Europe - Germany Part 1

A little over a month ago, Stu informed me that he had to make a trip over to Paris and Germany for some meetings, and that it would probably be for around two weeks that he would be gone.  Fortunately that statement was quickly followed by, "Do you think we could all go?"  Yep!  We had in depth discussions that our youngest is perhaps the world's worst night sleeper, and we wondered what the consequences would be with transporting her across 8 time zones.  Couldn't be too much worse than it already is, right?  :)  Famous last words... It actually hasn't been terribly bad.  You can't really expect a 9 month old and a 3 year old to fully understand the concept of time zones and jet lag.  I will say that I do not have any immediate plans to do this trip again.  I even sent an e-mail as to why I don't want to make super long trips to Stu that I told him he has to save for the next time I get the urge to go.  Abbey has been awake since 2:00 this morning and Amelia was up for I think 4 hours in the middle of the night.  It was still worth it.  

The first bit of excitement we had was during our connection at Washington Dulles.  We decided to have dinner at a restaurant near our gate.  As I sat down, I looked at the table next to us and I leaned over to Stu and said, "That lady looks a lot like Betty White."  Sure enough, it was!  I didn't want to ask for an autograph or take a picture.  So alas, no actual tangible memory of it.  She was very, incredibly nice, though.  As we were leaving the restaurant she said something very nice to us about the girls.  

Back to the trip.

Snuggled into bed to watch Dora after a long day, night and day of flying and driving:

 Jet lag snack.  Taken at about 1:00 am.

 One of my favorite pictures from the trip...

 We were able to get together with a bunch of friends during our time in Erlangen.

We were glad to meet lil' sis Tess!

 Bretzel!

 One of my roommates from college recently moved to Germany... she made the drive from Stuttgart to come visit us for part of the day (so thankful she was able to... thanks, Stephanie!).  It was so nice to see her and meet her little guy!  

 I am pretty sure that everybody that came to visit us while we lived in Germany has eaten at this cafe in Nuremberg...

 We made the hike up the hill to the castle in Nuremberg.  It was pretty warm, and the hill is very steep.  That stroller is heavy, too.

 I love this picture:

 Went to visit our old neighbors... funny to see these two together after a year and half!

We drove to our friend Anja's village to have lunch with her and her daughter:

 More play time with Luna...

Luna has an English accent... after the few times that she and Abbey played together, Abbey had developed an English accent.  Another of our favorite things was when we had lunch with some English friends, Abbey was playing with their little girl and said, "Hey girl! (American accent) Here's your ball! (English accent)."  

The huge Bierfestival in Erlangen started while we were there, so there were lots of people in their Trachtenmode (traditional Bavarian dress).  This felt so very German to me:

 Better go get some rest... Part 2 coming soon...

Laufrad

We got a Laufrad for Abbey this weekend.  Not entirely sure what they are called over here... push bike?  Balance bike?  Walk bike?  Any child over the age of 6 months in Germany has one (maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but they do start on them really young).  We had wanted to purchase one when we were in Germany, but never got around to it.  The other day at the park she seemed interested in it, so we decided to get one.  They are great for learning balance and in theory Abbey will never need training wheels.  Here are some pics from the Laufrad's first spin...

So excited!

I'm going!

Ok, I'm done.

Good first day.

One last thing...

Maybe a couple more things.

I was drifting off to sleep last night and for some reason I thought of one of our neighbors in Germany.  We first crossed paths with this woman about a week after Abbey was born.  We were all out on a walk heading to a bakery in our neighborhood and this woman stopped us to take a look at the baby.  I knew I liked her immediately, because she used all sorts of adjectives like "süß" (sweet) and "schön" (beautiful).  The conversation sticks out in our mind because after her sweet compliments of Abigail, she proceeded to ask some rather personal questions, such as "Was I breastfeeding?"  Even though I answered in the affirmative, she continued to tell us all of the benefits of doing so.  It was awesome.  We walked away from the conversation checking with each other to make sure our translating was right!  She is an older woman, and she makes me smile because I would see her a couple of times a week.  She walked with a walker, and she almost always had her dog on a leash in one hand and a cigarette in the other hand.  Every few steps with the walker she would stop and take a puff.  This woman was so nice and she became a part of our lives.  We had many conversations (generally she contributed more than I did) about an extremely wide variety of topics.  I really wish I had snuck a picture of her for posterity sake, but hopefully she'll be etched in my mind for some time to come.  I bring this up for a couple of reasons... it is certainly a huge benefit to pedestrian society, because you meet and talk with all sorts of people you wouldn't meet otherwise, which is really cool.  I also wanted to point out that when taken at face value, Germans can be pretty stoic, but when you stop and talk to them or even offer a smile, they are really warm.

I also had to post one more Germany blog because I had a couple more pictures I wanted to use!

This is Katrin and Joah... Abbey spend a lot of Sunday mornings with them (Katrin's daughter, Liel isn't pictured). 

For Christmas some of our friends gave us a "date night."  It was so nice... we were able to go to our favorite restaurant and enjoy a very nice dinner!

Abigail and one of her friends on one of our last days in Germany...

This is Miss Laura.  Miss Laura is one of Abigail's favorite people.  When I broke my arms, Laura was Abbey's 2nd mom.  She and her husband are the ones who gave us the date night, and they took these pictures while they were babysitting.  I love the mouth full of peas...

I mentioned this in my "Last Days..." blog, but this is the brunch that the Tuesday Bible Study ladies had for me.

Off we go!

 

Last Days on Rathenaustrasse

We are officially back in the Mountain Time Zone.  And feeling the effects, let me assure you.  The last two nights have included getting up for a 3:30 am snack for the little one.  Who can blame her... it's lunch time according to her body!

The last 14 days in Germany were very busy.  We got a call from someone on Thanksgiving saying that they wanted to buy our kitchen, but they had to pick it up on Sunday (as in 4 days later).  This is what a kitchen looks like after all the cabinets and appliances are sold (and after your neighbor loans you a big table and Rubbermaid containers).

Right after Thanksgiving Stu left for his annual trip to Chicago and on Monday Abbey and I went to visit a friend in Italy (blog on that will be coming at a later time).  My computer decided to stop working in the midst of our last few days, so it put a bit of a kink on communicating.  Sigh.  I seem to have a bad affect on laptops.

We got some snow, so Abbey and I took advantage of our remaining few pedestrian days to walk around.  We always have to stop to look at the bunnies.

She has since decided she doesn't really like the snow very much.  If it gets on her shoes, she reaches down and says, "Off.  Off.  Off."  Our very girly-girl.  There isn't any snow on the ground in CO right now, so I'm sure she is happy with that.

We were out on a walk one day and I saw a craft booth selling various items.  The proceeds benefited the hospital where Abigail was born, so I decided to buy a pillow.  It was a good choice... she loves it and has to have it to sleep with in her cot now.

Sometimes when it's very quiet, Abbey will be sitting on a pillow looking at a book.  From what I have observed with toddlers, when there is silence, quiet book-reading usually isn't the norm.  If you click on the picture to see it larger, you will notice that the q-tips have been happily released from their box.

Every week Abbey and I go next door for a playgroup.  There are several kids around her age that go (some not pictured).  Poor Abigail had just returned from the doctor, having been diagnosed with bronchitis and an ear infection. 

One of the benefits of being sick is that she gets to watch a little TV.

We had a Ladies Night and went to the Erlangen Weihnachtsmarket (Christmas Market).  The snow certainly gave it an ambiance. 

Warming up with some tasty Greek food.  Yum!

The ladies at my church had a very nice international brunch on the last Tuesday before we left.  Abbey and I got to enjoy some scones with jam and cream, quiche, Chinese fried noodles, sausage (of course) and a lot of other dishes from different areas of the world.  I think I speak for Abbey and Stu when I say how much we will miss Erlangen.  We had such an amazing exposure to so many different cultures.  Thank you all for impacting our lives.

Our short time here (ctd.)

Here is the next group!

1. Being seated at a communal table with several other families.
2. Ending a sentence with "oder..."
3. The historical architecture (of course!).
4. Rouladen window shades (google it if you don't know).
5. Shops being closed on Sunday (I know it sounds crazy, but I really do think I'll miss it!  For a short time, anyway).
6. Having all of our family and friends come visit.
7. My wonderful neighbor.
8. Mustard.
9. Nürnberger sandwiches.
10. Tasty bread.

Our short time here...

As I have been strolling around town these past few days I've been thinking about the many things I will miss when we move from our town (which is set to be around Dec. 11).  We have had such a lovely time here.  I feel so blessed by the opportunity to experience a different culture (albeit a somewhat minor change as there are so many ex-pats in our area!).  In our short time here (slightly less than 2 years), we have experienced the growth of our family from 2 to 3, two encounters with the German hospital system, traveled to many different countries, made many friends, and in the process made thousands of memories and taken a few thousand pictures.  

I am cataloging some of my favorite aspects of being here.  Sure there are things that I won't miss, but what is the fun in remembering the negative, right?!  I am planning on doing more than one post because I don't have the brain power to remember so many things at one time.  Plus, I really should be organizing and "packing" right now.  And you guys really might not be that interested anyway.  It's really for my sake than anyone elses, I'm sure.

In no particular order... 


1. My daily walks to the store or into town.
2. Biergartens.
3. The neighboring toddler's little handprints on my back door, inviting "Ab-eeeeeyyyy" to come play.
4. The chiming bells of our neighborhood church.
5. My lovely lady friends from IJG and playgroup.
6. At our church, hearing all of the lovely accents from people coming from every area of the world, all coming together in a town in Franconia, Germany.
7. The extremely charming "Hauptstrasses" in all of the cities and villages, that are only for pedestrians.
8. The pastries.  Oh, the pastries.
9. Speaking a different language (Well, trying to speak a different language.  Butchering might be a more appropriate term).
10. The nice check-out ladies at the stores I frequent, who always are patient with my poor German and are always sweet to little A.

Taken one of the first days we were here...