Innsbruck Austria

We flew into Munich, Germany Sunday morning and then drove South into the Alps to Innsbruck, Austria. It was a gorgeous, sunny day to enjoy the views and walk around the city, nestled at the base of a mountain. Walking through the city, I really for the first time felt like I was in Europe...you know, the romantic European atmosphere portrayed in movies with the cobblestone streets, outdoor cafes, etc..

It felt really wrong to me, to enjoy our first meal in Austria at an Italian restaurant. But the kids really wanted pizza, and the name of the restaurant was "Mama Mia's." We had a cheese pizza, a calzone and a salad....and it was delicious!

 Sean enjoying his dark German beer.

Alexa enjoying her foamy hot "kakao".

Afternoon in London

Since last Sunday we were flying out of the London Stanted airport for our European vacation, we drove down towards London and caught a train into London for the afternoon.  The first thing we saw when we left the train station was the Clock Tower that holds Big Ben, part of the House of Parliament.

Then we wandered over to the London Eye, and were happy to have our Merlin Passes with us so we could skip the ticket line and ride for "free".  The London Eye is a gigantic ferris wheel that has enclosed glass capsules for people to stand in.

We grabbed some food and then went to the Aquarium, another place included on our Merlin Passes.  The aquarium was a very dark place, so not many of my pictures came out good.  We had a great time there, especially seeing the sharks, turtles, sting rays, and penguins.

Later, we rode a very crowded subway and then a train back to our hotel...early to bed so we could get up early for our Germany flight!  Many more sites to see in London, so we'll have to return.

We're back in Derby!

Last night we made it home from a whirlwind tour of Austria & Italy, and we're so happy to be home.  We saw lots of beautiful places and things, but it was quite an exhausting week so it feels so good to be home in our own beds in a country where we understand the language.  As you can see, I've become a collector of postcards.  Some are for me, as I hope to make a postcard book of all the places we visit, but there are many more that I bought to send away.  So we have our work cut out for us!

Over the course of this week I'll be blogging about our adventures, so stay tuned. The kids are off from school this week, we're looking forward to a schedule-free week.

Are you all right?

"Are you all right?" That's how people greet each other here...it's still pretty funny to me.  If some one were to greet me with those words in the States, I would think...."do I not look alright? Do I look like something is wrong?"  But here, it's the equivalent of "how are you?"  I'm still not able to say it the english way.

I'll never forget a conversation that we had with a family that we met at church.  They invited us over for coffee and we were talking about how we were lucky that we moved to England and not some other country where we don't know the language..."Avery at least speaks English."  Our friend said..."well eventually he will."  And we all just laughed.  There are definitely some language differences...so much so that I say that we speak "American" not "English."  Here's a list of a few that I've encountered.

"Sort it Out" = "figure it out" in American.
Going out for "coffee" = Going out for "tea" usually, coffee if you prefer
"Tea" = Dinner
"Dinner" = Lunch
"Pudding" = Dessert, not matter what the kind, cookies, cakes, custard, icecream
"Sweets" = Candy, most children have never heard of candy
"Cheers" = Thanks
Doing something "in anger" = Doing something excessively or repeatedly
"Trousers" = pants
"Pants" = underwear....THIS IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW
"Trainers" = sneakers
"Car Park" = parking lot
"Torch" = flashlight...love that one...it's like before batteries were invented!
"Dual Carriageway" = 4-lane highway, though we don't see too many carriages anymore
"Quid" = like a "buck" but for the British pound
"Half Five" = 5:30 and the same goes for the other half hours of the day
"Hire" = rent
"Garden" = yard
"bangers" = sausage, we've heard that they are called this because sausages used to have too much fat in them so when you would cook them they would explode!
"surgery" = doctors office
"petrol" = gas
"squash" = concentrated juice
"lorrie" = 18-wheeler truck
"boot" = the trunk of your car
"bonnet" = the hood of your car
"wind screen" = windshield of your car
"trolley" = shopping cart

So now you've all had a little "English" lesson!

My new friend

I decided that while I'm here for 2 years, it might be fun to learn to play an instrument...how about the guitar?  So I had my first guitar lesson Friday afternoon, and it went really well.  Yesterday we ventured out into Derby to buy a new guitar.  Here she is...

Just kidding....this is the second guitar I bought today, but it's a birthday present for one of the little boys that lives on our street.  Below is the beauty that Sean found in the store.  It's a Fender T-bucket 400CE Flame and it has a really pretty finish and some nice detailed designs that make it unique. Isn't she pretty?

I spent a great deal of time practicing my 3 chords today, especially this evening after the kids went to bed.  I even found an old church anthem that uses those 3 chords primarily...so I even got to sing and play at the same time.  Ok, so the song was really slow and didn't flow at all, but I had a blast!  (The song was "Mercy Came a Runnin'....for all you Praise Band folks).  So far, I love it...except for the fact that my left hand fingers feel like their going to bleed any minute, it really hurts to type!  Wish me luck everyone, I'm sure it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Spider Season

One of the great things about the part of England we live in is that there are no mosquitos, very few bugs in general, compared to at home.  Houses don't even have screens on the windows here.  But the downside on the "bug" front is that there are a lot of Spiders in England.....maybe there's a connection there?  There are quite a variety of spiders, but a particularly large one exists here that I've never seen at home.  It's about 2 inches in diameter, including it's leg span.  "Oh, that's no bigger than our Daddy Long Legs," you say.  But these spiders have thicker legs, which makes a difference to me for some reason.  They are much more visible, and yes, they make me jump. 

So Fall is Spider season here in England....when the spiders like to come into your house, just to make your life a little more exciting.  The preventative that is used here is called the "conker", which is a horse chestnut.  They say that if you put a couple of these in the corners of each room, it helps to keep the spiders away.  We'll see....I have a friend that has a Conker tree near her house and she invited me over to pick a big bowlful. 

OK, so I must admit, I've had a few spider nightmares.  One night, I dreamed that there was a huge spider descending onto me from the ceiling over my bed. But, I do believe that the light fixture in my room had something to do with that...what do you think? Does it resemble anything scary?

Legoland

Sorry, I haven't written in a while.  We just spent our last week without phone and internet service...that was fun!  I'm so glad to be connected again!

Last weekend we took the kids to Legoland.  When we first found out that we might be coming to England, one of the first things we did was show the kids what they might see in England...and the place that excited them the most was Legoland.  Friday night, we drove down to Windsor, which is about 2 and a half hours away.  We then got up early and went to breakfast at the McDonalds just outside Windsor Castle (which I will definitely have to come back to see).  Then we were off to Legoland.

It was a wonderful day.  The whole park is set up for 3-10 year olds.  So all the kids could ride everything.  We started our day at the Atantis submarine ride which is their newest ride at Legoland.  We got to go in a Lego submarine with windows on the bottom to see sharks, stingrays and fish up close.

 The kids also earned their "Drivers Licenses" by driving through a small traffic school course.  It was fun watching the kids drive on the left side of the road, and going around roundabouts.  Too cute.

The children were all really brave and went on some larger rides this time, including the Dragon rollercoaster and the Pirates Falls log flume ride.  We had to buy the picture because the visible fear on the kids faces was priceless.  They all walked away thrilled, despite their momentary terror.