Italy Bound!

3/15/13-3/16/13, Grub, Switzerland

After we made a decision a few years ago to spend a year in Europe for Tracy's research, he has often joked that he was taking me to Venice for my 40th birthday and Florence for our 15th anniversary (which happen to be while we are here :-)). Well, he stuck true to his word! We were able to take the first week of the boys' Easter break and head south for some sunshine and warmer temps....not to mention good food, beautiful sights, and great family memories. This year, Göttingen's winter was the longest and darkest winter on record, which is just what we all needed to be thankful for our cheery Carolina winters! All that to say, we really were looking forward to the sunshine and warmer temps as much as anything.

Though we often drive straight through to Kansas from North Carolina, a 22+ hour drive, we opted to stop for a night in Switzerland to break up the 9 hour drive to Milan, which seems almost comical to me. We weren't able to leave on our trip until the boys were out of school so we didn't want to arrive at the Bed and Breakfast in Milan really late that night. Our stop ended up being at a parsonage built in the mid 1700s in Grub, Switzerland, which is near Lake Constance. Two minutes before our arrival, Josiah was too car sick to continue....thankfully, we were able to get pulled over in time!

Philippe, our host, helped us in with our bags and showed us to our rooms. It was quite cold outside that night when we arrived and because the big, old house is expensive to heat, it was cold inside as well. I literally kept on my winter coat until we climbed into bed for the night. In the morning, Philippe fed us fresh bread and homemade jams along with hot chocolate and coffee. Over breakfast, we learned that he is an Old Testament scholar who has led a number of archeological digs in the Middle East. It was fascinating to listen to all of his stories.

The house with many of the windows still boarded up for the winter. As a
result, we all slept later than usual, a nice start to vacation!

The church is just across the street from the house. Philippe's
wife is the pastor there. He calls himself the "pastor's wife."
He is originally from France and his wife is from Switzerland.

The doors into the house were so heavy that one literally
needed to use both hands to be able to open or close them.

Tracy and Philippe getting in some last minutes of discussion about the OT.

From Grub, we took off towards Milan and were excited to find ourselves driving along Lake Constance. We took my parents there in October but happened to be there on a day with heavy fog and cloud cover. This time we could see the beauty of the Alps! Because we weren't meeting our friend in Milan until mid-afternoon, we had plenty of time to drive slowly through the mountains. What a drive! FYI, the Swiss take their speed limits seriously. Tunnels, which are a rather boring place to sightsee, are not the place to make up time. This year, Noah is trying to lose a tooth in each country we visit and Tracy is trying not to get a speeding ticket in each country. So far, Noah is winning that contest.

This is a small part of the view my parents should have had the day we
were in Lindau. Alas, I guess they will have to return for their 60th!

We are standing on a hilltop in Switzerland with Germany across the lake.
Austria was just to our right - it's the Austrian Alps in the above photo.

`

~ Lindau, Germany ~
With my parents, we explored the town down below, in particular, the little
part that juts out into the lake.

As we drove through the mountains, we couldn't believe how VERY many
castle ruins we could see dotting the hillsides. This particular one was close
to the roadway so we stopped for a visit.

Our first attempt to get a family photo...my shoe slipped
off as I was running so I didn't make it in time. The boys
were convinced that I wouldn't be able to pull it off so, of
course, I had to prove myself.

This doesn't capture it at all, but the area below the green pines was
absolutely purple. The line 'purple mountain majesties' from the song,
"America, The Beautiful," kept running through my mind. Wrong
continent for the song but still beautiful nonetheless.

We passed a LOT of these little one room buildings with flat
stones as the roofing shingles. I wish we could have figured
out for what these are used. Might have to google this one!

A Switzerland hillside that begins to capture the size
of the mountains - those little houses dotting the hillside
help show the magnitude.

Beautiful waterfalls were everywhere as well, with
many of them still frozen.

It was all so beautiful that I just couldn't stop taking pictures!

Micah's 15th Birthday

Had we been in the states on March 14th, Micah and I would have made the trek to the DMV for his driver's permit. He was a little disappointed that he has to wait, but I assured him that we will go July 1st, the first weekday that we are back in Youngsville. Instead, I told him to get on-line and read up about what he needs to do in order to prepare for that event. Can't believe we will have a child driving! This is the first time that I am beginning to legitimately feel my age.

Micah's birthday was the day before we left for Italy - quite a present if you ask me! We celebrated his birthday like we had with Joel and Josiah. There was a chocolate bar and a pack of gum at his spot at the breakfast table. Juicy Fruit with 15 sticks seeing as it was his 15th. I was a big spender this time around. Seriously, we have loved celebrating birthdays without having to think about gifts. The "birthday bikes" from our first week here have been great. I am sure the boys would love to open a gift, but they haven't complained one bit.

The croissants on the left are Schokocroissants. The boys
love these and pick them every time they get the chance.
Not only do they have chocolate on the outside, they
are filled with that delicious goodness on the inside!
Donuts are hard to find in Germany unless they are
Berliners, which is the white glazed one on the right
plate. Berliners are glazed with a jam on the inside or
powdered on the outside with a certain kind of filling
that none of us care for much. Josiah went with me to get
the treats so told me about a place that sold donuts. All
the boys are anxious for Krispy Kreme....and I think that
all of them don't realize how much they will miss the
bakeries here. So many yummy treats.

Micah requested homemade pizza and Fass Brause, which
is a lemonade-type non-alcoholic drink that the boys really
enjoy. They often have it on Friday nights when we have
pizza and a movie. This is another thing they will miss and
recently asked if we thought that we'd be able to find this
in the United States. Doubtful. It's bottled in a town just
about 10 Km away from here.

Rather than a birthday cake, Micah requested a varied selection of cake
slices from Cron & Lanz, a well-known bakery/restaurant in the city center.
All of their tortes look amazing! We all shared these slices with Micah
getting the biggest portions...apart from the nest looking tart. That one is
Tracy's absolute favorite. Of course, it has caramel. Anything caramel is a
favorite for him!

Biking for Groceries

I am not sure how many times I have come home from the store and told Tracy, "I will never let this happen again!" When I said it this past week, he commented, "Do you realize that you say that every time you go?" I confess that I have an issue with buying more than I can legitimately carry! And....far too often!

This particular time I came home with just over 69 Euros worth of food. I struggled to be able to balance my bike with so much weight and was getting an awful lot of looks. I probably looked like a pack-mule. I always know when I'm getting close to my limit and inevitably I have just five or six more things on my list. Who wants to have to make a second trip for just that little bit of food? Not me. So suffer the consequences, right?

Just yesterday (one day in mid March as I didn't post this before going to Italy), I beat that 69 Euro record....76 Euros now. And I have committed to NOT do that again. I had to buy an extra bag at the check-out and actually couldn't even ride home yesterday. I had two bags hanging off of each handle-bar, a Trader Joe's bag in my basket and a full backpack. I must say that I could get a job packing groceries when we return to the states. That being said, I'd probably pack the bags at a good 30 pounds a piece! I've decided that if I haven't learned my lesson yet, I probably won't seeing as we have just over three months left. The up-side of it all is that I don't have to go to the store again until Monday! I think I'm going to enjoy only having to go to the store once or twice a week rather than just about every day. Another up-side is that we haven't thrown any food out this year because nothing goes bad. I always know what I have in my kitchen.

Might not look like much, but it sure was heavy!

Once unpacked, it really was quite a load.

Milk is sold in 1 Liter sizes. I look a little ridiculous at the
check-out with six to ten of these! I am really looking
forward to buying it by the gallon again.

Chocolate chips are not sold in Germany. The boys still
want them in things like banana bread (thanks to Aunt
Janet!) so I buy a chocolate bar and cut it up into "chips."

We love Mexican. Rather....we love cilantro! So I end up
making Mexican basically any time that I can find
Koriander for sale. It was quite sparse throughout the winter.

The refrigerator section is quite different in Germany. The beef section is
one little set of shelves, the pork section goes on for miles and then the chicken
and turkey have a shelving area about double the beef. We asked a friend
why there is so much more pork than beef. "Pigs are cheaper to raise
than cows." Good answer! Makes sense. Still, do enjoy Rinder-Hackfleisch.

I included this photo of oatmeal because it has taken me
so long to get used to having to buy items in smaller
quantities. Because many people walk or bike here, the
food is sold in smaller packages. Also, it is very common
for couples to have just one child, if any. Feeding a
family of six is not typical. So lots of little packages of
oatmeal (or anything for that matter) it is.

Mexican is not common at all here so I have really missed
easily being able to find ingredients for good Mexican.
Thankfully, they do at least have tortilla chips!

Eggs are sold in sixes or tens, not by the dozen. I even saw a place where
I could buy just two eggs. Also, eggs are not all that often refrigerated in
the stores. I've heard that many don't put them in their refrigerators at home
either. And for most people, their refrigerators are more like dorm size so that
makes perfect sense. Eggs stay fresh a lot longer than people give them
credit for - at least 10 days without any problems.

I don't have a photo of the butter, but it does not come in sticks. Rather it is sold as a 250 gram block, which is almost two sticks. I rarely can remember the conversion without looking it up so am constantly on the iPad converting grams to pounds, grams to tablespoons, grams to cups....that is one more thing I look forward to in returning home. Going to the store will require a lot less thinking! It's crazy to me that because I was raised in the states, I can easily look at a quantity and guesstimate how many cups there are. I can't look at it here though and give any kind of attempt at guessing how much there is to 800 grams of bananas. Standardizing the world's units of measuring would be a whole lot easier!

Pumpkin Soup

Back in October, I had coffee with two moms of boys from Josiah's class and was asking questions about food in Germany. They were telling me that I needed to make pumpkin soup - it is something that all Germans really enjoy in the fall. Nik's mom, Astrid, then took me to the grocery store to show me different vegetables to consider trying. Germans are quite straightforward, which can be refreshing at times and overwhelming at other times. While in the store, Astrid looked me in the eye and said, "While you are in Germany, you need to try one new thing a day." Just very matter-of-fact. "While I lived in China, I did this and really learned a lot about the country and the culture that way. So you need to make pumpkin soup soon. Just don't buy the pumpkin here as this produce doesn't look good." I didn't mention that this is where I shop everyday! I have really appreciated the times that Astrid has initiated with me and can tell that she has been in my shoes. She has been very helpful on more than one occasion. And her son was the first boy to invite Josiah over to play after school - that was the second week of school. Anyway, I finally made pumpkin soup....long after fall!

Just before Christmas, our upstairs neighbors, Barbara and Bernd, invited us up for soup one evening. Barbara served pumpkin soup made from a Hokkaido pumpkin. It is a variety of pumpkin that both the shell and flesh can be eaten. I had never heard of this kind of pumpkin...maybe they are just as prevalent in the states as they are here, but seeing as I have not used real pumpkins but maybe once before....well, I have no idea of whether they are common or not!

One day last month I was wandering through the Wochenmarkt, Farmer's Market, looking for something and saw a handful of Hokkaido pumpkins at one vendor's booth. Now that we are into the dead of winter, I don't see pumpkins very often. So I purchased one and endeavored to make my first ever pumpkin soup from scratch. It ended up turning out great - we all loved it! And I have two that really don't enjoy the taste of pumpkin. So I made it again the next week and the response was not quite so grand. Come to find out, there is something about the texture of cooked pumpkin that my family doesn't like. So the end result is that this is a soup that we will have once or twice a fall/winter and thoroughly enjoy it, but it won't be a staple for us!

This is a Hokkaido pumpkin - a little on the smallish side probably only
weighing a couple of pounds. I saved seeds so that we can attempt to
grow them in our garden next year.

Following the recipe below only allowed us to have one bowl per person...
not enough for these boys! So I also served bread and lots of it!

I asked Barbara for her recipe as we all liked it so much; however, I didn't get it from her in time to use for my first attempt. Because of biking to the store, I only purchase what I can carry so we don't have much on hand. In other words, I typically only have the food for the next day or maybe two. This was on a Sunday night and basically, we were having pumpkin soup that night or we were eating rice with a salad or maybe pb & j. All stores are closed on Sundays. So I took several recipes from on-line and developed what I thought sounded good together. Here is what ended up in the pot:

1 onion, diced and sauteed in a bit of butter
2 cloves garlic, add to the onion after the onion starts to lightly brown
1 Hokkaido pumpkin - cleaned out and cut into chunks - baked at 400 for 30 minutes or so
1 1/2 cups black beans
2 apples, cored, peeled and chunked
4 carrots, chopped
3+ cups chicken broth
2-3 T fresh grated ginger - I ended up adding more
cinnamon - sprinkle
cumin - sprinkle
salt/pepper to taste

Skiing in the Alps

The halfway point for the school year was last Wednesday, January 30th. The boys all received their marks (report cards) and school was dismissed after just three periods that day. Though the boys were a bit discouraged with their grades, Tracy and I were tickled pink that they didn't fail everything and actually did quite well in some of the classes. It's been very challenging to attempt to do schoolwork in another language - they've had lots of pressure on them from teachers and peers...and themselves. Just not from Tracy and me. As a break in between semesters, they then had off school for Thursday and Friday....what a perfect opportunity for us to head south for our ski trip.

It seemed perfect when we planned the trip in late December; however, we all started passing around flu-like symptoms the week before we were to go! Ugh! We prayed that it would make its rounds with enough time for us to feel like traveling. All of the boys missed some school leading up to the trip. Micah even missed the Monday and Tuesday of the week we were leaving. By the time Wednesday afternoon rolled around, all that seemed to be lingering was the coughing up of lungs. I'm not sure how many those boys have, but they lost several during the battle with that virus! Still, that didn't seem to slow any of the boys down on the slopes.

The boys and I had everything ready to go when Tracy arrived with the vehicle. It was a spacious vehicle - for which we were very thankful - but it was not equipped with a GPS. Trying to find places in Austria without a GPS is like looking for a needle in a haystack. So we stopped at Real on the way out of town and purchased one! Long before we arrived at our flat in Niedernsill, we were quite thankful for the investment. That thing saved us many hours of headache and time.

Thursday morning we drove over to Kaprun to pick up our rentals. I had taken care of all of that on-line so the process went quite smoothly. Well, that is apart from me pulling a fast one in the parking lot! I stepped out of the van onto a sheet of ice and landed hard on my tailbone. That made skiing on Thursday interesting, especially since Noah needed lots of help getting up off of the ground that day! I couldn't bend over so had to maneuver him with my ski poles. Tracy was helping the older two figure out how to snowboard. And Josiah, well....after one time down, he basically pointed his skis south and took off! We're thankful he survived the trip. Helmets are a standard issue for kids. And we were very grateful on more than one occasion that we had them. Micah took a spill in the parking lot headed back to the van after the second day of skiing. I've never seen anyone's head smack the ground that hard. That helmet saved us a trip to for stitches that evening!

This photo was taken after our first time off of the lift...I do believe everyone
fell in that attempt! We were fortunate that the weather was warm for our first
day. The temps were in the upper 30s and the sun was out so we ended up
having to shed some layers. That is much nicer than being cold!

~ Noah - 9 ~
That would be green duct tape on his snow pants! They were ripping and
I didn't have the correct stuff with me to really patch them up right. So...
duct tape it is! I think he would have preferred a patch!

~ Joel - 13 ~
We were glad we stuck with "The Nursery" for the first two days as this
allowed Joel to really get the feel for the board. Falling a lot is part of
learning to snowboard. He took his fair share but finally got the knack
and really enjoyed snowboarding!

Notice how my skis are not headed down the mountain? I liked it that way!

~ Josiah - 11 ~
And notice how Josiah's skis are pointed straight down the mountain? He
liked it that way! He was the only one that skied a red with Tracy at the end
of Day 1. When we met up with them at the bottom, he said he wasn't sure
he'd give that another try....but of course, he did the next day as well.

~ Micah - 14 ~
This was Micah's first time snowboarding as well. He really didn't want to
wear a helmet, but later said that he was really thankful for it as he, too,
had his fair share of spills in learning how to snowboard.

Notice his plaid pants?? He was definitely the coolest 45 year old on the slopes!

We opted to ski the first day near Zell am See which is just beyond Kaprun. There was a blue slope there that we were told would be good for our first run. I don't recall the name of the run, but it is commonly called "The Nursery." Nursery, my foot! That run gave us enough challenges that we ended up staying on that one run all day. It took Noah and me well over two hours to get down it the first time. I think we only went down three times that first afternoon. Micah and Joel were snowboarding for the first time so they, too, needed lots of instruction and time to figure out how to manuever their boards. In fact, we decided we would start on that same slope the second day to continue to practice. At the end of Day 2, we were just beginning to feel ready for something else!

This is Joel, Josiah and Micah after successfully boarding a lift. I'm sure the
guys working the lift got a kick out of us attempting this feat. It wasn't until
Day 3 that we were all that skilled with it. The lift had to be stopped on a
number of occasions due to our falling getting on and off!

Day 2 was a bit cloudier which helped as we didn't get quite so hot. The
clouds would move throughout the day blocking the view. I am so glad
we had a couple of days of getting to enjoy the beauty of the mountains.
God's creation is so diverse - being on that mountain top was breathtaking!

At the top of the slopes, there was a little lodge-type building that offered a
lunchroom. I had packed a lunch for Day 2 so we stopped at one point and
rested our legs while eating lunch. The boys were pretty impressed that I
hadn't wrecked at all up to this point so as a result, lunch was not smushed. 

When Josiah took off his helmet at the car, the steam
was rising from his head and helmet. He thought that
was pretty cool!

Looking back, we are very thankful that we took our time at first as it made our trip much more enjoyable overall. Everyone felt confident to branch out on our last day so we drove to another area over near Kitzbühel. The snow was really coming down as we neared the pass creating a nightmare on the roads. And Austria doesn't tend to have many guardrails. In other words, it is easy to be a nervous-wreck on those twisty mountain roads!

The road conditions were such that some cars were having difficulty moving
forward. Stopping a vehicle on these types of roads = not a good idea. In fact,
there was one place that traffic was held up by a rear-wheel station wagon that
couldn't get going again. Micah, Joel and I jumped out and helped the guy push
it out of the ditch. All the while, Tracy couldn't stop our vehicle so we had to
run to catch up to him. When we finally made it back into our car, I was so
tired I wasn't sure skiing was such a good idea. Micah said that he felt like he
was in a movie...jumping into a moving vehicle while running in snowboard
boots is not the easiest of feats!

We made it to the lift area and were very encouraged to find out that because the lifts over to Kitzbühel were closed due to high winds, we only had to pay 90 Euros for all six of our lift tickets for the entire day! That is an incredible deal! Lift tickets in Snow Mass, CO, are over $100/person/day. The woman apologized that there were not many runs open for us. Little did she know that we really only needed one!

The gondola ride to the top was so long that we ate lunch on it. These
pb&j sandwiches aren't in the best of shape as I did have my share of spills
on Day 3. I think I can safely say that I am the only one in the family that
would choose to stay on a blue rather than enjoy the fun of the reds! As a
result, I chose to enjoy the lodge at the top for a few of the runs. While they
skied, I mentally planned out the week that my brother and his family are
coming to visit over Easter! 

The gondola was so much nicer than a regular lift. It was snowing and blowing
so hard on Day 3 that being inside something on the way to the top was a
real blessing. And this one was big enough for all of us to easily fit in together.

Having a difficult time figuring out which slope to take, we ended up on a red. Umm....yes, the first time down was a bit hairy. We were also concerned that we would not end up where we parked our car. So many slopes connect via lifts that you could easily ski from one mountain to another. So once we knew that this slope took us back to our starting point, we stuck with it. We did try one other slope after that first red as Noah was a bit overwhelmed by it....and me, too! Going back to a blue after the excitement of the red was not all that fun so the rest of the day, we skied the red. Side note - they classify slopes as blue, red or black. We didn't venture near a black.

~ The end of Day 3 ~
It was bittersweet to finish that last run. We were all tired and yet seeing the
end of any vacation is hard. Plus, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
What a blessing that we could do this together as a family. And we are so very
thankful that we didn't have any serious injuries. Micah ended up with such a
bad headache on this evening that he threw up on the way to return our skis.
We were just thankful that he didn't have a concussion!

As we left Niedernsill on Sunday morning, we were all very sore....a good sore, though. Numerous times in the previous three days Motrin was popped like candy. In fact, after the first day, all six of us came home and took Motrin to help with the pain.

The drive out of Austria was just beautiful. The snow was still coming down through the pass and was just hanging on the trees. I am so thankful that is snowed while we were there. It had rained all day Wednesday as we drove in and that just doesn't fit my mental image of the Alps in the wintertime! So though the snow made for some difficult driving for Tracy, it made for a picture perfect ride for the rest of us.

Again, I am thankful that we got to see the Alps the first few days since
visibility wasn't great towards the end of our trip. Having fresh snow
though was worth it!

I love how the snow is several inches deep on each of the
branches of the tree.

Silvester ~ New Year's Eve

Flabbergasted. A good word to describe our reaction to how Germans celebrate Silvester, or New Year's Eve. This is the one night of the year that fireworks are legal in Germany. And believe me, they make up for the other 364 days in just one hour's time! It was craziness here...and the boys LOVED it! They have all decided that we need to come back for Silvester again.

We were told by many that fireworks would be for sale in every store starting on the 27th. This is the first day that stores are open again after Christmas. They are sold for five days of the year and are seriously in every store that you can imagine. We went as a family on New Year's Eve to purchase our loot - the one time that everyone was excited about going to the grocery store with Mom!

The boys came home from the store and immediately sorted out off of the
fireworks onto one of the school desks. They proudly displayed the loot
at the entrance to our apartment...just in case guests wanted to take a gander! 

Colin and Rachel, who also came for Christmas, returned from Paris on the 30th so joined us for the evening, as well as Jamie, Susan and Ben, who returned from Salzburg just before coming over for the evening. We had quite a spread of finger foods to enjoy as we waited for mid-night to arrive. Jamie brought along the game, Die Siedler von Catan, and taught the boys how to play. They enjoyed the game so much that we asked to borrow it for the rest of Christmas break. Ends up that we still have it and play it about every day together! We would like to get the English version when back in the states.

Shortly before mid-night, we heard the beginning rumblings of fireworks. We bundled up in our coats and joined every Tom, Dick and Harry on Lotzestrasse for the next hour of insanity. It was like nothing we had ever seen. I am serious when I say that everyone was outside setting off fireworks anywhere they felt like. The madness lasted a solid hour....that's a lot of fireworks! By 1:00 am, it was hard to see very far for all of the smoke.

Jamie works to get a sparkler lit for Ben to enjoy.

Everyone is gathered around the school desk trying to figure out what to light first.

Colin was finally able to get a sparkler for Ben.

And Ben is not too interested as it was just so loud outside! He finally did
warm up to the idea of lighting them off and was able to enjoy the festivities.