Italy with the Campbells - Venice

On Tuesday, we spent the whole day in Venice.  Our hotel had breakfast, so we took advantage of that and were surprised to find garden gnomes in the breakfast area.  This hotel was quite interesting!  After breakfast, we took a bus into Venice.  Rather than taking a water bus around, we decided to walk through Venice in order to see a bit more of it.

Our first stop was San Marco Square which is probably the most famous area of Venice.  We first went into the church there and got to hear a choir singing for a service they were having.  This church was built in the Byzantine style, so it was much different than any that we had seen previously.  I really liked the marble on the outside.

In San Marco Square, we also checked out the pigeons, found a library, and saw a couple on the way to their wedding.  Brian really liked the 24-hour clock that was on one of the towers in the square.  We then made our way in the direction of Murano and stopped for sandwiches on the way.  Murano is an island that is separate from Venice, but still part of the city.  This island holds all the glass-making industry of the city.  When this first started, they put this whole industry on a separate island to protect the rest of Venice from possible fires. 

We took a water bus over to Murano, saw a store where they show you how they make the glass objects, and then headed into the main street of the island which is lined with different stores selling handmade objects from Murano.  We all ended up buying quite a few souvenirs and gifts from here because it was all so beautiful!

We then took the water bus back to Venice (which was not very fun because of lots of people!) and stopped for a dinner of pasta.  We all got something different and all really enjoyed what we got.  We then walked back to the bus station and made our way back to our hotel and some gelato!

Italy with the Campbells - FN to Venice

We spent 6 days in Italy with the Campbells while they were here, so I'm going to write several blogs about our trip since no one wants to sit and read it all at once.  :)

On Monday, we left FN and drove to Venice with a stop in Trento.  We spent a LOT of time in the car over the week.  We weren't so excited to be in the car by the end of the trip, but here we are at the very beginning.

You'll notice our massive piles of stuff in the background...the car was definitely full!

We drove around the east side of the lake through Austria and into Italy.  It was a beautiful drive through the Alps!  We were so excited about all the mountains, but they just kept coming and getting more and more beautiful!  We started taking a bunch of pictures of what we thought was the most beautiful view, but then the next one was even better, so eventually we gave up.

Besides lots of mountains, there were lots of tunnels.  Since we were driving through the mountains, we were in a valley most of the time, but there were times that we drove straight through mountains.  The longest was over 15 km long!  I don't think I've been through such a long tunnel!

Once we made it through Austria, we entered Italy.  Surprisingly (at least to me), Italy was quite mountainous.  I guess that mountains don't care about country borders, though!  The further we got into Italy, the less mountains there were.

We made a stop in Trento, Italy to meet up with Laura's friend from college and his girlfriend.  She is originally from Italy and he is studying there.  She is currently working in Switzerland, but was in Trento for the Easter weekend.  Once we found a place to park, we eventually made our way to them and had lunch at a great restaurant and were able to get to know Ini and Astrid a bit.  Lunch was good, except for Laura's anchovy pizza!  Yuck!  After lunch, Astrid showed us around Trento.  We walked through the town, got some gelato (yum!), and went under the city to see the old Roman remains.  It was wonderful to have a local tour guide!

 Brian, Ben, Astrid, Ini, and Laura at lunch

Ini, Laura, Ben, Beth, and Brian in front of the Neptune statue

After a break in Trento for several hours, we got back in the car and made our way to Venice.  We stayed in a hotel that was on the mainland and was quite...interesting...  The hotel was clean, so there's not too much we can complain about, but their choice of decor was quite interesting.  Everything was pink and gold and in the breakfast room, there were garden gnomes.  Yeah.  Garden gnomes in a hotel.

We definitely all slept well that night after a busy day of driving.  We were heading into Venice on Tuesday, so we needed some rest.

For more pictures of our whole Italy trip, check out our Share site at http://ponsteinpictures.shutterfly.com/.

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with the Campbells

It is time to get caught up on the blogging!  We have had guests or been on vacation almost non-stop since mid-April, so I am quite behind.  I have about a week until our next guest comes and Brian is currently in Mankato, Minnesota for work so I have a lot of alone time to work on the blog for the rest of the week.  I will only put up a few pictures here, but you can check out our Share site (http://ponsteinpictures.shutterfly.com/) for more pictures of our adventures.  If you'd like to become a member to see when I update the site, let me know and I'll add you.

On May 21, Laura and Ben Campbell arrived in Friedrichshafen to spend almost 2 weeks with us.  This was the first time either of them had been in Germany!  Brian took some vacation time while they were here and it was the Easter holiday, so it was wonderful to have a bit of a break from normal life and be able to spend it with such great friends!

The day they arrived, we hung out in Friedrichshafen since Brian was working and we still had German class.  We did manage to stumble across a market in town and got some yummy ice cream in the evening to celebrate some birthdays back home.

The next day, Brian didn't have to work so we made our way toward Switzerland.  We made a stop at the Hohentwiel Fortress just before leaving Germany since Brian had never been there before.  It was a beautiful day with great views of the surrounding area.  We had a great time exploring and having a picnic lunch in the fortress.  We then headed to Rhein Falls in Switzerland.  This was another first for both of them since neither of them had been in Switzerland before!

On Saturday, we headed to Austria (another first for both of them!) and went to the top of Pfaender.  Brian and Ben climbed the mountain and Laura and I took the cable car.  I think our ride was much more enjoyable!  We had dinner at the top of the mountain and then took our respected ways down the mountain.

Sunday was Easter, so we kind of hung low for the day, but did work on making a snack for church in the evening.  I tried something new which was quite fun to make.  They are called Resurrection Rolls because the marshmallow you put inside the crescent roll disappears and makes the end product look like an empty tomb.  We had quite a lot of fun making them and watching them bake.  Check out our Share site for a movie that Brian took of us watching them bake.

We then spent the next week in Italy which I will write about in future blogs.  The following Monday, we went to Neuschwanstein on their last full day with us.  This is someplace that Laura has always wanted to go, so it was fun to go with her!  I did the castle tour again with them which was fun since it had been a year and a half since I had done it last.

Stay tuned for more about our trip to Italy, our latest visitor, Joel, and our trip to Copenhagen!

Happy Birthday Trent!

Since we were in Copenhagen this past weekend, our birthday post for our nephew, Trent, is a bit late.  Regardless, happy 2nd birthday Trent!!  We had some wonderful cake in Copenhagen with our friends, Holger and Zilla, to celebrate.  We went to a famous cake place in Copenhagen and all tried a different flavor.

Our cake (from left): Black Forest cake, caramel cake, walnut cake, chocolate cake.

Happy Birthday Trent!! -from Uncle Brian & Aunt Beth

Happy Birthday Trent! -from Zilla and Holger

Happy Birthday Kristi!

May 10 was Brian's oldest sister Kristi's birthday!  Happy Birthday Kristi!  Ice cream seems like a better way to celebrate than cake right now, so that's what we did for Kristi's birthday.  Behind us is the Bodensee which is quite beautiful right now.  Brian got strawberry and chocolate ice cream especially for Kristi since she loves strawberry!  I got Snickers because it sounded good.  :)  Happy Birthday Kristi!