Heading South of the Border ~ Day 1

On August 16th, we literally squished ourselves into another rental car and headed south of the border to Austria.  Before leaving, we were determined to get the GPS into English.  Tracy has been in German language school for about a month now so was able to poke enough buttons to eventually get us there.  So very thankful for English GPS!  Listening in German still takes so much effort for all of us.

Vehicles are very compact in Europe.  This car technically seats seven - I think it should be advertised that it seats seven three-year-olds.  All of the boys' knees were touching the seats in front of them.  We had bags at our feet and on our laps.  And yet, we were so glad that we could find a car that fits our family - a six seater can be hard to find!  After experiencing some of the narrowness of the roads though, we completely understand why the cars are so compact.



Josiah's Birthday Celebration

On Joel's birthday, Josiah questioned whether he would get the "exact same treatment" or something different on his special day.  We didn't make any promises but thought, 'How easy can it be? A chocolate bar, some gum and a cake? You bet you can have the same thing, buddy!'  So on August 13th, Josiah awoke to a chocolate bar and a pack of gum at his place at the table - and he was thrilled!  Funny thing was two days after his birthday, he commented, "This is the longest I've made a pack of gum last!"  Truth.  He goes through a pack of gum in a day (sometimes a couple of hours) when it is his to have.  And truth.  He is not allowed to have his own pack often because he lacks self-control in that area.  It is the same thing with me and chocolate chip cookies.  I can eat the whole batch so I only bake them about once a year.  And then end up sick from the sugar overload.  It's nice to have the boys at the age where they really get it that the bikes we purchased the first week here were their gifts.

Joj requested to be able to pick out his own breakfast pastries so Tracy took him to Kaufland's right after he woke up...nice treat for me to not have to head out quite so early that day.  It's been more than once that I've had to go right away in the morning because we literally don't have anything to eat for breakfast but maybe a carrot or two and a handful of rice.  Still adjusting to shopping every day....I know, I've said that before!



For dinner, Josiah requested homemade pizza - I had only made pizza once up to that point as it has taken me a while to get in the groove with cooking like I did at home.  The boys thought that it turned out good enough that we've decided to make Friday nights pizza night.  Since I struggle to consistently menu plan one less night to think about is great with me.

 

Though it was fun to pick out a really cool looking torte for Joel's birthday, Josiah wasn't overly impressed with the taste so he asked me to bake his cake.  I had in my basket all the needed things to bake him a cake but discovered a really neat frozen torte as I made my way to the grocery check-out line.  It wasn't overly priced and was CHOCOLATE  - how could I go wrong?  Everything still takes me longer here so not having to bake a cake sounded really nice.  Thankfully, Josiah liked my choice of tortes.  The only real problem was that yet again, I purchased more than I could carry.  I ended up having to walk my bike home with the cake on the seat.  Now some would ask why I didn't just try to ride one handed.  Well, I've tried that before and decided I like my skin on my body rather than the road.  Actually, it wasn't that bad but close enough.

There is a photo of Tracy in his parents' kitchen when he was about 13 or 14.  He has the exact same grin on his face!  It's uncanny how much they look alike, except that Tracy's hair was darker by this age.

Just to show the yummy layers

Love these smiles!



Joel's 13th Birthday

Though we purchased birthday bikes for all the boys the week we arrived, we still want to make the actual day a special one for each of them.  So when in Germany, do as the Germans do, right?...and purchase a beautiful torte!

Joel turned 13 on the 15th of July, a Sunday.  I asked a few ladies where to get special pastries and cakes and was given two different places to consider.  One shop is just around the corner more or less so went there first.  I ordered breakfast from there - a strawberry torte looking thing.  Not being sure whether that would be enough, I also purchased a few items that looked like cheese cake layered with powdered sugar and white cake.  Because we told the boys that the bikes were their birthday, Joel wasn't expecting anything.  He was so excited to see a chocolate bar and a pack of gum at his spot at the breakfast table.  And was even more thrilled with special pastries, which we haven't purchased since our first morning in Germany.

We sang at breakfast b/c I didn't know if the candles would
work in the cake we would purchase later in the day.

After lunch and a nap (remember, it was a Sunday!), we all walked to Cron und Lanz, the most well-known bakery in the city.  And let me just say, I've been wanting to spend money in there since Day 1 as the displays look amazing!  It is just what you picture when you think of German tortes and chocolates.



I wanted to get one of the chocolate ones shown here, but the gal explained that
 those have rum in them which children don't tend to enjoy.  So Joel picked
one pictured in the bottom left of the window display.



Because we sang at breakfast, Joel didn't think he was going to
get a cake!  He was thrilled to pick out a fun torte - we all enjoyed it.



Joel requested fajitas for his birthday dinner - Mexican is hard to come by here.  A little jar of salsa is 3 Euros....that's about three or four spoonfuls.  Our family tends to drink salsa....by the gallon!  We quickly came up with our own recipe for salsa and make it every weekend now.  All in all, it was a fun day.

Josiah's birthday is August 13th, so we don't have long to wait
for all these special things again!



Loving our city and yet....

We LOVE:

1. All the Eis shops - ice-cream is yummy and cheap here.  We frequent them often.  Josiah and Noah have earned several Euros by collecting littered bottles, returning them to a grocery store and collecting the money for the recyclables.  They might have enough to take the whole family this weekend!  (Though I'm not sure they want to be that generous!)

It's so hard to choose just one flavor!

At our favorite ice-cream stand

2. Not having a vehicle - this can be a love/hate relationship.  It has been so nice to not have to deal with filling up a gas tank.  And the flip-side bonus is that we are all getting daily exercise with walking and biking.  The hate part of the relationship comes in when it's raining and you still need to go somewhere.  Or for me, I tend to buy more groceries than I can carry and have created quite a circus getting them home on more than one occasion!  One month in and I'm still adjusting to having to shop literally every day for our food.

After a trip to real (pronounced Re-Al) - our Wal-mart
....poured on us on the way home.

3. Germans don't have the same safety standards as Americans - makes going to the park or the pool very fun!  Americans would do well to learn from the Germans in this respect - if you fall and break your leg, don't try to blame someone else...especially the government.

Josiah on the water slide before Daddy came to join us.

Coming down the water slide with Daddy's help in clogging up the water - the boys just flew down the slide!

High dives - Joel has even done the 10 M a number of times.

Josiah trying to convince Noah that "it's not so bad" - Noah became our first 5 M junky!

We've been watching the Olympics - synchronized diving
...think Micah and Joel might be trying it themselves!

There is a large area for picnicking so we pack lunch and dinner and make a day of it.

4. Gouda cheese!  Cheese here in general is cheaper than in the States, so we eat a lot of it.  Putting Gouda on our sandwiches in the States = unheard of (at least in our house), but we have it everyday here.

5. Innerstadt or City Center - we live a few blocks from our city center - a very fun place to explore.  Goettingen is one of the few German cities not destroyed by WW2 bombing.  For instance, Heidelberg was over 90% demolished by bombing so what we saw there was almost completely rebuilt to look like it did in centuries past.  Goettingen is the real deal!  Tracy just read recently that Goettingen dates back to the 900s.

We love all the cobbled streets - Tracy wants to redo our driveway....surprised?

This is where we generally always enter the City Center.  This is a Fussweg/Pedestrians only - no bikes. 
Germans have no problem telling you if you are not following the rules.  I've only gotten chewed out once so far,
but it was very unpleasant as this woman was quite an angry person.  Helped a bit that it was all in German -
I might not have responded correctly if I knew all that she was yelling.  I really thought she might deck me
for a minute! - thankfully, not all are like her.

The Altes Rathaus - town hall but is now a tourist information center.
 The new building is quite unattractive architecture.

Gänseliesel - the goose girl - often said to be the most kissed girl in the world as everyone who graduates with a PhD from the university is pulled around the city in a hand-cart, stopping by and climbing the fountain to give her a kiss.  We saw it happen one evening - quite a festive time, but I forgot my camera that night.

Flower boxes are everywhere - LOVE it!

Cron und Lanz is the most famous bakery in Goettingen - the window displays are absolutely beautiful!

6. No screens on the windows - I couldn't believe it when we entered our flat to find no screens on the windows as I love to have fresh air flow through the house.  They aren't needed!  We have our windows open most days that it's been warm enough and have only dealt with the occasional fly.

7. Goettingen is a safe city allowing the boys to explore on their own more than I would dream of doing in the States.  Until they are a little more knowledgeable with the biking rules, they do have limits though.  That being said, German drivers are very conscientious about bikes - no one ever seems to be in a hurry or impatient with all the bikers and pedestrians....just a part of life here.

8. Lots of family time - we've played more board games and have had more family devotions since being here than we have had in a long time.  It's been a very healthy change of pace.  I am quite sure that it has been since the boys were really young that we were home every night.

9. Our flat - we are extremely blessed with a very spacious place.  We've been in several friends' places and know just how privileged we really are!

And still adjusting....

1. Germans smoke like chimneys!  Our neighbor tells us it is at about 50%, but I would venture to say closer to 75% - everywhere and all the time.  And there aren't many places that are off-limits.  That's taking some getting used to as I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke in my kitchen or while I'm at a restaurant or wherever.  In fact, one can more easily find vending machines for smokes than for candy bars or drinks.

2.  We miss our friends and family....we talk often of what so-and-so is probably doing right now.  We also talk about the things that we are missing - like the Bastian side of the family going to Sandbridge Beach this week together.  And then we quickly remind ourselves of all the neat opportunities that we've already had and will continue to have.  Plus, we are going back home again next summer.  We know the year will go quickly, but there are ups and downs.  We had our family devotions last night from Colossians 3:15-17 - three times in those short verses, we are told to live thankful lives - so we listed off all of the things we are thankful for here.

3. Language, language, language!  You know the saying that the three most important aspects of a business are location, location, location?  Well, I'm beginning to think that to thrive here, the important aspects are language, language, language.  It's so limiting what you can talk about with people if you are dependent on them knowing your language.  Most everyone speaks some English, but I am seeing just how much of a blessing it would be to be able to really converse in their mother tongue.  As of now, we know enough to get around but not enough to carry on normal conversations.

4. Locked doors - the doors into our building and into our flat lock automatically bringing with that the need to always have keys.  Always.  Even to take out the trash.  Something we are still getting used to - but thankfully we haven't had to call to have someone open a door for us....yet.

Giving a glimpse into our home

I thought that many of you might enjoy seeing what our place looks like here in Goettingen so that you can have a mental image of where we are - we have plenty of room for company should you decide to come for a visit!  Our apartment is the first floor - and though the building is older, the renovations are just a year or so old so everything is quite modern and new.  We are located just a few blocks from the city center so aren't a far walk to just about anything.  One of our little neighbor girls down the street told us that we get to live in the two-headed horse house.  We didn't understand until we looked back to our place from where Ellie lives!

We had never seen the two horse heads on top until Ellie pointed them out b/c we don't walk this street (Riemenstrasse) to our place on Lotzestrasse. Micah, Joel and Josiah's school property backs up to our house, but we don't have access through the back so they ride their bikes...which they love.  Noah's school is just a couple blocks beyond their school.

The view out our front window - it rains typically every day, multiple times a day.  We always have an umbrella on us - we never owned one before this.  Even with umbrellas, we've gotten used to being wet.  Just a reality to be dealt with!  The little shop on the corner is a wine and deli shop.  Wolfgang has been incredibly helpful in answering our numerous questions.  Tracy found out last week that Wolfgang is quite the wine connoisseur and is featured in several books pertaining to wine and Germany.  Also, Rudy, who works for Wolfgang, is a famous chef!  I can't wait to try out some of his food and glad that we are conveniently located across the street!

I have all the luxuries of my kitchen, though I will say that I miss my Bosch mixer.  Apart from that though, the appliances are more efficient than I have in North Carolina so it's been really nice! Notice the huge refrigerator - most people have a little box.  We were really fortunate that The Welcome Center at the university helped us in securing this flat - we talked with one family that devoted their first six weeks in country (and a lot of money) to get their place ready to roll.  Unfurnished apartments in Germany mean that there won't be any kitchen appliances, the floors might not be in yet, wiring might need to be finished - in other words - a lot of work!

We have German tv hoping that it helps us in hearing and understanding the language - what used to sound like gibberish is now more like a language.  We can now hear the individual words, unless the person is speaking really fast.  We are also picking up on more and more words that we know and understand.  It's a slower process than we were anticipating.

Micah and Joel's bedroom - I must have forgotten to take a picture of Josiah and Noah's....could be that their beds weren't made?!  Their room is much smaller with a set of bunkbeds - still nice though.

Our entryway - tile is nice because our bikes are often wet and quite dirty.

Tracy is loving the German beds and has threatened to do this in the states for years now.  There isn't a top sheet.  Instead you have a quilt-like spread that you put inside the sheet and zipper it shut.  Then, you have your own blanket.  For the first time in 15 years, Tracy is not having to work to keep the blankets on his side of the bed!  This could be one of the "souvenirs" that he brings home with him!

The boys love that the toilets stick out from the walls - Micah was convinced that either Germans must break a lot of toilets or they aren't as overweight as Americans.  We are finding the latter to be true....could be from all the biking!  We actually have two bathrooms - very nice luxury.

My beloved washer/dryer - soooo thankful to have this in our place!  I am still adjusting to the size - quite small - and time that it takes to wash one load.  Because they conserve so much energy and water, it takes 2 1/2 hours to get one load through the washer.  I thought I was doing something wrong at first!

Birthday Bikes

     Upon arriving in Goettingen, we quickly realized that about 95% of the people use bikes as their primary means of transportation.  Or at least it felt that way as we walked out of the train station that first day and saw a sea of bikes chained to any and everything chain-able. 

     Goettingen is a very safe city comparatively speaking - bike thefts make the front page.  So that helps with thinking about our country boys riding the city streets.  I will say, however, that there are a lot of rules of the road which we are quickly learning so that they really do stay safe, both for pedestrians and bikers.
     Within the first few days of miles and miles of walking (not an exaggeration as the boys and I got lost several times in the city center!), Tracy promised the boys bikes before too long.  What we ended up deciding to do was to purchase bikes as their birthday gifts.  Then when we resell them next summer, the boys get to pool the money and split it evenly to purchase souvenirs and gifts to take back home.  Tracy and I love the fact that our birthday shopping for them is all complete until next summer!  And then with skiing in the Alps over Christmas....that shopping is complete as well.  Makes this non-shopper of a mom very happy!

The boys are all smiles after arriving home with the new birthday bikes!

    

We do have about 8-10 steps into our flat, and since we don't have any outdoor areas, the bikes are all being stored in our entryway for now. Noah is not quite strong enough to get his up by himself, but thankfully Joj is willing to help. It won't take him long to be able to manhandle that thing alone, I'm sure!

One of the coolest things we have seen is what is called a Laufrad - meaning walk/run bike. Because bikes are so key to city life, kids are trained very early as to how to get around on them. I saw this little 3-year old at the park (pictured below) last weekend and was amazed at the balance. I enjoyed watching this particular child...totally "All Boy" - it had just rained so there were puddles all over the path. He'd gain speed leading up to a puddle, then pull his legs onto the middle section and fly through the water. I've also seen younger than this guy on them doing just fine. Then, once the kids are ready for a real bike, there is no need for cumbersome training wheels! An American told me they are available in the USA but are hard to find. I think they should be everywhere - it makes such better sense!

More Castles!

I would love to live in a little castle like this one at Guttenberg!

This is a close-up of the window from the photo above.
It looks like the bottoms of wine glasses - there were
several windows like this at this castle and at the
following one.

On June 30th, we drove to Guttenberg Castle and were so excited as we drove up to the castle entrance! What a cool looking place to spend the day! Though throughout the drive to the castle that morning, we could often see a castle on the hill top surrounded by vineyards....and this is not where we ended up. Still, we were at a castle so after finding a parking spot, we started along the path towards the main entrance....all the signs were only in German, which was not a good sign for us. We found this set of stocks along the path and had each of the boys pose for a picture. I chose to post Josiah's because he acted the part of one gone crazy from the stocks!

     After realizing that we weren't going to find anyone that spoke English, that our tour-guide options were 'alles auf Deutsch' and that we weren't at the castle we wanted to be at anyway, we set off to find a place for lunch! Again, small village area so we found the only place open besides a bakery to stop.  We also chose this place along the river because we wanted help with figuring out the ferry - we could see the castle now that we had seen earlier, but a river separated us from getting easily to it. The photo below is at the restaurant....where we were all so thirsty and didn't know how to order water.  Well, we knew how to order water, what we didn't know is that unless you specify what kind of water you want, you get the bubbly kind of mineral water....which the boys don't care for but drank with thankful hearts.  We now know that "Stille Wasser" is what we want and we know how to find that on the various options of bottled water in the markets!

As most restaurants in Germany do have, we sat in the outdoor area....another project for Tracy next fall.  It was a great shaded area by grapevines over a wire mesh.  The boys noticed lots of little white Christmas lights so I'm sure the place looks magical at night.  Also, when the waitress realized that we were from America, she assigned us another waitress who spoke very good English.  She even had the slang down!  This is where we learned that you have to pay per packet of ketchup that you use for your fries.....anyone that knows us realizes we are in for some major issues.  We learned that a little too late on this particular day.  I think we'll begin carrying our own bottles of ketchup with us in the future!

 To get the car and family across on the ferry only cost around five or six Euros - the castle looked cool enough to give it a try.

We got off the ferry to see this!  First American sign since arriving!

This was the view of the castle from the ferry - the hillside is much steeper than this picture looks. It was a nerve-wracking drive up to the castle with switch backs during the climb.  Not only that, the European roads tend to be quite narrow with generally room for only one vehicle at a time to get through.  Tracy backed up a time or two for vehicles coming down the road - at a very good clip, I might add!

     Burg Hornberg is privately owned and would be a beautiful place to spend a weekend - there is a hotel on the grounds with rooms overlooking the Neckar River....for five Euros more than rooms that don't!  Something I figured would cost quite a bit more/room!  A wedding was taking place the day we were there - the two younger boys were hiking on a nearby hillside and watched part of it.

     Walking through a little wine shop/museum where we parked our car, we got to see all of the different weaponry that was found on the property through the years - many items dating back to the Roman civilization.  Again it was all in German so we gleaned what we could and decided to walk the grounds a bit.  The woman working at the wine shop was able to speak English like we currently speak German so it was slow going yet enjoyable.  The boys were about ready to leave when we saw a sign that said, "Enter At Your Own Risk" - what more of an invitation for fun can you give four boys???  So for 1 Euro/person, we entered the turnstile and explored Burg Hornberg for the next few hours.

View driving in...on what felt like the side of a cliff!

View of the Neckar Valley/River.  All the wine sold on the grounds comes from the vineyards along the hillside - one of the oldest vineyards in all of Europe....from what we gathered in our time at the wine shop/museum.

A close-up of the spot the boys were standing in the above picture.  (I'm still trying to figure out how to get the pictures where I want them....the one directly above jumped in a place I didn't want it.)

We figured that the doors on the left were for the horses to go through - we could see ruts in the rocks leading up to that door.

The next several photos are from inside the "Enter At Your Own Risk" part - and yes, we had a hard time containing the boys - there really were places that were accidents waiting to happen.  We are pretty sure Josiah is a cat with nine lives!  He has a shirt that says, "I do all my own stunts" - could have been wearing it this day.  All of them for that matter.  This was a boy's dream adventure - no tour guides to slow you down is what one of them said.

Climbed to the tippy-top of this - I had to count steps to keep from getting sick - can't stand open steps,
 especially after several flights of them!

This picture was taken to give my mind a mental break with all of the stairs, quite worn and rickety.

 We explored all of these areas...and many more.  All the while imaging life when

this was flourishing.  I would have loved a tour guide, but the boys

rather enjoyed making up their own stories.

Yes, their dad tried to help them get into the second floor of these structures though boards were falling through - I climbed to a point and froze in my spot basically.

We pictured being attacked and having to fire flaming arrows through these small openings.  At several of these spots, we could see rocks hollowed out at their centers jutting out from the castle wall.  One wondered if they were toilets?  :)  That's a long way down if you fall backwards!  Another wondered if it was for pouring hot tar on the enemy.  It was obvious though, by the benches at the sides of each opening, that someone/s sat guard at this post.

Really cool old candlestick holders - yet one more

project for Tracy!  They were all along one wall.