Granny Vicky came to visit us this August. It was fun to have her here and the girls got out their sewing right away. We had some good times, visiting the zoo, going to Vashon for berry picking and beach fun, driving to Portland to see Tiffany’s new house and visit with other family and friends, and hanging out at home.
Tim’s sister Christy was married and had a lovely ceremony. The site was at a vineyard and it was very hot, but a beautiful place. They had good food, dancing and ended the evening with us all lighting up big paper lanterns that floated off into the sky. Very beautiful.
The girls were asked to be flower girls in the ceremony and they were quite cute. The dresses made them feel like princesses for the day. Julia loved it so much she wore her dress all over town the next day receiving plenty of compliments. The flower girls did a great job and really loved the wedding and ceremony.
Owen and Ryan had outgrown their rollerblades, so we tucked those in our suitcases and they traveled Europe with us before arriving in Seattle their new home. The girls tried them out right away. Kayla did great. She had done a bit of roller skating in gym class and at a party before and was catching on quickly. She even was going over the neighbors bike ramp by the end of the day.
Julia was at a bit more of a disadvantage since the skates are still too big for her, but she sort of walked along and seemed to have pretty good balance and had fun too. Thanks cousins (and aunt Ang) for the fun.
The day we arrived in London was Owen’s 13th birthday. We were all super tired but hung in there until bedtime. We were treated to a piano concert by Owen and Ryan (and other fellow students) at their teacher’s home. We then celebrated Owen’s birthday with a nice meal and presents.
The girls love their cousins and were excited to hear that Ryan would skip a few days of school to hang out with us. Owen’s school was already over. London was a bit rainy and cold, but the boys were our guides. We took a neighborhood walk and ended up at the Thames river. We bought some bread to feed the ducks with. I forgot how fun that is. Usually it is frowned upon around here to feed the birds.
London seems to have no short supply of folks that dress up and pretend they are statues, hoping for a small donation in return. I’m not sure how they make money with 30 all in a row, but this guy seemed to have a unique edge. He was sitting, but on thin air. The kids all pondered this for some time as did many other onlookers.
After a week in London we flew to Switzerland. We stayed in a town called Bonigen. It was a really pretty setting by Lake Brienz complete with a little Swan family. One night while there we were able to listen to the local yodel club while sitting by the lake.
The first day in Switzerland the weather was not great either, so we decided to go to the Trummelbach falls. It was a pretty cool series of 8 falls or so. Narrow gorges to walk along, and for a stretch we walked inside the rock itself.
The next day we did a gorgeous hike from Mannlichen to kleine scheidegg. There was a spot along the trail where folks had made cairnes, so the kids decided to make some as well.
The hike was stunning. The mountain views were just incredible the whole way. From kleine scheidegg we took a train up to the Jungfraujoch. “Top of europe” they call it. The train goes steeply up through Mt. Eiger for quite some time. Then up top you are looking right out at the glaciers and the beauty of that. They didn’t just have the view, you could go outside for ziplines and sledding or walking, and they had all kinds of indoor (in mountain really) things to look at. One of them was an ice palace made completely out of ice, as you might have guessed. Julia was seeming super out of sorts so I took her down shortly after we go there. She passed out on the train immediately as did at least half of the other passengers on the train. Interesting what the altitude did to folks.
While in Switzerland, Tim and I were able to get away and do the Via ferrata together. We headed to Muerren where it started, and it ended in Gimmelwald. This via ferrata went down, which made it quite interesting as it sometimes felt as though you were literally hanging above the valley. Much of it was just a trail, but the rest made it all worthwhile.
Here is Tim making his way across the rungs. The whole time you are clipped into a wire, but it would still be possible to fall a ways with the emergency cord. It made for a lot of clipping and unclipping, but for the more interesting parts it offered some peace of mind.
There were two of these wire bridges to cross. The wire was a bit wobbly but at least there were the upper wires to hang on to.
The suspension bridge was the best part for me. It was about 260 feet across, and 328 feet high. It was wobbly, and the wire that ran parallel to the bridge was only on one side that you were clipped into. The vertical wires were spaced apart quite a bit and made it a bit intimidating to get to the next one. We stopped in the middle to look down, and wow, we felt quite high up. It was amazing. The whole adventure was really good. We even got to see a base jumper jump from his platform and fall for a while before gliding outwards and then pulling the parachute. Too crazy.
After Switzerland, the London and Germany folks left. The Haswells and Tafts continued on to Salzburg. A super long drive, but worth it in the end. The photo is taken from one of my favorite spots to hang out when I lived there. Tim and I had a date night and I took him up there for sunset.
Castle Hellbrunn has some trick fountains that we thought would be fun to tour. It truly was. The girls got soaking wet (which couldn’t have been better for them) and we all laughed and got wet when our tour guide surprised us and water shot out of random places we were standing. Here there was a tall arch of water we all had to walk through, and the girls went through as the water was lowered down on them. Giggles and more giggles.
Since my mom, myself and my girls are all Sound of Music fans, we had to see the gazebo from the movie, which was in the Hellbrun gardens. We couldn’t go in but a photo had to do. We hit many of the sights from the movie to show the girls, but I’m not sure they cared too much. I think maybe they couldn’t really visualize it or remember the bits exactly. I’ve probably seen the movie 20 more times than they have. It was still fun to do though.
No trip to Salzburg is complete without going to the Augustiner Brewery. It was an old monastery turned into a beer hall. Long big halls upstairs and nice big beer garden outside complete with the obligatory chestnut trees. One picks their mug, rinses it, pays and brings it to the keg guy who fills it and there you go.
Our last night we spent in Munich. My aunts, two cousins and their families and met up with us in a beer garden (of course) and visited for many hours. It was really fun and sad to leave everyone not knowing when we will have a chance to visit again. I have only described maybe a quarter of what we all did on this trip. There is too much to write about. It was amazing, the girls did really well and we would gladly do it all over again.