Triberg

Matt had to work a late shift one day last week, so for our middle of the week outing, we headed to Triberg! Triberg is known as the "Clock Town"- it's famous for making and selling the widely known Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks. We hit plenty of traffic along the way, so the 1 1/2 hour drive became a 2 hour drive, but we made it!
We explored a little and stopped at the House of 1000 Clocks, where they had this awesome over-sized, moving, mechanical Swiss Army Knife. Isaac was ecstatic- so we had to get a picture! So, when they said House of 1000 clocks, they weren't kidding. We were searching for a clock for Matt's mom, who really wants one. We came to Germany thinking we could buy her one and send it to her. Then... we saw the price tags. We could probably afford to buy them a clock about the size of a coke can. All of the clocks you see on this wall range from $800 up to $1600. Seriously. They are all hand-made with moving parts and are truly impressive. I just had no idea how much they would cost!!

They also had plenty of Christmas decor and lots of other handmade collectibles. Such as random over-sized bears:

And of course, over-sized clocks! I was taking too long to get the picture again, so I got another "Hurry up and take the picture!" face, but I had to capture the clock outside. Apparently, there is an enormous Cuckoo Clock that you can walk inside, but we didn't have time to find it on our speedy tour of Triberg...

This is the outside of the House of 1000 Clocks:

After we explored the cuckoo clocks, we went to check out Germany's tallest waterfall, which is just up the street from the House of Clocks. We took a steep little hike up to see the waterfall, which was very beautiful. I have to say, though: once you've seen Switzerland's waterfalls, it takes a lot to impress you. And this was cool, but nowhere near what Switzerland offers in the waterfall department!

Video Footage! Not too much of the waterfall, but lots of cute footage of Victoria. She was totally enamored by all the rushing water and couldn't take her eyes off of it!






We saw this awesome tree stump on our way back down... it was totally hollow inside and very deep- so of course we had to hop inside and get a picture. Where we are living, in Stuttgart, we are very near to the Balck Forest and the trees are extremely dense and thick. Triberg is considered to be in the heart of the Black Forest, so the trees are even more dense and lush.
Some pictures of Triberg from above:

Super cute town- definitley a fun way to spend the morning! After hiking up the waterfall, we had to run back to our car and snag some food from a local bakery. We ate our yummy food and rushed back to Stuttgart so that we could get Matt to work by 2 pm. Even though there was plenty of traffic, we thankfully made it just in time!

Italy Day 2- Venice

I know there are a lot of pics of sights in this post, but there is also a super cute video of Tori on the boat- so be sure and check that out, grandmas!

Day 2 of Venice began very early- we awoke and ran out the door to catch an early Vaporetto so that we could head out to Murano Island. One of our major objectives while in Venice was to purchase some Venetian Glass! Venice has been famous for glass-making for centuries and Murano Island is the little island where all that wonderful glass magic happens! So we hopped on a Vaporetto and enjoyed some lovely sights on the way: Unfortunately, we probably could have found a different Vaporetto that would take a more direct route to the island. This particular line took about an hour to get there!

We have experienced a very mild summer here in Germany, with rain more often than not and temps much lower than what we are used to experiencing. Matt and I are not afraid of the heat, since we are both familiar with Texas summers! And, to be honest, Utah gets pretty hot in the summer. But, our bodies hadn't experienced heat like this in some time, and we were pouring sweat for most of the time in Venice. We were so thankful to have air conditioning in our flat and took full advantage of the Italian Gelato we found on every corner!

When we caught the Vaporetto, It was 8 am in the morning and we were already starting to feel the sheen of the sweat on our skin... so we spent a lot of time trying to keep the kiddos entertained.

Tori, in particular, had a hard time staying happy on this extended Vaporetto trip. (I'm already having anxiety attacks just thinking about our 19 hour flight home) So, I spent some time keeping her happy and we decided that this video is so cute we just have to share it (even though it shows unfortunate footage of my arms, which are aging faster than the rest of me...)

We did see Venice from just about every possible angle while on this Vaporetto ride, so it wasn't all a loss:

Once we arrived at Murano, we set out to find some interesting glass shops and to see a furnace where they make the glass. We searched all over the island and could not find a furnace open on that day. :( We were disappointed, but loved seeing all the fantastic sculptures and various creations made out of Venetian Glass:

And of course, we found some fabulous jewelry! After Isaac got a Swiss Army Knife in Switzerland, we decided we wanted to get something very special for Daphne while here in Europe and jewelry from Venice seemed like a perfect option! Stay tuned for pics of us modeling it!

And then, we headed back to the main Venice Island...

We made a quick stop to see the Frari Church, which has some incredible artwork inside. We just have a short video clip from the inside- they were about to begin a mass and we had to scoot on out to give them some peace and quiet!

Just outside the church, Tori had to stop and chase some pigeons:
And then we caught one more Vaporetto back to St. Mark's Square so that we could pick up our bags, we LOVED the scenery in Venice. It was so very beautiful. MAny of our favorite destinations have been considered beautiful because of the natural scenery and landscaping. I think Venice is the exception to that rule. It was so spectacular because of the architecture and the people- and it is truly breath-taking to see how they have built everything right up to the edge of the water. There is no break for a beach, just buildings and walkways that border the water directly. Truly beautiful. Ciao, Venice! We hope to see you again someday!

A few more pictures of the landscape along the way out of Italy:

These aren't really all that special, we were just so surprised at how there were ancient castle ruins and fortresses around every corner. We definitley want to remember this drive!

Italy Day 1- Venice

Or Venezia, as the locals call it! After a short drive from Verona, we got to Venice Island- You have to park in a huge parking garage and take a "vaporetto" boat to actually get to the Island. It was a little stressful getting all that figured out, but we made it onto the boat. Here we are on our way to Venice: And we made it onto the island, and navigated our way to the hotel- This is our little apartment that we rented. It was right near the center of all the action, just a few blocks from St. Mark's Square. The streets are so tiny that it wasn't really possible to get a shot of it from across the way, just kind of a shot looking up at the side of the building.

After we got settled in our Apartment, we headed out to find some dinner. We were very excited to find some authentic Italian food in Italy...

Along the way we saw this place, with their seafood display outside in the window. This lobster is HUGE!! The kids thought it was so cool, and when we stopped to look up close, we realized that it was still moving! Isaac and Daphne thought that was pretty awesome.

Since they had such an awesome lobster and we were completely starving, we decided to stop here for dinner. Here we are awaiting our yummy dishes!

And here we are enjoying our delicious, real Italian food in ITALY!! I love this picture- I think it is one of my very favorite pics from Europe. And I have to admit, that was some fabulous food!

After our delicious food, we headed out to explore St. Mark's Square. The winged lion is Venice's chief symbol, representing freedom and victory. We saw lions everywhere.

This is St. Mark's Basilica:

The kids and me in front of St. Mark's Basilica, which is an amazing piece of architecture. It was buily in the 11th century, and houses the bones of many Catholic Saints...Another lion:

We saw plenty of dogs out and about, and Tori got plenty of barking in. Dogs are just about her favorite thing in the universe and everytime she sees a dog or even a picture of a dog, she points and makes the cutest barking sounds. It is truly one of the cutest things ever- and of course we have been unable to capture it on video. Anyway, here she is stalking this little dog. Too Cute!

Matt and the kiddos in front of Doge's Palace:

This is the top of one of the clock towers on St. Mark's square. This clock tower was built in 1496! I read that in the 17th century, a worker was killed when one of the bronze mechanical bell ringers knocked him off the tower. Isaac and Matt thought that was really funny. The boys always enjoy an unneccesary violent anecdote.

Then we went exploring in Venice- look how cute my people are!!!

I'm not really sure what this is- but it looked cool, so we took a picture!

I have to admit- I loved Venice. Loved it. I loved the ambiance- I loved the scenery -I loved the food. I loved Venice the way I thought I would love Paris. The people here were like the Southerners of Europe. More outgoing, friendly and the whole place was just hoppin'.

We walked along to the Rialto Bridge- the kids and I are there on the top. You can see us better in the next pic.

By about this time, the kiddos were completely exhausted from our day's adventures, so we headed back to our little apartment and got them to bed for the night. Our place was a little rough around the edges, very old and out- of-date, but it was clean and had air conditioning- and what more can a girl ask for in Venice?

We got the kiddos to sleep, which was great. But we had heard that you have to experience Veince at night. Since we didn't have that luxury, Matt ran out and took pictures of a few more sights. One of which was this church:

We have been a little floored by churches here; how they often seem more like tourist attractions than places of worship... One of the particularly interesting things is that they often proclaim to have special holy artifacts in order to bring more tourists to the Church. This particular one claims to house the tomb of Zaccharias. That's right. They say they have the body of John the Baptist's Father. Our friends went to Belgium and visited a Church that claims to have a vial of Christ's blood. Very interesting....

This is St. Mark's Square after dark- definitely has a different feel. No massive crowd of tourists, just music and dining and dancing.

It was after Matt's little excursion outside that we realized that Venice is one place we would truly love to re-visit later in life, just as a couple. We had a blast with our kids, but it would be lovely to experience the city just as grown ups! So far, that list includes Rome, Greece, Hawaii and now, Venice, too. I guess we'll start saving our pennies!

Stay tuned for more Venice pics soon!

Italy Day 1- Verona

Last weekend, we drove to Italy!! We were so excited for this trip. Even before we left for Germany, Daphne was excited to visit Italy. She regularly plays an imaginary game where she has some inordinate amount of sisters, ranging from 10 to 100. The sisters always have very unique names, and Daphne can spend hours on end telling me all about what each of her sisters are named, what they look like, what they do well, and how Daphne does all of those things better than they do! :) Love that girl! Anyway, before we left the States, I was explaining to her why we needed passports to leave the country. I told her that they would stamp her passport when we went into Germany and when we left Germany and went to other countries, like France and Italy. Daphne was very quiet for a second and then said, "Mom. What is Italy?" I said, "Well, It's a country, like Germany or France." And, without skipping a beat- she said, "I have a sister named Italy." She makes me laugh!
Anyway, she was very excited to find out that we were visiting Italy... We loved the drive through Tirol and Northern Italy.
It was so cool, because literally every few miles or so, we saw something like this : We arrived at our hotel really late- 11 pm, I think. Matt went into the Holiday Inn of Verona while I waited in the car with the children. He came back out a few minutes later and said that they had no reservation for us. I was so distraught- we were exhausted and I didn't know what we would do. Matt ran in to talk to them again and I just kept racking my brain- going through the phone call when I made the reservation. All the sudden it hit me! I ran into the hotel room with unnecessary urgency- (I always have to make things more dramatic than necessary- it's in my genetic makeup or something!) and slid into the counter next to Matt saying, "It's Lara- the reservation is under Lara! He wrote down my first name because he couldn't understand me and my Italian was pretty pathetic (but better than my German!)!" And then the concierge said, "Of course, Mrs. Lara we have your room all ready for you." Whew. That was a close one. I have to say, with all of the hotels we have stayed in, I'm surprised something like that hasn't happened more often- we have been so blessed.

Once we got into our room , I started trying to get everyone settled in for the night. All of a sudden Isaac said, "Mom! You have to see this!" So I came over and peered into the bathroom. Daphne said, "Look! It's a little baby sink for Tori to wash her hands!" And this is what I saw:

So, we had to have a little lesson on bidets. Fortunately, we didn't have any handwashing in the bidet!

We had a nice breakfast and headed out to see Verona!

Our first stop was the Roman collosium in Verona. That was pretty incredible to see:

They must have been preparing for a parade or something, because they had these giant floats nearby:

Of course, as we have come to expect in the big cities, there was a fellow dressed up as a Roman gladiator and posing for pics with all the kids. This is the first guy who asked us for a tip, though.

We used to tip for everything and then we realized that Europeans don't tip like Americans do, so we have cooled it down quite a bit. We were just getting the hang of not having to tip when Mr. Gladiator here asked for some money! :)

Verona was very beautiful in a smaller-city sort of way. I wish we could have spent a little more time there.

This is kind of a weird pic of my unattractive, bruised legs- but we wanted to show you the sidewalks on the walkways there- it was really interesting:

Our next stop was the Casa di Giulietta, which is supposed to be the home of Juliet!

The dell Capello family owned the house on Via Capello for hundreds of years. In fact, it is the similarity of their name that spurned the popular belief that this was the house of the Capulets in Shakespeare’s play. The dell Capello’s coat-of-arms can still be seen on the keystone of the inner archway in the courtyard. The house itself was built in the 13th century.

I was really interested in this site and wanted to go inside and see everything, but it was a mad house! We seemed to come in with a huge influx of people and we waited for a long time trying to get a picture with the statue of Juliet, but it just wasn't in the cards for us. I probably could have just pushed past everyone who kept cutting in line, but I guess I just wasn't feeling the moxy like I did in France! :)

It turned out to be a good thing that we didn't get pic I guess. Apparently, it is some sort of tradition to grope the poor statue of Juliet. After the fact, we found out that it is a common belief in Italy that if you hold the breast of Juliet, you will have good luck in love. Virtually everyone did this, male and female. I think we saw two people out of thirty or so who did not grab the statue inappropriately. I was so embarrassed for them. And of course I have my children there and have to explain why they are being so disrespectful and rude. We finally just gave up and headed back out.

Here you can see people running to be the next one to get a picture with the statue:

We walked around Verona for a while longer and this is where Daphne sort of melted down. She was tired and even more volatile and obstinate than usual. And I was struggling to be patient with her (well, that's an understatement). She acutally was standing in the street while a car was trying to drive by and when I told her to get out of the street, she just stood there and stared at me. She got in pretty big trouble for that and from this point on, we walked through the streets of Verona with a screaming Five year old. :( We did get a cute shot of Matt and I near the river:

It was so beautiful there! I loved it!Then we stopped by a few other beautiful churches and buildings:

The whole episode of screaming culminated in Daphne not gettting ice cream with everyone else, which she did not like one bit!

She decided to get it in gear and be a little nicer once we hopped in the car, so Matt shared his ice cream with her! So, we licked our delicious Italian Gelato and skipped out of town on the way to Venice!! Ciao, Verona!