I can hardly believe that it's September already and that I am back from summer vacation and halfway over jet-lag. The summer that I looked forward to for so long is over with. But we had a great time. This is mostly for memory sake, but I tried to limit the number of pictures. There are tons of pictures. :) Not surprising with Steve around.
We left our house at 1:45 am to head to the airport. Our first...shall we say adventure? met us in the check in line. After a 30 minute wait in lines that weren't really moving, we got up to the counter and found out that they didn't have Miss A's reservation. We had called a few days before to request child meals for our kids. But then the lady called back and said that she would not be able to do it because the airline we were flying with from Doha to Frankfurt had us in an exit row and because we booked the flights through a US online agency, which doesn't allow children in an exit row, the airline couldn't add child meals without canceling the reservation. So we went without the child meals and I regretted even calling them. Half an hour later they got it sorted out and off through passport control and security we went. Oddly enough, we weren't in exit on either flight that day. Not sure what happened there.
We enjoyed seeing different parts of Germany again. And it was much warmer, even though we still had to wear jackets for the first few days. I think I was almost blinded by the green. :) It was so beautifully green.
It rained when we arrived and afterwards we enjoyed a beautiful walk in a nearby cemetery.
Miss A found every mud puddle and had to splash in it. Unfortunately for her, she didn't have any closed toed shoes at all. I was waiting until we got to the States to buy them. So she was in socks and sandals. I'm sure her feet were freezing. But she was happy.
Big E enjoyed a KinderJoy egg everyday. The prizes were surprisingly appropriate. Cars and trains.
Though Miss A didn't get an egg each day, she enjoyed playing with the plastic egg that the toy was in inside the chocolate egg.
On Friday we went to Hessen Park, which is an open air living museum. They have taken historical houses and buildings from around the state of Hesse and relocated them to this park. It was really fun to go see. They set things up as if it was a village. I wish we could have taken more time to look at things, but with little kids...and sometimes big boys ;)... it's hard to see everything.
At Hessen Park, there were these natural rock formations. Big E liked to climb them.
While Big E climbed, Miss A perfected "the look".
Here are some of the buildings in Hessen Park...
I got to spin rope. Not many places at actors or workers about, but this one did and it was fun.
This building now houses a restaurant and that's were we enjoyed a yummy lunch. I tried a CurryWurst and it was so good.
As we were walking out of the park, Miss A started humming and then hummed herself to sleep. :)
We then got in the car and drove to the Limes, which was nearby. The Limes is the remains of an old Roman fort and palisade. The ditch on the left was dug by Romans and the mound as made by them as well. There was also a mile markers. This is the northern most boundary of the Roman Empire.
The fort is reconstructed on the remains of the original fort. There were house cellars outside of the fort where families lived. Well, not necessarily in the cellars, but the houses were outside of the fort. There was a museum inside the for that had the most amazing things. There were a number wells in the fort and leather sandals have been pulled up from the well. The water in the well preserved the leather. Of course there were weapons, but also medical instruments, and coins and jewelry.
The kids slept all the time in the car. We didn't have to entertain them much during our drives.
On Saturday we decided to drive back down to Heidelberg. The forecast said rain was possible during the afternoon, but as luck would have it, it rained the whole drive down and the whole time we visited the Heidelberg castle. I borrowed a jacket from my mother-in-law as it was chilly and the jacket I brought wasn't enough on its own.
My sister is serving a mission in Japan right now. She says that the Japanese are fascinated with Americans. They way they look and everything. Well, while were in the courtyard of the Heidelberg Castle, Big E was walking around like this:
(Cute, isn't he?) Then some Japanese girls saw him, ran in front and snapped a few pictures of him and ran off. It honestly is beyond me why people take photos of people they don't know. To me it's a waste. Anyway, as we were leaving the castle, the rain stopped and it cleared up. By the time we drove to the town, the sun came out and it became a very pleasant day. We walked around the old town and to the river. Since the clouds went away, we got a much better picture of the castle from the old bridge. We also stopped and ate some yummy pastries.
One the way back to Frankfurt, we drove on the Autobhan, which is the highway. In the left lane, you can go as fast as you want. We were already going 150 km/hr (93 mph) with the flow of traffic. Then we saw this Ferrari. I'm not a big car person, but I can appreciate the power this car has. There were two cars ahead of him who were passing others. I think everyone was just waiting (I know we were in our car) for the other two cars to move out of the way. Then as the last car finally moved over, and the Ferrari stepped on the gas. Within seconds he was past the horizon. It was pretty awesome.
We enjoyed a nice bike ride around residential parts of Frankfurt and had a snack in the park.
The last two days we went to Eisenach to see the Wartburg Castle, which is where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German. We stopped by a park to eat lunch when we got there and as soon as the car was parked, Big E got car sick and threw up all over himself. I only had two pairs of pants total for him for this entire trip, and one of them was dirty as I didn't get it washed before we left for Eisenach, and now the other pair had throw up on it. So he wore his pajamas pants for the rest of the time.
In Eisenach, we visited the Lutherhaus, where Martin Luther lived for a while with a family while he went to school.
Walked along the town square and chased the pigeons.
Stepped into the church that Bach was baptized in and also played the organ in. Martin Luther also preached in this church for a time.
We then headed to Wartburg Castle. It was a beautiful drive up the hill and then a good hike farther up. I couldn't get enough of the green.
This part was on the way to the area where Martin Luther stayed while he translated the New Testament. The ceiling of the walkway was so low. I didn't have to duck but Steve certainly did.
This is the room that Luther stayed in.
The only thing that is original to the room from when Luther stayed here is the whale vertebra. He used it as a foot stool.
We climbed the tower next to the castle that also housed the dungeon. It gave an incredible view of the area.
For dinner we went to a restaurant that was made to look like a restaurant Luther's time. They also served food that would have been common back then. You can't really see it well in the pictures, but there is straw all over the floor. For appetizers they brought out a tough bread with lard and a leek cheese sauce. Miss A would just dip her fingers in the leek cheese sauce. It was pretty good. You can imagine what the lard tasted like.
The table had holes in it where there were chairs. When they brought out our drinks, the cups were pointed at the bottom. So you had to put the cups into the holes.
We stayed the night in a bed and breakfast outside of town. No one spoke much English, but that's okay. We went for a nice hike in Drachenschlucht (dragon canyon), which legend has that a dragon lived there and that St. George killed the dragon there. It was a beautiful hike. This is the Wartburg Castle from where we began the hike.
Then we headed off to Bachhaus, were Johann Sebastian Bach was born and lived until his parents died. We also got to hear some of the kinds of instruments that he played. The presentation was only in German, so I have no idea what they were saying, but it was neat to hear a clavichord and an old organ, and a harpsichord in person. I did think of my piano teacher while I was there.
We then drove home in the rain. As it was our last night and Big E hadn't ridden on a train/trolley yet and he had been talking about it all week, Grandma was so kind to take Big E on a train ride. He was in heaven. I don't think anything made him as happy that week as riding on the train. Doesn't this smile just make you happy?
We left our house at 1:45 am to head to the airport. Our first...shall we say adventure? met us in the check in line. After a 30 minute wait in lines that weren't really moving, we got up to the counter and found out that they didn't have Miss A's reservation. We had called a few days before to request child meals for our kids. But then the lady called back and said that she would not be able to do it because the airline we were flying with from Doha to Frankfurt had us in an exit row and because we booked the flights through a US online agency, which doesn't allow children in an exit row, the airline couldn't add child meals without canceling the reservation. So we went without the child meals and I regretted even calling them. Half an hour later they got it sorted out and off through passport control and security we went. Oddly enough, we weren't in exit on either flight that day. Not sure what happened there.
We enjoyed seeing different parts of Germany again. And it was much warmer, even though we still had to wear jackets for the first few days. I think I was almost blinded by the green. :) It was so beautifully green.
It rained when we arrived and afterwards we enjoyed a beautiful walk in a nearby cemetery.
Miss A found every mud puddle and had to splash in it. Unfortunately for her, she didn't have any closed toed shoes at all. I was waiting until we got to the States to buy them. So she was in socks and sandals. I'm sure her feet were freezing. But she was happy.
Big E enjoyed a KinderJoy egg everyday. The prizes were surprisingly appropriate. Cars and trains.
Though Miss A didn't get an egg each day, she enjoyed playing with the plastic egg that the toy was in inside the chocolate egg.
On Friday we went to Hessen Park, which is an open air living museum. They have taken historical houses and buildings from around the state of Hesse and relocated them to this park. It was really fun to go see. They set things up as if it was a village. I wish we could have taken more time to look at things, but with little kids...and sometimes big boys ;)... it's hard to see everything.
At Hessen Park, there were these natural rock formations. Big E liked to climb them.
While Big E climbed, Miss A perfected "the look".
Here are some of the buildings in Hessen Park...
I got to spin rope. Not many places at actors or workers about, but this one did and it was fun.
This building now houses a restaurant and that's were we enjoyed a yummy lunch. I tried a CurryWurst and it was so good.
As we were walking out of the park, Miss A started humming and then hummed herself to sleep. :)
We then got in the car and drove to the Limes, which was nearby. The Limes is the remains of an old Roman fort and palisade. The ditch on the left was dug by Romans and the mound as made by them as well. There was also a mile markers. This is the northern most boundary of the Roman Empire.
The fort is reconstructed on the remains of the original fort. There were house cellars outside of the fort where families lived. Well, not necessarily in the cellars, but the houses were outside of the fort. There was a museum inside the for that had the most amazing things. There were a number wells in the fort and leather sandals have been pulled up from the well. The water in the well preserved the leather. Of course there were weapons, but also medical instruments, and coins and jewelry.
The kids slept all the time in the car. We didn't have to entertain them much during our drives.
On Saturday we decided to drive back down to Heidelberg. The forecast said rain was possible during the afternoon, but as luck would have it, it rained the whole drive down and the whole time we visited the Heidelberg castle. I borrowed a jacket from my mother-in-law as it was chilly and the jacket I brought wasn't enough on its own.
My sister is serving a mission in Japan right now. She says that the Japanese are fascinated with Americans. They way they look and everything. Well, while were in the courtyard of the Heidelberg Castle, Big E was walking around like this:
(Cute, isn't he?) Then some Japanese girls saw him, ran in front and snapped a few pictures of him and ran off. It honestly is beyond me why people take photos of people they don't know. To me it's a waste. Anyway, as we were leaving the castle, the rain stopped and it cleared up. By the time we drove to the town, the sun came out and it became a very pleasant day. We walked around the old town and to the river. Since the clouds went away, we got a much better picture of the castle from the old bridge. We also stopped and ate some yummy pastries.
One the way back to Frankfurt, we drove on the Autobhan, which is the highway. In the left lane, you can go as fast as you want. We were already going 150 km/hr (93 mph) with the flow of traffic. Then we saw this Ferrari. I'm not a big car person, but I can appreciate the power this car has. There were two cars ahead of him who were passing others. I think everyone was just waiting (I know we were in our car) for the other two cars to move out of the way. Then as the last car finally moved over, and the Ferrari stepped on the gas. Within seconds he was past the horizon. It was pretty awesome.
We enjoyed a nice bike ride around residential parts of Frankfurt and had a snack in the park.
We celebrated Big E's 4th birthday.
Most of the this part of the castle has been reconstructed throughout the years, but there are in places up to 60% original materials. This was the first part of the castle to be built.
1 comment:
What a cool trip!
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