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1.  That Sammy Hagar included the Taft Theater here in Cincinnati on his tour schedule

2.  For safety glasses and big hammers

3.  That it now only takes us 7 hours of travel to meet up with the Violettes somewhere in between us

4.  That God gave us a beautiful snow to top off a wonderful Thanksgiving spent in Hoisington

Also, after going through all the pictures we took while family visited and visiting family, I finally have them all sorted out.  I'll try to keep this short so here's the list:

This was truly an experience of a lifetime.  Our family was absolutely blessed to have this time together.  We hope you enjoyed our trip blog.

Below is a brief statistical summary of the trip.

We could tell we were entering Italy as the landscape and architecture style changed.  Our first destination was Florence where we had a Tuscan cooking class scheduled.  This time we took the class together while Chef Barbara's mother took care of Bastian and Mathias.  It was another fantastic experience and our first time making pasta from scratch.  The roads in and out of Florence are incredibly narrow but the Wohnmobil came through without injury.

The next few days were spent sightseeing in Florence.  We could have spent another week there.  We found a campsite on a hill overlooking the city and only a short bus ride to the center.  Florence holds many famous exhibits, including Michelangelo's David, but of course we could not take any pictures in the galleries.  At least we got some great pictures of the architecture and a few good night shots.

From Florence we daytripped to Siena.  Another beautiful Tuscan city with narrow streets, great architecture, and huge plazas.  We took the small roads through the Chianti wine region on our way back to Florence.  Although we still prefer Bordeaux wines, Tuscany has much more beautiful landscape and you can't go wrong with a good Chianti Classico.  We enjoyed dinner on a vine covered terrace overlooking some of this beautiful landscape.

On our way out of Tuscany we visited Pisa to see the Torre Pendente (leaning tower).  It really looks like it should fall over.  It is in a complex called the Campo dei Miracoli (field of miracles) along with the Duomo (cathedral) and Baptistry.  Actually all of the buildings there are leaning but none so famously as the tower.  In 1993 the top of this 179 foot tower was 17 feet from vertical.  Recent work corrected the lean by 14 inches and allowed the tower to reopen in 2001.

On our way to Andorra (a small country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain) we spent a  night in Foix, France, at a campsite right on a small lake.  There were many fields of sunflowers in that area.  The next day we drove into Andorra and found a nice campsite right near the city center of Encamp, Andorra.  Andorra is popular for mountain trails and hiking and Jen picked a wonderful 5k hike for us which we finished at a tunnel through the rock at about 2500 meters elevation.  By the end of the hike we were ready for the boys to carry us for a while.

From Andorra we traveled northeast out of the Pyrenees mountains and toward the sea to the Provence region of France.  We stayed in a city called Aix en Provence where Jen was scheduled to take a cooking class.  The Provence cooking class was an incredible experience for Jen and the grounds of the chalet where Chef Marc lived and taught the class were as wonderful as the food.  While Jen was taking the class the boys did some sightseeing.

From Aix en Provence we traveled to the Côte d'Azur and spent some quality time on the beach in the French Riviera in a town called Saint Raphael, close to Saint Tropez.  With bad weather in northern France and cool temperatures and wind around Bordeaux we were ready for some sun, and sun we got.  We didn't see a cloud in at least a week.  Since Bordeaux, we had been flying by the seat of our pants and were worried about finding a campsite in the Riviera without a reservation.  Well, I guess God thought we needed some good sun time also so he helped us find a perfect place with a great view overlooking the sea.  Joe got a great night shot of the moon reflecting off of the sea from our campsite (30 second exposure, ISO 100, F4 at 25mm for you photography nuts).

While in the Riviera we celebrated Bastian's 3rd birthday with a wonderfully decorated campsite in the Cars theme (nice job by Jen preparing for this a couple of months ago).  Bastian was up bright and early ready to open presents so we did a birthday breakfast and had chocolate ice cream for dessert.  The live entertainment was Joe trying to get Bastian's new kite to fly without wind by running around the campsite with it (video to follow later).

We also daytripped to Grasse, France, a small town not far inland from Cannes.  It is famous for its perfume industry.

Next stop is Aquitaine, most famous for the Bordeaux wine region.  Here we stayed at a campground right on the beach on the Archachon Bassin.  While here we daytripped to Bordeaux city.  We also drove through the Medoc red wine region of Bordeaux and visited 2 chateaus.  These chateaus and their surrounding vineyards are simply beautiful.  We learned a lot about Bordeaux wines and tasted a few excellent ones.

Last stop from this area was the Dune du Pyla, the tallest dune in Europe.  It has been formed over the centuries by Atlantic winds and is still growing and moving east by a few meters every year.  It was quite a strange site seeing this huge pile of sand towering over the forest and offering a view for a hundred miles in every direction.  The dune itself is about 2.5 kilometers long, 500 meters wide and 110 meters high.

First was Bayeux, France, home of the 70 meter long Baxeux tapestry which recounts the Norman conquest of England and is more than 900 years old.  Bayeux is also home to an impressive cathedral.

The next day we visited one of the war memorials on top of a hill at Arromanches, France.  This memorial offered a 360° theater with a short film showing contrasting views of D-Day and present day Normandy.  Also from this point we had a nice view of Gold beach and the remains of the artificial Mulberry harbor used to facilitate the landing of 2.5 million men and 0.5 million vehicles during the invasion.

Next we visited the Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha beach, the larger of the two American war cemeteries in the area.  A very somber place.

From there we stopped at the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Memorial.  It is still deeply pitted with old German bunkers and shell craters.  It was crazy windy but the rain finally stopped.

A couple of weekends ago we visited a small town named Remagen.  We believe this is where one of Joe's ancestors, Hubert Joseph Weil, lived back in the late 1800's.  As gravesites are typically reused in Germany after 30-40 years we didn't find Hubert but it was still a cute little town on the Rhine river and worth a visit.  Remagen also holds some historic significance as it had the last standing bridge over the Rhine in WWII.  The bridge survived many attempts to destroy it by the Germans only to finally collapse after the Allies had built a new temporary bridge nearby to use.  For a short history of Remagen visit the Wikipedia site or the official Remagen website.

That same weekend we took a walk to the stadium parking area where they had a huge inflatable playground.  Bastian had a blast jumping around and sliding down the big inflatable slides.

The following week Bastian had a playdate with Hannah, the granddaughter of our friend Gisela.  Joe's colleague Huan and her sister Ming stopped by to visit Bastian and Mathias.  And then, with sadness, we watched our neighbors and good friends pack up and move back to the US.  The boys got some last minute playtime in just before they drove off.  Not to worry as we will be seeing them again soon since we'll be moving back ourselves in a few months.

We also took a few pictures of Bastian enjoying bath time with the rubber ducky and bubbles from Gramma and then cuddling in his new robe.