The Beauty of Fall

Wow, it has been busy just handling the daily tasks of life. I am a bit behind but will catch up. We have so enjoyed the beauty of fall - my favorite season. The colors have been brilliant - especially the golds! I'm not sure what the type of tree is here that turns so yellow - the leaves look kind of like an elm tree. They are beautiful. We've enjoyed a number of walks in the nearby woods and the "crunch" of leaves under our feet everywhere. The weather has been quite damp and somewhat rainy so when we get a dry day we capitalize on it and enjoy it. We find it so funny here. They dress like they are in the Artic - you'll note the picture of Dayna and her friend. Dayna has no coat, no socks and crocs while her friend is all bundled up. We thought as Texans we would be the wimps!! Anyway, since the girls get out so early we have time during the week for some outings. One of our trips after school with our Icelandic friends was to a nearby town called Bad Urach (pronounced "Bod Oooorachchch" - gotta get that guttural ending!). It was about 30 minutes away and is the site of some ruins and a beautiful waterfall. There's also hot springs there (we didn't get in although the day was warm enough to). The Germans love their hot springs and mineral baths. We have yet to do that - good for the winter months! The kids opted to wade at the top of the waterfall and of course got wet. The site was very pastoral with cows in a pasture and the Swabian Alb mountains in the background. It was a great time. Another day we went a few miles away into the Forest Preserve to see some wild boars who are in a fenced area. They are supposedly all over here along with deer. I've yet to encounter one and don't have any plans to! The kids had a ball feeding them, especially the babies (didn't dream ANY size wild boar could be deemed "cute"). We have collected enough leaves, horse chestnuts, walnuts, acorns, and pine cones to last a century. The girls have enjoyed playing in the leaves (remember we have only 3 spindly little trees at home!!) and yearn for someone to ask them to rake some leaves for them!! Another chilly day, I went with Karissa's class to the farmer's market downtown which was a huge treat. The farmers/bakers/cheese/meat vendors were all so kind and gave out lots of free samples - YUM!! We went to the city hall for a snack of our purchases and then back to the school and made pumpkin soup with all of the vegetables. It was really delicious (the one variety of pumpkin they eat skin and all so it was "chunky" soup). The scary part for me was all the 3rd graders equipped with knives to cut up all the veggies (German kids are a bit unruly in school)! In addition to all the cabbage, Germany grows apples, pears and plums over here like crazy and there are different varieties than in the states - delicious!! The best apples are called Cox Orange. I can't wait for spring to see all the fruit trees in bloom.

Ludwigsburg

Well, Tuesday will be the beginning of our 3rd month in Tübingen. Wow, the time is flying by, especially now that the girls are in school. Sometimes it feels like we've been gone forever and other times it seems we just got here. It is starting to feel like home - albeit very different from home but we are pretty settled. The fall has been gorgeous and we have really enjoyed the colorful leaves - we are "pressing" about two hundred currently - Jay's books are sure coming in handy! The girls are waiting for the leaves to fall off the trees in the apartment complex yard so we can pile them up and play!! Our 3 dwarf trees in Texas don't measure up!!

This past weekend we went to Ludwigsburg - about an hour away. There is a huge palace there (only 452 rooms) built in the early 1700's with gardens around it. One of the gardens is a "Fairytale Garden" that depicts German fairy tales with animated figurines, statues etc. We were a little lost since we didn't know many of the fairytales but the girls enjoyed it. The real reason we went was to see their Kürbisausstellung (Pumpkin Display). This year's theme was "fairy tales" so as you can see from some of the pictures they depicted fairy tales using pumpkins. I never knew there were that many kinds of pumpkins. They do put squash in that category too though along with gourds. It was beautiful weather accompanied by hundreds of people but very enjoyable. Germans love flowers and all things outdoors and I think the whole state was there!! Karissa's favorite was Pippi Longstocking. That is her new hero since some German boys called her Pippi Longstumpf (the German name for Pippi) this summer when she was wearing pigtails. Enjoy the pictures, they are pretty self-explanatory.

This week we also celebrated Jay's birthday - we won't divulge any more than that! The girls had fun preparing for it. I struggled to bake a Banana cake - I had no mixer, no vanilla (can't buy it here), no counter space, finally found Crisco, and the cake pans are huge! They also do not have canned frosting!!! It was a challenge, it turned out kind of thin and dense but tasted pretty good. Anyway, we had fun and I have until April for my next cake challenge!!


Happy Fall!

Our neighborhood

Happy Reunification Day!

What? Today we had no idea that it was a national holiday until we tried to go to the grocery and hardware!! NOTHING was open. Later we found out that it's Reunification Day!! The wall actually came down on Nov. 9, 1990 but that was also the anniversary of the first large-scale Nazi-led pograms against Jews in 1938 (Kristallnicht), so the day was considered inappropriate as a national holiday. They chose to celebrate it on Oct. 3rd, the day of formal reunion. There's your little history lesson!


Loving this fall weather and wanted to show you the neighborhood where we live. We managed to find an aerial view and I'll try to orient you. You can click on the picture (or any picture on the blog) and it will enlarge. Looking at the aerial photo on the center left you will see a tall apartment building with a blue face. Our 4 story apartment is directly behind that. You'll see a road heading up from there to the top of the picture where the tiny village Waldhausen ("the farm" as the girls call it) lies. Check out Dayna and one of her bovine friends we routinely visit.


On the lower left of the aerial view you'll see a wooded area which marks the edge of the forest preserve. Our street goes right into it and Jay and Dayna are walking on it in the next picture. The trees are beautiful and it's so nice being so close to nature for a change. Certainly different than the treeless landscape in our neighborhood in Texas!! To the right of the forest preserve is the community garden. Germans love their flowers and these little plots let the city dwellers (most people live in apartments or attached homes) have their piece of the earth to cultivate. The individual gardens are beautiful and it's fun to walk through them.

On the right hand side of the aerial view you'll see two white round towers. The girls school is directly behind (or "above") the right one . It looks like 5 little rectangular buildings but they are all connected by walkways. You can see it's really close! So convenient since they never get out of school at the same time as one another. The market area, where our bank, post office, market, bakery, drug store etc. is lies right below those same two towers in the photo.

The next picture was taken from the top floor of the 14 story apartment next to us (student dormitory). The photo looks toward downtown Tübingen (pronounced "too bee gun" - at least by us English speakers! Add a cough in the middle and it sounds more German!) You can see that we are at the top of a hill in the city. So when we say we walk downtown we do mean down!


The fifth picture is from the main street running up and down the picture and looks back toward our apartment. You'll see the bus stop that we use and directly behind it through the trees is our backyard and our apartment. The kids in the picture are walking up the steps from the tunnel that goes under this busy street. That is the same tunnel that we walk through to get to the market and the school etc.

The last two pictures are taken from the bike path at the far upper left of the aerial view photo. The first looks toward our apartments and the other looks away. We have an awesome view from this path. Many people use these paths and there are benches everywhere for people to sit and enjoy the scenery. The tree in the picture is a pear tree and has been loaded with pears. This area has tons of plum, apple and pear trees plus a few peach trees. We've managed to eat a few of these freshly picked! Yum.

At some other time I'll show you around the market area and the girls' school so you can see the other places we wander almost daily! Our shoes are definitely getting a workout!

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.