Easter Vacation

For Easter vacation we visited my brother in Brussels, who turned 45! It was really nice to have my parents there as well.

We did not do much in Brussels except visited the Africa Museum. Imagine one part ethnography, and one part natural history museum that did not discuss Belgian colonial rule in Congo. That pretty much sums it up. Mark found it quite boring, especially all the stuffed animals (I have to agree with him). Of course Victoria liked all the stuffed animals...

After this all of us drove south to France, and spent three days in the Champagne wine region. We stayed in a peaceful village house that we rented from a proprietor. We explored the wine region, visited Moet & Chandon wine cellars, and bought some bubbly stuff from our proprietor.

We finished our trip by spending three days northeast of Paris in a charming Bed&Breakfast. We promised the kids a day at Parc Asterix (the French answer to Disneyland). However, there were some strings attached. We had to visit six cathedrals, two churches and one ruined abbey during this trip!! Also, the kids were prepared by us about the various architecture styles from Romanesque to High Gothic, and Adrianne even had made worksheets for each to fill out at each cathedral. Amazingly they now know stuff that we just learned when preparing for this trip (e.g. what a transept is, or a choir etc.). We even had our binoculars with us to enjoy the gorgeous stained glass windows (some of them 800 years old).

Wine making process sign in French village:

Sunlit aisle in the Reims Cathedral:

Original stained glass window in the Soisson Cathedral:

The splendor of the Noyon Cathedral nave:

Our favorite was the Amiens Cathedral with her 139ft (42.3m) tall nave vaults:

I have more pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bajtaya/EasterVacation#

Skiing in Italy

We spent a wonderful week in San Cristina (Dolomites - Italian Alps) skiing. We had five days of sunshine and two days of snowy whiteout. We came here because of the weather (last year in Austria we had only one sunny day skiing), and were not disappointed. Our appartment had a gorgeous view of the town and surrounding hills (above you can see the panorama view from our appartment).

Victoria took ski lessons all week, while the rest of us explored different runs. We also had an all day ski tour around a group of mountains. It was fun, but too many lift and gondola rides for our taste.

Being Carnival time, the ski school of the town put up a very nice ski show on Fat Tuesday. They turned the main street into a ski run by covering it with snow and then performing stunts. It was fun.

Last day on our way home we stopped in Bolzano, where we visited the famous Ice Mummy (Otzi). He froze on an Alpine mountain pass around 3400BC. It was extremely interesting since all his clothing and tools were remarkably well preseved. Even the leaves placed in bark basket to protect it from the glowing embers he was carrying were preserved. His frozen body was also put on show (not so nice).

Victoria in action:

Mark in action (it was really steep):

Break during our all day ski tour:

Ski show downtown San Cristina:

Christmas In the Serengeti

We spent the Christmas holidays on safari with Adrianne’s parents in Tanzania. It was great fun. At the beginning five days of the trip we hooked up with friends of ours (Rick, Andrea and family) from Vancouver. It was really fun. We saw the “big five” (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Cape Buffalo). Also, we saw the great migration of about 1.5 million Wildebeast in search for fresh pastures. One of the most amazing site was heards of Wildebeast scattered on the vast Serengeti plain as far as the eye could see! It was unbelievable.

We visited four national parks (Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Parks). We also saw a fishing village at Lake Victoria, and visited a Massai village as well. We had an amazing guide, Ephata. We will remember him fondly for years to come.
We were mostly staying in Lodges, but in the Serengeti we slept in tents (think of a big tent each with wooden floor, flush toilet, shower and sink). The weather was nice, although we managed to catch some remnants of the rainy season. The bugs were under control. There were some Tse-Tse flies and mosquitoes in the evening when you were outside. The warmth of the African hospitality was touching. The food was excellent, although the kids got sick (it later turned out to be salmonella) at the very end of the trip.
I have posted some of my pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bajtaya/AfricaSelect#

Ngorongoro Crater view from the comfort of our room:

The vast Serengeti plain with rainfilled sky:
Some wandering Wildebeast:
Serengeti Zebras with scattered wildebeast heards in the back:

Fall in Southern Bavaria

We had some spectacular fall weekends. So we enjoyed an early November trip to Neuschwanenstein and other sites in the area. Here are some shots of southern Bavaria.