We are finally getting close to the end of the school year, which means there was a lot of running around this week!
Two of Ryan’s very good friends were moving at the end of the week, so he filled just about every free minute hanging out with them. Seeing him sad about his departing friends is so tough for us, but that is part of life here. We are so glad he could spend as much time as possible with them, and I know we will see them back on the East Coast one day!
We are in the middle of Spargel season. Spargel is white German asparagus, and it’s white because as the plant grows, the farmers continue to meticulously cover it with soil so it never sees the sun and produces chlorophyll. Because it’s so labor-intensive to grow, the season in Germany is limited to only mid-April through June 14th. We’ve been trying to take advantage of it as much as possible, so Matt and I visited The Boathouse biergarten and got soup on Monday night when both kids were busy.
On Tuesday, the softball team departed for the European Championships in Ramstein, Germany. Wednesday was the first day of games for seeding into the tournament. Stuttgart won the first game of the day, and Matt and I were able to race up after work to catch the second game. It was a great game to watch, with Stuttgart pulling ahead in the final inning, only for their competitors, Kaiserslautern, to win in the final minute. It was a tough, tough loss, but Stuttgart was still in a good position to start the tournament the following day.
The team played first thing in the morning on Thursday against Lakenheath and won. They played their biggest rival, Ramstein, in the evening and sadly lost, meaning they would play for the 3rd place prize on Friday.
Friday was my day off, so I returned to Ramstein to watch the final game against Wiesbaden. The game was so close the whole time, but Stuttgart won in the end, bringing home third place for the second year in a row, a significant improvement from last place for several years prior.
On Friday evening, Matt and I had dinner with some of my coworkers, past and present, at a friend’s house. We had a great evening eating outside on the terrace and catching up.
Saturday, we were departing for our Memorial Day weekend trip. However, our flight did not leave until 6pm. It’s weird for us to take such a late flight if we aren’t working that day, but that was the only flight of the day to Catania, Sicily. We were able to sleep in, clean the house, pack, and not be rushed. I even took a nap in the afternoon. While I missed having the extra half day of vacation, this was definitely a nice change we might repeat in the future.
We left the house at 3pm, dropped the dogs off, and headed to the airport. Our flight left at six, and flying over dinner meant we were starving as we approached Sicily. Unfortunately for us, severe storms meant we had to circle the airport for about 30 minutes before being able to land. I’m so grateful we weren’t diverted elsewhere, but we were starving by the time we landed. We quickly grabbed our bags, picked up the rental car, and made the 30-minute drive to our hotel in Giardini Naxos. When we arrived, we found a full strip of restaurants just across the street. It was about 10pm, but luckily the Italians eat late so all the restaurants were still open. We quickly dumped our bags and headed to one with an empty table and had a great Italian dinner with lots of mozzarella, pizza, pasta, and tiramisu.
When we returned to the room, we opened the balcony to check it out and heard waves crashing outside. This is weird, but we realized we hadn’t heard that sound in so long—since before we moved to Germany, as there really aren’t waves in the Mediterranean. It was so lovely and peaceful! There were only waves on this occasion because of the storm earlier. We left the door open overnight to listen to them.
On Sunday, we gave ourselves a little grace and slept in a little before having breakfast and heading to Mt. Etna in the morning. Mt. Etna is Europe’s largest active volcano. It has been erupting regularly since 2022, with the most recent eruption occurring about two weeks ago. The eruptions are of slow-moving lava, though, so it is relatively safe to visit the volcano and even climb to the rim as long as you are with a guide. We did not start early enough to do the long and arduous hike up to the rim, which also requires a ton of professional gear, so we opted for the cable car, mountain bus, and guided tour around one of the craters.
Although the distance was only a couple of miles, the drive took over an hour as we had to take a steep, winding mountain road up to the Mt. Etna Cable Car. We encountered a couple of buses on the road that were really struggling to get up the steep road; luckily, we were able to get around them.
The weather that morning was really cloudy with intermittent rain, so there was no waiting for the cable car. Lucky for us, the weather started to clear when we arrived.
We took the 15-minute cable car ride and disembarked at the base station. The landscape looked like the moon’s surface: gray and black ground made of lava rocks and almost no vegetation. We almost immediately boarded the next form of transport: the mountain vehicles, which were basically buses built like monster trucks.
A driver drove us another 15 minutes up to the next mountain station. Here, several buses disembarked at once, and we were joined by a guide who would take us on an hour-long hike around some of the craters and to a viewing point of the peak. It was so cold, and the ground was coated in fresh snow. You don’t usually think of snow when you think of volcanoes, so seeing lava rocks and snow together was pretty strange.
A guide took our group of about 40 people on a circular route to an overlook of the Barbagallo Crater, which was formed during the 2002 eruption, and then to a viewpoint of the peak. It was SO cold and SO windy, especially on the ridge between the crater and the mountain. I was afraid to let Ryan stand too close to the edge for fear he’d blow away 😂
We also stopped at a spot with no snow, where the guide explained that this was a “hot spot.” There were visible vents where steam was coming up, and the ground was warm to the touch even though the air was so cold. It was a really cool reminder that this is an active volcano.
After our hike, we took the bus and cable car down, stopping briefly for a focaccia snack in the snack bar. We did some souvenir shopping at base camp before returning to the car.
Our next stop was Taormina, a hilltop town on the Mediterranean coast. Usually, we would split these two outings into two days, but we told the kids we could stay at the hotel pool all day the following day if we could cross both off our bucket list on the same day.
Taormina was only a ten-minute drive past our hotel. It was originally built by the Greeks and has an ancient amphitheater overlooking the Sea. After we found parking for the car, our first stop was lunch at a pizzeria. Then, we took a walk through the old town.
After walking the whole length of the town, we visited the ancient amphitheater. We climbed to the top immediately to see the beautiful views of Mt. Etna and the Mediterranean from the highest point in the theater. The theater still hosts shows to this day and was in the middle of setting up for a film festival.
On our climb down from the top, we got a beautiful view of the city, hugging the cliff’s edge and overlooking Mt. Etna and the Sea.
Even after our busy day, we made it back to the hotel in time to spend an hour at the pool. The kids swam, but the water was a little chilly for Matt and me. It was warm enough to sit outside in a bathing suit, though, and get some sun. After our pool time, we had dinner at another restaurant across the street from the hotel.
We stuck to our plans on Monday and didn’t leave the hotel all day. After a late breakfast, we slept in and scouted seats at the pool, where we sat all day. We even had lunch at the pool.
We returned across the street to the restaurant of Brooklyn’s choice and had one more amazing Italian dinner.
We were up early on Tuesday morning to return the rental car and catch our early flight back to Stuttgart!
Gilcrests Abroad 