Black Forest Trip 2011

Black Forest Trip 2011, a photo by pshow242 on Flickr.

Our next stop on the Black Forest route was Staufen Germany. We stayed the night in Staufen in a cute little Gasthaus (hotel). Rick hiked up to the Castle in Staufen while the girls and I hit the flea market. We left Staufen and headed to Freiburg Germany. Freiberg was another great city. Freiburg's sister city is Madison Wisconsin so of course we had to take a picture with sign. Freiburg has little canals all around it so we bought the girls these little boats everyone floats along it was the highlight of their day. Along our drive through the Black forest we stopped for many photo opps and of course we had to go to the Cuckoo clock museum. Our final stop on our trip was Triberg we hiked to the waterfall it is the highest one in Germany.

Strasbourg France 2011

Strasbourg France 2011, a photo by pshow242 on Flickr.

Labor day weekend we took a trip to the Black Forest. Our first stop was Strasbourg France. Strasbourg is a fabulous city. It is only 2 -1/2 hours from our house. The historic city center is an island with a huge church. great museums and wonderful restaurants. We spent half the day their on our way to drive the Black Forest route. The girls and I went TDY with Rick in October to Strasbourg for 4 days. The girls and I had a great time exploring and shopping while he was at work all day.

Finally I am updating the Blog

I know it has been forever since I updated this blog with our European adventures I had a good excuse my computer was broke. That excuse was only good for a couple of months I have no excuse for the rest of the months. So I am going to take this long weekend and upload all the photos from our trips and blog about them. So check back next week to see what has been going on with the Showalter's.

Computer trouble

Ok I know I said I would keep up with this blog and I will as soon as I get either a new computer or this one fixed. I can not up load any more photo's on to my Mac until I get rid of some of the 18,000 photo's I already have on it. When Rick gets home from his TDY I will try and update this blog with his computer he has all the new photo's on it. So check back soon and you will see some great photo's from the Black Forest and Oktoberfest in Munich. We are headed to France for a few days next week so hopefully by the next weekend I will have updated.

River cruise on the Rhine

River cruise on the Rhine, a photo by pshow242 on Flickr.

We finally took the river cruise and it was a perfect day. We left from Rudesheim and cruised to St Goar. It was a beautiful sunny day. we saw a ton of castles and castle ruins. When we stop at St. Goar we hiked up the hill to go see the Rheinfels castle. Abby and I wanted to take the trolley but Rick led us astray and we couldn't find it. So up we went and of course when we got to the top here comes the trolley boy was Abby mad. We had lunch at the castle then toured it. It was pretty cool and they views were amazing. We didn't have much time for anything else in St. Goar we had to catch the return cruise back to Rudesheim. When we got back to Rudesheim the wine festival had started so we sampled some wine and had even more food. The girls had a great time. We can't wait to finish the cruise in the spring.

Fansanerie and Taunus Wonderland

Fansanerie and Taunus Wonderland, a photo by pshow242 on Flickr.

We live about 15 minutes away from this little amusement park called Taunus Wonderland so we took the girls there and they had a great time. I am not sure how old the park is but it is very interesting. They have rides that you have to operate yourself. There is one that you have to pedal with your feet I went on it with Bella thinking she would pedal me around but she couldn't reach the pedal's I wont be doing that again. The day started out very nice then it started to rain and thunder and lightning so we had to leave. It was a fun day we will definitely go back there again.
there is also a free little petting zoo close to our house it is called Fansanerie the girls love going there. They have lots of animals to feed and room to run around. Both places are great to go to on nice days now I just need to find a place to go when it rains and it rains here a lot.

A little Natural History and some good friends

Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, a photo by pshow242 on Flickr.

We were very excited to spend time with our friends Paul and Dana Molnar and their kids. We were stationed together in Alaska and haven't seen them since. They were in Germany visiting Paul's parents and we were lucky to spend time with them. i say lucky because they are great people and they speak german. We went to the Natural History Museum in Frankfurt together. The girls had a great time with there kids. It was a great little day trip we learned how to use the subway and had a great dinner. Thanks Paul and Dana for sharing your vacation with us. Lets not wait 10 years before we see each other again.