Germany: Day 5: The Castles

Warning:  This post is picture heavy.

Day 5 was the day that we did a lot of uphill hiking to help move the lactic acid out of my muscles after climbing rocks sideways the day before.  It was actually pretty effective; however, if I stopped moving for any amount of time, I walked with a gimp until my muscles warmed up again.  The gimp actually elicited a lot of sympathy from Rachel.  And it convinced me that I need to start training now because 

she. 

is. 

coming. 

home in August and whatever we do then, I don't want to be as much pain as I was in Germany.

Yes, fear of my little sister is what motivates me to exercise.  What motivates you?

Sunday we spent touring the two castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, that are super famous in Bavaria.  Sadly, picture taking inside the castles is strictly verboten (I think I heard that some one/entity owns the rights to all pictures taken inside?), but I took a few *ahem* outside.  

Hohenschwangau was the summer palace of King Maximilian II.  It is a lovely castle.

But of course, it is up a hill.  So the question becomes, how do you get up the hill? 

Well, if you are Rachel, your boyfriend who is much taller and has a great deal of experience carrying a ruck sack, carries you up to the castle.  Several of the tourists walking by thought that this was quite "romantisch."

Rachel tried to give him a break, but that didn't work out as well.

But, they did jump for joy when they made it to the top!

Between high school and college, I have taken 5 years of German.  Which makes it all the more embarrassing that it took me quite a while after hearing the name of the castle and seeing the statues in the garden to figure out that the theme here is SWANS (Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein).

I do have to say that I found the fountains in Germany a little amusing as the animals were always spitting out water

We had a few minutes before our tour time, so we spent some time in the gardens admiring the view of the surrounding areas.  It is easy to understand why Max built his castle here.

A lovely view at the Jaegerhaus below.

A lovely view to a nearby town and lake.

And another gorgeous view of the Alpsee a little bit later on.

I loved how the Germans just paint right on the walls.

This was evidenced both inside and out.  The interior of the castle was covered in amazingly vibrant murals of Germanic mythological characters and battles painted right on the walls.  There is apparently quite a bit of controversy surrounding the issue of whether or not Max's son, King Ludwig II, was mad or not.  Personally, I think one would have to be a little bit daft after spending one's entire life surrounded by romantic era paintings of battles and epic heroes.  Imagine eating your pork knuckle and dumplings with sauerkraut while people are dying on the walls around you.  

You might have some issues, too.

The only picture taking inside the castle is a picture of the view outside the castle, the Alpsee:

After touring Hohenschwangau, we had a bit of a hike ahead of us to the castle "next door" - the famous Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein is HUGE.  Which partly explains why it was never completed.  Poor Ludwig II bankrupted the Bavarian people building two castles simultaneously, and this was only one of them.  His dream was to build yet another castle more elaborate and expensive than this one.  

It is perhaps not too surprising that he was declared incompetent on medical grounds.  Also not too surprising that was also found dead in shallow water with the physician who made the diagnosis.  

Once again, picture taking was forbidden.  It turns out that Ludwig was a big fan of Herr Wagner and many of the rooms are painted with a theme from the Wagnerian operas.  The paintings and woodwork were gorgeous and made me a little sad that I know so little about Wagner.  So the images did not evoke any particular stories for me as they would have for Ludwig, but were still gorgeous.

The only picture I took inside Neuschwanstein:

She looks so pensive because Calvin and I refused to do the hiking required to visit the Marienbruecke (Marie's bridge?).  Just kidding.  I think she would have been good to go, but we generally ran our trips like a democracy and the majority ruled.  In this case, the majority just wanted to sit down and enjoy the view for a while.

A view of the castle if I had a helicopter and it was surrounded by glass:

After our hikes, we took a stroll (I say stroll because it was downhill and we weren't on a schedule) to the Alpsee.  Bavaria is truly beautiful and becomes more so the further south one goes.  This lake was beautiful.

Isn't she cute?

Here is Calvin contemplating the astounding blue color of the lake.  I haven't ever seen anything quite like it.  A few minutes after I took this picture, Calvin stripped down to his underwear and took a swim out to solve the mystery.  All he could tell us after his brief trip is that it was cold and tasted clean.  We truly appreciated his sacrifice.

Just so beautiful!

Germany: Day 4: Klettersteig

My sister is awesome.  She is also pretty hardcore.  So, when we first started talking about me coming over to visit her, my first thought was, "I better start training.  For what, I have no idea, but I better start training for something."  

I should have listened to myself.

A few days before I flew over to Germany, Rachel sent me a youtube view of klettersteiging and asked if I was interested.  It looked really fun, so when we had the option to do a trip with ODR (the recreation people on base) on Saturday, we took it.

The best description I can give for klettersteiging is that it is like horizontal rock climbing.  It originated during WWII when metal cables were strung through the Alps to allow soldiers to transport gear through otherwise impassable areas.  The Germans are an outdoor-loving people, so now there are klettersteig areas maintained for purely recreational purposes (nicely placed near hiking paths for those who wuss opt out of the more technical sections).

So, each person has a harness with two bungee cords with d-clips on the end and one resting clip.  The two clips are hooked on the cable so that when a person has to unclip to move along the rock face, the other clip is still attached and one is never unhooked from the cable.  The resting clip is not attached to a bungee cord, but a stable cord so that you can clip it in and let go and not fall at all.  This clip turned out to be very useful to those of us with wussy less upper arm strength.

Our trip included three sections (easy, medium and hard respectively) with the first being the longest.  The guide told us to consider after the first section whether or not we wanted to continue the other two sections.  Of course, this being a trip consisting mainly of military people (and one guy's rockstar wife), most of them had to do the whole thing.  Army Strong!  Me and my wobbly arms made a very self-aware decision that we would best serve others (ie all those people waiting patiently in line behind me) by being photographer and giving everyone a good idea of what they looked like from the hiking trail below on sections 2 and 3.  

Yeah, I am a philanthropist like that.

Anyway, it was an awesome experience and so much fun!  I am so grateful that Rachel pushed me out of my comfort zone, that Todd (the guide) saved me the one time I got stuck on the rock, and that Calvin took a ton of pictures so my husband and kids could see what we did. 

But, seriously, if Rachel ever invites you to come visit her, really do starting training.  For something.  Your body will thank you for it later.

Germany: Day 3: A Tale of Two Cities

My sister has awesome skills.  Some she learned before the military, some from the military.  I would follow my sister through the woods and over the mountains anywhere.  

But, when it comes to driving, it is a different story.  She owns a Navigon ("Navi") that she follows rather blindly all through Europe.  The Navi led us erringly to and through Prague last time I visited.  The Navi led us to Fussen and Salzburg on this trip.  The Navi is great.  The operator, not always so great.  And in this case, the operator was me.

On day 3 in Germany, Rachel decided to take me to Regensburg on the Danube.  And yes, the u is that important.  Very important.  Rachel handed the Navi to me and told me to just enter in the town name and it would take us to the town center.  I started typing in r-e-g and the Navi autofilled with "Regensberg" and I, unwitting tourist, thought that must be it.  So we spent the next hour and a half driving through scenic back roads of Bavaria with a confused sister who wasn't quite sure why we weren't driving on the autobahn.  But, since the Navi is always right, we kept driving.  And driving.  And driving.  To the lovely, tiny town of Regensberg.  

No Danube River.  

No cathedral.  

No outdoor cafes.  

No lovely old town and town square.

At this point, we learned an important lesson in German spelling and that Irene should not be allowed to operate the Navigon.  Rachel was pretty tired of driving, so we went back to her house and caught the train to Regensburg.

It was worth the train ride (and drive!) to finally make it to Regensburg.  Here are Rachel and I after a morning of travelling.  

We hung out a bit by this guy...

...and his friends on this lovely cathedral.

I love cathedrals and castles and I am so thrilled that I got to see several of both on this trip.  I love the insides and the outsides, the stonework and the glass work, the vaulted ceilings and the alters.  Love.  Love.  Love.

Then we meandered over to the Danube.

After all this, we dined with this view in front of us:

Does it get any better than this?

Germany: Day 1 & 2

I got back a week ago from a wonderful vacation with my sister in Germany.  I love my family and missed them, but it was so much fun to play in Europe with my sister.

I arrived in Nuremberg on June 1st around 9am.  I love arriving in Nuremberg because even though there are booths at passport control, there are no people in them.  I also love Air France because their GF menu is tasty (travel note:  if you order a special meal, you get to eat first).

I haven't been to Nuremberg itself, so we stowed my suitcase in a locker at the airport, hopped on the metro and headed into town.  I love German towns.  Rachel and I meandered around looking while I played the tourist and took pictures of anything that struck my fancy.  Like this fountain.  I don't know what these people are doing, but it looks symbolic and painful.

I love travelling with my sister.  She doesn't have the best sense of direction, but she can navigate by landmarks and generally feels that most interesting sites are uphill.  In this case, she was right.  We found streets that were headed uphill and at the top of some of them was the town castle.  I took this picture because it shows the general overall charm and quaintness of Germany.

Since I was jet-lagged and camera-shy, Rachel posed in a picture so my readers could get a sense of perspective.

And a peek at Nuremberg from the top of the castle.

We also went in a cathedral, watched the town clock with the rest of the tourists and hung out at a Starbucks since it was about 40 degrees cooler in Germany than in Virginia.  We took the train back to Vilseck (LOVE German train system) and went on base to bulk up Rachel's pantry with some GF foods.

I did a pretty good job of staying awake the whole time since my plan of attack for jet lag was to keep moving until bedtime local time to help me get on a normal sleep schedule as soon as possible.  It worked pretty well, but I slept 12 hours that night.  We spent most of Thursday morning relaxing and most of Thursday afternoon on base deciding to go to Brussels and then discovering that wasn't going to happen.  So, we headed to Amberg for dinner with Rachel's boyfriend and had a lovely evening recounting some funny Rachel stories.  Or, rather, funny things people have done to Rachel stories.  Family figured prominently in these anecdotes and even I heard some new stories.

It was a good day to recover from the trip and, even though I didn't know it yet, for what was coming in two days.

And it was coming.

Welcome Home!

So, like I said, I am going in reverse order here.


On Wednesday, I had quite an eventful return to the States.  We landed and I made it through Customs and Baggage Claim in under 30 minutes and by 7:25 was standing in the pick-up zone.  Standing.  And standing.  And standing.  At first, I figured Jason hadn't expected me to make it out so quickly - understandable.  And then it just got to be ridiculous.  But I kept waiting "just 5 minutes more" for him to show up since Jason really is a dependable guy.  An hour later and I was alternating between pissy (it was about 2 am German time - so tacky to make me wait) and worried (really, Jason isn't so thoughtless as to make me wait unless something was wrong).  


Finally, I headed inside to find some pay phones.  I had to dig around for some American change since I mostly had Euros and finally found 50 cents.  I tried calling Dad, Dad's cell and Mom's cell and the machine told me none of those numbers was valid.  I admit, I had a little breakdown at that point.  R (Josh's best friend's dad) found me at the pay phones banging the phone demanding of the phone gods why the "damn phone wouldn't call any damn numbers."  It turns out R had been sent to pick me up and had been waiting outside of Customs for about an hour.  He just missed me coming out.  In any case, he brought the unhappy news with him that Jason was at the hospital with Josh.  And the even more unhappy news that it wasn't Josh's first trip to the hospital that day.

Josh's school had a water party Wednesday and there was some vanilla ice cream.  Josh thought it was soy and he ate a bowl of it.  The school then called Jason to tell him what happened and that Josh wasn't feeling well.  Then they called to  tell him they had to give Josh Benadryl.  By the time Jason made it to the school, they had given Josh the Epi-pen and an ambulance was coming to take him to the hospital.

Jason and the three boys spent 3 hours in the ER and were sent home.  Then Josh got worse and had to come back and was then admitted for the night.  So, R dropped me off at the hospital straight from the airport and he and his wife, S, watched the younger two boys for the night.  My Dad came bright and early the next morning to our house to be "on call" to watch the younger boys or come get Josh and I from the hospital since I didn't have a car.  We have been so blessed with the help of family and friends through this whole exciting adventure!


Luckily, Wednesday night was uneventful (except for those dumb alarms that go off every hour on the IV).


The ped came by the next morning to check on Josh.  He asked Josh how much he had eaten and if it was any good.  Sadly, Josh said that the ice cream was really good.  Poor kid knows only soy products so until now he didn't know what he was missing out on!  However, he did tell me later that he thought he was going to die when he was sick from the ice cream, so hopefully that will prevent him from trying to eat it again.  In any case, the doc said he ate so much and is so allergic that his allergy outpaced the medications, which is why he got worse and had to come back.  I am so grateful that our allergist pushed for us to have an Epi-pen, because I would never have assumed, based on past history, that Josh would have this kind of reaction to dairy.


I don't know what this means for any future accidental contact Josh may have with dairy, but I have the irrational desire to buy "Don't Feed Me" stickers and attach them to him next year at school.  His poor teacher, who really is quite diligent about Josh and food, was just devastated and apparently in tears.  It was a crazy party day at the school and the ice cream was out for everyone to take and eat on an absurdly hot day, so I don't blame her.  I usually supply an alternative ice cream that often looks just the same as the dairy version, so I don't think Josh really even thought that it might not be for him to eat.  I guess we'll just have to be even more careful in the future.


On the bright side, the staff at the hospital is a-maz-ing and I highly recommend our hospital to anyone.  They have a Wii in the pediatric department that they can wheel right up to the bed and is preloaded with 10+ games.  When I came in the room and saw Josh for the first time in eight days, he was so caught up in the Wii that his only response to my return was a grunt.  He received a backpack filled with books and toys from one of the nurses and got to eat in bed.  He actually didn't want to leave the hospital when the time came.  That might be a little bit counterproductive to convincing him not to do this again, but it did make our time there (relatively) pain-free.


Here is Josh on our way out of the hospital.  I am not sure where he got this particular "gangsta" pose.

We are so very lucky and blessed that all turned out well.  We have wonderful friends, family, pediatrician and nurses!!! 

Last Day of T-ball

Between my trip and our exciting adventure when I got home, I do have plenty to blog about.  However, I am going to start with today and work my way backwards until I get all caught up.  I am also going to try to end as many sentences as possible with a preposition.  

Just kidding.

Today was the last day for t-ball.  I won't lie, I was more than a little relieved.  The boys have really enjoyed the season, but with all the make-up games (we have had up to 5 games in one week) due to a very wet Spring and the increasing temps, I was excited to be done.  Today was a double header for us with Josh playing at 9am and Michael at 11am at the same field.  

This was Josh's first and last t-ball season.  If he/we choose to continue, he moves up to the Rookies.  He has definitely been one of the largest children on his team - a novel experience for one of our kids.  He loved having Jason as an assistant coach and loves to recap the highlights of his games for us.

Due to a great recommendation, Michael had spectacular coaches this season.  Michael usually sits back and observes for a while before he commits to something new, but his coaches were wonderful at encouraging him and teaching him.  He got the nickname "Lightening McQueen" and is a speedy runner.  He had a great time and learned a lot.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Happy Birthday to our middle son!  Michael turned 5 years old today and in our family tradition he got to pick dinner, dessert and a movie.  He picked macaroni and cheese, chocolate cake and Disney's Robin Hood (only because the Batman cartoons were not available on Netflix).  Because of dairy allergies, Celiac's and our attempt to go off sugar, my Mom was nice enough to go get Michael his own special cupcake for dessert.  He devoured the whole thing.

Michael is tiny spring - already ready to jump and run and explode with energy.  He is very loving and always good for a cuddle and an "I love you, Mama."  He loves superheroes and anything that lets him go FAST!  He has adorable freckles and beautiful blue eyes and I don't know what we would do without him!