Volksmarching in Hilzerhousen

Yes, another Volksmarch this weekend! Only this time the weather was beautiful. Not much to report other than we're enjoying our weekends. Here's a photo from this trip. As you can see, Madeline was tired of walking!

Another Year Older!

Okay, yes, I admit it - I turned another year older this past week. Brad and the kids treated me to an afternoon of pampering at a local spa, cooked dinner, picked flowers and baked a cake. Here's a photo of the hard working crew! Thanks again to all who sent birthday wishes!

Burning of the Castle - Heidelberg

While in Heidelberg we visited the castle and planned to find a spot in the city to view the annual "Burning of the Castle" and fireworks. The burning is a reinactment of when the present structures had been damaged by wars and fires in 1689, 1693 and 1764.

Brad decided that we should try and view the burning from the castle instead of the marktplatz where we had seen the burning 10 years ago. As we ventured up the steep, winding, pitch black road to the top, we realized we were only one of the few people up there. We briefly thought we had the wrong day and time of the event. After seeing a few people venture to the main entrance of the castle we decided, "When in Rome...." and followed. Just our luck they were beginning to close parts of the castle for the burning. We kindly asked the guard if he spoke english and asked him if we were in the right spot. He promptly told us that in order to view the event we would have to go downtown and cross the Nekar River and view from the other side. Our conversation lead to the fact that we used to live there and had traveled all the way from Stuttgart to see it. So....he said follow me! After pointing to an old wooden door he said, when these doors open in 15 minutes you'll see some people go in...just follow them! Okay, we said.

Not knowing what exactly was on the other side of the door, we proceeded to follow all the Germans. Of course we were the only Americans for miles. We promptly climbed the spiral staircase not one flight, but 5 flights to the top of the castle. (You can see the top in the photo on the left). As we climbed in the complete darkness there was a mystery about where we were going and with whom! Of course we were telling the kids earlier in the day about the dungeons of the cave - so their imaginations were running wild. Upon exiting the staircase we came to a balcony and thought this is where we'd be viewing the burning. Oh, no...more climbing still. After following the Germans through yet another doorway, we continued to climb another 3 winding stairways to the TOP! Still in the complete darkness of the night, I saw this out of the corner of my eye....

Brad and I both looked at each other with wide eyes and weren't sure what we'd gotten ourselves into. So we just stood back and watched for a while. The view of the city was beautiful with all the lights and the river below. Soon there was a man bringing a box and unloading items along the castle wall. I couldn't see well, but were those flares? Oh yes .... flares! (John, I think you'd have enjoyed all this!) Still seeing the rockets (fireworks) out of the corner of my eye and watching everymove of those who were smoking and flicking half burning cigarettes, I heard "Achtung, Achtung" one word we did know - Warning, warning! We stood back and BOOM! We were in the midst of the burning of the castle! Talk about the best seats in the house!

Come to find out we were with the German dignitaries who were selected to light the flares for the event. What an experience we'll never forget. AND it was free! Afterwards we had an awesome view for the fireworks. Well, until the next adventure.......

Madeline's Birthplace - Heidelberg

We took a day trip to Heidelberg to show Madeline where she was born; just an hour North of Stuttgart. We visited the house where we lived, the hospital where she was born, and the famous castle grounds. Here are a few photos of our trip. I'll have to try and dig up pictures of here when she was a baby in front of the house and bringing her home from the hospital and see how much she's changed in 9 years.

The Curse of the Forbidden Fruit

Okay, so let me explain the title of this blog.

Since this is Labor Day weekend and Brad has Friday and Monday off and I make the school schedule around here we headed off for our first 5K Volksmarch (an organized hike in surrounding towns). The weather forcast - iffy! As we started out on the Autobahn the rain began. Mr. Optimist (aka Brad) said it will surely dry up before we arrive. Upon our arrival in the town of Schonbruch we had the wipers on high and a beautiful view of the incoming rain storm. So what did we do? We headed out of course! Oh did I mention that we were in his car with only one umbrella? Well I won out with the umbrella since the kids both had hoods on their jackets and Brad was tough enough to weather the rain and wind.

We started out up the hill in the steady rain enjoying the countryside through the apple orchards and farm land. We stopped to view several of the huge slugs and snails enjoying this nice wet afternoon :) But the forest wasn't far....just right up that hill...a little further...and then we'd be able to enjoy the shelter from natures canopy. Well just before we reached the sumit...the sun peeked from behind the clouds. Here to the right you'll see a photo of Jack in his "glossy" rain coat taking a repreave from the hood.

Once we reached the top of the hill, ready to enter the forest, enjoying the sunshine - it began raining inside the forest! Wouldn't you know it had rained so hard that with the wind it was now "raining" under the trees! So we were able to enjoy seeing the sun through the trees, under the umbrella, down the otherside of the hill!

Okay, what about the name? We came to a clearing where it was warm and sunny and we were able to shed our jackets and really enjoy the sights. And low and behold more fruit trees, except this time, plums. I didn't mention this before but I find it important to mention now. Rewind 2 weeks ago. Brad had taken the kids to the park down the street and allowed Jack to eat 1 wild blackberry from the plentiful bushes. 12 hours later - yep you guessed it....sicker than a dog and who was left to tend to Jack in the night and all the next day....that's right - MOM! Okay back to the plums, the Forbidden Fruit. Brad and Jack both decided, against my pleading, to eat from the beautiful looking trees so ripe with the purple juicy plums. As I walked down the path a bit further there it was, a sign posted, as if God put it there himself in this Garden of Eden. "Vorsicht! Pflucken kein frucht. Verboten!" (Caution! No picking fruit. Forbidden!) As I yelled to Brad and told him of the sign, he quickly threw the apple that he had in his hand. The clouds rolled in, the wind picked up and then came the curse! We were at the half way point of the 5K and down came the rain. Hence, The Curse of the Forbidden Fruit! After running the rest of the way in the pouring rain with the umbrella sideways and all the feet soaking wet we reached the goal - the Festhaus (fest house).

Here we were able to enjoy dinner under the shelter of the tent. Traditional German fare of Rotwurst (red sausage), Schweinsteak (marinated pork steak), Brot (bread), kartoffelsalat (potato salad), kuchen (pastry) & kaffee (coffee). Here is a picture of our favorite the Bienen Stiche (bee sting), a pastry of cream, vanilla torte with honey and almonds!

Each Volksmarch has a prize at the end if you finish. Sometimes it may be a mug, pin, stuffed animal, toy, or trinket. Today's prize was not one high on our list - a figurine for harvest. Maybe you can guess that by the look on Madeline and Jack's face below.

I think today will be memorable in so many ways - a true reward. Today was like that of the Master Card commercial - Priceless!

The Waldheim - Stuttgart - Rohr

Down the street from our house is the Waldheim "Forest Home". We stumbled upon this the week we moved in noticing all the kids that were flocking. So as adventuresome as we are we followed along. When we arrived we realized that it was summer camp. We found someone who spoke english and invited us to come on Saturday for the "Familie Tag" - Family Day. Here are a few photos from the day.

Here, Madeline and Jack are testing out the self propelled German apparatus. This looks much easier than it really is. Much balance is needed!

Below is a wonderful picture of the kids enjoying a local lunch of Schweinsteak here in Vaihingen from the Metzgeri (local butcher). As you can see - utensils are optional!

The Blue Park

Madeline and Jack wanted to share some photos from their favorite park, "The Blue Park" which is outside of one of the bases here in Vaihingen.

This is the pendullum swing that the kids are still trying to figure out how to use each other's weight to make the most momentum. This becomes a physics lesson everytime.