Kos, Greece

This past Wednesday we left for our last hurrah, a relaxing vacation in the Greek Isles.  We chose the island Kos, mainly because Ryan Air had tickets for $150 for all five of us.  Not each - total.  First we had to drive to Frankfurt though, as our flight left early Thursday morning.  We stayed in a cute little town that we didn't get to see because we got in late and left early.

This trip was intended to be a beach vacation for the kids as a reward for dragging them all over Europe.  We booked a nice hotel that had a couple pools and what looked like a great kids program.  When we arrived we found out that the property had been sold to a different company that catered to couples over 40 which was disappointing.  It was a beautiful resort though and the kids hit the pool right away.  We had dinner at the resort that first night and afterwards the kids put on a 'show' for us at the resort's amphitheater.

Dinner at the Resort

Adriatic Sea

The Night's Entertainment

Our reservation included breakfast and the resort provided a huge breakfast buffet, with eggs, bacon, pasties, fruit, etc.  What we did on this trip was entirely up to the kids so right after we hit the pool.  The main pool is what is called an Infinity pool, built so that it looks like it drops off right into the sea.  The kids hopped around the different pools, played in the kids playground area and had a great time while Mom and Dad relaxed in the sun.

View from the room

Infinity pool

A little later in the day we decided to check out the beach, which to our disappointment was not sandy.  It was pretty rocky so instead of the kids building sandcastles we took a short walk.  We spent quite a bit of time skipping stones and saw some wildlife along the way as well.

Resort Grounds

Random Goat

Having fun on the beach

That night we drove into town for dinner.  We had dinner at a place along the water - the food was fine but really no different than what you'd find at a Greek restaurant in the States.  We followed dinner with a stroll around Kos Town.

The next morning a storm rolled in after breakfast.  The pictures don't really do it justice, but it was actually quite beautiful.  While the rain poured outside we spent some time in the game room playing air hockey and ping pong.

Storm Rolling In

Resort Game Room

That afternoon we headed back to Kos Town to check out some ancient ruins.  Kos has been inhabited since the 11 century BC.  Due to it's location it was an important military outpost and trade center.  The ancient town was very sophisticated and had many buildings - unfortunately most were destroyed by earthquakes.  The ruins are still there, with placards describing what each pile of rubble used to be.

Behind Lydia is an incredible mosiac floor

Apparently the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, grew up and studied in Kos. One of the main sights in Kos Town is the Tree of Hippocrates, under which he used to teach his students. The current tree is only around 500 years old, but is most likely a descendant of the tree under which Hippocrates taught.

Tree of Hippocrates

 
That night we ate at another sort of generic Greek restaurant off of one of the town squares. We wandered the streets afterward, got some dessert and let the kids play at a park before we went home.

Kos Town

Saturday we spent the whole day at the pool just relaxing and having fun. The kids started a craft hosted by the hotel near the kids area. Elise and Haaken (Carissa) did mosaics while Lydia did some painting. That night we asked for a recommendation for a place to eat from a hotel worker. They directed us to a great Greek Tavern with some much better, less generic, traditional Greek food.  It probably should be noted that Kos has a real problem with cats.  We counted over 30 stray cats round trip (about 20 minutes) to the restaurant and back.  Bob Barker would not be pleased

Sunday was our last day and we had been throwing around the idea of taking a ferry to Bodrum, Turkey (only 25 min away). We let the kids make the call and they decided they wanted one more day at the pool. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and we all had a great time relaxing. That evening we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

Water Aerobics

Chillin'

Monday we spent the whole day travelling back to Graf.  Unfortunately we now have to get serious about packing up - only one month until we return home.

The Koch's Visit Graf

The Koch's came for a quick visit this past weekend - probably spent more time in the car (7 hours each way) than they did at our house.  They arrived late Friday night so we pretty much put the kids to bed, spent a little time chatting and then hit the hay ourselves.  Saturday we drove down to Regensburg because I didn't think they had spent enough time in the car.  We went to all the usual spots.  That night we made tacos at the request of our kids.  The kids kept busy putting together a puppet show that we were treated to that night.  Dan and I stayed up that night, well I did anyway.  Dan fell asleep while I was talking to him.

Lunch on the Danube

View from the bridge

David and Goliath (16th century)

Gelato stop

Outside the cathedral

Puppet show

The audience is riveted

 

Haaken and Abbey's turn

Sunday we got up and Dan and I did a little shopping at the grocery store.  Prices at their grocery store in Switzerland are about 4 times what we pay here so he stocked up on some staples and bought some American food they can't get in Lausanne.  Afterwards we went to a festival the town was having in our neighborhood.  The kids got their faces painted, made crafts and had some treats.  After a couple hours there and some lunch the Koch's had to get on the road back home.

Passau, Germany

Saturday we decided on a day trip to Passau, Germany.  It was supposed to rain all day but we are running out of weekends so we went anyway.  It rained most of the 2 hour drive there, but when we got out of the car it was overcast but not raining.  We didn't have a plan or a guidebook, jut the recommendation of friends in Graf that it was a cool city and had an incredible church.

We parked right on the edge of the old town and began wandering toward what felt like the center.  The cobblestone streets were narrow and there were little shops to browse in along the way.  We stopped at a cute little church built right into the row of stores. 

After checking that out wandered further into the city and came upon St. Stephen's Cathedral, the church everyone had been telling us about.  St. Stephen's claim to fame is it's organ, which for many years was the largest in the world, and currently is second only to one in LA.  The organ have almost 18,000 pipes and unfortunately when we arrived an organ concert was just about finished and the doors were shut.  Once the concert ended we were able to get in and admire the baroque interior. 

St. Stephen's

2nd Largest Organ in the World (can't see all the pipes in this pic)

Altar

Follwing the church we decided to try and find the Tourist Information office since we had no idea what other sights we should see.  We found it but it turned out not to be very informational so we just kept walking away from our car.  Eventually we came upon a park with a playground just as the sun came out.  Passau is located at the intersection of three rivers, the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz.  This park was basically at that intersection so while the kids played Carissa and I admired the view.

Hilltop Fortress

Passau Rathaus

The Inn

Intersection of the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz

We decided it was time to find some food so we walked along the river until we found what looked like an area with restaurants.  Apparently there was some sort of festival going on because there was some live music, kids activities and better than average street performers - a group of unicyclers doing tricks and a bunch of people walking on stilts.

We ate at a German version of Noodles and Company and then decided to find some gelato.  We were walking through a really busy area, Carissa and the girls up ahead of Haaken and I.  Carissa had stopped at a big intersection in the pedestrian zone and as Haaken and I caught up to her I noticed her scanning the crowd, presumably for one of the girls.  Once I reached her she asked if I had seen Lydia, which I hadn't so I joined her in her search.  A couple minutes passed and there was no sign of Lydia.  I ran down the street we had come down and Carissa tried another.  Still no sign and we were starting to panic.  What seemed like 10 minutes was probably only a few and by now we were running around, down streets and in and out of stores yelling for Lydia.  People probably thought we were nuts.  Finally one of us spotted a flash of pink down the original street we came down and I ran down to find Lydia walked toward me with an elderly woman.  Apparently she had walked all the way back to the restaurant looking for us, started to cry and thankfully this woman spoke English and was able to calm her down and look for us together.  Hand holding was required for the rest of the day.

Crisis averted we found some gelato and ended our day playing at another park we'd seen from a distance.