there's no escaping it....

We've got a pretty grand Netherlands-based, Goodwill-like chain over here. The Bis Bis. There are 4 within a short drive and a few weeks back we scouted them all looking for a dining room table. The Dutch love the modern, clean lines of IKEA furniture. Even expensive furniture showrooms are stocked with more expensive IKEAesque items. The result, the Bis Bis are filled with older furniture for pennies.

For example:
Our dining room table and 4 chairs (solid dark wood, with two leaves that pop up to comfortably seat 6 if not 8) -- 85euro

old secretary desks -- 60euro

old phone desks (for those of you in the know, like the one grandma and popo always kept in the kitchen in NC) 35euro

whole wall china cabinets 175euro

original singer sewing tables 50euro

AND, they'll deliver (although we have recently met neighbors with a pick up truck).

The Bis Bis has become our favorite place to wander, even though as of yet we've only bought the table and chairs. We went back today to pick up a fan [it's hot here this week] and a beer pilsner or two and unfortunately got skunked on both those counts, but 'twas still a fun outing, EXCEPT for the fact that while shopping we had to listen to most of Michael Jackson's Bad CD.

so, like I said in the title -- there's just no escaping it.

Mill Day....

Once a year, all of the old-fashioned German Windmills are open to the public. There are 5 or 6 in our county, so on Muhle day, which happened to be one of the most beautiful days we've had all year, we took to our bikes, met up with some friends, and made a windmill circuit.

We started in Breberen; continued on to Waldfeucht, got lost so skipped Kirchoven and ended up inHaaren

Total, we cyclced 32km (about 20miles) and were gone about 6 hours. One mill had a grill set up where we could refuel on Brots and Kartoffelsalat and another had Kuche and Kaffee for sale. C started out on his trail-a-bike and did just fine until it was time start home from Haaren. He'd had a lot of sun, and his allergies were bothering him, so he and B took naps on the way home in the pull-behind kid cart, affectionately known in our house as "the cave". However, said cave was behind my bike, not daddy's, since daddy's better with C on the trail-a-bike. Lemme tell you pulling 20lb of kid is a lot different than pulling 70lb of kid, especially up hill!

Mills in this region typically ground grain, rather than moving water the way we learned of windmills back in elementary school. The Haaren mill is actually a working mill and a local farmer buys the milled flour to mix in with his feed. I really can't believe they let the public into the mills - it was crowded, the spaces were cramped, and no safety barricades between the visitors and the milling mechanisms, not to mention the ladder-steep stairs we had to climb to get up the mills. Our friends had an 18month old with them, so between theirs and ours, the mommas spent a lot of time holding collars to be sure curious little minds didn't get a little to close to the spinning gears.

All in all good fun, one of the cooler "local" things we've done, and we'll definitely put next year's "Mill Day" on our calendar!

Raindrops on Roses.....

Stunning mountain views, excellent (if cheesy) city tours, kid-friendly biergartens, street vendors, castles with waterguns, playgrounds, and famous gazebos ..... just a few of my favorite things about Salzburg.

The hills were most definitely alive. This was the view from our apartment balcony, not a bad way to enjoy a morning coffee or an evening glass of wine. Our apartment was just on the city outskirts, about a 10 minute drive from the center of town. Well stocked with enough space for each kiddo to have his own room and an easy walk from a number of food choices, including a biergarten with an awesome playground-- a great place to eat dinner our first night in town and let C burn off some steam from the long car ride.

We spent two full days touring the city and started with the Fraulein Maria Sound of Music Tour. There's no better way to see the city, even dodging raindrops as we were. Early in the travel season, it was only our family, so we essentially had a private tour. 3+ hours biking about 9 miles in total and stopping at all the famous movie sights. Our guide, a Sound of Music devotee and a local university music student (originally from Finland)also pointed out other local sights and was a wealth of information about Salzburg in general. We rode by the gardens and statues and markets the children and Maria explored in their do-re-mi outings; saw the Salzburg concert hall, the Convent, the houses used for filming, and THE "16 going on 17" gazebo. Eldest hung in gamely on a trail-a-bike and even got to take a break at a local playground, while baby just took it all in hugging momma's back strapped into a baby seat.

It rained on us at the end of tour, so we quick changed the kids' clothes and then found a Rick Steve's recommended biergarten for lunch -- great place with lots of space for the boys in a little local neighborhood with the local brew. After lunch it was back to our flat for a nap and then a funiculur ride up to the top of the Salzburg fortress (So we could see the fortress and the view, and so C could ride the crazy, mountain-skirting elevator/train). In another life we'd've caught a conert, up at the top, but with the little ones the ride and walk around was the way to go.

Saturday -- day two-- we started the morning with a self guided walking tour, courtesy of Rick Steves, learning more about the non Sound of Music Salzburg sights. C collected rocks as we walked (it's become a bit of a thing for him to pick up rocks wherever we go. It started this winter in Nurnberg and you know I totally encourage it a) because it keeps him busy, and b) because it reminds me of that awesome scene at then end of With Honors), stopped for icecream more than he should have, and played in the fountains as we poked our heads into churches, cemetaries and old government buildings. After our tour grabbed a quick lunch at a burger shop, strolled the shopping district, and then gave the kiddos a few hours off back at the flat.

For dinner, (after getting C some playground time in a fabulous park ) we grabbed some street food while walking between the main squares (and yes C got yet another ice cream -- I think icecream might be his special travel reward)

There's a parking garage in this mountain, one of the more creative ways I've seen to preserve a city's natural landscape. So cool, I had to take a number of pictures of it.

The next AM, we loaded up the car and headed on our way, C waving g'bye to the mountains as we passed them, when it finally dawned on him, "Mommy, there's snow up there."

The actual SOM mountains were filmed across the German border in Bavaria, to get the "green" look the director wanted, but the mountains surrounding Salzburg were gorgeous. We didn't make it to Eagle's Nest (one of Hitler's compounds just across the German border, known for the road Hitler had built to connect it to the town below, and didn't get into the Bavaria region at all, but as we still want to hit Munich and Garmish, we'll be back!

Planning a European vacation..... go to Salzburg!
(here's a cool link to good fun in the Antwerp train station a few months back. Although Salzburg natives claim to have never actually seen the Sound Of Music, at least some Europeans have!)

I'm Humored....

New posts coming soon on Salzburg and our mega cycle Windmill Adventure, but in the meantime, I gave someone directions to my house this AM and they humored me. WARNING: don't drive across the field! :-)

Make your first left after the church, onto a road that has no name, but there's a white sign that says "Baustellen Ausfart" (You'll pass the church on your right and then a bus stop on your left after the church. The road you turn on is after the bus stop on your left and across the street from a little wishing well type thing.) It looks like kind of like you're on a farm road. Keep going to the end. Turn right when you dead end into the horse pen. (IOW, don't keep driving across the field). Make your next right and that's my road.

Ahhhhhhh, village life (in a world that I don't think has ever considered zoning laws)