Drivers Touring Europe....and Beyond

So this may be one of the last entries until our leave during the deployment.

Luckily today was gorgeous and a beautiful day for skiing! We got to make more than 1 run down the slopes and spent slightly less time in the lodge.

At one point we went all the way up to the Hintertux Glacier to have a look - you could see peaks go on forever and it was gorgeous. Unfortunately it was getting dark by 4:30 so we went back home to rest.
Dinner was a pizza place and delicious.

Sunday was a quick breakfast, walk and drive home. Next vacation....6 months

Thanks to Veterans Day we were given a three day weekend and we decided to go skiing in Austria. Hintertux was the destination we made it down on Thursday night. Friday morning we were up for breakfast and then skiing.

Unfortunately this was the view of the mountain from our hotel - Troppmair in Finkenberg.

When we got up to the mountain after a 15 minute drive it was starting to snow. We thought we could still ski so we bought half day lift tickets and got on the gondola. Our first (and only) run was a white out. We couldn't tell the difference between the ground and sky so we tried to wait it out in the lodge with some hot chocolate.
By 1400 it wasn't any better so we headed up the next gondola and met up with some other people for lunch at the lodge. After eating the visability was only getting worse so we just gave up and went down the mountain.

At the bottom it looked like the gondolas were heading straight into the clouds.

This morning I had in mind to hit the park with the Atomium and Mini-Europe.

We got there at opening time but decided not to go to the top of the Atom. It was built for a worlds fair and you can take an elevator to the top circle. It was advertised as claustrophic and there was a line so we skipped that tour.
Before touring Europe we stopped to have a waffle for breakfast.
Mini-Europe is a collection of 350 miniature models of the most famous sites in Europe. They are 1:25 size and very realistic.
In a about 2 hours we visited.....

Copenhagen, Denmark,

Big Ben and Parliament in London,

The Arc de Triumph in Paris,

a Bull Ring in Spain,

Gondolas in Venice,

the Berlin Wall,

the astronomical clock in Praque,

and I got a better photo of the parthenon than I actually got in Athens.
Brussels is heavy on business as the center of the EU and the NATO headquarters but was still a fun weekend away.

Happy Halloween from Brussels, Belgium.
Brussels is about 6 hours from home so we left Friday night, hit the new PX in Ramstein and the Macaroni Grill. I had trouble reserving a room there so we ended up going to Spangdalem Air Base for the night. We arrived in Brussels by 1230 today and found our place, Hotel Bloom. It was a very modern and nice hotel for only 70 euros per night. It was a 20 minute walk from the center of town and that happened to be down a shopping street

Our first purchase was Belgian chocolate. They are so into their Mannequin Pis that they have him in all different flavored chocolate. They also had chocolate potato chips like Pringles that we had to try.

Grand Place is the center of town with the Town Hall, restaurants and a flower market. We sat here and had one of those famous Belgian Beers. Eventually we wanted to see what the hype was with this little mannequin of a boy peeing so we headed that way.

On the way we passed a The Waffle Factory and got another Belgian Specialty. Our waffles were piled high with strawberries, chocolate and banana. We hit some lace and tapestry shops which are famous in Brussels.

Eventually we came upon a crowd on the street and saw what we had been waiting for....the Mannequin Pis. All the assessments were right - he is disappointing.

This little mannequin had been given over 700 outfits by various countries so I was excited to see what he would be wearing. I was sad to find out it was ....nothing! Because of this we decided to go to the museum in the Kings House to see the outfits on display there. It was hilarious to see the costumes he has worn including an Elvis Pisley suit donated by the US.

After this we headed to the comic strip museum because my beloved Smurfs are from Belgium. As it turned out they didn't play that much of part in the museum.

Tin Tin seems to be famous with the Belgians and the museum went thru the making of comics.

When we finally got to the Smurfs they had a poster with all 100 listed - however no Female Smurf. They also showed a little model of their house, hefty's work out equipment and what I think is Gargumels Cookbook calling for a few Smurfs!

For dinner we had the famous mussels in Brussels at Chez Leon. It is a bit of a touristy place but along the restaurant Row it was the busiest. They crank out tons of pots of steamed mussels.
After all the walking we did today we were exhausted and headed to the beautiful room in Hotel Bloom.

Our last day before the 2 day trek home we spent at the Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Reserve in Nelspruit. The reserve has 30 chimps, all who have lived a heartbreaking life before being rescued.

Our tour started at 1000 which is feeding time for the chimps. This one was just waiting to get his breakfast.

This young male looked like he was doing some serious thinking in the tree.

Then he decided to pose for his glamour shot.

The reserve had three different enclosures so three different communities. This enclosure had a male, female and lots of young chimps. When the dominant male came over for breakfast the female ran up to him and greeted him with a hug.

Because these chimps are usually taken away from their mothers when they are murdered the don't have a parent to spend their youth with. So they end up making close friends with a "sibling". Many of these would walk around with their arms around each other.

The young apes spent most of their time after eating playing and wresting.

At the second enclosure the scene was dominated by a male that had been brain damaged by humans who kept hitting him in the head. He was also taught to suck his thumb and still does it frequently. But because he is brain damaged he doesn't know any better than to run up and down throwing rocks at us and clapping his hands. He had actually bit off part of the finger of our guide in the past.

The next enclosure was what the guide called the real chimps. These are the adults and as soon as we got there a couple of the females got in a fight and the dominant male tried to break it up. Because we were standing so close to the enclosure he also threw huge rocks at us and a large tree branch that got stuck in the fence. We had to move early so no one got hurt.

Luckily for these chimps they were rescued a brought to a place where they can live out a healthy life. These will never be allowed back in to the wild.

On the way back thru Marloth Park we saw some more zebras and I got to practice my black and white shots again.

Unfortunately our trip is over and we have to start home early in the morning. However we had one more excellent meal of ox tail which is popular in South Africa but actually just a stew. One more night drive did not prove to be very productive for us so we called it an earlier night.