These begonias were as large as my fist and a brilliant orange! The photo doesn't do them justice. I wish we had more time to explore such a lovely place.

Germany - Zugspitz Mountain

One thing we had wanted to do, was go to the top of Zugspitz, the highest mountain in Germany. There were two problems. One was that it was raining on and off and as you can see from the photo, the top of the mountain was in clouds. We were told we wouldn't see any of the valley. The second problem was that it cost 45 euros per person (about $70). It was more than we had thought. So, we kept the money, and just looked at the mountain.

Later that day, it cleared and by accident, we took a road into Austria and we got to see the other side of Zugspitz. We went through a several mile long tunnel to get through the mountain. We would have liked to go to the top, but we still got to see something beautiful.

Germany - Neuschwanstein Castle

Most of you know that as a small child, I lived in Garmisch, Germany. (Unfortunately I don't speak German, but my friend Garrett helped me learn a few words to get by.) Most of my memories are of the playground near my home and then other random things. One thing I remember was going to the Neuschwanstein Castle. I don't remember the castle itself, I remember climbing a fence to get into our campground near the castle, because we got there after the campground gates closed. I wanted to go back as an adult so I can remember the castle itself. It was great to do something I've dreamed of for years.





This is a bridge across from the castle. You walk away from the castle to get to it and then you get a great view of the castle. It was worth the walk. It was a 20 minute uphill climb to get to Neuschwanstein and then a 20 minute steep downhill walk to get back. Our calves were sore for a few days after. I need to get in better shape. I decided that if I was climbing to a castle everyday, I wouldn't mind exercising. =)


Matthew and Nadine explored before the tour. They don't allow photography of any kind within the castle, so we only have exterior shots.













From Neuschwanstein you can see the Hohenschwangau castle. (And some people think "Kubalek" is hard to spell.) It was the childhood castle of King Ludwig, who built so many of Bavaria's castles. We didn't have time to visit it.














As you can see, it was raining when we first approached the castle. It was a cool effect, but I'm glad it cleared enough to see more of it before we left.

Germany - Bavaria

I forgot to put this photo with the others in the Ludwigsburg section. One part of the extensive garden, was a green house that had plant art. Artists from the area had taken plants and made sculptures, designs, all kinds of things with the plants. I thought this orchid was beautiful.

After we visited Ludwigsburg, we headed to Oberammergau in Bavaria. This area is beautiful with a capital 'B'! Near Oberammergau, is Ettal. This monastary is amazing. There is a hotel near it, but it was too pricey for us to stay there.

We stayed at Gastof zur Rose, a quaint bed and breakfast, which was really like a small hotel. The breakfast was extensive and they even made one for us to take with us the morning we left at 5:30am. One thing I had to have in Germany was apple strudel. The restaurant at this hotel made delicious strudel.

Germany: Fairy Tale Garden

Behind the Residential Palace there is a free Children's Garden. It has over 30 fairy tales depicted throughout the garden. Several of them were interactive. Here Nadine and Matthew take turns on the Lily Pad throne. Hmm...which looks the most excited?


This mosaic Dragon was really cool. Nadine LOVES dragons and had to have her picture on one.
Across the street from the palace, there was a city park. It was amazing. There were so many different activities for children. The park even had several disabled-friendly toys. (That was common in European parks.) Here the kids enjoy a climb up a cable "Eiffle Tower".

Germany-Ludwigsburg

Our first stop after, getting the rental car, was Ludwigsburg. The residential Palace is HUGE, as you can see. We paid just for a grounds and garden tour. There were roses from the entrance and beyond. I knew we were at the right place.






Paul and the man with the green thumb.





Paul and Matthew at the
opposite side of
the Palace.

Introduction

To avoid an overload on the family websites, we decided to create a blog listing for our trip. We will post the photos and then, time willing and fingerstrength holding, we will also add a commentary on our whirlwind journey. This is being shared with the Kubalek family and the Edmunds family as well as friends, so if you don't recognize a name or a poster of clever and fascinating comments (of which we expect to receive many), do not be alarmed. Since we have vast connections, you are bound to come upon a name you are unable to recognize. Feel free to call us at anytime for clarification and interesting tidbits we will have to keep stored in our memory banks instead of Google's due to time constraints.



With that said....Let the Journey begin!