Catching up

So it has been a while since my last post. Matter of fact 5 countries ago. 

Luxembourg was an interesting small city I went to the meeting there. Very picturesque city. Very expensive. We didn't spend a lot of time. Wanted to make our way to the country side. The ugliest shoes you have ever seen for 100 euro or 137 US. Anyway went to the meeting and met a very interesting couple with one of the most interesting stories I have ever heard. You think you have heard about everything and then...

Anyway that will be a story for home.

So then Germany. Originally we planned to spend only around 9 days in bavaria. I was thinking that by this time missy would be saying "im tired of being cold and wish I can't wait till warm weather"...

Well I know her... 

Croatia here we come...

Bavaria was mostly cloudy and rained a bit. 

I started back on my running routine in Germany and Austria. 

We had been walking so much in the other cities running wasn't seeming like a priority, not to mention no time with all the sight seeing.

Bavaria was relaxing and incredibly beautiful. Slower pace I felt. Not sure if you ask the family...

The castles we toured were very cool. One really gave the feeling of how dangerous it was to have a kingdom back in those days. Multiple keeps and gates and portculice and moats. A maze of chambers and rooms and the most unreal view. Cannons, 150-200 foot high walls and the swedes still took it in the 1700's at some point. That wasn't very nice. Coolest part was I was able to see a place I or we didn't even plan on. Turns out we are right next to, practically in, Alsace in France. Love their wine and always wanted to come to this part of France. It wasevrything i thought it would be. Water flowing between and through and next to every house and street with flowers everywhere. The very different type of german influenced architecture. Just magnificent.and what a surprise we were able to see a few different villages over a couple days time.

We have seen so many castles at this point that I can't remember the names of half. Of course they are also 23 letters long in a language I don't even pretend to speak.

Neuchwanstein i do remember the name of and is honestly a marvel at where and how it is built but not like the pictures.

I think many times pictures cannot do a place justice and this is a place where the pictures make it more amazing. You cannot stand in a place that gives the entire view of the castle all the pics must be from a plane or some other mountain that is not a part of this tour. So when you get there you are looking up at a part of the castle and never see the view that all the pictures so famously express. This is the inspiration for the sleeping beauty castle at disneyland. Look it up...

In any case the boys, needless to say, are over the castle tour thing by now. 

So on to Dachau and then finishing the Nazi regime tour with the eagles nest.

It is a sureal thing to be running down the street and encounter elderly that you know where somehow involved in the war. How?

Which side?

Some wear it on their face. Hard expressions and not quick to smile by any means.

Reading the book I picked up at Dachau on the "final solution" has been a huge eye opener about many things. 

People, hatred, peer pressure, fear of man...

World War II in general. WOW.

but being here surrounded by all the people that lived and suvived (some barely) this atrocity has really got my head spinning.

Is the guy riding his bike down the street one of the 85% or so of Nazi perpetrators that walked away after committing these horrific acts? Never to answer for his crimes. Is the old lady working in her yard one of those that was starving to death when her camp was liberated and just escaped the gas chamber and then when she thought that she could trust the soldiers that "rescued" her they raped her and then when she tried to return to her house that was given to a German family they tell her to beat it?

The after of what these poor people went through was almost worse than the camps themselves.

No wonder there are people with Major trust issues.

Really has opened my eyes to why people become the way they do...

I think this book or one like it should be required reading by all.

Not grapes of wrath or some other book that half the kids are struggling to get through anyway.

A story about something that affects the thinking of people and how each one may deal with treatment of others.

Something to think abou anyway.

Well enough of the deep stuff.

We visited Salzburg and I loooooovvvvveeeddd this city. Birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and we discovered this exact spot while sitting in tiny bar that was in a 700 year old building with a restaurant (for 300 years) above it. Magical. We watched an outdoor symphony performing Vivaldi while my oldest ordered his own beer. Peering up and around I felt I would return to this place for sure.

We meandered out of salzburg as the sun bowed out of sight and navigated the twists and turns of this place in awe around every turn. This town is as cool as the coolest I have ever visited. I.. Rome, Paris, NYC, Venice, Stockholm, etc.

On to the next spot for 5 nights. We realize that lake bled is in between our last spot and Porec. Hmmmm. This means more car time and it hasnt been bad at all, easy drives, but we realize Bled is a day visit instead of back tracking and this frees up 2 days. Incredible spot but for us a day trip, or stop.

Swam and received an education on Gondola or boat drivers that has a 600 year history that includes our captains family. Very interesting and exciting for us, probably not for him, hes working.

Croatia. Sun and fun.

Got the kids some goggles and they are swimming away and finding every kind of creature. They even caught a squid and another one inked them...

Did a little sight seeing on some pre roman towns. That's old...

Swam some more and visited some great cafes and some wonderful hospitable restaurants.

The people love giving you things on the house.

We have been told several times how mannered our kids are... Who would have guessed. OK. Maybe they are why we are getting the "on the house" treatments.

At any rate this trip has been paramount for our relationship in general and I think they feel it as well.

So off the Adriatic and we visit an amazing creation and wonder. Plitvice falls.

Now this is the example of pictures don't do it justice. The entire time we want to swim in this crystal clear Jade colored water, but you can't. Not anywhere in this park.

So anyway we visit this and figure lets head a different way back and see what we run accross.

We start for a bit and then realize that we don't want to be finding a place in the dark so we figure we will try a Zimmer. Always wanted to do this thing where you just stay with a couple, or in this case a single elderly woman who when I woke up this morning I felt like I was at my Grandmothers house. Since we are winging it these 2 nights, that is what we try, a Zimmer.

We pull up to one outside this town of Rastoke. Nothing could be as cool as Plitvice but lets see what is out there.

We find this cute old woman Kata who says she has room for us in 2 seperate rooms. Really nice place in the country so we say yes.

Well we decide to go back through the town we passed and eat.

We originally drove over a bridge and rounded a corner and the town seemed average, nothing special.

Then comes the discovery that I feel is half the thrill of traveling.

Not trying to find a place that someone else loved because they found, which may or may not be as cool to you but discovering places that become what this place has to us. I have found many times where we waste half a day or more trying to find this incredible tour or whatever that was reccomended and by the time you do it is a let down.

It may have been cool to the other person because tey were all relaxed and then stumbled on it and thought "this is great". Well now you aren't relaxed and you think that quite frankly it stinks....

Anyway back to Rastoke.

We go back to town and instead of taking the same bridge I see a sign that points down to a different road. Same place though... Huh...

So this sign looks like more of a historic sign.

What the heck.

So we drive not even 30 seconds there is a river that we can probably swim in like we all wanted.

Then what catches our attention is the waterfalls. Almost more than the park we just visited. Seriously?

Then we see that these falls have houses built over them.

It seriously, no exaggeration, looks totally fake.

No way does anyone live there... They do.

So long story short we find end up walking through this little village withh our mouths dragging and finding a restaurant that mekes the blue lagoon restaurant at Disneyland seem like a Taco Bell in a mall compared to this place.

We eat an amazing meal surrounded by the noise of the waterfalls and discuss the Croatian, Serbian war witht the waiter. Very interesting to be in a place that you remember seeing on the news in your lifetime. Seeing houses everywhere in this area riddled with bullet holes and seeing roofs that were never repaired after being hit by a mortar. Some of these places are still lived in and some just abandoned. Strange feeling. Well we are going to look into horses and rafts today and decided to stay another night. 

Over and out from Rastoke Croatia...

Discovery... Written on the 23rd and never posted

I wrote this a couple weeks ago but never posted and thought it really fitting after this experience being so fresh from where I am now and how we got here.

I have realized what makes travel great is one thing for me...DISCOVERY

what makes a place great is what made Abbey road a great album or zeppelin's first album it was the whole album. 

What makes these places great is not one or two places its the whole place. 

With that said I have noticed that sometimes a person might say "you have to go here" 

Then you spend hours of time hunting for (missing busses, taking wrong turns) this place and by the time you get there you are a little irritated, not relaxed and the mood of what made it great for someone else isn't there. Finding a place yourself when you are in a fantastic moment is what makes it great and maybe not the same way for someone else.

Like that time we waste countless hours looking for the sewer tour in Paris (Annika) by the time we got there we were ready to commit harry carrie and the tour was well.... It was a tour of POO.

Things of interest... OR NOT?

So I had a few things that I found interesting from my experience so far...

First off I never hear anyone talk about any part of Holland or Netherlands than Amsterdam.

Cool city yes but we liked a placed called Leiden even more (birth place of Rembrandt my favorite impressionist). The coolest part about holland in general is that their bike trail system is better than any toad system I have ever seen. Well at least just as good. Anyway you can see below a garage of bikes in Leiden and you will notice that Everyone is on their bike... 

The Grimes on bikes in Amsterdam well that was interesting. Missy not so confident. She takes around 3 minutes to cross an intersection and can't figure why every corner is a near death experience. At one point I felt bad and thoughe maybe I should wait and cross with her... I almost got hit... She's on her own...

Also funny ordering a coffee and seeing a Joint menu... 

I rented a scooter in Leiden, awesommmmeeee

So next we hit Bruges or Brugge as they also say here

The home of the french fry which got it's name from the confused american soldiers in WW1 who thought the guys from Belgium (who spoke French) were French. When they were giving them friets, the American soldiers nicknamed them "French Fries". I wondered if the name was robbed from the French instead of given to them how that may have been different?

Well I really think the Fry has been perfected just about everywhere else in the world. I wouldn't say they have the corner on the market here...

Now with that said the waffle and the Trappist beers... OH MY!!!

Around 1000 beer producers only 6 of which are Trappist here in Belgium.

A little hype around that, there are many wonderful and small producers doing a great job.

Fun hunting them down, like collecting basball cards I guess.

Or for people that collect pins at Disneyland. Very similar.

Had that it was ok, that one was amazing, that was awful.... Etc

The other thing not so great actually bit of a dissapointment by my taste were the Moules or mussels. 

I think other places are way better. 

Missy could tell you recipe wise why but We both agreed.... Ahhh not so great.

The other thing I have found interesting is Luxembourg.

Always just pictured a big city.

In reality a beautiful vast country of forrests, streams, villages, farmlands with cows and big castles, ruins, you know all the sexy parts of a European place.

We havent even been to Luxembourg city yet.

Don't want to leave this beautiful part of the country.

We are off to meeting tonight in the city tonight so lets see.

Oh yeah ran into 2 sisters in a village yesterday out in service.

That was awesome.

Ran into these cute old German hikers yesterday also that were laughing about the slugs that we were intrigued by (amazing colors here) cutting with scissors when they find them in their garden. Of course we did not know this by the language because they didn't speak English but I regognized garden and the word scizza or something like that, and the scissor action with her finger...

Poor slugs...

Included a funny picture of a kid who was helping me with directions in holland and then he missed his bus...

So we chased it on the scooter and he ended up directing me to my spot as well...

He doesn't seem

Bothered by the fact that I am driving a scooter with one hand, in an area I have never been, and using the other hand to take a selfie... I like these people.

Funny everyone over here thinks California is the center of the universe...

Man, we are in trouble people!!!!

Update from the country of Luxembourg...

Well i just posted a couple things I wrote a while ago but couldnt get posted for one reason or another.

Anyway we are in Luxembourg. Not at all what I expected and VERY pleasantly surprised at what an amazing place this is. After spending time hitting city sights, must sees and attempting to taste every belgian beer ever brewed I was tired. I was able to finish off the Trappist list. 10 total I had had only 5. 6 Belgian, 2 Holland, 1 Austria, 1 US. Westvleteren basically unavailable unless you call 2 months in advance and go through a whole mess of rigamaroe. Well they say it is the best in the world. Is it cause most people will never taste it??? Well I certainly don't know how you could say that with everyone having different tastes and all. Imagine that. But it was good. Many of the beers I was fortunate enough to taste I probably never will again. Included pics below. Notice ridiculous prices some fetch. Enough beer geeking.  In any case I also met an old inactive brother. 30 years plus to be exact. Long story short I went out with him and his brother who is a brother and had a great time but had a wonderful opportunity to get him thinking....

Was a wonderful experience for myself and him. 

In any event we stayed up late talking a couple nights and so the break here in the country is very relaxing and different than the usual city scene that often happens with abroad travel.

At least for myslf there are places it seems are "must sees" which can tend to be tiring.

So we got here yesterday after meeting up with michael, annika, Jarmo and eila again in Brussels. We were together previously in Bruges together. So we were able to check out Brussels and then continue on to Luxembourg. We have not been anxious to hurry off to another city after the few we have visited thus far so enjoyed hiking these ancient trails where we pictured soldiers wielding swords and chain mail armour as they travelled from one village to another. Also saw a killer castle. Equipped with your state of the art twelfth century dungeon and torture chamber... EEKS, looked painful.

Well the family is having a great time.

Oh yeah and Missy sleeping on the floor...

I was mugged held against my will, tortured and after let loose from my captors.... I ran to the aid of my wife.

Actually I had no idea while I was wandering lost through the streets of Bruges that I even had the darn thing and by the time I realized it and saw the all on the floor waiting for me....

YIKES!!!

Seriously though i have had time to really laugh and visit with my family. My kids are hysterical and wife is amazing. What a family I have. 

CIAO FOR NOW. Gonna get back to my gripping book about the real story of the mutiny on the bounty...

LOVE YOU ALL

For the record...

By the way missy is at grimesabroadpart2.blogspot.com her blog is way better than mine but I thought it would be interesting to hear the other view and times possibly the "rest of the story" At times I'm certain I will be defending myself and then it will be the "real story".

Last trip I never read her blog till a year later at home when I compiled it into a book.

So this go round since I know she is writing about me.... WELL I am a helpless innocent poor guy who needs to defend myself.

Brocksarock1.blogspot.com

Landed...

So we are landed and settled in. All went pretty smooth, just had to wait for a shuttle at the Airport to go get our car. We met a kid who loved the F word. Missy said "maybe it's not a bad word here in Holland"? Hold on I need to eat my zalm (salmon on toast)...

WOW! It was insane... Ok so i'm back.

I keep catching sight of this smiley gent at the table next to us looking at his computer and smiling away. I started thinking, "maybe heA's smiling cause he just had a beer now he is having a glass of wine (10:20 am) so I think... Yeah that sounds great so here is my Affligem blonde That was calling my name. After all I have been waiting 3 years to enjoy a brew in this country once again....well folks we are of to see the tulip fields of the Netherlands. I included the photo where my eyes rolled to the back of my head after my first sip of beer in a foreign place with my family.  Is there anything that compares? In a week and a half the boys can have their own...

By the way missy is at grimesabroadpart2.blogspot.com

Brocksarock1.blogspot.com

Packed and Ready….

So, we are packed and ready to roll tomorrow AM to visit family and friends before leaving.
I am soooooo ready.
was looking at pictures of the kids from our last trip. WOW what a difference 3 years makes.
where did the time go?

The kids wanted one last day to hang out with their friends and frankly I needed the time to wrap up work projects. I haven't been this caught up in years, literally. Feels good. Forced me to get some things done that were on the back burner or just taking forever.

All good and see you all soon.
Will miss you all...