Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Castel Roncolo

Yesterday, we visited Castel Roncolo(Italian) or Castle Runkelstein(German). It was built in 1237, and is known for it's unique murals and medieval frescoes. (Isn't that beautiful, I copied it straight from the website ;)

Anyway....we weren't allowed to take any pics inside of the castle, but still got many good shots and had a fun time telling the girls we were at a castle where kings and queens lived :)

View of the castle from the road....on the side of a cliff!

making the trek up to the castle

girlies walking up to the castle


mommy + girls at the castle entrance

panorama from inside the castle walls


cheeeeeeze :)


another panarama from inside castle walls....you can see the beautiful paintings on the right.



David-selfie
view from the top!



d+e


daddy and nora selfie with castle and view behind (and mommy+elliot)





Monday, August 26, 2013

everyday things.....

Ok...so we have already seen many interesting and beautiful things! But, living in a foreign country is interesting in itself, and I thought it would be fun to show you what we are dealing with now on a daily basis, and how it's been just as interesting!

MILK
There's basically full fat, and half fat milk
(although finding the difference was a challenge :)
David bought a carton last week and was very surprised to take a huge gulp of cream, not milk at all! Lol.

Honey Nut Cheerios! Although, they taste NOTHING like real honey nut cheerios!
It tastes a lot more cinnamon.

Obviously, self explanatory here....But funny because McDs doesn't have their own ketchup back home. No Heinz here!

Only way I figured this one out is because of the picture of shirts on the label....laundry detergent.

Now this one is interesting.....washing machine.
German washing machine.
Took a good guess, and googled a few words...I think I've got 1 setting that works, so I'll stick to that :)

Now, here it is! Our luxury ford focus. Can't mistake who's cruisin around in this baby.....

and obviously it's made just for someone of David's 'stature'

And speaking of driving.....these are a few of the roads.

this is in 'town'
note that most of these roads are NOT one-ways, and are suppose to fit 2 way traffic!


This is the one of the roads leaving our apartment to get to town.


Another road leaving our house.....
there has been a few times where we have to stop and back up to let another car pass. :-/

finally, I was having some trouble uploading videos, but here are a couple links to show you a bit of what the drive is like to and from our apartment! This is why I'm not driving yet :)
Enjoy!

leaving our apartment, pulling into town...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91305097@N08/9599508076/

driving back to our place 1....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91305097@N08/9599704420/

driving back to our place 2....pulling up....

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Lago Di Garda!

Ciao Everyone!
We are adjusting and exploring more and more everyday! The girlies (and us :) are finally adapting to the time change a bit better (yay ;) and David has started his workouts with the team. He's excited to play again, and we are very excited too! So far, Elliot's favorite thing is chips (Pringles...lol) and Nora is loving her fragola (strawberry) gelato! 
David had the day off yesterday, so we decided to take a little day trip to Lago Di Garda (Lake Garda). It was about an hour drive on the autostrada, and well worth it! We spent a couple hours walking up the beach, and had lunch and gelato before heading home. Great day :)

on the drive in...

silly girlies 

mommy + girls

daddy + girls

d+n

gorgeous.

 
beautiful nora

excited, running toward the beach!
and then we got a delicious surprise from a new friend when we got back....
( a lot of!) apples from right here! yummm!

Monday, August 19, 2013

Bongiorno Italia!

Hello everyone!!!
Well, we made it! After a pretty smooth trip over, we are here and trying to adjust. The girlies were travel champs, and are now trying to acclimate to the 7 hour time change! Being up all night is hopefully going to change soon :)
The small town that we are in, Eppan, is nice. VERY different than anywhere in the U.S., but nice. Our apartment is nice also, with most of the amenities that we are used to. We have a decent size refrgerator, a small dishwasher, small washing machine (no dryer) and bathtub for the girls. Elliot has been sleeping in a big girl bed here because there is no crib, which has been a bit of a challenge, but not too bad.
Most of the people in Eppan speak German, but it doesn't really matter because we don't understand a word anyway ;) Although we've met a bunch of people who also speak some English, which is lucky for us.
Our place is not in the town, but up about a mile into the mountains. I wish we were within walking distance to some things, but our view is incredible. Here are a bunch of pictures of some travel, our place, and our view!



 happy traveler :)
 Elliot snoozing on the floor-Chicago to Munich
snoozers on the plane


 kitchen

 girlies room
 nora's bed
 elle's bed
 closet/desk in girls' room
 main hallway-front door
 dining room
 dining room into living room...balcony on right
 living room
 balcony
 view from apartment onto balcony
 view!



 my clothes dryer :)
 'master bath'

 view out the window from our toilet...:)

 girlies/2nd bathroom

 n relaxing on the balcony


 one more view!

what a 7 hour time change does to a 2 year old!