The ramblings of a woman,
wife, & mother, who loves:
Jesus / my man / the three,
learning about parenting /
mamahood / childbirth,
cooking foods healthy /
international / yummy,
pretending to garden /
write / design,
attempting to run /
exercise / lift weights,
enjoying traveling /
camping / adventures,
finding ways to love /
serve / sacrifice for others.

It is not to say she does these things
with style or grace, or even skill.

A Few of My Favorite Memories

Wed Aug 4 07:05:00 CDT 2010 - Wed Aug 4 07:05:00 CDT 2010

* In Salzburg, Austria, we ate dinner at an Italian Pizzeria, served by a waiter from India who was cooking himself curry in the kitchen.  His curry smelled amazing and I tried twice to convince him to share some of his dinner with me, but he refused to offer me any the first time and the second time said if I came back another time he would.  We did enjoy eating their pizza (Miriam ate a record 5 slices!) in a beautiful outdoor courtyard where the kids learned what second hand smoke was really like.  It had never occured to me that in their short lives, they've lived in areas where smoking is not allowed in most/all public areas.

Courtyard

* Home and residence of Mozart, and with three universities, one of which being the Mozarteum University, music is everywhere in Salzburg.  We walked around the Old Town and were drawn into a coffee shop area where a man was playing the accordian and a woman was playing the harp.  It was beautiful.  Walking around Mirabell Palace we were drawn in by the most amazing music wafting down to us from a beautiful gold leaf covered hall and concert above in the palace.  Walking around the Domplatz every collonade or archway had amazingly skilled musicians using the architectural acoustics to enhance their sound.  (They even waited their turn for their favorite spot in case it was being used by another musician at the time.)

* We walked up Linzer Grasse and saw a Swarovski store.  The sight of the Swarovski swan always fills me with emotion.  The day before marrying Josh, his mom brought me a beautiful Swarovski tiara she owned to wear for my wedding day.  Joy for my wedding day, happiness for her kindness, sadness that she is no longer with us, but I am truly filled with emotions from the simple sight of their swan.

* As we walked around the Old Town area with all its storefronts we could not help but think how much Josh's dad and step mom would love this area.  As we ate amazing German food I couldn't help but want my dad to try it off my plate.  As we walked the Mirabell Palace and Gardens we couldn't help but want G-Bob & G-Elaine to see the beautiful gardens.  As we sat eating breakfast outside a cafe, I couldn't help thinking about how much the older women walking past reminded me of my Grandmas, Great Aunts and Great Grandma, both in appearance and mannerisms (lots of German blood in my family!).

* Josh had been using his high school German skills as much as he could on our weekend trip and to help him remember he got a translator app for his iPhone.  When it came to ordering from a menu he would use his translator to help me order but he would just pick something at random for himself.  He always got food doing it this way, but what type of food was the surprise.  When we were having Sunday breakfast at Cafe Habakuk, he ordered something that way and ended up with a soft boiled egg in a martini glass.  Hahahahaha!

breakfast

* But I finally received a "large" coffee at Cafe Habakuk which was the same size of a small US coffee. 

* In Strakonice, Zeke watched 4 motorcycles popping wheelies driving down the motorway while he was sitting and eating.  He loudly proclaimed, "That's the most awesome thing I've ever seen in my whole life!"  Standing close to a $400,000 Ferrari was probably second.  Being passed on the Autobahn by the Porsche Cayenne going 130mph being 3rd.  All the countless expensive & incredibly fast German cars he saw being 4th.  Zeke's fast lane nature hit the top four seen-with-his-own-eyes highlights of his short life in our two week trip to Europe.  Lucky boy!  Look at that excitement!

Excitement!

* It was inbetween the above picture and below that the outside temperature spiked and we were walking around in the gardens in the hot, hot, hot sun.  It was beautiful, but painfully HOT.  Josh and I were managing, Max and Miriam were sticky but Zeke was definitely overheated.  By the time we were walking up to visit St. Peter's Cemetery Zeke started feeling a little worse but was still a good sport.  He hung in there even though he was tired and would simply sit in shade and drink water while we explored around him.  He did make himself climb up into a 1100 AD cave/church carved into the mountainside (they call it a catacombs, but I think that name is semi-misleading as there are no graves up there, there are two small church rooms, and the tale about it being a hiding place for a marytr that has been discredited over time, though monks have used it for a place of solace... but I digress) because he thought it looked cool, but he had to rest longer in order to have enough strength to climb back down the steep stairs.  In the process, while we were waiting for Zeke, Josh took one of his all time favorite photos of Miriam.

Fast girl!

NEXT STORY...

Happy Little Girl in Me

Tue Aug 3 00:16:00 CDT 2010 - Tue Aug 3 00:16:00 CDT 2010

Yes, I am one of those.  One of those who as a little girl, every year, watched The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews, falling in love with the entire story more and more every time.  It wasn't until later in life ("thanks" to the invention of the internet) that I learned the movie was only minorly true.  *sigh*  But that hasn't stopped me from loving the movie!

For those who don't remember, the Von Trapp family lived in Salzburg and for the movie, they filmed on location throughout Salzburg.  While there are a number of fabulous paid tours you can go on for both actual Von Trapp locations and/or movie locations, the little girl in me was happy to see anything related to the Von Trapps... that was within walking distance and that didn't cost any money. 

Here's the best movie clip I could find, pardon the remix (and I could not embed it due to copyright so you'll have to go to YouTube to watch it).  From 4 minutes till the end, all the scenes are of Julie and the kids dancing around the Mirabell Palace and Gardens which was located right behind our hotel, is free to the public, endless, beautiful and we played here for hours!

The Mirabell Palace & Gardens are a beautiful maze of an exquisitly designed garden masterpiece.  As soon as you begin to marvel at one section you turn the corner to find another beautiful section, and then you turn the corner to another.  The attention to detail in colors and flowers, the beautiful sculptures, the Hedge Theatre, the park, the water features, it is truly a garden lover's paradise!  (I thought of you, G-Bob & G-Elaine, the entire time I was snapping photos!  More photos here. :)!)

details

trying to capture it all

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pegasus

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hedge


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family

The Cramer 5 in the Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg, Austria on an incredibly hot and sweaty day.  If you happen to notice the look on Zeke's face, it is the onslaught of heat stroke, we just didn't know it yet.

NEXT STORY...

Not your Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

Sun Aug 1 22:00:00 CDT 2010 - Sun Aug 1 22:00:00 CDT 2010

We didn't finalize any of our Cramer 5 weekend plans for after camp until the last night of camp.  I had been looking for hotels rooms in Munich for the last two months, but finding one room for 5 was non-existent* and we would have to get 2 rooms for our 1 family, so I gave up.  Thankfully, the night before leaving Josh and his internet skillz came to the rescue!  He found an available hotel room in Salzburg, for a price we expected, and located in the center of town.  We flipped around our travel plans and decided to go to Salzburg first and Munich second.  (I am so glad we did!)

It wasn't until after he had booked the room that I thought to ask if it was ok for 5.  Josh said he didn't know either because they only had room for 2 kids so he just left it blank, but he did know it was located across the street from Mozart's Residence, :)!

It wasn't until we pulled up to the square that we began to realize that we would be staying in more than just a hotel, we were going to be staying in elegance... with our cutie Three.

Photo Credit http://www.bristol-salzburg.at/

Josh had booked us into the 5-Star Hotel Bristol.  Originally built in 1619 for aristocrat offices, it was transformed into a hotel just before 1900.  Don't let the age of the building fool you.  For over 75 years, the family owned and operated Hotel Bristol has done everything possible to make their hotel worthy of 5-Stars.  The interiors from the lobby to the room are ridiculously elegant and in wonderful condition, only to be outdone by the most amazingly attentive and dedicated staff.

Photo Credit http://www.bristol-salzburg.at/

When Josh was checked into our room, the receptionist was incredibly nice and helpful, spoke perfect English though was obviously Austrian, escorted him upstairs to the room, made sure it was to his approval, then escorted him downstairs to the doorman who came to our car and carried our luggage up to the room.

Now, the Three and I had waited in the car because we were planning on Josh checking in quick so we could continue our drive up into the mountains.  By the time we were driving away from the hotel we were truly wondering what we had gotten our family into.  We've stayed in fancy hotels before but not with the Three and not this style of elegance.  As we drove along the river we saw other hotels and considered switching, but our bags we there, so we decided to go for it and fit our family of 5 into a romantic room for 2.

When we got back to the hotel (and being in Salzburg and all) I instituted Von Trapp Family Law.  With our partially wet Three, quietly and on mission, we marched our family in single file line into the hotel, up the grand hotel staircase and straight into our room.

Did I mention our room had two sets of doors?

Room 100

The hotel was booked but it was incredibly quiet and we never heard a single person or the loud street noise below.  Our first order of business was cleaning up the Three so we could go to dinner.  The marble covered bathroom was half as big as the bedroom and it was dreamy.  The bathtub was long and deep begging to be soaked in, and was made complete with a towel warmer on the wall. 

It got christened by the Three needing a foot scrub.

cleaning the three 

Out of respect and uncertainty, we continued to leave and enter the hotel in a quiet, single file line for the remainder of our stay.  When we returned to our room late, after a fun night on the city, our room somehow looked different.  It was the kids who first said, "Someone was in here!"  The curtains had all been drawn, the cover on the bed was removed and the duvets were turned down, foot mats were in place next to each side of the bed, and they even cleaned up the smudges the kids left on the mirrors of the bathtub... the room was cleaned for the second time and now ready for the perfect sleep.  Wonderful.

The below shots were taken just minutes before we finally checked out.  I attempted to make the bed for the shots, but did not do the hotel staff justice.  (See anything different in one of them? HA!) 

Our Room

Our Room

bathroom

Did I mention the location was perfect, too?  It was the perfect location for exploring Salzburg's Old City.  We could take the secret Bristol Passage to the amazing Mirabell Palace and Gardens, or take a short cut past the beautiful baroque Church of the Holy Trinity to walk the Linzer Gasse, or walk over the river and see so much more.

It could have been that the night prior we were staying at a communist era built camp or it could have been that the 5-Star Hotel Bristol is just ALL THAT.  My money is on the later.  It was an absolutely beautiful hotel with the most amazing staff.  Even though we broke a "rule" by having 5 in a 2, there was nothing I would change about our decision to stay there as a family for one night.  Everything about it was simply perfect!

*Ok, there is a hostel in Munich that sleeps 6, but the cost is expensive enough to the point that if you're going to spend that much you might as well try and find a deal on two rooms for a nicer place kind of thing.  But everytime I'd think about having to get two rooms for our family of 5, I couldn't help but think how silly that sounded! :)!


NEXT STORY...

Measurement is the only similarity.

Sat Jul 31 10:00:00 CDT 2010 - Sat Jul 31 10:00:00 CDT 2010

When we were initially deciding where to travel/drive after English Camp, we used references like: Camp to Salzburg is like Davenport to Ames, or Salzburg to Munich is like Iowa City to Des Moines. 

But, OH, how the view was different!

Horizon

Shortly after entering Austria (for reals this time) our horizon became filled with shadows of what was to come.  Similar to that feeling you get when you are driving through the plains before reaching the Rocky Mountains, their presence carried the most amazing anticipation and excitement.  With the foothills of the Alps drawing us to them, it was impossible to want to stop and walk around the picturesque little Austrian villages I was so looking forward to see.  I did look and admire each one along the way to Salzburg though!  They were adorable, clean and not industrialized, filled with cute concrete cottages with tile roofs, and the most beautiful gardens covering every yard!  But sadly, the best photo I took of them was this...

Drive By

We arrived to the bustling city of Salzburg, waved "hi" to Mozart's home as Josh quickly checked into our fancy hotel (more on that later), and then we got right back on the road and kept on driving up the valley.  On this absolutely picture perfect day, we simply had to go as high into the mountains as we could.

We're not in Iowa

We were driving along the beautiful Salzach River, located between two mountain ranges and known for its white water rafting.  While the mountains in this area don't top out higher than around 9K, the view from the valley to mountain top was good enough for us Iowa folk.  The water of the river is a mesmerizing aqua blue and the road we were driving on hugged and criss-crossed back and forth over this beautiful water.  We got to a National Park at the top and then turned around.  And once again, we found ourselves crossing a border and not realizing it until AFTER we were headed back down the river.  (Tricky, tricky, Germany!) 

Yes, we did not end up hiking up in the mountains because the aqua blue water was too much for the Three and they HAD to go in it.  We found a little off road, a lightly overgrown footpath, a family of locals and we were there.

Beautiful

And within our literal first two minutes there, Max had pinned down this...

pinned

Water Snake

Thankfully, we convinced him to let it go, phew! 

We played here forever and I think the Three will remember this as their favorite place in all of Salzburg.  They LOVED playing in the aqua blue water, walking along the rocks, pinning the water snake, and the only thing missing was us allowing them to get their clothes completely soaked, though they tried really hard to get as wet as possible.

wet

They simply did not fully understand the fanciness of the hotel we were soon going to be sneaking them into.

NEXT STORY...

Wait... Are we in Germany or Austria?

Fri Jul 30 00:10:00 CDT 2010 - Fri Jul 30 00:10:00 CDT 2010

English Camp ended around 11am on Saturday and at that point the Cramer 5 began our own little 2 day adventure alone.  We were planning to drive to Salzburg, Austria then Munich, Germany.  Within moments of getting into the car, leaving camp and driving along the beautiful countryside roads, I was completely and totally and utterly... r e l a x e d. 

countryside

Once again / ask my husband, that is always an amazing feat, but incredibly true.  Even Josh driving the windy, hilly, Bohemian countryside, I was completely r e l a x e d.  English Camp is TONS of non-stop fun that I can't wait to do again, but I think everyone would agree it is nice... that first moment of silence after camp is over, similar only to the *sigh* right before you fall asleep at night after an amazing day.  Being in the car, our three kids happy in their car seats, Josh driving wonderfully, a picture perfect day, no agenda, nothing to do but sit... *sigh* 

I was so r e l a x e d we drove right through a border crossing and didn't realize until 30 miles later that we had crossed a border.  After a quick search on the internet, we learned that it didn't matter anymore since Czech is in the EU and thanks to Schengen border rules.  (Phew!)  I was so r e l a x e d I thought we were in an entirely different country than we were.

Our first big, planned stop we programmed into TomTom Europe was specifically for our kids...

mcd's

Yeppers, for their first meal after camp we let them eat at McDonald's!  Our kids were super champs with the camp food so we happily let them have this as their reward!  (I don't think we've eaten at McDonald's in over 4 years, whenever it was we saw Super Size Me.)  I did have a bite of Zeke's Big-n-Tasty, and I must say, it tasted like a real hamburger.  We heard this was because Europe has different standards on the quality of food in fast food joints, but whatever the case, it was surprisingly decent.  From a McDonald's?  Who knew!  Except for the fact that they only took cash, it was definitely a meal and surroundings that the kids recognized from "home" and really enjoyed!

bikes and beer

Josh and I didn't have our celebratory meal at McDonald's, instead The Wirtshaus Beirgarten was where we ate our lunch.  We had our stomachs set on eating some delicious local food and me drinking local wine and beer.  Since we were unsure if other European countries had the same drinking rules that Czech has and since I wasn't authorized to drive our rental car, I got to do all the drinking, :)!  

(The city was absolutely covered in cyclists of all shapes and sizes and kinds, from the 65 year old decked out in gear from head to toe to the hippy-esque carrying their home on their bike.  Everyone parked their bikes, unlocked, around the city, and right in front of this beer garden.)

beer garden

Maybe it was because we are novice foodies, maybe it was because we were hungry, maybe because of camp mystery meat, maybe because of the restaurant itself, whatever the case... With each bite we took of our food, we sighed the most happiest sigh, we yummed the happiest yums, we marveled how everything tasted so, so good it literally melted in our mouths.

dana's

salad

I about cried when I ate this salad, I was SO happy to eat a salad.  If you know me at all you know how much I love, love, love eating salads, and OH how I loved this salad.  The dressing was different but delicious!  The veggies were normal veggies but they were veggies(!) and they were green, red and orange!  SO colorful!  OH, how I had missed color!

josh's

yum

beer

We knew we were in a city named Passau and this was their local brew.  It was delicious!  It's interesting how in the states the local brews are more common to be hit or miss.  As we would find in our travels around Europe, the local brews were always amazing.  Once I had this beer I started to question exactly what country we were actually in... I thought we were in Austria, isn't that south of Czech?  But maybe we were in Germany.

bff

Once back in the car, I looked up on TomTom where exactly we were and it turned out we were NOT in Austria as I had been thinking (since the border crossing!) but we were actually in Germany.  Doh!  Obviously before leaving I hadn't looked at the map close enough to see the little jut in part of Germany.  In my defense, TomTom Europe did NOT have dark/obvious border lines on their maps.  They are this light gray, lighter than the below Google map.  Just saying!  (Oh, and if I could put this photo in quotes to prove my point, I would, :)!  But see, see how I could have been confused?)

google map

http://www.locationaustria.at/en/river_and_lake_transport.aspx

When I realized we had been in Germany the whole time, I was SO happy!  See, the short little jaunt we did make into Germany, where I thought it was Austria, I was very bummed.  I have always had these very picturesque visions of Austrian villages.  Every little village we had driven through thus far was not like that at all, there was tons of advertising on buildings, lots of modern buildings, very industrialized.  Once I figured out that what I thought was Austria was Germany, I was tickled pink!  I had not missed seeing the cute little Austrian villages, we just hadn't gotten to them yet, hooray!

NEXT STORY...

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Begin Our Adventures of Fall/Winter 2012 to CA, MN, CO
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