This Moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

On a ski lift in Austria!

Playing along with Soule Mama today.

The Hills Are Alive: Part 4

And then this happened...

The last morning of our vacation we checked out of the hotel and drove around for a bit.  We were going to check out the Ehrenberg castle ruins.  That's this place...

Taken from the road on a sunny day.

You may have also seen this picture I posted on facebook.

Taken from the road (with my iphone) in the rain.

Unfortunately, it was pouring rain.  We decided to take that as the universal sign for 'it's not fair for you have have any more fun that you already have.  Go home now.'  So that's what we decided to do.

We stopped for lunch and to stack some beer coasters.

It was when we decided to stop for coffee that the trouble started.  You see, our rental car had this going on.

Let me assure you that it's easy to think you're in reverse when you're not.

Let me also assure you that you cannot just back out of this one....

We were very entertaining for this sleepy little village.  

Johnny, on the left is an Austrian fire truck!

Don't worry, no Cunningham's were harmed in the making of this adventure.  Just our egos and our rental car.  And that fence.  It was hurt.

Ninja tow truck action.

Luckily for us, the owners had a great sense of humor about the whole thing.  We are paying to fix his fence, of course.  As a shout out, he owns The Ski Lounge in Berwang, Austria.  They specialize in "Active & Family Holidays" if you're in the market for one.  Tell him we sent ya!  ('Those crazy Americans that crashed through your fence,' that should do it.)

Seriously though, the moral of this story is to always get the extra insurance!  We actually didn't do that.  It ended up costing us about $500.  Not terrible, but not $50 either.  (The insurance was $50)  ALWAYS GET THE EXTRA INSURANCE!  You're welcome.

JKFP

The Hills Are Alive: Part 3

A day of castles.

When we woke up on Monday we had decided it would be our castle day.  It was warm and sunny so why not?  We drove back over to Germany to the town of Fussen.  It's a nice enough town.  It's a tourist destination.  Here's the reason why...

That's Neuschwanstein Castle.  It was commissioned by King Ludwig II.  Ludwig really liked his castles.  (We saw his "summer house" later in the afternoon.)

Across the valley from Neuschwanstein is Schloss Hohenschwangau.  It's actually where Ludwig spent most of his childhood and we spent a little time walking around the outside.

You can see how close Neuschwanstein is in this one.

It's pretty impressive even if we didn't go inside.  Here's the thing, there were eleventy billion people there. (I'm pretty good at taking pictures strategically so you don't see that.)  The roads were crammed with tourists.  Honestly, we hate people.  That many all in one place anyway.  We decided to bail on these lovely castles and try again in the fall.  After school has started. On a Tuesday.  Field trip!

The owner of our hotel had suggested Schloss Linderhof earlier in the morning saying it was much less crowded.  We should have listened to him to start with.  So we took off for Schloss Linderhof.

On the way we came across this...

Are you kidding me Austria??

Right out of the car Piper found this!

Trying to convince the butterfly.

Things were already looking up.

This was Ludwig II's small summer home.  A cottage really.  Ha ha ha.  We did take a tour of this one.  Unfortunately, you can't take pictures on tour.  It was really pretty.  Hopefully you like gold, chandeliers, and ornate-ness.  The grounds and fountains were beautiful.  And gold.  And ornate.

Our classy children....in the water.

The kids even made friends here.  We had a lot of fun with them.

Some extras!

I can't honestly remember if it was this day or the day before, but we hunted for snail shells one evening.  Then we used them and some flowers to decorate a special rock.

Piper was super into it!

Fixing up our rock.

Here are a few that I forgot to post in Part 1 & Part 2.

Wildflowers

Love this!  Not sure how I missed it before.

Come back for Part 4!  It's a doozy of life lesson!  No really.  Come back.

JKFP

The Hills Are Alive: Part 2

Zugspitze, Mini Golf, and some more cows.

Zugspitze is the highest mountain in Germany.  It is 2,962 meters tall which is 9,718 feet.  It sits on the border of Austria and Germany. On Sunday we decided to take the cable car to the top.

You can see the cables on the left.

Are you guys sure this is a good idea?

It was breathtaking!  And cold.  It was 2 degrees Celsius (which is 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Austria side.

My awesome husband took this as the clouds broke.
Amazing!

A line of hikers making their way up the last little bit.

The Germany side.

The quote in the center says, "The inner
experiences of peace is the greatest necessity
of people." -Sri Chinmoy

We had packed our rain jackets but Fisher refused to pack pants.  What can you do?

You play in the snow in your shorts, that's what you do.  In August.

You can sled too.

Then complain a little later because your butt is cold.

A cool observation area.

We ate lunch at the restaurant on top.  We actually ate lunch INSIDE A CLOUD!  Are you kidding me Austria??

After lunch we took the cable car back down.  We decided to head back Berwang and just play around at the pool/recreation area for the evening.  They had a bounce house, a pool, a splash area, mini golf, a restaurant, playgrounds, and a very friendly squirrel.  

Part of the splash area.

Can you believe the backdrop on this mini golf course?

On the playground while the boys played golf.

"Mama, take my picture."

Can you imagine when she actually
takes lessons?

More of the splash area.

This little guy kept climbing on the table and trying
 to steal my burger.

Now for the cows.  Adorable, friendly alpine cows.

Guess who wants cow?  If you said all of us...you win.

We love cows, big mountains, and mini golf!

JKFP


*here's Part 1 if you missed it.

The Hills Are Alive: Part 1

I have an insane amount of blogging to do.  I know this.  Since my last post, we actually started to have a little fun in Germany, (the kids and I) went home to Colorado for 3 months, we lost our sweet Bobbert, road tripped our faces off, had a No Bummer Summer, flew back to Germany, had HUGE fun in the first month here, and road tripped in Austria (with Daddy)!  That is a lot to catch you all up on.  I'm going to...I promise.  We're going to start with the newest first.

We just got back last night from an amazing road trip through southern Germany and Austria.  We.  All four of us.  I'm pretty sure that's our first multi-day trip with James too and it was....well, it was awesome.  We pretty much LOVE Austria and would have stayed forever if it weren't for grown up responsibilities.  (being a grown up is stupid sometimes.)

The drive down went smoothly enough.  It wasn't too hard to follow the signs and, Darcy (our very proper, British GPS), was very helpful.  Our hotel was in the lovely little ski town of Berwang, Austria.  Off season it was very reasonably priced and quiet.  The inside was a little dated, but still very comfortable.  (Except for the mattresses!  Not comfortable.)

Ours is the right side on the ground floor.

Our first glimpse of the view (in the rain).

We arrived in the evening (and in the rain) on Friday.  The kids played in the rain for a bit while we unpacked and got groceries.  Then we woke up the next morning (my birthday!) ready for our big adventure.  Let's not forget the view.

The sight we woke up to on Saturday.  My birthday!

Are you kidding me Austria?  I can't even count how many times I said that over the course of the trip.  It is so beautiful.  Like, can't wrap your mind around the fact that you're really here, beautiful.  

View of Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.
It is 2,962 meters tall.  (so that's 9,718 feet)
I took this picture from Innsbruck, Austria

This was the day that we drove to Biberwier for a trip up the mountain.  We took a ski lift up to the top of the Sommerrodelbahn (that's the luge track).

Okay!  It IS cool.  (I'd be lying if I said he wasn't a little
ornery that day.)

I love this picture so much!

This one too.  We're in THE ALPS for crying out
 loud!

Instead of taking the luge down right away, much to Fisher's disappointment, we took another lift even further up.  

Only two per chair this time.

Not only can you ride the luge down (part way anyways), you can also take these beefy scooters down.  There were actually scooters and tricycles.  James really wanted to do this.  Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.  This trip.

We're in the freaking ALPS y'all!

Alpine cows are the absolute coolest.  You'll see why soon.  I'm going to post a video.  I'll give you a hint though, it involves jingly bells.

The restaurant where I had my 36th birthday lunch!

They also had an amazing playground and sun deck.  Inside the restaurant they even had a cool slide for the kids to get down to the bathroom!  

People here take their dogs everywhere...

We took the lift back down to the start of the luge track.  I wasn't talented enough to luge AND take pictures/videos at the same time, but I did snap a quick one of James and Piper getting ready for the green light.

I'm a terrible luger.  Ha ha ha.  The poor teenage kid behind me was bummed.  I'm just not that interested in going super fast down a hill on a concrete track.  They should have a 'senior lane'.  That's where I'd be.  It was fun anyway, even if I was slower than everyone else.  And now I can say I've done THAT.

After the Sommerrodelbahn our day was still not over yet.  What?  Yes.  I said it.  We took a beautiful mountain drive on wonderfully curvy roads.  Mom, the kids kept saying, "Bella would love that curve!"  They were right.  You would have loved it!

Even in the summer, adventuring in Austria, they are still learning.  I love that!  They'd found a lizard.

We got to this church right as the bells started ringing.  Are all church bells rung by hand?  (I have no clue about that, but these definitely were.)  It was pretty cool.  Oh!  There were also cow bells ringing close by too. 

We seriously love these alpine cows.  They are so friendly.  You'll see soon enough.

Cows grazing by the ski lift. 

Are you kidding me Austria??

JKFP

Stay tuned for part 2.  And 3.  And maybe 4.