Rome

Stewart and I finally were able to get away on our own. A great friend willingly watched our kids, took them to soccer and school while Stewart and I went to Rome. Stewart and I flew out Monday afternoon. Stewart arranged us to stay at a Bed and Breakfast. It is our first time staying at a B&B and probably our last. We got to the B&B and they did not have our reservation. We had already placed our deposit online and didn't get there until 7:30pm. The manager made several calls and found us a hotel room for the night. He paid for our Taxi to get there. It wasn't too bad, except we had tickets for an opera concert that night. So we checked into our room, then raced to the performance. We got there at intermission.

I Maestri della Lirica, Opera in Concerto
Opera season is over, but several churches have opera concerts on the off season. Tonight's performance was at Sala Cavour Centro Congressi. It is supposed to be a church, but I'm not so sure. The atmosphere was not what we expected and though the music was good, it was not great. But it was still a night out and we made the best of it.



After the concert we ate some pizza and took the long route back to our hotel. It is great being able to stay out as late as we wanted. We didn't have to even worry about kids melting down or being too tired to walk.

America Car Show

Our town had an American Car Show. It was sponsored by our American Diner we have in town. One restaurant we have not eaten at. The Chevrolet Chevelle caught Stewart's eye right away. He had one of these cars in high school and sold it just before we were married. Though I did not like the car, it was his decision to sell it, not mine. Perhaps we will get another one when the kids are old enough to help fix it up.



An old "really cool" Cadillac

The Dodge Super Bee was in limited production between 1968-1971.

Schloss Ludwigsburg (again)

Leuchtendes Kürbismeer (Glowing Pumpkin Sea) is the theme for this years pumpkin festival. We toured the castle when we first moved to Germany, but did not walk around the grounds. The grounds are enormous. We spent about 3 and a half hours there and did not see all of it. In the fall they create displays with pumpkins. They used over 500,000 pumpkins making it the worlds largest pumpkin exhibit.

Zachary was not in the mood to go swimming. He actually just woke up from a nap and we are trying to make him happy. He is usually grumpy when he gets woken up from a nap. The week after we went here they had their annual pumpkin race. Paddlers raced across this fountain in pumpkins weighing over 200 lbs.

Stopping to smell the roses.
The gardens weren't in full bloom, but there was enough still in bloom to make the gardens look spectacular.


























Cassidy wanted to know the names of all the flowers. I could name a lot, but not all of them.

We brought lunch with us and explored all the water fountains we could find. They kids were searching for fish.




The kids loved following all the paths in the gardens.

We had to take a long path down to the pumpkin displays. Cassidy took an alternative route down the hill. Which of course inspired others to follow her. Thomas is contemplating rolling down the hill. He finally went for it. Then he got upset, because his hands got dirty.




























Zachary on the other hand went all in. It took him a few times down to really get the hang of it.


I now see how Jack broke his crown. I am surprised Zachary didn't break his.


After he caught his breath from laughing so hard, he asked if he could do it again.

A day at the beach.

Kerbis Whale??

























Zachary isn't scared of the giant octopus.

The kids miss Sea World.
They had a play area covered in straw. Most of the kids were rolling in it and throwing it on their heads. My kids were collecting pumpkins and showing Stewart and I all the different varieties.

If you ever want to feel like a fairytale princess or prince, this is the place. You get to sit on a chair that raises you up, then the water fountain comes on and surround you. You become trapped in the middle of the pond.

I think Zachary was the most princely of the group. At least he posed the best.

We took a boat trip into the story of Pinocchio. We saw Geppetto's wood shop, and were swallowed by the whale. Stewart, Cassidy and Zachary are floating out of the whale's belly.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall.
We visited the story of Snow White. This is just an ordinary mirror until the words written below are recited. Then the magical mirror appears.

My kids are real chickens. They even got spooked when the witch came out of the gingerbread house. The witch peeked out as you went to open the gate.

Dachau

The kids were out of school and Stewart had the day off work, so we visited the concentration camp at Dachau. We actually dropped the boys off at a friends house and took only Cassidy with us. We didn't think the boys would really enjoy themselves or understand anything about the place. Cassidy on the other hand read through much of the history with us. We didn't make it through all the written exhibits. Though we spent over four hours there.

The entrance reads "works makes you free".


Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany, opening in 1933. It was originally designed to hold German political prisoners. The bunker Cassidy is walking through was for the political prisoners.

I liked this map showing the countries. Cassidy and I spent a lot of time going over who was on which side and why.

The camp had 32 bunk houses. Most of which were torn down, leaving only the foundations in place.

The Crematorium.
Dachau was the second camp to be liberated by American and British troops.

There are four chapels or memorials on the camp site. Cassidy and Stewart are walking down the Jewish memorial. Cassidy is standing in front of the Russian Orthodox chapel.

Stuttgart Fernsehtrum

Cassidy has spent much of her summer earning Girl Scout badges and patches. This is her first year as a Junior Girl Scout and she is so excited. Today we finished up earning her Strolling through Stuttgart patch. While the boys were in school, she and I visited the Stuttgart Fernsehtrum (TV tower). It is 711 feet to the top, we only made it 504 feet to the upper observation deck. This picture is courtesy of Wikipedia, because I forgot to take one. The construction started in 1954 and was completed in 1956. It was the first of its kind and was the inspiration for TV towers around the world.

It was a beautiful day at the bottom of the tower. But when we got to the top, it was freezing. Well not exactly, but with the wind blowing we were cold.

German's love soccer. I don't know what this is exactly, but must be a sports club of some sort. I see tennis courts in the background too. The windy side of the tower had the best views. I never did find what direction our home was in. We could have used Stewart to point it out to us.