Summer Trip Part One: Italy to Munich

Photo blog of last summer's big trip before we forget everything...

Step one: Throw a big bbq in the backyard of our new flat. We have a grill, we have friends! Expat success!

Step Two: Fly to Treviso, Italy with a butterfly net. Because why not.

Outside Treviso is one of the world's only "human-powered" amusement parks. No power runs to any of the rides, which are homemade designed and built to take advantage of gravity and physical might to get them going.

The roller coaster! First, you push it up the hill of course.

Weight-momentum pulley contraption. Adult pulls it down, kid grabs on and shoots up into the trees. Hold on!

Outside Tolmezzo Elena took us for a hike up to the Austrian border.

Being on the border, there was evidence of the Great War all along the ridgelines.

The trail ended at a lake where the kids played with tadpoles while dairy cows mooed around behind us.

We started down as the clouds started looking a little too menacing.

Valleys stretching south into Italy.

Suddenly the storm came upon us. We were running the last few yards to the dairy barn as the hail and rain came down. Pretty lucky actually as there had been no where to hide on the higher mountains earlier in the hike.

There's a small family-run place connected to the dairy operation. We got to try some super-hearty Austrian-influence mountain food along with our Gösser beer. (just Daddy)

For sale!

Back to Buia on the plains. This is on the base of Mt Ragogna, where the Italians made a last stand after the retreat from Caporetto in 1917. Trench lines are now hiking paths.

Jasper considers the castle ramparts.

The castle at Ragogna was closed but some workmen were there and left the door open, so we nipped inside for a look around.

The boys then took on a bike ride on old converted railway lines. They've ripped the tracks up and now you can cycle 70 miles from Artegna near Elena's place over the Austrian border and down into the city of Villach. 

Roadside attractions on the bike trail to Austria.

The train station in Chuisaforte on the old railway line. All along the route are the old train stations. Some are just ruins, others are museums, and others have been turned into impossibly-cute cafes.

We met for lunch in Tarvisio, roughly the halfway point.

Last mountain town before cresting the "hill" and starting the long downhill cruise into Villach, Austria.

Cass and the kids drove Franco's car and met us in Villach. Then we jumped on the train to Salzburg. Kids are old hands at this train travel thing now.

Stiegl Brewery on the side of the cliff in Salzburg.

We met up with Chris and Lisa, who have kids in school with Jasper. A hike up the foothills outside Salzburg landed us at farm/biergarten scene. Soft pretzels hung on wooden racks on a stand next to the Stiegl beer tap.

The German-speaking nations have figured out the wonderfulness of mixing hiking with strategically-located biergartens.

On our way back down the trail we stopped to let the kids play in the river. Spent a good hour in this spot.

Stiegl Bier is kind of a national brand in Austria. The metal signs are everywhere.

Dinner. The biergarten down the street from our hotel. 

Salzburg street scene.

Salzburg Altstadt. Great wandering opportunities.

A churchyard up against the mountain. Sound of Music "hiding in the cemetery" scene filmed here.

Yes people dress like this is Austria without a shred of irony. This was the bierstube in the basement of the hotel.

Mirabelle Gardens on the day we left. Salzburger Schloss in distance. More Sound of Music stuff filmed here! Jasper is impressed beyond words.

Ready for the train to Munich. 

Munich's Englischer Garten, a vast park in the north-central part of the city alongside the Isar River.

Family Portraits just keep getting easier as the kids get older!

Englischer Garten is also well-equipped with forests, pathways, and...

The city's largest biergarten.

And now, we jumped on the airplane to fly to the States and visit the home team in Ohio! 

(next post)