Five days in Florida

After our western Caribbean cruise, we had another 5 days in Florida before flying home. We spent most of this time on the west coast of Florida, staying with Nathan's grandparents - Levi and Ruth - in a town called Venice (3 hours north-west of Miami). Venice's claim to fame is that it is the shark tooth capital of the world!

Ruth and Levi (many thanks!)

One day we drove half an hour north to the town of Sarasota, FL. We went shopping, ate cupcakes, admired the scenic beaches, and hunted down a Costco to buy some mangoes that we thought might be nearly as good as Australia's Bowen mangoes (they weren't though). Sarasota looked like a great town for a family vacation... lots of kid-friendly attractions and a laid-back beach vibe. We'll have to return someday!

The only photo we took in Sarasota was of this fantastic piece of work...

Another day, Finley and I went to the beach in Venice while Ben had his first experience with the American health system (don't worry, he's fine)...

The most interesting thing we did during our stay in Venice was go to the Myakka River State Park and take a narrated tour on the world's largest airboat to see some alligators. We saw lots! Did you know that you can tell how many feet long an alligator is by judging how many inches from its snout to its eyes?

Myakka River State Park

The airboat

Our tour guide and airboat captain

Gators!

Yikes

Keeping an eye on the tourists

The day before our flight back to Seattle, we drove back to Miami in our rental car and stayed overnight at the same motel we'd used before our cruise.

The next day, we passed the time before our flight by relaxing in a quiet park near the airport.

Then, it was two flights back to Seattle (again via Charlotte, NC), and a 3 hour drive back to Canada (via Trader Joe's and Wee Ones Reruns in Bellingham, of course).

In his own seat for the first time as the plane wasn't full

From my window seat, I saw another plane overtake us in the distance!

It was a fun and relaxing holiday!

Central Europe trip, Post 2: Neuschwanstein Castle

On Wednesday, December 18th, we left Prague (Czech Republic) around noon and set off on the drive to Munich (Germany). Finley slept for three hours on the drive (still a bit jetlagged!), and I used the time to study German using some apps I'd downloaded to my phone. We stopped to fuel up around 4pm and shared a Jaggerschnitzel (schnitzel with creamy mushroom sauce) and spaetzle meal inside the service station. An hour later we arrived at our destination for the next two nights: Russell and Alison's home on the outskirts of Munich! (They are friends from Australia who are living in Germany.)

We ate weiswurst and salad for dinner with Alison and their two children, Bobbie (2) and Annika (1), before going to their Wednesday night meeting with Alison. We briefly crossed paths with Russ as he arrived home from work just as we were heading out the door. The meeting was mostly in German, but we kindly received a whisper mic translation into English, so it worked very well!

The next morning, Thursday, Russ cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and then Ben, Finley and I set off on our day's excursion: visiting Neuschwanstein Castle! This is a very famous fairytale-looking castle commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 1800s. One of our reasons for wanting to visit it - apart from it being a major tourist attraction in the region - was that Ben used to have a big poster of it on his bedroom wall before we were married!

The drive to the town of Hohenschwangau should have taken about 1.5 hours, but Finley is not so keen on his carseat at times, so it took 2.5 hours. :) Here are some photos from the drive...

Approaching Neuschwanstein Castle

It's not possible to drive right up to the castle - visitors must park in the town of Hohenschwangau and then either walk or take a horse and cart up the hill to the castle. Tickets for the castle tours are sold in the visitor centre in Hohenschwangau, and we were made aware that the tours are run on an extremely strict schedule. We purchased tickets for the 3:25pm tour (€12/adult) and set about ensuring we would reach the castle in time. We waited in line for the horse and cart option, eventually made it to the front of the queue, piled in and paid the driver €6/adult, and set off up the hill to the clip-clopping of horses' hooves echoing through the wet streets.

Hohenschwangau

The other castle in town: Hohenschwangau Castle

After our 20 minute horse and cart ride, we had another 10 minutes to walk uphill before reaching the castle. The view across the surrounding snowy plains was gorgeous, and the castle up close was EXTREMELY impressive and imposing...

The method in which the tours of Neuschwanstein Castle are run is the strictest we have ever encountered in our travels and thus worth a mention! The tours are only 15 minutes long, and visitors are only allowed inside the castle's immediate vicinity a couple of minutes before their tour begins. Everyone stands around watching an electronic sign that shows which tour times are currently being admitted, and when a new number flashes up, everyone with that time rushes (sorry, proceeds in an orderly fashion) to the turnstile below the sign. The turnstile lets one person through at a time, and only after scanning their ticket to confirm their admissibility. I tried a couple minutes too early and was rejected!

Once inside, our large tour group gathered in a room and met our tour guide. He was a youngish man with a soft, high voice and a very strong accent. That, combined with the fact that our little boy was now tired and hungry again and wanted to let us know, meant that I hardly heard any of the tour commentary after all our hours of effort to get there!

It was very interesting to see inside the castle though. I particularly remember the incredibly detailed wooden carving on Ludwig's bed canopy, which fourteen carvers worked on for over four years! (And guess how many nights Ludwig slept in his castle? ...Eleven!) The castle was also equipped with state of the art technology for its time, such as flushing toilets, central heating, and telephones! However, construction of the castle was cancelled upon Ludwig's death in 1886, when only 14 of the 200+ planned rooms were complete. It remains unfinished to this day. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but this site can take you on a tour if you're interested.

After our 15 minute tour finished, we spent quite a while hanging out in the room where the tours wind up, letting Finley stretch his legs and explore. He seemed to become quite a tourist attraction himself, gaining the attention of various Japanese tourists who came and went as subsequent tours ended. They showed him toys, played with him, and even took photos of him!

All this hanging around meant that we were among the last ones to leave the castle after the day's tours had concluded. Only as we were walking out of the castle did we realise this meant we would probably not have the luxury of taking a horse and cart to the bottom! Sure enough, we had to walk down the snowy hill as darkness fell (and it was my turn to carry Finley in the wrap!). However, it was quite a pleasant walk in the crisp air, and Ben snapped this beautiful photo of the castle...

We finally made it back to Russell and Alison's around 7pm... a few hours after we had said we'd return! Luckily they had recently been to the castle themselves, so they understood exactly how it chews up more time than you'd think a 15 minute tour would take. :)

To be continued...

PS. This is our blog's 500th post!

USA road trip, Post 5: Oregon coast

On Thursday afternoon, September 19th, we crossed from California into the southern part of Oregon. Driving the Oregon coast had long been a travel goal for Ben and I, and it certainly didn't disappoint! Here are the highlights from the two days we spent exploring the Oregon coast...

Not long after we entered Oregon, I looked out the car window and saw a spectacular sight: the TOP of the clouds! Seeing it from a plane is one thing, but seeing it from a car is quite surreal! The sea of clouds extended as far as we could see into the distance. There was a lot of oohing and ahhing over this incredible sight!

Dad on Cloud 9 ;)

I don't think we were up particularly high - it's just that the bank of cloud was hanging extremely low over the coastline, as you can see in the following photos taken 3 hours later. This awe-inspiring view was my favourite on the whole trip...

And a 20-photo panorama Ben took (click to enlarge)...

On Thursday we had lunch in a small town that seemed to have an inordinate number of pizza joints and gone-out-of-business restaurants along the main thoroughfare. We eventually found a bustling seafood shack at a marina off the main highway, and warmed up with some fish and chips and clam chowder.

On Thursday and Friday nights, we stayed at a beachside motel in Yachats (which I had been calling "Yack-ats", but a laughing local told us was pronounced "Yaw-hots").

On Friday we left Roxy at the motel to do some work, while the rest of us retraced half an hour of the previous evening's drive to explore the town of Florence. We're pretty sure some of the most stunning coastal views were on this portion of the drive that we did three times, but on Thursday it was dark and on Friday it was foggy and raining, so we didn't get to see much of it!

We forgot our camera on the day trip to Florence, but it had a cute little historical district along the river. We had lunch at a British restaurant, wandered in and out of galleries and speciality shops, bought some kites, and finished up with a warm drink before heading back up to Yachats.

On Saturday, we left Yachats and headed north again. We had lunch at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and then watched from the upstairs viewing room as hundreds of blocks of cheese travelled along the conveyor belts and were packaged up, supervised diligently by the assembly line workers. We read the signs detailing the history of dairy cooperatives and cheese production in the region, and finished up our visit with some cheap and yummy gelato.

Tillamook Cheddar production

Giant blocks of cheese!

"Cheese? No thanks, I'll have a handbag!"

After leaving the factory we continued on to Cannon Beach, seemingly the most famous and oft-recommended spot on the Oregon coast. After we eventually found a spot to park, and wrestled our way through some shoulder-high grass and across a few sand dunes to access a beautiful empty beach, we put one of our new kites to good use. Flying a kite in such a peaceful and picturesque location, while waves rolled in and horses galloped past, was one of the absolute highlights of the trip for me.

From Cannon Beach we headed inland to Beaverton, near Portland, and stayed the night at a hotel there. On Sunday morning we went to a meeting nearby, and that afternoon we drove the rest of the way home.

And that was our 9 day road trip from Las Vegas to Vancouver via the California and Oregon coasts! Hope you enjoyed the drive. :)