Heat, Pools and Ice Cream - Germany 2010

We are back now for a months so I figure it is time that I start writing about this years adventures in Germany. The avid follower of this blog will know that last years trip was all about the Romans (2000 years of Varus' defeat in the Teuteburger Forest) but this year we went mainstream again and did churches and castles. I would say Medieval times dominated with some Baroque influences. The magic number was 8; eight churches, eight castles and eight different swimming pools. Now, I know some people can do eight churches in a day but we are talking 5 - 14-year olds here. I did not wanted to scar them for life (not more than they already are). This year we had a special guest, cousin Kathie from California accompanied us. It was fun in the airplane to take up a whole middle row and not have to worry about other people. Lufthansa was great again, each flight took about half an hour less than usual. The only problem was that there was a chocolate shortage on board. Last year they had set the bar really high and so expectations were way out there.

The weather in Germany was very hot this year. We had high 90s and 100s with an incredible humidity. Every few days there were significant thunderstorms which had the girls all in a tizzy since they are not used to frequent thunderstorms. Well, I was not unaffected by it and I started to get scared when the travel advisory on the radio suggested to get off the road since the hail to be expected would be tennis ball size. That's nothing you want to hear when you have 100 more miles to go. We were very lucky in travelling on the road. Kathie must have been our lucky charm. Only once in 3 weeks did we get stuck in a traffic jam for an hour. This is remarkable considering we did quite a bit of driving.

What were the highlights of this years trip? As some of you might remember early in the summer the soccer world cup took place in South Africa. Germany made it to the semifinals and unfortunately lost to Spain. We got to experience that last two games in Germany. Even though Germany only played in the consolation game, it was quite an event. I have never seen so many flags in Germany. Everyone had something hanging out their window or car. They had little slip covers for the car mirrors. It was a see of black-red-gold.

My absolute favorite was a visit to a Celtic Village at the Donnersberg. This open air museum opened its doors in 2004 and has been showing Celtic life of the time before the Romans conquered the area. The guy who gave the tour was straight out of Asterix and Obelix. I learnt a lot and finally connected a few dots that I had always wondered about. And yes... the thing the Celts feared most was, that the sky might fall on their heads (they actually thought that the sky was held up by the trees, so this is not far fetched. And when the Romans started cutting down trees to built their roads and defence systems it was very worrisome to the Celts).

What else did we do? We went to Speyer, Strasbourg (Kathie wanted to go to France, too), Mainz, Karlsruhe, Marburg, Frankfurt, Ansbach, Nuernberg and Rothenbourg ob der Tauber. In Mannheim we saw a children's exhibit at the Reiss Museum about the work archaeologists do (we had to leave the museum after an hour since the kids were in tears because the museum was not air conditioned and it was probably 100 F inside). We stayed in Bad Windsheim at the Pastorius House (Pastorius id called "the Father of the Germans" in America; he came with Penn and founded the first German settlements in Pennsylvania) to see Karin, Christian and Charlotte. While the girls stayed at the hotel I got to go and see Christian's new play "Sommerfrische". At the Kurpfalzpark we saw Bruce's bird show again and the Playmobil Funpark was the most anticipated attraction by the girls. We went hiking in the Forest of Palatinate and we visited several castle ruins again (Limburg, Hardenburg and Trifels). In Anweiler we were able to catch the Richard Lionheart Festival again. I just love people in period costumes.

The thing the girls were most excited about were the Swimming pools. There is just nothing like that here in the States. We spent hours in the water playing and, off course, riding the slides. One water slide in particular was great because it timed you sliding down. So sliding became a race against one selves and each other. And what would hot days be without ice cream? Pretty much every day we went to the Italian Gelaterias. The girls were now old enough hat they could walk by themselves through Oggersheim and buy ice cream alone.

Food wise the trip was not very adventurous. It was so hot that we did not cook most days and just lived of ice cream, Landjaeger (little individual salamis) and pretzels. Even on days we"cooked" we just heated some sausages or made pizza. We did not even go to many restaurants because the thought of greasy smoky air inside or the hot beer garden outside where not very inviting. In Bavaria I took them to a beer garden because it was a beautiful evening and to give Kathie some bragging rights.

Altogether it was a great trip. Since we did not have real plans it was great to just "drift" and for me to see as many people as I could. I know, I am guilty of endlessly sitting and talking, but that is what I love to do; I am not coming from a long line of Guenner women for nothing.