Ti Amo Italia!

Smiling faces, warm welcomes, friendly people, sensational food & wine - my heart was SO happy in Italy!! We are just home from five glorious days in beautiful Italia! We stayed in the little village of Sirmione located on a small peninsula in the south of Lake Garda and loved every minute of exploring the area. We stayed in a gorgeous little, family run hotel, called Corte Regina situated in the heart of Sirmione, just steps to the lake shore and the city's castle, enjoying the clock tower bells each hour. Nick surprised me with a huge bouquet of beautiful flowers and champagne in our room to celebrate our 12 year anniversary - what a fabulous way to start our Italian vacation!! 

The first couple of days were raining and windy, not ideal vacation weather, but we still enjoyed walking the cobblestone streets and indulging in hot chocolate the Italian way ... pure dark chocolate, melted ... hold the milk ... it was heaven in a cup!! 

The skies cleared up a bit and we eagerly set off for Venice!! After a slight delay due to Polly getting severely car sick, we made it to Venice just in time for lunch. We parked the car, crossed the street and we were right there!! Such an amazing sight - we were all smiling from ear to ear - so pretty!! The kids were amazed that there were no cars and they were so excited to cross all the bridges, wave to all the people travelling by boat and adventure down narrow walkways. We found a fabulous little restaurant for lunch that appeared to be full of locals - exactly what we were after. After lunch we spent the day exploring Venice which of course included a gondola ride - which we thought we'd do 'for the kids' but we all loved it! Our gondolier grew up in Venice and owned the gondola we rode in - he was full of history and even though he didn't sing, he made sure we all had a memorable ride. Venice was fabulous - we all had an amazing day...we went home very tired and happy after enjoying fabulous Venizia!

The next was a day in gorgeous Bardolino - a small town on the south east of the Lake. 

Nick arranged to rent a bike and the kids and I enjoyed exploring yet another gorgeous area of Italy. Blue sky and sunshine and endless views of hillside vineyards made for a fabulous day on the lake. Nick did a fun, challenging, cold, windy ride up the east coast of the lake, beside the cliffs of Monte Baldo then returned through the vineyards back to Bardolino - navigation was the biggest problem but he loved every minute on his rented Pinarello ;-) We drove to Garda for dinner which is the next town north of Bardolino - yet another beautiful lakeside town where we enjoyed more fabulous food.

We spent our final day wandering around Sirmione in the sun before a pleasant 4 hour drive home through Austria....roads that I am sure will become very familiar to us as I am already longing to return to beautiful Italia!! 

Oktoberfest & Wasserburg

Oktoberfest


The first Oktoberfest was held in 1810 in honor of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig's marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, so this year was the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest and 6.4million visitors attended Oktoberfest - it was crazy busy and very, very warm!!

7 million mugs of beer were consumed over the 17 day long festival. We braved the record breaking crowds and caught the train in and out of Oktoberfest along with everybody else in Munich. We were advised to write a cell phone number on the kids' arms in case we lost each other but we only had Nick's USA cell phone and we were doubtful if the German polizei would call an international number to reunite us but we did it anyway ;-) We felt very out of place in our jeans & t-shirts as most of the German crowd, from babies to grandparents, were wearing the traditional clothing of Lederhosen for men and Dirndl dresses for women.

The beer tents were enormous and because we had the kids we headed straight to the family area with fun rides rather than beer tents; plenty of fun for the kids and fabulous German fair type food ... lots of pretzels, sausages, schnitzel, roasted nuts and the fabulous gingerbread hearts with messages written in icing that you hang around your neck and snack on as you walk around.

We did a few rides, ate our fill then headed home. Our German neighbours suggested that next year we visit Oktoberfest mid-week to avoid all the crowds which is when all the Germans go so they can avoid the tourists. So next year we will join the Germans and go during the week!

Wasserburg

This weekend we spent in Wasserburg which is about an hour west of Munich. Our relocation consultant has an 8 year old girl and they invited us to spend the weekend with them. Wasserburg was first mentioned in documents in 1137 when Hallgraf Engelbert moved his residence from the nearby castle Limburg to his "Wasserburg" (Water Castle).  It is one of the most historic towns of Old Bavaria – somewhat older than Munich, continually fought over by the Bavarian nobility and, up to the 16th century, on an equal footing with larger cities.

Saturday we enjoyed a delicious Bavarian meal then drove to a small nearby village called Oberreith which is in a beautiful forrest and meadow. There are many unique and fun outdoor structures for the kids to play on, ponies to ride and there is forrest ropes course where we were harnessed up and taught how to use the climbing equipment so then we could balance, swing, climb our way around the forrest on the ropes provided. Henry totally lost it mid-way a tight-rope type of climb and was crying and very upset, but he got it together and braved the remainder of the course. Polly loved every moment and can't wait to go back so she can try some harder climbs. Nick was a pro and I definitely was not - I fell more than the kids but would definitely go back - as they say here - it was "super"! A delicous Italian meal rounded off a wonderful day.

On Sunday we walked down to the river and Nick taught the kids how to skip rocks and to our enormous surprise they both managed to skip rocks for the first time ever!  A great way to start the day! We met Kirsten & Anastasia again and we walked around the historic town of Wasserburg before visiting the farm where Kirsten lives; we had lunch & enjoyed some time on the farm before heading home. A wonderful weekend!!