Spring break in Germany

5-22-08 I keep trying to work on the photo end of things, and than something happens and it gets messed up, an hour or so later I"m tired and frustrated and than I don't get back to it. So once again, I'll at least put writing in, an dhopefully get back and add pictures sometime. Sigh.... a great computer person I"m not- yet!


Tuesday, April 14, 2008

On Sunday evening we returned from a week spent in Germany on vacation. We left early Saturday A.M. and drove a little oer 10 hours to reach the American military resort, Eidleweiss, in Garmisch, Germany. It was a beautiful drive and the views of the Austrian alps just past Brenner Pass were spectacular! The mountains obviously have similarities to the Rockies, but seem much higher, more stark, and more dramatic, They are also contrasted by wide valleys with small towns, broad green fields already planted with a winter grass waiting to be plowed under, …..

After checking in we stopped at the gift/tour shop to get our bearings for the next day’s outing. Alyssa was outside the shop looking at postcards and didn’t realize where we had gone. Before I knew it, there was an overhead announcement for Mr. or Mrs. Solomon to report to the front desk. Alyssa was in tears and had gone outside the front of the hotel looking for us where luckily a kind woman helped her and brought her back in. Luckily through her sobs she was able to tell her name. A good lesson for all of us how much more vigilant we need to be, and how our lessons of “What to do if…..” have not sunk in yet. Alls well that ends well…. We enjoyed a good dinner there at the hotel, eating a good old fashioned steak for each of us. Although we’re obviously enjoying the Italian food we’ve had in restaurants, to eat more than just the “primi piatto” or first course, of noodles, gets very expensive quite quickly, and overall, there is a distinct lack of variety in the food available in Naples. If it’s not Italian, it’s basically not available there, that we’ve found. So, for Bill and I, who have decided that good food is “all about the sauce”, we’ve missed having other possibilities. Anyway, I digress…. Although it’s only been a short stay in Italy so far, it felt good to truly relax and enjoy an American atmosphere, feel pampered, and just have things be EASY. The girls woke early so we took advantage of being the only ones to enjoy the swimming pool, and than the enormous outdoor hottub. The girls were delighted to be in their swimsuits, cavorting about in a huge “bathtub” with a heavy snow tumbling from the sky. We had been able to get a reservation for only the one night on short notice, so our journey continued, that day, with the next stop being the famous fairytale castle of King Ludvig- Neuschwanstein. We thought the girl’s first trip to Germany should include one of the best castles for a “wowie- kazowie” experience. I think overall Bill and I might have been more impressed, but the girls did like it. Luckily the weather cooperated with only intermittent rain, broken up with periods of clear blue sky for some beautiful photos of the castle on the hill. I think that they most liked the elaborate mosaic tile floors, seeing the King’s fancy bed, and of course the big swan statues. Rachel talked us into a souvenir stuffed animal of a swan, so she could “remember the castle”. We found out that the swan was the symbol of that area- duh…. NeuSCHWANstein…. I think the round fried donut things were also a huge hit for the day.

After a great visit, (which included a 30-40 min walk up the mountain, a 60-90 min wait for our tour gp, and than our short tour), we headed out for my friend Brenda’s home. Brenda is a DODS teacher, currently the librarian, and lives in a small town outside of Heidlburg. I really loved all the green fields and meandering roads (thankful for the GPS unit doing our navigation for us), and Bill and I were both amazed at the HUGE windmills used for power. I have never seen windmills approaching anything this size- HUGE! As a whole, Germany is quite “green” in the environmental sense, and it was great to see quite a number of solar panels in use, as well as appreciate the great job of recycling that is required by everyone. They recycle so much that many of the incinerators don’t have the critical mass needed in order to burn. (They happily let Italy sell them their trash…) With the exception of one big traffic jam, or stau (rhymes with cow) as they call it, it was also a welcome relief to drive in Germany. The autostrada in Italy is relatively sane, but compared to Naples driving, it was so easy and predictable to be on the autobahn. Ample space for merging on the on ramps, more consistent speeds and even though many cars are traveling faster (80-95 mph was the norm), it was still much easier and less stressful. We finally arrived at Brenda’s and enjoyed a late dinner at 10:00 pm! The girls were needless to say rather tired.

The weather was not the best most of the rest of the week. It rained most of the time, with a few breaks here and there, providing a few times to get out and about. It alternated between bitter cold, just chilly, and finally on our last day- some clear sunshine and a warm day. On Monday we forced the girls out of the house to visit a nearby church (amidst tears of protests of being cold and tired). The next stop at a local brewery was a much bigger hit since we enjoyed some pastries while Bill tried the local beer. The spaetzle with sauce was not a hit however. Next on the list was a big transportation museum. I kept thinking how much each of the Grandfathers would have enjoyed the place. There were tons of old cars, a wide variety of airplanes of all sizes,(old war planes and commercial jets) a bunch of old VW vans that I liked as they reminded me of all our family trips growing up (I never knew the VW van essentially has never changed!), different BIG machines, a Russian submarine, and also a large number of mechanized musical instruments. Once again, Bill and I laughed at the enthusiasm the girls showed for the sparkly jewel collection and the ho-hums over big machinery that would have made their cousins (boys!) ecstatic. I think the highlight for all was using up our tokens for the automatic music players/pianos, organs, violins, etc… and having a few enthusiastic dances together, since no one else was there just before closing.

Tuesday there was a bit of sunshine as we all went to Heidelberg together to walk the downtown pedestrian area, sample a number of gummi candies, purchase even more, and finally tour a portion of the town’s castle. We actually managed a quick picnic outside. The girls were duly impressed at the enormous wine barrel inside, but all three girls clearly enjoyed chasing the pigeons outside more than visiting anything inside. Later in the trip we offered to go visit another castle and Alyssa’s response was “No, two castles is plenty to see!” Tuesday night Bill was quite pleased to attend a concert in Karlsruhe of a jazz guitarist- Alan Holdsworth, whom he’d had the pleasure of seeing twice before- with eight yrs in between each concert!

On Wednesday A.M., Bill headed out on his own, driving to Baumberg which is some 250 km away, to tour the old city and delve into yes, can you guess, more beer. : ) Baumberg is famous for their “smoke beer”. We enjoyed a few lazy rainy days at the house, letting the girls just play together to their hearts content. Alyssa and Rachel quickly rolled Camryn into their elaborate pretend games, and as can be expected, all would go well, and than disintegrate into cries of “She won’t let me… but SHE did….. “ Alyssa would intermittently play or lose herself in the large stack of books that Brenda had brought home from school. I think she finished 4-5 books of the Boxcar children series, plus a number of other Pony Pal books, etc. She truly has become an A-1 bookworm!

Bill returned on Thursday nite and we were also joined by Anne, another friend from my Japan days, but now in Germany also. Now Bill was truly outnumbered- 6 “girls” to 1, but he held his own quite well with lively conversation after the girls were all in bed. Other expeditions included a lovely park in Manheim that combines a few “zoo” animals with numerous playgrounds, lovely gardens, and a small botanical garden, and overall lots of space. With the exception of Camryn’s unfortunate tumble from a small bridge into the pond below, it was a great day, ending with the girls sleeping hard in our laps while riding the tram back to base. According to the girls, the true highlight of our entire trip was the final day on Saturday with a trip to the zoo in Heidelberg. It was a small zoo, and different from many US zoos in that at times you could get quite close to some of the animals. It also incorporated a few playground areas, which is truly a brilliant idea. Rachel was beaming most of the day, with constant requests of “Daddy, take a picture of …. for my album. “. I guess we have a lot of animal photos to print up! I think we have multiple photos of every animal there!
Sunday it was time to return to sunny Italy, arriving home some 1400 km and 14 hours later, we made it home. The views through Austria particularly were so beautiful, but northern Italy as well. Our travel angels were definitely with us, as during a construction zone we hit one of the “quickly speed up, than everything instantly ground back to a halt again.” I got stopped in time to not hit the car in front of me, watched in my rearview mirror and warned everyone we were about to get hit! Miracles occurred and the car must have stopped an inch or two before hitting us. Thank goodness were not in Naples for that one! Whew…… A reststop in the Rome area proved to be highly amusing. It was very crowded, and seemed so ITALIAN- an amazing amount of gold tennis shoes, high heels, sparkles and “bling” everywhere you looked on people’s outfits, and the parking lot was a total mess.

A great getaway was enjoyed by all. And even with the cold weather and rain, I saw enough beautiful bulbs blooming to feel like it was spring. Besides getting to stay and catch up with a great friend, it was also so nice to be staying in a home and not a hotel. Once again we were reminded that at least for our kids- it’s hard to do sightseeing and be a tourist on a full time basis. They quickly tire and are overwhelmed, prefer to just play somewhere, and the pigeons and lizards are usually much more interesting than any castle or church! If any have helpful hints you’ve used when traveling with younger children- I welcome suggestions!