Slugs

You know how when it rains in the States the earthworms come out from underground and cover the sidewalks?  A little different in Germany.  No earthworms, just gigantic slugs.

Rainy Day Fun

The next morning this bucket was empty

Proud of my girls for picking these things up

Salzburg, Austria

We are a little over three months into our time here and already the experience is bearing fruit.  Last week we were busy getting dinner ready and the kids were playing outside.  Haaken comes in from outside and while I'm chopping vegetables asks me for a cup which I assume was for a glass of water.  I gave him the cup and continued to chop, leaving Haaken to get his drink.  Some time later I look outside and see Haaken at the end of the driveway.  He had brought a bucket out of the garage and turned it upside down to use as a stool.  So there he sat, playing his electronic 'tar (guitar) with the cup I had given him placed in front of him to collect money, just like the street musicians and beggars we've seen in Prague, Paris, etc.  At one point he ran in excitedly saying a woman from the neighborhood had walked by and was laughing at him.

Over the weekend we took a trip to Salzburg, Austria.  Salzburg is about a three and a half hour drive from here and we decided to leave Saturday morning to save money on the Friday night hotel stay since I've been stressed about finances and our son is begging in the street.  Turned out to be a bad idea in the end due to the kids getting tired, but we had a pretty enjoyable day wandering around Mozart's hometown.  We arrived at about 11 after a long and foggy drive.  Luckily when we got to the Park and Ride to take us into town the sky cleared, which revealed the beautiful hills and mountains surrounding the town.  Once we got into town we headed straight to the Farmer's market we'd read about to grab some lunch.  The kids had hot dogs, fresh blueberries, and a giant Nutella covered, pretzel shaped donut.  We hit the recommended spots - The Getreidegasse - a famous shopping street known for it's iron signs and the place that Mozart was born and lived until he was 17, the Salzburg Cathedral which is the place that Mozart was baptized and served as the organist, St Peter's church and cemetery which is the most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen.  It's sandwiched between 3 churches and a sheer rock wall and lined with cobblestone walkways and beautiful flowers.  After a few hours we found a little cafe and intended on just having a drink, but ended up having dinner.  

Salzburg Market

Haaken getting some pointers

Mozart's old neigborhood

Salzburg Cathedral

Mozartplatz

After dinner we took the bus back to the Park and Ride only to discover that we had left our guidebook back at the restaurant, so I jumped back on the bus while Carissa and the kids waited at the car.  Once I got back we drove to the Farberhaus (our B&B) , which was about 30 minutes away in a little mountain town called Lofer.  From the pictures the hotel's advertisement it didn't give the impression of being in the mountains, but this town is literally surrounded by the jagged mountains of the Alps on all sides.  The couple that owned it had moved from England and bought it a year ago.  They were a super nice couple who had quit their jobs and poured all their money into renovating the building and setting up this new business.  The place was great for us, but we got the sense that things were pretty slow for the owners so far and they were pretty worried about making it.

Sunday we were planning on doing the Sound of  Music Tour (Salzburg is where the movie was filmed), but the tour started early and the kids were so tired the day before we scrapped that idea and headed by Berchtesgaden and Hitler's Eagle's Nest instead.  After a lovely drive through the mountains we made it to Berchtesgaden and then willed the Hoopty up the extremely steep road to the starting point of the tour, the Nazi Documentation Center.  From this point the only way to the Eagles Nest is either by walking or by bus, so we chose the latter.  The bus climbed up a one lane road, equally as steep, and at some points all that separated us from a very long fall was a wooden and stone railing.  When we got off the bus we immeadiately went through the granite tunnel that leads to the elevator up to the summit where Eagle's Nest is perched.  The tunnel was really incredible and the elevator was larger than I expected - it fit probably 30 people.  This must've been quite the surprise for Hitler - he was given it by the government for his 50th birthday in 1938 (I think).  Sounds like he didn't use it much - was only there 12 times over the next 7 years.  Too busy trying to take over the world I suppose.  At the top you exit right into the building itself, which is now a restaurant.  The guidebook we had said you can only go through the building if you have a guided tour so as not to disturb the diners, but it was a beautiful day anyway so we decided to hike up the mountain a bit more and enjoy the views which were great.

Tunnel to Eagle's  Nest

Eagles's Nest

After hiking around we went back the Eagle's Nest which has a great patio and decided to have some lunch.  We ordered a meat and cheese plate that included some sort of liver sausage and Head cheese, and also some edible meats.  I couldn't get the kids to try it but told them I was going to keep it in case any of them misbehaved.  Instead of a timeout, they could eat some head cheese.  At one point Haaken had to go to the bathroom and we "accidentally" walked through the whole restaurant on the way out.  It's actually not that big of a place, but the views are stunning and we saw the marble fireplace that Mussolini provided.  It has chips out of it from American soldiers who wanted a souvenier at the end of the war.

Hitler's Conference room

After lunch we went back down the mountain, headed for the Salt mines.  The mine in Berchtesgaden is still active, but it holds tours on the highest tunnels, which are still 150 meters below ground.  Haaken was all excited because before you start the tour you put on miners coveralls.  The guide only spoke German, but they provided audio guides that worked most of the time.  It was a really cool tour and the kids loved it.  We slid down a couple miners slides, learned how salt is mined, took a boat ride across and underground lake (complete with a light show) and rode on a little train in and out of the mine.  I tried to take some pictures, but none of them turned out since it was so dark.

Following the mines we went home to the Farberhaus and then walked into town for dinner.  We ate in a little Italian place right in the middle of town and then hustled home to beat the oncoming rain.  While we were getting the kids to bed the owners stopped by and asked if we were interested in coming down to their patio for a drink.  It was late so we got the kids to bed and then I went down as the family representative.  The owners' closest friends from England were visiting and we has a great time drinking Stiegl (local Austrian beer) and complaining about how Germans/Austrians never work and that their stores are always closed.  I found it interesting that they kept asking me questions about the US economy and how the recession all went down, and found that pretty much exactly the same thing took place in Britain shortly after us (pardon my ignorance from you Wall Street Journal readers out there).

We decided that Monday we would do the Sound of Music tour, but when we woke up it was pouring rain so we just packed up instead.  Once we got in our car though, the rain stopped and the sun came out so we decided to head back into Salzburg to see one of the main sights that we had missed on Saturday - Hohensalzburg Castle.  Really more of a fortress than a castle, it sits on a bluff towering over the old town.  We hike up the bluff and got inside, walked the grounds and snapped some pictures.  It was a pretty cool building, but the lines were really long to get on the inside so we hiked back down.  Once down we found a market and got some food, had a picnic lunch and then headed home.

Hohensalzburg Castle

Salzburg from above

Nothing really to report on the past week, it was cold and rainy everyday.  This morning I dropped off Carissa at the airport.  She's going home for 48 hours for a walk in memory of her sister Colleen.  She gets in Saturday at noon and flies back to Germany at 7:30pm on Monday.  The kids and I are planning to watch some movies, go bowling, eat junk food and hopefully hit the swimming pool.

Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

This past weekend was pretty low key once again. Friday night we had a girls night out (seeing Ramona and Beezus) and a guys night out (Dad and Haaken went bowling). Both parties were very happy with their choices. Haaken was beating Dad through the 7th frame when I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and then the second game we took turns bowling with the goal of getting the dinosaur graphics on the scorecard to show up. The girls had a great time also and highly recommend Ramona and Beezus which is very much geared toward mothers and daughters. Saturday we had planned on going to Amberg which is about 30 minutes away, but ended up doing pretty much nothing all day. That evening we skyped with Luke, Courtney, Lauren and Lil and then went to the PX to get school supplies. Hard to believe school starts up again in 3 weeks.

Sunday we managed to get up and out of the house. We visited a spa town in the Czech Republic called Karlovy Vary (which apparently translates to Carlsbad). The town has a beautiful main street that straddles the Tepla River. The town is famous for it's thermal springs which produce water that supposedly has healing powers. Along the main street, there are 13 springs that can be sampled by visitors. The map we got at an information booth informed us that each year 50,000 patients are sent to Karlovy Vary by their doctors to drink the magical water. It's said to be able to cure many ailments including: Digestive tract disorders, Metabolic disorders, Diabetes, Gout, Obesity, Gingivitis, Locomotor system disorders, Diseases of the liver, pancreas, gall bladder, and biliary ducts, Oncological convalescents, and Neurological diseases. Pretty incredible, eh? Near each spring is a little souvenir kiosk where you can purchase ugly and surely overpriced porcelain mugs with built in straws. The town was busy and they were making a killing on these mugs, and of course we ended up buying them for the kids. Carissa was warned that the water is an acquired taste and whoever told her that was correct. The water was very salty and maybe a little bitter. As we walked along, we sampled them all, which vary in temperature. At one of the hotter springs, Carissa provided the kids with a tea bag from her purse which improved the taste quite a bit.

Karlovy Vary

Preparing to be healed

Hallelujah!

After a while we sat down and had lunch at a little cafe beside the river and then continued down the main street. At the end of the street is the largest and hottest spring, which is enclosed in a very modern and therefore very out of place steel and glass building. This spring shoots steaming water 20 - 30 feet in the air while the tourists gather around and watch, most of them (including us) munching on wafer cookies that are made using the spring water. The wafers were cheap and actually quite good.

Lunch

We then made our way to a nearby church, snapped a few pictures and headed back for the car. There is more to see there but we figured we'll be back at some point and we wanted to get home before it got too late. This week the kids have a couple field trips through the base and then on Saturday we head to Salzburg, Austria. I suppose we'll have to rent the Sound of Music before we leave.

Grandma Belle - Part 3 and some other stuff

After we returned from Paris we took it easy on Saturday.  The kids pretty much watched movies all day and played in the yard a bit while the grown ups unpacked, sorted laundry, ran a couple errands and rested.  That night we went to the Tex-Mex restaurant and had a great meal.

Playing in the yard

Sunday we took Grandma to Regensburg and showed her around.  It was pretty busy for a Sunday even though all the stores were closed, but she got to see the Cathedral, the Stone Bridge and had some sausages by the river.

Monday we did chores most of the day (laundry and grocery shopping) and then on Tuesday we took Grandma to Weiden.  We shopped around, got to go inside the Old Rathaus, had lunch and got some ice cream.  That night Grandma took us to the local Thai restaurant for our last meal before she left.

Wednesday we took Grandma to the airport and then came home and I mowed the lawn and cleaned the house while the kids played.  Overall it was a great visit from my Mom and we were sad to see her leave.  She may come back in October for a short visit as she's planning a trip with some friends to France.

It's been pretty low key around here since Grandma left.  Last weekend we went to the annual German-American Volksfest which was basically like a county fair.  We wandered around for a while and got some food (horrible nachos, slushies, blooming onion) and the kids went on a couple rides, but apparently we weren't in the mood because we were only there maybe 2 hours before we went home.  It was a beautiful day though so we went to the pool for a couple hours.  Sunday we went for a walk and had a picnic at our neighborhood fussball field.

Lazy Saturday morning (w/ Chai Tea)

This past week Lydia had a field trip to a Butterfly Museum through the summer program on post, and  Elise went on a hike at a Labyrinth.  Haaken had one day of daycare just to get him in contact with some other kids.  This weekend we don't have anything planned really - maybe a movie tonight and then possibly going to a nearby town on Saturday (Amberg) that is supposed to have a cool city center.