Zugspitze!!

Before heading back to Naples we took a gondola to the top of the Zugspitze - Germany's tallest mountain. The view was absolutely amazing (you can see into Italy, Switzerland, and Austria) and the kids made the mountain into their playground, playing in the snow.

Kids making snow angels. We had to lure them out of the snow with the promise of hot chocolate and brezels (pretzels).

Some of the ski slopes at the top.

Click on the picture to make it larger. Then look on the right slope...do you see the gondola line?

Christkindlmarkt experience

Christkindlmarkts, or Christmas Markets, are street markets selling traditional Christmas-related items. Originating in Germany and Austria, they are now all over the world. They are so much fun! The ambiance is great, with music, hot wine and delicious food, beautiful crafts, attractions for the kids.... just a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday season. We got to visit the markets in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Munich, and Salzburg on this trip. Here are some pics:

Papa and Ethan enjoying a brezel (pretzel) in Salzburg.

Stacks of homemade gingerbread in Munich.

hand-painted egg ornaments in Salzburg.

Cuckoo clocks and nutcrackers in Munich.

Munich

Despite driving 10 hours over the previous two days, on Monday we drove an hour north into Munich. The Christmas Market in Munich was amazing (compared what we've seen in Rome, Prague, and Budapest). Dozens of booths were selling handmade wooden toys, chocolate covered marshmallows, grilled sausages, and spiced apple cider. In addition to the Christmas market, we also stumbled upon another large market, the Viktualienmarkt. Call us unfit parents, but then we brought the kids to the Hofbrauhaus - Margaret had a radler, Dan a lager, and the kids lemonade.

The Viktualienmarkt market.

A mesmerized Ethan watching the glockenspiel (figurines on the New Town Hall performing a daily show)

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Last Sunday morning we ("we" being the four of us along with Dan's parents) hit the A-1 northbound and headed to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in the Bavarian Alps. Since the drive takes almost 10 hours, we spent the night in Bologna, Italy (where we experienced the coldest weather of the entire trip!).


On Monday afternoon we arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small town at the foot of some of Germany's best skiing. Festive holiday lights lined the downtown pedestrian-only streets and a Christmas market filled the small main square. Allison downed hot chocolate and Ethan began his love affair with snow. The Bleicher's apartment luck continued here - an authentic Alpine space boasting spectacular views of the Alps and plenty of space for the six of us to spread out.

The ole' Honda Odyssey.

Allison staying warm with hot chocolate.

The outside of our second floor apartment. Note the lace curtains- so Bavarian!

Our cozy apartment felt more like a mountain lodge.

Allison's holiday show

Allison's preschool holiday show was so cute and the kids did a great job singing for all the visitors!

Here is the bilingual (English/Italian) song they sang for us:

Allison with her teacher, Ms. Donna.

Ethan's holiday show

Ethan's nursery school class put on their holiday show for parents this week. It was very cute. The cutest part was that not one child opened their mouth! They were all stunned to walk in the room and see 20 parents waiting to hear their beautiful little voices that none of them would open their mouths (well, except for the few who cried). It was still adorable and we had a nice lunch together after the "show". Hopefully next year, our boy will sing!

More Hanukkah...

The kids have been having a great time this year during Hanukkah. It's the first year we've really made an effort to light the candles each night and the kids are really into it. They are learning the blessing, and of course, love getting presents. And they really loved the potato latkes with applesauce and sour cream!!

Caserta Vecchia

Last Sunday we hit Casertavecchia. It's such a quaint medieval town. Here are a few pics that our friend Scott took of the Allison with his son, Carter.

Getting ready for tonight...

Budapest

Thanksgiving weekend we headed off to Budapest, Hungary. Odd place to go, but the plane tickets were cheap and we had never been there. Budapest is actually two former cities, Buda and Pest, now united but still divided by the Danube River.

We were lucky to get a hotel within the walls of the Buda Castle. The views from this side of the river were spectacular, offering sweeping panoramas of Pest and the eye-catching parliament building.

Looking east over the Danube and the Chain Bridge. We must have walked over that darn bridge more than half a dozen times in the four days we were there.


The view looking west over the Danube at the enormous Buda palace. Most of the palace is post-WW2, but some buildings remain from that period and are spotted with bullet holes.


Our charming hotel entrance.


Ethan devouring some dessert cake/bread/pastry that we found in the Christmas Market downtown. This is one of the rare dietary finds of the trip, as the Bleichers often went hungry in Hungary. Goulash and other bizarre foods didn't quite do it for us.


One of the monuments to the Soviets. This monument is so unpopular that it is barricaded and has a guard in front of it 24/7. Note the hammer and sickle midway up the obelisk.


The inside of the Great Synogogue. This synogogue somehow survived the Nazi occupation and is now the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world behind a synogogue in NYC.


The Matthias Church in Buda.


Allison and Ethan loving life in the funicular going up to Buda Castle.

Trick or Treat...

The kids had a great time on Halloween this year. Allison decided to be Cinderella for a second year in a row, and Ethan was a fireman. The base here does an excellent job of getting all the housing units to participate in Halloween, and since the time change in Europe happened before Halloween, it was a perfect fall night- dark and cool. We met up with some friends to go from building to building collecting candy. The kids made out like bandits and a good time was had by all!

Allison trick-or-treating.

group shot!

"look at all my candy mama! I will be asking for it morning, noon, and night for the next month!"

Vandy reunion, Italian-style

“Friendships that have stood the test

of time and chance are surely best.

Brows may wrinkle, hair grow gray,

Friendship never knows decay.”

-unknown

This weekend I met up with 4 of my roomates from Vanderbilt for a mini-reunion. We had a truly wonderful time. We stayed in the heart of Florence at the Hotel Calzaiuoli and spent the day on Saturday with our guide, Guido, touring the Chianti area of Tuscany. We visited the market at Greve in Chianti, had a wine tasting and amazing 4-course lunch at the Castello di Tornano, and shopped the streets of San Gimignano. On Sunday, we slept in and climbed Giotto's tower adjacent to the Duomo for an awesome view of the entire historic city. It was a great weekend of food, fun, and friendship!

wine tasting.

Duomo and city view from Giotto's Tower.

Tara and I in Positano.

Michelangelo's Pieta.