Castle Road Trip Picture

Life Update

I wanted to give you an update on our life right now. So much has happened in these last couple months so I won't be able to hit on everything.

The school year started super well. It is definitely nice to not be the new teacher anymore. Our school finished up the building project so we now have a lot more space. I have my own classroom and things seem to be clicking well. I took the 8th and 9th graders on a field trip to Hamburg which was a lot of fun, but also very stressful since I was the teacher in charge (I did have two other teachers with me) and I did most of the planning.

Onion Market October 13th-15th

Holly started Kindergarten in September and absolutely loves it. The circumstances around it were pretty amazing. Heather found that there was a language class at the Bauhaus University, but it started the second week of September and Holly was set to start Kindergarten the third week. Holly's teacher was able to get things switched around getting Holly in early! Holly took right to it, much better than Stanley and she never even shed a tear.

Holly's first day of Kindergarten.

As far as Heather's German class went, it was absolutely wonderful. Extremely hard, but beneficial. However, getting Holly in Kindergarten was not the only obstacle that had to be over come to get Heather in that class. She was also not allowed to register for it. When she called the Bauhaus, Heather was told that the class was for University students first and guests second, and that the class was full. We prayed about it and decided that if God was going to get Holly in Kindergarten then He can get Heather in the class. On the first day of class Heather showed up to take the placement test. She showed up on time and was whisked into a classroom to take the test. The next day she showed up again and was on the roster for a class. The course was only 3 weeks long, but the whole time Heather felt as if they were going to say, "Wait! You're not supposed to be here!" and kick her out. That never happened and she was able to pay for and complete the course. Afterwards she was even put on the roster for a continuation of the course which she was not able to take due to the pregnancy. It was definitely a miracle that she was able to get in to that class.

Speaking of pregnancy, we are currently less than 2 weeks away from the Due Date. Heather, as with most pregnant women at this point, is ready to be done and hold Baby Stuart. As for the middle name, we still haven't 100% settled on a middle name. It is between Paul and William. We've been telling people Stuart Paul, but every time we do, Stanley corrects us and says it is Stuart William. Paul is my Dad's middle name (Steven Paul) and William was my Great Grandpa's name (William Ehret) so both have a family significance. We are super excited, but also a little nervous. We got to see the hospital's birthing rooms in October which helped put a lot of anxieties at rest. But there are so many unknowns with labor and delivery, it will be interesting to see how things play out in the middle of it. Plus not necessarily being able to communicate with nurses and midwives makes things a little more difficult.

A beautiful pregnant mommy.

We do have a great support network for the whole process. Our plan is to have Susanne and Nadine at the birth. They are Heather's two closest friends who both have 3 little kids and speak very good English. Throughout the process they have helped us in so many ways, from scheduling to attending appointments, helping with paperwork and much more. Together they threw a baby shower for Heather which was an absolute blessing. At the birth I also plan on being there and also Heather's mom Cinda. Our only worry is that they won't let that many people attend the birth of Stuart.

After the birth the German Healthcare system takes great care of the Mommy and Baby, except that the Husband is not allowed to stay at the hospital with Mommy and Baby. :-(  There are some family apartments that we could stay in after the 24 hour mark so we'll have to figure that one out. The apartment does cost about 30 Euros per night, which is a lot better than the $1000 per night at an American hospital. After we go home, the midwives come to us for post-natal appointments. That will make it really nice when we don't have to take Stuart out in sub freezing temperatures.

An unexpected snow day in October

As for my work and the birth of Stuart we had another HUGE miracle happen. By German law if I was going to take time off I had to take a minimum of 2 months at 66% of my monthly income. (there is a cap to that, but I don't make that much) So we decided that it would be good to take advantage of the system and take the two months off. The problem was who was going to teach my classes? Teaching is not a job where it is easy to just take time off. The school wanted to bring someone in the beginning of November to help make a smooth transition and in case the Stuart was early. Two weeks before the start date we still had not found a qualified candidate! God showed up once again and a great, "more-qualified-than-I-am" teacher from New Zealand was hired. It has been a great transition and I am learning a lot from him. He's going to take over a few of my classes earlier since he is here, he has nothing else to do, and it will make it two less classes that we have to scramble on when that time comes.

To end this blog I asked Stanley what he thought we should tell our friends about our life recently. The first was Holly's finger nails. Back in October Holly got her fingers smashed in a door. We got the call from Susanne as I was walking in the door returning from dropping them off at kindergarten. It is only a 6-8 minute bike for me so it must have happened almost immediately after dropping them off because the Kindergarten called Susanne who then called us. Heather then had to go to Kindergarten to pick up Holly and take her to the emergency room because it happened at Kindergarten. It was only the tips so they weren't going to take x-rays and Holly was left with some really nice black and blue and purple fingernails. Recently, the nails have fallen off. But through it all, Holly has had a great attitude.

Holly's Black Nails

Another thing that Stanley wanted me to tell you was about Caillou. If you are not familiar with the show it is a children's cartoon about a 4 year old boy, his 2 year old sister Rosie and the adventures and challenges of being a kid. It is one of the few shows that the kids can watch without being scared. yesterday we found a brand new DVD for only 2 Euros at a Fleamarket. The kids always want me to tell them stories about Caillou and Rosie (and their Mommy and Daddy).

The last thing is about Stanley's German skills. He has now been in Kindergarten for just over a year and it is amazing of what he is able to communicate with others. We had a friend Babysit the kids last Friday and she was talking to them at dinner and asked Stanley, "So you speak a little bit of Deutsch?" "No," answered Stanley, "I speak a lot of Deutsch." Yes it is only 4 year old playground/Kindergarten Deutsch, but his pronunciation is great and he as already surpassed me, and Heather has or is about to too! Crazy that we came here with me being the best German speaker in the family, and now I am almost the worst. Holly already understands more than me.

Thank you for taking the time to catch up with us. By the next time I write a post, we'll probably be a family of 5! While you wait, here are some pictures from our daily life. Enjoy and take care.

An amazing after Kindergarten snack made by Heather 

A fun in the garten Saturday morning breakfast.

Best Friends.

Our precious girl

Stanley's fun "rest time" creations. 

Making imaginary music together. Can you guess the instrument? 

One of Heather's amazing dinners. 

Tucking Mommy in. 

Fun with Daddy.

Little Red Riding Hood. (Cape made by our dear friend Anna who also did Heather's henna belly.)

My normal evening routine. Lesson Planning.

Our daily routine now includes Heather making my lunch in the morning while I take the kids to Kindergarten. Let me just say that she makes better lunches than I do.

Castle Road Trip Part 2

Ok, here is the second half of our castle road trip this past summer. We left off in Heidelberg. I'll have to say that at that part of the trip we were already starting to get tired. A lot of driving and I personally don't like driving in big cities, but it would have been even worse without a GPS. It was also difficult because we were trying to get somewhere, but due to bathroom breaks, need for food and fussy kids (and sometimes parents) it was hard to make progress.

Our next destination was Munich. We had found a place to stay through the website airbnb.com. The website allows you to put a room or apartment up for rent like a bed and breakfast or you can find someone who has a room/apartment/floor available to stay at/crash at. We found a family with young boys, and they seemed like a great family to stay with. We were hoping to arrive sometime around dinner and that became around 9 or 10 pm. We ended up staying in one of the kid's rooms and it was absolutely perfect. Because they had kids Stanley and Holly had things to do and people to play with. If we were at some "don't touch anything" apartment I think we would have gone crazy. The mom was also super helpful in giving us ideas of what to do while we were there. Our plan was to visit Neuschwanstein one day and Munich the other. She recommended seeing Munich first (Friday) because their summer holiday was going to begin Saturday and a lot of the public transportation system was going into construction mode Saturday.

So Friday we had a relaxing morning as a family. The mom took her boys to Kindergarten so we had the house to ourselves. It was kind of weird hanging out in someone's house that we had just met the night before. Since I didn't have the jogging stroller, I took the kids for a walk in the morning out to Nymphenburg Estate. We didn't actually make it all the way since I had to deal with some uncooperative kids. I had one umbrella stroller and two kids who didn't want to walk. But we still had fun and the Palace Forest was really cool.

We never made it to the actual Palace, but only to the end of the long pond in the upper left hand corner of the photo.

We started out happy...

Found a cool park to play at...

And when people got fussy, this was my best solution...

 We stopped to see the view...

 And see the gorgeous estate grounds

 Got to love the swans

 But we still weren't close to the Palace

 Looks neat.

After lunch we walked down the nearby metro station, bought a day pass and took the S-Bahn into down. I had read in a Munich Tour Book that the cheapest sightseeing trip is to take a ride on one of the downtown streetcars so that was our plan. We made it to the Hauptbahnhof and set off to find the desired streetcar. We had opted not to drive into town because as I stated earlier, I really don't like driving in big cities. When we finally made it onto the tram the ride reminded us of a Disneyland Ride. Not to fast, but things were certainly wizzing by. "Did you see that?" Wow that statue was cool!" We tried to take some pictures on our little ride, but it all happened way to quickly.

After our ride we found a park to let the kids play a bit. and then we set out to find our next street car (unsuccessfully) and make our way to Marienplatz, the center of Munich. By the time we got there we weren't ready for anything long or intense. Our main purpose was to see it, which we did. With two little kids museums and such are not on your itinerary. Instead we decided to find a place to eat and our hostess' husband recommended the Hofbrauhaus. It is a famous Beer Hall and  we decided to check it out. The downstairs of the Beer Hall was absolutely packed and getting busier by the minute (it was nearing 6 pm). Heather asked around and found that there was a quieter restaurant area upstairs. She went to scout it out and came back with good news. The dinner was ok, I wasn't too impressed with the Munich Veal Sausages (Thuringian Bratwurst is much better). But the experience was nice and we got to sit down. After dinner we hopped on the U-Bahn and went back to the house. 

The park we found. Right next to a church.

Our host family had two strollers they let us borrow! They were perfect.

 Holly liked her stroller.

 Hofbrauhaus. And as you can see in the picture in Munich people actually wear Lederhosen (the stereotypical suspender type pants) and Dirndl (the stereotypical dress) in public and on a regular basis. I learned that the way you can tell the locals from the tourists is that the tourists will wear short Dirndl and true authentic Dirndl are calf length.

 My Munich Veal Sausage. Bratwurst Bitte (Please).

The next day we set off for Neuschwanstein, the Cinderella Castle. My goal was to get there earlier in the morning (9 or 10 am), but as it goes we didn't arrive until more like 1 or 2. One of the big hiccups on our drive that day was when Stanley threw up all over the back of the car. And he tried to stop it which created a put your hand over the spout of the sink effect. All I can say is ewww. After getting it cleaned up, and then stopping for lunch we finally made it down to Neuschwanstein. The tourist destination is actually 2 castles and a museum. Neuschwanstein is the most famous castle. It is the one that the Disneyland castle was modeled after. It is also called the Cinderella Castle. It was built by King Ludwig around 1860 (yes only 150 years ago). Then there is Hohenschwangau which was renovated by Ludwig's dad or granddad. Note what the two names have in common. "schwan" which means swan. They really liked swans and both castles had a swan theme in the interior and exterior decorations. The German language is all about putting words together to make new words. "Neu-schwan-stein" = "New Swan Stone" and "Hohen-schwan-gau" ="High Swan ???"

The location is nestled at the base of the Alps with the Alpsee (Alp lake) right next to it.

Hohenschwangau. The castle the Ludwig grew up in.

The Swan and the Lion were the two most common animals used in the decorations. 

The view from Hohenschwangau was amazing.

Unfortunately Neuschwangau was under renovation.

Family picture time in front of Alpsee.

 We really enjoyed this stop because these are two castles that are worth seeing at least once if you ever have the opportunity. This is partially due to the fact that they are so new and things are better preserved and in their original state. Once Neuschwanstein was finished, Ludwig only lived there for about 170 days before he mysteriously died. He was deemed crazy by the German politicians and he went to argue their ruling. Soon afterwards he was found dead in a lake with his psychiatrist.

Our day started out overcast and then it started to rain on us as we rushed to get to Neuschwanstein (we were on one of the last tours of the day and caught the last bus coming back). Remember, getting to these castles is no easy task, especially if you're a pregnant lady and you have two little kids in tow.  One of the really cool things was that while we were walking the halls of Neuschwanstein there was a thunder and lightning storm going on outside. Just like in the movies!

Neuschwanstein from the road nestled in the Alps

 By the time we got up to Neuschwansteinit was raining. 

But that didn't stop Holly and I from going up to Mary's bridge to get a photo-op.

The front entrance.

From the main courtyard. 

Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to explore this much due to the rain.

Mary's bridge as seen from the castle. 

Our two happy and tired kids after a busy day.

After an Alps thunderstorm.

Two tired but happy parents.

A nice view on our drive home.

The next day we left Munich to return home to Weimar. But we had one more stop along the way. We wanted to stop in Nuremburg to see our last castle. The traffic that day was horrendous because it was the beginning of the Bavarian summer. Fortunately the worst traffic was going south. In Thuringia most people go North for vacation to the Ost See, while most Bavarians go south. 

The interesting thing about Nuremburg is that the center of town still has castle walls and what seems to be a moat. Of course there are no drawbridges because they are now bridges for cars. But I think that is one of the things that makes this castle so unique. The actual castle wasn't terribly impressive. Anyways after we found a place to park we then got to walk up the hill to the castle. The whole area is surrounded by homes and businesses. In the castle we just missed the last tour, but the person at the information center said it is more about the culture and there was not much to actually see for the kids. He did say that they would like the tower, the well demonstration, and possibly the museum. All three were pretty cool.

The walk up the hill.

City center plaza infront of Frauenkirche.

Because the kids were so tired this is how we traveled that day.

The museum was mostly displays of old armor and weaponry. Because we didn't get there until the end of the day we didn't have time to really explore it so it was more of a quick run through.

The Castle Tower.

The well demonstration was showing the castle well and how deep it was (50 meters approx 164 feet). We all crammed into the well house and the man had us gather around the well. He started by shinning a light down the well so we could see the reflection of the water. He then poured some water into the well and we waited until we hear the water splash at the bottom. A very long drop indeed. Then he lowered a tray with candles on it all the way to the bottom again showing how deep this well was. It was pretty cool. One of the interesting things was that during the demonstration guide totally chewed out one of the tourists who was talking and not paying attention to him. A very German thing to do. An American tour guide would be too shy to tell someone that they are being rude and disrespectful.

The well house.

 The well candles.

 We then made our last stair climb of our trip up to the top of the castle tower. We were feeling done at that point, but one more. The view was good and we had some strange guys offer to take our picture. I can't remember their stories, I think they were cooks or just travelers. Whatever they were it was a little awkward handing over our camera, but they got a nice picture of us.

 The last stair workout of the trip!

 

Nuremburg skyline

The castle and more restorations.

Our family picture. You can see how tired we are.

Then we headed back down and made our way to the car. We stopped at McDonalds to get some inexpensive food and Heather saw someone with a Starbucks cup, but she couldn't find the Starbucks. We were all exhausted, but our attitudes were good and we were so thankful for the wonderful trip that we had.

One more family self portrait, although Holly was having nothing to do with it. 

Our ferocious lions!

A cool sculpture of the city.

St Lorenz Cathedral and a really handsome boy.

After a long drive that night we finally made it home to Weimar. I will reiterate that, home in Weimar. Our vacation was wonderful but we realized that Weimar is home to us. We love our home, our city, and our friends here. We like that we have to learn Deutsch to communicate here (in West Germany more people speak English and we didn't have to use our German skills as much as we have to in Weimar.) We are so thankful for where God has us. Thank you to our friends to hosted us and helped us. We made a lot of great memories and are really thankful that we got to go on our little castle road trip.