A mountain wedding

Our nephew Kurt was married in Colorado last weekend to the lovely Meredith. They chose a spectacular location in the mountains with a panoramic view. The weather was clear and actually quite warm in the upper 80’s. I captured a few candid pictures that I will share.

We are so happy for them both and wish them a lifetime of happiness. Kurt is the oldest of all the cousins on my side of the family, so that makes four out of the nine first cousins married now. Elisha will be getting married in two weeks and she is their step cousin I guess you’d say, we wish her all the best as well.

The River boat/ship

I never did figure out if it was more correct to say boat or ship on our river cruise down the Danube River or in Europe they say River Danube. We boarded the M.S. Swiss Sapphire in Passau, Germany on the fourth day.

A brief description of the ship is that it is long and narrow with one corridor and cabins on each side of it, each cabin has sliding glass doors looking out to the river. There were four decks, a lower deck for the crew mainly, two decks for passengers and an upper deck with deck chairs and loungers in the open air. The captain said even if the ship sank you could probably stand on the top deck and be dry as the river is not that deep.

There was a casual dining area and drink bar at the rear of the ship where I would go sometimes for a cup of tea and to use the Ipad because the wifi connection seemed better there.  In the bow area there was casual outdoor seating and a bar inside and a large lounge area for gatherings where they had some evening entertainment on certain nights. Below the lounge was a large dining room with large windows to enjoy the passing scenery.  It was very elegant with white table cloths and five course meals with full service.

The whole ship was quite elegant with marble floors, polished brass railings, chandeliers and glossy wood paneling. Fresh flowers were on the tables and in the lobby, we got chocolates on our beds every night.

At some ports there would be several ships all side by side so to go on shore we had to walk through the lobbies of the other ships. All the river boats are similar but have different décor and some are definitively fancier than others. The ships seem to be operated by different nationalities and cater to those groups. Tauck seems to cater to English speaking tourists, American, Canadian and Australian.

Besides the pristine countryside views of fortress “castle” ruins, little villages, and vineyards, one of the interesting aspects of the cruise was going through the locks. I think there were sixteen of them some that we went through in the middle of the night. One lock dropped us 65 feet. It seemed like each lock took about half an hour or so to pass through.

The motion on the ship when it is moving is smooth except when pulling close to a port or a lock wall there might be some bumps and squeaks. The engine noises vary according to the speed of the ship and whether they are using the engines to slow the ship down. It wasn’t bad and we slept very well.

We passed through five countries on our trip and the crew always put up a flag for the country we were in. The bridge of the ship was on hydraulic lifts so it could be lowered to go under a low bridge and passengers had to stay off the upper deck.

Just one week after our cruise central Europe had heavy rains and devastating flooding in the regions where we had been. The river cruises all had to be cancelled! The water rose to levels exceeding the high water mark from 1954 the worst flooding in the modern era. I am glad that our cruise wasn’t ruined but feel bad for all those places where people lost their lives and the cleanup will take a long time. We saw everything looking almost perfect.

Beautiful Prague

Our European trip of a lifetime is over and the photos are uploaded to dropbox so now how do I put my impressions into words, besides Wow!

I won’t try to write too much but just a little to put some of the images into context. You really need to go see all these wonderful sights for yourselves though.

Our transatlantic flight from Denver took us to Frankfurt Germany then another flight landed us in Prague which has a nice modern airport. A shuttle took us into town to our hotel in the heart of the old town area. We ventured out briefly after arriving took the standard photo of the street and the streetcars then slept for eleven hours. We had two days to roam on our own before the Tauck tour started.

Day two took us around old town and across the famous Charles Bridge and back. It was warm and apparently the first summery day of the season so everyone was out enjoying the weather. The bridge is a pedestrian only one and had swarms of tourists and street artists and musicians.

Day three took us again into old town wandering around some of the side streets and going in shops. If you get off the main tourist streets it can be very quiet and peaceful just a block away. We also had arranged with the concierge for Steve to see a dentist as he had broken off his front tooth cap eating a hard roll. Yikes! The American dentist was very nice and he took care of Steve over his lunch hour. We then ventured across the Vltava River on a different bridge and took a funicular (like a rail road up a hill) to the Petrine Park for a view of the castle and the city. We enjoyed the view from the tower high on the hill then walked down the very steep pathways back down through the wooded park and made it back just in time to dress and go to the opening reception for the tour held in the ballroom of the castle/palace grounds. In the grand dining room we had a formal dinner and were entertained by a string quartet.  It was magical.

Day four we went by tour bus back to the castle grounds to tour with a local guide. She has a PhD in microbiology and had been a researcher in the communist era stuck in a lab but now loves her job taking people on tours and telling them the history of her city. In the afternoon we took another tour of a communism museum and learned about the Velvet Revolution in 1989 when the Berlin wall fell and the communist countries of Eastern Europe gained their freedom.

The next morning we climbed onto tour buses leaving Prague for Regensburg, Germany where we toured the old town for an afternoon before boarding the Swiss Sapphire to start the river cruise portion of the trip.

 

Elmo and soccer ball themed second birthday

Our granddaughter is enthralled with soccer balls and the Elmo character from Sesame Street so that became the theme for her second birthday. We traveled to Kansas with our dog for the big event and just had a great time. The party was great fun and Callie was the only kid as two little friends were unable to make it. Since it was mostly all family the decorating and food prep was delegated out and Kristin with her morning sickness didn’t have to worry about it. 

The night before the birthday I made chocolate Elmo cupcakes with Callie and she dove into the batter with her hands and plastered her face up good. She also stood on a step stool and stirred and even held the electric mixer with help. Two is such a cute age with all the words that she knows now and her making her desires well known. ha ha. She also has lots of hugs and kisses to give out these days even to Penelope who is not always sure she wants them.

Auntie Em came all the way from North Carolina and it was wonderful to spend time with her as well. Kristin’s mom and sister picked her up at the airport in Wichita and brought her with them to Salina. Her dad and I drove her back on Sunday.

The  two year old did a pretty good job of opening all her presents with the bribery of the skittles candies that she got from Kristin’s youngest sister Auntie Boo (Alex.) She got lots of soccer ball stuff including a soccer ball potty chair and a little soccer ball stool to sit on. She got an easel for using dry erase markers that was an instant hit. Her big gift from mommy and daddy was a pink tricycle with flashy streamers on the handlebars. She also got a helmet and already knows to always wear it while riding the bike. I saw her tip over and smash her face on the pavement and pop right up because the helmet took the blow so it has already proved itself to me.

Riding the bike is already a favorite past time and despite still learning how to pedal she pushes around on it pretty well and gets going pretty fast at times. On Sunday we were able to Skype with the Ovrebos and the cousins showed each other their bikes. Mav has a Honda strider, a two wheeler that he can propel along with his feet. It was cute to see them interact a bit via ipad technology. It will be fun to get them together out west this summer.

The last couple days of our trip the high temperatures were in the mid eighties so we got to enjoy summer for a bit before returning back to another huge 12 inch snowstorm. We took Callie and Sneebie to the park to play and fed the ducks. The last day we went to a great regional zoo just west of Salina and spend several hours there and then Kristin and Phil met us out there for lunch. We will have a lot of great memories from this trip.

There was an unofficial black and white (referee) craze going on with some of the adults at the birthday party that you might see in the photos. A blow up Elmo made and appearance too. At the zoo Callie wore her sunglasses and sun hat. In the photo where she is being held by her dad and looking over a railing she is looking at the big carp like goldfish in the next picture. She was a little fearful of going into some of the barns where the animals were kept and didn’t want to get close to the big rhinos. She crawled through a tunnel built for kids to get closer to a raccoon type enclosure and she squatted to watch some other kids come out. She is getting to be quite a big girl now.