Adventures in Germany

I have been meaning to do a new post for awhile, but just never got around to it!  It's been a rather rainy May here, but we've still been able to get out and about to do some things.  There was also not two, but three long holiday weekends in May, which was really nice!  We didn't plan any big trips because Jesse didn't really know how his workload would be for his last Master's class, but we still managed to visit some new places and take some time to relax. On our first long weekend in May we visited the town of Dinkelsbühl .  It is one of three walled cities in Germany.  Its history dates back as far as the 8th century!  The traffic is a bit disruptive from the "historic" feel, but people live there and work there, so it's necessary.  We visited Rothenburg a few years ago, another one of the walled cities, and I think I prefer Rothenburg still.  Dinkelsbühl was definitely neat to see, but it was a little smaller and you couldn't go up on the...

It's hard to believe that we have officially been here for one month!  Although many aspects of every day life are getting easier (finding our way around, kids are settled into school, learning my way around the grocery stores, etc); other things still seem to be challenging.  Like ordering pizza. Fail. After about 2 weeks of not-so-nice weather we finally caught a break this weekend.  We decided to check out a beautiful local place called the Brenz Park.  We were here a few years ago, but Valerie was too little for most of the playground and they have since added on.  The kids absolutely loved it.  Check out some of our pics:   There is a HUGE slide that is made to look like part of a dragon. The wooden section off to the left is were you climb up and the slide comes down the back side.  The head of the dragon is a water feature.   A rope bridge built over the Brenz river.  Valerie was somewhat slow and timid, but she...

I debated updating anything this evening because in the grand scheme of things this week wasn't all that eventful.  This week was mostly just settling in and adjusting to our new surroundings.  Our big shipment from home arrived this week, which was very exciting!  The kids ooooed and ahhhhhhd as we opened the boxes and they saw treasures from home.  I was very happy to have some of my kitchen things from home. I was also excited about my wardrobe expansion as we had been living off the same set of clothes since our big shipment left home about 6 weeks ago.  Unfortunately, I am missing my walk-in closet at home as our apartment lacks in closet space a bit and we'll have to make some adjustments :-) The kids began "kindergarten" this week and we explored some more playgrounds around town.  We are getting our exercise walking everywhere we need to go until we get a car.    Even though it's been a little colder this week we'v...

I started this blog in the fall of 2012 when Jesse, Valerie, and I visited Germany for about a month for Jesse's work.  Little did I know we'd find our way back as a family of 4 to experience the adventure of a lifetime together.  I'll use this blog to post more in-depth updates about our time and experience in Germany.  Week one of our time in Germany is in the books.  We have adjusted to the time change and the reality that this is our new home (for now) is setting in.  Our last few days of packing and preparing in the US were a whirlwind.  We left for the airport on March 31st to begin what seemed like the longest day of my life.  Jesse and I began the trip running on about 3-4 hours of sleep.  Everything with the flight went about as well as can be expected with two small children.  They were amazed at their very own personal TV/Tablet at their seat on the airplane.  Eating meals and snacks was a novelty as well.  Sleeping was...

Our time here in Germany is winding down.  But, we wanted to do one more day trip so yesterday we drove about 1.5 hours to Oberstdorf near Austria.  There are a lot of neat things to do in Oberstdorf because the Alps are there!  I know what you're thinking.......Alps, rolling green hills, "The Sound of Music,".....did you fulfill you're life-long dream of recreating "The Sound of Music" scene by singing in the Alps...well sort of :-) We didn't get as early a start as we would have liked so we planned to hike at just one place, Breitach Gorge.  Jesse was there once before and it was a beautiful place!  Here's a little info about the Gorge: "This unique monument of nature is the deepest and most fascinating rock gorge in Middle Europe.  It was formed about 10,000 years ago when the melting Breitach glacier and its water forced its way through the chalk stone of the Engenkopf mountain."  First, you hike/walk through the Gorge, it was quite c...