Germany
On Sunday afternoon, we braved the freezing rain and headed to the Erzgebirgsmuseum (Ore Mountain Museum) in Annaberg-Buchholz. This included a trip down into the 500-year-old silver mine under the museum. While the museum (and the tour) were exclusively in German, between Google Translate and on-the-fly commentary by Russ and
Germany
On Saturday, we had a little drive around our friends' local area in Saxony (in former East Germany) and ended up at the local rodelbahn (Augustusburg). The general consensus was that this one was even better than the one in Switzerland — that is, it was faster and lacked a
Switzerland
On Tuesday we made very good use of some comp tickets for the Verkehrshaus (Lucerne Transport Museum), courtesy of Matthias's work. As usual we were the last ones out, but could have easily spent three days there. It was literally "trains, planes and automobiles" (plus energy,
Switzerland
On Monday we had a big day out and about, covering quite a bit of ground, in part with the aim of getting to an operating rodelbahn to overcome the kids' rodelbahn-related disappointment at Oeschinensee. We started off with a quick visit to Solothurn to see some sights (and
Switzerland
On Saturday, we headed up to the gorgeous Oeschinensee (Oeschinen Lake) with Donna and Matthias and their kids (just a little younger than F and J). It was a lovely drive up through the mountains, and when we got there... wow. After riding the gondola to the top of the
Switzerland
On Friday afternoon, we visited the local Hirsch Park (deer park) with Donna and Matthias and their kids (who like to visit regularly). Apparently this year has been a great year for acorns, so we had pocket-fulls in abundance (sourced from a big bag in the back of Donna and
France
On Tuesday, on the recommendation of our accommodation host, we decided to go see some cave paintings... REALLY old cave paintings (or at least replicas thereof). The Chauvet paintings are around 36,000 years old and likely the oldest paintings in the world (some googling suggests older ones have now
France
On our way to Montélimar on Monday, after shoe shopping, we pulled over at a random rest stop for some lunch. There was an installation about a local (I assume) poet/musician/composer, Georges Brassens. I translated some of his poetry, which was amusing (in some cases I suspect a
France
My faithful old $25 Asics were getting a bit laughable (literally... big gaping laughy-face if I squished my toes the right way), so on Monday morning we stopped at Decathlon to get some new ones (and gloves for J and a beanie for F).
France
On Sunday afternoon, during our two-night stay in Carcassonne in southern France, we visited its medieval old city. It was gorgeous, but we had to be careful as there were thieves on the roads... The surrounding countryside was also lovely and we met a local farmer... Despite the age of
France
On Tuesday, we flew from Venice to Paris, collected our hire car and drove south to Blois, where we stayed for two nights. On Wednesday, our first full day in France, we visited Captain Haddock's Marlinspike Hall (or at least the inspiration thereof — Château de Cheverny), which was
Italy
...and some lessons from our time among the "bella chaos" (the beautiful chaos – how Italians apparently describe how Italy runs): * Water — Italy is weird about water (to an Australian anyway) — many Italian cities have permanently running water taps scattered around for public use (especially noticeable in Rome), but