The
“Allens Were Living In Austria!”
Website

November 7, 2010 update: this site has many broken links.

Until we fix all the links, and finish this site, you can use the following temporary links that currently link to just the picture albums that we have restored so far:

Leaving Kelowna and arriving in Austria

art gallery

Christmas 2006

BMX dirt track nearby

Fussen and castles

First trip to Italy in 2007

Jaguar

Legoland

Liechtenstein

Living around home town Bregenz

First time to Paris

Salzburg

Ulm

July 5-25, 2008 - ITALY - Verona, Florence, Rome, Pompeii, Capri Island, Venice

On bridge in Murano, Italy

Italy was amazing!!  It's one of our favorite countries so far.  The countryside is spectacular, the people are friendly, the energy is electric, the food is scrumptious, the history and architecture is unparalleled. When we arrived back in Bregenz it was cold, nothing like the 35-40 degree weather we were used to. Our apartment even felt strange to us, since we spent 3 weeks away from it.  It was our longest trip yet.

Boat in water in Murano, Italy

Click here to read our trip notes from our Italy trip.

March 15-24, 2008 - Geneva, Nice/Cannes, Barcelona and the Caves of France  

Our trip was incredibly rewarding, educational and most of all FUN!  I'm currently working on the trip notes and the albums ... they will be here soon.

Click here to read our trip notes from Switzerland, France, and Spain.

Click here to see our photo album of Geneva, Narbonne, and travels.

Click here to see our photo album of Cannes.

Click here to see our photo album of Nice.

Click here to see our photo album of Barcelona. 

Click here to see our photo album of Barcelona2.

Click here to see our photo album of Park Guell in Barcelona.

Click here to see our photo album of the Caves of France.

Click here to see our photo album of France's Prehistoric Park.

Bar

October 31, 2007 Halloween at the Allen's house  

We had a wonderful Halloween party with some of the children's friends and some of our friends as well.  There were games like Halloween Twister, bobbing for apples, the pumpkin toss, put the bone on the skeleton, and of course we tried to dissect pennies from a box of intestines (cold spaghetti).  I have these Jello molds that are in the shape of small brains, so I made green Jello brains and the kids had a brain eating contest for prizes.  We also downloaded the Micheal Jackson video Thriller, which is 15 minutes long, remember that one?  It was the one where ghouls crawl out of their graves and start dancing with Micheal.  It was so much fun watching that again. Later on the older kids watched scary movies like Sixth Sense. The Austrian children had their first experience with a North American Halloween party and I think they really enjoyed themselves.  I also added some pictures of our Lego Land Halloween visit, since they had a wonderful haunted house set up there.

Click here to see our photo album of Halloween

 October 20, 2007 Mount Santis (Schwagalp), Switzerland

Darcy's cousin Terry and her husband Terry came to visit us this weekend.  They were at a show in Germany promoting their wild rice product called Northern Lights - Organic Wild Rice.  We all drove to Mount Santis where you have a view of 6 different countries from the summit, Mount Santis is 2502 meters above sea level and we took a cable car up to see the spectacular views.  Afterwards, we visited their cheese shop where we purchased some of their award winning cheese called Schwagalp cheese.  They sold fresh yogurt, butter and other milk products as well.  You could also look through viewing windows to see how they made their tasty products.  

Click here to see our photo album of Mount Santis

October 13, 2007 Lucerne, Switzerland      

Darcy, Lisa, Brittany and Jerret visited this Medieval town today.  We also stopped at a beautiful lakeside coffee shop to enjoy a view of the Swiss Alps.  

Click here to read our trip notes of Lucerne.

Click here to see our photo album of Lucerne.

August 11 - 22, 2007 Luxembourg, Belgium, England and the Netherlands

This is our main summer vacation this year. It has really been fun researching and planning this big trip.  

Click here to read our trip notes of our Northern European trip.

Pictures of the British Museum (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Buckingham Palace and Big Ben (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of the Cabinet War Rooms (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of the ferry ride (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Harry Potter (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Holland (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Lacock and Bath (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of London (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Luxembourg and Belgium (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Shakespeare's Globe Theater (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

Pictures of Stonehenge (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

July 16-23, 2007 Emilie Rosenberg visited us from Canada 

Sharice's best friend Emilie visited us from Kelowna, B.C. this summer.  I took Emilie, Sharice and Brittany to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles to celebrate Emilie and Sharice's 16th birthday. We had such a fun time!!  We had a perfect blue sky day and we drove in a horse carriage up to one of the castles.  

Click here to see our photo album of Emilie's visit

July 12th and August 2nd - Jerret and Sharice's birthdays!!

Sharice celebrated her Sweet 16 birthday this year in Austria and Jerret celebrated the double digits by turning 10.  Here are a few pictures from their birthday parties.

Click here to see our photo album of Sharice and Jerret's birthdays

July 10 to July 14, 2007 Gymnaestrada

Over 500 Canadians stayed in a nearby town called Rankweil, which we visited during the special summer gymnastics event called Gymnaestrada. We went to three different villages in our province of Vorarlberg to see these teams from all over the world showcase their expertise.  Our favourite teams were from Great Britain and Quebec.  The Quebec team performed circus/gymnastics and they had brown and orange outfits on.  You can spot a couple of other Canadian teams as well.  One team wore black and red dresses with wavy lines.  The other team had a blue, white and black dress on.

Click here to see our photo album of the gymnaestrada event 

July, 2007 Tosca (Italian Opera) 

We took the kids to the Italian opera called Tosca.  It took place on an outdoor floating stage on Lake Bodensee, which is only about a block from our house.  It takes them several months to build the stage setting for the opera, then they hold it for the next 2 years just in the summer months.  Tina Turner came to the opening night of the opera.  She lives with her husband in Switzerland.  They had big screen monitors that would show the orchestra playing, while the opera was taking place.  It was a very unique experience for us all.

Click here to see our photo album of Tosca 

July 1, 2007 Canada Day

We had a great BBQ at the beach where we laid in the sun and partied with our Austrian/American friends. We all sang our Canadian national anthem and then we sang their American national anthem.

This summer we have enjoyed bicycling to many different beaches, where we cooked meat over a fire, roasted marshmallows, and had great family fun. Jerret received a blow up island for his birthday, that fits about 4 people, which has been put to good use.

Click here to see our photo album of Canada Day 2007

June 23, 2007 Switzerland

Lisa and Darcy went on a Saturday date to St. Gallen, Switzerland. We saw an African dancing/martial arts group perform live in the city square, had drinks at a local trendy bar, and then watched a movie in English! Sharice had discovered this theater with a friend previously. It's a wonderful experience because they even play the hot dog and drinks cartoon at a halfway intermission.

June 15,16, and 17, 2007 in Milan, Italy

We drove to Milan, Italy for a quick weekend getaway.  All of the details are in the trip notes below.

Click here to read our trip notes of Milan.

Click here to see the photo album of Milan (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

"NEW" additional photos from above Milan trip.

June 3, 2007 Feldkirch Wildlife Reserve

Going here reminds us of Canada so much!  There are deer, wolves, goats, etc. in a natural setting in the mountains!  With all of the tall trees and winding paths throughout the park we can truly enjoy a hike as a family in peaceful surroundings.

Click here to see our photo album of Feldkirch Wildlife Park.

May, 2007 Sharice's Flute lessons and recital 

Sharice practiced the flute for several months and then she had a flute recital at the end of her lessons.  It took place in Bregenz in front of the music school's other students and their parents.  She performed a duet with her teacher.  If you would like to hear some of it Darcy has put it on www.youtube.com where you can search under the words Sharice Allen flute. 

Click here to see some pictures of Sharice's flute lessons and recital.

April 29 and May 1, 2007 Backyard BBQs

Adalgiso and his family had us over on the national holiday, May 1, and we had great food and drinks in the hot sun. Games, great views, and good conversation. To do: pictures of the view overlooking many villages of Austria, Switzerland, and Lake Constance.

The Smith family from a nearby village invited us for the day on Sunday. We watched an excellent live theater presentation presented by a musical group from Zimbabwe. Then the kids finally got to play on a lawn in their huge back yard, complete with tree swings and golden retriever dog! After excellent food, a few bottles of wine, and Darcy's first sampling of their home made Schnapps, Lisa had to drive home *hick* To do: video clip of the authentic African drumming, singing, and dancing will go here.

April 28, 2007 Munich Zoo, Germany

Self timer picture of us sitting on a golden jaguar statue.

Notes about the Munich Zoo.

Click here to see our photo album of the Munich Zoo (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

April 2007 exploring Austria

We found an excellent park with walking trails around a scenic area of Lake Constance. There is also a very big skateboard park, constructed just a couple years ago, where Jerret and Darcy have been practicing with skateboards, bikes, and Jerret's push scooter.

Darcy had to go to New York for his work. He brought back vitamins and other stuff we have ran out of here that we can't find.

We went to Dijon, France where the original Dijon mustard was invented. From here millions of jars are shipped around the globe. There are rolling hills and beautiful valleys and the bright yellow mustard plant fields can be seen forever on the horizon.

Easter morning pictures:

March 28, 2007 Lindau Bicycle Dirt Track

Awesome dirt track for bikes. Built a year ago by a group of about 20 people. Here are some pics. Some video clips:

• RonnyAndJerret
• Ronny1
• Jerret1

February 23 to 25, 2007 Italian Riviera and The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Click here to see our photo album of Italy.

Click here to read our trip notes of Italy.

February 18, 2007 Brittany's Birthday Celebration

Brittany celebrated her 13th birthday with some Austrian friends and she also had a birthday web cam session with her Canadian friends.  She received a new hairdo as a gift from mom and dad.  Brittany has always wanted purple streaks in her hair and she also got it straightened that day.

Click here to see the photo album of Brittany's party (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

February 18, 2007 Fasching Karneval in Bregenz, Austria

Click here to read our notes of Fasching Karneval.

Click here to see the photo album of the Fasching Karneval (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

February 8, 2007 Jerret's Field Trip To Munich

From Jerret: "Today I went to Munich in Germany. It was a school class field trip. We went on a very large, nice bus. They played Toy Story 1 on the way there, and Jungle Book on the way back. In Munich I went to a TV recording studio. It is where they make the 1,2, oder 3 ZDF Tivi shows. www.tivi.de is the website. Here is a video clip of the studio I visited: I met a famous movie star: Daniel Fischer. He gave me two autographed post cards. He was filming a show today and one time during the show a huge video camera came right up to me and filmed me! I pretended not to notice :)

Then we went to the Munich Zoo. I saw

• a male Lion
• 2 girl lions
• a cheetah
• a black leopard, and tonnes of other animals.

The monkeys were my favourite! A big ape walked up to the glass, paused, and then all of a sudden he banged the glass with his hand right in front of me! I saw a kangaroo and elephants too. We left at 7:00 AM and got back to Bregenz at 8:30 PM. Tomorrow I don't have to go to school until 10 AM.

Note: On May 8th at 8:30 a.m. we all watched the very T.V. show (of 1,2, oder 3) that Jerret and his classmates were on.  It was pretty exciting for Jerret to see his friends on T.V. answering the skill testing questions.

February 4, 2007 Skiing at Faschina in Austria

We went skiing for the first time this year in an area called Bregenzwald, at a ski hill called Faschina, which is in the Austrian Alps.  The prices are so reasonable!  Darcy and I cost $29 Euro/each and the kids cost $18 Euro/each for the whole day.  

Click here to see our photo album of our first Alps ski trip (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

January 28, 2007 Musical: Aida

"Live actors singing and dancing on stage...oh how it reminded me of being in MASK." - Darcy.  

This musical was produced by Tim Rice and Elton John.  Darcy and I went to it and even though the dialogue was in German the plot and emotions still translated through.  It was a story about a royal family who were war prisoners in Egyptian times, but they managed to disguise their status.  The princess (Aida) ended up falling in love with a war general who had a hidden agenda.  He planned on marrying the princess of a powerful ally in order to become the king over their sought after land.  Instead, he committed treason and followed his heart to be with Aida.  The general and Aida ended up dieing in prison.  The last scene showed that they had reincarnated and reunited at an antiquities museum in modern times.

Click here to see our photo album of the Aida Musical

January 27, 2007 Tobogganing

Winter finally arrived! It was snowing so much when we woke up this morning, we just had to pack a lunch, a thermos of hot chocolate, and hit the slopes. We drove 20 minutes to the small village of Alberswendle. They had 2 out of 8 lifts running, and a designated side of the hill for tobogganers.  We tobogganed in the deep snow for a few hours making our own trails down a steep embankment.  We took some fun video clips and pictures.

Click here to see our photo album of the tobogganing outing (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

January 13, 2007 Schattenburg Castle, Feldkirch

Schattenburg Castle is perched on a rocky crest high above the town of Feldkirch. The name is derived from "schatte, schad" which means "shelter, protection or protector." The castle was built in the middle of the thirteenth century by the Count of Montfort, Vorarlberg's most important ruling dynasty in the High Middle Ages.  The view of Feldkirch from the castle gate is truly incredible.  If we didn't pick Bregenz to live in then I would've been quite happy to live here instead.  The pictures we took of the armory in the keep part of the castle display the wise war strategies that kept this castle intact for all of these past centuries.

Click here to see our photo album of Schattenburg Castle (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos). 

January 10, 2007 Swan Lake performed by the Russian Ballet Company

Sharice, Brittany, and I went to the ballet together.  We dressed up in our best clothes and spent some quality time together.  Sharice and I managed to take some okay photos considering that we were up in the balcony.  The story is about a prince who must find a wife.  He is presented with many beautiful women to choose from at a grand ball put on in his honor.  When he is away from the palace he discovers a beautiful woman (swan), but an evil man (bird) is trying to keep him from her.  In the end the prince wins the battle against evil and therefore is awarded with true love.

Click here to see our photo album of the Swan Lake Ballet (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).  

December 23 to December 30, 2006 Christmas in Paris

Click here to see our photo album of Paris.

Click here to read our trip notes of Paris, Christmas, and Disneyland.

We brought in the New Year with a walk around downtown Bregenz, watching fireworks along the beach, and then shouting the countdown back in our flat watching it on TV.

"NEW" pictures of our 15 year wedding anniversary in Paris (COMING SOON)

December 22, 2006 Christmas Caroling

We were out on the street singing joyfully around a bonfire. Locals got a taste of Canadians singing Christmas Carols :) Good thing I brought my barbershop singing sheet music to Austria. We were offered Gluhwein again, and it was great. (pronounced gloo-vine) Even Sharice had half a cup.

Click here to read a Gluhwein recipe.

We had to have Christmas Eve two days earlier, because we couldn't fit all of our presents into the car, to bring to Paris. So, we opened most of our presents on this night. Click here to see pictures from our Christmas Eve 2006.

December 16, 2006 The French Circus in Altach

Our friends Miriam and Giso took us to a French Cultural Centre in Altach, which is a villiage about 20 minutes from Bregenz.  The kids were able to sharpen their French skills by chatting with other French speaking children.  They were trained by a professional circus trainer in order to prepare for a show that they would put on for the parents.  They all became quite skilled in juggling, balancing, rolling on a barrel, and some other performance techniques.  The show proved to be a lot of fun for them and we all made some new friends in the process.  Afterwards the kids tried their hand at balancing on a unicycle.

Click here to see our photo album of the French Circus (use the white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

December 3, 2006 The Pfander

We drove to a Christmas Market in a small nearby village. Then we drove up the Pfander and watched a beautiful sunset. 

Click here to see our photo album of the Christmas Market and the view from the Pfander Mountain in Bregenz (use white scroll bar to view all of the photos).

November 25, 2006 Liechtenstein

Click here to see our photo album of Liechtenstein.

Click here to read our trip notes of Liechtenstein.

November 18, 2006 Fussen and the Hohenschwangau Castle Tour

We just had to go back to this beautiful area of Southern Germany a second time. After taking the tour of the Hohenschwangau Castle, we then hiked across a bridge and up the edge of a cliff, to get a breath-taking view of the Neuschwanstein Castle.

Click here to see pictures from both trips to these castles.

Click here to read our trip notes.

November 11, 2006 Bicycle Trip

to do: pictures and notes here

November 4, 2006 Salzburg

Click here to see pictures of Salzburg.

Click here to read our trip notes.

October 28, 2006 Austrian Alps

This was Lisa and the kids' first good look at the Austria Alps. We drove past Feldkirch, Nenzing, and Bludenz. We went to look at a motorcycle that was advertised on the internet, and drove up a beautiful valley called Montafon.

to do: pictures and trip notes here

October 21, 2006 Our First Visitor From Canada

Aaron Flint from Burnaby, BC, was sent to Switzerland for work, so he decided to come and visit us in Austria. On Saturday morning he took a 1 hour train ride to Bregenz where we gave him a tour of our quaint little town. We took a walk by the lake, bought some things from the market place, watched an outdoor chess game, and played some mini-golf.  That same day Darcy drove Aaron back to Zurich.
If you are coming to visit us in Europe, then Zurich is the closest international airport.  The next closest airports are Munich and Frankfurt.

Click here to see pictures of Aaron's visit.

October 15, 2006 Legoland!

Click on the picture to see our photo album of Legoland.

Click here to read about our adventures in Legoland.

"NEW" pictures - Pirate area, etc.

"NEW" pictures - Pirate area Star Wars Johnny Thunder, etc.

On July 12, 2007 (10th birthday) Jerret finally got to drive on the Lego Land speedway.  He received his driver's licence and had a lot of fun.  Another wish for his birthday was that he wanted to pick out his own lego kits for birthday presents from his family members. In the Legoland stores there is so much variety. There is every kind of Lego that has ever been made.
Click here to see photos of Jerret driving.

October 7, 2006 Ulm, Germany

Ulmer Munster Cathedral.

Click here to see our pictures of the tallest church in the world!

Click here to read our trip notes.

"NEW" Ulm Munster spire pictures.

September 30, 2006 Neuschwanstein Castle (Fairy-tale Castle)

This was our first trip out of town on a sight-seeing adventure!

Click here to see pictures.

Click here to read our trip notes.

Here's our Jag!

Our new Jaguar! It's a 2001 X-Type Sport 3.0 is a large engine, for European standards. It packs a punch. Lots of horsepower!

Click here to see more pictures of our sports car.

Lisa got to drive it first, as she followed me to our temporary rental place. It was a cute place. Reminded us of a ski chalet. It was tough getting our car: first we had to go pay the money to get the ownership papers, then we had to bring the papers to the insurance company, then we had to buy the insurance and licence number plate, then we could go back to the Porche dealer and pick up our car. It had about 91,000 KM on it when we bought it, and it had 2 previous owners.

September 27, 2006 We Arrived in Bregenz, Austria!

The building is 3 floors. Ours is the entire 2nd floor.

Click here to see pictures of us leaving Kelowna, and travelling to Europe.

We drove to the airport at 11:00 AM Tuesday September 26, 2006. We flew to Seattle, Washington, USA, and then from Seattle to Copenhagen, Denmark, then from Copenhagen to Zurich, Switzerland. We had 19 bags total: 10 carry-on (including 5 laptops) and 9 under-storage claimed luggage bags. When we arrived in Zurich, only 2 of our luggage bags made it. The other 7 were reported to be left in Copenhagen. So we had a choice of waiting over 3 hours, or they would drive the bags to my office in Lustenau for free. We opted to jump in our rental car and get to our awaiting new country: Austria. We crossed the border into Austria at 6:30 PM and we were greeted by Sepp and Simone. They had organized our first 4 nights stay at a temporary rental place in the village of Hard, Austria.

Proud to be Austrian and Canadian

Austrian Facts

Canadian Facts

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This web site was started October 31, 2006.