Quist World Tour

Doing what they do best: electronics of any form. A seven hour drive from Paris to Singen , Germany made up the most of our day. I can’t tell you much about the first hour or so, since I slept through that part of the drive. I can, however, tell you more about our rest area experiences. When I started this blog, I had no idea that it would turn into a serial harangue on public restrooms in Europe . After all, I’ve been to Europe before, I know the public bathrooms are not plentiful or free, and I’m over it. But driving gives it a whole new dimension. So when we started in France a few days earlier, I mentioned the porcelain pit toilet that we encountered. I said it was possibly worse than the automatic flushing toilet for those toilet-training children. I had no idea it could be even worse. On the way out of France , we stopped again. This time, we were looking for a picnic table and were happy to find one with a bathroom nearby. Little did we know. Again, the modern pit toil...

Snow yesterday, sunshine streaming in this morning. After a perfect breakfast--eggs, the European assortment of rolls, ham and cheese, granola, yogurt, mmm mmm, we waddled our way out to the car for the quick drive to Plitvice Lakes National Park. I have to tell you, this is something I've been looking forward to since the day I saw pictures on the park website, and the snow yesterday had me wondering if this was going to be a complete dud stop on our trip. No dud here. This park is gorgeous, and it's perfect for a family who has had a lot of city for a while. Sixteen lakes make their way from a high level of water to a low level of water, cascading and falling through forest and moss covered rocks. So lovely. We spent about 6 hours wandering around lake after lake, following paths constructed of thin wood planks. It felt like a fairyland, or maybe something out of Lord of the Rings . Add to that a boat ride across one of the lakes, numerous opportunities to stop for coffee or...