Munich

Derek and the kids stayed in Hamburg while I attended my meetings at a hotel just south of the city on a scenic part of the Elbe.  They drove down one evening to visit me, and we drove a little ways and found a playground for the kids.

On Thursday, Derek and the kids drove from Hamburg down to Munich and stopped in Rothenburg on the way.  I think Derek has some cell phone pictures of the day.

I flew in the evening from Hamburg to Munich and took a cab to the apartment we rented.  I found Derek standing in the (high 40 degree) rain, trying to find the way in to the building.  The kids were in the car, generally tearing it apart.  Derek left to find the landlord, I paid the cab driver and went to talk to the kids.  I opened the car door and they were all in there, windows steamed up, looking up at me excitedly.  Charlotte starts clamoring, "Mom!  Mom!  Guess what happened!  I put my hand in some bushes and got a itchy rash with spots all over my hand!  Grace broke her finger! [here, Grace holds up her ring finger of her left hand with the end part from the last knuckle on at a really odd, awkward angle]  And Eli almost got hit by a car!".  I'm still standing in the rain, somewhat stunned, looking down at them smiling up at me.  Eli pipes up in this squeaky little voice, "A van hit me!!!"  Okaaaay.  Apparently, it was an eventful day.

[Eli's was a near miss.  A little too close for comfort, but he is totally fine].  [And something is definitely amiss with Grace's finger, but apparently it happened before we left at a softball practice and it doesn't hurt so we will leave it till we get home.  Never a dull moment.]

This sums up alot of the trip for me, actually.  All the complications of travelling and the things that don't go quite right with 3 kids, without the comforts of home to fall back on.   I think I spent alot of the Frankfurt leg of the trip stressed out - just waiting for the next moment when someone would inevitably throw a fit, get lost, get hurt or suddenly and desperately need to find something to eat, something to drink or somewhere to pee.  It bugged me because I have an image of myself as someone who loves to travel and I want to share that love of adventure with the kids, which is hard to do when you are anxious and exasperated.  I think we have settled in better in Munich, stopped taking ourselves so damn seriously, and I see it as a growing experience for all of us.

Munich is a very cool city.  I don't have too many pictures from today, but we made it down into the old center of town and walked around a good bit, even though it was rainy and cold.

This girls in the Marienplatz.



Me and the girls on the Munich subway.

Eli was very insistent on "pulling the handles" to open the doors.  This was challenging during rush hour, because he is not that quick about it.  Several times, some faster commuter beat him to door.  Finally, at our last stop the train was cleared out and he got the chance to open the doors all by himself.




All three kids watching a movie before bed.

 A funny story.  I asked the girls the other day, "on a scale of 1 to 10, how is the vacation so far?"  After a moment's pause, Grace said, "Eight!"  Charlotte was still quiet.  Finally she came up next to me and said, "I don't know how to answer that.  Do you have a piece of paper?  I am going to make a chart of the good things and bad things and count it up....And it is going to be out of 100 instead of 10, okay?"  A classic illustration of the difference between my two girls.  She did finish her chart and she decided the vacation was a 68, if I remember correctly.  She is now writing a 10 chapter book of her Germany experience.  She has the chapters all planned out.  Here she is at dinner working on it.

Day 4,5,6

Day 3.  Cold and rainy day in Frankfurt.  We bought the Frankfurt card which lets you ride the subways & trams all day and gives you 50% off admission to all the Frankfurt museums.  Eli liked riding the trains.  At first, we had an issue if the train that arrived at the station when we were boarding was not blue (they come in blue, teal, yellow, white, etc).  A couple of times we got on the train with Eli screaming, "not this one! not this one!", much to the joy of our fellow passengers I am sure.  By the third trip or so, thankfully he moved on from this one.

The girls thumbwrestling on the train.

We went to the Frankfurt Museum of Natural History.  It's got nothing on the one in NY, but it was nice nonetheless.   Below, all three kids looking at the same exhibit.  A rare moment.

We went to Experimenta!, a hands on science-center type museum.  It was really great.  Very minimalist in terms of design and set up.  Just a series of rooms with really cool things to look at and play with.  mostly they were very simple ideas that created really interesting effects and results.  I didn't get too many pictures.  here is one Derek tried.  It was just three mirrors set up facing each other.  When you ducked inside, you were inside a kaleidoscope.  The string lights add to the effect (but again, really simple idea - dramatic effect).  I was really impressed with the whole place.

Monday we drove up to Hamburg.  Arrived in the evening and found our new apartment.  The evening sky cleared up and we had a really nice walk into the city center which was great. 

Eli loves bridges.  Hamburg is full of them, so he is thrilled.  

I am posting these straight out of my iPhone to Blogger, so I can crop but I can't rotate which is driving me crazy on this tilted image.  

Two images I captured of the kids in the center of Hamburg.  There was a man who had ropes tied into circles and a bucket of bubble stuff.  A huge hit!  Apparently, Derek and the kids went back multiple times over the next few days while they were in Hamburg.  Bubbles never get old.

Monday evening, I did a quick walk-around in the apartment where we were staying.  Everyone on their electronic device - perfect!  At least it was quiet.  I wasn't complaining.

By the time I walked into the other rooms to take pictures of Charlotte and Grace, Eli had moved in and taken my spot next to Derek.

Trip to Germany

8 months since my last blog post. Life is good but busy. I wanted to post some pictures from our current adventure in Germany, both for family at home to see while we are gone and also for us to remember the trip by later on.

Day 2 in Frankfurt. It is 11:22 and the kids are all awake (but quiet) in the bedroom. I brag about my imperviousness (is that a word?) to jet-lag. It seems my offspring did not inherit the trait. They are happy, though, and they traveled like champs.

Some pictures...

Americans on vacation. Eating McDonalds and watching the cool 3D tv in the hotel (actually a small apartment we are renting for 3 nights).  Eli prefers to watch without the glasses. It's trippy that way.

On the Zeil in the center of Frankfurt.

Hey girl, sprechen zie English?

At the ruins of a castle in St. Goar. Derek predicted they would love running and climbing around a ruined castle.  They still lack the attention span for most guided tours. (I can't really blame them.) The ruins were fun to explore and you could go anywhere and climb on stuff.  Eli was in heaven. 

Eli is holding a bottle of sparkling mineral water.  Derek bought it at the store, mistaking it for spring water (still water?  however you distinguish it from the "regular" bottled water that is the only kind we have at home).  The girls were repulsed.  Eli took a big swig and said, "it's delicious!"

On the car ride up to the Toronto airport.

I like how they both stick their tongues out when they are concentrating.

We'll see what day 3 has in store...