Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted. Sorry about that. January was fairly uneventful until the last week when we headed to Germany for a week of vacation. Ryan had a school break, so we took advantage of the opportunity to get away for a week and enjoy some cold weather and snow. Ryan's parents met us in Munich and we spent the week touring Bavaria. Here are pics from the week.
Saturday- We spent the day seeing the sights of Munich including Marianplatz and the glockenspiel and Viktuelienmarkt. We ate at the famous Hofbrau Biergarten sampling the delicious Bavarian cuisine and listening to the oompa bands play.
The characters dance on clock tower at 11 and 2 each day. They danced to the music of the bells for a good 10 minutes. Very cool!
Since it was so cold outside, we had a nice excuse to stop for hot chocolate and pretzels most days.
The band player invited Owen up on stage to touch his horn. Owen loved dancing to the oompa music.
We stayed at a nice Hilton Hotel while we were in Munich. It was great because there was a metrostop in the basement of the hotel with a direct line to the airport. Pretty convenient! Each floor of the hotel had these shoe shiner machines. Owen found it essential that he shine his tennis shoes everyday before leaving the hotel.
Sunday- We spent the day at Dachau which was the sight of one of the largest concentration camps of WWII. It was horrifying to say the least and experiencing it during the frigid winter made it even more somber. I wouldn't say it was a fun day, but if you ever have an opportunity to visit, you will not leave unchanged.
The words on the gate to the camp say "Work Makes Free". A sample of the terrible lies propagated during the war.
Sunday evening we drove to our farmhouse B&B at the foot of the Bavarian Alps. Since we are city dwellers these days, we were very anxious to have a vacation in the countryside where we could play outside, enjoy the clean air, and sleep at night in pitch dark silence. We found this farmhouse online that was all of these things and more. It was actually a working farm, complete with cows, goats, bunnies and chickens. And we had a sledding hill right in our backyard!
Monday morning we woke up bright and early ready to spend a day playing in the snow.
Here Ryan is giving Vallie a push for her very first sled ride ever! She was a natural!
Owen had his work cut our for him trying to push Papaw down the hill.
But Papaw was also a natural. Owen took advantage of the free ride back up the hill.
Our friend, Chico
That evening we helped the farmer feed the animals. Owen god to feed hay to the cows, apples and carrots to the bunnies and collect eggs from the chickens. He was a little afraid at first, but he warmed up to the animals very quickly.
Tuesday we took a little road trip to visit 2 of crazy King Ludwig's most famous castles. His most famous castle Neuschwanstein Castle, was the inspiration for the Disney World Magic Kingdom Castle.
This is the picture of the castle that King Ludwig grew up in before he became king. You should google this guy, he really was crazy and completely obsessed with building magnificent castles.
Hohenschwangau Castle- we toured this one first
Then headed to his famous Neuschwanstein Castle. We took a horse-ride to the top of the hill.
Owen was allowed one souvenir from the trip and chose a sword!
This castle really is breathtaking.
Wednesday- visited Oberammergau and Garmisch
Oberammergau is the sight of the most famous Passion Play. In 1634 the town's residents vowed that if
God spared them from the effects of the
bubonic plague ravaging the region, they would produce a play every ten years thereafter for all time depicting the life and death of
Jesus. The most recent play was last year, 2010. So we didn't get to see the play, but the town is still worth visiting. It is also famous for it's wood carvings. The whole town if full of nativities and cuckoo clocks. They also have 2 houses with the stories of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood painted on them. Since we read these storied before visiting Germany, Owen was especially excited to visit these houses.
That evening, we eat at a traditional Bavarian restaurant in the ski town of Garmisch. This restaurant was complete with yodeling, boys dancing in lederhosen and apple fritters.
There's not much better than food smothered in gravy :)
Thursday was our big sledding adventure day. Ryan found a sledding mountain near our farmhouse. So we bundled up, loaded up the sleds and headed for the mountain. A ski lift took us on a 15 minute ride to the top of the mountain. And we spent the next 40 minutes sledding back down. Now, I'm from Iowa and have done my share of sledding through the years. I've even done some big hill sledding in Colorado. But this, my friends, was sledding like I have never seen. Fast does not quite describe the way we flew down the mountain hanging on for dear life. It was EXTREME! And it was FUN! We all took 2 trips down the hill, and that was ENOUGH! Owen let out squeals of shear delight the entire way down. I, on the other hand, had other words running through my mind as I tried to avoid the steep drop offs on the edge of the 8 foot wide path :)
Friday we packed up and headed back to Munich for our final day in Germany. We spent the day at the Deutches Museum, which is like the Smithsonian of Germany. They had a kids' kingdom in the basement which Owen ran around for 3 1/2 hours. Our city doesn't have anything like this for kids, so this was a really fun thing for Owen. I love watching him explore and see his little mind learn and discover new things. Just last night at dinner he was recalling all of the different exhibits in the museum and discussing how he is going to build a museum like this here in Istanbul.
We were at the airport bright and early Saturday morning to catch our flights. It was a great vacation and especially great because Ryan's parents were there to enjoy it with us!
And just in case you were wondering, I think I ate my weight in sausage.
We've spent lots of time with our friends Gamze, Bars and and their little boy Berke. Owen has really adjusted well to playing with his national friends and he and Berke are having a good time together these days.
They love getting in these buckets and playing train!
Bucket-heads! Sorry, I couldn't get this picture to turn for some reason.
During one of our many rainy day weekends we've had this spring, we borrowed our friends' Wii and had a Wii weekend. Here's a picture of Ryan and Owen shooting targets on Zelda.
We've learned lots of new letters these past weeks. Owen's favorite letter so far O. I wonder why?! Here are the adorable octopus cupcakes we made that week.
Daddy even joined in on the cupcake making fun.
Most Fridays, Owen's school has some sort of themed party. One party was funny hair and accessories day. So we spiked Owen's hair and he wore sunglasses and one of daddy's ties. How cute and silly is he?
We've had crazy weather this spring. It's been so cold and rainy. But on the few weekends that we've had sun, we've headed to the park for a picnic and bike riding.
