How wonderful to wake up looking out at the Austrian mountains!  We wandered down to breakfast.  Our first full day in Salzburg demanded a little housekeeping first – we had a MOUND of dirty laundry to work through.  After breakfast we navigated our way down Moosstrasse to the “Green Clean” laundromat.  Very cool but not cheap.  We’d insisted the kids come along to help, and they quickly found a park down the street where they could play with Wilson and make each other dizzyingly sick on the old-school merry-go-throw-up.  In the laundromat, we met the mother of a sweet family from the States who was in the middle of their OWN summer-long tour of Europe.  Though they were CAMPING.  In their 18-foot RV.  Mom, Dad, and all TWELVE of their kids!  Yikes!  Now THAT’s togetherness.

With clean and folded clothes, we returned to Bloberger Hof, stopping by our Billa grocery store on the way for lunch stuff.  We had lunch on the patio and all turned in for early-afternoon naps.

Into old-town Salzburg for a walk before dinner.  We found a parking garage for the car and strolled through the narrow streets before ending up in the central “platz”, where we spotted our first Sound of Music landmark – the horse fountain shown in “I Have Confidence”.  With photos and the requisite reenactment out of the way, we toddled past Mozart’s birthplace looking for a place for dinner.  With a little luck, LouAnn and I found the exact same café we had loved so much 19 years earlier, and we all settled in for a wonderful Austrian dinner of schnitzel, pretzels, and beer.  (well, ONE of us had all three) The kids tried fancy, local soft drinks that were served in WINE GLASSES, so they thought that was VERY grown-up.  LouAnn and I grinned at each other all evening, soaking in the nostalgia of our 19-year return.

On the way back to the garage we did what we do best – strolling, window-shopping, laughing, and occasionally breaking up two or more bickering children.  Salzburg – unlike the other larger cities we’d been in, was QUIET in the evening; shops closed, no street vendors pressing obligatory trinkets into your hands – it was a peaceful change of pace.

Good morning, Salzburg!

Duty calls.

Let’s see…..what is NORMAL CYCLE in German?

Cool!

Waiting for the wash cycle, we found a park nearby.

Not sure what he’s doing here.

I look like I’m having fun.  The pressure of having a BLOG.

He’s FASCINATED by Ambrose.

Dryers almost done!

EVERYONE folds.  Rule #1 of Parenting.

 

3 out of 5 cooperating.  Actually, that’s not bad for this trip.

LouAnn cooked an awesome lunch back at the Hof.

Sound of Music fountain!

Yeah, she’s pretty excited.

Mozart’s birthplace.

The kids found them some drinks they thought were PURTY fancy.

We fell in LOVE with Almdudler, an Austrian soda.

Schnitzel and weissbier at Humboldt’s!

LouAnn dramatically pointing something out.

Salzburg Fortress…

 

 

 

Moving day, this time by car!  With the bitter memory of Van-al-Dente still fresh in my memory, Dave and I made our way early this morning to the Zurich airport to pick up our rental car for the next week.  I got to ride the funicular down the mountain!  (hands-up, how many of you had to Google “funicular”?)  LouAnn stayed at the house and tackled once again the mysterious problem of our shrinking luggage space.  This time the car was much more reasonably-sized, and Dave and I had no problem navigating out of the parking garage without hitting any barriers or people.  We made our way back to the Walls house, and somehow, miraculously, managed to stuff all our stuff into the back of our sporty Opel station wagon.  After lots of hugs from the Walls gang, we were on our way to Salzburg – off like a herd of turtles!  Having successfully followed most of Zurich’s weird traffic laws (in certain cases, you get to turn left in front of oncoming traffic, as they owe YOU the right-of-way?), we hit the highways and motored towards Austria.

Driving through the mountains was gorgeous.  We must have stopped at almost every gas station between Zurich and the border, as I had heard ominous stories about driving in Austria without the required “vignette” sticker on your windshield.  We finally found one just before we hit Austria – we were legal!  You could tell we were all starting to relax as we crossed over from Switzerland into Austria – from strict speed limits to virtually NO speed limits!  So I got to TopGear it a bit on the Austrian Autobahn…..

Rest stops are a bit hard to come by (we miss the ubiquitous Italian “AutoGrills”), but once we hit Austria we stumbled upon the GREATEST REST STOP OF ALL TIME!  The amazing Trofana Tyrol (http://www.trofanatyrol.at)  It is a huge multi-building complex with a restaurant, gas station, two gift shops, a huge, outdoor playground with trampolines and ziplines, waterfalls, amazing mountains in all directions…..we nearly decided to just spend the whole week there.

We somehow pulled ourselves away and rolled into Salzburg about 8:00 that evening.  The Bloberger Hof was even better than we remembered it from our stay there 19 years ago.  It was wonderful and nostalgic as we checked in with Inge – the same owner – and she showed us to our awesome dormer-room apartment, complete with kitchen, plenty of beds, balcony, and beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.  We unpacked and turned in, with the windows open and the cool mountain breeze coming in.  End of a long travel day!

Headed down the funicular, to catch the tram, to go to the airport, to pick up the car.

Goodbye Walls family!

Said car.  Which we would end up having for THREE weeks instead of ONE.

Road-trip picnic.  On the lawn beside a gas station.  CLASSY.

Austria!

Greatest rest-stop in the world!

Driving through the Arlberg Tunnel in Austria, the 4th-longest tunnel in the world at 8.7 miles!

LouAnn’s first apple strudel in Austria!

Trampolines!

And ziplines!

Our first dinner in Austria?  McDonald’s.

At last!  Bloberger Hof!

Our apartment

From our balcony.

 

 

Hello, small but devoted group of Stumbo Adventure followers!  We apologize that we are so woefully behind in posting updates.  Our challenges with wifi here have left us unable to upload photos.   SO….. we’re going to  go ahead and post the last week’s worth of updates, then add the photos later!  Please check back!  Thanks

Swiss weekend!  Even though it was a late night of soccer, we were up early and caught the train to Lucerne.  It is a lovely city on the edge of Lake Lucerne.  Gorgeous baskets of brilliant flowers decorate almost every building.  We wandered around (we sure do a lot of wandering) and found a reasonable Italian lunch spot.  After lunch, more wandering and shopping.  The kids all wanted authentic Swiss Army Knives.  Georgia especially, since she has turned 10 and is therefore old enough to have one, according to Dad’s rule and her brothers’ precedent.

We took an incredible gondola ride up to Pilatus, a gorgeous mountain-top perch and lookout outside Lucerne.  Three connecting gondola rides up the steep mountainside, and we emerged in the clouds, with beautiful views through cloudbreaks.  At risk of overusing the word in this blog, it was simply STUNNING.  Many hikers also choose to CLIMB to the top of Pilatus, some along the defined trail, and others straight up the steeps, as we witnessed.  Wow.  We also witnessed paragliders taking off from the top, beginning their long, winding arcs down to the Lucerne countryside.  It was just so SWISS an experience; the gondola even passed over small herds of cows with the giant bells around their necks.  And as we arrived at the top, we caught a group of Swiss yodelers, in mid-impromptu-concert.  Unfortunately, no whisky-bearing St. Bernards….

After ice creams and hot chocolate at the top we rode back down to Lucerne and caught the train back to Zurich.  After the connecting trams and buses back to the house, we opted for an EASY dinner, so after a quick call to Domino’s, the kids had pizza and the grown-ups geared up for a fancy night OUT.

We left Jack in charge of the kids and drove over to the Dolder, the nicest hotel in Switzerland, with fairy-tale architecture and lots of Porches in the parking garage.  We felt very she-she as we sat out on the front patio and had drinks that you don’t even want to KNOW the prices of.  We sipped our drinks, enjoyed the gorgeous evening, and listened to the quiet roars of the Maseratis and Aston Martins pulling up to the valet.  A perfect ending to four days with our precious friends.

Carson & Georgia – on the train to Lucerne.

Stupid photo-bombing pigeon!

Boarding the gondola up to Pilatus

View from the top

These two hardy souls came up the HARD way!

This are ready-to-go-home faces.

The whole gang!

Aren’t they lovely children?

The incredible Dolder Hotel in Zurich

 

 

 

Friday dawned, take a guess….sunny and beautiful!  Dave stayed home from work to spend the day with us and to be home when Carson returned from the Alps.   The kids really wanted to have an easier day close to home, so we all decided to visit the Zurich Zoo, which is within walking distance of the Walls house.  Cari stayed home so she could get ready for Carson to come home, so the Stumbos, Dave & Cullen walked to zoo!

First stop at the zoo?   Ice cream!  The zoo just opened a new, huge elephant enclosure with a special feature:  A deep pool with below-surface viewing areas where you can see the elephants swimming.  Swimming!   I mean, who’s ever seen an elephant swim in real life?   How cool!   We saw the biggest Asian elephant I’ve ever seen, an old male with huge tusks that almost dragged the ground.  He was exquisite.  We all ran to the underwater viewing area when we saw him head the direction of the pool.  We waited.  And waited.  And tried to coax him with our Texas drawl.  Our excitement at the possibility of Michael Phelpsiphant (any groans here should be pointed in LOUANN’s direction) waned when we quickly realized that to see an elephant swim, you have to have an elephant who actually WANTS to swim.   Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Amazing, huge elephants.  Nooooo swimmers.

It is a wonderful zoo with plenty of interesting animals to see.  Highlights include: the terribly distressed camels braying at the construction equipment destroying a neighboring enclosure, the peacock on the loose, the monkeys LA thought were giant hawks, a huge electric eel that freaked Jack out when he suddenly saw it inches from his peering face….

Another ice cream for the road, and we walked back home to find Carson!!  We were all sure he’d have a full beard from his time in the mountains, but he looked great!  Ellis got to go with Cari to pick him up from school; he was so excited to see him!

The kids were excited to all be together and immediately scurried off to play.

For his welcome home dinner, Cari had planned a good ol’ fashioned Texas cook-out with burgers, brats, baked beans (which are hard to come by in Switzerland) and watermelon.  She had also decorated the backyard for the Swiss vs. France World Cup game.   The dogs had on Swiss bandanas and Swiss flags, napkins, and banners decorated the patio.  After dinner we curled up and watched the World Cup.  Pooooor Switzerland.  They hadn’t beaten a French national team in 22 years, and the streak continued.

Walking back down through the wheat field to the Zurich Zoo.

First of four obligatory penguin shots.

Penguin shot #2!

#3!

#4 was an action shot – penguin feeding!

Stork.  There were high poles all over the zoo with these stork nests on top of them.

Granted, it was from a distance, but this was the monkey that LouAnn mistook for a HAWK.

Amazing elder statesman Asian elephant.

ZERO elephant interest in swimming.

She’s ready for the Switzerland World Cup game that night!

The Zurich Zoo has the most amazing playground.  Europeans, in general, have the right idea about their children playing.  Not as ultra-safety focused as we are, lots of climbing, lots of letting the kids take more risks.

Ellis likes to get to the highest point of anything he’s playing on.

Tarzan Georgia

The zoo had REALLY cool slides

Hmmmm….what next….what next…..  Georgia’s thinking SNAKES, Cullen’s thinking ICE CREAM.

G found a snake!

Fondue for dinner!  Well, AFTER dinner.

One of the wonderful slides.  The little girl at :19 had her SLIDIN’ pants on – she went down so fast she nearly catapulted herself over the curves.  Of course, if this slide were at the Fort Worth Zoo, the surface temperature would be 350 degrees.

 

 

Carson’s back from the Alps!

Another beautiful morning in fairlyland.  After breakfast and our by-now-old-hat tram ride down the mountain, we took a ferry boat down the length of Lake Zurich.  We were never quite sure if we were doing things right, e.g., buying the right ticket, getting on the right ferry, sitting in the right 2^nd class spot on the boat; always a bit nervous about the strict Swiss rules.  (sort your garbage and recycling incorrectly?  FINE!)

On that note….. Switzerland is a very interesting place, and full of rules.  It’s an incredibly efficient and well-run country.  The standard of living is very high, almost no poverty, yet taxes are not crazy-high like in Scandanavia, very little crime…..  But it’s almost like a police state.  There are rules against EVERYTHING, and no grace.  As mentioned earlier, forgot to get your bus ticket validated before you boarded?  100-franc fine.  Making too much noise between 11 and 3, the designated “quiet time”?  Get scolded by your neighbors.  The Swiss are playing in the World Cup, and there is a rule in place that crowds are allowed to gather and celebrate after a Swiss victory for EXACTLY TWENTY MINUTES, then they must disband.  (!!!!)  Dave and Cari told of a cocktail party they went to, where the hosts kept the (somewhat) loud music playing after the 10:00pm time when loud music is supposed to be OFF.  The cops came to their house and made them turn down the music.  How did the cops know?  ONE OF THEIR GUESTS CALLED THE COPS ON THE WAY HOME FROM THE PARTY.  Not out of spite, just out of a commonly held commitment that, if someone is breaking the rules, you tell on them.  It’s just HOW IT IS IN SWITZERLAND.  Fascinating.  And we’ve pretty much figured our German by this point – basically, you can just add -en, -fahrt, or -strasse to any word and it makes it German.  e.g., “I’m taking off-en my shirt-en; it’s too hot-fahrt.”

The ferry ride to the other end of the lake was beautiful!  Clear, sunny sky, 70 degrees.  The ferry zigzagged across the lake and stopped at many little perfect Swiss villages along the way with names like Ruschlikon, Thalwil, and Stafa.  We even passed Tina Turner’s estate.  Tina, we found out, has given up her US citizenship and now lives in Zurich.

After more than an hour we got off in Rapperswil, a picturesque town on the opposite end of the lake.  We walked around a bit and found…guess again… ANOTHER sidewalk café, resonably priced (as Zurich goes), and accommodating.  We ate lunch, then climbed up to roam around the appropriately-named Schloss Rapperswil (Rapperswil Castle), the identifying landmark of the town.  It was built around 1220 and sits high on a hill overlooking the lake.   The kids found a large sidewalk chess setup, and Jack & Ellis quickly launched a heated game.  Their equally-matched “Rapperswil” strategies led to a gut-wrenching draw.  (Actually Dad just DECLARED a draw at an appropriate time-limit)  Georgia could only take so much, and after a while, insisted that she and Cullen get to play a game of checkers before we left.   We are all missing Carson!  He comes home tomorrow.

We decided to save time on the return and take the train back to the house.  It was Stumbo Dinner Night and I made my famous risotto for everyone, Swiss-style.  I think it was well received.  Want the recipe?   http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Risotto-with-Leeks-Shiitake-Mushrooms-and-Truffles-239801

Another perfect evening on the Walls patio.  More jumping on the trampoline.  More visiting outside until dark, sipping Fattoria Maioinchi wine.  More World Cup.

Hopefully getting on the right ferry boat

Hopefully sitting where 2nd Class is supposed to sit.

Heading south, down Lake Zurich

 

Thalwil, one of the many ferry stops we zig-zagged to along the lake.

Approaching Rapperswill…. the castle!

The famous Big Flat Shoe of Rapperswill

ooh.  Stylistic lunch shot.  More prosecco!

Georgia had HAM for lunch.  Can you tell?

This is probably the only photographic capture we have of a move I’ve repeated hundreds of times on this trip.  It’s the, “there’s-someone-coming-down-the-other-side-of-the-sidewalk-so-I’m-going-to-yank-you-back-over-to-this-side-so-you-don’t-force-that-poor-(Italian, Swiss, German, Austrian)-into-the-(street, ditch, canal, stone wall).”

Just a quaint, hillside, Rappwerswillian vineyard…

It was at about this point that I declared a DRAW.

Surprisingly, we had a hard time remembering how to PLAY checkers.

Ben & Jerry’s in Switzerland!

The train back to Zurich.

Put your feet up on a train seat in Switzerland?  FINE!

The kids pretending to like my risotto!

Jack giving Cari her first Facebook lesson.

Our first morning in Zurich, and we slept in a bit, imprisoned by the luxurious king-size bed in Cari’s guest room.  The kids were of course up early, playing games and jumping on the trampoline.  Sweet Cari made us a bonafide American breakfast – Aunt Jemima pancakes and crispy bacon.  LouAnn was in absolute HEAVEN.

Since Dave was working, Cari decided to show us downtown Zurich.  We validated our tram tickets, a very crucial step when enjoying Zurich’s public transportation system.  (get on a tram without validating your ticket?  FINE!  100 Francs!)  We had a beautiful ride down the mountain into town.  We walked around downtown Zurich, which is very old-world metropolitan…

Stopped for a 100-franc lunch (Ugh!) at an upscale department store cafeteria.  I, of course, finished everyone’s meal again.  The high cost of our “meh” lunch was quickly forgotten when Jack discovered “Chewbacca Chairs!”  When scooted across the floor, the cafeteria chairs sounded EXACTLY like Chewbacca.  MADE OUR DAY!  Ah, it’s the little pleasures in life….  Here, listen for yourself!…  

After lunch we walked through old-town Zurich, along quaint streets with names like, “Münstergasse”, “Blaufahnenstrasse”, and “Zwingliplatz”.  We saw the beautiful church housing Charlemagne’s crypt in a creepy basement.  (FYI, Charlemagne’s eldest son was named “Pippin the Hunchback”.  Eventually disinherited by his father in favor of a younger brother, Pippin the HB led an uprising against his dad which was quickly put down.  His father had him TONSURED – just Google it – and exiled him to the monastery of Prüm.  Kinda feel bad for him, but really, how much greatness could he have expected being named Pippin the Hunchback?)  Our stroll led us down to beautiful Lake Zurich, where we fed the seven Swiss swans a swimming.  (and after, of course, a delicious Movenpick ice cream prescribed by one Cullen Walls).  Everyone was thirsty, so we stopped at a beautiful, shady sidewalk café for drinks by the lake.   Really great to just sit and visit and people-watch.  Sitting in the shade, perfect 75 degrees, Lake Zurich and the mountains surrounding us, talking with old friends, and (at least for me) drinking a perfect, cold Weiss bier.  Heaven on earth.

Afterwards, we made our way back up the mountain via tram and a beautiful walk through a wheat field back to the Walls house.  The kids put in some more mileage on the trampoline, and I relaxed.  LouAnn and Cari rode the nearby funicular down the mountain to the grocery store to pick up dinner supplies.  In Zurich, the homes come equipped with tiny fridges & freezers, not at all like the double-door monstrosities we have in the States, so they have to get groceries almost every day, meal by meal.  In addition, the Swiss by law allow no artificial ingredients or preservatives in food that is sold there; a great way to eat, but, you’re also shopping every day.

Cari made a wonderful dinner for us all, and we sat on their patio in the perfect weather and visited and laughed until dark, with the kids jumping and jumping and jumping.  Dave boldly guaranteed a 100-franc bounty to whomever could land a front flip on the trampoline.  Motivation indeed!  And the first one was…………Jack!

We stayed up late watching the World Cup, then fell into bed.

Good morning, Switzerland!

Ummmm….

Stumbo 4 plus Cari and Cullen

Cari made a wonderful tour guide.

Ellis and Cullen discussing the historical merits of Switzerland’s neutrality.

Zurich Opera

Feeding the swans on the shore of Lake Zurich.

Wait for it….wait for it…..Seven SWISS Swans A-Swimming.  You’ll never know how hard I worked to get just seven of them in one frame.  Oh wait, I just told you.

Sipping prosecco by the lake….

Something fascinating on the phone.

Sweet Cullen

We texted this picture to Dave, who was at WORK.

The Walls live just blocks from FIFA’s worldwide headquarters!  We knocked on the door, but they’re all in Brazil right now.

If you WALK from the Tram stop to the Walls Haus instead of hopping on Bus 39, you get to cross through this beautiful wheat field.  We liked walking.

Many city-dwellers with no property will own plots of ground on the edge of town in these garden communities, where they’ll grow flowers and vegetables, and usually build a small shed or cabin.

Sweet Winston – one of their two Golden Retrievers.  He lost a leg last year to cancer, but it doesn’t slow him down!

Dinner on the patio

Jack’s winning form

Up not-too-early to pack up and catch a very reasonably-scheduled 10:50am train.  First train from Venice to Milan, second train from Milan to Zurich.   The competitive jostling for on-train giant-suitcase space is not for the faint-of-heart.  Yet the airline person in me is amazed that there always seems to be enough room, even with some bags stuffed between seats or plainly sitting out in aisles.  That would never fly on an airline!  Ha! Pun!  Made the connection with no problems, and the views out the windows between Milan and Zurich were stunning.  We threaded through the Lake Como district and then Lugano.  Gorgeous lakes whose shores were dotted with picturesque villages – all straight off of a postcard.  What a dramatic and appropriate transition from the Italian countryside portion of our adventure to the mountains; from pasta, pizza, and piazzas to schnitzel, strudel, and strasses.

We were making a 4-day stop in Zurich to visit our dear friends, the Walls family.  David is my longest-time friend.  We lived a block from each other in Topeka, were great friends through elementary and high school, and even went to Northwestern together.  Dave, his wife Cari, and their two boys Carson (11) and Cullen (6, almost 7) lived in Dallas until last year, when Dave got a job managing a fund with a firm in Zurich.  So they up and moved to the land of beautiful lakes and mountains, $10 bottles of water, and VERY STRICT RULES.  Dave works in downtown Zurich, and Cari works for her architectural design firm long-distance.  They were gracious to host us in their beautiful home, and we had a great time with them.

Back to moving day….. We arrived at Zurich’s central station in good shape, bought the right combination of tickets to get us around town, and had dinner at a quick-plate seafood spot in the station.  Our first realization of how expensive it is in Zurich – $120 to feed the family! (a meal that would normally cost about $45) That night I started the compulsive habit of cleaning my own plate and then everyone else’s at every meal, just to ensure I wasn’t wasting a single franc.  I now have to buy all new pants.  After dinner we caught Tram 6 to the Zoo stop, then little Bus 39, which dropped us right in front of The Walls Haus.  What a wonderful wilkommen!  We settled in their beautiful home and caught up with Dave and Cari while the kids played; Carson was on a school trip in the Alps until Friday, which allowed sweet Cullen full attention of the Stumbo kids!  It was about 8:30pm when we arrived, so we didn’t stay up too long.  Moving days are tiring!  It felt so good to be in a home, with friends like family, and dogs to love on.  And good ol’ American pillow-top beds.  Zzzzzzz…..

Last-morning look out the hotel to the Grand Canal.

Last Venetian breakfast!

On the move

This is LouAnn’s FAVORITE store, and we’re running into them EVERYWHERE, even in the Venice train station!

After a brief connection in Milan, on the train to Zurich.

Killin’ time on the train!

Our luggage porter, when he used to be able to carry luggage!

Waltzing in the Zurich train station, waiting for Dad to get all the tram/train tickets sorted out so we can head up the mountain to the Walls Haus.

Outside the Zurich station.  Trying to find Tram #6 towards the zoo!

Made it!  Tram 6!

Zoo stop – now tiny Bus 39 for the five-minute trip to the Walls house.

A proper welcome!  We made it!

Yea good breakfast buffet!  Today we planned a trip to Murano to see the glass.

We hopped on our waterbus to the island, which was quiet and quaint.  When we got there, I led us past the barking glass-blowing carnie that EVERYONE followed – and on to a better tour.   We found a great little glass-blowing demonstration with hardly anyone there.   Really informative and amazing!  The furnace was 1,200 degrees, and the cooling furnace was 500 degrees!  It takes 15-20 years of apprenticeship before one truly masters the craft.  We watched him make a horse and a pitcher.  So cool!  Once the horse was finished, the apprentice held a piece of newspaper up to it and the paper immediately went up in flames!  He then put it in the 500 degree cool-down furnace.   His last demonstration was to blow a huge glass bubble and then explode it on the floor, which made poor Georgia jump out of her shoes.  After that, she was DONE with glass-blowing demonstrations.

Following the demo, it was more of our treasured WANDERING.  We sauntered around the interior of the island, where, again, people actually LIVE.  We even managed to get a bit lost, which, as already mentioned, is rather hard to do on such a small island.  Murano is THE place for souvenirs, so we split up after lunch to do some shopping.  The requisite gelato, a waterbus ride back to Venice, and we were back resting in the hotel rooms by late afternoon.

Our final night in Venice.  We decided to walk into the interior of the island and stumble upon the perfect restaurant.  But we kept walking and walking and the perfect restaurant wouldn’t appear!  We were tired.  Nerves were a bit frazzled; e.g., when the children informed us they would soon DIE if we didn’t feed them.  Finally, in a secluded square, we found a great little place – our last Italian sidewalk cafe.  😦  We had a great dinner and laughed a lot.  We didn’t personify any animals from our chosen dishes, but we DID end up with a squid challenge – Ellis (whose self-proclaimed theme for this summer was “try new things”) finally stepped up and ate a fried cephalopod from his “fritto misto” plate.  And by doing so, earned himself his first Facebook account, so y’all go befriend him!

Goodnight Venice!

From that blob….

Into that horse!

Watching intently….

Now he’s moved on to making a vase.

Even after sitting there a while, that horse was still flamin’ hot.  This was BEFORE it went into the 500-degree “cooling” furnace.

Hmmmm…. this is cool, but we are LOST.  This was right before we navigated into a literal dead end.

Ah yes, there’s the dead end.

This was me trying to subtly point out something with my tongue during lunch.  Now, 18 days later, I have no recollection what it was.

The kids found a place for wall-ball on Murano as well.

Another master glass blower; this man’s apprentices were his two sons.

Lampposts in love.

Waiting for the water bus back to Venice.

Kids on their Venice hotel balcony, taken from OUR Venice hotel balcony.

Headed out in search of one last Venice dinner.

The Venetian girls went WILD for him……

Ellis was pretty sure he could walk across.

Ellis’s squid challenge!

 

 

 

 

Hello, small but devoted group of Stumbo Adventure followers!  We apologize that we are so woefully behind in posting updates.  Our challenges with wifi here have left us unable to upload photos.   SO….. we’re going to  go ahead and post the last week’s worth of updates, then add the photos later!  Please check back!  Thanks