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When I was 26, I worked for an American waterski team as a professional waterskier. The company owns waterski shows based all over the world, and I was lucky enough to be sent to an amusement park in Germany.  However, it didn't turn out the way I had expected.  Allegra wondered why I even wanted to come back to the park, since all she had heard were bad things about waterskiing but good things about my german friends. I was both excited and apprehensive. 

1987 had been a pivotal year for me in my life - not all of it good.  But that's another story.

In the parking lot, we could hear shrieks coming from an enormous ...



 
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Today we went to Neuschwanstein Castle.  It's the castle from Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang and also inspired part of the Harry Potter Castle.  It was built by King Ludwig II in eighteen sixty nine and construction stopped at his death in eighteen eighty six with only one third of the castle completed.   When we arrived at the small town of Schwangau, we walked up the hill to the castle.  King Ludwig built it to be beautiful rather than a stronghold.  It's on a hilltop with cliffs, a waterfall, a lake and mountains on one side and fields and the town on the other side. We walked up a big spiral staircase to the throne room, which was absolutely beautiful. All the walls and the ceiling were painted with vibrant murals, but the most eye-catching thing for me was the chandelier in the middle of the room. I overheard from a guide that ...



 
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One of the reasons we like having a car and taking our time to get to a destination is to go off the beaten track with no agenda.  When you drive off the main highways, you never know what you will stumble upon.  Touring through the Alps on a winding small motorway, we pulled off on the side of a lake for a picnic.  We spied some wooden tables through the trees.  As we plopped down on a bench, a wakeboarder flipped in the air and landed just metres from the shore. Birch was very excited: we had come across a very cool lake with a pulley system for wakeboarders, waterskiers and wakesurfing - with no boats!  For the next two hours, in freezing mountain water, Birch had a blast! There were all kinds of jumps and rails to push his skill level. 
- Carolyn

P.S.  Do you call it wakeboarding when there is no wake?