Tourist Sites

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.

We made our second effort at scuba today but by the second dive today we both vomited. I am never going to go diving again without dramamine!
The first dive today was the most productive and we saw a large octopus and more eel along with lots of other fish and the tail of a HUGE ray.
The second dive we could barely see anything in the water. A huge sea turtle was about 3 feet from us and we could barely see it. Its kind of scary to be diving in water that has sharks when you can't even see whats right in front of you. But we made it with all of our bits and pieces. In the end we weren't very impressed with Sea Escapes but we would definately go back to Sodwana Bay, hopefully on a clear day.
The next activity was to ride 4-wheelers that Curt was despirate to do. The ride was awesome! The trails were all sand and wide which were easy to navigate.

The sand dunes in the back ground of the photo are the largest living sand dunes in the world.

Here is Curt driving up one of the monster hills.

The guide got cool points from me for stopping to take our photos frequently

Around dinner time Lindsay, the dive master, had invited us to a location good for sundowners. We brought our beers and watched the sun set over a lake with tons of other people.

We went off track tonight and had dinner out at Mi Casa. They had great mixed drinks and pizza. I also liked the sign on the door for the dress code.