Category: family life

Vienna – Schönbrunn Palace and Zoo

Finally made it back to Vienna after 2 previous failed attempts (once for locking ourselves out of the apartment, which required us to ask a neighbor to please call a locksmith).  The day we went was about as gorgeous of a day as it gets in Vienna. Perfect.

The Schönbrunn Palace is where royals used to live and the surrounding gardens definitely portray this. The palace and grounds are so expansive that we could have spent all day exploring those areas alone. But we thought Skye would enjoy the zoo (the world’s oldest) more, so we started out there and never had to time to do any of the other million things they offer there (marionette shows, concerts, strudel show, touring the palace itself, etc).

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Bratislava castle in the fall

Bratislava Castle has been under construction and wrapped with scaffolding before we even got here. We were told it would be under construction until sometime in 2010, but apparently they’ve finished the outside and removed the scaffolding in time for us to see it. So we took a walk down to the castle and snapped some pics while we could.  (The Castle is still under construction, but all the work is being done on the inside now.)

little dancer

we were just hanging out, listening to some music. Skye and I were bustin a little groove, and threw down some liquid, and she followed right behind with some of her own. I thought it was pretty amazing, so I grabbed a camera, and while Chels showed Skye some more liquid just off camera, Skye followed right along, again.

that is… until the A.D.D. kicked in and she found something more exciting.

Liptovský Mikuláš

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We’ve been wanting to see more of Slovakia than just Bratislava for a while. Several weekends ago we went to Liptovský Mikuláš in the lower Tatras about 3 hours east of Bratislava. Wow, this little town had everything outdoorsy one could want. It had a large ski resort, a few caves, a really big lake, and all of the other small activities that go along with those. We stayed at our first B&B (Chalet Slovakia, highly recommended) in Europe and it was perfect and so much fun. The family was from the UK (yay, they spoke English) and they had a small boy a few months older than Skye, which was really fun watching them interact. They drove us around, had a backyard and garden complete with a rabbit. We had our own room and Amber even got her own room which must have been wonderful after our small quarters in BA. It was really, really nice having all of the accommodations of home. They were really nice and provided just enough hovering and freedom. It was one of our better traveling experiences because of all of their personal touches and not having to deal with public transit and hotel rooms.

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Kid, you’ll move mountains

My dear sister has been staying with us for a while now. We have been busy trying to help her with a great cause. Talk about leaning into the wound. I honestly don’t know how she does it. Anyone else would curl up, but Amber has literally taken on The Mountain instead. I am so, so proud of her. Oh, how I wish my sweet sister could have her best friend back.

Check it out. Donate if you’d like. Talk about it. Spread the word.

El Fede Campanini Foundation

The outpouring of love and support that Amber and our family have received is truly touching and will forever be appreciated.

package retrieval adventure

people have sent us a few packages here on the other side of the planet, but the post office does not deliver them all the way to our house, so we have to go pick them up, usually from the main post office downtown near our house. recently we received a package and for some reason or another, the pick-up slip we got in the mail was different form the usual pick-up slips, and the address on it was for a different post office.

so I looked up the address of the post office, and it was on the other side of town, 3 buses and about an hour away. I get Skye and myself all ready for a little adventure, and head out the door around 2:00p. we catch the first and second buses just fine, it’s a pretty hot day, and we’re both gradually getting sweaty. while we were on the second bus (actually a tram), we get asked to see our tickets…  holy crap. in the more than a few months that we’ve been here, I have never once even heard of anybody being asked to see tickets, so we stopped buying them months ago (I know, I know).  so of course, I didn’t have one. mr. ticketman informs me there is a fine of €40, payable immediately to him. I suppose it’s a good thing I had it with me, because I’m not sure what he would have done if I hadn’t had it (which I often don’t).  so I pay him the fine, and go on with my trip.

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Salzburg

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Salzburg.  Wow, what a breath of fresh air after 2 days of stuffy train rides. The train ride through the Alps helped set the scene and mood of what was to come. So I suppose spending an unexpected night in Milano was a blessing in disguise, because the Alps train ride was definitely a highlight and had we taken the night train, we would have missed the Alps during the day. The steep mountains just surge out of the ground and go straight up. There are no foothills like Utah, it’s just gorgeous, bright green hilly valleys and then rocky mountain. It was so stunning, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them. At times, I felt like I was in a train model with all of the bridges and charming villages, all centered around an old church steeple. We had a stop in Innsbruck, and it was a scene from the Sound of Music; was green as Hawaii, more exaggerated mountains than Utah, and the small European city. It help our sour mood too to see something worth seeing. This is one of those places where pictures would never do justice.

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Tirrenia

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Tirrenia is a small, busy, beautiful beach town near Pisa. There was no direct train to the town, so we took a train to Livorno, just a bit south of the beach. This train appeared to drop us off in the middle of podunk nowhere!  I was seriously half expecting to see sage brush blow by in the wind. We had to then find a way from the train to the hotel. This part of every city we visited usually turned out to be the most adventurous, since there just wasn’t enough time pre-trip to plan every detail of transportation.

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