The Cows Came Home

Well after that exhausting hike to see the cows in their mountainous home, I was not about to miss the cows coming home.  We stayed in Garmisch

 and went to the celebration in Mittenwald.

 Mittenwald is a cute, Bavarian town in the middle of the alps with painted building and cobblestone everywhere.  It was a little wet and cold that day, but it was fun to see the cows running around with their bells ringing and their owners all dressed in old fashion garb. 

 The only bad part was that Joe hit his head and made it bleed so much that we had all kinds of Germans helping us try to control it.  They even got an EMT.

On our way home we stopped at Highline 179 in Reutte, Austria.  It is the longest pedestrian suspense bridge.  There was a castle on one side of the bridge and a fort on the other side.

  The hike up there was nice,

The dragon in the park at the bottom shot water out of it's nose at you.

 but the bridge scared the stuffing out of Max and I.  We held on the whole way and just kept looking forward. 

 I forgot that suspension bridges swing.  And they really swing in the middle- I got to the other side as soon as possible.  But then we had to go back again!

Hurricane Vacation

Storm #3 was a full on Hurricane, so there is no better way to show you it except a flurry of pictures.  First up- quick trip to Paris while the 18 year old, graduated Senior babysat!  Oh Yeah!  We got to see a few things on the list we had missed last time- like The Rodin Gardens.
The Thinker

The Gates of Hell

 We locked up our love and threw the key in the river

We walked where Monica would have walked when she came to do some University work in Paris.

 And we ran down south of Paris to see Versailles-  It was really hot that day!

The Hall of Mirrors

We came back just for a day and then headed out on another adventure.  Stopping first in Salzburg, Austria

The Kress family singers maybe?  A little Do, Ray, Me on the steps

 Mozarts Birth place

Stolperstein- stones on the ground that mark the place that someone used to live that was taken to a concentration camp.

We made it another place we had never been in Salzburg- in the caves inside of the cemetery.  It was cut into the mountains and had a church and some burial places.  

Next we headed to Tuscany where we spent some relaxing- if rather hot- days in this castle turned hotel.  

 We got the whole tower to ourselves and also had one other out building.

Our Room

 The swimming pool

A view of the valley

The kitchen

From here we went to Pisa

 and to Florence

 and Rob took his Mom and sister to Rome

  You would think with all that we would be exhausted and you would be right- but our vacation was just beginning.  Soon we were leaving on our Greek Isle cruise- Emma's Graduation trip!

We hit Corfu

 And Kefalonia

Mykonos

 Athens

These smooth stones up to the Parthenon where murder on the way down!

 And Montenegro- the port was next to a beautiful walled city with a hike up to a castle.  Rob, Sam and I were the only ones that wanted to do the hike (it was thousands of steps after all!)

 The boys dropped the tops pretty early in the hike!

Fun on the boat

We also hit Argostoli.
Then ended up back where we started- Venice.  With one day to explore we saw  the highlights

The Grand Canal

 The Bridge of Sighs

The Palace

We got a special trip out to the island of Merano by people who didn't know we would never buy their expensive glass.  This glass worker was amazing.  He made a glass horse like he did it everyday- which he very well could!

 We also made it out to the island of Burano

 St. Mark's Square

And with that we took our tired bottoms home!  So much fun, so much to see and do.  Love it!