Rock Star

Wiley got a clean bill of health (and a cool pair of sunglasses) from the ophthalmologist today.

Tired traveller

After nine hours in the flight from Munich to Chicago, he didn't even make it away from the gate on the final domestic leg.

Ulmer Münster

The tallest church in the world!

Storming the castle

Graydon was far more interested in climbing the rocks on the castle wall than looking at the castle itself. Uncle Ian was kind enough to spot for him.

Parking in Nurnberg

This is what passes for rock star parking in Nurnberg. I had no idea there were so many different (officially sanctioned) ways to park on the sidewalk.

Crash scene investigation.

Eisbaer und Kanadagans

Wiley looking at his fellow expats at the Nurnberg zoo.

Eating Animal Crackers at the Zoo

My kind of Salad

Wurstsalat and Hopf Weissbier

Graydon's Hands

It's been a rough couple of days for Graydon's hands.

Swinging in the rain

There's a great little Spielplatz in Weyarn that the American lawyers haven't gotten to yet. It has a merry-go-round, a zip line, a see-saw made out of a big wooden pole and old car tires, a big metal slide without railings everywhere, and other equally dangerous contraptions. Both boys had a blast!

Here are the links to the videos promised in an earlier version of this post:

http://youtu.be/Z8UGY-MfIQY

http://youtu.be/LipDskyXBe0

http://youtu.be/hNCdnVQSgY8

http://youtu.be/wcUsIbJszh4

http://youtu.be/e837-wnDAU8

The Road to Italy

The road to Italy was very pretty but took forever. Six hours into what was supposed to be a four hour drive, we finally got a glimpse of the lake (breathtakingly beautiful)! Unfortunately, it took us another hour to get down the hill to Torbole. We finally rolled into our place (Villa Giovanna in Bogliaco, Gargnano, Lombardy, Italy) around 8:30 pm. More posts to follow soon.

Back on the North Side

 We just spent a week in Italy at the Lago di Garda. There are lots of photos and we need to post some here too. But yesterday, we drove back north through the Alps to Weyarn, Bavaria (Germany) and established a new base camp with Ebo and Erika. Today, we went on a hike above the Tegernsee (as seen in the background of the first photo). We had some fantastic views, enjoyed a couple of "Dampfnudeln mit eingemachten Zwetschgen" at the top, and managed to climb (and then descend) about 500m of elevation gain with no complaints from Graydon - even despite the small blister that Neal had to bandage near the end of the hike. He was still running around chasing Wiley when we got back to the parking lot while all the adults cooled their heels on the tailgates before heading back home.

Enjoying an Evening at Bine and Roman's Place

Both the hammock and the sausages were a big hit!

Score!

When we checked in for our long haul flight yesterday we saw that the seat map looked curiously empty, especially in the "economy plus" section. So we took seats in the row just behind economy plus and skipped a seat in the middle. When we boarded, we just "mistook" the row by one because the economy plus row was totally empty. So we are now sitting in economy plus, with a row of three seats for Wiley and Mami, and a couple of seats by the window for Graydon and Daddy. Our original row behind us is also still wide open. With us luck - we're hoping that the kids use the opportunity of space to actually sleep... Signing off until we hit wifi!

Boys in the airport

Our flight to Houston is a little delayed but we should still make the connection. Meanwhile, the boys are enjoying a little freedom to roam before being cooped up for a looooong time.

The "before" pictures

Ronja is going to paint murals on the boys' rooms while we are on vacation. We re-painted Graydon's room a little lighter blue because it desperately needed new paint. The paint in Wiley's room was ok. These are the "before" pictures.