Hiking & Biking in Bavaria!!

This is just a short little entry today to share with you all our recent fun filled weekend adventures of hiking and biking in Bavaria.

Last weekend we were invited by a super fun family from school to go hiking with them. It's funny actually, this family is from Switzerland and they lived in Pleasanton, California the same time we lived there!! We totally could have crossed paths there but never did and here we are now hiking in the German Alps with them...crazy - it really is a small, small world!! Anyway, we met Michele, her husband and their 3 girls in mountain resort town of Garmisch about an hours drive from our home. We were well equipped with sandwiches, snacks, water and Henry's new walkie talkies that he bought with his pocket money. In fact, the walkie talkies were a great way of keeping in touch when we broke into 2 groups so we can highly recommend taking them on your next group hike!! It took us 3 long hours of steep, steep climbing to reach the top of Stepbergalm and it was well worth the sweat and tears (of which there were plenty of both!!). Our view from the top was simply breathtaking - we overlooked Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain (2,962 m). 

First sighting of the hut!! Hooray!! We made it!!

The German Alps have many long distance hiking tracks. Many of the original routes were used by cattle drovers, bandits and the military. Dotted throughout the Alps are huts that offer a warm, hearty meal and a cold beer as a much earned reward after your tiring climb. I believe in some cases the food and drink is delivered by helicopter due to the remote locations of some of these huts. The alpine huts are quite solid buildings that are maintained and staffed by the local alpine associations and some of the huts can accommodate up to 70 people. Most huts are open from May/June through to Sept/Oct. These huts are a wonderful resting spot after hiking these steep, rough tracks and it also means you don't need to pack a lot of food with you so you can treat yourself with a delicious German meal to energize you for the treacherous hike back down. All the kids did fabulously on the hike. The hut was a very welcome site after our challenging 3 hours of hiking in the warm, humid weather and the beer went down way too easily ;-)

It took us 2 hours to get down in the thunder, lightening and heavy rain. A weather change that we were not prepared for at all!! The hiking was steep and long and I couldn't walk for 3 days afterwards ... but I loved every minute of it and would do it all again in a heartbeat - in fact we are already planning an overnight hiking trip where we will stay in one of these huts and then continue climbing the next day. When you all come to visit, you need to do this hike ... here is the link to this hut: http://www.stepberg-alm.de/

From hiking to biking ... 

We had more gorgeous sunny weather this last weekend here in Bavaria and on Sunday we all set off to watch Nick race 20 laps of a 3km course amongst 100 other German racers. Nick's race was fast and furious and fabulous to watch. It makes me want to race bikes too ... until I learned of an awful crash and saw two ambulances arrive on the scene .... I think I'll stick to my recreational riding for now ;-)

One huge difference I noticed from Nick's Californian races are that apparently the German fans don't cheer. However, this Australian family does so we showed them how it's done!!! Polly, Henry and I were THE ONLY people cheering out there. Polly had made a sign for Nick, we were ringing bells, screaming and jumping up and down every time Nick rode by. Nothing and no one was going to stop us cheering!!

The kids and I walked the course during the race and yelled out our support at every possible moment. We got many, many strange looks from the Germans but we are getting used to that in our every day lives so that was no big deal ;-) Henry was cheering in full face paint as he wanted to be the tiger from Kung Fu Panda - I guess face painting, too is very unGerman as he was quite the talk of the race, posing for photos in between cheering for Nick.  Nick did a great job and had a blast ... it was a long day in the sun but loads of fun too. GOOOOOOOOOOO NICK GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Very happy, sun burned racer post race!!

So much for the 'short little entry' ... haha!! I just have sooooooo much to say about all the fun we are having here!! We really are doing our very best to make the most of this wonderful opportunity of living in Germany and we are enjoying every moment .... while the sun is out at least ;-)

This week we have a long weekend and we are headed to the beaches of Trieste for some rest and relaxation in gorgeous Italia!! Italy, to me, feels like going 'home' ... I love the smiling faces, warmth and yummy food and wine in bella Italia!!

Until next time!!

Ciao!!

Deutschland Road Trip!!

We spent our Easter break on a 9 day road trip of Germany.

Certainly not enough time to cover it all but we made a good start. We were Berlin bound and decided to break up the trip and see a couple of other towns on the way to and from Berlin. Our first stop was a small town called Marburg about halfway between Munich and Berlin. After about 4.5hrs on the crazy fast autobahn (no speed limits at all!!) we arrived in the picturesque town of Marburg.

After checking into our hotel we set out on foot, under gorgeous blue skies and warm sunshine, to explore the cobblestone streets and alleyways of this University town. Marburg is located on the Lahn River and is well known for its medieval churches and for Heinrich IIs castle, set high up on the hill. We climbed the 150+ stairs up to the castle ... we did stop at a beer garden to quench our thirst, but we made it all the way!! Marburg is a fascinating, Gothic town and we enjoyed sitting by the river, exploring the local farmers market, visiting the churches, eating outside on the cobblestones and wandering the streets while sampling ice cream from one of the many cafes :-) We spent two days in Marburg and as we were packing our bags to get back in the car and head up to Berlin, Polly threw up. Uh oh ... this was not part of the plan. She was a real trooper and suffered through the car ride and only threw up a couple of times before she was feeling better. My poor girl ....

On the way to Berlin, we took a little side trip to visit the small World Heritage town of Quedlinburg. Polly carried a plastic puke bag with her as we explored this quaint town which has been known since at least the early 9th century.

On a hill above the old town stands the architectural masterpiece of the collegiate church of St. Servatius. It's old crypt features a famous collection of church treasures, as well as tombs of the Emperor Henry and his wife Mathilde. After our picnic in the park under endless blue sky and the hot sun we visited St. Servatius, the wonderful treasures and the tombs. In the innermost parts of the town there are a wide selection of half-timbered buildings including the oldest surviving timber-frame building in Germany from the 14th century.

It is one of the best-preserved medieval and renaissance towns in Europe, having escaped major damage in World War II. We would have liked to spend more time in Quedlinburg but Berlin awaits!!

View from the car on the way to Berlin ... reminds me of gorgeous Livermore, CA!!

Brandenburg Gate

Wow!! Where do I start with the fascinating capital and largest city of Germany ... Berlin - a city of 3.4 million people on the Spree River - wow!!!

Checkpoint Charlie

Our hotel was in a central location, right near Checkpoint Charlie. We spent the first day exploring this enormous city with Fat Tire Bike Tours. The bike ride was slow and flat, a perfect family friendly way to see this huge city. 

The bike tour took us to the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Marienkirche (Berlin's oldest functioning church), Humboldt University,  Red Town Hall, Checkpoint Charlie, the site of Hitler's bunker, Berlin Zoo, Reichstag, Bebelplatz (the site of Nazi book-burning), State Opera House, Museum Island, the Holocaust Memorial, through the stunning gardens, to a fabulous beer garden .... all in only 4.5hrs and 10kms of riding!! It was definitely a highlight of our trip and a wonderful way to see this historical city.

Holocaust Memorial

The Berlin Wall

One of the interesting things we noticed about Berlin was Ampelmann (the traffic light walking symbol). Feel free to google Ampelmann for the whole history but basically when East and West Germany reunified after the wall came down, everything was standardized to one system... but the east couldn't live without Ampelmann, and so Ampelmann was brought back, oh and Ampelfrau too! Yay! There are now Ampelmann stores in Berlin selling everything from Ampelmann tattoos to clocks to Christmas decorations - basically anything you can whack a logo on - Ampelmann has a huge fan club!! He even has a facebook fan page!!

Did someone say 'cake'? ;-)

Amongst all the history and wonderful sights in Berlin - our visit there was also made enjoyable by a few other aspects. Polly and Henry learned how to eat with chopsticks - a huge feat....in fact, after mastering chopsticks, Henry insisted on eating every meal and snack with them ... and I'm being serious...now that was a challenge!! This also means too that our kids actually ate something that was not pizza or pasta - another miracle right there. This, in turn, allowed us to enjoy a variety of restaurants rather than looking for Italian ... again!! Another fun activity for the kids was the pool at the hotel. We are slow learners when it comes to booking hotels but we realise now that regardless of how tired the kids are from a day full of sightseeing, visiting churches and museums that they are never too tired for some fun downtime playing in the pool or at the park...but we've got it figured out now!! The kids loved the pool and there was a park across the road from the hotel so there was something for everybody ;-) Each afternoon, we followed the German culture and enjoyed coffee and cake (or Kaffee und Kuchen) ... who am I kidding? It was ME enjoying Kaffee und Kuchen and Nick and the kids enjoyed sampling various flavors of ice cream as a special afternoon treat ;-) Another thing we noticed about our time in Berlin is that they have a slightly different pronunciation of some words - as if German hasn't been hard enough for us to learn, now we have a slightly different sound to make as we spit and stutter our way through Berlin. 

My gorgeous Aunt told me about a building in Berlin that was owned by my grandmother's family many, many, many generations ago called  Kaufhaus Des Westens (KaDeWe). It is Europe’s largest department store. It wasn't too difficult to find this building as it is one of Berlin's most gorgeous shopping stores - seven floors of high end items ranging from clothes to saucepans to 1800 varieties of cheese - it offers more than 3million products.  It was fun for me to have that link there in our countries capital. I was disappointed to learn they would not offer me a family discount :(

After four days in Berlin, we were all walked out and were quite happy to sit in the car for a few hours on our way to one of Germany's most beautiful cities - the World Heritage town of Dresden. Our hotel was directly in the city center and with all the wonderful historical sights close by we were grateful that our legs would get a rest for a couple of days.

Fürstenzug

Eleven square kilometres of the city centre were completely destroyed by bombing towards the end of World War II. Over time the city was rebuilt and then in 2002, torrential rains caused the River Elbe to flood 9 metres (30 ft) above its normal height. Due to the speed of reconstruction, the destruction from this flood is no longer visible.

We had a wonderful time exploring this gorgeous city. We saw the elegant Fürstenzug (German for "Procession of Princes") mural which is one of the largest porcelain artworks in the world.

We also visited the most famous building in Dresden, a beautiful Baroque structured palace called The Zwinger.

The Zwinger

We walked to the Dresden Gardens and spent half a day there. We caught the miniature railway (run solely by kids) to the palace in the gardens, had lunch at the beer garden, climbed trees, made daisy chains then caught the train back past the zoo, to the main station again ... and all under heavenly blue skies and sunshine!! Yay!! Wonderful memories were made in the Dresden Gardens.

Dresden is a spectacular city and amongst the churches, palaces and gardens, Dresden is a huge shopping city too!! Definitely a must see if you're ever in the area. 

Our Easter Road Trip was sensational!! Henry spent the whole week being Batman and made many friends while wearing his Batman cape. We all tried to speak German as much as possible and we did ... okay. Nick only speaks German now when we are out and I am so envious of his understanding of the language. He is doing awesome!!

The speeds at which these German drive on the autobahn absolutely blows my mind. We were driving at the speedlimit and made it home in about 4hours ... home sweet home ....  it was a wonderful trip full of fabulous memories ... but it's always lovely to come home.

Now ... where to next??

I'm out of hibernation!!

Spring is here at last!! Blue sky! Sunshine! Warmth!! No more snow!! Yayay!! This solar powered girl made it through her first German winter and is now loving every minute of Frühling (Spring)!!

From what I'm told, although our winter here started early, it was fairly "mild" compared to other years. For me, it was like a living hell. I thought it would never end - endless snow, bitter cold and miserably grey days  .... it was definitely a challenge for me. BUT - it's all over now!! We have blue sky, sunshine and warmth ... HOORAY!! I am officially out of hibernation and ready to update you all on our whereabouts.

Since the temperatures have risen, we are spending as much time outside as possible. We are now officially (finally!!) a bike riding family!! Henry is finally riding his bike confidently (yayaya!!) although on our longer family rides he still uses the trailer bike. We rode the 7kms through the local forest bike trails to Lake Starnberg recently, enjoyed lunch in the glorious sunshine and rode home again. We are loving the bike riding opportunities in this area! Polly rode the 18kms to work with Nick this week and performed like a champion!! Henry and I met Nick and Polly for lunch then came home - a great day!! Lots of time spent on our bikes, at the park, by the creek, at the ice cream store ;-) Munich is divine in the Spring time!! Colorful Spring flowers are everywhere!! Who knew that under the fields of snow were hundred of daffodil bulbs eagerly waiting for Spring to arrive!! The colors and smells are fantastic!! It appears that all the Germans have dusted off their bikes and the bike trails are frantic with locals out to enjoy this gorgeous part of the world. Children's parks and playgrounds are full of families enjoying the fresh air, boats are on the lake, beer gardens are open and in full swing, hundreds of tables full of happy Germans enjoying their liter glasses of beer! Cafe's and restaurants all have their tables set up outside where the locals are enjoying a meal or a quiet espresso in the sun.

Nick spent a week in Marllorca in February for his cycling team training camp.  Training 6hrs a day, eat, sleep, repeat. He was in heaven!! He is now reaping the benefits of his training and enjoying the race season with his team. Racing here is quite different from his Californian experience but he loves his team and is learning some key German phrases on the bike ;-)

While Nick was living it up in Mallorca, my Dad came from Australia to visit for a week. It was fun to show him around "our" town so we did some of the local sights in Munich and also visited the impressive Neuschwanstein Castle which was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty's castle. The kids had a blast with their "Pa" and I am so thankful that he was able to spend some real quality time with the kids.

We have also been lucky enough to have one of Polly's dear friends from California, and her family, come for a flying visit too. It was a crazy 24hours but it was so wonderful to see them and catch up on all the news!! We miss all our Californian friends!!!


Also, my dear Scottish friend Ann and her son came to visit for a week. I met Ann about 15 years ago when I lived in Scotland and she is like family to me so it was wonderful to catch up with her and meet her son! So many laughs that week!! We love having visitors here and have a few more visitors lined up over summer too - so if you think you might be in the area, let us know! We'd love to see you!!

I have been enjoying riding the local bike trails with a super fun group of women I met through school. We drop the kids at school, ride all day and then collect the kids after school - such a wonderful way to spend the day! We are far from hard core but there is a lot of laughing, chatting and lunching going on - loads of fun!!

I have made a couple of wonderfully welcoming German girlfriends that are introducing me to some of the local haunts. They are so fun to hang out with and extremely tolerant of me trying to practice my German - it is somewhat discouraging though when they have absolutely no idea what I'm trying to say - and here I was thinking I was fluent!! Ha!! 

The kids are doing really well. This term at school Polly is doing tennis and bouldering and guitar and Henry is kicking butt (literally) at TaeKwonDo. Henry lost his first tooth in February and his 2nd tooth fell out 2 weeks later. He looks so grown up now!! They are enjoying school and both have lots of wonderful friends from around the world. They are both thriving at the German language - unlike me. Nick speaks and understands a lot of German and better still, he actually understands the grammar. I am a lost cause. I am trying, but have resigned to memorising as much as I can now....oh....and I smile and apologise A LOT....and I'm getting by just fine ... most of the time ;-) Ha!

We visited Legoland a couple of weeks ago and had a blast! We promised the kids we could go there for their birthdays last December but the park closes over winter so this was a long awaited trip and well worth the wait!!

We have just returned from our super fun Easter break roadtrip to Berlin and Dresden so stay tuend for that update shortly!!

I hope you all had a Happy Easter ... or Frohe Ostern!!