Road trip to Rothenburg

Back on the road again. This past Sunday we took another day trip, this time to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Since the reunification of Germany some of the names of towns grew as there were duplications! Ob der Tauber means on the Tauber (River) or something like that which distinguishes it from the other Rothenburg. Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny 70 degree fall day to visit this quaint town which the guidebooks call "Germany's best preserved medieval walled town".

We climbed the city hall tower which gave us some great views - it was an interesting climb! It wasn't designed for anyone older than 65 or more than 200 pounds as we literally climbed a ladder and came out of a tiny hole in the tower. I could barely fit through with my backpack! While Jay and I enjoyed the view of the city, Dayna admired the vintage car show down in the marketplace more. Guess you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink!

We also visited the Medieval Crime Museum at Jay and Karissa's request. It was pretty amazing at what they did to people back then. My personal favorite was the shame mask. It was this large grotesque metal mask with huge ears, glasses, and a huge tongue hanging out. It was worn primarily by women for the crime of being a gossip. One who heard everything, saw everything and told everything! Food for thought!

Karissa thought the whole thing was great and very interesting. There were a few things we tried to slide by - chastity belts etc.! We found a few tools of the trade that we might adopt for the girls. One was a 3 foot long wooden board with two large holes - one at each end and four small holes in the middle. Two bickering women were fastened into it face to face and then their hands were put in the middle holes. They were locked together until they agreed to get along. Send me an email if you would like to purchase one as well! Hmmm - maybe I could make some when I get back and sell them at the local craft shows. Child and Protective Services would probably shut me down!

The highlight for me was walking through the towers around the town wall and walking the wall itself. It was neat to look out the little slits where they would shoot arrows at the enemy and to see the remains of the moat around the city. It was also weird to be on this wall from 700+ years ago and be looking into a window of a person's home. The old juxtaposed against the new is amazing here.

It was probably the most tourist infested place we have been (we of course, are NOT tourists!) but was still charming and fortunately not crowded. Lots of sidewalk cafes on the cobblestone square so we had to stop for the obligatory ice cream. Green apple and raspberry for Karissa, Smurf bubblegum and lemon for Dayna - quite the combos (Mom just got raspberry and dad just got the bill). On the Autobahn we managed to eat our first McDonald's since leaving Dallas. The place looked like Grand Central Station - go figure!! Fortunately the hamburgers tasted just like home - unfortunately the prices were ridiculous! Last time I pay $6. 00 for a Happy Meal! The toy wasn't that good! Where's the weinerschnitzel when you need it?

Hope you enjoy the little history lesson and the pictures.

School starts

Well, the girls finished their first week of school although Dayna only went one day. All in all it went well and I think all of us were relieved to start a real routine. We didn't have tears or anything (I was scared to death to leave Karissa the first day). Jay about shed tears when he tried to "pre-work" Karissa's homework assignment on verb tenses!! German is such a complicated language but he managed to get through the assignment and explain it to her. She seems to be taking the language thing into stride. Her teacher has volunteered to tutor her and her Icelandic friend for an hour every Monday which is very nice of her.

Karissa started school on Monday - she was so brave, she said she was nervous and couldn't sleep the night before. She had no problems that morning though. Her class only has 17 kids. 10 boys and 7 girls (4 of which live here in our apartment complex - amazing since there are only 25 apartments). Her teacher doesn't speak English very well at all but seems to be really nice. She goes to school until 1:00 3 days and 12:20 the other two days. I hope to work with both girls after school on their English skills. I do not consider myself much of a teacher so we'll see how it goes.

Dayna started school officially on Thursday. German children don't go to public school until 1st grade so they make a big deal of it when they start. They start the first day with a service at a church (yes, a church service), then they walk to the school where the 2nd and 3rd graders form a line with pom poms and they parade through it with their "schüle tuté", a cardboard cone filled with presents. Then, the 4th graders put on a musical program for them and their parents. They go to their class for an hour and then are done for the day!

German children go to private "kindergarten" - the equivalent of our preschool- but they aren't taught letters or any real curriculum. It works out great for Dayna as she can already read and will be learning letter sounds and then to read in German along with all of her classmates. She has a real advantage compared to Karissa. Since she has only had one day and they get out at 11:20 most days life is good for her!

Dayna's teacher is very nice but has 17 girls and 9 boys!! Her English is better than Karissa's teacher but not great! She has a friend from a Greek family that we have befriended who speaks both German and English so she and Ariadne have become fast friends along with her little Icelandic friend from the apartments. Just knowing someone the first day has helped so much for both girls.

The school is a 5 minute walk away which is great. The original plan was that they would be at a school for non-German speaking students clear across town so we are thankful for our German friend who convinced the neighborhood principal that they could handle being in a German-only school. We pray that it works out to be true!! It is so nice because the kids regularly see fellow students as we go about our day here in the neighborhood. Not to mention that I'm not trekking clear across town trying to coordinate their two schedules. God has been really good to us.

I'm excited to have a few hours a day to myself. We've managed to get a bike working for me and I'm going to hit some of these fabulous trails. Jay and I are going to start taking a long walk 3 or mornings a week as well. Fall is upon us and the forest is beautiful, so we're looking forward to that.

Our First Road Trips

Hey everyone, it has been a while. Things have been busy here. Last week we made a few road trips and this week was the start of school. Just to keep things in chronological order I'll post some pictures of our travels - I still haven't figured out how to do captions or get them to show up in order. Next time I'll cover the girls' school which is going well - Dayna just went today and only for an hour. Karissa has been there all week and isn't too stressed by the language situation yet!





We made two separate trips into the Black Forest. The first to the northern part and the second to the southern part. The terrain is beautiful. The reason they call it the Black Forest is because the pine trees are a type with very dark needles so it can give the impression of "black" trees. It really isn't appropriate - I had pictured some foreboding place but it wasn't like that at all. We had picture perfect weather on the first trip, the second was a little more "black" as it was overcast. We only got "lost"


(read "missed our turn") 5 times! The German roads are awesome - the signage leaves something to be desired. They don't use road numbers, just destinations. So, for us who don't know the city/town names when they say "Herrenberg this way" and "Dinkeldorf (real name!) that way" it doesn't always give us enough time to hit the right exit. We are learning and serious contemplating a GPS - English speaking of course! The roads follow old paths so they twist and turn constantly. I have learned that "as the crow flies" when measuring distance doesn't work unless you add about 50%!! It takes longer to get most places unless you're on the Autobahn which is the only straight kind of road in Germany.

Anyway, the pictures are from our first set of ruins and waterfalls at a place called Allerheiligen and some more waterfalls at Geraldsauger. I'm including the names so that I'll remember! It was a beautiful day and we learned a little about the pace we can handle (much slower than when Jay and I used to travel alone!).

The next day we went to an area about 16 miles away from home. There is a "barefoot trail" where you walk barefoot and experience different natural materials. We went with our Icelandic friends. (The parents speak English but the kids don't speak any. It's fun to watch the girls communicate with one another! These two girls are in Karissa and Dayna's classes at the local school and live here in our apartment complex. The mom has been a lifesaver because she speaks German and can read all the signs for us so that we don't get in trouble! They have been such a major blessing to us! They will be here until March of 2011 and the dad is working on research regarding Parkinson's disease at the University hospital.) After the barefoot park we went to Schloss (castle) Hohenzollern which was fabulous. We didn't go in as they didn't have any English speaking tours that day. Since it's so close we'll go back and undoubtedly will be a place we take visitors when they come!!

Finally, on our 3rd excursion we went to Triberg to the highest waterfalls in Germany and the center of cuckoo clock making. We got hammered by Oliver the carver (see picture) with a detailed explanation on genuine cuckoo clock making. At first we were annoyed but by the end Jay was just about ready to shell out $600 for a clock!! We'll go back to that area again so get your orders in fast!! Later we drove to an Open Air Museum where they demonstrated life on a German farm from the 1600's. They were redoing the thatch on the large barn/house (see picture) which was really neat to see. It's about 18" thick when they are done. The picture of the building with the thatch roof is where they would live and also doubled as their barn. Pretty interesting to say the least!! The houses were built into the side of the hill so that they could enter the "hay mow" from the back without using ladders.

It is amazing how many things are so close. If we hadn't gotten lost the furthest destination was about 2 hours! We've got so much more to see and we're trying to decide where to go during the girls' first week long break at the end of October. We'll see.

More later...

Our Home

Several of you have asked to see what our place looks like. Here are some pictures of the exterior of our apartment (the small one is ours - the tower is for regular students) and a picture of what it looks like from the front door of our apartment. The picture shows the beginning of one of the bike paths - which you can actually drive down with your car as well. A little narrow for that Texas Suburban huh? Jay accidentally went down one the other day trying to get to a gas station and found concrete barriers at the end - obviously that particular one wasn't meant for driving on! He had to turn down the path and jump the curb to get to the road since it was probably a good 100 yards and curvy to back up! One of many of our little oops moments!

There are also some shots of our apartment interior(actually our first one which is the same but had one less bedroom and was significantly less mess than our current one!). You'll notice that there are moveable windows between the kitchen and dining areas - guess it keeps the smells in and makes you feel like you have a little privacy?? This week we bought a second refrigerator so now I have two dorm sized fridges!! woohoo! Now I actually have a place to keep a head of cabbage (they are the size of a small beach ball and you can buy a bag of 6 for 99 cents!!). I'm living now and won't have to go to the grocery everyday anymore - just every few days.
















The beds here are all twin size and in the master they just put two together. Actually makes for a nice sleep since you don't feel the other person rolling around....now, about that snoring!! The girls have bunk beds. All the floors are linoleum or tile - very common around here. Carpet is reserved for bedrooms if any at all. They do have some area rugs but most people just have hard floors. The windows are quite interesting - they are on hinges like doors and no one has screens. Mosquitos are a rarity and the Germans live outside in the summer. Everyone has an outdoor dining area AND uses it a lot. Makes me wonder if it's because the winters are so bad??

In another post I'll show you around our neighborhood - it is very quaint. The girls want to download a movie but I"m not sure my techno skills are quite that sophisticated. You Tube here we come.

More next time.