Walchensee HIke

Another Sunday? That's right another hike! We weren't going to let a few rain clouds in the forecast stop a beautiful hike planned by our one-and-only Oskar.

It was a perfect amount of beautiful scenery and strenuous trails to make you continue on toward the beer hut up top.

My three favorite guys having absolutely no fun together, as usual.

Gorgeous!

Awaiting our well-earned beverages while trying to skirt the impending rain clouds.

(L to R -- me, Kristin, Oskar, Will, Brett, Juliette)

A picture of the fun hiking crew.

Kristin and Brett were newly-planted expats from Italy, but originally from the East Coast.

Kristin took me to my first (and last) German step class later that week, but that's another story. ;)

With thunder booming overhead we opted for a quick exit from the mountain top.

All our extra time left after not hiking all the way back down was spent consuming coffee and kuchen in a quaint restaurant on the lake. Now that's what I call a great hike!

Surprise!

Will and I showed up to our usual Monday afternoon playdate only to discover my wonderful mommy friends had been scheming behind my back to throw us a surprise going away party! Who do these thoughtful women think they are? And where do they find the time? Some of them have TWO kids!!! ;)

I was so very touched. I just grabbed my camera, that I never seem to pull out any other times, and made sure to snap away until the battery died. We don't want to forget these sweeties!

William and his bud Julius. These two crack each other up, always. It's really cute to watch.

Just the usual motion . . .

and sugar highs.

Here we are trying to take a group shot. Ummmm, how'd we do?

This one's much better!

It pretty much captures the calm serenity that is our Monday afternoons.

I love the way we all so openly share our struggles and ask questions of one another without judgement. The laughs, smiles, mellow moments, and chaos (not forgetting our Mommy Nights Out-- Woot!Woot!) are some of my fondest Germany memories.

I'm going to miss, you girls, and your kinship.

You are the best!

Tivoli Gartens

After our morning in Sweden, we STILL had time to kill before heading the airport. We'd heard fun things about Tivoli Gartens and figured we give it a try. Tivoli is an amusement park smack dab in the center of Copenhagen. It's between the train station and the city square and we'd walked by it every day on our sight-seeing quests. Built in 1843, it's the second oldest amusement park in Europe. An amusement park that looked teeny from the outside and surrounded by big city madness, how not fun is this going to be?

Thanks, Wikipedia, for this aerial shot

We were wrong! Don't let Will's comatose napping mislead you. Tivoli is AMAZING! How could something so teeny in such a huge city seem expansive and magical? We don't know, but it sure felt that way! Meticulously kept food stands, rides, walkways, gardens, etc. Tivoli was a weary traveler's delight.

Tivoli even has play yards for children

The highlight of our time at Tivoli came when some of their characters emerged in a center courtyard where we just happened to be. Will spotted them even before Jeff or I did. He was soo enamored by the huge bear and seal he just stood there 20 feet away, mesmerized feet glued to the ground, frantically waving. He needed no encouragement to go towards them, I'm only pushing him in the picture because he didn't realize they couldn't see him 20 feet away. When I was a little girl, I was super shy around characters.  When Jeff was little, he asked Cinderella for a date.  Our son? President of their fan club and #1 groupie. He wouldn't walk away. He just kinda stood around them staring, smiling, and waving.

I'm sorry this video is a little shaky and unsteady, but I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. My favorite part is how Will actually starts talking to the seal, pointing things out to him, wooing the seal with his presidential promises. Everyone will be a voter in 2050, Will!

I'm so mad because I accidentally stopped filming right before the seal went in for a hug. For those of you who know William, he's so full of love, smiles, and waves, but the kid doesn't hug. Never has. He gets hugs everyday, but he still chooses to remain a limp noodle . . .

like this. Thank goodness Jeff caught the moment! At least he shuns lovey seals just as much as his loving parents.

* For the record William is getting better at kisses. He likes to blow them. He enjoys kissing mirrors and shower doors. He prefers to french kiss dogs. (Maybe he thought it appropriate because it was a poodle?) Jeff and I still have yet to receive a kiss from our little man, but we remain hopeful!

More beautiful gardens at Tivoli

This little slice of heaven reminded us so much of Disneyland.

Here's a little excerpt from good ol' Wikipedia explaining Tivoli's connection to Disneyland.

Tivoli is always evolving without abandoning its original charm or traditions. As Georg Carstensen said in 1844, "Tivoli will never, so to speak, be finished," a sentiment echoed just over a century later when Walt Disney said of his own Tivoli-inspired theme park, "Disneyland will never be finished as long as there is imagination left in the world." Walt Disney during a trip overseas with his wife Lilly visited Tivoli Gardens. Walt was so impressed with the Danish amusement park, he immediately decided Disneyland should try to emulate its "happy and unbuttoned air of relaxed fun."

Thank you, Copenhagen (and Malmo) for a fun, relaxed weekend!

Sweden?!?

We'd had a good two full days in Copenhagen and awoke on Sunday thinking to ourselves, what else do we do today? Leave it to us to choose to book it to another country and back before our plane left from Copenhagen that night!

Did you know Malmo, Sweden is a simple, 30-minute train ride across the North Sea? Well it is and it was!

Welcome to Sweden, folks!

We arrived early on a quiet, Sunday morning and immediately hopped aboard a harbour cruise.

My boys cruising along

The town hall

Will tried his first drinking fountain but elected to just wash his hands in it instead.

We had a lovely lunch and then trained back to Copenhagen. It was just that easy!

So for those of you keeping track, this brings William's country tally to . . .

1. Germany

2. Austria (too many times to count)

3. Italy (1 in utero + 4 more)

4. United States (twice)

5. Hungary
6. Mexico

7. Ireland

8. Greece

9. France

10. Switzerland (3x)

11. Spain

12. The Netherlands

13. Belgium

14. Czech Republic

15. Denmark

16. Sweden

We'll be at 17 before we're homebound.

(18 by the time we get home if we count our layover in Great Britain as a country stop!)

Copenhagen, Denmark

We set our sights on Copenhagen one long weekend in May. It was a town neither Jeff or I (nor Will -- to our knowledge) had been to, so off we went to explore and learn!

We had downloaded a walking tour of the harbor, so we started there on our iffy weather-filled weekend. Copenhagen's harbor is a really interesting mix of old and new. All of the new modern buildings were built in the last decade. With all the new buildings flanking the water, we can only imagine how busy the last 10 years have been!

Will and I enjoying our loooonnggg wait for the water bus.

We just missed the bus by 5 minutes, but chose to wait another 15 for the next one. It docked in front of us only to announce a 20-minute break for the driver. Doohh! That must be what the asterisk noted next to the posted schedule. Ha!

We just enjoyed playing by the harbor a little longer.

Our favorite spot in Copenhagen was Nyhavn Street. It's a inlet of the harbor that bustles with restaurants, boats, and sightseers.

And here's the Lego store's recreation of Nyhavn Street. We were bummed Legoland was too far away from Copenhagen to do with this trip. We'll just have to go play at Munich's or San Diego's!

Another aspect of Copenhagen we loved: the parks. Many were adjacent to the plethora of palaces in the city center.

Will loved playing with the giant Lego's at one park. Lego's? In Denmark? Nooo way!

At another palace park, William kindly interrupted a tea party to say, "Hi, my name's William and I'm traveling Europe on a practice campaign for my 2050 run in the United State's Presidential Election. I'd appreciate your non-vote."

Imagine the ladies's confusion when all that actually came out of his mouth was, "Auto!"

Maybe we need to find a new speech writer . . . .

Will and me with the Hans Christian Anderson statue on Hans Christian Anderson Boulevard. The Danes sure are proud of their HCA!

Hooray for The Little Mermaid!

Things to note:

1. Story written by (you guessed it!) Hans Christian Anderson

2. This is Sarah's FAVORITE Disney movie

3. Sarah was very excited and determined to see this statue despite her lack of map skills.

4. After hearing "it's really small" from tour books and previous travelers, Sarah actually found it larger than she was expecting!

Jeff mocking his loving wife's mermaid excitement by pretending to touch her ta ta's.

Lovely, dear.

Another palace park pause.

We found bikes such as these all around town. They were rusted through and covered with barnacles.

Had they been rescued from the harbour?

Were they art?

Why were they always locked near other obviously new bikes?

Crazy!

Traveler's note: Jeff booked an awesome hotel stay at Hotel Guldsmeden Axel. It's located near the train station, prides itself on being green and sustainability, and has a fabulous front desk staff!

We're not done with our trip yet! It's just too much good stuff for one post!

Mother's Day 2011

Mother's Day this year presented itself as the perfect day to also have our first hike of the season. My personal hiking coordinator (Seriously, you don't have one? You've GOT to get one.) set his sights for a fun loop trail in the mountains surrounding Tegernsee, a Zabel family favorite destination.

All German hiking trails are marked by these fabulous signs. It states the trail name, the trail label (T3, etc.), and how long to the destination. In true German fashion, the timing is always spot on!

Once we made it to our half-way stopping point, a.k.a. mountain hut, a.k.a. beer break, Will got right into playing autos and making friends.

"Mom, why are you taking pictures of me? The view's over there!"

Ahh, right you are, Will. Right you are.

And now you're blocking my view . . .

We had fun romping in the mountain-top meadow and putting rocks into Mom's hand.

Dad and Will in front of the hut.

Just another take-your-breath-away view on our hike back down.

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Just another Sunday . . .

Ahhhh . . . Sunday . . . . Are you sick of hearing about how much we love Sundays here in Munich? If the NFL strike ever settles before the Fall, we'll be loving Sunday back in the states as well!

This Sunday in May found us (and by us I mean Jeff), dusting off our beach cruisers and airing up the tires after a long winter in order to head out for a ride along the Isar.

We stopped at a new bier garten complete with a spielplatz to keep our little man happy.

Unfortunately the clientele of this bier garten was a little shadier than our usual haunts. Will got shoved down and had sand thrown in his face (two separate incidents, I might note). Poor guy. We won't be going back to this one again. Thank goodness there are more bier gartens than we have time for in Munich!

Some guy time with dad made Will forget all about the big meanies.

On the ride home we stopped along the Isar river to just hang with the rest of the population of Munich who seem to plant themselves on the banks any sunny opportunity they get.

The crowd

Throwing pebbles in the water and feeding duck. Does it get any better than this?

Basak's in town!

Hi everyone, William here. Mom and Dad are busy taking down lights for our big move back to California. Mom told me to "make myself useful", so I figured I'd help her catch up on her blog that's soo far out of date. I mean really, what does she DO all day?

My cool friend Basak came to town in May just to see me. She was visiting family in Turkey, but couldn't stand to be so near me and not spend time with me (Can you blame her?), so she bopped on up to Bavaria for a few days for some quality Will time. I'm proud to say I showed her the best of it all.

Within hours of walking off the plane I took Basak to Gymboree to meet my fly homees. I could tell she was pretty impressed by my sick parachute skills, solo-slide moves, and the way I roll in my Will-mobile.

I took my girl for a spin on my fly wheels.

I showed her a thing or two about choo choo trains at Olympia Park.

We rocked out to some great German mash-ups at BMW World.

I taught her toddler computer skills such as slapping a keyboard.

No trip to Munich is complete without me and my ladies at the Chinese Tower.

I even gave her a break and let her chill at the bier garten tables while my usual entourage escorted me to my clubhouse.

Well, that about sums up Basak and my awesome days together. I gotta run; my auto home boys are calling!

Basak, see ya later sister. It was great seeing you! Peace!