German American Volksfest

This post is going to be mostly pictures because my children are too adorable to not share, I may be a little biased though! Since moving to Germany I have wanted to get them traditional German clothes so for the fest (and many more times) we got Harper a dirndl and Waylon some lederhosen. Oh boy did they look amazing in them too.

The German American fest is held in Grafenwohr on the Army base there. Colby's buddy from AIT is stationed there so he met us at the fest. They had all sorts of American things at the fest along with traditional German things too. We rode several of the amusement park style rides with the kids and found out at least Harper, and Waylon a little, are total thrill seekers already. I love it! I got to go on the rides with them. Harper's favorite were the octopus, yes they still have that one, and the giant "swings". They were more of a porch swing style seat but you were tilted so you went up really high and then back down while going round and round.

The American food I really wanted was a blooming onion. When I say someone else eating on it brought me back to the South Dakota State Fair. It also made me a little sad knowing that I have no clue when I will be able to attend the fair again. I am 27 years old and I don't remember ever missing it. This will be my first, of many, that I will have to miss the fair. Anyways we walked around to find where they were selling the blooming onions and the line was ridiculous! It was hot and the kids seem cranky because all they wanted to do was ride the rides. So I passed up the onion, which was probably better for my diet anyway.

They also had Stars Wars characters walking around taking pictures with people. We were able to get a picture with Darth Vader. It was fun to get a little taste of home even though we didn't even eat any of the American food. We will be stateside soon enough.

Birthday Fun: Sea Life Munich & Colmburg Castle

Our little girl turned 4 at the end of July and this was here first birthday here in Germany. We gave her a couple options for what she wanted to do on her birthday weekend. She choose to go to Sea Life in Munich. The aquarium was nice and the kids really had a good time seeing the fish and sharks but we all thought it was small. The kids wanted to see more when we were done. It is also set up so you go in and walk around in the same direction as everyone else and then your just done, no warning nothing your just in the gift shop. I had looked on the website and knew there were sharks which yes there were plenty small to medium one but it also showed there would be sea turtles and octopi. Well there was one sea turtle and he didn't care much for the view spots and I completely missed the octopus. My husband saw it I guess and said it was a small one. That was disappointing.

The really cool part of Sea Life was the tank with the rays and some fish. It was an open tank so you could look in the top and touch the water even though I don't think you were suppose to. There was a lady talking about them but it was in German so we didn't pay attention. One of the rays really loved all the attention though. It was sticking its "head" out of the water and swimming up to people. It swam right up but Harper and looked at her. I thought that was very cool.


For her birthday supper we took her to Colmburg Castle which is only about 20-30 minutes outside of Ansbach. Harper is very much into princesses so we thought it was only fitting for her to celebrate her birthday at a castle. She loved it! We all got dressed up to go even though it isn't a fancy place and most people were dresses casually. Harper chose to wear one of her princess dresses and picked out my "princess" dress and daddy's prince shirt. I know that it made her feel special to get all dressed up and go out for her birthday. The food there is traditional German. The menu is more specialized with a few appetizers, a couple soups and handful of entrees and a couple desserts. Prices were little above average I would say. Even with a smaller menu the food was very good.

The castle is also a hotel along with the restaurant. We are thinking it may be cool to stay there for a little staycation sometime. Maybe for Harper's birthday next year or something. It is definitely something she would remember and not something you get the opportunity to do very often.

Overall, I would say she had a great birthday weekend with her adventures.

Wertheim

This was a spontaneous trip. It was a nice Saturday, maybe a little hot, and we were doing nothing. We had planned to just sit at home but after breakfast I looked at Colby and said "I want to do something today" So we decided it would be cool to find a castle ruin. I hoped on Facebook and found the suggestion of Wertheim. I then googled it and realized it was pretty close to us. So we loaded up the kids and headed out.

We found a parking garage and then headed first to the castle ruins. The castle is of course on the top of a hill over looking the old city and the river. The ruins are very well preserved and there is a restaurant within the ruins. We skipped the restaurant and went on to explore the ruins. The palace face is completely there along with a two towers. One had a couple steps left of the spiral staircase and the other you could go up in. There was a whole part of the ruins that we couldn't get to and there was also a theater type area with chairs set up that was shut off to us that day. We love visiting castle ruins as the kids can basically run around and no one cares. We don't have to tell them to be quiet or don't touch something. Germany is full of them too which is amazing.


From the top of the castle we could see everything in the city and they had amazing maps pointing out what different points were. After a little snack break at the castle we took a stair case down to the two churches right below the castle. The first is more of a chapel. Inside was some pieces from the original church I would assume. Most everything is in German so I can't know for sure. There was also a huge painting.

Across the street from the chapel was the big church that is still in use today. They were doing some renovation and restoration at the alter while we were there but it was still beautiful. The had a metal globe with the continents welded on which I thought was very unique. We were able to just sit inside the church for a little bit as we listened to the huge organ the had in the back of church play. Even the kids just sat quietly in awe of the church and the music. The atmosphere was just amazing.

This was the first church we have visited that was playing music while we were inside and it just seemed magically. This church also had a guest book. I enjoy signing guest books now since we are so far from our "home of record" as the Army likes to call it. Even though our current home is here in Ansbach I always like to sign that we are from South Dakota, USA. I would guess a lot of these places don't get a lot of visitors from South Dakota and many Europeans probably don't even know where it is. Which I completely understand. I didn't know much about where european countries were until we moved here.

After we visited the church, the kids were getting hungry. It was pretty hot but that wouldn't of made of difference, they of course wanted ice cream. There just happened to be an ice cream shop right across the street from the church. So we got ice cream and then found a bench and a kids train to sit and enjoy are ice cream and just relax a little. We then just wondered around the town taking in the site and looking for someplace to get a postcard. Of course everything closes pretty early in Germany so by 3 or 4 everything was closing down. By the time we wondered around enough to find the tourist information center they were closed. We could see inside that they had post cards so I was a little frustrated but oh well it happens I guess. At least I have my own pictures to remember the place. The cousins just didn't get a postcard from there. It ended up being a really cool day trip for us.

Dinkelsbühl

We made a day trip to Dinkelsbühl on a Sunday. Typically on Sundays most of Germany is closed however, tourist places usually still have some stuff open and restaurants are open too. This is fine with us since we are more into looking and wondering around, the kids seem to enjoy that more too. This also keep the cost down for us.

Dinkelsbühl is a walled city that people compare to Rothenburg but less touristy. I thought it was smaller then Rothenburg and definitely had less shops there for tourist things. We enjoyed just walking around taking in the sights. I love the look of the German building and houses. I was never really into architecture until we moved here and I find the building in Germany fascinating.  They had several of towers around the edges of the town along the wall and also had water around the outside with fish and ducks which the kids enjoyed watching. We stopped at a little bakery for a snack. They kids enjoyed donuts and Colby and I got Schneballs for the first time. They were covered in chocolate and one had coconut on it also. They were pretty good but not something I would want all the time. I like more chewy and soft things then the crunchy pastries. 

                     

In order to get my postcards we stopped in a grocery store. They had a very extensive beer and wine section so of course we had to check it out. Colby picked up a little wooden box of 3 different beers which actually ended up being horrible, according to Colby. As we wondered some more we happened upon the tourist information by chance. Right there was an interesting underground exhibit. We aren't 100% sure what it was since the signs were all in German but Colby thought it was a dungeon type of thing. One side had signs and an actually museum type thing but the other side was just rooms. The one room was definitely a dungeon with shackles still there. The kids of course had to put there feet in it. It was too heavy for them to have around their wrists.

We had a lovely Sunday morning and afternoon exploring a small city close to us. The drive from Ansbach was beautiful too since we stayed off the autobahn in order to enjoy a lovely sunday drive around the countryside.

3 Country Adventure: Austria and Lichtenstein

Our next stop on our adventure was Lichtenstein. In order to get there from Germany we had to drive through Austria. The drive through Austria was beautiful driving through the mountains. It was a very nice scenic drive. We ended up on the Autobahn for a little bit and there were several tunnels. One tunnel we went through was close to 10 miles I believe. We ended up getting off the autobahn and taking more back roads through the small towns to get to Lichtenstein.

Lichtenstein is the 6th smallest country in the world and you can tell. Our first stop was in Vaduz the capital. For being the the capital it still isn't very large. We first stopped at the visitor center which was open even with it being Sunday. We got our passports stamped there and picked up a map. 

We just wondered around the downtown area and found the city train and bought tickets for the next train. The train took us all around the city to see the sight which included the castle, which is still occupied, the famous red house, and some vineyards. 

Lichtenstein is know for their postage stamps. They even have a postage stamp museum and can buy stamps at the visitor center. The downtown sidewalks are lined with painting of different stamps they have had. It was very interesting to see without having to go in the museum which is free I believe. 

After leaving Vaduz we headed to Schellenburg to check out the castle ruins. Even though on the map Vaduz is in the lower half and Schellenburg is in the very top of the country it only took us 15 minutes to go from one to the other. We also ended up crossing into Switzerland for a little bit. We crossed a bridge drove a mile and crossed another bridge back into Lichtenstein so I guess technically we were in 4 different countries in 3 days. 

The castle ruins were kind of hard to find and we almost gave up hope but ended up finding them by luck. They were just cleaning up from a little festival type thing I think at the ruins when we got there. We were still able to just wonder around and check it out. We have really gotten into checking out castle ruins since we have been here. 

We will definitely be going back to Austria as it is beautiful and we didn't really do much other then drive through. Lichtenstein was a nice visit for a day trip. Its not a place you would need to spend all weekend in. It is kind of cool to say we were there as most people don't even know about the country. It is pretty expensive there just like Switzerland since Lichtenstein does a lot of the same stuff as Switzerland. It is a good stop on a trip to somewhere else. 

3 Country Adventure: Southern Germany

This was an adventure for us. We were on our way to Budapest and Vienna when we decided to ditch those plans due to some personal problems. We didn't really want to waste the weekend so we decided to head down to Garmish. We got to town about 9pm and just stopped at a gasthaus that was open and luckily they had an open room. It was more then I would of liked to paid but for the same night it would be hard to get a good deal. We were all pretty drained so we went right to bed.

The next morning during our breakfast at the inn the owner talked to us and gave us several maps and directions to different attractions. We decided to first head to see Neuschwanstein castle. It is the most famous castle in Germany because Disney mirrored Sleeping Beauty's castle after it.

We decided not to do the tour of the inside since are kids aren't really into that. I have heard mixed reviews of the tour. Some say its a must do but others think if you tour on castle in Germany you are good. We may go back and tour the inside before we leave. We decided to walk up to the castle. It is all straight up hill put totally do able. I had the ergo and the kids took turns riding. We walked right up the the castle and looked around the outside and then headed off to the bridge that gave us this amazing view of the castle. The bridge is near where the bus lets people off. We then hiked back down on the gravel path through the forrest. The second castle right there is the Hohenschwangau. We didn't even walk up to it but you could get a pretty good view from the start of the trail to Neuschwanstein. 

We headed back to Garmisch after and planned to do the gorge but it was raining and since we hadn't planned this destination the kids were in need of jackets. We went downtown to do a little shopping, eating and sight seeing. As all German towns there is plenty to look at in ways of architecture. They had some of these cool benches around downtown and a very nice garden we strolled through while enjoying some ice cream. 

The next day it was a little nicer and not raining so we decided to head to the Partnach gorge and the olympic ski jump. The ski jump isn't really much to look at. It's impressive how big it is but thats about it. You park right there to hike to the gorge so thats why we saw it. The gorge is very impressive. The walk ways can be pretty narrow and wet with some dark tunnels too but nothing really bad. Passing people can be tricky but the views are totally worth it. The kids didn't have any problem walking as the took turns riding again. I just made sure to hold hands the whole time and keep them closer to the mountain then the water. 

Even though it wasn't planned we still managed to have a pretty good time in the Garmish area. The weather could of been better and it would of been nice if I was more prepared for that. I'm guessing we will be visiting the area again. 

Chania, Crete

For memorial 4 day, we really wanted to go somewhere that was warm and relaxing. We didn't really want to be going from sight to sight. Although we love visiting the site and making the most of our time in Europe, we really wanted a relaxing beach vacation. No where to go, no time frame just sitting on the beach and going where ever and whenever we wanted.

Greece was amazing! We chose this because it was going to be warm, had a beach and we got cheap RyanAir tickets into Chania. We knew we wanted to go back to Greece before we even left as this was a short but relaxing trip.

We stay at Villas Michalis. It is run by Michalis and his wife and they couldn't of been more hospitable. Our plane arrived late, after 11:00pm, but Michalis was nice enough to pick us up from the airport in his personal vehicle. When we arrived he took time to explain several different things to us and there was coke, wine and beer in the fridge along with apples, nuts and some candy all for us to have. The next day he arranged for a rental car to be delivered. He took care of returning it also and took us back to the airport when we left. We had an amazing view of the sea and the mountains of Crete. They also had a pool and each villa had a patio facing the sea.

the kids chilling by the pool at the villa's 

Our first day we decided to drive an hour and a half through the mountains on many twisty, turny narrow roads to get the Elafonisi, the beach with pink sand. It was a drive but it was amazing. The beach was lovely, the weather was great and the pink sand was very interesting. 

That night we enjoyed some greek food at a restaurant at the Old Venetian Harbor. After supper we took a walk along the sea wall to get to lighthouse. Since it was later in the evening we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the sea from the sea wall. 

 the light house, sea wall and harbor. 

The next day we visited two different beaches. We enjoyed the water, sand and food. We even were able to build a sandcastle with the kids. Late afternoon we headed out to Old Town and the harbor again. There were several shops with tourist items and Cretan works. The side streets were all very narrow with barley enough space for a couple people to walk side by side. We also found a Starbucks in the middle of everything so we were able to get some frappacinos. They also had several fish spas around. I really wanted to do it and Harper did too but we ended up running out of time and not really wanting to spend the money after supper. Besides there wouldn't of been anything for the boys to do while we did that. 

For super we ate along the Harbor again. Every restaurant along the harbor has someone who stands outside and tries to get you to go into their restaurant. I really wanted mussels and we found a nice, not so pushy lady at a restaurant while looking at the menu. They had a mixed seafood plate for 2 available. It was 50 euro, so more then I really wanted but she said it included mussels and looked huge! Well when it came out it didn't have mussels on it. I was kind of disappointed but the food on it was delicious. We enjoyed octopus, red mullet, swordfish, salmon (I think), squid, sardine and shrimp. I don't eat shrimp though. We didn't finish the whole thing but ate all the big pieces of seafood. I enjoyed it.  

We had a wonderful relaxing time in Crete and I can not wait to go back to Greece and see the difference in the islands and mainland. 

Mom & Dad visit: Northern Netherlands

The last leg of our Netherlands tour was the northern part of the country. My dad's family is Dutch. My grandma is 100% Dutch and my dad is 50%. When my parents were planning to come visit us we knew we were going to spend more time in the Netherlands then Germany on this trip. My mom did some asking around and found out were my dad's ancestors were from so we headed there.

Along our way we saw lots of beautiful fields of tulips along with some windmills. We also crosses a man made road over the North Sea to go to the northern part of the Netherlands. We went to the state/providence of Friesland. We stopped in some very small villages and saw very nice countryside. 

Our last stop was in the biggest city Dokkum. It is a very nice place and we probably could of made a short vacation out of that city and the area. We wondered around the downtown area looking for graveyards to see any headstones with the family name on it. We didn't see any but enjoyed the view of there canal and windmill. We also at a this nice little cafe called Place 2 be. The waitress didn't really speak much english so that was interesting. Colby speaks some german which is similar to dutch but we made do and were able to communicate enough to get some amazing food.

We were able to sign there guest book too so everyone knows some Americans ate there. I would rather go back to this little city/area instead of Amsterdam. Although I wouldn't made another trip the the Netherlands. 

Mom & Dad visit: Zaanse Schans

About 20 minutes north of Amsterdam is the Zaanse Schans open air museum. It is free entrance and cheap parking. Once on the grounds you can pay to go up in several of the working windmills. 

It was a rainy cool day when we were there. I'm sure it would of been a lot more fun and exciting had the weather not put a damper on our day. We were still able to go into the cheese making building where Colby bought, you guessed it, more cheese. He also got a mustard to go with his cheese. I don't really know much about cheese and that kind of thing but he tired samples and ended up getting mostly goat cheese. Definitely stuff you wouldn't get in the states.

The place we spend the most time was the wooden shoe shop. Outside they had the really cool display pictured above of different sizes and designs of wooden shoes. A perfect picture opportunity for sure.

Inside the building they had different display cases outlining a little bit of history of wooden shoes. They also had examples of different ways wooden shoes were used for example as ice skates! They had the cool display above on the ceiling showing step by step how the wooden shoe is made. They also gave a demonstration of how they make wooden shoes today on the machines below. They can make a lot more shoes in a shorter amount of time now a days even though they are mostly decorative. We were able to get Colby his own pair of wooden shoes here even though he didn't understand why he needed some. He was the only one without any. My grandma gave me a pair with my name on them when I was little and my parents have gotten shoes for each of the grandkids with their names on them. Now we just have to see if we can get Colby's name engraved on his at the arts and crafts center. 

After the wooden shoe shop and getting our souvenirs we decided it was time for some lunch before getting back on the road. We went to the pancake restaurant. It was nothing like I expected. You got your drinks and whatever else food wise you would want and then waited in line. It wasn't every well organized and most of the people had no idea what they were suppose to be doing. We finally made it to the one register they had open and were able to order our pancakes there. You have to wait for yours to be ready but it didn't take too long. The pancakes are not like American ones. They aren't fluffy. There are almost more like a crepe and the size of the plate. We got strawberry and cream and chocolate and cream. I thought the kids would want the chocolate one but they ended up eating a strawberry one. This was probably better since there was a lot of chocolate syrupiness going on. They were delicious none the less. I even got some strawberries and had chocolate strawberry pancakes.

mmmm pancakes!

Mom & Dad visit: Amsterdam

Amsterdam is usually the main attraction for people traveling to the Netherlands but for us it was just a quick stop. We arrived late Sunday afternoon at our hotel, The Golden Tulip Amsterdam West. The hotel was very nice and a little more then I would normally spend on a hotel. We wanted something on the outskirts of town, near a tram stop and with parking. This was our best option for a holiday weekend.

We headed out soon after arriving. Our first stop was going to be Hard Rock Cafe for Colby's sticks and supper. Well when we got on the tram and Colby asked for which stop we should get off on. Well the nice lady on the tram told us the wrong thing. We ended up in the very center of the city when we wanted to be on the outskirts of the downtown area. I was able to use the map and get us to the Hard Rock Cafe but the wait was too long. We were able to eat at a little outside cafe and still get the sticks.

The main thing we were doing in Amsterdam was a evening candlelight canal cruise. It was a 90 minute cruise that took us all over Amsterdam and through several canals. They had headphones to listen to history about Amsterdam but some of the hook ups didn't work.

Enjoying a Heineken on the cruise

These houses are crooked because of the sinking of the ground around the canal. Amsterdam is known for these types of house. The best part of doing the earlier night cruise was over half of the cruise it was still light enough to see stuff and get really good pictures but we also saw the lights on the building and bridges towards the end when it was getting darker. 

The next day my mom, Colby and I ventured out to the Anne Frank house. We pre purchased our tickets online. We were sure glad we did. Our tickets were for 8:40am and it doesn't even open until 9am. We arrived about 5 minutes before that and the line to buy tickets there was already over a block long.  You aren't allowed to take picture in the house but there are several things preserved in there original place. There were plaques with information on them to explain what was what and videos through out explaining events and situation from other peopled view also. 

We were in the house and the gift shop for a little over an hour and by the time we got out the line had basically tripled in size. It was down the block and winding its way down the alley. I couldn't imagine waiting that long to see it. It was cool but I wouldn't be willing to spend 4-6 hours of my vacation waiting and then viewing it. Definitely buy tickets online!

Mom & Dad visit: Keukenhof Gardens

Everything in the Netherlands in pretty close together as the country is not huge. So I was able to pack a lot into one day for us on Easter. Are next stop was Keukenhof Garden to admire all the pretty flowers! For it being a weekend and holiday the garden really wasn't too crowded while we were there. The entrance seemed to be crowded but once you made it past that and more into the garden it wasn't too bad really. The gardens are only open for about a month so I imagine it is almost always a little crowded. I didn't think it hindered the picture taking or viewing of flowers at all.

They do amazing designs with they flowers and have a mixture of different types of flowers in a lot of their designs. The above is there famous "river" design. The gardens also have a different theme each year. This years theme was Holland. So for there main display (below) they made an Amsterdam street line out of flowers. It was very cool and I could only get part of it in the picture because it was so big. 

The kids enjoyed smelling all the different flowers. They do this thing where they smell the flowers and then fake sneeze. I'm not sure where they got it but I'm sure from a cartoon!

They also had a petting zoo for the kids which was nice. My kids love animals and are used to being close to ones at the farm. They had momma sheep with their babies which we so cute.

The gardens have an amazing design and set up. The flow is nice but not everyone has to go in the same direction. They had several photo opportunities set up through out the garden which was really nice. The kids loved this giant wooden shoe. They also had the boat set up pictured below. They also had big wooden shoes you could put your feet in and take pictures. They kids loved all of that interactive stuff. 

Another really cool thing they offered was these lily pads. You could jump from wooden disc to wooden disc along a path and get a picture of the fountain in the back. The jumps were a little too big for the kids so we had to help them. Harper could almost make it with a little help from my mom. Well one time Harper decided not to really jump and my mom only had a hold of one hand so her foot slipped into the water. She wasn't very happy but it was a beautiful day so they dried quickly. 

 We also had lunch in the gardens. They had several restaurant places and concession type things but I really have started to enjoy eating at food carts. They seem to serve more regional food. We had a croquette and waffles from the carts. The croquette was delicious. I'm not really sure what the filling was as it can vary but it seems to have a gravy type texture. The kids even liked it and especially liked the waffle which were more dense they ones I make and were sweeter too.

We ended up staying at the gardens for about 3 1/2 hours. We probably could of stayed longer because I am sure we didn't see everything but it was enough time to enjoy most of it and get our money worth. The kids and the guys were ready to be done by the time we left. My dad made the comment that all the flowers were starting to look the same! I think most people probably spent 4-5 hours there.