Slide shows

The program I am using for the slide shows is cutting off a lot of the pictures. If you want to see the real pictures, click on the picture when the slide show is going. It will take you to the big picture and you can look through those or click a button in the upper right hand corner to see the whole album. If anyone knows of a better slide show program, please share.

Reading posts

Read the post in this order: Wengen, Trummelbachfalle, Zermatt and The Matterhorn. It will make more sense that way. I can't figure out how to change the order.

Zermatt and The Matterhorn

After the falls, we drove down to Taesch. We stayed the night and woke up the next morning and took the train to Zermatt. Zermatt is also a car-free town. It was a bigger and cooler town than Wengen. It had horse carriages to take people places. There were choirs singing. It was a cool town. We loved the bakery and ice cream they had. From here, we took a cable car to get higher on the mountain. We would have hiked it, but we didn't have the time. While we were going up the mountain in the cable car, the Matterhorn was right in front of us. This was the main highlight of this peak. We could also see lots of other peaks. It was stunning. The Swiss Alps are beautiful. It felt like we were on top of the world. There is a tram that goes up to the top of the mountain range. But we couldn't go because children under the age of 3 are not allowed on top. The altitude is too high for them. When we come back with no kids, we are doing that. Anyway, the Matterhorn was a sight to see. It is HUGE! A lot bigger than the one at Disneyland. We sat for a while but we able to see it with no clouds. We could see the very top. The pictures don't do it justice. It is very cool!

After the Matterhorn, we checked out Zermatt and then headed back to Germany. When we drove to Zermatt, our GPS took us all the way around a big mountain. We were wondering why there wasn't a way to get through the mountain. So driving home we took a different route. The GPS cautioned us that there was going to be a motorail. But we went anyway. There was a motorail. It was pretty cool. There is no road to get on the otherside of the mountain that doesn't go around it. But there is a train track so they have a motorail. We drove our car onto a train. The train carried probably about 50 cars. All the cars lined up. Then the train started. The train took us right through the middle of the mountain. We were in complete darkness for 15 minutes. It was pretty neat. Sometime the car would shake from side to side. That was a little scary, but overall a very fun thing to do. If the GPS gives us this option again, we will do it. It took aver an hour off the drive and only cost 16 euros. It was one of those experiences we can't have back home.



Matterhorn

Trummelbachfalle

After we walked the Alps, we took the train back to our car and drove 10 minutes to the Trummelbachfalle. This was amazing. This waterfall is made up of the water melting from all 3 glaciers (those glaciers we just "saw"). To see the waterfall, we took a tram up the middle of a mountain. Then we had to walk up a lot of stairs. This took us farther into the mountain. Everything was wet from the water splashing: the stairs, the walls, the hand rail, and us. It was so loud. The water was moving so fast! It was really cool. I have never seen anything like this before. The pictures will show you what it was like.



tRUMMELBACHEFALLE


I will post a video later. My camcorder is out of battery and we only have one converter. After it gets charged, I will post a video of this waterfall.

Wengen, Switzerland

Switzerland was full of amazing sights. As we were winding through the Alps to get to our hotel, we would turn around some bend and see 1, 2, 3, or 4 waterfalls in the mountain side in front of us. I think we said "Wow! That is amazing" about 25 times the 2 days we were there. The water was the bluest water I have ever seen. The trees were bright green. It was an amazing place. We will definitely go back.

However, there were two problems with Switzerland. First, it is not like a national park. There are all these amazing sights, but there are not pull over places or even room on the road to pull over. So a lot of the pictures are not the best. They were taken from the car. Second, it is EXPENSIVE!! But very worth it.

Friday night, we drove to a town called Lauterbrunnen. We got on a train and rode it for about 15 minutes to Wengen. Wengen is a car free town. The train was the only way to get there. We stayed the night there. In the morning, we got on a tram that took us up into the Swiss Alps. From there we walked across the mountain (the stroller did great!). On this walk, we were supposed to see the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau peaks. These peaks are topped with glaciers and I think are some of the highest peaks in the Swiss Alps. We are told there are a sight to see. We would have been able to see them, but there was fog. After we were told that they are covered by clouds/fog more than not. But that that day was especially bad. Usually you can see the mountains. It was still a beautiful walk and what we could see was amazing.



Wengen

Wildpark

wildpark

The boys and I went to the "Wildpark." In Germany, they pronounce a W like a V. Say it like Vildpark. It is a lot more fun! This was a really neat park. It was a petting and feeding zoo. It also had playgrounds. Zack LOVED it!! I thought he would be afraid of the animals. Once he saw other kids touching them, he did it too. He would say hi to the animals and blow the animals kisses. Josh also loved it. He just screamed (in a good way) and laughed at the animals (that is his way of saying hi). We saw all sorts of different types of goats, sheep and deer. We also saw bison and big cows. All the signs were in German so we couldn't read what types we saw. It was really neat and it was free! I bet we go a couple more times before we leave.

This is Zack's interaction with the some of animals.

Happy Birthday to Madi and Brook!

Zack wanted to say happy birthday to his cousins. He wants them to come
to a park with him. Every time we go he asks if Brooklyn will be
there. We hope the girls had a great day!



Sorry this is so late. I have been having issues with my
camcorder...looks like it was just an ID10T error. :)

Jami- Your inbox would not accept this. I don't know why.

Dachau Concentration camp

Dachau

This was a very humbling experience. It was incredible to see one of these in person. We saw how little the bunkers were. We saw how they had to stand at attention for hours, no matter the weather. We saw how small the standing rooms were for when they were being disciplined. We saw how hard they had to work to build bunkers to expand the place. We saw the rooms of real people as we listened to them tell their own stories. We saw the "shower rooms" that showered them with gas. We saw the chamber room where they laid dead bodies waiting to be burned. We saw where they hung people above the fire so they would not have to move their body. We saw the concentration camp.

BMW Museum

bmw

We also went to the BMW museum. We were able to learn a lot about the BMW company. Did you know it's first engine was a plane engine? We also saw the cars and how they transformed from start to how they look now. They had some sweet cars! We learned about the development of their cars and motorcycles. I didn't know how many motorcycles they have. We also saw the 2 BMW cars that were in 2 James Bond movies. BMW knows how to make good looking cars!

Don't mind the Indians in the pics. They thought they owned the place. They touched all the cars even though all the cars had signs that said "Please do not touch." We couldn't loose them. So just ignore them.

Fortress in Salzberg

Salzberg Fortress

This was the coolest thing in Salzberg. We climbed up lots of stairs and hiked up a couple long steep hills and made it to a Fortress that was at the top on the mountain in Salzberg. The center of the fortress was awesome. In the center was a mid evil town. There were different booths set up doing lots of different mid-evil stuff. One booth was a man making pottery, another was a puppet show, another was a wood carving show, another was beer tasting (that was the best one...oh wait we skipped it). They had a play going on in the middle. It was so fun. Then we went inside the fortress. It was really cool. There were cannons and other chambers with cool things, mostly torture stuff. We also were able to walk along the deck on the top of the fortress and see Salzberg in all it's glory. This is where we saw the Vaughn Trapp house. The view was incredible. Check out all the pics. It was so much fun! Zack loved it. He thought he was in a castle all day and was glad the doors were open so we could go inside. Josh was also happy the whole time. It was fun!

Salzberg

Salzberg

We went to Salzberg, Austria this weekend. It was a cool town. It is hard to explain what the city was like. The picture will explain it the best. We walked down the street and there were stores along both sides. It was like an outside mall, but more old fashioned. The street were little and no cars were allowed in. The stores were tall. I think there were apartments on top of them. All the stores were connected. It wasn't like a line of stores, they curved and almost went in circles. The only way to get to an inside section of stores or to get to the center of the city was to find a break in the stores and go through. Once we got to the inside of town, there was a lot of cool things. There were statues everywhere and museums to go into. There were water falls. It was amazing. This is the city where Sound Of Music was filmed. We saw some of those sites. They filmed in the Mirabelle Garden which was absolutely amazing. We heard the bell that is on the movie from the convent, but we never found the convent. We saw the house that the Vaughn Trapp family lived in, but we didn't get close enough for a picture. It was a very fun city. Amazing!!

Eagle's Nest

Eagles Eye

This weekend we went to Eagle's Nest. This is the house that was built and given to Hitler for his 50th birthday. It sits on top of a mountain. To get there we had to take a bus to a big tunnel. Then we walked down the tunnel and went in to an elevator that took us up over 400 feet. Then we were at the house. We could only go into part of the house because the house is now a restaurant and they don't want the customers bothered. The view is suppose to be amazing. It was raining and very foggy, so we couldn't see the view. But it was amazing to see all the fog and look down and see nothing. It was cool. The tunnel was really neat to walk down as well. It was weird to think that we walked the same place that Hitler walked. It was neat to read the history behind it and how long it took to build the house and the road to get to the house. It was really neat. We didn't stay there long because it was cold and raining. We might try to get back if we have time.

Ulmer Munster

Yesterday we went to the Ulmer Munster. It is the tallest chapel in the world. It was amazing! The hour drive to get there was absolutely beautiful. The forests here are so green and so thick. I even saw green vines going up tree trunks. It is just so green and amazing!
The top of Ulmer Munster:


This is the bottom of the front of the chapel.



The boys and I went to the Ritte Sport chocolate factory today. Zack was excited to see Willy Wonka and was sad when he wasn't there. But it was pretty fun. We got to try our first European chocolate. It was yummy!! Don't you wish you could all have some?

What a bummer!

We just found out that our rental agreement doesn't allow us to drive our car in Italy. It will be compounded if we even try. We really wanted to go to Rome and Venice. We could fly there but that would cost over $700 and then to get to Venice we would have to take a ferry. We decided that this gives us more time to travel Switzerland and Austria. If anyone knows the must see places in those countries, please let us know!

German Parks

I thought that the park we ran into on the grounds Ludwigsberg Castle was an old fashioned park. I thought they put what German kids would have played on when that castle was a functioning castle. I was wrong. Yesterday, the boys and I went to a playground. The receptionist at our hotel told me about one that is 10 walking minutes away. She said it was a wonderful playground and talked it up quite a bit. So we went walking and found it. I didn't even get lost! But it was a lot like the one we found. It did have real swings. But it was a bunch of old wood pieces nailed together in a not so sturdy way. It had a walkway spiraling up one long piece of wood. There were no side guards on the walkway. It went up at least 10 feet. On the top was a platform with ropes to climb higher; at least this had ropes along the sides so kids could fall. Zack was too scared to climb too high. We decided to play in the sand. It was by a "lake" (it looked more like a pond to me, but they call it a lake). There were ducks and a lot of walk ways. There was also a big grass field. I bet we go here at least once a week. But I think we will stay away from the playground.

Ludwigsberg Castle

On Monday, Steve's boss picked us all up at 11:00 to get all the in-processing stuff done, like ID cards to get us on base and stuff like that. We got all that she wanted done by 2:30, so she said Steve was free to go. We decided to take advantage of the situation and check out the Mercedes Benz Museum. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. We parked and went to the front door only to see that it is closed on Mondays. So we went with another idea and drove to the Ludwigsberg Castle. But since we wasted so much time driving to the closed museum, we got to the castle too late to go inside. But the courtyard was still open. It was amazing!! It was a gorgeous walk.


This is the main garden. I love the shaped shrubs and all the different flowers!


While we were walking, we ran into a little park. It was nice to let Zack get down to run and play. It was an old fashioned park. It did have water fountains that the kids could play in, but those got turned off right as we got Zack out.


This is for Jenny. Don't those flowers look familiar? They are like weeds here. They are all over all the grass that we have seen. Now I know why they don't survive my hot rocks. It is so much more humid and cooler here. That is probably the weather they need. It was funny to see them here.

Hindelberg castle part 2:

This is the view from the outside of the castle. I loved the bridge. We might go back walk across it, if we have a free day. You can see how compact Europe is just by looking at how they have the house and how they squeeze them so close together.


This is a video of the King's keg...it is huge!!!


Here is the huge protactor of some other things they had on the wall that I didn't know what they were and I couldn't read the German to find out.

Heidelberg Castle

Today, after church, we went to the Heidelberg Castle. It is about an hour away from our hotel. It is a really old castle. The original castle was built in the early 1200's. It did get destroyed many times during different wars, but was always rebuilt. We saw the remains of some of the destruction. It also had an amazing view from the top. My battery on my camcorder just died, otherwise I would post a video of that. It was beautiful! Here are some pics...they explain better than I can.


My boys and me on top of the castle.


Steve and the boys.








Inside the castle they had the biggest kegs I have ever seen. The biggest one held up to 230,000 liters of beer and that was just the king's keg! I bet he was a happy man!

Also inside was the biggest protractor I have ever seen. It was the size of a large wall. They must have done a lot of geometry!

Rainbow

While we were driving home today, we saw the most beautiful rainbow we have ever seen. We could see the whole arch and both ends. It was really bold. It arched over the autobahn so it was like we were driving to it and then under it. It was amazing. The pictures don't do it justice.

Look what happens to formula in an airplane!

Note to self: never take a container of formula that has already been opened on a plane. Air pressure is not good to it.

Weird Observation #1

I am sure there will be a lot of these.

I thought it was so interesting that these shrubs were so perfectly shaped, but there was random bumps all over. We have seen these a lot.

We made it!

This is how we traveled from SLC to Dallas:


Zack loved watching Monsters Inc on Steve's iPod. He was very well behaved. But after about the first 10 minutes, he wanted off the airplane and thought it was time to go home. He played very nicely the whole flight, even though he wanted off.

Steve had to sit across the aisle and couldn't have any of the children on his lap because of some code. Josh slept for maybe 30 minutes. He loved looking outside. He was very happy and didn't cry the whole time!

This is how we got to Altanta from Dallas:

Zack took a nap the whole time!!!!

Steve was across the aisle again...but there was no code on this plane. So he got the baby. Josh slept for only 30 minutes again. He likes his crib too much! But still didn't cry and was happy the whole way.

I don't have any picture from flying to Stuttgart because after the plane boarding 30 minutes late and then sitting on a stopped plane for 3 hours, we were all too tired for pictures. First the plane was delayed because of cargo problems and then after they worked that out (2 hours later), there was a lightening storm and the runway was shut down. An hour later when the runway was reopened, we finally left. Did I mention we were on a sitting plane for 3 hours with tired babies? Really the boys were pretty good, considering. I got Josh to sleep before the plane took off and he slept for 9 hours. Zack fell asleep as soon as the "air-plane goes really really fast and then we go up." (that is how Zack described take-off). He slept the whole way. Steve and I got as much sleep as possible.

After we landed, we rented a Mercedes-Benz SUV. We can't remember which type. But it is a really nice car and fits everything we brought in the back. The driving here is insane. We are going to have to get use to it.

We also found our hotel which is pretty nice. They changed our rooms so instead of having a full kitchen to share across the hall, we have a mini kitchen inside our room. It has 2 burners, a fridge, sink, table, pots, skillets, utensils, and dishes. It is really clean.

I think that is it from day 1 in Germany!