The Lignano Zoo

Brian’s class had a field trip in May while Steve’s parents were visiting and so we all went along to the Parco Zoo Punta Verde in Lignano, about an hour from our house and just minutes from the beach. It’s a nice little zoo and we of course saw lots of animals. The best animal show we saw was a mama wallaby and her baby. The baby was jumping into and out of her pouch and running circles around her. In and out and circles. In and out and circles. Every now and then he’d stop for some milk. She just sat there and watched him all patient and calm. I’d be like “Knock it off! Pick one! In or out!” Below is Brian with his teachers, Miss Kari and Mrs. McCormick. His pink and purple heart shirt is their class shirt, that they would wear for special events like parties and field trips. After we were done at the zoo, we drove a short ways to the beach to get some lunch and ice cream and sit out on the boardwalk.

Above: A bunch of lazy cats just lion around. And here’s the mama Wallaby and her spazy little baby. 

Ah, and here above we have the international sign for “only superfit hotties in tiny swimsuits may swim in this pond!” There were no swimming ponds for us regular body types. I almost filed a complaint, but didn’t because I don’t know the word for discrimination in Italian.

Steve walked Brian down to the water to feel how cold it was (not bad actually) and then Emily wanted a turn.

Venice

The day after we returned from our Dolomite and Austria trip, Brian had a t-ball game. As soon as that was over, we hopped on a train at the Sacile train station and ended up in Venice for lunch. We ate canal-side near the train station and then spent a few hours wandering around on foot and via vaporetti. We walked past all the major sights and wound our way through some of the less touristy places. We stopped at Harry’s Bar near St. Mark’s Square to visit our landlady’s son, Claudio, who manages the bar there. He gave us complimentary Bellini’s (they were invented at Harry’s Bar) and gave the kids a huge bag of candy. We did some more wandering and had some gelato and ate dinner at a quick little cafeteria before boarding a late train back home. I think we got back to the house at 11 pm, it was a long day! The entire next 3 weeks, it rained almost continuously, so we are glad we took advantage of our last sunny day for a while!

Berchtesgaden

After our first night in Salzburg, we spent a full day just over the German border in Berchtesgaden, a beautiful alpine town nestled at the base of some huge mountains and most well-known for its association with Hitler and his Nazi Party. Young Hitler fell in love with the area after he was released from prison in the 1920s, he enjoyed some R&R here, where he completed his memoir and the beginning of his crazy ranting, Mein Kampf. In the 1930s, Hitler and pals built a gated complex of 80 buildings, bunkers and tunnels here. Somewhere in this complex someone said “hey guys, let’s take over the world!” And all the crazy people agreed. Once the Americans, Brits, French, and Russians were finished beating the Nazis into submission, we took over the area and before handing the land back to the Germans in 1952, we completely destroyed the parts of the complex that survived bombing during the war. A few of the tunnels and bunkers remain. And the Kehlsteinhaus, better known as Hitler’s Eagles Nest. It’s located on the top of a 6,000 foot summit overlooking Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and the Konigssee. It was a gift to Hitler in 1939 for his 50th Birthday from the Nazi party. It was meant to be used as a place for him to bring Diplomats for tea or whatever fascists drink. Lemonade? Soy milk? The blood of virgins? And my favorite part of this whole thing is that Hitler was scared of heights, almost as much as he was scared of the Russians, so he only used the nest 14 times. Steve and I visited the Nest in 2003 but I don’t remember the view being so good. The day we were there this May was beautiful, it was clear, although cold and terribly windy, but we could see the entire city of Salzburg laid out in the distance. We dined in the main hall on some pretty delicious and reasonably priced German food. And then wandered around the building and hiked a short ways up to the summit for pictures.

 

After we rode the bus back down from the Nest, we went over to the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine for a tour. Touring the salt mine is awesome, Steve and I also did it in 2003 and knew from experience that the kids would have a blast (although luckily not literally) on the tour. Tourists are handed blue jumpsuits to put on and then the tour begins with a train ride 650 meters into the mine. Once inside, we slid down “miner’s slides” and took a boat ride across a water-filled cavern. And also of course learned how salt is actually mined, which is still going on in that mine today. A good time was had by all.  

Now, this picture above had us laughing for several days. Steve’s parents, Mike and Mary, got grouped together with some random guy for the slide down. Once they got sliding, Mike got stuck at the top, so Mary and the random guy got a nice little snapshot together!

Salzburg

Next stop after the Dolomites was Salzburg, Austria. The drive from Castelrotto took us through 3 hours of the most beautiful Alps. Through the Brenner pass, Innsbruck, and then into Germany for a little bit, where we stopped for lunch at Lake Chimsee, and then on to Salzburg. We got settled at our hotel and then walked into the old town to see the sights and eventually make our way to the Augustiner Bier Haus for dinner. The next day we spent in Berchtesgaden, Germany (post coming soon) but returned to Salzburg in the afternoon to walk to Mirabel Gardens, which we’d never seen because we’d only been to Salzburg in the wintertime. From the gardens, we walked to dinner over the Salzach River on a bridge where lovers add a lock with their names on it and throw the key into the river.

St. Constantine Church

On our way back from Bolzano, I saw this beautiful little church on a small hill and made Steve pull over so I could get some pictures. We walked up to it and turns out that part of the church was built in 1281, wow!!! It was locked so we couldn’t see inside but the outside with its onion dome and funny little fence and wildflowers were just beautiful!

The Ice Man and Ice Cream

While in the Dolomites, we drove into Bolzano to visit the South Tirol Museum of Archaeology, home to Otzi, a 5,300-year-old corpse preserved by a glacier and found by hikers in 1991 on the border of Austria and Italy. Emily’s babysitter told us about her visit to see him last year and said we should do it if we were ever in the area. So, we found a free Nova documentary about Otzi on Amazon streaming video and Brian became intrigued by his story. Scientists have been studying Otzi and his belongings for more than 20 years and while there are still many unanswered questions about him, they do know he was murdered with an arrow to the back,  and he was carrying a copper ax, which changed what scientists believe about when the copper age began. Brian was very interested in the museum and had lots of questions and enjoyed trying on a replica of Otzi’s coat and hat. After our trip back in time with the Ice Man, we sat down for some Ice Cream (gelato to be specific) across the street. 

The Dolomites

In mid-May Steve’s Parents arrived for a two week visit. We allowed them one night of jet-lagged sleep and then took them up north a few hours into the heart of the Dolomite mountains, the Italian alps, which begin just a few yards behind our house in Grizzo. The Dolomites are a unique and beautiful mountain range. The mountains look so different than other mountains in the alps and anywhere else in the world because they are made from a unique sedimentary rock, similar to Limestone, called Dolomite. The mountains are mostly sheer cliffs that appear white, gray, and pink and rise up from lush green meadows. We stayed up near the Alpe Di Siusi, near Castelrotto, in Siusi. It was a charming little village situated on the side of the mountain going up to the Alpe Di Suisi, Europe’s largest alpine meadow. We spent half a day hiking (or trekking as Europeans say) through the meadow. We had a beautiful day with sunny blue skies and puffy white clouds. The meadow was just starting to green up after a long winter and the wildflowers were just beginning to peek out. We took an easy hike up to a hotel, which was closed since we were visiting during their off season, the time just between ski season and summertime. When we got there, the kids enjoyed their hiking reward, some time playing at the hotel’s park. 

So, I need to explain this last picture. When Steve and I were dating, we spent a few nights camping in Yosemite. We had hiked up to the base of Yosemite falls. We were sitting on the rocks, enjoying the view when a European man asked us to take his picture with the falls in the background. So, Steve takes the camera and the man turns away from us, standing with his profile to the camera, with one hand on his hip and the other pointing at the falls. Steve goes, “Um, ready?” and the man replies yes so he snapped the picture. He never looked at the camera and smiled, just stood there in profile, pointing. We waited until he was a safe distance away before bursting into hysterical laugher. But every now and then, even 13.5 years later, we recreate the photo. I have no idea where in Europe he was from but after spending some time living over here, my guess is Holland. The Dutch are by far the oddest group of Europeans.