Home

Ahhhhh.....we're home. After a 10 hour flight from Munich to Atlanta and another short flight from there to Memphis, we arrived home around dinner time.

We loved Germany, had a fantastic time and would go again in a heartbeat, but it was SO nice to come back to our own home sweet home :-)

The Alps!

This morning we drove to Bregenz, Austria and headed up to the top of the Pfander mountain in cable cars. It was SO beautiful at the top. It remided me of the book Heidi with all the foothills with houses and farms dotting the landscape. You wouldn't believe how many shades of green you can see there and in the distance you could see the high Alps. Just lovely! Another nice feature is that the temperature was much cooler (probably in the 60s) and there was a cute little playground at the top. Of course, M made a stop there while we enjoyed the views and refreshing temps.

Drove from there to St. Gallen, Switzerland to see the historic library at the abbey. S & K went in to see it while the three of us wandered around the town. Nothing too special here, except the library. And, on the way out of Switzerland, we got pulled over for not having a "special sticker" which one apparently needs to buy to drive on the highway there. The Swiss cops were, to quote Dick Cheney, major league you-know-whats prompting B and I to vow that we would never, ever set foot in Switzerland again.

We escaped from the mean Swiss and headed back to friendly Germany. At Konstanz, we got on the car ferry to cross the Bodensee. M and I both thought this was very fun!

Back in Ravensburg, Rutenfest had begun, which from what I observed mainly involves a lot of drinking, drumming and these hats with pins and flowers. The guys wear them and there appeared to be a lot of pin trading going on. I think we're in for a loud night tonight...

Lindau

After leaving Meersburg, we drove along the shoreline of Lake Constance, about an hour, to Lindau. Lindau is another intact city, but in my opinion wasn't quite as cute as Meersburg. However, we enjoyed walking around the walled, old city. And, we saw a Bavarian wedding! The bride and groom and other members of the wedding party were all dressed in traditional German clothing. We had intended to take the ferry from Lindau to Bregenz, Austria, but missed the ferry so headed back to Ravensburg instead for a little R&R. After another delicious dinner at Gasthof Ochsen, we braved the rain to go hear a brass orchestra playing German songs (again in traditional dress). In front of the stage, near us, were a group of German school children, all speaking...German. M was just fascinated by them, they were close to his age, and you could tell that he really wanted to be a part of the group, but was too shy to go stand up near the front with them b/c he couldn't understand them.

Tomorrow is the start of Rutenfest in Ravensburg. It is an annual festival in the city dating back to the 1400s. Lots of blue and white Ravensburg flags flying all around the city in anticipation of the big festival. It's a complete coincidence that we ended up in town for this, but should be fun!

Meersburg (my favorite day)

Got up this morning after a loud and hot night at the Gasthof Ochsen. There is a bar/cafe across the street and no a/c at the hotel so our options for most of the night was either to roast in silence or have air but lots of noise. This morning, however, was much quieter and we again awoke to the church bells sriking the hour. Actually, at 6 am, they rang for a long time (maybe for mass?). Anyway, this went on for at least 5 minutes, prompting B to remark how much he hates organized religion! :-)

This morning we drove to Meersburg. It is a lovely, medieval town on the shores of Lake Constance/the Bodensee. The lake is huge and green and you can see Switzerland just on the other side. We walked down about 200 steps to get from the top of the hill to the lower town. Almost at the bottom, M decided to walk down the huge granite steps instead of staying on the smaller steps. On his first step, he pitched forward and fell head first down the other 5 stairs. It was really scary!! Fortunately, we escaped with a few scratches and the air knocked out of him, but no broken ribs or head injuries! Whew. We took a few minutes to regroup....


We wandered through the harbor/lower town and then headed back up the hill. The buildings are almost all original to the middle ages and you felt like you were back in time walking through the streets. Although it was sunny, the light couldn't shine through to the street in some places as the upper levels of the homes reached so close to each other across the street. It really felt like we had been transported back in time about 500 years.


Back on the top of the hill, we bought tickets to visit Meersburg Castle. This castle is the oldest inhabited castle in Germany. An aristocratic German family owns it, but you can tour part of the castle. The oldest section of the tower, Dagobert's Tower, dates to 628 AD and most of the rest of what you can tour was built in the 14 and 15th century. It was the coolest castle tour I have ever taken. If you are at all interested in medieval history, this was the place to be. You could see the great hall, bedrooms and ladies' solar as they would have been arranged at that time. We also saw the knights' armory - full of chain mail, armor, swords, other weapons and a rare medieval jousting lance (the wood still in tact). This was, by far, M's favorite room. We also toured the blacksmith and kitchen areas in the basement, saw the dungeons (couldn't go down in them, but could look down into them) - I would not want to be there!! On the walls, they had posted the coats of arms for the knights and nobles who had lived in that castle dating back to 1200's. We also saw a medieval toilet room and bathing room. In more recent times, the Brothers Grimm stayed at the castle and they had some letters written by them on display.

Laupenheim

This morning we awoke to the town bells at 7 am, ringing through our open window. It had gotten cool enough during the night that we needed our featherbeds. So peaceful and lovely in Ichenhausen this morning.


After another delicious German breakfast - cold cuts, cheeses, extremely fresh bread and croissants and lovely fruit. I'm worried that M might go through Nutella withdrawal when we return home since he has had it every morning! Off to Laupenheim today. This village is where our friend S lived when she taught in Germany 25 years ago for the Dept of Defense.

Arrived in Laupenheim and got to see S's old apartment as well as the beautiful old mansion where she had taught. Apparently the home belonged to a Jewish family before the Third Reich, but after the war, was turned into a school. We walked up to see the Schloss (castle), stopping in at a little bakery for some yummy pastries. The castle was closed today. However, the grounds and buildings were lovely. Next to it was the church, with its typical Bavarian church tower. You could see these in almost every small village and large town.

On the way back down from the castle hill, we walked past a brewery and could see the chute from which they sent out the dregs of hops and other ingredients when they were done with them. In the city center, we found a small playground with this fun, artsy metal helicopter that M played on for probably 40 minutes. He made friends with a little German girl and even though neither one of them could understand the other, they seemed to be having a grand time.

The entire town of Laupenheim had large, painted frogs (kind of like they do in other cities with other animals). So, we made a game out of finding the frogs all over town. We met Jeanne, a friend and former co-worker of Sally, for lunch at the Gasthof der Drei Mohren (inn of the three moors). The "blackface" figurines and decorations everywhere were most certainly NOT p.c. Jeanne has taught for the Dept of Defense for years and has lived in Germany, Korea, Japan, Hawaii, etc. It was very interesting to chat with her and learn about that experience as well as her experiences living in Germany now, as a non-German citizen.

Our sleep deficit is catching up with us today for sure. M is cranky and I'm tired, which makes me less tolerant of M's whining.

Later this afternoon, we arrived in Ravensburg. It is a fantastic medieval city with several towers and buildings dating to the 13-14th century. We are staying at a cute family-run guesthouse, the Gasthof Ochsen. The food here is AWESOME! It is the best food we have had in Germany (and all of it has been very good). And, for dessert, we had Apfelkuche (apple cake) that was really like small apple donuts with ice cream and fresh whipped cream. It was so yummy! M fell asleep in B's lap during dinner (he's exhausted!) so I'm sitting here writing this while he sleeps and listening to some lovely band playing out on the square through our open windows. I guess they don't have mosquitos in Germany b/c there are not any screens on any of the windows and yet no bug bites either. Mark that as yet one more reason to move here!

Legoland!!!!

This morning, we had our last yummy breakfast at the Munich Marriott hotel and then headed west to Gunzburg and Legoland! M did not know that we were going to Legoland, just that we had a "special kids' day" planned. When we got off at the exit for Legoland, we asked him what the signs said, but all he kept seeing/reading was Gunzburg. All the grown ups kept saying "What else do you see? What else do you see?" Finally Aunt S. pointed out the Legoland on the signs and then M said, "Ooh, can we go there?"

Legoland was a LOT of fun. There were tons of fun rides like the Pirate School ship, a knights' jousting ride, and driving school where the kids got to drive little Lego cars around the track (no center guide, so they could steer wherever). At the end of the driving ride, M got a "Fahrschule" (driving school) drivers' license. Of course, it is in German!

MiniLand was super cool. They had constructed models of the city and port of Hamburg with ships and ferries that actually moved around in the water, the Munich airport with planes built from Legos that move down the runway, an Alpine rescue scene with a rescuer that moved up and down from a helicopter that seemed to be suspended in mid-air, Neuschwanstein castle, the city of Lucerne Switzerland, and more. We could have spent hours there, but it was outside and hot. So, we moved on...

After a full day at Legoland, we drove to the village of Ichenhausen nearby to spend the night. We stayed at the cutest little hotel - Gasthof zum Hirsch. They had deer skins and antlers on the walls in the hallway. M's comment was "Ewww - look dead animal skin!" From our room, you could see the village church tower. We had dinner in the Gasthof's Biergarten that evening. The food was great, but HUGE!!! I had a delicious Schnitzel and M had schnitzels in the shape of dinosaurs from the kids' menu. So cute. We also had our best beers of the entire trip in Ichenhausen. It may be that any beer would have been great after a hot day at Legoland, but the Agustiner beer was still my favorite that we tried during our trip. And, when beer is cheaper than water, you get to try a lot of beers!

Since we had stuffed ourselves at dinner, we decided to take a stroll around the village to help our digestion, as M says. We found a lovely square with this cute fountain with a stork on a protractor. As the sign explaining the fountain was all in German, I'm not really sure what the protractor had to do with it. However, we soon discovered why the stork. As we looked at the local Schloss (castle), now a museum, we saw a enormous nest on the roof of the one building. At first it looked fake - like an art installation or something. Upon closer examination, though, we found out that it was a real nest with 2 live storks in it!! It was really cool. I have never seen a live stork. When they kissed (or touched heads at least) their heads made the shape of a heart. We stood there and watched them for quite some time.

Finally, M had to return to the fountain to continue his quest of touching the water in every single fountain we saw in Germany. And, there are a lot of fountains, so there was a lot of water touching going on! Fortunately, he quickly learned that Kein Trinkwasser means 'not for drinking'.

Ichenhausen was just lovely. My favorite location so far and I could really love living in a vibrant small village like this one with the church bells marking each hour and the quarter, half and three quarter hours too. You don't even need a watch!!

Regensburg

Historische Wurstkuche

Today we took a day trip to Regensburg, about 1 hour from Munich. The town is a beautiful old city and a UNESCO World Heritage location. It was not bombed during WWII, so much of the medieval structure is still in tact. The stone bridge (Steiner Brucke) there has been in continuous use since the 12th century. (Kind of makes you wonder how they can build a bridge that lasts for over 900 years and our 50 year old bridges are falling into the water...) On the drive to Regensburg, we saw fields and fields of hops. I had never seen these before - it was really interesting as they grow up these long lines. Over the hills, you could also see lovely blue and white maypoles rising up out of many of the small villages off of the autobahn. The countryside itself reminded me a lot of Pennsylvania, with rolling fields and hills.

B enjoyed driving on the autobahn with no speed limit. Plus with a nice Audi and some great engine speed, he was having a grand old time.

Regensburg had a beautiful cathedral with some of the original stained glass windows which dated back to 1320. M thought it was very cool that dead people were in the floor of the church (buried under the flagstones) and that you could see what they "looked like" (their effigies carved in stone). We also went down into the crypt with some of the pillars, carvings from the 13th century. It smelled super musty down there!

For lunch, we ate at the Historische Wurstkuche which has been a fast food restaurant for over 500 years!! Yummy wursts, with sauerkraut and sweet mustard... After that we stopped for a coffee at Germany's oldest coffee house (the Prinzess). The service was pretty awful. We would have ordered desserts, but the waitress never came back to us. Oh well....

We then wandered to to see the Roman city gates, which were part of the old city walls. The Romans established Regensburg as a provincial capital under Marcus Aurelius and the gates date to about 700 AD. On the way back to the car, we were wandering and got a little lost. This turned out to be a great detour as we found a cute little Spielplatz (playground) where M played along with several German kids. He later said that this was his favorite part of our day that day.

We headed back to the hotel, went to the grocery for water and snacks, and then walked to a lovely little Italian restaurant for dinner. The pasta was obviously freshly made and it was delicious! M fell asleep on my lap at dinner but then managed to wake up for the walk home and stayed up for several more hours at the hotel. Jet lag sucks!!!

Munich

This morning we all slept in until around 9:30. We managed to just make it to breakfast at the hotel, which was DELICIOUS!! M and B discovered the joys of a Nutella-filled croissant and I think that the whole idea of salami, cheeses and fresh bread for breakfast is fabulous. After stuffing ourselves at breakfast, we all headed out to see Munich.

First stop - Marienplatz (again) although this time in the sunshine. We got there just in time to see one of the 3 daily Glockenspiel performances. The Glockenspiel is a bell tower and clock and has life sized-figures which dance around and perform at 11, 12 and 5 each day. In the top half, they reinact the wedding festivities from a royal wedding in the 16th century. In the jousting scene, the Bavarian knight always wins (of course)!

After that, we walked over to the Deutsches Museum. It houses lots of displays on technology and science - how they build underground tunnels, how engines work, waterwheels, boats, airplanes, rockets, etc. It is huge and really quite cool, especially if you are interested in that kind of stuff. They also have a "Kinderreich" area full of hands-on experiments for kids - water play, mirrors and lights, musical instruments, pulleys they can ride up into the air, etc. M loved it lots!! He also enjoyed playing in the giant engine parts that are on display out in the courtyard.

Next, headed to the Englisher Garten and the Chinesischer Turm and biergarten. The place was packed with Germany enjoying a lovely afternoon in the Biergarten. Tons more lederhosen (and B thought that no one in Germany actually wore lederhosen!) and dirndls. The generic word for this "traditional dress" is Trachten. After eating (and drinking) for a while in the Biergarten, M had to go to the restroom. There was a lady there handing out paper towels to dry your hands on (for a tip). M gave her the money I handed him, took the paper towel and said, "Thank you. [pause] I mean Danke Schon" All the Germany ladies thought that was very cute.

By this time it was early evening and we headed back to the hotel for an early dinner, some swimming at the hotel pool, and bed!

Arrival

Pretzels as big as your head!

Our flight from Atlanta to Munich was about 9 hours. M was very taken with the touch screen entertainment system on which you could play games and watch movies. My one complaint is that Delta has done a poor job of selecting "kids" shows which are appropriate for anyone under 12. However, they did at least have Monsters vs. Aliens, so that was good. And, a cool feature where you can watch/track your flight as it goes across the map from start to destination. M only slept about 2 hours and we adults, not at all. I guess the entertainment was TOO entertaining! Upon landing in Munich, M looked at me and said "Can you believe that we flew across that entire ocean in just one night?!?"

After waiting forever for our luggage, we took the S-bahn and then U-bahn to our hotel. It was a LONG ride and in hindsight, a taxi would have been totally worth it! Upon arrival at the hotel, our rooms were not yet available, so we went into the city center to Marienplatz. It was raining and chilly and we were tired, so it wasn't our best day in Munich... While down there we decided to go to the Hofbrauhaus for a beer and some lunch. Saw lots of "Stammtisches" (reserved tables for locals), lots of lederhosen and dirndls and LOTS of beer. A traditional Bavarian brass band was playing polka music and it was very atmospheric. M got a soft pretzel which was actually bigger than his head. We had some delicious (and filling) pork schnitzel over spatzle (noodles) with gravy. Yum! For those of you interested in history, this is the location where Hitler launched his "Beer Hall Putsch". As B pointed out, it was a little weird to sit there at these old wooden table and imagine that in this very spot, a whole bunch of Nazis (or future Nazis) once sat and ate and drank just like we were doing.

We had pretty much exhausted all of our energy and politeness by this point, so we made our way back to the hotel on the U-bahn. There was a lovely little Saturday market in the "platz" near the hotel. It was fun to wander through it and see the cheese, meats, and produce. Looked delicious!! After napping in the lobby for a while, our rooms were finally ready! Hooray. We all fell into bed at about 5:00 pm (Munich time). Which was great while it lasted, but M was wide awake from 1-3 am. He was actually pretty funny. While going to the bathroom (at 2am), he yelled to me "Mom, can you believe that we are actually in Germany? When we get home, let's speak German all the time." It is going to be a fun trip!

Anticipation

Well, the suitcases are packed (mine and M's anyway. B is a last minute packer...) and the trip goodies have been collected. We are off to Germany in 2 days and are all very excited. I think that M may be a little less excited once he finds out that the plane ride is 9 hours, instead of the 2 hours that he thinks it is going to be. But, hopefully he'll sleep on the plane so it doesn't seem so long.

It requires a LOT of planning to leave the country for 9 days - medicine, clothes, snacks, books, things to keep a 5 year old occupied... I'm fretting that B and I may end up looking like pack mules when we board the plane, even though I think we are traveling pretty light!

We are all very excited to go, now that the trip is almost upon us. M has been practicing his German "Guten Tag, Danke, Bitte". I'll be he is a big hit with his glasses, blond hair, and rudimentary German :-)

Summer Camp

Last week, M went for his second week of Zoo Camp this summer. He really loves Zoo Camp, and the camp staff loved him right back. (They actually thanked me for sending him...) He learned all kinds of cool stuff, like that tarantulas have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies or that wolves are actually really good dads. That conversation was great:
M - "Today we learned about fantastic fathers."
Me - "Oh yeah? What kinds of animals are fantastic fathers?"
M - "Wolves. They are good dads because they protect their babies"
Me - "Any other fantastic fathers?"
M - "Well, I can think of one - mine!"
Me - [melt]

Anyway, this got me to thinking. How cool would it be if they had summer camp for adults? You know, a week that you could go and learn about something new, like how to can food, or how to pick great wine, or how to knit... It would be great b/c as an adult I don't really ever feel like I have enough time to learn something new and practice it for long enough to really know it. Or a week long history course (the Roman empire in 5 days or less, perhaps?) A real bonus to this summer camp for grown-ups idea would be if someone else had to pack your lunch for each day - now we're talking!

Adventures

We had a BIG day today. This morning M and I headed to Mississippi to pick blueberries. We had done this once before during a visit to Seattle. Let me just say that there are several differences between picking this time and picking in Seattle:

1. I was the only adult which made the picking take MUCH longer.

2. It was about 20 degrees hotter this time - even at 8:30 in the morning.

3. Because of the freakishly hot weather we have had, the berries were scarce and we had to hunt to find good bushes.

However, we got 1 gallon that we picked and had some fun in the process. In case you are wondering, that is a super hero mask under the glasses in the picture above.

After our morning adventure, we headed to the Pink Palace for the special anamatronic dinosaur exhibit. It was very cool - both M and I agreed on this. The dinos (T Rex, Apatosaurus, Mosasaurus, etc.) looked really life like. They are operated by robotic insides and you could see and operate a sample robot to see how it all worked under the skin. You should have seen the kids all jump when the T Rex turn its head toward them, open its mouth and roar!! Funny stuff.

We also did the Dino Scavenger Hunt which takes you through the older, permanent exhibits with dinosaur fossils found locally in the mid-south area. M really liked this and did a great job solving the puzzles. Then, we had to visit the Piggly Wiggly exhibit where you walk through the old fashioned grocery store. I'm pretty sure M likes this exhibit solely for the turnstiles at the beginning and end. He asked to do it again (to go through the turnstile again after I chased him off of repeated rounds on the exit turnstile.) When I declined, he said "But Mom, this time I want to look at the stuff and ask you questions." Boy is that kid smooth with the lines!

A few more M'isms

This week we've had a few "funnies":

- The other day, he told me "Mom, girls can never turn into boys, but sometimes boys who are confused can turn into girls" I would like to know who exactly has been talking to him about cross-dressing, etc?!?!

- Last night at bedtime, he told me "Mom, I am one veeerrryy hard kid to keep up with!" (true).