We spent our first week at Camp Darby, just outside of Pisa[Wiki]. On our first day, we were excited to take the 10 minute drive over to explore Pisa. The primary huildings in the cathedreal complex are the Cathederal, Basillica and, of course, the Leaning Tower, wich is a functional bell tower for the Catherdal. I took matthew and Daniel up into the bell tower where the view from above was taken.
The second day we explored Cinque Terre[Wiki] (Literally, "five lands" or villages) that are clinging to the mountian side over the Mediteranian Sea. The area is laced with hiking trails which are pleasant to stroll along for sights. The towns are stuffed with charm and shopping that everyone liked. We only made it from the first city, Riomaggiore to the next one, Manarola.
The next day was relatively laid back and we slept in and then spent the afternoon at the "American Beach," touted as the only U.S. military-only beach in Europe. Unfortunately, the surf was really high and the lifeguards wouldn't let anyone out into the water, so we just had to be content to letting the kids play in the sand and on the nice children's playground.
Day three we got our travel legs back and we set out for Vinci, Leonardo's[Wiki] birthplace and namesake. It has a great musuem there deveoted to his works that the kids loved. Ethan especially like watching the replicas in action! From there we laced our way up through the vinyards and olive groves over to Lucca, an ancient city with massive earth-filled defensive walls. The walls were so big that when you went along the path on top, it was like strolling through a long city park. After all that running around we rewarded the kids with a trip back to the beach. Fortunately the waves were down, and everyone could play in the water! Needless to say, everyone got some decent rest that night!
The next day, we traveled across the Italian penensula over to Vicenza[Wiki], where we were able to get a spot in an appartment-like quarters for the night. That turned out the be the best accomodations that we had on the trip, but unfortunately the shortest. On the way out of Vincinza, we explored Nove briefly. Nove is famous for its extensive ceramic industry. But it seemed that we got there too late and most of the busineses were closed. We did enjoy going through the city ceramic museu, however!
After Nove, Italy we drove up to Garmisch-Partenkirchen[Wiki] through Austria. We stayed there at the Army's resort and lodge, in one of the cabins. The route we took up was dotted with many senic ruins or restored casltes on peaks along the way.
We took the train and gondola up to the summit of Germany's highest point, the Zugspitze[Wiki]! The waeather was great! Very few clouds and the visibility was excellent! We had been kind of worred the previous days since it had been obscured in clouds, and they burned off as we were aproaching the summit. I can see how we get the phrase "it was a mountian-top experience!"
Amazingly enough, I ran into my old boss from Hawaii at the conference center, here on the other side of the world, So we had him over for a visit and some dinner. Also, the base was throwing a German American Friendship festival. They had some bouncy things that the kids loved! Finally, since our return route took us so close to Legoland (we kindly refer to it as the boys' "motherland") we had to roll our eyes and make a quick side-tour to prevent a mutiny from the back seat. Just so happened that the Chinese National Circus had a one-day show going on that day and we were able to squeeze into the auditorium. Pretty impressive acrobatic arts.
