Deterred after all!

At least there was a little play house at the playground that was dry on the inside!

Undeterred II

Undeterred

Never mind that ping pong balls don't do too well in rain and wind…

Skocjanske Jame

Aka Skocjan Caves

Mustard in a bucket!

Neal was super excited to find his favorite Bavarian sweet mustard on sale by the *bucket* at the grocery store today.

Skocjan Cave - Exit

They allowed us to take photos right at the end of the tour as we were leaving the cave system.

Caves!

After Saturday in Venice, we drove to Slovenia on Sunday to explore the UNESCO World Heritage Skokjan Caves. This is not them - we were not allowed to take photos inside the caves - this was just a small "side show" on our way out.

The Adriatic Sea

This is as close as we got - there was a fence in the way.

More churches

Just to prove all three kids actually stepped foot in a few. Note the whole ceiling in this photo is actually covered in mosaics - amazing.

Oh yeah, and there were churches, too

Had to subject the kiddos to a little culture after all.

The obligatory PIZZA

We were in Italy so OF COURSE we had pizza for every meal except breakfast.

Ladies in Venice

Bridge of Sighs

Graydon is impersonating one of the fabled prisoners transported across this bridge for "questioning."

Venice!

We splurged and took a ride in a Gondola. It was a welcome respite from the crowds in the busy alleys and gave us a nice perspective of what the life of real Venetians might be like (who travel/ed by boat).

Dinner in Austria

As we passed through Austria on the way home from Venice this weekend, the kids really wanted to stop somewhere with Kaiserschmarn. Google came to the rescue and directed us to this cute little restraint just north of the last tunnel through the alps. The food was great, the service was friendly, and the view wasn't bad either.

Strawberries…!

We picked over 5kg! It's hard to stop when they are everywhere and soooooooo delicious!

Generations of engineers

Jörg really liked Graydon's T-shirt.

Kaiserschmarren

Kathi taught Graydon and Daddy how to make one of our favorite Austrian foods in industrial quantities. We started by separating 32 eggs.

Surprise!

After the painfully long day resulting from a transatlantic flight, Grossmama went to bed early only to be awoken an hour later by fireworks from the neighbors' house.

We're not sure what the fireworks were about, but the next day was a catholic holiday that Roman translated as "happy corpse day".

Cousins playing monopoly

Nini and Julius have been participating in the marathon monopoly games too, but escaped this photo.

The star of the show

Was a peacock who clearly liked being the center of attention!

The zoo-goers!

The only animal that wanted its heating lamp…

…even though it was almost 30C out was the "Southern Armadillo."

Meanwhile Graydon got to waterski

Portia found a BIG cat

at the Augsburg zoo.

For the map nerds…

Our hike went from parking near the "Ludwig Ganghofer Platz" up to the Wettersteinhütte (which came with delicious Kaiserschmarrn), to the Hammermoosalm, and then back down.

The end of the hike

We ended our hike along a beautiful river.

Weather comparison

Looks like we picked a good time to hang out in Germany.

Bicycle Parking

…and the other direction

We were hiking in Austria, but Germany was just over that ridge.

The view from lunch

Looking down on the valley where our hike started.

Hiking, Austrian style

After climbing over 500m of elevation, we came to a restaurant with a playground!

Portia’s first tooth

Portia picked a great place to lose her first tooth.

Highway mowing arm

Since the Germans like to put posts along the sides of all of their highways, they need a mower deck mounted on an arm to reach over them and mow the shoulders.

Walchensee

This is where we stopped for lunch on our way home from Bairbach.

After the hike

Hiking wear and tear

Wiley very calmly announced that the front 1/3 of his boot soles were falling off. We applied plenty of athletic tape and they got him through the remaining 6km of the hike.

Several bandaids were also applied.

Guten Morgen from Holzkirchen!

Here's the view from one of our two balconies this morning. I guess they didn't call it Holzkirchen for nothing. The church bells (see modern-looking tower at right side of photo) woke us up with a 5-minute continuous run of ringing this morning at 7am. I guess they thought it was time to get up! Beautiful start to the morning, though, and looks like another gorgeous day.