Amazing Race

I was all ready to hate the beautiful volleyball players and the Home Shopping Network hosts, but darned if they didn't win me over in one episode.  They were so nice to each other AND to the other teams too. And no whining either.  The giggling fit about The Watermelon Incident was my favorite part of the show.

 But surely anyone who goes on Amazing Race knows that you don't stop and help other teams.  You say a quick thank you prayer that it is not you changing a tire, make an insincere offer of help and then move on...Those cute little a cappella boys better get their A game going.

And...

Are you a battlement?

And...

This is the first I have ever heard of Stonehenge.

And Mom's favorite...

The country of London.

...Tattoos...

Summer's End

Well, Labor Day is the traditional official end of summer.    We have autumn, with its birthdays and parent conferences and holidays ahead.  But the kids have good memories of hot days with popsicles and toes in the pool.

Vacation food

Here we are at Topolobampo in Chicago...trout escabeche, walleye veracruzano, sunfish ceviche, duck breast.  I ordered a mango mojito that I didn't like and sent back and got a Goose Island Sofie beer instead. 

But the hands down best thing we ate at Topo was the chocolate tart with goat cheese ice cream and homemade marshmallows with sea salt scattered on the plate.  It's all about the salt...

This was the seafood salad we shared at a restaurant on the harbor in Trondheim.

We often ate back in our rooms.  In Oslo we bought bread, chips, beer and that sweetish, soft, brown Norwegian cheese and were good for a couple of days.

Dried fish at the fish market in Bergen

I love my soft serve ice cream cones!  This was an ice cream store  on a corner  tucked into the hilly, windy streets in Bergen.

After taking the ferry on the Sognefjord, we had an hour or so wait in Flam, so we had some pizza.  This picture show the Burger Grill...hamburger meat shaped like a hot dog and served in a hot dog bun.  I thought that was a great idea and intend to try it at home.

Spit roasted pork shanks at Haxenbaur in Munich.

Warm potato salad and wiener schnitzel in Salzburg.

Sacher torte at the Sacher Hotel in Salzburg.

Donnette and I really loved this dish of sauteed saurkraut and spaetzle at a restaurant in Fussen, the town below Neuschwanstein.

Our favorite German meal...pretzels and beer at the Chinese Tower beer garden in Englischer Garden.

We don't eat extravagantly when we are on vacation, but we managed to have some fun meals...from world famous to humble.

Sidewalk Art

I started taking pictures of manhole covers in Spain when I wanted to remember how to spell the Spanish town of Sanxenxo.  Since then I have noticed that they can be quite decorative, and every city has their own design.  Some of these aren't exactly manhole covers, but they are in the sidewalk, so they count...I especially like the butterflies in the sidewalk in front of the Oslo train station.  They are actual butterflies incased in resin.

Garmisch-Partikirchen

Garmisch-Partikirchen was the perfect Bavarian village.  It is a place we would love to go back to and spend time hiking in the Alps which rise over the city, shopping and eating and enjoying the Bavarian culture.

Our suitcases are waiting in the lobby of the Hotel Vier-jahreseitzen.  This was the only mistake I made in all the travel plans.  We arrived the day BEFORE we had reservations.  But they were able to give us a room, so it all worked out.

See, the men really do walk around Bavaria in their lederhosen.   And the women in their dirndls.

This was the view from our charming and very comfortable room.  I am so glad we had a view of the Alps.

We found that the park in town was hosting a concert.  The orchestra was very good and the man who was singing/reciting poetry was entertaining even though we couldn't understand him.  I don't know WHY he wasn't speaking English...

This adorable little girl was enjoying an afternoon of culture with her grandma.  The restaurant bordered the park and so we were able to sit and watch the concert.  We realized later that the little girl's papa was playing in the orchestra.

I sipped a prosecco spitzer and Scott had a beer.  I did not order the spitzer because it was orange.

The town was Sunday quiet.  No stores were open.  Until the soccer game, then the noise began.

Walking back to the hotel from the park we kind of got a little lost.  So we got to see streets outside the tourist area.

The park with the band shell.

There were decorated cow sculptures all over town.

And...another boar.  We didn't know about the myth of the Munich boar, so I am glad Scott rubbed his ear so we will go back one day.  See the dirndls in the store window behind him?

Salzburg

Salzburg's famous "skyline" with the castle on the hill above the city

We paid homage to Sound of Music and visited sites from the movie like this arbor

Gotta get the unicorn...

Another S of M picture...Can you picture Maria and the children?

Isn't Jaclyn a cutie?

Aren't Jay and Donnette cute?

The warm potato salad and schnitzel with beer was a perfect lunch

The main shopping street with the required iron signs and the old monastery on the hill

Mozart's birthplace

I bought decorated eggs here, for everyone!  They are being shipped but haven't come yet....

The square in front of the palace

Cool sculpture, huh?

The cemetery behind the cathedral was beautifully kept up, lovely flowers and shrubs

The Sacher Hotel, where we had the famous Sacher Torte.  It got mixed reviews from our group...It was not very rich and chocolatey, more like a chocolate spice cake.  The hotel is very elegant.

Norwegian countryside

After taking the train from Bergen we got on a bus that took us down the very windy road through the mountains, past waterfalls galore.  It was very rainy, so the pictures are through the windows...

This is our quaint little narrow gauge train we rode after we got off the ferry.  

A beautiful waterfall that the train actually stopped at so we could get out and take pictures.  Then a woman came out onto the cliff in front of the water and sang a "siren" type song...very touristy, but fun...

So tidy and colorful

The bus stopped at a hotel in this valley to pick up anyone who may have been staying at the hotel perched on the steep cliff.

Still lots of snow in late June

One of many lakes high in the Norwegian mountains