Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Reflecting the Setting Sun (photo by Meredith Stone) Our trip to Süd Tirol feels like a long time ago now--John has left for two trips since we returned from our family trip.  We are getting back into our routines again.  But in my mind’s eye I can still see the light gray Dolomites surging up against the backdrop of a blue sky, green mountains spreading down in the foreground.   Our Approach Road (see first post about Süd Tirol)-photo by Meredith Stone Rittnerhorn Summit (photo by Ralph Stone) We took a few hikes with the children.  The one I most wanted to do turned out to be only the prelude to what became my favorite. We took a cable car to the start of the hike, and then hiked the rest of the way up to the 2260 meter summit.  We had a gorgeous day for this, but it turned out to be steeper than I had thought.  Elisabeth had no trouble.  Henry kept on pretty well but I was quite grateful that he needed to stop and rest as much as he d...

We just returned from a week in Süd Tirol, Italy.  Americans say, “Where?”  Germans say, “Oh, I went there last summer” or “Oh, I grew up going there.”  Or, “Oh, we have been there every year for the last 3 years.  The kids love it.”  So along with all the Germans we went to the German speaking part of Northern Italy. Süd Tirol used to belong to Austria, hence the German.  Everyone said the German would sound different, and sometimes I really noticed the difference, but I don’t speak German well enough to be able to point out the different words.  I think perhaps it is similar to a European noticing a Texan accent.  I might get some flack for that. Our view from Sallrainhof We left Hannover at 4 AM.  By the time the sun rose we were in Bavaria.  We were all quite awake for those three hours, so it was exciting to finally be able to see where we were.  About 6:30 we rounded a bend on the autobahn and the beginnings of a su...