A Memorial Day--In Italy

"Time will not dim the glory of their deeds" ~ General John Pershing

If I am completely honest, it wasn't until I was an adult, married to a young 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army (almost 20 years ago, 4 kids, countless moves, deployments and duty stations now), that I even contemplated the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  I feel it's that way with a lot of people, especially those who don't "serve" and especially back then, before our world was so different. 

I was a teacher for a long time also and it was one year, when I was teaching Kindergarten, that I realized MOST people don't know the difference. It was probably 2002 or so, and we were talking about Memorial Day in class.  I'm sure we had a cutesy craft to complete, probably a flag, and I'm sure I read a book to the class about the holiday, or about something patriotic, but what really stuck out in my mind was what one of my students said.  

Her name was Chloe and she told the class about what Memorial Day meant to her.  She told us that she had had a brother who died a long time before who was in the Army. He had died in a car crash and on Memorial Day, her family took extra special time to remember people like him who had been in the military but who had died. 

She went on to tell our class that Veterans Day is when our country honors anyone who has served in the military.  It didn't mater if they were living or dead--we honored their service.  

By that time in my life, I knew the difference, but her words always stuck out in my mind.  She was and is a great kid and is the child of a U.S. Army service member (retired) and one awesome firecracker of a Brit who took the time to teach her difference between these two holidays. And on Memorial Day each year, I always think of her and her story when I take the time to teach my own children the difference and when I remember those service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice for my freedom.

Here's a good article that sums it up as well...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/26/why-memorial-day-is-confused-with-veterans-day/

Garmisch Day 2-Linderhof Palace

 One of the awesome things about the Bavarian region of Germany is the beautiful castles and palaces that can be found there.  On Day 2 of our trip to Garmisch, we decided to visit the Linderhof Palace.  It was one that I hadn't heard of before, probably due to the fact that the most famous of Europe's castles, Neuschwanstein, tends to overshadow the rest, and is located just down the street.   Like Neuschwanstein, the Linderhof Palace was built by King Ludwig II and it was the only one of his castles or palaces that he actually lived in.  It was also the smallest of all his castles or palaces. He was quite a nut job, to say the least, and you can read about him here. It was obvious as soon as we saw the palace, that its major influence was Versailles. The palace was impressive, but the gardens were amazing! We weren't allowed to take photos inside the palace, but honestly, there really wasn't much to take pictures of inside! The gardens were a different story completely!  

The palace and its fountain

I always love Pansies!

 



    The Palace grounds--the view was breathtaking!

There was even a prayer building that had a Moroccan flair to it

It was extremely gaudy!

 King Ludwig was called the "Swan King", so naturally, there were lots of swans...

I seriously considered having all eight of the children go standrightnexttothisman while he was having his obviously posed vacation photo taken! Can you imagine...

 I loved these vine arbor walkways!

The boys were patient...and maybe a little bored...

Look at how Matt and Jeanne both are
          standing the exact same!

Apparently, King Ludwig was a huge Wagner fan and so he had a special cave constructed on the grounds of the palace so Wagner could come and play his music there in the great acoustics of the cave. After we waited 45 minutes for this tour of the cave that King Ludwig had built for Wagner, the tour ended up being completely in Germany!  The kids have these funny looks on their faces because we are standing in the pitch dark (I couldn't even see them when I was taking this picture) and are listening to a tour in Germany...

Fake cave...how interesting....

All 8 children, and the dads

(This is also the castle where I saw my favorite European sign).  Read the post on my other favorites HERE. 

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Our Street :)

What is Via Fontanelle? It's the name if our street here in Italy!

Garmisch & The Zugespitze--The top of Germany!

I promised myself that in order to keep from becoming overwhelmed with blogging about vacations from a long time ago, I'd only post about trips we have taken or things we have done it the last year.

We went to Garmisch, Germany for the first time over Memorial Day weekend of 2012, so I'm just getting this one in under the wire!

It was a trip that I was really looking forward to, but also one that I hadn't had the chance to do a lot of planning for. It was also our first trip OUT of Italy and so we were really looking forward to a change of scenery. I was AMAZED at how beautiful the German region of Bavaria was!  Even a year later, it's like nothing I've seen before.

We stayed at an amazing apartment in Garmisch, right across the street from Edelweiss, the American military resort in Europe. We were lucky because our apartment was actually between The Edelweiss and the Zugespitze. Since we were vacationing with some family friends, The Neumeyers, who also have four children, we needed a place that could fit twelve! This place was PERFECT and still remains one of my favorite places we've stayed in the year and a half that we've lived here. It's owned by Suzanne and her adorable little son, Josh--if you are ever in need of a place to stay in Garmisch, she has several apartments and chalets. I won't ever stay anywhere else in the Garmisch area! Please contact me and I'll be happy to give you her contact info! Here's the view from our apartment:

 All of the windows in the apartment--and there are plenty, have this view.  We woke up to this one morning.

We enjoyed watching the sky divers glide down from the top of the Zugespitze.

With my crazy fear of heights, there's not a chance I'll ever be trying this...

Even at the end of May, the Zugespitze was covered in a lot of snow.

View from Edelweiss--very similar, huh?

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, the top of the Zugespitze is the highest point in Germany.  The mountain itself is actually in two countries--Germany and Austria and at the top, you can actually walk between the two countries. They have an awesome webcam that shows a panoramic view of the peak HERE.

In order to get to the top, it was a short walk down to the train station where we could buy tickets and hop on the cogwheel train that would take us to the glacier (not actually the top).  Buying tickets at the station was super easy and much, much cheaper than buying them at the Edelweiss. 

 Pretty little wildflowers that were along the way to the train station

Our families walking to the train station

Picture of the cogwheel train that I got off the Zugespitze website

 The cable car that takes you from the glacier to the top of the mountain.  I was terrified!

The ride from the train station to the glacier was a slow one but the scenery was breathtaking!  We could feel it getting colder and colder on the ride up there but I had no idea there would be so much SNOW when we got to the top!! Everything was still covered with tons of snow and the amazing thing was that people were sledding!  We were quick to jump right in!  I NEVER thought I would be able to say that I went sledding on the top of a mountain in natural snow over Memorial Day weekend!

Panoramic view of the glacier

Chapel on the glacier

                   

Trey at the top of the glacier

We all had an awesome time sledding down the hill!

Especially Jackson!

And ME!

 Jeanne photo bombing!

It was crazy bright up there! And somebody forgot her sunglasses...

 On the cable car on the way up to the top.  This is looking down on the glacier where we sledded, from the top of the mountain.

 The tiny black dot is a climber!

 Looking down on Lake Eibsee from the very top

The very highest point

Being at the top was awesome and the view was breathtaking but I can't say that I didn't feel a little bit better when we were back on lower ground.  Apparently, we were very lucky to have this amazing view because we have been up to the top on a couple more times and never have we been able to see the lake! We took the cable car all the way down to Lake Eibsee and the dads and kids took the paddle boats out on the lake while Jeanne and I drank beer and ate ice cream.  It was a wonderful day and we were lucky to have such a clear day at the top of Germany!

Tory took all these pictures on the lake!

Jeanne and I took these while we were eating our ice cream and drinking our beer.  

People ate these fish right off the stick!! GROSS!! 

Still one of my all-time favorite European signs! If you haven't read that post, click HERE.

Then Delilah wanted to eat some ice cream too, while she chattered away...to herself...

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