More Munich

This morning, we spent at Dachau. Very touching and sad. A great
museum, but we rushed a bit because Joe was bored and Jess's head was
full.

We drove back to downtown, and had lunch on the plaza (Marienplatz,
above). Then we toured The Residenz, the royal palace of the
Wittlesbach family. Interesting, but after the 20th gilded hall, we
were all bored!!! A siesta in our room, now we're out to dinner. I
succumbed to steak, I couldn't handle anymore wurst or pork (Bill says
he can always eat more pork, it's just me .....although we are going
to try to make schweinsbraten at home, yum!).

Tomorrow we leave Munich, headed to Zurich.

More Munich

All day in Munich, we spent the morning just roaming, checking out the
market, then getting a new memory card for the camera, then to the big
bookstore to find english language novels for the kids (they already
plowed through the ones we brought).

Then we went to the massive Deutches Museum, a technology museum. We
spent at least three hours and probably only saw 40% of it. Exhausted
and hungry, we found an empty table at the beautiful biergarten in the
middle of town. All the locals were out, the beer was cheap, and we
got various street food to nosh on.

But, after the sun and beer, we got sleepy, and had a rest at the
hotel. Now we're back out and about. We did some souvenir shopping,
and alas, found ourselves back at the Hofbrauhaus for dinner and
oompaloompa music.

Munich!

This morning we drove through the German countryside to Munich,
detouring to see a way cool monastery that has been making beer since
1455. Once in Munich, we mostly just wandered around the pedestrian
old town. We found and experienced the famous Hofbrauhaus (beers
above are 1 liter each!!). Then we found an art museum and got the
Sunday special, entrance for only a euro each, kids free. Then dinner,
sausages, spaetzle, and saurkraut, of course!

Castles in Bavaria

We started today with "the castles", Hohenschwangau and
Neuschwanstein, both castles lived in by "mad" King Ludwig of Bavaria.
It was pouring this morning, and despite our raingear, we were all
drenched. But the castles were cool and we had a great time. We also
ran into someone I know from Seatlle, a Rick Steves tour guide. It's a
small world. This afternoon it dried off enough that the local louge
run was open. SO FUN!!

Bavaria

We spent most of the day driving from Colmar to the Bavarian Alps, we are now nestled in the little town of Unterpingswang, near King Ludwig's castles that we plan to explore. However, there is absolutely no cell service or wifi here, so no pics to be sent from the iPhone. I know you are all disappointed! Check back on Sunday when we are in Munich.

 

Colmar

A cool merchants house from 1537.

Colmar, France

Today we left the Rhine, and drove south into France. We are in the
incredibly cute town of Colmar. For lunch, we had the local specialty
of Tarte Flambee (a thin pizza like dish), Joe of course had to try
the one with escargot. He "kinda liked it, as long as he didn't think
too much about it."

Rhine River

Wow, what a day!! After breakfast, we hiked up behind the town of
Bacharach and checked out the empty cathedral (unfinished or
destroyed, we don't know) then further up the hill to a castle that
has been turned into a cool hostel.

Then we boarded a Rhine cruise boat, taking us down river. We saw
amazing castles on every hill (pic above is from boat). We disembarked
at a little town called Boppard, where we walked through town and
stopped for schnitzel and frites. Then we caught a train to the next
town, St. Goar, and hiked again up to the coolest castle ruins,
Rheinsfels. Back down into town for cold soda and beer, then caught
another train to our home town of Bacharach. After a brief rest in our
room, we went to a nice restaurant near our hotel.

We started with a pate sampler, and they served bread with
"schmaltz" (also known as rendered lard with garlic and herbs). Then
we all had regional specialties, Jess had fried trout, Joe had spatzle
with pork in a mushroom gravy, Bill had pork cutlets, I had
saurbraten. All were delicious.

Tomorrow we leave the Rhine, and ate heading into France for a day.

Day six, continued

After the castle, we drove down to the little town of Bacharach on the
Rhine river. We stopped at a little place known for their wine
tasting....you can see Bill enjoying it in the picture below.

Day Six, Cologne and the Rhine

After breakfast with Leslie and Andy, we headed to Cologne, Germany.
There is a huge parking under the cathedral, so we parked, walked up
to see the "Cologne Dom", then left the city in short order. We headed
down to the Rhine region, and went to Burg Eltz (actually on the Mosel
river). It was way cool!!

Day Five, Maastricht

We spent a lovely day in Maastricht. After breakfast with Leslie and
Ian, we walked thru town, although not much was open because it was
Monday morning. Then we headed to the train station to rent bikes for
the day. We biked down one side of the river then up again, then
stopped for a light lunch and beers & coca cola. Then we met up with
Leslie and Ian for a fun 10K bike ride into Belgium. The boys thought
it was cool that we rode into a different country. Now we're at a
charming restaurant just up the street from the Sherriff's, sitting in
a nice courtyard for dinner.

Tomorrow we will have breakfast with Leslie, Andy and Ian, then drive
into Cologne, Germany.

Maastrict

We are enjoying ourselves in Maastrict hanging out with Leslie and Baby Ian. We had a great homecooked Dutch meal last night. We rented some bikes and cruised around the old town of Maastricht. This afternoon, when Ian wakes up, we are going to ride all the way to Belgium. Andy will be home from his business trip tonight but we are scheduled to leave for Germany in the morning so we won't see him much.

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Originally uploaded by nylands4

The boys near our apartment in Amsterdam

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Originally uploaded by nylands4

Jess and Joe at open air museum in Arnhem

Bill and Jess in Amsterdam

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Originally uploaded by nylands4

I can't get the pics to work on the blog from the iphone but I can put a few on my flickr account. I can copy some to the blog.

Day four, Arnhem and Maastricht

We rented a car in Amsterdam this morning, then headed out into the Dutch countryside. We went to an outdoor cultural museum in Arnhem that we all enjoyed. Jess and Joe got to build a sod hut, and see some windmills (photo below, hopefully displaying properly). After leaving Arnhem, we drove down to the town of Maastricht, to visit Leslie, Andy, and baby Ian. Tomorrow we plan to rent bikes and explore the area. P.S. For some reason the last couple of photos haven't posted properly, I don't know why.

Amsterdam, day three

Saturday market day, we walked through several. Spent most of the day just walking around, then saw the Anne Frank museum this evening. Now enjoying Indian food.



Sent from my iPhone

Day 2: Amsterdam

We slept in way late, then, fortified with pastries, we headed down to NEMO, the science center on the harbor. We spent a few hours there, then walked a long way, rambling along a canal, before stopping for lunch. We then figured out the great tram system, and took a tram to the Van Gogh museum. We all enjoyed it. Then we started walking back towards our apartment, but stopped along the way at the Flower Market (closed up for the night) to chill out with a beer. The boys had Dutch pancakes, Jess favors pineapple with whipped cream, Joe had chocolate.

Amsterdam Day One

We are tired from a long day and a half of travelling, but we had fun
exploring Amsterdam on our first day. The boys now know the meaning of
"coffeeshop", and Jess has identified the smell of pot. Yay for a
European education!
We just enjoyed a light tapas dinner, and now are headed back to our
apartment to crash.

Getting Ready....

Our backpack a couple of weekends ago was pretty fun. I have some pics up on the flickr account and you have to see the "Americas Funniest Home video" of Max failing at swinging from a vine. There is a link on Gerrit's blog.

This last weekend Jess went on his Order of the Arrow ordeal and did great until after the ordeal was over. He was running through some long grass and discovered a new alergy. His eyes puffed up and he got really congested so we had to go home. He is doing much better now although he is still a little congested.

We spent the rest of the weekend packing for the Europe trip. Not much time left- we are leaving Wednesday morning. I am ready to go now. We plan to send a pic to the blog every day or so from Meg's iphone and we might be able to download some photos to flickr in an internet cafe once in a while.

Nyland hiking trip

Sent from my iPhoneGerrit, Sarah, Max, Henry, Bill, Meg, Jess and Joe went hiking up to
Greenwater Lakes. It was a little misty and cool, but everyone had a
great time.

May at the beach house

We spent the last 2 weekends at the beach house. Memorial Day with the family (14 people) and this last weekend with the Knutsons, Wallaces and Lambs (15 people and 3 dogs). Great weather both weekends; we were in the water a lot. Lotsa fun with great people- I don't want to go back to work this week. More pictures on flickr although we forgot the camera Memorial day weekend so look at Gerrit's pictures on his blog.

Next weekend is our family backpacking trip, the weekend after that, Jess and I will be at a Boy Scout Order of the Arrow ordeal and then we will leave for Europe on the 17th. We can't believe vacation is coming so soon!