Lake Garda bound

On Sunday, June 14th, we headed down through Austria to get to Lake Garda.  It wasn't too far of a drive which was nice.

Our morning view - I could wake up to this!!

Since it wasn't too far of a drive, what else do you do first thing in the morning, but go ride the rodelbahn!!  AJ wanted to go by himself on the first run so off he went, full speed ahead!!!

David's breakfast wasn't settling quite right this morning, so Michael and I took the second chair.  This boy has no fear!!!

After that the boys wanted to ride together, and since AJ was big enough, off they went!!!

They were cracking up every time they came down.  I LOVE those smiles!!!!!  They said they were going full speed the whole way and never touched the brakes.  I am just glad they didn't fly off of the track.  After a few rides we headed onto Italy and Lake Garda.

We made it to our accommodations, which was a mobile home type place with full kitchen.  We made tacos for dinner and enjoyed each other's company!

Then what do you do on a full stomach?!?!  Wrestle of course!!!!  I decided it was a little small for that so we headed down to the lake to take a walk.  Thankfully the rain stopped while we were eating dinner so we could go out and enjoy!

There were a TON of swans and birds all over the place.  There was a sign on the beach that said if you feed the birds they will poop on your beach.  I don't think that stopped people though and these birds were brave, coming right up to you.

The boys and I on the dock.  You can kind of see the other side of the lake, but it was just clearing up after the storm.

Of course the boys wanted to go climb and jump on the rocks.  I told them to be careful and not to get wet.

AJ having a wonderful time at a beautiful lake!!!

As you can see their shoes are now off.  Michael stepped in the water with one of his so we just had them take them all off.

The boys testing the water to see how cold it was.  They said it was pretty cold.

They were having fun playing so David and I decided to sit down, relax and watch the boys smiling and giggling.

As we are watching them, Michael totally slips on this boat ramp and in he goes clothes and all.  I am completely laughing going over to make sure he is OK.  There was also a couple there that had a good laugh as well.  So AJ decided to follow suit and "slipped" on the ramp and in he went.

Then it was on and they had sooooooo much fun in that water.  They were there for quite awhile, slipping, laughing and enjoying being kids!!!

While they were in the water, David and I made a game where we threw rocks and tried to hit the stick or knock it down if we could.  He was much better at it than me.  :-)

Superman pose!!!!

David and I were throwing rocks and all of a sudden these birds came over.  They thought we were throwing bread.  So we had to stop until they were far away.  You can see how close they are to AJ.

The boys were tired of swimming so they joined in our rock throwing game.  They were pretty good at it as well!

I thought this little babies were so cute.  They were half running, half swimming to keep up with their mom.  After that we headed back to our place to dry off and we heard some loud music and were trying to figure out what it was.

Ended up being a show going on.  The boys were able to get front row seats (which I had to fight for, the people there were not messing around) to the show!

They had all sorts of different acts there, this one were guys dressed up as girls dancing away.  AJ said they looked like they were having a good time.

This guy came on a couple of times and he was funny.  It was one of the silent comedian acts with some very cool tricks mixed in!  Very entertaining!!!

At the end they did the song if I wasn't working here I would be a......  They had to have their timing down really to the second because one guy would swing his arm as hard as he could while the girl next to him was ducking.  

The boys were enthralled with the show as well!!!  After that we headed back for some sleep and to get ready for our big day tomorrow.

Garmisch

So the trip to Italy is a LONG drive, so we decided to make a pit stop in Garmsich as a half way point.  We started out on June 13th, two days after school ended.  But before we got there we decided to check out the longest Tibet-style footbridge in the world.  IT is in the Guinness book of World Records.  It is 1, 318.9 feet long.

You can see the bridge up and behind them.  There are people up there, you can see how far it is up.

We tried to leave the boys in the cage, but they found a way out of it.  ;-)

This is a key shaped loophole.  It was used in the middle 1400s, you put the barrel of the gun through the round hole and targeted through the slit.

When we walked through the gate, the boys saw the park they ran straight for it!!!

It was a pretty neat park, there was an obstacle course and everything!

Of course Michael just wanted to climb!!!  You can see the bridge above his left shoulder.

They found another boy that spoke English and were playing with him for awhile.

The Schnurfler is a legend about a gnome who had been living in the fortress before the castle was built.  He felt disturbed by the people and fought them by throwing rocks and causing rock falls.

This was the beautiful path up the hill!!!  Though the boys were complaining by the time we got to the top.  It was hot, I will give it to them.

This is the outer gate to the historic Fort Claudia.  They put it up about 200 years after the Fort was built in 1482.

A HUGE snail we came across on our path!!

A view of the fort from the start of the bridge.

The boys getting ready to go across the bridge.  AJ was a little nervous when he looked at the bridge, but was still willing to tackle it!!

The boys half way across, the bridge was really swaying with the wind blowing.

You can see the side of the fort and how much it has broken down over time.

We made it across, this is looking back at the bridge and the fort.

Michael always climbing - my little monkey!!

The boys and I heading back to the other side.

Here you can get a little bit of an idea of how far up we were.

I love their poses and it was such a gorgeous day!!

This was the kitchen drain in the fort.

A picture of the town from the fort - beautiful!!!

Michael wanted me to stay at the fort while he ran down to the field.  You can kind of see the dot of him in the middle of the grass.  ;-)

Michael pulling the sword out of the stone!!

David, Michael and AJ in front of the front gate of the fort.

The boys started walking down the hill and both of them grabbed my hand which I LOVE!!  And no I didn't make them do it!!!  LOL  After our brief stop we headed the rest of the way to Garmisch.

We found our hotel and what a view!!!

You can see the Olympic ski jump on the left in the background, absolutely beautiful!!!

We headed down into town for some dinner and to our enjoyment we had a little bit of entertainment!!!

And of course we played some cards while at dinner!!!

Later in the evening we had more entertainment with a couple of young kids dancing.  After a nice, relaxing dinner we headed back to the hotel for some sleep before we headed into Italy.