Part 3: Munich

It's already been 6 weeks since our 1 month trip to Italy and Germany.  We knew we'd return to reality adjusting our sails quickly to focus on Elise's foot surgery in Boston in early November.  It's nice to stop and write about a sliver in time that was so special not that long ago.

The most sentimental part of our Sabbatical was spending our final 3 weeks in Munich.  We lived like locals in our old neighborhood…felt like we didn't miss a beat except this time I didn't have a stroller or big diaper bag with me. My love affair with Munich remains strong; it's beauty still takes my breath away. Just running through the English Garden got me verklempt and I really don't enjoy running that much.  Nate and I are not on the same page when it comes to Munich.  I LOVE it.  He likes it. Good thing we both love Portland.

We had a great daily recipe for happiness: 1. Act like a tourist 2. Stop at a playground 3. Spend quality time with friends 4. Eat & drink with a bit more "whatever we want" feel to it. Even with the days of our kids acting o so horrible, overall, it really was all good and I really enjoyed traveling with them.  Wow, I don't think I would have said that even 3 years ago. 

This picture of my Dad collectively sums up the feeling everyone had celebrating my sister's 50th at Oktoberfest.

Birthday Girl with our cousin Steffi and husband Andi.  

 Being back at our favorite kid friendly Beer Garden at Wiener Platz in Haidhausen

 The kids are standing directly under the windows of our old flat.  Nate probably gets annoyed by just how often I say how much I loved this apartment.

 Standing outside the hospital where the twins were born.  I do not miss trying to breastfeed twins while the extended families of the other 2 women sharing a room with me visited.

 Angel of Peace is one of our family's favorite places

 Nate took Lily to Rome for a few days getaway.

Elise had a bad day.  Enjoyed a day trip to Salzburg.  About an hour away by train.

Lily and Johanna with Elise now old enough to join in.

The first playground we went to in Munich when Lily was 1.5.  Here she's hanging with her Kindergarten friend Maria.

Lily and her other bestie Johanna.  Lily's first sleepover was with Johanna at age 4.

Lily's best bud Jonah.  They met at age 2.    Lily went to Jonah's school with him for a day.

Legoland with Tenley 

Elise, Lily, Sunday, and Melina

 Paul and Emmitt

Swinging and hiking in Lenggries.  Munich does it right with the fast regional train system to get you to places like this comfortably, affordable, and fast.

European Vacation 2.5: Tellaro and Como

After Tuscany we made our way back to Munich.  We had wanted to make it to Cinque Terre but it was going to be too time consuming so we went with our Tuscany host's recommendation of Tellaro, which was easy to pop into for a quick visit and lunch before making our way up to Lake Como where we were spending the night midway to Munich. 

Like the Cinque Terre towns, Tellaro is basically built into a cliff down to the water.

Narrow streets slowly leading down to the sea.  The town's symbol is an octopus which you could see on doorknobs, mosaics, etc.  Legend has it that the town used to get pillaged by pirates all the time and they always had a lookout in the church steeple.  One night he fell asleep and pirates were closing in when an octopus climbed out of the sea and up the church tower to ring the bells to defend the town.  The kids ate that one up.

Moods were not the best on this morning... but at least Paul was chipper at this moment.

And less chipper after slipping and getting a wet butt.  

The scenery and views were enough to make us want to come back again to check out Cinque Terre.

We made one more stop on our way back to Munich.  There are so many picturesque lakes and mountainous back drops between northern Italy and Munich so I honestly didn't expect to be blown away.  We had seen so many beautiful towns up to this point with the same ingredients.  If I had to describe Lake Como in one word, it would probably be fancy.  It just had that overall feel exploring the intimate cobble stoned streets of downtown.   A cute airbnb, yummy local dinner, boat ride, and enough time to walk around before and after sunset (with gelato in hand)...it was such a sweet way to end our road trip.  

It was our first time staying in a place that had a see through ceiling where the playroom full of toys was above the dining room.  How cool is that?

European Vacation, Part 2 - Tuscany

After our fun in Venice was up, we packed back into our rental car and headed west to Tuscany.  I think it's a reminder of the scale of America when it seemed odd to me that driving almost all the way across Italy took only a bit over three hours.  And that was without the speed limitless Autobahn of Germany.  But we made our way from the flatlands around Venice into the forested hills of Tuscany.  Nicole found an amazing airbnb for us in the middle of nowhere basically equidistant between Florence, Lucca and Pisa.  It was so in the middle of nowhere that the navigation system in the car didn't understand the address, and the meticulous directions written by our host didn't quite do the trick as we had to pass through the most confusing highway interchange three times before finally managing to pick the right exit.  There was stress.  But then we got there and it was amazing.  It's an agri-tourism place - a working vineyard and olive grove - perched on a hill with 360 degree views.  Our welcome gift was a bottle of their wine and a canister of their olive oil.  Can't beat it. 

This was about 270 degrees of the view at the airbnb.  Yes, that's an infinity pool.  It was a bit cold in there but that didn't stop most of us. (click the picture for a better view)

The apartment was really spacious, and included a couch shaped like lips.  We all enjoyed the space and bright light. (click this one too)

The first town we checked out was San Gimignano.  Small but lots of tourists, famous for its tall towers.  500 years ago the rich would build these towers and when the neighboring town would try to invade they would burn the outer staircases and just live up in their tower until the fighting was over.  This view is from the tallest one left standing.  

Daily gelato continued, but this was World Champion gelato.  Apparently that's a thing.  It was definitely tasty.

The next day we visited Lucca.  We rented bikes and rode on a path on the walls surrounding the old city.  We really liked Lucca's old city - not huge, a nice mix of touristy and non-touristy areas.

This was about the biggest open space in the old city. The streets were really narrow but somehow they still manage to run pretty much full-size city buses through them. 

Our mornings were usually spent alternating who got to go out for a morning run.  This road/path was down the hill from our airbnb and had nice views through fields of over-the-hill sunflowers.  They probably looked amazing a month before we were there.

Post-run stretch/flying session.

 After some unhappy car riders, we decided that most of us would take the next day off of touring and hang out at the airbnb property.  Not me, I got to go spend the day in Florence chasing famous art!  

Me and my buddy Dave.  He was a lot taller than I expected and definitely an amazing work of sculpture.  

The dome at Florence's Duomo was too overwhelming to take in... I guess I was so overwhelmed I couldn't quite hold the camera straight.  Florence would be a great place to spend a few days, but I was happy to have a few hours to run around the sights.

When dad's away the kids will play.

From the tower in San Miniato, which we could see in the distance from our airbnb.  This picture doesn't do the view much justice - it was beautiful.

We went for a short hike from the airbnb to a random church in the middle of nowhere.  Another nice view, surprised?

Last night in Tuscany, celebrating with a three and a half pound T-bone from a 3rd generation butcher.  It was damn good.  

Had to take a smoochy family pic on the lip couch!

So long Tuscany, off for a quick stop at Lake Como on the way back home.

European Vacation, Part 1: Venice

The second month of our second sabbatical - this blog began shortly after the first sabbatical, wow - was spent visiting old and new places and friends in Munich and exploring new parts of Italy.  It was a blast, it felt nice and long and incredibly short at the same time.  I have a feeling this is going to turn into a lot of pictures, so we'll probably split this trip into a few blogs.

We spent a couple of days in Munich first.  We have a cute picture of the twins in this swing together as babies... they don't fit so easily any more but they're still pretty darn cute.

Lily got to see one of her old friends almost right away, and they went right back to being good friends.  Elise even got to join in.  

First stop in Italy - Venice!  We'd wished we'd visited when we lived in Munich since it's only a ~5 hour drive, so it was a long time coming.  This is overlooking the Grand Canal. 

Gondola ride!  We started at St. Mark's Square - essentially at the edge of the island and in the sea/lagoon - and made our way into the canals for a nice ride.  Fun St. Mark's trivia: a couple of Venetian traders stole St. Mark's remains from Egypt and brought them to Venice to increase the city's stature.  Lily enjoyed little stories of Medieval intrigue like this, seemed someone was always stealing something or tearing something down to reuse its parts somewhere else.

It's pretty crazy how the gondoliers maneuver the narrow canals without running into walls or each other or motor boats.  

Venice itself was a crazy maze of small and big streets and small and big canals and bridges.  We enjoyed walking around the city as well as taking water taxis around.

View into our airbnb apartment, a perfect place away from the main drag but by plenty of good restaurants.  

 Elise was in pasta heaven pretty much the whole time we were in Italy.  We the adults had a lot of good seafood in Venice, but much pasta and much pizza was eaten by the kids.

And gelato.  Every day.  In some pretty cool places (St. Mark's church in the background, quite an ornate place filled with golden mosaics)

One of the days we took the water bus over to another island in the lagoon:  Murano.  Lots of glass studios, a pretty cool place to hang out and watch masters at their work.

Taking a break on Murano at a lighthouse which also had a bunch of sea glass - of course!  A nice place to chill out and enjoy some tasty panini for lunch and meet some other American tourists - ask Nicole about her new friend Nancy sometime.

 Crazy bird lady.  No bird flu.

 The ride up the Grand Canal on the water bus was pretty cool.  The Rialto Bridge back there has been prime shopping in Venice for about 600 years.  Better view from the canal than on the bridge which was completely packed, even in mid-September.  Definitely glad we visited a bit outside of the busiest and hottest season.  Didn't have to deal with any smelliness we'd heard of in mid-summer.

It was interesting to experience life in Venice.  Essentially everything that's done by car in any given city is done by boat there - deliveries, laundry, garbage collection, and teenage cruising.  

Glad we got a chance to see such a unique place in the world.  Who knows what the future will bring as its population shrinks and as sea levels rise.  

That wraps up Venice - up next, Tuscany!