Word of the Day...

Ehhh I don't have enough time or bandwidth to post pictures(I'd have to transfer them from my SD card to my mom's computer, from there to my iPad, sort through them, and then wait half an hour to upload x.x it'd be so much easier if I had space to keep them all on my iPad...)

ANYWHOO, we've been joking about the "Word of the Day" for about a month now. It's a game my dad made up to try and find a word that's been used by multiple people multiple times that day, and when someone recognizes it, it's the word of the day XD

Ehh, I figured it'd be better than posting nothing, so ill try and post these whenever I find 'em.

Today's word is: graceful - like me when I'm *cough cough* GRACEFULLY  climbed out of the pool... Hehe..

Two days ago's word of the day(month) is: Beer... "Klein Pils, bitte?"  Don't ask lol it's a German thing 

Jesus Tree and the Black Forest

Hiya! We're still in Triberg. My mom and I pretty much spent the whole day driving out in the boonies lol We were trying to find a place to hike that Rick Steves recommended, buuuut that didn't work very well, so we just pulled off at the nearest trail thing and went from there. 

I literally had to straddle between two rocks in the river to take this one XD n00by action photographer FTW!!!

There's a really cool story about this next one. No one really knows how the statue got there, but a sandstone statue of Jesus was hung up on this tree about 100 or more years ago. And over time, the tree just sort of grew around it, making a sort of shell.  But the coolest part is, that's a +300 year old birch tree, and it's the only birch tree in the forest. 

My dad works with a guy who's dad takes care of the tree(he's a carpenter, and grew up watching the tree grow around Jesus. He literally carved out life size replicas in his workshop showing a basic timeline of the growing process. So cool :D) 

Near the base of the Jesus Tree, there's a sign that read something roughly along the lines of " This tree grew around the Jesus statue, and now hides it inside. So, we should be like the tree and hide Him in our hearts, willing to stand alone if need be." Idk, I just though that was really cool :)

Oh, and for a size reference, in ~5' 2", and the top of my head is at the bottom of the large knot(Jesus's head is in the middle of the knot)

 

Tower of Stubbornness (Black Forest)

Hiya! We're in the Black Forest right now, staying at a Best Western in Triberg. The last two times, we stayed at an apartment complex in Schönenwald(5 minutes away). Y'all probably haven't heard of Triberg, but in Germany it's famous for its waterfall being at the highest elevation, and  also for not having a square inch of even land XD if you walk down the streets, you're walking lopsided and uphill...both ways in the snow lol. No seriously, during winter... 

ANYWAY, me and my mom were pretty much just driving around taking pictures today. We saw this tower Tom a distance, and long story short, we made it there. Turns out there's a fancy hotel conveniently there for parking, so *skipping the boring front desk stuff and the 30 sec. hike delayed by-ERMAHGERSH it's a wild strawberry :D*  

They gave us a key at the front desk so we could access the stairs in the tower....only the door was as old as dirt and the key wouldn't turn in the lock. I ended up having to body-slam the door X'D seriously though, don't try that...doors hurt lol

Oh, and we had to climb up and down the 6 flights of stairs

with nothing but my iPad light 'cause we didnt discover the light switch until we left... Sound fun, right? Geez, what I do to take the perfect shots for y'all...

Do y'all see the tall poky thing above the trees??? That's a ski jump...it's like, 50 meters tall O.o

Hohenzellernsche (Prussian castle, first time)

Hohenzollernsche has to be my favorite castle in Germany. The drive was decent and the tour was underpriced for all the stuff we got to see inside. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour (the Swedish family left, but the Prussian family still lives there), so I had to use my mad note-taking skills to try and type up all the details about every room we went into... minecraft obsession lol 

Sorry if they're a bit dark, it was a cloudy day and I had to manually focus everything :P

And @ Syd: remind me to ask about wedding prices in 10 years... Heh, I asked while we were there and the lady looked at me funny XD she said to try again when I'm older lolol

From Beloved Tuscany to Switzy's Backyard

Hey all! We decided last minute not to re-visit Pisa (the trip from Siena to Rena is like 10 hours :P )

BUT I still had time to take a few pics in Siena and the Swiss Alps! 

So without further ado:

(Swiss Alps: we stopped to take photos at the same spot we went to two weeks ago. Ill have to remember to post those sometime...)

When the sun decided to come out for a minute and a half: