Deborah and Duderstadt

April 23-26, 2013

A dear friend from Youngsville was able to tag on a few days in Germany after a mission trip to Amsterdam. I met Deborah at the Hannover train station on Tuesday afternoon and I do believe we didn't stop talking (or at least, me!) until her train left for Frankfurt Friday morning! It was so fun and refreshing to have her here with us. And she somehow brought the sunshine and warm temps with her so we had a lovely few days to explore the area together.

At one point Thursday afternoon, Deborah, Joel and I rode bikes to the
store in order to get what we needed for dinner that evening. We were
really blessed with beautiful weather while she was here and thoroughly
enjoyed seeing the trees, bushes and flowers come to life. Thank you,
Deborah, for coming to visit!

Deborah and I enjoyed lots of time to talk as we walked around Göttingen. It was fun to share some of my favorite spots with her...mostly having to do with food. We did walk a lot though so the treats that we enjoyed were exercised away! Tuesday evening after dinner, the whole family took Miss Deborah to our favorite ice-cream spot, Claudio's. Then on Wednesday, Deborah and I walked in the morning to Cafe Hemer, Göttinger Holzofen Backerei, which is our favorite bakery and is conveniently located just a few blocks away by Micah and Joel's school. Wednesday afternoon and evening were spent touring Duderstadt and supper with the Wagners. Then on Thursday, while the boys were at school we saw the Innenstadt, shopped for a few souvenirs, shared a Schnitzel at zum Szültenbürger, and enjoyed some lovely desserts and coffee at Cron & Lanz. By the time dinner rolled around that evening, we were still almost too full to eat. Miss Deborah kindly left a bag of Gummi bears for the boys to share since they gave up one of the bedrooms for her. One might think they would be 'Gummi beared out' but we don't buy them very often so this was quite the treat for them.

The following photos are all from our visit to Duderstadt, a village that is about 30 km from Göttingen and situated close to the former border of East and West Germany. Daniel and Astrid Schiller allowed us the use of their van for the afternoon. And yes, there are speed cameras between Göttingen and Duderstadt. I busted out laughing at one point during the ride home...Tracy has managed to accumulate his fair share of speeding tickets this year and we don't even have a vehicle! I'm not sure that he found it as funny as I did. In fairness to him, he has done ALL of the driving when we have rented a car.

~ Twisted Turm - Duderstadt, Germany ~

We found a little museum near to one of the original fortress wall entrances
of the city. The boys were quite intrigued by the shooting games. This one
was based off of an old game of target practice. Below is a picture of the
target that would be built to then be shot. Points were awarded for hitting
the specific sections of the target in a certain order.

~ a replica of the target ~

A view of Duderstadt from inside the Twisted Turm.

Red-tile roofs for as far as the eye can see!

Joel posed by the steeple replica.

Though a bit blurry, I added this shot to remember how
hard it was for Deborah and me to walk across this glass
floor looking down through the steeple. There was a part
of me that felt ridiculous for not wanting to trust the
glass and part of me that thought I was rather brilliant
for not wanting to put my weight on glass. I have broken
enough water glasses to know that the stuff does have a
 breaking point!

~ St. Servatius Church - Protestant ~

These trees were so unique with all of the little twiggy
branches - just thousands of them on each limb.

This house was just cool to look at and then I saw a
little plaque near the bottom left...

We thought maybe he had lived here, but I think it was just that he stayed
in this house mid-December of 1777.

We walked through the Alte Rathaus on the right. It contained
 a torture chamber in the basement that we visited.
There were some pretty strict pentalites for taking a lit
torch into a barn! ...a steep fine though, not torture.

~ St. Cyriakus Kirche - Catholic ~

Not sure why but Noah said he wanted to ride this boar backwards!

Joel is catching some shade...under a crossbow, of course.

Another beautifully painted house - this one had a
Latin inscription.

Just to show how tiny we are in comparison to the doors!

We stopped for a brief pause on some nearby park benches. The kids
quickly discovered a fun bench on springs. This turned into a "King of
the Log" competition...not sure who won that one.

This house is obviously owned by two people with different tastes in paint
color - the left was brown while the right was blue! Looked a bit funny!

On the way back to the car, we walked the path
along where the old wall of the city once stood.

Mistletoe - I learned while my brother was here that
it is a parasite. In some trees, I've seen more than 50
mistletoe balls. They sell this at the Christmas market.

We enjoy looking at old Fachwerk houses like this one to
see if we can see anything odd stuffed in between the
wood beams. A friend told us that in older times, when
building a Fachwerkhaus, the builders would use just
about anything laying around in order to fill in the cracks.

Crazy how living here has caused us to say, "Oh, man,
this house is pretty new!" 1724 is new?

Helmut and Corinna Wagner invited us to join them for a bbq after our
tour of Duderstadt. They are a family from our church who have been
kind in initiating with us after church services this year.

Their son, Lukas, did all of the grilling for the meal.

Everything tasted so very yummy - especially the pork kabobs! They are
basically thick bacon skewered and marinated in a delicious sauce. We
are going to attempt to imitate this once back in the states.

The view from their upstairs "bonus room" of sorts. 

Many Germans have solar panels. The country as a whole is very
conscious of energy use.

The boys took turns attempting to break Lukas' record
on the rowing machine...not sure that anyone came close!

In the course of conversation throughout the meal and afterwards, we learned a great deal about Helmut's family. It was fascinating to listen to stories about his grandparents, parents, and then his own rememberances of his younger years in Kazakhstan. His (great...)grandparents settled in Russia due to Catherine the Great's offer for Germans to work farmland in areas of then Russia in the 1700s. A century and a half later, when World War 2 broke out, his grandfather enlisted for Germany and was eventually taken by the British as a prisoner of war. His grandmother and father (his father was 14 years old at the time) were caught behind Russia's front line in Eastern Germany as the war ended. Consequently, as was their practice, Russia shipped his father and grandmother off to Siberia because they were German. Meanwhile, his grandfather, because of leniency extended by the US and Great Britain to certain German troops, was allowed to carry on with life, unfortunately without his wife and son. The war and Russia's policy against German soldiers and citizens caught in East Germany forever changed Helmut's German family and so many others like them.

Back in Siberia, Helmut's father was not permitted to work with the men felling logs for winter because he was so young at the time. As a result, he learned on his own how to be a mechanic and became quite skilled. His grandmother applied every year for 28 years to leave Siberia and return to her family in Germany. His grandparents eventually were forced to divorce because they never knew if they would be reunited. Helmut's grandfather remarried not knowing if the Russians would ever allow his former wife to return.

At some point, Helmut's family was permitted to move from Siberia to Kazakhstan where Helmut was born and spent the first eight years of his life. He remembers the vast temperature changes living there. So much snow in winter would have to be put somewhere so was plowed into a big drift outside of town. There was so much in fact, that he can remember sledding down that hill of snow in the summer time when the temperatures were so hot that the snow felt great.

His father became so skilled at fixing the lories for soldiers, Helmut believes this is what finally got his family shipped back to Germany. His father was becoming expensive to keep as there was a money reward system for the army's mechanics that had good results. The lories that his father repaired would last 10,000 kilometers beyond the normal repair...that's who I want working on my vehicle! Helmut's parents and grandmother finally got the chance to return to Germany in 1972 through the heroic efforts of a German ambassador to Russia. This man was Helmut's childhood hero because he arbitrated the release of ten families from Kazakhstan to Germany! Helmut's eyes filled with tears as he told us the story of how his grandmother and parents left Kazakhstan. When they said their good-byes in leaving Kazakhstan, his other family members (aunts, uncles, cousins) had all of their bags packed, too, thinking they would get chosen to leave within the week. However, it was another 17 years before anyone else left. Helmut's family was one of ten families chosen to leave. Being a good mechanic is what finally brought them back to Germany. It gave us a different perspective of the suffering of German families in the aftermath of the war.

An interesting sidenote concerns the dialect of Helmut's family. While living in Russia, these families' speech became a dialect in and of itself. Helmut's wife, Corinna, commented that their German is so different than what she grew up with that she can still miss what is being spoken when with his family.

We are so thankful for the Wagners' kindness in inviting us to spend the evening with them! And thankful that we got to share this special time with a friend from the States.

The Circus Comes to Bonifatiusschule!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Noah's teacher sent home information about a circus that was coming to his school after Easter break. Because I am not that good at reading German, I skimmed through it and figured that maybe one or two of us would go with Noah to see this circus. What I found out later was that his school was putting on the circus. The first full week after break, his class spent close to half of each school day under the Big Top training for their performance scheduled at the end of the week. Noah and his best friend, Jan, both chose to be magicians. They could have also chosen to work with animals (dogs, horses or goats), be clowns, work at juggling or tightrope walking, etc. - all categories that sound exciting for a nine year old boy!

Because of needing to purchase tickets in advance, we had decided that Tracy and Josiah would go with Noah for the event. This was decided prior to realizing my mistake with who was putting on this performance. They all went early to help with the sales of Brats prior to the show. When Frau Frank found out that I wasn't coming, she sent Josiah home to get me insisting that I come immediately. When I tried to pay at the entrance into the Big Top, she made a beeline for the ticket collectors and shooed me away. She really has been a kind teacher for Noah this year and demonstrated it to us as well through this event.

I didn't take my camera but Tracy was able to snap a few photos with his camera phone.

~ Jan und Noah ~

Noah had to parade along the outside of the ring showing the sword
he was about to stick through the magic box. Inside was another boy
from his class. The little boy in the box wouldn't share his secret as to
how he avoided the swords coming through the box. Magic, I guess!

This circus production brings everything needed to put on a performance
after all of the training is complete. It is a husband/wife team that travel
all over Germany to various schools. Noah was excited that this was the
year for the circus! It is on a four year rotation at his Grundschule.

Noah and Josiah are standing beside the entrance/exit for the performers.

During intermission, these two shared some cotton candy - no circus
would be complete without it!

These were the jugglers and plate spinners. Though obviously geared
towards a young age performer, the husband/wife team were able to
help these kids accomplish quite a bit in the short time. It was cute to see!

All of the performers after the show!

Family Soccer and the Innenstadt

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

With just the morning hours to enjoy together, we wanted to make the most of it. Top of the list was family soccer as the kids were just dying to have the parents play a game with them before the Bastians had to catch their train. We had returned the bikes before dinner on Monday so were now on foot. We headed to FKG's "soccer" field which is actually a handball court. We like it though because the goals are smaller making them easier to defend.

Warming up prior to play...just have to say that both Aunt Jill and I
scored a goal. I can't remember the other highlights nor whose team won
the game, but I do remember the goals! I'm sure the boys will be able to
fill in the other details for years to come. I do remember the game being
affected by Aunt Jill's kindness and compassion, but I am sure that
by now Nick is over how this affected his team. Fun times!

Last group shot before heading to the Innenstadt for lunch
...err, I mean ice-cream!

Of course a trip to Germany wouldn't be complete without ice-cream. We
took a quick tour of the Innenstadt and stopped by Claudio's prior to
returning home to pack up and head to the train station. The dads
splurged for two scoops each.

A nice ending to our visit...and lunch for the day!

We arrived with enough time to give last hugs and good-byes while waiting
on the platform. We did stop "Gottcha Last" for this parting as we didn't want
anyone to fall onto the tracks in an effort to get someone last. We are grateful
that they were able to take a few bags of ours back with them so as to help
our return trip be smoother than the one over here.

Nick is showing off his new European pants as they all
board the ICE to Frankfurt. All of the kids here wear
colored pants more than jeans. So Nick is looking
European in school these days, I am sure!

Thanks for coming, Bastians! We loved having you here and are thankful for all of the wonderful memories. A once-in-a-lifetime, for sure!

Easter Monday

Easter Monday, April 1, 2013

What an April Fool's Day! I was the one to get fooled but not by Joel this year. Because of traveling in Italy prior to the Bastians' arrival, we missed a couple of Sundays at church. This tends to be where I gain insight and information pertaining to how Germans celebrate holidays. So I thought I was doing good to have enough food in the house to make it to Monday when the stores would re-open. I didn't know that Easter Monday is a bigger holiday here than Easter Sunday. Hence, nothing was open on Monday. Well, almost nothing. Thankfully, there was one restaurant open that evening so we only had to scrounge up enough food for breakfast and lunch.

Thankful for sunshine, we set off on our bikes after breakfast for a ride up through the hills outside of Göttingen. The initial climb is just that - a climb. The views of the city and countryside are neat though.

The boys were thrilled to pose for this photo op for Aunt Jill and me! This
is where we met up before heading to the hills for a ride. I had gone into
the city center to see about having dinner at our favorite Schnitzel place
when I realized my big mistake with the Easter Monday holiday. It was so
very quiet there! Thankfully, Kreuzgang was open for the evening so we
got a 7pm reservation and knew we would have a very nice meal.
Kreuzgang is listed as one of the top restaurants to visit in Göttingen.

This is a view from one spot where we were riding...not sure which village
it was that we were seeing. We love in Germany how you are either in a
city, a village or the country. There are regulations about building any
dwellings in the country so you don't look across a hillside dotted with
houses. It makes for very pretty countryside sights.

Though the streets in Göttingen didn't have any snow on them, the paths
up in the woods were still covered.

After a lunch of whatever we could find - tortilla chips with melted cheese, Pizzabällchen and a few leftovers - we hopped on Bus 14 for a trip out to Bovenden. In the few days that they were with us, the Bastians traveled by plane, car, bike, foot, train and bus! (And some by piggy-back) Quite a feat!

Thankfully, the 14 has a stop right across the street from our house. I mis-
read the sign and had us all standing there for about 20 minutes (or more)
before the bus arrived. In order to pass time, the boys threw little metal
bottle caps into the road to see if they could get cars to flatten them. They
also took to waving and saying "Hello" to all passers-by - some kindly
responded, others gave the more typical response of ignoring their presence!

Plesseburg, located near Bovenden, is medieval castle ruins dating back
to the 12th century. Our bus driver directed us to the path leading up to
Plesse Castle. It looked like a long hike so took some convincing that it
would be worth it in the end...ended up taking just over an hour and a half.

~ a view from the castle turm ~

~ Cousins at Plesseburg near Bovenden, Germany ~

This is James racing back down the turm's staircase -
his orange hat made him easy to spot!

A view of the castle as we hiked back down into Bovenden.

Rosy cheeks after the race back to the bus stop! We had to hustle it back
down from the castle as we wanted to catch the earlier bus back home.

Three peas in a pod!

Kreuzgang ended up being a lovely place for a meal. It is in the basement of a building right beside the Alte Rathaus in the city center and has the atmosphere of stepping into a well decorated dungeon from the Middle Ages. It was so unique. All of the photos I have from that evening are too blurry to be worth posting so I took a couple from Kreuzgang's website to give an idea of the ambiance.

~ Kreuzgang ~

The above photo is from their website; however, the gentleman on the left was actually our waiter for the evening! The menu for Easter Monday was a short list of options. All of the boys ordered Schnitzel mit Pommes while the adults tried four different dishes and shared with each other. Though we really wanted to introduce them to zum Szültenbürger's Schnitzel, Kreuzgang ended up being a very neat experience.