Triberg, Germany

Triberg (treeberg) was one of my favorite places to visit the whole trip. My nature-soaking-in-experience was on overload again :) I'd wanted to visit there because one, the guidebook said it would be good, and there was a hike along a seven tiered waterfall, The House of 1000 Clocks and one of the worlds largest cuckoo clocks all within walking distance of each other. Also the guide book said that the worlds best (practically) Black Forest Cake was also to be found there. Sadly, I did not get to experience the latter because said bakery was closed on Wednesdays and I just happened to be there on a Wednesday. Ah well. I ate at a little sandwich place and got another apple strudel. Man they're so tastey! Every place I went I had to ask, "Do you speak English?" Thankfully most people did.

The hike was SO gorgeous! I did the whole thing, it was only about a mile to the top and back but it was STEEP. I felt like I was hiking the Y again! I took breaks to catch some pictures and my breath :) But it was beautiful. The weather was still rainy and wet and being near a waterfall didn't help. But the mist was mesmerizing and I was just so at peace up there. I loved it. The hike took about 2 hours because I was slow but it wasn't a race. I wanted to enjoy as much as I could. After I got finished with the hike I went and explored The House of 1000 Clocks. It was so cool in there! I even got us a clock! It's just a wee one but it's made out of a light colored wood and has leaves and a bird carved into it. The people there were super friendly and didn't really care that I circled the store about 5 times just looking at all the clocks :) After visiting there I went and saw the world's (one of them, there are two) largest cuckoo clocks. I arrived just in time, at the top of the hour to see it chime. It was raining pretty hard at that point so I didn't stick around too much longer after that.

Another fun part about this day was that I got to drive. I drove in Germany. By myself! And I drove fast! I got the rental car up to 175kmh which is about 110mph. Not terribly fast but it was enough to set my adrenaline pumping. I usually limit my speeding to about 10-15 over the posted limit. But the thing about German highways, there's no. posted. limit. What was interesting was that even at that top speed I was going, I still had Audi's and BMW's passing me. Nuts! And the experience of slowing down from 110mph to 75 was also an interesting one. I was coming onto traffic so I had to kind of had to lay on the brake pretty hard. I had never experienced a "rush" of adrenaline until then. It felt like a surge of "BAM!!" from my heart to my brain. I felt like my old eyes rolled into the back of my head and I had new, cat-like-instinct eyes come out. It was crazy! My body tensed up and I was ready to swerve at a moments notice if I had to. And all of this I felt come and go in a matter of seconds. It was like, Move over Bond! Here I come! :) It was a weird feeling. :)

Here are the pictures!

The Red Squirrel. You could buy a bag of peanuts for a few euro and feed them. They were really cute.

One of the world's largest cuckoo clocks - it's just about to go!

Our clock - from The House of 1000 Clocks :)

Meersburg, Germany

Meersburg was a town that was about a 30 minute bus ride outside of Uberlingin. I had the bus drop me off right at one of the two castles in the little town. It was a fun place - there was lots of little shops around the castle, skinny roads with lots of flowers and cobblestones. The food smelled delicious there. I had me an apple streudle (sp?) and a pretzel. I visited the castle and a small Zepplin museum. The castle was really neat. I thought it was so cool that I was in a real castle. Something right out of the history books. I tried to take as much of it in as I could. Sometimes its hard to appreciate things in the moment but I tried. Anything I could touch or feel I did so that I could tangibly remember the experience. The castle was pretty big so I took lots of pictures. I can't post them all so I just did some of my favorites of the inside and the outside surrounding flowers.
 

The well room. This used to be the entrance of the castle. On the tour we came through another way.

I loved this room. I thought the differing suits of armor and the weapons were really cool to see.

There was indoor plumbing :)

A view of part of one of two kitchens

The dungeon! You, as a criminal, would be lowered into the dungeon by a rope and there you would stay. (there was a staircase in the same room but I think for affect they didn't use it back then)

A staircase to nothing

How deep the foundation of the castle goes. This was one of the towers.

A pretty view of the top of the castle

Color seemed so vibrant to me out there. I wonder if its because I live in a desert...but when I looked at all the pretty flowers and the green grass and the big tall trees, it was like I was experiencing nature for the first time. I felt like my eyes wanted to just soak it all up and couldn't do it fast enough.

Ueberlingin, Germany

So this post isn't going to be much but pictures. This is Ueberlingin, our first stay in Germany. James had his meetings in this quaint little town and I fell in love with it. It is absolutely GORGEOUS here. And the people are very kind. I told James if we had to live there I could do it. We're not terribly far from bigger cities or the border of Germany/Switzerland or Germany/Austria. The lake in the following pictures was the border some times. The restaurants were very tasty too. I was never disappointed. I would easily go there again. On our first full day there I just explored Ueberlingin (I went elsewhere the other two days but those will be separate posts). Most of my exploration was in the large outdoor garden that was across from our hotel. I hope you enjoy, I have lots more but I'll post in order of things did.

This was our rental: a Citroen DS5. Not bad...Got to 110mph (175kmh) in this baby...

Driving from Zurich to Ueberlingin

Lots of little cities like this everywhere I loved it! And the churches were always the center of town or placed high above them.

An entrance into part of the old wall of Ueberlingin. The wall is from around the time period of the 1200s!

There was a romantic air about it all - I tried to soak it all in as best as possible.

This was at the top of the hill - it's a little cottage that sells treats or something. Cute! It wasn't open though :(

Lake Konstance

Ueberlingin in the morning

Not the best picture - found it off the internet - But our hotel was the Bad Hotel. I have to laugh at the name every time. It's just funny :) You pronounce it like "bod" but it's spelled bad. Where those people are walking on the sidewalk, just one floor above them was where our window was.

This was our view of the town from our window. I thought I was shooting straight but I guess not.

 Well, again, I hope you enjoyed :) There is more to come, including more of Ueberlingin. But for now, this is as far as I got with sprucing up my photos :) Until next time!

Disney Highlights

Well, I painstakingly went through the 714 pictures and picked out some highlights of our week in Orlando, FL. It was hard. I wanted to post all of them! That week was sure filled with fun though! We did 4 days at Disney (we did each of the parks, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom), and 1 day at Islands of Adventure, which is part of Universal Studios. I was pretty proud of myself at Islands of Adventure, I rode the Hulk twice and Dueling Dragons as well. It was only my second time in my LIFE that I'd ridden an upside-down roller coaster! No pictures on that though heehee! Now that this blog post is finished I have to do another painstaking task of going though the roughly 430 pictures from Germany...I'll try to get it done soon! Meanwhile, enjoy the highlights from Disney!

Sunday we went to church. On our way we stopped at the Orlando Temple.

Afterwards we tried to go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center. It was $50 a person so sadly we didn't go inside. I remember visiting here as a kid. It was a fun place to be. Here's my rocket scientist :)

And whats a trip to FL without some good 'ole Atlantic Ocean!

I was truly lucky to be able to surprise one of my great friends while in Orlando. Casey and I grew up together pretty much inseparable.  I was grateful her hubby was sneaky with us and let us surprise her! What a fun visit it was too :)

Monday was the Magic Kingdom. Here a couple of great shots I was able to get of the castle. They turned out so awesome!

yes I took this!

James is pointing out a simulation ride that Raytheon sponsors at EPCOT. It's a simulation in which you can design your own roller coaster and then ride it. It was actually really great! James and I designed one with a loop, a corkscrew and a really big dip. After designing it, you got into the simulator and "rode" your design. Inside the simulator you have this screen that shows you going through the ride but in the upper corner you can see who's riding next to you (the simulator completely covers you).

Grandpa & Carter riding

I promise we're not as miserable as we look :) the sun was really bright and it was exceptionally humid that day.

 Here we are at HOGWARTS!! I finally made it! I thought I never would get to see this place! I LOVED it! I could spend all day there. The castle was so fun to walk through (it was a ride but the line took you through the castle and you saw the House Cups, the Great Eagle statue that turned and led up to Dumbledore's office, a class room, Dumbledore's office, the Mirror of Errised, that thingy that you can put your memories into, and all the pictures on the walls moved and talked). It was awesome!! (the castle was; the ride? mmm, not so much - very dizzying!)

It almost felt cold :)

 And of course I had to try the Butterbeer! It. Was. Delicious. I pinned the recipe on Pinterest when we got back to the hotel :)

Hope you enjoyed!
I'll try and get more pictures posted!