The Outdoors

I have been bad about posting with trying to fill the last week of summer with LOTS of activities.

Sunday, August 18, we went hiking in Bad Urach with friends. This is about 30 minutes away and is a pretty steep hike. When you reach the top there are castle ruins and we ate lunch right in the middle of them. Very neat. Then on the other side, yes a separate hike, there was a waterfall at the top with a surprise bier garten. Nice!!! Great day outdoors!!

On Monday, August 19, the kids and I decided to check out the Stuttgart Zoo, known here as Wilhelmina. It's a zoo, aquarium, and insectarium and beautiful gardens all located in one place. The zoo in Stuttgart is one of the top attractions, it is sooo beautiful. We enjoyed the fact that there were some different animals than we are used to....the polar bear and kangaroo just to name a couple. There were amazing views of the city from here as we'll.

Wednesday, August 21, we went with our friends to a wieldpark. There are several playgrounds for the kids and you feed the animals. It is a free day, you only have to buy the food, 1€ a box, so cheap. We all packed lunch and the moms and Blair packed wine:) the kids loved feeding the animals and so did I. We fed European bison and wild boar and precious little Bambi's just to name a few.

Friday, August 23, we hiked Rubble Hill with our friends:) yes, everything is with my friend Liz and her friends she is introducing me to. Liz has been here over a year so she has discovered lots of cool places. Rubble Hill is a place I will plan to take every visitor. It's a hill made of building debris from WWII. They hauled pieces of debris to this one area in the city and supported it with steel rods then planted grass and trees on it. This is an easy hike but it is the highest point in Stuttgart and the kids loved climbing on the rubble. On a super clear day you can see the entire city of Stuttgart, which was completely leveled during the war. So much history and thoughts go into this one hill. It's a weird feeling to sit there and look at all of this and imagine what it must have been like:(

On a side note.....last week we were outdoors everyday and the weather was beautiful, it's over!!! Highs the past few days have been in the 60s with rain and gloom, no sun. It's actually been a bit cold, especially at night. But I am NOT complaining because it feels good!

Strasbourg, France

Actual Date: August 10,2013

Last Friday morning, while trying to figure out what to do over the weekend, I came across Strasbourg, France. I read that it is one of the top day trips from Stuttgart because it is only an hour and a half away and there is lots to do. So......on Friday I had lunch with Billy and we decided we would go on Saturday.

This was the Best day trip EVER. We packed our lunch, like everyone here in Europe seems to do, with the delicious breads, meats, and cheeses and left our house about 9am. We were parked and on foot in the town by 10:45. This is such a picturesque town and there is sooooooo much history, apparently since it is located on the border it has been under German control and French control, it is a town that seems to have been fought over plenty.

The first thing we did was buy our tickets for the boat ride through the tunnels down the canals. And not EXPENSIVE like many tourist attractions, it was only 29€ for our whole family. The boat ride was great because you wore a headset and chose your language and there was even a pirate version for the kids, SCORE!!!!! The boat ride lasted a little over an hour and one of the neat things about it was you went through the locks, so they actually had to raise the water with us in the boat so when they opened the wall we wouldn't be under water. The kids, and myself, thought that was really cool. We saw old fortresses on the river where they shot guns out of the top and fired canons out of the bottom. See the pics below..... Maybe one day when I visit Debbie in London she can show me how to put the pics within my blog with the descriptions:) just a tiny reason I need to go visit soon....

We also toured one of the Notre Dame cathedrals. This cathedral started being constructed in 1031 and took 400 years to complete. The Gothic artwork is amazing. You could climb to the top but there were Lots of people and we did not want to pay 15€ for us all to climb up. There were many other areas in the town to get a great city view that were free. There is also an astronomical clock, constructed in 1842, everyday at 12:30 there is a show put on by the clock with a reenactment of the apostles. We did not see this due to being on the boat ride but I plan to see this with mom in November when I go back.

We attended a full French Catholic mass at Saint Pierre Le-Vieux. Not a huge cathedral but very old and quaint. The French language was so relaxing I think we all appeared drugged:). The mass started at 5:30 and at about 5:10 the priest came out and made his way around shaking everyone's hands and saying hello. He asked where we were from and then acknowledged us during the mass. So neat. After the mass he asked us what the rest of our "trip" entailed since he assumed we were on holiday.

After mass we set out to find a restaurant on the water we had seen on the boat ride .... We found it and it was great. We had a bottle of French wine from the region and delicious food, even Creme Brûlée , one of my faves. We sat on the second story and had a wonderful view. Pics below, it is the building you will see with all of the flowers on the balconies and if you can make out the name it was called Au Pont Saint Martin.

Next was you guessed it..... Had to try ice cream from France:). We encountered our only rude French person here. I think she was just a miserable person that disliked Americans but whatever, not like we care.

It was a long day because we stayed around to see the illumination show at the cathedral that began at 10:30. It was so pretty with beautiful changing lights and music.

This was a great town with so much to see and do, we all enjoyed it and cannot wait to return.

Interesting Fact:: prostitution is illegal in France but apparently very much legal in Germany. As we were leaving France that night and coming into Germany there were prostitutes everywhere. I had never seen anything like it. We tried to get a picture without drawing attention but it didn't come out. In Germany prostitution is actually regulated, brothels and having a pimp are illegal but it is more than acceptable to be a prostitute. Seems that Germany is one of the largest human trafficking countries in the world. Never knew, we don't see any of this where we live